User talk:Sue Gardner

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Welcome![edit]

Looks like you've never been welcomed! :-(

Welcome!

Hello, Sue Gardner, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome! Cbrown1023 talk 15:43, 22 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]


The Signpost: 03 July 2013[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Edit warring[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Edit warring. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — RFC bot (talk) 13:15, 5 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For Your Kind Attention[edit]

Please read this: Commons:User_talk:Russavia#Resolution:Images_of_identifiable_persons. JKadavoor Jee 05:27, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

RFAR: Wikipedia's IRC channels[edit]

Please see a current request for arbitration, which discusses the relation between

  • WMF and Wikipedia (and its ArbCom) and
  • Wikipedia's IRC channels.

I have added you as a party to the arbitration case.

Concerns include the use of IRC for

  1. canvassing administrators,
  2. sexual banter with children,
  3. chatting about lighting myself on fire with oil and a lighter (by a WMF employee), etc.

Another concern is the failure of WMF and Wikipedia to match the child-protection standards of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, for example, by requiring two adults witness every child-adult interaction. The Scouts would not tolerate Wikipedia's editor

  1. telling a boy how to work around his parents' removal of his contact list from his email, and following up with emails and IM messages for months, including one following the boy's having "learned his lesson".
  2. telling a boy that the editor will be visiting his town the next week.

IRC is a liability to children and Wikipedia and certainly to the WMF.

Sincerely, Kiefer.Wolfowitz 22:43, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

As a note, please be aware that the Arbcom has removed you, Sue, as a party to the case. Philippe Beaudette, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 07:07, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The STOPhaus Movement Claims that WP Community is Purposefully Maintaining Libel[edit]

You may or may not be aware that there has been an ongoing feud between an anti-spam organization known as The Spamhaus Project and an anti-censorship collective known as The STOPhaus Movement. This has spilled over into Wikipedia community due to a largely biased and one-sided section on a page that seems to be gvery one-sided altogether. The Spamhaus Project has a page on Wikipedia and on that page there is a discussion concerning STOPhaus and their involvement in the "Largest DDoS Attack in History" as NYT so sensationally called it.

The NYT journalist, Nicole Perlroth and John Markoff were fed the content by Cloudflare, a DDoS mitigation company working alongside The Spamhaus Project. The Wikipedia article reflects on allegations against The STOPhaus Movement and even goes as far as to use a quote calling us "spam and malware hosters", "criminals" and various other libelous claims. We, if there is a "we" are a group of people, users, ISPs, and various anonymous supporters that believe that Spamhaus are over-aggressive in their means to the point it is, or should be, illegal. The debate is whether or not they are, in fact, criminal in their actions.

I am reaching out on the behalf of The STOPhaus Movement to suggest that your editors allow the inclusion of the allegations against Spamhaus, made by STOPhaus or the removal of any reference to STOPhaus from The Spamhaus Page. Maintaining what we are calling libel without moral or reasonable grounds to do so appears to be malicious propaganda and is being received as such. Congratulations on your new life, but you should understand first hand, how a NYT inaccuracy becomes a PR nightmare and Wikimedia Foundation Inc. should not promote the libelous abuse of any group of people.

Especially since the largest STOPhaus support comes from your hometown and a recently formed Political Party in Pinellas County support TSM. Seems you should be a proponent for the whole truth and nothing but the truth, bring a Floridian. Maybe London has already gotten to you though, who knows?— Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.120.156.50 (talk • contribs)

For info, Philippe has already replied to this on his talk page, where it was also posted. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 06:51, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Quite, thank you, Demiurge - I was just coming here to say that. You beat me to it ;-) Philippe Beaudette, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 07:08, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 10 July 2013[edit]

The Signpost: 17 July 2013[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Non-free content[edit]

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GOCE July 2013 news report[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors July 2013 backlog elimination drive mid-drive newsletter
  • Participation: Out of 30 people who have signed up for this drive so far, 18 have participated. If you have signed up for the drive but have not yet participated, it isn't too late. If you haven't signed up for the drive, sign up now!
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The Signpost: 24 July 2013[edit]

Question[edit]

No more trolling on my talk page, please.

Dear Sue Gardner,

I consider becoming a Wikipedian, but I have a question.

A few days ago I happened to read this

[10:10am] <sgardner>: Thehelpfulone: we could ask Kat, right now :-)

[10:10am] <Thehelpfulone>: indeed, mindspillage what do you do?

[10:10am] <sgardner>: (Pinning her up against the wall, as Ironholds likes :-) [10:10am] <mindspillage>: ...

[10:10am] <Ironholds>: ...

[10:10am] <sgardner>: LOL :-)

[10:10am] <Ironholds>: NOT what I meant

[10:10am] <StevenW>: She spills her mind, obviously. ;)

[10:11am] <Ironholds>: sgardner: you know the WMF covering psychiatric insurance?

[10:11am] <Ironholds>: does it just cover YOURS, or are you going to pay for the trauma I've just suffered? :p

[10:11am] <sgardner>: Most definitely :-)

[10:11am] <mindspillage>: Mostly, we send a lot of email. So part of it is the basic oversight role: reviewing the budget, the annual plan, evaluating the executive director ::eyes sgardner::. and the general functioning of the org...


So I wonder, if the WMF covering psychiatric insurance only for employees or for volunteers too?

Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.126.173.62 (talk) 18:11, 28 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm aware that this IRC exchange is being quoted, lately, in the context of an Arb Com case. I'm not that familiar with the case (nor do I feel I need to be), so I'll limit myself to a general comment about the exchange. This was an informal jokey exchange on IRC among people who know each other well: Ironholds, Kat and I have all known each other for years, and we are friendly. That's the context. A slightly broader point: IMO IRC is a medium that lends itself to, and is often used for, casual kibitzing -- it is essentially a social medium that provides a way for people to collapse physical distance and hang out together as though they were in the same room. In the same way that I don't think it would be useful to, years later, play back sections of a phone call or office water-cooler conversation, I also don't think it's useful to quote back sections of IRC dialogue. It's an ephemeral medium. Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 16:31, 29 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Does it mean that, when you 'do' hang out together in the same room Ironholds is pinning you and Kat up against the wall? Thanks.

@Sue Gardner:

  • Will you point to any IRC logs where you stated that ongoing misogynist behavior was inappropriate? Where any WMF staffperson stated that ongoing misogynist behavior was inappropriate?
  • Who hired Oliver Keyes, despite his years of misogynistic, violent, and defamatory rhetoric?
  • Doesn't your acquiescence to misogyny and indeed playful parroting of misogyny contribute to a hostile work environment for women at WMF? Kiefer.Wolfowitz 08:00, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps you would like to consider the point that different levels of seriousness / discretion are suitable for different types of social settings. For example, you don't behave the same way at a business meeting that you would behave at a party, the behavior at party would not be the same as at a pub and the behavior at a pub would be different from the behavior at a camping in the forest.... Similarly, the behavioral requirements on the net are also different at different places. The behavioral requirements at arbcom > ANI > article talk > user talk. You also have to consider whether the setting is friendly or disputatious. In dispute situations, even referring to me as "Oranges" may become contentious, but may not be so otherwise. Butting into other people's conversation, taking things out of context and blowing those out of context things out of proportion by detecting and becoming aghast at x$-ism (even when none of the participants in the conversation seem to have any problems with each other) seems somewhat bumptious to me. Surely you can find something better to do? Alternatively, perhaps you can find worse things to get aghast about? I could help you find both. Just ask. And, is it kosher for a Wikipedian to try to affect another Wikipedian's employment by contacting their employer?OrangesRyellow (talk) 12:16, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sue is responsible for her own behavior in Wikipedia's IRC. I have not contacted the board, which has the authority to hire and fire her. Kiefer.Wolfowitz 12:35, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I was talking about Ironhold's employment. I think Sue has the authority to fire him.OrangesRyellow (talk) 12:41, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, but this section discusses Sue's behavior. An earlier section alerts Sue to Ironholds's behavior, and it is the earlier section where your comments might be relevant. Kiefer.Wolfowitz 12:45, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
You have discussed Ironhold's behavior here too, with Sue. That my comment may be relevant elsewhere does not magically mean that it is irrelevant here. And my comment was not about Ironhold's employment alone.OrangesRyellow (talk) 12:57, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Just quickly I am going to say here: I am not planning to publicly discuss the behaviour of individual staff members, and it's unlikely I will be commenting in this thread again. If people continue discussing it, here or elsewhere, I'd ask you to be careful with your language. Please be generous or at a minimum neutral in terms of how you characterize the behaviour of others. "Misogyny," for example, is a very strong word and a serious accusation: it shouldn't be lightly made. Thanks. Sue Gardner (talk) 17:05, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@Sue Gardner:
"Misogyny" is the correct word to describe the advocacy of shooting named women and punching a hole in the windpipe of a woman to prolong her suffocation. It's also used by a leading newspaper:
  • Murphy, Dan (2013). "In UK, rising chorus of outrage over online misogyny: Recent events in Britain draw more attention to endemic hostility towards women online". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 1 August 2013. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
How do you describe the proposal to buy sex dolls in the likeness of Jimbo Wales and (by Ironholds) Peter Damien and to use the latter as a punching bag? (24 November 2011, employed as "Wikimedia Foundation community liaison")
Kiefer.Wolfowitz 20:26, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sue, in his article, Dan posed a simple challenge to you: as the leader of the WMF, who has expressed an interest in bolstering women on Wikipedia, why is it you seek to defend boorish behaviour rather than try and set the tone? Everyone is allowed to slip up, just surprised you didn't put your hand up and say "Not one of my finest moments, let's do better." About time WMF put up or shut up about IRC. Close it down or set some rules, set an example. Nobody else is going to do it for you. 94.169.24.206 (talk) 10:46, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sue, this is the kind of thing Jimbo does on his talk page when an uncomfortable topic is discussed. Cla68 (talk) 23:43, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
That's not fair to Jimbo, who allowed his talk page to be used to resolve another IRC discussion of sexual violence targeting a Wikipedia volunteer. Guess which WMF employee suggested punching a life-sized sex-doll of the volunteer? Kiefer.Wolfowitz 13:23, 4 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I was very concerned to read in the Christian Science Monitor the flippant tone and substance of the response by Sue Gardner to shocking and disturbing expressions of misogyny and sexualized-violence by WMF employee and Wikipedia editor Oliver Keyes (aka Ironholds), whose apparent years-long pattern of misogynistic, violent, and defamatory rhetoric I learned about thanks to the efforts of Kiefer Wolfowitz.
I was especially disillusioned when Gardner wrote, "I also don't think it's useful to quote back sections of IRC dialogue. It's an ephemeral medium." She actually seems to be saying that she didn't think it was convenient to have abusive and inappropriate IRC dialogue quoted back to her and reported on by the MSM or anyone else, and that she wished it were an ephemeral medium - when in reality it isn't. Her trying to hide this discussion on her talk page only serves to amplify the disillusion.
Why would I give my daughter permission - let alone encourage her - to become involved in editing Wikipedia or engaging in any way over any project for any reason with the WMF, when there is apparently official tolerance of the online abuse and degradation of women on Wikipedia and its related mediums (like quasi-official IRC)...by Wikimedia Foundation employees?! This is a question all responsible parents should ask, b/c unless I am mistaken, Gardner has not denounced Oliver Keyes' statements as inappropriate, nor has she advocated for an end to officially-tolerated online abuse of women by WMF staff, volunteers and/or supporters? If she has, I would appreciate being directed to that official statement and wonder why it has not been reported on by the media? (I do not believe a non-transparent user-driven "arbitration" can substitute for an official response from Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner.) Azx2 22:51, 25 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
A few have accused Ironholds of being a misogynist, but not a single women. Female editors have in fact said he's the very opposite, check for example this page and search for the word "progressive" to see several such statements. Having spoke to Sue at a London meetup, she's as caring a person as one could hope to meet. And you only have to check her contributions , including from today, to see she writes with sensitivity and compassion about all kinds of progressive causes. Its understandable that folk are passionate about this topic, but that makes it all the more important to do a little research before publicly asking such ultra hostile loaded questions against a woman who edits in her real name and is probably too busy to defend herself against this sort of thing. FeydHuxtable (talk) 00:37, 26 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed. It does amuse me that, while we have newcomers with, shall we say, interesting imagery on their user and talk pages (are both of those your daughters, Azx2?), making wild accusations like this, what we actually see on IRC on a day to day basis is that the most active of the people in charge of IRC are all female. Do they make the right decisions, do they make the wrong decisions, well I have no comment for now, but I wonder if this Azx2 person has ever spoken to those women about their decisions, before making these attacks here.
Oh, and the Christian Science Monitor made the mistake of allowing that ridiculous piece to be published under their byline, by an individual who has already declared that he wants money or "editorial control" otherwise he would rather gouge his eye out with a fork than contribute to Wikipedia.
Do you feel the same way, Azx2? What are you here for? Money? Editorial control? Something else? We would be interested to know. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 01:34, 26 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Personal and Moral Rights?[edit]

In a discussion with Jimmy Wales on the moral rights of the photographers and the personal rights of the subjects, he said "I think that the commons community has gone down a very sad and disappointing path with respect to ethical matters. My views on this are not new, and are well known. Our project is a grand humanitarian effort. That it has been hijacked by people who do not share our values is something that needs to be fixed."

We further requested him to bring this matter to the attention of WMF and make a resolution or something to force Commons make enough policies to protect our rights as a photographer and our commitments to our subjects. He replied: "I am just one board member on this issue. I will continue to call this to the attention of the board and staff, but I need help from the community to illustrate that this is a problem that concerns many of us."

So we would like to bring User_talk:Jimbo_Wales/Archive_138#Personal_and_Moral_Rights.3F to the attention of every member on board. JKadavoor Jee 11:09, 29 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for telling me this. Sue Gardner (talk) 17:05, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. And please note a somewhat related discussion at Commons too: Concern about the bureaucrat role of Russavia JKadavoor Jee 17:17, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to let you know that your strong opinion along with others ([1], [2], [3]) influenced the Commons community to initiate a discussion to develop a policy for courtesy deletions. We expect guidance, opinions, and participation in the development of similar policies and guidelines in future too. Thanks. JKadavoor Jee 02:48, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's a good outcome, Jkadavoor: I'm glad about it. Thank you for telling me. Sue Gardner (talk) 05:48, 5 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 July 2013[edit]

Proposed deletion of Mike Lofgren[edit]

The article Mike Lofgren has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

basically notable for one small event, no articles about him specifically, only the event.

While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

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Please comment on Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/RfC 2013[edit]

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Invitation[edit]

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VisualEditor newsletter for 06 August 2013[edit]

Quick tip: Need to wikilink a word in VisualEditor? Select the word and type Control+k or ⌘ Command+k to enter VisualEditor's link tool without taking your hands off the keyboard. See Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Keyboard shortcuts for more time-saving keyboard shortcuts.

It's been almost two weeks since the last newsletter, and a lot of improvements have been made during that time. The main things that people have noticed are significant improvements to speed for typing into long pages (T54012), scrolling (T54014) and deleting (T54013) on large pages. There have also been improvements to references, with the latest being support for list-defined references, which are <ref>s defined inside a <references> block (T53741). Users of Opera 12 and higher have had their web browser removed from the browser black-list, mostly as a result of work by a volunteer developer (T38000). Opera has not been fully white-listed yet, so these users will get an additional warning and request to report problems.

Significant changes were made to the user interface to de-emphasize VisualEditor. This has cut the use of VisualEditor by approximately one-third. You can read about these at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Updates/August 1, 2013, but they include:

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General thoughts on building something collaboratively[edit]

General recommendations on how to contribute – SJ + 03:00, 8 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 August 2013[edit]

GOCE July 2013 copy edit drive wrap-up[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors July 2013 backlog elimination drive wrap-up newsletter

We have completed our July backlog elimination drive.

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– Your project coordinators: Torchiest, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, and The Utahraptor.

Sign up for the August blitz! To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 23:50, 10 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Build a better mousetrap[edit]

"Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." Wikipedia's basic design discourages female participation. So, in order to increase female participation in WP, you would have to go back to the beginning and fundamentally alter how WP works. Not likely. Cla68 (talk) 14:00, 15 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 August 2013[edit]

Please comment on Template talk:Infobox country[edit]

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VisualEditor newsletter for 21 August 2013[edit]

Did you know? Parsoid is a tool that translates between the raw wikitext that Wikipedia articles are stored in, and the HTML/RDFa that VisualEditor uses on your screen. If you see chess pawn (♙) or snowman (☃) icons in an article, it usually means that Parsoid has encountered something confusing in the wikitext markup. Please report these problems to Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback.

Both VisualEditor and MediaWiki were upgraded recently. For VisualEditor, this is the long-awaited post-Wikimania update with many bug fixes and enhancements. Work also continues on speed at opening and during use, as well as on the bugs reported here and at other Wikipedias. The full report is at Mediawiki.

References are displaying properly, even when nested (T52749) or in image captions (T2000. Reference lists are now always fully populated with references (bug 50094). Firefox users can insert an existing reference in the first paragraph (T54159). Opera users no longer see corruption of categories when a reference was added (bug 50385).

Stray spaces are being stripped from the start of paragraphs to end one of the common <nowiki> problems (T53462). We also fixed a round-tripping bug that caused desirable whitespace in templates (used to make templates more legible, e.g., by putting each parameter in an infobox on a separate line) to get corrupted (bug 51150).

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A barnstar for you![edit]

The Special Barnstar
Sou Boyy awards Sue with a Special Barnstar for her Outstanding Contribution to Wikipedia and the Global Community Worldwide. My very best, Sou Boyy (talk) 13:42, 22 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you![edit]

The Special Barnstar
Thank you for your contribution to the discussion on Chelsea Manning's talk page. As a transsexual wikipedian, it really means a lot to see that you recognize and respect how trans people choose to be identified. I've been appalled at the response by some major media sources recently - they will report that she wants be be called by her new name with feminine pronouns, then go on and finish the article with the wrong name and pronouns. The media is bringing trans issues to the attention of a lot of people who have never thought about it before, and by ignoring her wishes they are teaching their readers that it is okay for them to misgender trans people in general. It is wonderful to see that Wikipedia changed the article so quickly and that you personally support the change. I hope that Wikipedia and the media sources covering this properly will help make people think twice about how they understand trans people, and will help make the world a better place for all of us. Thanks again! Jessica Ryan (talk) 18:50, 23 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

ANI notification[edit]

Hi Sue

This is just a courtesy note to say that I referred to you in a discussion at WP:ANI about the possible sanction of an editor for their comments in the debates on the naming of the article on Chelsea Manning.

The thread is Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Propose_closure; the diffs of my 2 relevant edits are [4] and [5]. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 21:31, 25 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE Blitz wrap-up and September 2013 drive invitation[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors August Blitz wrap-up

Participation: Out of sixteen people who signed up for this blitz, nine copy-edited at least one article. Thanks to all who participated! Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: During the seven-day blitz, we removed 26 articles from the requests queue. Hope to see you at the September drive in a few days! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Torchiest, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95 and The Utahraptor.

Sign up for the September drive!
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 03:04, 26 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 21 August 2013[edit]

You inspire people![edit]

Hello Sue,

I just sttoped by because I wanted to say thank you. You are an magnificent WikiWoman and real woman. It's great what you're doing.
I've always wanted to be a journalist and after reading your profile I am 100% sure that that's exactly what I want to do with my life, becoming a Journalist. Thanks for being such an inspiration. Miss Bono [zootalk] 15:49, 26 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Protecting child editors[edit]

Sue, have you read the latest blog post on Wikipediocracy? The adult WP editor who privately contacted the 11-year old has posted here on your talk page. Cla68 (talk) 22:56, 26 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 August 2013[edit]

September 2013[edit]

Information icon Please do not delete or edit legitimate talk page comments. Such edits are disruptive and appear to be vandalism. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. Someone not using his real name (talk) 19:54, 1 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry Someone not using his real name, it was an edit conflict. I don't know if you fixed it or I did but regardless, it was unintentional, and it's okay now :-) Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 20:03, 1 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Gender identity disorder[edit]

Hey, Sue. Just to let you know, you should be a bit more careful while editing regarding GID and autogynephilia; it's a recurring issue involving COIs and POVs that most recently surfaced here and here, among others. I'd also express concern when treating autogynephilia uncritically, especially given that WPATH doesn't seem to give it any currency. Sceptre (talk) 13:46, 2 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Want to help WLM? The last images needed in SF[edit]

I remember you contributed last year! The first 3 in the list are probably best done via archive search, so are not really WLM, but the last one has your name written all over it!

Any help appreciated.

Smallbones(smalltalk) 16:08, 2 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

[1] Name on the Register[2] Image Date listed[3] Location Neighborhood Description
52 Frederick Griffings's (ship) Upload image February 1, 1982
(#82002248) 		Address Restricted
37°48′11″N 122°24′08″W / 37.803°N 122.4021°W / 37.803; -122.4021 (Frederick Griffings's (ship)) 		Fisherman's Wharf


84 KING PHILIP (ship) and REPORTER (schooner) Shipwreck Site Upload image May 8, 1986
(#86001014) 		Address Restricted
San Francisco King Philip and Reporter shipwreck sites.


93 The Lydia Upload image July 16, 1981
(#81000173) 		Address Restricted
San Francisco Whaling bark


169 U.S. Appraisers Stores and Immigration Station Upload image August 13, 2013
(#13000590) 		630 Sansome St.
37°47′47″N 122°24′06″W / 37.796278°N 122.401764°W / 37.796278; -122.401764 (U.S. Appraisers Stores and Immigration Station) 		Financial District

References

  1. ^ Numbers represent an alphabetical ordering by significant words. Various colorings, defined here, differentiate National Historic Landmarks and historic districts from other NRHP buildings, structures, sites or objects.
  2. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  3. ^ The eight-digit number below each date is the number assigned to each location in the National Register Information System database, which can be viewed by clicking the number.

The dignity of a BLP subject[edit]

Hello. I've just read your submission to the Manning RfAr. I'm here to ask you to take office action regarding the title. The present title is clearly insulting and false, and you are failing in your commitment to the board every second that BLP violation stays in place. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 16:11, 2 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Per the "office" procedure, a formal complaint would be needed to take such an action. However, I second the request that the Wikimedia Foundation resolves the urgent BLP situation as soon as possible. Josh Gorand (talk) 19:03, 2 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
OK. I see from WP:OFFICE that office action is usually taken in response to a hysterical phone call to the Foundation. Let's not call it an office action, then, let's just call it Sue doing her job. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 05:33, 3 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The present title is Manning's birth name and legal name. It may not be the name Manning wishes people would use, but that hardly makes it false. While I would support changing the current title to Manning's preferred name, an office action would be excessive and, honestly, kind of annoying since there are far worst things on BLPs that are not going to be addressed by the Foundation. Manning may be displeased at the birth name being the title rather than the desired name, but the latter is given priority in the actual article and we refer to him with the female pronouns in the article itself so any insult is surely lessened.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 03:59, 3 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
So, we might be more insulting. That's your justification. (I see you still use the male pronoun.) --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 04:55, 3 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I am not presenting a justification, only stating that your suggestion this one thing is so egregiously bad that there needs to be an emergency office action is overblown. Bradley Manning is his legal name and birth name so it isn't false and we use Chelsea Manning in the actual article. As I said, I think we should use Chelsea Manning as the title, but it is not office action territory.--The Devil's Advocate tlk. cntrb. 15:05, 3 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sue has made it clear that we are failing in our duty to take account of the dignity of our subject when we can do so without affecting the quality of the article. She has both the power and the duty to fix that. It may cost her some allies and cause a little upset, but she should do what she's being paid to do, and what her principles tell her to do. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 18:33, 3 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Anthony, of the myriad issues facing WP and other WMF projects, you really feel this one is the most critical, urgent, and most in need of WMF involvement? Cla68 (talk) 23:11, 4 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, actually. It's a very visible example of the project's institutionalised indifference toward its subjects and readers, born out of the unique demographic that has flocked to this project and grasped its levers. This toxic unempathic alienating ethos is just what such a crowd could be expected to produce, and it is at the root of all other issues here. We need to be told to behave respectfully toward others by somebody with normal social sensibility. I think that's Sue.
Sue, the greatest legacy you could leave Wikipedia would be firm guidance, and compulsion where necessary, in dealing respectfully and empathically with our readers and subjects. We'll never do it on our own, given who/what we mostly are. And, again, you have a professional obligation to the Foundation (presuming the board meant what it said about BLPs) and far more importantly, a moral obligation to our BLP subject. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 00:07, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Quite simply, this is not within Ms. Gardner's power or authority to do. A office action will IMO never happen here, but in the extremely unlikely case that it did, there'd be a palace revolt. At the end of the day, it is just one minority group's opinion on how they wish to be addressed; it is not a human rights issue, nor is it something so critically dire (e.g. when the WMF had to step in to ban a sex offender from the Commons last year) that practically mandates a Foundation intervention. Tarc (talk) 01:12, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting. How do you see this revolt playing out exactly? Let's say Sue tells en.Wikipedia that it may not gratuitously and knowingly (at least on the part of those who actually know the first thing about gender issues) insult Manning as we presently do. What would happen then, exactly? --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 09:34, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Do you recall what happened to Jimbo when he tried to run roughshod at the Commons a few years ago? Tarc (talk) 12:40, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't follow the denouement. But Sue's not Jimbo, and this is en.Wikipedia. Perhaps you could explain it to me on my talk page, as Sue isn't bighting here. Sorry to have occupied your talk page like this, Sue. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 19:16, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, instead of trying to stamp out fires like this one, if the WMF were to get involved, they should try to address the big picture...i.e. establishing an administrative framework of Wikipedia in which content decisions are made in a thorough, consistent, and non-arbitrary manner. That would mean giving WP some adult supervision which, so far, the WMF appears reluctant to do. Cla68 (talk) 05:16, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I disagree. Callousness and autism form the root of the problem here, they're not some distracting epiphenomena. Our policy and practice doesn't presently reflect the foundation's humane BLP resolution but once that's addressed, the core remaining issues are our contempt for our readers (specifically regarding gratuitous offensive imagery) and our toxic, dysfunctional internal social norms - particularly our appallingly puerile boneheaded "debating" on article talk pages.
I don't mean to imply that the latter two will be easy, but I believe they will be enough, and larger top-down structural changes shouldn't be necessary. Again, though, a self-selected bunch of mostly tools and misfits will not achieve this on its own. And Sue may be gone in a month, so this is something for her successor. (But today you can oblige this project to conform to the Foundation's BLP resolution!) --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 06:43, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Anthony, you may wish to adjust your wording up there, as at the moment the "callousness and autism form the root of the problem here" line reads like you're calling other editors with whom you disagree autistic. Tarc (talk) 12:40, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I'm calling the project autistic. It's a hard truth to take on board, I know, but until that's acknowledged, there's no devising an effective management strategy, I'm afraid. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 19:16, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yesterday, Manning's lawyer submitted a formal request to Obama to be pardoned, using the terms "Bradley Manning" and "he". If Manning herself and Manning's legal team recognizes the complexity of this shift, especially happening at this particular moment in time, and is able to manage the subtlety and even be willing to use the "insulting" name, and they aren't storming around demanding everyone change everything right! now!, why can't you just take a chill pill and realize that in the fullness of time, sources *will* come around, and the page will be moved. If you are so damn concerned about BLPs, why don't you tackle the thousands of women who are still ghettoized through their categories - remember the media shitstorm? Are you fixing that BLP issue Anthony?--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 20:22, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And this is why Anthony's exhortations need to be taken with a large grain of salt. Fifteen months after a huge RFC about the Muhammad images, he's still whinging about how consensus went against the self-appointed "conscience of the community". --NeilN talk to me 20:36, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There was a lot of inexcusable behavior at the Manning article's talk page, and I have little patience for some of the arguments that were made there (and elsewhere) to keep "Bradley" in the title. However, it would be highly inappropriate for any office action to be taken on the matter. The day that WMF officials begin unilaterally intervening in content disputes and arguments over the application of WP:BLP—or any other policy founded in community consensus—I'll know it's time to put the "retired" banner on my user page. I wonder if it has occurred to the petitioner here that there may not always be an open-minded, thoughtful executive director at the helm of the Foundation. If Sue were to do what's been asked of her in this thread, it would set a dangerous precedent that could spell terrible trouble for the project somewhere down the road. Incidentally, I think the use of the word "autistic" in this discussion is quite ill-advised, both for the reason Tarc mentions and because it may promote misconceptions and stereotypes about people with autism. Rivertorch (talk) 23:42, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't believe there is any shortage of open-minded idealism surrounding the WMF projects. Unfortunately, sensitivity to transgender and womens' rights won't get WP and and Commons administered better. What that will take is some organizational acumen and decisive action. Cla68 (talk) 01:05, 6 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not so sure about that. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine. Wikipedia is not unlike the larger world. If the project had existed 50 years ago, there'd be any amount of nonsense going on over topics having to do with racial minorities. Go back 20 years further and we'd be fighting an uphill battle to remove anti-Semitism from articles. Since I've been editing here, I have encountered any amount of offensive drivel on homosexuality-related topics, and I've often found the community's response—or lack thereof—deeply frustrating. But I do believe things are slowly getting better on that front. More slowly than I'd like, to be sure, but I keep telling myself to be patient. In most First World countries, the war over gay rights is over and homophobia will be relegated entirely to the margins within another couple of generations. There are people who are having a lot of trouble accepting that, and we can safely assume that some of them are Wikipedia editors, but they're on the wrong side of history and with each year that passes they are less capable of causing serious problems (and in many cases are less inclined to even want to).
Transgender rights almost certainly constitute the next frontier in human rights, and that's already reflected in what's been happening here. I'm not trans and I don't know a lot about trans issues, but I'm old enough to remember what it felt like to be treated dismissively (or worse) because I was gay, and I think there must be parallels. As much as I'd like to immediately drag Wikipedia into the future (or even the present, as the case may be), I believe in the idea of consensus, of people discovering for themselves (albeit with much gentle persuasion and prodding) that they need to reevaluate their long-held assumptions. When they discover it for themselves, they tend to be reasonable, cooperative, and kind. When it's forced on them, they balk and turn stubborn and stop listening. That's true in real life, and it's true here as well. "Decisive action" likely would alienate many people who are great assets to the community. That would be too bad, because some of those people could wind up on the side of the angels if we'd only be patient and give them a chance to help form a broad consensus instead. Either way, we will get where we're going, but one way involves a lot less animosity and honors the collaborative, community-based spirit of the project. Rivertorch (talk) 02:58, 6 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
hey folks -- just a quick response. I'm sure everyone is aware of this by now, but we have no plans to take an Office Action on the Manning article title, because Office actions are reserved for legal situations not editorial ones. I personally believe, as I blogged, that the article should be named Chelsea Manning but that's my personal opinion as an editor and not the official position of the Wikimedia Foundation, which doesn't get involved in editorial discussions or decision-making. That said, I do *not* mind hosting this conversation here -- I've been reading the conversation and have found it interesting. Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 18:11, 13 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor newsletter for September 5[edit]

Did you know?

You can search for images directly in VisualEditor. Click the media icon, which looks like this:

Then type a few keywords into the search box. VisualEditor will search Commons for images or other files whose titles or descriptions contain those words, and will display thumbnail pictures of them for your review. Click one time on the image you want to insert in the article.

For more details, read VisualEditor's user guide.

This Thursday's VisualEditor update was mostly about stability and performance improvements, and some preparatory work for major planned improvements, along with bug fixes for non-English language support and right-to-left text. Everything that the English Wikipedia received today has been running on Mediawiki for a week already.

Officially, the problem with the link inspector not linking to a specific section on a page (bug 53219) was fixed in this release, although that critical patch actually appeared here earlier.

A number of bugs related to copy-and-paste functionality were fixed (48604, bug 50043, bug 53362, bug 51538, among others). Full rich copy-and-paste from external sources into VisualEditor is expected "soon".

In other fixes, you can no longer add empty ref tags (<ref/>) (bug 53345). Selecting both an image and some text, and then trying to add a link, previously deleted the selected image and the text. This was fixed in bug 50127. There was another problem related to using arrow keys to move the cursor next to an inline image that was fixed (bug 53507).

Looking ahead: The next planned upgrade is scheduled for next Thursday, and you should expect to find a redesigned toolbar with drop-down menus that include room for references, templates, underline, strikethrough, superscript, subscript, and code formatting. There will also be keyboard shortcuts for setting the format (paragraph vs section headings).

If you are active at other Wikipedias, the next group of Wikipedias to have VisualEditor offered to all users is being determined at this time. Generally speaking, languages that depend on the input method editor are not going to receive VisualEditor this month. The current target date is Tuesday, September 24 for logged-in users only. You can help with translating the documentation. In several cases, most of the translation is already done, and it only needs to be copied over to the relevant Wikipedia. If you are interested in finding out whether a particular Wikipedia is currently on the list, you can leave a message for me at my talk page.

For other questions or suggestions, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting problem reports at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback and other ideas at Wikipedia talk:VisualEditor. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:52, 5 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 September 2013[edit]

Evidence phase open - Manning naming dispute[edit]

Dear Sue Gardner.

This is just a quick courtesy notice. You recently offered a statement in a request for arbitration. The Arbitration Committee has accepted that request for arbitration and an arbitration case has been opened at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Manning naming dispute. Evidence that you wish the arbitrators to consider should be added to the evidence subpage, at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Manning naming dispute/Evidence. Please add your evidence by September 19, 2013, which is when the evidence phase closes. You can also contribute to the case workshop subpage, Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Manning naming dispute/Workshop. For a guide to the arbitration process, see Wikipedia:Arbitration/Guide to arbitration. For the Arbitration Committee, Seddon talk 23:28, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

hey Seddon, thanks for this note. I'm planning to contribute to the ArbCom case workshop subpage, and I have read the Guide but still have some questions. I'm going to lay out a few assumptions and questions below and would be grateful if you (or anyone, actually) could give me some help.
  1. Checking an assumption: it's fine for any user to add new proposed general principles, findings of fact, remedies, and enforcement provisions on the workshop subpage, right?
  2. Checking an assumption: I ought not to directly edit another editor's proposal, but rather comment below it, right?
  3. Question: I tend to think it'd be more helpful for the arbitrators if editors like me commented on and tried to help refine somebody else's existing proposal (thereby working towards consensus) rather than creating my own proposal (creating more divergence). Is that basically true?
  4. That said, I'm assuming the proposals are the property of the editor who created them. If the editor who created a proposal is not open to it being changed, it does not change. Right? (What I mean is, the proposal doesn't end up constituted of whatever gets the most support on the page. It ends up being whatever the original proposer is most comfortable with.)
Just want to check in on this stuff before I participate -- thanks for any answers you can provide :-) Sue Gardner (talk) 18:22, 13 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I guess Seddon didn't notice your question, so just to say all your assumptions seem correct, although re Q 4) it doesn't affect the outcome much whether or not the proposer accepts any changes to their workshop solutions, unless they happen to be an Arb. Just to add, while there might be little value in creating your own workshop proposals, it might help to add your own brief evidence section. Going by the 3 or 4 Arb cases I've contributed to, the Arbitrators seem to base their solutions more on the evidence submissions than on anything proposed in the workshop. FeydHuxtable (talk) 20:54, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 11 September 2013[edit]

Please comment on Talk:Léon: The Professional[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:Léon: The Professional. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 01:23, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm interested to hear from people who considered stopping editing due to the Manning article title controversy[edit]

In the discussions about what to name the article about Chelsea Manning, a number of editors have said they've been really unhappy with the way other editors were talking to them --- some, to the point where they said they were considering leaving Wikipedia.

From what I could tell, those expressions of pain and anger mostly got ignored, which struck me as strange. In other communities I'm a part of participants mostly try to avoid hurting each other, and when someone is made upset to the point of quitting, the people who are left behind generally express regret and dismay. Even --or maybe especially-- in cases in which the person who left was in some way unusual or an outlier. I think that's wise: communities have a tendency to narrow over time into groupthink and systemic bias, and diversity safeguards against that.

(This is particularly relevant and important to me because the Wikimedia Foundation has of course identified editor retention as the single biggest problem facing Wikipedia. Our top priority is to attract and retain more editors. And importantly, our research tells us that one of the main reasons people cite for quitting is unpleasant interactions with other editors.)

In thinking about this, I decided I wanted to open a spot on my userpage in which people who'd considered leaving Wikipedia because of the Manning dispute could --if they want to-- tell the story of what happened. What specifically about the way you were treated made you unhappy, and what would've needed to have happened to have fixed it. Is there anything other editors could have said or done. If you kept editing afterwards, what motivated you. What could tip the balance for you in future, either way.

You can name people or quote comments if you want, but for the purposes of this I think it probably makes sense not to --- it risks re-staging the same conversations over here, and also I am most interested in what other people could do to help. FWIW I'm not exactly sure what I'm planning to do with this. But at a minimum, I think it'd be useful reading in terms of helping editors figure out how they can best support their colleagues. Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 06:00, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I fit into this category. For me it was the accusation of hate speech - to me that seemed to be a legal threat, since hate speech is illegal in many countries. The fact that this accusation came from an administrator really makes me question the direction wikipedia is going. I was also unimpressed with admins - yourself included - making off-wiki criticisms about the episode. For various reasons I didn't want to get involved to the point of mentioning this at arbitration - in any case, off-wiki conduct isn't usually subject to sanctions. I don't mean to attack you; I just want to communicate how your actions made me feel. And none of this concerns the way I was treated personally, but it did mean I did not have the freedom to say what I thought were reasonable comments. I've been editing here for quite a few years, with a solid editing history, but this episode has brought me to something of a crossroads regarding my place on Wikipedia. I'm still thinking this through, but since you asked, here you are. StAnselm (talk) 06:18, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I just had a horrible thought occur to me - I checked, and have discovered that you're not an admin. I'm so sorry. The point still stands regarding my feelings, but I had jumped to conclusions. And maybe I have expectations about admins that is not in keeping with wikipedia ethos and/or policy. StAnselm (talk) 07:09, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
As a counterbalance to whatever other people say, I started editing again as a result of this controversy reminding me that editing Wikipedia was a thing. We'll see how long I stick around, but yeah: as long as it's kept within sane limits, the drama's part of the hobby. --erachima talk 06:55, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I monitored the Manning page and discussion, but did not contribute. I have relevant experience and knowledge of this area, but did not want to get involved in such a hostile space. In particular the accusations of bias/conflict of interest towards anyone with any knowledge and experience was completely off-putting. MRSC (talk) 09:09, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, pretty much. I'm not totally discouraged, after all I'm commenting now. Just sick of seeing the same problem for the last 7 years. It's a bigger problem than either the "Disagree with me? You're a Bigot!" and "How dare these Trans subhuman filth say I'm engaging in Hate Speech!" memes. Both sides are full of smug self-righteousness, one because Social Justice, the other because Exterminate the Perverts. Neither see the other as deserving any respect or consideration, even though on other issues they could disagree amicably. These memes disgust the sane on both sides. Meanwhile those who know their sh1t on the subject are hit with COI charges. OK, I take that back, I *am* totally discouraged and will likely not contribute again. No point. Zoe Brain (talk) 14:26, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Sue. I've emailed you on this matter a few weeks ago; I'd rather not expand here. Sceptre (talk) 14:10, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you Sceptre -- I got your mail, as well as a few others. I think I've replied to everyone who mailed me privately. Thanks for sharing your thoughts -- they were really useful. Sue Gardner (talk) 00:38, 28 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. I was never much more than a drive by editor, but now I'm not even that. Wikipedia is supposed to strive for accuracy, not to enshrining right-wing Trans and homophobic rubbish. Refusing to title Chelsea's page properly because of personal prejudices about what constitutes a real man or a real woman just reduces the whole project to the level of goddamned tv tropes or memory alpha. As soon as Chelsea Manning announced that she was Chelsea and not her former name and gender, it should have been changed and left changed. I'm not even going to try and correct inaccuracy if all we're doing is publishing rubbish of whoever can weasel loud enough to get their prejudice on the page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.208.159.12 (talk • contribs)

Yep. This. No point. Zoe Brain (talk) 14:28, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I saw the Manning article title change quickly and was pleased and unsurprised. I did not add it to my watchlist, for lack of concern and time.

I was surprised to see in the news last week that it had been changed back. I've since tried to follow the issue…but I've been frustrated with how unclear and verbose the process is, and I've been concerned with how uncivil the comments have been. And one has only so much time to give to Wikipedia.

It's difficult to see people with either no medical training or no personal experience contend what the subject's name and pronoun (present and past) should be.

The somewhat related question of religious or artistic name-changes is interesting and may be valid, and I have previously wondered if the common-name policy might be faulty for such, but I feel less qualified to speak there.

Startswithj (talk) 19:15, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I thought from the beginning that the article title change without consensus was on iffy ground in terms of policy compliance, but was ultimately the correct thing to do; however, the amount of vitriol and trans-hate from some people on the talk page was both offensive and disheartening. Those openly questioning the existence and legitimacy of trans identity seemed to be accepted as legitimate participants in the discussion.

Overall, I feel like it descended from a legitimate discussion over policy (whether the initial title change was compliant with policy) into an anti-trans rantfest. While I've decided to continue editing Wikipedia, I'm going to refrain from participating in debates where I feel that my identity - and the identity of millions of other trans people - is questioned. Kiralexis (talk) 20:50, 16 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

  • I am one of the folks who have considered leaving over this dispute. The foundation, Arbcom's and the community's consistent failure to define and enforce WP:CIVILITY has made this project hostile for editors who use logic and reason above emotion. The emotional outburst, in fact, have been consistently condoned for their factual correctness with little regard for their substance and delivery. The inability of some editors to separate hate speech from legitimate discourse and the inability of editors to separate reasonable criticism from vitriol is, frankly, beyond the pale. Your comments in this discussion had two effects, you established that enforced points of view can be legitimate, undermining core policy and foundation principals, and you empowered those who cast wide nets and polarized the discussion. I've very disappointed in you, Sue. You should've take a page out of Jimbo's book and commented about how to discuss the matter rather than picking a side. For this project to succeed, we need to be able to trust in your ability to guide but not direct. This dispute likely would've never occured had the procedure for move discussions taken place properly; and yet it's glossed over. Those arguing that the move had to happen immediately or else it would've been harmful should reevaluate the effect the immediate move actually did have in that now the article is locked into Bradley. Had time and care been taken, the end effect would've been an article properly titled Chelsea Manning by this point, a content community, and less harm to Chelsea. I hope you consider your role in the next dispute and I hope your efforts will provide guidance that will temper emotions and push toward reason and logic above activism, hatred, anger, and fear. We need to build respect for each other in the community, build bridges instead of walls. I've always tried to reach a hand out to my opponents. Someone in your position here had a lot of potential to do that. I'm available to discuss the matter at your convenience if you'd like.--v/r - TP 02:08, 17 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • @TP - re " should reevaluate the effect the immediate move actually did have in that now the article is locked into Bradley" - Hear hear! The tragedy here is that the folks who held the pro-Chelsea POV tried to lead rather than follow. Had they just been a bit more humble and sought a consensus based move, this entire load of shenanigans probably wouldn't have have occurred and their viewpoint would have won out. @Sue Gardner - Your question seems to suppose that this debate caused some obvious breaches of WP:CIVIL. If that's the case, could you point to them so that I can take them to the regular channels for this kind of thing (e.g. ANI or AE). If you can't point to them, then why start this discussion? WP has ways to cope incivility. Your asking for complaints here seems to subvert the normal channels. NickCT (talk) 15:36, 17 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • NickCT, I'm interested in this statement of yours ("Had they just been a bit more humble and sought a consensus based move, this entire load of shenanigans probably wouldn't have have occurred and their viewpoint would have won out"). Do you honestly believe that if folks who wanted the page moved to CM had proposed the move on the talk page that we wouldn't have had the BM-titlers and the CM-titlers descend onto the page? NW (Talk) 03:40, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well, it's always fun to play what-if, so let's play along. What-if, instead of moving and locking, Gerard said "Hmm... Manning's name is widely known, he's certainly not going to be harmed by it sticking around here a few more days, and he's in prison anyway and not browsing wikipedia, so let's wait to what sources do" - so you start a low-grade discussion on talk but no formal move... and then after 7 days or so, once you've built up an arsenal of sources and wire services and so on that have switched, you propose a move. If they had done this, many !votes for Bradley would have been for Chelsea, as I'm assuming they will in the next move. The move-war+lock at the "Wrong version" pissed people off, and it happened BEFORE most sources had moved, and people wrote articles celebrating the fact that wikipedia moved before most sources had moved. It made it look like an amazingly clever team of top editors had quickly convened and make the "right" decision and "Wikipedia" had done the right thing, and then, consensus came back swinging and you saw the result. In the NY Times, the top editors can get together, and make a decision, and it will stick, but that doesn't work here - a small cabal of very clever people still doesn't win out over the masses - that is the model. The end result was, wikipedia looked silly, going both ways. If we would have waited a week or two (like our friends at Brittanica), and then moved by consensus, no-one would have beat us up too badly, and interesting articles about how wikipedia is a tertiary source and we needed to wait until other sources moved would have been written exposing how wikipedia actually works, vs the bullshit articles that were written instead (e.g. Omg, wikipedia is so trans* progressive! Wait, ZOMG, Wikipedia is so trans* regressive!!?? and then, on October 7, Finally, wikipedia is so trans* progressive, again).--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 03:52, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm trying to understand, I really am. Are you saying that people chose BM instead of CM out of spite for David Gerard and Morwen? NW (Talk) 04:45, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm saying I think the bulk of people chose BM because of COMMONNAME - which shifted rather quickly as it turns out. Nonetheless, the fact that the article had already been moved w/o discussion drew more flies to the soup as it were. When you do something to piss off your opponent, no matter how right you are, they are unlikely to be convinced by your arguments. So some people who may have switched sides, or taken a more expansive view, I think came in hardened and annoyed. Just MHO. We see a number of people !voting against another page move at Talk:Alexis Reich because they are angry and doubt my motives (ignoring evidence and policy), so the evidence is there that people behave this way.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 04:51, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
@Obi-Wan Kenobi & NW - I think Obi expresses the case well here. I was definitely was one of those "hardened and annoyed" folks.
Note that near the end of the last RM discussion, a lot of the COMMONNAMERs were saying "Hey! CM wasn't the commonname when the initial move to CM was made, but now it appears that it is" (for the record, I was partially in that camp). That strongly strongly indicates to me, that when the initial move to CM was made it was wrong and unsupported by consensus, but by the end of the RM discussion, it might have been right. "if folks who wanted the page moved to CM had proposed the move on the talk page" my feeling is that conversation would have eventually played out in their favor. NickCT (talk) 11:59, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Right from the start the conversation was transphobic, and I do mean comparing "being transgender" to "thinking that one is a dog". These comments came regularly through the conversation, again, and again, and again. I'm transsexed, and the first time you see one of these comments it takes me back to trapped on the subway two football players sneering at me calling me a dog no way to get out or that time buying a sandwich someone behind me shouts "What is *that*?" get out get to safety. It shuts you out of the discussion, hard. If you label these comments for what they are, transphobic derailing of the conversation, you get shouted at and people say you are as bad as the person who attacked the conversation. I have edited wikipedia before on my PhD research topic, but... why would I contribute to a project that does not respect the fundamentals of my identity? There is no way during conversation to tell whether a comment has widespread support or widespread opprobrium, no 'karma'. Put it like this: the front page of Reddit is a safer space than Wikipedia talk pages. 7daysahead (talk) 23:14, 17 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@7daysahead: I'm sympathetic to your feelings, but do you feel it makes you a better person to label them when they make those comments? Or have you allowed them to bring you down to their level? Wouldn't you rather take the high road? We have venues to get these things addressed when you see them that doesn't require you to fight back. Venues like WP:ANI, WP:RFC/U, WP:Arbcom, WP:DR and even here on Sue's or Jimbo's pages. Wouldn't you rather be the better person? Where does calling them transphobic get you? Do you think they feel bad? Heck, they probably want you to lash out. You do yourself more credit by not sinking, holding your head up, and letting their comments seal their own fate.--v/r - TP 01:06, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
No, TP. Being called transphobic is nothing at all like experiencing transphobia. It is not a slur to correctly identify someone's actions. I am not ashamed to speak when someone uses language which is hurtful. Please consider the weighting you give to these two hurts: me, being dragged back to a time when I was in fear for my life, and an editor whose opinion is not immediately accepted. 7daysahead (talk) 13:47, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm disappointed. Accepting your premise that calling someone transphobic is not as bad as experiencing transphobia, not as bad still doesn't equate to good. I would expect that dignified people would not allow themselves to sink any degree below their character. Just because you haven't sunk as low as someone who would make you fear for your life doesn't mean that calling someone names isn't also low.--v/r - TP 15:44, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I wasn't going to comment here again, but I can't let that one go. Identifying problem behavior, such as the use of transphobic language, does not constitute "calling someone names". You've made it very clear that you don't think the use of terms like "transphobic" and "homophobic" are helpful to describe comments made by Wikipedians. Fine, you're entitled to that opinion, and in at least a few instances I think you may be right. Nonetheless, I hope you'll try to understand that many of your fellow editors find the terms usefully explanatory because they concisely convey the nature of certain comments and indicate precisely why they are objectionable and disruptive. If a white supremacist SPA has posted offensive comments, are we to eschew saying the comments are racist, for fear of being accused of namecalling? Rivertorch (talk) 18:27, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
As I said above, "Where does calling them transphobic get you? Do you think they feel bad? Heck, they probably want you to lash out. You do yourself more credit by not sinking, holding your head up, and letting their comments seal their own fate." If you wish to describe comments as racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, theophobic, ect, the proper form is to do so in accordance to WP:NPA by taking the issues to the relevant noticeboards with serious evidence to support such a claim. Laying the accusation out, alone, unsupported, as a retaliation to offense, is not at all helpful or productive to the encyclopedia and only serves to make the person making the accusation feel better. However, their 'feel better' is short lived because two things happen, 1) The editor who made the original offending statement never gets taken to account at a noticeboard, and 2) The editor making the accusation is now at risk of a block themselves. So, as I continue to say, take the higher road and take it to a noticeboard instead of name calling (defined in the context of my voice as "Laying the accusation out, alone, unsupported, as a retaliation to offense").--v/r - TP 18:55, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Never mind. I wasn't referring to either "feeling better" or "retaliation". I think we're talking past each other, and I don't suppose Sue's talk page is the place to iron that out (if there is such a place). Rivertorch (talk) 20:32, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

My experience has been one of enlightenment and education. I used a poor choice of words out of ignorance. I chose to say "Chelsea Manning does not exist."[6]. This was not intended to say "exist" as a person but rather "notable" as a name for the person that committed felonies. This was before any notable sources had adopted an MOS definition that would use "Chelsea" to describe her. Since them I am struck by the multitude of experiences and conflict within the trans* community. Even on Wikipeida talk pages I watched a discussion between two self-identified trans women arguing whether "trans woman" or "transwoman" was the correct term (one term implied a third gender while the other did not). On the one hand there are people that are post-transition females that are very wary of "men" defining what it means to be female. I've listed such at the Arbcom evidence page with links to trans* individuals that have different understanding of trans* issues than have been expressed by advocates here. On the other hand, there are accounts of transgender persons that suffer needlessly due to conditions they have no control over. This has included me in the debate as I was "labeled" but I believe the label to be inaccurate. Unfortunately people don't wear signs that say "narcissist" or "transgender" or "straight" or "gay" or "male" or "female". It would be much easier if we all wore signs that said exactly who we are. As for this experience, I am at an impasse as it's not clear to me where Manning should exist. I think I feel somewhat like Christine Benvenuto, who we don't have an article one but wrote about her experience regarding transgender issues and was married to Joy Ladin which we do have an article on. I was struck by an account of a court appointed psychologist that said Joy posed no danger to her children but would not read any accounts or articles on trans* issues that the psychologist recommended [7]. Why wouldn't she do that? Christine was shouted down at her book reading in Amherst [8] by a professor that didn't even read the book before the protest. I don't like people being shouted down or excluded from the debate because their views aren't accepted even though their experiences are real. --DHeyward (talk) 05:02, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

  • One thing that really bothers me is that during debates over topics that touch on homosexuality or transgender issues, there are often ad hominem accusations of homophobia and transphobia leveled at editors, usually without strong evidence to back it up. What is really distressing is that WP's administration never does anything about these violations of AGF and NPA. WP effectively gives a free pass to editors who make these unfair and hurtful accusations. It is one reason why I have, for the most part, given up on Wikipedia. Cla68 (talk) 08:34, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    I'm personally more concerned with the hostile environment this creates to LGBT editors than a few hurt feelings that people who have likely never been discriminated against have when someone brings up their privileges. Sceptre (talk) 02:22, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sure you know the phrase "two wrongs don't make a right". Being a member of an oppressed class doesn't grant you special privilleges here.Two kinds of pork (talk) 05:39, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Sceptre: I'm curious that, as AFAIK, I fit into the "never been discriminated against" category. I usually feel a certain anonymity with WP. I've had experiences of exclusion as I am not from the country nor speak the native language of my co-workers, but not to the level I would describe as discrimination. At the same time, I've never knowingly experienced any kind of privilege. On WP, I've never expressed gender, sexual preference, age, nationality, etc. In what way have you experienced a hostile environment as an LGBT editor? WP seems to a fairly tolerant place overall and I personally haven't experienced a hostile environment. Can you expand your hostile experience? --DHeyward (talk) 06:46, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    I said who have likely never been discriminated against, which reflects the results of various editorship surveys showing that Wikipedia editors are predominately English speaking college-educated men in OECD countries: those bestow a lot of privileges on people. With regards to hostile environments, the thread on Jimbo's talk is worth a read. In essence, there are many cisgender editors who are effectively saying "journalistic unions are wrong, healthcare professionals are wrong, judges are wrong, I'm right" based on nothing but an apparent animus against transgender people. Even where there is no animus, the fact that we're allowing people who know very little about the topic form a consensus is problematic in itself. Even more so when they're apparently more "neutral" than people who have said knowledge. The moving back of the article to the previous name does send out a message to transgender people that "your identity is predicated on our acceptance", and becomes more worrying when there are reliable sources who will likely never accept it.
    To expand on that, Wikipedia, as a tertiary source, often follows the sources, and there's nothing wrong with that in theory. But theory doesn't really work when you're dealing with living people and disprivileged groups. COMMONNAME has long being problematic, reducing thoughtful discussions to search result comparisons, as if we're so afraid of original research that we can't even read the sources, we just slap a {{cite web}} on it. And when it comes to living people, it becomes a recipe for disaster.
    By resorting to COMMONNAME as a sort-of-guillotine, we abdicate to sources. But what if there is institutional problems with the sources? Lord Justice Leveson remarked last year that transphobia is still rampant in the British media despite the industry's ethical code. And it's a problem that extends to the most progressive news sources in society and can often prove deadly. And such abdication of responsibility must come with the realisation that we can become complicit in perpetuating this systemic violence.
    I'm assuming good faith and applying Hanlon's razor here. While many editors aren't transphobic, they are showing signs that they probably don't understand the first thing about trans issues. Which is understandable in itself, but caution must be advised when editing in topics where you haven't the faintest clue. I don't know anything about phonemic orthography, so I won't edit articles relating to it. And so too must we resist the temptation to edit articles whose subjects have been in the news; it never ends terribly well, even if you are familiar with the topic.
    And a lot of the comments derided as transphobic by other editors are fundamentally based in a miscomprehension of gender identity - that all the markers of gender in the body are immutable, synchronous, and dyadic. Which is what we've been taught, really, and is what our culture has ingrained into us. Furthermore, a lot of people just aren't aware of transgender issues the same way they're aware of gender discrimination, racism, or homophobia. Perhaps a better word for this state of mind could be "transignostic"?
    The worrying part is when we're seeing people deride the move as being "political correctness gone mad" - there, it crosses the line between ignorance and malice. 99% of the time, "political correctness" is used as a boogeyman to oppose all sorts of things because it doesn't fit their political viewpoint (and indeed, political debates around transgenderism typically devolve into accusing trans people of being rapists, pedophiles, or otherwise sexually deviant). And the other 1%? Well, we're out of hope when one of the few editors who should know all about the phrase joins in with the 99%. And worse still is when we're seeing people say, without irony, "just because I think I'm a vegetable doesn't mean I am one". It's not just one thing, it's a lot of things, and it all adds up to hostility and death by a thousand cuts. Sceptre (talk) 10:13, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sue Gardner, I am a editor on Wikipedia, and was working very hard on improving the Dance Moms tv show page. I got the article semi protected and was happily working away on it when I left a comment about Bradley Manning. All I said on the Bradley manning talk page was that I believe we should use his legal name, since he has not had a legal name change yet. I think I stated this maybe 3 times. Soon after, I got a message on my talk page that read-"You've written in a few places on the Bradley/Chelsea Manning talk page that it's fine to use the name Bradley because Manning hasn't legally changed her name yet. However, many trans people consider it rude to use the person's birth name in a way that implies that is their proper name (that is, in a way that suggests their new identity is in some sense false or improper). So generally people aren't asserting that it is legally incorrect to use Bradley Manning, but many are asserting that it is impolite, certainly to the subject, who was requested use of Chelsea from now on, and generally to trans people at large. In short: we're not saying "this is her legal name," we're saying "this is her preferred name, please be polite and use it!" I had to ask the person who left the message if the "we're" was referring to Wikipedia as a whole, or was this a Wikipedia rule. He replied back the following-"To be clear, "we" here is "myself and some others that are arguing in favour of CM use". There isn't a special case policy saying you should name a trans person's article a particular way". First of all, I don't like to be told "this is her preferred name, please be polite and use it!" This really pissed me off and I have not edited any articles since. I'm so tired of having to act like Wikipedia is some type of school, where if you voice an opinion,someone's feelings may get hurt. Or even worse, when I voiced my opinion in a polite way, I was told what to do. Being told what to do does not hurt my feelings one bit,but being told what to do by the pro Trans pushers pisses me off. So just because I voiced an opinion about a legal name change I am told I need to "Be polite and just use it". I think everyone coming out of the woodwork on the pro Trans side needs to realize that just because someone dares to disagree with them about something like a legal name change,does not make that person "Transphobic" or whatever word they label anyone that does not agree. BeckiGreen (talk) 02:56, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oh jeez, this was me. I certainly didn't mean to drive you away from WP; I thought your comments sounded like you thought we were trying to arrive at Manning's proper legal name, whereas largely the pro-Chelsea arguments were about using a preferred name. I didn't intend that "be polite and use it!" remark as a direct command, but rather as a potted summary of (one line of) pro-Chelsea argument. FWIW I don't think you're a transphobe. Chris Smowton (talk) 10:09, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • I was never involved in this discussion, although I've been involved in some efforts to change MOS:IDENTITY so it doesn't create ridiculous situations like the one with John Mark Karr/Alexis Reich, but I will say this. The concern about people's' feelings here seem grossly misplaced, as we are not a therapy group here to placate people. We would never allow the article on the Ainu people to be moved to Utari, even though the term Ainu has strong derogatory connotations, because it would be unnecessarily confusing and blatantly activist; therefore, although I personally use Utari, I'm quite content to use Ainu in articlespace. If you want to talk about real possibilities of WP causing harm, I've been doing nothing but editing an article which could cause a someone far less equipped than transgender people very serious harm (see Genie (feral child) and the split I'm working on in my userspace). Coming from editing that article, I can't say I take the gloom-and-doom, meta:MPOV arguments from LGBT people about harm is all that convincing; the least of Manning's concerns while sitting at Fort Leavenworth is going to be what the Wikipedia article is titled. And lest you think I'm just the white heterosexual male commenting (which I am), I also have PDD-NOS which has made my life very difficult; I was mercilessly picked on in school, far more than the gay kids in my middle school were, so I know how it is to be discriminated against because, well, I am and have been. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 18:43, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hi The Blade of the Northern Lights. I agree with you that Wikipedia shouldn't make decisions based on whether or not they would result in people's feelings being hurt. That said, the issue of potential harm does warrant consideration, and whether Chelsea Manning would be at risk of being harmed by the titling of the article is a legitimate question. (I don't think it's quite as simple as saying it's the least of her concerns. To the extent that misgendering a transgender person is or could be harmful, "everyone [or anyone] else is doing it" would not be a good rebuttal, and I also think that Wikipedia would need to consider what we know of Manning's emotional and mental state when weighing the potential likelihood and seriousness of harm: my understanding is that she has been diagnosed with gender identity disorder, and has clearly said that in considering whether to announce her transition, her main motivator was horror at the idea of being publicly misgendered.)
I also think that although consideration of hurt feelings shouldn't drive Wikipedia's decision-making, it is legitimate for it to influence how we talk with each other, because we presumably all want Wikipedia to be a pleasant, friendly environment. A number of editors have expressed unhappiness about the thoughtlessness of some of the comments on transgender issues (the ones that implied transitioning is a whimsical thing, that a person's gender identity is not their own to determine, the ones that called Chelsea Manning "it," etc.), and although I think it would be a mistake to characterize that unhappiness as simple "hurt feelings," I do think it has been hurtful to some editors, particularly those who are themselves transgender. I think it's reasonable for us to be careful to not say things that are gratuitously, accidentally offensive. Sue Gardner (talk) 00:38, 28 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Daira Hopwood[edit]

Lots of cis people here not understanding what "transphobia" even means :-(

I've written much more on this subject but I'll post it later (I'm at a conference at the moment). --Daira Hopwood ⚥ (talk) 06:56, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Transphobia - Intense dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people. The problem with the words trans-phobia and homo-phobia is that they use the wording phobia in them which means "fear" The wording of phobia is used a-lot and in medical terms as well. My opinion is that I hope over time the trans-community will adopt a better word that can be better understood by people because transphobia is yes a confusing word to many. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 13:46, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Because of course the burden lies upon the oppressed minority to adopt terms to describe hate-speech that are more acceptable to the powerful majority among whom the practitioners of that hate-speech find sanctuary. In my opinion, the privileged can get the hell over their etymological discomfort much more easily than trans people can 'get over' being placed at a disadvantage in almost every environment through a mixture of ignorance and hate on the part of others. AlexTiefling (talk) 13:58, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I think most editors understand that "transphobia" means hatred rather than fear. That is precisely the problem. It is possible to disagree with a person, even on a subject that they feel deeply about, without hating or even disliking them. I have great sympathy for the situation of trans people, and the horrible experiences that many of them have faced at the hands of people who DO hate them. And yet I have still disagreed with them in some of these connected discussions. Perhaps that is out of ignorance, but never hatred. Please make that distinction. – Smyth\talk 00:41, 23 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
A lot of burning keyboards could probably have been cooled down if a bit of distinction had been made - there were only one or two comments that made me feel as though the author was actually aggressively anti-trans*, but there were plenty of transphobic comments - and some of them were the sort of thing I myself, who identify under the trans* umbrella, would have said not too long ago. I am willing to give people a break once or twice. There's often quite a big diplomatic difference from accusing someone of being something, and telling them their actions and words had a particular effect. It really would have helped for folks to say "I'm not saying you're transphobic, but what you just said comes across as transphobic and here's why." If you can open up why, that's a win in my books, but so much of the conversation just descended into mud-slinging, and plenty of people getting so hopping mad about being called transphobic - as though that was going to go on some kind of celestial CV and ruin their reputations forever - that it prevented them from ever asking why someone called them that. Stuff like "can I just say I identify as a rubber plant and boom, I'm a rubber plant" or "HE has male plumbing; he's a guy" or "Manning is not a reliable source as regards his/her own gender" dropped me quite hard. It made me realise just how much people who don't have this "feature" in their lives do not take the time to think empathically about what it must be like. I followed the discussion and said something once or twice, and to be honest it's changed my entire opinion of Wikipedia as a source. I never noticed before how a particular demographic dominated it so clearly. – Happeningfish\talk 00:41, 23 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yes. And I think it is definitely worth us distinguishing between transphobic comments and transphobic people. Probably hardly anybody would say that they are transphobic. But, lots of people say things that have transphobic assumptions underpinning them, or that would have effects that support transphobic attitudes.
I have, for sure. Before I read anything about transgenderism, I thought and said all kinds of things that were factually incorrect -- for example I assumed that the only determinant of gender was medical/physical, that gender was fixed, that gender was easily established. And I was totally unclear about the difference between gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex. That didn't change until a few different things happened -- as a journalist I met and interviewed a few transgender people such as Kate Bornstein and Jan Morris, then later I stumbled across this link, and then I eventually read Julia Serano's Whipping Girl. That helped a lot -- I started being able to think, and express myself, more clearly. (Even after that though, I've definitely made mistakes: for example in an early conversation with a colleague post Chelsea Manning's transition announcement, I remember accidentally calling Manning "he.") I don't think it would be fair to say I was ever a transphobic person. But it would definitely be fair to say I have thought and said things that were transphobic -- even as recently as, like I said above, a few weeks ago.
So I don't think that labelling people as transphobic is ever helpful: it pushes them to want to defend themselves, and to justify why whatever they said was okay. I *do* think it's helpful to point out where somebody's attitudes or opinions are rooted in transphobic assumptions, because often people are just speaking out of lack of knowledge, and the only way they will get smarter is if other people help them. Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 00:38, 28 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

AlexTiefling[edit]

Yes, I have considered taking a WikiBreak, or even leaving for good, over this issue. I think that the way in which some editors - especially but not only Baseball Bugs - have been allowed to get away with explicitly transphobic remarks and a deeply damaging battleground attitude has permanently harmed my already low esteem for civility on the site. Bugs gets away with a hell of a lot on Reference Desks and ITNC as well; along with a few others, he seems to belong to a mysterious class of 'tolerated trolls' whom I would much rather see banished. For him to dominate the discussion of Manning's gender identity so completely with his usual jerkishness was extremely discouraging. Similarly, we have seen remarks from a wide range of users claiming special knowledge of everything from 'legal name' laws in the USA to the contents of Manning's underwear. This is simply not a responsible way for an encyclopedia to determine policy or write content. I am making a fuller statement to the ArbCom shortly on this basis; I do not yet know whether I will remain as an editor here in the longer term. AlexTiefling (talk) 13:58, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For the arbcom, you basically have until the end of today - David Gerard (talk) 14:22, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
You call the first half of this responsible? Your venting is not helpful, all it does is contribute to the polarization. You're exactly like Bugs, just on the other side.--v/r - TP 14:29, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yes. Yes I do. Please retract your accusation, as the equivalence it draws is plainly unjust. Constantly picking at the choices of words made by the oppressed to describe their oppression helps to perpetuate it. AlexTiefling (talk) 16:04, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I wrote a response, then I saw the word limit. I'll trim it down before the end of the day. AlexTiefling (talk) 16:05, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, David Gerard. If I say I disagree with you, will you accuse me of engaging in "hatespeak"? And, if so, do you think you should be given a pass on NPA because you are defending one side of the debate? Cla68 (talk) 12:43, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A call for calm[edit]

I've been keeping an eye on this conversation for a few days now, hoping it would stop feeding off itself, but I'm going to intervene at this point and put out a call for calm. Sue asked people to share their experiences here, but users have taken that as license to attempt point-counterpoint debate instead, and each thread of that debate has ended in unkind words and accusations between the two "sides". Far from being a safe place where users can tell Sue how this experience has affected them, this page has now become yet another front in the war.

Having seen quite enough of that, I'm going to ask, possibly stepping on Sue's toes in the process, that people weighing in on this thread stick to speaking about their own experiences, rather than confronting those whose experiences or comments they find problematic. TParis and Sceptre, I'm going to ask that you folks, especially, take a step back. You've both made your points quite loudly in many places this week, and there's little except animosity to be gained by continuing to do so here, where Sue is trying to get a handle on what the experience means to people, rather than what people think about what the experience should have meant to others.

A reminder to everyone: Discretionary Sanctions are active in the topic area of transgender issues. I'm not prepared to start handing out sanctions quite yet, but everyone should be aware that this is an encyclopedia, not a cage fight, and users treating it as the latter is exactly why we have discretionary sanctions available to us. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 15:47, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

FN, if anyone accuses someone of engaging in hatespeak, either transphobia or heterophobia, without clear evidence, please issue the block. If you can keep the debates honest, you will help WP more than WP's administration has done so far. Cla68 (talk) 12:46, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
@Flutternutter, could you give a clearer idea of what conduct would warrant a sanction? To give a concrete example, no action was taken against Baseball Bugs' open and repetitive hostility, and I am interested to hear whether you have a perspective. 7daysahead (talk) 15:02, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The area of conflict with regard to recent transgender issues is extremely large and sprawling over more and more talk spaces lately, so right now, I'm focusing only on the small area of "the discussion Sue requested the community have here on her talk page", which is more handle-able by one admin. As I said above, Sue's request to hear people's experiences has turned into people fighting with each other, and I'm asking that people stop that back-and-forth debate. If users persist in arguing with each other here - whether that's calling each other names, or insisting people justify or discuss their emotions, or fighting over what "is" is - I am likely to impose what you might call a page-level topic ban by instructing those users to leave this conversation. I don't expect sanctions any more serious than that to be likely to be needed with regard to this conversation on this page, which again, is where I'm choosing to focus my energies for the moment. That doesn't mean that users aren't subject to sanctions on this topic elsewhere if they behave poorly; it just means that right now I'm trying to get this conversation under better control. To answer your question about Baseball Bugs, he doesn't appear to be participating in this particular conversation. If he did choose to participate, I would expect him to behave as well as I'm asking anyone else here to behave. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 15:38, 21 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't like to reply quickly. (Hence the username "Ent").
Sue, my first thought upon seeing your question was "Push poll much"? Although I've voted for Bradley twice -- because that's what she was known as during the events which make her encyclopedic -- I don't really care that much one way or the other (as long as there's a redirect from Bradley). I'm going to pretend you asked the neutrally worded question If you have considered stopping editing, why? And the answer is, "only every time I log on, because many folks treat each other like shit around here and we have no idea what to do about it."
The Manning case does provide a good example. I find it sadly ironic that folks very concerned about how we treat a third party seem to have no hesitation ripping into their fellow editors on-wiki. The derogatory comments regards trans people are obvious but accusing folks of "transphobia" is, too: Words have both denotative and connotative meanings. Reviewing the origins in Transphobia, it is clearly not a neutral term. Regarding the similar term homophobia, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association styleguide specifies Restrict to germane usage, such as in quotations or opinions. Use “LGBT right opponents” or a similar phrase instead of “homophobes” when describing people who disagree with LGBT rights activism. The view espoused somewhere above that because calling Chelsea a freak or something is worse than transphobic justifies transphobic -- in other words, my insult is justified because your insult is worse, has been played out over and over on Wikipedia for years. (See archives of WP:WQA if you have days to waste watching editors sling mud at each other).
The problem is, we know the problem but don't have a solution, because it's all gray and cultural (English WP spans a lot of cultures). Any attempt to define a "speech code," will have editors gaming the system, going right up to the line, baiting other editors, ratting them out. So yea, we have some significant behavior issues on Wikipedia. If I had any great idea as to how WMF could spend some of the millions to help, I would, but honestly I don't. NE Ent 19:50, 6 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

ygm[edit]

Hello, Sue Gardner. 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 remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Kevin Gorman (talk) 02:37, 17 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

YGM from me, too, 2x (or possibly 3x if today's e-mail sent twice...the "send" button was being buggy, sorry). -sche (talk) 02:16, 18 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor newsletter for September 19, 2013[edit]

Did you know?

You can edit a page's categories in VisualEditor. Click the "Page settings" button (next to Cancel/Save) in the toolbar to open the category tool. It will show you a list of the current categories for that page.

To add a category, type the name of the category you want to add in the search field. To remove an existing category, click on the category in the list and then, in the dialog that opens, click on the "Remove" icon (trash can). "Options" will allow you to set a default sorting key.

For more details, read VisualEditor's user guide.

VisualEditor has been updated twice in the last two weeks. As usual, what is now running on the English Wikipedia had a test run at Mediawiki during the previous week.

As announced, the toolbar was redesigned to be simpler, shorter, and to have the ability to have drop-down groups with descriptions. What you see now is the initial configuration and is expected to change in response to feedback from the English Wikipedia and other Wikipedias. The controls to add <u> (underline), <sub> (subscript), and <sup> (superscript), <s> (strikethrough) and <code> (computer code/monospace font) annotations to text are available to all users in the drop-down menu. At the moment, all but the most basic tools have been moved into a single drop-down menu, including the tools for inserting media, references, reference lists, and templates. The current location of all of the items in the toolbar is temporary, and your opinions about the best order are needed! Please offer suggestions at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback/Toolbar.

In an eagerly anticipated upgrade to the reference dialog, newly added references or reference groups no longer need the page to be saved before they can be re-used (bugs 51689 and 52000). The 'Use existing reference' button is now disabled on pages which don't yet have any references (bug 51848). The template parameter filter in the transclusion dialog now searches both parameter name and label (bug 51670).

In response to several requests, there are some new keyboard shortcuts. You can now set the block/paragraph formatting from the keyboard: Ctrl+0 sets a block as a regular paragraph; Ctrl+1 up to Ctrl+6 sets it as a Heading 1 ("Page title") to Heading 6 ("Sub-heading 4"); Ctrl+7 sets it as pre-formatted (bug 33512). Ctrl+2, which creates level 2 section headings, may be the most useful.

Some improvements were made to capitalization for links, so typing in "iPhone" will offer a link to "iPhone" as well as "IPhone" (bug 50452).

Copying and pasting within the same document should work better as of today's update, as should copying from VisualEditor into a third-party application (bug 53364, bug 52271, bug 52460). Work on copying and pasting between VisualEditor instances (for example, between two articles) and retaining formatting when copying from an external source into VisualEditor is progressing.

Major improvements to editing with input method editors (IMEs; mostly used for Indic and East Asian languages) are being deployed today. This is a complex change, so it may produce unexpected errors. On a related point, the names of languages listed in the "languages" (langlinks) panel in the Page settings dialog now display as RTL when appropriate (bug 53503).

Looking ahead: The help/'beta' menu will soon expose the build number next to the "Leave feedback" link, so users can give more specific reports about issues they encounter (bug 53050). This change will make it easier for developers to identify any cacheing issues, once it starts reporting the build number (currently, it says "Version false"). Also, inserting a link, reference or media file will put the cursor after the new content again (bug 53560). Next week’s update will likely improve how dropdowns and other selection menus behave when they do not fit on the screen, with things scrolling so the selected item is always in view.

If you are active at other Wikipedias, the next group of Wikipedias to have VisualEditor offered to all users is being finalized. About two dozen Wikipedias are on the list for Tuesday, September 24 for logged-in users only, and on Monday, September 30 for unregistered editors. You can help with translating the documentation. In several cases, most of the translation is already done, and it only needs to be copied over to the relevant Wikipedia. If you are interested in finding out whether a particular Wikipedia is currently on the list, you can leave a message for me at my talk page.

For other questions or suggestions, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting problem reports at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback and other ideas at Wikipedia talk:VisualEditor. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:57, 19 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 September 2013[edit]

Your opinion will be appreciated[edit]

Sue, could you please comment on this blog? Thanks.50.174.76.70 (talk) 15:50, 20 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi 50.174.76.70 -- I don't read that site. If you want to ask me something, just ask it here :-) Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 14:53, 23 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Please be aware that your talk page on Meta is also being used as a blog in a cross-wiki harassment campaign against User:Demiurge1000. Someone not using his real name (talk) 23:13, 24 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 September 2013[edit]

The requested move of Chelsea Manning's Wikipedia article[edit]

Sue,

  1. Yesterday, I created a Requested Move, requesting that the article titled Bradley Manning be moved to Chelsea Manning, by closely following the relevant instructions on how to to so under the Requested Move procedure, which requires that a proposer endorses the proposed move, states his/her reasons for this and signs the move request. The date for this request had been agreed on by consensus for a month, and I and other editors had been involved in the preparation, collection of evidence and discussion of this for weeks.
  2. One of the editors strongly opposed to the move in the last discussion started an edit war by multiple times deleting, then altering my signed comment/proposal, which is clearly not allowed under the applicable policies and procedures related to Requested Moves.
  3. As such changes to another editor's signed comment are technically considered vandalism, a reversal is exempt from policies on edit-warring and does not constitute such.
  4. Nevertheless, an editor outrageously blocked me (as well as the other editor) for 3 hours based on an inaccurate accusation of "edit-warring", for having restored my proposed move to its original policy-compliant state (its current state)
  5. I request that the Wikimedia Foundation states unequivocally that there was no edit warring on my part and that it was completely unjustified to block an editor for having created a requested move from Bradley Manning to Chelsea Manning and reverted attempts to inappropriately delete it or rewrite the signed proposal that was added in accordance with the RM instructions.
  6. I have now been made aware of the fact that some editors are apparently arguing to "topic ban" me from transgender topics, in retaliation for having started a requested move from Bradley Manning to Chelsea Manning under Wikipedia's own procedures for requested moves, and then objected to obstructions of Wikipedia's own procedures and reinstated the request per Wikipedia policy and normal procedures when removed/inappropriately altered by one of the editors who had argued we should use "Bradley Manning" instead, citing frivolous accusations of "edit warring"—while not proposing to topic ban the user attempting to obstruct the move request from Bradley Manning to Chelsea Manning by deleting the proposal, inappropriately altering it and actually "edit warring." I trust that the Wikimedia Foundation as owners of this website will allow no such thing to happen.

I am bringing this up here for the benefit of external readers, especially because I have also been aggressively targeted for well over a month by editors insisting we refer to Manning using the name Bradley, for having earlier pointed out transphobic commentary in the related discussion.

I am currently writing an article on the Chelsea Manning article debacle and probably will ask for more specific comments on this case later. Josh Gorand (talk) 02:11, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Josh Gorand. I am really sorry this experience has been so awful for you -- I have thought sympathetically of you frequently over the past couple of weeks. But, there's not much (nothing, really) that I can do to help: the WMF doesn't get involved in editorial or policy discussions on Wikipedia. Every edit I've made on the Chelsea Manning controversy have been outside of work hours, and was made wearing my editor hat rather than my ED one.
If you point me towards the conversation where your topic banning is being discussed I'd be happy to contribute there (again, as an editor). And when you write your article you can of course feel free to ask me for comment, which I will happily provide. But there's not much else I can, or appropriately would, do to intervene in the normal workings of the encyclopedia. Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 03:06, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It was on the ongoing arbitration case pages related to Chelsea Manning, on the various pages there, where I was disproportionately singled out in the initial request, initially over me having made a number of comments objecting to the stream of comments comparing transgendered people to dogs and explaining the concept of transphobia, and now even using the edits/efforts to post a move request to Chelsea as an argument(!) to topic ban me from transgender topics (I've never even edited transgender topics, except the Manning discussion, and don't actually intend to edit this project at all when this case is finished). I didn't anticipate it would be a problem to post a move request at all or that my comment would be removed and redacted repeatedly by one editor against procedure. Josh Gorand (talk) 03:17, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

To say that your proposed topic ban is because you started the RM is the height of intellectual dishonesty. The RM you started (in bad form due to the likely fact that you were aware a draft created by others was already in place) post dated the discussion to topic ban you, as you almost are certainly aware of because you are a party to the Arbcom case where this proposal was made. AFAIK the arbitrators made that proposal, not "Bradley" supporters.Two kinds of pork (talk) 03:28, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I agree - a completely false account of events. The topic ban proposal was already well underway, with 3 or 4 votes in favor, before Josh was blocked for edit warring. The finding in question (from arbcom case):
josh, I don't know your personal connection to this particular case, but it seems you are operating in a vacuum. I don't know if I have learned the most or just learned a lot, but suffice to say it has exposed me to many different viewpoints. Some are very open, subject to policy, some are very closed due to personal belief. I hope you can objectively step back and see where you stand and whether you are overwhelmed by the topic. Obi Wan Kenobi has had no problem in reverting edits that were unhelpful to policy and the project. I know first hand. I hope you realize the effort he has put in since the original decision. He created a place and a starting point for RM without prejudging the output and moderated a place to provide evidence. This was much more useful than just a free for all atmosphere. I added material, asked questions, made proposals, etc. I neither "won" nor "lost" but the feedback created understanding. I wished it had been extended as there was another dimension I wished to explore but OWK didn't deviate from the principle. Wikipedia is not advocacy space though many editors are advocates. --DHeyward (talk) 06:37, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
"I request that the Wikimedia Foundation states unequivocally that there was no edit warring on my part"
Instant Classic ;) Iselilja (talk) 10:12, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A collection of evidence in preparation for a Requested Move (RM) that I was a major contributor to from the start had been prepared for a month and 30 September was the date agreed on by unanimous consensus, known to everyone. I started the RM late in the day on the agreed date per the RM instructions, so nothing wrong about that at all, this is how RMs work here. I'm not aware of any other RM proposal, i waited to see if anyone would file it on the agreed date but it didn't seem anyone had prepared anything or wanted to do so.

Yes, it's absolutely clear that I'm now being additionally targeted for having started the RM. The same small group of editors who were opposed to the move to Chelsea the last time have aggressively targeted me in countless venues based initially on my objections to transphobic commentary a month ago. Then one of them proceeded to delete and inappropriately reword a legitimately filed RM several times, completely against procedure. Reinstating a legitimately filed RM is perfectly legitimate. It is clear that I'm now being additionally targeted for having filed a move request to move the article "Bradley Manning" to "Chelsea Manning" and having, in accordance with policy, reinstated that request (subsequently, various administrators also reinstated the request in its original state per the RM procedure). Josh Gorand (talk) 12:33, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is that other editors have already been drafting a Move discussion over the last several weeks, and they were a bit miffed when you, to be blunt, bullied your way to the top and tried to override what they'd been preparing. Tarc (talk) 12:40, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Um, I was one of the main "editors [who] have already been drafting a Move discussion over the last several weeks", in fact I contributed most of the non-news sources and organized the collection of evidence in its current structure (mostly). I find it somewhat odd that editors who opposed the move to Chelsea with the rationale "Putting lipstick on a pig doesn't make a heifer become Marilyn Monroe y'know" are now complaining that one of the editors favouring the move from the start has now started a requested move, late in the day on the date agreed on for a month, as entitled to under the RM procedure and following the related instructions. This appears to be a form of bullying of the editor starting the requested move, for the latter reason, and a complete disregard for due process. Thank you for illustrating my point regarding the fact that editors (including myself but also others) who have been arguing in favour of common human decency regarding transgender people have been aggressively bullied for over a month by editors who for example compare transgendered people to pigs. Josh Gorand (talk) 12:47, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Josh - your dishonesty is catching up with your quickly and this failed attempt to appeal to an authority to save you is pathetic. You knew that the RM was in development, you knew that Obi Wan was developing the draft, you hijacked it to get an upper hand. But all of that is beside the point. You didn't just "point[ing] out transphobic commentary," you accused every supporter of Bradley of being personally transphobic. You cannot count yourself among the numbers of users who reasonable and accurately pointed out hateful language. You arn't one of them. You didn't put any thought toward your words, you just threw accusations. It's sad that Sue hasn't been able to distinguish between that. It's sad that she's been sympathetic to you. But she at least knows, whether because of legal or her own conscience, that if she were to get involve it would remove Wikimedia's 'content host' legal protections and make them a content provider. She can't do that. You're out of luck. The best thing you can do right now, for yourself, is go back and read what you actually said instead of what you think you said. Then you can wrap your head around the difference between commenting on the comments and commenting on the editors. After that, you can plead to Arbcom that you'll do better next time. Other than that, your fate is sealed. I look forward to your article, I also urge you to pay closer adherence to the facts; you wouldn't want to defame anyone.--v/r - TP 13:17, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Er, I didn't hijack anything. I have been arguing in favour of moving the article to Chelsea from day 1 and contributing to the development (and organization) of the second RM from the start, including some of its core sources, so your personal attacks and dishonest comments don't really impress me. If anyone wanted to hijack it, it were editors opposed to the move initially who seemed to want "oppose" arguments in the request to move it to Chelsea (completely contrary to how RMs work and the RM instructions). Also, if anyone else had wanted to start an RM, they could have done it earlier on the day, because everyone knew it was going to start on this specific date. I don't need "saving" at all; I'm stating the facts here to have them here on the record when I write about all this later (if I get "topic banned" from transgender topics (which I don't even routinely edit) for having 1) objected to obvious hate speech against a transgendered person a month ago and 2) proposed that "Bradley Manning" be renamed "Chelsea Manning", it's not me at all that it will reflect badly on). The fact is that you are one of the main culprits in aggressively targeting editors who called out transphobic commentary, and that such behaviour by a small number of editors continued for over a month targeting editors arguing in favour of decency and Wikipedia policy, and that even starting an RM completely in accordance with procedure led to such targeting of editors. Josh Gorand (talk) 15:10, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
So write your article, then. The facts are clear as day on Wikipedia. As I said though, you better be careful that your aggressiveness and extremism don't put you in jeopardy of defaming anyone in your little article.--v/r - TP 15:34, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Since your a rules guy, WP:TPG says not to edit your comments after they've been replied to. Don't get hung up on the "a month ago" thing, Arbcom cases generally take a month or more. That's how they operate to give plenty of time for all of the evidence to be weighed and considered.--v/r - TP 15:49, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not referring exclusively to that case, that's only a small part of what has been going on here. Josh Gorand (talk) 15:51, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Your input into the discussion there for the last 2 weeks can charitably be described as "negligible". You came in and edit-warred one some preferred language at the 11th hour, and were rightly blocked for begin disruptive. You aren't being targeted for your beliefs in this matter, only your sub-optimal behavior. By the way, you did note the part of the Arb decision where the "pig meme" was rebutted, right? Tarc (talk) 13:19, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Josh did contribute a lot to the move request; what I felt was unfair was that he presumed to be the only one who could write the move request header, which was bizarre given the whole request had been built by consensus over a month, so this last minute grab of putting his, and only his, name at the top was rather rude, and rather than discuss calmly the location of the move, he stormed around copy/pasting the move into two different (and non-optimal) places ,against previous consensus which had been to keep the move at the original sub-page. In any case, the arbcom has little to do with that, and everything to do with his behavior during the last discussion, for which diffs have been provided and everyone can judge for themselves.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 13:37, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
You proposed that we postponed the RM until October and no one seemed to have prepared an RM proposal or to post it on the agreed date (30 Sep). Late in the day, I posted an RM according to the RM instructions, on the agreed date everyone was aware it would be posted (by someone). The RM instructions specifically state that a specific proposer has to make (or "endorse") the proposal, cite a rationale in favour of the proposed move and sign that proposal (i.e. an RM proposal is required to be a signed comment by a specific editor advocating a change). It's not supposed to be "neutral" or co-written by opponents of the proposal. If you or anyone else had wanted to start it, there was ample time and possibility for that until I did it in the afternoon on the agreed date seeing noone else being inclined to do so on the agreed date. All contributors to the draft page were credited for their work collecting evidence in the proposal. Although collaboration on evidence collection progressed mostly peacefully, you had on occasions been exhibiting a problematic ownership behaviour previously, once telling me I couldn't comment(!) on a proposal by yourself, and quite frankly, I find it odd that an editor so strongly opposed the last time should have been the proposer of this second RM. Nevertheless, had you suggested your changes to the rationale in a civil way and/or wanted to co-sign it, that would have been perfectly ok (I suppose it would also have been ok if you had wanted to add your own rationale in addition to the initial one). Instead you repeatedly deleted it and changed it without permission, completely contrary to the RM procedure as outlined in the related instructions. That was not acceptable at all. We had discussed very thoroughly in advance that we would start on 30 Sep without further delays, and there was ample time to make proposals regarding the procedure .Josh Gorand (talk) 15:26, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The source collection in preparation of the RM cited in the proposal was largely finished 2 weeks ago with no big developments lately. Josh Gorand (talk) 15:35, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (policy). Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:15, 2 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 02 October 2013[edit]

I mentioned your name[edit]

I mentioned you at the WP:Education noticeboard about the terms of a grant. It is under the "Wiki Education Foundation update September update" sub-section. Best regards. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 08:57, 7 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's quite an interesting conversation, and I hope you're watching. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 10:55, 9 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
But perhaps it's more "important" for you to comment at m:Talk:Executive Director Transition Team? Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 23:36, 9 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
You might also see m:Wikimedia_Forum#Wikimania_2014, as no one seems to have taken a lead over there. Anyhow. Thanks for the stuff you said that got coverage in the Signpost. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 23:43, 9 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Disambiguation link notification for October 7[edit]

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The Signpost: 09 October 2013[edit]

Opting in to VisualEditor[edit]

As you may know, VisualEditor ("Edit beta") is currently available on the English Wikipedia only for registered editors who choose to enable it. Since you have made 50 or more edits with VisualEditor this year, I want to make sure that you know that you can enable VisualEditor (if you haven't already done so) by going to your preferences and choosing the item, "MediaWiki:Visualeditor-preference-enable". This will give you the option of using VisualEditor on articles and userpages when you want to, and give you the opportunity to spot changes in the interface and suggest improvements. We value your feedback, whether positive or negative, about using VisualEditor, at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback. Thank you, Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:27, 11 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor newsletter on 16 October 2013[edit]

Did you know?

You can create and edit multi-level lists in VisualEditor. The first two icons let you set or remove list formatting.

The last two are used to increase or decrease the indentation level. This can also be done from the keyboard, by using Tab ↹ to indent the list and ⇧ Shift+Tab ↹ to outdent it.

For more information, read Wikipedia:VisualEditor/User guide.

VisualEditor is still being updated every Thursday. As usual, what is now running on the English Wikipedia had a test run at Mediawiki during the previous week. If you haven't done so already, you can turn on VisualEditor by going to your preferences and choosing the item, "MediaWiki:Visualeditor-preference-enable".

The reference dialog for all Wikipedias, especially the way it handles citation templates, is being redesigned. Please offer suggestions and opinions at mw:VisualEditor/Design/Reference Dialog. (Use your Wikipedia username/password to login there.) You can also drag and drop references (select the reference, then hover over the selected item until your cursor turns into the drag-and-drop tool). This also works for some templates, images, and other page elements (but not yet for text or floated items). References are now editable when they appear inside a media item's caption (bug 50459).

There were a number of miscellaneous fixes made: Firstly, there was a bug that meant that it was impossible to move the cursor using the keyboard away from a selected node (like a reference or template) once it had been selected (bug 54443). Several improvements have been made to scrollable windows, panels, and menus when they don't fit on the screen or when the selected item moves off-screen. Editing in the "slug" at the start of a page no longer shows up a chess pawn character ("♙") in some circumstances (bug 54791). Another bug meant that links with a final punctuation character in them broke extending them in some circumstances (bug 54332). The "page settings" dialog once again allows you to remove categories (bug 54727). There have been some problems with deployment scripts, including one that resulted in VisualEditor being broken for an hour or two at all Wikipedias (bug 54935). Finally, snowmen characters ("☃") no longer appear near newly added references, templates and other nodes (bug 54712).

Looking ahead: Development work right now is on rich copy-and-paste abilities, quicker addition of citation templates in references, setting media items' options (such as being able to put images on the left), switching into wikitext mode, and simplifying the toolbar. A significant amount of work is being done on other languages during this month. If you speak a language other than English, you can help with translating the documentation.

For other questions or suggestions, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting problem reports at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback and other ideas at Wikipedia talk:VisualEditor. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:59, 16 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Discretionary sanctions/2013 review[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Discretionary sanctions/2013 review. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:02, 18 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE September 2013 drive wrap-up[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors September 2013 backlog elimination drive wrap-up newsletter
The September 2013 drive wrap-up is now ready for review.
Sign up for the October blitz!

– Your project coordinators: Torchiest, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95 and The Utahraptor.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 05:17, 18 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 October 2013[edit]

[edit]

Hi Sue. Since you issued a statement about paid editing, would you please look at Wikipedia:Paid editing policy proposal and tell me what you think of it? The issue of paid editing has a lot of wrinkles that need to be considered. I am concerned that your statement is being misused to undermine the principle that "Wikipedia is the Encyclopedia that Anybody Can Edit." I for one am frequently confronted with assumptions of bad faith because of my profession, even though I don't engage in paid editing. Jehochman Talk 18:05, 21 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Jehochman. Yeah, I'm familiar with that proposal, but I've never commented on it. I'll take a look this weekend. Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 19:25, 25 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Partial sentence that was left over from your edit, article Transphobia[edit]

Hi. It seems that one of your edits to the article Transphobia, specifically revision 573859640 on at 2013-09-21T02:23Z, left a partial sentence in the article at the end of the section Transphobia#Misgendering and exclusion. Yours truly removed that partial sentence for now in revision 578778543 on at 2013‎-10-26T03:29Z but here is this report in case you want to re-visit this, for instance if you have something left that you meant to put there. --89.204.135.121 (talk) 03:38, 26 October 2013 (UTC) (2013-10-26T05:38+02:00)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 October 2013[edit]

GOCE Blitz wrap-up; join us for the November drive[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors October Blitz wrap-up

Participation: Out of eleven people who signed up for this blitz, eight copy-edited at least one article. Thanks to all who participated! Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: During the seven-day blitz, we copy edited 42 articles from WikiProject Film's backlog, reducing it by a net of 34 articles. Hope to see you at the November drive in a few days! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Torchiest, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95 and The Utahraptor.

Sign up for the November drive!
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 18:32, 27 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Question at Wikipediocracy[edit]

Hi Sue. I just opened a thread with a question to you at Wikipediocracy. [9] Above you said you don't read the site, but I'm extending an invitation, anyway. You are genuinely welcome there. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 14:15, 28 October 2013 (UTC) Don't touch them with a barge pole. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 12:06, 3 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It would be helpful to Sue, and probably to some of the rest of us, if the question to which you are trying to point her, actually made some sort of sense. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 02:40, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It relates to the above thread, #The dignity of a BLP subject. I was assuming Sue would recall it but you're right, I should have made the link explicit. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 06:23, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
If enwiki's elected representatives (arbcom) don't share Sue's views on "basic human dignity", isn't there a bit of a problem with your proposal right from the start? --Demiurge1000 (talk) 07:46, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Don't they? Have they changed their position since the Badlydrawnjeff case? Regardless, the WMF board BLP resolution says we should take basic human dignity into account, and we expressly don't. A trivial style guideline trumps human dignity. "Wikipedia articles should respect the basic human dignity of their subjects" was removed from policy. I'm trying to understand the ED's decision not to impose this important element of the WMF's resolution on en.Wikipedia, when the project failed to adopt it as policy.
The sex, age and psychiatric disability of most of the remaining "active" editors here means we will never be safe for editors or subjects who are women, children or people of any kind of difference - until the WMF imposes basic civilised norms. I'd like to know why the Foundation on the one hand resolves that we should respect the dignity of our subjects but then acts as if it can't enforce the resolution.
We know it can: It ultimately controls who can do what here. The only reason I've heard so far (from other editors not the WMF) for the WMF not imposing editorial policy is to protect itself from liability for any harm done by the encyclopedia (defamation, copyright, etc.). The line seems to be, "Oh, we never control content, so we're not responsible for content." It seems to me the WMF is responsible for any harm we do that could have been readily predicted and that could have been prevented without unduly diminishing the encyclopedia, regardless of whether it chooses to behave responsibly. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 03:15, 30 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hear hear. Cla68 (talk) 05:17, 30 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Why does Wikipedia have a problem retaining female editors?[edit]

I think this is the answer in a nutshell. -- 101.119.14.145 (talk) 02:02, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Eric is responsible for a lot of things, but it is not his fault that the ratio of female editors is only a few hundred per cent better than the ratio of female CEOs. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 02:40, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The aggressive and hostile Wikipedia culture in which "f**k off" seems to be accepted wording is a primary reason that women drop out. Susan Herring ("Gender and Power in Online Communication," 2003) found that "women were more likely than men to react aversively to aggression in online interaction, including falling silent and dropping out." Ex-Wikipedia editors (not just women) have reported similar things. Eric is one of the worst examples of this toxic side of Wikipedia culture, and this toxic side exists because many admins seem to find language like "f**k off" completely acceptable. If this problem doesn't get solved, editorship will drop until there are only a few dozen Wikipedians left. -- 101.119.14.213 (talk) 05:40, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
One possibility for the WMF to consider is gender quotas for the adminship. -- 101.119.15.185 (talk) 06:15, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
And cratship and stewardship? Perhaps all-female shortlists for us to choose candidates from? Certainly an interesting idea. Almost as interesting as rationing the number of swear-words people are allowed to use. Let's see how popular that one is. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 07:43, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Dealing with the aggressive and hostile Wikipedia culture will certainly require ignoring "popularity" and implementing some top-down policies that actually change things. -- 101.119.14.206 (talk) 08:00, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
101 said, "The aggressive and hostile Wikipedia culture in which "f**k off" seems to be accepted wording is a primary reason that women drop out." I really have become quite weary of this sort of sexist theory coming up again and again. Women are not lovely flowers that wilt and die when they are exposed to men saying fuck. On the other hand, women are more likely to attempt to negotiate rather than become aggressive and bully their way into getting the upper hand in disagreements. That is the real problem here, not that a few editors say fuck from time to time. Gandydancer (talk) 13:06, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
And you don't think that perhaps words like f**k and c**t are being used as a deliberate bullying tactic? -- 101.119.14.101 (talk) 15:46, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
funk & cant?Two kinds of pork (talk) 22:44, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
@ 101: No. Gandydancer (talk) 23:28, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
You're kidding, right? Offensive language, particularly offensive language which denigrates women, is being used on Wikipedia as a deliberate bullying tactic in order to "win" points by driving away other editors, particularly editors outside the US-male-student demographic. -- 101.119.15.146 (talk) 23:56, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It's also a breach of the WMF NDP. We're talking about behaviour which, in a physical workplace, would be found discriminatory by the courts. -- 101.119.15.146 (talk) 00:02, 30 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Quotas for women at RfA? Isn't RfA dead enough already? Also, the primary reason that improving the gender disparity is an issue is to resolve systemic bias in the encyclopedia. The gender of admins seems rather tangential to the systemic bias issues. —Tom Morris (talk) 21:32, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia is certainly broken. There were 51,260 active editors in 2007; there were 28,720 on last count. Behind those numbers lies a retention problem, and that retention problem is most severe outside the US-male-student demographic. If we need more data on why people leave, one solution is to set up an online survey, and a bot which emails people the link to it or month or two after their last edit. But clearly the governance of Wikipedia is a big part of the problem, with many admins being openly supportive of bad behaviour. Possibly we need to abolish the concept of "admins" completely, and invent a new governance framework, where admin-like functions are more distributed across the editorship. But something needs to be done, or the editorship will gradually shrink to zero. -- 101.119.14.202 (talk) 23:04, 29 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:14, 2 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Happy Diwali!"[edit]

While Diwali is popularly known as the "festival of lights", the most significant spiritual meaning behind it is "the awareness of the inner light". It is the belief that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the Atman. The celebration of Diwali as the "victory of good over evil” refers to the light of higher knowledge dispelling all ignorance, the ignorance that masks one's true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality. With this awakening come compassion and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher knowledge). This brings Satcitananda (joy or peace). Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Diwali is the celebration of this Inner Light. While the story behind Diwali and the manner of celebration varies from region to, the essence is the same – to rejoice in the Inner Light! And this year Diwali and All Souls' Day come together to fully defeat the Evil! "Happy Diwali!" – JKadavoor Jee 06:31, 2 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 October 2013[edit]

Possible roundabout way of getting more female and non-WASP male editors[edit]

Maybe, and this is just a maybe, maybe one option might be to try to encourage development of some of the other WF entities, and, maybe, now with the move to SF, maybe working a bit more closely with some of the entertainment media based in California and Hollywood. The entities which strike me as being, maybe, the easiest for new editors who may not be particular specialists in any way might be commons and WikiSource. So, maybe, although it is probably too late for this particular example, maybe trying to get a collaboration on wikisource to get Twelve Years a Slave complete there, at around the time of the DVD release. Any other major theatrical and or television releases which have clearly related PD texts might also potentially have some interest in such, although it might also cut down on their profits from reprinting the books themselves, which might make such corporations less likely to do so. Maybe. I also think, again, maybe, that women might be more interested in developing content related to child-rearing than men, among other things, and maybe, somehow, trying to promote wikisource or wikiversity for development of material might encourage some input from them. Also, obviously, if any city is doing some sort of "Big Read"-type event, maybe trying to get the city involved to do some collaboration on developing such material on wikisource or wikiversity might be beneficial, although I don't know how often such "Big Reads" take place. Just a few ideas, anyway. And I apologize for the abuse of the word "maybe" 13 times now in this comment. John Carter (talk) 21:49, 6 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 November 2013[edit]

Donation pledges during GA backlog drive[edit]

Hello Sue. The reviewers at WP:GAN are planning a backlog elimination drive in December. I'm excited to tell you that for the first time, this effort will include a pledge drive, in which users pledge a donation to the WMF for each GA review that is completed. I think this will be a great way to encourage editors to simultaneously clear the backlog and support the organization that keeps Wikipedia running!

I hope to solicit more pledges over the next few weeks, but I just wanted to inform you and your fundraising team. Please feel free to contact me or the GA Project with any comments. Edge3 (talk) 00:13, 11 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 November 2013[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion[edit]

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Disambiguation link notification for November 18[edit]

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VisualEditor newsletter for November 2013[edit]

Did you know?

VisualEditor's toolbar has a new feature (currently working only in some browsers), "Switch to source editing". By choosing this item, you can move directly into the wikitext source editor without saving. This is particularly useful if you need to make significant changes to tables, image galleries, or other elements that are not currently supported.

For more information about how to use VisualEditor, read Wikipedia:VisualEditor/User guide.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has worked on some feature changes, major infrastructure improvements to make the system more stable, dependable and extensible, some minor toolbar improvements, and fixing bugs.

A new form parsing library for language characters in Parsoid caused the corruption of pages containing diacritics for about an hour two weeks ago. Relatively few pages at the English Wikipedia were affected, but this created immediate problems at some other Wikipedias, sometimes affecting several dozen pages. The development teams for Parsoid and VisualEditor apologize for the serious disruption and thank the people who reported this emergency at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback and on the public IRC channel, #mediawiki-visualeditor.

There have been dozens of changes since the last newsletter. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Accidental deletion of infoboxes and other items: You now need to press the Delete or ← Backspace key twice to delete a template, reference or image. The first time, the item becomes selected, and the second time, it is removed. The need to press the delete key twice should make it more obvious what you are doing and help avoid accidental removals of infoboxes and similar (bug 55336).
  • Switch from VisualEditor to the wikitext editor: A new feature lets you make a direct, one-way editing interface change, which will preserve your changes without needing to save the page and re-open it in the wikitext editor (bug 50687). It is available in a new menu in the action buttons by the Cancel button (where the "Page Settings" button used to be). Note that this new feature is not currently working in Firefox.
  • Categories and Languages are also now directly available in that menu. The category suggestions drop-down was appearing in the wrong place rather than below its input box, which is now fixed. An incompatibility between VisualEditor and the deployed Parsoid service that prevented editing categories and language links was fixed.
  • File:, Help: and Category: namespaces: VisualEditor was enabled for these namespaces the on all wikis (bug 55968), the Portal: and Viquiprojecte: namespaces on the Catalan Wikipedia (bug 56000), and the Portal: and Book: namespaces on the English Wikipedia (bug 56001).
  • Media item resizing: We improved how files are viewed in a few ways. First, inline media items can now be resized in the same way that has been possible with block ones (like thumbnails) before. When resizing a media item, you can see a live preview of how it will look as you drag it (bug 54298). While you are dragging an image to resize it, we now show a label with the current dimensions (bug 54297). Once you have resized it, we fetch a new, higher resolution image for the media item if necessary (bug 55697). Manual setting of media item sizes in their dialog is nearly complete and should be available next week. If you hold down the ⇧ Shift key whilst resizing an image, it will now snap to a 10 pixel grid instead of the normal free-hand sizing. The media item resize label now is centered while resizing regardless of which tool you use to resize it.
  • Undo and redo: A number of improvements were made to the transactions system which make undoing and redoing more reliable during real-time collaboration (bug 53224).
  • Save dialogue: The save page was re-written to use the same code as all other dialogs (bug 48566), and in the process fixed a number of issues. The save dialog is re-accessible if it loses focus (bug 50722), or if you review a null edit (bug 53313); its checkboxes for minor edit, watch the page, and flagged revisions options now layout much more cleanly (bug 52175), and the tab order of the buttons is now closer to what users will expect (bug 51918). There was a bug in the save dialog that caused it to crash if there was an error in loading the page from Parsoid, which is now fixed.
  • Links to other articles or pages sometimes sent people to invalid pages. VisualEditor now keeps track of the context in which you loaded the page, which lets us fix up links in document to point to the correct place regardless of what entry point you launched the editor from—so the content of pages loaded through /wiki/Foobar?veaction=edit and /w/index.php?title=Foobar&veaction=edit both now have text links that work if triggered (bug 48915).
  • Toolbar links: A bug that caused the toolbar's menus to get shorter or even blank when scrolled down the page in Firefox is now fixed (bug 55343).
  • Numbered external links: VisualEditor now supports Parsoid's changed representation of numbered external links (bug 53505).
  • Removed empty templates: We also fixed an issue that meant that completely empty templates became impossible to interact with inside VisualEditor, as they didn't show up (bug 55810).
  • Mathematics formulae: If you would like to try the experimental LaTeX mathematics tool in VisualEditor, you will need to opt-in to Beta Features. This is currently available on Meta-wiki, Wikimedia Commons, and Mediawiki.org. It will be available on all other Wikimedia sites on 21 November.
  • Browser testing support: If you are interested in technical details, the browser tests were expanded to cover some basic cursor operations, which uncovered an issue in our testing framework that doesn't work with cursoring in Firefox; the Chrome tests continue to fail due to a bug with the welcome message for that part of the testing framework.
  • Load time: VisualEditor now uses content language when fetching Wikipedia:TemplateData information, so reducing bandwidth use, and users on multi-language or multi-script wikis now get TemplateData hinting for templates as they would expect (bug 50888).
  • Reuse of VisualEditor: Work on spinning out the user experience (UX) framework from VisualEditor into oojs-ui, which lets other teams at Wikimedia (like Flow) and gadget authors re-use VisualEditor UX components, is now complete and is being moved to a shared code repository.
  • Support for private wikis: If you maintain a private wiki at home or at work, VisualEditor now supports editing of private wikis, by forwarding the Cookie: HTTP header to Parsoid ($wgVisualEditorParsoidForwardCookies set to true) (bug 44483). (Most private wikis will also need to install Parsoid and node.js, as VisualEditor requires them.)

Looking ahead:

  • VisualEditor will be released to some of the smaller Wikipedias on 02 December 2013. If you are active at one or more smaller Wikipedias where VisualEditor is not yet generally available, please see the list at VisualEditor/Rollouts.
  • Public office hours on IRC to discuss VisualEditor with Product Manager James Forrester will be held on Monday, 2 December, at 1900 UTC and on Tuesday, 3 December, at 0100 UTC. Bring your questions. Logs will be posted on Meta after each office hour completes.
  • In terms of feature improvements, one of the major infrastructure projects affects how inserting characters works, both using your computer's built-in Unicode input systems and through a planned character inserter tool for VisualEditor. The forthcoming rich copying and pasting feature was extended and greater testing is currently being done. Work continues to support the improved reference dialog to quickly add citations based on local templates.

If you have questions or suggestions for future improvements, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting a note at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) 22:27, 20 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 November 2013[edit]

The reliability of Wikipedia's medical content[edit]

Hi. This might interest you. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 14:38, 27 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Discussions on conflict of interest policy[edit]

As I've already said this on Wikipedia talk:Conflict of interest limit, in order not to be overly repetitive there, I thought I would pass along a few thoughts on your talk page. Although I may be in the minority, I think it is possible to find some common ground on forming a conflict of interest policy. There is fairly good support for the current conflict of interest guideline, which I think should be used as a start for forming a policy. The problems with having a large group discussion, and the eagerness of various editors in creating six different proposals has caused the discussion to fragment, rather than converge towards a consensus view. I am hopeful that someone like Dank can help structure the discussion towards a conclusion, but it will require patience from all involved, which seems more and more to be in short supply, and a willingness to accommodate the views of others, even if it means taking an incremental approach to developing a policy—perhaps some parts for which there is common agreement can be codified now, with a plan to look for more agreement on other parts later. isaacl (talk) 06:43, 30 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks isaacl; this is helpful. I agree with you that the discussions seem to have diverged rather than converging, which isn't helping to reach a conclusion. I think it'd be great if Dank, or someone like Dank, could take on the task of actively facilitating towards consensus. Besides Dank, are there other editors in those discussions who seem particularly trusted and skilled at facilitation? Sue Gardner (talk) 18:31, 30 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I contribute about 50/50 volunteer and COI and do comment on the COI discussions now and then, with some caution and disclosure. You mentioned knowing folks that need short, clear and straightforward advice. I'm somewhat skeptical of the masses reaching consensus, so a while back I created my own little alternative guide mostly for personal use, but I'm told some editors at the Help Desk use it as well. The Marketing and Bright Line section is just 700 words long. Though it could probably use more "Click here" and "type this" type advice, it may be helpful for your friends that need straightforward instructions. CorporateM (Talk) 20:36, 30 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Conflict-of-interest policies are difficult area for reputable publishers. I don't think we can realistically expect to crowdsource a functional, coherent COI policy. It needs to be imposed by the Foundation, according to how seriously the issue is taken. Right now, we produce highly-viewed and (inexplicably) trusted medical content with no COI policy, which is a recipe for disaster. It's going to blow up on us - whether it's people from drug companies editing to promote their products, or editors associated with the Transcendental Meditation movement hyping the purported health benefits of their product... this is a huge credibility hit waiting to happen. MastCell Talk 21:55, 30 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sue, let me put it this way: it comes down to a fundamentally different way of viewing Wikipedia. Some editors view possible COI policy through the lens of "how will it impact Wikipedia editors." Implicitly, perhaps unconsciously, they view the first responsibility of Wikipedia as to provide a pleasant editing environment for their fellow editors, and secondarily to be fair to subjects, to cooperate with subjects of articles as much as possible. They worry that COI rules will increase the amount of conflict and tension. Whereas the position that I take, and which I think is reflected in the opinions of the minority of editors who favor a COI policy, is that Wikipedia's first responsibility is to the reader. Readers come to Wikipedia with an expectation that it will be reasonably free of influence from the subject of the article. I'm sure that one can find a middle ground between these two positions after much discussion consuming many more thousands of person-hours, but I suggest that it will be so weak and so equivocal that it will make Wikipedia into a laughingstock. I agree with MastCell that, if the Foundation is interested in a meaningful conflict of interest policy, it cannot be generated by teasing one out of Wikipedia processes. Coretheapple (talk) 23:10, 30 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well... editors do have to be willing to compromise, because consensus rarely occurs. The problem with RfCs like that is the lack of consensus will always result in supporting the status quo. Now, if I was not a COI contributor myself, I would start a policy around marketing participation boldly, then wait for the inevitable deletion discussion. I would consider such bold editing to be the proper Wikipedia way.
Since the block of Wiki-Experts for non-disclosure without actually seeing any of their edits proves that disclosure is policy, the best way to start such a policy would be with a single sentence saying direct financial connections should be disclosed. CorporateM (Talk) 02:36, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to make a comment. Above, it is said, "Readers come to Wikipedia with an expectation that it will be reasonably free of influence from the subject of the article." Actually, I believe that's about the third or fourth priority of readers. The first priority is that they come to Wikipedia with an expectation that there will exist an article about the subject they're looking for. The second priority is that the information in the article will be factual, regardless of who wrote it. Third, they are probably expecting that there will be reliable sources at the bottom of the article, to facilitate further research that they may wish to undertake. And then, probably in fourth place, readers come to Wikipedia with an expectation that it will be reasonably free of influence from the subject of the article. Take, for instance, the article about J.D. Gordon Creative Labs. You know, I know, and everyone commenting on this Talk page knows -- that article was written either by a paid editor or an employee at J.D. Gordon Creative Labs, also known as User:Welltextured. We could wring our hands, say that this is wrong and bad for Wikipedia, and maybe even delete the article. However, from the time that article was created in April 2013, it's been looked at by about 8 or 9 readers per week, and none of them have made any complaint on the Talk page of the article. The content appears to be factual, if self-serving. There are numerous references sourced, pathetic as they may be, but at least they verify that this company exists and does produce award-winning output. So, really only the fourth priority is unserved. The reader is decidedly not getting content that is reasonably free of influence from the subject of the article. But, who cares? Apparently 40 or 45 people per month were seeking information about this company, and were it not for the company being proactive and creating an article, those 40 or 45 monthly visitors would have had to go somewhere other than the world's largest encyclopedia to find a background summary of J.D. Gordon Creative Labs. I think it's time we just say that paid encyclopedists who abide by WP:RS, WP:NPOV, WP:V, and WP:NOTE are welcome to write encyclopedia articles that don't "promote" their subject. - I'm not that crazy (talk) 04:25, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I had to check to make sure this wasn't an attempt at black humor. You couldn't have picked a worse example to show that ad companies add something to Wikipedia. It's obvious that the ad company wrote an article about themselves. It gives no real information about the company, other than that it is open for business. There are no other sources about the company (at least none listed on Google) It attracts about 1 reader every day (that might just be them checking on their article). We'd likely never know if it goes out of business. What does this add to the encyclopedia? If we were a business directory, it might add a small bit, but we couldn't keep it up to date. It takes up editor time. It makes us look like we can be bought. It decreases our reputation for reliability. In short it is a major problem. And INTC is using this to argue that all ads like this should be allowed, because nobody has complained yet. As soon as anybody noticed it, it was listed for deletion.
But actually it is not the worst example of a non-entity advertising on Wikipedia. A single store coffee shop Zona Rosa Caffe in Pasadena, has no references, nothing that looks like an RS on Google, no in-coming links, 2 tables in front (check out Google Streetview 34°08′44″N 118°08′13″W / 34.145537°N 118.136977°W / 34.145537; -118.136977), I'll guess it has seating for 35 inside, it's had an article since 2007, and maybe a dozen edits. It's been tagged as an orphan and as an ad since 2008. But it does get 2 page views per day (they must have wifi). We clearly don't have the time or manpower to weed this stuff out or (even if possible) make a quality article out of it. So why do we want ads like this here? What does it add to the encyclopedia? Keeping garbage like this, or inviting it in as you seem to want would just unload all sorts of garbage here. Rather we need a rule that can keep it out from the beginning. Smallbones(smalltalk) 02:53, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
How do you feel about that, Sue? And if you disagree, if the Foundation disagrees, what are you going to do about it? The above point of view is the dominant one on this issue. Remember, and it can't be repeated too often, this is your problem. Coretheapple (talk) 13:20, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Don't think for a moment that INTC represents a majority of editors here. He might represent the majority of editors who have a vested interest in paid editing, but we might never know. One way around that is simply to take a random survey of editors and readers. I'd guess that at least 80% of editors and at least 90% of readers would be in favor of limiting paid editing. Smallbones(smalltalk) 02:53, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

While some are getting their panties in a major twist over Wikipedia including some articles about small businesses that don't hurt anyone by their presence here, I wonder if they'd be brave enough to explain why when an ad company is "caught" creating their own Wikipedia article, the article must be deleted, and the editor chastised, and anyone found to have liked the article be accused of "black humor"; but when a vice-chairman of Wikimedia Norway is "caught" adding public relations content to the article about his daytime employer, the response barely rises to the level of a slap on the wrist, the article stays, and the editor is encouraged to continue doing his good work for the Wikimedia movement? Once you guys sort out your own hypocrisy, then maybe we can address an objective and even-handed way of dealing with content that has a COI background. - I'm not that crazy (talk) 04:00, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In the short time I've been following this issue, I notice that every time paid editing is raised, somebody pushing the paid-editing cause comes by to try to embarrass the Foundation or Wales in some manner. It's getting old. Hypocrisy indeed.
Smallbones I wish that you were right, but unfortunately the overwhelming !votes in the policy proposal RfCs (and other discussions such as this one)tell a different story. Coretheapple (talk) 15:37, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In case you hadn't seen....[edit]

Like the Core Contest, I got another microgrant for this, the Stub Contest...be interesting to see if it makes an appreciable dent in the numbers of stubs and increases average page size....(i.e. how many entries will this page have, given it is only the first day of it now......Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 11:44, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Conflict of interest limit[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Conflict of interest limit. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:07, 3 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

November 2013 GOCE drive wrap-up[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors November 2013 backlog elimination drive wrap-up newsletter
The November 2013 drive wrap-up is now ready for review.
Sign up for the December blitz!

– Your project coordinators: Torchiest, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95 and The Utahraptor.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:22, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]


The Signpost: 04 December 2013[edit]

The Signpost: 11 December 2013[edit]

A way to save some money?[edit]

Hi Sue,

I've just happened to look at this project that was funded by the WMF. Could you please explain to me why Wikimedia commons is not using hundreds if not thousands of free images uploaded to Flickr instead of paying somebody? Thanks.69.181.40.174 (talk) 04:29, 14 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You're willing to volunteer to comb through those pictures and copy a wide assortment of monument photos to Commons and label them appropriately? Great! --NeilN talk to me 22:16, 17 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please see[edit]

Please see the DR at Commons [10] and in particular my comments at [11] Smallbones(smalltalk) 17:03, 14 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Congrats![edit]

On the 2 Knight Foundation awards! If you need any help in deciding how to spend the second part, just let me know :-) though I'm sure you can do a better job than anybody on this part (that's why they gave it to you).

All the best,

Smallbones(smalltalk) 19:09, 16 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Graphs and charts[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Graphs and charts. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:07, 18 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 December 2013[edit]

VisualEditor newsletter • 19 December 2013[edit]

Did you know?

VisualEditor's toolbar has a new drop-down menu that contains all character formatting: bold, italics, subscript, superscript, strikethrough, computer code, underline, and the ability to remove all formatting from text.

For more information about how to use VisualEditor, read the user guide.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has worked on some toolbar improvements, fixing bugs, and improving support for Indic languages as well as other languages with complex characters. The current focus is on improving the reference dialog and expanding the new character inserter tool.

There have been dozens of changes since the last newsletter. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Rich copying and pasting is now available. If you copy text from another website, then character formatting and some other HTML attributes are preserved. This means, for example, that if you copy a pre-formatted suggested citation from a source like this, then VisualEditor will preserve the formatting of the title in the citation. Keep in mind that copying the formatting may include formatting that you don't want (like section headings). If you want to paste plain, unformatted text onto a page, then use Control+⇧ Shift+V or ⌘ Command+⇧ Shift+V (Mac).
  • Auto-numbered external links like [12] can now be edited just like any other link. However, they cannot be created in VisualEditor easily.
  • Several changes to the toolbar and dialogs have been made, and more are on the way. The toolbar has been simplified with a new drop-down text styles menu and an "insert" menu. Your feedback on the toolbar is wanted here. The transclusion/template dialog has been simplified. If you have enabled mathematical formula editing, then the menu item is now called the formula editor instead of LaTeX.
  • There is a new character inserter, which you can find in the new "insert" menu, with a capital Omega ("Ω"). It's a very basic set of characters. Your feedback on the character inserter is wanted here.
  • Saving the page should seem faster by several seconds now.
  • It is now possible to access VisualEditor by manually editing the URL, even if you are not logged in or have not opted in to VisualEditor normally.  To do so, append ?veaction=edit to the end of the page name.  For example, change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random?veaction=edit to open a random page in VisualEditor.  This is intended to support bug testing across multiple browsers, without requiring editors to login repeatedly.

Looking ahead: The transclusion dialog will see further changes in the coming weeks, with a simple mode for single templates and an advanced mode for more complex transclusions. The new character formatting menu on the toolbar will get an arrow to show that it is a drop-down menu. The reference dialog will be improved, and the Reference item will become a button in the main toolbar, rather than an item in the Insert menu.

If you have questions or suggestions for future improvements, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting a note at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:47, 19 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You're invited: Art & Feminism Edit-a-thon[edit]

Art & Feminism Edit-a-Thon - You are invited!
Hi Sue Gardner! The first Art and Feminism Edit-a-thon will be held on Saturday, February 1, 2014 in San Francisco.

Any editors interested in the intersection of feminism and art are welcome. Wikipedians of all experience levels are invited! Experienced editors will be on hand to help new editors.
Bring a friend and a laptop! Come one, come all! Learn more here!

SarahStierch (talk) 09:11, 21 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE December 2013 Blitz wrap-up and January Drive invitation[edit]

December Notes from the Guild of Copy Editors

The December blitz ran from December 8–14. The theme for this blitz was articles tied in some way to religion. Seven editors knocked out 20 articles over the course of the week. Our next blitz will be in February, with a theme to be determined. Feel free to make theme suggestions at the Guild talk page!

The January 2014 Backlog elimination drive is a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy edit backlog. The drive begins on January 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and ends on January 31 at 23:59 (UTC). Our goals are to copy edit all articles tagged in October and November 2012 and complete all requests placed before the end of 2013. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who copy edits at least one article, and special awards will be given to the top five in the following categories: "Number of articles", "Number of words", "Number of articles of over 5,000 words", "Number of articles tagged in October and November 2012", and "Longest article". We hope to see you there!

Coordinator election: Voting is open for candidates to serve as GOCE coordinators from 1 January through 30 June 2014. Voting will run until the end of December. For complete information, please have a look at the election page.

– Your drive coordinators: Torchiest, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95 and The Utahraptor

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Message delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:24, 23 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A belated Merry Christmas[edit]

or looking on the bright side, an early Happy New Years!

Smallbones(smalltalk) 02:03, 27 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 December 2013[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/RFC on medical disclaimer[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/RFC on medical disclaimer. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:05, 3 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 01 January 2014[edit]

GOCE 2013 Annual Report[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors 2013 Annual Report

The GOCE has wrapped up another successful year of operations!

Our 2013 Annual Report is now ready for review.

– Your project coordinators: Torchiest, Baffle gab1978 and Jonesey95

Sign up for the January drive! To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:44, 4 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]


The Signpost: 08 January 2014[edit]

VisualEditor newsletter for Janaury 2014[edit]

Did you know?

To add templates, go to the "Insert" menu and choose the "Transclusion" (puzzle piece) item. Enter the name of the template and click "Add template". If TemplateData exists for the template, then a list of possible parameters will appear. If not, you can add parameters yourself by typing the parameter name under "Add parameter". For unnamed parameters, use numbers ("1" for the first unnamed parameter).

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has worked mostly minor features and fixing bugs. A few significant bugs include working around a bug in CSSJanus that was wrongly flipping images used in some templates in right-to-left (RTL) environments (bug 50910) a major bug that meant inserting any template or other transclusion failed (bug 59002), a major but quickly resolved problem due to an unannounced change in MediaWiki core, which caused VisualEditor to crash on trying to save (bug 59867). This last bugs did not appear on any Wikipedia. Additionally, significant work has been done in the background to make VisualEditor work as an independent editing system.

As of today, VisualEditor is now available as an opt-out feature to all users at 149 active Wikipedias.

  • The character inserter tool in the "Insert" menu has a very basic set of characters. The character inserter is especially important for languages that use Latin and Cyrillic alphabets with unusual characters or frequent diacritics. Your feedback on the character inserter is requested. In addition to feedback from any interested editor, the developers would particularly like to hear from anyone who speaks any of the 50+ languages listed under Phase 5 at mw:VisualEditor/Rollouts, including Breton, Mongolian, Icelandic, Welsh, Afrikaans, Macedonian, and Azerbaijani.
  • meta:Office hours on IRC have been heavily attended recently. The next one will be held this coming Wednesday, 22 January at 23:00 UTC.
  • You can now edit some of the page settings in the "options" dialog – __NOTOC__ and __FORCETOC__ as selection (forced on, forced off, or default setting; bugs 56866 and 56867) and __NOEDITSECTION__ as a checkbox (bug 57166).
  • The automated browser tests were adjusted to speed them up and bind more correctly to list items in lists, and updated to a newer version of their ruby dependencies. You can monitor the automated browser tests' results (triggered every twelve hours) live on the server.
  • Wikipedia:VisualEditor/User guide was updated recently to show some new and upcoming features.

Looking ahead: The character formatting menu on the toolbar will get a drop-down indicator next Thursday. The reference and media items will be the first two listed in the Insert menu. The help menu will get a page listing the keyboard shortcuts. Looking further out, image handling will be improved, including support for alignment (left, right, and center) and better control over image size (including default and upright sizes). The developers are also working on support for editing redirects and image galleries.

Subscriptions to this newsletter are managed at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter. Please add or remove your name to change your subscription settings. If you have questions or suggestions for future improvements, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting a note at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) 20:13, 17 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Hatnote[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Hatnote. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:04, 19 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 15 January 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 22 January 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 29 January 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 29 January 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Non-admin closure[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Non-admin closure. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:05, 4 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 February 2014[edit]

GOCE February blitz wrapup[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Blitzes/February 2014 wrap-up

Participation: Out of seven people who signed up for this blitz, all copy-edited at least one article. Thanks to all who participated! Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: During the seven-day blitz, we removed 16 articles from the requests queue. Hope to see you at the March drive! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Baffle gab1978.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Signatures[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Signatures. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:03, 20 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor Newsletter—February 2014[edit]

Did you know?
Click this image to see the details.

You can easily re-use references by going to the Insert menu, choosing "Reference", and clicking on "Use an existing reference" in the lower left corner. A list of all references, their numbers, and their ref names (if any) will be shown. You can search the list for any author, title, date, or other keyword. Read the user guide for more information.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has worked on some small changes to the user interface, such as moving the reference item to the top of the Insert menu, as well as some minor features and fixing bugs, especially for rich copying and pasting of references.

The biggest change was the addition of more features to the image dialog, including the ability to set alignment (left, right, center), framing options (thumbnail, frame, frameless, and none), adding alt text, and defining the size manually. There is still some work to be done here, including a quick way to set the default size.

  • The main priority is redesigning the reference dialog, with the goal of providing autofill features for ISBNs and URLs and streamlining the process. Current concept drawings are available at mw:VisualEditor/Design/Reference Dialog. Please share your ideas about making referencing quick and easy with the designers.
  • A few bugs in the existing reference dialog were fixed. The toolbar was simplified to remove galleries and lists from the reference dialog. When you re-use references, it now correctly displays the references again, rather than just the number and name. If you paste content into a dialog that can't fit there (e.g. ==section headings== in references), it now strips out the inappropriate HTML.
  • You can now edit image galleries inside VisualEditor. At this time, the gallery tool is a very limited option that gives you access to the wikitext. It will see significant improvements at a later date.
  • The character inserter tool in the "Insert" menu is being redesigned. Your feedback on the special character inserter is still wanted, especially if you depend on Wikipedia's character inserters for your normal editing rather than using the ones built into your computer.
  • You can now see a help page about keyboard shortcuts in the page menu (three bars next to the Cancel button) (T54844).
  • If you edit categories, your changes will now display correctly after saving the page (T50560).
  • Saving the page should be faster now (T61660).
  • Any community can ask to test a new tool to edit TemplateData by leaving a note at T53734.

Looking ahead: The link tool will tell you when you're linking to a disambiguation or redirect page. The warning about wikitext will hide itself after you remove the wikitext markup in that paragraph. Support for creating and editing redirects is in the pipeline. Looking further out, image handling will be improved, including default and upright sizes. The developers are also working on support for viewing and editing hidden HTML comments, some behavioral magic words like DISPLAYTITLE, and in-line language setting (dir="rtl").

If you have questions or suggestions for future improvements, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting a note at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) 04:21, 20 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

March GOCE copyedit drive[edit]

Notes from the Guild of Copy Editors

The March 2014 backlog elimination drive is a month-long effort to reduce the backlog of articles in need of copyediting. The drive begins on March 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and ends on March 31 at 23:59 (UTC). Our goals are to copyedit all articles tagged in December 2012 and January 2013 and to complete all requests placed in January 2014. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who copyedits at least one article, and special awards will be given to the top five in the following categories: number of articles, number of words, number of articles over 5,000 words, number of articles tagged in December 2012 and January 2013 and the longest article. We hope to see you there!

– Your drive coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:59, 21 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 February 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 26 February 2014[edit]

Definition of 'paid advocacy editing'[edit]

I just wanted to draw your attention to a discussion of paid advocacy editing on Jimbo Wales' talk page. Your press release on the subject was brought up (by me, actually) and there's some confusion concerning the term "paid advocacy editing" and whether overt "advocacy" is an essential part of the equation (as opposed to it being sufficient that a person be paid to create and expand articles for a client). See, as I pointed out in the discussion, the most effective paid editors of the Wiki-PR variety do not overtly "advocate" but adhere, superficially at least, to NPOV. Indeed, the paid editing community sometimes refer to themselves as "paid encyclopedic editors." Can you help us out by sharing your view of the subject, by explaining your conception of the paid advocacy editor? The discussion is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#Who_owns_the_Wikimedia_Foundation.3F Thanks very much. Coretheapple (talk) 16:05, 6 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

(test) The Signpost: 05 March 2014[edit]

Please comment on User talk:Bgwhite[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on User talk:Bgwhite. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:05, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 March 2014[edit]

VisualEditor newsletter—March 2014[edit]

Did you know?
Click this image to see the details.

The template dialog has been simplified to make it faster and easier to add parameter data. Read the user guide for more information.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has mostly worked on changes to the template and image dialogs.

The biggest change in the last few weeks was the redesign of the template dialog. The template dialog now opens in a simplified mode that lists parameters and their descriptions. (The complex multi-item transclusion mode can be reached by clicking on "Show options" from inside the simplified template dialog.) Template parameters now have a bigger, auto-sizing input box for easier editing.  With today's update, searching for template parameters will become case-insensitive, and required template parameters will display an asterisk (*) next to their edit boxes. In addition to making it quicker and easier to see everything when you edit typical templates, this work was necessary to prepare for the forthcoming simplified citation dialog. The main priority in the coming weeks is building this new citation dialog, with the ultimate goal of providing autofill features for ISBNs, URLs, DOIs and other quick-fills. This will add a new button on the toolbar, with the citation templates available picked by each wiki's community. Concept drawings can be seen at mw:VisualEditor/Design/Reference Dialog. Please share your ideas about making referencing quick and easy with the designers.

  • The link tool now tells you when you're linking to a disambiguation or redirect page. Pages that exist, but are not indexed by the search engine, are treated like non-existent pages (T56361).
  • Wikitext warnings will now hide when you remove wikitext from the paragraph you are editing.
  • The character inserter tool in the "Insert" menu has been slightly redesigned, to introduce larger buttons. Your suggestions for more significant changes to the special character inserter are still wanted.
  • The page options menu (three bars, next to the Cancel button) has expanded. You can create and edit redirect pages, set page options like __STATICREDIRECT__, __[NO]INDEX__ and __[NO]NEWEDITSECTION__, and more.  New keyboard shortcuts are listed there, and include undoing the last action, clearing formatting, and showing the shortcut help window. If you switch from VisualEditor to wikitext editing, your edit will now be tagged.
  • It is easier to edit images. There are more options and they are explained better. If you add new images to pages, they will also be default size.  You can now set image sizes to the default, if another size was previously specified. Full support for upright sizing systems, which more readily adapt image sizes to the reader's screen size, is planned.
  • VisualEditor adds fake blank lines so you can put your cursor there. These "slugs" are now smaller than normal blank lines, and are animated to be different from actual blank lines.
  • You can use the Ctrl+Alt+S or ⌘ Command+⌥ Option+S shortcuts to open the save window, and you can preview your edit summary when checking your changes in the save window.
  • After community requests, VisualEditor has been deployed to the Interlingual Occidental Wikipedia, the Portuguese Wikibooks, and the French Wikiversity.
  • Any community can ask for custom icons for their language in the character formatting menu (bold, italic, etc.) by making a request on Bugzilla or by contacting Product Manager James Forrester.

The developers apologize for a regression bug with the deployment on 6 March 2014, which caused the incorrect removal of |upright size definitions on a handful of pages on the English Wikipedia, among others. The root cause was fixed, and the broken pages were fixed soon after.

Looking ahead:  Several template dialogs will become more compact. Looking further out, the developers are also working on support for viewing and editing hidden HTML comments. You will be able to see the Table of Contents change live as you edit the page, rather than it being hidden. In-line language setting (dir="rtl") may be offered to a few Wikipedias soon.

If you have questions or suggestions for future improvements, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting a note at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback or by joining the office hours on 19 April 2014 at 2000 UTC. Thank you! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:44, 20 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 March 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Articles for creation[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Articles for creation. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:10, 29 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 March 2014[edit]

GOCE March drive wrapup[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors March 2014 backlog elimination drive wrap-up newsletter
The March 2014 drive wrap-up is now ready for review.
Sign up for the April blitz!

– Your project coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by
Guild of Copy Editors March 2014 backlog elimination drive wrap-up

Participation: Thanks to all who participated in the drive and helped out behind the scenes. 42 people signed up for this drive and 28 of these completed at least one article. Final results are available here.

Progress report: Articles tagged during the target months of December 2012 and January 2013 were reduced from 177 to 33, and the overall backlog was reduced by 13 articles. The total backlog was 2,902 articles at the end of March. On the Requests page during March, 26 copy edit requests were completed, all requests from January 2014 were completed, and the length of the queue was reduced by 11 articles.

Blitz!: The April blitz will run from April 13–19, with a focus on the Requests list. Sign up now!

– Your drive coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:58, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 02 April 2014[edit]

A barnstar for you![edit]

The Original Barnstar
Thanks for spotting the original research that was slipped into the Brendan Eich article. Two kinds of pork (talk) 02:07, 11 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 09 April 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:02, 14 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Stanton foundation[edit]

"He [Sandole] also says that, for the year, he was only paid $40,000, not the $53,690 allocated for the residency. Wikimedia spokesperson Jay Walsh confirms that the remaining $13,690 went toward administrative overhead costs." Could you please give your side of this story? Cla68 (talk) 00:42, 17 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

April blitz wrap-up and May copyediting drive invitation[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors April 2014 Blitz wrap-up

Participation: Out of 17 people who signed up for this blitz, eight copy-edited at least one article. Thanks to all who participated! Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: During the seven-day blitz, we removed 28 articles from the requests queue. Hope to see you at the May drive! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Baffle gab1978.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:18, 22 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 April 2014[edit]

VisualEditor newsletter—April 2014[edit]

Did you know?

You can use VisualEditor to make redirects. First, remove any unwanted content from the page. Then go to the "Page options" menu (next to "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cancel⧽") and choose the "Page settings" item. Click the box to "Redirect this page to". In the box, type in the name of the page that you want to redirect this page to.

You can also set or remove categories for the redirect in the "Page options" menu. Read the user guide for more information.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has mostly worked on performance improvements, image settings, and preparation for a simplified citation template tool in its own menu.

  • In an oft-requested improvement, VisualEditor now displays red links (links to non-existent pages) in the proper color. Links to sister projects and external URLs are still the same blue as local links.
  • You can now open templates by double-clicking them or by selecting them and pressing  Return.  This also works for references, images, galleries, mathematical equations, and other "nodes".
  • VisualEditor has been disabled for pages that were created as translations of other pages using the Translate extension (common at Meta and MediaWiki.org). If a page has been marked for translation, you will see a warning if you try to edit it using VisualEditor.
  • When you try to edit protected pages with VisualEditor, the full protection notice and most recent log entry are displayed. Blocked users see the standard message for blocked users.
  • The developers fixed a bug that caused links on sub-pages to point to the wrong location.
  • The size-changing controls in the advanced settings section of the media or image dialog were simplified further. VisualEditor's media dialog supports more image display styles, like borderless images.
  • If there is not enough space on your screen to display all of the tabs (for instance, if your browser window is too narrow), the second edit tab will now fold into the drop-down menu (where the "Move" item is currently housed). On the English Wikipedia, this moves the "Edit beta" tab into the menu; on most projects, it moves the "Edit source" tab. This is only enabled in the default Vector skin, not for Monobook users. See this image for an example showing the "Edit source" and "View history" tabs after they moved into the drop-down menu.
  • After community requests, VisualEditor has been deployed as an opt-in feature at Meta and on the French Wikinews.
The drop-down menu is on the right, next to the search box.

Looking ahead:  A new, locally controlled menu of citation templates will put citations immediately in front of users. You will soon be able to see the Table of Contents while editing. Support for upright image sizes (preferred for accessibility) is being developed. In-line language setting (dir="rtl") will be offered as a Beta Feature soon. Looking further out, the developers are also working on support for viewing and editing hidden HTML comments. It will be possible to upload images to Commons from inside VisualEditor.

If you have questions or suggestions for future improvements, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting a note at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback or by joining the office hours on Monday, 19 May 2014 at 18:00 UTC. If you'd like to get this on your own page, subscribe at Wikipedia:VisualEditor#Newsletter for English Wikipedia only or at meta:VisualEditor/Newsletter for any project. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:23, 23 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yay![edit]

You recently reached your 2,000th edit here, congrats :) --Elitre (talk) 15:53, 25 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Talk:Scarlett Johansson[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:Scarlett Johansson. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:05, 30 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 April 2014[edit]

Message from another persnickety nerd[edit]

I noticed that you have heavily promoted some travel vest on your blog recently, even using a promo picture right from their website, and that the company has swiftly thanked you on twitter. Of course you may buy and recommend whatever you like, but did you know that this company has tried to glam up their entry in the past? How about telling them: "Your products are fine, but please tell your PR people to avoid editing wikipedia"? Greetings, Stefan64 (talk) 03:07, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

A kitten for you![edit]

Thanks, Sue, for all the great work, and congratulations in assumption of your new office. Love and hugs, and a little kitty.

Aditya(talk • contribs) 03:30, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for everything and an unfortunate thread at User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#Sue_Gardner.27s_product_blogging[edit]

Hey Sue!

I need to thank you for everything you've done for Wikipedia and the WMF. It looks very much like you've found a good replacement, but there will never be anybody who'll do the ED job as well as you've done it! Best of luck in everything you do in the future.

Now for the unfortunate thread. It strikes me as being a not-so-veiled personal attack against you from a long-banned editor. Perhaps it might be best just to ignore this attack, but I'll ask you 3 questions there that should put the whole issue to rest.

Again, all the best and good luck.

Smallbones(smalltalk) 18:48, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 May 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)[edit]

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (policy). Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:02, 16 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 May 2014[edit]

VisualEditor newsletter—May 2014[edit]

Did you know?

The cite menu offers quick access to up to five citation templates.  If your wiki has enabled the "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" menu, press "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" and select the appropriate template from the menu.

Existing citations that use these templates can be edited either using the "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" tool or by selecting the reference and choosing the "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-reference-tooltip⧽" item in the "Insert" menu.

Read the user guide for more information.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has mostly worked on the new citation tool, improving performance, reducing technical debt, and other infrastructure needs.

The biggest change in the last few weeks is the new citation template menu, labeled "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽". The new citation menu offers a locally configurable list of citation templates on the main toolbar. It adds or opens references using the simplified template dialog that was deployed last month. This tool is in addition to the "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-reference-tooltip⧽" item in the "Insert" menu, and it is not displayed unless it has been configured for that wiki. To enable this tool on your wiki, see the instructions at VisualEditor/Citation tool.

Eventually, the VisualEditor team plans to add autofill features for these citations. When this long-awaited feature is created, you could add an ISBN, URL, DOI or other identifier to the citation tool, and VisualEditor would automatically fill in as much information for that source as possible. The concept drawings can be seen at mw:VisualEditor/Design/Reference Dialog, and your ideas about making referencing quick and easy are still wanted.

  • There is a new Beta Feature for setting content language and direction.  This allows editors who have opted in to use the "Language" tool in the "Insert" menu to add HTML span tags that label text with the language and as being left-to-right (LTR) or right-to-left (RTL), like this:  <span lang="en" dir="ltr">English</span>. This tool is most useful for pages whose text combines multiple languages with different directions, common on Right-to-Left wikis.
  • The tool for editing mathematics formulae in VisualEditor has been slightly updated and is now available to all users, as the "⧼math-visualeditor-mwmathinspector-title⧽" item in the "Insert" menu. It uses LaTeX like in the wikitext editor.
  • The layout of template dialogs has been changed, putting the label above the field.  Parameters are now called "fields", to avoid a technical term that many editors are unfamiliar with.
  • TemplateData has been expanded:  You can now add "suggested" parameters in TemplateData, and VisualEditor will display them in the template dialogs like required ones.  "Suggested" is recommended for parameters that are commonly used, but not actually required to make the template work.  There is also a new type for TemplateData parameters: wiki-file-name, for file names.  The template tool can now tell you if a parameter is marked as being obsolete.
  • Some templates that previously displayed strangely due to absolute CSS positioning hacks should now display correctly.
  • Several messages have changed: The notices shown when you save a page have been merged into those used in the wikitext editor, for consistency.  The message shown when you "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cancel⧽" out of an edit is clearer. The beta dialog notice, which is shown the first time you open VisualEditor, will be hidden for logged-in users via a user preference rather than a cookie.  As a result of this change, the beta notice will show up one last time for all logged-in users on their next VisualEditor use after Thursday's upgrade.
  • Adding a category that is a redirect to another category prompts you to add the target category instead of the redirect.
  • In the "Images and media" dialog, it is no longer possible to set a redundant border for thumbnail and framed images.
  • There is a new Template Documentation Editor for TemplateData.  You can test it by editing a documentation subpage (not a template page) at Mediawiki.org: edit mw:Template:Sandbox/doc, and then click "Manage template documentation" above the wikitext edit box.  If your community would like to use this TemplateData editor at your project, please contact product manager James Forrester or file an enhancement request in Bugzilla.
  • There have been multiple small changes to the appearance:  External links are shown in the same light blue color as in MediaWiki.  This is a lighter shade of blue than the internal links.  The styling of the "Style text" (character formatting) drop-down menu has been synchronized with the recent font changes to the Vector skin.  VisualEditor dialogs, such as the "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-savedialog⧽" dialog, now use a "loading" animation of moving lines, rather than animated GIF images.  Other changes were made to the appearance upon opening a page in VisualEditor which should make the transition between reading and editing be smoother.
  • The developers merged in many minor fixes and improvements to MediaWiki interface integration (e.g., edit notices), and made VisualEditor handle Education Program pages better.
  • At the request of the community, VisualEditor has been deployed to Commons as an opt-in. It is currently available by default for 161 Wikipedia language editions and by opt-in through Beta Features at all others, as well as on several non-Wikipedia sites.

Looking ahead:  The toolbar from the PageTriage extension will no longer be visible inside VisualEditor. More buttons and icons will be accessible from the keyboard.  The "Keyboard shortcuts" link will be moved out of the "Page options" menu, into the "Help" menu. Support for upright image sizes (preferred for accessibility) and inline images is being developed. You will be able to see the Table of Contents while editing. Looking further out, the developers are also working on support for viewing and editing hidden HTML comments. VisualEditor will be available to all users on mobile devices and tablet computers. It will be possible to upload images to Commons from inside VisualEditor.

If you have questions or suggestions for future improvements, or if you encounter problems, please let everyone know by posting a note at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback or by joining the office hours on Thursday, 19 June 2014 at 10:00 UTC. If you'd like to get this newsletter on your own page (about once a month), please subscribe at w:en:Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter for English Wikipedia only or at meta:VisualEditor/Newsletter for any project. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) 22:16, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 21 May 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biographies[edit]

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The Signpost: 28 May 2014[edit]

GOCE June 2014 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors May 2014 backlog elimination drive wrap-up

Participation: Thanks to all who participated! Out of 51 people who signed up this drive, 33 copy edited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: We reduced our article backlog from 2,987 articles to 2,236 articles in May, the lowest backlog total since we began keeping records in 2009! Since at least 300 new articles were tagged during May, that means we copy edited over 1,000 articles in a single month. Amazing work, everyone!

Blitz: The June blitz will run from June 15–21. This blitz's theme is Politics. Sign up here.

Election: You can nominate yourself or others for the role of Coordinator for the second half of 2014 here. Nominations will be accepted until June 14. Voting will begin on June 15 and will conclude on June 28.

Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, and Miniapolis.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:27, 5 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 June 2014[edit]

June 2014[edit]

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to Seduction community may have broken the syntax by modifying 2 "()"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:
  • -- are they real?", to weaken her confidence and therefore render her more vulnerable to seduction).<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/cockblocked-by-redistribution|title =
  • own social value, and "going caveman" is escalating physical contact while reducing verbal contact).<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://www.smh.com.au/world/elliot-rodger-and-the-creepy-world-of-the-

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Send word![edit]

When you emerge from the pool, or the deepest rainforest, or the highest mountain valley, or wherever you've hidden yourself away, please let the community know how you are doing and maybe even what's next on the agenda (e.g. glacier watching, World Cup cheering, moose photography). If you need more ideas, just ask - those were off the top of my head.

All the best,

Smallbones(smalltalk) 16:44, 10 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"The first thing I did was spend a month in Iceland looking at volcanoes and lounging in hot springs." I wasn't that far off, was i? Smallbones(smalltalk) 04:24, 30 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 11 June 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)[edit]

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The Signpost: 18 June 2014[edit]

VisualEditor global newsletter—June 2014[edit]

The character formatting menu

Did you know?

The character formatting menu, or "Style text" menu lets you set bold, italic, and other text styles. "Clear formatting" removes all text styles and removes links to other pages.

Do you think that clear formatting should remove links? Are there changes you would like to see for this menu? Share your opinion at MediaWiki.org.

The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor.

The VisualEditor team is mostly working to fix bugs, improve performance, reduce technical debt, and other infrastructure needs. You can find on Mediawiki.org weekly updates detailing recent work.

  • They have moved the "Keyboard shortcuts" link out of the "Page options" menu, into the "Help" menu. Within dialog boxes, buttons are now more accessible (via the Tab key) from the keyboard.
  • You can now see the target of the link when you click on it, without having to open the inspector.
  • The team also expanded TemplateData: You can now add a parameter type  "date" for dates and times in the ISO 8601 format, and  "boolean" for values which are true or false. Also, templates that redirect to other templates (like {{citeweb}} → {{cite web}}) now get the TemplateData of their target (bug 50964). You can test TemplateData by editing mw:Template:Sandbox/doc.
  • Category: and File: pages now display their contents correctly after saving an edit (bug 65349, bug 64239)
  • They have also improved reference editing: You should no longer be able to add empty citations with VisualEditor (bug 64715), as with references. When you edit a reference, you can now empty it and click the "use an existing reference" button to replace it with another reference instead. 
  • It is now possible to edit inline images with VisualEditor. Remember that inline images cannot display captions, so existing captions get removed. Many other bugs related to images were also fixed.
  • You can now add and edit {{DISPLAYTITLE}} and __DISAMBIG__ in the "Page options" menu, rounding out the full set of page options currently planned.
  • The tool to insert special characters is now wider and simpler.

Looking ahead[edit]

The VisualEditor team has posted a draft of their goals for the next fiscal year. You can read them and suggest changes on MediaWiki.org.

The team posts details about planned work on VisualEditor's roadmap. You will soon be able to drag-and-drop text as well as images. If you drag an image to a new place, it won't let you place it in the middle of a paragraph. All dialog boxes and windows will be simplified based on user testing and feedback. The VisualEditor team plans to add autofill features for citations. Your ideas about making referencing quick and easy are still wanted. Support for upright image sizes is being developed. The designers are also working on support for viewing and editing hidden HTML comments and adding rows and columns to tables.

Supporting your wiki[edit]

Please read VisualEditor/Citation tool for information on configuring the new citation template menu, labeled "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽". This menu will not appear unless it has been configured on your wiki.

If you speak a language other than English, we need your help with translating the user guide. The guide is out of date or incomplete for many languages, and what's on your wiki may not be the most recent translation. Please contact me if you need help getting started with translation work on MediaWiki.org.

VisualEditor can be made available to most non-Wikipedia projects. If your community would like to test VisualEditor, please contact product manager James Forrester or file an enhancement request in Bugzilla.

Please share your questions, suggestions, or problems by posting a note at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback or by joining the office hours on Saturday, 19 July 2014 at 21:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas and Pacific Islands) or on Thursday, 14 August 2014 at 9:00 UTC (daytime for Europe, Middle East, Asia).

To change your subscription to this newsletter, please see the subscription pages on Meta or the English Wikipedia. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:59, 25 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 June 2014[edit]

GOCE July 2014 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors July 2014 newsletter is now ready for review. Highlights:

– Your project coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis.

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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Notability (sports)[edit]

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The Signpost: 02 July 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 09 July 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Signatures[edit]

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The Signpost: 16 July 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 23 July 2014[edit]

Updated your userpage on da-wiki[edit]

Hi Sue, I just updated your userpage on da-wiki. Best Regards InsaneHacker (talk) 12:58, 29 July 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Treats![edit]

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The Signpost: 30 July 2014[edit]

VisualEditor newsletter—July and August 2014[edit]

The VisualEditor team is currently working mostly to fix bugs, improve performance, reduce technical debt, and other infrastructure needs. You can find on Mediawiki.org weekly updates detailing recent work.

Screenshot of VisualEditor's link tool
Dialog boxes in VisualEditor have been re-designed to use action words instead of icons. This has increased the number of items that need to be translated. The user guide is also being updated.

The biggest visible change since the last newsletter was to the dialog boxes. The design for each dialog box and window was simplified. The most commonly needed buttons are now at the top. Based on user feedback, the buttons are now labeled with simple words (like "Cancel" or "Done") instead of potentially confusing icons (like "<" or "X"). Many of the buttons to edit links, images, and other items now also show the linked page, image name, or other useful information when you click on them.

  • Hidden HTML comments (notes visible to editors, but not to readers) can now be read, edited, inserted, and removed. A small icon (a white exclamation mark on a dot) marks the location of each comments. You can click on the icon to see the comment.
  • You can now drag and drop text and templates as well as images. A new placement line makes it much easier to see where you are dropping the item. Images can no longer be dropped into the middle of paragraphs.
  • All references and footnotes (<ref> tags) are now made through the "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" menu, including the "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-reference-tooltip⧽" (manual formatting) footnotes and the ability to re-use an existing citation, both of which were previously accessible only through the "Insert" menu. The "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-referencelist-tooltip⧽" is still added via the "Insert" menu.
  • When you add an image or other media file, you are now prompted to add an image caption immediately. You can also replace an image whilst keeping the original caption and other settings.
  • All tablet users visiting the mobile web version of Wikipedias will be able to opt-in to a version of VisualEditor from 14 August. You can test the new tool by choosing the beta version of the mobile view in the Settings menu.
  • The link tool has a new "Open" button that will open a linked page in another tab so you can make sure a link is the right one.
  • The "Cancel" button in the toolbar has been removed based on user testing. To cancel any edit, you can leave the page by clicking the Read tab, the back button in your browser, or closing the browser window without saving your changes.

Looking ahead[edit]

The team posts details about planned work on the VisualEditor roadmap. The VisualEditor team plans to add auto-fill features for citations soon. Your ideas about making referencing quick and easy are still wanted. Support for upright image sizes is being developed. The designers are also working on support for adding rows and columns to tables. Work to support Internet Explorer is ongoing.

Feedback opportunities[edit]

The Editing team will be making two presentations this weekend at Wikimania in London. The first is with product manager James Forrester and developer Trevor Parscal on Saturday at 16:30. The second is with developers Roan Kattouw and Trevor Parscal on Sunday at 12:30.

Please share your questions, suggestions, or problems by posting a note at the VisualEditor feedback page or by joining the office hours discussion on Thursday, 14 August 2014 at 09:00 UTC (daytime for Europe, Middle East and Asia) or on Thursday, 18 September 2014 at 16:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas; evening for Europe).

If you'd like to get this newsletter on your own page (about once a month), please subscribe at w:en:Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter for English Wikipedia only or at Meta for any project. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:14, 8 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 August 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Disability-related articles[edit]

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The Signpost: 13 August 2014[edit]

GOCE July drive and August blitz[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors July 2014 backlog elimination drive wrap-up

Participation: Thanks to everyone who participated in the July drive. Of the 40 people who signed up this drive, 22 copy edited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: We reduced our article backlog from 2400 articles to 2199 articles in July. This is a new month-end record low for the backlog. Nice work, everyone!

Blitz: The August blitz will run from August 24–30. The blitz will focus on articles from the GOCE's Requests page. Awards will be given out to everyone who copy edits at least one of the target articles. The blitz will run from August 24–30. Sign up here!

Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, and Miniapolis.

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The Signpost: 20 August 2014[edit]

Tor (anonymity network)[edit]

Thanks for spiffing up the article! kencf0618 (talk) 22:27, 29 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Reference Errors on 29 August[edit]

Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:

Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:24, 30 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 August 2014[edit]

Please comment on Template talk:WikiProject Biography[edit]

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The Signpost: 03 September 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 10 September 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:No original research[edit]

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The Signpost: 17 September 2014[edit]

You're invited! Litquake Edit-a-thon in San Francisco[edit]

You are invited! → Litquake Edit-a-thon → See you there!
  In the area? You're invited to
   San Francisco Meetup # 22
  Date: October 11, 2014
  Time: 1-5 pm
  Place: 149 New Montgomery Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105
  prev: Meetup 21 - next: Meetup 23 | All SF meetups & events

The Edit-a-thon will occur in parallel with Litquake, the San Francisco Bay Area's annual literature festival. Writers from all over the Bay Area and the world will be in town during the nine day festival, so the timing is just right for us to meetup and create/translate/expand/improve articles about literature and writers. All levels of Wikipedia editing experience are welcome. This event will include new editor training. RSVP →here←. --Rosiestep (talk) 03:51, 27 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 September 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Consensus[edit]

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The Signpost: 01 October 2014[edit]

VisualEditor newsletter—September and October 2014[edit]

Did you know?

TemplateData is a separate program that organizes information about the parameters that can be used in a template. VisualEditor reads that data, and uses it to populate its simplified template dialogs.

With the new TemplateData editor, it is easier to add information about parameters, because the ones you need to use are pre-loaded.

See the help page for TemplateData for more information about adding TemplateData. The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing team has reduced technical debt, simplified some workflows for template and citation editing, made major progress on Internet Explorer support, and fixed over 125 bugs and requests. Several performance improvements were made, especially to the system around re-using references and reference lists. Weekly updates are posted on Mediawiki.org.

There were three issues that required urgent fixes: a deployment error that meant that many buttons didn't work correctly (bugs 69856 and 69864), a problem with edit conflicts that left the editor with nowhere to go (bug 69150), and a problem in Internet Explorer 11 that caused replaced some categories with a link to the system message, MediaWiki:Badtitletext (bug 70894) when you saved. The developers apologize for the disruption, and thank the people who reported these problems quickly.

Increased support for devices and browsers[edit]

Internet Explorer 10 and 11 users now have access to VisualEditor. This means that about 5% of Wikimedia's users will now get an "Edit" tab alongside the existing "Edit source" tab. Support for Internet Explorer 9 is planned for the future.

Tablet users browsing the site's mobile mode now have the option of using a mobile-specific form of VisualEditor. More editing tools, and availability of VisualEditor on smartphones, is planned for the future. The mobile version of VisualEditor was tweaked to show the context menu for citations instead of basic references (bug 68897). A bug that broke the editor in iOS was corrected and released early (bug 68949). For mobile tablet users, three bugs related to scrolling were fixed (bug 66697, bug 68828, bug 69630). You can use VisualEditor on the mobile version of Wikipedia from your tablet by clicking on the cog in the top-right when editing a page and choosing which editor to use.

TemplateData editor[edit]

A tool for editing TemplateData will be deployed to more Wikipedias soon.  Other Wikipedias and some other projects may receive access next month. This tool makes it easier to add TemplateData to the template's documentation.  When the tool is enabled, it will add a button above every editing window for a template (including documentation subpages). To use it, edit the template or a subpage, and then click the "Edit template data" button at the top.  Read the help page for TemplateData. You can test the TemplateData editor in a sandbox at Mediawiki.org. Remember that TemplateData should be placed either on a documentation subpage or on the template page itself. Only one block of TemplateData will be used per template.

Other changes[edit]

Several interface messages and labels were changed to be simpler, clearer, or shorter, based on feedback from translators and editors. The formatting of dialogs was changed, and more changes to the appearance will be coming soon, when VisualEditor implements the new MediaWiki theme from Design. (A preview of the theme is available on Labs for developers.) The team also made some improvements for users of the Monobook skin that improved the size of text in toolbars and fixed selections that overlapped menus.

VisualEditor-MediaWiki now supplies the mw-redirect or mw-disambig class on links to redirects and disambiguation pages, so that user gadgets that colour in these in types of links can be created.

Templates' fields can be marked as 'required' in TemplateData. If a parameter is marked as required, then you cannot delete that field when you add a new template or edit an existing one (bug 60358). 

Language support improved by making annotations use bi-directional isolation (so they display correctly with cursoring behaviour as expected) and by fixing a bug that crashed VisualEditor when trying to edit a page with a dir attribute but no lang set (bug 69955).

Looking ahead[edit]

The team posts details about planned work on the VisualEditor roadmap. The VisualEditor team plans to add auto-fill features for citations soon, perhaps in late October.

The team is also working on support for adding rows and columns to tables, and early work for this may appear within the month. Please comment on the design at Mediawiki.org.

In the future, real-time collaborative editing may be possible in VisualEditor. Some early preparatory work for this was recently done.

Supporting your wiki[edit]

At Wikimania, several developers gave presentations about VisualEditor. A translation sprint focused on improving access to VisualEditor was supported by many people. Deryck Chan was the top translator. Special honors also go to संजीव कुमार (Sanjeev Kumar), Robby, Takot, Bachounda, Bjankuloski06 and Ата. A summary of the work achieved by the translation community has been posted here. Thank you all for your work.

VisualEditor can be made available to most non-Wikipedia projects. If your community would like to test VisualEditor, please contact product manager James Forrester or file an enhancement request in Bugzilla.

Please join the office hours on Saturday, 18 October 2014 at 18:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas; evening for Africa and Europe) and on Wednesday, 19 November at 16:00 UTC on IRC.

Give feedback on VisualEditor at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback. Subscribe or unsubscribe at Meta. To help with translations, please subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact Elitre at Meta. Thank you!

— Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:11, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 08 October 2014[edit]

GOCE October 2014 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors October 2014 newsletter is now ready for review. Highlights:

– Your project coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:17, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 15 October 2014[edit]

Please comment on Talk:Traditional marriage[edit]

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The Signpost: 22 October 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 29 October 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)[edit]

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VisualEditor newsletter—November 2014[edit]

Screenshot on an iPad, showing how to switch from one editor to the other
Did you know?

VisualEditor is also available on the mobile version of Wikipedia. Login and click the pencil icon to open the page you want to edit. Click on the gear-shaped settings in the upper-right corner, to pick which editor to use. Choose "Edit" to use VisualEditor, or "Edit source" to use the wikitext editor.

It will remember whether you used wikitext or VisualEditor, and use the same editor the next time you edit an article.

The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor. Not all features are available in Mobile Web.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has fixed many bugs and requests, and worked on support for editing tables and for using non-Latin languages. Their weekly updates are posted on Mediawiki.org. Informal notes from the recent quarterly review were posted on Meta.

Recent improvements[edit]

The French Wikipedia should see better search results for links, templates, and media because the new search engine was turned on for everyone there. This change is expected at the Chinese and German Wikipedias next week, and eventually at the English Wikipedia.

The "pawn" system has been mostly replaced. Bugs in this system sometimes added a chess pawn character to wikitext. The replacement provides better support for non-Latin languages, with full support hopefully coming soon.

VisualEditor is now provided to editors who use Internet Explorer 10 or 11 on desktop and mobile devices. Internet Explorer 9 is not supported yet.

The keyboard shortcuts for items in the toolbar's menus are now shown in the menus. VisualEditor will replace the existing design with a new theme from the User Experience / Design group. The appearance of dialogs has already changed in one Mobile version. The appearance on desktops will change soon. (You can see a developer preview of the old "Apex" design and the new "MediaWiki" theme which will replace it.)

Several bugs were fixed for internal and external links. Improvements to MediaWiki's search solved an annoying problem: If you searched for the full name of the page or file that you wanted to link, sometimes the search program could not find the page. A link inside a template, to a local page that does not exist, will now show red, exactly as it does when reading the page. Due to a error, for about two weeks this also affected all external links inside templates. Opening an auto-numbered link node like [13] with the keyboard used to open the wrong link tool. These problems have all been fixed.

TemplateData[edit]

The tool for quickly editing TemplateData will be deployed to all Wikimedia Foundation wikis on Thursday, 6 November.  This tool is already available on the biggest 40 Wikipedias, and now all wikis will have access to it. This tool makes it easier to add TemplateData to the template's documentation.  When the tool is enabled, it will add a button above every editing window for a template (including documentation subpages). To use it, edit the template or a subpage, and then click the "Edit template data" button at the top.  Read the help page for TemplateData. You can test the TemplateData editor in a sandbox at Mediawiki.org. Remember that TemplateData should be placed either on a documentation subpage or on the template page itself. Only one block of TemplateData will be used per template.

You can use the new autovalue setting to pre-load a value into a template. This can be used to substitute dates, as in this example, or to add the most common response for that parameter. The autovalue can be easily overridden by the editor, by typing something else in the field.

In TemplateData, you may define a parameter as "required". The template dialog in VisualEditor will warn editors if they leave a "required" parameter empty, and they will not be able to delete that parameter. If the template can function without this parameter, then please mark it as "suggested" or "optional" in TemplateData instead.

Looking ahead[edit]

Basic support for inserting tables and changing the number of rows and columns in tables will appear next Wednesday. Advanced features, like dragging columns to different places, will be possible later. The VisualEditor team plans to add auto-fill features for citations soon. To help editors find the most important items more quickly, some items in the toolbar menus will be hidden behind a "More" item, such as "underlining" in the styling menu. The appearance of the media search dialog will improve, to make picking between possible images easier and more visual. The team posts details about planned work on the VisualEditor roadmap.

The user guide will be updated soon to add information about editing tables. The translations for most languages except Spanish, French, and Dutch are significantly out of date. Please help complete the current translations for users who speak your language. Talk to us if you need help exporting the translated guide to your wiki.

You can influence VisualEditor's design. Tell the VisualEditor team what you want changed during the office hours via IRC. The next sessions are on Wednesday, 19 November at 16:00 UTC and on Wednesday 7 January 2015 at 22:00 UTC. You can also share your ideas at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.

Also, user experience researcher Abbey Ripstra is looking for editors to show her how they edit Wikipedia. Please sign up for the research program if you would like to hear about opportunities.

If you would like to help with translations of this newsletter, please subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Subscribe or unsubscribe at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter. Thank you!

— Whatamidoing (WMF) 20:41, 6 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 05 November 2014[edit]

Disambiguation link notification for November 10[edit]

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Kaj-Erik Relander, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Finnish. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 16:04, 10 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 November 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biographies[edit]

You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biographies. Should you wish to respond, your contribution to this discussion will be appreciated. For tips, please see Wikipedia:Requests for comment § Suggestions for responding. If you wish to change the frequency or topics of these notices, or do not wish to receive them any longer, please adjust your entries at WP:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:07, 18 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 November 2014[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)[edit]

You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). Should you wish to respond, your contribution to this discussion will be appreciated. For tips, please see Wikipedia:Requests for comment § Suggestions for responding. If you wish to change the frequency or topics of these notices, or do not wish to receive them any longer, please adjust your entries at WP:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:08, 3 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Los Angeles Times Op-ed[edit]

Hi Ms. Gardner: I read your op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. Would you care to comment on "informal jokey exchange"s made on IRC, and how that is different from the antiquated emails from the founder of Snapchat? Thanks. 172.56.38.219 (talk) 17:43, 6 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 03 December 2014[edit]

GOCE coordinator elections[edit]

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors
Candidate nominations for Guild coordinators to serve from January 1 to June 30, 2015, are currently underway. The nomination period will close at 23:59 on December 15 (UTC), after which voting will commence until 23:59 on December 31, 2014. Self-nominations are welcomed. Please consider getting involved; it's your Guild and it won't coordinate itself, so if you'd like to help coordinate Guild activities we'd love to hear from you.

Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, and Miniapolis.
Message sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:17, 10 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 10 December 2014[edit]

December 2014 GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2014 Newsletter

Drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in November's Backlog Elimination Drive. Of the 43 people who signed up for this drive, 26 copy edited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: The November Drive removed 26 requests from the Requests page and 509 articles from the {{copy edit}} backlog. We copy edited 83 articles tagged in the target months; July, August, and September 2013. Together with tag removals from articles unsuitable for copy editing, we eliminated July 2013 from the backlog and reduced August and September's tags to 61 and 70 respectively. As of 01:01, 1 December 2014 (UTC), the backlog stood at 1,974 articles, dipping below 2,000 for the first time in the Guild's history (see graph at right). Well done everyone!

Blitz: The December Blitz will run from December 14–20 and will focus on articles related to Religion, in recognition of this month's religious holidays in much of the English-speaking world. Awards will be given out to everyone who copy edits at least one of the target articles. Sign up here!

Election time again: The election of coordinators to serve from 1 January to 30 June 2015 is now underway. Candidates can nominate themselves or others from December 01, 00:01 (UTC), until December 15, 23:59. The voting period will run from December 16, 00:01 (UTC), until December 31, 23:59. You can read about coordinators' duties here. Please consider getting involved and remember to cast you vote—it's your Guild and it doesn't organize itself!

Thank you all once again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve anything without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, and Miniapolis.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:15, 14 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Template talk:Primary sources[edit]

You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Template talk:Primary sources. Should you wish to respond, your contribution to this discussion will be appreciated. For tips, please see Wikipedia:Requests for comment § Suggestions for responding. If you wish to change the frequency or topics of these notices, or do not wish to receive them any longer, please adjust your entries at WP:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:07, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 17 December 2014[edit]

VisualEditor newsletter—December 2014[edit]

Screenshot showing how to add or remove columns from a table

Did you know?

Basic table editing is now available in VisualEditor. You can add and remove rows and columns from existing tables at the click of a button.

The user guide has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on table editing and performance. Their weekly status reports are posted on Mediawiki.org. Upcoming plans are posted at the VisualEditor roadmap.

VisualEditor was deployed to several hundred remaining wikis as an opt-in beta feature at the end of November, except for most Wiktionaries (which depend heavily upon templates) and all Wikisources (which await integration with ProofreadPage).

Recent improvements[edit]

Basic support for editing tables is available. You can insert new tables, add and remove rows and columns, set or remove a caption for a table, and merge cells together. To change the contents of a cell, double-click inside it. More features will be added in the coming months. In addition, VisualEditor now ignores broken, invalid rowspan and colspan elements, instead of trying to repair them.

You can now use find and replace in VisualEditor, reachable through the tool menu or by pressing ⌃ Ctrl+F or ⌘ Cmd+F.

You can now create and edit simple <blockquote> paragraphs for quoting and indenting content. This changes a "Paragraph" into a "Block quote".

Some new keyboard sequences can be used to format content. At the start of the line, typing "*  " will make the line a bullet list; "1.  " or "# " will make it a numbered list; "==" will make it a section heading; ": " will make it a blockquote. If you didn't mean to use these tools, you can press undo to undo the formatting change. There are also two other keyboard sequences: "[[" for opening the link tool, and "{{" for opening the template tool, to help experienced editors. The existing standard keyboard shortcuts, like ⌃ Ctrl+K to open the link editor, still work.

If you add a category that has been redirected, then VisualEditor now adds its target. Categories without description pages show up as red.

You can again create and edit galleries as wikitext code.

Looking ahead[edit]

VisualEditor will replace the existing design with a new theme designed by the User Experience group. The new theme will be visible for desktop systems at MediaWiki.org in late December and at other sites early January. (You can see a developer preview of the old "Apex" theme and the new "MediaWiki" one which will replace it.)

The Editing team plans to add auto-fill features for citations in January. Planned changes to the media search dialog will make choosing between possible images easier.

Help[edit]

If you would like to help with translations of this newsletter, please subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Subscribe or unsubscribe at Meta.

Thank you! WhatamIdoing (WMF) (talk) 23:37, 20 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE holiday 2014 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors Late December 2014 Newsletter

Blitz: Thanks to everyone who participated in the December Blitz. Of the 14 editors who signed up for the blitz, 11 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

January drive: The January backlog-reduction drive is just around the corner; sign up here!

Election time again: The election of coordinators to serve from January 1 to June 30, 2015 is now underway. The voting period runs from December 16, 00:01 (UTC), until December 31, 23:59. Please cast your vote—it's your Guild, and it doesn't run itself!

Happy holidays from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:44, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 December 2014[edit]

The Signpost: 31 December 2014[edit]

GOCE 2014 report[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors 2014 Annual Report
Our 2014 Annual Report is now ready for review.

Highlights:

  • Summary of Drives, Blitzes, and the Requests page;
  • Review the election results;
  • Membership news;
  • Changes around the Guild's pages;
  • Plans for 2015.
– Your project coordinators: Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Baffle gab1978.
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:54, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 January 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 14 January 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 21 January 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 28 January 2015[edit]

VisualEditor News 2015—#1[edit]

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on VisualEditor's appearance, the coming Citoid reference service, and support for languages with complex input requirements. Status reports are posted on Mediawiki.org. Upcoming plans are posted at the VisualEditor roadmap.

The Wikimedia Foundation has named its top priorities for this quarter (January to March). The first priority is making VisualEditor ready for deployment by default to all new users and logged-out users at the remaining large Wikipedias. You can help identify these requirements. There will be weekly triage meetings which will be open to volunteers beginning Wednesday, 11 February 2015 at 12:00 (noon) PST (20:00 UTC). Tell Vice President of Engineering Damon Sicore, Product Manager James Forrester and other team members which bugs and features are most important to you. The decisions made at these meetings will determine what work is necessary for this quarter's goal of making VisualEditor ready for deployment to new users. The presence of volunteers who enjoy contributing MediaWiki code is particularly appreciated. Information about how to join the meeting will be posted at mw:Talk:VisualEditor/Portal shortly before the meeting begins. 

Due to some breaking changes in MobileFrontend and VisualEditor, VisualEditor was not working correctly on the mobile site for a couple of days in early January. The teams apologize for the problem.

Recent improvements[edit]

The new design for VisualEditor aligns with MediaWiki's Front-End Standards as led by the Design team. Several new versions of the OOjs UI library have also been released, and these also affect the appearance of VisualEditor and other MediaWiki software extensions. Most changes were minor, like changing the text size and the amount of white space in some windows. Buttons are consistently color-coded to indicate whether the action:

  • starts a new task, like opening the ⧼visualeditor-toolbar-savedialog⧽ dialog:  blue ,
  • takes a constructive action, like inserting a citation:  green ,
  • might remove or lose your work, like removing a link:  red , or
  • is neutral, like opening a link in a new browser window:  gray.

The TemplateData editor has been completely re-written to use a different design (T67815) based on the same OOjs UI system as VisualEditor (T73746). This change fixed a couple of existing bugs (T73077 and T73078) and improved usability.

Search and replace in long documents is now faster. It does not highlight every occurrence if there are more than 100 on-screen at once (T78234).

Editors at the Hebrew and Russian Wikipedias requested the ability to use VisualEditor in the "Article Incubator" or drafts namespace (T86688, T87027). If your community would like VisualEditor enabled on another namespace on your wiki, then you can file a request in Phabricator. Please include a link to a community discussion about the requested change.

Looking ahead[edit]

The Editing team will soon add auto-fill features for citations. The Citoid service takes a URL or DOI for a reliable source, and returns a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. After creating it, you will be able to change or add information to the citation, in the same way that you edit any other pre-existing citation in VisualEditor. Support for ISBNs, PMIDs, and other identifiers is planned. Later, editors will be able to contribute to the Citoid service's definitions for each website, to improve precision and reduce the need for manual corrections.

We will need editors to help test the new design of the special character inserter, especially if you speak Welsh, Breton, or another language that uses diacritics or special characters extensively. The new version should be available for testing next week. Please contact User:Whatamidoing (WMF) if you would like to be notified when the new version is available. After the special character tool is completed, VisualEditor will be deployed to all users at Phase 5 Wikipedias. This will affect about 50 mid-size and smaller Wikipedias, including Afrikaans, Azerbaijani, Breton, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mongolian, Tatar, and Welsh. The date for this change has not been determined.

Let's work together[edit]

Subscribe or unsubscribe at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter. Translations are available through Meta. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) 20:23, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

send word 2[edit]

Just following up on [14]. aa - Danny says hello. Whenever you emerge from your well-deserved rest, please do let us know. Wikipedia may need you now! Smallbones(smalltalk) 21:57, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 February 2015[edit]

February 2015 GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors February 2015 Newsletter

Drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in January's Backlog Elimination Drive. Of the 38 people who signed up for this drive, 21 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: We were able to remove August 2013 from the general copyediting backlog and November 2014 from the request-page backlog. Many thanks, everyone!

Blitz: The February Blitz will run from February 15–21 and again focuses on the requests page. Awards will be given to everyone who copyedits at least one request article. Sign up here!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Miniapolis, Jonesey95, Biblioworm and Philg88.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:52, 7 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination of Progressive stack for deletion[edit]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Progressive stack is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Progressive stack (2nd nomination) until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Thargor Orlando (talk) 16:37, 9 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 11 February 2015[edit]

Please comment on Talk:Alejandro González Iñárritu[edit]

Hello! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:Alejandro González Iñárritu. Should you wish to respond, your contribution to this discussion will be appreciated.

For tips, please see Wikipedia:Requests for comment § Suggestions for responding. If you wish to change the frequency or topics of these notices, or do not wish to receive them any longer, please adjust your entries at WP:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:03, 16 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Curiosity got the best of me, but...[edit]

...I was wondering if you still hand out the Executive Director's Barnstar? I happen to have seen it in the awards collection of CaroleHenson, and given that I try and track barnstars so I can collate their reward criteria for a my project at the end of the year I wanted to know if this is still one that was being handed out or a historical one that had pasted into the here-after. TomStar81 (Talk) 05:43, 19 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 February 2015[edit]

SF edit-a-thons on March 7 and 8[edit]

ArtAndFeminism (3/7) and International Women's Day (3/8)!

Dear fellow Wikipedian,

In celebration of WikiWomen's History Month, the SF Bay Area Wikipedia community has two events in early March -- please consider attending!

First, we have an ArtAndFeminism edit-a-thon, which will take place at the Kadist Art Foundation from 12 noon to 6pm on Saturday, March 7. We'll be one of many sites worldwide participating in this edit-a-thon on March 7th. So join us as we help improve Wikipedia's coverage of women artists and their works!

Second, we will be celebrating International Women's Day with the International Women's Day edit-a-thon on Sunday, March 8 from 1pm to 5pm at the Wikimedia Foundation. Our editing focus will be on women, of course!

I hope to see you there! Rosiestep (talk) - via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:06, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

To opt out of future mailings about SF meetups, please remove your name from this list.

GOCE March newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors March 2015 Newsletter

Blitz: Thanks to everyone who participated in the February Blitz. Of the 21 people who signed up, eight copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: The blitz removed 16 articles from the requests list, and we're almost done with December 2014. Many thanks, everyone!

Drive: The month-long March drive begins in about a week. Awards will be given to everyone who copyedits at least one article from the backlog. Sign up here!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Miniapolis, Jonesey95, Biblioworm and Philg88.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:41, 22 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 February 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 25 February 2015[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Notability[edit]

Hello! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Notability. Should you wish to respond, your contribution to this discussion will be appreciated.

For tips, please see Wikipedia:Requests for comment § Suggestions for responding. If you wish to change the frequency or topics of these notices, or do not wish to receive them any longer, please adjust your entries at feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:03, 3 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 March 2015[edit]

Please join the discussion on Talk:Glengarry Glen Ross (film)[edit]

Hello! I am soliciting comments for an RfC that is currently open on the "Glengarry Glen Ross (film)" page. There is disagreement about where the film was set (New York vs. Chicago).

One of the issues is whether it is original research to cite to elements in the film itself (including props, dialogue, and a statement in the end credits that it was "filmed on location in New York City") to establish setting.

Response so far in the RfC has been mixed. Comments welcome! Xanthis (talk) 13:31, 9 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 11 March 2015[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations. Legobot (talk) 00:04, 18 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 March 2015[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:35, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

.

Invitation[edit]

A gummi bear holding a sign that says "Thank you"
Thank you for using VisualEditor and sharing your ideas with the developers.

Hello, Sue Gardner,

The Editing team is asking for your help with VisualEditor. I am contacting you because you were one of the very first testers of VisualEditor, back in 2012 or early 2013. Please tell them what they need to change to make VisualEditor work better for you. The team has a list of top-priority problems, but they also want to hear about small problems. These problems may make editing less fun, take too much of your time, or be as annoying as a paper cut. The Editing team wants to hear about and try to fix these small things, too. 

You can share your thoughts by clicking this link. You may respond to this quick, simple, anonymous survey in your own language. If you take the survey, then you agree your responses may be used in accordance with these terms. This survey is powered by Qualtrics and their use of your information is governed by their privacy policy.

More information (including a translateable list of the questions) is posted on wiki at mw:VisualEditor/Survey 2015. If you have questions, or prefer to respond on-wiki, then please leave a message on the survey's talk page.

Thank you, Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:12, 23 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost – Volume 11, Issue 12 – 25 March 2015[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:25, 27 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost, 1 April 2015[edit]

Please comment on Talk:History of Scotland[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:History of Scotland. Legobot (talk) 00:06, 2 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 01 April 2015[edit]

VisualEditor News #2—2015[edit]

Did you know?

With Citoid in VisualEditor, you click the 'book with bookmark' icon and paste in the URL for a reliable source:


Screenshot of Citoid's first dialog


Citoid looks up the source for you and returns the citation results. Click the green "Insert" button to accept its results and add them to the article:


Screenshot of Citoid's initial results


After inserting the citation, you can change it. Select the reference, and click the "Edit" button in the context menu to make changes.


The user guide has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on VisualEditor's performance, the Citoid reference service, and support for languages with complex input requirements. Status reports are posted on Mediawiki.org. The worklist for April through June is available in Phabricator.

The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, each Wednesday at 11:00 (noon) PDT (18:00 UTC). You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q4 blocker. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" the Editing team's Q4 blocker project with the bug. Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs at mw:Talk:VisualEditor/Portal.

Recent improvements[edit]

VisualEditor is now substantially faster. In many cases, opening the page in VisualEditor is now faster than opening it in the wikitext editor. The new system has improved the code speed by 37% and network speed by almost 40%.

The Editing team is slowly adding auto-fill features for citations. This is currently available only at the French, Italian, and English Wikipedias. The Citoid service takes a URL or DOI for a reliable source, and returns a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. After creating it, you will be able to change or add information to the citation, in the same way that you edit any other pre-existing citation in VisualEditor. Support for ISBNs, PMIDs, and other identifiers is planned. Later, editors will be able to improve precision and reduce the need for manual corrections by contributing to the Citoid service's definitions for each website.

Citoid requires good TemplateData for your citation templates. If you would like to request this feature for your wiki, please post a request in the Citoid project on Phabricator. Include links to the TemplateData for the most important citation templates on your wiki.

The special character inserter has been improved, based upon feedback from active users. After this, VisualEditor was made available to all users of Wikipedias on the Phase 5 list on 30 March. This affected 53 mid-size and smaller Wikipedias, including Afrikaans, Azerbaijani, Breton, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mongolian, Tatar, and Welsh.

Work continues to support languages with complex requirements, such as Korean and Japanese. These languages use input method editors ("IMEs”). Recent improvements to cursoring, backspace, and delete behavior will simplify typing in VisualEditor for these users.

The design for the image selection process is now using a "masonry fit" model. Images in the search results are displayed at the same height but at variable widths, similar to bricks of different sizes in a masonry wall, or the "packed" mode in image galleries. This style helps you find the right image by making it easier to see more details in images.

You can now drag and drop categories to re-arrange their order of appearance ​on the page.

The pop-up window that appears when you click on a reference, image, link, or other element, is called the "context menu". It now displays additional useful information, such as the destination of the link or the image's filename. The team has also added an explicit "Edit" button in the context menu, which helps new editors open the tool to change the item.

Invisible templates are marked by a puzzle piece icon so they can be interacted with. Users also will be able to see and edit HTML anchors now in section headings.

Users of the TemplateData GUI editor can now set a string as an optional text for the 'deprecated' property in addition to boolean value, which lets you tell users of the template what they should do instead (T90734).

Looking ahead[edit]

The special character inserter in VisualEditor will soon use the same special character list as the wikitext editor. Admins at each wiki will also have the option of creating a custom section for frequently used characters at the top of the list. Instructions for customizing the list will be posted at mediawiki.org.

The team is discussing a test of VisualEditor with new users, to see whether they have met their goals of making VisualEditor suitable for those editors. The timing is unknown, but might be relatively soon.

Let's work together[edit]

  • Share your ideas and ask questions at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • Can you translate from English into any other language? Please check this list to see whether more interface translations are needed for your language. Contact us to get an account if you want to help!
  • The design research team wants to see how real editors work. Please sign up for their research program.
  • File requests for language-appropriate "Bold" and "Italic" icons for the character formatting menu in Phabricator.

Subscribe, unsubscribe or change the page where this newsletter is delivered at Meta. If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

-Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk), 17:50, 3 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Persnickety[edit]

I just saw a brief clip on CBS and was pleased to see you. You're looking well. I just wanted to let you know that 75 is low, e.g. [15]

As always,

Smallbones(smalltalk) 19:19, 5 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 08 April 2015[edit]

April 2015 GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors April 2015 Newsletter

March drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in last month's backlog-reduction drive. Of the 38 people who signed up, 18 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

April blitz: The one-week April blitz, again targeting our long requests list, will run from April 19–25. Awards will be given to everyone who copyedits at least one article from the requests page. Sign up here!

May drive: The month-long May backlog-reduction drive, with extra credit for articles tagged in December 2013, January and February 2014 and all request articles, begins soon. Sign up now!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Miniapolis, Jonesey95, Biblioworm and Philg88.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:28, 16 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 15 April 2015[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion. Legobot (talk) 00:05, 18 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 April 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 29 April 2015[edit]

Please comment on Template talk:Cite isbn[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Template talk:Cite isbn. Legobot (talk) 00:07, 3 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 May 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 13 May 2015[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment. Legobot (talk) 00:06, 19 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 May 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 27 May 2015[edit]

GOCE June 2015 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2015 News

May drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in last month's backlog-reduction drive. Of the 38 people who signed up, 29 copyedited at least one article, and we got within 50 articles of our all-time low in the backlog. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Coordinator elections: Nominations are open through June 15 for GOCE coordinators, with voting from June 16–30. Self-nominations are welcome and encouraged.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Miniapolis, Jonesey95, Biblioworm and Philg88.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:31, 6 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor News #3—2015[edit]

Did you know?

When you click on a link to an article, you now see more information:

Screenshot showing the link tool's context menu


The link tool has been re-designed:

Screenshot of the link inspector


There are separate tabs for linking to internal and external pages.

The user guide has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has created new interfaces for the link and citation tools, as well as fixing many bugs and changing some elements of the design. Some of these bugs affected users of VisualEditor on mobile devices. Status reports are posted on Mediawiki.org. The worklist for April through June is available in Phabricator.

A test of VisualEditor's effect on new editors at the English Wikipedia has just completed the first phase. During this test, half of newly registered editors had VisualEditor automatically enabled, and half did not. The main goal of the study is to learn which group was more likely to save an edit and to make productive, unreverted edits. Initial results will be posted at Meta later this month.

Recent improvements[edit]

Auto-fill features for citations are available at a few Wikipedias through the citoid service. Citoid takes a URL or DOI for a reliable source, and returns a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. If Citoid is enabled on your wiki, then the design of the citation workflow changed during May. All citations are now created inside a single tool. Inside that tool, choose the tab you want (⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-auto⧽, ⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-manual⧽, or ⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-reuse⧽). The cite button is now labeled with the word "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" rather than a book icon, and the autofill citation dialog now has a more meaningful label, "⧼Citoid-citeFromIDDialog-lookup-button⧽", for the submit button.

The link tool has been redesigned based on feedback from Wikipedia editors and user testing. It now has two separate sections: one for links to articles and one for external links. When you select a link, its pop-up context menu shows the name of the linked page, a thumbnail image from the linked page, Wikidata's description, and/or appropriate icons for disambiguation pages, redirect pages and empty pages. Search results have been reduced to the first five pages. Several bugs were fixed, including a dark highlight that appeared over the first match in the link inspector (T98085).  

The special character inserter in VisualEditor now uses the same special character list as the wikitext editor. Admins at each wiki can also create a custom section for frequently used characters at the top of the list. Please read the instructions for customizing the list at mediawiki.org. Also, there is now a tooltip to describing each character in the special character inserter (T70425).

Several improvements have been made to templates. When you search for a template to insert, the list of results now contains descriptions of the templates. The parameter list inside the template dialog now remains open after inserting a parameter from the list, so that users don’t need to click on "⧼visualeditor-dialog-transclusion-add-param⧽" each time they want to add another parameter (T95696). The team added a new property for TemplateData, "Example", for template parameters. This optional, translatable property will show up when there is text describing how to use that parameter (T53049).

The design of the main toolbar and several other elements have changed slightly, to be consistent with the MediaWiki theme. In the Vector skin, individual items in the menu are separated visually by pale gray bars. Buttons and menus on the toolbar can now contain both an icon and a text label, rather than just one or the other. This new design feature is being used for the cite button on wikis where the Citoid service is enabled.

The team has released a long-desired improvement to the handling of non-existent images. If a non-existent image is linked in an article, then it is now visible in VisualEditor and can be selected, edited, replaced, or removed.

Let's work together[edit]

  • Share your ideas and ask questions at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, each Wednesday at 12:00 (noon) PDT (19:00 UTC). Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs at mw:Talk:VisualEditor/Portal. You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q4 blocker. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" the Editing team's Q4 blocker project with the bug.
  • If your Wikivoyage, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, or other community wants to have VisualEditor made available by default to contributors, then please contact James Forrester.
  • If you would like to request the Citoid automatic reference feature for your wiki, please post a request in the Citoid project on Phabricator. Include links to the TemplateData for the most important citation templates on your wiki.

Subscribe, unsubscribe or change the page where this newsletter is delivered at Meta. If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:31, 6 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 03 June 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 10 June 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 17 June 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 24 June 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 01 July 2015[edit]

YGM[edit]

Hello, Sue Gardner. 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 remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Hey there Sue! I have sent you a media inquiry for an article I am writing. I have a feeling it is going to get quite wide circulation so can you please give it your most urgent attention? I have emailed your gmail address and press at the Tor Project. Vordrak (talk) 19:01, 5 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 08 July 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 15 July 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 22 July 2015[edit]

Sexual harassment[edit]

Hi Sue. I put together an RFC here about creating a policy as part of WP:HARASS against sexual harassment. That morphed into something that also covers protecting editors from harassment on the bases of race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, etc. It's widely believed in the real-world that sexual harassment policies are effective at reducing their occurrence, which is the goal here, hopefully making Wikipedia more welcoming to female editors, as well as other minorities.

However, I'm concerned about the prospect of having a predominantly male editor demographic voting on an issue that most profoundly effects a minority demographic of women. Naturally, most men have a dismissive attitude towards it, because we don't have experiences with this issue. I'd like to find a way to get more female participants involved.

I think I remember recruiting female editors being a platform of yours (I think I saw you speak on it at Wikimania conference too) and thought you might know the best way to find female editors I can potentially rope into the RFC. CorporateM (Talk) 02:53, 25 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 July 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 05 August 2015[edit]

VisualEditor News #4—2015[edit]

Read this in another language • Local subscription list • Subscribe to the multilingual edition

Did you know?

You can add quotations marks before and after a title or phrase with a single click.

Select the relevant text. Find the correct quotations marks in the special character inserter tool (marked as Ω in the toolbar).

Screenshot showing the special character tool, selected text, and the special character that will be inserted


Click the button. VisualEditor will add the quotation marks on either side of the text you selected.

Screenshot showing the special character tool and the same text after the special character has been inserted


You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team have been working on mobile phone support. They have fixed many bugs and improved language support. They post weekly status reports on mediawiki.org. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving language support and functionality on mobile devices.

Wikimania[edit]

The team attended Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City. There they participated in the Hackathon and met with individuals and groups of users. They also made several presentations about VisualEditor and the future of editing.

Following Wikimania, we announced winners for the VisualEditor 2015 Translathon. Our thanks and congratulations to users Halan-tul, Renessaince, जनक राज भट्ट (Janak Bhatta), Vahe Gharakhanyan, Warrakkk, and Eduardogobi.

For interface messages (translated at translatewiki.net), we saw the initiative affecting 42 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 56.5% before the translathon, and 78.2% after (+21.7%). In particular, Sakha improved from 12.2% to 94.2%; Brazilian Portuguese went from 50.6% to 100%; Taraškievica went from 44.9% to 85.3%; Doteli went from 1.3% to 41.2%. Also, while 1.7% of the messages were outdated across all languages before the translathon, the percentage dropped to 0.8% afterwards (-0.9%).

For documentation messages (on mediawiki.org), we saw the initiative affecting 24 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 26.6% before translathon, and 46.9% after (+20.3%).  There were particularly notable achievements for three languages. Armenian improved from 1% to 99%; Swedish, from 21% to 99%, and Brazilian Portuguese, from 34% to 83%. Outdated translations across all languages were reduced from 8.4% before translathon to 4.8% afterwards (-3.6%).

We published some graphs showing the effect of the event on the Translathon page. Thank you to the translators for participating and the translatewiki.net staff for facilitating this initiative.

Recent improvements[edit]

Auto-fill features for citations can be enabled on each Wikipedia. The tool uses the citoid service to convert a URL or DOI into a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. You can see an animated GIF of the quick, simple process at mediawiki.org. So far, about a dozen Wikipedias have enabled the auto-citation tool. To enable it for your wiki, follow the instructions at mediawiki.org.

Your wiki can customize the first section of the special character inserter in VisualEditor. Please follow the instructions at mediawiki.org to put the characters you want at the top. 

In other changes, if you need to fill in a CAPTCHA and get it wrong, then you can click to get a new one to complete. VisualEditor can now display and edit Vega-based graphs. If you use the Monobook skin, VisualEditor's appearance is now more consistent with other software.  

Future changes[edit]

The team will be changing the appearance of selected links inside VisualEditor. The purpose is to make it easy to see whether your cursor is inside or outside the link. When you select a link, the link label (the words shown on the page) will be enclosed in a faint box. If you place your cursor inside the box, then your changes to the link label will be part of the link. If you place your cursor outside the box, then it will not. This will make it easy to know when new characters will be added to the link and when they will not.

On the English Wikipedia, 10% of newly created accounts are now offered both the visual and the wikitext editors. A recent controlled trial showed no significant difference in survival or productivity for new users in the short term. New users with access to VisualEditor were very slightly less likely to produce results that needed reverting. You can learn more about this by watching a video of the July 2015 Wikimedia Research Showcase. The proportion of new accounts with access to both editing environments will be gradually increased over time. Eventually all new users have the choice between the two editing environments.

Let's work together[edit]

  • Share your ideas and ask questions at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • Can you read and type in Korean or Japanese? Language engineer David Chan needs people who know which tools people use to type in some languages. If you speak Japanese or Korean, you can help him test support for these languages. Please see the instructions at mw:VisualEditor/IME Testing#What to test if you can help.
  • If your wiki would like VisualEditor enabled on another namespace, you can file a request in Phabricator. Please include a link to a community discussion about the requested change.
  • Please file requests for language-appropriate "Bold" and "Italic" icons for the styling menu in Phabricator.
  • The design research team wants to see how real editors work. Please sign up for their research program.
  • The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, usually on Tuesdays at 12:00 (noon) PDT (19:00 UTC). Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q1 blocker, though. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" the main VisualEditor project with the bug.

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact Elitre directly, so that she can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:01, 8 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 August 2015[edit]

GOCE August 2015 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors August 2015 Newsletter

July drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in last month's backlog-reduction drive. Of the 24 people who signed up, 17 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

August blitz: The one-week April blitz, targeting biographical articles that have been tagged for copy editing for over a year, will run from August 16–22. Awards will be given to everyone who copyedits at least one article from the article list on the blitz page. Sign up here!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators, Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, KieranTribe, Miniapolis, and Pax85.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.
sent by Jonesey95 via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:43, 15 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 August 2015[edit]

Please comment on Talk:Wildside (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch song)[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Wildside (Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch song). Legobot (talk) 00:02, 28 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 August 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 02 September 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 09 September 2015[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Artist's impressions of astronomical objects[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Artist's impressions of astronomical objects. Legobot (talk) 00:04, 12 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 September 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 23 September 2015[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Sock puppetry[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Sock puppetry. Legobot (talk) 00:05, 27 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 September 2015[edit]

VisualEditor update[edit]

This note is only delivered to English Wikipedia subscribers of the visual editor's newsletter.

The location of the visual editor's preference has been changed from the "Beta" tab to the "Editing" section of your preferences on this wiki. The setting now says Temporarily disable the visual editor while it is in beta. This aligns en.wiki with almost all the other WMF wikis; it doesn’t mean the visual editor is complete, or that it is no longer “in beta phase” though.

This action has not changed anything else for editors: it still honours editors’ previous choices about having it on or off; logged-out users continue to only have access to wikitext; the “Edit” tab is still after the “Edit source” one. You can learn more at the visual editor’s talk page.

We don’t expect this to cause any glitches, but in case your account no longer has the settings that you want, please accept our apologies and correct it in the Editing tab of Special:Preferences. Thank you for your attention, Elitre (WMF) -16:32, 7 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 October 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 14 October 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 21 October 2015[edit]

October 2015 GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors October 2015 Newsletter

September drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in last month's backlog-reduction drive. Of the 25 editors who signed up, 18 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

October blitz: The one-week October blitz, targeting requests, has just concluded. Of the nine editors who signed up, seven copyedited at least one request; check your talk page for your barnstar!

The month-long November drive, focusing on our oldest backlog articles (June, July, and August 2014) and the October requests, is just around the corner. Hope to see you there!

Thanks again for your support; together, we can improve the encyclopedia! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, KieranTribe, Miniapolis and Pax85.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:54, 26 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor News #5—2015[edit]

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?
You can use the visual editor on smartphones and tablets.

Screenshot showing the menu for switching from the wikitext editor to VisualEditor

Click the pencil icon to open the editor for a page. Inside that, use the gear menu in the upper right corner to "Switch to visual editing".

The editing button will remember which editing environment you used last time, and give you the same one next time. The desktop site will be switching to a system similar to this one in the coming months.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs, added new features, and made some small design changes. They post weekly status reports on mediawiki.org. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving support for languages like Japanese and Arabic, making it easier to edit on mobile devices, and providing rich-media tools for formulæ, charts, galleries and uploading.

Recent improvements[edit]

Educational features: The first time you use the visual editor, it now draws your attention to the Link and ⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽ tools. When you click on the tools, it explains why you should use them. (T108620) Alongside this, the welcome message for new users has been simplified to make editing more welcoming. (T112354) More in-software educational features are planned.

Links:  It is now easier to understand when you are adding text to a link and when you are typing plain text next to it. (T74108, T91285) The editor now fully supports ISBN, PMID or RFC numbers. (T109498, T110347, T63558)  These "magic links" use a custom link editing tool.

Uploads:  Registered editors can now upload images and other media to Commons while editing. Click the new tab in the "Insert Images and media" tool. You will be guided through the process without having to leave your edit. At the end, the image will be inserted. This tool is limited to one file at a time, owned by the user, and licensed under Commons's standard license. For more complex situations, the tool links to more advanced upload tools. You can also drag the image into the editor. This will be available in the wikitext editor later.

Mobile:  Previously, the visual editor was available on the mobile Wikipedia site only on tablets. Now, editors can use the visual editor on any size of device. (T85630)  Edit conflicts were previously broken on the mobile website. Edit conflicts can now be resolved in both wikitext and visual editors. (T111894) Sometimes templates and similar items could not be deleted on the mobile website. Selecting them caused the on-screen keyboard to hide with some browsers. Now there is a new "Delete" button, so that these things can be removed if the keyboard hides. (T62110) You can also edit table cells in mobile now.

Rich editing tools:  You can now add and edit sheet music in the visual editor. (T112925)  There are separate tabs for advanced options, such as MIDI and Ogg audio files. (T114227 and T113354)  When editing formulæ and other blocks, errors are shown as you edit. It is also possible to edit some types of graphs; adding new ones, and support for new types, will be coming.

On the English Wikipedia, the visual editor is now automatically available to anyone who creates an account. The preference switch was moved to the normal location, under Special:Preferences.

Future changes[edit]

You will soon be able to switch from the wikitext to the visual editor after you start editing. (T49779) Previously, you could only switch from the visual editor to the wikitext editor. Bi-directional switching will make possible a single edit tab. (T102398) This project will combine the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab, similar to the system already used on the mobile website. The "Edit" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time.

Let's work together[edit]

If you can't read this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

— Whatamidoing (WMF) 04:15, 30 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

5 Million: We celebrate your contribution[edit]

We couldn't have done it without you
We just couldn't have done it without you.

Celebrate!

Smallbones(smalltalk) 15:12, 1 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 October 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 04 November 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 11 November 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 18 November 2015[edit]

ArbCom elections are now open![edit]

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:17, 23 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 November 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 02 December 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 09 December 2015[edit]

The Signpost: 16 December 2015[edit]

VisualEditor News #6—2015[edit]

Read this in another language • Subscription list

Did you know?

A new, simpler system for editing will offer a single Edit button. Once the page has opened, you can switch back and forth between visual and wikitext editing.

Screenshot showing a pop-up dialog for switching from the wikitext editor to VisualEditor
If you prefer having separate edit buttons, then you can set that option in your preferences, either in a pop-up dialog the next time you open the visual editor, or by going to Special:Preferences and choosing the setting that you want:
Screenshot showing a drop-down menu in Special:Preferences

The current plan is for the default setting to have the Edit button open the editing environment you used most recently.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs and expanded the mathematics formula tool. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving support for languages such as Japanese and Arabic, and providing rich-media tools for formulæ, charts, galleries and uploading.

Recent improvements[edit]

You can switch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing.

The LaTeX mathematics formula editor has been significantly expanded. (T118616) You can see the formula as you change the LaTeX code. You can click buttons to insert the correct LaTeX code for many symbols.

Future changes[edit]

The single edit tab project will combine the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab, like the system already used on the mobile website. (T102398) Initially, the "Edit" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as a cookie for logged-out users and as an account preference for logged-in editors. Logged-in editors will be able to set a default editor in the Editing tab of Special:Preferences in the drop-down menu about "Editing mode:".

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the following Wikipedias in early 2016: Amharic, Buginese, Min Dong, Cree, Manx, Hakka, Armenian, Georgian, Pontic, Serbo-Croatian, Tigrinya, Mingrelian, Zhuang, and Min Nan. (T116523) Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. The developers would like to know how well it works. Please tell them what kind of computer, web browser, and keyboard you are using.

In 2016, the feedback pages for the visual editor on many Wikipedias will be redirected to mediawiki.org. (T92661)

Testing opportunities[edit]

  • Please try the new system for the single edit tab on test2.wikipedia.org. You can edit while logged out to see how it works for logged-out editors, or you can create a separate account to be able to set your account's preferences. Please share your thoughts about the single edit tab system at the feedback topic on mediawiki.org or sign up for formal user research (type "single edit tab" in the question about other areas you're interested in). The new system has not been finalized, and your feedback can affect the outcome. The team particularly wants your thoughts about the options in Special:Preferences. The current choices in Special:Preferences are:
    • Remember my last editor,
    • Always give me the visual editor if possible, 
    • Always give me the source editor, and 
    • Show me both editor tabs.  (This is the current state for people using the visual editor. None of these options will be visible if you have disabled the visual editor in your preferences at that wiki.)
  • Can you read and type in Korean or Japanese? Language engineer David Chan needs people who know which tools people use to type in some languages. If you speak Japanese or Korean, you can help him test support for these languages. Please see the instructions at mw:VisualEditor/IME Testing#What to test if you can help, and report it on Phabricator (Korean - Japanese) or on Wikipedia (Korean - Japanese).

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

Whatamidoing (WMF), 00:54, 24 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year[edit]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. :-)

--Smallbones(smalltalk) 02:25, 24 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 December 2015[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors 2015 End of Year Report[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors 2015 End of Year Report
Our 2015 End of Year Report is now ready for review.

Highlights:

  • Summary of Drives, Blitzes, and the Requests page;
  • New record lows in the article backlog and on the Requests page;
  • Coordinator election results;
  • Membership news;
  • Changes around the Guild's pages;
  • Plans for 2016.
– Your project coordinators: Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Baffle gab1978.
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by Jonesey95 via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:41, 6 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 January 2016[edit]

Please comment on Talk:AURORA[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:AURORA. Legobot (talk) 00:06, 10 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 January 2016[edit]

The Signpost: 20 January 2016[edit]

Please comment on Talk:Eminem[edit]

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The Signpost: 27 January 2016[edit]

The Signpost: 03 February 2016[edit]

Please comment on Template talk:Infobox[edit]

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The Signpost: 10 February 2016[edit]

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The Signpost: 17 February 2016[edit]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not[edit]

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The Signpost: 24 February 2016[edit]

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VisualEditor News #1—2016[edit]

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?
Among experienced editors, the visual editor's table editing is one of the most popular features.
Screenshot showing a pop-up menu for column operations in a table
If you select the top of a column or the end of a row, you can quickly insert and remove columns and rows.

Now, you can also rearrange columns and rows. Click "Move before" or "Move after" to swap the column or row with its neighbor.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving support for Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Indic, and Han scripts, and improving the single edit tab interface.

Recent changes[edit]

You can switch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing. This function is available to nearly all editors at most wikis except the Wiktionaries and Wikisources.

Many local feedback pages for the visual editor have been redirected to mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.

You can now re-arrange columns and rows in tables, as well as copying a row, column or any other selection of cells and pasting it in a new location.

The formula editor has two options: you can choose "Quick edit" to see and change only the LaTeX code, or "Edit" to use the full tool. The full tool offers immediate preview and an extensive list of symbols.

Future changes[edit]

The single edit tab project will combine the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab. This is similar to the system already used on the mobile website. (T102398) Initially, the "Edit" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as an account preference for logged-in editors, and as a cookie for logged-out users. Logged-in editors will have these options in the Editing tab of Special:Preferences:

  • Remember my last editor,
  • Always give me the visual editor if possible,
  • Always give me the source editor, and
  • Show me both editor tabs.  (This is the state for people using the visual editor now.)

The visual editor uses the same search engine as Special:Search to find links and files. This search will get better at detecting typos and spelling mistakes soon. These improvements to search will appear in the visual editor as well.

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at most "Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next few months. The developers would like to know how well the visual editor works in your language. They particularly want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect the following languages: Japanese, Korean, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Thai, Aramaic and others.

Let's work together[edit]

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thanks!

– Whatamidoing (WMF) 17:47, 25 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 02 March 2016[edit]

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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Notability[edit]

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The Signpost: 09 March 2016[edit]

The Signpost: 16 March 2016[edit]

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globalgurus.org reliable?[edit]

I don't know why you replaced two sources with globalgurus.org [16]. Is it reliable? --Ronz (talk) 17:50, 21 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 March 2016[edit]

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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:User pages[edit]

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The Signpost: 1 April 2016[edit]

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Guild of Copy Editors April 2016 Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors April 2016 Newsletter

March drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in last month's backlog-reduction drive. Of the 28 people who signed up, 21 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

April blitz: The one-week April blitz, again targeting our long requests list, will run from April 17–23. Awards will be given to everyone who copyedits at least one article from the requests page. Sign up here!

May drive: The month-long May backlog-reduction drive, with extra credit for articles tagged in March, April, and May 2015, and all request articles, begins May 1. Sign up now!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Miniapolis, and Baffle gab1978.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:47, 6 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Citing sources[edit]

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Do you want one Edit tab, or two? It's your choice[edit]

How to switch between editing environments
Part of the toolbar in the visual editor
Click the [[ ]] to switch to the wikitext editor.
Part of the toolbar in the wikitext editor
Click the pencil icon to switch to the visual editor.

The editing interface will be changed soon. When that happens, editors who currently see two editing tabs – "Edit" and "Edit source" – will start seeing one edit tab instead. The single edit tab has been popular at other Wikipedias. When this is deployed here, you may be offered the opportunity to choose your preferred appearance and behavior the next time you click the Edit button. You will also be able to change your settings in the Editing section of Special:Preferences.

You can choose one or two edit tabs. If you chose one edit tab, then you can switch between the two editing environments by clicking the buttons in the toolbar (shown in the screenshots). See Help:VisualEditor/User guide#Switching between the visual and wikitext editors for more information and screenshots.

There is more information about this interface change at mw:VisualEditor/Single edit tab. If you have questions, suggestions, or problems to report, then please leave a note at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback.

Whatamidoing (WMF) 19:22, 11 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Bay Area WikiSalon series kickoff, April 27[edit]

Please join us in San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism
Panel discussion at a recent Wikipedia & Journalism event.

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts in the San Francisco Bay Area will gather to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas. We have two brief presentations lined up for our kickoff event in downtown San Francisco:

  • The Nueva Upper School recently hosted the first ever high school Wikipedia edit-a-thon. We will hear what interests them about Wikipedia, what they have learned so far, and what they hope to achieve.
  • Photojournalist Kris Schreier Lyseggen, author of The Women of San Quentin: The Soul Murder of Transgender Women in Male Prisons, will tell us about her work and how she researched the topic.

We allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. We will have beverages and light snacks.

Please note: You must register here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. The building policy is strict on this point.

For further details, see here: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, April 2016

We hope to see you -- and until then, happy editing! - Pete, Ben & Wayne

The Signpost: 14 April 2016[edit]

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The Signpost: 24 April 2016[edit]

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Please comment on Talk:Siouxsie and the Banshees[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Siouxsie and the Banshees. Legobot (talk) 04:28, 27 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 2 May 2016[edit]

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Dark money merger[edit]

Hello, Dark Money (authored by User:Marwess) and Dark Money (book) (authored by you) are both on the same subject. Could you please merge them? Thanks, DGtal (talk) 20:47, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A few good people merged the items. Good day, DGtal (talk) 06:51, 13 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to the Bay Area WikiSalon series on May 25[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. We will have beverages and light snacks.

Please note: You must register here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. The building policy is strict on this point.

For further details, see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, May 2016

See you soon! Pete F, Ben Creasy, and Checkingfax via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:15, 9 May 2016 (UTC) | Subscribe/Unsubscribe to the SF Meetups notice.[reply]

The Signpost: 17 May 2016[edit]

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The Signpost: 28 May 2016[edit]

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The Signpost: 05 June 2016[edit]

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June 2016 Guild of Copy Editors Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2016 News

Hello everyone, welcome to the June 2016 GOCE newsletter. It's been a few months since we sent one out; we hope y'all haven't forgotten about the Guild! Your coordinators have been busy behind the scenes as usual, though real life has a habit of reducing our personal wiki-time. The May backlog reduction drive, the usual coordinating tasks and preparations for the June election are keeping us on our toes!

May drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in last month's record-setting backlog reduction drive. Of the 29 people who signed up, 16 copyedited at least one article, 197 copyedits were recorded on the drive page, and the copyedit backlog fell below 1,500 for the first time! Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

June Blitz: this one-week copy-editing blitz will occur from 12 June through 18 June; the themes will be video games and Asian geography.

Coordinator elections: It's election time again; how quickly they seem to roll around! Nominations for the next tranche of Guild coordinators, who will serve a six-month term that begins at 00:01 UTC on 1 July and ends at 23:59 UTC on 31 December, opens at 00:01 UTC on 1 June and closes at 23:59 UTC on 15 June. Voting takes place between 00:01 UTC on 16 June and 23:59 UTC on 30 June. If you'd like to assist behind the scenes, please consider stepping forward; self-nominations are welcomed and encouraged. All Wikipedia editors in good standing are eligible; remember it's your Guild, and it doesn't run itself!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Baffle gab1978.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:01, 9 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination of Schrödinger's Rapist for deletion[edit]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Schrödinger's Rapist is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Schrödinger's Rapist until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article.

The Signpost: 15 June 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:57, 15 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to the Bay Area WikiSalon series, Wednesday, June 29[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We make sure to allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. We will have beverages and light snacks. We will also have:

  • A brief report on Pride edit-a-thon recently held at the San Francisco Publice Library, coordinated by Merrilee:
    What topics might we cover in a follow up?
    Find out more about resources your public library provides to help with editing (hint, it's more than just books!)
    Special announcement (secret for now but come and find out more!)
  • Join in on an in person Wikidojo!
    Are you curious how your peers approach writing a Wikipedia article? This exercise, pioneered by Wikipedians Nikola Kalchev and Vassia Atanassova in 2015 and conducted in many places around the world, will help us all - from first-time wiki users to veteran Wikipedians - share ideas, while building an article together. If you have ideas (relating to Bay Area history, ideally) about a new article we could build (stubs and short existing articles are fine), please submit them ahead of time to coordinator Pete Forsyth. (User talk page or email is fine.)
    Announcements and impromptu topics are welcome, too!

Please note: You must register here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. The building policy is strict.

For further details, see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, June 2016

See you soon! Pete F, Ben, Stephen and Checkingfax | (Subscribe or Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:07, 19 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Talk:War & Peace (2016 TV series)[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:War & Peace (2016 TV series). Legobot (talk) 04:25, 25 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

REMINDER/invitation to the Bay Area WikiSalon series, Wednesday, June 29 at 6 p.m.[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco tonight!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

If you cannot join in person or want to view portions later:

We will have:

  • Light snacks, and time to mingle
  • A brief report on the Pride edit-a-thon recently held at the San Francisco Public Library, that was coordinated by Wiki editor Merrilee
  • A special announcement (secret for now but come and find out more!)
  • Join in on a brief in person Wikidojo!
  • Announcements and impromptu topics are welcome, too!

Please register at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cjLRrSTlEkGOPTQ-h6A0WvSFI4ZmIUl6jEHp_RYas-E/viewform and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. The building policy is strict.

For further details, see: Bay Area WikiSalon, June 2016

See you tonight! Pete F, Ben, Stephen and MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:48, 29 June 2016 (UTC) | (Subscribe or Unsubscribe to this talk page notice)[reply]

Editing News #2—2016[edit]

Editing News #2—2016 Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?

It's quick and easy to insert a references list.

Screenshot showing a dropdown menu with many items

Place the cursor where you want to display the references list (usually at the bottom of the page). Open the "Insert" menu and click the "References list" icon (three books).

If you are using several groups of references, which is relatively rare, you will have the opportunity to specify the group. If you do that, then only the references that belong to the specified group will be displayed in this list of references.

Finally, click "Insert" in the dialog to insert the References list. This list will change as you add more footnotes to the page.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has fixed many bugs. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving support for Arabic and Indic scripts, and adapting the visual editor to the needs of the Wikivoyages and Wikisources.

Recent changes[edit]

The visual editor is now available to all users at most Wikivoyages. It was also enabled for all contributors at the French Wikinews.

The single edit tab feature combines the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab. It has been deployed to several Wikipedias, including Hungarian, Polish, English and Japanese Wikipedias, as well as to all Wikivoyages. At these wikis, you can change your settings for this feature in the "Editing" tab of Special:Preferences. The team is now reviewing the feedback and considering ways to improve the design before rolling it out to more people.

Future changes[edit]

The "Save page" button will say "Publish page". This will affect both the visual and wikitext editing systems. More information is available on Meta.

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the remaining "Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next few months. The developers want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect several languages, including: Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Urdu, Persian, Bengali, Assamese, Aramaic and others.

The team is working with the volunteer developers who power Wikisource to provide the visual editor there, for opt-in testing right now and eventually for all users. (T138966)

The team is working on a modern wikitext editor. It will look like the visual editor, and be able to use the citoid service and other modern tools. This new editing system may become available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices around September 2016. You can read about this project in a general status update on the Wikimedia mailing list.

Let's work together[edit]

If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk), 21:10, 30 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors July 2016 News[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors July 2016 News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the July 2016 GOCE newsletter.

June Blitz: this one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 12 through 18 June; the themes were video games and Asian geography. Of the 18 editors who signed up, 11 removed 47 articles from the backlog. Barnstars and rollover totals are located here. Thanks to all editors who took part.

Coordinator elections: The second tranche of Guild coordinators for 2016, who will serve a six-month term until 23:59 UTC on 31 December, have been elected. Jonesey95 remains as your drama-free Lead Coordinator, and Corinne and Tdslk are your new assistant coordinators. For her long service to the Guild, Miniapolis has been enrolled in the GOCE Hall of Fame. Thanks to everyone who voted in the election; our next scheduled one occurs in December 2016. All Wikipedia editors in good standing are eligible; self-nominations are welcome and encouraged.

July Drive: Our month-long July Copy Editing Backlog Elimination Drive is now underway. Our aim is to remove articles tagged for copy-edit in April, May and June 2015, and to complete all requests on the GOCE Requests page from June 2016. The drive ends at 23:59 on 31 July 2016 (UTC).

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Jonesey95, Corinne and Tdlsk.

>>> Sign up for the July Drive! <<<

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:54, 1 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 July 2016[edit]

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Please comment on Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Extended confirmed protection policy[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Extended confirmed protection policy. Legobot (talk) 04:26, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 21 July 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:19, 21 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Late breaking invitation to the Bay Area WikiSalon series, July 27 (Wednesday) - change of venue - tonight[edit]

Please join us in the Mission at Noisebridge (one time change of venue)!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

We hope you can join us today, Wednesday, from 6 p.m. on, at our July Bay Area WikiSalon. This month only, we are going to be at Noisebridge, a hackerspace/makerspace 1.5 blocks from the 16th & Mission BART station (see the link for directions). Some of us will be working on the Wikipedia article on basic income. All info here. Some good news - we do not have to be as strict about advance RSVP at Noisebridge, so bring spontaneous guests! (Registering ahead of time is still helpful, as always, as it will help us plan ahead.)

Come and hang out, have some light snacks. Wi-Fi is available, so please bring your editing device if you plan to edit.

Also, Pete just published a writeup of the Wikidojo exercise we did last month. Your comments welcome, if he missed anything! http://wikistrategies.net/ghost-town-royals-wikidojo

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas. Mark you calendars now.

We allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend.

See you soon! Pete F, Ben Creasy, Stephen and Wayne | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:05, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 August 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:33, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Congrats[edit]

Smallbones(smalltalk) 16:15, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 August 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:41, 18 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to the Bay Area WikiSalon series, Wednesday, August 31[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Hi folks,

We would like to invite you to this month's Bay Area WikiSalon. The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We make sure to allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. We will have beverages and light snacks. We will also have a brief presentation for your education and possible enjoyment:

  • Former EFF intern Marta Belcher will discuss crowdsourcing her Stanford Law School graduation speech using a wiki. The "WikiSpeech" was the subject of prominent national media attention in 2015, and more than half of her classmates contributed to writing and editing the commencement address via a wiki.

Please note: You should register here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. The building policy is strict on the I.D. part. This also helps us figure out how much food and drink to bring in! Feel free to stop by even if only to say a quick hello, but you might have to give us a last minute call if you forget to RSVP. Also, don't be shy about hitting us up if you have thoughts on speakers or wiki-related activities.

For further details, see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, August 2016

See you soon! Pete F, Ben, Stephen and Checkingfax | (Subscribe or Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:05, 29 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Tonight: Live and archived links for Bay Area WikiSalon[edit]

Bay Area WikiSalon, Wednesday, August 31:

If you cannot join us in person tonight, we are streaming (and later archiving) the presentation by former EFF intern Marta Belcher. We expect her to be live starting between 6:30 or 6:45 p.m. PDT and talking and taking questions for about 30 minutes thereafter.

Here is the YouTube stream link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t8V79s2-og
Here is the link to join the Hangout on Air: https://hangouts.google.com/call/ezrol7dafjfwxfh2ilpkjyxoaue

You can search for it on the Commons and YouTube later too.

Wayne, Pete, Ben, and Stephen

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:50, 31 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 September 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:44, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors September 2016 News[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors September 2016 News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the September 2016 GOCE newsletter.

>>> Sign up for the September Drive, already in progress! <<<

July Drive: The July drive was a roaring success. We set out to remove April, May, and June 2015 from our backlog (our 149 oldest articles), and by 23 July, we were done with those months. We added July 2015 (66 articles) and copy-edited 37 of those. We also handled all of the remaining Requests from June 2016. Well done! Overall, we recorded copy edits to 240 articles by 20 editors, reducing our total backlog to 13 months and 1,656 articles, the second-lowest month-end total ever.

August Blitz: this one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 21 through 27 August; the theme was sports-related articles in honor of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Of the eight editors who signed up, five editors removed 11 articles from the backlog. A quiet blitz – everyone must be on vacation. Barnstars and rollover totals are located here. Thanks to all editors who took part.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Jonesey95, Corinne and Tdlsk.

>>> Sign up for the September Drive! <<<

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:36, 9 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to the Bay Area WikiSalon series, Wednesday, September 28[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Hi folks,

We would like to invite you to this month's Bay Area WikiSalon. The last Wednesday evening of every month, Wikipedia and Wikimedia enthusiasts gather to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We will have no formal agenda to allow people to freely share ideas and perhaps learn about Wikipedia through hands-on editing. Co-organizer Ben Creasy will be looking at election-related articles to enhance the information available in the upcoming November elections.

Official logo of Wiki Loves Monuments

Co-organizer Stephen LaPorte has suggested doing an upload-a-thon for Wiki Loves Monuments. Niki, the California coordinator for WLM will be in attendance. WLM is an annual event and the official dealine is Friday the 30th for submissions to count towards awards.

Or, you can grab a couch, a booth, or a stool and do your own thing.

Wikimedia community logo (public domain)

Please note: You should register here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. The building policy is strict on the I.D. part. This also helps us figure out how much food and drink to bring in! Feel free to stop by even if only to say a quick hello, but you might have to give us a last minute call if you forget to RSVP. Also, don't be shy about hitting us up if you have thoughts on future speakers or wiki-related activities.

For further details, please see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, September 2016. Mark your calendars now for the 3rd Wednesday in October, the 26th, when we will have a brief presentation.

See you soon! Pete F, Ben, Stephen and Checkingfax | (Subscribe or Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:35, 24 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 September 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:21, 29 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Editing News #3—2016[edit]

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter • Subscribe or unsubscribe on the English Wikipedia

Did you know?

Did you know that you can easily re-arrange columns and rows in the visual editor?

Screenshot showing a dropdown menu with options for editing the table structure

Select a cell in the column or row that you want to move. Click the arrow at the start of that row or column to open the dropdown menu (shown). Choose either "Move before" or "Move after" to move the column, or "Move above" or "Move below" to move the row.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has mainly worked on a new wikitext editor. They have also released some small features and the new map editing tool. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. You can find links to the list of work finished each week at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Their current priorities are fixing bugs, releasing the 2017 wikitext editor as a beta feature, and improving language support.

Recent changes[edit]

  • You can now set text as small or big.[17]
  • Invisible templates have been shown as a puzzle icon. Now, the name of the invisible template is displayed next to the puzzle icon.[18] A similar feature will display the first part of hidden HTML comments.[19]
  • Categories are displayed at the bottom of each page. If you click on the categories, the dialog for editing categories will open.[20]
  • At many wikis, you can now add maps to pages. Go to the Insert menu and choose the "Maps" item. The Discovery department are adding more features to this area, like geoshapes. You can read more on MediaWiki.org.[21]
  • The "Save" button now says "Save page" when you create a page, and "Save changes" when you change an existing page.[22] In the future, the "Save page" button will say "Publish page". This will affect both the visual and wikitext editing systems. More information is available on Meta.
  • Image galleries now use a visual mode for editing. You can see thumbnails of the images, add new files, remove unwanted images, rearrange the images by dragging and dropping, and add captions for each image. Use the "Options" tab to set the gallery's display mode, image sizes, and add a title for the gallery.[23]

Future changes[edit]

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the remaining 10 "Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next month. The developers want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect several languages, including Thai, Burmese and Aramaic.

The team is working on a modern wikitext editor. The 2017 wikitext editor will look like the visual editor and be able to use the citoid service and other modern tools. This new editing system may become available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices in October 2016. You can read about this project in a general status update on the Wikimedia mailing list.

Let's work together[edit]

Do you teach new editors how to use the visual editor? Did you help set up the Citoid automatic reference feature for your wiki? Have you written or imported TemplateData for your most important citation templates? Would you be willing to help new editors and small communities with the visual editor? Please sign up for the new VisualEditor Community Taskforce.

If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:18, 14 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 October 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:28, 14 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You are invited to a Wednesday evening event in SF[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Hi folks,

Please copy and share this on other talk pages. We would like to invite you to this month's Bay Area WikiSalon. The last Wednesday evening of every month, Wikipedia and Wikimedia enthusiasts gather at the Wikimedia Foundation lounge to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We will have no meaty agenda this month, but we will allow a brief period for:

  • Open mic for anybody who attended WikiConference North America 2016 in San Diego last week and wants to share their takeaway
  • Question & answer
  • Open mic for announcements
  • Maybe a focus on some topical election article editing with Ben?

Or, you can grab a couch, a booth, a stool or counter and do your own thing.

Please note: You should register here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. The building policy is strict on the I.D. part. This also helps us figure out how much food and drink to bring in! Feel free to stop by even if only to say a quick hello, but you might have to give us a last minute call if you forget to RSVP. Also, don't be shy about hitting us up if you have thoughts on future speakers or wiki-related activities.

For further details, please see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, October 2016.

PS: Mark your calendars ahead now for the 3rd Wednesday in November, the 30th (the week after Thanksgiving), at 6 p.m. when our WikiSalon will host a super awesome top secret mystery guest mingling in our midst. We will announce specifics at the upcoming WikiSalon.

See you soon! Pete F, Ben, Stephen, Jacob, and Checkingfax | (Subscribe or Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:51, 22 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 November 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:52, 4 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open![edit]

Hello, Sue Gardner. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 November 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:06, 26 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Everybody is invited to the November 30 Bay Area WikiSalon[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Details and RSVP here.

See you soon! Pete F, Ben Creasy, and Checkingfax | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:54, 29 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2016 News[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2016 News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the December 2016 GOCE newsletter. We had an October newsletter all set to go, but it looks like we never pushed the button to deliver it, so this one contains a few months of updates. We have been busy and successful!

>>> Sign up for the December Blitz! <<<

Coordinator elections for the first half of 2017: Nominations are open for election of Coordinators for the first half of 2017. Please visit the election page to nominate yourself or another editor, and then return after December 15 to vote. Thanks for participating!

September Drive: The September drive was fruitful. We set out to remove July through October 2015 from our backlog (an ambitious 269 articles), and by the end of the month, we had cut that pile of oldest articles to just 83. We reduced our overall backlog by 97 articles, even with new copyedit tags being added to articles every day. We also handled 75% of the remaining Requests from August 2016. Overall, 19 editors recorded copy edits to 233 articles (over 378,000 words).

October Blitz: this one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 16 through 22 October; the theme was Requests, since the backlog was getting a bit long. Of the 16 editors who signed up, 10 editors completed 29 requests. Barnstars and rollover totals are located here. Thanks to all editors who took part.

November Drive: The November drive was a record-breaker! We set out to remove September through December 2015 from our backlog (239 articles), and by the end of the month, we had cut that pile of old articles to just 66, eliminating the two oldest months! We reduced our overall backlog by 523 articles, to a new record low of 1,414 articles, even with new tags being added to articles every day, which means we removed copy-editing tags from over 800 articles. We also handled all of the remaining Requests from October 2016. Officially, 14 editors recorded copy edits to 200 articles (over 312,000 words), but over 600 articles, usually quick fixes and short articles, were not recorded on the drive page.

Housekeeping note: we do not send a newsletter before every drive or blitz. To have a better chance of knowing when the next event will start, add the GOCE's message box to your Watchlist.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Jonesey95, Corinne and Tdslk.

>>> Sign up for the December Blitz! <<<

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:30, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Bay Area WikiSalon series: Everybody is invited this Wednesday evening at 6[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki and open-source enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

Before and after the brief presentation we allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. We will have beverages and light snacks.

In addition, this month we will have:

  • a brief presentation from User:Cullen328 (Jim Heaphy) about the Wikipedia Teahouse
  • spontaneous lightning talks from the floor
  • community announcements from the floor

For details and to RSVP see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, December 2016

See you soon! Ben Creasy and Checkingfax | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

+++++
P.S. Any help spreading the word through social media or other avenues is most welcome! We plan to announce this on various sites and invite various groups; if you would like to join in, check our meta planning page, and please note any announcements you are sending out: meta:Monthly WikiSalon in San Francisco#Announcements and promotion

Please feel free to add to, refine, reorganize or edit the above linked page: it is a wiki!

We need more helpers and organizers, so if you see a need, please jump in, or talk to us about it! You can add your username to the meta page where appropriate, or create a new role!

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:44, 12 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Reminder invitation to the December Bay Area WikiSalon[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Hi, everybody.

We are excited to remind you of the ninth in the Bay Area WikiSalon series that is coming up this Wednesday evening at 6 p.m.

  • Details (RSVP suggested) here (RSVP helps us know how much food and drink to bring in)

What is a WikiSalon? A monthly safe and inclusive meatspace event conducted in organized chaos and we all clean up the mess afterwards. Livestream links for the presentation are available during presentation months, and will be forthcoming for those of you that cannot attend. December is a presentation month.

Hope to see you there! Wayne (and Ben) - co-organizers
Any last minute questions or suggestions? Please ping or email Ben or me. | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:10, 20 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Merry Christmas[edit]

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

Smallbones(smalltalk) 05:33, 20 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 December 2016[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:04, 22 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Archived link for December Bay Area WikiSalon[edit]

Hi, y'all. In case you missed it and want to watch the archive reel; the topic was The Wikipedia Teahouse and the presenter was well respected Wikimedian Jim Heaphy [[User:Cullen328]]

  • Archive link (also includes intro, announcements, and a lightning talk)
  • Details about Bay Area WikiSalon for December here

The full title of Jim's presentation was: Welcoming and Helping New Editors: A Month at the Wikipedia Teahouse: an overview of the Teahouse and an analysis of over 300 Teahouse conversations during the month of August, 2016

Jim gave a longer version of this presentation in October at WikiConference North America 2016 in San Diego, California.

Cheers! Co-organizer Checkingfax - and co-organizer Ben Creasy | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

PS: Mark your calendars now for Sunday, January 15 at 2 p.m. which will be Wikipedia's 16th Birthday party hosted by Bay Area WikiSalon! Details to follow soon. If you want to help plan it, get in touch with us ASAP!

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:43, 23 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You are invited to a birthday bash to Celebrate Wikipedia's 16th Birthday![edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
Cut the cake

Wikipedia Day 16 SF is a fun Birthday bash and edit-a-thon on Sunday, January 15, 2017, hosted by Bay Area WikiSalon at the Wikimedia Foundation's Chip Deubner Lounge in the South of Market Street business district.

Wikimedia Community logo

For details and to RSVP, please see: Wikipedia:Meetup/SF/Wikipedia Day 2017

The San Francisco gathering is one of a number of Wikipedia Day celebrations worldwide.

See you soon! Ben Creasy, Checkingfax and Slaporte | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this notice)

PS: We need volunteers to help make this a fun and worthwhile event. Please add your name to the Project page, and what you can offer. It is a wiki, so please make direct edits to the page.

Bay Area WikiSalon usually meets the last Wednesday evening of every month as an inclusive and safe place to collaborate, mingle, munch and learn about new projects and ideas.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:52, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Talk:Stanley Kubrick[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Stanley Kubrick. Legobot (talk) 04:26, 13 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reminder invitation to the Wikipedia Day 16 birthday bash & edit-a-thon[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
Cut the cake

Wikipedia Day 16 SF is a fun Birthday bash and edit-a-thon on Sunday, January 15, 2017, hosted by Bay Area WikiSalon at the Wikimedia Foundation's Chip Deubner Lounge in the South of Market Street business district and everybody is invited!

Wikimedia Community logo
Details and RSVP here

See you Sunday! Ben Creasy, Checkingfax and Slaporte

PS: We still need more volunteers to help make this a fun and worthwhile event. Please add what you can offer and your name to the Project page or Talk about it. It is a wiki, so please make direct edits to the Project page. The event is already growing due to volunteers that have stepped up so far.

Bay Area WikiSalon meets one evening of every month as an inclusive and safe place to collaborate, mingle, munch or learn about new projects and ideas.
Note: the previous invitation had a bum wikilink. Sorry! | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this notice) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:43, 13 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 17 January 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:39, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Talk:2017 Chicago torture incident[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:2017 Chicago torture incident. Legobot (talk) 04:28, 28 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 6 February 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:46, 6 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Bay Area WikiSalon invitation for February 22[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. We will have beverages (including beer and wine) plus light snacks.

Please note: You should RSVP here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. This also helps us figure out how much food and drink to bring in.

For further details, see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, February 2017

See you soon! Ben Creasy and Wayne | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:47, 15 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors February 2017 News[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors February 2017 News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the February 2017 GOCE newsletter. The Guild has been busy since the last time your coordinators sent out a newsletter!

>>> Sign up for the March Drive! <<<

December blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 11 through 17 December; the themes were Requests and eliminating the November 2015 backlog. Of the 14 editors who signed up, nine editors completed 29 articles. Barnstars and rollover totals are located here. Thanks to all who took part.

January drive: The January drive was a great success. We set out to remove December 2015 and January and February 2016 from our backlog (195 articles), and by 22 January we had cleared those and had to add a third month (March 2016). At the end of the month we had almost cleared out that last month as well, for a total of 180 old articles removed from the backlog! We reduced our overall backlog by 337 articles, to a low of 1,465 articles, our second-lowest month-end total ever. We also handled all of the remaining requests from December 2016. Officially, 19 editors recorded 337 copy edits (over 679,000 words).

February blitz: The one-week February blitz, focusing on the remaining March 2016 backlog and January 2017 requests, ran from 12 to 18 February. Seven editors reduced the total in those two backlog segments from 32 to 10 articles, leaving us in good shape going in to the March drive.

Coordinator elections for the first half of 2017: In December, coordinators for the first half of 2017 were elected. Jonesey95 stepped aside as lead coordinator, remaining as coordinator and allowing Miniapolis to be the lead, and Tdslk and Corinne returned as coordinators. Thanks to all who participated!

Speaking of coordinators, congratulations to Jonesey95 on their well-deserved induction into the Guild of Copy Editors Hall of Fame. The plaque reads: "For dedicated service as lead coordinator (2014, 1 July – 31 December 2015 and all of 2016) and coordinator (1 January – 30 June 2015 and 1 January – 30 June 2017); exceptional template-creation work (considerably streamlining project administration), and their emphasis on keeping the GOCE a drama-free zone."

Housekeeping note: We do not send a newsletter before every drive or blitz. To have a better chance of knowing when the next event will start, add the GOCE's message box to your watchlist.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Miniapolis, Jonesey95, Corinne and Tdslk.

>>> Sign up for the March Drive! <<<
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:20, 20 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Bay Area WikiSalon February reminder[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 6 p.m.

For details and to RSVP: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, February 2017

See you soon! Ben Creasy and Wayne (co-coordinators) | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:59, 21 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 February 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:20, 28 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Your invitation: Bay Area WikiSalon series at Noisebridge[edit]

Please join us in San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas. This month we are meeting at Noisebridge makerspace/hackerspace in the Mission near 16th Street BART (temporary change of venue). The good news is this means that you can bring spontaneous guests if you forget to RSVP!

We allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. We will have beverages (including beer and wine) plus light snacks.

If possible, please RSVP as it helps us figure out how much food and drink to bring in. For further details and to RSVP, please see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, March 2017

See you soon! Co-coordinators Ben Creasy and Wayne
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:06, 23 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Talk:Ernest Hemingway[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Ernest Hemingway. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 28 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reminder: Tonight is Bay Area WikiSalon at Noisebridge[edit]

Please join us in San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Details and to RSVP: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, March 2017 (optional, but helpful for food and special needs accommodations)

We are meeting at Noisebridge makerspace/hackerspace (temporary venue change) near 16th ST BART in SF.

See you soon! Co-coordinators Ben Creasy and Wayne
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:52, 29 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Good article reassessment[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Good article reassessment. Legobot (talk) 04:26, 12 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Wednesday night you are invited! Bay Area WikiSalon[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather for the Bay Area WikiSalon series to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. We will have beverages (including beer and wine) plus light snacks. We will have some announcements and lightning talks from the floor, and a breakout session. This is our one year anniversary, so there will be cake!

Please RSVP here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. This also helps us figure out how much food and drink to bring in.

See you soon! Ben Creasy and Wayne
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:19, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Editing News #1—2017[edit]

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

VisualEditor
Did you know?

Did you know that you can review your changes visually?

Screenshot showing some changes to an article. Most changes are highlighted with text formatting.
When you are finished editing the page, type your edit summary and then choose "Review your changes".

In visual mode, you will see additions, removals, new links, and formatting highlighted. Other changes, such as changing the size of an image, are described in notes on the side.

Toggle button showing visual and wikitext options; visual option is selected.

Click the toggle button to switch between visual and wikitext diffs.

Screenshot showing the same changes, in the two-column wikitext diff display.

The wikitext diff is the same diff tool that is used in the wikitext editors and in the page history.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has spent most of their time supporting the 2017 wikitext editor mode which is available inside the visual editor as a Beta Feature, and adding the new visual diff tool. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. You can find links to the work finished each week at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Their current priorities are fixing bugs, supporting the 2017 wikitext editor as a beta feature, and improving the visual diff tool.

Recent changes[edit]

A new wikitext editing mode is available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. The 2017 wikitext editor has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. Go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures to enable the ⧼Visualeditor-preference-newwikitexteditor-label⧽.

A new visual diff tool is available in VisualEditor's visual mode. You can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. More features will be added to this later. In the future, this tool may be integrated into other MediaWiki components. [24]

The team have added multi-column support for lists of footnotes. The <references /> block can automatically display long lists of references in columns on wide screens. This makes footnotes easier to read. You can request multi-column support for your wiki. [25]

Other changes:

  • You can now use your web browser's function to switch typing direction in the new wikitext mode. This is particularly helpful for RTL language users like Urdu or Hebrew who have to write JavaScript or CSS. You can use Command+Shift+X or Control+Shift+X to trigger this. [26]
  • The way to switch between the visual editing mode and the wikitext editing mode is now consistent. There is a drop-down menu that shows the two options. This is now the same in desktop and mobile web editing, and inside things that embed editing, such as Flow. [27]
  • The Categories item has been moved to the top of the Page options menu (from clicking on the "hamburger" icon) for quicker access. [28] There is also now a "Templates used on this page" feature there. [29]
  • You can now create <chem> tags (sometimes used as <ce>) for chemical formulas inside the visual editor. [30]
  • Tables can be set as collapsed or un-collapsed. [31]
  • The Special character menu now includes characters for Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and angle quotation marks (‹› and ⟨⟩) . The team thanks the volunteer developer, Tpt. [32]
  • A bug caused some section edit conflicts to blank the rest of the page. This has been fixed. The team are sorry for the disruption. [33]
  • There is a new keyboard shortcut for citations: Control+Shift+K on a PC, or Command+Shift+K on a Mac. It is based on the keyboard shortcut for making links, which is Control+K on a PC or Command+K on a Mac. [34]

Future changes[edit]

  • The VisualEditor team is working with the Community Tech team on a syntax highlighting tool. It will highlight matching pairs of <ref> tags and other types of wikitext syntax. You will be able to turn it on and off. It will first become available in VisualEditor's built-in wikitext mode, maybe late in 2017. [35]
  • The kind of button used to Show preview, Show changes, and finish an edit will change in all WMF-supported wikitext editors. The new buttons will use OOjs UI. The buttons will be larger, brighter, and easier to read. The labels will remain the same. You can test the new button by editing a page and adding &ooui=1 to the end of the URL, like this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Sandbox?action=edit&ooui=1 The old appearance will no longer be possible, even with local CSS changes. [36]
  • The outdated 2006 wikitext editor will be removed later this year. It is used by approximately 0.03% of active editors. See a list of editing tools on mediawiki.org if you are uncertain which one you use. [37]

If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! User:Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:18, 9 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Everybody is invited to the May 31 Bay Area WikiSalon series![edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

The last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas. This month we are taking it on the road to Noisebridge makerspace/hackerspace!

We allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. We will have beverages (including beer and wine) plus light snacks. There will be periodic guided tours of Noisebridge. You can stay late, on your own! YeeHaw!

For details and to RSVP, see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, May 2017

See you soon! Ben Creasy and Wayne
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:08, 24 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 9 June 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:18, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 June 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:32, 23 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Bay Area WikiSalon is an unSalon this month![edit]

Please stay where you are for an unSalon!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

We are taking July off! Please gather your thoughts for changes that you would like to see in the next 10 months and present them at our July 26 WikiSalon.

Ordinarily, the last Wednesday evening of every month, wiki enthusiasts gather at the Bay Area WikiSalon series to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We normally allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend.

Mark your calendars now for Wednesday, July 26 at 6 p.m.! The venue will be the Noisebridge hackerspace/makerspace on Mission Street in San Francisco.

Sincerely, Ben Creasy and Wayne | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:45, 28 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Black Woman is God Edit-a-Thon in San Francisco, July 22[edit]

You're invited to The Black Woman is God Edit-a-Thon at SOMArts in San Francisco on Saturday July 22, 1-4 pm. It'll be at 934 Brannan Street (between 8th & 9th). Everyone is welcome to join this editing event, held in conjunction with The Black Woman is God exhibition to raise the online visibility of Black women artists and challenge the gaps in art history that erase or minimize Black women’s contributions as artists, activists and social change-makers. (Message requested by Dreamyshade and delivered on 14:23, 9 July 2017 (UTC). You can subscribe/unsubscribe to San Francisco event talk page notices here.)[reply]

The Signpost: 15 July 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:48, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Talk:The Life of Pablo[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:The Life of Pablo. Legobot (talk) 04:25, 18 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Criteria for speedy deletion. Legobot (talk) 04:34, 2 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 5 August 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:21, 5 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

At Wikimania[edit]

You should be here! Smallbones(smalltalk) 18:30, 11 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 6 September 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:44, 6 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 September 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:20, 25 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 October 2017[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:36, 23 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What is Talk Page Theatre? Come find out![edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
Classic theatre meme

Come find out what "Talk Page Theatre" is all about! The last Wednesday evening of every other month, wiki enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to collaborate, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We allow time for informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. We will have beverages (including beer and wine) plus light snacks. We will be at the NEW Wikimedia Foundation offices! w00t!!!

Please note: You should RSVP here, and bring a photo ID that matches your registration name. This also helps us figure out how much food and drink to bring in.

For further details, see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, November 2017

See you soon! Ben Creasy, Nikikana, and Wayne | ( Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice ) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:30, 14 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 November 2017[edit]

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ArbCom 2017 election voter message[edit]

Hello, Sue Gardner. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 December 2017[edit]

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Guild of Copy Editors December 2017 News[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2017 News

Hello copy editors! Welcome to the December 2017 GOCE newsletter, which contains nine months(!) of updates. The Guild has been busy and successful; your diligent efforts in 2017 has brought the backlog of articles requiring copy edit to below 1,000 articles for the first time. Thanks to all editors who have contributed their time and energy to help make this happen.

>>> Sign up for the January Drive! <<<
>>> Participate in the Coordinator Elections! <<<

Our copy-editing drives (month-long backlog-reduction drives held in odd-numbered months) and blitzes (week-long themed editing in even-numbered months) have been very successful this year.

March drive: We set out to remove April, May, and June 2016 from our backlog and all February 2017 Requests (a total of 304 articles). By the end of the month, all but 22 of these articles were cleared. Officially, of the 28 who signed up, 22 editors recorded 257 copy edits (439,952 words). (These numbers do not always make sense when you compare them to the overall reduction in the backlog, because not all editors record every copy edit on the drive page.)

April blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 16 through 22 April; the theme was Requests. Of the 15 who signed up, 9 editors completed 43 articles (81,822 words).

May drive: The goals were to remove July, August, and September 2016 from the backlog and to complete all March 2017 Requests (a total of 300 articles). By the end of the month, we had reduced our overall backlog to an all-time low of 1,388 articles. Of the 28 who signed up, 17 editors completed 187 articles (321,810 words).

June blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 18 through 24 June; the theme was Requests. Of the 16 who signed up, 9 editors completed 28 copy edits (117,089 words).

2017 Coordinator elections: In June, coordinators for the second half of 2017 were elected. Jonesey95 moved back into the lead coordinator position, with Miniapolis stepping down to remain as coordinator; Tdslk and Corinne returned as coordinators, and Keira1996 rejoined after an extended absence. Thanks to all who participated!

July drive: We set out to remove August, September, October, and November 2016 from the backlog and to complete all May and June 2017 Requests (a total of 242 articles). The drive was an enormous success, and the target was nearly achieved within three weeks, so that December 2016 was added to the "old articles" list used as a goal for the drive. By the end of the month, only three articles from 2016 remained, and for the second drive in a row, the backlog was reduced to a new all-time low, this time to 1,363 articles. Of the 33 who signed up, 21 editors completed 337 articles (556,482 words).

August blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 20 through 26 August; the theme was biographical articles tagged for copy editing for more than six months (47 articles). Of the 13 who signed up, 11 editors completed 38 copy edits (42,589 words).

September drive: The goals were to remove January, February, and March 2017 from the backlog and to complete all August 2017 Requests (a total of 338 articles). Of the 19 who signed up, 14 editors completed 121 copy edits (267,227 words).

October blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 22 through 28 October; the theme was Requests. Of the 14 who signed up, 8 editors completed 20 articles (55,642 words).

November drive: We set out again to remove January, February, and March 2017 from the backlog and to complete all October 2017 Requests (a total of 207 articles). By the end of the month, these goals were reached and the backlog shrank to its lowest total ever, 997 articles, the first time it had fallen under one thousand (click on the graph above to see this amazing feat in graphical form). It was also the first time that the oldest copy-edit tag was less than eight months old. Of the 25 who signed up, 16 editors completed 159 articles (285,929 words).

2018 Coordinator elections: Voting is open for the election of coordinators for the first half of 2018. Please visit the election page to vote between now and December 31 at 23:59 (UTC). Thanks for participating!

Housekeeping note: We do not send a newsletter before (or after) every drive or blitz. To have a better chance of knowing when the next event will start, add the GOCE's message box to your watchlist.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Jonesey95, Miniapolis, Corinne, Tdslk, and Keira1996.

>>> Sign up for the January Drive! <<<
>>> Participate in the Coordinator Elections! <<<
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:04, 23 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Talk:More Life[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:More Life. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 8 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 January 2018[edit]

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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Anime- and manga-related articles[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Anime- and manga-related articles. Legobot (talk) 04:29, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 5 February 2018[edit]

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The Signpost: 20 February 2018[edit]

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Please comment on Template talk:COI[edit]

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GOCE February 2018 news[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors February 2018 News

Welcome to the February 2018 GOCE newsletter in which you will find Guild updates since the December edition. We got to a great start for the year, holding the backlog at nine months. 100 requests were submitted in the first 6 weeks of the year and were swiftly handled with an average completion time of 9 days.

>>> Sign up for the March Drive! <<<

Coordinator elections: In December, coordinators for the first half of 2018 were elected. Jonesey95 remained as lead coordinator and Corrine, Miniapolis and Tdslk as assistant coordinators. Keira1996 stepped down as assistant coordinator and was replaced by Reidgreg. Thanks to all who participated!

End of year reports were prepared for 2016 and 2017, providing a detailed look at the Guild's long-term progress.

January drive: We set out to remove April, May, and June 2017 from our backlog and all December 2017 Requests (a total of 275 articles). As with previous years, the January drive was an outstanding success and by the end of the month all but 57 of these articles were cleared. Officially, of the 38 who signed up, 21 editors recorded 259 copy edits (490,256 words).

February blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 11 through 17 February, focusing on Requests and the last articles tagged in May 2017. At the end of the week there were only 14 pending requests, with none older than 20 days. Of the 11 who signed up, 10 editors completed 35 copy edits (98,538 words).

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Jonesey95, Miniapolis, Corinne, Tdslk, and Reidgreg.

>>> Sign up for the March Drive! <<<
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:00, 25 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Editing News #1—2018[edit]

Read this in another language • Subscription list for the English Wikipedia • Subscription list for the multilingual edition

Did you know?

Did you know that you can now use the visual diff tool on any page?

Screenshot showing some changes, in the two-column wikitext diff display

Sometimes, it is hard to see important changes in a wikitext diff. This screenshot of a wikitext diff (click to enlarge) shows that the paragraphs have been rearranged, but it does not highlight the removal of a word or the addition of a new sentence.

If you enable the Beta Feature for "⧼visualeditor-preference-visualdiffpage-label⧽", you will have a new option. It will give you a new box at the top of every diff page. This box will let you choose either diff system on any edit.

Toggle button showing visual and wikitext options; visual option is selected

Click the toggle button to switch between visual and wikitext diffs.

In the visual diff, additions, removals, new links, and formatting changes will be highlighted. Other changes, such as changing the size of an image, are described in notes on the side.

Screenshot showing the same changes to an article. Most changes are highlighted with text formatting.

This screenshot shows the same edit as the wikitext diff. The visual diff highlights the removal of one word and the addition of a new sentence. An arrow indicates that the paragraph changed location.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has spent most of their time supporting the 2017 wikitext editor mode, which is available inside the visual editor as a Beta Feature, and improving the visual diff tool. Their work board is available in Phabricator. You can find links to the work finished each week at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Their current priorities are fixing bugs, supporting the 2017 wikitext editor, and improving the visual diff tool.

Recent changes[edit]

  • The 2017 wikitext editor is available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. It has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. The team have been comparing the performance of different editing environments. They have studied how long it takes to open the page and start typing. The study uses data for more than one million edits during December and January. Some changes have been made to improve the speed of the 2017 wikitext editor and the visual editor. Recently, the 2017 wikitext editor opened fastest for most edits, and the 2010 WikiEditor was fastest for some edits. More information will be posted at mw:Contributors/Projects/Editing performance.
  • The visual diff tool was developed for the visual editor. It is now available to all users of the visual editor and the 2017 wikitext editor. When you review your changes, you can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. You can also enable the new Beta Feature for "Visual diffs". The Beta Feature lets you use the visual diff tool to view other people's edits on page histories and Special:RecentChanges. [38]
  • Wikitext syntax highlighting is available as a Beta Feature for both the 2017 wikitext editor and the 2010 wikitext editor. [39]
  • The citoid service automatically translates URLs, DOIs, ISBNs, and PubMed id numbers into wikitext citation templates. This tool has been used at the English Wikipedia for a long time. It is very popular and useful to editors, although it can be tricky for admins to set up. Other wikis can have this service, too. Please read the instructions. You can ask the team to help you enable citoid at your wiki.

Let's work together[edit]

  • The team is planning a presentation about editing tools for an upcoming Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting.
  • Wikibooks, Wikiversity, and other communities may have the visual editor made available by default to contributors. If your community wants this, then please contact Dan Garry.
  • The <references /> block can automatically display long lists of references in columns on wide screens. This makes footnotes easier to read. This has already been enabled at the English Wikipedia. If you want columns for a long list of footnotes on this wiki, you can use either <references /> or the plain (no parameters) {{reflist}} template. If you edit a different wiki, you can request multi-column support for your wiki. [40]
  • If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly. We will notify you when the next issue is ready for translation. Thank you!

—User:Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:14, 28 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

SFMOMA Edit-a-Thon in San Francisco, March 8[edit]

You're invited to an Art+Feminism Edit-a-Thon at SFMOMA in San Francisco on Thursday March 8, 5-9 pm. It'll be at 151 Third Street, 2nd floor, free to the public. Everyone is welcome to participate in an evening of communal updating of Wikipedia entries on subjects related to gender, art, and feminism. (This message is from User:Dreamyshade. You can subscribe/unsubscribe to San Francisco event talk page notices here.)
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:58, 4 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Notability (organizations and companies)[edit]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Notability (organizations and companies). Legobot (talk) 04:29, 9 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Signpost issue 4 – 29 March 2018[edit]

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The Signpost: 26 April 2018[edit]

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Bay Area WikiSalon invitation![edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Periodically, on the last Wednesday evening of the month, wiki enthusiasts gather at Bay Area WikiSalon to munch, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We allow time for announcements, informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Bring a friend! Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. This months focus is images!

We will have beverages (including beer and wine) plus light snacks (maybe pizza too!).

For further details and to RSVP, please see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, May 2018 (note: we are meeting at the new WMF HQ at 120 Kearny Street!)

See you soon! Ben Creasy, Nikikana, Stephen, and Wayne | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 21 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 May 2018[edit]

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The Signpost: 24 May 2018[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:19, 24 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

UPDATE! Bay Area WikiSalon moved to June 6![edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Our apologies, but we are rescheduling to Wednesday, June 6 at 6:00 p.m. due to a WMF host scheduling conflict.

For further details and to RSVP, please see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, June 2018 (note: we are meeting at the new WMF HQ at 120 Kearny Street!)
See you soon! Niki, Ben, Stephen, and Wayne | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:38, 25 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

REMINDER: Bay Area WikiSalon is Wednesday, June 6[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
Wikimedia community logo
Leila (WMF) shares

When: Wednesday, June 6 at 6:00 p.m.

For details and to RSVP, please see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, June 2018 (note: we are meeting at the new WMF HQ at 120 Kearny Street!)
See you soon! Niki, Lodewijk, Ben, Stephen, and Wayne | (Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:41, 5 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

June 2018 GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2018 News

Welcome to the June 2018 GOCE newsletter, in which you will find Guild updates since the February edition. Progress continues to be made on the copyediting backlog, which has been reduced to 7 months and reached a new all-time low. Requests continue to be handled efficiently this year, with 272 completed by the end of May (an average completion time of 10.5 days). Fewer than 10% of these waited longer than 20 days, and the longest wait time was 29 days.

Wikipedia in general, and the Guild in particular, experienced a deep loss with the death on 20 March of Corinne. Corinne (a GOCE coordinator since 1 July 2016) was a tireless aide on the requests page, and her peerless copyediting is a part of innumerable GAs and FAs. Her good cheer, courtesy and tact are very much missed.

March drive: The goal was to remove June, July and August 2017 from our backlog and all February 2018 Requests (a total of 219 articles). This drive was an outstanding success, and by the end of the month all but eight of these articles were cleared. Of the 33 editors who signed up, 19 recorded 277 copy edits (425,758 words).

April blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 15 through 21 April, focusing on Requests and the last eight articles tagged in August 2017. At the end of the week there were only 17 pending requests, with none older than 17 days. Of the nine editors who signed up, eight editors completed 22 copy edits (62,412 words).

May drive: We set out to remove September, October and November 2017 from our backlog and all April 2018 Requests (a total of 298 articles). There was great success this month with the backlog more than halved from 1,449 articles at the beginning of the month to a record low of 716 articles. Officially, of the 20 who signed up, 15 editors recorded 151 copy edits (248,813 words).

Coordinator elections: It's election time again. Nominations for Guild coordinators (who will serve a six-month term for the second half of 2018) have begun, and will close at 23:59 UTC on 15 June. All Wikipedia editors in good standing are eligible, and self-nominations are encouraged. Voting will take place between 00:01 UTC on 16 June and 23:59 UTC on 30 June.

June blitz: Stay tuned for this one-week copy-editing blitz, which will take place in mid-June.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Corinne, Jonesey95, Miniapolis, Reidgreg and Tdslk.

>>> Participate in the June elections! <<<
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:26, 5 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 June 2018[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:29, 30 June 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Bay Area WikiSalon invitation for July 25![edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
Wikimedia Community logo
A Wikipedia panel discussion about journalism

Periodically, on the last Wednesday evening of the month, wiki enthusiasts gather at the Bay Area WikiSalon series to munch, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We allow time for announcements, informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Bring a friend! Kid/family friendly. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. This months focus is reliable sources!

We will have beverages (including beer and wine) plus light snacks (maybe pizza too!).

For further details and to RSVP, please see: Wikipedia:Bay Area WikiSalon, July 2018 (note: we are meeting at the new WMF HQ at 120 Kearny Street!)
See you soon! Avik (User:Quantumavik), Lodewijk (User:Effeietsanders), Ben Creasy (User:Ben Creasy), Stephen (User:Slaporte), and Wayne (User:Checkingfax)
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:14, 19 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 July 2018[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:51, 31 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

August GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors August 2018 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the August 2018 GOCE newsletter. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Guild's June election; your new and returning coordinators are listed below. The next election will occur in December 2018; all Wikipedia editors in good standing may take part.

Our June blitz focused on Requests and articles tagged for copy edit in October 2017. Of the eleven people who signed up, eight editors recorded a total of 28 copy edits, including 3 articles of more than 10,000 words. Complete results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the July drive. Of the seventeen people who signed up, thirteen editors completed 194 copy edits, successfully removing all articles tagged in the last three months of 2017. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are here.

The August blitz will run for one week, from 19 to 25 August. Sign up now!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators, Reidgreg, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Tdslk.

>>> Sign up for the August blitz! <<<
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:25, 15 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 August 2018[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:04, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Bay Area WikiSalon invitation for September 26![edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
Wikimedia Community logo
WikiSalon attendees

Periodically, on the last Wednesday evening of the month, wiki enthusiasts gather at the Bay Area WikiSalon series to munch, mingle, and learn about new projects and ideas.

We allow time for announcements, informal conversation and working on articles. Newcomers and experienced wiki users are encouraged to attend. Bring a friend! Kid/family friendly. Free Wi-Fi is available so bring your editing devices. This months' focus is Did you know ... ?

We will have beverages (including beer and wine) plus light snacks (maybe pizza too!).

Details and RSVP here (note: we are meeting at the new WMF HQ at 120 Kearny Street!)
See you soon! Avik (User:Quantumavik), Lodewijk (User:Effeietsanders), Ben Creasy (User:Ben Creasy), Stephen (User:Slaporte), and Wayne (User:Checkingfax)
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:45, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Last call for RSVPs for Wednesday evening[edit]

Please join us in downtown San Francisco!
Wikimedia Community logo
WikiSalon attendees

Hey, folks.​ Reminder:​ Wednesday evening ​at 6 ​is the Bay Area WikiSalon series​.​

Details and RSVP here (note: we are meeting at the new WMF HQ at 120 Kearny Street!)
See you soon! Avik (User:Quantumavik), Lodewijk (User:Effeietsanders), Ben Creasy (User:Ben Creasy), Stephen (User:Slaporte), and Wayne (User:Checkingfax)
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:32, 26 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 October 2018[edit]

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The Signpost: 28 October 2018[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:10, 28 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Editing News #2—2018[edit]

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter • Subscription list on the English Wikipedia

Did you know?

Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?

Screenshot showing the location of the pencil icon

Tap on the pencil icon to start editing. The page will probably open in the wikitext editor.

You will see another pencil icon in the toolbar. Tap on that pencil icon to the switch between visual editing and wikitext editing.

Toolbar with menu opened

Remember to publish your changes when you're done.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has wrapped up most of their work on the 2017 wikitext editor and the visual diff tool. The team has begun investigating the needs of editors who use mobile devices. Their work board is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are fixing bugs and improving mobile editing.

Recent changes[edit]

Let's work together[edit]

  • The Editing team wants to improve visual editing on the mobile website. Please read their ideas and tell the team what you think would help editors who use the mobile site.
  • The Community Wishlist Survey begins next week.
  • If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly. We will notify you when the next issue is ready for translation. Thank you!

— Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:12, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2018 election voter message[edit]

Hello, Sue Gardner. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 December 2018[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:48, 1 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

December 2018 GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2018 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the December 2018 GOCE newsletter. Here is what's been happening since the August edition.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the August blitz (results), which focused on Requests and the oldest backlog month. Of the twenty editors who signed up, eleven editors recorded 37 copy edits.

For the September drive (results), of the twenty-three people who signed up, nineteen editors completed 294 copy edits.

Our October blitz (results) focused on Requests, geography, and food and drink articles. Of the fourteen people who signed up, eleven recorded a total of 57 copy edits.

For the November drive (results), twenty-two people signed up, and eighteen editors recorded 273 copy edits. This helped to bring the backlog to a six-month low of 825 articles.

The December blitz will run for one week, from 16 to 22 December. Sign up now!

Elections: Nominations for the Guild's coordinators for the first half of 2019 will be open from 1 to 15 December. Voting will then take place and the election will close on 31 December at 23:59 UTC. Positions for Guild coordinators, who perform the important behind-the-scenes tasks that keep our project running smoothly, are open to all Wikipedians in good standing. We welcome self-nominations, so please consider nominating yourself if you've ever thought about helping out; it's your Guild and it doesn't run itself!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators; Reidgreg, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Tdslk.

>>> Sign up for the December blitz! <<<
>>> Participate in the Coordinator elections! <<<
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:05, 3 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 December 2018[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:36, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You are cordially invited to Stanford University to celebrate Wikipedia's birthday[edit]

Join us in celebrating Wikipedia's 18th birthday at Stanford University!
Wikimedia Community logo
I am delighted to invite you to the 2019 Wikipedia Day party at Stanford, which will be held on Tuesday, January 15, 2019, at 5:00-8:30pm.
There will be pizza, cake, and refreshments; both newcomers and experienced Wikimedians are welcome! We will have a beginner track with tutorials, and an advanced track with presentations, lightning talks, and tips and tricks. Admission is free, and you do NOT have to be a Stanford University student to attend.
Details and RSVP here • register here
See you soon! All the best, Kevin (aka L235 · t · c)
(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here) | MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:40, 5 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 January 2019[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:50, 31 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE 2018 Annual Report[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors 2018 Annual Report
Our 2018 Annual Report is now ready for review.

Highlights:

  • Overview of Backlog-reduction progress;
  • Summary of Drives, Blitzes, and the Requests page;
  • Membership news and results of elections;
  • Annual leaderboard;
  • Plans for 2019.
– Your project coordinators: Miniapolis, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Reidgreg and Tdslk.
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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:31, 31 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 February 2019[edit]

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March GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors March 2019 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the March newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since December 2018. All being well, we're planning to issue these quarterly in 2019, balancing the need to communicate widely with the avoidance of filling up talk pages. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

January Drive: Thanks to everyone for the splendid work in January's Backlog Elimination Drive. We removed copyedit tags from all of the articles tagged in our original target months of June, July and August 2018, and by 24 January we ran out of articles. After adding September, we finished the month with 8 target articles remaining and 842 left in the backlog. GOCE copyeditors also completed 48 requests for copyedit in January. Of the 31 people who signed up for this drive, 24 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Blitz: Thanks to everyone who participated in the February Blitz. Of the 15 people who signed up, 13 copyedited at least one article. Participants claimed 32 copyedits, including 15 requests. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: As of 23:39, 18 March 2019 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have completed 108 requests since 1 January and the backlog stands at 851 articles.

March Drive: The month-long March drive is now underway; the target months are October and November 2018. Awards will be given to everyone who copyedits at least one article from the backlog. Sign up here!

Election reminder: It may only be March but don't forget our mid-year Election of Coordinators opens for nominations on 1 June. Coordinators normally serve a six-month term and are elected on an approval basis. Self-nominations are welcome. If you've thought of helping out at the Guild, or know of another editor who would make a good coordinator, please consider standing for election or nominating them here.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Miniapolis, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Reidgreg and Tdslk.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:12, 19 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 March 2019[edit]

News, reports and features from the English Wikipedia's weekly journal about Wikipedia and Wikimedia

The Signpost: 30 April 2019[edit]

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The Signpost: 31 May 2019[edit]

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GOCE June newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2019 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the June newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since March 2019. You can unsubscribe from our mailings at any time; see below.

Election time: Nomination of candidates in our mid-year Election of Coordinators opened on 1 June, and voting will take place from 16 June. Coordinators normally serve a six-month term and are elected on an approval basis. Self-nominations are welcome. If you've thought of helping out at the Guild, or know of another editor who would make a good coordinator, please consider standing for election or nominating them here.

June Blitz: Our June blitz will soon be upon us; it will begin at 00:01 on 16 June (UTC) and will close at 23:59 on 22 June (UTC). The themes are "nature and the environment" and all requests.

March Drive: Thanks to everyone for their work in March's Backlog Elimination Drive. We removed copyedit tags from 182 of the articles tagged in our original target months October and November 2018, and the month finished with 64 target articles remaining from November and 811 in the backlog. GOCE copyeditors also completed 22 requests for copyedit in March; the month ended with 34 requests pending. Of the 32 people who signed up for this drive, 24 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

April Blitz: Thanks to everyone who participated in the April Blitz; the blitz ran from 14 to 20 April (UTC) inclusive and the themes were Sports and Entertainment. Of the 15 people who signed up, 13 copyedited at least one article. Participants claimed 60 copyedits. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: As of 04:36, 3 June 2019 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have completed 267 requests since 1 January. The backlog of tagged articles stands at 605 articles.

May Drive: During the May Backlog Elimination Drive, Guild copy-editors removed copyedit tags from 191 of the 192 articles tagged in our original target months of November and December 2018, and January 2019 was added on 22 May. We finished the month with 81 target articles remaining and a record low of 598 articles in the backlog. GOCE copyeditors also completed 24 requests for copyedit during the May drive, and the month ended with 35 requests pending. Of the 26 people who signed up for this drive, 21 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Miniapolis, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Reidgreg and Tdslk.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:30, 12 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The June 2019 Signpost is out![edit]

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Editing News #1—July 2019[edit]

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Did you know?

Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?

Every article has a pencil icon at the top. Tap on the pencil icon to start editing.

Edit Cards

Toolbar with menu opened

This is what the new Edit Cards for editing links in the mobile visual editor look like. You can try the prototype here: 📲 Try Edit Cards.

Welcome back to the Editing newsletter.

Since the last newsletter, the team has released two new features for the mobile visual editor and has started developing three more. All of this work is part of the team's goal to make editing on mobile web simpler.

Before talking about the team's recent releases, we have a question for you:

Are you willing to try a new way to add and change links?

If you are interested, we would value your input! You can try this new link tool in the mobile visual editor on a separate wiki.

Follow these instructions and share your experience:

📲 Try Edit Cards.

Recent releases[edit]

The mobile visual editor is a simpler editing tool, for smartphones and tablets using the mobile site. The Editing team has recently launched two new features to improve the mobile visual editor:

  1. Section editing
    • The purpose is to help contributors focus on their edits.
    • The team studied this with an A/B test. This test showed that contributors who could use section editing were 1% more likely to publish the edits they started than people with only full-page editing.
  2. Loading overlay
    • The purpose is to smooth the transition between reading and editing.

Section editing and the new loading overlay are now available to everyone using the mobile visual editor.

New and active projects[edit]

This is a list of our most active projects. Watch these pages to learn about project updates and to share your input on new designs, prototypes and research findings.

  • Edit cards: This is a clearer way to add and edit links, citations, images, templates, etc. in articles. You can try this feature now. Go here to see how: 📲Try Edit Cards.
  • Mobile toolbar refresh: This project will learn if contributors are more successful when the editing tools are easier to recognize.
  • Mobile visual editor availability: This A/B test asks: Are newer contributors more successful if they use the mobile visual editor? We are collaborating with 20 Wikipedias to answer this question.
  • Usability improvements: This project will make the mobile visual editor easier to use.  The goal is to let contributors stay focused on editing and to feel more confident in the editing tools.

Looking ahead[edit]

  • Wikimania: Several members of the Editing Team will be attending Wikimania in August 2019. They will lead a session about mobile editing in the Community Growth space. Talk to them about how editing can be improved.
  • Talk Pages: In the coming months, the Editing Team will begin improving talk pages and communication on the wikis.

Learning more[edit]

The VisualEditor on mobile is a good place to learn more about the projects we are working on. The team wants to talk with you about anything related to editing. If you have something to say or ask, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

PPelberg (WMF) (talk) and Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:25, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 July 2019[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:18, 31 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination of Effemimania for deletion[edit]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Effemimania is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Effemimania until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. gnu57 17:47, 30 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 August 2019[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:42, 30 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

September 2019 GOCE Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors September 2019 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the September newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since June 2019.

June election: Reidgreg was chosen as lead coordinator, and is being assisted by Baffle gab1978, Miniapolis, Tdslk, and first-time coordinator Twofingered Typist. Jonesey95 took a respite after serving for six years. Thanks to everyone who participated!

June Blitz: From 16 to 22 June, we copy edited articles on the themes of nature and the environment along with requests. 12 participating editors completed 35 copy edits. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

July Drive: The year's fourth backlog-elimination drive was a great success, clearing all articles tagged in January and February, and bringing the copy-editing backlog to a low of five months and a record low of 585 articles while also completing 48 requests. Of the 30 people who signed up, 29 copyedited at least one article, a participation level last matched in May 2015. Final results and awards are listed here.

August Blitz: From 18 to 24 August, we copy edited articles tagged in March 2019 and requests. 12 participating editors completed 26 copy edits on the blitz. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: As of 03:00, 23 September 2019 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors had processed 413 requests since 1 January. The backlog of tagged articles stood at 599 articles, close to our record month-end low of 585.

Requests page: We are experimenting with automated archiving of copy edit requests; a discussion on REQ Talk (permalinked) initiated by Bobbychan193 has resulted in Zhuyifei1999 writing a bot script for the Guild. Testing is now underway and is expected to be completed by 3 October; for this reason, no manual archiving of requests should be done until the testing period is over. We will then assess the bot's performance and discuss whether to make this arrangement permanent.

September Drive: Our current backlog-elimination drive is open until 23:59 on 30 September (UTC) and is open to all copy editors. Sign up today!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators, Baffle gab1978, Miniapolis, Reidgreg, Tdslk and Twofingered Typist.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:58, 24 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 September 2019[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:07, 30 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Editing News #2 – Mobile editing and talk pages – October 2019[edit]

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Inside this newsletter, the Editing team talks about their work on the mobile visual editor, on the new talk pages project, and at Wikimania 2019.

Help[edit]

What talk page interactions do you remember? Is it a story about how someone helped you to learn something new? Is it a story about how someone helped you get involved in a group? Something else? Whatever your story is, we want to hear it!

Please tell us a story about how you used a talk page. Please share a link to a memorable discussion, or describe it on the talk page for this project. The team would value your examples. These examples will help everyone develop a shared understanding of what this project should support and encourage.

Talk Pages[edit]

The Talk Pages Consultation was a global consultation to define better tools for wiki communication. From February through June 2019, more than 500 volunteers on 20 wikis, across 15 languages and multiple projects, came together with members of the Foundation to create a product direction for a set of discussion tools. The Phase 2 Report of the Talk Page Consultation was published in August. It summarizes the product direction the team has started to work on, which you can read more about here: Talk Page Project project page.

The team needs and wants your help at this early stage. They are starting to develop the first idea. Please add your name to the "Getting involved" section of the project page, if you would like to hear about opportunities to participate.

Mobile visual editor[edit]

The Editing team is trying to make it simpler to edit on mobile devices. The team is changing the visual editor on mobile. If you have something to say about editing on a mobile device, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

Edit Cards[edit]

What happens when you click on a link. The new Edit Card is bigger and has more options for editing links.

Toolbar[edit]

The editing toolbar is changing in the mobile visual editor. The old system had two different toolbars. Now, all the buttons are together. Tell the team what you think about the new toolbar.
  • In September, the Editing team updated the mobile visual editor's editing toolbar. Anyone could see these changes in the mobile visual editor.
    • One toolbar: All of the editing tools are located in one toolbar. Previously, the toolbar changed when you clicked on different things.
    • New navigation: The buttons for moving forward and backward in the edit flow have changed.
    • Seamless switching: an improved workflow for switching between the visual and wikitext modes.
  • Feedback: You can try the refreshed toolbar by opening the mobile VisualEditor on a smartphone. Please post your feedback on the Toolbar feedback talk page.

Wikimania[edit]

The Editing Team attended Wikimania 2019 in Sweden. They led a session on the mobile visual editor and a session on the new talk pages project. They tested two new features in the mobile visual editor with contributors. You can read more about what the team did and learned in the team's report on Wikimania 2019.

Looking ahead[edit]

  • Talk Pages Project: The team is thinking about the first set of proposed changes. The team will be working with a few communities to pilot those changes. The best way to stay informed is by adding your username to the list on the project page: Getting involved.
  • Testing the mobile visual editor as the default: The Editing team plans to post results before the end of the calendar year. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist: VisualEditor as mobile default project page.
  • Measuring the impact of Edit Cards: The Editing team hopes to share results in November. This study asks whether the project helped editors add links and citations. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist: Edit Cards project page.

– PPelberg (WMF) (talk) & Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:51, 17 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 October 2019[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:12, 31 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 November 2019[edit]

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GOCE December 2019 Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2019 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the December 2019 GOCE newsletter, an update of Guild happenings since the September edition. Our Annual Report should be ready in late January.

Election time: Nominations for the election of a new tranche of Guild coordinators to serve for the first half of 2020 will be open from 1 to 15 December. Voting will then take place and the election will close on 31 December at 23:59 UTC. Positions for Guild coordinators, who perform the important behind-the-scenes tasks that keep our project running smoothly, are open to all Wikipedians in good standing. We welcome self-nominations so please consider nominating yourself if you've ever thought about helping out; it's your Guild and it doesn't run itself!

September Drive: Of the thirty-two editors who signed up, twenty-three editors copy edited at least one article; they completed 39 requests and removed 138 articles from the backlog, bringing the backlog to a low of 519 articles.

October Blitz: This event ran from 13 to 19 October, with themes of science, technology and transport articles tagged for copy edit, and Requests. Sixteen editors helped remove 29 articles from the backlog and completed 23 requests.

November Drive: Of the twenty-eight editors who signed up for this event, twenty editors completed at least one copy edit; they completed 29 requests and removed 133 articles from the backlog.

Our December Blitz will run from 15 to 21 December. Sign up now!

Progress report: From September to November 2019, GOCE copy editors processed 154 requests. Over the same period, the backlog of articles tagged for copy editing was reduced by 41% to an all-time low of 479 articles.

Request archiving: The archiving of completed requests has now been automated. Thanks to Zhuyifei1999 and Bobbychan193, YiFeiBot is now archiving the Requests page. Archiving occurs around 24 hours after a user's signature and one of the templates {{Done}}, {{Withdrawn}} or {{Declined}} are placed below the request. The bot uses the Guild's standard "purpose codes" to determine the way it should archive each request so it's important to use the correct codes and templates.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators; Reidgreg, Baffle gab1978, Miniapolis, Tdslk and Twofingered Typist.

>>> Sign up for the December blitz! <<<
>>> Participate in the Coordinator elections! <<<
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:06, 4 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Good luck[edit]

豊かな十年へようこそ/WELCOME TO THE D20s

Miraclepine wishes you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and a prosperous decade of change and fortune.
このミラPはSue Gardnerたちのメリークリスマスも新年も変革と幸運の豊かな十年をおめでとうございます！
フレフレ、みんなの未来！/GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FUTURE!
ミラP 04:45, 25 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 December 2019[edit]

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The Signpost: 27 January 2020[edit]

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You are cordially invited to the SPIE Photonics West edit-a-thon on 02.02.2020[edit]

Join us for the SPIE Photonics West edit-a-thon this Sunday, 02.02.2020!
Wikimedia Community logo
I am delighted to invite you to the SPIE Photonics West 2020 edit-a-thon, at Park Central Hotel (Franciscan I, 3rd Level / 50 Third Street / San Francisco, California), on Sunday, February 2, 2020, at 5:00-7:00pm.
Newcomers and experienced Wikimedians are welcome to participate alongside SPIE conference attendees. Admission is free. Training will be provided.
Details and sign-in here

See you soon! All the best, --Rosiestep (talk) 06:59, 31 January 2020 (UTC) via MassMessaging[reply]

WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors 2019 Annual Report[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors 2019 Annual Report
Our 2019 Annual Report is now ready for review.

Highlights:

  • Overview of Backlog-reduction progress (a record low backlog!);
  • Summary of Drives, Blitzes, and the Requests page;
  • Automated archiving of requests;
  • Membership news and results of elections;
  • Annual leaderboard;
  • Plans for 2020.
– Your Guild coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, Reidgreg, Tdslk and Twofingered Typist.
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:10, 7 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 March 2020[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:46, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE March newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors March 2020 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the March newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since December 2019. All being well, we're planning to issue these quarterly in 2020, balancing the need to communicate widely with the avoidance of filling up talk pages. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

Election results: There was little changeover in the roster of Guild Coordinators, with Miniapolis stepping down with distinction as a coordinator emeritus while Jonesey95 returned as lead coordinator. The next election is scheduled for June 2020 and all Wikipedians in good standing may participate.

January Drive: Thanks to everyone for the splendid work, completing 215 copy edits including 56 articles from the Requests page and 116 backlog articles from the target months of June to August 2019. At the conclusion of the drive there was a record low of 323 articles in the copy editing backlog. Of the 27 editors who signed up for the drive, 21 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

February Blitz: Of the 15 editors who signed up for this one-week blitz, 13 completed at least one copy edit. A total of 32 articles were copy edited, evenly split between the twin goals of requests and the oldest articles from the copy-editing backlog. Full results are here.

March Drive: Currently underway, this event is targeting requests and backlog articles from September to November 2019. As of 18 March, the backlog stands at a record low of 253 articles and is expected to drop further as the drive progresses. Awards will be given to everyone who copyedits at least one article from the backlog. Help set a new record and sign up now!

Progress report: As of 18 March, GOCE copyeditors have completed 161 requests in 2020 and there was a net reduction of 385 articles from the copy-editing backlog – a 60% decrease from the beginning of the year. Well done and thank you everyone!

Election reminder: It may only be March but don't forget our mid-year Election of Coordinators opens for nominations on 1 June. Coordinators normally serve a six-month term and are elected on an approval basis. Self-nominations are welcome. If you've thought of helping out at the Guild, or know of another editor who would make a good coordinator, please consider standing for election or nominating them here.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, Reidgreg, Tdslk and Twofingered Typist

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:52, 18 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 March 2020[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:43, 29 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Editing news 2020 #1 – Discussion tools[edit]

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Screenshot showing what the Reply tool looks like
This early version of the Reply tool automatically signs and indents comments.

The Editing team has been working on the talk pages project. The goal of the talk pages project is to help contributors communicate on wiki more easily. This project is the result of the Talk pages consultation 2019.

Reply tool improved with edit tool buttons
In a future update, the team plans to test a tool for easily linking to another user's name, a rich-text editing option, and other tools.

The team is building a new tool for replying to comments now. This early version can sign and indent comments automatically. Please test the new Reply tool.

  • On 31 March 2020, the new reply tool was offered as a Beta Feature editors at four Wikipedias: Arabic, Dutch, French, and Hungarian. If your community also wants early access to the new tool, contact User:Whatamidoing (WMF).
  • The team is planning some upcoming changes. Please review the proposed design and share your thoughts on the talk page. The team will test features such as:
    • an easy way to mention another editor ("pinging"),
    • a rich-text visual editing option, and
    • other features identified through user testing or recommended by editors.

To hear more about Editing Team updates, please add your name to the "Get involved" section of the project page. You can also watch these pages: the main project page, Updates, Replying, and User testing.

– PPelberg (WMF) (talk) & Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 15:45, 13 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 April 2020[edit]

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:18, 26 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE June newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2020 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the June newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since March 2020. You can unsubscribe from our mailings at any time; see below. All times and dates stated are in UTC.

Current events

Election time: Nomination of candidates in our mid-year Election of Coordinators opened on 1 June, and voting will take place from 00:01 on 16 June. GOCE coordinators normally serve a six-month term and are elected on an approval basis. Self-nominations are welcome. If you've thought about helping out at the Guild, or you know of another editor who would make a good coordinator, please consider standing for election or nominating them here.

June Blitz: This blitz begins at 00:01 on 14 June and ends at 23:59 on 20 June, with themes of articles tagged for copyedit in May 2020 and requests.

Drive and blitz reports

March Drive: Self-isolation from coronavirus may have played a hand in making this one of our most successful backlog elimination drives. The copy-editing backlog was reduced from 477 to a record low of 118 articles, a 75% reduction. The last four months of 2019 were cleared, reducing the backlog to three months. Fifty requests were also completed, and the total word count of copy-edited articles was 759,945. Of the 29 editors who signed up, 22 completed at least one copy edit. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

April Blitz: This blitz ran from 12 to 18 April with a theme of Indian military history. Of the 18 people who signed up, 14 copyedited at least one article. Participants claimed a total of 60 copyedits. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

May Drive: This event marked the 10th anniversary of the GOCE's copy-editing drives, and set a goal of diminishing the backlog to just one month of articles, as close to zero articles as possible. We achieved the goal of eliminating all articles that had been tagged prior to the start of the drive, for the first time in our history! Of the 51 editors who signed up, 43 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Other news

Progress report: as of 2 June, GOCE participants had processed 328 requests since 1 January, which puts us on pace to exceed any previous year's number of requests. As of the end of the May drive, the backlog stood at just 156 articles, all tagged in May 2020.

Outreach: To mark the 10th anniversary of our first Backlog Elimination Drive, The Signpost contributor and GOCE participant Puddleglum2.0 interviewed project coordinators and copy-editors for the journal's April WikiProject Report. The Drive and the current Election of Coordinators have also been covered in The Signpost's May News and Notes page.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, Reidgreg, Tdslk and Twofingered Typist.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 15:46, 5 June 2020 (UTC).[reply]

Editing news 2020 #2 – Quick updates[edit]

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Mockup of the new reply feature, showing new editing tools
The new features include a toolbar. What do you think should be in the toolbar?

This edition of the Editing newsletter includes information the Wikipedia:Talk pages project, an effort to help contributors communicate on wiki more easily. The central project page is on MediaWiki.org.

– Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:11, 15 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback request: Wikipedia policies and guidelines request for comment[edit]

Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. Sent at 07:57, 16 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback request: Wikipedia policies and guidelines request for comment[edit]

Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. Sent at 08:05, 16 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Editing news 2020 #3[edit]

On 16 March 2020, the 50 millionth edit was made using the visual editor on desktop.

Seven years ago this week, the Editing team made the visual editor available by default to all logged-in editors using the desktop site at the English Wikipedia. Here's what happened since its introduction:

  • The 50 millionth edit using the visual editor on desktop was made this year. More than 10 million edits have been made here at the English Wikipedia.
  • More than 2 million new articles have been created in the visual editor. More than 600,000 of these new articles were created during 2019.
  • Almost 5 million edits on the mobile site have been made with the visual editor. Most of these edits have been made since the Editing team started improving the mobile visual editor in 2018.
  • The proportion of all edits made using the visual editor has been increasing every year.
  • Editors have made more than 7 million edits in the 2017 wikitext editor, including starting 600,000 new articles in it. The 2017 wikitext editor is VisualEditor's built-in wikitext mode. You can enable it in your preferences.
  • On 17 November 2019, the first edit from outer space was made in the mobile visual editor.
  • In 2019, 35% of the edits by newcomers, and half of their first edits, were made using the visual editor. This percentage has been increasing every year since the tool became available.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 02:06, 3 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Editing news 2020 #4[edit]

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Reply tool[edit]

The number of comments posted with the Reply Tool from March through June 2020. People used the Reply Tool to post over 7,400 comments with the tool.

The Reply tool has been available as a Beta Feature at the Arabic, Dutch, French and Hungarian Wikipedias since 31 March 2020. The first analysis showed positive results.

  • More than 300 editors used the Reply tool at these four Wikipedias. They posted more than 7,400 replies during the study period.
  • Of the people who posted a comment with the Reply tool, about 70% of them used the tool multiple times. About 60% of them used it on multiple days.
  • Comments from Wikipedia editors are positive. One said, أعتقد أن الأداة تقدم فائدة ملحوظة؛ فهي تختصر الوقت لتقديم رد بدلًا من التنقل بالفأرة إلى وصلة تعديل القسم أو الصفحة، التي تكون بعيدة عن التعليق الأخير في الغالب، ويصل المساهم لصندوق التعديل بسرعة باستخدام الأداة. ("I think the tool has a significant impact; it saves time to reply while the classic way is to move with a mouse to the Edit link to edit the section or the page which is generally far away from the comment. And the user reaches to the edit box so quickly to use the Reply tool.")[42]

The Editing team released the Reply tool as a Beta Feature at eight other Wikipedias in early August. Those Wikipedias are in the Chinese, Czech, Georgian, Serbian, Sorani Kurdish, Swedish, Catalan, and Korean languages. If you would like to use the Reply tool at your wiki, please tell User talk:Whatamidoing (WMF).

The Reply tool is still in active development. Per request from the Dutch Wikipedia and other editors, you will be able to customize the edit summary. (The default edit summary is "Reply".) A "ping" feature is available in the Reply tool's visual editing mode. This feature searches for usernames. Per request from the Arabic Wikipedia, each wiki will be able to set its own preferred symbol for pinging editors. Per request from editors at the Japanese and Hungarian Wikipedias, each wiki can define a preferred signature prefix in the page MediaWiki:Discussiontools-signature-prefix. For example, some languages omit spaces before signatures. Other communities want to add a dash or a non-breaking space.

New requirements for user signatures[edit]

  • The new requirements for custom user signatures began on 6 July 2020. If you try to create a custom signature that does not meet the requirements, you will get an error message.
  • Existing custom signatures that do not meet the new requirements will be unaffected temporarily. Eventually, all custom signatures will need to meet the new requirements. You can check your signature and see lists of active editors whose custom signatures need to be corrected. Volunteers have been contacting editors who need to change their custom signatures. If you need to change your custom signature, then please read the help page.

Next: New discussion tool[edit]

Next, the team will be working on a tool for quickly and easily starting a new discussion section to a talk page. To follow the development of this new tool, please put the New Discussion Tool project page on your watchlist.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:48, 31 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Lorraine Hariton[edit]

I assume you are planning to write up a decent article, right? We in Wikipedia don't do one-liners for zillions of VIPs for millions of businesses and organizations. Staszek Lem (talk) 23:29, 14 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors September 2020 Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors September 2020 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the September GOCE newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since June 2020.

                 Current and upcoming events

September Drive: Our current backlog-elimination drive is open until 23:59 on 30 September (UTC) and is open to all copy editors. Sign up today!

Election reminder: our end-of-year Election of Coordinators opens for nominations on 1 December. Coordinators normally serve a six-month term and are elected on an approval basis. Self-nominations are welcome. If you've thought of helping out at the Guild, or know of another editor who would make a good coordinator, please consider standing for election or nominating them here.

Drive and Blitz reports

June Blitz: An uncorrected typo (even copy editors make copy editing mistakes!) led to an eight-day "leap blitz" from 14 to 21 June, focusing on requests and articles tagged in May. 19 participating editors claimed 54 copy edits. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

July Drive: Over 750,000 words of articles were copy edited for this event, keeping pace with the previous three self-isolated drives. Of the 38 people who signed up, 30 copyedited at least one article. Final results and awards are listed here.

August Blitz: From 16 to 22 August, we copy edited articles tagged in June and July 2020 and requests. 12 participating editors completed 37 copy edits on the blitz. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Other news

June election: Jonesey95 was chosen to continue as lead coordinator, assisted by Baffle gab1978, Tdslk, Twofingered Typist, and first-time coordinator Puddleglum2.0. Reidgreg took a break after serving for a couple years. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Progress report: As of 01:33, 18 September 2020 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors had processed 532 requests since 1 January and there were 38 requests awaiting completion on the Requests page. The backlog of articles tagged for copy-editing stood at 433 (see monthly progress graph above).

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, Puddleglum2.0, Tdslk and Twofingered Typist.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:03, 19 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message[edit]

Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

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December 2020 Guild of Copy Editors Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2020 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the December GOCE newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since September 2020.

                 Current and upcoming events

Election time: our end-of-year Election of Coordinators opened for nominations on 1 December and will close on 15 December at 23:59 (UTC). Voting opens at 00:01 the following day and will continue until 31 December at 23:59, just before Auld Lang Syne. Coordinators normally serve a six-month term and are elected on an approval basis. Self-nominations are welcome. If you've thought of helping out at the Guild, or know of another editor who would make a good coordinator, please consider standing for election or nominating them here.

December Blitz: This will run from 13 to 19 December, and will target all Requests. Sign up now.

Drive and Blitz reports

September Drive: 67 fewer articles had copy-edit templates by this month's close. Of the 27 editors who signed up, 15 copy-edited at least one article, and 124 articles were claimed for the drive.

October Blitz: this ran from 18 to 24 October, and focused on articles tagged for copy-edit in July and August 2020, and all Requests. Of the 13 who signed up, 11 editors copy-edited at least one article. 21 articles were claimed for the blitz.

November Drive: Of the 18 editors who signed up, 15 copy-edited at least one article, and together claimed 134 articles. At the close of the drive, 67 fewer articles were in the backlog and we had dealt with 39 requests.

Other news

Progress report: As of 09:05, 3 December 2020 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors had processed 663 requests (18 from 2019) since 1 January and there were 52 requests awaiting completion on the Requests page. The backlog of articles tagged for copy-editing stood at 494 (see monthly progress graph above).

Annual Report for 2020: this roundup of the year's activity at the Guild is planned for publication in late January or early February.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Seasonal tidings and cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, Puddleglum2.0, Tdslk and Twofingered Typist.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:47, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback request: Media, the arts, and architecture request for comment[edit]

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Editing news 2021 #1[edit]

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Reply tool[edit]

Graph of Reply tool and full-page wikitext edit completion rates
Completion rates for comments made with the Reply tool and full-page wikitext editing. Details and limitations are in this report.

The Reply tool is available at most other Wikipedias.

  • The Reply tool has been deployed as an opt-out preference to all editors at the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedias.
  • It is also available as a Beta Feature at almost all Wikipedias except for the English, Russian, and German-language Wikipedias. If it is not available at your wiki, you can request it by following these simple instructions.

Research notes:

  • As of January 2021, more than 3,500 editors have used the Reply tool to post about 70,000 comments.
  • There is preliminary data from the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedia on the Reply tool. Junior Contributors who use the Reply tool are more likely to publish the comments that they start writing than those who use full-page wikitext editing.[43]
  • The Editing and Parsing teams have significantly reduced the number of edits that affect other parts of the page. About 0.3% of edits did this during the last month.[44] Some of the remaining changes are automatic corrections for Special:LintErrors.
  • A large A/B test will start soon.[45] This is part of the process to offer the Reply tool to everyone. During this test, half of all editors at 24 Wikipedias (not including the English Wikipedia) will have the Reply tool automatically enabled, and half will not. Editors at those Wikipeedias can still turn it on or off for their own accounts in Special:Preferences.

New discussion tool[edit]

Screenshot of version 1.0 of the New Discussion Tool prototype.

The new tool for starting new discussions (new sections) will join the Discussion tools in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures at the end of January. You can try the tool for yourself.[46] You can leave feedback in this thread or on the talk page.

Next: Notifications[edit]

During Talk pages consultation 2019, editors said that it should be easier to know about new activity in conversations they are interested in. The Notifications project is just beginning. What would help you become aware of new comments? What's working with the current system? Which pages at your wiki should the team look at? Please post your advice at mw:Talk:Talk pages project/Notifications.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 01:02, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback request: Media, the arts, and architecture request for comment[edit]

Your feedback is requested at Talk:GameStop on a "Media, the arts, and architecture" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
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Editing news 2021 #2[edit]

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Junior contributors comment completion rate across all participating Wikipedias
When newcomers had the Reply tool and tried to post on a talk page, they were more successful at posting a comment. (Source)

Earlier this year, the Editing team ran a large study of the Reply Tool. The main goal was to find out whether the Reply Tool helped newer editors communicate on wiki. The second goal was to see whether the comments that newer editors made using the tool needed to be reverted more frequently than comments newer editors made with the existing wikitext page editor.

The key results were:

  • Newer editors who had automatic ("default on") access to the Reply tool were more likely to post a comment on a talk page.
  • The comments that newer editors made with the Reply Tool were also less likely to be reverted than the comments that newer editors made with page editing.

These results give the Editing team confidence that the tool is helpful.

Looking ahead

The team is planning to make the Reply tool available to everyone as an opt-out preference in the coming months. This has already happened at the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedias.

The next step is to resolve a technical challenge. Then, they will deploy the Reply tool first to the Wikipedias that participated in the study. After that, they will deploy it, in stages, to the other Wikipedias and all WMF-hosted wikis.

You can turn on "Discussion Tools" in Beta Features now. After you get the Reply tool, you can change your preferences at any time in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

00:27, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

Feedback request: Media, the arts, and architecture request for comment[edit]

Your feedback is requested at Talk:Hardcore (punk rock and heavy metal subgenre) on a "Media, the arts, and architecture" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
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GOCE June 2021 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2021 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the June newsletter, our first newsletter of 2021, which is a brief update of Guild activities since December 2020. To unsubscribe, follow the link at the bottom of this box.

Current events

Election time: Voting in our mid-year Election of Coordinators opened on 16 June and will conclude at the end of the month. GOCE coordinators normally serve a six-month term and are elected on an approval basis. Have your say and show support here.

June Blitz: Our June copy-editing blitz is underway and will conclude on 26 June.

Drive and blitz reports

January Drive: 28 editors completed 324 copy edits totalling 714,902 words. At the end of the drive, the backlog had reached a record low of 52 articles. (full results)

February Blitz: 15 editors completed 48 copy edits totalling 142,788 words. (full results)

March Drive: 29 editors completed 215 copy edits totalling 407,736 words. (full results)

April Blitz: 12 editors completed 23 copy edits totalling 56,574 words. (full results)

May Drive: 29 editors completed 356 copy edits totalling 479,013 words. (full results)

Other news

Progress report: as of 26 June, GOCE participants had completed 343 Requests since 1 January. The backlog has fluctuated but remained in control, with a low of 52 tagged articles at the end of January and a high of 620 articles in mid-June.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis, Tenryuu and Twofingered Typist, and from member Reidgreg.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors at 12:38, 26 June 2021 (UTC).[reply]

Feedback request: Media, the arts, and architecture request for comment[edit]

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Feedback request: Media, the arts, and architecture request for comment[edit]

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Feedback request: Wikipedia policies and guidelines request for comment[edit]

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You've been unsubscribed from the Feedback Request Service[edit]

Hi Sue Gardner! You're receiving this notification because you were previously subscribed to the Feedback Request Service, but you haven't made any edits to the English Wikipedia in over six months.

In order to declutter the Feedback Request Service list, and to produce a greater chance of active users being randomly selected to receive invitations to contribute, you've been unsubscribed, along with all other users who have made no edits in six months.

You do not need to do anything about this - if you are happy to not receive Feedback Request Service messages, thank you very much for your contributions in the past, and this will be the last you hear from the service. If, however, you would like to resubscribe yourself, you can follow the below instructions to do so:

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September 2021 Guild of Copy Editors newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors September 2021 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the September GOCE newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since June 2021.

                 Current and upcoming events

September Drive: Our current backlog-elimination drive is open until 23:59 on 30 September (UTC) and is open to all copy editors. Sign up today!

Drive and Blitz reports

June Blitz: From 20 to 26 June, 6 participating editors claimed 16 copy edits, focusing on requests and articles tagged in March and April. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

July Drive: Almost 575,000 words of articles were copy edited for this event. Of the 24 people who signed up, 18 copyedited at least one article. Final results and awards are listed here.

August Blitz: From 15 to 21 August, we copy edited articles tagged in April and May 2021 and requests. 9 participating editors completed 17 copy edits on the blitz. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Other news

June election: Jonesey95 was chosen to continue as lead coordinator, assisted by Dhtwiki, Tenryuu, and Miniapolis.

New maintenance template added to our project scope: After a short discussion in June, we added {{cleanup tense}} to the list of maintenance templates that adds articles to the Guild's copy editing backlog categories. This change added 198 articles, spread over 97 months of backlog, to our queue. We processed all of those articles except for those from the three or four most recent months during the July backlog elimination drive (Here's a link to a "tense" discussion during the drive).

Progress report: As of 18:26, 24 September 2021 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have processed 468 requests since 1 January and there were 60 requests awaiting completion on the Requests page. The backlog of articles tagged for copy-editing stood at 433 (see monthly progress graph above).

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Dhtwiki, Tenryuu, and Miniapolis.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:45, 30 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

December 2021 GOCE Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2021 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the December GOCE newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since September 2021.

                 Current and upcoming events

Election time: Our end-of-year election of coordinators opened for nominations on 1 December and will close on 15 December at 23:59 (UTC). Voting opens at 00:01 the following day and will continue until 31 December at 23:59, just before "Auld Lang Syne". Coordinators normally serve a six-month term and are elected on an approval basis. Self-nominations are welcome. If you've thought of helping out at the Guild, or know of another editor who would make a good coordinator, please consider standing for election or nominating them here.

December Blitz: We have scheduled a week-long copy-editing blitz for 12 to 18 December. Sign up now!

Drive and Blitz reports

September Drive: Almost 400,000 words of articles were copy edited for this event. Of the 27 people who signed up, 21 copyedited at least one article. Final results and awards are listed here.

October Blitz: From 17 to 23 October, we copy edited articles tagged in May and June 2021 and requests. 8 participating editors completed 26 copy edits on the blitz. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

November Drive: Over 350,000 words of articles were copy edited for this event. Of the 21 people who signed up, 14 copyedited at least one article. Final results and awards are listed here.

Other news

It is with great sadness that we report the death on 19 November of Twofingered Typist, who was active with the Guild almost daily for the past several years. His contributions long exceeded the thresholds for the Guild's highest awards, and he had a hand in innumerable good and featured article promotions as a willing collaborator. Twofingered Typist also served as a Guild coordinator from July 2019 to June 2021. He is sorely missed by the Wikipedia community.

Progress report: As of 30 November, GOCE copyeditors have completed 619 requests in 2021 and there were 51 requests awaiting completion on the Requests page. The backlog stood at 946 articles tagged for copy-editing (see monthly progress graph above).

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Dhtwiki, Tenryuu, and Miniapolis.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Distributed via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:03, 6 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

GOCE April 2022 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors April 2022 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the April newsletter, a brief update of Guild activities since December 2021.

Election results: Jonesey95 retired as lead coordinator. Reidgreg was approved to fill this role after an 18-month absence from the coordinator team, and Baffle gab1978 was chosen as an assistant coordinator following a one-year break. Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Tenryuu continued on as long-standing assistant coordinators.

January Drive: Of the 22 editors who signed up, 16 editors claimed 146 copy edits including 45 requests. (details)

February Blitz: This one-week effort focused on requests and a theme of Africa and African diaspora history. Of the 12 editors who signed up, 6 editors recorded 21 copy edits, including 4 requests. (details)

March Drive: Of the 28 editors who signed up, 18 claimed 116 copy edits including 25 requests. (details)

April Blitz: This one-week copy editing event has been scheduled for 17–23 April, sign up now!

Progress report: As of 11 April, copy editors have removed approximately 500 articles from the backlog and completed 127 copy-editing requests during 2022. The backlog has been hovering at about 1,100 tagged articles for the past six months.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Reidgreg, Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Tenryuu

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Sent via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:43, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Editing newsletter 2022 – #1[edit]

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New editors were more successful with this new tool.

The New topic tool helps editors create new ==Sections== on discussion pages. New editors are more successful with this new tool. You can read the report. Soon, the Editing team will offer this to all editors at most WMF-hosted wikis. You can join the discussion about this tool for the English Wikipedia is at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Enabling the New Topic Tool by default. You will be able to turn it off in the tool or at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion.

The Editing team plans to change the appearance of talk pages. These are separate from the changes made by the mw:Desktop improvements project and will appear in both Vector 2010 and Vector 2022. The goal is to add some information and make discussions look visibly different from encyclopedia articles. You can see some ideas at Wikipedia talk:Talk pages project#Prototype Ready for Feedback.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

23:15, 30 May 2022 (UTC)

June GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2022 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the June 2022 newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since April 2022. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

Blitz: of the 16 editors who signed up for our April Copy Editing Blitz, 12 completed at least one copy-edit, and between them removed 21 articles from the copy-editing backlog. Barnstars awarded are here.

Drive: 27 editors signed up for our May Backlog Elimination Drive; of these, 20 copy-edited at least one article. 144 articles were copy-edited, and 88 articles from our target months August and September 2021 were removed from the backlog. Barnstars awarded are here.

Blitz: our June Copy Editing Blitz, starting at 00:01, 19 June and closing at 00:59, 25 June (UTC), will focus on articles tagged for copy edit in September and October 2021, and requests from March, April and May 2022. Barnstars awarded will be posted here.

Progress report: As of 07:12, 14 June 2022 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have completed 209 requests since 1 January and the backlog stands at 1,404 articles.

Election news: Nominations for our half-yearly Election of Coordinators continues until 23:50 on 15 June (UTC), after which, voting will commence until 23:59, 30 June (UTC). All Wikipedians in good standing (active and not blocked, banned, or under ArbCom or community sanctions) are eligible and self-nominations are welcomed.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Reidgreg, Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Tenryuu

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:39, 14 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to Local Wikimania Event in San Francisco this Friday[edit]

Hi!

Wikimania is happening and hopefully you're enjoying the sessions. While it's fairly last minute, you're warmly invited to participate in the local Wikimania-themed meetup in the Wikimedia Foundation office this Friday (tomorrow!). You will have to register in advance, but we would love to see more people from the WikiSalon community participate! For more information and registration, please check out meta:Wikimania 2022/San Francisco Meetup.

The event will involve hacking, teaching, learning, and celebrating and we'll have snacks. We will have the opportunity to watch live sessions at Wikimania together in the afternoon. The rest of the day we'll have opportunity to participate in the hackathon, and we may have some on-demand workshops/learning sessions.

In case we run out of space, it's first-come-first-serve so let us know soon! Hope to see you there.

(Subscribe/Unsubscribe to this talk page notice here)

On behalf of the Bay Area Wiki Salon team and Bittakea, Effeietsanders

Editing news 2022 #2[edit]

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Graph showing 90-minute response time without the new tool and 39-minute response time with the tool
The [subscribe] button shortens response times.

The new [subscribe] button notifies people when someone replies to their comments. It helps newcomers get answers to their questions. People reply sooner. You can read the report. The Editing team is turning this tool on for everyone. You will be able to turn it off in your preferences.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:36, 26 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors' October 2022 newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors October 2022 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to our latest newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since June. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

Drive: Of the 22 editors who signed up for our July Backlog Elimination Drive, 18 copy-edited, between them, 116 articles. Barnstars awarded are noted here.

Blitz: Participants in our August Copy Editing Blitz copy-edited 51,074 words in 17 articles. Of the 15 editors who signed up, 11 claimed at least one copy-edit. Barnstars awarded are noted here.

Drive: Forty-one editors took part in our September Backlog Elimination Drive; between them they copy-edited 199 articles. Barnstars awards are noted here.

Blitz: Our October Copy Editing Blitz begins on 16 October at 00:01 (UTC) and will end on 22 October at 23:59 (UTC). Barnstars awarded will be posted here.

Progress report: As of 19:57, 12 October 2022 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have processed 303 requests for copy edit – including withdrawn and declined ones – since 1 January. At the time of writing, there are 77 requests awaiting attention and the backlog of tagged articles stands at 1,759. We always need more active, skilled copyeditors – particularly for requests – so please get involved if you can.

Election news: In our mid-year election, serving coordinators Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis, Reidgreg and Tenryuu were returned for another term, and were joined by new coordinator Zippybonzo. No lead coordinator was elected for this half-year. Jonesey95, a long-serving coordinator and lead, was elected as coordinator emeritus; we thank them for their service. Thank you to everyone who took part. Our next election of coordinators takes place throughout December. If you'd like to help out at the GOCE, please consider nominating yourself or other suitable editors (with their permission, of course!). It's your Guild, after all!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis, Reidgreg, Tenryuu and Zippybonzo.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Baffle☿gab 03:07, 14 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2022 Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2022 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to our latest newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since October. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

Blitz: Our October Copy Editing Blitz focused on July and August 2022 request months; and articles tagged for c/e in December 2021 and January 2022. Seventeen of those who signed up claimed at least one copy-edit, and between them copy-edited forty-six articles. Barnstars awarded are here.

Drive: In the November Backlog Elimination Drive, thirty editors signed up, twenty-two of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Both target months—December 2021 and January 2022—were cleared, and February was added to the target months. Sixteen requests were copy-edited and 239 articles were removed from the backlog. Barnstars awarded are here.

Blitz: Our seven-day-long December 2022 Copy Editing Blitz begins on 17 December at 00:01 (UTC)*. It will focus on articles tagged for copy-edit in February 2022, and pending requests from September and October. Barnstars awarded will be available here.

Progress report: As of 22:40, 8 December 2022, GOCE copyeditors have processed 357 requests since 1 January, there were seventy-four requests outstanding and the backlog stands at 1,791 articles. We always need skilled copy-editors; please help out if you can.

Election news: Nomination of candidates for the GOCE's Election of Coordinators for the first half of 2023 is open and continues until 23:59 on 15 December. Voting begins at 00:01 on 16 December and closes at 23:59 on 31 December. All editors in good standing (not under ArbCom or community sanctions) are eligible and self-nominations are welcomed. Coordinators serve a six-month term that ends at 23:59 on June 30. If you've thought about helping out at the Guild, please nominate yourself or any editor you consider suitable—with their permission, of course!. It's your Guild and it doesn't coordinate itself.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers and best seasonal wishes from your GOCE coordinators, Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis, Tenryuu, and Zippybonzo.

*All times and dates on this newsletter are UTC.
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Sent by Baffle gab1978 via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:26, 9 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2022 Newsletter error[edit]

The GOCE December 2022 newsletter, as sent on 9 December, contains an erroneous start date for our December Blitz. The Blitz will start on 11 December rather than on 17 December, as stated in the newsletter. I'm sorry for the mistake and for disrupting your talk page; thanks for your understanding. Sent by Baffle gab1978 via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:30, 9 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors 2022 Annual Report[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors 2022 Annual Report
Our 2022 Annual Report is now ready for review.

Highlights:

  • Overview of Backlog-reduction progress
  • Summary of Drives, Blitzes, and the Requests page
  • Membership news and results of elections
  • Closing words
– Your Guild coordinators: Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Zippybonzo
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Sent by Baffle gab1978 using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:30, 6 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Editing news 2023 #1[edit]

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this newsletter

This newsletter includes two key updates about the Editing team's work:

  1. The Editing team will finish adding new features to the Talk pages project and deploy it.
  2. They are beginning a new project, Edit check.

Talk pages project

Screenshot showing the talk page design changes that are currently available as beta features at all Wikimedia wikis. These features include information about the number of people and comments within each discussion.
Some of the upcoming changes

The Editing team is nearly finished with this first phase of the Talk pages project. Nearly all new features are available now in the Beta Feature for Discussion tools.

It will show information about how active a discussion is, such as the date of the most recent comment. There will soon be a new "Add topic" button. You will be able to turn them off at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion. Please tell them what you think.

Daily edit completion rate by test group: DiscussionTools (test group) and MobileFrontend overlay (control group)

An A/B test for Discussion tools on the mobile site has finished. Editors were more successful with Discussion tools. The Editing team is enabling these features for all editors on the mobile site.

New Project: Edit Check

The Editing team is beginning a project to help new editors of Wikipedia. It will help people identify some problems before they click "Publish changes". The first tool will encourage people to add references when they add new content. Please watch that page for more information. You can join a conference call on 3 March 2023 to learn more.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:19, 22 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors March 2023 Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors March 2023 Newsletter


Hello and welcome to the March 2023 newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since December and our Annual Report for 2022. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below. We extend a warm welcome to all of our new members, including those who have signed up for our current March Backlog Elimination Drive. We wish you all happy copy-editing.

Election results: In our December 2022 coordinator election, Reidgreg and Tenryuu stepped down as coordinators; we thank them for their service. Incumbents Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Zippybonzo were returned as coordinators until 1 July. For the second time, no lead coordinator was chosen. Nominations for our mid-year Election of Coordinators open on 1 June (UTC).

Drive: 21 editors signed up for our January Backlog Elimination Drive, 14 of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 170 articles totaling 389,737 words. Barnstars awarded are here.

Blitz: Our February Copy Editing Blitz focused on October and November 2022 requests, and the March and April 2022 backlogs. Of the 14 editors who signed up, nine claimed at least one copy-edit; and between them, they copy-edited 39,150 words in 22 articles. Barnstars awarded are here.

Drive: Sign up now for our month-long March Backlog Elimination Drive. Barnstars awarded will be posted here after the drive closes.

Progress report: As of 12:08, 19 March 2023 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have processed 73 requests since 1 January 2023, all but five of them from 2022, and the backlog stands at 1,872 articles.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Zippybonzo.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Guild of Copy Editors June 2023 Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors June 2023 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the June 2023 newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since March. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

Election news: Fancy helping out at the Guild? Nominations for our half-yearly Election of Coordinators are open until 23:59 on 15 June (UTC)*. Starting immediately after, the voting phase will run until 23:59 on 30 June. All Wikipedians in good standing are eligible and self-nominations are welcomed; it's your Guild and it doesn't organize itself!

Blitz: Of the 17 editors who signed up for our April Copy Editing Blitz, nine editors completed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 24 articles totaling 53,393 words. Barnstars awarded are here.

Drive: 51 editors signed up for the month-long May Backlog Elimination Drive, and 31 copy-edited at least one article. 180 articles were copy-edited. Barnstars awarded are posted here.

Blitz: Sign up here for our week-long June Copy Editing Blitz, which runs from 11 to 17 June. Barnstars awarded will be posted here.

Progress report: As of 03:09 on 6 June 2023, GOCE copyeditors have processed 91 requests since 1 January and the backlog stands at 1,887 articles.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Baffle gab1978, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Zippybongo.

*All times and dates in this newsletter are in UTC, and may significantly vary from your local time.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Sent by Baffle gab1978 using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:39, 6 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Septermber GOCE newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors September 2023 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the September 2023 newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since June. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

David Thomsen: Prolific Wikipedian and Guild member David Thomsen (Dthomsen8) died in November 2022. He was a regular copy editor who took part in many of our Drives and Blitzes. An obituary was published in the mid-July issue of The Signpost. Tributes can be left on David's talk page.

Election news: In our mid-year Election of Coordinators, Dhtwiki was chosen as lead coordinator, Miniapolis and Zippybonzo continue as assistant coordinators, and Baffle gab1978 stepped down from the role. If you're interested in helping out at the GOCE, please consider nominating yourself for our next election in December; it's your WikiProject and it doesn't organize itself!

June Blitz: Of the 17 editors who signed up for our June Copy Editing Blitz, 12 copy-edited at least one article. 70,035 words comprising 26 articles were copy-edited. Barnstars awarded are here.

July Drive: 34 of the 51 editors who took part in our July Backlog Elimination Drive copy-edited at least one article. They edited 276 articles and 683,633 words between them. Barnstars awarded are here.

August Blitz: In our August Copy Editing Blitz, 13 of the 16 editors who signed up worked on at least one article. Between them, they copy-edited 79,608 words comprising 57 articles. Barnstars awarded are available here.

September Drive: Sign up here for our month-long September Backlog Elimination Drive, which is now underway. Barnstars awarded will be posted here.

Progress report: As of 14:29, 9 September 2023 (UTC), GOCE copy editors have processed 245 requests since 1 January. The backlog of tagged articles stands at 2,066.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators, Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Zippybonzo.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:55, 10 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2023 Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors December 2023 Newsletter

Hello, and welcome to the December 2023 newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since September. Don't forget that you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

Election news: The Guild needs coordinators! If you'd like to help out, you may nominate yourself or any suitable editor—with their permission—for the Election of Coordinators for the first half of 2024. Nominations will close at 23:59 on 15 December (UTC). Voting begins immediately after the close of nominations and closes at 23:59 on 31 December. All editors in good standing (not under current sanctions) are eligible, and self-nominations are welcome. Coordinators normally serve a six-month term that ends at 23:59 on 30 June.

Drive: Of the 69 editors who signed up for the September Backlog Elimination Drive, 40 copy-edited at least one article. Between them, they copy-edited 661,214 words in 290 articles. Barnstars awarded are listed here.

Blitz: Of the 22 editors who signed up for the October Copy Editing Blitz, 13 copy-edited at least one article. Between them, they copy-edited 109,327 words in 52 articles. Barnstars awarded are listed here.

Drive: During the November Backlog Elimination Drive, 38 of the 58 editors who signed up copy-edited at least one article. Between them, they copy-edited 458,620 words in 234 articles. Barnstars awarded are listed here.

Blitz: Our December Copy Editing Blitz will run from 10 to 16 December. Barnstars awarded will be posted here.

Progress report: As of 20:33, 10 December 2023 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have processed 344 requests since 1 January, and the backlog stands at 2,191 articles.

Other news: Our Annual Report for 2023 is planned for release in the new year.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Zippybonzo.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Message sent by Baffle gab1978 using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:54, 10 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Guild of Copy Editors 2023 Annual Report[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors 2023 Annual Report
Our 2023 Annual Report is now ready for review.

Highlights:

  • Introduction
  • Membership news, obituary and election results
  • Summary of Drives, Blitzes and the Requests page
  • Closing words
– Your Guild coordinators: Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Wracking.
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Guild of Copy Editors April 2024 Newsletter[edit]

Guild of Copy Editors April 2024 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the April 2024 newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since December. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below. We extend a warm welcome to all of our new members. We wish you all happy copy-editing.

Election results: In our December 2023 coordinator election, Zippybonzo stepped down as coordinator; we thank them for their service. Incumbents Dhtwiki and Miniapolis were reelected coordinators, and Wracking was newly elected coordinator, to serve through 30 June. Nominations for our mid-year Election of Coordinators will open on 1 June (UTC).

Drive: 46 editors signed up for our January Backlog Elimination Drive, 32 of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 289 articles totaling 626,729 words. Barnstars awarded are here.

Blitz: 23 editors signed up for our February Copy Editing Blitz. 18 claimed at least one copy-edit and between them, they copy-edited 100,293 words in 32 articles. Barnstars awarded are here.

Drive: 53 editors signed up for our March Backlog Elimination Drive, 34 of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 300 articles totaling 587,828 words. Barnstars awarded are here.

Blitz: Sign up for our April Copy Editing Blitz, which runs from 14 to 20 April. Barnstars will be awarded here.

Progress report: As of 23:17, 11 April 2024 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have processed 109 requests since 1 January 2024, and the backlog stands at 2,480 articles.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from Baffle gab1978 and your GOCE coordinators Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Wracking.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.
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