User talk:Kosboot/Archive 6

The GLAM Directory
Hi Kosboot, thanks for fixing the links to the US pages on the GLAM Directory but the redlinks were deliberate as the directory pages are based on a standardised template. The info about how they work is at the bottom of the page. Don't sweat the misunderstanding :) Cheers! PatHadley (talk) 20:20, 20 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Got it - thanks for the clarification. kosboot (talk) 21:26, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

Yakov Kreizberg page
Hello kosboot: yes, I do understand that you wrote most of the Yakov Kreizberg Wikipedia page. I instantly deduced that from the degree of your presence on the historical list of editors. As well, your citation of your own blog entry from the New York Public Library as a reference (which, BTW, is not acceptable citation practice on Wikipedia, as that is a conflict of interest, but I digress) also pretty much gives away the game, where you note that you and he were classmates and best friends. But putting that aside for now, I can only conclude from your reversion of my edits that, to put it rather bluntly, you did not notice a single detail in the edits that I made. Let me point out some examples, where my edits improved on information in the article, either by corrections of facts, or clarity of presentation:

1. Kreizberg's LA Philharmonic debut was in 1993, not 2000. The Bernheimer review from the LA Times that I found, with link, proves it. Is there something wrong with this? 2. Chicago Tribune was misspelt Chicago "Tribute". I also found a link to von Rhein's review as well. Is it harmful to correct the newspaper's spelling and add the link? 3. I found the closing year for Kreizberg's tenure as principal guest conductor of the Vienna Symphony, from that Vienna Symphony reference, as the closing year was missing in the earlier version. Is adding this closing year objectionable? 4. For many of your citations from the New York Times, I found the links to the on-line versions of those articles. Adding those links makes those citations more accessible to people than simply citing a page number in a hard-copy version, which most locations will not have access to in any case. Is adding these links a bad thing to do? 5. I tracked down other (many other) legitimate, 3rd party citations on such matters as his award from the Austrian government. What is the harm in adding new, valid references and links? 6. My reformatting of many of the references that you put in puts those references in the current, preferred reference presentation format for Wikipedia articles. What is objectionable about that? 7. Several of those references had broken links. The link to the Thomas Valone citation, for example, no longer works. Likewise, two of the Gramophone citations are broken. But I was able to find a link for the Richard Wigmore review of the Mozart album, and revised that reference to include that link. 8. References like the Naxos or Classics Online pages, or blog entries, in general are not acceptable as references on Wikipedia, especially commercial sites like the Naxos page. They are acceptable as external links, but in general, references must be objective, 3rd party sources that have no vested interest in a given subject. 9. I added to the succession box information about his Krefeld tenure, with predecessor and successor. It was not there before. Was this addition a problem? 10. Other references had URL's that were still active, but the actual URL's had changed. The RM Campbell article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is one instance, where, by the way, I clarified the parent source there as well. What is objectionable to updating old URL's?

There are many more examples, but these will suffice for now. My point is that I made none of my edits out of malice aforethought, or any ill will. I saw that information gaps existed and needed to be filled in this article.

So I pose this general question to you. With respect to references or actual, verifiable facts, what in my edit was inaccurate, inappropriate, or objectionable? In other words:

a. What was wrong with the new references, or my reformatting of older references? b. What was incorrect with new information that I added, such as the simple addition of his middle name, Mayevich, which is his brother's middle name? On a more complicated level, the addition of the details about just how Kreizberg and his mother were able to emigrate helped to clarify that aspect of the story. I found that fascinating, as I did not know about that until I read the Independent obit by Martin Anderson. What was so objectionable about including such material? c. Are any of the new references that I added invalid? If so, what makes them invalid?

I understand completely that you put in a great deal of effort into this page. Kreizberg was your classmate and a great friend, and he died much, much too young. That was a terrible thing to happen, and who wouldn't sympathise? It is clear that you have a great deal of emotional investment in his page, which is completely understandable. However, there is a standard 'boilerplate' passage on Wikipedia that goes as follows:

"....if you are affiliated with some of the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest or close connection to the subject.

All editors are required to comply with Wikipedia's neutral point of view content policy. People who are very close to a subject often have a distorted view of it, which may cause them to inadvertently edit in ways that make the article either too flattering or too disparaging. People with a close connection to a subject are not absolutely prohibited from editing about that subject, but they need to be especially careful about ensuring their edits are verified by reliable sources and writing with as little bias as possible."

I have no such emotional investment or close connection to Kreizberg. I have seen him conduct, but that's it. The fact that I have no close connection or emotional investment in him makes me the more objective writer of the two of us, with all due respect. Not necessarily "better", just more objective. But you do have this close affiliation, and that is undoubtedly a factor here.

I acknowledge that you have put a great deal of your time and work into this page. So have I, albeit in a more concentrated time frame. I did much web searching to track down good, solid on-line sources for all the edits that I made. I care about accurate facts and citations. I have no personal interest or axe to grind, except in the general academic sense of proper citations, objective tone, and well-presented narrative.

I would ask of you a thought experiment: please go back and look through my edit carefully, to see the changes that I made in detail. Put my version and yours side by side, and note the differences, again in fine detail, which of course is very easily done by one simple click. I went through the article very, very carefully, literally line by line, in the version prior to my changes. My edits were very carefully placed and designed to improve the article, in the terms of which I spoke earlier: proper citations, objective tone, and clarification of the narrative.

The article remains as it is currently, because that will lead to unconstructive edit wars which would serve no purpose. This leads to the other aspect of the situation, regarding puffery, which is a subject for another day. Suffice it to say that I can very easily prove, paragraph by paragraph and section by section, that what I removed from the earlier version was indeed puffery/peacock text, although again, that can be for another day. But just to note some small technical points on the presentation on a different level:

(a) You quoted the long panegyric about Kreizberg's conducting technique, which begins "He has since been consistently praised....", twice, almost identically. Why repeat it? There is no need for such a long passage to occur twice. (b) I moved the details that were in the "Personal" section in the prior version to earlier in the article, about his family ancestry, because those belong at the beginning and not halfway through. As well, from the new citations, I added nothing to my new edit that was compromising or personally offensive. (c) In general, I tried to linearise the narrative to prevent a sense of jumping around between different years not in sequential order. Why is that so objectionable?

I can elaborate in much detail much further, but to be honest, viewing the different versions side-by-side will do that task for me. None of my changes show any disrespect or speak ill of Kreizberg in any way, and: much of the overall content and form that you had put in remains. I again realise that because of your close connection to Kreizberg, it's quite understandable if you might feel that this edit is somehow personal, perhaps even an affront. Given the work that both of us have invested in this article, it is perhaps not the easiest thing all around to remain detached in this situation, although I surmise that it perhaps is easier for me. I can only assure you as a honest wikipedian that the edit is not personal at all, nor is it an affront in any way, if that means anything. I even made some edits to my first edit after reading comments from you on the talk page. Perhaps down the line, we could take "the best of both worlds" and meet somewhere in the middle.

As I said, I read through the article with very great care before I made my changes. IMHO, it's quite reasonable to ask that the same respect be granted for myself. I don't think that this is asking too much. Cheers, DJRafe (talk) 06:16, 26 January 2015 (UTC)


 * Admittedly I reverted after reading the first several edits because I didn't like your removal of information I consider significant. I'll look over your points tomorrow. kosboot (talk) 06:47, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

Saturday February 7 in NYC: Black Life Matters Editathon
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WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 1
Hi! Thank you for subscribing to the WikiProject X Newsletter. For our first issue...

'''Has WikiProject X changed the world yet? No.'''

We opened up shop last month and announced our existence to the world. Our first phase is the "research" phase, consisting mostly of reading and listening. We set up our landing page and started collecting stories. So far, 28 stories have been shared about WikiProjects, describing a variety of experiences across numerous WikiProjects. A recurring story involves a WikiProject that starts off strong but has trouble continuing to stay active. Most people describe using WikiProjects as a way to get feedback from other editors. Some quotes:
 * "Working on requested articles, utilising the reliable sources section, and having an active WikiProject to ask questions in really helped me learn how to edit Wikipedia and looking back I don't know how long I would have stayed editing without that project." – Sam Walton on WikiProject Video Games
 * "I believe that the main problem of the Wikiprojects is that they are complicated to use. There should be a a much simpler way to check what do do, what needs to be improved etc." – Tetra quark
 * "In the late 2000s, WikiProject Film tried to emulate WP:MILHIST in having coordinators and elections. Unfortunately, this was not sustainable and ultimately fell apart." – Erik

Of course, these are just anecdotes. While they demonstrate what is possible, they do not necessarily explain what is typical. We will be using this information in conjunction with a quantitative analysis of WikiProjects, as documented on Meta. Particularly, we are interested in the measurement of WikiProject activity as it relates to overall editing in that WikiProject's subject area.

We also have 50 people and projects signed up for pilot testing, which is an excellent start! (An important caveat: one person volunteering a WikiProject does not mean the WikiProject as a whole is interested; just that there is at least one person, which is a start.)

While carrying out our research, we are documenting the problems with WikiProjects and our ideas for making WikiProjects better. Some ideas include better integration of existing tools into WikiProjects, recommendations of WikiProjects for people to join, and improved coordination with Articles for Creation. These are just ideas that may or may not make it to the design phase; we will see. We are also working with WikiProject Council to improve the directory of WikiProjects, with the goal of a reliable, self-updating WikiProject directory. Stay tuned! If you have any ideas, you are welcome to leave a note on our talk page.

That's all for now. Thank you for subscribing!

– Harej 17:21, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Hilarious
Hi, Kosboot! It is rare for vandalism to make me laugh, but this was a classic: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Klein&diff=647745369&oldid=647741085. I hope you're doing well! -- Ssilvers (talk) 18:55, 18 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Peter the Great Klein -- has a ring to it, no? :) Thanks for the note & all the best. kosboot (talk) 18:59, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for February 22
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Bernhard Ziehn, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Theodore Thomas. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ* Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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Sunday March 22: Wikipedia Day NYC Celebration and Mini-Conference
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Questions re: NYPD Wikipedia edits
Hey Kosboot,

I'm a journalist looking to get some comments from Wikimedia commenters in NYC on the NYPD edits to Wikipedia that were released by Capital New York. I reached out because I saw that you were part of the NYC Wikipedia Meetup group. Would it be possible to have a talk?

Thanks so much! --Thencarolsaid (talk) 18:28, 13 March 2015 (UTC)


 * It would be possible to have a talk, but I wouldn't want anything quoted to me, since my identity is fairly transparent. Of course the story is horrendous (I've always said colloquially that the only different between crooks and police is that police wear a uniform).  You should try for the head of the chapter who's pretty diplomatic: Pharos.  - (signed) kosboot (talk) 19:38, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm considering to plan a editathan and need an advice
Hello Kosboot. About two years ago, a Wiki editathon was dedicated to improving to Latin music. Since then, I have been considering staring a follow-up to it. So here is my question: Did the American Sabor institution contact Wikipedia or someone from Wikipedia contact the American Sabor? The reason I am asking is because I wish to ask an institution in Miami and likely set up an editathon over there dedicated to the mention topic. Thanks in advance. Erick (talk) 09:33, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi there Magiciandude. The edit-a-thon you referred to (and which I organized) was not a success because we were not able to successfully connect with the Latino community. Since that time, I and others have come to realize that an edit-a-thon that involves a group of people (be it ethnic, cultural, etc.) must have a representative of that community who wants his/her group to have a voice on Wikipedia. That representative must carry the weight of outreach and diplomacy to get others on board. Several of us in the NY Chapter have also begun to realize that the technical side of wiki-editing is kind of a waste of time and a disincentive for most beginners; we want to experiment with people just writing the texts (with proper references) which experienced Wikipedians can then put in WP. If you're in Miami, then I would think the institution you're thinking of is the University of Miami which I know has a big Cuban Theatre project (I've seen talks given on that project) which has a number of enthusiastic staff. Let me know what else I can tell or share with you. - kosboot (talk) 13:07, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I wanted to go on that editathon that day, but I was unable to due to time and money. I thought long and hard about how I could improve the editathon and how I could be able to attend the editathon. Even though I don't live in Miami, it would be a viable option to me because I live in Central Florida and I can plan a trip to Miami a day advance with little to no problem. One major organization I'm hoping to get involved with is the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences which is located over there. Several main reasons why I would like them to get them involved are because 1) The Latin music project scope is based on their definition of "Latin music" (Spanish- and Portuguese-language recordings) 2) They are the organization responsible for the Latin Grammy Awards and 3) LARAs launched the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation which is an education program for anyone who wants to work in the Latin music field. I think the latter is important because I'm aware that Wikipedia has worked with several educational institutions before with Wiki editahons. The University of Miami could be very useful as the location and LARAS's backing could be beneficial. I do have a back-up plan in the event they decline the request, though the editathon would then be elsewhere. Miami is the "Capital of Latin America" so hopefully we can have a better chance of reaching the Latino community there. Erick (talk) 17:22, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Wow, with those participants it has the potential to be a winner. Have you organized an edit-a-thon? I assume you know the page WP:Editathon.  One thing that I would do differently (which is hard because of the nature of the NY chapter) is plan well in advance and start promotion around 3-4 months prior to the event, so that momentum can build up and reach people.  If I was nearby I would help.  You might want to involve the Wiki Ed Foundation since you have a very definitive educational component and the potential of outreach to the Latino community is great. - kosboot (talk) 18:18, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Hearing your approval of my idea means a lot to me, thank you very much! =) I have never done an edit-a-thon before so this is an exciting opportunity for me and the community. I was already thinking having the event around in June or July but it helps to know regardless. I do wish to get the Wiki Ed Foundations involved and organize the editathon, yet I don't even know where to begin with all this. Erick (talk) 18:29, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I strongly suggest plan as much as you can, and plan for contingencies. The Wiki Ed Fnd. is rather small--just reach out to them.  They might be able to offer suggestions. Try to find someone to assist, otherwise you'll risk burnout--there is a lot to think about.  Promotion is an especially difficult problem, thinking of who would be interested (that's where someone from the community helps to know what are the communications venues - websites, email, posters in stores and school libraries, etc.). If you want, I can ask the NY chapter if anyone knows contacts in Miami or Florida in general that could pitch in with help. -kosboot (talk) 18:34, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Oh yes, I'd appreciate that. I'll go ahead and start asking Wiki Ed Fnd. about the possible edit-a-thon in Miami. I do want to mention that my back-up plan (like if LARAS turns it down for example) would then be changed to Boston and get the Berklee College of Music involved as they have a Latin Music studies department. Right now, Miami is the most viable option for me to attend and as mentioned, has a huge Latino community. Again, thanks for your help. Cheers! Erick (talk) 18:49, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Hello again kosboot. I am unable to start an editathon this year due to financial and time issues, but I have created a meetup on my sandbox for next year. Would this appropriate or am I missing anything? Erick (talk) 16:56, 27 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Heya Magiciandude - sorry about the delay in plans, but hope it comes to fruition at the right time. Your page looks nice; you might (or might not) want to get inspired from some of the NYC group's editathon pages.  I like this one Meetup/NYC/Women_in_Jewish_History because the sections are nicely set off, and especially because of the template (at the bottom; participants could add the template to the talk pages of articles they edited).  You can also look for models at Meetup/NYC/Black_Life_Matters_Editathon or Meetup/NYC/WomenOfJazz - I like that the event info is set off, that there are sections on "what you need," of course suggestions on articles to edit, but also tools, resources, etc.  Additionally, this may be obvious, but you may want to include a statement that one can edit in the language Wikipedia of one's choosing (i.e. not just English but Spanish, Portuguese or others).  You might also want to include an image.  Since I'm a librarian, I hope you're in conversations with the Univ. of Miami library staff, explaining how it will look good for the library to host this event. :) - kosboot (talk) 17:15, 27 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Oooh nice! I'll definitely take inspiration from those editathons pages. I also like your suggestions of notifying editors about Wikipedia in other languages as well. Since it's my first time doing it, are there any suggestions what to say to the library staff to convince them to host the edit-a-thon? Same question goes for getting a partnership from LARAS. I'll start preparations for the editathon on May of next year. Thank you very much for your reply. Erick (talk) 17:28, 27 August 2015 (UTC)
 * This is your chance to work on your diplomacy. Create separate fact sheets for LARAS and the library.  I suspect the library will be more impressed if you can get a commitment from LARAS, although, conversely, LARAS might want to be assured of the library's support.  For the library, you should take a look at the Wiki Loves Libraries pages on meta, especially this: https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries/Communication. I think there are probably other examples on the web of "why your organization should be involved/contribute to Wikipedia." - kosboot (talk) 18:02, 27 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Btw, in the slight chance you have it at the end of June, I'll be attending a conference in Coral Gables around that time. :) - kosboot (talk) 18:04, 27 August 2015 (UTC)
 * That sounds great! =D Since the editathon won't happen until next year, putting it June isn't out of the question. The only reason I have it on the middle of August is because that's when the Summer term for my college year ends. Let's see what happen, until then, I'll keep in touch if something comes up. Thank you so much for your help! Erick (talk) 18:11, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 2
For this month's issue...

Making sense of a lot of data.

Work on our prototype will begin imminently. In the meantime, we have to understand what exactly we're working with. To this end, we generated a list of 71 WikiProjects, based on those brought up on our Stories page and those who had signed up for pilot testing. For those projects where people told stories, we coded statements within those stories to figure out what trends there were in these stories. This approach allowed us to figure out what Wikipedians thought of WikiProjects in a very organic way, with very little by way of a structure. (Compare this to a structured interview, where specific questions are asked and answered.) This analysis was done on 29 stories. Codes were generally classified as "benefits" (positive contributions made by a WikiProject to the editing experience) and "obstacles" (issues posed by WikiProjects, broadly speaking). Codes were generated as I went along, ensuring that codes were as close to the original data as possible. Duplicate appearances of a code for a given WikiProject were removed.

We found 52 "benefit" statements encoded and 34 "obstacle" statements. The most common benefit statement referring to the project's active discussion and participation, followed by statements referring to a project's capacity to guide editor activity, while the most common obstacles made reference to low participation and significant burdens on the part of the project maintainers and leaders. This gives us a sense of WikiProjects' big strength: they bring people together, and can be frustrating to editors when they fail to do so. Meanwhile, it is indeed very difficult to bring editors together on a common interest; in the absence of a highly motivated core of organizers, the technical infrastructure simply isn't there.

We wanted to pair this qualitative study with quantitative analysis of a WikiProject and its "universe" of pages, discussions, templates, and categories. To this end I wrote a script called ProjAnalysis which will, for a given WikiProject page (e.g. WikiProject Star Trek) and WikiProject talk-page tag (e.g. Template:WikiProject Star Trek), will give you a list of usernames of people who edited within the WikiProject's space (the project page itself, its talk page, and subpages), and within the WikiProject's scope (the pages tagged by that WikiProject, excluding the WikiProject space pages). The output is an exhaustive list of usernames. We ran the script to analyze our test batch of WikiProjects for edits between March 1, 2014 and February 28, 2015, and we subjected them to further analysis to only include those who made 10+ edits to pages in the projects' scope, those who made 4+ edits to the projects' space, and those who made 10+ edits to pages in scope but not 4+ edits to pages in the projects' space. This latter metric gives us an idea of who is active in a certain subject area of Wikipedia, yet who isn't actively engaging on the WikiProject's pages. This information will help us prioritize WikiProjects for pilot testing, and the ProjAnalysis script in general may have future life as an application that can be used by Wikipedians to learn about who is in their community.

Complementing the above two studies are a design analysis, which summarizes the structure of the different WikiProject spaces in our test batch, and the comprehensive census of bots and tools used to maintain WikiProjects, which will be finished soon. With all of this information, we will have a game plan in place! We hope to begin working with specific WikiProjects soon.

As a couple of asides...


 * Database Reports has existed for several years on Wikipedia to the satisfaction of many, but many of the reports stopped running when the Toolserver was shut off in 2014. However, there is good news: the weekly New WikiProjects and WikiProjects by Changes reports are back, with potential future reports in the future.
 * WikiProject X has an outpost on Wikidata! Check it out. It's not widely publicized, but we are interested in using Wikidata as a potential repository for metadata about WikiProjects, especially for WikiProjects that exist on multiple Wikimedia projects and language editions.

That's all for now. Thank you for subscribing! If you have any questions or comments, please share them with us.

Harej (talk) 01:43, 21 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you
Thanks for your editing of The Adventures of Ellery Queen (radio program). I appreciate your help. Eddie Blick (talk) 20:55, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
 * You're welcome. Actually I could do a bit more since I have the book of Dannay & Lee's EQ scripts as well as the book all about the various versions of the radio show. kosboot (talk) 20:57, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Great to meet you
Hi Kosboot -- just wanted to say it was great to meet you at WikiDay NYC and I look forward to having you talk with my students at some point! Spring recess is around the corner so it might need to be after the break. Perhaps a Skype session or visit from you when they can hear your advice about how to integrate feedback from peer reviews (which they will have just received) and/or how to submit for Did You Know? or other opportunities. Thanks again and I'll be in touch! All best, Amy E Hughes (talk) 21:55, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
 * And great to me you, too! Sure, after the break, I'd be happy to come out to Brooklyn (btw, when and on what day of the week does your class meet)? Something you might want to consider for a future class (I remember you told me you're on sabbatical after this semester) - bring the class to the library and I can show them the kinds of resources available not just for the assignment but for their student careers.  Or lacking that I could draw up a handout (although I think it makes a difference when they can see and hold the material). I really enjoyed the panel. Thanks again! kosboot (talk) 21:58, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

A new reference tool
Hello Books & Bytes subscribers. There is a new Visual Editor reference feature in development called Citoid. It is designed to "auto-fill" references using a URL or DOI. We would really appreciate you testing whether TWL partners' references work in Citoid. Sharing your results will help the developers fix bugs and improve the system. If you have a few minutes, please visit the testing page for simple instructions on how to try this new tool. Regards, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:47, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

April 29: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC
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Caitlin Dewey
Thought you might like to know that Ms Dewey is aware that a regular WP editor described her reporting as "barely worthy of a college freshman." She tweeted a screenshot of your comment being removed from the BLP that someone tried to start on her. Cheers! Cla68 (talk) 11:10, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Cla68 (talk) 11:59, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

Gypsy
Thanks for the message; I thought that I did a search for a Gypsy entry but obviously missed the Main listing! Anyway, I fixed the title of the article, so all is well. (By the way, I attended Queens College in the late 1950s-1961.)Flami72 (talk) 15:02, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Not a problem. I attended Queens 1979-1985 (took some time off).  Wikipedia is a continual learning experience - each one of us learns each day that we edit. :) - kosboot (talk) 15:11, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 3
Greetings! For this month's issue...

We have demos!

After a lengthy research and design process, we decided for WikiProject X to focus on two things:
 * A WikiProject workflow that focuses on action items: discussions you can participate in and tasks you can perform to improve the encyclopedia; and
 * An automatically updating WikiProject directory that gives you lists of users participating in the WikiProject and editing in that subject area.

We have a live demonstration of the new WikiProject workflow at WikiProject Women in Technology, a brand new WikiProject that was set up as an adjunct to a related edit-a-thon in Washington, DC. The goal is to surface action items for editors, and we intend on doing that through automatically updated working lists. We are looking into using SuggestBot to generate lists of outstanding tasks, and we are looking into additional options for automatic worklist generation. This takes the burden off of WikiProject editors to generate these worklists, though there is also a "requests" section for Wikipedians to make individual requests. (As of writing, these automated lists are not yet live, so you will see a blank space under "edit articles" on the demo WikiProject. Sorry about that!) I invite you to check out the WikiProject and leave feedback on WikiProject X's talk page.

Once the demo is sufficiently developed, we will be working on a limited deployment on our pilot WikiProjects. We have selected five for the first round of testing based on the highest potential for impact and will scale up from there.

While a re-designed WikiProject experience is much needed, that alone isn't enough. A WikiProject isn't any good if people have no way of discovering it. This is why we are also developing an automatically updated WikiProject directory. This directory will surface project-related metrics, including a count of active WikiProject participants and of active editors in that project's subject area. The purpose of these metrics is to highlight how active the WikiProject is at the given point of time, but also to highlight that project's potential for success. The directory is not yet live but there is a demonstration featuring a sampling of WikiProjects.

Each directory entry will link to a WikiProject description page which automatically list the active WikiProject participants and subject-area article editors. This allows Wikipedians to find each other based on the areas they are interested in, and this information can be used to revive a WikiProject, start a new one, or even for some other purpose. These description pages are not online yet, but they will use this template, if you want to get a feel of what they will look like.

We need volunteers!

WikiProject X is a huge undertaking, and we need volunteers to support our efforts, including testers and coders. Check out our volunteer portal and see what you can do to help us!

As an aside...

Wouldn't it be cool if lists of requested articles could not only be integrated directly with WikiProjects, but also shared between WikiProjects? Well, we got the crazy idea of having experimental software feature Flow deployed (on a totally experimental basis) on the new Article Request Workshop, which seeks to be a place where editors can "workshop" article ideas before they get created. It uses Flow because Flow allows, essentially, section-level categorization, and in the future will allow "sections" (known as "topics" within Flow) to be included across different pages. What this means is that you have a recommendation for a new article tagged by multiple WikiProjects, allowing for the recommendation to appear on lists for each WikiProject. This will facilitate inter-WikiProject collaboration and will help to reduce duplicated work. The Article Request Workshop is not entirely ready yet due to some bugs with Flow, but we hope to integrate it into our pilot WikiProjects at some point.

Harej (talk) 00:57, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

June 10: WikiWednesday Salon / Wikimedia NYC Annual Meeting
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WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 4
Newsletter • May/June 2015

Hello friends! We have been hard at work these past two months. For this report:

The directory is live!

For the first time, we are happy to bring you an exhaustive, comprehensive WikiProject Directory. This directory endeavors to list every single WikiProject on the English Wikipedia, including those that don't participate in article assessment. In constructing the broadest possible definition, we have come up with a list of approximately 2,600 WikiProjects. The directory tracks activity statistics on the WikiProject's pages, and, for where it's available, statistics on the number of articles tracked by the WikiProject and the number of editors active on those articles. Complementing the directory are description pages for each project, listing usernames of people active on the WikiProject pages and the articles in the WikiProject's scope. This will help Wikipedians interested in a subject find each other, whether to seek feedback on an article or to revive an old project. (There is an opt-out option.) We have also come up with listings of related WikiProjects, listing the ten most relevant WikiProjects based on what articles they have in common. We would like to promote WikiProjects as interconnected systems, rather than isolated silos.

A tremendous amount of work went into preparing this directory. WikiProjects do not consistently categorize their pages, meaning we had to develop our own index to match WikiProjects with the articles in their scope. We also had to make some adjustments to how WikiProjects were categorized; indeed, I personally have racked up a few hundred edits re-categorizing WikiProjects. There remains more work to be done to make the WikiProject directory truly useful. In the meantime, take a look and feel free to leave feedback at the WikiProject X talk page.

Stuff in the works!

What have we been working on?


 * A new design template—This has been in the works for a while, of course. But our goal is to design something that is useful and cleanly presented on all browsers and at all screen resolutions while working within the confines of what MediaWiki has to offer. Additionally, we are working on designs for the sub-components featured on the main project page.
 * A new WikiProject talk page banner in Lua—Work has begun on implementing the WikiProject banner in Lua. The goal is to create a banner template that can be usable by any WikiProject in lieu of having its own template. Work has slowed down for now to focus on higher priority items, but we are interested in your thoughts on how we could go about creating a more useful project banner. We have a draft module on Test Wikipedia, with a demonstration.
 * New discussion reports—We have over 4.8 million articles on the English Wikipedia, and almost as many talk pages as well. But what happens when someone posts on a talk page? What if no one is watching that talk page? We are currently testing out a system for an automatically-updating new discussions list, like RFC for WikiProjects. We currently have five test pages up for the WikiProjects on cannabis, cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and Ghana.
 * SuggestBot for WikiProjects—We have asked the maintainer of SuggestBot to make some minor adjustments to SuggestBot that will allow it to post regular reports to those WikiProjects that ask for them. Stay tuned!
 * Semi-automated article assessment—Using the new revision scoring service and another system currently under development, WikiProjects will be getting a new tool to facilitate the article assessment process by providing article quality/importance predictions for articles yet to be assessed. Aside from helping WikiProjects get through their backlogs, the goal is to help WikiProjects with collecting metrics and triaging their work. Semi-automation of this process will help achieve consistent results and keep the process running smoothly, as automation does on other parts of Wikipedia.

Want us to work on any other tools? Interested in volunteering? Leave a note on our talk page.

The WikiProject watchers report is back!

The database report which lists WikiProjects according to the number of watchers (i.e., people that have the project on their watchlist), is back! The report stopped being updated a year ago, following the deactivation of the Toolserver, but a replacement report has been generated.

Until next time, Harej (talk) 22:20, 17 June 2015 (UTC)

July 8: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC
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This Month in Education: June 2015
Updates, reports, news, and stories about how Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects are used in education around the world.   Headlines &middot; Highlights &middot; Single page &middot; Newsroom &middot; Archives &middot;  Unsubscribe
 * Uruguay: A Wikipedia project in foreign languages receives a teaching award
 * Hong Kong: The First Wikipedia Education Program in Hong Kong
 * Greece: Adult school graduates learn to edit Wikipedia and inspire their peers
 * Sweden: Mid-year Summary from the Wikipedia Education Program
 * Mexico: New video tutorial for Commons created by students
 * Armenia: Wikimedia Armenia New Office, Annual Conference, and WikiCamp 2015
 * Argentina: Argentina contributes to a massive cross-border course of free knowledge in Spanish-speaking countries
 * Israel: Education Program Extension enabled on Hebrew Wiktionary
 * Global: New recognition certificates for program students, teachers and leaders
 * Media Articles of interest in other publications: Uk, India, Palestine and more

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:07, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Schenker's compositions
Dear Kosboot,

Miller's list of Schenker's compositions, on which you base your recent additions to the Heinrich Schenker article, seems incomplete. Benjamin Ayotte (Incomplete Transferences) mentions several works in the Jonas Collection. See especially the list of unpublished songs with opus numbers (op. 6, 7 and 8), Ayotte p. 17, and the list of songs without opus numbers, p. 18. He also mentions op. 9, "a set of Ländler", on p. 8, but this is contradicted by the table of p. 9 where the Ländler appear as op. 10 (as in Miller, I think; Pazdirek also gives them as op. 10), while Ayotte suggests that the Syrische Tänze could be considered op. 9; the Ländler are once again discussed as op. 9 on p. 14.

If the Ländler are identified as op. 10 (which seems most probable) and the Syrische Tänze were published without opus number, then opus 9 is still missing (or never existed); Schenker Documents Online give no clue. This all remains somewhat confused, of course, but the list as you give it strictly speaking is a list of published works (as in Miller). Another possibility might be a list of performed works, for which Ayotte gives useful indications. (Some verifications in the Jonas Collection might be necessary.)

I leave it up to you to see whether you want to add anything to the article. Best, Hucbald.SaintAmand (talk) 09:30, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

Hi Hucbald,

Yes, I intentionally limited the list to published works, thinking those would be more easily accessible. It sounds like there are many unpublished works and no one has tried to create an inventory. Similarly there are unpublished articles, but like compositions, had Schenker had wanted to published them, they would probably be in different form. I'll check the other sources you mention. I am reluctant assigning opus numbers when there's no evidence that the composer or publisher assigned such numbers. -- kosboot (talk) 11:09, 2 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Limiting to published works is reasonable, but it should be stated. Limiting to opus numbers would exclude the Syrische Tänze, but there seem to be strong arguments for the existence of op. 6-8 (reviews of the time are mentioned, I think, in Federhofer, perhaps in Miller and certainly in Ayotte). Op. 9 remains a mystery. One possibility would be to give an exhaustive list of published works, and a choice of unpublished ones (e.g. those for which a performance is documented). Hucbald.SaintAmand (talk) 16:29, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Library needs you!
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With only a couple hours per week, you can make a big difference for sharing knowledge. Please sign up and help us in one of these ways: Sign up now Send on behalf of The Wikipedia Library using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:31, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
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This Month in GLAM: June 2015
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The Signpost: 22 July 2015

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Sunday August 2: WikNYC Picnic
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August 19: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC
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Music related articles that could do with a freely licensed music fragment
Dear Kosboot,

As you may have heard, the Wikipedia community will receive the Erasmus Prize later this year - congratulations to you too! Around this award ceremony, Wikimedia Netherlands and the Foundation Praemium Erasmianum (SPE) are looking into ways to leverage this, and organise relevant activities. One of those activities may be a 'Wikipedia Concert', which could be recorded and its recordings could be used to illustrate Wikipedia articles with freely licensed music fragments. This is a nice opportunity for Wikipedia, and if it works out, it could be the start of a series of events around the world using the same concept. One main prerequisite would be to demonstrate that there is an actual need for such fragments, and a first inventory of articles that could use such fragments.

You were recommended to me by Pharos as someone who may have a good insight in this. Could you help us out with a list of topics (in any language version of Wikipedia - this prize is awarded to the international community!) that would come first to mind? I asked other people to share their thoughts on the project page on nlwiki (in English), hopefully you can add yours too. Thanks a lot in advance! effeietsanders 13:12, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

List of lost operas
Hi Kosboot, there's a list of lost operas for you here. I'll be moving away from all opera-related work, and removing the opera pages (including the Wikiproject Opera pages) from my watchlists. Reply to this message here when you have taken the copy, as I want to start clearing my work areas down. Scarabocchio (talk) 21:30, 29 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Got it - thank you - kosboot (talk) 00:25, 30 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Have fun with it! :) Scarabocchio (talk) 05:07, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

September 16: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC
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Saturday October 3: WikiArte Latin America Edit-a-thon @ MoMA
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Books and Bytes - Issue 13
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 13, August-September 2015 by, , ,

 Read the full newsletter The Interior via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:30, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
 * New donations - EBSCO, IMF, more newspaper archives, and Arabic resources
 * Expansion into new languages, including Viet and Catalan
 * Spotlight: Elsevier partnership garners controversy, dialogue
 * Conferences: PKP, IFLA, upcoming events

Thursday October 15: Women in Architecture Edit-a-thon @ Guggenheim (drop-in any time, noon-8pm!)
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This Month in GLAM: September 2015
Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · Romaine 01:44, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

You've got mail!
DBaK (talk) 07:02, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

Oct 28: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC
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WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 5
Newsletter • October 2015

Hello there! Happy to be writing this newsletter once more. This month:

We did it!

In July, we launched five pilot WikiProjects: WikiProjects Cannabis, Evolutionary Biology, Ghana, Hampshire, and Women's Health. We also use the new design, named "WPX UI," on WikiProject Women in Technology, Women in Red, WikiProject Occupational Safety and Health. We are currently looking for projects for the next round of testing. If you are interested, please sign up on the Pilots page.

Shortly after our launch we presented at Wikimania 2015. Our slides are on Wikimedia Commons.

Then after all that work, we went through the process of figuring out whether we accomplished our goal. We reached out to participants on the redesigned WikiProjects, and we asked them to complete a survey. (If you filled out your survey—thank you!) While there are still some issues with the WikiProject tools and the new design, there appears to be general satisfaction (at least among those who responded). The results of the survey and more are documented in our grant report filed with the Wikimedia Foundation.

The work continues!

There is more work that needs to be done, so we have applied for a renewal of our grant. Comments on the proposal are welcome. We would like to improve what we have already started on the English Wikipedia and to also expand to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. Why those? Because they are multilingual projects and because there needs to be better coordination across Wikimedia projects. More details are available in the renewal proposal.

How can the Wikimedia Foundation support WikiProjects?

The Wikimedia Developer Summit will be held in San Francisco in January 2016. The recently established Community Tech team at the Wikimedia Foundation is interested in investigating what technical support they can provide for WikiProjects, i.e., support beyond just templates and bots. I have plenty of opinions myself, but I want to hear what you think. The session is being planned on Phabricator, the Wikimedia bug tracker. If you are not familiar with Phabricator, you can log in with your Wikipedia username and password through the "Login or Register: MediaWiki" button on the login page. Your feedback can help make editing Wikipedia a better experience.

Until next time,

Harej (talk) 09:03, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

New York Public Library
As a heads up, I have responded to your reply on the New York Public Library talk page. Though I may be crass, I do appreciate you replying to my query. Int21h (talk) 04:42, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Hermann
Hi Kosboot. If you're correct that the Hermann music files should not be on Wikipedia, then thanks for removing them. But, if that is the case, then they should not be on Commons either, and I hope you will remove them there too. at commons says it was uploaded by "Bernardherrmann3" and I took that to mean either a grandson of Bernard Herrmann who owns the rights, or someone else who owns the rights. What should we do in a case like this?Anythingyouwant (talk) 16:47, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I've tagged the file on Commons. As far as Wikimedia projects in general, see WP:CV - kosboot (talk) 16:52, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Okay. Please note that I am not verifying copyright status before making edits like this, per my disclaimer here.  Cheers.Anythingyouwant (talk) 16:54, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Really, really bad disclaimer (like saying "I will shoot my gun but I'm not responsible if it hits anyone").  Most people don't know anything about copyright in sound recordings.  I would highly recommend you either refrain from posting such things altogether or post recordings that you know to be freely shareable, such as those one can find on IMSLP.org. - kosboot (talk)
 * I'm not uploading anything to Wikipedia. All I do is link to stuff that's already on Wikipedia. And I'm not going to do the latter if I have to investigate copyright status, or investigate whether uploaders own the copyrights.  It's too time consuming, and no fun.  If Commons is not telling uploaders what they can and cannot do, then Commons needs a better system.Anythingyouwant (talk) 17:03, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * When I first started editing Wikipedia I learned pretty quickly that one of the fundamentals of the project is that information (including files) should be freely sharable. That excludes copyrighted material.  If you want to link to copyrighted material, the way to handle such things is to post links in "External links" found at the end of the articles, otherwise people assume that the link is to something within Wikimedia. - kosboot (talk) 17:09, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * All of my links are to things within Wikipedia. If copyright owners choose to release things under a license accepted by Wikimedia then they can do so, and I don't feel like my project allows me enough time to second-guess those uploaders.  But I thank you for doing so in this case.  Cheers.Anythingyouwant (talk) 17:10, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:07, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for December 4
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Rakhmaninov
I'm sorry to say that the BBC tries to get us to swallow that spelling. I find it especially maddening in Prom programmes: whenever I see it there I think of Sir Henry Wood's magisterial rebuke to the BBC in 1938: "I cannot take the responsibility for teaching my friend how to spell his name, and as a very recent photograph he gave me is signed RACHMANINOFF we must not spell the name in our programme with a final v." Alas, the final "v" has triumphed here since about the late 1950s, I'd say, but the "k" in the middle is still scorned by all right-thinking music lovers. Mind you, I have the impression that on your side of the Atlantic the spelling "Prokofieff" has given way to "Prokofiev", or am I wrong? Quis rem decernet? Regards,  Tim riley  talk    15:02, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
 * I used to have that first recording of Alexander Nevsky from around 1945 and I think that spelled it Prokofieff -- but everyone here spells it with a final v. - kosboot (talk) 15:35, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
 * I hope I haven't messed up the formatting of your page! I don't think I did anything out of the ordinary, but it all looks very odd now. Forgive me if I have, as we elegantly say over here, buggered things up.  Tim riley  talk    17:37, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
 * No, it's not you - it's the GLAM post with somekind of framing which I'll delete as soon as I read it. Thanks! - kosboot (talk) 19:26, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for December 27
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Una O'Connor (actress), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Drury Lane Theatre. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ* Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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