Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/January 2018

Aehobak
I copyedited Aehobak with only trivial changes, and took no credit beyond doing an article.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 01:44, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Just for your coordinators' sanity, can you please edit at least one article for the drive for which you record a word-count credit? I would like to avoid the existential discussion of what sort of barnstar to award an editor with a word count of zero. Thanks in advance for preserving my mental state. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:26, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, I am already working on another article, Anthoor, (393 words) and expect to do more.--Dthomsen8 (talk) 02:33, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Watching the Mummers Parade on TV and the Fancy Brigades in person resulted in a late start here, but Happy New Year from Philadelphia!--Dthomsen8 (talk) 02:40, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

"Word count" script?
Having trouble installing the "word count" script. I added mw.loader.load('//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User%3ADr+pda%2Fprosesize.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript'); // User:Dr pda/prosesize.js to the ("monobook"?) that I created, but I'm not seeing the new "Page size" link in the toolbox. Tried logging off and back on again. No go. Can you help? Thanks. -T2. Timbuk-2 (talk) 02:47, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Take a look at the top of User:Jonesey95/vector.js, the single line below "// Page Size tool for Toolbox". That's how User:Timbuk-2/common.js should look. It is possible that the "importscript" function will stop working at some point, but it works today. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:14, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

Done. Definitely looks different from the coding that I copied off of this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dr_pda/prosesize. Yet, after correcting it and publishing the change, I still don't see "Page size" as a link. It's supposed to be near "What links here" on the right side, correct? I appreciate your help. -T2.Timbuk-2 (talk) 03:28, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, it should be below "What links here". It says "Page size". For me, it's on the left side, but you may have different settings. – Jonesey95 (talk) 12:34, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

"Page size" is definitely not showing for me. I double checked my coding for the script. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Who should I ask? Many thanks for your help. -T2. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timbuk-2 (talk • contribs) 23:05, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

I even cleared my browser's cache. No luck. I'm using Chrome on a Windows 10 laptop. Any suggestions? Thanks again. -T2.Timbuk-2 (talk) 23:27, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

I went back and substituted the other coding again (the version that starts with mw.loader.load), then cleared my browser's cache. Still no luck. Looking forward to getting this fixed so I can start editing for the backlog project. Many thanks. -T2.Timbuk-2 (talk) 00:10, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Ditched Chrome. Used Internet Explorer. No luck. What else should I try? -T2.Timbuk-2 (talk) 00:41, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Recent efforts included adding the coding to my timeless.js and/or to my common.js files. -T2. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timbuk-2 (talk • contribs) 00:44, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I would try asking at the Village pump. Make a new section and link to this discussion from there. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:43, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * FWIW, importScript('User:Dr pda/prosesize.js'); //User:Dr pda/prosesize.js was the first script I ever installed on my /vector.js subpage (about seven years ago) and it still works; it'll be blacklinked when editing a section until you preview it, and doesn't work on bullet lists (I copypasta them into Word and use its word-count tool). Good luck and all the best,  Mini  apolis  01:57, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Thank you both for your efforts! Kindly appreciated. As you may have seen, I've bowed out of this drive (until I can get the "word count" script working). I certainly hope to participate in a future backlog elimination drive.

By the way, I never received a notification about Miniapolis's reply on 3 January. I could be mistaken, but I checked thoroughly and find no evidence of having received a notification. I received one about Jonesey95's reply on 3 January, but not about Miniapolis's. (Or is it understood that a single notification would include any additional replies on the same day?)  I only bumped into it when I came back to this page, so I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner. User error?

Again, thanks all. -T2. Timbuk-2 (talk) 02:51, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

Postscript: I just managed to fix the "word count" script. In my User Preferences, under Appearance, when I just happened to change to skin=Vector (the default) from my chosen skin=Timeless, guess what appeared under Tools? Yep: "Page size". Problem solved. I double checked, and it's true: the script does not work if you choose the Timeless skin. Is there anyone I should tell about this, or is it a known (feature?) (bug?)? Again, many thanks for all your help. -T2. Timbuk-2 (talk) 04:54, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Again, the Village pump is a good place to report or ask about these sorts of technical problems. Glad to hear that you got it sorted. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:23, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Sorry; I don't ping posters unless it's necessary, because I assume they're watching pages on which they've posted. All the best,  Mini  apolis  16:51, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

I had at the time&mdash;and still have&mdash;this page on my Watchlist AND I didn't receive any notification about THAT new post of yours either (just happened to be passing by). Is there a bug? -T2.Timbuk-2 (talk) 18:17, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * You won't get a "notification", as such; the top of my watchlist says, "Pages that have been changed since you last visited them are shown in bold with a green marker", which is why I came here. I try not to over-ping, because I don't like getting a lot of pings myself :-). All the best,  Mini  apolis  23:03, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

An easy way to find an article's "word count" was just described to me at the Village Pump by MusikAnimal:

> Click on any article's "View history" tab > then click "Revision history statistics" > then (in the resulting XTools page) look for "Prose: " and "Words: " at far right. Apparently, the XTools method of counting is not exactly the same, because my test-case article showed 3,371 words (from XTools) vs 3,372 words (from the "Dr pda" script). Are there prevailing reasons for using the "Dr pda" script instead of this XTools option? If not, and if the count differential ("error?" rate) is acceptable, might you want to encourage new editors like myself to use the already-in-place XTools option instead of the need-to-install-and-works-in-only-2-skins "Dr pda" option? Just a thought. Many thanks for all your patient assistance during my learning curve. Timbuk-2 (talk) 03:48, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't have a strong argument against xTools, I've found it useful for general reviewing. But prosesize is a more-specialized tool and seems faster and easier once you have it working.  It gives good on-page visual feedback of what it's counting and what it isn't.  It's also versatile as you can run it on any version of a page (if, say, you forgot to get the wordcount before you started copyediting) and also works on non-saved previews (if, say, you want to knock off some asterisks to count lists without actually saving that).  So I understand why prosesize is the endorsed method.  But I was doing manual wordcounts for a year (due to technical limitations) so I'm not going to say you can't use other methods. – Reidgreg (talk) 12:11, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Requests bonus
I should really know this. Does the 50% bonus apply to all articles from the Requests page, or only to requests from the target month (e.g.: December 2017 for this drive)? – Reidgreg (talk) 18:00, 26 January 2018 (UTC)
 * All requests. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:12, 26 January 2018 (UTC)

Last call
The January copy editing drive has ended. Please make any final edits to your article lists and the leaderboard (it is not updated automatically) in the next 24 hours or so. It is OK to edit your section of the page, or the leaderboard, even though the page is archived.

Barnstars will be distributed in the next few days. Thanks to everyone who participated. We eliminated the oldest month and almost got rid of a second! – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:08, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Great job, editors! Backlog went down! Lfstevens (talk) 06:16, 1 February 2018 (UTC)