User talk:Northamerica1000/Archive 87

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Accidental rollback

You just reverted a comment by Swarm at WP:ANI. Was that on purpose? Natureium (talk) 01:05, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

  • @Natureium: Thank you for letting me know about this misclick on my part when I was going through my watchlist, which is a true rarity for me (yes, it was accidental). I restored the comment: diff. North America1000 01:16, 23 September 2018 (UTC)
  • Pinging Swarm, so they're aware of this. North America1000 01:38, 23 September 2018 (UTC)
  • No worries, I saw you restored it. All the best, (Swarmtalk) 01:48, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Check-in

Hello NorthA,

As my wife and I prepare for a five day business trip to Atlanta (I'll still be on), I wanted to take a moment to ask if there is anything I can do to help better your Wikipedia experience. You have been on a Semi-Break for a while and I hope there is no stress associated. I am sending this to ask if there is any tedious or long term work you would like help on. I have been covertly aiding in all your "link rot" postings but be more than happy to know if any new articles or expansions you would like help on. For example, do you need any help with your Kentucky or food article creations?

I want to do some acts of kindness for my Wikipedia idol (you). Thanks again for your fantastic editing.

Cheers, AmericanAir88(talk) 02:10, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

  • Hello AmericanAir88: Well, I don't know about being an "idol", but okay, I can take a compliment. First of all, I won't be revealing a bunch of personal information on Wiki, and likely not off Wiki either. It's my preference. But no, no stress whatsoever. Regarding my semi-wikibreak, it is what it is. I've been performing more gnomish and minor edits for a while, such as cleaning up articles coming into main namespace from Articles for creation, going through various categories and cleaning up matters, adding the linkrot tags as you have noticed, etc. The linkrot tag is one of the few that receive rather quick attention from several editors, which is appreciated. I still perform deletion-related work at AfD and the like. The semi-break has nothing to do with a pending wiki-retirement; just working on more minor matters, with an occasional article expansion or creation. I stumbled upon many Kentucky geography stubs that are one-liners, so in the process of checking them out, I do some searches and sometimes find content to expand articles with. Other times, virtually no content is available (particularly for rural areas). Ultimately, this is just a hobby, and I probably spend a bit too much time on wiki despite being on a semi break. If you find any new content for said articles, absolutely feel free to expand them; that's what they're there for. Thanks for checking out the articles I have been listing atop my user page, and thanks for the positive energy as well, North America1000 06:30, 25 September 2018 (UTC)
  • Also, I am open to collaboration, but it's virtually impossible to find editors who actually want to collaborate. Feel free to post articles that you would be interested in collaborating upon. No guarantees, but feel free to post here. Note that I tend to specialize in food/drink/cuisine articles (hint hint). North America1000 06:37, 25 September 2018 (UTC)
Thank you so much NorthA for your detailed response. I completely understand you not revealing any personal information and I would never ask for it ever. Take the Idol title as a compliment. I will probably do the same for Connecticut stubs as you did with Kentucky stubs. Its great to hear that you have no stress. This is just a hobby for me as well as I work in an Advertising Agency alongside doing this for a hobby. As for collaboration, I have some ideas for potential expansions and GA/FA prep. I would also like to continue creating Food lists like the cherry and grape dishes. I highly appreciate you taking the time to write back. Thanks again for being such a fantastic editor! AmericanAir88(talk) 22:01, 25 September 2018 (UTC)

you know you want it

NA1000, I bet you never had chicken spaghetti (at the Farmer's Market they spelled it without "h"), cause if you had we'd have an article on it. It is not a healthy thing and it needs hot sauce but OMG it's delicious. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:6C58:607F:F8F1:0:14B7:C014:B774 (talk) 23:59, 22 September 2018 (UTC)

Well, there's no article yet (Chicken spaghetti), perhaps one can be created. North America1000 15:41, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 39, 2018)

Hello, Northamerica1000.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

St. Louis cuisine

Please be bold and help to improve this article!


Previous selections: Pub session • People's Republic of Angola


Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations


Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 24 September 2018 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

17:34, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 40, 2018)

Hello, Northamerica1000.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

History of American football positions

Please be bold and help to improve this article!


Previous selections: St. Louis cuisine • Pub session


Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations


Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 1 October 2018 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

The Signpost: 1 October 2018

Notices

Hi, NA1000 - can you notify the relevant projects about this AfD? Atsme✍🏻📧 23:01, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

@Atsme:  Done – posted to the Sports and Events delsort listing pages. There's no venue chosen yet, so couldn't add a country or state. Cheers, North America1000 23:04, 5 October 2018 (UTC)
TY - 😊 Atsme✍🏻📧 23:17, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – October 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2018).

Administrator changes

added JustlettersandnumbersL235
removed BgwhiteHorsePunchKidJ GrebKillerChihuahuaRami RWinhunter

Interface administrator changes

added Cyberpower678Deryck ChanOshwahPharosRagesossRitchie333

Oversight changes

removed Guerillero NativeForeigner SnowolfXeno

Guideline and policy news

Technical news

  • Partial blocks should be available for testing in October on the Test Wikipedia and the Beta-Cluster. This new feature allows admins to block users from editing specific pages and in the near-future, namespaces and uploading files. You can expect more updates and an invitation to help with testing once it is available.
  • The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team is currently looking for input on how to measure the effectiveness of blocks. This is in particular related to how they will measure the success of the aforementioned partial blocks.
  • Because of a data centre test, you will be able to read but not edit the Wikimedia projects for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time.

Arbitration

  • The Arbitration Committee has, by motion, amended the procedure on functionary inactivity.
  • The community consultation for 2018 CheckUser and Oversight appointments has concluded. Appointments will be made by October 11.
  • Following a request for comment, the size of the Arbitration Committee will be decreased to 13 arbitrators, starting in 2019. Additionally, the minimum support percentage required to be appointed to a two-year term on ArbCom has been increased to 60%. ArbCom candidates who receive between 50% and 60% support will be appointed to one-year terms instead.
  • Nominations for the 2018 Arbitration Committee Electoral Commission are being accepted until 12 October. These are the editors who help run the ArbCom election smoothly. If you are interested in volunteering for this role, please consider nominating yourself.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:13, 5 October 2018 (UTC)

A beer for you!

Thanks for all your help here. Tinton5 (talk) 04:56, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

23:38, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Mod Pizza logo.png

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Thanks for uploading File:Mod Pizza logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:48, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

Here's a comment...

This edit was entirely needless, (especially the implied accusation). Proposers often add "...as proposer". Do you really believe this will result in a "duplicate !vote"...? If so, you have a poor understanding of consensus and closures. Please self-revert immediately. Thank you. - wolf 04:10, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

Hello Thewolfchild: Sorry that you appear to be chapped about this. The problem is that a closer who may skim the discussion could mistakenly read the separate, bulleted line as a separate !vote.
Notice how at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion § How to contribute is specifically states, "Nomination already implies that the nominator recommends deletion (unless indicated otherwise), and nominators should refrain from repeating this recommendation on a separate bulleted line." (underline emphasis mine). Your bolded "delete" statement in the discussion underneath the nomination was exactly as what is stated that should be refrained from.
It's common practice for such nominations to be modified by other users in this manner, to avoid the potential for misunderstandings. Sorry, but I just don't have "a poor understanding of consensus and closures" when I am actually following proper procedures listed directly on the main Articles for deletion page. There's even the {{Duplicate vote}} template that is used for such occasions. Anyway, hope you understand after reading this. North America1000 14:26, 10 October 2018 (UTC)
As I said, editors often add a '!vote' marked "as proposer" on various proposals, RfCs and anything else leading to a straw poll to gauge consensus. Do you really think any admin or experienced editor performing a close would be foolish enough to mistakenly count that as a "duplicate !vote"...? Keeping in mind that it's not even the number of !votes that matter as much as the "quality of the argument" made by each contributor. As such, any admin/editor performing a close should be scrutinizing each !voter's comment, not just "skimming over" to count 'yays' vs 'nays', meaning that no closer should be counting the "...as proposer" '!vote' as a "duplicate". But if this is really so important to you, why not just ask me to un-bold the !vote and bold the "as proposer"? Surely this would help any closer, (apparently already performing an improper close), to avoid the mistake of counting a "duplicate !vote"? Also, you must have noticed the number of admins and experienced editors that have already contributed there? None of them found the need to interfere with the nomination by striking my '!vote' and essentially accusing me of an impropriety or an attempt to deceive. Therefore, I would think it only proper that you immediately self-revert (following which, I will make the appropriate changes to my comment). An attached edit summary briefly explaining that your edit was your opinion only and not in any way an accusation of wrong doing on my part would certainly be appropriate. I thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter. Have a nice day. - wolf 15:21, 10 October 2018 (UTC)
Do whatever you want to do then; I have reverted, using my own edit summary. I still recommend following proper procedures. Keeping the bulleted line and adding in bold "as proposer" is just a continuation of the same error, which should be refrained. Why do you want a separate bulleted line so much, against the grain of the instructions? Why not just follow the instructions? Also, I'm not accusing you of anything, please don't take it personally. Lastly, it is always possible that a less-experienced user may base a closure upon a simple !vote count, e.g. non-admin closers. North America1000 16:04, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 41, 2018)

An herb garden. Herbs are plants with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, in medicine, or as fragrances.
Hello, Northamerica1000.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Herb

Please be bold and help to improve this article!


Previous selections: History of American football positions • St. Louis cuisine


Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations


Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 8 October 2018 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

AFD nominations

You seem to be conducting a campaign to delete articles on LDS general authorities on the basis that the position is a NN one. I do not know enough of LDS to comment. It would be helpful if you could mention in the nom that the person is "only notable as a LDS general authority", so that I (and others who monitor Christianity AFDs) can know straight off that this is not about mainstream Christians. However keep up the good work. Peterkingiron (talk) 17:03, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

@Peterkingiron: I likely won't be stating in my wording that subjects are notable under other standards than Wikipedia's, because after all, this is Wikipedia. Also, stating that someone is "only notable" for one thing has the potential to be misleading, in the event a subject is known for more than one thing. North America1000 00:12, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
I fear you misunderstood me; perhaps I worded my message badly. perhaps I should have said "significant" not "notable", which (as you say) begs the question. I was asking you to refer to the fact that the person was a LDS general authority, so that I would not have to decide whether to seek to defend the article. Peterkingiron (talk) 17:07, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
I hesitate to word my nominations to suit one user in a manner that may cause ambiguity for the majority of users (e.g. stating "significant", etc). However, I don't mind your input. North America1000 23:21, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

 You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Food and drink#World Heritage Cuisine Summit 2018 Edit-a-thon. We're organising an online edit-a-thon around World Heritage Cuisine Summit 2018. I've posted as a message to the talk page of WikiProject Food and Drink. Since you've been listed as one of the coordinators, I kindly request to have a look at it, and promote it to the project members. KCVelaga (talk) 14:11, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

@KCVelaga: Thank you for the notification. North America1000 23:22, 3 October 2018 (UTC)
I'm thinking of sending a mass-message to project members, would you suggest that? KCVelaga (talk) 04:45, 4 October 2018 (UTC)
@KCVelaga: I don't see why that would be a problem. The Food and Drink project's members list is here. Importantly, note that some members have a red "X" next to their user names, signifying that they do not want to receive messages, so don't send to these people. There's also a Notifications list that may be easier for work from, located at Wikipedia:WikiProject Food and drink/Newsletters/Notifications List. North America1000 07:53, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

22:40, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Portals WikiProject update #020, 12 Oct 2018

Whew, a lot has been happening.

A bit of defending of the portals has been needed. But, most activity recently has been directed upon maintenance and development of existing portals.

The majority of portals now use the new design, about 2400 of them, leaving around 1200 portals that still employ the old style.

Newest portals

Please inspect these portals, and report problems or suggest improvements at WT:WPPORTD. Thank you.

MfDs

Since the last issue of this newsletter, Nineteen portals were nominated for deletion. All posted by the same person.

Two portals were deleted.

One resolved as "no consensus".

Sixteen resolved as "keep".

Links to the archived discussions are provided below:

  1. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Air France
  2. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Alexander Korda
  3. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:August Derleth
  4. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Average White Band
  5. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Bee-eaters
  6. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Ben E. King
  7. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Benny Goodman
  8. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Bill Bryson
  9. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Billy Idol
  10. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Billy Ocean
  11. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Bob Hope
  12. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Bobbie Rosenfeld Award
  13. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Body piercing
  14. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Canton, Michigan
  15. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Compostela Group of Universities
  16. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Diplo
  17. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Diversity of fish
  18. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Pebble Beach
  19. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Peter, Paul and Mary

Many thanks to those who participated in the discussions.

To watch for future MfD's, keep in mind that the Portals WikiProject is supported by automatic alerts. You can see them at: Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals#Article alerts: portals for deletion at MfD

Creation criteria

There was also some discussion of creation criteria for portals. The result was that one of the participants in the discussion reverted the portal guidelines to the old version, which has the minimum number of articles for a portal included in there: "about 20 articles", a guideline that was in place since 2009.

Many of the portals that existed prior to April 2018 do not have that many (being limited to however many subpages the portal creator created), and therefore, these portals need to be upgraded to the new design (which automatically provides many articles for display). Using the new design, exceeding 20 articles for display is very easy.

Linking to the new portals

Efforts have been underway to place links to new portals (all 2200 of them created since April).

  1. Link (portal button) from corresponding category pages.  Done
  2. Link from See also section on corresponding root articles. check Partially implemented
  3. Link from bottom of corresponding templates. check Partially implemented
  4. Link for each portal on Portal:Contents/Portals. check Partially implemented

Your help is needed. It is easy to access the page mentioned in #1, #2, & #3 from the portals themselves.

AWBers could do these tasks even faster (that's how the category pages were done), except #4...

Item #4 above pretty much has to be done by hand. (If you can find a way to speed that up, I would be very impressed). The links needing placement can be found at Portal talk:Contents/Portals#These are not listed yet. Instructions are included there.

The conversion effort: news sections

There are still around 1200 old-style portals that have only undergone partial conversion to the new design concepts, still relying on subpages with copied/pasted excerpts that have been going stale for years, out of date (manually posted) news entries, etc.

The section currently being tackled on these is news. You can help by deleting any news section on the old-style portals that has news entries that are years old (that is the dead giveaway to a manual news section). Be sure not to delete the news sections of portals that have up-to-date news, or active maintainers. For maintainers, look at the portal's categories, and/or check the participants list at WP:WPPORT.

Eventually, conditional news sections (that appear only when news items are available for display) will be added using AWB to all portals without a news section.

News items (and even the news sections themselves) are automatically generated for portals that were created using the Basic portal start page. On those portals, there is a hidden comment at the top of the page (that you can see in the edit window), that says this:

<!-- This portal was created using subst:Basic portal start page -->

Design development

Presently, we are in the process of implementing the new design features, creating new portals with them, and installing them in existing portals.

But, what about development of new new design features?

We have a wish department.

Post your wishes at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Portals/Design#Discussions about possible cool new features, and they might come true. Many have already, and for many of those, this is where they were posted.

Cascade effect

A resource that has been elusive so far will be obtained eventually: categories. That is, the ability to pull category member links to populate a page.

Rather than populate portals directly with such links, it may be more beneficial to the encyclopedia to utilize them in navigation footers, because portals already have the ability to generate themselves based on those.

So, this would create a cascade effect: auto-gathering entries from categories, would enable the construction of new navigation footers, that would in turn support the development of new portals.

The cascade effect would also be felt by existing portals, as existing navigation footers could be expanded using the category harvesting methods, which would in turn expand the coverage of portals that access those navigation footers.

You can help by providing leads about any potential category harvesting methods. Please report anything you know about harvesting categories at WT:WPPORTD. Thank you.

Looking into the future: the quantum portal?

One idea that has been floating around is the concept of a pageless portal. That is, a portal that isn't stored anywhere, instead being generated when you click on a menu item or button.

Many of the new portals were generated by a single click, and then saved via a second click.

Therefore, it seems likely that the portals of the future will employ the one-click concept.

Because of the need for customization by users, this concept would need to be augmented with a way to integrate user contributions. This could be done in at least two ways: posting an existing portal, autogenerating one from scratch if such does not yet exist, or have a special data page for user contributions that is folded into the auto-generated portal.

How soon? That is up to you. All that is needed are persons to implement it.

Until next time...

Keep up the good work on portals. They are improving daily. Thank you.    — The Transhumanist   04:24, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

May I know the reason of your recent activity at the article placing the "unreferenced" tag?? Please explain. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dey subrata (talkcontribs)

Wikipedia content needs to be properly Verified, because this is an actual encyclopedia. With zero sources verifying any content in the article, the tag will hopefully eventually alert editors to add sources to the article, to be sure the content is correct. It is important for data on Wikipedia to be verified as factual. North America1000 16:26, 16 October 2018 (UTC)
Is this a joke going on?? I know this is an actual encyclopedia, and i know contents are to be verified or backed by sources or citation. So am I a responsible editor who writes or do anything here is always backed by citation or references and sources. But I really don't know mr or miss northamerica how do you become an editor here. Do you take responsibility of what you do here?? I have a serious doubt, I have gone through your user page, seems like you are here for many years, but are you doing anything with responsibility. Why I am telling you because people you like don't actually care about responsibility to go through article seriously or with care. Just go through to overview and trying to show what you know about wikipedia ...templates...codes... tagging this and that. And does it necessary editors or wikipedians to go through any field articles, if you are specialised in environment, ecology and agriculture, stick to that, whats the need of poking nose here and there. Who knows about football or sport world, let them do their job. I just wonder how do you see yourself in guild editors list. I know what you do, go to pages and see at a glance and tag and think oh i m improving a page, great achivement. Because this is not the first time happened, editor like you, who do edit just for time pass, who later apologise for not taking responsibility for what they do here. Go to the article again, its in simple english, and try to mean every words in the match box and keep ur eyes wide open, you not only see references and citation but more vital information. You people are pathetic here, think you knows everything and the world knows nothing. Dey subrata (talk) 17:39, 16 October 2018 (UTC) Dey subrata (talk)
The maintenance tag was placed in good faith. At the time I placed the template (diff), the sources existed as urls (e.g. [1], [2], [Fifa]) within the tables, without inline WP:CITATIONS or a references section. However, I did make a bit of a mistake in my reply above, since verification was present, just not in the form of inline citations linking to a references section. I have struck this part in my reply above. Regardless, please try to assume good faith, and try to keep in mind that you do not WP:OWN the article. Goodbye. North America1000 03:56, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 42, 2018)

Long Island Iced Tea is a cocktail made with vodka, tequila, light rum, triple sec, gin, and a splash of cola.
Hello, Northamerica1000.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Cocktail

Please be bold and help to improve this article!


Previous selections: Herb • History of American football positions


Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations


Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:07, 15 October 2018 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Just a heads up since you closed the AFD. I tweaked the redirect slightly so it went to the section on the parent org. If you have an issue, feel free to revert me. StarM 17:01, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

@Star Mississippi: No problem here, makes perfect sense to me to use the piped redirect to go right to where content is about Place Matters. North America1000 23:28, 13 October 2018 (UTC)
Thanks! Wasn't sure if it would be seen as COI as I was acting in the way I'd !voted on the AfD, but figured since it closed the same way I was acting with consensus. Just wanted to double check. StarM 02:21, 18 October 2018 (UTC)

NPR Newsletter No.14 21 October 2018

Chart of the New Pages Patrol backlog for the past 6 months.

Hello Northamerica1000, thank you for your work reviewing New Pages!

Backlog

As of 21 October 2018, there are 3650 unreviewed articles and the backlog now stretches back 51 days.

Community Wishlist Proposal
Project updates
  • ORES predictions are now built-in to the feed. These automatically predict the class of an article as well as whether it may be spam, vandalism, or an attack page, and can be filtered by these criteria now allowing reviewers to better target articles that they prefer to review.
  • There are now tools being tested to automatically detect copyright violations in the feed. This detector may not be accurate all the time, though, so it shouldn't be relied on 100% and will only start working on new revisions to pages, not older pages in the backlog.
New scripts

Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings. — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 20:49, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

23:11, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Dublin Food Coop logo.jpg

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Thanks for uploading File:Dublin Food Coop logo.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:32, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Farmdrop logo.png

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Thanks for uploading File:Farmdrop logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:33, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 43, 2018)

Hello, Northamerica1000.

The following is WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selection:

Latin music (genre)

Please be bold and help to improve this article!


Previous selections: Cocktail • Herb


Get involved with the TAFI project. You can: Nominate an article • Review nominations


Posted by: MusikBot talk 00:05, 22 October 2018 (UTC) using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of WikiProject TAFI • Opt-out instructions

Making portals

First, thank you for taking the plunge in making portals.

I'll be happy to help get you up to speed with the new tools.

When used in a particular way, Template:Basic portal start page is lightning fast.

There are two approaches to using that template:

1) Find subjects that already have the necessary support in place. (The portals pick you). Lightning fast.

2) Use it on subjects that don't. (You pick the portal titles). Not very fast (unless you get lucky).

Necessary support

For a portal to be created instantly with that template, the subject needs 2 main things already in place: a like-named root article with images in it, and a like-named navbox portal with (at least 20) list items in it. A list item is a link with an asterisk in front of it at the beginning of the line.

So for pies, that would be Pie, and Template:Pies. But there is no such template. This slows down the process.

The way I create so many portals so quickly, is by clicking on "What links here" (set to the template namespace) for Template:Navbox; I then copy the results to a sandbox and swap "Template:" with "Portal:" in the titles. I look over the redlinks for portal titles that seem of appropriate scope, and create a tab for each. Then I inspect the portal in each tab, and save those that are complete, and close the rest. That's why Portal:Cakes was instant (it had a corresponding Template:Cakes).

Another way to create portals fast, is to create a portal when you come across a good navigation template while browsing. Here's one you can try it out on (but use page preview, just in case):

{{Ghostbusters}}

Create Portal:Ghostbusters the same way you started Portal:Pies, hit Page Preview, and you will see an almost complete portal. (The search in DYK and ITN might need some adjustment, but that's all.) Inspect and save, then make your adjustments. The idea is to enter search parameters in DYK and ITN that will more likely get results. When there's a match, those sections will automagically appear in the portal.

For subjects lacking necessary support

This takes more time...

For portal titles that you dream up yourself, it is hit or miss whether or not the subject has a navbox template. Sometimes they do, but most of the time, probably not. The assortment of navboxes is eclectic, and not complete.

In the case of Portal:Pies, you could make a navigation template using navbox at Template:Pies, which would fix the Selected general articles section, and could be specified in the topics section to fix that too. The easiest way to create a navbox template is to find a similar one, and copy it, replacing its contents and headings with new entries. See Template:Cakes. (Portal:Cakes was completed almost instantly because the images slideshow was automatically created with the images from Cake, and the Selected general articles section was automatically filled with articles listed in Template:Cakes.)

Or, you could use Template:Transclude excerpts as random slideshow in the Selected general articles section, and list a bunch of pies as parameters.

An alternative way to handle the topics section is with labeled section transclusion using {{#section-h:page name|heading}}, like this:

{{#section-h:List of pies, tarts and flans|Pies, tarts and flans}}.

That would insert the list directly into the topics section, like this:

{{#section-h:List of pies, tarts and flans|Pies, tarts and flans}}

I hope the above instructions are easy to follow. Feel free to ask further questions. I'll be happy to answer them for you.    — The Transhumanist   22:57, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

  • @The Transhumanist: Thanks, and I get it. I was hoping for a workaround to creating a template, but instead, have created Template:Pies, which worked out. I understand about 99% of the new portal stuff, but I may still have a couple future questions. Thanks for your quick response here. Also note that after checking out the transclusion you set above, I no-wikied it using {{#section-h:List of pies, tarts and flans|Pies, tarts and flans}}, so my page isn't a long list of pies! North America1000 23:16, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
Instead of the whole bakery, here's one...
Enjoy.    — The Transhumanist   23:41, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
Thanks, wow, a whole pie, not just a slice! North America1000 23:51, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Food portals

  • I add the Related portals just above the Associated Wikimedia sections, using:

{{Box-header colour|''Related portals''}}
{{Food portal links horizontal}}
{{Box-footer}}

  • Works every time. I notice that you have created a bunch of new food portals in addition to everything else. Have I missed anything to add to Template:Food portal links horizontal? North America1000 23:43, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
I can't remember. By the way, all the new portals are listed at Category:Single-page portals.    — The Transhumanist   23:56, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
No worries, the Category:Single-page portals is just fine. Thanks! North America1000 23:58, 22 October 2018 (UTC)
By the way, I've refined the search strings in Portal:Pies, so now it has a Did you know section. No news on pies, though. :(    — The Transhumanist   11:54, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
  • @The Transhumanist: That works. Not sure how I feel about the list article transclusion, but it does add a lot more content...North America1000 12:10, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
  • If, after a few days, it hasn't grown on you, you can always remove it. ;) Personally, I think the pictures in the list enhance the portal a great deal. (But, there is currently no easy way to slideshow those pics).    — The Transhumanist   12:16, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
  • No worries, overall, I think it's okay, but there's always a chance that another user could come along and complain (e.g. "it makes the page too long"). North America1000 12:22, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Lua errors

Hi The Transhumanist: The Portal:Pies and many other portals are experiencing a problem, whereby it states, "Lua error in Module:Flex_columns at line 38: attempt to index global 'frame' (a nil value)" after the introduction headers in the portals. Since you were involved in updating the portal markup, figured I'd bring this to your attention. North America1000 21:42, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

 Fixed I reverted the edit in Module:Flex columns that caused it. Here's the diff. Purging Portal:Pies now restores it back to normal. Thank you for the heads up!    — The Transhumanist   21:57, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
@The Transhumanist: Thanks very much for your prompt response regarding the matter! North America1000 23:42, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Halloween cheer!

Portals WikiProject update #021, 24 Oct 2018

Portals have passed the 4,000 mark.

More new portals...

Here's a list of portals created since the last issue

List of new portals

Please inspect these portals, report problems or suggest improvements at WT:WPPORTD, or develop them further (see below). Thank you.

What's next?

There is still lots to do...

There are many subject gaps that need to be filled. This can be done by creating new portals, or by adding Selected article sections to existing portals. To create a new portal, simply place {{subst:Basic portal start page}} on an empty portal page, and click "Preview". If the portal is complete, click "Save". After you try it, come share your experience and excitement at WT:WPPORTD.

Each new portal is just a starting point. Each portal of the new design can be further developed by:

  • refining the search parameters to improve the results displayed in the Did you know and In the news sections.
  • adding more specific Selected articles sections, like Selected biographies.
  • inserting a Recognized content section.
  • adding more pictures to the image slideshow.
  • placing a panoramic picture at the top of the intro section (especially for geographic portals).

Besides the new portals, there are still about 1200 portals of the old design that need to be converted to the new design.

Many portals need to be de-orphaned, by placing links to them (in the See also section of the corresponding root articles, at the bottom of the corresponding navigation footer templates, and on the corresponding category pages).

Many of the new portals still need to be listed at Portal:Contents/Portals.

Bugs keep popping up in portals. These need to be tracked down and reported at WT:WPPORTD.

Tools are needed to make developing and maintaining portals quicker and easier.

Dreaming up new features and capabilities. Innovation needs to continue, to design the portal of tomorrow, and the portal development-maintenance-system of the future. Automation!

So, if you find yourself with a little (or a lot) of free time, pick an area (or more) above and...

...dive in!    — The Transhumanist   07:05, 25 October 2018 (UTC)