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The Signpost: 17 June 2015

The Princess of Asturias Foundation announced that Wikipedia would be the recipient of the 2015 Princess of Asturias award in the category of International Cooperation.
The Arbitration Committee delivered its final decision in a case that reached the attention of the UK national press.
This would end a long-standing tradition in many countries that the skyline and the public scene should belong to everybody.
We need to be ever-diligent in ensuring that articles remain of high quality.
The rollout of HTTPS only has now been completed across all Wikimedia wikis.
We interviewed an Australian veteran who deployed to the region as a peacekeeper and now writes articles on the region's history to help him understand what he encountered there.
A more than usually severe outage Wikimedia Labs occurred after a massive database corruption implosion on June 17.
Six featured articles, seven featured lists, and seven featured pictures were promoted this week.
Author's note: This might be a violation of WP:BEANS; read at your own risk.
It wouldn't be the WikiProject report if we didn't feature an Australian topic once in a while, so this week we're looking at the left side.

Wikidata weekly summary #163

This week's article for improvement (week 26, 2015)

 
The amounts of fat types in selected foods
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The following are WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selections:


Previous selections: Nightlife • Sport • Buggy (automobile)


Get involved with the TAFI project! You can...
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Today's articles for improvement weekly vote

 
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This week's voting for TAFI's upcoming weekly collaborations has begun at Week 29 of 2015. Thanks for participating!

15:24, 22 June 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 June 2015

Over more than a decade of weekly publication, The Signpost has accumulated an incredibly lengthy and detailed record about the issues, controversies, successes, and failures of the English Wikipedia community and the movement at large.
The Wikimedia Foundation's Language Engineering team plans to introduce Content Translation—a tool that makes it easier to translate Wikipedia articles into different languages—as a beta feature on the English Wikipedia.
During 2009–2011 Google ran the Google Translation Project (GTP), a program utilising paid translators to translate most popular English Wikipedia articles to various Indian language Wikipedias.
Four articles and nine pictures were promoted to featured status this week.
One paper looks at the topic of Wikipedia governance in the context of online social production.
This past week saw the kick-off of the 2015 MediaWiki architecture focus of improving our content platform.
The Board of Trustees is the "ultimate corporate authority" of the Wikimedia Foundation and the level at which the strategic decisions regarding the Wikimedia movement are made ...
The Hürriyet Daily News reports that the Turkish Wikipedia has posted banners on the top of the encyclopedia to warn users that a number of articles are being blocked by the Turkish government.
After six years of work, a residency in the Canadian Rockies, endless debugging, and more than a little help from my friends, I have made Print Wikipedia.
Clausewitz' pithy summary of warfare as "politics by other means" seems to be the motto of some Wikipedia editors.

Richard Lewis

The edit was in reference to his interview on The Daily Show tonight. - BA — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.154.209.228 (talk) 03:39, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #164

This week's article for improvement (week 27, 2015)

 
A party in celebration of the Chinese Year of the Ox at a restaruant
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The following are WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selections:


Previous selections: Fat • Nightlife • Sport


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Today's articles for improvement weekly vote

 
  • Hello Quenhitran:
This week's voting for TAFI's upcoming weekly collaborations has begun at Week 30 of 2015. Thanks for participating!

15:56, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Tunisian Arabic

Dear User,

As you are one of the contributors to Tunisian Arabic. You are kindly asked to review the part about Domains of Use and adjust it directly or through comments in the talk page of Tunisian Arabic.

Yours Sincerely,

--Csisc (talk) 14:23, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 01 July 2015

This week The Center for Internet and Society published a promotional blog post highlighting the heritage of the center's creation of the Train the Trainer program.
A week now remains until the vote, expected on 9 July, when the European Parliament will express either its approval, disapproval, or lack of opinion on the question of freedom of panorama in the European Union.
Here to share their wisdom are Dodger67, Penny Richards, LilyKitty, and Mirokado of WikiProject Disability
Four featured list and twelve featured pictures were promoted this week.
For the week of June 21 to 27, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community.
Like many editors of the world's largest encyclopedia, Karanacs was browsing the site's articles and found that they were of relatively poor quality—and that the traditional narrative she'd learned was not necessarily accurate.

Wikidata weekly summary #165

15:13, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

This week's article for improvement (week 28, 2015)

 
Mecca is regarded as the holiest city in the religion of Islam. Pictured is the Masjid al-Haram during Hajj, 2007.
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The following are WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selections:


Previous selections: Party • Fat • Nightlife


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Today's articles for improvement weekly vote

 
  • Hello Quenhitran:
This week's voting for TAFI's upcoming weekly collaborations has begun at Week 31 of 2015. Thanks for participating!

Wikimedia Highlights from June 2015

Here are the highlights from the Wikimedia blog in June 2015.
 
About · Subscribe/unsubscribe, 01:42, 10 July 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 08 July 2015

It seems like a good time to discuss the various communications channels available to community members.
Lila Tretikov this week posted an email to the wikimedia-l mailing list announcing the final publication of the Wikimedia Foundation's 2015 annual plan.
The mayor of Esino Lario warns that Wikimedia 2016 is "at risk of disappearing".
It's July 4 weekend and on this list that means only one thing: Wimbledon. Sure, the American Independence Day gets noticed too, but it can't hold a candle to that staggeringly British sporting event.
12 featured articles, 2 featured lists, and 15 featured pictures were promoted this week.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community.

Wikidata weekly summary #166

Today's articles for improvement weekly vote

 
  • Hello Quenhitran:
This week's voting for TAFI's upcoming weekly collaborations has begun at Week 32 of 2015. Thanks for participating!

This week's article for improvement (week 29, 2015)

Hello, Quenhitran.

The following are WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selections:


Previous selections: Holiest sites in Islam • Party • Fat


Get involved with the TAFI project! You can...
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15:06, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 July 2015

"How long will this take?" This is one of the first questions new clients ask. They come to us because the Wikipedia entry about the company at which they work is wrong, incomplete, or even just outdated. The answer varies ...
However coy they may be about it in public, Americans love to win. And when they do, they make no secret of it.
We return this week with an interview with a historical project that's still fairly active, WikiProject Former countries.
In The Register, Andrew Orlowski reports that three weeks ago, Grant Shapps filed a request with Wikimedia UK (WMUK) under the Data Protection Act 1998 "for all data relating to him".
The Wikimedia Foundation is pleased to announce the release of our latest transparency report.
Wikimania 2015 is underway in Mexico City, and one of its sessions—a scheduled follow-up to the annual Wikimedia Conference that was held in Berlin in May—is good reason to provide a retrospective of that Conference.
One featured article, seven featured lists, and 14 featured pictures were promoted this week.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community

Today's articles for improvement – discussion about changing project processes

 
  • Hello Quenhitran:
A discussion is occurring at Change project processes regarding potential changes to the Today's articles for improvement Wikiproject. Your input is welcomed at the discussion.

Wikidata weekly summary #167

This week's articles for improvement (week 30, 2015)

 
Dessert is a typically sweet course that concludes an evening meal. Pictured is a chocolate-strawberry crumble ball.
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The following are WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selections:


Previous selections: Kayaking • Holiest sites in Islam • Party


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03:05, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 22 July 2015

We want to take a moment to ask you to consider contributing to the Signpost.
Wikimania features remarks from some leading players from the Wikimedia Foundation as well as the free knowledge movement.
WMF's Executive Director, Lila Tretikov, gave the opening plenary address.
Three novelists "have found a way to control the Wikipedia narrative" by using the annotation website Genius to annotate their own Wikipedia articles.
Summary:When I was a kid, being a nerd meant wanting to go to Pluto.
WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom
Three featured articles, two featured lists, and 29 featured pictures were promoted this week.
46 years ago this week, humanity set foot on the Moon.
Community technical news.

Wikidata weekly summary #168

This week's articles for improvement (week 31, 2015)

 
An example of an igloo
Hello, Quenhitran.

The following are WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selections:


Previous selections: Dessert • Kayaking • Holiest sites in Islam


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15:05, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

No citation, it was simply an observation about an historical inconsistency after watching the film which despite the error was still enjoyable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mark ridgway (talkcontribs) 02:08, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

TAFI's List of articles

 
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A discussion is occurring at the TAFI talk page regarding potential changes to the project's List of articles page. Your input is welcome at the discussion.

The Signpost: 29 July 2015

An RFC proposes to create a "Bureaucrats' Admin Review Committee" (BARC) composed of bureaucrats empowered to remove adminship rights.
Two years ago, I discovered that I was on the autism spectrum.
An article argues that Wikipedia displays some key characteristics of a collective intelligence process.
"Editors representing rival political tribes [are] frequently attempting to impose their respective narratives as the official version of one or another cultural controversy."
Five featured articles, five featured lists, and sixteen featured pictures were promoted this week.
For the first time since this list began, India-related topics have claimed both the top two slots.

Wikidata weekly summary #169

This week's article for improvement (week 32, 2015)

 
A farmhouse (bottom) in Einsiedeln, Switzerland
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The following are WikiProject Today's articles for improvement's weekly selections:


Previous selections: Igloo • Dessert • Kayaking


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15:51, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 05 August 2015

That particular artists would be omitted through oversight or happenstance is reasonable, but that one of the world's leading publishers of art books is completely unaware of their major omissions is startling.
The public interest in remembering the facts about trials and convictions is, in my view, at least as strong as any "right to be forgotten."
VisualEditor is now on slow roll-out on the English Wikipedia.
The Report checks in with WikiProject Templates.
The Indian government has launched an investigation into the source of Wikipedia edits regarding Jawaharlal Nehru that caused outrage in that country.
Death is no stranger to this list, but it has never cast such a pall as this week, when for the first time half the slots in the top 10 were devoted to it, including the top 3.
Three featured articles, seven featured lists, and twenty-two featured pictures were promoted this week.
What if there was a gathering place on Wikipedia for newer editors to find a mentor?

VisualEditor News #4—2015

Read this in another languageLocal subscription listSubscribe to the multilingual edition

 
Did you know?

You can add quotations marks before and after a title or phrase with a single click.

Select the relevant text. Find the correct quotations marks in the special character inserter tool (marked as Ω in the toolbar).

 


Click the button. VisualEditor will add the quotation marks on either side of the text you selected.

 


You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team have been working on mobile phone support. They have fixed many bugs and improved language support. They post weekly status reports on mediawiki.org. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving language support and functionality on mobile devices.

Wikimania

The team attended Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City. There they participated in the Hackathon and met with individuals and groups of users. They also made several presentations about VisualEditor and the future of editing.

Following Wikimania, we announced winners for the VisualEditor 2015 Translathon. Our thanks and congratulations to users Halan-tul, Renessaince, जनक राज भट्ट (Janak Bhatta), Vahe Gharakhanyan, Warrakkk, and Eduardogobi.

For interface messages (translated at translatewiki.net), we saw the initiative affecting 42 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 56.5% before the translathon, and 78.2% after (+21.7%). In particular, Sakha improved from 12.2% to 94.2%; Brazilian Portuguese went from 50.6% to 100%; Taraškievica went from 44.9% to 85.3%; Doteli went from 1.3% to 41.2%. Also, while 1.7% of the messages were outdated across all languages before the translathon, the percentage dropped to 0.8% afterwards (-0.9%).

For documentation messages (on mediawiki.org), we saw the initiative affecting 24 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 26.6% before translathon, and 46.9% after (+20.3%).  There were particularly notable achievements for three languages. Armenian improved from 1% to 99%; Swedish, from 21% to 99%, and Brazilian Portuguese, from 34% to 83%. Outdated translations across all languages were reduced from 8.4% before translathon to 4.8% afterwards (-3.6%).

We published some graphs showing the effect of the event on the Translathon page.   Thank you to the translators for participating and the translatewiki.net staff for facilitating this initiative.

Recent improvements

Auto-fill features for citations can be enabled on each Wikipedia. The tool uses the citoid service to convert a URL or DOI into a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. You can see an animated GIF of the quick, simple process at mediawiki.org. So far, about a dozen Wikipedias have enabled the auto-citation tool. To enable it for your wiki, follow the instructions at mediawiki.org.

Your wiki can customize the first section of the special character inserter in VisualEditor. Please follow the instructions at mediawiki.org to put the characters you want at the top. 

In other changes, if you need to fill in a CAPTCHA and get it wrong, then you can click to get a new one to complete. VisualEditor can now display and edit Vega-based graphs. If you use the Monobook skin, VisualEditor's appearance is now more consistent with other software.  

Future changes

The team will be changing the appearance of selected links inside VisualEditor. The purpose is to make it easy to see whether your cursor is inside or outside the link. When you select a link, the link label (the words shown on the page) will be enclosed in a faint box. If you place your cursor inside the box, then your changes to the link label will be part of the link. If you place your cursor outside the box, then it will not. This will make it easy to know when new characters will be added to the link and when they will not.

On the English Wikipedia, 10% of newly created accounts are now offered both the visual and the wikitext editors. A recent controlled trial showed no significant difference in survival or productivity for new users in the short term. New users with access to VisualEditor were very slightly less likely to produce results that needed reverting. You can learn more about this by watching a video of the July 2015 Wikimedia Research Showcase. The proportion of new accounts with access to both editing environments will be gradually increased over time. Eventually all new users have the choice between the two editing environments.

Let's work together

  • Share your ideas and ask questions at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • Can you read and type in Korean or Japanese? Language engineer David Chan needs people who know which tools people use to type in some languages. If you speak Japanese or Korean, you can help him test support for these languages. Please see the instructions at mw:VisualEditor/IME Testing#What to test if you can help.
  • If your wiki would like VisualEditor enabled on another namespace, you can file a request in Phabricator. Please include a link to a community discussion about the requested change.
  • Please file requests for language-appropriate "Bold" and "Italic" icons for the styling menu in Phabricator.
  • The design research team wants to see how real editors work. Please sign up for their research program.
  • The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, usually on Tuesdays at 12:00 (noon) PDT (19:00 UTC). Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q1 blocker, though. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" the main VisualEditor project with the bug.

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact Elitre directly, so that she can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:01, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

TAFI List of articles purge, part II

 
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A discussion is occurring at the TAFI talk page regarding the removal of entries from the project's List of articles page. Your input is welcome at the discussion.

Wikidata weekly summary #170

This week's article for improvement (week 33, 2015)

 
Berries for sale at a farmers' market
Hello, Quenhitran.

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

Berry

Please be bold and help to improve this article!


Previous selections: Farmhouse • Igloo


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


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14:58, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

Wikimedia Highlights from July 2015

Here are the highlights from the Wikimedia blog in July 2015.
 
About · Subscribe/unsubscribe, 20:55, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 12 August 2015

Superprotect was a novel page protection level implemented on August 10 last year, without warning.
The Atlantic discusses "The Covert World of People Trying to Edit Wikipedia—for Pay".
The community speaks out on paid editing.
Our ongoing Wikimanía coverage.
The charts are led this week by UFC women's champion Ronda Rousey, who won her last match at UFC 190 (#9) in 34 seconds.
Watch out for icebergs.
Wikimedia technical news.
During World War II, the German battleship Tirpitz was a major threat to Allied convoys travelling across the North Atlantic and Arctic Sea.

This week's article for improvement (week 34, 2015)

 
Three plates of soufflés
Hello, Quenhitran.

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

Soufflé

Please be bold and help to improve this article!


Previous selections: Berry • Farmhouse


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


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