Wikipedia:Community bulletin board/Archive 1

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archives of the Community bulletin board.

April 2006

Notices and to-do

• The Northern Irish articles project has been renamed as Wikipedia:WikiProject Northern Ireland to avoid complex looking names in relation to Mathbot page creations.
• There are two recent proposals regarding the current events page: one involves merging the regional current events pages and another involves using daily templates to organize the current events and monthly pages. Input on the proposals would be appreciated.
• The Community Justice elections have ended, and the results are in.
• The backlog on Category:Copy to Wiktionary has burst through the 1,000 mark. It desperately needs attention from a bot, if you know how to program or know someone who does.
• Wikipedians are encouraged to participate in a data-gathering survey regarding Wikipedia. Responses are warmly welcomed.
• A new initiative, called Requests for feedback, has been created. It is meant as a place where newer users can ask experienced users about the content of their "pet" articles without going through an extensive peer review.
• Users are encouraged to join the discussion on a new proposed policy, Wikipedia:NOT evil, please join in at the talk page.
• Users are asked to vote on current candidates at Wikipedia:UK Wikipedians' notice board/UKCOTW in order to bring UK Collaboration of the Fortnight back alive!
• A new policy has been proposed to prohibit anonymous users from Shared IPs from editing mainspace articles. It is hoped that this policy will decrease the amount of vandalism seen on Wikipedia.
• There has been a new anti-vandalism and newbie recuiting proposal here. Please post your opinions!
• WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles is looking for frog photos to fill the gaps in the List of Anuran families. If you have a photo from a family not represented with a photo, please Upoad It, and add it to the article. Also, if you have an amphibian or reptile photo you would like identified, please leave a message on the project's talk page.
• Recently, the enwiki database was moved, making it inaccessible to the toolserver. This affects many projects, such as Wikipedia:Untagged images, Wikipedia:Proposed deletion, and WP:1000. An essay is being composed descrribing why we should have a Wikipedia Toolserver to restore these projects.
• It has been proposed to officially deprecate the mother of meta-templates, qif. Please contribute to the discussion so we can gather consensus over a template which has the potential to crash Wikipedia.
• A new design for the Community Portal has been implemented. We hope you like it. This will hopefully end the design "wars" over the page.
• A new scheme has been proposed for demonstrating the progression of an article, from stub to Featured article, at {{Grading scheme}}. Users are invited to leave comments about the possible changes.
• Quick Response Vandalism Squad has been created to make vandalism response quicker. We need new members to make it grow.
• Given ongoing discussions and the divisive nature of the topic, a poll is underway to decide the rendition of the lead for the Republic of Macedonia article (also listed). Please weigh in!
• Wikipedia:Community Justice are asking for anyone interested in becoming the chairman, chief executive or councillor to submit their statement to Wikipedia:Community Justice/Elections by April 23rd.
• Community Justice have posted the minutes from their first meeting here.
• A policy has been proposed for determining the notability of internet memes/phenomena, which are frequently nominated for deletion.
• Template:Awayuser has been created to place on top of your talk page if you are going to be away from Wikipedia for awhile. It also adds you to Category:Users currently away from Wikipedia.
• A test page has been created to experiment a new look for the Wikipedia:Featured articles page. The changes concerns new subsectioning of the page, the sound icons and bolding titles. You could also participate in the related discussion.
• Answers.com's Wikipedia-branded 1-Click software tool has been launched, and at Wikipedia talk:Tools users are discussing the appropriateness of its promotion via a link on the Wikipedia Tools page.
• Computerjoe is looking for opinions and improvements to Wikipedia:Editor review.
• Following the community-wide request for comment the use of archival materials as sources has been put to a straw poll. Please vote if you have an opinion or voice an alternate proposal if you have one!
• user:Alanmak has added a template at the top of all united nations-related articles containing the alternative names in 5 languages. This has caused a great deal of controversy. There is a poll being conducted at Talk:United_Nations_Commission_on_Human_Rights#Poll to settle the issue.
• A CD version of selected Wikipedia articles is now available from here. You can examine what articles are on the CD or participate in a project to produce another CD.
• Wikipedia:Community Justice are having their first meeting.
• A new POV template has been made. Template:POV-statement is aimed to contest the neutrality of a statement or sentence, over an entire article or section.
• Poll regarding introduction for Republic of Macedonia article – Given ongoing discussions and the divisive nature of the topic, a poll is currently underway to decide the rendition of the lead for the Republic of Macedonia article (also listed). Please weigh in!
• The Community Portal was recently reverted to a version that appeared months ago. There is currently a poll to decide whether or not to overturn that decision and to restore the page that was there, or to use a third draft choice.
• Please voice your opinion on whether or not you believe archival information is a reliable source for Wikipedia.
• A project to redesign the community portal has been started at Community Portal Redesign.
• The France-related topics notice board has recently been created and is looking for members.
• Admins interested in enforcing Arbcom decisions should watch Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Arbitration enforcement.
• The backlog on Category:Copy to Wiktionary has burst through the 1,000 mark. It desperately needs attention from a bot, if you know how to program or know someone who does.
• A proposal has been made to close the September 11 Wiki. This is a separate wiki hosted by the WikiMedia Foundation that was spun off from the English Wikipedia in 2001.
• Please voice your opinion on whether or not you believe archival information is a reliable source for Wikipedia.
• Your help is needed with wikification. Over 6,000 articles have been tagged; the goal of the Maintenance COTW is to completely eliminate this backlog in the coming weeks. Wikification is quick and easy once you get the hang of it!
• Know anything about a present or past Miss USA delegate? Please help me in my endeavour to expand Category: Miss USA delegates
• There is a discussion concerning the removal of links from the familiar browsebar navigation aid (seen at the top of the Community Portal and Help page, and on many other pages around Wikipedia), and of removing the browsebar itself from many of its current locations. Do you use it? Is it useful? Tell us!
• To address the massive 10,000+ article backlog on Wikipedia:Cleanup, a cleanup sorting system has been proposed. Please comment!

New WikiProjects and collaborations Thelema Montenegro Cats Dad's Army New Zealand Collaboration United States Collaboration Nintendo Scottish castles Northern Irish Queen Martian Geography Arts Amphibians and Reptiles Alternative music Graffiti Cat Lovers' Committee (join) WikiProject Arthropods has started up and is looking for members to expand and standardise articles related to insects, arachnids, crustaceans and other arthropods. Bulgaria WikiProject Arts has been proposed. WikiProject Oregon has started up. A new project has been created against stubs called Anti-Stub. Wikipedia:WikiProject Missouri has started up, and is looking for new members to help with articles relating to government, geography, history, culture, and other topics. The Prophets of Islam WikiProject has started up and is looking for members. WikiProject Current events has formed to better organize the current events page and monthly archives, and collaborate on current event stub articles. WikiProject Trains in Japan has begun and is looking for members to help us improve our articles. WikiProject on Fungi is looking for members interested in mushrooms, molds, and other mycota. Both contributors and editors are sought after. The project itself could use some help fleshing out and help with a to-do list would also be welcome. WikiProject Library of Congress Country Studies is looking for new members to help incorporate Country Studies into articles. WikiProject Michigan is looking for members interested in writing articles on state-related topics. There are a few articles in the Featured Article queue that need copyediting and research; your contributions would be welcomed. Any questions should be places on the Project or user:Jtmichcock's Talk page. For those interested in Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatre, Wikipedia:WikiProject Elizabethan theatre has recently been created. Take a look! A new project called WikiProject Disease recently created has only one member (User:General Eisenhower). We need new members. Please put your name on the membership account on Wikipedia:WikiProject WikiProject Pennsylvania State University has re-started and is searching for members.. Wikiproject Supernatural has begun and is searching for members. Wikipedia:WikiProject hip hop has started and is looking for members. WikiProject Transportation in China wants new members to help improve, update, and create pages relating to this matter. Sign up today!

New Portals Community (reference) Numismatics Saudi Arabia Portal:Speculative fiction has added a feature for listing new and revised articles. Portal:Politics has been abandoned and, because it is headed with clippings from current affairs, is grossly out of date and no credit to Wikipedia. Someone expert in Portal design should take this in hand - there's a lot of good material already there. Portal:Theatre has recently been created and seeks several more editors to help out. If you have any questions and comments, please contact User:TBC. Portal:Nuclear technology has been created and needs more editors to join and help out. Questions/Comments: User:Schzmo. The Iraq portal has recently been created. It still needs a lot of editing, so come and visit it and help us out. Contact Snailwalker for questions. Use forum software or have an interest in them? Well take a look at Portal:Forums, the portal to organise Wikipedia's various forum information. Interested in food? Then come to Portal:Food, a recently created portal that needs several more editors to join and help out. If you have any questions or comments, please contact User:TBC. For those who are fashion savvy, help build the new Portal:Fashion. Any questions, comments should be directed to User:Osbus. Portal:California Central Valley has been created. Any support is welcome. Portal:Radio has been created. Join up!

March 2006

• Portal:Fascism has been created, and any help editing and adding content would be welcome. Contact User:Lurker for further details.
• The poll for the proposal to replace the Main Page is over! Just over 1000 users turned out for the event. The preliminary count of the poll results came out to 687 votes in support of the new design vs 213 oppose, with the remainder voting conditionally, neutrally, or anonymously. In commemoration of the end of the election, check out the pic of the day. Cheers!
• Portal:Industrial Design has been created and needs new materials and edits. Contact User:Juanscott for details. Need people interested on subject.
• Portal:Asia has recently been created and needs several more editors to come and help out. See User:TBC if you have any questions or comments.
• The Tip of the day project needs Wikipedia experts to contribute their best tips. Remember your hardest wiki-lessons learned? Come and share those lessons in the form of tips, so that others won't have to go through the same troubles as you did in the climb up the learning curve. Tips begin displaying again on April 20th (for the first time since 2004)!
• Portal: Rock and Roll has been created. However, it needs help on the construction of the portal itself and collaborators would be appreciated. For more information, see User:Osbus and if interested, leave a message on User talk: Osbus. Thank you.
• Portal:Singularity has recently been created and needs several more editors to come and help out. See User:Jeb if you have any questions or comments. This will be a HUGE portal and many collaborators will be needed. I find that I am very overwhelmed with trying to figure out how to edit this Portal. Please help 'ole Jeb! Jeb 05:41, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
• WikiProject Gaelic Games, is looking for users to help start up the project. If you have an interest, knowledge of, would like to learn more about Gaelic Games, i.e. Gaelic Football, Hurling, Camogie, or would just like to help out, then please come and sign up on the project page, or drop the project a line.
• We have created new portal called Portal:Culture of Indians. We need people to help support and design it. We have 6 sections and 2 of them are completed.

February, 2005

• Portal:United States Marine Corps has been established. Have a look and help out if you can.
• Wikipedia:Scientific peer review is currently recruiting academic scientists for a review board. If you want to nominate yourself or another, come on over. Also, anyone who wants to help work out the logistics is welcome.
• Portal:Television has been established. Come check it out!
• User:Shuo Xiang is running a Wikipedia survey on User:Shuo Xiang, your participation is much appreciated!
• Ashibaka is compiling a list of hoaxes on Wikipedia. If you can remember any he's missed, go ahead and add them!
• Pulldate:Update this entry every Monday The Article assessment team, having finished with extinct mammals, is looking at articles about 1980s comedy films and accepting submissions for African countries during the week starting March 6, 2006.
• WikiProject Law Enforcement is in desperate need of support. Any help from people with experience or knowledge in this field would be greatly appreciated.
• A Portal on NATO has been created. However it was started without prior knowledge to portal creation and editors to help create it would be extremely welcome.
• WikiProject Hiking Trails has been founded and welcomes new members.
• WikiProject Military history/Middle Ages task force has formed and welcomes new members.
• Portal:North America has been established and needs editors to construct it.
• Portal:Denmark is created. Contributions are welcome.
• The Rugby union collaboration of the fortnight has now started, and needs several more users to help. The first collaboration is rugby union.
• The WikiProject Dinosaurs, has officially been reactivated and seeks more members knowledgable of dinosaurs. Please come and sign up on the project page.
• There is a new portal called Portal:Culture of Indians. People needed to create this hugh portal and thank User:Sango123 for helping User:Code Napoleon with how to create it.
• There is a new Collaboration Project, Join in, designed to take some of the weight off Article Improvement Drive and deliver a faster response for editors that just need a few helpers with their article. Three articles have been nominated, so get collaborating!
• WikiGnomes are writing WikiTips for the upcoming Grand Reopening of the Tip of the day project, which has been on hiatus since 2004. If you are a WikiGnome, and would like to become a Wikipedia tipster, feel free to join the fun! More on the reopening later...*We need help with the Basketball Wikiportal. If you like basketball this is the portal for you.
• Wikipedia has reached 1,000,000 articles! Read the press release. The article was Jordanhill railway station, created by Nach0king. Anr won the Million Pool.
• Skully Collins has recently finished the Phil Collins Template. Please check if there is anything missing.
• Wikipedia:Article assessment is looking at articles about extinct mammals and accepting submissions for 1980s comedy films during the week starting 27 February 2006
• Portal:Portugal is created.
• The vote for the Main Page Redesign, which continues through March 18th, is currently running 73% support / 27% oppose. Everyone with a user account is welcome to vote on the
• The Main Page Redesign Project is proud to present their final draft. Everyone is welcome to vote in the official poll to ratify it over the current Main Page.
• Congratulations to RexNL for winning Esperanza's Best User Page Award!
• Construction has begun on Portal:Psychology. Interested users needed to improve and maintain the portal.
• A few of us have decided to start WikiProject Early Web History. If you remember the early thrill of the Web from a decade ago or more, please help us make sure that everyone else will.
• WikiProject Tycoon Computer Games has been launched. We are still looking for users who are knowledgeable about Tycoon Computer Games and users who can copyedit and such. We would really appreciate your help!*Portal:Puerto Rico has been created.
• Construction is commenced on Portal:Papua New Guinea. Needs users who are willing to contribute and boldly create.
• A new WikiProject has been formed to help contributors coordinate their efforts on articles regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovenia, as well as former Yugoslavia.
• The Apple Macintosh Portal needs help in maintenance and construction! If interested please see the Macintosh WikiProject.
• Please help the Computer and Video Games project to compile a working list of Essential CVG Articles for 1.0 or a WikiReader.
• New portal: U.S. Roads. Portal is dedicated to interstate, federal, and state/territorial roads of the United States.
• New Portal: Olympics. Please help construct this page!
• There is a new portal, the Human rights Portal. We need users willing to contribute in field of Human rights.
• There is a new portal, the Rugby Portal! We need users to help contribute and edit it and all articles relating to Rugby Football. There are also two sub-portals: Portal:Rugby Union, and Portal:Rugby League.
• The Shakespeare Portal is looking for users to help expand it.
• The Wikipedia:WikiProject Poker Wikiproject has been active for about a week now. We welcome any new members that can help us complete our uncompleted tasks.
• New notice board for Wikipedians interested in the three Baltic States is launched at Wikipedia:Baltic States notice board.
• The Paris Streets Wikiproject is just ready to go - searchable street database (with infobox code generator) and experimental 'map and floating point' infobox is finally done and operational. Where do you live, where have you visited? Come share!
• The Paris Portal has been launched, but is in need of expansion. Categories concerning Paris (needed by the Portal) are in great need of sorting and organisation - this last task could use some 'tried hands'.
• New Neopaganism WikiProject is launched and is looking for more participants.
• The new WikiProject Pro Golfers needs your help inserting infoboxes on as many pages as possible. The template can be found at Template:Infobox golfer. Most of the information that you will need can be found in the pages or at [1].
• Article assessment begins, looking at natural disasters in its first week.
• Harry Potter Movies Portal is launched and is looking for feedback and suggestions.
• Star Wars Project is launched and is looking for more participants.
• New weekly collaboration - The Core topics collaboration of the week - has started. We'll work on essential articles intended for a release version of Wikipedia. You're invited.
• The Help Project needs your help. We are about to undertake the monumental task of cleaning up the Wikipedia namespace, including a redesign of Wikipedia's help system. What were we thinking? Helllllllp!
• Please have a look at Current computer and video games events. It's been going for a couple weeks now (See January entries), and could use more contributors & feedback.
• New Featured content Portal is looking for maintainers.
• New South African municipalities Project is looking for more participants
• The Germany Portal has undergone a major upgrade.
• An experimental lightweight deletion system has started a test run. Discussion is at Wikipedia:Proposed deletion.
• Sam Korn and Morven were granted CheckUser status on the request of the Arbitration Committee.