User talk:Syed Kazim

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?

What are you doing? DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 21:52, 21 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Next time, try using the {{inuse}} template, because I saw that the page was blank, I tagged it for CSD. --Syed Kazim | Talk 21:56, 21 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Next time, try using a little discretion. It's not like I was starting the article on The University of Underwater Basketmaking. DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 21:58, 21 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I had a reason to tag it for CSD, as I mentioned above. You should have used the {{inuse}} tag. Happy editing! --Syed Kazim | Talk 22:03, 21 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Makazi

Syed Kazim, salam! Nimefurahiwa na Kiswahili chako kule kwenye Wikipedia ya Kiswahili - na ningependa kujua meengi kuhusu lugha hii umejifunza wapi na wewe ni mkazi wa wapi! Mimi ni mmoja kati ya wachangiaji wa Wikipedia ile. Na ni bureaucrat kule kwenye Kiswahili. Pia, mmoja kati ya wenyekukutakia kheri ya maisha! Basi natumai nitajibiwa! Kila la kheri, kaka.--_{Mwanaharakati}^(Longa) 10:16, 27 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ahsante sana kwa maneno haya mazuri. Ninaishi Dar... hapa kwetu bongo. Nitapenda kuichangia Wikipedia ile... siku moja nitajaribu akipenda Mungu. Nakutakia njema! --Syed Kazim | Talk 14:34, 27 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Syed, salam. Eti na mimi ninaishi Dar, pale katika jiji la wajanja wa Bongo. Je, ungependa siku moja tuonane? Ukiona inafaa, basi tuwasiliane! Ili tujivunie Wanawikipedia sisi wa Dar es Salaam. Shalom.--_{Mwanaharakati}^(Longa) 06:37, 29 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Mungu akipenda tutakutana siku moja. Kwaheri kaka. --Syed Kazim | Talk 14:59, 30 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed deletion of CN Real

A proposed deletion template has been added to the article CN Real, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process because of the following concern:

no third party sourcing - Wikipedia WP:NOT an advert

All contributions are appreciated, but this article may not satisfy Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and the deletion notice should explain why (see also "What Wikipedia is not" and Wikipedia's deletion policy). You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{dated prod}} notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised because, even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Articles for Deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. -- The Red Pen of Doom 11:49, 29 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I just tagged the article. Have no contributions to it. --Syed Kazim | Talk 12:02, 29 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OK - i had just left the tag on all registered account who had made any edits. -- The Red Pen of Doom 12:11, 29 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Its okay. Happy Editing!

~Title Edited by Syed Kazim~

I will stop vandalizing if you admit that the religious right isn't racist. Liberals stereotype it that way but those freedom hating moralisti-cunts are the most anti-White people on Earth. 1488aryanpride (talk) 16:02, 3 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is not the place to put forward your opinions. --Syed Kazim | Talk 16:07, 3 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome

Hello, Syed Kazim! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. You may benefit from following some of the links below, which will help you get the most out of Wikipedia. If you have any questions you can ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or by typing four tildes "~~~~"; this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you are already loving Wikipedia you might want to consider being "adopted" by a more experienced editor or joining a WikiProject to collaborate with others in creating and improving articles of your interest. Click here for a directory of all the WikiProjects. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Happy editing! ^Talk/♥фĩłдωəß♥\^Work 13:34, 4 July 2009 (UTC)[reply] Getting Started Wikipedia Tutorial • The five pillars of Wikipedia How to: edit a page • upload an image Getting Help Frequently Asked Questions Where to ask questions or make comments Request administrator attention Policies and Guidelines Neutral point of view • Reliable sources Verifiability • Citing sources • No original research What Wikipedia is not • Biographies of living persons Manual of Style • Three-revert rule • Sock puppetry Copyrights • Policy for non-free content • Image use policy External links • Spam • Vandalism Deletion policy • Conflict of interest • Notability The Community Community Portal • Adopt-a-user program Assume good faith • Civility • Etiquette No personal attacks • Resolving disputes Build consensus • Village pump Signpost • IRC channels • Mailing lists Things to do Be bold in editing • Help develop an article Pages needing attention • Peer review Join a WikiProject • Translating articles Cleaning up: General • Spam • Vandalism Miscellaneous Categories • Disambiguity • Stubs User pages • Talk pages Useful templates • Tools • User scripts

Thanks. --Syed Kazim | Talk 13:47, 4 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

William Careless (Carlos)

Hi,

I have quite a few references, and Careless (or Carlos or Carlis) is already mentioned in two Wikipedia articles - Royal Oak and "Charles II escape after Worcester" - don't remember the exact title. I always compose on page - unfortunately.

Regards' Urselius (talk) 20:05, 26 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

For my reference: This is a continuation of User_talk:Urselius#William_Careless_.28Carlos.29.

Oh, okay. Just use the {{inuse}} tag next time. Alternatively, you could write out an article in your user-space and then move it when you are satisfied. Either way is fine. Thanks for your contributions. Happy Editing! --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 20:12, 26 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The article is now more-or-less finished.Urselius (talk) 11:08, 27 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. I have removed the tags.--Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 14:25, 27 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dyk

I responded back on the DYK. Also I was thinking of achiving my talk page but I find it easier like it is now. Spongie555 (talk) 02:37, 16 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

For my reference: This is a continuation of User_talk:Spongie555#DYK_nomination_of_Constitution_of_Bhutan and User_talk:Spongie555#Archive

I answered the query on the DYK talk page. If you find that not archiving is easier, keep it that way. It's your talk-page after all. :) --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 02:58, 16 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The alt is fine for the nomination. Spongie555 (talk) 03:08, 16 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. Maybe you could add the {{subst:DYKtick}} template. Because I proposed the alternate, I should not confirm that it is ready. --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 03:11, 16 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

User:Syed Kazim/monobook.js

{{helpme}}

Hello. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I have various scripts in my monobook.js but they don't seem to work. I've bypassed my browser's cache quite a few times to no avail. These scripts used to work before. I'm using Firefox 3.6.13. Any suggestions? --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 17:07, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure that you are using Monobook? If not select appearance in my preferences and select Monobook. →♠Gƒoley↔Four♣← 17:24, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I am using the Monobook appearance. Anything else I should check? --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 17:28, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I cancelled the 'helpme' - Syed Kazim, you don't need to use 'helpme' when talking directly to another user on their talk page. 'Helpme' gets the attention of any helper. Cheers,  Chzz  ►  17:43, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I should have clarified. I have the Monobook preference selected in my preferences, but the scripts still do not work. So the problem is not exactly solved. I have added {{helpme}} again. My apologies for not being clearer earlier. :) --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 17:50, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I am not sure what else you could do. I suppose you should make sure you are bypassing your cache correctly. →♠Gƒoley↔Four♣← 17:51, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just did it again according to the instructions at the link you provided. The scripts still don't work. :| Any other suggestions? --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 17:54, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's a lot of scripts you are running. Are you sure they all work OK? Have you just imported them from other users? - some scripts won't run that way, you need to use an import script routine. FF can be fussy, one wrong bit of code and it ignores the rest. I suggest blank that lot out (it's saved in the history) and replace with just

//Highlight Admins
importScript('User:Ais523/adminrights.js');

(Don't get the script from that page - it won't work that way) By pass the cache and look at the history of this talk page, any admin will be shown in a blue background. If that works then just re-add your old scripts one at a time, and test.  Ronhjones  ^(Talk) 18:05, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The only thing I would add to that is...sometimes, you have to use 'trial and error'. One script could cause the others to all fail. First, I would remove everything from the page, and put just one simple line there. For example, try just this one;

importScript('User:Dr pda/prosesize.js');

Do the advised refresh/reload to bypass your cache, then go to any article page and see if, on the left, in the 'toolbox' part you have the option to calculate Page size. If you do, that shows that scripts can work. If you don't, you have a very odd problem.

If that one does work (which is likely), try adding just one more script that you want - and see if that works. Build up that way, and see what makes it all go wrong.

If it fails to work, try rebooting.

Please reinstate the 'helpme' if you need more. Thanks,  Chzz  ►  18:13, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I added the script Ronhjones suggested and it works. Must be one of the scripts which is causing the problem. I'll try putting them back in one at a time. Thank you Ronhjones, Chzz and Gfoley4 for your help! --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 18:16, 24 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Added template for SuggestBot

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If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please let us know on SuggestBot's talk page. Regards from Nettrom (talk), SuggestBot's caretaker. -- SuggestBot (talk) 14:02, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 09 January 2012

• Technological roadmap: 2011's technological achievements in review, and what 2012 may hold
  

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• News and notes: Fundraiser 2011 ends with a bang
  

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• In the news: Wikipedia ends annual fundraising drive; Monmouthpedia launches
  

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• WikiProject report: From Traditional to Experimental: WikiProject Jazz
  

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• Featured content: Contentious FAC debate: a week in review
  

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• Arbitration report: Four open cases, proposed decision in Betacommand 3
  

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• Technology report: December in more detail; and why the MediaWiki codebase was "slushed" this week
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:09, 10 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 January 2012

• Special report: English Wikipedia to go dark on January 18
  

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• Sister projects: What are our sisters up to now?
  

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• News and notes: WMF on the looming SOPA blackout, Wikipedia turns 11, and Commons passes 12 million files
  

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• WikiProject report: WikiProject Beer
  

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• Featured content: Lecen on systemic bias in featured content
  

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• Arbitration report: Four open cases, Betacommand case deadlocked, Muhammad images close near
  

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• Technology report: ArticleFeedback moves into new trial phase; and how MediaWiki integrates with Facebook, IPv6, and PostgreSQL explored
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 07:00, 17 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Articles you might like to edit, from SuggestBot

We are currently running a study on the effects of adding additional information to SuggestBot’s recommendations. Participation in the study is voluntary. Should you wish to not participate in the study, or have questions or concerns, you can find contact information in the consent information sheet.

We have added information about the quality of the suggested articles using a Low/Medium/High scale which goes from Low to High .

SuggestBot predicts that you will enjoy editing some of these articles. Have fun!

Stubs			Cleanup
	Packsville, West Virginia			Big Show and Kane
	Affinity, West Virginia			Princes of Wales family tree
	Lynbrook Senior High School			Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Convent Secondary School
	Baba Guru Nanak University		Merge
	Besoco, West Virginia			Force Z
	Abney, West Virginia			Norton Personal Firewall
	Midway, Raleigh County, West Virginia			Miqdad ibn Aswad
	West Mesquite High School		Add sources
	Blue Jay, West Virginia			Big Stick, West Virginia
	Solar roadway			Boris Ponomarev
	Sikh Pilgrimage to Pakistan			Honours of the Principality of Wales
	East Union High School		Wikify
	Bob Lutz (American football)			Tulpar (Almaty Metro)
	Gurdwara Nanak Shahi			Don Callis
	Eccles, West Virginia			Kara (Sikhism)
	Burntisland railway station		Expand
	Fireco, West Virginia			Ironton, Ohio
	Marion Harding High School (Ohio)			Index of Tanzania-related articles
	Artie, West Virginia			Timeline of Tanzanian history

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly, your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please let us know on SuggestBot's talk page. Regards from Nettrom (talk), SuggestBot's caretaker. -- SuggestBot (talk) 02:19, 20 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 January 2012

• News and notes: SOPA blackout, Orange partnership
  

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• In the news: World watched as Wikipedia shut down for SOPA blackout
  

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• WikiProject report: The Golden Horseshoe: WikiProject Toronto
  

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• Featured content: Interview with Muhammad Mahdi Karim and the best of the week
  

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• Arbitration report: Four open cases, proposed decision in Muhammad images, AUSC call for applications
  

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• Technology report: Looking ahead to MediaWiki 1.19 and related issues
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 19:13, 26 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 January 2012

• News and notes: Update on Global Development, Wikipedia Day NYC is a success, JFK audio on Commons
  

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• In the news: Zambian wiki-assassins, Foundation über alles, editor engagement and the innovation plateau
  

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• Recent research: Language analyses examine power structure and political slant; Wikipedia compared to commercial databases
  

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• WikiProject report: Digging Up WikiProject Palaeontology
  

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• Featured content: Featured content soaring this week
  

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• Arbitration report: Five open cases, voting on proposed decisions in two cases
  

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• Technology report: Why "Lua" is on everybody's lips, and when to expect MediaWiki 1.19
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 04:16, 31 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 February 2012

• News and notes: The Foundation visits Tunisia, analyzes donors
  

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• In the news: Leading scholar hails Wikipedia, historians urged to contribute while PR pros remain shunned
  

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• Discussion report: Discussion swarms around Templates for deletion and returning editors of colourful pasts
  

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• WikiProject report: The Eye of the Storm: WikiProject Tropical Cyclones
  

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• Featured content: Talking architecture with MrPanyGoff
  

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• Arbitration report: Four open cases, final decision in Muhammad images, Betacommand 3 near closure
  

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• Technology report: October's coding challenge: results now in; progress on 1.19 steady; and why for a while interwiki links were no more
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 00:36, 8 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Article Rescue Squadron Newsletter

Article Rescue Squadron Newsletter Volume I, Issue III February 2012 Front cover | Feature | News and announcements | Humor | Want ads To contribute to the next newsletter, please visit the Newsletter draft page. ARS Members automatically receive this newsletter. To opt out, please remove your name from the recipients list.

The Signpost: 13 February 2012

• Special report: Fundraising proposals spark a furore among the chapters
  

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• News and notes: Foundation launches Legal and Community Advocacy department
  

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• In the news: Scholars and spindoctors contend with the emergent wikiorder
  

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• In focus: Skirmishes in the 'great sectarian war of the Internet'
  

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• WikiProject report: WikiProject Stub Sorting
  

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• Featured content: The best of the week
  

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• Arbitration report: Betacommand 3 closed, proposed decision in Civility enforcement, AUSC candidates announced
  

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• Technology report: January sees prototype new geodata API; but February looks to be a testing time for top developers
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 04:11, 15 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 February 2012

• Special report: The plight of the new page patrollers
  

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• News and notes: Fundraiser row continues, new director of engineering
  

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• Discussion report: Discussion on copyrighted files from non-US relation states
  

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• WikiProject report: WikiProject Poland
  

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• Featured content: The best of the week
  

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• Arbitration report: Civility enforcement closed, proposed decision in TimidGuy, two cases remain open
  

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• Technology report: Major strands of development cycle coalesce as 1.19 is deployed to first wikis
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 23:57, 20 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 February 2012

• News and notes: Finance meeting fallout, Gardner recommendations forthcoming
  

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• Recent research: Gender gap and conflict aversion; collaboration on breaking news; effects of leadership on participation; legacy of Public Policy Initiative
  

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• Discussion report: Focus on admin conduct and editor retention
  

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• WikiProject report: Just don't call it "sci-fi": WikiProject Science Fiction
  

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• Featured content: By plane, by ship, and by stagecoach: Featured content goes trekking this week
  

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• Arbitration report: Final decision in TimidGuy ban appeal, one case remains open
  

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• Technology report: 1.19 deployment stress, Meta debates whether to enforce SUL
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 02:18, 28 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 05 March 2012

• News and notes: Chapter-selected Board seats, an invite to the Teahouse, patrol becomes triage, and this week in history
  

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• In the news: Heights reached in search rankings, privacy and mental health info; clouds remain over content policing
  

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• Discussion report: COI and NOTCENSORED: policies under discussion
  

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• WikiProject report: We don't bite: WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles
  

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• Featured content: Best of the week
  

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• Arbitration report: AUSC appointments announced, one case remains open
  

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• Technology report: With the 1.19 deployment now (mostly) complete, developers consider possible "mini" deployment later in the month
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 17:02, 6 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 March 2012

• Interview: Liaising with the Education Program
  

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• Women and Wikipedia: Women's history, what we're missing, and why it matters
  

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• Arbitration analysis: A look at new arbitrators
  

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• News and notes: Sue Gardner tackles the funds, and the terms of use update nears implementation
  

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• In the news: Britannica runs out of print as Jimmy Wales anointed UK transparency tsar
  

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• Discussion report: Nothing changes as long discussions continue
  

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• WikiProject report: WikiProject Women's History
  

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• Featured content: Extinct humans, birds, and Birdman
  

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• Arbitration report: Proposed decision in 'Article titles', only one open case
  

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• Education report: Diverse approaches to Wikipedia in Education
  

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• Technology report: Git learning curve steep but not insurmountable, plus a diff style we can all agree on?
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 12:45, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 March 2012

• News and notes: Chapters Council proposals take form as research applications invited for Wikipedia Academy and HighBeam accounts
  

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• Discussion report: Article Rescue Squadron in need of rescue yet again
  

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• WikiProject report: Lessons from another Wikipedia: Czech WikiProject Protected Areas
  

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• Featured content: Featured content on the upswing!
  

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• Arbitration report: Race and intelligence 'review' opened, Article titles at voting
  

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• Technology report: Bugmeister to leave at end of May, but developers keen to "chart" a path ahead
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 14:39, 20 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 March 2012

• News and notes: Controversial content saga continues, while the Foundation tries to engage editors with merchandising and restructuring
  

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• WikiProject report: WikiProject Rock Music
  

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• Featured content: Malfunctioning sharks, toothcombs and a famous mother: featured content for the week
  

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• Arbitration report: Race and intelligence review at evidence, article titles closed
  

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• Recent research: Predicting admin elections; studying flagged revision debates; classifying editor interactions; and collecting the Wikipedia literature
  

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• Education report: Universities unite for GLAM; and High Schools get their due.
  

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• Technology report: A busy week: Git switchover, mobile site upgraded, and still time for three security releases
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 01:08, 27 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 02 April 2012

• Interview: An introduction to movement roles
  

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• Arbitration analysis: Case review: TimidGuy ban appeal
  

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• News and notes: Berlin reforms to movement structures, Wikidata launches with fanfare, and Wikipedia's day of mischief
  

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• WikiProject report: The Signpost scoops The Signpost
  

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• Featured content: Snakes, misnamed chapels, and emptiness: featured content this week
  

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• Arbitration report: Race and intelligence review in third week, one open case
  

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• Technology report: Somewhere amongst the endless discussions about Gerrit lie details of hackathons, performance blips explained and more
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 07:55, 3 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 09 April 2012

• Wikidata: The next big thing? An interview with Wikidata
  

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• Interview: Funds, fiduciaries, and the Foundation: the complex dynamics of scaling
  

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• News and notes: Projects launched in Brazil and the Middle East as advisors sought for funds committee
  

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• WikiProject report: The Land of Steady Habits: WikiProject Connecticut
  

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• Featured content: Assassination, genocide, internment, murder, and crucifixion: the bloodiest of the week
  

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• Arbitration report: Arbitration evidence-limit motions, two open cases
  

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• Technology report: Next Wikimedia deployment already in the pipeline and details of recent performance improvements
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 01:13, 10 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 April 2012

• Arbitration analysis: Inside the Arbitration Committee Mailing List
  

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• Paid editing: Does Wikipedia Pay? The Facilitator: Silver seren
  

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• News and notes: French language outreach, WikiTravel debate, and HighBeam reloaded
  

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• Discussion report: The future of pending changes
  

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• WikiProject report: The Butterflies and Moths of WikiProject Lepidoptera
  

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• Featured content: A few good sports: association football, rugby league, and the Olympics vie for medals
  

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• Arbitration report: Evidence submissions begin in Rich Farmbrough case, proposed decision in R&I Review
  

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• Technology report: MediaWiki 1.20wmf01 hits first WMF wiki, understanding 20% time, and why this report cannot yet be a draft
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 23:25, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 April 2012

• Investigative report: Spin doctors spin Jimmy's "bright line"
  

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• News and notes: Help-space revamp, WikiTravel RfC, and Justin Knapp scores a million edits
  

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• WikiProject report: Skeptics and Believers: WikiProject The X-Files
  

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• Featured content: A mirror (or seventeen) on this week's featured content
  

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• Arbitration report: Evidence submissions close in Rich Farmbrough case, vote on proposed decision in R&I Review
  

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• Technology report: Wikimedia Labs: soon to be at the cutting edge of MediaWiki development?
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 12:23, 24 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 April 2012

• Paid editing: Does Wikipedia Pay? The Consultant: Pete Forsyth
  

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• News and notes: Showdown as featured article writer openly solicits commercial opportunities
  

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• Recent research: Barnstars work; Wiktionary assessed; cleanup tags counted; finding expert admins; discussion peaks; Wikipedia citations in academic publications; and more
  

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• Discussion report: 'ReferenceTooltips' by default
  

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• WikiProject report: The Cartographers of WikiProject Maps
  

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• Featured content: Featured content spreads its wings
  

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• Arbitration report: R&I Review remains in voting, two open cases
  

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• Technology report: What Git means for end users, design controversies and pertinent poll results
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:33, 1 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 May 2012

• Paid editing: Does Wikipedia Pay? The Communicator: Phil Gomes
  

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• News and notes: Hong Kong to host Wikimania 2013
  

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• In the news: What does Wikipedia call an expert; and untruths in biographies ... again.
  

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• WikiProject report: Say What?: WikiProject Languages
  

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• Featured content: This week at featured content: How much wood would a Wood Duck chuck if a Wood Duck could chuck wood?
  

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• Arbitration report: Proposed decision in Rich Farmbrough, two open cases
  

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• Technology report: Search gets faster, GSoC gets more detail and 1.20wmf2 gets deployed
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 01:44, 8 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 May 2012

• Special report: Wikimedia and the "seismic shift" towards open-access research publication
  

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• News and notes: Finance debate drags on as editor survey finds Wikipedia too bureaucratic
  

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• WikiProject report: Welcome to Wikipedia with a cup of tea and all your questions answered - at the Teahouse
  

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• Featured content: Featured content is red hot this week
  

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• Arbitration report: R&I Review closed, Rich Farmbrough near closure
  

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• Technology report: Cross-wiki watchlist controversy; and is "go file a bug" really a useful response?
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 23:54, 14 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 21 May 2012

• From the editor: New editor-in-chief
  

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• News and notes: Two new Wikimedia fellows to boost strategies for tackling major issues
  

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• WikiProject report: Trouble in a Galaxy Far, Far Away....
  

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• Featured content: Lemurbaby moves it with Madagascar: Featured content for the week
  

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• Arbitration report: No open arbitration cases pending
  

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• Technology report: On the indestructibility of Wikimedia content
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 04:00, 22 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 May 2012

• News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation endorses open-access petition to the White House; pending changes RfC ends
  

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• Recent research: Supporting interlanguage collaboration; detecting reverts; Wikipedia's discourse, semantic and leadership networks, and Google's Knowledge Graph
  

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• WikiProject report: Experts and enthusiasts at WikiProject Geology
  

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• Featured content: Featured content cuts the cheese
  

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• Arbitration report: Fæ and GoodDay requests for arbitration, changes to evidence word limits
  

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• Technology report: Developer divide wrangles; plus Wikimedia Zero, MediaWiki 1.20wmf4, and IPv6
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 09:24, 30 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 June 2012

• Special report: WikiWomenCamp: From women, for women
  

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• News and notes: Editors want most funding for technical areas, while widespread ignorance of WMF board elections and chapters persists; voting still live on Commons best picture
  

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• Discussion report: Watching Wikipedia change
  

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• WikiProject report: Views of WikiProject Visual Arts
  

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• Featured content: On the lochs
  

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• Arbitration report: Two motions for procedural reform, three open cases, Rich Farmbrough risks block and ban
  

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• Technology report: Report from the Berlin Hackathon
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 10:20, 5 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 11 June 2012

• Special report: Springer's misappropriation of Wikimedia content "the tip of the iceberg"
  

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• News and notes: Foundation finance reformers wrestle with CoI
  

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• WikiProject report: Counter-Vandalism Unit
  

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• Featured content: The cake is a pi
  

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• Arbitration report: Procedural reform enacted, Rich Farmbrough blocked, three open cases
  

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• Technology report: To support or not to support IPv6, and why knowing when this report was last updated might be getting easier
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 23:00, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 June 2012

• Investigative report: Is the requests for adminship process 'broken'?
  

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• News and notes: Ground shifts while chapters dither over new Association
  

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• Discussion report: Discussion Reports And Miscellaneous Articulations
  

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• WikiProject report: The Punks of Wikipedia
  

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• Featured content: Taken with a pinch of "salt"
  

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• Arbitration report: Three open cases, GoodDay case closed
  

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• Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 03:37, 20 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 June 2012

• Op-ed: A call for editorial input in developing new Creative Commons licensing
  

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• News and notes: "Mystical" Picture of the Year; run-up to Wikimania DC; RfA reform 2012
  

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• In the news: Wales enters extradition battle; Wikipedia's political bias
  

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• Recent research: Edit war patterns, deleters vs. the 1%, never used cleanup tags, authorship inequality, higher quality from central users, and mapping the wikimediasphere
  

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• WikiProject report: Summer Sports Series: WikiProject Athletics
  

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• Featured content: A good week for the Williams
  

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• Arbitration report: Three open cases
  

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• Technology report: Second Visual Editor prototype launches
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 07:33, 26 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 02 July 2012

• Analysis: Uncovering scientific plagiarism
  

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• Op-ed: Representing knowledge – metadata, data and linked data
  

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• News and notes: RfC on joining lobby group; JSTOR accounts for Wikipedians and the article feedback tool
  

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• In the news: Public relations on Wikipedia: friend or foe?
  

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• Discussion report: Discussion reports and miscellaneous articulations
  

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• WikiProject report: Summer sports series: Burning rubber with WikiProject Motorsport
  

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• Featured content: Heads up
  

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• Arbitration report: Three open cases, motion for the removal of Carnildo's administrative tools
  

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• Technology report: Initialisms abound: QA and HTML5
  

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 13:09, 3 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 09 July 2012

• Special report: Reforming the education programs: lessons from Cairo
  

Wikipedia has a long history of collaborating with educational institutions. The Schools and universities program — international and in many languages, but dominated by US institutions — started in 2003 and evolved case by case with little system. However, that changed in 2009 as Wikimedia embarked on its formal strategic process, and outreach in higher education came to be seen in terms of achieving explicit goals — especially that of increasing editor participation.

• News and notes: Russian Wikipedia blackout; WMF tools; Wikitravel proposal revisited
  

The Russian Wikipedia has been blacked out for 24 hours, ending 20:00 UTC Tuesday, as a protest against Russian State Duma Bill 89417-6, a bill currently before the Duma (the Russian parliament). Visitors to the Russian Wikipedia are confronted by the sign above in protest at a draconian internet censorship bill before the Duma. The Russian word for Wikipedia is crossed out in this banner, and the text says: "Imagine a world without free knowledge. The State Duma is currently conducting the second reading of a bill to amend the "Law on Information", which has the potential to lead to the creation of extra-judicial censorship of the Internet in Russia, including the closure of access to the Russian Wikipedia. Today, the Wikipedia community protests against censorship as a threat to free knowledge that is open to all mankind. We ask that you oppose this bill."

• WikiProject report: Summer sports series: WikiProject Football
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Football, which focuses on the sport also known as association football or soccer. WikiProject Football is by far the largest sport project and one of the most active projects on Wikipedia in terms of the number of articles covered, edits to articles, and talk page watchers.

• Featured content: Keeps on chuggin'
  

Eight featured articles were promoted this week: ... Aries (constellation) by Keilana. Aries the Ram (symbol ♈) is one of the constellations of the Zodiac and one of 88 currently recognised constellations. Its area is 441 square degrees (1.1% of the celestial sphere). Although fairly dim, with only three bright stars, it is home to several deep-sky objects.

• Arbitration report: Three requests for arbitration
  

No cases were closed or opened, leaving the number of open cases at three. ... The case concerns alleged misconduct with regards to aggressive responses and harassment by Fæ toward users who question his actions.

• Technology report: Optimism over LastModified and MoodBar, but change in clock time causes downtime
  

The results from last month's trial of the LastModified extension were published this week on the Wikimedia blog. The first analyses have indicated a significant positive impact, suggesting that the extension – which makes the time since a page's last edit much more prominent in the interface – could eventually find its way onto Wikimedia wikis.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 12:15, 10 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 July 2012

• Special report: Chapters Association mired in controversy over new chair
  

User:Fæ was elected as the inaugural chair of the new Wikimedia Chapters Association, despite the controversies that have surrounded Fæ on the English Wikipedia and Commons, most recently aired in a live case before the Arbitration Committee. This is in marked contrast with unexciting movement, during the Wikimania meeting, on the most important issues facing the establishment of the association.

• News and notes: WMF enacts reforms at Wikimania; main page redesign; 4 millionth article milestone
  

During Wikimania (July 12-15), the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) board finalized and enacted long-discussed reforms of the movement's financial structures, and considered procedures for creating new ways for Wikimedians to organize themselves into offline communities. The board moved on the controversial image filter issue, approved the 2012–13 annual plan, and issued a statement on the wikitravel proposal. It also appointed the two new chapter-selected trustees and elected the four office-bearers.

• WikiProject report: Summer sports series: French WikiProject Cycling
  

With the Tour de France in its final week, we traveled to the French Wikipedia for a chat with Projet Cyclisme (WikiProject Cycling). The French Wikipedia places a greater emphasis on portals than the English Wikipedia, which explains why WikiProject Cycling and its discussion page are actually extensions of the Cycling Portal. The project is home to two Article de Qualité (equivalent to Featured Articles) and eight Bon Article (Good Articles), primarily biographies of cyclists.

• Discussion report: Discussion reports and miscellaneous articulations
  

A brief overview of the current discussions on the English Wikipedia, including one regarding the purpose of the Community Portal. Started by Maryana, a Wikimedia Foundation employee, is this page for new users to be educated about the community, or is it for experienced users to find updates about the community?

• Wikimania: Young chapter shows experience beyond its years
  

Nearly 1400 Wikimedians and others from 87 countries descended on the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., for Wikimania 2012. Even with an unprecedented number (1400) of conference attendees — the previous two Wikimanias, held in Gdańsk (Poland) and Haifa (Israel), were attended by fewer than 1100 people combined – Wikimania 2012 was a complete success, with attendees' reaction to the conference coming out as ecstatic and laudatory.

• Featured content: Taking flight
  

Eight featured articles were promoted this week, including Paul McCartney by GabeMc. McCartney (born 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and composer. He gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and his collaboration with John Lennon is highly celebrated. After the band's break-up he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings. McCartney has been described by Guinness World Records as the "most successful composer and recording artist of all time", and his song "Yesterday" has been covered more than any other song in history.

• Technology report: Tech talks at Wikimania amid news of a mixed June
  

As Wikimania, the annual conference targeted at Wikimedians and often well attended by those with a technical slant, draws to a close, comments have already begun to come in from attendees regarding the many tech-related features of the conference.

• Arbitration report: Fæ faces site-ban, proposed decisions posted
  

No cases were closed or opened, leaving the number of open cases at three. A new remedy in the Fæ case calls for him to be indefinitely banned from the site after his attempts to solicit intervention from the Foundation, claiming that publicly listing all his accounts would be too onerous due to "ongoing security risks." He was further criticised for attempting to dodge good-faith concerns; the committee believes that if Fæ's claims are valid then he must be removed from the community.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 12:41, 17 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 July 2012

• Paid editing: Does Wikipedia pay? The skeptic: Orange Mike
  

Does Wikipedia pay? is an ongoing Signpost series seeking to illuminate paid editing, paid advocacy, for-profit Wikipedia consultants, editing public relations professionals, conflict of interest guidelines in practice, and the Wikipedians who work on these issues... by speaking openly with the people involved.

• From the editor: Signpost developments
  

The Signpost's goal is to provide readers with essential information about the Wikimedia movement and the English Wikipedia – both of which have become large and extremely complex institutions that require timely, balanced and in-depth coverage.

• News and notes: Chapter head speaks about the aftermath of Russian Wikipedia shutdown
  

Two weeks ago the Signpost reported that the Russian Wikipedia had just begun a 24-hour blackout in protest at a bill that was before the Russian parliament that proposed mechanisms to block IP addresses and DNS records. The protest, implemented after on-wiki consensus was reached during the preceding days, concerned the potential of the amendment to the information law to allow extra-judicial censorship of the internet in Russia, including the closure of access to the Russian Wikipedia. Among the questions now are how effective the blackout was and where we go from here in terms of internet freedom in one of the world's biggest and most influential countries.

• WikiProject report: Summer sports series: WikiProject Olympics
  

With the 2012 Summer Olympic Games beginning this weekend in London, we decided to catch up with the chaps at WikiProject Olympics. The last time we interviewed WikiProject Olympics was in February 2010 when the project was gearing up for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. We wanted to know how the project has grown since then and whether preparing for a Summer Olympics was more grueling.

• Arbitration report: Fæ and Michaeldsuarez banned; Kwamikagami desysopped; Falun Gong closes with mandated external reviews and topic bans
  

For the second time this year (and the third in the history of the committee), there are no open cases, as all three active cases were closed last week.

• Op-ed: The future of PR on Wikipedia
  

There has never been a better time to improve the behavior of marketing professionals on Wikipedia. For the first time we're seeing self-imposed statements of ethics. Professional PR bodies around the globe have supported the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) guidance for ethical Wikipedia engagement. Although their tone is different, CREWE and the PRSA have brought more attention to the issues. Awareness among PR professionals is rising. So are the number of paid editing operations sprouting up and the opportunity for dialogue.

• Featured content: When is an island not an island?
  

One featured article was promoted this week, Melville Island. A small peninsula in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, it was discovered by Europeans in the 1600s and initially used for storehouses. The land was purchased by the British and used to hold prisoners of war, then to receive escaped slaves from the United States. After being used as a place of quarantine and later a recruitment centre, the land was granted to Canada in 1907 and used to house prisoners of war. It is now home to the clubhouse and marina of the Armdale Yacht Club.

• Technology report: Translating SVGs and making history bugs history
  

In the first of a series looking at this year's eight ongoing Google Summer of Code projects, the Signpost caught up with developer Harry Burt.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 12:44, 24 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 July 2012

• Recent research: Conflict dynamics, collaboration and emotions; digitization vs. copyright; WikiProject field notes; quality of medical articles; role of readers; Best Wiki Paper Award
  

From the modeling of social dynamics in a collaborative environment to why the number of Wikipedia readers rises while the number of editors doesn't.

• News and notes: Wikimedians and London 2012; WMF budget – staffing, engineering, editor retention effort, and the global South; Telegraph's cheap shot at WP
  

Wikimedia Foundation published its Annual Plan, focusing on technical improvements, editor retention, and structural reforms over the coming year. The movement's total revenue, including almost all chapter funding, is slated to rise by 35%, from $34.2 million to $46.1 million, and global spending to more than $42.1 million. The foundation's own core spending will grow by 15% to $30.2 million in 2012–13.

• WikiProject report: Summer sports series: WikiProject Horse Racing
  

We continue our Summer Sports Series this week with WikiProject Horse Racing. Started in November 2005, the project has grown to include nearly 8,000 articles maintained by 34 active members. There are 10 Featured Articles and 19 Good Articles included in the project's scope. In addition to preparing articles for GA and FA status, the project attempts to create requested articles and locate requested images. We interviewed Redrose64, Montanabw, Tigerboy1966, Ealdgyth, and Cuddy Wifter.

• Featured content: One of a kind
  

Eight new featured articles, five new featured lists, and eight new featured pictures. The highlights include a new featured picture of Frank Sinatra, created by William P. Gottlieb and nominated by Tomer T. Sinatra (1915–98) was a highly successful American singer and film actor whose career spanned 60 years. This image dates from around 1947.

• Technology report: Talking performance with CT Woo and Green Semantic MediaWiki with Nischay Nahata
  

In the light of recent questions over the long-term reliability of Wikimedia wikis, the Signpost caught up with CT Woo, the Wikimedia Foundation's director of technical operations.

• Arbitration report: No pending or open arbitration cases
  

Arbitrator Kirill Lokshin proposed a motion requiring the alteration of any instances of an editor's previous username in arbitration decisions to reflect their name changes. The Devil's Advocate has initiated an amendment request for the controversial Race and intelligence case.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 13:02, 31 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 August 2012

• Op-ed: The Athena Project: being bold
  

At this year's Wikimania, I [Brandon Harris] gave a talk entitled The Athena Project: Wikipedia in 2015. The talk broadly outlined several ideas the foundation is exploring for planned features, user interface changes, and workflow improvements. We expect that many of these changes will be welcomed, while others will be controversial. During the question-and-answer period, I was asked whether people should think of Athena as a skin, a project, or something else. I responded, "You should think of Athena as a kick in the head" – because that's exactly what it's supposed to be: a radical and bold re-examination of some of our sacred cows when it comes to the interface.

• News and notes: FDC portal launched
  

On August 1, the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) portal was launched on Meta. The FDC will implement the Wikimedia movement's new grant-orientated finance structure in accordance with the WMF board's recent resolutions. As a volunteer committee, the FDC will make recommendations to the WMF board on a $11.4 million budget for 2012–13.

• Arbitration report: No pending or open arbitration cases
  

Arbitrator Kirill Lokshin proposed a motion for a procedure on the alteration of an editor's previous username(s) in arbitration decisions to reflect their name change(s). ... The Devil's Advocate initiated an amendment request for the controversial Race and intelligence case.

• Featured content: Casliber's words take root
  

This week the Signpost interviews Casliber, an editor who has written or contributed significantly to a startling 69 featured articles. We learn what makes him tick, why he edits, and why he can write on everything from vampires to dinosaurs, birds to plants. He also gives some advice to budding featured article writers.

• Technology report: Wikidata nears first deployment but wikis go down in fibre cut calamity
  

The Wikimedia Foundation's engineering report for July 2012 was published this week on the Wikimedia Techblog and on the MediaWiki wiki, giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month (as well as brief coverage of progress on Wikimedia Deutschland's Wikidata project). ... At least one fibre-optic cable was damaged at the WMF's Tampa site on August 6, leading to a sharp downwards spike in traffic lasting over an hour and almost three hours of disruption for readers around the globe.

• WikiProject report: Summer sports series: WikiProject Martial Arts
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Martial Arts. Since April 2004, the project has been the hub for discussion and improvement of martial arts articles, including all disciplines and national origins. The project maintains a variety of conventions for handling the names and descriptions of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, Sikh, Filipino, Okinawan, and hybrid martial arts. WikiProject Martial Arts has spawned or absorbed several subprojects focusing on boxing, kickboxing, sumo, and mixed martial arts.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 10:44, 7 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 August 2012

• Op-ed: Small Wikipedias' burden
  

In a certain way, writing Wikipedia is the same everywhere, in every language or culture. You have to stick to the facts, aiming for the most objective way of describing them, including everything relevant and leaving out all the everyday trivia that is not really necessary to understand the context. You have to use critical thinking, trying to be independent of your own preferences and biases. To some effect, that's all there is to it. Naturally, Wikipedians have their biases, some of which can never be cured. Most Wikipedians tend to like encyclopedias; but millions of people in the world don't share that bias, and we represent them rather poorly. I'm also quite sure that an overwhelming majority of Wikipedia co-authors are literate. Again, that's not true for everyone in this world. Yet we have other, less noticeable but barely less fundamental biases.

• News and notes: Bangla-language survey suggests the challenges for small Wikipedias
  

The Bangla language, also known as Bengali, is spoken by some 200 million people in Bangladesh and India. The Bangla Wikipedia has a very small active community of about ten to fifteen very active editors, with another 35–40 as less active editors. The project faces particular challenges in being a small Wikipedia, and Dhaka-based WMF community fellow User:Tanvir Rahman is working to understand these challenges and to develop strategies that can improve small wikis that have strong potential to expand their editing communities.

• Arbitration report: You really can request for arbitration
  

A request for arbitration was filed late last week, ending the three-week long absence of pending cases.

• Featured content: On the road again
  

Six featured articles were promoted this week, including Business US Highway 41, which was a state trunkline highway that served as a business loop in Marquette in the US state of Michigan.

• Technology report: "Phabricating" a serious alternative to Gerrit
  

Three weeks into a month-long evaluation of code review tool Gerrit, a serious alternative has finally gained traction in the review process: Facebook-developed but now independently operated Phabricator and its sister command-line tool Arcanist.

• WikiProject report: Dispute Resolution
  

This week, we interviewed the lively bunch at WikiProject Dispute Resolution. Started in November 2011 to study and discuss improvements to Wikipedia's resources for resolving disputes between editors, the young project has supplemented dispute resolution efforts currently handled at the Dispute Resolution Noticeboard, Mediation Committee, and other venues. Over 40 editors have signed up to provide feedback, a variety of ideas have been proposed, and a manual for dispute resolution has been created.

• Discussion report: Image placeholders, machine translations, Mediation Committee, de-adminship
  

Current proposals and requests for comments include a competition to redesign the main page ...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 11:51, 14 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 August 2012

• Op-ed: Wikimedians are rightfully wary
  

The Wikimedia Foundation sometimes proposes new features that receive substantive criticism from Wikimedians, yet those criticisms may be dismissed on the basis that people are resistant to change—there's an unjustified view that the wikis have been overrun by vested contributors who hate all change. That view misses a lot of key details and insight because there are good reasons that Wikimedians are suspicious of features development, given past and present development of bad software, growing ties with the problematic Wikia, and a growing belief that it is acceptable to experiment on users.

• News and notes: Core content competition in full swing; Wikinews fork taken offline
  

The Core Contest is a month-long competition among editors to improve Wikipedia's most important "core" articles—especially those that are in a relatively poor state. Core articles, such as Music, Computer, and Philosophy, tend to lie in the trunk of the tree of knowledge; by analogy, featured-and good-article processes generally attract more specialist topics out on the branches.

• In the news: American judges on citing Wikipedia
  

In the Utah Court of Appeals this week, the majority opinion in Fire Insurance Exchange v. Robert Allen Oltmanns and Brady Blackner relied on Wikipedia for the basic premise of their legal opinion, and included a concurring opinion devoted solely to the issue of citing Wikipedia in a legal opinion.

• Featured content: Enough for a week – but I'm damned if I see how the helican.
  

Thirteen featured articles were promoted this week, including pelicans, which are a genus of large water birds comprising the family Pelecanidae, characterised by a long beak and large throat-pouch. They have a fossil record dating back at least 30 million years and are most closely related to the Shoebill and Hammerkop. These fish-feeders have a patchy relationship with humans: the birds are sometimes persecuted and sometimes feature in mythology.

• Technology report: Lua onto test2wiki and news of a convention-al extension
  

New embeddable scripting ("template replacement") language Lua received considerable scrutiny this week when it began its long road to widespread deployment, landing on the test2wiki test site on Wednesday (wikitech-l mailing list). ... the fourth in our series profiling participants in this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC) programme.

• WikiProject report: Land of Calm and Contrast: Korea
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Korea. Started in September 2006, WikiProject Korea covers the history and culture of the Korean people, including both countries that currently occupy the Korean peninsula. This task has proven difficult with North Koreans notably absent from the Wikipedia community due to tight control over access to external media. The project is home to over 16,000 pages, including 15 pieces of Featured material and 66 Good and A-class Articles.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 09:49, 21 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 27 August 2012

• News and notes: Tough journey for new travel guide
  

Wikimedia editors have been debating a community proposal for the adoption of a new project to host free travel-guide content. The debate reached a new stage when a three-month request for comment on Meta came to an end, with a decision to set up the first new type of Wikimedia project in half a decade. The original proposal for the travel guide unfolded during April on Meta and the Wikimedia-l mailing lists, centring around the wish of volunteer contributors to the WikiTravel project to work in a non-commercial environment.

• Recent research: New influence graph visualizations; NPOV and history; 'low-hanging fruit'
  

A monthly overview of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, edited jointly with the Wikimedia Research Committee and republished as the Wikimedia Research Newsletter.

• Technology report: Just how bad is the code review backlog?
  

Developers were left one step closer to an understanding of the code review outlook this week after the creation of a graph plotting "number changesets awaiting review" over time. The chart, which also shows the number of new changesets created on a daily basis, reveals a peak in the number of unreviewed changesets in mid-July, followed by a short drop. The current figure stands at approximately 219 unreviewed changesets.

• Featured content: Wikipedia rivals The New Yorker: Mark Arsten
  

This week the Signpost interviews Mark Arsten, who has written or contributed significantly to ten featured articles; most have related to new religious movements, and some have touched on other controversial or quirky topics. Mark gives us a rundown on how he keeps neutral and what drives him to write featured content; he also gives some hints for aspiring writers.

• WikiProject report: From sonic screwdrivers to jelly babies: Doctor Who
  

This week, we hopped in a little blue box with a batch of companions from WikiProject Doctor Who. Started in April 2005, the project has grown to include about 4,000 pages about the world's longest-running science fiction television show, its spinoffs, and various related material. The project is the parent of the Torchwood Taskforce and a child of WikiProject British TV and WikiProject Science Fiction. With new Doctor Who episodes airing this week and a 50th anniversary celebration around the corner, we thought now would be a good time to inquire about the famed Time Lord.

• Discussion report: Sidebar and main page alterations; Recent Deaths; Education Program extension
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:48, 29 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 03 September 2012

• News and notes: World's largest photo competition kicks off; WMF legal fees proposal
  

Some of Wikimedia's most valuable photographs have been shot and uploaded under free licenses as a direct result of the annual Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) event each September. Last year, the project was conducted on a European level, resulting in the submission of an extraordinary 168,208 free images of cultural heritage sites ("monuments") from 18 countries, making it the world's largest photographic competition. Organising the 2012 event—which has just opened and will run for the full month of September—has required input from chapters and volunteers in 35 countries.

• Technology report: Time for a MediaWiki Foundation?
  

Developers are currently discussing the possibility of a MediaWiki Foundation to oversee those aspects of MediaWiki development that relate to non-Wikimedia wikis. The proposal was generated after a discussion on the wikitech-l mailing list about generalising Wikimedia's CentralAuth system.

• Featured content: Wikipedia's Seven Days of Terror
  

Five featured pictures were promoted this week, including a video explaining the recent landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. NASA called the final minutes of the complicated landing procedure "the seven minutes of terror".

• Op-ed: Dispute resolution – where we're at, what we're doing well, and what needs fixing
  

Since May 2012 I've been a Wikimedia Foundation community fellow with the task of researching and improving dispute resolution on English Wikipedia. Surveying members of the community has revealed much about their thoughts on and experiences with dispute resolution. I've analysed processes to determine their use and effectiveness, and have presented ideas that I hope will improve the future of dispute resolution.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 12:23, 4 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 10 September 2012

• From the editor: Signpost adapts as news consumption changes
  

Thanks to the initiative of Yuvi Panda and Notnarayan, the Signpost now has an Android app, free for download on Google Play. ... but would readers be interested in an iOS app for Apple devices?

• Op-ed: Fixing Wikipedia's help pages one key to editor retention
  

Much like article content, the English Wikipedia's help pages have grown organically over the years. Although this has produced a great deal of useful documentation, with time many of the pages have become poorly maintained or have grown overwhelmingly complicated.

• In the media: Author criticizes Wikipedia article; Wales attacks UK government proposal
  

Philip Roth, a widely known and acclaimed American author, wrote an open letter in the New Yorker addressed to Wikipedia this week, alleging severe inaccuracies in the article on his The Human Stain (2000).

• Featured content: Not a "Gangsta's Paradise", but still rappin'
  

Three hip hop discographies were promoted this week, alongside seven other lists.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Fungi
  

After a week's hiatus, the WikiProject Report returns with an interview featuring WikiProject Fungi. Started in March 2006, the project has grown to include over 9,000 pages, including 47 Featured Articles and 176 Good Articles. The project maintains a list of high priority missing articles and stubs that need expansion.

• Special report: Two Wikipedians set to face jury trial
  

In dramatic events that came to light last week, two English Wikipedia volunteers—Doc James (James Heilman) and Wrh2 (Ryan Holliday)—are being sued in the Los Angeles County Superior Court by Internet Brands, the owner of Wikitravel.com. Both Wikipedians have also been volunteer Wikitravel editors (and in Holliday's case, a volunteer administrator). IB's complaints focus on both editors' encouragement of their fellow Wikitravel volunteers to migrate to a proposed non-commercial travel guidance site that would be under the umbrella of the WMF.

• News and notes: Researchers find that Simple English Wikipedia has "lost its focus"
  

In its September issue, the peer-reviewed journal First Monday published The readability of Wikipedia, reporting research which shows that the English Wikipedia is struggling to meet Flesch reading ease test criteria, while the Simple English Wikipedia has "lost its focus".

• Technology report: Mmmm, milkshake...
  

The Wikimedia Foundation's engineering report for August 2012 was published this week on the Wikimedia Techblog and on the MediaWiki wiki, giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month (as well as brief coverage of progress on Wikimedia Deutschland's Wikidata project, phase 1 of which is edging its way towards its first deployment).

• Discussion report: Closing Wikiquette; Image Filter; Education Program and Momento extensions
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:07, 11 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 17 September 2012

• From the editor: Signpost expands to Facebook
  

We now have a Facebook page at facebook.com/wikisignpost. We invite you to "like" the page and join the discussion there.

• WikiProject report: Action! — The Indian Cinema Task Force
  

This week, we shine the spotlight on the Indian Cinema Task Force, a subproject that seeks to improve the quality and quantity of articles about Indian cinema. As a child of WikiProject Film and WikiProject India, the Indian Cinema Task Force shares a variety of templates, resources, and members with its parent projects. The task force works on a to-do list, maintains the Bollywood Portal, and ensures articles follow the film style guidelines. With Indian cinema celebrating its 100th year of existence in 2013, we asked Karthik Nadar (Karthikndr), Secret of success, Ankit Bhatt, Dwaipayan, and AnimeshKulkarni what is in store for the Indian Cinema Task Force.

• Featured content: Go into the light
  

Eight featured articles, six featured lists, ten featured pictures, and one featured topic were promoted this week.

• News and notes: Tens of thousands of monuments loved; members of new funding body announced
  

The world's largest photo competition, Wiki Loves Monuments, is entering its final two weeks. The month-long event, of Dutch origin, is being held globally for the first time after the success of its European-level predecessor last year. During September 2011 more than 5000 volunteers from 18 countries took part and uploaded 168,208 free images. This year, volunteers and chapters from 35 countries around the world have organised the event. The best photographs will be determined by juries at the national and finally the global level.

• Technology report: Future-proofing: HTML5 and IPv6
  

1.20wmf12, the 12th release to Wikimedia wikis from the 1.20 branch, was deployed to its first wikis on September 17; if things go well, it will be deployed to all wikis by September 26. Its 200 or so changes – 111 to WMF-deployed extensions plus 98 to core MediaWiki code – include support for links with mixed-case protocols (e.g. Http://example.com) and the removal of the "No higher resolution available" message on the file description pages of SVG images.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 17:29, 18 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 September 2012

• In the media: Editor's response to Roth draws internet attention
  

Oliver Keyes' (User:Ironholds) defense of Wikipedia against the recent Philip Roth controversy has drawn a significant amount of attention over the last week. The problems between Roth, a widely known and acclaimed American author, and Wikipedia arose from an open letter he penned for the American magazine New Yorker, and were covered by the Signpost two weeks ago. Keyes—who wrote the piece as a prominent Wikipedian but is also a contractor for the Wikimedia Foundation—wrote a blog post on the topic, lamenting the factual errors in Roth's letter and criticizing the media for not investigating his claims: "[they took] Roth’s explanation as the truth and launched into a lengthy discussion of how we [Wikipedia] handle primary sourcing."

• Recent research: "Rise and decline" of Wikipedia participation, new literature overviews, a look back at WikiSym 2012
  

A paper to appear in a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist (summarized in the research index) sheds new light on the English Wikipedia's declining editor growth and retention trends. The paper describes how "several changes that the Wikipedia community made to manage quality and consistency in the face of a massive growth in participation have lead to a more restrictive environment for newcomers". The number of active Wikipedia editors has been declining since 2007 and research examining data up to September 2009 has shown that the root of the problem has been the declining retention of new editors. The authors show this decline is mainly due to a decline among desirable, good-faith newcomers, and point to three factors contributing to the increasingly "restrictive environment" they face.

• WikiProject report: 01010010 01101111 01100010 01101111 01110100 01101001 01100011 01110011
  

This week, we tinkered with WikiProject Robotics. From the project's inception in December 2007, it has served as Wikipedia's hub for building and improving articles about robots and robotics, accumulating two Featured Articles and seven Good Articles along the way. The project covers both fictitious and real-life robots, the technology that powers them, and many of the brains behind the robotics field

• News and notes: UK chapter rocked by Gibraltar scandal
  

In the second controversy to engulf Wikimedia UK in two months, its immediate past chair Roger Bamkin has resigned from the board of the chapter. The resignation last Wednesday followed a growing furore over the conflict of interest between two of Roger's roles outside the chapter and his close involvement in the UK board's decision-making process, including the access to private mailing lists that board members in all chapters need. But the irony surrounding Roger's resignation is its connection with efforts by Wikimedians and collaborators to strengthen the reach of Wikimedia projects through technical innovation.

• Technology report: Signpost investigation: code review times
  

Late last month, the "Technology report" included a story using code review backlog figures – the only code review figures then available – to construct a rough narrative about the average experience of code contributors. This week, we hope to go one better, by looking directly at code review wait times, and, in particular, median code review times

• Featured content: Dead as...
  

Fourteen featured articles were promoted this week, including Dodo, along with six featured lists and five featured pictures.

• Discussion report: Image filter; HotCat; Syntax highlighting; and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 18:31, 26 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 01 October 2012

• Paid editing: Does Wikipedia Pay? The Founder: Jimmy Wales
  

Does Wikipedia Pay? is a Signpost series seeking to illuminate paid editing, paid advocacy, for-profit Wikipedia consultants, editing public relations professionals, conflict of interest guidelines in practice, and the Wikipedians who work on these issues by speaking openly with the people involved. This week, a scandal centering around Roger Bamkin's work with Wikimedia UK and Gibraltarpedia erupted ... In light of these events, opinions on how to avoid future controversy are as important as ever. ... The Signpost spoke with Jimmy Wales to better understand how he views the paid editing environment and what he thinks is needed to improve it.

• News and notes: Independent review of UK chapter governance; editor files motion against Wikitravel owners
  

Following considerable online and media reportage on the Gibraltar controversy and a Signpost report last week, the Wikimedia UK chapter and the foundation published a joint statement on September 28: "To better understand the facts and details of these allegations and to ensure that governance arrangements commensurate with the standing of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia UK and the worldwide Wikimedia movement, Wikimedia UK's trustees and the Wikimedia Foundation will jointly appoint an independent expert advisor to objectively review both Wikimedia UK's governance arrangements and its handling of the conflict of interest."

• Featured content: Mooned
  

Five articles, three lists, and nine images were promoted to "featured" this week.

• Technology report: WMF and the German chapter face up to Toolserver uncertainty
  

The Toolserver is an external service hosting the hundreds of webpages and scripts (collectively known as "tools") that assist Wikimedia communities in dozens of mostly menial tasks. Few people think that it has been operating well recently; the problems, which include high database replication lag and periods of total downtime, have caused considerable disruption to the Toolserver's usual functions. Those functions are highly valued by many Wikimedia communities ... In 2011, the Foundation announced the creation of Wikimedia Labs, a much better funded project that among other things aimed to mimic the Toolserver's functionality by mid-2013. At the same time, Erik Möller, the WMF's director of engineering, announced that the Foundation would no longer be supporting the Toolserver financially, but would continue to provide the same in-kind support as it had done previously.

• WikiProject report: The Name's Bond... WikiProject James Bond
  

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film series, we spent some time bonding with WikiProject James Bond. The project is in the unique position of having already pushed all of its primary content to Good and Featured status, including all of Ian Fleming's novels, short stories, and every film that has been released. Work has begun in earnest on the article Skyfall for the release of the new Bond film later this month. The project could still use help improving articles about Bond actors, characters, gadgets, music, video games, and related topics

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 21:47, 2 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 08 October 2012

• News and notes: Education Program faces community resistance
  

Wikipedia in education is far from a new idea: years of news stories, op-eds, and editorials have focused on the topic; and on Wikipedia itself, the Schools and universities projects page has existed in various forms since 2003. Over the next six years, the page was rarely developed, and when it did advance there was no clear goal in mind.

• WikiProject report: Ten years and one million articles: WikiProject Biography
  

On this day five years ago, the WikiProject Report debuted as a new Signpost column with an overview of WikiProject Biography. Today, we're celebrating two milestone: five years of the WikiProject Report and the tenth birthday of our first featured project. WikiProject Biography is by far the largest WikiProject on Wikipedia, with over one million articles under the project's scope. As a comparison, WikiProject Biography is three times larger than Wikipedia's second largest project, and if WikiProject Biography were split into its 14 subprojects and work groups, it would still make the list of the 20 largest WikiProjects... four times.

• Featured content: A dash of Arsenikk
  

This week the Signpost interviews Arsenikk, an editor of six years who has brought sixteen lists through our featured list process, mostly regarding transportation in Norway but also about the 1952 Winter Olympics and World Heritage Sites in Africa. Arsenikk tells us about why he joined the project, what moves him, and how editors can join the sometimes daunting world of featured lists.

• Technology report: The ups and downs of September and October, plus extension code review analysis
  

The Wikimedia Foundation's engineering report for September 2012 was published this week on the Wikimedia Techblog and on the MediaWiki wiki, giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month (as well as brief coverage of progress on Wikimedia Deutschland's Wikidata project, phase 1 of which is edging its way towards its first deployment). Three of the seven headline items in the report have already been covered in the Signpost: problems with the corruption of several Gerrit (code) repositories, the introduction of widespread translation memory across Wikimedia wikis, and the launch of the "Page Curation" tool on the English Wikipedia, with development work on that project now winding down. The report also drew attention to the end of Google Summer of Code 2012, the deployment to the English Wikipedia of a new ePUB (electronic book) export feature, and improvements to the WLM app aimed at more serious photographers.

• Discussion report: Closing RfAs: Stewards or Bureaucrats?; Redesign of Help:Contents
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include ...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 21:30, 9 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 15 October 2012

• Op-ed: AdminCom: A proposal for changing the way we select admins
  

There is wide agreement among English Wikipedians that the administrator system is in some ways broken—but no consensus on how to fix it. Most suggestions have been relatively small in scope, and could at best produce small improvements. I would like to make a proposal to fundamentally restructure the administrator system, in a way that I believe would make it more effective and responsive. The proposal is to create an elected Administration Committee ("AdminCom") which would select, oversee, and deselect administrators.

• In the media: Wikipedia's language nerds hit the front page
  

This week saw a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal on editorial debates in Wikipedia. The story focused on the title-naming dispute surrounding the Beatles article, and specifically the RfC on whether the 'the' in the band's name should be capitalized or not.

• Featured content: Second star to the left
  

On the English Wikipedia, five featured articles, ten featured lists, and four featured pictures were promoted, including USS Lexington, a ship built for the United States Navy that, although ordered in 1916 as a battlecruiser, was converted to an aircraft carrier. It was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea during the Second World War.

• News and notes: Chapters ask for big bucks
  

The volunteer-led Wikimedia Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) and interested community members are looking at Wikimedia organization applications worth about US$10.4 million out of the committee's first full year's operation, in just the inaugural round one of two that have been planned for the year with a planned budget of US$11.4M.

• Technology report: Wikidata is a go: well, almost
  

A trial of the first phase of Wikimedia Deutschland's "Wikidata" project–implementing the first ever interwiki repository—may soon get underway following the successful passage of much of its code through MediaWiki's review processes this week.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Chemicals
  

This week, we experimented with WikiProject Chemicals. Started in August 2004, WikiProject Chemicals has grown to include over 10,000 articles about chemical compounds. The project has a unique assessment system that omits C-class, Good, and Featured Articles. As a result, the project's 11 GAs and 9 FAs are treated as A-class articles. WikiProject Chemicals is a child of WikiProject Chemistry (interviewed in 2009) and a parent of WikiProject Polymers.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 22:09, 16 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 October 2012

• Special report: Examining adminship from the German perspective
  

Unlike the long-running disputes that have characterised attempts to reform the RfA process on the English Wikipedia, the German Wikipedia's tradition of making decisions not by consensus but knife-edged 50% + 1 votes has led to a fundamentally different outcome. In 2009, the project managed to largely settle the RfA mode issue in 2009 indirectly.

• Arbitration report: Malleus Fatuorum accused of circumventing topic ban; motion to change "net four votes" rule
  

One clarification request concerns the civility enforcement case – specifically, Malleus Fatuorum's perceived circumvention of his topic ban. It has resulted in thousands of bytes spent in vitriolic discussions, multiple blocks, and "no confidence" motions against the Arbitration Committee and one arbitrator, among other ramifications.

• Technology report: Wikivoyage migration: technical strategy announced
  

Planning for Wikivoyage's migration into the WMF fold built up steam this week following a statement by WMF Deputy Director Erik Möller about what the technical side of the migration will involve. Wikivoyage, which split from sister site Wikitravel in 2006, is hoping to migrate its own not-inconsiderable user base to Wikimedia, as well as much of its content, presenting novel challenges for Wikimedia developers

• Discussion report: Good articles on the main page?; reforming dispute resolution
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• News and notes: Wikimedians get serious about women in science
  

It is well known that women are underrepresented in the sciences, and that high-achieving female scientists have often been excluded from authorship lists and passed over for awards and honours solely on the basis of gender. Also significant has been the underplaying in the academic literature, news reporting, and online, of women's current and historical contributions to science.

• WikiProject report: Where in the world is Wikipedia?
  

The WikiProject Report normally brings tidings from Wikipedia's most active, inventive, and unique WikiProjects. This week, we're trying something new by focusing on Wikipedia's dark side: the various regional and national WikiProjects that are dead or dying. How can some tiny municipalities and exclaves generate highly active, cross-language, multimedia platforms be successful while the projects representing many sovereign countries and entire continents wallow in obscurity? Today, we'll search for answers among geographic projects large and small, highly active and barely functioning, enthusiastic about the future and mired in past conflicts.

• Featured content: Is RfA Kafkaesque?
  

Eleven articles, including one on Franz Kafka, three lists, one image, and one portal were promoted to 'featured' status this week.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 12:45, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 October 2012

• News and notes: First chickens come home to roost for FDC funding applicants; WMF board discusses governance issues and scope of programs
  

The first round of the Wikimedia Foundation's new financial arrangements has proceeded as planned, with the publication of scores and feedback by Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) staff on applications for funding by 11 entities—10 chapters, independent membership organisations supporting the WMF's mission in different countries, and the foundation itself. The results are preliminary assessments that will soon be put to the FDC's seven voting members and two non-voting board representatives. The FDC in turn will send its recommendations to the board of trustees on 15 November, which will announce its decision by 15 December. Funding applications have been on-wiki since 1 October, and the talk pages of applications were open for community comment and discussion from 2 to 22 October, though apart from queries by FDC staff, there was little activity.

• WikiProject report: In recognition of... WikiProject Military History
  

This week, we're checking out ways to motivate editors and recognize valuable contributions by focusing on the awards and rewards of WikiProject Military History. Anyone unfamiliar with WikiProject Military History is encouraged to start at the report's first article about the project and make your way forward. While many WikiProjects provide a barnstar that can be awarded to helpful contributors, WikiProject Military History has gone a step further by creating a variety of awards with different criteria ranging from the all-purpose WikiChevrons to rewards for participating in drives and improving special topics to medals for improving articles up to A-class status to the coveted "Military Historian of the Year" award.

• Technology report: Improved video support imminent and Wikidata.org live
  

The TimedMediaHandler extension (TMH), which brings dramatic improvements to MediaWiki's video handling capabilities, will go live to the English Wikipedia this week following a long and turbulent development, WMF Director of Platform Engineering Rob Lanphier announced on Monday ... Wikidata.org, a new repository designed to host interwiki links, launched this week and will begin accepting links shortly. The site, which is one half of the forthcoming Wikidata trial (the other half being the Wikidata client, which will be deployed to the Hungarian Wikipedia shortly) will also act as a testing area for phase 2 of Wikidata (centralised data storage). The longer term plan is for Wikidata.org to become a "Wikimedia Commons for data" as phases 2 and 3 (dynamic lists) are developed, project managers say.

• Featured content: On the road again
  

Thirteen articles, ten lists, nine images, one topic, and one portal were promoted to featured after peer reviews.

• Recent research: WP governance informal; community as social network; efficiency of recruitment and content production; Rorschach news
  

A paper in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, coming from the social control perspective and employing the repertory grid technique, has contributed interesting observations about the governance of Wikipedia.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 09:56, 31 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 05 November 2012

• Op-ed: 2012 WikiCup comes to an end
  

J Milburn is a British editor who has been on the site since 2006. He is one of two judges of the WikiCup. Here, he uses an op-ed to explain the way the WikiCup works and to review this year's competition, which ended recently.

• News and notes: Wikimedian photographic talent on display in national submissions to Wiki Loves Monuments
  

The results of most of the national heats for Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) have been published on Commons. A maximum of 10 images have been submitted by all but eight of the 34 participating countries, and the international jury for what is the largest competition of its type in the world is set to announce the global winner in four weeks' time.

• In the media: Was climate change a factor in Hurricane Sandy?
  

Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record and has caused millions of dollars in damage. Naturally, Wikipedia covered it. But was Wikipedia's coverage unbiased?

• Discussion report: Protected Page Editor right; Gibraltar hooks
  

The Signpost's weekly roundup of topics for discussion on the English Wikipedia.

• Featured content: Jack-O'-Lanterns and Toads
  

This week, the Signpost interviewed two editors. The first, PumpkinSky, collaborated with Gerda Arendt in writing the recently featured article on Franz Kafka and won second prize in the Core contest last August. The second, Cwmhiraeth, collaborated with Thompsma in promoting the article Frog, which was featured last week. We asked them about the special challenges faced while writing Core content and things to watch out for.

• Technology report: Hue, Sqoop, Oozie, Zookeeper, Hive, Pig and Kafka
  

The Wikimedia Foundation's engineering report for October 2012 was published this week on the Wikimedia Techblog and on the MediaWiki wiki, giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month. TimedMediaHandler also went live.

• WikiProject report: Listening to WikiProject Songs
  

This week, The Signpost sings along with WikiProject Songs which focuses on articles about songs of every generation and genre. The project initially began as a rough outline in October 2002 and was reimagined in March 2004 using its parent WikiProject Albums as a template.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 01:40, 7 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 November 2012

• News and notes: Court ruling complicates the paid-editing debate
  

Last week, media outlets reported a ruling by a German court on the problem of businesses using Wikipedia for marketing purposes. The issue goes beyond the direct management of marketing-related edits by Wikipedians; it involves cross-monitoring and interacting among market competitors themselves on Wikipedia. A company that sells dietary supplements made from frankincense had taken a competitor to court. The recently published judgment by the Higher Regional Court of Munich, in dealing with the German Wikipedia article on frankincense products, was handed down in May and is based on European competition law.

• Featured content: The table has turned
  

Thirteen articles, six lists, and five images were promoted to 'featured' status last week.

• Technology report: MediaWiki 1.20 and the prospects for getting 1.21 code reviewed promptly
  

In late September, the Technology report published its findings about (particularly median) code review times. To the 23,900 changesets analysed the first time (the data for which has been updated), the Signpost added data from the 9,000 or so changesets contributed between September 17 and November 9 to a total of 93,000 reviews across 45,000 patchsets. Bots and self-reviews were also discarded, but reviews made by a different user in the form of a superseding patch were retained. Finally, users were categorised by hand according to whether they would be best regarded as staff or volunteers. The new analyses were consistent with the predictions of the previous analysis.

• WikiProject report: Land of parrots, palm trees, and the Holy Cross: WikiProject Brazil
  

As promised, we're expanding our horizons by featuring projects that cover underrepresented areas of the globe. This week, we headed to WikiProject Brazil which keeps track of articles about the world's largest Portuguese-speaking country. The project has shown spurts of activity and continues to serve as a hub for discussions, despite the project's collaborations, peer reviews, and outreach activities being largely inactive.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 14:23, 14 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 November 2012

• News and notes: FDC's financial muscle kicks in
  

The WMF's Funds Dissemination Committee has published its recommendations for the inaugural round 1 of funding. Requests totalled US$10.4M, nearly all of the FDC's budget for both first and second rounds. The seven-member committee of community volunteers appointed in September advises the WMF board on the distribution of grant funds among applying Wikimedia organizations. The committee, which has a separate operating budget of $276k for salaries and expenses, considered 12 applications for funds, from 11 chapters and from the WMF itself for its non-core activities. The decision-making process included community and FDC staff input after October 1, the closing date for submissions. Taken together, the volunteers decided to endorse an average of 81% of the funding sought—a total of $8.43M, which went to 11 of the 12 applicants. This leaves $2.71M to be distributed in round 2, for which applications are due in little more than three months' time.

• WikiProject report: No teenagers, mutants, or ninjas: WikiProject Turtles
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Turtles. The young project started in January 2011 and has accumulated 5 Featured Articles, 3 Featured Lists, and 6 Featured Pictures. The project maintains a combined to-do list and hot articles meter, a popular pages ranking, and a collection of resources for turtle articles. We interviewed Faendalimas and NYMFan69-86.

• Technology report: Structural reorganisation "not a done deal"
  

WMF Executive Director Sue Gardner was forced to clarify this week that proposed structural changes to the Foundation's Engineering and Product Development Department were not a "done deal" and that it was "important that you [particularly affected staff] realise that ... your input is wanted". The reorganisation, announced on November 5 and planned for the middle of next year, will see its two components split off into their own departments.

• Featured content: Wikipedia hit by the Streisand effect
  

Seven featured articles, four featured lists and ten featured pictures – including the photograph that spawned the Streisand effect – were promoted this week.

• Discussion report: GOOG, MSFT, WMT: the ticker symbol placement question
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include the question of ticker symbol placement and the notability of various types of creative performer.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 01:18, 21 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 November 2012

• News and notes: Toolserver finance remains uncertain
  

On November 24, a general assembly of Wikimedia Germany (WMDE) voted on the fate of the Wikimedia Toolserver, a central external piece of technical infrastructure supporting the editing communities with volunteer-developed scripts and webpages of various kinds that are assisting in performing mostly menial tasks.

• Recent research: Movie success predictions, readability, credentials and authority, geographical comparisons
  

An open-access preprint presents the results from a study attempting to predict early box office revenues from Wikipedia traffic and activity data. The authors – a team of computational social scientists from Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Aalto University and the Central European University – submit that behavioral patterns on Wikipedia can be used for accurate forecasting, matching and in some cases outperforming the use of social media data for predictive modeling. The results, based on a corpus of 312 English Wikipedia articles on movies released in 2010, indicate that the joint editing activity and traffic measures on Wikipedia are strong predictors of box office revenue for highly successful movies.

• Featured content: Panoramic views, history, and a celestial constellation
  

Six articles, one list, and six images were promoted to 'featured' status this week.

• Technology report: Wikidata reaches 100,000 entries
  

Wikidata, the new "Wikimedia Commons for data" and the first new Wikimedia project since 2006, reached 100,000 entries this week. The project aims to be a single, human- and machine-readable database for common data, spanning across all Wikipedia projects, which will "lead to a higher consistency and quality within Wikipedia articles, as well as increased availability of information in the smaller language editions" while lowering the burden on Wikipedia's volunteer editors—whose numbers have stalled overall, and continue to dwindle on the English Wikipedia.

• WikiProject report: Directing Discussion: WikiProject Deletion Sorting
  

This week, we uncovered WikiProject Deletion Sorting, Wikipedia's most active project by number of edits to all the project's pages. This special project seeks to increase participation in Articles for Deletion nominations by categorizing the AfD discussions by various topic areas that may draw the attention of editors. The project was started in August 2005 with manual processes that are continued today by a bevy of bots, categories, and transclusions. The project took inspiration from WikiProject Stub Sorting and some historical discussions on deletion reform. As the sheer number of AfDs continues to grow, the project is seeking better tools to manage the deletion sorting process and attract editors to comment on these deletion discussions.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 10:17, 28 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 03 December 2012

• News and notes: Wiki Loves Monuments announces 2012 winner
  

The global jury of Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), the world’s largest photo contest, announced its results on 3 December.

• Featured content: The play's the thing
  

Three articles, two lists, and four images were promoted to 'featured' status this week.

• Discussion report: Concise Wikipedia; standardize version history tables
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• Technology report: MediaWiki problems but good news for Toolserver stability
  

Deployments of MediaWiki 1.21wmf5 cause widespread problems for users across wikis when HTML and CSS updates came temporarily out of sync. On the first wikis targeted for deployment, this was caused by the different cache invalidation rates for HTML (typically one month) and CSS (typically five minutes). The retrospective on the problem highlighted the fact that that the test wiki – the WMF's answer to a production environment that individual developers can no longer practically emulate themselves – actually demonstrated the exact problem that would later manifest itself on production wikis. It went unnoticed.

• WikiProject report: The White Rose: WikiProject Yorkshire
  

This week, we went searching for white roses in the lands of WikiProject Yorkshire. The project began in May 2007 as a way to improve articles about the historic English county of Yorkshire and its modern-day administrative divisions and cities. Since then, the project has accumulated 31 Featured Articles, 14 Featured Lists, 91 Good Articles, and a monstrous list of Did You Know entries. Despite all of the effort improving Yorkshire articles, the project has experienced waning participation in the last few years. The project still publishes a newsletter each month, monitors the popularity of and recent changes to its articles, maintains a portal, and collects resources for contributors to use.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 19:33, 5 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 10 December 2012

• News and notes: Wobbly start to ArbCom election, but turnout beats last year's
  

At the time of writing, this year's election has just closed after a two-week voting period. The eight seats were contested by 21 candidates. Of these, 15 have not been arbitrators (Beeblebrox, Count Iblis, Guerillero, Jc37, Keilana, Ks0stm, Kww, NuclearWarfare, Pgallert, RegentsPark, Richwales, Salvio giuliano, Timotheus Canens, Worm That Turned, and YOLO Swag); four candidates are sitting arbitrators (David Fuchs, Elen of the Roads, Jclemens, and Newyorkbrad); and two have previously served on the committee (Carcharoth and Coren). Four Wikimedia stewards from outside the English Wikipedia stepped forward as election scrutineers: Pundit, from the Polish Wikipedia; Teles, from the Portuguese Wikipedia; Quentinv57, from the French Wikipedia; and Mardetanha, from the Persian Wikipedia. The scrutineers' task is to ensure that the election is free of multiple votes from the same person, to tally the results, and to announce them. The full results are expected to be released within the next few days and will be reported in next week's edition of the Signpost.

• Featured content: Wikipedia goes to Hell
  

Eight articles, four images, six lists, and one topic were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Technology report: The new Visual Editor gets a bit more visual
  

The Visual Editor project – an attempt to create the first WMF-deployable WYSIWYG editor – will go live on its first Wikipedias imminently following nearly six months of testing on MediaWiki.org. A full explanatory blog post accompanied the news, explaining the project and its setup. Once a user has opted-in, the editor can handle basic formatting, headings and lists, while safely ignoring elements it is yet to understand, including references, categories, templates, tables and images. At the last count, approximately 2% of pages would break in some way if a user tried the Visual Editor on them; it is unclear whether any specific protection will be put in place beyond relying on editors to spot problems.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Human Rights
  

In celebration of Human Rights Day, we checked out WikiProject Human Rights. Started in February 2006, the project has grown to include over 3,000 articles, including 12 Featured Articles, 3 Featured Lists, 66 Good Articles, a large collection of Did You Know entries, and a few mentions "in the news". The project monitors listings of popular pages and cleanup tags. We interviewed Khazar2, Cirt, and Boud.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 20:43, 11 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 17 December 2012

• News and notes: Arbitrator election: stewards release the results
  

Seven days after the close of voting, the results of the recent Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) elections have been announced by two of the four stewards overseeing the election, Mardetanha and Pundit. Of the 21 candidates, 13 managed to gain positive support-to-oppose ratios, and the top eight will be appointed to two-year terms on the committee by Jimbo Wales, exercising one of his traditional responsibilities.

• WikiProject report: WikiProjekt Computerspiel: Covering Computer Games in Germany
  

In the past year, we've tried to expand our horizons by looking at how WikiProjects work in other languages of Wikipedia. Following in the footsteps of our previously interviewed Czech and French projects, we visited the German Wikipedia to explore WikiProjekt Computerspiel (WikiProject Computer Games). The project dates back to November 2004 and has become the back-end of the Computer Games Portal, which covers all video games regardless of platform. Editors writing about computer games at the German Wikipedia deal with unique cultural and legal challenges, ranging from a lack of fair use precedents to the limited availability of games deemed harmful for youths to strong standards for the inclusion of material on the German Wikipedia.

• Discussion report: Concise Wikipedia; section headings for navboxes
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include ...

• Op-ed: Finding truth in Sandy Hook
  

This week's big story on the English Wikipedia is obviously the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (which, by the time you read this, may be renamed 2012 Connecticut school shooting). Quickly created and nominated for deletion not once but twice, and both times speedily kept, the article saw the expected flurry of edits (a look at the history suggests an average of at least one a minute over the first day and a half) and more than half a million page views on the first full day.

• Featured content: Wikipedia's cute ass
  

Four articles, three lists, and five images were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week, including a picture of a three-week old donkey (also known as an 'ass').

• Technology report: MediaWiki groups and why you might want to start snuggling newbie editors
  

MediaWiki users (including Wikimedians) can now organise themselves into groups, receiving recognition and support-in-kind from the Wikimedia Foundation. The project, backed by new Wikimedia technical contributor coordinator Quim Gil, has seen five proposals lodged in its first week of operation. The idea of MediaWiki groups mimics that of Wikimedia User Groups.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 23:02, 19 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 December 2012

• News and notes: Debates on Meta sparking along—grants, new entities, and conflicts of interest
  

As part of its new focus on core responsibilities, the Wikimedia Foundation is reforming its grant schemes so that they are more accessible to individual volunteers. The community is invited to look at proposals for a new scheme—for now called Individual engagement grants (IEGs)—which is due to kick off on January 15. On Meta, the community is once again debating the two new offline participation models—user groups (open membership groups designed to be easy to form) and thematic organizations (incorporated non-profits representing the Wikimedia movement and supporting work on a specific theme within or across countries). In a consultation process on Meta that will last until January 15, the community will be discussing WMF proposals for a new guideline on conflicts of interests concerning Wikimedia resources. The draft covers COI issues for both volunteers and organizations across the movement.

• WikiProject report: A Song of Ice and Fire
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject A Song of Ice and Fire, which focuses on the eponymous series of high fantasy literature, the television series Game of Thrones, and related works by George R. R. Martin. The project was started in July 2006 and has grown to include 11 Good Articles maintained by a small yet enthusiastic band of editors.

• Featured content: Battlecruiser operational
  

Seven articles and two lists were promoted to 'featured' status this week, including List of battlecruisers. The article covers all of the battlecruisers—which were a type of warship similar in size to a battleship but with several defining characteristics—ever planned or constructed. The last British battlecruiser built, HMS Hood, is pictured at right.

• Technology report: Efforts to "normalise" Toolserver relations stepped up
  

Efforts were stepped up this week to sow a feeling of trust between the major parties with an interest in the future of the Toolserver. The tool- and bot-hosting server – more accurately servers – are currently operated by German chapter, Wikimedia Germany, with assistance from the Foundation and numerous volunteers, including long-time system administrator Daniel Baur (more commonly known by his pseudonym DaB). However, those parties have more recently failed to see eye-to-eye on the trajectory for the Toolserver, which is scheduled to be replaced by Wikimedia Labs in late 2013, with increasing concern about the tone of discussions.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:12, 26 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 December 2012

• From the editor: Wikipedia, our Colosseum
  

In the impersonal, detached Colosseum that is Wikipedia, people find it much easier to put their thumbs down. As such, many people active in the Wikimedia movement have witnessed a precipitous decline in civil discourse. This is far from a new trend, yet many people would agree that it all seemed somehow worse in 2012.

• In the media: Is the Wikimedia movement too 'cash rich'?
  

A recent, poorly researched and poorly written story in the Register highlighted the perceived "cash rich" status of the Wikimedia movement. ... The Telegraph and Daily Dot, among others, have alleged that there are multiple links between the WMF, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, and Kazakhstan's government, which is, for all intents and purposes, a one-party non-democratic state.

• News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser a success; Czech parliament releases photographs to chapter
  

On 27 December the Wikimedia Foundation announced the conclusion of their ninth annual fundraiser, which attracted more than 1.2 million donors. The appeal reached its goal of US$25 million, even though fundraising banners ran for only nine days.

• Technology report: Looking back on a year of incremental changes
  

In the first of two features, the Signpost this week looks back on 2012, a year when developers finally made inroads into three issues that had been put off for far too long (the need for editors to learn wiki-markup, the lack of a proper template language and the centralisation of data) but left all three projects far from finished.

• Discussion report: Image policy and guidelines; resysopping policy
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include ...

• Interview: Interview with Brion Vibber, the WMF's first employee
  

Brion Vibber has been a Wikipedia editor for nearly 11 years and was the first person officially hired to work for the Wikimedia Foundation. He was instrumental in early development of the MediaWiki software and is now the lead software architect for the foundation's mobile development team.

• Featured content: Whoa Nelly! Featured content in review
  

At the beginning of the year, we began a series of interviews with editors who have worked hard to combat systemic bias through the creation of featured content; although we haven't seen six installments yet, we've also had some delightful interviews with people who write articles on some of our most core topics. Now, as we close the year, I would like to present some of my own musings on the state of featured content—especially as it pertains to systemic bias and core topics.

• WikiProject report: New Year, New York
  

This week, we're celebrating the New Year from Times Square by interviewing WikiProject New York City. Since December 2004, WikiProject NYC has had the difficult task of maintaining articles about the largest city in the United States, many of which are also among the the most viewed articles on Wikipedia. The project is home to 22 Featured Articles, 7 Featured Lists, 32 pieces of Featured Media, and a lengthy list of Did You Know? entries.

• Recent research: Wikipedia and Sandy Hook; SOPA blackout reexamined
  

Northeastern University researcher Brian Keegan analyzed the gathering of hundreds of Wikipedians to cover the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. ... A First Monday article reviews several aspects of the Wikipedia participation in the 18 January 2012, protests against SOPA and PIPA legislation in the USA. The paper focuses on the question of legitimacy, looking at how the Wikipedia community arrived at the decision to participate in those protests.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:35, 2 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 January 2013

• Op-ed: Meta, where innovative ideas die
  

Meta is the wiki that has coordinated a wide range of cross-project Wikimedia activities, such as the activities of stewards, the archiving of chapter reports, and WMF trustee elections. The project has long been an out-of-the-way corner for technocratic working groups, unaccountable mandarins, and in-house bureaucratic proceedings. Largely ignored by the editing communities of projects such as Wikipedia and organizations that serve them, Meta has evolved into a huge and relatively disorganized repository, where the few archivists running it also happen to be the main authors of some of its key documents. While Meta is well-designed for supporting the librarians and mandarins who stride along its corridors, visitors tend to find the site impenetrable—or so many people have argued over the past decade. This impenetrability runs counter to Meta's increasingly central role in the Wikimedia movement.

• WikiProject report: Where Are They Now? Episode IV: A New Year
  

The dawning of a new year offers both a fresh slate and an opportunity to revisit our previous adventures. 2012 marked the fifth anniversary of the WikiProject Report and was the column's most productive year with 52 articles published. In addition to sharing the experiences of Wikipedia's many active projects, we expanded our scope to highlight unique projects from other languages of Wikipedia, and tracked down all of the former editors-in-chief of the Signpost for an introspective interview ... While last year's "Summer Sports Series" may have drawn yawns from some readers, a special report on "Neglected Geography" elicited more comments than any previous issue of the Report. Following in the footsteps of our past three recaps, we'll spend this week looking back at the trials and tribulations of the WikiProjects we encountered in 2012. Where are they now?

• News and notes: 2012—the big year
  

The past 12 months have seen a multitude of issues and events in the Wikimedia foundation, the movement at large, and the English Wikipedia. The movement, now in its second decade, is growing apace in its international reach, cultural and linguistic diversity, technical development, and financial complexity; and many factors have combined to produce what has in many ways been the biggest, most dynamic year in the movement's history. Looking back at 2012, we faced a difficult task in doing justice to all of the notable events in a single article; so the Signpost has selected just a few examples from outside the anglosphere, from the English Wikipedia, and from the Wikimedia Foundation, rather than attempting to cover every detail that happened.

• Featured content: Featured content in review
  

Over the past year, 963 pieces of featured content were promoted. The most active of the featured content programs was featured article candidates (FAC), which promoted an average of 31 articles a month. This was followed by featured picture candidates (FPC; 28 a month). Coming in third was featured list candidates (FLC; 20 a month). Featured topic and featured portal candidates remained sluggish, each promoting fewer than 20 items over the year.

• Technology report: Looking ahead to 2013
  

Following on from last week's reflections on 2012, this week the Technology report looks ahead to 2013, a year that will almost certainly be dominated by the juggernauts of Wikidata, Lua and the Visual Editor.

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The Signpost: 14 January 2013

• Investigative report: Ship ahoy! New travel site finally afloat
  

After six years without creating a new class of content projects, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) has finally expanded into a new area: travel. Wikivoyage was formally launched—though without a traditional ship's christening—on 15 January, having started as a beta trial on 10 November. Wikivoyage has been taken under the WMF's umbrella on the argument that information resources that help with travel are educational and therefore within the scope of the foundation's mission.g

• News and notes: Launch of annual picture competition, new grant scheme
  

On January 16, voting for the first round of the 2012 Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year contest will begin. Wikimedia editors with 75 edits or one project are eligible to vote to select their favorite image featured in 2012. ... On January 15, the foundation launched its latest grant scheme, called Individual Engagement Grants (IEG).

• WikiProject report: Reach for the Stars: WikiProject Astronomy
  

This week, we set off for the final frontier with WikiProject Astronomy. The project was started in August 2006 using the now-defunct WikiProject Space as inspiration. WikiProject Astronomy is home to 101 pieces of Featured material and 148 Good Articles maintained by a band of 186 members. The project maintains a portal, works on an assortment of vital astronomy articles, and provides resources for editors adding or requesting astronomy images.

• Discussion report: Flag Manual of Style; accessibility and equality
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• Special report: Loss of an Internet genius
  

Comforting those grieving after the loss of a loved one is an impossible task. How then, can an entire community be comforted? The Internet struggled to answer that question this week after the suicide of Aaron Swartz, a celebrated free-culture activist, programmer, and Wikipedian at the age of 26.

• Featured content: Featured articles: Quality of reviews, quality of writing in 2012
  

Continuing our recap of the featured content promoted in 2012, this week the Signpost interviewed three editors, asking them about featured articles which stuck out in their minds. Two, Ian Rose and Graham Colm, are current featured article candidates (FAC) delegates, while Brian Boulton is an active featured article writer and reviewer.

• Arbitration report: First arbitration case in almost six months
  

The opening of the Doncram case marks the end of almost 6 months without any open cases, the longest in the history of the Committee.

• Technology report: Intermittent outages planned, first Wikidata client deployment
  

The Wikidata client extension was successfully deployed to the Hungarian Wikipedia on 14 January, its team reports. The interwiki language links can now come from wikidata.org, though "manual" interwiki links remain functional, overriding those from the central repository.

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The Signpost: 21 January 2013

• News and notes: Requests for adminship reform moves forward
  

The English Wikipedia's requests for adminship (RfA) process has entered another cycle of proposed reforms. Over the last three weeks, various proposals, ranging from as large as a transition to a representative democracy to as small as a required edit count and service length, have been debated on the RfA talk page. The total number of new administrators for 2012 was just 28, barely more than half of 2011's total and less than a quarter of 2009's total. The total number of unsuccessful RfAs has fallen as well. These declining numbers, which were described in what would now be considered a successful year (2010) as an emerging "wikigeneration gulf", have been coupled with a sharp decline in the number of active administrators since February 2008 (1,021), reaching a low of 653 in November 2012.

• WikiProject report: Say What? — WikiProject Linguistics
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Linguistics. Started in January 2004, the project has grown to include 7 Featured Articles, 4 Featured Lists, 2 A-class Articles, and 15 Good Articles maintained by 43 members. The project's members keep an eye on several watchlists, maintain the linguistics category, and continue to build a collection of Did You Know? entries. The project is home to six task forces and works with WikiProject Languages and WikiProject Writing Systems.

• Featured content: Wazzup, G? Delegates and featured topics in review
  

This week, the Signpost's featured content section continues its recap of 2012 by looking at featured topics. We interviewed Grapple X and GamerPro64, who are delegates at the featured topic candidates.

• Arbitration report: Doncram case continues
  

The opening of the Doncram case marks the end of almost 6 months without any open cases, the longest in the history of the Committee.

• Technology report: Data centre switchover a tentative success
  

On 22 January, WMF staff and contractors switched incoming, non-cached requests (including edits) to the Foundation's newer data centre in Ashburn, Virginia, making it responsible for handling almost all regular traffic. For the first time since 2004, virtually no traffic will be handled by the WMF's other facility in Tampa, Florida.

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The Signpost: 28 January 2013

• In the media: Hoaxes draw media attention
  

On New Year's Day, the Daily Dot reported that a "massive Wikipedia hoax" had been exposed after more than five years. The article on the Bicholim conflict had been listed as a "Good Article" for the past half-decade, yet turned out to be an ingenious hoax. Created in July 2007 by User:A-b-a-a-a-a-a-a-b-a, the meticulously detailed piece was approved as a GA in October 2007. A subsequent submission for FA was unsuccessful, but failed to discover that the article's key sources were made up. While the User:A-b-a-a-a-a-a-a-b-a account then stopped editing, the hoax remained listed as a Good Article for five years, receiving in the region of 150 to 250 page views a month in 2012. It was finally nominated for deletion on 29 December 2012 by ShelfSkewed—who had discovered the hoax while doing work on Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs—and deleted the same day.

• Recent research: Lessons from the research literature on open collaboration; clicks on featured articles; credibility heuristics
  

A special issue of the American Behavioral Scientist is devoted to "open collaboration".

• WikiProject report: Checkmate! — WikiProject Chess
  

When we challenged the masters of WikiProject Chess to an interview, Sjakkalle answered our call. WikiProject Chess dates back to December 2003 and has grown to include 4 Featured Articles and 15 Good Articles maintained by over 100 members. The project typically operates independently of other WikiProjects, although the project would theoretically be a child of WikiProject Board and Table Games (interviewed in 2011). WikiProject Chess provides a collection of resources, seeks missing photographs of chess players, and helps determine ways that Wikipedia's coverage of chess can be expanded.

• Discussion report: Administrator conduct and requests
  

New discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• News and notes: Khan Academy's Smarthistory and Wikipedia collaborate
  

To many Wikimedians, the Khan Academy would seem like a close cousin: the academy is a non-profit educational website and a development of the massive open online course concept that has delivered over 227 million lessons in 22 different languages. Its mission is to give "a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere." This complements Wikipedia's stated goal to "imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge", then go and create that world. It should come as no surprise, then, that the highly successful GLAM-Wiki (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) initiative has partnered with the Khan Academy's Smarthistory project to further both its and Wikipedia's goals.

• Featured content: Listing off progress from 2012
  

This week, the Signpost featured content section continues its recap of 2012 by looking at featured lists. We interviewed FLC directors Giants2008 and The Rambling Man as well as active reviewer and writer PresN.

• Arbitration report: Doncram continues
  

The Doncram case has continued into its third week.

• Technology report: Developers get ready for FOSDEM amid caching problems
  

As reported in last week's "Technology Report", the WMF's data centre in Ashburn, Virginia took over responsibility for almost all of the remaining functions that had previously been handled by their old facility in Tampa, Florida on 22 January. The Signpost reported then that few problems had arisen since handover. Unfortunately that was not to remain the case, with reports of caching problems (which typically only affect anonymous users) starting to come in.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 17:23, 30 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 February 2013

• Special report: Examining the popularity of Wikipedia articles
  

On February 12, 2012, news of Whitney Houston's death brought 425 hits per second to her Wikipedia article, the highest peak traffic on any article since at least January 2010. It is broadly known that Wikipedia is the sixth most popular website on the Internet, but the English Wikipedia now has over 4 million articles and 29 million total pages. Much less attention has been given to traffic patterns and trends in content viewed.

• News and notes: Article Feedback Tool faces community resistance
  

Article feedback, at least through talk pages, has been a part of Wikipedia since its inception in 2001. The use of these pages, though, has typically been limited to experienced editors who know how to use them.

• WikiProject report: Land of the Midnight Sun
  

This week, we took a trip to WikiProject Norway. Started in February 2005, WikiProject Norway has become the home for almost 34,000 articles about the world's best place to live, including 16 Featured Articles, 19 Featured Lists, and nearly 250 Good Articles. The project works on a to do list, maintains a categorization system, watches article alerts, and serves as a discussion forum.

• Featured content: Portal people on potent potables and portable potholes
  

This week, the Signpost's featured content section continues its recap of 2012 by looking at featured portals, a small yet active part of the project. We interviewed FPOC directors Cirt and OhanaUnited.

• In the media: Star Trek Into Pedantry
  

On 30 January 2013, Kevin Morris in the Daily Dot summarised the bitter debates in Wikipedia around capitalisation or non-capitalisation of the word "into" in the title of the upcoming Star Trek film, Star Trek Into Darkness.

• Technology report: Wikidata team targets English Wikipedia deployment
  

Following the deployment of the Wikidata client to the Hungarian Wikipedia last month, the client was also deployed to the Italian and Hebrew Wikipedias on Wednesday. The next target for the client, which automatically provides phase 1 functionality, is the English Wikipedia, with a deployment date of 11 February already set.

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The Signpost: 11 February 2013

• Op-ed: An article is a construct – hoaxes and Wikipedia
  

Wikipedia has a long, daresay storied history with hoaxes; our internal list documents 198 of the largest ones we have caught as of 4 January 2013. Why?

• Featured content: A lousy week
  

Six articles, one list, and fourteen pictures were promoted to "featured" states this week on the English Wikipedia.

• WikiProject report: Just the Facts
  

This week, we got the details on WikiProject Infoboxes.

• In the media: Wikipedia mirroring life in island ownership dispute
  

Foreign Policy has published a report on editing of the Wikipedia articles on the Senkaku Islands and Senkaku Islands dispute. The uninhabited islands are under the control of Japan, but China and Taiwan are asserting rival territorial claims. Tensions have risen of late—and not just in the waters surrounding the actual islands.

• News and notes: UK chapter governance review marks the end of a controversial year
  

Wikimedia UK, the non-profit organization devoted to furthering the goals of the Wikimedia movement in the United Kingdom, has published the findings of a governance review conducted by Compass Partnership.

• Discussion report: WebCite proposal
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• Technology report: Wikidata client rollout stutters
  

The WMF's engineering report for January was published this week.

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The Signpost: 18 February 2013

• WikiProject report: Thank you for flying WikiProject Airlines
  

This week, we put our life in the hands of WikiProject Airlines. Starting in July 2005, the project has improved articles relating to airline companies, alliances, destination lists, and travel benefit programs. WikiProject Airlines has accumulated over 4,000 pages, including 4 Featured Articles and 26 Good Articles.

• Technology report: Better templates and 3D buildings
  

As of time of writing, twenty wikis (including the English, French and Hungarian Wikipedias) are in the process of getting access to the Lua scripting language, an optional substitute for the clunky template code that exists at present.

• News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation declares 'victory' in Wikivoyage lawsuit
  

On February 15, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) declared 'victory' in its counter-lawsuit against Internet Brands (IB), the owner of Wikitravel and the operator of several online media, community, and e-commerce sites in vertical markets. The lawsuit clears the last remaining hurdles for the WMF's new travel guide project, Wikivoyage.

• In the media: Sue Gardner interviewed by the Australian press
  

Sue Gardner's visit to Australia sparked a number of interviews in the Australian press. An interview published in the Daily Telegraph on 12 February 2013, titled "Data plans 'unnerving': Wikipedia boss", saw Gardner comment on Australian plans to store personal internet and telephone data. The planned measure, intended to assist crime prevention, would involve internet service providers and mobile phone firms storing customer usage data for up to two years.

• Featured content: Featured content gets schooled
  

Two articles, nine lists, and thirteen pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.

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The Signpost: 25 February 2013

• In the media: Ex-WMF trustee creates "Wikipedia Corporate Index" for PR agency
  

On 13 February 2013, PR Report, the German sister publication of PR Week, published an article announcing that PR agency Fleishman-Hillard was offering a new analysis tool enabling companies to assess their articles in the German-language Wikipedia: the Wikipedia Corporate Index (WCI).

• Recent research: Wikipedia not so novel after all, except to UK university lecturers
  

"Wikipedia and Encyclopedic Production" by Jeff Loveland (a historian of encyclopedias) and Joseph Reagle situates Wikipedia within the context of encyclopedic production historically, arguing that the features that many claim to be unique about Wikipedia actually have roots in encyclopedias of the past.

• News and notes: "Very lucky" Picture of the Year
  

The Wikimedia Commons 2012 Picture of the Year contest has ended, with the winner being Pair of Merops apiaster feeding, taken by Pierre Dalous. The picture shows a pair of European Bee-eaters in a mating ritual—the male bird (right) has tossed the wasp into the air, and he will eventually offer it to the female (left).

• Discussion report: Wikivoyage links; overcategorization
  

Current discussions include...

• Featured content: Blue birds be bouncin'
  

Six articles, three lists, and twelve images were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this month.

• WikiProject report: How to measure a WikiProject's workload
  

How can we measure the challenges facing a project or determine a WikiProject's productivity? Several prominent projects have been doing it for years: WikiWork.

• Technology report: Wikidata development to be continued indefinitely
  

Wikimedia Germany (WMDE) this week committed itself to funding the Wikidata development team, ending fears that phase three would be abandoned.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 04:44, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2013 February newsletter

Round 1 is now over. The top 64 scorers have progressed to round 2, where they have been randomly split into eight pools of eight. At the end of April, the top two from each pool, as well as the 16 highest scorers from those remaining, will progress to round 3. Commiserations to those eliminated; if you're interested in still being involved in the WikiCup, able and willing reviewers will always be needed, and if you're interested in getting involved with other collaborative projects, take a look at the WikiWomen's Month discussed below.

Round 1 saw 21 competitors with over 100 points, which is fantastic; that suggests that this year's competition is going to be highly competative. Our lower scores indicate this, too: A score of 19 was required to reach round 2, which was significantly higher than the 11 points required in 2012 and 8 points required in 2011. The score needed to reach round 3 will be higher, and may depend on pool groupings. In 2011, 41 points secured a round 3 place, while in 2012, 65 was needed. Our top three scorers in round 1 were:

1. Sturmvogel_66 (submissions), primarily for an array of warship GAs.
2. Miyagawa (submissions), primarily for an array of did you knows and good articles, some of which were awarded bonus points.
3. Casliber (submissions), due in no small part to Canis Minor, a featured article awarded a total of 340 points. A joint submission with Keilana (submissions), this is the highest scoring single article yet submitted in this year's competition.

Other contributors of note include:

• Sven Manguard (submissions), whose Portal:Massachusetts is the first featured portal this year. The featured portal process is one of the less well-known featured processes, and featured portals have traditionally had little impact on WikiCup scores.
• Sasata (submissions), whose Mycena aurantiomarginata was the first featured article this year.
• Muboshgu (submissions) and Wizardman (submissions), who both claimed points for articles in the Major League Baseball tie-breakers topic, the first topic points in the competition.
• Toa Nidhiki05 (submissions), who claimed for the first full good topic with the Casting Crowns studio albums topic.

Featured topics have still played no part in this year's competition, but once again, a curious contribution has been offered by The C of E (submissions): did you know that there is a Shit Brook in Shropshire? With April Fools' Day during the next round, there will probably be a good chance of more unusual articles...

March sees the WikiWomen's History Month, a series of collaborative efforts to aid the women's history WikiProject to coincide with Women's History Month and International Women's Day. A number of WikiCup participants have already started to take part. The project has a to-do list of articles needing work on the topic of women's history. Those interested in helping out with the project can find articles in need of attention there, or, alternatively, add articles to the list. Those interested in collaborating on articles on women's history are also welcome to use the WikiCup talk page to find others willing to lend a helping hand. Another collaboration currently running is an an effort from WikiCup participants to coordinate a number of Easter-themed did you know articles. Contributions are welcome!

A few final administrative issues. From now on, submission pages will need only a link to the article and a link to the nomination page, or, in the case of good article reviews, a link to the review only. See your submissions' page for details. This will hopefully make updating submission pages a little less tedious. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) J Milburn (talk) 01:18, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 March 2013

• Op-ed: We must do more to turn readers into editors
  

Recently I was having a casual conversation with a friend, and he mentioned that he spent too many hours a day playing video games. I responded with a comment that I, too, spent way too much time on an activity of my own – Wikipedia. In an attempt to reply with a relevant remark, he offered something along the lines of: "So have you ever written anything?" After a second, I quickly answered yes, but I was still in shock over his question. It seemed to be rooted in a belief on his part that using Wikipedia meant just reading the articles, and that editing was something that someone, hypothetically, might do, but not really more likely than randomly counting to 7,744.

• News and notes: Outing of editor causes firestorm
  

"WP:OUTING", the normally little-noticed policy corner of the English Wikipedia that governs the release of editors' personal information, has suddenly been brought to wider attention after long-term contributor and featured article writer Cla68 was indefinitely blocked last week. This snowballed into several other blocks, a desysopping by ArbCom, and a request for arbitration.

• Featured content: Slow week for featured content
  

Three articles, six lists, and three pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week, including the article on "Laura Secord", who was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812 best known for warning the British of an impending American attack.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Television Stations
  

This week, we tuned to WikiProject Television Stations, a project that dates back to March 2004. WikiProject Television Stations primarily focuses on local stations, national networks, television markets, and other topics related to television channels in North America, the Caribbean, and some Pacific countries. The project has a fair bit of work ahead of them with over 4,000 unassessed articles and only one Good Article out of 626 assessed articles, giving the project a relative WikiWork rating of 5.262.

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The Signpost: 11 March 2013

• From the editor: Signpost–Wikizine merger
  

I am pleased to announce that the Signpost and Wikizine have reached an in-principle agreement that will see Wikizine published as a special Signpost section at the beginning of each month.

• News and notes: Finance committee updates
  

During March, three of the Wikimedia Foundation's grantmaking schemes on Meta will reach important crossroads, which will shape how both the editing communities and Wikimedia institutions handle the distribution of donors' money across the movement.

• Featured content: Batman, three birds and a Mercedes
  

Twelve articles, five lists, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week, including an image of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, a front-engine, 2-seat luxury grand tourer automobile developed by Mercedes-AMG.

• Arbitration report: Doncram case closes; arbitrator resigns
  

There are three open cases, and a final decision has been given in the Doncram case.

• WikiProject report: Setting a precedent
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject U.S. Supreme Court Cases.

• Technology report: Article Feedback reversal
  

The WMF has aborted a plan to deploy version 5 of the Article Feedback tool (AFTv5) rolled out to all English Wikipedia articles.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 07:23, 13 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 March 2013

• News and notes: Resigning arbitrator slams Committee
  

Just two months into his second term as an arbitrator on the English Wikipedia, Coren resigned from the Committee with a blistering attack on his fellow arbitrators. At the heart of a strongly worded statement, posted both on his talk page and the arbitration notice board, was the claim that ArbCom has become politicised to the extent that "it can no longer do the job it was ostensibly elected for".

• WikiProject report: Making music
  

This week, we composed a tribute to WikiProject Composers. The project was created during the final hours of 2004 and finalized in early January 2005. It has grown to encompass over 8,000 pages, including 26 Featured Articles and 23 Good Articles. WikiProject Composers faces a difficult workload, with a relative WikiWork rating of 5.45.

• Interview: Meeting in the middle: Wikipedia and libraries
  

Ask librarians what they think about Wikipedia and you might get some interesting answers. Some will throw up their hands about the laziness of the Google generation and their overdependence on Wikipedia. Some see it as the "competition". And some will tell you it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

• Featured content: Wikipedia stays warm
  

Nine articles, seven lists, eleven images, and one topic were promoted to "featured status" this week on the English Wikipedia.

• Arbitration report: Richard case closes
  

On Thursday, arbitrator Coren resigned, following closely on the heels of Hersfold's resignation on Wednesday. There are two open cases. A final decision has been given in the Richard case.

• Technology report: Visual Editor "on schedule"
  

The WMF's engineering report for January was published this week, giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month.

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	Emerson, West Virginia			Rachelle Walker
	Norvelle, West Virginia		Wikify
	Rodes, West Virginia			Eritrean Postal Service
	Dry Hill, West Virginia			Culture of Cameroon
	Mitchell School			Cicero Public School District 99
	Wheeler High School (Fossil, Oregon)		Expand
	Posey, West Virginia			Politics of Tanzania
	Beckley Junction, West Virginia			Beaver, West Virginia
	Jamam			List of schools in Cornwall

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The Signpost: 25 March 2013

• WikiProject report: The 'Burgh: WikiProject Pittsburgh
  

Our travels have brought us to Pittsburgh, the American city known for steelworks and bridges.

• Featured content: One and a half soursops
  

Seven articles, one list, six pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Arbitration report: Two open cases
  

This case, brought by Mark Arsten, was opened over a dispute over transgenderism topics that began off-wiki. The evidence phase was scheduled to close March 7, 2013, with a proposed decision due to be posted by March 29.

• News and notes: Sue Gardner to leave WMF; German Wikipedians spearhead another effort to close Wikinews
  

Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation since December 2007, has announced her plans to leave the position when a successor is recruited. Ranked as one of the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine, Sue Gardner is widely associated with the rise of the Wikimedia movement as a major custodian of human knowledge and cultural products.

• Technology report: The Visual Editor: Where are we now, and where are we headed?
  

Since its inception in May 2011, the Foundation's Visual Editor project has grown to become one of its main focuses. As the project nears its two-year birthday, the Signpost caught up with Visual Editor project manager James Forrester to discuss the progress on the project.

• Recent research: "Ignore all rules" in deletions; anonymity and groupthink; how readers react when shown talk pages
  

A paper presented at last month's CSCW Conference observes that "Mass collaboration systems are often characterized as unstructured organizations lacking rule and order", yet Wikipedia has a well developed body of policies to support it as an organization.

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The Signpost: 01 April 2013

• Special report: Who reads which Wikipedia?
  

The Wikimedia Foundation has released its latest report card for the movement's hundreds of sites. The WMF has published statistics about the sites since 2009, but only recently have these been expanded in scope and depth to provide a rich source of data for investigating the movement and the world it serves. Dutch-born Erik Zachte is the driver of the WMF's statistical output, and he writes that the report card and accompanying traffic statistics comprise "enough tables, bar charts and plots to keep you busy for a while".

• WikiProject report: Special: FAQs
  

This week's Report is dedicated to answering our readers' questions about WikiProjects. The following Frequently Asked Questions came from feedback at the WikiProject Report's talk page, the WikiProject Council's talk page, and from previous lists of FAQs.

• Featured content: What the ?
  

The Signpost interviewed prolific featured content creator and former Signpost "featured content" report writer Crisco 1492 about ? and Indonesian cinema. ? was the "Today's featured article" for 1 April 2013. 1 April is popularly known as April Fools' Day in many countries.

• News and notes: Grants given for Wikipedia Library, six others; April Fool's Day ructions
  

The first round of individual engagement grants (IEGs) have been awarded, disbursing about $55.6k (€42.7k) to seven applicants.

• Arbitration report: Three open cases
  

A case brought by Lecen involves several articles about former Argentinian president Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793–1877).

• Technology report: Wikidata phase 2 deployment timetable in doubt
  

Users of ten Wikipedias got access to phase 2 of Wikidata following its first rollout to production wikis.

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Stubs			Cleanup
	Telkom Kenya			Culture of Cameroon
	Jenny Gap, West Virginia			Royal families of the United Arab Emirates
	Tomah Area School District			Oregon City High School
	Switch (2013 film)		Merge
	Stover, West Virginia			Adi Granth
	Brandon School Division			President
	Bone Lick, West Virginia			Usul al-fiqh
	Findlay City School District		Add sources
	Brunswick City School District			Ruskin Bond
	Professional school			Twelver
	Mitchell School			Glade Springs, West Virginia
	Johnstown, West Virginia		Wikify
	Matville, West Virginia			Cicero Public School District 99
	Hamlet, West Virginia			Eritrean Postal Service
	Trap Hill, West Virginia			Shia view of Ali
	Wheeler High School (Fossil, Oregon)		Expand
	Torrington Public Schools			Politics of Tanzania
	Leyton High School			Beaver, West Virginia
	Holbæk Municipality			National Assembly (Niger)

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly, your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

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The Signpost: 08 April 2013

• Wikizine: WMF scales back feature after outcry
  

Numerous Wikimedia Commons editors have chimed in on the Wikimedia Foundation's deployment of a new feature to its mobile website. Allowing anonymous users to register and upload pictures for use in an article, the feature was placed prominently at the top of Wikipedia articles in multiple languages.

• WikiProject report: Earthshattering WikiProject Earthquakes
  

This week, we felt the world tremble in the presence of WikiProject Earthquakes. The project was started in May 2008 to deal with articles about earthquakes, aftershocks, seismology, seismologists, plate tectonics, and related articles. While the project has seen success building 14 Featured Articles, one A-class Article, and 21 Good Articles, a fairly heavy workload remains, with a relative WikiWork rating of 4.94. WikiProject Earthquakes maintains a portal, a list of open tasks, a popular pages listing, and an article alerts watchlist.

• News and notes: French intelligence agents threaten Wikimedia volunteer
  

Last Friday, the Wikimedia movement awoke to news that one of their number—Rémi Mathis, a French volunteer editor—had been summoned to the offices of the interior intelligence service DCRI and threatened with criminal charges and fines if he did not delete an article on the French Wikipedia about a radio station used by the French military.

• Arbitration report: Subject experts needed for Argentine History
  

The arbitration committee is looking for expertise in Argentina and the Spanish language for a case involving former Argentinean president Juan Manuel de Rosas (1793–1877).

• Featured content: Wikipedia loves poetry
  

Four articles and two pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Technology report: Testing week
  

The deployment of phase 2 of Wikidata to the English Wikipedia, originally scheduled for 8 April but delayed due to technical problems, may be rescheduled again as the result of community resistance.

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The Signpost: 15 April 2013

• Op-ed: How do we fix RfA inactivity?
  

The RfA process is widely discussed here on the English Wikipedia and it has been well documented that less and less new Requests for adminship are being filed. There are an abundance of bytes devoted to the discussion and analysis of this situation and plenty of hands have been wrung over the matter. Various RfCs have attempted to find a way to fix the problem. Many proposals have been made offering solutions, some more potentially drastic than others, with the goal of making the changes necessary to kick–start RfA back into regular action. However, Wikipedia operates based on consensus and, to this point, there are have simply been too many disagreeing views for us to reach a consensus on how to increase RfA activity.

• WikiProject report: Unity in Diversity: South Africa
  

This week, we ventured to WikiProject South Africa. The project was started in February 2005 and is home to thirteen pieces of featured material, two A-class articles, and twenty-one good articles.

• News and notes: Another admin reform attempt flops
  

The most recent move to reform the requests for adminship process on the English Wikipedia has failed, after a complex and drawn-out three-step procedure for community input was subject to decreasing participation as time wore on and came up with no clear consensus.

• Featured content: The featured process swings into high gear
  

Four articles, twelve lists, and seven pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

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The Signpost: 22 April 2013

• In the media: Wikipedia inaccurate, says Florence; New Wikipedia app for breaking news
  

An article by John Sweeney published on 22 April 2013 on scnow.com, the website of the Florence, South Carolina Morning News, reported that Florence city officials have taken to monitoring and correcting the Wikipedia article on their city.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Editor Retention
  

This week, we spent some time with a project that develops tools and methods for improving the user experience in the hope that new users will continue editing the encyclopedia. The project was started in July 2012 and has grown to include 124 members. The project's members partner with the Teahouse and the Welcoming Committee to spread WikiLove, welcome new users, encourage civility, and other related activities.

• News and notes: Milan conference a mixed bag
  

The Wikimedia Conference is an annual meeting of the chapters to discuss their status and the organisational development of the Wikimedia movement. For the first time it included groups that wish to be considered for WMF affiliation as thematic organisations and one of the three groups that was recently affiliated as a user group. The conference was also attended by members of the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) Board of Trustees, the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), the WMF Affiliations Committee, and a representative of the Wikivoyage Association.

• Featured content: Batfish in the Red Sea
  

Nine articles, four lists, eight pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.

• Arbitration report: Sexology case nears closure after stalling over topic ban
  

The Sexology case is nearing completion after arbitrators were unable to agree on a topic ban for one of the participants.

• Technology report: A flurry of deployments
  

On Monday, the English Wikipedia became the 12th wiki to be able to pull data from the central Wikidata.org repository, with other wikis scheduled to receive the update on Wednesday.

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The Signpost: 29 April 2013

• News and notes: Chapter furore over FDC knockbacks; First DC GLAM boot-camp
  

The Funds Dissemination Committee released its recommendations to the WMF board last Sunday. The news that the Hong Kong chapter's application for US$212K had failed was followed by a strongly worded resignation announcement by Deryck Chan on the public Wikimedia-l mailing-list.

• In the media: Wikipedia's sexism; Yuri Gadyukin hoax
  

On 24 April 2013, novelist Amanda Filipacchi published what turned out to be an influential op-ed in the New York Times; illuminating the unusual background of the Yuri Gadyukin hoax.

• Featured content: Wiki loves video games
  

Nine articles, three lists, three pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" this week.

• WikiProject report: Japanese WikiProject Baseball
  

This week, we traveled to the Japanese Wikipedia's WikiProject Baseball for perspectives from a version of Wikipedia that treats WikiProjects as their own unique namespace (プロジェクト:) independent of "Wikipedia:".

• Traffic report: Most popular Wikipedia articles
  

The WP:TOP25 and WP:5000 reports chronicle the most popular Wikipedia articles on a weekly basis.

• Arbitration report: Sexology closed; two open cases
  

The Sexology case closed shortly after publication with no changes.

• Recent research: Sentiment monitoring; UNESCO and systemic bias; and more
  

A report on an online service which was created to conduct real-time monitoring of Wikipedia articles of companies, and more.

• Technology report: New notifications system deployed across Wikipedia
  

This week saw the deployment of the Echo extension, also known as "notifications".

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Articles you might like to edit, from SuggestBot

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We have added information about the quality of the suggested articles using a Low/Medium/High scale which goes from Low to High .

SuggestBot predicts that you will enjoy editing some of these articles. Have fun!

Stubs			Cleanup
	Telkom Kenya			Royal families of the United Arab Emirates
	Hamlet, West Virginia			Julius Nyerere
	Table Rock, West Virginia			Culture of Cameroon
	Friendly View, West Virginia		Merge
	Wheeler High School (Fossil, Oregon)			President
	Mitchell School			Islamic schools and branches
	Bone Lick, West Virginia			Khanda (Sikh symbol)
	Johnstown, West Virginia		Add sources
	Torrington Public Schools			Salvadoran Army
	Professional school			Glade Springs, West Virginia
	Holbæk Municipality			Twelver
	Millbrae School District		Wikify
	Matville, West Virginia			Cicero Public School District 99
	Trap Hill, West Virginia			Eritrean Postal Service
	Tomah Area School District			Sikhism in Thailand
	Jenny Gap, West Virginia		Expand
	Findlay City School District			Politics of Tanzania
	White Stick, West Virginia			List of schools in Cornwall
	Stover, West Virginia			Beaver, West Virginia

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly, your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please let us know on SuggestBot's talk page. Regards from Nettrom (talk), SuggestBot's caretaker. -- SuggestBot (talk) 00:17, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 May 2013

• News and notes: Candidates nominating for Foundation elections; Looking ahead to Wikimania 2014
  

Although not yet in great numbers, candidates are coming forward for Wikimedia Foundation elections, which will be held from 1 to 15 June. The elections will fill vacancies in three categories, the most prominent of which will be the three community-elected seats on the ten-member Board of Trustees (or the first Board meeting after the election results are announced, if sooner). The current two-year terms for these trustee positions ends on 1 September.

• Technology report: Foundation successful in bid for larger Google subsidy
  

The Wikimedia Foundation will be receiving more than $100,000 worth of free developer time courtesy of internet giant Google, it was announced this week. The funds, allocated as part of Google's Summer of Code programme, will support up to 21 student developers through three months of coding time.

• Featured content: WikiCup update: full speed ahead!
  

May sees the beginning of Round 3 of the 2013 WikiCup, with 33 of the original 127 competitors remaining. ... six articles, ten pictures, and two portals were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• In the media: New Wikipedia for Schools edition; Anders Behring Breivik's Wikipedia contributions
  

The SOS Children's Villages news service advised on 3 May 2013 that Wikipedia for Schools 2013 is nearly ready for release. ... On 26 April 2013, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation published an article reviewing Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik's edits to the English Wikipedia, where it revealed the name of Breivik's English Wikipedia account.

• WikiProject report: Earn $100 in cash... and a button!
  

This week's English Wikipedia project, WikiProject Biophysics, is home to several experts in their fields and a collaboration with the Biophysical Society. The project is hosting a contest through July 15 with six contributors winning $100 in cash and given the opportunity to attend the 2014 meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Francisco. Other strong entries will be awarded barnstars online and everyone who contributes can receive a physical button mailed out to them.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 18:09, 10 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 May 2013

• News and notes: WMF–community ruckus on Wikimedia mailing list
  

The removal of administrator rights from all volunteers on the Wikimedia Foundation's official website sparked a highly emotional reaction on the Wikimedia-l mailing list—one of the largest off-wiki methods of communication for the Wikimedia movement.

• WikiProject report: Knock Out: WikiProject Mixed Martial Arts
  

This week, we spent some time watching WikiProject Mixed Martial Arts, which was started in August 2005 and has grown to include 12 Good Articles and a Featured List.

• Featured content: A mushroom, a motorway, a Munich gallery, and a map
  

Fourteen articles, three lists, and three pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia, including Boletus luridus, seen above.

• In the media: PR firm accused of editing Wikipedia for government clients; can Wikipedia predict the stock market?
  

An article published on May 10 on Odwyerpr.com written by Greg Hazley documented a "spar" between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and public relations firm Qorvis partner Matt Lauer, who disputes Wikipedia's guideline discouraging public relations firms from editing articles on their clients.

• Arbitration report: Race and politics opened; three open cases
  

The Race and politics case has been accepted for arbitration, and the evidence phase is now open. Two other cases remain open.

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Articles you might like to edit, from SuggestBot

We are currently running a study on the effects of adding additional information to SuggestBot’s recommendations. Participation in the study is voluntary. Should you wish to not participate in the study, or have questions or concerns, you can find contact information in the consent information sheet.

We have added information about the quality of the suggested articles using a Low/Medium/High scale which goes from Low to High .

SuggestBot predicts that you will enjoy editing some of these articles. Have fun!

Stubs			Cleanup
	Telkom Kenya			Automake
	Bone Lick, West Virginia			Julius Nyerere
	Hamlet, West Virginia			Culture of Cameroon
	David Shaff		Merge
	Matville, West Virginia			Khanda (Sikh symbol)
	Jiangnan High School			President
	Friendly View, West Virginia			Islamic schools and branches
	Jenny Gap, West Virginia		Add sources
	Johnstown, West Virginia			GNU Debugger
	Professional school			Glade Springs, West Virginia
	Findlay City School District			Paul Jones (wrestler)
	Trap Hill, West Virginia		Wikify
	Lebowa			Royal families of the United Arab Emirates
	Stover, West Virginia			Aloha High School
	Millbrae School District			Rex Putnam High School
	Wheeler High School (Fossil, Oregon)		Expand
	Mitchell School			Politics of Tanzania
	Tomah Area School District			Beaver, West Virginia
	Holbæk Municipality			List of schools in Cornwall

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly, your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please let us know on SuggestBot's talk page. Regards from Nettrom (talk), SuggestBot's caretaker. -- SuggestBot (talk) 16:38, 17 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 May 2013

• Foundation elections: Trustee candidates speak about Board structure, China, gender, global south, endowment
  

Nominations closed last Friday for the three community-elected seats on the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) ten-member Board of Trustees—the ultimate corporate authority of the worldwide WMF. The Board has influential roles and responsibilities over one of the most powerful global information sources on the Internet.

• WikiProject report: Classical Greece and Rome
  

This week, we traveled to WikiProject Classical Greece and Rome. The project was started in May 2006 and has 37 featured articles.

• News and notes: Spanish Wikipedia leaps past one million articles
  

On 16 May, the Spanish Wikipedia became the seventh Wikipedia to cross the million article Rubicon, a symbolic yet important achievement.

• In the media: Qworty incident continues
  

Salon.com published another article detailing the ongoing incidents with Wikipedia user Qworty, who has identified himself as Robert Clark Young. It documents Qworty's role in the controversy involving Amanda Filipacchi's op-ed, which kindled a debate on Wikipedia sexism as it relates to categories, where Qworty was responsible for a series of revenge edits against Filipacchi in the days after she released her op-ed.

• Featured content: Up in the air
  

Nine articles, six lists, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 07:30, 23 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Love history & culture? Get involved in WikiProject World Digital Library!

World Digital Library Wikipedia Partnership - We need you!

Hi Syed Kazim! I'm the Wikipedian In Residence at the World Digital Library, a project of the Library of Congress and UNESCO. I'm recruiting Wikipedians who are passionate about history & culture to participate in improving Wikipedia using the WDL's vast free online resources. Participants can earn our awesome WDL barnstar and help to disseminate free knowledge from over 100 libraries in 7 different languages. Please sign up to participate here. Thanks for editing Wikipedia and I look forward to working with you! SarahStierch (talk) 18:18, 23 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Syed! I'm so happy to see you signed up to join the project - welcome. You can dive into our to-do lists here. There is tons of military history! Be sure to watchlist your favorites, as they will continue to grow as new content gets added to the WDL website. Also, you can always search the WDL website for something that you're interested in. And be sure to share your outcomes here. If I can help with anything just ask and welcome aboard! SarahStierch (talk) 20:24, 23 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Sarah! Thanks for the warm welcome. :) I've already looked at a few items on the to-do list and seen several things that I'd love to work on. Thanks for inviting me. --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 21:22, 24 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Love history & culture? Get involved in WikiProject World Digital Library!

World Digital Library Wikipedia Partnership - We need you!

Hi Syed Kazim! I'm the Wikipedian In Residence at the World Digital Library, a project of the Library of Congress and UNESCO. I'm recruiting Wikipedians who are passionate about history & culture to participate in improving Wikipedia using the WDL's vast free online resources. Participants can earn our awesome WDL barnstar and help to disseminate free knowledge from over 100 libraries in 7 different languages. Multilingual editing encouraged!!! But being multilingual is not a necessity to make this project a success. Please sign up to participate here. Thanks for editing Wikipedia and I look forward to working with you! 14:18, 26 May 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost: 27 May 2013

• News and notes: First-ever community election for FDC positions
  

Alongside the Signpost's interviews with the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) Board of Trustees candidates, the Signpost asked the candidates for the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) and its Ombudsperson position a series of questions relating to the positions they may be taking on. For the FDC candidates, this will include specific recommendations to the WMF on how to disburse over US$11 million in donors' funds to affiliate organizations, something which appears to have garnered little attention from the editing community at large so far.

• In the media: Pagans complain about Qworty's anti-Pagan editing
  

In the continuing saga of User:Qworty's outing as author Robert Clark Young, several blogs and websites covered the now-banned user's anti-Pagan editing. In an article published on 22 May 2013, TechEye described Qworty's edits as a "reign of terror" and were pleased to find that he had not succeeded in removing several prominent Pagan biographies from the encyclopedia.

• Foundation elections: Candidates talk about the Meta problem, the nation-based chapter model, world languages, and value for money
  

The elections for the three community seats on the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees start on 8 June. This second and final part of the interview explores two broad themes: Meta, the site that hosts movement-wide coordination; and offline entities—the chapters and the new thematic organisations and user groups.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Geographical Coordinates
  

This week, we plotted out the demarcations of WikiProject Geographical Coordinates, which aims to create a single standard of handling coordinates in Wikipedia articles.

• Featured content: Life of 2π
  

Twelve articles, four lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Recent research: Motivations on the Persian Wikipedia; is science eight times more popular on the Spanish Wikipedia than the English Wikipedia?
  

An article in Library Review offers a much-needed comparison of data from a population of editors outside the English Wikipedia.

• Technology report: Amsterdam hackathon: continuity, change, and stroopwafels
  

Second only to the technical track of Wikimania in terms of numbers, the Berlin Hackathon (2009–2012) provided those with an interest in the software that underpins Wikimedia wikis and supports its editors a place to gather, exchange ideas and learn new skills.

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Articles you might like to edit, from SuggestBot

We are currently running a study on the effects of adding additional information to SuggestBot's suggestions. Participation in the study is voluntary. Should you wish to not participate in the study, or have questions or concerns, you can find contact information on the SuggestBot study page.

IMPORTANT CHANGES: We have modified the selection of articles SuggestBot suggests and altered the design to incorporate more information about the articles, as described in this explanation.

Note: All columns in this table are sortable, allowing you to rearrange the table so the articles most interesting to you are shown at the top. All images have mouse-over popups with more information.

Views/Day	Quality	Title	Content	Headings	Images	Links	Sources	Tagged with…
420		Twelver (talk)						Add sources
151		GNU Debugger (talk)						Add sources
73		Salvadoran Army (talk)						Add sources
495		Barry Windham (talk)						Add sources
197		Alex Wright (talk)						Add sources
129		Glenn Gilbertti (talk)						Add sources
762		The Devil's Rejects (talk)						Cleanup
373		Paul Orndorff (talk)						Cleanup
36		Culture of Cameroon (talk)						Cleanup
75		Politics of Tanzania (talk)						Expand
13		Beaver, West Virginia (talk)						Expand
5		National Assembly (Niger) (talk)						Expand
370		PeerGuardian (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
176		Computer appliance (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
433		United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
867		President (talk)						Merge
185		Khanda (Sikh symbol) (talk)						Merge
663		Islamic schools and branches (talk)						Merge
51		Automake (talk)						Wikify
110		Royal families of the United Arab Emirates (talk)						Wikify
443		Julius Nyerere (talk)						Wikify
1		Torrington Public Schools (talk)						Orphan
0		Penn Harris Madison Schools (talk)						Orphan
8		WHO regions (talk)						Orphan
1		Leevale, West Virginia (talk)						Stub
66		Professional school (talk)						Stub
3		Wheeler High School (Fossil, Oregon) (talk)						Stub
16		Telkom Kenya (talk)						Stub
2		Cirtsville, West Virginia (talk)						Stub
1		Terry Junction, West Virginia (talk)						Stub

Changes to SuggestBot's suggestions

We have changed the number of suggested articles and which categories they are selected from. The number of stubs has been greatly reduced, the number of articles needing sources doubled, and two new categories added (orphans and unencyclopaedic articles). We have also modified the layout of the suggestions and added sortable columns with various types of information about each article. The first two columns are:

Views/Day

Daily average number of views an article's had over the past 14 days.

Quality

Predicted article quality on a 1- to 3-star scale. Placing your cursor over the stars should give you a pop-up describing the article's quality (Low/Medium/High), current assessment class, and predicted assessment class.

The method we use to predict article quality also allows us to assess whether an article might need specific types of work in order to improve its quality. The work needed might not correspond to cleanup tags added to the article, since our method is not based on those. We have added five columns reflecting this work assessment, where a red X indicates improvement is needed. Placing your cursor over an X should give you a pop-up with a short description of the work needed. The five columns seek to answer the following five questions:

Content

Is more content needed?

Headings

Does this article have an appropriate section structure?

Images

Is the number of illustrative images about right?

Links

Does this article link to enough other Wikipedia articles?

Sources

For its length, is there an appropriate number of citations to sources in this article?

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly, your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

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The Signpost: 05 June 2013

• From the editor: Signpost developments
  

I am excited to announce that a Portuguese-language journal, Correio da Wikipédia has been launched by Vitorvicentevalente. It has just published its third edition, and I encourage readers who speak the language to read and contribute to its already-expansive coverage of the Portuguese Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement.

• Featured content: A week of portraits
  

Five articles, four lists, and thirteen images were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.

• Discussion report: Return of the Discussion report
  

This is mostly a list of requests for comment believed to be active on 4 June 2013 linked from subpages of Wikipedia:RfC or watchlist notices.

• News and notes: "Cease and desist", World Trade Organization says to Wikivoyage; Could WikiLang be the next WMF project?
  

On 31 May, the Wikimedia Foundation's Legal and Community Advocacy team announced that the Wikivoyage logo would have to be replaced, because it has become the subject of a cease-and-desist letter from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

• In the media: China blocks secure version of Wikipedia
  

An article on TheNextWeb.com says that the Chinese Government has effectively blocked Wikipedia by cutting off access to the HTTP Secure (https) "workaround", almost completely cutting off access to those in China.

• WikiProject report: Operation Normandy
  

This week, we reflect on the anniversary of D-Day by storming the shores of Operation Normandy, a special initiative of WikiProject Military History.

• Technology report: Developers accused of making Toolserver fight 'pointless'
  

Last week, the Signpost reported on a feeling at the Amsterdam hackathon that Toolserver developers were coming round to the idea of migrating to Wikimedia Labs.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 22:30, 6 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 June 2013

• News and notes: How Wikimedia affiliates are spending $8.4 million; PRISM scandal
  

Late last year, the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) awarded $8.4 million in donors' money to 11 Wikimedia entities, including the Wikimedia Foundation and 10 nationally defined chapters. Under this arrangement, these organisations are required to issue quarterly reports on how far they have progressed towards their declared programmatic and financial goals. The FDC has now announced that all 11 completed and submitted their reports by the 1 April deadline, and have responded to each.

• Featured content: Mixing Bowl Interchange
  

Seven articles, two lists, five pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• In the media: VisualEditor will "change world history"
  

In an article published by the Huffington Post's United Kingdom edition, writer Thomas Church asserts that the new VisualEditor will change history, literally. It says that Wikipedia's mark-up language has been to its advantage, as most people didn't bother trying to learn it

• Op-ed: The tragedy of Wikipedia's commons
  

I've long thought that we should get rid of the Wikimedia Commons as we know it. Commons has evolved into a project with interests that compete with the needs of the primary users of Commons and the reason it was created. It's also understaffed, which results in poor curation, large administrative backlogs, and poor policy development.

• Discussion report: VisualEditor, elections, bots, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia.

• Traffic report: Who holds the throne?
  

Last week's most popular article list on the English Wikipedia was dominated by the massively popular TV series Game of Thrones, which claimed six slots in the top 25, including the top three. Its popularity was likely stoked by the most recent episode, The Rains of Castamere. Bollywood continued to increase its share of views as well, aided by the tragic suicide of star Nafisa Khan.

• Arbitration report: Two cases suspended; proposed decision posted in Argentine History
  

Two cases, Race and politics and Tea Party movement have been suspended. Argentine History remains open, and a proposed decision was posted on 12 June.

• WikiProject report: Processing WikiProject Computing
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Computing. Started in October 2003, the project has grown to include 17 featured articles, 11 featured lists, 3 pieces of featured media, and 80 good articles.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:35, 14 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Articles you might like to edit, from SuggestBot

We are currently running a study on the effects of adding additional information to SuggestBot's suggestions. Participation in the study is voluntary. Should you wish to not participate in the study, or have questions or concerns, you can find contact information on the SuggestBot study page.

IMPORTANT CHANGES: We have modified the selection of articles SuggestBot suggests and altered the design to incorporate more information about the articles, as described in this explanation.

Note: All columns in this table are sortable, allowing you to rearrange the table so the articles most interesting to you are shown at the top. All images have mouse-over popups with more information.

Views/Day	Quality	Title	Content	Headings	Images	Links	Sources	Tagged with…
444		Twelver (talk)						Add sources
153		GNU Debugger (talk)						Add sources
13		First Republic Bank Corporation (talk)						Add sources
4		Glade Springs, West Virginia (talk)						Add sources
521		Barry Windham (talk)						Add sources
85		Paul Jones (wrestler) (talk)						Add sources
355		Paul Orndorff (talk)						Cleanup
724		The Devil's Rejects (talk)						Cleanup
53		Automake (talk)						Cleanup
73		SAREB (talk)						Expand
15		Beaver, West Virginia (talk)						Expand
75		Politics of Tanzania (talk)						Expand
344		PeerGuardian (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
371		United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
188		Computer appliance (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
889		President (talk)						Merge
204		Khanda (Sikh symbol) (talk)						Merge
22		Colossal Connection (talk)						Merge
97		Royal families of the United Arab Emirates (talk)						Wikify
404		Julius Nyerere (talk)						Wikify
1		Eritrean Postal Service (talk)						Wikify
1		Torrington Public Schools (talk)						Orphan
0		Penn Harris Madison Schools (talk)						Orphan
7		WHO regions (talk)						Orphan
18		Telkom Kenya (talk)						Stub
2		Wheeler High School (Fossil, Oregon) (talk)						Stub
19		Hua Xia Bank (talk)						Stub
54		Professional school (talk)						Stub
5		Holbæk Municipality (talk)						Stub
1		Terry Junction, West Virginia (talk)						Stub

Changes to SuggestBot's suggestions

We have changed the number of suggested articles and which categories they are selected from. The number of stubs has been greatly reduced, the number of articles needing sources doubled, and two new categories added (orphans and unencyclopaedic articles). We have also modified the layout of the suggestions and added sortable columns with various types of information about each article. The first two columns are:

Views/Day

Daily average number of views an article's had over the past 14 days.

Quality

Predicted article quality on a 1- to 3-star scale. Placing your cursor over the stars should give you a pop-up describing the article's quality (Low/Medium/High), current assessment class, and predicted assessment class.

The method we use to predict article quality also allows us to assess whether an article might need specific types of work in order to improve its quality. The work needed might not correspond to cleanup tags added to the article, since our method is not based on those. We have added five columns reflecting this work assessment, where a red X indicates improvement is needed. Placing your cursor over an X should give you a pop-up with a short description of the work needed. The five columns seek to answer the following five questions:

Content

Is more content needed?

Headings

Does this article have an appropriate section structure?

Images

Is the number of illustrative images about right?

Links

Does this article link to enough other Wikipedia articles?

Sources

For its length, is there an appropriate number of citations to sources in this article?

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly, your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please let us know on SuggestBot's talk page. Regards from Nettrom (talk), SuggestBot's caretaker. -- SuggestBot (talk) 11:29, 14 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 June 2013

• Op-ed: Two responses to the 'Tragedy of Wikipedia's Commons'
  

Following last week's op-ed by Gigs ("The Tragedy of Wikipedia's Commons"), the Signpost is carrying two contrary opinions from MichaelMaggs, a bureaucrat on Wikimedia Commons, and Mattbuck, a British Commons administrator.

• Traffic report: Most popular Wikipedia articles of the last week
  

The season finale of Game of Thrones ensured that the epic high fantasy series would dominate the top 10 again last week; however, it was joined by Maurice Sendak and Man of Steel.

• In the media: South African learners want Wikipedia; Editing of Israel topics
  

Memeburn.com published an article on the yearning of students in South Africa for free knowledge through Wikipedia Zero.

• WikiProject report: The Volunteer State: WikiProject Tennessee
  

This week, we visited WikiProject Tennessee, a project dedicate to the state at the geographic and cultural crossroads of the United States.

• News and notes: Swedish Wikipedia's millionth article leads to protests; WMF elections—where are all the voters?
  

With erysichton elaborata, the Swedish Wikipedia passed the one million article Rubicon this week. While this is a mostly symbolic achievement, serving as a convenient benchmark with which to gain publicity and attention in an increasingly statistical world, the particular method by which the Swedish site has passed the mark has garnered significant attention—and controversy.

• Featured content: Cheaper by the dozen
  

Eleven articles, twelve lists, and eleven pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Discussion report: Citations, non-free content, and a MediaWiki meeting
  

A list of current discussions on the English Wikipedia.

• Technology report: May engineering report published
  

The WMF's engineering report for May was published recently on the Wikimedia blog and on the MediaWiki wiki ("friendly" summary version), giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month.

• Arbitration report: The Farmbrough amendment request—automation and arbitration enforcement
  

Richard Farmbrough was set to have his day in court, but as events transpired, this was not to be so. On 25 March 2013, an accusation was made against Farmbrough at Arbitration Enforcement (AE), claiming that he violated the terms of an automated edit restriction. Within hours, Farmbrough had filed his own request with the arbitration committee, citing the newly filed AE request and claiming that the motion was being used "in an absurd way" in the filing of enforcement requests: "I have not made any edits that a sane person would consider automation."

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 21:23, 20 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 June 2013

• Traffic report: Most-viewed articles of the week
  

With most TV shows on hiatus for the summer, attention has turned to movies, celebrity and sports. The dramatic events at the 2013 Confederations Cup drew massive attention, as did summer blockbusters like Man of Steel and World War Z. But the most searched event of the week was the tragic and unexpected death of popular actor James Gandolfini on June 19.

• In the media: Daily Dot on Commons and porn; Jimmy Wales accused of breaking Wikipedia rules in hunt for Snowden
  

The Daily Dot has examined the perennial controversy over explicit or pornographic media on Commons. This latest salvo was touched off when Russavia uploaded a portrait of Jimmy Wales made by the artist Pricasso, who paints with his genitalia.

• Recent research: Most controversial Wikipedia topics, automatic detection of sockpuppets
  

A comparative work by T. Yasseri., A. Spoerri, M. Graham and J. Kertész looks at the 100 most controversial topics in 10 language versions of Wikipedia, and tries to make sense of the similarities and differences in these lists.

• News and notes: Election results released
  

Less than three days after the close of voting, the volunteer election committee posted the results on Meta. The worldwide Wikimedia movement has elected three WMF trustees for two-year terms on the 10-seat Board: Samuel Klein (supported by 43.5% of voters), Phoebe Ayers (38.3%), and María Sefidari (35.6%). The new trustees will take their seats at a critical time for the movement: one of the first tasks in their terms will be to help the Board to find and approve the new executive director to take up the top job when Sue Gardner departs.

• Discussion report: Privacy policy, X!'s edit counter, old rangeblocks, and the Article Incubator
  

A list of current discussions on the English Wikipedia.

• Featured content: Wikipedia in black + Adam Cuerden
  

This week, the Signpost interviews Adam Cuerden, a Wikimedian who has been for years gathering featured pictures, and who constantly participates in what could be his favourite part of the project. Cuerden dedicates most of his time to scanning and restoring old, valuable illustrative works. He explains to us how the featured process works, its relation with other parts of the encyclopedia, and how pictures evolve before reaching featured status.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Fashion
  

This week, we walked the runway with WikiProject Fashion. Started in March 2007, the project is home to 4 Featured Articles and 41 Good Articles. The project has a lengthy list of how you can help and a list of Article Alerts.

• Arbitration report: Argentine History closed; two cases remain suspended
  

Argentine History was closed. Two cases, Race and politics and Tea Party movement, remain suspended until July.

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Articles you might like to edit, from SuggestBot

We are currently running a study on the effects of adding additional information to SuggestBot's suggestions. Participation in the study is voluntary. Should you wish to not participate in the study, or have questions or concerns, you can find contact information on the SuggestBot study page.

IMPORTANT CHANGES: We have modified the selection of articles SuggestBot suggests and altered the design to incorporate more information about the articles, as described in this explanation.

Note: All columns in this table are sortable, allowing you to rearrange the table so the articles most interesting to you are shown at the top. All images have mouse-over popups with more information.

Views/Day	Quality	Title	Content	Headings	Images	Links	Sources	Tagged with…
4		Glade Springs, West Virginia (talk)						Add sources
6		National Legislature (Sudan) (talk)						Add sources
7		National Assembly (Chad) (talk)						Add sources
80		Paul Jones (wrestler) (talk)						Add sources
534		Twelver (talk)						Add sources
513		Barry Windham (talk)						Add sources
395		Paul Orndorff (talk)						Cleanup
28		Culture of Cameroon (talk)						Cleanup
55		Politics of Sudan (talk)						Cleanup
76		Politics of Tanzania (talk)						Expand
1		Jiangnan High School (talk)						Expand
17		Beaver, West Virginia (talk)						Expand
374		PeerGuardian (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
180		Computer appliance (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
353		United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories (talk)						Unencyclopaedic
208		Khanda (Sikh symbol) (talk)						Merge
899		President (talk)						Merge
24		Colossal Connection (talk)						Merge
2		Eritrean Postal Service (talk)						Wikify
98		Royal families of the United Arab Emirates (talk)						Wikify
49		Automake (talk)						Wikify
7		CARPHA (talk)						Orphan
1		Torrington Public Schools (talk)						Orphan
1		Penn Harris Madison Schools (talk)						Orphan
18		Telkom Kenya (talk)						Stub
17		January Makamba (talk)						Stub
3		Wheeler High School (Fossil, Oregon) (talk)						Stub
62		Professional school (talk)						Stub
22		Hua Xia Bank (talk)						Stub
8		Holbæk Municipality (talk)						Stub

Changes to SuggestBot's suggestions

We have changed the number of suggested articles and which categories they are selected from. The number of stubs has been greatly reduced, the number of articles needing sources doubled, and two new categories added (orphans and unencyclopaedic articles). We have also modified the layout of the suggestions and added sortable columns with various types of information about each article. The first two columns are:

Views/Day

Daily average number of views an article's had over the past 14 days.

Quality

Predicted article quality on a 1- to 3-star scale. Placing your cursor over the stars should give you a pop-up describing the article's quality (Low/Medium/High), current assessment class, and predicted assessment class.

The method we use to predict article quality also allows us to assess whether an article might need specific types of work in order to improve its quality. The work needed might not correspond to cleanup tags added to the article, since our method is not based on those. We have added five columns reflecting this work assessment, where a red X indicates improvement is needed. Placing your cursor over an X should give you a pop-up with a short description of the work needed. The five columns seek to answer the following five questions:

Content

Is more content needed?

Headings

Does this article have an appropriate section structure?

Images

Is the number of illustrative images about right?

Links

Does this article link to enough other Wikipedia articles?

Sources

For its length, is there an appropriate number of citations to sources in this article?

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly, your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please let us know on SuggestBot's talk page. Regards from Nettrom (talk), SuggestBot's caretaker. -- SuggestBot (talk) 11:33, 28 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

World Digital Library-Wikimedia Partnership Newsletter

Expand Wikipedia's free knowledge with WDL resources!

Hi Syed Kazim! Thanks for participating in the World Digital Library-Wikimedia Partnership. Your contributions are important to improving Wikipedia! I wanted to share a few updates with you:

• We have an easy way to now cite WDL resources. You can learn more about it on our news page, here.
• Our to-do list is being expanded and features newly digitized and created resources from libraries and archives around the world, including content from Sweden, Qatar, the Library of Congress, and more! You can discover new content for dissemination here.
• WDL project has new userbox for you to post on your userpage and celebrate your involvement. Soffredo created it, so please be sure to thank them on their talk page. You can find the userbox and add it to your page here.
• Our first batch of WDL barnstars have been awarded! Congratulations to our first recipients: ProtoplasmaKid, ChrisGualtieri, TenthEagle, Rhyswynne, Luwii, Sosthenes12, Djembayz, Parkwells, Carl Francis, Yunshui, MrX, Pharaoh of the Wizards, and the prolific Yster76!! Thank you for your contributions and keep up the great work. Be sure to share your article expansions and successes here.

Keep up the great work, and please contact me if you need anything! Thank you for all you do for free knowledge! EdwardsBot (talk) 16:40, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2013 June newsletter

We are down to our final 16: the 2013 semi-finals are upon us. A score of 321 was required to survive round 3, further cementing this as the most competitive WikiCup yet; round 3 was survived in 2012 with 243 points, in 2011 with 76 points and in 2010 with 250 points. The change may in part be to do with the fact that more articles are now awarded bonus points, in addition to more competitive play. Reaching the final has, in the past, required 573 points (2012, a 135% increase on the score needed to reach round 4), 150 points (2011, a 97% increase) and 417 points (2010, a 72% increase). This round has seen over a third of participants claiming points for featured articles (with seven users claiming for multiple featured articles) and most users have also gained bonus points. However, the majority of points continue to come from good articles, followed by did you know articles. In this round, every content type was utilised by at least one user, proving that the WikiCup brings together content contributors from all corners of the project.

Round 3 saw a number of contributions of note. Figureskatingfan (submissions) claimed the first featured topic points in this year's competition for her excellent work on topics related to Maya Angelou, the noted American author and poet. We have also continued to see high-importance articles improved as part of the competition: Ealdgyth (submissions) was awarded a thoroughly well-earned 560 points for her featured article Middle Ages and 102 points for her good article Battle of Hastings. Good articles James Chadwick and Stanislaw Ulam netted Hawkeye7 (submissions) 102 and 72 points respectively, while 72 points were awarded to Piotrus (submissions) for each of Władysław Sikorski and Emilia Plater, both recently promoted to good article status. Collaborative efforts between WikiCup participants have continued, with, for example, Casliber (submissions) and Sasata (submissions) being awarded 180 points each for their featured article on Boletus luridus.

A rules reminder: content promoted between rounds can be claimed in the round after the break, but not the round before. The case in point is content promoted on the 29/30 June, which may be claimed in this round. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. We are currently seeing concern about the amount of time people have to wait for reviews, especially at GAC- if you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 10:25, 1 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 03 July 2013

• In the media: Jimmy Wales is not an Internet billionaire; a mass shooter's alleged Wikipedia editing
  

Amy Chozick's profile of Jimmy Wales in the New York Times sparked significant controversy in international news outlets this week. Chozick's profile covered Wales's personal life, including his 12-year-old daughter, ex-wife, and current wife Kate Garvey, describing Wales himself as "a well-groomed version of a person who has been slumped over a computer drinking Yoo-hoo for hours." Chozick described his current role in Wikipedia as "Benevolent Dictator for Life", a statement which garnered conflict from all corners of the web, including from Wales, who responded to the piece as a whole with a lengthy talk page statement.

• Featured content: Queen of France
  

Four articles, four lists, and fifteen pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• WikiProject report: Puppies!
  

This week, the Signpost went to the kennel and interviewed WikiProject Dogs. The project has several featured and good articles, along with a large number of "Did you know" entries. We asked three project members about the challenges of creating, curating, and maintaining canine content in an increasingly dog-obsessed world.

• News and notes: Wikipedia's medical collaborations gathering pace
  

The key annual event in the Wikimedia calendar, Wikimania 2013, will be held in Hong Kong in just five weeks' time. Among the events will be a presentation by two people who are working to promote the development of medical content on Wikimedia projects. One is James Heilman of Wiki Project Med, a non-profit dedicated to making "clear, reliable, comprehensive, up-to-date educational resources and information in the biomedical and related social sciences freely available to all people in the language of their choice". The other is Lori Thicke, president of Translators Without Borders (TWB), the Connecticut-based organisation set up in 2010 to provide pro-bono translation services for humanitarian non-profits

• Discussion report: Snuggle, mainpage link to Wikinews, 3RR, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• Technology report: VisualEditor in midst of game-changing deployment series
  

The VisualEditor extension has gone live by default to registered users on the English Wikipedia, marking a huge milestone in a project that has taken the best part of a decade to reach fruition. The extension was previously described as "the biggest and most important change to our user experience we’ve ever undertaken" by the WMF team behind it.

• Traffic report: Yahoo! crushes the competition ... in Wikipedia views
  

The real world made a strong showing in the top 10 last week, as news stories such as Yahoo!'s purchase of Tumblr, the murder of Odin Lloyd, the continuing drama over NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and the ill-health of Nelson Mandela crowded out the usual roster of TV shows, movies, websites and video games. Not that they were entirely excluded, of course.

• Arbitration report: Tea Party movement reopened, new AUSC appointments
  

Following a one-month period of moderated discussion, Tea Party movement has been reopened by the Committee. The proposed decisions are currently being voted upon. Race and politics remains suspended pending the return of User:Apostle12.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 22:18, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 10 July 2013

• Op-ed: It's time to stop pretending the English-language Wikinews is a viable project
  

This is Wikinews' fundamental problem: it can neither do a good job providing a summary of world news, nor does it have any special focus that it does well. It's a collection of random articles, with only the occasional, passing resemblance to important current events.

• WikiProject report: Not Jimbo: WikiProject Wales
  

This week, we traveled to Cymru with the folks at WikiProject Wales.

• Traffic report: Inflated view counts here, there, and everywhere
  

The most-viewed articles on the English Wikipedia last week include...

• News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation Board appoints world expert in women's issues, global south
  

In apparent acknowledgment of the urgency of two issues facing the Wikimedia movement—the need to engage both women and the global south—the WMF Board has appointed Ana Toni as one of its four expert members. Toni will bring rare expertise to the movement, and the Signpost understands that her skills in advocacy and her key roles in international NGOs are likely to be a natural match with the WMF as the hub of disseminating free knowledge around the world.

• Dispatches: Infoboxes: time for a fresh look?
  

The fundamental idea of an infobox is clear: keep it simple and limited to essentials. At some point, however, these basic principles seem to have been abandoned, in favour of an approach akin to "the more the merrier".

• Featured content: The week of the birds
  

Five articles, six lists, and ten pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Discussion report: Featured article process governance, signature templates, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include ...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 07:44, 12 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 17 July 2013

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Square Enix
  

This week, we explored the fantasy worlds of video game developer Square Enix by interviewing WikiProject Square Enix. The project began in September 2006 as a spin-off of WikiProject Final Fantasy, but today covers that, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, and a variety of other game series, with exceptions explained in the interview below. The project is home to 32 pieces of Featured material and 104 Good and A-class articles.

• Traffic report: Most-viewed articles of the week
  

The most-viewed articles on the English Wikipedia last week include...

• News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation's new plans announced
  

Last week the Wikimedia Foundation released its annual plan for July 2013 to June 2014. It provides a surprisingly frank view—of past achievements and failures, and future goals and risks—that could be afforded only by a non-profit that is confident and beholden to no commercial or political interests.

• Featured content: Documents and sports
  

Four articles, five lists, and sixteen pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Arbitration report: Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds case opens; July 22 deadline for checkuser and oversight applications
  

The case Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds was opened. Voting on the Tea Party movement case continued, after a failed attempt at moderated discussion. A group tasked with deciding the content of the lead section of the Jerusalem article has reported back to the committee. Applications for checkuser and oversight permissions close on 22 July.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 16:28, 18 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 24 July 2013

• In the media: Wikipedia flamewars
  

The Washington Post reported Tuesday on the most controversial articles on various language Wikipedias as determined by a cross-continental research group.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Religion
  

This week, the Signpost delved into the vast and complex areas of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that make up religion. WikiProject Religion has been around since 2005 and has a complex scope, in that it only takes articles that deal with religion in a non-sectarian sense, along with any articles that do not have a dedicated daughter project.

• Discussion report: Partially disambiguated page names, page protection policy, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• News and notes: Wikivoyage turns ten, but where to now?; Wikipedia Zero expands into India
  

Contributors to Wikivoyage, the sister project adopted by the Wikimedia Foundation last year, are celebrating their 10th anniversary this week. ... The Wikimedia Foundation has announced via press release that it has partnered with Aircel to provide free mobile access to Wikipedia.

• Traffic report: Gleeless
  

Death hangs over the top 10 this week, as tragic deaths both past and present continued to cast their pall over an already troubled world. The death of Corey Monteith led to a spike in interest in the man himself, his girlfriend and co-star Lea Michele, and the show that made them both famous, Glee.

• Featured content: Engineering and the arts
  

Twelve articles, seven lists, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Arbitration report: Infoboxes case opens
  

The case Infoboxes was opened. The evidence phase continues in Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds. Voting on the proposed decision continues in the Tea Party movement case.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 20:10, 25 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2013 July newsletter

We're halfway through this year's penultimate round, and the competition is moving along well. Pool A's Sasata (submissions) currently leads overall, while Pool B's Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) is second. Both leaders are WikiCup veterans, and both have already scored over 600 points this month. If the round were to end today, Miyagawa (submissions), with 274 points, would be the lowest-scoring participant to make it through. This indicates that participants will need a score comparable to last year's (573, the highest ever) to qualify for the final. The high scores this year are a testament both to the quality of participants and to the increased focus on significant content (eligible for bonus points) in this year's competition. So far this round, both Sasata and Cwmhiraeth (submissions) have made up over half of their score through bonus points, with, for example, high importance FA koala earning Sasata a total of 440 points (from a multiplier of 4.4) and high-importance GA sea earning Cwmhiraeth a total of 216 points (from a multiplier of 7.2). Other articles on important topics submitted this round include a featured article on the Norman conquest of England by Ealdgyth (submissions), and good articles on Nobel laureate in literature Henryk Sienkiewicz, Nobel laureate in physics Hans Bethe, and the noted Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryū. These articles are by Piotrus (submissions), Hawkeye7 (submissions) and Sturmvogel_66 respectively.

Other than that, there is not much to report! If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 23:52, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 July 2013

• Op-ed: The VisualEditor Beta and the path to change
  

One of the narratives I've heard a lot is that Wikipedia is unable to change, that it's too stagnant, too poorly resourced, too inherently resistant to change. I don't believe that at all.

• Recent research: Napoleon, Michael Jackson and Srebrenica across cultures, 90% of Wikipedia better than Britannica, WikiSym preview
  

An ArXiv preprint titled "Highlighting entanglement of cultures via ranking of multilingual Wikipedia articles" is about the Wikipedia articles on individuals and their position in the hyperlink network of the articles in each Wikipedia language edition, considering the whole hyperlink network.

• Traffic report: Bouncing Baby Brouhaha
  

Somewhat predictably, the birth of a new heir to the House of Windsor on 22 July led the English-speaking world to suddenly embrace Monarchism. In honour of this occasion, the Traffic report will be assiduously employing British spelling and dating conventions. Cheers.

• WikiProject report: Babel Series: Politics on the Turkish Wikipedia
  

This week, we visited the Turkish Wikipedia for an interview with VikiProje Siyaset (WikiProject Politics). The project began in April 2010 and has sustained a small but enthusiastic group of editors focusing on both the domestic politics of Turkey and international politics. The basics for article quality and importance ratings have been determined, but tracking this data has not yet become widespread on the Turkish Wikipedia. The project maintains a portal, a variety of resources, and a rotating selection of images to spruce up the project's page.

• News and notes: Gearing up for Wikimania 2013
  

The ninth annual Wikimania conference will open in just over a week at the Jockey Club Auditorium, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Wikimania is for people worldwide who have an interest in Wikimedia Foundation projects. It features presentations and discussions on those projects, on free knowledge and content, and on related social and technical issues.

• Arbitration report: Race and politics case closes
  

The case Race and politics was closed, while three other cases remain open.

• Featured content: Caterpillars, warblers, and frogs—oh my!
  

Eight articles, five lists, seven pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Discussion report: Defining consensus; VisualEditor default state; expert and layperson terms in article titles
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia this week include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 02:20, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 August 2013

• Arbitration report: Fourteen editors proposed for ban in Tea Party movement case
  

Fourteen editors have been proposed for a six-month page ban in the Tea Party movement case. In the Infoboxes and Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds cases, the workshop and evidence phases have closed, and proposed decisions are scheduled to be posted.

• Traffic report: Greetings from the graveyard
  

It's crickets and tumbleweeds this week, as the top 10 sees its lowest view-count since the project began. If Wikipedia were selling anything, we'd be having a fire sale by now.

• News and notes: Chapters Association self-destructs
  

The opening days of the annual Wikimania, referred to as the "pre-conference", are not typically newsworthy. This changed dramatically when the Chapters Association council met on Thursday.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Freedom of Speech
  

This week, we journey into a WikiProject that focuses about what keeps Wikipedia running, the freedom of speech.

• Featured content: Mysterious case of the grand duchess
  

The week's newest featured content includes...

• Discussion report: CheckUser and Oversighter candidates, and more
  

Recent discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 23:49, 9 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 August 2013

• News and notes: "Beautifully smooth" Wikimania with few hitches
  

About a thousand Wikimedians journeyed to Hong Kong this week for the annual Wikimania conference, the annual gathering of the Wikimedia movement. Wikimania, which has been held since 2005, serves as the principal physical meetup for Wikimedians around the world.

• In the media: Chinese censorship
  

One major story that came out of Wikimania was Jimmy Wales' statements at the conference that he would prefer to have Wikipedia banned entirely in mainland China than censored as it is currently.

• Featured content: Wikipedia takes the cities
  

The week's newest featured content includes seven articles, four lists, and twelve pictures.

• Special report: Jimmy Wales: media favors entertainment over raising public awareness
  

Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia and its public face to most of the media, has declared that media organizations are missing out on the "opportunity of the century" by not conducting true investigative reporting into American surveillance practices, a debate kindled by information leaked by Edward Snowden.

• Discussion report: Wikivoyage, reliable sources, music bands, account creators, and OTRS
  

Recent discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• WikiProject report: For the love of stamps
  

• Arbitration report: Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds case closes
  

The Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds case has closed, with a unanimous decision to desysop a Wikimedia Foundation employee and indefinitely ban another editor. The Tea Party movement case has stalled yet again, in the wake of a controversial proposal to ban 14 editors. A proposed decision in the Infoboxes case was scheduled to be posted on 14 August.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 09:54, 16 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 21 August 2013

• In the media: Chelsea Manning, Box-office predictors, and 'Storming Wikipedia'
  

Wikipedia's gender identity MOS section and its effect on Chelsea Manning was both praised and emulated in the media this week. ... Coverage of the distributed open collaborative course called "Storming Wikipedia" continued this week.

• Recent research: WikiSym 2013 retrospective
  

98 registered participants attended the annual WikiSym+OpenSym conference from August 5-7 at Hong Kong's Cyberport facility.

• WikiProject report: Loop-the-loop: Amusement Parks
  

This week, we secured free admission for WikiProject Amusement Parks, the project dedicated to amusement rides, roller coasters, theme parks, traveling carnivals, and funfairs.

• Traffic report: Reddit creep
  

The debt that Wikipedia owes sites like Reddit or Google often goes unacknowledged around here. If the purpose of Wikipedia is to bring knowledge to the world, then it is sites like these that are actually doing it.

• Featured content: WikiCup update, and the gardens of Finland
  

The 2013 WikiCup competition is entering its final round. Eleven articles and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• News and notes: Looking ahead to Wiki Loves Monuments
  

Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), Wikimedia's annual volunteer-driven and the world largest photo contest, is gearing up to be conducted throughout September 2013. The event, originally developed in the Netherlands in 2010, has gone global with 34 countries taking part last and 49 this year.

• Technology report: Gallery improvements launch on Wikipedia
  

Wikipedia's traditional image gallery format, produced by the markup, has remained largely unchanged for years. The resulting layout, seen below, does not adapt well to variations in image size, and has been characterized by some critics as aesthetically unappealing.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:43, 26 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2013 August newsletter

This year's final is upon us. Our final eight, in order of last round's score, are:

1. Hawkeye7 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer who has contributed on topics of military history and physics, including a number of high-importance topics. Good articles have made up the bulk of his points, but he has also scored a great deal of bonus points. He has the second highest score overall so far, with more than 3000 points accumulated.
2. Casliber (submissions), another WikiCup veteran who reached the finals in 2012, 2011 and 2010. He writes on a variety of topics including botany, mycology and astronomy, and has claimed the highest or joint highest number of featured articles every round so far this year. He has the third highest score overall, with just under 3000 points accumulated.
3. Cwmhiraeth (submissions), 2012 WikiCup champion, who writes mostly on marine biology. She has also contributed to high-importance topics, seeing huge numbers of bonus points for high-importance featured and good articles. Previous rounds have seen her scoring the most bonus points, with scoring spread across did you knows, good articles and featured articles.
4. Sasata (submissions), a WikiCup veteran who finished in second place in 2012, and competed as early as 2009. He writes articles on biology, especially mycology, and has scored highly for a number of collaborations at featured article candidates.
5. Sturmvogel_66 (submissions), the winner of the 2010 competition. His contributions mostly concern Naval history, and he has scored a very large number of points for good articles and good article reviews in every round. He is the highest scorer overall this year, with over 3500 points in total.
6. Ealdgyth (submissions), who is competing in the WikiCup for the second time, though this will be her first time in the final. A regular at FAC, she is mostly interested in British medieval history, and has scored very highly for some top-importance featured articles on the topic.
7. Miyagawa (submissions), a finalist in 2012 and 2011. He writes on a broad variety of topics, with many of this year's points coming from good articles about Star Trek. Good articles make up the bulk of his points, and he had the most good articles back in round 2; he was also the highest scorer for DYK in rounds 1 and 2.
8. Adam Cuerden (submissions) has previously been involved with the WikiCup, but hasn't participated for a number of years. He scores mostly from restoration work leading to featured picture credits, but has also done some article writing and reviewing.

We say goodbye to eight great participants who did not qualify for the final: Piotrus (submissions), Figureskatingfan (submissions), ThaddeusB (submissions), Dana boomer (submissions), Status (submissions), Ed! (submissions), 12george1 (submissions), Calvin999 (submissions). Having made it to this stage is still an excellent achievement, and you can leave with your heads held high. We hope to see you all again next year. Signups are now open for the 2014 WikiCup, which will begin on 1 January. All Wikipedians, whatever their interest or level of experience, are warmly invited to participate in next year's competition.

This last month has seen some incredible contributions; for instance, Cwmhiraeth's Starfish and Ealdgyth's Battle of Hastings—two highly important, highly viewed pages—made it to featured article status. It would be all too easy to focus solely on these stunning achievements at the expense of those participants working in lower-scoring areas, when in fact all WikiCup participants are doing excellent work. A mention of everything done is impossible, but here are a few: Last round saw the completion of several good topics (on the 1958, 1959 and 1962 Atlantic hurricane seasons) to which 12george1 had contributed. Calvin999 saw "S&M" (song), on which he has been working for several years, through to featured article status on its tenth try. Figureskatingfan continued towards her goal of a broad featured/good topic on Maya Angelou, with two featured and four good articles. ThaddeusB contributed significantly to over 20 articles which appeared on the main page's "in the news" section. Adam Cuerden continued to restore a large number of historical images, resulting in over a dozen FP credits this round alone. The WikiCup is not just about top-importance featured articles, and the work of all of these users is worthy of commendation.

Finally, the usual notices: If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 06:07, 29 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 August 2013

• In the media: Chelsea Manning, Box-office predictors, and 'Storming Wikipedia'
  

Wikipedia's gender identity MOS section and its effect on Chelsea Manning was both praised and emulated in the media this week. ... Coverage of the distributed open collaborative course called "Storming Wikipedia" continued this week.

• Recent research: WikiSym 2013 retrospective
  

98 registered participants attended the annual WikiSym+OpenSym conference from August 5-7 at Hong Kong's Cyberport facility.

• WikiProject report: Loop-the-loop: Amusement Parks
  

This week, we secured free admission for WikiProject Amusement Parks, the project dedicated to amusement rides, roller coasters, theme parks, traveling carnivals, and funfairs.

• Traffic report: Reddit creep
  

The debt that Wikipedia owes sites like Reddit or Google often goes unacknowledged around here. If the purpose of Wikipedia is to bring knowledge to the world, then it is sites like these that are actually doing it.

• Featured content: WikiCup update, and the gardens of Finland
  

The 2013 WikiCup competition is entering its final round. Eleven articles and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• News and notes: Looking ahead to Wiki Loves Monuments
  

Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), Wikimedia's annual volunteer-driven and the world largest photo contest, is gearing up to be conducted throughout September 2013. The event, originally developed in the Netherlands in 2010, has gone global with 34 countries taking part last and 49 this year.

• Technology report: Gallery improvements launch on Wikipedia
  

Wikipedia's traditional image gallery format, produced by the markup, has remained largely unchanged for years. The resulting layout, seen below, does not adapt well to variations in image size, and has been characterized by some critics as aesthetically unappealing.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 13:07, 31 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 August 2013

• In the media: Chelsea Manning, Box-office predictors, and 'Storming Wikipedia'
  

Wikipedia's gender identity MOS section and its effect on Chelsea Manning was both praised and emulated in the media this week. ... Coverage of the distributed open collaborative course called "Storming Wikipedia" continued this week.

• Recent research: WikiSym 2013 retrospective
  

98 registered participants attended the annual WikiSym+OpenSym conference from August 5-7 at Hong Kong's Cyberport facility.

• WikiProject report: Loop-the-loop: Amusement Parks
  

This week, we secured free admission for WikiProject Amusement Parks, the project dedicated to amusement rides, roller coasters, theme parks, traveling carnivals, and funfairs.

• Traffic report: Reddit creep
  

The debt that Wikipedia owes sites like Reddit or Google often goes unacknowledged around here. If the purpose of Wikipedia is to bring knowledge to the world, then it is sites like these that are actually doing it.

• Featured content: WikiCup update, and the gardens of Finland
  

The 2013 WikiCup competition is entering its final round. Eleven articles and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• News and notes: Looking ahead to Wiki Loves Monuments
  

Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), Wikimedia's annual volunteer-driven and the world largest photo contest, is gearing up to be conducted throughout September 2013. The event, originally developed in the Netherlands in 2010, has gone global with 34 countries taking part last and 49 this year.

• Technology report: Gallery improvements launch on Wikipedia
  

Wikipedia's traditional image gallery format, produced by the markup, has remained largely unchanged for years. The resulting layout, seen below, does not adapt well to variations in image size, and has been characterized by some critics as aesthetically unappealing.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 13:09, 31 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 September 2013

• In the media: Manning "put back in the closet"; State involvement in Azerbaijani Wikipedia
  

After media praise for Wikipedia's decision to move the Bradley Manning article to Chelsea Manning, the reversion of that page move on August 31, after a discussion in which several hundred Wikipedians participated, has so far triggered less favourable feedback, as well as a blog post from Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner expressing her disappointment with the decision.

• News and notes: Privacy policy debate gears up
  

On September 3, the Wikimedia Foundation launched the second stage of the process to improve the privacy policy implemented on most Wikimedia sites, including Wikipedia and its sister projects, by publishing a policy draft.

• Traffic report: No accounting for the wisdom of crowds
  

A news-heavy week offers some insight, perhaps, into humanity's priorities.

• Discussion report: Arbcom election procedures, Wiki Loves Monuments, Privacy policy, FDC, and more
  

As mentioned in "In the news" on Wikipedia's main page, the Library of Birmingham in the United Kingdom has opened. This interior photo was taken a week before opening. The article reports that the library "has been described as the largest public library in the United Kingdom, the largest public cultural space in Europe, and the largest regional library in Europe."

• Featured content: Bridging the way to a Peasants' Revolt
  

Four articles, four lists, and eight pictures were promoted to 'featured' status this week on the English Wikipedia

• WikiProject report: Writing on the frontier: Psychology on Wikipedia
  

This week, we spent some time with the minds behind WikiProject Psychology. The project was created in March 2006 and has grown to include 14 Featured Articles and 43 Good Articles.

• Arbitration report: Manning naming dispute case opens; Tea Party case closes ; Infoboxes nears completion
  

The dispute over the title for the Manning article escalated quickly to arbitration levels, as the Bradley/Chelsea Manning naming dispute case was accepted for arbitration.

• Technology report: Making Wikipedia more accessible
  

In this week's "Technology report", we explore ways of making Wikipedia more accessible to users of screen readers. Graham87 is a highly active contributor who is also blind and accesses the site through a screen reader.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 21:22, 6 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 11 September 2013

• In the media: Lawyer goes to court to discover Wikipedian's identity; Storming Wikipedia; Wikimedia UK Secretary in conflict-of-interest controversy; Does Wikipedia need a "right to reply" box?
  

'The National Law Journal reported on September 9 that lawyer Susan L. Burke has been taking legal steps to discover the identity of Wikipedia editor . Zujua had edited her biography, allegedly adding misleading content about various lawsuits in the process

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Indonesia
  

The Signpost went to Indonesia this week.

• Featured content: Tintin goes featured
  

Four articles, eight lists, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.

• News and notes: As deadline approaches, Individual Engagement Grants looks for ideas
  

The deadline for proposals to the Individual Engagement Grants (IEG) volunteer committee on Meta will pass on 30 September. The program is designed to fund projects that tackle long-term problem and have a significant editing community impact; it has previously supported solutions like The Wikipedia Library, which improves Wikipedian access to online reference sources like JSTOR (see Signpost coverage).

• Traffic report: Syria, celebrities, and association football: oh my!
  

While the Syrian Civil War crept its slow way into the minds of the public, with a new fourth related entry in the top 25, the top 10 remained dominated by celebrity, mainly sports and music. Two megabucks transfers stimulated public interest in football/soccer ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, while Lil Wayne's public apology ahead of his latest album release sent him to the top.

• Arbitration report: Workshop phase opens in Manning naming dispute ; Infoboxes case closes
  

Discussion over the Manning title dispute was off to a running start as evidence and workshop phases continued in the Bradley/Chelsea Manning naming dispute. The Infoboxes case closed with topic bans for two users, and a recommendation for community discussion of infoboxes.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 04:49, 13 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 September 2013

• News and notes: Third time's the charm: the FDC's newest round of funding requests
  

The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), the volunteer-led body that evaluates chapter and (for the first time) thematic organizational annual plan grant requests to the Wikimedia Foundation, is preparing for its third round of public proceedings to deliberate on the distribution of several million US dollars of Wikimedia movement funds.

• WikiProject report: 18,464 Good Articles on the wall
  

This week, the Signpost headed to WikiProject Good Articles. As of publishing time, out of the 4,331,477 articles on Wikipedia, only 18,464 are rated as "good" (about 1 in 235).

• Featured content: Hurricane Diane and Van Gogh
  

Thirteen articles, six lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status last week on the English Wikipedia.

• Technology report: What can Wikidata do for Wikipedia?
  

In this week's "Technology report", we look at how the growth of Wikidata can benefit Wikipedia. Gerard Meijssen is a highly active contributor and frequent blogger about Wikidata. We asked him to share his thoughts on how the new project benefits Wikipedia.

• Traffic report: Twerking, tragedy and TV
  

The top 10 is bookended by unlucky dates, as Friday the 13th fell just after the anniversary of 9/11. Breaking Bad's final season continued to draw attention, while interest in Miley Cyrus's youthful exuberance is fading only slowly.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:18, 20 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 September 2013

• Op-ed: Q&A on Public Relations and Wikipedia
  

Over the last year, there's been extensive debate about whether public relations professionals and other corporate representatives should participate on Wikipedia and, if so, to what extent and what kinds of rules should be followed.

• Traffic report: Look on Walter's works
  

The saga of Walter White, chemistry teacher-turned-drug kingpin, as told in the critically adored television series Breaking Bad, has been a water-cooler necessity for years, and now, as it nears its end, audiences are feverishly following every plot thread to guess what the finale will reveal.

• In the media: Fox News: Wikipedia abandons efforts to purge porn from online encyclopedia
  

Fox News writer Perry Chiaramonte published an article detailing Wikipedia's alleged abandonment of its fight to remove pornography.

• News and notes: Last call for Wiki Loves Monuments; Community–WMF tension over VisualEditor
  

On 30 September, Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), the Wikimedia community's global photo competition, will reach to the end of its submission period. The proceedings have been underway since the first of this month; national juries will start reviewing submissions for the first round of selections after it closes ... Community aggravation with one of the Wikimedia Foundation's signature initiatives, the VisualEditor, came to the fore again this week with the announcement and implementation of code blocking the tool.

• WikiProject report: Babel Series: GOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!!
  

This week, we continued our exploration of other language editions of Wikipedia by visiting the Spanish Wikipedia's Wikiproyecto Fútbol (WikiProject Football).

• Featured content: Wikipedia takes the stage
  

Twelve articles, six lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Recent research: Automatic detection of "infiltrating" Wikipedia admins; Wiki, or 'pedia?
  

A conference paper makes a rather serious claim: "We find a surprisingly large number of editors who change their behavior and begin focusing more on a particular controversial topic once they are promoted to administrator status."

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:29, 27 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2013 September newsletter

In 30 days, we will know the identity of our 2013 WikiCup champion. Cwmhiraeth (submissions) currently leads; if that lead is held, she will become the first person to have won the WikiCup twice. Sasata (submissions), Hawkeye7 (submissions)—who has never participated in the competition before—and Casliber (submissions) follow. The majority of points in this round have come from a mix of good articles and bonus points. This final round is seeing contributions to a number of highly important topics; recent submissions include Phoenix (constellation) (FA by Casliber), Ernest Lawrence (GA by Hawkeye7), Pinniped, and red fox (both GAs by Sasata).

The did you know (DYK) eligibility criteria have recently changed, meaning that newly passed good articles are accepted as "new" for did you know purposes. However, in the interests of not changing the WikiCup rules mid-competition, please note that only articles eligible for DYK under the old system (that is, newly created articles or 5x expansions) will be eligible for points in this year's WikiCup. We do, however, have time to discuss how this new system will work for next year's competition; a discussion will be opened in due course. On that note, thoughts are welcome on changes you'd like to see for next year. What worked? What didn't work? What would you like to see more of? What would you like to see less of? All Wikipedians, new or old, are also warmly invited to sign up for the 2014 WikiCup.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 23:28, 1 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 02 October 2013

• Op-ed: Commons medical diagnostic images under threat from unresolved ownership
  

Medical images have transformed many aspects of modern medicine. Over the past two decades the increasing sophistication of MRI, CT-scanning, and X-ray techniques has made these technologies the cornerstone of diagnosing a range of conditions, replacing what used to be largely guesswork by doctors. They can be the difference between life and death for a patient, and their importance is underlined by the tens of billions of dollars spent on them annually just in North America. For Wikimedia Foundation projects, advanced images are now a powerful tool for describing and explaining, and educating our worldwide readership of medical articles.

• Discussion report: References to individuals and groups, merging wikiprojects, portals on the Main page, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• News and notes: WMF signals new grantmaking priorities
  

In what will be remembered as a game-changing week for Wikimedia grantmaking, the Foundation's executive director, Sue Gardner, published a forthright and in places highly critical statement, Reflections on the FDC process, and grantmaking staff revealed that the WMF will significantly strengthen its targeting of optimal impact in funding.

• Featured content: Bobby, Ben, Roger and a fantasia
  

Six articles and two pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• Arbitration report: Infoboxes: After the war
  

Editor's note: To go beyond the mere facts of cases, the "Arbitration report" invited several editors who participated in the recent Infoboxes case to comment on infoboxes: what they are, where new users can go to find out about them, specifications and protocols, best practices, and how the upcoming community discussion recommended by the Committee in the case decision should be framed.

• WikiProject report: U2 Too
  

This week, we revisited the enthusiastic editors at WikiProject U2. Started in June 2007, the project has grown in spurts, resulting in a collection of 8 Featured Articles and 24 Good Articles. The project maintains a to do list, portal, and a list of references.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 01:18, 6 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 09 October 2013

• Traffic report: Shutdown shenanigans
  

If you're living in the United States, what did you do during the government shutdown? Well, it seems most people watched the final episode of Breaking Bad.

• WikiProject report: Australian Roads
  

This week, we moved to the esoteric world of Australian roads.

• Featured content: Under the sea
  

Seven articles, six lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• News and notes: Extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed
  

An investigation by the English Wikipedia community into suspicious edits and sockpuppet activity has led to astonishing revelations that Wiki-PR, a multi-million-dollar US-based company, has created, edited, or maintained several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients using a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts.

• In the media: College credit for editing Wikipedia
  

The University of California, San Francisco attracted substantial media attention over its new course offering that will give credit to fourth year medical students for editing Wikipedia articles about medicine.

• Arbitration report: Manning naming dispute and Ebionites 3 cases continue; third arbitrator resigns
  

A proposed decision has been posted in the Manning naming dispute. The workshop phase of the Ebionites 3 case closes 13 October. Arbitrator NuclearWarfare has resigned.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 13:45, 10 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 09 October 2013

• Traffic report: Shutdown shenanigans
  

If you're living in the United States, what did you do during the government shutdown? Well, it seems most people watched the final episode of Breaking Bad.

• WikiProject report: Australian Roads
  

This week, we moved to the esoteric world of Australian roads.

• Featured content: Under the sea
  

Seven articles, six lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• News and notes: Extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed
  

An investigation by the English Wikipedia community into suspicious edits and sockpuppet activity has led to astonishing revelations that Wiki-PR, a multi-million-dollar US-based company, has created, edited, or maintained several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients using a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts.

• In the media: College credit for editing Wikipedia
  

The University of California, San Francisco attracted substantial media attention over its new course offering that will give credit to fourth year medical students for editing Wikipedia articles about medicine.

• Arbitration report: Manning naming dispute and Ebionites 3 cases continue; third arbitrator resigns
  

A proposed decision has been posted in the Manning naming dispute. The workshop phase of the Ebionites 3 case closes 13 October. Arbitrator NuclearWarfare has resigned.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 13:46, 10 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 October 2013

• News and notes: Vice on Wiki-PR's paid advocacy; Featured list elections begin
  

Media coverage on Wiki-PR, the multi-million-dollar US-based company that has broken several policies and guidelines on the English Wikipedia in its quest to create and maintain thousands of articles for paying clients, continued this week with a feature story by Martin Robbins in the British edition of Vice magazine.

• Traffic report: Peaceful potpourri
  

A slow week, with low overall views and the Top 10 dominated by longstanding pages. Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron's outer space-set action art film, not only held its position at the top of the US box office but climbed to the top of the Wikipedia chart as well, showing that it has become a major talking point.

• WikiProject report: Heraldry and Vexillology
  

This week, we studied coats of arms and flags with the folks at WikiProject Heraldry and Vexillology. Started in September 2006, the project has grown to include 20 Featured Articles and nearly 50 Good Articles. The project maintains a portal, a list of resources, and a variety of images and templates.

• Featured content: That's a lot of pictures
  

Six articles, two lists, and thirty-three pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• Arbitration report: Manning naming dispute case closes
  

The Manning naming dispute case has closed, with a strong and unanimous statement by the Committee against disparaging references to transgendered persons. Sanctions were enacted against six editors.

• Discussion report: Ada Lovelace Day, paid advocacy on Wikipedia, sidebar update, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 22:15, 18 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 16 October 2013

• News and notes: Vice on Wiki-PR's paid advocacy; Featured list elections begin
  

Media coverage on Wiki-PR, the multi-million-dollar US-based company that has broken several policies and guidelines on the English Wikipedia in its quest to create and maintain thousands of articles for paying clients, continued this week with a feature story by Martin Robbins in the British edition of Vice magazine.

• Traffic report: Peaceful potpourri
  

A slow week, with low overall views and the Top 10 dominated by longstanding pages. Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron's outer space-set action art film, not only held its position at the top of the US box office but climbed to the top of the Wikipedia chart as well, showing that it has become a major talking point.

• WikiProject report: Heraldry and Vexillology
  

This week, we studied coats of arms and flags with the folks at WikiProject Heraldry and Vexillology. Started in September 2006, the project has grown to include 20 Featured Articles and nearly 50 Good Articles. The project maintains a portal, a list of resources, and a variety of images and templates.

• Featured content: That's a lot of pictures
  

Six articles, two lists, and thirty-three pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• Arbitration report: Manning naming dispute case closes
  

The Manning naming dispute case has closed, with a strong and unanimous statement by the Committee against disparaging references to transgendered persons. Sanctions were enacted against six editors.

• Discussion report: Ada Lovelace Day, paid advocacy on Wikipedia, sidebar update, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 22:16, 18 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 October 2013

• News and notes: Grantmaking season—rumblings in the German-language community
  

The next twice-yearly round of Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) grantmaking is soon to close for community questioning and commentary. Ten nation-based Wikimedia chapters and one thematic organisation are asking for a total of more than US$5M of donors’ money from the Foundation’s renamed annual plan grant process. Aside from Wikimedia UK ($708k), the three biggest asks are from the German-speaking chapters: Wikimedia Germany is asking for $2.4M and Wikimedia Austria $311k; and the German-language-related Swiss chapter is applying for $500k.

• Traffic report: Your average week ... and a fish
  

Media, sports and Google Doodles dominate, though a very odd fish decided to crash the party.

• Featured content: Your worst nightmare as a child is now featured on Wikipedia
  

Twelve articles, four lists, and four pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week, including the article on cabbage.

• Discussion report: More discussion of paid advocacy, upcoming arbitrator elections, research hackathon, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• In the media: The decline of Wikipedia; Sue Gardner releases statement on Wiki-PR; Australian minister relies on Wikipedia
  

MIT Technology Review published a long article on what it called "The decline of Wikipedia". Editor involvement has decreased since 2007; according to the article, this has had an adverse qualitative effect on content, particularly on issues pertinent to non-British and American male geeks.

• WikiProject report: Elements of the world
  

This week, we headed to an elementary subject with WikiProject Elements. Founded by Mav in 2002, this project has grown to have 19 featured articles, 2 featured topics, and 68 good articles. The project also has a list of templates, and a periodic table of elements filled with pictures.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 02:32, 27 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2013 October newsletter

The WikiCup is over for another year! Our champion, for the second year running, is Cwmhiraeth (submissions). Our final nine were as follows:

1. Cwmhiraeth (submissions)
2. Hawkeye7 (submissions)
3. Sasata (submissions)
4. Sturmvogel_66 (submissions)
5. Casliber (submissions)
6. Adam Cuerden (submissions)
7. Miyagawa (submissions)
8. Piotrus (submissions)
9. Ealdgyth (submissions)

All those who reached the final win prizes, and prizes will also be going to the following participants:

• Casliber (submissions) wins the FA prize, for four featured articles in round 4, worth 400 points.
• Sturmvogel_66 (submissions) wins the GA prize, for 20 good articles in round 3, worth 600 points.
• Another Believer (submissions) wins the FL prize, for four featured lists in round 2, worth 180 points.
• Adam Cuerden (submissions) wins the FP prize, for 23 featured pictures in round 5, worth 805 point.
• Sven Manguard (submissions) wins the FPo prize, for 2 featured portals in round 3, worth 70 points.
• Hawkeye7 (submissions) wins the topic prize, for a 23-article featured topic in round 5, worth 230 points.
• Cwmhiraeth (submissions) wins the DYK prize, for 79 did you know articles in round 5, worth 570 points.
• ThaddeusB (submissions) wins the ITN prize, for 23 in the news articles in round 4, worth 270 points.
• Ed! (submissions) wins the GAR prize, for 24 good article reviews in round 1, worth 96 points.
• The judges are awarding the Oddball Barnstar to The C of E (submissions), for some curious contributions in earlier rounds.
• Finally, the judges are awarding Cwmhiraeth (submissions) the Geography Barnstar for her work on sea, now a featured article. This top-importance article was the highest-scoring this year; when it was promoted to FA status, Cwmhiraeth could claim 720 points.

Prizes will be handed out in the coming weeks. Please be patient!

Congratulations to everyone who has been successful in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and a particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have achieved this year. Thanks to all who have taken part and helped out with the competition. While it has been an excellent year, errors have opened up the judges' eyes to the need for a third judge, and it is with pleasure that we announce that experienced WikiCup participant Miyagawa will be acting as a judge from now on. We hope you will all join us in welcoming him to the team.

Next year's competition begins on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; it is open to all Wikipedians, new and old. Brainstorming and discussion remains open for how next year's competition will work, and straw polls will be opened by the judges soon. Those interested in friendly competition may also like to keep an eye on the stub contest, being organised by Casliber. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2014 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email) and The ed17 (talk • email) 01:11, 1 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 30 October 2013

• Traffic report: 200 miles in 200 years
  

The top 10 encapsulates the history of human aviation; at #1, a Google Doodle celebrating the 216th anniversary of the first parachute jump; at #10, the enduringly popular scifi film Gravity, a paean to human spaceflight. It's odd to think it's taken us 200 years to travel about that many miles up.

• In the media: Rand Paul plagiarizes Wikipedia?
  

While giving a speech on behalf of a gubernatorial candidate, Paul advocated his pro-life position, and compared allowing unrestricted abortions to the film Gattaca. He went on to use strikingly similar language and phraseology in his speech to what the Wikipedia page reads. The Washington Post's article conceded that Wikipedia is a widely used source for trivial information, but mocked the fact that a politician would view it as a reliable source.

• News and notes: Sex and drug tourism—Wikivoyage's soft underbelly?
  

In January we raised several potentially troublesome issues for the Wikimedia movement in taking on Wikivoyage, including the apparent inadequacy of the English Wikivoyage sex-tourism policy, hurriedly strengthened against mention of child sex after our inquiries. However, both sex-tourism and illegal-activities policies remain equivocal about how the site should treat entries about sex tourism more generally, and drugs that are classed as illicit in almost every country. Yet the Signpost has found it remarkably easy to locate material in Wikivoyage that violates both the spirit and the letter of the policies.

• Featured content: Wrestling with featured content
  

This year's WikiCup competition has finished, while three articles, five lists, and six pictures, were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• Recent research: User influence on site policies: Wikipedia vs. Facebook vs. Youtube
  

Laura Stein, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, has concluded that, based on her comparison of user policy documents (including the Terms of Service) of YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia, Wikipedia offers the highest level of participation power overall.

• WikiProject report: Special: Lessons from the dead and dying
  

With Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and other gloomy celebrations this week, we're taking a look at Wikipedia's dead and dying. For some dead WikiProjects, the sole purpose of their life was simply to serve as a warning to others. Some of these projects may still be salvageable, but for most, a revival is unlikely. Here are some projects that never got off the ground and the lessons that can be gleaned from their follies

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 21:36, 2 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 November 2013

• News and notes: Alleged "outing" of editor's personal information leads to Wikipedia ban
  

As part of the second major "outing" controversy to hit the English Wikipedia in less than a year, the Chelsea/Bradley Manning naming dispute was dragged into the spotlight yet again when the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee ruled by motion to remove the administrator tools from and ban long-time Wikipedia contributor Phil Sandifer.

• Traffic report: Danse Macabre
  

It's fair to say that commemorating death was a strong theme this week, with Lou Reed's passing generating interest, as well as a Google Doodle celebrating the costume designer Edith Head. And of course, the world's greatest celebrations of the dead, Halloween and the Day of the Dead, were also popular this week.

• Featured content: Five years of work leads to 63-article featured topic
  

HMS Hood, one of the most famous warships of the Second World War, was a battlecruiser and therefore part of what is now the largest featured topic on Wikipedia: "Battlecruisers of the world". The topic was promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week alongside eleven articles, three lists, four pictures, and two other topics.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Accessibility
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Accessibility, a project that strives to make Wikipedia accessible for users with disabilities. The project improves Wikipedia's guidelines and Manual of Style, collects useful templates and scripts, and provides support to impaired Wikipedians.

• Arbitration report: Ebionites 3 case closed
  

The Ebionites 3 case has closed with an interaction ban for the two editors involved in the dispute.

• Discussion report: Sockpuppet investigations, VisualEditor, Wikidata's birthday, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:40, 9 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 November 2013

• News and notes: Alleged "outing" of editor's personal information leads to Wikipedia ban
  

As part of the second major "outing" controversy to hit the English Wikipedia in less than a year, the Chelsea/Bradley Manning naming dispute was dragged into the spotlight yet again when the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee ruled by motion to remove the administrator tools from and ban long-time Wikipedia contributor Phil Sandifer.

• Traffic report: Danse Macabre
  

It's fair to say that commemorating death was a strong theme this week, with Lou Reed's passing generating interest, as well as a Google Doodle celebrating the costume designer Edith Head. And of course, the world's greatest celebrations of the dead, Halloween and the Day of the Dead, were also popular this week.

• Featured content: Five years of work leads to 63-article featured topic
  

HMS Hood, one of the most famous warships of the Second World War, was a battlecruiser and therefore part of what is now the largest featured topic on Wikipedia: "Battlecruisers of the world". The topic was promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week alongside eleven articles, three lists, four pictures, and two other topics.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Accessibility
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Accessibility, a project that strives to make Wikipedia accessible for users with disabilities. The project improves Wikipedia's guidelines and Manual of Style, collects useful templates and scripts, and provides support to impaired Wikipedians.

• Arbitration report: Ebionites 3 case closed
  

The Ebionites 3 case has closed with an interaction ban for the two editors involved in the dispute.

• Discussion report: Sockpuppet investigations, VisualEditor, Wikidata's birthday, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:41, 9 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 November 2013

• News and notes: Alleged "outing" of editor's personal information leads to Wikipedia ban
  

As part of the second major "outing" controversy to hit the English Wikipedia in less than a year, the Chelsea/Bradley Manning naming dispute was dragged into the spotlight yet again when the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee ruled by motion to remove the administrator tools from and ban long-time Wikipedia contributor Phil Sandifer.

• Traffic report: Danse Macabre
  

It's fair to say that commemorating death was a strong theme this week, with Lou Reed's passing generating interest, as well as a Google Doodle celebrating the costume designer Edith Head. And of course, the world's greatest celebrations of the dead, Halloween and the Day of the Dead, were also popular this week.

• Featured content: Five years of work leads to 63-article featured topic
  

HMS Hood, one of the most famous warships of the Second World War, was a battlecruiser and therefore part of what is now the largest featured topic on Wikipedia: "Battlecruisers of the world". The topic was promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week alongside eleven articles, three lists, four pictures, and two other topics.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Accessibility
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Accessibility, a project that strives to make Wikipedia accessible for users with disabilities. The project improves Wikipedia's guidelines and Manual of Style, collects useful templates and scripts, and provides support to impaired Wikipedians.

• Arbitration report: Ebionites 3 case closed
  

The Ebionites 3 case has closed with an interaction ban for the two editors involved in the dispute.

• Discussion report: Sockpuppet investigations, VisualEditor, Wikidata's birthday, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:42, 9 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 November 2013

• Traffic report: Google Doodlebugs bust the block
  

The numbers this week are beyond anything that has been seen since this report began. The top view count beats the average by an order of magnitude. Usually the appearance of numbers this big on the list is due to spamming, but in this case it seems they are due to honest interest; more specifically, Google Doodles, which for the first time claimed all five top slots. This column has raised numerous times the power of a Google Doodle to shine light on Wikipedia, but the wattage has never been as high as this.

• Featured content: 1244 Chinese handscroll leads nine-strong picture contingent
  

Five articles, two lists, one topic, and nine pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• Special report: FDC staff raise the benchmarks for activities, impact, planning, and governance
  

The supporting staff of the Wikimedia Foundation’s powerful volunteer Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) have released their assessments for the third half-yearly round of funding applications. The applications for the newly named annual plan grants were submitted by affiliated entities on 1 October, and comprise a total of more than US$5M in bids.

• News and notes: Trademark at issue again with the Italian Wikipedia and wikipedia.it
  

The Italian-language Wikipedia community has overwhelmingly voted to request the Wikimedia Foundation's assistance in recovering wikipedia.it, a website that has been frequently confused with the Italian Wikipedia.

• WikiProject report: The world of soap operas
  

This week, we followed the intricate storylines of WikiProject Soap Operas.

• Discussion report: Commas, Draft namespace proposal, education updates, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 07:04, 16 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 November 2013

• From the editor: The Signpost needs your help
  

As I said in August, contributing to the Signpost can be one of the most rewarding things an editor can do. The genre is refreshingly different from that of Wikipedia articles, and can allow writers to use a different range of skills. The need for an independent, volunteer-run Signpost continues to grow, given the increasing complexity and financial expenditures of the global Wikimedia movement, not to mention the English Wikipedia.

• Book review: Peter Burke's Social History of Knowledge—ambitious, fascinating, and exhaustive
  

Peter Burke's A Social History of Knowledge: Volume II: From the Encyclopédie to Wikipedia is a broad and wide-ranging look at how knowledge has been created, acquired, organized, disseminated, and sometimes lost in the Western world over the last two and a half centuries, a sequel to his 2000 book covering the prior three centuries, A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot.

• Featured content: Rockin' the featured pictures
  

Four articles, five lists, and thirty-four pictures were promoted to 'featured status' this week, including an image of a small fraction of the 18,000 taxis that serve Hong Kong.

• WikiProject report: Score! American football on Wikipedia
  

This week, we headed over to WikiProject National Football League. With 10 Featured Articles, 61 Featured Lists, and 142 Good Articles (as of publication), this WikiProject has done a lot of work improving American football articles.

• News and notes: Foundation to Wiki-PR: cease and desist; Arbitration Committee elections starting
  

The Wikimedia Foundation has sent a formal cease and desist letter to Wiki-PR—the public relations agency accused of breaking Wikipedia policies and guidelines by creating, editing, and maintaining several thousand articles for paying clients through a sophisticated array of accounts. The Foundation's attorneys, Cooley LLP, have demanded that Wiki-PR's employees abide by the site's Terms of Use and the language of a community ban from the English Wikipedia.

• Traffic report: Ill Winds
  

It's not hard to guess which event is leading interest in the top 25 this week. The sheer scale of Typhoon Haiyan is staggering; estimates place its maximum windspeed upon first landfall in the Philippines on November 6 at 315 km/h, which would make it the most powerful tropical cyclone ever to reach land. To date, the storm has killed nearly 4000 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 4 million homes.

• Arbitration report: WMF opens the door for non-admin arbitrators
  

Back in March, when the March 25 Arbitration Report covered the Audit Subcommittee appointment discussion, a statement from the WMF legal division clarified its position that access to deleted revisions required an RFA or RFA-identical process; therefore AUSC committee appointments were not open to non-admins. The WMF legal team has now further clarified its position, saying that running for and winning an election for arbitrator would qualify as the type of rigorous community selection process required for the checkuser and oversight rights held by arbitrators.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 11:35, 24 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 December 2013

• Traffic report: Kennedy shot Who
  

Summary:Doctor Who nearly got cancelled in its first week because its premiere was swamped by coverage of the JFK assassination, which happened the same day. Thankfully, producers saw fit to rerun it the next day, which is now its official anniversary date.

• Recent research: Reciprocity and reputation motivate contributions to Wikipedia; indigenous knowledge and "cultural imperialism"; how PR people see Wikipedia
  

Wikipedia works on the efforts of unpaid volunteers who choose to donate their time to advance the cause of free knowledge. This phenomenon, as trivial as it may sound to those acquainted with Wikipedia inner workings, has always puzzled economists and social scientists alike, in that standard Economic theory would not predict that such enterprises would thrive without any form of remuneration.

• Discussion report: Musical scores, diversity conference, Module:Convert, and more
  

Recent discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• News and notes: One decade of Wikisource; FDC recommendations raise serious questions
  

The sister project Wikisource, the digital library that hosts free-content primary sources, is now a decade old. Wikisource, which now has versions in 63 languages, is the sixth type of project to reach ten-year milestone and will be the last until 2016. The Wikimedia Foundation's volunteer Funds Dissemination Committee has published its recommendations to the Board of Trustees on 11 new applications for annual grants by 11 WMF-affiliated organisations. The maximum total budget for the current and upcoming March rounds is US$6M.

• WikiProject report: Electronic Apple Pie
  

This week, we returned to WikiProject Apple Inc. for a peek at their newest articles about the latest in gadgets and software. The last time we took a bite out of WikiProject Apple, they had just finished merging WikiProject Macintosh and WikiProject iPhone OS. Today, the project is hard at work rewriting their primary article, improving the subject's outline, and adding to the project's list of 25 Good Articles and 6 Featured Articles.

• Featured content: F*&!
  

Seventeen articles, four lists, and twenty-eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status in the last two weeks.

• Arbitration report: Ottoman Empire–Turkey naming dispute case opens; New discretionary sanctions draft proposal available for review
  

The Ottoman Empire–Turkey naming dispute case has opened. The second draft of the discretionary sanctions proposal is now open for review.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:37, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 11 December 2013

• Traffic report: Deaths of Mandela, Walker top the list
  

When one edits this page for too long, one is tempted to appoint oneself as the psychoanalyst for the human race, or at least the English-speaking portion thereof. Since nearly everyone uses Wikipedia, the constant stream of TV updates, pointless celebrity scandals, and inquiries after who has died can seem like a dreary peek into humanity's surprisingly banal collective consciousness.

• In the media: Edward Snowden a "hero"; German Wikipedia court ruling
  

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales caught headlines last week when he referred to former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden ... Loek Essers of the International Data Group, (IDG) News Service is reporting that a German court has held Wikipedia liable for its content, but still does not have to fact check the information in advance.

• News and notes: Wiki Loves Monuments—winners announced
  

Amid great anticipation the international prize winners have just been announced for the fourth annual Wiki Loves Monuments, now the world's largest photographic competition and one of the biggest events on the Wikimedia movement's calendar. ... The first prize has gone to David Gubler's photograph of a Swiss train crossing a viaduct.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Wine
  

This week, the Signpost interviewed the Wine WikiProject.

• Interview: Wikipedia's first Featured Article centurion
  

On 7 December, Wikipedia editor Wehwalt reached the momentous milestone of 100 featured articles with History of Chincoteague, Virginia. Quite apart from the reading and research, that's around three-quarters of a million words of finalised text, not counting footnotes, image captions and the rest.

• Featured content: Viewer discretion advised
  

Three articles, one list, and eight pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• Technology report: MediaWiki 1.22 released
  

On 6 December, the latest version of the MediaWiki software was released. In development from March 2013 through October 2013, the release featured anti-spam and counter-vandalism improvements.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 04:13, 12 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 18 December 2013

• WikiProject report: Babel Series: Tunisia on the French Wikipedia
  

This week, the Signpost interviewed the Tunisia WikiProject on the French Wikipedia.

• Traffic report: Hopper to the top
  

An animated Google Doodle for computer programmer and naval rear admiral Grace Hopper generated another record-breaking hit count for the year, though the count for the list overall was lower than for that of the previous holder.

• Discussion report: Usernames, template data and documentation, Main page, and more
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• News and notes: Nine new arbitrators announced
  

A little more than six days after the close of voting, the results of the annual Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) elections have been announced. Of the 22 candidates, 13 managed to gain more supports than opposes, though only one gained the support of more than half of the voters. Eight were elected to two-year terms, and a ninth will serve for one year.

• Featured content: Triangulum, the most boring constellation in the universe
  

Seven articles, three lists, and eight pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• Technology report: Introducing the GLAMWikiToolset
  

This week, the GLAMWikiToolset, or GWToolset, is being deployed to the Wikimedia Commons. It allows for GLAM organizations to batch upload content based on various metadata stored in an XML schema. In the past this has been done by various bots, but now it will be easier for GLAMs to do it directly.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 06:29, 19 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 December 2013

• Recent research: Cross-language editors, election predictions, vandalism experiments
  

Analyzing edits to the-then 46 largest Wikipedias between July 9 and August 8, 2013, a study identified a set of about 8,000 contributors with a global user account who have edited more than one of these language versions in that time frame.

• Featured content: Drunken birds and treasonous kings
  

Five articles, two lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia.

• Discussion report: Draft namespace, VisualEditor meetings
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• WikiProject report: More Great WikiProject Logos
  

We saved one last special report for 2013. After our well-received review of great WikiProject logos a couple years ago, it was only a matter of time before we collected a new batch of interesting iconography that showcases the creativity of the Wikipedia community. Hopefully, these logos will also inspire other projects to liven up their drab pages.

• News and notes: IEG round 2 funding rewards diverse ambitions
  

A significant move by the Wikimedia Foundation has been to broaden the types of activities it funds to develop several different programs for judging and allocating that funding, and to set up volunteer committees that initially assess applications for funding.

• Technology report: OAuth: future of user designed tools
  

Last month, the OAuth extension was deployed to all Wikimedia wikis. OAuth is a standard used for allowing users to authenticate third-party applications, also known as consumers, to take actions on their behalf.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 05:13, 28 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 01 January 2014

• Traffic report: A year stuck in traffic
  

In fact, the majority are relatively evenly split between three themes: people of interest, television, and websites.

• Arbitration report: Examining the Committee's year
  

In 2013, the arbitration committee closed 10 cases, 9 amendment requests, and 26 clarification requests.

• In the media: Does Wikipedia need a medical disclaimer?
  

On New Year's Day, an article by Tim Sampson published in The Daily Dot and republished shortly after on Mashable covered the currently ongoing medical disclaimer RfC.

• Book review: Common Knowledge: An Ethnography of Wikipedia
  

Dariusz Jemielniak's book is the newest about Wikipedia, published in Poland in 2013 and with an English edition forthcoming in 2014.

• News and notes: The year in review
  

This was the year in which one journalist described the flagship site, Wikipedia, as "wickedly seductive". It was the year Wikipedia's replacement value was estimated at $6.6bn, its market value at "tens of billions of dollars", and its consumer benefit "hundreds of billions of dollars". But it was also the year in which one commentator forecast the decline of Wikipedia—that the project is in trouble from its shrinking volunteer workforce, skewed coverage, "crushing bureaucracy" and 90 percent male community.

• Discussion report: Article incubator, dates and fractions, medical disclaimer
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia and around the Wikimedia movement include...

• WikiProject report: Where Are They Now? Fifth Edition
  

The year 2013 has come and gone, adding 50 new WikiProject Reports to our long list of projects we've had the privilege to meet. Last year saw the continuation of our Babel series, featuring WikiProjects from other languages of Wikipedia. We also expanded our selection of special reports, offering readers a growing collection of helpful tips and tools as they participate in WikiProjects.

• Featured content: 2013—the trends
  

Over the past year 1181 pieces of featured content were promoted. The most active of the featured content programs was featured picture candidates (FPC), which promoted an average of 46 pictures a month. This was followed by featured article candidates (FAC; 32.5 a month). Coming in third was featured list candidates (FLC; 18 a month).

• Technology report: Looking back on 2013
  

2013 saw a lot of changes to MediaWiki software and Wikimedia infrastructure.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 04:54, 4 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 08 January 2014

• Public Domain Day: Why the year 2019 is so significant
  

Public Domain Day—January 1, 2014—gives me an opportunity to reflect on this important asset, mandated by the Constitution of the United States.

• Traffic report: Tragedy and television
  

The various maladies that befall humanity got some well-known faces this week: the death of the well-liked actor James Avery topped the list, but Michael Schumacher, who is in a coma after a skiing accident, also drew attention.

• Technology report: Gearing up for the Architecture Summit
  

MediaWiki developers will be meeting in San Francisco on January 23–24 for an Architecture Summit.

• News and notes: WMF employee forced out over "paid advocacy editing"
  

On 8 January, the Wikimedia Foundation notified the Wikimedia-l mailing list that Sarah Stierch, a popular Wikimedian and the Foundation's Program Evaluation Community Coordinator, was no longer an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, as a result of being paid to create articles on the English Wikipedia.

• Op-ed: WikiCup competition beginning a new year
  

At the very start of the new year, 2014's WikiCup—an annual competition which has been held on Wikipedia in various forms since 2007—began.

• WikiProject report: Jumping into the television universe
  

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Television.

• Featured content: A portal to the wonderful world of technology
  

Twelve articles, three lists, seven pictures, and a portal were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia in the last two weeks.

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The Signpost: 15 January 2014

• News and notes: German chapter asks for "reworking" of Funds Dissemination Committee; should MP4 be allowed on Wikimedia sites?
  

Wikimedia Germany, the largest national affiliate, has authored an extensive critique of the Funds Dissemination Committee's process for issuing funding recommendations for the various large organizations in the movement.

• Technology report: Architecture Summit schedule published
  

The proposed schedule for the MediaWiki Archicture Summit has been published. The two main plenary sessions will be about HTML templating, and Service-oriented architecture.

• Op-ed: Licensed for reuse? Citing open-access sources in Wikipedia articles
  

It is heavily ironic that two decades after the World Wide Web was started — largely to make it easier to share scholarly research — most of our past and present research publications are still hidden behind paywalls for private profit. The bitter twist is that the vast majority of this research is publicly funded, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide each year.

• In the media: Is Google hurting Wikipedia traffic?; "Wikipedia-Mania" in the New York Times
  

Wikipedia's recent decline in readership, possibly due to Google's Knowledge Graph. ... Judith Newman in the New York Times asks "What Does Judith Newman Have to Do to Get a Page?"

• Traffic report: The Hours are Ours
  

We now can get a far more accurate picture of which short surges in popularity are likely natural and which are not.

• WikiProject report: WikiProject Sociology
  

This week, we studied human social behavior with the folks at WikiProject Sociology.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 22:08, 19 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 January 2014

• Book review: Missing Links and Secret Histories: A Selection of Wikipedia Entries from Across the Known Multiverse
  

A particularly esoteric anthology of speculative fiction, filled with imaginary Wikipedia entries from, as the introduction puts it, "the many Wikipedias across the Multiverse."

• News and notes: Modification of WMF protection brought to Arbcom
  

The Wikimedia Foundation's Director of Community Advocacy's application of pending changes level two on the article Conventional PCI—an action taken under its rarely used office actions policy—has escalated to the Arbitration Committee after an editor upgraded it to full protection.

• Featured content: Dr. Watson, I presume
  

Fifteen articles, nine lists, twenty pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia over the last two weeks.

• Special report: The few who write Wikipedia
  

On 15 January, Wikipedia turned thirteen years old. In that time, this site has grown from a small site that was known to only a select few to one of the most popular websites on the internet. At the same time, recent data suggests that there is a power curve among users, where the comparative few who are writing most of Wikipedia have most of the edits. The result of this is that there is going to be bias in what is created, and how we deal with it as Wikipedians is indicative of the future of the site. Furthermore, this brings up what we have to do in order to combat this bias, as there are many ideas, but the question is whether they will work or not.

• Technology report: Architecting the future of MediaWiki
  

This week we're interviewing Brion Vibber about the then-upcoming Architecture Summit. Brion is a long time Wikipedian, the first employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, and currently the lead software architect working with the mobile team.

• In the media: Wikipedia for robots; Wikipedia—a temperamental teenager
  

An article in USA Today announced that a European-funded project called RoboEarth that is designed to give robots a mechanism by which to access information to dispense.

• Traffic report: No show for the Globes
  

While the 71st Golden Globe Awards, held on 12 January, had an impact on the top 25, their presence was largely absent from the Top 10. With the exception of Best Actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio, the only Golden Globe entrants in the Top 10 are films that would have been there anyway.

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WikiCup 2014 January newsletter

The 2014 WikiCup is off to a flying start, with, at time of writing, 138 participants. The is the largest number of participants we have seen since 2010. If you are yet to join the competition, don't worry- the judges have agreed to keep the signups open for a few more days. By a wide margin, our current leader is newcomer Godot13 (submissions), whose set of 14 featured pictures, the first FPs of the competition, was worth 490 points. Here are some more noteworthy scorers:

• 12george1 (submissions) and TropicalAnalystwx13 (submissions) were the first people to score, for the good article Tropical Storm Bret (1981) and its good article review respectively. 12george1 was also the first person to score in 2012 and 2013.
• Sven Manguard (submissions) scored the first ITN points for 2014 North American polar vortex.
• WonderBoy1998 (submissions) scored points for an early good topic, finishing off Wikipedia:Featured topics/She Wolf.
• TheAustinMan (submissions) scored the first bonus points of the competition, for his work on Typhoon Vera.
• Igordebraga (submissions) has scored the highest number of bonus points for a single article, for the high-importance Jurassic Park (film).

Featured articles, featured lists, featured topics and featured portals are yet to play a part in the competition. The judges have removed a number of submissions which were deemed ineligible. Typically, we aim to see work on a project, followed by a nomination, followed by promotion, this year. We apologise for any disappointment caused by our strict enforcement this year; we're aiming to keep the competition as fair as possible.

Wikipedians interested in friendly competition may be interested to take part in The Core Contest; unlike the WikiCup, The Core Contest is not about audited content, but, like the WikiCup, it is about article improvement; specifically, The Core Contest is about contribution to some of Wikipedia's most important article. Of course, any work done for The Core Contest, if it leads to a DYK, GA or FA, can earn WikiCup points.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email), The ed17 (talk • email) and Miyagawa (talk • email) 19:54, 1 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 January 2014

• Traffic report: Six strikes out
  

There are times when this job is hard. As an analogy, imagine navigating in fog at night, except you don't know where you are, you don't know where you want to go, and your flashlight keeps dying on you.

• WikiProject report: Special report: Contesting contests
  

Contests have existed almost as long as the English Wikipedia. Contestants have expanded hundreds of articles and made tens of thousands of edits. Although it may seem as though there aren't any negatives to contests, they have occasionally become a divisive topic on the English Wikipedia.

• News and notes: Wiki-PR defends itself, condemns Wikipedia's actions
  

Wiki-PR, a public relations agency, whose employees used a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts to create, edit, and maintain several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients, has told Business Insider that it was demonized by the online encyclopedia. Jordan French, Wiki-PR's CEO, said he believes the Wikimedia Foundation "painted" his company to look like an "evil entity" that is "scrubbing truths from Wikipedia".

• Arbitration report: Kafziel case closed; Kww admonished by motion
  

The Kafziel case has been closed, with Kafziel losing his administrator status as a result.

• Recent research: Translation assignments, weasel words, and Wikipedia's content in its later years
  

An author experimented with "a promising type of assignment in formal translator training which involves translating and publishing Wikipedia articles", in three courses with students at the University of Warsaw.

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:25, 1 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 January 2014

• Traffic report: Six strikes out
  

There are times when this job is hard. As an analogy, imagine navigating in fog at night, except you don't know where you are, you don't know where you want to go, and your flashlight keeps dying on you.

• WikiProject report: Special report: Contesting contests
  

Contests have existed almost as long as the English Wikipedia. Contestants have expanded hundreds of articles and made tens of thousands of edits. Although it may seem as though there aren't any negatives to contests, they have occasionally become a divisive topic on the English Wikipedia.

• News and notes: Wiki-PR defends itself, condemns Wikipedia's actions
  

Wiki-PR, a public relations agency, whose employees used a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts to create, edit, and maintain several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients, has told Business Insider that it was demonized by the online encyclopedia. Jordan French, Wiki-PR's CEO, said he believes the Wikimedia Foundation "painted" his company to look like an "evil entity" that is "scrubbing truths from Wikipedia".

• Arbitration report: Kafziel case closed; Kww admonished by motion
  

The Kafziel case has been closed, with Kafziel losing his administrator status as a result.

• Recent research: Translation assignments, weasel words, and Wikipedia's content in its later years
  

An author experimented with "a promising type of assignment in formal translator training which involves translating and publishing Wikipedia articles", in three courses with students at the University of Warsaw.

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 10:37, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 February 2014

• In the media: WikiVIP; Art Feminism; Medical articles; PR manipulation; Azerbaijani Wikipedia
  

As reported in various media outlets this week, including The Next Web and The Daily Dot, this past week, Wikimedia Commons and various language Wikipedias are working together to encourage subjects of Wikipedia articles to record a 10-second clip of their voice to be appended to their Wikipedia article.

• Technology report: Left with no choice
  

Software evolution does not always mean that features are being added. It also means that old fat is being trimmed. It is no different for MediaWiki.

• News and notes: WMF bites the bullet on affiliation and FDC funding, elevates Wikimedia user groups
  

In a bold move, the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees has announced a major change in policy concerning affiliated groups in the worldwide movement, and FDC funding levels to eligible chapters and thematic organizations over the next two years. Both decisions were published last Tuesday after considerable post-meeting consultation with the FDC and the Affiliations Committee (AffCom). The core of the first decision is

• Featured content: Space selfie
  

Thirteen articles, three lists, and twenty-five images were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia from 19 January to 1 February.

• Traffic report: Sports Day
  

Two great sporting events, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, collide in one week, transforming the top ten into a festival of flying feet, a carnival of colliding caraniums and a bacchanal of bouncing balls, combined to influence Wikipedia's most popular articles last week.

• WikiProject report: Game Time in Russia
  

In celebration of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, we revisited the team at WikiProject Russia to learn how the project has changed since our first interview in 2011.

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:00, 13 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 February 2014

• News and notes: Foundation takes aim at undisclosed paid editing; Greek Wikipedia editor faces down legal challenge
  

The Wikimedia Foundation has proposed to modify the Wikimedia projects' Terms of use to specifically ban undisclosed paid editing. ... Dimitris Liourdis, a lawyer in training who moonlights as an administrator on the Greek Wikipedia, is embroiled in a legal dispute with a Greek politician over alleged edits made to his Wikipedia article.

• Technology report: ULS Comeback
  

Runa Bhattacharjee has notified the community that the Foundation is ready to turn the Universal Language Selector back on.

• WikiProject report: Countering Systemic Bias
  

WikiProject Countering System Bias aims to combat imbalanced coverage while encouraging neglected cultural perspectives and points of view, both in articles and in the larger Wikipedia community. As you'll see from the varied experiences and motivations of our nine respondents, the biases that the folks at WP CSB tackle run the full gamut of human characteristics and dispositions. The interview that follows unveils many of Wikipedia's greatest shortcomings.

• Featured content: Holotype
  

Five articles, seven lists, forty-three pictures, and two portals were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia in the last two weeks.

• Traffic report: Chilly Valentines
  

Valentines Day got a somewhat muted reception this week, overshadowed by continuing coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the death of Shirley Temple.

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The Signpost: 26 February 2014

• Forum: Should Wikimedia modify its terms of use to require disclosure?
  

About a week ago, the Wikimedia Foundation proposed to modify the Wikimedia projects' terms of use to specifically ban paid editing, by adding a new clause titled "Paid contributions without disclosure". We have asked two users, one in favor of the measure (Smallbones) and one opposed (Pete Forsyth), to contribute their opinions on the matter.

• Featured content: Odin salutes you
  

Eight articles, three lists, and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• WikiProject report: Racking brains with neuroscience
  

This week, we found three Ph.D.s willing to give us a crash course on WikiProject Neuroscience.

• Special report: Diary of a protester: Wikimedian perishes in Ukrainian unrest
  

Ukraine has been gripped by widespread protests over the past three months. Due to a decision by former president Viktor Yanukovych—at Russia's urging—to abandon integration with the European Union, the country was (and in many ways still is) split between the Europe-favoring Ukrainian-speaking western half and the Russian-speaking east and south. Hundreds have died during the unrest, leaving thousands of family members and friends to bury their loved ones. This week our Wikimedian colleagues in Ukraine are facing that challenge after the death of one of their own.

• News and notes: Wikimedia chapters and communities challenge Commons' URAA policy
  

Following a trend started by Wikimedia Israel, Wikimedia Argentina has published an open letter challenging the recent deletion of hundreds of images from the Commons under its policy on URAA-restored copyrights, relating to the United States' 1994 Uruguay Round Agreements Act.

• Traffic report: Snow big deal
  

The 2014 Winter Olympics had more of an impact on the Top 25 than the Top 10, which had to shoulder old stalwarts like the death list, Reddit threads, TV shows and the eternal presence of Facebook; still, with four slots, it's the most searched topic on the list.

• Recent research: CSCW '14 retrospective; the impact of SOPA on deletionism
  

The monthly roundup of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, edited jointly with the Wikimedia Research Committee.

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:27, 28 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2014 February newsletter

And so ends the most competitive first round we have ever seen, with 38 points required to qualify for round 2. Last year, 19 points secured a place; before that, 11 (2012) or 8 (2011) were enough. This is both a blessing and a curse. While it shows the vigourous good health of the competition, it also means that we have already lost many worthy competitors. Our top three scorers were:

1. Godot13 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer whose high-quality scans of rare banknotes represent an unusual, interesting and valuable contribution to Wikipedia. Most of Godot's points this round have come from a large set of pictures used in Treasury Note (1890–91).
2. Adam Cuerden (submissions), a WikiCup veteran and a finalist last year, Adam is also a featured picture specialist, focusing on the restoration of historical images. This month's promotions have included a carefully restored set of artist William Russell Flint's work.
3. WikiRedactor (submissions), another WikiCup newcomer. WikiRedactor has claimed points for good article reviews and good articles relating to pop music, many of which were awarded bonus points. Articles include Sky Ferreira, Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus and "Wrecking Ball" (Miley Cyrus song).

Other competitors of note include:

• Hahc21 (submissions), who helped take Thirty Flights of Loving through good article candidates and featured article candidates, claiming the first first featured article of the competition.
• Prism (submissions), who claimed the first featured list of the competition with Natalia Kills discography.
• Cwmhiraeth (submissions), who takes the title of the contributor awarded the highest bonus point multiplier (resulting in the highest scoring article) of the competition so far. Her high-importance salamander, now a good article, scored 108 points.

After such a competitive first round, expect the second round to also be fiercely fought. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 1 but before the start of round 2 can be claimed in round 2, but please do not update your submission page until March (UTC). Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points equally.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email), The ed17 (talk • email) and Miyagawa (talk • email) 00:01, 1 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

(test) The Signpost: 05 March 2014

• Traffic report: Brinksmen on the brink
  

There's nothing like a good old bit of Cold War nostalgia, combined with a suitably scary international incident, to focus our attention on the real world. That said, nothing could stem our outpouring of affection for the beloved comedian Harold Ramis, whose death managed to top the week in the face of those international concerns.

• Discussion report: Four paragraph lead, indefinitely blocked IPs, editor reviews broken?
  

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

• News and notes: Wikipedia Library finding success in matching contributors with sources
  

This week, the Signpost caught up with the Wikipedia Library (TWL), which aims to connect reference resources with Wikipedia editors who can use them to improve articles. Funded through the Wikimedia Foundation's Individual Engagement Grants program, TWL has a new "visiting scholars" initiative and a microgrants program in the works.

• Featured content: Full speed ahead for the WikiCup
  

The WikiCup competition is ongoing, while six articles, three lists, and ten pictures were promoted to "featured" status of the English Wikipedia this week.

• WikiProject report: Article Rescue Squadron
  

This week, the Signpost delved into the English Wikipedia's Article Rescue Squadron.

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:49, 10 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 12 March 2014

• News and notes: Wikimedians celebrate International Women's Day, Women's History Month
  

Wikimedians around the world gathered to celebrate Women's History Month and the associated International Women's Day by holding editathons. If you lived in the United Kingdom, you had the opportunity to attend Wikimedia UK's event at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, part of University College London and host to one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese artifacts in the world.

• Traffic report: War and awards
  

An intensely busy week, as a confluence of celebratory, curious and urgent topics pushed typical residents like Facebook and Deaths in 2014 out of the top ten entirely.

• Featured content: Ukraine burns
  

Five articles, two lists, and 52 pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

• WikiProject report: Russian WikiProject Entomology
  

This week, we interviewed Anaxibia from the Russian-language Entomology WikiProject.

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:46, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 19 March 2014

• Forum: Wikimedia Commons mission: free media for the world or only Wikimedia projects?
  

Non-US editors and chapters have taken issue with a multitude of image deletions done on the Wikimedia Commons to comply with the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, a US law that brought the country into compliance with the Berne Convention.

• WikiProject report: We have history
  

This week, we visited WikiProject History, an ancient project with roots dating back to 2001. The project is home to 196 pieces of Featured material and 483 Good and A-class articles independent of the vast accomplishments of its various child projects. WikiProject History maintains a lengthy list of tasks, oversees the history portal, and continues to build Wikipedia's outline of history.

• Interview: Nate Ott: the writer behind 71 articles in the largest-ever good topic
  

In a record-breaker, the English Wikipedia has a new largest good topic: the 71-article Light cruisers of Germany, which concerns the light cruisers used by Germany during the 20th century.

• Featured content: Spot the bulldozer
  

Twelve articles, fourteen lists, and six pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

• News and notes: Foundation-supported Wikipedian in residence faces scrutiny
  

One of the first university Wikipedian in residence positions, hosted at Harvard University in 2012, has jumped back into the spotlight amid questions about its ethical integrity.

• Traffic report: Into thin air
  

The utterly mystifying events surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which has not fallen from the sky so much as vanished from it entirely, has left an information-starved public scrambling for precedents, some logical, some... not.

• Technology report: Wikimedia engineering report
  

The Wikimedia engineering report for February 2014 has been published. A summarized version is also available. Major news include

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:15, 23 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 26 March 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-03-26

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WikiCup 2014 March newsletter

A quick update as we are half way through round two of this year's competition. WikiCup newcomer Godot13 (submissions) (Pool E) leads, having produced a massive set of featured pictures for Silver certificate (United States), an article also brought to featured list status. Former finalist Adam Cuerden (submissions) (Pool G) is in second, which he owes mostly to his work with historical images, including a number of images from Urania's Mirror, an article also brought to good status. 2010 champion (Pool C) is third overall, thanks to contributions relating to naval history, including the newly featured Japanese battleship Nagato. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, who currently leads Pool A and is sixth overall, takes the title for the highest scoring individual article of the competition so far, with the top importance featured article Ian Smith.

With 26 people having already scored over 100 points, it is likely that well over 100 points will be needed to secure a place in round 3. Recent years have required 123 (2013), 65 (2012), 41 (2011) and 100 (2010). Remember that only 64 will progress to round 3 at the end of April. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page; if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points equally. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email), The ed17 (talk • email) and Miyagawa (talk • email) 22:55, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 02 April 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-04-02

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The Signpost: 09 April 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-04-09

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The Signpost: 23 April 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-04-23

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The Signpost: 30 April 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-04-30

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WikiCup 2014 April newsletter

Round 3 of the 2014 WikiCup has just begun; 32 competitors remain. Pool G's Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 was Round 2's highest scorer, with a large number of featured picture credits. In March/April, he restored star charts from Urania's Mirror, lithographs of various warships (such as SMS Gefion) and assorted other historical media. Second overall was Pool E's Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, whose featured list Silver certificate (United States) contains dozens of scans of banknotes recently promoted to featured picture status. Third was Pool G's Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 who has produced a large number of good articles, many, including Falkner Island, on Connecticut-related topics. Other successful participants included Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, who saw three articles (including the top-importance Ian Smith) through featured article candidacies, and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, who saw three lists (including the beautifully-illustrated list of plantations in West Virginia) through featured list candidacies. High-importance good articles promoted this round include narwhal from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, tiger from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 and The Lion King from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5. We also saw our first featured topic points of the competition, awarded to Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 for their work on the Sega Genesis topic. No points have been claimed so far for good topics or featured portals.

192 was our lowest qualifying score, again showing that this WikiCup is the most competitive ever. In previous years, 123 (2013), 65 (2012), 41 (2011) or 100 (2010) secured a place in Round 3. Pool H was the strongest performer, with all but one of its members advancing, while only the two highest scorers in Pools G and F advanced. At the end of June, 16 users will advance into the semi-finals. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk • email), The ed17 (talk • email) and Miyagawa (talk • email) 17:57, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 May 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-05-07

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The Signpost: 14 May 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-05-14

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The Signpost: 21 May 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-05-21

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The Signpost: 28 May 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-05-28

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:51, 1 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 04 June 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-06-04

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The Signpost: 11 June 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-06-11

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The Signpost: 18 June 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-06-18

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The Signpost: 25 June 2014

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-06-25

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WikiCup 2014 June newsletter

After an extremely close race, Round 3 is over. 244 points secured a place in Round 4, which is comparable to previous years- 321 was required in 2013, while 243 points were needed in 2012. Pool C's Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 was the round's highest scorer, mostly due to a 32 featured pictures, including both scans and photographs. Also from Pool C, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 finished second overall, claiming three featured articles, including the high-importance Grus (constellation). Third place was Pool B's Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, whose contributions included featured articles Russian battleship Poltava (1894) and Russian battleship Peresvet. Pool C saw the highest number of participants advance, with six out of eight making it to the next round.

The round saw this year's first featured portal, with Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 taking Portal:Literature to featured status. The round also saw the first good topic points, thanks to Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 and the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season. This means that all content types have been claimed this year. Other contributions of note this round include a featured topic on Maya Angelou's autobiographies from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, a good article on the noted Czech footballer Tomáš Rosický from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 and a now-featured video game screenshot, freely released due to the efforts of Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5.

The judges would like to remind participants to update submission pages promptly. This means that content can be checked, and allows those following the competition (including those participating) to keep track of scores effectively. This round has seen discussion about various aspects of the WikiCup's rules and procedures. Those interested in the competition can be assured that formal discussions about how next year's competition will work will be opened shortly, and all are welcome to voice their views then. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Template:User Template:User and Template:User 18:48, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

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WikiCup 2014 August newsletter

The final of the 2014 WikiCup begins in a few short minutes! Our eight finalists are listed below, along with their placement in Round 4:

1. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, a WikiCup newcomer, finished top of Pool A and was the round's highest scorer. Godot is a featured picture specialist, claiming large numbers of points due to high-quality scans of historical documents, especially banknotes.
2. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 is a WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist every year since 2010. In the semi-final, he was Pool B's highest scorer. Cas's points primarily come from articles on the natural sciences.
3. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 was Pool A's runner-up. Czar's points come mostly from content related to independent video games, including both articles and topics.
4. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 was Pool B's runner-up. Another featured picture specialist, many of Adam's points come from the restoration of historical media. He has been a WikiCup finalist twice before.
5. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 won the WikiCup in 2012 and 2013, and enters this final as the first wildcard. She focuses on biology-related articles, and has worked on several high-importance articles.
6. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 is the second wildcard. George's points come primarily from meteorology-related articles. This year and last year, George was the first person in the competition to score.
7. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, the third wildcard, was the 2010 champion and a finalist last year. His writes mostly on military history, especially naval history.
8. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, the fourth and final wildcard, has participated in previous WikiCups, but not reached any finals. Bloom's points are mostly thanks to did you knows, featured lists and good articles related to sport and national symbols.

We say goodbye to this year's semi-finalists. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 have all performed well to reach this stage of the competition, and we hope they will all be joining us again next year.

There are two upcoming competitions unrelated to the WikiCup which may be of interest to those who receive this newsletter. The Stub Contest will run through September, and revolves around expanding stub articles, especially high-importance or old stubs. In addition, a proposal has been made for a new competition, the GA Cup, which the organisers plan to run next year. This competition is based on the WikiCup and aims to reduce the good article review backlog.

There is now a thread for brainstorming on how next year's WikiCup competition should work. Please come along and share your thoughts- What works? What doesn't work? What needs changing? Signups for next year's competition will be open soon; we will be in touch. If, at this stage of the competition, you are keen to help the with the WikiCup, please do what you can to participate in review processes. Our finalists will find things much easier if the backlogs at good article candidates, featured article candidates, featured picture candidates and the rest are kept at a minimum. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Template:User Template:User and Template:User 22:09, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

WikiCup 2014 September newsletter

In one month's time, we will know our WikiCup 2014 champion. Newcomer Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 has taken a strong lead with a featured list (historical coats of arms of the U.S. states from 1876) and a raft of featured pictures. Reigning champion Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 is in second place with a number of high-importance biology articles, including new FA Isopoda and new GA least weasel. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, who is in his fifth WikiCup final, is in third, with featured articles Pictor and Epacris impressa.

Signups for the 2015 WikiCup are open. All Wikipedians, new and experienced, are warmly invited to sign up for the competition. Wikipedians interested in friendly competition may also like to sign up for the GA Cup, a new WikiCup-inspired competition which revolves around completing good article reviews. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Template:User Template:User and Template:User 22:11, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Assistance for page AyatollahTaqi Bahjat

Kindly help me by providing some details about family of Ayatollah Taqi Bahjat i.e. his wife and kids. Provision of this info will serve as legacy of the personality at his page. Thanks Nannadeem (talk) 03:24, 4 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Salaam. I just came across this. Do you still need this information? --Syed Kazim ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 20:27, 12 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

W A. Thanks, yes I still need for the said Article. Nannadeem (talk) 18:01, 15 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2014: The results

The 2014 WikiCup champion is Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, who flew the flag of the Smithsonian Institution. This was Godot13's first WikiCup competition and, over the 10 months of the competition, he has produced (among other contributions) two featured lists and an incredible 292 featured pictures, including architectural photographs and scans of historical documents. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, 2012 and 2013 WikiCup champion, came in second, having written a large number of biology-related articles. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5, WikiCup finalist every year since 2010, finished in third.

A full list of our prize-winners follows:

• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the prize for first place and the FP prize for 181 featured pictures in the final round.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the prize for second place and the DYK prize for 65 did you knows in the final round.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the prize for third place and the FA prize for four featured articles in the final round.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the prize for fourth place
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins a final 8 prize.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins a final 8 prize.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins a final 8 prize.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the GA prize for 27 good articles in round 2 and the review prize for 28 good article reviews in round 1.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the FL prize for three featured lists in round 2.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the FPo prize his work on featured portals.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the topic prize for a nine-article featured topic in round 3.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 wins the news prize for 28 in the news articles in round 3.

Congratulations to everyone who has been successful in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and a particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have participated this year. We warmly invite all of you to sign up for next year's competition. Discussions and polls concerning potential rules changes are also open, and all are welcome to participate. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2014 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Template:User Template:User and Template:User 22:52, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

WikiCup 2015 is just around the corner...

Hello everyone, and may we wish you all a happy holiday season. As you will probably already know, the 2015 WikiCup begins in the new year; there is still time to sign up. We have a few important announcements concerning the future of the WikiCup.

• We would like to announce that Josh (J Milburn) and Ed (The ed17), who have been WikiCup judges since 2009 and 2010 respectively, are stepping down. This decision has been made for a number of reasons, but the main one is time. Both Josh and Ed have found that, over the previous year, they have been unable to devote the time necessary to the WikiCup, and it is not likely that they will be able to do this in the near future. Furthermore, new people at the helm can only help to invigorate the WikiCup and keep it dynamic. Josh and Ed will still be around, and will likely be participating in the Cup this following year as competitors, which is where both started out.
• In a similar vein, we hope you will all join us in welcoming Jason (Sturmvogel 66) and Christine (Figureskatingfan), who are joining Brian (Miyagawa) to form the 2015 WikiCup judging team. Jason is a WikiCup veteran, having won in 2010 and finishing in fifth this year. Christine has participated in two WikiCups, reaching the semi-finals in both, and is responsible for the GA Cup, which she now co-runs.
• 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. While it may be impossible to please everyone, the judges will make every effort to ensure 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. J Milburn (talk), The ed17 (talk), Miyagawa (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk) and Figureskatingfan (talk) 18:54, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2015 launch newsletter

Round one of the 2015 WikiCup has begun! So far we've had around 80 signups, which close on February 5. If you have not already signed up and want to do so, then you can add your name here. There have been changes to to several of the points scores for various categories, and the addition of Peer Reviews for the first time. These will work in the same manner as Good Article Reviews, and all of the changes are summarised here.

Remember that only the top 64 scoring competitors will make it through to the second round, and one of the new changes this year is that all scores must be claimed within two weeks of an article's promotion or appearance, so don't forget to add them to your submissions pages! If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, and you hope to get it promoted before the end of the round, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. However, please remember to continue to offer reviews at GAN, FAC and all the other pages that require them to prevent any backlogs which could otherwise be caused by the Cup. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages. Good luck! Template:User, Template:User and Template:User
If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the mailing list or alternatively to opt-out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Opted-out of message delivery to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:51, 2 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2015 March newsletter

One of several of Godot13's quality submissions during round 1

That's it, the first round is done, sign-ups are closed and we're into round 2. 64 competitors made it into this round, and are now broken into eight groups of eight. The top two of each group will go through to round 3, and then the top scoring 16 "wildcards" across all groups. Round 1 saw some interesting work on some very important articles, with the round leader Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 owing most of his 622 points scored to a Featured Article on the 2001 film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within which qualified for a times-two multiplier. This is a higher score than in previous years, as Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant5 had 500 points in 2014 at the end of round 1, and our very own judge, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant4 led round 1 with 601 points in 2013.

In addition to Freikorp's work, some other important articles and pictures were improved during round one, here's a snapshot of a few of them:

• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 took Bumblebee, a level-4 vital article, to Good Article;
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 worked-up the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 article, also to Good Article status;
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 developed an extremely timely article to Good Article, taking Magna Carta there some 800 years after it was first sealed;
• And last but not least, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 worked up a number of Featured Pictures during round 1, including the 1948 one Deutsche Mark (pictured right), receiving the maximum bonus due to the number of Wikis that the related article appears in.

You may also wish to know that The Core Contest is running through the month of March. Head there for further details - they even have actual prizes!

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Template:User4, Template:User4 and Template:User4

Thanks for your assistance! Miyagawa (talk) on behalf of Wikipedia:WikiCup.

(Opt-out Instructions) This message was send by Template:U through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:55, 1 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2015 May newsletter

C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is a long-period comet discovered on 17 August 2014 by Terry Lovejoy; and is one of several Featured Pictures worked up by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 during the second round.

The second round one has all wrapped up, and round three has now begun! Congratulations to the 34 contestants who have made it through, but well done and thank you to all contestants who took part in our second round. Leading the way overall was Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 in Group B with a total of 777 points for a variety of contributions including Good Articles on Corona Borealis and Microscopium - both of which received the maximum bonus.

Special credit must be given to a number of high importance articles improved during the second round.

• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 was one of several users who worked on improving Ulysses S. Grant. Remember, you do not need to work on an article on your own - as long as each person has completed significant work on the article during 2015, multiple competitors can claim the same article.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 took Dragonfly to Good Article for a 3x bonus - and if that wasn't enough, they also took Damselfly there as well for a 2x bonus.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 worked up Alexander Hamilton to Good Article for the maximum bonus. Hamilton was one of the founding fathers of the United States and is a level 4 vital article.

The points varied across groups, with the lowest score required to gain automatic qualification was 68 in Group A - meanwhile the second place score in Group H was 404, which would have been high enough to win all but one of the other Groups! As well as the top two of each group automatically going through to the third round, a minimum score of 55 was required for a wildcard competitor to go through. We had a three-way tie at 55 points and all three have qualified for the next round, in the spirit of fairness. The third round ends on June 28, with the top two in each group progressing automatically while the remaining 16 highest scorers across all four groups go through as wildcards. Good luck to all competitors for the third round! Template:User4, Template:User4 and Template:User4 16:46, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

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formatnum:2059	Template:Hs	Austria-Hungary (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
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SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly; your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

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Views/Day	Quality	Title	Content	Headings	Images	Links	Sources	Tagged with…
formatnum:277	Template:Hs	Barry Windham (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:220	Template:Hs	The Four Horsemen (professional wrestling) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:659	Template:Hs	President (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:8	Template:Hs	Nehemiah Tamari (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:5	Template:Hs	Kirkcaldy RFC (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:74	Template:Hs	GFI Software (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:9	Template:Hs	Northwestern University Dental School (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:26	Template:Hs	Bektashism and folk religion (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:318	Template:Hs	Unicameralism (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:50	Template:Hs	Intego (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:4	Template:Hs	Corbett School (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:46	Template:Hs	Kadhimiya (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:79	Template:Hs	Islam and war (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:7300	Template:Hs	Rohingya people (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:98	Template:Hs	Professional wrestling championship (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:41	Template:Hs	Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:5282	Template:Hs	Anti-spam techniques (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:946	Template:Hs	Volkswagen Type 2 (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:192	Template:Hs	Internet café (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:91	Template:Hs	Investiture (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:22	Template:Hs	Sikhism in Thailand (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:3	Template:Hs	Admiralty Peak (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:3	Template:Hs	American Revolutionary War Campaigns (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:2	Template:Hs	Ankeniheny-Zahamena Reserve (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:4	Template:Hs	Hum Bhi Insaan Hain (1948 film) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:10	Template:Hs	Vidya (film) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:11	Template:Hs	Milap (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:5	Template:Hs	Mitchell School (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:8	Template:Hs	CAMPOST (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:2	Template:Hs	Westhill Primary (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly; your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!

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Views/Day	Quality	Title	Content	Headings	Images	Links	Sources	Tagged with…
formatnum:230	Template:Hs	Bilal Ibn Rabah (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:37	Template:Hs	Undeclared war (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:575	Template:Hs	Ravana (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:116	Template:Hs	Panzerlied (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:187	Template:Hs	Free State of Prussia (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:0	Template:Hs	Hazel Park Schools (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:18	Template:Hs	State Council of Crimea (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:135	Template:Hs	Halifax (former city) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:238	Template:Hs	USS Intrepid (CV-11) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:5	Template:Hs	Anacortes School District (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:1	Template:Hs	Vale High School (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:43	Template:Hs	Territory (geographic region) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:325	Template:Hs	Twelver (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:597	Template:Hs	Ali al-Ridha (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:113	Template:Hs	Ravidas (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:41	Template:Hs	University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:110	Template:Hs	Regalia (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:126	Template:Hs	Mawlid (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:1	Template:Hs	Hillsborough City School District (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:2	Template:Hs	Madison Southern High School (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:27	Template:Hs	Maritime history of California (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:0	Template:Hs	Antonio Soldini (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:0	Template:Hs	Amine Amamou (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:1	Template:Hs	Agnes Addison (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:2	Template:Hs	Correios de Angola (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:20	Template:Hs	Ittefaq (1969 film) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:3	Template:Hs	Howden School (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:17	Template:Hs	Sawan Ki Ghata (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:1	Template:Hs	Millbrae School District (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:1	Template:Hs	Eritrean Postal Service (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub

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Views/Day	Quality	Title	Content	Headings	Images	Links	Sources	Tagged with…
formatnum:11	Template:Hs	White Tanzanians (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:102	Template:Hs	Abd-al-Rahman ibn Muljam (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:343	Template:Hs	United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:6	Template:Hs	National Assembly (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:343	Template:Hs	Urination (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:517	Template:Hs	Guru Gobind Singh (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Add sources
formatnum:131	Template:Hs	Cobb County, Georgia (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:72	Template:Hs	Political status of Western Sahara (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:905	Template:Hs	Japanese cuisine (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Cleanup
formatnum:11	Template:Hs	Index of Tanzania-related articles (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:6	Template:Hs	Timeline of Tanzanian history (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:61	Template:Hs	Territory (subdivision) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Expand
formatnum:10	Template:Hs	University of Adelaide School of Dentistry (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:99	Template:Hs	PeerGuardian (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:899	Template:Hs	Soviet–Afghan War (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Unencyclopaedic
formatnum:10	Template:Hs	United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:1387	Template:Hs	Réunion (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:155	Template:Hs	Russian political jokes (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Merge
formatnum:329	Template:Hs	Self-determination (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:478	Template:Hs	United States Football League (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:4	Template:Hs	Bhai Vir Singh bibliography (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Wikify
formatnum:0	Template:Hs	Hussein Nasser Walji (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:1	Template:Hs	Lyubov Zakharchenko (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:0	Template:Hs	Andkær (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Orphan
formatnum:3	Template:Hs	Paositra Malagasy (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:74	Template:Hs	Dama Dam Mast Qalandar (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:2	Template:Hs	Correios de Cabo Verde (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:25	Template:Hs	Tafsir al-Mizan (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:2	Template:Hs	Muhammad ibn Khwand (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub
formatnum:3	Template:Hs	Hasan Naqvi (talk)	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Template:Hs	Stub

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WikiCup 2015 September newsletter

The finals for the 2015 Wikicup has now begun! Congrats to the 8 contestants who have survived to the finals, and well done and thanks to everyone who took part in rounds 3 and 4.

In round 3, we had a three-way tie for qualification among the wildcard contestants, so we had 34 competitors. The leader was by far Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant3 in Group B, who earned 1496 points. Although 913 of these points were bonus points, he submitted 15 articles in the DYK category. Second place overall was Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 at 864 points, who although submitted just 2 FAs for 400 points, earned double that amount for those articles in bonus points. Everyone who moved forward to Round 4 earned at least 100 points.

The scores required to move onto the semifinals were impressive; the lowest scorer to move onto the finals was 407, making this year's Wikicup as competitive as it's always been. Our finalists, ordered by round 4 score, are:

1. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, who is competing in his sixth consecutive Wikicup final, again finished the round in first place, with an impressive 1666 points in Pool B. Casliber writes about the natural sciences, including ornithology, botany and astronomy. A large bulk of his points this round were bonus points.
2. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, second place both in Pool B and overall, earned the bulk of his points with FPs, mostly depicting currency.
3. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, first in Pool A, came in third. His specialty is natural science articles; in Round 4, he mostly submitted articles about insects and botany. Five out of the six of the GAs he submitted were level-4 vital articles.
4. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, second in Pool A, took fourth overall. He tends to focus on articles about cricket and military history, specifically the 1640s First English Civil War.
5. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, from Pool A, was our highest-scoring wildcard. West Virginia tends to focus on articles about the history of (what for it!) the U.S. state of West Virginia.
6. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, from Pool A, likes to work on articles about British geography and places. Most of his points this round were earned from two impressive accomplishments: a GT about Scheduled monuments in Somerset and a FT about English Heritage properties in Somerset.
7. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, from Pool B, came in seventh overall. RO earned the majority of her points from GARs and PRs, many of which were earned in the final hours of the round.
8. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, also from Pool B, who was competing with RO for the final two spots in the final hours, takes the race for most GARs and PRs—48.

The intense competition between RO and Calvin999 will continue into the finals. They're both eligible for the Newcomers Trophy, given for the first time in the Wikicup; whoever makes the most points will win it.

Good luck to the finalists; the judges are sure that the competition will be fierce!

Template:User, Template:User and Template:User 11:48, 2 September 2015 (UTC)

WikiCup 2015: The results

WikiCup 2015 is now in the books! Congrats to our finalists and winners, and to everyone who took part in this year's competition.

This year's results were an exact replica of last year's competition. For the second year in a row, the 2015 WikiCup champion is Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6. All of his points were earned for an impressive 253 featured pictures and their associated bonus points (5060 and 1695, respectively). His entries constituted scans of currency from all over the world and scans of medallions awarded to participants of the U.S. Space program. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 came in second place; she earned by far the most bonus points (4082), for 4 featured articles, 15 good articles, and 147 DYKs, mostly about in her field of expertise, natural science. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6, a finalist every year since 2010, came in third, with 2379 points.

Our newcomer award, presented to the best-performing new competitor in the WikiCup, goes to Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6. Everyone should be very proud of the work they accomplished. We will announce our other award winners soon.

A full list of our award winners are:

• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins the prize for first place and the FP prize for 330 featured pictures in the final round.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins the prize for second place and the DYK prize for 160 did you knows in the final round (310 in all rounds).
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins the prize for third place and the FA prize for 26 featured articles in all rounds.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins the prize for fourth place
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins a final 8 prize.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins a final 8 prize.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins a final 8 prize and the FL prize for 11 featured lists.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins the most prizes: a final 8 prize, the GA prize for 41 good articles, and the topic prize for a 13-article good topic and an 8-article featured topic, both in round 3.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant6 wins the news prize for the most news articles in round 3.

We warmly invite all of you to sign up for next year's competition. Discussions and polls concerning potential rules changes are also open, and all are welcome to participate. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2016 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send.

Template:User3, Template:User3 and Template:User3 18:39, 8 November 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)[reply]

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) 18:04, 7 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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) 18:08, 7 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2015 March newsletter

One of Adam Cuerden’s several quality restorations during round 1

That's it, the first round is done, sign-ups are closed and we're into round 2. Forty-seven competitors move into this round (a bit shy of the expected 64), and we are roughly broken into eight groups of six. The top two of each group will go through to round 3, and then the top scoring 16 "wildcards" across all groups.

Twenty-two Good Articles were submitted, including three by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7, and two each by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7, and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7. Twenty-one Featured Pictures were claimed, including 17 by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 (the Round 1 high scorer). Thirty-one contestants saw their DYKs appear on the main page, with a commanding lead (28) by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7. Twenty-nine participants conducted GA reviews with Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 completing nine.

If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Thanks to everyone for participating, and good luck to those moving into round 2. Template:User4, Template:User4, and Template:User4 --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:39, 1 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2016 March newsletter (update)

Along with getting the year wrong in the newsletter that went out earlier this week, we did not mention (as the bot did not report) that Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 claimed the first Featured Article Persoonia terminalis of the 2016 Wikicup. Template:User4, Template:User4, and Template:User4.--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:05, 2 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2016 May newsletter

FP of Christ Church Cathedral, Falkland Islands by Godot13

Round 2 is over and 35 competitors have moved on to Round 3.

Round 2 saw three FAs (two by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 and one by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7), four Featured Lists (with three by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7), and 53 Good Articles (six by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 and five each by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7, and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7). Eleven Featured Pictures were promoted (six by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 and five by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7). One Featured Portal, Featured Topic and Good Topic were also promoted. The DYK base point total was 1,135. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 scored 265 base points, while Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 each scored 150 base points. Eleven ITN were promoted and 131 Good Article Reviews were conducted with Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 completing a staggering 61 reviews. Two contestants, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7, broke the 700 point mark for Round 2.

If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Thanks to everyone for participating, and good luck to those moving into round 2. Template:User4, Template:User4, and Template:User4 -- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:59, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Contests

User:Dr. Blofeld has created Wikipedia:WikiProject Africa/Contests. The idea is to run a series of contests/editathons focusing on each region of Africa. He has spoken to Wikimedia about it and $1000-1500 is possible for prize money. As someone who has previously expressed interest in African topics, would you be interested in contributing to one or assisting draw up core article/missing article lists? He says he's thinking of North Africa for an inaugural one in October. If interested please sign up in the participants section of the Contest page, thanks.♦ --Ser Amantio di Nicolao^{Che dicono a Signa?}_{Lo dicono a Signa.} 01:38, 21 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2016 November newsletter: Final results

The final round of the 2016 WikiCup is over. Congratulations to the 2016 WikiCup top three finalists:

• First Place - Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7
• Second Place -Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7
• Third Place - Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7

In addition to recognizing the achievements of the top finishers and everyone who worked hard to make it to the final round, we also want to recognize those participants who were most productive in each of the WikiCup scoring categories:

• Featured Article – Cas Liber (actually a three-way tie with themselves for two FAs in each of R2, R3, and R5).
• Good Article – MPJ-DK had 14 GAs promoted in R3.
• Featured List – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 produced 2 FLs in R2
• Featured Pictures – Adam Cuerden restored 18 images to FP status in R4.
• Featured Portal – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 produced the only FPO of the Cup in R2.
• Featured Topic – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 and Calvin were each responsible for one FT in R3 and R2, respectively.
• Good Topic – MPJ-DK created a GT with 9 GAs in R5.
• Did You Know – MPJ-DK put 53 DYKs on the main page in R4.
• In The News – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7 and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant7, each with 5 ITN, both in R4.
• Good Article Review – MPJ-DK completed 61 GARs in R2.

Over the course of the 2016 WikiCup the following content was added to Wikipedia (only reporting on fixed value categories): 17 Featured Articles, 183 Good Articles, 8 Featured Lists, 87 Featured Pictures, 40 In The News, and 321 Good Article Reviews. Thank you to all the competitors for your hard work and what you have done to improve Wikipedia.--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:52, 2 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

We will open up a discussion for comments on process and scoring in a few days. The 2017 WikiCup is just around the corner! Many thanks from all the judges. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Template:User4, Template:User4, and Template:User4

WikiProject Good Articles's 2016-2017 GA Cup

WikiProject Good Articles's 2016-2017 GA Cup Greetings, all! We would like to announce the start of the 4th GA Cup, a competition that seeks to encourage the reviewing of Good article nominations! Thus far, there have been three GA Cups, which were successful in reaching our goals of significantly reducing the traditionally long queue at GAN, so we're doing it again. Currently, there are over 400 nominations listed. We hope that we can again make an impact this time. The 4th GA Cup will begin on November 1, 2016. Four rounds are currently scheduled (which will bring the competition to a close on February 28, 2017), but this may change based on participant numbers. We may take a break in December for the holidays, depending on the results of a poll of our participants taken shortly after the competition begins. The sign-up and submissions process will remain the same, as will the scoring. Sign-ups for the upcoming competition are currently open and will close on November 14, 2016. Everyone is welcome to join; new and old editors, so sign-up now! If you have any questions, take a look at the FAQ page and/or contact one of the judges. Cheers from Template:Noping, Template:Noping, Template:Noping, Template:Noping, and Template:Noping. We apologize for the delay in sending out this message until after the competition has started. Thank you to Krishna Chaitanya Velaga for aiding in getting this message out. Template:Center

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:40, 3 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup December newsletter: WikiCup 2017

On 1 January 2017, WikiCup 2017 (the 10th Annual WikiCup) will begin. This year we are trying something a little different – monetary prizes.

For the WC2017 the prizes will be as follows (amounts are based in US$ and will be awarded in the form of an online Amazon gift certificate):

• First place – $200
• Second & Third place – $50 each
• Category prizes – $25 per category (which will be limited to FA, FL, FP, GA, and DYK for 2017). Winning a category prize does not require making it to the final round.

Note: Monetary prizes are a one-year experiment for 2017 and may or may not be continued in the future. In order to be eligible to receive any of the prizes above, the competing Wikipedia account must have a valid/active email address.

After two years as a WikiCup judge, Figureskatingfan is stepping down. We thank her for her contributions as a WikiCup judge. We are pleased to announce that our newest judge is two-time WikiCup champion Cwmhiraeth.

The judges for the 2017 WikiCup are Template:User4, Template:User, and Template:User4.

Signups are open now and will remain open until 5 February 2017. You can sign up here.

If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send.MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:03, 14 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

March 2017 WikiCup newsletter

And so ends the first round of the competition, with 4 points required to qualify for round 2. It would have been 5 points, but when a late entrant was permitted to join the contest in February, a promise was made that his inclusion would not result in the exclusion of any other competitor. To achieve this, the six entrants that had the lowest positive score of 4 points have been added to the 64 people who otherwise would have qualified. As a result, some of the groups have nine contestants rather than eight. Our top four scorers in round 1 were:

• Template:Flagicon Cas Liber, last year's winner, led the field with two featured articles on birds and a total score of 674.
• Template:Flagicon Iry-Hor, a WikiCup newcomer, came next with a featured article, a good article and a tally of 282 bonus points for a score of 517. All these points came from the article Nyuserre Ini, an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh,
• Template:Flagicon 1989, another WikiCup newcomer, was in joint third place at 240. 1989 has claimed points for two featured lists and one good article relating to anime and comedy series, all of which were awarded bonus points.
• Template:Flagicon Peacemaker67 shared third place with five good articles and thirteen good article reviews, mostly on naval vessels. He is also new to the competition.

The largest number of DYKs have been submitted by Vivvt and The C of E, who each claimed for seven, and MBlaze Lightning achieved eight articles at ITN. Carbrera and Peacemaker67 each claimed for five GAs and Krishna Chaitanya Velaga was well out in front for GARs, having reviewed 32. No featured pictures, featured topics or good topics yet, but we have achieved three featured articles and a splendid total of fifty good articles.

So, on to the second round. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 1 but before the start of round 2 can be claimed in round 2. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points equally.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is a good article candidate, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 13:52, 1 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]

May 2017 WikiCup newsletter

The second round of the competition has now closed, with just under 100 points being required to qualify for round 3. YellowEvan just scraped into the next round with 98 points but we have to say goodbye to the thirty or so competitors who didn't achieve this threshold; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. Our top scorers in round 2 were:

• Template:Flagicon Cas Liber, led the field with five featured articles, four on birds and one on astronomy, and a total score of 2049, half of which came from bonus points.
• Template:Flagicon 1989 was in second place with 826 points, 466 of which were bonus points. 1989 has claimed points mostly relating to anime and Japanese-related articles.
• Template:Flagicon Peacemaker67 took third place with two FAs, one GA and seven GARs, mostly on naval vessels or military personnel, scoring 543 points.
• Other contestants who scored over 400 points were Freikorp, Carbrera, and Czar. Of course all these points are now wiped out and the 32 remaining contestants start again from zero in round 3.

Vivvt submitted the largest number of DYKs (30), and MBlaze Lightning achieved 13 articles at ITN. Carbrera claimed for 11 GAs and Argento Surfer performed the most GARs, having reviewed 11. So far we have achieved 38 featured articles and a splendid 132 good articles. Commendably, 279 GARs have been achieved so far, more than double the number of GAs.

So, on to the third round. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points equally.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 13:16, 1 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2017 July newsletter

The third round of the competition has finished in a flurry of last minute activity, with 288 points being required to qualify for round 4. It was a hotly competitive round with all but four of the contestants exceeding the 106 points that was necessary to proceed to round 4 last year. Coemgenus and Freikorp tied on 288, and both have been allowed to proceed, so round 4 now has one pool of eight competitors and one of nine.

Round 3 saw the achievement of a 26-topic Featured topic by MPJ-DK as well as 5 featured lists and 13 featured articles. PanagiotisZois and SounderBruce achieved their first ever featured articles. Carbrera led the GA score with 10, Tachs achieved 17 DYKs and MBlaze Lightning 10 In the news items. There were 167 DYKs, 93 GARs and 82 GAs overall, this last figure being higher than the number of GAs in round 2, when twice as many people were taking part. Even though contestants performed more GARs than they achieved GAs, there was still some frustration at the length of time taken to get articles reviewed.

As we start round 4, we say goodbye to the fifteen or so competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them (some people have fallen foul of this rule and the points have been removed).

If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 05:38, 30 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2017 September newsletter

Round 4 of the WikiCup has ended and we move forward into the final round. In round 4, a total of 12 FAs, 3 FLs, 44 GAs, 3 FLs, 79 DYKs, 1 ITN and 42 GARs was achieved, with no FPs or FTs this time. Congratulations to Peacemaker67 on the Royal Yugoslav Navy Good Topic of 36 items, and the 12 featured articles achieved by Cas Liber (5), Vanamonde93 (3), Peacemaker67 (2), Adityavagarwal (1) and 12george1 (1). With a FA scoring 200 points, and bonus points available on top of this, FAs are likely to feature heavily in the final round. Meanwhile Yellow Evan, a typhoon specialist, was contributing 12 DYKs and 10 GAs, while Adityavagarwal and Freikorp topped the GAR list with 8 reviews each. As we enter the final round, we are down to eight contestants, and we would like to thank those of you who have been eliminated for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia. The lowest score needed to reach round 5 was 305, and I think we can expect a highly competitive final round.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to reduce the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck, and let the best man (or woman) win! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66 and Cwmhiraeth 06:26, 1 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2017 November newsletter: Final results

The final round of the 2017 WikiCup is over. Congratulations to the 2017 WikiCup top three finalists:

• First Place - Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8
• Second Place -Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8
• Third Place - Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8

In addition to recognizing the achievements of the top finishers and everyone who worked hard to make it to the final round, we also want to recognize those participants who were most productive in each of the WikiCup scoring categories:

• Featured Article – Cas Liber (actually a two-way tie with themselves for an astonishing five FAs in R2 and R4).
• Good Article – Adityavagarwal had 14 GAs promoted in R5.
• Featured List – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8 and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8 both produced 2 FLs in R2
• Featured Pictures – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8 improved an image to FP status in R5, the only FP this year.
• Featured Topic – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8 has the only FT of the Cup in R3.
• Good Topic – Four different editors created a GT in R2, R3 and R4.
• Did You Know – Adityavagarwal had 22 DYKs on the main page in R5.
• In The News – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8 had 14 ITN on the main page in R2.
• Good Article Review – Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant8 completed 31 GARs in R1.

Over the course of the 2017 WikiCup the following content was added or improved on Wikipedia: 51 Featured Articles, 292 Good Articles, 18 Featured Lists, 1 Featured Picture, 1 Featured Topics, 4 Good Topics, around 400 Did You Knows, 75 In The News, and 442 Good Article Reviews. Thank you to all the competitors for your hard work and what you have done to improve Wikipedia.

Regarding the prize vouchers - Template:Reply to please send Template:User4 an email from the email address to which you would like your Amazon voucher sent. Please include your preference of global Amazon marketplace as well. We hope to have the electronic gift cards processed and sent within a week.

We will open up a discussion for comments on process and scoring in a few days. The 2018 WikiCup is just around the corner! Many thanks from all the judges. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Template:User4, Template:User4, and Template:User4 MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:41, 2 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2018

So the 2017 WikiCup has come to an end. Congratulations to the winner, to the other finalists and to all those who took part. 177 contestants signed up, more than usual, but not all of them submitted entries in the first round. Were editors attracted by the cash prizes offered for the first time this year, or were these irrelevant? Do the rules and scoring need changing for the 2018 WikiCup? If you have a view on these or other matters, why not join in the WikiCup discussion about next year's contest? Template:User4, Template:User4 and Template:User4. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:59, 17 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2018 March newsletter

And so ends the first round of the competition, with 4 points required to qualify for round 2. With 53 contestants qualifying, the groups for round 2 are slightly smaller than usual, with the two leaders from each group due to qualify for round 3 as well as the top sixteen remaining users.

Our top scorers in round 1 were:

• Template:Flagicon Aoba47 led the field with a featured article, 8 good articles and 42 GARs, giving a total of 666 points.
• Template:Flagicon FrB.TG , a WikiCup newcomer, came next with 600 points, gained from a featured article and masses of bonus points.
• Template:Flagicon Ssven2, another WikiCup newcomer, was in third place with 403 points, garnered from a featured article, a featured list, a good article and twelve GARs.
• Template:Flagicon Ceranthor, Template:Flagicon Numerounovedant, Template:Flagicon Carbrera, Template:Flagicon Farang Rak Tham and Template:Flagicon Cartoon network freak all had over 200 points, but like all the other contestants, now have to start again from scratch. A good achievement was the 193 GARs performed by WikiCup contestants, comparing very favourably with the 54 GAs they achieved.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 1 but before the start of round 2 can be claimed in round 2. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews.

If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Cwmhiraeth (talk) and Vanamonde (talk) 15:27, 2 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2018 May newsletter

The second round of the 2018 WikiCup has now finished. Most contestants who advanced to the next round scored upwards of 100 points, but two with just 10 points managed to scrape through into round 3. Our top scorers in the last round were:

• Template:Flagicon Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with three featured articles
• Template:Flagicon Iazyges, with nine good articles and lots of bonus points
• Template:Flagicon Yashthepunisher, a first time contestant, with two featured lists
• Template:Flagicon SounderBruce, a finalist last year, with seventeen good topic articles
• Template:Flagicon Usernameunique, a first time contestant, with fourteen DYKs
• Template:Flagicon Muboshgu, a seasoned competitor, with three ITNs and
• Template:Flagicon Courcelles, another first time contestant, with twenty-seven GARs

So far contestants have achieved twelve featured articles between them and a splendid 124 good articles. Commendably, 326 GARs have been completed during the course of the 2018 WikiCup, so the backlog of articles awaiting GA review has been reduced as a result of contestants' activities. As we enter the third round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met; most of the GARs are fine, but a few have been a bit skimpy.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:10, 1 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2018 July newsletter

The third round of the 2018 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it to the fourth round had at least 227 points. Our top scorers in round 3 were:

• Template:Flagicon Courcelles, a first time contestant, with 1756 points, a tally built largely on 27 GAs related to the Olympics
• Template:Flagicon Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with two featured articles and three GAs on natural history and astronomy topics
• Template:Flagicon SounderBruce, a finalist last year, with a variety of submissions related to transport in the state of Washington

Contestants managed 7 featured articles, 4 featured lists, 120 good articles, 1 good topic, 124 DYK entries, 15 ITN entries, and 132 good article reviews. Over the course of the competition, contestants have completed 458 GA reviews, in comparison to 244 good articles submitted for review and promoted. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met. Please also remember that all submissions must meet core Wikipedia policies, regardless of the review process; several submissions, particularly in abstruse or technical areas, have needed additional work to make them completely verifiable.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Cwmhiraeth (talk), Vanamonde (talk) 04:55, 2 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2018 September newsletter

The fourth round of the 2018 WikiCup has now come to an end. The eight users who made it to the final round had to score a minimum of 422 points to qualify, with the top score in the round being 4869 points. The leaders in round 4 were:

• Template:Flagicon Courcelles scored a magnificent 4869 points, with 92 good articles on Olympics-related themes. Courcelles' bonus points alone exceeded the total score of any of the other contestants!
• Template:Flagicon Kees08 was second with 1155 points, including a high-scoring featured article for Neil Armstrong, two good topics and some Olympics-related good articles.
• Template:Flagicon Cas Liber, with 1066 points, was in third place this round, with two featured articles and a good article, all on natural history topics.
• Other contestants who qualified for the final round were Template:Flagicon Nova Crystallis, Template:Flagicon Iazyges, Template:Flagicon SounderBruce, Template:Flagicon Kosack and Template:Flagicon Ceranthor.

During round four, 6 featured articles and 164 good articles were promoted by WikiCup contestants, 13 articles were included in good topics and 143 good article reviews were performed. There were also 10 "in the news" contributions on the main page and 53 "did you knows". Congratulations to all who participated! It was a generally high-scoring and productive round and I think we can expect a highly competitive finish to the competition.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck, and let the best editor win! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:31, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

AfroCine: Join us for the Months of African Cinema in October!

Template:Ivmbox

Welcome to the Months of African Cinema!

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WikiCup 2018 November newsletter

The WikiCup is over for another year! Our Champion this year is Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9, who over the course of the competition has amassed 147 GAs, 111 GARs, 9 DYKs, 4 FLs and 1 ITN. Our finalists were as follows:

1. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9
2. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9
3. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9
4. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9
5. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9
6. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9
7. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9
8. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9

All those who reached the final win awards, and awards will also be going to the following participants:

• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9 wins the FA prize, for three featured articles in round 2.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9 wins the GA prize, for 92 good articles in round 3.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9 wins the FL prize, for five featured lists overall.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9 wins the topic prize, for 30 articles in good topics overall.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9 wins the DYK prize, for 24 did you know articles in round 3.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9 wins the ITN prize, for 17 in the news articles overall.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant9 wins the GAR prize, for 43 good article reviews in round 1.

Awards will be handed out in the coming weeks. Please be patient!

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have achieved much this year. Thanks to all who have taken part and helped out with the competition.

Next year's competition begins on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; it is open to all Wikipedians, new and old. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2019 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Template:User4, Template:User4, Template:User4 and Template:User4.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2019!

Hello Syed Kazim, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2019. Happy editing, Walk Like an Egyptian (talk) 06:23, 25 December 2018 (UTC)[reply] Template:Resize

Welcome to the 2019 WikiCup!

Hello and Happy New Year!

Welcome to the 2019 WikiCup, the competition begins today. If you have already joined, your submission page can be found here. If you have not yet signed up, you can add your name here and we will set up your submissions page. One important rule to remember is that only content on which you have completed significant work during 2019, and which you have nominated this year, is eligible for points in the competition, the judges will be checking! Any questions should be directed to one of the judges, or left on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup. Signups will close at the end of January, and the first round will end on 26 February; the 64 highest scorers at that time will make it to round 2. Good luck! The judges for the WikiCup are Template:User4, Template:User4, Template:User4 and Template:User4. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:14, 1 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

An invitation to discussion

I kindly invited you to the discussion on Template talk:Infobox election#The Bolding issue to decide whether to bold the winner in the election infobox. Lmmnhn (talk) 19:06, 20 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2019 March newsletter

And so ends the first round of the competition. Everyone with a positive score moves on to Round 2. With 56 contestants qualifying, each group in Round 2 contains seven contestants, with the two leaders from each group due to qualify for Round 3 as well as the top sixteen remaining contestants.

Our top scorers in Round 1 were:

• Template:Flagicon L293D, a WikiCup newcomer, led the field with ten good articles on submarines for a total of 357 points.
• Template:U, a WikiCup veteran, came next with 274 points, mostly from eight featured pictures, restorations of artwork.
• Template:Flagicon MPJ-DK, a wrestling enthusiast, was in third place with 263 points, garnered from a featured list, five good articles, two DYKs and four GARs.
• Template:Flagicon Usernameunique came next at 243, with a featured article and a good article, both on ancient helmets.
• Squeamish Ossifrage was in joint fifth place with 224 points, mostly garnered from bringing the 1937 Fox vault fire to featured article status.
• Template:Flagicon Ed! was also on 224, with an amazing number of good article reviews (56 actually).

These contestants, like all the others, now have to start scoring points again from scratch. Between them, contestants completed reviews on 143 good articles, one hundred more than the number of good articles they claimed for, thus making a substantial dent in the review backlog. Well done all!

Remember that any content promoted after the end of Round 1 but before the start of Round 2 can be claimed in Round 2. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews.

If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk).

Wikiproject United Nations: We need you!

Dear Syed Kazim, I noticed your name was under the participants' list of WikiProject United Nations. I wanted to invite you to contribute to the advancement of this project. Here's how you can do so: 1. Select the latest CC BY SA publications for which no articles have been created yet available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_United_Nations/Open_Access_text/Education_publications 2. Follow the instructions available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Adding_open_license_text_to_Wikipedia 3. Add the text to Wikipedia (either by creating new articles or adding content to existing ones). Since these are available under CC BY SA, you can copy/paste content and/or edit if need be. 4. Attribute the text using the 'Free-content attribution' template in the 'Sources' section. 5. Add your contribution in the table here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_United_Nations/Open_Access_text/Education_publications Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions! Looking forward to working with you on enriching Wikipedia, one article at a time:)! C.recalde   — Preceding unsigned comment added by C.recalde (talk • contribs) 10:52, 7 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2019 May newsletter

The second round of the 2019 WikiCup has now finished. Contestants needed to scored 32 points to advance into round 3. Our top four scorers in round 2 all scored over 400 points and were:

• Template:Flagicon Cas Liber (1210), our winner in 2016, with two featured articles and three DYKs. He also made good use of the bonus points available, more than doubling his score by choosing appropriate articles to work on.
• Template:Flagicon Kosack (750), last year's runner up, with an FA, a GA, two FLs, and five DYKs.
• Template:U (480), a WikiCup veteran, with 16 featured pictures, mostly restorations.
• Template:Flagicon Zwerg Nase (461), a seasoned competitor, with a FA, a GA and an ITN item.

Other notable performances were put in by Template:Flagicon Barkeep49 with six GAs, Template:Flagicon Ceranthor, Template:Flagicon Lee Vilenski, and Template:Flagicon Canada Hky, each with seven GARs, and Template:Flagicon MPJ-DK with a seven item GT.

So far contestants have achieved nine featured articles between them and a splendid 80 good articles. Commendably, 227 GARs have been completed during the course of the 2019 WikiCup, so the backlog of articles awaiting GA review has been reduced as a result of contestants' activities. The judges are pleased with the thorough GARs that are being performed, and have hardly had to reject any. As we enter the third round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed in round 3. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:46, 1 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2019 July newsletter

The third round of the 2019 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it to the fourth round needed to score at least 68 points, which is substantially lower than last year's 227 points. Our top scorers in round 3 were:

• Template:Flagicon Cas Liber, our winner in 2016, with 500 points derived mainly from a featured article and two GAs on natural history topics
• Template:Flagicon Adam Cuerden, with 480 points, a tally built on 16 featured pictures, the result of meticulous restoration work
• Template:Flagicon SounderBruce, a finalist in the last two years, with 306 points from a variety of submissions, mostly related to sport or the State of Washington
• Template:Flagicon Usernameunique, with 305 points derived from a featured article and two GAs on archaeology and related topics

Contestants managed 4 (5) featured articles, 4 featured lists, 18 featured pictures, 29 good articles, 50 DYK entries, 9 ITN entries, and 39 good article reviews. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them, and it is imperative to claim them in the correct round; one FA claim had to be rejected because it was incorrectly submitted (claimed in Round 3 when it qualified for Round 2), so be warned! When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:12, 2 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2019 September newsletter

The fourth round of the competition has finished in a flurry of last minute activity, with 454 points being required to qualify for the final round. It was a hotly competitive round with two contestants with over 400 points being eliminated, and all but two of the finalists having achieved an FA during the round. Casliber, our 2016 winner, was the highest point-scorer, followed by Enwebb and Lee Vilenski, who are both new to the competition. In fourth place was SounderBruce, a finalist last year. But all those points are swept away as we start afresh for the final round.

Round 4 saw the achievement of 11 featured articles. In addition, Adam Cuerden scored with 18 FPs, Lee Vilenski led the GA score with 8 GAs while Kosack performed 15 GA reviews. There were around 40 DYKs, 40 GARs and 31 GAs overall during round 4. Even though contestants performed more GARs than they achieved GAs, there was still some frustration at the length of time taken to get articles reviewed.

As we start round 5, we say goodbye to the eight competitors who didn't quite make it; thank you for the useful contributions you have made to the Cup and Wikipedia, and we hope you will join us again next year. Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them (some people have fallen foul of this rule and the points have been removed).

If you are concerned that your nomination, whether it be for a good article, a featured process, or anything else, will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to help keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:44, 1 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

AfroCine: Join the Months of African Cinema this October!

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WikiCup 2019 November newsletter

The WikiCup is over for another year! Our Champion this year is Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10, who over the course of the competition has amassed 91 featured pictures, including 32 in the final round. Our finalists this year were:

1. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 with 964 points
2. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 with 899 points
3. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 with 817 points
4. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 with 691 points
5. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 with 388 points
6. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 with 146 points
7. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 with 145 points
8. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 with 74 points

All those who reached the final will win awards. The following special awards will be made based on high performance in particular areas of content creation. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, these prizes are awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round, or in the event of a tie, to the overall leader in this field. Awards will be handed out in the coming weeks. Please be patient!

• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 wins the featured article prize, for a total of 7 FAs during the course of the competition.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 wins the good article prize, for 14 GAs in round 5.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 wins the featured list prize, for 4 FLs overall.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 wins the featured picture prize, for 91 FPs overall.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 wins the topic prize, for 7 articles in good topics in round 2.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 wins the DYK prize, for 14 did you know articles in round 5.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 wins the ITN prize, for 7 in the news articles in round 1.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant10 wins the reviewer prize, for 56 good article reviews in round 1.

Congratulations to everyone who participated in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have achieved much this year. Thanks to all who have taken part and helped out with the competition, not forgetting User:Jarry1250, who runs the scoring bot.

We have opened a scoring discussion on whether the rules and scoring need adjustment. Please have your say. Next year's competition will begin on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; the WikiCup is open to all Wikipedians, both novices and experienced editors, and we hope to see you all in the 2020 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth 14:18, 2 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to the 2020 WikiCup!

Happy New Year, Happy New Decade and Happy New WikiCup! The competition begins today and all article creators, expanders and improvers are welcome to take part. If you have already signed up, your submissions page can be found here. If you have not yet signed up, you can add your name here and the judges will set up your submissions page. We are relaxing the rule that only content on which you have completed significant work during 2020 will count; now to be eligible for points in the competition, you must have completed significant work on the content at some time! Any questions on the rules or on anything else connected to the Cup should be directed to one of the judges, or posted to the WikiCup talk page. Signups will close at the end of January, and the first round will end on 26 February; the 64 highest scorers at that time will move on to round 2. Good luck! The judges for the WikiCup are Template:User4, Template:User4, Template:User4 and Cwmhiraeth (talk) 11:43, 1 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2020 March newsletter

And so ends the first round of the competition. Everyone with a positive score moves on to Round 2, with 57 contestants qualifying. We have abolished the groups this year, so to qualify for Round 3 you will need to finish Round 2 among the top thirty-two contestants.

Our top scorers in Round 1 were:

• Template:Flagicon Epicgenius, a WikiCup newcomer, led the field with a featured article, five good articles and an assortment of other submissions, specialising on buildings and locations in New York, for a total of 895 points.
• Gog the Mild came next with 464 points, from a featured article, two good articles and a number of reviews, the main theme being naval warfare.
• Template:Flagicon Raymie was in third place with 419 points, garnered from one good article and an impressive 34 DYKs on radio and TV stations in the United States.
• Template:Flagicon Harrias came next at 414, with a featured article and three good articles, an English civil war battle specialist.
• CaptainEek was in fifth place with 405 points, mostly garnered from bringing Cactus wren to featured article status.
• The top ten contestants at the end of Round 1 all scored over 200 points; they also included Template:Flagicon L293D, Template:Flagicon Kingsif, Template:Flagicon Enwebb, Template:Flagicon Lee Vilenski and Template:Flagicon CAPTAIN MEDUSA. Seven of the top ten contestants in Round 1 are new to the WikiCup.

These contestants, like all the others, now have to start scoring points again from scratch. In Round 1 there were four featured articles, one featured list and two featured pictures, as well as around two hundred DYKs and twenty-seven ITNs. Between them, contestants completed 127 good article reviews, nearly a hundred more than the 43 good articles they claimed for, thus making a substantial dent in the review backlog. Contestants also claimed for 40 featured article / featured list reviews, and most even remembered to mention their WikiCup participation in their reviews (a requirement).

Remember that any content promoted after the end of Round 1 but before the start of Round 2 can be claimed in Round 2. Some contestants made claims before the new submissions pages were set up, and they will need to resubmit them. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article candidates, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews.

If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:47, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup newsletter correction

There was an error in the WikiCup 2020 March newsletter; Template:Flagicon L293D should not have been included in the list of top ten scorers in Round 1 (they led the list last year), instead, Template:Flagicon Dunkleosteus77 should have been included, having garnered 334 points from five good articles on animals, living or extinct, and various reviews. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:30, 2 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2020 May newsletter

The second round of the 2020 WikiCup has now finished. It was a high-scoring round and contestants needed 75 points to advance to round 3. There were some very impressive efforts in round 2, with the top ten contestants all scoring more than 500 points. A large number of the points came from the 12 featured articles and the 186 good articles achieved in total by contestants, and the 355 good article reviews they performed; the GAN backlog drive and the stay-at-home imperative during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been partially responsible for these impressive figures.

Our top scorers in round 2 were:

• Template:Flagicon Epicgenius, with 2333 points from one featured article, forty-five good articles, fourteen DYKs and plenty of bonus points
• Gog the Mild, with 1784 points from three featured articles, eight good articles, a substantial number of featured article and good article reviews and lots of bonus points
• Template:Flagicon The Rambling Man, with 1262 points from two featured articles, eight good articles and a hundred good article reviews
• Template:Flagicon Harrias, with 1141 points from two featured articles, three featured lists, ten good articles, nine DYKs and a substantial number of featured article and good article reviews
• Template:Flagicon Lee Vilenski with 869 points, Hog Farm with 801, Template:Flagicon Kingsif with 719, Template:Flagicon SounderBruce with 710, Template:Flagicon Dunkleosteus77 with 608 and Template:Flagicon MX with 515.

The rules for featured article reviews have been adjusted; reviews may cover three aspects of the article, content, images and sources, and contestants may receive points for each of these three types of review. Please also remember the requirement to mention the WikiCup when undertaking an FAR for which you intend to claim points. Remember also that DYKs cannot be claimed until they have appeared on the main page. As we enter the third round, any content promoted after the end of round 2 but before the start of round 3 can be claimed now, and anything you forgot to claim in round 2 cannot! Remember too, that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk) and Cwmhiraeth. - MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:44, 1 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2020 July newsletter

The third round of the 2020 WikiCup has now come to an end. The 16 users who made it into the fourth round each had at least 353 points (compared to 68 in 2019). It was a highly competitive round, and a number of contestants were eliminated who would have moved on in earlier years. Our top scorers in round 3 were:

• Template:Flagicon Epicgenius, with one featured article, 28 good articles and 17 DYKs, amassing 1836 points
• Template:Flagicon The Rambling Man , with 1672 points gained from four featured articles and seventeen good articles, plus reviews of a large number of FACs and GAs
• Gog the Mild, a first time contestant, with 1540 points, a tally built largely on 4 featured articles and related bonus points.

Between them, contestants managed 14 featured articles, 9 featured lists, 3 featured pictures, 152 good articles, 136 DYK entries, 55 ITN entries, 65 featured article candidate reviews and 221 good article reviews. Additionally, Template:Flagicon MPJ-DK added 3 items to featured topics and 44 to good topics. Over the course of the competition, contestants have completed 710 good article reviews, in comparison to 387 good articles submitted for review and promoted. These large numbers are probably linked to a GAN backlog drive in April and May, and the changed patterns of editing during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we enter the fourth round, remember that any content promoted after the end of round 3 but before the start of round 4 can be claimed in round 4. Please also remember that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them. When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met. Please also remember that all submissions must meet core Wikipedia policies, regardless of the review process.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anywhere else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove your name from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk), Cwmhiraeth (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:34, 2 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2020 September newsletter

The fourth round of the competition has finished, with 865 points being required to qualify for the final round, nearly twice as many points as last year. It was a hotly competitive round with two contestants with 598 and 605 points being eliminated, and all but two of the contestants who reached the final round having achieved an FA during the round. The highest scorers were

• Bloom6132, with 1478 points gained mainly from 5 featured lists, 12 DYKs and 63 in the news items;
• Template:FlagiconHaEr48 with 1318 points gained mainly from 2 featured articles, 5 good articles and 8 DYKs;
• Template:Flagicon Lee Vilenski with 1201 points mainly gained from 2 featured articles and 10 good articles.

Between them, contestants achieved 14 featured articles, 14 featured lists, 2 featured pictures, 87 good articles, 90 DYK entries, 75 ITN entries, 95 featured article candidate reviews and 81 good article reviews. Congratulations to all who participated! It was a generally high-scoring and productive round and I think we can expect a highly competitive finish to the competition.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of round 4 but before the start of round 5 can be claimed in round 5. Remember too that you must claim your points within 10 days of "earning" them. If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. It would be helpful if this list could be cleared of any items no longer relevant. If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13 (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk), Vanamonde (talk), Cwmhiraeth (talk) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:53, 1 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Join the Months of African Cinema Global Contest!

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Ýou can opt-out of this annual reminder from The Afrocine Project by removing your username from this list

WikiCup 2020 November newsletter

The 2020 WikiCup has come to an end, with the final round going down to the wire. Our new Champion is Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11, the runner-up last year, who was closely followed by Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11. In the final round, Lee achieved 4 FAs and 30 GAs, mostly on cue sport topics, while Gog achieved 3 FAs and 15 GAs, mostly on important battles and wars, which earned him a high number of bonus points. Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 was in third place with 4 FAs and 8 GAs on football topics, with Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 close behind with 19 GAs and 16 DYK's, his interest being the buildings of New York.

The other finalists were Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11, Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 and Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11. The final round was very productive, and besides 15 FAs, contestants achieved 75 FAC reviews, 88 GAs and 108 GAN reviews. Altogether, Wikipedia has benefited greatly from the activities of WikiCup competitors all through the contest. Well done everyone!

All those who reached the final will receive awards and the following special awards will be made, based on high performance in particular areas of content creation. So that the finalists do not have an undue advantage, these prizes are awarded to the competitor who scored the highest in any particular field in a single round, or in the event of a tie, to the overall leader in this field.

• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 wins the featured article prize, for a total of 14 FAs during the course of the competition.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 win the featured list prize, for 5 FLs in round 4.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 wins the featured picture prize, for 3 FPs in round 3 and 5 overall.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 wins the featured article reviewer prize, for 23 FAC reviews in round 5.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 wins the good article prize, for 45 GAs in round 2 and 113 overall.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 wins the topic prize, for 33 articles in good topics in round 2.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 wins the good article reviewer prize, for 100 good article reviews in round 2.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 wins the DYK prize, for 22 Did you know articles in round 4 and 94 overall.
• Wikipedia:WikiCup/Participant11 wins the ITN prize, for 63 In the news articles in round 4 and 136 overall.

Next year's competition will begin on 1 January. You are invited to sign up to participate; the WikiCup is open to all Wikipedians, both novices and experienced editors, and we hope to see you all in the 2021 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Godot13, Sturmvogel 66, Vanamonde and Cwmhiraeth MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:38, 3 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Months of African Cinema Contest Continues in November!

Template:Ivmbox You can opt-out of this annual reminder from The Afrocine Project by removing your username from this list

Welcome to the 2021 WikiCup!

Happy New Year and Happy New WikiCup! The competition begins today and all article creators, expanders, improvers and reviewers are welcome to take part. If you have already signed up, your submissions page can be found here. If you have not yet signed up, you can add your name here and the judges will set up your submissions page. Any questions on the rules or on anything else should be directed to one of the judges, or posted to the WikiCup talk page. Signups will close at the end of January, and the first round will end on 26 February; the 64 highest scorers at that time will move on to round 2. We thank Vanamonde93 and Godot13, who have retired as judges, and we thank them for their past dedication. The judges for the WikiCup this year are Template:User4 and Template:User4. Good luck! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:11, 1 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2021 March newsletter

Round 1 of the competition has finished; it was a high-scoring round with 21 contestants scoring more than 100 points. Everyone with a positive score moves on to Round 2, with 55 contestants qualifying. You will need to finish among the top thirty-two contestants in Round 2 if you are to qualify for Round 3. Our top scorers in Round 1 were:

• Template:Flagicon Epicgenius led the field with a featured article, nine good articles and an assortment of other submissions, specialising on buildings and locations in New York, for a total of 945 points.
• Template:Flagicon Bloom6132 was close behind with 896 points, largely gained from 71 "In the news" items, mostly recent deaths.
• Template:Flagicon ImaginesTigers, who has been editing Wikipedia for less than a year, was in third place with 711 points, much helped by bringing League of Legends to featured article status, exemplifying how bonus points can boost a contestant's score.
• Template:Flagicon Amakuru came next with 708 points, Kigali being another featured article that scored maximum bonus points.
• Ktin, new to the WikiCup, was in fifth place with 523 points, garnered from 15 DYKs and 34 "In the news" items.
• Template:Flagicon The Rambling Man scored 511 points, many from featured article candidate reviews and from football related DYKs.
• Gog the Mild, last year's runner-up, came next with 498 points, from a featured article and numerous featured article candidate reviews.
• Hog Farm, at 452, scored for a featured article, four good articles and a number of reviews.
• Template:Flagicon Le Panini, another newcomer to the WikiCup, scored 438 for a featured article and three good articles.
• Template:Flagicon Lee Vilenski, last year's champion, scored 332 points, from a featured article and various other sport-related topics.

These contestants, like all the others, now have to start again from scratch. In Round 1, contestants achieved eight featured articles, three featured lists and one featured picture, as well as around two hundred DYKs and twenty-seven ITNs. They completed 97 good article reviews, nearly double the 52 good articles they claimed. Contestants also claimed for 135 featured article and featured list candidate reviews. There is no longer a requirement to mention your WikiCup participation when undertaking these reviews.

Remember that any content promoted after the end of Round 1 but before the start of Round 2 can be claimed in Round 2. Invitations for collaborative writing efforts or any other discussion of potentially interesting work is always welcome on the WikiCup talk page. Remember, if two or more WikiCup competitors have done significant work on an article, all can claim points. If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is a good article candidate, a featured process, or something else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews.

If you want to help out with the WikiCup, please do your bit to keep down the review backlogs! Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Sturmvogel 66 (talk) and Cwmhiraeth (talk). MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:27, 1 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

WikiCup 2021 May newsletter

The second round of the 2021 WikiCup has now finished; it was a high-scoring round and contestants needed 61 points to advance to Round 3. There were some impressive efforts in the round, with the top eight contestants all scoring more than 400 points. A large number of the points came from the 12 featured articles and the 110 good articles achieved in total by contestants, as well as the 216 good article reviews they performed; the GAN backlog drive and the stay-at-home imperative during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been partially responsible for these impressive figures.

Our top scorers in Round 2 were:

• Template:Flagicon The Rambling Man, with 2963 points from three featured articles, 20 featured article reviews, 37 good articles, 73 good article reviews, as well as 22 DYKs.
• Template:Flagicon Epicgenius, with 1718 points from one featured article, 29 good articles, 16 DYKs and plenty of bonus points.
• Template:Flagicon Bloom6132, with 990 points from 13 DYKs and 64 "In the news" items, mostly recent deaths.
• Hog Farm, with 834 points from two featured articles, five good articles, 14 featured article reviews and 15 good article reviews.
• Gog the Mild, with 524 points from two featured articles and four featured article reviews.
• Template:Flagicon Lee Vilenski, with 501 points from one featured article, three good articles, six featured article reviews and 25 good article reviews.
• Sammi Brie, with 485 points from four good articles, eight good article reviews and 27 DYKs, on US radio and television stations.
• Ktin, with 436 points from four good articles, seven DYKs and 11 "In the news" items.

Please remember that DYKs cannot be claimed until they have appeared on the main page. As we enter the third round, any content promoted after the end of Round 2 but before the start of Round 3 can be claimed now, and anything you forgot to claim in Round 2 cannot! Remember too, that you must claim your points within 14 days of "earning" them (except for at the end of each round, when you must claim them before the cut-off date/time). When doing GARs, please make sure that you check that all the GA criteria are fully met.

If you are concerned that your nomination—whether it is at good article nominations, a featured process, or anything else—will not receive the necessary reviews, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews Needed (remember to remove your listing when no longer required). Questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. Judges: Sturmvogel 66 (talk) and Cwmhiraeth MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:28, 2 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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Welcome to the Months of African Cinema Global Contest!

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The Months of African Cinema Contest Continues in November!

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