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WP:RFA2011: RfA on other Wikipedias

A detailed table and notes have now been created and posted. It compares how RfA is carried out on major Wikipedias (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish). If you feel that other important language Wikipedias should be added, please let us know. This may however depend on our/your language skills!

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of RfA reform 2011 at 22:46, 3 July 2011 (UTC).

Good work!

Wikipedia Motivation Award Wikipedia Motivation Award
The work you, WormTT, Kudpung, and Pyfan do on RFA reform 2011 is highly appreciated! It will be great if one day the dramaz that plague RFA today will be over. Reaper Eternal (talk) 17:27, 5 July 2011 (UTC)


Help requested

{{adminhelp}} Casey Anthony: double redirect, fully protected. Please redirect to Casey Anthony trial. Thanks, Swarm X 20:59, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

 Done - you might find it easier to add such requests on the appropriate talk page and add {{editprotected}} to the top of the section.  Ronhjones  (Talk) 21:06, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
That might be a remotely valid point if the edit request that was made wasn't ignored for 40 minutes before I made this request. Considering the 5 minute response time, I find that it's significantly easier to ping the IRC feed. In any case, I'm fully aware of the "standard procedure" and, given the media frenzy and attention surrounding this subject, I deliberately chose to ignore it. Best regards, Swarm X 21:22, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
It's just a matter of luck on how many admins are active at any one time - sometimes quick response, sometimes not. C'ést la vie.  Ronhjones  (Talk) 21:28, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Moving Leave No Trace

I believe that the recent move of Leave No Trace to Leave No Trace (organization) does not have consensus. Please join the discussion at Talk:Leave No Trace (organization)#Reverting move to Leave No Trace (organization). Thanks! —hike395 (talk) 01:43, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

I responded to your comments at Talk:Leave No Trace (organization)#Reverting move to Leave No Trace (organization). Please feel free to respond. —hike395 (talk) 14:56, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

An article that you have been involved in editing, "Legal status of Texas" and another, "Republic of Texas (group) has been proposed for a merge with Texas Secession Movement. If you are interested in the merge discussion, please participate by going here, and adding your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. Otr500 (talk) 04:46, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

wow?

for what? -- Ashish-g55 03:30, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Re on your page ;). CharlieEchoTango (talk) 04:58, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Hi There

Did you mean to make a personal attack? --Protostan (talk) 01:08, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Are you sure? because I thought it was rather obvious I stopped edited the article on Loughner a long time ago after me and other editors found ourselves bound to the rules. --Protostan (talk) 01:16, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Yes well I have this ability called learning and rather than ignore what I have learned I try to use it. --Protostan (talk) 01:28, 25 July 2011 (UTC)


Thank you kindly

Thank you for your support
Thank you very much for your support on my RfA. Thank you for your concerns on my talk page, too, about the one unusual question. I shall endeavor to meet your and the community's expectations as an admin. Qwyrxian (talk) 07:33, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

August 2011 Wikification Drive

WikiProject Wikify's August Newsletter



Your Wikification Newsletter – Volume I, Issue IV, October 2011


To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.


Thanks for the email

Thank you for the email you sent. Because you are correct in the things you said. I did return. Somehow I seem to be on thin ice so I'll more than likely maintain a very low profile. But I will be around and I thank you primarily. My76Strat (talk) 00:13, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Berlin Wall

Sorry, I had to take Berlin Wall out of Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/August 13, as it unfortunately has several sections that are lacking references. Regards, howcheng {chat} 23:41, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you the notification. Regards, Swarm u | t 23:44, 12 August 2011 (UTC)

RfA reform

Well it looks like there's been a bit more stuff happening. I see you're working on the Clerks proposal, when you're happy with your progress do you want to put in another bot request to rally the troops? I've created a new proposal - which is near ready to put to the community, and Ryan Vesey might have a third for people within the task force. WormTT · (talk) 15:05, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

You read my mind with that proposal. Anyway, yeah, another bot message sounds good. I had a couple of coordination-related ideas that I want to run by you and KP first, though (nothing major). But great leap in momentum that we should keep going. :) Regards, Swarm u | t 17:25, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Original source

Hi, apologies for not taking the time to find the original source, I couldn't remember where I'd seen it until this morning. It's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9jn_qUXtMk --PaulWicks (talk) 18:23, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Swarm. You have new messages at Causa sui's talk page.
Message added 21:26, 18 August 2011 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

causa sui (talk) 21:26, 18 August 2011 (UTC) You have new message/s Hello. You have a new message at causa sui's talk page. causa sui (talk) 21:55, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you

Much appreciated. Nice to see I am not the only one who thought the situation yesterday was weird, unusual and rather unfair. Polozooza (talk) 18:04, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, no problem. I asked the blocking admin to reconsider, but by the time he got back to me there was only three hours left on the block so it was kind of a moot point. Oh well. Glad you're unblocked and watch out for 3RR from now on! Swarm u | t 05:13, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Canvassing

I'd like to hear what you think at Talk:Anders_Behring_Breivik#Proposed_compromise. causa sui (talk) 21:14, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll take a look. Swarm u | t 05:14, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive newsletter

Invitation from the Guild of Copy Editors

The Guild of Copy Editors invites you to participate in their September 2011 Backlog elimination drive, a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy editing backlog. The drive will begin on September 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on September 30 at 23:59 (UTC). We will be tracking the number of 2010 articles in the backlog, as we want to copy edit as many of those as possible. Please consider copy editing an article that was tagged in 2010. Barnstars will be given to anyone who edits more than 4,000 words, with special awards for the top 5 in the categories "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". See you at the drive! – Your drive coordinators: Diannaa, Chaosdruid, The Utahraptor, Slon02, and SMasters.

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 17:07, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Happy birthday!

Wishing Swarm/Archive 5 a very happy birthday on behalf of the Birthday Committee! Swarm u | t 06:37, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
Oh, why thank you, Swarm! You shouldn't have! Swarm u | t 06:38, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
No problem, buddy— after all, that's what the birthday committee is here for! Swarm u | t 06:39, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
Enjoy your birthday, I recommend everyone do it once a year. My76Strat (talk) 06:45, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
Oh, at least. :P Swarm u | t 07:13, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

GA templates

[1] The page paramater should stay "page=1". Where are you getting the notion that it should be changed? Gimmetoo (talk) 18:27, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Good article nominations#Pass. The parameter is empty. It's been awhile since I did a review, so it was just a simple mistake on my part. However, based on your edit summary, it's a common mistake. That would be why. Swarm u | t 18:31, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
Most people leave it blank. This is a different issue. You change "page=1" to "page=GA1". Why? Gimmetoo (talk) 18:40, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
I didn't change "page=1" to "page=GA1", I changed "page=" to "page=GA1". Like I said, the parameter is blank. I completed the review, filled in the blank {{GA}}, and then removed {{GA nominee}} entirely. Swarm u | t 18:53, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
The {{GA nominee}} template had "page=1". You should just change {{GA nominee}} to {{GA}}, and perhaps change "subtopic" to "topic". Gimmetoo (talk) 18:58, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
Yes, I could do that, but it doesn't much matter since I'm aware of the mistake and won't repeat it in the future. Swarm u | t 19:30, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
OK, no problem, and thanks. I only meant that the system was put together so that all reviewers had to do was change the template name for a pass. Gimmetoo (talk) 20:04, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
Gotcha. :) Regards, Swarm u | t 21:07, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Question

I have observed some pretty remarkable contributions from this account. I am curious, why are you not an administrator. Pardon that you have struck me as the kind of editor who could be a good one, and that you seem qualified by a cursory review. I am working on an essay, and I believe you are of the adman class. I'd like to see you become an admin. This essay might explain, but you are exactly the kind of editor I had in mind. My76Strat (talk) 06:36, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

I appreciate that Strat. I've always pretty much held the position that I wouldn't even consider requesting adminship unless I was approached by another user offering a nomination, or something along those lines. You're actually the second user who's recently approached me about adminship, so I guess I'll think about requesting a nomination (or taking up a tentative offer that might be on the table). Don't really know what it would say, but I believe I'm qualified and I guess that's something. Swarm u | t 20:12, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
I am glad you are giving thought to a run. There are no guarantees, except that I will be firmly in your corner, regardless. My76Strat (talk) 20:20, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
Thanks, Strat. Believe me, I have no illusions about RfA. I'm not an RfA reform proponent for no reason! :P Swarm u | t 22:41, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
I mentioned this to Swarm a few days back, and have been in the process of checking I was right. Am hoping to do a nomination soon - assuming there's nothing I've missed. However, I've been mildly distractive with other stuff on Wiki... and all I can do is apologise. However. I have 2 hours. Now. So... let's see. WormTT · (talk) 18:16, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

I've created Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Swarm, for your... entertainment. WormTT · (talk) 20:35, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Good luck! Reaper Eternal (talk) 21:04, 30 August 2011 (UTC)
Oh, thanks, Reaper. I'm humbled by that nom statement. However, I've decided, as I've just conveyed in an email to Worm, to postpone this for a while. I'll definitely give it a go in a month or so. Swarm u | t 21:14, 30 August 2011 (UTC)
One month it is :) WormTT · (talk) 21:23, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

WP:WTW

How are you Swarm? Regarding this edit, can you share your perspective on whether the MOS guideline also applies at Jewish religious terrorism. It seems to me that if an article is endeavoring to list organizations as "The following groups have been considered religious terrorist organizations in Israel," it's necessary to establish that they're terrorist organizations in the same way that it's required elsewhere per WP:TERRORIST, i.e. widely used and with in-text attribution.—Biosketch (talk) 04:28, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Hey, Biosketch. Well, yes, what you're saying is absolutely correct in principle. Swarm u | t 09:30, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
Ok, thanks. I needed an opinion from someone I know's not involved in the topic area but has experience with these sorts of things.—Biosketch (talk) 09:53, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
I've commented on the talk page in detail. :) Swarm u | t 01:32, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

New Zealand - US relations

Hello there,

I landed on this article and saw that you'd re-written recently the lead paragraph a bit. I certainly agree with it, but it looked like one of the sentences ended a bit abruptly:

According to the US State department[1]

I followed the reference to the state department site and made this change to complete the thought. Let me know if you agree or had something else in mind. Cheers, Northumbrian (talk) 00:40, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Oops... my mistake. That's actually exactly what I intended to write though (I guess I got distracted or something), so thanks for catching and fixing that! Swarm u | t 01:07, 7 September 2011 (UTC)
Ah good deal then. I've done that once or twice myself...easy to do with multiple tabs and edits going on at once! Cheers, Northumbrian Sprǣc Forðunga 16:15, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

RfA Reform update

Hi. It's been a little while since the last message on RfA reform, and there's been a fair amount of slow but steady progress. However, there is currently a flurry of activity due to some conversations on Jimbo's talk page.

I think we're very close to putting an idea or two forward before the community and there are at least two newer ones in the pipeline. So if you have a moment:

Thanks for reading and for any comments that you've now made.

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of RfA reform 2011 at 21:42, 6 September 2011 (UTC).

WP:RFA2011: Coordinators

Hi Swarm/Archive 5. The main reasons why WT:RfA was never successful in getting anything done are that threads on different aspects of RfA are all mixed together, and are then archived where nobody remembers them and they are hard to find - same applies to ad hoc threads on the founder's talk page. I've therefore spent a couple of hours organising, transferring, and collapsing some of the older threads at WT:RFA2011 - experience has shown that people are quite happy to follow a link to a new, more appropriate location. I've also added some slightly more blatant edit notices in the hope that newcomers will take notice.
If you can, please consider collapsing and copying new threads started by newcomers to the appropriate talk page, drawing their attention to the navigation aid at Wikipedia:RfA reform 2011/Pages, and the edit notices on each talk page. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 10:21, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Will do from now on. Regards, Swarm u | t 15:04, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Re. Haidill and the Neruda Review

I think you're right that this user hasn't been around for a while. I'll leave the review open for a few days and if he/she is not around by the weekend I'll just fail the article. --Olegkagan (talk) 22:53, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

I'd say that's more than fair. Regards, Swarm u / t 00:31, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Contagion

Hey, Swarm! Thanks for keeping the box office figure updated. In the "Box office" section, there is a sentence that breaks it down by the US/Canada and the rest of the countries. When you update the infobox, can you update that sentence too? Erik (talk | contribs) 00:38, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

I apologize, I didn't even check that section to see if it needed an update; it slipped my mind. I will absolutely remember to do so in the future! Regards, Swarm u / t 00:46, 15 September 2011 (UTC)
No worries, I had added it today. It seemed amiss that the infobox would have the figure but not the article body. Plus, the breakdown will help different readers. Happy editing! Erik (talk | contribs) 00:49, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you!

This is the first barnstar anyone has awarded me. I'll display it with honor and keep true with its significance (as best I can).--MarshalN20 | Talk 18:08, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Well, you earned it, but you're welcome all the same. :) Swarm u / t 18:21, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
I've read the discussion you got into as a result of giving me the barnstar. I honestly don't understand why he tells you not to "assume anything," and yet he has quite a big bad faith assumption on me. In any case, I will make sure not to let you down. Nonetheless, I do have to add that them calling each other "brother" really makes me think they may be Hulkamaniacs. Hehehe. Thanks again.--MarshalN20 | Talk 23:49, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
Oh, yeah. I honestly don't know why Dave feels so strongly, but when someone uses WP:Don't assume to counter WP:AGF, that's about the point where I stop contributing to a discussion. I've left it at "we'll see", and I hope you prove Dave's assumptions wrong. Best regards, Swarm u / t 02:42, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

Mentorship of User:ChristianandJericho

Hey, on the AN/I thread you volunteered to mentor ChristianandJericho, and I was wondering if you'd still be willing to do so. An editor has expressed concern that I may not be knowledgeable enough with the ins-and-outs of CSD to properly mentor him, and I don't want to inadvertently tell him the wrong thing and end up giving him the green light just to have him mess up. I also think I may need to take a breather from editing for a few days, and I don't think that'd be fair to him to do that. Would you still be able to mentor him? - SudoGhost 15:04, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Sure, I'd still be happy to. :) Do you want me to let them know? Swarm u / t 15:08, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
If you don't mind. The things he agreed to can be found here, if you want to move the page over to your namespace. But if you want to discuss different guidelines with him, that's your call, just wanted to provide you with that information. The AN/I thread still has some concerns about the pornography issue. He agreed not to edit in that area, so I think it's just a matter of reminding him to remove it from his user page. - SudoGhost 15:13, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
Your guidelines seem perfect so I'll definitely stick with those, and I'll be sure to remind them of the userpage issues. Regards, Swarm u / t 15:30, 19 September 2011 (UTC)
Much appreciated, thank you. - SudoGhost 15:32, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

I've blocked C&J until such time as you may be able to reel them in from their path of disruption. Gwen Gale (talk) 00:08, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

I understand. Swarm u / t 00:16, 21 September 2011 (UTC)
I've left them a set of conditions for one final chance, and you're free to add onto them should you deem it insufficient. I think it will keep them on the straight and narrow, though. Swarm u / t 01:18, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Original Barnstar
Wow, you showed exceptional patience recently dealing with that young user. Not sure how it will (or has) played out, but it was really good of you to offer to work with him. Very classy. I don't think I'd have the patience but I appreciate seeing it in you. Herostratus (talk) 03:23, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

An aside: Mentors on en.WP tend to learn a lot more than the mentored, fast. Gwen Gale (talk) 03:42, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Oh, thanks Herostratus. Hopefully it will play out positively. :) I'll do what I can, but in the end it will fall to C&J. Gwen: Of that I already have no doubt. Swarm u / t 07:11, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

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 05:33, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

Help

My school's IP is currently vandalizing pages and I think I might be blocked along with the IP because I am currently on it, please see WP:AIV --ChristianandJericho 01:57, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

It happens. The block should not affect you. Swarm u / t 02:14, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
That IP resolves to Hanoi, Vietnam. Gwen Gale (talk) 02:28, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
Care to explain, CJ? Swarm u / t 02:32, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
I've just emailed you on that topic, Swarm. I'm not sure there's anything that CJ needs to explain. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 02:36, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
  • Swarm, I am very concerned that C&J might be yanking our chain here. If you haven't already, you should look at the circumstances of his 22 August 2011 block for vandalism (including the troublemaking classmate editing at the same time on the same IP as him, making the same kind of edit, except it was a different IP), which at the time was somewhat suspicious, but I suppose could be attributed to a one-off coincidence. Demiurge1000, if you have some reason to think this is not the case, I'd like to know about it too, if possible. --Floquenbeam (talk) 02:41, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
  • I didn't see this until now, but I blocked him indef because he's just wasting our time. Obviously, taking a picture of his computer at school doesn't prove anything. If he wants to edit this site, he better have more clue than saying something as nonsensical as that. (By the way, could someone forward me that email? I'm willing to unblock if there's proof the IP was actually his school's, or if that's been verified, someone else can feel free to overturn my block. But I don't play games with children here—not once do I ever remember giving a child editor some slack and it not resulting an an indef soon after.) /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 04:06, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
  • I fully support the block. Demiurge was theorizing how CJ might be telling the truth, and was just emailing to avoid putting ideas in CJs head. Their explanation was nowhere near as reasonable as Demiurge's—or my—theories. There's no proof positive, or anything like that, it was just speculation and is nonessential concerning the block (although Demiurge can share their thoughts if they want, now) Swarm u / t 04:11, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
  • What I suspect was going on, is only relevant if CandJ admits it of their own volition and without prompting. We're all familiar enough with the "here is what you need to say to be unblocked" situation, and how certain editors will grasp at it. So I'll keep that under wraps for now. I do also have concerns about implying (essentially) that if the editor can prove what school they go to then they can be unblocked. We spend enough time trying to get younger editors not to be carefree with their personal information, we shouldn't have "except when we say so" clauses to that. Especially not when there's supposedly a great many eyes watching the issue with "child safety on Wikipedia" concerns in mind. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 04:31, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
I don't think that's what was happening. Gwen Gale (talk) 04:34, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
Even if they suddenly come up with the most reasonable explanation, they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of being unblocked at this point. It's a matter of common sense. They quite clearly weren't just worried about their school being blocked. Swarm u / t 04:56, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
Without getting into the details, taken altogether, the odds the tale C&J wove is true are very close to zero. Gwen Gale (talk) 04:20, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for the quick responses—I'm off to bed now but I expect some whining will occur in the next twelve hours, during the day in wherever his IPs geolocate to, if he actually lives there. /ƒETCHCOMMS/ 04:22, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

maybe keep it for now?

I linked to User:Swarm/Mentor in both the ANI thread and on C&J's talk page, as I recall. I don't care much if someone else deletes (admins will still be able to see it) it but I didn't want to. Gwen Gale (talk) 06:33, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

I'll keep it around for historical reference, at least for the medium-term. Swarm u / t 06:36, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

Welcome to the Wikipedia Ambassador Program

Hi Swarm!

Congratulations! Your application to join the Global Education Program as an Online Ambassador has been accepted. The steps you need to take now, a few things you need to read, are bolded.

When you get a chance, please add your username to the official list of Online Ambassadors and add a profile for yourself here (which helps match Online Ambassadors with classes in their areas of interest).

Here are some things you should know to help you get started:

The role of the Online Ambassador

The main role of for an Online Ambassador is to join the "pod" for one or more participating classes. The pod is the team of people helping a class of students contribute effectively to Wikipedia, consisting of the course instructor, the local Campus Ambassadors who will work with the class in person, the Online Ambassadors who work with the class online, and the Regional Ambassador for the pod who will check in periodically with the pod to make sure everything is going well.

A prototypical pod might look something like this:

  • An instructor who is fairly new to Wikipedia, leading a class of 20 students assigned to make significant contributions to new or existing articles related to the course subject.
  • Two Campus Ambassadors, one of whom is an experienced Wikipedian and one of whom is new to Wikipedia. The Campus Ambassadors will have gone through a training program on the basics of Wikipedia and how to help students contribute effectively.
  • Two Online Ambassadors, one moderately experienced on Wikipedia and one very experienced, who can answer basic questions and give good editing advice and find others to help when they get in over their heads, one of whom has a particular interest in the subject area of the course.
  • One Regional Ambassador, a moderately experienced Wikipedian who is working with 15 different pods spread across a big geographical region.

(That's an idealization, but it gives you an idea of the spectrum of people in each of the roles in the program.)

The expections for an Online Ambassador in a pod (and what you can expect from other pod members) are laid out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between pod members. In short the role of the Online Ambassador is to:

  • Help students in your class(es) when they ask for it, answer their questions, and generally watch out for them
  • Help students to get feedback on their work (whether from you or other editors an interest in / knowledge of the subject area)
  • Be a good example for students, modeling good wiki communication and editing practices
  • Communicate regularly with the other members of your pod about how things are going and problems are coming up

To join a pod, go to the MOU signup page, which lists the courses for the current term, and leave your signature in one of the Online Ambassador slots for the pod you want to join.

You can also help as an Online Ambassador outside of your role as a pod member, anywhere you see students who could use help. Feedback on the substance (rather than style and formatting) of student articles, in particular, is always a need.

If you use IRC, please consider adding #wikipedia-en-ambassadors and #wikipedia-en-classroom to your channel lineup. The latter is the main help channel for the program, where students and instructors come from time to time in search of live help.

Wikipedia Ambassadors are expected to follow the Wikipedia Ambassadors Principles. Please review them.

Communication channels

There are three main places for news, updates and discussion about Wikipedia Ambassadors and the Global Education Program:

  1. Wikipedia talk:Ambassadors
  2. The Ambassador Program announcements list, which all ambassadors should join. It is a low-traffic email list that is only used for significant announcement that are relevant to the whole program. Please sign up as soon as you get a chance.
  3. The Wikipedia Ambassadors Google Group, a discussion list shared by Online Ambassadors and Campus Ambassadors. It's not required, but it's strong recommended and most of the ambassadors are on it. Request to join the Wikipedia Ambassadors Google Group if you would like access.

Newsletters about the program, or messages for Online Ambassadors particularly, may be delivered to your talk page on occasion.

Thanks for volunteering as a Wikipedia Ambassador! If you have any questions, please let me know.

--Cind.amuse (Cindy) 19:13, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

Research into the user pages of Wikipedians: Invitation to participate

Greetings,

My name is John-Paul and I am a student with the University of Alberta specializing in Communications and Technology.

I would like to include your Wikipedia user page in a study I am doing about how people present themselves online. I am interested in whether people see themselves in different ways, online and offline. One of the things I am looking at is how contributors to Wikipedia present themselves to each other through their user pages. Would you consider letting me include your user page in my study?

With your consent, I will read and analyze your user page, and ask you five short questions about it that will take about ten to fifteen minutes to answer. I am looking at about twenty user pages belonging to twenty different people. I will be looking at all user pages together, looking for common threads in the way people introduce themselves to other Wikipedians.

I hope that my research will help answer questions about how people collaborate, work together, and share knowledge. If you are open to participating in this study, please reply to this message, on your User Talk page or on mine. I will provide you with a complete description of my research, which you can use to decide if you want to participate.

Thank-you,

John-Paul Mcvea
University of Alberta
jmcvea@ualberta.ca

Johnpaulmcvea (talk) 20:26, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

Sounds interesting. Sure, I'll participate. Swarm u / t 20:30, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank-you for agreeing to participate in my study

Thank-you for agreeing to participate in my study, entitled “Online Self-presentation among Wikipedians.” I appreciate it.

As I indicated before, here are five questions that I would like you to answer. Please be as brief or as thorough as you like.


5 QUESTIONS

1. Are you a member of social networks such Facebook or MySpace?

2. In addition to maintaining a user page in Wikipedia, have you also written or edited articles? If so, about how many times?

3. What are the key messages about yourself that you hope to convey with your user page?

4. Have your Wikipedia contributions ever received feedback, such as being edited by others or commented on? Have you received a message from another Wikipedia user? If so, do you think your user page positively or negatively affected what other people said and how they said it?

5. Do you see your “online self” as being different from your “offline self?” Can you elaborate?

Answers

1. Yes, I'm a member of Facebook.

2. Yes, I'm an active editor. I have made more than 10,000 edits on Wikipedia. 2,800+ of those edits were made directly to articles.[2]

3. I suppose mostly, I want to get across my experience level and contributions to Wikipedia. That's about it for 'key points' (though I also feature some quotations that I think raise some good points).

4. Sure, all of the above and lots of times. If it were one or the other, I would say that since I try to keep my userpage organized and somewhat professional-looking, it would be more likely to positively influence how someone communicates with me.

5. While I don't change anything about myself (such as the way I write, or behave, or anything like that), I've never really identified myself (i.e. revealed my name, education, personal details and life story) like some here do. That is because those things are irrelevant on Wikipedia. There's a principle here that who you are in real life doesn't matter, and I generally agree with that. So I guess you can say 'sort of' (is that an acceptable answer? :P).

Let me know if I can clarify anything. :) Swarm u / t 19:14, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

Got it :)

Please indicate your answers to these questions on your talk page, or on mine. Or, you can email your answers to me (jmcvea@ualberta.ca).

Thank you again : )

Johnpaulmcvea (talk) 20:41, 22 September 2011 (UTC)


INDICATING CONSENT

By answering these questions, you indicate your agreement with the following statements:

• That you understand that you have been asked to be in a research study.

• That you have read and received a copy of the Information Sheet, attached below (“Additional Information”).

• That you understand the benefits and risks involved in taking part in this research study.

• That you have had an opportunity to ask questions and discuss this study.

• That you understand that you are free to refuse to participate, or to withdraw from the study at any time, without consequence, and that your information will be withdrawn at your request.

• That the issue of confidentiality been explained to you and that you understand who will have access to your information (see “Additional Information”).

• That you agree to participate.


ADDITONAL INFORMATION

Background

• I am asking you to participate in a research project that is part of my MA degree.

• I am asking you because you have created a user page in Wikipedia that other people can use to learn about you.


Purpose

• My research is about how people present themselves online.

• I will look at how people present themselves when presenting themselves to the Wikipedia community.


Study Procedures

• With your consent, I will analyze the language of your user page and gather basic statistics such as the count of words, the frequency of words, the number of sections, and so on.

• I will also read the text of your user page, looking for elements in common with ads posted by other people. I will note whether you include a picture, or links to other content on the internet.

• I ask you to answer my five questions, above. This will take about ten to fifteen minutes to complete. I will ask you to answer the questions within a week, and send your answers to me.

• Throughout my research, I will adhere to the University of Alberta Standards for the Protection of Human Research Participants, which you can view at http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/gfcpolicymanual/policymanualsection66.cfm


Benefits

• There is no direct benefit to you for participating in this research. You may, however, find it interesting to read my perspective on how you present yourself online.

• I hope that the information I get from doing this study will help understand how technology affects the way people come together into a society.

• There is no reward or compensation for participating in this research.


Risk

• There is no direct risk for participating in this research.


Voluntary Participation

• You are under no obligation to participate in this study. Participation is completely voluntary.

• You can opt out of this study at any time before October 10, 2011, with no penalty. You can ask to have me withdraw any data that I have collected about you. Even if you agree to be in the study, you can change your mind and withdraw.

• If you decline to continue or you wish to withdraw from the study, your information will be removed from the study at your request.


Confidentiality

• This research will be used to support a project that is part of my MA degree.

• A summary of my research will be available on the University of Alberta website.

• Your personally identifiable information will be deleted and digitally shredded as soon as I have finished gathering data about you.

• Data will be kept confidential. Only I will have access to the computer file containing the data. It will be password protected. It will not be sent by email or stored online.

• I will always handle my data in compliance with University of Alberta standards.

• If you would like to receive a copy of my final report, please ask.


Further Information

• If you have any further questions regarding this study, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Stanley Varnhagen, my research advisor for this project. If you have concerns about this study, you may contact the University of Alberta Research Ethics Committee at 780-492-2615. This office has no affiliation with the study investigators.


Thank-you again!

Message

You have new message/s Hello. You have a new message at Anna Frodesiak's talk page. 00:10, 23 September 2011 (UTC)

News and progress from RfA reform 2011

RfA reform: ...and what you can do now.

(You are receiving this message because you are either a task force member, or you have contributed to recent discussions on any of these pages.)

The number of nominations continues to nosedive seriously, according to these monthly figures. We know why this is, and if the trend continues our reserve of active admins will soon be underwater. Wikipedia now needs suitable editors to come forward. This can only be achieved either through changes to the current system, a radical alternative, or by fiat from elsewhere.

A lot of work is constantly being done behind the scenes by the coordinators and task force members, such as monitoring the talk pages, discussing new ideas, organising the project pages, researching statistics and keeping them up to date. You'll also see for example that we have recently made tables to compare how other Wikipedias choose their sysops, and some tools have been developed to more closely examine !voters' habits.

The purpose of WP:RFA2011 is to focus attention on specific issues of our admin selection process and to develop RfC proposals for solutions to improve them. For this, we have organised the project into dedicated sections each with their own discussion pages. It is important to understand that all Wikipedia policy changes take a long time to implement whether or not the discussions appear to be active - getting the proposals right before offering them for discussion by the broader community is crucial to the success of any RfC. Consider keeping the pages and their talk pages on your watchlist; do check out older threads before starting a new one on topics that have been discussed already, and if you start a new thread, please revisit it regularly to follow up on new comments.

The object of WP:RFA2011 is not to make it either easier or harder to become an admin - those criteria are set by those who !vote at each RfA. By providing a unique venue for developing ideas for change independent of the general discussion at WT:RFA, the project has two clearly defined goals:

  1. Improving the environment that surrounds RfA in order to encourage mature, experienced editors of the right calibre to come forward, pass the interview, and dedicate some of their time to admin tasks.
  2. Discouraging, in the nicest way possible of course, those whose RfA will be obvious NOTNOW or SNOW, and to guide them towards the advice pages.

The fastest way is through improvement to the current system. Workspace is however also available within the project pages to suggest and discuss ideas that are not strictly within the remit of this project. Users are invited to make use of these pages where they will offer maximum exposure to the broader community, rather than individual projects in user space.

We already know what's wrong with RfA - let's not clutter the project with perennial chat. RFA2011 is now ready to propose some of the elements of reform, and all the task force needs to do now is to pre-draft those proposals in the project's workspace, agree on the wording, and then offer them for central discussion where the entire Wikipedia community will be more than welcome to express their opinions in order to build consensus.

New tool Check your RfA !voting history! Since the editors' RfA !vote counter at X!-Tools has been down for a long while, we now have a new RfA Vote Counter to replace it. A significant improvement on the former tool, it provides a a complete breakdown of an editor's RfA votes, together with an analysis of the participant's voting pattern.

Are you ready to help? Although the main engine of RFA2011 is its task force, constructive comments from any editors are always welcome on the project's various talk pages. The main reasons why WT:RfA was never successful in getting anything done are that threads on different aspects of RfA are all mixed together, and are then archived where nobody remembers them and where they are hard to find - the same is true of ad hoc threads on the founder's talk page.

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of RfA reform 2011 at 16:04, 25 September 2011 (UTC).

Good news: We now have a very important new member on the task force. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 18:07, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Oh man, that's fantastic! Swarm 18:18, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Quesions

Swarm,

I am creating my first wiki article. How do I find a sponsor/guide? Article is "Allen Loughry" — Preceding unsigned comment added by JayArgh33 (talk • contribs) 20:38, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Well, in general, there's a great guide at Wikipedia:Your first article that I would recommend you look at if you haven't yet, but if you're looking for more of a mentor, you can get one through the "adopt-a-user" program. I actually happen to be an adopter with that program, so I'd be more than happy to adopt you, or you can browse the list of adopters and ask one of them instead. Swarm 21:00, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

That would be great. Let me tell you a little about my first article. I am writing an article about an author who has decided to run for office. He is running a grassroots campaign and I wanted to help. I'm not a paid staffer or a PR guy, I just read his book and wanted to help him out. That coupled with the idea that I wanted to contribute to something that I use so frequently. I am creating the article on him, but also want to create a brother article about the 2012 race and one for his book, which is used and cited frequently. I also want to get some practice so I can contribute in other areas of interests to me. If you are interested I would like to have a mentor. - Regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by JayArgh33 (talk • contribs) 21:12, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Hello Swarm

Hello I am in my first year of Social Service worker, and this document I have created is for Introduction to research. Please could you not delete this article for at least one week from today. (Sept26 2011) I am really hoping for a good grade and if Profesor can't find it I will most certainly get a zero. Thank you in Advance for hopefully not deleting. Also another students project was deleted almost instintly, is there any way that can be re-instated onto wiki site. Creater e-mail address tobymaryann57@hotmail.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pease66 (talk • contribs) 01:08, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Articles in Different Languages

Hello, Swarm!

I would like to ask what should be done in order to have the menu with the different languages in which a certain article is available. More precisely the question is how to connect the articles with the same content in the different languages versions of Wikipedia?

I could't find information about this. I'll be very grateful if you can help me.

--Wikibgineng (talk) 07:33, 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) 23:15, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

Sorry

My apologies Swarm. I'll be more careful from now on when I revert. (I think I should switch to HUggle from now on so I can state the reason for an iffy revert =) ). --Kangaroopowah 23:37, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Swarm

Thanks for your kindness, I hope to contribute with wikipedia!! Regards!!

Tarkan2011 (talk) 14:24, 2 October 2011 (UTC) Tarkan2011

Greetings

The edit you removed was based on federal studies. Though I do share the concern which is I noted that it may have more to do with previous behavior than anything else. Especially when you note that figures they show, seem to indicate that the offenders make up less than 10% of the local Latino community. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.29.214.34 (talk) 20:17, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

WikiProject Wikify's October Newsletter



Your Wikification Newsletter – Volume I, Issue IV, October 2011


To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

Delivered by MessageDeliveryBot on behalf of WikiProject Wikify at 16:10, 3 October 2011 (UTC).

Friendly question

Swarm, I see in the discussion about the Knox candidacy in ITN that you've cited the New Zealand Herald. Are you a fellow Kiwi? Deterence Talk 20:28, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Nah, I was just trying to present a good sampling of international coverage, and that, of course, includes NZ. :) Swarm 20:42, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Chief Jim Billie

Hello Swarm! Thanks much for your editing, and follow up advice. Truth is I rushed the posting and only because as I was experimenting in the sandbox someone started to edit the project and interrupting my line of thought. I thought the sanbox was a private place to try things out and learn. Someone out there didn't give me a chance. Regards Izonly (talk) 01:09, 4 October 2011 (UTC).

Hi there, Izonly! It was actually a different user—named DGG— that gave you that followup advice, so comments on that matter should be addressed to them. :) But in any case, yes, the Wikipedia sandbox is public, but you can create your own sandbox for private use if you want. Just create User:Izonly/Sandbox and you can edit there to your heart's content! Feel free to message me if you need any help. Regards, Swarm 01:30, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

GOCE drive newsletter

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

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors September 2011 Backlog elimination drive! We would like to thank all who participated in this drive. Here is the end-of-drive report.

Participation

There were 58 editors who signed-up for this drive, of which 42 participated. This is a slight increase from the July 2011 drive participation, where 39 out of 50 people that signed up participated. Thank you to everyone!

Progress report

During the drive, we reduced the backlog by 146 articles, or by about 4%. Overall we did well, especially considering the exceptionally large number of articles that were tagged during September. Thus far we have reduced the copy edit backlog by 4854 articles, or by about 58%. If we keep up our current rate of copy editing, the backlog should be reduced by 65–70% by the end of this year. End-of-drive results and barnstar information can be found here. Barnstars will be handed out this week.

Once again, thank you for participating in the Guild's September 2011 Backlog elimination drive! Our next drive will be in November, and we hope to see you there!

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

Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 04:19, 8 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Swarm

Thanks for the warm welcome and the cookies. I hope to actively contribute to wikipedia. Startupfan (talk) 14:08, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

No problem. If you need anything, let me know! Swarm 15:00, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

beating me

You've beaten me on a few reverts. Keep up the good work! Command and Conquer Expert! speak to me...review me... 06:44, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Well thanks, I appreciate that! Also, you've beaten me to the punch a few times, so right back at you! Swarm 06:52, 10 October 2011 (UTC)
Well its my first time using Huggle, so I'm just going crazy =) Command and Conquer Expert! speak to me...review me... 06:54, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for the warm welcome. Will gradually become more polished I hope. Fujimama101 (talk) 10:24, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

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