User talk:DMacks/Archive 34

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Why did you delete my update

DMacks -- I've been trying to update a Wiki entry [1] and you keep deleting my changes before I'm through. I'm a journalist and am very aware about substantiating my reporting with proper sourcing, which I did in the footnotes section. Why do you keep removing my update? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bruce Kluger (talk • contribs) 19:37, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

The cummulative set of changes you made gives a game invention year of 1975, based a report of someone claiming to be that inventor himself--a primary source. The previous content placed the creation several decades before that, and had multiple explanations and independent secondary sourcing. As a journalist, you obviously know that anyone can claim anything, be it true, false, opinion, or unverifiable chatter, which is why it's important not just to trust one source and not just to trust sources that have a relationship or interest to the subject. Given our standard for secondary over primary, and that your primary is logically inconsistent with the pre-existing secondary, I don't think your content is suitable as written. I think you could add it as a counter-claim, but not to the same level of certainty--and definitely not to the exclusion of--the other claims. DMacks (talk) 04:23, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

Did you read any of the sourcing I did for my added material? It is a completely objective account of two articles that have been written about the evolution of the game. I took pains to word it in a way that was journalistically air-tight -- meaning, that I simply reported on two investigative articles that have tried to uncover how and where this game was invented, quoting accurately from the articles and making no journalistic value judgement over whether I agreed with them. That's what good reporters do. Conversely, the article that appeared before I made revisions (as you say) "placed the creation several decades before that" with absolutely no substantiation or credible verification. All you have are links to articles that similarly leave the game's evolution vague. So how is my reporting/writing any less valid than yours? To my trained eye, I have added value to the article by citing TWO pieces of reporting that go deeper than any of your sourcing. And yet you, Wikipedia, report many of these legends as fact. (E.g., your subhead, "Popularity outside Israel," all by itself, implies that the game's invention was in Israel.) Who may I speak to about this other than you? Reading through others' comments on this page, I feel as though, despite your invitation for to contributors to challenge your judgments, you are unbudgeable, and I would like to take my case to someone who may have a more open ear. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bruce Kluger (talk • contribs) 04:48, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

The reliable-sourcing noticeboard might bring in some editors with specific interest/experience in the quality of sources and disentangling competing claims (or to help get article content balanced based on the various sources' qualities). Just because you're welcome to ask for someone's opinion and challenge what someone thinks doesn't make the challenger in any better position for acceptance. I note that I am one of three editors who have challenged your content. And I note that I discuss content in many venues and am not rarely in a minority or non-WP:CONSENSUS position. What's here on my user talkpage is probably the worst possible way to get a balanced perspective, since most people only come here to complain with a poor basis of support. DMacks (talk) 05:01, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
(edit conflict) Regarding the source itself, again, you seem to be accurately reflecting the sources you choose to use, but all they can come up with is some guy claiming he did it himself. The remainder of what you have is that it's unclear. And what was already there was that it was unclear. And with multiple claims that it is older than the self-proclaimer says. So the self-proclaimer is dubious. And if the best that reporter could find is a dubious source, that's a pretty big problem. DMacks (talk) 05:09, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
Here is a seeminly in-depth report of the origins, that includes multiple claims of it existing before your 1975 benchmark, but instead placing its origin in the same timeframe as our article's other sources. It does cast doubt on it originally being created in Israel, but it does suggest that was key transit-point in its spread. The New York Times ref our article cites concurs with an Israeli origin and leaves the timeframe as a range that has your source as the late end. DMacks (talk) 05:22, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

OMG, DMark, are you just skimming the material? The "seeminly [sic] in-depth" article you mention was written and reported by the same reporter, Stephen Silver, who wrote the new article this week, in which he suggests he MAY have found the answer to the mystery (that Steven Steinberg could very well be the inventor of the game), and he backs up that assertion with a reference to an article that was written in the Baltimore Jewish Times back in 1992. I cited BOTH of those articles in my writing and reporting, and made sure to couch all of my language in the speculative. And yet you disparage the author of the first piece (“if the best that reporter could find is a dubious source, that's a pretty big problem”) and praise the author of the second piece (“Here is a seeminly in-depth report of the origins, that includes multiple claims of it existing before your 1975 benchmark, but instead placing its origin in the same timeframe as our article's other sources”) when, in fact, they’re the same damn guy -- and the piece that you disparage is actually his deeper, more recent investigation in which he claims to have POSSIBLY solved the mystery of the game’s origins (look at the headline: “Is the Mystery of Ga-Ga, Everyone’s Favorite Summer Camp Game, Finally Solved?”).

As I’m sure you’ll agree, what we have here is a story that has no slam-dunk proof of the game’s origins, There are many different theories about the game’s invention. And yet your original piece suggests, in both words and tone, that the game is undeniably Israeli. To wit:

1) You open with the Hebrew translation of the name, while Steinberg -- who claims to have invented the game -- disputes that nomenclature with his own report of how the name was invented. Also, opening with the Hebrew translation piece suggests that Wikipedia believes the game is Israeli in origin. 2) You include the subhead, “Popularity outside Israel,” which, again, suggests that Wikipedia believes the game is Israeli in origin. 2) You claim that the game was “played in the Australian Jewish community of Perth, Western Australia, from [sic] the 1960s” with absolutely no verification or sourcing; and which undermines Steinberg’s claim to have invented it in 1975. 3) You claim that the game was played “played in US Jewish camps and Youth Movements in the 1960s” with absolutely no verification or sourcing; and which undermines Steinberg’s claim to have invented it in 1975. 4) You claim “it was played as early as the mid-1960s in a wide variety of locations” with absolutely no verification or sourcing; and which undermines Steinberg’s claim to have invented it in 1975.

I have read through all four articles you have listed in your References. Here’s the rundown:

--Kalamozoo Gazette: poorly written and dubiously reported, because it includes both of these phrases: 1) “Ga-ga, an Israeli form of dodgeball” and 2) “He suspects the game did come from Israel, as it is rumored.” So we have one definitive statement and one speculative statement, and neither is backed up with any sourcing or verification. Also, no dates are mentioned.

--The New York Times: Says “Believed to have originated in Israel” and “has been a standby of Jewish summer camps and community centers in the United States since at least the 1970s.” Both are valid reporting and both align with Silver’s recent investigations, in which he states that the Israeli connection may or may not be a myth, and the date (“1970s”) would align with Steinberg’s claim that he invented the game in 1975. No other dates are mentioned.

--New York Post: Has no reporting on the game’s origins, and no dates are mentioned.

--WABC Eyewitness TV: is a dead link.

So what I did in my rewrite was clean up the mess your original writer had made by doing four specific things:

1. I deleted the Hebrew from the opening line, because it suggests that Wikipedia is buying into story that the game was invented in Israel story, when that COULD in fact be a myth. I moved the Hebrew to a lower section in which I discuss the origins of the game.

2. I deleted all references your original writer made to specific dates, because you have stated them as fact without any sourcing or verification.

3. I deleted your subtitle, “Popularity outside Israel,” because it suggests that Wikipedia is buying into the story that the game was invented in Israel, when that COULD in fact be a myth. I replaced that subtitle with the subtitle, “Invention, Origin and Ga-ga's "Founding Father,” being careful to put those last two words in quotation marks, so that readers would not believe that Wikipedia is buying into Steinberg’s claim of inventing the game.

4. Then I wrote the following three paragraphs, which I believe responsibly 1) sorts out everything, and 2) does not commit factually to any of the theories. I sourced both articles written by Silver, who, I’m sure you’ll agree, has done inarguably the best job in attempting to pinpoint the origin of the game.

  • * *

“Invention, Origin and Ga-ga's "Founding Father,”

The invention of Ga-ga has been a source of speculation since the latter half of the 20th Century. One prevailing myth was that the game had been created and brought to the United States and Canada by Israeli counselors working at Jewish summer camps. In an August 2016 article in Tablet Magazine entitled, "The Ga-Ga Saga," writer Stephen Silver cited further legends behind the game's invention, including a theory that it had begun in Israel as a training exercise for Israel Defense Forces, or that it had been created in America, at an Adirondacks summer camp in the 1950s, where it was known as “Crosleyball.”

One year later, however, Silver wrote a follow-up piece for Tablet entitled, “Is the Mystery of Ga-Ga, Everyone’s Favorite Summer Camp Game, Finally Solved?” Revealing that his “quest to find the inventor of the iconic game” had led him to “an unlikely founding father: a nice zaydeh [Yiddish for “grandfather”] from Maryland,” Silver interviewed a 61-year-old reflexologist and native of Baltimore, Maryland, Steve Steinberg, who revealed that he had invented game in 1975 as a teenage camp counselor at Camp Milldale, a Jewish Community Center [JCC] camp in the Baltimore area, while charged with supervising a group of 6-year-old boys. “[Steinberg] says he started the game for the same reason it’s still played today at countless summer camps,” Silver wrote, “to keep campers busy on rainy days.”

Contrary to the theory that the name of game derives from the Hebrew word meaning, “touch-touch,” Steinberg explained to Silver that the name came from a spur-of-the-moment comment he’d made to his charges. “Steinberg says that during a moment of frustration,” Silver wrote, "he told his campers that they 'all look like a bunch of babies'—at which point some of the kids began chanting ‘goo-goo, ga-ga,’ which soon became the name of the game. When Steinberg had to fit the name on a written activity schedule, it was shortened to ‘ga-ga.’”

  • * *

As you can see, DMarks, I have not reported any of the above as fact, but rather relied on Silver’s reporting, making sure in my language to include a nod to other existing theories about the game’s invention. This is what I have been doing for a living for the past 30 years, and I’m good at it. You might not love what I wrote, but surely you’ll agree that it is a clealer and more journalistically sound summary of Ga-Ga’s origins than your existing version.Bruce Kluger (talk) 18:18, 3 August 2017 (UTC)Bruce Kluger (talk) 02:11, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

I stand by my objection that a publication in which someone is found who himself claims to be the originator is not a strong source. And doubly so if other sources (or even older work from the same reporter) has claims that are older. For example, [2] and ref therein make a specific different claim. It may well never be known for sure, and we can certainly include some variations with appropriate sourcing. But given the competing (and contradictory by fact and chronological possibility) I don't think we should give added weight to the least self-consistent of them. DMacks (talk) 14:44, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

Why did you not respond to the above, DMarks?Bruce Kluger (talk) 02:10, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Because I was off-line? Because Wikipedia is not my job? Because I thought when you asked for where to get additional opinions and I responded, you would do that? Because I thought your behavior was repeatedly beyond WP:AGF policy and this conversation was no longer constructive? How many reasons do you want? Note that none of those are releated to content itself. Your apparent urgency might at best counterproductive. DMacks (talk) 14:44, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

Your smugness and condescension is astonishing. You say, "Just because you're welcome to ask for someone's opinion and challenge what someone thinks doesn't make your opinion or proposed content acceptable." So is the logical assumption that your opinion -- however arguably wrong -- should win the day? Please give me a contact number immediately for someone I can speak to about this. I write regular columns about the media for USA Today, and I would like to interview someone who is in a greater position of authority than you. I have written about Wikipedia before -- glowingly -- and yet this first experience in writing for the site has been a shocking and disheartening experience. Please know that whatever response you write to me will in all likelihood be used in whatever piece I decide to write, and will be cited as an on-the-record response to my complaint. Bruce Kluger (talk) 05:12, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

Note that you are replying to an older version of what I wrote. According to the chronology, I indeed edited my response to soften it a bit, but you didn't notice when you posted your response. This is your edit, please take note of what my words had been. DMacks (talk) 05:22, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

DMACKS -- PLS READ THIS IMMEDIATELY

DMACKS --

I spent a good part of my day updating an inaccurate article you've posted on the sports game "Ga-Ga" (link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ga-ga). I am a professional journalist, a registered member of Wikipedia, a frequent contributor (meaning I give you money), and I took great pains to source my update properly (once again: I am a professional journalist). And now my work has been deleted by you -- THREE TIMES.

I received a message from you that told me I did not provide a "reliable source" in my update -- an allegation that is entirely false -- and that I should leave a message for you here -- which I did. You did not respond, aand once again deleted my update. Please reinstate the changes I made. I worked very hard on them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bruce Kluger (talk • contribs) 03:58, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

On the internet, nobody really knows who anyone is, and that is actually the basis for the verifiability policy an reliable sourcing guideline here on wikipedia. That also couples with the irrelevance of whether someone is a donor--surely as a journalist you understand the importance of the inability to be bribed to write a story that is biased a certain way or gives undue weight to a certain perspective. We're all volunteers here, so I sometimes take a few hours to respond. DMacks (talk) 04:14, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

(See my response to your comment above.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bruce Kluger (talk • contribs) 04:54, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-32

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

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  • You can get an email when a page on your watchlist was edited. You can choose not to get emails for minor edits. There is a bug that means that you then don't get an email when someone does a normal edit after a minor edit. The developers are working on fixing this. Until it has been fixed you can activate "Email me also for minor edits of pages and files" at the bottom of "User profile" in your preferences if you want to. [5]
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  • Editors and readers who still use Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP will not be able to use Wikipedia. Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP can't connect securely to the wikis. When we allow them to do so it means that we get less security for everyone else. If you use Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP you can install Firefox 52 ESR instead. Around 0.1% of the traffic to the Wikimedia wikis comes from Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP. [7]
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21:45, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

Consultation

Hi Mr. DMacks, first, I would like to thank you for protecting the ″Télévision Algérienne″ article. But there is a problem because when we search ″Télévision Algérienne″ or ″التلفزيون الجزائري″ (the official name in the Arabic language) in the Internet, a list of some of the programs shown on this network appears. This is a mistake because we should have a card to the right of the screen that contains part of the article on Wikipedia, the owner, the date of creation, TV shows... and People also search for.

How we can correct this error?, and can we add Freebase ID to Wikidata item for this article? Cordially.--Boumediene15 (talk) 17:55, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not responsible for or able to control how other sites display the content from our articles. Maybe WP:COI would be a good read also? DMacks (talk) 05:53, 11 August 2017 (UTC)
Ok thank you, the error has been corrected.--Boumediene15 (talk) 12:11, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-33

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  • Bureaucrats can now set users as confirmed. Previously only stewards could do this on most wikis. Nothing will change for wikis that have previously decided to let administrators set users as confirmed. [12]

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  • The symbols in the language list that show that an article is good or featured in that language doesn't work. Links to the Commons category in the sidebar doesn't work either. The developers are working on fixing it. [13][14]

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23:29, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

117.53.138.137

This IP address continued editing after your previous one year for block evasion. Would you mind checking to see if you think the edits from this IP address have been from the same person as before? Thanks. 172.58.43.106 (talk) 04:55, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

 Done DMacks (talk) 08:41, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Template:Divbox

Hi DMacks, On my userpage under the divbox It says "Error in template * unknown parameter name (Template:Divbox): '4'" - Having looked at my divbox I see no "4" parameter there so I'm assuming your edit to the template has messed something up?, Thanks, –Davey2010Talk 00:19, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Yes. My change made the use of a parameter that is not actually supported report an error rather than be silently ignored. If you use a radius parameter, you have to pass it as an explicitly-named |radius=value rather than merely being a loose value in the fourth position. DMacks (talk) 02:16, 15 August 2017 (UTC)
@Davey2010: see the change I made (and then undid) to your userpage that would do what you meant. DMacks (talk) 08:43, 17 August 2017 (UTC)
Ah so I missed the radius part - Apparently it's been wrong then for 3 years but I must've assumed it was all correct, Ah well thanks for kindly pointing out the error :), Thanks, –Davey2010Talk 11:26, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

Blocking question

Why did you block me? What is your problem? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mrindiawiki (talk • contribs) 23:46, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

As your talkpage and the block message itself clearly say, it is because of your long-term pattern of adding content without proper citations. That's a WP:BLP policy violation, and you were repeatedly warned about it over a long time by many editors. You chose to ignore all that, and continued with your behavior that is against policy. I'm glad to see that you have now chosen to edit differently, for example, by adding a cite to the content you added to Ayushmann Khurrana. DMacks (talk) 04:21, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

Cross Link Site issue with regarding the creation of a File talk page

I understand the fact the File:Alastair Cook test batting career v1.png exists both on Wikimedia Commons as well as in English Wikipedia.But I just checked there(Commons) wasn't a discussion page regarding the talk page of this particular file.Commons.If the talk page that I have created confused anyone I may undo it.Thank You.Abishe (talk) 03:10, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

@Abishe: The file doesn't technically "exist" on English Wikipedia. I'm not familiar with WikiProject Cricket or WikiProject England to know what their conventions are. But in general, local file-talkpages of commons files are deletable via WP:CSD#F2. Might want to ask the WikiProjects before piling things into their realm. DMacks (talk) 04:34, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

Template:Divbox

Hi. A recent edit you made to {{Divbox}} has created thousands of red error notices to appear. I have reverted the edit for the time being as the template works without the edit, but is broken with it. Is there another way to implement what you want to do without causing the template to break? This is a widely used template. SilkTork ✔Tea time 11:03, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

@SilkTork: On those pages, it's not functioning as the user is intending. Even with the error message, I think it's still just as functional as before (displaying as the user is using it rather than as the user is intending) but also announces that discrepancy. A stepping-stone approach is to have it add to a hidden category. The fix (to convert "do what I say" into "do what I mean") is probably scriptable in most cases. DMacks (talk) 04:17, 19 August 2017 (UTC)
I see User:JJMC89 made that tracking as Category:Pages using divbox with unknown parameters. Interestingly, that only contains one page and I don't see that that editor has made thousands of changes to pages using that template. How did you scan for pages that were throwing an error by my change? Is there a job-queue backlog that is making the cat so out-of-date? DMacks (talk) 04:26, 19 August 2017 (UTC)
There might not be many with unknown parameters, or it could be job-queue related. I just fixed that one now, but I hadn't fixed any others. We'll see if the category populates with more soon. — JJMC89 (T·C) 05:02, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

Thomas.W

Hi DMacks. I just want to check, as I'm a little surprised - intentional ? -- zzuuzz (talk) 15:26, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

...Since Thomas W's account is over a decade old and the 'Sockmaster' is from Dmr 2014, well, yeah-! — fortunavelut luna 15:31, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
So you're saying that Thomas W should be the master and Najaf ali bhayo the puppet? :) Thanks for unblocking, DMacks. -- zzuuzz (talk) 15:34, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
Well quite :) and I've just stopped beating my wife, too zzuuzz :p  !!! — fortunavelut luna 15:36, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
Mouse was off by one link in the article-history I was using as evidence, and accidentally blocked a long-time tracker of that sock-fest rather than the latest sock. I think I got it all undone, and will take a few moments to let my coffee kick in before doing any more admin. DMacks (talk) 15:38, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
Same thing happened four years ago, almost to the day. Coincidence? I think not. Favonian (talk) 15:41, 20 August 2017 (UTC)
As a co-member of the cabal, I'm surprised I have to remind you that there is no conspiracy. DMacks (talk) 15:49, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-34

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

Recent changes

  • You can now test the new Timeless skin on the test wiki and mediawiki.org. You can turn it on in your preferences. You can report bugs in Phabricator. It will come to more wikis soon. [15][16]
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  • If a table has several columns you can often choose which column you want to use to sort the table. This has not worked for some columns for readers who have used Firefox or Safari. This has now been fixed. [18]
  • The RelatedArticles extension has shown related pages on Wikivoyages. You will now see the related pages at the end of the article together with an image. Previously the links were in the sidebar. Wikis that want this extension can request it on Phabricator.

Changes later this week

  • Videos will now be played in the WebM format in all browsers. Previously some browsers used Ogg Theora (.ogv). If you use Safari, Internet Explorer or Edge you may see slower playback speed at high resolutions. Instead we will get better quality and smaller file size. You can still upload video as Ogg files. They are automatically converted to WebM. This doesn't affect Ogg audio files. [19]
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18:01, 21 August 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-35

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

Recent changes

  • Syntax highlighting is now a beta feature on Wikimedia wikis with text written from left to right. It will come to right-to-left wikis later. This beta feature is based on CodeMirror. [21][22]
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Problems

  • Some pages show the error Lua error in mw.wikibase.entity.lua at line 34: The entity data must be a table obtained via mw.wikibase.getEntityObject. This problem happens on pages with a Lua module that use Wikidata. This has now been fixed and no new pages will get this problem. You still need to fix pages that were broken before and still show the error message. You can see how on this page. [24]

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  • You can block users from sending you notifications. [25]
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  • In the future you will have global preferences. This means you could set something in your preferences to work in the same way on all wikis. You will not be forced to use global preferences. The developers are now asking if editors need exceptions. This is where you want to use global settings on almost all wikis, but have some wikis where you want it to work in a different way. If you want this you need to tell the developers now. You can do so on the talk page. [26]
  • New filters for edit review is a beta feature to improve recent changes pages. It will work on watchlists from 5 September. [27]
  • The jQuery library will be upgraded to version 3 in September 2017. Wikis can ask on Phabricator to get it early, so they can help find and solve problems now.

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22:09, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-36

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

Tech News

Recent changes

  • The RevisionSlider user interface has changed. You can now select revisions by clicking on the bars. You can move the blue knob past the yellow one and the yellow one will move along, and the other way around. [28][29]

Problems

  • Some users have problems loading very large watchlists. It is working better than earlier but the problem has not been solved. The developers are working on fixing it. Until it has been fixed you can turn on "Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent" in your preferences and see if it helps. [30]

Changes later this week

  • New filters for edit review is a beta feature to improve recent changes pages. It will work on watchlists from 5 September. [31]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 September. It will be on all wikis from 7 September (calendar).

Meetings

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22:14, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

About Goguryeo

I know what you mean.However,if you see the Goguryeo page in Korean wikipedia,Koreans also wrote that Goguryeo was "empire" taking control of a weaker people by military force.What's your opinion about this? sir. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Richeaglenoble (talk • contribs) 11:04, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

I do not have access to academic research materials on this topic to know what the reliable sources say. DMacks (talk) 11:07, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Brentwood Academy

Any chance you'd protect the page for BLP violation and or hard block the 207 IP? They've made no other edits except this BLP crap in the past 6 months. John from Idegon (talk) 23:34, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

Oops, overlooked this message. I agree something needs to be done, but there are now multiple IPs and new accounts involved. User:Malcolmxl5 semi-protected the article. I'll keep an eye on it. DMacks (talk) 10:15, 11 September 2017 (UTC)
My involvement here started with a paid editor appealing for help at WT:WPSCH. For once, I agreed with them. After a fair amount of research, I see nothing at this time we can include. John from Idegon (talk) 17:22, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-37

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

Recent changes

  • You can get a notification when a page you created is connected to a Wikidata item. You can choose to get these notifications in your preferences. Some wikis already had this option. It is now available on all wikis. [33]
  • The Newsletter extension is now on mediawiki.org. The newsletter extension is for newsletters where you can subscribe by getting a notification when a new issue has been published. It will come to more wikis later. [34]
  • The Linter extension helps you find technical errors in articles. There is now a new high-priority category: tidy-whitespace-bug. This usually affects templates with horizontal lists. You can read more about using Linter and the Tidy whitespace bug. [35]

Problems

Changes later this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 September. It will be on all wikis from 14 September (calendar).
  • OOjs UI will be updated. This could affect some icons. You can read more about the changes.

Meetings

  • You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 September at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
  • You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 12 September at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • You can't use OCG to create PDFs after 1 October. This is because of technical problems. You can use Electron instead. Most PDFs are already created with Electron. Electron will get missing features before 1 October. You can create books but they will not have all planned features until November or December. You can read more on mediawiki.org.
  • New filters for edit review are available now on recent changes as a beta feature. Some of those filters and other features will be deployed as default features in the coming weeks. Users will be able to opt out in their preferences. [37]

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

19:15, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

I have unreviewed a page you curated

Thanks for reviewing George Uboh, DMacks.

Unfortunately SamHolt6 has just gone over this page again and unreviewed it. Their note is:

I have unreviewed the article per a review of the findings at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard#George Uboh

To reply, leave a comment on SamHolt6's talk page.

SamHolt6 (talk) 17:05, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-38

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

Recent changes

Changes later this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 September. It will be on all wikis from 21 September (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 19 September at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 September at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

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

15:31, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Borane

Thank you for your on-going input to the titular article. Do you have any recomendations such as but not limited to terminology, clarifications, or possible additions? Plasmic Physics (talk) 06:06, 24 September 2017 (UTC)

I'm currently working on a list of important types of organic reactions, and some specific uses. At the moment, we have hydroboration, but there is also hydroboration-oxidation (or Brown hydroboration), and reductive amination. The uses-section contains a duplicate of statements on organic reactions, but no specific examples of its use as a reagent in an important synthesis reaction etc. Plasmic Physics (talk) 07:44, 24 September 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-39

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

Recent changes

Changes later this week

  • You now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device or IP address that have logged in to your account before you will be notified after five failed attempts. For security reasons you will soon get an email by default when someone tries to log in to your account and when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address. This can be turned off in your preferences. [44]
  • Users with extremely old browsers (for example Netscape 2–4, released from 1995–1997) which do not support Unicode will no longer be able to edit. They should try to install a new browser. [45]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 September. It will be on all wikis from 28 September. (calendar).

Meetings

Future changes

  • The Wikimedia Foundation Readers department has proposed changing the mobile website. You can read more on mediawiki.org. This would be a big change.
  • You can't use OCG to create PDFs after 1 October. This is because of technical problems. You can still create PDFs. Tech News 2017/37 said the function to create PDFs from books would still work. It is now clear it will not work for the next few months. The developers are working on fixing this. You can read more on mediawiki.org.

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

15:59, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

Signature fix.

I used the span tag to fix my signature. Hopefully that helps. Let me know if I need to do anything else. ḾỊḼʘɴίcả • Talk • I DX for fun! 03:15, 25 September 2017 (UTC)

@Milonica: thanks for the quick fix! I'll take a look at getting its previous uses cleaned up. Probably easiest to hand that task off to a bot as soon as I figure out which one:) DMacks (talk) 05:41, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
Looks like it is getting taken care of. Sorry if I caused a massive issue lol. ḾỊḼʘɴίcả • Talk • I DX for fun! 23:53, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
No worries. It wasn't hard to fix once we (including you) figured out what to fix. Was a pretty silent problem until now, and now others will be alert to it in the future. DMacks (talk) 13:35, 27 September 2017 (UTC)

This Month in Education: September 2017

This Month in Education

Volume 6 | Issue 8 | September 2017

This monthly newsletter showcases the Wikipedia Education Program. It focuses on sharing: your ideas, stories, success and challenges. You can see past editions here. You can also volunteer to help publish the newsletter. Join the team! Finally, don't forget to subscribe!

In This Issue

Featured Topic "Wikipedia – Here and Now": 40 students in the Summer School "I Can – Here and Now" in Bulgaria heard more about Wikipedia
From the Community

Klexikon: the German 'childrens' Wikipedia' in Montréal

Wikipedia is now a part of Textbook in Informatics

Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery · Romaine 02:24, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Stale drafts

Thank-you for taking an interest in deleting stale drafts. This report User:MusikBot/StaleDrafts/Report covers pages that can be deleted WP:G13. The count at the top is only for the non-AfC pages, not the total. That's a glitch but still good info. Watch for pages that should go to mainspace - they come up occasionally. Happy nominating and thanks again. Legacypac (talk) 09:17, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes, I was not sure whether this was "not really WP material/webhost" vs an actual abandoned draft, and it would be out-of-process for WP:CSD#G13 for the latter. Thanks to you for helping clean up random crap laying around. DMacks (talk) 19:50, 1 October 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-40

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

Recent changes

  • You can now use preload features in the visual editor. This means you can create links to create new pages and some text will already be in the edit window when someone clicks on it. [46]

Changes later this week

  • If you have turned on "Automatically enable most beta features" you will now get the 2017 wikitext editor. Before this you had to turn it on manually even though it is a beta feature. [47]
  • Special:Block and Special:Unblock will get the OOUI look. [48]
  • The jQuery library will be upgraded to version 3 on all Wiktionary wikis from 2 October. It will be on all non-Wikipedia wikis from 4 October. It will be on all wikis from 5 October. [49]
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 3 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 4 October. It will be on all wikis from 5 October (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 3 October at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
  • You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 4 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • A new feature called Reading Lists are coming to the Wikipedia mobile apps. First it will be in the Android version. Reading Lists are a private user preference where you can see lists of articles on multiple devices. You can give feedback on this feature. [50]
  • The search function has used fallback languages for language analysis. This means a language could be analysed with the grammar of a completely unrelated language to find related words. This will be removed from most wikis the week starting with 9 October. You can read more and give feedback.

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

23:25, 2 October 2017 (UTC)

Periodic table

What would you think about restoring the indefinite semiprotection of this article? It was lowered to PC1 on 23 August but since then there have been 31 bad IP edits. Thanks, EdJohnston (talk) 01:32, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

Indeed.  Done DMacks (talk) 02:46, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:Cleanup image accessibility

Template:Cleanup image accessibility has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 19:27, 8 October 2017 (UTC)

Tech News: 2017-41

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

Recent changes

Problems

  • You will not be able to edit or upload files to Commons for around 30 minutes on 11 October. This will start at 06:00 UTC. This is because of work to let Commons show 3D models. [53]

Changes later this week

  • The font in the edit window is monospace by default. Today you can change preferences to another font family or use "the browser default" instead of monospace. Switching to the browser default has only changed the font on Macs. The option to use browser default will be removed this week. [54]
  • If you want to print a page or make a PDF of a page you can do so in the side menu. The way the pages look when you do this will change. You can read more on mediawiki.org.
  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 10 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 11 October. It will be on all wikis from 12 October (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 10 October at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
  • You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 11 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

14:21, 9 October 2017 (UTC)

Allen3 project

I'm not sure how to move preserving attribution, would you be so kind as to move User:Allen3/churchill to Clark Churchill for me. I'll tag it up and work on it in mainspace. Thanks. —tim /// Carrite (talk) 17:27, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

 Done Enjoy/thanks for your work! DMacks (talk) 17:31, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Hi again. Had a few minutes last night and got the Churchill piece at least minimally cleaned up. I'll do the same for User:Allen3/Bayard if you'd be so kind as to move it to James Asherton Bayard in mainspace. Thanks. —tim /// Carrite (talk) 15:46, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

 Done, and added to James Bayard bio-DAB. DMacks (talk) 20:19, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for October 15

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited F number (chemistry), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Stationary phase (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 10:43, 15 October 2017 (UTC)

File:Alison King at Liz Dawn's funeral.jpg

I have provided a lengthy dispute to your Replaceable fair use claim for File:Alison King at Liz Dawn's funeral.jpg. I have described how there is no free equivalent image of the actor in question as their image is essentially owned by a television broadcaster who produces the show they appear on. This, I anticipate, is a satisfactory explanation for you. I hope you understand now how a free image of this subject cannot be created, and hope you will consider removing the replaceable fair use claim from the image. Thank you for your collaboration! Poeheese (talk) 13:48, 15 October 2017 (UTC)

It might be difficult, maybe even someone has to pay a commercial photographer to set up a shoot. But that can be done. Does she never get out of her car? Does she never go to a store? Does she never sign autographs or do promotional interviews? The WP:NFC#UUI guideline seems pretty clear-cut to me. I sent it to Wikipedia:Files for discussion to get wider input. DMacks (talk) 19:44, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
Promotional interviews are also covered by copyright so how would that be different?Poeheese (talk) 21:00, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
As you can see, there was prompt and strong consensus that this situation is not special or different than the standard ones covered by the guidelines. I'm sorry you feel unable to get the image you feel the article needs, but our legal obligations and policies have to be followed. DMacks (talk) 02:39, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
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