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Afrikaners

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Hi Discott. Just posted a 5-point reply, but my connection cut out and lost it. I am trying to remember what I wrote. Will post soonest. Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 17:59, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Let's see if I remembered everything.
Firstly, the author's paper is about something else, so any reference to Afrikaners serves merely to strengthen an argument, it is NOT a statement about Afrikaners per se. Let's look for example at references to customary law - how do these relate to Afrikaners/ South Africa, which have followed Roman-Dutch Law for centuries? So, much as I accept your claim that the author is "a highly respected and regarded academic", that does not mean to say that every single fragment used has to stand up to scrutiny. On the practical level, if the majority of Afrikaners (the "poor Afrikaners") support the idea of the homeland and their own parties, why are they voting DA, why are they not all living at Orania? Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 19:06, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
Hi Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia, thanks for getting back to me on this. Here are my responses in the order you gave yours to me. 1) It is true that the author's paper is about some thing else, however that does not disqualify it in any way from being a useful and informative source on another matter. A great many references that make important contributions to subjects on Wikipedia are from sources that are not directly about that subject but mention it in passing. A nice example is on the History of the Jews of Brazil, where a quote from Adam Smiths the Wealth of Nations is used to give greater historical context on their history in the country. 2) Your point about poor Afrikaners not supporting a Afrikaans homeland, as a broad sweeping statement, is a good one and if it is used in that article it might be best to reword it somewhat so as to make it less of a generalisation. However as a statement about what Mamdani has observed as to the political constituency within the Afrikaans community that tends to support the idea of a homeland it remains true and so should be included. 3) Additionally Mamdani's analysis add's an additional layer of context and analysis that, I feel, if much needed in that section of the page on Afrikaners after 1994. In the wording I used it was made clear that it was his analysis so there should be no issue of it appearing as a universally accepted truth but rather, as it is, the informed opinion of a hightly respected academic -who specialises in African ethnicity and politics- as to their situation.--Discott (talk) 08:24, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Wikimedia South Africa AGM: 28 November

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Hi Discott.

Thanks for the invitation. Unfortunately I will be in Durban at that time. My email address is: jacobmacmillanza@gmail.com, thanks.Jacobmacmillan (talk) 15:53, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, I will add you to the AGM chat invite list. It will be a live event so you will need to login at that time on the 28th.--Discott (talk) 15:54, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Hi Discott,

Thanks - will try my best to make it BookshelfZA (talk) 18:19, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks BookshelfZA, looking forward to seeing you there. Welcome to stay/also come to the Wiki Loves Monuments awards ceremony at 5:30pm for 6:00pm at the same place and date. --Discott (talk) 10:35, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:19, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

WikiCup 2016 is just around the corner...

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Hello everyone, and we would like to wish you all a happy holiday season. As you will probably already know, the 2016 WikiCup begins in the new year; there is still time to sign up. There are some changes we'd like to announce before the competition begins.

After two years of serving as WikiCup judge, User:Miyagawa has stepped down as judge. He deserves great thanks and recognition for his dedication and hard work, and for providing necessary transition for a new group of judges in last year's Cup. Joining Christine (User:Figureskatingfan) and Jason (User:Sturmvogel 66) is Andrew (User:Godot13), a very successful WikiCup competitor and expert in Featured Pictures; he won the two previous competitions. This is a strong judging team, and we anticipate lots of enjoyment and good work coming from our 2016 competitors.

We would also like to announce one change in how this year's WikiCup will be run. In the spirit of sportsmanship, Godot13 and Cwmhiraeth have chosen to limit their participation. See here for the announcement and a complete explanation of why. They and the judges feel that it will make for a more exciting, enjoyable, and productive competition.

The discussions/polls concerning the next competition's rules will be closed soon, and rules changes will be made clear on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Scoring and talk pages. The judges are committed to not repeating the confusion that occurred last year and to ensuring that the new rules are both fair and in the best interests of the competition, which is, first and foremost, about improving Wikipedia.

If you have any questions or concerns, the judges can be reached on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, on their talk pages, or by email. We hope you will all join us in trying to make the 2015 WikiCup the most productive and enjoyable yet. You are receiving this message because you are listed on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Figureskatingfan (talk), and Godot13 (talk).--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for taking part in the Community Health learning campaign!

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Community Health learning campaign - Analysis Report of Community Responses
Thank you!

Hi,
apologies for writing in English, if this is not your first language.
I want to thank you once more for engaging in conversation on the Community Health learning campaign. It took us a while, but we can finally announce the winner of the prize, as well as share the outcomes of this conversation.

You might also be interested in taking part in the 2015 Harassment consultation. This is the first of several planned consultations on this topic, intended to provide a place to discuss ideas, concerns, proposals and possible solutions regarding Wikimedia communities’ harassment-related challenges.

This conversation would not have been the same without you. If you have more ideas, or follow up comments on the findings of the campaign, don't hesitate to leave me a message my talk page.

Have a great day,

María

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:04, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #6—2015

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Read this in another languageSubscription list

Did you know?

A new, simpler system for editing will offer a single Edit button. Once the page has opened, you can switch back and forth between visual and wikitext editing.

Screenshot showing a pop-up dialog for switching from the wikitext editor to VisualEditor
If you prefer having separate edit buttons, then you can set that option in your preferences, either in a pop-up dialog the next time you open the visual editor, or by going to Special:Preferences and choosing the setting that you want:
Screenshot showing a drop-down menu in Special:Preferences

The current plan is for the default setting to have the Edit button open the editing environment you used most recently.

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

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs and expanded the mathematics formula tool. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving support for languages such as Japanese and Arabic, and providing rich-media tools for formulæ, charts, galleries and uploading.

Recent improvements

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You can switch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing.

The LaTeX mathematics formula editor has been significantly expanded. (T118616) You can see the formula as you change the LaTeX code. You can click buttons to insert the correct LaTeX code for many symbols.

Future changes

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The single edit tab project will combine the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab, like the system already used on the mobile website. (T102398) Initially, the "Edit" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as a cookie for logged-out users and as an account preference for logged-in editors. Logged-in editors will be able to set a default editor in the Editing tab of Special:Preferences in the drop-down menu about "Editing mode:".

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the following Wikipedias in early 2016: Amharic, Buginese, Min Dong, Cree, Manx, Hakka, Armenian, Georgian, Pontic, Serbo-Croatian, Tigrinya, Mingrelian, Zhuang, and Min Nan. (T116523) Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. The developers would like to know how well it works. Please tell them what kind of computer, web browser, and keyboard you are using.

In 2016, the feedback pages for the visual editor on many Wikipedias will be redirected to mediawiki.org. (T92661)

Testing opportunities

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  • Please try the new system for the single edit tab on test2.wikipedia.org. You can edit while logged out to see how it works for logged-out editors, or you can create a separate account to be able to set your account's preferences. Please share your thoughts about the single edit tab system at the feedback topic on mediawiki.org or sign up for formal user research (type "single edit tab" in the question about other areas you're interested in). The new system has not been finalized, and your feedback can affect the outcome. The team particularly wants your thoughts about the options in Special:Preferences. The current choices in Special:Preferences are:
    • Remember my last editor,
    • Always give me the visual editor if possible, 
    • Always give me the source editor, and 
    • Show me both editor tabs.  (This is the current state for people using the visual editor. None of these options will be visible if you have disabled the visual editor in your preferences at that wiki.)
  • 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, and report it on Phabricator (Korean - Japanese) or on Wikipedia (Korean - Japanese).

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

Whatamidoing (WMF), 00:54, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

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Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Jacob Zuma, you added links pointing to the disambiguation pages The Citizen and Business Day. 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.

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WikiCup 2016: Game On!

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We are about to enter the second week of the 2016 WikiCup. The most recent player to sign up brings the current total to 101 contestants. Signups close on 5 February. If you’re interested, you can join this year's WikiCup here.

We are aware that in some areas the scoring bot’s numbers are a little bit off (i.e., overly generous) and are working to have that corrected as soon as possible.--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:04, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

WikiCup 2016: Game On!

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We are about to enter the second week of the 2016 WikiCup. The most recent player to sign up brings the current total to 101 contestants. Signups close on 5 February. If you’re interested, you can join this year's WikiCup here.

We are aware that in some areas the scoring bot’s numbers are a little bit off (i.e., overly generous) and are working to have that corrected as soon as possible.--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:08, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Adcock ingram Logo.png

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Adcock ingram Logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:29, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Help decide the future of Wikimania

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The Wikimedia Foundation is currently running a consultation on the value and planning process of Wikimania, and is open until 18 January 2016. The goals are to (1) build a shared understanding of the value of Wikimania to help guide conference planning and evaluation, and (2) gather broad community input on what new form(s) Wikimania could take (starting in 2018).

After reviewing the consultation, we'd like to hear your feedback on on this survey.

In addition, feel free to share any personal experiences you have had at at a Wikimedia movement conference, including Wikimania. We plan to compile and share back outcomes from this consultation in February.

With thanks,

I JethroBT (WMF) (talk), from Community Resources 22:01, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Last December, I invited you to share your views on the value of Wikimedia conferences and the planning process of Wikimania. We have completed analysis of these results and have prepared this report summarizing your feedback and important changes for Wikimania starting in 2018 as an experiment. Feedback and comments are welcome at the discussion page. Thank you so much for your participation. I JethroBT (WMF), Community Resources, 22:47, 8 February 2016 (UTC)

Account creator granted

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After reviewing your request for the "account creator" permission, I have enabled the flag on your account. Keep in mind these things:

  • The account creator right removes the limit on the maximum number of new accounts that can be created in a 24-hour period.
  • The account creator right is not a status symbol. If it remains unused, it is likely to be removed. Abuse of the account creator right will result in its removal by an administrator.

If you no longer require the right, let me know, or ask any other administrator. Drop a note if you run into troubles or have any questions about appropriate/inappropriate use of the account creator right. Happy editing! — xaosflux Talk 02:14, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

  • This has been added for the purpose of your events, and is scheduled for removal on or after 2016-04-01. This access is for bypassing the creation throttle only, and should not be used to override the blacklist or anti-spoofing creation functions. Good luck with your events. — xaosflux Talk 02:14, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Gupta family

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Hi Discott, I’ve seen that you recently created Gupta family and that you’ve made several additions to it over the last few days. As stated on my user page, I am a representative of Oakbay Resources and Energy and would welcome a discussion with you on certain areas of the article which might benefit from some balance. I’ve been working on a few possible additions to the current version in my sandbox. As you’ll see, I’m suggesting additional content supported by reliable secondary sources, not proposing that anything is removed.

The main points of what I’ve proposed are:


  • The inclusion of some more companies owned/part-owned by the Guptas under ‘Interests’ (note that three of these rely on a primary source, namely Oakbay’s 2015 Annual Report – that’s the only time I’ve used one here).
  • The Gupta family’s response to allegations of undue influence on the presidency.
  • A response by India’s High Commissioner to the Waterkloof air force base controversy.
  • Some more detail on Oakbay’s mining operations.
  • Zuma’s response to the allegations surrounding Nhlanhla Nene’s dismissal.
  • Mosebenzi Zwane’s response to allegations surrounding Tegeta.
  • Some more detail on the recent court order.


These proposed additions are highlighted in blue; there are a couple of strikethroughs as well.

If you could have a look at these suggestions and leave feedback there or on my talk page that would be much appreciated. I will follow Wikipedia policy on COI editing at all times. Thanks. OakbayRep (talk) 11:05, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi OakbayRep. Thank you very much for the feedback and input. I have looked through the working page on the Gupta family on your sandbox. I think you have made a number of valuable additions to the Gupta family article which add a great deal of depth and help promote a NPOV, and therefor should be used on the main space article. So good in fact I would guess that you are a long time Wikipedia editor (not that that matters very much to me either which way). Good job. I from what I have seen of the article on your sandbox as of writing this message I feel you should add all of the proposed additions to the page in question.--Discott (talk) 12:58, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
Hi Discott, thanks very much for this feedback. Strictly speaking as a COI editor I’d prefer not to make a direct edit to the article itself, but I’ve now amended the sandbox to remove all the mark-ups and strikethroughs. I have also made a few punctuation changes. Would you be happy just to transfer this straight across? Hope that’s okay.OakbayRep (talk) 15:57, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

@Discott: hi again, just wondering if you might be okay to transfer what’s here (it's ready to go - no highlighted text or strikethroughs) to the main article space? I know you gave me the go-ahead to do it myself but with my COI I’d prefer to leave it to you if possible. Let me know otherwise I’d be okay to do it if necessary. Thanks very much. OakbayRep (talk) 06:01, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi OakbayRep, I feel that it would be better if you rather made those contributions. I think that it is not a series breach of COI and if others have any concerns about it then we can discuss it on the article's talk page. There is precedence for this kind of thing so I am sure people will be okay with it so long as it adheres to other editing conventions and rules which it seems to me as though it does.--Discott (talk) 08:58, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
Hi Discott, no problem at all – that’s done. Thanks again for looking at it. OakbayRep (talk) 17:36, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
Hi Discott, there are a few things that could do with updating in Gupta family – see here in my sandbox as before for a marked up version with additions in blue. Let me know what you make of it. Regarding your discussion here – isn't it standard policy that COI editors don't make direct edits to pages? I'm happy to make any changes we agree but I was under the impression that strictly speaking that's not something a COI editor can do. OakbayRep (talk) 00:32, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

Hi OakbayRep, it is very kind of you (although not necessary) to let me know every time you wish to update a particular page on Wikipedia. It is indeed standard policy that COI editors should avoid making edits on pages that concern them but it is also not set in stone from what I understand. What is set in stone is that one should never plagiarise. Apart from the fact I am simply not comfortable editing Wikipedia on anyone's behalf (especially someone with COI regarding the article in question) I cannot add the content you have written as it would be plagiarism which is a pretty serious offence on Wikipedia. As such I would advise -and this might not be very good advice as others on Wikipedia are likely to know the policies regarding COI and paid editing in particular better than me- to continue to edit the article yourself. Keep in mind however that the policy regarding paid editing points out that "paid editors must follow the guidelines on COI very carefully." I suggest you do just that. However you seem to be pretty adapt editor already judging from your style of editing and knowledge of Wiki bureaucracy & rules. As for the content you have suggested adding. There are a few additions which seem out of place on a Wikipedia page such as the mention that SizweNtsalubaGobodo is "South Africa's biggest black-owned auditing firm." Don't know why that is relevant to the page in question other than to present the company in a possibly positive light, which means it could be (rightly in my view) interpreted as being promotional which as you know is not allowed on Wikipedia. I could comment on every proposed addition but that would be more effectively and better done on the Wikipedia page its self. As is the nature of Wikipedia. Having said all of that a number of your proposed edits do seem to promote a greater level of NPOV and update the article some what which is a good thing.--Discott (talk) 16:24, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Hi Discott, thanks for your response. I've updated the article. I see your point about the mention of SizweNtsalubaGobodo and I left that out. I get your reasoning for not editing on another's behalf, but thanks for replying anyway and ping me if you have any concerns. OakbayRep (talk) 22:35, 12 July 2016 (UTC)
Hi Discott – just to make you aware that I've added some new info to Gupta family, namely some of the figures that were reported this month from their annual results, some new info regarding Eskom and the CEO's response to the termination of their banking relationships. Thanks. OakbayRep (talk) 23:35, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
OakbayRep - please discuss changes to Gupta family the article at Talk:Gupta family, not here. No-one "owns" a page and it's not appropriate to ask one user for permission to update it - your edits have to comply with Wikipedia guidelines, and it's up to the community as a whole to keep an eye on that. Zaian (talk) 19:05, 5 October 2016 (UTC)
@OakbayRep: Zaian's point that no article is 'owned' by any one on Wikipedia is absolutely correct and I would like to echo it. I have said it before (perhaps not strongly enough) and I will say it again that these sorts of things are better discussed on the relevant article's talk page. I strongly suggest that you move these updates to the Gupta family talk page so the broader community can participate in them more easily.--Discott (talk) 19:51, 5 October 2016 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #1—2016

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Read this in another languageSubscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?
Among experienced editors, the visual editor's table editing is one of the most popular features.
Screenshot showing a pop-up menu for column operations in a table
If you select the top of a column or the end of a row, you can quickly insert and remove columns and rows.

Now, you can also rearrange columns and rows. Click "Move before" or "Move after" to swap the column or row with its neighbor.

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

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving support for Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Indic, and Han scripts, and improving the single edit tab interface.

Recent changes

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You can switch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing. This function is available to nearly all editors at most wikis except the Wiktionaries and Wikisources.

Many local feedback pages for the visual editor have been redirected to mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.

You can now re-arrange columns and rows in tables, as well as copying a row, column or any other selection of cells and pasting it in a new location.

The formula editor has two options: you can choose "Quick edit" to see and change only the LaTeX code, or "Edit" to use the full tool. The full tool offers immediate preview and an extensive list of symbols.

Future changes

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The single edit tab project will combine the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab. This is similar to the system already used on the mobile website. (T102398) Initially, the "Edit" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as an account preference for logged-in editors, and as a cookie for logged-out users. Logged-in editors will have these options in the Editing tab of Special:Preferences:

  • Remember my last editor,
  • Always give me the visual editor if possible,
  • Always give me the source editor, and
  • Show me both editor tabs.  (This is the state for people using the visual editor now.)

The visual editor uses the same search engine as Special:Search to find links and files. This search will get better at detecting typos and spelling mistakes soon. These improvements to search will appear in the visual editor as well.

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at most "Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next few months. The developers would like to know how well the visual editor works in your language. They particularly want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect the following languages: Japanese, Korean, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Thai, Aramaic and others.

Let's work together

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If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thanks!

Whatamidoing (WMF) 17:46, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

WikiCup 2015 March newsletter

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One of Adam Cuerden’s several quality restorations during round 1

That's it, the first round is done, sign-ups are closed and we're into round 2. Forty-seven competitors move into this round (a bit shy of the expected 64), and we are roughly broken into eight groups of six. The top two of each group will go through to round 3, and then the top scoring 16 "wildcards" across all groups.

Twenty-two Good Articles were submitted, including three by Connecticut Cyclonebiskit (submissions), and two each by Denmark MPJ-DK (submissions), Zanzibar Hurricanehink (submissions), Florida 12george1 (submissions), and New South Wales Cas Liber (submissions). Twenty-one Featured Pictures were claimed, including 17 by There's always time for skeletons Adam Cuerden (submissions) (the Round 1 high scorer). Thirty-one contestants saw their DYKs appear on the main page, with a commanding lead (28) by Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions). Twenty-nine participants conducted GA reviews with Lancashire J Milburn (submissions) completing nine.

If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Thanks to everyone for participating, and good luck to those moving into round 2. Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · email), and Godot13 (talk · contribs · email) --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:39, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

WikiCup 2016 March newsletter (update)

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Along with getting the year wrong in the newsletter that went out earlier this week, we did not mention (as the bot did not report) that New South Wales Cas Liber (submissions) claimed the first Featured Article Persoonia terminalis of the 2016 Wikicup. Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · email), and Godot13 (talk · contribs · email).--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:05, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

List of South African Artists

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I doubt that reference to http://artthrob.co.za/04mar/artbio.html meets wp:notability (people) Please read. Thank you Jim1138 (talk) 14:04, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Hi @Jim1138:, please expand on why you feel it does not meet wp:notability (people). It seems to fit the requirements to me.Discott (talk) 14:09, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

WIR A+F

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Hoping you enjoyed the recently-held in-person Art+Feminism meetup,
we cordially invite you continue your participation by joining the
virtual worldwide online event
hosted by Women in Red.
March 2016 (Women's History Month)

(To subscribe, Women in Red/Invite list. Unsubscribe, Women in Red/Opt-out list) --Rosiestep (talk) 19:48, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

Unsourced dyslexia category

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Hello, I'm DVdm. I noticed that you made a change to an article, Róisín Murphy, but you didn't provide a source. I’ve removed it for now, but if you’d like to include a citation to a reliable source and re-add it, please do so! If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thanks. DVdm (talk) 20:45, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Information icon Please refrain from making nonconstructive edits to Wikipedia, as you did at Bodo Ramelow with this edit. Your edits appear to constitute vandalism and have been reverted or removed. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Repeated vandalism can result in the loss of editing privileges. Thank you. DVdm (talk) 20:47, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Information icon Please do not add or change content, as you did at Bodo_Ramelow, without citing a reliable source. Please review the guidelines at Wikipedia:Citing sources and take this opportunity to add references to the article. Thank you. - DVdm (talk) 21:04, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Please do not add unsourced or original content, as you did with this edit to Nicolas Winding Refn. Doing so violates Wikipedia's verifiability policy. If you continue to do so, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. DVdm (talk) 20:48, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Stop icon You may be blocked from editing without further warning the next time you add unsourced material to Wikipedia, as you did at David Rockefeller. - DVdm (talk) 20:49, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Note: Please review and undo all your recent edits where you added the Dyslexia category to people where the article does not explicitly mention dyslexia. I already have reverted some. Thank you. - DVdm (talk) 20:58, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

@DVdm:, thank you for your message. Two things, you can find references for all of the dyslexia category additions I have made on the List of people diagnosed with dyslexia page, secondly I am not aware that one needs references on the page being categorised to add a category to that page. I will look into that now. I am somewhat perturbed by, what seems to be, the hasty accusation towards me that I am engaging in "vandalism". I would suggest investigate such editing activities further before making accusations.--Discott (talk) 20:58, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
That list of people diagnosed with dyslexia does not count in any way as a reliable source—see wp:CIRCULAR. My apologies for that second warning. That was a wrong button. I have replaced it with the proper warning. But of course, this way of edting might be interpreted as vandalism if you would continue adding this category to articles without it being backed up by a sourced mention in the article. - DVdm (talk) 21:04, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
Note:By the way, you can of course take the opportunity to add a sourced mention in the articles. I.o.w. before you add the category, verify the article, find a source, mention it in the article, and then add the cat. That way, you can improve the articles, and perhaps at the same time that list. Just a thought. - DVdm (talk) 21:09, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
@DVdm:, thanks for the prompt reply. I fear my previous comment might have been misinterpreted. I did not mean to say that the article was in and of its self a satisfactory reference for engaging in this categorisation exercise (I agree entirely that had that been the case it would not be in line with wp:CIRCULAR); but instead meant to rather say that the references for each name on that particular page were satisfactory for the purpose.
I want to add that in response to your request I have halted all dyslexic related categorisation efforts but, until the merits of this categorisation process is discussed further, have decided not to undo the edits in question. I look forward to your feedback on this issue and apologise for any inconvenience you feel this might have caused.--Discott (talk) 21:13, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
Do I take it that you count on other people to undo your inappropriate work? - DVdm (talk) 21:20, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
If you take it that way then I fear you might be misinterpreting me again and possibly jumping to conclusions. Whilst I can see why you might feel that a number of the edits in question are inappropriate, clearly I do not regard them as being inappropriate (or else I would concede to your demand). What I am expecting is some form of discussion/proof/conciseness as to why it might be regarded as inappropriate when I can point to a source which clearly has each and every entry with its own reference. What I am wondering, and indeed still searching for, is something that says something along the lines of "a category has to be referenced on the page upon which it appears." I could add a mention to each of the articles in question saying something along the lines of "this person has been diagnosed with dyslexia" but I am not convinced that, for some but not all of the articles in question, this is the sort of thing that has to 'live' on the body of the article or that it might qualify as a substantive enough addition to that article to justify its explicit addition. I can't articulate why but somehow it troubles me that I might have to add something like "X is dyslexic" it sort of feels like one has to have something like "Y is Jewish (or what ever)" to every article before it can be categorised thusly. Perhaps that is the case, perhaps not. I want to first see if I can find anything about this on Wikipedia:Categorization. I am also curious as to where a reference for a category might live on a page if that information is not held in the body of that article. I am sorry if I might appear difficult on this but at least it is producing some form of dialogue on the issue.--Discott (talk) 21:57, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
I and other editors, who happen to have some of the articles on their watchlists, undid your inappropriate additions. I also undid your latest addition to the list: [1], as clearly blogs and personal websites are not considered to be reliable sources. User EvergreenFir also removed some inappropriate stuff from the page: [2].
Please be very careful adding categories to articles about people, specially about living people-see wp:BLPCAT. - DVdm (talk) 22:02, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
This is related to another issue I've been meaning to raise at the village pump. I will make a post there and notify you about it. DVdm is correct that you must be very careful about adding categories to biographies of living people. I'll review some of the edits in a few minutes. A few of the sources on that stand-alone list article seems questionable. EvergreenFir (talk) Please {{re}} 22:04, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
I am grateful that it has produced a closer look at the List of people diagnosed with dyslexia article and started a discussion on the village pump. I will start undoing some of the edits I made as I now feel the balance of doubt in my mind on this issue as changed in favour of the points DVdm has raised. There is still something deeper about all of this that I cant quite pin down or articulate (and has nothing to do with any of us editors or Wikipedia regulations) that bothers me about this. I am going to need to think about this more deeply.--Discott (talk) 22:13, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
(edit conflict) Indeed. I suspect there's some blog-type sources and sources with amateuristic pseudo-back-in-time-diagnosis in there. By definition, dyslexia can never have been diagnosed with anyone living before 1880 or so.
I have verified all the biography articles. I only left those where dyslexia is mentioned at least once—with or even without source, alas. - DVdm (talk) 22:15, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
I randomly chose Ferdinand Piëch from your edit history, the article didn't mention dyslexia and the list of people had a reference that failed to verify it (it was a dead link)Theroadislong (talk) 22:36, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
(edit conflict)I have done a brief review of my edits and it seems all the offending/misplaced category tags (articles that have not mentioned dyslexia in the body of the article but have the tag) have already been weeded out (very effective of everyone). I also see that a few of articles have had some additions made to them. I agree with your concerns over the reliability over some of the sources and the "amateuristic pseudo-back-in-time-diagnosis", I also find that concerning. I am less convinced that dyslexia can never be diagnosed with anyone living before 1880 as there is a genetic component to it that when combined with 'family lore' can provide some solid proof of the condition as is the case with one of the people on the list from whom I inheritade it from. I am also not so sure how relevant that is to Wikipedia without a good reference to back it up. I do think that there is an argument to be made for West's reference in 4d[1] being used as a reliable source in this case but again also agree that a stronger reference should be used if one can be found. However that is a somewhat different issue. Sorry for all the trouble (and initial intransigence) but I am glad about all the input from everyone on this issue.--Discott (talk) 22:48, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ West, Tom. "Strengths in an ICT-led world". Dyslexia Foundation of New Zealand. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
See Wikipedia:Village_pump_(idea_lab)#BLPCAT.2C_mental_illnesses.2C_and_learning_disabilities if you're interested. EvergreenFir (talk) Please {{re}} 22:49, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
Thanks EvergreenFir, I am afraid I am going to have to give my feedback on this tomorrow though as it is very late in the night where I am right now.--Discott (talk) 22:53, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Keanu cheered me up today 😀🇮🇪

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I was fed up today . My Irish passport is being renewed and it's stuck in the London office for 6 weeks . I won't have it back till March 31 St and meant to be travelling to India on Easter Saturday . My decorator is on a pub crawl for 5 days and was meant to show up today and didn't . I am still getting Solicitors letters from my ex husband 6 and a half years later and we are divorced . We met at 16 , have 4 children and he is with a woman for over 6 years now and won't leave me alone . I'm watching John Wick with a tub of ice cream . I have been to Mass and gym and chilling out now . Rita Cubitt .. E mail . Indiar48@hotmail.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.212.170.198 (talk) 13:45, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

Explicate?

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Question about the wording in your recent comment on WP:Village pump (idea lab)#BLPCAT, mental illnesses, and learning disabilities... You wrote "This sounds fair. I would also advocate erring on the side of the person in question. I also agree that it should be explicate so something like "I have dyslexia" is okay." I wondered if you meant "explicit"? I'm not trying to be the vocab police, but I wasn't sure I understood what you were saying. Permstrump (talk) 16:11, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out. It is fittingly ironic that I would miss-spell something on a conversation that includes a condition that effects spelling. I did indeed mean to say "explicit." I put too much trust in my spell checker.--Discott (talk) 16:45, 8 March 2016 (UTC)
Hahaha! I didn't think of that before. Permstrump (talk) 05:53, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

Great_Trek_map_full.png

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Very useful map. If you can change Trichardt to Tregardt is would be more in line with current, and Tregardt's own usage. JMK (talk) 11:11, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

JMK, thanks. I have just updated the map.--Discott (talk) 11:48, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Great Trek map full.png

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And on the same map: all killed in 1836, not 1938. JMK (talk)

Super, thanks! JMK (talk) 11:53, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Do you want one Edit tab, or two? It's your choice

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How to switch between editing environments
Part of the toolbar in the visual editor
Click the [[ ]] to switch to the wikitext editor.
Part of the toolbar in the wikitext editor
Click the pencil icon to switch to the visual editor.

The editing interface will be changed soon. When that happens, editors who currently see two editing tabs – "Edit" and "Edit source" – will start seeing one edit tab instead. The single edit tab has been popular at other Wikipedias. When this is deployed here, you may be offered the opportunity to choose your preferred appearance and behavior the next time you click the Edit button. You will also be able to change your settings in the Editing section of Special:Preferences.

You can choose one or two edit tabs. If you chose one edit tab, then you can switch between the two editing environments by clicking the buttons in the toolbar (shown in the screenshots). See Help:VisualEditor/User guide#Switching between the visual and wikitext editors for more information and screenshots.

There is more information about this interface change at mw:VisualEditor/Single edit tab. If you have questions, suggestions, or problems to report, then please leave a note at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Feedback.

Whatamidoing (WMF) 19:22, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Decades in the 20th century

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Template:Decades in the 20th century has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 00:00, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

WikiCup 2016 May newsletter

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FP of Christ Church Cathedral, Falkland Islands by Godot13

Round 2 is over and 35 competitors have moved on to Round 3.

Round 2 saw three FAs (two by New South Wales Cas Liber (submissions) and one by Montana Montanabw (submissions)), four Featured Lists (with three by England Calvin999 (submissions)), and 53 Good Articles (six by Lancashire Worm That Turned (submissions) and five each by Zanzibar Hurricanehink (submissions), Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions), and Denmark MPJ-DK (submissions)). Eleven Featured Pictures were promoted (six by There's always time for skeletons Adam Cuerden (submissions) and five by Smithsonian Institution Godot13 (submissions)). One Featured Portal, Featured Topic and Good Topic were also promoted. The DYK base point total was 1,135. Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions) scored 265 base points, while British Empire The C of E (submissions) and Denmark MPJ-DK (submissions) each scored 150 base points. Eleven ITN were promoted and 131 Good Article Reviews were conducted with Denmark MPJ-DK (submissions) completing a staggering 61 reviews. Two contestants, Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions) and New South Wales Cas Liber (submissions), broke the 700 point mark for Round 2.

If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Thanks to everyone for participating, and good luck to those moving into round 2. Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · email), and Godot13 (talk · contribs · email) -- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:59, 5 May 2016 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:IPPR logo.png

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:IPPR logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:27, 8 May 2016 (UTC)

Mfecane map is wrong

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Hi

The Mfecane map appearing on the Mfecane page and on the Zulu or Shaka Zulu page is wrong. Bulawayo is misplaced.

The one here is more geographically accurate - though the movement arrows are not good: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mfecane+map&rlz=1C1LENP_enGB543GB559&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=799&tbm=isch&imgil=zJf57keipKnXcM%253A%253Bc-8VdqWwROSGzM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.mmaramotswerules.com%25252Fthe-mfecane--the-cobbing-controversy.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=zJf57keipKnXcM%253A%252Cc-8VdqWwROSGzM%252C_&usg=__jaUOs70VRwYKop-106yQSeCpKKA%3D&ved=0ahUKEwjqg_Ct8uPMAhUpD8AKHaZ-CbYQyjcIKQ&ei=CYQ8V6rbJqmegAam_aWwCw#imgrc=zJf57keipKnXcM%3A

Where the url above shows "Ndebele" is where Bulawayo is sited.

Randal Smith15:08, 18 May 2016 (UTC)86.153.157.59 (talk)

Hi Randal, the Buolawayo displayed at the map refers to Shaka's royal kraal and seat of government of the Zulu emplire (known as Bulawayo) and not Bulawayo the city in Zimbabwe which is what it seems you believe it is.--Discott (talk) 13:35, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

Thank you

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Thank you for improving the African heavy metal article. Dwanyewest (talk) 19:00, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

White people in Zimbabwe

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Hi there, I'm on my phone so haven't been able to look through that xls file very well - but can you point me to where it says 110,000 white Zimbabweans in the UK? So far as I can see there's no reference made to ethnicity or colour there, only place of birth and citizenship. If I've just missed it please let me know where to look. Cheers —  Cliftonian (talk)  11:46, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

Hi Cliftonian, I must admit that I was a bit lazy here and simply trusted the reference in the Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom here which quotes 110,000 people, a figure that can be found on 'Table 1.3: Overseas-born population in the United Kingdom by country of birth' of the ref. With hind sight I should have been more cautious when using this one as I think you are right to question whether it refers to white Zimbabweans only as I suspect it, infact, refers to all Zimbabweans. I suspect it is not that far off but my suspicion is not good enough. Has been the best figure I can find so far.--Discott (talk) 13:21, 19 June 2016 (UTC)
Thanks for the quick response - yes, I think the figure is probably somewhere close to that, but we'd need a source to back it up. Please do let me know if you find anything. Cheers —  Cliftonian (talk)  13:50, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

Editing News #2—2016

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Editing News #2—2016 Read this in another languageSubscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?

It's quick and easy to insert a references list.

Screenshot showing a dropdown menu with many items

Place the cursor where you want to display the references list (usually at the bottom of the page). Open the "Insert" menu and click the "References list" icon (three books).

If you are using several groups of references, which is relatively rare, you will have the opportunity to specify the group. If you do that, then only the references that belong to the specified group will be displayed in this list of references.

Finally, click "Insert" in the dialog to insert the References list. This list will change as you add more footnotes to the page.

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

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor team has fixed many bugs. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving support for Arabic and Indic scripts, and adapting the visual editor to the needs of the Wikivoyages and Wikisources.

Recent changes

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The visual editor is now available to all users at most Wikivoyages. It was also enabled for all contributors at the French Wikinews.

The single edit tab feature combines the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab. It has been deployed to several Wikipedias, including Hungarian, Polish, English and Japanese Wikipedias, as well as to all Wikivoyages. At these wikis, you can change your settings for this feature in the "Editing" tab of Special:Preferences. The team is now reviewing the feedback and considering ways to improve the design before rolling it out to more people.

Future changes

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The "Save page" button will say "Publish page". This will affect both the visual and wikitext editing systems. More information is available on Meta.

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the remaining "Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next few months. The developers want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect several languages, including: Arabic, Hindi, Thai, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Urdu, Persian, Bengali, Assamese, Aramaic and others.

The team is working with the volunteer developers who power Wikisource to provide the visual editor there, for opt-in testing right now and eventually for all users. (T138966)

The team is working on a modern wikitext editor. It will look like the visual editor, and be able to use the citoid service and other modern tools. This new editing system may become available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices around September 2016. You can read about this project in a general status update on the Wikimedia mailing list.

Let's work together

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If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk), 21:09, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

Reference errors on 7 July

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Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:

Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:14, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

Contests

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User:Dr. Blofeld has created Wikipedia:WikiProject Africa/Contests. The idea is to run a series of contests/editathons focusing on each region of Africa. He has spoken to Wikimedia about it and $1000-1500 is possible for prize money. As someone who has previously expressed interest in African topics, would you be interested in contributing to one or assisting draw up core article/missing article lists? He says he's thinking of North Africa for an inaugural one in October. If interested please sign up in the participants section of the Contest page, thanks.♦ --Ser Amantio di NicolaoChe dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 01:15, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Hi Ser Amantio di Nicolao, this sounds like a great project. I am currently (on behalf of Wikimedia ZA) running a number of edit-a-thons every other month. Our next one is in November but I have already agreed do that one as part of Wikipedia Asian Month. We have got another one planned for 21 January 2017. In the mean time I am happy to help out with finding missing article lists and writing an article or two. Here is a great list of African women biography articles that are needed on Wikipedia that Wiki Loves Women did earlier this year.--Discott (talk) 09:37, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Hertzoggie

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Hello! Your submission of Hertzoggie at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and some issues with it may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Yoninah (talk) 23:46, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Please see new note on your DYK nomination. Yoninah (talk) 14:25, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

The WikiProject Food and Drink Newsletter (August 2016)

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:33, 11 August 2016 (UTC)

Reference errors on 27 August

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Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:

Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:18, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

DYK for Hertzoggie

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On 1 September 2016, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Hertzoggie, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Hertzoggie. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Hertzoggie), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Allen3 talk 00:09, 1 September 2016 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and Drink Newsletter: September 2016

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:05, 4 September 2016 (UTC)

Do I know you?

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I think we might be neighbors. Please confirm my suspicion by answering the following questions: Is there incessant drilling and construction work in progress near your residence? Are there lots of cats around said residence?

I am number nine.

197.89.111.56 (talk) 20:28, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

Might be where I used to live in Kenilworth. I moved very recently though. On the other hand it might also be my doppelganger that supposedly also lives in Cape Town some where.--Discott (talk) 08:47, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Panarottis Pizza Pasta logo.png

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Panarottis Pizza Pasta logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:01, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and drink Newsletter: October 2016

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:47, 1 October 2016 (UTC)

Invite to the African Destubathon

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Hi. You may be interested in participating in the African Destubathon which starts on October 15. Africa currently has over 37,000 stubs and badly needs a quality improvement editathon/contest to flesh out basic stubs. There are proposed substantial prizes to give to editors who do the most geography, wildlife and women articles, and planned smaller prizes for doing to most destubs for each of the 53 African countries, so should be enjoyable! Even if contests aren't your thing we would be grateful if you could consider destubbing a few African articles during the drive to help the cause and help reduce the massive 37,000 + stub count, of which many are rated high importance (think Regions of countries etc). If you're interested in competing or just loosely contributing, whether it's a river in Malawi, a Nigerian footballer, or a South African civil rights activist, please add your name to the Contestants/participants section. Diversity of work from a lot of people will make this that bit more special. For those of you who signed up to the North African contest, that will hopefully be held in the new year. Thanks. --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:11, 6 October 2016 (UTC)

Editing News #3—2016

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Read this in another languageSubscription list for this multilingual newsletterSubscribe or unsubscribe on the English Wikipedia

Did you know?

Did you know that you can easily re-arrange columns and rows in the visual editor?

Screenshot showing a dropdown menu with options for editing the table structure

Select a cell in the column or row that you want to move. Click the arrow at the start of that row or column to open the dropdown menu (shown). Choose either "Move before" or "Move after" to move the column, or "Move above" or "Move below" to move the row.

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

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has mainly worked on a new wikitext editor. They have also released some small features and the new map editing tool. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. You can find links to the list of work finished each week at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Their current priorities are fixing bugs, releasing the 2017 wikitext editor as a beta feature, and improving language support.

Recent changes

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  • You can now set text as small or big.[3]
  • Invisible templates have been shown as a puzzle icon. Now, the name of the invisible template is displayed next to the puzzle icon.[4] A similar feature will display the first part of hidden HTML comments.[5]
  • Categories are displayed at the bottom of each page. If you click on the categories, the dialog for editing categories will open.[6]
  • At many wikis, you can now add maps to pages. Go to the Insert menu and choose the "Maps" item. The Discovery department are adding more features to this area, like geoshapes. You can read more on MediaWiki.org.[7]
  • The "Save" button now says "Save page" when you create a page, and "Save changes" when you change an existing page.[8] In the future, the "Save page" button will say "Publish page". This will affect both the visual and wikitext editing systems. More information is available on Meta.
  • Image galleries now use a visual mode for editing. You can see thumbnails of the images, add new files, remove unwanted images, rearrange the images by dragging and dropping, and add captions for each image. Use the "Options" tab to set the gallery's display mode, image sizes, and add a title for the gallery.[9]

Future changes

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The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the remaining 10 "Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next month. The developers want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested at the feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect several languages, including Thai, Burmese and Aramaic.

The team is working on a modern wikitext editor. The 2017 wikitext editor will look like the visual editor and be able to use the citoid service and other modern tools. This new editing system may become available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices in October 2016. You can read about this project in a general status update on the Wikimedia mailing list.

Let's work together

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Do you teach new editors how to use the visual editor? Did you help set up the Citoid automatic reference feature for your wiki? Have you written or imported TemplateData for your most important citation templates? Would you be willing to help new editors and small communities with the visual editor? Please sign up for the new VisualEditor Community Taskforce.

If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:18, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

Invitation to "target countries" discussion

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Hello, Discott! Since you attended the Global South meeting at Wikimania 2016, we're inviting you to a discussion on "target countries". You can help the product team at the Wikimedia Foundation create a new list of countries and metrics to replace the "global south" concept in our process with something more relevant. Interested? Learn more about this discussion and share your perspective. (This message is available in more languages.) Joe Sutherland (WMF) (talk) 00:17, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and Drink Newsletter: November 2016

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:29, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

WikiCup 2016 November newsletter: Final results

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The final round of the 2016 WikiCup is over. Congratulations to the 2016 WikiCup top three finalists:

In addition to recognizing the achievements of the top finishers and everyone who worked hard to make it to the final round, we also want to recognize those participants who were most productive in each of the WikiCup scoring categories:

  • Featured Article – Cas Liber (actually a three-way tie with themselves for two FAs in each of R2, R3, and R5).
  • Good Article – MPJ-DK had 14 GAs promoted in R3.
  • Featured List – England Calvin999 (submissions) produced 2 FLs in R2
  • Featured Pictures – Adam Cuerden restored 18 images to FP status in R4.
  • Featured Portal – Yakutsk SSTflyer (submissions) produced the only FPO of the Cup in R2.
  • Featured Topic – Connecticut Cyclonebiskit (submissions) and Calvin were each responsible for one FT in R3 and R2, respectively.
  • Good Topic – MPJ-DK created a GT with 9 GAs in R5.
  • Did You Know – MPJ-DK put 53 DYKs on the main page in R4.
  • In The News – India Dharmadhyaksha (submissions) and New York City Muboshgu (submissions), each with 5 ITN, both in R4.
  • Good Article Review – MPJ-DK completed 61 GARs in R2.

Over the course of the 2016 WikiCup the following content was added to Wikipedia (only reporting on fixed value categories): 17 Featured Articles, 183 Good Articles, 8 Featured Lists, 87 Featured Pictures, 40 In The News, and 321 Good Article Reviews. Thank you to all the competitors for your hard work and what you have done to improve Wikipedia.--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:52, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

We will open up a discussion for comments on process and scoring in a few days. The 2017 WikiCup is just around the corner! Many thanks from all the judges. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs · email), and Godot13 (talk · contribs · email)

WikiProject Good Articles's 2016-2017 GA Cup

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WikiProject Good Articles's 2016-2017 GA Cup

Greetings, all!

We would like to announce the start of the 4th GA Cup, a competition that seeks to encourage the reviewing of Good article nominations! Thus far, there have been three GA Cups, which were successful in reaching our goals of significantly reducing the traditionally long queue at GAN, so we're doing it again. Currently, there are over 400 nominations listed. We hope that we can again make an impact this time.

The 4th GA Cup will begin on November 1, 2016. Four rounds are currently scheduled (which will bring the competition to a close on February 28, 2017), but this may change based on participant numbers. We may take a break in December for the holidays, depending on the results of a poll of our participants taken shortly after the competition begins. The sign-up and submissions process will remain the same, as will the scoring.

Sign-ups for the upcoming competition are currently open and will close on November 14, 2016. Everyone is welcome to join; new and old editors, so sign-up now!

If you have any questions, take a look at the FAQ page and/or contact one of the judges.

Cheers from 3family6, Figureskatingfan, Jaguar, MrWooHoo, and Zwerg Nase. We apologize for the delay in sending out this message until after the competition has started. Thank you to Krishna Chaitanya Velaga for aiding in getting this message out.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to future GA Cup newsletters, please add or remove your name to our mailing list. If you are a participant, you will be on the mailing list no matter what as this is the easiest way to communicate between all participants.

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:40, 3 November 2016 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia Asian Month!

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Hi there! Thanks for joining Wikipedia Asian Month. Here is some information about participating in the event:

  1. Please submit your articles via this tool. Click 'log in' at the top-right and OAuth will take care the rest. You can also change the interface language at the top-right.
  2. Once you submit an article, the tool will add a template to the article and mark it as needing review by an organizer. You can check your progress using the tool, which includes how many accepted articles you have.
  3. Participants who achieve 4 accepted articles will receive a Wikipedia Asian Month postcard. You will receive another special postcard if you achieve 15 accepted articles. The Wikipedian with the highest number of accepted articles on the English Wikipedia will be honored as a "Wikipedia Asian Ambassador", and will receive a signed certificate and additional postcard.
  4. If you have any problems accessing or using the tool, you can submit your articles at this page next to your username.
  5. Wikipedia Asian Month is also held in other language Wikipedia and count independently. Check for language editions
  6. If you have any question, you can take a look at our Q&A or post on the WAM talk page.

Best Wishes,--AddisWang (talk) 04:14, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks AddisWang, working on it now.--Discott (talk) 08:51, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

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Hello, Discott. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

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

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

Contacting Barry Ronge

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Do you know how one could contact Barry Ronge? Thanks!

Christo Snyman 173.70.198.226 (talk) 23:33, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi Christo, I am afraid not. I have never met Mr Ronge so do not know how to contact him. I just used sources on the internet that I could find about him to expand his page on Wikipedia--Discott (talk) 08:30, 9 December 2016 (UTC)

WikiCup December newsletter: WikiCup 2017

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On 1 January 2017, WikiCup 2017 (the 10th Annual WikiCup) will begin. This year we are trying something a little different – monetary prizes.

For the WC2017 the prizes will be as follows (amounts are based in US$ and will be awarded in the form of an online Amazon gift certificate):

  • First place – $200
  • Second & Third place – $50 each
  • Category prizes – $25 per category (which will be limited to FA, FL, FP, GA, and DYK for 2017). Winning a category prize does not require making it to the final round.

Note: Monetary prizes are a one-year experiment for 2017 and may or may not be continued in the future. In order to be eligible to receive any of the prizes above, the competing Wikipedia account must have a valid/active email address.

After two years as a WikiCup judge, Figureskatingfan is stepping down. We thank her for her contributions as a WikiCup judge. We are pleased to announce that our newest judge is two-time WikiCup champion Cwmhiraeth.

The judges for the 2017 WikiCup are Godot13 (talk · contribs · email), Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs), and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email).

Signups are open now and will remain open until 5 February 2017. You can sign up here.

If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send.MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:02, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Jacob Zuma and Atul Gupta at ANN7 event.jpg

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Jacob Zuma and Atul Gupta at ANN7 event.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:49, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Igarapé Institute logo.png

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Igarapé Institute logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:29, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Whose Knowledge? News - February 2017

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Thanks for all of your support for Whose Knowledge? so far! Get ready, we're going to need lots of your help in 2017 :)

What's new in 2017:

1. Volunteers needed

As Whose Knowledge? grows, there are lots of things to do! Can you help?

  • Are you good with data entry, categories, mailing lists or social media? We especially need people to help with organizing knowledge for Dalit History Month, and building out our communications (including this monthly newsletter!) right now!
  • If you're interested in volunteering for these or any other projects, please signup here

2. Pilot projects

Building partnerships and testing our approach with marginalized communities.

  • Dalit History Month: We're working with Equality Labs to support Dalit communities in South Asia and the United States to map knowledge and create Wikipedia content. Dalit History Month edit-a-thons are coming in April!
  • Women's Human Rights Defenders: In partnership with Urgent Action Fund, we'll be supporting a group of women's human rights defenders around the world with more mapping and wiki content creation. Themes and geographies coming soon!
  • Kumeyaay Wikipedia Initiative: Following the 2016 Indigenous People's Day edit-a-thon, we're continuing to work with members of the Kumeyaay tribe in Southern California and Baja to map and contribute indigenous knowledge to Wikimedia projects. A discussion day with Kumeyaay community in San Diego is being planned for May.

3. Funding

We've got financial support for 2017!

  • WMF grant: 6-month funding (February-July 2017) was approved to pilot our approach to mapping knowledge and creating Wikipedia content with the Dalit community and global women's human rights defenders. Thanks for all your endorsements!
  • Shuttleworth Fellowship: Anasuya is a Shuttleworth Fellow! This means we'll be able to spend more time organizing, and have support for convenings, campaign infrastructure, etc.

4. Wikimedia Strategy

Find us at Wikimedia Conference.

  • Anasuya and Siko will be carrying the Whose Knowledge? vision of diversity, pluralism and representation of marginalized communities into movement strategy conversations in Berlin March 2017.
  • What's your vision for the Wikimedia movement? If you have a perspective that you'd like us to help represent in Berlin, please reach out and let us know!

In solidarity,

Siko (talk) 01:54, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

HAT Woordeboek for my friend in Berlin?

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Douglas, any change you can take a HAT Woordeboek to User:JCIV in Berlin in March/April? Regards. Deon — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oesjaar (talkcontribs) 19:57, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi Oesjaar, so long as it is not too big, you can get it to me in Cape Town, and JCIV is prepared to pick it up form me when I am in Berlin, then sure thing. How big is the book?--Discott (talk) 11:20, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Kindly Examine And Rate

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Hello sir, could you be so kind as to visit this article created by me Reverend King Ezeugo and check for grammatical errors, English structure problems and most importantly your view on the page, If there are certain areas you think I should delete or improve, a feedback would really be appreciated. Celestina007 (talk) 00:32, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

March 2017 WikiCup newsletter

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And so ends the first round of the competition, with 4 points required to qualify for round 2. It would have been 5 points, but when a late entrant was permitted to join the contest in February, a promise was made that his inclusion would not result in the exclusion of any other competitor. To achieve this, the six entrants that had the lowest positive score of 4 points have been added to the 64 people who otherwise would have qualified. As a result, some of the groups have nine contestants rather than eight. Our top four scorers in round 1 were:

  • Scotland Cas Liber, last year's winner, led the field with two featured articles on birds and a total score of 674.
  • European Union Iry-Hor, a WikiCup newcomer, came next with a featured article, a good article and a tally of 282 bonus points for a score of 517. All these points came from the article Nyuserre Ini, an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh,
  • Japan 1989, another WikiCup newcomer, was in joint third place at 240. 1989 has claimed points for two featured lists and one good article relating to anime and comedy series, all of which were awarded bonus points.
  • South Australia Peacemaker67 shared third place with five good articles and thirteen good article reviews, mostly on naval vessels. He is also new to the competition.

The largest number of DYKs have been submitted by Vivvt and The C of E, who each claimed for seven, and MBlaze Lightning achieved eight articles at ITN. Carbrera and Peacemaker67 each claimed for five GAs and Krishna Chaitanya Velaga was well out in front for GARs, having reviewed 32. No featured pictures, featured topics or good topics yet, but we have achieved three featured articles and a splendid total of fifty good articles.

So, on to the second round. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 1 but before the start of round 2 can be claimed in round 2. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points equally.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is a good article candidate, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 13:52, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

[edit]

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited The Americans (gang), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Triads. 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) 10:33, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Murders per 100,000 people graph

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There is no apostrophe in 'Murders'. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.22.124.155 (talk) 16:01, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for spotting it, just fixed it.--Discott (talk) 10:51, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

May 2017 WikiCup newsletter

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The second round of the competition has now closed, with just under 100 points being required to qualify for round 3. YellowEvan just scraped into the next round with 98 points but we have to say goodbye to the thirty or so competitors who didn't achieve this threshold; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. Our top scorers in round 2 were:

  • Scotland Cas Liber, led the field with five featured articles, four on birds and one on astronomy, and a total score of 2049, half of which came from bonus points.
  • Japan 1989 was in second place with 826 points, 466 of which were bonus points. 1989 has claimed points mostly relating to anime and Japanese-related articles.
  • South Australia Peacemaker67 took third place with two FAs, one GA and seven GARs, mostly on naval vessels or military personnel, scoring 543 points.
  • Other contestants who scored over 400 points were Freikorp, Carbrera, and Czar. Of course all these points are now wiped out and the 32 remaining contestants start again from zero in round 3.

Vivvt submitted the largest number of DYKs (30), and MBlaze Lightning achieved 13 articles at ITN. Carbrera claimed for 11 GAs and Argento Surfer performed the most GARs, having reviewed 11. So far we have achieved 38 featured articles and a splendid 132 good articles. Commendably, 279 GARs have been achieved so far, more than double the number of GAs.

So, on to the third round. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points equally.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 13:16, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Editing News #1—2017

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Read this in another languageSubscription list for this multilingual newsletter

VisualEditor
Did you know?

Did you know that you can review your changes visually?

Screenshot showing some changes to an article. Most changes are highlighted with text formatting.
When you are finished editing the page, type your edit summary and then choose "Review your changes".

In visual mode, you will see additions, removals, new links, and formatting highlighted. Other changes, such as changing the size of an image, are described in notes on the side.

Toggle button showing visual and wikitext options; visual option is selected.

Click the toggle button to switch between visual and wikitext diffs.

Screenshot showing the same changes, in the two-column wikitext diff display.

The wikitext diff is the same diff tool that is used in the wikitext editors and in the page history.

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

Since the last newsletter, the VisualEditor Team has spent most of their time supporting the 2017 wikitext editor mode which is available inside the visual editor as a Beta Feature, and adding the new visual diff tool. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. You can find links to the work finished each week at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Their current priorities are fixing bugs, supporting the 2017 wikitext editor as a beta feature, and improving the visual diff tool.

Recent changes

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A new wikitext editing mode is available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. The 2017 wikitext editor has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. Go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures to enable the ⧼Visualeditor-preference-newwikitexteditor-label⧽.

A new visual diff tool is available in VisualEditor's visual mode. You can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. More features will be added to this later. In the future, this tool may be integrated into other MediaWiki components. [10]

The team have added multi-column support for lists of footnotes. The <references /> block can automatically display long lists of references in columns on wide screens. This makes footnotes easier to read. You can request multi-column support for your wiki. [11]

Other changes:

  • You can now use your web browser's function to switch typing direction in the new wikitext mode. This is particularly helpful for RTL language users like Urdu or Hebrew who have to write JavaScript or CSS. You can use Command+Shift+X or Control+Shift+X to trigger this. [12]
  • The way to switch between the visual editing mode and the wikitext editing mode is now consistent. There is a drop-down menu that shows the two options. This is now the same in desktop and mobile web editing, and inside things that embed editing, such as Flow. [13]
  • The Categories item has been moved to the top of the Page options menu (from clicking on the "hamburger" icon) for quicker access. [14] There is also now a "Templates used on this page" feature there. [15]
  • You can now create <chem> tags (sometimes used as <ce>) for chemical formulas inside the visual editor. [16]
  • Tables can be set as collapsed or un-collapsed. [17]
  • The Special character menu now includes characters for Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and angle quotation marks (‹› and ⟨⟩) . The team thanks the volunteer developer, Tpt. [18]
  • A bug caused some section edit conflicts to blank the rest of the page. This has been fixed. The team are sorry for the disruption. [19]
  • There is a new keyboard shortcut for citations: Control+Shift+K on a PC, or Command+Shift+K on a Mac. It is based on the keyboard shortcut for making links, which is Control+K on a PC or Command+K on a Mac. [20]

Future changes

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  • The VisualEditor team is working with the Community Tech team on a syntax highlighting tool. It will highlight matching pairs of <ref> tags and other types of wikitext syntax. You will be able to turn it on and off. It will first become available in VisualEditor's built-in wikitext mode, maybe late in 2017. [21]
  • The kind of button used to Show preview, Show changes, and finish an edit will change in all WMF-supported wikitext editors. The new buttons will use OOjs UI. The buttons will be larger, brighter, and easier to read. The labels will remain the same. You can test the new button by editing a page and adding &ooui=1 to the end of the URL, like this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Sandbox?action=edit&ooui=1 The old appearance will no longer be possible, even with local CSS changes. [22]
  • The outdated 2006 wikitext editor will be removed later this year. It is used by approximately 0.03% of active editors. See a list of editing tools on mediawiki.org if you are uncertain which one you use. [23]

If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! User:Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:18, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Libraries in the Western Cape

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Template:Libraries in the Western Cape has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Ten Pound Hammer(What did I screw up now?) 06:08, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Sekunjalo Investments logo.png

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Sekunjalo Investments logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:50, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

WikiCup 2017 July newsletter

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The third round of the competition has finished in a flurry of last minute activity, with 288 points being required to qualify for round 4. It was a hotly competitive round with all but four of the contestants exceeding the 106 points that was necessary to proceed to round 4 last year. Coemgenus and Freikorp tied on 288, and both have been allowed to proceed, so round 4 now has one pool of eight competitors and one of nine.

Round 3 saw the achievement of a 26-topic Featured topic by MPJ-DK as well as 5 featured lists and 13 featured articles. PanagiotisZois and SounderBruce achieved their first ever featured articles. Carbrera led the GA score with 10, Tachs achieved 17 DYKs and MBlaze Lightning 10 In the news items. There were 167 DYKs, 93 GARs and 82 GAs overall, this last figure being higher than the number of GAs in round 2, when twice as many people were taking part. Even though contestants performed more GARs than they achieved GAs, there was still some frustration at the length of time taken to get articles reviewed.

As we start round 4, we say goodbye to the fifteen or so competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them (some people have fallen foul of this rule and the points have been removed).

If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 05:38, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest/Noticeboard#Gupta_family where I put your name in the template. I'm not making any accusation about you, but you are obviously knowledgable about the article, and I'm short of time for research right now. Any help appreciated. Smallbones(smalltalk) 15:12, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Bell Pottinger and Wikipedia

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Hi. We've both been active on the Bell Pottinger article of late. I note your recent addition regarding BellP's alleged Wikipedia work - I earlier today added a note on this in the following paragraph (as it seemed, to me at least, more relevant to the rest of the Gupta/state capture section). Perhaps your addition should be merged with mine, and source added? Kind regards. --Paul W 15:57, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Hi Paul W, I see it now. Must have missed that reference to their Wikipedia article editing on the Gupta page in the South Africa section. I just saw that the general section mentioning their edits on Wikipedia generally did not seem to have any mention on it. Yes, some sort of merger of the two edits makes good sense and would be the most concise thing to do.--Discott (talk) 21:11, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
Have made the edit. Also added short sentence to the opening para so that the two sections are linked. Paul W (talk) 09:05, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Project Syndicate logo.svg

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Project Syndicate logo.svg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:34, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

Editathon

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Hi.

A significant number of new articles created during this exercise yesterday have been necessarily tagged for deletion. This is a shame because they were obviously written in good faith. Please contact me on my talk page in the thread at User_talk:Kudpung#Theodora_Lee for details of the affected pages and users. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 00:40, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Whisperback

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You have new message/s Hello. You have a new message at Kudpung's talk page. 09:40, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for starting Matveyev page

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I've worked over the text substantially, adding Russian-language sources and linking it to the existing and now revised Solovki and Sandarmokh pages, and to the page for Yury Dmitriev which I originated in July.

Thanks to our combined efforts people now have a rounded picture of the known part of Stalin's crimes in the late 1930s: the places where these atrocities took place; an example of an NKVD executioner; and the story of one man, now persecuted by the Putin regime, for his part in Restoring the Names.

John Crowfoot (talk) 07:08, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

Research, academics and Wikimania

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Hi Douglas, as briefly discussed in Montreal, I am interested in helping to get academia involved with next year's Wikimania, be it through wiki-based or academic channels. I am also interested in exploring how we can leverage existing international networks involving South Africa (e.g. twin cities) in order to reach out to practitioners from around the globe whose activities might benefit from interaction with the Wikimedia communities. I've just sent you my email using the same subject line. Cheers, Daniel Mietchen (talk) 14:24, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

WikiCup 2017 September newsletter

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Round 4 of the WikiCup has ended and we move forward into the final round. In round 4, a total of 12 FAs, 3 FLs, 44 GAs, 3 FLs, 79 DYKs, 1 ITN and 42 GARs was achieved, with no FPs or FTs this time. Congratulations to Peacemaker67 on the Royal Yugoslav Navy Good Topic of 36 items, and the 12 featured articles achieved by Cas Liber (5), Vanamonde93 (3), Peacemaker67 (2), Adityavagarwal (1) and 12george1 (1). With a FA scoring 200 points, and bonus points available on top of this, FAs are likely to feature heavily in the final round. Meanwhile Yellow Evan, a typhoon specialist, was contributing 12 DYKs and 10 GAs, while Adityavagarwal and Freikorp topped the GAR list with 8 reviews each. As we enter the final round, we are down to eight contestants, and we would like to thank those of you who have been eliminated for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. The lowest score needed to reach round 5 was 305, and I think we can expect a highly competitive final round.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck, and let the best man (or woman) win! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 06:26, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

Question: Global Gupta relationships?

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I notice that there is a UK based Sanjeev Gupta who owns a number of industrial assets there. He has just purchased Arrium Steel (in liquidation) in Australia. I wonder if there is any link to the South African Gupta family, who appear to have similar interests in that region? 20.139.229.64 (talk) 01:05, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Hello, to the best of my knowledge Sanjeev Gupta has no connection to the controversial Gupta family in South Africa. I could be wrong but I have never come across anything connecting them and I have no reason to think they are connected other than sharing a sir name. Which I believe is a very common last name in India and in the Indian diaspora.--Discott (talk) 08:53, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Libraries in the Western Cape

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Template:Libraries in the Western Cape has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Ten Pound Hammer(What did I screw up now?) 14:05, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Left comment in project talk page, sorry if repetitious. How many OSM topics are discussed and do mappers partake? YaguraStation (talk) 10:42, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

Re: the ZU WP

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Greetings, Douglas! In recent months I've undertaken contributing to the Zulu Wikipedia, despite not knowing the language. The few isiZulu-speaking editors with whom I've coordinated are active or accessible only sporadically, and though I still find plenty to do, I feel this shouldn't be in virtual isolation. Seeing you've posted in October 2017, you appear Most Likely Accessible Contact for WMZA - so I'd appreciate your reading what I wrote at m:Talk:Wikimedia South Africa#The Zulu Wikipedia today. Do feel free to pass it along to whomever you consider likely to guide me through a few more inquiries I'll have. Am looking forward to future fruitful collaboration. -- Cheers, Deborahjay (talk) 19:32, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

Hi Deborahjay, unfortunately I do not know of anyone who edits isiZulu Wikipedia. Being located in Cape Town I am more familiar with isiXhosa Wikipedia. Sorry I can't be of more help. From what I understand isiZulu Wikipedia is quite bot driven these days but I currently do not know any humans editing that Wiki.--Discott (talk) 07:48, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia Asian Month 2017: Invitation to Participate

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Hello! Last year, you signed up to participate in Wikipedia Asian Month (WAM) 2016 on the English Wikipedia. The event was an international success, with hundreds of editors creating thousands of articles on Asian topics across dozens of different language versions of Wikipedia.

I'd like to invite you to join us for Wikipedia Asian Month 2017, which once again lasts through the month of November. The goal is for users to create new articles on Asian-related content, each at least 3,000 bytes and 300 words in length. Editors who create at least four articles will receive a Wikipedia Asian Month postcard!

Also be sure to check out the Wikipedia Asian Art Month affiliate event - creating articles on Asian art topics can get you a Metropolitan Museum of Art postcard!

If you're interested, please sign up here for the English Wikipedia. If you are interested in also working on other language editions of Wikipedia, please visit the meta page to see other participating projects. If you have any questions, please visit our talk page.

Thank you!

- User:SuperHamster and User:Titodutta on behalf of The English Wikipedia WAM Team

This will be the last message you receive from the English Wikipedia WAM team for being a 2016 participant. If you sign up for WAM 2017, you will continue receiving periodic updates on the 2017 event.

WikiCup 2017 November newsletter: Final results

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The final round of the 2017 WikiCup is over. Congratulations to the 2017 WikiCup top three finalists:

In addition to recognizing the achievements of the top finishers and everyone who worked hard to make it to the final round, we also want to recognize those participants who were most productive in each of the WikiCup scoring categories:

  • Featured Article – Cas Liber (actually a two-way tie with themselves for an astonishing five FAs in R2 and R4).
  • Good Article – Adityavagarwal had 14 GAs promoted in R5.
  • Featured List – Canada Bloom6132 (submissions) and Japan 1989 (submissions) both produced 2 FLs in R2
  • Featured Pictures – Cascadia SounderBruce (submissions) improved an image to FP status in R5, the only FP this year.
  • Featured Topic – Denmark MPJ-DK (submissions) has the only FT of the Cup in R3.
  • Good Topic – Four different editors created a GT in R2, R3 and R4.
  • Did You Know – Adityavagarwal had 22 DYKs on the main page in R5.
  • In The News – India MBlaze Lightning (submissions) had 14 ITN on the main page in R2.
  • Good Article Review – India Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (submissions) completed 31 GARs in R1.

Over the course of the 2017 WikiCup the following content was added or improved on Wikipedia: 51 Featured Articles, 292 Good Articles, 18 Featured Lists, 1 Featured Picture, 1 Featured Topics, 4 Good Topics, around 400 Did You Knows, 75 In The News, and 442 Good Article Reviews. Thank you to all the competitors for your hard work and what you have done to improve Wikipedia.

Regarding the prize vouchers - @Adityavagarwal, Vanamonde93, Casliber, Bloom6132, 1989, and SounderBruce: please send Godot13 (talk · contribs · email) an email from the email address to which you would like your Amazon voucher sent. Please include your preference of global Amazon marketplace as well. We hope to have the electronic gift cards processed and sent within a week.

We will open up a discussion for comments on process and scoring in a few days. The 2018 WikiCup is just around the corner! Many thanks from all the judges. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs · email), and Godot13 (talk · contribs · email) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:41, 2 November 2017 (UTC)

WikiCup 2018

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So the 2017 WikiCup has come to an end. Congratulations to the winner, to the other finalists and to all those who took part. 177 contestants signed up, more than usual, but not all of them submitted entries in the first round. Were editors attracted by the cash prizes offered for the first time this year, or were these irrelevant? Do the rules and scoring need changing for the 2018 WikiCup? If you have a view on these or other matters, why not join in the WikiCup discussion about next year's contest? Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs · email), Godot13 (talk · contribs · email) and Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs · email). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:59, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

Nomination of Atul Gupta for deletion

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A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Atul Gupta is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Atul Gupta until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Guy (Help!) 15:22, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Hi. We're into the last five days of the Women in Red World Contest. There's a new bonus prize of $200 worth of books of your choice to win for creating the most new women biographies between 0:00 on the 26th and 23:59 on 30th November. If you've been contributing to the contest, thank you for your support, we've produced over 2000 articles. If you haven't contributed yet, we would appreciate you taking the time to add entries to our articles achievements list by the end of the month. Thank you, and if participating, good luck with the finale!

Orphaned non-free image File:UCT banner.png

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Thanks for uploading File:UCT banner.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 18:30, 28 November 2017 (UTC)