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The Signpost: 25 July 2011

• Wikimedian in Residence interview: Wikimedian in Residence on Open Science: an interview with Daniel Mietchen

• News and notes: Oral citations; the state of global development; a gentler Huggle; brief news

• In the news: Open access clash with copyright; rising reader satisfaction; the wiki-correlates of geopolitical instability; brief news

• Recent research: Talk page interactions; Wikipedia at the Open Knowledge Conference; Summer of Research

• WikiProject report: Musing with WikiProject Philosophy

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: New case opened; hyphens and dashes update; motion

• Technology report: Protocol-relative URLs; GSoC updates; bad news for SMW fans; brief news

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 22:37, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

DC-area Meetup, Saturday, August 6

National Archives Backstage Pass - Who should come? You should. Really.
	On Saturday, August 6, the National Archives is hosting a Wikipedia meetup, backstage pass tour, and edit-a-thon in College Park, Maryland. Meet staff and fellow Wikipedians, go behind the scenes at the National Archives, help digitize documents, and edit together! Dominic·t 21:19, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 01 August 2011

• News and notes: Wikimania; why Board of Trustees elections attract few votes; brief news

• In the news: Consensus of Wikipedia authors questioned about Shakespeare authorship; 10 biggest edit wars on Wikipedia; brief news

• Research interview: The Huggle Experiment: interview with the research team

• WikiProject report: Little Project, Big Heart — WikiProject Croatia

• Featured content: Featured pictures is back in town

• Arbitration report: Proposed decision submitted for one case

• Technology report: Developers descend on Haifa; wikitech-l discussions; brief news

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National Archives Backstage Pass

Not joking about the chocolate!

This is a reminder that the National Archives Backstage Pass is tomorrow at 11 am. National Archives-themed chocolates and temporary tattoos await! Also, historical documents. :-) Please see the meetup page for updated information on transportation, security, and other other event details. Dominic·t 22:24, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 08 August 2011

• Wikimania: Seventh annual Wikimedia conference concluded in Haifa, Israel

• News and notes: Wikimania a success; board letter controversial; and evidence showing bitten newbies don't stay

• In the news: Israeli news focuses on Wikimania; worldwide coverage of contributor decline and gender gap; brief news

• WikiProject report: Shooting the breeze with WikiProject Firearms

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: Manipulation of BLPs case opened; one case comes to a close

• Technology report: Wikimania technology roundup; brief news

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 23:10, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 August 2011

• Women and Wikipedia: New Research, WikiChix

• News and notes: Chapter funding and what skeptics and Latter Day Saints have in common

• In the news: Wikipedia a "sausage fest", Chicago Wikipedians ("the people you've probably plagiarized"), and other silly season stories

• WikiProject report: The Oregonians

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: Abortion case opened, two more still in progress

• Technology report: Forks, upload slowness and mobile redirection

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 08:34, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Scans

I've started. You can check the progress at commons:Special:ListFiles/GcSwRhIc. Having the thumbnail generation problem which is frustrating. GcSwRhIc (talk) 20:21, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Awesome. They look great! Fortunately, this is the kind of thing that, once the raw data is up, people are going to be jumping all over it to convert it to a usable JPG for articles, balance the color levels, etc. Just getting the raw TIFF uploaded is 90% of the battle; others will handle everything else. Let me know if there are any TIFFs that you don't end up uploading for whatever reason. I'd still like to see them, and could provide you with FTP access for a single bulk upload (which is much less tedious than uploading and tagging individual files to Commons). And I could handle uploading to Commons and tagging on those as well. --Cyde Weys 20:58, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

Time consuming yes, but I've been prepping the templates and categories for each of the files while one is uploading, so from now on I'll pretty much watch a movie and check on the uploads from time to time. There is one of the Iowa I'm not going to upload as it's a near duplicate of the full side view which is already uploaded and not quite as good. I also wasn't planning on upload the captions we scanned. GcSwRhIc (talk) 21:22, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

You found boxes of WWII battleship construction photos? Dude. This is one of those times I wish I wasn't so far away from everything. Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 04:16, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Actually, Ed, I've been back in the storage area. It would be more accurate to say several shelves full of boxes of battleship construction photos. ;-) Also, all of the files that were uploaded as of a couple of days ago have already been cataloged, and will be live in the online catalog when it syncs next week! If you are still interested in offering any development help for the API, Cyde, please send us an e-mail at socialmedianara.gov. I know they'd love to hear from you. Dominic·t 19:29, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Sounds like we need to put together a Battleship Construction Photographs Convention. Grab 'em all down out of the Archives, have people come from all over with scanners, and digitize and upload every single one of them over the course of that weekend. --Cyde Weys 22:01, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

That sounds awesome. Want to do it next month? :-) (Not even joking.) Also, I am blogging about our event. Let me know if you'd like me to use your real name or account name in picture captions, or if you'd rather be left unmentioned. The text of the draft blog post is at User:Dominic/Backstage Pass; feel free to make edits or suggestions. Dominic·t 20:22, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Potential Cydebot problems

There have been a few problems with Cydebot and the CFD pages - on some occasions it starts implementing a change but breaks off midway and then for a few hours operates as though there are no pending tasks of CFD/W.

A bigger one came a couple of days ago when it kept ignoring entries on the move/merge list yet when I tried processing them as Speedies it easily accepted them.

Not sure if these are bugs or something in specific categories. Timrollpickering (talk) 14:09, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up. I'm looking into it now. --Cyde Weys 14:14, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

I didn't specifically find anything wrong? It looks like all of the category changes were eventually handled? Was it just that they weren't done in the order you expected? --Cyde Weys 15:43, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 22 August 2011

• News and notes: Girl Geeks edit while they dine, candidates needed for forthcoming steward elections, image referendum opens

• In the news: Journalist regrets not checking citation, PR firms issue advice on how to "survive" Wikipedia (but U.S. Congressman caught red-handed)

• WikiProject report: Images in Motion – WikiProject Animation

• Featured content: JJ Harrison on avian photography

• Arbitration report: After eleven moves, name for islands now under arbitration

• Technology report: Engineering report, sprint, and more testers needed

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 23:25, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

The Apprentive??

What is The Apprentive? Of course, it's The Apprentice. Was this some kind of bug? It was your bot that made the edits from the category The Apprentice (UK TV Series) to The Apprentive (UK TV Series). Worth a look? Samjohn95 18:03, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

The bot appears down at the moment and the cleanup for this is at the top of the list for when the bot resumes. Vegaswikian (talk) 21:39, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Bot stopped?

Bot appears to have stopped working. Vegaswikian (talk) 21:35, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. The bot went down on account of a power loss caused by Hurricane Irene. I'll have the server back up in an hour or two. --Cyde Weys 21:50, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, the server was sitting stuck on an error in the BIOS during boot up. A simple reboot fixed it. All of the pending CFD changes have been processed now. --Cyde Weys 02:49, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 29 August 2011

• News and notes: Abuse filter on all Wikimedia sites; Foundation's report for July; editor survey results

• In the news: Wikipedia praised for disaster news coverage, scolded for left-wing bias; brief news

• Recent research: Article promotion by collaboration; deleted revisions; Wikipedia's use of open access; readers unimpressed by FAs; swine flu anxiety

• Opinion essay: How an attempt to answer one question turned into a quagmire

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Tennis

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: Four existing cases

• Technology report: The bugosphere, new mobile site and MediaWiki 1.18 close in on deployment

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 07:54, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 05 September 2011

• News and notes: 24,000 votes later and community position on image filter still unclear; first index of editor satisfaction appears positive

• In the news: Britannica and Wikipedia like "apples and chairs"; should anyone who's anyone get an article?; and why fighting and barriers to editing may be useful after all

• WikiProject report: Riding with WikiProject London Transport

• Sister projects: Wiki Loves Monuments 2011

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Opinion essay: The copyright crisis, and why we should care

• Arbitration report: BLP case closed; Cirt-Jayen466 nearly there; AUSC reshuffle

• Technology report: Pencils down in Google Summer of Code, August analysed and integrated HTTPS support in action

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 23:39, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Bot switched away

Another case of this - the bot started a long list of moves with this edit but then after this one it stopped processing them and for the last fifty minutes has only been doing the list updates. Is this a scheduled downtime on the CFD tasks or likely an error? Timrollpickering (talk) 14:50, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

And a minute after I posted that the bot resumed on the categories. Timrollpickering (talk) 15:11, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

There's a whole lot of things that could potentially go wrong, including everything from transient network issues to Wikipedia load issues (the bot will shut itself down if maxlag is too high). The bot cronjob does run thrice hourly (though not if it's already running), and on the next run it will pick right up where it left off on the previous run. Now I know it's not ideal in terms of making all of its edits as quickly as possible, because its retry behavior is pretty lax, but that's the way it's been running since day one.

Anyway, I just looked in the bot's logs, and it was getting a bunch of HTTPError: 504 Gateway Time-out errors, with exponentially increasing retry timeouts that topped out at 16 minutes. I can't say if that error was with WMF's API or an issue on my server's end, but that's what happened. --Cyde Weys 20:38, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 12 September 2011

• News and notes: Foundation reports on research, Kenya trip, Mumbai Wikiconference; Canada, Hungary and Estonia; English Wikinews forked

• In the news: 9/11 coverage, Wikimedia hypothetically rebranded and Wikipedia golf 2.0

• WikiProject report: Politics in the Pacific: WikiProject Australian Politics

• Featured content: Wikipedians explain two new featured pictures

• Arbitration report: Ohconfucius sanctions removed, Cirt desysopped 6:5 and a call for CU/OS applications

• Technology report: What is: agile development? and new mobile site goes live

• Opinion essay: The Walrus and the Carpenter

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 23:22, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 September 2011

• From the editor: Changes to The Signpost

• News and notes: Ushahidi research tool announced, Citizendium five years on: success or failure?, and Wikimedia DC officially recognised

• In the news: Wikipedia: yesterday's news? Calls for women, doctors, and scholars of humanities; Wales makes Wikimedia work "look easy"

• Sister projects: On the Wikinews fork

• WikiProject report: Back to school

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: ArbCom narrowly rejects application to open new case

• Technology report: MediaWiki 1.18 deployment begins, the alleged "injustice" of WMF engineering policy, and Wikimedians warned of imminent fix to magic word

• Popular pages: Article stats for the English Wikipedia in the last year

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 09:29, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 September 2011

• Opinion essay: The global mission, the image filter and the "German question"

• Recent research: Top female Wikipedians, reverted newbies, link spam, social influence on admin votes, Wikipedians' weekends, WikiSym previews

• News and notes: WMF strikes down enwiki consensus, academic journal partnerships, and eyebrows raised over minors editing porn-related content

• In the news: Sockpuppeting journalist recants, search dominance threatened, new novels replete with Wikipedia references

• WikiProject report: A project in overdrive: WikiProject Automobiles

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: "Broadly construed" explained, voting begins on Senkaku Islands case, invitation to comment on CU/OS candidates

• Technology report: 1.18 deployment on track, "mythical" Git migration scheduled, editor decline statistics improved

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 01:07, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Cydebot - cut and past moves and ignoring consensus

Per [1] - the closing decision was to move and leavbe redirects - your bot, instead has ignored this, carrying out cut and paste moves, losing article history anhd attribution - pleaser stop.Nigel Ish (talk) 19:27, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

DC-area Meetup, Saturday, October 8

National Archives Backstage Pass - Who should come? You should. Really.
	You are invited to the National Archives in College Park for a special backstage pass and scanathon meetup with Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, on Saturday, October 8. Go behind the scenes and into the stacks at the National Archives, help digitize documents, and edit together! Free catered lunch provided! Dominic·t 16:04, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Research Advice re General People's Committee Article

Dear Cycde,

I am writing a research paper on the history of Libyan political personnel and came across a wiki article you contributed to, which I translated from Arabic to English using google. The article is entitled “General People’s Committee” and can be accessed as follows: http://ar.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/اللجنة_الشعبية_العامة This article is exactly what I’m looking for, but there is a historical hole from 1990 – 2006. Do you have any idea why these dates are missing from the article? Do you have any information on this topic pertaining to 1990 – 2006 or know of any other sources I can consult to find the missing information? I have to submit my paper to my professor by Monday morning, so if you could prove any help at all, I would truly appreciate it! Please feel free to contact me directly via e-mail at agreen789@yahoo.com.

Thank you in advance for your time and hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely, Ann Green --AGreen789 (talk) 19:44, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Aircraft hyphenated categories

Can you look in on this discussion and this list I created and weigh in on what you think should be done?--Mike Selinker (talk) 02:54, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

• I've dropped all those aircraft categories on Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working/Large, with hopes that Cydebot can handle creating all the new categories and making redirects from the old categories. I've also asked the owner of Russbot for assistance.--Mike Selinker (talk) 15:08, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
  • What has to happen to start Cydebot on the /Large task?--Mike Selinker (talk) 16:34, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

I just started a run on /Large. It's messy though. There are a lot of categories that are applied through templates. --Cyde Weys 17:44, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Saturday at Archives 2

Hi, thanks for the offer of a ride; I will definitely take you up on it. I live in downtown Silver Spring near the Red Line. What's the easiest way to get in touch with you before Saturday so we can set up where and when we can meet? Thanks--FeanorStar7 (talk) 09:13, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

Send me an email and we'll coordinate in private. --Cyde Weys 20:27, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 3 October 2011

• News and notes: Italian Wikipedia shuts down over new privacy law; Wikimedia Sverige produce short Wikipedia films, Sue Gardner calls for empathy

• In the news: QRpedia launches to acclaim, Jimbo talks social media, Wikipedia attracts fungi, terriers and Greeks bearing gifts

• WikiProject report: Kia ora WikiProject New Zealand

• Featured content: Reviewers praise new featured topic: National treasures of Japan

• Arbitration report: Last call for comments on CheckUser and Oversight teams

• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 04:59, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 10 October 2011

• Opinion essay: The conservatism of Wikimedians

• News and notes: Largest ever donation to WMF, final findings of editor survey released, 'Terms of use' heavily revised

• In the news: Uproar over Italian shutdown, the varying reception of BLP mischief, and Wikipedia's doctor-evangelist

• WikiProject report: The World's Oldest People

• Featured content: The weird and the disgusting

• Arbitration report: Senkaku Islands closes; administrators authorized to place articles on discretionary sanctions

• Technology report: 1.18 deployment and HTTPS switchover completed, but developer help now needed with new projects

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 02:16, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 17 October 2011

• News and notes: Arabic Wikipedia gets video intros, Smithsonian gifts images, and WikiProject Conservatism scrutinized

• In the news: Why Wikipedia survives while others haven't; Wikipedia as an emerging social model; Jimbo speaks out

• WikiProject report: History in your neighborhood: WikiProject NRHP

• Featured content: Brazil's boom-time dreams of naval power: The ed17 explains the background to a new featured topic

• Arbitration report: Case requests on ethnic strife and a WikiProject declined, Abortion case stalls but topic bans look to be lightened on amendment

• Technology report: WMDE renew investment in Toolserver, first offsite backup programme of Wikimedia begun

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 10:08, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

CydeBot: semi-functional

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=S5W_reactor&action=historysubmit&diff=453574709&oldid=451901568 u can see there category spelling changed. But directly above that there is page name, wich title is almost the same (excluding plural/single) as the category itself. Shouldn't then page reference also be changed ? 79.111.218.128 (talk) 19:11, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

What exactly do you mean by "page name"/"page reference"? My best guess is that you are referring to {{United States Naval reactor}}, which is actually the name of a template. Renaming a template is a completely different issue than renaming categories (for one, template redirects actually work). --Cyde Weys 19:16, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

Ooh, sorry. yes, template, not page. Okay, i thing it should be related even if it is not. Then consider it as potential feature for the bit - to recognize this match of names and consider renaming of other Wiki objects in the same manner as category rename. Doing one work an ignoring another is just looking non integral 79.111.218.128 (talk) 19:35, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

The reason these category renames are necessary is because categories do not support redirects. Renames of templates are not necessary because template redirects work. There's little value to going back through all previous uses of a template just to change the name it's included as. Just move the template itself and new uses of it over time will use the new name. The name of a template doesn't matter. It's not part of the end product. It's just a means to an end to get some specific code into a page. Now the name of a category, however, does matter. It is part of the end product. Hence why we actually bother renaming them in the first place. --Cyde Weys 19:38, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 October 2011

• From the editors: A call for contributors

• Opinion essay: There is a deadline

• Interview: Contracting for the Foundation

• In the news: Are Wikipedians reluctant journalists?; Wikipedia:The Musical

• WikiProject report: Great WikiProject Logos

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: Abortion; request for amendment on Climate Change case

• Technology report: WMF launches coding challenge, WMDE starts hiring for major new project

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 10:23, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Base58 article deleted?

Hiya. How come Base58 article was deleted? O_O I was expecting to rely on some information on the article, but it's not accessible. =/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mizerydearia (talk • contribs) 20:51, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

I noticed you deleted the base58 article for not being 'notable enough'. It seems, however, that no discussion about the deletion has taken place on the Talk page, that Google shows that there are various implementations, and that base58 plays an important role in at least one notable software project - Bitcoin. Aside from the technical references, there is a clear use case for base58, regarding the distinguishability of characters (as opposed to base64, where some characters like 0 and O may be hard to distinguish). As a result, I believe that this deletion should be contested and at the very least should the deletion be discussed on the relevant Talk page - and, if voted against deletion, reverted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Joepie91 (talk • contribs) 20:59, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

As far as I'm aware Base58 is only used in Bitcoin, and doesn't have enough notability of its own to merit a second article. Also, may I ask where you two are coming from? I haven't heard anything about Base58 in many weeks since I deleted it, and now all of a sudden, there are two comments within eight minutes? That can't just be coincidence, right? --Cyde Weys 21:17, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Correct, it wasn't a coincidence - it was brought up in an IRC channel. Even if in your opinion (or that of others) base58 is not notable enough to have its own article, it would have sufficed to merge it into another (relevant) article, considering there's clearly encyclopedic value in an 'encoding' that has multiple implementations and is used in at least one very notable software project. Deleting is, even if it shouldn't have its own article, not the best solution for this situation. Joepie91 (talk) 22:30, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

I disagree that there is "clearly encyclopedic value". There isn't. The first Google search result for "Base58 encoding" is a PHP implementation that consists of a grand total of 25 lines of code that defines a string of the alphabet used in the encoding and then indexes into it. That's it. Any decently skilled coder could write this in a language he's familiar with in ten minutes, though I suspect it didn't take whoever wrote this even that long, as all they probably had to do was grab a similar implementation for, say, Base64, and then just modify the string that defines the alphabet slightly.

Base58 encoding is only used in Bitcoin. It merits, at most, a one sentence mention in the Bitcoin article, saying "Address and transaction hashes are represented in human-readable format by a modified version of Base64 encoding that removes non-alphanumeric characters and the characters zero, capital O, one, and lower-case L, because they can look similar in certain fonts."

If you can find a lot more evidence showing that Base58 encoding is actually used in a large number of big, important software projects, and used as a standard encoding mechanism in a large number of widely used protocols, then maybe I could be persuaded. But it isn't. --Cyde Weys 14:42, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

And besides, there isn't even one single Base58 standard anyway. It's all ad hoc. The translation alphabet used by the "Base58" used in Bitcoin is "123456789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyz". The translation alphabet used in most of the rest of those search results for various implementations is "123456789abcdefghijkmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ". --Cyde Weys 15:06, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

You're invited! Wikipedia Loves Libraries DC

Wikipedia Loves Libraries DC & edit-a-thon
Wikipedia Loves Libraries comes to DC on Saturday, November 5th, from 1-5pm, at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library. We will be holding an edit-a-thon, working together to improve Wikipedia content related to DC history, arts, civil rights, or whatever suits your interests. There may also be opportunities to help with scanning historic photos plus some swag! You're invited and we hope to see you there!
RSVP + more details!

---

Note: You can remove your name from the DC meetup invite list here. -- Message delivered by AudeBot (talk) 18:39, 31 October 2011 (UTC), on behalf of User:Aude

The Signpost: 31 October 2011

• Opinion essay: The monster under the rug

• Recent research: WikiSym; predicting editor survival; drug information found lacking; RfAs and trust; Wikipedia's search engine ranking justified

• News and notes: German Wikipedia continues image filter protest

• In the news: Citizendium on the rocks, Shankbone celebrated, and the week in vandalism

• Discussion report: Proposal to return this section from hiatus is successful

• WikiProject report: 'In touch' with WikiProject Rugby union

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: Abortion case stalls, request for clarification on Δ, discretionary sanctions streamlined

• Technology report: Wikipedia Zero announced; New Orleans successfully hacked

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 17:04, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 7 November2011

• Special report: A post-mortem on the Indian Education Program pilot

• News and notes: Wikimedia Norway awarded, Halloween on the Main Page, Wikimedia UK recognised

• In the news: The Economist assays the encyclopaedia's challenges, Jimbo speaks on net future, and an inclusionist alternative emerges.

• Discussion report: Special report on the ArbCom Elections steering RfC

• WikiProject report: Booting up with WikiProject Computer Science

• Featured content: Slow week for Featured content

• Arbitration report: Δ saga returns to arbitration, while the Abortion case stalls for another week

• Technology report: Full steam ahead on Visual Editor, the avoidance of lock-breaking and 1.18b1 release

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 12:08, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

Cydebot hiccups

I put up about a hundred categories for speedy renaming yesterday, from the format "Country – Country relations" to "Country–Country relations." Throughout, Cydebot skipped over about a hundred individual moves, leaving them for manual processing. See, for example, Category:Caribbean – United States relations to Category:United States–Caribbean relations. I can't find any commonality between them, so I thought I'd see if you knew what was up. You can look at my edit summary for more.--Mike Selinker (talk) 16:22, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

I think I need to upgrade to the latest version of PyWikipediaBot. I'll do it later today. The exact message the bot is displaying is WARNING: Family file wikipedia contains version number 1.17wmf1, but it should be 1.18wmf1, and it's not making any changes on pages when it sees that. --Cyde Weys 17:19, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

Oh, sure, I totally would have guessed that. (Whistles and walks away.)--Mike Selinker (talk) 17:56, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

All right, it's upgraded. Keep your eyes peeled for any issues. --Cyde Weys 16:32, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

11/9 stall

The bot seems to have been stalled for a while. Vegaswikian (talk) 20:07, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

As of 23:35, 9 November 2011 (UTC) Cydebot hasn't edited since 17:20 (UTC) today. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 23:35, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Yup, thanks for letting me know. I realized that the server went down before any of these messages were left because I attempted to log in to it earlier today and didn't get a response. So I sent a message to a person on site at around that time and it's back up and running now. --Cyde Weys 01:48, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Categories for templates

One complication for templates that are actually in a category, as opposed to pages that they are transcluded on, is that the categories are more frequently on the documentation subpage for the template. See {{Userpagetop}} for an example. Any chance that your bot could be modified so that if the template being changed does not have the subject category and it is in the template namespace, then check for the category in the documentation subpage? Vegaswikian (talk) 19:19, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

Adding category multiple times

Take a look at this edit. Vegaswikian (talk) 21:00, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 14 November 2011

• News and notes: ArbCom nominations open, participation grants finalized, survey results on perceptions on Wikipedia released

• In the news: Fundraising vs ads redux, WikiConference India nigh, a world lit up with articles

• WikiProject report: Having a Conference with WikiProject India

• Featured content: Writing featured content: Advice from Sturmvogel 66; Sports, sports, sports!

• Arbitration report: Abortion and Betacommand 3 in evidence phase, three case requests outstanding

• Technology report: Coding Challenge results; Wikimedians to wait and see if Athena really does represent "wisdom, courage and inspiration"

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 22:18, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 21 November 2011

• News and notes: Last-minute candidates for ArbCom, the Sue Gardner European Tour hits London

• In the news: Indian wikiconference heralds expansion, fundraiser in Silicon Valley major donor coup, import of Wikipedia reconsidered

• Discussion report: Much ado about censorship

• WikiProject report: Working on a term paper with WikiProject Academic Journals

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: End in sight for Abortion case, nominations in 2011 elections

• Technology report: Mumbai and Brighton hacked; horizontal lists have got class

Read this Signpost in full · Single-page · Unsubscribe · EdwardsBot (talk) 00:38, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Fine Art Edit-a-Thon & DC Meetup 26!

Fine Art Edit-a-Thon & Meetup - Who should come? You should. Really.

FINE ART EDIT-A-THON & DC MEETUP 26 is December 17! The Edit-a-Thon will cover fine art subjects from the Federal Art Project and the meet up will involve Wikipedians from the area as well as Wiki-loving GLAM professionals. You don't have to attend both to attend one (but we hope you do!) Click the link above and sign up & spread the word! See you there! SarahStierch (talk) 17:17, 26 November 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 November 2011

• News and notes: Arb's resignation sparks lightning RfC, Fundraiser 2011 off to a strong start, GLAM in Qatar

• In the news: The closed, unfriendly world of Wikipedia, fundraiser fun and games, and chemists vs pornstars

• Recent research: Quantifying quality collaboration patterns, systemic bias, POV pushing, the impact of news events, and editors' reputation

• WikiProject report: The Signpost scoops The Bugle

• Featured content: The best of the week

• Arbitration report: Voting underway in the elections, finally a final decision on Abortion, scant movement on requests

• Technology report: Foundation appears correct to back improved smartphone support; and how a Reddit slip meant no-one could read anything for thirty minutes

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:29, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Recreating a deleted cat

Hey there, you were the closing admin on the deletion of Category:Eugene C. Eppley. I want to recreate the category, as there are more than seven related articles with a large change of related articles being written. Before I do that, I want to find out if there is a process, or if I should simply be bold. Replying on my talk page is appreciated. • Freechildtalk 01:49, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

I will interpret your silence as consent. • Freechildtalk 21:12, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 05 December 2011

• News and notes: Amsterdam gets the GLAM treatment, fundraising marches on, and a flourish of new admins

• In the news: A Wikistream of real time edits, a call for COI reform, and cracks in the ivory tower of knowledge

• Discussion report: Trial proposed for tool apprenticeship

• WikiProject report: This article is about WikiProject Disambiguation. For other uses...

• Featured content: This week's Signpost is for the birds!

• Arbitration report: Elections due to finish this week, little activity on Betacommand 3, Abortion case amended

• Technology report: Incremental dumps help mirrors, full screen search helps mobile visitors, and two MediaWiki releases help external sites

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 18:22, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 12 December 2011

• Opinion essay: Wikipedia in Academe – and vice versa

• News and notes: Research project banner ads run afoul of community

• In the news: Bell Pottinger investigation, Gardner on gender gap, and another plagiarist caught red-handed

• WikiProject report: Spanning Nine Time Zones with WikiProject Russia

• Featured content: Wehwalt gives his fifty cents; spies, ambushes, sieges, and Entombment

• Arbitration report: Betacommand 3 workshop revived, two cases set for acceptance and the ArbCom elections finish on a whimper

• Technology report: Trials and tribulations of image rotation, Article Feedback version 5, and new diff colours

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 17:34, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Tyrol is not Tyrol state

Your bot adds a lot of confusion, by associating all people from the region Tyrol to the austrian state of Tyrol. It would be the same as to assign all americans to the USA.--Sajoch (talk) 14:58, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 December 2011

• News and notes: Anti-piracy act has Wikimedians on the defensive, WMF annual report released, and Indic language dynamics

• In the news: To save the wiki: strike first, then makeover?

• Discussion report: Polls, templates, and other December discussions

• WikiProject report: A dalliance with the dismal scientists of WikiProject Economics

• Featured content: Panoramas with Farwestern and a good week for featured content

• Arbitration report: The community elects eight arbitrators

• Technology report: Visual editor demo launched, hailed as "most important change to our user experience ... ever"; but elsewhere over-hasty deployments criticised

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 03:42, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Cydebot stalled

Thought I'd drop a note letting you know that, as of 11:11, 26 December 2011 (UTC), Cydebot has apparently been stalled since 05:15. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 11:11, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Well, it's back up now, and the server uptime wasn't reset, so I don't really know what happened. Transient network outage? --Cyde Weys 19:49, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 December 2011

• Opinion essay: Openness versus quality: why we're doing it wrong, and how to fix it

• Recent research: Psychiatrists: Wikipedia better than Britannica; spell-checking Wikipedia; Wikipedians smart but fun; structured biological data

• News and notes: Fundraiser passes 2010 watermark, brief news

• WikiProject report: The Tree of Life

• Featured content: Going through the roster with Killervogel5 and a plethora of featured content

• Arbitration report: Three open cases, one set for acceptance, arbitrators formally appointed by Jimmy Wales

• Technology report: Wikimedia in Go Daddy boycott, and why you should 'Join the Swarm'

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 03:13, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

October NARA scanathon

Hi, you attended the scanathon at the National Archives in October. I recently noticed that most participants have yet to upload scanned documents to Commons, so I just wanted to check and see if you have any files to upload. Please use the October 2011 NARA Backstage Pass category when uploading (and tag any files you already uploaded without it) so we can track them. Any documents you upload will also cataloged by NARA, as well as being available for Wikimedians to use, so this is important! Also, if you have any photos from the tour or other aspects of the event, please be sure to upload those as well. Thanks! Dominic·t 20:14, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

National Archives ExtravaSCANza

You are invited to the National Archives ExtravaSCANza, taking place every day next week from January 4–7, Wednesday to Saturday, in College Park, Maryland (Washington, DC metro area). Come help me cap off my stint as Wikipedian in Residence at the National Archives with one last success! This will be a casual working event in which Wikipedians are getting together to scan interesting documents at the National Archives related to a different theme each day—currently: spaceflight, women's suffrage, Chile, and battleships—for use on Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons. The event is being held on multiple days, and in the evenings and weekend, so that as many locals and out-of-towners from nearby regions1 as possible can come. Please join us! Dominic·t 01:12, 30 December 2011 (UTC) 1 Wikipedians from DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, New York City, and Pittsburgh have been invited.

The Signpost: 02 January 2012

• Interview: The Gardner interview

• News and notes: Things bubbling along as Wikimedians enjoy their holidays

• WikiProject report: Where are they now? Part III

• Featured content: Ghosts of featured content past, present, and future

• Arbitration report: New case accepted, four open cases, terms begin for new arbitrators

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 15:18, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Deletion review for Category:Public domain films

An editor has asked for a deletion review of Category:Public domain films. Because you closed the deletion discussion for this page, speedily deleted it, or otherwise were interested in the page, you might want to participate in the deletion review. George Ho (talk) 00:34, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 09 January 2012

• Technological roadmap: 2011's technological achievements in review, and what 2012 may hold

• News and notes: Fundraiser 2011 ends with a bang

• In the news: Wikipedia ends annual fundraising drive; Monmouthpedia launches

• WikiProject report: From Traditional to Experimental: WikiProject Jazz

• Featured content: Contentious FAC debate: a week in review

• Arbitration report: Four open cases, proposed decision in Betacommand 3

• Technology report: December in more detail; and why the MediaWiki codebase was "slushed" this week

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 03:57, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Your input is needed on the SOPA initiative

Hi Cyde,

You are receiving this message either because you expressed an opinion about the proposed SOPA blackout before full blackout and soft blackout were adequately differentiated, or because you expressed general support without specifying a preference. Please ensure that your voice is heard by clarifying your position accordingly.

Thank you.

Message delivered as per request on ANI. -- The Helpful Bot 16:27, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 16 January 2012

• Special report: English Wikipedia to go dark on January 18

• Sister projects: What are our sisters up to now?

• News and notes: WMF on the looming SOPA blackout, Wikipedia turns 11, and Commons passes 12 million files

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Beer

• Featured content: Lecen on systemic bias in featured content

• Arbitration report: Four open cases, Betacommand case deadlocked, Muhammad images close near

• Technology report: ArticleFeedback moves into new trial phase; and how MediaWiki integrates with Facebook, IPv6, and PostgreSQL explored

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:48, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 January 2012

• News and notes: SOPA blackout, Orange partnership

• In the news: World watched as Wikipedia shut down for SOPA blackout

• WikiProject report: The Golden Horseshoe: WikiProject Toronto

• Featured content: Interview with Muhammad Mahdi Karim and the best of the week

• Arbitration report: Four open cases, proposed decision in Muhammad images, AUSC call for applications

• Technology report: Looking ahead to MediaWiki 1.19 and related issues

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 18:02, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 January 2012

• News and notes: Update on Global Development, Wikipedia Day NYC is a success, JFK audio on Commons

• In the news: Zambian wiki-assassins, Foundation über alles, editor engagement and the innovation plateau

• Recent research: Language analyses examine power structure and political slant; Wikipedia compared to commercial databases

• WikiProject report: Digging Up WikiProject Palaeontology

• Featured content: Featured content soaring this week

• Arbitration report: Five open cases, voting on proposed decisions in two cases

• Technology report: Why "Lua" is on everybody's lips, and when to expect MediaWiki 1.19

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 03:05, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Bot down 2/2?

Any chance the bot is stuck? Vegaswikian (talk) 01:11, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, there was a power outage on account of the power company replacing the power meter. --Cyde Weys 15:26, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 06 February 2012

• News and notes: The Foundation visits Tunisia, analyzes donors

• In the news: Leading scholar hails Wikipedia, historians urged to contribute while PR pros remain shunned

• Discussion report: Discussion swarms around Templates for deletion and returning editors of colourful pasts

• WikiProject report: The Eye of the Storm: WikiProject Tropical Cyclones

• Featured content: Talking architecture with MrPanyGoff

• Arbitration report: Four open cases, final decision in Muhammad images, Betacommand 3 near closure

• Technology report: October's coding challenge: results now in; progress on 1.19 steady; and why for a while interwiki links were no more

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 23:23, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

MSU Interview

Dear Cyde,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the community HERE, were it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.

So a few things about the interviews:

• Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
• Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
• All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.
• All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.
• The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.

Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your name HERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk) 02:45, 9 February 2012 (UTC)