Water cooler/2011

Anonymous page creation

Hi all, I've had to delete three spam/vandalism pages in the past two days alone so was wondering about disabling page creation by anoymous users. I can't see any reason why to not do this, as any initiative proposals should be created by a logged-in member. Thoughts? Rock drum (talk • contribs) 19:27, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

On :en I feel that WP:HUMAN tends to be frequently side-stepped, however I have no such feelings about WMUK which is a space intended for creation by its subscribing members though with (hopefully) much wider readership. Consequently I would not object to some constraints on contributions here, though something as weak as enforcing CAPTCHA for all IP edits might be sufficient to deter 80% of casual vandals. Fæ 22:10, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

This is something I've opposed in the past, as I think we should aim to be as open as possible to all. However, to be honest, over the last few years we've seen very little benefits from letting anonymous people edit the site at all, let alone the issue of creating new pages. Of course, I'm not suggesting that we stop all IP edits! So, I agree that it's sensible to disable new page creation by anon users, so long as that still lets them create talk pages. Mike Peel 22:26, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Chapter board meetings - format

Hi everyone, I am Alan Walker, a director from Wikimedia Canada. We are in the process of figuring out how to hold our directors meetings with respect to process and format. I see this chapter has some seniority and I am interested in hearing from anyone who has any thoughts to share on this subject. It seems your chapter uses a mix of mailing list, the wiki and Skype. The best way to reach me is by email or by my Wikimedia Canada Talk Page. Alan.ca 15:09, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

Does any UK resident want a free 1 year subscription to the London Review of Books?

If so, let me know at my talk page. You'll have to e-mail me your name & address, but otherwise no strings. Johnbod 14:50, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Interwiki links

Despite two requests above, w: still does not work as an interwiki link - eg. w:Haworth. Also, would it be possible to make en: also work - it does on the Commons - eg. en:Haworth. — RHaworth 23:46, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

I have just discovered that {{w}} is available (and now working properly) but I would still like the mods above. RHaworth 00:10, 14 April 2011 (UTC)

Change Username

Can anyone tell me how to change my userna,e on this wiki? Thanks.Harrypotter 08:11, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

As you are harmonizing all your accounts under your SUL, I would ask (again?) in one bite at Wikipedia:USURP or Wikipedia:CHU/S. Complex cases are sometimes worth discussing on the associated talk page to ensure there is no misunderstanding of what you are asking for. Fæ 12:35, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Chapter scholarships

Hi there. I was wondering whether something like this was ever considered by WMUK. I think it's viable, and might alleviate the foundation's burden by a bit. :-) Mentifisto 21:09, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

No privacy policy

On IRC someone raised the issue of the lack of a page at Wikimedia:Privacy policy on this here wiki. I have no idea how to resolve this. Perhaps a board member can do so, or maybe we can nick something from Meta. Whatever. It's fairly likely that there's probably some legal requirement for us to have something in the privacy policy page. If not, it's still a link in the footer, so we should probably have something there or just have a page pointing to an overall Wikimedia privacy policy on Meta or on the Foundation site or something. Tom Morris 13:03, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

I think whatever Meta has to say is the default here. Is there a particularly good page to point to? Fæ 23:45, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

I've set the link to point the the WMF's general privacy policy. I figured it's better to have that than nothing at all. Regards, Rock drum (talk • contribs) 11:52, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Should we bid for Wikimania 2014?

Do people think we should or should not bid for Wikimania in 2014, and crucially are there people out there willing to put the time in to make this happen? If so please signup at Wikimania bid Thanks (This is the end result of a mailing list thread) WereSpielChequers 19:41, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Blog skin

Hi there, i am wondering if the blog's skin is released under a free licence and if so, where it can be downloaded.

Thanks, 78.144.19.28 15:14, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

Addenda for July Reports?

Hi all, (first post on here) Didn't realise there was a space to pass on this news but on 15th July Simon Smith Tagishsimon ran a Wikipedia workshop for post-graduate students of Archaeology, Cultural Heritage Management, Medieval Studies and Eighteenth Century Studies as part of the King's Manor Interdisciplinary Conference at the University of York. Simon was invited to participate after I met him at GLAM/NRM the month before. He generously did so free of charge. Feedback from the 15 participants was very positive and Simon stayed on for a workshop on interdisciplinary studies of the past and the conference's wine reception. PatHadley 08:26, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks - we spotted that when it was happening, but forgot to include it in this month's report. I'll add it in to the August report. :-) Congrats to Simon for doing the workshop, and thanks to yourself for arranging it. Also, welcome to the wiki! :-) Mike Peel 09:14, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

An invitation that isn't mine to make

Hi all, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I was wondering about whether WMUK would be up for running a wikilounge/some sort of promo-presence at the year's biggest archaeology conference in Birmingham just before Christmas CentralTAG2010? I'm not an organiser for the conference but am co-running a session on social media and other web 2.0 tech in archaeology. It'd be great to have some wikipedians to direct curious archaeologists to after our session! It would also be a great place to promote projects such as User:Johnbod's Ice Age Art and Bronze Age projects. You'd have to contact the organisers (via the website above) soon as I believe they are trying to put together the schedule and facilities. It'd be a great thing to see! PatHadley 13:37, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Pat, I'm going to punt this around the right folks for follow-up. Cheers Fæ 21:57, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Email watchlist notification

Anybody know why I can't set my preferences to notify me when a page on my watchlist is changed, and if that can be fixed? I could do without another watchlist to check! Thanks, HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 17:08, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

That's interesting. I think there may be a dev around who knows why! (I suspect we're missing some extension or aren't running the same MW version as other WM projects. Deryck Chan 17:10, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

This function is controlled by $wgEnotifWatchlist (and if you like $wgEnotifMinorEdits too). I think it should take ~5 mins to do once someone gets around to it. (idk if they'll want "consensus" or maybe just some verifiable claim that the request came from a board member. or maybe no proof at all, really don't know. certainly something that looks official wouldn't hurt) Jeremyb 05:39, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

I've put in a bugzilla request to resolve this - hopefully shouldn't take too long for them to do. :-) Mike Peel 10:06, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

... and, fixed. Thanks to User:Reedy. :-) Mike Peel 20:07, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Charity number

Worth mentioning?

See Main page. --Fæ 08:24, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

Special:WantedTemplates

Can someone explain how this special page is created and why we want all the templates listed? Thanks --Fæ 09:54, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

It is generated based on calls to templates that don't exist. See the links for where the templates were called from, which hopefully shows why they're wanted. ;-) Note that those in blue that are struck through already exist (and will be removed from the WantedTemplates list when it's next updated). Mike Peel 12:20, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

As to why User:Rich Farmbrough is copying over lots of templates to the wiki at the moment (which I presume is the reason behind your message) - that's a separate question best asked to him. ;-) Mike Peel 12:22, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

Cool, I think some of these are a bit pointless on this wiki, but I'm happy with others so I'll focus on more urgent matters. --Fæ 13:48, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

Disclosure in sitenotice

Why has the disclosure been put in the sitenotice? It is really necessary to have it there? Isn't it normal to put those kind of things out of the way at the bottom of a page? Also, if it does need to be there, is it right that it should be dismissable? Either it needs to be there, or it doesn't, I can't see why it would be the choice of the visitor. --Tango 18:37, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Oh, that's a weird thing to do with a sitenotice. I'd like to understand the rationale or if it was some sort of mistake. Reverted it back to empty in the meantime. --Fæ 18:40, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

I see nothing wrong with it being dismissable. Like lots of stuff, once you've read it you've read it. But maybe it should jusdt belong on About Wikimedia UK. Rich Farmbrough, 14:09, 10 December 2011 (UTC).

I think those notices tend to re-appear every time you log back in which could be a pain. Otherwise the wiki would have to lay down local cookies, probably not a reliable or welcome way of doing things. --Fæ 23:38, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

The ideal thing would be for this to go into the page footer - but I can't see how to do that aside from templates. As far as I understand matters, we have to include it wherever the content is formal/on behalf of WMUK, which probably means most pages here (e.g. it should probably be on the minutes, but probably not on the Wikimania bid pages). The site notice definitely isn't the best place for it, though. Mike Peel 00:28, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

We could try adding it to MediaWiki:Wikimedia-copyright, I think that would pretty much do it. --Tango 05:21, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Yup, that did it, thanks for pointing it out. :-) Mike Peel 12:52, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

User:WOSlinker

If WOSlinker is a bot, could its owner please create a user page explaining why and what it is up to? Thanks --Fæ 21:53, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

No, I'm not a bot. What I'm doing is updating occurences of the -moz-border-radius style (which gives the boxes rounded corners) to use the {{border-radius}} template instead which contains border-radius, -moz-border-radius & -webkit-border-radius styles. This will then mean that the rounded corners, which used to only show up in Firefox & other Mozilla browsers, will also show up on IE 9+, Chrome & Safari. -- WOSlinker 23:56, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Actually, a lot of the styling code that's on the pages could be moved into Mediawiki:Common.css which would make the pages a bit neater. -- WOSlinker 23:57, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

That sounds like a good idea. If you leave detailed instructions on my talk page, I can make the necessary changes to Common.css (I know a little CSS, but I've never done much with Common.css). Thanks for your help! --Tango 05:27, 14 December 2011 (UTC)

Admins

Hi, Wikimedia:Administrators is our currently very short and simple process for :wmuk sysops. I'm wondering if we should add a constraint that any administrator completely inactive on the site for more than 12 months will have their sysop privilege expire (they can request them again if they become active). This would avoid the risk of an indefinite number of floating unused sysop accounts. Any views on this change or suggestions for other, simple, improvements? --Fæ 15:46, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

I think that would be a good idea. In addition to the usual powers admins have on wikis, admins here also have a ability to edit "official" pages that are protected because the chapter has legal duties to make sure they say the right things. That's a serious power, so it makes sense to keep close tabs on who has it. Unused admin accounts carry two risks - the admin could come back but be out of touch so make serious mistakes, or the account could get hacked and the admin powers used for malicious purposes (of course, that can happen with active accounts too, but with active accounts the gain from them being able to do administrative tasks outweighs the risk, there isn't really any gain from inactive accounts). --Tango 17:33, 17 December 2011 (UTC)

Done --Fæ 00:10, 12 January 2012 (UTC)