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Online Ambassadors: Time to join pods

Hello! If you're planning to be an active Online Ambassador for the upcoming academic term, now is the time to join one or more pods. (A pod consists of the instructor, the Campus Ambassadors, and the Online Ambassadors for single class.) The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) explains the expectations for being part of a pod as an Online Ambassador. (The MOU for pods in Canada is essentially the same.) In short, the role of Online Ambassadors this term consists of:

  • Working closely with the instructor and Campus Ambassadors, providing advice and perspective as an experienced Wikipedian
  • Helping students who ask for it (or helping them to find the help they need)
  • Watching out for the class as a whole
  • Helping students to get community feedback on their work

This replaces the 1-on-1 mentoring role for Online Ambassadors that we had in previous terms; rather than being responsible for individual students (some of whom don't want or help or are unresponsive), Online Ambassadors will be there to help whichever students in their class(es) ask for help.

You can browse the upcoming courses here: United States; Canada. More are being added as new pods become active and create their course pages.

Once you've found a class that you want to work with—especially if you some interest or expertise in the topic area—you should sign the MOU listing for that class and get in touch with the instructor. We're hoping to have at least two Online Ambassadors per pod, and more for the larger classes.

If you're up for supporting any kind of class and would like me to assign you to a pod in need of more Online Ambassadors, just let me know.

--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:36, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

PS: There are still a lot of student articles from the last term that haven't been rated. Please rate a few and update the list!

A pod suggestion for you: Communication Theory and Frameworks

Hi SMasters! I'm in the process of trying to find Online Ambassadors to support each of the classes for this coming term, and I thought you'd be a good fit for this one: Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Communication Theory and Frameworks (Jeanine Turner). If you're up for it, please check out the Memorandum of Understanding (linked above) which sketches the expectations for Online Ambassadors this term, and then you can sign on to class and get in touch with the professor.

There is much more diversity in terms of the kinds of classes we're working with this time around, so if there is some particular type of class you'd like to work with, let me know and I'll see if we're expecting any in a related area.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:59, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Sage, I'll check it out over the weekend and sign up. Cheers. – SMasters (talk) 17:21, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
I have decided to take History of Design and Digital Media (Michael Mandiberg), as I also have a background in graphic design so the subject is of interest to me. The Campus Ambassador listed there, Nboffa, does not seem to be a valid user. Can you check? Thanks. – SMasters (talk) 02:54, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
Great! That was another one that I was afraid it would be tough to find an Online Ambassador with relevant interests for. It looks like the Nboffa account exists, there's just no userpage or talk page yet: Special:Contributions/Nboffa.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 15:51, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
Hmm... How does one become a Campus Ambassador without anything on their talk page and so few edits? – SMasters (talk) 16:55, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
Campus Ambassadors go through a two-day training that goes through both the basics of Wikipedia and how to help students get started and find help. Being a Wikipedian already is not a requirement for that. Generally, making a userpage is part of that training, but Nboffa may not have gone through the training yet.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 17:22, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
Ah, I see. Thanks for the explanation. --SMasters (talk) 03:59, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

How to revert a Wikipedia article?

Hello again SMaster, if you remember me i'am Hamham31, may I ask you a question, how do I revert a Wikipedia article or page? Thanks again. Hamham31 (talk) 05:53, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

To revert, click on "View history" at the top, click on "compare selected revisions", then click on "Restore this version" (be careful you do not revert more than you intend to). You need to be very careful when reverting, as you can step on other editors' toes or end up in an edit war, or may break the 3-revert rule. This may cause your account to be blocked. Please read Wikipedia:Reverting. For a much faster response, you may want to search for your questions at Help:Contents. Cheers. --SMasters (talk) 08:10, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Wiki Loves Monuments

Hello SMasters, I noticed this message and read the questions of the interview. One particular subject in these questions is certainly missing. In 2010 we organized several "Wiki takes ..." in several clusters of non-photographed monuments, mostly cities. With these Wiki takes ... several groups of people go making pictures in cities and so to complete the monument lists. Certainly Effeietsanders and Multichill know about, and also Basvb who took up organizing those partly. These "Wiki takes ..." are part of Wiki Loves Monuments. Greetings - Romaine/Romaine (talk) 00:19, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

PS: I organize this years Wiki Loves Monuments in Belgium and Luxembourg and helped with the Dutch 2010 WLM. Romaine (talk) 00:19, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks Romaine, feel free to participate in the interview if you want, or drop a note to the other participants of the interview to add your points. I have also added another question at the end of the interview so that any other interesting points can be added. Cheers. --SMasters (talk) 00:47, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
I updated User:SMasters/Signpost2. Any more questions? ;-) multichill (talk) 14:56, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
O, btw, for introductions: Me and user:effeietsanders are the people doing the European organization/coordination/project management. multichill (talk) 15:01, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
I added a reaction on your page. Hopefully it will give a more clear picture of Wiki Loves Monuments. Romaine (talk) 15:24, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
Thank you all for participating. It looks great! --SMasters (talk) 04:55, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
Wow - the article looks great! Do you think I should change "Lodewijk" to effeietsanders and "Maarten" to Multichill? I noticed they are keeping to their usernames in the article (but they are Lodewijk and Maarten pretty much everywhere I think). You did a good job of cleaning up our mistakes - thanks again! Jane (talk) 21:26, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
I've changed it the other way round to make it more personal. --SMasters (talk) 01:39, 5 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. It looks like it's a great success, by the way - we have not been running a full week yet and we have already past the 10,000th photo milestone! I am amazed at this result so early in the game, because I fully expected the largest number of photos to be uploaded during the European Heritage Days, which are mostly next weekend. Jane (talk) 17:22, 5 September 2011 (UTC)
Excellent, I have added this to the article. Cheers. --SMasters (talk) 20:33, 5 September 2011 (UTC)
Great! :-) Perhaps it is nice to cover in the future more projects like these? Romaine (talk) 23:29, 5 September 2011 (UTC)
Feel free to make a suggestion at WP:POST/TIPS, or you can contact me. --SMasters (talk) 01:07, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks! I will keep that in mind. Romaine (talk) 17:05, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

I badly need you help

Hi. Can you please please please copy-edit "1+1 (song)"? It is urgent. Jivesh • Talk2Me 08:33, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Hi Jivesh, nice to hear from you. I'm very sorry but I have lots of stuff going on in RL right now, and I won't be able to do this for at least 2-3 weeks. Please ask at WP:GOCE/REQ instead. Sorry I can't help right now. --SMasters (talk) 04:53, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
It really does not matter my friend. I know you are very nice and that you always help when possible. Let it be, i will ask someone else. Thanks anyway and keep up your excellent work. Jivesh • Talk2Me 05:20, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Article WLM

Hi SMasters,

thanks again for writing the article. Just a few comments. I'm no longer a steward (already for over a year :) ), there are not 22 but 16 participating countries, and there's a quote about cooperation with the WMF which was by Multichill - somehow it got my name on it :) I hope you're able to correct that. Thanks a lot, effeietsanders 20:06, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. It says that you are a steward on User:Effeietsanders, and I got the countries from Wikipedia:Wiki Loves Monuments 2011#Participating countries – it lists 22. I have made the corrections as suggested, and have also fixed the quote from Multichill. Cheers. --SMasters (talk) 20:28, 5 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks. Clearly my enwiki userpage is outdated :) I'll fix it. I'll also look after the participating countries, but the page on Commons is always the up to date one. Since most of the work happens there, the page here might be containing errors. effeietsanders 21:17, 5 September 2011 (UTC)
There are some broken links on that page as well. You might want to fix them or alert Jane about it. --SMasters (talk) 01:08, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
I wish I could find the time to update that page, but I am still hacking away at the lists for Belgium (thankfully the English project page is not explicitly mentioned in the article!). I will get to it when I have a chance. Jane (talk) 07:14, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
Actually, the very first few words of the article links to it! --SMasters (talk) 07:17, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
OMG - thanks for the heads up! I just updated the page to include the Commons uploader links and a link to the overview of pictures per country - we are over 15,000 - yay! Jane (talk) 10:10, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 05 September 2011

It's time

Having looked thoroughly through your contributions (sorry for the delay), I think you're ready to be an administrator. I know that you're busy in RL at the moment, but send me a message when you can dedicate a week to an RfA. Remember to create User:SMasters/EditCounterOptIn.js with any content before you run so editors can look at your contributions in-depth. The UtahraptorTalk/Contribs 02:19, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the support. I'm currently doing quite a bit of work in the area of moving files through renaming them, or moving them completely to Commons, which means that I am now constantly tagging CSD R3 and CSD F8. Give me a month or so and I think I will be ready. --SMasters (talk) 02:39, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
Hello SMasters! I hope you enjoy this cookie as an amicable greeting from a fellow Wikipedian, SwisterTwister talk 01:24, 10 September 2011 (UTC)
Thank you! Have a great weekend. --SMasters (talk) 01:28, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 12 September 2011

Interview with Wikimedia Foundation

Hi SMasters, I hope you are well. My name is Matthew and I'm one of the Storytellers working on the 2011 fundraiser at the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco. We're collecting personal stories from Wikipedians who contribute a great deal to Wikipedia and sister projects. in an effort to broaden the range of voices that appear on the banners starting in November. I wonder if you'd like to participate in an interview with me? I'll ask a number of questions about your personal story -- how you came to edit Wikipedia, how your involvement grew, etc. I'll also ask a number of general questions about Wikipedia and why it's impact in the world is important. Please let me know what you think by emailing mroth (at) wikimedia.org. Thank you, Matthew (WMF) 21:53, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

HI Matthew, OK I will email you soon. Cheers. --SMasters (talk) 01:00, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Signpost editorship shadowing

Hey SMasters. I invite you to the Signpost's IRC channel tomorrow from 10pm UTC to shadow publication. If you can't make it, don't worry, the instructions are fairly comprehensive :) Regards, - Jarry1250 [Weasel? Discuss.] 21:14, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Hi Jarry, thanks for holding my hand through this! Unfortunately, due to time differences, I can't make this time. The best UTC times for me is from 1-9am. I can stretch this to 3pm if necessary. I would also appreciate your help on how to use the script that you have created. As you are in the UK, I'm guessing that the best time for us to meet in IRC would have to be sometime in the morning or early afternoon for you. I will try to be around IRC then to see if I can catch you. If you see me on IRC, please ping me. Cheers. --SMasters (talk) 03:05, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
Yes, rather awkward. It's very difficult for me to be on IRC at awkward times since I work, so I'll just update hte publication instructions w.r.t. the script and send you the link? Are you going to be moving publication time then for the issues you will be "in charge" of? Regards, - Jarry1250 [Weasel? Discuss.] 10:46, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
Actually, if the publication time was kept, it would work out perfectly for me. I would like to keep the the countdown time as shown in the newsroom. That works out perfectly for me, if we kept to to the current schedule. So, to answer your question, no. I like the scheduled publication times as they are. --SMasters (talk) 14:18, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Mid-drive newsletter

The GOCE mid-drive newsletter for September 2011 is available for editing here. The UtahraptorTalk/Contribs 21:40, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, have checked and made a comment (to be removed before it goes out). Otherwise, looks good to me. --SMasters (talk) 22:11, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
Hello, SMasters. You have new messages at Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Newsletters/September 2011/2#Comments.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

--The UtahraptorTalk/Contribs 16:27, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

AWB help

If you wouldn't mind sending out the mid-drive newsletter with AWB, that would be great. Thanks in advance. --Dianna (talk) 02:01, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

OK, will do it later today. --SMasters (talk) 05:44, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 September 2011

GOCE drive newsletter

Guild of Copy Editors September 2011 backlog elimination drive update
GOCE September 2011 backlog elimination drive progress graphs

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors September 2011 Backlog elimination drive! Here's the mid-drive newsletter.

Participation

We have had 55 people sign up for this drive so far, and 31 have participated. If you have signed up but have not yet copy edited any articles, please consider doing so. Every bit helps! It's not too late to join the drive if you have not already done so. Another great way to help out is to watch-list the Coordinators talk page and participate in the ongoing development of the Guild.

Progress report

So far, we have reduced the backlog by 75 articles, or about 19% of our goal. We have also cleared January 2010 off of the queue and are close to clearing off February and March. If each participant were to copy edit two articles from February and March 2010, they would be completely eliminated from the queue.

Rollover words

Several concerns have been brought up this drive about the usage of rollover words. Rollover words only count if they're from the previous drive. For example, if you received 1,000 rollover words in March and didn't participate in May, your rollover words return to zero. This is to encourage participation in multiple consecutive drives.

Your drive coordinators – Diannaa, Chaosdruid, The Utahraptor, Slon02 and SMasters

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 05:32, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Signpost

If we could please switch dates for the upcoming WP Reports, if you could move to Oct 3 that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Belugaboycup of tea? 22:47, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

OK, sure. I'll do that. --SMasters (talk) 01:07, 24 September 2011 (UTC)
About the report for WP:INDIA, would it be alright if I did that one? Or do you have it set in stone that you will do it? I've been quite idle from the Signpost recently, and WP:GEOLOGY's been cancelled. Belugaboycup of tea? 22:45, 25 September 2011 (UTC)
That's absolutely fine, go ahead. It is not set in stone but it would be nice to coincide with the First WikiConference India, which will take place in Mumbai on 18 –20 November 2011. I think scheduling it in for 14 November will be perfect. --SMasters (talk) 01:22, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks, wait, what's the date? I've lost track, oh yes, 8:30, here in sweet home Downers Grove on the 25 of September. I just got back from Camp Edwards up in Wisconsin with an injured knee and about 2 hours of sleep in 3 days, I really couldn't care if B&M pounded me into a beam for their next coaster at this point. :) Belugaboycup of tea? 01:28, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
Oh dear, I hope your knee heals quickly. And get some sleep! LOL --SMasters (talk) 01:35, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
Also, just to let you know that 24 Oct is locked-in because it coincides with the close of the now ongoing Rugby World Cup. The finals take place on the 23rd. --SMasters (talk) 01:37, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 September 2011


Talkback

Hello, SMasters. You have new messages at WT:SIGNPOST.
Message added 05:39, 27 September 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 05:39, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

New To Wikipedia

Hi, SMasters - I am very impressed with all you've done for Wikipedia. I was hoping you could mentor yet one more neophyte to Wikipedia. I just signed up as an editor, but am not well versed in Wikipedia code or its language. There are so many acronyms! Ezref (talk) 14:19, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Hi Ezref, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for asking me. I would like to help but I'm not sure if I am the right person for this right at this moment as I have a lot on my plate, both on Wikipedia as well as in RL. I am more than happy to answer any questions you may have. But if you are looking for a dedicated mentor, then I'm sure many others can do a better job. I see you have also asked Tea with toast, who is a very nice mentor. Let's see if they can look after you. Otherwise, feel free to ask me any questions here. I have also left you a welcome note on your talk page. You can check out some of the links provided on the note to get you started. Happy editing! --SMasters (talk) 15:18, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Pearl in the Palm

You were brave. It's not easy to work on a machine translation of an obscure subject like this. This is what I think it ought to resemble. --Ohconfucius ¡digame! 06:54, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Haha, indeed. I eventually gave up and tagged the talk page instead. You did a great job, thanks for your translating work. I think you can even remove my talk page tag if you think it's ok now. :) --SMasters (talk) 15:09, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Update on courses and ambassador needs

Hello, Ambassadors!

I wanted to give you one last update on where we are this term, before my role as Online Facilitator wraps up at the end of this week. Already, there are over 800 students in U.S. classes who have signed up on course pages this term. About 40 classes are active, and we're expecting that many more again once all the classes are up and running.

On a personal note, it's been a huge honor to work with so many great Wikipedians over the last 15 months. Thanks so much to everyone who jumped in and decided to give the ambassador concept a try, and double thanks those of you who were involved early on. Your ideas and insights and enthusiasm have been the foundation of the program, and they will be the keys the future of the program.

Courses looking for Online Ambassadors

Still waiting to get involved with a class this term, or ready to take on more? We have seven classes that are already active and need OA support, and eleven more that have course pages started but don't have active students yet. Please consider joining one or more of these pods!

Active courses that really need Online Ambassadors:

Courses that may be active soon that need Online Ambassadors:

--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 23:14, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Middlesex (novel)/archive1

Hi SMasters. Thank you for copyediting Middlesex (novel), which you've noted at Talk:Middlesex (novel)#Copy edit April 2010. Your improvements to the overlinking and prose issues were very helpful. I have nominated the article for featured article consideration at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Middlesex (novel)/archive1, where I hope you can review the article against the FA criteria. Thank you, Cunard (talk) 08:34, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

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