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Tech News: 2019-17
19:08, 23 April 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-18
22:27, 29 April 2019 (UTC)
The Signpost: 30 April 2019
- News and notes: An Action Packed April
- In the media: Is Wikipedia just another social media site?
- Discussion report: English Wikipedia community's conclusions on talk pages
- Featured content: Anguish, accolades, animals, and art
- Arbitration report: An Active Arbitration Committee
- Traffic report: Mötley Crüe, Notre-Dame, a black hole, and Bonnie and Clyde
- Technology report: A new special page, and other news
- Gallery: Notre-Dame de Paris burns
- News from the WMF: Can machine learning uncover Wikipedia’s missing “citation needed” tags?
- Recent research: Female scholars underrepresented; whitepaper on Wikidata and libraries; undo patterns reveal editor hierarchy
- From the archives: Portals revisited
Please comment on Talk:Spygate (conspiracy theory by Donald Trump)
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Spygate (conspiracy theory by Donald Trump). Legobot (talk) 04:31, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
WikiCup 2019 May newsletter
The second round of the 2019 WikiCup has now finished. Contestants needed to scored 32 points to advance into round 3. Our top four scorers in round 2 all scored over 400 points and were:
- Cas Liber (1210), our winner in 2016, with two featured articles and three DYKs. He also made good use of the bonus points available, more than doubling his score by choosing appropriate articles to work on.
- Kosack (750), last year's runner up, with an FA, a GA, two FLs, and five DYKs.
- Adam Cuerden (480), a WikiCup veteran, with 16 featured pictures, mostly restorations.
- Zwerg Nase (461), a seasoned competitor, with a FA, a GA and an ITN item.
Other notable performances were put in by Barkeep49 with six GAs, Ceranthor, Lee Vilenski, and Canada Hky, each with seven GARs, and MPJ-DK with a seven item GT.
So far contestants have achieved nine featured articles between them and a splendid 80 good articles. Commendably, 227 GARs have been completed during the course of the 2019 WikiCup, so the backlog of articles awaiting GA review has been reduced as a result of contestants' activities. The judges are pleased with the thorough GARs that are being performed, and have hardly had to reject any. As we enter the third round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them.
If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:46, 1 May 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-19
16:27, 6 May 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Talk:2018 Strasbourg attack
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:2018 Strasbourg attack. Legobot (talk) 04:32, 9 May 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-20
00:48, 14 May 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Talk:Israeli occupation of the West Bank
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Legobot (talk) 04:34, 17 May 2019 (UTC)
NPR Newsletter No.18
Hello Wugapodes,
- WMF at work on NPP Improvements
Niharika Kohli, a product manager for the growth team, announced that work is underway in implementing improvements to New Page Patrol as part of the 2019 Community Wishlist and suggests all who are interested watch the project page on meta. Two requested improvements have already been completed. These are:
- Allow filtering by no citations in page curation
- Not having CSD and PRODs automatically marked as reviewed, reflecting current consensus among reviewers and current Twinkle functionality.
- Reliable Sources for NPP
Rosguill has been compiling a list of reliable sources across countries and industries that can be used by new page patrollers to help judge whether an article topic is notable or not. At this point further discussion is needed about if and how this list should be used. Please consider joining the discussion about how this potentially valuable resource should be developed and used.
- Backlog drive coming soon
Look for information on the an upcoming backlog drive in our next newsletter. If you'd like to help plan this drive, join in the discussion on the New Page Patrol talk page.
- News
- Following a request for comment, the subject-specific notability guideline for pornographic actors and models (WP:PORNBIO) was removed; in its place, editors should consult WP:ENT and WP:GNG.
- Discussions of interest
- A request for bot approval for a bot to patrol two kinds of redirects
- There has been a lot discussion about Notability of Academics
- What, if anything, would a SNG for Softball look like
Six Month Queue Data: Today – 7242 Low – 2393 High – 7250
Stay up to date with even more news – subscribe to The Signpost.
Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings.
Delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of DannyS712 (talk) at 19:17, 17 May 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-21
13:04, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Template talk:British Royal Family
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Template talk:British Royal Family. Legobot (talk) 04:33, 25 May 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-22
15:33, 27 May 2019 (UTC)
The Signpost: 31 May 2019
- From the editors: Picture that
- News and notes: Wikimania and trustee elections
- In the media: Politics, lawsuits and baseball
- Discussion report: Admin abuse leads to mass-desysop proposal on Azerbaijani Wikipedia
- Arbitration report: ArbCom forges ahead
- Technology report: Lots of Bots
- News from the WMF: Wikimedia Foundation petitions the European Court of Human Rights to lift the block of Wikipedia in Turkey
- Essay: Paid editing
- From the archives: FORUM:Should Wikimedia modify its terms of use to require disclosure?
Please comment on Talk:Electric smoking system
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Electric smoking system. Legobot (talk) 04:34, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-23
15:24, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
Chomsky
Re: Midnightblueowl, I just meant that when the article is ready to be nominated for GA status, MBO should be the one to actually make the nomination and therefore receive primary credit for the article becoming a GA (if the nomination succeeds). Her contributions to the article far exceed those of anyone else, including myself as the individual with the most edits to the article in terms of absolute numbers. Vrrajkum (talk) 01:36, 8 June 2019 (UTC)
- @Vrrajkum: Thanks for clarifying, I'm not familiar with the relative contributions of people to the article so that's good to know. I think she should definitely get credit for her substantial work. At the same time, she can get credit for her work even if she doesn't nominate the article. I think your note is important in making sure that happens though, and if the nomination succeeds her contributions should be made clear. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 01:48, 8 June 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Talk:List of French marquisates
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:List of French marquisates. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 10 June 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-24
17:06, 10 June 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-25
20:37, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anime and manga
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anime and manga. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 18 June 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-26
17:29, 24 June 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for the close! Just to point out that the tracking categories already exist, and were mentioned in the proposal itself, see Category:Commons category Wikidata tracking categories. My post-rfc plan for now is to just keep working through the backlog of discrepancies there... Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 05:47, 25 June 2019 (UTC)
- @Mike Peel: Oh, I realize I didn't understand the categories. Reading the Category:Commons category Wikidata tracking categories header again, I think I had misunderstood the scope of the category as wider than it is. I thought the three clauses were independent criteria, but now I realize that it is both of the first two OR the last, ((X and Y) or Z). Sorry about that. I've removed the suggestion from the close; it was the part I was least confident about anyway. You know how to proceed better than me after all. The category is very big though, have you considered an additional task for Pi bot that adds a talk page notice for category members it isn't able to resolve under task 4? That way you can hopefully get more eyes on the category than just your own. I think you have a good proposal and have been doing really good work. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 08:43, 25 June 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Notability
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Notability. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
WugBot didn't update the Reports page last night
Wugapodes, since you're currently testing the new version of WugBot that makes the GAN report, I thought I should let you know that it didn't run last night.
I'm not entirely sure why: the usual reason, that there's a problem with a GAN due to the review page having disappeared or something that causes an "Unknown" to be written on the GAN page instead of a valid username, didn't appear to be an issue at the time the report should have been created.
At any rate, you'll probably want to check to see whether the bot successfully runs tonight, and if not, restart it or do whatever needs to be done. Thanks as always for having created this bot; it's very useful. BlueMoonset (talk) 22:34, 5 June 2019 (UTC)
- @BlueMoonset: Thanks for pointing this out! It was easy to track down now that I've added custom error logging. It should be fixed now. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 02:45, 6 June 2019 (UTC)
- Wugapodes, 01:00 just passed, and no sign of a new Report page. Something may still not be cooperating. BlueMoonset (talk) 01:05, 7 June 2019 (UTC)
- @BlueMoonset: I forgot to change the cron job back to 01:00 aftter my tests last night so it will actually run at 02:37, I will however set it back to 01:00 after that run. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 01:13, 7 June 2019 (UTC)
- I was actually right there so it waas an easy change, it'll run at 01:15, I'll set it back to 01:00 right after. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 01:14, 7 June 2019 (UTC)
- Great. Thanks for doing that; it ran 15 minutes ago. Looking forward to an 01:00 run tomorrow. BlueMoonset (talk) 01:30, 7 June 2019 (UTC)
- Wugapodes, 01:00 just passed, and no sign of a new Report page. Something may still not be cooperating. BlueMoonset (talk) 01:05, 7 June 2019 (UTC)
Last update was June 13
Just a quick note that the bot hasn't done an update since 01:00 on June 13. If you could get it restarted, that would be great. Thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 14:28, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
Bug report
I'm very happy you were able to add the checking for the Malformed Nominations section, and restored it, though I didn't actually realize that until today. One of the entries (and there had been another, as I noticed by checking back) has the link "Unknown Nomination" going to the Film section. It appears to have been for the nomination of Rushmore (film), and I've just fixed it so it isn't malformed any more—there were no links in the "nominator" field—but in other cases where that has happened, the name of the nominated article has been displayed. I'm afraid I've fixed the GA nominee field in question, which may hamper your testing, for which my apologies, but I thought it was better to fix it now. (I suppose you could always temporarily revert my fix to the template, so long as you put it back afterward.) BlueMoonset (talk) 14:52, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
- @BlueMoonset: Glad you find the malformed noms section helpful! I think the problem was actually this edit which caused the bot to choke on the Miscellaneous section for some reason. I'm looking into it now, but the bot was able to run fine on the current page (that nom was categorize as sports and rec today) so things should be fine in the mean time. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 20:34, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
- Should be fixed now, though we'll need to wait for another misc nomination to know for sure. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 21:26, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks for restarting the bot. Looks like I was wrong (or didn't fix it well enough); the "Unknown Nomination" showed up again in tonight's run, and it's still in the Film section. I'll let you check it out to see which nomination it is and why it keeps happening. BlueMoonset (talk) 01:39, 18 June 2019 (UTC)
- Sorry to see you're planning on using the Wikibreak Enforcer in the near future. Hope all is well. There's no true urgency in this particular bug, though I'd like to fix the malformed nomination, whichever one it is, if at all possible. I did go through the twelve Film nominations, but couldn't see one that was obviously malformed (aside from one correction I made that didn't affect anything). Might it be one that isn't listed, but is still showing up for some reason? BlueMoonset (talk) 15:12, 19 June 2019 (UTC)
- Wugapodes, the Unknown Nomination is still showing up. Have you been able to figure out what's causing this? Is this a false report, or is one of the nominations in Film actually malformed? Please let me know. Thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 15:39, 25 June 2019 (UTC)
- @BlueMoonset: I think it's a false report. I still haven't been able to track down what's causing it unfortunately. I'll let you know when I find out what's causing it though. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 19:38, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks for letting me know, Wugapodes. I'll ignore the Unknown Nomination report there going forward, except to let you know if it should disappear or if more of the same name should appear. Best of luck in tracking it down; bugs can be tricky things to trace. BlueMoonset (talk) 19:52, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
- @BlueMoonset: I think it's a false report. I still haven't been able to track down what's causing it unfortunately. I'll let you know when I find out what's causing it though. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 19:38, 26 June 2019 (UTC)
- Wugapodes, the Unknown Nomination is still showing up. Have you been able to figure out what's causing this? Is this a false report, or is one of the nominations in Film actually malformed? Please let me know. Thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 15:39, 25 June 2019 (UTC)
- Sorry to see you're planning on using the Wikibreak Enforcer in the near future. Hope all is well. There's no true urgency in this particular bug, though I'd like to fix the malformed nomination, whichever one it is, if at all possible. I did go through the twelve Film nominations, but couldn't see one that was obviously malformed (aside from one correction I made that didn't affect anything). Might it be one that isn't listed, but is still showing up for some reason? BlueMoonset (talk) 15:12, 19 June 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks for restarting the bot. Looks like I was wrong (or didn't fix it well enough); the "Unknown Nomination" showed up again in tonight's run, and it's still in the Film section. I'll let you check it out to see which nomination it is and why it keeps happening. BlueMoonset (talk) 01:39, 18 June 2019 (UTC)
- Should be fixed now, though we'll need to wait for another misc nomination to know for sure. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 21:26, 17 June 2019 (UTC)
New Page Review newsletter July-August 2019
Hello Wugapodes,
- WMF at work on NPP Improvements
More new features are being added to the feed, including the important red alert for previously deleted pages. This will only work if it is selected in your filters. Best is to 'select all'. Do take a moment to check out all the new features if you have not already done so. If anything is not working as it should, please let us know at NPR. There is now also a live queue of AfC submissions in the New Pages Feed. Feel free to review AfCs, but bear in mind that NPP is an official process and policy and is more important.
- QUALITY of REVIEWING
Articles are still not always being checked thoroughly enough. If you are not sure what to do, leave the article for a more experienced reviewer. Please be on the alert for any incongruities in patrolling and help your colleagues where possible; report patrollers and autopatrolled article creators who are ostensibly undeclared paid editors. The displayed ORES alerts offer a greater 'at-a-glance' overview, but the new challenges in detecting unwanted new content and sub-standard reviewing do not necessarily make patrolling any easier, nevertheless the work may have a renewed interest factor of a different kind. A vibrant community of reviewers is always ready to help at NPR.
- Backlog
The backlog is still far too high at between 7,000 and 8,000. Of around 700 user rights holders, 80% of the reviewing is being done by just TWO users. In the light of more and more subtle advertising and undeclared paid editing, New Page Reviewing is becoming more critical than ever.
- Move to draft
NPR is triage, it is not a clean up clinic. This move feature is not limited to bios so you may have to slightly re-edit the text in the template before you save the move. Anything that is not fit for mainspace but which might have some promise can be draftified - particularly very poor English and machine and other low quality translations.
- Notifying users
Remember to use the message feature if you are just tagging an article for maintenance rather than deletion. Otherwise articles are likely to remain perma-tagged. Many creators are SPA and have no intention of returning to Wikipedia. Use the feature too for leaving a friendly note note for the author of a first article you found well made or interesting. Many have told us they find such comments particularly welcoming and encouraging.
- PERM
Admins are now taking advantage of the new time-limited user rights feature. If you have recently been accorded NPR, do check your user rights to see if this affects you. Depending on your user account preferences, you may receive automated notifications of your rights changes. Requests for permissions are not mini-RfAs. Helpful comments are welcome if absolutely necessary, but the bot does a lot of the work and the final decision is reserved for admins who do thorough research anyway.
- Other news
School and academic holidays will begin soon in various places around the Western world. Be on the lookout for the usual increase in hoax, attack, and other junk pages.
Our next newsletter might be announcing details of a possible election for co-ordinators of NPR. If you think you have what it takes to micro manage NPR, take a look at New Page Review Coordinators - it's a job that requires a lot of time and dedication.
Stay up to date with even more news – subscribe to The Signpost.
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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:38, 30 June 2019 (UTC)
Templates
I protected all three with template protection and change your user group to template editor. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 11:22, 30 June 2019 (UTC)
The June 2019 Signpost is out!
- Discussion report: A constitutional crisis hits English Wikipedia
- News and notes: Mysterious ban, admin resignations, Wikimedia Thailand rising
- In the media: The disinformation age
- On the bright side: What's making you happy this month?
- Traffic report: Juneteenth, Beauty Revealed, and more nuclear disasters
- Technology report: Actors and Bots
- Special report: Did Fram harass other editors?
- Recent research: What do editors do after being blocked?; the top mathematicians, universities and cancers according to Wikipedia
- From the archives: Women and Wikipedia: the world is watching
- In focus: WikiJournals: A sister project proposal
- Community view: A CEO biography, paid for with taxes
Tech News: 2019-27
21:23, 1 July 2019 (UTC)
WikiCup 2019 July newsletter
The third round of the 2019 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it to the fourth round needed to score at least 68 points, which is substantially lower than last year's 227 points. Our top scorers in round 3 were:
- Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with 500 points derived mainly from a featured article and two GAs on natural history topics
- Adam Cuerden, with 480 points, a tally built on 16 featured pictures, the result of meticulous restoration work
- SounderBruce, a finalist in the last two years, with 306 points from a variety of submissions, mostly related to sport or the State of Washington
- Usernameunique, with 305 points derived from a featured article and two GAs on archaeology and related topics
Contestants managed 4 (5) featured articles, 4 featured lists, 18 featured pictures, 29 good articles, 50 DYK entries, 9 ITN entries, and 39 good article reviews. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them, and it is imperative to claim them in the correct round; one FA claim had to be rejected because it was incorrectly submitted (claimed in Round 3 when it qualified for Round 2), so be warned! When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met.
If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:13, 2 July 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Talk:Populism
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Populism. Legobot (talk) 04:30, 4 July 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-28
20:12, 8 July 2019 (UTC)
Why de-index this outline?
Can you please explain why you removed Outline of cannabis from the outlines category? ☆ Bri (talk) 00:55, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
- @Bri: it's in the subcategory Category:Outlines of health and fitness. I'm trying to sort Category:Wikipedia outlines into subcategories, and it's easier if they're removed from that category once sorted. Wugapodes [thɑk] [ˈkan.ˌʧɹɪbz] 01:02, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
- Oh derp, I missed the other category there. Carry on :)
- P.s. I might look and see if there are any other applicable categories. It has a wider breadth than health (e.g. law, farming, religion). ☆ Bri (talk) 01:13, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
- Sorry to keep bugging you, but health & fitness is labeled a non-diffusing category which "includes Wikipedia outlines that can also be found in the parent category, or in diffusing subcategories of the parent." Are you sure about deletion from Category: Wikipedia outlines? ☆ Bri (talk) 01:24, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Talk:Theodore Edgar McCarrick
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Theodore Edgar McCarrick. Legobot (talk) 04:34, 12 July 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-29
15:29, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
Signature
Hi: The closure at Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) you performed lacks a signature. It would be best if you added your signature to the close, so people can see who performed it. Cheers, North America1000 05:15, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
- @Northamerica1000: Thanks for the heads up, didn't notice I forgot the signature. Wug·a·po·des 05:21, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks for the rapid follow-up! North America1000 05:24, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
Please comment on Talk:Christchurch mosque shootings
The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Christchurch mosque shootings. Legobot (talk) 04:32, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/WugBot 3 has been approved. Please see the (now closed) nomination page for details. Happy editing! --TheSandDoctor Talk 23:32, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
WugBot not deleting Approved transclusions after they've been closed?
Wugapodes, it looks like WugBot hasn't been deleting transcluded nominations from the Approved page once they're closed.
At the moment, the following nominations have been closed but not deleted:
- May 12: Template:Did you know nominations/Roy J. Snell
- May 24: Template:Did you know nominations/The Unsafe Asylum
- June 4: Template:Did you know nominations/Seal of Somerset County, Maryland
There may be others, but these ones were easy to find because the dates only had one nomination in them, and these were closed. There may be others hiding in other dates.
This may actually be my fault: I just noticed that I added a blank line in the Special Occasions section before the first dated subsection when I removed a no-longer-needed subsection before it yesterday at 15:52, 19 July 2019 (UTC), after the most recent successful removal of a closed nomination at 15:01; I've just removed that blank line to see if doing so improves things. If this turns out to have been the cause, though, perhaps you could have WugBot ignore everything once it hits the "Special Occasions" section of the Approved page, so the spacing within it won't affect things. Thanks for whatever you can do. BlueMoonset (talk) 23:23, 20 July 2019 (UTC)
- @BlueMoonset: The problem was a change I made to {{DYK top}} after a request on WT:DYK. It isn't a quick fix so I've reverted the template change in the meantime; things should return to normal almost immediately. It won't affect pages that were closed while the change was active (so the past few hours), so if it looks like WugBot is ignoring a nomination, you can remove it manually or revert the close and re-close the nomination. I'm going to look into how to fix the problem with WugBot. Wug·a·po·des 00:22, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
Tech News: 2019-30
13:07, 22 July 2019 (UTC)