User talk:Holly Cheng/Archive16

POTD June, 10th

Hi Howcheng,

Will you please consider to use this image as POTD for June 10th? That will be the national day for Portugal and the theme seems appropriate. Best wishes, Alvesgaspar (talk) 08:44, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Done! howcheng {chat} 16:43, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! Alvesgaspar (talk) 18:36, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

No problems :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.213.115.172 (talk) 10:19, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 14

Hi - what's the criteria for deciding what appears in Selected Anniversaries? I would argue that the Talyllyn article should appear, at least this year, as 1) it's a FA, and 2) It's the sixtieth anniversary, a more significant number, and will be marked by events at the railway itself [1]. I do admit to a COI here, as I've been heavily involved with the article, but I would say it's more deserving of a place than (say) Lina Medina, which doesn't even have GA rating. —  Tivedshambo  (t/c) 17:31, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Sorry about that -- in your edit summary you said the 60th anniversary was 2012, so I thought I'd just save it for next year. I like to rotate as many articles as possible from year to year, so by keeping Talyllyn off this year, I wouldn't have to move it off next year (I hope that made sense). I didn't even look at the year in the actual blurb. I'll put it back in. howcheng {chat} 20:53, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

My bad - when I put it on the page I had a mental block and though the date referred to 1952 not 1951. Thanks for that. —  Tivedshambo  (t/c) 21:04, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Picture of the day for 14 May

Hello! I noticed that no image was scheduled for today (causing yesterday's to remain on the main page, accompanied by advice to check back later for today's), so I went ahead and selected this one (promoted around the same time as yesterday's). After doing so, I noticed that another mushroom photograph was used a few days ago, but when I went back and checked several other promoted images from that page, all of them already had been scheduled. So I decided that it was better to proceed with this one than to allow more time to pass. I hope that this is acceptable. —David Levy 02:00, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Yikes, I just noticed this. I'll try to find a replacement image. —David Levy 02:07, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

I swapped it out for File:Pilatus Agusta A109 Flug.jpg, which was promoted the following month. —David Levy 02:27, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for covering. I don't know where my head was today. howcheng {chat} 08:35, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome. I hope that I didn't stray too far from the standard procedure.  :) —David Levy 08:40, 14 May 2011 (UTC)

Tuskegee Airman pic

Brilliant! Too bad this didn't run in February.

Georgejdorner (talk) 14:04, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Forthcoming OTD candidate

Copied from user talk:Zzyzx11, who directed me to you
I asked a while ago at Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries about the possible appearance of the Hawkhurst Branch Line article (a GA) on OTD on one of three days. Either June 10, 11 or 12, as the 50th anniversary of last service train / last passenger train / date of closure. Art la Pella suggested that I ask you about this one. Is WP:OTD listing criteria #3 compulsory? It seems a bit of an overkill to list the article against all 3 dates - it says should, not must, so maybe WP:IAR can be applied. I'm not trying to get this as a regular candidate for inclusion in subsequent years. Although pre-Beeching, there are many lines that closed during the Beeching Axe, and their 50th anniversary will be approaching in years to come. How do I get this one on OTD? Mjroots (talk) 18:49, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

To be honest, this doesn't look like a very good candidate. It's definitely well-written and researched, but the subject is a relatively unimportant branch line that didn't have any particular historical impact. If I saw it listed on June 12, I would remove it, for example. The only way I see it making an appearance on OTD is if we're desperate for candidates that day, which happens occasionally due to article quality issues and whatnot. Even if I were to list it, it would likely be subject to complaints on Talk:Main Page and get removed by someone else. As an example, see Ney v. Landmark Education Corporation and Werner Erhard, which appeared on February 2 because we had no other available items, but promptly got removed as soon as one of the backup items became eligible again. howcheng {chat} 19:35, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

As we've got a possible 3-day span, is there somewhere that this can be discussed by other editors a bit nearer the time. We don't yet know what other articles will be put forward, and it may be that there could be room for the article on one of the three days. OK, the line wasn't as significant as the Kent and East Sussex Railway, which also closed (to freight) as of 12 June 1961, but the Hawkhurst line is the better article of the two. Mjroots (talk) 21:24, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

I see you already posted at WT:OTD with no responses, but that would be the logical place to go (sorry, I think a lot of people are apathetic about OTD). I've been doing most of the updates over the last six months, with other people stepping in here and there, but I wouldn't say I'm the last word on it. My reply above is based on my experience with other articles of lesser importance having been included. My advice would be for you add it to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/June 12 and then when the time comes, I or someone else will evaluate all the available choices to make the more-or-less final list (of course, nothing's ever "final" here). HTH. howcheng {chat} 21:36, 23 May 2011 (UTC)

A Great Jubilee Day 1783

You removed this from the events list for May 26 on May 25 citing did not qualify (WP:DOY). While this event is one of the earliest documented celebrations of the end of fighting in the American Revolution, the town of Trumbull, in one form or another, has held annual celebrations on the last Monday in May since time out of mind (1783). During the last century or so since Memorial Day has become an official holiday, town ceremonies (prayer services) are held at various monuments dedicated to those town residents that made the ultimate sacrifice in war. The town has monuments to French & Indian War, Revolution, Civil War, WWI & WWII and Vietnam. This year services will take place at the Vietnam War Memorial with the annual Memorial Day Parade down Main Street to follow. Trumbull has shown great pride in its Colonial roots and to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in war. They are already making plans to commemorate the 230th anniversary of A Great Jubilee Day in May 2013. Please do not remove this from the event list as I believe it meets the criteria under;

"Holidays and observances"- Holidays and observances, if notable enough for inclusion, should be the subject of a Wikipedia article (or in the case of religious feasts, mentioned in a linked article). These entries should also be limited to those events that occur on the same date annually and to observances that are currently celebrated (not the date it was once celebrated or will be celebrated).

A Great Jubilee Day has its own wiki article and is also listed on the Memorial Day page. I will create a page for Reverend Beebe, its initial planner/organizer, when I have time. Reverend Beebe has much information documented by the Fairfield County Connecticut Historical Society now known as the Fairfield Museum and History Center. A Great Jubilee Day was not just a one-time celebration held in Trumbull, Connecticut on the last Monday in May 1783, but rather was held annually, in one form or another, and now its celebrated as a part of Memorial Day on the last Monday in May.Tomticker5 (talk) 12:46, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

I see where the confusion lies: the "Holidays and observances" criteria apply specifically to the section named that, e.g. May 26#Holidays and observances, not to the items listed in the Events section. Instead, I cite WP:DOY#What is not notable or not considered an Event: "Dates of festivals (national, local, global) – this is a yearly occasion, not a one-time event". Sorry. howcheng {chat} 15:56, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

Key templates for POTD

Hi Howcheng. I am currently in the process of coding Today's featured list (done) and Today's featured sound. For the latter, I want to use the same basic mechanisms as used by POTD. Can you point me to the key templates being used for POTD? Thanks. — Edokter (talk) — 13:29, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Sorry for the late reply. {{POTD default}} is the userpage version, and {{POTD row}} is the one for the Main Page. Each of the daily POTD templates (e.g., {{POTD/2011-06-03}}) calls the default one, but you can pass a parameter in to specify a specific template (see details at Wikipedia:Picture of the day#Including the POTD on your user page). HTH. howcheng {chat} 22:11, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

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FP question

Hi. I saw this edit you made, and I'm a bit confused. According to Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Carpenter ant Tanzania, it was promoted, although it appears none of the normal closing procedure was followed. Unless I'm missing something, it actually is an FP. I'll hold off on adding the tag, etc. for now, but if it looks okay, I'll make all the fixes. Thanks. Makeemlighter (talk) 03:21, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

Ah, I was confused because the image description page was linked to the first nomination, where it did not pass because it did not have a quorum. I'll evert. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 16:06, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

A thank you for all your hard work

		The Main Page Barnstar
		I don't really give out these things but I thought I should make an exception in this case! Please accept this barnstar as a small token of appreciation for all of the hard, thankless work that you do to keep the main page updating day after day. POTD and OTD simply wouldn't work half as well as they do at the moment without you. I don't think many people realise the amount of work that you do keeping all of the myriad of templates accurate and up to date. Thanks again and keep up the hard work. Woody (talk) 17:01, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! howcheng {chat} 17:40, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

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June 21 POTD - Heliograph =

Sorry - didn't see your note until the end of the day, but I polished the description anyway. The original description was not far off the mark in any event. The instrument at the left resembles a Mark IV Mance heliograph in that the aiming arm is jointed and can be (as seen here) stowed (which of course means it was not being operated at the time of the photo). The instrument behind it is a lamp, likely for night signaling, probably using an oxygen cylinder and a hydrogen or acetylene cylinder - a similar unit is the cover photo of the October 26, 1912 issue of Scientific American, with some discussion of the device on page 346. Macchess (talk) 05:49, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

POTD list

Howcheng, non-admins are given virtually no opportunity to edit the blurb at the moment. I've made an edit to tomorrow's: I hope it is transferred over to the protected version. Can the blurbs be put up for community input at least 24 hours ahead of cascade protection, please? Tony (talk) 08:06, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Further to the above, Tony has now started an RfC here to measure support for a proposal that blurbs for the three featured-content sections on the main page be posted for community input at least 24 hours ahead of the deadline for cascade-protection. As he appears to have forgotten to notify you, here we go. Regards, Bencherlite^Talk 13:04, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Ideally that should be the case, but my schedule often doesn't allow me to get them done that far in advance. howcheng {chat} 15:53, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Time for a delegate, as Raul has arranged? (Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting myself.) Tony (talk) 06:44, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

POTD request

I left a request on the POTD talk page for my picture with caption to be run. Just reaching out! TCO (talk) 05:46, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

June 25th picnic

Hi Howard,

Quick question, I plan on bringing dessert, but should I bring enough in case the possibles show up as well?

                                       Thanks,
                                       Simple0981

Posted: 6/23/11 at 10:32pm — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.5.5.156 (talk) 05:32, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm thinking of postponing the picnic. At this point, there's too few people. howcheng {chat} 06:29, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Sounds good. Maybe put the word out on Facebook and give people enough notice...say 1.5 to 2 weeks? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Simple0981 (talk • contribs) 16:19, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

We are on for today! Hopefully you get this message in time. howcheng {chat} 16:38, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Wiknic Followups

Wiknic Followups

Hi:

I had a great time yesterday and I was wondering if you or another editor was going to have a followup section for attendees to comment.

SmithGoldBug (talk) 19:54, 26 June 2011 (UTC) SmithGoldBug

I wasn't particularly planning to, but you can always add it yourself. howcheng {chat} 17:17, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Ping

I emailed you. Tony (talk) 05:35, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Jay Wile

I understand that you deleted this page, why? StarvyMessi (talk) 13:37, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jay Wile. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 16:43, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

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please run this as POTD

Native range of the painted turtle (C. picta)
Dark grey for national borders
White for state and province borders
Dark blue for rivers, only showing those in article

  Eastern (C. p. picta)

  Midland (C. p. marginata)

  Southern (C. p. dorsalis)

  Western (C. p. bellii)

Intergrade mixtures (large areas only)

  Mix of eastern and midland

  Mix of eastern and southern

  Mix of midland and western

TCO (talk) 04:10, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Risker?

[2] do you perhaps mean Resolute? Risker has commented on the 'fuck' thing but not that reduce TFA blurb proposal AFAICT Nil Einne (talk) 15:15, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

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Re: July OTD observances

My updates to July OTD observances are best described as targets of opportunity spotted while installing the code for the staging area. Before hitting the save button I am in the habit of previewing the updated page to help find formatting problems such as extraneous starts to comments, templates embedded in the middle of blurbs, and various other editing oddities that have accumulated over time. As a result, the small number of observance updates I have made have been only loosely coordinated and are likely to have missed some important events.

As for Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/Holidays and observances, I see the usefulness of such a page but am not sure I want to volunteer for it. One possible use for such a page is as an input file for a bot that performs the observances updates. Before putting too much work into building the page, it might be worth placing a note at Wikipedia:Bot requests to see if a bot writer might be interested in the job of automating the observance updates. The needs of the bot is likely to restrict the formatting options used for a page such as this. --Allen3 ^talk 17:43, 5 July 2011 (UTC)

Balls to Gunstones

In the preceding lines Henry says, referring to the Dauphin of France, who sent Henry tennis balls as a commentary on Henry's misspent youth: "...And tell the present prince this mock of his Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones, and his soul Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance That shall fly with them... "

The change in the meaning of mock is associative and inventive rather than in playing with two strict denotations of the word mock (of course, for Shakespeare, in the absence of dictionaries, 'strict denotation' doesn't mean much) Mock, according to CT Onions, in A Shakespeare Glossary, carries meanings which suggest setting the value of something to zero, which is apposite here. 178.192.72.159 (talk) 21:24, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. Unfortunately, I do not recall which article this refers to. howcheng {chat} 21:44, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Nias pic for tomorrow's MP

Hi, I've left a note at main-page talk about the referencing of the both the Commons description page and the main article for tomorrow's pic. I'm not good at doing this kind of thing myself. Thanks. Tony (talk) 08:51, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

Napa Valley POTD

Hi! I saw the Napa Valley POTD and followed links to your chat page. I thought it worth mentioning that, while this is a great picture, it might not be accurate to call it a view, "of the vineyards that make up the Napa Valley American Viticultural Area." If I'm not mistaken about where this picture was taken, this is a view of a few of the vineyards in the Carneros AVA, near the Domaine Carneros winery. While technically within The Napa Valley AVA (Carneros spans the southern parts of both Napa and Sonoma Valleys), this spot is well outside of what might be thought of as Napa Valley proper, the area stretching from south of the city of Napa all the way up to Calistoga. The landscape is far larger and more dramatic than that which can be seen in this image. The wording on the POTD caption suggests that we are seeing the Napa Valley vineyards in their entirety, which is not the case. Maybe I'm just nitpicking, maybe it's not important, maybe it's too late. I just thought I should mention it.

Cheers! Jerpeck (talk) 10:28, 8 July 2011 (UTC)Jeremiah Peck

P.S. I'm not very active on Wikipedia, so I'm sorry if the formatting of this comment doesn't meet protocol.

POTD

Howcheng, Template:POTD/2011-07-10—Great pic, but needs size, and the readers are caught between small at 550px or huge at full res. I wonder whether 600px would be possible, with a link to the interactive wideview function at the end of the blurb? Tony (talk) 04:28, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

I'm reluctant to contravene the MOS on this, because one of the design philosophies behind the Main Page is to make sure it's accessible to the widest possible audience, even if that means sacrificing "wowness" or whatever you might want to call it. The 550px width is ideal for an 800px-wide viewport (browser width, which may be smaller than screen resolution). I did try ot use {{wide image-noborder}} at one point but there were complaints that the template fails to render properly in Internet Explorer 7 (and earlier versions). howcheng {chat} 06:52, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Only a small proportion of viewers use IE 7, don't they? I don't think it's wowness, but the main page could sure do with a bit. POTD is down the bottom, too, so is never going to be a broken distraction. "accessible to the widest possible audience"—but there's already a mobile version, isn't there? Tony (talk) 07:14, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

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12 JUl 2011 POTD

Could you comment on this topic about the POTD today? Your input would probably help clear some things up. TomPointTwo (talk) 20:06, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Of course this is a complete coincidence. The POTD was written four days ago. There's no way I could have known which DYK items were going to appear today back then. And I'm sorry, but why should the POTD be swapped out, and not the DYK entry? howcheng {chat} 21:53, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

I think the problem is that TomPointTwo was the DYK nominator. --Alan the Roving Ambassador (talk) 21:54, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Deleting scientific space missions

Hi Howcheng: I noticed that you deleted some space missions from the July 18 calendar. You apparently used WP:DOY as your rationale. Problem is though, under DOY, Gemini 10 and Zond 3 are allowed. Please explain why you deleted them in some detail.--Abebenjoe (talk) 16:13, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Actually, the burden is on you to show how they meet the criteria. During the initial exploration of space and development of satellites, almost every single successful launch had some sort of "first", but many of them are fairly incremental. The point is to include only major milestones here so that these pages don't get too cluttered. Thus, I don't see how Zond 3 or Gemini 10 qualify. howcheng {chat} 17:17, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

You made my point for me, early spaceflights had many firsts, which makes them notable. Gemini 10 had many, read the article about that mission. It meets WP:DOY specifically: "2.1.4 Scientific events and accomplishments * Milestones in space exploration." Your definition of "major" is not covered by WP:DOY 2.1.4.Abebenjoe (talk) 19:16, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Look at other items in 2.1.4 that you cited: "patent dates of important inventions", "Dates of important medical accomplishments" ... to say that for space exploration it's OK to include every single little accomplishment because the word "important" is missing from the sentence contravenes the very spirit of the guideline. For example, some of the Venera probes are included on the DOY pages, but not all of them. If I may make analogy to a different technology, we don't list all of the various incremental steps to making the first incandescent light, even though every inventor who made a progressively better version of it could be regarded to have a "first". If I'm wrong about Gemini 10, fine, go ahead and put it back, but I suggest you write the entry so that it states what's so notable about the flight. howcheng {chat} 19:46, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

Glad you agree. I would like to point out that any human spaceflight is significant and automatically notable, at least until which time human spaceflight becomes more common. In the fifty years since the first human spaceflight (Vostok 1), there has been slightly more than 500 people who have ventured into space, which means it is rare, and notable. Where I fully agree with you, would be the limited area of commercial spaceflight, in particular some of the communication satellites that are launched in "star clusters" like Iridium. Space exploration flights however, are, by the definition of 2.1.4, automatically notable due to their rarity in the last half of the 20th century, and currently in the first few decades of the 21st century. Of course, I'm not commenting on the quality of the associated articles, which in many cases are stubs. Quality of the article, as you know, only matters when the event is listed on the homepage.--Abebenjoe (talk) 23:44, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

I still disagree with that: not every single Space Shuttle mission is included, for example (and I don't think they should be, either). howcheng {chat} 00:00, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

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19 July update

The Mary Rose as depicted in the Anthony Roll

You made a pretty major late re-shuffle of the Selected anniversaries for July 19. If I had known the Mary Rose pic was too indistinct at low resolution, I would have certainly suggested the one on the right instead. A lot more colorful as far as I can tell. And I must say I really liked having the Seneca Falls Convention in there, what with the lack of feminist-themed articles on the mainpage. :-/ Any chance of bringing switching for the Mary Rose pic and bring back Seneca Falls. Pretty please...?

Peter ^Isotalo 01:04, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

I'll be happy to change the image, but Seneca Falls has been on two years in a row, and we have a lot of other good articles that can be featured. It can take a break for one year. I realize that Battle of Fromelles is on for the third year in a row, but I kept it in for national variety (Australia). howcheng {chat} 02:16, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Okay, I understand the need for variation. Much oblige for switching the pic. Cheerio.

Peter ^Isotalo 15:58, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

history of name of Azerbaijan

hi - I'm writing to you in regards to the page [History of the name Azerbaijan] since you edited it before and left a notice [3]. Per the suggestion, as well as per the facts and quotations of both primary and secondary sources quoted in the article itself, I have deleted two irrelevant quotes that did not deal with the name Azerbaijan, and revised the intro sentence to better reflect the page, by removing the incorrect contention that the name of Azerbaijan supposedly became to encompass lands of the current Republic of Azerbaijan only in the 20th century [4]. I don't claim that I made the article perfect, but definitely made it slightly better, more consistent with Wikipedia purpose, and historically and factually correct. When one editor asked me about the edit, I've discussed it on his talk page [5], and on my talk page [6], showing all the scholars and geographers, who were already cited in the article, based on whose writings the edit came about. Then came editor Xashaiar and just started to revert (here's the diff: [7]), without discussions, without providing any logic or facts. Could you please take a look at the page and voice your opinion? --Agasalim (talk) 17:29, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

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Why ?

Hi Howcheng. Why did you remove Category:History of Damascus from some article 1, 2, 3 ? Regards. Takabeg (talk) 21:30, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

None of those articles has anything to do with the histories of Damascus or Baghdad directly. For example, 10th Mountain Division (United States) was formed in the U.S. state of Colorado, but it's not included in Category:History of Colorado. That's why I took them out. howcheng {chat} 23:45, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

space on MainPage

Hello, Howcheng. Just wanna let you know that DYK is running short of hooks and will be posting 6 hooks per update (instead of 7) the next little while. I hope that this minor change won't lead to layout problems on MainPage and that there will be enough space on MainPage for whatever you plan to do with SA/OTD. Hope this helps. Happy editing. Cheers! --PFHLai (talk) 18:10, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

Rosh HaShanah

Could you let us know either what the issues are or where we can find a list of what needs to be in compliance, please? Thank you. -- Avi (talk) 18:58, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

There are two maintenance tags in the article. I didn't put them there, but I can't include it in OTD if they're there. You should speak with whoever tagged the article. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 19:00, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

We'll take care of them. I thought so. Debresser (talk) 22:03, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 01 August 2011

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Your deletion of 'antenarrative theory' by Dr. David Boje

(NOTE: THIS SAME TALK POST WAS POSTED TO THE TALK PAGES OF WIKIPEDIA EDITORS RON RITTMAN AND PONYO)

Dear Howcheng,

Your deletion of Dr. David Boje's work in quantum physics and storytelling, and his concept of ANTENARRATIVE, is THE single most egregious and unfortunate edit I've ever seen on Wikipedia. Please allow it to be reposted, or re-post it yourself, if that's possible.

I have made my entire career (30+ years) in the storytelling business, from working as the publicist on the original TRON, when I had to explain to the news and entertainment media how a new technology (CGI) was going to change filmmaking forever (I also wrote the book the Art of TRON)...to when I produced the website for the first 'Toy Story' film and subsequently participated fully in the construction of early internet narratives...to today, when I use improvisation and (improvisational) game structure to help our clients generate productive business narratives in networks...

I am an expert in narrative, Ron. And I have never read anything more relevant to the future of narrative than Dr. Boje's work. We are, I believe, entering an era akin to the shift that took place at the end of the last century, when machines began giving way to information systems, and Newtonian physics to quantum mechanics. Today, like then, the old narratives are tired, and have sapped of their economic vitality (nowhere more so than in the U.S.). We need 'new story creation' on a unprecendented scale, and this effort will, of necessity, require what I call quantum narratives. These narratives will explore big themes like sustainability, education, religion, politics, leadership, etc. etc, We've spent 20 years building the technical infrastructure and now it's time to use the infrastructure to build the new narratives.

To do this productively (i.e. not chaotically) takes massive re-design in the conceptual, virtual and physical realms in which we dream and bring our dreams to life. Dr. Boje's theory of antenarrative and his other work in quantum physics and storytelling is going to be at the conceptual epicenter of this re-design.

By deleting his work, you are plopping yourself squarely in storytelling's past, when we spent all our time and professional energy battling to establish dominant narratives. The new narratives don't seek dominance, they seek flow. They are not 'owned' in the Disney IP sense of the word; they designed to invite participation. In terms of improvisation, the new games (which are used to generate narrative) are positive sum.

It will take Dr. Boje's work, translated to action in a multitude of different ways, to impose the discipline of design, the cosmos of creativity, on the chaos of information and invention that churns through the networked world in search of meaning (e.g. economic exchange) that can be assigned to it by people, environments and objects.

I urge you to reinstate his work. It's important! To me, it's like you're at editor at a science journal in 1904 who rejected Einstein's 1905 paper 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Objects' that ushered in the new era of physics. That's how important, and potentially transformative, I believe Boje's work is. I don't care whether he self-publishes it or not. It doesn't matter. It is thoroughly documented and accredited academically.

My wife is on the faculty of the School of Cinematic Arts at USC, and I can tell you that Boje's references and the people he cites in his work pop up all the time in the most sophisticated and evolved academic conversations anywhere in the world, around the subjects of multimedia literacy, social media, cinema, games and participatory culture.

BTW, I don't know Dr. Boje, have never met him, don't even know anyone who knows him (although I know a woman who's married to a blacksmith in New Mexico who may know him, as Dr Boje's side business is blacksmithing). I came across his work a little over a month ago on a website published by the University of Bath in the U.K., where he presented his 'The Quantum Physics of Storytelling' paper earlier this year. Only time (or as Boje's paper would call it, 'timespacemattering') will tell, but there's every possibility it could be this century's 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Objects.'

Thanks for your consideration in this urgent matter.

Regards, Mike Bonifer GameChangers, LLC [email redacted] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.169.110.254 (talk) 01:53, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. howcheng {chat} 02:05, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	For all the POTD captions and notifications. JJ Harrison (talk) 07:31, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

josh

I know that Josh T. birth name is Doniger. Not sure thats the correct spelling — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.176.247.150 (talk • contribs) 16:58, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. howcheng {chat} 16:15, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 08 August 2011

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POTD notification

Hi Howcheng, Thanks a lot for that ! Cheers.--Butterfly ^austral 15:13, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 15 August 2011

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Singing Revolution needs more references?

Please be more specific, like adding citation needed tags would be helpful. Otherwise the editors familiar with the subject have no idea what exactly are you after. Thanks!--Termer (talk) 02:00, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

If I do that, you'll see {{cn}} tags all over the places. I'm not sure why you need me to be more specific: the "Background" section only has one footnote, the "Estonia" section only has two, and the "Latvia" and "Lithuania" sections both have zero. I thought it was pretty obvious that the article needs a lot more references. howcheng {chat} 02:30, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Why would {{cn}} tags be all over the place, do you think the article is not based on facts or something? Just like that nobody can guess what exactly you might think would need a citation. There's an entire book listed in the references section that's written on the subject so if you'd point out what exactly you think needs citations in the article, someone might take their time and cite it from the book. Please take your time and be specific and please reply and explain at Talk:Singing_Revolution. Thanks!--Termer (talk) 08:01, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Have you seen the number of citations in -A-class, GA-level, and FA-level articles? This is not anywhere near that. I'm sorry, but I don't have the time to carefully comb through this one article. If you look through my contribution history, you can see what I'm doing: I go through a lot of articles each day to vet them for inclusion in Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries. It can take me hours to do this, so that means I do a lot of drive-by article tagging when I find articles that obviously aren't going qualify, like Singing Revolution. I put up the maintenance tags to make sure that any editor who asks, "Why isn't [some article] included in today's OTD?" can easily see why. At the very least, I'm asking for one citation per paragraph. howcheng {chat} 10:17, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

"I don't have the time to carefully comb through this one article". With respect, if you are tagging articles, you have a responsibility to look carefully at the content. If you're saying (as you seem to be) that you have a personal 'rule of thumb' about how many citations should be present, and you assess this at a glance, then your tagging is likely to become inaccurate. With the greatest of respect, this style of editing appears somewhat aggressive, and I would therefore question whether it is in the best interests of the community. Timothy Titus ^{Talk To TT} 04:24, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Then we will have to agree to disagree. My primary responsibility when doing this is to the Main Page, and not individual articles. howcheng {chat} 00:12, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 22 August 2011

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Baez/Dylan POTD Caption

Hello Howcheng - I don't want to change this yet on the actual file, (Template:POTD/2011-08-28) - but the caption is troublesome. This section - "and maintained a romantic relationship for nearly three years. Even after their break-up, they continued a professional relationship that has lasted to the present day" is problematic. Assumptions about the nature of the relationship between the two are tricky - and even if the first sentence is correct, the second is almost certainly not. Baez and Dylan have had no ongoing relationship of any kind since the 70s and in recent decades seem to have talked to each other only on camera to documentarians. More importantly, it seems to me that a relationship comment of any kind borders on the gossipy. The significance of the picture is that two great musical artists combined for a performance at one of the most significant public demonstrations in the history of the country - not that they were or are or have been involved with each other. I think that this is an important point. Sensei48 (talk) 05:22, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

The caption as published on the POTD is 1,000 times better. Thanks for taking note. regards, Sensei48 (talk) 17:43, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

A cookie for you!

Hello Howcheng! I hope you accept this cookie as an amicable greeting from a fellow Wikipedian, SwisterTwister talk 21:58, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

DYK nominations reviews

Hi,

I see that your an active reviewer of DYKs, would you mind taking a look at the two below. It would be much appreciated, not to worry if you can't. Thank you.

• Template:Did you know nominations/The Longford Trust‎
• Template:Did you know nominations/Edward Fitzgerald (barrister)

Kind regards, --Ratio:Scripta · ^{[ Talk ]} 20:23, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Urk, I don't even know what's going on at DYK anymore. I should probably get myself off that list. howcheng {chat} 16:29, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 29 August 2011

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Eid ul-fitr on Aug 30 and 31

Hello, howcheng. It looks like someone removed Eid ul-Fitr from On This Day. I don't know where to look to see whodunit. --Kenatipo ^speak! 18:47, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

User:Tariqabjotu did it: [8], claiming that it really ended yesterday. howcheng {chat} 18:49, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, Howcheng. Next Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr we'll do better! --Kenatipo ^speak! 21:04, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

POTD code issue

Hi, Howard. Please see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors#Errors in today's or tomorrow's featured picture. Thanks! —David Levy 00:55, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 05 September 2011

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Courtesy notice

• This is just a notice that Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, the article for the company that produced File:Iowa and Nebraska lands10.jpg (currently in limbo at Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Unused) has been expanded. It may contain enough context to bring the image out of limbo, but if not I understand. I have posted a link the unused images at WT:DYK in case anyone wants to expand some of those articles.

Unrelated question: Are sexually explicit FPs allowed? I was thinking of nominating the lead image at Hentai. Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:59, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

As per my note on the Unused page, that poster needs more context. Congress gave the railroad companies title to certain parcels of land near wherever they were building out the tracks, then the rail companies would sell that land (as in the poster). See Mussel Slough Tragedy for an example. So it looks like B&MR did something similar, and that's what I'd want in the article before the image gets POTD. As for sexually explicit FPs, in theory they should be fine; they just wouldn't show up as POTD. howcheng {chat} 16:19, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

• Thanks for the feedback. I hope at least a couple of the images in limbo can have their articles destubified. Regarding the sexually explicit image, I will try after seeing the results of the current Yaoi nomination. Thanks for the replies. Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:26, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

1990 Batticaloa massacre

Pruned it and cited with addition, not dead link RS sources. Kanatonian (talk) 18:53, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

I removed the questionable pic, you live and learn in Wikipedia. Kanatonian (talk) 19:17, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

In case you're wondering why I'm focusing on this article, I'm preparing it for inclusion in Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/September 9. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 19:19, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

I was'nt :) as I looked up at the date, Thanks Kanatonian (talk) 19:30, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Meow

Could you please block this user? The user has been showing porn on her userpage. Please block that user. Thank you. --#1 Fan of Queen (Talk | Contribs) 04:02, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 12 September 2011

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Kostas Georgakis

Hi Howcheng. Thank you very much for nominating the article on Selected anniversaries. Best wishes. Dr.K. ^{λogosπraxis} 21:46, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

TFA

Why did you have to add such an awful image to the Stark Raving Dad TFA blurb? It's low quality, doesn't have a transparant background, and the uploader even admitted to stealing it from [FoxFlash. As the nominator of the TFA, I was disappointed to see an article I had worked on associated with such a bush league image. -- Scorpion⁰⁴²² 23:53, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

People like having images on TFA, and that one seemed to be the most appropriate. The FoxFlash source is immaterial, since the text logo is public domain. Apparently, there really weren't too many other objections, since any admin could have taken it out. howcheng {chat} 02:16, 20 September 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 September 2011

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Research into the user pages of Wikipedians: Invitation to participate

Greetings,

My name is John-Paul and I am a student with the University of Alberta specializing in Communications and Technology.

I would like to include your Wikipedia user page in a study I am doing about how people present themselves online. I am interested in whether people see themselves in different ways, online and offline. One of the things I am looking at is how contributors to Wikipedia present themselves to each other through their user pages. Would you consider letting me include your user page in my study?

With your consent, I will read and analyze your user page, and ask you five short questions about it that will take about ten to fifteen minutes to answer. I am looking at about twenty user pages belonging to twenty different people. I will be looking at all user pages together, looking for common threads in the way people introduce themselves to other Wikipedians.

I hope that my research will help answer questions about how people collaborate, work together, and share knowledge. If you are open to participating in this study, please reply to this message, on your User Talk page or on mine. I will provide you with a complete description of my research, which you can use to decide if you want to participate.

Thank-you,

John-Paul Mcvea
University of Alberta
jmcvea@ualberta.ca

Johnpaulmcvea (talk) 21:00, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

POTD/Unused

Hi Howcheng, just to let you know File:Extermination of Evil Tenkeisei.jpg, currently in limbo at Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Unused, now has a bit of context at Extermination of Evil. Also, I was thinking it would be better to feature it with the other 4 hangings in the series (all featured), namely File:Extermination of Evil Vaisravana.jpg, File:Extermination of Evil Shinchū.jpg, File:Extermination of Evil Shōki.jpg, and File:Extermination of Evil Sendan Kendatsuba.jpg as it would ensure we don't have to run the same blurb more than once. However, I don't think there is any agreement as to how they were originally arranged when they were one wall hanging, so it may require discussion. I'm also not sure if they would look good at a small enough resolution to show all of them. Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:22, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

• No feedback? Crisco 1492 (talk) 04:53, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
  • Sorry, it's been in the back of my mind, but I was trying to figure out a way I do the whole set at once. I'll probably make a collage image of all of them, but I have to get around to doing it. howcheng {chat} 08:13, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

• Alright, thanks. Crisco 1492 (talk) 08:25, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 September 2011

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File:Tako to ama retouched.jpg

This file (just promoted) might warrant inclusion on POTD/unused. Cheers, Makeemlighter (talk) 19:43, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

R.101

I see you'v just added a 'more references' tag to this page. I'm the editor rsponsible for most of this page as it stands. It's not a subject I knew much about, but the article as was was so inaccurate, biased ind ill informed that I had to do something. I entirely agree that it needs more cites. The bulk of the information comes from one book, which as far as I know is the only thorough scholarly contemporary book on the subject, although I did obviously do a lot of supplementary research. (the book is not entirely neutral)..anything more and I would have to trawl through stuff in the Public records office. If youd care to pop in cite tags where you think it needs them I'd be pleased to deal with them b(before I take the books back to the library). I'm not entirely through with the article, it needs a bit of pruning and tying up, but I've left it for a whil because I needed a bit of distace from itTheLongTone (talk) 18:11, 4 October 2011 (UTC)

I'm still waitingTheLongTone (talk) 20:44, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, which article is this again? Wikilink, please. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 20:48, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

R101TheLongTone (talk) 08:13, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

??TheLongTone (talk) 19:15, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 3 October 2011

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Interview with Wikimedia Foundation

Hi Howcheng, How are you? My name is Matthew Roth and I'm a Storyteller working on the 2011 fundraiser with the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco. In past years, we've relied on Jimbo to carry the bulk of the fundraising weight and he's done very well helping us hit our yearly funding targets. This year, however, we're broadening the scope and reach of the fundraiser by incorporating more voices and different people on the funding banners and appeals that will start running full-time on November 7th. We're testing new messages and finding some really great results with editors and staff members of the Foundation. You can see the current progress of the tests here. I'm curious if you would want to participate in an interview with me as part of this process? The interviews usually last 60 minutes and involve a number of questions about your personal editing experiences, as well as general questions about Wikipedia and its impact in the world. PFHLai suggested I get in touch with you. Please let me know by emailing mroth (at) wikimedia.org. Thanks! Matthew (WMF) 17:52, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Footnotes

That may be. And don't get me wrong, I think the article should be properly referenced. But a couple of points for you to think about: 1. in your haste to drive-by tag, you simply made a big mess. Well, actually, a little mess. Care to look? 2. You also have to weigh up the greater good. Which is worse for the average reader: an article which does have references but which does not have inline citations, or one which starts off with a large self-important nagbox which will signify nothing to the vast majority of readers and which is likely to sit there for years achieving nothing? By all means put the nagbox at the foot of the article. In the end, for me, it is about a proportionate response to the issue. I don't agree with your sense of proportion. --Tagishsimon (talk) 20:08, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

We will have to agree to disagree on this point. The documentation for Template:Refimprove states that there is no consensus as to whether it belongs at the top or the bottom, and Template:Unreferenced's doc also says it can go in either location. If you strongly believe that these type of maintenance templates belong at the bottom of the article, then by all means go fight that fight and get community consensus to dictate that it's so. In the meantime, I will continue to tag the articles as I see fit. howcheng {chat} 20:32, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

If "as you see fit" means broken, then yes, we will have to agree to disagree. --Tagishsimon (talk) 20:49, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Template:POTD/2011-10-07

I have boldly changed this to one you had scheduled for a later date, as the Keep Calm and Carry On poster has been nominated for delisting. If kept, perhaps it could be POTD later? J Milburn (talk) 22:39, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Nominated by me, as it happens. Entirely unconnected with the previous thread, I assure you. The original poster was never dayglo red. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:49, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Lepanto text

Please see Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/October 7#"Most important since Actium" concerning your edit of the description of the battle of Lepanto.

Peter ^Isotalo 06:22, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

You've got mail

Just in case you had not seen it. :-) Risker (talk) 22:24, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

No, I haven't. Did you send it via Special:Email? I don't have anything in spam folder either. howcheng {chat} 04:31, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Hmmm. I was sending it to the email address you provided to the Committee. I will copy it to you via email this user. Risker (talk) 05:17, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 10 October 2011

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Discussion at File talk:DonEstridge.png#Non-free

You are invited to join the discussion at File talk:DonEstridge.png#Non-free. Trevj (talk) 12:16, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 17 October 2011

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Persons Case

Hi, Howcheng,

I've been working on the Persons Case Page (Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General)). A few months ago you put a tag on it calling for more in-line citations. Please take a look at it and see if the tag can now be removed. Best wishes. Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 18:50, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

thanks, Howcheng. I'll turn my attention to that particular section next. Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 01:03, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

POTD: Carpilius convexus

Many thanks for the warning about the crab-themed POTD; It's nice to see a crustacean on the front page. Could you tell me where the text you used came from? It is difficult to check the facts without sources, and the text in the caption doesn't seem to have come from the articles "crab" or "Carpilius convexus". That kind of information would be a useful addition to both articles if sourced appropriately, so it would be good to know what to cite. --Stemonitis (talk) 18:05, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

Actually, it's in Crab#Behaviour and all the facts are cited to sources. Thanks. howcheng {chat} 18:12, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

Oh yes, I must be blind. I probably wrote it, too. Sorry to have bothered you. --Stemonitis (talk) 18:24, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 October 2011

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The Signpost: 31 October 2011

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Help

Please help me save the pages Robotics Design and ANAT technology. I am being assaulted by people that make accusations and votes but present no worthy evidence. Democracy in this case is that of a raccoon and a fox voting to eat a squirrel, and this is unlawful, unfair, unreasonable, and I need help. Thanks.Canadiansteve (talk) 02:09, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Today's OTD

Hey, I noticed a few problems with this edit, the most important of which was adding an entry (with picture) that is already TFA. Careful about that, it causes problems when we need to change it (and the pic) mid-day to avoid duplication. Nikkimaria (talk) 02:48, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 7 November2011

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LA-area Meetup: Saturday, November 19

	National Archives Backstage Pass at the Reagan Library
	You are invited to the first-ever backstage pass tour and Wikipedia editathon hosted by the Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley, on Saturday, November 19th! The Reagan Library, home to a real Air Force One and other treasures from American history, will take Wikipedians on a special tour of the grounds and archives, followed by an editathon; free catered lunch provided. Please sign up! Dominic·t 21:15, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
	If you would not like to receive future messages about meetups, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Meetup/LA/Invite.

Since I can't check from here, can you confirm that you're seeing the geonotice on your watchlist, too? Dominic·t 21:17, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

I saw it. I was thinking yesterday I was going to have to get the geonotice up and then I saw that you'd done it. Thanks! howcheng {chat} 22:09, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Cool! Dominic·t 23:09, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Will there be a place to plug in our laptops? In a nutshell, my laptop's screen is shot, so I have to plug in a small flatscreen monitor in order to use the laptop. Also, what is the internet availability? Wifi? Or do I need to bring a cable? - Jcovarru·t 17 November 2011

There will probably be outlets (but I'm not certain). Wifi will be available. howcheng {chat} 00:27, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Re:Meetup

I rsped in a couple of e-mails Purplebackpack89≈≈≈≈ 15:54, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 14 November 2011

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Ah, my mistake, I accidentally thought that was in the phonetic part and it was just gay vandalism. :P Glacialfox (talk) 17:31, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

Orphaned non-free image File:Esf.JPG

⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Esf.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. Best, Weatherman1126 (talk) 21:25, 20 November 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 21 November 2011

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Arbitrary change

Please undo this change. I expect you have little to no familiarity with the sources used. I do, and cognomen is by no means unusual. Parrot of Doom 21:44, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

There's simply no reason to use a difficult word here. Nor is there a reason why Wikipedia needs to use the same exact term as the source material when a perfectly acceptable alternative exists that means the same thing in context and that is more easily understood. howcheng {chat} 21:48, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

There's nothing difficult about it. It's just a word, it's in the OED, people who've never heard of it will learn something from its presence. Why you think you have sole authority to change something that's been in the article for several years, something which wasn't objected to at FAC, is beyond me.

I'm bloody sick of the "let's race to the lowest common denominator" attitude that's becoming prevalent around here. Parrot of Doom 21:55, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

I would counter that making Wikipedia articles more accessible is a Good Thing. There are certainly cases where a different word is too simple, that it doesn't have the nuance carried by a particular word, and in those cases we should stick to using the most appropriate one. This isn't one of those cases, and why you're apparently prepared to fight to the death about this one word is beyond me. howcheng {chat} 22:12, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Great, so you disagree. Except where on earth do you get off forcing such a change? Did you raise the matter on the article's talk page? No. Did you ask the article's main editors? No. Can I revert your change? No.

So now, the editor most familiar with the the article, who deliberately chose that word to reflect the choices made by the article's sources, now has to put up with the actions of one admin who feels he knows better than everyone else.

This is part of what pisses content creators off. You have no right to force your views on others. Please revert the blurb back to what was agreed by common consensus. Parrot of Doom 22:27, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

You say there's "consensus" to use the term "cognomen". I'm afraid I don't see any such discussion in the talk archives. In contrast, there are three people at WP:ERRORS (including myself) who think that the use of "cognomen" should be avoided. howcheng {chat} 22:53, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

And how many people read that rather obscure section? The discussion should have been held at Talk:Blackbeard, where more interested parties might have had a chance to have a say. But by common consensus I refer to the fact that until today, there were no objections to the use of that word, which is, after all, used by the expert sources on which the article is based. It didn't stop you charging in and imposing your view though, did it?

And while we're on the subject, I find your "admin card" comment regarding Manchester Martyrs similarly disgraceful. You're supposed to be here to tidy up the mess, not use your god-given powers to impose your point of view. Parrot of Doom 23:08, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

You realize that nobody has changed the article, right? So this entire argument is about a blurb that will only be seen by people today (and by those trawling the TFA archives). In other words your preferred wording stays for the long term, but the Main Page gets a more easily understood version. I don't see that as being bad. As for the OTD comment, that's slightly tongue-in-cheek as I've been essentially the only person updating OTD for the last year. One could also argue that it's my job description to prevent those messes from happening in the first place. howcheng {chat} 23:34, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 November 2011

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The Signpost: 05 December 2011

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The Signpost: 12 December 2011

• Opinion essay: Wikipedia in Academe – and vice versa

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Tenth of Tevet- Thank you

I never got a chance to thank you for handling the OTD- Tenth of Tevet problem on Tuesday. You worked quickly and fully- even changing the article page to overrule yourself. Thanks! YosefK (talk) 00:49, 16 December 2011 (UTC)

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Thank you for putting Brooklyn Theater Fire in OTD for December 5

Forgive me my tardy thank you, but, nonetheless, thank you for putting Brooklyn Theater Fire up on the main page in the "On This Day..." section this last December 5. Quite apart from being personally pleased, some of the 14k visitors on that day made useful edits, both of the housekeeping and useful content sort, and at the end of the day it was automagically a better article. Sadly, I don't have much time for Wikipedia of late, but should that change, one of the projects I have in mind is to waltz BTF through the Featured Article gamut to see if it has the legs. You've furnished some motivation for that. Keep up the good work. Gosgood (talk) 15:02, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

You're very welcome! I always try to include articles that haven't yet appeared on OTD. howcheng {chat} 17:21, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 December 2011

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Swimmers_at_Kipahulu_-_Haleakala_NP

Hi,

My name is Mike, and I'm putting together a guidebook to the national parks. With your permission, I'd like to use the image of yours in the headline? It will be used for print and electronic versions (DRM protected) for commercial use. If that's alright, my next question is, how would you like to be attributed? I'll be happy to share electronic versions (PDF and EPUB) with you when it's completed.

Michael Oswald

P.S. To learn more about my project, feel free to click around www.stoneroadpress.com (I'm taking a shot at self-publishing). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stoneroadpress (talk • contribs) 20:49, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

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Show Boat

I have taken the liberty of moving your recent edit of my user talk page to the talk page for the relevant article - and have aswered your remarks there. Best wishes --Soundofmusicals (talk) 01:50, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 December 2011

• Opinion essay: Openness versus quality: why we're doing it wrong, and how to fix it

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Alexz Johnson

While I do agree with your edit to Alexz Johnson, unfortunately others do not. I just wanted to give you a heads up that your edit will be reverted. 117Avenue (talk) 21:59, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

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The Signpost: 02 January 2012

• Interview: The Gardner interview

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Great presentation of today's featured picture

Good job. Looks great. P. S. Burton (talk) 13:50, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Hear, hear! Good work. Jujutacular ^talk 18:36, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Glad you liked it. I may use this format again for other sets in the future. howcheng {chat} 00:26, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 09 January 2012

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Help with image

Hello, how are you? I'm a user from catalan wikipedia. We are working on ca:Expedició Discovery to become FA and I need to translate File:Discovery Expedition field of work.png to Catalan; I saw you translated to spanish already (File:Discovery Expedition field of work-es.png), so it's possible to translate it to catalan aswell? I give you the translation so, if you can do it, it will be faster :-)

• Ross Sea -> Mar de Ross
• Ross Island -> Illa de Ross
• Cape Crozier -> Cap Crozier
• Mt. Terror -> Mont Terror
• Mt. Erebus -> Mont Erebus
• Hut Point -> Hut Point
• Ross Ice Shelf -> Barrera de gel de Ross
• White Island -> Illa White
• Black Island -> Illa Black
• Western Mountains -> Muntanyes de l'Oest
• To Polar plateau -> Cap a l'altiplà polar
• McMurdo Sound -> Estret de McMurdo
• To -> A

Thank you!! --Arnaugir (talk) 20:40, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, that wasn't me; Commons:User:Taty2007 did the Spanish version. I'll see what I can get done tonight. howcheng {chat} 22:43, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Thx, I will talk to that user aswell. cheers--Arnaugir (talk) 17:45, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Teller was a Soviet puppet?

Oh dear. Please see Teller was a Soviet puppet?. Some of the articles contain quite surprising text... Got any physicist friends that could comment? 24.28.17.231 (talk) 05:45, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Discussion you may wish to take a look at

Hello, Holly Cheng. You have new messages at Raul654's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

NW (Talk) 21:30, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 16 January 2012

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Blackout

Hello! You seem to have misunderstood what was discussed on Raul's talk page. The idea was to have the same featured article/picture on the 18th (visible for five hours) and 19th (visible for nineteen hours), totaling the usual twenty-four hours of visibility.
If I understand correctly, you've scheduled a rerun for the 18th, with the same image appearing on both the 19th and 20th (totaling 43 consecutive hours of visibility).
It obviously is too late to change the 18th's featured picture, but I strongly suggest that you reconsider the 20th. That image will receive almost a full day of visibility on 19th, so it shouldn't also receive a full day on the 20th. (At most, if the five-hour loss is a concern, it should be rerun at a later date.) —David Levy 04:48, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

In fact, given the likelihood of substantially increased traffic today (due to the blackout's media coverage and readers' eagerness to regain access to site), I'd say that it isn't even necessary to rerun the image at a later date; despite appearing for only nineteen hours, it probably will receive more exposure than usual. —David Levy 06:49, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

No, I understood what the plan for TFA was, but I didn't want to implement it for POTD. As you know, POTD is very template-driven, so if the same image ran on both the 18th and 19th, the "Recently featured" links would have to be manually altered each day for the next few days, otherwise you'd end up having duplicate links there. Yes, it's a minor annoyance, but I didn't want to deal with it, nor did I want to force others into doing it either. My only regret is that I should have chosen an image by someone who has a lot of FP credits (e.g., JJ Harrison, Muhammad), instead of someone for whom this is their first POTD appearance, but as it turns out, there are plenty more in the queue for Nhobgood. —howcheng {chat} 08:54, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't follow. You've scheduled the same picture for the 19th and 20th. Was this accidental? —David Levy 09:00, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, never mind! I just realized that another user did that. This was the source of my confusion. Please disregard the above thread with my apologies. —David Levy 09:06, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, that makes sense now. From your post, I inferred that you were saying, "why didn't you repeat the POTD on the 18th and 19th, but if you're thinking about repeating it on the 20th, don't do that". —howcheng {chat} 17:21, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

POTD notification

POTD

Hi PLW,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture File:Pine grosbeak17g.jpg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on January 10, 2012. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2012-01-10. howcheng {chat} 21:02, 9 January 2012 (UTC)

Do we no longer give credit to retouchers/restorers? Papa Lima Whiskey 2 (talk) 11:41, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

It depends on how extensive the retouching work is, I suppose. Restorers usually get credit because there's a lot of work in fixing old images (dust, scratches, etc), but I haven't been doing credits for simpler things like curves adjustments and crops (I myself wouldn't want a credit for that). howcheng {chat} 18:25, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

The problem here is that you're making a snap judgement of how intensive the work really was. The example demonstrates that your estimate can be wildly out - it required creating at least one selection mask, and went through seven iterations before the result was satisfactory. A major piece of work that would hold its own against not all, but quite a few of our LoC restorations. So therein lies the rub: simple eyeballing can be wrong. Papa Lima Whiskey 2 (talk) 11:45, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Any comments? Papa Lima Whiskey 2 (talk) 09:54, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Since I don't follow FPC that closely anymore and I may be in a hurry when I'm doing the blurbs, if at any time you think you should get a credit, I say go ahead and add yourself. —howcheng {chat} 19:14, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

You had left me about an hour to do this before the item went live, and I didn't check at what point it became protected - even sooner, presumably! Are you saying retouchers have to be permanently online to ensure that they will get their due credit? Papa Lima Whiskey 2 (talk) 12:50, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

No, I'm saying that it can be added at any time, even if it's after 00:00 UTC, and I'll transfer it as soon as possible. —howcheng {chat} 17:05, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 January 2012

• News and notes: SOPA blackout, Orange partnership

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

• WikiProject report: The Golden Horseshoe: WikiProject Toronto

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

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Animation

Howcheng, can you make it so that when visitors click the “View the animation” link on the main page, that they are taken to here: http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/NURBS_3-D_surface.gif

A lot of visitors won’t know to click in the right place to view the image. Greg L (talk) 01:40, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

That's a good idea. I may even do that for future animated images as well. —howcheng {chat} 02:15, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 January 2012

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

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

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

• WikiProject report: Digging Up WikiProject Palaeontology

• Featured content: Featured content soaring this week

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USRD WikiProject Newsletter, Winter 2012

Volume 5, Issue 1 • Winter 2011 • About the Newsletter
This edition is going out to all USRD WikiProject members (current, former, or potential) in addition to other subscribers as part of a roll call to update the participants list. Anyone that would like to continue to receive this newsletter in the future needs to update the subscription list if they are not already subscribed.
Departments Assessment roundup Portal selected articles and pictures	Features U.S. Roads consolidates M-6 article makes headlines Planning Department debuts Stub drive concludes early, successfully Editorial	State and national updates Project news Task force reports for MD, MI, PA, and VA
Archives • Newsroom • Full Issue • Shortcut: WP:USRD/NEWS

—Imzadi 1979 → 22:04, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the PoTD heads up

I added some text to the Feb. 8th PoTD. Thanks I wouldn't have noticed it was a PoTD otherwise :)

From one cat lover (and soccer fan) to another, Spanky looked like a wise old cat. Even if he left us way too early, there is no mistaken the look of wisdom. Gut (talk) 15:52, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

The Signpost: 06 February 2012

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

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

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

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

• Featured content: Talking architecture with MrPanyGoff

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

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

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Controversial PoTD

It occurs to me that if you want to put up File:Michele Merkin 1.jpg or something else that's likely to be controversial but can't be bothered to deal with the flak, just wait until the TFA is say HUMANCENTiPAD. (Although avoid problems with the blurb.) Or have you already realised that? :-P Nil Einne (talk) 14:11, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Ha ha, that's a good idea. —howcheng {chat} 17:22, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

MSU Interview

Dear Howcheng,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community, and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the community HERE, were it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one of our students.

So a few things about the interviews:

• Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
• Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)
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Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your name HERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

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Is this what it's going to get left at?

So I suppose as payback for our recent discussion, you've stopped notifying me of upcoming PotDs of images that I've contributed to? That's really poor form if that's true. Papa Lima Whiskey 2 (talk) 00:36, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Uhhh, no. I only notify nominators and creators, and I've been fairly consistent at that for a long time. I presume you're thinking of King Kalākaua. I didn't notify Greg L either, but I did notify Brandmeister, who was the nominator. The secret to my longevity here on WP is to not get involved in disputes whatsoever, so I certainly am not harboring any grudges. —howcheng {chat} 03:18, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 03:20, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Selected anniversaries - 17 February

Hello there,

You recently removed the article Bloody Thursday (2011) from the selected anniversaries for 17 February, apparently because 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising was just on 3 days ago. While Bloody Thursday is an event during the uprising, it's completely a separate article and in the selected anniversary page there was no mention for the uprising at all. If you're bothered with the "Main article: 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising", then I've removed it. I don't want the focus to go on the uprising article rather than Bloody Thursday article. If there is anything else I can do to make this article qualifies to show on the main page, please let me know. Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 16:12, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

I see what you're getting at. However, it's long-standing practice at OTD not to feature related events so close in succession. If you look at Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/November 2, for example, and view the Staging Area, you can see the note to avoid related Vietnamese topics that are all clustered around that date. In this case, even though the event on Nov 2 (Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem) took place in 1963, there are instructions to avoid the 1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt so that readers aren't flooded with similar topics over the course of several days. So in your case, the best course of action then is to keep Bloody Thursday hidden for this year, and then next year we'll switch them around so that it gets shown and the uprising doesn't. There's also an unwritten rule to avoid recent events as much as possible, so that OTD kind of acts as counterbalance to ITN. Hope that helps. —howcheng {chat} 16:57, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

I must say this is disappointing for me, despite being convinced. Anyway, thanks for your reply and keep up the good work. Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 17:34, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

On this day - February 17

Shouldnt we have something about the 2011 Libyan revolution? After all, February 17 is the day where the country saw a nation wide protest then lead to the civil war which ended Gaddafi 40 yrs rule. -- The Egyptian Liberal (talk) 11:29, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

There's kind of been a lot Arab Spring stuff recently. WP:RECENT applies to the Main Page, too. As I said in the section above, one purpose of OTD is to counterbalance the recent events in ITN. Besides, the Libyan civil war article says protests started on February 15, so that would be a better day for it. —howcheng {chat} 17:34, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

I was going to suggest exactly like The Egyptian Liberal after Howcheng removed Bloody Thursday, but after reading his explanation I though he'd probably push for the same reason. I think 2011 Libyan revolution should be on main page on 17 February this year. After all, the Arab Spring was a revolutionary wave, and Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and other countries started gathering mass protests during the same period, especially after Mubarak stepped down. Each of these events have strong impact on the future of these counties and mark a historical moment. If not in OTD, Libya has to make it via ITN. Bahraini Activist ^{Talk to me} 18:06, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Meermin 1766

About this edit, it's shorter and locates events, but "South Africa" didn't exist in 1766, and the "free thought" element is important IMHO, please discuss, or ideally revert while the article is on Main Page? Nortonius (talk) 21:36, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

The main reason for the copyedit was to shorten the item, because the entry was just too long. I felt the "free thought" element could go too as it's a quote from a summary of a television program (not really an academic source). In addition, the sentence didn't really flow well, and it seemed like you just tried to squeeze it in. —howcheng {chat} 00:05, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

I'm happy with this for now, thanks; though, there is detail in the article, and further background in related sources, to back up the "free thought" element. You're right about the sentence in a way, I ran it up quickly as best I could, but was there not time to thrash this out with me or other involved editors before the anniversary appearance on the Main Page rolled around? I'd like the "free thought" element back in there somehow. Is there an actual limit on the length of the sentence, other than a practical one? It fitted fine on the Main Page as it was, though I can see that it might have been otherwise, if space were needed for something else. Anyway, lots of time now to think about that! Cheers. Nortonius (talk) 00:18, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

There's no real limit to how long a blurb can be, but as a general rule we try to be fairly terse, especially when the item in question is one of the first two listings, because they have even less room due to the photo to the immediate right (i.e., it might run 3 lines lower on the screen, but 4 lines up there). Layout issues are always fluid like that, because we also have to take into consideration the length of TFA and the number of DYK articles there. If there's more stuff in the left column, we have more room to play with in the right. In yesterday's case, DYK started off the day with a large number, but ended with a lot less, so I cut out one thing each from both ITN and OTD, and tried to shorten where possible in OTD too. Anyway, Meermin slave mutiny was an interesting article; I hadn't heard of that event before. —howcheng {chat} 01:00, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I have found it a very absorbing article to work on, thanks for your thoughts. Just to be clear, though: the "television program" is a marvellous source for the article. People heavily involved include Prof Nigel Worden, University of Cape Town, who was directly involved in researching the Meermin story with Andrew Alexander, who was the expert on the subject (sadly he died in a car accident in 2007), and archaeologist Jaco Boshoff of Iziko Museums, a South African national institution, in charge of finding the Meermin's remains; plus a few contextual quotations from Desmond Tutu no less. And the programme relies heavily on contemporary archive sources. So yes, the quotation was from a "summary of a tv program", but, given the programme's content, it's something more than promo copy. I'll try to think further on how the "free thought" quotation might be improved upon, though. Cheers. Nortonius (talk) 01:18, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

For the record, something I missed mentioning in my previous comments here is about the delinking of "Madagascans" to Malagasy people: that was an intentional pipe, designed to indicate the community that the people were from, not the place. You might want to look at this related discussion. Cheers. Nortonius (talk) 11:17, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 23:06, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Image caption in Shetland article

You recently undid a change I made to the Shetland article section on British rule. It involves the caption of a photograph. It was a stunning photograph and I looked into its provenance. I discovered that it is not in fact dated 1880 and the location is erroneous. Here is a link to the photo in the Shetland Museum's digital archive. My apologies if my edit was made in a way that violated Wikipedia protocol. I'm new to this. All the best! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.5.254.13 (talk) 23:22, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

My mistake. Sorry about that! —howcheng {chat} 00:56, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

You did well to spot this, 152.5.254.13, - I see that Ratter wasn't born until 1876. However, note that the edit isn't properly formatted - I will fix - that "Sooth Mooth" is a local name for Bressay Sound, see here, and that the alleged date of the photo is after the date it was taken! Ben MacDui 08:32, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

OTD 23 February

Your work has been complimented at Talk:Main Page#Job well done ... thought you might like to know. :) Cheers, -- Black Falcon ^(talk) 23:26, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

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POTD 11 March 2012

Hi Howcheng - I saw your message about POTD - sorry I didn't know. Please take it out again if you want. I was not sure how First in First Out works here as the pictures were not scheduled in order in POTD, i.e there were some scheduled for end of March, with blank slots earlier, and I couldn't see anything in the user guide about it. Regards --Stu Phillips (talk) 00:57, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Hi Howcheng, the above claim of ignorance seems reather dubious seeing as Stu posted a POTD notification template on his own talk page, seemingly in an effort to make this seem legit. HE obiously wasn't counting on the template transcluding his own signature. God Emperor^Talk 13:37, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

It's not a problem. If it were, I would have rescheduled it. —howcheng {chat} 18:03, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

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POTD tomorrow

Hello, Howcheng. I just realise that you are not listed in the edit history of the POTD templates for tomorrow (Template:POTD protected/2012-03-20, Template:POTD/2012-03-20). Are you okay with the pic? Please make changes as needed. Just an FYI here. If everything is okay, then never mind. Cheers! --PFHLai (talk) 01:56, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Normally an image like that shouldn't be jumping the queue, but I'm too busy right now to take care of it, so let's just let it go. —howcheng {chat} 18:02, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Too busy? I don't know where the "master queue" is, but please let me know if you need a hand with the POTD stuffs. Thanks. Cheers! --PFHLai (talk) 14:56, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

2012 L.A. Meetup

Just throwing out some dates & stuff going on in 2012 to think about.

The Wikimania 2012 conference will be held on July 12-15 at George Washington University in Washington. (No meetup is planned anywhere else yet during these dates)

The 2012 Huge American Wiknic will be held on June 23 (Nothing is yet planned for the L.A. area, but one is planned for a Meetup in St. Louis on that day - "Meetup St. Louis 4")

We also have The United States presidential election of 2012 being held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. (Not related to wikipedia just noting this)

We also have the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival June 14 – 24 being held at L.A. LIVE (Not related to wikipedia just noting this)

It also maybe a good year to meetup at the Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory based on some topics going on in 2012 this year.(Not related to wikipedia just noting this)

Let me know if I can be of any help this year ahead with the planning of a 2012 meetup. Tinkermen (talk) 15:59, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

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A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Diligence
	I kind of messed up by carelessly moving an article and you quickly fixed it. On behalf of Wikipedia, I award you this barnstar for your hard work and knowledge about Wikipedia. Metsfreak2121 (talk) 18:30, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 00:15, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Template:UpcomingPOTD

A tag has been placed on Template:UpcomingPOTD requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section T3 of the criteria for speedy deletion because it is a deprecated or orphaned template. After seven days, if it is still unused and the speedy deletion tag has not been removed, the template will be deleted.

If the template is intended to be substituted, please feel free to remove the speedy deletion tag and please consider putting a note on the template's page indicating that it must be substituted so as to avoid any future mistakes (<noinclude>{{substituted}}</noinclude>).

If you think that the page was nominated in error, contest the nomination by visiting the page's talk page directly to give your reasons, but be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but do not hesitate to add information that is consistent with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that the administrator userfy the page or email a copy to you. WWGB (talk) 12:37, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

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Invitation to events in June and July: bot, script, template, and Gadget makers wanted

I invite you to the yearly Berlin hackathon, 1-3 June. Registration is now open. If you need financial assistance or help with visa or hotel, then please register by May 1st and mention it in the registration form.

This is the premier event for the MediaWiki and Wikimedia technical community. We'll be hacking, designing, teaching, and socialising, primarily talking about ResourceLoader and Gadgets (extending functionality with JavaScript), the switch to Lua for templates, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Labs.

We want to bring 100-150 people together, including lots of people who have not attended such events before. User scripts, gadgets, API use, Toolserver, Wikimedia Labs, mobile, structured data, templates -- if you are into any of these things, we want you to come!

I also thought you might want to know about other upcoming events where you can learn more about MediaWiki customization and development, how to best use the web API for bots, and various upcoming features and changes. We'd love to have power users, bot maintainers and writers, and template makers at these events so we can all learn from each other and chat about what needs doing.

Check out the the developers' days preceding Wikimania in July in Washington, DC and our other events.

Best wishes! - Sumana Harihareswara, Wikimedia Foundation's Volunteer Development Coordinator. Please reply on my talk page, here or at mediawiki.org. Sumana Harihareswara, Wikimedia Foundation Volunteer Development Coordinator 00:36, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

Template:POTD/2012-04-09

Just got this FP passed, but I thought I would go ahead and schedule it (American Civil War ended on April 9) and see what you thought. I felt that the combination of the quote and picture was incredibly impactful. If you think it's too strong for the main page, I would understand. Jujutacular (talk) 01:41, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Let's sit on this for a year. Even at April 9, 2013, it will still be appearing early. —howcheng {chat} 02:26, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Tentatively moved to 2013-04-09! Thanks. Jujutacular (talk) 02:33, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 00:18, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Re: OTD April 15

No problems. My primary concern was preventing TFA and OTD from highlighting the same article. --Allen3 ^talk 12:29, 14 April 2012 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Holly Cheng. You have new messages at Wikipedia talk:Selected anniversaries/April 16.
Message added 13:48, 16 April 2012 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

-- ♪Karthik♫ ♪Nadar♫ 13:48, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 22:25, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Your quickimagedelete script

Howdy. I use your User:Howcheng/quickimgdelete.js on my User:Rockfang/monobook.js. Recently I found a file that was orphaned. I clicked on "Orphaned non-free" in the toolbox and it produced this message on the uploader's talk page. The template the message mentions appears red linked. I think because it was deleted. If you get a moment, could you perchance update your script? I'm not sure if there is a better template to insert into {{orphaned fairuse}}'s place or not.--Rockfang (talk) 02:25, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

That's not part of the script; the redlink was coming from {{Orphaned short}}, which I have fixed. —howcheng {chat} 09:04, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Oh. My apologies for assuming it was a problem with your script. Thank you for fixing Orphaned short. :) Rockfang (talk) 12:01, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for April 18

Hi. When you recently edited England v United States (1950 FIFA World Cup), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Frank Wallace (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 10:13, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

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OTD complaint heads-up

Talk:Main Page#24 April 2012 On This Day.., in case your ears are burning and you can't work out why... Bencherlite^Talk 20:18, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 04:36, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

POTD notice on Talk:Nefertiti Bust

The notice was placed just hours before the appearance. It is not possible to revise the blurb or article in this period. Can such a notice be placed at least 2-3 days before the appearance to give time for editors to revise? The Bust blurb missed some important details like discoverer, date of discovery and current location. I have made the changes to Template:POTD/2012-05-05, but can't change the main page version. Please check. --Redtigerxyz ^Talk 07:56, 5 May 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 00:41, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

Germans

Hi. I found an error in the article (see photo). Copernicus was not a German, he was from Poland. --Top811 my talk —Preceding undated comment added 15:53, 12 May 2012 (UTC).

Great American Wiknic for LA in June

Hi Howard. I would like to invite you to again join the LA Great American Wiknic this June at Wikipedia:Meetup/LA/6, with maybe your suggestion for the park choice :) Also, please confirm any preliminary details at Wikipedia:Wiknic#2012 Wiknic.--Pharos (talk) 00:04, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

May 16 anniversaries

Hi, I've tried to set up Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 16. It's my first time working on anniversaries for the front page, so I would appreciate if you could review. I've added some notes on the talk page. I've added six in case you think one isn't good enough. Junko Tabei isn't a great article, but I think it helps to address geographic, cultural and gender bias in the normal selection for this section of the front page. Cheers, John Vandenberg ^(chat) 09:16, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Could you please explain why "The Medici were driven from Florence and a republic was re-established" has been removed and marked as needs expansion? None of those articles have any tags on them and are all reasonably in-depth.

Also, you have selected four from the 20th century, including the Annexing of Sikkim which has appeared the last three years in a row, and includes States and territories of India which is tagged with {{Refimprove}} since April 2011. John Vandenberg ^(chat) 05:41, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Not a bad first effort. Some notes:

1. Blurbs need to be in the past tense. I think you copied some from the May 16 page as is.
2. You need to watch out for yellow and orange maintenance tags in the article: Florence#Music is so tagged. Furthermore, you also need to appropriately tag the articles if they need any maintenance. Junko Tabei wasn't, like you said, in very good shape.
3. Be sure to check the article talk page to find out of it's already been featured on a different day (like Thomas More). I forget to do this too, otherwise I would have realized about Sikkim. As for the States and territories of India article, those links that are NOT the bold one don't have to be free of maintenance tags.

Thanks! —howcheng {chat} 05:52, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback. I'm surprised that a section tag on Florence#Music would disqualify it, as that is largely irrelevant to the rise and fall of democracy in Florence, but at the same time I think this entry needs to be switched around to make House of Medici the active article - however it doesnt mention '16 May'. Something to fix, maybe for next time.

I've added Mary, Queen of Scots to the Eligible list, as that article hasnt been on the front page since 2010, whereas Battle of Albuera was there this time last year. John Vandenberg ^(chat) 06:08, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, any yellow-level and higher maintenance tag on the article is an automatic disqualification. Mary normally belongs on February 8, so I'm reluctant to move it from there. I wouldn't mind finding another date where the pool of eligible articles is small, however. —howcheng {chat} 06:23, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 22:52, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Moveable feasts

Hi - hope you don't mind, but I added Ascension day to Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/May 17 last Thursday, as it had been omitted (I don't know if it was intentional, or just an omission). If it's any help to you in future, I've compiled a list of moveable feasts based on Easter in Western Christianity at Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/moveable feasts. Hope it comes in useful!  An optimist on the run! 20:11, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your help; I can't keep track of all of those feasts. I have a similar list at Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/Holidays and observances so I can remember which ones might be upcoming soon. It would be really fantastic if we could get a similar list for Judaism and Islam as well (not that I'm asking you to do it, just kind of wishing out loud). —howcheng {chat} 20:37, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

POTD

It recently came to my attention that File:Joan of Arc WWI lithograph2.jpg, promoted in 2009, has not been on the main page; this is perhaps a result of being improperly closed. As we are on 2010 now, perhaps this could be worked in? — Crisco 1492 (talk) 01:33, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

Looks like it didn't make it into one of the Featured pictures thumbs groups, which is why I didn't know about it. I will squeeze it in. —howcheng {chat} 04:04, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

• Alright, thanks. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 12:56, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

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Sad

...that you removed from OTD the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Italy's most prominent anti-mafia judge and national hero. I understand the policy guideline on yellow templates, but I am saddened to see that one of the most important anniversaries in Italy's contemporary history (celebrated nation-wide this year) has been removed because of a minor stylistic glitch. --DarTar (talk) 04:07, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Battle of Spottsylvania by Thure de Thulstrup.jpg

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Battle of Spottsylvania by Thure de Thulstrup.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Jujutacular (talk) 00:04, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

WP:Geonotice

The geonotice request page has an archive page, Wikipedia:Geonotice/Old requests. And thanks for handling the requests! Deryck C. 20:13, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

POTD/2012-05-28

Not sure what the correct forum or form is but I tweaked the wording in Template:POTD/2012-05-28 to be a bit more neutral. Apology if that is not the correct procedure but I could find a related discussion anywere/ MilborneOne (talk) 10:49, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

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Talkback

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Martha Washington

Re: this edit... I do understand that this pic is the PotD for her birthday/June 2, but does anybody know where and what this actual image is from?
All the source page has is that it is from Brittanica.Com and all that Brittanica.Com has is that the image is "Stock Montage/Hulton Archive/Getty Images". The image appears to be a photo of an antique engraving of uncertain vintage. Another thing, and I admit I am not very conversant with Commons parameters), but the other somewhat problematic issue for me is that Getty Images licenses their photos for sale and I don't think they are freely available as CC-By-SA etc. The provided Britannica.Com link reverts to the main Britannica page, this link provides the full image. This colored engraving seems to be a probable copy of the steel engraving image that appears here which itself is considered to be "after the Gilbert Stuart painting" a portrait painted from life that appears here.
The other (removed) image of "Martha_washington.jpg" as it appears in its files states it is from a "Mr. Armstrong's History Class" website which has no information as to the image's provenance. Digging a little deeper on the painted image, it is actually an 1800-1825 portrait of Martha Washington by an unidentified artist that resides in the National Portrait Gallery as seen here and here(from the Virginia Historical Society exhibition "Virginia Treasures from the National Portrait gallery") and finally (found it!) here on its National Gallery page which states the following:

Artist: Unidentified Artist

Copy after: Gilbert Stuart, 3 Dec 1755 - 9 Jul 1828

Copy after: Charles Willson Peale, 15 Apr 1741 - 22 Feb 1827 .

It just seems to me that the place the actual images reside or some of their provenance should perhaps be in their Commons files whichever one is used as the article's Infobox image or as the Wikipedia:Picture of the day. Thanks, Shearonink (talk) 18:12, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

That URL to the National Portrait Gallery is a temporary URL so I can't use it. However, I did find a black-and-white version of the engraving in the Library of Congress, although I don't know who is responsible for the color. Regardless, I wouldn't worry about Getty's claiming of copyright on it; they do that on every image in their collection). I'll update the Commons record for the engraving. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 19:36, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Sorry about the temporary thing. I think maybe I had come across the black/white version as well. Attribution of content is something that intrigues me and that color engraving just looks so unlike anything else I had seen of Mrs. Washington from life that it bothered me...looks like a mid to late 19th Century engraving done for mass-market use like a textbook or for posting in Post Offices or schools. Thanks for updating the file, Shearonink (talk) 19:41, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

There are some other good portraits of her in the Library of Congress. I'll upload of some of them later and maybe we can use something more true to real life for the article then. —howcheng {chat} 19:46, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Two Chicago images in one week

You have scheduled File:CTA Night.jpg for June 6 and File:20090524 Buildings along Chicago River line the south border of the Near North Side and Streeterville and the north border of Chicago Loop, Lakeshore East and Illinois Center.jpg for June 4. You have also requested that I spend some time identifying all the buildings in the latter. Why don't we reschedule the latter for either early July or August. In late July (the 21st), we WP:CHICAGO have File:Johnny Evers 1910 FINAL2sh.jpg coming.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 17:40, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for catching that. I wasn't looking ahead when I scheduled it. —howcheng {chat} 18:49, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

SF editathon watchlist notice

Hi Howcheng,

I just left a note on Sarah Stierch's talk page about the watchlist notice for the SF women's editathon – it's way too long per the guideline, so I asked her to trim it down a bit. Letting you know, since you're the only one out of the three of us who actually has the userright to change it :) Thanks for your help, Accedie^{talk to me} 20:39, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Talkback

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Sarah (talk) 01:10, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

File:20090524 Buildings along Chicago River line the south border of the Near North Side and Streeterville and the north border of Chicago Loop, Lakeshore East and Illinois Center.jpg

I started trying to name the buildings in the picture. However, it is difficult to determine which buildings I should name. Sometimes just part of a building is in view. Also, we would do better with some text added to the file, I think.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 06:25, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 09:12, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

Tamil

I fixed it a minute after making it, over two weeks ago.[9] It wasn't my error you fixed, and for edit warring on my talk page about an error that you didn't even bother to trace,

Whack! You've been whacked with a wet trout. Don't take this too seriously. Someone just wants to let you know that you did something silly.

— kwami (talk) 18:40, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

Then you should have linked to the error in the first place. I'm happy to fix any error I make if you tell me what it is. Anyway, you're being a WP:DICK, so stay off my talk page. — kwami (talk) 22:07, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

And you should have looked at the damn article instead of categorically denying there was a problem. I could have looked at it and said, "not my problem" and walked away, but I tried to figure it out and hand it off to the right person to fix it because I didn't know anything about the references/sources. So the diff I gave you was wrong—sorry, but think about it: if you had fixed the issue, why the hell would I need to inform you about it?? That makes no sense. And then your only response was to delete my talk page messages instead of engaging me in dialog? Who's being the dick? All you had to say was, "I fixed that in the next edit", and I would have replied, "The problem is still in the article." And then you would have figured it out and we'd have been done. But nooooooo, you had to be all self-righteous about it, forcing me to find to take the extra time to find the error because you couldn't possibly believe you might have made a mistake. Here's some unsolicited advice: when someone raises an issue with you, consider that they might be right. —howcheng {chat} 00:29, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Question about NPOV task force

Howcheng,

Hi, I wonder if you could point me the right direction. I once ran across a task force (that may have not been the title they used) on Wikipedia that dealt with editing bias as it relates to the oil industry. I have not been able to locate them as I have forgotten what they were called. Is there a list of these groups of editors who work on projects like this? To be specific, I am seeing much bias by a certain oil industry giant on their Wikipedia page. To make revisions has been met with much resistance and little help from Wikipedia. I took the problem to POV noticeboards, but have since only received one response. Also, do you know anywhere else I could go for help? One editor cannot be expected to take on an oil giant. At least, not this one. Thanks very much. petrarchan47^Tc 23:58, 5 June 2012 (UTC)

POTD notification

Thanks for the information (and nomination). I corrected the caption a little bit, for we have 5 views of the same shell and not 5 shells. --Llez (talk) 20:11, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

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Wikipedia Help Survey

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Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/File:Pittsburgh, Allegheny & Birmingham.jpg

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, File:Pittsburgh, Allegheny & Birmingham.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Makeemlighter (talk) 01:40, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

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• EdwardsBot (talk) 02:33, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Panorama FPs

Hello! I was wondering if it might be possible to tweak the TFA template to utilize {{Wide image}} for panorama-format images. This would allow the image to display at full width for users with wide screens, but change to utilize a scroll bar for more narrow resolution. You can see an example of this at Signal Hill, California#Discovery of oil. I didn't think about this until today's image went live, but I thought this might be useful for future panorama FPs. Jujutacular (talk) 03:56, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

We're already using it. The Signal Hill pic is in fact wrapped in the template. —howcheng {chat} 04:03, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

But the image only takes up a small portion of the screen? I thought the point of the template was that the image would display at full width if available, but the scroll bar would appear if necessary. Jujutacular (talk) 02:15, 22 June 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, I wonder if I can use a percentage width instead of a fixed width. I'll try that. Thanks. —howcheng {chat} 16:04, 22 June 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for taking a look. Jujutacular (talk) 17:07, 23 June 2012 (UTC)

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Disambiguation link notification for June 28

Hi. When you recently edited April 24, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Watch Tower Society (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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Great American Wiknic Barnstar

Great American Wiknic Barnstar You are awarded this mighty Great American Wiknic Barnstar for your valorous efforts in helping to organize the 2012 Great American Wiknic in the great city of Los Angeles. -—Pharos (talk) 21:10, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

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Queering Wikipedia Editathon

Hello! Happy 4th! Max Klein recommended I contact you about an upcoming event at the Tom of Finland Foundation Library in Echo Park. It will be our second public Queering Wikipedia editathon, taking place on July 22 from 1pm - 5pm. I posted in the News section of http://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/LA, but am brand new to wikipedia editing so I am writing to ask for help! We are looking for wikipedians who could come to the library on the 22nd and help newbies learn to edit wikipedia and/or teach a workshop. If you or anyone you know might be interested, please email me at kherzog [at] tomoffinlandfoundation.org. Thanks! --Cccitizen (talk) 16:57, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Junk pictures of the day

In case you didn't notice, someone was creating junk Pictures of the Day (see the deleted history of Template:POTD/2012-07-06 and Template:POTD/2012-07-07). I've deleted them, but, of course, that means they're not selected. -- tariqabjotu 00:23, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for taking care of that. —howcheng {chat} 02:32, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

STS-135

Hello, Holly Cheng. You have new messages at David Levy's talk page.
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OTD and BLP

Hello again! You might be interested in this discussion. —David Levy 19:21, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

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