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Bouncing Wikipedia Globe

I love your User Page! How/where did you get the bouncing Wikipedia globe? JudyCS (talk) 23:08, 4 January 2014 (UTC)

Hey JudyCS! That was from my User:Mediran/Float subpage. You can transclude that page to your userpage or copy this:
<div style="position: fixed; right:0; bottom:0; display:block;">
[[File:New-Bouncywikilogo.gif|155px|link=|alt=Mediran]]
</div>
and paste it to your own page. Thanks! :) Mediran (t • c) 01:37, 5 January 2014 (UTC)
Thank you so much, Mediran! I just added your bouncing globe to my page! Thank you so much for sharing your fun creativity! JudyCS (talk) 21:17, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

SpongeBob SquarePants


A barnstar for you!

The Original Barnstar
For signing my guestbook! Epicgenius (talk) 21:32, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 08 January 2014

Public Domain Day—January 1, 2014—gives me an opportunity to reflect on this important asset, mandated by the Constitution of the United States.
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.
MediaWiki developers will be meeting in San Francisco on January 23–24 for an Architecture Summit.
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.
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.
This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Television.
Twelve articles, three lists, seven pictures, and a portal were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia in the last two weeks.

Barnstar

The SpongeBob SquarePants Barnstar Award
For turning many SpongeBob articles into GA. Daud 11:11, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

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WikiProject Bangladesh Premier League Article Improvement Program

Hello, Mediran: Hope you are having good times at Wikipedia. You'll be glad to know that WikiProject Bangladesh Premier League is holding a one month long Article Improvement Program!
The goal of this program is to improve the articles of WikiProject Bangladesh Premier League The drive is running from 15 January 2014 – 15 February 2014

Awards will be given out for all users participating in the drive in the form of barnstars and badges at the end of the drive.

There's a big amount of stub and broken articles, so start improving them. Visit the drive's page and help out! --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:33, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
Hey Mediran. Hope you are fine. we haven't talked a long time. Now as you are an experienced user so I'm personally requesting you, please join the drive and improve some articles. Thanks in advance.--Pratyya (Hello!) 13:53, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Books & Bytes New Years Double Issue

Books & Bytes

Volume 1 Issue 3, December/January 2013

(Sign up for monthly delivery)

Happy New Year, and welcome to a special double issue of Books & Bytes. We've included a retrospective on the changes and progress TWL has seen over the last year, the results of the survey TWL participants completed in December, some of our plans for the future, a second interview with a Wiki Love Libraries coordinator, and more. Here's to 2014 being a year of expansion and innovation for TWL!

The Wikipedia Library completed the first 6 months of its Individual Engagement grant last week. Here's where we are and what we've done:

Increased access to sources: 1500 editors signed up for 3700 free accounts, individually worth over $500,000, with usage increases of 400-600%
Deep networking: Built relationships with Credo, HighBeam, Questia, JSTOR, Cochrane, LexisNexis, EBSCO, New York Times, and OCLC
New pilot projects: Started the Wikipedia Visiting Scholar project to empower university-affiliated Wikipedia researchers
Developed community: Created portal connecting 250 newsletter recipients, 30 library members, 3 volunteer coordinators, and 2 part-time contractors
Tech scoped: Spec'd out a reference tool for linking to full-text sources and established a basis for OAuth integration
Broad outreach: Wrote a feature article for Library Journal's The Digital Shift; presenting at the American Library Association annual meeting
...Read Books & Bytes!

SpongeBob - Ephemeral segments

Hi, Mediran. I noticed this edit by United States Man, which drew my attention to the 356 segments summary, and I thought I'd solicit your thoughts about the following matter: I know you worked out a great solution for updating episodes across multiple articles without having to go to each article and make the change, via an "episode count template". If we leave behind an ongoing "segments" count, it seems to confuse things. For example, the article currently mentions 356 segments aired, but is that an old number? Is there any value to creating a new "segment count template" or are we wasting time listing segments, per this discussion? Related, I'm not sure that United States Man's contribution is useful, as we don't explain how a "full" episode differs from any other episode. I will be cutting that. Regards, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 02:32, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi Cyphoidbomb! Thanks for your opinion. Anyway, I added the segment count because its mention is needed. The article should introduce the total segments in the series. I don't see any reason not to add that despite that discussion. The problem in the discussion is that the word "individual" is said to be redundant and "(totaling 356 eleven minute segments)" is inappropriate because not all segments are 11-min long, etc. I think "189 episodes (357 segments)" is enough. If it is ephemeral, it can be changed pronto. What do you think? Thanks. Mediran (t • c) 04:02, 18 January 2014 (UTC)
Sorry, I cited the wrong discussion. The newer discussion started here. I can't say that the discussion inspired any contrary discussion, but so far there are two editors (myself included) who think that an ongoing "segments" tally may be unnecessary. Regards, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 04:24, 18 January 2014 (UTC)
Why? The show is a show that has episodes that are split into at least two segments. That is a major aspect of it. Also, it is not WP:OR because that is just another way to tally the count. If it is OR, then we should also remove the "189" count. Mediran (t • c) 07:07, 18 January 2014 (UTC)
I don't feel so strongly about it to make a stink. I yield. :) Cyphoidbomb (talk) 17:58, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of SpongeBob SquarePants (season 7)

The article SpongeBob SquarePants (season 7) you nominated as a good article has failed ; see Talk:SpongeBob SquarePants (season 7) for reasons why the nomination failed. If or when these points have been taken care of, you may apply for a new nomination of the article. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of ChrisGualtieri -- ChrisGualtieri (talk) 16:52, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Dunces and Dragons

The article Dunces and Dragons you nominated as a good article has failed ; see Talk:Dunces and Dragons for reasons why the nomination failed. If or when these points have been taken care of, you may apply for a new nomination of the article. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of ChrisGualtieri -- ChrisGualtieri (talk) 16:52, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Legends of Bikini Bottom

The article Legends of Bikini Bottom you nominated as a good article has failed ; see Talk:Legends of Bikini Bottom for reasons why the nomination failed. If or when these points have been taken care of, you may apply for a new nomination of the article. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of ChrisGualtieri -- ChrisGualtieri (talk) 16:52, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 January 2014

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.
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.
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.
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?"
We now can get a far more accurate picture of which short surges in popularity are likely natural and which are not.
This week, we studied human social behavior with the folks at WikiProject Sociology.

Your GA nomination of SpongeBob SquarePants (season 3)

The article SpongeBob SquarePants (season 3) you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:SpongeBob SquarePants (season 3) for comments about the article. Well done! Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of ChrisGualtieri -- ChrisGualtieri (talk) 20:12, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

upload the display picture of Govinda(actor)

hi dear, it is my humble request for you to Please upload the display picture of Govinda(actor) on Wikipedia (Link is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govinda_%28actor%29). I have uploaded it so many times but every time some issue occurs regarding license or copyright. I don't know how to fix it or upload image successfully. You can find best pictures of Govinda here

http://themirchmasala.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/govinda-photoshoot.jpg

http://hamaraphotos.com/albums300_2012/wpw-20130504/hpse_normal__1644962347_%20Govinda%20photo%20shoot%20for%20designer%20Suprabha%20Jain%20%289%29.jpg

So it would be much better if you upload either the pictures whose link i have given above of Govinda without any licensing/copyright issue or upload any best picture of Govinda Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amanraj6 (talk • contribs) 20:26, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 22 January 2014

A particularly esoteric anthology of speculative fiction, filled with imaginary Wikipedia entries from, as the introduction puts it, "the many Wikipedias across the Multiverse."
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.
Fifteen articles, nine lists, twenty pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia over the last two weeks.
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.
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.
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.
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.

CVUA

Hello, Mediran, I am very interested in helping to fight vandalism on Wikipedia, and feel I understand the basics of the encyclopedia enough to begin training at the Counter-Vandalism Unit Academy. You looked to be the best available instructor for me near my timezone (according to the list of trainers), and if it's OK with you, I ask to be trained. Thank you for your time taken to consider this request. Have a nice day! --ObiWanDiscuss 17:47, 25 January 2014 (UTC)

Happy Birthday to you!!

Hey, Mediran . When there was no one for help you were the only hope for me. When there was no light you were the only light. And you were the only one to help me at my first days. So at this very happy day, I give you this, a small wish. Many Many happy returns of this day. And Happy Birthday to you Mediran. Pratyya (Hello!) 13:34, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 29 January 2014

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.
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.
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".
The Kafziel case has been closed, with Kafziel losing his administrator status as a result.
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.

The Signpost: 29 January 2014

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.
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.
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".
The Kafziel case has been closed, with Kafziel losing his administrator status as a result.
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.

Improperly sourced SpongeBob eps

Hi Mediran, I wanted to get your feedback. At SpongeBob SquarePants (season 9) these episodes are listed, but when I double-check the sources I see a general page like this one that says "Upcoming TV Show times" and "No upcoming shows found!" Should we delete these or do you have better sources?

190a 12a "Dueling Picnics" TBA TBA — —
SpongeBob convinces Mr. Krabs to hold the Krusty Krab's first annual company picnic.[79]
190b 12b "Krabs' Army" TBA TBA — —
Mr. Krabs thinks that the boys are slacking on the job and puts them through his personal boot camp.[80]
191 13 "SpaceBob InvaderPants" TBA TBA — —
SpongeBob and Patrick become obsessed with making contact with extraterrestrial life, they ask Sandy to build a device that transmits the luring smell of : Krabby Patties.[81]

Thanks, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 01:42, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

I was also thinking to remove those episodes from the list because there are really no sources, aside from public forums like "http://www.sbmania.net/forums/topic/36866-new-episodes-airing-in-australia/" and "http://www.thesbcommunity.com/forums/index.php?/topic/10047-new-episodes-revealed-by-australia-schedule/". The source they found was that the episodes are set to air Jan 11/3PM. Yet, there are no other sources confirming it. I checked the US Copyright Office but found no results about it. I say remove it until those "episodes" are officially announced. Thanks. Mediran (t • c) 10:35, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
Okay, I'll cut 'em. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 15:23, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

Best Day Ever copyedit

I'm going to begin copyediting this article now. I'll check in with updates :) -Newyorkadam (talk) 14:34, 11 February 2014 (UTC)Newyorkadam

I'm going to be doing this like a GA review, I hope you don't mind... I think it'll help :)

  • "In the episode, SpongeBob is determined to have a perfect day starting with doing what he loves best." What does he love doing best?
    • Removed "starting with ..."
  • I read online that Patrick broke not only his own net but SpongeBob's too, and that SpongeBob gave patrick his new set. This isn't mentioned in the article.
    • Added.
  • "Determined not to miss out on this activity as he had done with the others" This line confuses me. In the plot summary, he didn't miss out on any activities other than with Patrick. Or do you mean he missed some of Squidward's other recitals?
    • What had happened was that SpongeBob missed his activities when he had to help his friends with their problems. So, that's that.
  • "The featured song "The Best Day Ever" was composed by Tom Kenny, SpongeBob's voice actor, and Andy Paley.[3] The song was originally a part of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack that was released on November 9, 2004.[4][5][6] At the time, Kenny, with Paley, worked for an album, on what would become The Best Day Ever album, with songs "The Best Day Ever" and "Under My Rock".[7] The team of the 2004 feature film needed two extra filler tracks for the film soundtrack.[7] Eventually, Stephen Hillenburg, the series creator and director of the film, heard the songs and decided to put it on the soundtrack.[7] "The Best Day Ever" was played during the closing credits of the film which was never intended.[7]" This paragraph confuses me. It needs some rewording. It's not clear which movie it was originally for, which it was actually used in, etc. The line that I bolded is the most unclear. I would fix this paragraph but I'm sure you know better than I about what's correct.
    • Thanks. However, I know you can fix this. The song was released on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack. Originally, Kenny and Paley were writing songs on the then-The Best Day Ever album. At the time, during the production of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, the team needed two more tracks. When Hillenburg heard the songs, he decided to add it on the soundtrack and be played in the film credits.
  • "Throughout the month of November, Nick Hotel released a "Best Day Ever" package to its guests starting at $369." What did the package include?
    • I don't really know. I can't find any sources saying what the package included.

Done past 'Production' section!

  • "Originally, Kenny and Paley were working on a "Brian Wilson-esque" song with "Brian Wilson-esque" background vocals on it. Kenny said "[...]and at the last minute, we had this opportunity to reach out to him and ask if he'd do it[...] But Brian's people said he was going on to Hawaii the next day with his wife and kids, and then going on the road." Eventually, Kenny got a call from Wilson saying that "I loved the idea."" So, what'd they end up doing?
    • Added.
  • I can't find the artist for the last song ("The Best Day Ever/Bonus Material" ) but I think it should be there.
    • According to this link by Artistdirect, that is a multimedia track. I think it's just OK to not have the writing credits for that song.
  • I don't understand why the section about the reception is called 'Critical reception' when there's barely anything negative mentioned in it. I'd suggest just calling it 'Reception'.
    • Done.
  • I think you should add a negative review to the 'Reception' (at the moment called 'Critical reception') section. This way you have a mix of positive and negative reviews, rather than mostly positive.
    • Sorry, I can't find any negative reviews.
  • The second paragraph in the 'Reception' section (not the album one, the episode one) is taken almost word for word from the reference.
    • Fix.
  • You have viewing statistics in the episode's 'Reception' section but you don't mention critic reception and/or fan reception.
    • Will add that.
  • I saw in your request for the copyedit that you think the 'Plot summary' section is too long. I think it's the right size, and everything mentioned in it is important to the episode.
    • Wow, thanks for that.

I think that's it. I'm going to put this Good Article review on hol- oh wait... :P -Newyorkadam (talk) 21:06, 11 February 2014 (UTC)Newyorkadam

P.S. You've inspired me to try and get Mr. Krabs to GA. This'll be fun :) -Newyorkadam (talk) 19:07, 11 February 2014 (UTC)Newyorkadam

Thanks Newyorkadam for this. I have added what was suggested and please take a look to the article again to see and well correct the prose of some of my additions. Good luck on getting Mr. Krabs to GA! ;) Mediran (t • c) 11:34, 12 February 2014 (UTC)
Looks great! I suggest you look over my changes to the paragraph about the album (second paragraph of the 'Production' section) to make sure they're correct. -Newyorkadam (talk) 12:23, 12 February 2014 (UTC)Newyorkadam

The Signpost: 12 February 2014

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.
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.
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
Thirteen articles, three lists, and twenty-five images were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia from 19 January to 1 February.
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.
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.

Your GA nomination of SpongeBob SquarePants (season 5)

The article SpongeBob SquarePants (season 5) you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:SpongeBob SquarePants (season 5) for comments about the article. Well done! Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of ChrisGualtieri -- ChrisGualtieri (talk) 15:16, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of SpongeBob SquarePants (season 8)

The article SpongeBob SquarePants (season 8) you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:SpongeBob SquarePants (season 8) for comments about the article. Well done! Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of ChrisGualtieri -- ChrisGualtieri (talk) 15:16, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Polo. You have new messages at Talk:SpongeBob SquarePants#Broadcast section as submitted by Finealt.
Message added 18:26, 16 February 2014 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Cyphoidbomb (talk) 18:26, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

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.

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

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

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

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

The Signpost: 19 February 2014

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.
Runa Bhattacharjee has notified the community that the Foundation is ready to turn the Universal Language Selector back on.
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.
Five articles, seven lists, forty-three pictures, and two portals were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia in the last two weeks.
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.

March 2014 GAN Backlog Drive

It's that time again! Starting on March 1, there will be another GAN Backlog Drive! There will be several changes compared to previous drives:

  • This drive will introduce a new component to it; a point system. In a nutshell, older nominations are worth more points than newer nominations. The top 3 participants who have the points will be awarded the Golden, Silver, or Bronze Wikipedia Puzzle Piece Trophy, respectively.
  • Unlike the December 2013 Backlog Drive, earning an additional barnstar if you reached your goal has been removed.
  • The allowance to have insufficient reviews has been lowered to 2 before being disqualified.
  • An exception to the rule that all reviews must be completed before the deadline has been created.

Also, something that I thought I would share with all of you is that we raised $20.88 (USD) for the WMF in the December 2013 drive. It may not sound like a lot but considering that that was raised just because we reviewed articles, I would say that's pretty good! With that success, pledges can be made for the upcoming drive if you wish.

More info regarding the drive and full descriptions regarding the changes to this drive can be found on the the drive page. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a message on the drive talk page.

I look forward to your participation and hope that because of it, some day the backlog will be gone!

--Dom497

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:58, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 February 2014

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.
Eight articles, three lists, and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
This week, we found three Ph.D.s willing to give us a crash course on WikiProject Neuroscience.
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.
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.
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.
The monthly roundup of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, edited jointly with the Wikimedia Research Committee.

Books & Bytes, Issue 4

Books and Bytes

Volume 1, Issue 4, February 2014

News for February from your Wikipedia Library.

Donations drive: news on TWL's partnership efforts with publishers

Open Access: Feature from Ocaasi on the intersection of the library and the open access movement

American Library Association Midwinter Conference: TWL attended this year in Philadelphia

Royal Society Opens Access To Journals: The UK's venerable Royal Society will give the public (and Wikipedians) full access to two of their journal titles for two days on March 4th and 5th

Going Global: TWL starts work on pilot projects in other language Wikipedias

Read the full newsletter


MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:00, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Happy WikiBirthday!

I just noticed that you and I share the same WikiBirthday. Hope this past two years of editing has been memorable. I'm pretty pleased what I've gotten done in a year. Chris Troutman (talk) 08:14, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

SLR. Hi Chris. I wish you the same and I'm very proud of you. Thanks so much! :) Mediran (t • c) 08:06, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
Sorry I missed it. Happy WikiBirthday!--Mark Miller (talk) 08:18, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
Hi Mark!! Thanks! :) Mediran (t • c) 08:20, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

GAN March 2014 Backlog Drive

The March 2014 GAN Backlog Drive has begun and will end on April 1, 2014! Sent by Dom497 on behalf of MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:01, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Editor review#RfC: Should we mark WP:ER as historical?

You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Editor review#RfC: Should we mark WP:ER as historical?. As you participated in Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Editor review (2nd nomination) last year, you may be interested in the current RfC discussing closing and marking ER as historical. —/Mendaliv/2¢/Δ's/ 02:54, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Danny Phantom character.png

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Thanks for uploading File:Danny Phantom character.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 15:23, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Jesse Robredo Poster.jpg

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Thanks for uploading File:Jesse Robredo Poster.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 15:52, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

(test) The Signpost: 05 March 2014

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.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
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.
The WikiCup competition is ongoing, while six articles, three lists, and ten pictures were promoted to "featured" status of the English Wikipedia this week.
This week, the Signpost delved into the English Wikipedia's Article Rescue Squadron.

File:SpongeBob S5.jpg listed for deletion

A file that you uploaded or altered, File:SpongeBob S5.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why it has been listed (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry). Feel free to add your opinion on the matter below the nomination. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 15:51, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

Template:SpongeBob SquarePants episode count

Hello. Why did you cancel my edit? There are 189 episodes... Guycn2 (talk) 20:23, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

The template counts the number of aired episodes. Mediran (t • c) 10:27, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
Now I'm curious :P Which episode didn't air? -Newyorkadam (talk) 11:11, 12 March 2014 (UTC)Newyorkadam
Episode 10 (S9) "Kenny the Cat / Yeti Krabs" in the US. Mediran (t • c) 11:13, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 12 March 2014

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.
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.
Five articles, two lists, and 52 pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
This week, we interviewed Anaxibia from the Russian-language Entomology WikiProject.

A Barnstar for You!!!

The Herald's Guestbook Barnstar
Thank you for signing my guestbook......
Happy editing!!!

With love,
Herald talk with me

The Signpost: 19 March 2014

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.
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.
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.
Twelve articles, fourteen lists, and six pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
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.
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.
The Wikimedia engineering report for February 2014 has been published. A summarized version is also available. Major news include

Band Geeks


Graveyard Shift (SpongeBob SquarePants)


The Signpost: 26 March 2014

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.
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.
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.
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.
Four articles, two lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
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.
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.
This week, the Signpost interviewed the English Wikipedia's Mountains WikiProject.

Your GA nomination of Stephen Hillenburg

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Stephen Hillenburg you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Secret -- Secret (talk) 15:00, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

POTD notification

POTD

Hi Mediran,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture File:EmissionNebula NGC6357.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on April 16, 2014. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2014-04-16. Thank you for all of your contributions! — Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:34, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Spongebob image

Hi There, I've undeleted this and relisted the discussion at Wikipedia:Files for deletion/2014 March 30 where you can make your case - Peripitus (Talk) 09:50, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

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.

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

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

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

List of awards and nominations received by SpongeBob SquarePants

Hey I noticed you started the spongebob squarepants awards article, it looks great!!! I had to commend you for it! Kringe1 (talk) 04:28, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for that! Mediran (t • c) 07:09, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks much

Thank you for your comments at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of awards and nominations received by Penn & Teller: Bullshit!/archive1.

I agreed with them, so I just implemented all your helpful recommendations directly.

Perhaps you could revisit back at Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of awards and nominations received by Penn & Teller: Bullshit!/archive1 ?

Thank you for your time,

— Cirt (talk) 04:40, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Would it be alright to collapse your addressed comments at the FLC ? — Cirt (talk) 16:23, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 02 April 2014

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".
This week, we visited with WikiProject Germany.
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.
The Signpost's "Featured content" writers had a bit of fun this week.
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.

The Signpost: 09 April 2014

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.
This week, we interviewed the Law WikiProject.
"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."
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.
Five article, five lists, and ten pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

Orphaned non-free image File:Sulit logo.png

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Thanks for uploading File:Sulit logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 14:51, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Books & Bytes - Issue 5

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 5, March 2014
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs)

  • New Visiting Scholar positions
  • TWL Branch on Arabic Wikipedia, microgrants program
  • Australian articles get a link to librarians
  • Spotlight: "7 Reasons Librarians Should Edit Wikipedia"

Read the full newsletter

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:54, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

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)

The Signpost: 23 April 2014

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.
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!
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.
This week, we visited WikiProject Catholicism.
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.
If I were the kind of person who made snap judgments based on flimsy evidence, I'd say our readership is in a funk.
Fourteen articles, four lists, seven pictures, and one topic attained "featured" status on the English Wikipedia over the last two weeks.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie


Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack

Hey Mediran,
I realise your status currently says "busy" (despite saying that for a few months now), but I was wondering if you could reply to my comments that I let you at the FAC for the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack article? That would be great. Thank you! -- Rhain1999 (talk to me) 07:42, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 April 2014

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.
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.
The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that its new executive director will be Lila Tretikov, until now a chief product officer in Silicon Valley.
This week, we unraveled the mysteries of WikiProject Genetics.
Ed Roley, Associate Director of Integrated Media at the Peabody Essex Museum, talks about GLAM engagement with Wikipedia.
Four articles and sixteen featured pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
Can you predict the number of seasonal influenza-like illness in the U.S. using data from Wikipedia?

The Signpost: 07 May 2014

The English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) introduced the first form of what are known as the "discretionary sanction" (DS) in 2009. A new DS regime, called Discretionary sanctions (2014), is the result of an elaborate review process involving both the community, since last September, and the committee, for more than a year.
For all the claims of Wikipedia bringing the world's knowledge to all who want it, it seems the human race most wants is a tabloid newspaper; a quick source for TV listings, pop culture facts, celebrity gossip and, above all, scandal—with some nice juicy racism thrown in too.
In a live video stream on 1 May, the Wikimedia Foundation announced that Lila Tretikov will be replacing Sue Gardner, its executive director. Gardner, who has been in the position since 2007, declared her intention to leave more than a year ago.
Round 3 of the 2014 WikiCup has just begun; 32 competitors remain.
Boston Children's Hospital postdoctoral fellow David McIver and a team have determined that using page view statistics from Wikipedia, they can track flu progression better than the Center for Disease Control can using Google searches.
Formed in 2003, the Eurovision WikiProject boasts four featured articles and 22 good articles. The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 is currently taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, so we went to the stage to talk with one of the project's members.
Four articles, two lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

Star Wars

Hi. Thanks for your work on the article, but did you not see the banner on the top, asking other editors not to work on this article while we're going through it on a copy edit basis? Please don't do any more editing until the banner is replaced. It's just that sometimes this can lead to editing conflicts... especially if a section is taking a long time to go through. Thanks for your patience. It's a long article (and dear to my heart), so I want to take my time with it. Onel5969 (talk) 17:54, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

Sorry if that's the case. I'm sure my edits didn't cause you conflict/confusion as I only added some sources and some prose way below. Sorry, and thanks and thanks for your c/e works! — Mediran [talk] 03:07, 11 May 2014 (UTC)
No worries. No they hadn't yet, as they were all later in the article. I just didn't want it to happen. I'm about a quarter way through, won't get much done tomorrow (Mother's Day), but will most likely finish on Tuesday or Wednesday. Onel5969 (talk) 03:31, 11 May 2014 (UTC)
However, is it all right for me to add some info not yet covered in the article? — Mediran [talk] 06:30, 11 May 2014 (UTC)
The best thing would be to hold off until I finish the c/e.Onel5969 (talk) 12:23, 11 May 2014 (UTC)

Okay, only the last two sections to go. I just finished the copy edit on the "Home release" sub-section. I did it in two edits, since I had to delete several sentences which did not make sense, and therefore I couldn't copy edit. One was uncited, and the other one had a citation which didn't seem to refer to the material. You might want to take a look at that change. Onel5969 (talk) 23:51, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

@Mediran: - Okay, the c/e edit is done. Thanks for your patience. If you don't mind, I may go in and do some stylistic edits, perhaps do some research, etc... Onel5969 (talk) 02:12, 13 May 2014 (UTC)
Thank you very much Onel5969 for your copyedits. It was really a big help to the article's improvement to FA-class. Also, I would appreciate your future edits to the article! Thanks again. — Mediran [talk] 07:11, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 14 May 2014

On 2 May 2012, the Wikimania jury announced that Hong Kong's bid to hold the 2013 event had beaten four other proposals. Moderator James Forrester wrote: "The Jury has confidence that the Hong Kong bidding team will pull off a magnificent Wikimania,"—and indeed there were positive comments about the event from most attendees.
This week, the Signpost jumped over the ocean to chat with the Puerto Rico WikiProject.
Editors of Australian-related topics on the English Wikipedia may have noticed an odd addition if they viewed the article's talk pages. For example, on Talk:Darwin, Northern Territory, they might be drawn in by the question mark, nested within what is often a sea of WikiProject templates: "Need help improving this article? Ask a librarian at the National Library of Australia, or the Northern Territory Library." Just what is this?
Six articles, seven lists, and four pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.
Eurovision is known for being political, and it was a doozy this week.
The Media Viewer is scheduled to launch on the English Wikipedia next week.

The Signpost: 21 May 2014

Last Sunday the board of Wikimedia Germany passed 9–1 a vote of no confidence in the chapter's executive director, Pavel Richter, who has held the position since 2009. With more than 50 employees, an annual budget approaching $10 million, and the right to conduct its own fundraising through the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) site banners, Wikimedia Germany is the second-largest organisation in the movement after the WMF itself. The decision was announced on the Wikimedia mailing list by the chapter chair, Nikolas Becker.
Thirteen articles, sixteen pictures, and one topic were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
It's a relief to see Google Doodles having an impact again; their wide coverage means that they inspire curiosity on many subjects which, for reasons of nationality, ethnicity or gender, might not be known in the English-speaking world. It's a shame then, that Wikipedia so often fails to keep up; articles on Google Doodles are almost invariably C-class, and seldom do justice to their subjects. Still, interest in Google Doodles has been waning in recent months—Audrey Hepburn last week was the first to top the list since December—so any rise in popularity is worth celebrating.

Squidward Tentacles


Barnstar!

Solarra's Guestbook Barnstar
This user has signed my guestbook and been presented with a barnstar. Sign my guestbook now if you have not yet! ♥ Solarra ♥ ♪ Talk ♪ ߷ ♀ Contribs ♀
Thanks Solarra! :) — Mediran [talk] 01:23, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 May 2014

With the promotion to featured article of Grus (constellation) on 17 May, Casliber became Wikipedia's second featured-article centurion, following Wehwalt's groundbreaking achievement last December. Cas's first FA, Banksia integrifolia, a group effort, was promoted on 16 November 2006. His first solo project, Diplodocus, followed in January 2007; he has rarely been off the FAC since. In a second story, Ward Cunningham, an American computer programmer who invented the wiki, was interviewed by the WMF.
Wikipedia editor Sven Manguard's work is quite underappreciated a lot of the time, most likely because people haven't heard of it yet: He's developed good relationships with game companies, and is thus able to get full-resolution screenshots released under a Creative Commons license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere. This week's trove of new featured items on the English Wikipedia comprises seven articles, three lists, and four pictures.
In the US, Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer, and summer is definitely on people's minds this week, with summer films Godzilla and X-Men: Days of Future Past, the apparently designated summer song "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea, and summer TV show, Game of Thrones.
Wikipedia in the eyes of its beholders; "Chinese-language time zones" favor Asian pop and IT topics on Wikipedia; and bipartite editing prediction in Wikipedia.

Your GA nomination of Squidward Tentacles

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article Squidward Tentacles you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Zanimum -- Zanimum (talk) 18:40, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Books & Bytes, Issue 6

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 6, April-May 2014
by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs)

  • New donations from Oxford University Press and Royal Society (UK)
  • TWL does Vegas: American Library Association Annual plans
  • TWL welcomes a new coordinator, resources for library students and interns
  • New portal on Meta, resources for starting TWL branches, donor call blitzes, Wikipedia Visiting Scholar news, and more

Read the full newsletter

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:59, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

GOCE June 2014 newsletter

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

Participation: Thanks to all who participated! Out of 51 people who signed up this drive, 33 copy edited at least one article. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Progress report: We reduced our article backlog from 2,987 articles to 2,236 articles in May, the lowest backlog total since we began keeping records in 2009! Since at least 300 new articles were tagged during May, that means we copy edited over 1,000 articles in a single month. Amazing work, everyone!

Blitz: The June blitz will run from June 15–21. This blitz's theme is Politics. Sign up here.

Election: You can nominate yourself or others for the role of Coordinator for the second half of 2014 here. Nominations will be accepted until June 14. Voting will begin on June 15 and will conclude on June 28.

Cheers from your GOCE coordinators Jonesey95, Baffle gab1978, and Miniapolis.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:27, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 04 June 2014

Individual engagement grants (IEGs) are announced twice yearly by a volunteer WMF committee, the most recent of which we covered last December. The scheme, launched at the start of last year, awards funds to individuals or teams of up to four to produce high-impact outcomes for the WMF's online projects. It favours innovative approaches to solving critical issues in the movement.
New trustee Frieda Briosch from Italy: we face "a couple of headaches", she says: "how to boost editors, which includes the development of the next strategic plan, and how to keep our project always 'glamorous'."
I never feel quite adequate trying to paraphrase Sumana's words: she is so articulate. I highly encourage every person who reads this article to directly watch her keynote—it directly speaks to a lot of Wikimedia's most significant issues, made with great eloquence. We have a serious issue with retaining editors, and parts of her speech could serve as a pretty good partial blueprint towards how we could begin to fix that problem.
David Iliff, or Diliff, as he is known on here outside of the file pages for his many, many, excellent photographs, is one of Wikipedia's longest-standing professional-standard photographers. This week, the Signpost salutes him.
The month of May saw significant coverage concerning the reliability of Wikipedia's medical articles.
The northern summer is a time when one is meant to celebrate the exuberance of life; instead, commemoration of the dead was a significant theme this week.

Orphaned non-free image File:SpongeBob SquarePants 2 logo.jpg

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Thanks for uploading File:SpongeBob SquarePants 2 logo.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 17:58, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of SpongeBob SquarePants (season 7)

Hi there, I'm pleased to inform you that I've begun reviewing the article SpongeBob SquarePants (season 7) you nominated for GA-status according to the criteria. This process may take up to 7 days. Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you might have during this period. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Ruby2010 -- Ruby2010 (talk) 03:01, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 11 June 2014

Eleven public relations agencies have declared their intention to follow "ethical engagement practices" in Wikipedia editing. The results were published last Tuesday: a joint statement from the participating PR agencies—representing five of the top ten global agencies and all but one of the top ten in the United States—clarifying their views and practices with regards to the Wikimedia projects.
It seems that, more than commemorating the great moments in our history, more than even anticipating great sporting events, what our audience wants is the weird.
William Beutler (WWB), author of the blog The Wikipedian, is a long-time editor and community-watcher. He is also a paid editor (WWB Too). Well—not anymore—because he gave up direct editing of articles in 2011. Instead, for the past three years he has followed Jimmy Wales' Bright Line rule in acting as a researcher and consultant for companies and clients that want to suggest changes to Wikipedia articles and engage on the Talk page.
Last week we reported the announcement of two new affiliate-selected WMF trustees. The board of trustees is the most powerful and influential body in the movement, and chapters have been permitted to select two of the 10 seats since 2008, for two-year terms that start in even-numbered years.
Five articles, one list, twelve pictures, and one topic were promoted to 'featured' status last week on the English Wikipedia.

Your GA nomination of SpongeBob SquarePants (season 7)

The article SpongeBob SquarePants (season 7) you nominated as a good article has been placed on hold . The article is close to meeting the good article criteria, but there are some minor changes or clarifications needing to be addressed. If these are fixed within 7 days, the article will pass; otherwise it may fail. See Talk:SpongeBob SquarePants (season 7) for things which need to be addressed. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Ruby2010 -- Ruby2010 (talk) 02:20, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

Your GA nomination of Squidward Tentacles

The article Squidward Tentacles you nominated as a good article has passed ; see Talk:Squidward Tentacles for comments about the article. Well done! If the article has not already been on the main page as an "In the news" or "Did you know" item, you can nominate it to appear in Did you know. Message delivered by Legobot, on behalf of Zanimum -- Zanimum (talk) 22:02, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Stephen Hillenburg

Hi. Just finished the copy edit. If you don't mind, I one suggestion, and one thing I'd like to point out in the edit:

  • First, I think you need to combine the early life and ed section with the early career section, they overlap, particularly the CalArts part.
  • Second, in several quotations, I changed the capitalization of the first word, since in the sentence structure the word should not be capitalized. However, I put the changed letter in brackets, since it was changed from the original, but that is a matter of opinion, some say the brackets are unnecessary. Good luck. Onel5969 (talk) 16:54, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Library: New Account Coordinators Needed

Hi Books & Bytes recipients: The Wikipedia Library has been expanding rapidly and we need some help! We currently have 10 signups for free account access open and several more in the works... In order to help with those signups, distribute access codes, and manage accounts we'll need 2-3 more Account Coordinators.

It takes about an hour to get up and running and then only takes a couple hours per week, flexible depending upon your schedule and routine. If you're interested in helping out, please drop a note in the next week at my talk page or shoot me an email at: jorlowitz@gmail.com. Thanks and cheers, Jake Ocaasi via MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:41, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 18 June 2014

The Wikimedia Foundation has amended its terms of use to ban editing for pay without disclosing an employer or affiliation on any of its websites. The broad scope of these changes will allow the WMF to selectively enforce their terms of use to avoid ensnaring well-meaning editors.
Five articles, five lists, 22 pictures, and one portal were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
The Bangladesh chapter of the Wikimedia movement was formed in 2009. They received official local registration from the national authorities on 10 June 2014. The long road in between was subject to much persistence, patience, and luck—along with a good deal of worry.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the main draw this week, taking four slots. People appeared desperate to bone up on their trivia; checking not only this year's World Cup, but the last one. Even so, they still couldn't push Game of Thrones from the top ten. It will be interesting to see what happens come next week's season finale.
This week, the Signpost came in from the hinterland to interview members of the Cities WikiProject.


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