User talk:Phoebe/Archive7

Wikinews article

Hi. Could the Signpost please get a Wikinews contest article asap? The contest is about 3 weeks away now. Benny the mascot (talk) 02:30, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you so much for writing that note on the writing contest. The Wikinewsies certainly appreciate it. :) Benny the mascot (talk) 01:05, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Ok, I will certainly keep that in mind in the future. Benny the mascot (talk) 17:23, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

Probably too late now, but User:Teenly also passed away in 2009. (talk→ BWilkins ←track) 11:14, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia Meetup, 1/2/10

Phoebe, missed the meeting, but I noticed there was a group you wanted to talk to.Mwinog2777 (talk) 04:45, 3 January 2010 (UTC)

SP article

Not sure about this http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia%3AWikipedia_Signpost%2F2010-01-11%2FBooks&action=historysubmit&diff=337190978&oldid=337030230, whether such "considerations" are alowed in the signpost ;). Kill it if not. Thanks! notafish }<';> 14:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

How has Wikipedia changed your life?

Would you like to share your experience you had on Wikipedia with fellow Wikipedian community? Please click here.

--Saki ^talk 11:48, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

SF Meetup #11

In the area? You're invited to
San Francisco Meetup # 11
	Date: Saturday, February 6th, 2010
	Time: 15:00 (3PM)
	Place: WMFoundation offices
prev: Meetup 10 - next: Meetup 12

This is posted to the groups by request. Please sign up on the Invite list for future announcements. Thanks. --ShakataGaNai ^{^_^} 23:41, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

re: re:signpost issue

Ok, I'll do some tune-ups to the News and Notes tonight and this morning. Belugaboy535136 ^contribs 12:43, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

== Signpost ==

Hello Phoebe! I noticed the Feb. 8 issue of the Signpost is going to the press on the 15. Why? Can't we just publish it today, it's already done. Belugaboy535136 ^contribs 12:52, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

A note on the NGE

The bigger news on the NGE, I think, is that if they are satisfied that we have done a professional job integrating those ten articles, then they will release their entire collection of over 2,200 articles to be moved or merged into Wikipedia. bd2412 T 18:22, 10 February 2010 (UTC)

'Post

Hi, Phoebe! Is it Ok if I copy my WikiProject report from my userspace or does it have to be in the workspace? I know just about everything else about the Signpost WikiProject desk *thank you, iBen!* and that's the only favor I need from you. Toodaloo, Belugaboy535136 ^contribs 12:44, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

please add links to any stories you write to the appropriate slots in the newsroom, otherwise no one will see them. The stories do have to end up in the workspace; the links in the newsroom are to the stories from next time. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 19:03, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

It's in my userspace, so when my week comes (March 8) I'll copyedit it into the workspace. Toodaloo, Belugaboy535136 ^contribs 00:59, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Fact Checking

Hello Ms Ayers, I have read the book 'How Wikipedia Works and How You Can be a Part of It', which really helps me with the editing I do on the site-I like it really much. In the book it says that you like fact-checking, as well as the other co-authors. What I want to say is that I would like to ask you to have a look at the article 'Vietnam Airlines' and see if there any things I can improve on. Also, is it alright if I ask you questions when I am stuck? Thank you very much. PS-It would be great if you ask those co-authors that you have worked with to check the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sp33dyphil (talk • contribs) 05:52, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

signpost

in trying to keep up with various threads about the whole wikiversity thing, I noticed your write up in the signpost! I think you've done pretty well to write up events thus far neutrally - but I thought I'd just drop you a note to see if I could clarify this bit; --> 'which was for designing and recording experiments' - I don't have access to the deleted page, but I'm confident in fact that the project stated clearly that it was actually for discussing whether or not ethical breaching experiments can, in fact, exist, examining others' actions (such as the Mike Handel situation) as well as possibly looking at what an effective, ethical breaching experiment might look like, and how it might work.

While I'm in clarification mode, other mistakes that others are making in their analysis of the goings on are that any experiment was actually planned, discussed, executed, or encouraged - in fact I had only written up a few previous incidents in a very small way (much less discussion than here on en, for example) - and probably the most controversial page was actually an import I did of something User:MZMcBride wrote which I felt was a relevant, and witty / tongue in cheek 'guide to socking'.

Discussion of this whole thing seems to me to be seriously undermined by Jimbo's (false in my view) assertion that he, and he alone, has the authority and judgement to define something as 'trolling' - The project to my mind has a genuine and useful purpose, and I feel Jimbo is behaving poorly in this regard by closing doors aggressively on substantive discussion (troll begone! etc.) - but that's another story....

Either ways, thanks for the good, neutral write up, and if you're interested in any other aspects of the whole thing, please do feel free to drop me a note..... best regards, Privatemusings (talk) 00:25, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Rawr. --MZMcBride (talk) 00:27, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

/me cuddles MzM (was that rawr, as in "you're a sexy cat" type of rawr? - second thoughts, leave my delusion alone if not. ;-) Privatemusings (talk) 00:28, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Sure, I'm glad you thought it was neutral. I'm sorry I didn't drop you a note in the first place, but I didn't have time to do full-on investigative reporting. You might make a note on the talk page of the Signpost story, since in fact the Wikiversity page is deleted and so most people can't see what it said for themselves. Regards, -- phoebe / (talk to me) 02:51, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Signpost help

I just wrote this for the signpost, but I don't where to put it. Help? Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 01:43, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

looks like you got it in the right place! -- phoebe / (talk to me) 20:47, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Challenge

As promised, I'm going to take you up on your challege :)

Can you please attempt to locate an electronic copy of Livermore fortran kernels: A computer test of numerical performance range. by F. H. McMahon? It is the first reference on the Livermore loops article. Raul654 (talk) 07:06, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

is available, not online. replied on yr talk -- phoebe / (talk to me) 05:31, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Medicine and molecular cellular biology Wikiprojects announce collaboration with Google.org

Announcement of the first stages of a project to peer-review, improve and translate medical and biology articles so that material can be transferred from the English Wikipedia to other Wikipedias that are written in languages used in developing world. Maybe something for Signpost? (also posted on SandyGeorgia's talkpage) Tim Vickers (talk) 18:09, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Couldn't work out where to put this, so I'll dump it down here. Tim Vickers (talk) 21:02, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Wikiprojects and Google.org to collaborate in translation project

The Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Medicine Wikiprojects have announced an article translation project with the charitable foundation Google.org. This project aims to address the lack of accessible medical information in languages used in the developing world by translating articles from the English Wikipedia and transferring them to smaller Wikipedias, such as the Swahili Wikipedia.

In its initial stages, the project will aim to improve a core set of articles on important medical information and neglected diseases, using article reviews provided by professional medical writers. Later, once a set of interested editors have been recruited in the English Wikipedia, Google.org will try to recruit native speakers that can use translation software developed by Google to transfer the English articles. This effort will follow the lead set by Google's recent Kiswahili Wikipedia Challenge, that aimed to expand the Swahili Wikipedia in a collaboration with three African Universities.

So sorry!

I'm so sorry I misspelled your name! And I who have such a hard name, too! I should know better! Awadewit (talk) 19:16, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

no worries! In person I'm used to spelling it :) -- phoebe / (talk to me) 00:50, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

word on the streat

Familiar with Stephen B. Streater's work? –SJ+

nope. interesting project, kinda corporate? -- phoebe / (talk to me) 02:06, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

MW 2010 pic

See File:MW2010.jpg Raul654 (talk) 17:30, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Signpost editor?

Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost#Stepping_down_as_Signpost_editor :(

Would you consider taking up the editorship, at least for a while or part-time? I think you would be an excellent person for the job.

Regards, HaeB (talk) 06:54, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

thanks, replied on the talk page. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 18:29, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

New Adoptee?

Hi, Phoebe: Are you open for a new Adoptee? I have a basic knowledge of http language. I am good with written English, in particular copy/editing. I'm motivated to create good quality articles. My interests (no particular order) are in the areas of:

1. Community building, organizational systems and relationships. I am developing an article on "lifesharing". This page is about my home, life and work North Plain Farm, part of Cadmus Lifesharing Association.

2. Working to help with our environmental crisis. Here's the website I created for that Transition Town Great Barrington. I'm looking forward to helping to clean up the site and controversy around Open Space Technology.

3. I also have a project ongoing about flat or horizontal and vertical or hierarchical structures in organizations. This is largely based on my own observations after living in intentional communities for forty years so I will need to work a lot on this to get it up to Wiki standards and/or I might need a different forum altogether.

4. I am finding it very rewarding to be involved with a project as powerful, humanscale and creative as Wikipedia.

What say you?

Hello, Phoebe. You have new messages at Ngstanton's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

And I totally understand if you are too busy.
--NickStan 21:41, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

WP research as a Signpost occasional

Phoebe, I notice you were discussing this possibility. I may be able to cobble something together every so often, although not as a weekly column. What do you think? Do you recall when the last one was, from the point of view of how far back I might trawl for good material? Tony (talk) 13:40, 11 June 2010 (UTC)

Grab some glory, and a barnstar

Hi, I'd like to invite you to participate in the Guild of Copy Editors July 2010 Backlog Elimination Drive. In May, about 30 editors helped remove the {{copyedit}} tag from 1175 articles. The backlog is still over 7500 articles, and extends back to the beginning of 2008! We really need your help to reduce it. Copyediting just a couple articles can qualify you for a barnstar. Serious copyeditors can win prestigious and exclusive rewards. See the event page for more information. And thanks for your consideration. mono^{pending changes begin june 15} 17:52, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

Why am I getting this message? Mono's delivery method is random, so you probably showed up somewhere Mono went. :)

hopefully suggestion for future reviews of films

Hi. I would like information about locations where films were/are made included in the Wikipedia bios, of the films, especially where the scenery is as astoundingly part of the story as in "How the West Was Won" and the John Wayne films and many others. Why? Why not? My theory about film-making is that the scenery or location shots are as important as the script and actors! I hope Wikipedia considers this, especially since I have spent the last two hours trying to find out where the above movie filmed in the 1960's was shot and unless it is a 'big secret', the audience should at least be let in on the 'secret' when the credits roll at the end. So far, I am still searching. Does anyone out there know the locations shot in the last segment of the film? Monument Valley? Tucson? Or...? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Barjade (talk • contribs) 22:20, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your book.

Hi, Phoebe,

I'm a newbie Wikipedian (I just reached the apprentice editor threshold in edit count today) who got started here after reading your book and John Broughton's book. I really appreciate your vision of Wikipedia as an extension of the work of reference librarians, who are some of my favorite people. (I took the University of Minnesota course Organization of Information, a library science course about cataloging and classification, back in the 1970s.) When you write that you care about "References and sources in articles. This is not about arguing whether crufty websites 'count' as sources; this is about making sure the 90% of totally verifiable content gets good references added, for the sake of the readers," you inspire me to do my best to source articles on topics for which I have sources at hand. I have been compiling some citations lists on my user space that I hope to turn into proper pathfinder bibliographic articles over time. I will ask for advice on how to do that well on the WikiProject Libraries discussion page in a while, as the sources pile up in my office. Keep up the good work; you are inspiring other people to organize and share information. -- WeijiBaikeBianji (talk) 00:01, 30 July 2010 (UTC)

Wiki-Conference NYC (2nd annual)

Our 2nd annual Wiki-Conference NYC has been confirmed for the weekend of August 28-29 at New York University.

There's still plenty of time to join a panel, or to propose a lightning talk or an open space session. Register for the Wiki-Conference here. And sign up here for on-wiki notification. All are invited!
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 15:33, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

RE: Ohio 2

Hello! Normally I would be delighted to (and I really wish I could), however my wife and I are already scheduled out of town that week. Hope you enjoy your visit to the Buckeye State! Best wishes, — Kralizec! (talk) 18:12, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your message. Unfortunately I'm out of the country for most of the month, and when I get back I'll be in Kansas instead of Ohio :( . Best of luck with getting a meetup together, though! rʨanaɢ (talk) 15:47, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

I would definitely be interested. I responded on my talk page in greater detail. Let me know! hmwith☮ 20:31, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Online text of "How Wikipedia Works"?

I looked at User:Phoebe/book, and didn't see anything about this, so: http://howwikipediaworks.com is now essentially a parking space, without the contents of your book. Are those contents available anywhere else? -- John Broughton (♫♫) 19:44, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the update. My guess is that the folks who now own the .com address will want some money for it (perhaps not much, though). I think if you put the book at the .org or .net variant, both of which are available, that would be fine. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 01:15, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Request assistance on class Wikipedia project

Dear Phoebe, I am a faculty member who is planning to have a Wikipedia project in one of my classes this fall. I was wondering (hoping?) if you would be willing to serve as a facilitator for our project? The class is an upper-level, undergraduate class in Entomology (I noted you have interests in science). I can provide more information (the prompt and such) if you are interested. Thank you FlyPusher (talk) 18:28, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

so cool! I missed this. I hope the semester went well; left you a talk page note. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 22:22, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

deleted article

Phoebe,

My user name is Llibcum, I am brand new to Wikipedia and have submitted the article Darin Allen." Unfortunately, the first time I submitted it I received the scheduled for deletion memo due to lack of referenced sources. However a few days ago added a reference and removed the memo. Today, I returned to the site to see the scheduled for deletion memeo again. What am I doing wrong?

I just removed the memo again, after placing a referenced source--I just don't know if I did it right. Yep, I read all the Wiki stuff. But they don't make this process very easy to follow.

I personally know Darin Allen and he is mentioned on several Wikipedia pages--he just has never had an article on him posted on the site.

I would greatly appreciat your help in finding any other sources for this article.

You can email me at will@myhitnews.com with any information or anything else that you need from me.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Llibcum (talk • contribs) 07:38, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Probably sources and writing style. But it looks like it happily exists now at Darin Allen, so all is well. The more published sources you can find, the better. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 22:26, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Please Adopt me:)

Hi my name is Fabiola and i am in a school proyect. it would be awesome if you adopt me.FabGalvez (talk) 03:21, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Adopt-a-user reminder

Hello, I have completed a general cleanup of the adopter information page for the adopt-a-user project, located here. During my cleanup, I have removed several inactive and retired users. In order to provide interested adoptees with an easy location to find adopters, it is essential that the page be up-to-date with the latest information possible. Thus:

• If you are no longer interested in being an adopter, please remove yourself from the list.
• If you are still interested, please check the list to see if any information needs to be updated or added - especially your availability. Thank you.

• You are receiving this message because you are listed as an adopter here.

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of Netalarm (talk) at 03:45, 23 September 2010 (UTC).

Adoption request

Hello Phoebe, I've been editing for about 15 months now and feel pretty good about what I've contributed. Mostly, I create new articles or improve existing articles in areas of special interest to me - mountaineering, the Sierra Club, the Sierra Nevada, the arts and crafts movement, California history and a few oddball items. I've tried, especially in recent weeks, to get involved in some admin tasks, but find it frustrating and a bit draining emotionally. I also find involvement in controversial articles to be time consuming and perhaps unproductive. If you are willing to look over my work and make suggestions about where my efforts might be best spent, I would be grateful. I'm a 58 year old guy who spent uncounted hours reading the World Book Encyclopedia for fun as a kid. I truly believe that Wikipedia is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Thank you. Cullen328 (talk) 05:42, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Teach me how to save cute Manga dolls from deletionists?

Hi Phoebe! Thanks for teaching me how to be a New Page Patroller at the last WMF Edit Friday... but I am afraid you have created a monster! Well, maybe not a monster, but I am a bit obsessed.... and somehow in the course of patrolling, I have gotten caught up in a friendly debate about whether Momiji Dolls are notable enough to have an article. The current article reads like a collector's catalog and needs to be drastically re-written, but if I can, I'd like to save the cute little things from utter deletion. I came up with some links that I thought showed notability, but I was told by another editor that they don't meet WP:RS. I want to follow the guidelines, but am not sure I understand... isn't the official blog for Elle Decor South Africa a decent source for the notability of artsy collectible dolls? I know you are the Queen of Sourcing, and that you literally wrote the book on how this all works. And didn't I hear a rumor that you wrote your own article about a cute Japanese toy, and that it was spared the deletionist's wrath? So I thought you would be just the person to ask for help... just community member to community member, of course! I know you are a super-busy (as am I), but if you have a free second to check out Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Momiji Dolls and let me know what you think, that would be awesome! Thank you! Tarastar42 (talk) 06:49, 26 September 2010 (UTC)Tarastar42

Looks like it was kept! nice to see you editing :) (further conversation was had offline). -- phoebe / (talk to me) 22:22, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Adopting

Hello! I'm an advanced English student looking for adoption :-D Being a Wikieditor is part of a class project and I'd really appreciate your help. Please let me know if you are interested. Best regards! Papita Naranja (talk) 06:47, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

An update from adopt a user

Hi there Phoebe! You may be wondering, what have I done to sound the alarm this time? Nothing. I'm messaging you in regards to the adopt-a-user program, which currently has a backlog of users wishing to be adopted. This doesn't make much sense, as we have a considerable list of users offer adoption, so there shouldn't be any backlog. I've begun to eliminate this backlog myself through a matching program, but I need your help to make it work. Of course, adoptees and adopters don't have to go through there, but I believe it helps eliminate the backlog because someone is actively matching pairs.

On the list of adopters, I have modified the middle column to say "Interests." It's easier working with other users that have similar interests, so if it's not too much to ask, could you add your interests in the middle column? For example, if I was interested in hurricanes, computers, business, and ... reptiles? I would place those in the middle column. Counter-vandalism and the like can also be included (maintenance should be used as the general term). The more interests, the better, since adoptees can learn more about you and choose the one they feel most comfortable working with. The information about when you're most active and other stuff can go into the "Notes" section to the right.

Finally, I've gone around and asked adoptees (and will in the future) to fill in a short survey so adopters can take the initiative and contact users they feel comfortable working with. We all know that most adoptees just place the adopt me template on their user page and leave it - so it's up to us to approach them and offer adoption. So, please take a look at the survey, adopt those that fit your interests, and maybe watchlist it so you can see the interests of adoptees and adopt one that fits your interests in the future.

Once again, thank you for participating in the adopt-a-user program! If you wish to respond to this post, please message me on my talk page.

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of Netalarm (talk) at 05:23, 11 October 2010 (UTC).

I have little time for mentoring at the moment, which is sad; I should probably take my name off of the page, but it's one of the tasks that I enjoy! -- phoebe / (talk to me) 22:22, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

"why we are ignoring our community" : we care about readers!

An insidious meme seems to be making the rounds. Sound familiar?

Clever people seem convinced by this meme that community input should be heavily discounted... and that community members who slave over certain reader-focused details [here: of design, page layout, navigation templates, dense & clear information] aren't fit to judge what the readers need once staff are involved [here: in terms of page width and stylesheet]. And sannse seems to have quite a hard role to play.

How do we avoid this disconnect in our own usability / quality / fundraising discussions? –SJ+ 13:13, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

pie for everyone?

Wikimedia CAT

Hello Phoebe,

in order to unblock the situation of Wikimedia CAT chapter, we have clarified and simplified the proposal at m:Wikimedia CAT.

We would highly appreciate that you could take a look at it and kindly give us your opinion at Survey. If you consider so, you can also express your support.

Thanks in advance. --CàlculIntegral (talk) 07:35, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

The issue was raised to the board via chapcom, as is appropriate, and was discussed; going through chapcom is the right way to go about this, for now. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 22:22, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

Dead link

Hi Phoebe, The link to the full text of How Wikipedia Works seems to be broken. Great book, by the way!VirtualDave 07:14, 12 November 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by VirtualDave (talk • contribs)

I know! The book will soon reappear at http://howwikipediaworks.org. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 22:22, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

MfD nomination of Wikipedia:WikiProject University of San Francisco

Wikipedia:WikiProject University of San Francisco, a page you substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject University of San Francisco and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of Wikipedia:WikiProject University of San Francisco during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Kumioko (talk) 02:33, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Poll Reviews

Hi Phoebe. You commented on my recent Poll review at the Commons Sexual Content page. I'm wondering if you are interested in drafting or giving some comments on a draft relating to how we handle such polls in the future. My basic idea is this:

RATIONALE

• Major polls (e.g, n > 50) are difficult to follow.
• Neutral summaries of arguments help participants discern major issues and discuss them.
• Ex post, summaries act as a to-do list for future drafts.
• Consensus is a mysterious process that can be demystified by combining numerical counts with summaries of arguments.

OUTLINE

• Pros (Like it)
• Cons (Don't like it)
• Questions (What is meant here?)
• Suggestions (Could we change this?)

POSSIBLE IMPLEMENTATIONS

• Appoint uninvolved/trusted/neutral editors to prepare/update summaries of arguments
• Have representative supporters and opposers sign off on neutrality of summaries
• Allow continuous updating/editing for format/neutrality/completeness during polls
• Update vote numbers (approx every 25 votes, support/oppose)
• Identify most popular arguments
• Identify most copied (cf) editors (e.g. Support per Editor A)

I'm still playing around with the details, but I think something like this could be helpful. We did it at the Pending Changes poll and it seemed to work there as well. What do you think? Ocaasi (talk) 20:52, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I think the general idea is AWESOME and very helpful! Let me think about the details... but what you propose sounds great so far. Thanks for working on this! -- phoebe / (talk to me) 18:12, 20 December 2010 (UTC)