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Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
The final of the 2014 WikiCup begins in a few short minutes! Our eight finalists are listed below, along with their placement in Round 4:
Godot13 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer, finished top of Pool A and was the round's highest scorer. Godot is a featured picture specialist, claiming large numbers of points due to high-quality scans of historical documents, especially banknotes.
Casliber (submissions) is a WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist every year since 2010. In the semi-final, he was Pool B's highest scorer. Cas's points primarily come from articles on the natural sciences.
Czar (submissions) was Pool A's runner-up. Czar's points come mostly from content related to independent video games, including both articles and topics.
Adam Cuerden (submissions) was Pool B's runner-up. Another featured picture specialist, many of Adam's points come from the restoration of historical media. He has been a WikiCup finalist twice before.
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) won the WikiCup in 2012 and 2013, and enters this final as the first wildcard. She focuses on biology-related articles, and has worked on several high-importance articles.
12george1 (submissions) is the second wildcard. George's points come primarily from meteorology-related articles. This year and last year, George was the first person in the competition to score.
Sturmvogel 66 (submissions), the third wildcard, was the 2010 champion and a finalist last year. His writes mostly on military history, especially naval history.
Bloom6132 (submissions), the fourth and final wildcard, has participated in previous WikiCups, but not reached any finals. Bloom's points are mostly thanks to did you knows, featured lists and good articles related to sport and national symbols.
There are two upcoming competitions unrelated to the WikiCup which may be of interest to those who receive this newsletter. The Stub Contest will run through September, and revolves around expanding stub articles, especially high-importance or old stubs. In addition, a proposal has been made for a new competition, the GA Cup, which the organisers plan to run next year. This competition is based on the WikiCup and aims to reduce the good article review backlog.
There is now a thread for brainstorming on how next year's WikiCup competition should work. Please come along and share your thoughts- What works? What doesn't work? What needs changing? Signups for next year's competition will be open soon; we will be in touch. If, at this stage of the competition, you are keen to help the with the WikiCup, please do what you can to participate in review processes. Our finalists will find things much easier if the backlogs at good article candidates, featured article candidates, featured picture candidates and the rest are kept at a minimum. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk·contribs) The ed17 (talk·contribs) and Miyagawa (talk·contribs) 22:09, 31 August 2014 (UTC)
Reference Errors on 31 August
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
You can now test a new Beta Feature to see links to other wikis in the sidebar. The links come from Wikidata. [1][2]
You can now search pages that link to a page. Use the linksto: keyword in your search. [3][4]
A redirect to a section now changes the URL in the address bar of your browser. If "Dog" redirects to "Animals#Dog", you now see "Animals#Dog" instead of "Dog#Dog". [5][6]
If you are testing Flow, you now have a Flow tab in your Notifications. It is called "Messages". [7]
VisualEditor news
You can no longer delete required fields in templates. [8]
We fixed many Internet Explorer bugs. If you use Internet Explorer 11, you will get VisualEditor next week. Support for earlier versions is coming next. [9][10][11]
We fixed a bug where some of your typing could be undone when you used "cut" (Ctrl+X). [13]
You will no longer see empty or deleted categories among the suggestions when you add a category. [14]
Future software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf19) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since August 28. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 2, and on all Wikipedias on September 4 (calendar).
There is a proposal to build a database on Commons for file data. It will make it easier to see the author, license and topics. You can give feedback on this idea. You can also come to the IRC chat on September 3 at 18:00 (UTC) in #wikimedia-office at freenode. [15]
You can give feedback on Media Viewer until September 7. You can say what needs to be improved and ask other people to give feedback too. [16]
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Your recent article submission to Articles for Creation has been reviewed! Unfortunately, it has not been accepted at this time. Please check the submission for any additional comments left by the reviewer. You are encouraged to edit the submission to address the issues raised and resubmit when they have been resolved.
and click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
VisualEditor news
From Thursday, Internet Explorer 11 users will get VisualEditor. Support for earlier versions is coming next. [18][19][20]
Future software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf20) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since September 4. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 9, and on all Wikipedias on September 11 (calendar).
You will soon confirm a "Thanks" inline instead of in a dialog. [21]
You can read more about the plan to move to Phabricator, a tool that will help people develop the MediaWiki software and report bugs. [22]
Problems
There were problems with JavaScript and CSS on Friday, September 5 because of a code error.
Hi 123chess456 I wanted to touch-base with you on my Draft:Godwin Grech article. I believe that the story has come a long way since the Godwin Grech article was deleted in June 2009. I believe that a 15,000 byte page is actually quite long (you described it as short)... and I also don't think people would want to read biographical details about Godwin Grech in the Utegate article (also as you would have read, he is also known for his Bulldogs grant and for subsequent public commentary. Would you please have a second look?
Clare. (talk) 08:20, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
@Clare.: The coverage that now exists that didn't during the AfD in 2009 could exist, based on the fact that you've added multiple sources from after. I think that it has a good chance of not surviving AfD, but if you resubmitted it to AfC I'll create it. Grognard 123chess456 (talk) 12:19, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
Latest comment: 9 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion
see [23] - You added a <nowiki> and the sign ~~~~ didnt substitute. Its so cumbersome to fix it, but you can do it easy... Christian75 (talk) 14:05, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
2014-09-11T02:45:46 123chess456 (Talk | contribs) moved page Draft:Notre Dame of Genio Edcor, Inc. to Notre Dame of Genio Edcor, Inc. (Created via Articles for creation (you can help!) (AFCH))
As you're using the old version of the AFCH script, please take a look at this discussion and the question (poll) raised below it. --Gryllida (talk) 11:14, 13 September 2014 (UTC)
Your experience with mentor programs on Wikipedia
Latest comment: 9 years ago7 comments2 people in discussion
Hello 123chess456,
I am working on a project to support the development of current and future newcomer mentorship programs on Wikipedia.
Because you recently participated in a mentorship program on Wikipedia, I would like to interview you about your experience.
If you are interested, please email me at gmugar [at] syr.edu and hopefully we can find a convenient time to conduct an interview via Skype or Google hangout.
Thanks for the reply. I am interested in your experience with AfC. Do you have time for an interview this week or next week? It should not take more than an hour. I am usually available to do interviews from 17:00 UTC to 21:00 UTC on weekdays. Thanks! Gabrielm199 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 00:46, 9 September 2014 (UTC)
Excellent! please email me at gmugar [at] syr.edu so that we can arrange Skype/google hangout contacts. Gabrielm199 (talk) 15:43, 14 September 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 10 September 2014
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
You can now change the style of links to disambiguation pages. This is done with the mw-disambigCSS class. [24][25]
There was a problem on right-to-left wikis with Wikidata log entries. The text was messy in watchlists and recent changes. The problem is now fixed. The same problem will be fixed soon for user names. [26][27][28]
New users are randomly chosen for a test on 12 Wikipedias. They get messages with ideas of articles to edit. The ideas come from what they have already edited. [29]
Problems
There was a problem with loading images on September 10. [30]
VisualEditor news
If you don't select text when you add a link, the link now shows a number. [31]
The citation tool no longer offers to reuse a citation if there are none on the page yet. [32][33]
You can now use help buttons in the "Page settings" menu to see what the options are for. [34]
Future software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf21) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since September 11. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 16, and on all Wikipedias on September 18 (calendar).
These changes are coming with the new version:
If you use Internet Explorer 7, JavaScript will no longer work. JavaScript tools and scripts will no longer work in that browser. You should update to a newer browser. [35][36][37]
At the time of publication the project statistics were as follows
Number of articles
Good articles
A-class articles
Feature articles
Require improvements
Number of members
5282
24
0
6
2349
75
You may now unsubscribe from receiving Project Eurovision News, whilst still maintaining membership within the project itself. To unsubscribe, click here.
Latest comment: 9 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Hi, there's an SPI investigation on someone who tried to taunt you at ANI. Perhaps you have some idea who it was or want to comment the SPI before it's archived. --Pudeo' 02:18, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Roblox, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page MMO. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.
It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 08:48, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
You can test a new Beta Feature called HHVM. It should make editing faster. Please report bugs if you see them. [38]
Problems
There was a problem on the English Wikipedia on September 19. It was due to edits on a template used on many pages.
Sites were down for users in the Pacific area around 7:00 UTC on September 20. It was due to a problem in the San Francisco data center.
There were two bad bugs messing up articles in some browsers in VisualEditor. We fixed the bugs and updated the sites. [39][40]
Software changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki (1.24wmf22) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since September 18. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 23, and on all Wikipedias on September 25 (calendar).
If you have more than 2000 notifications, the oldest ones will be removed.[41][42]
In the "Vector" skin, the icon used for users will show a neutral gender. [43][44]
The VisualEditor template tool now tells you if a required field is missing. [45]
The "Cancel" button of the VisualEditor save window is now called "Resume editing". This shows that you can still edit and you won't lose your changes. [46]
There are new keyboard shortcuts in VisualEditor. Use Ctrl+Shift+6 for code and Ctrl+Shift+5 for strikethrough. [47][48]
In VisualEditor, you can now see that you are switching to the source editing mode. Before, it was not clear it was happening. [49]
Future site changes
You can see a plan for the move to Phabricator. It's the new tool to track bugs. A guided tour will be done via video on September 24. [50]
If you'd like the text back for just yourself, you can ask somebody in [[Category:Wikipedia administrators willing to provide copies of deleted articles]]. If you want it recreated on Wikipedia, I can't do that, as the guy in question seems to be non-notable. The article in question seems to be deleted as a result of the article being like an advertisement. I would suggest creating a new draft at Draft:Mahfouz Bin Marei Bin Mahfouz, but I'm not sure that there is enough reliable sources to support this person having a Wikipedia article. Grognard Chess(talk)Help:Getting rid of Media Viewer 00:59, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Chess, your DYK nomination has been reviewed, and some issues need to be resolved before it can be approved. Please stop by as soon as possible, and thank you for participating in DYK! BlueMoonset (talk) 03:16, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
GGTF
Latest comment: 9 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Since it's more a POV than a COI issue, I didn't bring it here. A friendly answer would have been more convincing than a legalistic one. But whatever... Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 22:31, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
That's what I said. I'll say it better. It's NOT a COI issue, it's a POV issue and POV issues can be discussed at talk pages. That's why I discussed it there and not here. Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 22:38, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 24 September 2014
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
There are now many more translations for language names. [53]
Software changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki (1.25wmf1) is on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since September 25. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis on September 30, and on all Wikipedias on October 2 (calendar).
Errors from Scribunto (Lua) are now shown on the page. Before, you had to click on "Script error" to see them. [54][55]
You can add an "autovalue" for a field in TemplateData. When users add the template to a page, the value will be added automatically. An example is when a clean-up template shows the date it was added. [56]
If you change a user preference but don't save it, it now asks if you want to save it. [57][58]
The PDF export tool has changed. The new one has better language support but it doesn't offer ZIM and EPUB formats. [59]
JavaScript authors: Many old methods will be removed soon. Please check your scripts and gadgets and replace the old methods by the new ones if needed. [60]
Signups for the 2015 WikiCup are open. All Wikipedians, new and experienced, are warmly invited to sign up for the competition. Wikipedians interested in friendly competition may also like to sign up for the GA Cup, a new WikiCup-inspired competition which revolves around completing good article reviews. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk·contribs) The ed17 (talk·contribs) and Miyagawa (talk·contribs) 22:11, 30 September 2014 (UTC)
The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q3 2014
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Some wikis have a template to track bugs in Bugzilla. You should update it to work with Phabricator. You can look at the one on mediawiki.org to see how. [63][64]
A new tool can now create thumbnails of large TIFF images. This concerns files larger than 50 megapixels. These thumbnails are also sharpened. You can comment on Commons. [66]
The Media Viewer tool has a clearer link to the file page. It also has buttons to download, share and embed the file. You can enlarge images by clicking on them. [67]
Changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki (1.25wmf2) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since 2 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from 7 October, and on all Wikipedias from 9 October (calendar).
If you make a code mistake when editing a Lua script, you won't be able to save your edit. [68][69]
We fixed some more Internet Explorer bugs. If you use Internet Explorer 10, you will be able to use VisualEditor next week. Support for earlier versions is coming next. [70]
On Thursday, the tool to edit TemplateData will come to 30 more wikis. [71][72]
You can help sort bugs in the Book and PDF export tool on October 8. [73]
1% of logged-out readers are getting pages from servers that run the HHVM tool. HHVM should make pages load faster. [74]
Future changes
You can look at the plan of the Mobile team for their future work. [75]
More changes to Media Viewer are coming. It will be easier to disable it, and you will see the caption below the image. [76][77]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
The new version of MediaWiki (1.25wmf3) has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since 9 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from 14 October, and on all Wikipedias from 16 October (calendar).
5% of logged-out readers are getting pages from servers that run the HHVM tool. HHVM should make pages load faster. You can also test it as a Beta Feature. [82]
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:List of boarding schools in India. Should you wish to respond, your contribution to this discussion will be appreciated. For tips, please see WP:Requests for comment#Suggestions for responding. If you wish to change the frequency or topics of these notices, or do not wish to receive them any longer, please adjust your entries at WP:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:08, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
Interview for The Signpost
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
This is being sent to you as a member of WikiProject Orphanage
The WikiProject Report would like to focus on WikiProject Orphanage for a Signpost article. This is an excellent opportunity to draw attention to your efforts and attract new members to the project. Would you be willing to participate in an interview? If so, here are the questions for the interview. Just add your response below each question and feel free to skip any questions that you don't feel comfortable answering. Multiple editors will have an opportunity to respond to the interview questions, so be sure to sign your answers. If you know anyone else who would like to participate in the interview, please share this with them. Thanks, Rcsprinter123(warn) @ 18:30, 15 October 2014 (UTC)
Latest comment: 9 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion
I removed the prod notice on this article because WP:PROD is for deletions that are reasonably anticipated to be uncontroversial, and the talk page of this article contains enough material to indicate that wouldn't be the case here. In general, I would expect that an article that requires a five-paragraph deletion rationale isn't likely to be suitable for the expedited proposed deletion process. You are, of course, welcome to take this to AfD for full consideration. --Arxiloxos (talk) 05:08, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
@Arxiloxos: Took it to AfD before you left this message and 5 minutes after you removed the PROD. I assume your removal means you disagree with the deletion? Grognard Chess(talk) Ping when replying 05:12, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 15 October 2014
Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
The Tanakh is pretty much fixed in content, laboriously copied exactly, by hand, with one mistake meaning the entire parchment has to be thrown out. The old testament varies in content, depending on who you ask.
I think your claim is inconsistent with everything that has been learnt from the field of textual criticism; errors (and thus variations between versions) are the unavoidable consequence of copying by hand, and it's really a relatively modern way of thinking to even systematically examine different manuscripts looking for discrepancies, but when this is done, most Christian denominations express some preference for translations based on the best possible reconstructions (of the oldest Tanakh manuscripts). On what did you base your claim? Cesiumfrog (talk) 07:30, 17 October 2014 (UTC)
They are unavoidable, yes, but according to an analysis of the dead sea scrolls, the scrolls written thousands of years ago are almost indistinguishable from those written today. However, new translations are almost always different from one another.
Latest comment: 9 years ago5 comments2 people in discussion
Hello! Chess,
Through this I would like to inform you that I'd blanked that IP user's talkpage as per request at IRC and was about to invite the user to register himself. Cheers! — CutestPenguinHangout 04:28, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
@CutestPenguin: Alright, probably should note that in the edit summary. Grognard Chess(talk) Ping when replying 04:30, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Mistakenly pressed enter before putting anything under summery. Is there any template to invite IP user to register themselves ?— CutestPenguinHangout 04:32, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
@CutestPenguin:Template:IP welcome suggests that they register an account. Not aware of any templates to explicity suggest only that. Probably better to just leave a custom message. Grognard Chess(talk) Ping when replying 04:36, 19 October 2014 (UTC)
Godot13 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer, finished top of Pool A and was the round's highest scorer. Godot is a featured picture specialist, claiming large numbers of points due to high-quality scans of historical documents, especially banknotes.
Casliber (submissions) is a WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist every year since 2010. In the semi-final, he was Pool B's highest scorer. Cas's points primarily come from articles on the natural sciences.
Czar (submissions) was Pool A's runner-up. Czar's points come mostly from content related to independent video games, including both articles and topics.
Adam Cuerden (submissions) was Pool B's runner-up. Another featured picture specialist, many of Adam's points come from the restoration of historical media. He has been a WikiCup finalist twice before.
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) won the WikiCup in 2012 and 2013, and enters this final as the first wildcard. She focuses on biology-related articles, and has worked on several high-importance articles.
12george1 (submissions) is the second wildcard. George's points come primarily from meteorology-related articles. This year and last year, George was the first person in the competition to score.
Sturmvogel 66 (submissions), the third wildcard, was the 2010 champion and a finalist last year. His writes mostly on military history, especially naval history.
Bloom6132 (submissions), the fourth and final wildcard, has participated in previous WikiCups, but not reached any finals. Bloom's points are mostly thanks to did you knows, featured lists and good articles related to sport and national symbols.
Matty.007 (submissions), 
ThaddeusB (submissions), 
WikiRedactor (submissions), 
Figureskatingfan (submissions), 
Yellow Evan (submissions), 
Prism (submissions) and 
Cloudz679 (submissions) have all performed well to reach this stage of the competition, and we hope they will all be joining us again next year.
Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:
.svg){kind=small}
Godot13 (submissions) has taken a strong lead with a featured list (historical coats of arms of the U.S. states from 1876) and a raft of featured pictures. Reigning champion 
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) is in second place with a number of high-importance biology articles, including new FA Isopoda and new GA least weasel. 
Casliber (submissions), who is in his fifth WikiCup final, is in third, with featured articles Pictor and Epacris impressa.
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