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:Thanks AR. - Dank ([[User talk:Dank|push to talk]]) 12:07, 3 October 2017 (UTC)
:Thanks AR. - Dank ([[User talk:Dank|push to talk]]) 12:07, 3 October 2017 (UTC)


== WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves ==
{| style="border: 2px solid lightsteelblue; background-color: whitesmoke;"
|rowspan="2" valign="middle" | [[Image:WikiChevronsOakLeaves.png|80px]]
|rowspan="2" |
|style="font-size: x-large; padding: 0; vertical-align: middle; height: 1.1em;" | '''The ''[[WP:MILHIST#AWARDS|WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves]] '''''
|-
|style="vertical-align: middle; border-top: 1px solid lightsteelblue;" | In recognition of your long term dedication to the Military history WikiProject during your eight terms as coordinator, and for your efforts as a content reviewer and copy editor, please accept the '''''WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves''''' as a token of the project's appreciation. Thank you. [[User:AustralianRupert|AustralianRupert]] ([[User talk:AustralianRupert|talk]]) 04:14, 4 October 2017 (UTC) |}

Revision as of 04:14, 4 October 2017

Leave a message, and I'll reply here. No copyediting or reviewing requests for now, please.

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FAC reviewing barnstar

The Reviewer Barnstar
FAC can't function without people like you contributing reviews. Thank you for the twenty-eight FAC reviews you did during April. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 10:51, 3 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Mike. - Dank (push to talk) 12:00, 3 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

U.S. Route 113 TFA blurb

When I took a look at the US 113 blurb that will be on the front page for U.S. Route 113's time in the spotlight on May 24, I noticed much of the second half of the blurb I submitted was replaced with a more generic description of how the DuPont Highway was pioneering. The rewrite also removed the date May 24, 1917; I included the date because TFA blurbs often include the date of significance for the article in question. I was wondering what the rationale was behind the changes from what I submitted.  V 01:06, 16 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Researching what happened here ... I think Johnboddie and I got our wires crossed. Although I like his work condensing it from the lead, he may not have been aware of your work. - Dank (push to talk) 01:51, 16 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, my fault. Every month (until this one), I have run through all the TFAs looking for date relevance, and I skipped that step here. And, I didn't look closely enough at your blurb. Sorry about that. Working on merging the two now. - Dank (push to talk) 12:23, 16 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, I've kept most of your version, and included several points of historical interest from John's version. How does it look? - Dank (push to talk) 12:59, 16 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Looking good. One week to go!  V 01:46, 17 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

New alt account?

Hi Dank, FYI if it isn't.
 — Berean Hunter (talk) 11:09, 25 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks BH. User:Dank memed is not me. I'll start watching their talk page to see if there's any confusion or if they're up to something. - Dank (push to talk) 11:48, 25 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Word order

Hi, Dan. Regarding this edit, note that the construct in question appears in the article's lead. (For the record, I prefer your new wording.) —David Levy 17:59, 5 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, not a problem. Following the shift in the grammar currents since 2003, I like to at least give a nod to Cambridge grammar. Per that approach, if a sentence begins "Former Australian swimmer X", "Former" either is, or greatly resembles (depending on who you ask), a determiner ... a part of speech that answers the question "Which one?" or "How many?" A determiner, if any, always goes in front of the rest of the noun phrase. When you stick a "the" in front, things are a little muddier, but some of that still applies.
So, that's why I changed it (twice) at TFA. I'll leave it to others to decide what to do about the article text, if anything. - Dank (push to talk) 18:22, 5 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

FAC reviewing barnstar

The Reviewer Barnstar
FAC can't function without people like you contributing reviews. Thank you for the twelve FAC reviews you did during May. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 00:23, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Mike. - Dank (push to talk) 01:11, 7 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Re: NY 22

It's fine. Roads have an inordinate amount of TFAs lately, so I'd personally prefer it not be one. Not my choice though. Mitch32(The many fail: the one succeeds.) 17:04, 11 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm fine with that, Mitch, I'll put it off to another month. - Dank (push to talk) 17:07, 11 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Regardless, it's a good drive. I've done most of it. Mitch32(The many fail: the one succeeds.) 05:38, 12 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

RE: Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 4, 2017

I am absolutely thrilled to hear this article will be on the front page, I've been waiting almost ten years for it to be article of the day! I'd love to help with what shows up on the front page, is that just the first paragraph of the article? Please let me know! --The_stuart (talk) 19:49, 14 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that's what we like to hear. I'll get it done within a few days. Btw, I'm thinking of moving this to a different day in July, some people have objected to the days we put them on. - Dank (push to talk) 20:24, 14 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The blurb is done ... it's currently at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 4, 2017 (as you know) but it will be moving to the 21st. - Dank (push to talk) 21:07, 14 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Dan, do you think we could cancel or at least postpone this one? The Australian War Memorial has recently revamped its entire site, not only changing the URLs of official histories and other references but also forcing users to download them to read, instead of opening them "in situ" as it were. As the AWM has invited feedback on the new site I've put these issues to them and would prefer to get a response of some sort before looking at updating links in articles like Hewitt (or even archiving the old ones). I had another TFA only a week ago so I think I'm doing my share for the main page... ;-) Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 08:54, 20 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sure Ian, makes sense to me. I had another milhist article in mind for July ... as soon as I remember which one it was, I'll swap it in. - Dank (push to talk) 11:33, 20 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, I've added him to TFAP for April 13, his birthday. - Dank (push to talk) 18:19, 20 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Ian, would Clare Stevenson work for you, on her birthday, 18 July? I only see one reference linked to AWM, and the link seems to work fine. If not, I'll go with SMS Derfflinger on the anniversary of its launch. - Dank (push to talk) 18:34, 20 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oops, wrong, I can't move dire wolf from the 17th, the date is relevant to the Game of Thrones season premiere. Thinking. - Dank (push to talk) 21:39, 21 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Punctuation inside quotes

Hi Dan. An editor is going through articles such as Æthelflæd and Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians moving punctuation inside quotes. I reverted the changes in Æthelfæd but the editor reverted back. Can you take a look please (if this does not go against you asking for no copyediting requests). Dudley Miles (talk) 22:19, 27 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm trying to avoid unnecessary typing because of a stress injury. If the problem isn't resolved soon, perhaps a thread at WT:FAC would help. - Dank (push to talk) 22:23, 27 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

God of War III

In response to this, you are correct. It was the 6th at one point in the past few years. I had not checked that in a good while until you made this edit. If Sony would release more recent sales numbers, God of War III might still be 6th. The last time they released sales numbers for this games/series were in 2012. When I was working on this for FAC, I tried finding more recent sales numbers from reliable sources, but to no avail. --JDC808 07:12, 1 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, not a problem. - Dank (push to talk) 12:12, 1 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I can't edit the TFA for God of War III, but your recent edit is incorrect. In-game, it is called the "Great War", not the "War of the Titans", and what you've changed takes away the fact that the character Kratos also battles the Titans, not just gods and monsters. You also removed the character Pandora, which is important to the plot of the game. --JDC808 05:33, 14 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

  • For Pandora, it's your call; we can mention Pandora's Box or Pandora, but not both. Unnecessary repetition doesn't fit TFA's style.
  • Great War: I may have misunderstood, and the problem is the word "reigniting" ... are you saying that what happens in game is a replay of the War of the Titans? Or are you saying that it's a replay of a fictional war fought in GoW I or II, in which Titans take part? Another problem is that we're speaking English here; we don't get to choose what words mean if they already have well-known meanings, and "Great War" means World War I for most readers, so if we need to use the term, we'd have to alert people that it doesn't mean what they think it means. (Again, "reigniting" is the problem word here, because you could conceivably replay any real war within a fictional world.)
    • In the game, the Great War (the in-game name for the War of the Titans) had already happened, and many years later (present day in-game), Kratos essentially restarts that war. Although many readers may know the term to mean World War I, I would think that they could put two and two together to realize that a game based and set in Greek mythology is not referring to World War I. --JDC808 04:00, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • I said "deities", and Titans and Olympian gods are all deities, but this repetition is acceptable if it's important. I'll add back "Titans". - Dank (push to talk) 13:15, 14 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
    • One request here: could you please add a serial comma after "gods"? --JDC808 04:00, 15 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Disneyland Railroad featured article nomination

The Disneyland Railroad article is currently being nominated to become a featured article here: Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Disneyland Railroad/archive1. I see that you are one of the more active reviewers for featured article candidates, so I eagerly invite you to weigh in on this one. It has passed specialized reviews for its images and sources, and one review for its prose, but it still needs a few people to chime and say they support the nomination on the review page to wrap things up. Your input on that page will be very helpful. Jackdude101 (Talk) 19:39, 2 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

TFA images suggestion

@WP:TFA coordinators for a future occasion, part of a comment I made at WP:ERRORS might be of more general interest: "As an aside, it's a pity that more use isn't made at TFA these days of the multiple images setup that has been used in the past where one image doesn't do justice to the subject matter (Canada and Castle both being blurbs that could have benefited from this) - see this link of when/how it's been done in the past." The images can be even added to WP:CMP, which wasn't an option a few years ago (when I were a lad etc), and protecting by hand the blurb subpages isn't terribly time-consuming. HTH. BencherliteTalk 18:34, 3 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Bench. Pinging David Levy. Thoughts, anyone? - Dank (push to talk) 18:41, 3 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks; hadn't even considered doing this, but yes, it might come in handy. I'll be starting on August in a week or two and will keep it in mind. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 20:03, 3 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding your claim on the missing comma

Regarding your claim on the missing comma, That comma rule is overridden by comma conventions that avoid a comma both before and after those parentheses., is there a place where those conventions are documented?

It you take the sentence "The British North America Act of July 1, 1867, united the colonies of ... " (with commas per above), there is only place to insert the parenthetical expression "(now celebrated as Canada Day)", and that is between "1867" and the comma. I can't see why the comma would be removed.

HandsomeFella (talk) 06:46, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'll be happy to discuss what reliable sources say. Pick whichever one you like. Also, the point is covered in MOS:COMMA. - Dank (push to talk) 14:02, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure I'm following what you mean with reliable sources (in this context), but the point is indeed covered in MOS:COMMA. Please see the "Burke and Wills" example. HandsomeFella (talk) 19:59, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Please see "a comma separates each element and follows the last element unless followed by other punctuation". - Dank (push to talk) 20:03, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
You apparently interpret this as being applicable to the "Burke and Wills" example. I think your interpretation is wrong, as it contradicts an explicit example. Do not be fooled by other punctuation, which can distract from the need for a comma, especially when it collides with a bracket or parenthesis, as in this example. "Other punctuation" applies mainly to the end of a sentence, where you obviously don't need both a comma and a period/full stop. HandsomeFella (talk) 21:07, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
"a comma separates each element and follows the last element unless followed by other punctuation" is plain English, and matches the practice at FAC. - Dank (push to talk) 21:37, 4 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Apr to Jun 17 Milhist article reviewing

The WikiChevrons
On behalf of the Milhist coordinators, you are hereby awarded the WikiChevrons for reviewing a total of 17 Milhist articles at PR, GAN, ACR or FAC during the period Apr to Jun 2017. Thank you for supporting Wikipedia's quality content processes. AustralianRupert (talk) 06:29, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks AR! - Dank (push to talk) 11:56, 8 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

TFA request for 12 September 2017

Hi Dank. I wanted to just drop you a line inquiring into the possibility of having the Steve Biko article as the TFA for 12 September 2017; that date will be the fortieth anniversary of Biko's death. The reason why I've approached you on your Talk Page rather than going through the standard channels is that the Biko article has only just been nominated at FAC and is not yet an FA. I am really hoping that it will be awarded FA status in time but obviously that is not set in stone. Is there a standard procedure for this situation? Midnightblueowl (talk) 17:39, 11 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Waiting until it's promoted is the standard procedure. By then, TFAR will probably be accepting nominations for 12 Sept. - Dank (push to talk) 17:44, 11 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Gubby Allen TFA

I notice you changed "England captain" to "England's captain" in the blurb (which is now protected). The first one is more correct in "cricket speak" and in sport in general, certainly in the UK. Sarastro1 (talk) 18:31, 30 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I didn't know that. Does this edit work for you? - Dank (push to talk) 18:40, 30 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Looks fine to me. Sarastro1 (talk) 19:09, 30 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

FAC reviewing barnstar

The Reviewer Barnstar
FAC can't function without people like you contributing reviews. Thank you for the sixteen FAC reviews you did during July. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 23:35, 2 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Mike, always happy to get another badge. - Dank (push to talk) 23:58, 2 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the article is in very good shape. It has held up well over time and is quite stable. Rusty Cashman (talk) 12:51, 15 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. It looks like it's in good shape, and it works well as a TFA rerun, I think. - Dank (push to talk) 13:04, 15 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Of course you should probably also ask the opinion of Dave Souza as he was the other primary editor of the article. Rusty Cashman (talk) 08:36, 9 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, your ping will do that. I've added the article to User_talk:Dank/Sandbox/2. I probably don't have room for it this November ... would you prefer that it run on the 159th anniversary or the 160th? - Dank (push to talk) 18:23, 9 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Dead links

I know there are bots that go round fixing them - do you know if it's possible to give any of them tasklists? I'm thinking of getting one of them to patrol everything that's in Category:Wikipedia featured articles on a regular basis, not just for the purposes we're discussing, but to help ensure quality standards in our FAs. If not, might be worth requesting a new bot. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 12:30, 16 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's a difficult question in general ... but clearly we want bots to do just as much of it as they can do (well). Let me discuss with the TFA coords. - Dank (push to talk) 14:19, 16 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Cool. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 14:52, 16 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Dweller, yes, that sounds great. If you've got the time, see if you can find out if there's a bot that does a good job with this. - Dank (push to talk) 19:31, 16 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Let's see. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 09:02, 17 August 2017 (UTC) I've invited what I think is the two most relevant bot operators to join us here, GreenC and Cyberpower678. For your info, this stemmed from this. Even if you/your bots are not the right people/entities (!) to help, your expertise and advice will be invaluable. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:16, 17 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The bot can be called to a collection of pages by feeding it a raw list of pages to look at with this tool. You would need to populate the categories contents into a raw list. It doesn't handle categories directly.—CYBERPOWER (Chat) 17:55, 17 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, retrieve the list of FA from MediaWiki API then trigger IABot (with the IABot API) to tell it process the articles (action=submitbotjob). Someone has to be the ultimate owner of the bot-triggering-bot, so if problems occur, the owner would defend the bot triggering another bot due to accountability. It would probably have to go through BRFA which would give it more credibility. I can help with software know how to do this and much of the software already written but don't want to be the owner/runner of the bot-triggering-bot. -- GreenC 18:28, 17 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks chaps. I *think* you're saying we could request a bot to feed the bot, or we could do it manually? Is that right? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 18:46, 17 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

  • Someone, the MediaWiki software said I was mentioned in this conversation in this edit. Does anyone have a clue why because clearly my name was not mentioned.--v/r - TP 01:19, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
a whole bunch of people got pinged, because dweller accidentally transcluded cyberpower's user page, and since a barnstar you gave him had your sig, your username was transcluded too. --Floquenbeam (talk) 01:29, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Oh dear, sorry TParis and erm everyone whose time I wasted. As I often remark in edit summaries, I hate Wiki-markup, though you'd think after all these years I might have got the hang of it. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 08:31, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Dweller, yes that's correct. -- GreenC 14:00, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Dank I tried running it manually on Australian Defence Force and look what it did. I think we should commission a bot to patrol the FAs. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 14:18, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've been confused by similar tools in the past, but it looks like this one is doing the job. Dweller, would you like to suggest this at WT:FAC? Caveat: It seems to have missed a lot of dead links. - Dank (push to talk) 14:26, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hmph. If it's not doing the job, I'd rather understand why before we go further. Cyberpower678, please can you help us work out why it seems to miss a lot? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 14:32, 18 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Using the IABot tool to examine the IABot database: example. It's state is "dying" meaning it thinks its dead but won't determine until some X period of time to make sure it's not a transient outage. Some of the others are "whitelisted", not sure why but that means IABot doesn't do anything with them. Editors can make adjustments in the IABot database as needed. -- GreenC 04:25, 19 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
IABot will automatically whitelist domains it detects as dead but really isn't, using the new external servers it uses for validation. This is in an effort to keep the false positive rate low.—CYBERPOWER (Chat) 13:11, 21 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thinking about posting at WP:BOTREQ, but before I do, Cyberpower678, how does your bot select which articles it will check deadlinks on? I presume that if we left X amount of time it'd get round all the FAs, but any idea how long X is, assuming life works perfectly like probabilities do? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 08:40, 21 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It will crawl through alphabetically from A to Z on all 5 million while also crawling across articles with at least one {{dead link}} template on it. IABot will also show up on articles requested by users on the tool, and of course you can have the tool analyze the article immediately on your behalf from your account. Using that last option, with the tool, allows to have the bot proactively add archives to ALL non-dead references.—CYBERPOWER (Chat) 13:11, 21 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

All really helpful. I'm going to see if a kind bot developer will do this, because a) while the functionality of manual dumps is useful, it's not very easy or rigorous and b) we could, while we're at it, easily task such a bot to cover other Featured material (lists come to mind), articles in FTs... or even GAs. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 09:02, 22 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Posted. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:07, 22 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The 2017–18_Ashes_series begins on 23 November. Would you consider doing a special TFA for it? Not sure yet what I have in mind. We could run two cricketers who've not yet been on main page, one from each country, or re-run the former Main page article Bodyline or something. I note there's nothing yet on the requests list for that date. Could we put a holding entry against the date and finesse the exact proposal?

In case the explanation is needed, The Ashes is a big deal for millions of cricket fans around the world. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:25, 22 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Should I put a placeholder on the list, so it's not forgotten? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 15:12, 24 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
In cases like this where you're not sure which article you want to run, I think it's best to just pick a likely article, and add it to TFAP for that date. It's not a problem to swap in another article later. Is there an article that hasn't run yet that might be suitable? Btw, that's Thanksgiving in the US ... would it work just as well for you to run the cricket article on the last day of The Ashes? - Dank (push to talk) 17:43, 24 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Dweller, I see now that the last day of The Ashes will be on January 8, 1.5 months later ... so it would work for me to have something Ashes-related on both days, if that works for you. - Dank (push to talk) 00:09, 25 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Dank. Hmm. Thanksgiving is a biggie and it's worth trying to avoid the clash of cultures if possible. Last day is a bit of a gamble, as matches are scheduled for five days but often (especially these days) are completed in four, three or occasionally even two days. I'm wondering if there's a time zone fix here but I'm too thick to work it out. The Ashes start on 23 November at 11am Australia time and the first day's play will cover the following 7 hours or so. I wonder if [most of?] that's actually 24 or 22 November in UTC? I'll ask for help at WT:CRIC.
If it's the 24th, the answer might not help as someone's requested a re-run of On the Origin of Species on its anniversary. That said, 2019 looks a much better year for a re-run of that particular article - 160th anniversary. We last ran it in 2009, on the 150th. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 08:24, 25 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Blast. It's squarely 23 November. What would you run for a Thanksgiving article? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 09:21, 25 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

FWIW, An American VP ran on Thanksgiving last year, although that was also a birth anniversary. Otherwise, I don't think Thanksgiving has been specifically marked at TFA in recent years apart from Wikipedia:Main Page history/2014 November 27 with Freedom from Want ("...The painting has become an iconic representation of the Thanksgiving holiday..."). BencherliteTalk 09:58, 25 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Black vulture is ticked on my list of old FAs. Too obscure a gag to run it on Friday 24th November? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 10:47, 25 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Combines a huge bird with Black Friday, I like it. For Thursday, I'd love to run something Thanksgiving-y, but the closest thing I can find (even including reruns) is Maple syrup ... not a close match. I'll save that for next year. This year is available for Ashes. Let me see what the main editors want to do about Origin of Species. - Dank (push to talk) 12:52, 25 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Fab. I'll add a placeholder of Bodyline to the chart. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 13:27, 25 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Just looking at the forward planning, Ian Johnson (a dead cricketer)'s 100th birthday slot is just a few weeks after the 23 November Ashes (cricket topic) slot. Is that a dreadful thing? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 11:27, 30 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's Mike's call. - Dank (push to talk) 12:54, 30 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
We need a better venue for these conversations. On the subject of which, have you seen my email? ;-) --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 12:56, 30 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Just did, replied there. - Dank (push to talk) 13:04, 30 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Precious five years!

Precious
Five years!

Your polishing of the featured articles is a daily delight! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:33, 27 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Gerda, you do a good job with these awards. - Dank (push to talk) 12:11, 27 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you ;) - I had my first "recent death" yesterday, met two of his students (you will recognize them by article style), sang his praises (and theirs). --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:14, 27 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Did you know him well? - Dank (push to talk) 12:17, 27 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Not at all, sorry, I should have clarified "met only 2 of his students". He died the day before his 90th birthday, see infobox. Nor did I know Aloys Kontarsky personally, but his playing. We don't know a day of death for him, please watch that article for changes because Le Monde printed 24, which can't be true, as I saw it printed in the FAZ that day, - must have been earlier (see article talk). - I wrote about some I knew well, though, this one before he died, this one after. - I hate to see "living = no" on people I wrote about, whether I knew them or not. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:26, 27 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
That's solved, 22 August, in today's paper. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:00, 28 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"Old" FAs that haven't appeared on Main Page

As discussed elsewhere, I now have the 2009 FAs on my page at User:Dweller/Featured_Articles_that_haven't_been_on_Main_Page#2009. I think the format is a step on (a mix of lifting the useful start at WP:FA2009 and the help of The Rambling Man). If anyone would like to do some grunt work and do similarly for 2010, that'd be great. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 15:07, 29 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'll be happy to do it. I was in the middle of an edit to the talk page of that page with some useful information, to avoid an edit conflict with you guys. - Dank (push to talk) 15:08, 29 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! There's also the fun task of converting 2008 into the improved format :-) --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 15:38, 29 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Going offwiki now, so I won't e-c with you for a good while. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 15:59, 29 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

FAC reviewing barnstar

The Reviewer Barnstar
FAC can't function without people like you contributing reviews. Thank you for the ten FAC reviews you did during August. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 15:10, 3 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks again. - Dank (push to talk) 15:12, 3 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Seconded. Ceoil (talk) 14:28, 16 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Another old FA

Hey Dank, one reason I didn't suggest Aug 15 for India was because I was hoping Flag of India could go around that date (15 Aug when it became official or 22 July when it was adopted). I'd asked Crisco about this a couple of years back but back then they weren't doing reruns. This article was TFA in 2005 right after it was promoted, and went through a complete rewrite in 2010 at FAR and hasn't been on the main page since. I don't particularly care about the timing of either and am good with India going out on Aug 15 too, but if reruns are being considered now then I'd like Flag of India to be considered too. Maybe Fowler&fowler has some suggestion on this. cheers. —SpacemanSpiff 05:52, 11 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't take a look at Flag of India yet, but will soon. On the other hand if you are looking for an Indian history FA, you could consider my FA of some years ago (I've forgotten how long ago): Political history of Mysore and Coorg (1565–1760). 23 January could be one date, for that is when a mighty empire fell, but really any date would work. The article has been languishing in obscurity for a long time. Or, you might think it is too academic for the front page, and that would be fine too. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 07:53, 11 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I'm slated to schedule February, May, August and November next year. The list I've put together so far is at User:Dank/Sandbox/4, and I'll be asking for comments on those soon at WT:TFA. I think we can take advantage of the fact that India is far ahead of GMT, and use both India and Flag of India, on 14 and 15 August GMT, which will both overlap 15 August in India. F&F, I'll add that article and Kingdom of Mysore to my Sandbox/2, and take another look at those a year from December when we're working on 2019. - Dank (push to talk) 14:12, 11 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I know I should be commenting at WT:TFA, but please note that the 14th August is Pakistan's independence day, both nations having being created officially at midnight August 14-15, 1947, but one's independence celebrated on the 14th and the other's the following day. You might want to feature Muhammad Ali Jinnah for 14 August. The last time it was featured was in 2006. Two India pages, especially one that might be seen as patriotic even though it is not (i.e. Flag of India), back to back, might elicit concern. 26 January 2019 would be appropriate for Flag of India. Thanks, by the way, for considering the Political History of Mysore and Coorg etc. Best regards, Fowler&fowler«Talk» 02:09, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't know that ... sure, Jinnah sounds great. - Dank (push to talk) 02:23, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
SpacemanSpiff, does 26 January 2019 work for you? - Dank (push to talk) 04:04, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Any date is good with me Dank, I was just hoping to have it on the main page once :) I'll trust Fowler's judgement on all this as this is his area of expertise. Thanks again. cheers. —SpacemanSpiff 04:08, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Wehwalt, does Jinnah on 14 August work for you too? I see you suggested this for December. - Dank (push to talk) 04:57, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I had planned to discuss running it with other regular editors of the Jinnah article to get their views of running it.--Wehwalt (talk) 07:27, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
If that works out, would you rather that it run in January? F&F's idea of putting it on Pakistan's independence day in August, back-to-back with India for India's independence day, has some appeal. - Dank (push to talk) 13:36, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

TFA for 2 Nov

Hi Dank, given your role as a TFA coordinator I wanted to bring to your attention the ongoing work to get the Balfour Declaration article ready for TFA on 2 November, which will be its 100th anniversary. The article is currently at WP:FAC, so there's no guarantee that it will make it in time, but I live in hope.

I note on WP:TFAP that Warren G. Harding is currently penciled in for the same date, as it will be his 152nd birthday.

Is there anywhere I should formally note this potential nomination, so that editors are aware of it if and when the 2 November date comes up for discussion?

Many thanks, Onceinawhile (talk) 15:53, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There's nothing I can do until it passes FAC. - Dank (push to talk) 16:09, 12 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sad to say that it is looking less likely now that the FAC review page has been archived.
I have opened another peer review in the hope of receiving further input. I remember that you commented on the first peer review – if you have the time and inclination to take another look at some point it would be greatly appreciated. Onceinawhile (talk) 23:11, 14 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

TFA Planet Stories Sept 20

Re "but did manage on occasion to obtain work from well-known names" vs "did manage to obtain work from well-known names on occasion"

Neither is ideal. In mine, the first, the adverb would have been better placed after did (Cambridge: "Where there is more than one verb, mid position means after the first auxiliary verb or after a modal verb"), i.e. "did on occasion manage to obtain work . . .". In yours, the modifier is separated from the term it modifies by too many intervening words, leaving what it modifies unclear. Possibly better than either would be: "did occasionally manage to obtain work . . .". What do you think?

I would also suggest names --> writers/authors; metonymy notwithstanding, names don't write stories.

And as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to merrily split infinitives to your heart's content, but there are those who might feel picky about "to regularly attract".

Cheers, Awien (talk) 00:30, 14 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The text seems fine to me. - Dank (push to talk) 01:00, 14 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It'll be better once I move the adverb to a better place; won't bother with the metonymy or the split infinitive. Yours collaboratively, Awien (talk) 12:10, 14 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to Admin confidence survey

Hello,

Beginning in September 2017, the Wikimedia Foundation Anti-harassment tool team will be conducting a survey to gauge how well tools, training, and information exists to assist English Wikipedia administrators in recognizing and mitigating things like sockpuppetry, vandalism, and harassment.

The survey should only take 5 minutes, and your individual response will not be made public. This survey will be integral for our team to determine how to better support administrators.

To take the survey sign up here and we will send you a link to the form.

We really appreciate your input!

Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.

For the Anti-harassment tools team, SPoore (WMF), Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 20:56, 14 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Give it a few months, and a revisit. There is an unlikely gremlin griping in edit summaries that I might need to deal with on talk. Will let you know when ready. Ceoil (talk) 14:22, 16 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Ideally, we want to do a reasonable job of meeting the criteria at User:Dank/Sandbox/2, and that means that occasionally we'll be dealing with older, sketchier FAs. Joyce meets several of the criteria, so it would be nice to include him ... but if it gets to be too much of a pain, it's okay, we're not going to have a problem finding 5 reruns per month. Thanks so much for your work on the reruns. - Dank (push to talk) 14:35, 16 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Dead links (2)

Hi Dank, not sure if you've followed the discussion about User:FA RotBot which arose out of the discussion up-page User_talk:Dank#Dead_links. The bot's been been approved and completed ready to go. But unfortunately FA contact User:Dweller is stepping aside from Wikipedia duties for a while or maybe forever. So we have no point of contact among the Featured Article coordinators and I'm concerned about running the bot without support. -- GreenC 17:50, 20 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I can't imagine the coords having a problem with bot runs, given that IABot is already working its way through all 5 million articles every few months. (I have been triggering IABot manually, and have had no problem with it.) What kind of schedule did you have in mind for this new bot? - Dank (push to talk) 18:10, 20 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Just need someone's name because right now it's Dweller on the User:FA RotBot page as the contact. Can I use your name? The thinking is once a week unless you have a suggestion. -- GreenC 18:51, 20 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Sure, use my name. Once a week is fine. - Dank (push to talk) 18:52, 20 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Pinging @FAC coordinators: this is just IABot, which already runs regularly on all WP articles. Please let me know if you see any problems. - Dank (push to talk) 21:26, 20 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

2017 Military history WikiProject Coordinator election

Greetings from the Military history WikiProject! Elections for the Military history WikiProject Coordinators are currently underway. As a member of the WikiProject you are cordially invited to take part by casting your vote(s) for the candidates on the election page. This year's election will conclude at 23:59 UTC 29 September. Thank you for your time. For the current tranche of Coordinators, AustralianRupert (talk) 10:39, 21 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Dan, hope you're well. I was notified by Mike Christie that Leno would be subject to TFA (again) on the 18 October which, as you can predict, I was not particularly happy about. This will be Leno's second time as TFA which to me suggests these are shortages of FAs to list, would I be right? Just for reference, I don't have a problem with you listing any of the stuff I've written for FA, and that includes George Robey, Michael Hordern, or any future FA I might write. I know I've dug my heels in in the past with regards to Robey, but it cannot be easy to find things to list. I know I don't get the final decision anyway, but I do appreciate my thoughts being listened to, as you have done in the past. CassiantoTalk 09:20, 29 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Good to see you, Cassianto, sorry about the circumstances. Mike scheduled this, but he has already stepped down, and Jim is finishing up October for him. Let me talk with Jim, we won't be long. - Dank (push to talk) 13:09, 29 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Of course it's out of my hands now, but just a note to say I would have looked for something else if I'd realized that Cassianto wasn't keen on rerunning this. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 13:11, 29 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Mike ... I've emailed Jim. If he's already left for the weekend, I'll pull it. - Dank (push to talk) 13:15, 29 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Cassianto, as you guessed, we are short of FAs outside a few topics, such as birds, hurricanes and fungi, so we are having to recycle. We try not to rerun against editors' wishes, and, as it happens, I had a non-date-linked 2017 article, ice core on my list to run as soon as I got the chance, so I'll schedule that instead. Thanks Jimfbleak - talk to me? 15:35, 29 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Both. I honestly don't mind seeing any of the FAs I've written up on TFA, seriously. I do genuinely love presenting my work to the wider readership, but the only thing I cannot stand is the infobox dramas that a lot of the articles I write, cause. Such drama invariably leads to a block or a period of lethargy. I'm keen to avoid both, especially because of the fun I'm currently having writing this. I can tell you that currently, I have Robey, Hordern and Burke and Hare murders still yet to appear, although the latter was a co-nom with SchroCat. Best wishes to both. CassiantoTalk 19:16, 29 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

FAC reviewing barnstar

The Reviewer Barnstar
FAC can't function without people like you contributing reviews. Thank you for the fourteen FAC reviews you did during September. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 23:45, 2 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Mike. - Dank (push to talk) 12:07, 3 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Jul to Sep 2017 Milhist article reviewing

The WikiChevrons
On behalf of the Milhist coordinators, you are hereby awarded the WikiChevrons for reviewing a total of 15 Milhist articles at PR, GAN, ACR or FAC during the period Jul to Sep 2017. Thank you for supporting Wikipedia's quality content processes. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:12, 3 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks AR. - Dank (push to talk) 12:07, 3 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]


WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves

The WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves
In recognition of your long term dedication to the Military history WikiProject during your eight terms as coordinator, and for your efforts as a content reviewer and copy editor, please accept the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves as a token of the project's appreciation. Thank you. AustralianRupert (talk) 04:14, 4 October 2017 (UTC) |}[reply]