User talk:Zaher.Kadour/Archive 1
Latest comment: 12 years ago by Zaher kadour in topic Contested deletion
 | This is an archive of past discussions with User:Zaher.Kadour. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
| Archive 1 | Archive 2 |
July 2012
Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, your addition of one or more external links to the page Kazo, Hama has been reverted.
Your edit here to Kazo, Hama was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to remove links which are discouraged per our external links guideline. The external link(s) you added or changed (http://www.fallingrain.com/world/SY/10/Kazu.html) is/are on my list of links to remove and probably shouldn't be included in Wikipedia. If you were adding a link or reference to fallingrain.com, then you should be aware that this site is considered on wikipedia to be an unreliable source. More information can be found MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist#Fallingrain.com here (permanent). Please consider to use/find another source for the information.
If you were trying to insert an external link that does comply with our policies and guidelines, then please accept my creator's apologies and feel free to undo the bot's revert. However, if the link does not comply with our policies and guidelines, but your edit included other, constructive, changes to the article, feel free to make those changes again without re-adding the link. Please read Wikipedia's external links guideline for more information, and consult my list of frequently-reverted sites. For more information about me, see my FAQ page. Thanks! --XLinkBot (talk) 21:44, 24 July 2012 (UTC)
Disambiguation link notification for June 20
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Mohammed Saeed Nawed, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Eritrean (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 11:26, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
Good work
Nice to see you active here too. Keep up the good work. --Meno25 (talk) 06:16, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for the comment
Hello, thank you for visiting and leaving the comment on the new "Naganori Ito" page I created. Everybody is welcome and please feel free to correct or add the sources which I don't know.Prince Skyline S54B 04:19, 17 July 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Prince Skyline S54B (talk • contribs)
Glass Steagall disambig category removal?
Just wondering why you thought removing the FDIC category was a good cleanup. I'm not really against it -- disambig pages sometimes should have the categories of the pages they disambiguate, sometimes not. But just wondering about the rationale.
Article requests on the Arabic Wikipedia
Hi! Do you do article requests on the Arabic Wikipedia? WhisperToMe (talk) 19:45, 18 August 2013 (UTC)
- It means I propose starting an article about a subject in Arabic that does not yet exist in Arabic, and someone writes a short stub about the article. That way topics that may be of interest to an Arabic speaking audience are filled in. WhisperToMe (talk) 18:01, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
You are welcome :) - Here is a list of possibilities:
- Al-Ahram Hebdo (French edition of Egyptian newspaper) -> ar:الأهرام إبدو
Done - Culture of Saudi Arabia -> ar:ثقافة السعودية
- Mohammed Knut Bernström -> ar:محمد كنوت برنستروم Done
- Central Organization for Statistics -> ar:الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء (disambig) -> ar:إنشاء الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء العراقي
- MillatFacebook -> ar:ميليت فيسبوك
- Blogging in Arab countries -> ar:التدوين في الدول العربية Done
- Ministry of National Defense (Lebanon) -> ar:وزارة الدفاع الوطني
- Bassem al-Tamimi -> ar:باسم التميمي
- Nawaf Massalha -> ar:نواف مصالحة
- Justin Amash (Arab American political representative) -> ar:جستين أماش
If you want more, please let me know WhisperToMe (talk) 19:21, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
- Thank you for starting these articles ! WhisperToMe (talk) 06:00, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
Disambiguation link notification for September 1
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Sand equivalent test, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Aggregates (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 14:37, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
Sand equivalent test
Hello Zaher kadour,
This is just a courtesy visit to inform you that I took the liberty to slightly expand your above article, add section, cite references and wikilinks. I hope you'd like my effort. I'd appreciate your say on this. Best regards, (MrNiceGuy1113 (talk) 12:17, 3 September 2013 (UTC))
Additional requests
Hi, Zaher! Do you mind starting Arabic language stubs in the following?
- en:Hamtramck, Michigan
- en:Hamtramck Public Schools
- en:Troy, Michigan
- en:Troy School District (Michigan) -> ar:منطقة مدارس تروي - http://cos.troy.k12.mi.us/Documents/ESL/Code%20of%20Conduct/FINAL%20ARABIC.doc
Hamtramck has a large Yemeni population, and so its schools have many people who speak Arabic. The other city, Troy, may have some Arabic speakers because there is an Arabic document from the school district. Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 03:46, 9 September 2013 (UTC)
The article Bleeding (roads) has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:
- Non-notable term. One line article that as it is fails for being nothing more then a dict. definition.
While all constructive contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.
You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.
Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, the speedy deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion. Caffeyw (talk) 15:54, 14 September 2013 (UTC)
Disambiguation link notification for September 15
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Bleeding (roads), you added links pointing to the disambiguation pages Pavement and Sticky (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 11:21, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 02 October 2013
- Op-ed: Commons medical diagnostic images under threat from unresolved ownership
Medical images have transformed many aspects of modern medicine. Over the past two decades the increasing sophistication of MRI, CT-scanning, and X-ray techniques has made these technologies the cornerstone of diagnosing a range of conditions, replacing what used to be largely guesswork by doctors. They can be the difference between life and death for a patient, and their importance is underlined by the tens of billions of dollars spent on them annually just in North America. For Wikimedia Foundation projects, advanced images are now a powerful tool for describing and explaining, and educating our worldwide readership of medical articles.
- Discussion report: References to individuals and groups, merging wikiprojects, portals on the Main page, and more
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
- News and notes: WMF signals new grantmaking priorities
In what will be remembered as a game-changing week for Wikimedia grantmaking, the Foundation's executive director, Sue Gardner, published a forthright and in places highly critical statement, Reflections on the FDC process, and grantmaking staff revealed that the WMF will significantly strengthen its targeting of optimal impact in funding.
- Featured content: Bobby, Ben, Roger and a fantasia
Six articles and two pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
- Arbitration report: Infoboxes: After the war
Editor's note: To go beyond the mere facts of cases, the "Arbitration report" invited several editors who participated in the recent Infoboxes case to comment on infoboxes: what they are, where new users can go to find out about them, specifications and protocols, best practices, and how the upcoming community discussion recommended by the Committee in the case decision should be framed.
- WikiProject report: U2 Too
This week, we revisited the enthusiastic editors at WikiProject U2. Started in June 2007, the project has grown in spurts, resulting in a collection of 8 Featured Articles and 24 Good Articles. The project maintains a to do list, portal, and a list of references.
The Signpost: 09 October 2013
- Traffic report: Shutdown shenanigans
If you're living in the United States, what did you do during the government shutdown? Well, it seems most people watched the final episode of Breaking Bad.
- WikiProject report: Australian Roads
This week, we moved to the esoteric world of Australian roads.
- Featured content: Under the sea
Seven articles, six lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
- News and notes: Extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed
An investigation by the English Wikipedia community into suspicious edits and sockpuppet activity has led to astonishing revelations that Wiki-PR, a multi-million-dollar US-based company, has created, edited, or maintained several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients using a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts.
- In the media: College credit for editing Wikipedia
The University of California, San Francisco attracted substantial media attention over its new course offering that will give credit to fourth year medical students for editing Wikipedia articles about medicine.
- Arbitration report: Manning naming dispute and Ebionites 3 cases continue; third arbitrator resigns
A proposed decision has been posted in the Manning naming dispute. The workshop phase of the Ebionites 3 case closes 13 October. Arbitrator NuclearWarfare has resigned.
The Signpost: 16 October 2013
- News and notes: Vice on Wiki-PR's paid advocacy; Featured list elections begin
Media coverage on Wiki-PR, the multi-million-dollar US-based company that has broken several policies and guidelines on the English Wikipedia in its quest to create and maintain thousands of articles for paying clients, continued this week with a feature story by Martin Robbins in the British edition of Vice magazine.
- Traffic report: Peaceful potpourri
A slow week, with low overall views and the Top 10 dominated by longstanding pages. Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron's outer space-set action art film, not only held its position at the top of the US box office but climbed to the top of the Wikipedia chart as well, showing that it has become a major talking point.
- WikiProject report: Heraldry and Vexillology
This week, we studied coats of arms and flags with the folks at WikiProject Heraldry and Vexillology. Started in September 2006, the project has grown to include 20 Featured Articles and nearly 50 Good Articles. The project maintains a portal, a list of resources, and a variety of images and templates.
- Featured content: That's a lot of pictures
Six articles, two lists, and thirty-three pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
- Arbitration report: Manning naming dispute case closes
The Manning naming dispute case has closed, with a strong and unanimous statement by the Committee against disparaging references to transgendered persons. Sanctions were enacted against six editors.
- Discussion report: Ada Lovelace Day, paid advocacy on Wikipedia, sidebar update, and more
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
New features
- You can now choose which language to show for SVG files that contain several languages, using the "lang" option, like
[[File:Gerrit_patchset_25838_test.svg|lang=de]]for the German layer of File:Gerrit patchset 25838 test.svg. - Developers are looking for wiki communities to try the new search system.
VisualEditor news
- You can now create and edit references inside media captions.
- You now need to press the "delete" key twice to delete a template, reference or image; the first time, they only become selected, to avoid accidental deletion of infoboxes and similar content.
- When you resize images, you will now still see them, and their size will also be seen in the center.
Future
- The new notifications system ("Echo") will be added to almost all wikis that don't already have it on October 22. It will notify you of changes and events that affect you.
- MediaWiki 1.22wmf22 was added to test wikis on October 17. It will arrive to non-Wikipedia wikis on October 21 and all Wikipedia wikis on October 24 (calendar).
- The interface to reset your password will soon be changed.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by Global message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
09:16, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 23 October 2013
- News and notes: Grantmaking season—rumblings in the German-language community
The next twice-yearly round of Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) grantmaking is soon to close for community questioning and commentary. Ten nation-based Wikimedia chapters and one thematic organisation are asking for a total of more than US$5M of donors’ money from the Foundation’s renamed annual plan grant process. Aside from Wikimedia UK ($708k), the three biggest asks are from the German-speaking chapters: Wikimedia Germany is asking for $2.4M and Wikimedia Austria $311k; and the German-language-related Swiss chapter is applying for $500k.
- Traffic report: Your average week ... and a fish
Media, sports and Google Doodles dominate, though a very odd fish decided to crash the party.
- Featured content: Your worst nightmare as a child is now featured on Wikipedia
Twelve articles, four lists, and four pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week, including the article on cabbage.
- Discussion report: More discussion of paid advocacy, upcoming arbitrator elections, research hackathon, and more
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
- In the media: The decline of Wikipedia; Sue Gardner releases statement on Wiki-PR; Australian minister relies on Wikipedia
MIT Technology Review published a long article on what it called "The decline of Wikipedia". Editor involvement has decreased since 2007; according to the article, this has had an adverse qualitative effect on content, particularly on issues pertinent to non-British and American male geeks.
- WikiProject report: Elements of the world
This week, we headed to an elementary subject with WikiProject Elements. Founded by Mav in 2002, this project has grown to have 19 featured articles, 2 featured topics, and 68 good articles. The project also has a list of templates, and a periodic table of elements filled with pictures.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
New features
- The "Toolbox" section in the site sidebar is now called "Tools" in English. You can do the same in your language by editing the interface text on translatewiki.net. Someone else may have already done it.
VisualEditor news
Problems
- On October 22 (UTC), an error in the site settings caused
*.wikimedia.orgsites (like Meta-Wiki and Commons) to redirect towikimediafoundation.orgfor a few hours.
Future
- MediaWiki 1.23wmf1 was added to test wikis on October 24. It will arrive to non-Wikipedia wikis on October 28 and all Wikipedia wikis on October 31 (calendar).
- In the next days, servers in San Francisco will start providing (cached) content to users located in Oceania. If you are in that area and notice problems, please tell us.
- You will soon be able to test new features easily using the "Beta Features" view. VisualEditor will be in the list on sites where it works and isn't automatically enabled. Another example is a set of changes in the article text style.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by Global message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
09:45, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 30 October 2013
- Traffic report: 200 miles in 200 years
The top 10 encapsulates the history of human aviation; at #1, a Google Doodle celebrating the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump; at #10, the enduringly popular scifi film Gravity, a paean to human spaceflight. It's odd to think it's taken us 200 years to travel about that many miles up.
- In the media: Rand Paul plagiarizes Wikipedia?
While giving a speech on behalf of a gubernatorial candidate, Paul advocated his pro-life position, and compared allowing unrestricted abortions to the film Gattaca. He went on to use strikingly similar language and phraseology in his speech to what the Wikipedia page reads. The Washington Post's article conceded that Wikipedia is a widely used source for trivial information, but mocked the fact that a politician would view it as a reliable source.
- News and notes: Sex and drug tourism—Wikivoyage's soft underbelly?
In January we raised several potentially troublesome issues for the Wikimedia movement in taking on Wikivoyage, including the apparent inadequacy of the English Wikivoyage sex-tourism policy, hurriedly strengthened against mention of child sex after our inquiries. However, both sex-tourism and illegal-activities policies remain equivocal about how the site should treat entries about sex tourism more generally, and drugs that are classed as illicit in almost every country. Yet the Signpost has found it remarkably easy to locate material in Wikivoyage that violates both the spirit and the letter of the policies.
- Featured content: Wrestling with featured content
This year's WikiCup competition has finished, while three articles, five lists, and six pictures, were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
- Recent research: User influence on site policies: Wikipedia vs. Facebook vs. Youtube
Laura Stein, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, has concluded that, based on her comparison of user policy documents (including the Terms of Service) of YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia, Wikipedia offers the highest level of participation power overall.
- WikiProject report: Special: Lessons from the dead and dying
With Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and other gloomy celebrations this week, we're taking a look at Wikipedia's dead and dying. For some dead WikiProjects, the sole purpose of their life was simply to serve as a warning to others. Some of these projects may still be salvageable, but for most, a revival is unlikely. Here are some projects that never got off the ground and the lessons that can be gleaned from their follies
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
New features
- The style and colors for warning boxes, error messages, and success messages in all skins of MediaWiki has been changed.
VisualEditor news
- You will soon be able to switch from editing in VisualEditor to editing wikitext directly without having to save the page. You can't yet switch from wikitext to VisualEditor but developers hope to make it possible in the future.
Problems
- There was a problem on October 31 during the activation of MediaWiki 1.22wmf2 on test wikis. mediawiki.org was also broken, and if you had problems logging in, it was probably because of this as well.
Future
- Because of the problem with MediaWiki 1.22wmf2, the calendar has changed. It will be added to mediawiki.org and non-Wikipedia sites on November 4, and all Wikipedia sites on November 7.
JavaScript / Gadget developers
- Due to a recent change, gadgets and user scripts that use jQuery UI should explicitly load the appropriate modules, as they may not be loaded by default.
- Developers have started to remove long-deprecated methods. You should check the JavaScript console (in
debug=truemode) and look for deprecation warnings and their stack trace.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by Global message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
10:36, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 06 November 2013
- News and notes: Alleged "outing" of editor's personal information leads to Wikipedia ban
As part of the second major "outing" controversy to hit the English Wikipedia in less than a year, the Chelsea/Bradley Manning naming dispute was dragged into the spotlight yet again when the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee ruled by motion to remove the administrator tools from and ban long-time Wikipedia contributor Phil Sandifer.
- Traffic report: Danse Macabre
It's fair to say that commemorating death was a strong theme this week, with Lou Reed's passing generating interest, as well as a Google Doodle celebrating the costume designer Edith Head. And of course, the world's greatest celebrations of the dead, Halloween and the Day of the Dead, were also popular this week.
- Featured content: Five years of work leads to 63-article featured topic
HMS Hood, one of the most famous warships of the Second World War, was a battlecruiser and therefore part of what is now the largest featured topic on Wikipedia: "Battlecruisers of the world". The topic was promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week alongside eleven articles, three lists, four pictures, and two other topics.
- WikiProject report: WikiProject Accessibility
This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Accessibility, a project that strives to make Wikipedia accessible for users with disabilities. The project improves Wikipedia's guidelines and Manual of Style, collects useful templates and scripts, and provides support to impaired Wikipedians.
- Arbitration report: Ebionites 3 case closed
The Ebionites 3 case has closed with an interaction ban for the two editors involved in the dispute.
- Discussion report: Sockpuppet investigations, VisualEditor, Wikidata's birthday, and more
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
New features
- You can now use the "Autonym" font of the Universal Language Selector (ULS) to display the name of languages (for example in navigation templates) in their correct script. To do this, add the CSS class
"autonym"to the elements that include language names. Note that this font only works for the name of languages, not for any other text.
Problems
- There was a problem with Parsoid (the program used by VisualEditor to convert wikitext to annotated HTML) on November 4, between 19:40 and 20:40 (UTC). Encoding issues caused non-ASCII characters (including those with diacritics, like "é") to be broken when converted to wikitext and saved to the page.
Future
- The Beta Features tool is now available on Commons and Meta-Wiki. With it, you can test new features before they're added for everyone. The plan is to add this tool to all wikis on November 21.
- MediaWiki 1.23wmf3 was added to test wikis on November 7. It will arrive to non-Wikipedia wikis on November 12 and all Wikipedia wikis on November 14 (calendar).
- The MassMessage tool will be added to all wikis on November 14. It will make it simpler to send messages across wikis.
- The button of the Search page will soon be changed to be blue and bigger (see the difference).
- You will soon be able to add a page name as parameter for
{{REVISIONID}},{{REVISIONUSER}}and{{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}}and similar functions, by writing for example{{REVISIONID:Apple}}. - In the future, when you hide a CentralNotice banner on a wiki, it will also be hidden on other Wikimedia sites.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by Global message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
13:08, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 13 November 2013
- Traffic report: Google Doodlebugs bust the block
The numbers this week are beyond anything that has been seen since this report began. The top view count beats the average by an order of magnitude. Usually the appearance of numbers this big on the list is due to spamming, but in this case it seems they are due to honest interest; more specifically, Google Doodles, which for the first time claimed all five top slots. This column has raised numerous times the power of a Google Doodle to shine light on Wikipedia, but the wattage has never been as high as this.
- Featured content: 1244 Chinese handscroll leads nine-strong picture contingent
Five articles, two lists, one topic, and nine pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
- Special report: FDC staff raise the benchmarks for activities, impact, planning, and governance
The supporting staff of the Wikimedia Foundation’s powerful volunteer Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) have released their assessments for the third half-yearly round of funding applications. The applications for the newly named annual plan grants were submitted by affiliated entities on 1 October, and comprise a total of more than US$5M in bids.
- News and notes: Trademark at issue again with the Italian Wikipedia and wikipedia.it
The Italian-language Wikipedia community has overwhelmingly voted to request the Wikimedia Foundation's assistance in recovering wikipedia.it, a website that has been frequently confused with the Italian Wikipedia.
- WikiProject report: The world of soap operas
This week, we followed the intricate storylines of WikiProject Soap Operas.
- Discussion report: Commas, Draft namespace proposal, education updates, and more
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Problems
Future
- MediaWiki 1.23wmf4 was added to test wikis on November 14. It will arrive to non-Wikipedia wikis on November 19 and all Wikipedia wikis on November 21 (calendar).
- The new Search tool (CirrusSearch) will be added to
*.wikimedia.org, Wikimania and Wikisource wikis on November 19, and Wiktionary wikis on November 21 (except where it's already available). Once it is added, you can test it by adding&srbackend=CirrusSearchto the address of the search results page. It will become the main search engine on Wikivoyage wikis on November 21. - The MassMessage tool will be added to all wikis on November 19 instead of November 14. It will make it simpler to send messages across wikis.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by Global message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
08:52, 18 November 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 20 November 2013
- From the editor: The Signpost needs your help
As I said in August, contributing to the Signpost can be one of the most rewarding things an editor can do. The genre is refreshingly different from that of Wikipedia articles, and can allow writers to use a different range of skills. The need for an independent, volunteer-run Signpost continues to grow, given the increasing complexity and financial expenditures of the global Wikimedia movement, not to mention the English Wikipedia.
- Book review: Peter Burke's Social History of Knowledge—ambitious, fascinating, and exhaustive
Peter Burke's A Social History of Knowledge: Volume II: From the Encyclopédie to Wikipedia is a broad and wide-ranging look at how knowledge has been created, acquired, organized, disseminated, and sometimes lost in the Western world over the last two and a half centuries, a sequel to his 2000 book covering the prior three centuries, A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot.
- Featured content: Rockin' the featured pictures
Four articles, five lists, and thirty-four pictures were promoted to 'featured status' this week, including an image of a small fraction of the 18,000 taxis that serve Hong Kong.
- WikiProject report: Score! American football on Wikipedia
This week, we headed over to WikiProject National Football League. With 10 Featured Articles, 61 Featured Lists, and 142 Good Articles (as of publication), this WikiProject has done a lot of work improving American football articles.
- News and notes: Foundation to Wiki-PR: cease and desist; Arbitration Committee elections starting
The Wikimedia Foundation has sent a formal cease and desist letter to Wiki-PR—the public relations agency accused of breaking Wikipedia policies and guidelines by creating, editing, and maintaining several thousand articles for paying clients through a sophisticated array of accounts. The Foundation's attorneys, Cooley LLP, have demanded that Wiki-PR's employees abide by the site's Terms of Use and the language of a community ban from the English Wikipedia.
- Traffic report: Ill Winds
It's not hard to guess which event is leading interest in the top 25 this week. The sheer scale of Typhoon Haiyan is staggering; estimates place its maximum windspeed upon first landfall in the Philippines on November 6 at 315 km/h, which would make it the most powerful tropical cyclone ever to reach land. To date, the storm has killed nearly 4000 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 4 million homes.
- Arbitration report: WMF opens the door for non-admin arbitrators
Back in March, when the March 25 Arbitration Report covered the Audit Subcommittee appointment discussion, a statement from the WMF legal division clarified its position that access to deleted revisions required an RFA or RFA-identical process; therefore AUSC committee appointments were not open to non-admins. The WMF legal team has now further clarified its position, saying that running for and winning an election for arbitrator would qualify as the type of rigorous community selection process required for the checkuser and oversight rights held by arbitrators.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
New features
- The Beta Features announced before are now available on all Wikimedia wikis. You can test new features easily by changing your Beta preferences. VisualEditor is one of those features on sites where it works and isn't automatically enabled. There is also a new media viewer and changes in the article text style.
- Tools developers can now create tools that use the OAuth protocol to connect to accounts on Wikimedia sites. As a user, you can use those tools to make edits and other changes with your account without giving the tool your password.
Problems
- Wikis that are currently testing CirrusSearch had problems with search results on November 18 from 16:00 to 20:00 UTC.
Future
- There will be no major code changes on the week of November 25 because many developers will be on holiday for Thanksgiving.
- The editing interface of
Page:pages on Wikisource (working with the Proofread Page extension) will soon also work without JavaScript.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by Global message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
06:49, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 04 December 2013
- Traffic report: Kennedy shot Who
Summary:Doctor Who nearly got cancelled in its first week because its premiere was swamped by coverage of the JFK assassination, which happened the same day. Thankfully, producers saw fit to rerun it the next day, which is now its official anniversary date.
- Recent research: Reciprocity and reputation motivate contributions to Wikipedia; indigenous knowledge and "cultural imperialism"; how PR people see Wikipedia
Wikipedia works on the efforts of unpaid volunteers who choose to donate their time to advance the cause of free knowledge. This phenomenon, as trivial as it may sound to those acquainted with Wikipedia inner workings, has always puzzled economists and social scientists alike, in that standard Economic theory would not predict that such enterprises would thrive without any form of remuneration.
- Discussion report: Musical scores, diversity conference, Module:Convert, and more
Recent discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
- News and notes: One decade of Wikisource; FDC recommendations raise serious questions
The sister project Wikisource, the digital library that hosts free-content primary sources, is now a decade old. Wikisource, which now has versions in 63 languages, is the sixth type of project to reach ten-year milestone and will be the last until 2016. The Wikimedia Foundation's volunteer Funds Dissemination Committee has published its recommendations to the Board of Trustees on 11 new applications for annual grants by 11 WMF-affiliated organisations. The maximum total budget for the current and upcoming March rounds is US$6M.
- WikiProject report: Electronic Apple Pie
This week, we returned to WikiProject Apple Inc. for a peek at their newest articles about the latest in gadgets and software. The last time we took a bite out of WikiProject Apple, they had just finished merging WikiProject Macintosh and WikiProject iPhone OS. Today, the project is hard at work rewriting their primary article, improving the subject's outline, and adding to the project's list of 25 Good Articles and 6 Featured Articles.
- Featured content: F*&!
Seventeen articles, four lists, and twenty-eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status in the last two weeks.
- Arbitration report: Ottoman Empire–Turkey naming dispute case opens; New discretionary sanctions draft proposal available for review
The Ottoman Empire–Turkey naming dispute case has opened. The second draft of the discretionary sanctions proposal is now open for review.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
This newsletter is now posted using MediaWiki message delivery.
New features
- The CommonsMetadata feature was added to all wikis. It creates metadata information about multimedia files (like their license) that can be read automatically by computer programs. It not only works for Commons, but for all wikis, and you can use it for files on your wiki by editing templates used to describe metadata.
- JavaScript code used on Wikimedia sites is now saved locally on your computer to load faster.
- You can now paste formatted content copied from external sources (not just as plain text) into VisualEditor; this includes copy/pasting from other VisualEditor windows.
- You can now open VisualEditor by adding
?veaction=editto the page URL, regardless of your user preferences. - Many bugs have been fixed, and VisualEditor should also look faster, for example when you save a page.
Problems
- Due to issues, the new search tool ("CirrusSearch") was recently removed from wikis where it was enabled, then added again.
Future
- MediaWiki 1.23wmf6 was added to test wikis on December 5. It will arrive to non-Wikipedia wikis on December 10 and all Wikipedia wikis on December 12 (calendar).
- The old Etherpad tool (replaced by a new version) will be removed on December 30, 2013. You can still save old pads before that date using the old address: https://etherpad-old.wikimedia.org.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
08:38, 9 December 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 11 December 2013
- Traffic report: Deaths of Mandela, Walker top the list
When one edits this page for too long, one is tempted to appoint oneself as the psychoanalyst for the human race, or at least the English-speaking portion thereof. Since nearly everyone uses Wikipedia, the constant stream of TV updates, pointless celebrity scandals, and inquiries after who has died can seem like a dreary peek into humanity's surprisingly banal collective consciousness.
- In the media: Edward Snowden a "hero"; German Wikipedia court ruling
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales caught headlines last week when he referred to former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden ... Loek Essers of the International Data Group, (IDG) News Service is reporting that a German court has held Wikipedia liable for its content, but still does not have to fact check the information in advance.
- News and notes: Wiki Loves Monuments—winners announced
Amid great anticipation the international prize winners have just been announced for the fourth annual Wiki Loves Monuments, now the world's largest photographic competition and one of the biggest events on the Wikimedia movement's calendar. ... The first prize has gone to David Gubler's photograph of a Swiss train crossing a viaduct.
- WikiProject report: WikiProject Wine
This week, the Signpost interviewed the Wine WikiProject.
- Interview: Wikipedia's first Featured Article centurion
On 7 December, Wikipedia editor Wehwalt reached the momentous milestone of 100 featured articles with History of Chincoteague, Virginia. Quite apart from the reading and research, that's around three-quarters of a million words of finalised text, not counting footnotes, image captions and the rest.
- Featured content: Viewer discretion advised
Three articles, one list, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
- Technology report: MediaWiki 1.22 released
On 6 December, the latest version of the MediaWiki software was released. In development from March 2013 through October 2013, the release featured anti-spam and counter-vandalism improvements.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
New features
- You can now see a legend on Special:RecentChanges and Special:Watchlist that explains the symbols used.
- If your wiki is testing the new search tool ("CirrusSearch"), you can now test it by adding "New search" in your Beta features preferences.
- The toolbar is now simpler; all text styles (bold, italics, underline, subscript, etc.) are in the same menu, and the "More" menu is called "Insert".
- You can now use a basic tool to add special characters to your text. You can add more characters (useful in your language) by editing the MediaWiki interface on translatewiki.net.
- The tool to add and edit mathematical text is now called "formula".
Problems
- There was a problem with the "Create a book" tool (Collection); books could only be exported to PDF format. The change has been undone.
- The log-in system for external tools ("OAuth") was broken on wikis that tested the new search tool. It was fixed last week.
- Because of a bug, this newsletter is delivered to users using the new MediaWiki message delivery, and to community pages using the old EdwardsBot.
Future
- MediaWiki 1.23wmf7 was added to test wikis on December 12. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on December 17 and all Wikipedia wikis on December 19 (calendar).
- You will soon be able to select the language of SVG images that have translations using a drop-down menu on the image page. (see example)
- GLAMToolset, a tool to help GLAM groups (like museums) upload many pictures to Commons, will be added to Commons on December 17.
- A Draft namespace will be added to the English Wikipedia to make it easier to create new pages. You will be able to use VisualEditor for drafts if you have enabled it.
Other
- You can read the summary of the technical report for November 2013 to learn more about VisualEditor, Mobile and other features.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
08:24, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 18 December 2013
- WikiProject report: Babel Series: Tunisia on the French Wikipedia
This week, the Signpost interviewed the Tunisia WikiProject on the French Wikipedia.
- Traffic report: Hopper to the top
An animated Google Doodle for computer programmer and naval rear admiral Grace Hopper generated another record-breaking hit count for the year, though the count for the list overall was lower than for that of the previous holder.
- Discussion report: Usernames, template data and documentation, Main page, and more
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
- News and notes: Nine new arbitrators announced
A little more than six days after the close of voting, the results of the annual Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) elections have been announced. Of the 22 candidates, 13 managed to gain more supports than opposes, though only one gained the support of more than half of the voters. Eight were elected to two-year terms, and a ninth will serve for one year.
- Featured content: Triangulum, the most boring constellation in the universe
Seven articles, three lists, and eight pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.
- Technology report: Introducing the GLAMWikiToolset
This week, the GLAMWikiToolset, or GWToolset, is being deployed to the Wikimedia Commons. It allows for GLAM organizations to batch upload content based on various metadata stored in an XML schema. In the past this has been done by various bots, but now it will be easier for GLAMs to do it directly.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf8) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on December 19. It will be enabled on non-Wikipedia wikis on December 31 and on all Wikipedia wikis on January 2, 2014 (calendar).
- You can now test the new search tool ("CirrusSearch") on all Wikisource, Wiktionary and Wikimedia chapter wikis hosted on Foundation servers. Enable "New search" in your Beta features preferences.
- There was a bug where notifications were not sent when the signature of the user leaving the message linked to a translated namespace. The problem was fixed in the software and will soon be fixed on Wikimedia sites.
- You can now use the log-in system for external tools (OAuth) on all Wikimedia wikis that use the unified login.
- If your wiki adds stars or other icons to interwiki links for featured articles in other languages, you may need to change the JavaScript code.
- You can thank other users for their edits even if your browser does not have JavaScript.
- All edits made through Flow, the new discussion system for MediaWiki, are now visible in user's contributions. You can test it on the Flow talk page on MediaWiki.org.
- You can test a visual tool that shows edits made to an article over time. It only works for English Wikipedia pages for now and is slow on long articles.
- You can test the first version of the new mobile Wikipedia app for Android and iOS.
- Translatewiki.net, the site where you can translate the MediaWiki software, now has a new main page for users without an account.
Future software changes
- There will be no technical changes this week (December 23 to December 29) due to end-of-year holidays.
- When someone deletes, restores, uploads, or moves a file on Commons, pages on all wikis that use that file will be refreshed.
- New users will soon have their user and talk pages added to their watchlist as soon as they create an account. .
- The new search tool (CirrusSearch) will not show the text of versions of a page that have been hidden.
- You will soon be able to see the raw HTML created by some wikitext by using the Special:ExpandTemplates tool.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
08:22, 23 December 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 25 December 2013
- Recent research: Cross-language editors, election predictions, vandalism experiments
Analyzing edits to the-then 46 largest Wikipedias between July 9 and August 8, 2013, a study identified a set of about 8,000 contributors with a global user account who have edited more than one of these language versions in that time frame.
- Featured content: Drunken birds and treasonous kings
Five articles, two lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia.
- Discussion report: Draft namespace, VisualEditor meetings
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
- WikiProject report: More Great WikiProject Logos
We saved one last special report for 2013. After our well-received review of great WikiProject logos a couple years ago, it was only a matter of time before we collected a new batch of interesting iconography that showcases the creativity of the Wikipedia community. Hopefully, these logos will also inspire other projects to liven up their drab pages.
- News and notes: IEG round 2 funding rewards diverse ambitions
A significant move by the Wikimedia Foundation has been to broaden the types of activities it funds to develop several different programs for judging and allocating that funding, and to set up volunteer committees that initially assess applications for funding.
- Technology report: OAuth: future of user designed tools
Last month, the OAuth extension was deployed to all Wikimedia wikis. OAuth is a standard used for allowing users to authenticate third-party applications, also known as consumers, to take actions on their behalf.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- You can now see the text of DjVu and PDF files in search results on wikis testing the new search tool (CirrusSearch).
- With the new version of the Wikibase DataModel extension, you can install it outside Wikimedia wikis.
VisualEditor news
- Images are now shown inside VisualEditor as HTML5
<figure />elements. Comments are welcome. - You can now test a basic version of VisualEditor on mobile devices; see this article as an example.
Problems
- On December 23, Wikimedia Labs was broken for 4 hours due to an NFS problem.
Future software changes
- CirrusSearch will be added as the second search method for Spanish (es), French (fr), Portuguese (pt) and Russian (ru) wikis on December 30. Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies and Wikinews users will also be able to enable it in their Beta Features options.
- AbuseFilter log entries will be visible in CheckUser tool reports.
- It will soon be possible to search for log entries done by users without an account.
- It will no longer be possible to globally hide users with more than 1,000 edits.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
08:40, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
The Signpost: 01 January 2014
- Traffic report: A year stuck in traffic
In fact, the majority are relatively evenly split between three themes: people of interest, television, and websites.
- Arbitration report: Examining the Committee's year
In 2013, the arbitration committee closed 10 cases, 9 amendment requests, and 26 clarification requests.
- In the media: Does Wikipedia need a medical disclaimer?
On New Year's Day, an article by Tim Sampson published in The Daily Dot and republished shortly after on Mashable covered the currently ongoing medical disclaimer RfC.
- Book review: Common Knowledge: An Ethnography of Wikipedia
Dariusz Jemielniak's book is the newest about Wikipedia, published in Poland in 2013 and with an English edition forthcoming in 2014.
- News and notes: The year in review
This was the year in which one journalist described the flagship site, Wikipedia, as "wickedly seductive". It was the year Wikipedia's replacement value was estimated at $6.6bn, its market value at "tens of billions of dollars", and its consumer benefit "hundreds of billions of dollars". But it was also the year in which one commentator forecast the decline of Wikipedia—that the project is in trouble from its shrinking volunteer workforce, skewed coverage, "crushing bureaucracy" and 90 percent male community.
- Discussion report: Article incubator, dates and fractions, medical disclaimer
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia and around the Wikimedia movement include...
- WikiProject report: Where Are They Now? Fifth Edition
The year 2013 has come and gone, adding 50 new WikiProject Reports to our long list of projects we've had the privilege to meet. Last year saw the continuation of our Babel series, featuring WikiProjects from other languages of Wikipedia. We also expanded our selection of special reports, offering readers a growing collection of helpful tips and tools as they participate in WikiProjects.
- Featured content: 2013—the trends
Over the past year 1181 pieces of featured content were promoted. The most active of the featured content programs was featured picture candidates (FPC), which promoted an average of 46 pictures a month. This was followed by featured article candidates (FAC; 32.5 a month). Coming in third was featured list candidates (FLC; 18 a month).
- Technology report: Looking back on 2013
2013 saw a lot of changes to MediaWiki software and Wikimedia infrastructure.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf9) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 2. It will be enabled on non-Wikipedia wikis on January 7 and on all Wikipedia wikis on January 9 (calendar).
- The old note-taking site (Etherpad) was removed on December 30, 2013. You can see most of the documents on the new site.
Problems
- On January 2, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and all Wikivoyage projects were broken for 2 hours due to language cache update issues.
- On the same day, it was not possible to edit most wikis for about 30 minutes, due to a database replication problem.
Future software changes
- The new search tool (CirrusSearch) will be added as the default search method for Italian Wikipedia, French Wikisource, Wikidata and all Wikivoyage sites, and as a second search method for the German Wikipedia and all Wikibooks sites on January 6.
- Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian Wikipedia users will also be able to enable CirrusSearch in their Beta Features options.
- Plural form rules for some languages will be changed. Many translations of the user interface for Belarusian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian and other languages will need to be changed.
- You will see a warning when you try to delete a page linked to from other pages.
- You will be able to hide redirect pages on the list of protected pages.
- You will be able to use keyboard shortcuts in the Translate tool, by pressing Alt+1 and similar key groups.
- E-mails sent by MediaWiki will include the name of the site in their
From:line. You will be able to change this name on your wiki by editing theMediaWiki:Emailsenderpage. - Images viewed in the Beta Features media viewer will load faster.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
08:35, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 08 January 2014
- Public Domain Day: Why the year 2019 is so significant
Public Domain Day—January 1, 2014—gives me an opportunity to reflect on this important asset, mandated by the Constitution of the United States.
- Traffic report: Tragedy and television
The various maladies that befall humanity got some well-known faces this week: the death of the well-liked actor James Avery topped the list, but Michael Schumacher, who is in a coma after a skiing accident, also drew attention.
- Technology report: Gearing up for the Architecture Summit
MediaWiki developers will be meeting in San Francisco on January 23–24 for an Architecture Summit.
- News and notes: WMF employee forced out over "paid advocacy editing"
On 8 January, the Wikimedia Foundation notified the Wikimedia-l mailing list that Sarah Stierch, a popular Wikimedian and the Foundation's Program Evaluation Community Coordinator, was no longer an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, as a result of being paid to create articles on the English Wikipedia.
- Op-ed: WikiCup competition beginning a new year
At the very start of the new year, 2014's WikiCup—an annual competition which has been held on Wikipedia in various forms since 2007—began.
- WikiProject report: Jumping into the television universe
This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Television.
- Featured content: A portal to the wonderful world of technology
Twelve articles, three lists, seven pictures, and a portal were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia in the last two weeks.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
You can read a recent blog post about how Tech News is put together, translated and sent to you across wikis each week.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf10) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 9. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 14, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 16 (calendar).
- Searching in the
File:namespace on Wikimedia Commons may be slow due to a search engine issue.
VisualEditor news
- VisualEditor will be added for all users on several Wikipedias on January 13.
- You can now add and remove
__NOTOC__,__FORCETOC__and__NOEDITSECTION__in the page metadata menu.
Problems
- For a few hours on January 6, it was not possible to edit pages using the Translate tool on Wikimedia Commons and the Wikimania 2013 wiki, due to a settings error.
- For about 20 minutes on January 9, there were problems with CSS and JavaScript due to high server load.
Future software changes
- Wikidata will be added to all Wikisource wikis on January 14.
- The new search tool (CirrusSearch) will be added as the second search method for the English Wikipedia on January 13. On Wikibooks and the German Wikipedia, you will also be able to test it by adding it in your Beta Features options.
- You will soon be able to export page collections into other formats than PDF.
- It will soon be possible to upload groups of photos from Flickr using UploadWizard.
- The Wikimedia Foundation has shared a multimedia vision for 2016. You are invited to comment.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
09:33, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 15 January 2014
- News and notes: German chapter asks for "reworking" of Funds Dissemination Committee; should MP4 be allowed on Wikimedia sites?
Wikimedia Germany, the largest national affiliate, has authored an extensive critique of the Funds Dissemination Committee's process for issuing funding recommendations for the various large organizations in the movement.
- Technology report: Architecture Summit schedule published
The proposed schedule for the MediaWiki Archicture Summit has been published. The two main plenary sessions will be about HTML templating, and Service-oriented architecture.
- Op-ed: Licensed for reuse? Citing open-access sources in Wikipedia articles
It is heavily ironic that two decades after the World Wide Web was started — largely to make it easier to share scholarly research — most of our past and present research publications are still hidden behind paywalls for private profit. The bitter twist is that the vast majority of this research is publicly funded, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide each year.
- In the media: Is Google hurting Wikipedia traffic?; "Wikipedia-Mania" in the New York Times
Wikipedia's recent decline in readership, possibly due to Google's Knowledge Graph. ... Judith Newman in the New York Times asks "What Does Judith Newman Have to Do to Get a Page?"
- Traffic report: The Hours are Ours
We now can get a far more accurate picture of which short surges in popularity are likely natural and which are not.
- WikiProject report: WikiProject Sociology
This week, we studied human social behavior with the folks at WikiProject Sociology.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf11) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 16. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 28, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 30 (calendar).
- You can now see relatively recent results on special pages like Special:DoubleRedirects, Special:UncategorizedPages or Special:WantedCategories. They were disabled before because they were very slow. The results are now updated once a month.
- As of January 16, you can make and use guided tours on the Asturian, Farsi and Russian Wikipedias. If you want this tool on your wiki, you need to translate it and ask in Bugzilla.
- You can give comments on an idea to have a fixed toolbar at the top of wiki pages.
- You can watch a video to learn how to report problems in Bugzilla.
VisualEditor news
- In the toolbar, the menu to edit the styles (like bold, italic, etc.) now has a down arrow (
). The order of the Insert menu has also changed a little. - You can now edit
<gallery />tags with a very basic tool. - You can now see a help page about keyboard shortcuts in the page menu.
- When you change categories, you will now see them when you save the page.
- When you edit templates, you will now see the parameters in the right order. The ones that you must add have a star (*).
- The page will now be saved faster, thanks to a new way of coding the text that sends 40% less text to the servers.
- Your wiki can ask to test a new tool to edit TemplateData.
Problems
- There was a problem with search on the English and German Wikipedias between January 6 and January 14. You could not see new pages and changes in search results.
- There were "pool timeouts" errors on several wikis on January 13; it was caused by a code change that was made to fix another problem.
- On January 17, Bugzilla and Wikimedia Labs were broken for about 20 minutes due to network problems. IRC channels with recent changes (irc.wikimedia.org) were broken for about two hours.
Future software changes
- If you have removed JavaScript in your web browser, you will soon be able to see the orange bar saying that you have new messages. If you have changed how the bar looks with a gadget, you may need to change the gadget again.
- You will soon be able to add a given Flickr user to a blacklist so that their files can't be uploaded using UploadWizard on Wikimedia Commons and other wikis.
- You will see a warning when you try to delete a page included in at least one other page.
- You will so longer see disambiguation pages in Special:LonelyPages.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
10:22, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 22 January 2014
- Book review: Missing Links and Secret Histories: A Selection of Wikipedia Entries from Across the Known Multiverse
A particularly esoteric anthology of speculative fiction, filled with imaginary Wikipedia entries from, as the introduction puts it, "the many Wikipedias across the Multiverse."
- News and notes: Modification of WMF protection brought to Arbcom
The Wikimedia Foundation's Director of Community Advocacy's application of pending changes level two on the article Conventional PCI—an action taken under its rarely used office actions policy—has escalated to the Arbitration Committee after an editor upgraded it to full protection.
- Featured content: Dr. Watson, I presume
Fifteen articles, nine lists, twenty pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia over the last two weeks.
- Special report: The few who write Wikipedia
On 15 January, Wikipedia turned thirteen years old. In that time, this site has grown from a small site that was known to only a select few to one of the most popular websites on the internet. At the same time, recent data suggests that there is a power curve among users, where the comparative few who are writing most of Wikipedia have most of the edits. The result of this is that there is going to be bias in what is created, and how we deal with it as Wikipedians is indicative of the future of the site. Furthermore, this brings up what we have to do in order to combat this bias, as there are many ideas, but the question is whether they will work or not.
- Technology report: Architecting the future of MediaWiki
This week we're interviewing Brion Vibber about the then-upcoming Architecture Summit. Brion is a long time Wikipedian, the first employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, and currently the lead software architect working with the mobile team.
- In the media: Wikipedia for robots; Wikipedia—a temperamental teenager
An article in USA Today announced that a European-funded project called RoboEarth that is designed to give robots a mechanism by which to access information to dispense.
- Traffic report: No show for the Globes
While the 71st Golden Globe Awards, held on 12 January, had an impact on the top 25, their presence was largely absent from the Top 10. With the exception of Best Actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio, the only Golden Globe entrants in the Top 10 are films that would have been there anyway.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- Pages from Wikimedia sites now load faster in your browser thanks to "module storage", a way for your browser to save data like JavaScript and CSS on your computer to avoid downloading them again. See video.
- The code used to show videos has changed. You should be able to play the video on the page, with the play button on top of the video. If you see the play button on the right of the video, or if clicking on the video leads you to the original file, please file a bug or tell User:Bawolff.
- The
Special:ActiveUserspage will be removed because it's too slow. - The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf11) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 16. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on January 28, and all Wikipedia wikis on January 30 (calendar).
Problems
- On January 21, Universal Language Selector was turned off on all Wikimedia sites because it makes pages load slowly. If you want to use web fonts, or write in scripts that aren't on your keyboard, you need to add it as an option in your preferences. It will be turned back on when the issues are resolved.
- For about 20 minutes on the same day, there were problems with CSS and JavaScript due to high server load.
Future software changes
- You can give comments about the new version of "Winter", a proposal to have a fixed toolbar at the top of wiki pages.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
09:47, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 29 January 2014
- Traffic report: Six strikes out
There are times when this job is hard. As an analogy, imagine navigating in fog at night, except you don't know where you are, you don't know where you want to go, and your flashlight keeps dying on you.
- WikiProject report: Special report: Contesting contests
Contests have existed almost as long as the English Wikipedia. Contestants have expanded hundreds of articles and made tens of thousands of edits. Although it may seem as though there aren't any negatives to contests, they have occasionally become a divisive topic on the English Wikipedia.
- News and notes: Wiki-PR defends itself, condemns Wikipedia's actions
Wiki-PR, a public relations agency, whose employees used a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts to create, edit, and maintain several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients, has told Business Insider that it was demonized by the online encyclopedia. Jordan French, Wiki-PR's CEO, said he believes the Wikimedia Foundation "painted" his company to look like an "evil entity" that is "scrubbing truths from Wikipedia".
- Arbitration report: Kafziel case closed; Kww admonished by motion
The Kafziel case has been closed, with Kafziel losing his administrator status as a result.
- Recent research: Translation assignments, weasel words, and Wikipedia's content in its later years
An author experimented with "a promising type of assignment in formal translator training which involves translating and publishing Wikipedia articles", in three courses with students at the University of Warsaw.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf12) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on January 30. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 4, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 6 (calendar).
- Global AbuseFilter rules are now active on all small wikis.
- The buttons used in pages like log-in, account creation and search are now using the same colors and styles.
- You can now link to diffs using
[[Special:Diff/12345]]and similar links. - There is no longer an option to hide tables of contents on all pages.
- Searching in the
File:namespace on Wikimedia Commons is now faster, after a bug was fixed on January 29. - All Wikimedia wikis now have high-resolution favicons.
VisualEditor news
Future software changes
- Edits and files hidden with the Oversight tool will be moved to the RevisionDelete system. The Oversight tool will then be removed from Wikimedia wikis.
- For languages where not all sister projects exist, you will be able to link to other language projects using double interwikis (
:ko:v,:v:ko, etc.). - It will soon be possible to use the GettingStarted tool on other wikis than the English Wikipedia. You can translate it on Translatewiki.net.
- You will soon be able to include the Special:Contributions page into other pages.
- You will be able to see where a file is used inside MultimediaViewer, the new tool for viewing media files.
- It will soon be possible to send MassMessage messages using the API.
- You will soon see audio statistics on the Special:TimedMediaHandler page.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
08:30, 3 February 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 29 January 2014
- Traffic report: Six strikes out
There are times when this job is hard. As an analogy, imagine navigating in fog at night, except you don't know where you are, you don't know where you want to go, and your flashlight keeps dying on you.
- WikiProject report: Special report: Contesting contests
Contests have existed almost as long as the English Wikipedia. Contestants have expanded hundreds of articles and made tens of thousands of edits. Although it may seem as though there aren't any negatives to contests, they have occasionally become a divisive topic on the English Wikipedia.
- News and notes: Wiki-PR defends itself, condemns Wikipedia's actions
Wiki-PR, a public relations agency, whose employees used a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts to create, edit, and maintain several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients, has told Business Insider that it was demonized by the online encyclopedia. Jordan French, Wiki-PR's CEO, said he believes the Wikimedia Foundation "painted" his company to look like an "evil entity" that is "scrubbing truths from Wikipedia".
- Arbitration report: Kafziel case closed; Kww admonished by motion
The Kafziel case has been closed, with Kafziel losing his administrator status as a result.
- Recent research: Translation assignments, weasel words, and Wikipedia's content in its later years
An author experimented with "a promising type of assignment in formal translator training which involves translating and publishing Wikipedia articles", in three courses with students at the University of Warsaw.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf13) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 6. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 11, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 13 (calendar).
- The Vector search box was changed to fix old display and accessibility issues; for example, you can now use full-text search even if you have disabled JavaScript. Please report any problems you see. The option to disable the "simplified search bar" on Vector will also be removed.
- You are now notified when someone adds a link to your user page on wikis where it didn't work before (wikis with dates in the year-month-day order, including Hungarian, Japanese, Korean and some variants of Chinese).
VisualEditor news
- You can now set media items' alt text and position, and directly set their size, in the media tool.
- The gallery tool was improved and several issues were fixed.
Problems
- On February 3, all wikis were broken for about an hour due to a traffic balancing issue.
- On February 6, some wikis were broken for about half an hour in total due to a problem with the Math extension.
Future software changes
- Some methods from Scribunto's mw.message library will be removed after February 18. If you use them in your templates or modules, please check to make sure that things will not break.
- You will soon be able to use GettingStarted on 23 new Wikipedias. It helps new users by listing possible tasks and giving help. The new version was also added to the English Wikipedia on February 7th.
- You will soon see results from other wikis when you use the new search tool (CirrusSearch).
- The WikiLove tool was redesigned and should also load faster.
- Edits made with WikiLove or after a GettingStarted suggestion will be tagged.
- It will soon no longer be possible to hide section editing links in your preferences.
- You will soon be able to use the revision deletion feature via the API.
- You will soon be able to choose mobile view on non-mobile devices using a Beta Feature option.
- If you have questions about Universal Language Selector, you can join an IRC meeting on February 12 at 17:00 UTC, in the #wikimedia-office channel on Freenode.
- Developers are preparing for Google Summer of Code 2014. You can propose ideas.
- bugzilla.wikimedia.org will be updated this week. You won't be able to access it from 22:00 UTC on February 12 until 01:00 UTC on February 13 at the latest.
- The
<poem>tag will be renamed to<lines>. The old tag will still work.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
09:30, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 12 February 2014
- In the media: WikiVIP; Art Feminism; Medical articles; PR manipulation; Azerbaijani Wikipedia
As reported in various media outlets this week, including The Next Web and The Daily Dot, this past week, Wikimedia Commons and various language Wikipedias are working together to encourage subjects of Wikipedia articles to record a 10-second clip of their voice to be appended to their Wikipedia article.
- Technology report: Left with no choice
Software evolution does not always mean that features are being added. It also means that old fat is being trimmed. It is no different for MediaWiki.
- News and notes: WMF bites the bullet on affiliation and FDC funding, elevates Wikimedia user groups
In a bold move, the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees has announced a major change in policy concerning affiliated groups in the worldwide movement, and FDC funding levels to eligible chapters and thematic organizations over the next two years. Both decisions were published last Tuesday after considerable post-meeting consultation with the FDC and the Affiliations Committee (AffCom). The core of the first decision is
- Featured content: Space selfie
Thirteen articles, three lists, and twenty-five images were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia from 19 January to 1 February.
- Traffic report: Sports Day
Two great sporting events, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, collide in one week, transforming the top ten into a festival of flying feet, a carnival of colliding caraniums and a bacchanal of bouncing balls, combined to influence Wikipedia's most popular articles last week.
- WikiProject report: Game Time in Russia
In celebration of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, we revisited the team at WikiProject Russia to learn how the project has changed since our first interview in 2011.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf14) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 13. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 18, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 20 (calendar).
- You can now use the list of active users again.
- The new search tool (CirrusSearch) now gives more importance to content namespaces if you search in several namespaces.
- You can now directly link to files viewed with MultimediaViewer, the new tool for viewing media files.
- You can read the summary of the Wikimedia technical report for January 2014.
Problems
- On February 9, Wikimedia Labs was broken for about 2 hours due to an XFS file system problem.
- On February 11, there were problems with VisualEditor for about 20 minutes due to a server logging issue.
- On the same day, for about 20 minutes there were issues with page loading due to database problems.
- There were issues with page loading between 21:00 UTC on February 13 and 11:00 UTC on February 14 for users in Europe. It was due to a cache server problem.
- On February 14, all sites were broken for about 15 minutes for users in Southeast Asia, Oceania and the western part of North America. It was due to problems with cache servers.
VisualEditor news
- The link tool now tells you when you're linking to a disambiguation or redirect page.
- You can now change image display (like thumbnail, frame and frameless) with VisualEditor.
- Wikitext warnings will now hide when you remove wikitext from paragraphs you are editing.
- You will soon be able to create and edit redirect pages with VisualEditor.
08:38, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
- The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf15) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 20. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 25, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 27 (calendar).
- The new search tool (CirrusSearch) was added to the Italian Wikiquote and all Wikiversity projects. Users can now enable it in their Beta options.
- The Universal Language Selector was enabled on all Wikimedia wikis again. You can enable web fonts in your ULS options (see how).
VisualEditor news
- You will soon be able to add and edit
__STATICREDIRECT__,__[NO]INDEX__and__[NO]NEWEDITSECTION__in the page settings menu. - You will soon be able to use the Ctrl+Alt+S or ⌘+Opt+S shortcuts to open the save window in VisualEditor.
- You will soon be able to preview your edit summary when checking your changes in the save window.
Future software changes
- You will soon be able to use the
<categorytree>tag again. - You will soon be able to post messages with the MassMessage tool in all talk namespaces.
- Notifications will soon work in all namespaces.
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
10:18, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
March 2014
A tag has been placed on your user page, User:Zaher kadour, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G11 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page appears to be blatant advertising which only promotes or publicises a company, product, group or service, and which is a violation of our policies regarding acceptable use of user pages; user pages are intended for active editors of Wikipedia to communicate with one another as part of the process of creating encyclopedic content, and should not be mistaken for free webhosting resources. Please read the guidelines on spam, the guidelines on user pages, and, especially, our FAQ for Organizations.
If you can indicate why the page is not blatant advertising, contest the deletion by clicking on the button that looks like this: Click here to contest this speedy deletion which appears inside of the speedy deletion ({{db-...}}) tag (if no such tag exists, the page is no longer a speedy deletion candidate). Doing so will take you to your user talk page where you will find a pre-formatted place for you to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. You can also edit this page directly to give your reasons, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would help make it encyclopedic. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. WOWॐIndian Talk 17:42, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
- Speedy deletion declined - I do not see why this user page was thought promotional. JohnCD (talk) 18:11, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
Speedy deletion nomination of مستخدم:ZkBot
You may also wish to consider using a Wizard to help you create articles. See the Article Wizard.
— Thank you.
A tag has been placed on مستخدم:ZkBot, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page seems to be unambiguous advertising that only promotes a company, product, group, service or person and would need to be fundamentally rewritten in order to become an acceptable page. Please read the general criteria for speedy deletion, particularly item G11, as well as the guidelines on spam.
If you can indicate why the subject of this page is not blatant advertising, 
. Clicking that button will take you to the talk page where you will find a pre-formatted place for you to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. You can also visit the page's talk page directly to give your reasons, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. You are welcome to edit the page to fix this problem, but please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself. As well as removing promotional phrasing, it helps to add factual encyclopaedic information to the page, and add citations from independent reliable sources to ensure that the page will be verifiable. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. WOWॐIndian Talk 17:48, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
Contested deletion
This page is not unambiguously promotional, because... (deletion!! for what, I create my bot page only) --Zaher talk 17:51, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
- I have deleted that page not for promotion but because, though you intended to make a user page, you put the word "user" in Arabic. The English Wikipedia does not recognize that, so the page became an article in the main encyclopedia. I see that the correct user page at User:ZkBot already exists.
- Are you familiar with Wikipedia:Bot policy, and do you understand that you need approval from the Wikipedia:Bot Approvals Group before running a bot on the English Wikipedia? JohnCD (talk) 18:07, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
- JohnCD create مستخدم:ZkBot page was a mistake from me and when I realized that, I create the true page and I went to ask for speedy deletion the wrong page, but another user has preceded me. Yes, I know the Wikipedia:Bot policy, but now I do not intend to run my bot here, maybe in the future. Thank you --Zaher talk 18:45, 13 March 2014 (UTC)