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Wikiproject Military history coordinator election nominations open

Nominations for the upcoming project coordinator election are now open. A team of up to ten coordinators will be elected for the next year. The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers. More information on being a coordinator is available here. If you are interested in running, please sign up here by 23:59 UTC on 14 September! Voting doesn't commence until 15 September. If you have any questions, you can contact any member of the coord team. Cheers, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:53, 1 September 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-36

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • There is a new user right for users who can edit CSS and JavaScript for the entire wiki. Before this all admins could edit CSS and JavaScript. This was a security risk. This group is called interface administrators. Administrators can delete user CSS and JavaScript pages. [1][2]
  • There will be an A/B test on the Wikipedia mobile website. It starts this week. It tests how we show templates that show information about an article. The test will last two weeks. [3][4]
  • You can now use different CSS rules for different skins when you edit templates. This is because of TemplateStyles. [5]
  • wp10 in ORES is now called articlequality. [6]
  • When you get a new message on your talk page you get a yellow message in the toolbar. The preference to show or not show this has been removed. [7]

Problems

  • UploadWizard had problems with campaigns. Users could not upload files. This has now been fixed. [8]
  • You can get a notification when a link is made to a page you created. This has not worked since June. It was fixed last week. [9]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 4 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 5 September. It will be on all wikis from 6 September (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:47, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

About Holographic AR Visual Programming Language

Hi GermanJoe, I noticed that the list about Holographic AR visual programming language iCreator to the wiki page about visual programming language was removed by you. I have added it back since this would be truthfully make wiki page about visual programming language more correct and complete. It has been existing for a while. I did not find wiki page about iCreator yet, so I added the website. I am planning to write one about iCreator myself later on. Or if you are interested about it, we can work together.

Hello @Windy.w.k.smith:, do you have a professional connection to Integem Inc. (for example as employee or paid editor)? If you have, please follow the guidelines at WP:COI and WP:PAID. In such a case, you should disclose that conflict of interest and you should suggest further changes to existing articles on their talkpages instead of adding them yourself. Your edit to the list has already been reverted by another editor, but please feel free to discuss this at Talk:Visual programming language. GermanJoe (talk) 09:54, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

NO. But I have used iCreator and I loved it. And I am truly surprised about the Wiki about Visual Programming language was outdated and did not reflect the current situation.

Also, please do not send me further mails about this topic. I prefer to discuss Wikipedia-related questions openly on the appropriate forums, unless the issue includes confidential or personal information. Thank you for your understanding. GermanJoe (talk) 09:59, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

It is NOT my interest to send you email. I am new to use Talk. But frankly I prefer this open way to discuss about the issues. And I believe it is IMPORTANT to make wiki more complete and current. And Wiki is an open platform for people to contribute and discuss about what is going on in the world. I believe the goal of Wiki is to prevent one person's limitation to limit the development of human knowledge. Maybe I am wrong?

Wikipedia is supposed to be an encyclopedia based on established knowledge, that has already been published in independent reliable sources. Most information that is not based on independent reliable sources will usually get deleted sooner or later (aside from a few exceptional cases). You'll find some more information about Wikipedia's purpose - or more precisely about common misunderstandings about Wikipedia - at Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. Please discuss any further questions at Talk:Visual programming language as mentioned above, so other editors can offer additional feedback (a limited 1:1 discussion is often not productive when editors disagree). Of course you can also post at WP:Teahouse for additional advice from other uninvolved editors. GermanJoe (talk) 19:37, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CXLIX, September 2018

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 22:19, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-37

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • When you added or edited a template with the visual editor the input boxes were very big. This has been fixed. The input boxes will now be smaller until you click on them. Then they will change size to fit the text. [11]

Problems

  • Some diffs showed lines in the wrong order. This was fixed last week. [12]
  • Marking a cross-wiki notification as read didn't work every time. The other wiki was not updated. This has now been fixed. [13]
  • <maplink> did not work for a few days. This was because of a bug. This has now been fixed. [14]
  • {{subst:REVISIONUSER}} is used by some templates. For a period edits saved with {{subst:REVISIONUSER}} would save the previous user's name and not your username. This is now fixed. Edits made before the bug was fixed will still be wrong and need to be corrected. [15]
  • When you move a page the title still shows the old page name. The developers are working on fixing this. [16]

Changes later this week

  • Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour. You can read more about this.
  • Because of the data centre test there will be no new version of MediaWiki this week. Changes for this week will come next week instead.

Meetings

  • Recurrent item You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 11 Septmber at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 12 September at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

22:35, 10 September 2018 (UTC)

Milhist coordinator election voting has commenced

G'day everyone, voting for the 2018 Wikiproject Military history coordinator tranche is now open. This is a simple approval vote; only "support" votes should be made. Project members should vote for any candidates they support by 23:59 (UTC) on 28 September 2018. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:22, 15 September 2018 (UTC) Note: the previous version omitted a link to the election page, therefore you are receiving this follow up message with a link to the election page to correct the previous version. We apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Tech News: 2018-38

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • The Wikimedia Commons mobile app has a new version. Images uploaded using Nearby are now automatically added to the associated Wikidata item. You can browse other images on Commons. You can see your achievements and your upload statistics. It has also fixed some bugs. [17]
  • Advanced item MediaWiki web requests now have a time limit of 60 seconds for GET requests and 200 seconds for POST requests. [18]

Problems

  • You could not see the menu on the notifications page on the mobile version. This has now been fixed. [19]

Changes later this week

  • Special:AncientPages can hide disambiguation pages. [20]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 September. It will be on all wikis from 20 September (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:58, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

your revert in List of podcatchers name

Hi! Here you removed a few popular apps from the list. What's the reason for that. Some of them are the most popular apps on their respective platforms Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.187.162.241 (talk) 23:25, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Hello, please see Note 1 in List of podcatchers for such lists' inclusion criteria. If other podcatchers are "notable" in Wikipedia's sense of the term (or noteworthy), independent reliable sources (not blogs, forums or self-published information) need to be provided for such entries. Then they could be added (see also WP:WTAF for additional advice in an essay). GermanJoe (talk) 23:40, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-39

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

  • The preferences form will change to use the standard look. If you see any problems please report them on Phabricator. [21]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 September. It will be on all wikis from 27 September (calendar).

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

15:22, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Have your say!

Hi everyone, just a quick reminder that voting for the WikiProject Military history coordinator election closes soon. You only have a day or so left to have your say about who should make up the coordination team for the next year. If you have already voted, thanks for participating! If you haven't and would like to, vote here before 23:59 UTC on 28 September. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:29, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

Why did you remove my link?

You removed a link I added to the Educational Technology page. You said that my link, to the MOOC page, was not necessary as there are already links to that page further down the Educational Technology page. I put a link at the top of the page in italics for people who had come to this page by mistake and didn't want to scroll down the page looking for something else. I don't think this is aggregious. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TeachTeachTeach (talk • contribs) 11:15, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

Hello @TeachTeachTeach:, such hatnotes on top of articles are generally used for ambiguous and confusing titles (where 1 term might have several meanings or minor spelling variants may lead to problems in navigation for example). They are not used for totally different terms about related topics - these kind of pointers are usually provided with Wiki-links in the main text or in the "See also" section. It's a slight difference in handling between formal disambiguating hatnotes and other links to related articles.
One quick additional point: I noticed you copied the list from the MOOC main article into a separate list page. That's a great idea (imo), but you need to attribute the original article when you copy content from one Wiki article into another. You'll find some detailed information about this aspect at Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia. But please feel free to ping me, if you have any further questions - I'd be glad to help. GermanJoe (talk) 11:27, 26 September 2018 (UTC)
Ok @GermanJoe:, I've given credit in the List page now, but I don't know when that page will be reviewed and published. Thanks for the info. I have now inserted a link to MOOCs in the main text, higher up the page. I feel that the existing MOOC link is quite low down, and having one up top would make it easier for users. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TeachTeachTeach (talk • contribs) 11:47, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

RD1 requested

I performed RD1 on two of the three edits you identified.

While this edit reads like it came from the same location, I have not yet located at so I have not removed it.--S Philbrick(Talk) 16:14, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

@Sphilbrick:, OK thank you for looking into it. The first request was made by SkyGazer 512 though (sorry for the confusion), maybe they can clarify a bit of background for this? I have also given the new editor a more detailed but final warning about the issues behind their edits and the need to use talkpages. GermanJoe (talk) 16:20, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
I'm not sure it's worth duringcarrying this too far but if they want to clarify they can. I looked at the copyvios report which had an extremely high degree of overlap (92% if I recall), but those particular paragraphs in that edit weren't flagged. The ones you identified were covered and I removed them. --S Philbrick(Talk) 16:23, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
@Sphilbrick: The one you haven't deleted yet was copied from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.11120/ened.2012.07010011. Try Control+F-ing for "in theory, a well-maintained VLE," and you should find it.--SkyGazer 512 Oh no, what did I do this time? 16:26, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
Thanks for the very prompt follow-up. That's a different link than was identified in the original report but I now see it and have carried out the RD1. Special thanks for the usually thankless work of reviewing articles. To both of you, as a relevant aside, I've responded to a number of people who have written into Wikipedia (OTRS) complaining about some recent edits in the news and part of my response talks about the large number of volunteers, such as you, who are watching for and making corrections very promptly.--S Philbrick(Talk) 16:36, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
Thanks, Sphilbrick. Unless I'm missing something, I don't think it was a different link that I originally provided. The RevDel template in both Special:PermaLink/861647046 and Special:PermaLink/861727834 both link to https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.11120/ened.2012.07010011, which is the same location that I linked to just now.--SkyGazer 512 Oh no, what did I do this time? 16:46, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
I believe you. The edit is now gone, so I cannot reproduce it, but the copyvio report I clicked on had a different url. It's all good now.--S Philbrick(Talk) 17:10, 29 September 2018 (UTC)
@Sphilbrick: It's happening again now. See Special:Diff/861893167. They also appear to have blanked the page earlier, see Special:Diff/861892549. Although I always try to assume good faith as much as possible, judging by the history of the page and the user's talk page, I feel like, sadly, this is a case of WP:CIR. A block may be the only choice now to prevent disruption.--SkyGazer 512 Oh no, what did I do this time? 20:22, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
I just stopped in.--S Philbrick(Talk) 22:01, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
Have filed a report at WP:ANI. Ongoing copyvio additions. GermanJoe (talk) 23:08, 30 September 2018 (UTC)
I blocked. I did one RD1. Haven't sorted out where the last edit came from.--S Philbrick(Talk) 00:36, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Young & Rubicam

You contribute a lot to this article, and apparently WPP did some kind of 'in name only' merger of Y&R and another owned agency into a new entity called "VMLY&R". I figured you could help source this; an IP added the new info, but I reverted it mainly because the lede became an ad, and I know much less about the ad industry than regular media. Thank you. Nate • (chatter) 15:48, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Mrschimpf:, thank you for the notice. But I mostly just remove blatant promotionalism and other obvious concerns which are relatively easy to fix without deeper knowledge about Y&R in detail. I do agree of course that puffery and promotional claims (especially unsourced ones) should be reverted on sight. But mergers, rebrandings and other structural re-organizations are more complicated to assess - depending on the specific case I often leave such changes regarding routine brand activities unreverted, unless they are blatantly false, off-topic or clearly promotional in nature. GermanJoe (talk) 16:36, 1 October 2018 (UTC)
Understandable; it really just seems like a 'deck chair' shift more than an actual change of anything, and just seeing all the sub-headings tells me the article honestly needs WP:TNT more than anything. I'd frankly slap some hat banners atop of it so that someone else can help with the fixing myself and hope that helps the article. Nate • (chatter) 16:42, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-40

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Ordinary pages can no longer be loaded as javascript. You could do this using ?action=raw&ctype=text/javascript in the URL. Only fully protected pages in the MediaWiki: namespace or user javascript subpages can be loaded as javascript now. This is for better security. [22][23]

Problems

  • New and updated translations from translatewiki.net will not reach the wikis for a while. You can still translate messages on translatewiki.net. The Wikimedia wikis will be updated with the new translations later. This is because of work on the translation system. [24][25]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 2 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 3 October. It will be on all wikis from 4 October (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 3 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
  • You can join the meeting with the Wikimedia Foundation Search Platform team. The meeting will be on 3 October at 15:00 UTC. See how to join if you want to know how the search function works or have questions.

Future changes

  • Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour. You can read more about this.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

17:34, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CL, October 2018

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 07:00, 7 October 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-41

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Problems

  • There was a problem when you copied and pasted from a table with the visual editor. It could add href where it shouldn't be. This has now been fixed. [27]

Changes later this week

  • Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for up to an hour on 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour. You can read more about this.
  • Because of the data centre test there will be no new version of MediaWiki this week. Changes for this week will come next week instead.

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

23:38, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

Request to revise entry

Hello GermanJoe, Thank you for reviewing my entry for Kyvos on List of big data companies. I noticed that in my entry, I have named Kyvos Insights which does not have an article, instead of using Kyvos which has an article page. Please review my entry again and rename to Kyvos. Thanks Namita Awasthi (talk) 11:44, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Namita Awasthi:, thank you for your message. The page is listing notable companies though, not products. So I don't think this entry belongs in this case. I'll admit that the distinction between product and provider can be a bit blurry in some articles for this list, but Kyvos contains almost no independently sourced information about the company at all (aside from a trivial listing in a trade magazine). Of course I'd be glad to discuss this content-related issue on the article's talkpage Talk:List of big data companies if you'd like to get input from other interested editors. In case you have a connection to Kyvos Insights, please make also sure to read Wikipedia's guideline at WP:COI, disclose such a possible conflict of interest, and avoid editing such articles yourself. Thank you for your consideration. GermanJoe (talk) 12:17, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

Please restore content that had in fact a reliable source

Dear GermanJoe, the content you removed, mentioning lack of a reliable source, about the history of the Scratch programming language per this notification was included with the official award abstract from the National Science Foundation site that funded the initial development of the language in 2003 as the primary source. The source that is currently under history is from 2014 and refers specifically to the Scratch Jr iPad version. This source, by the way, gives credit to professor Marina Bers, who was the main researcher for the Scratch Jr version and was also removed citing lack of a reliable source. —Preceding undated comment added 03:49, 11 October 2018 (UTC)

Hello, thank you for your message. But please discuss such issues at the article's talkpage Talk:Scratch (programming language). Maybe I misunderstood the sourcing situation, although changing a long-standing version with significantly different information should usually require additional sources to clearly verify all details of such a change. But the incomplete - or probably just unclear - sourcing is only part of the problem. Your addition contained several non-neutral phrases directly from the source, and gave undue weight to this aspect (imo). Quoting the abstract for the goals of this research is problematic: such information should be presented from an uninvolved observer's point of view in the editor's own words. Lastly your edit changed the start date of this development from 2002 to 2004. Neither of the sources seem to explicitly mention this date as unambiguous fact. Of course such values can be changed if they are deemed wrong, but such a fundamental change should be based on a clear secondary source and may be better discussed beforehand.
I hope, I could clarify some of the concerns - maybe you could try to rephrase your suggested change? It wouldn't hurt to find an additional secondary source(s) to corroborate some of the most important details of this change as well. The limited usage of primary sources on Wikipedia is allowed, but secondary sources are generally preferred for most purposes (per WP:PRIMARY) - analyzing or synthesizing primary sources is not permitted. As this is a complex topic and your change would alter basic long-standing information, I recommend to use the article's talkpage Talk:Scratch (programming language) to raise such concerns and propose an improved version of this content. This will also allow feedback from other interested editors and a more centralized article-related discussion. Of course I am not against constructive changes, but the suggested edits might need a bit more tweaking and discussion. GermanJoe (talk) 08:11, 11 October 2018 (UTC)

Your Revert on my additions in Hashtag pages

Hello I noticed you reverted my recent edits to Hashtag page. It is my first contribution, that is true, so maybe i didn't do it perfectly. But the content that has been added is definitely something that has value for people looking for most used hashtags in the premier league and that is not easy to find in a clear format. I have tested several of those hashtags on Twitter and they are actively used by fans. So what makes the source reliable or not ? Or maybe I should rename the column to "Hashtag Example" instead of "Top Hashtag" as I agree the "TOP" could be questioned if the source is not reliable. You also reverted on Sentiment Analysis page. I have added that short paragraph as I am interested in AI/Machine Learning and the same site as above was giving some good insights to complement the sentiment analysis page and in particular the application to sports, as the current page is pretty empty. If despite my clarifications you think my edits were spammy than I need to understand better how Wikipedia works. Thanks Katalan444 (talk) 17:41, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Katalan444:, and welcome to Wikipedia. The reliability of a source is ascertained following the criteria and description at WP:RS. Some of the red flags about this specific source: 1) It has no information about the authors and their expertise. 2) Is their methodology accurate and reliable, and has their methodology been assessed and verified by other acknowledged experts in the topic area? 3) The domain was created in March 2018, a mere 7 months ago - that doesn't indicate a long-standing reputed source of information. Lacking basic information about the site owner's professional expertise, the site looks like a personal website - blogs and other forms of personal websites are generally prohibited for almost all usages (for details see WP:BLOGS).
I hope these points clarify some details but I'd strongly recommend to read through WP:RS for more information and context. If you are interested in contributing to Wikipedia, you should try to look for established news media and journals (both online or offline), as well as books from acknowledged topic experts and similar high-quality sources, to verify added information. If you are unsure about the usage of a specific source, you can always ask other editors or post for advice at WP:RSN (for references) or at WP:ELN (for external links not used as direct sources). GermanJoe (talk) 19:47, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-42

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

  • Some pages, edits and users disappeared for a short while after the server switch. Missing content and users was fixed within a day. Some preferences and other things might take a few more days to fix. [28]
  • Wikis are updated with new and updated translations from translatewiki.net again. This will happen once a week. The developers are working on fixing the problem so we can have translation updates more often again. [29]

Changes later this week

  • When you create an abuse filter that prevents edits you can now write a specific error message for it. Before this all abuse filters that prevented edits had the same error message. [30]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 October. It will be on all wikis from 18 October (calendar).

Meetings

  • There will be no more meetings with the Editing team. This is because not enough Wikimedians were interested. To tell developers which bugs you think are the most important you can use Phabricator as normal. [31]
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 17 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

22:40, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-43

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 October. It will be on all wikis from 25 October (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • The Community Wishlist Survey begins on 29 October. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can post proposals from 29 October to 11 November. You can vote on proposals from 16 November to 30 November.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

23:11, 22 October 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-44

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • You can post proposals for the Community Wishlist Survey. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can post proposals until 11 November. You can vote on proposals from 16 November to 30 November.
  • Advanced item The wikis now have a content security policy report. This means that you might get a warning in your javascript console when you load external resources in your user scripts. For security reasons it is recommended that you don't do this. It might not be possible to load external resources in your scripts in the future. [32]

Problems

  • Your watchlist can show which changes you have already seen. This did not work for a few days. It has been fixed. [33]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 October. It will be on all wikis from 1 November (calendar).
  • The 2006 wikitext editor is no longer available. It will be removed from Special:Preferences. It has not been the standard editor for a long time. It was replaced by the 2010 wikitext editor. [34][35]

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

20:08, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

Editing News #2—2018

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter • Subscription list on the English Wikipedia

Did you know?

Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?

Screenshot showing the location of the pencil icon

Tap on the pencil icon to start editing. The page will probably open in the wikitext editor.

You will see another pencil icon in the toolbar. Tap on that pencil icon to the switch between visual editing and wikitext editing.

Toolbar with menu opened

Remember to publish your changes when you're done.

You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has wrapped up most of their work on the 2017 wikitext editor and the visual diff tool. The team has begun investigating the needs of editors who use mobile devices. Their work board is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are fixing bugs and improving mobile editing.

Recent changes

Let's work together

  • The Editing team wants to improve visual editing on the mobile website. Please read their ideas and tell the team what you think would help editors who use the mobile site.
  • The Community Wishlist Survey begins next week.
  • If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly. We will notify you when the next issue is ready for translation. Thank you!

— Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:11, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Can you check if I edited the article Fiitjee with according to rules in Wikipedia.

Please check nif there is/are any mistakes. If any please correct them. Skymhnty (talk) 06:37, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-45

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

Changes later this week

  • You can choose to see edit conflicts in a two-column view. This is a beta feature. You can find it in your preferences. The interface for the two-column edit conflict will change. You can read more.
  • When you edit with the visual editor you can use the "Automatic" citation tab. This helps you generate citations. You will now be able to write plain text citations or the title of a journal article or a book in this tab. This will search the Crossref and WorldCat databases and add the top result. [38]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 November. It will be on all wikis from 8 November (calendar).

Meetings

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17:28, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

COI declaration and request to review a userspace draft

Joe, just over a year ago you made substantial and understandable edits to a page I'd been maintaining, Edsby. I was new to Wikipedia at the time. In the time since, I've followed the advice you left on my talk page about the edits. I declared a COI on my user page. And invested the time to stage some recommended edits/reverts on a userspace draft that I now invite you to review, User:EcoFuror/sandbox/Edsby.

While I understand and respect many of your edits a year ago, I wanted to invite you to reconsider your deletion of at least some of the awards previously listed on the page. I've included a handful for your review in the new draft that are legitimate, respected edtech industry accolades. I believe there were some babies in the original bathwater of the page that deserve to remain; the pages of many other tech companies on Wikipedia contain references to many of the same industry awards I've included. In my draft, I've linked to the Wikipedia pages of many of these larger awards and more notable pubs themselves to help illustrate their significance.

Your review, further edits and push to production if you see fit appreciated.

EcoFuror (talk) 23:18, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

Hello @EcoFuror:, first of all thank you for the transparent COI declaration on your userpage. But if you'd like to suggest some awards to be added, I would recommend to use an official edit request on the article's talkpage. You can simply click the "request corrections on or suggest content" link in the messagebox on top of the talkpage. An uninvolved editor will then review your request. I don't have time for a complete review myself (and it's always good to add fresh input in such cases).
Rather then commenting on every single entry, I hope you don't mind two quick additional tips for a possible future edit request. While self-published sources for uncontroversial details are sometimes OK, awards with independent coverage in regular news media or other uninvolved 3rd-party publications would have a much better chance to get accepted - especially when an award's significance is unclear. Secondly, a lot of business-related articles are still full of promotional content and need cleanup from other volunteers. Such articles and their often bloated awards sections are not a good example.
Just as an optional suggestion: maybe try to start with only 2-3 of the least promotional and most significant awards, and suggest such a careful selection in a smaller first edit request. Smaller requests are easier to handle for the reviewing volunteer, and you'll get a better sense which kind of awards might be acceptable and which not. I think most of the suggested awards should not be added, but it would be better to leave the final decision to an uninvolved new editor in a formal edit request. GermanJoe (talk) 00:23, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
@EcoFuror:, a last minor point before I forget it: award lists are usually formatted as bulleted list in chronological ascending order (see WP:BULLET). Afaik this is probably not mandatory, but it makes such a listing a lot clearer and better accessible. Hope these tips help a bit. GermanJoe (talk) 00:37, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-46

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Some old mobile browsers can use the watchlist again. This has not worked for a while. These browsers are called grade C browsers. This helps for example Windows Phone 8.1 with Internet Explorer and Lumia 535 with Windows 10. [39]

Problems

  • You can choose to see edit conflicts in a two-column view. This is a beta feature. You can find it in your preferences. Users who use this view saw the edit conflict resolution page when they wanted to see a preview. This has been fixed. [40][41][42]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 13 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 14 November. It will be on all wikis from 15 November (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • You can use the content translation tool to translate articles. The developers are working on a new version. One of the changes will be a maintenance category. Articles where users add a lot of text from machine translation without changing it will be in that category. This is so the community can review it. The users will also have been warned before they publish the article that it has a lot of unchanged text from machine translations. [43]

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19:21, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLI, November 2018

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 09:39, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, GermanJoe. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-47

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • You can vote on proposals in the Community Wishlist Survey. The survey decides what the Community Tech team will work on. You can vote until 30 November.
  • Advanced item There is an A/B test for sameAs data. This is to make it easier to find the right information with a search engine. This changes the metadata for a wiki page. It doesn't change how the page looks. [44]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

Future changes

  • The Wikimedia wikis use templates to show readers there are problems with the content on some pages. For example if there are no sources or the page needs to be rewritten. The mobile website will soon show more information when you use these templates. Some templates may need to be updated. [45]
  • The Education Program extension was removed from all Wikimedia projects. The database tables used by the extension will be archived. This will happen in a month. If you want the information on your wiki you should move it to a normal wiki page. [46]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

23:28, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Removed section on portability

Hi GermanJoe, I'm new to participating and editing. I saw another citation to an Oracle blog reference 7 in the serverless article. I guess a blog that announces a release is different than just providing content? Jmcabe (talk) 00:25, 24 November 2018 (UTC) How about using this link for PortabilityJmcabe (talk) 00:30, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Jmcabe:, the problem with these types of sources (blogs on company sites, interviews with company representatives, advertorials in trade magazines, white papers, etc.) is, that their reliability is weakened by the authors' or interviewees' commercial interests. These publications have a clear promotional intent to tout their company's and products' own horn, so their usage is generally discouraged in favor of independent reliable expert sources (books, journals or other experts with no commercial affiliation). In addition, almost all blogs (whether commercial or not), which usually don't have editorial oversight and a reputation for fact-checking, are considered not reliable and should not be used. You'll find more details about this whole topic at WP:RS, but feel free to ask if you have any further questions. To your last question: release announcements in verified official blogs are sometimes used when the info is really really uncontroversial, but even then it would be better to replace this reference with an independent 3rd-party source as soon as possible. GermanJoe (talk) 00:51, 24 November 2018 (UTC)
Thanks for the clarification and interaction. Jmcabe (talk) 01:36, 24 November 2018 (UTC)
Hi @GermanJoe: I found a good source, I think, for the portability issue for serverless computing. Let me know if you think this is better. I also renamed the section as Standards instead of portability. Thanks Jmcabe (talk) 02:14, 24 November 2018 (UTC)
This looks like a better source. Thank you for looking for an improvement. GermanJoe (talk) 02:18, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-48

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • On wikis with translatable pages you could create a mess when you moved a page that had translatable subpages. A subpage is when you use / to create a new page: /wiki/Page/Subpage. The subpages would be moved but not the translations. The subpages are no longer automatically be moved. This is to make it safer to move pages. [47]

Changes later this week

  • The advanced search interface will be available by default on all Wikimedia wikis. It makes it easier to use some of the special search functions that most editors don't know exist. It's already active on German, Farsi, Arabic and Hungarian Wikipedia. [48]
  • Special:UnusedCategories show empty categories with no files or other categories. You can soon choose to not show soft redirect categories or some maintenance categories there. You can do this with the magic word __EXPECTUNUSEDCATEGORY__. [49]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 27 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 28 November. It will be on all wikis from 29 November (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • Advanced item The mw.util.jsMessage() function was deprecated in 2012. It will be removed next week. Look for the warning Use of "mw.util.jsMessage" is deprecated in the JavaScript console to know if you use an affected script or gadget. If you are a gadget maintainer you should check if your JavaScript code contains mw.util.jsMessage. There is a migration guide. It explains how to use mw.notify instead. [50]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

22:22, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Freelancing in India comments

Hi GermanJoe,

Thank you for the tip. Yes, I admit, I felt a little bit guilty when I deleted the whole paragraphs and did not leave reasons why I deleted them. Anyway, thank you for getting them back on the article, that way, I can properly edit and leave comments. :-)Gmli82164 (talk) 22:38, 28 November 2018 (UTC)Gmli82164

@Gmli82164: No problem, just thought I'd explain it in a bit more detail for future edits. Thank you for looking into much-needed improvements for this article. If you need any help with formatting or other technical-related questions, please let me know. I'd be glad to help where I can. GermanJoe (talk) 22:45, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

Serverless computing comments

Hello GermanJoe - Please could you explain where I went wrong, as I am confused and really wish to learn.

I am unsure why my reference was removed - the material was presented at a prestigious technical conference?

Many thanks for your help GermanJoe, Frazer fitz (talk) 19:36, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

Removed duplicate question. GermanJoe (talk) 20:14, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Frazer fitz:, the source text is clearly marked as the author's "personal opinion" (on page 2) and lacks any sources itself or other information about the author's research. While opinions from acknowledged notable topic experts can occasionally be mentioned in context, article content should focus on research-based facts and established knowledge. Also, I couldn't find any signs of editorial oversight for the linked site. The situation would be different (just to name one example), if the text was not labelled and designed as opinion piece, and would have been published in a reputed journal. Please see WP:RS for more information about identifying reliable - and unreliable - sources.
Also, regarding "prestigious technical conference": While I am sure it was an interesting and informative event, I couldn't find any independent coverage about it in established news media (in a brief search, so I may have missed some). I hope you don't mind me asking, but do you have a personal connection to the author or this event? If so, please make sure to read WP:COI for additional advice. Editors with a close connection to a given topic should follow this guideline. Best regards. GermanJoe (talk) 20:12, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
Hello GermanJoe - it was this event: https://serverlesscomputing.london/agenda-and-speakers/ and was organised by The Register https://www.theregister.co.uk/
I was a speaker and invited due to my project being highlighted at the AWS Summit, London 2018 in the Keynote: https://aws.amazon.com/summits/london/ - AWS are the largest Public Cloud provider of Serverless Computing (the subject matter)
I referenced my presentation material: http://serverlesscomputing.london/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Designing-Production-Serverless-Platforms_-start-ups-to-enterprise-and-back-again-v2.4.pdf
It's a topic I have a lot of experience in and simply wanted to contribute to the article.
Please may I have further advice GermanJoe? Many thanks Frazer fitz (talk) 20:26, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
Thank you for disclosing this connection @Frazer fitz:. I am sorry, but you shouldn't use your own opinion and research to source Wikipedia content in this manner. Please use information only, when it has been published in independent reliable sources with a reputation for editorial oversight and fact-checking. As a topic expert your contributions are appreciated of course, but you should be careful with using your own research to avoid possible "conflict of interest" situations. It would be much better if you could source topic-related information with references from other experts instead. Using published books, journals and expert news media you'll avoid both problems with reliability and a possible conflict of interest at the same time. GermanJoe (talk) 20:42, 29 November 2018 (UTC)
I see - thank you GermanJoe - I know now and will take your advice - Frazer fitz (talk) 20:46, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

Nominations now open for "Military historian of the year" and "Military history newcomer of the year" awards

Nominations for our annual Military historian of the year and Military history newcomer of the year awards are open until 23:59 (GMT) on 15 December 2018. Why don't you nominate the editors who you believe have made a real difference to the project in 2018? MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:26, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-49

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

  • Admins will not be able to unblock themselves if they are blocked by someone other than themselves. This is because it can cause damage if someone else takes over an admin account and other admins can't block them. If this is a problem for your community you can report it on Phabricator. You can also ask questions on Meta. There is a discussion on Phabricator about how to solve this if two admins fight with each other on a small wiki. [51]
  • Small SVG images are now bigger when you see them in MediaViewer. [52]
  • You can go to a section from the edit summary by clicking on the section name. Before this you had to click on the arrow. [53]
  • When you jumped to a footnote that was referenced several times in an article it could be difficult to see where you were in the text. Now there are jump marks and highlights to help you find your way back. [54][55]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:12, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Rollback granted

Hi GermanJoe. After reviewing your request for "rollbacker", I have enabled rollback on your account. Keep in mind these things when going to use rollback:

  • Getting rollback is no more momentous than installing Twinkle.
  • Rollback should be used to revert clear cases of vandalism only, and not good faith edits.
  • Rollback should never be used to edit war.
  • If abused, rollback rights can be revoked.
  • Use common sense.

If you no longer want rollback, contact me and I'll remove it. Also, for some more information on how to use rollback, see Wikipedia:Administrators' guide/Rollback (even though you're not an admin). I'm sure you'll do great with rollback, but feel free to leave me a message on my talk page if you run into troubles or have any questions about appropriate/inappropriate use of rollback. Thank you for helping to reduce vandalism. Happy editing! TonyBallioni (talk) 21:36, 4 December 2018 (UTC)

@TonyBallioni: thank you for the quick response. I'll try not to mess up. GermanJoe (talk) 21:38, 4 December 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CLII, December 2018

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 10:34, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-50

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 11 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 12 December. It will be on all wikis from 13 December (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • New accounts will need passwords that are at least 8 characters long. Admins, interface admins, bureaucrats, oversighters, CentralNotice admins, global renamers, check users, stewards and some other user groups will need passwords that are at least 10 characters long. This is because an attacker could cause damage to the wikis if they took over these accounts. [56][57]
  • When you hover over a footnote it will show you the reference as a pop-up. This is so you don't have to jump down to the bottom of the page to see a reference. This will happen in 2019. Some wikis already have gadgets that do this. You will be able to turn it off. [58]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

17:33, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Market fundamentalism

Market fundamentalism article ... This article is completely biased. It’s written in the POV of criticism only. The entire “overview” section is a one sided critique of free market fundamentalism and not an actual overview. If anything that overview should be titled “criticisms” and someone should write an actual overview and perhaps the arguments In favour of it. How it stands, this article is very poorly written. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.116.101.252 (talk) 22:38, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Hello, thank you for your interest in improving this article. But please raise such concerns on the article's associated talkpage Talk:Market fundamentalism (new threads are generally posted at the bottom of talkpages), so other editors can also offer additional feedback. If you have concrete sourced suggestions for new or changed content, such ideas would of course also be appreciated on article talk. GermanJoe (talk) 22:01, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Juanita Bynum and Mendi Msimang

Sorry, I'll try the Wikipedia adventure then but please don't block me Oreratile1207 (talk) 22:30, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

@Oreratile1207: occasional mistakes can happen, especially when new editors aren't aware of all guidelines. But please take good-faith messages on your user talkpage more seriously - in your own interest to avoid future problems. And read through some of the linked guidelines whenever you have a bit of spare time. The Wikipedia adventure will also help you to get a bit more experience with Wikipedia in general, that's a good idea. Thank you for your consideration. GermanJoe (talk) 22:44, 10 December 2018 (UTC)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:GermanJoe/Archive_11&oldid=880072081"