User talk:The Interior/Archive 12

Latest comment: 10 years ago by BracketBot in topic July 2014
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Filson_(company)

Hello The Interior, I see we've reverted the same edits by an IP user on this page. He is continually adding back the same promotional terms and when I revert he's restoring them. Could you have a look and see what you think is the best course of action rather than letting this turn into what might be seen as an edit war. Thanks Fraggle81 (talk) 01:46, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Hey Fraggle81! I have started a discussion on the talk page, and the editor has joined in. We should all quit reverting and hash it out. The Interior (Talk) 01:51, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

DYK for Clarke, Irwin & Company

The DYK project (nominate) 23:29, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Template:Editor of the Week/sandbox

I realize you must be busy. I wonder if you could drop by Template:WikiProject Editor Retention/Editor of the Week/Project main page/sandbox and give the future Userboxes a look-see and, if necessary, some of your insightful editing. Thanks in advance. ```Buster Seven Talk 14:28, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

Buster, I'll drop by this week and do some work. Yes, busy, but good busy. The Interior (Talk) 02:33, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Early Bird (literally!)

 
Jezebel'sPonyobons mots has given you a Turkey! Turkeys promote WikiLove and hopefully this has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a turkey, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Spread the goodness of turkey by adding {{Thanksgiving Turkey}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Mail

 
Hello, The Interior. Please check your email; you've got mail!
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Books and Bytes: The Wikipedia Library Newsletter

Books and Bytes

Volume 1, Issue 1, October 2013

 

by The Interior (talk · contribs), Ocaasi (talk · contribs)

Greetings Wikipedia Library members! Welcome to the inaugural edition of Books and Bytes, TWL’s monthly newsletter. We're sending you the first edition of this opt-in newsletter, because you signed up, or applied for a free research account: HighBeam, Credo, Questia, JSTOR, or Cochrane. To receive future updates of Books and Bytes, please add your name to the subscriber's list. There's lots of news this month for the Wikipedia Library, including new accounts, upcoming events, and new ways to get involved...

New positions: Sign up to be a Wikipedia Visiting Scholar, or a Volunteer Wikipedia Librarian

Wikipedia Loves Libraries: Off to a roaring start this fall in the United States: 29 events are planned or have been hosted.

New subscription donations: Cochrane round 2; HighBeam round 8; Questia round 4... Can we partner with NY Times and Lexis-Nexis??

New ideas: OCLC innovations in the works; VisualEditor Reference Dialog Workshop; a photo contest idea emerges

News from the library world: Wikipedian joins the National Archives full time; the Getty Museum releases 4,500 images; CERN goes CC-BY

Announcing WikiProject Open: WikiProject Open kicked off in October, with several brainstorming and co-working sessions

New ways to get involved: Visiting scholar requirements; subject guides; room for library expansion and exploration

Read the full newsletter


Thanks for reading! All future newsletters will be opt-in only. Have an item for the next issue? Leave a note for the editor on the Suggestions page. --The Interior 20:16, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

Wikimedia LGBT

Hi The Interior, I hope you are well! I just wanted to bring Wikimedia LGBT, a proposed user group and thematic organization that promotes the development of content on Wikimedia projects which is of interest to LGBT communities, to your attention. I am sure you are so busy with your current projects, but I hope you might be able to direct people to this group if they are interested in LGBT content in any way. Of course, you are also more than welcome to indicate your interest/support, if you wish. Hopefully we can get some LGBT-related GLAM/Education projects up and running in the near future. Best, --Another Believer (Talk) 20:06, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Hey AB. Signed up as a supporter. Very short on time these days, but I'll definitely direct more people to the project. Hope you are well as well, I am well. The Interior (Talk) 18:21, 10 November 2013 (UTC)

Beginning of MassMessage, end of EdwardsBot

Hi. You're being contacted as you're listed as an EdwardsBot user.

MassMessage has been deployed to all Wikimedia wikis. For help using the new tool, please check out its help page or drop a note on Meta-Wiki.

With over 400,000 edits to Wikimedia wikis, EdwardsBot has served us well; however EdwardsBot will no longer perform local or global message delivery after December 31, 2013.

A huge thanks to Legoktm, Reedy, Aaron Schulz and everyone else who helped to get MassMessage deployed. --MZMcBride (talk) 02:37, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Userbox for Jackson Pebbles

Could you find a moment to stop by User talk:Go Phightins!#Idea, check out the conversation and then drop by Template:WikiProject Editor Retention/Editor of the Week/Project main page/sandbox and give Jackson's userbox some of your fine-tuning prowess. Thanks. ```Buster Seven Talk 21:01, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. ```Buster Seven Talk 21:56, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
It's very sad news. The Interior (Talk) 22:01, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Important Notice: Your 2013 Arbitration Committee Election vote

Greetings. Because you have already cast a vote for the 2013 Arbitration Committee Elections, I regret to inform you that due to a misconfiguration of the SecurePoll we've been forced to strike all votes and reset voting. This notice is to inform you that you will need to vote again if you want to be counted in the poll. The new poll is located at this link. You do not have to perform any additional actions other than voting again. If you have any questions, please direct them at the election commissioners. --For the Election Commissioners, v/r, TParis

The Wikipedia Library Survey

As a subscriber to one of The Wikipedia Library's programs, we'd like to hear your thoughts about future donations and project activities in this brief survey. Thanks and cheers, Ocaasi t | c 14:58, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Cathedral tablet and booklet in archives

Hi there. I'm following up the thread (now in my talk page archives) where we discussed that cathedral tablet and booklet in the Vancouver Archives. Were you ever able to do anything with that? No worries if you weren't able to, as I may be able to try other contacts, but I wanted to check. Best to reply here or in a new thread. Carcharoth (talk) 03:08, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

Hey Carcharoth. Still planning on going down to the cathedral, I was waiting on a reply from the building manager, but seems email replies aren't his thing. Will drop by this week. As for the archives, I've a friend working down there that I really should say hi to, so will try to make it there this week as well. Sorry about the delay ...

The Interior (Talk) 21:07, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

Carcharoth. Alright, lighting was bad, but I got a few serviceable images. See the first ten in this category. The Interior (Talk) 03:57, 21 December 2013 (UTC)
(waiting on a rename for most of them, screwed up the batch upload) The Interior (Talk) 04:04, 21 December 2013 (UTC)
Thanks so much for those. I will use one of those image now, and possibly more if I find some more sources that discuss the design elements. Could I ask where in the church the memorial is currently located? I forgot to mention it at the time, but for those memorials still displayed in the main area of the church or cathedral they are in, I was thinking of wider angle shots showing the setting it is displayed in. The ones in France are sometimes affixed to pillars, sometimes to walls, sometimes inside chapels leading off the nave, and so on. If you can remember that, it would be great. Hope you manage to find the booklet as well when you have time, and many thanks again! Carcharoth (talk) 00:01, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Merry Christmas

  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours. ```Buster Seven Talk 15:44, 26 December 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Buster! Hope the holidays are treating you well, The Interior (Talk) 19:02, 26 December 2013 (UTC)

Merry Christmas!

Pratyya (Hello!) 04:48, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

Cheers, Pratyya! Hope things are merry for you! The Interior (Talk) 19:05, 26 December 2013 (UTC)

09:33, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

A request for your expertise

Hi there, and Happy New Year! You might remember that you kindly got in touch last year when I was running the first iteration of a course on approaches to research for second year undergraduate students in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, and helped out as an online ambassador.

Here's a reminder of what the course is like: over the course of 6 weeks, students in small groups adopt, evaluate and edit an existing Wikipedia page on a single film topic. I was wondering if you still might be interested in being an online ambassador for the course this year? You can find out more on the Course page [[13]].

In terms of time commitment, I hope it wouldn't take up too much. About 20 students are working on their small group Wikipedia project (in groups of about four students each) for around six weeks, and the course began at a gentle pace on 10 January 2014. If you'd like to know more, feel free to send me a message - or if you would like to sign up, that would be wonderful! Thanks very much for your time, best wishes,DrJennyCee (talk) 16:01, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Sure thing, DrJennyCee! I took a look at your course outline, and it looks very good. I like the group approach, it seems to work well for wiki assignments. I also like that you have a librarian helping out with research methods. I didn't help out much last time round, I'd like to do more this term. Please tell the students they are very welcome to drop by this page with questions at any time, even if they might seem trivial or silly. I'm interested to see which topics the students choose, there's a lot of important film studies articles that are very ugly and weak in the sources department. Let me know if anyone wants some suggestions. The Interior (Talk) 02:12, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
Thanks so much, The Interior! I'm glad you like the structure of the course, and I'll let the students know that you're happy to help them out. It's very generous of you to give your time like this! I agree that there's plenty of room for improvement in many of the important film studies articles. I should have a precise sense of which articles the students are planning to improve, and how they're planning to do it, by the end of this week, and I'll mark up the pages as being part of an educational project as soon as possible. I hope that the session with the research librarian will help the students to expand their understanding of research tools - it worked really well for students last year so I'm hoping it will do the same this time round. Thanks again, and I'll be in touch soon! --DrJennyCee (talk) 15:43, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

 

Thank you for all your work on the Books and Bytes newsletter. As a fellow librarian at a GLAM institution, I truly appreciate all that you do for both the Wikipedia and Library communities!

TeriEmbrey (talk) 17:03, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Teri, and thank you for welcoming a mob of wikipedians into your library! Now we've just got to convince more of our colleagues to get on board. Has been a tough sell so far with my institution here in Vancouver, but the management will come around eventually. Even if it is just to get me to stop badgering them about it. We've got a fairly extensive Special Collections, nearly 90,000 photographs, with many that would be appropriate for local history articles. The Interior (Talk) 02:18, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Books & Bytes

I think you should put ~~~~ or ~~~~~ when you send the newsletters via MassMessage, so archive bot can understand when it was sent, and archive it. Thanks. --Revitalk 02:51, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

That's a good point, Revi. This was my first time using it. If I use the tildes, will it sign as me, or as Mass Message? The Interior (Talk) 02:54, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
According to my test preview on Massmessage page, it signs as MediaWiki message delivery (talk · contribs). --Revitalk 02:55, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
Okay, I'll do that for my next run of the newsletter. Thanks for the tip. The Interior (Talk) 02:56, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
No problem. :D Revitalk 02:56, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Hurray for Highbeam

Cheers again for helping me sort out my Highbeam subscription (2007 citation tag removed!). In return I have fed your new kitty a few times, though I've been remiss in keeping the litter clean. I call him "Little Aguirre" as he's all sharp little claws and teeth...--Jezebel'sPonyobons mots 21:36, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

That's called progress! Glad there was still a few left. Little Aguirre is a good name, I'll have to watch out for delusions of grandeur.
Oh My God, I put that other kitty in the archives and forgot all about it. I'm not going back there to look ... The Interior (Talk) 22:19, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
Oh no! Poor Fitzy!--Jezebel'sPonyobons mots 21:14, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

would be nice to botomate this

RE this, there's scads of them out there that need fixing; if that change is uniform across the board, seems bot-able. Do you know where to take that to get it to happen? I don't, though I've asked about it on CANTALK a few times.Skookum1 (talk) 22:05, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, that's been nagging at my conscience for a while. The place to do it is Wikipedia:Bot requests. It's best if you make it as straightforward as possible, I think there is more requests than people able to fulfill them. But our request for a bot to fix the Canadian Encyclopedia linkrot was filled, so that inspires confidence. Let me know if you file something, and I can help with details, it looks like the new links have differences both at the beginning of the url (the ".apps" bit) and a slightly different string before the identifier. The Interior (Talk) 22:13, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

10:22, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Timeline of Rob Ford video scandal

Next time you decide to revert an edit on a major news story like Rob Ford, why don't you use Google News to check for other sources instead of take a deletionist attitude? Despite your claim that BlogTO isn't "reliable" (which it is more than a lot of press in Toronto), they broke the story. And don't forget the entire page is because of infamous blog Gawker. CaffeinAddict (talk) 22:09, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Hey CaffeinAddict. You may want to take a read of the blp policy again. It requires us to only use high quality sources when covering controversial aspects of a living person's life. Blogs really don't cut it. I'll always revert in that situation, and I think the community strongly agrees with that approach. I'm glad you found a better source for the info, that's great. (and as an aside, responding to this edit summary - BLP applies to all of Wikipedia, that includes talk pages, templates, lists, categories, and whatever sort of article that timeline is supposed to be ...) The Interior (Talk) 22:16, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

09:47, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Use of Canadian Government pubs - in the commons

The Interior: I trust all is well with you. I've been doing a lot of work on various salmonid articles trying to get them to GA and FA status. In doing so, I've accessed a lot of Canadian government pubs--COSEWIC, SARA and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. What if any can be extracted from these publications--images, charts, graphs, etc. and used in the commons? US copyright law is pretty clear, but I've yet to find anything concrete about the status of stuff in Canadian government publications. Since you are a BC guy, maybe you can give me some pointers. Thanks --Mike Cline (talk) 15:12, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Hey Mike, good to hear from you. Thanks for working on the fishes (I notice Kamloops rainbow trout, a fish I am quite familiar with, could use some expansion). "The commons" is a foreign word up here, we are far behind the U.S., and even G.B., in terms of providing government resources under anything but very restrictive licenses. Most material copyrights are held individually by the ministry, department, or provincial gov. they were produced by. And no one seems to be interested in loosening these up. One exception is the the GeoGRATIS license, which appears to by CC-by compatible (I've been treating it that way anyhoo). I'm not sure about the contents of those wildlife databases, however, that material is most likely under the same license as most of the other federal materials, i.e. copyright Gov. of Canada. Anything older than 1949 should be fair game, though. Fisheries and Oceans, well there is another sad tale. They've been forced to close most of their research libraries, dumpsters full of material lost. Makes a librarian a wee bit angry. I'll ping User:Resolute and User:Skeezix1000, as they might have better knowledge on this. The Interior (Talk) 01:17, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
If you are mind to, weigh-in at the Rainbow trout FAC. Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Rainbow trout/archive1. Once I get that puppy finished, I plan on working on all the rainbow subspecies (and strains). Indeed Kamloops needs some work, but I've got the sources and access to other sources here at MSU to get it up to start class. Just need the time. --Mike Cline (talk) 15:09, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
I won't claim to be an expert, but my experience with Canadian images has this: Any photograph created before January 1, 1949 is PD in Canada. Thanks to URAA, I would default to January 1, 1946 as the date for PD in both Canada and the US. Works of the Canadian government and its ministries are subject to Crown Copyright, which extends to December 31 of the 50th year after publication. After that, the government considers the image PD, worldwide. There's been a few debates on Commons about whether the government can actually do that, which has resulted in a bizarre argument where some Commons editors have held that the owners of the image do not have the right to release it PD in the US. Hopefully Skeezix can confirm if my views are accurate. Resolute 01:30, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
Resolute, I agree with that description. I have not yet read the debates over at the Commons, as health and work reasons in December and over the holiday period kept me from doing anything other than mindless maintenance over there. I have a concern that they might have mistakenly conflated the federal and provincial Crowns, and am somewhat worried that someone might erroneously extend the logic to materials under the copyright of municipalities (municipalities ≠ the Crown). But I'll look at those discussions and figure out if those are problems when I have energy, and the patience to deal with a certain editor. In the meantime, though, your assessment is correct to the best of my knowledge. Skeezix1000 (talk) 14:35, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
Yes, you are right. I should have noted that while the federal government uses CC, the provinces individually may not. IIRC, BC applies regular copyright protection. Resolute 17:24, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. Looks like a minefield. --Mike Cline (talk) 15:04, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Copyright usually is. I only know what I do because I've uploaded about 500 images to Commons and have to deal with it at FAC/GAN reviews. And I still get confused over some aspects of it. Resolute 17:43, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

08:30, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

GLAM-Out Today

Hi! Nice to hear from you at the GLAM-Out today. I'd be interested in talking more with you about your Wikipedia Library Project and some potential collaborations in New York. I've been doing some interviews with Wikipedians for METRO Library Council such as this and I'm wondering if you would like to do one and answer a few written questions about you work. Can you tell me the best email to contact you at again? I accidentally missed copying it from the GLAM chat. Cheers! OR drohowa (talk) 21:27, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

Hello! Very nice to digitally meet you as well. I would love to answer some q's about the library, and I'll have to take a look at the interviews you've been doing. We would like to cover some of your work in the library newsletter for next month. You can email me at theinterior80[at]gmail.com. Neat to get in touch with you; I've seen your username around before, and was thinking of dropping you a note about library stuff. And you are a Cascadian as well! The Interior (Talk) 00:02, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
More shameless self-promotion, a good backgrounder: Wikipedia Library on LJ's The Digital Shift The Interior (Talk) 02:30, 8 February 2014 (UTC)

Samuel de Champlain

There have been reverts lately. Extend PC time? --George Ho (talk) 05:01, 8 February 2014 (UTC)

Either that, or knock it down to semi-protection. I'll take a look at the history. The PC1 doesn't expire until Tuesday. Darn kids. thanks for the reminder, The Interior (Talk) 17:03, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
Well, what do you think? George Ho (talk) 06:37, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

09:30, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

Boundary Country map

Yo, I'm back on Samui but still fussing hereabouts...... something to do between bouts of househunting and TEFL studies...... note the pending bulk CfD on power stations/generating stations......I'm guessing a speedy would get nixed and referred to regular CfD anyway but I hate inviting the naysayers especially those who don't know the material but...nm....suffice to say Canadian "votes" are gonna be needed..... anyways noting this on Boundary Country, as with a lot of the traditional regions there's a need for maps.....in this case a map of the Kettle basin isn't relevant.....I would consider Beaverdell or places that far up from Highway 3 to be Boundary Country, maybe I'm wrong....at one time the term also included Osoyoos and the Similkameen....I'm wondering if a map of the Osoyoos Division of the Yale Land District would cover it.....some reckon the Boundary to be part of the West Kootenay on the one hand, or of the Okanagan on the other; it's neither, and at one time was t wo whole electoral districts (or more?). Another region that i don't have a precise definition of is the Monashee Country....Highway 6 isn't enough..... the upper Shuswap basin falls into that right? To me it's everything north of the Boundary proper. I'm not a good mapmaker or would try to have a got at these, it just occurred to me you might have more precise thoughts on where "the Boundary Country" is and, when not referring to the range, what "the Monashee Country" means...the map on Kootenays needs to be redone......of course latter-day governments have screwed up t he traditional nomenclature with terms like "Central Kootenay" for what used to be the heart of the West Kootenay..... Nechako is another one that has indeterminate boundaries, likewise Omineca and Cassiar, though in their heyday the meaning were obvious.08:10, 16 February 2014 (UTC) And re this, the Sanpoil and Kettles and Okanagans and others could be mentioned, I don't have time to search out the cites, but suffice to say t he Sinixt folks like anywhere they claim as their own to not mention any other native groups....the Okanagans consider them a subgroup of themselves, or rather than Sinixt territory is also Okanagan, teh Sinixt are hostile to that etc.....also to the shuswap and Ktunaxa especially. Why can't we all just get along? LOL.....about the map, maybe there's an old map of the mining division that would suffice.....some of the province's largest industries and also the richest gold mine (Camp McKinney) were in this area....in a time when most of hte Okanagan was just orchards, the Boundary had cities.Skookum1 (talk) 08:17, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

08:38, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Feedback needed on using special characters

Hello. Thank you for using VisualEditor! Having editors use it is the best way for the Wikimedia Foundation to develop it into the best tool it can be.

While we always welcome general feedback (please report any issues in Bugzilla in the "VisualEditor" product or drop your feedback on the central feedback page on MediaWiki.org), the developers are especially interested right now in feedback on the special character inserter. This new tool is used for inserting special characters (including symbols like , IPA pronunciation symbols, mathematics symbols, and characters with diacritics). It is intended to help people whose computers do not have good character inserters. For example, many Mac users prefer to use the extensive "Special Characters..." tool present at the bottom of the Edit menu in all applications or to learn the keyboard shortcuts for characters like ñ and ü.

The current version of the special characters tool in VisualEditor is very simple and very basic. It will be getting a lot of work in the coming weeks and months. It does not contain very many character sets at this time. (The specific character sets can be customized at each Wikipedia, so that each project could have a local version with the characters it wants.) But the developers want your ideas at this early stage about ways that the overall concept could be improved. I would appreciate your input on this question, so please try out the character inserter and tell me what changes to the design would (or would not!) best work for you.

 
The "insert" pulldown on the task bar of VisualEditor will lead you to the '⧼visualeditor-specialcharacterinspector-title⧽' tool.
 
This is the ⧼visualeditor-specialcharacterinspector-title⧽ inserter as it appears on many wikis. (Some may have customized it.) Your feedback on this tool is particularly important.

Issues you might consider:

  • How often do you normally use Wikipedia's character inserters?
  • Which character sets are useful to you? Should it include all 18 of the character sets provided in the wikitext editor's newer toolbar at the English Wikipedia, the 10 present in the older editor toolbar, or some other combination of character sets?
  • How many special characters would you like to see at one time?
    • Should there be a "priority" or "favorites" section for the 10 or 12 characters that most editors need most often? Is it okay if you need an extra click to go beyond the limited priority set?
    • How should the sections be split up? Should they be nested? Ordered?
    • How should the sections be navigated? Should there be a drop-down? A nested menu?
  • The wikitext editor has never included many symbols and characters, like and . Do you find that you need these missing characters? If the character inserter in VisualEditor includes hundreds or thousands of special characters, will it be overwhelming? How will you find the character you want? What should be done for users without enough space to display more than a few dozen characters?
  • Should the character inserter be statically available until dismissed? Should it hover near the mouse? Should it go away on every selection or 10 seconds after a selection with no subsequent ones?
  • Some people believe that the toolbar already has too many options—how would you simplify it?

The developers are open to any thoughts on how the special character inserter can best be developed, even if this requires significant changes. Please leave your views on the central feedback page, or, if you'd prefer, you can contact me directly on my talk page. It would be really helpful if you can tell me how frequently you need to use special characters in your typical editing and what languages or other special characters are important to you.

Thank you again for your work with VisualEditor and for any feedback you can provide. I really do appreciate it.

P.S. You might be interested in the current ideas about improving citations, too. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:20, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

Education Program technical update, February 2014

We've started working on "editor campaigns", a system that we expect will eventually be able to replace our current Education Program extension (and be useful for many other purposes as well). The early work with that project will focus on a system for signup up new editors for editing campaigns (such as courses, but also edit-a-thons, Wiki Loves Monuments, etc.). Because of that, progress will be slow on the current course page system. However, we have several improvements that should be available within the next few weeks.

Anyone can edit the main text of course pages

As part of the effort to make course pages behave more like regular wiki pages, we've enabled editing of course pages by anyone. Users who currently have the right to edit courses will have access to all the fields (so that they can change the start/end dates, and change the enrollment token). Users who currently cannot edit courses will be able to edit only the "page text" portion. This change should take effect on 2014-02-27.

Simplified course editing interface

We've considerably simplified the interface for editing course pages, removing the options to rename courses. Changing the title of a course would also move the course page, creating confusion and leading to a number of bugs. Several other parts of the course editing interface were not very useful, so we've removed them to make it easier on newcomers. This change should take effect on 2014-02-27.

Additional Notifications

Two students participating in the Facebook Open Academy mentorship program are currently working on additional Notifications for course pages. For the first of these, users will be notified whenever someone else adds them to a course.

Once again, if you have feedback about these new features, or other questions or ideas related to course pages, please let me know!--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 17:38, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Subscribe or unsubscribe from future Wikipedia Education Program technical updates.

10:18, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Masset/Old Massett

Hiya. Hope you're doing well. I just wanted to get a little clarification on why the page move/corrections from "Old Masset" to "Old Massett" were reverted. Perhaps I did something wrong, but I'm a little confused. Thanks!

Scrapco (talk) 05:48, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Scrapco, and welcome! Sorry for not leaving a note about this for you. The spelling was confusing for me when I was making the article as well - the Old Massett Village Council uses two "t"s [115], while the IR Old Masset and the municipality of Masset use one [116]. Hope this clears it up? The Interior (Talk) 18:44, 25 February 2014 (UTC)
Almost right!  :) [117]
From your second link, you'll see that the name "Old Masset[t?]" isn't even technically recognized - officially, currently it's "Masset 1," an Indian reservation. The Old Massett Village Council is a legal organization, which is why you'll see that in provincial/federal documentation.
It's certainly misspelled all over the place, and I can understand the confusion, but while Masset changed to the one-t version, Old Massett has indeed retained the "original" spelling [118] (cue debate on written Haida, English naming of Haida places, what constitutes original, etc. etc.). Cheers. Scrapco (talk) 22:01, 25 February 2014 (UTC)
Alrighty, back to two tees - see Talk:Old Massett. The Interior (Talk) 04:11, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

See

"Old Massett (community)". BC Names/GeoBC

"Old Massett (community)". BC Names/GeoBC - it is technically recognized. Masset 1] should redirect to Old Massett and, for the record, it is believed to be a Spanishh loan-name from Masseta or Massetta. The double-t spelling preferred by the Haida has been official since the 1950s, as you'll see in the BC Names citation; because it's there it should also be in CGNDB.Skookum1 (talk) 05:05, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Ahh, good find! OK, so Masset 1 is indeed recognized as the reservation, and Old Massett as the community. Internally, they're all over the place, but that page seems like the one place they'd make sure to get right. Scrapco (talk) 20:26, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Sun Rivers, British Columbia vs. Kamloops Indian Reserve No. 1 - ??

I've been fixing up entries in Category:Indian reserves in British Columbia and came across Sun Rivers, British Columbia, which is for the golf course community/development on Kamloops Indian Reserve No. 1, and am wondering if it's not sufficient (and I doubt it is) to redirect the latter to the Sun Rivers article, or if it's better to create the IR article, write about its size and terrain, and have the Sun Rivers article linked from it see listings on Kamloops Indian Band; and whether a category such as Category:Communities on Indian Reserves in British Columbia should be created to cover stuff like this, and the various things like Park Royal (on Capilano IR 5) or the Westbank IR lands (tsepinktum IR no. whatevers) and Tsawout Shores on the Tsawwassen Reserve and so on..... you're in Vernon, I think, but probably are more familiar with the Kamloops Reserve(s) than I am, and probably there are similar situations with the Okanagan Band as there are with the Tsawwassen and Westbanks and Kamloops - ?? Why I did this all day instead of continue scouting for a cheaper monthly here in Ko Samui is largely fatigue from looking and looking and looking; and that insistent "things need to be fixed up" wikipedian-who-just-can't-let-go problem. I see you've kept your nose out of the Squamish CfD btw....but what are we going to do when somebody wants to change Category:Syilx to [[:Category:Okanagan FOO]]? i.e. sincve Category:Okanagan people is taken...or if it's not, should be what Category:People from the Okanagan is now, if that's where t hat is....the Squamish people/Okanagan people comparison should make you shudder if it comes about t hat another non-BCer starts wading into BC's FN categories and starts invoking guidelines out of context as has happened too often.Skookum1 (talk) 17:06, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

09:30, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

09:10, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of File:FilsonLogo.jpg

 

A tag has been placed on File:FilsonLogo.jpg requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section F1 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the image is an unused redundant copy (all pixels the same or scaled down) of an image in the same file format, which is on Wikipedia (not on Commons), and all inward links have been updated.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, 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 from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Stefan2 (talk) 14:58, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

07:14, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

18:56, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

09:20, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

08:00, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Books & Bytes

Of interest to readers? Oxford University Press online products are free April 13-19th, 2014, in USA and Canada.

Taking for the Signpost as well. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 21:24, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
Look at Ed all up in my internets, stealing all my news ;). Thanks much for the link, M2545, definitely going in the newsletter! The Interior (Talk) 15:20, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Not sure about this, but would it be reasonable to suggest to Wikipedia editors who use the free Oxford online sources during April 13-19 to add a "credit" for National Library Week? e.g., < ref>{ {citation |title=Berg Fashion Library |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=660814549 |via = U.S. National Library Week |accessdate=April 13, 2014 } }</ref > M2545 (talk) 17:47, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

It's a neat idea, but I don't think we should use the "via" function like that, it's made to indicate a distributor or database provider, rather than an event like you have it. I can't think of any other precedent for putting an event into a citation like that. The Interior (Talk) 17:41, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

07:18, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Problem with your "Books and Bytes" notice

The second "div style" in your "Books and Bytes" noticeis not closed by a "/div". As a result, following text on the page appears in too large a font. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 22:04, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Oh lordy, thanks for the notice. On cleanup duty I go. not sure how I missed that one ... The Interior (Talk) 22:19, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Books & bytes

Thanks for fixing the library release ... it was a little squiffy :¬)

Hope you don't have to do too many more, looks like you've been at it all day! Chaosdruid (talk) 08:40, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Ha, squiffy indeed! Well, no one to blame except myself, and it only took two hours or so to clean up. Luckily, it was a rainy day. The Interior (Talk) 17:08, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

08:34, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

Education Program technical update, April 2014

Since the last update, development of the editor campaigns project has been continuing, and it's almost at the point that it will be useful to users running edit-a-thons and other non-course outreach events. (If you are planning such an event soon and would like to beta test it for tracking the contributions of newcomers, get it touch.) In the meantime, we've made a few small improvements and bug fixes to the Education Program extension:

Default course end date

The default end date for courses is now approximately six months in the future, instead of immediately. This will prevent the common problem where a user creates a new course page but does change the default dates, resulting in a course that is immediately considered "ended" and thus cannot be enrolled in.

Notifications when you get added to a course

Whenever a user gets added to a course by someone else, they will now receive a Notification.

Disabling individual student profiles

The student profile special page (Special:Student/Username, not to be confused with Special:Students) is a page that lists the courses a student editor is enrolled in, and is also supposed to list the articles that user is working on. However, the list of articles can include incorrect data in cases where an instructor or volunteer assigned the articles to the student editor. These profiles are being removed from the extension altogether. This change should go into effect Thursday, May 1. (Logs are still available to find out which courses a user is enrolled in.)

Article edit notifications for students coming soon

A nearly complete patch from Facebook Open Academy student Jeff Lloyd will add a new type of Notification: students will be alerted to edits made by others to the article(s) they are assigned (as well as the corresponding talk pages). Expect to see this feature within the next several weeks.

Duplicate courses and API deletion

Bugs in the course page creation process (now fixed) led in some cases to duplicate listings for the same course at Special:Courses. This happens when the same course page had two (or more) different course ID numbers. It is possible to clean up such duplicate entries using by making calls to the API. I've documented this process and written a Python script for it.

If you have feedback about these changes, or other questions or ideas related to course pages, please let Anna Koval or me know!--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 19:23, 22 April 2014 (UTC)

Subscribe or unsubscribe from future Wikipedia Education Program technical updates.

Precious again

librarian
Thank you for expanding our knowledge about the interior of libraries and books, and for silent support and understanding, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:50, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Two years ago, you were the 105th recipient of my PumpkinSky Prize, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:20, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Gerda, thank you for this. It means a lot :) The Interior (Talk) 16:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

07:23, 28 April 2014 (UTC)

MassMessage

FYI, Massmessage-sender userright is included by your sysop flag. (See also Special:ListGroupRights) Revicomplaint? 03:57, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I've been meaning to take it off. Thanks for the reminder, Revi. The Interior (Talk) 16:48, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
No problem, and check your WMF email inbox. Revicomplaint? 05:45, 3 May 2014 (UTC)

Thank you!

Dear The Interior: Thanks so much for taking time to co-nominate me for adminship. It came as quite a surprise when Mr. Stradivarius suggested that I apply and when you offered to help. I intended to write this right after the message on his page, but at that point I traveled out of range of my Internet connection (don't worry, I was in the passenger seat!). I will do my best to make good use of the admin tools. —Anne Delong (talk) 22:42, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

It was my pleasure, Anne. I've been doing some mobile computing lately as well, my mission is to conduct a video call from the passenger seat using my new mobile hotspot unit. You finished with a very auspicious !vote count, btw! The Interior (Talk) 05:15, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

07:29, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

06:00, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Video

thanks for the feedback. I've stretched the intro to 10sec and ramped up the db on the first 8sec of the guitar to set the mood. What's your opinion on the length and speed of the video? Ian Furst (talk) 00:08, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Ian, I think that adds a professional touch. As for length, there's all sorts of theories about clip length, but if we're pushing this to educators, there's going to be a captive audience. So you should focus on getting the as many of the necessary points across as possible, which you have. What are some common reasons student edits get reverted? Poor or primary sourcing - covered. MOS problems - covered. Plagiarism - maybe touch on this in a future cut.
In terms of pacing, it's difficult when you've got that much narration to cover. Editors try to look for beats, moments where you could hang a bit and let something sink in.
But I wouldn't think about trimming, even though you've received advice to that effect. This isn't made for YouTube hits, but for the (hopefully) thoughtful absorption by bodies trapped in a lecture hall. The Interior (Talk) 00:26, 14 May 2014 (UTC)
Thank you very much. Long term, I'm hoping to make 3 or 4 of them with more details. My assumption is that volunteers will go through a similiar life-cycle to consumers. Awareness>>Investigation>>Trial then loyalty. This video is intended for those either in investigation or trial phases to peek their interest. I've upload a new version, but I'll likely revisit after 3 or 4 weeks once people have had time to digest and try it. Ian Furst (talk) 00:59, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Touching Base

Hey you - have a great long weekend eh. I had to flip the heat pump to "summer" on Wednesday; God bless the West Coast!--Jezebel'sPonyobons mots 21:06, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

Hey, I just had my base polished - you got finger prints on it!  :) I'm working for half the weekend, but will get out for some nature on Sunday. And then I get no Victoria Day, the result of being employed by a certain American-based non-profit. Oh well, I can have fun on the Fourth of July. Hope you and yours find something fun to do this weekend. Supposed to be a but rainy over here, but that's fine by me - thins the crowds on the hiking trails. The Interior (Talk) 23:12, 16 May 2014 (UTC)
Did you read the first sentence of your reply before hitting save? Just curious ;)--Jezebel'sPonyobons mots 00:16, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
I had roughly the same question when I read this an hour ago, Ponyo. :-) Ed [talk] [majestic titan] 00:42, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
I should've got the matte finish ... The Interior (Talk) 00:46, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

07:18, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Survey for editors who mentor newcomer

Dear Wikipedia Ambassador,

I am seeking input on your experience as a mentor to new Wikipedians. This survey is designed to provide insight for the development of a new mentorship support tool on Wikipedia. If you have a moment, please take this survey, it should not take more than 10 minutes of your time to complete.

https://syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4V2SSrhU2NFOVAV

Also, if you are able to, I would greatly appreciate it if you would send the following survey to the mentee you worked with:

https://syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4V1quUdMZ1By3Ah

Thank you in advance for your participation, Gabriel Mugar 13:33, 25 May 2014 (UTC)

08:29, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

Request for comment

Hello there, a proposal regarding pre-adminship review has been raised at Village pump by Anna Frodesiak. Your comments here is very much appreciated. Many thanks. Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:47, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

08:08, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

07:39, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Cascadia

Heya there! Hope all's well. 1) Long time no talk; let's get together one of these days. 2) You should sign up here. This is also something we can chat about. --jbmurray (talkcontribs) 04:23, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Hey Jon! 1) Absolutely. Email me some good times for you. 2) I'm supportive for sure. It's always at the back of my mind that WM Canada needs a jumpstart, but if Cascadia is where the energy is, then that's probably where BC wikipedians should gravitate. Much easier getting down to Seattle or Portland than to TO or Montreal anyway (although this was also the argument for BC becoming a United State in the mid-nineteenth century!). I seem to recall we have a certain draft article languishing in my userspace as well, we should at least get it up to mainspace standards if we can't do the GA run that was part of my original plan. Anyways, let me know what works, and look forward to seeing you, The Interior (Talk) 18:05, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
Excellent. 1) I'm in Madrid right now (I know, it's a tough life) but am back next week. Will email. 2) Excellent. 3) Things are hectic, but I've been thinking of returning to our little article project, for sure. --jbmurray (talkcontribs) 18:11, 16 June 2014 (UTC)
Yeah, I noticed on fb that you've found a place where you can have a beer and a smoke at the same time. How civilized! The Interior (Talk) 18:22, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

07:13, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Discussion at Talk:Cory Doctorow#Cory Doctorow and Creative Commons

  You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Cory Doctorow#Cory Doctorow and Creative Commons. Thanks. Xb2u7Zjzc32 (talk) 01:27, 17 June 2014 (UTC)

Me and JSTOR...

Many thanks for your response. JSTOR will be an immensely useful source for my opera work, so I look forward to further info. Viva-Verdi (talk) 18:45, 21 June 2014 (UTC)

07:20, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

06:53, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

Take off eh. No YOU take off eh!

  A beer on me!
Happy Canada Day. Drink Beer. Eat bacon. Just give'r. Jezebel'sPonyobons mots 15:56, 1 July 2014 (UTC)
How do you spell Canada? C - EH! - N - EH! - D - EH! I think I'll make my family specialty today, Poutine w/ Beavermeat. Have a good one, Ponyo! The Interior (Talk) 16:07, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for coming!

 
Thank you, partner!
Thank you for helping out and participating at the RBMS edit-a-thon this weekend. Myself, and Las Vegas' own Vegas Vic hope you come back real soon! Merrilee (talk) 19:54, 1 July 2014 (UTC)
Thank you and Bob for getting it off the ground, Merrilee! It was a lot of fun. I'm going to host one of my own this summer; it was nice to break the ice with the librarians. The Interior (Talk) 14:54, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

July 2014

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07:07, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

07:49, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

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