User talk:Naerii/Archives/May 2008

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[edit] Reward board

Are lists included in the offer? Specifically thinking of List of furry conventions. -- Naerii 02:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

I suspect RainRat did not have that in mind for his reward, but I would be willing to give you $50 if your edits led directly to its placement on Wikipedia:Featured lists. Lists are not eligible for GA status, but I feel the effort you would need to expend is roughly equivalent. GreenReaper (talk) 03:27, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Hmmm

Naerii, Thank you for the kind words. I admit I have though about running for admin recently. although my total # of edits would surely guarantee a failure. As I said to Keeper76 recently, sometimes I spend hours reviewing one RfA, all in the end to produce one edit, or in some cases no edit. Of course, this doesn't mean I can't become an admin, but rather that I'll have to wait a few months until I arrive at an edit count that is acceptable to the community. That's no problem for me, I still think I have a lot to learn. I hope I have nominators when the time comes, so again thank you for suggesting that you may nominate. Gwynand | Talk•Contribs 04:07, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Soapbox? Are you kidding me?

Hi, I saw the debate about the atheist userbox was already closed, but I have to take issue with your characterization of that Userbox as somehow "soapboxing" above and beyond what other userboxes do. I present for your edification:

User:N/modern Jesus

User:Danbarnesdavies/Userboxes/Religion/User Christian

User:Danbarnesdavies/Userboxes/Religion/User saved

User:America Needs Jesus/ubx/creation

User:America Needs Jesus/world

User:Hexagon1/looseprotest

User:Winhunter/Userboxes/carefree anglican

User:UBX/grace

User:UBX/Unconditional Election

User:UBX/Limited Atonement

User:Justin L Raines/Userboxes/Affirm

I really could go on. Policy allows people to express their opinion in their userbox as long as it is not blatantly offensive. Frankly, I think some of the examples I cited above are blatantly offensive, but we let them go because, well, it's normal and expected.

I know the debate is already closed, but this is something that really bothers me. --Jaysweet (talk) 12:16, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

I didn't specify that it was soapboxing above and beyond what others do. Merely that it soapboxes. I would support the deletion of any of those userboxes. Thanks. -- Naerii 18:20, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
Fair 'nuff, I can accept that. --Jaysweet (talk) 18:28, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you from Horologium

Thank you for participating in my RfA, which passed unanimously with the support of 100 editors. Your kindness is very much appreciated. I look forward to using the tools you have granted me to aid the project. I would like to give special thanks to Wizardman, Black Falcon and jc37 for nominating me. — Horologium

[edit] Previous Accounts

You indicated you had edits under a previous account, you might want to add them to your RfA or it will fail. Your edit history here on this account really isn't long enough on it's own to pass an RfA---and the fact that you had a prior account may be deemed as "hiding something" if you don't share what they were on the RfA.Balloonman (talk) 20:26, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

See my comment on the RfA. I'm not 'hiding' anything, my accounts have been linked from my user page for ages :) -- Naerii 20:26, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] thankyou

Thank you for your kind message - have we met? Peter Damian (talk) 22:39, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ah you are Kamryn Matika? Peter Damian (talk) 22:43, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
Yep, that's me. -- Naerii 23:10, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Subpages

Wow, that looks great. We should do that instead. Can you implement that? Useight (talk) 18:01, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Probably. Give me five minutes or so :) -- Naerii 18:01, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Wooh, it took me exactly five minutes :P -- Naerii 18:08, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Well, considering that this is the English Wikipedia, I'd think it would be fair to say that all the editors would speak English. They may speak second languages, perhaps. I can speak Tagalog, at least conversationally, but I don't know if know if we need to work that into the table. Perhaps bring it up on the Highly Active talk page and see what people say. Useight (talk) 18:36, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, the list is pretty large. Once a little time goes by after informing people of the list's existence, those who don't reply will be removed from the list. I'm not sure of the ideal number of editors in the list, but I was thinking that maybe 100 would be sufficient, if they were all very active and their combined editing schedule was 24/7. Useight (talk) 18:46, 3 May 2008 (UTC)


[edit] your RFA

hello. I gave you a support for your RFA. Just out of interest, is there anything in your edit history that I should be aware of; anything that would make me !vote oppose? I'm not interested in the little stuff, or the "instability" that other people mention. But if it's a frivolous nom or you have a bunch of bad-hand sock puppets please feel free to email me. Kind regards. Dan Beale-Cocks 21:29, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Haha, well, I don't know you, so I can't tell what sort of things would make you oppose. The nomination of ArbCom for deletion is the clincher, and possibly the block I had last year for posting links to attack sites. I don't recall anything else I've done that's been incredibly objectionable, though I'm sure someone will pull a few forgotten diffs out of the closet to prove me wrong. I do not, however, have any sockpuppets or the like and the nom is in all seriousness, although I have no expectation that it will pass. -- Naerii 21:32, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
The arbcom thing isn't something I'd oppose for. The attack sites block . . . well, I've recently said that editors and admins are allowed to make mistakes, that the bit i no big deal, and that most mistakes are easy to fix, so I guess I should stick with that. Thus, you still have a support from me. Thanks for being so open. Dan Beale-Cocks 01:13, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Your RfA

I know that you are getting a bit disappointed with the results of your RfA, and to tell you the truth, I know exactly how you feel. While I haven't posted an RfA onto this site yet, I have tried 5 times to have a successful RfA on the Simple English Wikipedia, all of which didn't make it. The last 2 that I've had on the Simple English Wikipedia got me 50% and 59% respectively, so this is what I have to say to you: Keep up the good work and eventually, people will recognize that you are a good editor and nominate you for administrator in the future. I hope I have given you good advice! Cheers, Razorflame 15:34, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind thoughts, but I actually feel just fine about it :) -- Naerii 15:36, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
Although on reflection I guess you could say I was a little bit disappointed with aspects of some rationales, but that's neither here nor there. -- Naerii 15:46, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
Not a problem! I can tell you that I did disagree with some of the rationales, but you have to understand that I can't support a user to become an administrator if he or she was just recently blocked....you would probably do the same for a user who was blocked recently and posted up an RfA too. Cheers, Razorflame 15:48, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
It's fine ;) No hard feelings. -- Naerii 15:48, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Beatles (album)

Thanks a lot for your input. It seems I've got too much on my plate to take care of that. (If you really want to know, I have to help find about 42 references for List of best-selling albums worldwide, and I'm working on Like a Rolling Stone). Thanks anyway, I read your comments over and I thank you for being specific, not being too broad like some PRers (?) are. I'll definitely use your advice when I get around to it. :) Cheers, Kodster (You talkin' to me?) (Stuff I messed up) 00:21, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] RFB

While I am usually loathe to contact editors on their talk pages during an RfX, your actions were above and beyond what I could have expected. I am humbled. -- Avi (talk) 00:53, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I understand that, of course, . But your actions took a certain amount of magnanimity of spirit that I could not let go by without recognition and thanks. Now, what will it take to get you to like me? -- Avi (talk) 01:22, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
You want all of my secrets already?! -- Avi (talk) 01:28, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
To quote that philospher-gutairist, Eric Clapton, "It's in the way that you use it". Also, you might want to append a |25px at the end of each one, such as [[image:face-smile.svg|25px]] to keep the sizing down. Last thing anyone needs is a 50px version of Image:Smiley green alien KO.svg on their page -- Avi (talk) 01:37, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
I'm actually quite liking the crazy looking one. *snag for userpage* -- Naerii 01:44, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
There is something vaguely unsettling about the image of a crazed, vampiric alien with its head askew as the first thing that greets you on a user page -- Avi (talk) 14:16, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you!!

I am in your debt. Your explanation of the citations is a heck of a lot clearer than the entire page devoted to it.  :) Many, many thanks. --PMDrive1061 (talk) 01:05, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

PMDrive1061 (talk) has given you a cookie! Cookies promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a cookie, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy munching!

Spread the goodness of cookies by adding {{subst:Cookie}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Oh man I love nice messages on my talk page (as opposed to "you have been blocked indefinitely", which, let me tell you, is not a barrel of laughs). It's no problem at all! I found the references help page far too complicated when I started, too. I find it's best to just look at other articles and see how they do it, it saves a lot of time and confused head scratching. Have a nice day :D -- Naerii 01:11, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WP:HAU

Please take a look at what I did at WP:HAU and let me know what you think. Also, if you have any ideas for making the page more well-known and used, I'd like to hear those, too. Thanks. Useight (talk) 06:19, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Lady Aleena's future

Naerii...Several people have expressed an interest in my next probable nomination for adminship. Messaging people when it happens would look a lot like canvassing, so I would prefer not doing that. If you are interested in it, you could add this to your watchlist. If it is created, you will know, maybe even before I do depending on how often you check your watchlist. If you wish to gush prior to it being officially up, have fun, but only when it happens please. I am in no particular rush. Have a very nice day! :) - LA @ 10:06, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "wth why did my edit remove all this content?"

See WP:TW/BUGS#TW-B-0013 (open). It's a known bug in Twinkle, but I wish that we could figure out why it happens. nneonneo talk 21:27, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] C-Twig

You beat two co-nom's support :-P -- Avi (talk) 02:44, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

The devil is in the details :) -- Naerii 02:52, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Owe you an apology

I owe you an apology, my comment on your failed RfA was inappropriate and I'm sorry. I probably should have come here and left a friendly note advising that you withdraw your nom, rather than agreeing with Dortroffel.Balloonman (talk) 05:14, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] User Page Inspiration

Bad luck on your recent RFA, but it did cause me to click through your user page and be inspired by your user page design, which I then fitted into my page. I like green better than pink, but other than that you helped clean one eyesore user page off of the Wiki! Lankiveil (speak to me) 12:58, 7 May 2008 (UTC).

[edit] helpmoi

{{helpme}}

Can an admin please protect my monobook (User:Naerii/monobook.js) until June 20, please. Thanks in advance. naerii - talk 03:08, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Only you and admins can edit your monobook, so I see no need for protection. Tiptoety talk 03:14, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
He/She wants it protected because this way s/he cannot undo the wikibreak enforcer that was added today. I'll do it for you, Nærii, e-mail me if you need it undone. -- Avi (talk) 03:34, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Welcome back? dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 06:53, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The COOKIE MONSTER ate the cow

Fattyjwoods Push my button has given you a cookie! Cookies promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a cookie, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy munching!

Spread the goodness of cookies by adding {{subst:Cookie}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Hi, just to make sure you’re not too hungry, I gave you a cookie! I would’ve given you milk – but the cow just died and I tried to milk the bull but it kicked me in the face. *sob*. Anyway, enjoy the cookie!! Fattyjwoods Push my button 05:42, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Please consider taking the AGF Challenge

I would like to invite you to consider taking part in the AGF Challenge which has been proposed for use in the RfA process [1] by User: Kim Bruning. You can answer in multiple choice format, or using essay answers, or anonymously. You can of course skip any parts of the Challenge you find objectionable or inadvisable. Please note that you have not been invited because you are being accused of anything, or suspected of any improper conduct. You are not being invited because of any perceived difficulty with your editing, or any potential conflicts. You are under no obligation to try the AGF Challenge. --Filll (talk) 12:38, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

That's funny, because I was actually the first person to take the multiple choice version of it :) naerii - talk 20:43, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] DYK: Music For Tourists

Updated DYK query On 11 May 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Music For Tourists, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--PFHLai (talk) 15:21, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rfb participation thanks

Hello, Nærii.

I wanted to personally thank you for taking part in the project-wide discussions regarding my candidacy for bureaucratship. After bureaucratic discussion, the bureaucrats decided that there was sufficient significant and varied opposition to my candidacy, and thus no consensus to promote. Although personally disappointed, I both understand and respect their decision, especially in light of historical conservatism the project has had when selecting its bureaucrats. I especially wanted to thank you for the olive branch that you extended, even if it still means that you don't like me :) If you have any further suggestions or comments as to how you think I could help the project, please let me know. Once again, thank you for your support. -- Avi (talk) 17:28, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WBOSITG's RfA

Hello Naerii, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your participation in my RfA which was passed with a final tally of 114/10/4. I'm both shocked and honoured to gain so much support from users whom I admire and trust, and I hope I can avoid breaking that backing by being the best administrator I possibly can. I will take on board the opposition's comments and I hope to improve over the coming months and years. Once again, thank you! weburiedoursecretsinthegarden 20:28, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] My RfA

Hi Naerii; I wanted to say thank you for supporting my request for adminship, which passed with 100 supports, 0 opposes and 1 neutral. I wanted to get round everybody individually, even though it's considered by some to be spam (which... I suppose it is! but anyway. :)). It means a lot to me that the community has placed its trust in my ability to use the extra buttons, and I only hope I can live up to its expectations. If you need anything, or notice something that bothers you, don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks again, PeterSymonds | talk 22:01, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ready to Die

I've took care of your concerns and left a message on the talk page. - Guerilla In Tha Mist (talk) 22:34, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the review and passing the article as a GA. - Guerilla In Tha Mist (talk) 11:25, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Warning

Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, we would like to remind you not to attack other editors. Please comment on the contributions and not the contributors. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. Neapolitan Sixth (talk) 12:26, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh, how I laugh. naerii - talk 13:18, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Please do not attack other editors. If you continue, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Neapolitan Sixth (talk) 14:45, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Still laughing. naerii - talk 14:46, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pay for edit

Hey Naerii. Saw your new project. You may run into some problems with it, check WP:PAY. Also might want to show it to the community before it goes live. Gwynand | Talk•Contribs 19:14, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Reward board. naerii - talk 19:18, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
I.e. it's basically the same as every other post made there, I just decided to make a subpage too avoid making a really long list on that page. naerii - talk 19:20, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
OK. That's why I came to you first, I was unsure of thoughts surrounding this practice. Although I think generally it creates a de facto conflict of interest, it's probably harmless. Gwynand | Talk•Contribs 19:21, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, to be honest I don't expect it to inspire much editing anyway :) I just felt like any added little motivation would be a good thing ;) I've never really understood the COI arguments - perhaps you'd care to explain? I don't have a vested interest in any of the articles listed and I doubt anyone responding will have either. naerii - talk 19:26, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Well in your case, a limited amount of money, limited to 1 per week, probably won't lead to any real COIs. It's not your conflict of interest, but immediately the editor that starts getting paid to edit a certain article gains--maybe just technically speaking--a de facto COI. It's not for obvious reasons like NPOV issues, but for others. Say the guy trying to earn the money adds 10,000 bytes of data. Another user comes along and removes a good deal of it for various reasons. Then an edit war starts... the guy who is trying to get paid has the 1. Interest to build the article, 2. Interest to keep the article this way. and 3. (most important) Interest to do this as fast as possible in order to get paid as fast as possible. Now, these all work off various presumptions which for any individual may not be true. Furthermore I could see some real issues with people who are GA/FA reviewers, now having to review with the knowledge that actual money is on the line in regards to their decision.
However, all that said, I guess a small amount of money limited to once a week won't likely lead to these issues. Think of someone offering 10K for a FA... that could be problematic. Gwynand | Talk•Contribs 19:35, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
I see :) I have considered that and would probably intervene and take down a reward if it began causing disruption. Thanks for your thoughts, I'll bear it in mind! naerii - talk 19:39, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Request for Peer Review help

Thank you for you work as a peer review volunteer. Since March, there has been a concerted effort to make sure all peer review requests get some response. Requests that have gone three days or longer without a substantial response are listed at Wikipedia:Peer review/backlog. I have three requests to help this continue.

1) If you are asked to do a peer review, please ask the person who made the request to also do a review, preferably of a request that has not yet had feedback. This is fairly simple, but helps. For example when I review requests on the backlog list, I close with Hope this helps. If my comments are useful, please consider peer reviewing an article, especially one at Wikipedia:Peer review/backlog (which is how I found this article). Yours, ...

2) While there are several people who help with the backlog, lately I have been doing up to 3 or 4 peer reviews a day and can not keep this up much longer. We need help. Since there are now well over 100 names on the PR volunteers page, if each volunteer reviewed just one PR request without a response from the list each month, it would easily take care of the "no response" backlog. To help spread out the load, I suggest those willing pick a day of the month and do a review that day (for example, my first edit was on the 8th, so I could pick the 8th). Please pick a peer review request with no responses yet, if possible off the backlog list. If you want, leave a note on my talk page as to which day you picked and I will remind you each month.

3) I have made some proposals to add some limits to peer review requests at Wikipedia_talk:Peer_review#Proposed_limits. The idea is to prevent any one user from overly burdening the process. These seem fairly reasonable (one PR request per editor per day, only four total PR requests per editor at a time, PR requests with cleanup banners can be delisted (like GAN quick fail), and wait two weeks to relist a PR request after it is archived), but have gotten no feedback in one week. If you have any thoughts on these, please weigh in.

Thanks again for your help and in advance for any assistance with the backlog. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 21:10, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Something to keep in mind if you're going to snow-close an RfA...

Make sure to tag it as such; I went ahead and corrected Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/TreasuryTag so that both WP:SNOW and your username were attached.

No big deal, just a friendly reminder. EVula // talk // ☯ // 22:40, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Reverting vandalism

What you describe here is exactly what I went through too. :) Acalamari 23:39, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Heh: same here, and before I knew about rollback, I used to wonder why on earth vandal-fighters always typed in "reverted edits by (vandal) to last version by (editor before the vandal)" whenever they reverted someone. :) Acalamari 17:36, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Peer review

Good luck on exams and no problem - hopefully after you can do a review (or two ;-) ) a month. Thanks for the comment, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 00:51, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Chat

Thanks! When did you get back? I didn't even realize! NSR77 TC 00:18, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

I've actually seen this username around but I never once thought it was you! Especially since its so different than your prior ones. What made you decide to come back? NSR77 TC 00:21, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
Heh, people keep accusing me of sockpuppeting etc and obscuring my previous accounts.. it's really weird, people never seem to notice the statements on my userpage that make it clear who I am :P Just boredom really. I see you've been racking up a ridiculous amount of FAs. I'm going to have to work hard to catch you up over the summer! -- Naerii 00:23, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
Never noticed you replied on your talk page! I'm always bad at it when people do that. Haha. Yeah they just seemed to accumulated. My ultimate goal is get every Chili Peppers album to FA, which I hope to accomplish by the end of the year (if possible). What are you up to? NSR77 TC 02:13, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Stadium Arcadium is indeed radio friendly. Too over-produced if you ask me; the beauty of Blood Sugar is that it is raw and imperfect. At the moment there's not too many left to go. Stadium Arcadium, Mother's Milk, Uplift, Freaky Styley, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Which is only....five articles. Hah. Hopefully the band's first three should be much easier than the rest, but who knows. I'll definitely give you a call to copyedit! Those, in between some of my other projects (like Disintegration and "Under the Bridge") should be "fun". Indie pop is good, not going to lie. I don't love the genre but some of it is really nice sounding, like the ones you mentioned. I can't think of any band that I love, however, that was formed prior to 1990. I've always felt like I was born in the wrong time, you know? NSR77 TC 21:07, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree. I've thought about running a couple times but the spot of adminship just doesn't seem right for me, at least now. Perhaps in a couple months (which is what I keep telling myself every other month). Thanks for your support, though. :) I'm kind of disappointed I could not have commented on your adminship. I would have definitely givem you support. NSR77 TC 18:23, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Trust me, I've been trying... dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 09:43, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Portal of Imperial China

Awesome! I'll have a look and see what I can suggest.--Pericles of AthensTalk 00:38, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

If you want to see a gigantic wealth of pictures to show in the portal, take a look here at what commons has for the Art of China.--Pericles of AthensTalk 00:43, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
For biographies, the article for Shen Kuo that I brought to featured status would be a good start.--Pericles of AthensTalk 00:44, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

For more China-history-related articles that are either FA or GA status, you might consider adding to the portal such articles as

Just some suggestions to improve the portal.--Pericles of AthensTalk 20:35, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Portal:History of Imperial China

Wow. I'm very happy that you've taken on this task. Nicely done so far. I look forward to seeing how you finish it up.

The "Things to do" box could list articles from various maintenance projects, "improve an article to GA status", FA status, adding articles to the "Selected" frames' queues, creating a "Did you know" for the box of the same name, and (I'm sure you can think of more), and "add more tasks to this list", etc.

The "Topics" box will be more involved, entailing that you browse the subject's articles, and its categories, gathering links as you go. It doesn't need to be comprehensive; all the main articles on the subject plus a good cross-section of the rest of them.

The most major thing I noticed was the big gap under the selected biography - you could rename the top box in the left column to "Selected Dynasty", and then create a new box for "Selected article" (under the biography box), putting non-dynasty and non-biography articles in the new box - like articles on artifacts, places, customs, events, etc.

Portal:Charles Dickens does a very good job of balancing columns, by standardizing the length of excerpts for each specific box. Tricky, but the effect is nice.

Note that "selected" articles don't have to be "featured".

Just some thoughts. I hope you find them helpful.

I can't wait to see the final outcome.

The Transhumanist    06:11, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Reward Board, the Big Picture, etc.

I'm planning on putting up a long term post at the reward board based on my subpage here. As you've got an extensive list of basic topics and things you'd like to see up at AWC, I was wondering if you could give me some ideas for some core topics that need improving? I'd like to limit the list to ~50 articles. If I can motivate even one person into improving something it'll be worth it :D naerii - talk 18:14, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

You wish to be an overseer of quality coverage on Wikipedia. Excellent. Not too many people who I know of are keeping an eye on the Big Picture. But you are. Congratulations.

As you know, I've been occupied building a system that doubles as a multi-page site map of fundamental coverage on Wikipedia as well as a fundamental outline of knowledge. When completed, it will present a solid core of subject matter.

The building of subject outlines that tie-into Wikipedia's coverage provides a bird's eye view of what is covered, what is covered well, covered not so well, and what isn't covered at all. Our editor Earthdirt said it best: "I am certain you know but, doing "basics" lists really lets you see how much work some of our most basic articles need. For instance, interphase was horrible, unreadable, and inaccurate (obviously I couldn't leave it that way). I hope it's a bit better now. Doing [the List of basic cell biology topics] allowed me to find lots of basic inaccurate stuff about biology in lots of articles and to fix them, thanks."

Therefor, I highly recommend that you select a major subject you are very familiar with or very interested in, and develop the basic topics list for it. In addition to providing a valuable navigation tool for Wikipedia, the effort will expose you to Wikipedia's coverage in your chosen subject area, and will increase your awareness of what is needed the most for it.

Or you could explore the lists that are already built or in the process of being built. Currently, I'm focusing on Geography, and specifically on Wikipedia's coverage of the countries of the World. To present this coverage and make it more easily accessible to Wikipedia's readers, I'm in the process of constructing basic topic lists for all of the countries of the world.

Those lists have many redlinks, showing gaps in Wikipedia's coverage of the corresponding countries. That might also be a good place for you to start. Articles are needed to replace those redlinks. (On the drafts, beware of the government and regions sections - they contain temporary topic names, which are invalid for many countries - they're there to provide a starting point only, and need to be changed to fit each country.)

Or as Earthdirt pointed out above, you could click on the links provided in a list of basic topics of your choice and evaluate the quality of each article presented.

The best way I can think of to make a list of items needing coverage is to keep a window open with a subpage of your user's page dedicated to just that. Then, as you explore and read Wikipedia, anytime you come across something that needs work, add it to your list. The more specific and creative your suggestions are, the better. That is, as you are reading and an idea occurs to you like "wouldn't it be cool if this article had such and such...", those make the best development tasks.

While working on the List of basic Australia topics I was searching for a cool picture of kangaroos to include on there, and I noticed that almost all of the pictures available of kangaroos are either out of context or in a single context, showing roos in captivity or just sitting around doing nothing. There's only one of a roo in flight, but it is cut off too short at the top (cutting off an ear). What is needed are some professional quality pics of roos in flight, a large group of roos (doing whatever roos do), and multiple roos in flight. It's the most famous animal from Australia, but our coverage of it leaves something to be desired. Maybe you could add these to your list.

We could use some more pics of koalas and saltwater crocodiles too. You hear a lot about crocs coming into people's backyards in Australia, but we don't have a single picture of this.

I hope you find the above suggestions helpful.

By the way, upon realizing just how huge a task the development of 200+ country topics lists is (each one takes at least a day of effort which can stretch out to years if you can only put in a couple hours per day), I started taking your approach of spreading the word to reach out for help. Taking that a step further, with the help of several others, I'm currently in the process of preparing a big competition (which will take place at the WP:AWC) for those who like to use advanced tools (like WP:AWB and Linky), to build small parts of the whole set of lists at once. Right now, we're building the awards to be given away to participants and winners in the competition.

I'm looking for some people to help coordinate and oversee the collaboration/competition to make sure it runs smoothly, and to make it an exciting event. It will be one of the largest collaborations ever attempted on Wikipedia - larger than the WP:TOTD, larger than the help system redesign, and even larger than the main page redesign. Hopefully it will start in about five weeks. (Assuming the awards are ready by then).

Are you interested?

The Transhumanist    20:11, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Hey, I love your Core Articles reward list. I was thinking of duplicating it myself, but I thought maybe it would be a better idea to come up with some sort of collective pot. Would it be possible for me to add $10 for every GA and $30 for every FA? So that way we could collectively offer $50 for every GA and $100 for every FA. What do you think? Kaldari (talk) 20:50, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Hey, that would be fine as long as you're definitely sure you're willing to honour the commitment (it would be a bit awkward if someone made an FA and didn't get the reward they were promised!). Does your offer include other currencies (i.e. the equivalent of $10 in whatever currency)? naerii - talk 20:54, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Yes, I would definitely honor the commitment. I've paid out several rewards already on the Reward Board ($30 for Emma Goldman, $10 for Tennessee State Museum, $10 for photo of the Anne Frank tree). I'll pay whatever the equivalent amounts are in any currency, if it can be paid through PayPal. Kaldari (talk) 21:07, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Well then that's awesome - thank you for your generosity! :) I'll make a note on the page now. I will probably be expanding the list slightly in the future (to one more column) - please watchlist the page and let me know if you have a problem with any of the additions. Thanks again! naerii - talk 21:09, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Cool. I favor adding articles that counter Wikipedia's systemic bias (African and Asian topics, Female biographies, etc.). Not so much science and math as I think those are already well covered generally. Margaret Sanger might be a good addition. Kaldari (talk) 21:14, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the suggstion! The list there was just a few things that came off the top of my head. I'm going to revise it in a bit and it should hopefully be something along the lines of countries, important events and the cultures of Africa, Asia and (maybe) Latin America. Things like the Second Congo War. I just recently started flicking through high priority articles in areas of systemic bias lately and was absolutely amazed by the breadth of our shortcomings. I'm having to contain myself and not make the list a massive huge thing :) Is there a limit that you'd like the list to stick at? Feel free to edit it yourself! naerii - talk 21:22, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
I would like to keep it focused to 50 or so articles if possible. Kaldari (talk) 21:29, 20 May 2008 (UTC)