User talk:Sportsguy17/Archive 6
The Signpost: 02 July 2014
edit- News and notes: Wikimedia Israel receives Roaring Lion award
- In the media: Wiki Education; medical content; PR firms
- WikiProject report: Indigenous peoples of North America
- Traffic report: The Cup runneth over... and over.
- Featured content: Ship-shape
- Technology report: In memoriam: the Toolserver (2005–14)
Jake Diekman GAN
editHey Sportsguy, I am back until next Friday; if we could wrap up that GAN by then, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
Go Phightins! 19:18, 11 July 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 09 July 2014
edit- Special report: Wikimania 2014—what will it cost?
- Wikimedia in education: Exploring the United States and Canada with LiAnna Davis
- News and notes: With echoes of the VisualEditor, conflict breaks out again over tech initiative
- Wikicup: Wikicup's third round sees money, space, battleships and more
- Featured content: Three cheers for featured pictures!
- Traffic report: World Cup, Tim Howard rule the week
The Signpost: 16 July 2014
edit- Special report: $10 million lawsuit against Wikipedia editors dismissed with help from WMF, but plaintiff intends to refile
- Wikimedia in education: Serbia takes the stage with Filip Maljkovic
- News and notes: Bot-created Wikipedia articles covered in the Wall Street Journal, push Cebuano over one million articles
- Traffic report: World Cup dominates for another week
- Featured content: The Island with the Golden Gun
The Signpost: 23 July 2014
edit- Forum: Did you know?—good idea, needs reform
- Wikimedia in education: Education program gaining momentum in Israel
- News and notes: Institutional media uploads to Commons get a bit easier
- Traffic report: The World Cup hangs on, though tragedies seek to replace it
- Featured content: Why, they're plum identical!
The Signpost: 30 July 2014
edit- News and notes: How many more hoaxes will Wikipedia find?
- Book review: Knowledge or unreality?
- Wikimedia in education: Success in Egypt and the Arab world
- Featured content: Skeletons and Skeltons
- Traffic report: Doom and gloom vs. the power of Reddit
- Recent research: Shifting values in the paid content debate; cross-language bot detection
The Signpost: 06 August 2014
edit- Wikimedia in education: Leading universities educate with Wikipedia in Mexico
- News and notes: "History is a human right"—first-ever transparency report released as Europe begins hiding Wikipedia in search results
- Traffic report: Ebola drives reader interest* Featured content: Bottoms, asses, and the fairies that love them
- Technology report: A technologist's Wikimania preview
The Signpost: 13 August 2014
edit- Wikimania: Promised the moon, settled for the stars
- Op-ed: Red links, blue links, and erythrophobia
- Special report: Twitter bots catalogue government edits to Wikipedia
- News and notes: Media Viewer controversy spreads to German Wikipedia
- Wikimedia in education: Wikimedia Global Education: WMF's Perspective
- In the media: Monkey selfie, net neutrality, and hoaxes
- Featured content: Cambridge got a lot of attention this week
- Traffic report: Disease, decimation and distraction
The Signpost: 20 August 2014
edit- Interview: Improving the visibility of digital archival assets using Wikipedia
- Traffic report: Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero
- WikiProject report: Bats and gloves
- Featured content: English Wikipedia departs for Japan
- Op-ed: A new metric for Wikimedia
The Signpost: 27 August 2014
edit- Featured content: Cheats at Featured Pictures!
- In the media: Plagiarism and vandalism dominate Wikipedia news
- News and notes: Media Viewer—Wikimedia's emotional roller-coaster
- Traffic report: Viral
WikiCup 2014 August newsletter
editThe final of the 2014 WikiCup begins in a few short minutes! Our eight finalists are listed below, along with their placement in Round 4:
Godot13 (submissions), a WikiCup newcomer, finished top of Pool A and was the round's highest scorer. Godot is a featured picture specialist, claiming large numbers of points due to high-quality scans of historical documents, especially banknotes.
Casliber (submissions) is a WikiCup veteran, having been a finalist every year since 2010. In the semi-final, he was Pool B's highest scorer. Cas's points primarily come from articles on the natural sciences.
Czar (submissions) was Pool A's runner-up. Czar's points come mostly from content related to independent video games, including both articles and topics.
Adam Cuerden (submissions) was Pool B's runner-up. Another featured picture specialist, many of Adam's points come from the restoration of historical media. He has been a WikiCup finalist twice before.
Cwmhiraeth (submissions) won the WikiCup in 2012 and 2013, and enters this final as the first wildcard. She focuses on biology-related articles, and has worked on several high-importance articles.
12george1 (submissions) is the second wildcard. George's points come primarily from meteorology-related articles. This year and last year, George was the first person in the competition to score.
Sturmvogel 66 (submissions), the third wildcard, was the 2010 champion and a finalist last year. His writes mostly on military history, especially naval history.
Bloom6132 (submissions), the fourth and final wildcard, has participated in previous WikiCups, but not reached any finals. Bloom's points are mostly thanks to did you knows, featured lists and good articles related to sport and national symbols.
We say goodbye to this year's semi-finalists. 
Matty.007 (submissions), 
ThaddeusB (submissions), 
WikiRedactor (submissions), 
Figureskatingfan (submissions), 
Yellow Evan (submissions), 
Prism (submissions) and 
Cloudz679 (submissions) have all performed well to reach this stage of the competition, and we hope they will all be joining us again next year.
There are two upcoming competitions unrelated to the WikiCup which may be of interest to those who receive this newsletter. The Stub Contest will run through September, and revolves around expanding stub articles, especially high-importance or old stubs. In addition, a proposal has been made for a new competition, the GA Cup, which the organisers plan to run next year. This competition is based on the WikiCup and aims to reduce the good article review backlog.
There is now a thread for brainstorming on how next year's WikiCup competition should work. Please come along and share your thoughts- What works? What doesn't work? What needs changing? Signups for next year's competition will be open soon; we will be in touch. If, at this stage of the competition, you are keen to help the with the WikiCup, please do what you can to participate in review processes. Our finalists will find things much easier if the backlogs at good article candidates, featured article candidates, featured picture candidates and the rest are kept at a minimum. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk · contribs) The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 22:09, 31 August 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 03 September 2014
edit- Arbitration report: Media viewer case is suspended
- Featured content: 1882 × 5 in gold, and thruppence more
- Op-ed: Automated copy-and-paste detection under trial
- Recent research: A Wikipedia-based Pantheon; new Wikipedia analysis tool suite; how AfC hamstrings newbies
- Traffic report: Holding Pattern
- WikiProject report: Gray's Anatomy (v. 2)
The Signpost: 10 September 2014
edit- Op-ed: Media Viewer software is not ready
- Featured content: The louse and the fish's tongue
- WikiProject report: Checking that everything's all right
- Traffic report: Refuge in celebrity
The Signpost: 17 September 2014
edit- News and notes: Wikipedia's traffic statistics are off by nearly one-third
- In the media: Turkish Twitter outrage, medical translation, audience metrics
- WikiProject report: A trip up north to Scotland
- Featured content: Which is not like the others?
- Traffic report: Tolstoy leads a varied pack
MBTA Accessibility
editHey, just a note about this - the MBTA claims that all trains have at least one Type 8 car, but that's actually a baldfaced lie. A lot of end-of-the-day revenue moves end up being single Type 7s, and some midday moves as well. About an hour after I reverted you, I saw a single Type 7 outbound through BU on the B line. Unfortunately, there probably won't be any consistency on this at least until the Type 9s start arriving in 2018. Cheers, Pi.1415926535 (talk) 05:00, 19 September 2014 (UTC)
- @Pi.1415926535: - Interesting; I would think that they would nowadays, but as noted, they apparently don't. It'll be interesting to see what the future of the Green Line holds, especially once the Type 9's role in and the Type 7's are phased out. As much as the new cars are nice and ADA accessible, it always sucks to see the Green Line cars you rode as a kid going for good. Thanks for the head's up. Sportsguy17 (T • C) 11:38, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
- Well, the Type 7s might actually outlast the Type 8s - the 7s have been a mechanical dream (and are currently getting a nice rebuild); the 8s with all their issues might not be worth a rebuild. But then that's all railfan speculation on my part... Pi.1415926535 (talk) 16:38, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
- I think what will determine it all is what kind of accommodations the MBTA is willing to make. If they'd rather keep Type 7's, then they may need to spend additional money to make full-blown lifts at each station so that it is ADA accessible, whereas with Type 8's, all they need to do is slightly raise the platform, which is far less expensive than having to add wheelchair lifts at every station. Of course, if they could rebuild Type 7's so that they could have low-floor boarding, then it would be a dream come true for the MBTA, but I'm not sure if that is possible. It will be interesting to see what they decide, that's for sure. Sportsguy17 (T • C) 01:49, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
- Well, the Type 7s might actually outlast the Type 8s - the 7s have been a mechanical dream (and are currently getting a nice rebuild); the 8s with all their issues might not be worth a rebuild. But then that's all railfan speculation on my part... Pi.1415926535 (talk) 16:38, 20 September 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 24 September 2014
edit- In the media: Indian political editing, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Congressional chelonii
- Featured content: Oil paintings galore
- Traffic report: Wikipedia watches the election in Scotland
- WikiProject report: GAN reviewers take note: competition time
- Arbitration report: Banning Policy, Gender Gap, and Waldorf education
- Recent research: 99.25% of Wikipedia birthdates accurate; focused Wikipedians live longer; merging WordNet, Wikipedia and Wiktionary
WikiCup 2014 September newsletter
editIn one month's time, we will know our WikiCup 2014 champion. Newcomer Godot13 (submissions) has taken a strong lead with a featured list (historical coats of arms of the U.S. states from 1876) and a raft of featured pictures. Reigning champion Cwmhiraeth (submissions) is in second place with a number of high-importance biology articles, including new FA Isopoda and new GA least weasel. Casliber (submissions), who is in his fifth WikiCup final, is in third, with featured articles Pictor and Epacris impressa.
Signups for the 2015 WikiCup are open. All Wikipedians, new and experienced, are warmly invited to sign up for the competition. Wikipedians interested in friendly competition may also like to sign up for the GA Cup, a new WikiCup-inspired competition which revolves around completing good article reviews. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, and the judges are reachable on their talk pages or by email. Good luck! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk · contribs) The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 22:11, 30 September 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 01 October 2014
edit- From the editor: The Signpost needs your help
- News and notes: Wikipedia article published in peer-reviewed journal; Wikipedia in education
- Dispatches: Let's get serious about plagiarism
- Featured content: Brothers at War
- Traffic report: Shanah Tovah
- WikiProject report: Animals, farms, forests, USDA? It must be WikiProject Agriculture
The Signpost: 08 October 2014
edit- In the media: Opposition research firm blocked; Australian brushfire
- Featured content: From a wordless novel to a coat of arms via New York City
- Traffic report: Panic and denial
- Technology report: HHVM is the greatest thing since sliced bread
The Signpost: 15 October 2014
edit- Arbitration report: One case closed and two opened
- Featured content: Bells ring out at the Temple of the Dragon at Peace
- In the media: College player falsely linked to sports scandal by Wikipedia; the Nobel Prizes
- Op-ed: Ships—sexist or sexy?
- Technology report: Attempting to parse wikitext
- Traffic report: Now introducing ... mobile data
- WikiProject report: Signpost reaches the Midwest
The Signpost: 22 October 2014
edit- In the media: The story of Wikipedia; Wikipedia reanimated and republished; UK government social media rules; death of Italian Wikipedia administrator
- Featured content: Admiral on deck: a modern Ada Lovelace
- Op-ed: Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution—a wiki-protest
- WikiProject report: De-orphanning articles - a huge task but with a huge team of volunteers to help
- Traffic report: Death, War, Pestilence... Movies and TV
The Signpost: 29 October 2014
edit- Featured content: Go West, young man (By the way, there is a monster at the end of this article)
- In the media: Wikipedia a trusted source on Ebola; Wikipedia study labeled government waste; football biography goes viral
- Maps tagathon: Find 10,000 digitised maps this weekend
- Recent research: Informed consent and privacy; newsmaking on Wikipedia; Wikipedia and organizational theories
- Traffic report: Ebola, Ultron, and Creepy Articles
WikiCup award
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WikiCup 2014: The results
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The 2014 WikiCup champion is Godot13 (submissions), who flew the flag of the Smithsonian Institution. This was Godot13's first WikiCup competition and, over the 10 months of the competition, he has produced (among other contributions) two featured lists and an incredible 292 featured pictures, including architectural photographs and scans of historical documents. Cwmhiraeth (submissions), 2012 and 2013 WikiCup champion, came in second, having written a large number of biology-related articles. Casliber (submissions), WikiCup finalist every year since 2010, finished in third.
A full list of our prize-winners follows:
- Godot13 (submissions) wins the prize for first place and the FP prize for 181 featured pictures in the final round.
- Cwmhiraeth (submissions) wins the prize for second place and the DYK prize for 65 did you knows in the final round.
- Casliber (submissions) wins the prize for third place and the FA prize for four featured articles in the final round.
- Czar (submissions) wins the prize for fourth place
- Sturmvogel 66 (submissions) wins a final 8 prize.
- Bloom6132 (submissions) wins a final 8 prize.
- 12george1 (submissions) wins a final 8 prize.
- ChrisGualtieri (submissions) wins the GA prize for 27 good articles in round 2 and the review prize for 28 good article reviews in round 1.
Caponer (submissions) wins the FL prize for three featured lists in round 2.
Sven Manguard (submissions) wins the FPo prize his work on featured portals.- Figureskatingfan (submissions) wins the topic prize for a nine-article featured topic in round 3.
- ThaddeusB (submissions) wins the news prize for 28 in the news articles in round 3.
Congratulations to everyone who has been successful in this year's WikiCup, whether you made it to the final rounds or not, and a particular congratulations to the newcomers to the WikiCup who have participated this year. We warmly invite all of you to sign up for next year's competition. Discussions and polls concerning potential rules changes are also open, and all are welcome to participate. The WikiCup judges will be back in touch over the coming months, and we hope to see you all in the 2014 competition. Until then, it only remains to once again congratulate our worthy winners, and thank all participants for their involvement! If you wish to start or stop receiving this newsletter, please feel free to add or remove yourself from Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk · contribs) The ed17 (talk · contribs) and Miyagawa (talk · contribs) 22:52, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 05 November 2014
edit- In the media: Predicting the flu; MH17 conspiracy theories
- Traffic report: Sweet dreams on Halloween
The Signpost: 12 November 2014
edit- In the media: Amazon Echo; EU freedom of panorama; Bluebeard's Castle
- Featured content: Wikipedia goes to church in Lithuania
- WikiProject report: Talking hospitals
- Traffic report: Holidays, anyone?
New Vice Coordinator of WikiProject Bangladesh Premier League
editDear Wikiproject Bangladesh Premier League member, the purpose of this message is to let you know that The post of the vice coordinator of WikiProject Bangladesh Premier League is fulfilled. Strike Eagle is the new vice coordinator of the project. To see more details please visit projects talk page. Thanks. --Pratyya (Hello!) 13:33, 24 November 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 26 November 2014
edit- Featured content: Orbital Science: Now you're thinking with explosions
- In the media: A Russian alternative Wikipedia; Who's your grandfather?; ArtAndFeminism
- Recent research: Gender gap and skills gap; academic citations on the rise; European food cultures
- Traffic report: Big in Japan
- WikiProject report: Back with the military historians
The Signpost: 03 December 2014
edit- Op-ed: Who edits health-related content on Wikipedia and why?
- In the media: Embroidery and cheese
- Featured content: ABCD: Any Body Can Dance!
- Traffic report: Turkey and a movie
- WikiProject report: Today on the island
WikiCup 2015 is just around the corner...
editHello everyone, and may we wish you all a happy holiday season. As you will probably already know, the 2015 WikiCup begins in the new year; there is still time to sign up. We have a few important announcements concerning the future of the WikiCup.
- We would like to announce that Josh (J Milburn) and Ed (The ed17), who have been WikiCup judges since 2009 and 2010 respectively, are stepping down. This decision has been made for a number of reasons, but the main one is time. Both Josh and Ed have found that, over the previous year, they have been unable to devote the time necessary to the WikiCup, and it is not likely that they will be able to do this in the near future. Furthermore, new people at the helm can only help to invigorate the WikiCup and keep it dynamic. Josh and Ed will still be around, and will likely be participating in the Cup this following year as competitors, which is where both started out.
- In a similar vein, we hope you will all join us in welcoming Jason (Sturmvogel 66) and Christine (Figureskatingfan), who are joining Brian (Miyagawa) to form the 2015 WikiCup judging team. Jason is a WikiCup veteran, having won in 2010 and finishing in fifth this year. Christine has participated in two WikiCups, reaching the semi-finals in both, and is responsible for the GA Cup, which she now co-runs.
- The discussions/polls concerning the next competition's rules will be closed soon, and rules changes will be made clear on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Scoring and talk pages. While it may be impossible to please everyone, the judges will make every effort to ensure that the new rules are both fair and in the best interests of the competition, which is, first and foremost, about improving Wikipedia.
If you have any questions or concerns, the judges can be reached on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup, on their talk pages, or by email. We hope you will all join us in trying to make the 2015 WikiCup the most productive and enjoyable yet. You are receiving this message because you are listed on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Newsletter/Send. J Milburn (talk), The ed17 (talk), Miyagawa (talk), Sturmvogel 66 (talk) and Figureskatingfan (talk) 18:54, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
The Signpost: 10 December 2014
edit- Op-ed: It's GLAM up North!
- In the media: Wikipedia is "a rancorous, sexist, elitist, stupidly bureaucratic mess"
- Traffic report: Dead Black Men and Science Fiction
- Featured content: Honour him, love and obey? Good idea with military leaders.
The Signpost: 17 December 2014
edit- In the media: Wikipedia's year in review video; Checking in with Wikipedia's founders
- Arbitration report: Arbitration Committee election results
- Featured content: Tripping hither, tripping thither, Nobody knows why or whither; We must dance and we must sing, Round about our fairy ring!
- Traffic report: A December Lull
The Signpost: 24 December 2014
edit- From the editor: Looking for new editors-in-chief
- In the media: Wales on GamerGate
- Featured content: Still quoting Iolanthe, apparently.
- WikiProject report: Microsoft does The Signpost
- Traffic report: North Korea is not pleased
WikiCup 2015 launch newsletter
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Round one of the 2015 WikiCup has begun! So far we've had around 80 signups, which close on February 5. If you have not already signed up and want to do so, then you can add your name here. There have been changes to to several of the points scores for various categories, and the addition of Peer Reviews for the first time. These will work in the same manner as Good Article Reviews, and all of the changes are summarised here.
Remember that only the top 64 scoring competitors will make it through to the second round, and one of the new changes this year is that all scores must be claimed within two weeks of an article's promotion or appearance, so don't forget to add them to your submissions pages! If you are concerned that your nomination will not receive the necessary reviews, and you hope to get it promoted before the end of the round, please list it on Wikipedia:WikiCup/Reviews. However, please remember to continue to offer reviews at GAN, FAC and all the other pages that require them to prevent any backlogs which could otherwise be caused by the Cup. As ever, questions are welcome on Wikipedia talk:WikiCup and the judges are reachable on their talk pages. Good luck! Figureskatingfan (talk · contribs), Miyagawa (talk · contribs) and Sturmvogel 66 (talk · contribs)
If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from the mailing list or alternatively to opt-out of all massmessage mailings, you may add Category:Opted-out of message delivery to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:51, 2 January 2015 (UTC)
The Signpost: 31 December 2014
edit- News and notes: The next big step for Wikidata—forming a hub for researchers
- In the media: Study tour controversy; class tackles the gender gap
- Op-ed: My issues with the Wiki Education Foundation
- Featured content: A bit fruity
- Traffic report: Surfin' the Yuletide
- Recent research: Wikipedia in higher education; gender-driven talk page conflicts; disease forecasting