Jump to content

User talk:Simon Burchell

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tikal

[edit]

Hello, I apologize beforehand for asking another question. I was trying to improve the flow in Tikal#Geography, and I noticed that this bit has no reference: "Conspicuous trees at the Tikal park include gigantic kapok (Ceiba pentandra) the sacred tree of the Maya; tropical cedar (Cedrela odorata), and Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). Regarding the fauna, agoutis, white-nosed coatis, gray foxes, Geoffroy's spider monkeys, howler monkeys, harpy eagles, falcons, ocellated turkeys, guans, toucans, green parrots and leafcutter ants can be seen there regularly. Jaguars, jaguarundis, and cougars are also said to roam in the park". Is it contained in Webster 2002, p.261, or in another source? Thank you very much in advance. Mimihitam (talk) 15:18, 22 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Mimihitam:, I've checked out Webster, and it's not there - however I went back to my copy of Coe's Guide to Tikal (Spanish ed.), and between that and a journal article that I have now cited, it should be OK - the only thing not covered are the leaf-cutter ants, which I know are there but aren't covered in either of the cited publications. Simon Burchell (talk) 21:55, 22 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your kind help :) Mimihitam (talk) 22:08, 22 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #023, 25 Nov 2018

[edit]

There are now 4,180 portals.

Will we break 5,000 by the end of the year?

I know we can. But, that is up to you!

( New portals are created with {{subst:Basic portal start page}} or {{subst:bpsp}} )

Happy Holidays

[edit]
Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Season's Greetings}} to send this message

Jingling along

[edit]

The following portals have been created since the last issue:

Keep 'em coming!

By the way, the above list was generated using this Petscan query. It can be easily modified by changing the date. The data page (under the Output tab) also has options for receiving the data in CSV or tabbed format, which some operating systems automatically load into a spreadsheet program for ease of use, such as copying and pasting the desired column (like page names).

In closing

[edit]

We'll keep it short this issue.

Expect a flood next time. Or the one after that.

Cheerio,    — The Transhumanist   08:06, 26 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes, Issue 31

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 31, October – Novemeber 2018

  • OAWiki
  • Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
  • Global branches update
  • Bytes in brief

French version of Books & Bytes is now available on meta!
Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:34, 21 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #024, 26 Dec 2018

[edit]

Last issue, I mentioned there would be a flood, and so, here it is...

Portals status

[edit]

We now have 4,620 portals.

And the race to pass 5,000 by year's end is on...

Can we make it?

The New Year, and the 5,001st portal, await.

( New portals are created with {{subst:Basic portal start page}} or {{subst:bpsp}} )

Evad is back!

[edit]

After disappearing in mid-thread, Evad37 has returned from a longer than expected wikibreak.

Be sure to welcome him back.

Improved cropping is coming to Portal image banner

[edit]

User:FR30799386 is working on making {{Portal image banner}} even better by enabling it to chop the top off an image as well as the bottom.

Many pictures aren't suitable for banners because they are too tall. Therefor, User:FR30799386 added cropping to this template, so that an editor could specify part of a picture to be used rather than the whole thing.

Upgrade of flagship portals is underway

[edit]

Work has begun on upgrading Wikipedia's flagship portals (those listed at the top of the Main page).

So far, Portal:Geography, Portal:History, and Portal:Technology have been revamped. Of course, you are welcome to improve them further.

Work continues on the other five. Feel free to join in on the fun.

Spotting missing portals that are redirects

[edit]

In place of many missing portals, there is a redirect that leads to "the next best topic", such as a parent topic.

Most of these were created before we had the tools to easily create portals (they used to take 6 hours or more to create, because it was all done manually). Rather than leave a portal link red, some editors thought it was best that those titles led somewhere.

The subjects that have sufficient coverage should have their own portals rather than a redirect to some other subject.

Unfortunately, being blue like all other live links, redirects are harder to spot than redlinks.

To spot redirects easily, you can make them all appear green.

What's new in portal space?

[edit]
Here are the new portals since the last issue:
  1. Portal:17th century
  2. Portal:18th century
  3. Portal:Absinthe
  4. Portal:Abuse
  5. Portal:Academic degrees
  6. Portal:Acari
  7. Portal:Acipenseriformes
  8. Portal:Actas
  9. Portal:Actinopterygii
  10. Portal:Activision
  11. Portal:Aerobatics
  12. Portal:Aeroflot
  13. Portal:Aesop
  14. Portal:Afrosoricida
  15. Portal:Aichi
  16. Portal:Airlines
  17. Portal:Air traffic control
  18. Portal:Akon
  19. Portal:Alan Turing
  20. Portal:Alfred Nobel
  21. Portal:Alice Paul
  22. Portal:Allahabad
  23. Portal:Allgemeine-SS
  24. Portal:Allium
  25. Portal:Aluminium
  26. Portal:Alvarezsauroidea
  27. Portal:Alveolata
  28. Portal:Amazon
  29. Portal:Amino acids
  30. Portal:Ancient Greek philosophy
  31. Portal:Andalusia
  32. Portal:Andes
  33. Portal:Animax
  34. Portal:Antennas
  35. Portal:Anthrax (American band)
  36. Portal:Antibiotics
  37. Portal:Antidotes
  38. Portal:Antifungals
  39. Portal:Antimony
  40. Portal:Antivirus software
  41. Portal:Aquifers
  42. Portal:Arachnids
  43. Portal:Armadillos
  44. Portal:Armour
  45. Portal:Art movements
  46. Portal:Arvicolinae
  47. Portal:Asanas
  48. Portal:Association of Southeast Asian Nations
  49. Portal:AstraZeneca
  50. Portal:Asturias
  51. Portal:Asus
  52. Portal:Atoms
  53. Portal:Automation
  54. Portal:Aylesbury
  55. Portal:Aztecs
  56. Portal:Bags
  57. Portal:Banks
  58. Portal:Basalt
  59. Portal:Batgirl
  60. Portal:Bats
  61. Portal:Bay Area Rapid Transit
  62. Portal:Beijing Subway
  63. Portal:Belo Horizonte
  64. Portal:Ben Affleck
  65. Portal:Binondo
  66. Portal:Biodiversity of Colombia
  67. Portal:Biomes
  68. Portal:Blue Origin
  69. Portal:Board games
  70. Portal:Boca Raton, Florida
  71. Portal:Bruno Mars
  72. Portal:Budapest Metro
  73. Portal:Buffalo, New York
  74. Portal:Bullying
  75. Portal:Busan Metro
  76. Portal:Buteoninae
  77. Portal:C++
  78. Portal:Cairo Metro
  79. Portal:Canadian art
  80. Portal:Character encoding
  81. Portal:Character encodings
  82. Portal:Charity
  83. Portal:Chemical engineering
  84. Portal:Chemical synthesis
  85. Portal:Chickenpox
  86. Portal:Chili peppers
  87. Portal:Chongqing Rail Transit
  88. Portal:Climate
  89. Portal:Communication
  90. Portal:Community of Madrid
  91. Portal:Computer files
  92. Portal:Concurrent computing
  93. Portal:Conservation biology
  94. Portal:Containers
  95. Portal:Contract bridge
  96. Portal:Convicts in Australia
  97. Portal:Copenhagen Metro
  98. Portal:Crochet
  99. Portal:Cucurbita
  100. Portal:Culture of Albania
  101. Portal:Culture of Argentina
  102. Portal:Culture of Armenia
  103. Portal:Culture of Assam
  104. Portal:Culture of Australia
  105. Portal:Culture of Austria
  106. Portal:Culture of Azerbaijan
  107. Portal:Culture of Bahrain
  108. Portal:Culture of Bangladesh
  109. Portal:Culture of Belarus
  110. Portal:Culture of Belgium
  111. Portal:Culture of Belize
  112. Portal:Culture of Bengal
  113. Portal:Culture of Cornwall
  114. Portal:Culture of Djibouti
  115. Portal:Culture of England
  116. Portal:Culture of Kerala
  117. Portal:Culture of Somalia
  118. Portal:Culture of West Bengal
  119. Portal:Curitiba
  120. Portal:Databases
  121. Portal:Data mining
  122. Portal:Data storage
  123. Portal:Deforestation and desertification
  124. Portal:Delta Air Lines
  125. Portal:Demi Lovato
  126. Portal:Demography
  127. Portal:Desalination
  128. Portal:Development of the human body
  129. Portal:Disease
  130. Portal:Disney Princess
  131. Portal:Dmitri Mendeleev
  132. Portal:Dublin
  133. Portal:DVD
  134. Portal:Eating
  135. Portal:Electronic components
  136. Portal:Elizabeth Cady Stanton
  137. Portal:Elizabeth I of England
  138. Portal:Ellie Goulding
  139. Portal:Embedded systems
  140. Portal:Embroidery
  141. Portal:Emmeline Pankhurst
  142. Portal:Emmy Awards
  143. Portal:Enugu
  144. Portal:Euro
  145. Portal:Eurostar
  146. Portal:Even-toed ungulates
  147. Portal:Executables
  148. Portal:Experimental aircraft
  149. Portal:Falkland Islands
  150. Portal:Fibers
  151. Portal:File sharing
  152. Portal:File systems
  153. Portal:Frankfurt
  154. Portal:Gaels
  155. Portal:Galicia (Spain)
  156. Portal:Gardens
  157. Portal:Gemstones
  158. Portal:Geotechnical engineering
  159. Portal:Geothermal power
  160. Portal:Glass
  161. Portal:Glass production
  162. Portal:GLONASS
  163. Portal:Guangzhou Metro
  164. Portal:Habitats
  165. Portal:Hall of Fame for Great Americans
  166. Portal:Helicopters
  167. Portal:Helmets
  168. Portal:Helsinki
  169. Portal:Hilary Duff
  170. Portal:Hiroshima
  171. Portal:History of computing
  172. Portal:Honey bees
  173. Portal:Honolulu County, Hawaii
  174. Portal:Hubble Space Telescope
  175. Portal:Hummingbirds
  176. Portal:HVAC
  177. Portal:Hymenoptera
  178. Portal:Intermodal containers
  179. Portal:International Council for Science
  180. Portal:International Space Station
  181. Portal:Interstate Highway System
  182. Portal:IOS
  183. Portal:IPv6
  184. Portal:Ithaca, New York
  185. Portal:James Webb Space Telescope
  186. Portal:Jammu and Kashmir
  187. Portal:JavaScript
  188. Portal:Jay-Z
  189. Portal:John Major
  190. Portal:Kabul
  191. Portal:KFC
  192. Portal:Khuzestan Province
  193. Portal:Launch vehicles
  194. Portal:Laundry
  195. Portal:Lenovo
  196. Portal:Leo Tolstoy
  197. Portal:Library classification systems
  198. Portal:Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
  199. Portal:Longevity
  200. Portal:Los Angeles International Airport
  201. Portal:Love
  202. Portal:Lyra (constellation)
  203. Portal:MacOS
  204. Portal:Macroeconomics
  205. Portal:Madrid
  206. Portal:Mail
  207. Portal:Malaria
  208. Portal:Malware
  209. Portal:Manhattan Project
  210. Portal:Mao Zedong
  211. Portal:Marrakesh
  212. Portal:Mathematics and art
  213. Portal:Mattel
  214. Portal:Mayotte
  215. Portal:Media culture
  216. Portal:Media manipulation
  217. Portal:Medications
  218. Portal:Men
  219. Portal:Metalworking
  220. Portal:Metropolitan Transportation Authority
  221. Portal:Michael Faraday
  222. Portal:Microeconomics
  223. Portal:Milan Metro
  224. Portal:Military aircraft
  225. Portal:Military deception
  226. Portal:Mixed reality
  227. Portal:Modern history
  228. Portal:Mood disorders
  229. Portal:Morpeth, Northumberland
  230. Portal:Moscow Metro
  231. Portal:MPEG
  232. Portal:MTR
  233. Portal:Multihulls
  234. Portal:Museums
  235. Portal:Music of Scotland
  236. Portal:NASA
  237. Portal:National anthems
  238. Portal:Natural language processing
  239. Portal:Neoplasms
  240. Portal:New Delhi
  241. Portal:Northern Cyprus
  242. Portal:Nuclear weapons
  243. Portal:Nuts
  244. Portal:Odd-toed ungulates
  245. Portal:Ores
  246. Portal:Organ transplantation
  247. Portal:Orthoptera
  248. Portal:Oslo
  249. Portal:Palmyra
  250. Portal:Pan-Africanism
  251. Portal:Panasonic
  252. Portal:Parrots
  253. Portal:Parties
  254. Portal:Peanuts
  255. Portal:Peanuts (comic strip)
  256. Portal:Perl
  257. Portal:Permaculture
  258. Portal:Pesticides
  259. Portal:Physical fitness
  260. Portal:Physiology
  261. Portal:Plant nutrition
  262. Portal:Porcelain
  263. Portal:Ports and harbors
  264. Portal:Pre-Columbian era
  265. Portal:Prehistoric Scotland
  266. Portal:Private transport
  267. Portal:Programming languages
  268. Portal:Programming paradigms
  269. Portal:Prostitution
  270. Portal:Protests
  271. Portal:Psychological manipulation
  272. Portal:P. T. Barnum
  273. Portal:Public housing in the United Kingdom
  274. Portal:Public transport in Helsinki
  275. Portal:Public transport in Istanbul
  276. Portal:Pueblos
  277. Portal:Pune
  278. Portal:Quilting
  279. Portal:Racing
  280. Portal:Radiation
  281. Portal:RAID
  282. Portal:Rail transport in Argentina
  283. Portal:Rail transport in Finland
  284. Portal:Rail transport in Germany
  285. Portal:Rail transport in Israel
  286. Portal:Rail transport in Malaysia
  287. Portal:Rail transport in Norway
  288. Portal:Rail transport in Singapore
  289. Portal:Rail transport in Spain
  290. Portal:Rail transport in Sri Lanka
  291. Portal:Rail transport in Thailand
  292. Portal:Rail transport in the United Arab Emirates
  293. Portal:Realism (arts)
  294. Portal:Recycling
  295. Portal:Religion in China
  296. Portal:Religion in Egypt
  297. Portal:Religion in Iran
  298. Portal:Religion in Israel
  299. Portal:Religion in Mexico
  300. Portal:Religion in Mozambique
  301. Portal:Religion in Myanmar
  302. Portal:Religion in Norway
  303. Portal:Religion in Pakistan
  304. Portal:Religion in Poland
  305. Portal:Religion in Portugal
  306. Portal:Religion in Romania
  307. Portal:Religion in Scotland
  308. Portal:Religion in South Africa
  309. Portal:Religion in Sweden
  310. Portal:Religion in Thailand
  311. Portal:Religion in Turkey
  312. Portal:Religion in Zimbabwe
  313. Portal:Republic of Artsakh
  314. Portal:Revolutions
  315. Portal:Reykjavík
  316. Portal:Rhythm
  317. Portal:Rocket engines
  318. Portal:Rodenticides
  319. Portal:Roofs
  320. Portal:Roscosmos
  321. Portal:Roses
  322. Portal:Rowing
  323. Portal:RuPaul
  324. Portal:Saint Helena
  325. Portal:Sales
  326. Portal:San Juan, Puerto Rico
  327. Portal:San Marino
  328. Portal:São Paulo
  329. Portal:Scottish art
  330. Portal:Scottish clans
  331. Portal:Sex work
  332. Portal:Shinkansen
  333. Portal:Shipbuilding
  334. Portal:Silk
  335. Portal:Simple living
  336. Portal:SkyTrain (Vancouver)
  337. Portal:South Ossetia
  338. Portal:Space Shuttles
  339. Portal:SpaceX
  340. Portal:Spike Lee
  341. Portal:SQL
  342. Portal:Starbucks
  343. Portal:Statue of Liberty
  344. Portal:Stem cells
  345. Portal:Stonehenge
  346. Portal:Street newspapers
  347. Portal:Stuttgart
  348. Portal:Submarines
  349. Portal:Suffragettes
  350. Portal:Susan B. Anthony
  351. Portal:Systems
  352. Portal:Tallinn
  353. Portal:Tashkent
  354. Portal:Telephony
  355. Portal:Tents
  356. Portal:Tigers
  357. Portal:Tobacco
  358. Portal:Tomatoes
  359. Portal:Toronto Transit Commission
  360. Portal:Tortoises
  361. Portal:Transnistria
  362. Portal:Transport in Afghanistan
  363. Portal:Transport in Barcelona
  364. Portal:Transport in Belgium
  365. Portal:Transport in Bristol
  366. Portal:Transport in Bucharest
  367. Portal:Transport in Buckinghamshire
  368. Portal:Transport in Cardiff
  369. Portal:Transport in Chennai
  370. Portal:Transport in China
  371. Portal:Transport in Edinburgh
  372. Portal:Transport in Glasgow
  373. Portal:Transport in Guyana
  374. Portal:Transport in Hong Kong
  375. Portal:Transport in India
  376. Portal:Transport in Ireland
  377. Portal:Transport in Israel
  378. Portal:Transport in Kiev
  379. Portal:Transport in London
  380. Portal:Transport in Somerset
  381. Portal:Transport in Tamil Nadu
  382. Portal:Transport in Tiruchirappalli
  383. Portal:Transport in Vietnam
  384. Portal:Transport in Warsaw
  385. Portal:Tuberculosis
  386. Portal:Twitter
  387. Portal:Umayyad Caliphate
  388. Portal:United States Armed Forces
  389. Portal:United States Congress
  390. Portal:USB
  391. Portal:Valencian Community
  392. Portal:Vijayawada
  393. Portal:Voting
  394. Portal:Washington Metro
  395. Portal:Waterfalls
  396. Portal:Weapons
  397. Portal:Weaving
  398. Portal:Web browsers
  399. Portal:Websites
  400. Portal:Wendy's
  401. Portal:Women's prisons in the United States
  402. Portal:Woodworking
  403. Portal:World Chess Championships
  404. Portal:Yangtze

Keep 'em coming!

[edit]

And I'll see you next issue.

Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   08:12, 26 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #025, 30 Dec 2018

[edit]

We can now crop the tops of pics to make banners

[edit]

Before, we could only cut off the bottom of pics.

User:FR30799386 has pulled it off, and made the upgrade to {{Portal image banner}}...

So, this:

Niagara falls, from the Canadian side
Niagara falls, from the Canadian side

Becomes this:

Niagara falls, from the Canadian side
Niagara falls, from the Canadian side

Here's the code for the above banner:

{{Portal image banner|File:American Falls from Canadian side in winter.jpg | [[Niagara falls]], from the Canadian side |maxheight=175px |overflow=Hidden|croptop=10}}

To see it employed in a portal, check out Portal:Niagara Falls.

About that end of the year goal...

[edit]

We were racing against time to create 5,000 portals by the end of the year (just for the heck of it).

We made it. We've passed the 5,000 portals mark, with time to spare!

And the 5,000th portal is Portal:Major League Baseball, by Happypillsjr.

Congratulations!

What's next?

[edit]

The 10,000th portal mark. But...

...there is plenty else to do in addition to building new portals:

  1. The new portals need to be linked to from the encyclopedia.
  2. On those portals about subjects that are not typically capitalized, the search parameters need to be refined/expanded, to maximize the chances of Did you know and In the news items being found and displayed.
  3. A Recognized content section needs to be added to each portal that has a corresponding WikiProject.
  4. Addition of a category on those portals that lack a subject category.
  5. Implement the portal category system, adding the appropriate categories to each portal.
  6. Upgrade, and complete (as per the tasks enumerated above), the old-style portals that are not regularly maintained, which have not been converted yet (about 1,100 of them).
  7. Find and fix the remaining bugs in the underlying lua modules.
  8. Build portal tools (scripts) to assist in the creation, development, and maintenance of portals.
  9. Build a script to help build navbox footer templates, via the harvesting of categories, amongst other methods.
  10. Update the portal building instructions.
  11. Update the portal guideline.
  12. Refine the programming of the portals to reduce their load time.
  13. Design and develop the next generation of portals and portal components.

And whatever else you can dream up.

But most of all, have a...

Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   12:38, 30 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

2019

[edit]


Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht

Happy 2019

begin it with music and memories

Not too late, I hope ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:53, 13 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #026, 20 Jan 2019

[edit]

Well, here's the first issue of the new year. Enjoy...

New participants

[edit]

A hearty welcome to new arrivals to the portals department:

Harvesting categories tool prototype

[edit]

DannyS712 has created a user script prototype, User:DannyS712/Cat links, that can pull members from a category, a functionality we've been after since the project's revamp last Spring. Now, it's a matter of applying this technique to scripts that will place the items where needed, such as with a section starter script and/or portal builder script.

New portals since last issue

[edit]
  1. Academic publishing
  2. Accounting
  3. Adam and Eve
  4. African Great Lakes
  5. Al Green
  6. Alternative views
  7. America's Next Top Model
  8. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
  9. Angles
  10. Applied mathematics
  11. Arabic
  12. Areas of mathematics
  13. Atlanta metropolitan area
  14. Atlantic Ocean
  15. Big Bash League
  16. Bijelo Dugme
  17. Bill Cosby
  18. Boats
  19. Bombardier Aerospace
  20. Bruce Willis
  21. Canadian law
  22. Cannons
  23. Caribbean American
  24. Chinese American
  25. Chinese Canadians
  26. Chinese gardens
  27. Chris Brown
  28. City
  29. Common law
  30. Criminal law
  31. Czechoslovakia
  32. Data
  33. Data warehouses
  34. DC Comics
  35. Deities
  36. DeKalb County
  37. Destiny's Child
  38. Differential equations
  39. Discrete geometry
  40. East Asia
  41. Economy of China
  42. Economy of India
  43. Economy of Malaysia
  44. Economy of the United Kingdom
  45. Ellen DeGeneres
  46. Email clients
  47. E
  48. Equations
  49. European Americans
  50. Filipino Americans
  51. Football in Algeria
  52. Fox Corporation
  53. Fractions and ratios
  54. Functional analysis
  55. Game theory
  56. Girlguiding
  57. Gloucestershire
  58. Grazhdanskaya Oborona
  59. Greek diaspora
  60. Habsburg Monarchy
  61. Hilbert's problems
  62. Hoodoo Gurus
  63. Hyundai Motor Company
  64. Iggy Azalea
  65. Indian Ocean
  66. Infinity
  67. Information theory
  68. Integrals
  69. Irish diaspora
  70. Irrational numbers
  71. Italian diaspora
  72. Japanese diaspora
  73. J. Cole
  74. Jennifer Lopez
  75. Jessica Lange
  76. John Fogerty
  77. Kehlani
  78. Kiev
  79. K. Michelle
  80. Knot theory
  81. Kool & the Gang
  82. Lakes in China
  83. Lake Van
  84. Leonardo DiCaprio
  85. Limerick
  86. Literary composition
  87. Long Island Rail Road
  88. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
  89. Lukas Graham
  90. Mathematical optimization
  91. Matt Damon
  92. Merchant ships
  93. Metallic means
  94. Metro-North Railroad
  95. Microsoft Windows
  96. Military of India
  97. Miss America
  98. Modulation
  99. Moon landing
  100. Mozilla
  101. Music of Ireland
  102. Narratives
  103. Nashville
  104. Nassau County
  105. Norfolk
  106. Nottinghamshire
  107. One Life to Live
  108. Overseas Chinese
  109. Percentages
  110. Probability distributions
  111. Public Broadcasting Service
  112. Quezon City
  113. Raven-Symoné
  114. R. Kelly
  115. Rodeo
  116. RuneScape
  117. Sarah Silverman
  118. Saturn rockets
  119. Science and technology
  120. Sesame Street
  121. Seth MacFarlane
  122. Ships
  123. Shipwrecks
  124. Shropshire
  125. Spaceports
  126. Space suits
  127. Spanish diaspora
  128. Steam locomotives
  129. Suffolk
  130. Suzuki
  131. Tanks
  132. Tensors
  133. The CW
  134. Thomas Aquinas
  135. T.I.
  136. TISM
  137. Tom Cruise
  138. Toni Braxton
  139. Toyota
  140. Transportation in the Philippines
  141. True Blood
  142. Violin
  143. Virgin Group
  144. Vladimir Putin
  145. Volkswagen
  146. Volume
  147. Warner Bros.
  148. Warships
  149. Warwickshire
  150. Washington D.C.
  151. [[Portal:Watercraft|
  152. Web syndication
  153. Wikis
  154. Witchcraft
  155. Women's sports
  156. World of Warcraft

What else is going on

[edit]

There have been some discussions at Wikipedia talk:Portal guidelines.

DreamyJazz is working on a bot to place links to portals on root articles, category pages, and navigation footer templates.

Portal bugs are getting dealt with soon after they are reported.

Lots of wikignome activity (using Hotcat, etc.).

Keep up the good work.    — The Transhumanist   09:34, 20 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #027, 28 Jan 2019

[edit]

Portal styles

[edit]

For a visually intensive portal, see Portal:Hummingbirds.

If you find any other portals that stand out, please send me the links so I can include them in the next issue. Thank you.

Conversion continues

[edit]

There are about 1100 portals left in the old style, with subpages and static excerpts. As those are very labor intensive to maintain (because their maintenance is manual), all those except the ones with active maintainers (about 100) are slated for upgrade = approximately 1000. We started with 1500, and so over a quarter of them have been processed so far. That's good, but at this rate, conversion will take another 3 years. So, some automation (AWB?) is in order. We just need to keep at it, and push down on the gas pedal a bit harder.

You can find the old-style portals with an insource search of "box portal skeleton".

Flagship portals: the portals on the Main Page

[edit]

Speaking of upgrades...

The following portals are listed in the header at the top of Wikipedia's Main Page, and get far more traffic than all other portals:

  1. Portal:Arts
  2. Portal:Biography
  3. Portal:Geography
  4. Portal:History
  5. Portal:Mathematics
  6. Portal:Science
  7. Portal:Society
  8. Portal:Technology

Of those, all but one have been revamped to an automated self-updating single-page design.

The remaining one, Portal:Mathematics has manual maintainers, and has been partially upgraded.

As these are our flagship fleet, they need to be kept in top-notch condition.

Check 'em out, and improve them if you can.

And be sure they are on your watchlist.

New portals since last issue

[edit]

Keep 'em coming!

Deorphanizing the new portals

[edit]

As you know, thousands of the new portals are orphans, that is, having no links to them from article space. For all practical purposes, that means they are not part of the encyclopedia yet, and readers will be unlikely to find them.

What is needed are links to these portals from the See also sections of the corresponding root articles.

Dreamy Jazz to the rescue...

Dreamy Jazz has created a bot to place the corresponding category link to the end of each portal (if it is missing), and place a link to each portal in the See also section of the corresponding root articles.

That bot, named User:Dreamy Jazz Bot, is currently in its trial period performing the above described edits!

To take a look at the edits it has made so far, see Special:Contributions/Dreamy_Jazz_Bot.

It shouldn't be long before the bot is processing the entire set of new portals.

Good news indeed.

Way to go, Dreamy Jazz!

And, that's a wrap

[edit]

That's all I have to report this time around.

No doubt there will be more to tell soon.

Until then,    — The Transhumanist   13:16, 28 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

DYK for Chiquimula Department

[edit]

On 2 February 2019, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Chiquimula Department, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that the Chiquimula Department of Guatemala contains the Black Christ of Esquipulas, one of the most important centres for religious pilgrimage in Central America? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Chiquimula Department. You are welcome to check how many page hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, Chiquimula Department), and it may be added to the statistics page if the total is over 5,000. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

— Maile (talk) 00:02, 2 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #028, 04 Feb 2019

[edit]

Here's a quicky status report:

Old-style portals: 1,018
Single-page portals: 4,367
Total portals: 5,385

But of course, there has been more going on than just that...

Dreamy Jazz Bot is up and running!

[edit]

Dreamy Jazz Bot has been approved and is now up and running.

What it does is places missing links to orphaned portals. It places a link in the See also section of the corresponding root article, and it puts one at the top of the corresponding category page.

We have thousands of new portals that have yet to be added to the encyclopedia proper, just waiting to go live.

When they do go live, over the coming days or weeks, due to Dreamy Jazz Bot, it will be like an explosion of new portals on the scene. We should expect an increase in awareness and interest in the portals project. Perhaps even new participants.

Get ready...

Get set...

Go!

Another sockpuppet infiltrator has been discovered

[edit]

User:Emoteplump, a recent contributor to the portals project, was discovered to be a sockpuppet account of an indefinitely blocked user.

When that happens, admins endeavor to eradicate everything the editor contributed. This aftermath has left a wake of destruction throughout the portals department, again.

The following portals which have been speedy deleted, are in the process of being re-created. Please feel free to help to turn these blue again:

And the corresponding talk pages:

New portals since the last issue

[edit]

Keep up the great work

[edit]

Until next time,    — The Transhumanist   09:05, 4 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #029, 13 Feb 2019

[edit]

Where we are at:

Single-page portals: 4,704
Total portals: 5,705

The Ref desks survived the proposal to shut them down

[edit]

You might be familiar with the Ref desks, by their link on every new portal. They are a place you can go to ask volunteers almost any knowledge-related question, and have been a feature of Wikipedia since August of 2005 (or perhaps earlier). They were linked to from portals in an effort to improve their visibility, and to provide a bridge from the encyclopedia proper to project space (the Wikipedia community).

Well, somebody proposed that we get rid of them, and the community decided that that was not going to happen. Thank you for defending the Ref desks!

Here's a link to the dramatic discussion:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Indefinitely_semiprotecting_the_refdesk#Proposal_II:_Shut_down_the_Ref_Desks

The cleanup after sockpuppet Emoteplump continues...

[edit]

The wake of disruption left by Emoteplump and the admins who reverted many (but not all) of his/her edits is still undergoing cleanup. We could use all the help we can get on this task...

Almost all of the speedy deleted portals have been rebuilt from scratch.

For the portals he/she restarted (many of which were done mistakenly, overwriting restarts and further development that had already been done), and/or tagged as the maintainer, see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Emoteplump&oldid=881568794#Additional_Portals_under_my_watch

10,000 portals, here we come...

[edit]

We're at 5,705 portals and counting.

New portals since issue #28

[edit]
  1. Portal:Abitibi-Témiscamingue
  2. Portal:Ahold Delhaize
  3. Portal:AKB48
  4. Portal:Åland Islands
  5. Portal:Alaska Airlines
  6. Portal:Albanian Civil War
  7. Portal:Albertsons
  8. Portal:Alevism
  9. Portal:All in the Family
  10. Portal:Alternative metal
  11. Portal:Ambient music
  12. Portal:Ancient Near East mythology
  13. Portal:Ancient Roman religion
  14. Portal:Andrew Cuomo
  15. Portal:Anti-consumerism
  16. Portal:Antimatter
  17. Portal:Arameans
  18. Portal:Arianism
  19. Portal:Australian Crawl
  20. Portal:Bali
  21. Portal:Banten
  22. Portal:Bengkulu
  23. Portal:Black Lives Matter
  24. Portal:Bluegrass music
  25. Portal:Bonnie Tyler
  26. Portal:Breakbeat
  27. Portal:Calypso music
  28. Portal:Cambridgeshire
  29. Portal:Camila Cabello
  30. Portal:Capcom
  31. Portal:Capsicum
  32. Portal:Celtic music
  33. Portal:Central American music
  34. Portal:Central Java
  35. Portal:Central Kalimantan
  36. Portal:Central Sulawesi
  37. Portal:Chanel
  38. Portal:Cinema of Australia
  39. Portal:Cognitive psychology
  40. Portal:Communication studies
  41. Portal:Conservatism in the United States
  42. Portal:Cortina d'Ampezzo
  43. Portal:Cross-Strait relations
  44. Portal:Cryptozoology
  45. Portal:Danish folk music
  46. Portal:Disco
  47. Portal:Dyslexia
  48. Portal:East Java
  49. Portal:East Kalimantan
  50. Portal:East Nusa Tenggara
  51. Portal:Easy listening
  52. Portal:Ed Sheeran
  53. Portal:Ehime
  54. Portal:Electricity
  55. Portal:Electronica
  56. Portal:Electronic rock
  57. Portal:English folk music
  58. Portal:Environmental technology
  59. Portal:Experimental music
  60. Portal:Extreme metal
  61. Portal:Fall Out Boy
  62. Portal:Finnish Defence Forces
  63. Portal:Finnish folk music
  64. Portal:Football in Croatia
  65. Portal:Football in Jordan
  66. Portal:Funk
  67. Portal:Gamelan
  68. Portal:General Mills
  69. Portal:Germanic languages
  70. Portal:German language
  71. Portal:Government of Canada
  72. Portal:Government of Hong Kong
  73. Portal:Government of Indonesia
  74. Portal:Government of Ireland
  75. Portal:Government of Malaysia
  76. Portal:Government of Russia
  77. Portal:Government of Singapore
  78. Portal:Government of Spain
  79. Portal:Government of Thailand
  80. Portal:Grapes
  81. Portal:Green Party of the United States
  82. Portal:Grinspoon
  83. Portal:Gwen Stefani
  84. Portal:Hardcore punk
  85. Portal:Hardcore techno
  86. Portal:Haskell (programming language)
  87. Portal:History of art
  88. Portal:History of North America
  89. Portal:History of Thailand
  90. Portal:Hollywood
  91. Portal:Hotels
  92. Portal:House music
  93. Portal:Hungarian folk music
  94. Portal:Hunters & Collectors
  95. Portal:Hydrogen
  96. Portal:Icelandic folk music
  97. Portal:Indigenous music of North America
  98. Portal:Insomniac Games
  99. Portal:International field hockey
  100. Portal:International trade
  101. Portal:Iranian music
  102. Portal:Islamophobia
  103. Portal:Jambi
  104. Portal:Jet engines
  105. Portal:Jordin Sparks
  106. Portal:Julius Caesar
  107. Portal:Kannur
  108. Portal:Kansas City Spurs
  109. Portal:Kelly Rowland
  110. Portal:Kirby
  111. Portal:Kraft Heinz
  112. Portal:Krasnoyarsk Krai
  113. Portal:Kroger
  114. Portal:Kuala Lumpur
  115. Portal:Lampung
  116. Portal:Larry Kramer
  117. Portal:LeBron James
  118. Portal:Lehigh Valley
  119. Portal:Leicestershire
  120. Portal:Liège
  121. Portal:Liguria
  122. Portal:Los Angeles Aztecs
  123. Portal:Los Angeles Wolves
  124. Portal:Macedonian language
  125. Portal:Magnetism
  126. Portal:Maithripala Sirisena
  127. Portal:Maluku (province)
  128. Portal:Mangoes
  129. Portal:Marco Pierre White
  130. Portal:McLaren
  131. Portal:Menstrual cycle
  132. Portal:Metalcore
  133. Portal:Miami FC
  134. Portal:Microblogging
  135. Portal:Microtonal music
  136. Portal:Midnight Oil
  137. Portal:Minnesota Kicks
  138. Portal:Mission: Impossible
  139. Portal:Modernism (music)
  140. Portal:Moheener Ghoraguli
  141. Portal:Mondelez International
  142. Portal:Music genres
  143. Portal:Music of Bangladesh
  144. Portal:Music of India
  145. Portal:Music of Italy
  146. Portal:Music of Japan
  147. Portal:Music of Korea
  148. Portal:Music of Latin America
  149. Portal:Music of Micronesia
  150. Portal:Music of North Africa
  151. Portal:Music of Pakistan
  152. Portal:Music of Serbia
  153. Portal:Music of the Philippines
  154. Portal:Music of the United States
  155. Portal:Mutations
  156. Portal:National Rugby League
  157. Portal:Neoclassicism (music)
  158. Portal:Netball
  159. Portal:New York City Fire Department
  160. Portal:Nick Jr.
  161. Portal:Nobility
  162. Portal:Nordic countries
  163. Portal:North Africa
  164. Portal:North Kalimantan
  165. Portal:North Maluku
  166. Portal:North Pole
  167. Portal:North Queensland
  168. Portal:North Sulawesi
  169. Portal:North Sumatra
  170. Portal:Norwegian folk music
  171. Portal:Papua (province)
  172. Portal:Peaches
  173. Portal:Politics of Abkhazia
  174. Portal:Politics of Afghanistan
  175. Portal:Politics of Albania
  176. Portal:Politics of Algeria
  177. Portal:Politics of Andorra
  178. Portal:Politics of Angola
  179. Portal:Politics of Antigua and Barbuda
  180. Portal:Politics of Argentina
  181. Portal:Politics of Artsakh
  182. Portal:Politics of Bahrain
  183. Portal:Politics of Bangladesh
  184. Portal:Politics of Bavaria
  185. Portal:Politics of Belarus
  186. Portal:Politics of Belgium
  187. Portal:Politics of Belize
  188. Portal:Politics of Benin
  189. Portal:Politics of Bhutan
  190. Portal:Politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina
  191. Portal:Politics of Botswana
  192. Portal:Politics of Brazil
  193. Portal:Politics of Brunei
  194. Portal:Politics of Bulgaria
  195. Portal:Politics of Burkina Faso
  196. Portal:Politics of Burundi
  197. Portal:Politics of Cambodia
  198. Portal:Politics of Cameroon
  199. Portal:Politics of China
  200. Portal:Politics of São Tomé and Príncipe
  201. Portal:Politics of South Sudan
  202. Portal:Politics of Sudan
  203. Portal:Politics of Tanzania
  204. Portal:Politics of the Republic of the Congo
  205. Portal:Politics of Togo
  206. Portal:Politics of Tunisia
  207. Portal:Politics of Uganda
  208. Portal:Pop rock
  209. Portal:Rap rock
  210. Portal:Ras Al Khaimah
  211. Portal:Riau
  212. Portal:Riau Islands
  213. Portal:Ricky Martin
  214. Portal:Royal Canadian Air Force
  215. Portal:Rutland
  216. Portal:Saxophones
  217. Portal:Semiotics
  218. Portal:Ska
  219. Portal:Soca music
  220. Portal:Soul music
  221. Portal:Sound sculptures
  222. Portal:Southeast Sulawesi
  223. Portal:South Kalimantan
  224. Portal:South Sulawesi
  225. Portal:South Sumatra
  226. Portal:Space: 1999
  227. Portal:Special Region of Yogyakarta
  228. Portal:Swedish folk music
  229. Portal:Tamil language
  230. Portal:Techno
  231. Portal:Terry Brooks
  232. Portal:The Living End
  233. Portal:Thrissur
  234. Portal:Trance music
  235. Portal:Tyrant flycatchers
  236. Portal:Veterinary medicine
  237. Portal:Wayanad
  238. Portal:Welsh folk music
  239. Portal:West Champaran district
  240. Portal:Western dress codes
  241. Portal:West Flanders
  242. Portal:West Java
  243. Portal:West Kalimantan
  244. Portal:West Nusa Tenggara
  245. Portal:West Papua (province)
  246. Portal:West Sulawesi
  247. Portal:West Sumatra
  248. Portal:Wildlife of India
  249. Portal:Wildlife of Nepal
  250. Portal:Windows 10
  251. Portal:Winter War
  252. Portal:Woodpeckers
  253. Portal:Worcestershire
  254. Portal:World economy
  255. Portal:World Ocean
  256. Portal:World Rally Championship
  257. Portal:World views
  258. Portal:XTC
  259. Portal:Yahoo!
  260. Portal:Yoruba people
  261. Portal:You Am I
  262. Portal:Young Wizards
  263. Portal:Yugoslavs

Prior to 2018, for the previous 14 years, portal creation was at about 80 portals per year on average. We did over 3 times that in just the past 9 days. At this rate, we'll hit the 10,000 portal mark in 5 months. But, I'm sure we can do it sooner than that.

What's next for portal pages?

[edit]

There are 5 drives for portal development:

  1. Create new portals
  2. Expand existing portals, such as with new sections like Recognized content
  3. Convert or restart old-style portals into automated single-page portals
  4. Link to new portals from the encyclopedia
  5. Pageless portals

Let's take a closer look at these...

1: Creating new portals

[edit]

Portal creation, for subjects that happen to have the necessary support structures already in place, is down to about a minute per portal. The creation part, which is automated, takes about 10 seconds. The other 50 seconds is taken up by manual activities, such as finding candidate subjects, inspecting generated portals, and selecting the portal creation template to be used according to the resources available. Tools are under development to automate these activities as much as possible, to pare portal creation time down even more. Ten seconds each is the goal.

Eventually, we are going to run out of navigation templates to base portals off of. Though there are still thousands to go. But, when they do run out, we'll need an easy way to create more. A nav footer creation script.

Meanwhile, other resources are being explored and developed, such as categories, and methods to harvest the links they contain.

2: Expanding existing portals

[edit]

The portal collection is growing, not only by the addition of new portals, but by further developing the ones we already have, by...

  • Improving and/or adding search parameters to better power the Did you know and In the news sections.
  • Adding more selected content sections, like Selected biographies.
  • Adding and maintaining Recognized content sections, via JL-Bot.
  • Adding pictures to the image slideshow.
  • Adding panoramic pics.
  • Categorizing portals.

More features will be added as we dream them up and design them. So, don't be shy, make a wish.

3: Converting old portals

[edit]

By far the hardest and most time-consuming task we have been working on is updating the old portals, the very reason we revamped this WikiProject in the first place.

There are two approaches here:

A) Restart a portal from scratch, using our automated tools. For basic no-frills portals, that works find. But, for more elaborate portals, as that tends to lose content and features, the following approach is being tried...
B) Upgrade a portal section by section, so little to nothing is lost in the process.

4: Linking to new portals

[edit]

Or "portal deorphanization"...

Dreamy Jazz Bot is purring along.

And a tool in the form of a script is under development for linking to portals at the time they are created, or shortly thereafter.

5...

[edit]

See below...

New WikiProject for the post-saved-portal phase of operations...

[edit]

Saved portals, are portals with a saved page.

What is the next stage in the evolutionary progression?

Quantum portals.

What are quantum portals?

Portals that come into existence when you click on the portal button, and which disappear when you leave the page.

Or, as Pbsouthwood put it:

...portals that exist only as a probability function (algorithm) until you collapse the wave form by observing through the portal button (run the script), and disappear again after use...

Introducing...

Wikipedia:WikiProject Quantum portals (see it's talk page).

Keep on keepin' on

[edit]

...'til next time,    — The Transhumanist   10:27, 14 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Precious anniversary

[edit]
Precious
Seven years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:06, 18 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes, Issue 32

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 32, January – February 2019

  • #1Lib1Ref
  • New and expanded partners
  • Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
  • Global branches update
  • Bytes in brief

French version of Books & Bytes is now available on meta!

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:30, 26 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #030, 17 Mar 2019

[edit]

Previous issue:

Single-page portals: 4,704
Total portals: 5,705

This issue:

Single-page portals: 4,562
Total portals: 5,578

The collection of portals has shrunk

[edit]

All Portals closed at WP:MfD during 2019

Grouped Nominations total 127 Portals:

  1. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/US County Portals Deleted 64 portals
  2. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Districts of India Portals Deleted 30 Portals
  3. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portals for Portland, Oregon neighborhoods Deleted 23 Portals
  4. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Allen Park, Michigan Deleted 6 Portals
  5. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Cryptocurrency Deleted 2 Portals
  6. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:North Pole Deleted 2 Portals

Individual Nominations:

  1. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Circles Deleted
  2. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Fruits Deleted
  3. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:E (mathematical constant) Deleted
  4. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Burger King Deleted
  5. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Cotingas Deleted
  6. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Prostitution in Canada Deleted
  7. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Agoura Hills, California Deleted
  8. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Urinary system Deleted
  9. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:You Am I Deleted
  10. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Cannabis (2nd nomination) Reverted to non-Automated version
  11. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Intermodal containers Deleted
  12. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Adventure travel Deleted
  13. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Adam Ant Deleted
  14. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Benito Juárez, Mexico City Deleted
  15. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Spaghetti Deleted
  16. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Wikiatlas Deleted
  17. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Greek alphabet Deleted
  18. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Deleted
  19. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Accounting Deleted G7
  20. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Lents, Portland, Oregon Deleted P2
  21. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Ankaran Deleted
  22. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Portal:Jiu-jitsu Deleted G8
  23. Portal:University of Nebraska Speedy Deleted P1/A10 exactly the same as Portal:University of Nebraska–Lincoln also created by the TTH

Related WikiProject:

  1. Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Quantum portals Demoted

(Attribution: Copied from Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Portal MfD Results)

WikiProject Quantum portals

[edit]

This was a spin-off from WikiProject Portals, for the purpose of developing zero-page portals (portals generated on-the-screen at the push of a button, with no stored pages).

It has been merged back into WikiProject Portals. In the MfD the vote was "demote". See Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Quantum portals.

Hiatus on mass creation of Portals

[edit]

At WP:VPR, mass creation of Portals using semi-automated tools has been put on hold until clearer community consensus is established.

See Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Hiatus on mass creation of Portals.

The Transhumanist banned from creating new portals for 3 months

[edit]

See Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Proposal 1: Interim Topic-Ban on New Portals.

Until next issue...

[edit]

Keep on keepin' on.    — The Transhumanist   10:25, 17 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A tag has been placed on Template:Navbox Spanish colonization of the Americas requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section T3 of the criteria for speedy deletion because it is an unused duplicate of another template, or a hard-coded instance of another template. After seven days, if it is still unused and the speedy deletion tag has not been removed, the template will be deleted.

If the template is not actually the same as the other template noted, please consider putting a note on the template's page explaining how this one is different so as to avoid any future mistakes (<noinclude>{{substituted}}</noinclude>).

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. Zackmann (Talk to me/What I been doing) 19:31, 18 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals update #031, 01 May 2019

[edit]

Back to the drawing board

[edit]

Implementation of the new portal design has been culled back almost completely, and the cull is still ongoing. The cull has also affected portals that existed before the development of the automated design.

Some of the reasons for the purge are:

  • Portals receive insufficient traffic, making it a waste of editor resources to maintain them, especially for narrow-scope or "micro" portals
  • The default {{bpsp}} portals are redundant with the corresponding articles, being based primarily on the corresponding navigation footer displayed on each of those articles, and therefore not worth separate pages to do so
  • They were mass created

Most of the deletions have been made without prejudice to recreation of curated portals, so that approval does not need to be sought at Deletion Review in those cases.

In addition to new portals being deleted, most of the portals that were converted to an automated design have been reverted.

Which puts us back to portals with manually selected content, that need to be maintained by hand, for the most part, for the time being, and back facing some of the same problems we had when we were at this crossroads before:

  • Manually maintained portals are not scalable (they are labor intensive, and there aren't very many editors available to maintain them)
  • The builders/maintainers tend to eventually abandon them
  • Untended handcrafted portals go stale and fall into disrepair over time

These and other concepts require further discussion. See you at WT:POG.

However, after the purge/reversion is completed, some of the single-page portals might be left, due to having acceptable characteristics (their design varied some). If so, then those could possibly be used as a model to convert and/or build more, after the discussions on portal creation and design guidelines have reached a community consensus on what is and is not acceptable for a portal.

See you at WT:POG.

Curation

[edit]

A major theme in the deletion discussions was the need for portals to be curated, that is, each one having a dedicated maintainer.

There are currently around 100 curated portals. Based on the predominant reasoning at MfD, it seems likely that all the other portals may be subject to deletion.

See you at WT:POG.

Traffic

[edit]

An observation and argument that arose again and again during the WP:ENDPORTALS RfC and the ongoing deletion drive of {{bpsp}} default portals, was that portals simply do not get much traffic. Typically, they get a tiny fraction of what the corresponding like-titled articles get.

And while this isn't generally considered a good rationale for creation or deletion of articles, portals are not articles, and portal critics insist that traffic is a key factor in the utility of portals.

The implication is that portals won't be seen much, so wouldn't it be better to develop pages that are?

And since such development isn't limited to editing, almost anything is possible. If we can't bring readers to portals, we could bring portal features, or even better features, to the readers (i.e., to articles)...

Some potential future directions of development

[edit]

Quantum portals?

[edit]

An approach that has received some brainstorming is "quantum portals", meaning portals generated on-the-fly and presented directly on the view screen without any saved portal pages. This could be done by script or as a MediaWiki program feature, but would initially be done by script. The main benefits of this is that it would be opt-in (only those who wanted it would install it), and the resultant generated pages wouldn't be saved, so that there wouldn't be anything to maintain except the script itself.

Non-portal integrated components

[edit]

Another approach would be to focus on implementing specific features independently, and provide them somewhere highly visible in a non-portal presentation context (that is, on a page that wasn't a portal that has lots of traffic, i.e., articles). Such as inserted directly into an article's HTML, as a pop-up there, or as a temporary page. There are scripts that use these approaches (providing unrelated features), and so these approaches have been proven to be feasible.

What kind of features could this be done with?

The various components of the automated portal design are transcluded excerpts, news, did you know, image slideshows, excerpt slideshows, and so on.

Some of the features, such as navigation footers and links to sister projects are already included on article pages. And some already have interface counterparts (such as image slideshows). Some of the rest may be able to be integrated directly via script, but may need further development before they are perfected. Fortunately, scripts are used on an opt-in basis, and therefore wouldn't affect readers-in-general and editors-at-large during the development process (except for those who wanted to be beta testers and installed the scripts).

The development of such scripts falls under the scope of the Javascript-WikiProject/Userscript-department, and will likely be listed on Wikipedia:User scripts/List when completed enough for beta-testing. Be sure to watchlist that page.

Where would that leave curated portals?

[edit]

Being curated. At least for the time being.

New encyclopedia program features will likely eventually render most portals obsolete. For example, the pop-up feature of MediaWiki provides much the same functionality as excerpts in portals already, and there is also a slideshow feature to view all the images on the current page (just click on any image, and that activates the slideshow). Future features could also overlap portal features, until there is nothing that portals provide that isn't provided elsewhere or as part of Wikipedia's interface.

But, that may be a ways off. Perhaps months or years. It depends on how rapidly programmers develop them.

Keep on keepin' on

[edit]

The features of Wikipedia and its articles will continue to evolve, even if Portals go by the wayside. Most, if not all of portals' functionality, or functions very similar, will likely be made available in some form or other.

And who knows what else?

No worries.

Until next issue...    — The Transhumanist   01:26, 2 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes, Issue 33

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 33, March – April 2019

  • #1Lib1Ref
  • Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
  • Global branches update
  • Bytes in brief

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:41, 21 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Spot check request for a FAC

[edit]

Hello Simon! If you have the time, would you be willing to spot Amarte Es un Placer (album) for my current FAC nomination? A good amount of the sources in the article are written in Spanish so I would need a spot checker that can read and verify sources in Spanish. Thanks. Erick (talk) 16:43, 30 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Magiciandude: - Hi Eric, sorry for the late reply, I will see if I can find time to look at this tomorrow. Best regards, Simon Burchell (talk) 12:51, 10 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Simon Burchell: Hey Simon, I re-nominated the article again after the last FAC failed due to lack of activity. Erick (talk) 17:03, 30 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
[edit]

A discussion has started about wrapper templates of {{Link language}}. You may be interested in participating because you participated in a related previous discussion. Retro (talk | contribs) 03:12, 10 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes Issue 34, May – June 2019

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 34, May – June 2019

  • Partnerships
  • #1Lib1Ref
  • Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
  • Global branches update
  • Bytes in brief

French version of Books & Bytes is now available on meta!
Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:21, 12 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 35, July – August 2019

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 35, July – August 2019

  • Wikimania
  • We're building something great, but..
  • Wikimedia and Libraries User Group update
  • A Wikibrarian's story
  • Bytes in brief

Read the full newsletter

On behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:58, 27 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2019 election voter message

[edit]
Hello! Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 on Monday, 2 December 2019. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2019 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:08, 19 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 36

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 36, September – October 2019

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:21, 21 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Peace Dove

[edit]
Peace is a state of balance and understanding in yourself and between others, where respect is gained by the acceptance of differences, tolerance persists, conflicts are resolved through dialog, peoples rights are respected and their voices are heard, and everyone is at their highest point of serenity without social tension. Happy Holidays to you and yours. ―Buster7  17:53, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Books & Bytes – Issue 37

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 37, November – December 2019

Read the full newsletter

On behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:10, 1 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Great Britain/Ireland Destubathon

[edit]

Hi. The Wikipedia:The Great Britain/Ireland Destubathon is planned for March 2020, a contest/editathon to eliminate as many stubs as possible from all 134 counties. Amazon vouchers/book prizes are planned for most articles destubbed from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and Northern Ireland and whoever destubs articles from the most counties out of the 134. Sign up on page if interested in participating, hope this will prove to be good fun and productive, we have over 44,000 stubs!♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:19, 2 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Precious anniversary

[edit]
Precious
Eight years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:48, 16 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello there. This is an invitation to join the 50,000 Destubbing Challenge Focus of the Week. £250 (c. $310) is being given away in May, June and July with £20 worth of prizes to give away every week for most articles destubbed. Each week there is a different region of focus, including weeks dedicated entirely to the Caribbean, one to Brazil, and another to Central America, though half the prize will still be rewarded for articles on any subject. There's a potential £120 to be won in total for destubbing on any subject or region of your choice. Sign up if you want to contribute at least one of the weeks or support the idea! † Encyclopædius 12:16, 28 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Issue 38, January – April 2020

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 38, January – April 2020

  • New partnership
  • Global roundup

Read the full newsletter

On behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --15:58, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

Books & Bytes – Issue 39, May – June 2020

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 39, May – June 2020

  • Library Card Platform
  • New partnerships
    • ProQuest
    • Springer Nature
    • BioOne
    • CEEOL
    • IWA Publishing
    • ICE Publishing
  • Bytes in brief

Read the full newsletter

On behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:13, 11 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Shute House Gardens

[edit]

Hi, I don’t think our paths have crossed before. I recently started an article, Shute House, Donhead St Mary, which I’m hoping may be of interest. I’m trying to locate some images of the Jellicoe gardens, much the most important feature of Shute House. Commons and Geograph draw blanks, but another editor thinks you may have uploaded some photos to Pinterest. If they’re right, I wonder if you would be willing to load them to Commons so that they could be used to illustrate the article. Many thanks in anticipation. KJP1 (talk) 21:28, 6 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @KJP1: - I actually don't use Pinterest, although I perhaps have in the past. I hiked past Shute House about 7 years ago, but did not enter the grounds. I think the only photo I have of it is File:Shute House, Donhead St Mary.jpg, showing the house itself - I see it is already used in the article, and I don't have more. Sorry I can't be of more help. Best regards, Simon Burchell (talk) 08:34, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]
No problem at all, and thanks for taking a look. KJP1 (talk) 08:54, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 40

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 40, July – August 2020

  • New partnerships
    • Al Manhal
    • Ancestry
    • RILM
  • #1Lib1Ref May 2020 report
  • AfLIA hires a Wikipedian-in-Residence

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --10:15, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 40

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 40, July – August 2020

  • New partnerships
    • Al Manhal
    • Ancestry
    • RILM
  • #1Lib1Ref May 2020 report
  • AfLIA hires a Wikipedian-in-Residence

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --14:26, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 41

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 41, September – October 2020

  • New partnership: Taxmann
  • WikiCite
  • 1Lib1Ref 2021

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --10:48, 18 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message

[edit]
Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2020 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:29, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago

[edit]
Awesome
Ten years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:49, 28 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes - Issue 42

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 42, November – December 2020

  • New EBSCO collections now available
  • 1Lib1Ref 2021 underway
  • Library Card input requested
  • Libraries love Wikimedia, too!

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --14:00, 25 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Precious anniversary

[edit]
Precious
Nine years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:41, 16 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 42

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 42, January – February 2021

  • New partnerships: PNAS, De Gruyter, Nomos
  • 1Lib1Ref
  • Library Card

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --11:28, 22 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 43

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 43, March – April 2021

  • New Library Card designs
  • 1Lib1Ref May

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --11:12, 10 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 45

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 45, May – June 2021

  • Library design improvements continue
  • New partnerships
  • 1Lib1Ref update

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --11:04, 30 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 46

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 46, July – August 2021

  • Library design improvements deployed
  • New collections available in English and German
  • Wikimania presentation

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --11:15, 22 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Featured Article Mentorship

[edit]

Hello! Would you be willing to be my mentor in getting Cueva de las Manos to Featured Article status? Thanks! Tyrone Madera (talk) 17:50, 18 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 47

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 47, September – October 2021

  • On-wiki Wikipedia Library notification rolling out
  • Search tool deployed
  • New My Library design improvements

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --16:59, 10 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Vuelve spot check

[edit]

Hello Simon Burchell! I have nominated Vuelve (album) for featured article and was wondering if you have the chance to do a spot check, especially for the Spanish-language sources. Thanks, Erick (talk) 20:45, 16 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2021 Elections voter message

[edit]
Hello! Voting in the 2021 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 6 December 2021. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2021 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:17, 23 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Precious anniversary

[edit]
Precious
Nine years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:34, 28 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

maya mythology

[edit]

Simon, could you perhaps give me a brief assessment of the Maya Mythology article and explain why it should need "immediate attention"?Retal (talk) 12:27, 10 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 48

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 48, November – December 2021

  • 1Lib1Ref 2022
  • Wikipedia Library notifications deployed

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --15:13, 2 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You are invited to WP:URFA/2020, a working group reviewing featured articles promoted between 2004 and 2015. An article that you nominated for FA status, Maya civilization, has been marked as "Satisfactory" by two editors, meaning that they believe it meets the featured article criteria. Can you check the article and determine if it meets the FA criteria? If it does, please mark it as "Satisfactory" on WP:URFA/2020B. If you have concerns about the article, we hope that you will fix it up or post your concerns on the article's talk page. If you have any questions, please go to the URFA/2020 talk page. Thanks for your help and happy editing! Z1720 (talk) 19:27, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I'm scheduling TFA for April. Despite the "Satisfactory" outcome above, the article has run into trouble at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Maya civilization, with only your vote for, and two opposes from very experienced editors, which you haven't responded to on that page. In the circumstances, I probably won't run it in April, but since it's not date-linked, that doesn't matter.
In terms of moving forward, are you intending to reply to the opposers with regard to the issues they have raised? If so, it might as well stay there. Otherwise, you can leave it to take its chances as is, or if you prefer I can take it down for renomination in the future. Your call, I'm just checking what, if anything, I should do Jimfbleak - talk to me? 16:24, 4 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Always precious

[edit]

Ten years ago, you were found precious. That's what you are, always. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:51, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 49

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 49, January – February 2022

  • New library collections
  • Blog post published detailing technical improvements

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --10:06, 25 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

June 2022 Good Article Nominations backlog drive

[edit]
Good article nominations | June 2022 Backlog Drive
  • On 1 June, a one-month backlog drive for good article nominations will begin.
  • Barnstars will be awarded based on the number and age of articles reviewed.
  • Interested in taking part? Sign up here!
You're receiving this message because you have conducted 5+ good article reviews or participated in previous backlog drives.
Click here to opt out of any future messages.

(t · c) buidhe 04:27, 28 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 50

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 50, March – April 2022

  • New library partner - SPIE
  • 1Lib1Ref May 2022 underway

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --12:52, 1 June 2022 (UTC) (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 51

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 51, May – June 2022

  • New library partners
    • SAGE Journals
    • Elsevier ScienceDirect
    • University of Chicago Press
    • Information Processing Society of Japan
  • Feedback requested on this newsletter
  • 1Lib1Ref May 2022

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --16:45, 1 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 52

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 52, July – August 2022

  • New instant-access collections:
    • SpringerLink and Springer Nature
    • Project MUSE
    • Taylor & Francis
    • ASHA
    • Loeb
  • Feedback requested on this newsletter

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --12:21, 30 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 53

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 53, September – October 2022

  • New collections:
    • Edward Elgar
    • E-Yearbook
    • Corriere della Serra
    • Wikilala
  • Collections moved to Library Bundle:
    • Ancestry
  • New feature: Outage notification
  • Spotlight: Collections indexed in EDS

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --11:19, 17 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2022 Elections voter message

[edit]

Hello! Voting in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 12 December 2022. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2022 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:35, 29 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 54

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 54, November – December 2022

  • New collections:
    • British Newspaper Archive
    • Findmypast
    • University of Michigan Press
    • ACLS
    • Duke University Press
  • 1Lib1Ref 2023
  • Spotlight: EDS Refine Results

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --14:14, 23 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 55

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 55, January – February 2023

  • New bundle partners:
    • Newspapers.com
    • Fold3
  • 1Lib1Ref January report
  • Spotlight: EDS SmartText Searching

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --12:45, 16 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Contentious topic area the Balkans or Eastern Europe

[edit]

Introduction to contentious topics

[edit]

You have recently edited a page related to the Balkans or Eastern Europe, a topic designated as contentious. This standard message is designed as an introduction to contentious topics and does not imply that there are any issues with your editing.

A special set of rules applies to certain topic areas, which are referred to as contentious topics. These are specially-designated topics that tend to attract more persistent disruptive editing than the rest of the project and have been designated as contentious topics by the Arbitration Committee. When editing a contentious topic, Wikipedia’s norms and policies are more strictly enforced, and Wikipedia administrators have special powers in order to reduce disruption to the project.

Within contentious topics, editors should edit carefully and constructively, refrain from disrupting the encyclopedia, and:

  • adhere to the purposes of Wikipedia;
  • comply with all applicable policies and guidelines;
  • follow editorial and behavioural best practice;
  • comply with any page restrictions in force within the area of conflict; and
  • refrain from gaming the system.

Editors are advised to err on the side of caution if unsure whether making a particular edit is consistent with these expectations. If you have any questions about contentious topics procedures you may ask them at the arbitration clerks' noticeboard or you may learn more about this contentious topic here. You may also choose to note which contentious topics you know about by using the {{Ctopics/aware}} template.

TylerBurden (talk) 12:05, 11 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

OK - so Wikipedia is political now, and dropping POV adjectives is suddenly OK. I note no justification of your revert. "No" is not an argument. Simon Burchell (talk) 12:46, 11 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
You would have to bring that up with the editor who reverted you, which wasn't me, this is a notification about contentious topics since you edited the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As for the content, while not a good edit summary I think the editor was correct in their revert since reliable sources universially agree about Russia making false accusations about Ukraine to justify its invasion. If you don't agree, well see WP:FRINGE. TylerBurden (talk) 12:51, 11 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It's not that I don't agree - it is that slipping adjectives in like that is a slippery slope, and "claims" is sufficient, the doubtful claim should be qualified with argument and evidence, not a POV-loaded adjective. Simon Burchell (talk) 12:54, 11 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The claims were/are false though, so I do not personally see the issue with calling them such. You could start a discussion thread on the article talk page if you want, like I said my intention here was to notify you, nothing else. TylerBurden (talk) 13:25, 11 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 56

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 56, March – April 2023

  • New partner:
    • Perlego
  • Library access tips and tricks
  • Spotlight: EveryBookItsReader

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --10:03, 24 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 57

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 57, May – June 2023

  • Suggestion improvements
  • Favorite collections tips
  • Spotlight: Promoting Nigerian Books and Authors

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --11:22, 18 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 58

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 58, July – August 2023

  • New partners - De Standaard and Duncker & Humblot
  • Tech tip: Filters
  • Wikimania presentation

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --14:27, 12 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 59

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 59, September – October 2023

  • Spotlight: Introducing a repository of anti-disinformation projects
  • Tech tip: Library access methods

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --16:15, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message

[edit]

Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:30, 28 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 60

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 60, November – December 2023

  • Three new partners
  • Google Scholar integration
  • How to track partner suggestions

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --13:36, 24 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 61

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 61, January – February 2024

  • Bristol University Press and British Online Archives now available
  • 1Lib1Ref results

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --16:32, 5 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 62

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 62, March – April 2024

  • IEEE and Haaretz now available
  • Let's Connect Clinics about The Wikipedia Library
  • Spotlight and Wikipedia Library tips

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --11:03, 23 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 63

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 63, May – June 2024

  • One new partner
  • 1Lib1Ref
  • Spotlight: References check

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --12:16, 18 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikiproject

[edit]

Hi, I see you're a member of WP:Mythology, would you be interested in a sub project on WP:Anthropology on oral tradition? Kowal2701 (talk) 14:23, 26 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The page is at WP:WikiProject Anthropology/Oral tradition taskforce in case you're interested Kowal2701 (talk) 14:30, 3 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Olmec colossal heads scheduled for TFA

[edit]

This is to let you know that the above article has been scheduled as today's featured article for 4 October 2024. Please check that the article needs no amendments. Feel free to amend the draft blurb, which can be found at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 4, 2024, or to make comments on other matters concerning the scheduling of this article at Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/October 2024. I suggest that you watchlist Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors from the day before this appears on Main Page. Thanks and congratulations on your work. – SchroCat (talk) 13:54, 9 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

story · music · places

Thank you today for the 2012 article, introduced: "Olmec colossal heads are an iconic form of ancient Mesoamerican sculpture. This article recently passed GA and I am comfortable that it is a comprehensive overview of the topic with no major aspect missing from the article. I've had an off-wiki subject matter expert look at the article, and recommended changes have been incorporated where possible."! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:58, 4 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Books & Bytes – Issue 64

[edit]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 64, July – August 2024

  • The Hindu Group joins The Wikipedia Library
  • Wikimania presentation
  • New user script for easily searching The Wikipedia Library

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --16:34, 11 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]