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Archive 1Archive 2Archive 3

Q3 2014

While we wait for the newsletter to ship out, might as well start up a new thread for the new quarter. GamerPro64 16:50, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

For interviews I contacted X201 ‎and CyberSkull last quarter but got no response. I didn't word my request well because I told them to contact me if they wanted to be interviewed when what I really meant was to contact me with a "yes" or "no" either way, but oh well. I guess it makes the most sense to interpret a lack of response as a "no" in this case (the same goes for the lack of response we got from MuZemike and SharkD earlier). Anyway with that aside, I just contacted 11 previously suggested long-shot editors who are semi-active or inactive. Specifically these include Guyinblack25, Jacoplane, Marasmusine, and MrKIA11 (all suggested in Q2 2012), and Andrevan, Jappalang, Krator, Nifboy, Pagrashtak, Randomran, and Thunderbrand (all suggested in Q3 2013). It would be cool if one or two or three of them get back to me about an interview eventually, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Like I said, these are long-shots and some of them haven't edited since 2009... So while we wait for those 11 editors to respond, I'd like to get some input on others who would be worth interviewing. The only name that we'd suggested earlier that hasn't yet been addressed is Darkwarriorblake so I think he'd be a good candidate to contact. I'd also suggest Sergecross73 since I believe he's the only one of our admins we haven't yet interviewed and he's been quite an asset project-wide. Any other suggestions? -Thibbs (talk) 14:33, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
No, but just dropping a note to say I will be doing that old games feature I mentioned last quarter. —Torchiest talkedits 17:22, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
Excellent. I just wrote up an offline draft for an article on the practice of going systematically through a magazine (especially an old magazine) and mining it for refs to fill out reception sections. I've seen this kind of activity from a few editors in the past and recently User:Ylee has been doing excellent work using the same technique so I wanted to spotlight it as a helpful method for the project. That'll be good backup hopefully and we can run it at some point in the future. -Thibbs (talk) 12:47, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
  • So just to update everyone, I've completed the backup feature which I figure we will leave in storage until Q4, and I've gotten in contact with Guyinblack25 and Marasmusine who have both agreed to interviews. I've got both of their interviews posted, so no we just have to wait for them to fill in their responses. Both are semi-retired or frequently inactive so it is bound to take some time.
    Considering it's been almost a month since I contacted the previous long list of "oldtimers," I think it may be worth suggesting some more current editors for interviews, so I'd like to suggest we ask Sergecross73 for an interview. Any thoughts? I was also thinking of dropping a note on GVnayR's page to ask him for an interview too. He's one of our most prolific article creators and he's currently listed as "retired," but I've seen him pop in and out of retirement at least a half dozen times due to frustration so I hope he'll come back at some point. I'd like to see if we can interview him concurrently with a piece on prolific article creation.
    Oh and one last thing: @Torchiest:, I don't know if you'd be interested in including this in your feature or not, but JimmyBlackwing just recently wrote an essay on sourcing that might be worth linking. It can be found at WP:VGSOURCE. -Thibbs (talk) 13:59, 12 August 2014 (UTC)
    Nice work! I agree about Sergecross73, should be a good interview. And I will definitely link that essay. I've written a few paragraphs for the piece about a month ago, but I'm not sure where to take things now. May take another look at it this weekend. —Torchiest talkedits 19:31, 12 August 2014 (UTC)
Just had a thought about a potential editor to interview in the future. A few of our Featured Pictures in our project have been taken by Evan-Amos. In an attempt, at least that's what I call it, to make FPs more common for the project we could put Evan under the spotlight and ask him some questions on making these standout images. GamerPro64 04:38, 14 August 2014 (UTC)
I like the idea too. I haven't contacted Sergecross yet, but I do have the two other interviewees (Guyinblack25 and Marasmusine) lined up. Do you think we should ask Evan-Amos for a Q1 2015 interview? Or should we try for Sergecross as Q1 and Evan-Amos as Q2? And I don't mind doing the interviews since they're pretty easy, but would anyone else be interested in interviewing either Sergecross or Evan-Amos? I'll do it if nobody else has time. -Thibbs (talk) 11:27, 14 August 2014 (UTC)
We can ask both and see who says yes first. Also, I can help interview one or the other when the time comes. GamerPro64 15:17, 14 August 2014 (UTC)
Done. I contacted both and told them that one or the other of us would interview them, GamerPro64. Thanks. -Thibbs (talk) 15:03, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
OK Sergecross responded first so he gets the Q1 2015 interview. I'd be glad to write up the questions if you want to talk to Evan-Amos, GP64. Or we could do it the other way too. Any preference? -Thibbs (talk) 00:05, 17 August 2014 (UTC)
I can take the reins for Evan-Amos' questions. GamerPro64 00:16, 17 August 2014 (UTC)
So Evan-Amos accepted our request for an interview. I think we're set for a while. GamerPro64 02:35, 21 August 2014 (UTC)
JimmyBlackwing's essay is a lot better and more comprehensive than what I have so far. I'm thinking about asking him if we can just include in in the next newsletter. What do you think? —Torchiest talkedits 16:48, 14 August 2014 (UTC)
I'm all for using Jimmy's essay for the newsletter. It might help get it seen by more people. Personally, I like the essay and definitely works with showing ways to source our projects arcticles. GamerPro64 18:51, 14 August 2014 (UTC)
Yeah I think it would be fine to use Jimmy's essay wholesale. It might encourage others to contribute essays here as well and that would be excellent. So are you going to ask him then, Torchiest? -Thibbs (talk) 14:39, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
Torchiest just notified me about this. Feel free to use the essay—I'm flattered that you guys thought it was good enough for the newsletter. I have a few other resources that I might add to it before the newsletter goes live, though. What's the timeframe? JimmyBlackwing (talk) 04:24, 17 August 2014 (UTC)
Great! Thanks for your help, Jimmy. The next issue is due out by October 1, 2014. -Thibbs (talk) 11:37, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

It looks like you guys are set for a feature this quarter (and possible Q4 as well), but I wanted to offer to write a feature for the future, if you wanted. I was thinking I could write one on "how to write a featured list of video games/video game media", since I've written 10 so far (out of 13 VG Fls and 41 FLs total). We had an FL feature back in January 2011, and an article on crufty lists in October 2013 so I thought I could differentiate it by focusing on how you can structure the list, what templates are best for what situations, and what details/citations you need to actually fill it out and make it comprehensive, rather than spending time on scope/appropriateness. Anyway, if you guys are interested let me know, or if you're not/you think it's too soon after the other articles let me know as well. --PresN 23:21, 21 August 2014 (UTC)

@PresN:, Yeah that would be really great! Thanks for the offer! -Thibbs (talk) 14:41, 22 August 2014 (UTC)
  • I just remembered to add announcements for the 10th anniversary for the French and Swedish WP:VGs. I totally forgot that I had intended to include a note congratulating Japanese WP:VG's 10th anniversary, but I mentioned it in this one to make up for that. Next quarter (Q4) will be the 10th anniversary of the Spanish and German WP:VGs so we should try to remember to give them our congratulations in the newsletter. -Thibbs (talk) 14:32, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

We're almost halfway through September now. How's the interview and the feature coming along? GamerPro64 16:44, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

The feature is done, right? Aren't we using JimmyBlackwing's essay? I have a backup finished whenever we need it. As for the interview, two of the oldtimers (Guyinblack25 and Marasmusine) got back to me that they'd be happy to give an interview, but then they disappeared again and I heard no word from them. I emailed them both about a week ago and Marasmusine said he'd finish it up at some point, but I've still heard nothing from Guyinblack25. I'm not sure if he got the email. I guess I'll drop a note on his talk page soon because I'd already told him that he'd be the interviewee for this upcoming quarter. Then there's Sergecross and Evan Amos. I need to interview Serge soon. I've been busy with other things but I'll try to get on this as soon as possible. -Thibbs (talk) 21:15, 12 September 2014 (UTC)
Yay! Guyinblack25 is working on the interview now so that's taken care of. I'll get to Sergecross soon, though. -Thibbs (talk) 12:36, 18 September 2014 (UTC)
Just posted the Sergecross interview. Now we await his response for Q1-2015. You're up next, GP64, for the Evan Amos interview for Q2-2015. -Thibbs (talk) 16:58, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
  • I was just about to start the New Article counts for July and August but the issue I brought up last quarter about Draftspace articles is beginning to bother me. When an article is moved from Draftspace to Mainspace I don't believe it is added to New article announcements. So if I ignore them then they never end up getting counted so our stats are artificially lower... I still don't really feel comfortable calling them new articles since they aren't even in mainspace but should I include a tally of how many draftspace articles were created? What would be the best way to proceed here? -Thibbs (talk) 12:34, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
    • Maybe making a tally for Draftspace might be a good idea. Showing what is in the drafts. We do have a fair amount of them, though some may be redirects as well. GamerPro64 15:12, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
      • OK so here are some options:
Option A - the basic "New article" page as it was before the creation of draftspace
Option B - the basic page plus a raw tally of new draftspace items (please ignore the fact that the correct number of drafts should have been 16 here)
Option C - the basic page plus a draftspace tally and collapsed draftspace table
In Option C I collapsed the draftspace table, but it could be left expanded or we could try any other combination of things. What seems best? -Thibbs (talk) 17:59, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
Well anyway for now I'm going with yet another variation that can be seen here. Basically I have both articlespace and draftspace tallies at top followed by the article table and then a collapsed draft table. I also went back to last quarter (when draftspace first appeared) and added draft info to April, May, and June. Hopefully that can serve as our new model. -Thibbs (talk) 12:44, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
  • So apart from the rest of September, we're actually looking great this quarter for finishing on time. The feature is done and the interview is done. I believe the details of July and August are complete and so we're just wrapping up September now. I'd like to import the feature at this point but I'm wondering how we should go about it. Should we simply copy and paste from JimmyBlackwing's article? Or should we take an excerpt from it and link the full essay? Or should we just write up a brief 1-2 paragraph "original content" intro to it and then link the full essay? I'm kind of leaning toward the copy&paste option but my skin naturally crawls at so much duplication. What do you guys think? -Thibbs (talk) 12:44, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
  • OK I think that's basically it then for this issue. Thanks everyone. Tomorrow it's due to go out so I'll get the new article count updated for September as soon as I can get to it after the clock ticks over to Oct. 1 (in order to catch all of the new articles from today the 30th). @Torchiest: could you use your magic tools to send it out tomorrow (Oct. 1)? -Thibbs (talk) 11:45, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Q4 2014

Things seem to be going pretty smoothly so far. I just wanted to give status for the other elements of the newsletter not currently in the draft. I have the feature completed. It's been done for ages actually, and since it contains interview questions I'd like to avoid delaying it further. The suggestion PresN made above about "How to write a featured list" sounds excellent and unless anything dramatic comes up it's slated for Q1 2015.

As for the interview, I'm still hopeful that we can get the Marasmusine interview I'd been angling for for ages. He's agreed to do it, but he's not finished yet. In the meantime the interview slated for Q1 2015 is Sergecross. He's been working on the interview bit by bit for a while now and he's probably 75% finished so if Marasmusine is tied up in work or something then we might be able to ask Sergecross to make a push to finish his up quickly. I've just contacted Marasmusine to remind him.

And ideas for the future: Czar and Sam Walton both just became admins. We should note this in the newsletter this quarter but we might also consider them for interviews since we've hit all the other admins so far. If so we should do Sam Walton first since he passed his RfA a week earlier. I also think that a good retrospective-style article could be done of the GamerGate incident. That's one of the more dramatic events that has hit WP:VG in quite a while and I think people would be interested to see a report on it. Right now there's an ArbCom case addressing it so in one sense I'd like to wait until the whole thing is over and people can be a bit objective about it. But I also worry that some of the actors will be banned or will be topic banned and I'm not sure if they will be free to talk about their role in the event after the 28th (the date of the ArbCom case closing). Add to that the fact that as the case nears its conclusion the decisions will sometimes be obvious and this will clearly effect how the participants view the whole thing. Getting the views of all sides would be important here. So it might be a good idea to start with some of the more heavily involved editors sooner rather than later if the newsletter wishes to have any personal views represented. Does anybody have any thoughts on this idea? -Thibbs (talk) 13:48, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

  • Seems we're doing well this quarter. I need to prepare my questions for Evan-Amos for Q2. Interviewing some of the members that became admins are a good idea. And I would like to help out with the GamerGate interviews. And hopefully we can attempt to make it as neutral as possible. To get both sides of the event. I don't see why not. GamerPro64 16:10, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

I had a bit of a power outage for the past few days due to inclement weather, but I'm back now (hopefully no further interruptions). I skimmed through the GamerGate archives and I'd like to kind of digest them a bit before I generate a final set of questions for those who have participated. I'll write to your talk page about it when I get a moment, GP64. Things are, as always, hectic. I just wanted to give an update on Marasmusine's interview getting posted and Sergecross is also still working on his for next quarter. Again, the feature for this quarter s done but I'll post it closer to the deadline to avoid bulking things up. Oh yeah and thanks for tackling next quarter's feature, PresN. Much appreciated to be sure! -Thibbs (talk) 03:15, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Gotcha. GamerGate does seem like something to sit down and think about. GamerPro64 03:44, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
  • I just shifted in the feature and I'll get the NAAs sorted soon. I thought I'd get it finished now as I have family matters to attend to for the holidays. BOZ, Ylee: I'm pinging you two in case you want to make any more changes to the feature before it's run. If you want to make any tweaks, please go ahead on the actual draft version instead of the one in my sandbox. The due date for release is January 7, so you can make any alterations up until then. Thanks for your help again! -Thibbs (talk) 02:45, 23 December 2014 (UTC)
I don't really remember what I said; got a link? :) BOZ (talk) 02:48, 23 December 2014 (UTC)
@BOZ: Ah yes, sorry. Here's the link. -Thibbs (talk) 02:53, 23 December 2014 (UTC)
I'm satisfied! BOZ (talk) 03:50, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

I just finished the December NAAs and there were actually zero December DYKs... So I think we're all set. The release date we set is this coming Wednesday the 7th, so we still have time to make final tweaks, but from my perspective it's finished. -Thibbs (talk) 04:19, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Q1 2015

New Year once again. Let's get the ball rolling for what to write about this quarter. GamerPro64 21:32, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

I believe PresN volunteered to do the feature for this quarter, and I think we'd agreed that since Sergecross responded before Evan Amos he gets the interview for Q1. Am I right in thinking that you're interviewing Evan Amos for Q2, though, GP64? -Thibbs (talk) 23:39, 1 January 2015 (UTC)
Yes you are right. I'll prepare some questions to ask for Evan Amos before the quarter ends. GamerPro64 00:09, 2 January 2015 (UTC)
  • I'll stick this in here even though it's not about Q1: WPVG oldtimer, MrKIA11 has agreed to an interview! I've told him that Q3 is open and I'll draw up the questions in the next few weeks. -Thibbs (talk) 14:17, 3 January 2015 (UTC)
Feature is done, it's at User:PresN/newsletter. It's a bit long, but oh well. --PresN 19:34, 4 January 2015 (UTC)
  • It looks great, PresN! The interview we have slated for Q1 is 3 answers short of complete as well, so we're way ahead of schedule. Most excellent progress! -Thibbs (talk) 01:53, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

So Thibbs. Since the GamerGate ArbCom is done with, are there still plans to write a retrospective about the whole thing? GamerPro64 03:17, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Heh, every time I've started reading through the material (talk page of the main article and the related articles and then ArbCom itself) I've again realized what an mighty task it is to read it all and I feel overwhelmed. I would like to cover it, though... Now this quarter's feature is all set to go, but perhaps a Gamergate retrospective would work well for Q2. In particular it would give us a chance to examine the actual fallout (for the article) of the ArbCom decision. Newspapers like The Guardian and Wired have written on the topic subsequent to the ArbCom decision predicting dire consequences for the neutrality of the article. It would be rather interesting to see what happens now that so many of the major players are barred. I'm afraid we may have missed our opportunity to talk to the involved editors themselves, though we might be able to work around the t-bans via email. (I don't think that violates the rules, but we could ask an Arb for clarification if needed). Anyway if you have any ideas on the topic they'd be welcome. -Thibbs (talk) 03:54, 1 February 2015 (UTC)
  • So the quarters almost done with. With all things considered I mentioned the GamerGate ArbCom case in the Announcements section. With just the additions of the Feature and the Editor interview, along with some other stuff like DYK I think we'll be done. GamerPro64 17:29, 29 March 2015 (UTC)
    • I meant to get a lot of work done on the newsletter this weekend, but it's been a really hectic one for me. I'll be able to get the DYKs and NAAs done before the deadline, though. Also I'm glad you mentioned both the GG ArbCom outcome as well as the phase out of A-class. I was going to suggest both of those myself. I reckon we should tackle the GamerGate retrospective either next quarter or the one after that. It would be interesting to look back at it 1 year after the fact. I have had a few ideas buzzing around and I may contact you about them at your talk, GP64, as you indicated before that you might be interested in working on something like this. Anyway just wanted to drop a note to say I'm not forgetting about the Newsletter. -Thibbs (talk) 18:23, 29 March 2015 (UTC)
  • OK I think it's ready now. The only last question I have is what we should do about the A-class articles in the "Project at a Glance" section which currently shows up as a redlink. Am I right in thinking that those 42 article have all been changed into GA-class now? If so we should merge the figures as well. -Thibbs (talk) 22:08, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Help plan a new software feature for easy subscription to newsletters

We are developing a MediaWiki extension that will enable users to subscribe to community newsletters much more easily. We are very excited to hear your feedback on the features we have planned. Feel free to share your thoughts here. - Tinaj1234 (talk) 12:38, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

Q2 2015

Not sure, but I believe we have at least one more feature basically finished already. And I think there were still a few interview prospects as well. —Torchiest talkedits 15:46, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

I know Evan-Amos is up for the next interview and GP64 has been working on it with Evan-Amos. In fact it may already be done. Is it, GP64? I think the plans for the next two interviewees are Czar and Samwalton9 if they agree to it. The feature I'm not sure about. I've been talking about a GamerGate retrospective for a while though it's kind of hard to say for sure if it's become stable even yet so I'd be most inclined to try to have it ready for Q3. I'll give my thoughts on this in a collapsed box below so as not to glaze everyone's eyes over. So anyway I'm not sure how that leaves us regarding a feature for Q2. Do we have any takers? According to my records there are no more 10 year anniversaries for other language WPVGs until Q4 so I'll have to try to remember. -Thibbs (talk) 14:19, 2 April 2015 (UTC)
Thoughts on a GamerGate retrospective

I've been looking in periodically and it's hard to say if the GG drama has quite died down yet. Just to put things in perspective: two admins recently (in the last week of March) clashed on an unrelated topic and one of the admins reversed the other's AE block of a very active anti-GamerGate editor. This action hasn't been reversed and the anti-GG editor has now resumed editing GamerGate and related SJW-vs-MRA topics. Only time will tell if that has a peaceful outcome. GamerGate began in late August 2014 so if we run a retrospective feature on it I think it might work best for Q3 (coming out sometime in early October) as that would put us closer to the 1 year mark since the start of the debacle. There is more material to read through than any single person who was not involved can wade thorough in a reasonable amount of time so we'll need to limit the coverage to a representative area and I think the best way to do this is to concentrate most closely on the lede section which serves to summarize the article content. I was specifically thinking that it might be an interesting idea to trace the histories of each sentence in the lede. Which are the oldest and most stable parts of the lede? Which are they newest or have seen the most alteration over the months? What about material that has been cut from the lede - why was it cut? Which parts of the lede represent the greatest display of compromise between the two sides? These are just a few ideas and it might help to interview some of those who have been most closely involved who would know of extraneous factors not immediately visible (e.g. offsite discussions, posts, and actions that have provoked action on-Wiki). I would also be interested in comparing the GG ArbCom to ArbCom cases from the past. How does GG compare? Is it as contentious as the Infobox Wars? Is it as contentious as Israel-Palestine? Or is it comparatively minor? We should be able to get a sense of this by just looking through areas like ARCA, AE, and AN/ANI to see how much fallout there has been. Anyway as I said earlier I would value others' thoughts on these plans and other related suggestions. -Thibbs (talk) 14:19, 2 April 2015 (UTC)

In terms of the retrospective idea, I can dig helping out with its creation. The article is pretty much the most controversial video game-article on this site. Just going through its history would be sufficient. Heck, it could probably have to be made in multiple parts if its a dossy. Have no clue what we would do for the feature this quarter. Also the interview for this quarter seems to be in order. GamerPro64 03:23, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Oops, Sorry I missed this question. The interview looks fine to me. We need a feature and I don't have anything in the works. I'm not very free at present, but 'll try to come up with something before the deadline unless anyone else wants to go for it. -Thibbs (talk) 10:26, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

Has there been any announcements to add into the newsletter this quarter? GamerPro64 20:14, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

I'm not aware of any, but I've been doing more gnomish work that keeps my attention far from WT:VG recently so I may have missed something... Actually I think that's an area in which we could really improve the newsletter. What would you think of adding a WT:VG digest section each quarter to summarize project-level discussions? That way the newsletter could function as a fast way for those who have been on break to catch up with what has been happening in the project. I'm not sure if it would work better as its own section of the newsletter or under "News items and announcements". -Thibbs (talk) 18:13, 25 June 2015 (UTC)
A digest section could work. Though I'm not sure what would be in it. GamerPro64 16:41, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
We'll see. I'll give it a try next quarter maybe. This quarter is only hours away from closing and then I'll complete the NAAs for June and the only thing left will be the feature. I've got an outline of what I had planned (it's an old idea I'd had about exploring the concept of "editorial discretion"). I'm pretty sure I can get it mostly finished tonight and then finish it up tomorrow. The newsletter is due out on the 2nd and I'd really like to stick to the schedule so if I'm not finished by mid-day on the 2nd then I think we should ship it without a feature. At this point I'm confident I'll be able to finish it up in time, though.
@Torchiest: could you send out the newsletter again on July 2? -Thibbs (talk) 21:51, 30 June 2015 (UTC)
Will do. Thanks for the reminder. —Torchiest talkedits 14:51, 1 July 2015 (UTC)
I would be interested in putting together the digest for next quarter. My concept of it would basically be summarizing and linking to the archives with the biggest discussions in the past three months. These could be either conversations that were abstract and generalized, or ones that began with a specific article that brought to light a bigger issue that applied more broadly. —Torchiest talkedits 14:58, 1 July 2015 (UTC)
Yeah that sounds just like what I had in mind. Thanks for taking it on, Torchiest. The Q2 issue is good to go whenever you're ready, by the way. -Thibbs (talk) 03:28, 2 July 2015 (UTC)
Somehow I got the days mixed up last quarter. This should have been July 1. I fixed up the links, so everything should be correct now, and it's sent. —Torchiest talkedits 13:38, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

Q3 2015

Happy third quarter for 2015. Since we have an idea in terms of making a retrospective of the GamerGate article, I've also thought of another feature to make in terms of archive links for websites, whether dead or not. As well as finding a new interviewee for the quarter. Sam Walton and Czar were some options. I also recommend Rhain1999 in the future as well. GamerPro64 22:43, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

Yep. Q3 is about GamerGate. I just started contacting people today. More specifically I just contacted MarkBernstein to see if he would provide insight on the GamerGate issue and he seems to have agreed. I'm heading to sleep right now but I'll follow up with him tomorrow. Getting a great diversity of ideas on the topic would make for a much more neutral and interesting article, so I've been thinking about contacting (either on- or off-Wiki) some of those who have been restricted to see if they'd be willing to talk about this issue. I want to speak to some of the admins before I do that, though, because I don't want to make matters worse for those who have already been restricted and I'm not eager to pick up any sanctions myself. From what I can see at the talk page it's a pretty charged atmosphere over there. I'd welcome any help working on this too if anyone is eager to dive in. Anyway we can discuss it more in the days to come. -Thibbs (talk) 03:40, 2 July 2015 (UTC)
I spoke to Samwalton9 privately this morning and he has agreed to an interview for Q3. I've also left a request for Czar for Q4. Any volunteers for the position of interviewee?
In other news, this is yet another quarter without a 10-year anniversary for the non-English WP:VGs, but next quarter we celebrate Finland's project, and there are several more anniversaries for the first two quarters of 2016.
And I also wanted to mention that on the advice of counsel I'll be contacting an arbitrator at this point regarding the propriety of contacting restricted editors for the feature. Fingers crossed. -Thibbs (talk) 21:23, 2 July 2015 (UTC)
Must say that so far this is starting to become interesting. Will be rather controversial but hey why not? GamerPro64 21:53, 2 July 2015 (UTC)
I hope it's an interesting one. We'll have to tread a fine line, but it's been the elephant in the room for too long. Czar's agreed to be interviewed for Q4 now, by the way. -Thibbs (talk) 19:24, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

We are now in September. Thibbs, how's the feature and the interview coming along? GamerPro64 13:44, 1 September 2015 (UTC)

A little behind schedule considering where I'd like to be, but I've got the looming deadline in mind and I'm working on it. As far as the interview is concerned, I wasn't necessarily calling it for myself. Samwalton9 agreed to be the sacrificial victim this quarter, but apart from that nothing is set in stone. I'm getting loaded up offline with job-related work at the moment but I can probably do the interview too if others are busy. Anyway we'll get to the finish line, have no worries. And I still do mean to send out a draft of the feature for review by mid-month. -Thibbs (talk) 01:45, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
Just dropping a note: I'm still planning on creating the WT:VG digest for the next newsletter. Going to try to get it organized this weekend. —Torchiest talkedits 04:13, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
The digest is basically finished. I may add one or two more discussions in the next couple weeks if anything major comes up. —Torchiest talkedits 16:30, 20 September 2015 (UTC)

It is now October on Wikipedia. Checking up to see how everything is coming along now. GamerPro64 00:41, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

I'll double check the digest early next week. I'm debating on whether to include ongoing discussions or wait until they're archived to add them next quarter, or maybe include them both times. I could split the digest into "archived" and "ongoing" sections. That seems like it could encourage people to participate in things happening right now. —Torchiest talkedits 17:36, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
So the issue is due out on the 7th which gives me one more weekend to get everything into good shape. My schedule has calmed a little so I should be able to get some good work done this weekend, but if worst comes to worst then I suppose I might need the weekend of the 10th-11th as well. I'm hoping to be ready by the 7th, but I'm planning on the 12th being the ultimate deadline. I am still waiting to hear back from a few of the interviewees for the feature (at least two of which have agreed to give responses but haven't yet done so. I'll send out a reminder this weekend if I haven't heard back by then) and then I just posted the interview for the featured editor this morning. I'll get the last set of DYKs and NAAs done this evening after work. -Thibbs (talk) 19:11, 1 October 2015 (UTC)
Argh. Interviews are always the trickiest thing. I remember this same exact thing happened for the brace of interviews I had tried to get for the 10th anniversary article. I get people who agree to participate and then they start to flake out and then I get little or no response to my emails... Out of 5 editors who agreed to be interviewed only 3 have provided answers so far. I'm honestly very surprised because the people I contacted were the ones I figured would be the most eager to talk about the issues... Anyway I can possibly work with this number, but I'd like to hold out for responses from the other two who told me they would participate. What that means is that we'll unfortunately have to delay until the 12th. By that point I officially give up hope that they're going to respond and we'll just have to live with what we've got. In happier news, Torchiest's digest looks great, and the Featured Editor interview is completed so I'll get that shifted in soon. -Thibbs (talk) 00:09, 7 October 2015 (UTC)
At least one I've talked with about this and I've strongly encouraged to get involved and talk about it to Thibbs. ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 02:00, 7 October 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, Salvidrim. I did get back one more response this morning. The tricky part now is trying to balance the responses from the different sides. Things are looking to be in good shape for completion by the 12th. -Thibbs (talk) 02:51, 8 October 2015 (UTC)
  • Just a quick note: everything's still on track for a release tomorrow. I'm just going through for a last round of tweaking and retaking the graphs and charts. They're quite annoyingly fiddly. But I'll get it out before I go to bed tonight. -Thibbs (talk) 22:49, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

Q4 2015

Starting a new section for the last quarter of the year. What do we have lined up? —Torchiest talkedits 20:57, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

I've been toying around the idea of writing a feature about the importance of archiving sources. GamerPro64 21:02, 13 October 2015 (UTC)
Archiving sources is one thing I am notoriously lax about, despite my passion for hunting sources and formatting bare refs properly. I definitely should be more diligent on that front and I suppose I'm not the only one in this situation! ☺ · Salvidrim! · ✉ 22:00, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Whoever keeps purging the draft and adds the templates back for the Featured Content section, can you remove the A class icons? We've stopped using that class months ago. GamerPro64 00:49, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

Forgot to check up on everyone here. How's it looking for everyone here? GamerPro64 22:04, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

  • My daily schedule at the IRL job I'm currently working for is hectic but I do intend to set up some questions for an interview with Czar pretty soon. I'm not sure what is planned for the feature. I intend to finally write something about WP:VG's gender gap at some point (I proposed it already two years ago in Q4 2013). The topic would kind of tie in nicely with the ArbCom elections which seem to be rather focused on the gender issue this time around, but I can't make promises. Anyway a feature on that topic would keep for later quarters too. I have one or two other ideas for future features way down the road (something about newbies/BITE/editor retention, and I have a shadow of an idea about considering some of WP:VG's guidelines from the statutory interpretation perspective with "legislative history" and all that) but those will be for future quarters. A digest of previous discussions would be good to have again this quarter if possible, but I don't know if anything is in the works. -Thibbs (talk) 22:56, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
  • OK we're down to the wire now. Technically it's due out today. I'll get the feature article up tonight so please wait for that, and Czar is still working on the interview so I'd like to wait for him to finish as well. And of course the digest would be good to get as well. I'll ping you, Torchiest, when my part (including Czar's contribution) is complete. -Thibbs (talk) 00:12, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
  • @Torchiest: - OK well here's the situation now. Czar's interview is finished (I believe) and I am close to finishing the featured article. Unfortunately I will be too busy to complete it before this evening... You can see what I've got so far here. Anyway I'll certainly be finished by midnight tonight and it would still be completed by the 16th. So maybe if you want to send it out by midnight (your time) then I should be able to have the feature completed and all will be well. If worst comes to worst we could delay by a day (although you know I hate doing that...) Anyway that's where we are at present. I'll be very busy for the next few hours so I'll be unable to check back here, but I'll get to work as soon as I get a moment. -Thibbs (talk) 15:09, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
  • @Torchiest: - Well I ended up with a lot less time than I anticipated... I'll keep tinkering with the feature article until the newsletter is actually published, but anyway it's complete enough now that you can publish it whenever you want without waiting for me. Apart from the digest I think we're essentially good to go now. -Thibbs (talk) 00:42, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
    Whew, been outta the scene for a while. Guess I was having too much fun over the holidays. The digest is written up, but I'm not going to get the newsletter together until late Friday, so you've still got some time to fiddle with your article if you want. Cheers. —Torchiest talkedits 04:50, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
    Thanks Torchiest. I'm pretty much finished with it by now. I may keep tinkering, but feel free to publish whenever you get a chance. -Thibbs (talk) 16:01, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
    It's out. Everyone feel free, of course, to fix anything that doesn't look right. —Torchiest talkedits 05:48, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Q1 2016

New year. New issue. New ideas. What do you got this time around? GamerPro64 03:59, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

I've been too busy this quarter to get to the project I had been considering for a feature this time around, so I'm afraid I have nothing to suggest. Does anyone else have any ideas for a feature? If not, maybe we should try reaching out to individuals in the community. This is just a random example, but I wonder if Czar would be interested in writing up something brief about the use of Citoid and Zotero. These tools are very helpful in reliable citation and could be a great boon for the project if we get people on board. Any other ideas? Any ideas for interview victim featured editor of the month? -Thibbs (talk) 11:53, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
This might just be a bare bones Newsletter this quarter. I got nothing. GamerPro64 23:34, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Status update: I'll get started on the DYKs and NAAs tonight. I thought it would be fitting to cover the deaths of Jinnai and Lucia Black in this issue. I have worked with both of them in the past so in a sense I knew them, but are there any others that may have died this quarter or last? I wouldn't want to cover those two and neglect any others. Regarding those two, Jinnai is easy to cover, but Lucia is a little tricky due to her troubled editing history here and due to the rampant off-wiki speculation and negative talk about her (including speculation that her death is a hoax). Either way, I think it's best if we as a newsletter treat the report seriously and respectfully. I'll try to write something up on that topic pretty soon, but I'd welcome suggestions/tweaks/edits if it seems a bit off (especially regarding the Lucia business). In other news, I think we should mention the project's logo change (Still not convinced it was needed, but oh well.), and I'm not sure what else has been going on. I've been very busy with work and can only make edits here and there unfortunately. Any thoughts? Newsletter is due on the 6th so I'll try to get a lot of work done this weekend. -Thibbs (talk) 20:40, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

  • OK I got something started for the feature (the in memoriam piece) I was working on. I'm not sure I'm in love with it, and it's a sensitive topic area so I'd appreciate some extra eyes and any advice or suggestions would be welcome. Thanks -Thibbs (talk) 15:42, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

@Torchiest: Well I guess it's showtime. Unless you or GP64 have anything further to add, let's send it to the presses. -Thibbs (talk) 04:09, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Gah I completely lost track of the newsletter this quarter. Where is your feature? I can take a look at it before it's published if you want. Also, please drop a note on my talk page so I get an e-mail notification and remember to take care of sending the newsletter when I get home from work. Thanks. —Torchiest talkedits 16:59, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
P.S. I'm not too fond of the new icon either. We could mention it in the news section and tell people to voice their opinion on it, maybe rabble–rouse a little. ;) —Torchiest talkedits 17:00, 6 April 2016 (UTC)
I'll have to finish putting everything together Thursday. Still working on the digest. —Torchiest talkedits 09:44, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
Done. —Torchiest talkedits 01:17, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Q2 2016

Even though the current issue isn't quite ready, I wanted to start this section with an idea. I'd like to move the release date of the newsletter to the first Sunday of the quarter rather than the first Wednesday, simply because I'm always pinched for time in the middle of the week. If we release on the weekend, I'll have plenty of time to get everything together the day before and get it out promptly. Since it's really just the three of us, if you two (@GamerPro64: and @Thibbs:) are okay with it, I'm going to change the planned date for this quarter when I create the new page. —Torchiest talkedits 15:43, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

If that's easier for you we can change it. GamerPro64 16:43, 7 April 2016 (UTC)
Yup that works for me. -Thibbs (talk) 02:34, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
Great, we've switched to Sundays. I was looking back at a few older quarters, and at one time we'd discussed trying to get ahead of things by having a queue of features and interviews. Could we put together a new list of interview candidates? I have been thinking about writing a feature, but I haven't settled on a topic yet. Anyone else have anything in mind? —Torchiest talkedits 05:08, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
I had a list of good candidates by degree of activity/participation across the project, but it's quite outdated by now so I might have to look into generating a new one. As for a feature I think the next one I do will be on the topic of new editor recruiting/retention. I have a sort of plan for it, but it will require a lot of work ahead of time. I'll see about getting that ready in parallel with your feature, Torchiest. It would be a very good thing to have the queues filled again. -Thibbs (talk) 10:38, 13 April 2016 (UTC)
  • Torchiest, GamerPro64: How are things coming? I've finished all I can do for this issue. I think it's due tomorrow, right? Did you get a feature together, Torchiest? No worries if not - we can just use the "follow-up" I made for this quarter instead. But if you've got one in the works then I think we should run both that and the "follow-up" piece together in this issue. Either way will you be able to deliver the newsletter tomorrow? -Thibbs (talk) 00:07, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
Oh and are we doing a digest this quarter? -Thibbs (talk) 00:09, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Q3 2016

Thoughts on a feature for Q3? I'm finished looking at stats for the gender issue for a while, but I am interested in trying to find out why new editors have come to WP:VG, what kind of reception they have received, common difficulties encountered by new editors, and what retention rates look like for them. There's a decent list of new WP:VG contributors associated with the monthly NAAs. I think the issue warrants looking into. If anyone has any ideas about how to get this information (maybe a new user survey?) or what kinds of questions or information would be worth asking or knowing, then please give suggestions. I can't promise this will be done by the end of the quarter since I'm working 10+ hour days during the week, but that's been my side plan for a few quarters now. Torchiest, were you still thinking of doing a feature as well?

And again I'll try to get up a list of good interview candidates. There are plenty of very worthy editors we haven't even mentioned yet! -Thibbs (talk) 10:57, 14 July 2016 (UTC)

Down to the wire again... I've had a very busy quarter and no time to survey new users, so I have nothing to contribute in the way of a feature. Does anybody else? One thing that would definitely be worth covering this quarter is the new WP:VG/WD. I'd love to get some thoughts on this from Ferret and Izno since they were both key developers of this guide. In fact it would be kind of nice to cover the topic of structured data in general - the value of infoboxes, the uses of this kind of data by organizations like Google, and the editing controversies they provoke on Wikipedia. WP:VG seems pretty comfortable with things like infoboxes so it's not like people need to be convinced to use them, but would it be a good idea to seek out an advocate like Pigsonthewing to provide his thoughts on the matter? Or would that be too controversial? Also it's kind of unfair to ask these people to crank something out by Monday (the newsletter is due on the 3rd), but maybe we could push the deadline a bit... Thoughts? -Thibbs (talk) 13:03, 30 September 2016 (UTC)
I don't really have much to offer due to focusing on writing for The Signpost these days so if anyone else has ideas that would be great. GamerPro64 17:17, 1 October 2016 (UTC)
GamerPro64 and Torchiest: I've contacted Ferret and Izno for a discussion of WikiData (this kind of combines the featured editor and the feature into one...). Anyway because we're running behind this quarter I've told them that we can wait for answers to the questions I've posed until the 10th. If everyone agrees then let's publish it then, ok? -Thibbs (talk) 02:23, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
Works for me. I was holding off on finishing the assembly because I saw you were getting responses from them. Thanks for doing that, will nicely bulk things up. —Torchiest talkedits 20:10, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
@Torchiest: - OK I think we're ready to ship it! -Thibbs (talk) 12:27, 10 October 2016 (UTC)
  • I just made a number of changes to (1) the announcements regarding the Q3 issue and (we were still advertising the release of Q2 on the WP:VG mainpage), (2) the current issue (which didn't list any of the Featured/Good content), and (3) the newsletter index (which was a duplication of Q2's info). Then I got to wondering if the newsletter had ever been delivered and I don't see any signs that it was. Would it make any sense to deliver it now at this late date? Or should we deliver it along with the Q4 newsletter as a doubled issue? -Thibbs (talk) 14:16, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

Q4 2016

@GamerPro64: & Torchiest - If you have the time, please read-over the interview. The material is controversial and I don't want there to be any appearance that the newsletter is endorsing anything. Please let me know if there is anything further that should be redacted or whether you think there is any potential for problems if we publish the interview as it is now. From discussions with ArbCom members during the GamerGate interviews my understanding is that these kinds of interviews are generally OK as long as we use a healthy dose of caution to avoid enabling banned activity (i.e. Niemti's feminism-related topic bans), to avoid calls to action for meat puppets, and to protect the interests of the person who has kindly agreed to be interviewed.
Otherwise I think the newsletter is good to go. I think we ended up missing our last delivery so we could do a double delivery this quarter (Q3 and Q4) or at a minimum we could just link to the Q3 newsletter in the "News and Announcements" section. I'm leaning toward a double delivery, though, just out of fairness to last quarter's interviewees (ferret and Izno) whose info on Wikidata is really good stuff. Torchiest, if you could work your delivery magic that would be great, but I can see it's been a few days since you edited last so if you're not available for this delivery then we can come up with an alternative plan. -Thibbs (talk) 06:02, 2 January 2017 (UTC)

I must say, Niemti is a very controversial editor. I, among others, have had bad experiences with him. But besides that, I can't help but think the interview is too bulky. I don't know. I wanna hear Torchiest's opinion. GamerPro64 06:13, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
I have also had mixed/negative experiences with him in the past, but like it or not his is a voice that makes up a part of the discourse on Wikipedia. First because he's actually ranked #16 on the leaderboard of all of our article creators and second because he has proven to be hard to keep out. It's certainly out of phase with our other interviews, though. I mentioned this in the interview's "lede" and I tried to make it clear that this wasn't an endorsement of Niemti's Wikipedia career or personal views, though on reflection I think it might be a good idea to rename the section from "Featured editor: Niemti" to "Interview: Niemti" or something like that to further avoid the appearance that we were celebrating him. Anyway the other reason which is more self-serving for us is that my hope is to get more readers paying attention to the newsletter because I feel like we need a jolt of help. For me personally, I have much less free time now than ever before and I feel like it's negatively impacting the newsletter. I certainly don't want to turn any of the readers off (which is possibly a concern here), but I would like to catch their attention with something new. And I hope that might inspire new recruits to the news room. Anyway I trust both of your judgments so I'm OK whatever way we end up going with this interview. What say you, Torchiest? -Thibbs (talk) 06:35, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
GamerPro64 and Torchiest, feel free to ping other parties to this discussion too if you think it would help us come to a decision. I only ask that for participants in the discussion, the interests of the newsletter should take precedence. -Thibbs (talk) 06:42, 2 January 2017 (UTC)
Whew. That is a pretty huge interview. I know he has a bad reputation, and I can recall bemusement at some of the things he wrote at e.g. WT:VG, but I've only interacted with him on the fringes, since I don't think we directly edited many of the same topics. I think changing it from Featured Editor to Interview is a good idea to help tamp down any appearance of endorsement. And I feel like there's a bit too many tangential rants included. It does feel like we're giving him a podium to just say his piece from start to finish. Some judicious trimming could help, like the first part of question #1. But it's tough because I do agree with some aspects of his assessment, especially as it relates to a lot of the gender controversies, and there are a few bits and pieces of insight scattered throughout. A lot of the answers are depressing and seem to indicate he's really in a bad place personally, which I can't figure out if that's useful or helpful for us. I would be willing to take a stern look at it this weekend and try to cut it down, or create a parallel trimmed version for review. I see a lot of redactions already to protect the identities of people he's had conflict with; were those done in consultation with him or after the fact? Does he know or care if we edit his responses down to more a reasonable size? —Torchiest talkedits 20:18, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
Torchiest, the redactions were done after the fact, but I have told him that I made them. I believe he would be OK with trimming as long as the meaning was kept intact, but I'll contact him to make sure about that. In the meanwhile I would appreciate a temporary trimming of the longest sections if you have the time. I agree that the response is long (about 40-45% longer than the next longest interview) and that it kind of gets into personal issues at times, but at the end of the day my goal here was to get insight into what motivates a sockpuppet user and to see if it was possible to examine the points of divergence between the indef. blocked user and the community that ostensibly endorsed the blocking. So I'd like to retain as much of the flavor of the interviewee's responses as possible even if I disagree with some parts of it. Thanks for taking a look at it, Torchiest. -Thibbs (talk) 05:05, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
I got in touch with him again and he said that he would be OK with a trimming as long as we try our best to keep the meaning intact. -Thibbs (talk) 15:30, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
Sorry for the delay. I caught a stomach virus last weekend which laid me low for a good number of days. I'm going to give this another shot this weekend, and I'll whip the whole thing in shape, and do the double delivery as you mentioned earlier, which I hadn't seen until just today. —Torchiest talkedits 10:32, 12 January 2017 (UTC)
Thibbs: I've tried to trim as much as possible without losing essential meaning and intent. Think that's enough? It's still large but some of the more tangential parts are out. —Torchiest talkedits 21:28, 22 January 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for the trim, Torchiest. It definitely helps rein in some of the more off-topic material. Considering that interviews are given on their own separate pages in the final version of each issue anyway, there's little risk that the length of an interview would detract from the rest of the newsletter. Readers can simply skim or skip it if it's too tiresome. Some readers may find Niemti distasteful (just like they may have disliked TDA, Ryulong, Lucia Black, or any of the other controversial people we have covered) but I think that he (like the others) sheds light on the WP:VG-oriented Wikipedian condition. Anyway I'm pretty keen to see this issue published as soon as possible because the feature is time sensitive and if we push it out much longer the data will no longer be accurate. As far as I'm concerned it's good to go. -Thibbs (talk) 22:24, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

Hey, I just got the Q3 newsletter published to my page, instead of the Q4 which I think y'all meant to send? Though, I'm not sure, since Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20170102 still has 2 redlinks. --PresN 22:36, 22 January 2017 (UTC)

PresN Ah, I forgot to send the last quarter's newsletter, so we decided to send it very late. The new one is still being prepared. Sorry for the confusion. —Torchiest talkedits 02:05, 23 January 2017 (UTC)

Q1 2017

Okay, I finally got caught up. What's on the agenda for this quarter? —Torchiest talkedits 02:57, 23 January 2017 (UTC)

Thibbs and GamerPro64, are the interview and stats ready to go? I can put this together tonight. —Torchiest talkedits 18:07, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
I see the summary here is still left unfinished, but otherwise I think it's good to go. Thanks, Torchiest! -Thibbs (talk) 23:06, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
Done the summary. GamerPro64 01:33, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
@Torchiest: Before the issue goes live, can you do one last sweep in my interview for typos? I think I've caught them all but there may be a few stragglers that I missed.--Coin945 (talk) 07:18, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Q2 2017

@Torchiest:, GamerPro64 - Unless there were plans for a digest this quarter, I think we may be good to go now. I've been working on a FA-related leaderboard feature over the weekend as a way to promote featured content, but it's taking longer than expected and ProtoDrake has now written an excellent postmortem on the FFVII FA-promotion so we've already got one feature for the newsletter. It probably makes the most sense to hold the leaderboard for next quarter's issue. What do you think? ProtoDrake, do you know if anyone else is planning to add anything else to the feature? If not, I think we're ready to publish. Can you do that for us, Torchiest? -Thibbs (talk) 10:44, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

@Thibbs: I haven't heard anything about anyone else wanting to add. --ProtoDrake (talk) 11:09, 5 July 2017 (UTC)
I don't have anything to contribute to the postmordom and I think the issue is ready to go. GamerPro64 18:44, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

I was able to finish the Featured Leaderboard I was working on. Actually I finished it several days ago, but I was hoping to make it cover GAs as well and I just don't have the time right now. The topic of this leaderboard fits right in with ProtoDrake's postmortem feature too, so I think it would make sense to run them both this quarter. I have an idea for something for next quarter so it doesn't make sense to hold off the leaderboard for next quarter and drag it out too long.
Anyway tomorrow we'll be a fashionable week late from the publication date, but I hate to hound Torchiest. GamerPro64, I know you're really active with The Signpost these days. How do they handle mass publishing? Do they use an automated process? I know they're having some hard times just recently, but do you think we could get hooked up with their publishing mechanism somehow? With 300 WP:VG Newsletter readers it's not completely out of the question to just do it manually either so I could try that if all else fails. -Thibbs (talk) 01:25, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

I believe they do use automation. That's not my sector but that makes more sense. GamerPro64 01:57, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
Ok, it looks like it's done through User:MediaWiki message delivery. Looking into this a bit deeper I see that mass messaging is something that can be requested via WT:MMS. I've just requested that this quarter be delivered. Having gone through the steps this time (with only 3 mis-created pages that had to be quietly speedied... :) ) I think I can handle delivery now as a backup in case Torchiest is unavailable. I think I've updated all the necessary pages now. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything. -Thibbs (talk) 14:18, 9 July 2017 (UTC)
Ach sorry I was MIA. Only thing is that I normally transclude the newsletter so corrections can be made if needed. Thanks for taking care of it. —Torchiest talkedits 04:33, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Q3 2017

I mentioned that I had an idea for this quarter and it's something I do plan to get to eventually, but this isn't going to be a good quarter for me. Apologies in advance, but I really don't think I'll be able to manage anything this quarter. I'll do my best to get the DYKs, NAAs, etc. finished in time. -Thibbs (talk) 05:07, 27 September 2017 (UTC)

It looks like this will be a complete bare bones issue like we had back in Q4 2013... but if so then it's ready to send out. @Torchiest: do you want to put it together and ship it? If you're busy I can try to do it too. And if anyone has anything to add to the announcements, then please add whatever you'd like. -Thibbs (talk) 00:42, 1 October 2017 (UTC)
I'm free all day Sunday and should be able to do it. Thanks for the reminder. —Torchiest talkedits 05:23, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Q4 2017

Starting section for last quarter of the year. I think I'll try to do the digest again this time, and make it an annual looking back at the entire year. —Torchiest talkedits 23:25, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

Q2 2018

@Torchiest: @GamerPro64: We're pretty far behind on this quarter, and I'd love to be able to help out with getting it out. @PresN: would it be possible for us to automate the "new featured content" section with a script? Nomader (talk) 14:15, 17 May 2018 (UTC)

Newsletter relaunch plans

As this is the last month of the second quarter of the year, I thought now would be a good time to plan ideas for bringing back the Newsletter. Already contacted some people about the relaunch but if anyone else has plans to contribute, that would be wonderful. GamerPro64 03:09, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

Hey! Thanks for reaching out to me, I've missed these! Happy to write anything but I think we should also touch base on how to do the Featured/Good Content update, knowing that it's been a ton of quarters since we last had one of these too. Nomader (talk) 18:27, 1 June 2019 (UTC)
I agree with that issue. I think it would be easier to do the math and announce how many articles updated to their specific statuses. GamerPro64 02:45, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
I guess this is a good month since we have 5 weekends to get the work done. I'd like to get an interview that I started prepping for in 2017, but I'm not sure I can get it completed before the deadline. Anyway if not this time then I'll have it ready for the next one. I don't think I'll be able to write a featured article, but if we wanted to do something short and sweet we could just post a few sentences that the newsletter is picking up again and that we would love to see new writers. Speaking of which,... great to see you here in the newsroom, Nomader! -Thibbs (talk) 02:22, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
Late response that I am down with just a short announcement of a relaunch. Then the next issue will be full fledged. GamerPro64 23:14, 11 June 2019 (UTC)

Does anyone know how the delivery process works for Newsletters? I have no clue and I don't remember who was normally in charge. GamerPro64 03:42, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

Torchiest used to do it. I did it at least once too at WT:MMS. I think it was pretty easy to do, but I forget the details. -Thibbs (talk) 14:06, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

I wrote up an announcement that we are coming back. I think it might work out. GamerPro64 02:15, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

I just added some of the announcements from the period we were missing. When is the next issue going to be published? -Thibbs (talk) 22:51, 30 June 2019 (UTC)
Was planning on shooting for weeks end. GamerPro64 00:18, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

Segment within Signpost

Via Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Video games/Archive 143#A new newsletter directory is out!:

Have y'all considered turning the VG newsletter into a single, occasional update for the Signpost instead? The collaboration could become less about producing an issue and more about producing regular pieces on elements that concern enwp as a whole. czar 13:41, 20 April 2019 (UTC)

Wanted to surface this one more time. Instead of doing the standard newsletter, I think it could be interesting to digest the edition into a single page that would speak to the larger Wikipedia community from WPVG's area of stewardship, e.g., a report from WPVG. It would increase the viewership and have the added benefit of educating other editors about an area of the encyclopedia that they may only see occasionally. If no one's interested, no worries. czar 19:12, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

@Czar: happened to see this by chance. I think this is a good proposal and would possibly get more activity here. I'd be more than interested in helping reboot this newsletter. JOEBRO64 21:24, 7 July 2019 (UTC)
It's an interesting idea. I was invited to re-print an article from the WP:VG Newsletter in the Signpost a few years ago in relation to the GamerGate issue which spread well outside of WP:VG. That article probably got more readership than all of the previous articles I'd written combined. Sadly I don't think I'll really be able to write newsletter articles any time soon (too little free time and health issues), but I hope that others might be up for it. With a WikiProject the size that it is, there are certainly interesting topics that could be explored and readers unfamiliar with the culture might be interested. -Thibbs (talk) 00:51, 8 July 2019 (UTC)
I sent out a thread on the Newsletter talk page. Doubt there will be a response. And I unfortunately busy over the weekend so we missed the publication date. Should we release the revival as is? GamerPro64 04:20, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
I'm slowly going through the NAAs for this quarter (April, May, June), but I'm only at April 17th and I think it will just take too long. I do have an outstanding question (see this) the answer for which I would hope to end up in the newsletter. I hope the answer is coming soon, but I can always correct the newsletter later. So I'd either send it right out or give it a day or two. No more than that. -Thibbs (talk) 14:42, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
OK just got the translation finished. GamerPro64, I think we're good to go for this month. -Thibbs (talk) 17:45, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
I think I just finished tracking our promotions/demotions for the quarter. If there's anything I missed let me know. JOEBRO64 18:32, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
Also, anyone interested in working on a feature? Probably not for this issue, but the next? JOEBRO64 18:32, 11 July 2019 (UTC)
I'm hoping to get an interview done next quarter, but I can't promise any more features for some time. Anyone else have any thoughts? -Thibbs (talk) 00:31, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

Ok so by the end of the week I will get the Newsletter shipped out, hopefully. GamerPro64 03:45, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

I honestly have no clue how to get the Newsletter published. I think there is a permission to get for that to happen. GamerPro64 05:30, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
I think there might be a permission flag/hat that you could obtain. Torchiest may have that permission. But there are alternative ways to request delivery. See delivery for Q2 2017 (a specific example: here). Torchiest used to cut up the draft into the subpages before making the delivery. -Thibbs (talk) 13:03, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
OK I just cut up the draft (here) so the delivery is ready to proceed. We just have to get Torchiest to deliver it, or we could request it from someone else (WP:MMS), or some "hat-collector" could get permission at WP:PERM/MMS (just kidding about WP:HATC, really. I think we'd be justified if indeed we're relaunching.). We do need more help, though. Our newsletter staff roll is truly tiny. -Thibbs (talk) 14:26, 14 July 2019 (UTC)
I was extremely sick the last few days, but I can get it out right now. —Torchiest talkedits 22:05, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

Q3 2019

All right gang. We are finally back. Now lets talk about what our plan is for next quarter. GamerPro64 22:51, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

I am still hoping to get an interview done this quarter. Otherwise I'll help with the backlogged DYKs since that was completely neglected this quarter. The slowest part of the last newsletter was the NAAs. Previously Salavat used to create the basic list from which I would draw up the tables for the newsletter. Now it looks like PresN has taken on the job semi-automatedly. Unfortunately there haven't been any updates of the basic list since January 26, 2019. Are you game for starting that back up again, PresN? Does anyone else have any ideas for next quarter? -Thibbs (talk) 12:17, 16 July 2019 (UTC)
I'm interested in writing a new feature. I can start writing it once we figure out what the feature should be. JOEBRO64 12:40, 16 July 2019 (UTC)
@Thibbs: I would love to start back up the weekly NAA report, but the WP1.0 wikibot (and more importantly, the database backing it) has died an ignoble death- January 26 was the last time I was able to get any data. At this point I'm going to throw in the towel that it will ever be fixed, and I'm going to fall back to using a less-accurate source (User:AlexNewArtBot/VideogamesSearchResult). The problem is that this entails rewriting my NAA script to pull from that page, and figure out what the common failure states are. It's quite do-able, but I'm on vacation right now so it will be a few weeks probably before I have a spare evening to sort everything out. I'm willing to commit to resurrecting my weekly WT:VG posts and updating the NAA page by the end of August, though, so you should be able to use that for next quarter's newsletter. --PresN 14:15, 16 July 2019 (UTC)
Excellent! Thanks PresN! -Thibbs (talk) 14:51, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

We are almost done with August so just checking to see how everyone is doing with their progresses. GamerPro64 04:12, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

I think the interview is on track. I will look for an update from the interviewee in September. Old DYKs from the last time we completed them through last quarter are complete. -Thibbs (talk) 11:46, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
I was thinking about doing a Rare Replay GT postmortem as a feature, sort of in the style of the GamerGate feature (interview with multiple parties). If that sounds good to you guys, where do you think I should start? JOEBRO64 13:20, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
Interesting idea. We've done postmortems twice before in the newsletter (1 and 2), but both of them were only with single-interviewees. Likewise we've done multiple-person interviews with GamerGate as you mentioned and with the 10th Anniversary issue (3). But I don't think we've ever had a multiple-person postmortem.
It looks like Czar was the original creator and the primary editor. After Czar there are a number of IP editors who assisted (136.181.195.25, 68.37.227.226, etc.) and then there was some work done by Jaguar, SimpsonsMan1234, and Cyberlink420 and others. Key milestone reviewers include Caeciliusinhorto, Mike Christie, and Famous Hobo from FAC (A), Anarchyte, Salvidrim!, and Jaguar from FTC (B), and AdrianGamer and OceanHok from the GA (C and D). It looks like a peer review was also started but I'm not sure how far that progressed.
If you already have people in mind then I would contact them and ask for their assistance. There is a featured article draft available here and anyone can edit that page if they are contributing. If you don't already have people in mind then I would contact Czar to ask him who else might be helpful in the postmortem. -Thibbs (talk) 21:44, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

Hey, so I just got word that the interview I had planned will have to be postponed indefinitely until the interviewee gets some free time. He said that things are kind of up in the air for him at the moment but that he might be available to answer those questions in the future though. So I asked him to alert me or us if/when he finds time in the future. If anyone else wants to take a crack at an interview, please feel free. -Thibbs (talk) 02:11, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

And the newsletter has been sent. GamerPro64 15:52, 12 October 2019 (UTC)

Q4 2019

In researching the interview that fell through last quarter, I developed a curiosity in games that are played within and using Wikipedia. I thought I'd see if I could get a feature out on the topic. No guarantees, but if I have time I will give it an effort. And of course feel free to draft up other features in parallel with what I'm hoping to write up too. It's always useful to have a backup feature or interview when one falls through or when there's just no time in a busy quarter. Does anyone else have any plans for Q4? -Thibbs (talk) 03:14, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

I have plans to do an interview soon so I got that taken care of. GamerPro64 18:35, 28 October 2019 (UTC)

2019 is almost done with. How is everyone coming along? GamerPro64 22:51, 18 December 2019 (UTC)

Good. The RR postmortem is done, and it looks like all we need to fill out is our promotions/demotions for December. JOEBRO64 22:56, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
News and announcements are in good shape too. I'll certainly be ready for the January 5 deadline even if I have to manually add the last few days of NAAs for December. With a feature and an interview we're looking good for the last issue of the decade! -Thibbs (talk) 00:15, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

Q4 fully prepped for release. Good work, all! Time to publish. Can you do the honors, GamerPro64? -Thibbs (talk) 01:59, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

I sent the issue out. If the recognized content page updates, I can see if I missed anything. GamerPro64 16:36, 6 January 2020 (UTC)

About the anniversary announcement of Chinese WP:VG

As a native Chinese Wikipedia WikiProject participant, I was quite happy to see the next issue of the WikiProject Video games Newsletter mentioning “10th anniversary” of the Chinese Video games WikiProject. However, after some research, I found out that the Chinese Video games WikiProject was actually founded far ahead of October 7, 2009, in June 10, 2005. The current data of the project founded in 2009 is a result of multiple times of moving and redirecting. Please remove the anniversary announcement of Chinese WP:VG in the draft page. Thanks. —— Eric Liu（Talk） 11:39, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. It's a shame that we missed that announcement. We've been trying to make 10th anniversary announcements for all of the different interlanguage WP:VGs as they crop up but this one seems to have eluded us due to the multiple moves... The announcement needs to be edited, but I think we will retain some basic form of it in the form of a correction similar to how we did under announcements in Issue 6-1 and Issue 6-2. In fact we have missed a previous interlanguage WP/VG anniversary announcement for Japanese WP:VG which should have been announced in Issue 7-1, but which we snuck in for Issue 7-3. I suppose the proper Chinese WP:VG anniversary should have been in Issue 8-2... I'll convert it to a correction as soon as I can. -Thibbs (talk) 12:24, 3 November 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for your answering. BTW, It’s still not too late for the 15th anniversary :)) —— Eric Liu（Talk） 14:50, 3 November 2019 (UTC)
Yeah no problem. Thanks for letting us know! I hope we haven't messed up too many others like that. The anniversary announcements have generally been strictly calculated based on the oldest date in the respective WP:VGs so the older interlanguage projects like Japanese, French, Swedish, Spanish, German, etc. which may have also have had precursor locations could also have resulted in inaccuracies in our reporting of their founding dates... Anyway here's the correction for Chinese WP:VG. And again, thanks for alerting us! -Thibbs (talk) 15:14, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Q1 2020

Any thoughts for the Newsletter's new decade? Some kind of retrospective of the last decade? Something else? -Thibbs (talk) 16:27, 6 January 2020 (UTC)

Possibly some kind of data/graph showing the rise in good content (like GAs) and featured content (FAs, FLs, etc) over the last decade.  Spy-cicle💥  Talk? 16:27, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
Something like that sounds great. Seeing as we've been tracking those stats in the newsletter for over a decade, a chart would be really interesting especially if we tracked down the origins of any sudden increases or slowing down behavior. I remember, for example, when the WikiProject decided to abolish A-class articles so we could give explanations of things like the apparent disappearance of the category.
Do we have any thoughts on interviewees? -Thibbs (talk) 16:27, 25 February 2020 (UTC)
@Spy-cicle: I've ginned up a proof of concept here for the FAs. I'm not very familiar with the new Template:Graph:Chart format so I had a lot of trouble with the labels on the x-axis. Currently it looks fine to me but I'm worried that the unicode may blow up for other users. Can I get some confirmation from you (or anyone else) to verify that the x-axis labels look ok? -Thibbs (talk) 05:40, 2 March 2020 (UTC)
The graph looks great on my end including the x-axis which labeled all from 4Q01-4Q19, though I am not familiar with the Template:Graph:Chart format. Good job on making the graph certainly interesting.  Spy-cicle💥  Talk? 18:58, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Got an interview planned but I just remembered this being posted in January about FAs. Might be worth writing about. GamerPro64 23:59, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

Looks interesting, GamerPro64. Certainly seems to relate to the topic. I've just added a few additional notes to the charts, but I'm not sure who is writing the feature. Were you interested in writing something up, Spy-cicle, or GamerPro64, or me, or anyone else? -Thibbs (talk) 16:01, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
Since this is my first time helping out for the Newsletter it is probably best that I do not make this quarter's feature. Regards  Spy-cicle💥  Talk? 20:06, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
Honestly the idea of graphs would probably fit PresN's department. GamerPro64 01:11, 14 March 2020 (UTC)
Good point, GP64! PresN, you can see our brainstorming above. I think we'd be looking for a few graphs and some explanatory text putting the graphs into context and perhaps with an emphasis on the last 10 years as this is the first quarter of the new decade. Would this be something you would like to (or have time to) write up for the Newsletter feature this quarter? -Thibbs (talk) 02:18, 14 March 2020 (UTC)
Hey, sorry for the late reply; I don't think so, my life is pretty disrupted right now from the coronavirus and I haven't really had a chance to stay on top of anything this past 10 days, so I don't think I can commit to adding anything right now. --PresN 02:38, 24 March 2020 (UTC)
OK I'll do the text then. I'm thinking that I'll basically just convert the notes in the queue into the main text. It will be more revelatory than analysis if that seems ok. Feel free to jump in if anyone else feels so inclined. Oh and remember that the publish date is coming up (April 5)! -Thibbs (talk) 18:23, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

So how are we looking, everyone? Is "Project at a Glance" good to go? If so I will be able to add that data to the graphs we will publish as the feature. Otherwise the Feature is done and apart from the March NAAs (which PresN or I will total up at 24:00 today/tonight), "News and Announcements" is finished too. It looks like "Changes to Featured and Good content" isn't finished, and I'm not sure about the interview. Is the interview portion completed? Are we going to be able to publish tomorrow? -Thibbs (talk) 14:13, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

I just updated "Project at a Glance" and "Changes to Featured and Good content" so those two are ready. Regards  Spy-cicle💥  Talk? 14:54, 4 April 2020 (UTC)
Excellent! I've got the Feature finished too now. So we're still looking to get the March NAAs and GamerPro64's Interview. I'll cut it up and process it as soon as those are complete and then would you be able to publish/deliver/send it, GP64? -Thibbs (talk) 15:53, 4 April 2020 (UTC)
Yeah let me know when its done. GamerPro64 16:34, 4 April 2020 (UTC)
@GamerPro64: I just put the newsletter parts together so I think we're good to go now. -Thibbs (talk) 06:08, 5 April 2020 (UTC)
I have sent the newsletter. We are good for the quarter. GamerPro64 06:15, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

I want you mention that I did a weird April Fool's joke: nominating Beatmania IIDX (video game) for GA status. I think it deserves attention. «“I'm Aya Syameimaru!”I„文々。新聞“I„userbako”» 02:38, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

That's a tricky one, I'm Aya Syameimaru!, since April Fools is a second quarter issue. The first quarter only covers January through March whereas April Fools is celebrated on April 1 (the first day of the second quarter: April through June). But another avenue that might work better for you would be the WP:APRILFOOLS page. -Thibbs (talk) 05:22, 5 April 2020 (UTC)
Okay, I'll think about it. «“I'm Aya Syameimaru!”I„文々。新聞“I„userbako”» 05:35, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Wiki-ad for this newsletter:

Wikipedia ad for Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter
Wikipedia adsfile info – #274

Iias!:,,.:yyI 03:13, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Way over-animated for no apparent reason and hard to read imo. This is the kind of ad I would add to my adblock filter.--AlexandraIDV 03:17, 21 June 2020 (UTC)
Perhaps I went way too far. Iias!:,,.:yyI 03:19, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Just letting you guys know

The Chinese WikiProject Video games Newsletter has published since 2020 for two Qs, and is going forward to the third one. The ENWPVG Newsletter's an absolute treasure, and the huge amount of past content really helped a lot in the publishing process of ZHWPVG's Newsletter project. Thanks! Allow me to pay greatest tribute to all of you. BTW, the topic this quarter is about the Barnstars of VG related topics. —— Eric Liu（Talk） 02:27, 26 June 2020 (UTC)

I think our newsletter here should talk about barnstars, too. Iias!:postb□xI 03:21, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
We did in 2009. GamerPro64 03:32, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
So we did it already. Iias!:postb□xI 12:15, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
Yeah it was covered briefly here in 2009. I'm Aya Syameimaru!, you could probably expand on it in a future feature if you wanted, but I'd at least give a shout-out to the earlier article too. -Thibbs (talk) 22:13, 28 June 2020 (UTC)
Yep. It’s that 2009 feature that inspires me choose VG Barnstars as the main topic of ZHWPVGNEWS this quarter, since things has progressed a lot since then. —— Eric Liu（Talk） 23:53, 28 June 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for your encouraging words, Ericliu1912! We are tracking the Chinese WikiProject Video games Newsletter in our "Other related newsletters" section and I think we should add a notice to the "News and Announcements" section of our upcoming newsletter. The topic you're featuring this quarter looks really quite interesting! -Thibbs (talk) 22:08, 28 June 2020 (UTC)
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