User talk:Slambo/Archives/2018/August

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2018). Administrator changes
 * Gnome-colors-list-add.svg Sro23
 * Gnome-colors-view-refresh.svg KaisaL • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news
 * After a discussion at Meta, a new user group called "interface administrators" (formerly "technical administrator") has been created. Come the end of August, interface admins will be the only users able to edit site-wide JavaScript and CSS pages like MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css, or edit other user's personal JavaScript and CSS. The intention is to improve security and privacy by reducing the number of accounts which could be used to compromise the site or another user's account through malicious code. The new user group can be assigned and revoked by bureaucrats. Discussion is ongoing to establish details for implementing the group on the English Wikipedia.
 * Following a request for comment, the WP:SISTER style guideline now states that in the mainspace, interwiki links to Wikinews should only be made as per the external links guideline. This generally means that within the body of an article, you should not link to Wikinews about a particular event that is only a part of the larger topic. Wikinews links in "external links" sections can be used where helpful, but not automatically if an equivalent article from a reliable news outlet could be linked in the same manner.

Technical news
 * The WMF Anti-Harassment Tools team is seeking input on the second set of wireframes for the Special:Block redesign that will introduce partial blocks. The new functionality will allow you to block a user from editing a specific set of pages, pages in a category, a namespace, and for specific actions such as moving pages and uploading files.

Discuss this newsletter

Subscribe

Archive Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:31, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

Future portal tool
Discussions are underway on the design of a portal tool (user script) that will hopefully have features for modifying portals at the click of a menu item, to make editing them easier. It might do things like change the color for you, add to a selection, add a new section, move a section, and so on.

If you'd like to be involved and suggest features for the tool, please join us at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design.

Progress report: upgrade of portals
As new portal components are built by our Lua gurus, those components are being used to upgrade portals. Each component automates a section of a portal in a particular way.

The sections that are mostly upgraded so far are the Intro, and the Associated Wikimedia section. The sections currently undergoing upgrade are: Selected image, Categories, and the Intro.

The Intro? Isn't that done already?

Yes, and no.

The upgrade of the excerpt in intros is mostly complete (there are about 70 non-standard portals that still need it).

Now we are doing another upgrade of intros in the form of adding a panoramic picture at the top of the intro, on portals for which such a picture is available on. Dozens of panoramas have been added so far, and they are really starting to affect the look of portals &mdash; the portals that have them look really good.

Regions are the most likely subjects to have panoramas, but a surprising number of other subjects have banner-shaped pictures too. Some examples of non-geographic portals that they have been added to are:
 * Portal:Underwater diving
 * Portal:Sharks
 * Portal:Reptiles
 * Portal:Meat
 * Portal:Cheese
 * Portal:Cereals
 * Portal:Tea
 * Portal:Milk
 * Portal:Wheat
 * Portal:Rice
 * Portal:Clothing

Speaking of pictures, several hundred Selected image sections have been upgraded to include image slideshows.

Progress report: design
The push for automation continues, with new components under continuous testing in the field. As problems are spotted, they are reported to our programmers, who have done a fantastic job of keeping up with bug reports and fixing the relevant Lua modules fast. I am highly impressed.

Construction time on new portals is now down to as little as a minute or less. Though not in general. If you are lucky enough to spot portals that fit the profile of the new tools (their strengths), then a portal can be complete almost as soon as it is created, with the added time it takes to find and add a panorama. Source page titles are not generally standardized, and so it source pages in many cases must be entered manually. Where source page titles follow a standard naming convention, portal creation for those subjects goes quickly.

So, we still have some hurdles, but the outlook on portals is very good. New features, and many improvements to features are on the horizon. I'll be sure to report them when they become available.

What will the portal of the future look like? That is up to you!

See you on the project's talk pages.

Sincerely,   &mdash; The Transhumanist   21:10, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Category deletion discussion
I would like to hear your input on the following discussions: Categories for discussion/Log/2018 August 15 and Categories for discussion/Log/2018 August 15. Both are presently occupied exclusively by rail lines in Disney parks. Basically, the nominator for both, Jc86035, wants them deleted because he doesn't think that rail lines run by Disney can be considered heritage railways. I have countered that they in fact do meet the minimum requirements to be considered as such (note the new info I added here: Heritage railway for reference). Jackdude 101 talk cont 17:32, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #017, 22 Aug 2018
This issue is about portal creation...

Creating new portals
Myself and others have been testing and experimenting with the new components in upgrading existing portals and in building new portals. They have now been applied in hundreds of portals.

The templates are ready for general use for portal creation.

They are still a bit buggy, but the only way we are going to work the rest of the bugs out is by using them and reporting the bugs as we come across them.

I look forward to seeing what new portals you create!

Be sure to report bugs at WT:WPPORTD.

The main portal creation template is box portal skeleton.

Portal creation tips
After starting a portal using box portal skeleton...
 * 1) Placing a panorama (banner picture) at the top of the intro section is a nice touch, and really makes a portal look good. box portal skeleton doesn't automatically insert panoramas. So, you will need to do that by hand. They can be found at . For some examples, check out Portal:Sharks, Portal:Cheese, and Portal:Florence
 * 2) The search term provided in the Did you know? and In the news sections is very basic and rarely matches anything. It is best to replace that term with multiple search arguments, if possible (separate each argument with a pipe character). For example, in Portal:Capital punishment, see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Capital_punishment&diff=855255361&oldid=855137403 Searches in templates use Lua search notation.
 * 3) Check the In the news and Did you know? sections for mismatches. That is, sometimes entries come up that shouldn't be displayed. If there are any, refine the search strings further, so they don't return such results.
 * 4) Finish each portal you've created before creating a new one. We don't want unfinished portals sitting around.

Need a laugh?
Check out the Did you know? section on Portal:Determinism. &mdash; The Transhumanist  02:24, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for your help
Thank you for trying to help me with my block. I have made it to two months now, I am accepting my block now, thank you for all your advice and help with my problem.--2601:540:8200:D52E:D811:89C:6413:A1D3 (talk) 00:17, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

How are you, Slambo?. I have six months to go until I am unblocked, still working on my ideas on wordpad until I get unblocked in June 2019.2601:540:8200:D52E:78B0:F4DB:51C5:6CAA (talk) 20:11, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

issue
So the stations project is standalone or tucked into trains? I just checked the relatively low level maintenance of stations project categories (not all cats tagged for project) and realise it really could go either way - project tagging usually can sustain a project, but in this case if I find a partial job on your part, and otherwise blanks - I wonder.... Your opinion will probably, I guess go the way of tucking in, but really it could stand alone... anyways in AGF I am asking before I tag further... one way or other, unless someone else wanders in... Its nothing new - I found a whole subterannean field of large number blank talk pages for medicine and milhist task forces seems the big projects are not really into maintenance and project tagging either  JarrahTree 23:27, 26 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Not all pages within WikiProject Stations are also trains articles - several bus stations, for example (see Middleton bus station). Indeed, has a parameter yes. I suppose there may be some pages within WikiProject Stations that are not also within either WikiProject Buses or WikiProject Trains, but I can't think of any. It's possible that the standalone banner  banner is redundant, despite its use on pages like Talk:Aberdeen bus station. -- Red rose64 &#x1f339; (talk) 11:38, 27 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I really didnt want to take it general discussion as such - would rather pass the issue across you both - so redroses' answer seems a reasonable answer - I'll wait for slambos - thanks redrose JarrahTree 12:01, 27 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Sorry for the delay in responding, I'm finishing a short business trip today.
 * Some aerial cableway stations could get the stations banner and not the buses or trains banner. It's a similar situation as we have for the Transport in Scotland project. There are a number of articles that are within the scope of both projects, and others that are only in one or the other.  Which banner appears on a particular talk page is usually up to the editor who gets to it first.  Since I work on articles within the scope of WikiProject Trains, I use that banner and its associated partner project parameters. Slambo (Speak)  12:32, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply - appreciate that - might think about it all for a bit before acting further then - thanks again JarrahTree 13:13, 28 August 2018 (UTC)