Please assume good faith. If any of my edits have seemed unconstructive, please keep a cool head and notify me of my mistakes promptly. I try to be helpful and if I cause a problem, it is purely accidental; in no way are my edits meant to be offensive to anyone. Besides myself.
Please sign your posts. Sign with four tildes to record your username and timestamp. Sinebot is watching, you know.
Respond to all messages at the place where the discussion began. Meaning, if I post a message on your talk page, respond to it there, and if you post on my talk page, I will respond to it here, unless you specify otherwise.
Nonsense gladly accepted. I like receiving messages, and I promise not to bite. Even if you think your questions are trivial, they may not be, at least to me. :)
Place all new messages at the bottom of the page. Clicking on the link below will do this automatically for you.
My page is constantly being monitored by dedicated talk page stalkers. Some of them (I probably don't know them all) are The ed17, IceUnshattered, Juliancolton, Nutiketaiel, Sonia, and Little Mountain 5 off the top of my head. Most of the time they lurk in the dark, but some of them might respond to your comments before I do. Don't be alarmed though; they might provide you with better responses than I can.
Email me if the matter is confidential. But please include the word "Wikipedia" in the e-mail title so that I won't inadvertently delete it or have my spam-eater destroy it.
SMasters has given you a cookie! Cookies promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. You can spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a cookie, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend.
To spread the goodness of cookies, you can add {{subst:Cookie}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message, or eat this cookie on the giver's talk page with {{subst:munch}}!
Aw, thank you for the photograph (and the cookie). I've grown up with exotic fruit my whole life, and picking a music-related photo is just a touch too predictable. :) And, of course, it's a gorgeous picture. —La Pianista♫ ♪02:06, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you! Wait...one, two, three, four...yes, four "thank you"s
Oh, I'd like to remain anonymous for my recordings. "La Pianista" is just fine. :)
I'll be doing more recording tonight, but as it's a two-piano piece, I'm pretty sure the second pianist doesn't want his music on Commons. I'm sure to have a few solo noms for FS in the coming months, though. —La Pianista♫ ♪21:22, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Post-recording editing: why is this an ethical issue? You're not pretending it was a live performance in front of an audience. It's a studio recording. Placing the mike to best advantage (perhaps to enable us better quality in some respects than an audience would experience) seems not to be an ethical issue. Fixing a wrong note ... but hey, you played the right note in another take of that passage: all we really care about is to hear the piece played beautifully and accurately—it's not a status competition where you're cheating if you optimise the recording. Everyone does this, because the realities of the recording industry are that time is money, and what matters is getting a beautiful product to market most efficiently. Heck, you could doctor the whole thing electronically in the op room afterwards by yourself, using your musical judgement, and I wouldn't care a toss. It's still you. By analogy, we are allowed to edit FACs to remove the glitches after the writer(s) have done their big job, aren't we? All the reader sees is the product; that is all that matters.
Let's hear some of your recent repertoire.
"I love the audience and hate the sterility of recording"—you're like Glenn Gould. But recording gets it out many many thirsty ears all over the world: it's a 21st-century reality—intimate two-way contact sacrificed for large-scale dissemination. Please indulge us.
Relaxation: sure, you'll be less nervous now you're older, but please consider concentrating on your breathing as you rehearse. It can transform muscle control. And BTW try rehearsing passages the wrong way to own any weaknesses you may perceive! Tony(talk)09:17, 20 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I understand your point entirely. I do recognize that optimizing recordings is accepted and even encouraged in the recording industry, and I do understand the natural desire for perfection, especially in the 21st century, when all those ways to achieve "perfection" are possible. But I am not recording CDs for sale at Barnes & Noble. I am uploading music to Wikimedia Commons. This is purely something I do on the side, my gesture to the world to just share music. Money and esteem and media pressure for perfection will never be a part of that.
"all we really care about is to hear the piece played beautifully and accurately" Really? If so, I'm greatly disappointed. The audience should want more than beauty and accuracy. The audience should want humanness, reality, a person behind the music. The "intimate two-way contact" you mention may not be entirely possible in the digital age, but isn't it worth striving for? And I do know that simply fixing a single wrong note hardly detracts from such "humanness," but where do we draw the line between natural and contrived? I'd rather leave my recordings as they are.
Call me a romantic, but I want to retain as much of the humanistic aspect in my recordings as possible. If that results in recordings that don't meet FS standards, I'm content with that. Personally, there's something beautiful about a completely untouched recording - everything you hear was made by the performer, the piano, the acoustic, and the composer. That's it. And, perhaps naively, I think that some audience members will appreciate that, since, as you say, everyone else makes post-recording edits.
The Beethoven WoO 80 is the most recent recording I have uploaded. In a month or two, I will have made at least two more recordings to upload to Commons - what those pieces are, I'm not quite sure of yet. But I am sure I will keep those unedited; again, if this means they aren't FS-quality, I'll still upload them for use on articles.
I may hate recording, but it doesn't mean that I won't continue to do it. I do see the value in it, and I am particularly fond of the idea of letting anyone in the world hear Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, and all the other geniuses. I just don't like the process involved. But I will continue to upload recordings of mine to Commons and nominate as many of those for FS as I can. —La Pianista♫ ♪00:17, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You both have valid points. I will say that if all we ever wanted was a perfectly accurate recording, we would just compose everything in MIDI and allow the piano to play it for us. At the same time, there's a difference between correcting one note and making something artificial. In an ideal world, you'd have more time in the studio to do it as many times as you can until it meets your standards. This isn't an ideal world. In the end it is the artist's right to edit or not to edit. However as it is under a free license, it is everyone else's right to tweak that file (under a new file name, of course.) Of course, I'd be against that entirely in this case since I'd rather have works with a few flaws than no works at all. The last thing I want to do is chase off La Pianista. So I think the current "take it or leave it" is the best option we have. La Pianista will get better as time goes on, she's still training, and some people (who are not as tone deaf as I) can tell that she's improving. If only half of her 10 or so released works make FS, that's okay with me, as that's five more than we'd have without her. Sven ManguardWha?00:38, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
This message is going out to all of the Online Ambassadors who are, or will be, serving as mentors this term.
Hi there! This is just a friendly reminder to check in on what your mentees are doing. If they've started making edits, take a look and help them out or do some example fixes for them, if they need it. And if they are doing good, let them know it!
Hey there. One of the classes working with the Wikipedia Ambassador Program, Jonathan Obar's Media and Telecommunication Policy, is working in small groups and would like us to assign a mentor to each group (rather than having students request the mentors they'd like, as other classes are doing).
I invite you to sign on as the mentor for one or more groups, especially if any of the topics catch your interest. To sign up, go to the course page and add yourself as "Mentor: you" in the section for that group. They students and/or professor or campus ambassadors should be cleaning things up soon to list all the usernames for each group and add a few more groups. Once you know who the students are in the group, you can leave them each a quick introduction to let them know you'll be mentoring their group.
The Featured Sound Main Page Proposal Voter Barnstar
I was truly humbled by the overwhelming community support for the recent proposal to place featured sounds on the main page. The proposal closed on Tuesday with 57 people in support and only 2 in opposition.
It should take a few weeks for everything to get coded and tested, and once that is done the community will be presented with a mock up to assess on aesthetic appeal.
Finally, I invite all of you to participate in the featured sounds process itself. Whether you're a performer, an uploader, or just come across a sound file you find top quality, and that meets the featured sound criteria, you can nominate it at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates. Featured sounds is also looking for people to help assess candidates (also at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates.)
I doubt you feel like tackling Scarbo (though I suspect you could do it, actually), but is there any chance I could convince you to tackle Ondine or Le gibet, which are incredibly beautiful? Adam Cuerden(talk)19:15, 23 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Who's Randon, and why did he make you ask me a question instead doing it himself?
Click here first. I believe you're in possession of a scroll wheel. If you are one of the unfortunate individuals who do not have one, there's a handy bar to your right (which is that direction →). You'll see a little rectangle in the bar. Click on it, drag it down alllll the way down to the bottom of the bar, and look at the screen. The word should be toward your left (which, if you've forgotten, is in that direction ←). It helps if you use your finger to point along as you read; don't forget to sound out all the letters. Don't give up! You'll see it soon enough. — La Pianista♫ ♪23:48, 23 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(don't worry, I recall Pianista forgetting to scroll all the way to the bottom once herself and making the same mistake... :D) Icy // ♫14:42, 27 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Looking through your remaining unfeatured recordings, and ignoring the ones still up for review:
I think the Brahms is just too short of an extract to feature, well-played as it is.
I may be able to edit the Beethoven with a filter to attempt to reduce the background noise, if you don't think that's misleading.
The Mozart is a bit too recent to review again, though I do think we should consider revisiting it in a couple months.
We should probably skip the Satie Gnossiennes 4-7, unless we can get a really definite statement on copyright. As it is, they're a little too ambiguous in that respect to consider for the main page.
Does that sound about right? Obviously, from a musicianship perspective, I don't think that any of these have any real issues, Tony's incredibly picky critique of the Mozart notwithstanding. Adam Cuerden(talk)09:21, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, er, sure. I wasn't even looking into nominating these, haha. Thank you, really, very much. :)
I know - I only uploaded the Brahms for use in the article.
Noise reduction is perfectly fine. Thanks. :)
No need to re-review the Mozart - actually, in retrospect, I agree with Tony's comments.
Indeed, the copyright regarding the Satie is quite sketchy. As you say, it's best to leave them as is. And yes, this is an absurd hour for me in the US. Up late studying, as usual. — La Pianista♫ ♪09:27, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I did wonder about the time there, I must admit =)
Anyway, noise reduction's pretty fast to apply. I cut 7 seconds at the start to remove a "scooching in the piano bench" sound, but the actual performance is completely unaltered, outside of the noise reduction (well, it may have become very slightly louder thanks to how I do noise reduction, but not significantly). See what you think! P.S. There is seriously no need to credit me for this edit, ever. Adam Cuerden(talk)09:50, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) I like it! And..."seriously no need to credit" you? How about non-seriously? I can do that.
Additional note: I'm opposed to editing that has to do with modifying the performance itself - in other words, the notes that are actually played. As far as acoustic, noise reduction, cropping...it would be silly of me to be against that. Thanks again for all your help, Adam.
By the way, out of curiosity, what was this? It's what you accidentally uploaded instead of the Piano Sonata the first time. It sounds very interesting, but it's not a piece I know. Adam Cuerden(talk)10:22, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh gosh I was hoping no one would find it. >.> It's a very embarrassing rendition of Brahms's Op. 79 No. 2. In my defense, I had gotten only four hours of sleep the night before, and had played the first movement of the Tchaikovsky first concerto twice that day. And I was chock full of Benadryl to combat some awful allergies I had had that afternoon (and, as you know, the best medications are not non-drowsy) :p My eyes were literally drooping at the piano, and I was looking at the keys through my eyelashes. Not the best of days.
I forget in a couple of places and severely mess up in others, although the ending isn't quite a disaster, if I may say so myself. Still, it will be quite a while before I get to redo it and upload a passable take. — La Pianista♫ ♪10:26, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I think you're being a little hard on yourself - there are some moments of brilliance in there, particularly in the interpretation of the main theme. Talent shows, even on a bad day. Some passages are a bit awkward, and there's some flubs (fairly well-covered) around the starts of some sections, which do merit a rerecording, but I wouldn't call it embarrassing, exactly, simply not quite up to your usual standards, which are very high.
You've done Tchaikovsky's first concerto? That's one of my favourite pieces of music. Probably can't upload it, though, given the orchestra or orchestral replacement, alas. Adam Cuerden(talk)10:53, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
...You see, normally here, I'd rant about my standards being perfectly fine, and how bad my Mozart/Chopin seem to be already. But I lack the energy, and I'm starting to feel like a bitch at this point, with all you nice folks complimenting and appreciating me and so forth. So I'll hush.
It's good your standards are high. It's what drives you to do as excellent work as you do. =) But there's a certain underlying talent that you have that shows through, even in a relatively bad performance such as the Brahms Rhapsody. I can't wait to hear the good version of it. =) Adam Cuerden(talk)11:08, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Boy, remember the days when we mindlessly jabbed at each other on a minute-by-minute basis with little getting done? Now look at us. You're accumulating featured sounds at a torrid pace and I've got a bunch of featured articles. Betcha no one would have guessed this outcome in late 2008. :-) Ed[talk][majestic titan]22:44, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just to note, you may want to upload this locally: Bartok's in copyright in Hungary, but not in America. En-wiki accepts works that are only out of copyright in America, but Commons does not. As for the work itself, it sounds great. =) Adam Cuerden(talk)01:53, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, you may want to hold off a little bit on nominating the Bartok; I'm explaining why a Ravel work is out of copyright in America, and once I have, it won't need explained for the Bartok =) Adam Cuerden(talk)02:57, 3 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Please take a look at this project page and see if you can be a mentor to one of the many Areas of Study. If you can, please put your name in the "Online Mentor" area of the Area of Study of your choice and then contact the students you will be working with. As the Coordinating Online Ambassador for this project, please let me know if I can be of assistance. Take Care...Neutralhomer • Talk • 04:19, 3 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Check Your Area of Study
Hello, I have updated the Project Page you are mentoring on with usernames for all the students in your Area of Study. Please send them a message introducing yourself and let them know you are there to help.
This is a quick message to all the ambassadors about marking and tracking which articles students are working on. For the classes working with the ambassador program, please look over any articles being worked on by students (in particular, any ones you are mentoring, but others who don't have mentors as well) and do these things:
Add {{WAP assignment | term = Spring 2011 }} to the articles' talk pages. (The other parameters of the {{WAP assignment}} template are helpful, so please add them as well, but the term = Spring 2011 one is most important.)
If the article is related to United States public policy, make sure the article the WikiProject banner is on the talk page: {{WikiProject United States Public Policy}}
Add Category:Article Feedback Pilot (a hidden category) to the article itself. The second phase of the Article Feedback Tool project has started, and this time we're trying to include all of the articles students are working on. Please test out the Article Feedback Tool, as well. The new version just deployed, so any bug reports or feedback will be appreciated by the tech team working on it.
And of course, don't forget to check in on the students, give them constructive feedback, praise them for positive contributions, award them {{The WikiPen}} if they are doing excellent work, and so on. And if you haven't done so, make sure any students you are mentoring are listed on your mentor profile.
Adam wanted me to make a mock up for multi-part FSes, and I decided to have fun with it. Figured I'd show you. Since you were not on IRC I have to post it here, where everyone can see it. Mock up.Sven ManguardWha?07:17, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) Meh, if I had a time machine I'd send her to go chill with Barkok or Debussy or Chopain. I'm sure she'd look fetching in a toga, but it dosen't seem like the best use of resources to send her to Ancient Rome. Sven ManguardWha?04:27, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Can you copy this over to En-wiki? The copyright status of this in Russia is a little ambiguous, so it's best to have it here, under a {{KeepLocal}} template. Commons can be really, really horrible about keeping things on track, and it'd be a shame to lose this, three years before its status becomes completely unambiguous. Adam Cuerden(talk)16:14, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hope noone minds, but I've shoved the local copy ontop of the one Commonsside. If the Commons copy gets deleted, there would have been bunches of red links. Three years from now, we can just zap the local copy. (And if no one remembers, it's not a big deal.) Courcelles03:59, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Nobody minds at all. That said, I'm a nobody...<mopes>
Check out what Ed did, it's quite great and relates to what we do as a job. Also, how is the playing as these long nights are quite lonely without my comic relief on the internet. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 03:45, 19 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Got a message about an hour ago from Professor Obar of the Media and Telecommunication Policy project and I think it is viewed best in full:
Can you please communicate to the online mentors that I DO NOT want them moving student material into the main space for them. This is a big problem. I have noticed that this has happened with a number of the projects already, for example, in the broadband.gov article and the media cross-ownership article. We need the students to be doing this on their own, of course so they can learn how to do it, and also so that I can grade what they've done. How am I supposed to follow student submissions if the data is associated with online mentors? A BIG PROBLEM ALREADY... please help me with this. None of you responded to my post about this on the discussion page. This is about to get out of hand. Jaobar (talk) 05:27, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
With that, of course, please only give instructions on how to move, don't do it for them. Please only let them know what to do and let them do it themselves. If they run into problems, provide further instructions. Do not it for them. This seems to be making a mess of Prof. Obar's grading system and I would like to avoid that. Thanks. - Neutralhomer • Talk • Coor. Online Amb'dor • 06:14, 20 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Done, although I'm sorry to say that this will be the last of my participation in FS. I tried my best not to be selfish, but I feel that the gains no longer outweigh the setbacks of my being there. — La Pianista♫ ♪22:57, 21 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I am very sad to hear that but I understand after see the reply you received. I hope you rethink this some day after the winds change. Please accept this:
This is the third issue of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program Newsletter, with details about what's going on right now and where help is needed.
Where the courses are - A brief summary of how each of the 31 Public Policy Initiative courses are faring so far in the Spring 2011 term, as of 9-11 March. Feel free to add more detail.
Tracking students' articles - Make sure students' articles are tagged with {{WAP assignment}} on the talk pages, and have the newly improved Article Feedback Tool active.
Online Ambassadors logistics - If you don't have a Wikipedia Ambassador sweatshirt, now's your chance to get one! (Also, some other more mundane, but important, details.)
Steering committee preparing proposals - Look for discussions about two major proposals about the future ambassador program soon: the "Regional Ambassador" role, and elections for a new committee.
I'd like to echo that. Having seen the various discussions and recognising the name I followed the link from today's Signpost. It's absolutely superb. Bravo! MalleusFatuorum02:22, 22 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I am music stupid, honest, but is there some way you could play SOMETHING in the Myrrha music section? It is not about the stunningness as in listening to a CD (although I quite liked your piece that I listened to and I'm even classical music stupid, but it had a nice feel to it). But I just want to try to cross-fertilize. not just have music in articles about music and composers, but even in articles about subjects! Please consider!!! TCO (talk) 06:26, 23 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I tried Internet searching (not sure I know how to find stuff, but)
Here is a site that has a sound file for Myrrha gavotte (John Philip Sousa) done to piano. http://www.angelfire.com/ks/landzastanza/ (can I use that or will that be non-free)?
What do you think of this piece? [1] - it has a big advantage over the Sousa of being a recognised piano composition (well, more or less - the instrument it was written for doesn't exist anymore, and was some sort of pentatonic harmonium). Adam Cuerden(talk)17:10, 23 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I would take whatever I can get, whatever we can find a sound file of, or are willing to play and make a recording. This piece sounds good too. Started slow, but got good at the end.TCO (talk) 17:30, 23 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hm, after a few determined weekends, I think I could write up the sheet music for this (unless you can find the sheet music for me :3 )
TCO asked to be blocked until May 1 so he could concentrate on other things. I refused, but another admin did. Hopefully we'll see him back in a month.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:21, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I worry about this type of thing, La Pianista. You should play what you want and what is best for your training. Sure, taking one or two requests is a nice gesture, so long as you're still enjoying yourself and this isn't setting you back, but it seems like you've taken a lot more than one or two requests as of late. Wikipedia is like a great tentacled sea monster, it's big, it's ugly, and it'll suck you in and consume you if you're not careful. Perhaps if you said "I can take this many requests for the next three months, set your own terms on what you're willing to do and when, and then make us compete for your affection have us request your time within that type of framework, it would be better. I feel guilty that we're setting your musical education/playlist for you. Sven ManguardWha?17:13, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just as a talk page drive by, I have to agree. It sounds too much like the Wiki affecting your real life. I'm somewhat older, so I have the time to do stuff like travel to archives and whatnot, but you are learning, I would not let this affect your real life so intimately.--Wehwalt (talk) 17:16, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"A great tentacled sea monster"? Omai. If you say so, then. :) I admit, I'm relieved to let this go. I hope TCO won't have a problem with it.
As for letting Wikipedia affect my real life overmuch - I think this is the only time I've offered to take requests. The Miroirs decision was mostly my own, and I've been wanting to play that for a while. No worries. — La Pianista♫ ♪18:29, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'll work on the Myrrha Gavotte, then (which you shouldn't, anyway: It's literally impossible to play as written. See Page 3, starting on the second bar of the page.) The Mirra Intermezzo does sound like a very interesting piece. If you cannot find it, let me know - I've been meaning to run down to the British Library, and they have a copy. Adam Cuerden(talk)00:02, 2 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just wanted to let you know that I created the talk page for this group. Have you been in touch with them? Let's start communicating about this group. As noted on our course discussion page, I have provided my private email address if you need to ask me something in private. Let's get this project going! Jaobar (talk) 16:34, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Ah yes, I was going to email them only two days ago, in fact. But real life got in the way, my apologies. Where is the discussion page? — La Pianista♫ ♪19:30, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, I'm Elif, assisting Dr. Obar for this course. We just created the discussion page on the " Minority representation in media" article page. Just wrote a sentence to get the discussion started. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elifyilmaz (talk • contribs) 04:36, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, I'm one of your wikipedia godchildren involved in working on this artice. We have uploaded some content and I'm curious to know what you think about it. Honest advice would help us make it the best we can.
India pilot being organized now - Plans are currently underway for a pilot expansion of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program – in India! Hisham Mundol and other Wikimedia staff have begun recruiting Campus Ambassador candidates for Pune.
Document DYK, peer review and other milestone at the trophy case - If students you are working with (or any others you notice) are doing work that makes to DYK, is nominated for Good Article status, or is just solid content worth marking, then please help us document the students' success at the trophy case.
Changes to mailing list - A new low-volume mailing list, [Ambassador-announce-l], is being created. It will be reserved for key announcements and news, which we'd like all ambassadors to be subscribed to.
The Guild of Copy Editors – May 2011 Backlog Elimination Drive
The Guild of Copy Editors invite you to participate in the May 2011 Backlog Elimination Drive, a month-long effort to reduce the backlog of articles that require copy-editing. The drive began on May 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on May 31 at 23:59 (UTC). The goals of this backlog elimination drive are to eliminate as many articles as possible from the 2009 backlog and to reduce the overall backlog by 15%. ! NEW ! In an effort to encourage the final elimination of all 2009 articles, we will be tracking them on the leaderboard for this drive.
Awards and barnstars
A range of barnstars will be awarded to active participants. Some are exclusive to GOCE drives. More information on awards can be found on the main drive page.
You are receiving a copy of this newsletter as you are a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, or have participated in one of our drives. If you do not wish to receive future newsletters, please add you name here. Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 07:43, 4 May 2011 (UTC)
Please help assess articles for Public Policy Initiative research
Hi La Pianista,
Your work as an Online Ambassador is making a big contribution to Wikipedia. Right now, we're trying to measure just how much student work improves the quality of Wikipedia. If you'd like contribute to this research and get a firsthand look at the quality improvement that is happening through the project, please sign up to assess articles. Assessment is happening now, just use the quantitative metric and start assessing! Your help would be hugely appreciated!
Featured sounds was booming with activity in the March/April period, ideally that should be all the time. FS has been a battleground at times, however, it is my hope that that is in the past. I ask you all to reconsider your positions and set aside the differences you may have had with other participants for the good of the project and encyclopedia. Don't let FS become like VP, it is a path that a featured process should traverse. You were sent this message because you are listed at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates/Contributors or have been a past contributor.
Hi! This is the last call for signing on for a Wikipedia Ambassador hooded sweatshirt (in case you missed the earlier message in one of the program newsletters about it). If you would like one, please email me with your name, mailing address, and (US) sweatshirt size. We have a limited number left, so it will be first-come, first-served. (If more than one size would work for you, note that as well.)
Please take the Wikipedia Ambassador Program survey
Hi Ambassador,
We are at a pivotal point in the development of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program. Your feedback will help shape the program and role of Ambassadors in the future. Please take this 10 minute survey to help inform and improve the Wikipedia Ambassadors.
WMF will de-identify results and make them available to you. According to KwikSurveys' privacy policy: "Data and email addresses will not be sold, rented, leased or disclosed to 3rd parties." This link takes you to the online survey: http://kwiksurveys.com?u=WPAmbassador_talk
Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments, Thank You!
I do not want a super-perfect recording or some featured sound effort. I want something that can go in an article as a sound to support Myrrha. (Feel that a lot of "perfect is the enemy of good" was spent on the alternate composition from Adam.) Can I please just get some ivory tinkling? We can always make it better AFTER we have SOMETHING! Pleeze. It will be fun. We are doing integrated media. Not just sound as sound, but sound to support an article. And collaborating. And all that happy ho..stuff. TCO (talk) 23:23, 24 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm afraid I won't be able to do it; I'm very busy and won't have much time to get this decently learned. Even if I were to somehow record it, I wouldn't be able to do it in the hall; I would have to do it at home, and my personal mic quality is awful (I could email you a sample clip if you wish). But that is very unlikely, and I can't make a promise on that.
Some of those already have recordings, though (I mean, that Ballade alone has two recordings. o.O). Should I upload my own anyways, or would that be redundant? — La Pianista♫ ♪04:07, 31 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
To begin or stop receiving this newsletter, please list yourself in the appropriate section here. To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. BrownBot (talk) 22:58, 4 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh good. I forgot about that 'life' thing. I noticed that you went two and a half weeks without a single edit and went straight to "crap, she retired". People that are both interesting and sane are a rare enough commodity around here that I tend to notice when they vanish. Also, I'd have to find someone else for musical advice. I suppose Diaanna has good enough taste, but most everyone she listens to has easily pronounceable names and many of them are still alive, and we can't have any of that now, can we? Sven ManguardWha?08:06, 27 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) Apparently I have a life, but I'm still up late working on last minute papers. :p
Don't worry, Sven child, in a few months (four months minimum, six months max), I'll have a new set of recordings out. And things will be back to "normal," quotes not arbitrary. Funny how my summers are more busy than my regular semesters.
@Ed: Who needs Pink Floyd when you could listen to Ke$ha? No one is more talented at proclaiming through every pore in her body that she's been stuffed more often than all of America's Thanksgiving turkeys combined. — La Pianista♫ ♪08:18, 27 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I'm off to bed so that I can wake up early and face a wall of bureaucracy off wiki. I'm... giddy... if you can't tell. As for the music, take your time and do it right, don't rush on my account. I've already listened to every single piece of Yanni's music avalible on the internet, but I suppose if I need something to listen to, I could do it again. :-) (Also, in a few days my internet access will drop off. Remember that time that you were forwarding me YouTube videos of crazy good Russian composers and it was taking me 10 minutes to load a two minute video? Yeah, I'm going to have that again soon.) See you around, don't be a stranger. Sven ManguardWha?08:29, 27 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
@Sven: I can't link YouTube videos onwiki, but for a quick and pleasant little trinket of a piece, search "Kreisler Rachmaninoff Liebesleid Charles Rosen". You won't regret it.
@Ed: Holy hell, that must be the first time in...*thinks back, counts fingers like a grade schooler* four years that's happened. :o It appears I have achieved something of magnitude here. Allow me to do the honor of patting myself on the back, thus simulating the long-forgotten feel of third-person physical contact. — La Pianista♫ ♪12:50, 27 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Some phở for you!
A bowl of love
Well, since they don't have this I decided to make it. I guess this could count as a birthday gift so feel special. If you don't feel special, I'll repurpose this gift and give it to someone more special. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 22:28, 30 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The latest GOCE backlog elimination drive is under way! It began on 1 July and so far 18 people have signed up to help us reduce the number of articles in need of copyediting.
This drive will give a 50% bonus for articles edited from the GOCE requests page. Although we have cleared the backlog of 2009 articles there are still 3,935 articles needing copyediting and any help, no matter how small, would be appreciated.
We are appealing to all GOCE members, and any other editors who wish to participate, to come and help us reduce the number of articles needing copyediting, as well as the backlog of requests. If you have not signed up yet, why not take a look at the current signatories and help us by adding your name and copyediting a few articles. Barnstars will be given to anyone who edits more than 4,000 words, with special awards for the top 5 in the categories: "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words".
Even though it's been quiet on-wiki, the Wikipedia Ambassador Program has been busy over the last few months getting ready for the next term. We're heading toward over 80 classes in the US, across all disciplines. You'll see courses start popping up here, and this time we want to match one or more Online Ambassadors to each class based on interest or expertise in the subject matter. If you see a class that you're interested, please contact the professor and/or me; the sooner the Ambassadors and professors get in communication, the better things go. Look for more in the coming weeks about next term.
In the meantime, with a little help I've identified all the articles students did significant work on in the last term. Many of the articles have never been assessed, or have ratings that are out of date from before the students improved them. Please help assess them! Pick a class, or just a few articles, and give them a rating (and add a relevant WikiProject banner if there isn't one), and then update the list of articles.
Once we have updated assessments for all these articles, we can get a better idea of how quality varied from course to course, and which approaches to running Wikipedia assignments and managing courses are most effective.
One for forgetting to respond to the comments at the FSC and re-add the bit of applause at the end.
Two (the graver concern) for not being able to find the original recording to address said comments. At all. The original CD is lost. At least we have an online copy.
Hello! If you're planning to be an active Online Ambassador for the upcoming academic term, now is the time to join one or more pods. (A pod consists of the instructor, the Campus Ambassadors, and the Online Ambassadors for single class.) The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) explains the expectations for being part of a pod as an Online Ambassador. (The MOU for pods in Canada is essentially the same.) In short, the role of Online Ambassadors this term consists of:
Working closely with the instructor and Campus Ambassadors, providing advice and perspective as an experienced Wikipedian
Helping students who ask for it (or helping them to find the help they need)
Watching out for the class as a whole
Helping students to get community feedback on their work
This replaces the 1-on-1 mentoring role for Online Ambassadors that we had in previous terms; rather than being responsible for individual students (some of whom don't want or help or are unresponsive), Online Ambassadors will be there to help whichever students in their class(es) ask for help.
You can browse the upcoming courses here: United States; Canada. More are being added as new pods become active and create their course pages.
Once you've found a class that you want to work with—especially if you some interest or expertise in the topic area—you should sign the MOU listing for that class and get in touch with the instructor. We're hoping to have at least two Online Ambassadors per pod, and more for the larger classes.
If you're up for supporting any kind of class and would like me to assign you to a pod in need of more Online Ambassadors, just let me know.
The Guild of Copy Editors invites you to participate in their September 2011 Backlog elimination drive, a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy editing backlog. The drive will begin on September 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on September 30 at 23:59 (UTC). We will be tracking the number of 2010 articles in the backlog, as we want to copy edit as many of those as possible. Please consider copy editing an article that was tagged in 2010. Barnstars will be given to anyone who edits more than 4,000 words, with special awards for the top 5 in the categories "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". See you at the drive! – Your drive coordinators: Diannaa, Chaosdruid, The Utahraptor, Slon02, and SMasters.
Is it just me who is seeing your talk page formatted all strangely with a random subst=subst:}} at the top? :) Icy // ♫00:46, 13 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I wanted to give you one last update on where we are this term, before my role as Online Facilitator wraps up at the end of this week. Already, there are over 800 students in U.S. classes who have signed up on course pages this term. About 40 classes are active, and we're expecting that many more again once all the classes are up and running.
On a personal note, it's been a huge honor to work with so many great Wikipedians over the last 15 months. Thanks so much to everyone who jumped in and decided to give the ambassador concept a try, and double thanks those of you who were involved early on. Your ideas and insights and enthusiasm have been the foundation of the program, and they will be the keys the future of the program.
Courses looking for Online Ambassadors
Still waiting to get involved with a class this term, or ready to take on more? We have seven classes that are already active and need OA support, and eleven more that have course pages started but don't have active students yet. Please consider joining one or more of these pods!
Active courses that really need Online Ambassadors:
Hi,
I would like to have a private conversation with La Pianista. I can't find a way to do this on the tool box. I am not scary, promise! My email is playingwith3@yahoo.com and I am on facebook - Linda Velwest. Please contact me! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.34.168.190 (talk) 14:35, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You've got mail!
Hello, La Pianista. Please check your email; you've got mail! It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.
Hello! My name is Belugaboy, and by now, you and I both have heard of the Motto Shop, and if not, there's a Motto Shop! It's an exclusive place where users can get their own motto to live by on the wiki. It's great, but we're really running slow, in fact, we haven't seen a customer in months. So we thought YOU, the contributors to Motto of the Day, could spread the word to your WikiFriends, heck, order yourself one, whether you have or haven't before. Thank you and warm regards to all of you!
The Guild of Copy Editors invites you to participate in their November 2011 Backlog elimination drive, a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy edit backlog. The drive begins on November 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and ends on November 30 at 23:59 (UTC). We will be tracking the number of 2010 articles (and specifically will be targeting the oldest three months), as we want to copy edit as many of these as possible. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who copy edits more than 4,000 words, and special awards will be given to the top 5 in the following categories: "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". We hope to see you there! – Your drive coordinators: Diannaa, Chaosdruid, The Utahraptor, Slon02, and SMasters.
As you may know, the Counter-Vandalism unit is inactive. So for reviving the WikiProject, we will need to sort out the members. So if you are active, please put your username at the bottom of the list at Wikipedia talk:Counter-Vandalism Unit#Sort out the members.
You are receiving this message as a current member of the CVU.
Elections are currently underway for our third tranche of Guild coordinators. The voting period will run for 14 days: 00:01 UTC, 16 December – 23:59 UTC, 31 December. All GOCE members, as well as past participants of any of the Guild's Backlog elimination drives, are eligible to vote. There are five candidates vying for four positions. Your vote really matters! Cast your vote today.
Geez I miss you guys to hell and back T_T -- Merry merry Christmas happy happy holidays Pianista <3 (and Ed, again). Happy drunken land sharks guys O_o (and I need to figure out some way to catch up with you guys regularly) Icy // ♫20:23, 25 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(baaaack) oh facebook. That thing. (I ought to friend you guys) ... and geez, Eddie... Now if only I could find some what to put it more wittily than Pianista. Icy // ♫03:41, 27 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'm an instructor of English composition looking for an online ambassador to assist my Writing & Rhetoric II class this coming (Winter quarter). I'm specifically interested in someone who would be willing to respond to short proposals written by students for planned edits/article creations. There's a cap of twenty students in the class, so if I found two willing ambassadors each would be responsible for responding to 10 proposals. Would you be interested?
I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I haven't the time this semester for it. Spring 2012 will be a really busy semester for me in general (involving a possible move across the country, for one), so I'll remain inactive in my ambassador duties until at least next fall.
But Writing and Rhetoric is my favorite class, outside music. If at all possible, please contact me for the Fall 2012 semester. I'd be very happy to help. — La Pianista♫ ♪03:07, 29 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]
We have reached the end of the year, and what a year it has been! The Guild of Copy Editors was full of activity, and we achieved numerous important milestones in 2011. Read all about these in the Guild's 2011 Year-End Report.
Highlights
Membership grows to 764 editors, an increase of 261
Report on coordinators' elections
Around 1,000 articles removed through six Backlog elimination drives
Hi, La Pianista! As you may know, the Wikipedia Education Program has instilled a new set of standards that courses must meet to officially join the program for the semester. As you can see, one of the requirements is that at least one ambassador or professor is a Wikipedian, as this should give students more access to helpful information about contributing to Wikipedia and creating good content. You are listed on the Online Ambassador page; are you still interested in remaining active this semester? Some of these classes will have to remove themselves from the program should they fail to meet these standards, but we would like to ensure that new students are receiving proper support during the editing process. Please let me know if you are still interested in mentoring these students this semester and/or visit the Online Ambassador talk page to select a course that still needs an Online Ambassador. Thank you! JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 19:42, 6 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The Guild of Copy Editors invites you to participate in their March 2012 Backlog elimination drive, a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy edit backlog. The drive begins on March 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and ends on March 31 at 23:59 (UTC). Our goal for the drive will be to eliminate the remaining 2010 articles from the queue. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who copy edits more than 4,000 words, and special awards will be given to the top 5 in the following categories: "Number of articles", "Number of words", and "Number of articles of over 5,000 words". We hope to see you there! – Your drive coordinators: Dank, Diannaa, Stfg, and Coordinator emeritus SMasters. 19:42, 20 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Hi La Pianista, I hope all is well with you. Over the past few days (5–7 March) MOTD has displayed a red link. Any help would be greatly appreciated! –pjoef (talk • contribs) 11:27, 7 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]
GOCE March drive newsletter
Guild of Copy Editors March 2012 backlog elimination drive update
GOCE March 2012 Backlog Elimination progress graphs
Participation:
We have had 58 people sign up for this drive so far, which compares favorably with our last drive, and 27 have copy-edited at least one article. If you have signed up but have not yet copy-edited any articles, please consider doing so. Every bit helps! If you haven't signed up yet, it's not too late. Join us!
Progress report:
Our target of completing the 2010 articles has almost been reached, with only 56 remaining of the 194 we had at the start of the drive. The last ones are always the most difficult, so thank you if you are able to help copy-edit any of the remaining articles. We have reduced the total backlog by 163 articles so far.
Special thanks:
Special thanks to Stfg, who has been going through the backlog and doing some preliminary vetting of the articles—removing copyright violations, doing initial clean-up, and nominating some for deletion. This work has helped make the drive a more pleasant experience for all our volunteers.
Of the 70 people who signed up for this drive, 40 copy-edited at least one article. Thanks to all who participated! Special acknowledgement goes out to Lfstevens, who did over 200 articles, most of them in the last third of the drive, and topped all three leaderboard categories. You're a superstar! Stfg and others have been pre-checking the articles for quality and conformance to Wikipedia guidelines; some have been nominated for deletion or had some preliminary clean-up done to help make the copy-edit process more fun and appealing. Thanks to all who helped get those nasty last few articles out of the target months.
Progress report
During this drive we were successful in eliminating our target months—October, November, and December 2010—from the queue, and have now eliminated all the 2010 articles from our list. We were able to complete 500 articles this month! End-of-drive results and barnstar information can be found here.
When working on the backlog, please keep in mind that there are options other than copy-editing available; some articles may be candidates for deletion, or may not be suitable for copy-editing at this time for other reasons. The {{GOCEreviewed}} tag can be placed on any article you find to be totally uneditable, and you can nominate for deletion any that you discover to be copyright violations or completely unintelligible. If you need help deciding what to do, please contact any of the coordinators.
Thank you for participating in the March 2012 drive! All contributions are appreciated. Our next copy-edit drive will be in May.
I've just been exceptionally busy (as always), no worries. Transferring to another school up north and such. The tornadoes unfortunately did not sweep me away to Oz. :( It wouldn't have ended well, anyways, as I don't have glittery red shoes.
I just might upload some more Brahms at the end of the month. And I'll definitely see if I can continue my recording at this new school. Hope it won't be long before I see you guys on IRC! — La Pianista♫ ♪14:13, 6 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
