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Wikipedia is not a time performance guide...really, we don't have to mention exactly how well a New York City Subway service performs...

This seems more like trivia than something important. If we mention them on the D and J/Z train articles, then we would have to mention them on all other New York City Subway service articles. It's not needed. The average passenger could care less how well his/her line does, as long as they're not waiting 15-20+ minutes or so. I bet they don't even bother reading the Straphangers Campaign's report cards online, nor the printed schedules for each New York City Subway service on the MTA's official website, but never forget that 15-20+ minute wait for their train.

Likewise, we don't mention how often any New York City Subway services and cars break down, nor how frequent that the New York City Subway services each run. So therefore, no need for these kinds of "sources". JoesphBarbaro (talk) 00:11, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

@JoesphBarbaro: I agree. However, there are Straphangers Campaign links in every article, and don't mind the fact that trains-per-hour frequencies are posted on the List of New York City Subway services page. Epic Genius (talk) 03:30, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

August 2015

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Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Re service animals + dogs. http://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm says that "This publication provides guidance on the term “service animal” and the service animal provisions in the Department’s new regulations." and "only dogs are recognized as service animals under titles II and III of the ADA.". What is the WP:MOS violation in saying that service animals are always dogs given than animals apart from dogs are not recognised as service animals? Mtpaley (talk) 20:36, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

MOS = Manual of Style. The heading was not supposed to have all words begin with capital letters. Plus, you made the link incorrectly. For a wikilink, you use two pairs of brackets like this: [[]], while you only use one pair for the external link that you were trying to link to. Instead of an external link, though, you created a wikilink by accident. Epic Genius (talk) 21:56, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #4—2015

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Select the relevant text. Find the correct quotations marks in the special character inserter tool (marked as Ω in the toolbar).

 


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

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team have been working on mobile phone support. They have fixed many bugs and improved language support. They post weekly status reports on mediawiki.org. Their workboard is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are improving language support and functionality on mobile devices.

Wikimania

The team attended Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City. There they participated in the Hackathon and met with individuals and groups of users. They also made several presentations about VisualEditor and the future of editing.

Following Wikimania, we announced winners for the VisualEditor 2015 Translathon. Our thanks and congratulations to users Halan-tul, Renessaince, जनक राज भट्ट (Janak Bhatta), Vahe Gharakhanyan, Warrakkk, and Eduardogobi.

For interface messages (translated at translatewiki.net), we saw the initiative affecting 42 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 56.5% before the translathon, and 78.2% after (+21.7%). In particular, Sakha improved from 12.2% to 94.2%; Brazilian Portuguese went from 50.6% to 100%; Taraškievica went from 44.9% to 85.3%; Doteli went from 1.3% to 41.2%. Also, while 1.7% of the messages were outdated across all languages before the translathon, the percentage dropped to 0.8% afterwards (-0.9%).

For documentation messages (on mediawiki.org), we saw the initiative affecting 24 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 26.6% before translathon, and 46.9% after (+20.3%).  There were particularly notable achievements for three languages. Armenian improved from 1% to 99%; Swedish, from 21% to 99%, and Brazilian Portuguese, from 34% to 83%. Outdated translations across all languages were reduced from 8.4% before translathon to 4.8% afterwards (-3.6%).

We published some graphs showing the effect of the event on the Translathon page.   Thank you to the translators for participating and the translatewiki.net staff for facilitating this initiative.

Recent improvements

Auto-fill features for citations can be enabled on each Wikipedia. The tool uses the citoid service to convert a URL or DOI into a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. You can see an animated GIF of the quick, simple process at mediawiki.org. So far, about a dozen Wikipedias have enabled the auto-citation tool. To enable it for your wiki, follow the instructions at mediawiki.org.

Your wiki can customize the first section of the special character inserter in VisualEditor. Please follow the instructions at mediawiki.org to put the characters you want at the top. 

In other changes, if you need to fill in a CAPTCHA and get it wrong, then you can click to get a new one to complete. VisualEditor can now display and edit Vega-based graphs. If you use the Monobook skin, VisualEditor's appearance is now more consistent with other software.  

Future changes

The team will be changing the appearance of selected links inside VisualEditor. The purpose is to make it easy to see whether your cursor is inside or outside the link. When you select a link, the link label (the words shown on the page) will be enclosed in a faint box. If you place your cursor inside the box, then your changes to the link label will be part of the link. If you place your cursor outside the box, then it will not. This will make it easy to know when new characters will be added to the link and when they will not.

On the English Wikipedia, 10% of newly created accounts are now offered both the visual and the wikitext editors. A recent controlled trial showed no significant difference in survival or productivity for new users in the short term. New users with access to VisualEditor were very slightly less likely to produce results that needed reverting. You can learn more about this by watching a video of the July 2015 Wikimedia Research Showcase. The proportion of new accounts with access to both editing environments will be gradually increased over time. Eventually all new users have the choice between the two editing environments.

Let's work together

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If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact Elitre directly, so that she can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:01, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

August 19: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

Wednesday August 19, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC
 
 

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our evening "WikiWednesday" salon and knowledge-sharing workshop by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan.

We also hope for the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming editathons, and other outreach activities.

After the main meeting, pizza and refreshments and video games in the gallery!

7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles, 137 West 14th Street

Featuring a keynote talk this month to be determined! We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 15:58, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

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R179 as fleet expansion

Some quotes being applicable to R179/R32 retention being for more than SAS/CBTC:

"R32 Fleet SMS (Scheduled Maintenance). The R32 fleet was scheduled to be retired in 2017-2018. This retirement will need to be delayed until 2022 due to delays in the delivery of R179 replacement cars and increased revenue service fleet requirements. The cost of this delay is estimated to be $1.1 million in 2016, $15.9 million in 2017, $17.7 million in 2018 and $15.5 million in 2019. Position requirements are projected at 132 for 2017 and 110 for both 2018 and 2019. "

"Substantial expense is being programmed for R32 fleet SMS to extend the life of these already overage cars due to unexpected fleet expansion, in particular car requirements associated with the upcoming Canarsie Tube reconstruction project."

Oh, I see. But why does the L train require more cars if it's being reconstructed? It should be fewer, not more. Epic Genius (talk) 16:06, 11 August 2015 (UTC)
Without seeing the plan I cannot be sure. It could be that the L cuts will not involve substantially fewer cars. Furthermore, I would imagine a large boost in J M and G service will be needed. Perhaps also A and C to whatever degree they can. 100.38.13.227 (talk) 16:12, 11 August 2015 (UTC)
All right, thanks. I've reverted my edit (though I'm still not sure if the fleet expansion is viable, as the A and C trains can't add more than one more train per hour, as these are at capacity. Also, the M train is severely constrained toward its northern end, though it can add 5 trains at its south end. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it). Epic Genius (talk) 16:15, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Randall Bell (author), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Heaven's Gate. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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If the article was about the World Trade Center before it was destroyed, then the link changed should be to World Trade Center (1973–2001), not a disamb page. Dream Focus 21:22, 11 August 2015 (UTC)

@Dream Focus: Okay, I will keep that in mind; thank you. Which article did I accidentally link to a disambiguation page? Epic Genius (talk) 17:47, 12 August 2015 (UTC)
[1] is the one I noticed. I didn't look through all the rest. And it wasn't a disamb page, excuse me, it was a link to World Trade Center site. Dream Focus 18:06, 12 August 2015 (UTC)
I saw the text "area around the World Trade Center", so I re-linked it to "site". Thank you for correcting the link, by the way. Epic Genius (talk) 02:31, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Mail notification

 
Hello, Epicgenius/Archive/2015. Please check your email; you've got mail!
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Hey Beyond My Ken, I didn't get an email. Maybe you meant to notify someone else? Epic Genius (talk) 01:35, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
No, it was for you. I'll try once more. BMK (talk) 01:47, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
Sent. Ping me if you don't get it. BMK (talk) 01:52, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
@Beyond My Ken: It didn't show up in my email inbox, sorry. Epic Genius (talk) 01:59, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
Hmm. Maybe you should check your e-mail address in preferences?

Ok, I guess I'll tell you here: your "Unconditional Surrender" photo on Commons has a problem in that there is no Freedom of Panorama" in the United States for copyrighted sculpture, so don't be surprised if someone nominates it for deletion (I have no plans to do so, however). You'd be better off uploading it here under NFCC with a fair-use rationale for each article you want to use it in. That's one of the reasons I don't think it should be in the TS article, the rationale might be stretching things a bit. It's great for the sculpture's article, though. BMK (talk) 02:35, 14 August 2015 (UTC)

OK, thanks for the explanation (I didn't know that that was copyrighted). I'll go upload it to Wikipedia now. Epic Genius (talk) 02:41, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
Copyright law in the US was changed a while back so that any copyrightable object is automatically copyrighted when it is created, there doesn't have to be any notice of copyright on the object (although people still do in order to protect themselves in court). Even buildings can be copyrighted, but there's a Freedom of Panorama exception in the US for buildings that allows us to take pictures of them. There is no such exception (but should be) for public sculptures. FOP laws are different from country to country. BMK (talk) 22:44, 14 August 2015 (UTC)
Wow, I really didn't know that copyright still applied to publicly viewed sculptures. I read that for copyrighted buildings, you can take pictures of them if they are easily visible from a public place. Thanks anyway. Epic Genius (talk) 00:01, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Ragnvald Knaphövde

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Talk:Ragnvald Knaphövde. Legobot (talk) 00:02, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Finsbury Park Station

Hi - sorry I undid a couple of your changes here. For some reason, BrE speakers would almost never say "The Finsbury Park station". I wish I could explain why, but it just seems to be some sort of hardcoded usage thing. (Don't even get me started on the Royal Albert Hall!) I suppose I could try and look it up somewhere. Anyway, I put it back to how a BrE speaker would recognize it. At the same time I rebolded the word "station" as I thought we usually bolded the title where it made sense - I may, however, have got this completely wrong so please feel free to revert away if I did! I hope this is helpful; thanks and best wishes DBaK (talk) 10:41, 15 August 2015 (UTC)

Hey DBaK, no worries. I don't mind that you reverted it. I was only phrasing it that way because other articles in WP:LT don't have "station" bolded in the lead (e.g. "Manor House is a tube station...). Epic Genius (talk) 17:59, 15 August 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for that. I may have accidentally ignored a standard! I will check sometime. Cheers DBaK (talk) 21:36, 15 August 2015 (UTC)
No problem. Epic Genius (talk) 03:09, 16 August 2015 (UTC)

Reference errors on 17 August

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Orphan tag

The page for The City Reliquary was tagged as an orphan, but at least three other Wikipedia pages link to it. Doesn't this mean it's no longer an orphan? Scelentano81 (talk) 22:23, 19 August 2015 (UTC)

@Scelentano81: Yes, it is no longer an orphaned page, technically. However, it still needs links from a few more pages, so that's why I left the {{orphan}} tag up. Thanks, Epic Genius (talk) 01:00, 20 August 2015 (UTC)
How many more does it need? If it's technically no longer orphaned, shouldn't it no longer be tagged as an orphan? I'd read that at this point Wikipedia requires only one link, and the page has more than that now. Thanks again. Scelentano81 (talk) 02:32, 20 August 2015 (UTC)
The more links, the better, but I think 3 links is fine. I will remove the tag now. Epic Genius (talk) 02:34, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Condominiums. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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Congratulations from STiki!

 
The Anti-Vandalism + STiki Barnstar
 

Congratulations, Epicgenius! You're receiving this barnstar because you recently crossed the 1,000 classification threshold using STiki. We thank you both for your contributions to Wikipedia at-large and your use of the tool. We hope you continue your ascent up the leaderboard and stay in touch at the talk page. Thank you and keep up the good work! West.andrew.g (developer) and Ugog Nizdast (talk) 07:32, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! Although, on my main account, I passed 1,000 classifications back in October 2013. Epic Genius (talk) 19:38, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Quality Assessment for Staten Island Railway

After all the editing that I have done for the Staten Island Railway page, it definitely should not be considered start level quality. It maybe could be B class or even good article quality. Could you help review it? Thanks. Kew Gardens 613 (talk) 14:21, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

@Kew Gardens 613: It is definitely higher than start class. I will have to check the entire article against the B class criteria. If you want to sent it to WP:GAN, go ahead, but you may first need to add a couple more references. Epic Genius (talk) 19:39, 25 August 2015 (UTC)
@Epicgenius: I have just added more historical information and more references. Do you think it is ready to be sent to WP:GAN? --Kew Gardens 613 (talk) 14:28, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

BTW, sorry and excuse me. as a retired NYCTA car equipment personnel (foreman) during the Kiley/Gunn administration era, so I worked on getting these bologna (baloney) coils installed on all active R44/R44SI & R46 75 foot equipment during the 1984 time frame, since the traditional pantograph gates could not be installed on any of these cars. The R68/R68A's came factory equipped with same. Look under the front route sign on these cars before you decide to delete my additions.

Thank You.

Reverts

Why are you so hasty to revert my edits, even when you use the text I wrote in later revisions? SilverbackNet talk 02:34, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

@SilverbackNet: I heard somewhere that there was a subway extension of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line planned to Yonkers. I don't know, it might have been on SubChat or NYC Transit Forums. However, I can definitely tell you that slapping {{cn}} onto the page isn't going to find you factual accuracy any faster. Epic Genius (talk) 02:37, 26 August 2015 (UTC)
Also, the expansion was mentioned in "The Routes Not Taken", so I left it there. Epic Genius (talk) 03:11, 26 August 2015 (UTC)
@SilverbackNet: It was proposed and I found it in the book Silver Connections recently. It is a really expensive and rare book, so you would have to go to the library, like I did, to find out the proposal at the beginning of the IRT, however there was a more recent proposal, from 1941. For that go check the Subway Proposals article, --Kew Gardens 613 (talk) 14:31, 27 August 2015 (UTC)
Thank you for your comment, Kew Gardens. When you said For that go check the Subway Proposals article, I think the link you meant was Proposed expansion of the New York City Subway. Epic Genius (talk) 02:52, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Eleven Times Square

Special:Contributions/DSanti_Beckerman's edits can no longer be assumed to be good faith. They have been warned that their edits do not adhere to a neutral point of view, and they continue to mark edits as minor when they are not. B137 (talk) 04:48, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, B137. Should I bring this up on the article's talk page? Epic Genius (talk) 02:52, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

To EpicGenius

I am a retired NYCTA Foreman with car equipment with over 35 years of experience with the MTA-NYCTA car equipment from the old R1-9's to the R160 equipment. What's your background, before you question my qualifications ????

BTW, I received a call from the NYCTA today regarding newly found hairline door frame cracks appearing their oldest R32 cars. How would you go about solving same, since you are the EpicGenius???

How about finding yourself a reliable source instead of original research?? Epic Genius (talk) 03:21, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

OK Mr. So-called (Personal attack removed), you just disrespected a retired Transit Foreman from Pitkin Yard and Shops, and you know what !! You can now go and **** yourself, (Personal attack removed)!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.108.224.5 (talk) 06:41, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Staten Island article Route 440

I could swear I saw reference to both versions of 440 in the article when I edited maybe it was a different article? TMazzio (talk) 21:23, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Maybe it was a different aartifle, indeed. ;) Epic Genius (talk) 22:29, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Hi-- thanks for your wiki article on the Singer Bowl. Always wondered what happened to it. I was at the 1968 Doors concert referenced sin the article. There were actually 3 bands who performed . The opening act was Rhinoceros, then the Who, and the Doors last with top billing. If I remember correctly, tickets were about $5.50. At the end of the concert there was mini-riot. No one seriously injured as I recall but many broken wooden chairs.


Steveknaster@hotmail.com

Stephen Knaster — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:304:6E44:8830:81DF:45CE:C942:9BF0 (talk) 17:48, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

2015 explosion listed at Redirects for discussion

 

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect 2015 explosion. Since you had some involvement with the 2015 explosion redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. Tdl1060 (talk) 21:37, 31 August 2015 (UTC)