Hello, BobCummings, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
Several noticeable improvements to the EducationProgram extension (in addition to some small bug fixes) will go live on or around 2014-01-23:
Notifications
All participants in a course (students, instructors, volunteers) will receive Notifications whenever their course talk page is edited. Thus, editors can use course talk pages to send messages they want the whole class to be aware of, and the class participants are likely to see them.
Special:Contributions student notice
For users enrolled as students in courses that are active, a notice will appear at the top of Special:Contributions noting which course(s) they are enrolled in. This will make it easy for users who come across the work of student editors to find out that they are part of a course and identify other class participants.
Adding articles
Course instructors and volunteers will be able to assign articles to student editors, instead of all articles needing to be added by the student editors themselves.
Adding students
Instructors and volunteers will be able to add users as students in courses, instead of all student editors needing to enroll for themselves. This makes it easier to maintain complete lists of students, and also makes the extension more suitable for tracking participation in edit-a-thons, workshops and other collaborative projects beyond the Wikipedia Education Program.
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.
Hello and welcome to the Writing Wikipedia Articles course (#WIKISOO)! We look forward to meeting you in the first class on 25 February (Americas)/26 Feb (Asia/Australia). By now you should have received an introductory email with some details about the course. If you can't find it, there's an archived copy of the email at this link.
To attend the live session, please check our course home page for instructions and the link. We recommend logging into Blackboard Collaborate (the live class software we use) before the day of class, to be sure it's working. (More tips on the home page.)
Hi! Just a quick reminder that the second WIKISOO class starts in about 3 hours. Even if you missed Week 1, please join us at this link for the live webinar - ideally about 15 minutes early to test your mic/speakers. If you haven’t finished up your Week 1 homework, there’s still time; post any questions on the class talk page! You can also watch a video of last week’s class on YouTube (earlier audio problems have been corrected). Feel free to contact me on my talk page with questions anytime! - WIKISOO co-instructor Sara FB (talk) 22:04, 4 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
WIKISOO Week 3
Hi BobCummings, we look forward to seeing you in class in a few hours. We look forward to seeing you in class in a few hours. Here's the link to our Week 3 class page and to the live webinar.
PLEASE NOTE: If you're not in the USA, please double-check the class time. We have gone on Daylight Savings Time (also known as Summer Time) in the USA, so for some of you the class time will be an hour earlier. (If your country goes on Summer Time in the coming weeks, you will want to check again!)
This week we are going to start off with some basic review of all we've covered. So if you've been feeling behind or confused by all the details, we'll make sure we've got your questions answered before forging ahead! See you soon, -Pete (talk) 16:28, 11 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Week 4 of Writing Wikipedia Articles: Final Projects Ahoy!
Hey BobCummings - hope all is going well with you as we segue into Week 4 of WIKISOO! Just a reminder, in case you need it, that depending on your time zone, class time may have shifted - check out this link to make sure you know when to join us. Looking forward to chatting more with you this week about the Final Project - if you already know which article you're working on, you'll find instructions there for sharing this information easily with your classmates. Post any questions to the class Talk page, please! See you in class tomorrow! Sara FB (talk) 01:43, 18 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
WIKISOO check-in
How's it going, BobCummings? Just touching base as we start the fifth (!) week of the WIKISOO course. We're excited to see students working on such a diverse range of articles! If you haven't already, log in, scroll down to the bottom of the main course page to list your chosen final project article next to your own name; brag a little about your work (or just ask questions!) on the course talk page; and join the live lecture tomorrow as we move towards completion of the course! This is when things get exciting. :) Looking forward to seeing you in class! - Sara FB (talk) 23:41, 24 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Week 6 of WIKISOO
Hi BobCummings! Just checking in as we head into the final week of the Writing Wikipedia Articles class. You can look through last week's ether pad notes, check out your homework assignments from Week 5, and watch last week's lecture on YouTube - all right here. Check out my note from last week (above) if you're still diving into your Final Project... or head over to the course talk page to see if anyone else is having the same issues you are! Looking forward to seeing you in the last live webinar of the session tomorrow. Big WikiLove. -Sara FB (talk) 23:21, 31 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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.
Hello Bob :) I recently sent an email to you and other Wiki Education Foundation members to get one of you involved with this project. I do hope you get a chance soon to evaluate my request! Best, --Elitre (WPS) (talk) 11:42, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Greg Kohs and WikiConference USA
Dear Bob: Is this report accurate: WikiConference USA bans critic from open meeting? If it is accurate do you know if a response from the conference organizers is forthcoming? I won't spend time explaining exactly how upsetting this is and how very bad it looks on its face until the accuracy of the report is confirmed. It looks really bad, though, and I really hope there's a plausible explanation. Note that I'm not asking about the rejection of Kohs's presentation, but only about the allegation that he was barred from an event touted as "open to all participants, regardless of previous level of involvement with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia projects. We welcome the curious, the skeptical, and others wishing to engage in meaningful conversation about the Wikimedia movement in the United States, free culture and digital rights, advocacy and outreach, community building, and technology." I posted the same question on Newyorkbrad's talk page, but he declined to respond substantively. I am also leaving it on the talk pages of the other conference organizers.— alf laylah wa laylah (talk) 14:42, 4 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, BobCummings. You have new messages at Talk:Open High School of Utah. Message added 20:46, 19 July 2014 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Hello Bob--can I ask you a question, a favor? Do you have any students from around Poplarville, Mississippi? We have a bit of a conundrum (it's explained at User_talk:Drmies#Help)--we really need some local pictures uploaded to Commons. The courthouse, the statue, the water tower, the church, the bar, the jail--anything will do. If you Google Poplarville right now the first thing that pops up is a KKK rally, and I gather there's some Poplarvillians that don't much like that; having more photographs, with the proper license of course, would help bring the KKK image down the scale. Thanks, and Roll Tide (sorry!), Drmies (talk) 17:01, 18 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Hey DrMies: thanks for the excellent question. I don't know of anyone from that region off the top of my head, but, I will certainly ask. I understand the need! 19:09, 18 October 2016 (UTC)
Wikipedia:WikiProject United States/The 50,000 Challenge
You are invited to participate in the 50,000 Challenge, aiming for 50,000 article improvements and creations for articles relating to the United States. This effort began on November 1, 2016 and to reach our goal, we will need editors like you to participate, expand, and create. See more here!
Thank you for the role you played at WikiConference North America 2016. This year's conference could not have been a success without your contributions and we hope you will continue to be involved in 2017. On behalf of WikiConference North America - Gamaliel (talk) 23:42, 29 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]
"Here's hoping that the worst end of your trail is behind you That Dad Time be your friend from here to the end And sickness nor sorrow don't find you." —C.M. Russell, Christmas greeting 1926. Montanabw(talk) 23 December 2016 (UTC)
A page you started (William Johnson House (Natchez, Mississippi)) has been reviewed!
Can do. Weather is not great at the moment, but I will get them in the next 24-48 hours. Hopefully I can make them better quality than the last batch. Bob Cummings (talk) 21:02, 15 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I was able to take this today, but it is pretty low quality because of the angle. You can look here (maybe) and see a better image. This is complicated by the fact that there are both ongoing construction projects which obscure part of the front and force me to take the shot from a weird angle and that there is a temporary stage set up in front of the building. The stage should be down next week and might permit a better shot. Let me know what you think.
Thank you! Yes, it is not the best picture because of the angle, but don't you think Faser's article looks much better thanks to you now? Wikipedia is a work in progress!Zigzig20s (talk) 23:46, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, BobCummings. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
Hello, BobCummings. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
Bring your idea for Wikimedia in Education to life! Launch of the Wikimedia Education Greenhouse
Apply for Education Greenhouse
Are you passionate about open education? Do you have an idea to apply Wikimedia projects to an education initiative but don’t know where to start? Join the the Wikimedia & Education Greenhouse! It is an immersive co-learning experience that lasts 9 months and will equip you with the skills, knowledge and support you need to bring your ideas to life. You can apply as a team or as an individual, by May 12th. Find out more Education Greenhouse. For more information reachout to mguadalupewikimedia.org
In the months of November and December, WikiProject Numismatics will be running a cross-wiki upload-a-thon, the 2019 US Banknote Contest. The goal of the contest is to increase the number of US banknote images available to content creators on all Wikimedia projects. Participants will claim points for uploading and importing 2D scans of US banknotes, and at the end of the contest all will receive awards. Whether you want to claim the Gold Wiki or you just want to have fun, all are invited to participate.
If you do not want to receive invitations to future US Banknote Contests, follow the instructions here
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
Thank you for noticing this work! I agree that without those pics and the page we'd have lost the record of the Power House entirely. Thank you Wikipedia for the opportunity to record this public knowledge!
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