User talk:Holly Cheng/Archive20

Main page omitted terror attack in Paris

You omitted the terror attacks in paris:November_2015_Paris_attacks on the main page, which I thought were significant enough to be on the main page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.111.5.163 (talk) 10:38, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

That article is in the staging area. For today, there's a 10th anniversary, which takes precedence, and I didn't want to have two 21st-century items listed. —howcheng {chat} 16:41, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

Apologies, now that I have the facts.I understand. Mycomment was premature and illadvised.Oldperson (talk) 22:13, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

@Oldperson: No worries, you're relatively new here, so there's still a bit of a learning curve for you. —howcheng {chat} 22:19, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

OTD posts

Hi Howcheng, as you've probably noticed, I'm spending a lot more time monitoring the articles going to the OTD section of the main page. As I know you're just about the only person working here, please know that these reviews are in no way personal and all I'm trying to do is reduce the level of low-quality articles getting to the main page. As a guide, I'm looking for good references, the actual blurb inline referenced, no dabs or redirects in the hooks, and that's about it. If I find any of the former, there'll be a report at errors, hopefully the day before - I can't guarantee that, with two young kids, my time is sporadic. Cheers. The Rambling Man (talk) 21:40, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

No offense taken at all, and I'm glad to have more eyes. I tend to rush through the updates myself, doing only spot checks on the articles (two kids, coaching soccer, other volunteer work). —howcheng {chat} 21:48, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Cool, thanks for the quick reply, happy new year etc to you! The Rambling Man (talk) 21:54, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Hey @Howcheng:. I too am working on OTD content. I don't want to make your editing work on these pages any more time-consuming than it may already be. So I'd like to check what your preference is for people nominating possible content. Is it best to add in to the related talk page, or in the commented out bit of the box? I'd like to be consistent and also make it easy for you to maintain! Moira Paul (talk) 22:04, 13 January 2019 (UTC)

My belated congratulations!

Please accept my belated congratulations for the new year. I wish you and your family a great 2017. Keep your fantastic job of updating OTD. I'll help as far as I can. --Mhhossein ^talk 15:32, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 14

Hi, I hope I haven't trod on any toes by removing your refimprove on Human Be-In I have sourced more references and intend to continue checking to see if more appropriate ones can be found. I am hoping that this will make the article suitable for inclusion on the main page tomorrow. It is the 50 anniversary of what was a significant event for the worldwide counter-culture and for mainstream press at the time, particularly being seen as the first event of the year of the original "Summer of Love" 1967. If any more references or work on the page is needed for inclusion please indicate and I'll be happy to do what I can.BorisAndDoris (talk) 19:12, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

@BorisAndDoris: Nice work, I put it back in. —howcheng {chat} 22:04, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 29

Hi Howcheng. January 29, 2017 being the 50th anniversary of the Mantra-Rock Dance, which is a FA, I've taken the liberty of slotting it in for OTD. Also, its poster image happens to be a FP too, so I've put it in as well. I hope you concur. Regards, Cinosaur (talk) 04:06, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

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Main Page ignores the Observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day

@Howcheng: We see the template "this article needs additional citations for verification" prominently displayed at the top of the page International Holocaust Remembrance Day - as of January 26, by your edit. On the Main Page for 27 January, IHRD is not noted as Observed today - and when I queried this, see what reasons are provided by other editors: Wikipedia:Main_Page/Errors#Today. My point at 20:53 is that the template serves as "caveat lector" to the problematic nature of the page - but those responsible - by a criterion of whose existence I and possibly others have been unaware - have decided to omit its observance from the Main Page. I have a grievance with this, particularly as a Wikipedia volunteer contributor who just this past week put in many hours of work in Wikidata on "random items" in numerous languages, and more. Ironic? Your response is requested. Thank you, -- Deborahjay (talk) 21:16, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Please, Howcheng, note that this is being discussed at ERRORS. That this user seems to only wish to complain rather than fix the issues noted is telling. It's nothing to do with denial of the Holocaust, as she has claimed, it's keeping up with Wikipedia standards, and that article is not good enough, as you rightly noted. The Rambling Man (talk) 21:22, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

@Deborahjay: Please see WP:OTDRULES. The maintenance tags on the article prevent it from being included. We did put the liberation of Auschwitz in OTD proper, though. —howcheng {chat} 21:55, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

See my complaint on Waitangi Day below. It's disgusting that days of national significance to an entire country can be blocked from appearing at OTD simply because of one editor's opinion that the articles are not fully referenced. Definitely a lack of judgement by User:Howcheng. Pinging @Deborahjay: Akld guy (talk) 04:56, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter - February 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2017). This first issue is being sent out to all administrators, if you wish to keep receiving it please subscribe. Your feedback is welcomed.

Administrator changes

NinjaRobotPirate • Schwede66 • K6ka • Ealdgyth • Ferret • Cyberpower678 • Mz7 • Primefac • Dodger67

Briangotts • JeremyA • BU Rob13

Guideline and policy news

• A discussion to workshop proposals to amend the administrator inactivity policy at Wikipedia talk:Administrators has been in process since late December 2016.
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• Following an RfC, an activity requirement is now in place for bots and bot operators.

Technical news

• When performing some administrative actions the reason field briefly gave suggestions as text was typed. This change has since been reverted so that issues with the implementation can be addressed. (T34950)
• Following the latest RfC concluding that Pending Changes 2 should not be used on the English Wikipedia, an RfC closed with consensus to remove the options for using it from the page protection interface, a change which has now been made. (T156448)
• The Foundation has announced a new community health initiative to combat harassment. This should bring numerous improvements to tools for admins and CheckUsers in 2017.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee released a response to the Wikimedia Foundation's statement on paid editing and outing.

Obituaries

• JohnCD (John Cameron Deas) passed away on 30 December 2016. John began editing Wikipedia seriously during 2007 and became an administrator in November 2009.

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13:37, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

February 18 Wikipedia Day event in DTLA

LA Wikipedia Day Celebration (February 18)

Dear fellow Wikipedian, Please join us at our Wikipedia Day celebration at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, February 18, 2017 from 11 am to 5 pm! This event will feature lectures, panel discussions, lightning talks, open space discussions and collaboration, and--most importantly--cake! Please RSVP on the event page if you're thinking of joining us. I hope to see you there! Calliopejen1 (talk) - via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:35, 2 February 2017 (UTC) Join our Facebook group here! To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

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Orphaned non-free image File:Harrowsmith Country Life cover.jpg

⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Harrowsmith Country Life cover.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:41, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Waitangi Day

I'm highly annoyed that on 5 February, one day before Waitangi Day is observed, you added the 'lack of references' tag to its article. Not many people know that the tag prevents the event from appearing in 'On this day...' on the Main Page. By the time I reported that Waitangi Day was not appearing, and learned that the tag prevented it, it was too late and Waitangi Day was nearly over. The timing of your addition of the tag looks suspicious, like you deliberately blocked the day from appearing, but I'm reluctantly forced to give you the benefit of the doubt. I removed the tag because it is not specific about where references are needed. It looks like you are an experienced editor who is well aware that the tag would block the article, because you have been told so on this page, above. If this was deliberate, don't pull this trick again or I'll report you. I'm watching your contribs. Akld guy (talk) 23:28, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

You assume facts not in evidence. Replied on the article talk page. —howcheng {chat} 07:30, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

OTD Births/Deaths Proposal

Howard, the formatting isn't quite right yet but I made a draft at User:Whizz40/sandbox. In case helpful, I used Template:SelAnnivFooter/sandbox to eliminate the 'current date/ Reload the page' at the bottom. Whizz40 (talk) 22:33, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

Lincoln Memorial

If you have problems with specific entries in the popcult section, please discuss them on the article's talk page, where I and other editors can express our opinions. Unlike you, [1] I have a very long history with this article, [2],[3] and therefore have a strong interest in its content. Thanks. Beyond My Ken (talk) 23:41, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Thank you and thank you!

		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		So stoked you made it to Wikipedia Day/LA. Thank you!JSFarman (talk) 19:14, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

On This Day... February 24th, Estonian Independence Day

Hello, Howcheng! It is quite jarring not to see anything about the Estonian independence day on the Main Page today, especially considering that - meaning no disrespect - the holidays and observances that have been highlighted are of secondary importance in comparison. I understand you have omitted it because the article about the Declaration needs maintenance, but perhaps you can find another way (there is an article about the Independence Day itself, for example, or you could simply link to Estonia's article?). In any case, I kindly ask you to reconsider. All the best, OnToPhantom (talk) 08:47, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

@OnToPhantom: I would, but the "Administrative divisions" and "Demographics" sections both need references. —howcheng {chat} 09:13, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

I see - that would be even more complicated, because actually we are currently in the middle of administrative reform. I will try to sort out the Historical Context paragraph in the article about the declaration then. OnToPhantom (talk) 09:25, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

@Howcheng: I found sources for all the content and also modified it a bit. I do not have a lot of experience editing Wikipedia, so I'll leave it for you to decide whether the changes are sufficient and the maintenance template can be removed. Hopefully this will resolve the OTD issue, if not, let me know. OnToPhantom (talk) 10:21, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 27 February 2017

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Administrators' newsletter – March 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2017).

Administrator changes

Amortias • Deckiller • BU Rob13

Ronnotel • Islander • Chamal N • Isomorphic • Keeper76 • Lord Voldemort • Shereth • Bdesham • Pjacobi

Guideline and policy news

• A recent RfC has redefined how articles on schools are evaluated at AfD. Specifically, secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist.
• AfDs that receive little participation should now be closed like an expired proposed deletion, following a deletion process RfC.
• Defender, HakanIST, Matiia and Sjoerddebruin are our newest stewards, following the 2017 steward elections.
• The 2017 appointees for the Ombudsman commission are Góngora, Krd, Lankiveil, Richwales and Vogone. They will serve for approximately 1 year.

Technical news

• A recent query shows that only 16% of administrators on the English Wikipedia have enabled two-factor authentication. If you haven't already enabled it please consider doing so.
• Cookie blocks should be deployed to the English Wikipedia soon. This will extend the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user after they switch accounts under a new IP.
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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:14, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

March15

Why did you remove the births and deaths in the update? Stephen 08:28, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Assuming it was an oversight, I've re-added them. Stephen

Oops, yeah that was an accident. I still need to replace Shunzhi Emperor because that article appears on another day. —howcheng {chat} 16:06, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

I missed that, I'll find another. Your knowledge of OTD appearances is exemplary! Stephen 19:44, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

You've done it already, thanks. Stephen 19:46, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

@Stephen: The secret is to look on the article talk page. :) It's either in the {{OnThisDay}} template or within the {{Article history}}. —howcheng {chat} 22:04, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

And there was me thinking you'd memorised all entries for every date ;) Stephen 22:21, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

WikiSoCal is ramping up! Would love to include your brain

Heya! Long time since we last caught up and there's been so many incredible things going on here! We've just posted an ambitious grant proposal seeking support for the work we're doing and would love your review and endorsement if you like what you see. Grant proposal up at: WikiSoCal 2017 Proposal. And we would love to get you back down here to come play. There are so many ways we can have fun while serving the greater good. Talk soon? Ping me anytime! DrMel (talk) 00:11, 19 March 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2017).

Administrator changes

TheDJ

Xnuala • CJ • Oldelpaso • Berean Hunter • Jimbo Wales • Andrew c • Karanacs • Modemac • Scott

Guideline and policy news

• Following a discussion on the backlog of unpatrolled files, consensus was found to create a new user right for autopatrolling file uploads. Implementation progress can be tracked on Phabricator.
• The BLPPROD grandfather clause, which stated that unreferenced biographies of living persons were only eligible for proposed deletion if they were created after March 18, 2010, has been removed following an RfC.
• An RfC has closed with consensus to allow proposed deletion of files. The implementation process is ongoing.
• After an unsuccessful proposal to automatically grant IP block exemption, consensus was found to relax the criteria for granting the user right from needing it to wanting it.

Technical news

• After a recent RfC, moved pages will soon be featured in a queue similar to Special:NewPagesFeed and require patrolling. Moves by administrators, page movers, and autopatrolled editors will be automatically marked as patrolled.
• Cookie blocks have been deployed. This extends the current autoblock system by setting a cookie for each block, which will then autoblock the user if they switch accounts, even under a new IP.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:54, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

On this day... April 27

Hi, I've added the missing references to the King's Day (Netherlands) article. Could you please move it back into Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/April 27? thayts💬 19:26, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

International Workers' Day replaced by Loyalty Day?

Greetings Howcheng, I am disappointed not seeing for May 1 International Workers' Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day (honored by law in dozens of countries for decades) but instead there is a link for USA's Loyalty Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_Day (celebrated by an unknown number of people). I recall seeing IWD listed in past years. I could not find any discussion directly addressing the question. Are you able to offer any insight? Thanks, Slothicm (talk) 06:11, 1 May 2017 (UTC)slothicm

@Slothicm: Please see WP:OTDRULES. We cannot have articles with yellow-level and higher maintenance tags on them, and the International Workers' Day article has many sections that do not have any citations whatsoever. —howcheng {chat} 07:11, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

LOL, you put that tag on it yourself right before labour day, just so you could replace it with the day designed by the Americans to stop International Workers' Day from being celebrated (even though it's not a holiday and doesn't have any associated traditions and is thus not significant in any way).

And this tag on your userpage explains why you did it:

This user supports the United States men's national soccer team.

You are the dictionary definition of corruption.--83.128.131.207 (talk) 10:07, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Sorry, but ~75 refs is enough. Loyalty Day is no better in this regard. (Examples: Missing or empty |title= (help), CN in the lead, section without any citations whatsoever, etc.) The timing is problematic. I have added it to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 1. El_C 10:42, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

@El C: It's not a matter of reference counting. There are a multitude of sections that do not have a single reference. @83.128.131.207: That userbox refers to the United States men's national soccer team. Furthermore, Loyalty Day was already there and has been since 2013, so I did not do what you are accusing me of. You'll notice that I took out Law Day (United States) for the same reason. I do not have any political agenda here. Furthermore, look at my contributions. You'll find that I make many edits tagging articles for references in preparation for OTD inclusion. Personally, I find the idea of "Loyalty Day" rather repugnant. —howcheng {chat} 16:29, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2017).

Administrator changes

Karanacs • Berean Hunter • GoldenRing • Dlohcierekim

Gdr • Tyrenius • JYolkowski • Longhair • Master Thief Garrett • Aaron Brenneman • Laser brain • JzG • Dragons flight

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC has clarified that user categories should be emptied upon deletion, but redlinked user categories should not be removed if re-added by the user.
• Discussions are ongoing regarding proposed changes to the COI policy. Changes so far have included clarification that adding a link on a Wikipedia forum to a job posting is not a violation of the harassment policy.

Technical news

• You can now see a list of all autoblocks at Special:AutoblockList.
• There is a new tool for adding archives to dead links. Administrators are able to restrict other user's ability to use the tool, and have additional permissions when changing URL and domain data.
• Administrators, bureaucrats and stewards can now set an expiry date when granting user rights. (discuss, permalink)

Miscellaneous

• Following an RfC, the editing restrictions page is now split into a list of active restrictions and an archive of those that are old or on inactive accounts. Make sure to check both pages if searching for a restriction.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:19, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Category:McDonald's High School All-Americans has been nominated for discussion

Category:McDonald's High School All-Americans, which you created, has been nominated for possible deletion, merging, or renaming. A discussion is taking place to see if it abides with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. TM 01:05, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Update for 2017

Hello Howard! I'm curious as to why you almost always replace selected people for the OTD births & deaths with new ones, titling your edit 'update for 2017', while we all know selected birthdays and deaths started appearing in the English-language WP in 2017 and not the previous year. This move prevented the likes of Maria Theresa of Austria, Bertrand Russell and William Gladstone (among others) from *ever* appearing on their respective days. Please note I'm not questioning your choice of people, I'm just curious about how things work here. Regards, 95.245.76.75 (talk) 19:32, 19 May 2017 (UTC)Curious_E

I replace articles for two reasons:

1. Article is featured on a different day (example: Maria Theresa already appears on October 20)
2. Article requires maintenance (example: Bertrand Russell, the Ancestry section has no references)

Please read WP:OTDRULES for more details. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 19:41, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

Wow! Thank you for your quick reply and explanation :) Bye 95.245.76.75 (talk) 19:46, 19 May 2017 (UTC)Curious_E

Births and deaths

Hi Howcheng, we probably need to adjust the "Selected anniversaries" to include births and deaths which are eligible. Right now MurielMary is using the templates themselves as a staging area every time she adds a female bio. It would be easier to have a (real) staging area where all eligible bios for a given date (e.g. from births and deaths from the May 22 article) can be added, and then you can decide on the composition, keep track of the gender, ethnicity, age, reason for notability etc. We're going to need to track these births and deaths simply so they're not repeated every year. What do you think? The Rambling Man (talk) 20:39, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

Yes good idea TRM - in the absence of a staging area Sollemne and I (and other editors) use the template, although I also add eligible extra entries into the staging area if the template is full, so that whoever is assessing the ones in the template can have some back-ups at hand in case any aren't suitable or the mix isn't broad enough. In addition, can we have a clarification of when/how to update for the forthcoming year? i.e. some of the templates and staging areas for April and May 2017 have been updated by Sollemne and/or myself with suggestions for April and May 2018, however I think this could get messy. Would it be easier to update the entire template (events and births/deaths) together in the lead-up to the day? This would be easier with a staging area. TIA MurielMary (talk) 20:48, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

OTD already has a staging area, it just needs expanding to include eligible births and deaths which would be where you add your suggestions. We all know that we can repeat these nominations year-on-year and we also know that getting a "balance" takes more than just looking at one day at a time, or one week, or one month. Perhaps we can do a quick check on ethnicity, gender, age (i.e. when "active"), reason for notability (i.e. profession) on every OTD so far and then track it going forward to ensure we're not out of balance. I guess ideally all four of those criteria (there may be more?) should be showing as equal in terms of exposure at this exciting new addition to OTD. The Rambling Man (talk) 20:54, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

Yeah I was thinking that we could just throw the additional births/deaths into the staging area, and I've been tracking them in the notes on the talk page, so we know who appears each year. At this time, I'm not too worried about diversity just because for a lot of the days, it's a real struggle just finding eligible articles. However, I do agree that new suggestions for next year would be better placed in the staging area than replacing what's currently showing. —howcheng {chat} 02:06, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

Come and join us at the Wiknic

LA Meetup: 6th Wiknic, 7/15 @ Pan Pacific Park

Dear fellow Wikipedian, You are cordially invited to the 6th Los Angeles Wiknic, a part of the nationwide Great American Wiknic. We'll be grilling, getting to know each other better, and building the L.A. Wikipedia community! The event is planned for Pan-Pacific Park and will be held on Saturday, July 15, 2017 from 9:30am to 4pm or so. Please RSVP and volunteer to bring food or drinks if possible! I hope to see you there! Howcheng (talk) - via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:02, 26 May 2017 (UTC) Join our Facebook group here! To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

MP edit

Great fix of the OTD blurb. Words added, meaning clarified, and it even reads better. Trifecta. GJ. Am I stoned? ...a little. Primergrey (talk) 06:13, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2017).

Administrator changes

Doug Bell • Dennis Brown • Clpo13 • ONUnicorn

ThaddeusB • Yandman • Bjarki S • OldakQuill • Shyam • Jondel • Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC proposing an off-wiki LTA database has been closed. The proposal was broadly supported, with further discussion required regarding what to do with the existing LTA database and defining access requirements. Such a tool/database formed part of the Community health initiative's successful grant proposal.
• Some clarifications have been made to the community banning and unblocking policies that effectively sync them with current practice. Specifically, the community has reached a consensus that when blocking a user at WP:AN or WP:ANI, it is considered a "community sanction", and administrators cannot unblock unilaterally if the user has not successfully appealed the sanction to the community.
• An RfC regarding the bot policy has closed with changes to the section describing restrictions on cosmetic changes.

Technical news

• Users will soon be able to blacklist specific users from sending them notifications.

Miscellaneous

• Following the 2017 elections, the new members of the Board of Trustees include Raystorm, Pundit and Doc James. They will serve three-year terms.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:40, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Shavuot (redux)

Hi. Thanks again for your help with Shavuot. I do have a question and comment, though.

Having just come back from being offline during the holiday, I notice that apparently, several of you decided that the sources we provided were "not good enough", dumped Shavuot back into not-eligible, and it didn't end up making it in until Thursday, the second day of the holiday. Now, I will concede that the sources I found were not the very best. I tried to find some sources that were reasonably reliable so that I could quickly repair the article in time for the holiday, and found what I could quickly. But I—and many others who watch those pages—are religiously observant, and once the holiday actually begins, we're really in no position to do anything whatsoever about peoples' objections.

So there are two related but not identical questions here:

• What do we do about people (not you) who are really anal (pardon me) about somehow defending the purity of Wikipedia, or at least its main page? We have often found that sources that WikiProject Judaism finds entirely appropriate get knocked down (at main page or GA) by people who know nothing about Judaism or Jewish sources.
• As much as that one user was objecting to me that Main Page followers owe absolutely no help to us to watch our own pages, the truth is that once the holiday actually starts, we're really in no position to help ourselves, and are potentially vulnerable to people making decisions that we cannot then correct. In the case of Shavuot, for example, if we would list the holiday on May 31 (UTC), the holiday would have already started roughly seven hours earlier in Israel, five hours earlier in Britain, and just about exactly at midnight UTC on the Atlantic coast of North America. And even here in the Eastern US I was offline and preparing for the holiday by the time you put Shavuot back in the "ineligible" category. Unless someone on the US West Coast or in Hawaii is watching, we're out of luck. We tried in good faith to try to fix things, and the source was certainly not a terrible one for a C-class article like Shavuot.

So my commitment to you and the Main Page team is this: As much as incidents like this really frustrate me about working on English Wikipedia, I'll try to work to get every major holiday page at least to B-level, and I'll try to make sure we're in good shape a week before the holiday at minimum. At the same time, please AGF on our part, and please assume that any source that isn't an outright blog is provisionally acceptable. (For example, My Jewish Learning is an editorially-controlled website, not a blog shop. I've never seen anything in it that doesn't have some grounding in acceptable sources, even when those aren't made explicit on the web site.) I'm hoping that by being ready a week ahead of time, we won't have troubles like these, whether we end up listing holidays on the eve or the day of the holiday. But then we need some good faith from the Main Page people that once we get within twelve hours of the holiday UTC, when we are starting to drop offline to prepare for the holiday, you will not start going funky on us.

Thanks for listening. I'd appreciate your comments. StevenJ81 (talk) 14:43, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

References

@StevenJ81: I can safely say that in almost all cases, nobody is really attempting to assess the quality of the sources. Mostly we make sure that the references are sufficient, and make sure the blurb text aligns with what the article says. I think in this case all this stuff was done at the last minute, so that's why there were more eyes on it than usual. As WP Judaism appears to be a fairly active project, as long as you folks stay on top of the articles, I don't anticipate any further problems. —howcheng {chat} 16:40, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

OK. Thanks. StevenJ81 (talk) 16:43, 2 June 2017 (UTC)

Pentecost

[4] I added the citation, I think this is the only maintenance tag. This was originally added by AndreasPhilopter[5], but he removed it accidentally in the course of good faith revisions to the lede. I restored essentially the same statement with more formal language and added the citation. Given his last comment on the talk, I think the content dispute has pretty much fizzled [6]. For these reasons, I think Pentecost should be included for OTD. Seraphim System ^(talk) 10:34, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

1982 Iranian diplomats kidnapping

1982 Iranian diplomats kidnapping has never appeared in WP:OTD before and I though it would be priored this year as we have its 35th anniversary this year. Could I know why it was missed? --Mhhossein ^talk 05:08, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

@Mhhossein: The article says that took place on July 4. —howcheng {chat} 02:05, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

Oops! --Mhhossein ^talk 07:36, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, Howcheng. --Mhhossein ^talk 14:12, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

Commons images on the main page

Hi, Howard. Just a friendly reminder to protect a Commons image before transcluding it in a template appearing on the main page currently or very soon. (I realize that this rarely applies to your edits.) Thanks! —David Levy 06:14, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

The bot got it quickly today. I went to go protect it and it was already done. —howcheng {chat} 07:37, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

Gwendolyn Brooks

Hi. I have addressed the tags on Gwendolyn Brooks. Thanks. Alanscottwalker (talk) 00:06, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 9 June 2017

• From the editors: Signpost status: On reserve power, help wanted!

• News and notes: Global Elections

• Arbitration report: Cases closed in the Pacific and with Magioladitis

• Op-ed: Wikipedia's lead sentence problem

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Battle of Quatre Bras

I made the changes because, I wished to emphasise that you could easily have read the other articles and made those changes, which is something that WP:V encourages.

You asked about "Battle of Quatre Bras#Aftermath as well". It is a work in progress see s:User:PBS/sandbox2 (for some primary sources) and user: PBS/sandbox for a large expansion based on one of the well known PD sources. -- PBS (talk) 22:00, 19 June 2017 (UTC)

@PBS: Great, thanks. —howcheng {chat} 17:36, 20 June 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 June 2017

• News and notes: Departments reorganized at Wikimedia Foundation, and a month without new RfAs (so far)

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On this day, 12 years ago...

Hey, Holly Cheng. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Lepricavark (talk) 03:02, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2017).

Administrator changes

Happyme22 • Dragons flight

Zad68

Guideline and policy news

• The RFC discussion regarding WP:OUTING and WMF essay about paid editing and outing (see more at the ArbCom noticeboard archives) is now archived. Milieus #3 and #4 received support; so did concrete proposal #1.

Technical news

• Fuzzy search will soon be added to Special:Undelete, allowing administrators to search for deleted page titles with results similar to the search query. You can test this by adding ?fuzzy=1 to the URL, as with Special:Undelete?fuzzy=1. Currently the search only finds pages that exactly match the search term.
• A new bot will automatically revision delete unused file versions from files in Category:Non-free files with orphaned versions more than 7 days old.

Miscellaneous

• A newly revamped database report can help identify users who may be eligible to be autopatrolled.
• A potentially compromised account from 2001–2002 attempted to request resysop. Please practice appropriate account security by using a unique password for Wikipedia, and consider enabling two-factor authentication. Currently around 17% of admins have enabled 2FA, up from 16% in February 2017.
• Did you know: On 29 June 2017, there were 1,261 administrators on the English Wikipedia – the exact number of administrators as there were ten years ago on 29 June 2007. Since that time, the English Wikipedia has grown from 1.85 million articles to over 5.43 million.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:59, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Image script

Hi there! WP:PROD is now applicable to files. Could you add a prod option to your image script? Thanks! Calliopejen1 (talk) 21:41, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

OK, I will get on this soon. —howcheng {chat} 08:18, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

Nomination for OTD

Hi, I was wondering if there's a size criteria for the article to be eligible for the OTD box. Can you help me with this? Thanks! Saff V. (talk) 06:39, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

In general, longer articles are preferred to shorter articles. But in this case, because the UN makes so many resolutions, if one is to appear it should be an important one. —howcheng {chat} 07:28, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your complete explanation, but is there any exact size? I don't know such as (9001 B (1457 words)! Saff V. (talk) 07:15, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

No. If there are very few articles available for a day, I may use a short article, but if there are many, then a short article will not get used. It really depends. —howcheng {chat} 08:17, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

It's right and actually interesting!Saff V. (talk) 10:39, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

Portola expedition article

Re: July 2017 section cite tag. Can you be more specific on where you feel citations are needed? WCCasey (talk) 04:45, 13 July 2017 (UTC) @WCCasey: I left a note with the tag. There are no citations in the three middle paragraphs. —howcheng {chat} 07:03, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I read the note, but to me that's not automatically a problem. I count 12 wikilinks in those 3 short paragraphs - to other articles that have sourcing. I don't see anything controversial in those paragraphs that needs a citation. If you can be more specific about your concerns, I will try to find find sources. Thanks WCCasey (talk) 00:13, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 July 2017

• News and notes: French chapter woes, new affiliates and more WMF team changes

• Featured content: Spectacular animals, Pine Trees screens, and more

• In the media: Concern about access and fairness, Foundation expenditures, and relationship to real-world politics and commerce

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• Op-ed: Why Task Forces are Dying in 2017

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• Wikicup: 2017 WikiCup round 3 wrap-up

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OTD for Jewish/Nightfall start holidays

Just a heads up that there was a discussion a while back on selected anniversaries about whether to include "begins at night" or the "main day" of observance. The net discussion was that we should use the main day, so for example Tisha B'Av, which starts the night of July 31, should not be on the page, but it should be on August 1st as the main part of the observance. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 18:06, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

@Sir Joseph: OK thanks, I'd forgotten. —howcheng {chat} 02:22, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2017).

Administrator changes

Anarchyte • GeneralizationsAreBad • Cullen328 ^{(first RfA to reach WP:300)}

Cprompt • Rockpocket • Rambo's Revenge • Animum • TexasAndroid • Chuck SMITH • MikeLynch • Crazytales • Ad Orientem

Guideline and policy news

• Following a series of discussions around new pages patrol, the WMF is helping implement a controlled autoconfirmed article creation trial as a research experiment, similar to the one proposed in 2011. You can learn more about the research plan at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial. The exact start date of the experiment has yet to be determined.
• A new speedy deletion criterion, regarding articles created as a result undisclosed paid editing, is currently being discussed (permalink).
• An RfC (permalink) is currently open that proposes expanding WP:G13 to include all drafts, even if they weren't submitted through Articles for Creation.

Technical news

• LoginNotify should soon be deployed to the English Wikipedia. This will notify users when there are suspicious login attempts on their account.
• The new version of XTools is nearing an official release. This suite of tools includes administrator statistics, an improved edit counter, among other tools that may benefit administrators. You can report issues on Phabricator and provide general feedback at mw:Talk:XTools.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:11, 1 August 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 5 August 2017

• News and notes: Non-English special edition! 99% no news about English-based wiki communities!

• Recent research: Wikipedia can increase local tourism by +9%; predicting article quality with deep learning; recent behavior predicts quality

• WikiProject report: Comic relief

• In the media: Wikipedia used to judge death penalty, arms smuggling, Indonesian governance, and HOTTEST celebrity

• Traffic report: Swedish countess tops the list

• Blog: Canadian Supreme Court rules against Google in favor of worldwide court orders

• Special report: Sharing Wikipedia offline medical information in the Dominican Republic

• Featured content: Everywhere in the lead

• Technology report: Introducing TechCom

• Humour: WWASOHs and ETCSSs

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Devendra Banhart Photo Permission Request from Zumic

Hi,

I hope this message finds you having a good day.

My name is Jacob Grossfeld and I am the managing editor for Zumic, a music news website.

I'm writing to you because we discovered your photo of Devendra Banhart (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DevendraBanhart.jpg) online with a Creative Commons license, and we would appreciate your written permission to use it on our website, as well as your preferred attribution credit and any other specifications you might require.

A little background about Zumic: We cover all styles of music, giving artists and fans the respect they deserve. The name Zumic comes from our goal of "Music that revolves around you." Our philosophy champions a true appreciation for musicianship. We celebrate artists and make their work more accessible to people who will enjoy it. We truly believe that music has the power to educate, heal, and bring people together.

If you would like to request more information about Zumic, please do not hesitate to inquire.

Best regards, Jacob Grossfeld jacob (at) zumic.com Jgrossfeld2 (talk) 20:52, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

@Jgrossfeld2: I did not take the photo in question. I merely uploaded it on behalf of the actual photographer, Lauren Dukoff. That being said, you do not actually need permission to use it because it's licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. In short, you are free to use the photo for whatever purpose you wish, as long as you give credit to the creator. Good luck with your project. —howcheng {chat} 21:41, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

Cinema Rex

Hi, I beg to inform you that Cinema Rex fire had been edited to nominate for WP:OTD . Finally it was moved to the main part at nomination OTD page.Saff V. (talk) 06:54, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

@Saff V.: OK, I will probably save it for next year's 40th anniversary. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 07:31, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2017).

Administrator changes

Nakon • Scott

Sverdrup • Thespian • Elockid • James086 • Ffirehorse • Celestianpower • Boing! said Zebedee

Guideline and policy news

• ACTRIAL, a research experiment that restricts article creation to autoconfirmed users, will begin on September 7. It will run for six months. You can learn more about the research specifics at meta:Research:Autoconfirmed article creation trial, while Wikipedia talk:Autoconfirmed article creation trial is probably the best venue for general discussion.
• Following an RfC, WP:G13 speedy deletion criterion now applies to any page in the draftspace that has not been edited in six months. There is a bot-generated report, updated daily, to help identify potentially qualifying drafts that have not been submitted through articles for creation.

Technical news

• You will now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device that has logged into your account before, you will be notified after five failed attempts. You can also set in your preferences to get an email when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address, which may be encouraged for admins and accounts with sensitive permissions.
• Syntax highlighting is now available as a beta feature (more info). This may assist administrators and template editors when dealing with intricate syntax of high-risk templates and system messages.
• In your notification preferences, you can now block specific users from pinging you. This functionality will soon be available for Special:EmailUser as well.

Arbitration

• Applications for CheckUser and Oversight are being accepted by the Arbitration Committee until September 12. Community discussion of the candidates will begin on September 18.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:35, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

LA event this Thursday

LA Meetup: September 7 edit-a-thon near DTLA

Dear fellow Wikipedian, You have been invited to a meetup and edit-a-thon at the LA84 Foundation in Jefferson Park (near DTLA) on Thursday, September 7, 2017 from 5:45 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.! This event aims to improve coverage of female Olympians and Paralympians (some of whom will be attending!). There will be a deejay and food/drinks, and kids are welcome. I hope to see you there! Calliopejen1 (talk) - via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:10, 2 September 2017 (UTC) Join our Facebook group, follow our Twitter account, and like our Facebook page!! To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

The Signpost: 6 September 2017

• From the editors: What happened at Wikimania?

• News and notes: Basselpedia; WMF Board of Trustees appointments

• Featured content: Warfighters and their tools or trees and butterflies

• Traffic report: A fortnight of conflicts

• Special report: Biomedical content, and some thoughts on its future

• Recent research: Discussion summarization; Twitter bots tracking government edits; extracting trivia from Wikipedia

• In the media: Google's Ideological Echo Chamber; What makes someone successful?

• WikiProject report: WikiProject YouTube

• Technology report: Latest tech news

• Wikicup: 2017 WikiCup round 4 wrap-up

• Humour: Bots

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Just to get sure

Did you notice my message? Thanks. --Mhhossein ^talk 18:13, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

OneWebDay

Updated! :) Wwwhatsup (talk) 07:01, 22 September 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 25 September 2017

• News and notes: Chapter updates; ACTRIAL

• In the media: Monkey settlement; Wikipedia used to give AI context clues

• Humour: Chickenz

• Recent research: Wikipedia articles vs. concepts; Wikipedia usage in Europe

• Technology report: Flow restarted; Wikidata connection notifications

• Gallery: Chicken mania

• Special report: Two steps forward, one step backward: The Sustainability Initiative

• Traffic report: Fights and frights

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* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:18, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

A page you started (Mycoremediation) has been reviewed!

Thanks for creating Mycoremediation, Howcheng!

Wikipedia editor Insertcleverphrasehere just reviewed your page, and wrote this note for you:

A good candidate to take to WP:DYK.

To reply, leave a comment on Insertcleverphrasehere's talk page.

Learn more about page curation.

— Insertcleverphrasehere ^{(or here)} 23:18, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2017).

Administrator changes

Boing! said Zebedee • Ansh666 • Ad Orientem

Tonywalton • AmiDaniel • Silence • BanyanTree • Magioladitis • Vanamonde93 • Mr.Z-man • Jdavidb • Jakec • Ram-Man • Yelyos • Kurt Shaped Box

Guideline and policy news

• Following a successful proposal to create it, a new user right called "edit filter helper" is now assignable and revocable by administrators. The right allows non-administrators to view the details of private edit filters, but not to edit them.
• Following a discussion about mass-application of ECP and how the need for logging and other details of an evolving consensus may have been missed by some administrators, a rough guide to extended confirmed protection has been written. This information page describes how the extended-confirmed aspects of the protection policy are currently being applied by administrators.

Technical news

• You can now search for IP ranges at Special:Contributions. Some log pages and Special:DeletedContributions are not yet supported. Wildcards (e.g. 192.168.0.*) are also not supported, but the popular contribsrange gadget will continue to work.

Arbitration

• Community consultation on the 2017 candidates for CheckUser and Oversight has concluded. The Arbitration Committee will appoint successful candidates by October 11.
• A request for comment is open regarding the structure, rules, and procedures of the December 2017 Arbitration Committee election, and how to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:23, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 October 2017

• News and notes: Money! WMF fundraising, Wikimedia strategy, WMF new office!

• Featured content: Don, Marcel, Emily, Jessica and other notables

• Humour: Guys named Ralph

• In focus: Offline Wikipedia developed at OFF.NETWORK Content Hackathon

• Blog: The future of offline access to Wikipedia: The Kiwix example

• In the media: Facebook and poetry

• Special report: Working with GLAMs in the UK

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Administrators' newsletter – November 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2017).

Administrator changes

Longhair • Megalibrarygirl • TonyBallioni • Vanamonde93

Allen3 • Eluchil404 • Arthur Rubin • Bencherlite

Technical news

• The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team is creating an "Interaction Timeline" tool that intends to assist administrators in resolving user conduct disputes. Feedback on the concept may be posted on the talk page.
• A new function is now available to edit filter managers that will make it easier to look for multiple strings containing spoofed text.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors will be invited to submit candidate statements for the 2017 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 12 until November 21. Voting will begin on November 27 and last until December 10.
• Following a request for comment, Ritchie333, Yunshui and Ymblanter will serve as the Electoral Commission for the 2017 ArbCom Elections.

Obituaries

• The Wikipedia community has recently learned that Allen3 (William Allen Peckham) passed away on December 30, 2016, the same day as JohnCD. Allen began editing in 2005 and became an administrator that same year.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:50, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:POTD image/2007-02-03

Template:POTD image/2007-02-03 has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Frietjes (talk) 17:51, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

OTD, 9 November

Why have you removed the tram image? I'm not seeing two train images in a row on 8/9 or 9/10 Nov. Please restore it. Mjroots (talk) 22:41, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

@Mjroots: OK, it wasn't two in a row, but there were trains on November 4 and November 7, so that would be three in less a week. —howcheng {chat} 02:39, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

Please stop...

Adding CN tags and section clean-up tags. If you've done one, you don;t need the other. I feel as if we've had this discussion before.

Also, please read WP:Tag bombing and WP:Verification. Although every fact on Wikipedia should ideally be supported by a citation, if there's no doubt that the fact is accurate, a citation is not necessary. It's only disputed or controversial information that is required to have a citation. Please give some thought to the fact that an article full of CN tags is much more difficult for the user to read, and consider whether you are, in fact, improving the article by tag bombing it. Beyond My Ken (talk) 02:54, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

I ask you to consider what you're doing and you go ahead and add more CN tags? No. I've reverted all of your edit as being in violation of WP:Tag bombing. Beyond My Ken (talk) 03:02, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

Then don't remove my tags. I tagged the entire article with my specific concerns in a comment, and you undid it. If you're so concerned about an article full of {{cn}} tags, then you should have left the damn thing on top. Plus, you're wrong. WP:V says (emphasis mine) All material in Wikipedia mainspace, including everything in articles, lists and captions, must be verifiable. All quotations, and any material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged, must include an inline citation that directly supports the material. My adding the CN tag to the sentence is me making such a challenge. You say "if there's no doubt", which makes no sense. If I'm reading about a topic because I want to learn about it, there's no way for me to discern which claims are true and which are false. Otherwise, you're saying that readers should uncritically accept every sentence lacking a citation as fact. PS: WP:Tag bombing is an essay, whereas WP:V is policy. —howcheng {chat} 03:15, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

OTD 18 November

It will be the 30th anniversary of the King's Cross Fire on 18 November. Can it be included please? Mjroots (talk) 06:22, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

@Mjroots: Yeah, stick it in. —howcheng {chat} 07:26, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

OK, will do. Mjroots (talk) 07:48, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Mjroots, that's a nice article, it's not C-class by any means, would you consider taking it to GAN? The Rambling Man (talk) 07:50, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

@The Rambling Man:, personally, I wouldn't. I've had no input at all to the article. Nothing stopping you doing it though, if you feel it is up to scratch. Mjroots (talk) 07:53, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

MS Explorer

I've removed the unreferenced section. Had been unreferenced since added by and IP way back in 2007. Little to no chance of finding original source as company has changed its name since the time of the accident, so I wouldn't even begin to know where to search the Wayback machine. On balance, the deleted info is not that important as most of it is covered elsewhere. Mjroots (talk) 18:59, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 November 2017

• News and notes: Cons, cons, cons

• Arbitration report: Administrator desysoped; How to deal with crosswiki issues; Mister Wiki case likely

• Technology report: Searching and surveying

• Interview: A featured article centurion

• WikiProject report: Recommendations for WikiProjects

• In the media: Open knowledge platform as a media institution

• Traffic report: Strange and inappropriate

• Featured content: We will remember them

• Recent research: Who wrote this? New dataset on the provenance of Wikipedia text

• Humour: Good faith (but still incomprehensible)

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Stanisław August Poniatowski

Hi, I added the needed sources for the article Stanisław August Poniatowski to be in the anniversary section of Wikipedia's main page. Regards. Oliszydlowski, 09:03, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:American Progress - Jose Maria Sert, photo by Jaime Ardiles-Arce.jpg

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Thanks for uploading File:American Progress - Jose Maria Sert, photo by Jaime Ardiles-Arce.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:20, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2017).

Administrator changes

Joe Roe

JzG

Ericorbit • Perceval • Thingg • Tristanb • Violetriga

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, a new section has been added to the username policy which disallows usernames containing emoji, emoticons or otherwise "decorative" usernames, and usernames that use any non-language symbols. Administrators should discuss issues related to these types of usernames before blocking.

Technical news

• Wikimedians are now invited to vote on the proposals in the 2017 Community Wishlist Survey on Meta Wiki until 10 December 2017. In particular, there is a section of the survey regarding new tools for administrators and for anti-harassment.
• A new function is available to edit filter managers which can be used to store matches from regular expressions.

Arbitration

• Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is open until Sunday 23:59, 10 December 2017 (UTC). There are 12 candidates running for 8 vacant seats.

Miscellaneous

• Over the last few months, several users have reported backlogs that require administrator attention at WP:ANI, with the most common backlogs showing up on WP:SPI, WP:AIV and WP:RFPP. It is requested that all administrators take some time during this month to help clear backlogs wherever possible. It should be noted that AIV reports are not always valid; however, they still need to be cleared, which may include needing to remind users on what qualifies as vandalism.
• The Wikimedia Foundation Community health initiative is conducting a survey for English Wikipedia contributors on their experience and satisfaction level with Administrator’s Noticeboard/Incidents. This survey will be integral to gathering information about how this noticeboard works (i.e. which problems it deals with well and which problems it struggles with). If you would like to take this survey, please sign up on this page, and a link for the survey will be emailed to you via Special:EmailUser.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:58, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

ArbCom 2017 election voter message

Hello, Howcheng. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

Chanukah 2017

Hi, just an FYI, I added Chanukah to Dec 13 as first day of Chanukah. I posted an FYI to the Wikiproject so we can see if we can clean it up. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 15:17, 4 December 2017 (UTC)

1. You and he both violated BRD. 2. It makes no difference if "he helps you out" you and he don't own this. 3. It makes no sense to remove something this far out when items can be improved, especially when listed. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 16:59, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

@Sir Joseph: If you want to keep Hanukkah in, then just move that one back by itself; next time don't undo the rest of the edit, please. (I'm in the middle of doing the update for this year, so I'll put it back in for you.) Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 17:05, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

OK, thanks. I also put a notice on the project page, and FTR, many of the CN tags are overdone and not needed. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 17:14, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

• Dear Howcheng, there's an ongoing discussion on the recent issues in the article. Among other points, one of the major objections raised by those objecting the taggings, is that why the article was tagged just before appearing on the main page. There have been some back forth on the article TP and I think your comment can be clarifying. Thanks. --Mhhossein ^talk 12:32, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Harrowsmith Country Life cover.jpg

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The Signpost: 18 December 2017

• Special report: Women in Red World Contest wrap-up

• Blog: Close encounters of the Wikipedia kind

• Featured content: Featured content to finish 2017

• In the media: Stolen seagulls, public domain primates and more

• Arbitration report: Last case of 2017: Mister Wiki editors

• Gallery: Wiki loving

• Interview: Interview with Charlesjsharp, regular contributor of Wikipedia's Featured Pictures

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* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:27, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

Wahlgren

Hi, I have added two sources for confirmation of Pernilla Wahlgrens birthday. And I can add many more if needed. Are there a chance of adding her again to the OTD section, or will it have to wait until 2018. Its just that it is her 50th birthday this year. Anyway Merry Christmas.--BabbaQ (talk) 00:36, 24 December 2017 (UTC)

@BabbaQ: Sorry, was offline most yesterday. A little too late now. —howcheng {chat} 19:56, 24 December 2017 (UTC)

Totally understand. I have beem busy all day as well. --BabbaQ (talk) 00:25, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

Merger discussion for Tarako (food)

An article that you have been involved in editing—Tarako (food)—has been proposed for merging with another article. If you are interested, please participate in the merger discussion. Thank you. Gidiyorum (talk) 09:45, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Lachlan Macquarie

did you check the sixth paragraph, all those paragraphs can easily run together, and aren't going to be individually itemised Dave Rave (talk) 00:49, 31 December 2017 (UTC)

@Dave Rave: The next paragraph has two citations to offline sources. Not sure how I'm supposed to check those two. —howcheng {chat} 00:52, 31 December 2017 (UTC)

linked some books, some show online Dave Rave (talk) 11:47, 31 December 2017 (UTC)

@Dave Rave: I'm sorry, but I'm not going to have time to do that research. —howcheng {chat} 02:09, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Apology

Re Reagan's career (OTD, Jan. 2), my mistake -- somehow I misread/mis-remembered "career in government" as "political career." Sorry. Sca (talk) 16:08, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2017).

Administrator changes

Muboshgu

Anetode • Laser brain • Worm That Turned

None

Bureaucrat changes

Worm That Turned

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the administrator policy should be amended to require disclosure of paid editing activity at WP:RFA and to prohibit the use of administrative tools as part of paid editing activity, with certain exceptions.

Technical news

• The 2017 Community Wishlist Survey results have been posted. The Community Tech team will investigate and address the top ten results.
• The Anti-Harassment Tools team is inviting comments on new blocking tools and improvements to existing blocking tools for development in early 2018. Feedback can be left on the discussion page or by email.

Arbitration

• Following the results of the 2017 election, the following editors have been (re)appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Alex Shih, BU Rob13, Callanecc, KrakatoaKatie, Opabinia regalis, Premeditated Chaos, RickinBaltimore, Worm That Turned.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Sources needed for Days of the Year pages

You're probably not aware but Days of the Year pages are no longer exempt from WP:V and direct sources are required for additions. For details see the WikiProject Days of the Year style guide. The article about the person you added to January 28 did not have any source to back up your addition has been reverted. Please do not restore it without providing a direct reliable source. Thank you. Toddst1 (talk) 18:46, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

@Toddst1: Do you mean the date has to be cited in the subject's article (it is) or on the DOY page (I don't see any citations on the page at all)? Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 08:14, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

No, none of it is referenced, it would seem, however, that only new items require references as nothing is being done about all the existing entries. What this actually means is that every single day of the year article should be tagged with {{ref improve}}. (And these are linked from the main page....!) There was no clear consensus during that discussion in any case. The Rambling Man (talk) 08:20, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

I think the Rambling Man's response is unfortunate suggesting the sky is falling. The goal here is to incrementally raise the bar on these notoriously low-quality pages and ensure they are verifiable. As they stand, almost none of these entries are sourced and I routinely find errors. The discussion came down to a common sense elimination of the project's self-declared exemption from WP:V. Toddst1 (talk) 15:47, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

My question remains unanswered, but I'm sensing that the goal is to have the inline citations on the DOY pages themselves. Is that correct? —howcheng {chat} 17:09, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

The answer to your question is pretty clear, this apparent consensus now demands that every item in every "day of the year" list is referenced. So that's 366 {{ref improve}} tags that need to be added. The sky is not "falling", we just have 366 articles which are very inadequately referenced according to a consensus which was by no means clear. So tag we must to get others to join in with the referencing, regardless of the fact these articles are bold-linked from the main page. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:30, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

Of course, having said that, this is only a mere essay and can be summarily ignored for the purpose of good sense, so I'd suggest we keep adding items whose articles contain sufficient referencing. There's no mandate to follow an "essay" by any means. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:35, 8 January 2018 (UTC)

@The Rambling Man: Deliberately ignoring the essay which as you say reflects consensus would be disruptive by definition. If you have any doubt, read WP:DISRUPTSIGNS #1, #5 and maybe a few others. Toddst1 (talk) 01:30, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

Not really. If it was even a guideline, there'd be scope for sensible editing, e.g. precisely not what you've recently done and arbitrarily remove one new item because it was unreferenced, versus the literally hundreds of items in the same article which are also unreferenced. That's not helpful at all, in fact, some of us would consider that highly disruptive. The Rambling Man (talk) 06:52, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

So you've unilaterally decided that your actions are sensible, yet they fly in the face of the community-set guideline. Right. I'm done here. Toddst1 (talk) 15:24, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

I've also decided that your edit to remove that one entry added by Howcheng was purely disruptive, in order to prove a point, and didn't help Wikipedia or our readers in any way. Goodbye!! The Rambling Man (talk) 15:27, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

Yes, the goal is to have references on the DOY pages. Toddst1 (talk) 19:13, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

It's not very difficult.[7] You should try it. Without references we have problems like this. Thanks for fixing it. Toddst1 (talk) 15:33, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Ok, you need to stop this now. Get a source. Toddst1 (talk) 21:17, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

@Toddst1: Seriously, it's extremely rude to treat me like a newbie. WP:DOY doesn't say anything about this yet, and it's still only an essay on WP:DAYS. Have you even added {{reflist}} to each page yet? —howcheng {chat} 21:24, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Howcheng, It's rude for someone - especially an admin - to think that WP:BURDEN doesn't apply to them. If you were a newbie, you'd be getting im-4 level warnings at this point. You're basically ignoring this conversation and your wingman isn't helping.

So you think it's my job to add {{reflist}} sections to each article? Not hardly - see Wikipedia:WikiProject_Days_of_the_year#Task_list. Get off your high horse and contribute more constructively. Even an admin can be blocked for continuing to add unsourced crap like you're doing. Toddst1 (talk) 21:41, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

"... add unsourced crap ..." really? I think you're becoming too involved now, step away before you get blocked for WP:NPA. By the way, "Ok, consider this a final warning". Ditto. The Rambling Man (talk) 21:48, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Dude, let's chill a bit here. We're all on the same team, aren't we? If you look at my contributions, you'll see I've been adding references to articles left and right, so please don't lecture me about being constructive. My main question is, if this is a position that has been adopted by WP:DAYS, then why is there no mention of this on WP:DOY, which is the guideline covering all DOY pages? Because that's what I'm following. And seriously, please AGF as well. Again, if you look at my contributions, you can see that mostly I'm just moving things when I find them listed on the wrong page. —howcheng {chat} 21:57, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

@Toddst1:, you're becoming extremely disruptive. Attempting to drag me to Arbcom (!!!) just on the back of our recent disagreement, yet relating to completely different was particularly wasteful, but at least I know now you are watching my talkpage! You need to start working with us, not against us. If you want to follow an essay, feel free, but until it becomes policy, quit giving us regulars such an unhelpful migraine. While you're adding {{reflist}} to each page, be sure to add {{ref improve}} as well, because, according to your new approach, it would certainly be needed in each and every case. The Rambling Man (talk) 21:31, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

To be clear, I am not at all opposed to having citations on the DOY pages, if that is indeed the direction we want to go in, but I'm not about to start if this is just a one-man crusade. —howcheng {chat} 21:39, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

WP:BURDEN and WP:V is not a one-man crusade. It's policy. You might try reading it since you're charged with enforcing it - even on yourself. Toddst1 (talk) 21:43, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

This recent fad certainly is a one-person crusade. And the way it's being implemented is unhelpful. Please be sure to tag all articles with the right templates if you actually believe that BURDEN and V now suddenly apply to these articles, that way they'll get some attention since we won't be able to link any of them from the main page. The Rambling Man (talk) 21:46, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Technically, even though the DOY pages are bold on OTD, they don't count as being "featured" as making an appearance on the Main Page (AnomieBOT doesn't touch their talk pages to indicate they were listed that day). —howcheng {chat} 21:57, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

But the "today" article is in bold, so ought not (must not) be maintenance tagged. Certainly that's the case with all other aspects of the main page at the point of posting. The Rambling Man (talk) 22:00, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

That rule is supposed to apply to the blurbs themselves, not the DOY page. I suppose that's not very clear. —howcheng {chat} 22:03, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Well, as I said, the "no maintenance tags" applies to every bold link on the main page at the point of posting right now. Once we tag every single DOY article, that should render the link non-bold for the "SHAME" of lack of refs. Mind you, I can't say I've seen or heard even once of any of our readers concerned with the lack of inline sources in these articles. And that includes a few years working on OTRS where everything was complained about. Storm in a teacup. I guess it will pass, a new fad will come by and we can just continue as we were. The Rambling Man (talk) 22:07, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

So we just de-bold the day, I suppose. No big deal. —howcheng {chat} 22:10, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Sure. I guess this new enthusiasm should also apply to simple year articles? I wonder why I'm not seeing the same burst of vim aimed at 2018 for instance, which contains a few dozen deaths, yet not one single citation for any one of them. Funny old world this Wikipedia. The Rambling Man (talk) 22:13, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Yeah, if day articles are affected, then naturally year articles would be as well, but those fall under the purview of Wikipedia:WikiProject Years. @Toddst1: as you seem to be the driving force here, would you care to bring this up with them? —howcheng {chat} 22:19, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

It's on my list of things I would like to do. DOY had explicitly exempted themselves from WP:V, so it seemed like the place to start. There are more than a few errors on them as you and Dldnh have discovered. Toddst1 (talk) 22:33, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Perfect, so anyone can anything they like to year articles without invoking the merest glimmer of wrath, but linked articles being added to days of the year articles, that's now a "final warning" kind of thing. Unbelievable. The Rambling Man (talk) 22:38, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 16 January 2018

• News and notes: Communication is key

• In the media: The Paris Review, British Crown and British Media

• Featured content: History, gaming and multifarious topics

• Interview: Interview with Ser Amantio di Nicolao, the top contributor to English Wikipedia by edit count

• Technology report: Dedicated Wikidata database servers

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• Arbitration report: Mister Wiki is first arbitration committee decision of 2018

• Traffic report: The best and worst of 2017

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Wikipedia:Main_Page/Errors#OTD_tomorrow

Hi Howcheng, can you look at Jan 23rd's On This Day, there are conflicting sources for Hai Rui's year of birth, could this entry be replaced? I'd do it myself but I don't want to risk picking someone that has been used before. Thanks, fish&karate 11:20, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Fish and karate We didn't do births and deaths last year so you can replace that one (and the other one without a source) without worrying about repeats. The Rambling Man (talk) 11:24, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia's 20th anniversary

Following on from my 'happy birthday Wikipedia' message on the MP talk page last week - is it time to start planning for Wikipedia's 20 years-since-foundation? (The discussion for the Wikipedia (in whatever form it then exists) equivalent of Emma Morano will probably have to wait until "today 2118".) Jackiespeel (talk) 17:47, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

January 30, 2018 anniversaries

Hi -- I had just put in the anniversary of silent film actress Barbara La Marr's death (in 1926) just days before you removed it -- it had never been featured before, and I think it's worthy. Would you please restore it to the anniversary page? Stolengood (talk) 02:44, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

@Stolengood: Sorry, but her filmography is not referenced (I tagged the article accordingly). Plenty of GA-level articles have been taken out for that same reason. —howcheng {chat} 03:35, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

@Howcheng: I can put in a reference quite easily -- I've got the most recent biography of her on-hand; it's got a complete filmography list. The anniversary can be restored once that's done, correct, or is it already transcluded? Stolengood (talk) 03:39, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

And, put in. Done. Stolengood (talk) 03:45, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

OK, I'll put it back in. —howcheng {chat} 03:54, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks. :-) Stolengood (talk) 19:17, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

Candlemas

Perhaps, instead of slapping a tag on top of the page, you add {{cn}} on those sections you think need verification? Thanks. --evrik ^(talk) 15:53, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

@Evrik: I left a note with the tag... was that not clear enough for you? —howcheng {chat} 16:42, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Whatevs. I imagine that the tag will still be there eight years from now. --evrik ^(talk) 16:54, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2018).

Administrator changes

None

Blurpeace • Dana boomer • Deltabeignet • Denelson83 • Grandiose • Salvidrim! • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC has closed with a consensus that candidates at WP:RFA must disclose whether they have ever edited for pay and that administrators may never use administrative tools as part of any paid editing activity, except when they are acting as a Wikipedian-in-Residence or when the payment is made by the Wikimedia Foundation or an affiliate of the WMF.
• Editors responding to threats of harm can now contact the Wikimedia Foundation's emergency address by using Special:EmailUser/Emergency. If you don't have email enabled on Wikipedia, directly contacting the emergency address using your own email client remains an option.

Technical news

• A tag will now be automatically applied to edits that blank a page, turn a page into a redirect, remove/replace almost all content in a page, undo an edit, or rollback an edit. These edits were previously denoted solely by automatic edit summaries.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee has enacted a change to the discretionary sanctions procedure which requires administrators to add a standardized editnotice when placing page restrictions. Editors cannot be sanctioned for violations of page restrictions if this editnotice was not in place at the time of the violation.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:52, 4 February 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 5 February 2018

• Op-ed: Do editors have the right to be forgotten?

• Featured content: Wars, sieges, disasters and everything black possible

• Recent research: Automated Q&A from Wikipedia articles; Who succeeds in talk page discussions?

• Blog: New monthly dataset shows where people fall into Wikipedia rabbit holes

• Interview: Interview with The Rambling Man, Wikipedia's top contributor of Featured Lists

• Traffic report: TV, death, sports, and doodles

• Special report: Cochrane–Wikipedia Initiative

• Arbitration report: New cases requested for inter-editor hostility and other collaboration issues

• In the media: Solving crime; editing out violence allegations

• Humour: You really are in Wonderland

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:12, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Your draft article, Draft:Mussel Slough Tragedy

Hello, Howcheng. It has been over six months since you last edited the Articles for Creation submission or Draft page you started, "Mussel Slough Tragedy".

In accordance with our policy that Wikipedia is not for the indefinite hosting of material deemed unsuitable for the encyclopedia mainspace, the draft has been nominated for deletion. If you plan on working on it further, or editing it to address the issues raised if it was declined, simply and remove the {{db-afc}}, {{db-draft}}, or {{db-g13}} code.

If your submission has already been deleted by the time you get there, and you wish to retrieve it, you can request its undeletion by following the instructions at this link. An administrator will, in most cases, restore the submission so you can continue to work on it.

Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. Legacypac (talk) 09:04, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 20 February 2018

• News and notes: The future is Swedish with a lack of administrators

• Recent research: Politically diverse editors write better articles; Reddit and Stack Overflow benefit from Wikipedia but don't give back

• Arbitration report: Arbitration committee prepares to examine two new cases

• Traffic report: Addicted to sports and pain

• Featured content: Entertainment, sports and history

• Technology report: Paragraph-based edit conflict screen; broken thanks

• Humour: Impossible and unexplained traffic report

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:11, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

L.S. Lowry fixed

Hi, I've fixed section with the citation problems that you tagged on the L.S. Lowry article. I assume it has been flagged up for OTD on 23 February. I've also fixed copyvios etc and fixed all other tagged content and removed tags. Richerman (talk) 22:44, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

It was a candidate. I ended up picking something else, but I'll be glad to stick Lowry in the staging area for next year. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 23:23, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

@Richerman: The list of works is going to need a citation too. If you have a source that lists most of them, you can by with something like "Source (unless otherwise noted): ..." Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 00:00, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

I made a bit of a cock up. I removed a lot of what I thought was copyvio text but later realised the site I was looking at was taken from the wikipedia article so I had to restore back to an earlier version losing about three hours work. I think I've fixed it all now except the lists of works. If I can't find citations maybe I'll just remove them altogether. Richerman (talk) 00:38, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

OK, I've fixed the list of works now - it's all referenced. Richerman (talk) 10:58, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

You're a hard taskmaster but quite correct of course :-) I've removed the two uncited paragraphs as I can't find any citations for them. Richerman (talk) 18:06, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

@Richerman: Nice work, I'll reward you with a Main Page appearance. César Ritz can wait until next year. —howcheng {chat} 18:11, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

I only just noticed the bit about leaving it till next year - you're very kind, makes all the hard work worthwhile. Richerman (talk) 18:18, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

A cookie for you!

Thank you for reviewing my Did You Know nomination. TriiipleThreat (talk) 19:01, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2018).

Administrator changes

Lourdes†

AngelOfSadness • Bhadani • Chris 73 • Coren • Friday • Midom • Mike V

† Lourdes has requested that her admin rights be temporarily removed, pending her return from travel.

Guideline and policy news

• The autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) is scheduled to end on 14 March 2018. The results of the research collected can be read on Meta Wiki.
• Community ban discussions must now stay open for at least 24 hours prior to being closed.
• A change to the administrator inactivity policy has been proposed. Under the proposal, if an administrator has not used their admin tools for a period of five years and is subsequently desysopped for inactivity, the administrator would have to file a new RfA in order to regain the tools.
• A change to the banning policy has been proposed which would specify conditions under which a repeat sockmaster may be considered de facto banned, reducing the need to start a community ban discussion for these users.

Technical news

• CheckUsers are now able to view private data such as IP addresses from the edit filter log, e.g. when the filter prevents a user from creating an account. Previously, this information was unavailable to CheckUsers because access to it could not be logged.
• The edit filter has a new feature contains_all that edit filter managers may use to check if one or more strings are all contained in another given string.

Miscellaneous

• Following the 2018 Steward elections, the following users are our new stewards: -revi, Green Giant, Rxy, There'sNoTime, علاء.

Obituaries

• Bhadani (Gangadhar Bhadani) passed away on 8 February 2018. Bhadani joined Wikipedia in March 2005 and became an administrator in September 2005. While he was active, Bhadani was regarded as one of the most prolific Wikipedians from India.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:00, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia Day LA, March 31

Wikipedia Day LA 2018

Please join us from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm on Saturday, March 31st for Wikipedia Day LA 2018 at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. There will be speakers, panel discussions, a presentation on Wikidata, flash sessions, and a discussion about the formation of an LA User Group. There could be dramatic readings of LA-related talk pages, and there will be truly excellent cake. Please RSVP on the event page if you're thinking of joining us. We hope to see you there! JSFarman (talk) via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:19, 9 March 2018 (UTC) Join our Facebook group here, and follow us on Twitter . To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

Supersemar

Hi. Thanks for the edit removing the commentary. I was still a newbie when I created the article many years ago, and was still finding my feet... Cheers. Davidelit (Talk) 06:03, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

Godfather

I have restored your edit. ‑ ‑ Gareth Griffith‑Jones ^{The Welsh Buzzard} ‑ ‑ 18:17, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

Nanakshahi New Year (Sikhism)

I see you have removed the reference to the Sikh New Year on Wikipedia:Selected_anniversaries/March_14. Any way it can be restored?

2601:81:4200:69BE:FD5D:85FD:1990:E24 (talk) 21:37, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

thnx

im new and just starting to learn it. feels good to see how wikipedia admin and members like you help many people worldwide thnx a lot 13 March 2018 (UTC)— Preceding unsigned comment added by Mustangcars (talk • contribs) 10:46, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

im sorry im still practicing the codes btw about the nomination how would you know if the picture is accepted ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mustangcars (talk • contribs) 16:18, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

question

i already post a new pic in WP:Featured picture candidates can u tell me who will be the voters? and if there's a notification if the pic has been approved or not? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mustangcars (talk • contribs) 17:37, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

@Mustangcars: Sorry, I don't know who will be the voters (actually, it's not really voting, it's more of a consensus-type thing). It's probably going to be most of the same people who are involved with other candidates on that page. The result of the discussion will be posted on that page also. Good luck! —howcheng {chat} 17:39, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

buddy

sorry maybe i was just to excited or what but it will never happen again — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mustangcars (talk • contribs) 03:57, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for March 20

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Evergreen Cemetery, Los Angeles, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Kenny Washington (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are usually incorrect, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of unrelated topics with similar titles. (Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.)

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just a question

how to determine if the picture is already featured last year? and is there easy way to determined if the picture or article is already featured? thnx in advance — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mustangcars (talk • contribs) 06:42, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

@Mustangcars: I'm not totally sure I understand what you're asking. Are you asking if a picture was promoted to Featured Picture status in 2017? Wikipedia:Goings-on shows what happens each week, so you can go through all the listings for 2017 to see the promotions. Any picture that is Featured status will have a little banner on it, like File:Mount Hood reflected in Mirror Lake, Oregon.jpg. Also if you look in the upper right corner, you will see a star icon. Featured articles also have the star icon and the banner is on the article's talk page. Or you asking if a picture was selected for Picture of the Day in 2017? For that, you can look at the POTD archive pages, Wikipedia:Picture of the day/January 2017 and so on. Articles are in the FA archives: Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 2017 and so on. —howcheng {chat} 22:02, 23 March 2018 (UTC)

DYK for Treaty of Livadia

On 26 March 2018, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Treaty of Livadia, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the terms of the Treaty of Livadia between Qing China and the Russian Empire were so unfavorable to China that the negotiator Chonghou was sentenced to death? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Treaty of Livadia. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Treaty of Livadia), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Alex Shih (talk) 00:02, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

Sigismund Báthory

Regarding Special:Diff/832535830 and Special:Diff/832536121, a different source disagrees. (I could not find the date in the work you cite, using Google Books. Can you provide a direct link to that info?) - dcljr (talk) 19:41, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

@Dcljr: In the Sigismund Báthory#Last years section, it says 13 March and it's cited to an offline source. I did not add that date myself, so I was only harmonizing the lead with the article text (I was acting under the assumption that the date was accurately reflected in the source "Szabó 2012"). If you're sure that the 13th is incorrect, I will trust that you know this topic better than I do. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 20:31, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

I don't know anything about the topic. I just searched for the name and dates in Google Books and found 27 March in a source but couldn't find 13 March. (That doesn't mean it's wrong; I just couldn't verify it.) Note that the date is given as the 27th in the lead sentence, the infobox, and the "succession box" at the bottom of the article (of course, those are not necessarily "independent" attestations), while the 13th date only appears in the "Last years" section — although, granted, apparently sourced. Unfortunately, I could not find that date in that particular source. I am only searching "blindly", so to speak, since I can't see the full text of that work, so I can't be sure it's wrong. Like I said, I have no independent knowledge of any of this. I'll bring this up on the article's talk page. - dcljr (talk) 22:58, 26 March 2018 (UTC)

@Dcljr: It looks like the two of us are both just trying to figure it out based on incomplete information. I agree the article talk page is probably the best bet. —howcheng {chat} 02:37, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

OK, well, the editor who originally added the March 13th date back in 2016 (don't have the exact "diff" to link to) is saying that March 27th is the correct date. Good enough for me. BTW, in my edit summary when I reverted your change, I claimed "27 March date seems to be cited", but that was wrong: as you pointed out, March 13th was the date with a citation. Whatever… [grin] - dcljr (talk) 03:29, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for March 27

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Signpost issue 4 – 29 March 2018

• Op-ed: Death knell for The Signpost?

• News and notes: Wiki Conference roundup and new appointments.

• Arbitration report: Ironing out issues in infoboxes; not sure yet about New Jersey; and an administrator who probably wasn't uncivil to a sockpuppet.

• In the media: The media on Wikipedia's workings: the good and not-so-good

• Traffic report: Real sports, real women and an imaginary country: what's on top for Wikipedia readers

• Featured content: Animals, Ships, and Songs

• Technology report: Timeless skin review by Force Radical.

• Special report: ACTRIAL wrap-up.

• Humour: WikiWorld Reruns

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ok thnx

thnx for the patience and understanding — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mustangcars (talk • contribs) 01:16, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2018).

Administrator changes

331dot • Cordless Larry • ClueBot NG

Gogo Dodo • Pb30 • Sebastiankessel • Seicer • SoLando

Guideline and policy news

• Administrators who have been desysopped due to inactivity are now required to have performed at least one (logged) administrative action in the past 5 years in order to qualify for a resysop without going through a new RfA.
• Editors who have been found to have engaged in sockpuppetry on at least two occasions after an initial indefinite block, for whatever reason, are now automatically considered banned by the community without the need to start a ban discussion.
• The notability guideline for organizations and companies has been substantially rewritten following the closure of this request for comment. Among the changes, the guideline more clearly defines the sourcing requirements needed for organizations and companies to be considered notable.
• The six-month autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The post-trial research report has been published. A request for comment is now underway to determine whether the restrictions from ACTRIAL should be implemented permanently.

Technical news

• There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee is considering a change to the discretionary sanctions procedures which would require an editor to appeal a sanction to the community at WP:AE or WP:AN prior to appealing directly to the Arbitration Committee at WP:ARCA.

Miscellaneous

• A discussion has closed which concluded that administrators are not required to enable email, though many editors suggested doing so as a matter of best practice.
• The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team has released the Interaction Timeline. This shows a chronologic history for two users on pages where they have both made edits, which may be helpful in identifying sockpuppetry and investigating editing disputes.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:23, 2 April 2018 (UTC)

Death anniversary removed

I removed a death anniversary because the date doesn't match the article. Art LaPella (talk) 03:26, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for April 19

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April 23rd selected anniversary

Hey! Thank you for suggesting that the page Main Building (University of Notre Dame) be improved. I added all the appropriate citations and overall improved the page. Is it possible to reinsert it in the selected anniversaries? It has not been featured yet, and the page has undergone a lot of improvements. Thank you! Eccekevin (talk) 03:59, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

Why don't we hold it for next year, when it's a nice round-number 120th anniversary? —howcheng {chat} 07:30, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

Arts Datathon!

LA County Civic Arts Datathon!

Please join us for the LA County Arts Commission Civic Art Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. Beginners are welcome! We'll provide training for new editors. (See the meetup page for more details.) Friday, April 27, 2018, 9:00-5:00 Bob Hope Patriotic Hall, 1816 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90015. We hope to see you there! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:09, 25 April 2018 (UTC) Join our Facebook group here, and follow us on Twitter . To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

The Signpost: 26 April 2018

• From the editors: The Signpost's presses roll again

• Signpost: Future directions for The Signpost

• News and notes: Photo of Kim Jong-un. Stephen Hawking death tops hits on many Wikipedias.

• In the media: The rise of Wikipedia as a disinformation mop

• In focus: Admin reports board under criticism

• Special report: ACTRIAL results adopted by landslide

• Opinion: Guideline for Organization Notability revised

• Op-ed: World War II Myth-making and Wikipedia

• Community view: It's time we look past Women in Red to counter systemic bias

• Discussion report: The future of portals

• Arbitration report: No new cases, and one motion on administrative misconduct

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Military History

• Blog: Why the world reads Wikipedia

• Humour: Our Favorite Places to Whine About Stuff

• Traffic report: A quiet place to wrestle with the articles of March

• Technology report: Coming soon: Books-to-PDF, interactive maps, rollback confirmation

• Featured content: Featured content selected by the community

• Gallery: A look at some famous and not as well-known border tripoints

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Administrators' newsletter – May 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2018).

Administrator changes

None

Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060

Guideline and policy news

• The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
• A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.

Technical news

• AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new equals_to_any function can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash.
• When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
• The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
• There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee is seeking additional clerks to help with the arbitration process.

Obituaries

• Lankiveil (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:05, 2 May 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for May 12

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Shavuot

Hi, I see you took the refimprove tag out, can the article be put back into selected may 20th? Mhhossein took it out and I dont' want to start with him again. Sir Joseph ^(talk) 16:56, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

Trevi Fountain

A recent edit you made to Trevi Fountain where you removed the name "Giuseppe Pannini" left the rest of the sentence kind of farkled. Can you take a look? Thanks. Lakemirror (talk) 16:53, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

@Lakemirror: Sorry, can you be more specific? I don't quite see what you mean. —howcheng {chat} 17:06, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Sorry, of course. Second to last paragraph under "commission, construction and design", reads as follows: "The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of... " Lakemirror (talk) 19:00, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Got it, thanks. —howcheng {chat} 19:13, 22 May 2018 (UTC)

Did I post in the right place?

See Wikipedia_talk:Selected_anniversaries/May_23#Please_remove_I-5_Skagit_River_Bridge_collapse,_totally_unimportant. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 07:50, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 May 2018

• From the editor: Another issue meets the deadline

• Op-ed: Has the wind gone out of the AdminShip's sails?

• Opinion: Integrating my many lives on Wikipedia

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Portals

• Discussion report: User rights, infoboxes, and more discussion on portals

• Featured content: Featured content selected by the community

• Arbitration report: Managing difficult topics

• News and notes: Lots of Wikimedia

• In the media: Wikipedia in Turkish politics; COI politics in Wikipedia; most cited work

• Traffic report: We love our superheroes

• Technology report: A trove of contributor and developer goodies

• Blog: Why I write about women on Wikipedia

• Recent research: Why people don't contribute to Wikipedia; using Wikipedia to teach statistics, technical writing, and controversial issues

• Humour: Play with your food

• Gallery: Wine not?

• From the archives: The Signpost scoops The Signpost

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:18, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2018).

Administrator changes

None

Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington

Guideline and policy news

• Following a successful request for comment, administrators are now able to add and remove editors to the "event coordinator" group. Users in the event coordinator group have the ability to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit. Users will no longer need to be in the "account creator" group if they are in the event coordinator group.
• Following an AN discussion, all pages with content related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, broadly construed, are now under indefinite general sanctions.

Technical news

• IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in June. This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
• The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team will build granular types of blocks in 2018 (e.g. a block from uploading or editing specific pages, categories, or namespaces, as opposed to a full-site block). Feedback on the concept may be left at the talk page.
• There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups.
• It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked.

Arbitration

• A recent technical issue with the Arbitration Committee's spam filter inadvertently caused all messages sent to the committee through Wikipedia (i.e. Special:EmailUser/Arbitration Committee) to be discarded. If you attempted to send an email to the Arbitration Committee via Wikipedia between May 16 and May 31, your message was not received and you are encouraged to resend it. Messages sent outside of these dates or directly to the Arbitration Committee email address were not affected by this issue.

Miscellaneous

• In early May, an unusually high level of failed login attempts was observed. The WMF has stated that this was an "external effort to gain unauthorized access to random accounts". Under Wikipedia policy, administrators are required to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:00, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/June 16

I addressed the issues you noted recently regarding needed citations in the Ford Motor Company article. It should at minimum be added back to the Eligible section in Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/June 16. Jackdude101 ^talk cont 01:35, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

@Jackdude101: Thanks. We won't be running it, though, because Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is TFA. —howcheng {chat} 01:57, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

@Jackdude101: Actually, the 20th century section could use some more citations. I see 4 paragraphs with no citations, and half the 1st paragraph as well. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 03:23, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

On the topic of insufficient citations, there are currently citation needed tags in two articles that you have scheduled for June 16: Battle of Fort Beauséjour and Liu Yang (astronaut). There's no telling when they were put in place, but I'm betting that they have been there for a while. For the record, the Ford Motor Company article, prior to your recent edits, had no citation needed tags. Any given article does not need to be featured quality with citations for every piece of information in order to be eligible for inclusion in the On this day section of the main page. Jackdude101 ^talk cont 13:15, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

I just observed the articles listed on the main page for today here: TFA, and one of the articles, Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown, has a citation needed tag that has been in place since before this month. It concerns me that you are giving the green light to all of these blurbs that are in fact ineligible. Jackdude101 ^talk cont 13:31, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

@Jackdude101: I can't speak for TFA, but a small number of CN tags isn't going to disqualify an article from OTD. OTD articles don't have to be perfect, but they have to be good enough. The hard rule is no yellow-level or higher maintenance tags, or the equivalent thereof. So yes, there's a bit of a judgement call: at some point, if I'm going to add a bunch of CN tags to an article/section, that might warrant a {{refimprove}} instead, which would be disqualifying. And lest you think I'm the only gatekeeper, I'm only doing the first review and I'm actually fairly lenient (The Rambling Man is the most prolific enforcer, but there are others). I can guarantee you that if Ford Motor Company were to be listed in its current state, it would get reported at WP:ERRORS as being of insufficient quality. Regardless, because TFA this year is a Ford article which is presumably being shown because it's the anniversary of the company's founding, it would be omitted from OTD anyway due to the longstanding rule that OTD doesn't duplicate subjects featured in TFA or POTD. Hope that makes sense. —howcheng {chat} 15:49, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

File:Dimtri Konstantinovich.jpg

Hi! I am from Hungarian Wikipedia. What do you think of this file? Would be transfer to Commons? No source, I have not found here. --Regasterios (talk) 18:33, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

@Regasterios: If it doesn't have a source, it would not be a good idea to transfer to Commons. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 18:35, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Ok. --Regasterios (talk) 18:35, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 29 June 2018

• From the editor: The Admin Ship is still barely afloat, while a Foundation project risks sinking

• Special report: NPR and AfC – The Marshall Plan: an engagement and a marriage?

• Op-ed: What do admins do?

• Opinion: Google isn't responsible for Wikipedia's mistakes

• News and notes: Money, milestones, and Wikimania

• In the media: Much wikilove from the Mayor of London, less from Paekākāriki or a certain candidate for U.S. Congress

• Discussion report: Deletion, page moves, and an update to the main page

• Featured content: New promotions

• Arbitration report: WWII, UK politics, and a user deCrat'ed

• Traffic report: Endgame

• Technology report: Improvements piled on more improvements

• Gallery: Wiki Loves Africa

• Blog: Wikipedia should be open for editors in Turkey

• Recent research: How censorship can backfire and conversations can go awry

• Humour: Television plot lines

• Wikipedia essays: This month's pick by The Signpost editors

• From the archives: Wolves nip at Wikipedia's heels: A perspective on the cost of paid editing

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:29, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for July 1

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Administrators' newsletter – July 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018).

Administrator changes

Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor

Gogo Dodo

Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD

Bureaucrat changes

Andrevan • EVula

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
• A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.

Technical news

• Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
• Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon () in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates.
• IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.

Miscellaneous

• Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

File:Anschlusstears.jpg

Hi, This file should be copied on Commons. We already have a whole category: c:Category:Woman crying as she hails Hitler. Regards, Yann (talk) 14:22, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

@Yann: But the license for File:"The tragedy of this Sudeten woman, unable to conceal her misery as she dutifully salutes the triumphant Hitler, is the - NARA - 535891.jpg is wrong. It's not a work of the US government. And the license for the Bundesarchive version is only valid for that size. Unless you think {{PD-anon-70-EU}} applies? —howcheng {chat} 16:11, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

Yes, I think that {{PD-anon-70-EU}} is OK here. I will fix it on Commons. Regards, Yann (talk) 16:13, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

July 20

I am going to try to make Special Olympics good enough for OTD July 20 (50th anniversary of first games) [8]. I am getting off soon but will try to have it mostly done by 16th or 17th. Hope all is well with you. Alanscottwalker (talk) 00:32, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

ERRORS

Hi Howcheng. In doomed attempt to gather more forces at ERRORS to cope with issues which are often unresolved for hours and hours (not usually OTD), it's been made apparent that some of the disgruntled wish for me to be excluded from making contributions there any further. So I shall not, but will record my own error log here just in case it's of interest to you. I've very much enjoyed working with you over the last couple of years (I'm sure the same cannot be said in return) and I also very much appreciate your businesslike approach to resolving issues I've raised and getting the job done quietly and efficiently. It's a shame other sections of the main page aren't run with such consideration to our readers. All the best to you. Cheers. The Rambling Man (talk) 20:57, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

@The Rambling Man: I think it's a matter of the old saying, "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar," although that implies that admins are flies, but whatever. I greatly respect the work you do and the attention and effort you put into vetting the blurbs/articles on the Main Page (I may not agree with every point you bring up, but then again I don't have any particular objections to those points either, so I just make the changes even when I think they're unnecessary), so please take this advice in the spirit that it's given: you'll find people a lot more agreeable if you just bite your tongue a little bit. Yes, I understand it's frustrating, and I could just as easily comment on stuff that goes on in DYK and the reluctance of some people to recognize when there's a problem, but I keep my mouth shut because to me, it's just not worth the hassle. I already have enough bozos who complain that I need consensus to add references to a section of an article that doesn't have any that I don't need any more headache. I'd say you have to decide what's important to you: expressing yourself freely, or getting problems solved. If the latter, then please recognize that some people just need to be coddled and it's more effective to play nice than not. So that's my 2p, for what it's worth. You are of course free to ignore that if you so wish. I'll add your page to my watchlist since you are effectively my QA team. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 22:06, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

Cheers. But the point is really not that I’m hoping admins will do me a favour, more that there’s a collective responsibility to maintain the integrity of the main page. I’m not interested in coddling sensitive admins into fixing issues. I’ll opt out and keep my own records from now on. Cheers. The Rambling Man (talk) 22:18, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

I suppose they don't really need to be coddled. They just don't need to browbeaten. —howcheng {chat} 22:59, 20 July 2018 (UTC)

I'm just catching up with this and with some of the stupidity that has gone on at AN. TRM, please come back - your time, devotion and expertise is needed. Posting to a backwater just isn't going to help. I think the efforts at AN have been productive - there has been an increase in sysop names appearing in the logs there. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:42, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Just spotted this

Thank you --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:39, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July 31

Hello, is there anyway to place Sovereignty Restoration Day pipelinked as “Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Hawaiian Sovereignty Restoration Day)” to honor the Hawaiian language in place of Ka Hae Hawaiian Flag Day? This year is the 175th anniversary of the 1843 restoration and there are a lot of events going on in the islands to commemorate it including the unveiling of a statue of Kamehameha III at Thomas Square. KAVEBEAR (talk) 07:32, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

@KAVEBEAR: No reason to replace Flag Day. I just added it to the end. (BTW, in case you are tempted, you won't be able to upload a photo of the statue to Commons due to FOP restrictions.) —howcheng {chat} 15:45, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Thank you so much. I know. I’ve remember what happened the last few times I’ve done so for other works. Dang FOP. :)KAVEBEAR (talk) 15:49, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 July 2018

• From the editor: If only if

• Op-ed: The last leg of the Admin Ship's current cruise

• Opinion: Wrestling with Wikipedia reality

• News and notes: Another newspaper for Wikipedia; Wikimania 2018 ends; changes at NPR

• In the media: Blackouts in Europe; Wikipedia and capitalists; WMF Jet Set

• Discussion report: Wikipedias take action against EU copyright proposal, plus new user right proposals

• Featured content: Wikipedia's best content in images and prose

• Arbitration report: Status quo processes retained in two disputes

• Traffic report: Soccer, football, call it what you like – that and summer movies leave room for little else

• Technology report: New bots, new prefs

• Gallery: Independence days, national holidays, and football – all in July

• Blog: Motivation of two editors

• Recent research: Different Wikipedias use different images; editing contests more successful than edit-a-thons

• Humour: It's all the same

• Essay: Wikipedia does not need you

• From the archives: The pending changes fiasco: how an attempt to answer one question turned into a quagmire

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:51, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2018).

Administrator changes

Sro23

KaisaL • Ymblanter

Guideline and policy news

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

Technical news

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

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

Thanks for your helping maintain the integrity of the Main Page!

		The Outlaw Halo Award
		In the last 17 days alone, we've identified and fixed more than 100 errors at the ALL NEW TRM ERRORS page!! Thanks so much for your diligence and your dedication to ensuring our readers get the best possible experience from Wikipedia! The Rambling Man (talk) 09:13, 7 August 2018 (UTC)

Maurice (emperor)

Hi Howcheng, just a quick note to say that DYK prohibit articles being featured that have been on the main page, bold linked. Now it was pure coincidence that you removed Maurice from today's OTD as it happened to be running tomorrow in DYK. Had it run at OTD, it would have precluded it from running tomorrow in DYK. Probably worth checking the items you are listing to see if they're about to run as DYKs. The Rambling Man (talk) 07:50, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

I think that's a first, where OTD gets to an article before DYK. Every other time it's been the opposite. —howcheng {chat} 15:42, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Quite probably, but now DYKs can be GAs, it's more likely than before. The Rambling Man (talk) 15:43, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 August 2018

• From the editor: Today's young adults don't know a world without Wikipedia

• Interview: 2018 Wikimedian of the Year, Farkhad Fatkullin

• News and notes: Flying high; low practice from Wikipedia 'cleansing' agency; where do our donations go? RfA sees a new trend

• In the media: Quicksilver AI writes articles

• Discussion report: Drafting an interface administrator policy

• Featured content: Featured content selected by the community

• Special report: Wikimania 2018

• Traffic report: Aretha dies – getting just 2,000 short of 5 million hits

• Technology report: Technical enhancements and a request to prioritize upcoming work

• Gallery: Leapfrog, historic Thai cave, and a rhythmic beat

• Recent research: Wehrmacht on Wikipedia, neural networks writing biographies

• Humour: Signpost editor censors herself

• Essay: Principle of Some Astonishment

• From the archives: Playing with Wikipedia words

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:03, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

Battle of al-Harrah

Hi Howcheng. Can you see if your concerns regarding Battle of al-Harrah is resolved? Thanks. --Mhhossein ^talk 14:17, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

Some, but there are still a few other things, which I have marked. —howcheng {chat} 15:52, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

Would you please take another look? Regards. --Mhhossein ^talk 06:23, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

What the fuck???

Where do you get this OR nonsense?? The sitter has always been unclear, but no one has ever seriously questioned that it is by Titian. If you have been bitten by the User:The Rambling Man, I suggest you seek medical attention urgently, and refrain from editing anything to do with the main page until successfully treated. This irresponsible and uninformed last-minute tinkering with the main page has got completely out of hand. For fuck's sake! Of course, no attempt to raise the matter on any talk page. There's no fun in that. Johnbod (talk) 17:23, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Dude, why are you getting so upset? This is just your run-of-the-mill BRD, so there's no need to get your knickers in a twist. —howcheng {chat} 17:38, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Oh, so it doesn't matter that people are fucking about with the main page based on ignorant whims? Ask your pal TRM about that. Johnbod (talk) 18:11, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Seriously, what is with the attitude? All you had to do was come to me and say, "Hey, nobody seriously doubts the authorship of the painting," and we would have discussed it like professionals and assuming I'm wrong, I would have said, "OK, thanks" and reverted myself. Instead, you get all hot-headed and ride in here on your high horse and unnecessarily cause all sorts of negativity. I don't need that in my life, and I'm sure you don't either, so why did you feel the need to explode? Both of us have been on this site for many years and even though we haven't interacted much, I've always had a certain amount of respect for you, which is now lessened by your impetuousness. —howcheng {chat} 18:20, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Likewise - I never thought you were the sort of person to do something so recklessly high-handed, but clearly TRM's bad influence is spreading all too fast. I'm the impetuous one??? Johnbod (talk) 18:54, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

bod you’d better watch your tone and personal attacks. Your impetuous posts and tone here are close to blockable, and why bring me into it? I have nothing to do with this situation and you need to calm down and apologise. The Rambling Man (talk) 23:08, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

I will be taking this personal attack to ANI tomorrow when I get time, I don’t think it’s reasonable to completely out of the blue start asking if someone has been bitten by another editor and if so, to seek urgent medical attention. Your tone and edits have made it clear this isn’t in jest. I hope this can be redacted before the drama boards are involved but if not, see you there bod. The Rambling Man (talk) 23:25, 31 August 2018 (UTC)

Looks like a number of editors are carefully monitoring this and your edits, so I'm going to pause and allow you some further rope so we only need to make a one-way trip to ANI in the near future, cheers! The Rambling Man (talk) 08:07, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – September 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2018).

Administrator changes

None

Asterion • Crisco 1492 • KF • Kudpung • Liz • Randykitty • Spartaz

Optimist on the run → Voice of Clam

Interface administrator changes

Amorymeltzer • Mr. Stradivarius • MusikAnimal • MSGJ • TheDJ • Xaosflux

Guideline and policy news

• Following a "stop-gap" discussion, six users have temporarily been made interface administrators while discussion is ongoing for a more permanent process for assigning the permission. Interface administrators are now the only editors allowed to edit sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages, as well as CSS/JS pages in another user's userspace. Previously, all administrators had this ability. The right can be granted and revoked by bureaucrats.

Technical news

• Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour.
• Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says Deprecated. Use ... instead. An example is article_text which is now page_title.
• Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is page_age.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee has resolved to perform a round of Checkuser and Oversight appointments. The usernames of all applicants will be shared with the Functionaries team, and they will be requested to assist in the vetting process. The deadline to submit an application is 23:59 UTC, 12 September, and the candidates that move forward will be published on-wiki for community comments on 18 September.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:23, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

DYK nomination

Dear Howcheng,

Back in May you had reverted the approval of a DYK nomination of mine concerning the article "Slavic speakers in Ottoman Macedonia". After edits were made to the article, you marked the nomination as "passed", but it seems that it has somehow been forgotten and in any case has not followed the steps envisaged in the regular process of DYK nominations ["Prep" etc]. I am wondering if there is something that could be done regarding this matter by you in your capacity as the user that closed the discussion and as an administrator.

Regards, Ashmedai 119 (talk) 16:00, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

@Ashmedai 119: Can you please post this to WT:DYK? I am not normally involved with DYK. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 16:07, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks for the speedy response and advice. Ashmedai 119 (talk) 16:17, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Hi Howcheng, I'm trying to resolve Ashmedai 119's concerns. Just want to note that when you approve a DYK nomination, please keep all your comments and icons under the line that says Please do not edit above this line unless you are a DYK volunteer who is closing the discussion. In this case, you wrote "yes" to the "passed" parameter that's filled in when the hook is promoted to prep. Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 17:55, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

Big-Bog.jpg

Hi! Thank you for bringing the issue to my attention. I was being lazy when I uploaded it, and I didn't cite properly. The real source is from here:
http://rainfall.geography.hawaii.edu/
It's an image taken by Professor John DeLay of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I'm currently trying to contact him to gain his permission to use it, but if I don't get that permission, I will look for another image of the Big Bog, if one exists. (I am doubtful) Nonetheless, it is good that you called me out on this, as it's not in line with Wikipedia's policy and should not go ignored. Sorry! and Thank you! Ivvavik (talk) 23:41, 4 September 2018 (UTC)

@Ivvavik: Please see Wikipedia:Declaration of consent for all enquiries for instructions. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 01:00, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

7th Annual Los Angeles Wiknic

It's the 7th Annual Los Angeles Wiknic!

Sunday, September 30, 11:00-4:00 PM
Pan Pacific Park, 7600 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Hang out. Consume crowd-sourced BBQ! Bask in the glory of late September in Los Angeles (and the glory
of our new user group, Wikimedians of Los Angeles).
RSVP (and volunteer) here.
We hope to see you there! JSFarman (talk) 02:50, 9 September 2018 (UTC)

Join our Facebook group, or follow us on Twitter! To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

Precious

selected anniversaries

Thank you for quality articles such as Casa de Estudillo and Ygnacio del Valle, for the constant maintenance of the OTD section on the Main page, for admin services, for nominating exquisite images for featured, such as Hale-Bopp, for "Hey, it's one of those rare days when we have no war items." - Howard, repeating (15 October 2009): you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:50, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

OTD, 1 October

It's the 150th anniversary of the opening of St. Pancras railway station. Impressive piece of architecture, and a Good Article. Could it be posted with an image? Mjroots (talk) 14:12, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

@Mjroots: Done. —howcheng {chat} 14:51, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 1 October 2018

• From the editor: Is this the new normal?

• News and notes: European copyright law moves forward

• In the media: Knowledge under fire

• Discussion report: Interface Admin policy proposal, part 2

• Arbitration report: A quiet month for Arbcom

• Traffic report: John McCain's death generates over 7 million hits, followed by historical low

• Technology report: Paying attention to your mobile

• Gallery: A pat on the back

• Blog: After a catastrophic fire at the National Museum of Brazil, a drive to preserve what knowledge remains

• Recent research: How talk page use has changed since 2005; censorship shocks lead to centralization; is vandalism caused by workplace boredom?

• Humour: Signpost Crossword Puzzle

• Essay: Expressing thanks

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:44, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2018).

Administrator changes

Justlettersandnumbers • L235

Bgwhite • HorsePunchKid • J Greb • KillerChihuahua • Rami R • Winhunter

Interface administrator changes

Cyberpower678 • Deryck Chan • Oshwah • Pharos • Ragesoss • Ritchie333

Oversight changes

Guerillero • NativeForeigner • Snowolf • Xeno

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, the process for appointing interface administrators has been established. Currently only existing admins can request these rights, while a new RfC has begun on whether it should be available to non-admins.
• There is an open request for comment on Meta regarding the creation a new user group for global edit filter management.

Technical news

• Partial blocks should be available for testing in October on the Test Wikipedia and the Beta-Cluster. This new feature allows admins to block users from editing specific pages and in the near-future, namespaces and uploading files. You can expect more updates and an invitation to help with testing once it is available.
• The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team is currently looking for input on how to measure the effectiveness of blocks. This is in particular related to how they will measure the success of the aforementioned partial blocks.
• Because of a data centre test, you will be able to read but not edit the Wikimedia projects for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee has, by motion, amended the procedure on functionary inactivity.
• The community consultation for 2018 CheckUser and Oversight appointments has concluded. Appointments will be made by October 11.
• Following a request for comment, the size of the Arbitration Committee will be decreased to 13 arbitrators, starting in 2019. Additionally, the minimum support percentage required to be appointed to a two-year term on ArbCom has been increased to 60%. ArbCom candidates who receive between 50% and 60% support will be appointed to one-year terms instead.
• Nominations for the 2018 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission are being accepted until 12 October. These are the editors who help run the ArbCom election smoothly. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please consider nominating yourself.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

WP:TRM

		The Admin's Barnstar
		Thank you for taking note of my humble list at WP:TRM relating to errors on, or just about to be on, the main page. The diligence shown by you and your colleagues has resolved more than 500 issues in just 78 days. Your efforts are more appreciated than you can imagine. The Rambling Man (talk) 14:25, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

Winnie-the-Pooh

I like your adding the chapter numerals. BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 21:46, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

Edward Hawke

In this edit, the Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke article says he died on October 17, not 16. Art LaPella (talk) 00:31, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. Hawke was listed in October 16#Deaths, which is where I got him from. I moved him to the correct dates. —howcheng {chat} 01:26, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

1509 Instanbul earthquake

Hi Howcheng, sorry not to spot your comments at that earthquake article earlier. I've attempted to answer your points - let me know on the talk page if you feel that's insufficient. Mikenorton (talk) 14:41, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for October 26

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited 1946 Bihar riots, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Mohammad Yunus (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:07, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 October 2018

• From the editors: The Signpost is still afloat, just barely

• Op-ed: Wikipedia's Strickland affair

• News and notes: WMF gets a million bucks

• In the media: Bans, celebs, and bias

• Discussion report: Mediation Committee and proposed deletion reform

• Traffic report: Unsurprisingly, sport leads the field – or the ring

• Technology report: Bots galore!

• Special report: NPP needs you

• Special report 2: Now Wikidata is six

• In focus: Alexa

• Gallery: Out of this world!

• Recent research: Wikimedia Commons worth $28.9 billion

• Humour: Talk page humour

• Opinion: Strickland incident

• From the archives: The Gardner Interview

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:10, 28 October 2018 (UTC)

Praeludium

Not a pleasant surprise on a vacation day to wake up to: that the hook planned for a composer's birthday is not seen on the main page, nor anywhere else (like a prep area, or a reopened nom, - and how about a ping). The [[Template:Did you know nominations/Praeludium (Waterhouse)|original hook in the nomination}} didn't contain "signature piece", can you please use that? I can remove the phrase in the article also it if bothers you. Please find a way to return a hook to the Main page, for a happy birthday. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:44, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

It's no mystery that I know the composer - as many others about whom I write - and his case that I even do his website. You can find it on google because SchroCat removed it from the article. See youself if it contains anything but fact. All I do is tranlate what he writes to German. I write my articles on independent sources, to avoid conflict. Interest yes, conflict no. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:21, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Speaking of "how about a ping", you could try that too, Gerda if you are going to mention me.

Howcheng, as I mentioned on TRM's error page, if you would like me to email the details, I will do. This is most likely a COI, or there is a possibility it's a SPS: either way it shouldn't be on the main page, and that goes for the rest of the Waterhouse DYKs too. I am not sure what I am supposed to have removed from the Praeludium article: I have never edited the article, I have only put a COI tag on the talk page. Cheers - SchroCat (talk)

Psalm 133, or how good it is to live together in unity, or AGF. In 2009, I filled a red link for Graham Waterhouse. It was deleted within minutes, but Cmadler helped me to write a neutral article, and nominated it for DYK. I thought it would be my only article, but then there was this red link in it, Siegfried Palm, one of the few cellists mentioned in cello, and every new article seems to lead to more red links that want to be filled ;) - Congrats to 100k contributions! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:55, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

Reply

Thank you for pointing that out. I only put the tag after reading this nomination page: Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Imelda Marcos/archive3. I would also like to thank you for revamping the article. I think it would be better if the self-published sources is either cited as the older sources (with a disclaimer "republished by..."), or replaced entirely with more eligible sources. Kind regards. Mimihitam (talk) 20:58, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – November 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2018).

Administrator changes

Sir Sputnik

Kudpung • Liz • Lourdes

Everyking • Jackmcbarn

Interface administrator changes

Dinoguy1000

CheckUser changes

AGK • Ivanvector • Stwalkerster • TonyBallioni

Oversight changes

Amorymeltzer • Oshwah • TonyBallioni • Vanamonde93

Keilana

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment determined that non-administrators will not be able to request interface admin access.
• A request for comment is in progress to determine whether the Mediation Committee should be closed and marked as historical.
• A village pump discussion has been ongoing about whether the proposed deletion policy (PROD) should be clarified or amended.
• A request for comment is in progress to determine whether pending changes protection should be applied automatically to today's featured article (TFA) in order to mitigate a recent trend of severe image vandalism.

Technical news

• Partial blocks is now available for testing on the Test Wikipedia. The new functionality allows you to block users from editing specific pages. Bugs may exist and can be reported on the local talk page or on Meta. A discussion regarding deployment to English Wikipedia will be started by community liaisons sometime in the near future.
• A user script is now available to quickly review unblock requests.
• The 2019 Community Wishlist Survey is now accepting new proposals until November 11, 2018. The results of this survey will determine what software the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team will work on next year. Voting on the proposals will take place from November 16 to November 30, 2018. Specifically, there is a proposal category for admins and stewards that may be of interest.

Arbitration

• Eligible editors will be invited to nominate themselves as candidates in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections starting on November 4 until November 13. Voting will begin on November 19 and last until December 2.
• The Arbitration Committee's email address has changed to arbcom-enwikimedia.org. Other email lists, such as functionaries-en and clerks-l, remain unchanged.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:18, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for November 3

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Public holidays in Panama, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Fiestas Patrias (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 09:36, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Congratulations

		100000 Edits
		Congratulations on reaching 100000 edits. You have achieved a milestone that only 523 editors have been able to accomplish. The Wikipedia Community thanks you for your continuing efforts. Keep up the good work!

-- Dolotta (talk) 21:54, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Citing sources for Hebrew calendar dates

I had a very unpleasant discussion with The Rambling Man on this subject around September 30. And I don't want to start in with that user again. Yet, since you watch these pages for front-page mentions, I'd like to understand the issue here.

Consider that if one is converting from Gregorian date to Hebrew calendar date, one need merely use a parser function: {{#time:xjj xjF xjY|3 December 2018}} produces 25 Kislev 5779. So as long as one has established with a reliable source that Hanukkah's date on the Hebrew calendar is 25 Kislev, I would think that the fact that the MediaWiki software itself does this conversion makes the conversion "obvious" or "WP:BLUE" or whatever you might like to call it.

Now, the template {{Moveable date}} simply does that conversion in reverse: {{Moveable date |holiday=Hanukkah |year=2018}} produces Sunset, 2 December 2018 – nightfall, 10 December 2018. Now I won't argue the point that it might be "better" (whatever that means) to include a source. Yet, I would argue that the absence of a source isn't really such a terrible problem in the overall scheme of things. So what is such a big flaming problem with all of this?

Thanks for your point of view. StevenJ81 (talk) 19:14, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

@StevenJ81: I'm with on you this, but the way I approach this is "give the baby his bottle". It's very little effort to put the citation there and it's not going to hurt, so if it makes him happy, then let's just take the path of least resistance. Happily, the template will do this if you add the empty |cite= parameter so it's minimal work for us. —howcheng {chat} 16:56, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

I'm glad to know that I'm not totally losing my mind on this. (If he ever tries to disqualify an article solely on this basis I'll let you know, though I think that pretty unlikely.) StevenJ81 (talk) 17:26, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

OTD for 11-11-2018

Hi Howcheng. Looking through the history of OTD and selected anniversaries, I noticed that in the past (such as here in 2015) you have removed 1918 from OTD when WWI features in POTD. Given that this is the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, would it be possible to make an exception here and include it (along with Armistice Day and so forth)? Carcharoth (talk) 13:14, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

I've trimmed down the unreferenced material and added it to the OTD page. I had actually been thinking about this specific OTD entry for months but I never found time and energy to add references, so this morning I just plain removed the uncited material. L293D (☎ • ✎) 16:06, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

@Carcharoth and L293D: As I said on Iridescent's talk page, the Armistice article should be excluded, but we do have two other related articles that we can use. L293D: I'm especially concerned about this edit. Removing the section about the rail car is fine because that's not really that important to the actual events, but these two paragraphs seem more crucial to the narrative. —howcheng {chat} 16:52, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

I have added some citations to improve the referencing. If there is material there that still needs citations, let me know. Would you be happy to let 1918 stay in the OTD for this year, despite the PoTD clash? I am sure readers will be interested in both on this particular anniversary, and both the picture and the OTD item will probably get a good deal of people following the links. Carcharoth (talk) 18:42, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

Edward the Black Prince

With Revision as of 17:51, 8 October 2018 you added some needed citations to Edward the Black Prince. However one of them:

• von Redlich, Marcellus Donald R. Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants. Vol. I. p. 64.

is missing the year of publication and the location/publisher. Please will you add the additional information? I have now reformatted the citation so that it is in the same format as the other citations in the article (short inline, long citation in the "References" section and using CS2) so you will find the long citation in the References section of the article -- PBS (talk) 20:16, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

@PBS: I'm sure I copied that from another article. Anyway, I have filled in the details. —howcheng {chat} 03:09, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the prompt reply. WorldCat contains a number of years with that publisher and isbn; so I have chosen an ebook edition with a year of 2009 -- please feel free to correct it if necessary.

If one copies a reference from another article although it is not necessary attribute in the edit history, however it is useful to include the original article in the edit history so that if there is an error or omission in the citation it can be traced through the edit history see WP:Copying within Wikipedia#Other reasons for attributing text. -- PBS (talk) 14:42, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, Howcheng. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Duration of Montgomery's Tavern skirmish

Did a quick search looking for citations from reliable sources about the duration of the 'battle'. The shortest was "a few minutes", most at 15 minutes or a quarter of an hour and the longest was a half-hour. What does your research show? TIA  Natty10000 | Natter  12:04, 22 November 2018 (UTC)

@Natty10000: I didn't do any research. My concern was just that the paragraph was self-contradictory. There's one sentence where it says There are varying accounts on the length of the battle. Some say it was very short while others say the fighting lasted an hour. And then at the very end of that same paragraph it said, In less than half an hour the confrontation was over. So those two statements can't both be true. My edit was just an attempt to reconcile the discrepancy. —howcheng {chat} 18:49, 22 November 2018 (UTC)

Copy edited your change plus the general area to address the duration issue (which isn't really meaningful) and to make the section flow a bit beter. When I have some time, I'll go through the entire entry to make it read more easily. Thanks Natty10000 | Natter  10:41, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

Can you offer your opinion in this discussion?

Hi. In the past you've offered your opinion in choosing photos for the Infobox. Can you offer your neutral opinion in this discussion on a related topic? It may go toward a precedent regarding captions. Thanks, and Happy Holidays. Nightscream (talk) 20:09, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

Mary Somerville

I don't feel comfortable substituting articles, but for Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/November 28, Mary Somerville died on November 29 not 28, according to her article. Art LaPella (talk) 07:59, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Thanks. I hate it when people are listed on the wrong date. —howcheng {chat} 16:39, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Bobby Charleton Template - Lack of References

Hello. Your edit of 2017-10-09 in which you added a BLP template in which it is noted that many paragraphs have no citations. At the time the article already had 44 citations, and it now has some 51 citations. After all, are you meaning to suggest that editors must relentlessly scrutinize every paragraph in the article for where they can be cited? Please review and if necessary, update the template to the current date or perhaps it may be removed?
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Howcheng (talk | contribs) at 16:58, 9 October 2017 (this article needs more references)

Thanks in advance, B'H. 172.250.246.150 (talk) 20:27, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

It's not a matter of merely counting the number of references in an article. There are numerous paragraphs, mostly in the "Club career" and "International career" sections, that have no citations (in fact, the entire Munich section has zero). If I were to add {{cn}} tags to the article, I'd end up littering them all over the place. —howcheng {chat} 22:12, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

Rufus W. Wheeler

Following up on your excellent idea of changing Rufus Wheeler Peckham to Rufus W. Peckham to accommodate documented ambiguity around his middle name. Would you change the page name to the latter, then? (I don't know how, or if it's an Admin task only.) Thank you for your scholarship and for your courtesy. Sunny Clark (talk) 01:26, 30 November 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 1 December 2018

• From the editor: Time for a truce

• Op-ed: Looking back, looking forward: A beginner's experience on Wikipedia

• Special report: The Christmas wishlist

• Opinion: The blogosphere migrates to Galaxy WMF

• News and notes: Reviewer of the year, WikiCup winner, and the 2019 Wikimedia Summit

• Reflections: Wikipedia, history, and the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day

• In the media: Court-ordered article redaction, paid editing, and rock stars

• Discussion report: Farewell, Mediation Committee

• Arbitration report: A long break ends

• Traffic report: Queen reigns for four weeks straight

• Gallery: Intersections

• Recent research: Why do the most active Wikipedians burn out?; only 4% of students vandalize

• Essay: No one cares about your garage band

• Humour: The dark side of our favorite root vegetable

• From the archives: Ars longa, vita brevis

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:47, 1 December 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – December 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (November 2018).

Administrator changes

Al Ameer son • Randykitty • Spartaz

Boson • Daniel J. Leivick • Efe • Esanchez7587 • Fred Bauder • Garzo • Martijn Hoekstra • Orangemike

Interface administrator changes

Deryck Chan

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, the Mediation Committee is now closed and will no longer be accepting case requests.
• A request for comment is in progress to determine whether members of the Bot Approvals Group should satisfy activity requirements in order to remain in that role.
• A request for comment is in progress regarding whether to change the administrator inactivity policy, such that administrators "who have made no logged administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped". Currently, the policy states that administrators "who have made neither edits nor administrative actions for at least 12 months may be desysopped".
• A proposal has been made to temporarily restrict editing of the Main Page to interface administrators in order to mitigate the impact of compromised accounts.

Technical news

• Administrators and bureaucrats can no longer unblock themselves unless they placed the block initially. This change has been implemented globally. See also this ongoing village pump discussion (permalink).
• To complement the aforementioned change, blocked administrators will soon have the ability to block the administrator that placed their block to mitigate the possibility of a compromised administrator account blocking all other active administrators.
• Since deployment of Partial blocks on Test Wikipedia, several bugs were identified. Most of them are now fixed. Administrators are encouraged to test the new deployment and report new bugs on Phabricator or leave feedback on the Project's talk page. You can request administrator access on the Test Wiki here.

Arbitration

• Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee Elections is open to eligible editors until Monday 23:59, 3 December 2018. Please review the candidates and, if you wish to do so, submit your choices on the voting page.

Miscellaneous

• In late November, an attacker compromised multiple accounts, including at least four administrator accounts, and used them to vandalize Wikipedia. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. Sharing the same password across multiple websites makes your account vulnerable, especially if your password was used on a website that suffered a data breach. As these incidents have shown, these concerns are not pure fantasies.
• Wikipedia policy requires administrators to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.

Obituaries

• Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (Raymond Arritt) passed away on 14 November 2018. Boris joined Wikipedia as Raymond arritt on 8 May 2006 and was an administrator from 30 July 2007 to 2 June 2008.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:36, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Death date

For Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 13, the Lupe Vélez article says she died on December 14 not 13. Art LaPella (talk) 04:28, 12 December 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 December 2018

• From the editors: Where to draw the line in reporting?

• Op-ed: Wikipedia not trumped by Trump appointee

• Special report: The Signpost got 380,000+ views in 2018, sounds reasonable enough, right?

• News and notes: Some wishes do come true

• In the media: Political hijinks

• Discussion report: A new record low for RfA

• WikiProject report: Articlegenesis

• Arbitration report: Year ends with one active case

• Traffic report: Queen dethroned by U.S. presidents

• Gallery: Sun and Moon, water and stone

• Blog: News from the WMF

• Humour: I believe in Bigfoot

• Essay: Requests for medication

• From the archives: Compromised admin accounts – again

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:35, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2018).

Administrator changes

Galobtter

Orangemike

BorgQueen • Davidruben • Ocee • Revolving Bugbear • Theda • There'sNoTime • Timc • Tijuana Brass • Tristessa de St Ange

Bureaucrat changes

Addshore

CheckUser changes

Joe Roe • SilkTork

Euryalus • Newyorkbrad • There'sNoTime

Oversight changes

AGK • Joe Roe • SilkTork

Euryalus • Newyorkbrad • There'sNoTime

Guideline and policy news

• There are a number of new or changed speedy deletion criteria, each previously part of WP:CSD#G6:

1. G14 (new): Disambiguation pages that disambiguate only zero or one existing pages are now covered under the new G14 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-disambig}}; the text is unchanged and candidates may be found in Category:Candidates for speedy deletion as unnecessary disambiguation pages.
2. R4 (new): Redirects in the file namespace (and no file links) that have the same name as a file or redirect at Commons are now covered under the new R4 criterion (discussion). This is {{db-redircom}}; the text is unchanged.
3. G13 (expanded): Userspace drafts containing only the default Article Wizard text are now covered under G13 along with other drafts (discussion). Such blank drafts are now eligible after six months rather than one year, and taggers continue to use {{db-blankdraft}}.

• The Wikimedia Foundation now requires all interface administrators to enable two-factor authentication.
• Members of the Bot Approvals Group (BAG) are now subject to an activity requirement. After two years without any bot-related activity (e.g. operating a bot, posting on a bot-related talk page), BAG members will be retired from BAG following a one-week notice.

Technical news

• Starting on December 13, the Wikimedia Foundation security team implemented new password policy and requirements. Privileged accounts (administrators, bureaucrats, checkusers, oversighters, interface administrators, bots, edit filter managers/helpers, template editors, et al.) must have a password at least 10 characters in length. All accounts must have a password:

1. At least 8 characters in length
2. Not in the 100,000 most popular passwords (defined by the Password Blacklist library)
3. Different from their username

User accounts not meeting these requirements will be prompted to update their password accordingly. More information is available on MediaWiki.org.

• Blocked administrators may now block the administrator that blocked them. This was done to mitigate the possibility that a compromised administrator account would block all other active administrators, complementing the removal of the ability to unblock oneself outside of self-imposed blocks. A request for comment is currently in progress to determine whether the blocking policy should be updated regarding this change.
• {{Copyvio-revdel}} now has a link to open the history with the RevDel checkboxes already filled in.

Arbitration

• Following the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: AGK, Courcelles, GorillaWarfare, Joe Roe, Mkdw, SilkTork.

Miscellaneous

• Accounts continue to be compromised on a regular basis. Evidence shows this is entirely due to the accounts having the same password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately.
• Around 22% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 20% in June 2018. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless of whether you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:38, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 January 2019

• Op-Ed: Random Rewards Rejected

• In focus: The Collective Consciousness of Admin Userpages

• News and notes: WMF staff turntable continues to spin; Endowment gets more cash; RfA continues to be a pit of steely knives

• In the media: The Signpost's investigative story recognized, Wikipedia turns 18 and gets a birthday gift from Google, and more editors are recognized

• Discussion report: The future of the reference desk

• Featured content: Don't miss your great opportunity

• Arbitration report: An admin under the microscope

• Traffic report: Death, royals and superheroes: Avengers, Black Panther

• Technology report: When broken is easily fixed

• Gallery: Let us build a memorial fit for such pain and suffering

• News from the WMF: News from WMF

• Recent research: Ad revenue from reused Wikipedia articles; are Wikipedia researchers asking the right questions?

• Essay: How

• Humour: Village pump

• From the archives: An editorial board that includes you

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:50, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2019).

Administrator changes

Enterprisey • JJMC89

BorgQueen

Harro5 • Jenks24 • Graft • R. Baley

Interface administrator changes

Enterprisey

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment is currently open to reevaluate the activity requirements for administrators.
• Administrators who are blocked have the technical ability to block the administrator who blocked their own account. A recent request for comment has amended the blocking policy to clarify that this ability should only be used in exceptional circumstances, such as account compromises, where there is a clear and immediate need.
• A request for comment closed with a consensus in favor of deprecating The Sun as a permissible reference, and creating an edit filter to warn users who attempt to cite it.

Technical news

• A discussion regarding an overhaul of the format and appearance of Wikipedia:Requests for page protection is in progress (permalink). The proposed changes will make it easier to create requests for those who are not using Twinkle. The workflow for administrators at this venue will largely be unchanged. Additionally, there are plans to archive requests similar to how it is done at WP:PERM, where historical records are kept so that prior requests can more easily be searched for.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the 2019 Steward elections will begin on 08 February 2019, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 28 February 2019, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
• A new IRC bot is available that allows you to subscribe to notifications when specific filters are tripped. This requires that your IRC handle be identified.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:15, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

February 6

For Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 6, the Thomas-Alexandre Dumas article says he died on February 26 not 6. Art LaPella (talk) 02:53, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Man, I hate it when they're listed on the wrong date. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 07:19, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:No fair short

Template:No fair short has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. ^{[Username Needed]} 11:52, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

Invitation to attend a Southern California Regional mini Unconference

Who: All Wikipedians & Wikimedians

What: Southern California Regional mini Unconference.

When: Sunday 3 March 2019, 2:00PM PST / 1400 until 4:10PM PST / 1610

Where: Philippe's at Chinatown, Los Angeles

Sponsor: San Diego Wikimedians User Group ( US-SAN )

Your host: RightCowLeftCoast (talk · contribs)

Please add your username to our attendees list so we know how many will be attending, due to the limited size of the cafe.

(Delivered: 00:38, 10 February 2019 (UTC) You can unsubscribe from future invitations to San Diego Wikimedians User Group events by removing your name from the WikiProject San Diego mass mailing list & the Los Angeles mass mailing list.)

Main page beast

Hey, you're a legend. I know I'm a "pedantic", "nitpicky", "MOS maven", bastard etc, but thanks for doing everything you do to keep OTD going, it's by far the most interesting part of the main page, and you do a great job of dealing with it on your own, and deserve more than a poxy barnstar for putting up with my pedantry. I hope you still realise I'm in it for us, each other, and the readers, because I know you are. You're a hero of mine, and thanks for all you do. The Rambling Man (talk) 23:39, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia Day LA, February 24, 2019

Wikipedia Day LA 2019 Consider the Source

Please join the LA User Group, Wikimedians of Los Angeles, for an afternoon of panels, presentations and conversations on the subject of sources, and cake (locally sourced), in celebration of Wikipedia's 18th birthday. Sunday, February 24, 1:00 PM-5:00 PM The Ace Hotel (DTLA) 929 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90015 For more details or to sign up, see Wikipedia Day LA, or RSVP via Eventbrite. Everyone is welcome! We hope to see you there. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:00, 18 February 2019 (UTC) Join our Facebook group here, and follow us on Twitter . To opt out of future mailings about LA meetups, please remove your name from this list.

Another date

For Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/February 25, the Yi Han-yong article says February 26 not 25. Art LaPella (talk) 07:54, 24 February 2019 (UTC)Art LaPella

@Art LaPella: The Korean WP article says Feb 25, and I was able to find Korean-language sources to back that date up. —howcheng {chat} 03:46, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Template:*mp

If this is the first article that you have created, you may want to read the guide to writing your first article.

You may want to consider using the Article Wizard to help you create articles.

A tag has been placed on Template:*mp, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G4 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page appears to be a repost of material that was previously deleted following a deletion discussion, such as at Articles for deletion. When a page has substantially identical content to that of a page deleted after a discussion, and any changes in the content do not address the reasons for which the material was previously deleted, it may be deleted at any time.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. Gonnym (talk) 09:38, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 February 2019

• From the editors: Help wanted (still)

• News and notes: Front-page issues for the community

• In focus: Wikimedia affiliate organizations seek community participation in 2019 board election

• Discussion report: Talking about talk pages

• Featured content: Conquest, War, Famine, Death, and more!

• Arbitration report: A quiet month for Arbitration Committee

• Traffic report: Binge-watching

• Technology report: Tool labs casters-up

• Gallery: Signed with pride

• Recent research: Research finds signs of cultural diversity and recreational habits of readers

• Essay: Optimist's guide to Wikipedia

• From the archives: New group aims to promote Wiki-Love

• Humour: Pesky Pronouns

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:16, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

OTD of Ali

I am going to nominate the article of Ali as father's day in Iran for OTD in 20 March. I have tried to remove any problem with this nomination. I wonder if you confirm?! Regards! Saff V. (talk) 13:32, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

@Saff V.: Sorry, but Ali is already featured on January 29, and articles are only allowed to be featured once a year (with certain exceptions). So if you want to have his article for Father's Day, then he won't be able to appear for the anniversary of his assassination. Please let me know which one you think is more important. —howcheng {chat} 17:19, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Yes, you are right, actually I ask while I had predicted this situation. All in All, as a Shia user I am going to let we have Ali for his birthday in 20 Murch, In other hands, his assassination will coincide with Night of Decree]. So It doesn't need to nominate Ali's article for his assassination. It is just a suggestion! Thanks! Saff V. (talk) 06:37, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Art + Feminism 2019

Art+Feminism 2019 Los Angeles Events!

Dear fellow Wikipedian, You are invited to join Art+Feminism's annual worldwide Wikipedia edit-a-thon and help close Wikipedia's gender gap at one of these Los Angeles–area museums this March! RSVP/Details here. Sunday, March 3: The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (DTLA), Noon–5p. Focus: Women+Comedy. Saturday, March 9: Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College (Monterey Park), Noon–4p. Focus: Latinx+Non-Binary Artists. Sunday, March 10: Hammer Museum (Westwood), Noon–5p. Focus: Women+Film+Media Sunday, March 17: LACMA (Miracle Mile), Noon–5p. Focus: Women+Design+Craft Sunday, March 31: California African American Museum (Exposition Park/USC), 1–4p. Focus: Women of CAAM. These Los Angeles events are co-hosted by online magazine East of Borneo and include step-by-step Wikipedia instruction for beginners. Bring your laptop or tablet computer and any reference materials you'd like to work from or share. People of all gender expressions and identities are encouraged to attend. I hope to see you there! StaceyEOB (talk) - MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:06, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2019).

Administrator changes

Evad37

There'sNoTime

Alex Shih • Brian • Mushroom • Nakon • Oscarthecat • PeruvianLlama • Ragib • Reaper Eternal • Rossami • Tom

Interface administrator changes

Evad37 • Galobtter

Ritchie333

CheckUser changes

There'sNoTime

Keegan • Ks0stm

Oversight changes

There'sNoTime

Ks0stm • Sphilbrick

Guideline and policy news

• The RfC on administrator activity requirements failed to reach consensus for any proposal.
• Following discussions at the Bureaucrats' noticeboard and Wikipedia talk:Administrators, an earlier change to the restoration of adminship policy was reverted. If requested, bureaucrats will not restore administrator permissions removed due to inactivity if there have been five years without a logged administrator action; this "five year rule" does not apply to permissions removed voluntarily.

Technical news

• A new tool is available to help determine if a given IP is an open proxy/VPN/webhost/compromised host.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
  • paid-en-wpwikipedia.org has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
  • checkuser-en-wpwikipedia.org has been set up to receive private requests for CheckUser. For instance, requests for IP block exemption for anonymous proxy editing should now be sent to this address instead of the functionaries-en list.

Miscellaneous

• Following the 2019 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Base, Einsbor, Jon Kolbert, Schniggendiller, and Wim b.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:13, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

It would be nice

I noticed that you had the time to inspect the London Company and leave a template that citations were needed. It would be nice (wouldn't it) if instead of just dropping in and leaving atemplate,that you would actually do some research and provide some references. It appears that the article is quite old and it is questionable that the original creator is active. I took some initiative and did some research, which you could have done as well, instead of leaving it as is and expecting some erstwhile editor (like me)comes along and does the work that you could have doneOldperson (talk) 21:12, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

(by talk reader) @Oldperson: Per WP:VOLUNTEER, I would recommend not making complaints if Howcheng's edits were not tag bombing. Maintenance tags are meant to draw attention where needed so volunteers with time on their hands (like you) can help rectify the issue. The system worked as designed. Chris Troutman (talk) 21:19, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Troutman Point taken, my return is this. If a Volunteer has the time to go around and tag articles,then said volunteer also has the time to do some research, est-ce pas. My point and issue is that it is one thing to find fault (deficiencies) and other to take corrective action.But that is just me.Oldperson (talk) 21:37, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

@Oldperson: Ce n'est pas toujours vrai. I edit to accomplish a specific task, which is to check articles that could possibly be included in the Main Page for WP:Selected anniversaries. Depending on a number of factors (how much time I have available, how comfortable I am with editing the topic, or how difficult I think the task might be), I may add references [9][10][11], expand/rewrite/restructure it [12][13], or just tag it – something you could have observed if you had checked my contributions. In the case of London Company, it looked like too big of a job for me tackle in the limited time that I had available, so that one got a tag. —howcheng {chat} 22:02, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

Howcheng does an awesome job. He's probably one of the last people I would come to and complain about not rolling sleeves up and doing some research and editing. Oldperson, you chose the last person on Wikipedia to leave this kind of message to. The Rambling Man (talk) 22:12, 29 March 2019 (UTC)

The Signpost: 31 March 2019

• From the editors: Getting serious about humor

• News and notes: Blackouts fail to stop EU Copyright Directive

• In the media: Women's history month

• Discussion report: Portal debates continue, Prespa agreement aftermath, WMF seeks a rebranding

• Featured content: Out of this world

• Arbitration report: The Tides of March at ARBCOM

• Traffic report: Exultations and tribulations

• Technology report: New section suggestions and sitewide styles

• News from the WMF: The WMF's take on the new EU Copyright Directive

• Recent research: Barnstar-like awards increase new editor retention

• From the archives: Esperanza organization disbanded after deletion discussion

• Humour: The Epistolary of Arthur 37

• Op-Ed: Pro and Con: Has gun violence been improperly excluded from gun articles?

• In focus: The Wikipedia SourceWatch

• Special report: Wiki Loves (50 Years of) Pride

• Community view: Wikipedia's response to the New Zealand mosque shootings

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:03, 31 March 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2019).

Administrator changes

Reaper Eternal • ThaddeusB

Bogdangiusca • Christopher Parham • Necrothesp • Schneelocke • Siroxo • Sarah

Mentifisto → Lofty abyss

Interface administrator changes

Mr. Stradivarius

Bureaucrat changes

DeltaQuad

Kingturtle

Technical news

• In Special:Preferences under "Appearance" → "Advanced options", there is now an option to show a confirmation prompt when clicking on a rollback link.
• The Wikimedia Foundation's Community health initiative plans to design and build a new user reporting system to make it easier for people experiencing harassment and other forms of abuse to provide accurate information to the appropriate channel for action to be taken. Please see meta:Community health initiative/User reporting system consultation 2019 to provide your input on this idea.

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee clarified that the General 1RR prohibition for Palestine-Israel articles may only be enforced on pages with the {{ARBPIA 1RR editnotice}} edit notice.

Miscellaneous

• Two more administrator accounts were compromised. Evidence has shown that these attacks, like previous incidents, were due to reusing a password that was used on another website that suffered a data breach. If you have ever used your current password on any other website, you should change it immediately. All admins are strongly encouraged to enable two-factor authentication, please consider doing so. Please always practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
• As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2019 (UTC)