User talk:Sdkb/Archive 7

Question for the all mighty Sdkb
Sdkb!! How are you? I recall seeing a map where one can use a blank map and put down markers for important locations. It was different than the map you have in the Campus section of the Pomona College—but I could have sworn I saw you using it somewhere. Do you have any idea what I'm talking about? I'm working on Josquin des Prez where there is a dispute over his birthplace, so I'd like to have a map of France/Belgium with some markers for the candidates. Though it would be preferable, I can't find a suitable pre-made map of the area from his time on the commons unfortunately. Best – Aza24 (talk) 20:28, 18 March 2022 (UTC)


 * @Aza24 all mighty? Not sure about that haha 😅 But to your question, I think you're probably looking for Location map+; is that it? Maps for Wikipedia has some other options. All else being equal, Maplink is the newer and more capable format. Best of luck with the article! Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:49, 18 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you! I may try and commission a map, otherwise I think Location map+ will work well. Best – Aza24 (talk) 04:33, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Removal of current
I noticed you made a BOTREQ for this a while back, that dealt with by filing Bots/Requests for approval/Yapperbot 2. Seems the task is currently not working (?), as current has ~190 transclusions. Am I missing something or do I presume that bot task is dead? If so, I can probably file a new one to run Naypta's code since it is open source, but just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something before filing. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 17:10, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi ! Naypta hasn't been around since 2020 (I've missed them!), so I'd presume that any tasks their bot was handling are inactive and in need of resurrection. Thanks for taking this on! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:23, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Likewise, hope they're doing well! I've filed the task at Bots/Requests for approval/ProcBot 10 to take over using their source in the interim. The utility of OS bot tasks reminds me I should get around to doing the same with ProcBot at some point. ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 17:29, 21 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Absolutely—open sourcing is such a huge WP:ENDURE consideration for any bot. Thanks again! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 18:24, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Hello
I know I just replied to you, but looking back through my responses today I might be coming off as a bit abrasive (I am quite tired) and just wanted to apologise if I have come off in that way. Thanks, Terasail [✉️] 18:15, 21 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Terasail! No worries—you didn't come off as abrasive in the discussion at all. I agree with you that the current icon is rather lacking, so it makes sense you'd want to use a different one. Hopefully someday Wikipedia's iconography will get a more comprehensive reboot and standardization. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 18:23, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Photo Request for Bay Area Figurative Movement
Yes, all the examples for Bay Area Figurative Movement were stripped out for WP:NFCC back in 2019. It's a real shame. --Knulclunk (talk) 20:13, 22 March 2022 (UTC)


 * @Knulclunk, indeed. I came across the issue when trying to put together a gallery for the new Culture of California section I just added. There are unfortunately no examples of funk art, either, unless you count this (that's a FfD link) or this (and I can't bring myself to use as the representative artwork for a state with 39 million people a piece that failed to clear the legal threshold of originality lol). I'm not a copyright specialist, but I feel like there's probably a fair use rationale for adding at least something for the Bay Area Figurative Movement—funk art does so for its lead, and an article on an art movement cannot be complete without an image. Best, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:46, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Sunshine Protection Act
Hello Sdkb,

I wanted to ask you about changes made to the Sunshine Protection Act article. Recently, you reverted my edits to this article, but I did not understand why.

The reason you gave is "Reverting removal of well-sourced claims and addition of redundant see also section." I can see that the 'See also' section may be considered redundant - that much I understand. However, the mention of "well-sourced claims" isn't correct. Two specific of the sources, as I mentioned in my edits, put forth false information relating to the 'unanimous consent' procedure. Many of the sources did not have a neutral point of view. Some of the claims cited comments from lawmakers despite those claims pertaining to researchers. At the very least, it is untrue that these are reliable sources.

I had explained my rationale for removing some of these dubious claims in the Talk page. The discussion as to whether to adopt standard time or daylight saving time is far from settled, and the article on the Sunshine Protection Act ought to reflect this. In its current state - the state which you have reverted - the article contains some mention of suggested benefits of daylight savings time. This is inadequate considering it presents a slanted viewpoint to readers.

The article Permanent time observation in the United States has a rather more thorough investigation of the same matter. So, it would be sensible either to modify the Sunshine Protection Act article to contain a broader discussion of daylight time versus standard time or to excise the relevant parts of the Sunshine Protection Act article. I had done the latter since it seemed, to my judgment, most sensible.

In light of what I have described, then, I do not see why you would revert the entirety of the edits to the Sunshine Protection Act. Perhaps you have another reason?

A248 (talk) 16:47, 23 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi ; thanks for reaching out! I missed that you were also the one who posted to the talk page a few days ago; I'll take another look at things when I next have a moment, and I'll reply to you on the talk page. Source-text integrity and neutrality are both important qualities we should be monitoring as the article develops. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:45, 23 March 2022 (UTC)

Desktop Improvements
Hello, thanks for giving your feedback (such a detailed comment!) already. I was hoping you would see my announcement on the Village Pump. What do you think, where could I write to make it even more visible? I'm asking about the English Wikipedia pages, specifically. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 00:20, 26 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @SGrabarczuk (WMF)! Hmm, I think the village pumps where you've already posted are the main places I'd expect to see an announcement like that. A post to WT:Usability wouldn't hurt, but I don't think many others actively follow that page. The next step up would be a watchlist banner like you did for previous prototypes; that'd only be necessary if you wanted to get dramatically more feedback. Best, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 03:44, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

A barnstar for you

 * Thanks so much, ! I think it's crucial work and I'm glad to do what I can Cheers, &#123;{u&#124;  Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:28, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Signpost editorial affirmation
In a poll in The Signpost newsroom you said "I do not think it's appropriate for us, as the house publication of Wikipedia, to take sides in any dispute not directly related to the encyclopedia's purpose". I agree with your statement, but fail to recognize how you are judging the Ukraine War to be unrelated to Wikipedia's purpose.

There is blocking of Wikipedia in Russia, the killing of Ihor Kostenko while photographing for Wikipedia, and the Detention of Mark Bernstein. I agree that The Signpost is generally not a place for taking sides in disputes, but this particular war seems to include opposition to Wikipedia.

What is the nature of your opposition? If you posted thoughts elsewhere, I did not seem them in your edit history. Thanks. Also, thanks for commenting at all, because whatever you are thinking and feeling I expect that other people also have the same view. I want to understand.  Bluerasberry  (talk)  03:15, 29 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Bluerasberry; thanks for reaching out! I agree that there are aspects of the war that are related to our purpose, and I think it's fine for us as a community to speak up about those—indeed, I considered opening up a community statement on Bernstein (although the political/legal sensitivity of that situation ultimately made it more prudent not to). The Signpost editorial, however, went beyond just open knowledge issues and instead ran the headline We stand in solidarity with Ukraine. That sort of blanket statement is what I objected to. I hope that helps clarify my stance. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:46, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Template:User's RfA
Are you planning to continue work on User's RfA? There is a group of us trying to tidy up untranscluded template pages, and this one popped up on a recent report. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:34, 29 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Jonesey95! It's a functional template with a plausible usage, so I wouldn't see any reason to delete it. The main limitation is that it relies on If in category, which is very expensive as it requires a string search. Hopefully at some point it'll become easier to search a page's categories, as there are myriad possible applications. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:52, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Question
Pinging  SPECIFICO. I am currently dealing with a pattern with an editor that suggests a possible problem. Looking back at some of your comments, I noticed this one that stood out to me. Can you tell me more about how this comment came about, or if there is some history to it? No allegations please, just facts and or diffs. Thanks for your time. DN (talk) 18:24, 30 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @DN; thanks for checking in! Republican Party (United States) and similar pages, e.g. Donald Trump, unfortunately have a quite strained editing environment. While I try to assume good faith as much as possible, when you spend time monitoring those pages, it becomes pretty plain that some editors (on multiple sides) are there to POV push by reverting any information they don't want present and forcing others to go through an entire RfC for each fact. I don't have time at the moment to collect a bunch of diffs, but if you search through the talk page archives, you'll find plenty of examples. A few admins have given out warnings to some of the most blatant offenders, e.g..
 * For this particular issue, the initial argument presented, that the Republican National Committee somehow wasn't qualified to speak for the Republican Party, was so absurd on its face that I found it difficult to parse as anything other than an attempt at status quo stonewalling. Editors later pivoted to a more plausible-sounding WP:UNDUE argument, but by that point the mask was off.
 * Overall, I'm increasingly coming to the view that it's not the best use of my time as an experienced editor to engage much with pages like that, since progress is just so slow when you have to fight over every change. When folks are that tense, even something as banal as adding alt text becomes likely to rustle feathers (for the record, I didn't mind the question linked there at all; I'm choosing it as a deliberately minor example). There will always be editors on each side, and the best we can hope for is that they'll balance each other out and that perhaps in the future, after the dust has settled, others will come along to neutralize biases and make improvements. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:15, 30 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I can appreciate your take, however I am not much one for the laissez-faire approach when it comes to observing behavior that perceivably wastes other editors valuable time. It can eventually lead to the interruption in the improvement of an article all together, and then continuing on the next article, and the next, and so on. I'm confused as to why some editors also feel this way when there are clear-ish policies and guidelines in place to keep things moving? Yes consensus is important, but letting editors twist the rules into a backwards version of itself is abhorrent. I would argue that hoping someone else will come along and somehow balance things out (eventually) can be folly, but I also want to listen and learn from more knowledgeable and more experienced editors, such as yourself, even if I disagree with them. What if we are actually that editor that is supposed to shine the light on the inconsistency, inequity and convolution? How do we know? Thank you for taking the time with me today, it is very appreciated. Cheers. DN (talk) 22:40, 30 March 2022 (UTC)
 * @DN, it's definitely about finding a balance. It can be worthwhile to !vote on some discussions or engage with a problematic editor if it helps limit their future disruption. But the effort-to-reward ratio is lower. When I think back on all the editing I've done, I've had a much greater impact writing in neglected topic areas than I have in marginally shifting the consensus at a few politics articles. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 04:01, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

Concern regarding Draft:White Pearl
Hello, Sdkb. This is a bot-delivered message letting you know that Draft:White Pearl, a page you created, has not been edited in at least 5 months. Drafts that have not been edited for six months may be deleted, so if you wish to retain the page, please edit it again&#32;or request that it be moved to your userspace.

If the page has already been deleted, you can request it be undeleted so you can continue working on it.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia. FireflyBot (talk) 08:01, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedians assessed by WikiProject Users has been nominated for discussion
Category:Wikipedians assessed by WikiProject Users has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to decide whether this proposal complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. * Pppery * it has begun... 00:02, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

April 1
The new citation template is one of the best 1/4 efforts I've seen. Thanks for brightening up my day. Nthep (talk) 09:56, 1 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks, @Nthep! I've been informed by some extremely authoritative squiggles in a local outhouse that the launch of Cite bathroom graffiti has been a success &#123;{u&#124;  Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 19:22, 1 April 2022 (UTC)


 * For my talk page stalkers, my other April Fools pranks this year (and previous years) are catalogued at User:Sdkb/April Fools. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 23:44, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thanks, ! I'm glad to have been able to help with it a little bit, although it was who did most of the work to get it restored to mainspace! &#123;{u&#124;  Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 04:15, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

Thank you very much for telling me how I had to improve the article-list. Cheers! --MJSB73MP (talk) 13:55, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thanks, ! It was a pleasure to work with, and I hope the result helps steer editors along a non-warry path. In general, I hope we devote more effort to improving user warnings—if they're designed well, they don't have to come across as impersonal the way many of them still do. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:40, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

 * Thanks, ! I try to help where I can. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:31, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Question from McLoad 2 (11:33, 2 April 2022)
How independent are you ? Who pay's you and for how much, to prevent the truth ? --McLoad 2 (talk) 11:33, 2 April 2022 (UTC)


 * McLoad, no one is paying us. Your edits at Talk:Michael Yeadon were reverted because they were vandalism. If you have a problem with that article's content, please make actionable suggestions for changes to the text supported by sources Wikipedia considers reliable. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:37, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Major topic editnotice
Template:Major topic editnotice has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:08, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Template:User time zone editnotice
Template:User time zone editnotice, a page which you created or substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Template:User time zone editnotice and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes ( ~ ). You are free to edit the content of Template:User time zone editnotice during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:09, 4 April 2022 (UTC)

Your draft article, Draft:Micro-Face


Hello, Sdkb. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Micro-Face".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been deleted. If you plan on working on it further and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Liz Read! Talk! 05:51, 5 April 2022 (UTC)

Deleting my question
Hi, why you did delete my question I just asked a question and needed an answer.Simsala111 (talk) 18:17, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
 * WP:VPP where you posted to, is not a place to ask questions. It is for developing and altering policy. Best Wishes,  Lee Vilenski (talk • contribs) 18:44, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Courtesy ping: . Mathglot (talk) 19:06, 5 April 2022 (UTC)


 * I don't what courtesy ping means here and why someone replies to another person in a third person's talk page. then where is its the place for this question?! I brought it there as told me on my own talk page  if it is not  right place then transfer it to the right place not by deleting the whole thing.I just want my question to be answered. of course  not by the same person.Simsala111 (talk) 20:03, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I can explain the courtesy ping. That was to let you know there was a response to your question. I see the practice of answering questions on another person's talk page all the time. If they can help, some people who watch other people's talk pages do so.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  20:12, 5 April 2022 (UTC)


 * But he also deleted my question from there and didn't redirected or gave me any help for doing it so.plus he is the same person that has different opinion from mine in this discussion so he could not be the best person to do that so.I need a neutral person.Simsala111 (talk) 20:19, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I know. That's not right. They didn't delete my question but eventually hid it. I've been told several times I was asking the question in the wrong place. And I don't know what the place is. It seems strange to me that someone with a policy question can't ask it in WP:Village pump (policy).


 * The only thing I can suggest is going back to the Help Desk and maybe someone will answer this time or say where to ask. — Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  20:24, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi @Simsala111! I see you've been redirected a few times, so apologies for that—I know that Wikipedia's bureaucracy can be really difficult to navigate, even for those of us who have been around here for a while. Ultimately, the best place to figure out how to approach a question about an article is in a single thread at that article, in this case Talk:2022 FIFA World Cup. Trying to bring it up anywhere else using anything except Please see tends to get messy, as unfortunately happened here, as it risks splitting the discussion.
 * I haven't read the full thread at that article, but from a glance, it looks like the discussion so far isn't going the way you hoped. I certainly empathize with how frustrating that can be—it happens to all of us—but Wikipedia works on consensus, so after you've put forward your best argument, there's really nothing to do except sit back and see if it resonates with others, and if it doesn't, it's generally best to just drop the issue and move on to something else. Discussions do sometimes turn around, but there's less likelihood of that the more sprawly they get, so it's best not to respond to every comment.
 * More generally, if any questions come up in the future, I'd definitely recommend posting at the Teahouse, which is a dedicated friendly space where editors can give advice and help out. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:27, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Thank you. I left one very important detail out of my advice. Somehow there needs to be a way to ask before posting in the wrong place whether it is the right place.— Vchimpanzee  •  talk  •  contributions  •  20:47, 5 April 2022 (UTC)

Precious anniversary
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:13, 18 March 2022 (UTC) Thank you today for Pomona College, "about a liberal arts college in California", for education, not battle! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:44, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

MMS
Hi, would you please move Wikipedia talk:Mass message senders/Shell-0105 to pretty much anywhere besides a subpage of WTMMS? (If you are the only one using this, move to your own userspace). — xaosflux  Talk 15:34, 7 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Oops, I missed the move instruction there. I've emptied out the shell, as I only needed it for a single use. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:59, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Barbara Ann Wilcox
Hello! Your submission of Barbara Ann Wilcox at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) at your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Mujinga (talk) 17:14, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

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

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:15, 8 April 2022 (UTC)

Decadent
Since John Stump was recently deleted, can you update User:Bilorv/Challenges with either a different article or removal? (50s is one of the decades I'm missing but then again, I am only halfway there...) — Bilorv ( talk ) 15:47, 9 April 2022 (UTC)


 * @Bilorv lol you're a strict enforcer! Luckily I have a few options; swapped out for a different one. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 18:36, 9 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Didn't you read the small print: Your challenges may be repossessed if you do not keep up notability defenses of your articles? Just happened to notice this when I was skimming through the page. Glad to hear you've got a replacement. — Bilorv ( talk ) 18:42, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

A cheeseburger for you!

 * Thanks; same! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 18:26, 9 April 2022 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for April 11
An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Yin Chang, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Decider.

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 06:08, 11 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Already . I suggested that the disambiguator extension be improved to include the source editor citation tool. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:49, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

Double-check RfC you launched a few months ago at Talk:College and university rankings
I'm not sure if this RfC was set up correctly; you may want to double check it. ElKevbo (talk) 02:59, 14 April 2022 (UTC)


 * @ElKevbo, the RfC appears fine, but the tag was just removed by a bot once it expired. I'll list it at WP:CR to have it closed. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 18:23, 14 April 2022 (UTC)

Food
Hi Sdkb. Just checking if you got my ping at Talk:Food. Regards Aircorn (talk) 21:18, 15 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Aircorn! I did get the ping, but I'm not following the article closely enough to say whether your proposal adequately resolves the concerns. If it seems good, feel free to proceed boldly and we'll see what others think. If a discussion starts, I might look into it further and form an opinion. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 21:49, 15 April 2022 (UTC)
 * OK. There is no rush. I am back editing it now and working towards GA status. Any issues or comments are more than welcome. Aircorn (talk) 21:58, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Bret Price
Hello! Your submission of Bret Price at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) at your nomination's entry and respond there at your earliest convenience. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Ktin (talk) 20:18, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

A kitten for you!
Thanks for getting the ball rolling again on the main page portals. It's looking like a very high likelihood of passing :D

A. C. Santacruz &#8258; Please ping me! 10:46, 15 March 2022 (UTC) 

Redesigning the about page
Hi Sdkb, I remember you said that you would like to redesign the about page on Wikipedia. I would be interested in hearing your ideas on what the new about page would look like since most about pages are short and sweet. Also, I would like to know what other areas of Wikipedia you feel need redesign. Please let me know. Thanks, Interstellarity (talk) 20:52, 22 April 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Interstellarity! The conversation we previously had is here. My view is still the same—I'd like to see the page reconstructed from the ground up, with every piece of information run through a "do we really need this here or can we save it for elsewhere/Wikipedia?" test. Let me know if you have specific questions and I'll be happy to offer feedback. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 04:35, 23 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Hello again,
 * I have created a sandbox of my idea of what the about page could look like. I do think it needs more work before it can replace the current about page. Of course, this would require a consensus before implementing such change. If you see a way that my proposed page could be improved, please feel free to edit my sandbox regarding what you think should be on the about page. I do think that on the current about page, most of the content is unnecessary. We could always use links so editors can get more information if they are interested. Let me know your thoughts and I'd be happy to work with you. Interstellarity (talk) 13:48, 23 April 2022 (UTC)
 * What's causing the delay in response? Did you take a look at my draft of a new about page? Interstellarity (talk) 18:38, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi @Interstellarity! I unfortunately don't have enough spare time to join you fully in a rewrite; apologies for not making that clearer above. But taking a quick look at your draft, it seems like a big step forward in terms of overall form. I'd suggest workshopping it to refine it further, and then presenting it once you're confident it's ready. Best, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 19:46, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I don’t know what you mean by workshopping. Is it to work on the draft further or asking others for help regarding the page? Where could I go to get some help with designing a new about page? Interstellarity (talk) 21:37, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
 * By workshopping I mean mainly asking for feedback and ideally recruiting one or two other editors to work on it with you. You could ask at WT:Help Project, but I think you're more likely to find someone at e.g. the village pump idea lab. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 03:02, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

Question from Quictelor on User:Quictelor (11:48, 26 April 2022)
Hello Good afternoon How can I publish my. Article --Quictelor (talk) 11:48, 26 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Well, in your case, the first step is requesting you be unblocked. Follow the instructions on your talk page. After that, see Help:Your first article. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 16:49, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Inna Derusova
I expanded the article quite a bit, and thought you might want to know. It's still short, but I don't think it's a Stub any more. --GRuban (talk) 17:15, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
 * I'd like to nominate it for WP:DYK - do you have any ideas for a hook? Straightforward "... that Inna Derusova was the first woman to be awarded Hero of Ukraine posthumously?" Something about the hospital visit hoax, like "... that Russian media accused Zelenskyy of faking a video of visiting a hospital accompanying a dead woman?" Something else? --GRuban (talk) 17:47, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the expansion, @GRuban! It's always so nice to see Wikipedia's collaborative spirit come out, and I'd definitely encourage submitting it to DYK. Personally, I'd find the hospital visit hook more compelling, as "first person to do X" hooks aren't always the most interesting, but you could try both and see what the reviewer likes. The challenge for the hospital visit hook is encapsulating it concisely—perhaps ...that Russian media falsely accused Ukraine of faking a hospital visit video that appeared to show Inna Derusova (pictured) after she had died? &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 19:37, 28 April 2022 (UTC)
 * Template:Did you know nominations/Inna Derusova. Went with your suggestion minus one "falsely" as it's redundant, and less "hooky". Thank you! Also pinged editor Grytsenko on UK Wikipedia. --GRuban (talk) 19:25, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

photo of michael kelly
hey! normally, I'd go right to WP:FFD, but I figure you might have a reasonable explanation for this one. The file is credited to Getty images; WP:NFCC says that those are unacceptable under the "respect for commercial opportunities" criterion. Any reason for inclusion? Do let me know, thanks :) theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/they) 19:06, 1 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Theleekycauldron, and thanks for checking! I found the photo here at New York magazine, where it was credited as "Getty Images/The Washington Post". My strong hunch is that it was a staff photo from The Washington Post, where Kelly worked (the same photo with altered lighting appears at this page from 1998), and that Getty just scooped it up at some point. With regard to respect for commercial opportunities, my stance is that it's extremely unlikely our use could harm them, as the file is already easily available at the top of Google Image search results from New York in a higher resolution than ours will be. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 19:41, 1 May 2022 (UTC)
 * ah, see, I knew you had something I didn't. Could you put that in the image rationale? thanks! theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/they) 08:08, 2 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Absolutely; ✅. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:09, 2 May 2022 (UTC)

Mandrill GA
Hello. Would you be able to do the GA review of Mandrill and prepare it for FAC? Thanks. LittleJerry (talk) 11:48, 2 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi LittleJerry! I don't have the capacity to take that on at the moment, unfortunately, but I wish you the best with it! Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:07, 2 May 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia main page
Greetings, Sdkb. In a hurry as I often am, I only noticed today that the Wikipedia main page has a new look. So, this message is about the new look: Congratulations for the work you and/or anyone else who put in the work. From my own personal view, it's much better now, in many aspects too. Take care. -The Gnome (talk) 18:11, 5 May 2022 (UTC)


 * @The Gnome Much thanks! I think I've influenced most of the permanent sections of the Main Page at this point; glad to be able to help push it toward a more modern look! Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:55, 5 May 2022 (UTC)

Ugh
Never even heard of this guy until today and... —was there in the lead for a month and seen by 11,000 people :( – Aza24 (talk) 06:55, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
 * Ack, that is...very not ideal. Thanks for catching it! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 13:51, 11 May 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Barbara Ann Wilcox
Cwmhiraeth (talk) 00:02, 11 May 2022 (UTC) theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/they) 02:01, 12 May 2022 (UTC)


 * @Theleekycauldron, wow, that's by far the most of any DYK I've done. Wouldn't have necessarily expected that, but very glad to see it! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 14:49, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Bret Price
— Maile (talk) 00:03, 12 May 2022 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Editnotices/Page/Boston
Template:Editnotices/Page/Boston has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 14:43, 14 May 2022 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:GoToRandom
Template:GoToRandom has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the entry on the Templates for discussion page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:27, 16 May 2022 (UTC)

Infobox university
Hi,

I thought I was finally done fixing all uses of athletics and sports because I emptied Category:Pages using infobox university with the sports parameter. But then I saw Friends University is using athletics, so it appears the check for this is not working. Can you look into that? Thanks. MB 21:45, 18 May 2022 (UTC)


 * @MB, hmm, good find! I noticed that Friends University's infobox had a blank instance of sports, and when I removed that, it's now showing up in the category. I changed the way the check is done in the template; let's see if that fixes things. Thanks so much for your excellent work helping clean up the usages! Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 00:09, 19 May 2022 (UTC)
 * That seems to have added about 150 more! MB 02:52, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

Courtesy notice
I mentioned you at WP:ANI. Schazjmd  (talk)  23:42, 18 May 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the heads up, and best wishes helping that newcomer chart a more productive path. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 00:00, 19 May 2022 (UTC)

New Page Patrol newsletter May 2022
Hello ,

At the time of the last newsletter (No.26, September 2021), the backlog was 'only' just over 6,000 articles. In the past six months, the backlog has reached nearly 16,000, a staggering level not seen in several years. A very small number of users had been doing the vast majority of the reviews. Due to "burn-out", we have recently lost most of this effort. Furthermore, several reviewers have been stripped of the user right for abuse of privilege and the articles they patrolled were put back in the queue.

Several discussions on the state of the process have taken place on the talk page, but there has been no action to make any changes. The project also lacks coordination since the "position" is vacant.

In the last 30 days, only 100 reviewers have made more than 8 patrols and only 50 have averaged one review a day. There are currently Special:ListUsers/patroller New Page Reviewers, but about a third have not had any activity in the past month. All administrators have this permission, but only about a dozen significantly contribute to NPP.

This means we have an active pool of about 450 to address the backlog. We cannot rely on a few to do most of the work as that inevitably leads to burnout. A fairly experienced reviewer can usually do a review in a few minutes. If every active reviewer would patrol just one article per day, the backlog would very quickly disappear.

If you have noticed a user with a good understanding of Wikipedia notability and deletion, do suggest they help the effort by placing on their talk page.

If you are no longer very active on Wikipedia or you no longer wish to be part of the New Page Reviewer user group, please consider asking any admin to remove you from the list. This will enable NPP to have a better overview of its performance and what improvements need to be made to the process and its software.

To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here. Sent 05:18, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

TikTok lead sentance
Hi Sdkb. Despite the hidden comment you added last July, an editor recently changed the position of the word "Chinese" in the lead sentence of the TikTok article, against prior RfC consensus. Would you mind reverting?

Also, if this happens again in the future, would it be appropriate for me (as a COI editor) to revert directly, considering this is fairly uncontroversial, or is my continued caution here correct? Thanks, Bkenny44 (talk) 16:29, 24 May 2022 (UTC)


 * @Bkenny44, ✅ here; thanks for flagging. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 03:53, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Inna Derusova
—Kusma (talk) 00:02, 22 May 2022 (UTC)

Thank you! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:27, 22 May 2022 (UTC) theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/they) 04:53, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

I like my talk today (actually mostly from 29 May - I took the title pic), enjoy the music, two related videos worth watching! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:24, 31 May 2022 (UTC)

Matsqui First Nation
Hello,

I noticed you made edits to the article I updated and I wanted to say that it seems you cleaned it up and removed duplicates so I appreciate you helping me. I'll be sure to stay up with it myself as well.

Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ghazarid (talk • contribs) 02:46, 4 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Yep, my bot stopped by and merged some duplicate references. Happy to help, and thanks for your work on the article! Writing is the hard part and cleaning up after is just the finishing touch 🙂 &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 04:40, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

IQIYI vandalism edit WARNING
WARNING! Please do not add information without citing sources as your bot did with the company's earning of 2021. Hypersonic man 11 (talk) 13:07, 6 June 2022 (UTC)


 * unsourced information isn't vandalism, and also it wasn't added to that page by Sdkb or his bot? The only change the bot did was unlinking the word Chinese and some generic fixes. Elli (talk &#124; contribs) 13:16, 6 June 2022 (UTC)

I have sent you a note about a page you started
Hello, Sdkb

Thank you for creating Felicia Sonmez.

User:SunDawn, while examining this page as a part of our page curation process, had the following comments:

To reply, leave a comment here and begin it with. Please remember to sign your reply with ~.

(Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.)

&maltese; SunDawn &maltese;    (contact)   10:56, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

I accept your reward board offer
I will try and get some former featured lists back to featured list status. It seems a lot easier than featured articles so why not?  interstate five   16:48, 12 June 2022 (UTC)

this is the fourth reward board offer i have accepted in the last 5 days but whatever
 * Best of luck! Let me know which lists you end up focusing on, and if you succeed. As a bit of caution, getting a delisted FL back up to par is certainly easier than getting a list there from scratch, and much easier than getting an FA, but it's still quite difficult. Take some time looking through FLCs if you haven't already to get a sense. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 16:52, 12 June 2022 (UTC)

DYK for Amangiri
Cwmhiraeth (talk) 12:02, 13 June 2022 (UTC)

If templates
Hi. What is the use case of the user-rights-restricted "if" templates, like if admin and if extended confirmed? Levivich 19:01, 18 June 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Levivich! They're used in various interface elements. For instance, at WP:UAL they tell you which rights you have (many newer editors don't know whether or not they're EC), and at Current event editnotice, if EC is used as part of a compromise to hide basic tips (e.g. cite your sources) that will be useful to newer editors but that experienced editors can be expected to know. In the future, notices like "administrators, please don't delete this category" could be made so that they only show to admins and don't create visual clutter for everyone else. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 22:39, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Cool, thanks! I stumbled across them and was curious. Levivich[block] 15:08, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

New Page Patrol newsletter June 2022
Hello ,

At the time of the last newsletter (No.27, May 2022), the backlog was approaching 16,000, having shot up rapidly from 6,000 over the prior two months. The attention the newsletter brought to the backlog sparked a flurry of activity. There was new discussion on process improvements, efforts to invite new editors to participate in NPP increased and more editors requested the NPP user right so they could help, and most importantly, the number of reviews picked up and the backlog decreased, dipping below 14,000 at the end of May.
 * Backlog status

Since then, the news has not been so good. The backlog is basically flat, hovering around 14,200. I wish I could report the number of reviews done and the number of new articles added to the queue. But the available statistics we have are woefully inadequate. The only real number we have is the net queue size.

In the last 30 days, the top 100 reviewers have all made more than 16 patrols (up from 8 last month), and about 70 have averaged one review a day (up from 50 last month).

While there are more people doing more reviews, many of the ~730 with the NPP right are doing little. Most of the reviews are being done by the top 50 or 100 reviewers. They need your help. We appreciate every review done, but please aim to do one a day (on average, or 30 a month).

A backlog reduction drive, coordinated by buidhe and Zippybonzo, will be held from July 1 to July 31. Sign up here. Barnstars will be awarded.
 * Backlog drive

Many new articles on schools are being created by new users in developing and/or non-English-speaking countries. The authors are probably not even aware of Wikipedia's projects and policy pages. WP:WPSCH/AG has some excellent advice and resources specifically written for these users. Reviewers could consider providing such first-time article creators with a link to it while also mentioning that not all schools pass the GNG and that elementary schools are almost certainly not notable.
 * TIP – New school articles

There is a new template available,, to show the current backlog. You can place it on your user or talk page as a reminder:
 * Misc

There has been significant discussion at WP:VPP recently on NPP-related matters (Draftification, Deletion, Notability, Verifiability, Burden). Proposals that would somewhat ease the burden on NPP aren't gaining much traction, although there are suggestions that the role of NPP be fundamentally changed to focus only on major CSD-type issues.


 * Reminders
 * Consider staying informed on project issues by putting the project discussion page on your watchlist.
 * If you have noticed a user with a good understanding of Wikipedia notability and deletion, suggest they help the effort by placing on their talk page.
 * If you are no longer very active on Wikipedia or you no longer wish to be part of the New Page Reviewer user group, please consider asking any admin to remove you from the list. This will enable NPP to have a better overview of its performance and what improvements need to be made to the process and its software.
 * To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.
 * Notes

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:02, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

How do you get a circle around your username?
Just wondering. Atomic Sphere, talk to me, block button: O 14:08, 27 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi ! See WP:Signature tutorial for more general info on customizing your signature. For my background specifically, the HTML code causing the oval is . Cheers, &#123;{u&#124;  Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 14:50, 27 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Check out my new signature! Atomic   Sphere  18:55, 27 June 2022 (UTC)
 * , it appears unlikely that your choice of black text on a dark green background is compliant with the accessibility-related contrast requirements explained at MOS:COLOR. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:31, 28 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Is this good? Atomic   Sphere  00:48, 28 June 2022 (UTC)
 * What did the contrast checker tell you? – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:59, 28 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I don't have it because of Family Link. Atomic   Sphere  01:53, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

Question from Andvingo (02:34, 28 June 2022)
What does "Sdkb" stand for? --Andvingo (talk) 02:34, 28 June 2022 (UTC)


 * It's "a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings." &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 02:55, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

Insufficient level of reverence
Seeing a red panda on the Main Page today, one can't help but remember your comment at my RfA. Diving deeper into the FAC, of course you had a hand in it. As for your question at RfA, my 4,000-edit streak of edit summaries going back to November unfortunately came to an end an hour or so ago... Thank you for your comments there, both where I could respond and could not. I personally find the popups gadget to be highly useful when deciding how to refer to others. Hope you are well, Sdrqaz (talk) 22:47, 28 June 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks, @Sdrqaz, and hope you are well as well! &#123;{u&#124;  Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 03:18, 29 June 2022 (UTC)

Twelfth anniversary on Wikipedia!

 * Thanks, Chris! Cool to be greeted with my own template design haha! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:44, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

NPP July 2022 backlog drive is on!
(t &#183; c)  buidhe  20:26, 1 July 2022 (UTC)

Question from Gautam7wild (08:58, 3 July 2022)
i want add photos to my content --Gautam7wild (talk) 08:58, 3 July 2022 (UTC)
 * See Help:Introduction to images with VisualEditor/1. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 15:52, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

Question from Azidulhoque (20:51, 3 July 2022)
Can I post a few questions and answers in Google --Azidulhoque (talk) 20:51, 3 July 2022 (UTC)


 * @Azidulhoque, yes, Google is a search engine, so you can search for things with it. Please keep questions here relevant to Wikipedia editing. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 21:42, 3 July 2022 (UTC)

Growth team newsletter #21
Welcome to the twenty-first newsletter from the Growth team!

New project: Positive reinforcement

 * The Growth team started a new project: Positive reinforcement. We want newcomers to understand there is an interest in regularly editing Wikipedia, and we want to improve new editor retention.
 * We asked users from Arabic, Bangla, Czech and French Wikipedia about their feedback. Some people participated at mediawiki.org as well.
 * We summarized the initial feedback gathered from these community discussions, along with how we plan to iterate based on that feedback.
 * The first Positive Reinforcement idea is a redesign of the impact module: incorporating stats, graphs, and other contribution information. This idea received the widest support, and we plan to start our work based on the design illustrated on the side.
 * Please let us know what you think of this project, in any language.

For mentors

 * We have worked on two new features, to inform them about the mentorship:
 * In the Mentor module, we now provide more information about the public nature of the mentors/newcomer relationship and the fact that talk pages are public.
 * We now allow newcomers to opt-in and opt-out of mentorship.

Scaling

 * "Add a link" available at more wikis ― Add a link feature has been deployed to more wikis: . This is part of the progressive deployment of this tool to more Wikipedias. The communities can configure locally how this feature works.
 * "Add an image" available at more wikis ― Add an image feature will be deployed to more wikis: . These communities will be able to configure locally how this feature works.

Suggested edits

 * Selecting topics ― We have created an "AND" filter to the list of topics at Special:Homepage. This way, newcomers can decide to select very specific topics ("Transportation" AND "Asia") or to have a broader selection ("Transportation" OR "Asia"). At the moment this feature is tested at pilot wikis.
 * Changes for Add a link ― We have built several improvements that came from community discussion and from data analysis. They will be available soon at the wikis.
 * Algorithm improvements ― The algorithm now avoids recommending links in sections that usually don't have links and for first names. Also, it now limits each article to only having three link suggestions by default (limited to the highest accuracy suggestions of all the available ones in the article).
 * User experience improvements ―   We added a confirmation dialog when a user exits out of suggestion mode prior to making changes. We also improved post-edit dialog experience and allow newcomers to browse through task suggestions from the post-edit dialog.
 * Community configuration ― We allow communities to set a maximum number of links per article via Special:EditGrowthConfig.
 * Future change for Add a link feature ― We will suggest underlinked articles in priority.
 * Patrolling suggested edits ― Some users at Arabic Wikipedia, Spanish Wikipedia, and Russian Wikipedia told us that "Add a link" and "Add an image" edits can be challenging to patrol. We are now brainstorming improvements to help address this challenge. We have already some ideas and we started some work to address this challenge. If you have any thoughts to add about the challenges of reviewing these tasks or how we should improve these tasks further, please let us know, in any language.

Community configuration
Communities can configure how the features work, using Special:EditGrowthConfig.
 * Communities can set the maximum number of "add an image" suggested tasks a newcomer can complete daily.
 * Future change: allow communities to customize the "add a link" quality gate threshold easily, using Special:EditGrowthConfig.

'' Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. '' 13:03, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank You!
Thank you for stopping by John Segrue and making some edits. I have now italicized all the names of newspapers in the text. It is my first article so I really appreciate all the help, no matter how small. Also, thank you for your welcome message on my talk page (my first message!).

QueenPuck (talk) 19:14, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Question from TheJeanGenie1972 (22:16, 5 July 2022)
Hi! I made an edit on a page an accidentally made some of the text italicized. I'm not sure how to fix it, and it doesn't show anything in the code that I can see. Thanks in advance! --TheJeanGenie1972 (talk) 22:16, 5 July 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @TheJeanGenie1972! I fixed here the italics issue from your edit here. You just opened an italics section and forgot to close it. Thanks for your efforts to improve the article, and I hope you stick around! Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 02:00, 6 July 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Article alerts/Subscription list
Hi, just wanted to alert you that your edit to the subscription list is not working. See the log because it's an empty article alerts report. The category that is listed is not linked to the WikiProject Vital Articles template. In fact, that template needs a talk category or quality ratings for article alerts to work. --Funandtrvl (talk) 19:47, 10 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Also, there was a capitalization change, so the /Article alerts subpage needs to be moved to be under the WP page. --Funandtrvl (talk) 19:49, 10 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Hi @Funandtrvl; thanks for reaching out! I originally tried using Vital article, since Vital article is the tag actually used on vital articles (WikiProject Vital Articles is just for project pages). That produced a blank report, perhaps because it's not a standard talk page banner format, which is what you're showing with the log based on the timestamp. Because of that, I tried switching to a category-based trigger. If that won't work, either, I'd appreciate any help you might be able to offer to get it working. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:28, 10 July 2022 (UTC)
 * It won't work with the Vital Articles template because that is just a Tmbox template. I believe it will only work using the WikiProject template. I will add a category to WikiProject Vital Articles template, but it will only show talk pages that are tagged with that template. There is not a way to get Article alerts from the talk pages tagged with the Vital article template, it's a different system. --Funandtrvl (talk) 20:34, 10 July 2022 (UTC)
 * @Funandtrvl There's no point of having it if it can only be used on pages with WikiProject Vital Articles rather than on actual vital articles. The instructions say that using any option below will suppress the default banner-based subscription, so if that's true, hopefully the category technique will work for tomorrow's report. Otherwise, we might need some technical changes to make it possible. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:45, 10 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Well, I have changed it so it will work with the current project banner. Because article alerts are used with the WPBannerMeta templates only, the tmbox vital article won't work like the rest of the WikiProjects because it doesn't use a banner template. The only way to get it to work is to change vital article to a WPBannerMeta template. You'll need to propose that at the current Vital article template (or some relevant place), and someone will need to convert it to the WikiProject template. It's probably above my pay scale! --Funandtrvl (talk) 20:54, 10 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Technically, it will work with any template (we just don't want people to start subscribing to talk header or something), so Vital article should have worked. I don't know why it didn't. Let's see if talk category (which also should work) works. Perhaps there just aren't any pages in any workflows. — HELL KNOWZ ∣ TALK 18:40, 11 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I've added the template name "Vital article" to the subscription list because it won't work otherwise. The banner name needs to be defined because it's not Template:WikiProject Vital Articles. Let's hope it works tomorrow. --Funandtrvl (talk) 20:58, 11 July 2022 (UTC)
 * You shouldn't use both the talk category and the banner/talk template because they have the same pages and it just makes the bot work more. Banner doesn't need to be defined if you don't need it. — HELL KNOWZ ∣ TALK 22:11, 11 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Okay, I removed the banner, it just has the talk category. We'll check it tomorrow. --Funandtrvl (talk) 00:19, 12 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Hooray! I think it's working! Wikipedia:WikiProject Vital Articles/Article alerts --Funandtrvl (talk) 22:22, 12 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Yay; thanks! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 23:06, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

Reviving the vital articles project
Even with the fresh redesign by me, I doubt that the project would receive much more members than it is now. How could we publicize our project more and get the ball rolling? CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 09:19, 14 July 2022 (UTC)


 * @CactiStaccingCrane, it's tricky; there are so many projects that lack participants. I'd say for VA, the most crucial thing for attracting participation is helping editors to understand that their work has so much more impact on some articles than others. Editing a random VA vs. a random other article will typically benefit hundreds of times as many readers, but it doesn't feel hundreds of times as satisfying, and in fact it often feels less satisfying because it's harder to edit broad-scope articles and to get them to GA/FA. A better impact module for experienced editors and more community emphasis on million awards are needed, plus further ideas. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 14:14, 14 July 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree what what you've said. Personally, with experience from working on science, Vital articles aren't exactly fun unless you have an external motivator, in this case the Core Contest. But doing so wouldn't be sustainable in the long-run either. Improving the impact modules maybe helpful in this case, I found it to be a really interesting idea. Currently, I'm writing an essay that's detailing my plan of getting the Vital Article balls rolling, which hopefully would clarify a lot of what I'm doing here. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 14:20, 14 July 2022 (UTC)
 * The people at WP:AFI may be interested. A lot of their successful noms relate to vital articles that need to be improved. Clover moss  (talk) 18:11, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Clovermoss sorry for the late reply, this thread is somehow being unsubscribed :) I don't think that getting them involved should be in the core of the plan, as it is similarly dead to the Vital Articles project. We need to do a reform of VA project itself and incentivize editing VAs. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 10:21, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * @CactiStaccingCrane That makes sense. A lot of wikiprojects aren't really that active, unfortunately. I do agree that more should be done about vital articles. Feel free to keep me updated on your plans, I'd be interested to see them.  Clover moss  (talk) 14:02, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Clovermoss, well, I'm currently organizing the WP:30 kB drive, which is expanding very short Vital articles to, well, 30 kB. This is less to make significant progress and more to iron out the philosophy I've outlined at the essay – do hard things one step at a time. CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 14:13, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Question about changing welcome templates
I remember that you put a lot of effort to changing welcome templates, so I thought I'd ask you this. I noticed that a lot of welcome templates (at least via Twinkle's interface) give the advice to sign your comments with four tildes. I think this advice may be confusing/redudant since most new editors are likely using the reply tool nowadays to reply and that automatically adds your signature. If you do decide to edit via source editor, you still see the information about signing your posts, so it's not like you won't see that information elsewhere. I think removing it could also highlight the other, more important, aspects of a welcome template, y'know? There's less banner blindness if everything's relevant. But how would I go about changing things? Talk pages of all the individual templates? An RfC? A village pump discussion? I've never really tried to make any substantial change to the way things work before. Clover moss (talk) 18:08, 19 July 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Clovermoss! We're thinking along similar lines — here's the discussion where I raised that point for Welcome, and I just updated Welcome-anon to match. For other lesser-watched templates, I don't think you need quite as much formality. Just maybe drop a note on the talk and then edit boldly a day later if there are no concerns. For Twinkle welcomes, Welcome-menu and Welcome-graphical will be removed shortly, so I wouldn't personally bother updating those (honestly, I'd rather see them recede firmly into historical territory than half-maintained and overused), but many others could use the update. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 19:55, 20 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for linking to that discussion. Nice to see that it's not something only I recognized and that other people have already discussed this. Clover moss  (talk) 21:41, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

Barnstar!

 * Thanks, ; much appreciated! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 16:15, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue/In the media
The Bruce Faulconer article was unredirected a while back back. I've updated the bit to reflect that the decision to redirect was taken at AFD, without implying it's still a redirect, but some extra bit could be added about how the article has since received as substantial expansion and sourcing. Possibly as a result of the brouhaha. &#32; Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 00:46, 31 July 2022 (UTC)


 * I forgot that publication was scheduled for today, so thanks for having my back, @Headbomb! &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 03:15, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

uw-ewsoft
I notice you reverted to your preferred version without using the talk page. Please see the talk page discussion. - Aoidh (talk) 00:07, 24 July 2022 (UTC)


 * (Context for anyone wondering. Aoidh has self-reverted.) &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 00:19, 24 July 2022 (UTC)


 * A couple of things, your diff make it look like you were simply pointing to Wikipedia talk:Template index/User talk namespace, where the only discussion currently there was the one I had already started, so I saw no prior discussion because I didn't click on your wikilink in your diff, since I assumed it was only a link to that talk page, not to an archived, specific discussion. The template uw-ewsoft was for some reason removed from my watchlist so I never noticed the changes until seeing them on another editor's talk page where someone had left the template. I assumed that you had WP:BOLDly made the changes but that they went unnoticed by anyone since the template has so few watchers that it only says "fewer than 30" watchers on the information page. Though it had been a few months I assumed it went unnoticed so once I noticed it and knew there was a disagreement about it my intention was to follow WP:BRD and revert the change and start a discussion, which I did. I was ignorant of the fact that this change was not done in a vacuum but was part of a corresponding discussion.
 * I'm not saying this to make excuses, but to explain my motivation. Long story short, after doing some digging I realized that I was wrong in my assumption and was wrong to revert when I did. I wanted to come and apologize for that and for being as aggressive as I was about it, especially with this comment which, though I rethought about and replaced, was just flat out wrong-headed. It's awkward (and suspiciously difficult) for me to apologize when I realize I'm in the wrong so this might not be the best apology, but I am sorry. I was in the wrong here with how I addressed this, and just wanted to convey that to you. i've reworded the header of this talk page section to something more accurate and less accusatory, but as its your talk page please feel free to revert that if you feel it's warranted. - Aoidh (talk) 01:25, 24 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks, @Aoidh. That makes sense with the diff, and I was overly stern in my reaction as well. I appreciate your note and look forward to working to help improve the notice. Best, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 02:23, 24 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Just for transparency I wanted to point out that I did make a minor change to the template so that it's more clear that the edit warring wikilink goes to the actual policy on edit warring. I went ahead and make the edit because it's (hopefully?) uncontroversial and isn't template breaking or anything, but I just wanted to let you know that if reverted I'm not going to do this back-and-forth thing and I'm happy to discuss further. - Aoidh (talk) 03:21, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

New Page Patrol newsletter August 2022
Hello ,

After the last newsletter (No.28, June 2022), the backlog declined another 1,000 to 13,000 in the last week of June. Then the July backlog drive began, during which 9,900 articles were reviewed and the backlog fell by 4,500 to just under 8,500 (these numbers illustrate how many new articles regularly flow into the queue). Thanks go to the coordinators and, as well as all the nearly 100 participants. Congratulations to who led with 880 points. See this page for further details.
 * Backlog status

Unfortunately, most of the decline happened in the first half of the month, and the backlog has already risen to 9,600. Understandably, it seems many backlog drive participants are taking a break from reviewing and unfortunately, we are not even keeping up with the inflow let alone driving it lower. We need the other 600 reviewers to do more! Please try to do at least one a day.


 * Coordination: and  have taken on some of the coordination tasks. Please let them know if you are interested in helping out.  will be handling recognition, and will be retroactively awarding the annual barnstars that have not been issued for a few years.


 * Open letter to the WMF: The Page Curation software needs urgent attention. There are dozens of bug fixes and enhancements that are stalled (listed at Suggested improvements). We have written a letter to be sent to the WMF and we encourage as many patrollers as possible to sign it here. We are also in negotiation with the Board of Trustees to press for assistance. Better software will make the active reviewers we have more productive.


 * TIP - Reviewing by subject: Reviewers who prefer to patrol new pages by their most familiar subjects can do so from the regularly updated sorted topic list.


 * New reviewers: The NPP School is being underused. The learning curve for NPP is quite steep, but a detailed and easy-to-read tutorial exists, and the Curation Tool's many features are fully described and illustrated on the updated page here.


 * Reminders
 * Consider staying informed on project issues by putting the project discussion page on your watchlist.
 * If you have noticed a user with a good understanding of Wikipedia notability and deletion, suggest they help the effort by placing on their talk page.
 * If you are no longer very active on Wikipedia or you no longer wish to be part of the New Page Reviewer user group, please consider asking any admin to remove you from the list. This will enable NPP to have a better overview of its performance and what improvements need to be made to the process and its software.
 * To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:25, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

Question from Jonghyeonpedia (14:44, 17 August 2022)
Hello Mentor,

I would like to ask a question. How can I rename a page title beside asking the creator to move the article? As editor I don't have the permission to move the page. I want to move the page to rename it. :)

Thank you. --Jonghyeonpedia (talk) 14:44, 17 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @Jonghyeonpedia! From your edit history, I'm guessing you're looking to move JR (singer) to Kim Jong-hyeon? Someone else asked for that a few months ago, so I'll be happy to carry it out if you confirm. For future reference, Help:How to move a page has instructions for how to do so once you become autoconfirmed. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 15:06, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's true. Yes, please help me to move the page to: Kim Jonghyeon (Musician / Actor) Jonghyeonpedia (talk) 15:14, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
 * @Jonghyeonpedia, ✅. There's no need for the "singer"/"musician"/"actor" disambiguifiers because there are no other people with articles who go by his name. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 15:46, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Fantastic. I didn't expect to be this fast. Thank you so much my mentor. You've been a great help. Take care of your health and have a great day :) Jonghyeonpedia (talk) 16:06, 17 August 2022 (UTC)

Question from Jonghyeonpedia (16:45, 17 August 2022)
Hello Mentor, I have one more question about the profile photo. I have added the resources to the photo I want to use but someone keeps changing the photo to the old one. The new photo is provided by the agency from Twitter. Is there a way to solve this? I want to use the latest photo since the current photo is already from 2019. --Jonghyeonpedia (talk) 16:45, 17 August 2022 (UTC)


 * @Jonghyeonpedia, unfortunately, due to Wikipedia's licensing requirements, the new photo (File:Kim Jonghyeon Official Profile.jpg) cannot be used, as being posted on Twitter, even by the agency, isn't sufficient to establish that it's freely licensed. To use the photo, the agency will need to fill out this release form. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:02, 17 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I see. Thank you. :) I'll try to find free photo next time. Jonghyeonpedia (talk) 05:58, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

Frustrating situation
I have been working tirelessly on the WP:Contents page with a new design based off of the Introduction to Wikipedia page. However, things took a downturn when the new design was reverted by PerfectSoundWhatever when he/she implemented the old design. I still think the page needs to get redesigned, but wasn't sure how. To start, I am thinking about changing the title to a grey background with white text. To me, it feels frustrating to have my edits get reverted when you spent hours trying to perfect it, only for it to get reverted. I'm hoping that you understand the issue here and that you will work with me to get a resolution. Interstellarity (talk) 22:09, 19 August 2022 (UTC)


 * @Interstellarity Why are you messaging Sdkb about it instead of me directly? If you disagree with my edits, revert them per WP:BRD. I did not revert all your edits, all I did was change the wrapper template back to the original since it was overly narrow for a page of that size. You did not create that wrapper template originally, correct? So I don't think I undid a large amount of work. — PerfectSoundWhatever  (t; c) 01:18, 20 August 2022 (UTC)
 * @PerfectSoundWhatever: Firstly, I would like to apologize for messing Sdkb instead of you. It was a mistake on my part. To make it up to you, I would like to discuss the issue at the idea lab instead of the talk page. I hope this sounds good to you. Interstellarity (talk) 13:54, 20 August 2022 (UTC)
 * @Interstellarity, sorry to hear about the frustrations. The contents page gets about 200,000 views a month, most likely from its appearance in the left sidebar, so I certainly think it's important to get it right. I don't have capacity currently to really dig in and take it on as a project, but I can certainly offer some thoughts as you and @PerfectSoundWhatever collaborate on the revamp.
 * As I alluded in my comment at the talk, I think the first step before getting into the details of the redesign is figuring out what purpose we want the page to serve. To really inform this, you might want to set up a reader feedback page via Leave feedback. Ask what they were looking for at the page, whether they found it, and whether they'd want anything on it to change. See if that generates any useful information. Ultimately, I suspect that the main group of readers visiting the page intentionally (rather than through misclicks) may just be those who are bored and are looking for something interesting to read. If that's the case, you may want to point them toward places like Unusual articles. Another possible purpose (less likely to show up in reader feedback) is to help define the scope of Wikipedia. For that, you'd expand on WP:5P1 and talk about things like lists vs. articles and how to navigate categories as a reader.
 * Wikipedia overall is challenged with a number of redundancies, so one thing to try to avoid is making the page into a massive directory. Also try to avoid making the page into something that won't be easily maintainable, e.g. trying to list out every significant topic on the site. I hope all that helps! Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 15:22, 20 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I have also added the feedback at the bottom of the page. Hopefully, in the near future, we will get some suggestions on how to improve the page. Interstellarity (talk) 23:02, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

NPP message
Hi ,

For those who may have missed it in our last newsletter, here's a quick reminder to see the letter we have drafted, and if you support it, do please go ahead and sign it. If you already signed, thanks. Also, if you haven't noticed, the backlog has been trending up lately; all reviews are greatly appreciated.
 * Invitation

To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:11, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

Feedback on Vector (2022) conversation
Hey @Sdkb! Thank you so much for being involved throughout the project and giving us your feedback. It’s been really valuable. We were wondering if we could ask you for your opinion one more time :)

As you know, we’ve been having a long discussion on VPR about the new skin focused on identifying a list of things we would like to fix prior to deployment. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback, narrowed down the list, and made some of the fixes. The discussion has also slowed down quite a bit recently.

From our side, we’re taking this as a sign that the community is ready for an RfC around if, how, and when to deploy that we have started to prepare. Would you agree? We wanted to ask you specifically since you had mentioned at the beginning of the conversation in July that it felt a bit too early.

Sidenote: I’m aware I still owe you a reply on the trust indicator topic we started discussing. Have not forgotten, but have been trying to focus on the deployment and preparing the fixes for Vector 2022 these past couple of months. OVasileva (WMF) (talk) 11:19, 25 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @OVasileva (WMF); thanks for reaching out! I would suggest completing the move of the article tools menu to the article toolbar before launching the RfC. Alex's August 18 reply here was persuasive to me, but many editors care quite a bit about the article tools and thus aren't currently collapsing the left sidebar, which I think is leading to part of the disgruntlement with the ToC move. If an RfC were launched currently, you'd have to have that conversation with the entire community, and it'd lead to some opposition. Once that move is made and editors are able to start collapsing the sidebar, more folks will be able to experience New Vector in the way I think you intend for general readers, and the reception may be better.
 * The slowing down of conversation doesn't necessarily equate to readiness for deployment — the other way to frame it is that folks have made the points they want to make about New Vector and are waiting for them to be addressed, but that if they aren't addressed they'll oppose. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:34, 27 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I strongly agree with the final paragraph here. It would be a tremendous demonstration of competence and good faith for the WMF to be able to say "We said we would address these things before deployment, we have done so, and now we are ready to deploy." – Jonesey95 (talk) 12:28, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

Help with Jim Johnsen requests
Hello! I proposed a few updates on the talk page for Jim Johnsen, Talk:Jim_Johnsen, the former president of University of Alaska, addressing balance and neutral point of view issues, as well as poorly sourced edits made by a singular editor. Are you able to take a look at the proposals? I have a personal connection to Dr. Johnsen and I don’t want to violate Wikipedia’s conflict of interest policies. Thank you!92ranger (talk) 19:13, 28 August 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @92ranger! Thanks for respecting the COI rules. As you saw in the notice, there's currently a high backlog, so it may take a while for someone to get to the request (I unfortunately don't have capacity at the moment). Making short, concise requests with solid sourcing can help the process flow more smoothly and quickly. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:12, 28 August 2022 (UTC)

RfC on Vector (2022) - draft
Hi! Since you've been with us for a long time and shared an outstanding amount of good feedback, we'd like to ask you to review the draft of the RfC on the deployment of Vector (2022). Be bold and edit or add your thoughts on the talk page, whatever you're more comfortable with. Also, at the top of the page, we've put a box with two questions, and we'd be interested in learning your opinion. Thanks! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 14:23, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

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

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:14, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Covid-19 Pandemic
Can the start date be changed to March 11, 2020. That is when the pandemic was declared. Cwater1 (talk) 02:24, 6 September 2022 (UTC)


 * @Cwater1, hello! The place to make that suggestion would be at Talk:COVID-19 pandemic, the talk page for the COVID-19 pandemic article. Be prepared to supply sources to back up your view. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 03:39, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Thank you! It is just a thought. It is one of those articles where you got to be extremely careful. I figured that the method is when in doubt, talk about it in the talk page. Cwater1 (talk) 04:39, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Concern regarding Draft:Hunan Grand Theatre
Hello, Sdkb. This is a bot-delivered message letting you know that Draft:Hunan Grand Theatre, a page you created, has not been edited in at least 5 months. Drafts that have not been edited for six months may be deleted, so if you wish to retain the page, please edit it again&#32;or request that it be moved to your userspace.

If the page has already been deleted, you can request it be undeleted so you can continue working on it.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia. FireflyBot (talk) 07:02, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Concern regarding Draft:Donald Bentley
Hello, Sdkb. This is a bot-delivered message letting you know that Draft:Donald Bentley, a page you created, has not been edited in at least 5 months. Drafts that have not been edited for six months may be deleted, so if you wish to retain the page, please edit it again&#32;or request that it be moved to your userspace.

If the page has already been deleted, you can request it be undeleted so you can continue working on it.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia. FireflyBot (talk) 07:03, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Concern regarding Draft:Vivian Yee
Hello, Sdkb. This is a bot-delivered message letting you know that Draft:Vivian Yee, a page you created, has not been edited in at least 5 months. Drafts that have not been edited for six months may be deleted, so if you wish to retain the page, please edit it again&#32;or request that it be moved to your userspace.

If the page has already been deleted, you can request it be undeleted so you can continue working on it.

Thank you for your submission to Wikipedia. FireflyBot (talk) 07:03, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Techno video on Contra Dance page
I like the new video! That's Liz Nelson calling, right? I danced twice with her Sat. night at a SPECTACULAR dance to Pete's Posse (called by Nils) at the Capital City Grange outside Montpelier VT. We did the last dance "shenanigans" (same as "chaos") with two other couples! This was supposed to be Pete's Posse's fairwell tour (which is why I drove all the way to VT), but they said they're having too much fun, so they will continue (limited) touring. YAY! Paulmlieberman (talk) 16:56, 6 September 2022 (UTC)


 * @Paulmlieberman, yes! I had been searching for a video for for awhile, but whenever I've been at a techno contra I've been too busy dancing to record one haha. Glad we now have it (and thanks to  for using an open license on YouTube)! &#123;{u&#124;  Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 17:36, 6 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Happy to help! The video is Kingfisher, and like all our playing is entirely live. jefftk (talk) 19:52, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for September 9
An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Amanda Hess, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page New America.

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:18, 9 September 2022 (UTC)


 * . &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 13:46, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

"Jail (upcoming movie)" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Jail (upcoming movie) and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 September 12 until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 03:51, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Tidy up edits
I'm responding here since it's a digression from your main points. Edit count might give some editors personal satisfaction. But because no one can review thousands of tidying edits, others can't herald your work on the basis of the specific details of your edits. They can only tout the raw numbers, and that has less weight behind it. (Plus not all gnomes are high volume editors.) All the sexy attention in the Wikipedia community goes to those who expand articles. That's arguably reasonable; I just think we should give more props to editors who do menial tasks so the rest of us don't have to. isaacl (talk) 00:57, 15 September 2022 (UTC)
 * There are definitely some menial tasks that need way more heralding. I'd also argue that there are some (e.g. tagging talk pages with project banners) that are normally just work we create for ourselves rather than anything that adds substantial value. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 03:44, 15 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I would have picked a different example (though one escapes me at the moment). Associating articles with WikiProjects enables article alerts, which help interested editors monitor the articles. I'm not a big fan when someone with no interest in the topic area goes around tagging tangentially related articles, though. isaacl (talk) 04:43, 15 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I find those article alerts helpful, which is why I went with "substantial" rather than "any" above. But I question whether the effort-to-reward ratio is really worth it. And I certainly question whether it's so worth it that we need to have project banners rather than just automatically identifying which articles fall within a project's scope using the category system, as is done successfully at Wikidata. &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 04:47, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Nomination for merger of Template:Uw-copying-nosource
Template:Uw-copying-nosource has been nominated for merging with Template:Uw-copying. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. Mathglot (talk) 04:06, 20 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the notice, @Mathglot — I don't seem to have contributed to either of these templates, though; any particular reason you reached out? &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 04:45, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
 * You were on the talk page of one of them, unless I got my wires crossed. Mathglot (talk) 05:09, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Oh, I see what it is; neither has their own talk page, they both redirect to a common talk page for user templates, and you must be there or in the archives for it. At least, I think that's what it was. Mathglot (talk) 05:11, 20 September 2022 (UTC)

Growth team newsletter #22


Welcome to the twenty-second newsletter from the Growth team!

Newcomers tasks reach the 500,000 edits milestone — more data publicly available
As of the last week of June 2022, the newcomers of the world have completed over 500,000 newcomer tasks. In other words, newcomers have made over half a million Wikipedia edits via Growth’s “Suggested Edits” module.
 * About 30% of those edits were completed on mobile devices.
 * Usage continues to increase; in June 2022 almost 50,000 newcomer tasks were completed.

We have added some new data to Grafana. You can now check the number of edits and reverts by task types, or the number of questions asked to mentors. You can filter the data by wiki.

If you have any questions, or there is more data you want access to, please let us know.

Ongoing projects and explorations


We are continuing our work on our new project, Positive Reinforcement. User testing of initial Positive Reinforcement designs was just completed. Interviews were conducted in Arabic, English, and Spanish. The outcome has been published on the Positive Reinforcement page. We are now utilizing user testing feedback along with prior community feedback to iterate and improve designs.

We are exploring the idea of a Copy Edit structured task. We have tested copy edits in Wikipedia articles for arwiki, bnwiki, cswiki, eswiki (Growth pilot-wikis) and enwiki with two different methods: LanguageTool and Hunspell. We will share more details here and on the associated Copy Edit page once the evaluation is complete.

Add an image was utilized at GLAM events in Argentina, Mexico, and Chile. For an overview of what was learned from these events, read: #1Pic1Article I: how Latin American heritage experts added images to Wikipedia (in English).

Experiments analysis
Add a Link Experiment Analysis has been published. The most important points are:
 * Newcomers who get the Add a Link structured task are more likely to be activated (i.e. make a constructive first article edit).
 * They are also more likely to be retained (i.e. come back and make another constructive article edit on a different day).
 * The feature also increases edit volume (i.e. the number of constructive edits made across the first couple weeks), while at the same time improving edit quality (i.e. the likelihood that the newcomer's edits aren't reverted).

Newcomer task edit type analysis has been published.
 * Communities had expressed concern that newcomers whose initial edits were structured tasks wouldn’t go on to learn how to complete more difficult tasks. The Growth team data scientist conducted a Newcomer task edit type analysis to see if this was indeed the case.
 * Results from analysis indicate that this likely isn’t a significant concern. More than 70% of users who start with the easy task "Add a link" also make another task type. Read the full analysis and methodology here.

News for mentors
A new system for the mentors list

The configuration of the mentors list will change over the next weeks. In the future, mentors will sign up, edit their mentor description and quit using Special:MentorDashboard. This new system will make the development of new features for mentors much easier.

At the moment, the mentor list is a simple page anyone can edit, unless it’s protected. With the new page, mentors will be able to edit only their own description, while administrators will be able to edit the entire mentors' list if needed.

The deployment will happen first at the pilot wikis, then at all wikis. Existing lists of mentors will be automatically converted, no action will be needed from the mentors. 

Mentors will be informed about the next steps soon, by a message posted on the talk page of existing Mentor lists.

Learn more about this new structured page on mediawiki.org.

A tip for mentors

Did you know that mentors can filter their mentees' changes at Special:MentorDashboard (and star the ones that require attention)? This feature helps to keep an eye on newcomers' edits, helping mentors to fix minor details, and encourage them if necessary.

And did you know that mentors have special filters to highlight their mentees' edits at Special:RecentChanges? Look for the following filters in RecentChanges:,.

Other improvements

Some improvements will be made to the mentor dashboard in the coming weeks:


 * While we now offer some options for mentors to take a break, the option to quit mentoring was not easy to find. This will be improved.
 * Mentors at wikis using FlaggedRevisions will have a way to discover their mentees' pending edits.
 * Dashboard discovery for new mentors will be improved.

Recent changes and fixed bugs

 * We moved to a new Image Suggestions API. This new API will allow us to deploy Add an Image to more wikis.
 * Starting September 19, a few more wikis now offer Add an image to newcomers. These wikis are, , , ,.
 * Add an image has been disabled for a few days due to technical issue. "Add an image" added a blank line instead of an image. This has been fixed.
 * In order to know if Special:EditGrowthConfig is used by communities, we now instrument page loads and saves of configuration.

Have a question? A suggestion?
Please let us know! You can also read our FAQ page.

'' Growth team's newsletter prepared by the Growth team and posted by bot • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. '' 17:18, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

Edit 0n The Weeknd
Hey, i have a question about your recent edit on The Weeknd's page. Why did you change all the "Fantasy" sources to "fantacy3"? An o niem ja (talk) 18:37, 23 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Hi @An o niem ja! That edit was made automatically as part of the general fixes set, which was applied when I made a different edit. It looks like there were a number of similarly named/duplicate references at that article, and the software decided to settle on "Fantasy3" for one of them. The reference names are just internal for us as editors, and don't really show up to readers. So you're welcome to change them around if it's bothering you (so long as you rename all instances of a reference simultaneously), but unless you're fine-tuning the page I wouldn't say it's generally worth the effort. Cheers, &#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 20:47, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

October 2022 New Pages Patrol backlog drive
(t &#183; c)  buidhe  21:17, 23 September 2022 (UTC)