This page is an archive of past discussions. 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.
Hey! This is just a friendly reminder about the Wikipedia 10th anniversary celebration in Pittsburgh tomorrow. The meeting time has been moved up to 4:00 so that we can gather before the game starts and stake out places, and it may be a good idea to get there even sooner, if you can. Pittsburgh bars are likely to be a little crazy and very crowded. See you there!--ragesoss (talk) 02:18, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
Sounds good. :) I'll be there! Avicennasis @ 17:54, 10 Shevat 5771 / 15 January 2011 (UTC)
This is the first issue of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program newsletter. Please read it! It has important information about the the current wave of classes, instructions and advice, and other news about the ambassador program.
Delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 00:30, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
Patriarch Zoilus of Alexandria
You tagged the article on Patriarch Zoilus of Alexandria as unreferenced. I know it has only one reference, added by myself, but are you questioning a specific part of the text? Dimadick (talk) 10:09, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
I didn't tag it as unreferenced. It was already automatically tagged as unreferenced, which is why it was in Category:Articles automatically tagged as unreferenced. I merely adjusted the tag to {{refimprove}}. It states that there is a reference, however more would be desired. :) In general, I think, we shouldn't rely a single source alone, though I don't question your reference at all. Hope that clears things up! Avicennasis @ 01:10, 26 Shevat 5771 / 31 January 2011 (UTC)
Re Category:People from Squamish, the reason for my previous edit comment about that category needing deletion is not because as a hyphenated version of the name, vs the current (but contested, by me) version that uses a dash, but because classifying people by regional district is just wrong, wrong, wrong but dates back to Wiki-ancient times when someone thought RDs were a valid way to indicate where people were from and/or for other reasons geographic subdivisions of BC. The RM for the re-hyphenation of RD names is at Talk:Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (see Requested Move 2 there, that's a redirect to a "dashified" version of the page, but I refuse to type dashes when they're not where they should be; all sources - all - use a hyphen, as does the enabling legislation). I'll create Category:People from the Sea to Sky Country which will have the Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton Valley and Gates Valley people categories (whichever exists, I think Whistler's does only at this point).Skookum1 (talk) 02:18, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
Ah. My goal wasn't to delete the category based on the edit summury - I am just working through Wikipedia:Database reports/Categories categorized in red-linked categories and removing the redlinked cats as I see them. :) Feel free to undo my edit if you want someone else to take a look at it - that page shouldn't come up again in my queue. Avicennasis @ 02:22, 29 Shevat 5771 / 3 February 2011 (UTC)
Actually, hm, you know what? I forgot to include the subcats in the RM, "people from", "populated places in" etc...oh wait, no I'm confused (like often), that's for the article, not the categories, which will be given a speedy by User:Good Olfactory once the main RM on the articles is done. Hopefully no CfD required; the first RM was inane enough....sigh.Skookum1 (talk) 09:48, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
Indiscriminate removal of red-linked categories
I read in the section above that you are "just working through Wikipedia:Database reports/Categories categorized in red-linked categories and removing the redlinked cats as I see them". This you seem to be doing rather indiscriminately as a number of the categories which you are removing should in fact be created as they are established parts of existing hierarchies. Perhaps you should inquire at Wikipedia talk:Categorization before proceeding in this endeavour. __meco (talk) 10:20, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
Sounds good. I didn't think there would be a need for a redlink category (If it was a necessary cat, I would think it would be created already) but just to clarify I did leave a message on Wikipedia talk:Categorization, and will stop with this project until I get some responses. :) Avicennasis @ 14:01, 29 Shevat 5771 / 3 February 2011 (UTC)
Please try to fix redline categories, rather than just deleting them as you did to Mark Murphy (ice hockey). Thank you. Dolovis (talk) 04:56, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
I thought that maybe you were mistaken, and left this message on my talk page before you realized your mistake, but it seems that this note was left afterwards. It also seems that despite one of the cats being previously deleted, you re-created it anyways. Avicennasis @ 06:24, 1 Adar I 5771 / 5 February 2011 (UTC)
To clarify what happened (and yes, your are missing something), you removed relevant category redlinks when you should have fixed them. I added the categories back and then created categories for the redlinks. I then realized categories already existed, but under different names, so I fixed the categories on the article (as you should have done in the first place) and then CSD-deleted the redundant categories that I created in error. All of this effort would have been avoided if you did not remove the redlinks in the first place. If you have a dislike for redlinks then please fix them - do not remove them. And if categories confuse you, then please just leave them alone. Dolovis (talk) 00:44, 14 February 2011 (UTC)
Still missing something. The end result, as I see it, is that the two red-link categories I removed, should have been removed. Perhaps replacing them would have been nice, but one cannot expect to know every single category to know which one is the proper category. And if some time goes past before another editor does add the proper cat, So what?Avicennasis @ 01:19, 10 Adar I 5771 / 14 February 2011 (UTC)
No, The two redlinks you removed should have been fixed. Blindly removing redlink categories is disruptive. Dolovis (talk) 04:22, 14 February 2011 (UTC)
I think we can agree to disagree on this one. You've "fixed" the article in question, and I've heard your view point. I don't think any further discussion needs to happen. Thank you for your time, and keep up the good work that you do. :) Avicennasis @ 16:31, 10 Adar I 5771 / 14 February 2011 (UTC)
Mentor
Hi, I am a James Madison University student and one of my classes is working on a Public Policy article this semester. I don't have a mentor yet and was wondering if you would be interested. Thank you,
Kimberly — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kimberly wymer (talk • contribs) 19:24, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
Hello there, Kimberly! :) I'd be glad to offer help in any way I can. Just let me know what you need! I know that Wikipedia can be confusing at times, so if you have any questions, or are just curious about something, feel free to ask. Avicennasis @ 14:30, 30 Shevat 5771 / 4 February 2011 (UTC)
Thank you! If you would like to add our page for the class it is WP:USPP I do have one question. I was trying to add a photo to a page and I read through all of the how to add a picture and it wouldn't work. What is the code for it? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kimberly wymer (talk • contribs) 17:49, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
WikipediaNo problem. The code for adding a picture would be [[File:Filename.JPG|thumb|Caption text]]. This will only work if the file is already uploaded to Wikipedia (or it's sister website, Commons). Note that the filename is case sensitive. For an example, If I add [[File:Wiki.png|thumb|Wikipedia]] to this page, I'll get the image to the right. If you haven't already, you might want to check out Wikipedia:Picture tutorial. It's got a lot of good info and more advanced examples, if you want to experiment a little bit. :) Hope that helps! Avicennasis @ 18:03, 1 Adar I 5771 / 5 February 2011 (UTC)
Thank you for your help on the picture. I got it to work, I appreciate it. My next question is would you mind looking at my article on food policy? I have added some information but I am not sure what else should be included within the article. Such as what information is still needed or is there something I am missing for sure. Thank you! Kimberly wymer (talk) 00:59, 23 February 2011 (UTC)Kimberly Wymer
Articles automatically tagged as unreferenced
Can I ask you to please not remove the auto= parameter from very short one-line stubs? There's really no point as the stub tag already conveys that the article is woefully incomplete, which would include referencing, it's redundant to have an unreferenced tag in addition to a stub tag, and totally unnecessary if there's only one sentence such as "<blank> is a village in <blank>" as there's nothing to cite anyway. I already updated the instructions at the category page. -- Ϫ 22:46, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
Not a problem. I was a bit unsure about tagging some articles. I verified the pages were still unreferenced, which is why I was removing the "auto=yes" part of the tag, but I wasn't sure how to keep the pages in the Category:All articles lacking sources without removing the tag entirely... But, if it's best these be passed over for now, I can do that. :) (The tags are a bit unsightly.) As Category:Articles automatically tagged as unreferenced has over 50k+ articles in it, I don't think that will be a big deal. I'll refocus a little bit on how I work through this cat. Avicennasis @ 02:25, 2 Adar I 5771 / 6 February 2011 (UTC)
Ya we shouldn't even be worrying about doing anything with the articles in that category, it's meant to be more of a tracking category than maintenance. All the pages still remain in Category:All articles lacking sources whether "auto=yes" is removed or not, so for the short one-line stubs it's better to just leave the tag hidden, and it'll still be categorized as being unreferenced for those working on finding refs. -- Ϫ 02:47, 6 February 2011 (UTC)
Ah. I was only going through it since someone mentioned it at AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks. :) I'm just going to find articles that do have references and remove the tag entirely, if needed. I think that will be a better approach. Avicennasis @ 05:36, 2 Adar I 5771 / 6 February 2011 (UTC)
Yes, MUCH better, thanks :) -- Ϫ 06:20, 6 February 2011 (UTC)
Thank you, -- DASHBot (talk) 05:02, 13 February 2011 (UTC)
Whoops! Sorry about that, was testing something. :) Thanks for the heads up DASHBot! Avicennasis @ 05:07, 9 Adar I 5771 / 13 February 2011 (UTC)
Monopoly on Violence, edit
Hey dude, I reverted your deletion of the move-protect icon from monopoly on violence. I called it vandalism in the revert description, but that was more of a general term to denote that something that was an integral part of the page was deleted. I just wanted to know why you deleted the icon? 138.246.7.70 (talk) 22:05, 13 February 2011 (UTC)talonx
Yeah I had read your edit, but was confused, because with your correction the page protect became invisible (or nonexistent?). Anyways, I just wanted to know what was up. Thanks for the answer :) Talonxpool (talk) 11:40, 14 February 2011 (UTC)
Could you please refrain from removing stub tags with AWB, many of the ones you are removing are clearly stubs such as The Night of Kadar. Novels are an interesting case, because plot sections are exactly what the stub definition defines "very little meaningful content; may be little more than a dictionary definition," whereas to become a start it requires additional information thus providing " some meaningful content." Length simply isn't a good judge of novels articles, Sadads (talk) 10:40, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
Can you point me to where you got this info? I didn't find the word "plot" or the phrase "very little meaningful content" on Wikipedia:Stub, which means you must have another source for this. Avicennasis @ 16:35, 17 Adar I 5771 / 21 February 2011 (UTC)
Mentoring students: be sure to check in on them
This message is going out to all of the Online Ambassadors who are, or will be, serving as mentors this term.
Hi there! This is just a friendly reminder to check in on what your mentees are doing. If they've started making edits, take a look and help them out or do some example fixes for them, if they need it. And if they are doing good, let them know it!
If you aren't mentoring anyone yet, it looks like you will be soon; at least one large class is asking us to assign mentors for them, and students in a number of others haven't yet gotten to asking ambassadors to be their mentors, but may soon. --Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 20:05, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
Hey Avicennasis. One of the classes working with the Wikipedia Ambassador Program, Jonathan Obar's Media and Telecommunication Policy, is working in small groups and would like us to assign a mentor to each group (rather than having students request the mentors they'd like, as other classes are doing).
I invite you to sign on as the mentor for one or more groups, especially if any of the topics catch your interest. To sign up, go to the course page and add yourself as "Mentor: you" in the section for that group. They students and/or professor or campus ambassadors should be cleaning things up soon to list all the usernames for each group and add a few more groups. Once you know who the students are in the group, you can leave them each a quick introduction to let them know you'll be mentoring their group.
Hello! Just a quick note to point out a couple of taggings that appear to have been in error, namely [1] and [2]. As you'll notice, the stub was categorized prior to the first tagging, which is why I reverted the first diff and have also reverted the second diff. I don't want to approach the 3RR line over the situation, so I thought I might bring it here to sort out! (No need to reply to my page via tb, I'll be watching this page) Cheers! Strikerforce (talk) 11:12, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
Hello! Sorry about that. When considering whether a page is in a category, stubs are generally not accounted for that fact. We are looking for "content categories", that is, intended as part of the encyclopedia, to help readers find articles, based on features of the subjects of those articles. Stub categories do not fall under this, as they will now help a reader locate a certain page. I have added a real category to the page, so it should stay out of the Untagged Uncategorized Articles list. :) Thanks for the heads up. Avicennasis @ 15:31, 19 Adar I 5771 / 23 February 2011 (UTC)
Ahh, I understand. It just seemed a bit odd, to me, at the time. We're on the same page now! Strikerforce (talk) 19:02, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
Castle Age- Review
Dear,
I think I am trying level best to improve the "Castle Age" page. I had already placed stub on it. I do not think It needs to be tagged orphan. I would rather request you to help readers by improving this page. Arshan.abbas (talk) 15:19, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
Sorry, but a page is considered an orphan if less than 3 articles link to it. Currently, as you can see, no other articles link to it. I would help out in greater part but I'm not too familiar with the topic. Once it has some links from other articles, you can remove the orphan tag. :) Avicennasis @ 15:34, 19 Adar I 5771 / 23 February 2011 (UTC)
Hi Dear,
I think it is ok now. Kindly review. Arshan.abbas (talk) 18:25, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
Mentoring
Hi Avicennasis! I'm a grad student at Indiana University, and my trade econ class is working with Wikipedia this semester. I was hoping you could mentor me through the process. Cheers - Pubpolliz (talk) 19:45, 23 February 2011 (UTC)
I'd be happy to! :) I'll try to keep an eye your edits, and help out where I can. Feel free to ask if you have any questions or run into any problems! Avicennasis @ 08:59, 21 Adar I 5771 / 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Warning
This edit is of the minor type of edits, for which we should not use AWB. Debresser (talk) 08:47, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
I'd double-check that. The article was tagged as unreferenced, despite it having a reference. This update corrected the template, and by doing so also updated the maintenance categories on the page. :) The edit was minor, by not trivial (E.g., "such as only adding or removing some white space, moving a stub tag, converting some HTML to Unicode..." et cetera.) Avicennasis @ 08:52, 21 Adar I 5771 / 25 February 2011 (UTC)
I apologize, I was in a haste and got mixed up between the two templates. Debresser (talk) 13:28, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
I am not as involved in Wikipedia as I once was. Sorry. Debresser (talk) 16:32, 26 February 2011 (UTC)
No apology needed - I've done worse, I'm sure. :) Keep up the positive contributions! Avicennasis @ 22:05, 22 Adar I 5771 / 26 February 2011 (UTC)
I appreciate your efforts to correct these templates. Having an old unref tag on an article that contains even one WP:Inline citation or WP:General reference is inappropriate. I think, though, that it would be better to also update the date at the same time, so that people know that it was recently determined that the references needed to be improved. WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:34, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
I agree with the tag change - it seems very sloppy when a reader sees a tag saying an article has no references, then sees references at the bottom of the page. It makes us seem unprofessional. As for the date - the tag change is suggested by AutoWikiBroswer, and it's only programmed to adjust the tag, not the date. I assume there is a reason/consensus for that, however I have not looked into it. I suppose you could ask at Wikipedia talk:AutoWikiBrowser if you wanted specifics there. :) Hope that helps. Avicennasis @ 21:01, 26 Adar I 5771 / 2 March 2011 (UTC)
Mentoring
Interested in possibly having you as a Wikipedia mentor for my PPI article. Aelarini (talk) 15:15, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
Hey there Aelarini! I'd be happy to help out however I can! Feel free to ask if you have any questions, as well. Avicennasis @ 22:06, 22 Adar I 5771 / 26 February 2011 (UTC)
AWB and categorization
Hi, and thanks for expressing an interest in my recent post about getting some AWBers to help out with the categorization project. I've written up a page, User:Bearcat/AWB categorization and tagging, which provides a basic walkthrough of how to do the task, but of course feel free to ask me if you have any further questions or need advice or clarification. Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 23:51, 26 February 2011 (UTC)
Hi. I left a rather snotty edit summary at JDP, which was supposed to be directed at an earlier ISP-number editor, not at you. Sorry! — HarringtonSmith (talk) 00:59, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
Oh, no worries there! Thanks for the clarification. :) Avicennasis @ 01:02, 26 Adar I 5771 / 2 March 2011 (UTC)
It would be very helpful if you could say where additional citations are needed for this article. Thanks. Cg2p0B0u8m (talk) 20:21, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
It seems good, I've removed the {{refimprove}} tag. Before that, it was tagged as {{unreferenced}}, which obviously isn't the case since there are references. AutoWikiBrowser suggested the tag change, since it did have refs - it's just not good at deciding how many references are enough. :) Avicennasis @ 20:57, 26 Adar I 5771 / 2 March 2011 (UTC)
Please take a look at this project page and see if you can be a mentor to one of the many Areas of Study. If you can, please put your name in the "Online Mentor" area of the Area of Study of your choice and then contact the students you will be working with. As the Coordinating Online Ambassador for this project, please let me know if I can be of assistance. Take Care...Neutralhomer • Talk • 04:29, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
I'll leave you to it; poke me if needed. Cheers, Chzz ► 16:50, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
Ah, Thanks for the heads up! Not sure how those two got in there, but precisely why I posted it at WP:BOTREQ before doing anything more - extra eyes are always handy. I think those nine will have to be disambig'd, or possibly merged if the "(video game)" version is already about the computer game. Avicennasis @ 16:56, 27 Adar I 5771 / 3 March 2011 (UTC)
I agree, those need manual sorting-out. But that doesn't have to stop the rest. There is one more small 'gotcha' which I've posted on the REQ page. Cheers, Chzz ► 17:53, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
Mhm, looks OK to me. (As in, I checked some of the merge, and yeah; looks OK) Chzz ► 05:36, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
It is possible that the bot is confused and found similarity where none actually exists. If that is the case, you can remove the tag from the article. The article will be reviewed to determine if there are any copyright issues.
If substantial content is duplicated and it is not public domain or available under a compatible license, it will be deleted. For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material. You may use such publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences. See our copyright policy for further details. (If you own the copyright to the previously published content and wish to donate it, see Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials for the procedure.) CorenSearchBot (talk) 00:46, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
I don't think so, CorenSearchBot. You must be a little confused. :) It's ok, I love you anyway. Avicennasis @ 00:54, 29 Adar I 5771 / 5 March 2011 (UTC)
Huh. I have no idea why that happened. Thanks for fixing it and bringing it to my attention! :) I'll file a bug report with WP:AWB devs. Avicennasis @ 00:37, 1 Adar II 5771 / 7 March 2011 (UTC)
Bug filed, if your interested. :) Avicennasis @ 00:48, 1 Adar II 5771 / 7 March 2011 (UTC)
chris brooks
The above article is not worthy of space on wikipedia. This presenter has a little tin pot job on a local radio station and i dont think this will benefit anybody who should read it, only to massage the already over inflated ego of a cheesy disc jockey who went out with the arc
Try reading tags which have already been added which requests the removal of this pointless article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.21.163.252 (talk) 11:13, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
I assume you mean Chris Brooks (radio presenter)? I do see it has been tagged for deletion. Some admin will come along, and if they agree with the deletion reason, the article will be removed. Avicennasis @ 16:01, 1 Adar II 5771 / 7 March 2011 (UTC)
CfD Manual bot list
Cheers for that list. I've never mastered AWB myself - if you could remove the categories from the 92 living that would be the best start to getting them all in line. Timrollpickering (talk) 20:49, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
No prob. :) I'll get to it shortly. Avicennasis @ 20:50, 1 Adar II 5771 / 7 March 2011 (UTC)
DoneAvicennasis @ 22:04, 1 Adar II 5771 / 7 March 2011 (UTC)
Concur with removing living persons from bias categories
Avicennasis: I concur with the recent CFD on bias categories. I notice you removed many individuals from several of those categories. Another category that may be appropriate is Category:Antisemitism in the United States which has quite a few living persons in it, who are implicitly accused of being biased, simply by being mentioned in the Category, hence a BLP issue. If you have time, you may want to scrub that category also. --Noleander (talk) 00:54, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
Done :) Feel free to let me know if I can be of more assistance. Avicennasis @ 01:14, 2 Adar II 5771 / 8 March 2011 (UTC)
That was fast :-) David Duke is still in that category: was that a deliberate choice? --Noleander (talk) 01:38, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
Nope. A fluke. I loaded all articles in Category:Antisemitism in the United States, then scanned them to see which articles contained the text [[Category:Living people]]. Not sure how that one slipped through - I've removed it now as well. :) Avicennasis @ 01:41, 2 Adar II 5771 / 8 March 2011 (UTC)
Actually, upon looking a little deeper, it looks like I did get this removed. Another editor undid the change, though. Avicennasis @ 01:47, 2 Adar II 5771 / 8 March 2011 (UTC)
Your signature
Hi Avicennasis, please use a standardised timestamp so that bots such as archive bots can interpret it correctly. I think your use of the Hebrew calendar is a nifty trick, but your sig must contain the timestamp in this format *somewhere*: "19:06, 7 March 2011 (UTC)". Thanks! Graham87 03:00, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
I've posted tons of places that use archive bots - I've never broken one yet. :) If you can point me somewhere that is has, I'll gladly change it. Avicennasis @ 03:05, 2 Adar II 5771 / 8 March 2011 (UTC)
It would only break an archive bot if you were the only person to post in a particular section. Maybe your sig doesn't break the archive bots ... you'd best ask their maintainers. But I'm pretty paranoid about this sort of thing ... hear are someexamples where I've had to fix such breakage on relatively well-used talk pages. Graham87 03:10, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
It would also break the archive bots if there were no signatures with standard timestamps in the section (i.e. your sig + unsigned comments and/or other sigs with non-standard timestamps), but that's not very likely. Graham87 03:16, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
It also seems that User:KingpinBot doesn't mind it either - same result here, archived with no problem. So, I assume I'm good. :) Thanks for the concern, though. Avicennasis @ 03:26, 2 Adar II 5771 / 8 March 2011 (UTC)
But both those diffs contain sigs with standard timestamps; other contributors have signed within those sections. Ah well, it's not a high-priority issue, really. Graham87 05:20, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
Hi, I was just wondering why this name did not warrant a block at this time considering there is no evidence of name change and their SPA contributions to Home Entertainment Suppliers which the name appears to represent and promote? Thanks Fæ (talk) 13:00, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
In general, abandoned accounts aren't usually blocked. This account hasn't edited since Feb 24, and it seems unlikely they will be back. (A good deal of accounts reported at WP:UAA are abandoned, and no further action is taken.) If they do return, however, and continue the same behavior, the account will be blocked at that point. :) Hope that helps. Avicennasis @ 13:05, 2 Adar II 5771 / 8 March 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for the explanation, I agree it's low risk. As users I have welcomed stay on my watchlist for around the 2 month mark before getting automatically unwatched, I'll probably notice if they start up again over the next few weeks anyway. Cheers Fæ (talk) 13:13, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
Don't take this too seriously. Someone just wants to let you know that you did something silly.
You have been trouted for: going on vacation. Didn't you know that you're not allowed to do that without offering to purchase a shot glass for me to add to my collection? Shame on you! ;) Strikerforce (talk) 02:29, 11 March 2011 (UTC)
Strikerforce: Ah, I knew I was forgetting something! :) So sorry - I'll try to make a note next time to pick you up something. Avicennasis @ 15:48, 9 Adar II 5771 / 15 March 2011 (UTC)
Don't let it happen again! :) Strikerforce (talk) 08:06, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
TerrenceandPhillip: Sorry you had to take a trout for me since I was away - but thanks for that! I'll grab you something, too, next trip I'm on. :) Avicennasis @ 15:48, 9 Adar II 5771 / 15 March 2011 (UTC)
Hello, Online Mentor
Just wanted to say hello, as you're my group's online mentor for the Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy. Looking forward to working with you! I'm a junior at Michigan State majoring in Computer Science. My group members should leave a comment here soon, also. Tuoheyjo (talk) 19:03, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
(talk page stalker)I believe Avicennasis is away on vacation, at the moment. If your group needs assistance in the interim, I would be happy to offer my help. You may either leave a message here so Avicennasis will have them all in one place when he returns or on my talk page. Strikerforce (talk) 22:17, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
I'm back! :) Hello there, Tuoheyjo! I look forward to working with you! Please feel free to ask questions and whatnot - I'm happy to be able to help! Avicennasis @ 15:50, 9 Adar II 5771 / 15 March 2011 (UTC)
Notification: changes to "Mark my edits as minor by default" preference
Hello there. This is an automated message to tell you about the gradual phasing out of the preference entitled "Mark all edits minor by default", which you currently have enabled.
On 13 March 2011, this preference was hidden from the user preferences screen as part of efforts to prevent its accidental misuse (consensus discussion). This had the effect of locking users in to their existing preference, which, in your case, was true. To complete the process, your preference will automatically be changed to false in the next few days. This does not require any intervention on your part and you will still be able to manually mark your edits as being 'minor'. The only thing that's changed is that you will no longer be able to have them marked as minor by default. For more information on what a minor edit is, see WP:MINOR or feel to get in touch.
Thank you for your understanding and happy editing :) Editing on behalf of User:Jarry1250, LivingBot (talk) 23:27, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for the heads up. I'd much rather keep the preference - perhaps I'll have to try and make a gadget or somesuch thing to keep this feature. Else all my edits are just going to be "major" instead of minor. :) Avicennasis @ 15:51, 9 Adar II 5771 / 15 March 2011 (UTC)
GOCE March 2011 backlog elimination drive progress graphs
So far, 79 people have signed up for this drive. Of these, 64 have participated. Interest is high due to a link to our event from the Watchlist page, and many new and first-time copy editors have joined us for the drive. If you signed up for the drive but haven't participated yet, it's not too late! Try to copy edit at least a few articles. Remember, if you have rollover words from the last drive, you will lose them if you do not participate in this drive. If you haven't signed up for the drive yet, you can sign up now. Many thanks to those editors who have been helping out at the Requests page. We have assisted in the promotion of seven articles to Good article status so far this month.
Progress report
We have already achieved our target of reducing the overall backlog by 10%; however, we have more work to do with the 2009 backlog. We have almost eliminated May 2009 and we only have some 700 articles left from 2009. It is excellent progress, so let's concentrate our fire power on the remaining months from 2009. Thank you for participating in the March 2011 drive. We anticipate it will be another big success!
Utahraptor resigns
The UtahraptorTalk to me has decided to step down from his position as project coordinator due to real-life issues.
Just wanted to say hello, as you're my group's online mentor for the Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy. I'm a senior at Michigan State majoring Media Communication Technologies. Look forward to working with you!. Gruszyn1 (talk) 15:23, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad to offer my services. If you have any questions and whatnot, don't hesitate to ask. That is what I'm here for! Avicennasis @ 15:53, 9 Adar II 5771 / 15 March 2011 (UTC)
Hello Online Mentor III
My name is David Gill and i am a student at Michigan State University, working on the following project: Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy. I'm a senior at Michigan State majoring Media Communication Technologies and minoring in computer science. Gilldav2 (talk) 15:22, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
Hello David, and welcome to Wikipedia! Please, feel free to settle in and make yourself at home. If I can be of any assistance, just drop me a note, and I'll be happy to help! Avicennasis @ 15:54, 9 Adar II 5771 / 15 March 2011 (UTC)
Vacation
{{Vacation}} tag removed 15:40, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
Marking articles students are working on
Howdy, Online Ambassador!
This is a quick message to all the ambassadors about marking and tracking which articles students are working on. For the classes working with the ambassador program, please look over any articles being worked on by students (in particular, any ones you are mentoring, but others who don't have mentors as well) and do these things:
Add {{WAP assignment | term = Spring 2011 }} to the articles' talk pages. (The other parameters of the {{WAP assignment}} template are helpful, so please add them as well, but the term = Spring 2011 one is most important.)
If the article is related to United States public policy, make sure the article the WikiProject banner is on the talk page: {{WikiProject United States Public Policy}}
Add Category:Article Feedback Pilot (a hidden category) to the article itself. The second phase of the Article Feedback Tool project has started, and this time we're trying to include all of the articles students are working on. Please test out the Article Feedback Tool, as well. The new version just deployed, so any bug reports or feedback will be appreciated by the tech team working on it.
And of course, don't forget to check in on the students, give them constructive feedback, praise them for positive contributions, award them {{The WikiPen}} if they are doing excellent work, and so on. And if you haven't done so, make sure any students you are mentoring are listed on your mentor profile.
SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. We appreciate that you have signed up to receive suggestions regularly, your contributions make Wikipedia better — thanks for helping!
If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please let us know on SuggestBot's talk page. Regards from Nettrom (talk), SuggestBot's caretaker. -- SuggestBot (talk) 07:38, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
Stubsensor
I was wondering if the stubsensor program could be used to do a custom project. There is a list of articles at Category:Articles automatically tagged as unreferenced. Virtually all these are marked as stubs, but some are more stubby than others. Is there a way the stubsensor could try to distinguish between the articles that are really microscopic (essentially one or two sentences of prose) and the ones that are longer? I'm thinking it would need to ignore infobox code, which can add a lot of bytes to the source. If the stubsensor isn't written to do that, I can write a script to do it, but I thought I would ask if you already have code that can do it. We just need some sort of rough division of the stubs in that category. — Carl (CBM · talk) 13:42, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
Unfortunately, I'm only able to get an article's total size. I could pull a report, say, for all articles in that cat that are less than 1000 bytes. It would find articles like Rubiales, for example. I don't know if that would be a helpful start or not. :) Let me know if I cab be of any assistance. Avicennasis @ 17:06, 11 Adar II 5771 / 17 March 2011 (UTC)
The total size I can also get, from the toolserver database. Unfortunately, some articles have a lot of text, and some have a lot of infoboxes, so the total size doesn't distinguish between them. But I can write a quick script that will scan through the articles and get the size of just their plain text. — Carl (CBM · talk) 21:24, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
White space edits
Hi; is there a reason you are adding two spaces between the end of text and templates at the bottom of an article and labelling such edits "clean up"? One space should be sufficient, no? Good Ol’factory(talk) 00:22, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
I assume you mean edits like this one? It's a basic part of AWB's general fixes, it's nothing I've special that I've setup. Someone recently mentioned it here - not sure if that discussion helps or not.
And my apologizes for not seeing the message sooner - Generally, when editing with AvicAWB, I have a window open on this account that refreshes automatically once a minute, so I can see and respond to any new comments. This time I dropped the ball and forgot to set the auto-refresh. Facepalm So sorry about that. Avicennasis @ 00:42, 12 Adar II 5771 / 18 March 2011 (UTC)
Oh, OK. I have never used AWB before, but that's good to know that that is a standard thing that's done with it. I didn't know. No worries about the delay—I just figured if I edited your talk page and reverted it immediately, it would at least get your attention. :) Thanks for responding. Good Ol’factory(talk) 00:45, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
AWB & Ship Index
Regarding your AWB edit. Where there are a number od ships with a similar name, there is a "Ship Index" page - in category "Disambig-Class Ships articles". Editors are advised not to link to such pages, but to link to the individual ship articles.
Is it then appropriate for you to add "dead end", advising editors to link to such pages?
Please reconsider your edit to SS Irish Oak Lugnad (talk) 08:46, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
My apologizes - AWB suggested the tag, as I guess it doesn't see the link made by the {{SS}} template. I will try to be more careful in the future - thanks for the heads up! Avicennasis @ 15:25, 12 Adar II 5771 / 18 March 2011 (UTC)
Yep, that seems to be the trouble. Until that's fixed, I'll change my settings to skip all pages with the {{shipindex}} tag. I also found a few more pages this happened to, and have undone those edits. Thanks again. Avicennasis @ 15:48, 12 Adar II 5771 / 18 March 2011 (UTC)
Please don't add {{stub}} to disambiguation pages. PamD (talk) 09:14, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
Hmm. My settings should be skipping disambiguation pages. I'm not sure why this happened. Thanks for the notice, I'll be looking over this and see why that happened. Sorry for the trouble. Avicennasis @ 15:27, 12 Adar II 5771 / 18 March 2011 (UTC)
I believe I found the issue - AWB is supposed to skip all pages with the {{disambiguation}} tag. These articles, however, use the tag {{Species Latin name abbreviation disambiguation}}. I've changed my settings to skip these as well, and reverted the edits I mistakenly made to those pages. Again, sorry to be a bother, but thanks for the heads up. Avicennasis @ 15:36, 12 Adar II 5771 / 18 March 2011 (UTC)
There are quite a few of these specialised dab tags - they survived a TfD here - you might like to check whether any of the others won't be recognised by AWB either! PamD (talk) 15:58, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
2. Don't do anything controversial with it. If there is a chance that the edits you are considering might be controversial, consider soliciting comment at the village pump or appropriate WikiProject before proceeding.
A few days ago you made this edit to John Burgee. I revert that edit, and today you restored it . An edit which has been reverted by another editor is, by definition, controversial, and therefore should not be done using AWB. Please do not revert again. Beyond My Ken (talk) 20:52, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
I edit a great deal of articles - it's hard for me to keep track of them. Re-doing this edit was unintentional. IT's AWB's code that suggest the page is not a stub - and I tend to agree. The page is not a stub. Could it be longer? Of course; it could be a lot longer. However, per WP:STUB: A stub is an article containing only a few sentences of text... This article has 3 paragraphs, 2 lists and images. It's not a stub. If you want to draw attention to this article, I would suggest you follow the Wikipedia:Stub guideline and use a {{expand section}} tag or similar. Avicennasis @ 23:18, 13 Adar II 5771 / 19 March 2011 (UTC)
Sure, no problem. Got 2 outta 3 done - will get the last one shortly. Avicennasis @ 18:00, 14 Adar II 5771 / 20 March 2011 (UTC)
Done. For Category:Fb round templates, there are still a few hyphens I couldn't move to endashes, since the endash version already exist. I didn't check to see if both versions are the same, but if they are, one could simply redirect the hyphen verison to the endash. :) Hope that helps. Avicennasis @ 03:51, 15 Adar II 5771 / 21 March 2011 (UTC)
Hey again! Are you up for mentoring one more student? If so, I'll ask you to take over for My76Strat's mentee, User:Kimberly wymer. Please let me know either way. Whoops, nevermind, someone already volunteered for this. Sorry for the bother.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 15:33, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
This is the third issue of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program Newsletter, with details about what's going on right now and where help is needed.
Where the courses are - A brief summary of how each of the 31 Public Policy Initiative courses are faring so far in the Spring 2011 term, as of 9-11 March. Feel free to add more detail.
Tracking students' articles - Make sure students' articles are tagged with {{WAP assignment}} on the talk pages, and have the newly improved Article Feedback Tool active.
Online Ambassadors logistics - If you don't have a Wikipedia Ambassador sweatshirt, now's your chance to get one! (Also, some other more mundane, but important, details.)
Steering committee preparing proposals - Look for discussions about two major proposals about the future ambassador program soon: the "Regional Ambassador" role, and elections for a new committee.
This page is an archive of past discussions. 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.
Hey there Avicennasis, thank you for your contributions. I am a bot, alerting you that non-free files are not allowed in user or talk space. I removed some files I found on User:Avicennasis/sandbox10. In the future, please refrain from adding fair-use files to your user-space drafts or your talk page.
Done :) Feel free to let me know if I can be of more assistance. Avicennasis @ 01:14, 2 Adar II 5771 / 8 March 2011 (UTC)
Facepalm So sorry about that. Avicennasis @ 00:42, 12 Adar II 5771 / 18 March 2011 (UTC)