User talk:BillHPike/Archive 1
 | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
| Archive 1 | Archive 2 | Archive 3 | → | Archive 5 |
Nomination for deletion of Template:Late ottoman genocides
Template:Late ottoman genocides has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Seraphim System (talk) 05:16, 6 February 2018 (UTC)
New Page Reviewer Newsletter
Backlog update:
- The new page backlog is currently at 3819 unreviewed articles, with a further 6660 unreviewed redirects.
- We are very close to eliminating the backlog completely; please help by reviewing a few extra articles each day!
New Year Backlog Drive results:
- We made massive progress during the recent four weeks of the NPP Backlog Drive, during which the backlog reduced by nearly six thousand articles and the length of the backlog by almost 3 months!
General project update:
- ACTRIAL will end it's initial phase on the 14th of March. Our goal is to reduce the backlog significantly below the 90 day index point by the 14th of March. Please consider helping with this goal by reviewing a few additional pages a day.
- Reviewing redirects is an important and necessary part of New Page Patrol. Please read the guideline on appropriate redirects for advice on reviewing redirects. Inappropriate redirects can be re-targeted or nominated for deletion at RfD.
If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, go here. 20:32, 7 February 2018 (UTC)
Cape Fear Academy page
Billhpike,
I am new to adding/editing content on wikipedia so I welcome any feedback. I work for the school and there are errors on this page. Two questions for you - 1. Who has the ability to protect the page vs. requiring it to be unprotected? 2. If others add inaccurate information on the page, how do I go about disputing/changing it?
Thank you for your insights. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jhsullivancapefearacad (talk • contribs) 20:57, 9 February 2018 (UTC)
- @Jhsullivancapefearacad: You can discuss your concerns about the page at Talk:Cape Fear Academy BillHPike (talk, contribs) 00:38, 10 February 2018 (UTC)
Notification
Re [1], (1) I'm not certain that links to a user talk page generate a notification, I've always seen them link to the user page. (2) The valid link and the valid signature have to be added in the same edit, otherwise no notification is generated. The solution is to remove the comment and start over. ―Mandruss ☎ 00:00, 10 February 2018 (UTC)
Armenian Genocide
Do you think the consensus clause would be helpful as an editing restriction for the Armenian Genocide article? I am not sure how to propose an editing restriction, and I don't want to if no one else thinks it will be useful, but I think it would vastly improve the chances of bringing the article to GA quality. One of the main issues is the article is too long and there is edit warring (and sometimes sock puppetry) to preserve peripherally related or POV content - for example the Background and Prelude sections should be summarized and condensed to one section, and the sources should be reviewed to make sure what is discussed is not WP:SYNTH. There is one block quote that has been challenged since at least the last peer review, and FAC [2] and it's still in the article. I think the consensus clause could help here.Seraphim System (talk) 06:16, 16 February 2018 (UTC)
- No, WP:BRD is working just fine. BillHPike (talk, contribs) 06:29, 16 February 2018 (UTC)
- I really don't agree that it has been working fine - since even the advice of the peer review was ignored, and these problems seem to have been ongoing for years - including the sockpuppetry. The participation in the last peer review was dismal - that isn't my definition of "working fine". Also please don't remove maintenance tags added by other users without discussion, that is another reoccuring problem on this article.Seraphim System (talk) 07:03, 16 February 2018 (UTC)
Would you please consider closing your discussion until the DRV on Airline destinations is complete? What you are doing is going to cause confusion. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 01:08, 10 February 2018 (UTC)
- I can argue though that if the Airline destinations are deleted, you will have a stronger argument going forward. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 01:32, 10 February 2018 (UTC)
- Hello Billhpike -- Dennis Brown says, "An RFC to change policy has to state the problem, explain why it is a problem, provide the solution and offer a degree of protection from collateral damage." Do you want to write this? Rhadow (talk) 17:55, 10 February 2018 (UTC)
- Hello Billhpike -- Airline destinations is a lost cause. From your effort we can learn several things.
- Protecting articles already created is more important than the structure of the encyclopedia going forward.
- Editors want a low barrier to entry; they are willing to enforce a high barrier to deletion
- There is no community of WP editors; there is junta of special interest groups
- Arguing is more fun than editing
- Fans were smart to stake out thousands of articles in the first decade. Today they are bulletproof.
Here's where we will likely find ourselves in another decade: The Wikipedia Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. It will be a guide to pornstars, the world's bus stops, and cartoon episodes. Don't even try discussing the matter with other WP editors. There are no editors of the book; there are only editors of their favorite chapters. At AfD, it isn't worth it for a disinterested editor to vote delete; she will attacked by a series of fans who are dedicated to whatever category the article belongs. We have descended into a primitive form of tribalism in the form of special interest groups.
At the end of the day, it is the inevitable failure of a communist organization. In the absence of an existential threat, the group will accept no amount of central control. The result is anarchy. Wikipedia has no competitors today. Donations continue to roll it, sufficient to keep the servers on. There is no reason to make the book better (in any objective sense). The ice cream parlor articles will continue to multiply. Unless and until the encyclopedia is threatened, neither the ice cream constituency nor the trolley fans will accept leadership.
We need a way to celebrate the voices of the moderate editors who avoid the drama boards. Without their wisdom, the book will be taken over by articles easy to create and impossible to keep up to date. Rhadow (talk) 14:08, 12 February 2018 (UTC)
- Hello Billhpike -- It strikes me that there is a group of editors whose primary interest is argument. It's more fun than editing articles. Take for example, American Eagle destinations. There is no interest in improving it, only an interest in extending the discussion [3]. Likewise in a an argument closer to home, we wasted gallons of virtual ink in the AfD over Denver Online High School, then a deletion Review. Once the AfD was reopened, only one editor chimed in.
- John from Idegon taught me a better way. When you come upon a worthless article, REDIRECT it without comment. It will disappear below the waves without a sound. Those who troll the PROD and AfD lists won't miss it.
- On a tangential note, please have a look at the history of K12 (company), we have a fellow editor who believes this article should be an online 10K. He or she is tireless and patient. Rhadow (talk) 12:37, 15 February 2018 (UTC)
- Now that the airline fans prevailed at DRV, they will have even more conviction that airline articles stay -- in bad shape some, with subject-supplied references only for others, and no references whatsoever for the remainder. Whoever proposed deleting Adria made a big mistake, nominating all the members of the Star Alliance. They should have started with the twenty-five articles without any references [4]. This morning, an editor told me that an airport authority is automatically notable, even in the absence of any references. The sole link on the page is to the subject's website ... in Georgian. I have proposed some standards [5], but it's an offering to the patron saint of lost causes. In any case, I want to thank you for starting the conversation at the Village Pump. Rhadow (talk) 17:31, 18 February 2018 (UTC)
Rolls eyes
Gee, I wonder why he's unemployed. Not. John from Idegon (talk) 05:46, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
- I've added to the report this morning [6]. Would that this was the only account or Indiana high school article with these problems. 2601:188:180:11F0:65F5:930C:B0B2:CD63 (talk) 14:15, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
- I see your point, but I'm inclined to assume good faith by a group of editors dedicated to Indiana high school sports. BillHPike (talk, contribs) 14:32, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
- Agreed. It's still a sort of boosterism, on a relatively narrow topic, that involves multiple users who aren't wedded to the idea of adding reliable sources. 2601:188:180:11F0:65F5:930C:B0B2:CD63 (talk) 14:39, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
- I see your point, but I'm inclined to assume good faith by a group of editors dedicated to Indiana high school sports. BillHPike (talk, contribs) 14:32, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
One you may want to look at
John from Idegon (talk) 18:03, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
- @John from Idegon: I’ve added some content. This school is low profile and appears to have always de jure permitted minority enrollment, so it is difficult to find strong sources that explicitly state it was founded due to school desegregation. BillHPike (talk, contribs) 22:43, 8 March 2018 (UTC)
New Page Review Newsletter No.10
ACTRIAL:
- ACTRIAL's six month experiment restricting new page creation to (auto)confirmed users ended on 14 March. As expected, a greatly increased number of unsuitable articles and candidates for deletion are showing up in the feed again, and the backlog has since increased already by ~30%. Please consider reviewing a few extra articles each day.
Paid editing
- Now that ACTRIAL is inoperative pending discussion, please be sure to look for tell-tale signs of undisclosed paid editing. Contact the creator if appropriate, and submit the issue to WP:COIN if necessary.
Subject-specific notability guidelines
- The box at the right contains each of the subject-specific notability guidelines, please review any that are relevant BEFORE nominating an article for deletion.
- Reviewers are requested to familiarise themselves with the new version of the notability guidelines for organisations and companies. A further discussion is currently taking place at: Can a subject specific guideline invalidate the General Notability Guideline?
Nominate competent users for Autopatrolled
- While patrolling articles, if you find an editor that is particularly competent at creating quality new articles, and that user has created more than 25 articles (rather than stubs), consider nominating them for the 'Autopatrolled' user right HERE.
News
- The next issue Wikipedia's newspaper The Signpost has now been published after a long delay. There are some articles in it, including ACTRIAL wrap-up that will be of special interest to New Page Reviewers. Don't hesitate to contribute to the comments sections. The Signpost is one of the best ways to stay up date with news and new developments - please consider subscribing to it. All editors of Wikipedia and associated projects are welcome to submit articles on any topic for consideration by the The Signpost's editorial team for the next issue.
To opt-out of future mailings, go here. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:06, 30 March 2018 (UTC)
Editor of the Week
|
Editor of the Week | |
| Your ongoing efforts to improve the encyclopedia have not gone unnoticed: You have been selected as Editor of the Week in recognition of your diplomacy. Thank you for the great contributions! (courtesy of the Wikipedia Editor Retention Project) |
User:John from Idegon submitted the following nomination for Editor of the Week:
- I nominate Billhpike to be Editor of the Week for his kind demeanor in discussions, and his ability to find the middle ground. He's been working of late in an area (Discrimination in the US educational system) that is rife with all sorts of POV editing, and has done a remarkable job. He's a valuable asset to both WikiProject Schools and the community at large. I'm proud to nominate Bill for this recognition he surely deserves.
You can copy the following text to your user page to display a user box proclaiming your selection as Editor of the Week:
{{User:UBX/EoTWBox}}
|
|
|
| He lights the way! |
| Billhpike |
| Editor of the Week for the week beginning April 8, 2018 |
| A kind demeanor and an ability to find the middle ground. A valuable asset to the WP community. |
| Recognized for |
| efforts @ WikiProject Schools |
| Submit a nomination |
Thanks again for your efforts! ―Buster7 ☎ 14:10, 7 April 2018 (UTC)
- Bill, I just want to reiterate what I said in the nomination. You make the wacky world of Wiki a better place. Thanks. John from Idegon (talk) 17:07, 7 April 2018 (UTC)
Books & Bytes - Issue 27
The Wikipedia Library
Books & Bytes
Issue 27, February – March 2018
- #1Lib1Ref
- New collections
- Alexander Street (expansion)
- Cambridge University Press (expansion)
- User Group
- Global branches update
- Wiki Indaba Wikipedia + Library Discussions
- Spotlight: Using librarianship to create a more equitable internet: LGBTQ+ advocacy as a wiki-librarian
- Bytes in brief
Arabic, Chinese and French versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:50, 18 April 2018 (UTC)
Bitcoin Cash Wiki
Hi, I received your message about the undoing of changes made to the Bitcoin Cash Wiki.
The page is being systematically vandalized, all day, every day, by a small group of people who support a competing technology to Bitcoin Cash. These people are corporate.
The undoing of changes is just a reversal of the vandalism taking place. Is there a way to report them so they are made to stop? — Preceding unsigned comment added by MarkWoollet (talk • contribs) 13:47, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
Bitcoin Cash wiki
For information, this is the kind of vandalism to the page that we are undoing:
"Bitcoin Cash is a scam cryptocurrency created by Jihan Wu..."
We have no choice but to undo this, it would be nice of there was a way to stop them for good. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MarkWoollet (talk • contribs) 13:49, 20 April 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – May 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2018).
Administrator changes
None
Chochopk • Coffee • Gryffindor • Jimp • Knowledge Seeker • Lankiveil • Peridon • Rjd0060
Guideline and policy news
- The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now indefinitely restricted to autoconfirmed users.
- A proposal is being discussed which would create a new "event coordinator" right that would allow users to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit.
Technical news
- AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new
equals_to_anyfunction can be used when checking multiple namespaces. One major upcoming change is the ability to see which filters are the slowest. This information is currently only available to those with access to Logstash. - When blocking anonymous users, a cookie will be applied that reloads the block if the user changes their IP. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. This currently only occurs when hard-blocking accounts.
- The block notice shown on mobile will soon be more informative and point users to a help page on how to request an unblock, just as it currently does on desktop.
- There will soon be a calendar widget at Special:Block, making it easier to set expiries for a specific date and time.
- AbuseFilter has received numerous improvements, including an OOUI overhaul, syntax highlighting, ability to search existing filters, and a few new functions. In particular, the search feature can be used to ensure there aren't existing filters for what you need, and the new
Arbitration
- The Arbitration Committee is seeking additional clerks to help with the arbitration process.
Obituaries
- Lankiveil (Craig Franklin) passed away in mid-April. Lankiveil joined Wikipedia on 12 August 2004 and became an administrator on 31 August 2008. During his time with the Wikimedia community, Lankiveil served as an oversighter for the English Wikipedia and as president of Wikimedia Australia.
Eastern Christian Middle School
Hi. Per policy I have redirected a school article you PRODed. For more information, please seeWP:NPP#Top level areas of concern, Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 11:29, 3 May 2018 (UTC) Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 11:29, 3 May 2018 (UTC)
Florida Christian School
I took it from Category:Segregation academies in Florida. Is that not enough? deisenbe (talk) 21:33, 10 May 2018 (UTC)
- @Deisenbe: Thanks for helping build out the list. Segregation academy can be seen as a pejorative term, so we should always provide a citation when describing a school as such. Since there is no citation, I've removed Florida Christian School from Category:Segregation academies in Florida per WP:CATVER. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 21:39, 10 May 2018 (UTC)
Tuscaloosa Academy
Sorry if you did not approve of my edit. I did not know that an explanation was required. I just removed portions of sentences that are not relevant to the topic. The page should be facts about our school now and less about the history.
Thank you, Tammi
Tuscaloosa Academy Technology Coordinator TScheiring (talk) 18:01, 15 May 2018 (UTC) TScheiring
- @TScheiring: On Wikipedia, facts are presented from a WP:Neutral point of view based on what has been written in WP:Reliable sources. Please read Wikipedia's WP:Conflict of interest policy and discuss your concerns at Talk:Tuscaloosa Academy. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 18:09, 15 May 2018 (UTC)
NPR Newsletter No.11 25 May 2018
ACTRIAL:
- WP:ACREQ has been implemented. The flow at the feed has dropped back to the levels during the trial. However, the backlog is on the rise again so please consider reviewing a few extra articles each day; a backlog approaching 5,000 is still far too high. An effort is also needed to ensure that older unsuitable older pages at the back of the queue do not get automatically indexed for Google.
Deletion tags
- Do bear in mind that articles in the feed showing the trash can icon may have been tagged by inexperienced or non NPR rights holders. They require your further verification.
Backlog drive:
- A backlog drive will take place from 10 through 20 June. Check out our talk page at WT:NPR for more details. NOTE: It is extremely important that we focus on quality reviewing. Despite our goal of reducing the backlog as much as possible, please do not rush while reviewing.
Editathons
- There will be a large increase in the number of editathons in June. Please be gentle with new pages that obviously come from good faith participants, especially articles from developing economies and ones about female subjects. Consider using the 'move to draft' tool rather than bluntly tagging articles that may have potential but which cannot yet reside in mainspace.
Paid editing - new policy
- Now that ACTRIAL is ACREQ, please be sure to look for tell-tale signs of undisclosed paid editing. Contact the creator if appropriate, and submit the issue to WP:COIN if necessary. There is a new global WMF policy that requires paid editors to connect to their adverts.
Subject-specific notability guidelines
- The box at the right contains each of the subject-specific notability guidelines, please review any that are relevant BEFORE nominating an article for deletion.
- Reviewers are requested to familiarise themselves with the new version of the notability guidelines for organisations and companies.
Not English
- A common issue: Pages not in English or poor, unattributed machine translations should not reside in main space even if they are stubs. Please ensure you are familiar with WP:NPPNE. Check in Google for the language and content, tag as required, then move to draft if they do have potential.
News
- Development is underway by the WMF on upgrades to the New Pages Feed, in particular ORES features that will help to identify COPYVIOs, and more granular options for selecting articles to review.
- The next issue of The Signpost has been published. The newspaper is one of the best ways to stay up to date with news and new developments. between our newsletters.
Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:34, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
Administrators' newsletter – June 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Al Ameer son • AliveFreeHappy • Cenarium • Lupo • MichaelBillington
Guideline and policy news
- Following a successful request for comment, administrators are now able to add and remove editors to the "event coordinator" group. Users in the event coordinator group have the ability to temporarily add the "confirmed" flag to new user accounts and to create many new user accounts without being hindered by a rate limit. Users will no longer need to be in the "account creator" group if they are in the event coordinator group.
- Following an AN discussion, all pages with content related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, broadly construed, are now under indefinite general sanctions.
Technical news
- IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in June. This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
- The Wikimedia Foundation's Anti-Harassment Tools team will build granular types of blocks in 2018 (e.g. a block from uploading or editing specific pages, categories, or namespaces, as opposed to a full-site block). Feedback on the concept may be left at the talk page.
- There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups.
- It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked.
Arbitration
- A recent technical issue with the Arbitration Committee's spam filter inadvertently caused all messages sent to the committee through Wikipedia (i.e. Special:EmailUser/Arbitration Committee) to be discarded. If you attempted to send an email to the Arbitration Committee via Wikipedia between May 16 and May 31, your message was not received and you are encouraged to resend it. Messages sent outside of these dates or directly to the Arbitration Committee email address were not affected by this issue.
Miscellaneous
- In early May, an unusually high level of failed login attempts was observed. The WMF has stated that this was an "external effort to gain unauthorized access to random accounts". Under Wikipedia policy, administrators are required to have strong passwords. To further reinforce security, administrators should also consider enabling two-factor authentication. A committed identity can be used to verify that you are the true account owner in the event that your account is compromised and/or you are unable to log in.
Re
It's my past. I should have never opened that home for wayward alpacas with STDs. John from Idegon (talk) 04:58, 5 June 2018 (UTC)
NPP Backlog Elimination Drive
Hello BillHPike, thank you for your work reviewing New Pages!
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel: there are currently 2900 unreviewed articles, and 4000 unreviewed redirects.
Announcing the Backlog Elimination Drive!
- As a final push, we have decided to run a backlog elimination drive from the 20th to the 30th of June.
- Reviewers who review at least 50 articles or redirects will receive a Special Edition NPP Barnstar:
. Those who review 100, 250, 500, or 1000 pages will also receive tiered awards: 
, 
, 
, 
. - Please do not be hasty, take your time and fully review each page. It is extremely important that we focus on quality reviewing.
Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 06:57, 16 June 2018 (UTC)
Books & Bytes – Issue 28
The Wikipedia Library
Books & Bytes
Issue 28, April – May 2018
- #1Bib1Ref
- New partners
- User Group update
- Global branches update
- Wikipedia Library global coordinators' meeting
- Spotlight: What are the ten most cited sources on Wikipedia? Let's ask the data
- Bytes in brief
Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Italian and French versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:33, 20 June 2018 (UTC)
Thanks for the help
Thanks for helping out with my articles threatened with deletion, that deserve to be supplemented with help I cannot offer while topic-banned. Jzsj (talk) 15:24, 22 June 2018 (UTC)
- @Jzs: Happy to help ensure our encrypoledia has conage of underrepresented topics. You should consider signing up for free WP:Newspapers.com subscription courtesy of the WP:Wikipedia Library. You could use it to add independent sources to the articles you create or expand. Your topic bas was related to concerns about your lack of use independent sources, but if you were demonstrate a commitment to using independent sources, I'm confident that the community would seriously consider lifting your topic ban. — BillHPike (talk, contribs) 16:01, 22 June 2018 (UTC)
- I received this subscription in the past few months and have tried to use it, but it doesn't seem to help with the kinds of things I've asked of it. I haven't been able to use it on schools since I can't add to those articles. I doubt if the three bits behind my topic ban would be helped by independent sources, but will continue to pursue independent sources with this added possibility. Jzsj (talk) 17:14, 22 June 2018 (UTC)
The Signpost: 29 June 2018
- Special report: NPR and AfC – The Marshall Plan: an engagement and a marriage?
- Op-ed: What do admins do?
- News and notes: Money, milestones, and Wikimania
- In the media: Much wikilove from the Mayor of London, less from Paekākāriki or a certain candidate for U.S. Congress
- Discussion report: Deletion, page moves, and an update to the main page
- Featured content: New promotions
- Arbitration report: WWII, UK politics, and a user deCrat'ed
- Traffic report: Endgame
- Technology report: Improvements piled on more improvements
- Gallery: Wiki Loves Africa
- Recent research: How censorship can backfire and conversations can go awry
- Humour: Television plot lines
- Wikipedia essays: This month's pick by The Signpost editors
- From the archives: Wolves nip at Wikipedia's heels: A perspective on the cost of paid editing
Administrators' newsletter – July 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2018).
Administrator changes
- Pbsouthwood • TheSandDoctor
Gogo Dodo- Andrevan • Doug • EVula • KaisaL • Tony Fox • WilyD
Bureaucrat changes
Guideline and policy news
- An RfC about the deletion of drafts closed with a consensus to change the wording of WP:NMFD. Specifically, a draft that has been repeatedly resubmitted and declined at AfC without any substantial improvement may be deleted at MfD if consensus determines that it is unlikely to ever meet the requirements for mainspace and it otherwise meets one of the reasons for deletion outlined in the deletion policy.
- A request for comment closed with a consensus that the {{promising draft}} template cannot be used to indefinitely prevent a WP:G13 speedy deletion nomination.
Technical news
- Starting on July 9, the WMF Security team, Trust & Safety, and the broader technical community will be seeking input on an upcoming change that will restrict editing of site-wide JavaScript and CSS to a new technical administrators user group. Bureaucrats and stewards will be able to grant this right per a community-defined process. The intention is to reduce the number of accounts who can edit frontend code to those who actually need to, which in turn lessens the risk of malicious code being added that compromises the security and privacy of everyone who accesses Wikipedia. For more information, please review the FAQ.
- Syntax highlighting has been graduated from a Beta feature on the English Wikipedia. To enable this feature, click the highlighter icon (
) in your editing toolbar (or under the hamburger menu in the 2017 wikitext editor). This feature can help prevent you from making mistakes when editing complex templates. - IP-based cookie blocks should be deployed to English Wikipedia in July (previously scheduled for June). This will cause the block of a logged-out user to be reloaded if they change IPs. This means in most cases, you may no longer need to do /64 range blocks on residential IPv6 addresses in order to effectively block the end user. It will also help combat abuse from IP hoppers in general. For the time being, it only affects users of the desktop interface.
Miscellaneous
- Currently around 20% of admins have enabled two-factor authentication, up from 17% a year ago. If you haven't already enabled it, please consider doing so. Regardless if you use 2FA, please practice appropriate account security by ensuring your password is secure and unique to Wikimedia.
Thanks
Thanks for your work in defending articles that have been proposed for deletion wholesale. In particular for the references you gathered for Mother of Peace Community, awesome! Do you think my ban prohibits me from adding these references (and a few deleted pictures) to the article? Jzsj (talk) 14:53, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
NPR Newsletter No.12 30 July 2018
|
Hello BillHPike, thank you for your work reviewing New Pages!
- June backlog drive
Overall the June backlog drive was a success, reducing the last 3,000 or so to below 500. However, as expected, 90% of the patrolling was done by less than 10% of reviewers.
Since the drive closed, the backlog has begun to rise sharply again and is back up to nearly 1,400 already. Please help reduce this total and keep it from raising further by reviewing some articles each day.
- New technology, new rules
- New features are shortly going to be added to the Special:NewPagesFeed which include a list of drafts for review, OTRS flags for COPYVIO, and more granular filter preferences. More details can be found at this page.
- Probationary permissions: Now that PERM has been configured to allow expiry dates to all minor user rights, new NPR flag holders may sometimes be limited in the first instance to 6 months during which their work will be assessed for both quality and quantity of their reviews. This will allow admins to accord the right in borderline cases rather than make a flat out rejection.
- Current reviewers who have had the flag for longer than 6 months but have not used the permissions since they were granted will have the flag removed, but may still request to have it granted again in the future, subject to the same probationary period, if they wish to become an active reviewer.
- Editathons
- Editathons will continue through August. Please be gentle with new pages that obviously come from good faith participants, especially articles from developing economies and ones about female subjects. Consider using the 'move to draft' tool rather than bluntly tagging articles that may have potential but which cannot yet reside in mainspace.
- The Signpost
- The next issue of the monthly magazine will be out soon. The newspaper is an excellent way to stay up to date with news and new developments between our newsletters. If you have special messages to be published, or if you would like to submit an article (one about NPR perhaps?), don't hesitate to contact the editorial team here.
Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 00:00, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
The Signpost: 31 July 2018
- From the editor: If only if
- Opinion: Wrestling with Wikipedia reality
- Discussion report: Wikipedias take action against EU copyright proposal, plus new user right proposals
- Featured content: Wikipedia's best content in images and prose
- Arbitration report: Status quo processes retained in two disputes
- Traffic report: Soccer, football, call it what you like – that and summer movies leave room for little else
- Technology report: New bots, new prefs
- Recent research: Different Wikipedias use different images; editing contests more successful than edit-a-thons
- Humour: It's all the same
- Essay: Wikipedia does not need you
Administrators' newsletter – August 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2018).
Administrator changes
Guideline and policy news
- After a discussion at Meta, a new user group called "interface administrators" (formerly "technical administrator") has been created. Come the end of August, interface admins will be the only users able to edit site-wide JavaScript and CSS pages like MediaWiki:Common.js and MediaWiki:Common.css, or edit other user's personal JavaScript and CSS. The intention is to improve security and privacy by reducing the number of accounts which could be used to compromise the site or another user's account through malicious code. The new user group can be assigned and revoked by bureaucrats. Discussion is ongoing to establish details for implementing the group on the English Wikipedia.
- Following a request for comment, the WP:SISTER style guideline now states that in the mainspace, interwiki links to Wikinews should only be made as per the external links guideline. This generally means that within the body of an article, you should not link to Wikinews about a particular event that is only a part of the larger topic. Wikinews links in "external links" sections can be used where helpful, but not automatically if an equivalent article from a reliable news outlet could be linked in the same manner.
Technical news
- The WMF Anti-Harassment Tools team is seeking input on the second set of wireframes for the Special:Block redesign that will introduce partial blocks. The new functionality will allow you to block a user from editing a specific set of pages, pages in a category, a namespace, and for specific actions such as moving pages and uploading files.
Umm...
Feel free to de-tag CSDs, per your will but the community does not have an affinity for utter irrational actions, as at Jesuit Social Center Tokyo.(See Adam9007's t/p archives, if you are interested in specific case-histories.)∯WBGconverse 07:11, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
Jesuit Social Center Osaka listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Jesuit Social Center Osaka. Since you had some involvement with the Jesuit Social Center Osaka redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. The Banner talk 16:19, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
Ugat Foundation listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Ugat Foundation. Since you had some involvement with the Ugat Foundation redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. The Banner talk 18:20, 7 August 2018 (UTC)
Charlotte Latin School is a Blue Ribbon school of Excellence
https://nationalblueribbonschools.ed.gov/awardwinners/reports/2017/1982_to_2017_nbrs_schools.pdf
The link above provides documentation for Charlotte Latin School being named a three time National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. The link above provides all schools, including Charlotte Latin School, with the year a school was award this honor from the US department of education. We will be updating this page with the source. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CrateNBerry (talk • contribs) 14:46, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
Bill, I added a new section under the talk page of Charlotte Latin to dispute your claims that the school was founded in direct response to the racial integration of schools. Now I'm not trying to say that racial integration did not play a role in the founding of Charlotte Latin, I am simply noting that none of the sources you provide, nor any other sources cited on the page claim that Charlotte Latin was founded in response to the racial integration of schools. I am not opposed to including information about the context of the school's founding, but as far as I have been able to find, that is all that exists, contextual information. There is nothing (that I have been able to find) claiming that Charlotte Latin has ever in it's history had a explicit policy of segregation, nor that it's founding is solely tied to the integration of public schools in Charlotte NC. I'm not seeking to prove the school's innocence, I think there is definitely a lot of history and context we should be aware of, but information on the wikipedia page should come from factual sources that support the claims made. That I do not see in much of the content you have created for the page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CrateNBerry (talk • contribs) 21:13, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
Books & Bytes – Issue 29
The Wikipedia Library
Books & Bytes
Issue 29, June – July 2018
- New partners
- Economic & Political Weekly–10 accounts
- Wikimania
- Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
- Global branches update
- Bytes in brief
Hindi, Italian and French versions of Books & Bytes are now available in meta!
Read the full newsletter
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:03, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
The Signpost: 30 August 2018
- From the editor: Today's young adults don't know a world without Wikipedia
- News and notes: Flying high; low practice from Wikipedia 'cleansing' agency; where do our donations go? RfA sees a new trend
- In the media: Quicksilver AI writes articles
- Discussion report: Drafting an interface administrator policy
- Featured content: Featured content selected by the community
- Special report: Wikimania 2018
- Traffic report: Aretha dies – getting just 2,000 short of 5 million hits
- Technology report: Technical enhancements and a request to prioritize upcoming work
- Recent research: Wehrmacht on Wikipedia, neural networks writing biographies
- Humour: Signpost editor censors herself
- From the archives: Playing with Wikipedia words
Administrators' newsletter – September 2018
News and updates for administrators from the past month (August 2018).
Administrator changes
- None
- Asterion • Crisco 1492 • KF • Kudpung • Liz • Randykitty • Spartaz
Optimist on the run → Voice of Clam
Interface administrator changes
- Amorymeltzer • Mr. Stradivarius • MusikAnimal • MSGJ • TheDJ • Xaosflux
Guideline and policy news
- Following a "stop-gap" discussion, six users have temporarily been made interface administrators while discussion is ongoing for a more permanent process for assigning the permission. Interface administrators are now the only editors allowed to edit sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages, as well as CSS/JS pages in another user's userspace. Previously, all administrators had this ability. The right can be granted and revoked by bureaucrats.
Technical news
- Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour.
- Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says
Deprecated. Use ... instead. An example isarticle_textwhich is nowpage_title. - Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is
page_age.
Arbitration
- The Arbitration Committee has resolved to perform a round of Checkuser and Oversight appointments. The usernames of all applicants will be shared with the Functionaries team, and they will be requested to assist in the vetting process. The deadline to submit an application is 23:59 UTC, 12 September, and the candidates that move forward will be published on-wiki for community comments on 18 September.
Please take a look
No discussion is usually closing as no consensus. The Banner talk 15:33, 12 September 2018 (UTC)
NPR Newsletter No.13 18 September 2018
Hello BillHPike, thank you for your work reviewing New Pages!
The New Page Feed currently has 2700 unreviewed articles, up from just 500 at the start of July. For a while we were falling behind by an average of about 40 articles per day, but we have stabilised more recently. Please review some articles from the back of the queue if you can (Sort by: 'Oldest' at Special:NewPagesFeed), as we are very close to having articles older than one month.
- Project news
- The New Page Feed now has a new "Articles for Creation" option which will show drafts instead of articles in the feed, this shouldn't impact NPP activities and is part of the WMF's AfC Improvement Project.
- As part of this project, the feed will have some larger updates to functionality next month. Specifically, ORES predictions will be built in, which will automatically flag articles for potential issues such as vandalism or spam. Copyright violation detection will also be added to the new page feed. See the projects's talk page for more info.
- There are a number of coordination tasks for New Page Patrol that could use some help from experienced reviewers. See Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Coordination#Coordinator tasks for more info to see if you can help out.
- Other
- A new summary page of reliable sources has been created; Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources/Perennial sources, which summarizes existing RfCs or RSN discussions about regularly used sources.
- Moving to Draft and Page Mover
- Some unsuitable new articles can be best reviewed by moving them to the draft space, but reviewers need to do this carefully and sparingly. It is most useful for topics that look like they might have promise, but where the article as written would be unlikely to survive AfD. If the article can be easily fixed, or if the only issue is a lack of sourcing that is easily accessible, tagging or adding sources yourself is preferable. If sources do not appear to be available and the topic does not appear to be notable, tagging for deletion is preferable (PROD/AfD/CSD as appropriate). See additional guidance at WP:DRAFTIFY.
- If the user moves the draft back to mainspace, or recreates it in mainspace, please do not re-draftify the article (although swapping it to maintain the page history may be advisable in the case of copy-paste moves). AfC is optional except for editors with a clear conflict of interest.
- Articles that have been created in contravention of our paid-editing-requirements or written from a blatant NPOV perspective, or by authors with a clear COI might also be draftified at discretion.
- The best tool for draftification is User:Evad37/MoveToDraft.js(info). Kindly adapt the text in the dialogue-pop-up as necessary (the default can also be changed like this). Note that if you do not have the Page Mover userright, the redirect from main will be automatically tagged as CSD R2, but in some cases it might be better to make this a redirect to a different page instead.
- The Page Mover userright can be useful for New Page Reviewers; occasionally page swapping is needed during NPR activities, and it helps avoid excessive R2 nominations which must be processed by admins. Note that the Page Mover userright has higher requirements than the NPR userright, and is generally given to users active at Requested Moves. Only reviewers who are very experienced and are also very active reviewers are likely to be granted it solely for NPP activities.
List of other useful scripts for New Page Reviewing
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Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:11, 17 September 2018 (UTC)