User talk:Serendipodous/archive 24

The Space Barnstar

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Wikipedia Ambassadors update

Hi! You're getting this message because you are or have been a Wikipedia Ambassador. A new term is beginning for the United States and Canada Education Programs, and I wanted to give you an update on some important new information if you're interested in continuing your work this term as a Wikipedia Ambassador.

You may have heard a reference to a transition the education program is going through. This is the last term that the Wikimedia Foundation will directly run the U.S. and Canada programs; beginning in June, a proposed thematic organization is likely to take over organizing the program. You can read more about the proposal here.

Another major change in the program will take effect immediately. Beginning this term, a new MediaWiki education extension will replace all course pages and Ambassador lists. (See Wikipedia:Course pages and Help:Education Program extension for more details.) Included in the extension are online volunteer and campus volunteer user rights, which let you create and edit course pages and sign up as an ambassador for a particular course.

If you would like to continue serving as a Wikipedia Ambassador — even if you do not support a class this term — you must create an ambassador profile. If you're no longer interested in being a Wikipedia Ambassador, you don't need to do anything.

Please do these steps as soon as possible

First, you need the relevant user rights for Online and/or Campus Ambassadors. (If you are an admin, you can grant the rights yourself, for you as well as other ambassadors.) Just post your rights request here, and we'll get you set up as quickly as possible.

Once you've got the ambassador rights, please set up at a Campus and/or Online Ambassador profile. You can do so at:

• Special:CampusAmbassadorProfile
• Special:OnlineAmbassadorProfile

Going forward, the lists of Ambassadors at Special:CampusAmbassadors and Special:OnlineAmbassadors will be the official roster of who is an active Ambassador. If you would like to be an Ambassador but not ready to serve this term, you can un-check the option in your profile to publicly list it (which will remove your profile from the list).

After that, you can sign on to support courses. The list of courses will be at Special:Courses. (By default, this lists "Current" courses, but you can change the Status filter to "Planned" to see courses for this term that haven't reached their listed start date yet.)

As this is the first term we have used the extension, we know there will be some bugs, and we know the feature set is not as rich as it could be. (A big wave of improvements is already in the pipeline. And if you know MediaWiki and could help with code review, we'd love to have your help!) Please reach out to me (Sage Ross) with any complaints, bug reports, and feature suggestions. The basic features of the extension are documented at Wikipedia:Course pages, and you can see a tutorial for setting up and using them here.

Communication and keeping up to date

In the past, the Education Program has had a pretty fragmented set of communication channels. We're trying to fix that. These are the recommended places to discuss and stay up-to-date on the education program:

1. The education noticeboard has become the main on-wiki location for discussion of the Education Program. You can post there about broad education program issues as well as issues with individual courses.
2. The Ambassadors Announce email list is a very low-traffic announcements list of important information all Ambassadors need to be aware of. We encourage all Ambassadors (and other interested Wikipedians) to subscribe to the list; follow the instructions on the link to add your email address.
3. If you use IRC regularly, or need to try to reach someone immediately, the #wikipedia-en-ambassadors ^connect IRC channel is the place to find me and fellow Ambassadors.

Ambassador training and resources

We now have an online training for Ambassadors, which is intended to be both an orientation about the Wikipedia Ambassador role for newcomers and the manual for how to do the role. (There are parallel trainings for students and for educators as well.)

Please go through the training if you feel like you need a refresher on how a typical class is supposed to go and where the Ambassadors fit in, or if you want to review and help improve it. If there's something you'd like to see added, or other suggestions you have for it, feel free to edit the training and/or leave feedback. A primer on setting up and using course pages is included in the educators' training.

The Resources page of the training is the main place for Ambassador-related resources. If there's something you think is important as a resource that's not on there, please add it.

Finally, whether or not you work with any classes this term, I encourage you to post entries to the Trophy Case whenever you see excellent work from students or if you have great examples from past semesters. And, as always, let students (and other editors!) know when they do things well; a little WikiLove goes a long way!

--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 20:48, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

TEE HEE

Mollie K Lawson 19:24, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation pages

Hello, Serendipodous. When you moved Earth Federation to a new title and then redirected the old title to a disambiguation page, you may have been unaware of WP:FIXDABLINKS, which says:

A code of honor for creating disambiguation pages is to fix all resulting mis-directed links.

Before moving an article to a qualified name (in order to create a disambiguation page at the base name, to move an existing disambiguation page to that name, or to redirect that name to a disambiguation page), click on What links here to find all of the incoming links. Repair all of those incoming links to use the new article name.

It would be a great help if you would check the other Wikipedia articles that contain links to "Earth Federation" and fix them to take readers to the correct article. Thanks. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 12:24, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Interested in helping ambassador a molecular biology course?

Hi, Serendipodous, I had a look at your OA profile, and was wondering if you'd be interested in helping me to OA a section of Molecular Biology for this semester (course officially starts right now). The course pages are here: Section 81 and Section 82. Right now I am the only one for both sections. I think ideally I could recruit three others, for two OAs per section -- then the work would be spread out and pretty easy, I think. It's not a whole lot of work, but the professor is not an experienced Wikipedian, and I do try to help her not only with answering student questions, but also with evaluations -- just checking to make sure the students did the assignments. Please let me know if you are available. Thanks! Klortho (talk) 05:22, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Hi, again, Serendipodous, Don't know if you've seen it, but we've been having some discussion of this course on my talk page. If you are still up for helping, could you add yourself as OA to the two courses? Klortho (talk) 15:16, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Web Bot

If Web Bot is going to be deleted - the real result of the redirect you did - please take it to AfD for a full debate. You proposed a merge to 2012 phenomenon in 2009, which wasn't done. Fences&Windows 16:17, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Molecular Biology course: still in?

Hi, Serendipodous, You didn't respond to my email, and we haven't heard from you in a bit, and I'm wondering if you're still interested in helping out with this course. If not, it is okay, I think Keilana and I can handle it. If so, then I'm wondering if you mind giving us your email -- we've been communicating that way a little bit, behind the scenes, CC'ing all the OAs and the professor. If you don't like email, that's okay too, we can just use this talk page when needed. I guess, as OA, all you really need to do is to respond if a student leaves you a question at some point in the semester. Cheers! Klortho (talk) 12:07, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Hi Serendipodous! Checking in from JHU Mol Bio

I'm a student in Prog. Ogg's molecular bio course. Noticed that you are one of the class ambassadors and wanted to say hello.WeberOwl (talk) 04:03, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello Serendipodous

Hey Serendipodous. I decided to post on your talk page because I think your username is unique and pretty neat. Also, because I've noticed you really haven't replied to anyone, which is pretty cool too. Hey did you know there's a company by the name of Mars One that is planning to send people on a one way trip to Mars to colonize it? I think thats pretty awesome. I only mention that because I notice you like space discovery? Maybe? No? We should sign up together. I think we would have a lot to talk about. Like why watermelon taste so good even though its 92% water. Well let me know if you want to sign-up. I have connections. Binhtruong (talk) 23:25, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

I hate to interrupt this riveting conversation, but I just wanted to thank you, Binh, for this extremely entertaining post. I just had my first Wikipedia-related chuckle thanks to you. -MonopterusAlbus (talk) 02:02, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Miranda

Have you got the archive? Ruslik_Zero 18:51, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello Serendipodous

Hi Serendipodous,

I am new to Wikipedia, but I look forward to creating a Wiki page and communicating with you.

Bmesido1 (talk) 01:40, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

I meant to say I look forward to creating Wiki pages and communicating with you over the course of the semester.

Bmesido1 (talk) 01:57, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Greetings from course 410.602.81 Molecular Biology

It's good to meet you, albeit virtually. I have been amazed by what one can do with the Wikimedia toolset, and I'm eager to learn more as I go through my class with Dr. Ogg at Hopkins.

Thanks for volunteering your time to be an ambassador, and look forward to working with you over this course term.

Aaron.aude (talk) 23:43, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello from across the pond

Hi Serendipodous-It looks like quite a few us JHU students have already bombarded your talk page for practice. Just stopping by to say hello. Cheers! Jengel11 (talk) 00:23, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

WP:TOP25

Thanks for contributing that good summary and other tweaks to the WP:TOP25 this week! I had never heard of the Prophecy of the Popes before, its always interesting to see what "popular" things I know nothing about.--Milowent • ^hasspoken 13:39, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello, Serendipodous. You have new messages at Milowent's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

• New WP:TOP25is up, if you wish to do a summary. I predict it may be Oscar related!--Milowent • ^hasspoken 15:35, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Still interested in being an OA?

I sent you an email, but you didn't respond. I don't see that you've been active interacting with the students. If you don't have time, that is fine, but please let me know so that it doesn't cause us extra time trying to engage you. Klortho (talk) 22:38, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Top25

• That would be awesome if you could, as I cannot do it before Wednesday at best! Its not an automated process, so you can trace my steps in my contrib history if this doesn't make sense: Essentially, I take the current list, and create a draft with it at Wikipedia:5000/Top25Report/Draft. I edit the draft with the new week's information (helpful when re-using old entries that stay on the list). When the draft is ready, I move the current page (but not the talk page) to archives, e.g., Wikipedia:5000/Top25Report/February 17-23, 2013, then update the the "next week" link on that old report. I just quickly pulled up the new WP:5000 and would note that I would remove PMID-, that is definitely odd, and Litfass, G-force, and Cat anatomy (as we have been doing already). Makeba was a google doodle. Macklemore I see will be in top 25, that's a first for him, but he's always lurking in the top ~50. I hope this helps. Thanks!--Milowent • ^hasspoken 18:30, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
• Excellent job!! I made one change, the "wks" column is supposed to be # of weeks on the list, though I realize that isn't so apparent as its not described anywhere. I derived the idea for that column from the NYTimes book lists' but in an effort to make the columns slim, it may merit an explanation at the bottom of the weekly list.--Milowent • ^hasspoken 02:13, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
• just replied on my page quickly--Milowent • ^hasspoken 18:23, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Slender Man/Attic

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If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. ❤ Yutsi ^Talk/ Contributions ( 偉特 ) 17:58, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia_talk:Top25Report#Limonana_and_March_17-23.2C_2013

• FYI, I commented on the fascinating case of Limonana at Wikipedia_talk:Top25Report#Limonana_and_March_17-23.2C_2013. Thanks for your excellent work on the reports!--Milowent • ^hasspoken 13:41, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for April 4

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Hello, Serendipodous. You have new messages at Milowent's talk page.
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File:Newplanets.jpg missing description details

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• File:Newplanets.jpg

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Note on the Top 25

Thanks for your continued great work on the Top 25. Minor note: the very last line of recent reports: i.e., "The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create list: [1]" needs to be updated each week. That wikilink goes to a specific diff from a much earlier Top 5000 update (and we need to fix this in last couple reports, I think). Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 22:30, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

• Let me echo Andrew's thanks. Also, I think the Signpost has some interest in more regular coverage, maybe a top 10. I drafted the following sample, derived from the most recent list, for their consideration. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-04-29/Article Popularity Report.--Milowent • ^hasspoken 19:02, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Use of derviative works templates

As the leading editor in terms of edit count of {{HolmesNovels}}, I am alerting you to the discussion about the use of derivative works templates in author bio articles at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Novels#Derivative works and cultural references templates. We are discussing whether they should be removed from or collapsed or left alone in the author's articles.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 00:01, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Precious again

outer space
Thank you for taking us to space, connected to astronomers and the history of discoveries, - repeating: you are an awesome Wikipedian (4 October 2010)!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:13, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

A year ago, you were the 136th recipient of my PumpkinSky Prize, repeated in br'erly style, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:18, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, Serendipodous. Please check your email; you've got mail!
Message added 23:30, 6 June 2013 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 23:30, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Mediating Disputes Over "La Ciudad Blanca"

I hope all's well with you. I think we've worked well together in the past on the 2012 phenomenon article and I'd like to ask if you'd be willing to mediate disagreements that I'm having with another Wikipedia editor over the article on La Ciudad Blanca. We've been going back and forth in edit wars for the past few weeks. Although we thought we'd reached an understanding, it hasn't worked. Most of the debates appear on the talk page for the article, although some also appear on each of our user talk pages. My principal complaints are that: 1) his editing of the article has been based heavily upon a popular magazine article, not reliable scholarly sources; and 2) that he continues to revert a large number of what I consider to be improvements to the article. He has accused me of inserting a personal POV, while I have denied that and have countered that in fact what is happening his that he is editing the article to reflect his POV. Ideally, as you know, the article should be as neutral, correct, and factual as possible as well as being based on reliable sources. I think we could both benefit from your experience and expertise in dealing with challenging issues of editing. Thanks! Hoopes (talk) 20:20, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Please note that it is inappropriate for Hoopes to seek the opinion of only editors he believes will side with him. And the above request is a non-neutral phrasing, which I dispute greatly. He has therefore violated canvassing policies in an attempt to "win". --ThaddeusB (talk) 23:08, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Please review the most recent edit dispute in the La Ciudad Blanca article and render an opinion if you can. Thanks! Hoopes (talk) 15:42, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

To be clear, Hoopes is referring to Talk:La_Ciudad_Blanca#Archaeologists_and_their_areas_of_specialization. I to would appreciate your input. --ThaddeusB (talk) 17:22, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

I am now being threatened by ThaddeusB with blocking. He has given me a 3RR warning, which I believe is unfair given his own frequent reverts of my own work. Hoopes (talk) 04:49, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

It's not a threat, it is a (templated) warning. It is precisely what one is supposed to do before seeking more drastic action (such as a noticeboard report that 3RR has been violated). --ThaddeusB (talk) 04:58, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Please note that User:ThaddeusB has once again reverted the disputed edit. I am not a Wikipedia administrator, but simply an editor, and I would like to know the correct procedure for lodging a formal complaint about an administrator's repeated violations of WP:NPOV, WP:OR, and especially WP:ABF. This WP:EW is the most recent dispute in a conflict that has existed ever since I first attempted to modify the article a few weeks ago. The ongoing pattern of reversions indicates to me an exercise of WP:OWN in which User:ThaddeusB seeks to control every change to this article, however minor. (I am not the only editor whose work he has reverted.) I think that his behavior has been inappropriate. Despite my requests to Wikipedia: WikiProject Archaeology, Wikipedia:WikiProject Central America, Wikipedia:WikiProject Honduras, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Mesoamerica, there has been a dearth of objective, experienced, and WP:NPOV input. What is the correct procedure for making a formal complaint? Hoopes (talk) 16:31, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I see Hoopes has repeated the false accusation that I reverted the edit here. I did not. Take a look at La_Ciudad_Blanca#UTL_interpretations_of_LiDAR_data - Hoopes' most recent wording is still there "In mid-June 2012, archaeologist Christopher Fisher of Colorado State University, a Mesoamerican specialist with expertise in Western Mexico,[37] joined the UTL project. " I have changed precisely 0 words of it.

Note also that the alleged NPOV and OR violations are from things said on the talk page. Discussing one's opinion on the talk page is both allowed and encouraged. Also, ABF is a "humorous essay" not a policy or guideline, so I don't even know what I am supposedly violating.

All that said, WP:RFC/U is the place to complain about user behavior if Hoopes is so inclined. --ThaddeusB (talk) 16:37, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I was mistaken about what was reverted this morning and I have apologized for that mistake on my own talk page. I apologize to ThaddeusB for making it here as well. He actually did not revert the disputed edit that we have been discussing, but reverted different edits I had made. The policy that I should have cited was WP:GF. If we could both arrive at assumptions of good faith about the other's editing of the article, we could make some progress. Thanks for the information about WP:RFC/U. Hoopes (talk) 16:49, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for attempted to mediate. However, your latest comment didn't address the issue. No one is claiming the source is unreliable. The question is whether the information is relevant. You previously said it was not, now the say because the source is reliable that the information should be included. Why? Also you didn't address the redundancy issue. Why is this info so important that it needs to be stated twice? (As an aside, reliable sources can be wrong. If we have good reason to believe a source is wrong - such as testimony from Chris Fisher - why must we include this information anyway?) --ThaddeusB (talk) 19:42, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

I appreciate your willingness to assist with this article. Given your interests in folklore, mythology, legends, and the like, as well as your extensive experience with editing the 2012 phenomenon article, would you please look at the two most recent sections on the talk page of La Ciudad Blanca and offer your opinion? I am still concerned that the Wikipedia article will simply contribute to an ever-more-complex house of cards that (as with the 2012 phenomenon) represents the compounding of rumors, unfounded assertions, hearsay, and especially tall tales. The sensational article by Morde is a doosy. If you can find the time to read it, I'm sure you'll see what I mean. Stuff like that cannot be treated as a source of facts, although it does represent a source for folklore along the lines of sensational reports about Nessie or bigfoot. It probably also qualifies as pseudoarchaeology. However, other authors have repeated this material without making the original context clear, leading to "hundreds of sources" (mostly brief mass media news reports) that present speculation built on speculation built on speculation. (A specific example would be a popular article by Douglas Preston in The New Yorker based on an speculative article by Wendy Griffin in Honduras This Week that in turn was based on a sensational article by Theodore Morde in The American Weekly.) What is the best way to handle a situation like that (in which it is clear that all of these sources are presenting unreliable content)? One puff, and the house of cards collapses. Hoopes (talk) 23:12, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

Thank you from the Signpost

Thank you :-0)! Serendi^podous 11:22, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

Signpost reports

Thanks for working on the Traffic report. I enjoy reading it! Jarry is stepping down from writing the Tech report. I gave him a Signpost barnstar Will you sign it with me?. Thanks, --Pine^✉ 06:34, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

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