User talk:Rhododendrites/2019e

Please comment on Talk:List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
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WikiCup 2019 September newsletter
The fourth round of the competition has finished in a flurry of last minute activity, with 454 points being required to qualify for the final round. It was a hotly competitive round with two contestants with over 400 points being eliminated, and all but two of the finalists having achieved an FA during the round. Casliber, our 2016 winner, was the highest point-scorer, followed by Enwebb and Lee Vilenski, who are both new to the competition. In fourth place was SounderBruce, a finalist last year. But all those points are swept away as we start afresh for the final round.

Round 4 saw the achievement of 11 featured articles. In addition, Adam Cuerden scored with 18 FPs, Lee Vilenski led the GA score with 8 GAs while Kosack performed 15 GA reviews. There were around 40 DYKs, 40 GARs and 31 GAs overall during round 4. Even though contestants performed more GARs than they achieved GAs, there was still some frustration at the length of time taken to get articles reviewed.

As we start round 5, we say goodbye to the eight competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia, and we hope you will join us again next year. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them (some people have fallen foul of this rule and the points have been removed).

If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:44, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Saturday Sept 7: Met Fashion Edit-a-thon @ Metropolitan Museum of Art
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RfA
I have not looked into your archives, if you have answered, so forgive me for repeating this. I am familiar with your good work here. Any reason, you have not gone for an RfA yet ?-- D Big X ray ᗙ  06:11, 5 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Seconded ;) Guettarda (talk) 14:12, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the message. It comes up from time to time, and occasionally I waffle a little and consider it, but ultimately I have three reasons not to do an RfA. In decreasing order of importance: I haven't done a good job of fastidiously preserving my anonymity and don't want the extra attention that comes with being an admin (especially an admin who sometimes wants to edit in controversial subject areas); the RfA process itself; time. There are workarounds for the second two, but not really for the first... &mdash; Rhododendrites  talk \\ 20:49, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
 * thanks for the kind reply. If ever you decide to go for it, you will have my whole hearted support. -- D Big X ray ᗙ  03:47, 6 September 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Template talk:Infobox film
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This Month in GLAM: August 2019
About This Month in GLAM · Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · Romaine 07:20, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for your recent support at my RfA, it's really appreciated. The NPP community is important to me and so it was so gratifying to have you and other reviewers say such nice things. It's appreciated and I look forward to our paths crossing, whether at NPP or elsewhere, again soon. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 00:46, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User rights of (site) banned users
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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Template editor
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Sept 25: WikiWednesday Salon NYC
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Thanks for the link.
Rhododendrites,

Thanks for the link. I've paid my dues so I can express my thanks by voting for you in the next Board election! Will the election be in October? When is the October meeting? Feel free to give me the answers in person tonight. Thanks for responding. Vyeh (talk) 15:44, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
 * :) The October meeting is currently scheduled for 10/23. As for the election, we'll talk more about it tonight, but my understanding is that we'll have the election in November. &mdash; Rhododendrites  talk \\ 16:08, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Redirect
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Books & Bytes – Issue 35, July – August 2019
 The Wikipedia Library Books & Bytes

Issue 35, July – August 2019 
 * Wikimania
 * We're building something great, but..
 * Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
 * A Wikibrarian's story
 * Bytes in brief

Read the full newsletter On behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:58, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 15
Newsletter • September 2019

A final update, for now:

The third grant-funded round of WikiProject X has been completed. Unfortunately, while this round has not resulted in a deployed product, I am not planning to resume working on the project for the foreseeable future. Please see the final report for more information.

Regards,

-— Isarra ༆ 19:24, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 September 2019
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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Portal/Guidelines
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This Month in GLAM: September 2019
About This Month in GLAM · Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · Romaine 17:31, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

Regarding stalemate and check
Strictly speaking, if there is no check, then any situation where you cannot move is stalemate. Checkmate is a situation when you cannot move and are in check. But I agree that it is clearer without the word: I tried to rephrase it again to avoid arguments over GNL and/or singular-they (which was my original motive for the first rephrasing), so now it reads "A player wins by being unable to make a move (which includes having no remaining pieces on the board)".

(BTW, not all stalemates even in orthodox chess arise from a player's moves being restricted by check. He or she could just be blocked in, as in this diagram from Talk:Stalemate.) Double sharp (talk) 15:21, 9 October 2019 (UTC)
 * True enough, though in this case, where there are so many variations that do/don't include check/checkmate, the term is likely confusing, as you point out. No objections to the rewording on my part. I do wish we had better sources for that article in general, but that's another issue. :) &mdash; Rhododendrites  talk \\ 15:26, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not
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Please comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)
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Editing News #2 – Mobile editing and talk pages – October 2019
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Inside this newsletter, the Editing team talks about their work on the mobile visual editor, on the new talk pages project, and at Wikimania 2019.

Help
What talk page interactions do you remember? Is it a story about how someone helped you to learn something new? Is it a story about how someone helped you get involved in a group? Something else? Whatever your story is, we want to hear it!

Please tell us a story about how you used a talk page. Please share a link to a memorable discussion, or describe it on the talk page for this project. The team would value your examples. These examples will help everyone develop a shared understanding of what this project should support and encourage.

Talk Pages
The Talk Pages Consultation was a global consultation to define better tools for wiki communication. From February through June 2019, more than 500 volunteers on 20 wikis, across 15 languages and multiple projects, came together with members of the Foundation to create a product direction for a set of discussion tools. The Phase 2 Report of the Talk Page Consultation was published in August. It summarizes the product direction the team has started to work on, which you can read more about here: Talk Page Project project page.

The team needs and wants your help at this early stage. They are starting to develop the first idea. Please add your name to the "Getting involved" section of the project page, if you would like to hear about opportunities to participate.

Mobile visual editor
The Editing team is trying to make it simpler to edit on mobile devices. The team is changing the visual editor on mobile. If you have something to say about editing on a mobile device, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

Edit Cards



 * On 3 September, the Editing team released version 3 of Edit Cards. Anyone could use the new version in the mobile visual editor.
 * There is an updated design on the Edit Card for adding and modifying links. There is also a new, combined workflow for editing a link's display text and target.
 * Feedback: You can try the new Edit Cards by opening the mobile visual editor on a smartphone. Please post your feedback on the Edit cards talk page.

Toolbar



 * In September, the Editing team updated the mobile visual editor's editing toolbar. Anyone could see these changes in the mobile visual editor.
 * One toolbar: All of the editing tools are located in one toolbar. Previously, the toolbar changed when you clicked on different things.
 * New navigation: The buttons for moving forward and backward in the edit flow have changed.
 * Seamless switching: an improved workflow for switching between the visual and wikitext modes.
 * Feedback: You can try the refreshed toolbar by opening the mobile VisualEditor on a smartphone. Please post your feedback on the Toolbar feedback talk page.

Wikimania
The Editing Team attended Wikimania 2019 in Sweden. They led a session on the mobile visual editor and a session on the new talk pages project. They tested two new features in the mobile visual editor with contributors. You can read more about what the team did and learned in the team's report on Wikimania 2019.

Looking ahead

 * Talk Pages Project: The team is thinking about the first set of proposed changes.  The team will be working with a few communities to pilot those changes. The best way to stay informed is by adding your username to the list on the project page: Getting involved.
 * Testing the mobile visual editor as the default: The Editing team plans to post results before the end of the calendar year. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist: VisualEditor as mobile default project page.
 * Measuring the impact of Edit Cards: The Editing team hopes to share results in November.  This study asks whether the project helped editors add links and citations.  The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist: Edit Cards project page.

– PPelberg (WMF) (talk) & Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:51, 17 October 2019 (UTC)

Speaking about anyone who is suitable passing RfA
If you ran, you'd pass RfA. Disagree with you completely on the community desysop stuff, but you should give it a go. RfA is the healthiest it's been in almost a decade. I'd support TonyBallioni (talk) 01:45, 19 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for saying so, . I appreciate that. I feel it tugging at me every once in a while, but the reasons why I don't stretch beyond the RfA process itself (although that's not irrelevant, cf. above). I.e. actually related to the reasons you cite why you're against a community desysop. I admittedly feel a little guilty not throwing my hat in, and that guilt will probably win out at some point down the road. I'll let you know when it does. :) &mdash;  Rhododendrites  talk \\ 02:17, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

2019 US Banknote Contest
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Oct 23: WikiWednesday Salon NYC
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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion
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Happy First Edit Day!
 Happy First Edit Day! Have a very happy first edit anniversary!

From the Birthday Committee, CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 07:48, 25 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks, . And what a great first edit it was! :) &mdash; Rhododendrites  talk \\ 14:33, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Nutshells in deletion discussions
, I didn't know nutshells were even done, let alone frowned upon, in deletion discussions. Nevertheless, I take your point and have removed it, along with your comment requesting reversion since I've done exactly as requested. Please accept my apologies. I didn't know.--Doug Mehus (talk) 19:40, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, . It comes up from time to time. Sometimes in deletion discussions, but also in some longish RfCs. As far as I know there's no explicit policy against it, but I've never seen it happen where it wasn't highly controversial, almost always being hatted/removed/moved. They're generally frowned upon in most cases, except as part of closure. Their primary function is to guide !votes of people who come to the discussion later according to how the discussion has gone up to that point, creating the appearance of consensus when the consensus-building process is still ongoing. They also inevitably fail to capture the finer points of the various arguments, which participants should be able to read as-is without a summary presented to them (which, practically, stands in for rather than supplements the discussion). In this case, for example, it seemed like you were presenting as ~interim-consensus a summary of the arguments for deletion and nothing else. That just speaks to how they're never really satisfactory, though. Thanks for reverting.
 * As an aside, for context, I tend to find some of the MfDs for userspace frustrating when there's no clear promotional/spam/attack/copyvio issue. It seems like they're too often determined by a small number of people advocating deletion without basis in the guidelines that have much broader consensus. I just don't get it. The pages aren't even indexed and nobody sees them other than the creator and people doing maintenance work in userspace. Beyond that, they can just be blanked, so I don't get why they dome to MfD. The bigger reason I find it frustrating is because it winds up taking a bunch of time to defend pages that frankly aren't all that valuable because of the principle of it -- that userspace should be a place where people know that if they're editing in good faith, it doesn't matter that much how they use it. We often see people who made a few edits long ago come back to Wikipedia and become active, and "we deleted what you did before because you left for a while, even though nobody would ever see it and it was just sitting in your userspace" isn't exactly the most welcoming thing. Beyond that, people nominate this stuff while users are active (there are a few nominations moments after a user created a user page or draft). I just don't get it, when there's so much garbage actually in mainspace, why anyone is working hard to delete people's sandboxes. (This is general venting, and not necessarily about you btw). &mdash; Rhododendrites  talk \\ 20:10, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
 * No problem. For clarity, I wouldn't have minded if you, or a person with an opposing view, added any salient counter-arguments that I'd missed—or otherwise refined my Nutshell. I know refactoring others' comments is discouraged, but I think it's OK so long as common sense is used (i.e., to improve neutrality and objectivity). Nevertheless, I was also fine to remove it.Doug Mehus (talk) 20:17, 28 October 2019 (UTC)
 * To your latter point, I do agree with you to an extent that it can be discouraging for returning editors. I was mildly, perhaps a bit more than mildly, put off by a number of 2007-tagged CSD deletions of logos and other clearly Fair Use rationale deletions of images. Similarly, following my return from another wikibreak, my userpage was summarily deleted because it contained "too much biographical" information and a photo of myself. I find that a bit more distressing...I mean, it's one thing to say we can't have a biography in the Main namespace, but I sort of think—so long there's not excessive external links and blatant puffery, we should be more tolerant of users' main userpages. What do you think on that?Doug Mehus (talk) 20:21, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

== Please comment on Wikipedia:Requests for comment/2019 community sentiment on binding desysop procedure ==

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The Signpost: 31 October 2019
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