User talk:Pythoncoder/News/Archive 6
Archive 6: January–June 2021
The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q4 2020
editThe WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 12, No. 4 — 4th Quarter, 2020
Previous issue | Index | Next issue
Project At a Glance
As of Q4 2020, the project has:
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Content
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(Delivered 08:33, 4 January 2021 (UTC))
--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:33, 4 January 2021 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – January 2021
editNews and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2020).
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- Speedy deletion criterion T3 (duplication and hardcoded instances) has been repealed following a request for comment.
- You can now put pages on your watchlist for a limited period of time.
- By motion, standard discretionary sanctions have been temporarily authorized
for all pages relating to the Horn of Africa (defined as including Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and adjoining areas if involved in related disputes)
. The effectiveness of the discretionary sanctions can be evaluated on the request by any editor after March 1, 2021 (or sooner if for a good reason). - Following the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Barkeep49, BDD, Bradv, CaptainEek, L235, Maxim, Primefac.
- By motion, standard discretionary sanctions have been temporarily authorized
Editing news 2021 #1
editRead this in another language • Subscription list for this newsletter
Reply tool
editThe Reply tool is available at most other Wikipedias.
- The Reply tool has been deployed as an opt-out preference to all editors at the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedias.
- It is also available as a Beta Feature at almost all Wikipedias except for the English, Russian, and German-language Wikipedias. If it is not available at your wiki, you can request it by following these simple instructions.
Research notes:
- As of January 2021, more than 3,500 editors have used the Reply tool to post about 70,000 comments.
- There is preliminary data from the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedia on the Reply tool. Junior Contributors who use the Reply tool are more likely to publish the comments that they start writing than those who use full-page wikitext editing.[1]
- The Editing and Parsing teams have significantly reduced the number of edits that affect other parts of the page. About 0.3% of edits did this during the last month.[2] Some of the remaining changes are automatic corrections for Special:LintErrors.
- A large A/B test will start soon.[3] This is part of the process to offer the Reply tool to everyone. During this test, half of all editors at 24 Wikipedias (not including the English Wikipedia) will have the Reply tool automatically enabled, and half will not. Editors at those Wikipeedias can still turn it on or off for their own accounts in Special:Preferences.
New discussion tool
editThe new tool for starting new discussions (new sections) will join the Discussion tools in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures at the end of January. You can try the tool for yourself.[4] You can leave feedback in this thread or on the talk page.
Next: Notifications
editDuring Talk pages consultation 2019, editors said that it should be easier to know about new activity in conversations they are interested in. The Notifications project is just beginning. What would help you become aware of new comments? What's working with the current system? Which pages at your wiki should the team look at? Please post your advice at mw:Talk:Talk pages project/Notifications.
TheWikiWizard-January 2021
editHello, Pythoncoder! Here is the January 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard. Pilot Project, trying a smaller and different style newsletter
- Here are the events of January!!
Wikipedia News
edit- Wikipedia is now 20 years old!! Notice a different logo?
- There is now more than 1 billion edits on Wikipedia!
- The Simple English Wikipedia now has more than 180,000 Articles! So close to 200,000!
Humor
edit- Did you realize that the word "Humour" has been spelt wrong? I didn't until now! ;)
- I hope you didn't edit Wikipedia straight on and Missed Christmas...
Notes
edit- We are trying out this pilot style newspaper, making it easier for you, and our editors to use. Please let me know what you think about this new 'style' of newspaper!
- The Wikipedia Ads section will be omitted, to make the flow of this newsletter easier. Discuss this issue here
To change your subscription, or to subscribe click Here. Enjoy this Issue and stay safe! Happy New Year! --つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁 01:18, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
- This message was sent by --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:07, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
The Signpost: 31 January 2021
edit- News and notes: 1,000,000,000 edits, board elections, virtual Wikimania 2021
- Special report: Wiki reporting on the United States insurrection
- In focus: From Anarchy to Wikiality, Glaring Bias to Good Cop: Press Coverage of Wikipedia's First Two Decades
- Technology report: The people who built Wikipedia, technically
- Videos and podcasts: Celebrating 20 years
- News from the WMF: Wikipedia celebrates 20 years of free, trusted information for the world
- Recent research: Students still have a better opinion of Wikipedia than teachers
- Humour: Dr. Seuss's Guide to Wikipedia
- Featured content: New Year, same Featured Content report!
- Traffic report: The most viewed articles of 2020
- Obituary: Flyer22 Frozen
Administrators' newsletter – February 2021
editNews and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2021).
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- The standard discretionary sanctions authorized for American Politics were amended by motion to cover
post-1992 politics of United States and closely related people
, replacing the 1932 cutoff.
- The standard discretionary sanctions authorized for American Politics were amended by motion to cover
- Voting in the 2021 Steward elections will begin on 05 February 2021, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2021, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
- Wikipedia has now been around for 20 years, and recently saw its billionth edit!
Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 20
editNews and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (January 2021).
Hello everyone and welcome to the 20th issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:
Scripts Submit your new/improved script here
|
- As a reminder, the legacy javascript globals (like accessing
wgPageName
without first assigning it a value or usingmw.config.get('wgPageName')
instead) are deprecated. If your user scripts make use of the globals, please update them to usemw.config
instead. Some global interface editors or local interface administrators may edit your user script to make these changes if you don't. See phab:T72470 for more.
- For people interested in creating user scripts or gadgets using TypeScript, a types-mediawiki package (GitHub, NPM) is now available that provides type definitions for the MediaWiki JS interface and the API.
- A GitHub organization has been created for hosting codebases of gadgets. Users who maintain gadgets using GitHub may choose to move their repos to this organization, to ensure continued maintenance by others even if the original maintainer becomes inactive.
- A script to ease reviewing Good Article nominations
- A script to help manage Z number templates
- ...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests
As always, if anyone else would like to contribute, including nominating a featured script, help is appreciated. Stay safe, and happy new year! --DannyS712 (talk) 01:17, 3 February 2021 (UTC)
TheWikiWizard-February 2021
editHello, Pythoncoder! Here is the February 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard. Pilot Project, trying a smaller and different style newsletter
Wikipedia News
edit- A New Code of Conduct is being made by Wikipedia/The WMF more info here
- Meta Wiki has Steward Elections open! see this page for more information
Humour
editTHESE STATEMENTS ARE NOT TRUE/NOT GOOD ADVICE. ALWAYS FOLLOW THE POLICIES THAT WIKIPEDIA HAS. EVERYTHING LISTED HERE IN THIS SECTION IS SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF HUMOUR
- If you have a COI, and you don't want to declare it, don't! (For all we know, a dog could be writing [or rather typing] this statement ;) )
Notes
edit- We have a new editor on our team! Berrely will be joining the TWW team as a proofreader starting from the next issue onwards! (No more typos now...)
- The Wikipedia Ads section will be omitted, to make the flow of this newsletter easier. Discuss this issue here
To change your subscription, or to subscribe click Here. Enjoy this Issue and stay safe! Happy Chinese New Year! --つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁 01:02, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
- This Issue was delivered by --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:07, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
Global watchlist - Update 8
editUpdates associated with DannyS712's Global watchlist script and the Global watchlist extension:
As I noted in the last issue, I received a grant from the WMF to develop the global watchlist script into an extension. That extension has now been deployed on Meta. Visit m:Special:GlobalWatchlistSettings to get started.
I do not plan on any further developments being made to the user script. I have released version 9.1.0 to both the dev and stable versions, which includes a notification about the extension being available when you use the user script. You can dismiss the notification, and the script still works, but it will no longer be maintained.
Those interested in providing feedback for the extension should use the phabricator board, phabricator:tag/mediawiki-extensions-globalwatchlist. Any bug reports about the extension should be filed there.
This will likely be the last update sent to this list.
Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 19:42, 17 February 2021 (UTC)
The Signpost: 28 February 2021
edit- News and notes: Maher stepping down
- Disinformation report: A "billionaire battle" on Wikipedia: Sex, lies, and video
- In the media: Corporate influence at OSM, Fox watching the hen house
- News from the WMF: Who tells your story on Wikipedia
- Featured content: A Love of Knowledge, for Valentine's Day
- Traffic report: Does it almost feel like you've been here before?
- Gallery: What is Black history and culture?
Administrators' newsletter – March 2021
editNews and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2021).
Interface administrator changes
- A request for comment is open that proposes a process for the community to revoke administrative permissions. This follows a 2019 RfC in favor of creating one such a policy.
- A request for comment is in progress to remove F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a, which covers immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
- A request for comment seeks to grant page movers the
delete-redirect
userright, which allows moving a page over a single-revision redirect, regardless of that redirect's target. The full proposal is at Wikipedia:Page mover/delete-redirect. - A request for comment asks if sysops may
place the General sanctions/Coronavirus disease 2019 editnotice template on pages in scope that do not have page-specific sanctions
? - There is a discussion in progress concerning automatic protection of each day's featured article with Pending Changes protection.
- When blocking an IPv6 address with Twinkle, there is now a checkbox with the option to just block the /64 range. When doing so, you can still leave a block template on the initial, single IP address' talkpage.
- When protecting a page with Twinkle, you can now add a note if doing so was in response to a request at WP:RfPP, and even link to the specific revision.
- There have been a number of reported issues with Pending Changes. Most problems setting protection appear to have been resolved (phab:T273317) but other issues with autoaccepting edits persist (phab:T275322).
- By motion, the discretionary sanctions originally authorized under the GamerGate case are now authorized under a new Gender and sexuality case, with sanctions
authorized for all edits about, and all pages related to, any gender-related dispute or controversy and associated people.
Sanctions issued under GamerGate are now considered Gender and sexuality sanctions. - The Kurds and Kurdistan case was closed, authorizing standard discretionary sanctions for
the topics of Kurds and Kurdistan, broadly construed
.
- By motion, the discretionary sanctions originally authorized under the GamerGate case are now authorized under a new Gender and sexuality case, with sanctions
- Following the 2021 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: AmandaNP, Operator873, Stanglavine, Teles, and Wiki13.
TheWikiWizard-March 2021
editHello, Pythoncoder! Here is the March 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard.
Wikipedia News
edit- I came across an interesting article about Wikipedia.
- TJMSmith had a successful RFA, Congrats!
Humour
editThis section was written by User:Canadian Otaku, I hope you enjoy it as much as I (Tsugaru) did!
- If you edit Wikipedia around 1-5 AM, beware, as any admin could block you for being up too late!
- It's really easy to break Wikipedia, just click here.
- Ignore people telling you to stop putting "Hrrnngg,,,beans" on the article Bean (film), they don't know what good edits are.
- Jimbo is god, and can do anything he wants to!
Notes
edit- There are 2 new editors now, one of them Berrely, and CanadianOtaku. As mentioned Berrely is our new proofreader (typos beware) and Canadian Otaku is now going to be writing our Humor sections, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for joining us, and remember, if you want to join, just let me know!
- Like this Issue? Got Feedback? Spot a mistake? Discuss this issue here
To change your subscription, or to subscribe click Here. Enjoy this Issue and stay safe! --つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁 01:22, 18 March 2021 (UTC)
The Signpost: 28 March 2021
edit- News and notes: A future with a for-profit subsidiary?
- Gallery: Wiki Loves Monuments
- In the media: Wikimedia LLC and disinformation in Japan
- News from the WMF: Project Rewrite: Tell the missing stories of women on Wikipedia and beyond
- Recent research: 10%-30% of Wikipedia’s contributors have subject-matter expertise
- From the archives: Google isn't responsible for Wikipedia's mistakes
- Obituary: Yoninah
- From the editor: What else can we say?
- Arbitration report: Open letter to the Board of Trustees
- Traffic report: Wanda, Meghan, Liz, Phil and Zack
Administrators' newsletter – April 2021
editNews and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2021).
- Alexandria • Happyme22 • RexxS
- Following a request for comment, F7 (invalid fair-use claim) subcriterion a has been deprecated; it covered immediate deletion of non-free media with invalid fair-use tags.
- Following a request for comment, page movers were granted the
delete-redirect
userright, which allows moving a page over a single-revision redirect, regardless of that redirect's target.
- When you move a page that many editors have on their watchlist the history can be split and it might also not be possible to move it again for a while. This is because of a job queue problem. (T278350)
- Code to support some very old web browsers is being removed. This could cause issues in those browsers. (T277803)
- A community consultation on the Arbitration Committee discretionary sanctions procedure is open until April 25.
The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q1 2021
editThe WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 13, No. 1 — 1st Quarter, 2021
Previous issue | Index | Next issue
Project At a Glance
As of Q1 2021, the project has:
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Content
|
(Delivered 13:42, 9 April 2021 (UTC))
-- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:42, 9 April 2021 (UTC)
TheWikiWizard-April 2021
editHello, Pythoncoder! Here is the April 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard.
Wikipedia News
edit- MediaWiki has a new logo. Looks great, doesn't it?
- Did you get to see the April Fools DYK for the Main Page? If not, catch them here (Under April 1)
- In the Beta Features, try out "Discussion tools" it is a very useful feature for replying to talkpage messages. You will need an account to do so!
Memorials
edit- Pi zero has passed away. Our condolences go out for Pi zero and anyone who knew him. Thank you Pi zero for your service here at Wikimedia. We are very sorry to hear this. We will never forget your valuable contributions to Wikipedia and it's sister projects.
Humour
editTsugaru's Humour Section
- April Showers can't Bring May Flowers, if the Flowers ran away to June!
- You can't get in trouble, if you don't cause trouble!
- The May Flowers can't be flowers if they are roses!
Please find CanadianOtaku's Humour Section below
- Sadly, there was no edit war of 2021, maybe next year.
- This joke space is up for rent!
- You too can be a hacker by removing everything in an article!
- Error 410: I dropped this joke and I can't find it.
Editor's Notes
edit- Just a reminder that TWW is delivered between the 16th to the 20th of each month
- Like this Issue? Got Feedback? Spot a mistake? Discuss this issue here
To change your subscription, or to subscribe click Here. Enjoy this Issue and stay safe! --つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁 23:53, 18 April 2021 (UTC)
- This Issue was delivered to you by --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:56, 18 April 2021 (UTC)
Global watchlist - Update 9
editUpdates associated with DannyS712's Global watchlist script and the Global watchlist extension:
Hi everyone. As I noted in the last issue, I received a grant last year from the WMF to develop the global watchlist script into an extension. That extension has now been deployed on Meta. Visit m:Special:GlobalWatchlistSettings to get started.
That grant has ended, and I have requested another grant to continue development of the extension, and figured subscribers of the newsletter about the user script might be interested. You can see and comment on the grant request at m:Grants:Project/DannyS712/Continued work on GlobalWatchlist extension - if you support this, I hope you'll consider endorsing the request.
Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 00:28, 19 April 2021 (UTC)
The Signpost: 25 April 2021
edit- From the editor: A change is gonna come
- Disinformation report: Paid editing by a former head of state's business enterprise
- In the media: Fernando, governance, and rugby
- Opinion: The (Universal) Code of Conduct
- Op-Ed: A Little Fun Goes A Long Way
- Changing the world: The reach of protest images on Wikipedia
- Recent research: Quality of aquatic and anatomical articles
- Traffic report: The verdict is guilty, guilty, guilty
- News from Wiki Education: Encouraging professional physicists to engage in outreach on Wikipedia
Administrators' newsletter – May 2021
editNews and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2021).
Interface administrator changes
- Following an RfC, consensus was found that third party appeals are allowed but discouraged.
- The 2021 Desysop Policy RfC was closed with no consensus. Consensus was found in a previous RfC for a community based desysop procedure, though the procedure proposed in the 2021 RfC did not gain consensus.
- The user group
oversight
will be renamed tosuppress
. This is for technical reasons. You can comment at T112147 if you have objections.
- The user group
- The community consultation on the Arbitration Committee discretionary sanctions procedure was closed, and an initial draft based on feedback from the now closed consultation is expected to be released in early June to early July for community review.
TheWikiWizard-May 2021
editHello, Pythoncoder! Here is the May 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard.
Wikipedia News
edit- The Simple English Wikipedia was mentioned in a article online very recently, you can read the article here.
- Meta is looking for Board Election Volunteers you can read up more by following that link.
- The English Wikipedia, has just passed 6,300,000 articles!
Tip of the Month
editThis tip is one of the many ways to combat spam on Wikipedia:
- On Wikipedia, articles either meet the General Notability Guideline or not. When you come across a new article, it is extremely important to determine if it is a real article, or just a spam article. Start with a search on Google, for reliable sources, if you get none in return, then look at the article for non-NPOV content, also scan the references section in the article to see what sources it uses, and check the 'other languages' section and Wikidata to see if it is on other Wikipedias. If other Wikipedias have the same content and/or a CSD or AfD tag (WP:AFD) it is likely spam or not notable, so you can then nominate it for deletion to get input, remember that CSD criterion does not always apply to these articles depending on the content/contex. Also remember to check for copyright violations via earwig's
Memorials
edit- SlimVirgin has sadly passed away this month, you can read more about SlimVirgin's passing here
- Moroboshi also sadly passed away earlier this month.
Humour
edit- This section was made by CanadianOtaku, please note it contains some emojis, so you might just see a box if your browser doesn't support them. -つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁
- Got blocked on the English Wikipedia because of your epic hacking skills? Start hacking other Wikimedia projects, they ca- This user account is currently locked across all Wikimedia projects.
- This joke is a work in progress, so I might drop some hammers.
- This joke is 2 spaces away, so a🔨n- woah that was close!
Editor's Notes
edit- If you want to join TWW, please leave us a message!
- Like this Issue? Got Feedback? Spot a mistake? Discuss this issue here
To change your subscription, or to subscribe click Here. Enjoy this Issue and stay safe! --つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁 00:01, 27 May 2021 (UTC)
- This Issue was sent you by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 00:04, 27 May 2021 (UTC)
Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 21
editNews and updates associated with user scripts from the past four months (February through May 2021).
Hello everyone and welcome to the 21st issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:
Scripts Submit your new/improved script here
|
My apologies for this long-overdue issue, and if I missed any scripts.
Hopefully going forward we can go back to monthly releases - any help would be appreciated. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 13:04, 2 June 2021 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – June 2021
editNews and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2021).
- Ashleyyoursmile • Less Unless
- Husond • MattWade • MJCdetroit • Carioca • Vague Rant • Kingboyk • Thunderboltz • Gwen Gale • AniMate • SlimVirgin (deceased)
- Consensus was reached to deprecate Wikipedia:Editor assistance.
- Following a Request for Comment the Book namespace was deprecated.
- Wikimedia previously used the IRC network Freenode. However, due to changes over who controlled the network with reports of a forceful takeover by several ex-staff members, the Wikimedia IRC Group Contacts decided to move to the new Libera Chat network. It has been reported that Wikimedia related channels on Freenode have been forcibly taken over if they pointed members to Libera. There is a migration guide and Wikimedia discussions about this.
- After a Clarification request, the Arbitration Committee modified Remedy 5 of the Antisemitism in Poland case. This means sourcing expectations are a discretionary sanction instead of being present on all articles. It also details using the talk page or the Reliable Sources Noticeboard to discuss disputed sources.
Editing news 2021 #2
editRead this in another language • Subscription list for this newsletter
Earlier this year, the Editing team ran a large study of the Reply Tool. The main goal was to find out whether the Reply Tool helped newer editors communicate on wiki. The second goal was to see whether the comments that newer editors made using the tool needed to be reverted more frequently than comments newer editors made with the existing wikitext page editor.
The key results were:
- Newer editors who had automatic ("default on") access to the Reply tool were more likely to post a comment on a talk page.
- The comments that newer editors made with the Reply Tool were also less likely to be reverted than the comments that newer editors made with page editing.
These results give the Editing team confidence that the tool is helpful.
Looking ahead
The team is planning to make the Reply tool available to everyone as an opt-out preference in the coming months. This has already happened at the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedias.
The next step is to resolve a technical challenge. Then, they will deploy the Reply tool first to the Wikipedias that participated in the study. After that, they will deploy it, in stages, to the other Wikipedias and all WMF-hosted wikis.
You can turn on "Discussion Tools" in Beta Features now. After you get the Reply tool, you can change your preferences at any time in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion.
00:27, 16 June 2021 (UTC)
TheWikiWizard-Special Notice
editHello. Thanks for subscribing to TheWikiWizard, as you may know, the next issue of TheWikiWizard, was supposed to be ready and delivered to your talkpage (or the page you subscribed to receive the newsletter) on the 20th. However, due to Tsugaru (User:つがる) being busy with exams, and having some problems logging into his Wikipedia account, the next Issue of TWW has been delayed. The next issue should be ready in around one weeks time. Thanks for your patience and understanding, and we hope you will enjoy the next issue! -- つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁 02:45, 24 June 2021 (UTC)
- This message was delivered to you by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 02:48, 24 June 2021 (UTC)
The Signpost: 27 June 2021
edit- News and notes: Elections, Wikimania, masking and more
- In the media: Boris and Joe, reliability, love, and money
- Disinformation report: Croatian Wikipedia: capture and release
- Recent research: Feminist critique of Wikipedia's epistemology, Black Americans vastly underrepresented among editors, Wiki Workshop report
- Traffic report: So no one told you life was gonna be this way
- News from the WMF: Searching for Wikipedia
- WikiProject report: WikiProject on open proxies interview
- Forum: Is WMF fundraising abusive?
- Discussion report: Reliability of WikiLeaks discussed
- Obituary: SarahSV
TheWikiWizard-June 2021
editHello, Pythoncoder! Here is the June 2021 issue of TheWikiWizard.
Wikipedia News
edit- The IRC channels used for Wikipedia have changed, you can read more on it here. While TWW was aware of this in the last issue, we decided to wait and publish this in this issue, when the issue is not as new any more, and more information has been developed.
- There was quick interruption in editing on Wikipedia, that was to test server switching should an emergency happen, more details can be found here.
Humour
edit- This section was written by CanadianOtaku --つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁
- Internet Explorer still thinks freenode is the best IRC service!
- It has been proven that editing the article Cheese while eating Cheese is considered a WP:COI.
- This joke has been donated to us from aliens, hopefully they learned UTF-8: £
Editor's Notes
edit- Thanks for your patience as we experienced delays in publishing this issue.
- Like this Issue? Got Feedback? Spot a mistake? Discuss this issue here
To change your subscription, or to subscribe click Here.
We hope you Enjoy this Issue and have a safe and happy summer! --つがる Talk to つがる:) 🍁 02:01, 2 July 2021 (UTC)
- This issue was sent to you by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 02:04, 2 July 2021 (UTC)