Wikipedia talk:Teahouse/Host lounge/Archive 9

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Ready to go: Badges!

As described earlier this week, today marks the semi-official start of an experiment with recognizing, thanking, rewarding and appreciating other Teahouse guests and hosts...

What you can try right now:

• Install the super easy WikiLove Badge script
• Give a badge to a deserving Teahouse guest who asks a great question
• Give a badge to a helpful Teahouse host who gives a a great answer
• Thank our guiding maitre d's for their awesome service
• Use the Welcome badge, conveniently linked on each new guest profile (just click on the tree) note: you might first check if editors have already received one
• Browse through more sparkly, clever badge creations
• Read about the thinking and motivation behind this experiment
• Suggest new badge ideas

Keep on being wonderful welcoming people and editors. Thank you! Ocaasi ^{t | c} 21:30, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Talkback notification for IP users?

Good morning,

I'm assuming a talkback notification should not be left for IP users. Is that correct? If it is, would it be worthwhile to amend the Host Expectations?

Thanks,

GaramondLethe 16:57, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Not going to comment on the page right now, but my view is this:

1. See if you can determine, easily, whether the IP is dynamic, if so, don't leave a TB
2. See if the user has even edited anything in the last few days, after their latest Teahouse edit. If not, use your judgement, but it may be better to assume they've just left Wikipedia
3. Otherwise, leave one.

:) gwickwire^talk_edits 19:21, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

I just leave 'em one regardless. Can't hurt; even if it's another person, it could be their pseudo-invite to the Teahouse. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 19:25, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

I leave one regardless as well - Wikipedia:IPs are human too. NtheP (talk) 19:32, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Me three (I leave one) :D heather walls (talk) 19:35, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Looks like the consensus is for leaving one. Will do—thanks! GaramondLethe 06:14, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Do you want to be automatically notified if HostBot moves your profile?

Considering recent comments by Osarius (above) and Brambleberry a few weeks ago, do we want a script that notifies you when your profile has been moved from the /Host_landing to the /Host_breakroom page? If enough hosts think this is a good idea, I'll put in a request with BAG and script something up. I'll make sure there's an 'unsubscribe' function available, so that people who don't want the talkpage spam can opt-out. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 19:19, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

• I know that I already mentioned this, but I just want to re-voice my opinion here. I think that it would be a nice reminder for hosts, not just to re-add themselves to the host breakroom but to be more active around the Teahouse. öBrambleberry_{_ meow _ watch me in action} 23:49, 21 December 2012 (UTC)
• Support Mono 22:53, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
• Yeah, go on. Rcsprinter (gas) No, I'm Santa Claus! @ 22:56, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
• I don't see why not. hajatvrc @ 23:52, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
• Support - Great idea! --Nathan2055^{talk - contribs} 03:36, 24 December 2012 (UTC)
• I would enjoy being notified (as it also would serve as a notification of not helping out) gwickwire^talk_edits 00:22, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

Cool! I'll write up the script and then prepare the bot request. If anyone wants to make a small & unobtrusive message template for the bot to use (something you wouldn't mind finding on your own talk page!), that would be great. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 02:40, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

How about this:

Hello (their username)! Thank you for being a host at the Teahouse. However, we haven't heard from you lately, so our bot moved you to the host breakroom. No worries; you can always just go to the host landing page, check in, and our bot will do the rest. Editing a Teahouse-related page will do the same thing for you. Thanks for your help at the Teahouse! öBrambleberry_{_ meow _ watch me in action} 21:51, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Love it! Thanks, Brambleberry. I'm going to try to get the code written and the approval filed by next Monday. Once I do, I'll post a link here. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 23:39, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Bot request filed! Please watch the request page and comment as you see fit. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 23:37, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

HostBot has completed the 1 week trial, and results are posted here. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 05:25, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

 Done approval granted. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 00:12, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Where've I gone?

I can't see my host profile at /Hosts or in the break room. Where else could it have gone to? Rcsprinter (talk) @ 17:36, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Good question. I found your original profile here. The disappearance is mysterious! heather walls (talk) 17:48, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

I don't know if it's the same bug or not, but the bot operator just fixed a bug that had made my profile disappear. – Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 19:50, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Hi RCsprinter. This is my bad. I somehow introduced a bug into the host moving code when I set up reminders. I'm looking into it today. Meantime, I'll tell the bot to calm down and stop moving everything around. Sorry about that. I'll make sure your profile gets back up, if it isn't already. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 21:50, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

 Done Added back your profile, Rcsprinter. I also fixed HostBot so that it should behave itself from now on and not disappear any more hosts. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 03:02, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Two new Teahouse features: host reminders and SuggestBot suggestions

Hi all, I wanted to let you know about two new features we've just added: host reminders and SuggestBot suggestions. I'd appreciate your feedback and input as you feel inclined. Here's the gist:

• Host reminders: HostBot has been approved to send reminders to hosts who haven't participated in a while. The original conversation that spurred the creation of this feature can be seen here. The template HostBot will use is here. So from now on, if your host profile is moved to the breakroom because you haven't edited in a while, you'll receive a (single) reminder message on your talk page, unless you opt out. Please let me know ASAP if you receive a message in error.
• SuggestBot suggestions for guests: This one's been in the works for a while. Basically, Nettrom and I have worked out a fairly simple workflow for getting suggestions of articles to edit and WikiProjects to join. Both of which were high on the list of things guests wanted in our surveys. Guests sign up from the new Suggestions page (which is currently a little wordy... please edit for clarity of you have mind to). There's a call to action on the guests page, and we may add other calls to action elsewhere once we're sure it's all working correctly. The list of suggested WikiProjects and categories will be updated regularly (by HostBot, not SuggestBot) and only recently-active Wikiprojects are being suggested. Please spread the word about this feature, and try it out yourself! I think it's kind of fun. If you're active in any projects, you might also consider adding yourself as a 'contact' to this list, which new users will also see on the /Suggestions page. As above, please contact me if something's not working like it should, or if you have suggestions for improvements. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 00:34, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

I cannot thank you enough for taking my silly little idea and turning it into the fabulous host reminder system! öBrambleberry of RiverClan 00:52, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

The idea was great. I only hope my actualization of it is up to snuff. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 06:32, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Thought I'd drop in and say hi to everyone! Has been fun to get the Teahouse suggestions working with SuggestBot, hopefully many will find it useful. If any of you have questions about SuggestBot, just let me know. Regards, Nettrom (talk) 17:29, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Can someone please do something about the questions page?

I can't imagine that I'm the only one who has this problem, but I'm having serious issues with the question page. When I open the page, it takes an excessively long time before I can take any action on the page. I can't highlight text, I can't click the edit button, I can't use Wikilinks. Sometimes it might only be 10 seconds or so. Other times it is a minute or more. There are even times when it never finishes loading (or whatever it's doing) and my browser has to kill it. It's nearly impossible to answer questions anymore. Ryan Vesey 03:15, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Hi Ryan, what is that something that would help? That doesn't happen to me. Is it the number of sections again, should we make the archive time shorter? heather walls (talk) 06:27, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

That sounds like a script issue to me. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 06:54, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

I believe thats because of to the the slower internet users. It takes nearly 10 seconds for me to load the page. And I believe it could be solved by reducing the archival time. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 07:53, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

I agree that it must be a script issue, as it is the only page on Wikipedia I have that problem. The question is, is it the user scripts or the page scripts? I have other scripts, several in fact, in my .js page, besides the Teahouse scripts. BTW, I have a screaming fast connection. Gtwfan52 (talk) 07:58, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

I think Writ Keeper is correct in that it's a page script issue. Otherwise it would make no sense that WP:ANI opens with no problem and the Teahouse page takes forever unless something about the number of sections, and not the size of the page, is doing it. Ryan Vesey 19:14, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Do you with the issue have the (local to you) Teahouse scripts installed? Have you tried removing them? heather walls (talk) 21:50, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! I removed the respond to a discussion script from my common.js page and it's worked fine. Ryan Vesey 22:45, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Badges section of host profile

On the current hosts profile, it has a section for badges. For example, on mine, it says "Brambleberry of RiverClan has been awarded these badges". When you go to your profile, however, there's no option for adding what badges you've gotten. How can you do that? öBrambleberry of RiverClan 22:15, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Never mind! I figured it out! öBrambleberry of RiverClan 22:19, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Sorry! I was planning to make that more clear very soon :) heather walls (talk) 23:53, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

User talk:Freit003.309

Not sure if this is he right place but can someone remove the category from User talk:Freit003.309 and maybe sort the rest out? Cheers. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 16:42, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Teahouse Birthday reflections: stories and awesome quotes wanted!

Hi hosts! We are having some birthday celebrations as Teahouse turns 1 year-old next week. Your work makes this project possible, and we'd love to hear your story about using Teahouse. (Excerpts may be used in a Wikimedia Foundation blog post which will run on the big day.)

1. What were your first impressions of the Teahouse?
2. What do you like most about the atmosphere at the Teahouse?
3. What experience at the Teahouse stands out for you as a highlight?
4. How has the Teahouse enabled you to empower other editors?
5. What do you hope for the Teahouse as she continues to grow up?

Thanks again for your all of your contributions to the project. Cheers, Ocaasi ^{t | c} 20:28, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

• I'll be honest; when I originally kept seeing "You're invited to the Teahouse!" banners plastered on new users' talk pages, I thought it was probably a pretty dumb concept. A few months later, I started silently watching it and eventually I signed on as a host and, well, the rest is history. I was struck by the cordial atmosphere.
• As mentioned, the calm, cordial, drama-free atmosphere at the Teahouse is what I like most about it. When other areas of the encyclopedia cause me stress, I head over to the Teahouse where I know there will be a question I can answer and do so in a calm manner which won't cause unintended backlash.
• No specific occurrence of this is coming to mind, but I know it's happened numerous times. I love it when a couple of hosts team up to answer a tough question and the proverbial light bulb goes off in the inquirer's head. When someone is frustrated with editing and on the brink of quitting and we can do something about it, that's awesome!
• I've seen all kinds of editors ask questions at the Teahouse: IPs, newbies, established editors, and even administrators once in a while. A collegial, supportive atmosphere is something I enjoy being a part of and something that other editors enjoy, too. I see lots of people come back again and again, and that means we are doing something right.
• The Teahouse has largely been the brainchild of Sarah, and she's gotten some great help from people like Jtmorgan and Writ Keeper on the technical end...that core has set up the infrastructure that this project can go on for a long time. I would like to keep seeing new hosts and keep seeing the old ones too who are always around to be welcoming, calm, and helpful answering questions in plain English without overlinking. If I had one goal, it would be that those who ask questions start to look down the list for questions they can help answer. This project can consequently become even more self-sustaining than it already is. --Go Phightins! 21:27, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

1 - At first I thought it was a little redundant, considering that there was the help desk already established, but that was before I understood what type of help the Teahouse was giving. Once I had realised that it was a completely different concept from what the help desk was, I was impressed by it and eventually plucked up the courage to join as a host myself.

2 - I love the friendliness and cordiality shown to everyone who asks a question there and the fact that it doesn't matter if you have made one edit or thousands, you will still be treated with the same amount of awesome helpfulness.

3 - Just the general enjoyment of helping out people who need it. Every time someone thanks me for the help I have given them, it makes me happy because I feel as though I have given that user an excuse to stay and continue editing.

4 - By providing an environment that enables me to give advice without being hindered by the stress that the rest of the site can be inundated by.

5 - Plainly and simply, for it to continue growing and going from strength to strength. --Skamecrazy123 (talk) 23:19, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

1- "You're invited to the Teahouse!" My first impression was what is a Teahouse? I asked my first question, which was something like: How do I upload a photo? The website can be found at: http://www.funtrivia.com Thanks.

I had no idea how to use Wiki markup, so I got flagged with an HTML notice on top of my comment was unsigned. I thought, really?

2- I like the prompt replies to your questions and how nicely people answer them.

3- I like the knowledge of people who answer your questions. If they don't know the answer, they find it for you, which is very nice.

4- I became a Teahouse host, which allowed me to help users even more and welcome them.

5- Since when is the Teahouse a girl? As we continue to grow, I expect people to become more aware of the Teahouse. In the future, I expect there to be even more cool features and scripts.

That's about it. JHUbal27•Talk•E-mail 02:51, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

1. I came across it when I was looking at the Adopt-a-user program. I didn't have 500 article-space edits yet but wanted to help out, so I found this. I was too scared to sign up for a host at first, but came back a little later and was ready.
2. I like how friendly the other hosts are to each other when one of us messes up on something and how polite most of the question-askers are.
3. No particular experience stands out for me, but it makes me happy every time I answer a question that helps an editor out.
4. By giving them a stress- and jargon-free environment where they can learn without being pressured by the outside.
5. I hope that eventually the Teahouse will be common knowledge to all, and every welcome will include a link to it. öBrambleberry of RiverClan 21:35, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

• When I first heard about the Teahouse from Sarah, I was unsure I wanted to participate. While I love welcoming newcomers, that's something I do sporadically. The Teahouse seemed like a commitment, and I was concerned it would take up too much time from what I really like to do on wikipedia... create, edit, and translate articles. It was my older son who influenced me to get active. He said that if I could influence just one person to be as psyched and as prolific as I was about the work we do on wikipedia, then it would be well worth my time to participate in the Teahouse project. I thought about that and agreed, realizing that the Teahouse's objective matched up with my RL devotion to mentoring. So I became one of the founding members of the Teahouse, and invited thousands of newcomers. I like answering newcomer questions, too, but I find that there are a lot of great, experienced editors who do that piece. Luckily, the the hosts at the Teahouse share the load, some of us do the inviting, some of us answer questions, some of us measure statistics... it takes a village. Now, a year later, I'm still jazzed when I see a comment from a newcomer on my talkpage regarding the Teahouse, knowing that the project truly works as a friendly and safe place for new editors. --Rosiestep (talk) 05:05, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Teahouse Birthday

I received an invite to the Teahouse from Rosiestep on March 11, 2012. I had registered as an editor on February 27. I made a few assorted edits and in early March, decided to correct what I felt was a major omission in the article on Goshen College. I wrote it in my sandbox and then went to Teahouse on March 22 and asked for an honest critique. I got a great one. They offered constructive criticism and specific instruction on how to do some things I had no idea how to do. This was followed up by some copyediting from Teahouse hosts once I put the addition in the article, and finally, by a very encouraging "atta boy" from Sarah at the Teahouse. I continued making minor edits to other articles of interst to me, mostly to places in my home state, Indiana. Sarah again gave me some great encouragement by awarding me an "Indiana Barnstar" on April 3.

I have been bitten pretty hard at some other places I have asked for help on Wikipedia, getting the attitude "If you don't know this stuff, I am sure not gonna waste my time telling you. The door is thataway===>" Teahouse is always friendly, and completely adopts my Dad's favorite saying, "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask."

Sarah, whom is missed badly, Go Phightins!, NtheP, and DocTree, Fuhghettaboutit, and Ryan Vesey are all standouts. Garamond Lethe has been supremely helpful in general, and especially with the extremely technical questions which always baffle me.

I have made it a point that if I feel I must give a somewhat negative answer to a question posed at Teahouse, I always take my answer to the user's talk page. I have found that in the long run, this has established more long-term mentoring opportunities than merely answering questions. The general style of answering we always use at Teahouse is something I have always tried to use in all my conversations, and I think that has allowed me to have a fairly high success rate at dispute intervention and general mentoring than I would have otherwise. Of course, there will always be times when no good deed goes unpunished, but you just gotta gloss those over and move on. The relationships I have developed through Teahouse, and lately, WER, have given me people to fall back on when that happens.

For the future, I would like to see more development of new hosts. There is one regular question asker that I think has a large potential to be a fine host, that being User:Anne Delong. I do think a training course (short) for new hosts would be in order, with emphasis on proper decorum and on resource location. Teahouse works much better when we give a simple explanation, and link to the policy that has the rest of the details.

On a personal note, without Teahouse and especially the kind words from Sarah, I probably would be long gone. We miss you Sarah, and hope you can find time again for Teahouse soon. Gtwfan52 (talk) 05:51, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

1. I came here just strolling while I looked for places I had not seen on the Wiki. And when I saw the Teahouse, I instantly liked it. There was something different in here, right from the page layout and how it was organised, to how simplistic it was and how it made sure not to confuse the newer users. I immediately knew that this place was something good and well designed.
2. Without a doubt, the friendliness. I have seen the same question getting answered multiple times here within a span of just a week. And yet, everybody here condemns pointing the user to the appropriate link, as would have been the case in every other place. Everyone here is very patient and friendly.
3. I as an editor have been very much enthusiastic about promoting new users and helping them learn about the Wiki. In this regard, the Teahouse has struck gold, and has allowed me the chance to witness two great guests maturing into constructive, helpful editors - Anne Delong and Jhubal27. It was really nice to know that editors can actually grow here, and not face the harsh world of templates and warnings outside.
4. The Teahouse is a wonderful place to be pointing everyone to go when they have doubts. I might not be able to answer all questions satisfactorily, but if I point them to the Teahouse, that ensures that the "newbies" know where to go to ask their questions. Moreover, I have seen the Teahouse function also as a discussion forum, which allows the new editors first hand interaction with the older editors, and they quickly learn and recognize who we are and what we do. Ultimately, this interaction is fundamental in the growth of these editors.
5. The Teahouse, until now has been absolutely wonderful and delighting as a place to be. What stuck me the most about here was that while most Projects and groups had only one or two dedicated editors working endlessly to make things work, the Teahouse always had a steady stream of a bunch of cool and helpful editors who keep lurking around. Even when one of these editors is not here, there is always someone else to fill in.

As a project, it has managed to be a great collaborative endeavor, and has been delightfully functional in dealing with every kind of situation. For the future, I would like to see some sort of further order in how we take on the Questions. While the current "single-forum" structure is great for interaction purposes, it causes technical glitches of its own, which need to be sorted out.

Other than that, I would also like to see the Teahouse opening up its wings, and expanding its scope to reach out to more people around. Using tie ups with projects like Snuggle and TAFI, and to be linked to places like the Help Portals and the Main Page (possibly?) are great; and so is direct interaction with the users with the Welcome templates. I would like to see more people coming on into the Teahouse and more and more places on the Wiki where this great place is mentioned.

The other way the Teahouse could wing out will be on how we approach things. Right now, we are strictly on a Question-Answer basis, with little scope for anything else. We could have some useful and up-to-date resources (A few things to know about Wikipedia, a few places to be around Wikipedia, a few tools to use in Wikipedia etc..) that our Guests could browse through. A FAQ is one thing that we direly need at the current moment, considering the similar questions we currently face here.

Overall, this project is a wonderful and self-sufficient project which seems to have every ingredient required for success on Wiki. I only hope that our stream of guests and hosts never trickles down; and keeps growing all the time.

Cheers, TheOriginalSoni (talk) 21:26, 22 February 2013 (UTC) TheOriginalSoni (talk) 21:26, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

DocTree's reflections

No Q'n'A when simple prose suffices. I stumbled in and was immediately hooked, then flabbergasted when my story was featured in the pilot report. Writing about my first impressions again would be redundant.

JHUbal27, I think the Teahouse is a bit of a girlie place. One of its goals is to help in fixing Wikipedia's gender gap. In spite of flaws and stereotyping, I learned from life experience and books like Gray's. I'll brag a bit; just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary a few days ago. No complaints about WP:OR but one way that the Teahouse helps is understanding gender differences. Guys (male hosts), new female editors do NOT want you to fix their edits or articles for them. If you go in and undo a mistake or fix a formatting problem when they ask a question, it implies that they're not capable, not competent, not worthwhile, not intelligent enough to learn to do it, not... Talk with them about it and give them alternatives; add links to pages with helpful details. Let them do the fix in their own way. Don't be too quick to jump in and rescue a damsel in distress by adding a missing curly for her. Ladies, if I'm off base, tell me (us). The Teahouse works because it uses plain English and avoids RTFM and "don't worry, I'll fix it for you".

The Teahouse teaches by example. It teaches in a friendly way. It's collaboration at its best. Six experienced editors helped me become a bit less clueless when I complained about an editor creating lots of stubs that I judged unworthy of Wikipedia. That editor created a thousand stubs; I created three articles. We're both right, each doing things (cue Frank Sinatra) our way. Both contributed to Wikipedia, to accomplishing its goals. GoPhightins wrote above, "I love it when a couple of hosts team up to answer a tough question and the proverbial light bulb goes off in the inquirer's head." Yep, that happened to me. Thanks to Teahouse hosts, I began to really understand Wikipedia. Want to gauge the impact of the Teahouse? Check page views. Subtract the number of folks who asked or answered questions. Hundreds of folks who never ask or answer read and learn. Some will eventually ask or answer a question. Everyone gains knowledge. I'm among them.

The Teahouse is a model of civility and collaboration, an example of how Wikipedia should function. Keep up the good work. Adopt the motto of Cub Scout leaders: Keep it simple. Make it fun. Wishing all a great Teahouse birthday. May there be many more. DocTree (ʞlɐʇ·cont) Join WER 02:10, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

That's pretty profound; don't be surprised if you are featured in the next report too . Go Phightins! 02:21, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

As predicted :-) You too, Go Phightins! Thanks for all the amazing reflections, everybody, I really enjoyed reading them and hearing about what this project has meant for you. Congratulations on an amazing year, I can't wait to see what the next one brings. Siko (talk) 05:02, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

The Teahouse Turns One!

It's been an exciting year for the Teahouse and you were a part of it. Thanks so much for visiting, asking questions, sharing answers, being friendly and helpful, and just keeping Teahouse an awesome place. You can read more about the impact we're having and the reflections of other guests and hosts like you. Please come by the Teahouse to celebrate with us, and enjoy this sparkly cupcake badge as our way of saying thank you. And, Happy Birthday!

{{Wikipedia:Teahouse/Badge/First|size=}} (you can place this badge in your userspace, or click through the link to see smaller versions at WP:Teahouse/Badge/First.)

--Ocaasi and the rest of the Teahouse Team 15:38, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Philippines project may route more new editors to Teahouse

Hi all, Just a heads up that we're launching a small geo-targeted editors participation pilot in the Philippines tomorrow. This project basically aims banners at readers in the Philippines inviting them to join Wikipedia to help improve coverage related to their country, and then points them to a subpage of the Wikiproject Tambayan Philippines where they'll be offered suggestions for articles to improve. Why should you care? Because we're pointing to Teahouse as a help resource for these new editors, should they have questions and find themselves drowning in help documentation. We anticipate their questions should be similar to the types that you're already answering, but if you start to notice something different (good or bad), please let us know so we can make adjustments. Thanks! Siko (WMF) (talk) 23:13, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

That landing page is here. Thanks! Ijon (talk) 02:16, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Heads up

Hi everyone. This weekend I'm going to be training and doing an edit-a-thon - Wikipedia:Meetup/University of Oregon - I'll be showing about 30-40 people how to edit Wikipedia. I'll be having them make profiles at the Teahouse and some questions might come up, I'm not sure yet. So, be on the look out (the majority will be women editors). I'm also going to make a good faith sock puppet to show them how to create an account (it'll be User:SarahStierch2 or something). The Admin Noticeboard is aware of all of this, too. Thanks everyone. SarahStierch (talk) 19:08, 6 March 2013 (UTC)

Questions page archival?

At the current state, we archive Questions within 4 days, and that leads to a question page about 100k bytes long, and 55 threads long. I suggest that inorder to not make it slower for everyone, we set the archival to 3 days. That will lead to making our page a lot more managable, taking around 20k bytes away from the page...

Also, we should have a line at the top of the page stating that older questions are moved to the archive. Something like- "Finding your old Question? Maybe its in the Archives - Older questions on the Teahouse are moved to our archive"

TheOriginalSoni (talk) 11:32, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

We've already gotten people asking where their question went, and I don't think that adding a line about archiving will solve that (although adding such a line is a good idea regardless), so making questions archive even faster is probably not a good idea. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 16:21, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

Why don't we add language to that effect to the talkback template instead of the page header? Instruction-cruft ::cough, cough:: keeps me up at night. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 03:44, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

I agree with J-Mo. Our experience is that people won't read it anyway. It's easier to just answer the question when it is posed. :) Thanks for always thinking of ways to improve Wikipedia and the Teahouse! heather walls (talk) 04:57, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Can anyone here change the TB template to that effect? TheOriginalSoni (talk) 06:12, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Looks like it's been moved to the template namespace and is no longer protected (hmm). So you should feel free to take a crack at it. And probably watch the page too, now that it's vulnerable! - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 02:53, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Nopes. It's still based on the old template, which is still protected. Can anyone just get an admin to replace the page's content with User:TheOriginalSoni/teahouse_talkback_sandbox? (Just add the one line extra I have added.) TheOriginalSoni (talk) 13:12, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Hello? TheOriginalSoni (talk) 07:23, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

I've updated the template. —David Levy 21:46, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Teahouse invitations

Is there a place where non-hosts can suggest newbie editors for Teahouse invitations? Espresso Addict (talk) 21:44, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

I am not really sure of your question. But I think what you what you want to know is how to invite new editors to the Teahouse. If that is so, we use Wikipedia:Teahouse/Invitation template for inviting new editors to the Teahouse. Usually Hostbot invites active editors automatically, but that doesn't mean you can't invite other editors. Cheers --Ushau97 ^talk 10:52, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Ushau97. I decided the simplest course was to sign up as a host, so I could give them out myself! Espresso Addict (talk) 23:23, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi Espresso Addict, and welcome! Quick clarifications: 1) you can use the template Ushau97 linked above (or any template you create, or plain text) to invite new editors to the Teahouse whether you're a host or not. 2) many of the invites you're seeing that have hosts' names attached to them are actually sent by HostBot. If you want your name to appear on these invitations, just add your name here and then shoot me a quick message. I'll add your name to the script. Cheers, - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 22:34, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Wishlist update!

Hi hosts!

We're working on a Badgeometer trophy case to show off people's earned badges. We're also working on adding an evidence (diff) parameter to all badge templates, so we can distinguish specific actions that led to a badge and count multiple badges of the same type that are earned by an editor. Really neat stuff involves a badge activity feed so we can livestream who gives and gets badges, right on the Teahouse main page or Q&A page. Jmorgan is going to be creating a spec sheet on how to do this with our badge data tables and we'll have that spec in the next month I hope. We also want to create a preload button on host profiles to award them a host badge, just like we do for Guest profiles. And in April we're going to start running some impact metrics using the database, and do a qualitative satisfaction survey about badges.

Also

• Just like there are talkback links for user signatures on the Q&A page, we'd like to create links which would automatically add a Great question or Great answer to a user's talk page.
• If we can do that, we're curious if it's possible to "star" a question or answer which generated the badge, as a visual way to represent on the Q&A page that something great was done.

I think the first idea is possible with some userscript, preload magic. The second idea is probably much more complicated, but I'm curious what the technical challenges would be.

Hope you're all well! Ocaasi ^{t | c} 19:02, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Like TheOriginalSoni (talk) 02:56, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Recent questions not updating

Has anyone noticed that the Recent questions are not being updated. If you take a look at the recent questions's history you will find that none of them have been updated since 15th March. Is Hostbot not working on this task anymore? --Ushau97 ^talk 06:22, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads-up, Ushau97. I'm looking into this now and have fixed one problem (my cron job was pointing to the wrong directory). But there seems to be an additional problem: the slave database that HostBot draws this data from has not been updated since last Wednesday, so when the script looks for questions from the past 2 days it doesn't find any. I pinged some of the sysops just now. Cheers, - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 21:00, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Seems like Hostbot is working back again :D ! Since Hostbot didn't work for the the past 3 days, I thought I should probably update the recent questions myself. I just started updating the recent questions by myself when I encountered an edit conflict. And guess what? It was Hostbot. Thanks for fixing the issue. --Ushau97 ^talk 16:15, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Heh. And sorry the bot overrode your work! Most of the HostBot functions have been offline since the 15th, and I'm only now able to fix the problems and re-automate the bot. Things should be working as advertised now, but as always please post here or on my talk page (both, if it's a major issue) if something goes awry. Cheers, - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 23:01, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Idea

For now, I'm going to be unilaterally doing this, but I'd love discussion:

Comments like "user has been banned" "banned as sock" "banned as troll" are bad. We are for new editors, we don't want to scare them off or make them feel bad by saying someone else is banned. If the question has replies, just cease replying and don't put a message. If it's obviously a troll/bad faith question, remove the question completely. If it's another kind of question, use judgement, even leave a fake reply if it's a good question. This only applies to indeffed editors, not temporary blocked (unless it's obviously a trolly question)

The reasoning behind this is that if newbies do research and find someone was blocked, they'll slippery slope and decide it was because of the teahouse. This has happened at least once or twice that I remember. gwickwire^talk_editing 01:50, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Support. I don't see any clear reason to state in a question thread that the questioner was blocked. We wouldn't want a newcomers to infer a cause/effect relationship between asking a question and getting stomped on. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 23:17, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Wow, March metrics look great!

Just wanted to point out how healthy March TH metrics look - amazing job, everyone! Siko (talk) 06:50, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Important coding glitch

Hello,

While trying to use the "respond to this discussion" button on the Teahouse Questions page, I realised that there was a major glitch in the current system that we use [Have already seen 1 user having the same problem, apart from me; and this is quite subtle so it's easy to miss].

The "respond to this discussion" relies on a value for "section" I believe, which lists the number of sections from the top until the section to respond to. It is that value which is sent to the Questions page, whereupon the given section is modified, and the comment added. But if another question is asked in the time you take to type your response, that will mean that the actual "section number" is now not the same it was. Which inaccurately places your comment in the section above yours.

I suggest that the way sections are numbered be adequately changed (some permanent numbering/numbering from bottom etc?) or the code under question be modified to account for such a possiblity.

TheOriginalSoni (talk) 20:02, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

That's not a bug with the Javascript gadget, that's a "bug" with the Mediawiki software itself. It happens even if you just use the normal edit section links, rather than the Javascript ones. Mediawiki is configured for bottom-posting, where it's not an issue, since new sections aren't normally added above existing ones; the top-posting of the Teahouse breaks that. This has actually been an issue since the beginning of the Teahouse. Writ Keeper (t + c) 20:15, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Is there no Bugzilla request to try and solve this issue? It certainly could use a solution, keeping in mind the various forums we have to discuss here onWiki. Also, is there a daily count of how many questions are asked at the Teahouse? TheOriginalSoni (talk) 21:02, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Probably not, considering that of all the discussion forums on Wikipedia, we're the only ones as far as I know to use top-posting, and as such, we're the only ones who would experience the problem. And IIRC, it would be a major effort to fix. Writ Keeper (t + c) 21:35, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, agree that this is unfortunate. Section numbering is a pain to deal with at the best of times, esp. in discussions. Flow will use top-posting (or dynamic shuffling based on recent responses--not entirely clear) which will presumably fix some of these problems for pages where it is enabled. Flow's a ways off, but considering how high a priority it is, I don't imagine there's a lot of dev work going into fixing the current epic hack method for organizing talkpage discussions into threads. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 22:29, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

I am currently tracking Bugzilla 738, and it's last comment seems to apply for the Teahouse as well. We could very well try and use something like that.

I agree that we need to try and find a way out of this problem. I also offer any services/coding I can to help the case. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 06:22, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Soni, can you link to that Bugzilla report? I'm curious to see what they're talking about. Off the top of my head: one way to prevent this is to check, when the response is submitted, whether the page has been edited since the user loaded clicked the 'respond to this discussion' button. As I understand it (and I really don't know that I do) this would likely require two API calls: one when the button is clicked (to retrieve the current basetimestamp), and another when the response is submitted. If the basetimestamp upon response submission differs from the basetimestamp on the opening of the edit window, the script could refuse to perform the edit, and instead tell the user something like "This page has been edited since you started your response. To make sure your response is posted to the correct thread, please copy the text of your response from the edit window, refresh the page, and click 'respond to this discussion' again." Not sure how much more code this requires, or if adding another API request would slow things down too much. The Gadget code is here, and the relevant API documentation is here if someone wants to look into this. I still think fixing how MediaWiki itself handles section numbering is probably too much to expect for now (read: it would take time and a healthy dollop of persuasion). - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 22:54, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Here is the link to the bugzilla report. The issue is quite different, but I think that the last suggestion (to make a special way to tag sections) could also be the key to solve our main problem, which is to track down sections. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 19:44, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Featured Hosts

Just looking at the featured host images on the TH page, and I noticed that since they were so new many of them have not answered at all. I think that the host bot should just go through the names in the host lounge (none from the break room) and show every person in order. What do you guys think? — nerdfighter 19:50, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi Nerdfighter, personally I'm happy with how it works, and unless someone is able to work with J-Mo's code so as not to burden him, I would just leave it. You are welcome to add yourself to one of the slots (that will change next time hostbot takes a pass). :) heather walls (talk) 20:21, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

I hear you. I won't add myself to the list (my self esteem isn't that low ). I suppose we all were on that gallery at some point when we signed. Cheers — nerdfighter 20:32, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

We could update it so that newer iamges being used are displayed and remove editors that have been ideff blocked.--Amadscientist (talk) 23:02, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Workin' on it. Code refactor + dissertation-related wikibreak = long delay on this important, outstanding request. However, I plan to set aside a few hours this weekend to make sure all the scripts are updating regularly and correctly. BTW, I've started to reorganize the HostBot codebase to improve documentation and functionality, and to make collaborative development easier. If anyone wants to work with me on the code going forward, productive collaboration is increasingly feasible ;) - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 22:40, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Oh, and of course you're welcome to change things manually. I've stopped the script 'til it's fixed, so HB won't overwrite you 'til it's fixed. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 22:50, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Should be working now, but let me know if the machine stops. BTW, to address Nerdfighter's original question: hosts are currently 'featured' if they have recently returned after a hiatus or if they recently joined. The script moves these profiles to the top of Teahouse/Host_landing, and shuffles the order of all the other hosts randomly. Then it replaces the profile images in the Teahouse/Host/Featured/ subpages with a random selection of up to 25 newly arrived/returned hosts. We can change this if we want, but having every host in the gallery is tricky to implement. As currently written, hosts who are consistently active (at least 1 edit every two weeks) will never be featured. But of course, we can also 'feature' ourselves in an even niftier way by signing up to be Maitre d'. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 23:27, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Could the code be modified so that it features our most active hosts? Or maybe feature the active hosts along with newly arrived and returned hosts(10 of each maybe)? From the POV of the guest, it might be better for them to see the hosts most likely to answer quickly should they try to contact the featured hosts through the link provided. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 19:48, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Agree Technical 13 (talk) 20:05, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Agree with Soni's idea, but only if it's easy to do this --Ushau97 ^talk 16:50, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Agree with Soni's idea. öBrambleberry of RiverClan 16:51, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

 Question: Most active over what time span? Days, weeks, or just overall most edits to the Teahouse?

 Comment: I would say a two week time frame. That is not too long to exclude new hosts and not short enough to push out people that take a week or 10-day vaca. Technical 13 (talk) 23:48, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Sure! I'll make the changes you describe, Soni, and post here when the bot has run with the new criteria. Thanks y'all - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 20:18, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

 Done HostBot now features: a) the top 20 hosts by edits within the past 2 weeks, and b) new hosts. The script runs on a weekly basis at 3:40 UTC. As usual, let me know ASAP if you see any bugs and I'll squash 'em. Cheers, - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 22:11, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

Like TheOriginalSoni (talk) 07:13, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Connecting with the Open Help world

Hi everybody! I got invited to Open Help Conference in the US in June, and thought some people here might be interested in attending. The conference looks like an open format type event, focusing on open source help support and documentation, and they'd love to have Teahouse sharing what we've been doing. WMF has Participation Support Grants that could potentially support people's travel - might we think about getting a Wikipedia team together? Just a thought! Siko (WMF) (talk) 18:56, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Cool! heather walls (talk) 19:18, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, this looks both interesting and relevant. And I see you've posted it to the Help Project too. It might also be relevant to folks who work in WikiProjects TAFI, Cooperation, AFC and Editor Retention. I'll spread the word there if it hasn't already percolated through. Thanks, Siko! - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 18:09, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

I have (somewhat bizarrely) created a signup page on meta for anyone interested in joining a team - feel free to spread the word and let's see what happens :-) Siko (WMF) (talk) 05:04, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

New questions go to the top

Hello,

I found it quite surprising to note that there was no line at the top of the Questions page saying "All new questions go to the top". Also, we could have it as a the edit notice whenever anyone edits the Questions page manually.

TheOriginalSoni (talk) 21:00, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

What do you mean by there is no message at the top. There already is a message for that purpose. I have added some black blocks to the message to make it more noticeable. And I totally support the idea of an edit notice for THQ page. --Ushau97 ^talk 06:00, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

There was no message on the actual page. I have boldly added one. If this is unacceptable please feel free to revert or alter to the needs of the project. A message should also really go on the editing window when its opened in case someone misses it so they are clear where it goes. Some redundancy is a good thing.--Amadscientist (talk) 06:06, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Ah. There is the message now. i prefer that we put it into a box. And we should get an edit notice too. (No the comment doesnt really work as well as an edit notice.) TheOriginalSoni (talk) 06:24, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Could you clarify what you mean TheOriginalSoni? I am not sure if I am following you.--Amadscientist (talk) 07:07, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

OK I think I see what you are saying. Yeah, the commented out section in the edit window may not work as well as something on the main page. I am not sure how to add a notice to the top as an "Edit Notice". Never looked into that before but agree that would also be better. What I did add is in a box, but could not be placed anywhere else without interfering with the coding, but I would have preferred it go just above the button itself. I hope this works well enough, but again if anyone objects we can revert.--Amadscientist (talk) 07:17, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Heather reverted and wants to have one message at a time. She would prefer the badges message remain alone for a bit.--Amadscientist (talk) 07:20, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

But I have clarified the edit window message.--Amadscientist (talk) 07:23, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) You need to be an admin to create or edit an edit notice. I can do it, but as a relatively new contributor to the Teahouse, I don't want jump in and start changing things. Do we have a clear idea on what needs to be said on it, and how it will be formatted? We probably need to give it a very welcoming and helpful "feel" (for example, take a look at the Help Desk edit notice, which I think is a bit intimidating). Chamal ^T•C 07:35, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

I like the idea of an edit notice, and I like making a welcoming one even more. heather walls (talk) 07:42, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Hello all! Thanks for trying to make things more clear and easier to understand. We've found that adding too many messages creates a situation where people rarely read them at all. Most people do use the question button and it usually works ;) heather walls (talk) 07:29, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately that hasn't been the case with recent additions being left at the bottom of the page and another recent editor complained that even finding the Teahouse questions page was difficult. One man's obvious is another's "er?" LOL! Many editors will just hit the edit button at the top.--Amadscientist (talk) 07:43, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

But since we are not going to add a message on the main page for the moment and Heather agrees with an edit notice for those who are using a manual addition of a question we should focus on that for now. Let me work on a proposal and perhaps we can get Chamal_N to add it once we have consensus. I will work on some thing that has a nice, friendly sounding greeting and perhaps some graphics.--Amadscientist (talk) 08:00, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

• User:TheOriginalSoni/Teahouse edit notice sandbox - I have created a sandbox edit notice page based on Amadscientist's original version. Feel free to edit it. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 08:06, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

I like what you have so far. I will try to add some input when I can.--Amadscientist (talk) 08:22, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Please place them at the top of the page! might not be a good one since that might make the guests think that they have to place the question at the very top of the page. --Ushau97 ^talk 08:32, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

I agree. What should be the alternative wording? TheOriginalSoni (talk) 08:34, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

• I suggest the blue colour be randomised to be selected from a group of selected colours. What do others think of it? TheOriginalSoni (talk) 08:33, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

That may be too complicated for this.--Amadscientist (talk) 09:13, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Let me see if I can fix the issue. In the end, it would be simple coding but give a good aesthetic feel. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 09:19, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

I cant. There is a random number generator I require, which keeps changing every time you call it (and not every time it is edited). Then it is a simple switchcase for choosing the colour. Any help here? TheOriginalSoni (talk) 09:30, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

I am afraid I am not much help with that issue. However, here is my wording suggestion:

Hello and welcome to the Teahouse edit window!

To add a question please use the "Ask a Question" button on the Teahouse Questions page.

If you choose to manually add your question, please place it above the last question asked to appear at the top of the page.

Doing so will attract the attention of a host much quicker!

Happy editing!

--Amadscientist (talk) 09:36, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Oh and maybe add the logo: --Amadscientist (talk) 09:45, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

TheOriginalSoni, you could use a magic word in conjuction with an expression for the switch. For example, {{#expr:{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}mod 10}} would give a random number from 0 to 9 that changes by the second. Chamal ^T•C 09:40, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

• The colour code is working, but it contains six ugly colours currently. Please give me the colours that are to be added to the template in place of the current ones. Also, feel free to be adding or removing anything from there. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 10:22, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

You could use the colors at Wikipedia:Teahouse/The_menu#Color_scheme --Ushau97 ^talk 10:30, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

I have changed the colors --Ushau97 ^talk 10:39, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

If there are any additional coloursthat could be added, please list those colours here. There is just a minor tweak required for adding them.

Also, I particularly dislike the huge gaps between the lines themselves. Could someone please rectify it? I tried to make everything bigger, but it didnt really help. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 14:15, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

 Fixed line spacing issue The line spacing looks good now. It can be fixed by using the css line-height property, but instead of using the property I rewrote the notice and line spacing have been reduced. And I tried using the {{REVISIONUSER}} in the edit notice so that the username of the user who is editing, will appear on the edit notice. I tried it at my personal user page's edit notice and it didn't work. So I looked into it and turns out that it have been changed by the devs so that nothing will appear when editing or previewing changes. --Ushau97 ^talk 16:54, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

You did an wonderful job Ushau97! It looks really good!

Hello and welcome to the Teahouse edit window!
To add a question please use the "Ask a Question" button on the Teahouse Q&A Board.
If you choose to manually add your question,
Please place it above the last question asked, so that it will appear at the top of the page!

Doing so will attract the attention of a host much quicker!
Thank you and happy editing!

• Support implementation - --Amadscientist (talk) 23:13, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Since we appear to have no objections I will ask the admin to add this edit notice to help keep the flow of questions being added manually to the top of the page to gain the attention of our hosts. I just moved another two questions to the top of the page.--Amadscientist (talk) 06:36, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

• Support implementation --Ushau97 ^talk 08:41, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
• I've changed the code a bit to add the {{editnotice}} template and removed the includeonly tags since they were not needed. It looks the same though:

I think we should wait a few more hours to see if there are any objections or changes, and then I'll add it unless another admin has done it already by the time I get here :) Chamal ^T•C 09:33, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Changed User:TheOriginalSoni/Teahouse edit notice sandbox to include the edit notice template. --Ushau97 ^talk 09:39, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you to both Chamal Ushau97 for all your help and also to TheOriginalSoni. I also left a message with Heather so she would know what we came up with.--Amadscientist (talk) 10:18, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

• I do not have any objections to using the template as it currently is, but I would ideally want two things before it is.

After it was capitalised, the heading looks a bit off to the eye to me. Could there be soe formatting change (bolding/underlining/size change) or font change which could make it look better. I think some fonts will have better looking capital letters than the one we're using.

Secondly, I would ideally like to see someone who knows their colours explore the colours, and see if there are additional colours which will look good, and also to remove any colour from the current set which does not look as good (I haven't seen all 6 colours yet - So I cant really say.)

Those are the two things I would like to see done. But I completely support the current template as it is, if it is not feasible to look into the abovementioned things.

TheOriginalSoni (talk) 12:52, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

I have removed the capitalization from the header and made it bigger by +0.05em. And you can check out all the colors by purging the page. I personally prefer purging pages by pressing the UTC clock gadget. If there is any more changes you would like to bring let me know. --Ushau97 ^talk 13:15, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

I added an underline. Hope it is not a bad addition. (If it is, then I would prefer changing the colour of the header so it can stand out from the rest of the text) TheOriginalSoni (talk) 13:21, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

• I just checked the six colours and I disliked the combinations. Here are my concerns-

1. 80701F, 8C8D06 and 738C00 look very similar. I would like to keep only one of them. If I keep two, I'll not have them one after the other.
2. 536788 and 6D7184 are good.
3. 213839 is too much like black, which fails the objective of highlighting the line.
4. In addition, I liked, and would want to see these colours from the scheme - 3FB6FF, E7E9B3 and E3DEE5.

Also, is number of edits or the current time the best randomizer to be used? If the latter, I would want to change to that. [The first one is making checking the colours hard, but I could not implement the latter myself then] TheOriginalSoni (talk) 13:32, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

I have replaced 8C8D06 with 3FB6FF and can someone suggest another color to replace 213839. I support your idea to change colors but E7E9B3 is pale so I don't support that change, and E3DEE5 is very light. In fact I can't see anything in that color. I tried changing the brightness of my screen but still I don't see a difference. Am I color blind? :O --Ushau97 ^talk 18:01, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Could you please clarify the "randomizer part"? I don't get it. I could write a code for that one if that is within my knowledge. --Ushau97 ^talk 18:04, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

I have used the mod of 1220919218 to randomize the colours, which is based on the number of edits by the reader. [I tried this after looking at User:Rcsprinter123's signature, after i failed to use the current time]. If anyone can use the current time to be a functional replacement for the same, please do so (The problem I kept hitting was that it would change only if edited, but not when refreshed. Can anyone look into why that might have happened, and correct it [and maybe explain to me too])?

I see E3DEE5 well enough. Maybe you could try a few colour blindness tests? :P

Just to give a heads up, we can have any number of colours we want, and so the number can easily be reduced to 3 or 4, if required. But I really prefer someone with expertise on colours to step in and add a few more greens, and light pink, and dark blues maybe. Could anyone be called? TheOriginalSoni (talk) 02:55, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Could we get this up now please. We are continuing to get questions placed at the bottom of the page creating extra work for hosts and editors.--Amadscientist (talk) 07:56, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

• Support Implementation. Great idea, and I like the current draft fine. I would personally prefer fewer words (TL;DR), but agree that getting something up there is more important. We can always get a friend to adjust the text later. Also, I just tweaked the language of the comment at the top of TH:Q. Thought that would be more clear: new users might not understand what "top section" means or how sections are designated with markup. - J-Mo ^{Talk to Me} _{Email Me} 23:12, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

• Implemented: I've gone ahead and created Template:Editnotices/Page/Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions. Seems to be working fine. Please feel free to make any changes, and let me or another admin know if any help is required with it. Chamal ^T•C 02:56, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Thank you soooo much! And a very big thank you to TheOrigianlSoni for the use of their sandbox space to work on this and Heather for supporting it. Now....I just hope it improves the manually added questions. Keeping fingers crossed!--Amadscientist (talk) 07:48, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

After implementation

Newbies are newbies. Seems like the edit notice is not working as expected. So far, I have moved two questions after this has been set up. [1] [2]. I am sure other have also done this. And I am expecting this will continue. Anyone got a better idea to make this one work. --Ushau97 ^talk 13:00, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

The problem is that when people click on the "New Section" or "+" it puts there post at the bottom of the page. Is there any way to force a change in this behavior? Perhaps we need to research getting a bot that moves them to the top based on timestamps or something? — User:Technical 13   ( C • M • View signature as intended) 13:06, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

There isn't a way to do this in Mediawiki; the entire section system is designed for bottom-posting, and top-posting breaks things. We could add it to Hostbot's tasks I suppose, if J-Mo is up for it. Writ Keeper (t + c) 15:10, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

This is still being continued.[3] I also support the idea of a bot, possibly Hostbot, moving the questions to the top based on the timestamp. But if it is based on the timestamp, then there might be some problems. What I mean is, if a host responds to another question, after a new question has been posted, then the bot will move the response to the previous question to the top. If there is a way to overcome this, then this is probably the finest idea. --Ushau97 ^talk 09:53, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Technical 13's idea to the wishlist is also a great idea. Is there anyone who can work on this? --Ushau97 ^talk 10:00, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

I was thinking it would only look at the first timestamp per section as the marker of when the question was posted. — User:Technical 13   ( C • M • View signature as intended) 12:49, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Sounds good. But for now, I would like to stick with the javascript idea with the arrows. I will leave a TB at Writ Keeper's talk page. He might be the one for this. --Ushau97 ^talk 12:55, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

What Javascript arrow idea is this? I can't seem to find a mention of it on this page. Is it somewhere else? Writ Keeper (t + c) 13:18, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

The one I added to the wishlist:

Add functionality to the User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/teahouseUtility.js to allow hosts to move sections "to top" (⇑), "up one" (↑), or "down one" (↓)... I can't see of any need to move them to the "bottom" (⇓)... This should be fairly easy to do with DOM. I'll research it and would love to hear other ideas/suggestions to accomplish this. — User:ShoeMaker ( Contributions • Message ) 8:32 pm, Yesterday (UTC−4)

— User:Technical 13   ( C • M • View signature as intended) 14:15, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

The DOM has little to do with it; it's more of a question of parsing and managing the API calls to make the edits. Writ Keeper (t + c) 15:30, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

I poked around at the "view source" for the HTML that comes out on that page, and it seems that the current script is already adding an |id="wp-teahouse-respond-(section number)" that numbers each section to the page. I would think this would be fairly easy to edit section #x, CTRL+X, save, go to section #x ± 1, (ap|pre}pend CTRL+V, save... I could be wrong. Was just an idea. — User:Technical 13   ( C • M • View signature as intended) 16:17, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Well, it does sound easy, doesn't it? But think about it: how would you programmatically do the copypaste? How do you save the page? How do you decide what to copy and where to paste it to, in a fault-tolerant way that takes any number of crazy inputs into account? How do you capture the Wikicode source to preserve the formatting (which isn't directly available in the HTML source)? I do have a pretty good idea on how to do this; it's just sinificantly more complicated than just "use the DOM". :) Writ Keeper (t + c) 16:21, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

• Is there any way to simply remove the new section option from the teahouse page? Or maybe make it so that whenever it is used, it goes to the top (at a known placeable marker maybe on the Questions page?) TheOriginalSoni (talk) 05:22, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Or actually just live with the issue? So a few questions get posted at the wrong end of the page, it's not a huge deal. We cut and paste to the top when they get spotted and job done. The Teahouse Q&A page is one of the few that flies against normal wiki practice and allows top posting but as part of the task of supporting new users we shouldn't be confusing them by automating it or anything else in case they get the idea that's what happens all over. NtheP (talk) 08:37, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

I agree with Nthep, it probably shouldn't be automated (note this day, I don't say that often as I think most everything should be automated), but I think that the JavaScript option is a good one to save the hosts some work from having to edit, select, cut, save, go back to the page, edit the section it is getting moved to, paste, save... — User:Technical 13   ( C • M • View signature as intended) 10:51, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

To answer Soni's question: yes, there is a way to get rid of the new section link. But I don't really think we should use it, and even if we did, it wouldn't 100% solve the problem, since that's also how the fallback works if a user clicks on the ask a question button with JS disabled. And by the way, just as an aside, I'm not going to incorporate that kind of thing into TeahouseUtility; the TeahouseUtility is entirely different, and I'm not a huge fan of mixing-and-matching a bunch of random functionality into a single script. It should be its own script. (Did I ever tell you about the time in high school I added a music player to a paint program I was writing? Got a lot of weird looks for that one.) Writ Keeper (t + c) 14:44, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

• I have no objections to it being a separate script, and with your permission I would like to assist in the creation of it. — User:Technical 13   ( C • M • View signature as intended) 15:55, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

  Heh, you don't need my permission for that. Writ Keeper (t + c) 16:00, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

• I was asking permission because without it, I have no way of knowing where/what the script is/should be named. — User:Technical 13   ( C • M • View signature as intended) 16:35, 2 April 2013 (UTC)
  • I usually just write scripts offline in a text editor (easier formatting) and then paste them into the appropriate destination for testing and release, but I can do it in a subpage if you want to participate. I'm not really sure how that's gonna work; it's not a very big script, so there's not really a good place for division of labor. Basically, I'll start writing the script (probably at User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/teahouseSectionMover), and then if you have any comments or questions, just put 'em on the talk page. Writ Keeper (t + c) 16:56, 2 April 2013 (UTC)
    • Hey! Where did the WiP script go? I just went to look and see what the progress was and see if I could offer any ideas and it's gone! Technical 13 (talk) 12:05, 10 April 2013 (UTC)