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Something you might want to page through

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Boston Public Library American Art Posters 1890-1920 at Flickr. We hope (talk) 13:37, 31 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

19th century agricultural trade cards. Also at Flickr from BPL. We hope (talk) 13:42, 31 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Magdalene College Dining Hall, Cambridge, UK - Diliff - sans lens flares.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 01:18, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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Moving this from ed17's page so he won't get bombarded from all of this. So I created the template right here. Hopefully I did it right. As well, I found this TfD that really shows how rough it was for the project back then. Kinda unsettling at that. Just wanted to add that last part. GamerPro64 02:48, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Better than featured sounds. I went on a couple months hiatus, and the person (who I shan't mention, but should have been able to do so) who promised to finish the work to implement a vote to get it on the main page didn't, and instead let the project be shut down, undoing iteral years of me building it up. I'm still fairly bitter about that. It's basically unreviveable, because, when I tried, a few people insisted we throw out literally all work done on the project as a condition of restarting it, which is too fucking stupid for words. Featured copntent processes need publicity, content, and time. The quality will improve over time, and the anti-pragmatists who want any new featured content process to spring fully-formed and perfect, like Athena from Zeus' head will only serve to ruin Wikipedia's chances of ever doing anything useful with sounds. And Wikipedia has lost a ton of potential content from this - a lot of the US Military band archives only make content available for a short time, for example, so if noone is actively working to get it, it's lost. A lot of Creative Content sound archives have signs of existing, but are now dead - there's a Handel's Messiah that was uploaded before I joined FS, but without the necessary documentation, and the site's now dead. FC projects are vital for encouraging good practices and for getting users access to content, and encouraging people to upload to Wikipedia. So, yeah... Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:12, 4 August 2014 (UTC)°[reply]
(edit conflict)I know how that feels. I went on on a four month hiatus myself in 2012, which had resulted in some delegates coming and going in the process. Though if I didn't push for delegation to begin with, FT may have went the same route as Featured Sounds. Which is disheartening because FS is such an interesting process. So I guess with getting a script made for the project, it might help people take it a bit more seriously. GamerPro64 03:32, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. Before we go too far, have a look at Wikipedia_talk:Featured_topics/John_Douglas - a much nicer, neater template to use. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:25, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)Oh you mean Template:Featuredtopictalk? That can be used to both FT and GT and automatically changes when the percentage of articles in the topic is below or over 50%. GamerPro64
Couldn't we just have it add a category to topics that have automatically updated, which gets turned off using a parameter? Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:42, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I honestly have no clue how that would work. GamerPro64 03:49, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if the template already changes the status to featured, then it's fairly simple: Give all topics that are featured the category Category:Newly featured topics unless the parameter new=no is set.

Of course, I haven't looked into how it switches. If it requires manual editing when the article is featured, this isn't half as useful. Adam Cuerden (talk) 10:40, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That's fine; everything refreshes eventually, and it'll probably be more often than manually checking for things that have passed the threshhold. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:39, 4 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
So I started up a thread at the Village Pump right here to see if this idea can work out. Not exactly familiar on how VP works anyhow. GamerPro64 01:34, 5 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'm getting nothing at the pump and I don't know anyone know specializes in writing up this kind of code. Unless you or any of your talk page stalkers know anyone that can do this, I may have to just keep an eye on the process closer than usual. GamerPro64 02:13, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, is that why you went there? I can do it; it's fairly simple, but we need to discuss what the functionality should be first. Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:28, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Facepalm Facepalm This is too much. But enough with all this egg on my face. What I'm thinking is that something along the lines of how Category:Possible Wikipedia four award articles works. When a new Featured Topic is created, a category keeps track and see if it transitioned from GT to FT or if it immediately became a Featured Topic. Something like that. GamerPro64 03:06, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Right. I'll need a little time to review the code, which I can't do before next week, but that's more-or-less what I was thinking. Of course, this is presuming the auto-promotion works; that's the other thing to check. Might be an idea to make a dummy FT, using user-space articles. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:14, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'm okay with waiting on getting the code checked on. I'll just figure out what to do by then. GamerPro64 03:22, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:William Crooks at station.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 03:53, 6 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Halftoning?

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Frederick Law Olmsted

Question: do you think that (after flyspecking) this could stand a chance at FPC? — Crisco 1492 (talk) 03:39, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Looks more like a photogravure than halftoning to me. Think resolution and scan quality is going to be the issues here, but it's not, inherently, unfeatureable. Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:01, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • It's sadly how archive.org does their scans (original page; halftoning, if that's what it is, is more evident there). Only 3xxx pixels in height, and a lot of that was whitespace. I'll try and find a copy at the LOC... who knows, maybe they have negatives that they scanned. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:10, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Published in 1893 as a wood engraving (LOC), but the image I have is obviously a photograph. Probably the basis of the engraving. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:15, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I suspect you're better off getting someone to interlibrary loan the book than using archive.org, then. Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:27, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The book isn't that expensive. - maybe we can find someone in America willing to san all the images for it 600 dpi? Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:32, 7 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Moving stuff

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VisualEditor newsletter—July and August 2014

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The VisualEditor team is currently working mostly to fix bugs, improve performance, reduce technical debt, and other infrastructure needs. You can find on Mediawiki.org weekly updates detailing recent work.

Screenshot of VisualEditor's link tool
Dialog boxes in VisualEditor have been re-designed to use action words instead of icons. This has increased the number of items that need to be translated. The user guide is also being updated.

The biggest visible change since the last newsletter was to the dialog boxes. The design for each dialog box and window was simplified. The most commonly needed buttons are now at the top. Based on user feedback, the buttons are now labeled with simple words (like "Cancel" or "Done") instead of potentially confusing icons (like "<" or "X"). Many of the buttons to edit links, images, and other items now also show the linked page, image name, or other useful information when you click on them.

  • Hidden HTML comments (notes visible to editors, but not to readers) can now be read, edited, inserted, and removed. A small icon (a white exclamation mark on a dot) marks the location of each comments. You can click on the icon to see the comment.
  • You can now drag and drop text and templates as well as images. A new placement line makes it much easier to see where you are dropping the item. Images can no longer be dropped into the middle of paragraphs.
  • All references and footnotes (<ref> tags) are now made through the "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" menu, including the "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-reference-tooltip⧽" (manual formatting) footnotes and the ability to re-use an existing citation, both of which were previously accessible only through the "Insert" menu. The "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-referencelist-tooltip⧽" is still added via the "Insert" menu.
  • When you add an image or other media file, you are now prompted to add an image caption immediately. You can also replace an image whilst keeping the original caption and other settings.
  • All tablet users visiting the mobile web version of Wikipedias will be able to opt-in to a version of VisualEditor from 14 August. You can test the new tool by choosing the beta version of the mobile view in the Settings menu.
  • The link tool has a new "Open" button that will open a linked page in another tab so you can make sure a link is the right one.
  • The "Cancel" button in the toolbar has been removed based on user testing. To cancel any edit, you can leave the page by clicking the Read tab, the back button in your browser, or closing the browser window without saving your changes.

Looking ahead

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The team posts details about planned work on the VisualEditor roadmap. The VisualEditor team plans to add auto-fill features for citations soon. Your ideas about making referencing quick and easy are still wanted. Support for upright image sizes is being developed. The designers are also working on support for adding rows and columns to tables. Work to support Internet Explorer is ongoing.

Feedback opportunities

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The Editing team will be making two presentations this weekend at Wikimania in London. The first is with product manager James Forrester and developer Trevor Parscal on Saturday at 16:30. The second is with developers Roan Kattouw and Trevor Parscal on Sunday at 12:30.

Please share your questions, suggestions, or problems by posting a note at the VisualEditor feedback page or by joining the office hours discussion on Thursday, 14 August 2014 at 09:00 UTC (daytime for Europe, Middle East and Asia) or on Thursday, 18 September 2014 at 16:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas; evening for Europe).

If you'd like to get this newsletter on your own page (about once a month), please subscribe at w:en:Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter for English Wikipedia only or at Meta for any project. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:14, 8 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Red Skelton 1960 rebalance.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 21:31, 8 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sort of off-topic for the nomination page, but worth knowing- Today, there are grading companies that evaluate banknotes, encapsulate them in mylar and assign a grade. If a note has room to spare with uneven margins, dealers (generally) will trim the edges to create a perfect margin scenario. The benefit (depending on the rarity of the note) in a high uncirculated grade (Very Choice to Gem) could be anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars.--Godot13 (talk) 00:58, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

...Ye gods.... Adam Cuerden (talk) 07:27, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Gazelle

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SMS Gazelle was nominated before, wasn't it? Sca (talk) 13:24, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, but it's been done a long time. I've been holding off on it, as, well, as I said, least favourite. Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:32, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Alas, I just don't like the red hull paint. Sca (talk) 21:35, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Think that's one of the big reasons I held off on nominating it. But I got nothin' else for a bit. =) 86.143.102.33 (talk) 11:10, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Cryptic message?

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I'm hoping this will make more sense to you than it does to me: "Ahem, *cough* *cough* Van Gogh self portrait" ... think back a bit. SagaciousPhil - Chat 19:46, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, yes. Will get on that. Sorry, theatre month. The Festival is upon Edinburgh. Adam Cuerden (talk) 19:33, 13 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Enjoy

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[1] Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 22:06, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Heh. Hey, you approved it. =P Adam Cuerden (talk) 11:13, 10 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It seems to have gone over alright, by which mean no one has screamed yet. ;-) I don't mind borderline titles as long as they aren't racy or sexist! As for other SP matters, what are you planning with the MediaViewer/WikiCup pieces, and will the Godot interview happen, or should I postpone it for an undetermined future date? Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 03:25, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Cancel the Godot for now, I'll get him at 200. I'll try to finish up the others this week. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:38, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
That's fine, but can we delay the Media Viewer piece by two weeks or so? We've got at least one, maybe two, opinion pieces this week. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 05:25, 11 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Guys, I can do the FA part of FC (minus the templates) for another couple of weeks if you like, and we'll see how it goes. (FWIW, I would have voted for "Bottoms and Asses", but the few times I've seen something on Wikipedia that I wanted to tone down, no one agreed with me, so I'm probably not the best judge.) - Dank (push to talk) 18:51, 13 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

FAC

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To all and sundry, near and far: Jules Massenet, the second greatest composer born in 1842, is now at FAC. If you have time and inclination to look in, it will be esteemed a favour. Tim riley talk 21:40, 12 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Images on Existing WWI Articles

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Maybe add a few words indicating that you'd really like WP:GLAM/Pritzker to update existing articles with photos provided by others to PMML photos that meet the 300 DPI criteria minimum. That way our Wikipedians-in-Residence won't think you are critiquing their current efforts. Pritzker's Fall 2014 group will start in 2 weeks or so. TeriEmbrey (talk) 17:33, 15 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Adam, any old images/depictions of Pictor around? Article is at FAC and one reviewer has suggested they might be good to add....Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 03:48, 16 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Casliber: My southern constellation resources are currently weak once you go past the original twelve, and the ones that are fairly northerly. I presume you don't insist on FP-quality, though, so why not just grab from http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/pictor.htm ? That's Bode's Uranographia, which is pretty notable. Crop's a bit tight, but... Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:06, 16 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
There wouldn't be any copyright issues...would there? Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 04:14, 16 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
{{PD-Art}}. Adam Cuerden (talk) 08:45, 16 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CI, August 2014

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Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 15:23, 17 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Valentin de Boulogne - Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice (The Cheats).jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 12:02, 18 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi

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You'll want to see my last note in the newsroom... and I moved your Media Viewer and WikiCup pieces to User:Adam_Cuerden/Sandbox/Media_Viewer and User:Adam_Cuerden/Sandbox/WikiCup to make everything easier for Jarry. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 06:43, 19 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:S.M. kleiner kreuzer Gazelle - restoration.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 11:01, 19 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Your opinion...

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Hi Adam-

I would like to ask your opinion on something. I have scanned, restored, and prepped this set and inserted about two-thirds in this list. I do not plan to try and make these the main image for any of the individual articles (though finding a way to insert them elsewhere in the article would be nice). Recalling earlier issues regarding cropping, do you feel that these are appropriately cropped for placement in the list and possibly somewhere in the body of the corresponding individual articles? Thanks.-Godot13 (talk) 02:25, 21 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

They look fine, although, given the list uses such small images, I could see using a more extreme crop in the list, but I don't think you could then nominate them as a set, since the current crop is the best for all other uses, so it'd be nominations based on other uses... awkward. Better to avoid that, or, at most, crop a little tighter left and right. Also, of course, if there's no image of them in the article, of course make them the lead, but I presume that was already going to happen. Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:55, 21 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I went through to see how many could be entered in the articles (without forcing images where they don't belong) and over half were okay as "other uses" (articles in addition to the list, only two cases did I replace a truly bad and very small existing lead image). I'll probably just leave them as is- the point was to create portraits, not clipped images for info boxes... The last month seemed very slow at FPC, I hope that picks up soon. Thanks again for the feedback.-Godot13 (talk) 19:59, 21 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I think I figured out a way to make the images work in the list. No images were harmed in the process...Godot13 (talk) 04:49, 26 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

33rd Alabama Infantry -- Just sayin' thanks...

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Adam, I know some folks don't care for barnstars, so I hope you don't mind me sending you this one. You put a lot of time into your review and feedback on 33rd Alabama Infantry, and I just wanted to say thanks. Cheers! - Ecjmartin (talk) 01:14, 22 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The American Civil War Barnstar
A special thanks to you for your recent contributions to 33rd Alabama Infantry and its associated peer review. I know it was long and detailed, so I just wanted to say I appreciated your time, interest and feedback. Thanks! Ecjmartin (talk) 01:14, 22 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Ecjmartin: That is really kind of you! I'm sorry I'm kind of inactive just now. Think I overcommitted myself a little bit to Edinburgh Festival stuff. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:09, 22 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:C.M. Gilbert. - John Hay, c. 1904.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 15:52, 24 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:John Jellicoe, Admiral of the Fleet.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 00:37, 25 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture File:Jean de Paleologu - Jules Massenet - Sapho.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on September 5, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-09-05. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:22, 25 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

FC

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Hi Adam—TTT's note at the Signpost talkpage might be useful. I'm presuming you're fine for the next edition's FC? Ed won't be back until the week after. Tony (talk) 12:07, 26 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I guess that's a "yes", since you didn't bother responding. Tony (talk) 03:48, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Tony1: Sorry, I responded there. FC's done, pretty much. Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:04, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
No problem, Adam. Ed might gradually be returning. Tony (talk) 04:05, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Adam, I took a look and it appears to be ready to go this week. You fine with that? Tony (talk) 06:41, 31 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Tony1: Thought I had said so. Publish away. Adam Cuerden (talk) 08:50, 31 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture File:Cardinal de Richelieu.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on September 9, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-09-09. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 12:49, 28 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Any interest in this?

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The Dollar Princess-from 1909--she has what looks to be some other nice things posted too. We hope (talk) 02:26, 29 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Nancy Storace Portrait By Pietro Bettelini 2.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on September 12, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-09-12. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 11:59, 29 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2014 August newsletter

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The final of the 2014 WikiCup begins in a few short minutes! Our eight finalists are listed below, along with their placement in Round 4:

  1. Smithsonian Institution Godot13 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer, finished top of Pool A and was the round's highest scorer. Godot is a featured picture specialist, claiming large numbers of points due to high-quality scans of historical documents, especially banknotes.
  2. Scotland Casliber (submissions) is a WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist every year since 2010. In the semi-final, he was Pool B's highest scorer. Cas's points primarily come from articles on the natural sciences.
  3. Nepal Czar (submissions) was Pool A's runner-up. Czar's points come mostly from content related to independent video games, including both articles and topics.
  4. Oh, better far to live and die / Under the brave black flag I fly... Adam Cuerden (submissions) was Pool B's runner-up. Another featured picture specialist, many of Adam's points come from the restoration of historical media. He has been a WikiCup finalist twice before.
  5. Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions) won the WikiCup in 2012 and 2013, and enters this final as the first wildcard. She focuses on biology-related articles, and has worked on several high-importance articles.
  6. Florida 12george1 (submissions) is the second wildcard. George's points come primarily from meteorology-related articles. This year and last year, George was the first person in the competition to score.
  7. Colorado Sturmvogel 66 (submissions), the third wildcard, was the 2010 champion and a finalist last year. His writes mostly on military history, especially naval history.
  8. Canada Bloom6132 (submissions), the fourth and final wildcard, has participated in previous WikiCups, but not reached any finals. Bloom's points are mostly thanks to did you knows, featured lists and good articles related to sport and national symbols.

We say goodbye to this year's semi-finalists. Herm Matty.007 (submissions), Ohio ThaddeusB (submissions), United States WikiRedactor (submissions), Idaho Figureskatingfan (submissions), Greece Yellow Evan (submissions), Portugal Prism (submissions) and Bartošovice v Orlických horách Cloudz679 (submissions) have all performed well to reach this stage of the competition, and we hope they will all be joining us again next year.

There are two upcoming competitions unrelated to the WikiCup which may be of interest to those who receive this newsletter. The Stub Contest will run through September, and revolves around expanding stub articles, especially high-importance or old stubs. In addition, a proposal has been made for a new competition, the GA Cup, which the organisers plan to run next year. This competition is based on the WikiCup and aims to reduce the good article review backlog.

There is now a thread for brainstorming on how next year's WikiCup competition should work. Please come along and share your thoughts- What works? What doesn't work? What needs changing? Signups for next year's competition will be open soon; we will be in touch. If, at this stage of the competition, you are keen to help the with the WikiCup, please do what you can to participate in review processes. Our finalists will find things much easier if the backlogs at good article candidates, featured article candidates, featured picture candidates and the rest are kept at a minimum. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk · contribs) The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 22:09, 31 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Quick question for you about cleaning up a scanned photo

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Is there much that a photo expert can do to this photo without getting it scanned again? [2] We have a much smaller version already in Commons and it would be nice to upgrade it.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 19:47, 3 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Forgot to mention that I've got Photoshop and can probably at least clean up the moiré pattern if it's not too complicated.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 19:59, 3 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Sturmvogel 66: I'm sorry, that image link is US-only. If you want mmy advice, though? The original sources are not particularly expensive; I'd personally just get a copy of the originals. You'll get better outcomes AND a useful source. Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:06, 3 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
OK, thanks.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 20:22, 3 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Adam- I'm prepping this article's images for FP. If the offer to further review/clean some of them up a bit still stands (also pinging Crisco), I'll see about getting the TIFs loaded sooner (24 hours) rather than later (a week). Thanks--Godot13 (talk) 00:04, 4 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

  • I'm not too crazy about losing all the paper detail. Looks like you applied a mask to the paper and smoothed it all out, yet the lithographs (or whatever prints they used) still have paper texture. There are also a few missing flecks that I'd be tempted to fix, but the first point is my main concern. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:11, 4 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
    • I'd like to do a bit more cleaning, actually. Lots of little threads and such on the images. Adam Cuerden (talk) 01:25, 4 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
      • @Crisco- I wasn't too fond of sacrificing the paper texture (see the "middle version" of each of the files), but I was unable to get the paper tone and shading to match across the images, knowing they would be presented (in the article) as a "set". There was also a light reddish hue that I couldn't get rid of (while keeping the texture). Barring going back to the beginning, I'll load the TIFs for the current files later today.-Godot13 (talk) 02:11, 4 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Still figuring out uploading TIF files (as it took me a few hours just to get the first few files accepted by the Upload wizard). I can't find the middle-stage lossless files, so I started uploading what's currently in the article (title page and the first three states). Will finish tomorrow (later today for you). ping -Godot13 (talk) 05:41, 5 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

A Barnstar

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The Socratic Barnstar
For telling it like it is… Godot13 (talk) 06:00, 5 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I hope that's a good thing. I do like to think I have some tact. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 09:37, 5 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It is good.-Godot13 (talk) 22:56, 5 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Would you be interested in helping me expand Disappearance of Beverly Potts?

There's plenty of information about her on the web, but i don't want to break any copyrights. Paul Austin (talk) 10:46, 6 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

FC

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Thanks, Adam. And if you hadn't been co-author we could have made more of your lovely restoration. At some stage, if you can put your hands on a suite of befores-and-afters, an emailed interview of you, on photographic restoration, would be good for the SP (and could easily be technical, I think, if non-experts can be drawn to understand). Tony (talk) 12:17, 6 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Tony1: Oh, I always upload the befores; I suppose that one might also benefit from a copy of what I've replaced [I've occasionally replaced the most awful copies and bad restorations], but that's usually easy enough to find. Would be delighted. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:53, 6 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I wonder if GIF's useful for showing a restoration? Flicking between two images is the easiest way to see what was done. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:53, 6 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Emailing you lest it be a spolier. Tony (talk) 00:06, 7 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Tony1: Have you actually sent it? I can't find it in my inbox, spam, or searching what at least used to be your address in April. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:31, 7 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
They're talking about Wednesday US time publication: EEK. No stress if you're too busy to send reply in time: it can be run this or next week, fine. Tony (talk) 08:18, 8 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Adam, when will you have time to finish FC? Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 02:31, 12 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@The ed17: I should be able to Sunday. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:08, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Please ping me when you're done; I'd like to publish ASAP. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 17:45, 14 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I've finished the FAs and FLs. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:34, 14 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@The ed17: Let's publish, then. I'm going back to sleep - don't feel so well today. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:13, 14 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Adam, just reminding you about FC. I'll take on the FAs and FLs after class, so if you can get as many FPs done as possible and copy/paste in descriptions for the rest, I'd be most appreciative! Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 17:10, 17 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@The ed17: I've done the first 40. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:47, 17 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Fanny Bullock Workman

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Thank you for your unsigned comments on my talk page re Isopoda. Would you like to respond to mine at your Fanny Bullock Workman FAC page because I am trying to help it towards a conclusion. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 07:52, 7 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Adam, I came here to basically ask the same thing, to ask that you go over there and confirm that the sources are used correctly. It'd be a shame if it were failed after all our work! I'm also pinging User:Wehwalt on your talk page for the same purpose. Thanks! Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 18:43, 12 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Cwmhiraeth and Figureskatingfan: I'm in a show this week. It ends tonight, so I can get the sources checked by Wednesday, but I need to go into the library to do so, which is why I haven't yet. Shows really do eat up all free time sometimes. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:06, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
OK, no problem, believe me I get busyness. I'll put a note on the FAC page requesting that it stay open for a few more days. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 05:23, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Lah dee dah

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Shame there's no article for it yet
  • So how's everything? Just dropping by to show off offer any assistance you could want on getting images from pages with zoomable images. (Like the one on the left). If you have anything on your wishlist, let me know, and I'll try to help. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 07:42, 10 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Crisco 1492: As you may know, I'm in a musical about the life of the Brahan Seer this week. It's going very well. Last two shows are today, so I'll have some more time from Sunday. Also, as this is Scotland, and cast parties are the one time I let myself go with alcohol, will be hungover Sunday. Also, that is a gorgeous photograph. Do something with it. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:05, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • I don't think you've mentioned that, at least to me. Sounds like a performance I'd enjoy. I may end up writing something on "logging in Indonesia", which is slightly distinct than deforestation in Indonesia which already exists. After that, a bit of clean-up, and... BTW, a couple other old photographs (absolutely lovely ones) are at Jacobus Anthonie Meessen. I was actually thinking of cleaning one up for FPC later today, once work is done. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 05:26, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Shame their images are at such low JPG compression rates. It's like NASA. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 11:16, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Sébah & Joaillier - Sultan Mehmed VI.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on October 3, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-10-03. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:53, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Little Nemo 1907-09-29

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Little Nemo 1907-09-29

Could you let me know what you think about File:Little Nemo 1907-09-29.jpg? Curly Turkey ⚞¡gobble!08:03, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

September Bugle

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Hi Adam, if you wanted to take care of FPs in this month's Bugle, could you do so shortly as we'd like to get the issue out as soon as we can to include a reminder that voting in the MilHist coordinator election has commenced. If it's not convenient, just let me know and Nick-D or I will do the best we can with the FP section. Tks/cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 13:21, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Ian Rose: I've roughed it in, using the brief descriptions from the showcase page (which I wrote, after all.) I'll need to add credits, and expand the descriptions a little bit, but everything is there, at least. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:17, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Horace Greeley

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Hi Adam. If you get the time, would it be possible for you to clean up one of the likenesses of Horace Greeley at File:Horace Greeley - NARA - 526061.tif and upload it as a jpg? Seems like we don't really have any high quality images of him. Connormah (talk) 02:14, 17 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Connormah: Is there any chance we could get a higher-resolution version? By the time that's cropped, it won't be eligible for featured picture. I mean, I'll gladly do things just because we need the image, but it would be nice to use my work to get Horace Greeley on the main page.
Of course, one possibility might be to do [3], though that's not half so engaging of a pose. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:01, 17 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Might want to get into contact with User:Dominic at NARA, but I imagine getting new scans of these types of things isn't exactly easy. The second possibility could work though! Connormah (talk) 04:55, 17 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
[edit]

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

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Mother and child

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Hello Adam,

I don't want to clog up the nomination page too much so I'm writing on your TP. If I work on the photo myself by adding a bit of burn onto the white part, would that affect your vote? I am willing to do it myself if it will better your opinion of the photo. Cheers, Étienne Dolet (talk) 02:29, 19 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think a good case was made for leaving it. Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:39, 19 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

When anger spreads his wings

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Hey Adam Cuerden! Just to note that you've forgot to upload c:File:Kurz and Allison - Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864 - Original scan.tif. Anyways good restoration. Best, ///EuroCarGT 21:31, 19 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@EuroCarGT: Uploading now. Adam Cuerden (talk) 23:17, 19 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CII, September 2014

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Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 02:24, 20 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you!

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The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
For your work in carrying forward the excellent contributions of Adrienne (aka Awadewit) - thank you. hamiltonstone (talk) 10:44, 20 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sleeping Dogs FAC

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German Joe reccomended that I contacted you to see if you were available to do a media check at the Sleeping Dogs FAC.[4] URDNEXT (talk) 19:07, 20 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Barnstar

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The Editor's Barnstar
To Adam, for nominating the great Wadewitz's Fanny Bullock Workman and helping bring it to FA status. You, like she did, make Wikipedia a better place. Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 14:06, 22 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Could you closed my set nomination? Cheers, Armbrust The Homunculus 13:46, 23 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Centreville, VA, Quaker Guns in the fort on the heights.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 02:39, 26 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Kurz and Allison - Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 12:30, 26 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Advice

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Hi Adam

I'm thinking of writing a tutorial-style "learning pattern" on Meta, to provide recipients of WMF funding for photographic competitions with a fun puzzle experience in criticising technical flaws in pictures. The content would be drawn entirely from reviewers' comments at selected FPCs.

First, if I do this, might you be prepared to review and give feedback on the draft?

Second, is there a way of linking to or displaying earlier uploads of pics at reasonable size and without making people wait for five minutes to download them? Take this file history for example (FPC here). I'd like to be able to display very first upload down at the bottom, at 480 × 599 pixels, the same size as the most recent version at the top. Tony (talk) 12:47, 26 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Tony1: I'd be willing to review, but remember I'm not a photographer, so you might be be better off getting, say, Diliff (talk · contribs) or Crisco 1492 (talk · contribs), both of who know photography very well.
As for showing the original upload, honestly, I'd just reupload it with a new file name - if it serves a purpose, noone should complain (provided you make sure to state what that purpose is: I'd suggest a banner before the {{Information}} template. Adam Cuerden (talk) 12:51, 26 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks Adam, and I'll certainly be asking Crisco and @Diliff:. Yeah, the re-upload idea seems like the least problematic.

    Crisco, yes, the examples of technical problems are very good and were quite easy to find when I thought about doing this, a few weeks ago. I'd like to focus on WLM-type subjects (buildings, etc), and wildlife, since they're probably the most relevant to WMF grants. I might even double up and use one or two of those examples, but there are plenty in the FPC archives, with critical commentary by reviewers and sometimes attempts to improve the original image (useful for training).

    The core design feature of the exercises would be a narrative question-and-answer technique that you'd click through while thinking about each picture, with intermediate hints; that has been quite successful in my language tutorials on en.WP, and I recently injected this approach into another learning pattern, Framing survey questions, which Jonathan Morgan (WMF), who's managing the LPs, quite liked. The blue hat boxes aren't ideal—I'd like to explore a less in-your-face colour/design. My only concern with those particular exercises is that they might be a little wordy and elaborate—not sure, and no feedback yet.

    Michael Maggs has already created two photography-related learning patterns (LPs) at Meta, which I've worked on a little, to his subsequent approval. They're a good entree to critical exercises based on actual examples, I think. And remember, I know nuffink about photography.

    I've asked about this before—maybe three years ago—but have lost it: there's a glossary of photography-related terms somewhere. Anyone know where? Tony (talk) 15:43, 26 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Adam - Thank you for your support of this FP nominated set. Based on some feedback received from a reviewer, yesterday I started another round of light cleaning of the images to remove thread-like white fibers that could be found in the brown and black ink areas of the images. I do not expect to edit each image but have already completed 33 of 46. If for any reason the touch ups are not completed by the end of the nomination (approximately 24 hours), I will suspend the nomination. Thanks again for your support.

Okay, now that the form notification is out of the way... I'm planning to put up a mid-sized currency set next followed by the BEP engravings of the first 25 presidents (they come from the same book as the Treasury Secretaries and cover the same time span) and can be found here as JPEG files. If you feel that there is additional restoration necessary and would like to be a co-restorer I would welcome the help and will prioritize getting the restored TIF files loaded as soon as I am finished with the coats of arms. If you are not interested but would be willing to provide some feedback on what needs tweaking, that would also be appreciated. My hope is to avoid a mid-nomination frenzy to try and make corrections. Let me know what you think (soon please).--Godot13 (talk) 03:59, 27 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Ivan Logginovitch Goremykin, c. 1906.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 11:17, 27 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Kurz & Allison - Assault on Fort Sanders.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on October 19, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-10-19. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:22, 28 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:It is far better to face the bullets.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 02:49, 29 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2014 September newsletter

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In one month's time, we will know our WikiCup 2014 champion. Newcomer Smithsonian Institution Godot13 (submissions) has taken a strong lead with a featured list (historical coats of arms of the U.S. states from 1876) and a raft of featured pictures. Reigning champion Wales Cwmhiraeth (submissions) is in second place with a number of high-importance biology articles, including new FA Isopoda and new GA least weasel. Scotland Casliber (submissions), who is in his fifth WikiCup final, is in third, with featured articles Pictor and Epacris impressa.

Signups for the 2015 WikiCup are open. All Wikipedians, new and experienced, are warmly invited to sign up for the competition. Wikipedians interested in friendly competition may also like to sign up for the GA Cup, a new WikiCup-inspired competition which revolves around completing good article reviews. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk · contribs) The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 22:11, 30 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Scanning

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Hi Adam. I think I should be able to get a good image of the charter by scanning it, but the problem is I would then need to crop it and I have never worked out how to edit pdfs. Is there a program I could use to edit it - or to convert it to jpg? Thanks if you can help. Dudley Miles (talk) 23:52, 30 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Dudley Miles: Doesn't your scanning program offer any choice but PDF? Most offer TIFF and JPEG [TIFF is probably preferred] Adam Cuerden (talk) 23:57, 30 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I do not have a program. I have an all in one printer (for my business) which has been set up so that when I press a button it scans to pdf. I will ask the engineers whether they can set it up to scan to jpeg or tiff. Dudley Miles (talk) 00:23, 1 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm. Well, there's usually programs as well as buttons. Generally speaking, pressing the button will open a program to load up files for a PDF. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:27, 1 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Dudley Miles: Anyway, if you can't get anything but PDF, I'll drop you an e-mail, so you can send me the PDF. I do have a way of extracting. Adam Cuerden (talk) 11:13, 1 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I have found out how to scan to tiff and scanned it at [5], but it does not look good. Maybe my scanner is not good enough and I should get a copy shop to scan it to a usb? Thanks for your help. Dudley Miles (talk) 12:43, 1 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Portrait of Henri Frenay, head and shoulders ppmsca.13371 edit.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 12:45, 1 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Les misérables

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image quality?

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Hey Adam, I just took this a few days ago - fill in flash worked nicely I thought. Is it worth a run as a featured pic? Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 14:13, 6 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It certainly looks very good, but I'm not a modern photography expert when it comes to FPC, and there's a few minor flaws. @Crisco and Diliff: what do you think? Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:20, 6 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Adam, you pinged some other editor, and yet I've come! Cas Liber, although at thumbnail this is a magnificent image (and at full res it's pretty darn good too, better than my images of flowers) there are a couple things. The leaves are heavily over exposed along the edges (where they're getting direct sunshine). There are strange white spots (noise? I don't know) in the sky. Because you used F/16, there is significant diffraction (most obvious along the side of the flower facing the camera), which renders it unsharp (fixable with a lower F number when shooting or more downsampling). Final bit, I'd clone out that leaf at the bottom (doesn't add anything, and since it's not part of your subject you'd probably be allowed some digital manipulation there. Did you do any levels edits, denoising, or any other post-processing? Shooting on full auto?16:30, 6 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • I can't remember - it was windy. I haven't done any post-processing (and never done any, so wouldn't know where to start....). I shot on manual with fill-in flash. Flash set to underexpose by about 1 stop. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 20:10, 6 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • I echo Crisco's comments above. I don't particularly like the composition though, shooting up at the sky does need some fill flash to recover the shadow detail but it doesn't fix the fact that you're shooting up at the sky. Where possible, it's better to shoot parallel to the ground but in such a way that you can isolate the subject from the background. In other words, don't shoot it with the tree directly behind because it will get lost in the background noise. The less there is behind the subject, the more aesthetically pleasing the background will be. If I'm honest, I don't think it stands a great chance at FPC. It's a fine photo, but if you compare it to other featured botanical images, it's lacking in composition (in my opinion anyway). But feel free to nominate it, others may have a different POV. :-) Ðiliff «» (Talk) 21:38, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Could you close this one for me? Cheers! Armbrust The Homunculus 15:30, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor newsletter—September and October 2014

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Did you know?

TemplateData is a separate program that organizes information about the parameters that can be used in a template. VisualEditor reads that data, and uses it to populate its simplified template dialogs.

With the new TemplateData editor, it is easier to add information about parameters, because the ones you need to use are pre-loaded.

See the help page for TemplateData for more information about adding TemplateData. The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing team has reduced technical debt, simplified some workflows for template and citation editing, made major progress on Internet Explorer support, and fixed over 125 bugs and requests. Several performance improvements were made, especially to the system around re-using references and reference lists. Weekly updates are posted on Mediawiki.org.

There were three issues that required urgent fixes: a deployment error that meant that many buttons didn't work correctly (bugs 69856 and 69864), a problem with edit conflicts that left the editor with nowhere to go (bug 69150), and a problem in Internet Explorer 11 that caused replaced some categories with a link to the system message, MediaWiki:Badtitletext (bug 70894) when you saved. The developers apologize for the disruption, and thank the people who reported these problems quickly.

Increased support for devices and browsers

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Internet Explorer 10 and 11 users now have access to VisualEditor. This means that about 5% of Wikimedia's users will now get an "Edit" tab alongside the existing "Edit source" tab. Support for Internet Explorer 9 is planned for the future.

Tablet users browsing the site's mobile mode now have the option of using a mobile-specific form of VisualEditor. More editing tools, and availability of VisualEditor on smartphones, is planned for the future. The mobile version of VisualEditor was tweaked to show the context menu for citations instead of basic references (bug 68897). A bug that broke the editor in iOS was corrected and released early (bug 68949). For mobile tablet users, three bugs related to scrolling were fixed (bug 66697, bug 68828, bug 69630). You can use VisualEditor on the mobile version of Wikipedia from your tablet by clicking on the cog in the top-right when editing a page and choosing which editor to use.

TemplateData editor

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A tool for editing TemplateData will be deployed to more Wikipedias soon. Other Wikipedias and some other projects may receive access next month. This tool makes it easier to add TemplateData to the template's documentation. When the tool is enabled, it will add a button above every editing window for a template (including documentation subpages). To use it, edit the template or a subpage, and then click the "Edit template data" button at the top. Read the help page for TemplateData. You can test the TemplateData editor in a sandbox at Mediawiki.org. Remember that TemplateData should be placed either on a documentation subpage or on the template page itself. Only one block of TemplateData will be used per template.

Other changes

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Several interface messages and labels were changed to be simpler, clearer, or shorter, based on feedback from translators and editors. The formatting of dialogs was changed, and more changes to the appearance will be coming soon, when VisualEditor implements the new MediaWiki theme from Design. (A preview of the theme is available on Labs for developers.) The team also made some improvements for users of the Monobook skin that improved the size of text in toolbars and fixed selections that overlapped menus.

VisualEditor-MediaWiki now supplies the mw-redirect or mw-disambig class on links to redirects and disambiguation pages, so that user gadgets that colour in these in types of links can be created.

Templates' fields can be marked as 'required' in TemplateData. If a parameter is marked as required, then you cannot delete that field when you add a new template or edit an existing one (bug 60358).

Language support improved by making annotations use bi-directional isolation (so they display correctly with cursoring behaviour as expected) and by fixing a bug that crashed VisualEditor when trying to edit a page with a dir attribute but no lang set (bug 69955).

Looking ahead

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The team posts details about planned work on the VisualEditor roadmap. The VisualEditor team plans to add auto-fill features for citations soon, perhaps in late October.

The team is also working on support for adding rows and columns to tables, and early work for this may appear within the month. Please comment on the design at Mediawiki.org.

In the future, real-time collaborative editing may be possible in VisualEditor. Some early preparatory work for this was recently done.

Supporting your wiki

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At Wikimania, several developers gave presentations about VisualEditor. A translation sprint focused on improving access to VisualEditor was supported by many people. Deryck Chan was the top translator. Special honors also go to संजीव कुमार (Sanjeev Kumar), Robby, Takot, Bachounda, Bjankuloski06 and Ата. A summary of the work achieved by the translation community has been posted here. Thank you all for your work.

VisualEditor can be made available to most non-Wikipedia projects. If your community would like to test VisualEditor, please contact product manager James Forrester or file an enhancement request in Bugzilla.

Please join the office hours on Saturday, 18 October 2014 at 18:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas; evening for Africa and Europe) and on Wednesday, 19 November at 16:00 UTC on IRC.

Give feedback on VisualEditor at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback. Subscribe or unsubscribe at Meta. To help with translations, please subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact Elitre at Meta. Thank you!

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:11, 8 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Not

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Walter Hunt In the pound

At all. Actually a good opportunity to revamp the article - there are many more google files in it now... Hafspajen (talk) 19:51, 10 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thomas Eakins

How about a better file on this .... File:The biglin brothers turning the stake-boat thomas eakins.jpeg?

Ha, we don't have an article on Walter Hunt (1861–1941) was a British painter who specialized in paintings of animals, esepecially dogs. And it is your fault. Hafspajen (talk) 21:13, 10 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a little cautious about scans from art books at FPC, but I think I could get an article on Walter Hunt together. Give me time. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:04, 10 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Of course not, theses are not for FP. But maybe an article+ But this one might. File:Philippe de Champaigne 002.jpg. At the moment it is a Yorkie, but it is at the National Gallery of Art, that you know very well... Hafspajen (talk) 13:24, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please undelete

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Please restore this page -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Girls. I have references to support the article. Aaliyahnicole12 (talk) 23:21, 10 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

[edit]

I've taken care of the FAs that have been promoted so far this week. I would appreciate it if you would or others like User:NickGibson3900 would write up the FPs. Nick, thanks for helping for this week's report! --Pine 21:52, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Pine: I was planning to, but I was waiting for the final list. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:54, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
OK, thanks. --Pine 21:56, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Pine: Really want to include the sound in the report, so will probably be playing around with the bells a bit. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:02, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Good idea. --Pine 22:08, 11 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:J. M. Wright - Edward Scriven - Robert Burns - Halloween.JPG is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on October 31, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-10-31. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 07:53, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well, you didn't asked me

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A Lady Pouring Chocolate. National Gallery, London

Adam, Pine, but Crisco - anyway - I helped a little ... at Sign, hope it is OK. Hafspajen (talk) 11:31, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Galleries are finicky things. I rearranged it a bit, beecause peopel will complain if one of the galleries breaks into two lines. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:28, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Love the way you do it, it is much better like this. Hafspajen (talk) 21:54, 12 October 2014 (UTC) Do you need more help? Descriptions, whatever. Hafspajen (talk) 22:06, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If you're up to it, I could use some help with the descriptions in the Featured picture section. There's a lot of them to do, so can grind one down a bit after the first six or so. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:08, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

OK: but I have no sense of humor. When should it be ready? Can't do much now. Hafspajen (talk) 22:24, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Was it the Droste effect?
Don't worry too much about humour. Humour can be used, but it's more of a "if you see a joke, feel free to make it" than a "there must be humour" thing. Tuesday, for preference, but the sooner the better, as I do want to concentrate on finishing the Seward restoration before it goes live. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:28, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

OK. Hafspajen (talk) 22:40, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, the really annoying thing about paintings is that the first link doesnt go to the article - it fgoes to the image, so you have to figure out a way to link the article without repeating yourself immediately. Hence the copyedits. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:51, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I love your style, well yes it is. By the way I do have sense of humor but I don't think I can manage sparkling it at Singp. Hafspajen (talk) 23:55, 12 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
What happened is was that I got sleepy and went to bed. Hafspajen (talk) 12:23, 13 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Atlantic hurricane season - anf tempest and fog. Hafspajen (talk) 12:43, 13 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Alessandro Scarlatti - Griselda. (BL Add MS 14168 f. 5r) crop.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on November 2, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-11-02. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:43, 14 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

With respect, your request for arbitration is highly unlikely to be accepted. You dispute the outcomes of the AfDs, but do not highlight any conduct dispute of people involved. ARBCOM deals with user conduct issues, and does not set policy. Is there some user conduct issue that needs to be resolved? If so, I recommend you highlight the conduct issues, rather than attempting to break a no consensus log jam. --Hammersoft (talk) 13:24, 15 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think you have a point with "conduct issues" should be named. I have done so on the RFAR site, Hammersoft. Serten (talk) 19:27, 15 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Triple Crowns

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I bestow upon Adam Cuerden this Universal Triple Crown, given for his impressive work with Aida, which has reached featured status on four different Wikimedia projects. Well done sir, → Call me Hahc21 03:41, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I bestow upon Adam Cuerden this Universal Triple Crown, given for his impressive work with The Early Poems of Alfred Set, which has reached featured status on three different Wikimedia projects. Well done sir, → Call me Hahc21 03:41, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I bestow upon Adam Cuerden this Universal Triple Crown, given for his impressive work with The Punishment of Loki, which has reached featured status on three different Wikimedia projects. Well done sir, → Call me Hahc21 03:41, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Arbcom

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Hi. From my experience, articles (mis)used as a fortress are not being defeated on talk pages or WP:forums. Its a waste of time to stay too long on such talk pages. If I don't get further, I write my stuff elsewhere or create my own one. Take Ozone depletion and global warming as example. That said, an article about the IPCC consensus process and the current controversies and attempts (as well from within) to get rid of it would be as noteable as worth while writing. Would you like to contribute? Ozone_depletion_and_climate_change#Different_role_of_consensus as baseline. Regards Serten (talk) 08:57, 16 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Einstein 1921 by F Schmutzer - restoration.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 13:29, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Mathew Brady - Franklin Pierce.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 14:43, 17 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Case declined

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The arbitration committee declined the request for a case involving the List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming, concluding that it was not within the scope of the committee's remit. The arbitrators comments here may be helpful. For the arbitration committee, --S Philbrick(Talk) 14:26, 19 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CIII, October 2014

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Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 14:32, 19 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Frederic Remington - Aiding a Comrade - Google Art Project.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 00:20, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:M. Browne - Herbert Railton - Sydney Grundy - Arthur Sullivan - Haddon Hall.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on November 8, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-11-08. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:16, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CIII, October 2014, Redux

[edit]
Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

NOTE: This replaces the earlier October 2014 Bugle message, which had incorrect links -- please ignore/delete the previous message. Thank uou!

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 01:52, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Chunked uploads...

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So I got the Chunked Uploads thing down...but now I am debating which video format to choose from (see here). Do you think it be better to choose the MPEG2 or MPEG4? The MPEG2 file appears to be over the chunked upload limit. I would appreciate your opinion here. Thanks! Étienne Dolet (talk) 17:31, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@EtienneDolet: I don't really know video, to be honest. Crisco can probably help more. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:41, 20 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hiroshima/Nagasaki

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Hi Adam, I've had some time and did the top 500px or so of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki image. The restoration, as it is far, is at File:The_patient's_skin_is_burned_in_a_pattern_corresponding_to_the_dark_portions_of_a_kimono_-_NARA_-_519686_Crisco_edit.jpg. Do you think it's worth continuing, or better to just get rid of the major flaws and use the image for online purposes only? — Crisco 1492 (talk) 02:35, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Another example: compare File:Lee,_Lee,_&_Taylor220.jpg with its source page, http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/strong_strph36003/ - it's been desaturated and shrunk down, for no good reason. Never understood the idea of making coloured images monochrome, so that the page is much more samey. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:45, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Shudder. The arrangement of the images at the Lee page is what threw me off. That and the fact that many of the images have very obvious damage, even at thumbnail size... I'd bet that set of images hasn't changed in three or four years. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 07:18, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, hence why I want to do a cleanup. Some may win through, but...
I think it's largely because noone's actually been working on the article. It's not even a GA, and it's the best-known Confederate General; last attempt at GA was seven years ago. Adam Cuerden (talk) 07:38, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
As for the Nagasaki image: I think that the historical value outweighs a somewhat mediocre photo, and would say go on. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:20, 22 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Sir Paul Fildes by Sir (Samuel) Luke Fildes.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 03:35, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Triple Crown

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It is my pleasure to award Adam Cuerden with this Imperial Napoleonic Triple Crown for all their work on good and featured content here on the English Wikipedia. All hail the Emperor! Regards. → Call me Hahc21 05:38, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • By the way, please fill up again the nom page with the request for the Timeless one. Don't type DYK credits, since they are not considered for that Triple Crown (there is no way an article can be de-DYK'ed). Cheers!

A barnstar for you!

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The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
I've only helped out a few times on Signpost, but you deserve a stack of credit for doing the slog week in, week out! Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 17:38, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:William H. Seward portrait - restoration.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 04:22, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ceramic-waste and monkeys

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Bonus pic

No it is not called Ceramic-waste and monkeys, but Självporträtt med hustrun Marie Suzanne Giroust målande Henrik Wilhelm Peills porträtt - Selfportrait with his wife, Marie Suzanne Giroust painting Henrik Wilhelm Peills. Hafspajen (talk) 10:49, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Hafspajen: Thanks, Haf! I've put it in here Adam Cuerden (talk) 11:15, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Need help? Hafspajen (talk) 11:19, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
If you'd like to, I'd love to have you on board, but I probably can't say "need" yet, as I'm starting two days early this week. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 11:24, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Let me know if you want me to help then. Hafspajen (talk) 11:26, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: Well, I want you to, but don't want to pressure you if you don't want to. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 11:36, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
If others were half as polite and respectful, Wiki wouldn't have any problems. Hafspajen (talk) 11:54, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Haf! Mind you, I'm expecting ten FPs in the next two days, so it's probably for the best that I've started early. =)
The big rush. Stopped. Hafspajen (talk) 16:08, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
What exacly you are not happy with? it looks gorgious! Well, Arachnophobia - might be an issue - so I would't advice you to put that spider at the bottom. Put Sir Paul Fildes instead. (Maybe tripple gallery? with Mathew Brady and some other portrait ?) Hafspajen (talk) 17:05, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: Seward's been featured very prominently two weeks ago (see Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2014-10-15/Featured_content), and I don't like including two paintings by the same artist without a good hook, like the Roslin comparison. Let's give Muhammad his terrifying, horrible spider. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:09, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
UGH. That spider is rather terrifying in size. Can't we put it at least together with the bird or something? Hafspajen (talk) 17:35, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: Let's leave it for now (if it disturbs you, just shove it off to the side without replacement); As I said, I might drop a gallery. I suppose Pembroke College is an option, but I really need to do the widescreen check before we do too much work that might get thrown out. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:40, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, you shy British. How about midsummer fire, will that make it into this? It has the perfect wide screen format for bottom last pic. Hafspajen (talk) 17:44, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Skagen painters, Dutch Golden Age, and the 19th-century Russian painters are probably my favourites, although, of course, there's quite a few others as well. In short - hell yes that's going in. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:53, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, and I just realised. This is our Hallowe'en issue! Perhaps GIANT SPIDER is seasonal? Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:56, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hafspajen (talk) 18:08, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You missed the "Hafs, don't look for a second" edit message, didn't you? Oops... Wanted to run it past a few people by linking a diff. Adam Cuerden (talk) 18:12, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Adam, you monkey. Hafspajen (talk) 14:55, 26 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Mrs Mary Venetia James, née Cavendish-Bentinck, by Samuel Luke Fildes.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 02:30, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hunt for "portcherbourg" photo

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On a hunt for a good reference for "portcherbourg" photo, used at Bombardment of Cherbourg:

  • A working website, EHPS European History Primary Sources, hosts “Archives Normandie, 1939-1945”. The caption proclaims the website is the first with free high definition photos of the Battle of Normandy. 2763 photos were loaded, it seems that the HD/p000905 is actually a specific identifier. It also links to a web address of http://www.archivesnormandie39-45.org which seems broken.
  • The portcherbourg photo we are looking for In the online article, Basse-Normandie, débarquement DDay, La Libération de Cherbourg : Que s'est il passé il y a tout juste 70 ans ? The caption says: "Les alliés en Normandie combattent sur deux fronts. Si les britanniques ont pour objectif la « charnière de Caen », les Américains se battent dans le Cotentin. Leur objectif est de s’emparer du port de Cherbourg. Mais ils trouvent sur leur route une résistance allemande acharnée à Carentan et Montebourg." The credit line for our photo says: © Archives Normandie Le port de Cherbourg.

Can we use the identifier, HD/p000904? The website was put up by the Base-Normandie regional government in France, is that who we should request assistance from? If so, it should be in French, I suppose...? I'm not sure how to proceed, but I am intrigued with the prospect of unraveling the problem. TheVirginiaHistorian (talk) 13:59, 26 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Indian Classical Dance

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I am really happy to answer to your question. First of all am not a dance but an very big fan and observer of Classical Dance. Usually, when I go for dance programs, I take around 700 to 1000, sometimes more than 1000 pictures of the movements. Out of that, with the help of expert dancers or critics I choose one or tow beautiful poses to upload in wiki. There are many kind of dance forms in India and all are from different parts of India. For example, Odissi from Odisha, Mohiniyattam, Kathakali etc from Kerala, Kuchupudi from Andra Pradesh, Bharatha Natyam from Tamil Nadu etc. All the places I have mentioned are different districts of India and all the places having different culture and traditional set ups. Based on that, all the dance forms are evolved. It is not possible to compare one with the other because we call it as Indian Classical dance but all are having its own specialties as you can identify from the dress and make ups from the photographs I have uploaded. I have understood your question. You are concerned about relevancy of the pose which I am uploading. In classical dance, there is no single part you can consider as relevant but the entire performance is telling the story. All the dance performance will be based on a story mostly based on Hindu mythology. If you have anymore clarifications, please do reply, if possible, to the point question, so that I will be easily able to convince you. I hope you are convinced and enjoying my clicks. Bellus Delphina talk 19:26, 26 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Bain News Service - Franz Lehár.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 02:39, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

'Scottish' nationality

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I would be interested in hearing your reason for reverting the my change to the infobox of the James Clark Maxwell to the fictional nationality of 'Scottish'. There is no consensus to invent a nationality on the talk page. Not that I am not referring to his description as 'Scottish' in the lead. Martin Hogbin (talk) 09:31, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Halloween cheer!

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Halloween cheer!

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Franklin Pierce

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Do you want to make a head-and-shoulders version for the front page? —Designate (talk) 17:26, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I definitely want to use the Brady image for the TFA (sorry I was vague about it) simply because it's the best image of him. I don't see the harm in cropping it for the TFA, but if that's improper, never mind. —Designate (talk) 19:00, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Well, that's what the "other versions" section is for. I also hate having stray images without clear links between them, which makes me wonder why you uploaded a new file 1 without either overwriting the existing one 2, or marking the two as "other versions" of each other. It looks like you used the description I wrote for the existing image as a basis but removed the right sourcing (you need a date for the original and a date for your modification, for example). I'd rather have one original (from the LOC), one sensible crop, and one head-and-shoulders. Instead we now have at least 9 versions of the same image. —Designate (talk) 20:50, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Designate: I find that linking a million inferior copies in "Other versions" is a good way to confuse users. There's some things that I don't think I should delete or overwrite, but which I still think I can do better than. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:03, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Adam- Happy to help out with a css image crop (keep the original of choice, get any crop you want in thumbnail)... Let me know.--Godot13 (talk) 23:51, 28 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Godot13: If TFA is set up to allow it, that would be ideal. Adam Cuerden (talk) 07:23, 29 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sample images

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Let me know if the overall size works (smaller vs larger) and if any of the options are what you had in mind, or which one could be tweaked to bring it where you want it. I can do it later today, just let me know if the format will work... --Godot13 (talk) 07:43, 29 October 2014 (UTC) (I started fiddling with it earlier)[reply]

Option 1
Option 1
Option 2
Option 2
Option 3
Option 3

Duodu

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this this this - this this this this are all in article, nominable - OBS - wait 5 days. Hafspajen (talk) 02:06, 30 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think File:Self-portrait_by_Gerrit_Dou.jpg can pass - it appears (given the source) to be a processed scan from a half-toned book; in any case, pretty terrible at full-res. File:Gerard Dou - Self-Portrait - WGA06660.jpg I'm worried about how visible the cracks are on the right of his face - obviously the cracks are there, but different lighting would probably make them less visible. The first I mentioned (relinked for your convenience) doesn't seem as good of a painting as the second, but it may just be the reproduction.
Of the others File:Dou, Gerrit - A Woman playing a Clavichord - Google Art Project.jpg has a funny horizontal line across the middle. That might be original, but we will need to prove that. I don't like File:Gerrit Dou - Girl Chopping Onions - Google Art Project.jpg as much as the others.
File:Gerard Dou - Still Life with a Boy Blowing Soap-bubbles - Google Art Project.jpg is lovely, but what is that object in the foreground?
My favourites are File:Gerard Dou - Maid at the Window - Google Art Project.jpg and File:Gerrit Dou (Dutch - Astronomer by Candlelight - Google Art Project.jpg. The former is a bit buried, and the second used in a gallery. Perhaps we could make them more prominent? Adam Cuerden (talk) 12:35, 30 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Move girl. But even if I like the Astronomer alot, I put the Astronomer in the gallery - because it has the same problem - the frame and edges are rather crappy. Can't thou find a better scan? I think some guys took them out of their frames when they made scans on google art. Hafspajen (talk) 22:48, 31 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Feel free to nominate any. I think the object in the foreground is some kind of calabash. Hafspajen (talk) 23:06, 1 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Probably better to have them out of the frames for our purposes. Frames are 3D elements and thus PD-Art doesn't apply. Adam Cuerden (talk) 11:49, 2 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Levin C. Handy - General Robert E. Lee in May 1869.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 19:27, 2 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

FPs in the Cup

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I understand that your feelings were hurt and you're angry at those editors who denigrate your work; I get that, I really do. When I tell not very close friends that my main hobby is Wiki, I get strange looks and questions about why I'm not spending my time on a book or something that could make me some money. I do it because I get a great deal of satisfaction from writing articles. I imagine that you do as well, but you need to get over hurt feelings and stop venting at people; you're alienating well-wishers and those who agree with you like myself.

When I was in the Army, we had a saying for when things got unpleasant, "embrace the suck and drive on". Wiki can be a toxic environment, just like anywhere else in the digital world and you've stumbled into one bad example. If you can't handle it then maybe you need to do something else with your time. OTOH, if you enjoy restoring the pictures and seeing your work made available for millions of people to see and learn from, then let the words and insults roll off like water off a duck's back. Screw the naysayers and don't let their words affect you because right now you're just contributing to the toxicity for all concerned.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 20:59, 3 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Sturmvogel 66: The problem is it's been four months or so of this, and got so bad around... May or so? (First three weeks of May, looks like: [6] ) that I literally could not focus on image restoration for a month, then got back, and was criticized for not being in the top 3, because I worked in FPs which were supposedly easy:


This is a contest that had protest resignations over someone working in images doing well. (Wikipedia_talk:WikiCup/Archive/2014/3#Withdrawing)


There's quite a lot more in that line. At one point it's said that FPs have "little content involved".

And then, the moment the competition ends, the knives come out, people coming in to make sure that FP people will never win the competition again.

At this point, I just want to make damn sure that this competition, where the judges are unable to prevent outright hostility coming out, doesn't attract a single other person working in FPs, ever. Noone should have to put up with what Godot and I did. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:38, 3 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]


In all honesty, at this point, after four months of being ground down, I'm just in "make sure they never get the chance to do this to anyone else" mode. I'd rather see the Wikicup ended than let it run again with the attacks on FPs continuing, because those sorts of things really hurt people, Wikipedia, and the entire pictures process.

It's a shame. The Wikicup is pretty much literally the only competition on Wikipedia that recognised FPs, or, for that matter, FPOs. There's WP:TRIPLE, but that requires about a 2:3 (or, at best, 1:2) Article to FP/FPO ratio. There are plenty of article-based contests, many specialized, e.g. WP:MILHIST has regular contests and awards for articles.

And there's nothing wrong with that, but the death of the WikiCup - and it is dead to all right-thinking people - has killed off any variety in what's recognized.

And one might ask whether commons could fill that niche? Well, no. The only contests on Commons are photographic based, and require new photographs. While that fills a little bit of the gap, it means that those not working in photographs are even more isolated, as even the attempts to reach out don't reach them.

This is not something I want, but the sheer hostility I've seen has convinced me that there's no point in continuing to try and support it. It was a nice idea. It's over now.

You get more of what you encourage and celebrate. Sounds on Wikipedia have all but completely dried up since the death of WP:FSC. At this point, the WikiCup only serves as a means of discouraging pictures. Will I manage to work at the rate I did this year next year? I'd like to think so... but suspect that, without something to time me and encourage me, I'm going to be less productive. And Wikipedia is the loser. Adam Cuerden (talk) 23:06, 3 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Page move is proposed; you are invited to discuss it there. --George Ho (talk) 03:54, 5 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Johan Zoffany - Self-portrait as David with the head of Goliath - Google Art Project.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 14:35, 5 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Petrus Christus Nativité Haute résolution.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 13:31, 6 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor newsletter—November 2014

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Screenshot on an iPad, showing how to switch from one editor to the other
Did you know?

VisualEditor is also available on the mobile version of Wikipedia. Login and click the pencil icon to open the page you want to edit. Click on the gear-shaped settings in the upper-right corner, to pick which editor to use. Choose "Edit" to use VisualEditor, or "Edit source" to use the wikitext editor.

It will remember whether you used wikitext or VisualEditor, and use the same editor the next time you edit an article.

The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor. Not all features are available in Mobile Web.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has fixed many bugs and requests, and worked on support for editing tables and for using non-Latin languages. Their weekly updates are posted on Mediawiki.org. Informal notes from the recent quarterly review were posted on Meta.

Recent improvements

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The French Wikipedia should see better search results for links, templates, and media because the new search engine was turned on for everyone there. This change is expected at the Chinese and German Wikipedias next week, and eventually at the English Wikipedia.

The "pawn" system has been mostly replaced. Bugs in this system sometimes added a chess pawn character to wikitext. The replacement provides better support for non-Latin languages, with full support hopefully coming soon.

VisualEditor is now provided to editors who use Internet Explorer 10 or 11 on desktop and mobile devices. Internet Explorer 9 is not supported yet.

The keyboard shortcuts for items in the toolbar's menus are now shown in the menus. VisualEditor will replace the existing design with a new theme from the User Experience / Design group. The appearance of dialogs has already changed in one Mobile version. The appearance on desktops will change soon. (You can see a developer preview of the old "Apex" design and the new "MediaWiki" theme which will replace it.)

Several bugs were fixed for internal and external links. Improvements to MediaWiki's search solved an annoying problem: If you searched for the full name of the page or file that you wanted to link, sometimes the search program could not find the page. A link inside a template, to a local page that does not exist, will now show red, exactly as it does when reading the page. Due to a error, for about two weeks this also affected all external links inside templates. Opening an auto-numbered link node like [7] with the keyboard used to open the wrong link tool. These problems have all been fixed.

TemplateData

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The tool for quickly editing TemplateData will be deployed to all Wikimedia Foundation wikis on Thursday, 6 November. This tool is already available on the biggest 40 Wikipedias, and now all wikis will have access to it. This tool makes it easier to add TemplateData to the template's documentation. When the tool is enabled, it will add a button above every editing window for a template (including documentation subpages). To use it, edit the template or a subpage, and then click the "Edit template data" button at the top. Read the help page for TemplateData. You can test the TemplateData editor in a sandbox at Mediawiki.org. Remember that TemplateData should be placed either on a documentation subpage or on the template page itself. Only one block of TemplateData will be used per template.

You can use the new autovalue setting to pre-load a value into a template. This can be used to substitute dates, as in this example, or to add the most common response for that parameter. The autovalue can be easily overridden by the editor, by typing something else in the field.

In TemplateData, you may define a parameter as "required". The template dialog in VisualEditor will warn editors if they leave a "required" parameter empty, and they will not be able to delete that parameter. If the template can function without this parameter, then please mark it as "suggested" or "optional" in TemplateData instead.

Looking ahead

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Basic support for inserting tables and changing the number of rows and columns in tables will appear next Wednesday. Advanced features, like dragging columns to different places, will be possible later. The VisualEditor team plans to add auto-fill features for citations soon. To help editors find the most important items more quickly, some items in the toolbar menus will be hidden behind a "More" item, such as "underlining" in the styling menu. The appearance of the media search dialog will improve, to make picking between possible images easier and more visual. The team posts details about planned work on the VisualEditor roadmap.

The user guide will be updated soon to add information about editing tables. The translations for most languages except Spanish, French, and Dutch are significantly out of date. Please help complete the current translations for users who speak your language. Talk to us if you need help exporting the translated guide to your wiki.

You can influence VisualEditor's design. Tell the VisualEditor team what you want changed during the office hours via IRC. The next sessions are on Wednesday, 19 November at 16:00 UTC and on Wednesday 7 January 2015 at 22:00 UTC. You can also share your ideas at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.

Also, user experience researcher Abbey Ripstra is looking for editors to show her how they edit Wikipedia. Please sign up for the research program if you would like to hear about opportunities.

If you would like to help with translations of this newsletter, please subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Subscribe or unsubscribe at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter. Thank you!

Whatamidoing (WMF) 20:41, 6 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!

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Thank you for regular provisions of appetizing hors d'œuvres (and for fixing recent transclusion issues). A wonderful service! ---Sluzzelin talk 02:04, 7 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Sluzzelin: You're most welcome! Sorry about the issues. Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:29, 7 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Signpost

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Hi Adam, Sorry I've not been around too much this week - work has been haywire, and by Wiki time has been limited. I saw no Featured Content went out this week: does that mean we're going to have to go for a bumper issue next week? Cheers - SchroCat (talk) 09:01, 7 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, we're going to skip a week, and get a full week to work on issues, instead of the list finalizing on Sunday and needing to be out three or four days later. Adam Cuerden (talk) 13:32, 7 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Illustrated London News - Christmas Truce 1914.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 13:34, 7 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Kurz and Allison - Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on November 30, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-11-30. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:51, 9 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Adam, I'm finally ready to submit this article to FAC. Earlier today, I did a quick copy-edit and some restructuring. My only issue with it is that it may not be long enough, but I have seen articles of a similar length go through FAC fine. Do you think that we should have it PRed first? Personally, I think that it's ready to go. Let me know what you think, and if it's fine with you, I'll submit it to the queue in both our names (and Adrienne's too, of course). Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 02:21, 13 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, I've been thinking about this article, and I think that instead of needing a traditional PR, I think it needs a science/botany expert to look at it, to make sure it's comprehensive enough and that it's science is accurate. I put a note on User:Peter coxhead's talk page [8] asking him for assistance. If he or someone who knows what they're doing says that it's fine, we can go ahead and submit to FAC. As I told Peter, my area of expertise is definitely not botany, so I think it would behoove us to have someone like him take a look at this article. Just keeping you informed! ;) Christine (Figureskatingfan) (talk) 23:10, 23 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you

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The Barnstar of Awesomeness
Thank you for somehow keeping up with the Signpost's featured content section over the last couple months. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 01:40, 15 November 2014 (UTC) [reply]

POTD

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Next week I'll be scheduling the 16th of December (probably). Do you have that battle image ready? — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:03, 18 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Crisco 1492: It's half-done. Could you give me a few more days? Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:12, 18 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CIV, November 2014

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Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:27, 20 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Can you restore?

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Hi there

Can you somehow restore File:Alfred Elmore - Pompeii, A.D. 79 - Google Art Project.jpg from the defects? I will then nominate for FPC (may be co-nom). Thank you..The herald 14:20, 21 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@The Herald: We don't normally restore cracks in paintings, as paintings are one-off works. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:13, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
So IYO, can I go for an FPC? The herald 16:23, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Don't see why not. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:28, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Template edit

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Your recent edit to Wikipedia:Signpost/Template:Signpost-article-comments-end does not appear to have been entirely successful; a bunch of old Signpost pages have suddenly shown up in Category:ParserFunction errors, and those pages are displaying an "Expression error: Unexpected < operator" error message. I know nothing about templates, and I haven't reverted your edit to the template, in the hope that your examining the specific instances that are triggering the error—i.e., those listed in the category—may help you figure out what the problem is. Deor (talk) 13:23, 22 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Council of Lithuania

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Hi Adam,

Yes, that credit line looks great. Thank you for writing it! I appreciate you letting me know about the Signpost blurb.

Neelix (talk) 23:48, 22 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Adam,
I agree that it would be great to have higher-resolution versions of the images you mention. Unfortunately, I do not speak Lithuanian. Perhaps Novickas would be able to help.
Neelix (talk) 00:34, 23 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Adam,
I don't see any factual errors, just two minor grammatical ones: 1) "In the closing years of the First World War", and 2) "they were set to the task of negotiating terms". Other than that, the blurb looks good to me.
Neelix (talk) 01:10, 23 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Adam,
Perhaps this is a dialectical difference; I have heard of people being given tasks, or being set to tasks, or even being given set tasks, but not being set tasks. Feel free to phrase it as you will.
Neelix (talk) 01:42, 23 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

(moved from Neelix's talk page) Hi Neelix - got your ping about the picture - and hi, Adam. I see there is a much higher-res pic of the signatories (4586 × 2844) on the web [9]. You can see that it would need cleaning up, tho, and I don't know how to do that. Also, I'm not very comfortable with downloading pictures off the web, or with contacting institutions, or with image licensing considerations in general. (You could try asking at WP:WikiProject Lithuania). But thanks for working with the topic.

P.S. There's an extra twist involved with the Signatories picture. It pains me to say this, but I'm not sure it's really Free although it could certainly be Fair Use. The credited photographer, Aleksandras Jurašaitis, died in 1915 (before the council was formed) and this site [10] - Google translation here [11] says that his studio affixed his name to photos taken after his death. A Lithuanian National Museum site credits the signatories photo to his daughter Aleksandra Jurašaitytė [12], although many otherwise reliable sources were still crediting it to her father during the last decade. She died in 1957 [13], so it'd not be free. (The sources are in LT, but if you're interested, I could translate). A messy situation. File:Jonas Basanavicius (1851-1927).jpg is a better prospect because it was apparently taken in 1905. Novickas (talk) 14:41, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Novickas: Well, the one good thing is that 1920 is fine for en-wiki, as we could upload it here as {{PD-US-1923-abroad}}, and we could also argue that a company named after someone, but not crediting the actual photographers, is basically {{PD-Old-anon}}. However, on the secondary topic, that big copy is just terrible - there's just too much data lost for that to ever get that good. I think it's from newsprint. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:46, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
You're clearly pretty well versed about these things, so...as you wish :) Maybe later sometime, Novickas (talk) 23:00, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

add

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Adam will you take look at the Signpost again, please, added a bit, just to make sure... Hafspajen (talk) 14:50, 24 November 2014 (UTC) Ahem, uhem... Swenglish ... Hafspajen (talk) 17:26, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Here 's a link; right. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-11-19/Featured content Hafspajen (talk) 17:28, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Quite a bit, actually. Hafspajen (talk) 17:29, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I've not really had time to copyedit until now. Two bits of advice - try to avoid making things a conversation - you're using "Actually" to add additions, but it's all meant to read in one voice. Secondly, remember the amount of room for images is limited by widescreen monitors. Don't try to fill the whole column, because that column can vary in height depending on monitor. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:40, 24 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
.Try now, because this might be it. Hafspajen (talk) 11:00, 26 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I am rather in favor of the Paton, as lead -pic for the next - just because it is giving such a good holiday -air! Hafspajen (talk) 18:59, 26 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: I think that's in the issue for the 17th; I'm not even going to think of that now. Four in a row's enough. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 19:01, 26 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Well, don't think ... yet. Hafspajen (talk) 19:02, 26 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
So ready for today on Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-12-10/Featured content, check if you feel for itHafspajen (talk) 01:00, 27 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I tried now to fix the entries, and I am finished with all the FPs, getting on with the articles. asked some help from X. But I would like you to help with the choice of the pictures and check the text. By the way, now when we all know what this was all about, and with an own article, don't you think this could still have a real chance? Maybe as a double nomination together with the craze one? Hafspajen (talk) 13:32, 2 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Ahem . [14] -Hafspajen (talk) 16:46, 4 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Adam, please, can we skip that gravel, it doesn't fit anywhere. I was thinking about using it myself but it is just in the way. Hafspajen (talk) 01:18, 8 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:George Schlegel - George Degen - New York 1873.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on December 15, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-12-15. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:32, 25 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Note

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That's right – let's ban those who speak out against FPs; let's ban those who call for more transparency in the Cup; let's ban those who want a fairer competition where rules are adhered to and enforced. In short, you just want to eliminate anyone who holds a different view to yours. It's ironic that you out of all people are calling for others to be banned – if there's anyone who deserves to be the first one punished in such a manner, it's you for your utterly neurotic tirades and blatant personal attacks against anyone who spoke out in favour of reducing FP points. That's what's driving people away from the Cup. That's why those who would've supported your position are put off. Your calling for my ban from the WikiCup is the highest honour you can give a Wikipedian. Bravo! —Bloom6132 (talk) 11:23, 27 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

AN/I

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Hi Adam; I have mentioned you in passing in this AN/I thread. You are welcome to contribute or ignore it as you see fit. J Milburn (talk) 12:58, 27 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Confused...

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Does this make any sense to you?--Godot13 (talk) 00:37, 1 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Greeley redux

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I'm working on his article, so it's going to FAC and I hope eventually to TFA. Connormah and you discussed this a while back. This does seem to be a chance to get your work on the main page, FAC willing.--Wehwalt (talk) 23:29, 3 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

James Clerk Maxwell

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Hi, regarding your recent question about the James Clerk Maxwell foundation providing images to the WP page. Sadly that is not possible because, although we own the house in which he was born, and in which we operate a JCM museum, we are not the owners of rights in any of the images of Maxwell. Those we use on our website are by permission of the respective owners.

You may be interested in the following diffs relating to the issue of Maxwell's nationality: [15] [16]

As this issue actually applies to many pages dealing with Scottish people I do not understand why these two editors are desperate to change this particular one (which has shown Maxwell's nationality as Scottish since 2006). I also note that the IP editor has recently sprung into existence with British nationality as his sole editing activity!

I believe that changes to the practice of assigning nationality to the particular constituent nation should be discussed as a general point, not via a single article, and have suggested that Wikipedia:Nationality of people from the United Kingdom would be appropriate, but this is ignored.

Am I misguided? Thanks, FF-UK (talk) 18:37, 4 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please see: Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)
How should we show the nationality of a person in WP?
Thanks FF-UK (talk) 16:00, 8 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Illustrated London News - Christmas Truce 1914.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on December 25, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-12-25. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 10:27, 6 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nominations for the Military history Wikiproject's Historian and Newcomer of the Year Awards are now open!

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The Military history Wikiproject has opened nominations for the Military historian of the year and Military history newcomer of the year. Nominations will be accepted until 13 December at 23:59 GMT, with voting to begin at 0:00 GMT 14 December. The voting will conclude on 21 December. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:35, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:John Masey Wright - John Rogers - Robert Burns - Auld Lang Syne.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on December 31, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-12-31. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 11:12, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2015 is just around the corner...

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Hello everyone, and may we wish you all a happy holiday season. As you will probably already know, the 2015 WikiCup begins in the new year; there is still time to sign up. We have a few important announcements concerning the future of the WikiCup.

  • We would like to announce that Josh (J Milburn) and Ed (The ed17), who have been WikiCup judges since 2009 and 2010 respectively, are stepping down. This decision has been made for a number of reasons, but the main one is time. Both Josh and Ed have found that, over the previous year, they have been unable to devote the time necessary to the WikiCup, and it is not likely that they will be able to do this in the near future. Furthermore, new people at the helm can only help to invigorate the WikiCup and keep it dynamic. Josh and Ed will still be around, and will likely be participating in the Cup this following year as competitors, which is where both started out.
  • In a similar vein, we hope you will all join us in welcoming Jason (Sturmvogel 66) and Christine (Figureskatingfan), who are joining Brian (Miyagawa) to form the 2015 WikiCup judging team. Jason is a WikiCup veteran, having won in 2010 and finishing in fifth this year. Christine has participated in two WikiCups, reaching the semi-finals in both, and is responsible for the GA Cup, which she now co-runs.
  • The discussions/polls concerning the next competition's rules will be closed soon, and rules changes will be made clear on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Scoring and talk pages. While it may be impossible to please everyone, the judges will make every effort to ensure that the new rules are both fair and in the best interests of the competition, which is, first and foremost, about improving Wikipedia.

If you have any questions or concerns, the judges can be reached on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, on their talk pages, or by email. We hope you will all join us in trying to make the 2015 WikiCup the most productive and enjoyable yet. You are receiving this message because you are listed on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk), The ed17 (talk), Miyagawa (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk) and Figureskatingfan (talk) 18:53, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

FC

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Hey Adam,
I have just made some tweaks in FC of this week. the description was a bit long (I think) and a minor copy edits. Thank you..The Herald : here I am 14:16, 10 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Then Why not delay Yule log for the next issue?? I had the X-mas Sign issue in my mind while nominating..The Herald : here I am 15:37, 16 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Alright..Plus Yule log may have more views as its the 24th POTD too...The Herald : here I am 03:59, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Lucia!

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Thanks, Hafspajen! Saffron buns sound delicious; I'm going to have to go to the Swedish restaurant in Edinburgh and search one out. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:24, 13 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Lots of nice stuff in that area. Poke me if you're ever visiting. Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:16, 14 December 2014 (UTC)::[reply]
Sure. Hafspajen (talk) 16:36, 15 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

T

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This. If you could find a bigger file. Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth - WGA23178.jpg I would be hapy to go with a co- nom. Wrote an article on it too. This is a real iconic Turner and it's just a pity we have a too small scan. Hafspajen (talk) 16:35, 15 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Gentleman with a Cannon

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Is that you? Hafspajen (talk) 02:27, 16 December 2014 (UTC) Sorry, I got home after over 24 hours in airports and planes yesterday. Not at my best. I'd like to think my beard is MUCH more impressive than that. =P Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:37, 16 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Anybody home?

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This starts to feel like a monologue. What do you say about this? Hafspajen (talk) 19:22, 16 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Heh. Was just in Pittsburgh. It's a lovely image. Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:38, 16 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Oops. Hafspajen (talk) 23:46, 16 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thought if you have some spare time you could nominate it, same guy as in the caricature... You are the history guy... Hafspajen (talk) 23:47, 16 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'm afraid that it would now be impossible for me to nominate it in the near future. </badjoke> Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:46, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Don't follow. Hafspajen (talk) 01:13, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Exactly. And, as it's already nominated, I can't nominate it again. Future tense vs. past tense. Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:04, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Never mind. Hafspajen (talk) 02:11, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I did label it as a bad joke. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:14, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
ADAM!! What's that Monkey doing beside the nativity. Hafspajen (talk) 03:04, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure what you wanted to do with it, but could you delete it? It links itself to the "category:Featured topics" and screws up some bot counts. Nergaal (talk) 00:29, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Nergaal: It was meant as part of an overhaul of the way FTs were. We eventually found existing, working code that wasn't being used early in development. Feel free to delete it. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:56, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Close review, second closing

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You participated in the Overturn of the first closing of the Media Viewer RfC. You are invited to comment on the Close Review Request of the second closing of the same RfC: wp:Administrators'_noticeboard#Close_Review_Request_after_overturn_and_reclose. Alsee (talk) 14:17, 17 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Seasonal Greets!

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Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2015 !!!

Hello Adam Cuerden, May you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you a heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New year 2015.
Happy editing,
The Herald : here I am

Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to user talk pages with a friendly message.

I've asked for an uncontroversial requested move on Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy) (to Admiral of the fleet (Royal Navy)) on the grounds of WP:JOBTITLES. By long-standing Wikipedia consensus and by normal grammar standards, military ranks are not capitalised except where they form part of a name. Admiral of the fleet is no exception. See Talk:Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy). If you think it is controversial, please say so at Wikipedia:Requested moves. Thanks. Shem (talk) 18:31, 18 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Merry Christmas!

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A very happy Christmas and New Year to you!


May 2014 bring you joy, happiness – and no trolls or vandals!

All the best

Gavin / SchroCat (talk) 09:33, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:The High Rollers Extravaganza Co. - Bend Her - c.1900.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on January 8, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-01-08. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:17, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

James B. Weaver

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Hey Adam,

I'm going to nominate James B. Weaver for FA soon, and some of the pictures are crappy. Do you have any advice on improving the worst of them?

Thanks, Coemgenus (talk) 15:41, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Coemgenus: Well, the simplest thing would be to rescan the ones taken from books. That'll likely be easier for an American to do. I can probably improve File:James_Weaver_-_Brady-Handy.jpg and File:1892PopulistPoster.png to FP.
File:Lt. James B. Weaver.png, File:Weaver_1878.png, and File:James and Clara Weaver 1908.png are misattributed. Frederick Emory Haynes is the book's author, and wrote the book over forty years after the later of the two photographs. So you probably need Haynes' book in order to fix that issue anyway. Since all three of the worst photos come from that single book, and the rest aren't that bad, fixing that issue is probably the quickest way to improve things.
A 1919 copy of this book is available for $9 + shipping. Get this copy, as the others on that site are print on demand or ebooks, which could be really, really crappy. If you need someone to handle scanning it, I will do it if you don't have someone trustworthy, and I suppose I could fit that book into my Wikipedia budget for next month. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:43, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
That's a good idea, actually scanning the thing. I'll order the book. I've got a decent scanner here that should be better than the Google Books pdf. Thanks! --Coemgenus (talk) 19:59, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
One hint: Scan fairly high (300dpi or more). Wikipedia is fairly good at thumbnailing half toning, particularly compared to the crap from the PDF. And if there's problems, it's far easier to fix them from a high-res scan. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:39, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The book arrived today. The originals of those pictures aren't great, but I think there's some improvement. --Coemgenus (talk) 00:33, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Coemgenus: Agreed. If you descreen them, you might get things even better. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:42, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Is that a photoshop thing? Cropping and rotating in Microsoft's photo editor are about all the tools I've ever used. --Coemgenus (talk) 00:49, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Sort of. Though I myself use GIMP. It's a way of trying to turn a halftoned image into smoother colour. Adam Cuerden (talk) 01:08, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, I'll take a look at it. --Coemgenus (talk) 01:13, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Season's Greetings!

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Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2015 !!!

Hello Adam Cuerden! As we gather to celebrate the changing of years and reflect on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, I would like to wish you and yours a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Attached is a small snack which I hope will give you the energy to continue being an amazing person and editor in the coming year.


Happy editing,
 — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:46, 20 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor newsletter—December 2014

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Screenshot showing how to add or remove columns from a table

Did you know?

Basic table editing is now available in VisualEditor. You can add and remove rows and columns from existing tables at the click of a button.

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

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on table editing and performance. Their weekly status reports are posted on Mediawiki.org. Upcoming plans are posted at the VisualEditor roadmap.

VisualEditor was deployed to several hundred remaining wikis as an opt-in beta feature at the end of November, except for most Wiktionaries (which depend heavily upon templates) and all Wikisources (which await integration with ProofreadPage).

Recent improvements

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Basic support for editing tables is available. You can insert new tables, add and remove rows and columns, set or remove a caption for a table, and merge cells together. To change the contents of a cell, double-click inside it. More features will be added in the coming months. In addition, VisualEditor now ignores broken, invalid rowspan and colspan elements, instead of trying to repair them.

You can now use find and replace in VisualEditor, reachable through the tool menu or by pressing ⌃ Ctrl+F or ⌘ Cmd+F.

You can now create and edit simple <blockquote> paragraphs for quoting and indenting content. This changes a "Paragraph" into a "Block quote".

Some new keyboard sequences can be used to format content. At the start of the line, typing "* " will make the line a bullet list; "1. " or "# " will make it a numbered list; "==" will make it a section heading; ": " will make it a blockquote. If you didn't mean to use these tools, you can press undo to undo the formatting change. There are also two other keyboard sequences: "[[" for opening the link tool, and "{{" for opening the template tool, to help experienced editors. The existing standard keyboard shortcuts, like ⌃ Ctrl+K to open the link editor, still work.

If you add a category that has been redirected, then VisualEditor now adds its target. Categories without description pages show up as red.

You can again create and edit galleries as wikitext code.

Looking ahead

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VisualEditor will replace the existing design with a new theme designed by the User Experience group. The new theme will be visible for desktop systems at MediaWiki.org in late December and at other sites early January. (You can see a developer preview of the old "Apex" theme and the new "MediaWiki" one which will replace it.)

The Editing team plans to add auto-fill features for citations in January. Planned changes to the media search dialog will make choosing between possible images easier.

Help

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If you would like to help with translations of this newsletter, please subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Subscribe or unsubscribe at Meta.

Thank you! WhatamIdoing (WMF) (talk) 23:37, 20 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

December Bugle

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Hi Adam, Do you have time to add the FPs to the December edition of the Bugle today (your time)? Ian and I would like to get it out soon. Thanks, Nick-D (talk) 04:49, 22 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Best wishes for a happy holiday season

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Happy Holiday Cheer
Season's Greetings! This message celebrates the holiday season, promotes WikiLove, and hopefully makes your day a little better. Spread the seasonal good cheer by wishing another user an Awesome Holiday and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone with whom you had disagreements in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Share the good feelings! Joys! Hafspajen (talk) 02:03, 23 December 2014 (UTC) [reply]

The Bugle: Issue CV, December 2014

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Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:51, 23 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

ANI

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The problem with these discussions is the threads get overwhelmed so easily. I'm pretty sure Martin Hogbin was thinking of a previous version of the article in his last comment, but have given him an opportunity here to revise his comment if that is the case. Better to get somewhere to start with than remain in the same spot as before with continued back and forth. Hopefully FF-UK will also be willing to accept a voluntary binding restriction on similar terms. Ncmvocalist (talk) 16:04, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Ncmvocalist: I'm pretty sure that once someone says they intend to go to Arbcom in order to force Scottishness not to be recognised as a nationality that they probably need to step away from the subject. I've tried talking with Martin. He doesn't seem to be able to make a consistent argument - for example, Irish people should be classed as Irish, even if they're before Ireland was its own country, but Scotland should not, and his views on places like Bermuda were similarly confused. The problem is that the suppression of Scottishness/Welshness was a political tactic used against the constituent nations, so - while I would like to think he has other motives - vigorously attacking the ability to note important people from those countries as having those nationalities has some really nasty baggage attacked to it, and when one is forumshopping everywhere, and using every tactic in their powers towards that end - it's, at the very least, ignorant of the minefield they're digging into, and at worst, well... racist, but I don't really want to presume that without more evidence. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:12, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'm hoping that if both editors agree to the voluntary binding restriction, an article RfC will settle this issue with more clarity, so that this 'dispute' does not continue - or so that if it does continue, there are clearer grounds (or clear evidence) for sanctions against specific parties who are not complying with the consensus which ultimately emerges from the article RfC. It's now up to FF-UK, but just waiting on his response to my last question at his user talk page. Ncmvocalist (talk) 17:46, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand why you keep posting that MH is threatening Arbcom. If he were? Arbitrators would've told him to stop by now. AFAIK, they aren't feeling threatened. GoodDay (talk) 17:36, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@GoodDay: I would have thought that it was clear that "He is threatening Arbcom" meant "threatening to go to Arbcom" with the implication of "threatening those who disagree with him by threatening to go to Arbcom". It's not exactly an uncommon phrasing. Perhaps it's a dialect thing - I do read very widely, and from a wide range of time periods - but I'm very surprised that there's any confusion over this. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:41, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nollaig

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Nollaig shona duit
Best christmas and new year. Another year down, and so much more to write. Thanks for all your contribuitions and being part of the community. Hope January is at least resonabally tolerable for you. Ceoil (talk) 23:56, 24 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It would be nice, if you could close this one for me. Regards, Armbrust The Homunculus 14:04, 26 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

:

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bonus bridge
Maybe We Shall Write a Newspaper ... called Signpost? Good idea, Washy!
Don't call me Washy! My name is Washington, Wishy.
William Bell Scott File:William Bell Scott - Ailsa Craig - Google Art Project.jpg

Hafspajen (talk) 15:09, 26 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Hafspajen: Always like to give people the opportunity to edit where I'm worried I'll screw things up. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:12, 26 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I am ready, added the colours - Adam, go ahead and combine. Entry is yours. Hafspajen (talk) 12:39, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Very spänstig, that entry now. Have you heard of cow-wisperers? Or The Rotherham Cow Whisperer? File:Freckles - The Rotherham Cow Whisperer (13968128718).jpg .... ? Hafspajen (talk) 14:24, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
...That is adorable. Can we find an article for that photo? Adam Cuerden (talk) 14:54, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Black babydoll? + ?Hafspajen (talk) 15:11, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
If'n it fits, and can stick in the article, sure! Maybe some modelling articles? Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:32, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Midriff? tea-gown? actually I don't know what that garment is. I soon start feeling dizzy wandering around all these undergarments - never knew they were so many. Hafspajen (talk) 15:52, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sagaciousphil is the fashion -girl, help. Hafspajen (talk) 15:55, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I second that call for @Sagaciousphil:. You're our only hope! (Sorry for the delay, was starting to set up Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2014-01-07/Featured_content) Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:07, 27 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, new she would have the answer. Hafspajen (talk) 11:23, 28 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I meant ... don't bother about this . Was maybe overly criptical. Hafspajen (talk) 13:53, 28 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

File:Alexander Nasmyth - A View of Edinburgh from the West - Google Art Project.jpg - Hafspajen (talk) 15:19, 28 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

That is stunning. Trying to figure out where it's from... File:Edinburgh_from_Corstorphine_Hill.jpg implies somewhere north of that part of Corstorphine Hill, although I think the hill's big enough that it might well be from there... Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:38, 28 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Own article or add to Edinb, that pic? I guess, if anybody could write a stubb on poor Jean it should be me, since the guy is a landscape architect. Not that I use to edit such topics. If somebody wants me to talk landscape architect- things with me, they should pay, that's my philosophy, but I can make an exception. Not much info about him, though. This - wonder how reliable is. Hafspajen (talk) 17:09, 28 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

File:Mulay Ahmed de Tunis (Hafsid).jpg - Hafsid (talk) 17:09, 28 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Happy New Year Adam Cuerden!

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Cheese

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[17] [18] [19] [20] [21]It’s my most dreaded would-you-rather question. Which would you rather give up, forever: cheese or sex?Hafspajen (talk) 11:07, 31 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Adam, may I add now back this: One of their best know aged cheese is the triple-cream, unctuous cheese with its rind washed with brine solution that encourages the development of the red-orange rind, called Red Hawk, named after its rind (pictured) - or something like that (or you) ? Or you still think it's too much? Left a message at Northamerica's + added to the article. Also, the article , I am pretty sure the article will be alright soon. Hafspajen (talk) 11:26, 31 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Well, maybe not. Hafspajen (talk) 11:38, 31 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I was out for a bit. I've edited down the article to remove repetition, and copied it over. Adam Cuerden (talk) 13:25, 31 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Adam? Are you upset? You know I was dreaming about you, and you were complaining about your girlfriends... Hafspajen (talk) 13:37, 31 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I was pretty sure North would fix it, but request got declined.Hafspajen (talk) 13:47, 31 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Hafspajen: Not upset. Just noting the issue with the article. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 14:17, 31 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Well good. Didn't bothered, because I was pretty sure North would fix it, until now North never declined anything; but fixed everything rather the same second one asked. But is probably the times. Hafspajen (talk) 14:20, 31 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Adam? Hafspajen (talk) 12:46, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: Sorry, did I miss something? I kind of presumed everything had been sorted at this point... I went to a party on the 31st, was a bit out of it on the 1st, and am just getting the basic stuff together today. Ceoil's question reminded me of an FP that's troubled me for a while, so I set up that delist. As you can see, I have strong views. Heh. Probably a good thing I'm giving a talk on illustrating history on Wikipedia next month here in Edinburgh. Adam Cuerden (talk) 12:48, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yes dear. Just remember we all love and appreciate you. Hafspajen (talk) 12:50, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Hafs! And you remember that too! =) Happy New Year! Adam Cuerden (talk) 12:52, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Do you like my new red talk? Hafspajen (talk) 12:52, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
 
A little bright and dark. I'd probably lighten it a bit so that the text on it was easier to read - say #FFAA88? A little yellow keeps it from looking too pink.
 
 
Perhaps even more subtle with #FFEEDD?
 
 
One could change the text colour, but the problem with that is that links, both blue and red links will still show their original colours. And it doesn't seem to like to work much...
 
Adam Cuerden (talk) 12:58, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Don't worry it is only for today. Tomorrow will be an other colour ... . Where can one find a full collection of theses colour codes? Hafspajen (talk) 13:05, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

LIKE the red with white letters. Hafspajen (talk) 13:07, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Do you know hexadecimal? The easiest way to get lots of colours is to know the basics of RGB colourspace. Then you can define a colour as #XXXXXX - where each XX is a hexadecimal number from 00 to FF, and the colours show which channel it's affecting.

Hexadecimal counts like so (using leading 0s): 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 0A, 0B, 0C, 0D, 0E, 0F, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F, 20...

Hexadecimal 20 is decimal 32. Hexadecimal FF is 255 decimal.

Now, what does this mean? You work in art, so I'm sure you've seen RGB colours before, e.g. 255 red, 100 green, 196 blue? If we convert those to hexadecimal: FF, 64, C4 - then smoosh them together and put a # in front of them, you get the background colour for this section, #FF64C4 - you use that in place of, "red".

So, how to convert to hexadecimal? Depends how much maths you feel like. You could look at a table: http://www.palmantics.com/html/hexadecimal/ You could also divide by 16, noting the remainder: 100/16= 6 remainder 4, so hexadecimal is 64 - but it gets more complex: 253/16 = 15 remainder 13, and then you're using those extra digits A=10, B=11, C=12, D=13, E=14, F=15 to get FD. It's probably easier, though, to just look at a table.

I generally just fiddle colours a bit. So if I want a yellow, I know that's about equal red and green in RGB space, blue less than both of them. A little extra red pushes it towards orange, which I like, so I'd probably try something like FFEE88 - the background colour here.

Alternatively you could use a graphics program to make a colour, then note its RGB settings. This is simple and easy! There's even a tool for it online, http://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.htm which even converts to hexadecimal for you! A little fiddling with that got me #9AFFE1 - this lovely colour Adam Cuerden (talk) 13:20, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]


@Hafspajen: By the way, if you ever want to make pretty templates, this is really useful to know. And if you want to make a darker version of a colour, I generally keep the RGB relation the same (E.g. if R < G < B then that should stay like that, but drop the numbers. For example:

#FFEEF3 text with a #550033 background.
#EE99CC background.

 
 
 
 
 



Cant really say I know the basics of RGB colourspace. - Actually, my idea was from the beginnig to get a colour like this: something like the photos here or a combination of those, but never managed to get it right. So I started to fool around. Hafspajen (talk) 14:46, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]


@Hafspajen:: Try #BA98EE - that should look pretty good. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:33, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]




Or, try #DF98EE

Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:35, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]



Yes, that's about it. Can you make it a shade warmer? More purplish? Just because I being curious of alternative. Hafspajen (talk) 16:36, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Oh you did it aleady. Thanks! Hafspajen (talk) 16:37, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Took the DF98EE for now... the other one looked actually almost pink. Is there something just in between those two? Hafspajen (talk) 16:43, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: Sorry, discovering Wikipedia_talk:WikiCup#WTF.3F.3F.3F stressed me the hell out... Well, there's a few betweens, of course, offhand:

#C098EE




#C598EE




#C998EE




#CF98EE




#D598EE




#D998EE



Adam Cuerden (talk) 19:39, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Lovely. Now I am absolutely happy with it. Took #C998EE . That Wikicup is really .... well. Hafspajen (talk) 19:47, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

FP

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Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin, c. 1435–1440. 137.5 x 110.8cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

I think this is clearly above par. I'm working the article towards FAC, but that will take many months. Would you think this repro is up there. Ceoil (talk) 04:14, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Ceoil: A lovely image, but it's under the minimum suggested resolution, and I think that would likely block it, given the amount of high-resolution copies of artwork passing through FPC. It's one of those things where if you bend standards too easily, you encourage people not to try to get better. Adam Cuerden (talk) 09:47, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki-farce 2015

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I wonder if uninvolved administration intervention is necessary to intervene in this experiment? --Godot13 (talk) 05:00, 3 January 2015 (UTC) Wikipedia:Please be a giant dick, so we can ban you . humor. Hafspajen (talk) 21:18, 3 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Fun stuff

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The Purple Impact Award
I hereby award you this Purple Impact Award for you solving the secret. --Hafspajen (talk) 02:02, 4 January 2015 (UTC) [reply]

ed note. :)Hafspajen (talk) 17:30, 4 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]


  • ... He kept his face arranged in an expression of amused disinterest, but his curiousity was piqued. ... She could feel the heat of his inquisitive look. .... She looked away from his bright eyes, up to his softly tousled hair, illuminated by the early light. (this kind of weird thigs come up with spellcheck of inquisitive) Hafspajen (talk) 18:14, 4 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Heh! What is that, some sort of romance potboiler? Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:44, 8 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Adam, you are supposed to make jokes not remove Mr Hyde. Come on, we never had anything so boring for a long time.... Hafspajen (talk) 23:44, 12 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: Not like the articles this week are a very fertile image set. I think I could get an FP out of that one, though. Give me a day to restore it, and it'll probably look a lot better; if not, the poster with Lombard fits better, I think. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:34, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Lombard is good too. Actually I like that best. I mean thinking in colours (and general layout) the images are very ... subdued - muted colours.... we need all colour and jokes we can get. Hafspajen (talk) 00:43, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Why is everybody removing this one? Tony is now a victim and a hostage detained and controlled against his will in a situation he did not consent to or desired. - I really tried to put all atmosphere of the Stockholm syndrome into it... Hafspajen (talk) 00:49, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: I see you thanked me for the new edit I made; will that do? Think a few well-chosen details are often more effective than a blunt description, and it's based on the short story "The Man Who Loved Dickens" so nice to get Dickens in there somewhere. Adam Cuerden (talk) 01:02, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Agree. Was only scientifically wondering. I am not hurt or anything ... just wanted to know how to do better next time... Hafspajen (talk) 01:07, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: I think the simplest way to explain it is that everything after "hostage" is more-or-less a definition of "hostage", and a "hostage" is a type of victim. Not enough specifics to make it breathe. "Show, don't tell" is a good maxim for summaries like this. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:11, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
what do you think of [Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Christopher Columbus|this]? Hafspajen (talk) 01:18, 13 January 2015 (UTC)I am going to revert to previous stage of the talk, do don't be surprized.[reply]
File:Navysealion.jpg
As for the Columbus image... it's the sort of annoying thing people do sometimes: good motives, poor understanding of what paintings look like. Not much we can do but try to get things to settle down, and renominate. You can see it on the one Hals image as well. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:27, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, true. The Sing looks great, we really need this, a rework, because one looses perspective while writing. I trust you and it is a relief that you finally got to it. was getting a bit nervous that you won't show up... the only thing I wanted to add was the mention of the ringers. Not that you can notice it in the picture... but I think naming clocks and ringing is so specifically English. A a set of 12 bells hung in the English style, typically for change ringing is rather unique. So I wrote ' The hour is struck on the clock called Great Dunstan, the largest bell in Kent 63cwt (3.2 tonnes). The ringers practice on Thursday at 7.15pm. - and added a link about change ringing. Maybe wasn't that explicite but there was an idea behind it. This is unknown in other parts of the world... and very interesting. Hafspajen (talk) 14:26, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: As I said - I liked what I cut, but I think that it could detract if we talk too much about things not in the image. I'd suggest that any photo of a church from the outside, though, or one that showed bell ropes, would be eminently suitable for discussion of bell ringing? User:Diliff/UK Cathedral photography shows several sets coming up that include exteriors. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:19, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Adam, please, if you nominate the pictures I put on my page or Crisco's could you please ask first - is that OK, do you have any plans with those? Do you want to go co- nom maybe? Otherwise I will stop putting those pictures om my talk and Criscos. It feels like I am making efforts to find good pics, and ... well, not being asked at all. Hafspajen (talk) 02:50, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

File:A Game of Cricket (The Royal Academy Club in Marylebone Fields, now Regent's Park) - Google Art Project.jpg
@Hafspajen: I do apologise: Ifrankly thought that was why you were putting them there (and I did find a much larger copy, at least). Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:46, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Sorry. Some are and some not, I guess. Maybe wasn't very clear on it. I am in bad mood, my best friend left Wiki it looks like and Sca is angry with me whatever I do and ... I am just sad. May stand as a co-nom at least? Hafspajen (talk) 03:51, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
If you think it is OK, just copy and paste : Support as co-nom Hafspajen (talk) 03:58, 14 January 2015 (UTC) . And by the way why don't you want to be in the van Gogh co-nom? 17 pics not that bad... Hafspajen (talk) 03:58, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'd have to review all of them first. I can't very well support something I haven't reviewed. And sorry to hear about your friend leaving. Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:57, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. The friend is Sagaciousphil, by the way. Hafspajen (talk) 19:31, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
She's back. I am going to revert to previous stage of the talk, do don't be surprized. Cricket is yours if you want it. Hafspajen (talk) 22:22, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I'm glaad she's back, anyway. She's a good editor, and nice person. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:44, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thomas Daniell - Tiger Hunting in the East Indies
??? Are you tired of purple? Hafspajen (talk) 22:51, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Was just feeling colour-designy, and thought I'd start thinking ahead. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:53, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Looks like Perdo is getting reverted. Hafspajen (talk) 01:05, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
*eyes the talk page* ...Wow, that escalated quickly. Adam Cuerden (talk) 01:33, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's this: horse show dressure, Hafspajen (talk) 02:09, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, why am I not surprized that he popped up at FP... Say, you are not deliberately avoiding these? They were placed here for a certain reason. ..Hafspajen (talk) 06:17, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The damn Pedro thing rather distracted me... Adam Cuerden (talk) 06:28, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Dresden. Zwinger & Sophienkirche. - Detroit Publishing Co.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on January 23, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-01-23. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 13:54, 4 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Kustodiev

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Boris Kustodiev: Shrovetide (1916)

Adam, thanks for nominating Shrovetide. Сте́нька (talk) 19:30, 5 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]


The High Rollers

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Love the horse on roller skates. Sca (talk) 14:35, 8 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Saw this at the time, but forgot to mention: Thanks, Sca! There's some images I restore because they're important, some I just want to... Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:35, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A favor, potentially

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Hey Adam, I was looking at SMS Dresden (1907), as I'm getting ready to do some work on it in preparation for a run at ACR/FAC to try to run it on the anniversary of the ship's sinking in March 1915, and I was thinking File:SMS Dresden 1909 LOC det 4a16116.jpg might be a good candidate for a FP - I don't know how much work would be required to get it there, or if you have any interest in doing it, but I thought I'd ask. Thanks, Parsecboy (talk) 14:49, 9 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Parsecboy: Not too bad! Got all of the gross damage cleaned off, just need to go in and get all the fine detail done. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:49, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks! I've just started digging through Hildebrand et. al. for the rewrite - hopefully I'll be done in a few days and can put it up for ACR soon. March isn't that far away - it kinda crept up on me :) Parsecboy (talk) 01:30, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Just out of curiosity, I'm guessing there's not much you can do with the current lead image, is there? I think the top corner is probably too washed out for you to be able to do anything with, FP-wise. Parsecboy (talk) 14:16, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Parsecboy: Oh, I don't know: the information's there, at least. You can sometimes deal with that through a series of careful burn tools or levels adjustments. Checking it at full res, it at least looks potentially fixable. Certainly to the extent of improving it for the article. Adam Cuerden (talk) 14:32, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
That would be great, either way I suppose. I'd prefer that to be the lead image, since the Hudson photo of course fits nicely in the paragraphs on the visit. Parsecboy (talk) 15:35, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Parsecboy: The other one is about 50% done, but I'll see if I can't at least get a quick mockup done right now so that the lead can be improved. Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:58, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Parsecboy: Lead image is somewhat improved! Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:04, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, it looks significantly better now! Parsecboy (talk) 17:07, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Parsecboy: Few more tweaks. Not sure if it'll pass FPC (It is a little blurry), but, at the least, I can get you a good lead, and the other will easily pass FPC. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:38, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Illustrated War News, Dec. 23, 1914, page 38, left side - Darwan Sing Negi.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 20:46, 10 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It would be nice if you could close this one for me. Thanks. Armbrust The Homunculus 20:12, 11 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Advice: File:Marine da nang.jpg

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I hope you can give me some advice. Some time ago, I reworked File:Marine da nang.jpg with what I consider better colour balance (and higher resolution) using File:Da Nang, Vietnam. A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing. - NARA - 532432.tif as a source - resulting in this image. It was reverted six months later since "FP's shouldn't be overwritten."

It seems to me that the current version has significant colour balance issues (redness in shadows, too green in highlights) and should be replaced with the restored one.

Is there a way to do this? (Hohum @) 17:24, 12 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Credit for Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-01-21/Featured content

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Hi Adam, I prefer to be "Rod" but that username was taken when I started (2004) so "Rodw" is my username (the w is for Ward) so either is OK by me - thanks.— Rod talk 07:01, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for advice I didn't know Wikipedia:Changing username/Usurpations was an option (or I would have done it years ago) but seeing as so many people know me as Rodw I might as well stick with that. — Rod talk 17:43, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on February 1, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-02-01. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 12:30, 13 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Seven Ages of Man

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Robert Smirke have a collection of The Seven Ages of Man paintings. We have them unused in Wikipedia. If we could use them in the related article and/or nominate them for FPC will be great. They are from the google art project. Here they are:

--The Herald : here I am 13:53, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@The Herald: Let's start from the beginning.

  • Do we have an article on the artist? Yes we do: Robert Smirke (painter).
  • Is All the world's a stage overcrowded? No. If anything, it's underillustrated.
  • Are there any problems that might arise? Possibly: The images are somewhat faded, so might be hard to make out clearly at thumbnail.
  • What can we do, then?
    1. The Seven Ages of Men aren't an uncommon art subject. There's some engravings at the LoC from the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery; there's the Mulready and Kindersley art in the article already. New article on The Seven Ages of Man in art?
    2. Put them into Smirke's article: If All the world's a stage is underillustrated, Robert Smirke (painter) is even moreso. And a nice set of art wouldn't go amiss.
    3. Make the gallery a bit larger: <gallery mode=packed heights=250> might take up a fair chunk of space, but I doubt anyone would really object. I wouldn't use hover in an article, though.
    4. Can they merit a solo article? If there's enough information out there, a reasonably-high-quality article on a well-reproduced painting/set of paintings should, by itself, be enough reason to promote.

Adam Cuerden (talk) 01:31, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yeh..I think we need an article The Seven Ages of Men in art. That would fix the problems. --The Herald : here I am 12:14, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Its created... would be great if you could patrol and review it.. - The Herald (here I am) 12:36, 18 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Johannes van den Bosch.jpeg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 22:48, 14 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Frans Hals - Claes Duyst van Voorhout.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 01:44, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Jan Bugle

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Hi Adam, looking to prepare this month's Bugle for dispatch in the next few days, what sort of timeframe are you looking at for FPs and your book review (remembering we could always hold the latter over for next month if it's easier)? Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 02:05, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Let's try for one week, and I'll try to do it sooner than that. FPs can be done tomorrow. This should go back to being done near-instantaneously once I've caught up from the holiday fully. Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:15, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Boris Kustodiev - Shrovetide - Google Art Project.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 12:43, 15 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A Dobos torte for you!

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7&6=thirteen () has given you a Dobos Torte to enjoy! Seven layers of fun because you deserve it.


To give a Dobos Torte and spread the WikiLove, just place {{subst:Dobos Torte}} on someone else's talkpage, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend.

7&6=thirteen () 19:35, 17 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

What Wikibreak?

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Present image
Google Art Project image
The two alternative images displayed side-by-side

Adam... Now. Is this about the Wikipedia:Featured article review/Pedro I of Brazil/archive1 ? Hafspajen (talk) 19:37, 17 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

OH, sorry never noticed the commons:Commons:Deletion requests/File:Anônimo - D. Pedro, Duque de Bragança.JPG - and the rest of the mess at Talk:Pedro I of Brazil . Hafspajen (talk) 19:50, 17 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Now, when displayed like this it shows clearly that their preffered version is rather blue. Looks like the Columbus situation, a bit. But then they are not experts on images. Maybe you should nominate BOTH as a FP and get a response at FP. Hafspajen (talk) 19:55, 17 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Here is a rather god explanation of what a google file is. Hafspajen (talk) 18:43, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Arbitration case request declined

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You were named in a case request Infobox_nationality_of_people_from_the_UK which was declined by the Arbitration Committee. The committee concluded that one issue in the case was content, which is outside the remit of the committee, and the remaining behavioral issues should be handled by the usual processes. The arbitrators comments can be found at the Permalink to arbitrators decisions For the arbitration Committee --S Philbrick(Talk) 20:40, 18 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sign Post Draft

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Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-01-21/Featured content

A very nice Ophelia

Hey Adam, I guess I ended up doing most of the signpost "Featured Section" this week to helpout User:Hafspajen and I guess he was in a conflict with some others, that I hope has resolved itself but for now, I am willing to contribute and assist in this on a regular basis if you like. As this is my first go around here, please LMK what your thoughts are, about the current draft when you have a moment. Thank you. talk→ WPPilot  19:38, 19 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@WPPilot: I'll look at this after a nap. Kind of ill today. Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:11, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • It looks like you got a flu. If that's it, I can only tell you what my dad always tells me: (he is a real doctor, you know the kind that cures people)= stay warm, don't go out in the cold, DRINK lots and lots of WARM liquids - preferably tea with a slice of lemon with it, that's really important, drinking warm drinks. You feel so weird because the bastards produce a lot of poisonous bi-products that has to be urgently washed out from the body. Don't start exercising and jump around but take a good book put on a warm cover, kick that cat out of your room, and drink your warm drinks, 1 cup every second hour or so, and give nature a chance to heal. ( do not drink alcohol, that just ads to the strain on your body - that will have to work twice as much to get rid of the poisons and the alcohol too, don't do that). Hafspajen (talk) 14:06, 21 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Keep going on with my evil conspirations. Hafspajen (talk) 00:29, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Those are gorgeous. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:49, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland (1640–1702), painted in classical dress in Rome by Carlo Maratti
Proud to be featured article writer again: the nine were not promoted "this week", "mine" for example 9 January, about two weeks ago, - what do you think of "promoted since the last edition"? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 00:55, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Gerda Arendt: Not seeing "This Week". If you point me to it, I can probably give a better opinion. If it's something like "This week's featured content report" I'd say that "this week's" was intended to modify "report", and am not quite sure that "promoted since the last edition" would clarify much, as that still implies it's up to the time published. Adam Cuerden (talk) 02:09, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I don't now about you but I never counted BIG muscles as a +. Hafspajen (talk) 18:37, 27 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Eh, and I think most fashion models look like scary praying mantises. Our opinion doesn't matter matter matter matter matter. Adam Cuerden (talk) 18:45, 27 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
the ones you speak of
just pour your heart out on the floor
You don't know how to handle it
but you know you'll be back for more
Don't mind the lipstick colours
we look a million dollars
shades in a thousand colours
stay on the lookout for us
Now


I want ye Hafspajen (talk) 19:05, 27 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
to do that. Hafspajen (talk) 22:20, 27 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Why? Hafspajen (talk) 22:41, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Seven Ages of Man

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The Queen of Chinatown by Joseph Jarrow, Broadway poster, 1899

@Hafspajen: As you both know, I have made The seven ages of man. But I am not sure what is meant by engraving as given here. Can you explain that? Is it that Smirke and those engravers worked together to produce a painitng or something like that?  - The Herald (here I am) 14:02, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@The Herald: No, the engravers made the reproduction of the painting in that book. Don't worry too much about it for the original paintings, other than saying "engravings by John Ogborne, based on the paintings were used in the [blah] edition of As You Like it", or (but only if you have a cite specifically saying this) "The paintings were made for the [blah] edition of As You Like it, for which they were turned into printable engravings by John Ogborne." - this is true more often than you'd think, but really needs a cite. Adam Cuerden (talk) 14:53, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, given the introduction to the book you linked says they're Boydell Shakespeare Gallery works, I think I can link you to the orginal engravings based on these. The LoC has a bunch of Boydell prints. And you can borrow sources from said article.
  1. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/pga.02309/
  2. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003677799/

Others: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/pga.02784/

Think the other ages might be on the LoC, but I do remember the Boydell works are badly indexed. Adam Cuerden (talk) 14:59, 20 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

thanks. but I don't know how to link the in the article. In lead or in the stages section. Confused. Can you? 15:09, 20 January 2015 (UTC) - The Herald (here I am)

Thanks

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https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Newsroom&diff=642249157&oldid=642248943 Hafspajen (talk) 17:51, 21 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A brownie for you!

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I like kittens they are cute
TMatchy (talk) 18:59, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

WWI French POW camp money

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I'm at the Smithsonian and found a large box of WWI French POW camp scrip. Not my thing but do you know anyone involved with military history that might have interest in some scans based on location?--Godot13 (talk) 21:09, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It's not called America's attic for nothing!--Wehwalt (talk) 21:45, 22 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Godot13: Have you asked at WT:MILHIST? I'm pretty sure they would be. Also, try Jebulon. Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:51, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CVI, January 2015

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Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 13:27, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Still

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Seaside

It was a fine point. But I coudn't have added it until now since I never realized it that it was the very same picture, the same pic Crisco featured. I only realized that when I checked the 100 kr. bill... You know one doesn't really check the bills for artwork, well at least not me. Godot maybe does it. I only use them to pay and keep them in my pocket... Hafspajen (talk) 15:06, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Hafspajen: I know, and I'm not saying don't add things, just to be careful to proofread: it's really easy to screw up grammar when doing complicated links and such. In this case, it read "...this Roslin's portrait." at the end of the sentence, which is quite a grammatical mess [in case that works in Swedish, in English, that means "the portrait of this Roslin" not "this portrait by Roslin"]. Adam Cuerden (talk) 15:49, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I know, you are probably quite right about it. I generally never add anything more since we go live. But this time I kinda broke that unwritten law already when I had to correct the Capitol, so I became less careful, and in the end I thought I might add this too. Was rather nervous about the Capitol thing too. Did you checked that? Hafspajen (talk) 15:57, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
To be or not to be funny
That looks fine. Don't worry too much about it. In the end, we are a wiki, it's not like any minor issues will become fixed. =) Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:15, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I wasn't sure about meagre or not. It was the spellcheck, I think it is on USA English. Sometimes it insists to change British spelling to American. Whenever I recognize it, I don't change it. Like colour to color, and such. Sometines I am not quite sure why it is indicating a change. Hafspajen (talk) 16:32, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Here a lovely Portrait. File:Vincent van Gogh - Self-Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg Hafspajen (talk) 22:11, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
OK if you are sure. Hafspajen (talk) 22:31, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Eh, Adam?? Now what kind of layout is that? Hafspajen (talk) 00:25, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Well, we might as well give up Muller, he doesn't fit. What do you think of it now? Hafspajen (talk) 01:00, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm. John the Baptist is looking a little lost with the shape similarity obscured by a dissimilar. I think I'd have Royal Kurgan instead of John in that case, since my one worry is that we make FP look like only paintings. Adam Cuerden (talk) 01:16, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Now what? I like John in the sky with diamonds. Fits the amfetamin -thing too. I really liked the idea with the hands. Hafspajen (talk) 01:28, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Eh ... what did we omitted? As photos, Muller, a church and a grave. As for the paintings: Men of the Docks and Dance Lesson . Hafspajen (talk) 01:31, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Wonder what he gave her to drink
That's pretty much even. If we have a lot of place we can try to squeze in ...Muller? Hafspajen (talk) 01:36, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hafs, we know there's going to be tons more room. No need to remove anything, we can do more tweaking when things go in. I'm half tempted to make a side image of Shrovetide - much as I like it - and do Muller and Royal Kurgan as a final gallery, but I want to see how it looks with text first. We may be overloaded with galleries. Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:39, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, that Chauvannes is WONDERFUL. I love the Hamlet too, but couldn't find anything higher-res. Adam Cuerden (talk) 04:43, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
UGHuhuhg. That thing RKugg is a grave. I don't want to put Muller in a grave before his time is outHafspajen (talk) 14:19, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
You really are sensitive to anything related to death, aren't you? I shall try to watch. Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:14, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

PS: Feel free to nominate Chav, but keep in mid that it was added recently. Hafspajen (talk) 14:21, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This guy has been there for long, on the other hand. Hafspajen (talk) 14:41, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ooh, nice one. Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:20, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No worries. I'll do my best not to emphasize them in future, or, if there's something that might need emphasized, will add it last minute. Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:35, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Hafspajen: That counts? There's noone buried there anymore. Anyway, hidden. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:37, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:The Miracle at the Grave of Elisha by Jan Nagel (d 1602).jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 20:41, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
BTW your talk page became quite large now, so I strongly suggesting archiving a big chunk from it. Regards, Armbrust The Homunculus 22:29, 23 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem - The Fall of the Titans - Google Art Project.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 04:20, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Thomas Hicks - Leopold Grozelier - Presidential Candidate Abraham Lincoln 1860 - cropped to lithographic plate.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on February 12, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-02-12. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 11:15, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

October–December 2014 Milhist reviewing award

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Military history reviewers' award
For completing 4 reviews during October–December 2014, on behalf of the Wikiproject Military History coordinators, I hereby award you the Military history reviewers' award. Cheers, Peacemaker67 (crack... thump) 23:25, 24 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Keep track of upcoming reviews. Just copy and paste {{WPMILHIST Review alerts}} to your user space

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The Sigh-post Four Hundred two hundred? One hundred? Years ago ...

Is about complete if you care to redress to summaries. Cheers! talk→ WPPilot  07:48, 26 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

What happened with the bIg Wikilove from this morning? Hafspajen (talk) 18:45, 27 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Turns out it was an attempt to spam. A failed one. Adam Cuerden (talk) 18:53, 27 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sigh... And me, I always wanted to be 28 January... 28 January (talk) 18:45, 27 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Easy come easy go :) talk→ WPPilot  04:23, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Sigh-post..... and a blue jacket. Hafspajen (talk) 14:27, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think we could let Pilot have it his way... why not. Hafspajen (talk) 18:37, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Hafspajen: Can you please not add comments to sections they have nothing to do with? I have no idea what you're talking about. Adam Cuerden (talk) 19:58, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Sign lead pic, Adam. Hafspajen (talk) 21:29, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, god, yes, I forgot about that. Sorry. It's been a rough day. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:31, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Has it been SO rough that you are very tired or you will look at the slimmed version (today or some time is convenient) ? Hafspajen (talk) 22:26, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I hate to say it, but... it's... problematic. Adam Cuerden (talk) 22:56, 1 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Is it? Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-02-04/Featured content - slimmed version. What are the problems? Stil too long? Hafspajen (talk) 08:48, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Meant the 11th. I haven't even started copyediting the 4th, and won't until Wednesday. Adam Cuerden (talk) 09:08, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Howh. Hafspajen (talk) 16:52, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I let you sort that out. I will not edit this one, I was thinking about it but back off, leave diff if it might dissapear again. You have been away a while, but you are the chief redactor who has the main responsability. Hafspajen (talk) 18:27, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know what Xanthomelanoussprog say - but I let you sort out this you two. Hafspajen (talk) 18:32, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

File:William Hodges - Jacques and the Wounded Stag- 'As You Like It,' Act II, Scene I - Google Art Project.jpg

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Hey Adam,
How's my restoration for File:William Hodges - Jacques and the Wounded Stag- 'As You Like It,' Act II, Scene I - Google Art Project.jpg done with AKVIS?

@The Herald: Probably ill-advised, I fear: Changing things about paintings is usually frowned upon, unless they're something like an uncalibrated LoC scan. Adam Cuerden (talk) 06:33, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

So I'll revert it, right? BTW, since you have closed this discussion, I think the result must be posted in the Project page.  - The Herald (here I am) 15:10, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@The Herald: Aye, probably for the best. I'm afraid that's one of the FPC minefields.
As for the discussion - it needed a consensus check, but now that a few people have responded, I've implemented it. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:57, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2014 Year In Review Awards

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The WikiProject Barnstar
For your outstanding contributions for Featured Pictures in 2014 you are hereby award this WikiProject Barnstar. Congratulations! For the Military history Wikiproject Coordinators, TomStar81 (Talk) 08:26, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
WikiProject Ships Barnstar
For your outstanding Featured Picture contributions to various ship related articles you are hereby awarded this Ships Barnstar. Congratulations! For the Military history Wikiproject Coordinators, TomStar81 (Talk) 08:27, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Chevron with Oak Leaves!

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The WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves
On behalf of the Coordinators of the Military history Wikiproject I take great pleasure in awarding you the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves for the unprecedented amount of media you have endeavored to bring up to Featured-Class for the project. This includes, but is not limited to, featured pictures, featured images, and featured paintings, which have helped illustrate numerous articles within our scope. For the Coordinators of the Military history WikiProject, TomStar81 (Talk) 08:56, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Incidentally, you are also the first recipient of this award in 2015. Congratulations again. TomStar81 (Talk) 08:56, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Congratulations Adam! Nick-D (talk) 09:20, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you so much, I really am overwhelmed by the project's kindness. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:03, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Bonus muscles

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File:"A New Sandow Pose (VII)", Eugen Sandow Wellcome L0035269.jpg

Hafspajen (talk) 15:17, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yay, forgot about that woman. Hafspajen (talk) 23:19, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No idea what you're talking about, sorry. If it's one of the van Goghs, I'm not putting three images by him while cutting other artists. Adam Cuerden (talk) 23:36, 29 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

HWOHO - no, thanks, no more van Goghs. Hafspajen (talk) 00:06, 30 January 2015 (UTC) Pillar of Salt? Hafspajen (talk) 00:16, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

[edit]
George Morland

Also pinging Hafspajen WPPilot and Xanthomelanoussprog: Hey there, I wanted to formally introduce myself; I'm Ben/Go Phightins!, a new co-editor-in-chief for the Signpost. I look forward to working with all of you; featured content is one of the best, most reliable, and most interesting sections in the paper. One concern I have, though, is that it seems to be getting pretty long. I am wondering if there are things we can do to perhaps shorten it a little bit not only for the sake of the readers, who might see a lot of text and just skim, but also for you guys not to have so much pressure each week. I am not sure what the best answer is, and I am certainly open to suggestions, but I was wondering if perhaps an easier approach right up your alley would be the title of the content, a one-sentence summary, a tongue-in-cheek comment of some sort, and then pivot to the next one. It could probably be done in a few sentences for each entry, which might make everything a little easier for you and the readers. This is not a directive, and nothing is set in stone, so if you have better ideas or want to sell me on the current length, I am all ears, but just wanted to make a suggestion. Keep up the excellent work! All the best, Go Phightins! 04:08, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello new co-editor-in-chief Go Phightins!, I am new latest editor to join this party and I have been doing many of the summaries for the last two published issues. I have tried to reduce the descriptions to a paragraph at best, but when you have 33 FP's (and creators that are as famous as famous can get) as we do in the current draft, it is really tedious stripping the refs out, and consolidating the text. Haffy (thank you for inviting me here btw) has been helpful with support. I can certainly trim down our descriptions a bit but with the noteworthy subject that this current draft has it is rough. If anyone has suggestion by all means LMK. Cheers..talk→ WPPilot  04:38, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Go Phightins! Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 08:15, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Lola Has Come c. 1852
  • Go go go Phightins! Hey, you have a point there. An easier approach could probably be better than a lot of heavy info that is already in the article anyway. And of course it would make everything a little easier the readers. Probably not for us, thought .... Sigh, gosh we do try to be entertaining, sigh - but it is hard work. Hafspajen (talk) 16:43, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Aye. Let's not try to summarize everything if we can link to an article. We need to give enough that the FC is interesting to read - very easy to get boring if you remove all detail - and we also want it long enough that we can illustrate it, of course. But we've been getting longer and longer, and it's time we cut back a little. Adam Cuerden (talk) 16:50, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • Agree, if you cannot explain your message in a sentence or two, you're trying to cover too much. I think people want to get their interest awaked, but not overpowered by too much academic information. Later, if they want, they can always look it up in the article later. Hafspajen (talk) 17:19, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Glad we are on the same page, and I hadn't thought of the point about it being long enough to illustrate, so thanks for bringing that up. You guys do a great job keeping it funny/interesting with subtle humor and such ... I just think it is getting a little long. Thanks! Go Phightins! 22:12, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Well, we kept the new one on a diet. It slimmed a bit now. Hafspajen (talk) 22:53, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
talk→ WPPilot  00:59, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Mucha banknote

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Mucha-designed artwork on a 1920 Republic of Czechoslovakia 100 Korun note.
Mucha-designed artwork on a 1920 Republic of Czechoslovakia 100 Korun note.

Sunlight!

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Sunshine!
Hello Adam Cuerden! Bananasoldier (talk) has given you a bit of sunshine to brighten your day! Sunshine promotes WikiLove and hopefully it has made your day better. Spread the sunshine by adding {{subst:User:Meaghan/Sunshine}} to someone else's talk page, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. In addition, you can spread the sunshine to anyone who visits your userpage and/or talk page by adding {{User:Meaghan/Sunshine icon}}. Happy editing! Bananasoldier (talk) 08:35, 30 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:R. V. C. Bodley restoration.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on February 19, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-02-19. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 19:18, 31 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor News 2015—#1

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Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on VisualEditor's appearance, the coming Citoid reference service, and support for languages with complex input requirements. Status reports are posted on Mediawiki.org. Upcoming plans are posted at the VisualEditor roadmap.

The Wikimedia Foundation has named its top priorities for this quarter (January to March). The first priority is making VisualEditor ready for deployment by default to all new users and logged-out users at the remaining large Wikipedias. You can help identify these requirements. There will be weekly triage meetings which will be open to volunteers beginning Wednesday, 11 February 2015 at 12:00 (noon) PST (20:00 UTC). Tell Vice President of Engineering Damon Sicore, Product Manager James Forrester and other team members which bugs and features are most important to you. The decisions made at these meetings will determine what work is necessary for this quarter's goal of making VisualEditor ready for deployment to new users. The presence of volunteers who enjoy contributing MediaWiki code is particularly appreciated. Information about how to join the meeting will be posted at mw:Talk:VisualEditor/Portal shortly before the meeting begins.

Due to some breaking changes in MobileFrontend and VisualEditor, VisualEditor was not working correctly on the mobile site for a couple of days in early January. The teams apologize for the problem.

Recent improvements

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The new design for VisualEditor aligns with MediaWiki's Front-End Standards as led by the Design team. Several new versions of the OOjs UI library have also been released, and these also affect the appearance of VisualEditor and other MediaWiki software extensions. Most changes were minor, like changing the text size and the amount of white space in some windows. Buttons are consistently color-coded to indicate whether the action:

  • starts a new task, like opening the ⧼visualeditor-toolbar-savedialog⧽ dialog:  blue ,
  • takes a constructive action, like inserting a citation:  green ,
  • might remove or lose your work, like removing a link:  red , or
  • is neutral, like opening a link in a new browser window:  gray.

The TemplateData editor has been completely re-written to use a different design (T67815) based on the same OOjs UI system as VisualEditor (T73746). This change fixed a couple of existing bugs (T73077 and T73078) and improved usability.

Search and replace in long documents is now faster. It does not highlight every occurrence if there are more than 100 on-screen at once (T78234).

Editors at the Hebrew and Russian Wikipedias requested the ability to use VisualEditor in the "Article Incubator" or drafts namespace (T86688, T87027). If your community would like VisualEditor enabled on another namespace on your wiki, then you can file a request in Phabricator. Please include a link to a community discussion about the requested change.

Looking ahead

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

We will need editors to help test the new design of the special character inserter, especially if you speak Welsh, Breton, or another language that uses diacritics or special characters extensively. The new version should be available for testing next week. Please contact User:Whatamidoing (WMF) if you would like to be notified when the new version is available. After the special character tool is completed, VisualEditor will be deployed to all users at Phase 5 Wikipedias. This will affect about 50 mid-size and smaller Wikipedias, including Afrikaans, Azerbaijani, Breton, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mongolian, Tatar, and Welsh. The date for this change has not been determined.

Let's work together

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Subscribe or unsubscribe at Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter. Translations are available through Meta. Thank you! Whatamidoing (WMF) 20:23, 2 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

FC

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What's up with the missing picture of the spider? Am I missing a joke? Gamaliel (talk) 05:49, 4 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Brady camera

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Historic Mathew Brady Studio Camera, circa Early 1860s
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Norman Saunders - cover of Marvel Science Stories for April-May 1939.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 11:41, 10 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I know that feel bro

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I'm sorry to see that are involved in a (probably irrational by now) argument with those 2 editors. We went through the exact same problem at Juan Manuel de Rosas a while ago, because these editors judged which images were correct and which weren't based entirely on written descriptions and their own interpretations of them, in clear violation with WP:OR.

Over time, I've tried to stay away from that article as it has become a WP:BATTLEGROUND on which both editors apply spurious tactics to impose their will. They are difficult to spot for someone outside the discussion, but as I've been through the same myself, without inspecting thoroughly what happened at Dom Pedro I, I believe I know it well. However, I strongly urge you to keep your head cool throughout it, because if you breach WP:CIVIL when discussing this with any editor, it will ultimately be detrimental to your reasonable arguments and Wikipedia as a whole.

Also, while Dom Pedro is related to Brazilian history, you should know that Lecen has a problematic background on history articles.

Cheers. --Langus (t) 22:36, 10 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sf magazines

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Adam, I've had a look in the basement and can get to some issues of Fantastic Adventures, Planet Stories, and Startling Stories; most of which are out of copyright. If you're still interested I'll pull out a couple and scan them -- let me know. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 23:37, 10 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Mike Christie: Well, let's start with the easy checks: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/firstperiod.html says Startling Stories will be more difficult to prove (renewed from v.1 issue 1, but may have others out of copyright. Fantastic Adventures and Planet Stories aren't listed there. According to the start, "The list below should include all of the more than 1000 periodicals that renewed issue copyrights (for 1923-1950 issues) between 1950 and 1977, all the periodicals with contribution renewals made between 1950 and 1953 (further years are in preparation), and selected periodicals that renewed between 1978 and 1992, or that did not renew their copyrights. (After 1992, copyright renewal was no longer required.) This may be useful as a guide to people who are interested in digitizing certain periodicals, to point out serials for which further copyright research may be fruitful."

So, while I would hesitate to look into interior matter, I think we're safe enough with covers for Fantastic Adventures and Planet Stories. Preferably ones with under-represented artists. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:04, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

OK, the first box I pulled open has Fantastic Adventures from July 1950 through February 1951, plus April 1951. You can see the covers here in lower res. A list of the artists can be seen here for 1950 and here for 1951. Just three artists in this lot: Robert Gibson Jones, Harold W. McCauley, and Arnold Kohn. McCauley and Jones are moderately well-known in the field; Kohn less so. Any preferences which one I pick? And should I upload to Commons or just email them to you? And what format do you prefer? I don't use this scanner much but I'm sure I can produce jpegs or tif files or whatever works best for you. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 02:06, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Since I had them out and was fiddling with the scanner I went ahead and scanned all but two of them as 600 dpi jpgs. Let me know if you need something different, and how you want to get them. I skipped October 1950 since it's already on Commons, although at a low res; and I skipped February 1951 since my copy is missing a chip on the right side of about a square inch, which is more than I think could be replaced by image repair work -- unless the image linked above is good enough as a source for the fixes? The chip has removed most of the purple and white striped loincloth on the right of that picture. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 02:44, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Mike Christie: Given that I need to show the source images anyway, upload to Commons. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/firstperiod.html only goes up to 1950, so I'd better not do the 1951 images without additional checks... How about we start with October? It's in the article already. Adam Cuerden (talk) 03:09, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Done: File:Robert Gibson Jones - cover of Fantastic Adventures for October 1950.jpg. The mark near the top of the second "T" in the title is a pencil mark that should be removed, and in case it's not obvious, the tiny black mark an inch below the "U" of Hubbard is a scar, not part of the picture. Re the Marvel Science Stories cover, I just took a look at another copy and realized that your restoration has a tiny flaw -- you had to recreate the last letter of the faint pink writing on the wall behind the woman. It appears from the other copy that that letter should be an "O" -- not sure if that's something you would want to change. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 11:24, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I see what you mean. I'll fix that tomorrow. Adam Cuerden (talk) 01:17, 15 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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I've noticed that you're active on the featured-pictures page. I admit that I know little about FPC or the requirements for featured pictures, but what about File:Planisphæri cœleste.jpg? Aside fron the image's title (which should be Planisphærium cœleste) and the obvious paper folds, this seems to me to be a really encyclopedic image, showing a stellar map, the various theories of the universe current at the time, and much more. At full size, the textual matter is quite clear. Is it worth restoring (to get rid of the folds), is it a lost cause, or is it something that might be nominated? Deor (talk) 00:22, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

File:LwHUy0eHaSBScQ edited by DrKiernan.jpg

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As noted in the protection summary, this is just meant for use in his userspace; presumably that's why he uploaded it here instead of to Commons. There's a big difference between edits for a file meant only for local userspace and edits for a file meant for mainspace, since only the latter will appear to ordinary readers. Nyttend (talk) 13:05, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm happy to label this as modified in the description as well as file name. The description is only basic because I didn't see the point of putting in much effort when I intend to delete the file if it is not accepted.
If you really want to see a crappy bleached out copy then look at http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/403708/pedro-iv-of-portugal-emperor-of-brazil-1798-1834 ! Truly terrible. DrKiernan (talk) 17:48, 12 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@DrKiernan: I'd label it: Thing is, things meant for one purpose have a habit of migrating to other purposes sometimes. And, honestly, given the vagaries of lighting, I can't really get up much objection to yours: paint isn't printer ink: You can never perfectly reproduce a painting. It might go a little far, but...
The problem is when you leave that range. Hint, by the way: I'm not sure what tool you're using, but you're making your blacks light as well as your highlights. Try small tweaks to contrast or, better yet, using the "levels" tool [don't use autolevel, though, ever, and I wouldn't tweak any of the RGB, just the overall level]. Adam Cuerden (talk) 00:14, 13 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Alex Schomburg - Harl Vincent - Marvel Science Stories for April-May 1939 - Illustration for Newscast.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 22:46, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Official program - Woman suffrage procession March 3, 1913 - crop.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on March 3, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-03-03. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:48, 13 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]


Valentine Greets!!!

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Valentine Greets!!!

Hello Adam Cuerden, love is the language of hearts and is the feeling that joins two souls and brings two hearts together in a bond. Taking love to the level of Wikipedia, spread the WikiLove by wishing each other Happy Valentine's Day, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person.
Sending you a heartfelt and warm love on the eve,
Happy editing,
 - T H (here I am) 12:00, 13 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Spread the love by adding {{subst:Valentine Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

Possible FPC

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Hello Adam Cuerden,

Since you seem to be the de facto authority on such matters: what impression have you as to this image. I personally think it's gorgeous and might meet the FP criteria but since I've never really dabbled in the area, I'd like to put you to the question. The image depicts the Bombardment of Salé, by the way. Thank you, --ceradon (talkcontribs) 03:31, 15 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An International High Noon Divorce

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Thank Adam Cuerden so much! I think it is a interesting picture. But the top part is brighter than the bottom part. And perhaps a little crop would be nice. Thank you!--Paris 16 (talk) 02:09, 16 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

My answer. Thank again!--Paris 16 (talk) 08:05, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Vaxholmsleden February 2013 02 (crop).jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates.  - T H (here I am) 12:47, 16 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I posted the template on the creator's page..-- - T H (here I am) 12:47, 16 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Feb Bugle

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Ready for FPs anytime you are, Adam... Tks/cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 21:38, 16 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Draft ?

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New Solar System
- Otis Skinner as Col. Philippe Bridau

Where is next draft Hafspajen (talk) 21:51, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

please? Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 12:50, 18 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

AHEM; AHEM. Socrates (talk) 21:51, 17 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Well, I guess you are telling me without words (rather a monologue this one) that you are not doing Signpost for one or other reason, not feeling free enough or you felt criticized or you just got tired of it, but it is not the same without you. I tried now to fix things but it is not the same. Tell me if you change your mind and I will be happy to work with you again. Right now, I will leave it to others. Hafspajen (talk) 13:21, 22 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
No, it's not ready - but without Adam is .... No Fun. Hafspajen (talk) 16:01, 22 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!
@Hafspajen and WPPilot: Sorry, been too stressed out to check my talk page, just focusing on the restorations, which I find very relaxing. Will set it up now. Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:14, 22 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Baby, to late, it's up. Hafspajen (talk) 20:17, 22 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Elmer Chickering - John Philip Sousa.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 12:49, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I did think that. If you think it's likely PD, I'll defer to your judgement- If you clean up the image page and make a claim for it being PD, I won't revert you! J Milburn (talk) 16:15, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Non-publication is something that crossed my mind (though for PD-old purposes, I'm not sure that matters)- unclear dating was another. The original provenance is generally a little sketchy. I did take the uploader's claim at face value, but then we've also got to ask why they chose to claim it was non-free. In retrospect, the deletion tagging may not have been the best option. If you make the changes, I'll undelete the larger version of the file and revert to it. J Milburn (talk) 16:31, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Tomb of Bibi Jawindi.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 16:51, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CVII, February 2015

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Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 22:50, 20 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

FPC section for our next issue

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Hey Adam, when you have a moment please launch the next issue. Cheers. talk→ WPPilot  14:00, 21 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Carl Van Vechten - William Faulkner.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 15:26, 21 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture File:The Mikado Chappell Vocal Score cover (c.1895).jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on March 14, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-03-14. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:41, 24 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Mikado

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File:Mikado 02 - Weir Collection.jpg
Alfred Stevens Le Bain


Imagine that was Freudian. Hafspajen (talk) 18:57, 2 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]



Hafspajen (talk) 09:30, 24 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Illustrated War News, Dec. 23, 1914, page 38, right side - British Gunners in Action at the Front.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 23:51, 25 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:"A New Sandow Pose (VIII)", Eugen Sandow Wellcome L0035270 - restoration.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 13:30, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Samuel D. Ehrhart - An International High Noon Divorce (1906).jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Ṫ Ḧ the joy of the LORDmy strength 13:41, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Javascript failed somewhere to credit you..Ṫ Ḧ the joy of the LORDmy strength 13:41, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Adam, just FYI, since you had said you were planning to fix the minor error I pointed out here: I added a short note to the talk page of commons:File:Norman Saunders - cover of Marvel Science Stories for April-May 1939.jpg about the error, so that if you don't have time to fix it others will know and will have the reference available to fix it for themselves. I thought I'd let you know in case you're still planning to do it but it had slipped your mind. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 23:08, 2 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Jay Gould - Bain News Service.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 06:02, 3 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

.

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On mine, at 170, you get 2 long rows, with one centred images below it - really hideous. This is really irritating that one can't make a gallery look good on all screens, how is one supposed to do a good job like this<+ Is 140 OK? Hafspajen (talk) 12:33, 3 March 2015 (UTC) Road has ghost. Hafspajen (talk) 16:07, 6 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Tarzan the Fearless

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Woman climbing

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I nominated "yours" for TFA: Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Fanny Bullock Workman in women's history month, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 23:33, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for "raising it up in her memory", precious again, see? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:54, 8 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

m

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Was almost thinking of making Sandow lead image, but there are no men in FPs- Hafspajen (talk) 21:10, 5 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture File:Britain Needs You at Once - WWI recruitment poster - Parliamentary Recruiting Committee Poster No. 108.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on March 24, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-03-24. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:50, 6 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Maners

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First I had no intention reading anything more about this discussion, but when I noticed the tone and style, After this post on this discussion, telling I am making things up to try and cover his own ass... Oh, really, in what way? I will now leave editing of Signpost for a while. I don't want my name be posted together with some who calls me full of shit. WP:POLITE. For heavens's sake in WHAT way was I rude, (where?) ungrateful (in what way?) and the part Full of shit, that I think it is definitely going to far. I am not discussing anything further in this tone. This is no way of discussing things and no way working together. I never work together or take any assignments either from people who treat me impolitely or use abusive language towards me. I think that I was much less rude than he was, thank you. Hafspajen (talk) 19:41, 10 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I had rather hoped that week had been smoothed over by now... Adam Cuerden (talk) 17:54, 13 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Hafspajen: I am sorry I was out of line. While I did not feel that the conversation on CorrineSD sandbox was productive or correct, I had asked for her help as the lack of direction that you have noted in prior communications was something I simply wanted help, from that user on to keep everyone happy and look now it has blown out of proportion. The second issue I ever edited on SP was with you and you suddenly went ballistic, said you were quitting Wikipedia as a whole and said how horrible Wikipedia was. The only issues were in regard to the week that was published late, and that is now being pounded into the ground. Many entries on SP's current version I wrote and no one had any issues with them, nor were the final changes far from what I had originally published. You got upset about a draft of the King of Sweden I never completed after I asked CorineSD for assistance, and you told that user she was not allowed to help then went to a sandbox and started talking smack about me hoping that I would not discover the conversation. I felt that was rude, yes. Often your talk posts simply don't make since. I have tried to understand you but as other users have also mentioned, it can be hard. With regard to ungrateful, going to someone and telling them not to help me really seems like your lacking in gratitude for my attempt to address the issues mentioned before regarding the style of the text of my contributions. With regard to Full of ****, that was totally out of line, and I am sorry but I did not feel that you were providing the whole story. Once again I am sorry @Hafspajen: I was out of line. talk→ WPPilot  05:08, 14 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]


  • Well I am sorry too, but I would like to put this urban myth about my your talk posts simply don't make since. There was absolutely no lack of communications. I asked you to write your own entry on one of the pictures you nominated that got featured, in January this year, because Adam was travelling and I did asked at that point about five people to start writing up their own entry in Signpost, not only you. Than you and only you offered to continue to write in the Signpost of all the people I asked to help me that week. And I haven't disappeared at all and dumped everything on you at all. On the contrary to what you say many entries on SP's current version it was me who wrote and Xanty - while Adam did the final copy editing - and I invite everybody to check the history and look how much everybody contributed and how, it's all in the history.
About copy and paste : check this, this was 22 January 2015 Mark this comment: simply did a copy and paste of the sections of the content, please correct ASAP it that was incorrect. 21 February 2015 check please here: Later both me and Adam said in different occasions clearly: Don't just copy and paste the lead, because we are not supposed to do that, we should use the text to write up a summary... if you do so, it will just have to be rewritten, that was 21 February.
And I am not THAT bad communicating like everybody here wants to believe - I can't communicate when I really want to. But I can communicate. I just sometimes don't have the time.
I can and I wasn't making any mistakes pointing out things, neither did Adam, though Adam was much more outspoken, he was not trying to be diplomatic like I tried. There was communication all the way. See User talk:Adam Cuerden#Featured content, check this, especially Adam's last comment, User talk:Adam Cuerden#Featured Photos on Sighpost check User talk:Adam Cuerden#Draft ? ... check User talk:Adam Cuerden#Maners - and nobody likes conflicts. And I don't agree that it was poor communication at all. If it was poor communication, that it was rather removing all our comments and saying 'adios! instead of sitting down and going through our issues we raised. I think we were rather clear in what we meant. One has to be able to take directions, I listen to Adam if he is raising an issue. And it is Adam who is the chief editor, and he is the one who has the main responsibility, the last copyedit and the who sets the style and final layout. And we have to listen to him. Hafspajen (talk) 05:56, 14 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Can we please step back a bit? I don't think this is helping much. Alright. Here's my views:

  • Copy-paste is... something we would ideally not use, but when we have dozens of FPs, it becomes a necessaity. Used well, it's fine, though I have had to change the disclaimer since we tend not to mark it.
  • Descriptions should be coherent. If a description ends half-way through describing something, that's a problem.
  • [This is something I haven't said before, but...] I'd rather have several descriptions that are nearly-finished (e.g. they need some copyediting, but all the material is there], with a few I need to write myself, than everything having text, but not publishable. In the case of the week I complained about, the attempts to rush it meant that I had to reresearch everything. If there's a few grammatical mistakes or the like, I can fix that quickly, but if there's not enough there to work from, I basically have to do all the steps I'd have to do if I were independently writing the description to get the background I need to fix it. That's the problem I was complaining about.
  • I don't really care which tack you take when describing something - if you choose to focus on the picture's subject, fine. If you choose to talk about the picture, great. If you want to talk about the painter or photographer, well, as long as it puts the painting [or whatever] into the context of that painter's [or whatever] career, sure. . The only thing is, if it goes too far away from the subject of the FP (it's usually FPs that this applies to) I will cut down to try and keep it focused a bit more, because I don't think we should get too distant from the specific subject. For example, if the picture is of the outside of a building, but spends almost all its time describing the inside, I'd probably refocus it a bit.
  • And, finally, this is meant to be fun. Take breaks as you need them, but please don't:
    1. Tell other contributors they must do something
    2. Snipe about other contributors behind their backs. If you have issues, politely raise them to the contributors or me.

One final thing I do have to say, and I apologise for this, but, I'd really rather no-one spoke on my behalf. I tend to have nuanced opinions, and whenever someone speaks for me, I usually find myself disagreeing with what views are attributed to me. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:46, 14 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

  • Politely, thank you. That part you didn't even mentioned, Adam. Maners, is even the heather of the section, I believe. But if anybody in unpolite with me it is just part of the let's kick Haffy in the ass movement, no bother at all. The whole issue from my side was about the tone. Why isn't anyone noticing that? And even copy-paste must be rewritten that is coherent. And has to be cleaned up, so that IPAs, references and other unnecessary things don't just end up in the middle of the text, and not just leave them to the others to remove them. At least some kind of standard has to be on copy-paste too. I was working trough rather a lot of text that was just thrown in the entry before, in the earlier editions and that is rather a lot of extra work, before you got there, Adam, so you might not even noticed that issue. And if there is an article about the painting, as it was in the case of the Swedish King, I think one should at least link it, and second use at least some of the information in it. When we are voting on FP nominations it is always considered to have better EV if the painting has its own reasonable article. I was working the heck of me under bad conditions coping with a lot of issues while Pilot did four entries out of 49. I don't get the Many entries on SP's current version I wrote remark, 4 out of 49 is few not many. And of the above I get the impression that in the end surely I am the one who doing the wrong things. Adam, about speaking on your behalf I don't know witch part you mean. Hafspajen (talk) 04:06, 15 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture File:Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Otis Lithograph Co. border edit.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on March 31, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-03-31. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:30, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This week's Signpost

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Our deadline is Thursday at 7pm UTC/3pm EST/12 noon PST. Thanks to you and the FC editors for your hard work getting together your section so quickly already. Gamaliel (talk) 22:15, 11 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:The Sandow Trocadero Vaudevilles, Sandow lifting the human dumbell, 1894.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 18:08, 12 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Anna Klumpke - Portrait of Rosa Bonheur (1898).jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 10:34, 13 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Sir Joshua Reynolds - John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore - Google Art Project.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 07:32, 18 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Quit Signpost because was accused of being sexist.

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See also - [22] [23] [24]

Have nice time. Hafspajen (talk) 18:17, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I do not believe Ed accused you of being sexist, nor do I believe that any of us think you are sexist. We had concerns that some of the language may have been inadvertently perceived as being sexist through no fault of yours, that is all. Gamaliel (talk) 18:30, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Perceived by whom? Apologies, Adam, I'm unsure why Gamaliel is carrying the discussion on to your talk page. SagaciousPhil - Chat 18:36, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I'm responding to a particular comment on the talk page where that comment was made. I have no idea why anyone would think that was inappropriate, but if Adam does not want editors to respond to other editors on his talk page, I will gladly abide by that restriction. Gamaliel (talk) 18:44, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
My question has not, however, been answered ... ... SagaciousPhil - Chat 18:49, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I've left an answer on the FC talk page, but again, I'd like to emphasize that I don't think Haf is sexist, only that the language could be perceived—by at least one woman I asked—sexist. Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 20:19, 21 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

March Bugle

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Hi Adam, hope you're well. Should there be an update to the FPs based on those "expected to pass", i.e. are there any more MilHist-related images that became FPs in February? Tks/cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 01:25, 22 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You've got mail!

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Hello, Adam Cuerden. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 19:45, 22 March 2015 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Go Phightins! 19:45, 22 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Toni Frissell - Frida Kahlo, seated next to an agave.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 03:20, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

SP Root Document

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Please be sure to ping me when you post the new SP featured roots. I will do what I can, thank you. talk→ WPPilot  05:25, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation

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A gummi bear holding a sign that says "Thank you"
Thank you for using VisualEditor and sharing your ideas with the developers.

Hello, Adam Cuerden,

The Editing team is asking for your help with VisualEditor. I am contacting you because you posted to a feedback page for VisualEditor. Please tell them what they need to change to make VisualEditor work well for you. The team has a list of top-priority problems, but they also want to hear about small problems. These problems may make editing less fun, take too much of your time, or be as annoying as a paper cut. The Editing team wants to hear about and try to fix these small things, too.

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Thank you, Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 15:56, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CVIII, March 2015

[edit]
Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:36, 27 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

April 1 FC

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Hi Adam,
I think I must stay away from this week's issue as I have not so good humor. -The Herald the joy of the LORDmy strength 15:30, 28 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An image created by you has been promoted to featured picture status
Your image, File:Charlotte Perkins Gilman c. 1900.jpg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! Armbrust The Homunculus 05:06, 29 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

More

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Another Pedro all ready to go, if you want him. Compensation Pedro. Hafspajen (talk) 21:02, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've kind of vowed to do only women for the next two months. Adam Cuerden (talk) 23:08, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You've got mail!

[edit]
Hello, Adam Cuerden. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 23:54, 31 March 2015 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 23:54, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Talk back

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Hello, Adam Cuerden. You have new messages at User talk:The Herald/Talkback.
Message added 05:29, 1 April 2015 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

PLEASE COMMENT

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Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wikipedia (7th nomination)... Hafspajen (talk) 22:25, 1 April 2015 (UTC) https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Miscellany_for_deletion/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Wikipedia_(7th_nomination)&action=edit Well, that was an April 1 joke. Was. --Hafspajen (talk) 23:55, 1 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:W.E.F. Britten - The Early Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson - The Lotos-Eaters.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on April 20, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-04-20. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:02, 2 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

VisualEditor News #2—2015

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Did you know?

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


Screenshot of Citoid's first dialog


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


Screenshot of Citoid's initial results


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


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

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

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

Recent improvements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Looking ahead

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

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

Let's work together

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  • Share your ideas and ask questions at mw:VisualEditor/Feedback.
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  • File requests for language-appropriate "Bold" and "Italic" icons for the character formatting menu in Phabricator.

Subscribe, unsubscribe or change the page where this newsletter is delivered at Meta. If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

-Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk), 17:50, 3 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Script

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Did you say you have a script to populate the nominator and creator sections on new issues? talk→ WPPilot  17:08, 7 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@WPPilot: No. I said I needed one. And, anyway, if it did exist, I suspect it'd need run BEFORE writing descriptions. Adam Cuerden (talk) 21:23, 7 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:1730 Homann Map of Scandinavia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Baltics - Geographicus - Scandinavia-homann-1730.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on April 30, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-04-30. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:00, 9 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

FC problem

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User_talk:WPPilot#Major_structural_change Tony (talk) 03:38, 10 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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We would like to have a group discussion on Skype text chat with everyone on the FC team. In a few days, User:Go Phightins! will contact you privately to coordinate this. Please let him know about your availability if you are willing to participate. Thank you. Gamaliel (talk) 16:10, 10 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

[edit]

Adam, first let me say that I really like how you show the two photos next to each other, GREAT IDEA!!! @The Herald: @Xanthomelanoussprog: @Gamaliel: @The ed17: I wanted to bring up the abundance of art "scans" that have seemed to dominate the FP section for a while now. I as a photographer think that this is a bit outside of the scope of a Featured Photo in that many of them are scanned, and not really photos so to speak. While the restoration process that some of the scans go through can be applied to photographs, these are still scans. My thought is that perhaps we might want to consider a section for art, that is outside the scope of Featured Photo and has another set of standards we publish that would be more suitable to the section. Any thoughts? talk→ WPPilot  18:01, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

IMO, Featured photo, or better to call, featured pictures, include all that scans, images, photos, paintings, videos, animations, sounds and all. Hence, it will be no more good to create another section to include scans and artwork as they all are known throughout Wikipedia as featured pictures. -The Herald the joy of the LORDmy strength 18:23, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. It's featured pictures, not photos. It's one process, so why split it? We need to balance it, making sure paintings aren't all we feature, but we need to balance, not exclude. Adam Cuerden (talk) 18:56, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
This was kind of a follow up to the voting criteria page that you showed us a few days ago Adam, it only had photos on it. Lets establish a page like that for the scans, images, photos, paintings, videos for voters to use as a foundation for voting. I have questions regarding video. As the max size of any video is 100 mb it is hard to get more then 3 min of HD video out of a theoria encoder. If a "picture" is worth a thousand words, 30 frames a second could become quite a mouthful :) but we really should have a set of standards users can rely upon for the voting summary. talk→ WPPilot  19:19, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. We could use more, but I don't think we should have FC split - FC shouldn't lead policy. Adam Cuerden (talk) 19:38, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
If the art works are promoted through the same processes as the photos, then we should include them all in the same section of FC. But there's no reason we can't experiment with subdividing that section however we want, such as art in one subsection, photos in another. No reason we have to have all the images in the same order we always have. Gamaliel (talk) 20:34, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed, but we'd need planning - there's a lot of ambiguity. Also, that's going to drastiically slow setup, so not until after my guest leaves. Adam Cuerden (talk) 20:59, 12 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@WPPilot and Adam Cuerden: Work in progress, but the hard bits are almost done. ETA: "eventually". ResMar 03:22, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I noticed your note at line 152: Because featured pictures are often titled haphazardly when placed into WP:GO, relative to the nomination titles, this routine will often fail. The only thing to be done in that case is do it manually, and tell the WP:GO people to be more alert about copying nomination. That should be noted and included on the nomination page so I am doing it here. talk→ WPPilot  03:32, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Resident Mario: One request: If the bot hits an uncertainty, can it please simply mark it as needing manual filling out, especially as respects creators of FPs? I don't want us to accidentally start stripping credit from, say, restorationists and co-authors by accident.
Also: FPs are intentionally titled differently at WP:GO vs nomination. There are four standards for nominations at FPC. 1. Filename 2. Joke 3. Semi-descriptive 4. One of above + 2nd nomination.
However, the nomination link may be easily gotten by going to the filepage and looking at the template put on it. For example. {{FeaturedPicture|The Fighting Temeraire}} - that means that the nomination was Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/The Fighting Temeraire. That should make it relatively easy to get the nomination. Adam Cuerden (talk) 10:35, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Adam Cuerden (talk) 10:35, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's not finished so I wouldn't read too much into the code just yet. Good point on the FPs. ResMar 13:19, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
@Resident Mario: The nice thing about the WP:GO names is that they're usually suitable to be the name used in FC for the image. I sometimes tweak them, but they're generally fine. Adam Cuerden (talk) 13:23, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted
Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Larabanga Mosque Ghana.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Armbrust The Homunculus 17:54, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry

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@Gamaliel and Go Phightins!:Sorry guys, this week, I'd prefer to stay away from FC. Its damn tight and busy. The WikiCup, you know it. Plus, my exams are on next week. Thanks and keep up the good work. -The Herald the joy of the LORDmy strength 04:18, 18 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Bugle: Issue CIX, April 2015

[edit]
Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 06:31, 26 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hillary Rodham Clinton - Move Discussion

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Hi,

This is a notification to let you know that there is a requested move discussion ongoing at Talk:Hillary_Rodham_Clinton/April_2015_move_request#Requested_move. You are receiving this notification because you have previously participated in some capacity in naming discussions related to the article in question.

Thanks. And have a nice day. NickCT (talk) 18:28, 26 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

POTD notification

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POTD

Hi Adam,

Just to let you know, the Featured Picture File:Levi Morton - Brady-Handy portrait - standard crop.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on May 16, 2015. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2015-05-16. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:17, 28 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Ask Moonriddengirl

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I think there is a lot more to this that you and I don't know about and Drmies would not have placed an indef block without very good reason. Whatever Drmies has found out is obviously stuff that cannot be put up in public. He doesn't love me that much to go vendetta because of me. Adam, have you forgot who I am and how I am? And User:Moonriddengirl, the nr 1 expert on copvio confirmed that the attributin inscription on Singpost is not enough, it needs an active attribution. This means that currently the Signpost editions are filled with copivio. And Moonridergirl should know, she is the number 1 expert on copivio. Take care. Hafspajen (talk) 14:11, 2 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Please ask Moonriddengirl how the correct attribution has to be done, Xanthomelanoussprog ... I am not sure I understand it either. Before we use to write :
According to our article: this and that, and use to put it in "". But of Moonriddengirl's answer I understood it has to be linked somehow. Hafspajen (talk) 15:04, 2 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
PLEASE Adam, for the sake of what we had and shared - do try adopt the perspective I give you now just for a second. PLEASE. Just try to do this, just for one second, and then judge. How about trying my perspective a short, short time, just go a mile in in my shoes, as the Indians say, before believing uncritically everything HE say.
I was defending myself ... for month. Without much success at all. It felt like being got stuck in a mire, whatever I have said, whatever I did, I was only sinking deeper in the mud. It was like living in panic for month. Adam, I think you are one of the funniest, wittiest - one of the most brilliant editors I know on Wikipedia. You are intelligent and sometimes near brilliant. Please, see me for what I am. Try to look at both parts before you judge, like good judges do. I know you for being a good guy. Don't break my hart you too, God knows I was crying enough already. Please. Hafspajen (talk) 13:50, 3 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]