The Signpost: 20 February 2018

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Sweden selected for Wikimania 2019; research report on shaping the future; a scarcity of RfAs.
There might be good things about an edit war.
Editor in self-imposed exile and infobox wars a thorn in the side of arbitration committee.
The Superbowl, the Winter Olympics, death, and accusations of unspeakable things.
An eclectic mix of promotions.
And other recent tech news.
Stubs get a lot of pageviews.

WikiCup 2018 March newsletter

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And so ends the first round of the competition, with 4 points required to qualify for round 2. With 53 contestants qualifying, the groups for round 2 are slightly smaller than usual, with the two leaders from each group due to qualify for round 3 as well as the top sixteen remaining users.

Our top scorers in round 1 were:

  •   Aoba47 led the field with a featured article, 8 good articles and 42 GARs, giving a total of 666 points.
  •   FrB.TG , a WikiCup newcomer, came next with 600 points, gained from a featured article and masses of bonus points.
  •   Ssven2, another WikiCup newcomer, was in third place with 403 points, garnered from a featured article, a featured list, a good article and twelve GARs.
  •   Ceranthor,   Numerounovedant,   Carbrera,   Farang Rak Tham and   Cartoon network freak all had over 200 points, but like all the other contestants, now have to start again from scratch. A good achievement was the 193 GARs performed by WikiCup contestants, comparing very favourably with the 54 GAs they achieved.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 1 but before the start of round 2 can be claimed in round 2. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews.

If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Cwmhiraeth (talk) and Vanamonde (talk) 15:27, 2 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

<font> tags in your signature

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BTW your signature as a <font> tag. Those will be deprecated soon, so you may want to update it to a <span> tag instead. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 12:23, 27 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, Pi (Talk to me!) 16:19, 27 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Signpost issue 4 – 29 March 2018

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Is The Signpost on its last legs?
Wikimedia events, group recognition, and individual appointments are ongoing.
Arbcom considers new discretionary sanctions for infoboxes and an extension of 1RR.
Diplomats join Wikipedia for International Women's Day, the perfect "Human", how fringe theories are sustained, and perennial plagiarism from our pages.
Wakanda still fascinates; the Oscars happened; Winter Olympics come to a close; and International Women's Day gets over a million page views.
A plethora of content.
Reviewing a browser skin providing equal emphasis on both content and editing tools simultaneously.
Retrospective on article creation trial.
Nostalgia and trips down Memory Lane.

have you deleted my article?

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I am trying to publish an educational organization page and I am having some issue. How can I publish it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elio Mondello Anza (talkcontribs) 21:30, 29 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Your BRFA

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Hello, your BRFA (Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/The Little Pixie's Friend) has been approved for trial. — xaosflux Talk 17:16, 31 March 2018 (UTC)Reply

Survey Invite

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I'm working on a study of political motivations and how they affect editing. I'd like to ask you to take a survey. The survey should take no more than 1-2 minutes. Your survey responses will be kept private. Our project is documented at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikipedia_%2B_Politics.

Survey Link: http://uchicago.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9S3JByWf57fXEkR?Q_DL=56np5HpEZWkMlr7_9S3JByWf57fXEkR_MLRP_cP8Ck2BvauJFVwV&Q_CHL=gl

I am asking you to participate in this study because you are a frequent editor of pages on Wikipedia that are of political interest. We would like to learn about your experiences in dealing with editors of different political orientations.

Sincere thanks for your help! Porteclefs (talk) 23:13, 6 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

Proposed deletion of File:UK 2015-20 election opinion polls.png

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The file File:UK 2015-20 election opinion polls.png has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

Not used anywhere, not updated for years, not SVG, and we have better charts than this anyway.

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

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated files}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the file's talk page.

Please consider addressing the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated files}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and files for discussion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. One Of Seven Billion (talk) 07:53, 9 April 2018 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 26 April 2018

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Following Kudpung's op-ed "Death knell sounding for The Signpost?" in the 29 March issue, user comments encouraged a burst of enthusiasm to keep the newspaper in print.
How to revive and evolve The Signpost? Big blue-sky proposals and small concrete proposals from the community and from two regular Signpost contributors.
Finally a free image Kim Jong-un. WMF wins legal battle. Stephen Hawking death tops all Wikipedia hits.
Internet companies use Wikipedia to police truth; Citogenesis proven yet again; early birthday greetings; and trains
A recent Community Health Initiative survey found only 27% of respondents are happy with the way reports of conflicts between Editors are handled on the Administrators' Incident Noticeboard (ANI).
New major editing policy starting immediately: creation of articles in mainspace is to be limited to users with confirmed accounts
The standards have been raised for sources used in judging the notability of nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
Wikipedia's myth of the clean Wehrmacht and what you can do about it. Or, how not to be one of "the worst distributors of pro-Nazi perspectives and the Wehrmacht myth".
Can Wikipedia mobilize the same energy to fill other gaps in coverage?
What should we do about Portals? Keep them, delete them, or mark them as historical? Or should they be more closely connected with their WikiProject(s)?
Quiet month for the Arbitration Committee
Combat, weapons, monuments and personalities.
What we learned about reader motivation from a recent research study
You might not get all excersized about essays but they can be as fun as talk pages
The most popular articles from March 25 to April 14.
Plus the latest tech news and userscripts.
Material promoted from March 2 through April 20.
Honoring a day in military history, as well as peaceful borders

WikiCup 2018 May newsletter

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The second round of the 2018 WikiCup has now finished. Most contestants who advanced to the next round scored upwards of 100 points, but two with just 10 points managed to scrape through into round 3. Our top scorers in the last round were:

  •   Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with three featured articles
  •   Iazyges, with nine good articles and lots of bonus points
  •   Yashthepunisher, a first time contestant, with two featured lists
  •   SounderBruce, a finalist last year, with seventeen good topic articles
  •   Usernameunique, a first time contestant, with fourteen DYKs
  •   Muboshgu, a seasoned competitor, with three ITNs and
  •   Courcelles, another first time contestant, with twenty-seven GARs

So far contestants have achieved twelve featured articles between them and a splendid 124 good articles. Commendably, 326 GARs have been completed during the course of the 2018 WikiCup, so the backlog of articles awaiting GA review has been reduced as a result of contestants' activities. As we enter the third round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met; most of the GARs are fine, but a few have been a bit skimpy.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:10, 1 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

Reality-tv tagging Bot update

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Were you still working on this? I never saw the second bot approval request. WikiVirusC(talk) 12:34, 10 May 2018 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 24 May 2018

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A busy office with minimal staff.
Kudpung has some thoughts on the reasons for becalmed forums and the reluctance of candidates to (wo)man the rigging.
Thoughts on how looking for the truth on Wikipedia brings out unexpected things in the real world.
After a recent Village Pump discussion, the Signpost looks at WikiProject Portals.
A busy month for discussions on major topics.
Science, sportspeople, video games, and history feature heavily in the community's picks this month.
Has an attempt to prevent historical revisionism become a content battleground?
De-recognition of Brazil user groups; brute-force attack on Wikipedia; Wikimedia Conference 2018; and assorted other silly things.
And the burning question of the day, is the monkey selfie going to space with the rest of Wikipedia?
No surprises here as the summer movie season begins.
Improved mobile app, searching, citations, inline maps, voting, and more.
Editor SusunW delves into reasons why she has created hundreds of articles about women.
Too many women still don't know that Wikipedia is editable.
Down the rabbit hole into the realm of third-grade mind.
May 25 is National Wine Day in the United States.
The dark and twisted world of Wikipedia's most powerful media institution: The Signpost.

The Signpost: 29 June 2018

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A Wiki not so Simple, a mayor motivating an editathon, a Marshall Plan, and a Wikimania under a cloud of criticism
Further developments on New Page Review and Articles for Creation work sharing
Admins volunteer to be abused – or so it seems
So it shouldn't get credit for our work, either.
Major grants announced, a new milestone for Afrikaans Wikipedia, a new WMF technical engagement team, an effort to start up a new library, two new admins – or maybe three fewer depending on your math.
Several online battles are juxtaposed with stories about cooperation and good deeds, Arbcom hovering over it all; notwithstanding, a good action movie script is not necessarily found here.
Community discussions include style updates to project-wide icons and the main page, procedural questions on royal names and jettisoning unsuitable drafts, and deeper questions of compliance with European privacy laws and the perennial issue of shrinking admin corps.
Enjoy the superb content
British politics case enters workshop phase and German war effort closes workshop, goes to Arbcom for proposals.
Two celebrities hang themselves, and the FIFA World Cup is underway
An AI assistant comes to watchlists; better mobile compatibility; new bots, tools and scripts; and more
Colorful and moving.
WMF appeals to Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime, and Communications Ahmet Arslan to lift the block of all language versions of Wikipedia for over a year.
Studying ourselves: 'driven by a sense of mission' according to researchers.
In our next episode...
Some essays are funny, some are serious; some are just, well what exactly?
Revisiting an editor's warning to count our kidneys and keep the wolves at bay

WikiCup 2018 July newsletter

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The third round of the 2018 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it to the fourth round had at least 227 points. Our top scorers in round 3 were:

  •   Courcelles, a first time contestant, with 1756 points, a tally built largely on 27 GAs related to the Olympics
  •   Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with two featured articles and three GAs on natural history and astronomy topics
  •   SounderBruce, a finalist last year, with a variety of submissions related to transport in the state of Washington

Contestants managed 7 featured articles, 4 featured lists, 120 good articles, 1 good topic, 124 DYK entries, 15 ITN entries, and 132 good article reviews. Over the course of the competition, contestants have completed 458 GA reviews, in comparison to 244 good articles submitted for review and promoted. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met. Please also remember that all submissions must meet core Wikipedia policies, regardless of the review process; several submissions, particularly in abstruse or technical areas, have needed additional work to make them completely verifiable.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Cwmhiraeth (talk), Vanamonde (talk) 04:55, 2 July 2018 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 31 July 2018

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Ships and shoes – and if you don't like it here, just go away!
How admin would-bes run the gauntlet.
Wikipedia referees wag a finger at Professional Wrestling editors.
New admins and Kudpung finally leaves NPP after 7 years.
One secret cabal that watches out for conspiracy theories, and another one out to stymie venture capitalists?
And more: a new user group for editing code, Women in Red, and arbitrator articles.
Spanning the gamut from warfare and destruction to pop culture to celebrations of nature and humanity's achievements.
We don't have "state agents" in a political debate, but couldn't talk about it if there were.
Finding the mathematician and Supreme Court nominee in this list is like playing Where's Waldo?.
Useful new gadgets.
Depictions of July events in several countries.
Those who study ancient Egypt.
And other recent findings, plus a roundup of research presentations at Wikimania.
Merge WikiProject Professional wrestling and ANI.
Get over it!
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Mangling talk pages

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I am concerned that you have a bot making massive number of edits and mangling talk pages and talk page redirects. I suggest rolling back all your bot's edits immediately. Frietjes (talk) 14:32, 13 August 2018 (UTC)Reply

okay, I believe I have rolled back all the mangling, but this is still very concerning. Frietjes (talk) 15:22, 13 August 2018 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 30 August 2018

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Keep straight on – there are trolls in the hedgerows.
"Imagine a world in which every single human being is a Wikimedian. That's my commitment!"
WMF pays possible Orangemoody ring for user research, and ditches MediaWiki for publishing its own blog. Knife-edge closures at RfA.
But unfortunately its output is incompatible with open licensing.
Plus: Simple English Wikipedia stays open, a discussion on draft header templates, bias blind spot by admins offered cash?
Astronauts named Armstrong, babes of the Brits, Cortinarius caperatus and all that.
"Bridging knowledge gaps, the ubuntu way forward".
Very high and very low hits; love and loss.
Citation bot and mapframe enhancements; new licenses for Data space; possible hiccup on 12 September; per-user page, namespace, and upload blocking; and miscellaneous new bots and tools.
Some of the best pictures of 2017.
Readers prefer the AI's version 40% of the time – but it still suffers from hallucinations.
Nothing funny about it.
Remind you of any Wikipedia articles?
The Wikipedia Plays.

WikiCup 2018 September newsletter

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The fourth round of the 2018 WikiCup has now come to an end. The eight users who made it to the final round had to score a minimum of 422 points to qualify, with the top score in the round being 4869 points. The leaders in round 4 were:

  •   Courcelles scored a magnificent 4869 points, with 92 good articles on Olympics-related themes. Courcelles' bonus points alone exceeded the total score of any of the other contestants!
  •   Kees08 was second with 1155 points, including a high-scoring featured article for Neil Armstrong, two good topics and some Olympics-related good articles.
  •   Cas Liber, with 1066 points, was in third place this round, with two featured articles and a good article, all on natural history topics.
  • Other contestants who qualified for the final round were   Nova Crystallis,   Iazyges,   SounderBruce,   Kosack and   Ceranthor.

During round four, 6 featured articles and 164 good articles were promoted by WikiCup contestants, 13 articles were included in good topics and 143 good article reviews were performed. There were also 10 "in the news" contributions on the main page and 53 "did you knows". Congratulations to all who participated! It was a generally high-scoring and productive round and I think we can expect a highly competitive finish to the competition.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck, and let the best editor win! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:31, 1 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

AfroCine: Join us for the Months of African Cinema in October!

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Greetings!

You are receiving this message because your username or portal was listed as a participant of a WikiProject that is related to Africa, the Carribean, Cinema or theatre.

This is to introduce you to a new Wikiproject called AfroCine. This new project is dedicated to improving the Wikipedia coverage of the history, works, people, places, events, etc, that are associated with the cinema, theatre and arts of Africa, African countries, the carribbean, and the diaspora. If you would love to be part of this or you're already contributing in this area, kindly list your name as a participant on the project page here.

Furthermore, In the months of October and November, the WikiProject is organizing a global on-wiki contest and edit-a-thon tagged: The Months of African Cinema. If you would love to join us for this exciting event, also list your username as a participant for this event here. In preparation for the contest, please do suggest relevant articles that need to be created or expanded in different countries, during this event!

If you have any questions, complaints, suggestions, etc., please reach out to me personally on my talkpage! Cheers!--Jamie Tubers (talk) 20:50, 5 September 2018 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 1 October 2018

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We keep on publishing as long as you keep on reading.
Wikipedia dodges a bullet in Brussels... maybe.
Can Wikipedians help save the world's knowledge and shine a light on current events?
Plus: signatures, shortcuts, and reliable sources.
No valid new requests for arbitration, no new cases.
Fourth highest view count of the year; lowest view count since 2014; death, sports, and movies ever constant.
Plus the latest scripts, bots, and tech news.
A pictorial ode to the end of summer.
As the global community of volunteer Wikimedia editors mourns the destruction of this amazing museum, this post pays tribute to all editors who have contributed restlessly to tell the story of the National Museum, our history.
And other recent research papers.
What is a four-letter word for...
You know you should...

Welcome to the Months of African Cinema!

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Greetings!

The AfroCine Project welcomes you to October, the first out of the two months which has been dedicated to improving contents that centre around the cinema of Africa, the Caribbean, and the diaspora.

This is a global online edit-a-thon, which is happening in at least 5 language editions of Wikipedia, including the English Wikipedia! Join us in this exciting venture, by helping to create or expand articles which are connected to this scope. Also remember to list your name under the participants section, if you haven't done so already.

On English Wikipedia, we would be recognizing Users who are able to achieve the following:

  • Overall winner (1st, 2nd, 3rd places)
  • Country Winners
  • Diversity winner
  • High quality contributors
  • Gender-gap fillers
  • Page improvers
  • Wikidata Translators

For further information about the contest, the recognition categories and how to participate, please visit the contest page here. For further inquiries, please leave comments on the contest talkpage or on the main project talkpage. See you around :).--Jamie Tubers (talk) 22:50, 03 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 28 October 2018

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A slightly thinner issue, but out on time.
Is a missing article on a Nobel laureate a fail? What if her draft biography was declined as non-notable?
And it's richer than ever.
Breitbart begone; rescued by archivists; celebrating trolls?
Plus: two pending changes-related discussions, notability, and naming conventions.
Who's reading what?
Bots can do anything you want – well, almost.
WMF continues to stonewall development; NPP wishes again relegated to stocking fillers.
SPARQL adds sparkle to WMF projects.
We are all writing for Amazon.
No special effects here, just beautiful celestial images.
If it weren't free, of course.
Wikipedia has a long history of talk page tomfoolery.
The reviewer who declined the article gives his perspective.
The "holy-shit" slide.

WikiCup 2018 November newsletter

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The WikiCup is over for another year! Our Champion this year is   Courcelles (submissions), who over the course of the competition has amassed 147 GAs, 111 GARs, 9 DYKs, 4 FLs and 1 ITN. Our finalists were as follows:

  1.   Courcelles (submissions)
  2.   Kosack (submissions)
  3.   Kees08 (submissions)
  4.   SounderBruce (submissions)
  5.   Cas Liber (submissions)
  6.   Nova Crystallis (submissions)
  7.   Iazyges (submissions)
  8.   Ceranthor (submissions)


All those who reached the final win awards, and awards will also be going to the following participants:

Awards will be handed out in the coming weeks. Please be patient!

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have achieved much this year. Thanks to all who have taken part and helped out with the competition.

Next year's competition begins on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; it is open to all Wikipedians, new and old. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2019 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Godot13 (talk · contribs · email), Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs · email) and Vanamonde93 (talk · contribs · email).

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

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Hello, Pi. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 1 December 2018

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Lay down your verbal weapons.
The experiences of a new user on Wikipedia, told in their own words.
What do the WMF devs have in store for the community?
Suppose they gave a blog and nobody came?
Looking both backward and forward to events concerning the community.
A personal reflection on Wikipedia's role as a repository of history.
Real-world news competes with the usual celeb fascination for Wikipedia's commentators.
It was a good 15 years. Plus: admins, notability, substubs, and new padlocks.
Arbcom takes its first new case since June.
The "Queen" of stage and screen, that is. Is there another?
Biology or technology? Form follows function in nature and the constructed world.
And other new research results.
Nope, don't care!
Wonky carrots invoke terror.
ARS might continue, but some Wikipedians might not.

The Signpost: 24 December 2018

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Tell us what you think!
Did World Patent Marketing pay to get Wikipedia to include flattering information on their board member, now the Acting United States Attorney General?
A statistical insight into the English Wikipedia's very own online community newsletter.
NPP wins the wish list poll; Wikipedia editors will be able to work better at night; new WMF appointments and new arbitrators; and who wants to be an admin?
Wikipedia says 'ta' to British M.P. and 'buh-bye' to U.S. President's image vandals.
Plus: reliable sources, notability, and fallout from the self-blocking software changes.
Discovering how new and unregistered users make articles with the members of WikiProject Articles for Creation.
GiantSnowman asked to chill, and other disputes addressed by Arbcom (or not).
The band relinquishes its first place hold; Aquaman is swimming into view for late December.
Happy solstice, and happy New Year!
In and around the WMF and its projects from the WMF's web site.
Are you a believer?
When the desire to continue to have the privilege of editing Wikipedia overrides the body's innate desire to choke the living shit out of some bastard who really has it coming.
Compromised accounts – especially those of inactive admins.

Welcome to the 2019 WikiCup!

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Hello and Happy New Year!

Welcome to the 2019 WikiCup, the competition begins today. If you have already joined, your submission page can be found here. If you have not yet signed up, you can add your name here and we will set up your submissions page. One important rule to remember is that only content on which you have completed significant work during 2019, and which you have nominated this year, is eligible for points in the competition, the judges will be checking! Any questions should be directed to one of the judges, or left on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup. Signups will close at the end of January, and the first round will end on 26 February; the 64 highest scorers at that time will make it to round 2. Good luck! The judges for the WikiCup are Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Godot13 (talk · contribs · email), Vanamonde93 (talk · contribs · email) and Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs · email). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:14, 1 January 2019 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 31 January 2019

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Lab rats deflate research to be performed on the Wikipedia community.
Did you know that there was an admin who thought that the metaphor of the mop was a joke, and now they know it's not?
Rude or just forgetful? Eight-year WMF manager has disappeared; Facebook gives a million bucks, gets no love.
Heroes and unsung heroes: many good news stories about the work we are all doing together.
Plus: plagiarism from Wikipedia, user categories, and admin activity requirements.
Get yourself lost in 1730's Paris, and a wide range of other recently promoted content.
Snowman flames newbies? Or just oversensitive snowflakes?
The most popular articles of 2018 include a cornucopia of superheroes (Avengers: Infinity War)
Emergency server switch goes smoothly; technical glitches resolved; a new way to transfer files to Commons.
A tour of some of the world's greatest memorials courtesy the Prime Minister of India.
The world’s largest photo contest, a $1 million gift, Wikipedia’s birthday, WF appoints Valerie D'Costa.
And other new research publications.
A narrative to get you oriented to how this place works, and to the key policies and guidelines.
More talk pages you don't want to miss.
Four years - and nothing changed?

The Signpost: 28 February 2019

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This may be too wordy, verbose and loquacious – and possibly redundant – but as you know, it takes others to check our work, and if there were more people in the Newsroom, we'd be able to double check ourselves and produce a better product for our readership; if you think you are up to it, you are welcome to join us and even copyedit the Editor-in-Chief's article intros.
Encyclopedias for Deletion; Corinne; scholarships; partial blocks; and administrators headcount.
This election will select 2 of 10 seats on the board. All Wikimedia users are stakeholders in the election outcome and should participate.
This month's major discussions include a WMF talk page consultation and a proposed current events noticeboard.
Horsemen of the apocalypse all represented in recently promoted content, alongside new life, pretty birds, great music, and other miscellaneous topics.
Snowed in, maybe.
Netflix shows and TV sports dominate. A US politician breaks into the top 10.
Tool labs goes kaput, bots running wild (not really), interface administrators step into the breach, new gadgets and other tech happenings.
A gallery of user signatures created by Wikipedians themselves.
When watchers want the whole truth, they wind up with the wiki! And Cultural Context Content comes out of a complete cartography.
Assume good faith even if it kills you.
The creation of the Esperanza group.
Not feeling blurbish right now.

WikiCup 2019 March newsletter

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And so ends the first round of the competition. Everyone with a positive score moves on to Round 2. With 56 contestants qualifying, each group in Round 2 contains seven contestants, with the two leaders from each group due to qualify for Round 3 as well as the top sixteen remaining contestants.

Our top scorers in Round 1 were:

  •   L293D, a WikiCup newcomer, led the field with ten good articles on submarines for a total of 357 points.
  •   Adam Cuerden, a WikiCup veteran, came next with 274 points, mostly from eight featured pictures, restorations of artwork.
  •   MPJ-DK, a wrestling enthusiast, was in third place with 263 points, garnered from a featured list, five good articles, two DYKs and four GARs.
  •   Usernameunique came next at 243, with a featured article and a good article, both on ancient helmets.
  •   Squeamish Ossifrage was in joint fifth place with 224 points, mostly garnered from bringing the 1937 Fox vault fire to featured article status.
  •   Ed! was also on 224, with an amazing number of good article reviews (56 actually).

These contestants, like all the others, now have to start scoring points again from scratch. Between them, contestants completed reviews on 143 good articles, one hundred more than the number of good articles they claimed for, thus making a substantial dent in the review backlog. Well done all!

Remember that any content promoted after the end of Round 1 but before the start of Round 2 can be claimed in Round 2. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews.

If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk).

The Signpost: 31 March 2019

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The Signpost: 30 April 2019

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New Administrators, April Fools, our competitors, and other associated updates
Harassment, a black hole, the Mueller Report, and Mötley Crüe - just another social media site?
Plus: another round of paid editing discussion.
April's admirable additions.
Policies and procedures, cases and controversies, and other ArbCom updates
Round up the unusual suspects
Welcoming English Wikipedia's newest admin (bot)
Photos and videos show the damage
Wikimedia Foundation data scientists are using machine learning to predict whether—and why—any given sentence on Wikipedia may need a citation in order to help editors identify areas of content violating the verifiability policy.
And other recent research results
"The future of portals", a year later
Some editors will do anything to get a laugh
What we know we don't know, and why it might matter more than you might think
Maher discusses her tenure as ED, the editing community, harassment and diversity, the WMF's 3-5 year plan, airplane travel, books, and her future.
An overview of Wikimedia Summit 2019, a working conference to discuss the Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy Process, preparing draft recommendations for Wikimania 2019 in August.

WikiCup 2019 May newsletter

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The second round of the 2019 WikiCup has now finished. Contestants needed to scored 32 points to advance into round 3. Our top four scorers in round 2 all scored over 400 points and were:

  •   Cas Liber (1210), our winner in 2016, with two featured articles and three DYKs. He also made good use of the bonus points available, more than doubling his score by choosing appropriate articles to work on.
  •   Kosack (750), last year's runner up, with an FA, a GA, two FLs, and five DYKs.
  •   Adam Cuerden (480), a WikiCup veteran, with 16 featured pictures, mostly restorations.
  •   Zwerg Nase (461), a seasoned competitor, with a FA, a GA and an ITN item.

Other notable performances were put in by   Barkeep49 with six GAs,   Ceranthor,   Lee Vilenski, and   Canada Hky, each with seven GARs, and   MPJ-DK with a seven item GT.

So far contestants have achieved nine featured articles between them and a splendid 80 good articles. Commendably, 227 GARs have been completed during the course of the 2019 WikiCup, so the backlog of articles awaiting GA review has been reduced as a result of contestants' activities. The judges are pleased with the thorough GARs that are being performed, and have hardly had to reject any. As we enter the third round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:46, 1 May 2019 (UTC)Reply

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The Signpost: 31 May 2019

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The North Face sneaks in advertisements, apologizes after being caught
Get ready to go to Wikimania in Stockholm where you might meet two new trustees
Wikipedia finds itself up against China, Pennsylvania politicians and the Detroit Tigers
Neutrality and copyright concerns lead and part 2 of the talk pages consultation.
Resignations, new cases, administrator security, and more
Who will be next to fill the throne at the top of the list?
Admin bots, approved bots, bots on trial, lots and lots of bots
The WMF keeps working to stop Turkey from blocking Wikipedia.
And other new research publications
We've been talking about paid editing forever
A debate from 5 years ago on whether we use to prohibit undisclosed paid editing

The June 2019 Signpost is out!

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Could this be a new relationship between the Foundation and ArbCom, and between the Foundation and enwiki?
Many administrators resign related to Fram case; Wikimedia Thailand to host Wikimania 2020.
Or is it the information error?
A selection of good news and encouraging stories that are from the Wikiverse.
Readers look for info on what they watch, mostly Chernobyl.
Database changes, new scripts, Tech News, and more.
Wikimedia photographers surge to contribute to the Wiki Loves Earth campaign even while rogue clothing company The North Face replaces wiki illustrations with advertisements.
(DELETED ARTICLE)
And other recent research publications.
"If you don't clean up this mess, the adults are going to come and take your toys away from you."
To reduce the incentives driving undisclosed paid editing, Wikipedia could simplify the process and meet outsiders halfway.
Academic peer review meets Wikimedia.
How an Irish state-level paid editor tried to turn me into the villain.
Wikimedia community organizations elect two members for the Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees.

WikiCup 2019 July newsletter

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The third round of the 2019 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it to the fourth round needed to score at least 68 points, which is substantially lower than last year's 227 points. Our top scorers in round 3 were:

  •   Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with 500 points derived mainly from a featured article and two GAs on natural history topics
  •   Adam Cuerden, with 480 points, a tally built on 16 featured pictures, the result of meticulous restoration work
  •   SounderBruce, a finalist in the last two years, with 306 points from a variety of submissions, mostly related to sport or the State of Washington
  •   Usernameunique, with 305 points derived from a featured article and two GAs on archaeology and related topics

Contestants managed 4 (5) featured articles, 4 featured lists, 18 featured pictures, 29 good articles, 50 DYK entries, 9 ITN entries, and 39 good article reviews. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them, and it is imperative to claim them in the correct round; one FA claim had to be rejected because it was incorrectly submitted (claimed in Round 3 when it qualified for Round 2), so be warned! When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:12, 2 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 31 July 2019

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WMF grants program changes position on funding random individuals globally and 100 crore people in one region
Are we ready for the sharp elbows?
Resysop requests on the ’crat board prove controversial; plus, aftermath of Framgate.
Arbitration begins setting new boundaries after the June blow-up
It looks nice and cool up in those mountains
A selection of good news and encouraging stories that are from the Wikiverse.
It's easy, education saves lives.
Or, how to avoid Artificial Ignorance
And other new research publications
A new record set: fewer than 500 active admins.
and don't forget the movies
Who is growing? Who is not?

The Signpost: 30 August 2019

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The oldest surviving Wikipedia edit restored to article history, Wikimania, and the mystery of a disappearing Funds Dissemination Committee.
Working with leadership and the community, taking on both operational and strategic responsibilities
And the media report it all
Can we survive without IP addresses?
And some summer flicks with the usual heroes and villains
Should we break the law or publish the truth?
Or how to make a concentration camp disappear?
From streets to Wikipedia - What are editors from Hong Kong facing?
Emna Mizouni was named the 2019 Wikimedian of the Year.
A roundup of many recent publications examining Wikpedia's gender gaps in participation and content, and their possible reasons
A selection of good news and encouraging stories that are from the Wikiverse

WikiCup 2019 September newsletter

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The fourth round of the competition has finished in a flurry of last minute activity, with 454 points being required to qualify for the final round. It was a hotly competitive round with two contestants with over 400 points being eliminated, and all but two of the finalists having achieved an FA during the round. Casliber, our 2016 winner, was the highest point-scorer, followed by Enwebb and Lee Vilenski, who are both new to the competition. In fourth place was SounderBruce, a finalist last year. But all those points are swept away as we start afresh for the final round.

Round 4 saw the achievement of 11 featured articles. In addition, Adam Cuerden scored with 18 FPs, Lee Vilenski led the GA score with 8 GAs while Kosack performed 15 GA reviews. There were around 40 DYKs, 40 GARs and 31 GAs overall during round 4. Even though contestants performed more GARs than they achieved GAs, there was still some frustration at the length of time taken to get articles reviewed.

As we start round 5, we say goodbye to the eight competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia, and we hope you will join us again next year. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them (some people have fallen foul of this rule and the points have been removed).

If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:44, 1 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

AfroCine: Join the Months of African Cinema this October!

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Greetings!

After a successful first iteration of the “Months of African Cinema” last year, we are happy to announce that it will be happening again this year, starting from October 1! In the 2018 edition of the contest, about 600 Wikipedia articles were created in at least 8 languages. There were also contributions to Wikidata and Wikimedia commons, which brought the total number of wikimedia pages created during the contest to over 1,000.

The AfroCine Project welcomes you to October, the first out of the two months which have been dedicated to creating and improving content that centre around the cinema of Africa, the Caribbean, and the diaspora. Join us in this global edit-a-thon, by helping to create or expand articles which are connected to this scope. Also remember to list your name under the participants section.

On English Wikipedia, we would be recognizing participants in the following manner:

  • Overall winner (1st, 2nd, 3rd places)
  • Diversity winner
  • Gender-gap fillers

For further information about the contest, the recognition categories and how to participate, please visit the contest page here. For further inquiries, please leave comments on the contest talkpage or on the main project talkpage. See you around :).--Jamie Tubers (talk) 00:50, 30 September 2019 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 30 September 2019

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Our constitutional crisis may continue
Summary of actions around a formerly banned former administrator: Arbitration Committee action and withdrawn request for adminship
The internet may not be as stable as it seems
Luck, Serena, Bianca, 9/11, bad films, mass murderers and other good stuff
Wikipedia's footprint is equivalent to 251 average US homes’ energy use. Yes we can go green.
And other recent research publications
Wikimedia Commons is not the only place to find freely licensed photos
A selection of good news and encouraging stories that are from the Wikiverse
National libraries are planning to leverage Wikidata to interoperate and to bring information to the public

The Signpost: 31 October 2019

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Sweden, Poland, Armenia, Russia, the Vatican, and clueless English pubs.
"It's time for Wikipedia to grow up."
But they aren't entirely sure they see it
A discussion on info wars, government editing and our defences.
A different point of view
An "unblockable" is blocked; a former arb resigns.
Plus a few celebrities.
The future of public broadcasting has arrived.
And other new research publications
Editing can have serious consequences.
Twenty questions to get you started.
A selection of good news and encouraging stories from the Wikiverse.

WikiCup 2019 November newsletter

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The WikiCup is over for another year! Our Champion this year is   Adam Cuerden (submissions), who over the course of the competition has amassed 91 featured pictures, including 32 in the final round. Our finalists this year were:

  1.   Adam Cuerden (submissions) with 964 points
  2.   Lee Vilenski (submissions) with 899 points
  3.   Casliber (submissions) with 817 points
  4.   Kosack (submissions) with 691 points
  5.   SounderBruce (submissions) with 388 points
  6.   Enwebb (submissions) with 146 points
  7.   Usernameunique (submissions) with 145 points
  8.   HaEr48 (submissions) with 74 points

All those who reached the final will win awards. The following special awards will be made based on high performance in particular areas of content creation. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, these prizes are awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round, or in the event of a tie, to the overall leader in this field. Awards will be handed out in the coming weeks. Please be patient!

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have achieved much this year. Thanks to all who have taken part and helped out with the competition, not forgetting User:Jarry1250, who runs the scoring bot.

We have opened a scoring discussion on whether the rules and scoring need adjustment. Please have your say. Next year's competition will begin on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; the WikiCup is open to all Wikipedians, both novices and experienced editors, and we hope to see you all in the 2020 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth 14:18, 2 November 2019 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 29 November 2019

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"We get by with a little help from our friends"
And when will we get the second extraterrestrial edit?
Everybody wants to change Wikipedia.
A selection of good news and encouraging stories from the Wikiverse.
Important or imprudent? Pondering portals. And an editor gets transported off-wiki for good.
Could this be the end of the Terminator?
The latest tech news and updates.
Some interesting and unusual winter and holiday images.
And other new research publications.
Some humor about the otherwise serious subject of burnout.
Veteran editor: Wikipedia is losing existential battle against spam.
Coming to the end of a long road formulating the strategy.
Only now can we say!

The Signpost: 27 December 2019

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You can buy "cleaners" but you might not come away clean.
Active administrators and articles achieved are marking milestone metrics, but in diverging directions. Plus, the first time any court has found there exists a constitutional right to read Wikipedia.
Son of Wiki-PR.
Praise for possibly pansophic Wikipedia from a Nobel laureate collides head-on with real-world events in December.
Regarding integrity of information presented by Wikipedia, as well as the processes and people who ensure it remains trustworthy.
ArbCom election results and status of open and requested cases.
We may have scrambled the headlines a bit.
Customise your Wikipedia experience
Messages of holiday cheer from us to you.
16 recent papers, and other research news
A look at different approaches taken by Wikipedia's founders in 2002, as seen from the perspective of nine years when it was written; nearly twenty years ago now.
A selection of good news and encouraging stories from the Wikiverse.
There's still a long way to go.
Eight years after our last interview, WikiProject Tree of Life continues to thrive.

Welcome to the 2020 WikiCup!

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Happy New Year, Happy New Decade and Happy New WikiCup! The competition begins today and all article creators, expanders and improvers are welcome to take part. If you have already signed up, your submissions page can be found here. If you have not yet signed up, you can add your name here and the judges will set up your submissions page. We are relaxing the rule that only content on which you have completed significant work during 2020 will count; now to be eligible for points in the competition, you must have completed significant work on the content at some time! Any questions on the rules or on anything else connected to the Cup should be directed to one of the judges, or posted to the WikiCup talk page. Signups will close at the end of January, and the first round will end on 26 February; the 64 highest scorers at that time will move on to round 2. Good luck! The judges for the WikiCup are Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Godot13 (talk · contribs · email), Vanamonde93 (talk · contribs · email) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) 11:43, 1 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

Proposed deletion of File:Curved disc flight.gif

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The file File:Curved disc flight.gif has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

unused, low-res, no obvious use

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

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated files}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the file's talk page.

Please consider addressing the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated files}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and files for discussion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion.

This bot DID NOT nominate any file(s) for deletion; please refer to the page history of each individual file for details. Thanks, FastilyBot (talk) 01:00, 17 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 27 January 2020

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How long can we ignore Wiki-PR?
You ain't seen nothing yet.
How to survive the asshole consensus.
Plus politics and other oddities.
The new arbs have a big load.
As only The Signpost can describe them.
The top 15 international photos.
Growing our community and our abilities.
Well, it's a bit subjective.
Everybody needs to make a buck somehow — just not here, thanks.
And other new research publications.
The first 10 years are the hardest.
A selection of good news and encouraging stories from the Wikiverse.
An interview with four members of the WikiProject Japan.
I may fall in love all over again!
A mentor to us all

Proposed deletion of File:Plane of flying disc.gif

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The file File:Plane of flying disc.gif has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:

unused, low-res, no obvious use

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

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated files}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the file's talk page.

Please consider addressing the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated files}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and files for discussion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion.

This bot DID NOT nominate any file(s) for deletion; please refer to the page history of each individual file for details. Thanks, FastilyBot (talk) 01:01, 13 February 2020 (UTC)Reply