User talk:Rich Farmbrough/Archive/2013 February

Wikidata weekly summary #43
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week. Read the full report &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; Global message delivery 13:24, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Development
 * Deployment on the Hebrew and Italian Wikipedia
 * Switched the Wikipedias over to a new, more scalable dispatching changes script for propagating changes from the repository to the clients
 * Fixing various deeply buried bugs and a few minor bugs reported after deployment
 * Preparations for next deployment on wikidata.org
 * Working on property parser function for the client
 * Implemented robust serialization of changes for dispatching
 * Resumed work on linked data interface
 * References can now be created, edited and removed on existing statements
 * Several minor user interface fixes
 * Styling of the user interface for statements
 * Selenium tests for references
 * Selenium tests for non-JS SpecialPages
 * Worked on puppet
 * Discussions/Press
 * Abuse filter guidelines
 * Policy on properties
 * First external tool for output in RDF: and
 * Running your own instance of Wikibase (for science!)
 * Events
 * We’ve set the date for the next office hours
 * upcoming: FOSDEM
 * Other Noteworthy Stuff
 * Admin reconfirmation is still ongoing
 * Deployment of first parts of phase 2 on wikidata.org are planned for February 4 and deployment on English Wikipedia for February 11. See this blog post for details and more dates.
 * Open Tasks for You
 * Test statements on the [demo system before the roll-out to wikidata.org on February 4
 * Hack on one of these

The Signpost: 04 February 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 01:32, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #44
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week. Read the full report &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; Global message delivery 16:09, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Development
 * Deployment of the first parts of phase 2 (infoboxes/statements) on wikidata.org done - see it live for example here, here and here
 * Diffs for statement edits can now be shown
 * Started work on query definitions
 * Edit links are now disabled in the interface when the user does not have the rights to edit
 * Edit links are now hidden when viewing old revision
 * Worked on search field for WikibaseSolr
 * More work on Lua templates for Wikibase entities
 * Worked on bugfixes in the statement user interface
 * New features in the statement user interface (references counter/heading)
 * JavaScript editing for table showing labels and description of the same item in different languages
 * Repaired and updated the demo system
 * Resumed work on Linked Data interface
 * Support for enhanced recent changes format in client
 * There are automatic comments for statement edits as well in the history now
 * Special page for unconnected pages, that is pages on the client that are not connected to items on the repository
 * Added permission checks for statements, so a user that can not edit will not be able to edit or that only a group can be allowed to do some changes like creating statements
 * Discussions/Press
 * Signpost
 * Lots of discussions about the usage details and policies of phase 2 on d:Wikidata:Project chat
 * Events
 * FOSDEM
 * upcoming: office hour (English; German later)
 * Other Noteworthy Stuff
 * Deployment of phase 1 (language links) on the English language Wikipedia is still planned for Monday late evening UTC (pending a performance review)
 * List of existing properties and their usage
 * List of new proposed properties
 * Open Tasks for You
 * d:User:PinkAmpersand is looking for someone to write a script that once someone has been made an autopatroller, retroactively patrols all of their prior edits
 * d:Wikidata:Press coverage could use some love and care
 * Hack on one of these

The Tea Leaf - Issue Seven
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Thanks again! Ocaasi 01:55, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

ISBN questions
Hi Rich - I hope you are well. I have been working on Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs (we can already see G on the first page!), and have a couple questions that you may be able to help with. Do you know if ISBNs were/are applied retroactively to books published pre-1970? (e.g. should the invalid ISBN on Albert, King of Sweden, for a book published in 1953 just be removed?) Additionally, a number of the nontrivial ISBN issues seem to involve ISBNs with prefixes that contain a bunch of 9s. Mostly, these seem like they might be private print runs/vanity publications that may not have applied for ISBNs - the numbers given as ISBNs might be internal ID numbers given either by booksellers or the publishers - is this possible? Do you have any suggestions what to do in this case? --Storkk (talk) 13:08, 8 February 2013 (UTC) To stalkers: yes, I know Rich is blocked for the time being... I was planning to avoid that unpleasantness as much as possible
 * In theory ISBNs can be applied for retroactively, but I am not aware of the details of this process, nor whether it would be accepted before the start of the scheme. I would be inclined to doubt any such numbers from before the start of the SBN scheme, without very strong supporting evidence.
 * The problem with the leading 999's if I remember correctly is that they are being dished out to very small territories (in terms of publishing size) even as we speak. None of the examples currently on your problems page seem likely candidates, and indeed when I made the last run (as a precaution in case of a bad decision by Arbcom) I updated the tables to the very last version to cope with these.
 * I would be inclined to think that people will do, on very rare occasions, the sort of strange actions you suggest, and so would be reasonably happy to remove a small handful of numbers like this, where diligent research has yielded no information.
 * I must say I am pleased that you are working on this, it is one of two areas where I haven't left a system I have set up in as good a state as I would like - the other is really unimportant.
 * Of course there are lots of things that are simply unfinished, that is the nature of the Wiki.
 * Rich Farmbrough, 22:43, 9 February 2013 (UTC).


 * Thanks, Rich - that's pretty much exactly what I suspected. As you know, the vast majority of incorrect ISBNs are trivially solvable - transposed/deleted/inserted digits or adding a 978 to an ISBN10 without checking the checksum. I'm inclined to largely work through these first, to get a more concise list of problem ISBNs that need attention. That said, some are more easily solved than others, although it's becoming increasingly clear that some of these are just internal IDs that have been translated into an ISBN-like format. For the vast majority of these, I think I'll just replace them with whatever identifier is available (e.g. for the Blood in the Water reference on Dave Beck, I'll replace "ISBN 9990014981" with LOC ID 88071822), with a link if it's to a reasonably authoritative and permanent site, otherwise just remove them (like the Bolton Paul Defiant one). Ones that don't fit this mold (e.g. the CafePress one on my list though I suspect that may be the same issue - just replacing 9 with 0 for an internal ID that was never an ISBN ), I'll just leave for someone with a Eureka moment. Eventually, when I've worked out what I thnk is the best way of doing this, I'll probably move my "issues" list to WP-space (or maybe a subpage of the Category Talk), but right now it needs more thought on how to format it. Anyway, I'm getting far too verbose. Best regards, and looking forward to when you are back... Storkk (talk) 00:31, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of David Kirby (professor)


The article David Kirby (professor) has been proposed for deletion because it appears to have no references. Under Wikipedia policy, this newly created biography of a living person will be deleted unless it has at least one reference to a reliable source that directly supports material in the article.

If you created the article, please don't be offended. Instead, consider improving the article. For help on inserting references, see Referencing for beginners, or ask at the help desk. Once you have provided at least one reliable source, you may remove the prod blp tag. Please do not remove the tag unless the article is sourced. If you cannot provide such a source within ten days, the article may be deleted, but you can when you are ready to add one. -- Patchy1   07:43, 10 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I've added a source - which took the whole of 30 seconds to find, and removed the BLP prod. I've left the notability tag, as I'm not convinced this chap is notable, although Surrey Uni clearly think that he is splendid. --Elen of the Roads (talk) 14:28, 10 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Passes notability per WP:ANYBIO. Rich Farmbrough, 14:12, 11 February 2013 (UTC).


 * Interesting, someone removed the source I provided, http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1084954074&r.s=e&r.l1=1074404796&r.lc=en&r.l3=1084953735&r.l2=1074446322&r.i=1084954027&r.t=RESOURCES because it currently redirects to the main page of the award. A later version of that page can be seen at http://web.archive.org/web/20110610202441/http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1084954074&r.s=e&r.l1=1074404796&r.lc=en&r.l3=1084953735&r.l2=1074446322&r.i=1084954027&r.t=RESOURCES included a link to https://online.businesslink.gov.uk/Growth_and_Innovation_files/QA0024_2011_Awards_Promotion.pdf which includes a comprehensive list of recipients - I rather think the version I linked to had a small paragraph about each recipient. The article then became un-reffed, and could so easily have been deleted, as so much work on Wikipedia is.  In the halcyon days we were under the illusion that wrongly deleted stuff would simply be recreated, as the amount of human resource available in relation to the amount of content being curated was large.  It is maybe not such a good thing now that the ratio is much worse, with another 2000 "regular" editors lost over the last year, and the content continuing to grow. Rich Farmbrough, 14:34, 11 February 2013 (UTC).


 * Businesslink redesigned their website. I know. We had links to another part of it and they all went dead. I've added the pdf as a reference and removed the notability tag. Since I removed the prod, another editor has added another sentence. It wasn't eligible for a BLP PROD anyway - you can only put that on new articles, and this one had been around for a while. I don't like to see stuff that might be relevant to someone deleted for no reason - it's not as if it's a 'my mate Zac plays the drums in his dad's shed' article. Elen of the Roads (talk) 23:08, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost: 11 February 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 07:46, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Comment needed
I made this Feature Request: Wikipedia_talk:AutoWikiBrowser/Feature_requests. Please write us your opinion about it. Due to your recent block, please comment here and I'll copy it to AWB's page. -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:36, 12 February 2013 (UTC)
 * This is the sort of thing that needs to be addressed to avoid either giving the impression that "bots are stupid" or having pages protected against AWB, in perpetuity, or both. Rich Farmbrough, 14:12, 13 February 2013 (UTC).

Wikidata weekly summary #45
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week. Read the full report &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; Global message delivery 21:29, 15 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Development
 * Deployment to English Wikipedia
 * Fix various minor bugs in client, including watchlist toggle with preference to default to always show Wikidata edits
 * Added the new Baso Minangkabau Wikipedia (min)
 * Fixed wrong revision of statements being shown in diff and old revision view
 * Diff visualization for claims (simple version for main snak)
 * Diff visualization for claims (extended version for references, qualifiers, ranks)
 * Tooltip that notifies about the license your contributions will be covered by while editing (can be disabled by each user)
 * Started with valueview refactoring
 * Started with user interface handling of deleted properties
 * Started with refactoring of local partial entity lookup
 * Started with refactoring of toolbar usage in jQuery.wikibase view widgets
 * Finished improvement on jQuery.wikibase.claimview’s edit mode handling
 * Improved search by using entity selector in search field instead of normal MediaWiki search field
 * More work on Lua-based templates for entities
 * Specified the capabilities of the query language we need
 * Created query object
 * Proper bot-flagging of edits (44857)
 * Use of ID to directly address an item or property
 * Search should give more of the complete matches now
 * Special:ItemByTitle should work for canonical namespaces and later on for local namespaces
 * More robust format for notifications of changes on the repository to the client
 * Started work on refactoring API and autocomments code
 * Started to maintain documentation of configuration options in git
 * Discussions/Press
 * List of currently existing properties
 * Proposals for new properties
 * Events
 * Upcoming: Wikipedia Day NYC
 * Upcoming: office hour in English tomorrow
 * Note: changed day of next German office hour to March 8
 * Other Noteworthy Stuff
 * We have a time scheduled when Wikidata will be read-only for a database migration. The window for that is Feb 20 19:00 to Feb 21 2:00 UTC.
 * New features and bugfixes on Wikidata are planned to be deployed on Monday (Feb 18). This should among other things include:
 * Showing useful diffs for edits of claims (they’re currently empty)
 * Automatic comments for editing of claims (there are currently none)
 * Ability to add items to claims by their ID
 * Better handling of deleted properties
 * More results in the entity selector (that’s the thing that lets you select properties, items and so on) so you can add everything and not just the first few matches that are shown
 * We’re still working on the issue that sometimes editing of certain parts of items or properties isn’t possible. If you’re running into it try to reload the page and/or change the URL to the www. version or the non-www. version respectively.
 * Deployment on all other Wikipedias is currently planned for March 6 (a note to the Village Pumps of all affected projects will follow soon)
 * Check out a well-done item
 * Open Tasks for You
 * Help expand en:Wikipedia:Wikidata
 * Help expand and translate Wikidata/Deployment Questions
 * Hack on one these

The Signpost: 18 February 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 18:41, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #46
Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.
 * Development
 * Deployed new features and bugfixes including diffs for statements and the ability to enter items and properties by their ID
 * Updated demo system
 * Database maintainance (Wikidata was in read-only mode for a bit)
 * Implemented first version of a string data type
 * Worked on better error reporting from the API
 * Ported Lua function mw.wikibase.getEntity to Wikibase extension
 * Worked on making the search box suggest items and properties while typing
 * Improved the behaviour of the entity selector (thingy that lets you select items and entities)
 * Improved debugging experience in JavaScript when dealing with prototypical inheritance
 * Worked on cleanup of local entity store
 * Generalized generation of localizable edit summaries
 * Discussions/Press
 * Wikidata development will continue in 2013
 * Wikidata Phase 2 in Full Swing
 * RFC about the Wikidata API
 * Lots of discussions about certain properties and how they should be used. Current state is at d:Wikidata:List of properties and new ones are being discussed at [d:Wikidata:Property proposal]]
 * RCF about amending the global bot policy for Wikidata
 * Proposed changes to Wikidata’s notability guidelines
 * Events
 * office hour including a report on the current status of Wikidata (log)
 * upcoming: Wikipedia Day NYC
 * Other Noteworthy Stuff
 * Deployment of phase 1 (language links) on all remaining Wikipedias and a small update on Wikidata are planned for March 6
 * Great page for editors to learn about what phase 1 means for them
 * Cool tool visualizing family relations based on data in Wikidata
 * “Restricting the World” (first in a series about some design decisions behind Wikidata)
 * List of most used properties
 * OmegaWiki is using Wikidata to get links to Wikipedia articles
 * Nyan Nyan Wikidata Nyan Nyan
 * We’ve hit Q5000000
 * Had a look at d:Wikidata:Tools lately?
 * Open Tasks for You
 * Hack on one of these
 * Help translate Wikidata/Deployment Questions
 * Help bring the content of en:Wikipedia:Wikidata to your Wikipedia

Read the full report &middot; Unsubscribe &middot; Global message delivery 17:20, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

WikiProject Cleanup

 * Thank you, I shall do so. Rich Farmbrough, 15:29, 25 February 2013 (UTC).

Possible copyvio
This appears to be a copyvio of Tribal heritage: a study of the Santals by W. J. Culshaw. Rich Farmbrough, 15:29, 25 February 2013 (UTC).

Jinge Temple
This is vague "highest" what? Buddhist temple? Buddhist temple in China? In the province? Rich Farmbrough, 14:19, 27 February 2013 (UTC).

Ombudsman Commission stuff
Hi Rich. Hope you are doing well. I expect you've already seen this, but just in case. There's a notice at Wikipedia talk:CheckUser asking for input. You voiced some concerns over at Ombudsman commission/reform proposals, so I thought you might be interested in this. I can copy a comment over there if you would like me to. Kind regards. 64.40.54.79 (talk) 05:33, 26 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I will have a quick look later. Rich Farmbrough, 17:53, 27 February 2013 (UTC).

The Tea Leaf - Issue Seven (special Birthday recap)


It's been a full year since the Teahouse opened, and as we're reflecting on what's been accomplished, we wanted to celebrate with you.

Teahouse guests and hosts are sharing their stories in a new blog post about the project.

1 year statistics for Teahouse visitors compared to invited non-visitors from the pilot:

Over the past year almost 2000 questions have been asked and answered, 669 editors have introduced themselves, 1670 guests have been served, 867 experienced Wikipedians have participated in the project, and 137 have served as hosts. Read more project analysis in our CSCW 2013 paper

Last month January was our most active month so far! 78 profiles were created, 46 active hosts answered 263 questions, and 11 new hosts joined the project.

Come by the Teahouse to share a cup of tea and enjoy a Birthday Cupcake! Happy Birthday to the Teahouse and thank you for a year's worth of interest and support :-)
 * -- Ocaasi and the rest of the Teahouse Team 20:40, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

You are receiving The Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To add or remove yourself for receiving future newsletters, please update the list here

The Teahouse Turns One!
It's been an exciting year for the Teahouse and you were a part of it. Thanks so much for visiting, asking questions, sharing answers, being friendly and helpful, and just keeping Teahouse an awesome place. You can read more about the impact we're having and the reflections of other guests and hosts like you. Please come by the Teahouse to celebrate with us, and enjoy this sparkly cupcake badge as our way of saying thank you. And, Happy Birthday!


 * --Ocaasi and the rest of the Teahouse Team 22:28, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

You are a Teahouse Founder!
From the first months, through its first birthday, you have stuck with the Teahouse, nurtured its community, learned and helped, shared and improved. Simply put, the Teahouse would not be what it is without you. Stick around, because we need your lovely attitudes, sincere dedication, sharp minds, crafty design, caring reform, technical wits, and good humor. Display this delicious badge with honor, for you are a Teahouse Founder.


 * With the utmost cheer and appreciation,
 * --Ocaasi and the rest of the Teahouse Team 23:01, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost: 25 February 2013

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 * EdwardsBot (talk) 05:14, 28 February 2013 (UTC)