This is an archive of past discussions with User:LAAFan. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
I didn't know you much, but whenever I needed help, you responded fully and in such a way I never had to ask the same question again. From what little contact I did have with you, I know realise what I fine editor Wikipedia has lost. Kudos. Blooded Edge (T•C•A)20:46, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
Alas, our ways must part as eventually they all do. I am sad to say goodbye to you, for although I may not have known you well, Wikipedia has a lost a great editor today. Remember, it's not "Good Bye"; it's "I'll see you later." :-/ FoodPuma22:16, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
Going for a new identity, eh? :) Sometimes starting over is a good thing. Good luck. I look forward to meeting your new persona. Feel free to contact me anytime. The Transhumanist23:53, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm really sorry to see you leaving, LAAFan. You've been a great adopter, so here you are:
The Adopt-a-User Barnstar
This barnstar is awarded for being an excellent adopter. Your guidance and assistance helped me to improve greatly, and I have become a much better editor than what I was when we started my adoption process. Thanks a lot. Chamaltalk11:36, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
I was saving this until my adoption process was ended, but since you've decided to leave... I don't think I'll need another adopter, you have taught me almost everything. Hope you will return some time. Cheers and good luck in real life. Chamaltalk11:36, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
I never got a chance to work with you closely, and I only just noticed your retirement message at RyanCross's talk page, but I just wanted to say I respect all the work I saw you doing around Wikipedia before you left. —Politizertalk/contribs23:10, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
Don't Give Up
I didn't really get to know you all that well, but we'd had brush-bys. Anyway, I'd like to share this little gem with you just in case you ever do check this page.
Don't Give Up
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit --
Rest if you must, but don't quit.
Life is strange with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow --
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a fair and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out --
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit, --
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit --
Rest if you must, but don't quit.
Life is strange with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow --
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a fair and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out --
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit, --
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.
Signpost updated for November 17, 2008 and before.
Because the Signpost hasn't been sent in a while, to save space, I've condensed all seven issues that were not sent into this archive. Only the three issues from November are below.
Your going?????
WikiNation is returning though!
We need you! I need you!
Everyone needs you and the person who wrote that poem needs you!!
Don't give up!!!!!!!! Darkside2000 (talk) 15:47, 25 November 2008 (UTC)
To all who wanted me to return, you have convinced me. Two months off is enough, and seeing my continued support, I had to come back. --LAAFansignreview02:42, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
Welcome back!
Welcome back LAAFan, you've been missed, as you can see above. There will also be a lot of people who are glad to see you back. I'll bet anything that there will be a lot of comments below mine to that effect :) Chamaltalk02:44, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
Done. I restored all of your old userpage history, as well as a couple of the deleted subpages that were transcluded on your userpage. Hope that helps. jj137(talk)03:11, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
Actually, I just went back and restored all of your subpages you originally requested to have deleted. Assuming you still want them, that is. jj137(talk)03:20, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
LAAFan, I wish you and your family all the best this Christmas and that you also have a Happy and safe new year. Thankyou for all your contributions to Wikipedia this year and I look forward to seeing many more from you in the future. Your work around Wikipedia has not gone un-noticed, this notice is testimony to that Please feel free to drop by my talkpage any time to say Hi, as I will probably say Hi back :)
... and I've decided to help out with this FAC. If you need help completing something, just leave me a note. I've already completed a few issues, by the way. RyanCross @ 22:54, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
This year a bot will be tallying the scores for the tournament. This bot will be run by ST47 and will count edits–at 0.1 points each (major edits only, see below)–and submissions at the scores listed in the tables.
You must submit any work that you manage to promote in each period on your submissions page. Your page is located here. Rules and instructions are here for submitting.
Due to the massive influx of Huggle users, and because this is a content contest rather than an editcountitis extravaganza, minor edits will be scored at only 0.01 points. If you are a Huggle user your edits must be marked as minor or you will be disqualified. If you are unsure, check your contributions.
If you wish to drop out before the tournament begins, please do so as soon as possible, but not later than January 5.
Most importantly, good luck! Happy New Years, Garden. and ayematthew 20
Just an FYI, Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of Texas Rangers managers has been promoted. Sorry if I interfered with the nomination. I was going to let you do it by yourself, but when I looked at your contributions last week, you seemed to be ignoring it and doing edits in other places (maybe you were busy), and I didn't want the FLC to fail since you did all the hard to fix the problems in the previous nomination. So, I decided to help and complete the rest of the comments given to eventually promote it. Anyway, thank you for your contributions. I'm glad you are back. By the way, I'll be happy to look over any possible FL you are working on and possibly co-nominate so we can work on it together in the future. — RyanCross (talk) 04:08, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
Hi, thanks for the invitation. I don't mean to sound ungrateful but isn't there anything that is less centred on one country, especially one that already has so many good articles? Even more specifically, Sarah Palin and President of the United States aren't all that far removed from each other and, with all due respect to the people of Alaska and Washington, may not interest everyone outside these jurisdictions or at the very least beyond the U.S.... --➨♀♂CandlewickeST# :)17:21, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
Spencer has had 1 successful "In the news" nomination.
From the Judges
This years WikiCup started off great! It's only the second full week of competition, and we already have a lot of content promoted. We have some very close pools, such as Pool A and J. We also have some pools who have not been very active yet, but hopefully that will start changing in the coming weeks.
Garden and iMatthew have also opened a new pool, the "Judge's Pool" where we are competing against each other and following the same rules as all of you. This pool however, will never have any effect on the actual competition, but you can still check back often to see how we are doing compared to yourself.
That's it for this newsletter edition, everyone. Any questions or comments are always welcome on the WikiCup talk page, or our user talk pages. Until next time, Garden. and iMatthew // talk // 13:55, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
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Current leaders
In this round of the WikiCup, the top three contestants from each pool will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Catalan (138)
Gary King (86)
Spencer (67)
Pool B
Sceptre (22)
Spittlespat (7)
Greatestrowerever, Malinaccier (6)
Pool C
Candlewicke (60)
Scorpion0422 (24)
Steven Walling (9)
Pool D
NapHit (27)
ThinkBlue (18)
97198 (11)
Pool E
X! (69)
Sasata (10)
LOTRrules (4)
Pool F
Bedford (29)
RyanCross (21)
the_ed17, Howard the Duck (5)
Pool G
Sunderland06 (46)
Skinny87 (16)
What!?Why?Who?, Pedro_João, Ceranthor (2)
Pool H
Juliancolton (133)
Tinucherian (41)
Ottava Rima (28)
Pool I
Durova (144)
Theleftorium (121)
Wrestlinglover (15)
Pool J
Paxse (78)
Climie.ca (67)
Useight (46)
All scores are accurate as of the time the newsletter was sent out.
Wow, you guys are racking up the DYK's fast! Good articles are also coming in quite quickly, and we also have a few new Featured articles. This is coming along great so far; we're glad to see almost everyone working on something.
Also, Thehelpfulone is our newest judge. He will, starting Monday, be helping maintain the WikiCup and help us ensure all runs smoothly. It's hard to gain consensus between two editors, so I guess "majority rules" (with three people) will start to apply while we make our decision. :-P
In this round of the WikiCup, the top three contestants from each pool will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Catalan, Gary King (191)
Spencer (127)
Pool B
Shoemaker's Holiday (112)
Sceptre (34)
Spittlespat (9)
Pool C
Candlewicke (182)
Scorpion0422 (72)
Steven Walling (16)
Pool D
97198 (79)
NapHit (29)
ThinkBlue (25)
Pool E
Sasata (91)
X! (69)
Straight Edge PXK (6)
Pool F
Bedford (55)
RyanCross (31)
the_ed17 (24)
Pool G
Sunderland06 (104)
Ceranthor (34)
Skinny87 (17)
Pool H
Juliancolton (230)
Tinucherian (64)
Ottava Rima (28)
Pool I
Durova (319)
Theleftorium (196)
J Milburn (65)
Pool J
Climie.ca (101)
Paxse (97)
Useight (81)
All scores are accurate as of the time the newsletter was sent out.
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Welcome Back
Welcome back LAAFan we missed you. WikiNation is dead and I am now constructing a new Dof Page.If you need anything just say. Good luck on the WikiCup.Darkside2000 (talk) 13:30, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
The content is continuing to pile in, it's great! Nothing significant this issue, but we currently have a straw poll going on regarding the point values of featured pictures, sounds, and lists. Garden., iMatthew // talk, and TheHelpfulOne
If you don't wish to receive this newsletter in the future, remove your name from this list. If you are not a participant, but would still like to receive this newsletter, feel free to add your name to the list.
WikiCup At a Glance
As of this newsletter, the WikiCup participants have collected a total of:
In this round of the WikiCup, the top three contestants from each pool will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Catalan (254)
Gary King (215)
Spencer (150)
Pool B
Shoemaker's Holiday (189)
Sceptre (35)
Spittlespat (10)
Pool C
Candlewicke (250)
Scorpion0422 (146)
Steven Walling (29)
Pool D
97198 (89)
ThinkBlue (37)
NapHit (31)
Pool E
Sasata (140)
X! (105)
Straight Edge PXK (9)
Pool F
Bedford (101)
the_ed17 (40)
RyanCross (32)
Pool G
Sunderland06 (107)
Ceranthor (67)
jj137 (50)
Pool H
Juliancolton (355)
Tinucherian (71)
Ottava Rima (28)
Pool I
Durova (462)
Theleftorium (264)
J Milburn (88)
Pool J
Climie.ca (135)
Paxse (134)
Useight (116)
All scores are accurate as of the time the newsletter was sent out.
Penubag has done a fantastic job on the images for the awards we'll be using for our project's collaborations and contests. We now have 3 awards: a medal, a trophy, and a race ribbon. They all look tight. The trophy needs a small adjustment, but other than that, all 3 award images are complete and ready to use to create awards with.
Spartaz has warned us of (threatened to take) G4 (speedy delete) action if we run a competition that resembles the previously deleted Awards Center page. So whatever we do, any contests we run must differ substantially from the methods used there.
One type of competition I've been exploring is edit racing. I'm in the process of working the bugs out of this concept - the first race didn't work as expected - you see, because we only had an award for first place, the opponent didn't think it worthwhile to continue once it was clear who the winner would be. And since editors are in different time zones and usually need to start the race at different times, we need to base winning on personal start times - he who completes his assigned edits in the least time (rather than first), wins. And last but not least is quality control. What good is winning if your edits are ripe with errors? So I'll be exploring possibilities such as using a referee (whoever is overseeing a particular race), having participants watching each other for errors to knock them back, etc. I'm not sure yet.
Rich Farmbrough has been applying his bot expertise to filling in blanks in the country outlines (the population and area entries). I'm amazed at the number of edits he pumps out each day on a myriad of projects - ours makes up but a small time slice of his activity, and yet he has saved us many hours of manual work. Perhaps we should look into how he gets so much done. :)
Zlerman has chosen to work on one outline at a time, and is taking on Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. He also has been keen on noticing and reporting design issues pertaining to the whole set of country outlines. Keep up the good work!
Highfields has been filling in the names of capitals, and is our first race winner. Check out the award on his user pages.
As you probably know, this project has expanded to include working on any and all sets of pages that are linked to from the country outlines. Once the set of country outlines go live (in article space), traffic will likely increase for all the links included on them. The quality and usefulness of those pages will reflect heavily on the country outlines (the outlines, which are essentially lists of links, are only as good as the links they present), and therefore we've branched out to solve the biggest problems with those as well. So far, we've taken on:
The creation of disambiguation pages for country adjectivals ("German", "French", "Taiwanese", etc. About half done.)
The clean-up of the CIA World Factbook statistics on the "demographics of" country pages. We've been renaming those sections to provide a key string that AWB can use for targetting (for skipping and filtering). Once that's done, we'll be able to break the clean-up down into simple AWB search/replace tasks, because we'll be able to target just those pages that include the CIA stuff.
Renaming the "Cuisine of" articles to their adjectival forms ("Chinese cuisine", "Italian cuisine", etc.)
Blackadam2 and Thehelpfulone have been helping out with the "demographics of" pages mentioned above.
And we have a couple speed addicts (addicted to wiki-velocity, not drugs)...
Both Robert Skyhawk and Thehelpfulone prefer (and excel at) simple AWB search/replaces. Robert hasn't actually joined our team yet, but he has been helping out quite a bit from the sidelines (via the WP:AWB/Tasks page. Unfortunately, there has recently been a non-AWB chore that has been holding things up on the AWB front - an edit to all the the headings which had to be reverted before too many new edits were made, because any new edits would make the reversion more difficult. The headings have been restored, so now the way is clear for AWB operations, and there are many search/replace tasks in the queue. AWB assignments have started again!
There's a similar bottleneck on the "Demographics of" pages (the "keying" mentioned above), but that's almost cleared too. :)
With my internet access somewhat crippled, I've been finding it difficult to keep up with you guys. However, I expect to be accessing a Linky-capable workstation on a faster server (I'm on it right now, as you can probably tell from my contributions list for today), and so I should really pick up speed. Feels goooooood. :)
Recruiting has been a bit slow (but steady), due in part to my crippled access, and because we've been waiting for the images for the awards to be completed. I expect the team to grow more rapidly as the bottlenecks are removed.
Well that's what's been happenin', and here's what's in the pipeline...
I'm about to begin work on a set of lists that corresponds to all the standard links on the country outlines, and these will be presented on the Topic outline of countries which will be organized exactly like the country outlines. Aside from being an extremely useful navigation aid, it will allow editors to easily see the state of country coverage on Wikipedia. I'll provide you with a link once I get up to speed on this.
We're still going strong. Couple of things though; please note that you must make it known you are in the WikiCup when nominating FAs, FLs, FPos, FPs, and FSs. This is to lower the possibility of bias. We're also changing the way you get to the next round. Now, the top two from each round get through, along with ten wildcards. This means that even if you're not in the top two you can still get into Round 2, so even if you're in the group of death you can still go through. Hopefully this will be fairer for all. We've also unfortunately had our first withdrawal - Truco has left the Cup. Best wishes for him in the future. Garden., iMatthew // talk, and TheHelpfulOne
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WikiCup At a Glance
As of this newsletter, the WikiCup participants have collected a total of:
In this round of the WikiCup, the top two contestants from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Gary King (452)
Catalan (254)
Pool B
Shoemaker's Holiday (233)
La Pianista (61)
Pool C
Candlewicke (400)
Scorpion0422 (249)
Pool D
97198 (148)
NapHit (63)
Pool E
Sasata (233)
X! (210)
Pool F
Bedford (202)
the_ed17 (148)
Pool G
Sunderland06 (142)
Ceranthor (134)
Pool H
Juliancolton (491)
Tinucherian (95)
Pool I
Durova (887)
Theleftorium (458)
Pool J
Mitchazenia (671)
Paxse (291)
Wildcards
Useight (250)
J Milburn (181)
Spencer (177)
Climie.ca (169)
Rambo's Revenge (100)
Tinucherian (95)
WereSpielChequers (77)
Wrestlinglover (67)
Rlevse (65)
10. ThinkBlue (57)
10. Skinny87 (57)
All scores are accurate as of the time the newsletter was sent out.
20:34, 8 February 2009 (UTC)
Delivered by J Milburn, on behalf of the judges. 20:34, 8 February 2009 (UTC)
I've reviewed the article and left notes on the talk page. I've put the nomination on hold for seven days to allow the issues to be addressed. Feel free to contact me on my talk page, here, or on the article talk page with any concerns, and let me know one of those places when the issues have been addressed. If I may suggest that you strike out, check mark, or otherwise mark the items I've detailed, that will make it possible for me to see what's been addressed, and you can keep track of what's been done and what still needs to be worked on. Ealdgyth - Talk14:42, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
There's not really much to say this week, everyone is still doing well. There was a discussion on shortening the length of round one, but the idea is dead in the water. Thanks for contributing! GARDEN, iMatthew // talk, and TheHelpfulOne
If you don't wish to receive this newsletter in the future, remove your name from this list. If you are not a participant, but would still like to receive this newsletter, feel free to add your name to the list.
WikiCup At a Glance
As of this newsletter, the WikiCup participants have collected a total of:
In this round of the WikiCup, the top two contestants from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Gary King (673)
Catalan (254)
Pool B
Shoemaker's Holiday (308)
La Pianista (62)
Pool C
Scorpion0422 (483)
Candlewicke (451)
Pool D
97198 (210)
NapHit (97)
Pool E
Sasata (262)
X! (210)
Pool F
Bedford (275)
the_ed17 (161)
Pool G
Sunderland06 (144)
Ceranthor (136)
Pool H
Juliancolton (559)
Tinucherian (100)
Pool I
Durova (1135)
Theleftorium (656)
Pool J
Mitchazenia (777)
Paxse (371)
Wildcards
Useight (325)
Spencer (215)
Climie.ca (203)
J Milburn (202)
Rambo's Revenge (110)
Rlevse (93)
WereSpielChequers (82)
Dendodge (74)
ThinkBlue (72)
Wrestlinglover (72)
All scores are accurate as of 22:40, 15 February 2009 (UTC)
You are receiving this message because you have signed up for the Signpost spamlist. If you wish to stop receiving these messages, simply remove your name from the list.
The userbox {{User Good Articles reviewed}} has been updated so that it can now link to a page in your user subspace where you keep track of all your GA reviews, if you have such a page. This can be done by adding a | and then the name of your user subpage (or subsection of your regular user page) wherever you have the template called. For example, on my user page I am using
{{User Good Articles reviewed|6|User:Rjanag/GA reviews}}
Hi Guys! Well it's Thehelpfulone's first time properly looking at the scores as he made this newsletter and he's impressed on how much work you have all done. It's a shame to say that RyanCross has withdrawn from the Cup. We have almost hit 200 DYKs, not far off from 100 GA's and Durova has passed the 1000 point mark on points, with 1347 points so congratulations to her! GARDEN, iMatthew // talk, and TheHelpfulOne
If you don't wish to receive this newsletter in the future, remove your name from this list. If you are not a participant, but would still like to receive this newsletter, feel free to add your name to the list.
WikiCup At a Glance
As of this newsletter, the WikiCup participants have collected a total of:
In this round of the WikiCup, the top two contestants from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Gary King (792)
Catalan (254)
Pool B
Shoemaker's Holiday (419)
La Pianista (66)
Pool C
Scorpion0422 (530)
Candlewicke (502)
Pool D
97198 (240)
ThinkBlue (141)
Pool E
Sasata (412)
X! (211)
Pool F
Bedford (284)
the_ed17 (169)
Pool G
Sunderland06 (157)
Ceranthor (137)
Pool H
Juliancolton (582)
Tinucherian (110)
Pool I
Durova (1347)
Theleftorium (840)
Pool J
Mitchazenia (779)
Matthewedwards (503)
Wildcards
Useight (396)
Bedford (284)
Catalan (254)
97198 (240)
Spencer (238)
Climie.ca (234)
J Milburn (216)
X! (211)
the_ed17 (169)
Sunderland06 (157)
All scores are accurate as of 17:15, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
We have 31 days left, just one month left in the first round. The first two months have already produced spectacular results, and we're hoping to see a great race to the end of the round. Get those nominations in for them to count for this round, but remember that any nominations that are not promoted before the end of this round, will still count for round two if you make it. We unfortunately had another contestant, What!?Why?Who?, withdraw this week and we wish them the best.
We saw some big jumps in content upgrades this week! We saw 33 new good articles, 3 new featured articles and lists, 8 featured pictures, 5 featured sounds, and 24 did you know items. (Also note, there are 111 good articles and 222 did you know items as of this newsletter). Keep it up during the final push to round two. GARDEN, iMatthew // talk, and TheHelpfulOne
If you don't wish to receive this newsletter in the future, remove your name from this list. If you are not a participant, but would still like to receive this newsletter, feel free to add your name to the list.
WikiCup At a Glance
As of this newsletter, the WikiCup participants have collected a total of:
In this round of the WikiCup, the top two contestants from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Gary King (1012)
Spencer (292)
Pool B
Shoemaker's Holiday (566)
La Pianista (68)
Pool C
Scorpion0422 (580)
Candlewicke (580)
Pool D
97198 (313)
ThinkBlue (248)
Pool E
Sasata (480)
X! (211)
Pool F
the_ed17 (299)
Bedford (290)
Pool G
Ceranthor (177)
Sunderland06 (159)
Pool H
Juliancolton (604)
Tinucherian (112)
Pool I
Durova (1528)
Theleftorium (913)
Pool J
Mitchazenia (816)
Matthewedwards (625)
Wildcards
Useight (549)
Paxse (454)
Climie.ca (259}
Catalan (254)
J Milburn (232)
Rambo's Revenge (201)
Rlevse (129)
NapHit (99)
WereSpielChequers (92)
Howard the Duck (82)
Wrestlinglover (82)
Dendodge (78)
Steven Walling (69)
All scores are accurate as of 15:02, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
Contestants in italics are those crawling up behind the wildcards.
Things have been slowing down again, so it's time for a big push...
We've gone live
This project needed a shot in the arm. Also, its draft pages have been littering Wikipedia's categories for months. The time seemed right to move all the country outline drafts to article space.
WHAT???
Well, the drafts had been sitting in Wikipedia space for a year.
WHAT???
Development has been moving at a snail's pace and we could use the help of the Wikipedia community at large (who are more likely to find these if they are in article space).
WHAT???
Yes, we've gone live. :)
This puts pressure on us to get the blatantly incomplete elements of these outlines done. The only glaring problem is the government branches sections. These need to be corrected ASAP.
I've mentioned THE GOVERNMENT BRANCHES SECTIONS many times to many people over the past year, but the problem just doesn't seem to have been taken seriously. So let me put it another way:
HELP!!! I need your help on this now. Almost all the countries have a government with an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The links for these branches need to be completed for each country outline:
Here's a convenient list you can use WP:LINKY on to access and edit these quickly. Please copy the list's link to the top of your talk page so that you can access it easily.
If you spot any standardization in links, and ways we can automate parts of this process, or for groups of countries that have links in common, please let me know!
Administrative support for outlines
There has been growing pressure on me to write up the administrative pages for outlines - their instructions, guidelines, etc. Therefore, I'm now in the process of composing these. Fortunately, it is mostly a matter of gathering material from messages I've written to you guys over the past year. Still, this is taking up most of my time, and I will be buried in these for the foreseeable future.
Traffic control
The next big task after the government branches sections are cleaned up is link support for the outlines.
There's quite a list of links and notices that need to be put in place around Wikipedia, providing access to them to readers, and alerting editors to the need to develop and maintain these pages. This will keep our bot people very busy (and happy).
But the most important thing right now is to get the government branches sections completed. So please, put your bots aside, roll up your shirt sleeves, and start typing.
I think it's safe to say that this week is probably your last chance to nominate anything for promotion to count in this round, so start planning that all-important final push. Bear in mind that anything not promoted this month will still count in the next round if you go through. It's looking very close in the Wildcards section, so if you don't see yourself there, don't panic—you may not be too far off the pace! GARDEN, iMatthew // talk, and TheHelpfulOne
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WikiCup At a Glance
As of this newsletter, the WikiCup participants have collected a total of:
In this round of the WikiCup, the top two contestants from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Gary King (1087)
Spencer (353)
Pool B
Shoemaker's Holiday (873)
Spittlespat (77)
Pool C
Scorpion0422 (788)
Candlewicke (658)
Pool D
ThinkBlue (386)
97198 (360)
Pool E
Sasata (581)
X! (215)
Pool F
Bedford (331)
the_ed17 (313)
Pool G
Sunderland06 (228)
Ceranthor (183)
Pool H
Juliancolton (632)
Dendodge (219)
Pool I
Durova (1932)
Theleftorium (1060)
Pool J
Mitchazenia (1167)
Matthewedwards (695)
Wildcards
Useight (648)
Paxse (468)
Rlevse (290)
J Milburn (288)
Climie.ca (262)
Catalan (255)
Rambo's Revenge (241)
Tinucherian (159)
Ottava Rima (159)
PeterSymonds (127)
Neurolysis (108)
WereSpielChequers (107)
NapHit (100)
All scores are accurate as of 12:12, 15 March 2009 (UTC).
Contestants in italics are just behind the wildcards.
After months of toil and attention to detail, Penubag has completed the set of images for this WikiProject's awards!
There are five race ribbons:
There's an engraved medallion:
And by far the hardest to create, a golden trophy:
If you have any ideas about awards these images can be placed upon, and how to award them (to show appreciation and to attract participants), please let me know.
And be sure to pop by Penubag's talk page to let him know what you think of his graphics artistry.
Boston (talk) has given you a fresh piece of fried chicken! Pieces of fried chicken promote WikiLove and hopefully this piece has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a piping hot piece, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Bon appetit!
What a brilliant finale to Round 1. With so little in it it was always going to be a tight contest, particularly in the all-important wildcard places. Congratulations to all those who have made it to Round 2, an commiserations to all who have been eliminated. I hope you continue to contribute as fully as you have been in the tournament, if not better!
As has been stated before, Round 2 begins Wednesday, April 1 2009. I hope you are all ready!
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WikiCup At a Glance
As of this newsletter, the WikiCup participants have collected a total of:
In this round of the WikiCup, the top two contestants from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
The start of Round 2 has been in some respects an explosive one, with one user in particular almost in the triple figures after just a week. There are obviously contestants with no points or very few, but as it is so early in the round this can probably be excused. Keep it up everyone!
Note that due to unforeseen circumstances, Mitchazenia has been eliminated from the contest. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
In this round of the WikiCup, the top contestant from each pool, along with six wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Wrestlinglover (36)
Pool B
ThinkBlue (8)
Pool C
Ceranthor (80)
Pool D
Candlewicke (28)
Pool E
Ottava Rima (30)
Pool F
Scorpion0422 (36)
Current Wildcards
Climie.ca (30)
Matthewedwards (22)
J Milburn (16)
Rlevse (15)
Paxse (14)
Useight (12)
Theleftorium (10)
All scores are accurate as of the end of Round 1.
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Outline of knowledge project summary, and future direction
In response to a friend on Wikipedia who was wondering about how I've been and what I've been up to, I got to spewing about our little endeavor, and well, I got so carried away I pretty much told him everything. :) The message turned out to be a pretty good summary of what we've accomplished so far and the overall plan.
In this round of the WikiCup, the top contestant from each pool, along with six wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Shoemaker's Holiday (156)
Pool B
ThinkBlue (79)
Pool C
Theleftorium (88)
Pool D
J Milburn (46)
Pool E
Durova (136)
Pool F
Sasata (131)
Current Wildcards
Ceranthor (82)
Ottava Rima (82)
Wrestlinglover (77)
Rlevse (63)
the_ed17 (49)
97198 (43)
Useight (41)
Scorpion0422 (41)
Candlewicke (38)
Matthewedwards (33)
All scores are accurate as of 15:31, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
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For months, I've been sitting at a terminal in one of the largest libraries in the country, and I haven't even looked around at the available resources.
I began to study libraries and librarians, since they are experts in organizing knowledge. And of course I turned to Wikipedia to see what we had on the things I came across...
And while doing so I kept running into outlines on Wikipedia that are not (yet) part of the Outline of knowledge.
When I come across non-OOK outlines, generally I rename them, and reformat them to our standard outline format. But there is the occasional exception.
The last 2 are outlines by their very nature, and so our standard outline subheadings didn't seem to fit. So I left them as is.
I renamed the first 2, but the last one is the name of the outline, that is, the topic itself is an outline, and that outline is presented as the article's content, so I left the name as is. For now. This needs more thought.
Of course, that's not all. Concerning those last 2 outlines above...
Alternate outlines of knowledge
...not only are they outlines, but they are outlines of knowledge! Well, the top few levels, at least.
Uh, so?
What happens if we linkify them? :)
That is, what happens if we linkify their classifications to Wikipedia's outlines? :) :) :)
They become alternate top ends to the OOK
Yep.
What can you find?
I challenge you to find some "hidden" outlines.
I dare you to take a look around Wikipedia for hidden outlines (that is, outlines not yet hooked into the OOK), and add your kills to WP:WPOOK#The hunt for hidden outlines.
In this round of the WikiCup, the top contestant from each pool, along with six wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Shoemaker's Holiday (268)
Pool B
ThinkBlue (94)
Pool C
Rlevse (200)
Pool D
Candlewicke and (86)
Pool E
Durova (182)
Pool F
Sasata (201)
Current Wildcards
Theleftorium (193)
the_ed17 (142)
Wrestlinglover (128)
Ottava Rima (123)
Ceranthor (90)
Useight (72)
Gary King (61)
J_Milburn (59)
97198 (53)
All scores are accurate as of 21:43, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
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Another big week sees new leaders in many of the pools. Many of the wildcards are in triple figures so others might want to pick up the pace to make it through!
In this round of the WikiCup, the top contestant from each pool, along with six wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Shoemaker's Holiday (346)
Pool B
Mitchazenia (202)
Pool C
Theleftorium (232)
Pool D
Paxse (174)
Pool E
Durova (234)
Pool F
Sasata (464)
Current Wildcards
Rlevse (227)
Wrestlinglover (186)
Useight (178)
the_ed17 (154)
Candlewicke (142)
Scorpion0422 (130)
Ottava Rima (123)
ThinkBlue (104)
Ceranthor (92)
Gary King and Juliancolton (71)
All scores are accurate as of 12:33, 26 April 2009 (UTC)
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A great week for Sasata with the biggest jump in score for a long while - 336 - so well done! It's nearing the end of this round, remember, which will end on May 29. It would it your best interest to nominate GANs now to avoid missing out.
In this round of the WikiCup, the top contestant from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Shoemaker's Holiday (455)
Pool B
Mitchazenia (208)
Pool C
Theleftorium (279)
Pool D
Paxse (259)
Pool E
Durova (291)
Pool F
Sasata (800)
Current Wildcards
Rlevse (244)
Candlewicke (236)
Wrestlinglover (226)
Useight (224)
Ottava Rima (184)
the_ed17 (161)
Scorpion0422 (143)
ThinkBlue (134)
Ceranthor (104)
J Milburn and Juliancolton (99)
All scores are accurate as of 08:15, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
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Hello, I hope you are doing well. I am sending you this message since you are a member of the GA WikiProject. I would like to invite you to consider helping with the GA sweeps process. Sweeps helps to ensure that the oldest GAs still meet the criteria, and improve the quality of GAs overall. Unfortunately, last month only two articles were reviewed. This is definitely a low point after our peak at the beginning of the process when 163 articles were reviewed in September 2007. After nearly two years, the running total has just passed the 50% mark. In order to expediate the reviewing, several changes have been made to the process. A new worklist has been created, detailing which articles are left to review. All exempt and previously reviewed articles have already been removed from the list. Instead of reviewing by topic, you can consider picking and choosing whichever articles interest you.
We are always looking for new members to assist with the remaining articles, so if you are interested or know of anybody that can assist, please visit the GA sweeps page. In addition, for every member that reviews 100 articles or has a significant impact on the process, s/he will get an award when they reach that threshold. If only 14 editors achieve this feat starting now, we would be done with Sweeps! Of course, having more people reviewing less articles would be better for all involved, so please consider asking others to help out. Feel free to stop by and only review a few articles, something's better than nothing! Take a look at the list, and see what articles interest you. Let's work to complete Sweeps so that efforts can be fully focused on the backlog at GAN. If you have any questions about the process, reviewing, or need help with a particular article, please contact me or OhanaUnited and we'll be happy to help. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 08:26, 8 May 2009 (UTC)
I've contacted all 59 members of the Countries WikiProject to help in designing and conducting contests for the further development of the country outlines.
Only eleven days in this round to go and it's looking very interesting in the Wildcard race. In particular there is an epic struggle for the automation progression spot at the top of Pool C with only two points in it as I type. In other news, congratulations to Durova for her 200th successful featured picture nomination on the English Wikipedia - well done!
In this round of the WikiCup, the top contestant from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Shoemaker's Holiday (572)
Pool B
Mitchazenia (223)
Pool C
Theleftorium (324)
Pool D
Candlewicke (493)
Pool E
Durova (458)
Pool F
Sasata (960)
Current Wildcards
Rlevse (321)
Useight (312)
Wrestlinglover (300)
Paxse (286)
Scorpion0422 (273)
Ottava Rima (248)
ThinkBlue (206)
the_ed17 (169)
Juliancolton (144)
97198 (132)
All scores are accurate as of 08:58, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
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Hey everyone, it's iMatthew! I'm so glad to finally back, and I need to thank Garden for taking care of things while I was ill. There are about 6 days left in the round, and I'm sending the newsletter out now to remind some of you to pick it up in these last few days if you want to get in the next round.
I've listed a few of you that have the chance to catch up before the end of the round in italics over to the right. Keep working!
In this round of the WikiCup, the top contestant from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. As of this newsletter, the current pool leaders are:
Pool A
Shoemaker's Holiday (611)
Pool B
ThinkBlue (242)
Pool C
Theleftorium (450)
Pool D
Candlewicke (504)
Pool E
Durova (460)
Pool F
Sasata (961)
Current Wildcards
Scorpion0422 (338)
Useight (338)
Rlevse (323)
Wrestlinglover (303)
Paxse (286)
Ottava Rima (248)
Mitchazenia (226)
the_ed17 (172)
Juliancolton (155)
97198 (141)
Ceranthor (108)
J Milburn (107)
Matthewedwards (97)
Those in italics are not currently in place for the next round, but are very close.
All scores are accurate as of 16:15, 23 May 2009 (UTC)
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Has the shit hit the fan? - WPOOK update, 05/25/2009
Maybe...
We've started the next phase
I was experiencing mental block on the article draft for "outline" and on the outline guideline draft. And this was holding the whole project back. Without these (which are intended to explain the type of lists known as outlines in detail), the danger is higher that a controversy could go the wrong way.
I requested help on them, but there was none forthcoming.
So I went ahead and started us on the next phase of operations without those 2 pages...
Our AWB'ers and I have placed about 1600 notices all over Wikipedia. And the plan is to place several thousand more.
This generated only one complaint, but it was a very vocal one, and attracted a few other detractors who seemed unfamiliar with the concept of hierarchical outlines and their benefits. However, just as many or more editors came to the defense of the OOK, and there was no consensus formed. But, dab is still trying to rally opposition to outlines at the Village Pump. See below...
Administrator noticeboard incident and Village Pump policy discussion
He went well out of his way to use negative hype to cause a stir.
It appears that Mr. Bachmann doesn't understand the nature of hierarchical outlines and their applications. And though he implied that he has never seen an OOK outline before, he was involved with a discussion on these when they were called "lists of basic topics".
His primary argument is that outlines are content forks of articles, and violate WP:CFORK.
But "topic lists", of which outlines are a type, have been around for almost as long as Wikipedia, and fall under the WP:LISTS and WP:STAND guidelines. They aren't intended as forks, as they are lists, bringing the benefits of lists to the corresponding subjects, such as grouping and navigation.
Someone suggested an MfD, but lists are articles, and are within the jurisdiction of AfD. Only the portal page, which merely lists the outline articles, falls within the scope of the MfD department.
The administrator's noticeboard was considered the wrong venue for the discussion, and the discussion was closed.
This is just a quick reminder that the round ends this Friday, May 29, 2009.
I wanted to let you guys know the current standings. If you are very close, but not close enough, work as hard as possible these next two days. Pool leaders are listed as usual, and under the 10 wildcards, are competitors that are still fighting for a spot. Also, if you currently have any un-reviewed GAN's up and you'd like them to be reviewed and counted for this round, you must place them on the appropriate thread of the WikiCup talk page.
Hi all. Round 2 is officially over, and we're very pleased with the results. The lowest passing score was over 200! We are very impressed with the last minute pushes to get a spot, which many of you did through mainspace editing your butts off for the last week or so. We really hope that those of you who did a lot of mainspace editing this time around will take some of that and turn it into good and featured content next round.
The pools for Round 3 will be up soon; the round starts tomorrow, June 1, 2009. As always, nominations that were nominated last round but not passed yet, may count for this round. Hope to see you all working very hard, as you are down to the Top 16, and it's going to take a lot to make the Top 8!
Those of you who were eliminated and no longer wish to receive this newsletter may remove your name from this list. If you were eliminated, but are still looking for some fun editing competition, check out User:Shappy/Amazing Race Wikipedia which starts in July.
In this round of the WikiCup, the top contestant from each pool, along with ten wildcards, will advance to the next round. The pool winners are:
Pool A
Shoemaker's Holiday (683)
Pool B
ThinkBlue (251)
Pool C
Theleftorium (462)
Pool D
Candlewicke (552)
Pool E
Durova (497)
Pool F
Sasata (961)
Wildcard winners
Useight (420)
Scorpion0422 (409)
Wrestlinglover (356)
Rlevse (334)
Paxse (285)
Ottava Rima (249)
Mitchazenia (228)
Gary King (213)
the_ed17 (211)
Juliancolton (211)
Those in italics are not currently in place for the next round, but are very close.
All scores are accurate as of the end of the round.
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Wow, what a big start to Round 3! We already have people past the 50 point mark, in one week. We can tell that this round is going to be tight, and we'll likely see every Top 8 contestant with over 500 (maybe 400) points by the end of this round. Keep working hard! – weburiedoursecretsinthegarden, iMatthew : Chat , and TheHelpfulOne
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Turns out last week's newsletter was never sent out. Sorry about that! Since we already had it done, we are sending you both. This newsletter is the one for this week though. Anyway, we're seeing you guys working really hard. There are a few of you over 100 points in the first two weeks. Also, we have switched Ottava Rima from Pool D to Pool B, and Shoemaker's Holiday (who has withdrawn) from Pool B to Pool D. Scorpion0422 is more than likely to withdraw before this round ends, because he will be inactive next round. That would leave 2 contestants in Pool B. So, to make things fairly even, we have switched the two contestants. Sorry for all of the confusion!
Finally, we know it's very early, but you can already sign up for the 2010 WikiCup, here! We want to get everything ready way in advance for next year. So we opened the list up, and we'll start working things out in September/October, most likely. Information is all on the page, and you may leave any questions on the talk page. So go sign up before your favorite flag is taken! 'weburiedoursecretsinthegarden, iMatthew : Chat , and TheHelpfulOne
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— 16 March 2009
: 6 April 2009
Shoemaker's Holiday (647)
ThinkBlue (247)
Theleftorium (455)
Candlewicke (539)
Durova (479)
Sasata (961)
Useight (393)
Scorpion0422 (372)
Rlevse (329)
Wrestlinglover (307)
Paxse (285)
Ottava Rima (248)
Mitchazenia (226)
Juliancolton (181)
the_ed17 (179)
J Milburn (168)
Bedford (156)
Gary King (147)
97198 (142)
Ceranthor (111)
Tinucherian (106)
Matthewedwards (98)
