User talk:Sirdog/Archives/Archive 3

This is an archive of past discussions about User:Sirdog. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

New pages patrol January 2024 Backlog drive

New Page Patrol \| January 2024 Articles Backlog Drive
On 1 January 2024, a one-month backlog drive for New Page Patrol will begin. Barnstars will be awarded based on the number of articles patrolled. Barnstars will also be granted for re-reviewing articles previously reviewed by other patrollers during the drive. Each review will earn 1 point. Interested in taking part? Sign up here.
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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:10, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2024

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2023).

Administrator changes

Clovermoss

Dennis Brown

CheckUser changes

Maxim

Oversighter changes

Maxim

Arbitration

Following the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Aoidh, Cabayi, Firefly, HJ Mitchell, Maxim, Sdrqaz, ToBeFree, Z1720.
Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee rescinded the restrictions on the page name move discussions for the two Ireland pages that were enacted in June 2009.
The arbitration case Industrial agriculture has been closed.

Miscellaneous

The New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in January 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 13,000 unreviewed articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:54, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

Question from Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom (12:56, 11 January 2024)

Hello, I wondered if you might be able to help me with adding images of paintings to my page about the artist Charles Knight please. I am unsure of how it works with copyright- can I use images from another site as long as I say where they are from? For example if I wanted to use this painting: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O17788/regency-brighton-houses-in-russell-watercolour-charles-knight/ Would I write in the caption Regency Brighton Houses in Russell Square by Charles Knight, V&A? Is it enough to credit the V&A that way? And would I save it from their website and then upload it via the upload wizard? Thank you! --Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom (talk) 12:56, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Hello, Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom! Copyright when discussed at a broad level is very complicated. A good landing point for the English Wikipedia's copyright policies is Wikipedia:Copyrights. As a very laymen overview, for an image to be used on the English Wikipedia it must be uploaded (i.e it isn't acceptable to embed an image from a 3rd party website). All uploaded images must either...

Have a license compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0 (see WP:COMPLIC for a fancy table of which licenses are and aren't compatible); or
Be in the public domain; or
Invoke a fair use rationale which adheres to the criterion set forth at WP:NFCCP.

There are a lot of editors who are far more well versed in copyright, both legally and in terms of policy, so I won't try and answer the question involving the painting authoritatively. I'd suggest popping over at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions and asking the question there. You can also try the Wikipedia:Teahouse. Cheers! —Sirdog (talk) 13:48, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the speedy reply! I’ll try those avenues, thank you Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom (talk) 17:14, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

Lord of War suggestions

@Sirdog Hey I saw that you have nominated Lord of War for GA. Love the film and you've done great work on the article. I would happily review it for you but alas my laptop has broken but once I get a replacement sorted and if it's not taken I'll give it a do.

Just messaging because a few things jumped out at me. First I would move the image of Viktor Bout down to the section that is about him. I would also reference the caption.

And speaking of images I would definitely look at adding some photos of the cast. Nick Cage must have a photo somewhere!

On the sentence about the opening scene I would add something like with BFI listing the scene as one of the top ten opening credits of the 21st century. Source:[1]

The cast list. I would link Liberia in first instance, before the bracket. And then link President of Liberia.

I would link Non-governmental organization

I know it's a bit random but there you go. Good luck with the nom! Lankyant (talk) 00:56, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for the kind words and helpful feedback, Lankyant! I'm sorry to hear about your laptop, though, that sounds like it sucks. I hope getting a replacement isn't too painful. I'll definitely incorporate some of your suggestions as time permits.

—Sirdog (talk) 05:04, 13 January 2024 (UTC)

Question from ButterscotchPuffin (01:40, 16 January 2024)

Repeating question as, as far as I can tell, it was never answered initially.

Hi, Should images added to WikiMedia Commons for articles only be taken with a professional camera or would I be fine just using a phone camera? --ButterscotchPuffin (talk) 01:40, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Hello, ButterscotchPuffin. I apologize that I didn't answer your question previously! I'm not too familiar with Commons, but a cursory search that I've made just now of Commons policy doesn't seem to have requirements on that. Honestly, most phones made in the past 2-4 generations take high enough quality photos that I don't believe it would be an issue. Cheers! —Sirdog (talk) 01:52, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks! ButterscotchPuffin (talk) 02:17, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Respected admin sir kindly remove the fan pov tag from Vijay actor bio article it is placed on based on hatred

Respected admin

Sir Vijay actor bio article is neutral and many fans who has hatred on the actor Vijay since he has become the number1 paid actor in India they have wantedly placed fan pov tag kindly remove the tag and the Vijay bio article has both positive and negative information about Vijay so kindly remove the tag admin sir and kindly reduce the protection level many confirmed users are trying to contribute to the article but not possible. Thanks sir once again 91.149.236.107 (talk) 13:39, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

If you would like, you can make an edit request at the talk page of Vijay (actor) requesting another editor to remove the template if you feel the article lacks the problem presented. I am not an administrator and so cannot effect the article's protection. If you believe the protection level should be lowered you can request an administrator do so at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection and clicking the blue button that says "Request unprotection". —Sirdog (talk) 05:11, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

Question from Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom (12:55, 22 January 2024)

Courtesy link: Draft:Charles Knight (artist)

Hello, My page on the artist Charles Knight has been rejected 3 times now because it 'reads more like an essay than an encyclopedia entry'. I'm struggling with the lack of specificity in the feedback. Is there any chance you could have a quick read and suggest where I could make changes please? I have added a lot more citations and have tried to write in a neutral voice...I used Eric Ravilious's page to help me with tone and I think they read in a similar way. Thanks so much for any advice! --Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom (talk) 12:55, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

Hello Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom, and welcome to Wikipedia! First of all, I want to congratulate you on the work you've done so far. It appears according to the draft reviewer, Netherzone, that this article is close to being accepted and just needs further tuning. That is a fairly decent accomplishment for newer editors considering our stringent standards on notability!

In terms of feedback, I have a couple of points that I think will help the article.

I would remove the image with the caption Wick Farm, near Ditchling or move it to the gallery.
The "Further reading" section should be bulleted (like this list!)
Speaking of the gallery, I would look into using {{Gallery}} to make it more aesthetically pleasing. If the documentation confuses you, once the article is accepted, feel free to ping me and I'll do it for you.
I'm not interested enough in the subject matter to do a thorough source review, so I would advise you go to Netherzone's own talk page and ask them to elaborate on what they mean when they say it is improperly sourced so you don't submit again and get another rejection on that basis.
For the recent rejection on reading like an essay, I would advise asking Spinster300 directly for specific examples of prose they took issue with, alongside reading WP:EPSTYLE for further help.
I would re-order the sections. "Early life" should come first, followed by "Career", followed by "Personal life". I think it may also be beneficial to place "World War II" and "Ditchling life" underneath "Personal life" and/or "Career", whichever is most appropriate, by using a level 2 or lower heading.

I hope my feedback is helpful. Cheers! —Sirdog (talk) 06:57, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! I really appreciate it, I’ll get on those suggestions now! Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom (talk) 11:00, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for the ping, Sirdog, and hello to @Matthewfoliverathotmaildotcom. Charles Knight was indeed a notable artist, but the the last time I looked at it there were still some improvements needed for it to be in article space. I am getting ready for a long day of travelling tomorrow, so today, tomorrow and the following day are quite busy for me.

One of my concerns was the copyright issues of the photos of his work (I'm not nearly as familiar with the image use policies of Wikimedia Commons as I am with Wikipedia encyclopedia policies.) I'm a little hesitant to accept the draft if the images are considered a copyright violation. His paintings themselves are out of copyright, so that's not a problem, however I'm just not sure whether the photographs themselves, which are copyrighted by the V&A museum are considered OK to use.

The draft itself needs a little more clean up, and I will try to get to it within the week. I wouldn't worry about the draft being rejected, as long as it continues to be improved in draftspace, and does not remain untouched for 6 months, it won't be deleted. And if for some reason it is, a request to an administrator to undelete can be done. Once I post this message, I will move all the paintings into a properly formatted gallery, then after my travels are over, will review again. Don't hesitate to "ping" me on my talk page in the future for a reminder if it slips my mind. All best and thank you for your contributions, Netherzone (talk) 15:24, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Lord of War

The article Lord of War you nominated as a good article has failed ; see Talk:Lord of War for reasons why the nomination failed. If or when these points have been taken care of, you may apply for a new nomination of the article. Message delivered by ChristieBot, on behalf of TompaDompa -- TompaDompa (talk) 01:22, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2024

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

Administrator changes

Bureaucrat changes

Worm That Turned

CheckUser changes

Wugapodes

Interface administrator changes

Guideline and policy news

An RfC about increasing the inactivity requirement for Interface administrators is open for feedback.

Technical news

Pages that use the JSON contentmodel will now use tabs instead of spaces for auto-indentation. This will significantly reduce the page size. (T326065)

Arbitration

Following a motion, the Arbitration Committee adopted a new enforcement restriction on January 4, 2024, wherein the Committee may apply the 'Reliable source consensus-required restriction' to specified topic areas.
Community feedback is requested for a draft to replace the "Information for administrators processing requests" section at WP:AE.

Miscellaneous

Voting in the 2024 Steward elections will begin on 06 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 27 February 2024, 14:00 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
A vote to ratify the charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is open till 2 February 2024, 23:59:59 (UTC) via Secure Poll. All eligible voters within the Wikimedia community have the opportunity to either support or oppose the adoption of the U4C Charter and share their reasons. The details of the voting process and voter eligibility can be found here.
Community Tech has made some preliminary decisions about the future of the Community Wishlist Survey. In summary, they aim to develop a new, continuous intake system for community technical requests that improves prioritization, resource allocation, and communication regarding wishes. Read more
The Unreferenced articles backlog drive is happening in February 2024 to reduce the backlog of articles tagged with {{Unreferenced}}. You can help reduce the backlog by adding citations to these articles. Sign up to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:01, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

Question from Magaeng (12:37, 10 February 2024)

How do I create a citation? --Magaeng (talk) 12:37, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Hello Magaeng, and welcome to Wikipedia! The page Help:Referencing for beginners should give you the information you are looking for. Feel free to stop by again if you are confused by anything on that page.

—Sirdog (talk) 23:07, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

Question from Metavert on Fritillaria chitralensis (17:25, 15 February 2024)

Hallo! How do I add a picture to this page? And is it possible to add a personal observation, or do I have to wait until the paper is published? Many thanks in advance --Metavert (talk) 17:25, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Hello Metavert, and welcome to Wikipedia! To upload an image you can do so via Special:Upload. After the file is uploaded you can add the image to the page using the Visual Editor. Please make sure that the image has a free license so as to meet our copyright and image usage policy. Otherwise, you may be sanctioned and the file deleted. If you believe you have a valid fair use rationale for a non-free image, check that it meets all of our restrictions on use of such material.

In response to your second question, it is never appropriate to add a personal observation to an article. Wikipedia only presents what reliable sources say about a given topic. Presuming the paper is from a reliable journal which is peer reviewed, you would indeed wait for it to be published first. Cheers! —Sirdog (talk) 17:50, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! All noted 200.208.147.130 (talk) 14:06, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

(And yes - it is being published with a peer-reviewed journal 200.208.147.130 (talk) 14:07, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

Question from Personisinsterest (22:33, 20 February 2024)

Hello! I was just made aware about a rule that says you can't have multiple accounts. I do have an alternate account dedicated to New York-related pages. would this be in violation of the rules? --Personisinsterest (talk) 22:33, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Hello, Personisinsterest! I cannot see why an alternate account dedicated to New York-related pages would be an issue. Unless the purpose of this account is to seperate your New York edits from Personisinsterest, it is highly advised that you declare on the alternate account which account is the master so users do not mistake your alternate account as an entirely separate user. You may wish to use a designated template for this purpose, such as {{User alternative account banner}}. If the purpose is related to privacy, it would be important for you to read WP:BADSOCK and WP:SOCK#NOTIFY. I would inquire with an administrator if you have further questions about this, as I am admittedly rusty when it comes to the nuances of these policies. Cheers! —Sirdog (talk) 20:06, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! Personisinsterest (talk) 01:08, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

Feedback requests from the Feedback Request Service

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Question from Paturli50 (03:40, 25 February 2024)

How do I delete something that isn't true? --Paturli50 (talk) 03:40, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

Question from Flannbhui (12:20, 28 February 2024)

Hello! Is it possible to find lists of articles with no pictures in Vicipéid (Irish Gaelic Wikipedia) which have pictures in the article version in other languages? I do need to run a query or something? --Flannbhui (talk) 12:20, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Question from Flannbhui (12:26, 28 February 2024)

why does the email confirmation link expire so quickly? Each one I've been sent so far has expired before I can click on it. --Flannbhui (talk) 12:26, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2024

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

Administrator changes

Bureaucrat changes

SilkTork

Guideline and policy news

Phase I of the 2024 RfA review is now open for participation. Editors are invited to review, comment on, and propose improvements to the requests for adminship process.
Following an RfC, the inactivity requirement for the removal of the interface administrator right increased from 6 months to 12 months.

Technical news

The mobile site history pages now use the same HTML as the desktop history pages. (T353388)

Miscellaneous

The 2024 appointees for the Ombuds commission are だ＊ぜ, AGK, Ameisenigel, Bennylin, Daniuu, Doǵu, Emufarmers, Faendalimas, MdsShakil, Minorax, Nehaoua, Renvoy and RoySmith as members, with Vermont serving as steward-observer.
Following the 2024 Steward Elections, the following editors have been appointed as stewards: Ajraddatz, Albertoleoncio, EPIC, JJMC89, Johannnes89, Melos and Yahya.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:22, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Guild of Copy Editors 2023 Annual Report

Guild of Copy Editors 2023 Annual Report

Our 2023 Annual Report is now ready for review.

Highlights:

Introduction
Membership news, obituary and election results
Summary of Drives, Blitzes and the Requests page
Closing words

– Your Guild coordinators: Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Wracking.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Administrators' newsletter – April 2024

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

Administrator changes

Guideline and policy news

An RfC is open to convert all current and future community discretionary sanctions to (community designated) contentious topics procedure.

Technical news

The Toolforge Grid Engine services have been shut down after the final migration process from Grid Engine to Kubernetes. (T313405)

Arbitration

An arbitration case has been opened to look into "the intersection of managing conflict of interest editing with the harassment (outing) policy".

Miscellaneous

Editors are invited to sign up for The Core Contest, an initiative running from April 15 to May 31, which aims to improve vital and other core articles on Wikipedia.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:48, 1 April 2024 (UTC)

New Pages Patrol newsletter April 2024

Hello Sirdog/Archives,

Backlog update: The October drive reduced the article backlog from 11,626 to 7,609 and the redirect backlog from 16,985 to 6,431! Congratulations to Schminnte, who led with over 2,300 points.

Following that, New Page Patrol organized another backlog drive for articles in January 2024. The January drive started with 13,650 articles and reduced the backlog to 7,430 articles. Congratulations to JTtheOG, who achieved first place with 1,340 points in this drive.

Looking at the graph, it seems like backlog drives are one of the only things keeping the backlog under control. Another backlog drive is being planned for May. Feel free to participate in the May backlog drive planning discussion.

It's worth noting that both queues are gradually increasing again and are nearing 14,034 articles and 22,540 redirects. We encourage you to keep contributing, even if it's just a single patrol per day. Your support is greatly appreciated!

2023 Awards

Onel5969 won the 2023 cup with 17,761 article reviews last year - that's an average of nearly 50/day. There was one Platinum Award (10,000+ reviews), 2 Gold Awards (5000+ reviews), 6 Silver (2000+), 8 Bronze (1000+), 30 Iron (360+) and 70 more for the 100+ barnstar. Hey man im josh led on redirect reviews by clearing 36,175 of them. For the full details, see the Awards page and the Hall of Fame. Congratulations everyone for their efforts in reviewing!

WMF work on PageTriage: The WMF Moderator Tools team and volunteer software developers deployed the rewritten NewPagesFeed in October, and then gave the NewPagesFeed a slight visual facelift in November. This concludes most major work to Special:NewPagesFeed, and most major work by the WMF Moderator Tools team, who wrapped up their major work on PageTriage in October. The WMF Moderator Tools team and volunteer software developers will continue small work on PageTriage as time permits.

Recruitment: A couple of the coordinators have been inviting editors to become reviewers, via mass-messages to their talk pages. If you know someone who you'd think would make a good reviewer, then a personal invitation to them would be great. Additionally, if there are Wikiprojects that you are active on, then you can add a post there asking participants to join NPP. Please be careful not to double invite folks that have already been invited.

Reviewing tip: Reviewers who prefer to patrol new pages within their most familiar subjects can use the regularly updated NPP Browser tool.

Reminders:

You can access live chat with patrollers on the New Pages Patrol Discord.
Consider adding the project discussion page to your watchlist.
To opt out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:27, 2 April 2024 (UTC)

thanks Jimmygichuru40 (talk)

thanks ~~~ Jimmygichuru40 (talk) 17:01, 7 April 2024 (UTC)

Seeking feedback for new page

Hello Sirdog, thank you for you feedback on the article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:C-Net_12.0). My inspiration for creating this page was that there was next to nothing on the internet available about this software that I and many others remember so fondly. Therefore, I was not able to find many references that refer to this topic directly. I did however find a lot of sources that I thought would be sufficient.

As part of my creation process I looked at this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-Net_DS2. DS2 is another C-Net version from the same era. However, that Wikipedia page no citations or sources (other than names of people) whatsoever. So looking at my page, where I found several and cited them properly (I thought), I expected to be in much better shape than the page on DS-2.

Do you have any advice for me? Should I remove the sources and only leave the official manual? Keep in mind that this was from 1987 so not a lot of out there in the public space. Which is why I wanted this page.

Thanks for your time and for any advice you could give me. Jimmyzeet (talk) 15:02, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

I have read the above message. I will reply when I have a moment. —Sirdog (talk) 20:08, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for reaching out, Jimmyzeet. Wikipedia's expectations around content can be confusing. I will say that your draft is objectively in a better state than C-Net DS2, if by no other reason than it cites sources. Because Wikipedia is mostly edited by volunteers, it is possible to find examples of pages that are not at all in line with content norms but still don't have interested editors to improve them. A page citing no sources is unacceptable and could be deleted on that basis unless some are found.

While I sympathize with the fact C-Net 12.0 is quite old and thus sourcing may be hard to find, as I have a similar problem with writing about the production of the film Lord of War, ultimately if adequate sourcing cannot be located than the topic is unsuitable for an article on Wikipedia. Wikipedia does not desire to be a place for things to be remembered, for lack of a better term, that have been forgotten (again, lack of a better term). It aims to have encyclopedic articles about topics that have significant coverage by multiple independent and reliable sources, just like print encyclopedias would do.

My advice would be to try and find more sourcing, and it's worth noting that offline sourcing, such as books which may have referred to this software, are valid and may be worthwhile to look for given this topic's age. If you are ultimately unsuccessful, I'd advise choosing a different topic to write about, or perhaps do other things for Wikipedia until you get a better grasp of possible article topics which are likely to survive scrutiny.

In relation to citing "properly", the page I linked to in my AFC comment along with the Visual Editor should make that mostly a breeze. If you have any specific questions after reading Help:Referencing for beginners, feel free to make use of the resources I alluded to in my AFC comment.

—Sirdog (talk) 03:49, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for the welcoming comment

I appreciated it, but as I posted on the NPP discussion page just now, it was not deserved. I have very low technical skills, and stay away from the alphabet soup drama boards. I just write articles that interest me. I never even knew that I was supposed to put articles in a review queue; I just created them, and then was surprised when I got notices of reviews. Had no idea where that was coming from or why.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that I don’t know a lot about Wiki-processes. I wanted to help, and thought NPP might be it, but that chart just turned me right off. Far too dense and bloated; just made me want to go back to my little corner and work on content.

i am concerned that “bloat” and increasing emphasis on tech tools (eg citation templates) is an entry block for Wikipedia. That chart just confirmed my concern.

Best wishes, Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 03:08, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Mr Serjeant Buzfuz, I appreciate you reaching out. I completely understand where you are coming from; everyone contributes to the encyclopedia differently. I suppose it was presumptuous of me to make the comment alluded to, as I take for granted my knowledge of things like deletion processes or how to report copyright, as most of what I see from experienced editors in the places I lurk know those things and I did take a course that was dedicated to teaching me those things. I can't say that I agree with all of your feedback at the NPP page, but I can agree that the learning curve from "just started editing" to "experienced editor" is steep and is probably concerning in an age of decreasing attention spans. Happy editing! —Sirdog (talk) 03:34, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. I didn’t want to just be a bomb-thrower, so thought it important to respond to hey-man-I’m-Josh’s question. Those were my top-of-my-head reactions. Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 05:07, 9 April 2024 (UTC)

Guild of Copy Editors April 2024 Newsletter

Guild of Copy Editors April 2024 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the April 2024 newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since December. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below. We extend a warm welcome to all of our new members. We wish you all happy copy-editing.

Election results: In our December 2023 coordinator election, Zippybonzo stepped down as coordinator; we thank them for their service. Incumbents Dhtwiki and Miniapolis were reelected coordinators, and Wracking was newly elected coordinator, to serve through 30 June. Nominations for our mid-year Election of Coordinators will open on 1 June (UTC).

Drive: 46 editors signed up for our January Backlog Elimination Drive, 32 of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 289 articles totaling 626,729 words. Barnstars awarded are here.

Blitz: 23 editors signed up for our February Copy Editing Blitz. 18 claimed at least one copy-edit and between them, they copy-edited 100,293 words in 32 articles. Barnstars awarded are here.

Drive: 53 editors signed up for our March Backlog Elimination Drive, 34 of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 300 articles totaling 587,828 words. Barnstars awarded are here.

Blitz: Sign up for our April Copy Editing Blitz, which runs from 14 to 20 April. Barnstars will be awarded here.

Progress report: As of 23:17, 11 April 2024 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have processed 109 requests since 1 January 2024, and the backlog stands at 2,480 articles.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from Baffle gab1978 and your GOCE coordinators Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Wracking.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Question from Zu-brak (13:16, 14 April 2024)

Hi --Zu-brak (talk) 13:16, 14 April 2024 (UTC)

Hello, Zu-brak. Feel free to stop by again if you have any questions! —Sirdog (talk) 21:17, 14 April 2024 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

		The Closer's Barnstar
		For your close at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/2024 review/Phase I#Proposal 13: Admin elections! Brilliant, well written close which reflected the consensus of the community. (I am biased in that I supported the proposal, but I would say this even if I did not ). Thank you for taking the time to do the close; it is seen and appreciated. House Blaster (talk · he/him) 19:56, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, HouseBlaster! Your kind words are deeply appreciated.

—Sirdog (talk) 05:04, 16 April 2024 (UTC)

+1 – DreamRimmer (talk) 01:30, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

New page patrol May 2024 Backlog drive

New Page Patrol \| May 2024 Articles Backlog Drive
On 1 May 2024, a one-month backlog drive for New Page Patrol will begin. Barnstars will be awarded based on the number of articles patrolled. Barnstars will also be granted for re-reviewing articles previously reviewed by other patrollers during the drive. Each review will earn 1 point. Interested in taking part? Sign up here.
You're receiving this message because you are a new page patroller. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:15, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

Question from ChrissieEWebb (05:26, 18 April 2024)

Hi, I am trying to create an article on Australian Broadcaster, Marius Webb, the first staff elected member of the ABC and founder of Triple J. I need to add quite a bit to the article but before I do I was hoping you can let me know if I am going in the right direction. Triple J will be celebrating 50 years on Air and Marius will be interviewed quite extensively at that time. I would like to have it up and with various citations in place. --ChrissieEWebb (talk) 05:26, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia, ChrissieEWebb, and sorry for my tardy reply! Help:Your first article is a good place to start in figuring out whether you are going in the right direction. The most important thing is going to be demonstrating that Marius Webb meets our notability policy, which states they must have multiple independent and reliable sources which provide them significant coverage. Editors tend to weigh interviews very low on meeting this bar, as depending on the quality of the interview it tends to simply be the subject speaking about themselves which is not independent. I would be cautious if you are planning to rely on those interviews to help prove Marius deserves an article.

I'd also advise making use of the Articles for Creation process when you ultimately think the article is ready for publishing. This ensures an experienced editors reviews it and eithers publishes it if it's ready or "declines" it (unless rejected you can re-submit as many times as you like if declined) and provides feedback on what went wrong.

The Teahouse is also a good resource for asking questions, aside from myself.

Happy editing! —Sirdog (talk) 05:01, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

Hi Sirdog,

Thanks so very much. A great help. Also I fully understand that Marius wont be interviewed because of the Wiki article, it’s more to see that the facts are in the right place when outside sources seek them. All the best

Christine ChrissieEWebb (talk) 06:00, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

Question from Steven Fernandez1 (15:11, 26 April 2024)

Hello. Do you have tips for finding references for articles? Also any sources for basic grammar and what not, i could just google but figured i would ask --Steven Fernandez1 (talk) 15:11, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia, Steven Fernandez1! For basic grammar, the Manual of Style by it's nature includes a lot of instruction on the topic to help editors copy-edit articles. It's a very large manual, encompassing norms that have developed for well over a decade. Most editors that aren't fixated on making articles the highest quality possible tend to just follow the simplified version and then refer to particular pages when they have a specific question. You can also visit the Guild of Copy Editors, a large and active group of editors that dedicate themselves to copy-editing. They maintain other resources on the topic, and I'm sure you can always ask on their talk page if you have a specific question you can't find an answer for.

In terms of finding sources, my go-to is to use Google News, which filters search results to news reporting sites. A good resource to read up on making good searches on search engines is Wikipedia:Search engine test § Using search engines. Once you become an extended-confirmed editor you'll automatically gain access to The Wikipedia Library, which is an amalgamation of high-quality source aggregators that the Wikimedia Foundation pays for and maintains for editors to use when doing article research.

I hope this helps! —Sirdog (talk) 21:13, 26 April 2024 (UTC)

Awesome! Thanks Sirdog! Steven Fernandez1 (talk) 19:51, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

Question from an anon. user

Hi. Whoever is operating this account, is this the same user managing this account?102.156.10.192 (talk) 10:50, 27 April 2024 (UTC)

Greetings! No, I am not the operator of Nardog. —Sirdog (talk) 11:35, 27 April 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for permissions

@Sir how to apply? Zu-brak (talk) 04:50, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

Hello, Zu-brak. The page you have linked to is where editors request various types of permissions from administrators to help them edit in particular ways. Is there a specific permission you are interested in? —Sirdog (talk) 05:04, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

I have to request a handle, can you guide me how to do it? Zu-brak (talk) 05:17, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

And on which handle should I apply? Zu-brak (talk) 05:21, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

@Zu-brak: My understanding of a "handle" is a username. If you desire to change your username, see Wikipedia:Changing username. —Sirdog (talk) 05:31, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

Not a username, but a badge. Zu-brak (talk) 05:38, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the term "badge" is not adding much clarity as to what you are attempting to accomplish. If you refer to any of the bolded text at Wikipedia:Requests for permissions § Handled here, you would click the button that says "view requests" to the right of the relevant badge/permission. Near the top of the next page will be a blurb describing the criteria you need to meet for an administrator to consider your account for the permission/"badge". —Sirdog (talk) 06:33, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

Question from 5 Fires (23:56, 29 April 2024)

Im an artist and singer, i want to add my bio to wikipedia how do i do this? --5 Fires (talk) 23:56, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia, 5 Fires. Understand that Wikipedia aims to be a high quality encyclopedia. To achieve this goal, articles on Wikipedia — which include biographies about people who are alive — must meet our notability standards. Put simply, we need multiple independent (meaning the source is not endorsed or affiliated with you) and reliable (meaning the source has a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy, such as NPR) sources which provide you significant coverage (meaning there is commentary about you specifically that exceeds a trivial mention) for you to be eligible for an article. Note that it is discouraged that you write about yourself, as that is a de facto conflict of interest, which Wikipedia stands pretty firmly against due to our policy of writing material from a neutral point of view. It's also worth noting that, due to our desire to write content from a neutral point of view, it isn't necessarily a good thing for you to have an article about yourself.

Presuming you wish to pursue this endeavor, which I caution — with compassion — will be difficult and most likely frustrating, you can create a draft biography and then submit it through Articles for Creation. Said process is where experienced and neutral editors review your draft and determine if it's suitable for publishing. You can also submit a request for someone to create an article about you at Wikipedia:Requested articles.

Feel free to stop by again if you have further questions.

—Sirdog (talk) 00:15, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

Question from Tomartacus (10:13, 30 April 2024)

Hi Sirdog,

I thought i have crafted a homepage, but on publishing everything seems to have disappeared without trace. I presume this is my fat fingers and it is not in some limbo somewhere waiting for authorisation.

Look forward to hearing from you.

John --Tomartacus (talk) 10:13, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

You appear to have been blocked, Tomartacus. I will be happy to assist you with any questions you should have if or when you are unblocked. —Sirdog (talk) 13:12, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

Question from Elenaiki (13:26, 2 May 2024)

Just saying hello and thank you for the welcome! --Elenaiki (talk) 13:26, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

—Sirdog (talk) 13:40, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – May 2024

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

Administrator changes

Nyttend

Bureaucrat changes

Nihonjoe

CheckUser changes

Joe Roe

Oversight changes

GeneralNotability

Guideline and policy news

Phase I of the 2024 requests for adminship review has concluded. Several proposals have passed outright and will proceed to implementation, including creating a discussion-only period (3b) and administrator elections (13) on a trial basis. Other successful proposals, such as creating a reminder of civility norms (2), will undergo further refinement in Phase II. Proposals passed on a trial basis will be discussed in Phase II, after their trials conclude. Further details on specific proposals can be found in the full report.

Technical news

Partial action blocks are now in effect on the English Wikipedia. This means that administrators have the ability to restrict users from certain actions, including uploading files, moving pages and files, creating new pages, and sending thanks. T280531

Arbitration

The arbitration case Conflict of interest management has been closed.

Miscellaneous

This may be a good time to reach out to potential nominees to ask if they would consider an RfA.
A New Pages Patrol backlog drive is happening in May 2024 to reduce the number of unreviewed articles in the new pages feed. Currently, there is a backlog of over 15,000 articles awaiting review. Sign up here to participate!
Voting for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election is open until 9 May 2024. Read the voting page on Meta-Wiki and cast your vote here!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:24, 2 May 2024 (UTC)

Kafirs add unsourced captions to Islamic art and create discord

WP:DENY

Copied from User talk:খাত্তাব হাসান

The essay to which Future Perfect at Sunrise refers was created by Future Perfect at Sunrise himself. (Personal attack removed). Previously de-sysopped, his admin tools were inexplicably restored and the parade of complaints against him at ANI and ArbCom resumed. In a gross violation of WP:INVOLVED he protected Islamic calendar indefinitely to thwart moves to provide an accurate caption to the picture there after a petition to correct it garnered 400,000 signatures. Scholars have confirmed that the picture, apparently of Ali preaching to the Ahl al-Bayt inside a mosque, has no relevance to the pilgrimage, which is an outdoor event. Here is a suggested correction:

An Imam preaching from the *minbar* of a mosque. Illustration added by an unknown artist to a 14th century Ilkhanid king's copy of Al-Biruni's tenth century work *The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries* at the point where it discusses Muhammad's prohibition of intercalation in his Farewell Sermon delivered on 7 March AD 632 from the back of a grey mule in the open air on a hilltop to 44,000 pilgrims during his final pilgrimage. 17th-century copy of an early 14th-century Ilkhanid manuscript.^[1]

There's been no response to the edit request. Can you make the requested edit? 92.27.128.96 (talk) 14:33, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

References

^ Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Arabe 1489 fol. 5v. (Bibliothèque Nationale on-line catalog). See also: Robert Hillenbrand, "Images of Muhammad in al-Bīrūnī's Chronology of Ancient Nations", in: R. Hillenbrand (ed.), Persian Painting from the Mongols to the Qajars: Studies in Honour of Basil W. Robinson (London/New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2000), pp. 129–46, which confirms that the prohibition of intercalation is an "unlikely" theme of the work.

Disambiguation link notification for May 7

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Chhattisgarh, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Sirpur. Such links are usually incorrect, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of unrelated topics with similar titles. (Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.)

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, --DPL bot (talk) 17:56, 7 May 2024 (UTC)

Iggy Azalea

Hi Sirdog, I saw that you once answered a question on the Iggy Azalea page and was wondering can you please change the genre from pop-rap as it was referring to the genre itself and not her music and change it to Hip hop^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] as those sources most definitely call her a hip hop artist? Many thanks and have a nice day. Skalette (talk) 04:33, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for reaching out to me, Skalette, and for taking the time to request edits to improve the encyclopedia. You will probably have a better chance of having this actioned by making an edit request (write "Iggy Azalea" in the box that appears when you click the link). This way editors which may be more in-tune with musical artists, and have more interest in their articles, will have the opportunity to see and evaluate your request.

—Sirdog (talk) 02:49, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

A lot of the other users, are hell bent on restoring it to a false edit and seeing how you're a neutral third party I thought you'd be the better one to do it if at all possible Please? Many thanks. Skalette (talk) 16:38, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Skalette, if you believe this to be the case I'd advise looking into dispute resolution methods to try and resolve the situation. I do not believe I am best suited to assist you as I am not that interested in Iggy Azalea or her music. My involvement on the page was only to close a lot of edit requests which were malformed. I wish you the best! —Sirdog (talk) 20:32, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

References

^ Rosenhal, Jeff (February 19, 2015). "Iggy Azalea's History of Hip-Hop Controversy: A Timeline". Vulture. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
^ McIntyre, Hugh (May 19, 2014). "Hip-Hop's Unlikely New Star: A White, Blonde, Australian Woman". Forbes. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
^ Marantz, Andrew (September 17, 2014). "Iggy Azalea and 'Realness' in Hip-Hop". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
^ Cahill, Mikey (January 30, 2015). "How Iggy Azalea went from a white girl in regional Australia to becoming an international hip hop star". News.com.au. Retrieved May 13, 2024.

Scam warning

How does that happen? 137.22.183.13 (talk) 10:49, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

What typically happens is a person or organization will offer someone who is interested in having a Wikipedia article the service of "guaranteeing", in some fashion, that their page will go live and not get taken down. They may also "guarantee" certain outcomes, such as the article speaking favorably or not including details the victim would not want public. They will offer this service for a price. I'm not too familiar with what the "going rates" for articles are nowadays, as I've yet to run into a victim of this scam personally. Scammers will tend to go to exhaustive lengths to "prove" their legitimacy, or may even feign being good faith editors in an attempt to circumvent scrutiny and actually make good on their "guarantees" (to have a positive case study to further convince others of their scam). Scammers tend to know that these attempts will fail, even if it takes a bit of time to catch 'em, which makes them scam artists.

More information is available at Wikipedia:Articles for creation/Scam warning. See the article Operation Orangemoody for details on a very large-scale scam that was conducted against the English Wikipedia back in 2015. —Sirdog (talk) 02:45, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Question from Fragrancelover (20:41, 17 May 2024)

hi sirdog! I am having a lot of issues editing a page that currently has inaccuracies. All of the copy that I have submitted for edits has footnotes and is objective. Can you please assist? --Fragrancelover (talk) 20:41, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Question from Mags74h (14:15, 18 May 2024)

Hi! I wanna upload my article about Ziggis Coffee. Its in the sandbox. Thank you --Mags74h (talk) 14:15, 18 May 2024 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Mags74h There is actually zero content in your sandbox? Theroadislong (talk) 17:33, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Feedback request: Wikipedia proposals request for comment

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Administrators' newsletter – June 2024

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

Administrator changes

Graham Beards

Bureaucrat changes

Oversight changes

Dreamy Jazz

Guideline and policy news

Phase II of the 2024 RfA review has commenced to improve and refine the proposals passed in Phase I.

Technical news

The Nuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, will now correctly delete pages which were moved to another title. T43351

Arbitration

The arbitration case Venezuelan politics has been closed.
The Committee is seeking volunteers for various roles, including access to the conflict of interest VRT queue.

Miscellaneous

WikiProject Reliability's unsourced statements drive is happening in June 2024 to replace {{citation needed}} tags with references! Sign up here to participate!

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:44, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

May 2024 NPP backlog drive – Points award

	The Working Man's Barnstar
	This award is given in recognition to Sirdog for accumulating at least 10 points during the May 2024 NPP backlog drive. Your contributions helped play a part in the 14,452 reviews completed during the drive. Thank you so much for taking part and contributing to help reduce the backlog! Hey man im josh (talk) 18:50, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

Guild of Copy Editors June 2024 Newsletter

Guild of Copy Editors June 2024 Newsletter

Hello and welcome to the June 2024 newsletter, a quarterly-ish digest of Guild activities since April. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.

Election news: Wanted: new Guild coordinators! If you value and enjoy the GOCE, why not help out behind the scenes? Nominations for our mid-year coordinator election are now open until 23:59 on 15 June (UTC). Self-nominations are welcome. Voting commences at 00:01 on 16 June and continues until 23:50 on 30 June. Results will be announced at the election page.

Blitz: Nine of the fourteen editors who signed up for the April 2024 Copy Editing Blitz copy edited at least one article. Between them, they copy edited 55,853 words comprising twenty articles. Barnstars awarded are available here.

Drive: 58 editors signed up for our May 2024 Backlog Elimination Drive and 33 of those completed at least one copy edit. 251 articles and 475,952 words were copy edited. Barnstars awarded are here.

Blitz: Our June 2024 Copy Editing Blitz will begin on 16 June and finish on 22 June. Barnstars awarded will be posted here.

Progress report: As of 05:23, 8 June 2024 (UTC) , GOCE copyeditors have completed 161 requests since 1 January and the backlog stands at 2,779 articles.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from Baffle gab1978 and your GOCE coordinators Dhtwiki, Miniapolis and Wracking.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

Question from Ned Retherbrick (03:08, 20 June 2024)

I tried to add an edit to Mobile accessories that got declined. As it is consumer items, most of the sources are going to be promotion-related. I was going to add that ND filters exist for phones. I added a citation to https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1765213-REG/freewell_fw_gx_nd_nd_filter_kit_for.html intending it as a product example. I was not intending to promote the product, thogh I do see how it could be interpreted and intended that way. What sources would you reccemmend as replacements? Also, how much should I debate/challenge other's edits? I want to contribute how I can. And I also want to minimize the unintentional harm any of my actions cause. --Ned Retherbrick (talk) 03:08, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Hi Ned, welcome to Wikipedia! A good source for this might be something like like an article from a news or scholarly source. You could try asking over at the reference desk. Check out our page on sources for more information. Jake Wartenberg (talk) 16:17, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – July 2024

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

Administrator changes

Technical news

Local administrators can now add new links to the bottom of the site Tools menu without using JavaScript. Documentation is available on MediaWiki. (T6086)

Miscellaneous

The Community Wishlist is re-opening on 15 July 2024. Read more

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

Administrators' newsletter – August 2024

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

Administrator changes

Isabelle Belato

Interface administrator changes

Izno

CheckUser changes

Barkeep49

Technical news

Global blocks may now target accounts as well as IP's. Administrators may locally unblock when appropriate.
Users wishing to permanently leave may now request "vanishing" via Special:GlobalVanishRequest. Processed requests will result in the user being renamed, their recovery email being removed, and their account being globally locked.

Arbitration

The Arbitration Committee appointed the following administrators to the conflict of interest volunteer response team: Bilby, Extraordinary Writ

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:00, 6 August 2024 (UTC)

[1] Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Arabe 1489 fol. 5v. (Bibliothèque Nationale on-line catalog). See also: Robert Hillenbrand, "Images of Muhammad in al-Bīrūnī's Chronology of Ancient Nations", in: R. Hillenbrand (ed.), Persian Painting from the Mongols to the Qajars: Studies in Honour of Basil W. Robinson (London/New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2000), pp. 129–46, which confirms that the prohibition of intercalation is an "unlikely" theme of the work.

[2] Rosenhal, Jeff (February 19, 2015). "Iggy Azalea's History of Hip-Hop Controversy: A Timeline". Vulture. Retrieved May 13, 2024.

[3] McIntyre, Hugh (May 19, 2014). "Hip-Hop's Unlikely New Star: A White, Blonde, Australian Woman". Forbes. Retrieved May 13, 2024.

[4] Marantz, Andrew (September 17, 2014). "Iggy Azalea and 'Realness' in Hip-Hop". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 13, 2024.

[5] Cahill, Mikey (January 30, 2015). "How Iggy Azalea went from a white girl in regional Australia to becoming an international hip hop star". News.com.au. Retrieved May 13, 2024.

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