Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Desk/Archive 1

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The following discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this page.
Motto of the Day

Schedule (Upcoming mottos) Discussion Approved
Nominations (New mottos go here) Frequently Used Ideas
Overseer

The Overseers manage the Motto of the Day project. In the event of the Overseers being tied on a motto, the most senior Overseer shall cast a tie breaking vote.

Contents
Overseer duties:

  1. Close nominations
  2. Schedule Mottos
  3. Cast final votes
  4. Maintain MOTD
Current Overseers:

(In alphabetical order)
Past Overseers
N.B.: Renata3 is still a major contributor to the motto proposal area... David P. A. Hunter, esq. III The rest is silence! 00:46, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
 Overseers currently on Wikibreak:

Today's motto...
→Yo encyclopedia's so fat, when I tried to find its weight, the scale said TO BE CONTINUED!

This is the desk of the Overseers of Motto of the Day. Here you can leave them a message.

[edit] Current topics of discussion

Current Archive: Overseers' Discussions Archive

[edit] Overseers Applications

Applications archive

[edit] New Section

To get us back on track, I created a new section for anything over a week old. Review the In review section before messing with it. Geo. 18:08, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Motto supply is dwindling

OK, we have 13 currently unassigned mottos in the Approved area. We need to get more in that list from the noms page. I have done the schedules for the past month, and for the next two weeks. If someone can help by transferring the newly approved mottos to the actual approved page, that'd be helpful. Thanks. David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 13:13, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Overseers Desk Header Table

I just converted the permanent information that is displayed on this page into a table. Hope this suits. I can't get it to look quite how I wanted it, so if you think you can make it better do so. David P. A. Hunter, esq. III The rest is silence! 01:01, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I can't figure why it is bold. Geo. 22:14, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I made it so that the content isn't bold, but the headings of the columns are. I don't know if it's exactly what you're looking for, but it's probably closer. WODUP 06:55, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Overseers Desk Talk Page

I have just merged this page's talk page with this page, and made the talk page redirect to here. Please DO NOT add anything to the talk page, as it is rarely checked. David P. A. Hunter, esq. III The rest is silence! 01:16, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mottos scheduled for October to December (inclusive), 2006

I want to have those months completely scheduled in terms of mottos. I plan to do it over the coming week; the week after I go back to school and from then until the 14th of November I have exams (and I work full time after then until Christmas), so I won't have any other time to do it. If someone wants to help, feel free to move the approved mottos from the noms page into the noms list for me. Geo: how do we roll over into 2007's calendar, so that we can begin assigning those mottos as well?

David P. A. Hunter, esq. III The rest is silence! 06:34, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

There is some coding that needs to be done. I'll take care of it Geo. 22:09, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

I moved all the past months to an archive to make room. Geo. 22:14, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Goiter McWilliostein, P. I. You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! Save Stargate SG-1! 03:02, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
  • OK I'm going to do the next week of schedules now, and then I'll be on WikiBreak as I have exams this week. If someone wants to do the next few months while I'm away, that'd be nice, but I plan to be back at the end of next week to do them, so don't be too worried. Goiter McWilliostein, P. I. You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! Save Stargate SG-1! 02:12, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
    • And when i got there to do this following week's schedule, someone else had already done it. Thanks for that. Goiter McWilliostein, P. I. You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! Save Stargate SG-1! 02:18, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
      • No problems (it was me :D). If another overseer will move all the nominations that have been approved to the approved page, I'll create the scheduled days. Daniel.Bryant 02:35, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
        • Make sure that you are getting all of the links and code correct. I've noticed that on the Paper? What's That? motto, you haven't got all of the links (each letter in paper was a seperate link). I don't particularly care, but the people do. I haven't changed anything, so you'll need to go back and fix things. :-) Cheers. I'm going on WikiBreak for the next month and a half, so I'm moving my name into the "Inactive Overseers" list. Have fun. Keep my seat warm, and my desk covered in paper. The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! 11:44, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

(cue applause)

[edit] Mottos

Is it helpful, harmful, or neutral for me to make multiple mottos in 1 day? RyGuy 17:56, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Helpful! The more mottos, the better! Daniel.Bryant 07:05, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
Indeed. The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! 11:53, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nominations page lead

Looking at your lead to the nominations page, I thought I could improve it. Here's what I've come up with. Feel free to accept or reject all or some of it; I really don't care, it's just a suggestion. Sorry about my method of showing you, but it was the best way I could think of to keep the wikitext from formatting to this page (<nowiki></nowiki> doesn't work in this case). --Tewy 18:46, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Query: what's the difference (and don't say "the red text")? Not meaning to sound like a smart arse, but I cannot figure it out... The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! 11:53, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
I thought the syntax could use some work, so I've reworded it so that it doesn't repeat things and flows nicer. But as far as actual content goes, I haven't touched it. --Tewy 21:48, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
...Not to be pushy, but it's been a month; any decision yet? --Tewy 05:30, 11 December 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Childzy

This discussion was concluded with Childzy being moved to Past overseers Should we put Childzy in the "Past overseers" column until he returns? David P. A. Hunter, esq. III The rest is silence! 01:19, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

  • Yes. 210.50.80.181 11:03, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Daniel.Bryant (talk • contribs • count)

Passed by 2/0 David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 09:37, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
I wish to join what could be a great opening to help this idea which is full of potential. I currently co-coordinate the A-League Wikiproject, as well as most of the A-League Portal. These kind of tasks, along with 4500+ edits on the english Wikipedia, will hopefully convince you. If not, feel free to raise any concerns or questions you may have, and I'll be happy to help you. I already have a few mottos lined up, one of which is a slight modification of the quote I added to the Be Bold policy :p Daniel.Bryant 11:12, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Don't particularly care for your previous experience with Wikipedia (i.e. your edit count). I'm just glad you changed all the votes for me! Support David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 01:32, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support Geo. 02:19, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vanderdecken (talk • contribs • count)

Passed by 2/0 Geo. 19:13, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

This user has expressed interest in being an Overseer. Votes (frozen until Childzy returns Geo. 00:20, 16 August 2006 (UTC))

  • I also support it. Geo. 19:13, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Limit of Overseers

My first thought it that we need to place a restriction on Overseers. As overseers, we perform janitorial tasks, and with too many people doing these tasks, inconsistancies (sp? I'm hopeless tonight...) may occur. Also, an odd number *may* make voting on Overseer procedures (after discussion, of course :p), and a smaller number would prevent delays. Although it may not seem like a problem at the moment, with only 5 of us, my experience with various setups like this indicates that if we lay down the limit now, problems with us doing it later (and therefore closer to other applications) will be avoided. Also, I decided to add a new voting/discussion system, which may be used from all future voting topics. Cheers, Daniel.Bryant 09:58, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion

I have contacted the overseers who have thus far not voted on this. David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 09:01, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
OK. Nice work. Daniel.Bryant 09:06, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
As Childzy is on an indefinite WikiBreak, Vanderdecken has the election-deciding vote! He too is on WikiBreak, but only until tomorrow. We can expect a decision within two days... David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 09:08, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
OK, I think we can safely say that we're the only ones who care about this. Consensus hath been wrought! So it is written; so shall it be! David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 12:56, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Support

  1. David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 08:42, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
  2. Support five limit Geo. 00:02, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Oppose

[edit] Abstain

[edit] Noms page - Initial proposals

I have changed the example motto template, as I feel we need not have people write their motto twice. That's what the heading is for. David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 09:31, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Noms page - Approval and Rejection and the end-user

Hi all overseers. On the noms page I have added: "Only the overseers (they know who they are...) are permitted to post Approved or Rejected, for technical reasons. Please use Support or Oppose instead". This is because I have noticed an increase of people using Approved or Rejected when voting, which are reserved for use by overseers only. It is incredulously annoying to read that a motto has been approved, then search for it in the approved section, and not find anything, only to return to the noms page to find that it wasn't actually approved.

Let us enforce this new law! Punishments for disobeying must be formulated.

David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 11:54, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

  • this is a good idea Support Geo. 19:15, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
  • I went thru and changed all the non-"overseer" votes from Approve -> Support and Reject -> Oppose. If this was bad, just revert to the prior version. Daniel.Bryant 11:38, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
Thanks Danny boy. Good work. I have created a warning template that overseers can post on user's talk pages if they use Approved or Rejected. See here. The template can be used by adding {{Wikipedia:Motd/Template:Warnvote}} . I could not figure out how to add the tildes into the template, so it won't sign your name automatically. Instead, just leave it unsigned. If someone can figure that out, feel free to edit the template.David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 01:30, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
Oh, and we won't bother using the template on users who Danny just changed, unless they do it again. Hopefully we can stay on top of this and prevent one of us having to change all the votes again. David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 01:30, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
To see the template in action, go to User_talk:Thefourdotelipsis#Your_votes_for_the_Wikipedia_Motto_of_the_day. David P. A. Hunter, esq. III Let us to it, Pell-Mell 01:38, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Heirachy gone

Please see [1]. Hierarchies and ranks for non-official Wikipedia projects are bad, and concensus has agreed many times in the past - see WP:MFD/EA. It's time to abolish this, and invite everyone to help out in co-ordinating MOTD. I have archived the old Desk to Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Desk/"Overseers" Archive, and it's time to start afresh. no-one's opinion is worth more than anyone else anywhere on Wikipedia, and the "veto" that the overseers had built up was terrible. Daniel.Bryant [ T · C ] 11:29, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Odds jobs to be done

* Create a rules manual

Bet this'll never get done. Who needs rules!? The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! You can't control me! I'm a P. I.! 11:53, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Never going to be done Geo. 19:47, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mottos are not being used

Three times in as many weeks I have checked to find that there are no mottos scheduled for that day or the ones after. I've speedy-scheduled mottos until the first of November - all overseers need to decide on some new ones to be scheduled. If none are put in the schedule by November 1, I will close nominations and add the mottos myself. —Vanderdecken? ??f 15:32, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Archives

(From Wikipedia talk:Motto of the day/Nominations#Archived). Several users have suggested archiving the nominations page. They agree that it is long enough (currently 292 kB) to cause problems loading on some computers. I believe this problem requires immediate attention by the overseers. Thoughts? --Tewy 17:40, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Now that it's archived... how about putting a link to the archive? (Or maybe I missed it.) —ScouterSig 20:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
There's an archive box at the upper-left of the nominations page, just below the navigation box. --Tewy 21:09, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Approvals page

I have archived this page, and assigned mottos all the way up to December 19. I also suggest a change to the approval procedure - instead of making the used ones bold (very inefficient), move them to a section at the bottom of the page. —Vanderdecken? ??f 10:53, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Major Reorganisation

Right, I'm sick of seeing this project die, so I've given it a major refit. The Nominations page has been archived (at 478 kilboytes long, one of the longest pages on Wikipedia excluding lists), and the nominations procedure has been given a complete redesign - see the page for more details. I've changed the size of the navigation template and added descriptions. I've rewritten the main page. I've completely redesigned the Approved page and the Scheduling procedure. Many of the mottos that get nominated here tell the readers to be bold, well I've had it with being meek - I've been bold and redone half the project. Any problems come and see me personally on my talk page. Now get mottoing! That's an order! —Vanderdecken? ??f 18:54, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Thank you very much Geo. 20:46, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

I have finally started on the coding for '07 Geo. 21:00, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Overseer Application for TeckWiz

Hey guys. I recently discovered this project and it seems great. Tip of the day provides help for users, and this one provides fun! I'm not really that good about making mottoes about an encyclopedia, but would like to help with the organizational aspect of it (maintaning, choosing, etc.) For Wikipedia experience, I have over 2,500 edits and have been here 11 months. Thank you for considering my application for overseer. TeckWizTalkContribs@ 00:46, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

  • Support - We can use another overseer. Geo. 17:52, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Willy

This is more of a general question and less of one specifically for mottos... but what the heck is up with the subject of Willy on Wheels? I can't find anything concrete on him; perhaps you can help, since the wikipage and his userpage don't. —ScouterSig 16:45, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

  • There used to be a Wikipedia:Willy on Wheels page that explained it all, but it was deleted per this. Basically Willy is/was a vandal who moved pages with the new title of "<pagename> on Wheels!" Willy became quite famous, among others (the Communism and Kitten vandals). Some other sources for reference can be found here (satirical), here, here, and here. That's about all I could find, as most of the descriptive pages were deleted so that they wouldn't serve as a "hall of fame" for the vandals. --Tewy 18:43, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Text rendering

I've noticed a few mottos that require bold or italicized text to make them effective. However, the current template, {{motd}}, renders all text bold and italicized to begin with. Is it possible that the template instead just make the text bigger (such as <big></big>), so that Motto of the day still stands out and the motto can be rendered the way it was intended to be? --Tewy 02:07, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that's happened today... ask Geo. —Vanderdecken? ??f 10:36, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
I am going to look at the template to see if i can change it Geo. 20:14, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
I think I solved the problem. Geo. 23:50, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
That should work (though some might like to see it italicized again...). But looking at {{Motd}}, did you miss a </big>? --Tewy 00:00, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the alert. It should work now. Geo. 01:12, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Another idea...

Sorry for this extra comment, but I've thought about it some more and I think that motd could be improved even more. I've been looking at {{cquote}}, and have come up with this:

“ →Yo encyclopedia's so fat, when I tried to find its weight, the scale said TO BE CONTINUED! ”

—Motto of the day
A possible problem to this would be if the motto has an author besides Motd (Such is the case for Wikipedia:Motto of the day/December 30, 2006). Since the {{Motd}} template would remain unchanged through the different days, you wouldn't be able to insert another parameter as the template allows (like this):
“ "The article, Percival; you must... revert it, that it be correct!" ”

—Le Morte Dwiki, Motto of the day
Instead, you would have to place the original author in the quote itself, which looks a little tacky when you already have "—Motto of the day" placed at the bottom:
“ Wikipedia:Motto of the day/December 30, 2006 ”

—Motto of the day
Does this idea have any chance, or does it just make things more complicated? --Tewy 03:31, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Another problem might be if there were breaks in the quote. But this seems to work just fine under the template:
“ These lines
are
broken.
-Author		 ”

—Motto of the day
And Portal:Poetry/Quotes archive seems to have it figured out. --Tewy 20:00, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
You can even use <big></big> if you want to (but I don't think that's necessary), like so:
“ →Yo encyclopedia's so fat, when I tried to find its weight, the scale said TO BE CONTINUED! ”

—Motto of the day
--Tewy 22:12, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/In review

Copied from the nominations talk page so that overseers may it Tennis DyNamiTe (sign here) 23:29, 4 January 2007 (UTC):

What is the purpose of Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/In review? If you're watching the nominations page, changes won't show up because the Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations#In review section is transcluded from Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/In review. Also, if the majority of the nominations page is the "In review" section, so it seems kind of silly to be transcluding nearly the whole page. --Tewy 00:24, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

So that's why changes weren't showing up on my watchlist... Tennis DyNamiTe (sign here) 03:27, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

In review allows for speedy archiving. Geo. 22:59, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Header for this page

I've taken a good look at the orange table at the top of this page and made some changes. I was tired of seeing the extremely thin columns and general messiness. Here's what it would look like after changes:

The
table
of
contents
would
normally
go
here
(with
__TOC__
in
place
of
this
text).
The Overseers manage the Motto of the Day project.
Overseer duties Current Overseers Past Overseers On Wikibreak
  1. Close nominations
  2. Schedule Mottos
  3. Cast final votes
  4. Maintain MOTD

(In order of seniority)
I've embedded a seperate table so that the table of contents is in a column of itself and above the caption. I've widened the table to 90%. I've changed the bold text ("Current Overseers", etc.) to actual headers. I've pulled the first column about what Overseers are and placed it as a caption to the embedded table. I've removed the bit about a dispute on decisions (because frankly, there's not enough activity for that). I've removed User:Hunterd's comment about User:Renata3 still participating (it was from September and just made things messier). I've removed some unnecessary parameters that are the same in default (as far as I understand). I've added a link to Wikibreak. I've added a border. I've made the coding for the table a little more organized and easier to read, with hidden comments. And I've listed all the changes as I thought of them. So. Yay or nay? I'd appreciate feedback, as this took a very long time. --Tewy 00:40, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Though I gave 98% credit to you, below is my improved version of yours. It's shrunk to 70%, most things are centered (I think it gives it a nice appearance), and "Past Overseers" and "On Wikibreak" are now in the same row.:
The
table
of
contents
would
normally
go
here
(with
__TOC__
in
place
of
this
text).
The Overseers manage the Motto of the Day project.
Overseer duties
Current Overseers
Past Overseers
  1. Close nominations
  2. Schedule Mottos
  3. Cast final votes
  4. Maintain MOTD
(In order of seniority)


On Wikibreak
--TeckWizTalkContribs@ 01:21, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, I was debating over combining the last two sections. This looks much better, especially the horizontal shrinking (to 70%). I guess you simply can't make it wide enough for some things to fit on one line, so the next best option is to fit the text more nicely. I also moved the <center>s around in that last "On Wikibreak" section—you can take a look at the code; I think that's how you intended. --Tewy 02:31, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this page.