User talk:Darkwind/Archive 8

This is an archive of past discussions with User:Darkwind. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 5

Archive 6

Archive 7

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Question about a block

Hi, Darkwind. When you have blocked Gwsk55970 for 31 hours, I was considering how long a block to place myself. 31 hours is in line with the amount of vandalism there has been, but the recent edits seem so much out of character that it suggests to me a likely compromised account, which makes me wonder whether we should block indefinitely. Any thoughts? JamesBWatson (talk) 21:26, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

I'd considered that briefly, but I don't know that I can necessarily tell the difference between a compromised account and someone who's just come temporarily unhinged. I wouldn't object if you think an indef block is more appropriate -- I was mostly concerned with stopping the disruption, since he was still editing at the time. —Darkwind (talk) 21:29, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Yes. I think I was actually verging towards a short block too, but I thought there was enough of a case for a longer one to at least raise the question. Probably best to leave it as it is, and keep an eye on the account for a while. An indef is available if necessary. JamesBWatson (talk) 21:33, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

If you don't mind sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, I'd like to note that an indef block is not nessecarily a longer block, and to think of it that way is somewhat detrimental to what I conser a valid block. Using the indefinite block more often is a bit of a hobby horse of me, but consider the following. Say the account is compromised. Then the block should remain idefinite. But what if it isn't, and is, indeed, a case of temporary unhinge. Shouldn't an unblock request with a note that it was indeed temporary insanity be enough for an unblock? If we demand they 'serve' the rest of the block, that clearly means the block is punitive, something we (in name/policy) don't do. If we don't, and honor an unblock request, we're no worse off than in the indefinite case. I do think that shorter blocks like this one reinforce the idea that you are allowed to be unhinged from time to time, as long as you swallow the 'punishment' of the block after, and that to me seems the wrong road to go down. Martijn Hoekstra (talk) 09:51, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

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.

Carreidas 160 Suggestion

Greetings Darkwind. Please help: Your deletion of the redirect Carreidas 160 ‎was given the reason "G8: Page dependent on a deleted or nonexistent page", however that redirect did indeed redirect to an existing page: To the "Carreidas 160" section of the article Flight 714. Does this clear up any misunderstanding and can the redirect be restored? I'm not sure how the redirect's purpose was not already obvious. Thanks for your help. Prhartcom (talk) 17:39, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

The redirect actually pointed to Flight 714 (TinTin)#Carreidas 160 at the time of deletion, which you can see is a red link. Looking at the history of Flight 714, I see that the page was briefly moved; it seems that a bot changed the destination of the redirect during that move, and failed to restore it afterward. Part of this was caused by the fact that the admin who reverted the move didn't leave a redirect (if he/she had, the bot would have fixed this one again). Not sure why the person tagging the redirect for deletion didn't just fix it, but they may not have been aware of the page move either. Please feel free to create a new redirect to the necessary page/section -- which will actually be easier than me restoring the old one and then editing it anyway. —Darkwind (talk) 22:12, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Sure, whatever is easiest. I didn't want to re-create the redirect without checking with you first. I was also wondering what the history of the redirect was; I assumed I had created it. Perhaps someone changed it (there is no such character spelled "TinTin"). I have now re-created the redirect. Cheers. Prhartcom (talk) 23:43, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Ah, I am caught up now. User Petebutt did a dumb thing and moved Flight 714 as you said, and must have also changed my redirect. User Fram, whom I respect very much, reversed that but did not reverse the changed redirect. Someone probably then flagged it and you later deleted it; no one fixed it. Until me, of course (sigh). Prhartcom (talk) 23:53, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

It was actually a bot, in regard to the initial change. Since a new redirect is created from the old title to the new title when a page is moved, any existing redirects pointing to the old title become "double redirects", and a bot quickly comes along to fix that -- by changing the existing redirects to point to the new title. This had already been done by the time Fram reverted the move. When Fram moved the page back, s/he chose not to leave a redirect from the incorrect new title back to the old one (which is an option you have when moving pages as an admin), so the bot was unaware this redirect should have been put back. Instead, it just became a red link. Then, yes, someone noticed and tagged it G8, and I processed it because it was a red link. Neither myself nor the tagger looked any closer until you brought the mixup to my attention. —Darkwind (talk) 23:58, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for that explanation; it all makes sense now. BTW, it's always a pleasure to work with a good admin like yourself. Cheers. Prhartcom (talk) 00:05, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

(And yes, the person tagging the redirect for deletion should have just fixed it.) Prhartcom (talk) 00:11, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

I don't think keeping a redirect with an incorrectly spelled disambiguation made any sense, but I should have of course checked the incoming links to that page. Thanks for catching and fixing this. Fram (talk) 07:45, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Agreed Fram, that editor was well-meaning but did not know the subject of Tintin, nor the agreement amongst editors of the comics articles to use the format "Article title (comics)" if such title disambiguation is necessary. Cheers to all. Prhartcom (talk) 15:21, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Alex Bellini

Hello, hi.

I would like to recreate the page Alex Bellini, making sure to do it right this time. How can I move past the fact that it was erased? Gb7070 (talk) 17:18, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

There was a deletion discussion for that article, which outlines the concerns the Wikipedia community had with the article. Any new version of the article must address those concerns or it is subject to immediate deletion again.

My first suggestion is to carefully read that deletion discussion, and consider whether Mr. Bellini is a suitable subject for a Wikipedia article. We have guidelines for inclusion that a person must meet before we consider them a subject "worthy" of inclusion in the encyclopedia, and in your article you must provide citations to reliable, independent sources to prove that Mr. Bellini meets those guidelines.

If you do think that Mr. Bellini qualifies for a Wikipedia article under our guidelines, then my second suggestion is to use the "articles for creation" process, where an experienced editor will review your draft article before it is made "live", to avoid unnecessary deletion. —Darkwind (talk) 20:20, 27 November 2013 (UTC)

Huggle 3 beta is out - and we need more feedback!

Hey Darkwind, how are you? I am Petrb, one of huggle developers, and you are currently subscribed as a beta tester of huggle on meta (meta:Huggle/Members. You may not have noticed, but this week I released first beta precompiled installers for ubuntu and microsoft windows! Wikipedia:Huggle/Huggle3_Beta has all the links you need. So if you can, please download it, test it and report all bugs that is really what we need now. Don't forgot that as it's just a beta it's unstable and there are some known issues. Be carefull! Thank you for helping us with huggle Petrb (talk) 16:19, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Darkwind. You have new messages at K6ka's talk page.
Message added 21:42, 1 December 2013 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

K6ka (talk) 21:42, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

BIELBY EDIT

DARKWIND

   i did add refereneces and will add more.

What is published now is hpothetical thoery and is no logical or accurate as far as the orinigns and the the surname history

 my theory is more plausable and hsitorically accurate.

I will add more references.

Plesae dont delete it.  It is the most accurate theory, i have more references.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.163.145.39 (talk) 14:26, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Persistent vandal

Hi Darkwind, I would be grateful if you would reblock the anonymous user permanently for this as they are clearly not going to stop. Richerman (talk) 16:05, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Indefinite blocks are almost never appropriate for an IP address, and are definitely not considered until the address has exhibited a long-term repeated pattern of abuse. 8 edits are nowhere near enough to justify a long-term block. —Darkwind (talk) 17:25, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

OK, rules is rules I suppose - I must have been thinking of persistent vandalism accounts rather than IP's. Thanks anyway. Richerman (talk) 18:08, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Graphs and charts

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Graphs and charts. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:07, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

LOUISPHILIPPECHARLES

right I cannot reply to your email so thought I would reply on your talk page :) all I wanted to say was the following :

Begrudgingly I will admit I was hard work I am as a person and on wikipedia I was the same but I do NOT appreciate being exiled because a few editors disliked me. namely fact straight and favonian I made a lot of articles ranging from Italian, French and German nobility and royals swell as buildings and ocean liners uploaded many pictures about 90% of which I made myself [coats of arms of the said royalty and nobility] but no one has bothered to acknowledge that have they? no just criticised how I edit simply because they do not like it. many of the disputes revolved around Bourbon's and the incorrect addition of Conti and other titles so I uploaded signatures proving my point but it just being ignored then I was wrongly accused of stealing work DESPITE them being classed as public property due to their age. and I made sure I put that. so this is all wrong, unfair and just outright stupid. the fact that I have had to practically beg to even be allowed to discuss returning is ridiculous as I said I did a lot of work. ALOT. and am proud of my contributions. also -now comes the sob story [haha] about 18 months ago I had a head injury swell as 5 strokes, lost the ability to walk and talk - [I can do both now though.] - and thus do not work due to now being registered disabled and blind so therefore I have a lot of free time on my hands and thought how else better than to invest my time in wikipedia relating to my love and fascination with nobility etc. I am also dyslexic and used to use wikipedia to train myself to read and re read things and it did help. but want to further improve. besides I enjoyed editing creating and correcting articles and I do miss it greatly - always have hence having the odd sock puppet - namely HammyDoo, NitWittyWoo and Goshthisisstupid<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Goshthisisstupid>, and LittleFrog <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:LittleFrog> but I have seen the category named LPC sock puppets and about 90% of THEM ARE NOT ME. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.24.37.43 (talk) 12:29, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

hello? :(. I assume you still have my email? tom.june13@googlemail.com :)

It is thoroughly inappropriate for you to be editing anonymously when your account is blocked; this is considered another form of sockpuppetry and is almost certain to reduce your chances of ever being unblocked. —Darkwind (talk) 17:23, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

well that is ridiculous ....so if i was to set up an account just to reply to you then that is not sockpuppet rubbish? this is absurd i have given you my email and you haven't really helped much as of recently :/ anyway I am not hiding who I am when I've write on your page I have said it is me so that is just stupid. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.149.136.63 (talk) 23:07, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

The point is DON'T EDIT MY TALK PAGE AT ALL, or any other Wikipedia page while you are blocked -- not with an IP, not with an account, not with a fox, not in a box, not in a house, not with a mouse, not in the rain, and not on the train. ANY form of editing Wikipedia while your account is blocked is considered abusive sockpuppetry, because the point of the block is to prevent you from editing. Getting around that, by any means, is by definition abuse. —Darkwind (talk) 23:18, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

WikiProject Articles for creation Backlog Elimination Drive

Hello, Darkwind:

WikiProject AFC is holding a two month long Backlog Elimination Drive!
The goal of this drive is to eliminate the backlog of unreviewed articles. The drive is running from December 1st, 2013 – January 31st, 2014.

Awards will be given out for all reviewers participating in the drive in the form of barnstars at the end of the drive.
There is a backlog of over 4400 articles, so start reviewing articles! Visit the drive's page and help out!

A new version of our AfC helper script has been released! It includes many bug fixes, new improvements and features, code enhancements, and more. If you want to see a full list of changes, visit the changelog. Please report bugs and feature requests there, too! Thanks. EdwardsBot (talk) 09:23, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) at 09:23, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
	For stopping a spammer on colon cleansing. LOL. Bearian (talk) 20:52, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

1RR by Sopher99

Sopher99 has filed an unblock request. On review his logic is sound - consecutive reverts have never counted towards 3RR, nor do they count to 1RR. It's just as easy to have combined all of the reverts into one edit. As noted on the policy page, "A series of consecutive saved revert edits by one user with no intervening edits by another user counts as one revert." I have zero doubts there's problematic editing at that page, and I applaud your efforts to clean house, but you may want to review/revise your block reason or unblock. No comment on the discretionary sanction. Kuru (talk) 02:01, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know about the unblock req. I'll go have a look in a minute. —Darkwind (talk) 03:18, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

November 2013 GOCE drive wrap-up

Guild of Copy Editors November 2013 backlog elimination drive wrap-up newsletter

The November 2013 drive wrap-up is now ready for review.

Sign up for the December blitz!

– Your project coordinators: Torchiest, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95 and The Utahraptor.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:22, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

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.

Article Deletion

Hi Darkwind, On 16 November 2013 (UTC) an article "Maxim Slipchenko" was speedily deleted (G4) and salted. We are apologizing for numerous recreation of an article, We weren't fully aware of Wikipedia rules. I was wondering if there is anything We can do to bring this article back for future improvement? Also I wanted to point out that more reference pages has been found since the deletion. Looking forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Artur. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Archibanus (talk • contribs) 09:09, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Hello Artur. The primary concern in both deletion discussions about the article is that Mr. Slipchenko does not meet our "notability" criteria -- that is, we are having trouble determining why he should be included in the encyclopedia and not the hundreds of thousands of other amateur kickboxers in the world. The specific criteria for kickboxing notability are:

A kickboxing athlete is presumed notable if they've:

fought for a world title of a major organization (K-1, WMC, ISKA, WAKO, etc.),
been ranked in the world top 10 by an independent publication that meets the definition of a reliable source,
been a Lumpinee or Rajadamnern champion, or
met the notability criteria at WP:MANOTE, which are:

Subject of an independent article/documentary: Sole or majority subject in the media, either a news article or a TV program. Be careful with 'niche' publications; check they are not related to the school teaching it.
Founder of notable style (see section intro)
Olympic participant or world champion of a significant international organization; - more than a few dozen competitors,
Repeated medalist (as an adult black belt, i.e. 1st dan equivalent or higher rank) in another significant event; - (e.g. competitors from multiple nations or significant national tournament, not an internal school champion)
Author of significant book(s) on their style; - e.g. a book that is recommended study for the art (e.g. by an organisation they do not lead) or by someone who is an artist from a different style and/or school, but beware vanity press.

Kickboxers that have an amateur background exclusively are not considered notable unless the person has been the subject examined in detail (more than a single paragraph) in several reliable third-party sources (at least four), excluding local publications.

If Mr. Slipchenko meets one or more of these criteria, and you can prove this with verifiable, third-party sources (that is, sources that are not his website or otherwise affiliated with him), I would be happy to provide a copy of the last version of the article for drafting a new version, which you can then have reviewed by other editors before publishing -- so it doesn't get deleted immediately again. —Darkwind (talk) 17:11, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

ANI notice re: Alexian Lien beating

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Persistent BLP violation: accusation of attempted murder. Thank you.

Speedy deletion declined: Charles Hulme

Hello Darkwind. I am just letting you know that I declined the speedy deletion of Charles Hulme, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: Being a professor indicates importance/significance, use WP:PROD or WP:AFD instead. Thank you. — Malik Shabazz ^Talk/_Stalk 04:00, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

@Malik Shabazz: I was unaware there was a consensus to give all people claiming the title of professor an automatic pass through A7. The for-profit school I attended had literally two dozen or more professors just at that one branch, and I doubt any of them would pass WP:PROF. Given that various sources say there are between 7,500 and 10,000 universities and colleges in the world, and each one (conservatively) has 100 professors, plus all of the retired and former ones in the world, you'd be looking at 1-2 million people. I really don't see how a professor is automatically significant. —Darkwind (talk) 04:48, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

I've been told by other administrators that professors don't qualify for A7. I'm sorry. — Malik Shabazz ^Talk/_Stalk 16:30, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Feathercoin

Hi, Darkwind. To my edit war report, you responded "You are both edit warring and (in my opinion) POV-pushing. Neither version of the article is neutral". I admit that I was edit warring until I stopped and turned to the admin board. But I was trying to avoid POV speech. Could you please enlighten me about the specific phrase where I committed POV pushing, so that I can avoid it in the future? Kokot.kokotisko (talk) 10:24, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

@Kokot.kokotisko: Thanks for taking the time to ask. The problem is not so much specific wording as it is behavior -- you appear committed to keeping out any and all criticism of Feathercoin out of the article. Admittedly, what you were reverting had no sources, but you could have tagged with {{cn}} and posted on the talk page. Not having done so looks at least superficially like POV-pushing to the uninvolved outsider. Neutrality involves admitting there are other views if they exist (and can be verified), even if they are not the majority viewpoint, but you went straight to complete reversion. —Darkwind (talk) 20:16, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the {{cn}} suggestion. I admit I'm a Feathercoin fan, and the outdated criticisms pissed me off. As for the minority/majority question, litecoiners are the majority, and they are acting out against Feathercoin also in the real world. Anyway, I'll try to be slower with my edits, even when the page protection expires. 140.109.226.67 (talk) 09:51, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Block notices

In Which Communication Fails to Happen, and Conspiracy Theories are Mentioned

I just finished putting a block notice on your behalf on User:Niteshift36's talk page. But then I saw that you didn't put a block notice on User:HCPUNXKID's talk page, either. I figured I should come to you at this point to find out what your thinking was or if it was just a couple of mistakes.--Bbb23 (talk) 02:56, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Just an error on my part, certainly there is no good reason not to inform them of the reason for the block, and HCPUNXKID needs a sanction notice anyway. I'll go edit his page now. Thanks for letting me know. —Darkwind (talk) 03:28, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

By not posting the notice, you made me unable to request the unblock in a timely manner. Niteshift36 (talk) 04:37, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

@Niteshift36: I agree that I made a mistake, but the only thing the block notice would have done is to tell you that you were blocked before you tried to edit. You already know how to appeal a block, you've done so before (according to your block log). Besides, the block error shown when you edit gives you links to WP:APPEAL and WP:GAB, so if you didn't already know how, you would have found out how to appeal the moment you tried to edit.

You didn't appeal the block anyway, so I'm not sure why you're complaining, unless it's just to give me a hard time. The only thing you may have lost is the amount of time that passed before you realized you were blocked -- and I have no idea how long that may have been, but since you didn't appeal anyway, it doesn't matter a whit. —Darkwind (talk) 04:59, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Way to assume bad faith right off the bat. I went to edit another article and it said I was blocked at the top of the page. There was no template on my page that gave me a way to appeal. If you think I memorized what commands I needed to use to make the appeal show up, you're mistaken. So I did it before a couple of years ago, now I never need the instructions again? At that point, why would I keep coming back to the page over and over, hoping that you'd finally done what you were supposed to do (and never did do for that matter)? It said blocked for 48 hours, your failure to do what you were supposed to do left me no way to appeal, so I simply stayed off the site for 48 hours. It does matter because I would have appealed and directly addressed the incorrect assumptions you made. No, it doesn't matter any longer since you can't give me the time back. Now, when I make a simple statement, you give me some bad faith about giving you a hard time. Thanks so much for that. Niteshift36 (talk) 05:13, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Now I'm even more confused. As I already mentioned, the error message you're referring to, where it says you're blocked at the top of the page, has big ol' links to WP:APPEAL and WP:GAB, both of which give you the syntax (or at least the name of the template) to use to post an unblock request, plus a HUGE link to Help:I have been blocked. (You can see the blank error message here: Mediawiki:Blockedtext.) Beyond that, there's {{help me}} and {{admin help}} that you might have been familiar with, not to mention the help menu, search box, and the IRC channels.

The community tries to make block appeals as idiot-proof as possible (especially because of things like school blocks and rangeblocks where people may not even know what a talk page is), and you are not an idiot, so I'm at a loss as to how you couldn't have figured it out. Even IP users affected by a rangeblock (who don't have notices on their talk page) find their way to WP:UTRS. Furthermore, Bbb23 (t c) rectified the error approx. 10 hours later (out of a 48 hour block) leaving you 38 hours to appeal, which you did not take advantage of. That doesn't leave me much to work with when trying to ascertain your motives.

If you really think that you were wronged by either the block itself or my failure to post a block notice, please feel free to open a thread at the administrators' noticeboard. —Darkwind (talk) 05:44, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

That big template isn't what I saw. All I saw was a small pink box across part of the top. Sorry if you think you know what I saw, but your assumption is wrong. I didn't go hunting for a way to appeal because it was supposed to be on my talk page. I looked where it was supposed to be. Did I miss it on some other page? Maybe. Should I have needed to look? No, because it should have been on my page. Again, you miss the point that there is no reason for me to have to keep checking back. Once there was a block and no template there telling me how to appeal, I had no reason to check back for 48 hours. Do you really think I should keep checking back over and over? That's absurd. ANI will be a waste of time. They can't give me the time back and you certainly won't be disciplined. Instead of simply saying "oops, my bad. Sorry dude", you say you made a mistake, then you keep trying to tell me how it's "really" my fault for not figuring out what you failed to provide and then justify your assumption of bad faith. Clearly you have no intention of owning your fault without trying to "share the blame". Niteshift36 (talk) 06:17, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Niteshift36, I imagine you're more angry over the block than the lack of a block notice because there's no reason why you couldn't have figured out your appeal options on your own. You have been on Wikipedia since 2007 and have over 25,000 edits. Even if the notice you saw wasn't the one at MediaWiki:Blockedtext (I have no idea as I've not been blocked, but you could always report that problem if you think the notice has changed), you're not some newbie and could have poked around a bit rather than just giving up. And your accusations against Darkwind are misplaced. He made a mistake. He admitted he made a mistake (more than once), and yet you say he didn't just because he went on to make reasonable comments about how you could have appealed even without a block notice. We all make mistakes (I know I do). Let it go and move on.--Bbb23 (talk) 13:42, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

I shouldn't have to "figure it out". It was supposed to be there. Period. We all know this. And now you, like Darkwind are hearing what you want instead of what is being said. I didn't say he didn't admit the blatantly obvious fact that he made a mistake. What I did point out is that he spent a lot of time telling me how I could have figured it out, linking me to notices that never showed up for me, a lot of "coulda, shoulda" and generally trying to shift it from what could have been a simple one liner apology to all this "you should have figured out how to work around my mistake". Then, to top it off, it goes straight to a bad faith assumption on his part. Now you're doing the same for him. Like I said, a simple "oops, my bad. Sorry dude" would have ended this discussion long ago. Instead, what happened was a bunch of justification, blame shifting, snarkiness and posturing. Kind of sad that neither of you are capable of understanding that. "Owning the fault" isn't just saying "I agree, I was in error" like some legalistic robot. In any case, take the last word because I've wasted more time than this deserves. My only hope is that the next time, one of you will realize just saying "sorry man, my bad" will probably accomplish much more than 'I was in error, but you are really to blame.....'Niteshift36 (talk) 15:48, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

The last time Niteshift was blocked, the blocking administrator screwed it up also[1]. He couldn't read a block log aka 5 equals 8 or 9. Once an editor gets on the administrator shit list around here, these 'innocent errors' seem to happen alot....William 17:13, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Okay, I draw the line at conspiracy theories. This discussion can be over now. —Darkwind (talk) 01:03, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

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.

An AfD which you closed "Keep" has been relisted by same editor 2 months 16 days later

Hello, You closed an AfD for List of mobile phones with WVGA display and List of mobile phones with HD display as "Keep" at 11:18 pm, 26 September 2013. These lists have been re-nominated today by the same editor who originally nominated them. The nomination is a bit different in that it also includes List of mobile phones with FWVGA display which is similar to, and serves a similar purpose as, the WVGA article. I know that articles can be re-nominated for the AfD process. On the other hand, editors that disagree with a "Keep" are supposed to "wait to see if the article is improved to overcome your objections". The Undeletion section of WP:DELETE states that there is a "suggested waiting period between requests" for deletion, but I have not been able to find what that suggested waiting time is.

Frankly, 2.5 months feels quite a bit too short to me. How often are we going to keep going through this? Does he/she get to keep nominating these lists over and over until he happens to get a "delete" one time? Or waits for that one time (like near the holidays) when editors who are familiar with the lists are not around to respond?

Part of my problem is that while he/she is supposed to "wait to see if the article is improved to overcome his/her objections". His/Her objections were "list with too broad of an inclusion criteria, and its outdated". The reality is that what he/she is objecting to are inherent properties of the lists. The lists are about items that fulfill specific, discriminate criteria. Some of the items on the lists are older (from a technology point of view, i.e. a couple/few years). On the other hand, some of the items on each list were released within the last year (many on the HD list). As a result, both of his primary objections are inherent qualities of the lists which will not change if he waits to see if they do change. Thus, it is not possible for the lists to overcome his/her personal objections. Therefore, there is nothing other than deletion that would satisfy him/her which means we can expect this AfD to resurface again and again. What is the amount of time we get as a reprieve between each nomination?

If he had waited a year, I would not feel quite as much frustration. In part, my questions are born out of frustration, but in part not. It talks a considerable amount of time for me to compose reasonable arguments for, well, almost anything. I am just not a person that dashes off a quick 5 or 10 word response (e.g. the non-brevity of this note). The time, hours, I spend responding to him/her is time I would prefer to spend doing things that are more productive, both here on Wikipedia and elsewhere.

If you are not an appropriate person to ask these questions of, I would appreciate knowing whom I should ask. If there is no one, then I guess that I will just again respond to this re-nomination. Thanks. Makyen (talk) 06:27, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

I'm happy to address your questions, but to be up-front, there's nothing I can do about the nomination itself - there is no policy preventing a user from making this kind of renomination, other than possibly the disruptive editing guideline, which would only apply if this becomes a recurring pattern. You're probably going to have to respond to the AfD anyway. I've got a bit more advice to dispense, but you've caught me right at the end of my day -- I'll expand on this tomorrow. —Darkwind (talk) 07:06, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. I appreciate your rapid response. I look forward to you expanding on your response and any advice you can provide. I will plan on talking the time to respond to the AfD. I hope that you have a good evening/night.Makyen (talk) 07:16, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

sources and references

Please unlock Boom Pictures page - so sources and references can be added. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.194.210.230 (talk) 11:31, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Gun control

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Article Deletion

Hi again, We gathered more information from third-party sources and we do have more links. Where and how can I post them?Archibanus (talk) 09:14, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

@Archibanus: I've placed a copy of the most recent version of the article in your "user space" for you to draft an improved version. When you think the article is ready to be re-published, I suggest you request a review by our Articles for Creation volunteer team -- you can do so by adding the code "{{subst:submit}}" to the very top of the page (when you are done) and save the page. —Darkwind (talk) 00:45, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

Sopher99!!!

Sopher99 violated the ban on the editing of all pages related to the Syrian ciwil war.

here's the proof: her and her37.52.27.220 (talk) 12:22, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

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.

Notice

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Topic ban violation. Thank you. —/Mendaliv/^2¢/_Δ's/ 17:25, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

The Polar Night Edit.

I should of think before adding it into the article and find a source but of course this documentary isn't that famous so it should be removed, and yes I should take more grammar lessons. SuperHypercane (talk) 22:26, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

GOCE December 2013 Blitz wrap-up and January Drive invitation

December Notes from the Guild of Copy Editors

The December blitz ran from December 8–14. The theme for this blitz was articles tied in some way to religion. Seven editors knocked out 20 articles over the course of the week. Our next blitz will be in February, with a theme to be determined. Feel free to make theme suggestions at the Guild talk page!

The January 2014 Backlog elimination drive is a month-long effort to reduce the size of the copy edit backlog. The drive begins on January 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and ends on January 31 at 23:59 (UTC). Our goals are to copy edit all articles tagged in October and November 2012 and complete all requests placed before the end of 2013. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who copy edits at least one article, and special awards will be given to the top five in the following categories: "Number of articles", "Number of words", "Number of articles of over 5,000 words", "Number of articles tagged in October and November 2012", and "Longest article". We hope to see you there!

Coordinator election: Voting is open for candidates to serve as GOCE coordinators from 1 January through 30 June 2014. Voting will run until the end of December. For complete information, please have a look at the election page.

– Your drive coordinators: Torchiest, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95 and The Utahraptor

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Message delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:24, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

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.

Brooks Family Surname Project

There used to be a very useful - for thousands of researchers in one of the world largest family surname projects - on Wikipedia. Apparently you deleted this in April 2013. Why? For what reason/what constructive purpose? With the authority of whom?DGHawkes (talk) 01:18, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Template talk:Main

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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.

GOCE 2013 Annual Report

Guild of Copy Editors 2013 Annual Report

The GOCE has wrapped up another successful year of operations!

Our 2013 Annual Report is now ready for review.

– Your project coordinators: Torchiest, Baffle gab1978 and Jonesey95

Sign up for the January drive! To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:44, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

Deleting Radionomy's Wikipedia page

Dear Darkwind,

I work for Radionomy (www.radionomy.com) and we noticed you did delete our company Facebook page.

We don't quite understand what was wrong with it and will be happy to make any change or edit that needs to be made in order to be able to publish the page back.

Kind regards

Sylvie de Lannois for Radionomy

sylvie@radionomy.com

January 6th, 2014 Sylvieradionomy (talk) 11:22, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

King World Productions

Hello, may you please protect the page at King World Productions? There seems to be a repeat vandal who keeps making unnecessary changes on the page. 99.46.224.17 (talk) 12:57, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

The Funkadactyls listed at Redirects for discussion

An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect The Funkadactyls. Since you had some involvement with the The Funkadactyls redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion (if you have not already done so). —rybec 07:10, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

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.

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers

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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.

List of DHX Media programs

It recently has one revert; extend protection time? --George Ho (talk) 06:44, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

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.

Urge to Unblocked me

The User:Rangbaaz(2013 film) is not my article. There were some wrong in-formations which were being provided on this article repeatedly so i requested to the higher members of the Wikipedia to remove those in-formations and temporarily lock the article for vandalism.
But why i am blocked? Unblock me please. Thanks :) MrDon100crore (talk) 07:34, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks

Its OK now my blocked period is over. Thanks for that.
But i should not be blocked like this again without any correct reason. The article/account User:Rangbaaz(2013 film) is not mine and i don't operate it too.
THANKS:)
MrDon100crore (talk) 07:47, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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.

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Images

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User talk:24.153.175.233

Hi there. Just noticed this edit from December. It has produced a redlink. Green Giant (talk) 18:29, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

Mail

Hello, Darkwind. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

— JamesR ^(talk) 01:24, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Seems to be working how I have it setup :) — JamesR ^(talk) 03:06, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

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.

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.

GOCE February blitz wrapup

Guild of Copy Editors Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Blitzes/February 2014 wrap-up

Participation: Out of seven people who signed up for this blitz, all copy-edited at least one article. Thanks to all who participated! Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: During the seven-day blitz, we removed 16 articles from the requests queue. Hope to see you at the March drive! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Baffle gab1978.

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Please comment on Template talk:Citation needed

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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.

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.

March GOCE copyedit drive

Notes from the Guild of Copy Editors

The March 2014 backlog elimination drive is a month-long effort to reduce the backlog of articles in need of copyediting. The drive begins on March 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and ends on March 31 at 23:59 (UTC). Our goals are to copyedit all articles tagged in December 2012 and January 2013 and to complete all requests placed in January 2014. Barnstars will be awarded to anyone who copyedits at least one article, and special awards will be given to the top five in the following categories: number of articles, number of words, number of articles over 5,000 words, number of articles tagged in December 2012 and January 2013 and the longest article. We hope to see you there!

– Your drive coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:59, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Hello

I'm contacting you because you are the last admin that got involved in Talk:Anjem Choudary. Particularly I don't know what to do. I came to this page thru RFC. There's no edit war going on but it's becoming a bit rediculous at this point. Bit of forum shopping. I don't actually know where I should report this or if someone should get involved yet. If not it's close. If you can point in the right direction it would be apreciated.Serialjoepsycho (talk) 10:11, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Chinese)

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Chinese). Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:01, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

(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.

Please comment on changes to the AfC mailing list

Hello Darkwind! There is a discussion that your input is requested on! I look forward to your comments, thoughts, opinions, criticisms, and questions!

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.

This message was composed and sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 18:18, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Darkwind. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Atsme (talk) 00:26, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

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.

Discretionary sanctions 2013 review: Draft v3

Hi. You have commented on Draft v1 or v2 in the Arbitration Committee's 2013 review of the discretionary sanctions system. I thought you'd like to know Draft v3 has now been posted to the main review page. You are very welcome to comment on it on the review talk page. Regards, AGK [•] 00:16, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

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

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (people)

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (people). Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:01, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Fractional Reserve Banking

Hello Darkwind. Last November you page protected this article and blocked an editor who was edit-warring there. We are in the midst of another bout of the same behavior there. I wonder whether you could have a look at the article and talk histories and see whether you feel protection is again warranted? Thanks. SPECIFICO talk 20:01, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

In my defence, see here. I guess it is a rare event that the evidence for one theory over another mounts so high that a wiki page needs to be re-written... I think this issue needs a particularly senior editor to act as a referee. Reissgo (talk) 11:37, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 March 2014

Comment: A foolish request
April Fools' Day is rapidly approaching. Every year, members of the community pull pranks and make (or attempt to make) humorous edits to pages across the project. Every year, the community follows April Fools' Day with a contentious debate about whether or not it is necessary to impose limits on April Fools' Day jokes for future years. It is a polarizing issue.

Traffic report: Down to a simmer
Topics like the 2014 Crimea crisis or the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 eased down the list, making way for such traditional topics as St Patrick's Day, Reddit threads and even Google Doodles, which have reappeared after a long absence.

Recent research: Wikipedians' "encyclopedic identity" dominates even in Kosovo debates
Have you wondered about differences in the articles on Crimea in the Russian, Ukrainian, and English versions of Wikipedia? A newly published article entitled "Lost in Translation: Contexts, Computing, Disputing on Wikipedia" doesn't address Crimea, but nonetheless offers insight into the editing of contentious articles in multiple language editions through a heavy qualitative examination of Wikipedia articles about the Kosovo in the Serbian, Croatian, and English editions.

News and notes: Commons Picture of the Year—winners announced
Results for the two-stage 2013 Commons Picture of the Year have been announced. This year's winning photograph (above) shows a lightbulb that has been cracked, allowing inert gas to escape—and oxygen to enter, so that the tungsten filament burns. From the flames rise elegant curls of blue smoke.

Featured content: Winter hath a beauty that is all his own
Four articles, two lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

Op-ed: Why we're updating the default typography for Wikipedia
On 3 April, we will roll out some changes to the typography of Wikipedia's default Vector skin, to increase readability for users on all devices and platforms. After five months of testing, four major iterations, and through close collaboration with the global Wikimedia community, who provided more than 100 threads of feedback, we’ve arrived at a solution which improves the primary reading and editing experience for all users.

Technology report: Why will Wikipedia look like the Signpost?
As you have probably read on this weeks op-ed, or via various other channels of announcement, 3 April will see the introduction of the Typography refresh (or update) for the Vector skin on all Wikipedias. Other projects like Commons will have this update rolled out a few days prior.

WikiProject report: From the peak
This week, the Signpost interviewed the English Wikipedia's Mountains WikiProject.

GOCE March drive wrapup

Guild of Copy Editors March 2014 backlog elimination drive wrap-up newsletter

The March 2014 drive wrap-up is now ready for review.

Sign up for the April blitz!

– Your project coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis.

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Guild of Copy Editors March 2014 backlog elimination drive wrap-up

Participation: Thanks to all who participated in the drive and helped out behind the scenes. 42 people signed up for this drive and 28 of these completed at least one article. Final results are available here.

Progress report: Articles tagged during the target months of December 2012 and January 2013 were reduced from 177 to 33, and the overall backlog was reduced by 13 articles. The total backlog was 2,902 articles at the end of March. On the Requests page during March, 26 copy edit requests were completed, all requests from January 2014 were completed, and the length of the queue was reduced by 11 articles.

Blitz!: The April blitz will run from April 13–19, with a focus on the Requests list. Sign up now!

– Your drive coordinators: Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978 and Miniapolis

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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:57, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 02 April 2014

News and notes: Wikimedia conferences—soul-searching about costs, attendance, and future
The run-up to the conference has seen the unfolding of two fractious threads on the Wikimedia public mailing list, both of which may serve as background for the last session at Berlin: "Future of the Wikimedia Conference".

WikiProject report: Deutschland in English
This week, we visited with WikiProject Germany.

Special report: On the cusp of the Wikimedia Conference
The annual Wikimedia Conference is about to start in Berlin, hosted by Wikimedia Germany, which won the bid to hold the event over three others. This will be the fifth time the chapter has hosted the Wikimedia Conference—it did so from 2009 to 2012, with attendance ranging from 100 to 180 Wikimedians. This year 160 people are expected at the four-day event, which is mainly for representatives of affiliated Wikimedia organisations. The conference has been built around two themes: Organisation, structures, and grants and Success and impact.

Featured content: April Fools
The Signpost's "Featured content" writers had a bit of fun this week.

Traffic report: Regressing to the mean
The mysterious fate of MH370 still tops the list, but in all other respects our readership has retreated from the real world into its pop-cultural happy place: TV, movies, music, Reddit and Google Doodles all made an appearance.

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (capitalization)

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (capitalization). Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:01, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

We need your help testing latest huggle

Hello,

I am sending you this message because you listed yourself on meta:Huggle/Members as a beta tester. We desperately need attention of testers, because since we resolved all release blockers, we are ready to release first official version of huggle 3! Before that happens, it would be nice if you could test it so that we can make sure there are no issues with it. You can download it packaged for your operating system (see Wikipedia:Huggle/Huggle3_Beta) or you can of course build it yourself, see https://github.com/huggle/huggle3-qt-lx for that. Don't forget to use always latest version, there is no auto-update message for beta versions!

Should you find any issue, please report it to wikimedia bugzilla, that is a central place for huggle bugs, where we look at them. That is i mportant, if you find a bug and won't report it, we can't fix it. Thank you for your work on this, if you have any questions, please send me a message on my talk page, I won't be looking for responses here. Thanks, Petrb (talk) 15:10, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 09 April 2014

News and notes: Round 2 of FDC funding open to public comments
Community review is open for the four applications in the second and final round of applications to the WMF's Funds Dissemination Committee for 2013–14. Three eligible organisations have applied for funding under the newly named "annual program grants": Wikimedia France, Wikimedia Norway, and the India-based Centre for Internet and Society, which last November was recognised as eligible to apply for FDC funding purposes.

WikiProject report: WikiProject Law
This week, we interviewed the Law WikiProject.

Special report: Community mourns passing of Adrianne Wadewitz
"I remember laughing and talking and laughing and talking at Wikimania 2012. I took this picture of her that she used for a long while as a profile pic. Someone on Facebook said it looked 'skepchickal', which she loved."

Traffic report: Conquest of the Couch Potatoes
Television has always been a topic of choice on this site, but it exploded this week. Fully six slots were devoted to television shows, as the final episode of How I Met Your Mother, one of the most popular Wikipedia searches of the last few years, coincided with the season finale of The Walking Dead and the upcoming fourth season of Game of Thrones. The number rises to 8 if movies released on video and new TV tech are are included.

Featured content: Snow heater and Ash sweep
Five article, five lists, and ten pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

April blitz wrap-up and May copyediting drive invitation

Guild of Copy Editors April 2014 Blitz wrap-up

Participation: Out of 17 people who signed up for this blitz, eight copy-edited at least one article. Thanks to all who participated! Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: During the seven-day blitz, we removed 28 articles from the requests queue. Hope to see you at the May drive! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Baffle gab1978.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:18, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Wiki Help

Hi Darkwind -- I am interested in revising and resubmitting the Arnott Inc. draft you reviewed and rejected back in October 2013 ...

Do you do such work as a freelancer or is all your Wiki work as a volunteer? Arnott has recently opened a European Union sales and distribution facility, and has significant PR external to its site as a result ... hoping this might help the Wiki effort?

My best contact would be email at gf7446@comcast.net

Verogreg Verogreg (talk) 17:20, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Name Change

Hi Darkwind,

I just changed a name on Sara Taylor's Wiki page. Since the creation of this page, she has married and changed her name to Sara Fagen. I am happy to provide you with examples of her new name but I would like to change her name to Sara Taylor Fagen.

Bunny74 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bunny74 (talk • contribs) 20:22, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

You don't provide the "examples" to me, you cite a source in the article where you're making the change. See Referencing for beginners to learn how. —Darkwind (talk) 21:06, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Whittier Street Health Center

Hey, just wanted to let you know that although you deleted This one, This one still exists. ®amos 21:45, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Template talk:Tq

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Template talk:Tq. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:03, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Just a quick question

Shouldn't this technically be a block for vandalism? If edit warring were the problem you'd need to block me as well. Evan ^{(talk|contribs)} 02:35, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Reverting vandalism is not considered edit warring. Honestly, the specific block reason doesn't matter all that much. The anonymous user was inserting material that could be considered vandalism, but also broke 3RR in doing so. —Darkwind (talk) 02:39, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

That's pretty much what I thought. I just wondered if it also made a difference to block duration. It's been a while since I was active here, but I always remember 36 hours being the standard for vandals. Anyway, it's taken care of, so thank you! Evan ^{(talk|contribs)} 02:43, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 April 2014

Special report: 2014 Wikimedia Conference—what is the impact?
The annual Wikimedia Conference wound up last Sunday, 13 April—a four-day meeting costing several hundred thousand dollars, hosted in Berlin by Wikimedia Germany and attended by more than 100 Wikimedians.

Op-ed: Five things a Wikipedian in residence can do
Hey you—yeah you, the Wikipedian! Do you want to help a museum, a library, a university, or other organization explore ways to engage with Wikipedia? Great—you should offer your expertise as a Wikipedian in residence!

News and notes: Wikimedian passes away
Cynthia Ashley-Nelson, who edited as "Cindamuse" on the Wikimedia projects, passed away in her sleep at the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin on 10 April.

WikiProject_report: To the altar—Catholicism
This week, we visited WikiProject Catholicism.

Wikimania: Winning bid announced for 2015
After just over a month of deliberation, the Wikimania jury has selected Wikimedia Mexico's bid to host Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City, with a proposed date of 15–19 July.

Traffic report: Reflecting in Gethsemane
If I were the kind of person who made snap judgments based on flimsy evidence, I'd say our readership is in a funk.

Featured content: There was I, waiting at the church
Fourteen articles, four lists, seven pictures, and one topic attained "featured" status on the English Wikipedia over the last two weeks.

Request for input

Hi Darkwind, I was wondering if you could step in and look at a matter on the Admin's Board regarding an edit warring issue. A problematic user has been reported there for persistent edit warring, and he has already been blocked more than half a dozen times for this in the past (including once by yourself only 6 months ago [2]) but it also seems he has been reported many other times in the past but the report has been allowed to go stale because an admin hasn't dealt with it in time. The more this happens obviously means the problem editor will continue edit warring. The link to the current report is at: [3] Thanks. 88.104.26.81 (talk) 08:42, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/Laratadelaciudad

Andrewbf's another account Special:Contributions/Laratadelaciudad is doing genre warring and attacking. 183.171.178.92 (talk) 07:50, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

Vandal

Thanks for your lightening-fast help with user "Dreck123". They seemed to be making the same edits with "Paddythedaddy0". Cheers. Magnolia677 (talk) 14:48, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 April 2014

News and notes: WMF's draft annual plan turns indigestible as an FDC proposal
Like hammering a square peg into a round hole, the Wikimedia Foundation has submitted a draft annual plan for 2014–15 to its own Funds Dissemination Committee. Unlike the WMF's submission to the FDC's inaugural round in October 2012, the "proposal" does not seek funding.

Traffic report: Going to the Doggs
Not much to report this week. The same post-Easter celebrations (4/20, Earth Day) were popular again this year, except last year we were still reeling from the Boston Marathon bombing.

Breaking: The Foundation's new executive director
The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that its new executive director will be Lila Tretikov, until now a chief product officer in Silicon Valley.

WikiProject report: Genetics
This week, we unraveled the mysteries of WikiProject Genetics.

Interview: Wikipedia in the Peabody Essex Museum
Ed Roley, Associate Director of Integrated Media at the Peabody Essex Museum, talks about GLAM engagement with Wikipedia.

Featured content: Browsing behaviours
Four articles and sixteen featured pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

Recent research: Wikipedia predicts flu more accurately than Google
Can you predict the number of seasonal influenza-like illness in the U.S. using data from Wikipedia?

Template:Political corruption sidebar

I wonder if you should lower it to semi-protection (while leave it as move-protected). Do I must register as template editor? --George Ho (talk) 21:29, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

My original interpretation of the protection policy led me to conclude that the only appropriate protection level was TP. After re-reading the policy, I do see where semi-protection is used instead for some less critical/less complex templates. I'll change it to semi-protection. —Darkwind (talk) 12:36, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Hi i am Akshay Kumar fan

plz removie page protection On Singh Is Bling's Protection before editing the page of Akshay Kumar i will ask do u know akshay kumar first — Preceding unsigned comment added by Superstar Pijush (talk • contribs) 12:41, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Hungarian Turanism article

User Magashito try to spread pseudo-history and fringe theories (which is not supported by academic scholars)in the article which closely related to fascist ideology. That's why I said that he must edit the metapedia instead of wikipedia. He deleted sources references and sentences. He ignored all wiki rules and started an edit war. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Diverser (talk • contribs) 14:08, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

It takes two to edit war. When someone disagrees with a change you made, and they undo it, you need to discuss the situation on the talk page of the article and come to a consensus, or seek dispute resolution assistance if necessary. Don't just re-do your changes, that's the very definition of edit warring. It doesn't matter who is "right", edit warring is still strictly forbidden. —Darkwind (talk) 14:12, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

kitty play

all of the information about Kitty Play Records is in fact truth — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.105.173.242 (talk) 08:52, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Then cite a source. —Darkwind (talk) 07:27, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

IP hopper

Hey Darkwind, thanks for blocking IP address 187.109.224.33, however they have now hopped over to 187.109.224.34 where they have continued the vandalism and disruption on the same articles such as DJ Khaled discography. STATic message me! 18:28, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

187.109.224.32/30 blocked for 72 hours. —Darkwind (talk) 22:45, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it. STATic message me! 00:44, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

Edit warring advice

Darkwind, thank you so much for helping with the Teen Mania Ministries protection. We would like to go in and make corrections to some things that are factually incorrect about the company and ad some additional positive articles which we can provide legitimate citation for, but fear that when we do, the user that has been posting the negative information will simply go in and undo them, again, as has been the case over the past few weeks. What is your advice for helping to limit this edit warring? Thanks for any insight Reachingtheworldforhim (talk) 14:48, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

First, if you represent or work for the Teen Mania organization, please carefully read our conflict of interest advice. As a community, we discourage people from editing articles about organizations they are affiliated with, because it is nearly impossible for them to do so in a truly neutral way.

Second, regardless of whether you're in a conflict of interest, there is indeed a dispute as to the appropriate content for the article, evidenced by the edit warring that took place. The best way to resolve this kind of disagreement is to start a discussion on the talk page of the article -- the article protection is at least partially intended to force interested editors into discussing the issue rather than making controversial changes to the article directly. Further suggestions can be found at this page/section. —Darkwind (talk) 21:06, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biographies

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Biographies. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:04, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

A few updates to Fully Protected Teen Mania Ministries Page

If possible we would like to request the following edits be made to the teen mania ministries page- Under staff, there are only 8 board members this page currently lists 9 and we need to remove the chairman, he is no longer active.We would also like to request that the following paragraph be removed from the front page- this is not cited and appears to be an opinion. "The ministry has faced criticism for its use of overtly militaristic symbolism, as well as techniques that have been compared as similar to military training. It has also been criticized by some former interns and employees for what they characterize as spiritual abuse and financial mismanagement." Thank you - — Preceding unsigned comment added by Reachingtheworldforhim (talk • contribs) 21:29, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Please request edits on the article's talk page using the {{edit protected}} template. Click for instructions. —Darkwind (talk) 01:15, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

For future reference

...if you ever see abuse from an IPv6 range again where the first four digit groups are in common, just rangeblock the /64 directly, even if the abuse is limited to a subset of the /64, since IPv6 autoconfiguration means that clients can take any address in the range.--Jasper Deng (talk) 05:11, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Hi! Nice to meet you!

	Thanks for your message!
	I would express my appreciation for the useful information about measurements you gave me some time ago. Now I've got to know how to convert metres into foot! Kr012 (talk) 17:11, 9 May 2014 (UTC)