Advocacy noticeboard

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I archived: the talk page for this project (as the noticeboard itself never took off.) – SJ + 12:34, 24 April 2011 (UTC)Reply

Invitation to join WikiProject United States

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Hello, Sj/Arc9! WikiProject United States, an outreach effort supporting development of United States related articles in Wikipedia, has recently been restarted after a long period of inactivity. As a user who has shown an interest in United States related topics we wanted to invite you to join us in developing content relating to the United States. If you are interested please add your Username and area of interest to the members page here. Thank you!!!

--Kumioko (talk) 03:31, 5 January 2011 (UTC)Reply


Nomination for deletion of Template:You can edit

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Template:You can edit has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Thank you. — This, that, and the other (talk) 11:24, 16 January 2011 (UTC)Reply

Outline update 2011-01-18, and an invitation...

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Sj,

As you probably know, I'm in the process of getting the outline development team back up to speed. In case you are interested in keeping up with goings on with outlines, here's an update followed by an invitation...

We've undergone a name change: the project has been simplified to "WikiProject Outlines".

The current main focus is on increasing the availability of outlines. If readers can't find the outlines, the outlines can't help them. We need to figure out the best places to put links, and the best ways to attract external traffic directly to these pages.

While studying the link structure to outlines, I came across a navigation aid I forgot we had that you might find useful:

If you'd like to use the main page with outline links instead of portal links, set Wikipedia:Main Page alternative (outline links) as your default main page. See the instructions.

Due to the occasional sniping attempt on outlines and their support pages, outlines now have an alert page at Wikipedia:WikiProject Outlines/Article alerts. Please go there now and add it to your watchlist.

Tarheel95 and Robert Skyhawk are working on a project to track traffic to outline pages. Speaking of traffic...

A discussion on outline traffic analysis has been started on the Outlines WikiProject talk page. You are cordially invited to participate. Your input is greatly needed on possible ways to increase the availability of the outlines. All ideas and feedback are welcome. I look forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely, The Transhumanist 08:20, 19 January 2011 (UTC)Reply

P.S.: don't forget to watchlist the alert page mentioned above. Cheers. -TT

This is great; thanks for the updates TT!

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WikiCup 2011 January newsletter

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We are half way through round one of the WikiCup. Signups are now closed, and we have 129 listed competitors, 64 of whom will make it to round two. Congratulations to The Bushranger (submissions), who, at the time of writing, has a comfortable lead with 228 points, followed by Zanzibar Hurricanehink (submissions), with 144 points. Four others have over 100 points. Congratulations also go to Greece Yellow Evan (submissions), who scored the first points in the competition, claiming for Talk:Hurricane King/GA1, Principality of Sealand Miyagawa (submissions), who scored the first non-review points in the competition, claiming for Dognapping, and United Kingdom Jarry1250 (submissions) who was the first in the competition to use our new "multiplier" mechanic (explanation), claiming for Grigory Potemkin, a subject covered on numerous Wikipedias. Thanks must also go to Jarry1250 for dealing with all bot work- without you, the competition wouldn't be happening!


Rebecca Clarke (composer)

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Hello, SJ, I see you worked on the Rebecca Helferich Clarke article -- I would like to get the "Helferich" out of her name in the title! She used it in signing a few peices of music in her youth, but she also used "Thacher" a few times. She did not ever publish under Rebecca Helferich Clarke and the name is not known to her surviving family as something she used. Would this be done by creating a new article with the title Rebecca Clarke (composer) and moving the current article to it (and then deleting the one with the "Helferich" title.) Thank you for your help. It is very aggravating to have really a very good article, but with the subject's name wrong! Thank you Liane Curtis (Clarkesociety) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Clarkesociety (talkcontribs) 22:28, 2 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

The right thing is probably simply to move the page and explain why on the talkpage, as you did above. I will copy your comment there. SJ+ 22:06, 5 February 2011 (UTC)Reply
Since you left a comment on my talk page—it was disambiguated from Rebecca Clarke without my input and I don't have strong opinions on the matter! Kat Walsh (spill your mind?) 04:03, 16 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Adoption

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Hi there Sj! I'm a new wikipedia contributor and have interests in culture and science. I was wondering if you'd be interested in adopting. I am a long time user but first time editor and contributor, and willing to work at this. Please let me know. Thanks! -rockstaranon — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rockstaranon (talkcontribs) 22:59, 3 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Hello rockstar! I've left you a welcome message, and would be glad to adopt you. Culture and science are my kind of editing. SJ+ 22:25, 5 February 2011 (UTC)Reply
Thanks much sj! Your user/talk page and Wikipedia experience is impressive! I've got a small list of easy edits just to get started with, and I'll begin those this weekend. Also I'll work on getting my user page nice and pretty. Just a heads up, there may be some lapses in my edits and responses, I am a full time student with three jobs and am very busy, but I am willing to work at this, and would very much would like to be a good editor. Thanks again! rockstaranon 03:44, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

For some reason the 4 tildes are not linking to my page? rockstaranon 03:08, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

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I recently started a task force here to deal with the problem of WP:LINKROT in citation templates, which lead to this proposal for WMF to help in archiving websites. A few outside institutions want to help and would like input from a representative of WMF. I see you are involved in a related citation project, WikiScholar (formerly Wikicite}, and thought you'd be able to help. Quick overview.

  • WebCitation.org would like to "officially" partner with WMF, possibly handing some/all control over to WMF and possibly working on fundraising together.
  • Internet Archive's Archive-It service would like to talk to a WMF representative about using their service.
  • The French search engine Wikiwix has been caching pages for fr.wikipedia for 2 years and is offering it to en.wikipedia for free. They want to know WMF wants it before they spend money.

There is an on-going discussion here regarding all of this. Would you be able to review it and give your input? Thanks. - Hydroxonium (H3O+) 18:55, 9 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Recent Changes Camp 2011 – Boston, MA

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Hi, SJ. We met at RoCoCo 2007, so my form letter I am dropping on Boston Wikipedians' Talk Pages feels a little irrelevant here, but have it anyway as a useful reminder. :)

Can I interest you in Recent Changes Camp 2011 (Wentworth Institute of Technology, March 11-13)?

It is an Open Space Technology format unconference focused on wikis and collaborative practices.

Recent Changes Camp follows an unconference model of being free to participants and an Open Space model in having a program that is determined onsite by participants.

You can read more here, and do feel free to pass this on to friends and colleagues.

Hope to see you there on any or all of the days.

Dave Crosby (talk) 15:47, 12 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

The article Shenzhen Stock Exchange/List of listed companies has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Fulfils a function already performed by an external website. Similar pages for other stock exchanges do not exist.

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Hugahoody (talk) 17:33, 13 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, Huga. Similar pages do exist for other stock exchanges (if not the two big ones in the US), which is a good thing; but this one doesn't seem all that useful without further information. Suitable for archiving somewhere outside of article space; I responded there. SJ+ 04:06, 15 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Talkback

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Hello, Sj. You have new messages at CharlieEchoTango's talk page.
Message added 20:54, 21 February 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.Reply

Community engagement

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Hi there, Samuel. I'm a journalism professor doing research on community engagement in journalism. A big part of engagement is collaboration, and I'm trying to learn from collaboration experts.

I was nosing around LinkedIn to see who had connections to Wikipedia, and I stopped when I saw that you're connected to two people I've interviewed as part of my work -- Sandy Ordonez and Colin Rhinesmith. I wonder if you have ideas for me of people in the online collaboration world who could help journalists figure out this space.

I'm at mayerj@missouri.edu. Would sure love to hear your ideas if you have a few minutes.

Joy Mayer — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mayerjoy (talkcontribs) 21:18, 21 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Invitation to participate

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Hi, Shenzhen Stock Exchange/List of listed companies is an article you worked on and it has been nominated for deletion. Please stop by and comment if you're interested. Thank you. USchick (talk) 01:23, 23 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

WikiCup 2011 February newsletter

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So begins round two of the WikiCup! We now have eight pools, each with eight random contestants. This round will continue until the end of April, when the top two of each pool, as well as the next 16 highest scorers of those remaining, will make it to round three. Congratulations to The Bushranger (submissions) (first, with 487 points) and Zanzibar Hurricanehink (submissions) (second, with 459), who stormed the first round. Scotland Casliber (submissions) finished third with 223. Twelve others finished with over 100 points- well done to all of you! The final standings in round one can be seen here. A mere 8 points were required to reach round two; competition will no doubt be much more fierce this round, so be ready for a challenge! A special thanks goes, again, to United Kingdom Jarry1250 (submissions) for dealing with all bot work. This year's bot, as well as running smoothly, is doing some very helpful things that last year's did not. Also, thanks to Bavaria Stone (submissions) for some helpful behind-the-scenes updating and number crunching.

Some news for those who are interested- March will see a GAN backlog elimination drive, which you are still free to join. Organised by WikiProject Good articles, the drive aims to minimise the GAN backlog and offers prizes to those who help out. Of course, you may well be able to claim WikiCup points for the articles you review as part of the drive. Also ongoing is the Great Backlog Drive, looking to work on clearing all of the backlogs on Wikipedia; again, incentives are offered, and the spirit of friendly competition is alive, while helping the encyclopedia is the ultimate aim. Though unrelated to the WikiCup, these may well be of interest to some of you.

Just a reminder of the rules; if you have done significant work on content this year and it is promoted in this round, you may claim for it. Also, anything that was promoted after the end of round one but before the beginning of round two may be claimed for in round two. Details of the rules can be found on this page. For those interested in statistics, a running total of claims can be seen here, and a very interesting table of that information (along with the highest scorers in each category) can be seen here. If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, and you hope to get it promoted before the end of the round, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. However, please remember to continue to offer reviews at GAC, FAC and all the other pages that require them to prevent any backlogs which could otherwise be caused by the Cup. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages, or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn and The ed17 23:50, 28 February 2011 (UTC)Reply

Outline collaboration

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Here's the latest addition to the religion section of Portal:Contents/Outlines. Wikipedia has rich coverage on this subject. Very interesting, especially from sociological and historical perspectives.

This is a call to all members of the Outline WikiProject and outline aficionados to help refine this outline. It needs annotations, missing topics added, and the entries in the general concepts section placed in more specific sections.

Come join in on the fun and get acquainted with members of the Outline WikiProject!

The Transhumanist 04:47, 2 March 2011 (UTC)Reply

P.S.: I had no idea this religion was so extensive or that it had so many followers. Hope to see you on the outline.

Wikipedia Takes Boston?

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What are your thoughts on a having a Wikipedia Takes Boston event this Spring? I've started a thread over on the Boston meetup talk page: Wikipedia_talk:Meetup/Boston#Wikipedia_Takes_Boston. Emw (talk) 16:29, 6 March 2011 (UTC)Reply

Commented there - it sounds like a great idea. Let's coordinate the schedule with the upcoming library event. SJ+ 18:55, 9 March 2011 (UTC)Reply

MfD nomination of Wikipedia:Manual of Style (images)

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Wikipedia:Manual of Style (images), a page you substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Manual of Style (images) and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Wikipedia:Manual of Style (images) during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Gnevin (talk) 20:51, 15 March 2011 (UTC)Reply


WT:U

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Replied there. My sense and the sense of many others who have a lot of experience with username blocks is that it's not the template:uw-softerblock message that's the problem. (When I wrote it, it was roughly what it is now ... "Welcome to Wikipedia. Because we have a policy against usernames that give the impression that the account represents a group, organization or website, I have blocked this account; you are welcome to create a new account with a username that represents only you ... except that people have added another sentence linking to our COI policy now, which wouldn't be my choice.) We know that long warning messages before you get to the softerblock and different block templates can sometimes be a real problem. Another part of the equation is: we currently don't have the number of volunteers we'd need (admins and non-admins both) to deal with each new user who uses a company or organization name in the most patient way we possibly could. Some allowances have to be made for the fact that 99.99% of users who pick a username that matches their business and start out with only promotional-sounding edits will never ever give a crap about NPOV or V, no matter how much time we spend gently leading them by the hand (and many of us have put in a lot of effort). - Dank (push to talk) 14:27, 25 March 2011 (UTC)Reply


Boston meetup still on 4/10?

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Hi SJ, is the April meetup still on for this Sunday, 4/10? If so, I'm going to look into getting space at BPL for the 'Wikipedia Takes Boston' uploading party on 4/17. Otherwise, if the meetup is changed to 4/17, do you think we could have the uploading party at the meetup venue? Best, Emw (talk) 11:35, 5 April 2011 (UTC)Reply

I am still planning to have dinner with people this Sunday, since some people plan far in advance. But let's plan another dinner the day of the photo event. BPL would be a great venue.

Openness

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HI, I wanted to comment on http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Talk:Resolution:Openness

I have lost interest in wasting my time on wikipedia after being harassed by WhiteWriter and his friends while editing articles related to kosovo. The serbs are stalking and harassing anyone who even wants to add simple facts and make life difficult for anyone. It is a real pain. I hope that you will get them under control some day, they are really messing wikipedia up.

thanks, mike James Michael DuPont (talk) 21:54, 8 April 2011 (UTC)Reply

Hi Mike, thanks for dropping me a line. I sympathize with this story - I often avoid writing about political topics until I have twice as long as I would normally take to make small changes, so that I can take extra time to avoid misunderstanding or respond to wikistalking. I can't speak to this particular case, but am looking into what can be done to improve these situations in general. SJ+ 01:27, 9 April 2011 (UTC)Reply


Thanks re: Archived citations

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I've been off-wiki for a while and I'm just now replying to messages. I just wanted to thank you for drafting a new RfC for the archived citations project. Thanks very much. I'll be moving this forward in the next few days/week. I'm really glad to have you so involved with Wikipedia and very happy for all your help over the years. Thanks again. - Hydroxonium (TCV) 06:25, 19 April 2011 (UTC)Reply

Help Save Article - Speedy deletion nomination of Barbara Kanam

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A tag has been placed on Barbara Kanam, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia for multiple reasons. Please see the page to see the reasons. If the page has since been deleted, you can ask me the reasons by leaving a message on my user talk page.

Thanks for sharing. It looks like it has been saved already - I cleaned up the article and citations a bit. – SJ + 21:14, 28 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

Re: List of UK Official Download Chart number-one albums from the 2000s

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Hello, Sj. You have new messages at Talk:List of UK Official Download Chart number-one albums.
Message added 02:01, 29 May 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Hey there Sj. I had a show at creating an article for the List of UK Official Download Chart number-one albums from the 2000s using what little data I could find. Let me know what you think. A Thousand Doors (talk | contribs) 12:40, 29 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

Hi SJ, thanks for the nice message at my talk page

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Basically, I am sick of being harassed by some anonymous person calling himself Mbz1. ([1] and much of my talk page archive.) Maybe I'll regain my energy for editing Wikipedia again someday. Hope all is well with you! betsythedevine (talk) 21:23, 29 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

I'm so sorry you fell into the net of persistent harrassment by this user, now blocked... We love you and hope you return one day :-) -SJ


Increasing # of female Wikipedia Contributors?

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Hi SJ - I'm hosting the free wiki workshop for women and girls in DC (Wikipedia:Meetup/DC_WWW1) in a couple of weeks. Are there any Wikipedia forums (preferably that get to Sue Gardner) discussing how to increase the # of women/girl editors? Thanks, ASenger (talk) 00:26, 6 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

There are indeed - there is a gendergap mailing list which Sue started and which would be a perfect place to discuss your workshop. – SJ + 22:45, 6 June 2011 (UTC)Reply
Perfect. Thanks.ASenger (talk) 13:11, 8 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

My RfA

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I just wanted to take a minute to thank you very much for supporting me in my recent RfA. Even though it was unsuccessful, I appreciate your trust. With much gratitude, jsfouche ☽☾Talk 02:06, 7 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Mail

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Hello, Sj. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Regarding the signpost. Rcsprinter (talk) 15:21, 7 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Congratulations

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I just wanted to offer my congratulations for being re-elected. I think you have been doing a fine job and am happy you'll continue for the next couple years. Thanks for all your efforts. They are very much appreciated. - Hydroxonium (TCV) 01:45, 18 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

My congratulations also - I'm glad you'll be in there!Dcrjsr (talk) 14:18, 18 June 2011 (UTC)Reply
I do still intend to organize wiki workshops at various of the society meetings - esp. Biophysics, but perhaps also RNA, Proteins, and the education section of ASBMB (biochem). It'll probably, in fact, be a lot easier to find the time for that without the responsibilities of a trustee. I'd be glad to contribute to any discussion about such ideas that ensues, since I seem inadvertently to be a representative of many rare categories of wiki editors. - Dcrjsr (talk) 22:24, 18 June 2011 (UTC)Reply
Hello, Sj. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

UOJComm (talk) 23:21, 19 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Thank you all for the kind words and the mail! SJ

I just wanted to congratulate you for being re-elected. Furthermore, as a longtime user, I just realized that Wikipedia has changed a lot in recent times, especially I was more involved in Chinese Wikipedia in the past. Where shall I find updated information about this project ? -- Ktsquare (talk) 15:30, 20 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Thank you, Kt, I really appreciate it! A great place to start is to read the archives of the on-wiki newspaper, the Wikipedia Signpost. Is there anything like that for Chinese Wikipedia news? I have also been most interested in how zh:wp has changed recently -- since there is both hoodong and baidupedia to look to for potential ideas and style guidelines. – SJ + 05:40, 23 June 2011 (UTC)Reply
There is a version of Wikipedia Signpost, which is more or less inactive recently. Some issues surrounding the administrator at zh are sometimes present and they also bundle other issues when an admin is under fire for removal of administrator rights. FYI, m:Requests_for_comment/Oppression_in_zh_wikipedia and [2] -- Ktsquare (talk) 01:43, 29 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Without a Net

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Greetings, Sj. A few days ago, you created a disambiguation page for Without a Net. It looks like you created it as "Without a Net (disambiguation)", and then editor R'n'B changed it to "Without a Net". You also renamed the article about the Grateful Dead album from "Without a Net" to "Without a Net (album)". I think things were better before, and should be changed back. That's because there is only one article about something called Without a Net, the one about the Grateful Dead album. All the other entries on the disambiguation page are for other things: Live without a Net (three articles), Swimming without a Net, some red links, and an improv comedy group that redirects to "Improvisation" (that last one should be removed in any event, per MOS:DAB). In short, there's no need for a disambiguation page for Without a Net, although one is needed for Live without a Net (which currently redirects to Without a Net). As an additional point, when you moved the Grateful Dead album article, you left some links to the article unchanged, so they now redirect to the disambiguation page. That actually could be fixed without too much trouble, but instead of that, I think things should be put back. (If you reply here, I will see what you say.) Mudwater (Talk) 13:07, 25 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Good point. I split out the "Live" titles, which is what were being referenced confusingly, and moved the Dead album back to the canonical name. – SJ + 13:30, 25 June 2011 (UTC)Reply
Great, thanks! Mudwater (Talk) 13:45, 25 June 2011 (UTC)Reply


Re the Signpost

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Hello Sj,

A while ago you subscribed to my service to recieve the signpost my mail. I'm sorry, but I've been having trouble getting it over to America. As you're my first "customer", I feel rather bad to have let you down like this, but, I can't really get it over there. So, I suppose you'll just have to keep reading it online. ;( Rcsprinter (talk) 15:02, 28 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Not to fret -- I know this can be tricky. I'm a big fan of your idea mainly because I wanted to print and distribute copies of newsletters years ago, and still like the idea. There's no real substitute to having a copy of WikiMedium on the side of the coffeetable... of course these days that's inevitably in some other language, like German or Czech, until an English translation comes out regularly. If SIGN-MAIL takes off, I could try to organize printing and shipping within the US. [I'd like to be able to offer wikimedium translations once a quarter, too - there they layout's already done in one language.] – SJ + 07:20, 29 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Danger: alert page unnoticed

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The Outline of relationships was nominated for deletion.

It was then overhauled and the nomination was withdrawn.

Before After.

Only a couple members from the Outlines WikiProject showed up at the AfD.

Do you have Wikipedia:WikiProject Outlines/Article alerts watchlisted?

If not, please watchlist it.

Thank you. The Transhumanist 08:10, 29 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

WikiCup 2011 June newsletter

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We are half way through 2011, and entering the penultimate round of this year's WikiCup; the semi-finals are upon us! Points scored in the interim (29/30 June) may be counted towards next round, but please do not update your submissions' pages until the next round has begun. 16 contestants remain, and all have shown dedication to the project to reach this far. Our round leader was Scotland Casliber (submissions) who, among other things, successfully passed three articles through featured article candidates and claimed an impressive 29 articles at Did You Know, scoring 555 points. Casliber led pool D. Pool A was led by Ohio Wizardman (submissions), claiming points for a featured article, a featured list and seven good article reviews, while pool C was led by Norway Eisfbnore (submissions), who claimed for two good articles, ten articles at Did You Know and four good article reviews. They scored 154 and 118 respectively. Pool B was by far our most competitive pool; six of the eight competitors made it through to round 4, with all of them scoring over 100 points. The pool was led by Zanzibar Hurricanehink (submissions), who claimed for, among other things, three featured articles and five good articles. In addition to the four pool leaders, 12 others (the four second places, and the 8 next highest overall) make up our final 16. The lowest scorer who reached round 4 scored 76 points; a significant increase on the 41 needed to reach round 3. Eight of our semi-finalists scored at least twice as much as this.

No points were awarded this round for featured pictures, good topics or In the News, and no points have been awarded in the whole competition for featured topics, featured portals or featured sounds. Instead, the highest percentage of points has come from good articles. Featured articles, despite their high point cost, are low in number, and so, overall, share a comparable number of points with Did You Know, which are high in number but low in cost. A comparatively small but still considerable number of points come from featured lists and good article reviews, rounding out this round's overall scores.

We would again like to thank United Kingdom Jarry1250 (submissions) and Bavaria Stone (submissions) for invaluable background work, as well as all of those helping to provide reviews for the articles listed on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Please do keep using it, and please do help by providing reviews for the articles listed there. However, please remember to continue to offer reviews generally at GAC, FAC and all the other pages that require them to prevent any backlogs which could otherwise be caused by the Cup.

Two final notes: Firstly, please remember to state your participation in the WikiCup when nominating articles at FAC. Finally, some WikiCup-related statistics can be seen here and here, for those interested, though it appears that neither are completely accurate at this time. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages, or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn and The ed17 23:40, 30 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Some bubble tea for you!

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SJ thanks for spending SIX HOURS with me and Phoebe in that classroom. I was happy, for you, to pick the one that did not smell :-) Sue Gardner (talk) 20:21, 10 July 2011 (UTC)Reply

wikilove

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science!
you know what this is, right? .... right? .... that's right, this would be the LABORATORY where they do LIBRARY SCIENCE. (The libraries come out the other end). Thanks for all your hard work on-wiki lately. phoebe / (talk to me) 19:56, 19 July 2011 (UTC)Reply

Nomination of List of Young Global Leaders for deletion

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A discussion is taking place as to whether the article List of Young Global Leaders is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of Young Global Leaders until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on good quality evidence, and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion template from the top of the article. Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • (Otters want attention) 20:53, 23 July 2011 (UTC)Reply


Deletion problems

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See [3] and later deletion req... why are people so mean? 140.247.187.212 (talk) 21:43, 28 July 2011 (UTC)Reply

WikiCup 2011 July newsletter

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We are half way through the penultimate round of this year's WikiCup; there is less than a month to go before we have our final 8. Our pool leaders are New Zealand Adabow (submissions) (Pool A, 189 points) and Russia PresN (submissions) (Pool B, 165 points). The number of points required to reach the next round is not clear at this time; there are some users who still do not have any recorded points. Please remember to update your submissions' pages promptly. In addition, congratulations to PresN, who scored the first featured topic points in the competition for his work on Thatgamecompany related articles. Most points this round generally have, so far, come from good articles, with only one featured article (White-bellied Sea Eagle, from Scotland Casliber (submissions)) and two featured lists (Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story, from PresN and Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album, from Another Believer (submissions)). Points for Did You Know and good article reviews round out the scoring. No points have been awarded for In the News, good topics or featured pictures this round, and no points for featured sounds or portals have been awarded in the entire competition. On an unrelated note, preparation will be beginning soon for next year's WikiCup- watch this space!

There is little else to be said beyond the usual. Please list anything you need reviewing on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews, so others following the WikiCup can help, and please do help if you can by providing reviews for the articles listed there. However, please remember to continue to offer reviews generally at GAC, FAC and all the other pages that require them to prevent any backlogs which could otherwise be caused by the Cup- points are, of course, offered for reviews at GAC. Two final notes: Firstly, please remember to state your participation in the WikiCup when nominating articles at FAC. Finally, some WikiCup-related statistics can be seen here and here. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages, or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn and The ed17 11:42, 1 August 2011 (UTC)Reply


Template:Recent wiki spot checks

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- Obsolete ? - TB (talk) 13:52, 17 August 2011 (UTC)Reply

The Civil War listed at Redirects for discussion

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An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect The Civil War. Since you had some involvement with the The Civil War redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion (if you have not already done so). Ryan Vesey Review me! 14:36, 21 August 2011 (UTC)Reply


WikiCup 2011 July newsletter

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The finals are upon us; we're down to the last few. One of the eight remaining contestants will be this year's WikiCup champion! 150 was the score needed to progress to the final; just under double the 76 required to reach round 4, and more than triple the 41 required to reach round 3. Our eight finalists are:

  • Scotland Casliber (submissions), Pool A's winner. Casliber has the highest total score in the competition, with 1528, the bulk of which is made up of 8 featured articles. He has the highest number of total featured articles (8, 1 of which was eligible for double points) and total did you knows (72) of any finalist. Casliber writes mostly on biology, including ornithology, botany and mycology.
  • Russia PresN (submissions), Pool B's winner and the highest scorer this round. PresN is the only finalist who has scored featured topic points, and he has gathered an impressive 330, but most of his points come from his 4 featured articles, one of which scored double. PresN writes mostly on video games and the Hugo Awards.
  • Zanzibar Hurricanehink (submissions), Pool A's runner-up. Hurricanehink's points are mostly from his 30 good articles, more than any other finalist, and he is also the only finalist to score good topic points. Hurricanehink, as his name suggests, writes mostly on meteorology.
  • Ohio Wizardman (submissions), Pool B's runner-up. Wizardman has completed 86 good article reviews, more than any other finalist, but most of his points come from his 2 featured articles. Wizardman writes mostly on American sport, especially baseball.
  • Principality of Sealand Miyagawa (submissions), the "fastest loser" (Pool A). Miyagawa has written 3 featured lists, one of which was awarded double points, more than any other finalist, but he was awarded points mostly for his 68 did you knows. Miyagawa writes on a variety of topics, including dogs, military history and sport.
  • Canada Resolute (submissions), the second "fastest loser" (Pool B). Most of Resolute's points come from his 9 good articles. He writes mostly on Canadian topics, including ice hockey.
  • Greece Yellow Evan (submissions), who was joint third "fastest loser" (Pool A). Most of Evan's points come from his 10 good articles, and he writes mostly on meteorology.
  • Australia Sp33dyphil (submissions), who was joint third "fastest loser" (Pool B). Most of Phil's points come from his 9 good articles, 4 of which (more than any other finalist) were eligible for double points. He writes mostly on aeronautics.

We say goodbye to our seven other semi-finalists, Another Believer (submissions), Poland Piotrus (submissions), United Kingdom Grandiose (submissions), Bavaria Stone (submissions), Norway Eisfbnore (submissions), Saskatchewan Canada Hky (submissions) and Wisconsin MuZemike (submissions). Everyone still in the competition at this stage has done fantastically well, and contributed greatly to Wikipedia. We're on the home straight now, and we will know our winner in two months.

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Hi Sammy,

Just noticed that beauty has been missing from your page for over 5 years.

Rather, in this edit of 14:16, 2006 March 1, the link to “Beauty” (“Sweet Sorrow”) was broken when the section was renamed to “Nexus of links”. It got touched again in this edit of 19:27, 2010 March 6, which sadly didn’t fix the link. But now it’s better (as of this edit), and beauty is restored!

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 09:11, 5 September 2011 (UTC)Reply
Ahh, there's the wikipedia spirit I know and love. Thank you, M. von Barth! – SJ + 21:16, 5 September 2011 (UTC)Reply

News and progress from RfA reform 2011

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RfA reform: ...and what you can do now.

(You are receiving this message because you are either a task force member, or you have contributed to recent discussions on any of these pages.)

The number of nominations continues to nosedive seriously, according to these monthly figures. We know why this is, and if the trend continues our reserve of active admins will soon be underwater. Wikipedia now needs suitable editors to come forward. This can only be achieved either through changes to the current system, a radical alternative, or by fiat from elsewhere.

A lot of work is constantly being done behind the scenes by the coordinators and task force members, such as monitoring the talk pages, discussing new ideas, organising the project pages, researching statistics and keeping them up to date. You'll also see for example that we have recently made tables to compare how other Wikipedias choose their sysops, and some tools have been developed to more closely examine !voters' habits.

The purpose of WP:RFA2011 is to focus attention on specific issues of our admin selection process and to develop RfC proposals for solutions to improve them. For this, we have organised the project into dedicated sections each with their own discussion pages. It is important to understand that all Wikipedia policy changes take a long time to implement whether or not the discussions appear to be active - getting the proposals right before offering them for discussion by the broader community is crucial to the success of any RfC. Consider keeping the pages and their talk pages on your watchlist; do check out older threads before starting a new one on topics that have been discussed already, and if you start a new thread, please revisit it regularly to follow up on new comments.

The object of WP:RFA2011 is not to make it either easier or harder to become an admin - those criteria are set by those who !vote at each RfA. By providing a unique venue for developing ideas for change independent of the general discussion at WT:RFA, the project has two clearly defined goals:

  1. Improving the environment that surrounds RfA in order to encourage mature, experienced editors of the right calibre to come forward, pass the interview, and dedicate some of their time to admin tasks.
  2. Discouraging, in the nicest way possible of course, those whose RfA will be obvious NOTNOW or SNOW, and to guide them towards the advice pages.

The fastest way is through improvement to the current system. Workspace is however also available within the project pages to suggest and discuss ideas that are not strictly within the remit of this project. Users are invited to make use of these pages where they will offer maximum exposure to the broader community, rather than individual projects in user space.

We already know what's wrong with RfA - let's not clutter the project with perennial chat. RFA2011 is now ready to propose some of the elements of reform, and all the task force needs to do now is to pre-draft those proposals in the project's workspace, agree on the wording, and then offer them for central discussion where the entire Wikipedia community will be more than welcome to express their opinions in order to build consensus.

New tool Check your RfA !voting history! Since the editors' RfA !vote counter at X!-Tools has been down for a long while, we now have a new RfA Vote Counter to replace it. A significant improvement on the former tool, it provides a a complete breakdown of an editor's RfA votes, together with an analysis of the participant's voting pattern.

Are you ready to help? Although the main engine of RFA2011 is its task force, constructive comments from any editors are always welcome on the project's various talk pages. The main reasons why WT:RfA was never successful in getting anything done are that threads on different aspects of RfA are all mixed together, and are then archived where nobody remembers them and where they are hard to find - the same is true of ad hoc threads on the founder's talk page.

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of RfA reform 2011 at 16:03, 25 September 2011 (UTC).Reply


WikiCup 2011 September newsletter

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We are on this year's home straight, with less than a month to go until the winner of the 2011 WikiCup will be decided. The fight for first place is currently being contested by Principality of Sealand Miyagawa (submissions), Zanzibar Hurricanehink (submissions) and Australia Sp33dyphil (submissions), all of whom have over 200 points. This round has already seen multiple featured articles (1991 Atlantic hurricane season from Hurricanehink and Northrop YF-23 from Sp33dyphil) and a double-scoring featured list (Miyagawa's 1948 Summer Olympics medal table). The scores will likely increase far further before the end of the round on October 31 as everyone ups their pace. There is not much more to say- thoughts about next year's competition are welcome on the WikiCup talk page or the scoring talk page, and signups will open once a few things have been sorted out.

If you are concerned that your nomination, be it at good article candidates, a featured process or anywhere else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. However, please remember to continue to offer reviews at GAC, FAC and all the other pages that require them to prevent any backlogs which could otherwise be caused by the Cup. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages, or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start receiving or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn and The ed17 12:51, 1 October 2011 (UTC)Reply

Mystery

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Please solve this mystery if you can...

On September 23rd, traffic to Portal:James Bond doubled, and has stayed at the new level since then. I can't figure out what happened.

See http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/Portal%3AJames_Bond

Traffic to Outline of James Bond stayed the same (though it was at the higher-level already), which leads me to suspect changes made somewhere in Wikipedia.

See http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/Outline%20of%20James_Bond

I'd like to find out what happened, in case it reveals helpful link placement tips that can double the traffic to outlines too!

I look forward to your reply. The Transhumanist 22:31, 5 October 2011 (UTC)Reply

This is a very very good question.... -SJ

Outline evolution

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Sj,

I've been plugging away at outlines, and via feedback have been implementing several improvements. A format that is emerging that I'd like to see used as the model for (non-country) outlines can be seen in Outline of chess. Please take a look, and let me know what you think. The Transhumanist 22:31, 5 October 2011 (UTC)Reply

Oho, I do like that. – SJ +

Since Oct

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Please help fill in annotations at Portal:Contents/Outlines

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Please go to Portal:Contents/Outlines' and fill in as many missing annotations as you can, even if it's only one or two. Every little bit helps!

The annotating of the entries on Portal:Contents/Outlines is nearing completion.

Annotated entries look like this:

  • Basketball – team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules.
  • Canoeing and kayaking – two closely related forms of watercraft paddling, involving manually propelling and navigating specialized boats called canoes and kayaks using a blade that is joined to a shaft, known as a paddle, in the water.
  • Cricket – bat-and-ball team sport, the most popular form played on an oval-shaped outdoor arena known as a cricket field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard (20.12 m) long pitch that is the focus of the game.
  • Martial arts – extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development.

Entries needing annotations look like this:

Even if all you can do is one or two, the support will be greatly felt. Many hands make light work.

Thank you. The Transhumanist 00:28, 7 October 2011 (UTC)Reply


Logo of Wikipedia

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Hi SJ!

I caught this edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Logo_of_Wikipedia&diff=prev&oldid=448650842

We have a Manual of Style, and it needs to be followed consistently. No matter what he preferences are, on EN we must go by the manual of style. Also I would imagine that the newspaper article author using "Kizu Naoko" was likely uninformed, or it was a mistake. The popular media tends to use western order.

I also took the courtesy of reverting your removal of the page notice: Template:Editnotices/Page/Logo_of_Wikipedia

Because the manual of style is global, there is an automatic consensus to use "Naoko Kizu" and a consensus to keep the edit notice up.

If you know how to get in touch with Noam Cohen, I would really appreciate it.

WhisperToMe (talk) 15:42, 13 October 2011 (UTC)Reply

Okay, I see Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Japan-related_articles#Name_order - So you did look into the matter regarding the MOS.
The posters believed that you were referring to particular pen names like Nisioisin and Neko Hiroshi, and not legal names like "Kizu Naoko" - Since there is already a discussion there, I think it will be best to continue it there.
WhisperToMe (talk) 15:54, 13 October 2011 (UTC)Reply
Please see Talk:Logo_of_Wikipedia#Controversial_and_barely_notable_quote_removed WhisperToMe (talk) 14:11, 20 October 2011 (UTC)Reply


Japanese names

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Hi Sj! Since nobody on MOS-JA commented on the specific issue, I decided to make a noticeboard post, in the BLP section:

Since Kizu Naoko is a living person, it should fit the noticeboard's purpose WhisperToMe (talk) 03:51, 31 October 2011 (UTC)Reply


New Page Patrol survey

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New page patrol – Survey Invitation


Hello Sj! The WMF is currently developing new tools to make new page patrolling much easier. Whether you  have patrolled many pages or only a few, we now need to  know about your experience. The survey takes only 6 minutes, and the information you provide will not be shared with third parties other than to assist us in analyzing the results of the survey; the WMF will not use the information to identify you.

  • If this invitation  also appears on other accounts you  may  have, please complete the  survey  once only. 
  • If this has been sent to you in error and you have never patrolled new pages, please ignore it.

Please click HERE to take part.
Many thanks in advance for providing this essential feedback.


You are receiving this invitation because you  have patrolled new pages. For more information, please see NPP Survey. Global message delivery 13:17, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

WikiCup 2011 October newsletter

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The 2011 WikiCup is now over, and our new champion is   Hurricanehink (submissions), who joins the exclusive club of the previous winners: Dreamafter (2007), jj137 (2008), Durova (2009) and Sturmvogel_66 (2010). The final standings were as follows:

  1.   Hurricanehink (submissions)
  2.   Sp33dyphil (submissions)
  3.   Yellow Evan (submissions)
  4.   Miyagawa (submissions)
  5.   Wizardman (submissions)
  6.   Casliber (submissions)
  7.   Resolute (submissions)
  8.   PresN (submissions)

Prizes for first, second, third and fourth will be awarded, as will prizes for all those who reached the final eight. Every participant who scored in the competition will receive a ribbon of participation. In addition to the prizes based on placement, the following special prizes will be awarded based on high performance in particular areas of content creation. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, the prize is awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round.

No prize was awarded for featured pictures, sounds or portals, as none were claimed throughout the competition. The awards will be handed out over the next few days. Congratulations to all our participants, and especially our winners; we've all had fun, and Wikipedia has benefitted massively from our content work.

Preparation for next year's WikiCup is ongoing. Interested parties are invited to sign up and participate in our straw polls. It's been a pleasure to work with you all this year, and, whoever's taking part in and running the competition in 2012, we hope to see you all in January! J Milburn and The ed17 00:48, 1 November 2011 (UTC)Reply


Can you userfy this for me?

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Uzbeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan AaronSw (talk) 04:35, 4 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Done.


Drive-in theater

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Are you still planning anything with this list? Ten Pound Hammer(What did I screw up now?) 23:02, 16 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

Yes, it's an example of where our notability policies have become stricter over time, excluding sourced and useful information that used to be commonly accepted on the project. I'd like to summarize the trend and its impact on editors and knowledge captured, but need time to gather more examples / troll through old *fDs... if similar examples spring to mind, feel free to add them there. – SJ + 00:32, 21 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

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

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Fine Art Edit-a-Thon & Meetup - Who should come? You should. Really.
 
FINE ART EDIT-A-THON & DC MEETUP 26 is December 17! The Edit-a-Thon will cover fine art subjects from the Federal Art Project and the meet up will involve Wikipedians from the area as well as Wiki-loving GLAM professionals. You don't have to attend both to attend one (but we hope you do!) Click the link above and sign up & spread the word! See you there! SarahStierch (talk) 15:41, 26 November 2011 (UTC)Reply

(In case you're in the area =) SarahStierch (talk) 15:54, 26 November 2011 (UTC)Reply


Heya (disambiguation)

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Hello. I've been making some formatting changes to Heya (disambiguation) to make it in line with WP:MOSDAB. Although, I am curious about the page move you made of Heya to Heya (sumo). Was this not the primary topic (of Heya)? None of the others have articles. If Heya (sumo) is not the primary topic (although in my eyes it seems like it should be), the dab page should be moved to Heya or else it is essentially WP:MALPLACED. Would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks, France3470 (talk) 17:18, 3 December 2011 (UTC)Reply


Nice to see you around! :-)

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Nice to see you around, and helping with the Berkman/Science po discussion. :-) --Kim Bruning (talk) 23:52, 11 December 2011 (UTC)Reply


Speedy deletion nomination of Ab'gar XIV

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A tag has been placed on Ab'gar XIV, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done for the following reason:

no such king ever existed since the line stopped at Abgar XI. The only reference for this article is the 19th century "Nuttall Encyclopedia"

Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not meet basic Wikipedia criteria may be deleted at any time.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, contest the deletion by clicking on the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". Doing so will take you to the talk page where you will find a pre-formatted place for you to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. You can also visit the page's talk page directly to give your reasons, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that the administrator userfy the page or email a copy to you. Rafy talk 11:19, 15 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Please add this to your watchlist:

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Thank you. The Transhumanist 02:23, 28 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

File:LogoGutza22Jul2003.jpg missing description details

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Dear uploader: The media file you uploaded as File:LogoGutza22Jul2003.jpg is missing a description and/or other details on its image description page. If possible, please add this information. This will help other editors to make better use of the image, and it will be more informative for readers.

If the information is not provided, the image may eventually be proposed for deletion, a situation which is not desirable, and which can easily be avoided.

If you have any questions please see Help:Image page. Thank you. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 15:24, 29 December 2011 (UTC)Reply