User talk:Liz

'tis the winter season!

This page was last edited or modified by Liz (talk).

Wise words given to a blocked editor: This absolute adherence to the idea that your interpretation of the rules is paramount
and everyone else's input is merely an obstacle to overcome is an accurate summary of how you ended up in this position.
Basalisk ^{inspect damage}⁄_berate 4 August 2013
Well said!Liz ^{Read! Talk!}

No matter how cute you are, expect no quarter in the cruel world of Wikipedia.

While Wikipedia's written policies and guidelines should be taken seriously, they can be misused.
Do not follow an overly strict interpretation of the letter of policy without consideration for the principles of policies.
If the rules truly prevent you from improving the encyclopedia, ignore them.
Disagreements are resolved through consensus-based discussion, not by tightly sticking to rules and procedures.
Furthermore, policies and guidelines themselves may be changed to reflect evolving consensus. (WP:NOT)

Tips for the angry new user - Gamaliel

Welcome!

Hello, Newjerseyliz, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

• Introduction to Wikipedia
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page and How to develop articles
• How to create your first article
• Simplified Manual of Style

Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{help me}} before the question. Again, welcome!

Come here and I'll point the spout at YOU!

Don't call names, you craven tickle-brained bum-bailey!

You have been noticed using opprobrious epithets. It's payback time from the Shakespeare Insult Generator! To activate the Insultspout and receive fresh insults, click here. Note that all insults generated by the Spout are guaranteed literary and cultured, unlike the nasty things you said, you yeasty dizzy-eyed varlet.

Hmm never seen this template before, but in my opinion its abusive and a personal attack and its should be discontinued.-- — Keithbob • Talk • 16:21, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I thought it was funny, Keithbob, and placed it on my Talk Page myself. The "epiphets" are so ludicrous and silly, I can't believe anyone would take them personally. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 17:11, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

OK, I thought it was placed here by someone else. Glad you find it fun. Peace! -- — Keithbob • Talk • 19:10, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for speedy del Category:Oregon University System

Thanks for tagging Category:Oregon University System for speedy deletion. There is also a navbox, Template:Oregon University System, which should also be speedy deleted. I suppose after editing for nearly 2 years I should know what code to add to delete it, and I actually found instructions last week, but now I can't find the page again. Would you mind? Cheers! — Grand'mere Eugene (talk) 22:11, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Grand'mere Eugene, I have nominated it for deletion. You can weigh in at Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2015 December 2#Template:Oregon University System. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:30, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

User block

Hello!

With this user did you mean the block to be indefinite? Or for 72 hours? 5 albert square (talk) 03:20, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, when I selected the username hard block, the allotted time was 24 hours so I lengthened it to 72 hours to give him time to change his name. Should it have been indefinite, 5 albert square? Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 03:41, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

I was generally just confused because on the talk page you've said that the block is indefinite. Wasn't sure which one you meant 😃 5 albert square (talk) 10:31, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Edit at List of Fictional Birds

I undid the edits made at that page because the editor in question is a block-evading vandal with a constantly morphing IP who constantly posts, at very very very best, highly suspect edits of extremely questionable quality, and more often, barely readable original research edits. That is, when the vandal isn't spamming pages with inappropriate, nonexistent, and or inappropriate and nonexistent categories.--Mr Fink (talk) 04:40, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. I was not familiar with the editor and it looked like a valid edit to me. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 10:13, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Understood. I concede that some of the vandal's edits probably are valid, but, having dealt with it for 5+ years, trying to sort through which of its edits are valid, and which are garbage edits is akin to trying to make sense of Mount Saint Helens with a kitchen colander. Because of that, and because it appears to be incapable of communicating with other editors, and is constantly evading numerous blocks, I've adopted a policy of reverting everything it does. It often uses IPs starting with 139., and haunts the "List of fictional (animals)" pages.--Mr Fink (talk) 14:30, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Notifications

Dear Liz. I saw this comment of yours the other week: ... specifically, where to find the right templates to put on user talk pages and article talk pages. I still rely on Twinkle and I'm sure there are more nuanced notices and warnings available somewhere that do a better job communicating with editors ... — Preceding text originally posted on Wikipedia:Bureaucrats' noticeboard (diff) by Liz (talk⋅contribs) 23:15, 21 November 2015‎ (UTC). Could User:Sam Sailor/Boilerplates/Singleleveltemplates and the other pages in the /Boilerplates level be of any use to you? Sam Sailor ^Talk! 09:28, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Sam, it's very convenient to have a link to a list such as yours. I appreciate you letting me know about it. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 10:11, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks

Hi Liz, Just wanted to say thanks for the cabal comment; it added some (much needed) perspective. Also, w.r.t this, I have an inkling that it may be either a HTD or lulz slate. - Ryk72 ^'c.s.n.s.' 22:06, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I think it's a HTD slate but then the KIA thread linked to in that discussion supported some of the same candidates. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:18, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Be careful with empty maintenance categories

I undid your edit to Category:Football team templates which use images. This is a maintenance category which is typically empty. I'll grant you that the statement in the category's text saying so may have been obscure, so after I removed the speedy-deletion template I added {{empty category}}. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs) 03:16, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, davidwr. I've come across a number of categories that are empty and eligible for CSD C1 deletion but probably should be tagged {{empty category}}. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 08:26, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you

Liz...just wanted to say thank you for the polite and evenhanded nature of your comments and actions on the ISCS Inc. page. It was quite a shock to get a notification of imminent deletion 5 minutes after I posted it (not by you), and your subsequent actions were both helpful and appreciated. At least now I will have time to see about making it more Wiki-worth, without worrying that it's going to disappear on me.

Thanks again. Sincerely, Tim — Preceding unsigned comment added by TimH1846 (talk • contribs) 19:13, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, good luck with the article, TimH1846. To give you a sense of what Wikipedia deals with, there are about 800 new articles submitted every day to Wikipedia and the New Page Patrollers check each one of them over.

The standards are very strict for companies, organizations and artists because many of them see a Wikipedia article as just another vehicle to promote themselves when we are trying to build an encyclopedia. As many articles get created, probably half of them are deleted the first day because the content is determined to be inappropriate for Wikipedia. It's much better to build up an article in user space over time than publish it directly into Wikipedia space where it will be subject to deletion review. Also, Wikipedia:Your first article can be very helpful to new editors. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:26, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Deleted page Kenji(musicband)

Hello,

Today i started a wikipage about my band and sadly it got deleted. I hope that you can tell me why, the band would really like to have a wikipage. Thanks in advance,

Patrick Kasl Patrickkasl (talk) 20:35, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Patrickkasl, there was hardly any information in the article and it is far from meeting Wikipedia's standards for inclusion in the encyclopedia. The band has to have been covered by reliable sources (newspapers, magazines, books, reputable websites), in depth, to be considered notable. This isn't Facebook or a venue for publicity but an encyclopedia. But I have restored the articles at Draft:Kenji (musicband) so you can continue to improve it.

You should look at Wikipedia:Your first article for guidance. When you feel the article has met Wikipedia standards for notability, I encourage you to submit it to Articles for Creation so it can be reviewed by an experienced editor. This is a longer process but if you resubmit another article on your band that is similar to this one, it will also be deleted. Wikipedia receives over 800 new articles every day and many of them are promptly deleted as they don't merit inclusion in the encyclopedia. Good luck! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:03, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Promotional article

Hello Liz! I was wondering if you could look into this article as the author has removed the speedy deletions and seems to be the author/artists of the album that he/she has created. Much obliged if you can! Adog104 ^{Talk to me} 01:09, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi, Adog104, that article was tagged for speedy deletion and has been deleted. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:17, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for responding and helping. Adog104 ^{Talk to me} 01:18, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Speedy Deletion of Punchirikku Parasparam

The article Punchirikku Parasparam was deleted within 24 hours without giving time for anyone for contesting the deletion. The WP:A7 and WP:G11 are meaningless as the article was about a short film (allowed in Wiki) in Malayalam language which has enough notability, it was produced by popular stand-up comedian of Kerala Ramesh Pisharody and the "superstars" of Malayalam cinema Mohanlal and Mammootty was part of it. It's not a short film done by some college students in a mobile phone camera. This gives enough importance to the subject. The content was sufficiently sourced with reliable sources about the theme, development, technical details and release of the film.) --Inside the Valley (talk) 03:51, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

It looks like the article is being discussed at Requests for undeletion and that Tokyogirl79 will be undeleting it soon and it will be considered at an Articles for deletion discussion. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 11:08, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

No response yet. Still waiting. I am thinking about submitting a request in WP:DRV. --Inside the Valley (talk) 13:09, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

I guess you missed it, Inside the Valley, but this article was moved to your user space: User:Inside the Valley/Punchirikku Parasparam. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:31, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

You are right. Thanks --Inside the Valley (talk) 16:26, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Dec 9: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC; Dec 12: Art & Law editathon + Dec 13: Black Film editathon

Wednesday December 9, 7pm: WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC

You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our evening "WikiWednesday" salon and knowledge-sharing workshop by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan. This month, we will also host a Newcomer's Wiki Workshop for those getting started on the encyclopedia project! We will also include a look at our annual plan and budget ideas, and welcome input from community members on the sorts of projects the chapter should support through both volunteer and budgetary efforts. We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects. We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming editathons, and other outreach activities. After the main meeting, pizza/chicken/vegetables and refreshments and video games in the gallery! Wednesday December 9 WikiWednesday Salon and Skill-Share NYC (RSVP on-wiki or at meetup.com). 7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles gallery, 137 West 14th Street We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! (One talk this month will be on use of Wikipedia press passes for photographers.) Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 13:38, 4 December 2015 (UTC) Bonus events, RSVP now for our upcoming editathons: Saturday December 12 - Art & Law @ School of Visual Arts editathon Sunday December 13 - Black Film: AfroCROWD editathon

(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)

Education

I saw you posted about some mainspace student editing issues on Flyer's talk page. May I invite you to participate in an RFC on potential improvements to Wiki Edu, please? Fiddle Faddle 00:24, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

2015 San Bernardino shooting

Lots of IPs who don't use editsums or participate in talk, enough of them making bad edits to make it very hard to avoid 3RR. Your call, obviously, and my condolences to the good IPs, but I'd sure like to see semi for another 3 or 4 days until this cools a little. ―Mandruss ☎ 07:35, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

That article will be highly controversial and delicate for an extended period. I gave it 3 months. I should add if folks really feel like unprotecting it sooner I don't mind. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 09:56, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Sounds like a good call to me. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 10:54, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

...possible other problem

There is another by a user producing large articles about wrestlers in the new pages which was puzzling. The articles are being pushed out minute by minute by a single user named Wrestlinglove (talk · contribs); and as I went to check if they were possibly copyright, the text from some articles appear on google searches referring to deleted pages with different names, but same context. I came to you again since those pages were deleted by you mostly by G4 and G5. Also do I need to still tag these articles for speedies? Adog104 ^{Talk to me} 19:30, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

There was a sockpuppeteer that was just blocked who worked on wrestling articles. I'll try to remember who it was. It would help if you tagged any inappropriate articles, Adog104. Thanks for your work. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:57, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you too! Adog104 ^{Talk to me} 20:00, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

I remembered it was Martimc123, Adog104, and his socks (see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Martimc123/Archive). I'm not sure how fast the CUers will act or if they will accept this new investigation. He's editing the same sort of articles and most of the previous articles he created have been deleted. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:07, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

So should I take the remaining 18 un-reviewed articles and tag by the user Martimc123s as G5 (if I should I'll get right on it)? I've been checking other articles and see if they had an AFD but I think the other user got them. Adog104 ^{Talk to me} 20:31, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

We don't have confirmation that it is a blocked editor and I'm cautious right now about applying the Duck test. At this point, review the articles on their merits. If the SPI comes back in the affirmative, we can always delete the articles later. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:37, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Alrighty then, thank you again for your help. Adog104 ^{Talk to me} 20:39, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Adog104, Wrestlinglove has been confirmed as a sockpuppet so you can tag their articles for deletion. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:43, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

 All previous 19 un-reviewed articles by Wrestlinglove (talk · contribs) has been tagged for G5. Adog104 ^{Talk to me} 21:59, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, @Adog104:, I've blocked the account. They were only active for four hours but they generated a lot of content. This editor has had a lot of socks so if you see similar articles being created, let me or another administrator know. Thanks again. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:01, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Will do. Adog104 ^{Talk to me} 22:03, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for Yesterday

TF ^{{ Contribs }} 13:36, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

You're very welcome, Titusfox. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 14:00, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

Wrestling articles

Will do. Thanks. リボン・サルミネン (Ribbon Salminen)(ZOOM) 15:56, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

ACE 2015 Election

I finally cast my vote, 4 hours before the polls close! But looking at others who waited until today to vote, I could see I was in good company, lots of familiar names. In reading over a lot of candidate pages, I found that my votes didn't vary a lot from when the polls opened except by a small margin (from Support=>Neutral or from Neutral=>Oppose). No major fluctuations.
Since the voting numbers this year are unprecedented, I think it's anybody's guess who will reach the Top 9 with Support over 50% or if even 9 candidates will reach 50%. But my interest actually has been in the voting guides and once the poll closes, I'll pose a very casual analysis to see if the editors providing guidelines are in sync with those who vote...or, looking at it in a different way, whether the guides might have influenced editors who voted. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:56, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

So, now that the polls have closed, I thought I'd posted my totally unscientific examination of election guides to see if, collectively, they were a good predictor of the election results. Some caveats:

1. I looked over 25 different election guides and I didn't use guides that didn't use a Support/Neutral/Oppose format because I didn't want to interpret another editors' remarks and label them.
2. I didn't make discrimination between election guides I agreed with and those I thought were biased or less reliable. Every one was fair game.
3. I lumped Strong Support/Strong Oppose in with regular Support/Oppose. I'm not sure how much weight readers place in stronger feelings.
4. Not every election guide evaluated every candidate. There was more than a few that skipped some candidates or said they would indicate their opinion later and they didn't. I just didn't include these non-votes. The ranking was depended on level of Support over total Opinions expressed so I don't think this factor disadvantaged any candidates.
5. I included TimTrent because although he withdrew, his name still appears on the ballot and because he remained in a lot of election guides.
6. I think it is notable that very few of the election guides were updated during the two week election. That is, few editors reexamined their positions or questioned the decisions they made in mid-November.

So, here you go, I've decided to rank the candidates based on their collective election guide approval, without any numbers attached because I think it is their relative ranking which is interesting not their absolute level of approval from the small pool of editors who choose to put together election guides.

1. Opabinia regalis
2. Cas liber and Kelapstick (tie)
3. Drmies
4. Callanecc
5. Tim Trent
6. NE Ent
7. Kudpung
8. Keilana
9. Gorilla Warfare
10. Hullaballoo Wolfowitz
11. Wildthing61476
12. Gamaliel
13. Kirill Lokshin
14. Thryduulf
15. LFarone
16. Rich Farmbrough
17. Hawkeye7 and Kevin Gorman (tie)
18. Mahensingha and MarkBernstein (tie)

We'll see if the collective opinions of the guidewriters are echoed by the electorate. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:31, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

There are other reasons for folks' rationales - always lots of background history that is not readily apparent, unless you know what you're looking for. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 01:14, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, Liz, for doing this analysis. I voted for everybody at the top of he list, except Kudpung, and I gave Rich F a moral support vote though he won't win. It seems like the consensus of guide writers is pretty good. Jehochman ^Talk 02:45, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Jehochman, I should add that every candidate had at least two candidate guides which recommended them. I think the big surprises were the near unanimous support for Opabinia regalis, who came back to Wikipedia after a long absence and Wildthing61476, who did better than I expected based on his answers in the Q&A. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:22, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Candidate Guide Views

1. Worm That Turned - 3,762
2. Ealdgyth - 2,860
3. Bishzilla - 2,281
4. Peter Damian - 2,242
5. Reaper Eternal - 2,175
6. Lady Catherine de Burgh - 1,946
7. Elonka - 1,946
8. Tryptofish - 1,943
9. Collect - 1,755
10. Smallbones - 1,739
11. H.J. Mitchell -1,730
12. Carrite - 1,656
13. RegentsPark - 1,337
14. AGK - 1,193
15. Yngvadottir - 1,015
16. MONGO - 946
17. Begoon - 895
18. Boing! said Zebedee - 851
19. Gerda Arendt - 838
20. Pldx1 - 810
21. Silk Tork - 776
22. Ched - 766
23. Sjakkalle - 674
24. The owner of all - 575
25. SB Johnny - 506
26. Carcharoth - 495
27. Fuzheado (Andrew Lih) - 431
28. M.Z. McBride - 279

This information was compiled last night by Carrite and posted at Wikipediocracy. I think the number of views each guide received was primarily influenced by how early they were posted (right after nominations closed or last week?), if there was a delay in adding the guide to the ACE template and the reputation of the writer to those editors who consult guides before voting. These totals should not be interpreted as unique views as I know I looked at each guide several times over the period of voting and I'm sure I was not alone. Thanks to Carrite for allowing me to republish this information here. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:35, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

What...no poll compilation from Nate Silver? Juan Riley (talk) 19:22, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

LOL! No, I don't think we could afford his consulting fee. There is more data on the WP:ACE talk pages where editors have broken the vote down by length of time a person has been an editor and by their number of edits which is more data crunching than I care to do. Of course, I think the fact that we had nearly 3,000 votes (rather than 500) throws all prediction out the window. We can't base this year's results based on past elections as the turnout was over 4 times as large. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:39, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Gee...could we not have teased Nate to be pro bono interested? Of course I am just kidding. Thanks for taking my comment as I meant it. And for your posts. Juan Riley (talk) 19:44, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

• Liz, did you see the analysis in last week's Signpost? The top line of that table is an analysis based on the voter guides. Yngvadottir (talk) 22:27, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I did see that table, Yngvadottir. But there are so many guides (over 25) and nearly as many candidates that I found the table hard to read. So, I simply read each guide and tabulated my list by hand and calculator. Sometimes visuals help...other times a list is more succinct. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:41, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi, Liz. A minor point about ranking in the event of a tie: subsequent candidates have the ranking increased by one. For example, your initial ranking has Cas Liber & Kelapstick tied at second place. The next person, Drmies, should be at rank 4 because there are three people before him. (I realise that you used the default # numbering.) Axl ¤ [Talk] 10:47, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, the final results were:

1. Casliber (78.46%)
2. Opabinia regalis (74.24%)
3. Keilana (73.31%)
4. Drmies (70.28%)
5. Callanecc (68.11%)
6. Kelapstick (66.37%)
7. GorillaWarfare (65.86%)
8. Kirill Lokshin (65.29%)
9. Gamaliel (61.99%)

So, given the collective wisdom of the candidate guides, the prognosticators got 6 out or 9 candidates right. Gamaliel and Kirill Lokshin definitely received middling support and the voters preferred them more than the guide writers. The biggest surprise for me was that I was positive that this was the year when a non-admin would win an arbitration committee seat but it appears that, to many voters, it is still very important to them that arbitrators have administrative experience. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:58, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

It's common in elections and referendums for actual votes cast to shift back towards the status quo. One could interpret this as actual voters gravitating to admin over non-admin candidates possibly. Also, the number of guides are small enough that interpersonal issues make an impact on ranks. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 21:54, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, I looked at over 25 candidate guides, Cas Liber, which seemed like a lot to me! I looked and Sandy's analysis from several years ago about candidate guides and I think she had four listed.

You know, what, someone pointed out to me that for the first time, there will be three female arbitrators. I hadn't even noticed that until it was brought up to me. Still only 20% of the committee but more equitable than just having one arbitrator. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:01, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure who pointed that out to you, but they're either wrongly informed or yanking your chain. I can't be bothered to look (although it would just be a case of going through Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/History and counting), but as someone who was on Arbcom with Shell, Elen and Risker I can say with certainty that this has certainly happened before. (Kelly Martin, Mindspillage and Theresa Knott is another group of contemporaneous female arbs who immediately spring to mind.) ‑ Iridescent 20:08, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I defer to you, Iridescent, you know more about Wikipedia's history than I do. I was incorrect (along with my source). It now looks like it might have been more unusual to only have one/no woman on the committee which is the opposite of what I said. Thank you for the correction.

I also miscounted as there are actually four female arbitrators now, Delta Quad, Opabinia, GW and Keilana. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:34, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I think four may be a first (although I'm not 100% certain of the gender of everyone). Because of the long tenures of Theresa Knott and Risker, an all-male arbcom has been something of a rarity. ‑ Iridescent 21:02, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I believe there's been at least one female arbitrator continuously since at least October 2005. Newyorkbrad (talk) 21:20, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

That's correct; Theresa came in in January 2005 and since then at lease one of Theresa, FloNight, Risker or GW has been on the committee at all times. (I don't know enough about the original "Jimbo's drinking buddies" arbcom of 2004 to say whether any of them were female.) ‑ Iridescent 21:25, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I like looking at Wikipedia's history although it is not documented well before 2005. But given the latest movements on administrator and bureaucrat inactivity levels, I was looking at longtime admins and crats and I came across one individual who was both but never went through an RfA or an RfB, at least not one that is filed in the regular places. I knew the first admins were mailing list volunteers but I thought bureaucrats came much later and by then there was a process for approving the appointments.

Personally, I think it is remarkable that any editor, admin or bureaucrat have been active for 10+ years when there are so many distractions that come into one's life...job changes, relationship changes, moves, kids, health issues, other hobbies, new friends, etc. To keep up with any activity for a decade (or close to a decade) when there are so many other parts of life competing for ones attention is kind of amazing! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:55, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

I take it you mean Brion Vibber? He was gifted the 'crat bit back in Wild West days, but never uses it. Hardly any of the 'crats are actually active any more, beyond the minimum necessary to keep their bits. ‑ Iridescent 22:41, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 02 December 2015

• Op-ed: Whither Wikidata?

• News and notes: Online harassment consultation; High voter turnout at ArbCom elections

• In the media: Is Wikidata as transparent as it seems?; Wikimedia Fund-raising drive launches

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:22, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

WP:AN

Liz, your name is being floated around over at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Punitive block, can you help shed some light on the issue? - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 14:16, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply, it is helpful to get your input as you appear to have been involved. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 15:30, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, Knowledgekid87, I was told that my comments on AN weren't helpful so I'm staying out of the discussion. I just feel badly for the misunderstanding about my remark to Eric. I could have said the same thing more clearly and I hope that my clumsy wording wasn't the origin of this dispute. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 15:39, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

I feel they were helpful, you made one comment but that alone was enough to give your input on the matter. Hopefully it answered some questions people had. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 15:44, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

View counts

Totally fine, go for it. Thanks for asking. Those were the counts immediately after the close of the elections. Carrite (talk) 18:11, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Carrite! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:23, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Wikimedia Education Newsletter: December 2015

Updates, reports, news, and stories about how Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects are used in education around the world.

• Arab World: Arab World Education Program at WISE Doha 2015
• Argentina: Wikimedia Argentina, about the global and local in the digital and academic communities
• Argentina: The collaborative production in open educational environments: Is Wikipedia an answer?
• Armenia: Armenian students inspire their teachers to join Wikipedia
• Armenia: Wikipedia Education Program participants commemorated the creation/discovery of the Armenian alphabet in Beirut
• Bangladesh: Wikimedia Bangladesh's new secondary school education program aims to increase Bangla Wikipedia readers
• Bulgaria: First Wiki Education Workshop in Bulgaria
• Central and Eastern Europe: Education Program at Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2015 in Estonia
• Czech Republic: Collaboration with Masaryk University turns official
• Egypt: Online ambassador played a prominent role in helping Egyptian students to nominate their excellent content
• France: A portal for teachers and education institutions on the French Wikipedia
• Greece: Two Wikimedian adult educators and an adult student present paper on Wikimedia editing at CIE2015 in Greece
• Hong Kong: The very first Wikipedia Education Program of Wikimedia Hong Kong
• Israel: Wikipedia in Higher Education in Israel: A new for-credit elective course focusing on contributing to Wikipedia at Tel Aviv University
• Israel: Dozens of articles were created by dint of a structured teaching process that incorporates new training tools and involvement of scientists
• Mexico: Wiki expeditions, animation clips about alebrijes and more at the Tec de Monterrey in Mexico
• Norway: Norwegian Masters students in History and Archeology twists their brains on Wikipedia
• Serbia: What I Learned: Wiki Photo School in Serbia
• Serbia: Teachers in Serbia professionally trained to use Wikipedia in the classroom by Wikimedians
• Sweden: Science Outreach on Wikipedia has impact on the Education Program in Sweden
• Uruguay: Education students in Uruguay reflect on Wikipedia as a learning tool
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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:10, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

I received this message on my talk page

User talk:Narutolovehinata5#You're right, but. Given that you were the administrator that deleted the article in question, could you explain to the editor the situation and why the article couldn't stay on Wikipedia? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 00:26, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

Narutolovehinata5, I reviewed the article and it was clearly a work of fiction or, at least, a personal story. It was not encyclopedic material which I stated to the editor on your talk page. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:43, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

Uh-oh. It looks like the user is not happy with what you did, and is now leaving personal attacks on my user talk page. Now what? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 11:44, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

Narutolovehinata5, I've left a message on their talk page. If you wish to remove their comments from your talk page, that would be perfectly understandable. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 11:53, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

The user left me a new message at User talk:Narutolovehinata5#P.S. Looks like a case of WP:NOTHERE sadly. WP:NPA and WP:OWN in the same message. I've tried to assume good faith but I'm sad to say, despite our best efforts to explain the situation, it has become clear that the user appears to not be here to contribute. And by the way, it appears that the editor's article was written as part of a school assignment given to him by his teacher. Is there a way to explain to him and his teacher that the contributions were not in accordance with our policies and guidelines? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 10:41, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

I did explain to him how his content was unsuitable for Wikipedia but I placed it on one of his user pages. I will check his account later today but if he continues to bother you, I'd ask him to stay off your talk page. All you did was tag the page and he has received explanations on why this occurred. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:02, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #187

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Events/Blogs/Press
  • Past: Semantic Web Application and Tools 4 Life Science
    • notes
    • example queries
    • a few images
  • Ongoing: Wikidata for Beginners session at DISH 2015, Rotterdam, 8 December 2015
  • Upcoming: Wikidata pour la science
  • Upcoming: Workshop on "Wikidata as a platform for biocuration" at Biocuration 2016
  • Slides for talk "Building the sum of all human citations"
  • Op-ed in Signpost (Lydia is working on a piece to address some of the points)
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • Closing in towards 1 million links between Commons categories and Wikidata article-type items -- 8,000 more by next week?
  • Help labeling edits to improve the vandalism detection on Wikidata
  • Open Science Prize is looking for cool ideas for Open Data and health. How about something awesome with Wikidata?
  • The Individual Engagement Grant for StrepHit has been accepted
  • Are you between 13 and 17? Join us for Google Code-in and do some Wikidata tasks with Wikimedia
  • We want your feedback on how to improve the process of showcasing Wikidata's best content
  • I dreamed of a perfect database - Wikidata? ;-)
  • Histropedia timeline of National Library of Wales
  • Wikinews, Wikispecies and MediaWiki now have access to the data on Wikidata. Do awesome things with it, sisters! Meta will follow on 15th.
  • Map of narrative locations in Denmark
  • Experimental REST API for Wikidata
• Did you know?
  • Newest properties: deprecated in version, issued by, MediaWiki hooks used, superpartner of, has superpartner, natural abundance, Genius artist ID, ODIS ID, FAO risk status, conversion to SI base unit, Soccerway player ID, Sandbox-Property
  • Newest Database reports: WikiProject Movies/new films
  • Showcase items: Bertus Aafjes
• Development
  • Polished the patch that adds icons to the item pages (for actions like edit, remove etc) and makes them cleaner. This will go live later today.
  • Worked more on a separate section for identifiers
  • Started working on the sorting of statements on the ArticlePlaceholder pages
  • Made it possible to use unknown language, no linguistic content and more as languages for the monolingual text datatype
  • Experimented more with improvements to the ranking on Special:Search
  • Worked on showing more languages in the in other languages box than the ones defined in your babel boxes
  • Small improvements to recent changes/watchlist integration on Wikipedia and co
  • Worked on making it possible to create a redirect over a deleted item
  • Worked on PHP7 support
• Monthly Tasks
  • Hack on one of these.
  • Help develop the next summary here!
  • Contribute to a Showcase item
  • Help translate or proofread pages in your own language!
  • Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above.

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) 15:49, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

YGM

Hello, Liz. 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 at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

--Rubbish computer (HALP!: I dropped the bass?) 17:38, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Books and Bytes - Issue 14

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 14, October-November 2015
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs), Sadads (talk · contribs), Nikkimaria (talk · contribs)

• New donations - Gale, Brill, plus Finnish and Farsi resources
• Open Access Week recap, and DOIs, Wikipedia, and scholarly citations
• Spotlight: 1Lib1Ref - a citation drive for librarians

Read the full newsletter

The Interior, via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:13, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Recusal

Entirely between you and your conscience of course, but I am curious as to the reason if you feel like sharing.  pablo 22:12, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

No, it's no problem for me to talk about. WTT, who brought the case, was the primary nominator on my RfA and has supported me. Meanwhile, I've exchanged email messages with Kevin recently during this election period. So, I could be considered to have a conflict-of-interest for either party and two opposing COIs don't balance each other out. I believe I could be impartial in my clerking duties but today I checked in with the other clerks, who have no connection to the involved parties, and since they are ready to take over the case when it opens, it's wise to hand over the case to them. The philosophy among clerks is that it is better to be cautious than to have editors raise questions during a case. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:28, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, that makes sense.  pablo 22:44, 10 December 2015 (UTC)

Blocking

Hi there, I just want to clarify some things.

Firstly the edits I did to Great Western Railway (Train Operating Company) where not vandalism as ((user:Davey2010)) seems to keep going on about, it was changing one piece of incorrect information to make it concise with the rest of the information. But for some reason Davey2010 kept reverting it, saying it was link to a different section of the article, of which I never touched during the period he is on about.

I accept my bad behavior on Davey2010's profile but suggest for future reference that his behavior be watched too as I believe that I am the third user to suffer at the hands of his constant bullying, reverting of factual information, and using his moderator status to get his own way.

Thank you for listening.thanksbutnothanks 00:16, 12 December 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Devonexpressbus (talk • contribs)

Devonexpressbus, I didn't block you because of that article but because you were moving around user and user talk pages which was very disruptive. You were acting out and I hope in the future you will find a better way to work through your disagreements with other editors. Try Dispute resolution if you have a ongoing dispute over content. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:39, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

User talk:Liz is it possibly to block a moderator from commenting or having any contact with you, as I have tried a "WP:DF" with User: Davey2010 and it appears he just doesn't like me nor wants try to get on with me. If not please could I have my account renamed to stop this bullying.thanksbutnothanks 14:06, 12 December 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Devonexpressbus (talk • contribs)

Devonexpressbus, if you want Davey2010 to stop posting messages on your talk page (except for required notices), you can ask him to not post there.

If you are seeking an interaction ban (Iban), you can ask at WP:ANI but understand that these bans are rarely given because they usually don't solve the problem because the editors tend to monitor each other, looking for violations which actually increases interaction.

If you want to change your username and the name is available, go to Wikipedia:Changing username/Simple and request a name change. Alternatively, you could stop using your current account (completely) and create a new account but if you go to edit the same articles as you did before, the same problems may arise. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 15:01, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 09 December 2015

• News and notes: ArbCom election results announced

• Op-ed: Wikidata: Knowledge from different points of view

• In the media: Political editing in the context of the US presidential primaries

• Gallery: Wiki Loves Monuments 2015 winners

• Traffic report: So do you laugh, or does it cry?

• Featured content: Sports, ships, arts... and some other things

• Technology report: Tech news in brief

• Read this Signpost in full
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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:38, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Please undelete Mark Horstemeyer

I had objected to the deletion of this article; the article included an unmistakeable assertion of notability, and I had reduced it to a satisfactory stub without significant (if any) promotional content. If someone had added promotional content back after I was finished, that wouldn't justify deletion. The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo) (talk) 21:36, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

 Done. The tag was placed on the article before your edit was made to it. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:44, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

CSD U5

Hi Liz, could you please CSD U5 User:Tobi Awofeso, my speedy tag was removed. Thanks, JMHamo (talk) 22:50, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

 Done although there was a CSD tag on the page. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:56, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

....and it's been recreated... I have a feeling this will carry on :) JMHamo (talk) 22:58, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Editing

Could you edit the page 2010 in film in this way; see this:

Highest-grossing films of 2010

Rank	Title	Studio	Worldwide gross
1.	Toy Story 3	Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar	$1,063,171,911
2.	Alice in Wonderland	Walt Disney Pictures	$1,025,467,110
3.	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1	Warner Bros.	$960,283,305
4.	Inception	Warner Bros. / Legendary	$825,532,764
5.	Shrek Forever After	Paramount / DreamWorks	$752,600,867
6.	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	Summit Entertainment	$698,491,347
7.	Iron Man 2	Paramount / Marvel Studios	$623,933,331
8.	Tangled	Walt Disney Pictures	$591,794,936
9.	Despicable Me	Universal / Illumination	$543,113,985
10.	How to Train Your Dragon	Paramount / DreamWorks	$494,878,759

References

Did you understand what I am saying; I am asking to edit this page according to this way. I would ask you to edit pages 2011 in film and 2012 in film in this way.I cann not edit these three pages because these are semi-protected, but you can. User talk:2.86.255.196

BUreacrats

Hi Liz. You comment here gives me pause. It demonstrates (to me at least) that yu may not be paying attention at past and present discussions. Regards, Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 23:24, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

I don't know exactly how to respond to a sweeping statement like that. I was just quoting your words and those of Biblioworm. I can understand if you believe I took the words out of context but this is how I interpreted your statement (that an admin must be boring to pass an RfB).

After this summer, I don't expect you will like or approve of all of my statements or my conduct. I still respect you and the work you have done but I'm okay with your disapproval or the fact that I might occasionally "give you pause."

If you have a specific question you wanted a response to, let me know but right now I just see a judgment of me, not a query. So, I will get back to the editing business. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:43, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Liz, the latest crat chat was the one that resulted in giving you yourself admin tools. I don't know if Kudpung was thinking specifically of that, combined with your praise of crat chats as " pretty damn important and sharp as a tack", but I for my part thought the combination a little unfortunate. Bishonen | talk 00:01, 13 December 2015 (UTC).

Bishonen, well now the misgivings seem obvious. Since I've been reading some old, contentious RfAs from years ago (everyone has to have a hobby), I wasn't thinking of the crat chat on my own RfA but ones from years ago I've looked over. The last one I was looking at was Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Danny 2/Bureaucrat chat from 2007, earlier this week.

If this is what gave you pause, Kudpung, I apologize if I sounded self-serving. I'm going to go strike that remark since you have already responded to me there. Thanks for the "clue", Bish, I really thought Kudpung was referring to something else I said. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:10, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm sorry. It seems as if I have some explaining to do. We all agree that our 'crats are pretty sagacious people, but my allusion was more to this. My comment above was more of an observation than a criticism. We all want - and need - more 'crats and admins, and we may have to start looking for new crats among people who are not quite so effacé. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 01:48, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Please check your email

Hello, Liz. 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 at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Thanks Josu4u (talk) 00:03, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Josu4u, I've restored the article and moved it to user space in case you wanted to work on it...you can find it at User:Josu4u/Harikrishnan. I'll look into that other issue you mentioned and see if there is anything funny going on. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:51, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Highlander, etc.

[1] I'm rather flattered to have been taken for you. We do very different things here, but I have a great deal of respect for you, from what I've seen. Kafka Liz (talk) 00:45, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, right now, I don't aspire to write Featured Articles, I just try to be useful where I can be. I know that you have contributed to some great articles and I hope one day to do the same. I've had a writing block for a while now that has led me to focus on gnomish work but I admire those who do create and build wonderful articles. But I think that there are many jobs to do at Wikipedia and there is a role for everyone who wants to contribute. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:59, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, you do excellent work, from what I've seen. I'm no stranger to writing blocks, which is why I'm mostly a copy editor at this stage. I've read your comments here and elsewhere, and while we focus on different subjects, I like the way you think. Kafka Liz (talk) 01:07, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the compliment, Liz. My block started with my dissertation and I sometimes feel crazy to still be surrounded by all of these hundreds of books. I keep telling myself that one day I'll put them to use on Wikipedia. I can't bear to sell them off, they were such a big part of my life once. But books should be used and not just sit on a shelf! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:19, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Oh, I know the feeling. Writing a dissertation or even a Masters thesis....it can suck everything right out of you, in my experience. I'd never give up the books, though. Kafka Liz (talk) 06:37, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Deletion of "Annie Award for Best Animated Feature — Independent"

Hello, I'm contacting you about the deletion of the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature — Independent-page I created. The reason for the deletion seem to be that it duplicated an already existing Wikipedia article, which is not the case. If that would be true, why does every other category of the Annie Awards have their own pages? Shouldn't all of them be deleted as well? Please provide me with a better explanation then the one I've gotten so far. ReDead (talk) 09:56, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

I'll look into this today, ReDead. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 14:48, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

ReDead, you were correct about that there are articles for other categories of the Annie Awards so I have restored this article. Let me know if you have any questions. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 15:02, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

Removal of cats

Hi, why did you do this? --Redrose64 (talk) 13:34, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Because a) I didn't think redirects were necessarily assigned categories and b) the only article in Category:Ella Edmondson albums was this redirect. That was my thinking. If I was incorrect, please let me know (which I guess you are doing right now). Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 14:47, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

It wasn't the only page in Category:2009 albums though. Redirects are often categorised, principally when the article which they lead to would not be sensibly placed in those categories. That is to say, the article Ella Edmondson is not about an album but a singer, so it doesn't belong in either Category:Ella Edmondson albums nor in Category:2009 albums. It's covered at WP:INCOMPATIBLE. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:16, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, I appreciate you catching this, Redrose64. Thank you for informing me about my mistake. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 15:18, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #188

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Events/Blogs/Press
  • Wikidata: knowledge from different points of view (Signpost op-ed on knowledge diversity and our thinking on data quality)
  • The Wikimedia Foundation Scholarships Program is now accepting applications for Wikimania 2016 (deadline: 09 January 2016 23:59 UTC)
  • Wikidata: A platform for data integration and dissemination for the life sciences and beyond received the prize for best paper at SWAT4LS. Congrats!
  • Past: 50 hours of Wikidata and Wikipedia editing at Museo Soumaya
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • Over 16.000 people have contributed to Wikidata over the last month.
  • Wikidata Analyst, a tool to help comprehensively analyze the quality of Wikidata (announcement)
  • Overview of the current state of Sum of all Paintings and how you can help by Multichill
  • query.wikidata.org now more prominently shows example queries in case you missed them before, lets you filter and gives you a preview for them. Additionally you can click a little magnifying glass next to an item ID in a query result and explore it further.
  • WikiJourney now has a first release on the Play Store
• Did you know?
  • Newest properties: JMDb film identifier, British Council artist ID, MLSSoccer.com ID, YouTube channel ID, image of function, MGI gene symbol, NCBI Locus tag, teaching method, OKPO ID, Ballotpedia ID, organisation directed from the office, office held by head of the organisation, Elonet actor ID, diameter, French diocesan architects ID, statement describes, CTHS person ID, Chemins de mémoire ID, Academic Tree ID, French Sculpture Census ID, deprecated in version, issued by
  • Query example: Which "Lincoln" was "Lincoln" named for?, places by elevation span, people who died in 1945 (for upcoming 2016 public domain day)
  • Newest Database reports: List of films without article in Wikipedia of the same language
• Development
  • Working on sorting of statement groups for the ArticlePlaceholder extension
  • Further work on a separate section for identifiers
  • Worked on properly linking identifiers in the exports
  • Removed a number of lines and boxes in the statement section to make it less busy
  • Made it possible to create a redirect over a deleted item without having to undelete it first
  • Further work on improving ranking on Special:Search
  • Making it possible to show and edit more languages for labels/descriptions/aliases than the ones defined in your babel boxes
  • Getting ready for the holidays :)
• Monthly Tasks
  • Hack on one of these.
  • Help develop the next summary here!
  • Contribute to a Showcase item
  • Help translate or proofread pages in your own language!
  • Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above.

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) 14:30, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

Hello!

Hey! I came across your page and wanted to say hi!!

Also, im from Jersey too. turnpike exit 8. So let me ask you? What exit? cheers to editing!Winterysteppe (talk) 21:45, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm curious how you came across my user page! Have we crossed paths before? To answer your question, I've never lived near the NJ Turnpike but I guess the closest exit would be 14. Although it is not very active, you might check out Wikipedia:WikiProject New Jersey...there are quite a few editors who write about New Jersey. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:01, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for coming to my defense

Thank you for coming to my defense regarding the hostile editor operating under the dual accounts, ABriefPassing/ALongStay. I had wanted to celebrate the DYY event for the garage rock article, but instead had to deal with this unfortunate situation. I hope that there is a way we can keep this dual-account editor under permanent block so he cannot cause more trouble. Thank you once again. Garagepunk66 (talk) 00:27, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

It was no problem at all, Garagepunk66. It was easy to see that his actions against you were a complete surprise. I'm glad you felt comfortable approaching a few admins for help. In case he reappears, just remember that he has no ability to get your articles deleted and he should not be telling you what you need to do to measure up to his personal standards. That bravado, when coming from a brand new user, is usually the sign of a troll. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:33, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

I want to thank you again and again for your kindness. It is comforting to know that there are good people like you to protect those who are trying to do honest work in a friendly and welcoming environment. Garagepunk66 (talk) 00:46, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Garagepunk66, I should let you know that the blocked editor has filed an unblock request and pinged me to look at it. I declined to review his request and recommended that a different admin consider whether or not he should be unblocked. In case he is unblocked, if he doesn't abide by his claims of wanting to turn over a new leaf, you know there are people you can come to. Hopefully, he will find another part of Wikipedia to work in. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:52, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Garagepunk66 (talk) 00:55, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Category:Festivals in Europe by name

FYI: Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2015_December_15#Category:Festivals_by_name Andy Dingley (talk) 14:41, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. Although I didn't create this category, I have done some work with the festival categories. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 14:48, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

I was thinking of of your CSD for one of the children. Andy Dingley (talk) 16:07, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Hosahalli Ramaswamy

Hi, I didn't tag this for A7 because there's a credible claim for notability (although I looked into some, and I think that should go to AfD if maintained because some of those claims don't pan out: for example, he is not "the editor" of the Journal of Food Engineering). Instead, I had tagged it for G11, so a credible claim of notability is not a valid reason to reject CSD... Just being pedantic here... :-) Happy editing! --Randykitty (talk) 15:57, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, it didn't seem like spam/advertising to me. But take it to AfD where it can be more carefully considered. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 16:03, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Comment order

I have taken up a discussion with Cebr1979 about their way of interspersing talk page comments on his talk page, and since you were involved and I mentioned you there, I thought you may be interested in having a look or a say. LjL (talk) 21:08, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Ya... and when she has her "look or say," she'll see she's already been pinged to the conversation twice. In fact, she has already seen the conversation because... wait for it... wait for it... she's already been pinged to the conversation twice. This message (which you pinged me to) here on her talk page is useless, redundant, and a complete of waste of everyone's time.Cebr1979 (talk) 21:12, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

I already made my opinion known when I placed the comments in the correct order, LjL. Seeing the antagonistic way Cebr1979 treats other editors, I have no desire to post on their talk page. Reading over their recent contributions, I doubt that they care at all about what other editors think of their conduct. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:15, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

No. The {{ping}} template serves to ping, while merely mentioning a username doesn't do that unless one has a special option enabled in the preferences (check under "Notifications"). You should calm down. Your tone in basically calling me / us little children who "want to have their post on top" was honestly annoying, as well. LjL (talk) 21:17, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Er, LjL, it is you that is wrong - notifying somebody does not require use of any templates: there are none in this post, and yet it will have notified you. The essential ingredients are a link (however constructed) to a user page, and a new signature. --Redrose64 (talk) 08:28, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Uhm, my mistake then (although I still see no need for the tone). But then why do we have {{ping}}? LjL (talk) 14:29, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

LjL, I think Redrose64 was referring to [[User:LjL|LjL]] as a link to a user page. This can alert you to a message on a talk page along with using {{ping}}. The effect of either is the same but the look is different as you can see by LjL vs. @LjL:. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 16:02, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Using {{ping|LjL}} is exactly the same as using {{reply to|LjL}} and is functionally identical to <span class="template-ping">@[[:User:LjL|LjL]]:</span>. That <span class="template-ping"></span> does nothing special, so this leaves @[[:User:LjL|LjL]]:. Of that, the @ sign and third colon are merely decoration, and the first colon is superfluous, which leaves [[User:LjL|LjL]] - which is a normal, everyday piped link, and exactly what I used in my post of 08:28, 16 December 2015. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:51, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Edit Quest!

	Edit Quest!
	Titusfox has requested that you join them for an afternoon of questing, slaying and looting at Edit Quest, the Wikipedia Based RPG! I Hope to see you there! TF { Contribs } { Edit Quest! } 13:56, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with RPGs, titusfox, but I appreciate the invitation and will look into this. Thank you. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 15:58, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Luckily it's not too much like an RPG and more like reverting vandalism on Wikipedia. But it's still fun! TF ^{{ Contribs } { Edit Quest! }} 16:00, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Just as an FYI, I've set you up on the page under a comment along with User:tokyogirl79. All you have to do now is choose a class and start (or Keep) fighting vandalism. Remember, all reverts must be shown as diffs on the page or they won't count as damage! ;) TF ^{{ Contribs } { Edit Quest! }} 19:59, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

I still haven't even looked at this! I can't commit to "playing" when I don't know what this is. I'm going to be traveling over the next few days but eventually I'll get to looking it over. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:16, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Still Not Looked at it? Also I think the protection on your talk page is broken because it says it expires on the 16th or is it indefinite? TF ^{{ Contribs } { Edit Quest! }} 12:16, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) @Titusfox: It's not broken. The prot log entry says "Edit=Allow only autoconfirmed users] (indefinite) [Move=Allow only autoconfirmed users] (expires 12:20, 16 December 2015" so the edit-protection is indefinite, and there is no move protection, because that expired at 12:20, 16 December 2015. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:27, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

OK! :P TF ^{{ Contribs } { Edit Quest! }} 16:31, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Dear Liz,

We are writing to let you know about the 3rd annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, taking place over the weekend of March 4-6, 2016. Last year, over 1500 participants at more than 75 events around the world participated in the second annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, resulting in the creation of nearly 400 new pages and significant improvements to 500 articles on Wikipedia. Active editors like you were key catalysts for actualizing edit-a-thons; we though perhaps you would like to participate in the 2016 event? The central New York event takes place at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Education and Research Building at The Museum of Modern Art on Saturday, March 5, 2016. If you would like to learn more, you can reach us at: info@art.plusfeminism.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

All best wishes,

@Siankevans, Failedprojects, and Theredproject:

Thanks for the invitation, @Siankevans, Failedprojects, and Theredproject:. I appreciate you giving substantial advance notice as sometimes I only hear about these events the day before or even after they have occurred. I'll see if I can participate as we get closer to the event. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 16:13, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Wonderful to hear. Happy holidays!

@Siankevans, Failedprojects, and Theredproject:

Falk Preussner Page Deleted

Hello. I noticed that the page I created "Falk Preussner" was deleted on November 21st after being live for 4 months. Would you be so kind as to explain why this happened? Please provide suggestions as to how to proceed with making this page live. Thank you. Kriziadlp (talk) 21:02, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Actually, Kriziadlp, Falk Preussner has been moved to Draft space twice and deleted four times. The latest deletion was on the grounds of CSD A7 which is Article about an eligible subject, which does not credibly indicate the importance or significance of the subject. If you wish the article to be moved, once again, to Draft space, let me know. But given the fact it's been deleted so often, the article would have to be substantially improved...a future deletion will likely get the page "salted" which means that no editor would be able to create an article on this subject (at all). Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:10, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi, Liz. Thank you for the prompt response. If you would be so kind as to move the article to Draft Space for us to revisit first thing tomorrow, that would be much appreciated. How long do I have to substantially improve the article before it is marked for deletion? I would hate for the article to be salted. Kriziadlp (talk) 22:18, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Actually, Kriziadlp, I should have checked. Draft:Falk Preussner already exists but is due to be deleted because of copyright issues. I would take a look at the draft right away and remove any content that has been taken from elsewhere. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:26, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi again. I went ahead and made significant edits to the article. Is there a way for you to advise me on the status of revision? Kriziadlp (talk) 22:42, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, this report shows you areas of concern which look as if these sections have been copied from Presseneur's website. As for getting the article into shape to move the article from Draft space to Main space, I'd submit it to the Articles for Creation team where an experienced editor will review it. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:46, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Non-admin closure

Thanks for your advice at the teahouse about reverting a non-admin closure. The discussion I was referring to is here. I found it very offensive so I posted my concern to ANI. It was closed in 29 minutes. I think the fact that no one on the board has re-opened it speaks volumes, so I may just leave it. But if I wanted to, is all I have to do is just revert the closers edit? Thank you again. Magnolia677 (talk) 23:05, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Okay, Magnolia677, here is my take on it. I would not have closed the complaint so soon...I would have waited to see more responses from editors. But Beyond My Ken is an editor who is very experienced on ANI and I think he offered you some advice you should consider. The remark was a comment made on a user talk page to a specific person (who wasn't you) that was followed by a smiley face. I believe Kudpung was being sarcastic, not descriptive. And I don't think you could argue that it was uncivil or a personal attack because it was a criticism of a noticeboard, not an individual.

I also don't think it qualifies as WP:ADMINABUSE which is reserved for more serious abuses of authority and tools against editors. You went to discuss the matter at his talk page, which was the correct response, and I can see that you were unsatisfied by his response to you. In this case, I would not revert BMK because I respect his judgment. If it had been a different editor, like an editor who was relatively new and inexperienced or showed an overeagerness to close complaints, I would revert with no reservations.

My advice would be to leave it alone. You have voiced your discontent, both at ANI and on Kudpung's talk page. You have made your opinion known. But even if the complaint had been left open three or four days, there would have been no action taken against Kudpung for a remark like this. So, I'm guessing that BMK saw that action would not be taken and closed the complaint early because cases on ANI can sometimes spiral out of control. It could have resulted in an editor suggesting a WP:BOOMERANG for you. Although I don't think you would face a sanction for making the complaint, it is always a possibility if editors believe it is frivolous. There is always a danger when one takes a complaint to ANI because the editor posting the case will find their own behavior examined. It might not be fair, but I've seen it happen. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:22, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for invite.

I very thank you for invite, to you're forum.

I have one question: How to make such a design as to you so different? You can give the link? Thank you :) Lukaslt13 (talk) 10:45, 17 December 2015 (UTC)Lukaslt13Lukaslt13 (talk) 10:45, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

Puodelis kavos jums!

Thank you for invite ! Lukaslt13 (talk) 10:46, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

Suggestion

Hi more time ! I wanted suggest you're in their activities. That is to say If I bad edit article, that you change, or I? What do you think, well, here's my opinion? Merely Wikipedia welfare.-- Lukaslt13 —Preceding undated comment added 16:12, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

Copyedit for the ArbCom Report

Hey Liz. Are you available to do a copyedit on the upcoming report before its out? GamerPro64 01:08, 18 December 2015 (UTC)

San Bernardino reverts

Hi Liz. Do I recall correctly that you and DHeyward are on opposite sides of GamerGate or GenderGap or some other subject area? If so, I think it's bad form that your only substantive content-related edits to the San Bernardino article (aside from reverting some vandalism) are to revert DHeyward, with no real explanation and no talk page discussion, on an article you know has a 1RR limit. Looks like games playing, even if it isn't. Do I need to drop one of those WP:GS/ISIL notices here, or are you already aware of it? --Floquenbeam (talk) 02:50, 18 December 2015 (UTC)

The edit summary "Better version, more neutral" seems like an explanation to me. It might be game playing but another explanation would be that Liz thought it improved the article. HighInBC 21:04, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

Floquenbeam, I edited that article before DH did and protected it from vandalism. Once I saw there were plenty of editors working on it, I backed off. I thought the 2 of his 44 edits, happening two weeks apart, were inferior to the content he removed. I was not the only editor who reverted one of DH's edits. No, I did not participate in the talk pages of this article (or its 4 archived talk pages) because I don't have the desire to go step-by-step through this heated dispute. My revert was about the removal of one source with another which I didn't think was superior and I didn't think this was controversial. Since my edit has somehow gotten me involved in a WP:ANEW complaint, I am now aware of WP:GS/ISIL although I'd argue that this article shouldn't be covered by an ISIL GS but that is a matter that seems to be decided.

If you are suggesting an IBan, may I ask that it be mutual as DH has reverted my edits as well. But we mainly don't run into each other much any more as I don't do much editing in areas of American politics, shootings and terrorism which seem to be his areas of interest.Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:20, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

I completely agree that it's kind of dumb to apply the ISIL GS to this article, but as you say, that appears to be water under the bridge. If everyone else has to follow it, you should too. I'm not suggesting an I-Ban. But at least recognize that when the only two content-related edits you've made to a very busy article over more than a week are 2 reverts of the same person, someone you've previously been in conflict with in a different topic area, and you didn't touch any other edits by any other editor, it is obvious that you're doing this to continue a conflict. About 50% of the editors on that page are probably doing the same thing - this is a fundamental defect of our operating model - but I would have expected better from you. --Floquenbeam (talk) 20:41, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

First, I stand by my reversions, I thought the previous versions were better. Secondly, this was an editing decision, not an admin one. Third, I didn't know you had any expectations about me! You've never posted to my talk page before this, you didn't express an opinion about my adminship and our prior interaction before this was a question I had about Soixante Nerf back in March 2014 which didn't go so well. I'm used to slights on Wikipedia, like people discussing me or referring to me without naming me (much less pinging me), so the fact that you had anything other than run-of-the-mill expectations of me is a surprise. I hope you will speak up for me the next time I get reverted. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:06, 20 December 2015 (UTC)

Liz, you didn't really address my main point. If you want to argue about the phrase "expected better", we can, I guess (though I doubt it would be productive or enlightening). Or we can talk about why you brought up your being an admin (I didn't mention it). Or why you think I owe it to you to defend you from being reverted. But first, could you at least address my main point? Quoting: "the only two content-related edits you've made to a very busy article over more than a week are 2 reverts of the same person, someone you've previously been in conflict with in a different topic area, and you didn't touch any other edits by any other editor." Do you understand my concern? If you don't want to discuss it further, then ignore me and I'll drop it. But if you want me to address your concerns, then please answer mine first. --Floquenbeam (talk) 22:25, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

You don't owe me anything Floquenbeam. I have reverted edits where I thought the previous version was better and I'VE been reverted when I thought it was "games playing" behavior. I don't know what I can say beyond I can see your concern but in tens of thousands of edits, I have no doubt reverted editors I have not been in disputes with as well as editors I have been in disputes with as I imagine you have and all other editors have. I know that DHeyward has reverted me repeatedly and I never raised any voice of complaint. I've been reverted by people who dislike me and I didn't take it personally. I was editing the San Bernardino article before he was so it was on my Watchlist. Since you are concerned, I will take it off my Watchlist. These were 2 edits out of 57,000+ edits I've made which have mostly gone unchallenged. If this doesn't answer your concern, I'm not sure what else I can say to you that you would find a satisfying response. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:57, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

I only saw HighInBC's comment after I posted my own. And he basically sums up my thinking at the time. You are welcome to look at the edits and see whether DH's version or the earlier version that was replaced was a more accurate, neutral version of that paragraph. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:24, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 16 December 2015

• In focus: Drone photography: New possibilities and new challenges

• In the media: Wales in China; #Edit2015

• Arbitration report: GMO case decided

• Featured content: An unusually slow week

• WikiProject report: Women in Red—using teamwork and partnerships to elevate online and offline collaborations

• Traffic report: A feast of Spam

• Gallery: WikiConference USA 2015: images, slide decks, and videos

• Read this Signpost in full
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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:57, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

Holiday Cheer

	Seasons Greetings
	Christmas! Christmas, everywhere, on every talk page, I do dispair Seasons being greeted and Wikibreaks told, but still time for a little more editing, for being WP:BOLD! So go on, go forth and enjoy beyond concern Your Wiki will be waiting for when you return. Have a great Holiday Season. Buster Seven Talk 18:37, 21 December 2015 (UTC) This card designed by User:Samtar.

Thanks for the holiday greeting Buster7! It's appreciated. Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:46, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #189

Wikidata weekly summary #186

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Discussions
  • Successful request for adminship: Eurodyne
• Events/Blogs/Press
  • World Health Summit yearbook for 2015
  • You can apply for a scholarship to attend Wikimania 2016 (deadline: January 9th)
  • Talk submissions for Wikimania 2016 are open. We'd love to see many Wikidata-related submissions. If you need help with your submission contact Lydia.
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • Google has launched the Knowledge Graph Search API, replacing the deprecated Freebase API
  • Meta now has access to the data on Wikidata as well
  • Want to get an overview of the classes and properties on Wikidata? The Miga class and property browser was updated.
  • WikiBrowser - semantically browse Wikipedia with the help of Wikidata
  • WikiFamou.us lets you compare topics by popularity across languages with the help of Wikidata
  • Chronas is a history project linking Wikipedia and Wikidata with a chronological and cartographical view
  • Visiting some place for the holidays? Check out the items nearby.
• Did you know?
  • Newest properties: Fashion Model Directory magazine ID, Fashion Model Directory designer ID, Artsy gene, WikiPathways ID, NII Article ID, set in period, short-term exposure limit, maximum peak exposure limit, ceiling exposure limit, time-weighted average exposure limit, Total assets, total expenditure, Six Degrees of Francis Bacon ID
  • Query example: works created by females who died in 1945
• Development
  • <3 Thanks for being awesome. Enjoy the holidays :)
  • We will take the "in other projects"-sidebar out of beta features in January (phabricator:T103102)
  • Making ranking information like label and statement counts available to the CirrusSearch index in order to improve ranking in search results (phabricator:T110648)
  • Continued work on the identifier data type for identifiers like VIAF and ISBN so we can easily put them into a separate section in the items and properly link them in the exports (phabricator:T95682, phabricator:T121274)
  • Continued work on making external identifiers clickable links without the help of the authority control gadget (phabricator:T95684)
  • Fixed a mistake in the set reference API documentation (gerrit:259171)
  • More work on cleaning up the statement section (phabricator:T121390)
• Monthly Tasks
  • Hack on one of these.
  • Help develop the next summary here!
  • Contribute to a Showcase item
  • Help translate or proofread pages in your own language!
  • Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above.

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) 21:59, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Merry Christmas, Liz

And may your holidays be merry and bright . . . . Cheers. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 06:04, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, Dirtlawyer1. Your good wishes are appreciated. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 06:41, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

WikiCup 2016 is just around the corner...

Hello everyone, and we would like to wish you all a happy holiday season. As you will probably already know, the 2016 WikiCup begins in the new year; there is still time to sign up. There are some changes we'd like to announce before the competition begins.

After two years of serving as WikiCup judge, User:Miyagawa has stepped down as judge. He deserves great thanks and recognition for his dedication and hard work, and for providing necessary transition for a new group of judges in last year's Cup. Joining Christine (User:Figureskatingfan) and Jason (User:Sturmvogel 66) is Andrew (User:Godot13), a very successful WikiCup competitor and expert in Featured Pictures; he won the two previous competitions. This is a strong judging team, and we anticipate lots of enjoyment and good work coming from our 2016 competitors.

We would also like to announce one change in how this year's WikiCup will be run. In the spirit of sportsmanship, Godot13 and Cwmhiraeth have chosen to limit their participation. See here for the announcement and a complete explanation of why. They and the judges feel that it will make for a more exciting, enjoyable, and productive competition.

The discussions/polls concerning the next competition's rules will be closed soon, and rules changes will be made clear on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Scoring and talk pages. The judges are committed to not repeating the confusion that occurred last year and to ensuring that the new rules are both fair and in the best interests of the competition, which is, first and foremost, about improving Wikipedia.

If you have any questions or concerns, the judges can be reached on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, on their talk pages, or by email. We hope you will all join us in trying to make the 2015 WikiCup the most productive and enjoyable yet. You are receiving this message because you are listed on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Figureskatingfan (talk), and Godot13 (talk).--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:47, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

A favour?

I am being dragged screaming and yelling into the murky world of wiki-deletions-discussion, LOL. Anyway, I wonder if I can ask you what is the proper process for deleting empty categories, since I know you do this. Is there a category specific venue, or are the nominated categories simply being listed at CSD (where?)? Are notifications recommended? See old exchange with user:risker as some background. I would appreciate a response on my own talk page. Thanks in advance, Ottawahitech (talk) 20:55, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Category:2016 television seasons

I was tempted to do this back in July when the category was created - for some reason these cats are always created long before they're required - but with only 8 days left in the year and around 2 weeks before the cat starts being populated, it's a bit late to request deletion. --AussieLegend (✉) 02:31, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

AussieLegend, it was on a database list of empty categories. I checked and it was empty so I tagged it. All those TV-focused editors need to do is to assign one article to this category and then it will no longer be empty and would not be eligible for CSD C1. We don't create empty categories for future events, we create categories to serve a current need for organization. I understand what you are saying but I tag the categories.

Often when I'm creating new categories, I find that there was a previous existing category that was deleted because it was empty. Now that it does have some pages or subcategories, I can easily restored it. So, two points: First, editors want a category to exist, they should fill it and two, if an category is deleted for being empty and there is a future need, it is easy to restore it. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 06:40, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

User talk:Jim Carter#ArbCom clerk

You are invited to join the discussion at User talk:Jim Carter#ArbCom clerk. Thanks. CatcherStorm ^talk 11:20, 23 December 2015 (UTC)Template:Z48

It's that time...

Christmas tree worm, (Spirobranchus gigantic)
	Time To Spread Some Happy Holiday Cheer!!
	I decorated a special kind of Christmas tree in the spirit of the season. What's especially nice about the digitized version is that it doesn't need water, and it won't catch fire.
	Wishing you a joyous holiday season... ...and a prosperous New Year!! 🍸🎁 🎉
	Atsme📞📧 16:27, 23 December 2015 (UTC)	Pure pun-ishment. [2]

Thank you, Atsme, I hope you had a great holiday! Happy New Year to you! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:46, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Saturday January 16: Wikipedia Day NYC Celebration and Mini-Conference

Saturday January 16: Wikipedia Day NYC 2016

You are invited to join us at New York University for Wikipedia Day NYC 2016, a Wikipedia celebration and mini-conference as part of Wikipedia 15, the project's global 15th birthday festivities. In addition to the party, the event will be a participatory unconference, with plenary panels, lightning talks, and of course open space sessions. We also hope for the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects. Saturday January 16 Wikipedia Day NYC 2016 (RSVP on-wiki or at bit.ly/wikiday15). 10:00am - 7:00 pm at NYU ITP Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway (between Waverly and Washington Place) We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 17:56, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

78.26's RFA Appreciation award

	The 78.26 RFA Appreciation award
	Thank you for the participation and support at my RFA. It is truly appreciated. I hope to be of further help around here, and if you see me doing something dumb, you know where to find me. Again, I thank you. 78.26 (spin me / revolutions) 23:48, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, 78.26! And because I haven't said so yet, congratulations! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:31, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom clerk

I ask that I be considered to apply to be an Arbitration Committee clerk. CatcherStorm ^talk 01:21, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

CatcherStorm, please either send an email message with your request to our email list <clerks-l@lists.wikimedia.org> or post a message at Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Clerks. I should say that new trainee clerks are recruited usually twice a year and we currently have 5 trainee clerks. We probably won't be taking on more clerks until later into 2016 but it never hurts to let the clerks team know of your interest. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:27, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Happy Holidays, Liz

And may your holidays be merry and bright . . . . Cheers. --DHeyward (talk) 04:18, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, DHeyward. I hope you are having a pleasant holiday. I actually remember seeing this duet when I was younger when it aired on TV, not knowing how it was surreal as it was because I wasn't familiar with David Bowie. Still a classic video clip, thanking you for sharing it. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:23, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

And now a sad ending but a classic for the ages. [3]. I didn't know he had cancer. --DHeyward (talk) 07:59, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Wasim Akhtar (Singer)

Your temporary salt of this article has expired and the article is back and up for speedy a fifth time. Meters (talk) 06:59, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, I'm surprised I didn't indefinitely salt this article and only protected it for two weeks. It appears that SuperMarioMan deleted the article for the fifth time and indefinitely blocked recreation. I'm sorry I wasn't around to deal with this when the problem arose but I was spending time with my family. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:51, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

J Hutton Pulitzer

Thanks. See my comments at Talk:Oak Island and an old WO thread.[4]. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Doug Weller (talk • contribs) 10:25, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Did you mean to post this on another editor's talk page, Doug Weller? I don't know of a connection I have to Oak Island or that WO thread. It was interesting to look at the history of that article and see that an IP editor originally removed the fraudulent claim but was reverted by an established editor who put it back in! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:43, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

You deleted Jovan Hutton Pulitzer. Tricky one as I expect it will be recreatead and he's litigious as well as very good at publicity, eg[5] - he gets a lot of social media. Doug Weller talk 13:48, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for filling me in, Doug. I didn't get the connection. Have a good new year. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:18, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

You too. Doug Weller talk 21:43, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Season's Greetings

	Wishing you a Charlie Brown Charlie Russell Christmas! 🎄
	Best wishes for your Christmas Is all you get from me 'Cause I ain't no Santa Claus Don't own no Christmas tree. But if wishes was health and money I'd fill your buck-skin poke Your doctor would go hungry An' you never would be broke." —C.M. Russell, Christmas greeting 1914. Montanabw(talk)

Montanabw! That's a unique Christmas message! I'm on the West Coast now and am appreciating the wide open spaces (although this is not exactly the country!). I hope you had a great holiday with friends and family. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:15, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Season's greets!

Iryna Harpy (talk) is wishing you a Merry Christmas! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Happy New Year!

Spread the cheer by adding {{subst:Xmas6}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Congrats on the twins, Liz! ↓ an', an', an' GAB's a copycat from Ballarat, 'cos I had dibs on this template. (Umma, I told a big fib!) --Iryna Harpy (talk) 02:53, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the good wishes, Iryna Harpy! I don't think a person can get too many good wishes! I hope you are having a restful holiday. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:12, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Season's greetings

GAB^Hello! is wishing you a Merry Christmas! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Happy New Year!

Spread the cheer by adding {{subst:Xmas6}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Wishing you a peaceful, happy Christmas and good luck in 2016,

GAB^Hello! 01:19, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you very much, GAB, I hope you are having a pleasant holiday! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:10, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Masood Ahmad

Hello Liz. I am a bit puzzled why you deleted Masood Ahmad as the AfD has only been open for three hours. If there was an applicable CSD criteria, could you please note that? Thanks, Altamel (talk) 23:33, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Well, Altamel, it was tagged CSD G7 and I was just working through the G7 category which is what happens when you are clearing up CSD categories. I didn't notice that there was an open AfD or I wouldn't have deleted it, I prefer AfDs to run their course and I have removed speedy tags from articles that were in the midst of an AfD or RfD, etc. I don't know how to "note" that it was tagged CSD G7 without restoring the article and deleting it a fourth time which I think is unnecessary. I didn't see any content in the article that led me to believe it would be a viable article in the future. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 05:17, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

Hmm. Well, in the deletion log you actually did add a link to the AfD, so I had assumed that you did see it. I'm not an admin but I've heard that sometimes automated scripts are used to fill in the deletion log entries, perhaps that is why the log mentions the AfD even though you never saw it? I'll add a note to the AfD closure stating you deleted it under G7, since nothing in the deletion log indicates this currently. Altamel (talk) 05:46, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

It's not necessarily a script: in the deletion notice there will have been some links, and one of those will both delete the page and fill in the reason. Speedy deletion boxes usually have some small italic text like this:

Administrators: check links, history (last), and logs before deletion.

That "before deletion" link is the one that I always use when speedy deleting, and this particular one would have set the deletion log entry to "G7: One author who has requested deletion or blanked the page – If you wish to retrieve it, please see WP:REFUND". --Redrose64 (talk) 11:54, 27 December 2015 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #190

Wikidata weekly summary #186

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Events/Blogs/Press
  • Ongoing: 32C3
  • Upcoming: Wikimedia Developer Summit
  • Upcoming: StrepHit IEG project kick-off seminar
  • Upcoming: Office hour on IRC
  • Upcoming: FOSDEM (Lucie will give a talk about the ArticlePlaceholder extension)
  • Registration and scholarship applications for the Wikimedia Hackathon in Israel are open
  • Don't forget your talk submissions for Wikimania 2016. Lydia can help if needed.
  • Getting CAS registry numbers out of WikiData
  • The quality of SMILES strings in Wikidata
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • Paper: Wikidata: A platform for data integration and dissemination for the life sciences and beyond
  • The Wikidata for Research proposal has now been published in a journal
  • New tool to turn string claims to monolingual claims
  • Johl built a card game about German politicians using Wikidata
• Did you know?
  • Newest properties: number of awards, Prosopographia Attica, Structurae person ID, stage classification, sports disciplines competed in, personal best, substrate of
• Development
  • Some small bugfixes and tweaks.
  • Enjoying the holidays and editing on Wikidata. Hope you are too :)
• Monthly Tasks
  • Hack on one of these.
  • Help develop the next summary here!
  • Contribute to a Showcase item
  • Help translate or proofread pages in your own language!
  • Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above.

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) 14:07, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Could you perhaps delete this category I made?

Hello Liz, hope you had a Merry Christmas :-) I was wondering, could you please delete this category I made some time ago? I'm in a big re-categorization progress and I simply realized its undoable adding that category to everyone of mixed Iranian and Greek descent as otherwise I'd have to add it to half of all biographical articles regarding the entire antiquity. Heh. So yeah I'll just simply separately category them in the future which is easier. However, this cat still needs to be deleted, and I really don't have the time nor the mood to go through that whole afd process, so I wondered whether you could just quickly delete it for me?

Bests - LouisAragon (talk) 05:55, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

 Done although I realized afterwards that I should have handled this as a CFD speedy deletion request instead of an ordinary user-request deletion. I'm out of CFD practice. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:06, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 December 2015

• News and notes: WMF Board dismisses community-elected trustee

• Arbitration report: Second Arbitration Enforcement case concludes as another case is suspended

• Featured content: The post-Christmas edition

• Traffic report: The Force we expected

• Year in review: The top ten Wikipedia stories of 2015

• In the media: Wikipedia plagued by a "Basket of Deception"

• Gallery: It's that time of year again

• Read this Signpost in full
• Single-page
• Unsubscribe
• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:34, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

Rev-del request

Liz, can you rev-del this: [6]? It's an unsourced comment about a BLP's sexuality. Thanks. 21:05, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

 Done — Ched :  ?  21:10, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Ched. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 22:22, 30 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for handling this Ched. I'm staying at a place with a crappy wifi network and I'm only online now because I took over the family's home computer! It'll be nice when I'm back home with my always-on wifi connection. I guess I took it for granted. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 05:10, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Happy New Year Liz!

Happy New Year!

Liz,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. Poepkop (talk) 14:06, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year 2016}} to user talk pages.

.

Thank you very much, Poepkop! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:06, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year, Liz!

Happy New Year!

Liz,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. Rubbish computer (Merry Christmas!: ...And a Happy New Year!) 23:25, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

Thank you, Rubbish computer! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:08, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy UTC-New-Year!!! Wbm1058 (talk) 00:00, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

And you as well, Wbm1058! I hope that 2016 brings you health and happiness! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:08, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

You're welcome, cheers. Rubbish computer (Merry Christmas!: ...And a Happy New Year!) 22:29, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year, Liz!

Happy New Year!

Liz,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 00:22, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Happy New Year 2016}} to send this message

By the way, did you know that this edit was the last edit made in 2015, and this is the first edit of 2016? (Times in UTC, of course). —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 00:22, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

No, I did NOT know that! I wonder how you can be sure...I hope it didn't take a lot of time to track down that information, K6ka. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:09, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

It's quite simple, really. All I had to do was "hack the URL"; go through the revision IDs of recent edits until I found the last edit of 2015. Add 1 to the ID number, and there you have it! —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 22:12, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Heh, heh. Special:Permalink/697661396, the last edit of 2015. Special:Permalink/697661397, the first of 2016. Cyber's bot was the first of course. Special:Permalink/697661487, my edit, was only the 91st edit of the first minute of the new year. What can I say, I'm not a bot. That's edit number 697,661,487 since they started counting. Wonder if there will be a celebration for the 700 millionth edit. You can keep track by watching the "magic word" {{NUMBEROFEDITS}}: We're up to 1,219,223,699! Oh well, I missed the celebration. I don't know how we can have over 100 million edits than the counter is at, maybe it has something to do with deleted edits. Wbm1058 (talk) 22:56, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year, Liz!

Happy New Year!

Liz,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. Ratatosk Jones (talk) 01:27, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

Best of luck in your admin work for the coming year; you've already done great these past months. Ratatosk Jones (talk) 01:27, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the good wishes and the vote of confidence, Ratatosk Jones. It's been a bumpy ride but not quite the supernova my detractors expected. ;-) Have a wonderful 2016! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:11, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year

	Happy New Year!
	Hello Liz: Did you know ... that back in 1885, Wikipedia editors wrote Good Articles with axes, hammers and chisels? Thank you for your contributions to this encyclopedia using 21st century technology. I hope you don't get any unnecessary blisters. North America1000 03:44, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Happy New Year elves}} to send this message

It makes my problem of on-and-off wifi networks seem like no big deal! ;-) Have a great new year, North America! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:12, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi

Hello, and happy New Year! Do you know what this was about? A little odd, I thought... Thanks, GAB^Hello! 05:02, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

That is truly bizarre, GAB. I wasn't taunting anyone, I was just offering good wishes to everyone who supported me during my RfA, no matter what their status is on Wikipedia, blocked or unblocked. It was an overdue thank you but the RfA was so divisive, I didn't want to post anything immediately after it was over. I'm not sure why any editor thought I had bad intentions. But if it did cause stress, I'm glad it was removed. Happy New Year to you! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:16, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year, Liz!

Happy New Year!

Liz,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. –Davey2010 ^{Merry Xmas / Happy New Year} 12:02, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year fireworks}} to user talk pages.

Thank you, Davey2010! I hope 2016 brings you health and prosperity! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:17, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year, Liz!

Happy New Year!

Liz,
Have a great New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia.
–Etamni | ✉ | ✓  14:11, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you, Etamni! Happy editing to you in 2016! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:18, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy 2016, Liz

	Happy New Year 2016!
	Did you know ... that back in 1885, Wikipedia editors wrote Good Articles with axes, hammers and chisels? Thank you for your contributions to this encyclopedia using 21st century technology. I hope you don't get any unneccessary blisters.    – Cullen328 Let's discuss it 21:17, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

I hope you have a fantastic year Jim! I have doubts about the future, but I'll admit that this is my normal frame of mind. But best to be optimistic at this time of year....the election is still far away! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:20, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Only Pollyanna lacks doubts about the future, Liz. And I deny the rumors that I am actually Pollyanna. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 22:28, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year, Liz!

Happy New Year!

Liz,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. Miniapolis 21:48, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Spread the WikiLove; use {{subst:Happy New Year 2016}} to send this message

Thank you, Miniapolis....I'm so glad you joined the clerks team. You are doing a great job and I hope your upcoming year on Wikipedia is enjoyable and without hiccups. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:22, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year, Liz!

(Charles R. Knight, 1922)

Liz, I wish you and those dear to you golden days of love and joy in a Happy New Year 2016! Best regards, Sam Sailor Talk! 23:49, 1 January 2016 (UTC) Pass on! Send this greeting by adding {{subst:User:Sam Sailor/Templates/HappyNewYear}} to user talk pages. Automatic level-2 heading and auto-signing included.

(Unknown artist, Norway, 1916)

Thank you, Sam Sailor! I also wish you a happy and healthy 2016! Take care, Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:23, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

RE: DESiegel

Hi Liz.  I don't believe we've ever crossed paths before. But I'm writing to you because I see you've recently left a Happy New Year message on DESiegel's talk page, so I assume you have some familiarity with him. He doesn't seem to have done anything on Wikipedia since Dec 21, 2015. And I was just wondering if you knew if he was on a wiki-break or something. (I checked his User and User talk pages, and they say nothing about any plans to be away or anything.). Thanks for any information you can provide.
Richard27182 (talk) 10:36, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

I am mainly familiar with him because he's been active at The Teahouse. If you look at his edit history, you can see that DES has taken several leaves of absences from Wikipedia but usually returns and 2015 was a year when he was more active that usual here. I assume like many people, he is busy with work or family business but will return when times allow. It wouldn't hurt though to leave a note on his talk page saying he is missed! I think that is a sentiment anyone would appreciate seeing. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:29, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi Liz.  Thank you for your reply and your suggestion.  It sounds like a good idea and I'm going to do it.
Richard27182 (talk) 02:14, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Query

Hi Liz, if a user has recreated a redirect which was recently deleted as from an implausible typo, what do you think should be done? Thanks, --Rubbish computer (Merry Christmas!: ...And a Happy New Year!) 15:33, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) @Rubbish computer: Was there a discussion at WP:RFD? If so, {{db-repost}} --Redrose64 (talk) 21:46, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

@Redrose64: The two were WP:R3 deleted before, so I tagged them as the same again, but since seeking those I found close to 10 more implausible redirects (e.g. Cities Kosovo) from the same user on the same day. How do you respond if somebody keeps making bad redirects? The user is MilanKovacevic, and I think I'll just leave a talk page message for now. Thanks, Rubbish computer (Merry Christmas!: ...And a Happy New Year!) 22:24, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

I think a talk page message is a good idea. Given some recent incidents last autumn, people are more on the lookout for inappropriate and abundant redirects but it sounds like it's just something to keep an eye on. Right now, my time on Wikipedia is limited but I should be back at regular editing and responding levels mid-week. Thanks for helping out, Redrose64! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:40, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year 2016 from England! Keep up the good work. Best wishes --Jules (Mrjulesd) 21:51, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you, Mrjulesd! I hope 2016 brings you and yours many blessings and good health! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:37, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

2016 year of the reader and peace

2016

peace bell

Thank you for your good wishes and for interesting comments last year. 2016 had a good start, with a Bach cantata (a day late) and an opera reflecting that we should take nothing to seriuz, - Verdi's wisdom, shown on New Year's Day, also as a tribute to Viva-Verdi. (Click on "bell" for more.) Miss Yunshui (among others) and his harmonious editing. We can only try to follow the models of those who left. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:01, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

I've spent a lot of time looking at Wikipedia's internal history, Gerda Arendt and it seems typical for many editors to devote 2-5 years to editing Wikipedia and then move on to other interests or obligations. What is really remarkable, and atypical, are those folks who stick around a long time (like 8+ years), who don't seem to lose their enthusiasm for the project. When I look at old talk pages or noticeboard archives even from 2005, there are editors lamenting someone's departure so I think we have to accept that we are all indeed fortunate for the years that an editor has given to improve the project, whether that is 1 year or 5 years or 12 years. There are so many other ways they could have chosen to spend their time and the fact that they gave hours to improving articles or fighting vandalism or mediating conflicts was fortunate indeed. There will always be editors who lose interest or whose lives get busy which is why it is so important to support new editors just discovering the project. Of course, it is absolutely lovely when an experienced editor returns from an extended absence away but, unfortunately, that doesn't happen as often as we might wish it to. Have a great new year, Gerda. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:36, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

I spent good time with editors I miss now, but try to look at the positive side: those who returned, especially when I had given up hope (Khazar, Boing). There are editors who loose interest, but there are also those who were treated unfairly, most recently Alakzi and Black Kite. For some reason you can perhaps explain, the arbitrators I like best don't stay long: 28bytes, Floquenbeam, now Yunshui. Let's see what the new group will do, - five for whom I voted made it, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 23:13, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

Sorry for my late reply, Gerda Arendt. I haven't been on Wikipedia much when I was staying with family.

As for your question, I think 28bytes had a unique situation and I wish he had not chosen to resign. Maybe he will run another year. I think it is helpful to read over the reflections of former arbitrators like Risker and NYBrad on the challenges of working with a committee. Personally, I think it is remarkable when an assortment of 15 editors can reach agreement on any sensitive subject since they all have their own opinions and life and editing experiences that color their views. Decisions would probably be reached faster with a committee of just 3 or 5 arbitrators but the committee would be less representative of the Wikipedia community and undoubtedly less diverse. It also would concentrate decision-making power in a smaller number of individuals. Larger committee=more discussion=more distributed authority=longer times to settle a case.

I don't know much about the internal workings of the committee but I imagine to a large degree it involves a few arbitrators with strong, differing opinions about a particular case trying to persuade, cajole or agitate for other arbitrators to agree with their point of view. Especially for new arbitrators, I bet it can feel like being pulled in different directions and can lead to tense discussions. It also can be exhausting to go against the tide. And if the issues weren't complicated and messy, they wouldn't have made it to the arbitration case stage at all! I know there seems to be an endless critique of the arbitration committee but I think it is really a thankless job and we are lucky so many editors are interested in serving on the committee. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:30, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

ice-breaking
a political statement, DYK?

I don't know anything about arbitration except what I saw in the limited area I watched, and that was absurd. But let's try peace and not think much of the past ;) (It's more than a year that I wrote "best remembered as a farce", - I archived the whole thing, - have no idea how a committee of so many bright minds can miss looking the way they did.) - 28bytes was the first whose RfA I supported, so the first admin to help me, so missed especially when he left two years ago. I know that he would still help me if I needed help (as you would also), but I try not to need. I write GAs and avoid noticeboards, that helps ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:02, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Speaking of Wikipedia history, have you seen Wikipedia:Wikipedia's oldest articles? Following up on my last comment above, Wikipedia's oldest surviving edit from 20:08, 16 January 2001, has ID #291430, while the first in the index, special:diff/1, is from 14:25, 26 January 2002. SO the early edits got shuffled around some when they updated to newer wiki-software. I know, you're probably more interested in the history of the people than the tech stuff, but thought I'd mention it anyway. :) Wbm1058 (talk) 23:47, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

A lot of the early edits were lost, mainly because in the early days it was not considered necessary to keep the full page history, meaning that early edits for most pages were physically deleted from the databases. Some have been recovered (a number of them by Graham87 (talk · contribs)), but when they were restored they had to take revision numbers that were higher than they would have been if they had not been physically deleted in the first place. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:33, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia:Phase II software, Magnus Manske and replaced the UseModWiki engine on the English Wikipedia on 25 January 2002. From that I assume the counter was first implemented in Phase II, and every edit added retroactively from Phase I must have had a higher number assigned. The original text was stored in files rather than in a database, so there were no IDs in Phase I. I wonder if there is a figure for number of Phase I edits. Wbm1058 (talk) 19:50, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

So my general impression is that Phase I did not save historical edits, and the "edit history" of Phase I was constructed from a set of backup tapes, i.e. if an article changed from one backup to the next, then that was considered to be a single edit. So any multiple edits between saved backups were lost. Do I have this right? Obviously just a question for Liz' 200+ page watchers ;) Wbm1058 (talk) 20:40, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

It did save historical edits, but these were periodically deleted. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:42, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Most of the surviving edits made before the introduction of Phase II software were restored from a backup in September 2002 (see Wikipedia:Usemod article histories). These edits go from revision numbers 233181 to [301520; I'm not sure if all of the edits in between were part of the mass-import, but if they are, that means there were about 69,000 edits imported during that time. Graham87 06:08, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

I must be a nerd because I find this a fascinating discussion, Wbm1058, Redrose64 and Graham. Are these details included in any of the books about Wikipedia? I know very little of actions taken before 2004-2005 because there isn't much of a record of how decisions about Wikipedia structure and organization were made or the discussions surrounding them. I assumed the first four years was a period when the email lists and IRC was more important than it is now. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:30, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't think so. The mailing lists were especially important in those days; I'm not very familiar with the IRC side. Graham87 10:10, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Belated Happy New Year

I think it is still appropriate to wish you a (belated) Happy New Year and to thank you for the New Year's greeting. Sorry I am a little late. Best wishes for the New Year. Donner60 (talk) 04:50, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for the good wishes, Donner60! I hope your coming year is a happy one. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:05, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy new year!

And a happy new year to you too! Apologies for delay, I have been busy with eating leftovers and watching terrible films. Only in death does duty end (talk) 09:24, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

There is never a bad time to wish someone well, Only in death does duty end. I hope you have a wonderful 2016, full of health and prosperity. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:05, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Ironic

Have to say Liz. This post was rather ironic to see. Also your semi-protect for your talk page is past its expiration date (expires 12:20, 16 December 2015). Noticed that while making this. GamerPro64 03:28, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

GamerPro64, I was posting New Year's greetings to every editor who supported me in my RfA. That's about all of the edits I made on December 31st and January 1st. I was unaware of the developments in TDA's situation on Wikipedia and am bothered by editors who thought I was "taunting" him. I sincerely wish him well in 2016 and I don't know anything about his recent site ban. But, in hindsight, I can see that it was an ironic combination of events. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:03, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Thank you for the New Year wishes, Liz -- right back at you (albeit quite late)! Mizike (talk) 18:46, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Good wishes are always appreciated, Mizike! Thank you. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 15:00, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Categories

The reverts you have made don't seem very helpful. Government departments and agencies of Denmark‎ is where all the other relevant articles are. Similarly the only entry in Category:Merseyside society was the subcategory Category:Merseyside in the arts and media which had, I think, only two entries. I am doing my best to tidy up the organisation categories. Rathfelder (talk) 14:02, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Parent categories are not removed from empty categories so that editors that are questioning whether to tag or delete them can see where they reside in the category structure. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 13:44, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Guild of Copy Editors 2015 End of Year Report

Guild of Copy Editors 2015 End of Year Report Our 2015 End of Year Report is now ready for review. Highlights: Summary of Drives, Blitzes, and the Requests page; New record lows in the article backlog and on the Requests page; Coordinator election results; Membership news; Changes around the Guild's pages; Plans for 2016. – Your project coordinators: Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Baffle gab1978. To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by Jonesey95 via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:42, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

The Signpost: 06 January 2016

• News and notes: The WMF's age of discontent

• In the media: Impenetrable science; Jimmy Wales back in the UAE

• Arbitration report: Catflap08 and Hijiri88 case been decided

• Featured content: Featured menagerie

• Recent research: Teaching Wikipedia, Does advertising the gender gap help or hurt Wikipedia?

• WikiProject report: Try-ing to become informed - WikiProject Rugby League

• Technology report: Tech news in brief

• Read this Signpost in full
• Single-page
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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Community groups

I don't see that Community groups - however defined - come within the category "advocacy groups". And of the six articles in community groups four were Australian astronomical organisations.Rathfelder (talk) 08:42, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not sure what edit you are referring to. Can you provide a link? Thank you. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 13:41, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

WikiCup 2016: Game On!

We are about to enter the second week of the 2016 WikiCup. The most recent player to sign up brings the current total to 101 contestants. Signups close on 5 February. If you’re interested, you can join this year's WikiCup here.

We are aware that in some areas the scoring bot’s numbers are a little bit off (i.e., overly generous) and are working to have that corrected as soon as possible.--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:03, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

WikiCup 2016: Game On!

We are about to enter the second week of the 2016 WikiCup. The most recent player to sign up brings the current total to 101 contestants. Signups close on 5 February. If you’re interested, you can join this year's WikiCup here.

We are aware that in some areas the scoring bot’s numbers are a little bit off (i.e., overly generous) and are working to have that corrected as soon as possible.--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:07, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Your comment on my user talk page

Hi, I am not user:Olivia Barratier, however, I do know the person in question and made what I thought were helpful modifications to her page to update links and what not. If you do reply, please do so on my talk page. Thanks.

Diane Langlumé 09:00, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Diane Langlumé 08:57, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

The Man from Snowy River categories

Thank you for letting me know what is happening. I spent a lot of hours working on the categories, and missed a lot f sleep, trying to get this project done. I would therefore appreciate it if the information contained in the various categories can be merged into the Category:The Man from Snowy River. Would I be able to fix up the categories, on the various Wikipedia article pages which contain the categories, so that this can be done - or will I have to leave be until a decision is made whether to delete or merge the information contained in the various categories? If I am allowed to do so, I would like to start on re-categorising the information on the various Wikipedia article pages as soon as possible. Could you please let me know if this is possible. Thank you. All the best. Figaro (talk) 12:15, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you, Figaro, for your work on this subject. The issue with three of your categories is they just aren't appropriately titled in that Wikipedia prefers parenthesis over dashes. Please make your opinion known at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2016 January 8. Unlike AfDs, CfDs are usually open for more than one week in order to get more participation and hear from more editors. Since you created the categories, it's important that your voice be heard. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:36, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

I have now participated in the discussion. Hopefully the work which has been done can remain as either renaming the categories for the films, soundtrack and musical, or merging them with Category:The Man from Snowy River. Also, I hope that the names of the performers in the films, television series and musical - as well as the people involved in the creative work for the musical - can remain by being merged with Category:The Man from Snowy River. This has been done with performers who have taken part in the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Thank you. Figaro (talk) 09:53, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Maine Blues Festival

The author doesn't seem to "get it". The draft that they put in the sandbox is probably the same article as you speedied from mainspace. At least, it would have qualified for the same speedy-deletion criteria if it had been in mainspace. In draft space, I just declined it. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:19, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

The sad thing, Robert, is that Wikipedia could probably use an article on this festival. But the article that gets posted looks like a copyright violation taken from a website and is overly promotional. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:38, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Help for blocking lt.wikipedia.org

Good evening, Mr. Adam Bishop, I wanted to ask you to help me in trouble Lithuanian Wikipedia. Behold, I got a little sick Tourette's syndrome, and sometimes I get angry and not in control of the words, and it happened there. I wrote a considerable criticism, and I told them back, "Bounce," and I was banned for 1 day. But then I was very curious, and I asked for all the details on Wikipedia, etc. And took me away, and to extend the blocking 8 months in. Then I began creating clones. But I continue to "excellent" edited by Wikipedia, in the articles, but then again I saw blocking the message, and angry. And I created the clone, created before 11, but anyway I edited, created 2 articles. (Because then I paid them not to develop). And then extend the blocking period of 3 years. And I very much want there the Wikipedia edited, so in every possible way I wanted to unlock. And I wrote in the e-mail, and everywhere, and tried to IRC, but not switched on, so in one word remained this situation. Then I created the English Wikipedia, and everything went well for me, I was invited to the "Teahouse" be paradise! And here all the other people do not like the Lithuanians, they are stubborn and wrong. And here I created, I do not remember any of their regions, many villages, perhaps 5 villages, 2 rivers, 1 lake. Maybe you can help in any way? Plus I created yesterday again Lithuanian Wikipedia account, I wrote what I do is, I opened my heart, and today still went and blocked User: Homo ergaster. And I do not know what to do. And I want and there and then edit the articles, maybe here I will become administrator ever. So HERE is hopeful. Thank you. P.S if you look at those who blocked me:Homo ergaster. And my account:Lukas_GamingLT. And my talk page:Lukas_GamingLT --L.ukas lt 13 --Talk 18:10, 9 January 2016 (UTC)Lukaslt13

I have removed the help template as this is a specific user's talkpage it isn't needed they will get notified about a message for them.McMatter ^(talk)/_(contrib) 18:24, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

First, Lukaslt13, I'm not Mr. Adam Bishop, you probably are looking for User talk:Adam Bishop. Secondly, English administrators and editors have no control over activities on other language Wikipedias so you will have to speak with or email someone at the Lithuanian Wikipedia to help you with your problems there. Finally, McMatter, thank you for removing the Help Me template from my talk page, it is appreciated. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:00, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Oops, sorry, I too wrote Adam Bishop, and copy for you. Thank you --L.ukas lt 13 --Talk 12:02, 10 January 2016 (UTC)Lukaslt13

But, I wrote him, but not replying, and I not know how to do next! Well, I working this project, my liked this Wikipedia, and I be this :) --L.ukas lt 13 --Talk 12:07, 10 January 2016 (UTC)Lukaslt13

Undelete Sidewalk labs

Hi,I would like to have Sidewalk Labs undeleted, and will then fill out with new info. the company is now a significant subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has taken over two companies that had wikipedia pages, and is producing outcomes of note. Tim bates (talk) 00:26, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Tim bates, there wasn't much of an article written but I have restored it and you can find it at Draft:Sidewalk Labs. Once you think it has enough substantial content with verifiable sources to warrant a main space article, submit it to Articles for Creation where it can be reviewed by an experienced editor. Good luck! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:17, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for that... Indeed... it was not much :-( I'll flesh out a full article T. Tim bates (talk) 22:34, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Image

Hi more time! I create an article about their school and want to upload the pictures, but somehow they are not commons. I copy the image location and the way to your article, but as there are no pictures, so do not. What to do? --L.ukas lt 13 --TalkLukaslt13

I have no idea what you are talking about. What is "your article"? Try reading Wikipedia:Uploading images. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:12, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikidata weekly summary #191

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Discussions
  • Successful request for adminship: Innocent bystander
• Events/Blogs/Press
  • The Reference Wars
  • Teaching machines to make your life easier – quality work on Wikidata
  • Wikidata references from Microdata
  • Building applications around Wikidata (a beer example)
  • From Freebase to Wikidata: the great migration has been accepted for the industry track of WWW2016
  • Gene Wiki and Wikidata: an overview of 2015
  • Past: 32C3 in Hamburg
  • Past: Wikimedia Developer Summit
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • A Visual Introduction to Machine Learning
  • The deadline for submissions for Wikimania has been extended to 17th. Get your talk proposals in!
  • IUCN statuses have been removed from taxoboxes in Czech Wikipedia in order to display sourced Wikidata data. Check it out with Comodo dragon, lion, Siamese fighting fish or any of almost 3,000 articles.
  • Migrating identifier properties to new identifier datatype
  • Listeria lists can now show arbitrary SPARQL results
  • Mix'n'match has new catalogs like UNESCO's Atlas of languages in danger
  • Initial plans for MetaPipe, a collaborate metadata tool
• Did you know?
  • Newest properties: BugGuide ID, elibrary.ru organisation ID, member of the deme, ComLaw ID, Persons of Ancient Athens, IBU biathlete identifier, Mackolik.com footballer ID, Australian National Shipwreck Database Shipwreck ID number, dblp identifier, Species Profile and Threats Database ID, KNAW past member identifier, nominee, GeoNames feature code, MAME ROM, Encyclopædia Britannica contributor identifier, Turkish Football Federation manager ID, Turkish Football Federation player ID, transfermarkt manager id, transfermarkt footballer id, metasubclass of, homoglyph, stage reached, conversion to standard unit, literal translation, transliteration, language, narrator, number of seasons, voltage, PORT person ID, Panarctic Flora ID, gender of a scientific name of a genus, J. Paul Getty Museum artist id, Thyssen-Bornemisza artist id, takeoff roll, expected completeness, RePEc Short-ID, grid global research id, Xeno-canto species ID, service ribbon image, Berlin cultural heritage ID, FIE identifier
  • Newest WikiProjects: Broadcasting
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• Development
  • Attending the Wikimedia Developer Summit
  • Are you a student looking for a thesis topic with impact? There might be some around Wikidata for you. Get in touch with Lydia if interested.
  • More work on moving identifiers to their own section and having a separate datatype for them
  • Fixed the problem where you could add links to non-existing files on Commons (phabricator:T87263)
  • We're adding a "latest" link for the JSON dumps (phabricator:T72247)
  • Fixed a bug in the monolingual text datatype when changing the language (phabricator:T95419)
  • More work on making it possible to show all languages for a given item without the label lister gadget
  • Security review for the ArticlePlaceholder is done \o/
  • References in the ArticlePlaceholder are now shown more similar to how they are shown in a regular article (at the bottom)
  • SPARQL queries display directly when link to query.wikidata.org is opened
• Monthly Tasks
  • Hack on one of these.
  • Help develop the next summary here!
  • Contribute to a Showcase item
  • Help translate or proofread pages in your own language!
  • Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above.

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) 21:50, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

About one deletion

Hi Liz, hope you are well and had nice hollydays. Sorry to bother you with this, but few hours ago you deleted an article Vladimir Zelenbaba which was wrongly tagged for speedy deletion as not meating notabilty creterium. I know the editor who created the article and he is aware about the criteriums, I checked the article and added info and reliable source in the article that confirm the main notability criterium for footbalers which is that they played in a fully profesional league. I also mentioned it at the talk-page, where another editor had also pointed out and brought a rs confirming him passing notability. The footballer in question played in the Ukrainian Premier League which is listed at the WP:FPL. This source which is the source of the Premier League confirm it. It was a mistake when the article was nominated for deletion. FkpCascais (talk) 05:18, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Okay, FkpCascais, I've restored Vladimir Zelenbaba. But improve it as much as you can because it always can get tagged again. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 10:50, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you Liz. But I think there is some missunderstanding here. Why would the article get tagged again? The article as it stands now passes notablity, has a reliable source confirming it, and is just another ammong many footballer stubs. It could obviously be expanded but it is not a requirement needed for him to stay or otherwise get deleted. FkpCascais (talk) 18:01, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

FkpCascais, all I meant is that although I restored the article, other editors might tag the article if the concerns of the original tagger are not addressed. If you believe that the article is satisfactory as it is and meets notability standards for football players, then retagging probably will not occur. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 18:06, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

The main criterium for notability for footballers is that they played in a professional league, and in my last edit that was exactly what I added along a reliable source confirming it. So the article should not have any problems. Thank you Liz, best regards, FkpCascais (talk) 18:34, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Autobiography

Hi Liz. Re this user, the autobiography is still hosted here. It should probably be blanked or at least have a sandbox tag on it to take it out of the search engines. I hesitate though because they've had an awfully bumpy start and the embarrassment of finding the autobiography complete with speedy deletion tag on Google search results. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 17:30, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you, Voceditenore, I'm aware that they have a copy of the article in their sandbox. I'd prefer to leave it there right now unless the editor uses it to recreate the article about themselves. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 17:33, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes, that was my view too. I'll leave in your hands, Best, Voceditenore (talk) 17:38, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Deleted Article on Arnold Magcale

Hi, I saw that you deleted the article "Arnold Magcale" that I created. The reason you gave for deleting it was that it seemed to be advertising for a company. I'd like to notify you that it is actually not advertising for a company, but just an article on a notable person in the tech industry. Why did you think it was advertising? Was it the external link? The press releases that I used as references? I'd like to re-create the article, but I want to know what I did wrong to cause you to delete it so that I won't make that same mistake again. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Diracleo (talk • contribs) 01:33, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Diracleo, I have restored the article as a draft, see Draft:Arnold Magcale. It needs a lot of work. It is promotional to call the subject of an encyclopedia article a "visionary" and other peacock language. It is written like a biography on a personal website, it is not encyclopedic which necessitates maintaining a neutral point of view. To be honest, it looks like an article that a paid editor or an employee at his company would write which means there could be a conflict-of-interest. But you can continue to work on it, in draft form and when you think it is ready, submit to Articles for Creation where it can be reviewed by an experienced editor. If you recreate this article in what we call "main space" of Wikipedia, I'm 100% sure it will be deleted, not by me but by another administrator. Good luck. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:45, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Jimbo's page

Hi Liz, please could you confirm why you undid my edit? Thanks! Thehelpfulone 02:25, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, I thought that removing "http:" from the link would prevent it from being an active link. I don't know why you removed it. If I was incorrect, you have my apologies. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 10:44, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Removing http: makes it protocol-relative. To deactivate a link, you need to remove the // as well. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:02, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks @Redrose64:. Liz I did state in my edit summary 'protocol rel link' and the page already has a protocol relative link, [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Jimbo_Wales&action=info#mw-pageinfo-watchers Over 3,000]. I also noticed in your contribs that you tag pages for speedy deletion rather than delete them yourself (from User:Liz/CSD log), I just wanted to check if you intended to do this? Else there should be a configuration option in Twinkle that allows you to delete rather than tag. Thehelpfulone 11:58, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

If a page has no speedy deletion tag, and I feel that it meets one of the speedy deletion criteria, I also tend to tag pages for speedy deletion rather than delete them myself: that way it puts a second admin in the loop and reduces the risk that somebody might call "admin abuse". But if I find a page that's already tagged, I often delete it myself, after checking that the chosen speedy deletion criterion is valid. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:48, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

The Signpost: 13 January 2016

• In the media: War and peace; WMF board changes; Arabic and Hebrew Wikipedias

• Community view: Battle for the soul of the WMF

• Editorial: We need a culture of verification

• In focus: The Crisis at New Montgomery Street

• Op-ed: Transparency

• Traffic report: Pattern recognition: Third annual Traffic Report

• Special report: Wikipedia community celebrates Public Domain Day 2016

• News and notes: Community objections to new Board trustee

• Blog: Inside the game of sports vandalism on Wikipedia

• Featured content: This Week's Featured Content

• Arbitration report: Interview: outgoing and incumbent arbitrators 2016

• Technology report: Tech news in brief

• Read this Signpost in full
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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:17, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Possible new Martimc123 sock puppet

Hi. I've discovered a possible new sock puppet of Martimc123: Lovelucha (talk · contribs). The editor creates and edits the same articles, writing in similarly limited English. Also, the account name is similar to some of his earlier puppets. I also presume that the IP 193.236.57.121 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) belongs to him. リボン・サルミネン (Ribbon Salminen)(ZOOM) 21:13, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Ribbon Salminen, I encourage you to file a WP:SPI if you believe that there is sock puppetry is going on. If there is already an existing case, you can add new information to it. Or you can contact a checkuser or SPI clerk and alert them. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:01, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Emigrants to Scotland, England, Wales etc

Category:Argentine emigrants to Scotland, for example. These categories have been upmerged to the corresponding United Kingdom categories and wiped by @Mannerheimo:. I don't see a discussion about this particular category, there may be a general discussion somewhere. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 20:35, 17 January 2016 (UTC).

I'd be curious to see that discussion, Rich. I usually go through Wikipedia:Database reports/Empty categories each night and tag those that aren't under discussion (there are a few areas--Youth, Wealth, Death--that are being worked on) and these fell into that group. It is not unusual for a category to be temporarily empty while an editor is working something out and since empty categories sit for 4 days before deletion, if articles/pages are later added to the category, the CSD tag is removed. Except for G13s, I don't know of any other CSD criteria that includes a waiting period and I think it is wise regarding empty categories. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:54, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Indeed that is why I pinged the user in question. Depopulating categories without discussion is something generally frowned upon. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 21:25, 17 January 2016 (UTC).

There is a lot more emptying of categories out of process than is acknowledged, Rich. Unfortunately, it is not an activity done by trolls but by productive editors who believe that they have a system of categorizing that is superior to the one that currently exists. The CfD process can be laborious and emptying out categories is one shortcut that is taken. I still am not sure how to tackle this problem especially when some of the editors have more seniority and experience than I do. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:36, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Just do your best. It's unusual but not unknown that a category empties through "natural causes". For example Category:Districts of the Acomayo Province was emptied when someone redirected Template:Districts of Acomayo Province to Template:Districts of Cusco Region. Both contained categories - which is a Bad Idea for content categories.

And no-one has seniority on Wikipedia. Or so I keep telling myself.

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 22:50, 17 January 2016 (UTC).

Wikidata weekly summary #192

Here's your quick overview of what has been happening around Wikidata over the last week.

• Events/Blogs/Press
  • Wikipedia turned 15. Happy birthday, big sister!
    • Fifteen years ago , Wikipedia was a very different place: Magnus Manske
    • Wikipedia just turned 15 years old. Will it survive 15 more?
    • Slides for talk by Lucie and Adam at the birthday party in NYC
  • Doing research on Wikidata? Consider submitting to OpenSym.
  • Past: ODI summit (video of talk "Making every human gene accessible and linkable" by Andra Waagmeester)
  • Past: StrepHit IEG kick-off (video, slides)
  • Upcoming: ORCID outreach meeting
• Other Noteworthy Stuff
  • Module:Cycling race generates a list of stages and winners for cycling races
  • Great use of the Listeria bot to create an artwork gallery
  • Wikidata-lang - library to get language code from a Wikidata item for a language
  • Live-stream of Wikidata edits by Magnus
  • Wikipedia tools for Google Spreadsheet now has a Wikidata function
  • Yair rand wrote a user script to experiment with how changes are shown in recent changes and watchlist
• Did you know?
  • Newest properties: Theatricalia person ID, Theatricalia theatre ID, Global Geoparks Network ID, judicial sentence, allcinema film identifier
• Development
  • Students worked on new datatype to capture mathematical expressions (phabricator:T67397)
  • Updated property suggester data to give you more up-to-date suggestions when adding new statements
  • Pages in the module namespace now also get interwiki links (phabricator:T123234)
  • Reduced number of resource loader modules to improve performance (phabricator:T123233)
  • Started experimenting with showing an image in the header area (phabricator:T119493)
  • Fixed a bug where the query text would be moved off the screen on the query service website (phabricator:T120196)
  • Worked on the remaining blocker for taking the in other projects sidebar out of beta. We need to link to the Commons category and not gallery for articles without frying the servers (phabricator:T94989)
• Monthly Tasks
  • Hack on one of these.
  • Help develop the next summary here!
  • Contribute to a Showcase item
  • Help translate or proofread pages in your own language!
  • Add labels, in your own language(s), for the new properties listed above.

Read the full report · Unsubscribe · Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) 11:21, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Vanessa Ferlito

Hi Liz! Can I ask you to take a look at Vanessa Ferlito? An editor there keeps adding an image to this BLP, despite the fact that it's been deleted multiple times on Commons for copyrights issues. I just warned the user, and reverted his addition of the image to the article, but the editor has just re-reverted me. And this editor is definitely an WP:SPA on this score, with edits to no other articles... Thanks! --IJBall (contribs • talk) 16:20, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

IJBall, rather than get into an edit war that could lead to a block, I've tagged the image with a CSD tag as it is unlicensed. He/She has additional warnings about this on their talk page. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 16:57, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

OK. But assuming it happens again (which I'm relatively sure it will), should I just take it directly to WP:AIV next time? --IJBall (contribs • talk) 17:00, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

I'd prefer to see if/how the editor responds to the talk page messages first. The problem is uploading images without licensing or source information and I don't think that qualifies as vandalism which is the the deliberate attempt to damage Wikipedia. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 17:03, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, considering this editor has to be aware that their uploaded image has been removed before, and why it was removed, continuing to add it back to the article and to Commons at least qualifies as "disrputive editing" if not "vandalism" per se. --IJBall (contribs • talk) 17:14, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Uh oh – this would seem to show this editor has a COI (which I've been suspecting all along...). --IJBall (contribs • talk) 17:15, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

This is my approach, trying to inform the editor what they are doing incorrectly. To me, this doesn't seem like an urgent matter and I'll keep tabs on the editor to see how they respond. You are free to bring this issue to the attention of another admin if you care to. Have a good week! Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 17:18, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

If the editor does represent her management, they can release the rights to this photo if they choose to go through the process. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 17:20, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

I've seen this editor before: User talk:Wbm1058/Archive 3#Vanessa Ferlito's date of birth. Wbm1058 (talk) 16:20, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Talk:New Model Army (band/Archive1)

Hello Liz, I put a CSD on this because the page was moved by me with a typo (the page is actually at Talk:New Model Army (band)/Archive1 (I put the closing bracket in the wrong place). So I was wondering why you didn't delete it (I know it's not doing any harm but it's completely useless). Let me know if I've missed something obvious! Thanks, Laura Jamieson (talk) 23:57, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

I've deleted it now but it didn't seem like an obvious R3. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:12, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Talk page deletion

I noticed you deleted The Devil You Know (2015 TV series) which is good because there is no such 2015 TV series. But then you deleted Talk:The Devil You Know (TV pilot) instead of Talk:The Devil You Know (2015 TV series) as G8.Dark Cocoa Frosting (talk) 22:01, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

I was following the redirect and ended up on the wrong page. The page is restored, thank you for alerting me. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:40, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 6

Newsletter • January 2016

Hello there! Happy to be writing this newsletter once more. This month:

What comes next

Some good news: the Wikimedia Foundation has renewed WikiProject X. This means we can continue focusing on making WikiProjects better.

During our first round of work, we created a prototype WikiProject based on two ideas: (1) WikiProjects should clearly present things for people to do, and (2) The content of WikiProjects should be automated as much as possible. We launched pilots, and for the most part it works. But this approach will not work for the long term. While it makes certain aspects of running a WikiProject easier, it makes the maintenance aspects harder.

We are working on a major overhaul that will address these issues. New features will include:

• Creating WikiProjects by simply filling out a form, choosing which reports you want to generate for your project. This will work with existing bots in addition to the Reports Bot reports. (Of course, you can also have sections curated by humans.)
• One-click button to join a WikiProject, with optional notifications.
• Be able to define your WikiProject's scope within the WikiProject itself by listing relevant pages and categories, eliminating the need to tag every talk page with a banner. (You will still be allowed to do that, of course. It just won't be required.)

The end goal is a collaboration tool that can be used by WikiProjects but also by any edit-a-thon or group of people that want to coordinate on improving articles. Though implemented as an extension, the underlying content will be wikitext, meaning that you can continue to use categories, templates, and other features as you normally would.

This will take a lot of work, and we are just getting started. What would you like to see? I invite you to discuss on our talk page.

Until next time,

Harej (talk) 02:53, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

The Rambling Man

Maybe you'd care to explain exactly where the personal attacks were in this statement? I think you are seeing what you want to see and taking offence on behalf of others. I would therefore ask you not to be so overly-delicate and leave others to have their say. You were lucky I didn't revert you, which I was going to do. Cassianto^Talk 13:07, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

To be consistent, you will also redact Kww's personal attacks please. The Rambling Man (talk) 13:14, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Cassianto, I was not acting on my overly-delicate feelings, I was acting instructions given by the arbitrators on the clerks-l email list. I also redacted KWW's comments, again, on request of the arbitrators. The vast majority of time, clerks are acting on behalf of a request from the arbitration committee. We open a case when they say a case should be opened, remove comments that are seen as personal attacks when they are identified and archive requests when instructed to do so. The main time that clerks act independently is when warnings are given because case request statements are overly long and in particular volatile arbitration cases when more time is spent arguing with other editors than in presenting evidence. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:45, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

If TRM's comments were declared uncivil by ArbCom then they are even more absurd than I first thought. Cassianto^Talk 23:59, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

To be honest, given your negative view on the arbitration committee, I doubt your opinion could be any lower than it already is. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:06, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict) (talk page stalker) @Cassianto: I'm puzzled by your link in your initial post here. It's an edit screen, and above that it tells me that "the edit could not be undone due to conflicting intermediate edits; if you wish to undo the change, it must be done manually". I have no idea what "the edit" might be. --Redrose64 (talk) 00:08, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

And I have no idea what has happened to the original link. When I linked to it earlier it was the "uncivil" post by TRM, but this has now since disappeared. I suspect this has been redacted so no sod can see it anyway. Cassianto^Talk 00:15, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

@Cassianto and Redrose64: Nothing's been redacted; the URL looks like the result of clicking the "undo" instead of the "diff" link in the page history. The intended diff, I think, was Liz's clerk action here. Opabinia regalis (talk) 00:26, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

I have no idea how this has happened, it worked earlier. Ok, the link is here. Thanks Opabinia regalis. Cassianto^Talk 00:30, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Not an idiot?

I can understand that calling someone an idiot might be construed as a personal attack, but by what logic is saying that someone is not an idiot a personal attack?—Kww(talk) 15:27, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

All I can say, Kww, is that it wasn't my call. I don't mean to invoke the "good soldier" excuse but I was following repeated instructions. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:46, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

OK, Drmies says I have to talk to you, you say you were following instructions. Whose instructions? Who thought saying someone wasn't stupid was an attack?—Kww(talk) 21:18, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

We have an email list, clerks-l, whose subscribers are clerks, clerk trainees, arbitrators and some former arbitrators. The request to remove content (and not just yours) was made by an arbitrator on the email list and I don't think it is relevant which arbitrator(s) made the request. Your comments were among several that we were requested to remove. My mistake was that I should have come to you first and ask you to "refactor" your remarks so that they did not contain any personal attacks which I neglected to do. My apologies to you for my failure to alert you to the situation first. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:26, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I'll just say that I personally didn't have a problem with y'all's exhange, as tasteless as it was. But do we have to spell out the obvious? that you clearly imply malice on TRM's part? We're not idiots either, Kww. Not total idiots anyway. Drmies (talk) 21:28, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Also, Liz, thanks for doing this thankless job. Drmies (talk) 21:28, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

If saying someone party to an Arbcom complaint misbehaved is a personal attack, I don't understand how misbehaviour can be discussed.—Kww(talk) 21:35, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia history

This wasn't highly publicized except via a Geonotice (MediaWiki:Gadget-geonotice-list.js) to editors whose IP addresses geolocated to the San Francisco area, but I think you'll be interested in it:

Wikipedia:Meetup/San Francisco/Wikipedia Day 2016, particularly the "Stories from the weird old days"

Wbm1058 (talk) 15:38, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know, Wbm1058. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:34, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Crelan–Euphony to Landbouwkrediet–Colnago

Hi, when you moved Crelan–Euphony to Landbouwkrediet–Colnago, because no redirect was left a bunch of redirects that that then redirected to a deleted article and were duly deleted. Please could you restore these?

• Landbouwkrediet-Euphony
• Landbouwkrediet (cycling team)
• Tönissteiner-Colnago
• Tönissteiner-Saxon
• Saxon-Selle Italia
• Saxon-Breitex
• Saxon (cycling team)
• Landbouwkrediet-Toenissteiner
• Landbouwkrediet - Toenissteiner
• Landbouwkrediet - Tonissteiner
• Landbouwkrediet - Colnago
• Landbouwkrediet - Tönissteiner
• Landbouwkrediet-Tonissteiner
• Langbouwkrediet-Colnago

I also recreated Crelan–Euphony - I'm not sure if there should have been some restoring here for a history merge as well?

I hope not too many links haven't been lost in the process.

Thanks, Severo (talk) 16:07, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Severo, I don't know why I checked the box not to leave a redirect and I'm sorry for the cascading effect of this article move. I'm not sure I'm clear on exactly what occurred with these deletions but I'll look into the ones listed. Thank you for bringing my mistake to my attention. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:49, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Okay, Severo, I restored them all and they are now redirected to Landbouwkrediet–Colnago. Let me know if there is any other way I can help. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:28, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, User:AnomieBOT III deleted them when they pointed to a deleted article (presumably part of the work of the bot is to delete redirects of recently deleted articles). I'm not sure if any bot removes links to recently removed articles - I found one user had removed some but I was able to revert them. Severo (talk) 21:37, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

My only question is Talk:Landbouwkrediet–Colnago which was a redirect to Talk:Crelan–Euphony which redirected back to it in a loop. There wasn't any content on that talk page. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:42, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I think Talk:Landbouwkrediet–Colnago should be deleted and Talk:Crelan–Euphony moved to it (leaving redirect!) as Talk:Crelan–Euphony is the only one with any content not just a redirect. Severo (talk) 21:46, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

 Done I checked the deletion log for the past 24 hours and I think you identified all of the deleted redirects. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:57, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Untitled Mammootty Madhupal Film

A procedural error. You speedy deleted a film article AFTER it was brought to AFD. The editor tagging it for speedy did not understand the process and tagged it for G-11 AFTER he had sent itto AFD for discussion. While almost any article may be called promotional, this one was sourced and was under deletion discussion. G-11 was too severe. Shall I revert, or will you? Thanks Schmidt, ^{Michael Q.} 01:23, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

No, I'll restore the article, Michael. I didn't notice the AfD tag. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:27, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll let the tagging editor know that we have a process that must not be subverted. Schmidt, ^{Michael Q.} 01:30, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, I don't know why he first tagged it as an AfD and made an argument there and THEN tagged it for speedy deletion. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:35, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

An ongoing AFD does not prevent speedy deletion, particularly in cases like WP:G5, WP:G9, WP:G10 or WP:G12. This is WP:G11 though, which is more subjective. If it was "exclusively promotional and would need to be fundamentally rewritten to become encyclopedic", G11 applies, unless the "subject is notable and the content could plausibly be replaced with text that complies with neutral point of view" or the article already "describes its subject from a neutral point of view". --Redrose64 (talk) 11:37, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Revisiting MOS:IDENTITY regarding transgender individuals in articles about themselves and in passing in other articles

I am contacting you because of your involvement in the topic ban that was placed against me. I would like to make the best of the next six months and am requesting your input on how best to do so.

What do you see as the appropriate way to oppose a longstanding Wikipedia MoS rule? My own take was to initiate no new threads or RfCs but participate in those started by others (which happens once or twice a year). This clearly was not something that you guys consider acceptable. What do you think I should do instead? Is it just that there was too much of it?

I notice that my offers to engage in a voluntary restriction were not accepted. What would you have seen as more suitable? Is it that I was asking you guys what you wanted me to do instead of making my own guesses?

What can I do over the next six months to give you guys confidence that I can be allowed to return to work?

I am understanding the topic ban to cover both MoS pages, articles concerning quotation marks, and their respective talk pages. Is this the case? Before I became involved, both Quotation marks in English and Full stop contained significant amounts of unsourced material and I am worried that that content will be returned. If I should happen to see such a case, am I allowed to notify someone else that the unsourced material is there?

I also feel that user SMcCandlish was not honest with you and should be treated as an outlier. Darkfrog24 (talk) 14:59, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Darkfrog24, I'm not sure who "you guys" are but I think the editors and admins participating in the discussion would have a variety of answers for you. I didn't take a strong stand in the discussion so I'm not the best person to ask. My only advice is to stop this strategizing about how you should or should approach your topic ban or an appeal. The admins who imposed it view your editing in this area as problematic. The best, in fact, the only solution, is to move on an edit in another area of the encyclopedia. There are areas like AFC that have backlogs that could use your help. Or you could review some GA candidates. Create new articles or work with the guild of copyeditors to help out editors who are looking for assistance with proofreading.

Bottom line, if you don't accept your topic ban and move away from the MOS field, you are very, very likely to find yourself violating your topic ban which I would guess would result in a complete ban of one week or one month. Don't test to see where the edges of your topic ban are and just start working in another area of the project. It won't be me but there will be editors who will be following your edits to see that you are abiding by the topic ban and you shouldn't give them any chance to bring you back to a noticeboard. There are 5+ million articles, most of which could be improved so find a subject that interests you and dive in. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:06, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Category:Terrorist incidents in the United States in 2016

This is the third time you have proposed speedy deletion for this category. There are two contested deletion sections on its talk page. Should be submitted at categories for discussion, based on the scale of opposition alone. Jolly Ω Janner 19:07, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

It's an empty category and therefore qualifies for deletion under CSD C1. Empty categories are deleted unless they are maintenance categories or soft-redirects. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 19:56, 22 January 2016 (UTC)