Wikipedia:Simple talk

Simple talk
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help me

hi. i am new editor and i wanna to improve my english language. i need your help. can you give me some project for practice for improving my ability ? --Dastan47 (talk) 14:40, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

@Dastan47: I want to help you. Do you know Persian? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 04:49, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

@Koavf: yes. of course my native language is persian. --Dastan47 (talk) 06:05, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

@Dastan47: A beautiful language with a lot of history. It is also Indo-European so it will be a little similar to English. You also obviously have some understanding of English--can you tell me more about your history with it? —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 06:09, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

@Koavf: of course, history of iran is wide and big. what kind of era do you want to know, hence i answer your question ? because i didn't know history of middle east very well. --Dastan47 (talk) 06:43, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

@Dastan47: Tell me your history with English. (تاریخ خود را با زبان انگلیسی) —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 06:48, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

New California law affects birth dates in IMDB

You might be interested in a new California law, AB 1687, that prohibits some websites from publishing information about people's ages. That includes not only stating the age, but mentioning a birth date. As far as I can tell, it doesn't seem to apply to Wikipedia, but it apparently does apply to IMDB, a source we sometimes use. If you see any articles that use IMDB as a source about someone's age, you might want to replace that reference. Even if IMDB does still have the information, IMDB is not a reliable source for Wikipedia purposes, so it would be good to replace these references anyway. --Auntof6 (talk) 19:34, 9 January 2017 (UTC)

Would only apply to them because their servers are likely located in California which isn't the case of Wikipedia so it doesn't affect us at all. But yes, always good to look for other sources anyway. There is however, no reason we have to remove links to IMDB. -DJSasso (talk) 16:31, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

That's true in general. However, if IMDB removes birth dates and we're using IMDB as a reference for birth dates, those references would no longer support the birth date information and should be replaced. --Auntof6 (talk) 16:47, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Yup. But I don't forsee many being removed. They only have to remove them if the subject asks them to. I can't see that happening too often, atleast for imdb. -DJSasso (talk) 18:58, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

Twinkle Quick Deletion Log

How do I set up a Twinkle Quick Deletion Log? Thanks, MiloDenn (talk) 18:16, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Go to Wikipedia:Twinkle/Preferences. Scroll down to the "Quick deletion (QD)" section. Check the box for "Keep a log in userspace of all QD nominations", and type a page name in the text box labelled "Keep the QD userspace log at this user subpage:". I don't use this feature, so I don't know the correct format for the page name. --Auntof6 (talk) 18:27, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Quick Deletions

How can I delete bad pages on Wikipedia? Pkbwcgs (talk) 18:52, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Deletion policy. -DJSasso (talk) 18:56, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

I can understand the deletion policy. How to remove Wikipedia pages? Pkbwcgs (talk) 19:13, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

You can't. You can mark pages to suggest deletion (as described in the policy). Only administrators can delete pages. StevenJ81 (talk) 21:21, 11 January 2017 (UTC)

SEW Discord

I find that users are rarely on IRC, and so I would like (if it's okay with everyone else) to switch to Discord so that people can see what messages have been written and also allows room for more expansion. Or maybe if people still want to use IRC, there could be both. Computer Fizz (talk) 05:05, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

@Auntof6: @Chenzw: @Macdonald-ross: Pinging most active admins as I have been having this issue for a while. Computer Fizz (talk) 17:12, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand the issue. Is Discord another chat facility? What makes you think that more people would participate in that? And are you proposing that discussions there be published so that people can see them besides the participants? How would you ensure that participants approved of publishing their conversations each time? Keep in mind that any conversations on IRC are unofficial and not intended for publication. The same would be true of any other off-wiki discussions. --Auntof6 (talk) 17:28, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Short explanation: Discord is better than IRC.

Long explanation: You don't need to "publish" them, they just stay there. And yes, I do think that everyone should be able to read the chat as Wikipedia is open and IRC could be used to have secret discussions (now I'm not saying we need to stop that, just saying that if it's *official* then people should be able to read it. That's what Wikipedia *is* -- being open for everyone to read is one of the raw principles that Wikipedia was founded on. So I am thinking that we should try it out and if everyone is okay with it, we can continue to use it. Computer Fizz (talk) 18:21, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Then I would not support this idea. Wikipedia is open, but IRC is not Wikipedia. Having the chat is the same as having a meetup: discussions happen there that are not recorded and are not official. If anything is discussed off-wiki that affects on-wiki stuff, that discussion needs to be repeated on-wiki so that 1) everyone can see it and 2) it is on record the same as on-wiki discussions. --Auntof6 (talk) 18:29, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

That was just about it being recorded. My main problem is that people are hardly ever online and that way people can have a conversation without all being online at the same time. Computer Fizz (talk) 18:32, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

They can do that on talk pages on-wiki. --Auntof6 (talk) 23:54, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

Actually, I don't think I would check discord very often either. Anyone can join the link if they want, but I withdraw my opinion on any of this. Computer Fizz (talk) 18:36, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

The issue with simplewiki IRC is not the interface itself. People are fine with using freenode. I don't think discord would attract more users. eurodyne (talk) 03:16, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

I don't think we have the editor numbers for an adequate presence on Discord - our IRC channel is dead enough. No point splitting off from freenode, where there is already a significant WMF presence, as well as the various helper bots. Chenzw  Talk  09:50, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

On wiki topics are not supposed to be discussed on IRC anyway. So if you want to discuss stuff that affects the wiki it must be done on the wiki. IRC is only for off-topic chatter so people can use it or not use it, it doesn't affect anything on here as it is basically unofficial. -DJSasso (talk) 15:50, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

My Pages

I have made several new pages recently, yet they don't come up as options in the drop down menu when I search for them. If I press enter they then appear, and I was wondering whether it was because they had accents in. These are the pages: Allgäu Alps and Großer Krottenkopf. Thanks, MiloDenn (talk) 16:11, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

What dropdown menu are you referring to? --Auntof6 (talk) 17:09, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

When you search for something it gives you a list of pages that it thinks your asking for. MiloDenn (talk) 18:35, 12 January 2017 (UTC)

I just tried it and it appeared on my drop down menu. I think it just takes a while to appear it. --Druddigon (talk | contributions) 17:09, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

Need someone to look at this

I just deleted several articles created by a user. The same user also created a couple of modules: Module:Hatnote list and Module:See also. I'm not as up to speed as I could be on modules, so could someone more knowledgeable in them take a look to see if these are needed? Keep in mind that the mere fact that they show up as used doesn't necessarily mean that they are needed. Thanks. --Auntof6 (talk) 07:52, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

At least for now, relying on modules introduces complications to our small community, as not many of us (if at all) can troubleshoot Lua-related issues effectively. {{See also}} appears to have worked fine in the old (module-less) way, so I don't see any pressing need to migrate it to use a module instead. Chenzw  Talk  08:46, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

It's a tricky problem, because in some cases, modules can do things otherwise not available. (Think of the greater flexibility available in using Wikidata through modules than through {{#property:...}}.) I may well bring over a module being used to run {{Bibleverse}} because the tool the current template relies on isn't being maintained, while the module is. But perhaps the way to go here is that any module that we use here (perhaps other than Wikidata modules) (a) is here only because the current, non-module version doesn't work, and (b) needs to have a contact person on the documentation that will commit to running and maintaining it. StevenJ81 (talk) 15:24, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

PS: When I bring templates to other wikis I work on, like Ladino Wikipedia and Incubator, I still rely a great deal on Simple English Wikipedia, because it still has very viable non-module templates. StevenJ81 (talk) 15:26, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

Twinkle

Twinkle is currently down at the moment. It is taking a long time to make Rfd nominations. Is there anything which could help this. Pkbwcgs (talk) 12:50, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

Requested move

I tried to request a move over a redirect at Talk:Sharia_law, but it looks like the template doesn't work here. The reason for requesting a move to Sharia was: Per WP:COMMONNAME, as the standard term used by the bulk of RSs on the subject. The redundant form "Sharia law" is mostly used by polemicists, and this title has a side effect of showing up first in search results and diverting about a quarter of likely unsuspecting users from the far better developed en-wiki article. Thanks. Eperoton (talk) 01:01, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

Category rename

Category:Languages of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Should be Category:Languages of Azad Kashmir per the main article and category. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 04:52, 16 January 2017 (UTC)

Research Project

Hi I am a high school English teacher in Virginia. This semester I have an advanced 11th grade American Literature class. For a research project, I would to like to divide them into four groups and have each group do a page on a person or topic (researching, writing, and documenting the information). I thought something like this may be more interesting than the usual research paper. Can this be done and if so, who do I need to communicate with and how? If it can be done, is there a template they can use for formatting and proper research? The template would also serve as s grading rubric. Thank you for help you can render my class.

C. F. Jennings, George Washington High School, Danville Virginia cfjennin@mail.dps.k12.va.us --BeachDiva60 (talk) 06:09, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

@BeachDiva60: Hello, and welcome to Simple English Wikipedia. First, please be sure you have read Wikipedia:Schools/Teachers' Guide. That will give you some basic information about school projects on this wiki. I would say that the main thing to keep in mind is that any work done here should eventually be useable to improve Simple English Wikipedia. That means that you and your students should be familiar with basic requirements for Wikipedia articles. If you or any of your students are familiar with working on others Wikipedias, including the English Wikipedia, it would help to become familiar with the differences here.

It would help us to answer your questions if you tell us more about what you have in mind. In particular, it would help to know:

• How many students would there be? Would they use registered accounts? If so, would the accounts be for class use only, or would they belong to the students?
• When do you want to do this project (start and end dates)?
• Would the students' work be checked before being added to live articles? We don't have a draft namespace like English Wikipedia, so work would have to be done either in user sandboxes or live articles. In the past, students (and teachers) have gotten frustrated when work in live articles was removed because it didn't meet requirements, so it might be best to work in sandboxes at first.
• Will your class include spending time going over how to work on Wikipedia? If so Wikipedia:Student tutorial should help with that.

Those are the questions I can think of right now. I wish you luck with your project, and look forward to hearing back from you. --Auntof6 (talk) 06:48, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Frog

Can you please semi-protect the page Frog as it is prone to vandalism. Pkbwcgs (talk) 18:57, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

There was all of 8 edits good or bad all of 2016....protection only happens for articles that are vandalized many times by many edits in one day. -DJSasso (talk) 19:06, 17 January 2017 (UTC)