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Better pic of third rail tips at Valhalla

Roy,

Per your suggestion during peer review for Valhalla train crash, I took the opportunity during another trip down there in late March to take some new pictures. After shooting some with from the crossing itself, I realized a view from the side might make the point better.

So only yesterday did I get around to swapping it in. Do you think that works better? It's not the best quality image since it was a pretty overcast day and I was using my phone (I did take some DSLR pics that maybe I might be able to find a way to upload at some point), crouching in bushes by the side of the track. But it does show that wedge shape. Daniel Case (talk) 02:22, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

Well, I'll certainly agree with "It's not the best quality image" :-) RoySmith (talk) 16:26, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost: 8 June 2024

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:27, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

You've got mail

Hello, RoySmith. Please check your email; you've got mail!
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.TheSandDoctor Talk 15:07, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

Created something you could incorporate into DYK-Tools-Bot

Took me around 30 minutes to whip up User:GalliumBot#minos, which just looks for lost nominations (in Category:Pending DYK nominations that aren't transcluded to WP:DYKN or WP:DYKNA). I could get a whole BRFA to run it myself, but I think it'd probably be easier to create a tracking category/template for it and append it to what DYK-Tools-Bot already does? My source code is available at User:GalliumBot/minos/minos.py :) theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 07:18, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Honestly, if you had the heart to make it retransclude the nominations, that'd be even better, but I am not feeling that. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 07:18, 9 June 2024 (UTC)
Maybe. TBH, I found the whole WP:BAG process rather frustrating and unfriendly. I'm not enthused about going back there. RoySmith-Mobile (talk) 12:27, 9 June 2024 (UTC)
Honestly, I did too, so fair enough. This is just an add-on to an already approved process, though – should be a cakewalk. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 21:57, 9 June 2024 (UTC)
I'm also seem to be in a non-coding phase these days. I've been working my way through some of my old articles getting them up to GA or FA standards, and that's eating up most of my wiki-time. RoySmith (talk) 00:19, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-24

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • The software used to render SVG files has been updated to a new version, fixing many longstanding bugs in SVG rendering. [1]
  • The HTML used to render all headings is being changed to improve accessibility. It was changed last week in some skins (Vector legacy and Minerva). Please test gadgets on your wiki on these skins and report any related problems so that they can be resolved before this change is made in Vector-2022. The developers are still considering the introduction of a Gadget API for adding buttons to section titles if that would be helpful to tool creators, and would appreciate any input you have on that.
  • The HTML markup used for citations by Parsoid changed last week. In places where Parsoid previously added the mw-reference-text class, Parsoid now also adds the reference-text class for better compatibility with the legacy parser. More details are available. [2]

Problems

  • There was a bug with the Content Translation interface that caused the tools menus to appear in the wrong location. This has now been fixed. [3]

Changes later this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 11 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 12 June. It will be on all wikis from 13 June (calendar). [4][5]
  • The new version of MediaWiki includes another change to the HTML markup used for citations: Parsoid will now generate a <span class="mw-cite-backlink"> wrapper for both named and unnamed references for better compatibility with the legacy parser. Interface administrators should verify that gadgets that interact with citations are compatible with the new markup. More details are available. [6]
  • On multilingual wikis that use the <translate> system, there is a feature that shows potentially-outdated translations with a pink background until they are updated or confirmed. From this week, confirming translations will be logged, and there is a new user-right that can be required for confirming translations if the community requests it. [7]

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MediaWiki message delivery 20:18, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

2O for a DYK

Hi RoySmith, would you be willing to give a 2O for DYK I have coming up? I'll send an email with the relevant extracts from the sources and my thoughts, please take a look if you're interested or ignore it if you're not. Thanks, Pahunkat (talk) 17:40, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Pahunkat, I'm happy to take a look. You asked about using "tourist destination" in the hook, and I agree with your concern. The source talks about inviting people to come visit the plant, but doesn't actually talk about tourism. I think going with ALT1 would be preferable. RoySmith (talk) 18:20, 14 June 2024 (UTC)
Thanks for getting back. Alt 1 I'd change to "DYK that the Nabisco Shredded Wheat Factory was so attractive used as a marketing tool, with its image was printed on cereal packets until 1960", just so it better aligns with the sources. Now that I think about it, just "used as a marketing tool" is a decent hook in itself and it's taken straight from the book.
I'll raise this at WT:DYK, thanks for your help. Pahunkat (talk) 18:51, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Re: DYKFICTION

I've always thought the section on WP:DYKFICTION was far too ambiguous for me to make heads or tails of it. Can you do me a favor and take a glance at the hook here and let me know if you think it passes DYKFICTION? I feel like I still don't have a good grasp on this guideline. Viriditas (talk) 21:30, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

To be honest, @Theleekycauldron is probably a better person to ask. RoySmith (talk) 22:02, 15 June 2024 (UTC)
Thanks. Viriditas (talk) 22:07, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

In appreciation

The Premium Reviewer Barnstar
By the authority vested in me by myself it gives me great pleasure to present you with this barnstar in recognition of the large number of thorough, detailed and actionable reviews you have carried out at FAC. This work is very much appreciated. Gog the Mild (talk) 16:48, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
@Gog the Mild thanks. Sometimes I feel like I'm being too harsh, so please let me know if I go overboard. RoySmith (talk) 16:53, 17 June 2024 (UTC)
I can't say that I have noticed that, but if I do I shall. Gog the Mild (talk) 17:19, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-25

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • People who attempt to add an external link in the visual editor will now receive immediate feedback if they attempt to link to a domain that a project has decided to block. Please see Edit check for more details. [8]
  • The new Community Configuration extension is available on Test Wikipedia. This extension allows communities to customize specific features to meet their local needs. Currently only Growth features are configurable, but the extension will support other Community Configuration use cases in the future. [9][10]
  • The dark mode beta feature is now available on category and help pages, as well as more special pages. There may be contrast issues. Please report bugs on the project talk page. [11]

Problems

  • Cloud Services tools were not available for 25 minutes last week. This was caused by a faulty hardware cable in the data center. [12]
  • Last week, styling updates were made to the Vector 2022 skin. This caused unforeseen issues with templates, hatnotes, and images. Changes to templates and hatnotes were reverted. Most issues with images were fixed. If you still see any, report them here. [13]

Changes later this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 June. It will be on all wikis from 20 June (calendar). [14][15]
  • Starting June 18, the Reference Edit Check will be deployed to a new set of Wikipedias. This feature is intended to help newcomers and to assist edit-patrollers by inviting people who are adding new content to a Wikipedia article to add a citation when they do not do so themselves. During a test at 11 wikis, the number of citations added more than doubled when Reference Check was shown to people. Reference Check is community configurable. [16]
  • Mailing lists will be unavailable for roughly two hours on Tuesday 10:00–12:00 UTC. This is to enable migration to a new server and upgrade its software. [17]

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MediaWiki message delivery 23:46, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

Category:Historic buildings and structures in New York (state) has been nominated for deletion

Category:Historic buildings and structures in New York (state) has been nominated for deletion. A discussion is taking place to decide whether it complies with the categorization guidelines. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the categories for discussion page. Thank you. RevelationDirect (talk) 03:00, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

June 26: ONLINE WikiWednesday Salon NYC

June 26: ONLINE WikiWednesday Salon NYC
Welcome to Wikimedia New York City!

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our Online-Only WikiWednesday Salon on Zoom. No experience of anything at all is required. All are welcome!

This special online-only WikiWednesday will be dedicated to the Wikimedia Movement Charter referendum, and also to exploring future options of other online-centric events for our Wikimedia NYC chapter.

All attendees are subject to Wikimedia NYC's Code of Conduct. Meeting info:

(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)

--Wikimedia New York City Team via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:24, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-26

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Editors will notice that there have been some changes to the background color of text in the diff view, and the color of the byte-change numbers, last week. These changes are intended to make text more readable in both light mode and dark mode, and are part of a larger effort to increase accessibility. You can share your comments or questions on the project talkpage. [18]
  • The text colors that are used for visited-links, hovered-links, and active-links, were also slightly changed last week to improve their accessibility in both light mode and dark mode. [19]

Problems

Changes later this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 June. It will be on all wikis from 27 June (calendar). [21][22]
  • Starting 26 June, all talk pages messages' timestamps will become a link at English Wikipedia, making this feature available for you to use at all wikis. This link is a permanent link to the comment. It allows users to find the comment they were linked to, even if this comment has since been moved elsewhere. You can read more about this feature on Diff or on Mediawiki.org. [23]

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MediaWiki message delivery 22:30, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie/archive2

Hi Roy, please can you take a look at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie/archive2 whenever you are less busy. Will appreciate your comments. Thanks. Safari ScribeEdits! Talk! 14:38, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

I'll take a look, but probably won't be able to review it. Biographies are not really my thing, but thanks for the ping. RoySmith (talk) 20:35, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

First Punic War

Good evening Roy. Could I put a trifle of admin work your way? Would it be possible for you to take a look at the recent edits to First Punic War, and referee the ah, discussion? Thanks. Gog the Mild (talk) 21:50, 29 June 2024 (UTC)

I have applied a Solomon-like solution :-) RoySmith (talk) 22:27, 29 June 2024 (UTC)
@Gog the Mild just to clarify, The FA banner does say if you can update or improve it, please do so, and sometimes that means updates that are less than useful. As an admin, I'm supposed to stay out of content disputes. If this was clearly vandalism, I'd have no problem stepping in with a block or longer-term semi-protection for the page, but I don't think that applies here. I've added the article to my watchlist and I'll keep an eye on it, lets see what happens. RoySmith (talk) 15:55, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
That's fine by me Roy. Thanks for keeping an eye on it. I have no issues with the edits, I do with the ignoring BRD, among others. Gog the Mild (talk) 16:25, 30 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-27

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Over the next three weeks, dark mode will become available for all users, both logged-in and logged-out, starting with the mobile web version. This fulfils one of the top-requested community wishes, and improves low-contrast reading and usage in low-light settings. As part of these changes, dark mode will also work on User-pages and Portals. There is more information in the latest Web team update. [24]
  • Logged-in users can now set global preferences for the text-size and dark-mode, thanks to a combined effort across Foundation teams. This allows Wikimedians using multiple wikis to set up a consistent reading experience easily, for example by switching between light and dark mode only once for all wikis. [25]
  • If you use a very old web browser some features might not work on the Wikimedia wikis. This affects Internet Explorer 11 and versions of Chrome, Firefox and Safari older than 2016. This change makes it possible to use new CSS features and to send less code to all readers. [26][27]
  • Wikipedia Admins can customize local wiki configuration options easily using Community Configuration. Community Configuration was created to allow communities to customize how some features work, because each language wiki has unique needs. At the moment, admins can configure Growth features on their home wikis, in order to better recruit and retain new editors. More options will be provided in the coming months. [28]
  • Editors interested in language issues that are related to Unicode standards, can now discuss those topics at a new conversation space in MediaWiki.org. The Wikimedia Foundation is now a member of the Unicode Consortium, and the coordination group can collaboratively review the issues discussed and, where appropriate, bring them to the attention of the Unicode Consortium.
  • One new wiki has been created: a Wikipedia in Mandailing (w:btm:) [29]

Problems

  • Editors can once again click on links within the visual editor's citation-preview, thanks to a bug fix by the Editing Team. [30]

Future changes

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MediaWiki message delivery 23:57, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Robert Weinberg (urban planner)

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Robert Weinberg (urban planner) you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Pbritti -- Pbritti (talk) 23:24, 3 July 2024 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Big Duck

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Big Duck you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Chiswick Chap -- Chiswick Chap (talk) 05:23, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost: 4 July 2024

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:40, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Big Duck

The article Big Duck you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Big Duck for comments about the article, and Talk:Big Duck/GA1 for the nomination. Well done! If the article is eligible to appear in the "Did you know" section of the Main Page, you can nominate it within the next seven days. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Chiswick Chap -- Chiswick Chap (talk) 18:01, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2024).

Administrator changes

added
removed

Technical news

Miscellaneous

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:59, 6 July 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-28

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Problems

  • A problem with the color of the talkpage tabs always showing as blue, even for non-existent pages which should have been red, affecting the Vector 2022 skin, has been fixed.

Future changes

  • The Trust and Safety Product team wants to introduce temporary accounts with as little disruption to tools and workflows as possible. Volunteer developers, including gadget and user-script maintainers, are kindly asked to update the code of their tools and features to handle temporary accounts. The team has created documentation explaining how to do the update. Learn more.

Tech News survey

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MediaWiki message delivery 21:29, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Robert Weinberg (urban planner)

The article Robert Weinberg (urban planner) you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Robert Weinberg (urban planner) for comments about the article, and Talk:Robert Weinberg (urban planner)/GA1 for the nomination. Well done! If the article is eligible to appear in the "Did you know" section of the Main Page, you can nominate it within the next seven days. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of Pbritti -- Pbritti (talk) 02:04, 11 July 2024 (UTC)

Promotion of Arthur O. Austin

Congratulations, RoySmith! The article you nominated, Arthur O. Austin, has been promoted to featured status, recognizing it as one of the best articles on Wikipedia. The nomination discussion has been archived.
This is a rare accomplishment and you should be proud. If you would like, you may nominate it to appear on the Main page as Today's featured article. Keep up the great work! Cheers, David Fuchs (talk) via FACBot (talk) 00:05, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

Fri July 19: Wikicurious in NYC, Editing Wikipedia for Beginners

July 19: Wikicurious: Editing Wikipedia for Beginners @ Civic Hall

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for the inaugural event of the beginner-focused Wikicurious series at Civic Hall! All are welcome, and newcomers and aspiring editors are especially encouraged to attend.

Registration via Eventbrite is required for building entry, and is also encouraged on the event page on Meta.

The Wikicurious series at Civic Hall is supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies. Wikimedia NYC is an official affiliate and supported by the Wikimedia Foundation.

All attendees are subject to Wikimedia NYC's Code of Conduct.

Meeting info:

  • RSVP is necessary for building entry

(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)

--Wikimedia New York City Team via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:51, 13 July 2024 (UTC)

An automated process has detected that when you recently edited West Farms Soldiers Cemetery, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Daily News.

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 06:23, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

Google Maps

I was looking at the U.S. Route 13 in Maryland article, which is also a good article, and I noticed that the parts addressing the terrain US 13 passes through (such as "US 13 passes through wooded areas") has Google Maps as a source. Do you think I could use Google Maps as a source for I-85 passing through forest and rural areas? Let me know your thoughts and I'll reply back ASAP. Thanks. NoobThreePointOh (talk) 02:34, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

Nvm, I figured it out. Do you mind letting me get back on the 17th and finishing up the rest of the article? I'm almost done, and I saw on the GAN page that there are reassessments that have been open for as early as June 14th. I'm not asking for a massive extension, but just for the 17th so that I can get back to my computer and add the citations. I understand if you don't want to grant me the extension, but I have in fact made improvements on my computer, although they haven't been saved yet. NoobThreePointOh (talk) 08:52, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
I'm not sure what to tell you. There's a request for reassessment open. At some point somebody will pick it up and make a decision. I have no control over when that happens. RoySmith (talk) 14:32, 15 July 2024 (UTC)
Ok. All I hope is that I make it back to my computer before it closes and finish up whatever improvements I make to the article. I think I've found out what sources to use for the sentencing and what to remove from the wording. NoobThreePointOh (talk) 16:14, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

Four Award for You!

Four Award
Congratulations! You have been awarded the Four Award for your work from beginning to end on Arthur O. Austin. Generalissima (talk) (it/she) 18:06, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-29

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Tech News survey

Recent changes

  • Advanced item Wikimedia developers can now officially continue to use both Gerrit and GitLab, due to a June 24 decision by the Wikimedia Foundation to support software development on both platforms. Gerrit and GitLab are both code repositories used by developers to write, review, and deploy the software code that supports the MediaWiki software that the wiki projects are built on, as well as the tools used by editors to create and improve content. This decision will safeguard the productivity of our developers and prevent problems in code review from affecting our users. More details are available in the Migration status page.
  • The Wikimedia Foundation seeks applicants for the Product and Technology Advisory Council (PTAC). This group will bring technical contributors and Wikimedia Foundation together to co-define a more resilient, future-proof technological platform. Council members will evaluate and consult on the movement's product and technical activities, so that we develop multi-generational projects. We are looking for a range of technical contributors across the globe, from a variety of Wikimedia projects. Please apply here by August 10.
  • Editors with rollback user-rights who use the Wikipedia App for Android can use the new Edit Patrol features. These features include a new feed of Recent Changes, related links such as Undo and Rollback, and the ability to create and save a personal library of user talk messages to use while patrolling. If your wiki wants to make these features available to users who do not have rollback rights but have reached a certain edit threshold, you can contact the team. You can read more about this project on Diff blog.
  • Editors who have access to The Wikipedia Library can once again use non-open access content in SpringerLinks, after the Foundation contacted them to restore access. You can read more about this and 21 other community-submitted tasks that were completed last week.

Changes later this week

Future changes

  • Advanced item Next week, functionaries, volunteers maintaining tools, and software development teams are invited to test the temporary accounts feature on testwiki. Temporary accounts is a feature that will help improve privacy on the wikis. No further temporary account deployments are scheduled yet. Please share your opinions and questions on the project talk page. [31]
  • Editors who upload files cross-wiki, or teach other people how to do so, may wish to join a Wikimedia Commons discussion. The Commons community is discussing limiting who can upload files through the cross-wiki upload/Upload dialog feature to users auto-confirmed on Wikimedia Commons. This is due to the large amount of copyright violations uploaded this way. There is a short summary at Commons:Cross-wiki upload and discussion at Commons:Village Pump.

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MediaWiki message delivery 01:29, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Re the wikirefs tool

Just tried it on The Argosy (magazine) and got an internal server error; my mistake that it should have been Argosy (magazine) (which it coped with), but presumably it doesn't like being asked about non-existent pages. I like what I see of the tool so far, particularly that it preserves links in the references. I could imagine an option to restrict what comes back to only refs with links, or only ones without. Perhaps an option to ask for X randomly selected ones, and an option to copy them to the copy-paste buffer in some appropriate wikitext form -- I use a standardized bullet list with wording that you can see here, for example, but anything pasteable into a GA or FA review would work.

One thing I find myself doing in spotchecks is that I get an intuition pretty quickly about whether there are problems to be found, and if I suspect problems (I'm more right than not, but my instincts are not infallible on this) then I'll go looking for structures that I know from experience are more likely to reveal errors. A couple of examples:

  • Direct quotes, e.g. in reception sections, are rarely wrong, so if I'm hunting errors I'll often skip these.
  • Situations of the form "Here is a sentence with multiple clauses,[1] with a citation halfway through. Here's a second sentence with the citation at the end.[2]" often failed verification on the second half of sentence 1.
  • Paragraphs with one or two cites at the end of each sentence are rarely wrong. The longer the series of sentences cited to a single source, the more likely an error becomes, though this is not as reliable in producing errors as the previous case.
  • Declarative sentences that assert things such as names or dates are less likely to be wrong.
  • Multiple citations, perhaps surprisingly, don't seem to be correlated with reliability -- that is, picking something to verify that has multiple citations doesn't seem to increase the chances of finding an error.
  • Flowery, unnatural, old-fashioned or highly academic or formal language is a moderately strong indication of possible close paraphrasing, *unless* the rest of the article is like that too, in which case the odds are evenly distributed between the author being a formal writer, a non-native speaker, or a bad writer, depending on what the oddity in the language is.

This all means that in some cases I don't want a random sample; I want to bias the selection toward certain types of spotcheck.

Thanks for working on this -- I can see it being pretty useful once you get it a little further along. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 02:16, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. Yeah, dealing with non-existent titles in a useful way is probably #1 on my to-do list. RoySmith (talk) 02:44, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

DYK for Big Duck

On 19 July 2024, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Big Duck, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that a big duck (pictured) helped promote duck farming on Long Island? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Big Duck. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Big Duck), and the hook may be added to the statistics page after its run on the Main Page has completed. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Complex/Rational 00:02, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

DYK for Domestic duck

On 19 July 2024, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Domestic duck, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that a big duck (pictured) helped promote duck farming on Long Island? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Big Duck. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Domestic duck), and the hook may be added to the statistics page after its run on the Main Page has completed. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

Complex/Rational 00:02, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for the ping

... to the Klingenberg hook change. I am not happy that the time frame was removed because I believe that "divided Europe" meant a different thing in the 1970s Cold War than it would in the 2010s, - why omit that context? -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:44, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

The goal of a hook is to pique the reader's interest, not tell them every detail. I'd like to keep the shorter version, but if you insist, I'll put it back. RoySmith (talk) 17:48, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
Exactly, and I tried to say that but was obviously not understood. Trying harder: the "divided Europe" thingy is more interesting in the context of the 1970s, so would pique the reader's interest more in my humble opinion. We do have readers who know a bit about history, I hope, and should not exclude them. This person recently died, and found interest already, - I just hoped that DYK could add to knowledge about him, not only for those who click but also the large majority who don't. I can't help thinking that the best pique would be his image. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:15, 21 July 2024 (UTC)
Done. RoySmith (talk) 18:18, 21 July 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost: 22 July 2024

* Read this Signpost in full * Single-page * Unsubscribe * MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:32, 22 July 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-30

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Feature News

  • Stewards can now globally block accounts. Before the change only IP addresses and IP ranges could be blocked globally. Global account blocks are useful when the blocked user should not be logged out. Global locks (a similar tool logging the user out of their account) are unaffected by this change. The new global account block feature is related to the Temporary Accounts project, which is a new type of user account that replaces IP addresses of unregistered editors that are no longer made public.
  • Later this week, Wikimedia site users will notice that the Interface of FlaggedRevs (also known as "Pending Changes") is improved and consistent with the rest of the MediaWiki interface and Wikimedia's design system. The FlaggedRevs interface experience on mobile and Minerva skin was inconsistent before it was fixed and ported to Codex by the WMF Growth team and some volunteers. [32]
  • Wikimedia site users can now submit account vanishing requests via GlobalVanishRequest. This feature is used when a contributor wishes to stop editing forever. It helps you hide your past association and edit to protect your privacy. Once processed, the account will be locked and renamed. [33]
  • Have you tried monitoring and addressing vandalism in Wikipedia using your phone? A Diff blog post on Patrolling features in the Mobile App highlights some of the new capabilities of the feature, including swiping through a feed of recent changes and a personal library of user talk messages for use when patrolling from your phone.
  • Wikimedia contributors and GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) organisations can now learn and measure the impact Wikimedia Commons is having towards creating quality encyclopedic content using the Commons Impact Metrics analytics dashboard. The dashboard offers organizations analytics on things like monthly edits in a category, the most viewed files, and which Wikimedia articles are using Commons images. As a result of these new data dumps, GLAM organisation can more reliably measure their return on investment for programs bringing content into the digital Commons. [34]

Project Updates

  • Come share your ideas for improving the wikis on the newly reopened Community Wishlist. The Community Wishlist is Wikimedia’s forum for volunteers to share ideas (called wishes) to improve how the wikis work. The new version of the wishlist is always open, works with both wikitext and Visual Editor, and allows wishes in any language.

Learn more

  • Have you ever wondered how Wikimedia software works across over 300 languages? This is 253 languages more than the Google Chrome interface, and it's no accident. The Language and Product Localization Team at the Wikimedia Foundation supports your work by adapting all the tools and interfaces in the MediaWiki software so that contributors in our movement who translate pages and strings can translate them and have the sites in all languages. Read more about the team and their upcoming work on Diff.
  • How can Wikimedia build innovative and experimental products while maintaining such heavily used websites? A recent blog post by WMF staff Johan Jönsson highlights the work of the WMF Future Audience initiative, where the goal is not to build polished products but test out new ideas, such as a ChatGPT plugin and Add a Fact, to help take Wikimedia into the future.

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MediaWiki message delivery 00:02, 23 July 2024 (UTC)

SPI

Hi, can I ask why Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/68.7.224.123 was deleted? — Czello (music) 17:48, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Sure. We often delete cases that only mention IP addresses and no accounts. The purpose of the SPI archives is to assist furture investigations by preserving useful history. If there's no accounts involved, there's no useful history to preserve. RoySmith (talk) 18:09, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
Fair enough, thank you — Czello (music) 19:00, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Image protection

Greetings. Just came here to say that there's nothing "fidgety" about page protection. It's very simple:

  • At Errors, there's a box with links. Follow the link to "Commons media protection"
  • Add the media file to the bottom of the list in the format that you find the other files being listed
  • Wait a few minutes; I think that bot runs every 10 minutes whenever the clock ticks over to "x0".
  • Once the clock has ticked over, go to the Commons page where the file is held and try to edit it. When it won't let you, it's been done.
  • Use the new image on the main page.

It really is that simple. Schwede66 19:39, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, but I also see "Please don't use this page unless you're 100% certain that you understand how it functions." so I'm going to be a wimp. I've never broken the main page before and don't feel the urge to change that :-) RoySmith (talk) 19:44, 27 July 2024 (UTC)
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