Hello, Driken, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the Wikipedia Boot Camp, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} on your user talk page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions.
By the way...welcome from another North Dakotan! It's always nice to see someone from the area join up. Feel free to ask me anything you are curious or confused about on my talk page. Also, there are quite a few other North Dakotans on here. You can find many in Category:Wikipedians in North Dakota. Once again, welcome! See you around. --MatthewUND(talk)22:48, 6 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Participant alert regarding Wikiproject on Advertising
The Wikiproject No Ads, created as a backlash against the Answers.com deal, has served an important function in providing a space for users to express their disagreement with the Foundation proposal. While the current controversies about userboxes raise questions about political and social advocacy on Wikipedia, there should be greater flexibility regarding advocacy about Wikipedia in the Wikipedia namespace. Reported and linked by Slashdot and other press sources as a unique and spontaneous occurence in Wikipedia history, it has apparently had some impact as, despite being scheduled to begin in January, not a peep has been heard about the trial and proposed sponsored link since the deal's controversial announcement months ago. Currently, however, there is an attempt to delete the project or move it off Wikipedia altogether. Since the Foundation has provided no additional information and has not attempted to answer the specific questions that participants in the project raised, it is unclear if the Answers.com deal has been abandoned or simply delayed. Until the situation becomes more clear, I believe the group should still have a place in the Wikipedia namespace. Sincerely, Tfine8000:35, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Although this is a bit late in coming, I want to thank you for voting (no matter what your vote was) in my recent request for adminship. You might be aware that it did not pass due to a lack of consensus. The final tally was 21/9/10. I think I will try again this spring or summer after I have gained a bit more experience and met a few more fellow editors. Thanks again!
Welcome, Driken, to Esperanza, the Wikipedia member association! As you might know, all the Esperanzians share one important goal: the success of this encyclopedia. Within that, we then attempt to strengthen the community bonds, and be the "approachable" side of the project. All of our ideals are held in the Charter, the governing document of the association.
Now that you are a member you should read the guide to what to do now or you may be interested in some of our programs. A quite important program is the StressUnit, which seeks to support editors who have encountered any stress from their Wikipedia events, and are seeking to leave the project. So far, Esperanza can be credited with the support and retention of several users. We will send you newsletters to keep you up to date. Also, we have a calendar of special events, member birthdays, and other holidays that you can add to and follow.
In addition to these projects, several more missions of Esperanza are in development, and are currently being created at Esperanza/Possibles.
I encourage you to take an active voice in the running of Esperanza. We have a small government system, headed by our Administrator general, Celestianpower, and guided by the Advisory Committee comprised of KnowledgeOfSelf, JoanneB, FireFox and Titoxd. The next set of elections will be in April, and I would be glad to see you vote, or even consider running for a position.
If you have any other questions, concerns, comments, or general ideas, Esperanzian or otherwise, know that you can always contact Celestianpower by email or talk page or the Esperanza talk page. Alternatively, you could communicate with fellow users via our IRC channel, #wikipedia-esperanza (which is also good for a fun chat or two :). I thank you for joining Esperanza, and look forward to working with you in making Wikipedia a better place to work!
The Barnstar Brigade is a new program aimed at giving more very deserving yet unappreciated users barnstars. It will officially start on 2006-04-09, but signing up is encouraged before this date:
"Here in Wikipedia, there are hundreds of wikipedians whose work and efforts go un-appreciated. One occasionally comes across editors who have thousands of good edits, but because they may not get around as much as others, their contributions and hard work often go un-noticed. Sadly, these editors often leave the project. As Esperanzians, we can help to make people feel appreciated, be it by some kind words or the awarding of a Barnstar. A project the size of Wikipedia has thousands of editors, so there are plenty of people out there who deserve recognition, one just has to find them. The object of this program is not to flood editors with Barnstars, but to seek out people who deserve them, and make them feel appreciated."
The Stress alertsprogram aims at identifying users who are stressed, alerting the community of thier stress and works in tandem with the Stressbusters at trying to identify causes of stress and eliminating them.
Information
Welcome to the second issue of the new format Esperanza Newsletter - we hope you still like it! This week, it was delivered diligently by our new dogsbody. MiszaBot (run by Misza13): any execution complaints should go to him. Content comments should be directed at the Esperanza talkpage. Thanks!
The current process for accepting proposals for new programs has been deemed fine. All Advisory Council members and the Admin Gen are to endevour to be bold when viewing discussion. If they feel that consensus has been reached, they will act accordingly.
A plea from the editor...
The propsed programs page is terribly underused! Please leave any comments, good or bad, on the page, to help us determine the membership's thoughts on the ideas there.
The Administrator Coaching program is a program aimed at preparing Wikipedians for Adminship or helping them understand the intricacies of Wikipedia better. Recently, changes have been made to the requirements of coachees. Please review them before requesting this service.
This would be something like the Welcoming Committee, but for people who have figured out the basics of editing articles; they're not newcomers any more, but they might want some help in learning new roles. Some might like suggestions about how to learn vandal patrol, or mentoring on taking an article to featured status, or guidance with a proposal they plan to make at the Village Pump, for example. In this way, Esperanza would help keep hope alive for Wikipedia because we would always be grooming the next generation of admins.
The Stressbusters are a subset of Esperanza aiming to investigate the causes of stress. New eyes on the situation are always welcome!
Note from the editor
As always, MiszaBot handled this delivery. Thank you! Also, congratulations go to Pschemp, Titoxd and Freakofnurture for being elected in the last elections! An Esperanzial May to all of the readership!
Posting logs of the Esperanza IRC channel are explicitly banned anywhere. Violation of this rule results in deletion and a ban from the channel.
A disclaimer is going to be added to the Esperanza main page. We are humans and, as such, are imperfect.
Various revisions have been made to the Code of Conduct. Please see them, as the proposal is ready to be ratified by the community and enacted. All members will members to have to re-confirm their membership after accepting the Code of Conduct.
Referendums are to be held on whether terms of AC members should be lengthened and whether we should abolish votes full stop.
As you may have gathered, discussions have been raging for about a week on the Esperanza talk page as to the future direction of Esperanza. Some of these are still ongoing and warrant more input (such as the idea to scrap the members list altogether). However, some decisions have been made and the charter has hence been amended. See what happened. Basically, the whole leadership has had a reshuffle, so please review the new, improved charter.
As a result, we are electing 4 people this month. They will replace JoanneB and Pschemp and form a new tranche A, serving until December. Elections will begin on 2006-07-02 and last until 2006-07-09. If you wish to run for a Council position, add your name to the list before 2006-07-02. For more details, see Wikipedia:Esperanza/June 2006 elections.
Hey, I cropped the image of the source 4 you uploaded so that I could use it in a userbox I;m making for us theatre techs. Do you have any input as to which license I use? --KeepOnTruckin19:08, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The Esperanza To-Do List is a place where you may list any request, big or small, for assistance. If you need help with archiving your usertalk, for example, all you need to do is list it here and somebody will help you out. Likewise, if you need help with some area of editing on Wikipedia, list it here! Again, any matter, trivial or not, can be placed on this page. However, all matters listed on this page must not be of an argumentative nature. You do not need to be a member of Esperanza (or this program) to place or fulfill requests on this page. If you don't have any requests, consider coming by and fulfilling a few! This program has not been very active, but has lots of potential!
What's New?
In order to help proposed programs become specific enough to make into full-fledged programs, the In development section of the proposals page has been created. Proposals that are promising, but need to be organized in more detail are listed here. Please take a look at what is there, and help the proposals turn into programs.
To improve both the layout and text of the front page, in an attempt to clarify the image of Esperanza, the front page is going to have some redesigning take place. Please take your creative minds to Wikipedia:Esperanza/Front page redesign to brainstorm good ideas.
Many thanks to MiszaBot, courtesy of Misza13, for delivering the newsletter.
In order to make sure all users who join Esperanza are welcomed, a list of volunteers who are willing to welcome new Esperanzians is at Wikipedia:Esperanza/Members#Esperanza_welcomers. Please add yourself if you are interested; we want to make sure all new Esperanza members are welcomed!
The In development section of the proposals page has been created.
Proposals page: Some proposals have been moved to the aforementioned "In development" section, some have been left as a proposal, and others have been archived. For those proposals that were a good idea but didn't necessarily constitute a program, General Esperanzial Actions has been created.
Two small pieces of charter reform will be decided on in a straw poll at Wikipedia talk:Esperanza/Governance. One involves filling the position of any councillors who may leave, the other involves reforming the charter.
Until cooperation with the Kindness Campaign is better defined, it remains as a proposed program.
Although having the newsletter appear on everyone's userpage is desired, this may not be ideal for everyone. If, in the future, you wish to receive a link to the newsletter, rather than the newsletter itself, you may add yourself to Wikipedia:Esperanza/Newsletter/Opt Out List.
Hey I have noticed that most of the images on Technical Theatre articles were uploaded by you. You should concider joining Wikipedia:WikiProject Stagecraft to contribute your knowledge to Stagecraft related articles.
Here in Wikipedia there are hundreds of wikipedians whose work and efforts go unappreciated. One occasionally comes across editors who have thousands of good edits, but because they may not get around as much as others, their contributions and hard work often go unnoticed. As Esperanzians we can help to make people feel appreciated, be it by some kind words or the awarding of a Barnstar. This is where the Barnstar Brigade comes in. The object of this program is to seek out the people which deserve a Barnstar, and help them feel appreciated. With your help, we can recognize more dedicated editors!
What's New?
September elections are upon us! Anyone wishing to be a part of the Advisory Council may list themselves as a candidate from 18 September until 24 September, with the voting taking place from 25 September to 30 September. Those who wish to help with the election staff should also list themselves!
Appreciation Week, a program currently in development, now has its own subpage! Share your good ideas on how to make it awesome there!
The Esperanza front page has been redesigned! Many thanks to all who worked hard on it.
Many thanks to MiszaBot, courtesy of Misza13, for delivering the newsletter.
The September 2006 Council elections will open for nominations on 18 September 2006. The voting will run from 25 September 2006 until 30 September 2006. If you wish to be a candidate or a member of the elections staff, please list yourself!
The new Esperanza front page design has but put up - many thanks to all who worked on it!
TangoTango has written a script for a bot that will list new members of Esperanza, which will help those who welcome new Esperanzains greatly!
Although having the newsletter appear on everyone's userpage is desired, this may not be ideal for everyone. If, in the future, you wish to receive a link to the newsletter, rather than the newsletter itself, you may add yourself to Wikipedia:Esperanza/Newsletter/Opt Out List.
Admin Coaching needs coaches!!! If you are an administrator, or even a generally experienced user, do consider signing up to be a coach.
Admin Coaching, now being coordinated by HighwayCello, is a program for people who want help learning some of the more subtle aspects of Wikipedia policy and culture. People are matched with experienced users who are willing to offer coaching. The program is designed for people who have figured out the basics of editing articles; they're not newcomers any more, but they might want some help in learning new roles. In this way, Esperanza would help keep hope alive for Wikipedia because we would always be grooming the next generation of admins.
What's New?
The Tutorial Drive is a new Esperanza program! In an effort to make complicated processes on Wikipedia easier for everyone, Esperanza working to create and compile a list of tutorials about processes here on Wikipedia. Consider writing one!
A discussion on how Esperanza relates to the encyclopedia has been started; please add your thoughts.
Many thanks to MiszaBot, courtesy of Misza13, for delivering the newsletter.
The list of proposed programs has been updated, with some proposals being archived.
There is now a new program: the Tutorial Drive! Consider writing a tutorial on something you are good at doing on Wikipedia.
The suggestion of adding a cohesive look to all the Esperanza pages is being considered; join the discussion if you are interested!
In order to make a useful interlanguage welcome template, those involved in translation projects will be asked what English Wikipedia policies are most important and confusing to editors coming from other language Wikipedias.
Shreshth91 informed everyone that he will be leaving the Esperanza council as life is rather busy; his spot will be filled by the runner up from the last election, HighwayCello.
Although having the newsletter appear on everyone's userpage is desired, this may not be ideal for everyone. If, in the future, you wish to receive a link to the newsletter, rather than the newsletter itself, you may add yourself to Wikipedia:Esperanza/Newsletter/Opt Out List.
I just self-nominated myself for administrator's status on Wikipedia. As an active member of WikiProject North Dakota, I feel that having admin status would allow me the ability to be more useful to the project and to curtail vandalism and other problems. An admin is able to protect pages that are being bombarded with vandalism and to more quickly revert pages that have been vandalized. I've always hoped that we could get an admin to join the WikiProject so we would have someone to turn to in times of need. Since we still don't have an active admin within the project's membership, I decided to nominate myself. I really hope you will visit my request for adminship and support me. Thanks! --MatthewUND(talk)10:47, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hey. I do not know you, but i see you are a member of North Dakota Wikiproject. Please, could you answer my question.
I would like to point out that in 1992, Kent Conrad retired, and Byron Dorgan won. Dorgan is still in the Senate. And then Conrad ran and won a few years later. Wouldn't this make Dorgan senior senator from North Dakota??
New articles
There are always new North Dakota-related articles on Wikipedia. The following articles were recently created. Please help to expand and improve them.
Welcome to the WPND Newsletter!
This is the first issue of the new WikiProject North Dakota newsletter. You're receiving this because you have previously signed up to be a member of WPND. If you do not wish to receive future issues, please add your name to the opt-out list.
The WPND newsletter is a work in progress. Future issues may have different types of content and may use a different look. If you have any interesting ideas about what you would like to see in future issues or about the appearance of this newsletter, please share your ideas at the newsletter's talk page. Together, we can make this an interesting, informative, attractive newsletter. Watch for the next issue of the WPND newsletter!
News -Assessments-
An intial round of assessments was recently done on all pages within the scope of WPND. These initial assessments...all 1,200+ of them...were done by MatthewUND. Matthew tried to generally follow the assessment guidelines found at Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment.
To see the assessment of any North Dakota page, simply go to the page's talk page and check the WPND banner. The assessment is presented in a color-coded field in the WPND banner. To change an assessment, edit the page and change the word after "class=" in the WPND banner. Add one of the following codes:
Stub - for very small articles
Start - for slightly longer, higher quality articles
B - for high quality articles of an appropriate length
List - for lists
Cat - for categories
Template - for templates
NA - for pages that are not articles, templates, or categories
Any WPND member should feel free to change any page's assessment. However, keep in mind that there are assessments (particularly GA for "Good Article" or FA for "Featured Article") which can't be applied without having gone through a nomination process.
News ---North Dakota Portal---
Wikipedia now has a new portal devoted exclusively to the state of North Dakota. Check out Portal:North Dakota.
WPND member NDCompuGeek has constructed the initial framework for the portal and it should now be easy to update the portal on a month-by-month basis. The portal will serve as a kind of "front door" for people using Wikipedia to learn more about North Dakota. It is a great starting point for branching out into the many aspects of the state.
Each month a different article, picture, city, and biography will be showcased along with current news and happenings from around the state. The July version of the portal showcases the Mandan tribe, Governor John Hoeven, and the capital city of Bismarck.
Visit the portal's talk page to share your opinions and ideas regarding the portal.
New articles
An exceptionally large number of new North Dakota-related articles were created during June. Please help to expand and improve the following articles which were created during the past month.
The WikiProject North Dakota newsletter is a work in progress so please share your ideas about how the newsletter can be improved. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please add your name to the opt-out list.
News ---Grand Forks now a Featured Article--- Grand Forks, North Dakota was recently designated as a Featured Article. This means that the article has gone through a nomination process in which it was reviewed and its quality was assessed. The fact that this article made it through the process shows that it is a high quality, well-written, well-sourced article. Currently, there are only a little over 1,500 Featured Articles in the almost two million articles on the English language Wikipedia. That means that only about one in 1,270 articles has been given this designation.
The Grand Forks article is a great example to follow when working on other city articles, particularly those about North Dakota cities. We would be very well off if our other major city articles were similar to the Grand Forks article. Keep the Grand Forks article bookmarked and refer to its structure and style when you work on similar articles.
---New assessment parameter---
You're likely aware that all WPND articles now include a quality rating located on the article's talk page. Now, a new assessment parameter is being implemented. The importance rating aims to gauge the "importance" of the article's subject as it relates to North Dakota. As an example, Bismarck, North Dakota would not be considered as being very important in relation to the country or the world, but it is of top importance when considering just the state of North Dakota.
The importance of each article is gauged as either Top, High, Mid, or Low. Since "importance" is a rather subjective term, some WPND members are trying to come up with a general set of guidelines. Check out this thread on the WPND talk page to see proposals and to share your own opinions of what is and isn't "important" in the state.
The WikiProject North Dakota newsletter is a work in progress so please share your ideas about how the newsletter can be improved. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please add your name to the opt-out list.
Srikeit(talk ¦ ✉) 07:31, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
nathanrdotcom (T • C • W) 09:15, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
