This is anarchive of past discussions withUser:Fox.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 thecurrent talk page.
WikiCup 2012 August newsletter
The final is upon us! We are down to our final 8. A massive 573 was our lowest qualifying score; this is higher than the 150 points needed last year and the 430 needed in 2010. Even in 2009, when points were acquired for mainspace edit count in addition to audited content, 417 points secured a place. That leaves this year's WikiCup, by one measure at least, our most competitive ever. Our finalists, ordered by round 4 score, are:
Grapple X (submissions) once again finishes the round in first place, leading Pool B. Grapple X writes articles about television, and especiallyThe X-Files andMillenium, with good articles making up the bulk of the score.
Miyagawa (submissions) led Pool A this round. Fourth-place finalist last year, Miyagawa writes on a variety of topics, and has reached the final primarily off the back of his massive number of did you knows.
Ruby2010 (submissions) was second in Pool B. Ruby2010 writes primarily on television and film, and scores primarily from good articles.
Casliber (submissions) finished third in Pool B. Casliber is something of a WikiCup veteran, having finished sixth in 2011 and fourth in 2010. Casliber writes on the natural sciences, including ornithology, botany and astronomy. Over half of Casliber's points this round were bonus points from the high-importance articles he has worked on.
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) came second in Pool A. Also writing on biology, especially marine biology, Cwmhiraeth received 390 points for one featured article (Bivalvia) and one good article (pelican), topping up with a large number of did you knows.
Muboshgu (submissions) was third in Pool A. Muboshgu writes primarily on baseball, and this round saw Muboshgu's first featured article,Derek Jeter, promoted on its fourth attempt at FAC.
Dana Boomer (submissions) was fourth in Pool A. She writes on a variety of topics, including horses, but this round also saw the high-importancelettuce reach featured article status.
Sasata (submissions) is another WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist in 2009 and 2010. He writes mostly on mycology.
On the subject of next year, a discussion has been openedhere. Come and have your say about the competition, and how you'd like it to run in the future. This brainstorming will go on for some time before more focused discussions/polls are opened. As ever, if you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it onWikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome onWikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck!If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself fromWikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send.J Milburn (talk •email) andThe ed17 (talk •email)00:13, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
TheSeptember 2012 Backlog elimination drive is now underway! The event runs until midnight September 30 (UTC). The goal is to copy edit articles with the oldest tags and complete all requests placed before September. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who participates, with special awards given to the top five in the following categories: "Total articles", "Total words", "Total articles over 5,000 words", "Total articles tagged longest ago", and "Longest article". – Your drive coordinators:Stfg,Allens, andTorchiest.
Yes, I thought that there might be some type of connection, but be that as it may, I am going on a school (as a senior in a life-long learning program) wikibreak probably starting on Sept 4 through mid-December 2012. I may be able to do minor editing but certainly nothing like what this article requires. You might want to drop a note at the Musicals project talk page, maybe someone there would be willing to take this on.Flami72 (talk)22:17, 1 September 2012 (UTC)
The Signpost: 03 September 2012
News and notes:World's largest photo competition kicks off; WMF legal fees proposal Some of Wikimedia's most valuable photographs have been shot and uploaded under free licenses as a direct result of the annual Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) event each September. Last year, the project was conducted on a European level, resulting in the submission of an extraordinary 168,208 free images of cultural heritage sites ("monuments") from 18 countries, making it the world's largest photographic competition. Organising the 2012 event—which has just opened and will run for the full month of September—has required input from chapters and volunteers in 35 countries.
Technology report:Time for a MediaWiki Foundation? Developers are currently discussing the possibility of a MediaWiki Foundation to oversee those aspects of MediaWiki development that relate to non-Wikimedia wikis. The proposal was generated after a discussion on the wikitech-l mailing list about generalising Wikimedia's CentralAuth system.
Featured content:Wikipedia's Seven Days of Terror Five featured pictures were promoted this week, including a video explaining the recent landing of theCuriosity rover on Mars. NASA called the final minutes of the complicated landing procedure "the seven minutes of terror".
Op-ed:Dispute resolution – where we're at, what we're doing well, and what needs fixing Since May 2012 I've been a Wikimedia Foundation community fellow with the task of researching and improving dispute resolution on English Wikipedia. Surveying members of the community has revealed much about their thoughts on and experiences with dispute resolution. I've analysed processes to determine their use and effectiveness, and have presented ideas that I hope will improve the future of dispute resolution.
Hi! Welcome to the sixth edition ofThe Tea Leaf, the official newsletter of theTeahouse!
Teahouse serves over 700 new editors in six months on Wikipedia! Since February 27, 741 new editors have participated at the Teahouse. The Q&A board and the guest intro pages are more active than ever.
Automatic invites are doing the trick: 50% more new editors visiting each week. Ever sinceHostBot's automated invitetrial phase began we've seen a boost in new editor participation. Automating a baseline set of invitations also allows Teahouse hosts to focus on serving hot cups of help to guests, instead of spending countless hours inviting.
Guests to the Teahouse continue to edit more & interact more with other community members than non-Teahouse guests according tosix month metrics. Teahouse guests make more than twice the article edits and edit more talk pages than other new editors.
New host process implemented which encourages anyone to get started as a Teahouse host in a few easy steps. Stop by thehosts page and become a Teahouse host today!
Host lounge renovations nearing completion. Working closely with Teahouse hosts, we've made some major renovations to theTeahouse Host Lounge - the main hangout and resource space for hosts. Learn more about the improvementshere.
As always, thanks for supporting the Teahouse project! Stop by andvisit us today!
You are receivingThe Tea Leaf after expressing interest or participating in the Teahouse! To remove yourself from receiving future newsletters, please remove your usernamehere.EdwardsBot (talk)00:07, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
From the editor:Signpost adapts as news consumption changes Thanks to the initiative of Yuvi Panda and Notnarayan, the Signpost now has an Android app, free for download on Google Play. ... but would readers be interested in an iOS app for Apple devices?
Op-ed:Fixing Wikipedia's help pages one key to editor retention Much like article content, the English Wikipedia's help pages have grown organically over the years. Although this has produced a great deal of useful documentation, with time many of the pages have become poorly maintained or have grown overwhelmingly complicated.
In the media:Author criticizes Wikipedia article; Wales attacks UK government proposal Philip Roth, a widely known and acclaimed American author, wrote an open letter in the New Yorker addressed to Wikipedia this week, alleging severe inaccuracies in the article on hisThe Human Stain (2000).
WikiProject report:WikiProject Fungi After a week's hiatus, the WikiProject Report returns with an interview featuring WikiProject Fungi. Started in March 2006, the project has grown to include over 9,000 pages, including 47 Featured Articles and 176 Good Articles. The project maintains a list of high priority missing articles and stubs that need expansion.
Special report:Two Wikipedians set to face jury trial In dramatic events that came to light last week, two English Wikipedia volunteers—Doc James (James Heilman) and Wrh2 (Ryan Holliday)—are being sued in the Los Angeles County Superior Court by Internet Brands, the owner of Wikitravel.com. Both Wikipedians have also been volunteer Wikitravel editors (and in Holliday's case, a volunteer administrator). IB's complaints focus on both editors' encouragement of their fellow Wikitravel volunteers to migrate to a proposed non-commercial travel guidance site that would be under the umbrella of the WMF.
News and notes:Researchers find that Simple English Wikipedia has "lost its focus" In its September issue, the peer-reviewed journalFirst Monday publishedThe readability of Wikipedia, reporting research which shows that the English Wikipedia is struggling to meet Flesch reading ease test criteria, while the Simple English Wikipedia has "lost its focus".
Technology report:Mmmm, milkshake... The Wikimedia Foundation's engineering report for August 2012 was published this week on the Wikimedia Techblog and on the MediaWiki wiki, giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month (as well as brief coverage of progress on Wikimedia Deutschland's Wikidata project, phase 1 of which is edging its way towards its first deployment).
Yes, put it back. A Tar Heel is a recognizable term for people from North Carolina, just like people from Indiana are called Hoosiers. In fact, the University of North Carolina athletic teams calls themselves the Tar Heels.Maile66 (talk)11:58, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
Moot point now, but I would hasten to point out that not everyone is from the US (not even North Carolina!) and so having the phrase thereat all was only ever going to add confusion where there didn't need to be any. Removing it took nothing away from the blurb and if anything clarified it - another link there would simply lead to a sea of blue links,something we try to avoid. —foxj19:08, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
I understood that not everyone would understand. Indeed, my suggestion, which is now hypothetical and moot, was that it would be a crutch for those (like yourself) who found it confusing. Being a North Carolinian is a source of pride to those who are from there, and being aTar Heel is a source of pride. Rather like being aScotsman. I would also point out that lots of people from the U.S.A. would be equally confused— it's a big country. You could be right about overlinking, and this is a reason why I have only peripheral involvement with the main page. I was not trying to be officious, but was only suggesting a way to address the concerns that cropped up in your edit. Happy editing.7&6=thirteen (☎)19:17, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
That's okay. I'm sorry for the delay, I was out of town all day. I would definitelynot say "... that Scotsman Joseph Fox discovered...",especially if "Scotsman" wasn't in the article in the first place! But yes, you're right, the nationality is important, but I would argue that the exact state probably isn't. —foxj19:27, 15 September 2012 (UTC)
Participation: Out of 37 people signed up for this drive so far, 19 have copy-edited at least one article, about the same as the last drive. If you've signed up but haven't yet copy-edited any articles, every bit helps; if you haven't signed up yet, it's not too late.Join us!
Progress report: We're almost on track to meet our targets for the drive. Great work, guys. We have reduced our target group of articles—August, September, and October 2011—by about 44%, and the overall backlog has been reduced by 58 articles so far, to around 2600 articles. The biggest difference between this drive and the previous one is a stronger focus on large articles, so total word counts are still comparable.
Don't forget about the Copy Edit of the Month contests! Voting for the August contest has been extended through the end of the month.You don't have to make a submission to vote!
It is important that all members of this project participate in the discussion so that we can share our views on how these articles should be presented, what content could do with being added/removed. If a consensus is reached and you have failed to participate then you only have yourself to blame if you disagreed with the layout style that has been reached.
To discontinue receiving Eurovision newsletters and mini memorandums, please remove your name fromhere.
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you editedJoel A. Greenberg, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation pageDigital download (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles.Read theFAQ • Join us at theDPL WikiProject.
From the editor:Signpost expands to Facebook We now have a Facebook page at facebook.com/wikisignpost. We invite you to "like" the page and join the discussion there.
WikiProject report:Action! — The Indian Cinema Task Force This week, we shine the spotlight on the Indian Cinema Task Force, a subproject that seeks to improve the quality and quantity of articles about Indian cinema. As a child of WikiProject Film and WikiProject India, the Indian Cinema Task Force shares a variety of templates, resources, and members with its parent projects. The task force works on a to-do list, maintains the Bollywood Portal, and ensures articles follow the film style guidelines. With Indian cinema celebrating its 100th year of existence in 2013, we asked Karthik Nadar (Karthikndr), Secret of success, Ankit Bhatt, Dwaipayan, and AnimeshKulkarni what is in store for the Indian Cinema Task Force.
Featured content:Go into the light Eight featured articles, six featured lists, ten featured pictures, and one featured topic were promoted this week.
News and notes:Tens of thousands of monuments loved; members of new funding body announced The world's largest photo competition, Wiki Loves Monuments, is entering its final two weeks. The month-long event, of Dutch origin, is being held globally for the first time after the success of its European-level predecessor last year. During September 2011 more than 5000 volunteers from 18 countries took part and uploaded 168,208 free images. This year, volunteers and chapters from 35 countries around the world have organised the event. The best photographs will be determined by juries at the national and finally the global level.
Technology report:Future-proofing: HTML5 and IPv6 1.20wmf12, the 12th release to Wikimedia wikis from the 1.20 branch, was deployed to its first wikis on September 17; if things go well, it will be deployed to all wikis by September 26. Its 200 or so changes – 111 to WMF-deployed extensions plus 98 to core MediaWiki code – include support for links with mixed-case protocols (e.g.Http://example.com) and the removal of the "No higher resolution available" message on the file description pages of SVG images.
Hello, Fox. Please check your email; you've got mail! Message added 01:35, 20 September 2012 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You canremove this notice at any time by removing the{{You've got mail}} or{{ygm}} template.
Itis on my Watchlist. I just have other things to do, and assume - perhaps foolishly - that other admins are doing the same. —foxj16:42, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
Unfortunately, since it's a user's javascript page, these are all fully-protected by default - if they weren't it would lead to some pretty gaping security holes ;) —foxj09:12, 21 September 2012 (UTC)
Hello, you are receiving this message because you are currently a participant ofWikiProject Good articles. Since the creation of the WikiProject, over 200 user's have joined to help review good article nominations and contribute to other sections of the WikiProject. Over the years, several of these users have stopped reviewing articles and/or have become inactive with the project but are still listed as participates. In order to improve communications with other participants and get newsletters sent out faster (newsletters will begin to be sent out monthly starting in October) all participants that are no longer active with the WikiProject will be removed from theparticipants list.
If you are still interested in being a participant for this WikiProject, please sign your user namehere and please help review some articles so we can reduce the size of the backlog. If you are no longer interested, you do not need to sign your name anywhere and your name will be removed from the participants list after the deadline. Remember that even if you are not interested at this time, you can always re-add your name to the list whenever you want. The deadline to sign your name on the page above will be November 1, 2012. Thank-you. 13:26, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
Sorry for having to send out a second message but a user has brought to my attention that a point mentioned in the first message should be clarified. If user's don't sign onthis page, they will be moved to an "Inactive Participants" list rather then be being removed from the entire WikiProject. Sorry for any confusion.--Dom497 (talk)15:16, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
The Signpost: 24 September 2012
In the media:Editor's response to Roth draws internet attention Oliver Keyes' (User:Ironholds) defense of Wikipedia against the recent Philip Roth controversy has drawn a significant amount of attention over the last week. The problems between Roth, a widely known and acclaimed American author, and Wikipedia arose from an open letter he penned for the American magazine New Yorker, and were covered by the Signpost two weeks ago. Keyes—who wrote the piece as a prominent Wikipedian but is also a contractor for the Wikimedia Foundation—wrote a blog post on the topic, lamenting the factual errors in Roth's letter and criticizing the media for not investigating his claims: "[they took] Roth’s explanation as the truth and launched into a lengthy discussion of how we [Wikipedia] handle primary sourcing."
Recent research:"Rise and decline" of Wikipedia participation, new literature overviews, a look back at WikiSym 2012 A paper to appear in a special issue ofAmerican Behavioral Scientist (summarized in the research index) sheds new light on the English Wikipedia's declining editor growth and retention trends. The paper describes how "several changes that the Wikipedia community made to manage quality and consistency in the face of a massive growth in participation have lead to a more restrictive environment for newcomers". The number of active Wikipedia editors has been declining since 2007 and research examining data up to September 2009 has shown that the root of the problem has been the declining retention of new editors. The authors show this decline is mainly due to a decline among desirable, good-faith newcomers, and point to three factors contributing to the increasingly "restrictive environment" they face.
WikiProject report:01010010 01101111 01100010 01101111 01110100 01101001 01100011 01110011 This week, we tinkered with WikiProject Robotics. From the project's inception in December 2007, it has served as Wikipedia's hub for building and improving articles about robots and robotics, accumulating two Featured Articles and seven Good Articles along the way. The project covers both fictitious and real-life robots, the technology that powers them, and many of the brains behind the robotics field
News and notes:UK chapter rocked by Gibraltar scandal In the second controversy to engulf Wikimedia UK in two months, its immediate past chair Roger Bamkin has resigned from the board of the chapter. The resignation last Wednesday followed a growing furore over the conflict of interest between two of Roger's roles outside the chapter and his close involvement in the UK board's decision-making process, including the access to private mailing lists that board members in all chapters need. But the irony surrounding Roger's resignation is its connection with efforts by Wikimedians and collaborators to strengthen the reach of Wikimedia projects through technical innovation.
Technology report:Signpost investigation: code review times Late last month, the "Technology report" included a story using code review backlog figures – the only code review figures then available – to construct a rough narrative about the average experience of code contributors. This week, we hope to go one better, by looking directly at code review wait times, and, in particular, median code review times
Featured content:Dead as... Fourteen featured articles were promoted this week, including Dodo, along with six featured lists and five featured pictures.
Grapple X (submissions) once again finishes the round in first place, leading Pool B. Grapple X writes articles about television, and especiallyThe X-Files andMillenium, with good articles making up the bulk of the score.
Miyagawa (submissions) led Pool A this round. Fourth-place finalist last year, Miyagawa writes on a variety of topics, and has reached the final primarily off the back of his massive number of did you knows.
Ruby2010 (submissions) was second in Pool B. Ruby2010 writes primarily on television and film, and scores primarily from good articles.
Casliber (submissions) finished third in Pool B. Casliber is something of a WikiCup veteran, having finished sixth in 2011 and fourth in 2010. Casliber writes on the natural sciences, including ornithology, botany and astronomy. Over half of Casliber's points this round were bonus points from the high-importance articles he has worked on.
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) came second in Pool A. Also writing on biology, especially marine biology, Cwmhiraeth received 390 points for one featured article (Bivalvia) and one good article (pelican), topping up with a large number of did you knows.
Muboshgu (submissions) was third in Pool A. Muboshgu writes primarily on baseball, and this round saw Muboshgu's first featured article,Derek Jeter, promoted on its fourth attempt at FAC.
Dana Boomer (submissions) was fourth in Pool A. She writes on a variety of topics, including horses, but this round also saw the high-importancelettuce reach featured article status.
Sasata (submissions) is another WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist in 2009 and 2010. He writes mostly on mycology.
GreatOrangePumpkin (submissions),
Ealdgyth (submissions),
Piotrus (submissions),
Toa Nidhiki05 (submissions),
12george1 (submissions),
The Bushranger (submissions) and
1111tomica (submissions). We hope to see you all next year.
