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The Space Barnstar

moved to vanity closet

The Teamwork Barnstar

Misplaced Pages Ambassadors update

Hi! You're getting this message because you are or have been a Misplaced Pages Ambassador. A new term is beginning for the United States and Canada Education Programs, and I wanted to give you an update on some important new information if you're interested in continuing your work this term as a Misplaced Pages Ambassador.

You may have heard a reference to a transition the education program is going through. This is the last term that the Wikimedia Foundation will directly run the U.S. and Canada programs; beginning in June, a proposed thematic organization is likely to take over organizing the program. You can read more about the proposal here.

Another major change in the program will take effect immediately. Beginning this term, a new MediaWiki education extension will replace all course pages and Ambassador lists. (See Misplaced Pages:Course pages and Help:Education Program extension for more details.) Included in the extension are online volunteer and campus volunteer user rights, which let you create and edit course pages and sign up as an ambassador for a particular course.

If you would like to continue serving as a Misplaced Pages Ambassador — even if you do not support a class this term — you must create an ambassador profile. If you're no longer interested in being a Misplaced Pages Ambassador, you don't need to do anything.

Please do these steps as soon as possible

First, you need the relevant user rights for Online and/or Campus Ambassadors. (If you are an admin, you can grant the rights yourself, for you as well as other ambassadors.) Just post your rights request here, and we'll get you set up as quickly as possible.

Once you've got the ambassador rights, please set up at a Campus and/or Online Ambassador profile. You can do so at:

• Special:CampusAmbassadorProfile
• Special:OnlineAmbassadorProfile

Going forward, the lists of Ambassadors at Special:CampusAmbassadors and Special:OnlineAmbassadors will be the official roster of who is an active Ambassador. If you would like to be an Ambassador but not ready to serve this term, you can un-check the option in your profile to publicly list it (which will remove your profile from the list).

After that, you can sign on to support courses. The list of courses will be at Special:Courses. (By default, this lists "Current" courses, but you can change the Status filter to "Planned" to see courses for this term that haven't reached their listed start date yet.)

As this is the first term we have used the extension, we know there will be some bugs, and we know the feature set is not as rich as it could be. (A big wave of improvements is already in the pipeline. And if you know MediaWiki and could help with code review, we'd love to have your help!) Please reach out to me (Sage Ross) with any complaints, bug reports, and feature suggestions. The basic features of the extension are documented at Misplaced Pages:Course pages, and you can see a tutorial for setting up and using them here.

Communication and keeping up to date

In the past, the Education Program has had a pretty fragmented set of communication channels. We're trying to fix that. These are the recommended places to discuss and stay up-to-date on the education program:

1. The education noticeboard has become the main on-wiki location for discussion of the Education Program. You can post there about broad education program issues as well as issues with individual courses.
2. The Ambassadors Announce email list is a very low-traffic announcements list of important information all Ambassadors need to be aware of. We encourage all Ambassadors (and other interested Wikipedians) to subscribe to the list; follow the instructions on the link to add your email address.
3. If you use IRC regularly, or need to try to reach someone immediately, the #wikipedia-en-ambassadors IRC channel is the place to find me and fellow Ambassadors.

Ambassador training and resources

We now have an online training for Ambassadors, which is intended to be both an orientation about the Misplaced Pages Ambassador role for newcomers and the manual for how to do the role. (There are parallel trainings for students and for educators as well.)

Please go through the training if you feel like you need a refresher on how a typical class is supposed to go and where the Ambassadors fit in, or if you want to review and help improve it. If there's something you'd like to see added, or other suggestions you have for it, feel free to edit the training and/or leave feedback. A primer on setting up and using course pages is included in the educators' training.

The Resources page of the training is the main place for Ambassador-related resources. If there's something you think is important as a resource that's not on there, please add it.

Finally, whether or not you work with any classes this term, I encourage you to post entries to the Trophy Case whenever you see excellent work from students or if you have great examples from past semesters. And, as always, let students (and other editors!) know when they do things well; a little WikiLove goes a long way!

--Sage Ross (WMF) (talk) 20:48, 14 January 2013 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

TEE HEE

Mollie K Lawson 19:24, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation pages

Hello, Serendipodous. When you moved Earth Federation to a new title and then redirected the old title to a disambiguation page, you may have been unaware of WP:FIXDABLINKS, which says:

A code of honor for creating disambiguation pages is to fix all resulting mis-directed links.

Before moving an article to a qualified name (in order to create a disambiguation page at the base name, to move an existing disambiguation page to that name, or to redirect that name to a disambiguation page), click on What links here to find all of the incoming links. Repair all of those incoming links to use the new article name.

It would be a great help if you would check the other Misplaced Pages articles that contain links to "Earth Federation" and fix them to take readers to the correct article. Thanks. --R'n'B (call me Russ) 12:24, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Interested in helping ambassador a molecular biology course?

Hi, Serendipodous, I had a look at your OA profile, and was wondering if you'd be interested in helping me to OA a section of Molecular Biology for this semester (course officially starts right now). The course pages are here: Section 81 and Section 82. Right now I am the only one for both sections. I think ideally I could recruit three others, for two OAs per section -- then the work would be spread out and pretty easy, I think. It's not a whole lot of work, but the professor is not an experienced Wikipedian, and I do try to help her not only with answering student questions, but also with evaluations -- just checking to make sure the students did the assignments. Please let me know if you are available. Thanks! Klortho (talk) 05:22, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Hi, again, Serendipodous, Don't know if you've seen it, but we've been having some discussion of this course on my talk page. If you are still up for helping, could you add yourself as OA to the two courses? Klortho (talk) 15:16, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Web Bot

If Web Bot is going to be deleted - the real result of the redirect you did - please take it to AfD for a full debate. You proposed a merge to 2012 phenomenon in 2009, which wasn't done. Fences&Windows 16:17, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Molecular Biology course: still in?

Hi, Serendipodous, You didn't respond to my email, and we haven't heard from you in a bit, and I'm wondering if you're still interested in helping out with this course. If not, it is okay, I think Keilana and I can handle it. If so, then I'm wondering if you mind giving us your email -- we've been communicating that way a little bit, behind the scenes, CC'ing all the OAs and the professor. If you don't like email, that's okay too, we can just use this talk page when needed. I guess, as OA, all you really need to do is to respond if a student leaves you a question at some point in the semester. Cheers! Klortho (talk) 12:07, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

Hi Serendipodous! Checking in from JHU Mol Bio

I'm a student in Prog. Ogg's molecular bio course. Noticed that you are one of the class ambassadors and wanted to say hello.WeberOwl (talk) 04:03, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello Serendipodous

Hey Serendipodous. I decided to post on your talk page because I think your username is unique and pretty neat. Also, because I've noticed you really haven't replied to anyone, which is pretty cool too. Hey did you know there's a company by the name of Mars One that is planning to send people on a one way trip to Mars to colonize it? I think thats pretty awesome. I only mention that because I notice you like space discovery? Maybe? No? We should sign up together. I think we would have a lot to talk about. Like why watermelon taste so good even though its 92% water. Well let me know if you want to sign-up. I have connections. Binhtruong (talk) 23:25, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

I hate to interrupt this riveting conversation, but I just wanted to thank you, Binh, for this extremely entertaining post. I just had my first Misplaced Pages-related chuckle thanks to you. -MonopterusAlbus (talk) 02:02, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Miranda

Have you got the archive? Ruslik_Zero 18:51, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello Serendipodous

Hi Serendipodous,

I am new to Misplaced Pages, but I look forward to creating a Wiki page and communicating with you.

Bmesido1 (talk) 01:40, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

I meant to say I look forward to creating Wiki pages and communicating with you over the course of the semester.

Bmesido1 (talk) 01:57, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Greetings from course 410.602.81 Molecular Biology

It's good to meet you, albeit virtually. I have been amazed by what one can do with the Wikimedia toolset, and I'm eager to learn more as I go through my class with Dr. Ogg at Hopkins.

Thanks for volunteering your time to be an ambassador, and look forward to working with you over this course term.

Aaron.aude (talk) 23:43, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Hello from across the pond

Hi Serendipodous-It looks like quite a few us JHU students have already bombarded your talk page for practice. Just stopping by to say hello. Cheers! Jengel11 (talk) 00:23, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

WP:TOP25

Thanks for contributing that good summary and other tweaks to the WP:TOP25 this week! I had never heard of the Prophecy of the Popes before, its always interesting to see what "popular" things I know nothing about.--Milowent • 13:39, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

• New WP:TOP25is up, if you wish to do a summary. I predict it may be Oscar related!--Milowent • 15:35, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Still interested in being an OA?

I sent you an email, but you didn't respond. I don't see that you've been active interacting with the students. If you don't have time, that is fine, but please let me know so that it doesn't cause us extra time trying to engage you. Klortho (talk) 22:38, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Top25

• That would be awesome if you could, as I cannot do it before Wednesday at best! Its not an automated process, so you can trace my steps in my contrib history if this doesn't make sense: Essentially, I take the current list, and create a draft with it at Misplaced Pages:5000/Top25Report/Draft. I edit the draft with the new week's information (helpful when re-using old entries that stay on the list). When the draft is ready, I move the current page (but not the talk page) to archives, e.g., Misplaced Pages:5000/Top25Report/February 17-23, 2013, then update the the "next week" link on that old report. I just quickly pulled up the new WP:5000 and would note that I would remove PMID-, that is definitely odd, and Litfass, G-force, and Cat anatomy (as we have been doing already). Makeba was a google doodle. Macklemore I see will be in top 25, that's a first for him, but he's always lurking in the top ~50. I hope this helps. Thanks!--Milowent • 18:30, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
• Excellent job!! I made one change, the "wks" column is supposed to be # of weeks on the list, though I realize that isn't so apparent as its not described anywhere. I derived the idea for that column from the NYTimes book lists' but in an effort to make the columns slim, it may merit an explanation at the bottom of the weekly list.--Milowent • 02:13, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
• just replied on my page quickly--Milowent • 18:23, 24 March 2013 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Slender Man/Attic

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A tag has been placed on Slender Man/Attic requesting that it be speedily deleted from Misplaced Pages. This has been done under section G12 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article or image appears to be a clear copyright infringement. For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material, and as a consequence, your addition will most likely be deleted. You may use external websites as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences. This part is crucial: say it in your own words. Misplaced Pages takes copyright violations very seriously and persistent violators will be blocked from editing.

If the external website or image belongs to you, and you want to allow Misplaced Pages to use the text or image — which means allowing other people to modify it — then you must verify that externally by one of the processes explained at Misplaced Pages:Donating copyrighted materials. If you are not the owner of the external website or image but have permission from that owner, see Misplaced Pages:Requesting copyright permission. You might want to look at Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines for more details, or ask a question here.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines. ❤ Yutsi / Contributions ( 偉特 ) 17:58, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia_talk:Top25Report#Limonana_and_March_17-23.2C_2013

• FYI, I commented on the fascinating case of Limonana at Wikipedia_talk:Top25Report#Limonana_and_March_17-23.2C_2013. Thanks for your excellent work on the reports!--Milowent • 13:41, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for April 4

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Misplaced Pages appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Journey (2012 video game), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Variety (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

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File:Newplanets.jpg missing description details

• File:Newplanets.jpg

is missing a description and/or other details on its image description page. If possible, please add this information. This will help other editors make better use of the image, and it will be more informative to readers.

If the information is not provided, the image may eventually be proposed for deletion, a situation which is not desirable, and which can easily be avoided.

Note on the Top 25

Thanks for your continued great work on the Top 25. Minor note: the very last line of recent reports: i.e., "The revision of WP:5000 containing the data used to create list: " needs to be updated each week. That wikilink goes to a specific diff from a much earlier Top 5000 update (and we need to fix this in last couple reports, I think). Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 22:30, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

• Let me echo Andrew's thanks. Also, I think the Signpost has some interest in more regular coverage, maybe a top 10. I drafted the following sample, derived from the most recent list, for their consideration. Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/2013-04-29/Article Popularity Report.--Milowent • 19:02, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Use of derviative works templates

As the leading editor in terms of edit count of {{HolmesNovels}}, I am alerting you to the discussion about the use of derivative works templates in author bio articles at Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject Novels#Derivative works and cultural references templates. We are discussing whether they should be removed from or collapsed or left alone in the author's articles.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 00:01, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Precious again

outer space
Thank you for taking us to space, connected to astronomers and the history of discoveries, - repeating: you are an awesome Wikipedian (4 October 2010)!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:13, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

A year ago, you were the 136th recipient of my PumpkinSky Prize, repeated in br'erly style, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 05:18, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Ed  23:30, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Mediating Disputes Over "La Ciudad Blanca"

I hope all's well with you. I think we've worked well together in the past on the 2012 phenomenon article and I'd like to ask if you'd be willing to mediate disagreements that I'm having with another Misplaced Pages editor over the article on La Ciudad Blanca. We've been going back and forth in edit wars for the past few weeks. Although we thought we'd reached an understanding, it hasn't worked. Most of the debates appear on the talk page for the article, although some also appear on each of our user talk pages. My principal complaints are that: 1) his editing of the article has been based heavily upon a popular magazine article, not reliable scholarly sources; and 2) that he continues to revert a large number of what I consider to be improvements to the article. He has accused me of inserting a personal POV, while I have denied that and have countered that in fact what is happening his that he is editing the article to reflect his POV. Ideally, as you know, the article should be as neutral, correct, and factual as possible as well as being based on reliable sources. I think we could both benefit from your experience an expertise in dealing with challenging issues of editing. Thanks! Hoopes (talk) 20:20, 13 June 2013 (UTC)