If you expected a reply on another page and didn't get it, then please feel free to remind me. My watchlist is over 2,500 pages at the moment, and I'm not keeping up with every page. You can also use the magic summoning tool if you remember to link my userpage in the same edit in which you sign the message.
Please add notes to the end of this page. If you notice the page size getting out of control (>100,000 bytes), then please complain at me. I'll probably reply here unless you suggest another page for a reply. Thanks, WhatamIdoing (talk)
Archives |
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Contents
- 1 Your question to me
- 2 FAQ
- 3 Your message on my talk page re Afc
- 4 An hypothesis
- 5 Ayrveda
- 6 What am I doing wrong
- 7 Re: Wikimania
- 8 Belated Thanks
- 9 Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon
- 10 Bullet points on Reference Desk
- 11 RfC: On Software Notability.
- 12 Minor grammatical point
- 13 Invisalign
- 14 RFC notification 1 August 2015
- 15 Famous web search engine listed at Redirects for discussion
- 16 RfC
- 17 A Barnstar for you!
- 18 Erika Schwartz
- 19 WikiProject Women's health
- 20 MOS:IDENTITY is being revisited: How should Wikipedia refer to transgender individuals before and after their transition?
- 21 Image Policy
- 22 Gentle, gentle, gentle
- 23 Is Poison Candy your personal article?
- 24 5 Million: We celebrate your contribution
- 25 Tom powers Musician
- 26 relief and thanks
- 27 Village pump proposal
- 28 Haitian wikipedia
- 29 Nomination of Courtship disorder for deletion
- 30 Problem with donation box removal
- 31 Reply to Problem with donation box removal
- 32 Season's Greetings
- 33 Happy Holidays!
- 34 Yo Ho Ho
- 35 Best wishes for the holidays...
- 36 Seasons Greetings
- 37 Merry Christmas
- 38 Happy New Year, WhatamIdoing!
- 39 Happy New Year, WhatamIdoing!
- 40 Thanks
- 41 Spring clean of the Policies and Guidelines page
- 42 Template:Goal
- 43 Hip pain
- 44 Tech News: 2016-08
- 45 Expert attention required
- 46 DYK
- 47 VisualEditor News #1—2016
- 48 Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors!
- 49 Tech News: 2016-09
- 50 Windows Technical Support listed at Redirects for discussion
- 51 How to help in Alcoholics Anonymous
- 52 Tech News: 2016-10
- 53 Template:Sfn/doc
- 54 Nomination of List of top-selling candy brands for deletion
Your question to me
I am very interested in translating English articles into Haitian Creole (kreyol ayisien) but only articles that will help provide health information. I'm not into biographies, television plot lines, video games, towns, actresses from India, paraphilias, theoretical physics or sports. I am not completely fluent but with a haitian proof reader I can certainly translate a lot of medical content into Haitian. What is your connection? I'm reading your talk page and and cannot figure out why you would be the one to ask me to do this. I converse with a steward on occasion and would have expected him to ask me. Actually I'm flattered and would enjoy the challenge of improving my haitian language skills. Best Regards,
- Bfpage |leave a message 01:22, 11 June 2015 (UTC)
- My original interest was work-related: About a year and a half ago, I tried to find an active editor there. It was frustrating. There are zero admins. The Village Pump is full of mass messages and almost nothing else—I don't think it's been archived since 2007. I believe that the only active editor is ht:User:Arsendis. It seriously needs someone to WP:REVIVE it.
- I'd love to have you translating health-related articles (especially women's health and diseases that are of greater interest in Haiti vs wealthy countries). Are you familiar with the Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/Translation task force? They create decent, well-sourced articles, simplify the language (at least for the introduction) to make translation easier, and then search for translators. I can't promise you a Haitian proofreader, but User:CFCF might be able to help us find someone—and if not, then a lot of us got our start by correcting typos, and perhaps one of the newbies (and there are some; look for the non-automatic ones in that log) would see your efforts and stick around.
- If you want, I'm willing to beg User:Amire80 to move ht.wp up on his list for the new mw:Content translation tool, which is not only convenient but would handle all of the license-related attribution automatically for you. (Check it out at simple: if you want—you'll have to enable it in Beta Features there, but after that you can try it out for a userpage. It's still got some bugs and doesn't work in all browsers, but it's really popular at some smaller projects.
- What do you think? Does it sound interesting? WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:10, 11 June 2015 (UTC)
- WhatamIdoing, thanks for the ping!
- Bfpage thanks for your willingness to translate to Haitian. I am glad to tell that WhatamIdoing doesn't need to beg me, because the ContentTranslation tool was enabled in the Haitian Creole Wikipedia a few minutes ago and you can use it to translate articles easily from English, French, or any other language with which you're comfortable.
- You can read a guide to using ContentTranslation.
- If you have some time, it would also be nice if you could localize ContentTranslation's user interface. (If you don't have an account at that site, please create one at its main page.)
- Thanks! --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 15:16, 11 June 2015 (UTC)
- Also, let us know if you try to create that account and run into trouble. It's a bit complicated, and we can help. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:52, 11 June 2015 (UTC)
- WhatamIdoing I've tried to use this tool and I am having a lot of difficulty. I went ahead and translated an article this morning from English to Kreyol just to see how difficult it would be without the tool and it is pretty tedious as I am unfamiliar with inserting the special characters used in Kreyol. I asked for help in the translate wiki IRC chat room and they won't let me create an account because I am not a software developer. How do I get the ability to translate in my 'home' english wikipedia? It seems like it should be easy but I'm just not getting it. Also, there are no administrators in the Haitian Wikipedia and I have asked the steward Mentifisto to make me one so at least I can block serious vandalism and spam. I would hate to put in hours of translation to then have it destroyed by vandalism.
- Bfpage |leave a message 19:14, 13 June 2015 (UTC)
- You can't believe how happy I am to have a good Wikipedian over there. Let's see if I've got all the problems in order:
- Special characters: are these anything other than ´ and ` on top of vowels?
- Translatewiki.net is for the interface ("Edit" and "View history" and the like). Amir, can you talk to Siebrand and see what's needed here?
- Content translation here at en.wp: This might be possible in a few weeks, but I'm not sure that it would help with the special characters. Although, while I'm thinking about it, Amir, you probably don't want this to happen the week of 29 June, because that's when Anomie and his team are planning to break half the bots (well, to be fair, they're planning to fix something important that has been announced for months, but the effect is that a couple dozen bots are in need of urgent repairs).
- Admin request: I think this is a reasonable idea, although I don't know if they have a policy with any firm requirements.
- Anything else? WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:18, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
- Special characters are, indeed, the ´ and ` on top of vowels. We don't currently have a special character inserter in ContentTranslation, but we may try to reuse the one from VisualEditor some day (I don't know when).
- Bfpage, is it possible for you to use a Haitian or a French keyboard layout on your computer? --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 20:45, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
- I will look for a quick way to enter the special characters. There really are only the two that you mentioned above. I can't waste my time creating a lot of content and then not be able to protect it from persistent vandalism-there has to be someone else in the ht wikipedia that can block vandals if not me. If I were to become an administrator, I would not want it to be permanent-just until someone else more qualified wants to be an administrator. I have already sent 'encouragment' messages to some of the more active editors there. I think I'm beginning to understand the translator tool and have already gone through their test(!) they put me through. I had to do some sample translations for them. I can certainly translate without the tool and already have. I'll go exploring in the ht wikipedia and see what the procedures are (if any) about administrators. Doc James seems to pretty happy about the whole idea. I'll just keep working without bots and translator tools until I hear otherwise. How do I stay up-to-date with the translation tool working in the en wikipedia or when will I know it is available? It would certainly speed up the process. Salitasyon, MadamPaj ak Bfpage |leave a message 21:33, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
- Bfpage, we've got some information at Help:Special characters. As with most help pages, it's likely to be out of date. What kind of browser/OS are you using?
- I agree that ht.wp needs some sort of admin. I've got no problem with that person being you, but if someone else is willing to take on the grunt work and let you translate, then that's great, too. Or several people, since it's always a good idea to have a few around.
- I've put a note on my calendar to check Content Translation's status at the end of the month and tell WPMED if it's appeared here by then. If WP:MED's on your watchlist, then you'll see that. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:23, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
- I've got the character problem solved because visual editor on the ht wikipedia has those characters but I will be searching for a keyboard shortcut to make things go faster. Okay, everything is all set for me, anyway. I'll keep my eye on the WP:MED and wait patiently for the translation tool to go live on the English wikipedia. Mwen pral wè ou talè.
- Bfpage |leave a message 01:05, 15 June 2015 (UTC)
- It sounds like you've got an acceptable workaround for now. The keyboard shortcuts are simple on a Mac: ⌥ Option+e then a (or whatever vowel you want) makes á. ⌥ Option+` (same key as the ~) then a makes à. But I'd have to look up how to do it on a Windows machine.
- By the way, VisualEditor has an optional 'favorites' section at the top of the Special Characters tool, so that it can be customized for each Wikipedia. The default probably does what you need, but if you ever decide that you want something else up there, I can find someone to help with that. WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:27, 15 June 2015 (UTC)
- Bfpage |leave a message 01:05, 15 June 2015 (UTC)
- I've got the character problem solved because visual editor on the ht wikipedia has those characters but I will be searching for a keyboard shortcut to make things go faster. Okay, everything is all set for me, anyway. I'll keep my eye on the WP:MED and wait patiently for the translation tool to go live on the English wikipedia. Mwen pral wè ou talè.
- I will look for a quick way to enter the special characters. There really are only the two that you mentioned above. I can't waste my time creating a lot of content and then not be able to protect it from persistent vandalism-there has to be someone else in the ht wikipedia that can block vandals if not me. If I were to become an administrator, I would not want it to be permanent-just until someone else more qualified wants to be an administrator. I have already sent 'encouragment' messages to some of the more active editors there. I think I'm beginning to understand the translator tool and have already gone through their test(!) they put me through. I had to do some sample translations for them. I can certainly translate without the tool and already have. I'll go exploring in the ht wikipedia and see what the procedures are (if any) about administrators. Doc James seems to pretty happy about the whole idea. I'll just keep working without bots and translator tools until I hear otherwise. How do I stay up-to-date with the translation tool working in the en wikipedia or when will I know it is available? It would certainly speed up the process. Salitasyon, MadamPaj ak Bfpage |leave a message 21:33, 14 June 2015 (UTC)
- You can't believe how happy I am to have a good Wikipedian over there. Let's see if I've got all the problems in order:
- Bfpage |leave a message 19:14, 13 June 2015 (UTC)
- WhatamIdoing I've tried to use this tool and I am having a lot of difficulty. I went ahead and translated an article this morning from English to Kreyol just to see how difficult it would be without the tool and it is pretty tedious as I am unfamiliar with inserting the special characters used in Kreyol. I asked for help in the translate wiki IRC chat room and they won't let me create an account because I am not a software developer. How do I get the ability to translate in my 'home' english wikipedia? It seems like it should be easy but I'm just not getting it. Also, there are no administrators in the Haitian Wikipedia and I have asked the steward Mentifisto to make me one so at least I can block serious vandalism and spam. I would hate to put in hours of translation to then have it destroyed by vandalism.
- Also, let us know if you try to create that account and run into trouble. It's a bit complicated, and we can help. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:52, 11 June 2015 (UTC)
FAQ
Meeting you again reminded me of the MEDRS FAQ. :-) I'd been intending to ask - what would you think of moving the MEDRS FAQ to WP space to make it an "official" essay, like the NPOV FAQ? That might also help to attract input from more editors. If you're interested, I'd also still like to know your thoughts on including a belief/efficacy distinction. (FWIW, on reflection I'd also change my comment from "doesn't exist" to be more like "no evidence something is being manipulated," so that the statement doesn't end up taking a philosophical position.) Sunrise (talk) 06:57, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
- How about we compromise and do both? Also, would you please have a go at both Wikipedia:Alternative medicine and Wikipedia:Biomedical information, which deal with some of these points. Some of what we're talking about might fit into those.
- I've also got some hopes that we'll be able to create a "WP:MEDDUE" page (or section) some day, because I think that a lot of these allegedly "MEDRS" problems are actually questions of WP:DUE weight – only, instead of telling people that if nobody except the seller of whatever says X, then it's not worth mentioning, we're telling them that it's the wrong type of source. (We ought to be telling them both.)
- I still have a tab open to get back to you about our discussion, which was about two weeks ago. (It's been a bit busy recently, as you can imagine. ;-) WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:47, 21 June 2015 (UTC)
- Sounds good! I’ll start making some edits (so, to specify: add belief/efficacy distinction, move FAQ, go through the essays). Let me know if I’ve misunderstood or if you want to discuss any change I make. There’s no rush - I keep a lot of tabs open myself. MEDDUE also sounds like an idea I would probably support. Sunrise (talk) 09:13, 23 June 2015 (UTC)
- Both of those pages should be assumed to be in the "first draft" stage. If you want, you can blow them up and start over. I've been looking at a couple of things (e.g., "what the treatment or drug is") and wondering how much I'm going to regret them, but I can't figure out how to separate the good from the bad. I can't even give you clear examples of what would be good and bad; I just have a sense of dispute-inducing foreboding around it. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:44, 23 June 2015 (UTC)
- Sounds good! I’ll start making some edits (so, to specify: add belief/efficacy distinction, move FAQ, go through the essays). Let me know if I’ve misunderstood or if you want to discuss any change I make. There’s no rush - I keep a lot of tabs open myself. MEDDUE also sounds like an idea I would probably support. Sunrise (talk) 09:13, 23 June 2015 (UTC)
- By the way, you've made Aaron very happy with the questions you posted to Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Gradually enabling VisualEditor for new accounts. He's replied over at Meta, and I'm sure he would be happy to hear from you again. WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:36, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
Your message on my talk page re Afc
Hi, thanks for your message re my decline of Draft:Culinary tourism in India. I actually wasn't talking about the sources (although these would actually be relevant and I do make a judgement call very frequently when I review), but the way the article was constructed in a non neutral way. The lede, for instance: "Culinary tourism or food tourism is a fast growing sector in Indian tourism industry[1] and is attracting an ever increasing number of tourists from all over the world.[2] Due to sheer variety of cuisines and unique culinary experiences available in India, culinary tourism is getting attention from government[3] as well as private agencies[4] as a focus area.[5]" didn't really come over as neutral or encyclopaedic – bearing in mind also that I had checked the sources and they didn't support the text adequately. Even if the sources were watertight, you would have to clarify that this was a quote/description from a sound source, for instance, Baedeker has said that "due to the sheer variety", and so on. My decline was for advertising, which I would say is a fair summation of the text as it stands because it does read like a travel puff piece. I'm very happy to discuss this if you are making a point I haven't understood properly. Thanks for your note and best wishes. Libby norman (talk) 23:10, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
- Hi Libby, I think you were right to decline the article. (Actually, it's a good candidate for transwiki-ing to Wikivoyage:. What you wrote was, "Please check out guidance on referencing as all material that might be challenged must have a solid reference from an unbiased source. Unbiased means a source not promoting culinary tourism in India." The problem is, if the user actually reads WP:V and WP:RS, then he's going to learn that "a solid reference from an unbiased source" is explicitly not required by our guidance on referencing. The article should be neutral in tone, but the sources can be just as biased as they want. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:21, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
- Hi, and thanks for your message. Well I think you make a fair point, but the decline reasoning was not, hopefully, confusing to the article's creator – we haven't heard that they didn't understand it. By unbiased, I meant neutral and reliable – there is contradicatory advice throughout Wiki, but the broad understanding I've encountered (and use myself) is no self-published sources and no excessively promotional sources. Indeed, I've seen or been involved in endless debates where sources have been challenged on the two points above. The key words here were: "material that might be challenged". So a source for 'it exists/is here' might not be, but 'it's the greatest tourist destination ever' might be. As ever, it depends on context and balance/breadth of references. I've used adverts in articles I've written – invariably historic and used as a source to define a date/point in time when something was done or made, so there are no hard and fast rules does come into play also. Context is everything. You are quite right – this would be a potential candidate for Wikivoyage. Libby norman (talk) 08:27, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
- I know there have been many disputes over "non-neutral" sources. I even know that "non-neutral source" often means "source whose POV I disagree with". These disputes happen because WP:Nobody reads the directions, because if they actually read Wikipedia:Neutral point of view#Bias in sources or WP:BIASED, then they wouldn't go around repeating the rumor that "excessively promotional sources" are disallowed by any policy. (If you'll let years of cynicism show through, then I'll agree that we'll still have all of those disputes; the only real differences is that the disputants would be required to make up a better complaint.)
- Ditto for self-published sources. Self-published sources are (sometimes) permitted for verifying information, including information that might be challenged. By the way, all corporate websites are self-published (because the corporation writes and publishes said website "itself", which makes it a "self"-published source), so if you look at either the actual rules or the actual practice, you'll see that there are some limits, but no prohibition, on WP:SPS sources. We actually want to use self-published, "promotional" sources in some cases, e.g., for verifying the specs on the latest computer by citing the self-published, entirely promotional sales materials published by its manufacturer. WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:24, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
- Hi, and thanks for your message. Well I think you make a fair point, but the decline reasoning was not, hopefully, confusing to the article's creator – we haven't heard that they didn't understand it. By unbiased, I meant neutral and reliable – there is contradicatory advice throughout Wiki, but the broad understanding I've encountered (and use myself) is no self-published sources and no excessively promotional sources. Indeed, I've seen or been involved in endless debates where sources have been challenged on the two points above. The key words here were: "material that might be challenged". So a source for 'it exists/is here' might not be, but 'it's the greatest tourist destination ever' might be. As ever, it depends on context and balance/breadth of references. I've used adverts in articles I've written – invariably historic and used as a source to define a date/point in time when something was done or made, so there are no hard and fast rules does come into play also. Context is everything. You are quite right – this would be a potential candidate for Wikivoyage. Libby norman (talk) 08:27, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
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- Hi WhatamIdoing, I'm going to have to go back and check all of these so I can quote them if needed – and, yes, cynicism is allowed. I have been working on the basis of no self-published (ie, subject's website, associated with subject) sources. My experience submitting articles in the early days was that these were always picked up, so I'm intrigued to see self-published computer specs are "wanted" in some instances. I enjoy the idea of "source whose POV I disagree with", which is so true. I would even venture to suggest that "I don't think this article should be on Wikipedia so I'm going to stick flags all over it" creeps in occasionally. I do a lot of work on the Fashion Project and in the early days got the distinct impression that one or two editors thought this a total irrelevance and/or every article was just going to be puffery. Granted, a lot of the articles weren't a good standard (a lot still aren't), but the subject area is not worthy?
- Sourcing is an issue that possibly enables a kind of systemic bias against pages on companies and organisations – so that many clearly exist and meet notability guidelines, but sourcing becomes a battle and their pages languish in a half-baked state and/or are littered with improve flags and banners. I've seen discussions where people have described the Daily Mail and LA Times as not valid sources – the first for being tabloid rag, the second for being local, even though both are newspapers that employ dozens of fact checkers/sub editors and in both instances references were clearly being used to support factual material in the company article. Of course, often company pages aren't helped by clumsy inhouse PR or paid contributor involvement that makes every future edit by anyone a focus of suspicion. This stalemate feeds into FA, GA and all the other gong stuff. It's far easier to get an article on a dead general, a lichen or a battle up to GA than anything found on high streets from Tokyo to London. There are 15 Brand pages on Wiki that have made it to FA, compared to 858 in Military History, which seems a bit unbalanced. Of course, the article rankings system seems to be applied in a variety of ways – I've ended up baffled although I have read the 1.0 classifications guidance many times. As a recent example, this article [1] was rated a start class and this one [2] a B class – the first one I created and I'm not in it for gongs, but does it count as incomplete with not enough reliable sources while the other one is a B? Libby norman (talk) 13:52, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
- Then we complicate matters even further, by accepting such sources for WP:V, but definitely not for WP:N. And then we dump our mishmash of policies all on the poor AFC reviewer (you!), wash our hands, and go complain about AFC having a backlog. I don't think we could make it any confusing or complicated if we tried. So: I'm glad that you're doing this work. Thanks. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:53, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
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An hypothesis
WAID: I know you to be interested in invented WP rules. You may then like to look at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language where I am defending the right of those (not I) who want to use the construct "an hypothesis" rather than "a hypothesis". There are those who would insist on the latter in WP. Myrvin (talk) 13:04, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
- I suspect that this is an WP:ENGVAR issue, but sadly I don't have time to look into it today, due to the VisualEditor re-enablement proposal. It does sound like exactly the kind of thing I like. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:56, 27 June 2015 (UTC)
Ayrveda
The current and recent restrictions on this article have been unusually severe, and we have to make that clear without going overboard. I think your latest version is very good. Short Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 01:06, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
What am I doing wrong
Can I pay someone to write what is acceptable and find the links to the work I am disabled It hurts my neck I need help Kitty Terry aka Kitty Woodson Terry (talk) 14:53, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
- Hi Kitty Terry aka Kitty Woodson Terry,
- Yes, it is possible to do this (although it might not be wise, and it is a bit complicated). You can ask for details at a page called WP:COIN.
- The first step, which you might want to do even before asking for more details, is to consider what has been published about you by journalists in the past, in sources like music magazines. The goal is to have enough information about you that someone who knows nothing at all could write multiple paragraphs about your life and career solely by using information published by independent journalists. This information does not have to be available online, but the "test" for inclusion excludes all information provided by or written by you, your record labels, or anyone associated with you. If the magazine articles that mention you are mostly passing mentions, namechecks, or routine coverage (for example, brief announcements that an album was released), then you might not want to bother pursuing it. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:06, 5 July 2015 (UTC)
Re: Wikimania
Thanks for the thought. If this project progresses, next year I may encourage other developers to join in Wikimania. But that's next year, many things may happen before. Cheers! --LFS (talk) 00:24, 16 July 2015 (UTC)
- I think that what you really want is a hackathon. There is usually one connected to Wikimania, but there is at least one more each year. The last one was a couple of months ago in Lyon, France. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:11, 16 July 2015 (UTC)
Belated Thanks
Re: RFC: Question on correct/preferred sourcing reg. the instance of A Prize Awarded to Person X. Appreciate your comment! DBWikis (talk) 16:40, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon
Hi. Would you be willing to help me with Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon? I just need help fleshing out the article. I'm not the world's best editor or writer and asking a female contrib like yourself to help with an article about female subjects might be a good idea. Paul Austin (talk) 20:06, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
- Thanks for the note. I don't know anything about the subject and I don't have time to take on any new projects. You might see whether anyone at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography has some ideas for you. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:22, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
Bullet points on Reference Desk
Hello WAID. I am having a discussion on Wikipedia talk:Reference desk. Some editors there like using what I call blobs - bullet points at the start of their contributions, mostly on Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language. I think it should be discouraged as a version of WP:SHOUT. Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines seems to agree, saying "Normally colons are used, not bullet points (although the latter are commonly used at AfD, CfD, etc.).", and makes a suggestion about editors "removing bullets from discussions ", but blob-users disagree. I haven't come across this practice before, so I was surprised by it. I also fancy I might have been threatened a bit: "Users editing the bullet points out of others' posts may be taken as a sign of unwarranted aggression ;)". Is there some arbitration that covers this sort of thing? Myrvin (talk) 17:37, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
- I'm not aware of any previous disputes like this. People generally take a live-and-let-live approach. Creating a list is not a form of shouting at people. Some people use a bullet to signal "here's my opinion, and others may disagree". In that case, they are hoping that you will provide your own "!vote" after theirs, just like people post their views but don't usually "discuss" at an AFD.
- It is useful to make the lists produce valid HTML. For the sake of people using screen readers, there should be no blank lines between any bulleted list or indented list (because using a colon to "indent" is actually MediaWiki markup for a different type of HTML list, called an association list), and you should avoid switching between them in the middle of a conversation. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:45, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
- Ah, this isn't the use of bullets in a list. - nothing wrong with those. This is apparently using a bullet to make my comment stand out from the others.
- Like this. It's also not a vote thing - just an ordinary contribution. I wondered at first If it was some special type of comment. But it turns out that it is used only by certain people. It was so odd to me I decided to question it. Not a good idea on the RDs. Myrvin (talk) 19:02, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
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- An example is this in Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language#Cell camera verb. We chug along quit happily without blobs, until a blob-user appears. Is this editor saying that his/her view is more important than everyone else's? What would it look like if everyone did the same thing? Myrvin (talk) 19:08, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
- Another is this in Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language#What is a gallon jug. Why should one contributor have a blob? Myrvin (talk) 19:12, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
Hello Myrvin. It may just be me, but having been here a while, I've never interpreted a bullet point (please stop using "blob", it's a bullet point) as a way of shouting over others. Have you got any evidence that this is actually the case or are you just surmising? Given the claims on your talkpage of your experience and works, I'm surprised by your edits. The Rambling Man (talk) 20:46, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
Sorry to have troubled you WAID. Please forget about it. I have surrendered, and apologised to RM. Myrvin (talk) 21:19, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
- I tend to agree with The Rambling Man: it's not shouting, and it's not an effort to make a comment seem more important. There are some much better ways of doing that, after all. ;-) WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:22, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
RfC: On Software Notability.
There is currently a RfC on the topic of software notability (whether consensus has changed or if the essay needs updating) at Wikipedia talk:Notability (software)#RfC: On Software Notability.. As you previously discussed on the topic I thought you might be interested. :) ηoian ‡orever ηew ‡rontiers 17:49, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
Minor grammatical point
I agree with you that this edit is an improvement, but I just thought I would mention that "this" is a pronoun, not a preposition. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 19:48, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
- Yes, you're right. I think that my fingers might be operating independently from my brain. ;-) WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:47, 23 July 2015 (UTC)
Invisalign
I apologize if I'm pestering you too much (I'm actually reading the comments about notability at the Village Pump now). I noticed that you are one of the more active contributors to Wikipedia:Conflicts of interest (medicine) and thought you may have the time/interest to contribute to a discussion here on an article where I have a disclosed COI. CorporateM (Talk) 02:13, 25 July 2015 (UTC)
RFC notification 1 August 2015
Hi. Since you participated in an earlier discussion on the same issue on the same page, please take a look at Wikipedia talk:Stand-alone lists#RFC: “Common selection criteria” ambiguity. If you choose to reply to this notice, please do so on my Talk page. (Don’t worry, my IP address is static.) Thanks! —67.14.236.50 (talk) 16:20, 1 August 2015 (UTC)
Famous web search engine listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Famous web search engine. Since you had some involvement with the Famous web search engine redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. GZWDer (talk) 08:29, 31 August 2015 (UTC)
RfC
Perhaps you would like to read the RfC again. Your contribs to Med are excellent, on the other hand I don't think your years-long persistent wikilawyering over each and every issue is conducive to our collaborative spirit. Regards --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 04:36, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
- I don't think it is the least bit "wikilawyering" to object to your baseless description that there is a "the recommended number of perfect, non redirect/dab articles required for the Autopatrolled flag". There is not and has never been any requirement for any "perfect" articles anywhere on Wikipedia.
- I also don't think that it is "wikilawyering" to note that this has been discussed and supported four separate times already, and that PGBOLD directly says that if you personally don't object to the change, then you personally shouldn't be reverting it. Opening an RFC is fine; adding a disputed-inline tag is fine; actually reverting that which you have no objection to is bad. WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:56, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
A Barnstar for you!
The Socratic Barnstar | ||
For always coming up with wise and compelling arguments. While looking through discussions, yours is usually the one I highlight and read. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 15:23, 13 September 2015 (UTC) |
- Thank you, Ugog. It's very kind of you. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:10, 14 September 2015 (UTC)
Erika Schwartz
I've removed the (paid?) contributions of sockpuppeteer TejaswaChaudhary from the article which required removing your contribution. I think most of your change was also cleaning up his text. Could you please check the article and make sure you're OK with the result. Thanks, Bazj (talk) 08:23, 25 September 2015 (UTC)
- Thanks for the note, Bazj. I am entirely satisfied with your work there. WhatamIdoing (talk) 14:15, 25 September 2015 (UTC)
WikiProject Women's health
Hi! Since you are a member of WikiProject Women's health, I would like to hear your input on a current proposal on the talk page. Thank you! Keilana (talk) 18:04, 11 October 2015 (UTC)
- Keilana, I don't actually consider myself a member, so I'll let you all sort it out among yourselves. But as a long-time member of WP:COUNCIL, let me suggest that splitting small projects is usually deadly. If you choose to split anyway, then you should consider turning the results into WP:MEDTF groups ("WikiProject Ob/Gyn" is almost the same thing as the "Reproductive health" task force anyway) ...and you should look through (lack of) activity on the existing task forces' talk pages to see why I recommend against splitting. You've only got a few people commenting regularly on your talk page, and if you split, you'll have even fewer. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:39, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
MOS:IDENTITY is being revisited: How should Wikipedia refer to transgender individuals before and after their transition?
You are being contacted because you contributed to a recent discussion of MOS:IDENTITY that closed with the recommendation that Wikipedia's policy on transgender individuals be revisited.
Two threads have been opened at the Village Pump:Policy. The first addresses how the Manual of Style should instruct editors to refer to transgender people in articles about themselves (which name, which pronoun, etc.). The second addresses how to instruct editors to refer to transgender people when they are mentioned in passing in other articles. Your participation is welcome. Darkfrog24 (talk) 02:44, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
Image Policy
Greetings. You made this change [[3]] to the Manual of Style for Images. "Directly" is the key word here. It somewhat contradicts WP:IUP, which states, "The purpose of an image is to increase readers' understanding of the article's subject matter, usually by directly depicting people, things, activities, and concepts described in the article. The relevant aspect of the image should be clear and central." Since you made the change (after a discussion), how strictly do you interpret "directly?" Regards Tapered (talk) 10:51, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
- Hello, Tapered. I interpret "directly" to mean that if the subject of an article is a firearm, and that if this type of firearm was once used in a crime, and that if a memorial plaque was made about the crime, and that if plaque does not mention the firearm at all, then the article about the firearm should not contain an image of a plaque about the crime.
- However, if you were talking about a plaque that actually mentioned a type of firearm, then the outcome would be different. For example, there's a historical marker for the birthplace of the Tommygun inventor, and that could be included in either the article about the firearm, the article about the inventor, or the birthplace, since both the invention and the inventor are explicitly mentioned on the plaque. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:19, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
-
- You did your homework. Thank you. I'll retire the RFC. I disagree with that policy, but really don't care enough to pursue the matter. I think the Manual of Style and Image Use pages need to be in agreement. By its very nature, Wikipedia, like any society, is vulnerable to organized ideologues and pedantry. IMO, the language in the Manual of Style, and your interpretation are pedantic/narrow. Regards Tapered (talk) 20:56, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
- I don't think that those two pages really disagree, but I can see why you (and other reasonable editors) might come to the opposite conclusion.
- The image in question is not present in three other languages of Wikipedia, in their articles about the crime: Korean (ko.wikipedia.org), Russian (ru.wikipedia.org), and Simple English (simple.wikipedia.org). WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:12, 13 October 2015 (UTC)
- You did your homework. Thank you. I'll retire the RFC. I disagree with that policy, but really don't care enough to pursue the matter. I think the Manual of Style and Image Use pages need to be in agreement. By its very nature, Wikipedia, like any society, is vulnerable to organized ideologues and pedantry. IMO, the language in the Manual of Style, and your interpretation are pedantic/narrow. Regards Tapered (talk) 20:56, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
Gentle, gentle, gentle
When a new editor or otherwise apt-to-err soul slews his/er errors in your path. (Not me.) Cheers. Le Prof 50.240.131.212 (talk) 19:04, 13 October 2015 (UTC)
Is Poison Candy your personal article?
Why did you do such a substantial reversion, that was in substance very scholarly? Will look here for an answer before I cause trouble, but the article was, and is again, back to being a mess. Leprof 7272 (talk) 16:01, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
- I have reviewed in detail the edit that you did, and am reverting it. The content added may not agree with your desire to keep the article biased in a particular direction, but the information added was all sourced, and thoroughly so, and so is not only permissible, but improves the article from a scholarly perspective. I am reverting, and if you re-revert, this will go immediately to an administrative venue. Le Prof Leprof 7272 (talk) 16:05, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
- I did such a substantial reversion because it does not accurately reflect the sources. I believe that this article, like any other, "belongs to" any editor who has actually read the relevant sources and is trying to accurately represent the POV of the majority of sources' as being the mainstream POV. This means, for example, not trying to dismiss or minimize the conclusions of scholars in the field. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:57, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
5 Million: We celebrate your contribution
We couldn't have done it without you | |
Well, maybe. Eventually. But the encyclopedia would not be as good. Celebrate 7&6=thirteen (☎) 13:41, 1 November 2015 (UTC) |
Tom powers Musician
U responded to me yes I am confused I added information about Tom powers the musician that wrote the New Hampshire state song and ride and shine Was there ready as article on him? If do I of not need to write more Please let me know Joann powers Joannpowers (talk) 02:19, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
relief and thanks
whatamidoing, your comments on Wikipedia talk:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) are awesome. Thank you ! I dont think i have crossed paths with you elsewhere. I am so glad to read that another person thinks similarly, and speaks more eloquently than I could. you cut through the fog, I love it. now dont tell me you are part of the WP medicalproject... :-)--Wuerzele (talk) 04:55, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
- It appears that I am bound to disappoint you: WikiProject Medicine is my favorite group of editors. I believe that we do excellent work (with occasional problems ;-) overall. I have spent years working with them, and particularly with refining and expanding both MEDRS and MEDMOS. I believe that MEDRS needs to set a clear, reasonably high standard and apply to all WP:Biomedical information on all of Wikipedia.
- I also believe that MEDRS needs to be interpreted by people who are using good judgment instead of mindlessly ticking boxes on a checklist, and that it needs to help some editors resist their impulses towards overmedicalization, and that resolving some of its structural problems is becoming more urgent as our population of editors has evolved over time.
- I suppose that I ought to go read through the wall o' text at MEDRS soon (I haven't looked at it for more than 24 hours now), but it's past midnight in my timezone, so it will have to wait. WhatamIdoing (talk) 09:11, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
Village pump proposal
Hi WhatamIdoing, thanks for your support and thoughts on the VP proposal re talk pages. Would it be possible for you or one of your colleagues to make some of the people involved in ClueBot programming aware of the discussion, so we could have their input on what they think it would be realistically possible to achieve?
I've often marvelled at the sophistication of ClueBot, and was hoping that an AI talk page monitor could in time become similarly clever at identifying real problem edits, without generating too many false positives. Indeed, if a good open-source WMF tool were eventually to result, this could potentially be used by other sites wishing to adopt such a system as well. As some have proposed, pilots could be restricted to pages known to have severe problems at present. Andreas JN466 16:46, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
- Andreas, I think that it's just a matter of leaving a message for User:Cobi or User:Rich Smith, or at User talk:ClueBot Commons. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:21, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
Haitian wikipedia
I may have found someone willing to be an administrator on the haitian wikipedia. I still would really like to create more content on that wikipedia but won't do it until they get someone who can block. Best Regards,
- Barbara (WVS) (talk) 14:36, 28 November 2015 (UTC)
Nomination of Courtship disorder for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Courtship disorder is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.
The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Courtship disorder until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.
Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. — James Cantor (talk) 17:10, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
Problem with donation box removal
I clear my cookies often, so I cannot get rid of the donation message. Might as well block it with Adblock Plus. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mocker7guy (talk • contribs) 01:28, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
- Are you normally logged in? If so, then go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets and choose "Suppress display of fundraiser banners" (item #12 in the first section at the moment). WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:01, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
Reply to Problem with donation box removal
I'm not logged in all the time, so, now what — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mocker7guy (talk • contribs) 21:53, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
- AFAIK, if you clear cookies and you don't log in, then there isn't any reliable way for the system to know that you have already seen the banner. Most of them stop around the end of the year, so you may have to wait it out. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:04, 15 December 2015 (UTC)
Season's Greetings
To You and Yours!
FWiW Bzuk (talk) 15:48, 19 December 2015 (UTC)
Happy Holidays!
-
Use {{subst:Season's Greetings}} to send this message--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 19:22, 20 December 2015 (UTC)
Yo Ho Ho
Thanks for all you have done this year :-) Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 22:53, 21 December 2015 (UTC)
Best wishes for the holidays...
Season's Greetings | ||
Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday Season, and all best wishes for the New Year! Adoration of the Shepherds (Poussin) is my Wiki-Christmas card to all for this year. Johnbod (talk) 10:26, 22 December 2015 (UTC) |
Seasons Greetings
|
|
I wish you and your family Seasons Greetings and a very Happy New Year Gandydancer (talk) 18:21, 23 December 2015 (UTC) |
Merry Christmas
Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year... |
Happy New Year, WhatamIdoing!
-
Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.
Happy New Year, WhatamIdoing!
(Charles R. Knight, 1922)
|
(Unknown artist, Norway, 1916)
|
Thanks
Just saying thank you for your thoughtful input at Talk:Equine-assisted therapy. Definite need for multiple views there and many eyes. Montanabw(talk) 22:17, 15 January 2016 (UTC) And your continued look at the actual article editing disputed language would also be useful. Montanabw(talk) 04:00, 16 January 2016 (UTC)
Spring clean of the Policies and Guidelines page
Thanks very much for having a go at cleaning up the process part of that policy. Having the policy on looking after policies and guidelines in a nice and tidy state can't harm in helping encourage them to be done well! Dmcq (talk) 12:23, 17 January 2016 (UTC)
- I'm glad you like the results so far. I'm not planning to do anything else there (for a while); there's nothing seriously wrong, so there's no rush, and it's a good idea to let even inconsequential copyedits sit for a while until people have had plenty of time to look them over and decide which ones they like. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:07, 17 January 2016 (UTC)
Template:Goal
Could you fix {{Goal}}? SLBedit (talk) 23:10, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
- I don't know. Can you tell me what was wrong with it? WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:39, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
- Problem solved. SLBedit (talk) 00:19, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
- Just in case this comes up again, Mooeypoo's the best person for weird TemplateData stuff. She wrote a lot of it. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:15, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
- Problem solved. SLBedit (talk) 00:19, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
Hip pain
Hip pain, now no longer a red link (as per your discussion on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine/Archive 41. Ta da! (It's really just a disambiguation page, but I hope you like it anyway.) KDS4444Talk 20:16, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
Tech News: 2016-08
18:22, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
Expert attention required
Hi What. Stumbled upon Fetal intervention and slapped a couple of templates on it, one of which asks for a Medical expert. Seems like your kind of thing :-)
P.S. - Your talk page is over 100000 bytes ;-) fredgandt 19:36, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
DYK
Hi WhatamIdoing! Thanks for the DYK suggestion and posting the note at Wikiproject Math. I've never paid much attention to DYK, but I see there's a 7-day limit so I'm guessing that it's not likely to happen at this point. (I didn't expect this to be controversial at all, or for editors to be this interested, though I guess I should really have known enough to avoid the comparisons to Bayesianism. If you've been following the discussion you'll know there's a couple of other things as well, and it's also entirely possible I'm misunderstanding some fundamental issue - though I don't think so.) But if you happen to know any articles in medical statistics or related subjects that deserve a rework, I'd be interested to hear about them, since it's a topic I've been spending extra time on recently. :-) Sunrise (talk) 10:08, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
- The seven-day deadline is for the nomination, and it doesn't have to be perfect at that time.
- I've been wondering whether NNT needs another review. It's been a few years since I saw a major effort on it. Beyond that, I'm not sure which ones are (or should be ;-) used the most. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:13, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
VisualEditor News #1—2016
Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter
Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving support for Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Indic, and Han scripts, and improving the single edit tab interface.
Recent changes
You can switch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing. This function is available to nearly all editors at most wikis except the Wiktionaries and Wikisources.
Many local feedback pages for the visual editor have been redirected to mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.
You can now re-arrange columns and rows in tables, as well as copying a row, column or any other selection of cells and pasting it in a new location.
The formula editor has two options: you can choose "Quick edit" to see and change only the LaTeX code, or "Edit" to use the full tool. The full tool offers immediate preview and an extensive list of symbols.
Future changes
The single edit tab project will combine the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab. This is similar to the system already used on the mobile website. (T102398) Initially, the "Edit" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as an account preference for logged-in editors, and as a cookie for logged-out users. Logged-in editors will have these options in the Editing tab of Special:Preferences:
- Remember my last editor,
- Always give me the visual editor if possible,
- Always give me the wikitext editor, and
- Show me both editor tabs. (This is the state for people using the visual editor now.)
The visual editor uses the same search engine as Special:Search to find links and files. This search will get better at detecting typos and spelling mistakes soon. These improvements to search will appear in the visual editor as well.
The visual editor will be offered to all editors at most "Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next few months. The developers would like to know how well the visual editor works in your language. They particularly want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect the following languages: Japanese, Korean, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Thai, Aramaic and others.
Let's work together
- Please try out the newest version of the single edit tab on test2.wikipedia.org. You may need to restore the default preferences (at the bottom of test2wiki:Special:Preferences) to see the initial prompt for options. Were you able to find a preference setting that will work for your own editing? Did you see the large preferences dialog box when you started editing an article there?
- Can you read and type in Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Indic, or Han scripts? Language engineer David Chan needs help from people who often type in these languages. Please see the instructions at mw:VisualEditor/IME Testing#What to test if you can help. Report your results on wiki (Korean – Japanese – all languages).
- Learn how to improve the "automagical" citoid referencing system in the visual editor, by creating Zotero translators for popular sources in your language! Join the Tech Talk about "Automated citations in Wikipedia: Citoid and the technology behind it" with Sebastian Karcher on 29 February 2016.
If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thanks!
– Whatamidoing (WMF) 17:46, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors!
- please help translate this message into the local language
The Cure Award | |
In 2015 you were one of the top 300 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs, and we would love to collaborate further. |
Thanks again :) -- Doc James along with the rest of the team at Wiki Project Med Foundation 03:59, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
Tech News: 2016-09
20:12, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
Windows Technical Support listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Windows Technical Support. Since you had some involvement with the Windows Technical Support redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. - Champion (talk) (contribs) (Formerly TheChampionMan1234) 00:48, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
How to help in Alcoholics Anonymous
First of all, I would like to thank you for your contributions to Alcoholics Anonymous. That said, I did have to remove the references to the references which are non-peer-reviewed popular press articles. The reason being Wikipedia policy, as per WP:MEDPOP.
However, your contributions are welcome. We encourage people to read peer-reviewed literature about Alcoholics Anonymous and summarize it in the article. For example, the article has had a citation for Humphreys, K., Blodgett, J. C. y Wagner, T. H. (2014) in here for a while; it is a very recent (2014) article showing how increased AA attendance results in less drinking. In fact, this paper is more recent than the non-peer-reviewed Lance Dodes book you cited, and refutes the central thesis of that book: It shows how the AA program itself (and not self-selection bias) helps alcoholics drink less.
Indeed, this paper, despite being recent, has already been cited 9 times:
- http://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/6/1/58/htm "As long-tenured scholars of the very varied literature on A.A., we find ourselves sick and tired of hearing too often, over too many years, observers (they can hardly be called “students”) of Alcoholics Anonymous decrying its lack of scientifically demonstrated value and its apparent reliance on some nebulous entity called “spirituality”. Some claim that the A.A. fellowship and program lack “proven results”, not realizing how that assertion evidences their own lamentable lack of familiarity with the available scholarly literature on A.A. [1,2,3,4]"
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acer.12800/abstract?userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage= (Paywall, abstract does not mention this study)
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1077722915000887 (Paywall)
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4753068/ "A recent analysis, however, using instrumental variables models to analyze data from six randomized clinical trials found that for most individuals, AA attendance was associated with increasing days of abstinence at 3- and 15-month follow-up"
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4702510/ "we note the debate about whether observed correlations between AA participation and better outcomes reflects AA’s effectiveness or are an artifact of self-selection, which has spurred progressively more sophisticated and rigorous statistical analyses. The major result is that AA participation has a genuine benefit that is not attributable to self-selection bias"
- http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07347324.2015.1018784 (Paywall)
- http://annals.org/article.aspx?doi=10.7326/AITC201601050&an_fo_ed (Paywall)
- http://psyjournals.ru/files/79344/exp_2015_n3_copyright_Mendelevich.pdf (In Russian)
- http://www.adicciones.es/index.php/adicciones/article/viewFile/748/716 (In Spanish, which I will translate) This article is an editorial, not a peer-reviewed paper. The one sentence references to Humphreys 2014 is "Otros estudios señalen que acudir dos días a la semana produce al menos 3 días más de abstinencia de alcohol al mes": "Other studies show that attending [AA meetings] two days a week produces at least three days more of abstinence a month"
However, four of the articles are behind paywalls; you may have access to these articles. The information we have from scholarly articles is in a lot of ways outdated.
One issue the article has had is that people with a biased agenda against AA have put in nothing but a combinations of peer-reviewed articles which are critical of AA, despite being out of date (Brandsma 1980 has been a really popular one to cite), popular press articles critical of AA (such as, yes, the 2015 Glaser article and the 2014 Dodes book), or even unreliable self-published books (Such as More Revealed by Ken Ragge).
Information from recent peer-reviewed articles about AA, either for or against, would do a lot to improve this article.
Thank you, again, for your contributions to Alcoholics Anonymous
Defendingaa (talk) 13:25, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
- Hello, Defendingaa. I believe that you will find that I'm thoroughly familiar with WP:MEDRS. But if you would like to enforce it to the letter, would you be so kind as to go through the article and blanking all of the pro-AA claims that are sourced only to the organization's self-published, non-peer-reviewed website? WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:52, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
Tech News: 2016-10
20:24, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
Template:Sfn/doc
How many other templates "have information about how unpopular their choice is"? Why should this one be singled out? --Redrose64 (talk) 16:08, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
- How many other templates are fairly often used to unilaterally change the citation style merely because one editor has a personal preference for it?
- I think that it's helpful for its proponents to remember that most editors aren't familiar with, or actively dislike, this particular template. At worst, WP:Nobody reads the directions and the information is harmless; at best, it will encourage proponents to remember that they're in the minority and need to build consensus for the use. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:31, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
- Some editors do indeed dislike it; to me, your comment give the impression that you are one of those who dislikes it. I don't like
{{rp}}
, but I don't alter its documentation to indicate my dislike. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:39, 8 March 2016 (UTC)- I'm not fond of sfn, but I recognize and honor both its value for certain kinds of articles and the enthusiasm that a very small minority of very good editors have for it. {{rp}} is an interesting comparison. That template's /doc page has contained a ===Warning=== section since 2008, which goes rather beyond providing a single accurate statistic about its lack of popularity. WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:32, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
- Some editors do indeed dislike it; to me, your comment give the impression that you are one of those who dislikes it. I don't like
Nomination of List of top-selling candy brands for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article List of top-selling candy brands is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.
The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of top-selling candy brands until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.
Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Rathfelder (talk) 19:02, 11 March 2016 (UTC)