User talk:Billinghurst/Archives/2017

Latest comment: 7 years ago by Billinghurst in topic A request

Happy New Year, Billinghurst

 

January 2017

  Welcome to Wikipedia. Please do not remove Articles for deletion notices from articles, or remove other people's comments in Articles for deletion debates, as you did with President of Australia. Otherwise, it may be difficult to create consensus. If you oppose the deletion of an article, please comment at the respective page instead. Thank you. - CHAMPION (talk) (contributions) (logs) 03:14, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

@Champion: Don't be a chump. — billinghurst sDrewth 03:15, 8 January 2017 (UTC)
Please stop with the personal attacks, I have explicitly stated that the discussion is still in progress and if you have something to comment, do it at RfD, it is not appropriate to remove deletion tags. - CHAMPION (talk) (contributions) (logs) 03:17, 8 January 2017 (UTC)
It is questionable that you used the undo to remove the RfD tag without closing the debate, when you did do it, you used the undo feature again without providing an adequate edit summary, also, I don't think it was appropriate for it to be closed at that time when there was relatively little input. Also, again, please stop with the personal attacks. - CHAMPION (talk) (contributions) (logs) 03:22, 8 January 2017 (UTC)
(ec) @Champion: That was not a personal attack, that was a reflection on your actions. As an administrator here I have already closed the discussion with a decision. I believe that I am entitled to do that without you reverting my edits, and leaving facile templated commentary here. — billinghurst sDrewth 03:24, 8 January 2017 (UTC)
WP:PA states that Insulting or disparaging an editor is a personal attack regardless of the manner in which it is done. You may not have taken it that way, but I certainly did, I may have to bring this to ANI, at least this requires the intervention of another editor. - CHAMPION (talk) (contributions) (logs) 03:29, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

  There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. - CHAMPION (talk) (contributions) (logs) 03:41, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

You do as you think that you need to do, though I don't see how you can relate my decision to close, requiring an intervention of another editor. Such little min-threats are just as unnice as use of facile templates.

If you didn't like the decision to close, then you should have brought that to me as a conversation. Instead, you were quick onto the revert button, and the "add a facile message" template, and slow on the conversation. In my opinion any editor who is so quick to use those buttons without conversation is doing others a disservice, and is not respectful of their edits. If you want to give as you seemingly do, then you can take a little reflection, especially when you are here on my talk page seemingly picking a fight, morphing the conversation as you have explored a little more.— billinghurst sDrewth 03:50, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

Had you explained in the initial edit summary that you were closing it, I would have just left you a message, instead, you used a potentially ambiguous and arguable obscure edit summary which I thought was a mistake, you did not explicitly say that, the reason that I brought this to ANI is that I don't want to further continue with this argument and I feel like it is not going anywhere if it stays here. Thanks. - CHAMPION (talk) (contributions) (logs) 07:36, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

Need more inputs

Can you please provide your input on discussion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nimisha Mehta? Coderzombie (talk) 08:15, 8 January 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Wikidata/2017 State of affairs

FYI I reverted your edits to this fully-protected page. Since the content and functionality of this page is under dispute, it would be best to get consensus on the talk page first prior to making substantiate edits, especially if those edits could be seen as advancing one side of the dispute or the other. Grondemar 02:41, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

@Grondemar: I disagree that they were substantive edits that needed reverting. We are on a project subpage that had specifically been set up for collating points. I am an experienced user and these factual points added were neutral in commentary and tone. AND if they were reverted, where they were non-inflammatory and reasonably accurate statements then the courtesy of adding them to the talk page would have been more useful. Your role as a fellow administrator is not to play policeman in such a regard with those statements. I suggest to you that if you had wanted the status quo that the better way would have been to ask me to have self-reverted and have asked me to add them to the talk page.
It is highly inappropriate to use your admin tools to edit through full protection in this way and Grondemar was correct to revert it. From the policy: Pages that are protected because of content disputes should not be edited except to make changes which are uncontroversial or for which there is clear consensus. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:10, 13 January 2017 (UTC)
Correct, and I believe that they are uncontroversial — factual statements of current use with examples — especially with my crosswiki and sister experience. I And I stand by my statement that I could have been gently asked me to undo in this circumstance. Niceness costs nothing. Since when do I come in all guns blazing? — billinghurst sDrewth 11:59, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 17 January 2017

Building toward better recruitment and retention
A close look at the history of approving administrators on English Wikipedia, and a roundup of news
The wiki environment can appear deceptively uniform, but it masks strikingly different editorial experiences
The latest media reports
Twelve articles, thirteen lists and twelve pictures were promoted
Various minor developments
If you're reading this, you escaped 2016 alive
Data sets now available on Commons, wishes to be worked on in 2017, and a recap of the Wikimedia Developer Summit
And several other research papers reviewed and summarized

James Beal (reformer)

This article is now there, and most recently beefed up with an academic reference. It would not be hard to add to the pamphlets, I reckon. Charles Matthews (talk) 11:56, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter - February 2017

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2017). This first issue is being sent out to all administrators, if you wish to keep receiving it please subscribe. Your feedback is welcomed.

  Administrator changes

  NinjaRobotPirateSchwede66K6kaEaldgythFerretCyberpower678Mz7PrimefacDodger67
  BriangottsJeremyABU Rob13

  Guideline and policy news

  Technical news

  • When performing some administrative actions the reason field briefly gave suggestions as text was typed. This change has since been reverted so that issues with the implementation can be addressed. (T34950)
  • Following the latest RfC concluding that Pending Changes 2 should not be used on the English Wikipedia, an RfC closed with consensus to remove the options for using it from the page protection interface, a change which has now been made. (T156448)
  • The Foundation has announced a new community health initiative to combat harassment. This should bring numerous improvements to tools for admins and CheckUsers in 2017.

  Arbitration

  Obituaries

  • JohnCD (John Cameron Deas) passed away on 30 December 2016. John began editing Wikipedia seriously during 2007 and became an administrator in November 2009.

13:37, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 6 February 2017

The two statements prompt extensive community discussion; plus, our updates on recent ArbCom decisions
Undisclosed paid editing by a financial broker mired in scandal spans years, impacting Wikipedia's editors and readers
Foundation's latest foray into political waters, and grants funding structured data and anti-harassment measures, met with enthusiasm and concern
Several developments in the $2.5 million strategic planning process explored, and a team within the software production department is sidelined
Our second interview with the productive WikiProject Birds crew
Veteran editing workshop leader responds to a previous Signpost op-ed
Wikipedia's response to Trump inauguration and a fruitful, public "edit war" lead our media updates
Plus the latest scripts, bots, and tech news
Three weeks of the most popular Wikipedia articles
Twenty-eight articles, seven lists, two topics and four pictures were promoted
Women's marches on seven continents attracted strong Wikipedia engagement; Media luminaries and a presidential candidate joined WMF boss Katherine Maher at a New York gathering

Please help me as new user to submit move request

Please reply on my page, I will provide more details. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Хмаринка (talkcontribs) 08:04, 11 February 2017 (UTC)

Imperium Galactica modding tools

Can you please tell me, why do you keep removing my links from both the hungarian and english pages of Imperium Galactica? If the site imperiumgalactica2.hu (also an unofficial site) can be there with my 1.14 patch, then why the original source of the modding tools and the patches cannot? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.21.161.21 (talk) 10:56, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Can you please tell me why you keep adding them after they have been removed? Wikipedia:External links and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest should be a clear indication of the problem. This is an encyclopaedia, not a directory listing for fan pages or mod tools. If you see other links that are outside the scope, then please feel free to remove them. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:05, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
If the "encyclopaedia" can contain text about my patches (quoting from the hungarian article of IG2: "Az interneten fellelhető még egy v1.14 patch is, ami egy nem hivatalos rajongói frissítés. Ez minden korábbi gyári és nem hivatalos frissítést tartalmaz a további finomításokon felül - illetve ez lokalizációtól függetlenül is lefut/működik.") then why the link cannot be there? As for removing imperiumgalactica2.hu, why should i? It's not disturbing me. I just told you, that you let that fansite be there and deleted mine. And as for "fansites", countless of Wiki articles about old games, contains links to fansites. For example MobyGames is not an official site for the IG series and their link is still there in the article of IG2. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.21.161.21 (talk) 11:36, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
If you think that my removal is unwarranted then please address it to the local village pump(s), and seek their advice on the addition. Please do not just keep adding a link, when it is reverted; that is not a winning battle. Be sure to mention your vested interest in the addition.

The guidance is clear on addition of such links, and you have no real argument to how your link addition should be overriding the guidance. That there is other incorrect linking around the place is not a green light for continuing the practice, it is an indication of work to do to tidy it up. And as I said, feel free to remove any link outside of the guidance, it is not my crusade. That said your addition of your link outside of guidance I will keep cleaning up, and will look to take through the blacklist practice where you add it outside of the community's consensus process. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:57, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

So, removing other "fansites" are not your crusade, but removing mine is? It's very interesting. I fail to see, why i deserve your undivided attention. As for continuing reverting your reverts, don't be afraid; i'm not that childlish. If you are happy if you can remove one particular site from the external links, then be happy with it. Just FYI, i'm done more for these two games and their communities than MobyGames. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.21.161.21 (talk) 12:29, 9 February 2017 (UTC)
Oh, i've figured it out. It's not the "fansite" thing, it's the primary content of the fansite. You are a microsoft fan and you dislike the site itself. How couldn't i notice it earlier? Otherwise you would remove everything which is aganist your guidance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.21.161.132 (talk) 12:59, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
Mate, you hang in there with whatever fantasy you enjoy. Whatever! — billinghurst sDrewth 13:16, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
I may be wrong, but then what is the explanation of you removing only my site and leave the others, saying it's not your crusade? We've never met, so it cannot be personal, can be? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.21.161.65 (talk) 10:44, 11 February 2017 (UTC)
And what is the explanation of you never answering, when i ask, why do you remove only my site? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.21.161.221 (talk) 10:08, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

OrphanReferenceFixer: Help on reversion

Hi there! I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. Recently, you reverted my fix to Comparison of smartphones.

If you did this because the references should be removed from the article, you have misunderstood the situation. Most likely, the article originally contained both <ref name="foo">...</ref> and one or more <ref name="foo"/> referring to it. Someone then removed the <ref name="foo">...</ref> but left the <ref name="foo"/>, which results in a big red error in the article. I replaced one of the remaining <ref name="foo"/> with a copy of the <ref name="foo">...</ref>; I did not re-insert the reference to where it was deleted, I just replaced one of the remaining instances. What you need to do to fix it is to make sure you remove all instances of the named reference so as to not leave any big red error.

If you reverted because I made an actual mistake, please be sure to also correct any reference errors in the page so I won't come back and make the same mistake again. Also, please post an error report at User talk:AnomieBOT so my operator can fix me! If the error is so urgent that I need to be stopped, also post a message at User:AnomieBOT/shutoff/OrphanReferenceFixer. Thanks! AnomieBOT 18:12, 20 February 2017 (UTC) If you do not wish to receive this message in the future, add {{bots|optout=AnomieBOT-OrphanReferenceFixer}} to your talk page.

The Signpost: 27 February 2017

The Signpost's poll suggests we should take a cautious approach to the Newsletter Extension, under development; and our RSS feed is functional once again
This month's edition focuses on research about the role of Wikipedia in education
Demonstrations of developers' experiments and works in progress
Is the Daily Mail fake news and your media roundup
A selection of CC0 images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
An overview of English Wikipedia's peer review process
Increased WMF spending every year is not sustainable
Fifteen articles, two lists, and six pictures were promoted
They may not mix in life, but they do in popularity
Republished from the Wikimedia blog

File:Drag bike.jpg

Please explain your actions. Sincerely, USS New Jersey (talk) 11:43, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Already done. It wouldn't stand a chance in a deletion debate. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:44, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
I think you are wrong. There is a bot which places the Template:Author assumed at old uploads. Why should the image not be from User:Motorhead?--USS New Jersey (talk) 11:49, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
Why is my filemove different to previous ones (File:2spark plug viewers.jpg, File:Lysholm screw rotors.jpg)?--USS New Jersey (talk) 11:51, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
(ec) From my observations of DRs. If in a period of time it does survive, we can delete it then. Play it conservatively at this time. — billinghurst sDrewth 11:52, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
I'm regularly moving files to Commons with throwaway accounts during my worktime. Nobody ever had any objections, so I'm a little bit astonished now.--USS New Jersey (talk) 12:23, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Hardoy Butterfly Chair; Tripolina Chair

RaykN (talk) 15:10, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Dear Bilinghurst,

WEINBAUM has been greatly contributing to the transition of both the Butterfly and the Tripolina Chair into the 21st century. My controbutions are no promo stuff; without this company both pieces would have been forgotten. If you don't let me add content then please delete at least this link on the French company Airborne.

Thanks

RaykN

Deletion of HDClone

Hello Billinghurst,

someone proposed the deletion of my newly added article, while I prematurely removed the deletion tag. Appearently reverting it to the state with that tag didn't prevent the sudden deletion of my article and didn't restore the 7 day deadline. Therefore I would like to ask you to restore the article and the 7 day deadline or limit its visibily to my user accout until the content fulfills the standard requirements. Regarding the notablility I would like you to consider the following references to the subject of my article over the last 13 years (of course this bare list won't be the missing content of my article).

English:
http://windows7themes.net/en-us/4-steps-to-automatically-backup-your-system-hard-drive-with-hdclone
http://www.trishtech.com/2013/04/create-and-restore-hard-disk-images-with-free-hdclone
http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/18/windows/system-utils/hdclone-free-utility-to-clone-your-hard-disk.html
https://betanews.com/2011/01/31/tip-clone-or-rescue-your-hard-drive-with-hdclone-4-free-edition
http://files-recovery.blogspot.de/2010/10/hard-disk-copy-with-hdclone.html
http://www.techmixer.com/free-windows-disk-cloning-software-hdclone
http://webtrickz.com/download-hdclone-free-edition-37
http://www.jakeludington.com/downloads/20060224_hdclone.html

http://www.topbestalternatives.com/hdclone
http://download.cnet.com/HDClone-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10504284.html
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

German:
http://hdclone.pro.de
http://www.barrierefreie-webloesungen.de/blog/misc/131204_hdclone.php
http://www.computerwissen.de/hardware/pc-tipps/artikel/festplatten-tipp-mit-hdclone-ziehen-sie-kostenlos-und-komfortabel-auf-eine-groessere-festplatte-um.html
http://www.pc-magazin.de/ratgeber/hdclone-3-9-1027051-6628.html
http://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb-Downloads-Tuning-System-HDClone-Tipps-Anleitung-5845004.html
http://www.com-magazin.de/news/business-it/hdclone-kann-defragmentierung-on-the-fly-6805.html
http://www.computerwoche.de/a/hdclone-mehr-als-nur-platten-klonen,580481
http://www.tomshardware.de/miray-stellt-festplatten-tool-hdclone-in-version-3-vor,news-11363.html
http://www.chip.de/news/HDClone-2.0-Freeware-hilft-beim-Festplatten-Umzug_13717267.html

Books (international):
Hak Cipta, Langkah Cerdas Mengamankan dan Menyelamatkan Data pada Hard Disk, pages 136-139, isbn 9792914528
https://books.google.de/books?id=27NHwYCZv6EC
Antonio Luís Cardador Cabello, Testeo y verificación de equipos y periféricos microinformáticos, pages 168-176, isbn 8416173540
https://books.google.de/books?id=FLwPBAAAQBAJ
Todd G.Shipley, Art Bowker, Investigating Internet Crimes: An Introduction to Solving Crimes in Cyberspace, page 163, isbn 0124079296
https://books.google.de/books?id=yXCtAAAAQBAJ

Best regards! Jo (talk) 01:23, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

@Jo2root: Try taking it through draft: namespace, see Wikipedia:Draftsbillinghurst sDrewth
@Billinghurst: Hello Billinghurst, Thank you very much for that pointer. — Jo (talk) 19:06, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

ipblock-exempt

Hi, Billinghurst.

I added some established angolan users from Portuguese projects to the global-ipblock-exempt group some days ago, due to the global blocks related to the Angola-Facebook case.

However, as you may know, this permission does not allow users to bypass local range blocks, and it seems there are some of these blocks implemented locally over here. They are complaining that they are usually caught up in an autoblock not intended for them, from time to time (example) RadiX 12:12, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

So could you kindly add the above mentioned users to the local ipblock-exempt group?

Thanks. RadiX 12:12, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

  Done @RadiX:billinghurst sDrewth 06:44, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

Hardoy Butterfly Chair; Tripolina Chair

RaykN (talk) 15:10, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Hm, no reaction. Can you please anwer?

Wikipedia:Conflict of interest follow the guidance. Also to Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosurebillinghurst sDrewth 02:15, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

Draft:European Mentoring and Coaching Council AfC revert

Hi, Billinghurst, I am the editor that accepted the AfC of Draft:European Mentoring and Coaching Council which I see you have reverted today. I am at the end of my very first week reviewing AfC submissions, so would appreciate coaching in what I should have handled differently in this instance. I am presuming that your view is that it fails WP:NCORP? Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 13:12, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

My view is that it is not yet ready for main ns. Push back firmly on users to make a quality product, especially where their is a vested/conflict of interest (check for crosswiki editing for same article). For me a lead paragraph should need no referencing, it should just be a summation component for the article. So when I see 8 refs for a lead sentence and they are all press release type articles, my nose wrinkles with 'not ready', then when the ref list is longer the article itself that should indicate that something is out of kilter — billinghurst sDrewth 13:40, 25 April 2017 (UTC)
These sound like sound principles for producing a good article, but it seems they go beyond the AfC review process? Where in the flowchart would this page get declined? Wouldn't accept, but tag, be the way to go? Thanks :) Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 16:55, 25 April 2017 (UTC)
AfC is more than sheer binary decisions. When there is greyness in multiples of those factors never be afraid to push back and make them the contributor do the work, especially with the waft of CoI. To me multiple maybes = declined, or maybe more accurately "not yet". There is nothing urgent here, if it is notable, it will still be notable in a month. — billinghurst sDrewth 05:28, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

New page "European Mentoring and Coaching Council"

I have added many notability related citations and references. Could you look at the Draft page and see if it can be moved from "Draft" status? many thanks185.62.85.43 (talk) 03:16, 27 April 2017 (UTC) I just read and acted upon your suggestion above e.g. removing press release types of citations etc.185.62.85.43 (talk) 03:42, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

  Thanks for reverting vandalism on the Govt of India page FORCE RADICAL⭐ @ 06:42, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Deleted mention of higher education ranking

Hi! I had originally added the ranking to List of universities in the Netherlands after reading about it in both Forbes and Le Monde. I found it noteworthy and upon further inspection, there are lots of other newspapers reporting on it. Linking one of the articles instead would be an option but it doesn't seem very WP to cite a source that cites a source. I would like to see it re-added but want to make sure this doesn't inadvertently get flagged again. -- 178.3.13.186 (talk) 13:21, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

That it was mentioned would not make it a section of an article with its own sub-heading. I suggest you pop over to Wikipedia:Teahouse and seek guidance from that team. — billinghurst sDrewth 13:31, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 9 June 2017

Inviting new writers, editors, and ideas
WMF Board election results, and FDC elections begin
Two cases were closed from 19 February to 27 March.
Lead sentence metadata is out of control and a serious impediment to readability
Eighty-eight articles, forty-three lists, five topics and twenty-two pictures were promoted
Garfield is male, and other places Wikipedia made the news
...but are they real?; personality and attitudes to Wikipedia; large expert review experiment
Bots, scripts, tools, and changes from February to June 2017
Two weeks of film dominance: Baahubali and the Academy Awards

The Signpost: 23 June 2017

While the English Wikipedia community produces no new requests for adminhood in June, the Wikimedia Foundation makes changes to the Product and Technology departments.
The anatomy of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's chest area has been the talk of the month. But so have high-profile edits, hacked articles, and one particular newborn growing up.
Exploring sourcing issues in Wikimedia projects, a solution in Wikidata and fact mining, and a newsletter to continue the conversation.
22 featured articles, 17 featured lists, 7 featured pictures
Summer blockbusters and sports, Trump and world events.
A researcher applies Marxist critiques of political economy to investigate whether gamification, a culture of altruism, and other anti-corporatist influences on peer production can create a sustainable gift economy in a project like Wikipedia.
Search now can include sister projects; EpochFail

Speedy deletion nomination of Aubrey Graham

Hello Billinghurst,

I wanted to let you know that I just tagged Aubrey Graham for deletion, because it seems to be inappropriate for a variety of reasons. For more details please see the notice on the article.

If you feel that the article shouldn't be deleted and want more time to work on it, you can contest this deletion, but please don't remove the speedy deletion tag from the top.

You can leave a note on my talk page if you have questions.

DrStrauss talk 15:24, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 July 2017

The English Wikipedia sees its first new admin of the season, discord rocks Wikimedia France, some tweaks to the WMF reorg, and a new WMF annual plan mark this issue's community news.
Recently promoted articles, lists, and pictures.
A grab bag of alt-right speech, classical scholars, the dark web, elicited European tourism, $500,000 golden parachutes, forgery, the Great Firewall, net neutrality, nukes, paid editing, porn, and terrorism.
A closer look at the research that found that the 2013 Snowden revelations coincided with a significant drop of pageviews for privacy-sensitive Wikipedia articles
...and is there anything we can do to stop it? Opinions and examples from across the project.
An interesting mix of patterns and colors to brighten your day...
Enjoy the Parameters: The Infobox Game can be enjoyed by everyone, not just those interested in water buffalo breeds, volcanic hotspots or the mysterious heteroisoform, and some day just might spawn an important facet of the financial derivatives industry.
Popular interest in celebrities, blockbusters and an upcoming season of a popular television show drive traffic, with a smattering of world events, holidays and a Reddit storm around – surprise – free porn for the U.S. Congress.
Syntax highlighting, changes to Recent Changes, Wikidata on the enhance watchlist, accessible editing buttons and jQuery upgrade may break scripts.
The heat turns up on the 32 contestants who entered round three: 13 featured articles, 82 good articles, 167 DYKs, but we had to pick just eight of them to advance.

The Signpost: 5 August 2017

Wikimania in Montreal, lawsuit in Sweden, challenges in France
Local tourism gains +9% when Wikipedia articles are improved; significant improvements in predicting article quality with deep learning; recent editor behavior is a strong predictor of content quality
An interview with a project that is centered around comics.
Wikipedia and reliable sources of information continue to define each other
Plus plenty of sports, film, and television
The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Google must remove search results worldwide, dismissing concerns that this may impede freedom of expression for people outside of Canada or inspire other countries to censor speech.
Wikimedia contributors support each other's projects in many unexpected ways
Recently promoted articles, lists and pictures – with a very heavy one in the mix
The Architecture Committee adopts a new charter and name; and the latest in script, bot, and tech news
An elite squad of highly insightful editors can lead the way for other editors who may need to retrain their faces into forming a smile.

The Signpost: 6 September 2017

Please share your Wikimania 2017 experiences!
Some of the goings-on from Wikimania 2017.
Take your pick of the best of Wikipedia.
White supremacists v. anti-fascism groups, Mayweather v. McGregor, Moon v. Sun.
Wikipedia's medical and scientific content has come a long way since 2001. Here are some thoughts on how it may continue to evolve.
A list of recent research publications on various topics.
Plus the latest reports of vandalism and mistakes in Wikipedia.
WikiProject YouTube is a new project on both English and Simple English Wikipedia.
Syntax highlighting, failed login notifications, watchlist filters, and more.
Ships, typhoons, birds, and more!
They do the things you don't want to do (and sometimes things you don't want done).

Invitation to Admin confidence survey

Hello,

Beginning in September 2017, the Wikimedia Foundation Anti-harassment tool team will be conducting a survey to gauge how well tools, training, and information exists to assist English Wikipedia administrators in recognizing and mitigating things like sockpuppetry, vandalism, and harassment.

The survey should only take 5 minutes, and your individual response will not be made public. This survey will be integral for our team to determine how to better support administrators.

To take the survey sign up here and we will send you a link to the form.

We really appreciate your input!

Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.

For the Anti-harassment tools team, SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 20:56, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for signing up to to the Admin confidence survey. Could you please either enable your email in Preferences or send me your email address? Thanks, SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 23:09, 14 September 2017 (UTC)
@SPoore (WMF): Hi Sydney. Turned it on, and I don't even remember turning it off. <shrug> — billinghurst sDrewth 14:45, 15 September 2017 (UTC)
Thanks, sent. SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 14:50, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 25 September 2017

News from Wikimedia France, Wikimedia Macedonia, and Wikimedia Israel's; Autoconfirmed article creation trial begins
Also: Jeopedia, Dubaipedia, shaping science, fake quote reused by scholarly sources
The best that poultry has to offer
Plus the latest research publications.
Plus more tech news, and the latest scripts and bots
Complimenting this issue's Humour about chickens...
Finally we're seeing some initial successes, but the Wikimedia movement is still far from being environmentally sustainable.
Boxing, hurricanes, clowns, and more!
Newly featured birds, planes, and high achievers

Fix template:cite DNB

Need to fix template:cite DNB to take case statement to allow for supplement & 2ndsupp to allow for DNB00/DNB01/DNB12 refs. — billinghurst sDrewth 01:24, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 October 2017

The Wikimedia Foundation publishes the latest fundraising report, convenes over the close of the strategic plan discussion, and moves into a new space.
A variety of topics promoted.
If your name is Ralph, well sorry.
Advocates for sharing offline information gather to make content, software, hardware, and social decisions.
A chat with a developer of open source software which allows users to download web content for offline reading, and the future of offline access to Wikipedia.
Fighting fake news and plagiarism.
Wikimedia UK's partnerships and achievements working with GLAM institutions.
Readers interested in the the death of Hef, Puerto Rico, films and television.

OCTA Innovation

Hi, I am wondering if you could return this page or send me the page content, so I can fix the parts which caused the article deletion. I now that I should contact the user who deleted it, but User:Fuhghettaboutit is not active for over a week. I hope you could help me, thanks. --Semso98 (talk) 15:43, 23 October 2017 (UTC)

@Semso98: I think that the courtesy thing would for you to try there first, and, then if unsuccessful, ask someone else (happy to consider at that point). It doesn't seem urgent that trying and waiting is going to set the world back. — billinghurst sDrewth 09:36, 24 October 2017 (UTC)
@Billinghurst:, ok, thanks. I will try there first. --Semso98 (talk) 13:15, 24 October 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 November 2017

The first ever Wikidata conference was a con we wanted. Problematic paid editing while in a position of trust: not so much.
Arbitration matters from October and November.
A new advanced search interface; the Community Wishlist Survey is back.
Brianboulton talks about featured articles on his 100th promotion.
A novel approach to recruit members for your project!
Wikipedia seen as flawed but important; conservative think-tank fellow wants his say; volunteer in Madison wants to close the gender gap.
Readers intrigued by the Netflix show Stranger Things, and by sexual assault allegations.
War memorials, soldiers, extinct species, and devastating hurricanes are some of the most recently promoted featured content.
And other new research publications.
The entertainment value of Wikipedia.

ArbCom 2017 election voter message

Hello, Billinghurst. 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)

ANI Experiences survey

The Wikimedia Foundation Community health initiative (led by the Safety and Support and Anti-Harassment Tools team) is conducting a survey for en.wikipedia contributors on their experience and satisfaction level with the Administrator’s Noticeboard/Incidents. This survey will be integral to gathering information about how this noticeboard works - which problems it deals with well, and which problems it struggles with.

The survey should take 10-20 minutes to answer, and your individual responses will not be made public. The survey is delivered through Google Forms. The privacy policy for the survey describes how and when Wikimedia collects, uses, and shares the information we receive from survey participants and can be found here:

If you would like to take this survey, please sign up on this page, and a link for the survey will be mailed to you via Special:Emailuser.

Please be aware this survey will close Friday, Dec. 8 at 23:00 UTC.

Thank you on behalf of the Support & Safety and Anti-Harassment Tools Teams, Patrick Earley (WMF) talk 21:14, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

The Signpost: 18 December 2017

Global article creation contest/editathon exceeds expectations.
Astronaut is first to specifically contribute to Wikipedia from space.
Seventeen articles, twenty-nine lists, three pictures and one featured topic were promoted.
The media discuss online copyright issues, Wikipedia's coverage of the capital of Israel and creation of a "reasonably clean, honest and reliable" work on Earth and in space.
Evidence phase in Mister Wiki editors case is complete; the community is proposing remedies and the Arbitration committee is slated to make a decision by end of year. Meanwhile, voting has closed on 2017 elections.
Winners of the international photo competitions Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki Loves Monuments.
Looking back on a decade of contributions including over 1,000 images and over three dozen Featured Pictures, Charles shares his wildlife photography experience and tips.
And other recent research publications.
Including improved blocking tools, new user scripts, and the latest technical news.
We like our heroes and bad guys.
u-nye-loo-lay-doo? Dochvetlh vISoplaHbe’.

Happy First Edit Day

@Nat965: Seems doubtful to me that, but there you go. Might be ten years since someone created my user page. — billinghurst sDrewth 05:37, 23 December 2017 (UTC)
There have been a few edits xwiki since, and lots of admin actions. Fun, eh? — billinghurst sDrewth 05:38, 23 December 2017 (UTC)

A request

Hallo Billinghurst, a de-wiki User User talk:Tonialsa has problems with another user who know is trying to hound him arround differend language versions, so on en-wiki and commons. Please could you have a look at his disk. an protect the sides. Thx --Itti (talk) 20:07, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

  Donebillinghurst sDrewth 10:05, 29 December 2017 (UTC)