Wikipedia talk:Community portal/Open tasks/Archive 1

Use of message

How's this message going to be used exactly? Dori | Talk 01:03, Dec 13, 2003 (UTC)

You can use it as part of the welcome message you give to newbies. See User:Angela/useful_stuff#New_users for example. Angela. 02:31, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I don't think that that would be a good idea. It might put off new users, as if they've been assigned a task. I think it is better to let users discover what they want to work on. Dori | Talk 19:11, Dec 13, 2003 (UTC)

I agree. I hope explicitly giving it to newbies is no longer necessary, since this has become part of the community main page. DrZ 00:51, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

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I took out "Have fun!" because opentask may not be the last thing in a welcome msg. Allowing the welcomer to insert this himself allows more flexibility. --Jiang 02:23, 10 Jan 2004 (UTC)

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Questions

1) How's this message to be updated? 2) I love this mesg. When is being updated regularly, it definitely encourages me to update more often, and visit parts of w'pedia that I otherwise wouldn't. Every time I check my messages, I check the todo box (why delete it?), and especially when there is sth there touching on one of my favorite topics, I go look at it. +sj+|Talk 04:13, 2004 Jan 28 (UTC) 3) Thanks for adding more brief copyedit links! +sj+ 20:20, 2004 Feb 20 (UTC)

I'm glad you like it. If you ever have any suggestions of which tasks to swap, just leave a message here so one of the sysops can change the page. Angela. 04:46, Jan 28, 2004 (UTC)

I guess at long as this message is protected, it won't be up to date. Anyways, you could probably delete Haiti, while it does need work the template has been applied. DrZ 00:51, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Requested article

I suggestion including a blurb about the requested articles. That's one task that pretty much everyone can do, and is prepetually open. →Raul654 13:12, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

Could it just be added as a link next to the Pages needing attention and Cleanup links? I don't think it should take up too much room. What were you thinking of writing about it? Angela. 23:20, Feb 7, 2004 (UTC)

Can a sysop please remove Unit 731 from the list? I just finished it. Why is this page protected? Sennheiser! 21:13, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Please remove W.G. Grace. I finished the merging. --Sennheiser! 12:50, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Please remove Steve Linford. I wrote this article. --Sennheiser! 22:42, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Please remove Anno Domini. I finished the merging. --Sennheiser! 23:00, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Interesting vandalism. Mabye it was a bad idea to unprotect this page afterall? --Sennheiser! 00:26, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It seems that this vandal is none other than User:Michael! --Sennheiser! 00:32, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I don't know why this was unprotected. There was no reason given for this, or even a note of the fact it had been unprotected, at either Wikipedia:Unprotected MediaWiki messages or Wikipedia:Protected page so I have re-protected it. I'm generally fairly against long term page protection, but for something that is being place as a msg, not a subst, on the pages of newcomers, and looks like a signed message, I think it is vital this stays protected so these people don't see vandalism on their own talk pages. Angela. 19:19, Feb 12, 2004 (UTC)

Neither the reason for its protection nor the fact that it is protected was ever given on Wikipedia:Protected page. --Ed Senft! 20:20, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It is listed. Look under semi-protected pages. All the mediawiki namespace pages are listed. Not individually, of course, as there are about 500 of them. This was discussed at Wikipedia talk:MediaWiki namespace text when the messages first came out. Angela. 23:39, Feb 13, 2004 (UTC)

OK, I should have made it clear that this was the reason Kaihsu unprotected the page. I guess he didn't realize. --Ed Senft! 02:03, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I agree that this page should be protected. dave

Please remove egg as it no longer needs work. --Ed Senft! 15:03, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Done. Angela. 16:44, Feb 14, 2004 (UTC)

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Can I just make it known that I think this is a really bad way of greeting new users. If I had been greeted like this, I would've been really offended - Wikipedia is huge, and this message essentially says "here are three things about which you probably know nothing, but I want you to go away and sort out". Well, I'm sorry, but I'd rather stick to what I know about, thank you very much. A friendlier system than Cleanup and Pages needing attention may be needed, but a list as short as this isn't it. - IMSoP 21:21, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Many users like to work on pages which they know nothing or little about for exactly that reason -- it's exciting to delve into a new topic and do some research on it, especially when the task at hand is one where relatively little can go wrong (such as copyedits and merging). Opentask may not be custom tailored, but it gives new users a glimpse into the vibrant community that is Wikipedia.—Eloquence 12:59, Feb 19, 2004 (UTC)

(Re: protected pages like this -- it would be nice to have an unprotected v. of the page that people making suggestions could copy directly... would save *me* time, in this case, as well as saving the admin who eventually makes the official change time.) Now that this task is part of a constantly-viewed main page, at the top, taking up screen space, it should be as concise as possible. Suggestion (could use another update, another 1-2 edits, and another template; perhaps even a 5th category):

Open tasks: 
* '''[[Wikify]]''': [[Uganda before 1900|Uganda pre-1900]], [[Economy of Ireland]]
* '''Update''': [[The Korean Workers' Party|Korean Workers' Party]] 
* '''Edit/merge''': [[Huldrych Zwingli]]. 
* '''Template''': [[Haiti]] (country template). 
See also [[Pages needing attention|pages needing attention]] and [[Cleanup]]. 

-+sj+ 10:19, 2004 Feb 24 (UTC)

I took you suggestion and did something similar. It's useless to ask people to apply a template w/o showing them how. I removed Haiti.--Jiang 00:57, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thank you. It *would* be glorious if there were a template-list somewhere, to which we could link the first word on that line above:

Template: Haiti (country template)

and just trust that it would be easy to browse to the "country template" section of that meta-page... for instance, I touched 5 or 6 albums in various stages of wikification before running across the real album template, and was I ever surprised at how nice it was!

Uganda before 1900 done

Uganda before 1900 done - copyedited, wikified redcountess 22:39, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. :) Angela. 22:47, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)

Colonial Cambodia done

Colonial Cambodia done - copyedited, wikified, links added.

Is this the best way to advise items on the open task list have been done? :-) redcountess 19:06, Feb 26, 2004 (UTC)

Add "make a suggestion" link

Add a line like

MediaWiki_talk:Opentask suggest a task for inclusion.

so that people can get straight to this talk page from msg:Opentask.

Levant wikified

Needs updating and more appropriate content, now; what's there is more about archaeology in general than the Levant in specific. Maybe an extra Detail: line for arts needing attention/clarification? +sj+ 10:57, 2004 Feb 27 (UTC)

Queue

Moved from Wikipedia:Main Page

• Are you familiar with Egyptian mythology? If so, help us by writing about it.
• Neuromodulators needs to be filled in also.
• There is a "TO DO" in the 13th section of combinatory logic.

scarf

Created scarf. Radagast 15:08, Feb 28, 2004 (UTC)

width

is there a reason we are making these lists so short? Seems like we have room to add one or two more article titles to each list. Kingturtle 21:01, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It depends on what resolution screen you have. --Jiang

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(what are you doing? those done need merging; if they do, then put them on the same page and add a divider; dont rm undone entries for no good reason)

Atop Republic is says needs merging. That doesn't tell the user anything, unless they are in the know. U.S.-North Korea relations and Peace movement don't even say needs merging at the top. How are users supposed to know? I couldn't tell they were two articles spliced into one. Anyway, that is not the protocol I am used to here. The articles I put up there DO need merging. I took them right off the Wikipedia:Duplicate articles page...but I didn't check them closely.

We need to create a MediaWiki that says

:''This article should be [[Wikipedia:Duplicate articles|merged]] with'' ...

I'll give it a shot. Kingturtle 01:14, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)