I fail to understand the distinction, and as a contributor to content, I expect this information is redundant persnicketiness and haven't bothered to see the difference. cygnis insignis17:47, 21 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
One difference is that hatting tend to be section of a discussion that are irrelevant (whilst the main discussion continues), whilst closing means that conversation over.Slatersteven (talk) 17:52, 21 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Suggest is nicer :) I just made my first edit this evening to an article about a small bird, which I assume you noticed and then started repeating you messages to get my attention. I did not think it required a reply, but you are insisting otherwise? cygnis insignis12:49, 22 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Well there is one reason why I am here, you have now been told why I made that edit, to explain my actions. It is also to ask you to read and obey policy. I also ask you to rad WP:NOT. I will say no more, other then to suggest you need to take heed of our polices.Slatersteven (talk) 13:39, 22 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Or to suggest that someone is not following policy by restating that, anyone can do that and that is all you do. Do you know the number of contributions you have made to AN/I? cygnis insignis13:55, 22 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Taxonomic conundrum, smart birds, there is enough to keep me busy. Sigh, will have a look, but the kind of thing I avoid for a couple of reasons. I got a notice that gave me the tantalising few words of the message about this, but no access to rest; inbox and notifications crashed with blokes inviting me to go back to whereveristan. cygnis insignis05:40, 23 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
whereveristan, intriguing, probably somewhere out to sea beyond Torndirrup_National_Park, probably 5th swell beyond the last breaks, and probably 100 metres underneath as well... JarrahTree09:22, 23 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Within the Tree of Life and its many subprojects, there is an abundance of stubs. Welcome to Wikipedia, what's new, right? However, based on all wikiprojects listed (just over two thousand), the Tree of Life project is worse off in average article quality than most. Based on the concept of relative WikiWork (the average number of "steps" needed to have a project consisting of all featured articles (FAs), where stub status → FA consists of six steps), only seven projects within the ToL have an average rating of "start class" or better. Many projects, particularly those involving invertebrates, hover at an average article quality slightly better than a stub. With relative WikiWorks of 5.98 each, WikiProject Lepidoptera and WikiProject Beetles have the highest relative WikiWork of any project. Given that invertebrates are incredibly speciose, it may not surprise you that many articles about them are lower quality. WikiProject Beetles, for example, has over 20 times more articles than WikiProject Cats. Wikipedia will always be incomplete, so we should take our relatively low WikiWork as motivation to write more articles that are also better in quality.
1) Enwebb: How did you come to edit articles about organisms and taxonomic groups?
Nessie: The main force, then and now, driving me to create or edit articles is thinking "Why isn't there an article on that on Wikipedia?" Either I'll read about some rarely-sighted creature in the deep sea or find something new on iNaturalist and want to learn more. First stop (surprise!) is Wikipedia, and many times there is just a stub or no page at all. Sometimes I just add the source that got me to the article, not sometimes I go deep and try to get everything from the library or online journals and put it all in an article. The nice thing about taxa is the strong precedent that all accepted extant taxa are notable, so one does not need to really worry about doing a ton of research and having the page get removed. I was super worried about this as a new editor: I still really dislike conflict so if I can avoid it I do. Anyway, the most important part is stitching an article in to the rest of Wikipedia: Linking all the jargon, taxonomers, pollinators, etc., adding categories, and putting in the correct WikiProjects. Recently I have been doing more of the stitching-in stuff with extant articles. The last deep-dive article I made was Karuka at the end of last year, which is a bit of a break for me. I guess it's easier to do all the other stuff on my tablet while watching TV.
2) Enwebb: Many editors in the ToL are highly specialized on a group of taxa. A look at your recently created articles includes much diversity, though, with viruses, bacteria, algae, and cnidarians all represented—are there any commonalities for the articles you work on? Would you say you're particularly interested in certain groups?
Nessie: I was a nerd from a time when that would get you beat up, so I like odd things and underdogs. I also avoid butting heads, so not only do I find siphonophores and seaweeds fascinating I don't have to worry about stepping on anyone's toes. I go down rabbitholes where I start writing an article like Mastocarpus papillatus because I found some growing on some rocks, then in my research I see it is parasitized by Pythium porphyrae, which has no article, and how can that be for an oomycete that oddly lives in the ocean and also attacks my tasty nori. So then I wrote that article and that got me blowing off the dust on other Oomycota articles, encouraged by the pull of propagating automatic taxoboxes. Once you've done the taxonomy template for the genus, well then you might as well do all the species now that the template is taken care of for them too. and so on until I get sucked in somewhere else. I think it's good to advocate for some of these 'oddball' taxa as it makes it easier for editors to expand their range from say plants to the pathogenic microorganisms of their favorite plant.
My favorite clades though, It's hard to pick for a dilettante like me. I like working on virus taxonomy, but I can't think of a specific virus species that I am awed by. Maybe Tulip breaking virus for teaching us economics or Variola virus for having so many smallpox deities, one of which was popularly sung about by Desi Arnaz and then inspired the name of a cartoon character who was then misremembered and then turned into a nickname for Howard Stern's producer Gary Dell'Abate. Sorry, really had to share that chain, but for a species that's not a staple food it probably has the most deities. But anyway, for having the most species that wow me, I love a good fungus or algae, but that often is led by my stomach. Also why I seem to research so many plant articles. You can't eat siphonophores, at least I don't, but they are fascinating with their federalist colonies of zooids. Bats are all amazing, but the task force seems to have done so much I feel the oomycetes and slime moulds need more love. Same thing with dinosaurs (I'm team Therizinosaurus though). But honestly, every species has that one moment in the research where you just go, wow, that's so interesting. For instance, I loved discovering that the picture-winged fly (Delphinia picta) has a mating dance that involves blowing bubbles. Now I keep expecting them to show me when they land on my arm, but no such luck yet.
3) Enwebb: I noticed that many of your recent edits utilize the script Rater, which aids in quickly reassessing the quality and importance of an article. Why is it important to update talk page assessments of articles? I also noticed that the quality rating you assign often aligns with ORES, a script that uses machine-learning to predict article quality. Coincidence?
Nessie: I initially started focusing on WikiProject talk page templates because they seem to be the key to data collecting and maintenance for articles, much more so than categories. This is where you note of an article needs an image, or audio, or a range map. It's how the cleanup listing bot sorts articles, and how Plantdrew does his automated taxobox usage stats. The latter inspired me to look for articles on organisms that are not assigned to any ToL WikiProjects which initially was in the thousands. I got it down to zero with just copypasta so you can imagine I was excited when I saw the rater tool. Back then I rated everything stub/low because it was faster: I couldn't check every article for the items on the B-class checklists. Plus each project has their own nuances to rating scales and I thought the editors in the individual projects would take it from there. I also thought all species were important, so how can I choose a favorite? Now it is much easier with the rater tool and the apparent consensus with Abductive's method of rating by the pageviews (0-9 views/day is low, 10-99 is med, 100-999 is high...). For the quality I generally go by the ORES rating, you caught me. It sometimes is thrown off by a long list of species or something, but it's generally good for stub to C: above that needs formal investigation and procedures I am still learning about. It seems that in the ToL projects we don't focus so much on getting articles to GA/FA so it's been harder to pick up. It was a little culture shock when I went on the Discord server and it seemed everyone was obsessed with getting articles up in quality. I think ToL is focusing on all the missing taxa and (re)organizing it all, which when you already have articles on every anime series or whatever you can focus on bulking the articles up more. In any event, on my growing to-do list is trying to get an article up to FA or GA and learn the process that way so I can better do the quality ratings and not just kick the can down the road.
4) Enwebb: What, if anything, can ToL and its subprojects do to better support collaboration and coordination among editors? How can we improve?
Nessie: I mentioned earlier that the projects are the main way maintenance is done. And it is good that we have a bunch of subprojects that let those tasks get broken up into manageable pieces. Frankly I'm amazed anything gets done with WikiProject Plants with how huge its scope is. Yet this not only parcels out the work but the discussion as well. A few editors like Peter coxhead and Plantdrew keep an eye on many of the subprojects and spread the word, but it's still easy for newer editors to get a little lost. There should be balance between the lumping and splitting. The newsletter helps by crossing over all the WikiProjects, and if the discord channel picked up that would help too. Possibly the big Enwiki talk page changes will help as well.
5) Enwebb: What would surprise the ToL community to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?
Nessie: I'm not sure anything would be surprising. I focus on nature offline too, foraging for mushrooms or wild plants and trying to avoid ticks and mosquitos. I have started going magnet fishing lately, more to help clean up the environment than in the hopes of finding anything valuable. But it would be fun to find a weapon and help solve a cold case or something.
... that despite a genus name referring to its dull leaves, Astilbe chinensis was celebrated as the most important new hardy perennial by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1902? (2 June)
... that the marine worm Themiste pyroides is unusual in that it forms swarms when breeding? (20 June)
... that cut branches of the small tree Erythrina berteroana are used to make living fence posts? (26 June)
... that the ripe seed pods of Brachystegia eurycoma burst explosively and throw out the large disc-shaped seeds? (28 June)
... that Swedish entomologist Carl H. Lindroth suggested that more than 40 species of North American ground beetle were inadvertently transported from Europe in ship's ballast? (29 June)
... that the sea hedgehog is a cannibal? (29 June)
Re this. Please try to assume good faith when talking to others. Casliber and I have known each other for a good few many years now and I have his talk page on my watchlist. We have also assisted each other at FAC, when the occasion has called. Please learn some manners. Thanks. CassiantoTalk14:29, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
And we met twelve hours ago when you made a personal attack on another admin, I'm sure that was not coincidence when you interjected with a comment that has no bearing on either discussion. You are not a free person, I cannot liberate you from that, but I am genuinely sympathetic to someone so trapped in internet rage. I'm assuming you are male and that chastising others is your reward for whatever positive contribution you have made. I wish you well. cygnis insignis14:41, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
No, I am not aware, yet is this the sort of stuff that has no business here and nothing to to with our discussion. I put a view that he should be blocked, based on recent activity that turned out to be well established belligerence. cygnis insignis15:31, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Can you point out the personal attack you wax so lyrical about, and what does my gender have to do with this? I'll allow you some time to apologise for your misandrous comment and outright lie before I report you at ANI. CassiantoTalk15:02, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Nice to see that word has gain currency at least, it is telling that is was not in common usage. What's upset you, me tapping on the bars of your mind's prison. cygnis insignis15:31, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
As I've just said elsewhere, Cassianto has done a lot of constructive work on Sophie Dahl recently so he is here to write the encyclopedia; if you treat him with respect, he'll do the same to you - if you start threatening him with blocks, he's not going to take kindly to it just like any other editor would. As I've also just said elsewhere, civility in my opinion is respecting the views and ideals of people that are quite different to your own. I've had a go at Featured Article Candidates and come away feeling like a second-rate writer on more than a number of occasions, so I will tip my hat to anyone who can negotiate FAC on multiple occasions successfully. It really does train you to be responsive and respectful towards people, and keep your eye focused on what's important here. Ritchie333(talk)(cont)16:03, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
You need to clarify the relevance, or recognise you got the wrong end of the stick, I haven't been threatening anyone with anything. Most seem to be commenting with some preformed idea of what I need to told in this situation, it makes responding pointless if everyone is reading my mind. The report I threatened to make was to my mum, who will say that he sounds like a very troubled person. cygnis insignis16:18, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
An answer on this would be good @Ritchie333:, because I'm just reading irrelevancies, and this leaves me looking I have something to answer for to those who are looking for people to thug. As it is, I'm reading the FAC commentary as a reference to what SN54129 patronisingly suggested was my role. cygnis insignis16:40, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Probably not, I think maybe you have different settings but for most we have it set to automatically watchlist certain pages. I have Eric Corbett and Casliber for instance the discussion there drew my attention here. The thing that you are missing is that for the most part the editors here have interacted with each other in one form or another as a lot of us have been here 10 years, including you. Sometimes when you cause waves that causes more eyes on your actions and AGF is a flag that can do that. I'm not here to criticize you but when you make comments like "people looking to thug" or the like it doesn't make for a happy discussion. With that I've said my piece and sole issue with your edit, the reversion of the other persons discussion comment and will comment no further as it will as I daid on Cas page will pour gasoline on that fire and you should be able to move on from a relatively minor issue rather easily. Hell in a Bucket (talk) 17:13, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Could never break into their music to get an overview, probably because I never made the pilgrimage and experienced it live, but immense respect for their works. cygnis insignis18:00, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
SN, the cool thing they do now is that when you buy the tix to the show, they give you a copy of the show direct from the soundboard and professionally done by the band. They do it in Nugnetz. I will be there for the shows tomorrow and Saturday as Dead and Co. end their summer tour, it is my yearly pilgrimage and Cygnis if you ever have the time, go to it live there is nothing better. John Mayer ended up being a pleasant surprise. Hell in a Bucket (talk) 18:15, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I'm a little embarassed to say I don't know what that is, they still allow taping in general and trading via archive.org but if you buy a ticket for a show and can get the soundboard I do that. Hell in a Bucket (talk) 18:27, 4 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I'd like to stay focused in the discussion I began. I am German and may have extra difficulties that don't belong there. I am afraid that the term "toxic behaviour" was derived from "incredibly toxic personalities", and - even if not - is too vague, too general, and meaning different things to different readers, so making me think that we should "ban" it. English is rich, and I am sure there are better words. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:18, 11 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
My intent was to question that premise, that describing a contribution as potentially toxic is not an indictment of an individual. I did not expect that to be well received, or for a wave of self-awareness to change the course of the discussion, it is, however, all I planned to say, if that is a concern for the discussion you began. cygnis insignis15:46, 11 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
About the premise, perhaps ask the one who coined the "personalities" phrase? 2009, and in the 2014 speech, almost every observer knew that the plural term was for one specifically, Eric Corbett.
I wouldn't oppose "toxic contribution" as long as it's a defined contribution, nailed with a diff or two. "toxic behavior" in general, however, seems - at least to me - broader, and borderline to mean a trait of a person, rather than one disturbing contribution among perhaps 100 "healthy" ones. Repeating: it's less the meaning but more the vagueness of the term that I find problematic. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:02, 11 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Gerda Arendt:, I removed my post at your discussion, and this thread, but there still appears to be something unresolved and I expect more repercussions. I am familiar with some of your contributions and know you have been very active for as long as I have been here. You ask above, "What do you think of this? ", I don't know what I am supposed to think. Is it the content or users you wish to draw to my attention? Use German if that allows you to be clearer, more direct and explicit, I can read the language when it is important (like reading Kafka in the original). cygnis insignis13:42, 12 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Good to know that you can read Kafka in the original. You removed you post on Framban, and this, and I didn't know what to think of it, especially disturbed by an edit summary mentioning grief. Forget the question if you think someone would say "Your behaviour is toxic" to a person face-to-face, when my real question was if I caused you grief. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:55, 12 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I regretted posting in the thread as it appeared that I was going to be targeted elsewhere as a consequence, that my opinion would draw the attention of other users who see this a cause célèbre and that I am an adversary. The expression for this is "causing me grief". cygnis insignis14:13, 12 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Do I understand (verstehe ich richtig) that the grief was about "going to be"? - I don't want to cause grief, actually not even indirectly, - sorry if I did. Here, I didn't try to "target", only to understand better. I am ready now to just leave, and without any intention to pursue the topic further anyway, anywhere ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:45, 12 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think your actions need justification, but hope you recognise they have consequences. I am currently lacking anything profound or insightful to say about the situation, so wont add to the noise and give an opening to those who disrupting mainspace contributions, rooting out quislings and going on witch hunts, asserting that users are betraying the site by moving toward solutions. This response is itself potentially toxic, and I know that I have made comments that were toxins, that is all I have control over. cygnis insignis15:10, 12 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
LOL, I can be "precious", another sense of the word, and irritating assumed authority is a life long avocation. Well met, and thanks for the recognition on the crescent wallaby [worries about the shabby state of a work in progress], the other works are just exercises for polishing the articles of my primary focus. The first one is named for Carl von Hügel, whose life is very interesting, he was possibly the first European to recognise the extraordinary beauty of my 'country', Southwest Australia. cygnis insignis16:23, 12 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Feh, too easy, your contribution is a profuse amount of good and usable article content, there is usually little to say and it can be a red flag when people argue otherwise. cygnis insignis08:57, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Your revert of my talk page comment here was invalid per WP:TPO as was you inaccurate edit summary. Please do not alter edits by other editors, per WP:TPO. If those editors have violated policy, please raise a discussion on their Talk page, or at WP:ANI. In the latter case, beware the WP:BOOMERANG. Cheers, Mathglot (talk) 07:06, 17 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
This is your reward for volunteering here? it's a bit sad, and pompous. You, not another editor, made the most extensive refactoring of a talk page I ever recall seeing, I assumed to moderate the off-topicness, then posed a non-question to set up your rude proclamations. cygnis insignis07:19, 17 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for trying to help me out with Cassianto. He is a disgusting editor who thinks he owns articles and makes life miserable for other editors Cls14 (talk) 22:41, 17 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@Monsieur X: Ugh, thank you for reminding me M. X, there is a lot of weight given to a deeper separation of the phylogeny in the fossil taxa. I've noticed your fixes on my watchlist, often things I missed during my rough additions, cheers for that. I will have a look now that I know more about the classification, and that someone will be double checking. cygnis insignis12:27, 19 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I revised the template here, adding a citation what I think is agreed confirms acceptance of the arrangement. If you want to edit an autotaxobox the template is accessible from the red icon to the right of "scientific classification". cygnis insignis12:53, 19 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for updating. I didn't even notice the red pencil icon thingy, I'll give it a try next time I see some outdated classification. Monsieur X (talk) 14:44, 19 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
If you convert to an autobox and the parent doesn't exist, it will throw out a link with an autofilled template ready to create; this is common with the species box for monotypic fossil genera. Thanks again for flagging that concern. cygnis insignis14:52, 19 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Tuart, one of the last grandmother trees photographed in 1920
Hello Cygnis insignis,
I've done a bit of a clean up of the taxonomy section of E. gomphocephala but can't find a ref. for "type collection was made by Jean-Baptiste Leschenault at the Vasse River during 1802, while serving on the Baudin expedition". I'm sure it's correct but it would be good to add a ref. Can you help? Gderrin (talk) 01:10, 20 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, especially if that was something I overlooked: tracking the Baudin expedition makes my head spin and that may be a puzzle I created. cygnis insignis01:24, 20 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
you deem that art-work as non-problematic, I might gently suggest staying away from these areas. Also, it would have taken you a few seconds to discover that the IP has been already blocked for being a sock of a LTA. Regards, ∯WBGconverse17:44, 30 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I read a diff that contained what might be viewed as evidence, and didn't see any art-work, or edit summary, or have any inclination to assume you do things for good reasons. This is where we stand, I don't forget when someone screws around with article space. cygnis insignis18:46, 30 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I have no clue about what you mean by the last sentence; what tinkering with main-space don't you forget? I also note that you operate by assuming bad faith. Ta, ∯WBGconverse19:10, 30 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Please remember to abide by WP:NPA. Also, please provide a diff behind your allegations per our best-practice-notes or withdraw. And, I am genuinely curious to hear someone raising any (legitimate) query about my main-space-editing or actions, thereof. Interaction-Analyser threw nothing else than this. ∯WBGconverse19:31, 30 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
[edit conflict] If it were my creation I would have no hesitancy, and open evidence inspired the action I think, so not my business to paint a target on someone else. However, you are right, your antics are no excuse for my rudeness, your harrying of others is a privilege that is invisible to yourself, I assume you think that normal and good faith behaviour. cygnis insignis20:03, 30 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The WikiCup, an annual editing competition, is now in its fourth round. Casliber, consistent participant since 2010 and winner in 2016, is currently dominating Group A with 601 points. Largely responsible is the successful Featured Article nomination of Masked booby. The other remaining Tree of Life participant, Enwebb, is participating in her first ever WikiCup. In this round, she has a grand total of...5 points. But with the recent Featured Article nomination of Megabat, she stands to gain 600 points if successful. As it stands, though, it appears that at least one ToL editor is headed to the fifth and final round of 8 contestants, which begins September 1.
Thus far, all participants in the WikiCup have generated 17 Featured Articles, 116 Good Articles, 16 Featured Lists, and 57 Featured Pictures. The Good Article Nominations backlog has been reduced as well, with 286 Good Article Reviews.
Editor spotlight: Photographing the tree of life
For this month's editor spotlight we're joined by Charlesjsharp, a longtime contributor to Wikimedia Commons with a plethora of featured pictures on English Wikipedia.
1) Starsandwhales: How long have you been editing Wikipedia, and how did you get interested? How did you begin your journey of photographing wildlife?
Charlesjsharp: I uploaded my first pictures to Wikipedia twelve years ago for fun, to show my kids how it works. The pictures of my daughter (static trapeze), my son (Revell), my dog (Border Terrier) and my parents’ home (Tealing) are all still in the articles! I then started to upload wildlife images.
I’d got my first camera aged eight and went on my first safari in the Kruger Park, South Africa in 1970. I was hooked. I switched to digital in 2004, but didn’t buy any high-end lenses till 2014. Such a shame that hundreds of great photos I took before then look so dreadful by today’s quality standards. My 100-400mm lens transformed mammal and bird photography opportunities and when I got my 100mm macro lens in 2016, the whole new world of insects was open for business.
Pied kingfisher eating a chick, photographed by Charlesjsharp
2) S&W: Over the years, you've taken photos of many different organisms from birds to insects to big cats; you have an extensive list of favorite images. Which animals have been the most exciting for you to photograph?
Charlesjsharp: The trophy animals the hunters used to shoot are the ones I like to shoot too: it was lion, elephant and baboon in 1970. More recently, hunting for tiger by jeep in Kanha National Park in India was exciting and so was searching for jaguar by boat in the rivers of the Pantanal in Brazil. Our encounters with the mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda was amazing, but the actual photography was no challenge.
But photographing animal behaviour is the most exciting and challenging. There’s usually movement and it all happens so fast, like when a bird captures its prey. Every now and then you snap something really unusual – like the cannibal kingfisher
3) S&W: Many articles under ToL have requests for people to add images that can go unanswered. What can the community do to improve the coverage of different organisms on Wikipedia, especially when it comes to images?
Charlesjsharp: It’s a very time consuming process because the Wikipedia code is cumbersome (*see below). It take an age to upload to Commons: to describe, categorize, geocode. Many of the categories don’t exist so have to be created. If the image is of a subspecies, then all the images have to be checked before you can nominate an image for VI. It’s also takes ages to nominate images for VI and QI on Commons. May be some users use sophisticated tools to lighten the load, but I don’t know if they exist. In other words, Wikipedia is OK, but Commons is a nightmare. Hundreds of really poor quality photos clog up the system and some users are too lazy to filter and edit their nominations.
Recently, some thoughtless editor added a ‘caption’ box to Commons. A waste of time. The image title should act as the caption.
I applied for a grant to attend Wikimania, but was unsuccessful. Not much can happen without some funding to kickstart and then drive improvements forward. Here was my response to the question: "How can we increase the quality and diversity of images being uploaded and, in particular, improve the Featured Picture, Quality Image and Valued Image projects?"
Panther chameleon male, photographed by Charlesjsharp
1. Work together on pre-defined projects to develop a team spirit that will help us develop a set of shared values
2. Through brainstorming, Identify what we need to do to improve the quality and diversity of images being uploaded and, in particular, identify what we need to do to improve the credibility of the Featured Picture, Quality Image and Valued Image projects
3. By sharing our photographic skills, find ways to share skills with the community. Knowledge transfer is time-consuming and we need to set limited objectives and realistic time frames. This will require compromise as individuals have to listen and find ways to agree. This is going to be much easier through face-to-face meetings
3. Identify what we need to do to improve the quality and diversity of images being uploaded (diversity of contributor and diversity in subject) and, in particular, identify what we need to do to improve the credibility of the Featured Picture, Quality Image and Valued Image projects
4. Spend more time talking about values and knowledge transfer than sharing photography tips amongst delegates, then getting all delegates to agree to DO SOMETHING WHEN THEY GET HOME to take things forward.
4) S&W: What advice would you give to people new to photographing wildlife?
Charlesjsharp: An impossible question unless you know what someone’s objective is. So you’re on your first safari? Borrow or rent a decent camera and a quality 300mm lens. Then read a few of the dozens of free advice pages on the internet. Then when you’re out and about, take the lens cap off and set the camera to fully automatic sports mode. Be ready. If you’ve time, get in the right place (sunlight/background). Watch the animal’s behaviour. Point and shoot. Glance at the screen. If OK, repeat. Only then start playing with the settings to optimise shutter speed, F number and ISO.
5) S&W: What would the Tree of Life community be surprised to learn about your life off-wiki?
Charlesjsharp: I used to be a high-end stamp collector (early USA). My photography is a sort of collecting. And I’m a keen bridge player.
* An example of cumbersome code: getting the layout of my responses to your questions. So dated, and no online spellchecker.
the territory name was in lower case, the actual location was hidden ... just reading it now there is an outside chance the random punter guesses where it is... JarrahTree12:37, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I make assumptions like that all the time, it is the kind of thing I would pick up in copyediting. I'm tending to work around families of taxa, and there are a lot rough procedures for getting things in order; pardon when that creates confusion for ratings. ~ cygnis insignis12:48, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
gah - i remembr our online conversations of yonks ago in terminology that would even leave ourselves confused - no need for furries or worries, or pardons, the turkeys take care of the chaos here, their vocalisations and iterations are enough to carry some extra terrestrial travel that further light years into the cosmos a la late douglas adams and his rather dated obsession with improbability... JarrahTree13:06, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Nice to be reminded of that, I'm finding it difficult to get that flow at the moment. Certainty is the fashion now, statements uncoloured by facts. ~ cygnis insignis13:17, 12 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
You should lift your sights higher than becoimng a janitor here. What has this to do with my complaint elsewhere, cousin, I am not casual in my critique of the potential for disruption by those who follow the user's lead. ~ cygnis insignis17:27, 15 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I don't want to start an edit war, so I'm going to give you time to do some research and provide a reference to your assertion that the thylacine definitely was extinct in the Australian mainland by the time that Europeans arrived, but please note that the normal order of things is to locate a reliable source and *then* make the edit. I have no reason to doubt that what you say is correct, but when one edits an article in such a way one should have the reliable source handy. AuH2ORepublican (talk) 15:08, 19 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Have you read the article, there is nothing more I can add presently and note this is a matter I have been researching recently. I see nothing wrong with my process, ip removed someting from the lede not supported by the article, you reverted with a claim it is fact, I see no evidence of that and agreed with ip's removal. The only complication I see is the notification you received, and your reaction to it. ~ cygnis insignis07:24, 20 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, you don't want to sail out beyond that, I think we are already lost :) Cheer me up, if you can, I keep needing to wet my whistle with all the salt in the western winds. ~ cygnis insignis10:53, 20 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
IN that case the high land just west and above windy harbour might be a good location for that... there is no guarantee - otherwise the cape hamelin light ground is another... Sorry I am unable to diagnose whistle dehydration issues, my qualifications do not adequately offer adequately appropriate hydration or comic measures JarrahTree11:28, 20 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
circumstances have placed moisture even further from the grasp at one level, despite prevalent metereological tendencies, I do trust your drainage systems work adequately, youre due for more of the same according to the mount lawley number crunchers... but then they have evened out fairly well of recent. JarrahTree14:08, 30 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
"Undid revision 911996954 by PC78 (talk) are you proposing to fix it?" No, as my edit summary indicated my concern is that you have not correctly followed the WP:GAR process; I offer no judgement on the quality of the article. I have now raised my concern at Wikipedia:Good article help for further consideration. Regards. PC78 (talk) 16:07, 22 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The process was determining, after the many fixes I made to associated articles, that there more many areas for improvement, If you want to formalise that, go ahead, I have no interest in that sort of thing. ~ cygnis insignis16:11, 22 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The Tree of Life WikiProject and its sprawling phylogeny of daughter projects is one of the largest and most active communities in Wikipedia. It encompasses approximately 570 Featured Articles and well over a thousand Good Articles (second only to military history). The WikiJournal of Science (one of three current journals in the user group) has a few aims that may closely align with the interests of the ToL community.
Review of existing articles
Firstly, WikiJSci can be a complementary system for FA review (getting external review, input, and validity). When an Wikipedia article is nominated (via WP:JAN), journal editors go out to non-Wikipedian academics and researchers who have published on the subject on the last five years and invite them to give feedback comments (e.g. Peripatric speciation and Baryonyx). The resulting changes can then be integrated back into the Wikipedia article.
Attracting new articles and contributors
Getting more editors involved in Wikipedia is always a high priority. WikiJSci can also be a way to encourage new people to contribute articles (especially on missing/stub/start topics). An example of an article that was written from scratch by a group of non-Wikipedians is Teladorsagia circumcincta. This not only resulted in a new Wikipedia page on an underdeveloped topic, but introduced the idea of Wikimedia contribution to a group of people who had previously never considered it.
Images, videos, sound and galleries
The journal can be a way to get multimedia content reviewed or encourage contribution. The same approach could be easily adapted to sounds (e.g. frog mating calls) or videos (e.g. starfish feet motion). It also allows for tracking of those images in new articles via Altmetric (this example has >200, which is bananas). There aren't any biology examples in WikiJSci yet, but the sister medical journal has published a few summary diagrams, photography, and image galleries. Examples include this gallery by Blausen Medical or the diagram of cell disassembly during apoptosis.
Other projects
For those interested in other Wikimedia sister projects, there's also broad scope for interactions with the WikiJournals. Perhaps peer reviewed teaching resources could be useful to sit alongside sets of Wikipedia articles and be integrated into Wikiversity courses (like this or this)? Can sections of Wikidata & Wikispecies be peer reviewed? What are the potential avenues for integration with WikiCite, WikiFactMine, Scholia, etc.? Currently, WikiJSci is aiming to be very flexible and try out different formats so long as they can be externally peer reviewed.
1) Enwebb: You're very prolific with DYKs, with over 2,000 nominations credited (in fact, I'll highlight which DYK nominations this month were yours below). What made you become so involved in this part of Wikipedia? Why should Tree of Life editors nominate articles for DYK?
Cwmhiraeth: I became aware of the WikiCup in 2012 and entered the contest. The scoring structure seemed to me to favour DYKs, and I went to considerable trouble to identify short stubs that could be expanded into qualifying start class articles with multiple bonus points. Casliber introduced me to preparing articles for FAC and Sasata helped me with my first solo FA. I won the WikiCup that year, and repeated that success the following year, after which the Cup got a bit more competitive. By that time, nominating articles for DYK was an ingrained habit, and I have continued doing so ever since, but at a rather slower rate. I do more work behind the scenes at DYK now, reviewing other people's nominations in excess of my QPQ requirement, and building prep sets ready to go on the main page, and I retired from competing in the WikiCup and became a judge instead. I would encourage ToL editors to nominate suitable articles for DYK because it gives great satisfaction to know that hundreds or even thousands of people have appreciated your work, and it provides a foil for the biographies and historical articles that predominate there.
2) Enwebb: I noticed that your DYK nominations reflect a diverse array of flora and fauna, from trees, marine invertebrates, birds, fishes, and mammals. How do you decide what to work on?
Cwmhiraeth: As I look around different articles I keep a note of things I might work on, red links, stub articles that need expanding or places in articles where I would like to add a wikilink but no suitable target page exists. So I have this list, but more often than not I choose a new article to work on based on a Google book that I have been using in a previous article. I like Google books; some of them are really useful for species articles, the main annoyance being when certain pages are permanently unavailable, although I am quite good at tricking the books into revealing pages that they were trying to prevent me from viewing. Eventually I get bored with African rodents, or whatever my present topic is, and move on. I am particularly interested in organisms living in extreme habitats, endangered species, invasive species, pest species, parasites or creatures with interesting behavioural traits.
3) Enwebb: Which of your Wikipedia accomplishments are you most proud of?
Cwmhiraeth: Well, Sea really. Again that was inspired by the WikiCup, and working in collaboration with Chiswick Chap, we took it from virtually nothing, little more than a list of seas, through DYK and GA, culminating in a really tough FA. That was very satisfying (as were the 1000 odd points it gained me at the WikiCup). In complete contrast was the article Tree. I completely rewrote it in a sandbox as an entry for the "Core contest". The previous version had been quite short with a section on "Record breaking trees" which I hived off into a separate article. My new version was immediately challenged and an edit war would have erupted had I not decided to retire from the fray. My version had some serious flaws, I had never studied botany and I had used a book source which misled me. However, after corrections, my version largely remained in place and I later joined Chiswick Chap in bringing the article to GA status.
4) Enwebb: What motivates you to keep contributing? What's your 10,000 ft view (pardon the non-SI) of the community and Tree of Life?
Cwmhiraeth: I think Wikipedia is a really great project. The idea of Wikipedia as a pool of knowledge contributed to by thousands of individuals in hundreds of countries is inspiring. It would be nice if we had no vandalism and everyone co-operated with everyone else in an amicable spirit, but as we are all human, it does not quite work out like that. I like to think of my efforts as a legacy that will continue in existence after I am gone.
6) Enwebb: How did you first become interested in natural history?
Cwmhiraeth: When I was young I had an elderly aunt who used to come to stay and who would take me for walks in the countryside, during which we would watch birds and identify wild flowers. She would take me out at weekends from my girls-only boarding school and we would search for orchids on the Wiltshire Downs. My school was not geared up for science, we just did general science for O-levels, and when it came to A-levels, I was the only pupil in my year to do zoology and chemistry, and one of only two to do physics, for which we had to cycle off to the grammar school on the other side of town. I wanted to be a vet, but was discouraged by my father, obtained a BSc in biochemistry and ended up in an unrelated job. If I were to live my life again, things might work out differently, but then I dare say we could all say that!
August DYKs
Weebill
Nanhaipotamon macau
P. lutzii (yeast phase)
Cannonball mangrove
Ruspolia nitidula male
Female kob and calf
... that falguera, a plant known from only one valley in Spain, is threatened by rock climbers and by road maintenance? (1 August)
... that Dioscorea chouardii is known from a single crag in the Pyrenees and has been monitored using scaffolding and telescopes? (3 August)
... that the densely-populated territory of Macau is home to a recently discovered, endemic species of freshwater crab of the genus Nanhaipotamon(pictured)? (17 August)
... that the crimson seedcracker has two morphs, large-billed and small-billed, but this trait is not related to sex, age, body size, or location? (18 August)
... that the sea anemone Anemonia sulcata is known as ortiguilla in southern Spain, where it is a popular seafood? (19 August)
... that the Sorana bean is grown in such small quantities and is in such demand that it commands prices six to ten times higher than those of other cannellini beans? (19 August)
... that antelope grass can recover quickly after wildfires even in the middle of the dry season? (19 August)
... that the Namib brush-tailed gerbil uses ultrasonic whistles and foot drumming to communicate? (20 August)
... that strips of bark from the West African copal are used to make beehives, while the flowers are attractive to bees? (24 August)
... that the swamp musk shrew scrambles around among aquatic vegetation in the dark? (25 August)
... that the rock parrot often nests in the old burrows of seabirds? (26 August)
... that the bush cricket Ruspolia nitidula(pictured) is commonly eaten in Uganda, where the price per unit weight is periodically higher than that of beef? (26 August)
... that despite its reported disappearance from Britain and other European countries, the fountain spleenwort is still considered to have a stable population trend? (27 August)
I asked about this elsewhere and had my head bitten off, so how about I do a bunch of articles I didn't create every now and then (which will add them to my watchlist)? ~ cygnis insignis00:41, 3 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
you have something in your preferences that can de activate the watchlist link for edits (when I got to 70,000 on my watchlist things used to go bump in the night), decapitation is not an expected outcome from simply activating something like 'rrater and putting biota-importance = low.... - which the genii eds from places other than ours tend to do partial assessments (if any at all) JarrahTree00:46, 3 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
That answers my next question. And having them on my watchlist is a good thing, as I see no other value in doing assessments [ducks] I don't think I am suited to that sort of mass editing, or motivated to give over time that might be spent improving the article itself (rather than indicating someone else should pay attention to it) ~ cygnis insignis01:00, 3 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
ahhh, someone else, indeed your concern and focus is far superior, as it improves content... and is to be of great importance... I just happen to have as a task and focus an unbelievably vast mountain of unassessed australian articles of all species and types that remain unwashed, unwatched, and rumsfeld territory unknown unknown stuff, which cries out to me assess, assess it says... JarrahTree01:09, 3 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I see the virtue in making sure that articles have had some review, but I would get distracted from the previous distraction. As I say, I am poorly suited to help out or willing to evaluate the relative merit of one article over another. ~ cygnis insignis01:30, 3 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I can see by your TP discussions that you stay pretty busy, but I was hoping you could squeeze in a little time for WP:WikiProject Dogs and maybe even become a member. It appears to have been a free-for-all topic area for quite some time and just needs a little TLC from editors who understand the difference between a dog breed and a dog type. I’m soliciting, not canvassing. 😉AtsmeTalk📧04:39, 12 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
OMG as the son of a veterinarian and breeder, I get horrified when I see something like this... Duck for cover, claim diminished canine knowledge due to dog bite, diplomatic immunity due to your place of residence, - I know some who have left editing wikipedia due to arguments in dog articles... JarrahTree05:05, 12 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, we’re making progress. We have some outstanding collaborators, and we’re getting right down to the root of several issues, beginning with RS. See User:Atsme/sandbox and its TP, and feel free to weigh-in on that discussion if you’ve a mind to. AtsmeTalk📧05:32, 12 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm although your motivation is clear and positive, having spent time watching the extensive OR and POV in dog articles, and the disappearance of the earlier set of eds on veterinary things, I have steered clear so far - thanks for the invite nevertheless... JarrahTree05:40, 12 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The 2019 WikiCup is in its fifth and final round, with two of the eight remaining contestants from the ToL community. The 2016 winner Casliber is in first place as of 1 October, and Enwebbb is in seventh place.
Getting spooky for Halloween
It's the most wonderful time of the year...Halloween, that is. With articles on skeleton frogs, ghost bats, and Satanic nightjars, Wikipedia has more spooky taxa than a graveyard has ghosts. In the new Spooky Species Contest, Tree of Life editors are turning Wikipedia into Spookypedia, working from a crowd-sourced list of taxa. There's still time to sign up! How can you let an article like Draculoides bramstokeri pass you by?
Welcoming WikiProject Diptera and Project Creation Trends
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Others
Tree of Life subprojects and task forces by start year and whether currently considered active or not
This month saw a vanishingly rare occurrence for the Tree of Life: a new WikiProject joined the fold. WikiProject Diptera, however, is also unusual in being a classroom project. Whether or not this project will stay active once the semester ends remains to be seen. It does not bode well, however, that WP:WikiProject Vespidae—a creation from the same instructor at St. Louis University—faded to obscurity shortly after the fall semester concluded in 2014. WikiProject Vespidae is defunct and now redirects to the Hymenoptera task force of WikiProject Insects.
Since 2014, the Tree of Life has seen a string of years where one or zero projects or task forces were created. The only projects and task forces created since then are WikiProject Animal anatomy (2014), Hymenoptera task force (2016), Bats task force (2017), WikiProject Hypericaceae (2018), and now WikiProject Diptera (2019). The year 2006 saw the greatest creation of WikiProjects and task forces, with fourteen still active and the remaining six as "semiactive", "inactive", or "defunct".
September DYKs
Enischnomyia fossil in Dominican amber
Lebombo wattle in the sand forest
Betula leopoldaeleaf fossil
Pholiota squarrosoides
Lady Burton's rope squirrel
A child picks chili peppers in an Indonesian home garden.
... that the Ethiopian epauletted fruit bat uses its hind feet to comb its fur and its tongue to wash its face, wing membranes, and genital region? (3 September)
... that the scaly ground roller mostly eats earthworms and centipedes, but has been known to also eat frogs, lizards, and shrews? (4 September)
I noticed you have made considerable edits to this page - where do you get the energy - but thanks for tidying up after me...I do have one question - is there a reason why the page is labelled
Setirostris - rather than Setirostris elleryi?
Thanks
P Barden (talk) 02:35, 22 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@P Barden: likewise, cheers for the effort on a bat article, it is an interesting species. Re the title, it is a convention for monotypic genera to be moved from the species name (I comply, but disagree). ~ cygnis insignis12:36, 22 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The first Spooky Species Contest wrapped up this week. Two articles were promoted to Good Article as a result (Halloween darter and Deathwatch beetle) and three Did You Know hooks on Halloween were related to the contest (Halloween darter, skeleton frog, and Coffin Cave mold beetle. Two new articles were created, including Longan witches broom-associated virus and Boophis popi, the skeleton frog species that appeared at DYK.
The 2020 Community Wishlist Survey is live (focusing on non-Wikipedia content projects), with two proposals so far for WikiSpecies. The Wikimedia Foundation will prioritize the top 5 proposals across all sister projects.
The 2019 WikiCup has finally concluded, with Casliber taking home the bronze. The bulk of their points this round came from two Featured Articles: rock parrot and western yellow robin.
Alphabet Soup: Explaining DYK, GA, FA, and More
By request from another editor, this month I wrote an overview of ways that content is featured on Wikipedia. Below I have outlined some of the processes for getting content featured:
Did You Know (DYK)
What is it: A way for articles to appear on the main page of Wikipedia. A short hook in the format of "Did you know...that ___" presents unusual and interesting facts to the reader, hopefully making the reader want to click through to the article
How it works: The DYK process has fairly low barriers for participation. The eligibility criteria are few and relatively easy to meet. Some important guidelines:
To be eligible, article is either new (newly created or moved to mainspace), a 5x expansion, or passed a GA review. Its creation, expansion, or promotion to GA must have been in the past 7 days.
Article must be long enough, with more than 1,500 characters of prose (this doesn't include embedded lists)
The process for creating the nomination is somewhat tedious. Instructions can be found here (official instructions) and here ("quick and nice" guide to DYK). Experience is the best teacher here, so don't be afraid to try and fail a few times. The last few DYK nominations I've done, however, have been with the help of SD0001's DYK-helper script, which makes the process a bit more streamlined (you create the template from a popup box on the article; created template is automatically transcluded to nominations page and article talk page)
Once your nomination is created and transcluded, it will need to be reviewed. The reviewer will check that the article meets the eligibility criteria, that the hook is short enough, cited, and interesting, and that other requirements are met, such as for images. If you've been credited with more than 5 DYKs, the reviewer will also check that you've reviewed someone else's nomination for each article that you nominate. This is called QPQ (quid pro quo). You can check how many credited DYKs you've had here to see if QPQ is required for you to nominate an article for DYK.
Good Article (GA)
What it is: A peer review process to determine that an article meets a set of criteria. This adds a symbol to the top of the article. About 1 in 200 articles on Wikipedia is a GA.
How it works: You follow the instructions to nominate an article, placing a template on its talk page. Anyone can nominate an article—you don't have to be a major contributor, though it is considered polite to inform the major contributors that you are nominating the article. The article is added to a queue to await a review. In the ToL, it seems that reviews happen pretty quickly, thanks to our dedicated members. Once the review begins, the reviewer will offer suggestions to help the article meet the 6 GA criteria. Upon addressing all concerns, the reviewer will pass the article, and voilà! Good Article!
Advice to a first-time nominator: Look at other Good Articles in related areas before nominating. If you're unsure about nominating, consider posting to the talk page of your project to see what other editors think. You can also have a more experienced editor co-nominate the article with you.
Featured Article (FA)
What it is: An exhaustive peer review to determine that an articles meets the criteria. This adds a to the top of the article. About 1 in 1,000 articles on Wikipedia is a FA.
How it works: You follow the instructions to nominate an article, placing a template on its talk page. Nominated articles are usually GAs already. Uninvolved editors can nominate, though the article's regular editors should be consulted first. Several editors will come by offering feedback, eventually supporting or opposing promotion to FA. A coordinator will determine if there is consensus to promote the article to FA. For an editor's first FA, spot checks to verify that the sources support the text are conducted.
Advice to a first-time nominator: The Featured Article Candidate (FAC) process is a bit intimidating, but several steps can make your first one easier (speaking as someone who has exactly one). If you also did the GA nomination of the article, you can ask the reviewer for "extra" feedback beyond the GA criteria. You can also formally request a peer review and/or a copy edit from the Guild of Copy Editors to check for content and mechanics. First-time nominators are encouraged to seek the help of a mentor for a higher likelihood of passing their first FAC.
Good and Featured Topics (GT and FT)
What it is: It took me a while to realize we even had GT and FT on Wikipedia, as they are not very common relative to GA and FA. Both GT and FT are collections of related articles of high quality (all articles at GA or FA, all lists at Featured List). GT/FT have to be at least 3 articles with no obvious gaps in coverage of the topic, along with other criteria. For GT, all articles have to be GA quality and all lists must be FL. For FT, at least half the articles must be FA or FL, with the remaining articles at GA.
How it works: Follow the nomination procedures for creating a new topic or adding an article to an existing topic. Other editors weigh in to support or oppose the proposal. Coordinators determine if there is consensus to promote to GT/FT.
Advice to a first-time nominator: There are very few GT/FT in Tree of Life (5 GT and 11 FT). Most of the legwork appears to be improving a cohesive set of articles to GA/FA.
October DYKs
Female apple maggot
... that the silk made by webspinners is produced from glands on their forelegs? (1 October)
... that falguera, a plant known from only one valley in Spain, is threatened by rock climbers and by road maintenance? (1 October)
... that larvae of the drain fly can be found in trickling filter systems used to process sewage? (6 October)
... that the correct spelling of "liliifolia" in the name of the orchidLiparis liliifolia has been debated for decades? (7 October)
... that Polish entomologist Sergiusz Toll amassed a collection of about 8,000 bird eggs and 12,000 butterflies and moths while in Bydgoszcz? (10 October)
... that the female garden symphylan stores sperm in its mouth? (11 October)
... that adult apple maggot flies (example pictured) use their wing patterns defensively to mimic spiders? (15 October)
... that structural biologist Erica Ollmann Saphire traveled to Africa to observe rodents in the field in order to study how viruses like Ebola are spread? (31 October)
... that the common name of the Halloween darter refers to the orange and black coloration that individuals develop during the breeding season? (31 October)
A survey to improve the community consultation outreach process
Hello!
The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking to improve the community consultation outreach process for Foundation policies, and we are interested in why you didn't participate in a recent consultation that followed a community discussion you’ve been part of.
Please fill out this short survey to help us improve our community consultation process for the future. It should only take about three minutes.
The privacy policy for this survey is here. This survey is a one-off request from us related to this unique topic.
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.
The Wiki Science Competition has begun on Wikimedia Commons. Several flora and fauna images have already been uploaded (the image at left is my current favorite).
Several copepod species
Red deer
Teucrium polium
Ants cross chasm via body bridge
Sarus crane duet
NessieVL created a Decemberween contest to improve taxa related to winter holidays. Loopy30 is out to an early lead, but with the bonus system for page views, there's still time for GA writers to hit a couple of home runs on some of the bigger articles like reindeer and mistletoe.
Though it didn't make it onto the main page in time for Halloween, Satanic nightjar made a splash nevertheless, cracking the list of non-lead DYK hooks with at least 15,000 views. The article was viewed nearly 17,000 times while on the main page (a typical day for the article is 10-15 views).
Class is in Session in the Tree of Life
In an interesting turn of events, this month's guest column is by my alter-ego, Elysia (Wiki Ed):
*Puts on Wiki Education hat* Hi everyone, I'm Elysia and I work for Wiki Education. You may know me as Enwebb. I got a request last month to let you know how Wiki Education is intersecting with the Tree of Life subprojects. As one of Wiki Education's major goals is to improve topics related to the sciences, leading to our Communicating Science initiative, we end up supporting quite a few in the biological sciences. Here are the TOL-related courses active this term:
What is the impact of student editors in Tree of Life?
A Wiki Education resource for students editing species articles
Altogether, these 16 courses have 347 student participants. As the end of the semester hasn't come yet, these numbers are still growing, but these students have:
And while long-term participation from students is low, there's always the chance that we'll discover a Wikipedian. I had never edited before my Wikipedia assignment in 2017 and I'm still here nearly 20,000 edits later! After I poked around in the beginning of the semester, I had the realization that not many people write Wikipedia, and very few of those have a special interest in bats. If I didn't stick around to write the content, there was no guarantee that it would ever get done.
Why are species articles suitable for students?
Writing about taxonomic groups is a great fit for students, as it keeps them away from areas where new editors traditionally struggle. The notability policy is generous towards taxa, and there is little danger of a student's work getting removed for lack of notability; this is to be expected when students write biographies. Students may struggle with encyclopedic tone for biographies and stray towards promotional writing, but this is much less common when writing about a shrew or algae!
Additionally, we're never going to run out of species to write about. Students have a bounty of stubs and redlinks to pick from. Creating a new article or expanding an existing one also takes a fairly predictable structure, with plenty of articles that students can model after.
Don't students just create messes for volunteers to clean up?
Our sincere hope is that, no, they don't, and we take several steps to try to minimize the burden on volunteer labor. With automatic plagiarism detection, alerts when students edit a Good or Featured Article, and notifications when students edit an article subject to discretionary sanctions, we try to stay ahead of problems as much as possible. We also review all student work at the end of each term. Ian, Shalor, and I are always happy to receive pings alerting us to student issues that need to be addressed.
November DYKs
Brants's whistling rat
Female black-capped tanager
... that Brants's whistling rat(illustration shown) seldom ventures more than 30 cm (12 in) from one of the many entrances to its burrow? (4 November)
... that poison devil's-pepper has been used both as rat poison and as a traditional medicine for humans? (6 November)
... that the lamenting grasshopper seems to be expanding its range northwards in Italy, possibly as a result of climate change? (10 November)
... that each Xyloterinus politus larva has its own individual cradle? (12 November)
... that the assassin bug Rhynocoris marginatus injects venomous saliva into its prey to paralyse it? (13 November)
... that botanist George R. Proctor collected more than 55,000 specimens, had 31 species named after him, and was convicted of a conspiracy to murder his wife? (14 November)
... that the bark of Guibourtia tessmannii is much esteemed in traditional medicine and is often removed from living trees? (15 November)
... that the female black-capped tanager(pictured) moulds her nest by vibrating in it? (18 November)
... that the Satanic nightjar can make a growling noise when disturbed? (21 November)
... that infestations of Leptoconops torrens biting flies have halted construction and farming projects in California? (22 November)
... that the male of the hoverfly species Syritta pipiens darts sharply in flight to facilitate mating? (23 November)
... that the tree Drypetes gerrardii was named after William Gerrard, who collected plants in southern Africa in the 1860s? (25 November)
On December 10th, the IUCN updated 8,225 species assessments, including 6,722 that were added to the list for the first time. All eucalypt species have officially been evaluated by the IUCN with this update. Several birds were newly declared extinct (poʻouli, cryptic treehunter, Alagoas foliage-gleaner) and one declared extinct in the wild (Spix's macaw). The official press release is here.
Sign-ups are open for the 2020 WikiCup, a months-long competition where editors score points by improving articles. Sign-ups are open through 31 January.
The Tree of Life was featured in The Signpost as a WikiProject report, eight years after it was last featured. This marked the return of the WikiProject report after a year hiatus.
Editor Spotlight: Plantdrew
We're joined this month by long-time editor Plantdrew, who's currently engaged in streamlining the taxonomic structure of Wikipedia articles via the automated taxobox system.
How did you become a Wikipedian? What are your particular interests (besides the obvious of "plants")?
My first job out of school in was working for ITIS; entering new species, mostly fish. At that time, ITIS was the single largest taxonomic database, and I was enthusiastic about the prospects for the eventual completion of a comprehensive global taxonomic resource. I moved on to other things, and fews years later I became aware of Wikipedia and eventually Wikispecies. At that time (~2007), It seemed to me that Wikispecies might be the best prospect for a comprehensive global taxonomic resource. ITIS had a team of 5 data developers when I worked there, while Wikispecies had a substantially larger editor base and was growing faster than ITIS (although still smaller than ITIS). I did a little bit of editing at Wikispecies at that point, but stopped after being frustrated that a project that easily could have been a structured database had little consensus for any particular standards or structures.
As Wikipedia grew, I found myself using it more and more as a reference. Eventually I started making occasional editing as an IP to fix errors I noticed. I finally registered an account when I needed to create an article; there was an article purportedly about an insect genus, but all the information pertained to a particular species, so I created an article for the species and moved information there. I started finding more cases where Wikipedia was conflating different topics; plant product derived from multiple species with a taxobox for one species, the common name for a fairly well known fruit needing disambiguation against an obscure French town. At that point I was hooked and started making more substantial contributions. It also was apparent that while the English Wikipedia might not outpace Wikispecies in article count, it had better representation of organisms that more people were interested in, and was attracting far more readers. For the first few years I was active, I focused on adding redirects for (unambigous)) vernacular names, and resolving ambiguous vernacular names.
Aside from plants, I'm interested in slime molds, fungi, and various sessile and slow-moving animals (I like things that can be observed without them running away). I've had some short term work experience with fishes (ITIS), mammals, birds and insects.
What projects are keeping you busy around the 'pedia at present?
Well, I'm not much of a content creator. I mostly do gnomish edits.
Every day, I try to look through the all the new articles for the ToL subprojects that have new article reports set up (which reminds me, we should really get a ToL-wide new article report going). Many new articles are created by experienced ToL editors whose names I recognize, and I don't do much to check their work. For unfamiliar editors, I tag articles for the appropriate WikiProject, and check for formatting, grammar, etc. A couple years ago, I was just about the only person checking new ToL articles, but recently other ToL editors have stepped up.
Since early 2017, my main project has been converting manual taxoboxes to automatic taxoboxes. That has me going through articles systematically, and since I'm editing them anyway there are a bunch of other changes I make as necessary. Checking that classification is up-to-date, standardizing formatting, adding inline citations, refining categories, adding images if any are available on Commons, adding additional IDs to taxonbars in cases of monotypy, creating/categorizing redirects. I've slowly been working through plant articles, with occasional forays into other groups of organisms. Some of these tasks weren't part of my work flow when I first started, and there are some tasks that I could be doing, but haven't bothered with (short descriptions, certain types of categories). I expect it'll take about another year for me to finish up with plant automatic taxoboxes, and then I'm sure I'll have to find something else to do.
What's your favorite plant?
I couldn't pick just one. Pseudotsuga is the dominant tree where I grew up, and it always makes me happy to be back in a Douglas fir forest. Asimina triloba is my favorite wild edible plant that grows where I live now. I studied Berberis thunbergii as an invasive species in grad school, and have a love/hate relationship with it now (mostly hate, but it remains interesting). Belgian endive is my favorite vegetable without a Wikipedia article. I'm fond of Lamiaceae in general, and while many species are used as herbs, I'm particularly interested in mints with other uses; Salvia hispanica as a pseudo-cereal, Plectranthus rotundifolius as a root crop, and Salvia divinorum as psychoactive plant with mysterious origins (is it a cultigen?).
What's your background like? How did you come to have a special interest in biology?
I grew up in a rural area and spent a lot of time playing in the woods and working in the garden, so I interacted a lot with plants as a child. My mother's parents were (insect) taxonomists (and a great-grandparent had a keen interest in natural history). My mother was pretty comfortable with scientific names, and after my parents settled in a part of the country with many plants they hadn't been familiar with, she learned the new plants by scientific names. I knew a bunch of plants by scientific names from an early age long before I realized that other people had different names for them. When I was a little older I became interested in edible wild plants. I remained interested in plants in general, and when I was in college and discovered the discipline of ethnobotany, which really tied together the general botany side of my interests with the edible plant side.
What's something that would surprised TOL editors about your life off-wiki?
Birders have life lists of species they've seen. I have a life list of plant species I've eaten. I enjoy shopping at international grocery stores, looking for new plants to try (or different preparations of unusual plants I've already tried). I've made two trips to a city 5 hours away just to shop at a store that I'm pretty sure is the largest international grocery store in the United States. My best Christmas gift this year was a box with little sample packs of 14 different species of dried fruits and herbs from Australia. I'd prefer to try the fruits fresh, but without making a trip to Australia, this is my best opportunity to try some of the major bushfoods.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
Editing Wikipedia has been a rewarding hobby for me, and although I haven't done a lot of direct collaboration with other editors, the ToL community seems pretty friendly and relatively conflict free. ToL is a good bunch of people.
December DYKs
Member of genus Chrysomya
Mekong Bobtail
... that the tapping sound of the deathwatch beetle has long been considered an omen of an impending death? (1 December)
... that Chinese virologist George F. Gao led a test laboratory in Sierra Leone during the peak of the 2014 Ebola outbreak? (1 December)
... that the chirps of the snowy tree cricket can be used to estimate the temperature? (2 December)
... that research on pain in fish by Victoria Braithwaite resulted in new rules in the UK, Europe, and Canada to make fisheries more humane? (2 December)
... that plant physiologist Hu Dujing cultivated Eucommia ulmoides to produce a substitute for rubber? (3 December)
... that Rhagoletis juglandis is a species of fly that infests walnuts? (3 December)
... that the granulate ambrosia beetle is native to Asia but has spread as an invasive species to Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania? (5 December)
... that the Peleng tarsier, a small carnivorous primate, can rotate its head nearly 180 degrees in either direction? (7 December)
... that infestations of the cotton jassid can be reduced by growing a cotton cultivar with hairy leaves? (14 December)
... that Coelopa pilipes fly populations can live at temperatures of 40 °C (104 °F) within piles of kelp, even in areas covered with snow and ice? (18 December)
... that Hirtodrosophila mycetophaga mate on bracket fungi, selectively choosing those with a lighter surface to enhance the visibility of their courtship displays? (19 December)
... that after laying its eggs on a leaf, the female mango leaf-cutting weevil severs the leaf near its base and lets it fall to the ground? (30 December)
In a major milestone for the automated taxobox system, more taxa articles now use automatic taxoboxes than manual ones. Particularly robust groups for automatic taxoboxes are turtles, primates, birds, rodents, amphibians and reptiles, sharks, and bivalves, with each project adopting automatic taxoboxes at rates greater than 95%. Only the fungi, arthropods, and microbiology projects had automatic taxobox adoption rates less than 25%. Read more in the 1 January update.
Thanks to user Trappist the monk, all citations to the IUCN using Template:Cite web or Template:Cite journal have now been swapped to Template:Cite iucn. This will prevent a recurrence of massive link failure should the IUCN change its URL format again. That does not address the 14.5k articles that cite the IUCN without the use of templates. For more background discussion, see here and here.
Vital Articles
The vital articles project on English Wikipedia began in 2004 when an editor transferred a list from Meta-Wiki: List of articles every Wikipedia should have. The first incarnation of the list became what is now level 3. As of 2019, there are 5 levels of vital articles:
Level 1: the 10 most vital articles (2009)
Level 2: the 100 most vital articles (2009)
Level 3: the 1,000 most vital articles (2004)
Level 4: the 10,000 most vital articles (2006)
Level 5: the 50,000 most vital articles (2017)
Each level is inclusive of all previous levels, meaning that the 1,000 Level 3 articles include those listed on Levels 2 and 1. Below is an overview of the distribution of vital articles, and the quality of the articles. While the ultimate goal of the vital articles project is to have Featured-class articles, I also considered Good Articles to be "complete" for the purposes of this list.
Animals (1,148 designated out of projected 2,400)
Cnidarians (5/8): 62.5% complete
Echinoderms (3/6): 50% complete
Insects (30/70): 42.9% complete
Invertebrates + others (10/27): 37% complete
Other arthropods (3/10): 30% complete
Reptiles (25/85): 29.4% complete
Amphibians (6/22): 27.3% complete
Porifera (1/4): 25% complete
Mammals (68/319): 21.3% complete
Mollusks (2/19): 21.1% complete
Arachnids (3/17): 17.6% complete
Birds (33/187): 17.6% complete
Animal breeds and hybrids (19/112): 17% complete
Crustaceans (3/25): 12% complete
Fishes (11/134): 8.2% complete
Agnatha (0/4): 0% complete
Plants, fungi, and other organisms (510 designated out of projected 1,200)
Fungi (4/33): 12.1% complete
Other organisms—Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya (5/62): 8.1% complete
Vegetables (6/96): 6.7% complete
Monocots (2/35): 5.7% complete
Edible fruits (5/95): 5.3% complete
Non-flowering plants (1/30): 3.3% complete
Edible seeds, grains, nuts (1/69): 1.4% complete
Non-monocots (1/88): 1.1% complete
Carnivorous plants (0/2): 0% complete
Many articles have yet to be designated for Tree of Life taxonomic groups, with 1,942 outstanding articles to be added. Anyone can add vital articles to the list! Restructuring may be necessary, as the only viruses included as of yet are under the category "Health". The majority of vital articles needing improvement are level 5, but here are some outstanding articles from the other levels:
... that the extinct giant thresher sharkAlopias palatasi is the only one of its kind to possess serrated teeth (pictured)? (1 January)
... that Dogor, an 18,000-year-old canine puppy, may represent a common ancestor of the dog and the wolf? (2 January)
... that the Caton Oak in Lancashire, England, was reputed to be a site of worship by druids? (4 January)
... that the LuEsther T. Mertz Library(pictured), one of the world's largest botanical libraries, had 6.5 million plant specimens and 75 percent of the world's systematic botany literature in 2002? (4 January)
... that Australian biologist Lee Berger identified Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis as being responsible for the decline and extinction of hundreds of amphibian species? (5 January)
... that the beetle Zaitzevia thermae has a total habitat of less than 35 square metres (380 sq ft) around one hot spring in Montana? (6 January)
... that the Anatolian frog is exported from Turkey to France, Italy and Switzerland for food, and is considered by the IUCN to be a near-threatened species? (6 January)
... that the stems and leaves of the endangered Holloway's crystalwort look as if they are covered in sugar crystals? (8 January)
... that a severe infestation of the palm weevil borer can kill its host palm? (9 January)
... that a mandarin duck(pictured) that appeared in New York City's Central Park became an international celebrity, with followers whom the Associated Press called "quackarazzi"? (10 January)
... that the female Savannah darter lays clutches of sticky eggs that she buries in gravel or sand? (12 January)
... that the Malayan banded pitta is threatened by the destruction of its forest habitat and by being targeted for the illegal trade in birds? (12 January)
... that in 2007, a rescued European bison calf dubbed Pubal grew so attached to humans in southeastern Poland that he could not be successfully reintegrated back into the wild? (13 January)
... that evolutionary biologist Rebecca Kilner has found that mites can give burying beetles a competitive advantage? (13 January)
... that jellyfish blooms can clog coastal power plants, causing losses of tens of thousands of US dollars per day? (14 January)
... that Anisocentropus krampus was described in the same paper as other insects with monstrous names like Ganonema dracula and Anisocentropus golem? (16 January)
... that in France, the beetle Aepus marinus is restricted to a narrow strip of the beach near the high-water mark? (17 January)
... that the palm scale was first found on an endemic species of palm on the island of Réunion, but now infests plants in at least 78 families around the world? (17 January)
... that artist Salvador Dalí claimed that his pet ocelot(both pictured) was an ordinary domestic cat that he had "painted over in an op art design"? (18 January)
... that a whale found in western Vermont has presented further evidence of glaciation in New England? (19 January)
... that hosts of the passionvine bug(example pictured) include coffee, citrus, mung bean, squash, and mango? (21 January)
... that the lizard goby holds on to rocks in fast-flowing water by means of a "sucker" formed from two fins? (21 January)
... that the egg sacs of the newly discovered Phinda button spider are made of bright purple silk that fades to grey when it dries? (22 January)
... that with a stretched length of up to 20 cm (8 in), Pontobdella muricata is one of the largest marine leeches? (28 January)
... that not only does Couma utilis have edible fruit, its latex is used as a base for chewing gum, caulking boats, and whitewashing houses? (29 January)
... that the doubleband surgeonfish(example pictured) can turn a dark brown shade flushed with red or violet when stressed? (30 January)
Has got to a new stage of its progress in this confusing and chaotic world... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unknown-importance_Australian_biota_articles = 0. Please help by when creating new biota articles for australia, to make sure the unassessed page stays the way it is adequately tagged, or please ask for help in doing so... More on the next stages of the Australian biota project soon... and thanks for whatever you have done for the project in any way since 2006 - JarrahTree05:49, 1 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@JarrahTree: Ho! Dropped to this beach when nervous about celestial forebodings, and here you where … joy! Tell me that all is shipshape, and i will makeport to create more co-numdrums [rlvnt emtcn] ~ cygnis insignis14:15, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
too much james bond, been night after night, after night, sharks guns and thugs and things and there's a very large mosquito trying to watch the bond as well... either kafka, kubin, or lovecraft seem to be part of the conundrum JarrahTree14:35, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
nostalgia and boredom, hoorible diseases to those afflicted. "plenty o'toole" it sounds saucy, but … Where to immerse myself, bats again? I saw one the other night! ~ cygnis insignis14:42, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
keep it off the menu - no finger licking, and in no way drink the blood of the b.. - stay with squashed avoes and home grown chookeggs... at least in the deep south you dont have tas devils to feast on chooks compromised immune systems and james bond is all a bit too much for the intake system...even the alt health practitioner is daunted in the face of the current system JarrahTree14:52, 31 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
the cyclone(s) might just wash down your way before we might, heave away me hearties, middleton beach might not be washed away, and all the shanties might end up very wet, but then by that point we might have wellies, and drizabone accoutriments, but hopefully not when we wander your way sir. JarrahTree13:57, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The Great Britain and Ireland Destubathon began on 1 March and runs for the entire month. Expansion of any stubs related to Great Britain and Ireland is welcome, inclusive of taxa. There are also monetary prizes for winners of specific categories in the form of Amazon gift cards. PetScan could be useful here to find the intersection of Stub-class articles and other categories: Biota of Ireland; Biota of Great Britain; Biota of the Isle of Man
Immunofluorescence staining of a mouse intestine, "Microscopy" (Australia)
Bat scientist Lauri Lutsar determining the age of a bat, "People In Science" (Estonia)
Close-up view of a bioluminescent beetle Elateroidea, "Wildlife and Nature" (France)
Coral fluorescence, "General Category" (Russia)
Paleoanthropologist at work, "People in Science" (Italy)
Ammonite fossil from Morocco, "General Category" (Spain)
Yellow orange-tip male (Ixias pyrene), "Wildlife and Nature" (India)
The spread of coronavirus across Wikipedia
With the outbreak of a novel coronavirus dominating news coverage, Wikipedia content related to the virus has seen much higher interest. Tree of Life content of particular interest to readers has included viruses, bats, pangolins, and masked palm civets. Viruses saw the most dramatic growth in readership: Coronavirus, which was the 105th most popular virus article in December 2019 with about 400 views per day, averaged over a quarter million views each day of January 2020. Total monthly viewership of the top-10 virus articles ballooned from about 1.5 million to nearly 20 million.
From October 2019 – December 2019, the top ten most popular bat articles fluctuated among 16 different articles, with the December viewership of those 10 articles at 209,280. For January 2020, three articles broke into the top-10 that were not among the 16 articles of the prior three months: Bat as food, Horseshoe bat, and Bat-borne virus. Viewership of the top-10 bat articles spiked nearly 300% to 617,067 in January.
While bats have been implicated as a possible natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, an intermediate host may be the bridge between bats and humans. Pangolins have been hypothesized as the intermediate host for the virus, causing a large spike in typical page views of 2-3k each day up to more than 60k in a day. Masked palm civets, the intermediate host of SARS, saw a modest yet noticeable spike in page views as well, from 100 to 300 views per day to as many as 5k views per day.
With an increase in viewers came an increase in editors. In an interview, longtime virus editor Awkwafaba identified the influx of editors as the biggest challenge in editing content related to the coronavirus. They noted that these newcomers include "novices who make honest mistakes and get tossed about a bit in the mad activity" as well as "experienced editors who know nothing about viruses and are good researchers, yet aren't familiar with the policies of WP:ToL or WP:Viruses." Disruption also increased, with extended confirmed protection (also known as the 30/500 rule, which prevents editors with fewer than 30 days tenure and 500 edits from making edits and is typically used on a very small subset of Wikipedia articles) temporarily applied to Coronavirus and still active on Template:2019–20 coronavirus outbreak data. New editors apparently seeking to correct misinformation continuously edited the article Bat as food to remove content related to China: Videos of Chinese people eating bat soup were misrepresented to be current or filmed in China, when at least one such video was several years old and filmed in Palau. However, reliable sources confirm that bats are eaten in China, especially Southern China, so these well-meaning edits were mostly removed.
Another level of complexity was added by the fluctuating terminology of the virus. Over a dozen moves and merges were requested within WikiProject Viruses. To give you an idea of the musical chairs happening with article titles, here are the move histories of two articles:
Awkwafaba noted that "the main authorities, WHO and ICTV, don't really have a process for speedily naming a virus or disease." Additionally, they have different criteria for naming. They said, "I remember in a move discussion from the article then called Wuhan coronavirus that a virus name cannot have a geographical location in it, but this is a WHO disease naming guideline, and not an ICTV virus naming rule. ICTV may have renamed Four Corners virus to Sin Nombre orthohantavirus but there are still plenty of official virus species names that don't abide by WHO guidelines."
February DYKs
Thistle broomrape
Painting of the Shelton Oak
Female A. diabolicum flowers with curled stigmas
... that juvenile ornate surgeonfish are quite different in colouring from the adult fish? (1 February)
... that Quarry Moor is one of the few locations in England where the rare parasitic plant thistle broomrape(example pictured) grows? (2 February)
... that the hollow Shelton Oak(pictured) near Shrewsbury was so big that a party of eight could dance a quadrille inside it? (3 February)
... that growth in the brown seaweed Zanardinia typus occurs at the base of the hairs that grow around the edge of the frond? (4 February)
... that entomologist Karim Vahed led the team that found a cricket species in which the testes accounted for 14 percent of the insect's body mass? (4 February)
... that although the bird of paradise fly was first described from an Angophora tree, it is quite likely that this is not the insect's host plant? (11 February)
A year of the Tree of Life Newsletter: Thank you to all the subscribers who have been with us from the beginning or have joined along the way, and to those who have contributed their time to producing this newsletter. I've really valued your ideas, copyediting, and willingness to be interviewed. Onwards and upwards!
April marks the start of the GAN Backlog Drive, which continues through the end of May. The goal of this backlog elimination drive is to cut the number of outstanding GANs, in particular those which have been in the queue 90 days or more. All hands welcome, new and old.
The finalists of the US Wiki Science Competition have been announced. Illustrating Wikipedia articles can be challenging, so these new images represent a chance to find suitable media for our articles. For all images uploaded in the Wiki Science Competition, see here and click "all images" in the upper right corner.
Fly's mouth and tongue (Microscopy)
Killer whales hunting a crabeater seal (Wildlife)
Fossilized tooth of a Squalicorax shark (Microscopy)
This interview has been edited for length. Find the full interview here.
Number of participants of WikiProject Covid-19
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Please describe how you went about creating WikiProject COVID-19. What made you think a project was needed?
I've been following the outbreak and editing related Wikipedia articles since January. I'm not particularly interested in infectious diseases or viruses, but I've been to China a few times and wanted to monitor the outbreak's impact on society as well as the government's response. For a while, I was casually tracking updates to the first couple pages about the outbreak. Then a pattern began to emerge as February saw the creation of separate articles about outbreaks in Iran, Italy, and South Korea. New Wikipedia articles continued being created in early March, and the outbreak was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11. Knowing there would many more articles, lists, templates, illustrations, and other pages on Wikipedia, I created WikiProject COVID-19 on March 15. My goal was simply to create a temporary or permanent space for editors to collaborate, communicate, and focus specifically on content related to this ongoing pandemic. I'm a member of many WikiProjects and have created several before, but this one definitely felt more necessary and urgent. Most WikiProjects unite editors with similar interests, which is fine and serves a purpose, but I felt this project could have a much bigger real life impact. I don't think I was alone in my thinking; the project had 80 members by March 20 and 100 members by March 26.
Who or what was invaluable to getting off the ground?
If I'm being honest, getting this project off the ground required little work on my part. All I did was create the space and post invitations to existing talk pages related to the outbreak. Editors joined the project very quickly; 30 members joined on the same day I started the project, and there were more than 50 participants one day later. I've been a daily Wikipedia editor for more than 12 years, and I've never seen so much interest in a project or content added to Wikipedia about a specific topic in such a short period of time. WikiProject members worked expeditiously to build a framework and hang a barnstar, tagging related pages, assessing content, and starting talk page discussions about the project's goals and scope. I'm thankful to the many editors who pitched in to get the project established, and I look forward to seeing how editors collaborate in this space as we move forward.
What are the short-term goals of the project?
No specific goals have been posted to the project page yet, but I'd like to think members share a collective desire to ensure Wikipedia has accurate and reliable information about the disease and pandemic. Disinformation and misinformation seem rampant these days, so we're working to give readers around the globe access to accurate, objective, and possibly even life-saving information. Unlike some WikiProjects which may take a more historical approach to documenting certain topics, WikiProject COVID-19 members have the ability to mitigate the disease's spread in real time by arming communities with facts about outbreaks in their region as well as information about prevention, testing, vaccine research, societal impact, etc.Viewership of WikiProject Medicine, WikiProject Viruses, and WikiProject COVID-19 in the month of March 2020
What are the long-term goals? English Wikipedia has many of 'lumpers' who think there are too many projects already. The project has also inspired the creation of two portals, which I imagine caused some raised eyebrows in this trend of portal deletionism. What will come of the WP after the current outbreak subsides?
After creating WikiProject COVID-19, a couple editors said I should have created a task force instead of a standalone WikiProject. I wasn't bothered. The number of 'thank you' notifications I received for creating the page vastly outweighed these critical comments. I knew the page I created was much needed, and I would be fine if editors decide to call the page by another name. I understand some editors think there are too many WikiProjects. No one's required to join WikiProject COVID-19, but the 100+ of us who have already joined invite you to help with our efforts, if you're interested. As for the project's future, I would be fine if editors decided to convert the WikiProject into a task force, or even put the project into retirement if the time comes. Given the level of interest and impact the pandemic has already had on a global scale, I have a feeling the WikiProject will be active for a long time.
Another criticism of the project is its narrow focus. It is focused on only one strain of virus, and the disease it causes. Even WikiProject AIDS is about two species of virus. Is the scope of the project too small? What would an expanded scope look like? Why would including another virus strain in the same species, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus which causes SARS, not be wanted? or is it wanted?
Narrow focus? I disagree. The project may focus on a single virus and disease, but the pandemic has resulted in the creation of hundreds of Wikipedia articles documenting outbreaks in most countries and territories. There are pages covering the pandemic's impact on aviation, cinema, education, politics, religion, sports, and television, not to mention others related to the resulting economic turmoil. Additionally, there are hundreds of templates, charts, and other graphics. Who knows how many thousands of images and other media will be uploaded at Wikimedia Commons by the time this pandemic subsides? There's also COVID-19 WikiProject COVID-19 at Wikidata, and I wouldn't be surprised if similar spaces are created for other Wikimedia projects soon. Even if the focus is narrow, there's plenty of content for Wikimedians to improve and protect.
In your opinion, what should be the guidelines for creating a new project, as opposed to creating a task force or working under an existing WikiProject?
I don't feel strongly about new project creation guidelines, or the differences between WikiProjects and task forces. Project members should decide what structure works for them and call themselves whatever name they prefer. I understand project construction requires maintenance and can come at an administrative cost, but we should be careful about discouraging editors from proposing new projects.
Ideally, editors would only create a new WikiProject if at least a few others were committed to joining. I created WikiProject COVID-19 without conferring with others because I assumed the interest would be there. I encourage people to be bold and create project pages, but maybe ask a few other editors for feedback first. I'll let other editors worry about the guidelines.
What tools (templates, bots, etc.) are essential, or even just really helpful, for organizing and maintaining a successful project? What is something every WP should do, that maybe isn't doing now?
I don't have any sort of medical background, and I'm more interested in the pandemic's impact than details about the disease or virus. Most surprising to me has been the lack of preparedness for combating outbreaks by governments around the world, including here in the United States. I don't know how COVID-19's spread compares to other infectious diseases, but as I've watched the outbreak develop I've continually wondered why governments did not start preparing earlier. What was happening in China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea should have prompted action sooner.
What important things about 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic do you think folks should know and maybe have missed in the deluge of information coming at people?
1. Know the most common symptoms: cough, fever, and difficulty breathing.
2. Learn what behavioral adjustments you should make to protect yourself and reduce transmission, and remember to wash your hands.
3. Get your information from reputable sources. I'd like to think Wikipedia editors are pretty good at this last bit of advice.
WikiProject Birds gained a new task force. A discussion determined that WikiProject Poultry might be more successful as a task force, with the move completed 15 April.
Round 2 of the WikiCup wrapped up this month. Several editors moved on to Round 3 by scoring points in biodiversity-related areas, including Sainsf, Casliber, Dunkleosteus77, CaptainEek, Guettarda, and Enwebb. Dunkleosteus77 finished at the top of the Tree of Life pack with 608 points, finishing 9th overall in the round.
After a relatively quiet February and March, with only 11 total articles nominated for GA and none for FAC, April brought a shower of nominations. In total, 5 articles were nominated for FAC, 1 for FLC, and 11 for GA.
Tree of Life's growing featured content
Inspired by a March 2020 post at WikiProject Medicine detailing the growth of Featured Articles over time, we decided to reproduce that table here, adding a second table showing the growth of Good Articles. Tree of Life articles are placed in the "Biology" category for FAs, which has seen a growth of 381% since 2008. Only two other subjects had a greater growth than Biology: Business, economics, and finance; and Warfare.
Percentage Growth in FA Categories, 2008–2019, Legend: Considerably above average, Above average, AverageBelow average , Considerably below average, Poor
Note A: Total is off by one; not worth looking for the error.
Note B Three food biographies moved [2] per discussion at WT:FAC
Note: The very odd dates used in earlier years result from pulling old data from the talk page at WP:FAS.
Good Article Category as of
Feb 23, 2008
Sep 16, 2008
Sep 16, 2010
Dec 1, 2011
Jan 1, 2015
Jan 1, 2020
Pct chg Feb 2008 to 2011
Pct chg Feb 2008 to 2020
Agriculture, food and drink
27
34
37
55
113
226
104%
737%
Art and architecture
134
188
321
450
683
1022
236%
663%
Engineering and technology
256
396
882
1198
1828
2407
368%
840%
Geography and places
191
248
424
523
716
1052
174%
451%
History
261
312
651
825
1219
1894
216%
626%
Language and literature
173
215
377
462
686
982
167%
468%
Mathematics
19
22
27
30
36
67
58%
253%
Media and drama
403
658
1352
1300
3070
3961
223%
883%
Music
357
527
997
1437
2532
3892
303%
990%
Natural sciences
544
686
1275
1717
2404
3426
216%
530%
Philosophy and religion
134
174
244
294
365
557
119%
316%
Social sciences and society
468
549
790
998
1430
1854
113%
296%
Sports and recreation
384
546
1074
1402
2350
3802
265%
890%
Video games
168
220
373
443
684
1349
164%
703%
Warfare
155
241
989
1654
2544
3996
967%
2478%
Total
3674
5016
9813
12788
20660
30487
248%
730%
Organisms*
119
130
402
528
685
1017
344%
755%
*subset of natural sciences
Unsurprisingly, the number of GAs has increased more rapidly than the number of FAs. Organisms, which is a subcategory of Natural sciences, has seen a GA growth of 755% since 2008, besting the Natural sciences overall growth of 530%. While Warfare had far and away the most significant growth of GAs, it's a clear outlier relative to other categories.
... that although the alpine bartsia has a wide range in Europe and North America, it is known in the British Isles only from a few locations in northern England and the central Scottish Highlands? (19 April)
... that the orange-band surgeonfish(pictured) can change colour from dark to light almost instantaneously? (21 April)
This month saw two Tree of Life editors gain the mop: CaptainEek (WikiProjects Birds and Plants) and Cwmhiraeth (familiar name at DYK, WikiProjects Plants, Animals, and Insects)
The April – May GAN backlog drive finished up, clearing the queue from nearly 700 outstanding nominations to about 350.
Interview with Jts1882
This month we're joined by Jts1882, who is active in depicting evolutionary relationship of taxa via cladograms. Part of this includes responding to cladogram requests, where interested editors can have cladograms made without using the templates themselves.
How did you come to be interested in systematics? Are you interested in systematics broadly, or is there a particular group you're most fond of?
As long as I can remember I’ve been interested in nature, starting with the animals and plants in the garden, school grounds, and local wood, and then more general wildlife worldwide. An interest in how things are classified grew from this. I like things to be organised and understanding the relationships between things and systems (not just living things) is a big part of that. Biology was always my favourite subject in school and took up a disproportionate part of my time. My interest in systematics is broad as I’d like to comprehend the whole tree of life, but the cat family is my favourite group.
What's the background behind cladogram requests? I see that it isn't a very old part of the Tree of Life
Well I can’t take any credit for the cladogram requests page, although I help out there sometimes. It was created by IJReid and there are several people who have helped there more than me. I think the motivation is that creating cladograms requires a knowledge of the templates that is daunting for many editors. It was one way of helping people who want to focus on content creation.
My main contribution to the cladograms is converting the {{clade}} template to use a Lua module. The template code was extremely difficult to follow and had to be repetitive (I can only admire the efforts of those who got the thing to work in the first place). The conversion to Lua made it more efficient, allowed larger and deeper cladograms, plus facilitating the introduction of new features. The cladogram request page was recently the venue for discussion on making time calibrated cladograms, which is now possible, if not particularly user friendly.
What advice do you have for an editor who wants to learn how to make cladograms?
The same advice I would give to someone facing any computer problem, just try it out. Start by taking existing code for a cladogram and make changes yourself. The main advice would be to format it properly so indents match the brackets vertically. Of course, not everyone wants to learn and if someone prefers to focus on article content there is the cladogram request page.
Examples of cladograms Jts1882 has created, showing different proposed clades for Neoaves
Do you have any personal projects or goals you're working towards on Wikipedia?
As I said I like organisation and systems. So I find efforts like the automated taxobox system and {{taxonbar}} appealing. I would like to see more reuse of the major phylogenetic trees on Wikipedia with more use of consensus trees on the higher taxa. Too often they get edited based on one recent report and/or without proper citation. Animals and bilateria are examples where this is a problem.
Towards this I have been working on a system of phylogeny templates that can be reused flexibly. The {{Clade transclude}} template allows selective transclusion, so the phylogenetic trees on one page can be reused with modifications, i.e. can be pruned and grafted, used with or without images, with or without collapsible elements, etc. I have an example for the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification (see {{Phylogeny/APG IV}}) and one for squamates that also includes collapsible elements (see {{Phylogeny/Squamata}}).
A second project is to have a modular reference system for taxonomic resources. I have made some progress along this lines with the {{BioRef}} template. This started off simply as a way of hardlinking to Catalog of Fishes pages and I’ve gradually expanded it to cover other groups (e..g. FishBase, AmphibiaWeb and Amphibian Species of the World, Reptile Database, the Mammalian Diversity Database). The modular nature is still rudimentary and needs a rewrite before it is ready for wider use.
What would surprise your fellow editors to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?
I don’t think there is anything particularly surprising or interesting about my life. I’ve had an academic career as a research scientist but I don't think anyone could guess the area from my Wikipedia edits. I prefer to work on areas where I am learning at the same time. This why I spend more time with neglected topics (e.g. mosses at the moment). I start reading and then find that I’m not getting the information I want.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
My interest in the classification of things goes beyond biology. I am fascinated by mediaeval attempts to classify knowledge, such as Bacon in his The Advancement of Learning and Diderot and d’Alembert in their Encyclopédie. They were trying to come up with a universal scheme of knowledge just as the printing press was allowing greater dissemination of knowledge.
With the internet we are seeing a new revolution in knowledge dissemination. Just look at how we could read research papers on the COVID virus within weeks of its discovery. With an open internet, everyone has access, not just those with the luxury of books at home or good libraries. Sites like the Biodiversity Heritage Library allow you to read old scientific works without having to visit dusty university library stack rooms, while the taxonomic and checklist databases provide instant information on millions of living species. In principle, the whole world can now find out about anything, even if Douglas Adams warned we might be disinclined to do so.
This is why I like Wikipedia, with all its warts, it’s a means of organising the knowledge on the internet. In just two decades it’s become a first stop for knowledge and hopefully a gateway to more specialised sources. Perhaps developing this latter aspect, beyond providing good sources for what we say, is the next challenge for Wikipedia.
... that Tetraponera penzigi is one of several species of ant that protect whistling thorn trees in East Africa from grazing giraffes and rhinoceroses? (3 May)
... that the Vietnam mouse-deer, which had been feared to have gone extinct nearly 30 years ago, was sighted again in 2019? (4 May)
... that most branchiobdellids use crayfish as hosts, living on their heads, carapaces, or claws, but in some instances inside their gill cavities? (5 May)
... that the northern plains gray langur monkey (example pictured) is killed in India for food and to prevent crop raiding, despite being considered sacred by Hindus? (12 May)
... that the leech Limnatis nilotica can affect humans and livestock, entering hosts through the mouth, nose, or other orifices? (12 May)
... that the tree Barteria fistulosa is associated with Tetraponera aethiops, an aggressive species of ant that lives in its hollow branches and twigs? (15 May)
... that Miller's langur, one of the rarest primates in Borneo, was feared to be extinct until a 2012 study rediscovered it in an area where it was previously unknown? (16 May)
... that most of the known Gigantopithecus fossils are of teeth because the other bones are likely to have been eaten by porcupines? (17 May)
... that Tetraponera tessmanni, a very aggressive ant, is able to establish dominance over the whole of the liana in which it lives, which may be 50 m (164 ft) long? (17 May)
... that the Arizona dampwood termite exclusively colonizes dead parts of standing trees? (22 May)
... that Megaceroides algericus is one of only two deer species known to have been native to Africa, alongside the Barbary stag? (23 May)
... that besides eating ants and termites, the waved woodpecker feeds on fruits, berries, and seeds? (24 May)
... that populations of the Canada lynx(pictured) undergo cyclic rises and falls in line with those of the snowshoe hare? (25 May)
... that despite being known as the Mexican hydrangea, Clerodendrum bungei is neither from Mexico nor a species of hydrangea? (25 May)
... that meerkats(examples pictured) use alarm calls that can identify the type of predator posing the risk, the level of danger, and the caller itself? (27 May)
... that the frog Boophis fayi can be identified by its unusual green-and-turquoise eyes? (30 May)
... that members of the fly family Apystomyiidae(example depicted) have been found in Late Jurassic sediments in Kazakhstan? (30 May)
... that the sun bear(pictured) is the smallest of all bear species? (31 May)
This issue is a double issue, but the plan is to return to monthly henceforth.
A discussion at WikiProject Palaeontology about internal peer review processes led to the creation of a peer review space. In contrast to the more formal Peer Review, PalaeoPR focuses on short "fact checks", emphasizing content over style. Reviews are meant to be low commitment, with "drive-by reviews" encouraged. Since its inception on 8 July, seven articles have been submitted to PalaeoPR.
After a highly competitive third round, two Tree of Life editors advanced to the fourth round of the WikiCup: Dunkleosteus77 and Sainsf
A February 2020 paper published in PLOS noted that Mammalian Species is one of the most over-cited journals on Wikipedia relative to how frequently it is cited in other academic works.
Categorizing life with DexDor
DexDor is a WikiGnome with a particular interest in article categorization, including how organisms are categorized.
How did you become interested in editing biodiversity topics on Wikipedia?
I'm a wikignome who tries to remove unnecessary complexity and confusion in Wikipedia. I specialise in categorization. I've worked on categorization of several topic areas (e.g. military equipment) - anywhere where I see things like category tags on articles that the category text doesn't support. Categorization of organisms is one area I'm currently looking at (my essay on this).
You seem to be particularly interested in geographic categorization of organisms. What are some issues in this area?
One issue is that there are several possible relationships between an organism and a region (i.e. what the "of" in a "Xs of Y" means) - the organism may be found throughout the region, somewhere in the region, only in the region (i.e. endemic to that region) - there are categories for each of these (and others) and some categories have been unclear about their exact meaning. Then there's introductions by man, locally extinct species, occasional visitors...
Another issue is that some editors have thought it's appropriate to create categories for very small areas ("Spiders of Vatican City" is only a slight exaggeration) and put a few articles in them, thus creating a category that is both massively incomplete and non-defining for the articles in it.
There have been several (now blocked) editors who have been disruptive in this area, but a confusing and sprawling categorization scheme is also partly due to editors from a particular background categorizing a particular article in a way that appears to make sense, but doesn't really make sense in the wider categorization scheme - for example, if an article mentions the countries at the extremes of an animal's distribution, the animal is categorized just for those countries.
What potential solutions do you see for categorizing organisms by geography? How can other editors help address this issue, or at least, not make it worse?
We should have some guidelines that tell editors how to categorize any article about an organism (including any geographical categorization). I've started drafting guidelines at User:DexDor/BioCat. The guidelines are also a good way to ensure that the categorization of articles about organisms is aligned with categorization of other articles and may help us to identify where there are problems, inconsistencies etc in the categorization. I welcome suggestions for improvement of the guidelines (which should at some point be moved into WP:TOL).
Regarding geographical categorization of animals the main advice for editors would be to not create categories for any new areas and to only create a new category if you intend to populate it.
What have you learned from being a Wikipedia editor?
That lots of people (from varied backgrounds) each making (mostly) small improvements (like ants in an ants nest?) and only understanding some parts of Wikipedia can produce such a wonderful resource. But also, how that tends to result in ever-increasing complexity which negatively affects editors and readers.
Is there anything about your life outside Wikipedia that would surprise us?
... that despite being a member of the cat family, the jaguarundi has several features in common with mustelids such as otters and weasels? (2 June)
... that scientists were unsure whether the blue calamintha bee(pictured) still existed until it was observed again in March 2020? (2 June)
... that many of the animals regarded as pests have co-evolved with humans, adapting to the warm, sheltered conditions that a building provides? (3 June)
... that the banteng is the second endangered species to be successfully cloned, and the first clone to survive beyond infancy? (5 June)
... that cattle and deer sometimes stand under trees where southern plains gray langurs are feeding in order to consume the edible pieces that the monkeys drop? (10 June)
... that when boiled in milk, black coral(example pictured) emits a faint scent of myrrh? (21 June)
... that one of the factors affecting the future of the Huanchaca mouse is the increased cultivation of biofuels? (22 June)
... that the Strawberries and Cream Tree(pictured) is noted for producing pink blossoms on one side of the tree and white on the other, when it blooms every spring? (23 June)
... that the Chilean seaside cinclodes bobs its tail while it walks and flares its wings while it sings? (24 June)
... that Boie's frog(pictured) and the Banhado frog both resemble dead leaves on the floor of the forest? (25 June)
... that Markham's storm petrel, which nests in Peru and northern Chile, has been described as "one of the least known seabirds in the world"? (7 July)
... that the frog Corythomantis greeningi retreats into a hole, blocks the entrance with its spiny head, and injects venom into anything that tries to dislodge it? (18 July)
... that the reef box crab uses its powerful pincers to break open the shells of snails? (21 July)
... that the genus Pterodactylus(species depicted), the scientific name for a pterodactyl, had been considered a "wastebasket taxon" as many species were assigned to it and later reassigned? (23 July)
... that the sea urchin Abatus cordatus broods its young for nine months in pockets on its upper surface? (24 July)
... that Harold Clyde Bingham trailed a troop of gorillas for 100 hours in 1929? (25 July)
On August 7, WikiProject Palaeontology member Rextron discovered a suspicious taxon article, Mustelodon, which was created in November 2005. The article lacked references and the subsequent discussion on WikiProject Palaeontology found that the alleged type locality (where the fossil was first discovered) of Lago Nandarajo "near the northern border of Panama" was nonexistent. In fact, Panama does not even really have a northern border, as it is bounded along the north by the Caribbean Sea. No other publications or databases mentioned Mustelodon, save a fleeting mention in a 2019 book that presumably followed Wikipedia, Felines of the World.
The article also appeared in four other languages, Catalan, Spanish, Dutch, and Serbian. In Serbian Wikipedia, a note at the bottom of the page warned: "It is important to note here that there is no data on this genus in the official scientific literature, and all attached data on the genus Mustelodon on this page are taken from the English Wikipedia and are the only known data on this genus of mammals, so the validity of this genus is questionable."
Editors took action to alert our counterparts on other projects, and these versions were removed also. As the editor who reached out to Spanish and Catalan Wikipedia, it was somewhat challenging to navigate these mostly foreign languages (I have a limited grasp of Spanish). I doubted that the article had very many watchers, so I knew I had to find some WikiProjects where I could post a machine translation advising of the hoax, and asking that users follow local protocols to remove the article. I was surprised to find, however, that Catalan Wikipedia does not tag articles for WikiProjects on talk pages, meaning I had to fumble around to find what I needed (turns out that WikiProjects are Viquiprojectes in Catalan!) Mustelodon remains on Wikidata, where its "instance of" property was swapped from "taxon" to "fictional taxon".
How did this article have such a long lifespan? Early intervention is critical for removing hoaxes. A 2016 report found that a hoax article that survives its first day has an 18% chance of lasting a year.[1] Additionally, hoax articles tend to have longer lifespans if they are in inconspicuous parts of Wikipedia, where they do not receive many views. Mustelodon was only viewed a couple times a day, on average.
Mustelodon survived a brush with death three years into its lifespan. The article was proposed for deletion in September 2008, with a deletion rationale of "No references given; cannot find any evidence in peer-reviewed journals that this alleged genus actually exists". Unfortunately, the proposed deletion was contested and the template removed, though the declining editor did not give a rationale. Upon its rediscovery in August 2020, Mustelodon was tagged for speedy deletion under CSD G3 as a "blatant hoax". This was challenged, and an Articles for Deletion discussion followed. On 12 August, the AfD was closed as a SNOW delete. WikiProject Palaeontology members ensured that any trace of it was scrubbed from legitimate articles. The fictional mammal was finally, truly extinct.
At the ripe old age of 14 years, 9 months, this is the longest-lived documented hoax on Wikipedia, topping the previous documented record of 14 years, 5 months, set by The Gates of Saturn, a fictitious television show, which was incidentally also discovered in August 2020. How do we discover other hoax taxa? Could we use Wikidata to discover taxa are not linked to databases like ITIS, Fossilworks, and others?
Apororhynchus hemignathi, a spiny-headed worm with the distinction of being one of the first named animal taxa when organized alphabetically
This month's spotlight is with Mattximus, author of two Featured Articles and 29 Featured Lists at current count.
How did you become involved with editing biodiversity articles?
I think I have a compulsion to make lists, it doesn't show up in my real life, but online I secretly get a lot of satisfaction making orderly lists and tables. It's a bit of a secret of mine, because it doesn't manifest in any other part of my life. My background is in biology, so this was a natural (haha) fit.
You have an impressive number of FAs under your belt. Two of your more recent ones, Apororhynchus and Gigantorhynchus, are part of what you referred to as an "experiment". How did you choose these articles, and what's next for you in this experiment?
This experiment was just to see if I could get any random article to FA status, so I picked the very first alphabetical animal species according to the taxonomy and made that attempt. Technically, there isn't enough information for a species page so I just merged the species into a genus and went from there. It was a fun exercise, but doing it alone is not the most fun so it's probably on pause for the foreseeable future.
Note: Aporhynchus is the first alphabetical taxon as follows: Animalia, Acanthocephala, Archiacanthocephala, Apororhynchida, Apororhynchidae, Apororhynchus
What advice would you give to someone who wants to nominate their first FAC?
I would recommend getting a good article nominated, then a featured list up before tackling the FA. Lists are a bit more forgiving but give you a taste of what standards to expect from FA. The most time consuming thing is proper citations so make sure that is in order before starting either.
Is there anything that would surprise us to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?
My personality in real life does not match my wikipedia persona. I'm not a very organized, or orderly in real life, but the wikipedia pages I brought to FL or FA are all very organized. Maybe it's my outlet for a more free-flowing life as a scientist/teacher.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
The fact that wikipedia exists free of profit motive and free for everyone really is something special and I encourage everyone to donate a few dollars to the cause.
... that the flower buds of the woolly thistle(pictured) can be eaten in a similar way to artichokes? (8 August)
... that the French peanut is native to Brazil? (10 August)
... that the 800-year-old Minchenden Oak is one of the oldest trees in London? (14 August)
... that the forward-facing incisors of the extinct dolphin Ankylorhiza(restoration pictured) may have been used for ramming their prey, similar to a hunting method used by modern orcas? (16 August)
... that scientists accidentally created a hybrid of two endangered fish species, called the sturddlefish? (17 August)
... that despite having the widest distribution in the United States, the arid-land subterranean termite causes less structural damage than other members of its genus? (19 August)
... that in 2021, the dwarf periodical cicada(pictured) is due to emerge in parts of eastern North America, not having been seen for 17 years? (24 August)
Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed 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.
Hi, in this rev, you changed a use of template:ill to a bare redlink with the edit summary 'convert WD link Glenn Shea to redlink here, notable researcher and author'. However, the ill template presents the redlink as-is to users for so long as it *is* a redlink on enwiki; it automatically falls back to a normal blue wikilink as soon as the article's created, and adds value in the meantime by allowing users to see Wikidata information and links to other projects. I think your edit leaves the article strictly worse, but I won't revert it because I don't understand why it was made as the stated justification makes no sense to me; at least one of us is clearly confused, very possibly myself, and that calls for more caution in editing. Instead, would you consider a self-revert? 80.7.186.76 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 15:17, 18 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't notice that a redlink is also given when I read the diff, so my rationale doesn't make sense, nevertheless there is a long-standing practice of deprecating inline links to sister sites. Linking to Wikidata seems backwards to this editor, although you seem to be convinced that this is accepted practice; it is entirely possible that there is a discussion I missed on that. I suppose I could create the article, as a way skirting your concern. ~ cygnis insignis15:43, 18 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
See Help:Interlanguage_links#Inline_links_(links_in_the_text_of_the_article). I agree a link to Wikidata alone is less than perfectly ideal (I'd prefer all of Wikidata, Wikispecies and dewiki linked directly in the text in this specific case, since that's what's available, and it's not obvious which a reader may prefer; it gets thornier when there are many possible ILLs, but (a) that's not the case here and (b) that case, where there are many ILLs but no enwiki article, is likely to be quite rare), but it's what the template offers and it's strictly better than a redlink (as it was after your edit, because at least it points *somewhere* with further information and links) and I also think better than a direct link to another wiki (as it was before my edit) for reasons stated in the help page. 80.7.186.76 (talk) 16:23, 18 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Linked from that Help page is a quick guide Where to place links and the MOS Links to sister projects which seems to support my position (although I was surprised to see some latitude given to wiktionary and source). This a matter to which I have given much thought, and I'm familiar with arguments for and against, just so you know it was not a knee jerk reaction. And it is an FA, not the place for what I reckon to be 'not standard practice'. You could put it back, but I must firmly warn you that I will then be compelled to create the article to make it go away. ~ cygnis insignis17:26, 18 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]
cygnis insignis, it is important to finish this step in the DYK nomination process so the whole is completed. If you're having trouble with it, please let me know; I'm happy to help out. Thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 18:22, 16 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
RfC on racial hereditarianism at the R&I talk-page
An RfC at Talk:Race and intelligence revisits the question, considered last year at WP:FTN, of whether or not the theory that a genetic link exists between race and intelligence is a fringe theory. This RfC supercedes the recent RfC on this topic at WP:RSN that was closed as improperly formulated.
{{Species list}} makes the authorities small, so if you use small tags as well, as originally at Tomoxena, they become too small. You can generate wikilinks automatically by using {{Linked species list}} (see the documentation), but it doesn't abbreviate the genus name, so if you want to use the abbreviated genus + a wikilink, it's better, I think, just to use a normal list. (I could, I guess, modify Module:TaxonList to include the option to abbreviate in a species list, but I'm not sure if it would get much use.) Peter coxhead (talk) 18:41, 9 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Peter coxhead: Thanks, I should have realised that, not something I usually add to a taxobox. Once that section is opened all sorts of notes get added, better that is in the main text (even as a simple list) than compressed and boxified, I think, as a general rule of thumb. The ants were interesting. I'm fixing the taxobars I missed now. ~ cygnis insignis18:56, 9 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
HOWEVER! i hasten to add, i will be using the linked species template as well, it persuaded me that the small formatting works to distinguish author and name. ~ cygnis insignis19:07, 9 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with your first point, namely that the species list is better in the text of a genus article, so I usually automatically put | subdivision = [[#Species|See text]] in the taxobox. {{Species list}} is useful for a list of synonyms in a Speciesbox, which of course shouldn't be linked. Peter coxhead (talk) 05:35, 10 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Did you want to withdraw this nomination after all, then? There doesn't seem to be a workable hook... Thanks for your reply, and sorry for bothering you. BlueMoonset (talk) 02:27, 14 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Disambiguation link notification for September 22
An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Nina H. Kennard, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page John Ingram.
@The Final Edict: I thought it interesting, so glad someone else did; reading through I found little mention of 'Cummy' and the dedication fills a gap. The source is secondary, sort of, and there is some interesting bits and pieces about RLS (one is about his 'two mothers'). Cheers for your thought. ~ cygnis insignis11:11, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, cygnis insignis! I'll look through it as soon as I get a chance, and look forward to it. You are a tremendous asset for Wikipedia and probably a hundred other endeavors! The Final Edict (talk) 11:40, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@The Final Edict: The article I mentioned is at s:Robert Louis Stevenson; a Bookman extra number 1913/Stevenson's Two Mothers, and I'm finding a lot of tributes in the form of poems and reviews from his friends and contemporaries. A glance at the history of the page shows you have been busy working on their article, hope that has been fun. I'm intending to get through Stevenson's works before long, another gap in my reading, let me know if you have a favourite. The image here is one I knew, but had failed to find when I looked before, it's what I suppose is considered typical of the better known works. ~ cygnis insignis09:15, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. Sorry for an odd question. Will it be ok to capitalize some letters for better clarity in your post? You see, I accidentally did that assuming that it you will see it and probably appreciate it, but the other admins started reverting me as if like I am a vandal of some sort. Any feed back will be appreciated. I ask the same approval from @Enterprisey:.--Filmomusico (talk) 07:15, 13 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hello! Voting in the 2021 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 6 December 2021. All eligible users are allowed 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.
Did you ever add this page to the AfD log? (See WP:AFDHOWTO, step III.) I can't find it on the log for any of the days from Nov. 22 through Nov. 25. Please add it to the current day's log since the AfD community was never informed of this AfD. Also please note that the "View log" link in the AfD goes to the nomination of this article from 2010, not the current one. Please fix that; I don't want to fix it myself because the AfD is so large that editing it slows down my computer. --Metropolitan90(talk)07:34, 25 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I voted to Keep that article. But, I wouldn't be totally shocked if it ended up being deleted. One thing is for certain, the article's notability (via the AfD) has grown. GoodDay (talk) 09:09, 29 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
If you want to, don't worry about any backlash. Send'em in my direction. I've been called a Nazi, Fascist, Xenophobe, Transphobe, Mentally unstable, etc etc. I can take the criticisms & aspersions from anyone. GoodDay (talk) 09:51, 29 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
AfD Mass killings by Communist regimes
I am utterly disgusted at your Orwellian attempt to delete the above article.
I an deeply concerned going through your edit history that you are introducing bias into Wikipedia.
For risking a lot of alt-right harassment just to start a discussion about the potential deletion of an article. The right-wing media attention towards the Mass killings under communist regimes AFD was unwarranted and scare-mongering, and you were able to get your point across very well without worrying if some cuckservative snowflakes would misinterpret it cause they are not the free critical thinkers they think they are. As a libertarian (but not that fascist-disguised-as-libertarian people I've see too often online recently) that voted Keep, I appreciate the bravery. We really need more of that. 👨x🐱 (Nina CortexxCoco Bandicoot) 22:19, 30 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for sharing your views, however, I think we diverge on a couple of points (an offering of dead animals is not to my taste either, which perplexes cats when they bring me similar gifts). ~ cygnis insignis02:49, 1 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
A cup of tea for you!
Like I said, I think anyone who got through that entire deletion discussion ought to get a free T-shirt, and you ought to be at the front of the line. I was myself entangled in a rather protracted series of AfDs a couple months ago, and the experience was distracting to say the least: your situation seems unenviable. Apologies for contributing to the mess, and here's to the shit calming down sometime soon. jp×g03:21, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Not the first time I've inquired. It needs attribution and whoever added needs to take responsibility for their actions in weighting that during an active discussion, especially when the 'lost boys' start brigading and looking for targets in a righteous campaign to 'stop another 100 million deaths'. ~ cygnis insignis04:42, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You can check out the page history as well as anybody, I'm sure. See [3]. The story back then is very similar to the story as published, but here is the version back then after formatting. You'll notice my byline at the top of the article and my linked initial at the bottom of the section, so there shouldn't be any question as to who wrote this.
(Deletion) is morally indefensible, at least as bad as Holocaust denial, because 'linking ideology and killing' is the very core of why these things are important.
I have read the Wikipedia page, and it seems to me careful and balanced. Therefore attempts to remove it can only be ideologically motivated – to whitewash Communism.
The length of the AfD will soon surpass twice the length of the previous record holder. (See this month's Deletion report) !Votes are strongly in favor of keeping the article, and a snow close has been proposed.
Disclosure – the author of this section voted Strong keep at the AfD and has previously edited the article extensively.–S
I'm reporting on an opinion, from a highly qualified scholar, as published in a reliable source. My report was completely accurate: that is what Professor Tombs said as published in the Telegraph with a direct link. If I could have found somebody on the other side giving a contrary opinion in a reliable source, I would have. But there was no such opinion in an RS. So I quoted somebody from the AfD talk page. That should end it right there. The Signpost story was completely factual and accurate. It was as balanced as I could get it, given that nobody in an RS could be found espousing the other side. Do you have a complaint about this? If so, please state it clearly and simply now. It's all facts reported. If you wrote the story you might have chosen a different set of facts - but so what? Smallbones(smalltalk)15:34, 3 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This is a standard message to notify contributors about an administrative ruling in effect. It does not imply that there are any issues with your contributions to date.
You have shown interest in Eastern Europe or the Balkans. Due to past disruption in this topic area, a more stringent set of rules called discretionary sanctions is in effect. Any administrator may impose sanctions on editors who do not strictly follow Wikipedia's policies, or the page-specific restrictions, when making edits related to the topic.
For additional information, please see the guidance on discretionary sanctions and the Arbitration Committee's decision here. If you have any questions, or any doubts regarding what edits are appropriate, you are welcome to discuss them with me or any other editor.
Please, do not edit war about this because I would not want you to be removed from the discussion. While I agree that you should be the one to edit your own section there, I also agree with you about signing posts, and Nug should have signed themselves here, which is why I think you should also sign yours at WP:DRNMKUCR, mainly for distinguishing between added stuff (e.g. the section makes it clear it is you writing but signing is helpful to distinguish between previous posts, etc.). Davide King (talk) 15:40, 8 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I know, but it can still be useful to have timestamps, and we do have a policy (WP:SIGNHERE) about it — I am afraid that this is not an exception (e.g. edit summaries, files, etc.), so everyone must sign their posts there. I really would not want to lose you for the discussion because of this, so please next time sign your posts there, just like Nug should have signed here. Davide King (talk) 18:51, 8 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Question of meaning
What did you support exactly here and what you mean here? I do have a difficulty on understanding you at Talk:Mass killings under communist regimes, e.g. "Stalingrad" and "Victims of denazification". Some examples that I think I get what you are saying but I am not so sure: "Oh yes, I totally agree, I think, the distinction is often seen as a matter of consent, perhaps va political / geographical obligation, when totalling the victims of mass killings. ... apologies, I’m trying to fathom the depths to which an article’s scope loses meaningful resolution." Did you mean to say that totalling the victims of mass killings is political, and that there is also a geographic bias? I am more confused about the latter, and it is a shame because I found what you said interesting and I am definitely interested to such depths but I wish I could understand you better.
the article should be deleted, I support the removal of any and all content. Discussion on what should be included is OR. Does that clarify my position? I recognise that others have a lot invested in the page and its talk, perhaps I should remind myself of that when commenting ~ cygnis insignis16:46, 12 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it does, and I support that too! :) Do you think that Siebert's and my objections to them are also OR, or only those who want to include stuff like the Uyghur genocide? I do understand if you feel overwhelmed at the talk page, but there are clearly some users who hold views that are not supported by scholarly sources and I do not think they should go unchallenged, even if it means I am going to take too much space, which I wish I would not do. Davide King (talk) 23:14, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The page has a synthetic title, any and all proper content belongs in other articles. If viewed as an essay, you and Siebert deserve top marks for your contributions. I also recognise a peculiar virtue in keeping the talk page active, but not as a means of improving what I contend is unfixable. ~ cygnis insignis07:45, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
You just made a 1RR violation on the page [4],[5]. In the edit summary to first edit you said: "restore backdated ...". Hence, that was a revert, and you knew it. Please be more careful in a future. Please also do not remove comments by others, such as [6]. Thanks, My very best wishes (talk) 17:26, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
would it be petulant to address changing comments after they have been responded to, or using talk pages as a platform for wikilawyering, dog-whistling, propagandising, and 'help me because nothing seems to mean anything cos social media replaced literature as a Western canon'? ~ cygnis insignis17:41, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
1. did you alter a comment which had already beeen replied to? 2. did that same edit ignore a request for sources on your talking points? 3. Can you plausibly deny that you don't know which edit I am referring to, and a) persuade yourself that lying is okay when an end justifies a means, or b) concede your haunting of talk pages with 'explain to me' dissension can only be unhelpful. Or other option, have a think about that instead of concern trolling. ~ cygnis insignis
This sanction is imposed in my capacity as an uninvolved administrator under the authority of the Arbitration Committee's decision at [[{{{decision}}}#Final decision]] and, if applicable, the procedure described at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Discretionary sanctions. This sanction has been recorded in the log of sanctions. If the sanction includes a ban, please read the banning policy to ensure you understand what this means. If you do not comply with this sanction, you may be blocked for an extended period, by way of enforcement of this sanction—and you may also be made subject to further sanctions.
You may appeal this sanction using the process described here. I recommend that you use the arbitration enforcement appeals template if you wish to submit an appeal to the arbitration enforcement noticeboard. You may also appeal directly to me (on my talk page), before or instead of appealing to the noticeboard. Even if you appeal this sanction, you remain bound by it until you are notified by an uninvolved administrator that the appeal has been successful. You are also free to contact me on my talk page if anything of the above is unclear to you. Dennis Brown - 2¢22:53, 19 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@LittleJerry: Looks very interesting, cheers for the link. I'll read and digest it, then let you know what I think. It is a difficult area to summarise, at least I have found it challenging in other species articles. ~ cygnis insignis18:53, 12 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I survived? Thanks for the thought though. The oceans are full of dangerous creatures, making do in the Plasticene, people need to spend less time worrying about sharks and consider what whale killing killer whales might be planning to feed on. How are you? ~ cygnis insignis13:05, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
depends from which side - perhaps it is hot weather induced sweats, or what or who for beelzebub's or slartibartfast's sense of humour, or the the frozen vapours ertenally blasted with pythagorean monologues or bloody patchouli oil vapours - or maybe its all very cornfused, where the confluences of the fever of misinformation whoever the miss might be... and ancient alien experts might see the origins of the madness in the profile... but then, I'd as soon as have a full bottle in front of me rather than.... JarrahTree13:14, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
We had a hot day, just one, so I remembers what that is like :0 I ran in to a compatriot of ours a while back, forgot to mention it, they where hanging around a church reading plaques like a wikipedian would LOL ~ cygnis insignis13:31, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
thank heavens you understand the ellipsis tendency and the myriad of the hyperbolic linkages - as for plaque, my dentist has a lot to say about the subject, as for church front malingering, I dont think I know anyone who would.... JarrahTree13:58, 19 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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