User talk:Ham II/Archive 2023

Latest comment: 1 year ago by MediaWiki message delivery in topic The Signpost: 24 December 2023

The Signpost: 1 January 2023

Plus admin update and cool tools for the new year.
Sometimes you need to read more than just the headlines!
Interview of ComplexRational about their recent request for adminship.
Wikifunctions might drag it down.
Frustrations and successes.
Congratulations.
And other new research findings.
How Iranian press agencies help Wikipedia to reflect football in a better way.
You head into the featured content report. Amongst the features you see astronauts, both Gilbert and Sullivan, Ursula K. Le Guin's incredibly talented mother, and Billboard charts. It is pitch black, you are likely to be eaten by a grue.
It is mostly about football!
In which a couple sentences of text recontextualises an image.
Photographers, Sandy Hook, the shocking use of Nazi symbols in articles about Nazis, and "You wouldn't recognise a fact if it bit you in the ass".

The Signpost: 16 January 2023

It's not just a phase! Well, maybe it is.
Long-time contributors imprisoned for 32 and 8 years after "swaying public opinion" and "violating public morals".
UCoC draws nearer, alongside the rise of the machines, in mainspace this time.
Wikipedia's birthday, a cute dog, and nipplefruit.
The depths of Commons, at your fingertips. Or eyetips.
Debunking widely-told myths about New York's grandest and centralest railway station.
The economics of Wikipedia.
When notability conflicts with what it might be used for.
7,000,000-year Landmasses for Subduction discussions considered "too long".
Allow us to bring you back, back, back, to days of Wikifun rampant.
...and your ambigram. Also: Boring lava fields, birds of Tuvalu, and commelinid family names with etymologies.
War, sports, and all types of chaos.
The editor with five million edits, the death of Aaron Swartz, and rollback.

Exhibitions italicized?

Are you sure exhibitions are italicized? I remember asking that question somewhere but can't recall on which side the responses fell. Personally, I don't see a reason that they should be, they are a scheduled event and not a created work (such as books, statues, plays, etc.). Thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 11:03, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Just saw that there's an ongoing discussion at the WikiProject, I had missed that. Will read that now, thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 11:28, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
(edit conflict) @Randy Kryn: I'll keep a lookout for the place where you asked the question previously; I know I've been in the situation before of not being able to track down the previous time a recurrent question has been asked. This question's been on my mind since the FAC nomination for Leonardo's Portrait of a Musician, when there wasn't a Wikipedia guideline to refer to and I had to use the Association of Art Editors style guide. I wasn't aware of any other discussions of this before the latest one at WT:VAMOS, but now I know to look out for one. Italics for most art exhibitions feels right to me; an element of that (but not a major element) might be consistency between exhibition titles and titles of exhibition catalogues, which are of course books.
At Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Visual arts § Requesting guidance on formatting for exhibition titles I've kept the focus narrowly on art exhibitions rather than exhibitions as such, because I think many (perhaps most) of the latter wouldn't be in italics: Great Exhibition, Exposition Universelle (1889), World's Columbian Exposition and so on.
Have you come across "no italics for a scheduled event, italics for a created work" as a guideline anywhere? Because I see this as being more to do with the distinction between titles and names – a really tricky thing to define. Ultimately this may have to come down to looking at usage out in the wild. Ham II (talk) 11:42, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
May have been at the Help desk (I've only used it once or twice). Yes, I italicize exhibition catalogues when I run across them, those are books and fall easily within italic guidelines. A time-limited exhibition, nah, but that's my own opinion and I can't quote a guideline passage - seems to be a hole in the Wikipedia italicization rules and regs. Randy Kryn (talk) 11:47, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious
 
Eight years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:41, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 4 February 2023

Last issue's vow for "something to show for these efforts" revisited.
As well as the continued rise of the machines, and Amanda Keton's WMF departure.
Section 230 before the Supreme Court in two cases, with broad implications for the web.
Or Santos on Wikipedia?
WMF issues salvo in latest battles of the Posting Wars
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Isamaa party sponsor Parvel Pruunsild files claim in Tartu County Court against WMEE head Ivo Kruusamägi and Reform Party politicians.
English Wikipedia among most "global" and Thai Wikipedia's among most "Western", but non-Western works neglected overall.
And other new research publications.
An interview with those who pitch in together
Letting you find out about yourself (and others).
An exceptionally good period for featured articles.
Can we have a chat?

The Signpost: 20 February 2023

UCoC Enforcement Guidelines pass, Wikimedia Enterprise financials, GPTs gone wild, and a speedy deletion criterion removed.
Also: Russ Baker's BLP, the digital commons, the NSA, and more on Pakistan.
Gautam Adani and his companies possibly behind scheme featuring scores of socks, infiltration of articles for creation process.
GPT: friend or foe?
Your one-stop hooker's handbook.
But much else to be found.
Lovey-dovey stuff for Valentine's.
And maybe a side of AI.
Also: let's delete images of Muhammed! Let's delete portals!
Yesterday's controversies, reported on today.
A musical interlude.

Editing news 2023 #1

Read this in another languageSubscription 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

 
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)

The Signpost: 9 March 2023

A lack of transparency.
Using failed AI Galactica's worst mistakes to test a new AI.
Probable answers: No, no, maybe?
Seriously, even the chef has a major military history connection.
And other new research publications.
Wikizine, Wikipedia Zero, Single User Login, and Wales allegedly editing his girlfriend's article.

The Signpost: 20 March 2023

Be part of the Wikimania 2023 program!
One year in: volunteering, science, art, and candlelight.
Everything is broken, again.
Seriously, it's only a fortnight's worth!
An interview with Wikipedia's newest admin.
All the pop culture that's fit to print, with a sprinkling of cocaine (bear).

Contribution wasn't that great

One of your recent contributions to Rastafarianism didn't seem very helpful, so I just removed it. 64.53.124.104 (talk) 13:05, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

The record shows that I've never edited the page Rastafari nor the redirect Rastarianism. Ham II (talk) 13:32, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 03 April 2023

Errata regretted.
Skynet believed to be in violation of the new Universal Code of Conduct.
Taking the phrase "gaming the system" to the next level.
Desysop case request still in accept/decline phase.
Thou gildest e'en the Signpost's trade.
And a dataset of article revisions to provide a corpus for promotional content.
A retrospective of the best and worst pranks.
Do important banks sock? Maybe – but don't grab your money and run just yet!

The Signpost: 26 April 2023

Plus: Wikipedians get own Mastodon account, and Wikiprojects move to uniform quality assessment.
Covering Russia, Poland, the Vatican, the U.S., and the "perilously thin" boundary between real life and Wikipedia.
The prolific editor, former Arbitration Committee member and co-founder of Wikimedia New York City died in April.
No news is good news, and this isn't no news.
The problem we haven't solved.
Can Wikipedia help keep AI agents honest?
In this article, we will look at The Signpost statistics. More precisely: Signpost article statistics by year, TOP 20 titles of Signpost articles, TOP 20 article authors, and the home wikis of article authors.
First of a two part series summarising the priorities for the Wikimedia Foundation's next fiscal year (July 2022–June 2023) including staffing, budget and other changes, and how to provide your feedback.
And somehow made it more readable than when it's not rhyming.
2011 and on.
The Selfish Hatnote, the Disambiguation Singularity, and other information-theoretic conundra of encyclopedic note.
Wrestling bumps world-changing technology from the #1 spot, imagine that.

The Signpost: 8 May 2023

... and at WP:Mastodon.
Fake fines, false alarms and faux headlines!
And other new research publications.
...Layout lovers will hate this featured content's title.
There will likely be more to say next issue.
The second article in a series describing the priorities and work of the Wikimedia Foundation. The article invites Wikimedians to collaborate with the Foundation.
First national-level conference in the Indian subcontinent in seven years.

The Signpost: 22 May 2023

... and a referendum on Jimmy Wales' traditional role as a final court of appeal in arbitration policy.
Opposing scholars on ArbCom case.
Includes stronger sourcing restriction, and a nod to the UCoC.
And other new research results.
Bird is the word for featured pictures.
Celebs and Bollywood film dominated reader interest, as usual, but with a new persistent presence on the lists of a certain AI.
An online conference with 12 distributed trans-local in-person meetup "Nodes" on 5 continents.

The Signpost: 5 June 2023

Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee Building Committee Commences Command By Convening.
Also: Goog gets delist ask for en-wp yt-dl ar-ticle, wacky football fails.
Now is not this ridiculous, and is not this preposterous? A thorough-paced absurdity - explain it if you can.
Plus mortalities, and movies about mermaids.

David TC Davies

Hi, I've moved the talk page back to Talk:David TC Davies as, given the previous moves between the two versions, there should be a discussion before another move, and also you only moved the talk page, leaving the article and talk page unsynchronised. To open a move discussion see WP:RM. DuncanHill (talk) 20:58, 13 June 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 June 2023

Problems with emergency emails sent to WMF.
... and an AI writer explains why he just bought a paper encyc.
Poetry still present.
And other new research findings.

Hello, Ham II,

You tagged this page for a speedy rename but it is an empty redirect category. I think you could just move it if you wanted since no articles need to be recategorized. I think you'd end up have two category redirects though. But typically category redirects aren't brought to the speedy rename section of CFD. Liz Read! Talk! 01:25, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

Thank you, Liz; I hadn't thought of that. I don't see "Move" on my dropdown lists of "Tools" at Category:Paintings in the collection of the National Museum, Krakow, though – is that because I've added {{cfr-speedy}} to the page? I suppose I could create Category:Paintings in the National Museum, Krakow manually and take Category:Paintings in the collection of the National Museum, Krakow off the speedy renaming nomination, if both are going to end up existing anyway. Ham II (talk) 07:53, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

Mayfair

I've had a massive walk around Mayfair recently and added quite a few buildings on commons. Do let me know if you have any future requests! No Swan So Fine (talk) 22:24, 25 June 2023 (UTC)

@No Swan So Fine: Could I tempt you with any more public artworks? It's wonderful to have a decent photo of the Eagle Squadrons Memorial from the front now; thank you! High on my wish list would be the latest changes to the exterior of the National Portrait Gallery – the new position for Sir Henry Irving's statue, the new main entrance onto Charing Cross Road, and the bronze doors of that entrance by Tracey Emin... Ham II (talk) 21:05, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 3 July 2023

... and a new Elections Committee.
A few editors who fought many times to keep advertisements out.
Are you now, or have you ever been, a Wikipedia editor?
In which featured pictures have a pleasing orange/blue colour scheme for some reason.
Don't worry, they are mostly harmless.
Mission to ensure stability in conflict-ridden area.

Albertopolis madness

Thought you might like these I saw yesterday... I almost went mad photographing them thinking they were repeating, then I read brilliant blog post. No Swan So Fine (talk) 10:17, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

@No Swan So Fine: Thank you – now added to the list of public art in Kensington! Did you notice whether these have materialised? Ham II (talk) 15:50, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 17 July 2023

Gitz666 unglocked, Wikimania scholarships given and a new admin anointed.
Ruwiki on the Ruinternet, Rauwerda on TEDx, and Jimbo on Fridman.
Philadelphians and Tanzanians say goodbye.
The collaboration process for the 2023 English fundraising campaign is kicking off now, right from the start of the fiscal year.
Wikidata queries investigate nepo babies.
A summary of various tools designed over the years.
And various other research on large language models and Wikipedia.
Bold move intended to "get some variety" into Wikipedia arguments.
The annual report that tries to understand the Signpost through data, written in 2020, which never saw the light of day until now.
In which choices have been made™.
Sex, drugs and violence, English, math and science.

The Signpost: 1 August 2023

And French gov't proposes legislation to slam Wikipedia, others.
Or just another brouhaha?
Hot damn, it's damned hot!
Three editors have departed.
You don't really want to do this stuff by yourself, do you?
A serious visual investigation.
A compilation of over 3M citations.
Possible solutions after being re-harassed.
Due to unfortunate events, this issue is published as is, in its unfinished state.
Oppenheimer, Barbie, and a couple other scandals.

The Signpost: 15 August 2023

Jimbo promises more transparency, Wikimania in Singapore, move away from Tides still planned, and Wikifunctions rolls out.
Harsh words from problematic fave Glenn Greenwald.
Rigorous Review of Content for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Wikipedia.
Damn kids need to get off our lawn and onto RfA.
Because one gets some secondary skills when one has 645 featured pictures.
The innards of the Signpost received a major overhaul in March/April 2019. Here's how we reduced behind-the-scenes busywork and improved writers resources.
For whom does the Creative Commons enforcement clause toll?
An announcement of 335,000 new images on Wikimedia Commons.
Some improvement on last week.
Case request cited misuse of tools by administrator who last used tools in 1661.
Barbenheimer, Pee-Wee Herman and the Women's World Cup.

The Signpost: 31 August 2023

News for the editoriat. Stuff that matters.
Wikipedia really comes into its own, editorially and artistically.
"Poli", which means "many", and "tics", which means "under-the-table Wikipedia article whitewashing campaigns".
And other recent research publications.
The good, the bad, and the nonsense.
A message from the Counter-Fun Unit.
I just poured HOT GRITS down my pants ohh yeah
 

Thanks for uploading File:National Gallery 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) 17:25, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 16 September 2023

Plus: Africa news, funding report, U4C draft, roads fork and another ChatGPT block.
Plus a new judge, an "unimportant" record, and staying in the swim!
A Wikipedian and a friend.
Non-flammable, BPA-free, and really whips the llama's ass.
Covering all of August. Pretty much.
The Signpost brings you the latest from the source.
Sports, film and singers. We've got it all!

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Wiliam Midleton, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Thomas Myddelton.

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 06:08, 19 September 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the thank!

Thanks for the thank on the Roman lettering article! Assembling the images was great fun, a really satisfying trip through history. (I'm incredibly grateful to Wikimedia Commons categorisers who've categorised plaques by date-it made it much more practical to find good images.) DYK nominations on two people who worked in the style, Percy Delf Smith and William Sharpington are in the pipeline, and a 5x expansion to Michael Renton's is on the cards also. One thing I'm thinking about is articles where it would be appropriate to add a backlink from them to it. Blythwood (talk) 01:52, 21 September 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 3 October 2023

Finances during Tides Foundation management of the endowment are shown for the first time.
Plus Harvard, Yale, Lords and Commons, partners and trolls!
And other new research publications
The first issue to feature two poetry article
Material must be written with the greatest care and attention; the level of detail and commentary regarding the antlers of living persons is to be kept to a minimum.
Tamzin reflects on the hunt.
Taylor Swift with an NFL tight end and Lauren Boebert with a Democrat?

The Signpost: 23 October 2023

Long time passing
Also: High fives, Wikipedia as a guide for counterfeiters and crossword makers, and Iskander at the UN.
The benefits of research.
These titles never make much sense even at the best of times, so why not be random?
They are still fighting.
Sounds good!
"Cite altered state" to join the distinguished ranks of CS1 templates

The persuit of pointless articles...

Found on another ramble! Lovely piece. [1] [2] No Swan So Fine (talk) 13:22, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Nice find! I've added it to List of public art in Camden § Swiss Cottage now. Looks as if Ben Whitworth, The Sculpture of Leon Underwood (2000) and Simon Martin et al. Leon Underwood: Figure and Rhythm (2015) might be possible sources to cite, but until I get hold of copies of either I've used the Sotheby's listing for the maquette. Ham II (talk) 07:40, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 6 November 2023

"Is this an ArbCom case request or an M. Night Shyamalan movie?"
Plus Gaza bias, Speaker Johnson, Maher, the music of websites, and antisemitism.
And three new admins!
You should learn some of our rules!
The winner is...
Do you ever wonder where Wikipedia articles come from?
And other new research findings.
Only literally.
A systematic approach.
Plus Kollywood, Killers of the Flower Moon, and ongoing war.

The Signpost: 20 November 2023

Comic-con, Media summit, and a classic!
Plus: Sockpuppet investigators asking for help.
Or if it's Indian sport or cinema.
And other new research findings.
Scholarship applications for Wikimania 2024 are now open!

ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. 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.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:21, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 4 December 2023

Just as his term was ending!
Plus Apple Pay, fiction, registration, expulsion, and elimination!
An analysis of a literary mystery.
Continuing years of efforts to improve free-to-read access.
"I think we ought to read only the kind of comics that wound or stab us. If the comic we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for?" — Franz Kafka
And so are you.
Quite literally, and other fascinating featured articles, pictures and lists
If you don't fancy the sport that occupies over 25% of the slots in these lists, there's always movies, celebrities, and political follies to fall back on – or an unusual fired-for-the-weekend CEO.
This page in a nutshell: Whether or not someone has denied unsavory allegations — though such a denial may not merit being given equal weight in an article — a worthless shitpost should still be included.

Seasons Greetings!

thanks daddy'@Dr. Blofeld 41.116.122.213 (talk) 20:08, 22 December 2023 (UTC)

Season's Greetings

  Season's Greetings
Wishing everybody a Happy Holiday Season, and all best wishes for the New Year! The Nativity scene on the Pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery by Nicola Pisano is my Wiki-Christmas card to all for this year. Johnbod (talk) 02:59, 24 December 2023 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 December 2023

Wikipedia article histories are public records that can be easily examined, so unlike other websites, we can answer this question thoroughly.
Not the best of times for Wikipedians across the world, but there are still glimpses of hope...
Forky on forky on forky, plus a strange donation scheme and other interesting bits of news.
Wiki goes dark and adopts Palestine flag logo; intellectual property rumblings from the bowels of the law.
Wikimedia Russia closes after founder is declared a "foreign agent".
No more must Wikipedia always be a lightbulb in the dark — except metaphorically of course.
And other new research publications.
Peace on earth, goodwill to all!
the dilution makes it stronger.
The Signpost Crossword is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game that takes place in space-themed settings where players are colorful, armless cartoon astronauts.
Bollywood, Hollywood, and both kinds of football to close out December.
The debugging will continue until performance improves.
Heartwarming — MUST READ — You Won't BELIEVE #4!!!!!
Winner receives a special prize!
Edit summary: "Only need this page for about 30 minutes to demonstrate to a friend how easy it is to create a Wikipedia page. Then it will be deleted."