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August 2022

Books & Bytes – Issue 51

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 51, May – June 2022

New library partners
- SAGE Journals
- Elsevier ScienceDirect
- University of Chicago Press
- Information Processing Society of Japan
Feedback requested on this newsletter
1Lib1Ref May 2022

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --16:45, 1 August 2022 (UTC)

New Page Patrol newsletter August 2022

Hello SMcCandlish,

Backlog status

After the last newsletter (No.28, June 2022), the backlog declined another 1,000 to 13,000 in the last week of June. Then the July backlog drive began, during which 9,900 articles were reviewed and the backlog fell by 4,500 to just under 8,500 (these numbers illustrate how many new articles regularly flow into the queue). Thanks go to the coordinators Buidhe and Zippybonzo, as well as all the nearly 100 participants. Congratulations to Dr vulpes who led with 880 points. See this page for further details.

Unfortunately, most of the decline happened in the first half of the month, and the backlog has already risen to 9,600. Understandably, it seems many backlog drive participants are taking a break from reviewing and unfortunately, we are not even keeping up with the inflow let alone driving it lower. We need the other 600 reviewers to do more! Please try to do at least one a day.

Coordination: MB and Novem Linguae have taken on some of the coordination tasks. Please let them know if you are interested in helping out. MPGuy2824 will be handling recognition, and will be retroactively awarding the annual barnstars that have not been issued for a few years.

Open letter to the WMF: The Page Curation software needs urgent attention. There are dozens of bug fixes and enhancements that are stalled (listed at Suggested improvements). We have written a letter to be sent to the WMF and we encourage as many patrollers as possible to sign it here. We are also in negotiation with the Board of Trustees to press for assistance. Better software will make the active reviewers we have more productive.

TIP - Reviewing by subject: Reviewers who prefer to patrol new pages by their most familiar subjects can do so from the regularly updated sorted topic list.

New reviewers: The NPP School is being underused. The learning curve for NPP is quite steep, but a detailed and easy-to-read tutorial exists, and the Curation Tool's many features are fully described and illustrated on the updated page here.

Reminders

Consider staying informed on project issues by putting the project discussion page on your watchlist.
If you have noticed a user with a good understanding of Wikipedia notability and deletion, suggest they help the effort by placing {{subst:NPR invite}} on their talk page.
If you are no longer very active on Wikipedia or you no longer wish to be part of the New Page Reviewer user group, please consider asking any admin to remove you from the list. This will enable NPP to have a better overview of its performance and what improvements need to be made to the process and its software.
To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:25, 6 August 2022 (UTC)

Feedback request: Maths, science, and technology request for comment

Done

Your feedback is requested at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Biology on a "Maths, science, and technology" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
You were randomly selected to receive this invitation from the list of Feedback Request Service subscribers. If you'd like not to receive these messages any more, you can opt out at any time by removing your name.

Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) | Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. | Sent at 07:34, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Happy Seventeenth First Edit Day!

Hey, SMcCandlish. I'd like to wish you a wonderful First Edit Day on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee!
Have a great day! Chris Troutman (talk) 21:20, 11 August 2022 (UTC)

Question

Hello SMcCandlish. Do you happen to know a template or something similar with an image that can be used in an editor's talk page to wish them well for surgery? Cheers! Thinker78 (talk) 15:31, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

Not right off-hand. WP:WIKILOVE may be a place to start. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 00:11, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

Feedback request: Maths, science, and technology request for comment

Done

Your feedback is requested at Talk:International System of Units on a "Maths, science, and technology" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
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Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) | Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. | Sent at 19:30, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

Feedback request: Media, the arts, and architecture request for comment

Done

Your feedback is requested at Talk:List of best-selling music artists on a "Media, the arts, and architecture" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
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Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) | Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. | Sent at 03:31, 19 August 2022 (UTC)

August thanks

Thank you for improving articles in August! -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:30, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

Look at the church where I heard VOCES8. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:24, 30 August 2022 (UTC)

NPP message

Done

Hi SMcCandlish,

Invitation

For those who may have missed it in our last newsletter, here's a quick reminder to see the letter we have drafted, and if you support it, do please go ahead and sign it. If you already signed, thanks. Also, if you haven't noticed, the backlog has been trending up lately; all reviews are greatly appreciated.

To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:11, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

Feedback request: Wikipedia proposals request for comment

Done

Your feedback is requested at Wikipedia talk:Notability (sports) on a "Wikipedia proposals" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
You were randomly selected to receive this invitation from the list of Feedback Request Service subscribers. If you'd like not to receive these messages any more, you can opt out at any time by removing your name.

Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) | Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. | Sent at 18:30, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

Feedback on Vector (2022) conversation

Hello! As a member of WikiProject Usability, I wanted to draw your attention to a conversation currently underway on WP:VPR (see the beginning of the discussion) around adopting Vector 2022 as the new default skin.

The Web team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been working on Vector 2022 for the past three years, collaborating with the English Wikipedia community as well as other wikis to ensure that the skin performs better qualitatively and quantitatively for readers and communities than the previous Vector skin. The goal of the new skin is to create a more welcoming and easier to use experience for readers and editors across the wiki. For more details, see our new FAQ.

For the past couple of months, we have collected thoughts from the English Wikipedia community on what changes need to be made to the skin prior to it being considered ready for deployment. Our next step would be to start an RfC to assess whether the community considers Vedtor 2022 ready.

Prior to the beginning of the RfC, we wanted to draw your attention to the current conversation and encourage your feedback on the skin.

Our results from Vector 2022 at a glance

The sticky header makes it easier to access tools that editors use often. It decreases scrolling to the top of the page by 16%
The new table of contents makes it easier to navigate to different sections. Readers and editors jumped between sections 50% more than with the old table of contents
The new search bar is easier to find and makes it easier to find the correct search result from the list. This increased the amount of searches started by 30% on the wikis we tested on
The collapsible sidebar allows readers and editors to choose whether they want to see the main menu or not. Our testing shows that this allows people to better focus on their current task - reading with a collapsed menu, or editing with an open menu
The language switching menu makes it possible to switch languages without scrolling
The user menu collects all user links in a single place, making it easier to understand what each link does. In testing, 71% of surveyed editors reported positive experiences with the new menu

Thank you, OVasileva (WMF), SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 12:27, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Editing news 2022 #2

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

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)

Feedback request: Maths, science, and technology request for comment

Done

Your feedback is requested at Talk:BMW G 310 R on a "Maths, science, and technology" request for comment. Thank you for helping out!
You were randomly selected to receive this invitation from the list of Feedback Request Service subscribers. If you'd like not to receive these messages any more, you can opt out at any time by removing your name.

Message delivered to you with love by Yapperbot :) | Is this wrong? Contact my bot operator. | Sent at 02:30, 27 August 2022 (UTC)

Other discussions

Hey, do you remember that proposal we worked on clarify what is an appropriate lead image (prompted by the Opera folks plastering the image of a director across many opera articles instead of a poster/logo or something else that actually identifies the performance? It received two negative comments and then the discussion died. I was waiting for you to comment, but you were not that active for a while. It is archived here if you want to revive it.

On another issue, I opened this discussion after BMK berated me for changing a caption from "(2022)" to "The lighthouse in 2022", consistent with a million other articles (this was in a single infobox image). The discussion was entirely supportive of my position. Since BMK threatened to report me to an Admin if I messed with his captions again, could you put a clear summary of the consensus there.

Thirdly, I was reverted when making an infobox change compliant with WP:GEOLINK by someone making the argument that if an infobox has parameters, they should be used (e.g |city=Omaha and |stat=Nebraska instead of |city=Omaha, Nebraska). I tried to explain in an e/s that the GEOLINK supersedes a decades old infobox design, but got reverted again. I started this discussion, but no one has commented. Would you say something, or perhaps boldly add make my suggested change to MOS:LINK because it is so obvious what takes precedent. MB 00:49, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

On the first, we'll need a list of bad examples, probably, so people can see what the negative effect is. I would suggest starting it as a new thread, rather than unarchiving the old one. Probably at WT:MOSLEAD. Second: I think there's a discussion open about this at MoS right now. Yep, it's here: Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Captions#Infobox image dates. Third: I'll look into it. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 06:11, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

On #2, the discussion you linked is the one I started and linked above. That's where I'm look to "close" as commenting has stopped. MB 06:18, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

I commented anew in #2 and #3. On #3, the real problem is that the template should not have a separate |state=. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 16:10, 29 August 2022 (UTC)