The Signpost, 1 April 2015

Just wanted to say, your lead article had me fooled for a nanosecond until I started laughing out loud, realizing the date being April Fool's. Thanks for the chuckle; you made my day (although it's still March 31st where I am, Nevada). --Rosiestep (talk) 03:02, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
Yeah, that's the trouble with timezones. I figured that it being after UTC was good enough. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 03:04, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
I absolutely adored your April's Fool articles. Thanks for the effort to put some smile on our faces. werldwayd (talk) 03:31, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
@Werldwayd: Thank you! I put a good deal of effort into it. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 03:41, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

Talk back

 
Hello, The ed17. You have new messages at User talk:The Herald/Talkback.
Message added 05:46, 1 April 2015 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

The Signpost: 01 April 2015

Blocked Vandal Returning Yet Again

Hi, I think Christina1969 has returned to edit again, despite her block, as the ip 89.134.20.238 (talk+ · tag · contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RBLs · proxy check · block user · block log · cross-wiki contribs · CheckUser (log)). The new IP's edits and edit summaries recall Christina1969's edits and edit summaries, and the ip even restored the "In Popular Culture Section" in Kaprosuchus, which I had deleted for being unreferenced and irrelevant (in that, Christina1969 had previously restored it when she was using ip 89.134.28.154).--Mr Fink (talk) 14:37, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Though, JamesBWatson just blocked that new ip now.--Mr Fink (talk) 14:41, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
Yes. I have no doubt that that IP address and 62.165.225.199 have both been used by Christina1969. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 14:52, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #2—2015

 
Did you know?

With Citoid in VisualEditor, you click the 'book with bookmark' icon and paste in the URL for a reliable source:


 


Citoid looks up the source for you and returns the citation results. Click the green "Insert" button to accept its results and add them to the article:


 


After inserting the citation, you can change it. Select the reference, and click the "Edit" button in the context menu to make changes.


The user guide has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on VisualEditor's performance, the Citoid reference service, and support for languages with complex input requirements. Status reports are posted on Mediawiki.org. The worklist for April through June is available in Phabricator.

The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, each Wednesday at 11:00 (noon) PDT (18:00 UTC). You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q4 blocker. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" the Editing team's Q4 blocker project with the bug. Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs at mw:Talk:VisualEditor/Portal.

Recent improvements

VisualEditor is now substantially faster. In many cases, opening the page in VisualEditor is now faster than opening it in the wikitext editor. The new system has improved the code speed by 37% and network speed by almost 40%.

The Editing team is slowly adding auto-fill features for citations. This is currently available only at the French, Italian, and English Wikipedias. The Citoid service takes a URL or DOI for a reliable source, and returns a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. After creating it, you will be able to change or add information to the citation, in the same way that you edit any other pre-existing citation in VisualEditor. Support for ISBNs, PMIDs, and other identifiers is planned. Later, editors will be able to improve precision and reduce the need for manual corrections by contributing to the Citoid service's definitions for each website.

Citoid requires good TemplateData for your citation templates. If you would like to request this feature for your wiki, please post a request in the Citoid project on Phabricator. Include links to the TemplateData for the most important citation templates on your wiki.

The special character inserter has been improved, based upon feedback from active users. After this, VisualEditor was made available to all users of Wikipedias on the Phase 5 list on 30 March. This affected 53 mid-size and smaller Wikipedias, including Afrikaans, Azerbaijani, Breton, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mongolian, Tatar, and Welsh.

Work continues to support languages with complex requirements, such as Korean and Japanese. These languages use input method editors ("IMEs”). Recent improvements to cursoring, backspace, and delete behavior will simplify typing in VisualEditor for these users.

The design for the image selection process is now using a "masonry fit" model. Images in the search results are displayed at the same height but at variable widths, similar to bricks of different sizes in a masonry wall, or the "packed" mode in image galleries. This style helps you find the right image by making it easier to see more details in images.

You can now drag and drop categories to re-arrange their order of appearance ​on the page.

The pop-up window that appears when you click on a reference, image, link, or other element, is called the "context menu". It now displays additional useful information, such as the destination of the link or the image's filename. The team has also added an explicit "Edit" button in the context menu, which helps new editors open the tool to change the item.

Invisible templates are marked by a puzzle piece icon so they can be interacted with. Users also will be able to see and edit HTML anchors now in section headings.

Users of the TemplateData GUI editor can now set a string as an optional text for the 'deprecated' property in addition to boolean value, which lets you tell users of the template what they should do instead (T90734).

Looking ahead

The special character inserter in VisualEditor will soon use the same special character list as the wikitext editor. Admins at each wiki will also have the option of creating a custom section for frequently used characters at the top of the list. Instructions for customizing the list will be posted at mediawiki.org.

The team is discussing a test of VisualEditor with new users, to see whether they have met their goals of making VisualEditor suitable for those editors. The timing is unknown, but might be relatively soon.

Let's work together

  • Share your ideas and ask questions at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • Can you translate from English into any other language? Please check this list to see whether more interface translations are needed for your language. Contact us to get an account if you want to help!
  • The design research team wants to see how real editors work. Please sign up for their research program.
  • File requests for language-appropriate "Bold" and "Italic" icons for the character formatting menu in Phabricator.

Subscribe, unsubscribe or change the page where this newsletter is delivered at Meta. 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) (talk), 17:50, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM: March 2015

 




Headlines


Read this edition in fullSingle-page

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

Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · Romaine 05:36, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 08 April 2015

A new reference tool

Hello Books & Bytes subscribers. There is a new Visual Editor reference feature in development called Citoid. It is designed to "auto-fill" references using a URL or DOI. We would really appreciate you testing whether TWL partners' references work in Citoid. Sharing your results will help the developers fix bugs and improve the system. If you have a few minutes, please visit the testing page for simple instructions on how to try this new tool. Regards, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:48, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

:

Never had any. How. Hafspajen (talk) 19:34, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

It takes one to know one I suppose

With edits like this, it's hard to wonder who is the troll. CassiantoTalk 21:47, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps using "troll" was a bit strong, and a dispassionate reading of events would show that both sides did not acquit themselves well there, but talking about another editor shooting cats is (as I said) incredibly inappropriate in any context. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 22:22, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
The word "troll" is thrown around far too loosely on this site, and is best reserved for particular editors who have an agenda to disrupt. Haffy, I'm sure, is not one of them. Haffy doesn't have the best grasp of the English language, but he/she does their best; I'm sure they didn't mean anything by it. It's a shame, as we appear to have now waved them off of the encyclopaedia for good. Nothing good ever comes out of disputes like this in my experience. CassiantoTalk 22:49, 13 April 2015 (UTC)
  • I respectfully suggest that another "dispassionate reading" is undertaken: what Hafs was trying to type was "... and start shouting at people because their cat died." I cannot see anything that can remotely be construed as "another editor shooting cats" that is stated above. The only thing that is "incredibly inappropriate" is the amount of upset that has (again) been caused to Hafs - s/he is passionate about Wikipedia, gentle and very intelligent; English is not their native language but, as Cass says, s/he does her/his best and s/he certainly manages far better than I could in another language. Lately, s/he has been falsely accused of making sexist comments, being a troll, childish, causing "3 months of drama and non stop aggression" and "months of passive aggressive and intentional attacks" without any diffs being supplied. Is it any wonder that s/he is upset? SagaciousPhil - Chat 08:43, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
  • I can't believe that, not when Hafs deliberately corrected "shoting" to "shooting" in a subsequent edit. Had she meant to type "shouting," s/he would have done so. In any case, I'm not engaging on this topic further. What's said is said,a and further comments from me will not help anyone. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 16:15, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
  • Ed, well, yes it would help. Your calling Hafs a troll is one of reasons Hafs is so upset, and since it is not true, perhaps apologizing to Hafs would help calm him/her down and persuade him/her to return to editing. It's also true that no one came to Hafs' defense while the other editor continued his attacks. Regarding changing "shoting to "shooting", I have seen many instances of Hafs typing a message, probably quickly, and posting it full of spelling errors, and then going back in and correcting the spelling of some of the words, with some of those corrected spellings still wrong. How would you spell Swedish or French if you were in a hurry and upset on top of that? Hafs has never said a mean word to anyone. I don't think that misspelling was a deliberate act. Hafs is without a doubt one of the most knowledgeable editors on WP. S/He is an expert in art history, landscape architecture, botany, and religion. We really should do whatever we can to persuade him/her to return to editing. CorinneSD (talk) 01:08, 15 April 2015 (UTC)
  • This discussion is appalling. That's why they put a Delete key on computers. We have all mistyped a character or two. In the context of Haf's message, Shout was understood. This is a Tempest in a teapot. make a mountain out of a molehill or much ado about nothing. This was Tmth, and should have been worked out as a simple Failure to communicate. Haf, her work, contribution and reputation precede her. To take one character out of context is wrong. The totality of her actions should be addressed. To ignore her long, peaceful and transcendent contribution to the encyclopedia and its culture is wrong. Mere bullshit attacks are not proof. They are not convincing. Making an allegation of WP:Trolling is serious business. Whatever happened to WP:AGF? Great and invidious allegations demand great proof. There was no intent, and no proof of intent.

I would also note that she is typing in English, not her native Swedish, which has its own subset of problems and distractions.
Let he who is without typos cast the first stone. See Here. 7&6=thirteen () 01:33, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

I came to thank you for the TFA, a "muddled and confusing story", - and didn't find "TFA" on this page, so thought it fit here. Precious again, the Rivadavia-class battleships. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:47, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

YGM!

 
Hello. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Liz Read! Talk! 19:01, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

I don't see an email from you, Liz! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 19:04, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
Oh, I used the "Email this user" link which has worked for me before. Do you get email from other users? I was just saying thanks for accepting my minor edit in the spirit it was intended. That's it! Liz Read! Talk! 20:45, 14 April 2015 (UTC)
Yes, I just tested it myself. Perhaps the page didn't fully load? Strange, in any case. Thank you again for the edit! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:55, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

OTD

FYI a few {{cn}} tags isn't going to disqualify an article for OTD inclusion. In terms of article quality, we only reject yellow-level maintenance tags and up. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 18:39, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

@Howcheng: Thanks for posting here. I wasn't aware of that policy—I assumed OTD had similar article quality policies as the other main page sections. Has it been that way for a long time? I'm usually a fan of showing Wikipedia's best faces on the main page. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:15, 15 April 2015 (UTC)
Officially it was introduced almost five years ago (as orange-level and higher), but I believe it was unwritten rule for longer than that. Later I rewrote it to exclude yellow tags as well. howcheng {chat} 02:40, 16 April 2015 (UTC)
@Howcheng: Wow, I'm behind the times then. Thank you again for letting me know. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 03:05, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

April 2015 GOCE newsletter

Guild of Copy Editors April 2015 Newsletter
 

 

March drive: Thanks to everyone who participated in last month's backlog-reduction drive. Of the 38 people who signed up, 18 copyedited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

April blitz: The one-week April blitz, again targeting our long requests list, will run from April 19–25. Awards will be given to everyone who copyedits at least one article from the requests page. Sign up here!

May drive: The month-long May backlog-reduction drive, with extra credit for articles tagged in December 2013, January and February 2014 and all request articles, begins soon. Sign up now!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Miniapolis, Jonesey95, Biblioworm and Philg88.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:28, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 April 2015

DANFS errors

Hey Ed, don't you know somebody at NHHC? I've been rewriting the DANFS copy at USS Michigan (BB-27) and noticed some date errors on DANFS's end, and wondered if you might be able to contact them about it. Parsecboy (talk) 12:29, 20 April 2015 (UTC)

I think he's at a different post now, but I'll ask who the right contact person would be. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:54, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
@Parsecboy: He advises pinging the NHHC director directly. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 23:54, 20 April 2015 (UTC)
Sounds good, thanks Ed. Parsecboy (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
No problem! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 15:31, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
Oh, and I hope I'm not stepping on your toes with the South Carolina and Michigan articles - I figured they'd be relatively easy to beat into GA shape. Parsecboy (talk) 19:06, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
Not at all. If I had ever gotten to them, it would have been after grad school. ;-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 19:07, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
Well, if you ever want to take them higher than GA, they'll be waiting for you ;) Parsecboy (talk) 19:15, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
I'll keep that in mind. :-p Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 21:18, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
@Parsecboy: You have an email! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 18:40, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll check it tonight. Parsecboy (talk) 19:17, 22 April 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for that, btw - I'll let you know what he says. Parsecboy (talk) 11:43, 23 April 2015 (UTC)
No problem! Good luck. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 15:29, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

Carrier Strike Group 1 crest, Deletion of

I was updating the Carrier Strike Group One article on Wikipedia and saw that the group's crest had been deleted. When I went to the following link:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FINAL_CSG-1_Crest_-_01_May_14.jpg

I found this explanation but I am perplexed by it. As I recall, I get the crest from the U.S. Navy's website, so it is public domain and eligible for Wiki-Commons placement. What is a license tag? Thanks! Marcd30319 (talk) 11:22, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

@Marcd30319: It looks like the image didn't have something like commons:Template:PD-USN on the page, so the deleting administrator didn't know if it was in the public domain or not. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 18:40, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 22 April 2015

Drop Ed a line on his talk page.

Drmies told me that I should Drop Ed a line on his talk page, and apologize. OK, sorry. I removed this from my talk. Hope that it is not you who not want to have a conversation on-Wiki, because of it. I really always tried to respect Wikipedia rules, I tried to behave as a honorable human being, and your comment made me both sad and hurt. And a bit sarcastic. Sorry. Hafspajen (talk) 20:22, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Hafs. I apologize as well. The reason for wanting to have an off-wiki conversation is more the terrible conversational interface here plus the benefits of immediate IM-ing than any sense of animosity towards you. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 02:47, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CIX, April 2015

 
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 06:34, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

A beer for you!

  Sorry I came over as being off-colour. Here is an unforced apology and a brew. You are a good colleague, and I am sure the confusion in flag usage can be overcome. Kind regards Irondome (talk) 22:32, 26 April 2015 (UTC)
No problem! See my reply on your talk page. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 06:41, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Littorio protection

Hey, thanks for stepping in, but I think it's unnecessary - see here. Not the biggest deal to just let it expire tomorrow, but I figured you ought to know it seems to be resolved. Parsecboy (talk) 19:37, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Ah sorry, I hadn't seen that. Thanks for the link, and I hope it's easily resolved! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 19:43, 27 April 2015 (UTC)
Of course, I posted without reading that link first. Given the result there, I decided to just remove the protection. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 19:46, 27 April 2015 (UTC)
Cool, thanks. Parsecboy (talk) 19:50, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Misunderstanding

I had not contacted to have bgwhite blocked. I had just told that I had been inappropriately blocked again, and much after I had been already unblocked. You just suggested "I really don't know if there is any procedure to block admins for their actions", then I said "no I didn't asked for that, but you can see [1]", then you said "I never saw that before."

Can you retract it now? I never asked you to block him or any other action. OccultZone (TalkContributionsLog) 23:11, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

I didn't heard anything back from you. Would you clarify? OccultZone (TalkContributionsLog) 08:22, 30 April 2015 (UTC)
The context I got from that discussion was that you wanted him blocked for blocking you, so no, I'm not retracting anything. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 16:45, 30 April 2015 (UTC)
So that's your opinion. You are talking about the "context you got", not that I had asked for it, though you presented it like I had actually asked for it. I had rather clarified at the same time that it is not what I have asked, but yes it happened before in other case, and it is same as saying that "I didn't asked him to be blocked for warring, but yes people do block others for edit warring." OccultZone (TalkContributionsLog) 16:55, 30 April 2015 (UTC)
I used "context" because I didn't remember the exact wording, but my takeaway from that conversation—confirmed by a note I made immediately after—was that you wanted me to block Bgwhite. Regardless, the case has been opened. Good luck. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 19:57, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

Arbitration Case

The arbitration case Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/OccultZone_and_Others has been opened. For the arbitration committee, Robert McClenon (talk) 17:59, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the notification, Robert. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 19:57, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

probably should check out ebay again...

I've been busy. Ealdgyth - Talk 19:42, 30 April 2015 (UTC)

@Ealdgyth: I'll let him know. Thanks! :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 19:57, 30 April 2015 (UTC)