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Tech News: 2019-28

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• For event organizers, if you request a temporary lift of the IP cap for mass account creation, this will now also raise the edit rate limit for those new accounts at the event, which will prevent another bottleneck. [1]
• Administrators at all Wiktionary, Wikivoyage, and Wikisource wikis are now able to use the new partial blocks feature. [2]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 July. It will be on all wikis from 11 July (calendar).
• The design of MediaWiki's software windows will change for desktop users. Layout will be simpler, buttons will be bolder and clearer, and close buttons will be just icons. This is like the mobile design. This will affect ContentTranslation, VisualEditor, TemplateWizard, and other tools. [3]

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 10 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Wikidata will be in read-only mode on 30 July from 05:00 to 05:30 UTC because of a server switch. [4]
• There will be a change in the name format of new Wikidata RDF dumps starting on 15 July. [5]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:12, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for July 14

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Hydrogen atom, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Ionic (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 11:52, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-29

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• The mobile web will get more advanced editing tools. Seven more Wikipedias can use them now. This works for Arabic, Indonesian, Italian, Persian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai Wikipedia. You can try the tools on the mobile web and give feedback. [6]

Changes later this week

• The abuse filter system user will soon do maintenance edits on broken abuse filters. This user is called Edit filter and has administrator rights. This is meant to fix technical problems. It will not do any other changes. You can read more.
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 July. It will be on all wikis from 18 July (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 17 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add image captions to images on Commons. It will only invite users who have added a number of edits in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback. [7]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

15:29, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-30

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• Communities interested by easing newcomers' first steps can now benefit from the Growth team experiments on their wikis. Check the conditions and the request process.
• The Coolest Tool Award 2019 is looking for nominations. You can recommend tools by July 29. The awarded tools will be presented at Wikimania. [8]

Problems

• The release of the last version of MediaWiki (1.34.0-wmf.14) has been blocked for groups 1 and 2. [9]

Changes later this week

• Phabricator database will be moved to a different server. Writes will be blocked on Thursday 25 July, between 05:30 and 06:00 AM UTC. Reads will remain unaffected. [10]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 July. It will be on all wikis from 25 July (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 24 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Some items in the visual editor will change later this week. This will make it easier to edit links, citations, and templates on both desktop and mobile. [11][12]
• With advanced search turned on you will be able to choose the sorting order of the search results when you do a search. [13][14]
• Users who edit from IP addresses whitelisted on a request for temporary lift of the IP cap for mass account creation will bypass CAPTCHAs. This will happen in August. If you think this should not happen for some reason, please let us know.
• The variable user_wpzero will be removed from AbuseFilter. A list of filters needing a fix is provided.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

13:07, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

your block of user: 24.38.204.216

The Macy's Parade LTA is back yet again. See User:Salvidrim!/Macy VG IP vandal and Special:Contributions/65.51.14.2 -- Meters (talk) 19:38, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

•  Done 1 year. Thanks for the heads-up, as always. DMacks (talk) 04:19, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-31

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

• Wikidata will be in read-only mode on 30 July from 05:00 to 05:30 UTC because of a server switch. [15]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 July. It will be on all wikis from 1 August (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 31 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:42, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

Trifluoroperacetic acid: Good Article Nomination

Hello, some time ago the article on Trifluoroperacetic acid was nominated to be a good article, I had the pleasure of reviewing it (the review can be found here), I left some minor grammatical comments, as there were points were it did not read as well as it could, I just wanted you to make sure you were aware of this, as you are a person that seems to have done a lot of work for the article, if these minor issues could be addressed I would be very happy. AlastairJHannaford (talk) 08:36, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

This Month in Education: July 2019

This Month in Education Volume 8 • Issue 7 • July 2019 Contents • Headlines • Subscribe In This Issue First WikiEducation gathering in Mexico SEABA school in India has hired a Wikimedian to teach Wikimedia project in their school. Selet WikiSchool: results of first half of 2019 Students Use Archival Documents in a Competition, WMIL Stepanakert WikiClub: Meeting with the Speaker of the Artsakh Parliament - Ashot Ghoulian Collaboration with American University of Armenia Finalizing the Collaboration with Armenian Education Foundation Wikimedia Education SAARC Conference Journey

About This Month in Education · Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · For the team: Romaine 09:53, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

"that"

Your point [that I had overdone that] is well taken; likewise the appearance of spam. Meanwhile...

Spam?--Brogo13 (talk) 14:12, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

PD-USGov academic articles

Because you previously wrote on the topic, I think you may be interested in commons:Commons:Deletion requests/File:Bischoff and Rosenbauer, 1988 - Liquid-vapor relations.pdf. Nemo 07:47, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

FYI

I don't care enough for that article, but just so you know, a MoS is also just as toothless as a userspace essay. Any MoS is only optional and not binding. Just because some WikiProject has parked its flag on some article, does not mean it gets to dictate that specific article. Instead, this is decided through local consensus and what is best for the article. Just trying to make it clear why my original edit just links a user essay, and why that in itself is not justification to immediately revert. Not sure if you read it or not, but my essay does elaborate on the issue in depth, rather than just dictate without justification as MoS's tend to do. Opencooper (talk) 04:27, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

I did read the essay, and I do have sympathy for being semantically correct about the meaning of a dict-def list vs somehow indenting. But I also know that that position does not have major support at this time, neither wikipedia-wide nor specifically in the various science working-groups. I don't support creating facts on the ground against consensus prior to developing a new consensus. Not just CHEM, but also MATH has the colon as the standard for indenting. And their MOS are part of the site MOS, not just locally-stamped consensus. DMacks (talk) 06:40, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

The validity of their conesnsus was ratified in December 2017 (Wikipedia:Village pump_(policy)/Archive 138#RfC: Accessibility versus convenience in indentation) despite it contradicting other parts of MOS. DMacks (talk) 07:43, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-32

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 August. It will be on all wikis from 8 August (calendar).

Problems

• A change in RelatedArticles extension accidentally enabled it for everyone, not just for mobile users. This has been fixed. [16][17]

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 7 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Today everyone can see IP addresses if someone edits without an account. In the future this could be more hidden. This is to protect unregistered editors so fewer can see their IP address. This would only happen after we make sure the tools for vandal fighting can still be effective. You can read more and comment.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

13:24, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

Might want to check in on User:JamesRock2013

Based on his edit history, the guy seems a bit unhinged. HalfShadow 17:37, 7 August 2019 (UTC)

What tipped you off, wombat<->dog edit-warring? I dropped them a level-3 warning, but they haven't edited in the past few days, so nothing much to do for now I guess. DMacks (talk) 05:24, 8 August 2019 (UTC)

Chayobriggs

Hello, DMacks,

What do you think of the new unblock request at User talk:Chayobriggs? I'm inclined to give him a second chance to see if he can make contributions about financial topics. But I'll follow your lead. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:25, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

@Liz: I have low expectations of a successful outcome if they work in that genre after looking at the deleted content and other details about these editors. But I could go along with WP:ROPE as soon as we get complete clarity of the real-world relationship of these accounts (see my note on Chayobriggs's talkpage). Right now, it sounds like there are (or at least were) at least two people and at least one of them using two accounts. I'm going to be taking a few days off wiki this coming week, so if you think there is a clear and wiki-policy-correct answer to those issues, feel free to unblock in whatever way makes the most sense to disentangle them. DMacks (talk) 05:18, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-33

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• Editors using the mobile website on Wikipedia can opt-in to new advanced features via your settings page. This will give access to more interface links, special pages, and tools. Feedback on the discussion page is appreciated. [18]
• Due to the absence of volunteer maintenance of Cologne Blue skin, the link to activate it will be hidden. The skin will still work, but editors using it are encouraged to switch to another skin. [19]

Changes later this week

• Due to Wikimania, there is no deployment this week. [20]

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The "Wikidata item" link will be moved from "Tools" to "In other projects" section on all Wikimedia projects, starting on August 21. Full announcement, Phabricator task.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:19, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Notification

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. This is just a courtesy since you reverted some of OuvertonBridge's edits. 331dot (talk) 00:24, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

Acidity of boric acid

Sir how boric acid is tribasic? Vanshita poddar (talk) 17:07, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

It is monoacid in Lewis sense. It doesn't give any H+ in water but infact gains OH- from water creating H+ ions and making the solution acid. But it can only take one such hydroxide ion from water cause it can not extend ita octet beyond that. How do you find me wrong. Please assist me to know the correct information. Vanshita poddar (talk) 17:10, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

As the article clearly states, that idea is only one possible (and not universally accepted) basis for the acidity of boric acid, is specific to water, and possibly only occurs at very high pH. That is, your universal claim of "in fact" is not well supported. The Lewis acidity is so weak that it doesn't even get involved in hydrogen bonding in the solid state (the B are planar). Instead, the article also notes that there are three pKa values, and we have other articles about various salts and esters that involve all three OH groups. So it might be a monobasic Lewis acid but it's at least as relevant as a tribasic Brønsted-Lawry acid and B-L is a subset of Lewis. There might be a way to include both ideas. DMacks (talk) 17:22, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for enlightening me sir. I apologize for that 'infact" part if that concerns you. It was not intended to make a wrong sense. Vanshita poddar (talk) 17:53, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

Sir can you please acknowledge me how that hydrogen bond part makes Lewis acidity of Boron trihydroxide suspicious? Boron lacks it's octet as well in this compound. So how is it supposed to be a weak Lewis acid? And the EN difference between boron and hydrogen being not large, how this compound is supposed to make hydrogen bonds in solid state? Please acknowledge me how Lewis acid strength and hydrogen bonding are correlated? Vanshita poddar (talk) 18:03, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

You are proposing that it is a Lewis acid, which means it is an electron acceptor. You are proposing that it does this by accepting OH^– from water. Those are reasonable ideas, given the lack of octet on boron. But note that our article says that B(OH)₄^– in "strongly alkaline solutions". If boron accepts from an oxygen donor, then having an oxygen in close proximity should make the donation more likely. Regardless of the B–O bond polarity, the oxygens do have lone pairs. In water ice, each oxygen atom H-bonds to two hydrogen atoms (one from each of two other water molecules), giving a tetrahedeal geometry. In solid boric acid, the boron atom is exactly trigonal–planar. There is a single H-bond from each oxygen to one hydrogen from an adjacent atom. But even though the boron atoms are positioned near other molecules' oxygen atoms, they are very far apart: almost 2.5 times the intramolecular B–O bond-length and 20% further than the H-bonded O•••H length. That suggests to me that there is not a strong H-bonding between the O and the B, which means the B remains without a satisfied octet. Therefore it is not a strong Lewis acid because even when forced in close proximity to an oxgygen that can donate it does not accept. Maybe instead there is resonance from oxygen to form a partial pi bond?

All of this is my own analysis, as is what you are saying. And therefore none of it is viable for our article. Instead, we would need a reliable published source. Looking closely at the talkpage, I agree that "monobasic, with some tribasic ideas" as in your later changes is a good summary. User:37.210.142.107 did not provide an explanation for why changing it to tribasic. DMacks (talk) 04:03, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Regarding your "strong alkaline" part, I would like to discuss this further. Sir [B(OH)4]- exist even in water which is not a strong alkali. Boron does not accept lone pairs from oxygen in B(OH)3 and I guess the inter atomic distance may be the correct explanation for this. Besides, I don't understand how we can scale the strength of Lewis acids of various compounds. I suppose the resonance part may also be true but if resonance is possible, electron donation from adjacent oxygen should also be possible. Isn't so? Overall, I think boron truhydroxide is stable in solid state because of the formation of H bonds, which stabilises the solid and also, I suppose there must be some back bonding instead of this inter atomic distance for octet accomplishment of B. I will be waiting for authorised results and would love to know about it. Thanks for the discussion.

Vanshita poddar (talk) 05:45, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

I was going through the page once again and noticed your edits regarding formation of BO3^-3 ions. I would like to know name of some borates having this ion. I was going through a wikipedia page about sodium perborate which has this ion but in its structure, the compound is hydrated and boron is attached to OH- ions rather than just O^-2 ions which further concerns me if it actually behaves as Bronsted acid or not. If it doesn't, I would like to know the source of those three Pka values noted at the page. If it does, please provide Some examples where is exist as that ion. Vanshita poddar (talk) 05:57, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

The borate article mentions Ca₃(BO₃)₂ as having trigonal–planar borate ions. The Béhierite article notes that the usual structure of borate minerals is to have planar borate groups. We have a brief article about neodymium aluminium borate. Doi:10.1021/jp5120465 is an interesting article about the effect of cation concentration on the structure of borate ions. DMacks (talk) 06:17, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Sir, in what possible ways I can contact with you? Vanshita poddar (talk) 06:35, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Right here on my talkpage. I can be reached by email using the "Email this user" link in the sidebar, but I generally don't respond unless there is a substantial need for privacy (wikipedia is by its nature based on public discussion and collaboration). DMacks (talk) 06:51, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Can't I get your social media address or something for future concerns? Vanshita poddar (talk) 06:57, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Okay fine then Can I discuss anything about chemistry on your talk page? Vanshita poddar (talk) 13:09, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

New at wikipedia

Hi DMack,

I got your message. What if the entry is based on experience actually living in this neighborhood and entering comments on based on real life. Do I have to put my name as a source? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Safeneighborhoods (talk • contribs) 14:42, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Personal experiences are not acceptable, not matter how genuine. See wikipedia's reliable-sources guideline. DMacks (talk) 14:44, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-34

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Tech News

• There will be no Tech News issue next week. The next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 2 September 2019.

Problems

• Some abuse filters stopped working because of a code change. Only variables for the current action will work. Variables defined inside a branch may not work outside of that branch. You can read more to see how to fix the filters.
• Only six accounts can be created from one IP address per day. Between 12 August and August 15 this was two accounts per day. This was because of a security issue. It is now six accounts per day again. [21]

Changes later this week

• Only a limited number of accounts can be created from one IP address. An IP address can be whitelisted so that it can create as many accounts as needed. This is useful at events where many new persons learn to edit. IP addresses that are whitelisted for this reason will also not show CAPTCHAs when you create accounts. This will happen on Wednesday. [22]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 20 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 August. It will be on all wikis from 22 August (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 21 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• There is an RFC about creating a new global user group with the right to edit abuse filters. This will be used to fix broken filters and make sure all filters will still work when software changes happen. You can read more and comment.
• Special:Contributions/newbies will no longer be working. This is because of performance reasons. It showed edits by new accounts. You can see this in the recent changes feed instead. [23]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

15:20, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Greenwashing

Dear DMacks, I was not advertising my research in my last modification of the entry "Greenwashing" but simply adding the results obtained because relevant. As much as those obtained from Ramus' research, cited in the same way a few lines before. That's it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.67.158.194 (talk) 08:14, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

If you have to say "scientific journal" and similar qualifiers, that indicates you are trying to inflate the value of the ref rather than solely to use the ref to verify the content. See WP:REFSPAM for our site guideline and WP:COI for more commentary about the inherent risk we all have when we are unable to see the problem using our own real-world ideas. WP:RS is the guideline about the relative values of a source, it's not our place to editorialize on it. DMacks (talk) 18:45, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for the guidelines you linked to me. I have read them carefully. I used the phrase "scientific journal" because I didn't want it to look like an unreliable source. Although I have published several research papers on these issues in recent years I have never made a change of this kind on Wikipedia because they were too specific results or journals not at a high international level. In this specific case the results obtained seemed to me interesting also for the public that uses Wikipedia and relevant to understand the theme in depth. And this time the journal is one of the most important at international level in this field of research, so I thought it could be a fairly reliable source. I apologize if I violated any rules. If you don't think I should publish these results to improve the "Greenwashing" page I won't publish them, but I'm disappointed. Also because I would no longer know how to contribute to Wikipedia as an academic researcher. Riccardo RikyToro (talk) 08:46, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

I want to know the reason why undid my revision?

Hey, First of all, I am new on wikipedia, don't using it much at all. I am a traveler and traveling across Pakistan. I revised content about Naltar Valley in a number of articles. I did this, because I know there was some ambiguity and wrong information on these articles. For example there are seven lakes in Naltar Valley while wikipedia says there are three lakes, which is not correct. I cited this from a famous blog from Pakistan. You removed this revision. Kindly refer to any thing I did wrong. I do know that I am citing mostly two to three websites but the thing is they have best information on given topic and I can't revise a article here without citations. Happy editing Shuaib Shuaib77 (talk) 07:11, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Hi Shuaib77. Correcting facts with simple mistakes like "number of lakes" is great! But much of the content you wrote is emotional/opinion about various sites or encouraging people to visit them. That's not okay...wikipedia is a neutral encyclopedia. And blogs are generally not usable as references because they do not meet our "reliable source" guidelines. Can you find a more authoritative reference, such as an online atlas or other encyclopedia? DMacks (talk) 08:24, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

Hey, I love the neutrality of wikipedia and that's the single best reason why everyone uses it. The thing is my revisions are neutral on all of those pages. Kindly do check them. If you have any issues with the citation, you should write that as a reason and not undo the revisions. I can add more citations where required. Deleting every revision I made yesterday is by far not the best thing to do, only to show that you need more revisions. Regards Shuaib77 (talk) 14:26, 2 September 2019 (UTC)

This is just one example of many of your edits where you claim things are "famous" and "best". Likewise, here you talk about "famous" and also other opinions such as "scenic". DMacks (talk) 15:28, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-36

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• You can use the new termbox interface if you edit Wikidata on a mobile device. This is to edit labels, descriptions and aliases easier on the mobile pages. [24]
• The new version of MediaWiki has been deployed during the last week.
• The previously announced change of positions of the "Wikidata item" link on all wikis has been rollbacked due to unexpected cache issues. [25]
• The limit for rollbacks has been increased from 10 to 100 rollbacks per minute. [26]
• The advanced version of the edit review pages (Recent Changes, Watchlist, and Related Changes) now include two new filters. These filters are for "All contents" and "All discussions". They will filter the view to just those namespaces. However the "All discussions" filter does not include pseudo talk pages, like discussions that are in the Project: or Wikipedia: namespaces. But it will include changes happening on Project talk: or the Wikipedia talk:. [27]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 3 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 4 September. It will be on all wikis from 5 September (calendar).
• When you log in, the software checks your password to see if it follows the Password policy. From this week, it will also complain if your password is one of the most common passwords in the world. If your password is not strong enough, please consider to change your password for a stronger password. [28]

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 4 September at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• You will be able to read but not to edit Wikidata for up to 30 minutes on September 10 at 05:00 (UTC). [29]
• You will be able to read but not to edit some mid-sized wikis for up to 30 minutes September 17 at 05:00 (UTC). You can see which wikis. [30]
• You will be able to read but not to edit some mid-sized wikis for up to 30 minutes September 24 at 05:00 (UTC). You can see which wikis. [31]
• You will be able to read but not to edit Wikimedia Commons for up to 30 minutes on September 26 at 05:00 (UTC). [32]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

09:07, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

This Month in Education: August 2019

This Month in Education Volume 8 • Issue 8 • August 2019 Contents • Headlines • Subscribe In This Issue Summer WikiCamp for secondary school students 2019 in Armenia Together, we can create an environment that promotes Quality Education International Days and pop culture motivate primary and secondary education students to write on Wikipedia and Wikidata Quality learning and recruiting students at Edu Wiki camp We spend such wonderful days in WikiCamps that noone wants to return home

About This Month in Education · Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · For the team: Romaine 01:00, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

Mail

Hello, DMacks. 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 at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Acroterion (talk) 01:13, 5 September 2019 (UTC)

hathitrust

Per https://www.hathitrust.org/help_copyright#RestrictedAccess, the link is not accessible outside of the US. DrKay (talk) 19:35, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

Interesting! Thanks for the info. DMacks (talk) 19:55, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

Advice on topic ban

Hello, as an admin who took part in the discussion, could you perhaps be so kind as to advise on how to proceed? Thanks, Nemo 11:21, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

About Blocking from Wikipedia Editing with a set of IP Range

Dear DMacks, would you please unblock me. I would previously edited some articles with Facebook's Free Basics app. But you blocked me suddenly. And now I am totally banned from Wikipedia editing with a range of Blocked IP address. If you want, you can see how many of my contributions have been denied or succeeded. I think you will unblock me within a short period of time and give me the chance of contribution to the Wikipedia. Thanks in advance. ———— RhythmWiki RhythmWiki (talk) 13:09, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

Dear DMacks, kindly note that my blocked Username/ID is #7337695. Please unblock me, I am promising, if further mistakes, you can give me any punishment. I have no objection. RhythmWiki (talk) 13:34, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

Given you are editing here on this talkpage, you do not seem to be blocked? I also cannot find an active autoblock #7337695, and I cannot find an active account block for either your current or previous username. If you still have trouble editing, try posting on your own talkpage using {{unblock-auto}} (click that link to see the details and format to use). DMacks (talk) 22:01, 14 September 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for September 18

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Martin's sulfurane, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Sublimation (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 07:21, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

Regarding speedy deletion of my page

Hello DMacks

This is Sagar Pawar, I am writing the page for Ms. N S Nappinai. with her permission. She herself wants a page so I am the writer she chose. I request you please allow me to write create the page.

Regards, Sagar

Truthspeak101, two things. First, if the subject of the page is paying you, you must disclose that fact according to the guidelines at WP:PAID. Second, as DMacks explained on your talk page, you cannot copy text from elsewhere on the Internet and paste it onto a Wikipedia page. Doing so is a violation of copyright law and will just get your page deleted again. Please review the links about copyright that DMacks left on your talk page. creffett (talk) 22:20, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Exactly as Creffett said. @Creffett: thanks for the {{tps}} while the Real World dragged me away from 'pedia! DMacks (talk) 03:26, 20 September 2019 (UTC)

Disruptive editing

So I’m a new editor, received your notice. How do I find the previous editor, to have a content discussion? MikeRit (talk) 02:09, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

When you are looking at a page, one of the items in the row of links near the top is "View history" (or similar wording). The Help:Page history help-page has a lot more detail if you need it. DMacks (talk) 18:37, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Molecular Imaging

Hi DMacks, what is a WP:ENGVAVAR? I'm a new editor learning with WikiEdu, so advice is appreciated. Thanks Pebbles1.0 (talk) 05:07, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

@Pebbles1.0:. Welcome to wikipedia! What I wrote was It's actually a typo, which is why it appeared as a red link and made no sense:( Should have said "WP:ENGVAR". It's one of our WP:Manual of Style guidelines, one that relates to use of different nationalities' English spelling variations. DMacks (talk) 05:16, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

Got it! Makes sense - I was considering how 'visualisation' should be spelled, learnt that there was no rule for American vs British English as long as there is consistency within the article...but obviously accidentally made a change. Thanks for the clarification and the welcome! Pebbles1.0 (talk) 05:22, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-40

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

• Last week's Tech News had delivery problems. Some did not get the newsletter. Some got it more than one time. The problem where some pages got it three times should now be fixed. [33]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 1 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 2 October. It will be on all wikis from 3 October (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 2 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The Wikimedia Foundation Community Tech team is working on a watchlist expiry feature. This means you can put things on your watchlist for a period of time instead of forever. They are looking for feedback on the questions they have.
• Special:Contributions will get the standard OOUI look. This makes it easier to use on mobile and makes it look like other Special: pages. There is a script you can use to make the form smaller if you want to. [34]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:50, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

This Month in Education: September 2019

This Month in Education Volume 8 • Issue 9 • September 2019 Contents • Headlines • Subscribe In This Issue Learning history by expanding articles about novels Organizing the Education space at Wikimania 2019 - A conversation with Shani Evenstein Wiki Goes to School is back in three cities in Indonesia Wikipedia workshop at the Summer IT School for Teachers WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique 2019 is over Wikipedia Education Program held at Netrokona Government College, Bangladesh Stepanakert WikiClub turns 4! Wikimedia Indonesia trained the trainers through WikiPelatih 2019 Students learning Wikipedia editing by attending Wikicamp at Nabran What is happening at Wikimedia Space?

About This Month in Education · Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · For the team: Romaine 19:34, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

Re: SI Units

Thank you for your suggestion to use the {{convert}} template in unit conversion. I'm aware of it, but in the specific Wind power case, I suggested that 100 to 130 meters was a good rounding corresponding for 300 to 400 feet in regards to Significant figures, while keeping the value from the source 300 - 400 feet as secondary value for readers from US and a few more countries (See file: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Metric_system_adoption_map.svg).

I suggest an update with 90 to 120 meters as primary value and a template conversion to corresponding feet value.

Ws1920 (talk) 10:01, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-41

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• The abuse filter function now has a faster parser. This is to shorten the waiting time when you save an edit. [35]

Problems

• There is a problem in the visual editor when you copy or delete text with footnotes. It will be fixed soon. [36]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 8 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 9 October. It will be on all wikis from 10 October (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 9 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• The Community Wishlist Survey has a new format. It will focus on wikis that typically get less support. It will probably go back to the normal format next year. It is not decided exactly how it will work this year. You can leave feedback.
• The URL of the Wikimedia wiki main pages could be changed. This is because the current URLs cause several problems. For example https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page would be https://www.wikidata.org/ instead. You can tell the developers if this would cause problems for your wiki.
• There is a new technical community newsletter. You can read more about the work of Wikimedia's technical community. Subscribe to get the information in the future.
• Outreachy is an internship program for groups who are underrepresented in free and open-source software. There are seven Wikimedia projects about coding, documentation and quality assurance in the next round. Persons who fit the criteria can apply. The last day to apply is 5 November.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

15:35, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

The Residences Providence

Yes, that's an option. I'll have a look at it. Deb (talk) 08:20, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-42

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• You can now use more advanced editing tools on the mobile web. You can turn them on and off in your preferences in the mobile version. [37]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 15 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 16 October. It will be on all wikis from 17 October (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 16 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• Internet Explorer 6 and 7 are no longer supported. This means the browsers might start looking a bit weird. They will not get security support. You can't read Wikimedia wikis in Internet Explorer on Windows XP or Windows versions that are older than Windows XP. This is because almost no one uses the browsers anymore. Supporting them made the wikis less secure for everyone else. [38]
• In the future section headings might have a share link. This is to make it easier to link to the section. You can read more and discuss.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

23:33, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

Definition of alkanes.

Why my changes are reverted about the definition? A definition must be small and precise. I put in a fundamental definition which helps understanding clearly as to why cyclic hydrocarbons arent considered as alkanes. So what was wrong about that? Vanshita poddar (talk) 18:18, 14 October 2019 (UTC)

Kindly enlighten me. Vanshita poddar (talk) 09:59, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Hi. Wasilan.

Hi

I want to use Wasilan.

Thanks.

Wasilan (talk) 21:19, 17 October 2019 (UTC)wasilan

Tech News: 2019-43

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• The API sandbox and help pages now show more clearly when API modules are marked as internal. API modules marked as internal were probably internal before. It was easier to miss. You should look for non-internal alternatives. [39]

Problems

• There is a translation tool we use on wikis with more than one language. For a few days it did not create pages for new languages when someone translated a page. The languages did not show in the language bar. This has been fixed. [40]
• The history and diffs can show wrong content. This is because of a cache problem. It will soon be fixed. [41]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 October. It will be on all wikis from 24 October (calendar).
• Reference Previews will be a beta feature on all Wikipedias and some Wikivoyages. It shows you a preview of the footnote when you hover over or click on the number. It has been a beta feature on German and Arabic Wikipedia since April.

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 23 October. See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

14:29, 21 October 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for October 23

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

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 07:41, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

This Month in Education: October 2019

This Month in Education Volume 8 • Issue 10 • October 2019 Contents • Headlines • Subscribe In This Issue Wikimedia Chile launched its new online course for school teachers Wikimedia Norway is developing an education program for Sámi students and universities teaching Sámi subjects Teachers Association of the Republic of Indonesia (PGRI) Keeps Improving Teachers’ Digital Literacy Through the Use of Wikipedia Lectures on Wikipedia at the the University of Warsaw Wikicamp in Armenia through the Eyes of Foreigners New Wiki Education evaluation report of Wikidata courses published courses. Wikimedia 2030 Strategoy Youth Salon by VVIT WikiConnect Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse – Highlights from the first unit of the online courses. What is happening at Wikimedia Space?

About This Month in Education · Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · For the team: Romaine 08:30, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-44

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• You can post proposals for the Community Wishlist Survey. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can post proposals until 11 November. You can vote on proposals from 20 November to 2 December. This year the wishlist will focus on Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikispecies, Wikivoyage and Wikinews. You can read more about the format for this year.
• Mobile users now have a specific design for their Watchlist. [42][43]
• You can share feedback and ideas on the Desktop Improvements project. The goal is to make the interface easier to use for readers and editors without removing any functionality. The Foundation's Readers Web team will work on this over the next two years.
• OOUI now allows using px (pixels) instead of em (em) for some specific cases. [44][45]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 29 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 30 October. It will be on all wikis from 31 October (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 30 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• There will be no software changes from 19 December to 2 January. The first MediaWiki version next year will come the week of 6 January. [46]
• Gadgets and user scripts can access variables about the current page in JavaScript. In 2015, this information was moved from global variables named wg* to mw.config. The old global variables will be removed later this year. You can know more about it and tell the developers if you want to try this out on your wiki first.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:13, 28 October 2019 (UTC)