User talk:DGG

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Do not add comments here; add new sections at the bottom, not the top

I'm sure I've seen you reference this essay

WP:TALKINGSOFASTNOBODYCANHEARYOU. Is my memory that faulty? I can't find it, and it's possible the syntax isn't precise. Did you use this a sort of irony? I seem to remember you used the link to represent bullying behaviors. I'm seeing one such user who seems to be wanting to turn the entire AfD process on its head by using such a technique. BusterD (talk) 11:48, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

I have sometimes used pseudo-links like these as a statement for their own sake, without writing an actual essay. I remember saying something like this, but I can't find it. I think this one was TALKINGSOMUCH... -- but I can't find it either. As for the problem, I've commented pretty extensively at AN/I: [1], and will comment at the RfC also, But please don't confuse the reasonable message, with which I am in agreement -- that Deletion Policy is overbalanced towards deletion, and one step towards rebalancing it would be to require some version of WP:BEFORE -- with the unreasonable way it is being over-expressed. DGG ( talk ) 23:23, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, David. I was a debater in school before "talking so fast" became the current style. I feel anything which games the system deserves appropriate response in order to keep the system sound. I appreciate your valid concern about deletion procedures being over-weighted toward one outcome. Thanks for your valuable comments in those forums. Be well. BusterD (talk) 23:37, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

Draft:Rt Rana

Hello Dear DGG , I expanded it a bit and made it more respectable. What do you think about it ? I think it's quite close to wikipedia level. Rajuiu (talk) 15:31, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

Ah yes, I had forgotten that context. And so was I, in college--a very valuable experience, especially in facilitating the sort of intercampus experiences only the athletic teams otherwise gave occasion for. But the stimulus is interesting: if I take a turn at NPP, the amount of junk turns me for a while into a deletionist before I catch myself and stop being so unfriendly to all the newcomers. If I take a look at AfD, the number of unwarranted nominations makes me inclined to give a similarly snappy and unjust response to all of them, with the less than rational thought that if I argue against all of them, maybe there's a chance the good ones will make it. Several good inclusionists have run into trouble here falling into such temptation. DGG ( talk ) 23:58, 24 September 2011 (UTC)

items from 2015 and 2016 removed for archiving--a few will be replaced here

Your talk at 16 Years of Wikipedia

Heard your lightning talk just now. I support both the "Radical solutions to promotional paid editing" proposals you announced on notability and restrictions on anon editors around companies newer than 1999 foundation. Are there some written proposals to refer to? - Brianhe (talk) 20:43, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

there will be--one of the reasons I gave the talk was to get some feedback about just what to propose, and I am already getting some. Watch this space tomorrow. DGG ( talk ) 20:55, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

Sounds good. I will evangelize to the communities I'm part of, as soon as there's something to show them. - Brianhe (talk) 20:57, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

(talk page watcher)Hi, DGG! I'd like to hear that too. Link? Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 22:07, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

Video from the lightning talks is now available via Commons. DGG's lightning talk is the first one, proposal #1 is detailed at 2:15 and #2 at 3:00. - Brianhe (talk) 06:31, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Combative deletion rebuttals

In the past, most paid or other promotional editors, when their articles have been deleted, have simply gone away and tried again, generally under another username. For a while now, an increasing number of them have been adopting the practice of arguing. Many admins ignore them; my response unless they are ridiculous altogether is to explain why, sometimes in detail. If they are a good faith but promotional editor who simply has not realized, they usually understand, though it sometimes take a second round of explanation. . If they are professional paid editor with any sense, they realise they;re not going to get anywhere, and go away--and try again usually under another name. Zealots with a unpaid COI have very often continued to argue, sometimes indefinitely. The best thing for us to do here is the traditional remedy, to ignore them. Some paid editors are now doing the same, hoping to wear people down. The best technique here is to block them. If they show up for the same purpose again, they can and should be summarily blocked as behavioral meatpuppets--though we usually run a checkuser for possibly helpful additional information. The danger, as has become clear, is catching a good faith but imitative editor. There are only 3 solutions: accept promotionalism , be able to investigate who people actually are, or accept there will be occasional injustice. I will oppose the first as long as I work here, I will continue trying to change consensus to permit the second, and , alas, be forced to accept the third. .. . DGG ( talk ) 03:56, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

David you have deleted the page created by me Amrita for Enimm Crews Private Limited. Twice the article created got created. Though company is start-up but it is a private limited company registered under law at India working for good. I have been working in the company. I am surprised that Wikipedia takes into account only those subjects which are already popular or have grown big. Have been using Wikipedia for 12 years as viewer. So I decided to contribute & have been doing for 6 months but this contributor & review process, two times deletion sadly is disheartening & not very encouraging. Amritashar (talk) 01:31, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

James Omura

...

It makes no difference how strongly you or I agree with the his political viewpoint. If we used WP to advocate our own beliefs, we'd end up the same as Conservapedia. You may possibly think that in the current political situation in the US and some other countries, all honest citizens should feel themselves called upon to undertake action, or at least write polemics. I would probably support this as a valid position, but the advocacy does not belong on WP. The role of WP in fighting actual or potential tyranny is now and always to write objective articles in purely dispassionate language. At WP we present the facts, trusting the readers to themselves draw the proper conclusions, not to tell the reader what conclusions they ought to draw.

To avoid misunderstanding, I think the WMF, as distinct from the encyclopedia, can appropriately play a political role in defense of its values, and I support its past and present actions and statements. And, also to avoid misunderstanding, there may indeed come a time when dispassionate reporting is hopeless, and direct opposition is the only possible course. But the two should not be confused. DGG ( talk ) 21:24, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ali Montazeri (WP:PROF)

Am interested in your thoughts on this AfD, and specifically on the issue I have raised. I have no idea how you are going to !vote on this, and am curious. Jytdog (talk) 19:44, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Lots of naive discussions of citations from others, but the actual analysis speaks for itself. You did of very good job of editing, btw. For someone of his importance I would have done if it needed, but its great to have such competent help. DGG ( talk ) 04:36, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your kind words but all I did was clear away the most fetid of the promotionalism. The remaining directory entry ( i will not it an "article") is promotional; this person cannot have an actual WP article as there no sources from which to write one. The directory entry exists because someone is trying to promote this guy. So I have just polished a turd. It should not exist in WP per NOTDIRECTORY and PROMO.

I am going to try to raise N standards around WP. I am trying because a bunch of people seem to think we should and more importantly they undercut efforts to make meaningful changes by pointing to things like changing N.

But everybody has pet projects and is willing to fight to the death to protect notability guidelines and essays that allow fake "articles" to exist in WP, that are really directory entries or worse. The journals people do it, the academic people do it, the radio people do it, the music people do it, etc. It will be a waste of time, but I will try. So it goes. Jytdog (talk) 05:27, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I'm willing to go to some trouble to maintain proper standards of notability based upon objective evidence that shows someone is a leader in their field. WP:PROF is one of the very few guidelines we have that follows a rational approach to inclusion policy. I fell so strongly about objective guidelines that I support them even when I think them overly broad (as for sports) or much too narrow (as for politicians).

I can and will argue as I think appropriate & necessary using the GNG in either direction, but it's a totally useless intellectual activity that I think detracts from the encyclopedia . You may possibly have a case about directory entries (though we have about 2 million directory articles), ut I don't see how the article is PROMO. Anyway, looking at it from your direction, even so you're attacking articles that we do have in a field where we do not have anywhere near enough coverage--if you want to attack directory entries--why not do it a field where e have overcoverage. Or do you really think academics unimportant?

Of course we have information to write an article we have what's important about academics: their position and their published work. In each case that's third party information based on the university authorities and the editor of the journals and the citing authors. The decisions of peer reviewers and peer authors in the aggregate are much sounder basis for an article than the uninformed comments of journalists in most current day newspapers.

one of the differences in what I and most others do here, is that I'm willing to fight even for what other people consider important. Tolerating and supporting each other is the basis of a cooperative encyclopedia. There's real promotionalism in WP that's much more dangerous and compromising than even the original version of this article. You're losing perspective. DGG ( talk ) 05:58, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your thoughts. I know that lots of people have identified various fields in WP that they think are particularly .... bad. Some people focus on where they believe there is lots of "paid editing", some people focus on where there is lots of COI, other people on various forms of POV or bias, systemic and otherwise. I know people think that what I care about is COI/paid editing. They are wrong but I let myself get trapped too often in that box.

My work is primarily about NPOV - ensuring that articles summarize high quality sources.

NPOV is what my entire Userpage is focused on, and has been focused on, for a long time. (it comes down to finding high quality sources and accurately summarizing them)

Lots of people have said we should address the paid editing problem at least in part (and in some quarters, primarily) by raising N standards.

I agree with that. It would solve lots of other problems too.

I don't understand -- at all -- how anybody can support raising N standards, and at the same time support any guideline that allows automatic green-lighting, even when we cannot actually write a WP article about something because there are not multiple independent sources with significant discussion of it. (In other words, it isn't possible to write an NPOV article about it)

I mean it - this completely baffles me and in my view comes down to special pleading. And each Wikiproject points to the special pleading that other Wikiprojects do. Which means we will never succeed in raising N standards for any field in WP.

If, on the other hand, Guy is correct and NOTDIRECTORY has been effectively abandoned, I need to rethink what a "WP article" is and my approach to NPOV.

But as it stands, in my view, the approach to N that allows PROF and JOURNALs and RADIO to create and keep directory entries, is what allows crap articles about business executives to exist.

(and what is promotional about the article about the guy who is subject of the AfD, is its very existence in WP. It was created as part of a promotional campaign, and upon examination it fails GNG and should not exist in WP at all. It is no different than artIcle about some business executive that gets created, gets looked at, and should get deleted.)

So what do people mean when they say "raise N standards"? How is it coherent and consistent? I really don't understand (obviously). Please explain how this makes sense to you. Please. Jytdog (talk) 22:05, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

I should acknowledge that I made a mess of the discussion at PROF. I did that badly. Jytdog (talk) 23:00, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Btw, i just read your userpage, and see that your thoughts about GNG and N are completely different. Hm. Jytdog (talk) 06:11, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

yes, they are, and I've made no secret about it. Besides what I do on wiki, I've talked about this at many events. This has been my general approach for about 7 years now--the main difference from then is that 7 years ago the problem of using WP to advertise was not as widespread, and I was much more willing to rewrite such articles than I am now. Under current conditions, I'm very much more concerned about fighting promotional editing than about disagreements on the level or criteria of notability. DGG ( talk ) 04:43, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

But in making arguments in actual cases here I always give an argument based on the conventional rules. I will then sometimes supplement it with additional reasons. I use my own concepts in deciding which articles I'm going to argue about. I will not personally defend an article that clearly meets WP:N and which I do not think appropriate, though I iwll not oppose it unelss I can find some othe policy based reason. DGG ( talk ) 08:21, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Review some JzG deletions

Hi, JzG's talk page notice suggested contacting you for review of deletions. He also seems to be on a wikibreak. Please have a look at my query at User talk:JzG#Deletion of long-standing articles without review, which came about from a request at Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion#Timeline of Facebook. Thanks. ~Anachronist (talk) 05:02, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

fwiw, those deletions stem from this ANI thread, Vipul's paid editing enterprise, where there have been some calls to delete company timeline articles created by the group under discussion there. Jytdog (talk) 05:33, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Oh and i just saw this: User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#A_Wikipedia_wide_new_policy_is_needed_to_ban_.22paid_for.22_editing. oy. Jytdog (talk) 05:37, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

I would probably support a CSD criterion modeled after G5, for undeclared paid editing, but we do not currently have one, and using G11 for the purpose is stretching it very far. This is especially true when the actual article was probably not written as promotionalism or advocacy, but as a unfortunately misguided good faith approach to improving WP. JzG is very much around, and I do not intend to do this without notifying him, especially because I entirely respect and totally agree with his desire to rid WP of blatantly improper editing. I consider the speedies to be misjudgment, not absolute error. I will undelete them tomorrow unless there are arguments otherwise., and they can then be taken to AfD I fully understand why the deleting admin did this, and I totally sympathize with his views on this sort of editing. But G11 is really not the appropriate method. These need to be taken to Afd if they are to be deleted, because this is a disputed situation and requies explicit consensus. Speedy is not appropriate when the consensus will be debated, only when the deleting admin can be reasonably sure that the consensus would certainly support him. I do not think there's the case here. and the best course would be for JzG to do that himself. My own suggestion would instead be a merge, and therefore I will not personally take it to afd after it has been restored, for AfD is not needed to do a merge.. DGG ( talk ) 07:49, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

• So, first of all, I already proposed a speedy criterion for material created in violation of the terms of use, and it was rejected. Getting any kind of broad community consensus on what to do with paid advertorial is difficult, not least because there is a group of people who for whatever reason seek to make it impossible. Not all of these are associated with the Sangerites and their fawning over Kohs. Some have a genuine, if in my view misguided, belief, that Wikipedia's need for articles overwhelms the problems of people subverting Wikipedia for profit.

That's why I only removed a small number of articles. There are several medical timelines, for example, all paid for by the same pyramid scheme, which I did not touch.

The articles I did remove are promotional in intent and designed, in my view, purely for SEO. They are timelines of commercial entities, paid for by Vipul (who engages in SEO as well as his Wikipedia editing pyramid scheme), replete with numerous links to other commercial entities, several of which are owned by Vipul. And that's what pushes them over the line. Guy (Help!) 09:02, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

JzG, You may be right, but you shouldn't be making this decision by yourself, especially because there is disagreement about the nature of Vipul's motivations. Please undelete and send them to AfD. This particular case very much needs discussion, and preferably not just between the two of us. . As for the speedy criterion, the main problem I see is exactly what is presented here--the difficulty in determining motivations (and identity, usually, though not in this case). DGG ( talk ) 15:01, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

...

Touche!

Hi DGG, I just wanted to thank you for having a spirited but civil discussion at AfD. Your points are good, as I believe are mine. Your good demeanor is refreshing. I didn't want to clutter the AfD page up with this, but wanted to say "Thanks!" Jacona (talk) 02:26, 21 March 2017 (UTC) (re: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Brandon Mendelson )

Indexing

Here, you say "About reusing drafts: the unlikelihood of anyone else reusing a draft is one of the faults of our current system. I think there are at most 4 people (including myself) who rescue old drafts. I generally only do them in my primary field of interest (academic faculty and related), but even so I have a very long list, and very rarely have time to do one. We do not even have a system where when someone starts an article, it shows whether there is a pre-existing draft on the topic. The default Wikipedia search does not pick them up, and even if set to Everything only finds them if spelled the same way. Kudpung, you know this system best--is there any reasonable solution?". Maybe INDEXing the drafts is the solution? Ethanbas ^(talk) 02:41, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

this has been proposed, and decisively rejected. Drafts contain unverified material, including copyvios and advertising nd possible BLP violations. The whole idea for drafts is that they are not yet ready to have a prominent position in external indexes. They do show up in our internal search, if one knows the title and specifies a customs search

the solution that has been suggested several times and could have been adopted years ago, is to categorize them in at least rough categories, so people could at least scan them. The objection has been raised that there are not people willing to do this manually, but there are two other methods: a simple weighted keyword approach, which, however inexact, is at least a start, and more recently an AI system. There has historically been a dichotomy--at least a perceived dichotomy--between the people who work with the WP infrastructure and the people who work with articles. DGG ( talk ) 02:52, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

Bryan Caplan

You have an interest in professors, so this may be of interest to you: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bryan Caplan (2nd nomination) Ethanbas ^(talk) 20:17, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

It's interesting that Vipul did not mention he is associated with Caplan when he added so many primary-sourced references to Caplan's blogging into articles. Funny how that goes, eh? Guy (Help!) 00:03, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

JzG, there are two alternative approaches to COI problems: one is to simply judge the subject for notability in the usual way; the other, for which you have been arguing, is to judge the intent. I certainly understand the point of your way of doing it: I would support a rule that undeclared paid editing be deleted rather than fixed on the same principle as we delete articles from banned editors (otherwise the prohibition is toothless), and I would probably also support a rule that grossly COI articles also be deleted rather than fixed unless someone actually rewrites them, as we do for copyvio. There are also arguments against either proposition, and I think the strongest two are that usually we cannot tell, so it will remain toothless, and that is that paid editors can be persuaded to declare, and COI editors taught to write properly (though both seem to be quite rare occurrences).

But at present the community supports neither rule. I doubt we could get the necessary support to explicitly change either of them, and I am very reluctant to propose that until there is some chance ofsucceeding in the argument Another way to change the rule is to change what we actually do at AfD, because the rules here are what we actually do, rather than just what we say; this is the method youve been pursuing. I've been doing the same thing, but I am trying to concentrate on the individuals without significant notability, not clearly notable people like him DGG ( talk ) 04:03, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Comment

I just wanted to comment and say I really appreciate your User page. Thanks for writing that up because I have always felt the same way and couldn't say it better myself. SEMMENDINGER (talk) 04:00, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

Talk page size

Wikipedia editing guild

Pardon, can I ask you to archive a bit more of this talk page? My browser is hanging when I try to post here. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 18:33, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

I keep intending to. thanks for reminding me. DGG ( talk ) 19:55, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Which browser and OS, Jo-Jo? Given a lengthy talk page here, with Safari on an iPad I have no problems reading or posting here. With Windows 10 and IE 11 attempting to go directly to a section from my watchlist hangs—but going to User talk:DGG works OK. Surely there should be a computer based solution. Fifty years ago (when I started programming) maybe no, but now? — Neonorange (Phil) 20:42, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

If I may butt in; I'm using Safari on iPhone, and when I first tried to load this page I got an error message saying something like "An error occurred. Attempting to reload page." I've never gotten that message before. This is quite possibly the most popular talk page on Wikipedia. Lizard (talk) 20:51, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

actually, it's slowing down even for me, with Safari and 16GB memory. It's my own fault, because I ambitiously set up a system of subject archives instead of doing like everyone else. I will make another try this weekend. DGG ( talk ) 21:23, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

The Windows 10 64-bit system and the 80 Mbit/sec Internet connection I use is way overkill for editing and browsing. Your talk page, as it is the moment of my sig time stamp, loads in less than a second when I go to User talk:DGG. When I go to a specific section of the page (from my watchlist) the browser busy pointer appears and after five minutes is still busy. I must reload Wikipedia in the browser to continue, as the page cannot be recovered. Computers should allow a person to be as productive as that person wishes, not the reverse. — — Neonorange (Phil) 00:02, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

the section editing for me works in just the opposite way--much faster. Anyway, expect some improvements here. DGG ( talk ) 02:26, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

Thank you!

Thank you for all you do to help keep Wikipedia collaborative. It's a thankless task, on the ANI board.auntieruth (talk) 14:55, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Notability and GNG

Summary, modified from my comment elsewhere,

The policy on whether we keep an article isn't WP:N. The policy is WP:NOT. The guideline WP:N is the explanation for how we decide on one part of that policy, NOT INDISCRIMINATE. An article might meet that, but fail other parts of NOT. If something is effectually promotion, it fails NOTADVOCACY, and that's enough to rule it out as encyclopedia content, because we do not advertise anything, no matter how notable. There's no justification for keeping advertising in Wikipedia any more than there is copyvio. Unless there is a NPOV version to revert to, or unless it is immediately fixed, it should be deleted, whether by speedy G11 or at AfD. It shouldn't be moved to draft or userified in the hope of improvement, as we might for something lacking in sources for notability but where there's a good chance of finding them. We wouldn't do that for copyvio. We wouldn't do that for BLP violations. Using WP for advertising is just as harmful. "fixable" applies in many circumstances, but not for any of these. DGG ( talk ) 20:27, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

HM. Hm. Set brain to churning with all kinds of things clicking. Two questions:

• Is that true, historically? I mean, was N created to flesh out NOT, explicitly?
• Is this widely seen as true in your view? (I have never heard of it or thought about it this way.... it makes total sense however) Jytdog (talk) 19:57, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

(1) See this very early version of WP:N from Sept 2006:

Based on several sections What Wikipedia Is Not, it is generally agreed that topics in most areas must have a certain notability in order to have an article in Wikipedia. Several guidelines have been created, or are under discussion, to indicate what is and is not notable by Radiant!. (but at that point several of the proposed specific guidelines had developed to approximately their present form, with varying degrees of acceptance). The first appearance of a GNG was in Nov, 2006. by UncleG

(2) This my understand of the necessary implications of WP:NOT. It is my interpretation, & I think reflects the trend of decisions at AfD. It is not universally accepted; the alternate interpretation is for keeping promotional articles even if borderline notable, if it is at all possible to fix the promotionalism. In choosing how to interpret, we should follow logic & consistency, but also practical considerations. My view is that accepting even temporarily promotionalism plays into the hands of paid editors and other spammers, and that such editing has the real potential to destroy the usefulness of WP as an encyclopedia. DGG ( talk ) 03:47, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

I meant mostly the "this guideline fleshes out NOT" thing. Thanks for the history link! Jytdog (talk) 11:59, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

another restatement of notabilty SNG vs GNG

(my argument at a recent deletion review in popular music) Consistent practice at WP has been that meeting the SNG is enough in this field. Guidelines are what we do, not just what we say, and if there is conflict between the two, it's what we do that matters. WP is not run primarily by rules, but primarily by consensus--rules are attempts to codify the usual consensus, and are valid only to the extent the community in practice supports them. re ambiguous, The rule on charting has an enormous advantage: it produces unambiguous results. Except for the need to define just what charts it is that count, there's not much room for dispute and decisions can be easily made,. Following the GNG is another matter entirely:the specifications that coverage by ""reliable"", significant coverage, independent and secondary and in sufficient number, can be endlessly debated, and in all fields where we rely on the GNG they are endlessly debated-in most cases that reach AfD they can be plausibly debated in every direction, and people in practice pick what side to argue by some sort of global judgement about whether the article should belong in WP. Thus our hundred or so FaDs a day where the main discussion is the opportunity to show skill in quibbling, and the result depends on just which skilled quibblers appear at the discussion. I don't care about the individual results in this subject field, but I do care they our decisions be consistent and rational. The SNG does that--the GNG guarantees the opposite.

Perhaps it's odd that with some degree of reputation as a skilled quibbler, and years of experience quibbling on both sides of AfDs, I want to do away with those discussions. I've experience in a lot of unnecessary things, and I'd much rather use my skills at something substantial at RSN or the like, and in figuring how to fix articles. I came here because I thought I could use quite different skills in finding refs to fix articles, but I've never had a chance to use them much. Debating as we do it is just a game. Sourcing is real. DGG ( talk ) 22:32, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Eliyahu Leon Levi

Hi DGG, I noticed you struck the listing for Eliyahu Leon Levi at WP:AN/CXT No. 9 with the comment that it is in adequate English; but how's the translation? The quality of English in the article isn't really that important; any copyeditor can do that. What we are mostly concerned with, is the accuracy of the translation, as most of the pages in this list were script-generated due to a misconfig in ContentTranslation and are either pure MT, or MT+monolingual copyedit, so don't worry too much about the English quality.

If you can vouch for accuracy of articles translated from Hebrew, the following ones in the list could use your help, if you have the time: #106, 197, 1627, 1680, and 1907. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 02:04, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

I agree that this is a questionable reach for me , as I do not read the language at all. I cannot vouch for accuracy; I can vouch for the English making sense and being consistent and the facts reported being likely. Like most bios, the article is extremely straightforward and leaves little to be misinterpreted. I know the cultural significance of what's reported, and it makes sense. I would not have looked at anything more complex or where I understood nothing of the subject. It's no worse that way than were it to have been written directly into the enWP using Hebrew sources, and certainly had it been an unacknowledged machine translation. The only reason these articles are any different is we know instead of guess that they used machine translation. So I shall ask a wikifriend to verify.

And I did likewise with a Chinese article on a straightforward political career. Again, it makes sense, but it is a language where machine translation to English is notable awful. It could be imaginary, but so could any article using Chinese sources. I'll ask for verification.

The other languages I've worked with I do know how to read at least somewhat, best for French and German. How well I can deal with them depends upon how simple they are. I've done translations in both from scratch, but I do not attempt deWP articles on history with their usual complicated German syntax--this is one case where it is easily possible to get mixed up. However, some types of articles are extremely formulaic. I'm most likely to run into an uncertainty regarding the equivalence of positions in different countries, tho as a librarian I know a lot of organizational equivalents. (There's a very nice large book A manual of European languages for librarians by CG Allen. Invaluable for the Soviet era in particular.) And if I come across anything I'm unsure about, or where I do not know the cultural equivalent, or where the original seems confused, I leave that part out. I see from the comments that other do similarly.

But this raises some more general questions. I was going to post on the project talk p.and I will in some more detail tomorrow:

How many of the articles I accept at NPP or AfC can I really vouch for the accuracy? That's an unrealistically high standard for any new page patroller--all we really check is basic verifiability. That a translation is not quite accurate is no worse than in the English from a non-native speaker is not quite accurate, or if the sources don't actually verify what they say they do, or are unavailable. The only time we really check an article in depth is when an article is challenged at AfD or analyzed for GA or FA. What we're looking for is basic correctness, not detail.

of the first 100 articles, we're accepting or redirecting almost all of them that are worth working on. Some that I could read perfectly well I am not marking for acceptance because I do not consider them worth the work, and I see others are deciding similarly. My intent is to rescue everything worth rescuing if I can do enough work. The project would be enormously simplifyied if we simply accepted translations from the Scandinavian languages. The machine translation does very well with them, because the syntax is almost identical. It also does well with straightforward German.(as distinct from the professional level German in their longer articles) In other languages , the most serious inaccuracy is the sequence of events because of the difference in tense use which are very often messed up by the machine translation, and the original is often a little unclear here also. But I'm particularly concerned the project did not screen out those articles that used the machine translation as a base, and then edited manually by the contributor or a good editor. There's no reason to assume they're incompetent.

Our role should be to screen out the ones that are incapably done, and not worth fixing. There are fewer than I anticipated--perhaps 25% not 50%. I also consider it our role to produce readable though not necessarily high quality English. I am not going to let something that can barely be deciphered pass no matter where I see it. How far it's worth fixing depends on how easy it is to fix, and its importance.

If this standard is not acceptable, I might challenge the entire project using the experience I now have as the basis. The goal of all we do there is, after all, to get articles worth keeping, not to reject all problematic ones out of hand. But in any case I do understand your advice, and will work more conservatively. DGG ( talk ) 04:31, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for this very thoughtful and detailed response. You raise a lot of interesting issues regarding translation, verifiability, accuracy, quality, and others that go beyond the narrow issue here that sparked the original comment. I hang out at WP:PNT and think about translation there and in other venues (both on, and off-wiki) and I've been thinking about how to better organize this in a way to improve the encyclopedia generally, and capitalize on all the talent and interested people we have here and assemble a group of those who are interested to discuss that. I know there's a WikiProject Translation, but for what I have in mind, I'm not sure if that's the right place for it, as I think this is something else, but anyway (sorry, I'm rambling; it's late!) let's keep in touch about this, if you would like to.

Back to the original topic: I understand your PoV, and in a pool of 3600 articles, it's not so important if one article more or less gets kept or not (with the exception that I hate to nuke ones that editors have worked long and hard on, unless policy really requires it) so if you want to restrike to keep this one it's fine by me, or tell me and I'll do it. Cordially, Mathglot (talk) 08:19, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

My confusion; no need to restrike E L Levi, it's still struck as you left it; I've been doing so many of these lately, can't remember which way is up! Mathglot (talk) 08:29, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Librarians -- especially academic librarians -- have the distinctive requirement to be able to deal with material about which they have only the scantiest knowledge--there were about 100 professional librarians at my university, and we were expected to be able to understand the requirements of about 1000 faculty, all of whom had a world-class specialized knowledge that we could not hope to match--even those of us who became librarians after a research career had only mastered one special field, not 10 of them. This is obviously a good background for working at WP. Publishers have a similar skill, and so do reporters. This included the need to work with a range of languages--some of the faculty had an extremely impressive range indeed, but still we collected in more languages than was presently represented. But librarians do not have to truly understand the details of a book in order to catalog it, just understand it well enough to figure out what it is about and the level of the analysis. I've taught librarians also, and though no one can actually teach these abilities, I did explain to my students that if they were to win the respect of faculty, they had to at least know how to pronounce properly the words of their various specialties. (Thus I can spell and pronounce chemical and biological names much better than I can ordinary English) The same is of course true of many non-academic fields--you have to at least know the talk. So I will boldly attempt anything unless I know by experience I will make a fool of myself.

There's a difference among the various WPs. deWP is known for insisting on a solid university level of German, and we don't expect anything more than high school level literacy. We deal more than any other WP with people who cannot really write the language, and within limits, we encourage them. Fortunately, we have a very wide range of language and other specialists, and there is very little we cannot find someone to deal with. (The problem in that in some fields and languages there are very few of them, and they may not be representative of the range of POVs) By experience, I've learned some fields where I can , and cannot, trust the available WPedians, both here and at their own language WPs. I am very reluctant to delete anything the de or fr WPs consider notable --but this does not hold at all for some of the other European language WPs.

Anyway, that's where I come from intellectually. I see you understand, and I appreciate it. DGG ( talk ) 09:29, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) David, that's an interesting analysis, thanks. I'd noticed that there are many of us librarians or retired librarians editing Wikipedia, and had thought it was connected with our urge to make knowledge accessible, along with an interest in cross-references etc, but you've reminded me of our professional ability to deal with sources of information in subjects we don't understand, and up to a point in languages we don't understand. One of my first tasks as a graduate trainee librarian, many years ago, was to catalogue and classify a couple of shelves-full of books in Macedonian, with some highschool knowledge of Russian and a Macedonian-English dictionary: they'd been donated from Skopje and the chap on whose office shelves they were waiting needed the space. I've set myself the challenge of creating an article for every editathon of WP:Women in Red, whether or not it's an area I know (or care!) much about: it's an interesting exercise! PamD 21:20, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

A cup of coffee for you!

Thanks for reviewing my article. Yavarai (talk) 12:38, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

On this day, 10 years ago...

Wishing DGG a very happy adminship anniversary on behalf of the Wikipedia Birthday Committee! Have a great day! Lepricavark (talk) 13:22, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

Beer and bread fueling your labors. Hyperbolick (talk) 13:31, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

Your user page

I was just looking at your user page and I must say, you have some interesting reading on there. Thank you for sharing! --TheSandDoctor (talk) 17:23, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

=

Hello, I would be very grateful if you could accept the changes in the Polish artist's profiles Paweł Kowalewski. Thank you for your help! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawe%C5%82_Kowalewski https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawe%C5%82_Kowalewski https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawe%C5%82_Kowalewski

We've got a problem

OK. I looked at the famous February 2017 RFC on SCHOOLOUTCOMES, analyzed it some also did some thinking on my own dime. My full unfinished take is here, but don't click that link, it's long. In summary:

• FWIW WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES is indeed accurate. Of 35 randomly sampled the result was 34-1 Keep (or maybe 34-0, 29-1, 29-0 depending on how you count).
• FWIW there are valid reasons to cite WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES I think. 1) it's valid to say "this works, let's keep doing it", 2) it's valid to say "not this shit again, its a timesink, let's not do it" 3) the community has consistently expressed its opinion on the general question for 15 years, and that counts. 4) maybe others I didn't think of. It's a matter of opinion, but reasonable opinion that one can disagree with but not just blow off, I would say.
• Examining the February 2017 RFC, I found that the closers made a mistake -- a bad one. They said "Citing SCHOOLOUTCOME... has been rejected by the community", but that's not actually true; it wasn't (I'm pretty sure; I'm still working on analyzing this, and it will take some hours; but it appears so at this point).
• Therefore people are being given a bum steer, I would say. The poor admin over at the Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2017 May 10#DRV for Kent School is having do deal with a shitshorm, and its not his fault. He followed what is written: "Firstly, I think the new language at WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES is unequivocal: Secondary schools are not presumed to be notable simply because they exist"

This is a problem IMO.

I didn't say this in public, but I have dark suspicions about the people who closed the February 17 RfC. Be that as it may, we can at least say that they demonstrated lack of acuity and diligence. As someone who has closed a couple RfC where I took a week (not 40 full hours, but still), I was appalled to see statements like "many arguments didn't make sense and were ignored". Man, that is not how you adjudicate a hugely visible and important RfC! I mean at least don't say that out loud. If you're too busy do to it right don't do it.

The key point is that the closer said "Citing SCHOOLOUTCOME... has been rejected by the community", but that isn't true, apparently (still working on this, but pretty sure it is not true). Mendacity or... lacking acuity... doesn't matter. They used this (untrue ) statement to make or authorize significant changes to a couple of pages, Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Common outcomes and Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions.

My inclination is to roll back these changes and cite User:Herostratus/Understanding SCHOOLOUTCOMES as justification. Whether WP:BRD applies after three months, I don't know... doubt it. My inclination could also get me in a heap of trouble. I'd rather let jack do it. If I'm going to do it, I need cover. I have enough enemies already.

But it's important enough to not just shrug off IMO. As a matter of principle the whole affair frosts me, for one thing. Four guys supervoting on a highly visible RfC is toxic to community feeling. As a matter of practice, leaving this alone will probably result (after much wasteful drama, and admins being caught in the middle) with a blow to our coverage of high schools outside the first world.

So what to do next? Herostratus (talk) 01:55, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

What to do next is to vigorously defend all plausible articles, while letting the very weakest go. I'm willing to accept literally that "citing SA doesn't have consensus" Focus on the rest of the RfC, that in practice we do always keep them. Since nothing in that whole section of common outcomes is policy or even guideline, just advice. I wouldn't bother trying to upset or reconsider the RfC=, no matter how aelf-contradictory its conclusion. Policy & guidelines are important concepts in hierarchical organizations, but at WP, policy is what we do unless there's a very good reason otherwise, and a guideline is what we usually do., unless we decide not to. Usage makes the policies sand the guidelines. Even so , notability isn't even a policy, but a guideline for one part of the real policy, WP:NOT INDISCRIMINATE, and the so-called GNG is just one possible way to apply WP:N. We can use it if it helps. I don't thing it often does, because experience shows how easy it is to manipulate the details to get whatever result is desired. It's a way of arguing, not a useful guide. If I were more cynical, I'd support it, because it would serve my interests, as I have considerable skill and experience in arguments using it in both directions. NOT INDISCRIMINATE is an important and in my opinion necessary policy, but the details of how we choose to apply it it are what affects the results. Just don't cite it. Cite the facts, as you just did in the first sentence above: We always keep them, unless there are unusual circumstances. It's a convention justified by its utility. Remember, as WP idiosyncratically uses the term, "notability " says nothing about actual merit. It's a term of art, meaning only "worth keeping in the encyclopedia".I wish we had never started using it, but instead, said what we meant.

I cannot explain the existence of the current push against high schools. It has the effect of clogging up AfD and preventing proper consideration of the real problems here, which are promotionalism and fan support of the transiently popular. I hope that isn't the intent, but rather am misguided faith in ideological purity. WP is not the place for ideological purity. WP is driven by consensus, and the essence of consensus is compromise, not rigour. Those wh owant rigour wshould go elsewhere.

But consensus has a weakness--it an be defeated by zealots. The only defense is for sensible people to stay with their purpose, and argue each dispute as it comes up. At WP, success goes to the most persevering, Think of it as those who care the most, not those who are most stubborn. who are assumed to care the most. I was raised in a tradition of political activism, and what I was taught was: always appear at every opportunity. Let's see who has the real majority. Otherwise the minority of zealots rule, as they currently do in what I still think to be my country. DGG ( talk ) 07:35, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

Subsequent note: I've pretty much given up on this issue; not that I think I was wrong, but a/ it's a little boring making the same argument repeatedly and b/ there are more serious problems here, like coi/UPE. DGG ( talk ) 06:35, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

American Jewish Anti-Bolshevism

Can you take a look at this please. I've prodded it because I'm sure it's an amalgam of chunks of text text copied from the one source that's used but I don't have the book. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 21:13, 18 May 2017 (UTC)

Kudpung, did you notice there's a snippet view of the book on Google Books? It's not great but maybe good enough to scan for copyvio.

(later) Oops, maybe not - it's volume 1 and the article uses volume 2 or 3. Anyway here's the link [2]. - Bri (talk) 23:33, 18 May 2017 (UTC)

Kudpng, it cannot simultaneously be OR and copyvio. And if it is not copyvio, then I do not see it as OR, but the summary of information based on a book with other sources used as well.Thestyle, with the long quotations, and the manner of referencing, suggests that it's a term paper. The snippet view is useless, it's from a quotation in the book. I tried other phrases, only ones from the quotation bring up the book. I suspect its in part a paraphrase., at least as far as organization goes. It covers a narrower scope than the current title; I moved it to American Jewish Anti-Bolshevism during the Russian Revolution. I think the way to proceed is to list it at Copyright problems DGG ( talk ) 00:47, 19 May 2017 (UTC)

contemporary artists articles still unassessed as keep

I've been avoiding these as likely lost causes but we may as well deal with whatever we've got. Not sure what the agenda is tomorrow for you but here are some of my current art articles, in addition to that one about the guy who cast bronzes. Oh and a librarian for you: Ana_Santos_Aramburo. And also Dolors_Lamarca

(talk page watcher) I don't know the background to this but had a look at a couple out of curiosity:

Faunesa_de_pie - looks as if Standing female faun and Kneeling female faun should get a mention in The Gates of Hell: lots of ghits for various versions of this sculpture. The Spanish wikipedia article is longer than this English stub.

Aurelio Gonzato - looks like an exact translation of the Italian wikipedia article. Don't see any sign of phallic device - but perhaps that's in some other context I don't know about. PamD 07:46, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

@PamD: First of all, pleased to meet you. And, you are right about phallic, thank you. I apparently looked at "metallic planes" way way way too fast. I still can't figure out what it did though, and he patented it? was it like a transformer? Became different things? Any thoughts welcome. Do you speak Italian? Meanwhile the context to this is that DGG told me on a different earlier talk page that he is going to an edit-a-thon at the Metropolitan museum tomorrow and it so happens that I have a bunch of art articles in this list of bad machine translations scheduled for deletion, except get this, some of them are fairly excellent articles... and then there is the stuff totally beyond my own horizons where I can't tell if it's too technical or too finnish, etc. So. what I have been doing is going down the list to make sure nobody tosses the astrophysics and cryptology articles, then I took some French under my wing, then nobody was doing Portuguese so....Please feel free to jump in. The key question is whether it would be easier to fix a given article or to start over. This is of course subjective but over a couple of iterations we have identified a lot stuff that is fine, other stuff not worth the headaches, or a whole lot more stuff somewhere in between, as with the articles above, where at least two editors appear to have machine translated museum catalogs or something possibly copyvio. And there are weirdnesses that often a sign of something wrong that someone made wronger trying to fix it. Anyway I have talked to DGG about some of these articles and hey if he is going to be at an editathon....if he potentially can enlist some editors at the editathon I thought I would share some of my bemusements. The Rodin piece is definitely worth an article but I am not sure I believe what this one says right now. Anyway, we have entire languages and fields of study that aren't being looked at much right now... we got Tang poets and Roman fortifications and WW2 missiles, origin of life, Chinese warlords, holocaust massacres in lithuania... need arabic, gujarati, chinese. Bulgarian and Portugese would also be very nice. Even if you only speak english you could still fish the Women in Red Articles out of there and that would help a bunch too. Elinruby (talk) 09:10, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

Elinruby: Unfortunately i was too much involved in other thing at the museum editathon to work on any of this. I still would like to, and I will be going back there in a few weeks. There's a NYC chapter meeting Wednesday, and I will mention the project if there's time.

However , I do not think it essential to decide whether or not to keep these translated articles. The purpose of the verification is to see if the basic facts are correctly translated, and whether the article is either OK as is, or worth working on further. Some of the participants in this project are of the opinion that all machine translations are hopelessly unreliable, and I think they're wrong . Certainly they are almost always in need of some degree of rewriting (more or less, depending on the language=-the Scandinavian ones are usually very close, and the ones from the languages of India very rough indeed.) A few disastrous problems in meaning have been demonstrated, so they all do do need checking. The problems are not just linguistic but cultural--not knowing the corresponding titles or special meanings in other countries. An interesting example is the very different meaning someone in the US, Russia, or even England is likely to think of first for the term "Civil War"--or what someone in a particular country thinks is meant by "War of Independence", (Such problems turn up not only in machine translation, but manual translation by those whose knowledge of one of the two languages is inadequate , and even original writing by someone with inadequate command of English--or indeed even a native speaker working a a field where they do not know the specialist terminology. Our Wikipedia has had probably hundreds of thousands of such articles submitted, and probably a few thousand serious problems remain. Very few articles here have been meticulously checked against the sources by someone expert in the field, and this is why we say that nobody should use WP for serious research.

But those who are expert in both languages--a few of them quite specifically professional translators--want to use their professional standards , just as many of us want to have perfect English grammar in articles, or perfectly formatted citations. But WP is the encyclopedia written by amateurs, not experts. We want to be as good as we reasonably can, but the standard is not academic perfection.

the usual errors in machine translation can be dealt with by amateurs and the level of background knowledge necessary for this depends on the subject. I can translate basic geographical articles from a number of languages, but I don't think there's any for which I would be capable of doing justice to a complex philosophical or historical article. We do need our language experts, but not for everything. Anyone working with machine translations of, say, the Spanish WP, knows the likely errors in tense and gender--but also should know the somewhat lower standards of notability and citation in that WP, and the vagueness of some articles written there by those who may know the language, but not the subject. Even a WP of the very highest standards, such as the deWP, which I think in general quite superior to ours', uses general references in cases where we would insist on specifics (and in many instances I think they it is they who are right about that, not the enWP, but still we must add referencing to satisfy our own expectations, whatever we think of them.)

There's a sort of panic when people here come upon a set of particularly weak or problematic articles, leading to an over-hasty decision to delete all of them, such as attempt at the WP:AN to delete one particular editor's very brief but almost always accurate one or two sentence stubs about clearly notable scientists. The people advocating mass deletion can easily find a few conspicuously awful problems, but they're usually just a few % (there have been mass deletions that have been fully justified, such as a large group of articles on slime molds using obsolete taxonomy where most would have to be rewritten from scratch, or a group of geographical stubs using a incorrect procedure for getting material from a census. There's a saying here, better no article at all than a bad one. This is rational, if "bad" is used to mean awful in one sense or another. It is not rational if "bad" is used to mean inadequate. This is a place where inadequate article get fixed slowly over time. There are a great many editors here who want to improve a small part of an article , but not write an entire article. And an inadequate article on a place or non-living person can still give enough identification to help the user who knows nothing at all. DGG ( talk ) 13:25, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

@DGG: it's ok, I knew you might and the sorting process was actually somewhat helpful in itself. And Pam came by to look at a few for me so overall it was a win. I do have some specific questions about that list if you have a moment. But I'll mention first that yes, I agree with you, but nonetheless if wp is getting crap articles because a software tool allows someone to make them faster than they can be fixed, it might be an idea to improve the process so the articles need less fixing whether they come fast or slow. I do have some thoughts about that since I have been doing some of that cleaning for a long time, but for now I am just trying to get some articles adopted before we blow up the others and I start asking you what I need to do to get rid of X2. So, in the goal of getting some articles adopted let me come back to that lost for a moment. I made some posts on the talk page last night and would especially like to know what you think of the one about Tunis. I would also like to know what you suggest about the Olympic athletes and the 18th century mathematicians? Thanks for all you do. Elinruby (talk) 13:52, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

X2 was in my opinion a major error, and what we need to do is not delete the articles, but delete X2, and reject the approach to WP on which X2 is based. Given that we're stuck with it, as we are with all of our over-hasty ill-informed decisions based on inadequate evidence. There will be more--our manner of decision making is subject to such decisions unless they are immediately and vigorously opposed, and get widespread attention. Whether every verifiable Olympic athlete should be notable is an open question, but WP at this time treats them as such. If the original language source or the translation appears to verify, the article must be kept. The articles on 18th century mathematicians follow the same rules as later ones: if they held a major university appointment, or had notable disciples, or published important works, or have something named after them, they will meet WP:PROF.

Unfortunately, there are at least two other situations where I need to do similar rescue: the attempt at WP:AN to remove all the 1000 or so stubs by a particular contributor on the basis that 1% of them are inaccurate, and the attempt to delete G13 without looking at the drafts to see whether any are salvageable or even ready for mainspace. I feel overwhelmed to the extent that I am almost unable to work on any of them, and need to force myself to work here at all. DGG ( talk ) 17:06, 26 May 2017 (UTC)

I hear you I hear you Elinruby (talk) 03:37, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

Userspace drafts

Hi there, DGG. I understand that you feel strongly that "We can and should delete drafts when there is no hope of an article", but you do realize that the outcome of last year's WP:CONSENSUS, reflected in WP:STALE, is something different, right? That WP:GNG do not apply in user- and draft- space and that neglect of a draft wasn't grounds for deletion, etc.... Do you think it might be better to change the policy, rather than going around it? Because that's how the SD requests look to me. I'm not being tendentious, either; just trying to have good faith dialogue. Newimpartial (talk) 06:07, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

I do not mention the GNG in these arguments; I agree it does not apply outside article space, and I have in fact argued that it should not apply. As for speedy, I have never listed a speedy for a draft or users space except for the reasons that are appropriate there, which include G11. It is true I think we should use G11 much more energetically. I remind you that while the RfCs said that G13 does not apply except in draft space, they did say that "For userspace drafts where notability is unlikely to be achieved, consensus is that they should not be kept indefinitely. However, the community did not arrive at a specified time duration." and, for userspace drafts, " They can be deleted, but it should be done on grounds different than solely the age of the draft or the period the draft has not been edited." Therefore, the outcome for individual items is subject to consensus at the MfD. That's always been the case for deletion process. The two fundamental principles involved are: WP is an encyclopedia , and IAR.

Simultaneous, I very strong disapprove of the use of G13 for improvable drafts, and most especially for drafts that are already good enough for article space but where inappropriately declined. We need to find a workable system for proper notification and working on them.It and everything else about AfC would be helped by clearing out the hopeless. DGG ( talk ) 06:20, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

OK; I can see where you're coming from. And I agree that MfD is the place to adjudicate these deletion requests. But that is why I have the problem I do with speedy G11s - it seems to me that many of them aren't G11 at all, but just wimpy early drafts; in cases where they really are WP:SPAM I have no problem seeing them deleted by consensus. But in my deletion review, you say that User:BucaFan3/Shy Kidx "would be a good Speedy anywhere" - but I don't see how it is WP:SPAM at all. It's just a baby article lol. Newimpartial (talk) 06:29, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

On a related note, can I just say that it is difficult for me to find you so insightful here <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Maureen_Seaton>, and not just because you agree with me :), but so cavalier about userspace deletion here <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deletion_review/Log/2017_May_28>. I get whiplash. lol. Newimpartial (talk) 13:16, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

I have a high regard for keeping anything that might be a promising article, and a low tolerance for anything that's going to remain useless. Obviously, views on what falls into these categories will differ. G11 is a criterion which is not as obvious as it claims to be, but it's our best defense against those who would debase the encyclopedia. My priorities vary with time as our needs differ. Ten years ago it was critical to support broad inclusiveness, now to resist promotionalism. But I shall look again at the del rev. DGG ( talk ) 16:14, 28 May 2017 (UTC) and I did. your argument did have some merit. DGG ( talk ) 17:14, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

More generally, as with most guidelines and policies in WP, the meaning of the deletion criteria depends a great deal on how they are interpreted. The interpretation is done by the accumulated and sometimes changing consensus on the talk pages of the noticeboards and policy/guideline pages, and by the very variable decisions at individual instances. The result is sometimes a considerable gap between the formal wording and the effectual applications of it. Some things are interpreted very narrowly, some very broadly; some very strictly, and some very permissively.. Individual people's views differ, and the consensus is affect by which individuals show up at a given argument. Every one of us who participates in these arguments has a different view of it. That said, there are some constants: the clearest example is that BLP tends to be interpreted strictly and expansively (more broadly than I really think justified); copyvio also strictly (and again more broadly than I think necessary--we are much less permissive than US Law about fair use); most speedy criteria somewhat more broadly than they are written; WP:V is often disregarded unless someone protests,

The result, of course, is an encyclopedia full of inconsistencies, with consequent difficult for new users in figuring out just what is permitted. But this is inherent in the underlying working method of the encyclopedia -- we make our own rules, we make what exceptions we please, and there is no person or group that who can definitively settle disputes about content. The only reason this works is because of mutual tolerance, including the rule that admins must follow the consensus interpretation whether or not they like it. There is consequently a strong feeling against individuals who try too insistently to make a point overemphasizing any one thing--they disturb what little equilibrium we have. Working with deletion processes involves tolerating an especially large amount of ambiguity and stupid decisions. Those who want a more predictable environment, would do better to work on vandalism or copyvio. DGG ( talk ) 16:53, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

This discussion has been very cordial. Do you have any thoughts about my new ANI? Newimpartial (talk) 17:35, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Commented,. I think at this you will learn more by just watching some AFD discussion than by asking questions. watching is safe, but watch a good while before you start to comment there. The best course for you at the moment, however, is just to do something else for a while, like write or improve some articles. DGG ( talk ) 18:17, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. I will be back editing and writing draft articles forthwith, but I won't put any new articles into userspace until I feel that I can stop looking over my shoulder for deletionists. You know, I lurked at MfD for about a week, on and off, without commenting, and really felt that I grasped the letter of the policies. Now I understand the letter plays into my own idiosyncrasies, and isn't the main thing that counts. But my reason for lurking in the first place? Fear of deletion lol. Newimpartial (talk) 18:26, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Diligence
	Thanks for reviewing my newly created article and encouraging a new editor like me. Regards Yavarai (talk) 10:52, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

CVs

What is the preferred format to reference CVs? I would think external link rather than in line citation, but thought I would ask. Article in question is Robert R. Caldwell. TonyBallioni (talk) 00:50, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

I usually add both. It's both a RS for most purposes, and a proper external link. I also of course add an EL to their web page at the university, but often the CB is not linked from there. I consider the formal CV a much more authoritative source than the university website. The formal DV id sn officisal document, and people get hired on the basis of it. In 11 years here there has only been one case of a false (or even misleading) cv for an actual academic. (politicians are another matter). For the university website, department PR staff sometimes have a role in it. DGG ( talk ) 04:27, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Hello

You stood out as the sole user who I thought may be possibly amendable on this whole draft article ordeal. Part of the reason I've chosen to not continue it is a belief that nothing I produce, at least by myself, will be satisfactory to the detractors and cynics who have opposed some of my past additions and for whom I was confident would resume this pattern. I did want to ask what qualifies a person to receive a sub article; do the Early life of Frank Sinatra and Early life of Joseph Stalin exist because the main articles are long? I've found myself perplexed by that question since that happen, and I'm seeing fit to live with the mystery. Informant16 June 2, 2017 'still needs reply

A cup of coffee for you!

Thanks for reviewing my article about Sukhdev Rajbhar. Regards Yavarai (talk) 10:06, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

A quick note on patrolling

Hello! I saw your post here wishing that some kind of keyword sorting might be imposed upon unpatrolled pages to help us patrol pages in our realm of interest. I just wanted to leave a quick note here in case you missed the recent conversation at Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Noticeboard where someone pointed out that you can use User:AlexNewArtBot to do exactly that. For example, here are the search results for the New Jersey keyword search. It'd be nice if this functionality was integrated into the NewPagesFeed interface, but in the meantime it definitely helps me to be more efficient with patrolling. Happy editing! Ajpolino (talk) 19:51, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

yes,I'm aware of that, and a simplified version oft he bot was more or less what I have in mind. . Unfortunately, very few workgroups aare actually active, and fewer actually use i; locating the results within the workgroups is not very efficient for anyone else, as most of us interested in deletion process have altogether too many workgroups to follow.. The bot needs to be used to provide a more systematic approach,with the material in one place.

What I had in mind was either a collection of pages covering all, after the model of categorized AfD discussions, the articles , using the bot , or simply using the bot to add subject keywords to the new article list. I'll comment further. I apologize for not having had the time yesterday--but I've also found that sometimes just suggesting an idea and letting others develop it to be a very effective way of getting interest. DGG ( talk ) 00:12, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

Do you think a tool that did something like this would be of any practical use? I haven't done any serious NPP myself for about a decade, and it was pretty rare back then for pages to hang around unreviewed long enough for someone to categorize them. —Cryptic 01:03, 13 June 2017 (UTC)

comment needed DGG ( talk ) 04:08, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

The New Page Patrol backlog

Your speech here was a masterpiece. A shame it was only on a user's talk page. Relax for 15 minutes and read WP:KNPP. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 11:16, 14 June 2017 (UTC)

I will copy over a revised version somewhere. I think of it as a rough draft, and I was very tired when I did it. I has not followed the previous ANI stuff.

A cookie for you!

Thank you for editing with Black Lunch Table at Wiki Loves Pride! Heathart (talk) 02:35, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

Collaboration products newsletter: 2017-06

What's new?

Integrated Filters

• The team is moving full speed ahead on a follow-up project to the New Filters for Edit Review beta dubbed "Integrated Filters." The name refers to the fact that we are integrating the Recent Changes tools that currently remain in the old user interface (like Namespace and Tag filters), along with some tools and capabilities from Watchlist and elsewhere, into the new Recent Changes interface.
• You can get an overview of the Integrated Filters projects, and the general release strategy, on the description page of the project Phabricator board. Among the more interesting new capabilities:
  • Category filters: We'll be adding the ability to filter by category. This is a little tricky, since wiki categories often work in a somewhat counter-intuitive way, with the broadest categories returning the fewest results—because categories like "Science" or "Art" tend to contain not articles but other categories. So we're exploring solutions where a category search will crawl at least a layer or two down the category treat to, hopefully, bring back more useful results. [3]
  • User filters: We're adding the ability to filter by any username, similar to what's available already on the the User Contributions page. [4]

Edit Review Improvements [More information • Help pages]

Recent changes

• It is now possible to save your favorite filters sets by using bookmarks. [5]
  • This feature documentation can be translated.
• It is possible to filter only the last edits done on a page on the Recent Changes page. [6]

• A "Watchlisted pages" filter group now lets reviewers use Recent Changes, and all its tools, to patrol changes to pages they've Watchlisted. If you have any feedback about how useful this is nor isn't—especially given that we plan to add the new filtering interface to the Watchlist page — let us know.

08:41, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

Opinion...

...

My caution about bands, record labels, fan pages, music, celebrity spin-offs, etc. can be summed up in this diff which resulted in a bit of a rollback'' but it's mainstream thinking nonetheless. ^{Atsme📞📧} 15:46, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

I try to not get involved in fan areas. WP has always been very intensive in a few fields, and I think it best to leave them alone, on the basis that others may think the stuff I am interested in to be just as intrinsically unimportant. DGG ( talk ) 17:18, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

I am deeply disturbed by your apparent admission of moral cowardice, DGG. Chris Troutman (talk) 17:40, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

If you mean I do not go around here looking for fights, I admit the charge. If you mean that I am prepared to admit that others' views on importance or anything else may be valid although different from my own, I think any other attitude arrogant. If you mean that I do not seek to eliminate articles on let's say wrestling or tv serial episodes or individual pop songs because I do not like the genre, I think my view coincides with the principles of WP. DGG ( talk ) 18:00, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Indian companies

I do not see Indian companies as likely to be non-notable. I do see them as relatively difficult to prove notability by the standards we use, because I consider articles on companies in Indian newspapers as very likely to be PR. I also see most articles on American companies or organizations of any sort in most newspapers as likely to be PR, and I have so argued when relevant. There are more Indian companies with promotional articles being submitted these days, in part because more American companies have learned not to try for articles here. But , as you observe, there are a great many that got into WP in earlier years, and we have not yet removed all of them.

In both cases, I judge by the content. If several articles repeat the same words, they're almost certainly copying it from the press release. If they interview the CEO, and let him say whatever he chooses about the origin and accomplishments of the company, they're an organ for his PR. If they use terms of praise without analysis, they're PR. If the overemphasize minor accomplishments, they're PR. NGOs and similar organizations are even worse in general, because they use cheaper and therefore less skilled press relations people.

But this is irrelevant in this instance. I did not go back to the original sources here, because I was not trying to evaluate the article and decide what I thought about it. I was evaluating the discussion, which is all I'm supposed to do. Unless the discussion looks really weird, I assume the arguments are made in good faith. (DGG)

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	for the work and contribution. Light2021 (talk) 12:39, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

book chapters and notability

Based on my career talking to academics, publishers, and specialist librarians in all fields of knowledge, such chapters are in general not the equivalent, even in the humanities-- except in a few very specialized fields, or if the chapter is in something really important, and I consequently left one in. But I was exceptionally conservative in removing material--normally we do not even include any journal articles for people in fields where the notability and the academic advancement is primarily by published books, and even in the fields where articles are the most important forms of presentation we normally include only the two or three most cited--and there are some editors here who challenge even that.

Handling socks

Hello DGG. I am just letting you know that I declined the speedy deletion of Colette Mazzucelli, a page you tagged for speedy deletion, because of the following concern: Not unambiguously promotional. Thank you. GorillaWarfare (talk) 02:20, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

GorillaWarfare , you are aware that almost all of these two articles were written by one or more now-banned undeclared paid editors and their multiple socks? DGG ( talk ) 05:22, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) As Colette Mazzucelli's article has been around since 2005, edited incrementally over the years, perhaps it should be reverted to the version of 22 March 2016 before the banned editor's major contributions, and their contributions hidden? PamD 07:21, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

(talk page watcher)On the other hand, perhaps the edit history of Oren Alexander suggests that perhaps there's another sockpuppet/paid editor to add to the list (it was created by an editor who has made no other edits before or since)? PamD 07:26, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

If that's the case, they should be tagged with G5. But when I reviewed them, I disagreed that they were so promotional as to be unsalvageable. GorillaWarfare (talk) 15:56, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

(talk page watcher) How would that work, GorillaWarfare? Criterion G5 is absolutely specific that "To qualify, the edit or article must have been made while the user was actually banned or blocked". We're just shooting ourselves in the foot here. We know that undeclared paid editing sockpuppet rings exist and that they need to be stopped, yet we can't organise ourselves enough to have any procedure for dealing with them. What's the way forward? Because I think it's time to look for one. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 17:05, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

And G11 is absolutely specific that it applies to pages that are "exclusively promotional and would need to be fundamentally rewritten to conform with Wikipedia:NOTFORPROMOTION". Perhaps you should start a discussion to amend the CSD criteria, if you think articles like these should qualify? Otherwise take them to AfD. GorillaWarfare (talk) 17:42, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) I agree with GorillaWarfare: I always thought that G11 was about the article's content, not who created it. {{db-g11}} does say in its current form. Adam9007 (talk) 17:50, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Well, actually so do I – G11 does indeed say those things. But I don't see how G5 could be any more likely to be accepted. Do you? Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 18:24, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) I think Doc James has discussed in the past (at some page I lurk at) trying to clarify G5. Currently it is very narrowly construed. For now, I think the best option is simply to keep pointing out in AfDs that WP:N has two components, and that promotion is a valid reason to delete something per WP:NOT, WP:DEL4, and per WP:DEL14. As someone who is a regular at the NPP conversations, I do think the Sheryl Nields AfD, and the controversy around Marcomgirl in general did a lot to raise the awareness of the issue of promotional editing even within a group that isn't keen on promotionalism to begin with. I continue to think the best way forward at this point is through the AfD process: it is sometimes flawed, but it is a way we can achieve a practical consensus over hundreds of cases rather than a drawn out RfC. TonyBallioni (talk) 18:37, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

@Justlettersandnumbers: No, I suggested it just based off of what DGG said above. I didn't look at the editors involved. GorillaWarfare (talk) 20:12, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

just reminding people that "once an article is nominated for CSD, it can be deleted under any applicable criterion" DGG ( talk ) 21:19, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

OK. We're still just floundering round in circles here without a proper criterion or policy for dealing with TOU violations. Doc James has reverted to an earlier version of this particular page, as PamD suggested above. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 20:22, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

• Comment So the question how do we interpret "while the user was actually banned or blocked" in the G5 criteria? As I have said previously in this case User:Susana Hodge is not the master it is just the oldest account we have found to date. Just look at their first edit. They will have prior blocked accounts and just because we only get CU data for the last 3 months does not mean they do not exist. We can come to obvious conclusion and for these types of cases I occasionally do. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:49, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

The way forward is to hold to the principles, not to the often contradictory guidelines that have developed around them. To start with, WP is an encyclopedia in contrast to a medium for advocacy. The two are incompatible. The best practical approach to this is what I've been saying explicitly at AfDs, and what I've actually been doing for the last ten years: either immediately rewrite the article or delete it. Anyone who argues that an article can be fixed, needs to prove it by fixing it, not just by hoping somebody will eventually.

G11 is necessarily somewhat subjective, and two experienced people (such as GW and myself) can still differ in whether an article falls under it. That's why no admins delete G11 single-handed. I make 5% errors, let's say for argument's sake even 10% on the more difficult cases; let's say another more conservative admin makes 2%. Having both of us do it, gives 0.2%, 1 in 500 , which is an error rate as good as we can hope for.

But since it is to some extent subjective, we have to take into account everything that affects how we look on it, and that does include the purpose of writing, which can often be implied by who it is who has worked on it. I think it is a reasonable assumption that articles by paid editors will almost always be promotional , because that's what people pay for. (Not 100% of the time, so some will need a discussion.) I also think it a reasonable assumption that people caught socking will have been socking earlier, and likely to have been banned for it, even if we haven't spotted it. More generally, I think that the terms of use means that articles by undeclared paid editors have no justification for being in WP. In removing them, we should use all applicable processes (fairly and properly and transparently and with checks from those who disagree, as always; we can interpret, we shouldn't distort). DGG ( talk ) 21:19, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

AfC / Draft article copied into mainspace

Hallo David, Could you have a look at Joyce Stevens and Draft:Joyce Stevens? She seems clearly notable (Member of Order of Australia, subject of several articles and obits), and a lot of changes have been made since the draft was last rejected as "appears to read more like an advertisement " and as lacking sources.

The mainspace article appeared fully-formed today with edit summary "(Created new page entry for Joyce Stevens based on a draft made by another editor.) " That obviously isn't right - copying within Wikipedia without real acknowledgement to the editor who's done all the work. But I'm not sure what the protocol is when the copying is also bypassing the (horrible) AfC process. I hope you can do something to help! Thanks. (Incidentally, if the Submission Declined message of 28 June is from a template then the template needs to be fixed as it doesn't seem to make sense: "...should refer to a range of independent, reliable, published sources, not just to materials produced by the creator of the subject being discussed."??? If the subject being discussed is anything other than a fictional character, who's "the creator of the subject..."?) PamD 15:25, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

anyone can move a draft . Sometimes a move without using the AfCH process is necessary--I do it when the AfCH macro doesn't work, which for me is about half the time. But this was done by copypaste, which is almost never necessary, and we normally try to fix copypaste moves by redoing them properly. I will take care of that. For copying within WP we normally just correct the attribution; in this instance, doing the move properly will take care of that. She is clearly notable. The article does have a promotional done, but it seems to be based upon the tone of the tributes to her after her death, and seems fixable. I've revised the draft & moved it to mainspace.

the wording is the wording of the template. It obviously needs some adjustment. The AfC templates are in general terrible, but my efforts to try to get the fixed within the Afc process over the last few years have consistently failed--there has always been some excuse for not doing them. I will make another try at it. The real solution is to redo the entire AfC and NPP process, as Kudpung has been trying to do for several years. The problem is that it seems to require assistance from the WMF programmers, who have their own ideas about how we should do things. Some of the people involved have sometimes not been very willing to actually cooperate. At one point I was thinking of listing the AfC pages at MfD. In the past, before the RfC system was fully developed, that method was sometimes used effectively.

But for any system, we depend on the quality of the participants, & the quality of one of of the reviewers of this article is known to be a problem. I'm trying to deal with it without banning him from afc altogether.

and thanks for your further fix-up. As is obvious, I was trying to get this quickly to avoid confusion, but i see from the eds talk p. I wasn't quite quick enough. I left a comment there that I hope will be encouraging. DGG ( talk ) 22:54, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

Thanks - but you left your comment on my talk page accidentally, not her's! PamD 22:57, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

PamD, although it can't happen fast enough for me, I think we've achieved a lot (by Wikipedia standards) since I started the ball rolling in Esino a year ago. I am convinced that merging AfC and NPP is the way to go because with a few tweaks the Page Curation system software can easily do both tasks. This would be a 'soft' deprecation of AfC because the Drafts would appear as such in the feed and the AfC team would simply migrate to using a the NPP GUI. There are half a dozen other advantages that I won't go into here, although I have had to temporarily full protect the AfC user list again.

Due to the pressure I and now other editors have exerted recently, the WMF has now done volte-face on some of its ideology based arguments, now accepting a more pragmatic approach instead, which leads me to assume that when we ask for Curation to combine the relatively simple elements of the AfC helper script, the devs will probably do it. The only real resistance is from the AfC users who have no better argument than simply wanting to keep their independence. Once we have the results of the upcoming ACtrial, we'll know more because it directly affects both systems of new article quality control. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 23:24, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) I haven't been involved in AfC for ages now (aside from just bouncing stuff in their direction when a creator gets upset that their company / band / friend / autobiography was deleted) - are there really individual fiefdoms? I've never been comfortable with the whole idea of AfC as a project in the first place, it's a process that complements NPP as one whole workflow for new topics (or if it doesn't, it should). Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 13:21, 17 July 2017 (UTC)

Articles about academics

In section '"Articles" about academics' in Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not you wrote an elaborated treatise on WP:NPROF. IMO it is quite useful. Why don't you put it in an essay? Staszek Lem (talk) 18:41, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

I will work on it -- it needs some supplementation. DGG ( talk ) 23:34, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Touching base

Hi DGG: Just letting you know, despite some disagreements we have in AfD discussions, I never take matters personally, and view AfD discussion simply as what they are, a forum for debate about Wikipedia articles. My stance is typically to be as objective and fair as possible, to ensure the highest standards of accuracy. In part, this is a reason why I provide sources in AfD discussions, rather than simply stating "keep - meets gng" or "delete - fails N", etc. This serves to provide an accurate overview regarding a topic's potential notability, or lack thereof. Ultimately, I base my commentary at AfD upon research and facts, avoiding conjecture and subjective rationales. When I walk away from a debate, and when a discussion is eventually closed, I move on, with no hard feelings whatsoever at any time. I wanted to let you know this because the mode of communicating on Wikipedia via typing can be impersonal, whereby one's intentions are not always easy to express or convey.

After seeing you at AfD for some time now, I understand your stance about some company articles, that some of them are not needed in the encyclopedia. I have no problem with your stance, even though I don't always agree with it, but this is relative to each individual article for me, rather than as a macro-level philosophy. In other words, I assess each topic individually, per the merits of that particular topic relative to notability, whether or not an article is promotional, and if so, to what degree (e.g. fixable or a WP:G11 situation), etc. I am also aware that some news sources are derived from press releases, just so you know. You'd be surprised at how many news articles from my searches that I don't provide in AfD discussions, per obvious PR ties. I find myself continuously skipping over articles from internet searches that are not appropriate to establish notability. Sometimes, one has to go through ten or more Google search pages to find one or two usable sources. North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 16:30, 3 August 2017 (UTC)

Small differences (or even fairly large differences) in the notability standard do not greatly harm the basic usefulness and values of the encyclopedia. Almost any general position on notability can be justified. Most disputed articles can be reasonably argued in either direction, and the actual question is which articles are worth defending--and which are most in need of removing.

But with respect to promotionalism, any compromise here will tend to destroy not just the usefulness but the basic values of the encyclopedia; if we become a vehicle of promotional content we have no purpose--Google does it better. And there's no reason volunteers would be interested in doing for free what they might get paid for. The essential group of articles that should not be improved or defended are those that are of a basically promotional purpose--especially those likely to have been written by undeclared paid editors. The people who write such articles should if misguided volunteers be educated and if paid, removed from WP. The only possible exception is if an article is so essential that the encyclopedia would be defective without it, and if it would be much easier to rewrite than to start over. Even here I am undecided whether it would be always best to first delete the history and then eventually rewrite.

To the extent your work--however skillful-- is helping such articles remain, you are acting against the principles of WP. Your view undoubtedly differs, but I'm using my priviledge on my own talk p. to close the topic here. We've both plenty of opportunities to say it elsewhere, and neither of us is shy about using them. DGG ( talk ) 03:55, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for replying. In closing, I'll just say that what is considered promotional is in the eye of the beholder. As an editor and WP:COMPANIES member, I pay close attention to maintaining neutral pov and prose when contributing to company-related articles. I'm definitely not here to promote anything. Regards, North America¹⁰⁰⁰ 04:14, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

the actual last post on this thread: you are not editing for promotional purposes, but you are helping the people who are accomplish their goals of getting an article in wp. Even if the article at the end is not promotional, you are helping people editing against the terms of use not get their article deleted. And you are helping companies get an article who would not otherwise be noticed here. I consider such editing a danger to the encyclopedia, and I will try to diminish the effects when I can. DGG ( talk ) 14:50, 4 August 2017 (UTC)

MBE

Not trying to be a jerk, but doesn't an MBE satisfy WP:ANYBIO criterion #1? ☆ Bri (talk) 03:58, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

While MBEs are handed out as long-service awards to middle ranking civil servants, No. For other recipients like Olympic medallists, the MBE is a consequence of being notable rather than the cause of their notability. Cabayi (talk) 05:37, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

in more detail, I think we always recognize the rank of CBE (Commander) -- and higher-- as notable; there are according to Order of the British Empire only 6980 Commandeers. The next lower, the OBE (Officer) has 858 appointments each year; the MBE (Member) 1484 peer year. MBE , at the bottom, we include in the article, but it doesn't contribute much to notability; OBE contributes to notability but doesn't amount to presumptive notability. DGG ( talk ) 09:17, 10 August 2017 (UTC)

Greetings in Montreal

Hi DGG, thanks for coming to chat after the Undisclosed Paid Editing meetup yesterday. The person who had been sitting next to me was, I think, User:Rachel Helps (BYU). We didn't have our badges on so I didn't realize it was you. I've always admired your perspectives and I hope to see you again at the conference. Take care, Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 13:45, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

by that time of day, many of us didn't. I'll me here all the way to the end--and if you don't see me otherwise, look for me at lunch. Today I'm also clear the end of the afternoon. DGG ( talk ) 14:25, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

I was there but I left early. I have circular glasses if that helps. It was an interesting discussion! Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 02:53, 13 August 2017 (UTC)

Sorting by size of edit - not exactly, but maybe close enough?

In one of our many hallway discussions, you mentioned the desire to see edits sorted by size of edits. While you have copied the edit history into a spreadsheet to do this sort, that's pretty cumbersome. I wondered if the revision history statistics were sortable and it turns out they are. This isn't exactly what you wanted because it gives you the total added bytes by user as opposed to by individual edit but it might be close enough for you purposes.

Example: https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools-articleinfo/?article=Eugene_Gu&project=en.wikipedia.org

The link doesn't seem to save the sorting but if you go down to the top editor section you can sort on "added (bytes)"--S Philbrick(Talk) 13:57, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Yes, it's a start. Thanks for the help. (Sorting in an external spreadsheet is for anything substantial a very cumbersome solution, it is a backup for missing features in many places, on and off WP.) DGG ( talk ) 05:47, 16 August 2017 (UTC)

A goat for you!

Thank you for looking out for people, not the software.

Bearian (talk) 16:34, 22 August 2017 (UTC)

Seconded; we need more leaders like you who prioritize community, healthy and functional process, and integrity. Here's a basket of bedding for your new goat. ☆ Bri (talk) 18:47, 22 August 2017 (UTC)

== A Little Help from my Friends @WikimediaNYC ==

Hey User:DGG, Thanks for continuing to offer your help as a senior contributor to WP. I have not been diligent about rewriting my significant edit here. Here was the last difference between my edit and the revert: https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Talk:St._Vincent_(musician)&diff=prev&oldid=762490952

Any suggestions for tactics in my expository writing style or my persuasive writing in negotiation with admins would be appreciated. sheridanford (talk) 14:02, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

sheridanford (talk) 13:58, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

this will need a relatively complicated response. It will take me a day or two. DGG ( talk ) 04:10, 24 August 2017 (UTC)

still to do

Essay on Userpage

I like your essay, but noticed one point about people not declining based on lack of inline citations. In the last 6 months there have been over 700 such AfC declines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:AfC_submissions_declined_as_needing_footnotes Can we eliminate that as a reason to decline? I believe AfC is far too tough to pass, forcing the new editor with a notable topic to fully develop and format it, when they are a newbie without the skills and maybe not the interest. Legacypac (talk) 05:49, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

all or almost all of them are BLPs, which really do need them to survive. It is our policy that they must be supplied. I can understand using it as a reason for these, if the only source is a very general one, or if most of the article seems to be unsourced entirely. Many of the ones where it is used wrongly are older ones--the list includes those where it was ever used as a reason to decline, not just the ones where it is latest reason. , Checking a few, most of them should just be given another reason, some should be removed entirely, and a very few accepted to mainspace. or removed entirely. I don't think we should remove the reason, but we should modify the wording to specify it applies to biBLPs only. Has anyone figured out where the text for the template is stored? It used to be hard-coded. DGG ( talk ) 21:12, 4 September 2017 (UTC)

Here, I believe. jcc (tea and biscuits) 17:31, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

I shall be proposing an umber of changes, some to reduce hostile wording, a few to align with actual policy, and one additional category: nn-spam. DGG ( talk ) 20:44, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

Good. Quite a few pages come through as Blank. I consider them test edits and nominate them for deletion G2. The Blank and Test reasons should reflect the idea they are tests and will be deleted. Shorter and less redundant wording would be great too. Legacypac (talk) 20:51, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

I suppose you mean removing redundant wording? Then we're talking about a complete rewrite almost from scratch. I can do that, but it might be better to fix a few obvious problems first. DGG ( talk ) 21:44, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

At least on the ones you are rewording. I'll look into these too. Legacypac (talk) 22:21, 6 September 2017 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Didn't realize you were still around good to see a username I recognize still after my self imposed wiki break.

Whispering 22:02, 17 September 2017 (UTC)

When does "affiliated" morph into "paid"?

Hi DGG. I've received no answer to my query to this user about potential paid editing on behalf of BrandTotal. However, she later stated at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Dark marketing, that she is "affiliated" with the company in question. My strong impression from the nature of the edits and her previous usernames is that she is not simply "affiliated" but an employee of the company and may well work in the marketing department. The slick jargon in the article in its original form (especially the "Origins" section) is pure PR-speak. Before I pursue this with her, and as a question in general, if she were indeed an employee holding that position, does it count as "paid editing"? Judging from the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Paid-contribution disclosure, it seems a bit of a grey area. The article may well be deleted in which case I won't bother pursuing it, but it would be useful to know for the future. Paging also Doc James. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 15:39, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

User:Voceditenore If one's job at a company is marketing than ones work on WP with respect to that company is paid editing. I will block those in the marketing departments of companies who do not disclose based on the TOU. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:42, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

Wow! That's fast service, Doc. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind for future encounters and for this case if the article is kept (unlikely) or moved back into draft space (possible). Best, Voceditenore (talk) 15:47, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

I consider that it is also paid editing if it is part of a person's job, or assigned to a person as part of their employment, regardless of what the position is called; but with someone in the marketing dept it will always be assumed to be that person's job. DGG ( talk ) 23:52, 29 September 2017 (UTC)

Bittencourt

I think that this comment of yours on a user page was instead intended for the corresponding talk page. However, I suggest that you skimread the depths of this user talk page before moving it there. -- Hoary (talk) 12:46, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

I think he was trying to make a good faith effort to contribute. Though we of course do not like autobios, they are not prohibited, and his was very close to appropriate; Google Scholar shows him highly notable, both for the papers and the major textbook. The block seems an over-reaction to a new ed. who makes mistakes, and whose initial effort was given an altogether incorrect AFC review. I will just write the article myself based on the official CV etc DGG ( talk ) 22:09, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

'not yet done

Question about references

Hi, DGG - with regards to a list of monuments and memorials, I have a few questions:

1. Statues: how does one verify whether or not a statue was created in honor of someone for a single notable event, or for their life's history or for service to their country, etc.? I realize the plaques should provide details of the memoriam but what if there's just a name? Is there a way to look up the dedication and if so, what references would one look up? Example: A statue of Sam Houston in the Statutory Hall in Austin, TX. The memorial honoring his birthplace says noted soldier and statesman, so would it be appropriate to use that memorial in an article titled Monuments and Memorials of the Battle of San Jacinto?
2. Naval ships: when a ship is christened and named in honor of a notable person, is there a reference to look up the reason the ship was named in that person's honor - such as a heroic deed, or a long career, etc.?
3. If a plaque, statue, national park, battleship, street, etc. is named after a notable person, shouldn't that memorial only be included in whatever WP list corresponds to the honor? For example, a memorial was constructed and named in honor of an Admiral who served courageously for 45 years in the US Navy. That memorial would properly be included in List of US Navy Admirals. But what if he also served 4 years in the Foreign Legion and no memorial was created in honor of his service there. Should that same memorial be included in Lists of Monuments and Memorials of the French Foreign Legion?
4. What if there is no plaque or other identifying feature on a statue that defines the honor and gives only the person's name - is there a way to look up why the statue memorialized him?
5. Would it be considered WP:OR to include a statue in a list article for a specific cause without verifying the honor was actually for that cause?
6. Should the statues, ships, memorials, monuments, etc. be cited to a RS to verify that it belongs in the respective list?

Thanks in advance, ^{Atsme📞📧} 05:07, 5 October 2017 (UTC) to respond

You were right

Your comments regarding paid editing are quite interesting - especially since I am applying for a WMF grant to fund a Wikimedian in Residence at Pitt. On the project grant page, an editor told me that I was asking for funding so that I would be be a 'paid' editor. I am still trying to figure out this point of view. I can see that creating content related to the University may be considered paid editing, but is creating content on user pages, talk pages, template pages, category pages and topics unrelated to the University considered paid editing? Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 18:50, 5 October 2017 (UTC) Best Regards, Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 18:50, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

it's a special form of paid editing which we usually consider benign,and is exempt from the usual rules unless it's abused. It can be abused--for example, by making references only or predominantly to university sources for material which is not unique there. There is no reason not to declare it as if it were ordinary paid editing, on both the article talk p and on your user p. Doing so has no down side. DGG ( talk ) 19:00, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Admin's Barnstar
	Thanks for all your work as an admin and an ArbCom member. Ⓩⓟⓟⓘⓧ Talk 20:41, 7 October 2017 (UTC)

Request on 19:32:53, 16 October 2017 for assistance on AfC submission...

{...

But let me ask you, why do you "need" an article? The only reason a person would need an article is in order to promote themselves or their activities--and that sort of promotion is not permitted in WP; it s a violation of our basic policy WP:NOTADVERTISING. I see nothing in the existing draft to indicate that the person isa major government official whp would generally be considered appropriate for an article.

I must also alert you that there are people who write articles in what they claim to be a professional manner, but almost all of them do not follow our terms of use because they do not disclose their conflict of interest, and most of them are in reality incapable of writing an acceptable non-promotional article. Either reason alone would be sufficient cause for the articles they submit to be immediately deleted as soon as they can be identified--we delete dozens of such articles every day. If you use such a service you need to determine that actually follow our terms of use. Any service that claims special access or permission or administrator assistance is not following our rules, because no administrator or person with special permissions is permitted to use those facilities for paid work at WP. And as if this were not bad enough, be aware that some services have the despicable practice of accepting payment and writing the article, but will then challenge the article using another name, and ask additional payment for defending it. DGG ( talk ) 00:50, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

Sonne der Gerechtigkeit

Sonne der Gerechtigkeit, sun of justice in our time. I had some hopes that you wanted to restore the article history of the other hymn, bringing back the 2005 beginning and the history, no? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:13, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Steve Collins (nutritionist)

Alas, 2017-11-10T15:20:45‎ Atlantic306‎ . . (deprod- not an uncontroversial deletion as was approved at AFC). Surprised/not surprised this made it out of AfC. ack, -- Dlohcierekim (talk) 16:57, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Well, you can't win 'em all. Hopefully any negative trends as far as reviewing (or reviewers) goes can be reversed before we start accepting real junk. Primefac (talk) 17:10, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

We will never get things 100% correct at AfC any more than we do at NPP or AfD. But certainly the error rate at AfC remains higher than elsewhere, and the only way to improve it means following up editors who consistently make wrong decisions there to remind them of the standards. I have actually received negative criticism for checking up on people's accepts and declines, but I think people who concentrate of checking up are necessary at all decision points--and that is in fact the primary reason I gave in asking to be an admin. (One thing that can help is a quick screening of drafts the first day they are entered to remove obvious copyvio and promotionalism before they get any further. I've started doing this for G11, and I see others are also, especially for G12.) DGG ( talk ) 17:57, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Hear, hear! (The page in question went the way of all good spam.) If there is a tool/method to help me screen drafts the same day as they are entered, I would enjoy using it. And screening is needed to assure quality. -- Dlohcierekim (talk) 18:03, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

DGG, to continue on from a thread in another location (and to ping off your "higher error rate" comment) - is your comment based on statistics or just "I see a lot of AFC-accepted pages at AFD"? It seems like everyone except me (who is the one tracking all of these stats) thinks that AFC has this huge error rate in acceptances, and I cannot figure out why. I haven't run the numbers, so I cannot comment on how accurate we are as a group. Primefac (talk) 18:18, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

I haven't tried to collect figures for many years now, because there is too much ambiguity in what to measure. There are 3 ways to define error-- a/ a decision which is reversed at a later stage, b/ a decision which is hopelessly wrong, and c/ a decision which I think should have been otherwise. I usually mean by error a mix of criteria b & c, thinking of c as violating the consensus, not just disagreeing with what I think the consensus ought to be. There are also Type I and Type II errors--in this context, I think of a type I error as an incorrect rejection of an article, Type II as an incorrect acceptance. Going by impressions, I consider the rate of errors at AfD to be between 5 and 10 % in each direction. At NPP, probably about 10% incorrect acceptance and 5% incorrect rejection, as Speedy is applied very conservatively; At AfC. I think there's about 5 to 10% incorrect acceptance, and about 10 to 20% incorrect declines, as the unfortunate practice has been to decline for trivial reasons. The prevailing type of error there is the opposite of NPP, because NPP besides being conservative, are systematically reviewed by an admin. But no, I do not have numbers.

The real problem is not the error rate, but the disagreement on whether to fix or delete promotional articles. Before paid editing became so conspicuous, I always tried to err on the side of fixing, and now I do just the opposite. Bad articles are less of a danger than paid editing, which corrupts the entire process of building an encyclopedia, and trying to decrease it is a greater priority. DGG ( talk ) 19:17, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Daffodils English School, Sanjaynagar

I'm interested in your take on this deletion discussion. You stated when endorsing the 'Keep' at deletion review that "All comments except one were keep". I don't believe that is accurate, since neither Cordless Larry, nor Pburka – nor I for that matter – made comments that could possibly be interpreted as "keep". In any case, I thought that AfD was decided on the strength of the arguments, not the number of votes.

You also claimed that "all the arguments were sufficiently policy based", and yet every single keep vote was a variation on the theme "the school exists therefore it's notable" or "we always have kept secondary schools in the past, so we should keep this one". Are you aware that the February 2017 RfC specifically discredited both of those arguments? In addition, the keep arguments were based on an earlier version of WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES which is not even a guideline, let alone policy. Even being charitable, WP:NPOSSIBLE is a guideline, not policy. And yet the 'delete' arguments were firmly based on policy: "If no reliable third-party sources can be found on a topic, Wikipedia should not have an article about it." and "Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published secondary sources ... Secondary or tertiary sources are needed to establish the topic's notability." The article was written by a serial adspammer using only the school's own website to create the content. Since then, there has been found nothing more than the entries for the school in a couple of directories and a two brief sentences in The Hindu noting their exam results one year. That is nowhere near enough third-party sourcing to base an article on.

If you feel able to, I'd be interested on how you feel you can refute (i) the strength of argument where policy disagrees with an essay; (ii) the results of an RfC; and (iii) the policy requirements that all articles must be based on reliable, published secondary sources. --RexxS (talk) 18:31, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

(1)The effective policies and guidelines are the way we agree to interpret them, not what is written. What is written is not systematic, and there are many contradictions. Given these, and given also the differences in how people interpret, at any AfD except the most obvious it is possible to construct a decent argument in any direction. I think people generally make a global opinion on whether WP should or should not have the article, and then look for the appropriate arguments.

(2) The RfC, as I explained, did not say what you assert it said. It said there was no consensus to change the practice of keeping school articles. It also said there was no consensus that commonoutcomes was a sufficient argument. I do not know of any way to really harmonize these two conclusions, so confusion about them is not just understandable but inevitable.

(3) My view that we should continue the practice of keeping articles on secondary schools articles is simply an empirical compromise with not keeping primary school articles. It needs no other defense than being a workable way of avoiding spending most of our AfD energy on the the disagreements. The goal is to build an encyclopedia, and sometimes that means not focussing on issues that we cannot settle. The secondary reason is that some degree of consistency is a virtue, and back when I first came here and we did debate every primary and secondary school, the results were not much better than random. You will notice I am not arguing that either primary or secondary schools do or do not meet the standard of GNG--back when I did, the argument was that if we had sufficient access to local sources, we could show notability, but that the effort in obtaining them was not worth it in either case.

(4)It comes down to a choice--either accept the compromise or debate not just every secondary school in the world, but every primary school in the world also.

Further discussion should go elsewhere. But I don't really see the point of it--we are both going to repeat what what we have already said.We are not goign to convince each other, and anyone coming to this question for the first time already has available many full arguments in each direction. DGG ( talk ) 19:17, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

I was interested in what you've said here and also what I found on your userpage about counting !votes in AfD discussions. Taken together you seem to be arguing that (for example) this AfD should have been closed as "keep" because more people !voted keep citing policy arguments than those who !voted delete. Whilst I kind-of see the logic of this position, it doesn't seem to be one shared by the majority of people who close AfD discussions. And I don't know how it would work in practice: surely it is then just a popularity contest. On the other hand, I think this whole idea of "consensus" is problematic. The vast majority of people who edit do not !vote or engage in these debates, so any RfC or AfD is (obviously) going to be a fight between those who turn up. When those parties get into a rut on how to decide between the merits of keep/delete, I can't see how there can ever be consensus. Simply saying that the consensus is that people disagree doesn't seem to adequately address the problem - particularly when closers seem to apply the supposed consensus in different ways. JMWt (talk) 09:33, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

Yes, people can judge consensus in different ways--it is to some extent subjective. But the rule is to go by the consensus of the policy-based arguments, and that is almost always followed, though there is also some subjectivity in judging what is a sufficiently policy-based argument. There is no way in any system to avoid personal judgment in decisions, except by strict vote counting , which we do in only special situations--elections for arb com, decisions by arb com, for example. DGG ( talk ) 13:45, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

Noteable Faculty and Biomedical Engineering Page JHU

DGG, I am a little confused. Can I add references to Nitish Thakor page for example, and is it ok for me to update with more references the JHU BME page? I am currently the Director of Biomedical Engineering and wanted to do for BME what Stanford Computer Science has done and Oxford Computer Science, both have wiki pages and are demonstrating very coherent easy ways to have undergrads and high schoolers just find them easily through Wikipedia.

I dont think I have added anything to date that is not accurate. It isn't our business in the Academy to speak about things we don't have published. Anyway I appreciate reading your notes about "Noteable faculty"; that was very helpful. My criteria which was in error was National Academy. I think essentially it is suggesting the Associate Professors and Full Professors will all likely be noteable because all of them in our department have H-indices that are very high and many publications. Thank-you in advance. Mim.cis (talk) 03:29, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

You do have an obvious conflict of interest; according to common sense you are not the best person to evaluate the appropriateness and balance of the content in the articles about your own organization. According to our rules in WP:COI, you may only make suggestions of the article talkpage, except for fixing obvious errors or updating. Adding the references for the plain facts of Thakor's career is the sort of thing you can do directly; adding references for judgements about him, do on the talk page. ( Be careful about adding content--we give only a brief description of the research and list only the 2 or 3 most cited papers. We regard Research Career Development Awards and the like as grants, not awards, and we do not include them; we also do not include alumni awards from his university. There's no need to pad the CV--Fellow IEEE is sufficient proof of notability.

As for the Department article, I started by restoring some refs to the Department article from earlier versions of the article) Since member National Academy is notable, I found the proper way to add some additional names, even though the articles have not yet been written. However, the history section is still a little heavy with internal detail. It could use some copyediting for compactness. I'll give it a try if I can. You might note the extreme plainness of the other articles you mention.

when you proceed to write articles on the other faculty, do it in Draft Space using the WP:Article Wizard, Make sure you declare your conflict of interest. And I strongly recommend that you do them very cautiously, one at a time, starting from the most notable, and seeing if you run into opposition before you start the nest one.. In judging citations, the key factor is not the h factor by itself-- person A with 50 papers each with 50 citations has h=50; so does person B with 20 papers with 200 citations and 30 with 50, but only person B is likely to be notable. I give you advice to the best of my ability about what is acceptable, but I cannot make final judgments. Anyone who wishes can bring an article deletion request at WP:AFD , and the community consensus makes the decision. Do not be surprised if some people oppose.

I hope this helps. DGG ( talk ) 13:34, 13 November 2017 (UTC)

hello

It appears that most long term administrators do not share the same views that you do on treating new editors contributions with the same respect that you mention on your other personal page.

I was interested if there are other administrators like you? If so, who? Thank you in advance. I appreciate all your time and all you do. How can i give you an award? Moscowamerican (talk) 05:44, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

Appreciation

I don't think I have adequately conveyed my appreciation for your patient explanations of 'how things work' around here. I have learned so much from you. Thank you and Best Regards, Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 06:56, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Your new talk page

When I drove by your talk page today, it reminded me of Miami after Hurricane Andrew—I didn't recognize the neighborhood.

My Internet situation is such that I've considered length here at this talk page a feature, not a bug. How do you feel about a Best of DDG archive? — User:Neonorange (Phil) 00:26, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

you will find these in the topical archives sections listed at the top. DGG ( talk ) 00:31, 21 November 2017 (UTC)

Can we turn it into a podcast?Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 00:47, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Hear! Hear! — User:Neonorange (Phil) 07:21, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

AfC decline template

Hi there, I was mentioning to primefac that I felt the current templates we use for declining submissions could be made more pithy. Seemingly people aren't reading them, or, more likely, ignoring them; and I feel if they were either trimmed up, or made more specific (pointing to SNGs, for example) it may help. Either way, primefac mentioned you also have an interest in this, so I figured I'd reach out to get your thoughts. Thanks in advance. Drewmutt (^ᴥ^) talk 04:40, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Yes indeed, thanks for reminding me. I write write at least a sample in the next week or two. Not reading, because I know that when I receive obvious boilerplate that seems to contain material not directly helpful, I stop reading. Also not understanding, because only someone who actually knows how we judge articles could understand the significance of the advice--and only someone with experience here could understand the pages being referred to. And, to be sure, ignoring -- sometimes they don't care in the least about what we require--but I am not sure any change in wording can help that part. . DGG ( talk ) 06:37, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Hi again, with the holidays behind us I had a quick moment to take a stab at a template rewrite. It's just boilerplate, and I'd like more specific ones so we can point them to respective SNGs, but wanted to get your feedback to see if you feel it's going in the right direction. Thanks in advance. Drewmutt (^ᴥ^) talk 23:00, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Read your essay

You certainly are a good teacher thank you for working on the essay you recommended to me on my talk page. Best Regards, Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 00:44, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Did you know we actually have rules about this stuff? They apply to you, too!

In regards to Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Made to Stick, did you even do WP:BEFORE? I don't think you did. I get the impression that you just spitball decisions on articles to be whatever you think it should be. You might've made some reference to WP:NBOOK in your nomination. Chris Troutman (talk) 00:08, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

I didn't list it for problems with notability, but promotionalism. I didn't refer to NBOOK because that's not the basis of my nomination. In fact, I think it most likely is notable. If I thought it wasn't I would have said so. I did enough WP:BEFORE to confirm the notability. I am fully aware that I can not discuss the notability of a book without looking at least for library holdings, which are quite high--and having seen that, I assume that there are reviews also.

As you must know by now, I currently care much more about promotionalism than notability. I rarely send to afd any more if notability is the only concern, unless it's really clear. I send promotionalism that doesn't fall under G11. There are enough people dealing with notability , and in any case I consider lack of notability a less critical issue.

I make mistakes. By my estimate, somewhere around 2% of my AfD nominations are errors. (as distinct from those where the consensus disagrees with me) Criticize me when I make the errors--I want to try to reduce my error rate to 1%, and I need the criticism to do that. But not when you just assume I make an error without looking at what I actually said. DGG ( talk ) 00:37, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

Ok, so this is the crux of the disagreement. Deletion is not cleanup. I would love to just go around deleting articles I don't like. We have a bunch of articles about minor athletes and movies no one saw and the articles remain because the subjects are notable. So it must be nice to ignore WP:N. I don't think you made a case for WP:DEL4 and it's your job as nominator to make that case. So my charge isn't that you made a mistake, but that your beliefs about deletion are wrong, hence my utter contempt for you as an editor. You are one ARBCOM candidate I definitely regret supporting in the past. Chris Troutman (talk) 00:48, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

Jesus, dude... I think you're getting a bit snippy with your response here... :-/ ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 01:03, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

that's OK; I take comments like this for recognition that I'm getting somewhere. DGG ( talk ) 02:42, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

'A bit snippy' ? It's downright PA. Boomerang for troutman. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 02:45, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

@Kudpung: How is it a personal attack? I have seen AfD noms like what DGG has done considered "bad faith." I'm pointing out that Wikipedia actually has agreed-upon criteria for deletion and DGG seems to think himself above mere community consensus. I agree with Aristotle's adage: He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. Anyone who purports to enforce and define the law has to obey the law. Contempt for guidelines and policies indicates unfitness for leadership, in my opinion. Clearly, I am in the minority in my views, which is sad. Chris Troutman (talk) 03:51, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

Most actual disagreements involving policy are not about what it is, but how to apply it. Sometimes the consensus is pretty stupid, but each of us has a their own view about what that applies to. NOT ADVOCACY is basic policy, but the dividing line between which promotional articles to fix, and which to remove, is a matter of judgment, with a very wide range of plausible views. I do not have contempt for those who take a different view here than I, tho I certainly continue to oppose them as opportunity offers, and I certainly intend my arguments to affect the general consensus on interpretation. WP would not be much harmed by disagreements on whereto draw the line about notability  ; it could be destroyed by being used for advertising.

I don't see what ArbCom has to do with it; it is rarely concerned even indirectly with what articles get kept or deleted; there have been a few arb cases about deletion behavior, but they were before my time on the committee. If, hypothetically, there were a supreme board to decide what articles were kept, then people would appropriately vote for the members based on what they thought about deletion-related questions. Whether I'm an arb adds no weight to my !votes at AfD, and I don't see that it discourages people from disagreeing with them. It would be more relevant to ask my views about what constitutes a personal attack, for that arb com does have jurisdiction over.

If I had deleted the article as G11 single-handed without a second admin's confirmation, you might have at least an excuse for a question about my general judgment. But this is just a nomination for a discussion. As I tell beginners, if your view is considered right by the community, the article will not get deleted. DGG ( talk ) 05:19, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

"But this is just a nomination for a discussion. As I tell beginners, if your view is considered right by the community, the article will not get deleted." The problem is, this is simply not the case. All it takes is a nomination by a highly influential admin (you), and lack of participation (AfD is already a ghost town and has been for years as the noms pile up beyond anyone's ability to track), or participation from deletionists, non-neutral participants, or people with an axe to grind, for a notable article to be deleted simply because nobody, or insufficient people, bothered to do WP:BEFORE, or bothered to click the search links at the top of every AfD. The proper response to a promotional-sounding article is to (A) edit it, or (B) tag it with {{advert}}, {{cleanup}}, or similar tag. The proper response for an article whose citations appear to demonstrate insufficient WP:N is to do WP:BEFORE. It cannot be over-stressed that WP:AFDISNOTCLEANUP. That's why we have cleanup tags.

All of that said, Christroutman's vicious personal attacks here are way out of line and are in violation of the final warning he received here: [7], so by all rights he should be blocked. Softlavender (talk) 23:55, 27 November 2017 (UTC)

Softlavendar, that is not how I see my experience at afd. My record of success is not particularly high, partly because -- having no real need to have a perfect record as if I were running for an RfA, -- I can try to see where consensus currently lies by sometimes nominating what I suspect to be marginal cases; the way we work, there is no other way to find out except to try and see & then adjust expectations. I'm perfectly willing to withdraw a nomination or suggest an alternative, as I have done with the one that started this thread. I consider AfD misnamed--it should be seen as Articles for Discussion, and with the current variety of closures, that is more and more what it has become.

There are many regulars who have not the least hesitation in telling me that I'm wrong -- I think in fact some of them find it particularly satisfactory to be able to do so. Many beginners do also, and they can be sometimes correct as well. Of course, it is possible that I may be an adult gorilla who does not realize my own weight--I have never been all that good in judging what people think of me. .

Participation at AfD has been even lower in the past. But even as it is, it's the only process here for quality control that actually works. Again, I may be misperceiving this because I am overestimating how well it works because I have long enough experience there to know how to use it.

But here is the real situation: I am now much less concerned with notability than promotionalism. I do intend to use whatever fair methods I can find to put an end to the practice of undeclared paid editing--and if possible, to convince the community to end all paid editing. The most effective method at my disposal is deletion. (SPI also helps, but I'm just not good at it and have to depend for that part on others). Variations in notability do not actually matter very much, but paid editing will destroy WP by reducing us to an advertising medium. Even if by some miracle we could get paid editing of decent quality, it would destroy WP by driving away the volunteers. That includes me--I will not work here if it stops being a volunteer project, any more than I would work here if it were censored, or if it did not have a free license. Those are the things about WP that are actually important to me.

Consequently, I no longer fully agree that "The proper response to a promotional-sounding article is to (A) edit it, or (B) tag it with {{advert}}, {{cleanup}}, or similar tag. " It remains the proper approach for an article from a good faith editor (GFE). For an article in violation of the TOU, the proper course is deletion. We could remove these from AfD--I will support a speedy criterion; I'd even support it also applying to draft space. (I recognize there are some problems here, because sometimes a GFE will not know better than to copy the style of one of the hundred thousands of promotional articles thinking that's what is actually wanted. The solution is to remove the bad examples--all of them, regardless of how long they've been here, just as we dealt with the unsourced BLPs. It will take a few years.) For good volunteer editors to try to fix such articles makes the matter worse: they're facilitating the undeclared paid editors, they're preventing a real solution, they're doing the work so the people who want to destroy our principles can earn the money. That's suicide, not altruism.

Nor do I fully agree with the essay Wikipedia:Deletion is not cleanup. The most effective way --sometimes the only way--to get an article cleaned up over opposition for fans or promotional editors is to list it for deletion. It shouldn't be the first step for an article by a good faith editor, but it works. clumsy as AfD is, the alternative is 3O, which rarely accomplishes anything, or RfC, which can be really messy. DGG ( talk ) 02:25, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

Then, in my opinion, you are, or could be accused of, nominating in bad faith. If you feel or realize that a subject has notability, but are AfDing anyway, then you are nominating in bad faith as many people understand it. Unlike other XfDs, AfD is not "articles for discussion", as you have stated/implied above. It is "Articles for Deletion". By AfDing you are stating or implying that an article on the subject should not exist on Wikipedia. If you are too lazy to edit, and unwilling to tag articles (we also have the {{coi}} and {{undisclosed paid}} tags for the issues you address), but want to remove them entirely based on your subjective opinion of how they are written rather than the notability of the subject and the well-established thresholds of inclusion established by the community, not by a single person .... then you are, in essence, taking "the law" into your own hands. I understand why you are doing it, but it subverts a lot of the established community processes under which the encyclopedia operates. They may be inefficient, but they have been established by community consensus. Softlavender (talk) 02:49, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

Softlavendar: WP:N is clear that simply meeting the GNG is not enough for inclusion. Failure of WP:NOT is grounds for failing WP:N, and that includes WP:PROMO. WP:DEL4 and WP:DEL14 also apply here: a notable subject that is promotional can and should be deleted from Wikipedia under existing policies and guidelines, including the notability guideline itself, even if it does not meet the strict G11 criterion. Your view is certainly a view that many in the community hold, but so is David's. The point of AfD is for the community to decide how to apply the principles of Wikipedia as expressed in our policies and guidelines to the case of a specific article. David is making good faith deletion nominations based on promotion. While the community might not always agree with him, it often does. Consensus is built organically through local discussions such as AfD, and the work David is doing here is important. TonyBallioni (talk) 02:57, 28 November 2017 (UTC)

"Essentially advertising" is an incredibly weak rationale for sending something to AfD. If he had said "I can find reliable sources for this, but there is so much promotional content, I think we're better off blowing it up and starting over, and as this isn't my topic of expertise, I'm not comfortable doing it, and I can't see anyone else coming forward" then I might be more understanding. If a brand new admin candidate did this, and somebody noticed, they'd get opposed and possibly their RfA would tank. So why should an existing admin get away with things a new candidate won't? You should agree with WP:NOTCLEANUP, as the deletion policy says "If editing can improve the page, this should be done rather than deleting the page." Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 10:37, 28 November 2017 (UTC)C)

Ritchie333, "essentially advertising" is one of the basic reasons to remove an article. Of all the rationales at WP:NOT, NOT ADVOCACY is one of the most important, for it is the very basis of NPOV. (By comparison, NOT INDISCRIMINATE, the basis of Notability guidelines, is much less critical.) Articles that amount to advocacy must be removed, and the mere promise to fix it is just as inadequate as the mere promise to fix copyvio or BLP violation. How we do this fundamentally simple thing is of course complicated, and is adjusted to circumstances by changing the written rules and the interpretations--normally, the written rules lag by a considerable amount. The interpretation is whatever consensus has it--there is no other basis for deciding content in WP. It is reasonable of anyone here to try to influence the interpretation, and I knew from the start that my main purpose here was to do that. In some things I have been successful. I always realized success would come slowly, and I think in terms of years. Sometimes change come surprisingly quickly, and there has been a major change in the last year in the extent to which we reject promotionalism and its usual correlate of paid editing. Having already changed what we do, the rules will follow. My style is to let others write them, once I've gotten the change started.

Softlavender, "Nominating in bad faith" is a remarkable term to use for giving my opinion, and then asking the community to determine just where the present boundaries of consensus lie. I have never nominated without the intent and hope of getting something deleted because of WP:NOT. (or, sometimes, referring something where I think there's something wrong but in a field where I cannot decide to the community) Nominating in bad faith means nominating maliciously or to be a nuisance, or based on prejudice, or relying on spa or sock support, not merely having an opinion others disagree with. It can also include nominating repeatedly and persistently despite knowing that the consensus is firmly against one. I try not to do that, tho sometimes I make an error in moving more quickly than the circumstances turn out to warrant. More often I think I make an error by letting things slide, but both are inevitable in anyone doing a large amount of non-obvious work here.

If we are to trade charges, those who try to fix the work of promotional editors, especially promotional paid editors, could be considered complicit in helping them destroy WP. I don't go around accusing my opponents of doing that deliberately, though I do sometimes remind them that such will be the effect of what I consider their misguided work. Perhaps eventually they'll realize; I've changed myself, as I too did not realize the danger initially, and I hope the continuing revelations of the extent of promotional editing might affect them, as it did me.

one of the prerogatives of one's own talk page is the ability to have the last word in an exchange. There will be dozens of opportunities each day to continue elsewhere. DGG ( talk ) 06:07, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

fixing promotionalism

...:But more generally, you raise an important point:

the problem of whether to remove somewhat promotional material from promotional articles before listing from AfD is a dilemma. I have come across articles that I try to improve, and then after sharply editing content, decide they are unsalvageable, and take them to afd. If I leave them in their improved but still inadequate state it doesn't give a fair impression of the promotional intent and overall promotional writing. If I return the contents, i am deliberately making the article worse than it needs to be. Since the promotional content can also contain material relevant to notability , this makes the dilemma even more difficult. (What I now usually do is leave it in the improved form and give a link to the original in the discussion).

As we know, there is a disagreement of how strictly to interpret NOT ADVERTISING, and on how bad a article has to be before it qualifies for G11 as requiring fundamental rewriting. My position here has changed over the years from considerable tolerance for anything vaguely notable--though I was always a bit hesitant about local interest material-- to an emphasis on removing promotionalism to discourage the usually paid promotional editing.

There is also a disagreement on the notability of these restaurants, and the promotionalism in them is normally from fans, not paid editors--and it is difficult to write about restaurants at all without sounding a little promotional. As far as WP guidelines go, anyone experienced at AfD could equally easily write a keep or a delete rationale for most of them, so it's basically a question of what extent of local detail we think WP should cover. I have sometimes been tempted to add every restaurant in Brooklyn that got a significant write-up in the NYT. If the current trend holds towards keeping such articles, I may do it yet. DGG ( talk ) 19:44, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

I understand your concerns. The problem is think is that sources such as Serious Eats or NYT are national notable sources which gives the subject notability, unfortunately these articles would generally be written in a way that praises the subject. I've noticed (not in this case) that some editors tend to remove sources and when sources such as Serious Eats are removed it could make the subject look vastly less notable, as a result the discussion could be skewed. Valoem ^{talk contrib} 16:14, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with Serious Eats, but I am a close reader of the NYT restaurant reviews. They cover, as would be expected, not every restaurant in the city, but those that are significant in some way: established favorites, currently popular or fashionable, new restaurants from well-known cooks or owners. This inevitably produces a bias towards places of some merit, but, everything considered, the reviews are generally critical, and by no means extremely laudatory. (The number and venom of bad reviews has varied over the years with their different critics).

More basically, essentially any article about any company or professional will have a promotional value. it's a maxim that all publicity is good, and having an article in WP has become regarded as a sign of importance. If we are going to cover anything in the current world, or that affects the current world, the articles will have some degree of promotional effect. This gives us a dangerous influence, about which we must take precautions. The efforts of the PR industry can only be countered by true NPOV editing, and it is absurd to expect any professional or organization to actually write or commission a true NPOV article about themselves. Therefore, we need to consider all coi editors as at least potentially destructive of our values, and, the world being as it is, they will be particularly dangerous when money is involved. The attempt at paid editinghas corruptd too many good editors here, and has attracted a remarkable number of incompetents. More and more, I think the only practical way forward is to remove them. DGG ( talk ) 01:33, 7 December 2017 (UTC)

consensus at AfDs

Hi DGG! I was reading some of the materials on your user page and it was useful for me to read them. I'. Specially, I would like to know if the materials of "with respect to consensus at AfDs" are induced to your mind by WP's policies and guidelines or it's just a personal interpretation of them? Btw, the paragraph starts with quotation mark but I could not find where it's closed. Regards. --Mhhossein ^talk 10:26, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

Would you mind shedding light on this query? --Mhhossein ^talk 12:20, 8 December 2017 (UTC)

still to reply

An interesting thought experiment

Hi again, I was chatting with some folks about an idea that will likely never see the light of day, but I'd like your feedback on it. An outright ban of CORP articles in AfC for a 6 mo trial. I was joking about it initially, but the more I thought about it I'm curious what the outcome would be. If I had to guess, no one would notice other than paid editors. I can't think of people searching Google for "Bizco" and having an erosion of trust because Wikipedia doesn't have it. It also has a potential interesting side effect of preventing companies that haven't been around for more that six months, which is kind of an indirect SNG for CORP. Again, no chance of it being implemented, just thought getting your views on it would be insightful. Drewmutt (^ᴥ^) talk 00:50, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

I had been thinking of something like that for companies formed after 1990 or thereabouts. There are of course other areas, such as their executives, and all the NGOs, and politicians, and the artists--all of who use paid editors almost as much. But it would be an interesting moratorium. DGG ( talk ) 01:12, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

I think this is an excellent idea, makes sense, and there is probably potential for it. Kind of lke an ACTRIAL experiment. Would need some careful thinking out though. @Drewmutt:. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 00:16, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks Kudpung for your feedback, glad this seems more feasible than I initially thought. Any suggestions on next steps? Drewmutt (^ᴥ^) talk 00:44, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Interesting idea: on the whole, it might be a net positive. We'd have to flesh out the specifics, obviously. The other thing is whether or not something like this could achieve consensus and how it would be enforced. A simple decline of all corps? a CSD X criteria? There are also conversations going on now at WT:CORP surrounding increasing the notability requirements for corporations that might be relevant here. TonyBallioni (talk) 00:44, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

The consensus bit seems the biggest obstacle, but I've been trying to rack my brain for any "cost" this would have to WP as a whole, and I can't come up with any. The only debate I could see (which I feel is a weak one) is driving paid editors to more nefarious methods of publishing. If nothing else, people concerned about the AfC backlog should be on board. I'd be fine with it simply being a decline template, something like, "Currently Wikipedia is undergoing a trial where new articles about corporations will not be accepted. Therefore your submission cannot be accepted at this time." Drewmutt (^ᴥ^) talk 00:53, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Possible. OTOH, a new CSD would be unlkely. Getting new CSDs agreed is one of the most challenging aspects of Wikipedia. Everyone knows that I'm a firm proponent of a total ban on PE, Tony mentioned 'baby steps' somewhere not so long ago - this would be one of them. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 01:01, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

for the two X criteria used so far, they were so rough and ready that there were many exceptions needed; the same would be the case with this. A new general CSD category is not a good idea; it will be more practical to adjust wording on existing ones. (G5 for example) . Similarly for 1990+, I would do it not as a speedy, but as a modification of the SNG, and say specifically that it over=rides GNG. At some point we would really have to deal with the primary obstacle to increasing notability standards, the GNG/SNG comfusion. But I do not think there will be consensus for it at this point.

What there willl be consensus for, is increasing restrictions on paid editors. Proposed wording changes,

1) on WP:COI, lede para: from "Editors with a COI, including paid editors, are expected to disclose it " to "Editors with a COI, including paid editors, are required to disclose it "

2) WP:COI section 1.2, and throughout change all the "should" to must.

3) all new articles on commercial organizations founded after 1990 must go to AfC, and anyone encountering one should move it there. This includes articles by confirmed editors. DGG ( talk ) 02:26, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

• Support -- I would support; possibly with a caveat "for companies launched after X year" -- anyone wanting create an article on a historic company would be able to do so. K.e.coffman (talk) 02:29, 20 December 2017 (UTC)
• I do not support if it's a ban on entering articles, only if its a requirement to use Draft space / What we need to remember, is that at present we may be in a state of emergency, but the situation is getting better, not worse, because we now do have general awareness of the problem among WPedians.My own preferred place to work remains with individual articles, not wording of policy. Over the years, it's the only way I've had any success. The rewording sometimes comes later, once opinion has been affected by individual articles. Everyone who cares needs to participate in NPP and AfD. DGG ( talk ) 02:41, 20 December 2017 (UTC)
  • David, I think you hit the nail on the head here (as usual). In my experience, progress on Wikipedia is only achieved by building local consensus first and establishing something as common practice and standards. What we need to do here is to make people aware of the crisis we are facing with promotional editing, and get the people to care to participate in the two processes that most directly affect it: AfD and NPP. RfCs only work if consensus is preexisting. We have come a long way on this even in the last year, but more progress is needed. That only can occur if people who care take the time to work in these areas. TonyBallioni (talk) 03:09, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

If this were taken up, how would it affect new articles about noncommercial corporations or associations? You could use Oregon Psilocybin Society, which I created, as an example. Would it have had to go through AfC? ☆ Bri (talk) 03:16, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

I won't characterise on Oregon Psilocybin Society right now because I haven't gone through all the sources, but at first blush it seems to have attracted enough attention for notability. However, non-profits are notorious for attempting to promote themselves through Wikipedia, and most of them are written by someone with a COI. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 05:36, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

I was thinking about this over the last couple days, and essentially what I came to is that "if having a Wikipedia article leads to an increase of money exchange, than it should be sent to AfC", which includes donations, so I'd vote, that yes Bri it would go to AfC. Not that it would have a problem getting approved, I just don't want to burden folks with determining if something is for/non-profit. Logically, that expands to BLPs as well, but I feel that CORP is a more pressing issue. Drewmutt (^ᴥ^) talk 23:36, 22 December 2017 (UTC)

• Support I think that's a very elegant solution to a non-elegant problem. I mildly feel that 1990 is a bit too far back, but I trust your judgement over my own. Drewmutt (^ᴥ^) talk 23:36, 22 December 2017 (UTC)

Comment: Wow. I can't believe what I'm seeing. Surely there must be a policy against using Wikipedia to conduct arbitrary "thought experiments". Especially ones where we just don't know what the possible side effects are. I think we've all gone mad. Huggums537 (talk) 20:15, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

DGG thank-you for the thoughtful comment about /sandbox

I will try to incorporate the advice.

Can you give advice on the article on JHUBME. It is posted for being taken down due to conflict of interest. Can it be rescued. It is factual. Overexhuberant new Chairman trying to follow Stanford Computer Science and Oxford Computer Science both top ranked departments. Is it possible for editors like yourself to sharpen it up and remove individuals who are not noteable etc given the history is all documented and BME at JHU is largely considered to have created this modern field of BIomedical discovery. Thank-you in advance. Mim.cis (talk) 02:47, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

I can remove the Prod tag, but I expect it will then be nominated for a discussion at AfD, and the consensus there will decide. There are two considerations: promotionalism, and notability , and either reason is sufficient for deletion. I can help with the promotionalism--at the present time it's not particularly outrageous--more a matter of tone than anything specific, and I've made what I think to be the necessary adjustments. Notability is a more difficulty question. We have no good standards for academic departments. but most submitted articles on them have been deleted, and I've almost always agreed with the decision. It's very difficult to write one without promotionalism unless the department is actually world-famous, and that's my personal standard, and the standard I argue for. It's relatively easy to decide this in the more general and longstanding fields, like for example physics. It's harder in the more specialized and newer ones, ones, like Biomedical Engineering. I cannot predict how the discussion will go.

the problem is to provide third party documentation of your statement "largely considered to have created this modern field" and each individual statement ones in the article, especially the ones already questioned with citation need tags. I point out the USNWR rankings are considered of rather dubious reliability here, certainly not as a measure of research importance. We include them because the public uses them.

Unless you can find material to document the statements, I do not think that the article will pass AfD. If you can, it probably will. If you provide them on the article talk page and let me know here, I will remove the tag. Otherwise there is no real point in trying in keep it. DGG ( talk ) 05:01, 11 December 2017 (UTC)

Thank-you very much. I looked at several things. First, I appreciate that noteworthy is not an absolute metric.

I wanted to just share some thoughts on possible noteworthy measures indicating that Biomedical Engineering as a discipline is significant and within the field JHU BME is noteworthy. (i) Currently we have 8 faculty over 60, 12 faculty with h-index greater than 50, and 19 over 40. While h-index is not an absolute measure of noteworthiness, Wikipedia says and I am quoting "an outtsanding scientist has an h-index of 40, and a truely unique individual an h-index of 60". For comparison, I looked at Duke, Stanford and GTech in this manner, none have as many. GTech and Stanford have 5 greater than 50.(ii) We have 5 listed members of any of the National Academies. According to Wikipedia "Election into the National Academies is one of the highest honors in the scientific field. (iii) The size of our discipline is significant and of the scale of the departments of Biomedical Engineering are similar to other outstanding program which have wiki pages. For example Georgia Tech, Duke, UCSD and JHU have 40 tenure line faculty in Biomedical Engineering. (iv) A noteworthy measure of the importance of our undergraduate program, the acceptance rate of 7.8% into JHU BME is currently more competitive than CalTech and MIT based on U.S. News and World Report.

If there are other measures that Wikipedia uses of noteworthiness we would be happy to address. We agree that any statements that you feel are inappropriate because of inadequate 3rd party referencing should be taken down. At the time of our founding in 1962 there were no other departments. We are currently looking for 3rd party referencing to that effect. It seems appropriate that the statement "Johns is credited as ..." can be taken down until we find further referencing. We are proper the proper reference from U.S. News concerning continual ranking. Mim.cis (talk) 17:06, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

Notability for the purposes of wikipedia does not correspond to the way the word is used in the Real World--it can only be thought of as a term of art -- language used in a special way by those within a field. I am giving you advice about what will be needed to keep the article, which requires dealing with the artificial manner that is used here. I also have my own opinion, but the advice I give you is based on my experience of what actually happens, not what I think ought to happen.

Officially, the measure Wikipedia uses for determining notability is the WP:GNG, whether there are references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements. If you have such material the article will be kept, whether or not it would rationally make sense to have it in the encyclopedia. If you do not, it won't, again whether or not it would rationally make sense to have it in the encyclopedia. The key words to pay attention to are substantial, independent, and reliable. To the extent that it will help influence how people consider the references, the best way of making the case for your deprtment is to focus not on present quality however high it may be, but historical significance, where it may be unique. DGG ( talk ) 10:27, 14 December 2017 (UTC)

Thank-you for these clarifications. I am slowly learning. I may have clunkily tried to remove the prod based on my understanding of correct procedure. I left comments on Bfpage talk since BFP was the individual who tagged it. I hope the page can stay up and be edited and improved. Thank-you in advance in whatever you decide.Mim.cis (talk) 21:51, 14 December 2017 (UTC)

G13 Error rate?

Hello DGG. I saw your comment at WT:CSD regarding error rates on G13 nominations, and I was wondering what kinds of errors you were referring to. Do you mean technical errors in not meeting G13 criteria (e.g. pages that actually have been edited within the last six months)? Or do you mean pages that are potentially worthwhile and ought to be allowed more time to work?--Mojo Hand (talk) 03:27, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

I mean results which are clearly wrong according to our current standards. and that includes- both the printed guidelines and the accepted standards of interpretation. No policy or guideline, however absolute it sounds, provides an automatic answer for all situations. Every administrative action at WP relies upon following consensus--in the case of deleting at speedy, the implied consensus of what other admins would reasonably do. If you examine WP:CSD, you will find each criteria has a qualifying word, such "credible" "unquestionably" "unsalvageable" "good faith" essentially", "implausible" and the like. There is an accepted range of interpretations for all of these, and a variety of accepted exemptions or inclusions in practice that are not specifically written. My % does not however include items that do fall under the accepted interpretation, but where I wish it were otherwise. Nor does it include instances where another admin interpreted it differently than I, but both of us are within the accepted range of interpretation. And it should be noted that for many of these, the accepted practice changes with time in one direction or another. Almost always in WP, the written rules are revised after the practice has changed. Furthermore, specific and general policies can contradict each other--for example, the details at CSD and the general rules at NOT are both policy, but can be harmonized in many different ways--some are within the accepted limits, some are stretching things, some are entirely unreasonable abut attempted nonetheless. Even more broadly, our fundamental WP:IAR could be interpreted to permit anything, but in practice is used also within accepted limits.

You will notice I'm not directly addressing the point you have in mind, G13--this is a case where the standards have apparently been changing. I think it is now accepted that it does not apply to material that would just as it is pass AfC; it might possibly exempt also material that with reasonable improvements would meet AfC, but I wouldn't say that someone was wrong who thought otherwise.

for clarity, I should add: When I give people advice about an article, I try to make certain my advice follows very conservatively the clearly accepted standard--I would consider anything else irresponsible. When I argue for doing something, that's different, and I sometimes do argue for adjusting the interpretation — Preceding unsigned comment added by DGG (talk • contribs) 07:18, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for your thoughts. I generally tread lightly with G13s and only deleted the easy and fairly obvious ones. So, I was curious about the thought process of those who look at the harder candidates.--Mojo Hand (talk) 15:51, 22 December 2017 (UTC)

Inc profiles

Hi DGG, I'm writing regarding Articles_for_deletion/Lily_Jay. You mentioned that every Inc article may have to be checked in order to remove Inc profiles. I think there's no reason to be worried, as Inc Profiles are meant for companies to have their standalone business profiles like this [8] or [9], similar to Bloomberg company profiles. Having an Inc Verified profile for $30/year does not give them the ability to publish and contribute on the Inc magazine itself.

Taking that into account, I'm trying to understand for myself what exactly made you think that this [10] Inc article was published by an Inc Profile?

Moreover, why do you consider Gold Coast Bulletin and Inc Magazine as unreliable? Do they fall into the category of self-published articles or press releases?

Thank you.  ⚜ LithOldor ⚜  ^(T) 17:20, 27 December 2017 (UTC)

Bloomberg profiles are not reliable for notability either, just for verifying the basic facts about the company or individual. As for Inc Profiles. , to quote from their web site "we independently confirm that businesses are operational, websites are functional, social media links and phone lines work, content is appropriate and no obvious red flags exist. Inc. Verified Profiles are meant to save purchasers a little time by showcasing businesses that are part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. They are not an endorsement of products or services, nor a guarantee of quality." If I open a grocery store, once I've got my social media set up, I'd be qualified. They could be used for the above facts, and nothing more--all other content in them is written by the firm or its PR agency.

You are correct that this is not a profile. It would be more accurately classed as a press release. The give-away was the author: "by Wanda Thibodeaux, Copywriter, TakingDictation.com", and the expected line at the bottom: "The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com." DGG ( talk ) 18:13, 27 December 2017 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Diplomacy
	I appreciate your contributions regarding my topic ban as well as your thoughts on Arbitration Enforcement. --MONGO 13:35, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Thank you for your contributions

CanadiaNinja (talk) 14:27, 25 January 2018 (UTC)

AfC and stuff

DGG, despite all the respect I have for you as an editor, I was somewhat surprised (and, to be honest, not too pleased) when at John Cabot University you moved a draft written by an employee over the previous content (some of which I had written). I had thought that we had similar views on the pernicious and destructive influence of corporate advertising on this beautiful project. But that is nothing to my amazement at your move of Galleria d'Arte Maggiore G.A.M. into article space. I couldn't see any way of dealing with that ill-written, ill-referenced promotional screed, almost certainly written by the gallery itself, other than complete removal – so that's what I did. I've written a couple of sentences, with refs, and sent it to AfD (you may have seen, I don't know); presumably you thought it notable, but I could find no evidence that it is. A plea: if a page is so bad that it will take longer to clean up than to write from scratch, please don't move it to mainspace; if you think the topic notable, why not create a stub on it yourself, and save other editors the time and trouble needed to sort out a mess?

I see that you've put a men-at-work sign on Leoncillo. Leonardi is indubitably notable, but that page is more or less unrescuable; there's also the possibility of translational copyvio (NB his wife Maria Zampa is called "Maria Paw" in our page, that's indiscriminate machine-translation from Italian – but from where?). There is plenty on him in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani alone, quite enough to write a proper page. I'm more than happy to contribute to that if you would like; I'd suggest removing the current content, probably in its entirety. Regards, Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 23:51, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

John Cabot has continued to dissatisfy me, and you are correct that I need to take another look at it. I have a very long list of things to go back to. Doesn't everyone?

Galleria: of course I'm aware of the promotional nature, and I stopped several times to consider what I should be doing, and hadn't really decided. Nowadays I usually do not rewrite things as promotional as that. Earlier I did, but the sheer amount and nature of the promotionalism has tending to discourage me. (But even in removing promotional articles, I concentrate on those likely to be by paid editors, who are deliberately trying to subvert our principles, and not the more benign direct editing by the subject, which is usually much more transparent and very likely to be a misunderstanding of the way we work, rather than defiance.) I decided to do this one because I judged it to be clearly notable enough to be worth the trouble--and a little interesting in its possibiltiies. See the afd for further comment.

Leoncillo--my principle with these has been to improve it enough to 1/ see that they stay in WP for future improvement 2/ try to clarify the notability 3/ have them read like English, 4/ fix at least some of the broken internal links 5/make sure that references are at least copied over 5/ try to resolve any ambiguities or contradictions --or if necessary remove the obviously defective parts I've done this for the first part, and started the second. If you want to do the rest, please do; I'm somewhat literate in this field, but certainly not an expert,.

People have different approaches to things like this. Mine is that I try to rescue what can be rescued quickly. I'm much faster and copyediting and rewriting than writing from scratch. When I came here, I initially thought what I would do is work on bringing articles in my field(s) to a high quality and writing what was missing, but I very quickly found I enjoyed more trying to rescue the possible and remove the impossible. So I never in 11 years here have actually worked on trying to bring an article to the best I could do with it. Maybe I will someday, but for now I plan to keep going, and I regret the current immediate need to concentrate more on removing promotionalism than rescuing notability--it's relatively rare I can even do as much as I did here.

I'm aware of the possibility of translational copyvio. There surely was some here, and of course its a machine translation as shown by many indications. Therefore I tried to reorganize as well as correcting to avoid too close a paraphrase. And, as I said, other approaches are welcome--and necessary. I don't really think it helpful to deprecate complementary approaches. DGG ( talk ) 05:11, 31 January 2018 (UTC)

Public library anon editing and account creation versus rangeblocks

Hi, I have a question about anon editing from public libraries in general and NYPL in particular.

Background: The purpose is for awareness and for workarounds at our Cascadia Wikimedians events where e.g. King County Library System seems to be blocked more often than not. I went to my local branch today and verified it is currently in this state (206.188.32.0/19 rangeblocked, I think) for a system with 700,000 members and ~2 million in its service area.

Just a bit earlier today, I saw a contrib from a NYPL anon and was a bit surprised as I thought they were usually rangeblocked too.

The questions for you: Is NYPL usually or just sometimes blocked? Do rangeblocks pose a problem for you at public events such as editathons? Is the workaround simply to have an account creator at the editathon? ☆ Bri (talk) 05:30, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Addendum: If you didn't know, KCLS and NYPL vie for busiest system in the U.S. [11] We pulled ahead in 2010 or 2011 but are now back at #2. ☆ Bri (talk) 06:21, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Bri, could you please check: I do not find it on our lists of blocked sites. The usual block prevents only anonymous editors. If you are blocked again when you edit with your username, please email me a copy of the message you receive.

At NYC we have about 10 or 12 admins (+ 1 crat + 2 arbs), and are able to deal with this sort of thing. Cascadia seems to have very few. (more about that on your user page). Otherwise, there are various methods available, but first I want to see what the situation is. DGG ( talk ) 06:22, 6 February 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. I emailed the IP block message to you for checking. ☆ Bri (talk) 06:25, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

Source notability -- usefulness of non-notable sources

Hi DGG, Many thanks for your many productive contributions to the Wiki community. I'm a noobie here and am working on my first contribution, Draft:Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (Thanks for the helpful suggestions). I've cited a mix of notable and non-notable sources (more of the latter), since the non-notable citations provide useful information. Does including a large fraction of non-notable citations detract from the article, per Wiki standards? Should I remove the non-notables (almost) completely? I've resubmitted my draft, and it's awaiting review. ~Cheers~ David Fieldsde (talk) 15:03, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

The requirement for sources is not that they are notable, but rather that they are reliable; for material in an article, the rules are at WP:RS, with details discussed at the very large number of discussion in the archives of [[WP::RSN]], the Reliable sources noticeboard. The special conditions for sources that are suitable for showing notability are at WP:N, which can basically be summarized as references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements. The interpretation of that general phrase varies with subject, and to some extent tends to reflect general feelings about what our coverage ought to be.

With respect to Draft:Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop: We generally have been relatively reluctant to make articles of series of conferences,or organizations that sponsor them, unless there is very firm 3rd party evidence that they are regarded as the most important one in the subject. The sources in the draft are almost entirely publications by the organization itself or very closely related organizations, and therefore not independent. My role in screening AfCs is not to decide on accepting the article, but to try to estimate whether the community will accept it. The place where that decision is made is in an AfD discussion, and it goes by consensus. The way we do things here, nobody can fully predict the result of such discussions, but on the basis of my experience in many thousands of them, the article is unlikely to be accepted in its current form. DGG ( talk ) 06:02, 16 February 2018 (UTC) ←

Thanks for clarifying that the need is for more reliable (independent) sources that show notability. Please continue contributing to the Wiki effort. Best regards. Fieldsde (talk) 15:44, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Teenage notability

If my memory serves, is it not customary to not include BLPs for single event notability for children (teens included), including National Spelling Bee winners, National Science Fair winners, National teenage beauty contest winners, and so forth? ^{Atsme📞📧} 21:29, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

List_of_Scripps_National_Spelling_Bee_champions has a few linked bios, but generally not only for the win. Interesting, a search for "Ananya Vinay" turns up a heck of a lot more substantial RS coverage (major news outlets) than "Sophia Dominguez-Heithoff" does (social media accounts, youtube, pageant and fan sites). Legacypac (talk) 21:58, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

[12] - not sure where this link goes, but it broke the section title so I'll add it here. ^{Atsme📞📧} 23:01, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

I agree with you that WP should not cover them, but there have recently been at AfD keep decisions for a surprising number of bio of young people who have had some press coverage for accomplishments which would not have made them notable had they been adults. I am therefore somewhat reluctant to bring AfDs for the people listed in the table. We would need a rule similar to that for sports, where only adult competitions indicate notability--but those who believe in the unthinking application of the GNG without considering the subject field would probably oppose that also.

Of the spelling bee champions, the only one who I consider clearly notable as an adult is L. E. Sissman, who became an unquestionably notable writer. Frank Neuhauser as winner of the first bee might be another exception. The other with articles had at most minor roles in the very notable film Akeelah and the Bee about the spelling bee. (Of course others without articles might prove to be notable also.) DGG ( talk ) 02:45, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

School AfDs

What we feared is happening, users are now trawling school articles looking for ones to delete. You can tell these rampant deletionists this: Thank you for patrolling new pages. As a New Page Reviewer, you are expected to know our deletion policies inside out. Please see: WP:ATD-R and please note that this is a policy, not a mere guideline. Thanks. Change the wording if they are not NPR rights holders. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 15:35, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

It's also just a suggestion (may have a title that would make a useful redirect, emphasis added). You're obviously welcome to ask users to curtail their "rampant" nominations (if they're doing so) but to require them to abide by a suggestion in a policy is a bit much. Primefac (talk) 17:57, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

And for what it's worth, the "you" was referring to Kudpung but I have a bad habit of using the royal "you" for general instances anyway. Primefac (talk) 17:59, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

• The policy that we should redirect rather than delete if a suitable target is available is one of the most ignored parts of deletion policy, almost as much ignored as the part that says for subjects that might be notable with no significant information, a combination article can be preferable. I'm not really sure that any of the section on alternatives to deletion is actually followed enough to make it an accepted policy. I prefer to use policy vs guideline arguments for only the most basic policies, such as NOT ADVERTISING. DGG ( talk ) 20:30, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

@Primefac:, who's talking about 'requiring'? Just pointing to a policy is not the same as handing out orders. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 23:48, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

I often word it as "suggest" . or, "you might also want to consider" in giving advice, especially when it's a question of trying to tell people they should be doing something differently. Even so, it is sometimes seen as a little aggressive. Sometimes it is helpful to simply correct it, and see if they get the idea. DGG ( talk ) 00:36, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you

		The Civility Barnstar
		Hello DGG. I give you this barnstar for your comment at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/American Eagle Airlines destinations [13], which was just awesome and keeps the spirit of Wikipedia alive. Thank you.--Jetstreamer Talk 13:03, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Equinix

Hi, the notability is clear. But what we currently have is a very promotional article, mainly written by an undeclared paid editor. If that can stand, I'm very unclear how we are not just providing a platform for their paid advertising. KJP1 (talk) 23:55, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

KJP1, as you know, I very rarely do this sort of revision nowadays, as I feel very strongly about such editing. But it is quite simple here to remove the worst of the promotion, leaving in only the factual material. The company will thus have paid for the work involved in the factual update and the work involved in the promotionalism. But they will discover that they paid for the promotionalism in vain, and the COI editor, could not deliver what he no doubt promised. Since he now knows enough to declare, I think he will know enough not to do this sort of editing again. And if clients wish to pay him to update financial results and facility locations, this is the most innocuous form of paid editing.

I would not have done this had it taken any significant amount of work, or if the firm had not in fact been the market leader in an important field of general interest here. I probably would not have done it had it ben a new article, but not all the prior work was promotional . Normally in such a case it is better to revert back to the last non-promtional version, but in this instance that would have also removed the factual updates. When I do engage in this work, I try to make it as easy for myself as possible.

General principles usually have exceptions. Even my own general principles. DGG ( talk ) 00:26, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Understood. But this place does get depressing sometimes. What it aimed to be, and what it could be, compared to what it actually often is. All the best. KJP1 (talk) 00:32, 3 March 2018 (UTC)

Actually, it's getting better. Ten years ago when I joined, even just 5 years ago, it would have accepted that sort of content. You are of course right that we need to keep working, because it still is far short of the goal. DGG ( talk ) 00:58, 3 March 2018 (UTC)v

WTR discussion follow-up

Dear DGG, we actually had quite a discussion about COI editing at my talk page. What I said was that when you follow the rules and fully comply, you actually suffer from what Melcous labeled as "more heavily scrutinized" (moderation). My view is that the current practice of such super-scrutinized editing of paid articles strongly discourages paid editors from following the process, pushes them to the grey area and also makes the life of paid-editing fighters more difficult as the volume of such edits and practices increase.

It also frustrates clients who are persuaded to follow the rules. One case where I had a greatly frustrated client was The National Memo case where the article has been rolled back 3 times and currently exists in a highly castrated form (more like a stub now). I had to return part of the payment and apologize. Had these edits been made from the single-purpose account, they'd most likely stayed. At the same time we have a lot of articles where large parts of the text go completely unreferenced and it is perfectly OK. Please don't remind me about WP:OSE, I think we both know what I am talking about.

I also noticed that around 70% of articles about lawyers and law firms were created from WP:SPAs (not necessarily through the AfC). This is an area where the demand is high and commercial interest is very obvious (lawyers earn big money). Editors probably understand that they won't be able to publish such articles the official way simply because people hate lawyers and Wikipedia editors hate paid edits. So the demand is here and shortcuts are pretty obvious. This practice also gives paid editors 1-2 week period to get their payment before the article gets deleted (if that happens). I've also seen some of the articles for the potential clients where they decided not to work with me and go for such shortcuts. All of them were made from single-purpose accounts.

Having said that I want to highlight that I truly understand some of these paid editing "watchdogs" and know that they want to make the project better. I only noticed that these edits rarely add value to the article, they are almost always just in "delete, delete, delete" mode (Melcous is a nice exception from this rule - they actually re-write the text and try to preserve content that has some value). So instead of fighting large amounts of quite clear undeclared edits, moderators spend their time on editing "easy targets" doing it easy way. One possible solution could be inviting some "inclusionists" for the improvement or having a broader discussion about such articles before editing. Hope it helps. -- Bbarmadillo (talk) 21:10, 7 March 2018 (UTC)

To be clear, I'm advocating dealing with the SPAs, especially the sock SPAs, rather than relaxing the attitude. Blocking open proxies and VPNs would be an excellent first step. While it sometimes seems counterproductive to bother the disclosed PEs more than the undisclosed ones, disclosing cannot be a carte blanche to write promotional stuff. Bbarmadillo, you might want to correct the quote above. It misrepresents what I said a little. NPP != AfC. Thanks. Rentier (talk) 02:16, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Rentier removing your quote to avoid the confusion. To clarify, obviously paid entries should comply with Wikipedia guidelines - just like unpaid ones. -- Bbarmadillo (talk) 07:03, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Along the lines of what has been said by Rentier: From my perspective, the solution is to more vigorously remove the articles by the obviously undeclared paid editors, and to raise the standards for all articles. There is ongoing progress here: We are in the process of tightening up our reliable source requirements for organizations, and a strict interpretation of them deal with at least the lower third. We are once more considering an increase in the number of edits to get confirmed status, (Unfortunately but necessarily, ACTRIAL will be entering the test phase where new editors can edit in mainspace, and this will cause a move of the problems from AfC to NewPages.) We are also considering ways to facilitate people reporting instances of paid editing, or approaches to their business by undeclared paid editors.

Even so, the problem of dealing with the hundreds of thousands of press releases masquerading as articles submitted in earlier years when standards were lower and people were less vigilant is a very difficult one, but not hopeless. We did manage to source or remove about 80,000 unsourced BLPs in a year back in 2010; we could probably screen all organization and corporate articles in 2 or 3 years starting with the oldest if there were more people interested in doing this.

The problem with even declared paid editing is NPOV. Some other declared paid editors have told me that their clients are reluctant to accept NPOV articles: they want advertisements. This has been confirmed by recent examples on-wiki, and by the nature of the arguments and many afds. It's also my experience that for those writing both paid and volunteer articles, the volunteer articles are better. It should be possible for us to find a way for paid editors to do more work in providing information for people writing articles. For example, we've been trying for many years with little success to persuade companies to provide freely licensed pictures of their notable products. But what is also needed is more volunteers interested in working on business topics.

Ultimately, I do not expect the measures I've mentioned or anything else now in view will completely solve the problem. They will help it. I'm going to make a guess that it will reduce the problem for incoming articles to half the present. Unfortunately, that will probably be matched by an increase in such articles for even smaller businesses. and for some currently under-represent countries.

The only way to solve the problem completely is to eliminate paid editing. The only way to eliminate paid editing is to require some sort of secure confidential identification for at least some types of articles. That would be a major change in the basic principle of Wikipedia, and would not currently be supported. Perhaps it will never be feasible to even discuss it in the future, because of the need to preserve privacy at least here external pressure. DGG ( talk ) 18:44, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

An interesting follow-up to our discussion here. -- Bbarmadillo (talk) 15:55, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

Obits...

When nothing but obits are cited, (some of which are in national RS) is that acceptable for notability of a recently deceased person who was a local social justice advocate 20 years ago? Just needing a gage for future reference. ^{Atsme📞📧} 02:22, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

It depends on the source. I trust full editorial obits in the NYT (after 1896) and the London Times. I am unsure about any other paper in those two countries for recent years, however reliable they may be for other purposes. There are other papers I trust for various parts of the 18th thru early 20th centuries. There are presumably equivalent ones in other countries, but I am less familiar with their standards.

An increasingly common problem with all newspapers, including the NYT, (and some National biographies) is their coverage of representative people, rather than important people, for obits and otherwise. This has not yet infected the NYT obit section.

Another problem is the focus of the NYT in the early 20th century upon high society figures. This tends to affect more the wedding coverage, but they are what people paid attention to back them. I'm not sure how to handle that aspect. DGG ( talk ) 03:31, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

TY... ^{Atsme📞📧} 04:15, 24 March 2018 (UTC)

Fair use of abstracts

The older catalogues I've seen reproduce abstracts freely, and so do many modern catalogues and publishers. But I've heard, unreliably, claims that abstracts can't be used under fair use, although I can't find any source for that online. Does Wikimedia have a policy on this? Could we store an abstract of a copyrighted work in Wikidata? HLHJ (talk) 03:58, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

I am uncertain whether using them in WP would be considered fair use in US law, but they are indeed often used as if they were; use in WP in particular might well be considered sufficiently transformative. However, actual Wikipedia policy is very much more restrictive. Under the current enWP rules for free content in the English Wikipedia, WP:NFCC, I cannot see how they would be permissible for use in an enWP article.

All projects are bound by the general WMF copyright policy--the enWP policy is a permitted exemption under that policy. I do not know whether Wikidata has considered a corresponding policy exemption--it would obviously have to be different than that of enWP and tailored to their particular purposes, and I cannot even guess whether the foundation would consider it acceptable . DGG ( talk ) 04:53, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

In the interim I did find one mention of abstract fair use online; here, scroll down to section 5.

I can't imagine they could be used in the article text; I was thinking of using them purely as a resource for searching for references in the bibliographic database being created on Wikidata, Wikidata:Wikidata:WikiProject Source MetaData (which many expect to eventually become its own project, like Wikisource or Wikiquote). My own private bibliographic database mostly contains abstracts, because it makes it much easier to find the reference I need to cite.

Wikidata appears not to have copyright policy exemptions.[14] So it looks to me like this is something to discuss later as a possible exemption for a bibliographic database project, if I've understood correctly.

Thank you very much for your help, you made it much easier for me to figure out what I needed to know. HLHJ (talk) 15:27, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Hey look, a barnstar for you!

		The Art+Feminism Barnstar
		Thank you for your support for Art+Feminism!
		this WikiAward was given to DGG by Theredproject (talk) on 00:20, 29 March 2018 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2018

News and updates for administrators from the past month (March 2018).

Guideline and policy news

• The notability guideline for organizations and companies has been substantially rewritten following the closure of this request for comment. Among the changes, the guideline more clearly defines the sourcing requirements needed for organizations and companies to be considered notable.
• The six-month autoconfirmed article creation trial (ACTRIAL) ended on 14 March 2018. The post-trial research report has been published. A request for comment is now underway to determine whether the restrictions from ACTRIAL should be implemented permanently.

• The Foundations' Anti-Harassment Tools team has released the Interaction Timeline. This shows a chronologic history for two users on pages where they have both made edits, which may be helpful in identifying sockpuppetry and investigating editing disputes.

---

Amazing dissection of article sourcing at AfD

I thought this was an impressive analysis by user:Mduvekot - I've never seen this much effort put into an AfD before, and I wanted to share it.[[15]] TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 22:26, 11 April 2018 (UTC)

It's amazing, and impressive. So impressive that one can forget the individual data points are false binaries. I've discussed it in a little more detail at WP:Articles for deletion/Alexander Friedmann-Hahn. As the method is very likely to be used again, I'll try to give yet a fuller analysis. If not at this afd, at another. DGG ( talk ) 05:30, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

curators and gallerists

On 4 April 2018 in an AfD for Jan Allen, you wrote: "Admittedly, curators are difficult to document unless they had published works that would qualify as NAUTHOR or NPROF,, but important curators do just that. The minor publications shown here do not." A few day later, in an AfD on ALexander-Friedmann-Hahn, you wrote: "We have no workable standards for gallerists. It is not just a business in the ordinary sense, but one of the auxiliary professions that facilitate the fine arts. Considering their significance in that professional network, I think we should be very liberal here; I would say the same about similar auxiliary professions in other fields, such as music and science. It's the nature of such professions to be overshadowed by the artists etc. they serve, and I've always thought we should interpret the GNG standards in line with the nature of available sources in the field." Earlier, you had commented in an AfD about Casey Caplan "I continue to disagree that the mere fact the art shows take place at a particular art gallery make either of them notable."

Can you help me understand that apparent discrepancy between those statements? Vexations (talk) 11:08, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

I am still working it out, to be honest. There was a sentence that I wrote for the last AfD "This is somewhat different from my earlier position."; I in the end omitted it to avoid confusion; I see I should have left it in. In trying to figure out what to do, I will deliberately try to make a case for various positions to seewhat convinces me or others. AfD needs to experiment a little before it settles down -- premature guidelines are often a lasting error.

The increasing number of articles (and discussions) on fine arts, partly the result of Art+Feminism and related projects are showing our need for clearer standards. This is especially important because in advising new editors, we need to be able to tell them what is or is not likely to be accepted. That after all is rthe real need--not to decide what we would like to accept, but to guide contributors. Ifthe situation is unstable, as it is now, there's no good way to guide them. I have learned deal with it in editathons etc by telling them to play absolutely safe or their first article. The role of an advisor is to be conservative..

Some particular points:

Galleries vs Gallerists. This is a problem with many similar professions where the business is essentially dependent upon the expertise or reputation of an individual. Rarely is it appropriate to make an article for both unless there's some really special distinction. If it'smulti-generational or a partnership, the choice is easy: the gallery/firm/etc. If the individual has a reputation beyond the particular gallery , then it's easy also--in other words, if he meets WP:PROF as an expert, or WP:AUTHOR. If unsure, I tend to go with the person because its easier to write bio articles.

notability for the shows or the artist because of the gallery There may be some galleries whose selectivity can indicate the artist showing there is notable. It would take some degree of agreement between experts about which they are, and it would be nice if we could find actual sources for this instead of our judgment.

notability for the gallery because of who shows there. This shouldn't be a matter of our judgment--it should take sources.

Sources for notability. There are books about the profession of selling artworks, which do not have the possible bias ofbeing about individual galleries, which would ake good sources. I know more about 19th c. UK, but there should be something available for later periods also.

substantial . We need to stop using mentions as being adequate sources. We've done this in many circumstances before to show notability of clubs etc. There should by now be better sources available. DGG ( talk ) 06:52, 13 April 2018 (UTC)

Appreciate the effort. Let's say that the roster of artists they represent contributes to notability if most or all of their artists are notable. Sprüth/Magers for example, represents Kenneth Anger, Keith Arnatt Estate, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Bernd & Hilla Becher, John Bock, Alighiero Boetti, George Condo, Walter Dahn, Hanne Darboven, Thomas Demand, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Thea Djordjadze, Robert Elfgen, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Lizzie Fitch, Ryan Trecartin, Sylvie Fleury, Llyn Foulkes, Cyprien Gaillard, Andreas Gursky, Jenny Holzer, Gary Hume, Robert Irwin (artist), Donald Judd, de:Axel Kasseböhmer, Craig Kauffman, Karen Kilimnik, Astrid Klein, Joseph Kosuth, Kraftwerk, Barbara Kruger, David Lamelas, Louise Lawler, David Maljkovic, Anthony McCall, Robert Morris (artist), de:Reinhard Mucha, Jean-luc Mylayne, David Ostrowski, Otto Piene, Michail Pirgelis, Nina Pohl, Stephen Prina, Pamela Rosenkranz, Sterling Ruby, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, Analia Saban, Gerda Scheepers, Thomas Scheibitz, de:Frances Scholz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Stephen Shore, Alexandre Singh, Frank Stella, Robert Therrien, Ryan Trecartin, Rosemarie Trockel, Kaari Upson, Marcel van Eeden, John Waters, Andro Wekua, Andrea Zittel, so that seems pretty clear. (Note that Sprüth/Magers have been messing with their page, their website has been blacklisted etc. It was probably the intern, but I don't trust 'em) Now lets look at the roster of another gallery, Galerie Friedmann-Hahn: Josef Fischnaller, Giovanni Castell, Thomas Kaemmerer, Markus Fräger, Edite Grinberga, Anders Gjennestad, Sasa Makarová, Daniel Ludwig (artist), David FeBland, Christian Grosskopf, Anne Leone, Laura Nieto, olf Ohst, Mirko Schallenberg, Guido Sieber, Marc Sparfel, Marc Taschowsky, Donald Vaccino, Maximilian Verhas, Mia Florentine Weiss. Note that that the first in the second list is a highly promotional article by an SPA and the second notable artist has an article that was written by the same editor who wrote the article about the gallery. There's more tp say about that editor, but I'm trying not to poison the well. If you compare these two, it should be obvious that Sprüth/Magers is a blue-chip gallery that deals with artists whose works are in the most important museum collections and that F-H is in the words of a German editor a "third-rate gallery", or as I would put it more generously works in the lower-to-mid price range of the market. What objective criteria can we use in a notability discussion to make that distinction? WP:PROF works well; can we do something similar for creative professions?

company executives

As I understand it, our practice is to only include below the ceo for a really major company (e.g., there are some executives at companies like Alphabet who even have separate articles). The general approach I think should be parallel to WP:EINSTEIN. When you see it elsewhere, it is likely to be the results of promotional editing--it would be fair to say that at least half our articles on companies are unsatisfactory , because standards in the past were lower and very few reliable editors really paid attention to this field except for some areas of special interest like computers and automobiles.

a little more generally, the infobox guidelines and listings of permissible fields were particular loose in earlier years, but people are now paying infoboxes much more attention, and some of them are already been cleaned up a little.

Looked at in a different way, there is a difference between what one can get away with and what is best practice. When I give advice, I always give the safest and most conservative advice. Anything else would be unfair to people who do as I suggest and might be challenged. And it is important to recognize that the effective standards are considerable higher for paid editing. Whether this is right or wrong may be open to question, but at the moment, that's the way people look at it.

DGG ( talk ) 16:58, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

arbs and content

my being in arb com has nothing at all to do with content disputes. Skill in content building is not one of the things considered in elections, arb com has no direct authority over content, and arb com will not directly intervene in content disputes until they become so heated that conduct is also involved. 

The reason I am sometimes asked to review content problems is because I participate widely at AfD and similar discussions, and therefore know in most fields not just the guidelines but the actual present consensus. I can therefore try to give advice that reflects not my own opinion on what ought to be in WP, but what will or will not in practice be accepted.

It seems to me that we have articles about individual episodes on many major shows. Whether we ideally should or not, we do. The question is whether Westworld is a sufficiently major show. Considering how sources like the NYT discuss each episode both in advance but afterwards, I think it is. If anyone wants to try afd, they can, but I think AfD will give a result of keep. In fact, I was surprised to see that we don't already have articles on the most important characters, because we do have them on some similar shows. DGG ( talk ) 16:57, 30 April 2018 (UTC)\

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Brigham D. Madsen

Also see--> William J. Hamblin

When considering academic authors, by what rough measures do you, as an editor, decide whether his or her work has: been cited/reviewed enough? received prestigious enough of awards? &c &c--Hodgdon's secret garden (talk) 00:36, 29 April 2018 (UTC)

I use two standards.

Awards is relatively straightforward: the highest national or international level in the field.

Publications:

1. the level of work which would qualify for full professorship or at least tenure at a research university of the very highest standing. In the traditional humanities that is usually two books by a major academic publisher. For sciences, it goes by citations, and it varies by subject.

2. Comparison with others in the field., especially those with such positions.

Books, as such: being the leading or one of the leading books in the subject, as judged primarily by library holdings (and to some extent by citations--allowing for the very long time lag.) DGG ( talk ) 06:37, 29 April 2018 (UTC)

Moving a Draft to Mainspace for Purpose of Deletion

You may ignore this post if you choose, but User:Legacypac suggested that I ask you. User:Legacypac has frequently, in discussions at Miscellany for Deletion, said that if a draft is not deleted in draft space, it should be moved to article space where it can be nominated for one of the A criteria for speedy deletion or Articles for Deletion. At least, that is what I think they are saying. I haven't actually seen them do that, and maybe there is ancient history that I don't understand. I think that moving a draft to article space that one thinks should be deleted is a terrible idea, and that the place for a page of questionable merit is draft space. In any case, I just tried to ask Legacypac, again, about these statements, this time with regard to Draft:Kopparapu Duo Poets, and was asked to ask you, with the comment that Legacypac thinks that I am trying to get them sanctioned. (At least I think they were implying that I and others are trying to get them sanctioned.) I know that I am not trying to get Legacypac sanctioned, but am asking them to explain a position that they repeatedly express that I am unable to understand or agree with. So: Do you think that sometimes drafts should be promoted, or moved from draft space to article space, in order to open up a mainspace deletion discussion? What is your view? I am not asking what Legacypac thinks. Only Legacypac can explain, and after their unfortunate short-term de-reviewing, they are in a bad mood. If you explain, thank you. If you disagree, thank you for explaining. If you would prefer not to discuss this issue, I will let it drop. Robert McClenon (talk) 23:26, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

How to deal with unsatisfactory AfC drafts is somewhat disputed. My opinion on the current situation is that the general mechanism for removing them is of course MfD. If there is dissatisfaction with a particular MfD decision, there's Deletion Review. If there's a feeling that MfD discussions in general are unreliable, then like any WP process, the remedy is to encourage more participation. If there's a view that additional deletion reasons are needed, then that can be discussed also. The situation is confused enough without being provocative.

There are some instances where it makes sense to take a questionable draft to mainspace and discuss it in an AfD. The standard for acceptance of a draft is officially that it is likely to pass AfD (though I and almost everyone else now considers "likely" to be somewhere in the range of 66 to 90%, not a bare 51%). But such numbers give a false impression of precision: decisions at AfD are inconsistent and unpredictable. In borderline cases, it may be impossible to really give a prediction, and the only way to find out may be to take it there and see. I've done it myself in some cases where there seemed no consistent practice, or an unusual question. But just doing it to get the content deleted is not a good idea.

If a contributor objects to a particular reviewers interpretation, they can submit it again for someone else to review (no reviewer should insist on being the only person to handle a particular AfC--though some contributors seem to think we do that ). And of course if someone insists on taking their chances and it isn't a speedy candidate, the simplest thing to do is to let them try. A delete at AfD will discourage improper re-creation. There are many good articles that were deleted that shouldn't have been, and many foolish ones that shouldn't have been allowed to stay--it is rarely productive to spend too much individual of community energy in arguing about a single article. DGG ( talk ) 06:03, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

More AFC Thoughts

You wrote: "If a contributor objects to a particular reviewers interpretation, they can submit it again for someone else to review (no reviewer should insist on being the only person to handle a particular AfC--though some contributors seem to think we do that)." I agree, but will comment. First, I and some other reviewers do not like to see a draft resubmitted without addressing the comments of the reviewer. If a contributor disagrees, they have semi-automatic options to discuss on the reviewer's talk page or to discuss at the AFC help desk, or can accept the advice to discuss at the Teahouse. If I see a draft resubmitted as is or essentially as is without addressing the comments, and without an explanation of why it is being resubmitted, I will not only decline but caution the contributor. Some contributors will resubmit over and over again without material changes (which often winds up at MFD - I would like to be able to report this as a conduct issue). Second, what do you mean about some contributors think we do that? I know that some contributors expect that a reviewer will follow a draft through the review process. I try to be diplomatic with them and get other reviewers to comment. Third, I don't know of any reviewer who insists on being the only person to handle a particular draft. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:42, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure DGG means some authors think a reviewer follows a draft all the way through multiple reviews. I'm not aware of any reviewer that tries to do that. The decline templates (wrongly) encourage discussion on the reviewer's talk so I understand where that idea comes from. See Draft talk:Ciera Rogers for an example where I think a move to mainspace and a test at AfD is in order. This user is not going to take AfC no for an answer and the topic - a social media personality - is one of those grey areas where it could go either way. Legacypac (talk) 02:47, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Yes, many new contributors think that the same reviewer follow a draft all the way through, and it is natural that they think this way, because most of the world works in that fashion, especially when it's a matter of following up on suggested revisions, not outright rejection. In fact, OTRS at Wikipedia works that way: for email inquiries and complaints and requests for pages, the same OTRS agent follows the entire case unless they unlock it. The OTRS agents are by and large more experienced than the AfC reviewers, and make fewer mistakes. But I have seen the same sort of bad advice in both places, and the standard OTRS messages are even more nonspecific and unhelpful than the AfC ones.

And I have also seen reviewers try to keep a AfC case resubmissions returned to them. I haven't seen any absolutely insist, but I have seen it encouraged; and it is easily possible to watchlist a draft--there are many instances of successive reviews by the same person.

When a review is completely wrong, and the submitter is experienced enough to know that, it can make sense to resubmit unchanged, though anyone with some degree of subtlety will make at least some changes. I have however certainly seen people resubmit impossibly unacceptable material unchanged, on the hope that the next time they will get some reviewer careless enough to accept it--and they sometimes see their hope fulfilled.

Ideally, we when we encounter a previous bad review, we would follow it up with the reviewer. This is fairly easy to do with beginners at it, but much harder with those who have experience and have been doing it wrong consistently. I do sometimes, and try to word it as a suggestion. Sometimes, it makes a difference; sometimes I get ignored or challenged. As with similar situations at CSD or OTRS. I am very reluctant to really take issue with anyone whom I know to be stubborn, and even more reluctant to follow to the conclusion. I could easily spend all my time here on this, and although it might help WP, it would not help my own mental equilibrium. If it were a regular system of review or audit, it would be less personal. DGG ( talk ) 04:13, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

I see bad decline reviews - I just override them and note up the talkpage. I have yet to see a strong enough pattern of bad declines to start a serious discussion. I assume most of us watchlist draft we touch anyway which will bring reviewers back to the page sometimes. Legacypac (talk) 04:20, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Obits..

Do you think an obituary in reputable newspapers like Telegraph et al is an auto-indicator of encyclopedic notability, in the event no other significant covg. about the subject could be discovered?~ Winged Blades^Godric 05:23, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

User:Winged Blades of Godric - That would depend on the newspaper's obituary policy. Some newspapers, including the Washington Post, which is considered a newspaper of record, have a policy that they will publish a true news obituary for any long-term resident of the area of the newspaper. (A long paid death notice that reads like an obituary is a different matter, but your question has to do with true obituaries under the byline of one of the obituary staff reporters.) Therefore a news obituary in the Washington Post is not in itself an indicator of encyclopedic notability. Other newspapers have mileage that may vary. Does that fail to answer your question? Robert McClenon (talk) 17:33, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

For the New York Times it is a clear determinant of notability at least for 1896+. I'm told this is true for the London Times also. I am insufficiently familiar with the Telegraph. The distinctions Robert McC gives above about paid obits is important to keep in mind in all cases. DGG ( talk ) 23:46, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

IMO a full obituary in a broadsheet paper (UK: Times, FT, Observer, Telegraph, Grauniad) is normally a non-trivial reliable independent source, so counts towards WP:GNG. Paid obits, not so much. Guy (Help!) 00:10, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Yes, but the distinction is that the NYT and the Times are so reliable as to be sufficient by themselves without needing other sources. As for the others, as I said, I'm not familiar enough to know if they fall in this category. And for the US, a local paper regardless of format is I think usually not reliable for notability, and I think there is no clear level above that where a clear division can be drawn. To some extent I judge by the nature of the obit. DGG ( talk ) 04:26, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

• Sometimes. Yes for Obits published by universities. It probably depends on the author. The obit should make a claim of notability if it is being used as a claim of notability. Newspapers obits are paid, so take with salt. —SmokeyJoe (talk) 09:59, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

• Comment, replying to User:SmokeyJoe and following up to my comment and that of DGG: There may be three types of death reports in a newspaper, and one should be mindful of the distinctions. The first is a news obituary, which is written by a reporter, and is not paid for. Different newspapers have different policies on who qualifies for these. A news obituary in The Times or the NYT is an indication of notability. A news obituary, written by the obit writer, in the Washington Post is not necessarily an indication of notability. The second is a conventional paid death notice, normally placed by the undertaker. These are no indication of notability. The third is a hybrid, a paid death story, written like an obituary, but paid for by family. These can be mistaken for news obituaries, but they are not, and are not indications of notability. True obits are not paid for; they are written by staff, and they may or may not indicate notability; but true obits and hybrids can be confused, and require careful reading. Robert McClenon (talk) 02:12, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

Well put, I agree. —SmokeyJoe (talk) 02:14, 12 June 2018 (UTC)

And I agree also. I think RMC's are exactly the right criteria. DGG ( talk )

(advice on articles on academics)

speaking generally.

(1) In reviewing this article, what I noticed first was the obviously incorrect name of the department; this sort of error is a warning signal to look at the original sources myself. This led me to the apparent vagueness and over-expansiveness of the claims; that's a common indication of careless promotional writing. PR staff, even in academic institutions, tend not to be concerned with getting that sort of detail correct. Because of this, in the absence of a formal CV it can be quite difficult to verify the details. This does not necessarily indicate an actual conflict of interest, because PR writing so pervades the world that many beginners here tend to fall into a similar style.

(2) All of the descriptions of a person in their lecture announcements and the like sre normally written by their publicity team or copied from their own statements. They never have third-party authority, no matter where reprinted. The extremely close similarity of them all demonstrates their common origin.

(3) There is an unfortunate tendency in Wikipedia to try to document statements by cherry-picking quotations that happen to use the word or phrase. References have to be used in context.

(4) There is a frequent tendency in Wikipedia to emphasise the current interests of a person as they themselves describe them--they not unreasonably want to write about what they are currently interested in. But WP is an encyclopedia , and must treat their career as a whole. Sometimes what fascinates a person in their later career is not what the major real contribution is. Sometimes it is otherwise. Here it seems to be a mixture: their recent "neuroscience" work is too trivial to mention, but the current high administrative position in the Church of England is probably of greater importance than their earlier authorship and consulting.

(5) In dealing with an author, it is often helpful to organize the description of their work around their successive major books.

As advice, to learn about notability, observe and participate at AfD. To lean about sources, keep up with the WP:RSN, the reliable sources noticeboard. The BLP Noticeboard is helpful also, but it mainly deal with particualrly contentious articles,not how to deal with routine material. DGG ( talk ) 06:36, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Thanks Sir... for explaining to me about the page for the late Ali Banat Farid999111 (talk) 15:58, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Student drafts

...

Our practices about drafts in general are quite unsettled at this time--I think everyone involved knows the system is confusing, over-complicated, cumbersome, much too slow, and unsatisfactory in almost every respect. It is effective neither at getting usable material into mainspace, nor keeping unacceptable material out of Wikipedia. Everyone centrally involved has a different idea of how to fix it, and some of them are trying out their ideas at cross purposes.

The only guaranteed safe way at present for a student to proceed at this point is to do the development outside Wikipedia. Personally, I think we should be able to do better: one of the basic concepts of Wikipedia is that it should itself be a place for people to develop articles. I hope to be able to make better suggestions in a few weeks. DGG ( talk ) 22:17, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Wikiprojects (was Fifth Wall ventures)

Wikiprojects are groups of all WPedians interested in a topic, and are not restricted to those expert in the topic. They have no independent authority, and have only as much autonomy as the community as a whole is willing to give them. To what extent they can set standards in their area depends upon the extent to which the community as a whole through its actions at afd supports them. This varies by project. A few specialized projects -- some small, some large -- have great respect in the community, but even they can lose that respect if the rest of us decide not to follow their lead.

Experienced editors likewise. In particular standards change, and in the field of articles about business, the standards have changed to the extent that the change is shown not just by practice but a far-reaching change in the basic relevant guideline, NCORP, and its wide acceptance at AfD. In any particular field, there are sometimes a few currently dominant editors, but they can lose their dominance quickly if their views no longer find acceptance. And among those most active, there will usually be some who try to maintain the current status, and some who seek to change it.

I show different sides in different situations, and try to keep them apart: when making a decision I strictly follow the current consensus; when giving others advice, I try to give the safest advice possible; when arguing for my views, I often try to lead the community a little. DGG ( talk ) 22:19, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Nextdoor

DGG, I respect the view your expressed at Nextdoor very much and in the normal course of events, that's ideal. There's a proposal, an independent editor reviews it and says yes or no or asks me to make changes. Maybe there is some discussion or an RfC. It's all pretty straightforward. All I tell people who hire me is that I will try to get them a fair article, stay strictly within WP policy and act ethically above all else. I turn down maybe 4 out of 5 people who ask for help because their requests seem invalid to me. I'm independent - no one can hoist an assignment on me. I come up with my own article language for a proposal, based on what I think is fair and allowable under WP policy, and only have clients do a review for accuracy.

For Nextdoor, I am only hoping for fairness and NPOV from editors who take the time to review all the relevant sources. emark came after a specific matter in question had been decided contrary the editor's position.

Any mistakes in judgment are my own, as the company has only asked the article be fair. They're leaving it to me to decide how to best accomplish that.-BC1278 (talk) 20:23, 9 June 2018 (UTC)BC1278

Fair" tends to mean, "a fair statement of my POV". Our rule is neutral, as judged by those with no stake in the matter, not a negotiated compromise between NPOV and a subject's position. I appreciate the difficulties our policy must present for you, which is one of the reasons we should consider abolishing paid editing. DGG ( talk ) 07:45, 10 June 2018 (UTC)

Notability for departments within universities?

If you have a moment, may I please trouble you for an opinion on where/how the notability bar is set for pages for individual departments within universities? I see "expected outcomes" suggests they are generally not considered notable unless they have made significant contributions to their field but I'm wondering how this is assessed: at NPP I came across this one for Texas Tech's philosophy department essentially made of a few thin sources (several campus student paper refs since added), two sentences of prose and a list of redlinks to people who mainly don't seem (at cursory review) to be notable. When I redirected (Texas Tech's main page already has a content fork for "academics" with plenty of room to expand), the page creator reverted saying "Please afd". So that I might have a better index on such things--does AfD seem appropriate to you or would you let it be?

An additional reason I wanted to ask you (beyond your particular expertise in universities) is that I share your concern for clogging up AfD with school matters when there's so much commercial promo to be dealt with, and the latter so much more detrimental to the encyclopedia--but then, this one felt like promo to me (and no doubt universities and departments, especially in the US, have strong economic incentives to seek opportunities for promotion.) So I wasn't sure.

Thanks much for any thoughts. Innisfree987 (talk) 21:53, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

Ah, it seems I will find out at AfD! Though will of course continue to be very glad for your thoughts in whatever venue, especially as I think about how I should balance such entries with other AfD concerns going forward. Thanks. Innisfree987 (talk) 22:58, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Possibly these pages are created in good faith by ex-students or academics, but universities are big business these days, so in my view articles like these could also be seen as a form of advertising. I agree that there may be bigger priorities on Wikipedia, but this author seems to be blatantly refusing to improve the article or prove notability. Sionk (talk) 23:06, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

(talk page stalker)2 The bar should be set pretty high on these, but for example the English department at Cambridge (with F.R. Leavis etc) has had almost as much written about it as the Wars of the Roses. Some departments have been very influential in the development of an entire subject area, but most deserve at best a section in the uni's article. Johnbod (talk) 02:34, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

I consider the appropriate standard to be world-famous within the discipline, either currently or historically. This could also be worded, as about the 5 or 10 best known in the discipline, on a world-wide basis. There is a possible narrower standard, famous enough for outsiders to know about it. There are in my opinion a few universities where some or even most of the departments do meet this qualification, and a few dozen others that will have one or two such departments. They are rarely a matter of general interest significant enough for an encyclopedia. Regardless of the possible promotional intent, the articles usually are indistinguishable from the department web pages, which are characteristically written to attract the interest of prospective graduate students. I don;t think the 1pm has much to do with the rise of big business influence--the academic world from its medieval origins to the present has been in large part dependent on reputation, because a department becomes famous by attracting students and faculty that will make it famous.

As is usual at WP, most of the departments that need articles do not have them, while most of the articles we do have are not appropriate, I've always meant to work on the ones that are needed. I fully share Innisfree987's concern about clutter; WP does need more coverage of the academic world, but this is best done thru a biographical approach, increased attention to particularly notable books, and the NPOV presentation of academic tendencies.

(As limitations, I can judge best for the US, and sometimes the UK, and I may not be aware of developments in the last 10 or 15 years.) To give an example of my standards, in library science there have been only two, both defunct: Chicago and Columbia. In ornithology, there's one US department more famous than any other: Cornell, both now and historically. In a very large & influential field like Physics, there might be over a dozen.

There are beginning to be a few truely reliable sources: institutional history by outside scholars. Student newspapers and alumni publications are never reliable for this, nor are isolated statements of excellence without context. In most cases, it has to go by documentation of the ranking and inference from the faculty and alumni. Because of the need to show influence, they will mostly be found in the oldest and most famous research universities. As a caveat, a single famous personality is not enough to make a department famous. DGG ( talk ) 04:01, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

No, indeed. A good test might be (for historical ones) whether sources talk of a "Fooish school" - see Vienna School for examples - apart from music, we have 4 articles on groups essentially based at university departments. Also Cambridge School (intellectual history) etc. Johnbod (talk) 04:10, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Yes quite--had a similar thought about the Chicago School being an unimpeachable claim of notability for those department, but wondered where we drew the line afterward (since by contrast we are quite liberal with secondary schools--appropriately, in my mind.) But unlike secondary schools, which if outside a public school system will have no place in the encyclopedia if deleted, departments can always be covered on their college's page until a content fork is truly required. So nothing is lost if one holds the line a bit more closely. Innisfree987 (talk) 05:15, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Thanks so much DGG for these thoughts; very clarifying. True indeed about academia always running on reputation (and incentive to promote thus nothing new). I think this case just particularly smelled off to me because the original links were touting the master's program in particular, and in a field where a doctorate is the standard terminal degree, master's programs are typically less a source of intellectual capital than just ... regular capital.

Agree very much that scholarly institutional histories are the best means of validating significance; and conveniently also serve wiki-notability standard's other purpose, i.e. to identify not only the most important subjects but the ones for which we have sufficient independent sources to write something balanced and fully realized without resorting to original research. Perhaps if I run out things to write for fun (!), I'll dig into my collection of those materials. But yes meanwhile I think I'll carry on with biographies and sometimes books; I'm not sure how many academic departments I really feel excited enough about to want to work up a summary of their institutional history. Probably just the ones I like to imagine I've done in an alternate universe (so... just HistCon, really.)

Thanks again! Innisfree987 (talk) 05:15, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Wiki-cookie

Having a party tonight and sharing a cookie with you for your help over the years

.

I hit twenty four thousand edits tonight and became a senior editor on Wikipedia. Thank for your help over the years. -O.R.^Comms 03:57, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

your opinion please...

I just drafted a very short essay on civility, User:Geo Swan/Pick one. If you have time, I'd appreciate your opinion. Your talk page readers are invited to comment too, at User talk:Geo Swan/Pick one.

I think you are a prime example of someone in the first quadrant, of User:Geo Swan/Pick one#Four quadrants

Cheers! Geo Swan (talk) 22:27, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Heads up - userfied something else

Back in this MfD about a month or so ago (Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Pseudo-Richard/Antisemitic canards related to money, banking and finance) I userfied the main article under deletion under your userspace (User:DGG/Jewish stereotypes in banking and finance). It was recently pointed out to me that there was a second bundled article, which I have now userfied to you as well at User:DGG/History of Jews in American banking. If you don't want that one, let me know and I'll undo myself. Cheers! ♠PMC♠ (talk) 20:07, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Please leave them both, so I can work on them. But I'm going to do the Role of Jews on the American film industry first--because this topic is absolutely genuine; Jews did dominate Hollywood during the studio system, whereas they never dominated banking and finance. That antisemites decried the Jewish dominance of the American film industry is undeniable, butt the phenomenon was real. Jews tried in response to anti-semitism to hide this somewhat during the 20s and 30s (and even a little later), but that's part of real history also. It's characteristic of prejudice that the prejudiced group tends to disparage their victims for their real roles and characteristics, as well as the imaginary. DGG ( talk ) 21:23, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

If there's anyone I trust to do a balanced article on this kind of topic, it's definitely you. Will definitely be interesting to see once it's done. ♠PMC♠ (talk) 00:56, 14 August 2018 (UTC)

... in fiction

• While I'm here, please note that List of giant animals in fiction has been nominated again. In the previous discussion, you said that "I am frankly a little exasperated at people coming here with things they say cannot be sourced, when they haven't found the obvious ones in even the Google. WP: BEFORE should be an absolute requirement...". Matters have not improved as editors not only don't search themselves; they don't acknowledge good sources when they are presented. This looks like a case of WP:IDHT to me... Andrew D. (talk) 08:22, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

I will defend essentially any ... in fiction article that has content. I think that's the sort of thing that WP can do very well, and that this sort of content is in fact the subject of serious study. As for sourcing, you are also s librarian, so you know the general rule that most people will not look beyond those free sources found on the first page of Google. I have never known anyone other than a librarian or a patent attorney actually do a comprehensive search all the way through Google, . Perhaps 10% of people here will use library resources-- even if they can get them free through their library on the internet . As for printed books, the main people who use them here are subject enthusiasts who have their own collections. DGG ( talk ) 20:48, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

sources

do you have specifics contradicting any of the sources? Some of the sources, for example, Strabo, Ptolemy, Livy, Arrian, Thucydides, etc. are used by all modern scholars. The Smith dictionaries are extensively used and followed by others (more modern) such as the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World and An inventory of archaic and classical poleis. I'd like to know of conflicting information. Carlossuarez46 (talk) 17:32, 25 August 2018 (UTC)

Gender and Research

David, usually we take inclusion in Scopus as a sign of notability. However, in this case Scopus says that the journal was indexed "from 2016 to 2017" (which I generously interpreted as "indexed in 2016 and 2017", although it could very well mean that it was included from Jan 1 2016 to Jan 1 2017). If the journal would currently be indexed, this would read "from 2016 to present". So it was only 1 or 2 years and Scopus and has since been delisted. It was PRODed earlier today (not by me) and I assume that you'll want to dePROD because it is published by the Czech Academy of Sciences. Regardless of that, what do you think about Scopus? If this were some obscure (but honest) publisher, would you take the listing in those 2 years as a sign of notability or not? (We don't have this issue with ISI, because their Master Journal List only lists journals that are currently indexed, not journals that at some point in the past have been indexed.) Thanks! Best, --Randykitty (talk) 14:01, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

When Scopus was first published, I reviewed it at some length in the professional literature ("Comparative Reviews of Scopus and Web of Science." with Louise Deis:

The Charleston Advisor (Nov 2005) 7 (2) 5-20; my current link for this is broke--I will locate another) . and supplemented my review approximately biannually as it improved. The deliberate intent of Scopus was to cover the scholarly literature more broadly than ISI, including considerably more material on the social sciences, and somewhat more third world material. ISI responded to it by broadening its own coverage, Scopus did similarly, and the 2 have been continuing this ever since. There is a difference--ISI stratified its product, Scopus has kept a single database.

With respect to its coverage for this journal, Scopus has covered through the latest published issue, 2017 no.2. (there are 2 issues/year). It says it has listed 16 items, which from the Journal's table of contents is the total of all substantive articles published in those two issues, so it has covered the entire year. Looking at the journal's archive, until 2016, this journal published almost entirely material by Czech authors; mostly dealing with Czech-related subjects, and almost entirely written in Czech, often without even an English abstract . Considering the Scopus coverage criteria [16], it would not possibly have met them in those years. The journal is now apparently trying for a broader audience. According to the Scopus title list [17] , coverage is ongoing. I do not know why the Scopus previews link said otherwise. Their documentation is not known for consistency. It would be premature to say discontinued until there are 2018 published issues Scopus does not cover , or it appears on the (very interesting ) Scopus discontinued list  : [18] Or, of course, if there are no 2018 issues after another year or so. Since they are publishing each issue as a special topic issue, it's hard to predict publication dates.

In general, as you know, I take a much broader view of journal notability than you. This one may be borderline. DGG ( talk ) 21:03, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

Thanks David, for that detailed analysis. I missed that there was simply no 2018 issue yet to index. Given that it is indexed by Scopus, I'm going to dePROD it. As for my more restrictive stand on journal notability: I try to maintain clear objective criteria, it is often difficult enough to get people to accept to keep journals that clearly meet NJournals... --Randykitty (talk) 04:13, 30 August 2018 (UTC)

Wednesday Salon Introduction

I'd very much like to meet you tonight. Vyeh (talk) 20:45, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

Vyeh, Ditto. I will probably be there at the NYC meetup by about 6:40. DGG ( talk ) 21:05, 29 August 2018 (UTC)

nursing bios

Thanks for the encouragement, DGG. I'm slowly working on a number of BLPs in nursing as well as science diplomacy and related fields. I appreciate your edits; thanks! Vothlee (talk) 05:09, 17 September 2018 (UTC) Vothlee

NPR Newsletter No.13 18 September 2018

The New Page Feed currently has 2700 unreviewed articles, up from just 500 at the start of July. For a while we were falling behind by an average of about 40 articles per day, but we have stabilised more recently. Please review some articles from the back of the queue if you can (Sort by: 'Oldest' at Special:NewPagesFeed), as we are very close to having articles older than one month.

Other

• A new summary page of reliable sources has been created; Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources/Perennial sources, which summarizes existing RfCs or RSN discussions about regularly used sources.

Moving to Draft and Page Mover

• Some unsuitable new articles can be best reviewed by moving them to the draft space, but reviewers need to do this carefully and sparingly. It is most useful for topics that look like they might have promise, but where the article as written would be unlikely to survive AfD. If the article can be easily fixed, or if the only issue is a lack of sourcing that is easily accessible, tagging or adding sources yourself is preferable. If sources do not appear to be available and the topic does not appear to be notable, tagging for deletion is preferable (PROD/AfD/CSD as appropriate). See additional guidance at WP:DRAFTIFY.
• If the user moves the draft back to mainspace, or recreates it in mainspace, please do not re-draftify the article (although swapping it to maintain the page history may be advisable in the case of copy-paste moves). AfC is optional except for editors with a clear conflict of interest.
• Articles that have been created in contravention of our paid-editing-requirements or written from a blatant NPOV perspective, or by authors with a clear COI might also be draftified at discretion.
• The best tool for draftification is User:Evad37/MoveToDraft.js^(info). Kindly adapt the text in the dialogue-pop-up as necessary (the default can also be changed like this). Note that if you do not have the Page Mover userright, the redirect from main will be automatically tagged as CSD R2, but in some cases it might be better to make this a redirect to a different page instead.
• The Page Mover userright can be useful for New Page Reviewers; occasionally page swapping is needed during NPR activities, and it helps avoid excessive R2 nominations which must be processed by admins. Note that the Page Mover userright has higher requirements than the NPR userright, and is generally given to users active at Requested Moves. Only reviewers who are very experienced and are also very active reviewers are likely to be granted it solely for NPP activities.

• Other useful scripts for New Page Reviewing:
• User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/deletionFinder.js: Creates links next to the title of each page which show up if it has been previously deleted or nominated for deletion.

NPP

...

Fram, it seems we are two of the very few people who use NPP to check on autoconfirmed editors. I use the old list interface to scan quickly for anomalies, but I only get to it every week or so for a little while. DGG ( talk ) 17:07, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Same here, I only see a fraction of the new pages, but I look at them without prejudice wrt autoconfirmed, reviewed, ... Of course, there are editor+topic combinations I don't bother reviewing (e.g. Lugnuts creating a List-A cricketer article, these can be reasonably be assumed to be factual and notable (according to our very loose criteria)), but otherwise I have seen too many "accepted" editors creating problematic articles (copyvio, hoaxes, ...). And with ACTrial permanently implemented, we have a bit more time to look at these instead of the endless crapfest we had before! Fram (talk) 06:44, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

faculty bios ...

More generally, it would appear that a number of other articles on faculty at the USC Dept of Gerontology have been written by publicists. I am going to assume that these were people in the position before you, but if they are still active, please alert them to the need to declare.

Even more generally, looking at the category for USC faculty, it appears that an unusual number of them have similarly been written by PR staff in a consistent manner. Other universities do this also, but the proportion of such articles from USC is unusually high. If you should happen to know your colleagues who are doing this, please make them aware of our requirements. DGG ( talk ) 01:28, 21 September 2018 (UTC)

WP:BEFORE and other AfD advice

Please remember to do WP:BEFORE background research before nominating articles for deletion. I've seen many of your AfD noms fail–they could've easily been avoided had more research been done. I've made similar mistakes in the past and it's easy to correct them. I've rarely seen you mention in your nominations that you did one, while there are sometimes a dozen articles extra on the subject that may make it pass WP:GNG or other notability guidelines.

This link shows that you nominate many articles for deletion and it's good that many are successful, but bad that so many aren't.

This is just a friendly message with advice... no worries here. I know that you are an experienced editor here and have respect from the community due to your activity here and I appreciate it a ton, but there are basic errors I've seen you make and I'm just pointing them out.

Always happy to help.
Redditaddict69 ^{(talk) (contribs)} 23:54, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

I know not everyone understands what my purposes are in deletion discussions. Although some questions involved in determining notability or promotionalism are cut-and-dried, other aspects remain uncertain. And even for our accepted rules, the boundaries between the acceptable and the not acceptable are almost always fuzzy. I have for many years chosen to involve myself with the undecided and the fuzzy. This necessarily implies my nominations do not always suceed--if they always did, I would not have successfully identified the disputable cases.

Additionally, consensus can change, and I have definite ideas on which directions I would like it to change. My method of working is to carefully try to see and affect the views people have here. I try to do this cautiously, and not be over-persistent on any one point; but I continue to advocate for them from time to time as occasion offers; and I do not concentrate too hard on any one issue, because I have several of them in mind. The only way to see if an argument is more likely to convince people than in the past, is by trying.

Further, I have some basic principles that others may not share. For example, I consider avoiding promotionalism far more important than deciding borderline notability. I like simple ways of deciding that do not rely on the variable interpretation of nebulous terms. And, just as long as we maintain verifiability, I consider sourcing much less important than importance as judged within the subject. As you must be aware, the people taking interest in any one discussion vary. If a discussion should happen to attract people who dislike the way I look at things, the result will not go my way. I consider this the necessary consequence of deciding questions the way WP does, by the consensus of those who are for the moment interested.

I never look at my the statistics of afds I nominate or participate in. Anyone can get a perfect record by only doing the obvious, as it is necessary when a candidate at RfA. I do not even watchlist the discussions. I do keep track of ones that I want to return to--either in a few months, when there may be a more representative set of participants, or in a year, as consensus begins to change, or in 5 years, when it has done so, or in 10, when we mature into a better realization of our responsibilities.

I do not argue to win individual decisions; I argue to change opinions more generally. ( This means I will often lose, but that does not bother me, as long as we are making progress in what I consider the right direction, or as a last resort, just keep things from getting even more wrong-headed) Any topic it would really bother me emotionally to lose, I do not engage with on Wikipedia. And I make mistakes. When I do, I say so. Very few other people do that, and I have never been able to understand it.

In particular, since you mention it, I sometimes do use guesswork about whether there will or will not be sources. I think I'm pretty good at it, but I am not perfect. (very few people are, see the AfD for John J. Kerrigan. or Richard Ziser . ) I do not think this particularly wrong, because I do not give opinions about what I want kept or deleted primarily on the basis of sourcing, though I try to also argue in the conventional way for those who insist on it. No one has the right to expect that I will argue as they would like me to. All that anyone has the right to expect of me, is that I go by the established consensus in making administrative decisions.

And, to get down to issues, our most recent disagreement is Christopher Bergland. Frankly, I consider the article unencyclopedic, regardless of details of sourcing, unless it is actually of really general interest. It's the sort of coverage we should minimize. The policy here is NOT INDISCRIMINATE., which is the true foundation of all inclusion guidelines. DGG ( talk ) 03:50, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

as usual, a well reasoned and cogent response from DGG. Wikikit stalker - meowr! Coolabahapple (talk) 06:20, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

• Interesting discussion. We sometimes vote at the same AfD, and I take note of what you say. I find it interesting you don't base your votes primarily on sourcing, which is my primary basis of voting, except that I will vote for a WP:TNT on articles so poorly written (or WP:PROMO) that I don't want the general public to see them in that state.

I think I might share your view, which I believe is that we have too many articles about unnotable athletes. I find it incredible that we have the WP:NOLYMPICS rule that anyone who ever participated in any Olympics is automatically notable. That seems a glaring and unreasonable exception to our rules, and I cannot understand how on earth we have such a rule. Some of these athletes have zero secondary sources, but we still have an article? I am curious if you have any thoughts on that issue and how that rule came into being. --David Tornheim (talk) 08:09, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

1) I think the rule came into being to avoid the tens of thousands of debates that would have occurred otherwise. Including non-notable people does very little harm, provided that what we say can be verified and that there is nothing that might violate BLP. Engaging in extensive afd debates when it doesn't matter does do harm, for it impairs our ability to focus on the important issues. I wish we had many more fixed rules for what we would ordinarily cover/not cover. I would support them even if I did not altogether agree with them, because it simplifies our procedures. (In fact, I would usually support them even if I totally disagreed. Consensus only works if we put up with each other. )

2) There are a number of areas where I think we have too many articles. I think that everyone has this opinion, except that the areas they think over-covered differ. This is a communal enterprise, and I think we can only proceed without conflict by letting other people have their harmless over-coverage in their areas of interest, provided it does not interfere with what we individually consider proper coverage in our own areas of interest. For example, I will gladly accept the athlete in exchange for accepting an article on each species of organisms. Everyone's examples will differ here. But the only way to get an encyclopedia the way I would want it would be to make it myself. As this is impossible, compromise is necessary. Consensus only works if we put up with each other. DGG ( talk ) 17:55, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback. I can't agree with you that declaring certain topics or people notable simply to reduce time spent at AfD is a good idea, but I do respect the idea that having simple reasonable metrics can make complex decisions simpler. (For example, I would like a database that makes it easy to lookup particular sources and our overall assessment of their reliability, including past discussions.) If we have more articles, then that means more maintenance of those articles for accuracy. When I hit random article, it far too frequently goes to some obscure athlete, often someone in the Olympics with virtually zero WP:SECONDARY. This seems a bit unfair to other topics and people, like say movie stars and film directors who have to reach a far higher bar with WP:NARTIST. My feeling is that WP:NOLYMPICS means we are effectively promoting the Olympics by disproportionately waiving notability rules for Olympians while doing the opposite for other fields. It's a bit strange given the demographics of our editors.

Being an inclusionist, I tend not to worry about "over-coverage", as long as there is WP:RS that underpins the text. But given that we have long-standing rules of the minimum requirement for an article, I do believe we should apply them uniformly. If the standard is *multiple* independent secondary sources, I am frustrated that Olympians get a free pass, but others do not. --David Tornheim (talk) 06:29, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

If we're talking about athletes, I do not see how the coverage of Olympics in WP has a significant promotional effect in comparison to their already achieved status, nor does it affect the career of individual athletes--they either win, or they don't. I'm much more concerned in this connection with some other fields of endeavor. DGG ( talk ) 06:42, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

I'm not talking about the individual athletes, I'm talking about our articles promoting the Olympics, which has become a huge industry. By having articles on numerous people simply because they participated in this event, it sends the message that the event is *extremely* important. The Olympics is a billion dollar business. See their marketing materials here. See also [19][20][21][22]. (I take note that our article Olympic Games seems to give fairly limited coverage of profits, revenues, and advertising mentioned in those articles I easily pulled up in this Google search.) --David Tornheim (talk) 07:42, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

Organization advocacy

The simplest rule to follow is that it looks like it would make an effective web page on your site, it will not do here. Your web page says what you would like people to know about your organization--an encyclopedia article says what ordinary people would want to do. This includes the general outlines of your work, but not why the problems it tries to deal with are important. It shouldn't include a list of minor projects, and for those projects that are worth mentioning, it shouldn't describe why the work is important, just say what was done. ( for an example, section 4.1 should not include the second sentence. ) It shouldn't include minor awards; for the awards worth mentioning, it shouldn't cite the vague terms customary in the award announcement. It has to give the source of each reference without people having to look it up. It shouldn't cite press releases, it shouldn't include material such as material derived only from the organization, such as the Guidestar statement that ""this report represents Direct Relief's responses". It should eliminate adjectives of praise or importance. 9792 this]. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 15:30, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

High standards

I strongly support articles for all notable academics. In particular, I have from my first years of WP strongly supported articles for academics in fields that have traditionally been ones where the majority of the people were women. 10 years ago there was explicitly worded opposition to covering people in such fields--I think the records of earlier afds will show I took a leading role in trying to get them included--we still have a long way to go in some of these fields-- there are a great many women who meet the standards for WP:PROF that need articles written, and I support the organized efforts to write them.

But: " the standards for the 21st century and the late 20th century academics are the same for all genders and ethnic groups and nationalities. I recognize there is still a considerable degree of gender and other discrimination in the academic world, but an encyclopedia has to go by accomplishments, not by what there might be if the world were better. (In earlier centuries, when opportunities for women were extremely limited, I certainly support taking account of this in the expectations for accomplishment). Saying we should accept anything less than the same standard is like saying good enough, for a woman, the traditional patriarchal condescending way of thinking. I sometimes see that others still think that way; it is one of the insidious effect of prejudice that those discriminated against and their supporters have also had their own thinking influenced; that's part of the mechanism by which prejudice continues.

. DGG ( talk ) 23:51, 29 September 2018 (UTC)

Nice words. .... Your notions and reaction are completely contrary to your flowery prose. Sorry you do not convince. Thanks, GerardM (talk) 17:44, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

as I said a long time ago, I am not so unrealistic as to argue to convince my opponents. I argue to convince those who might see the discussion. There are only two options, one is that the same standards apply, and the other is the perpetuation of prejudice. DGG ( talk ) 21:08, 5 January 2019 (UTC)

Well, actually I want to be convinced. FYI I am involved in linking papers to authors. I do add genders to the info so that it makes clear the extend the gender gap is involved in co-authors. GerardM (talk) 08:03, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

Looking at your excellent recent work, I am not sure what we might be quarreling about. The main difference is that for scientists I focus more of demonstrable scientific accomplishment as measured by publication, and you focus a little more on press coverage.of human interest aspects. Myself, I do still distrust press coverage of " human interest"; I think it has the same lack of relevance to notability for scientists as it does it other fields--and if the scientist is notable by WP:PROF, trying to add human interest tends to detract from it. This is I consider to be based upon my feeling thta human interest inevitably always leads to promotionalism  ; but it is also possible to see it as representing a somewhat cold-blooded or distant attitude to people, or a fear of sentimentality. .

But if you mean that we still disagree on the relative weight to give underrepresented groups, there need be no practical dispute, if those wishing to cover the underrepresented groups do as I have always recommended, start with the most notable by unambiguous and accepted criteria. There are thousands of such articles to write; after we've done them, it will be time to discuss the middle range,for the middle range, the borderline notable, will always be borderline no matter where we draw the border. DGG ( talk ) 09:03, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

The biggest difference between you and me is that you insist on being the arbiter who decides who deserves to be seen as a notable scientist. I don't. When I start with a scientist who "is in the news / on Twitter", I seek out their authority control data and only when they have an ORCID identifier they get the full treatment. Meaning that I import their papers, their co-authors and link it all. These people may come to me as recipients of awards as well. What I find is people who have been deleted because ... no clue really when I note people like with this gentleman who was deleted never mind the prestigious awards that were bestowed on him previously. Oh yes, those awards were Finnish..

When you insist on doing the most prestigious scientist first, you expect that there is a list or something that makes it easy for you to allow them to exist. Such a list does not exist and if anything it is not static. A women gets the Nobel Prize, her algorith gives us a peek at a black hole upsetting any scheme we might come up with. I reject your notions where the news does not play a role in who gets attention. Your notions fail because we are not in the business of writing a magnus opum on scientists, we are writing an encyclopedia. We write it for a public who expect to find those scientists who are notably present in the news. When you are right and a bit of cold water is to be dropped on the relevance of a scientist, it must be in the article if we are to do any good. In what I do, I serve a public. I understand the limitations of what I can achieve and exposing thousand of scientists many with hundreds even thousands of papers is not the same as me proposing articles like for Professor Lawn who is one of the foremost experts on neonatology and makes a big impact on child mortality. Yes, she has an article and I am grateful.

When I read your arguments, they are about you. What motivates you. Consequently your arguments do not translate in a way that allows others to consistently emulate your actions. Your arguments are not even universally accepted, they are rejected by many. So my question to you is how can your POV be made objective and workable. As it is, it makes you and your opinions contentious. Given the good work that you do, that is not what we want. Thanks, GerardM (talk) 05:23, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

You are right, my arguments are explaining the way I look at things. That's because I view our decisions of notability as primarily subjective--decisions based on individual values and understandings of what WP should be like. Understanding the different ways people look at a problem is in such cases the way to go forward. Myself, I do have a definite understanding of what is meant by academic notability in the RW, And I think WP should follow it. It has everything to do with accomplishments , and nothing to do with outside sources. (I have similar views in other fields, but I am not there an expert in just what the field considers notability to the extent I am in the area where I have spent all of my career, and I therefore do not argue them in quite as positive a manner.)

I altogether understand your view that we need to provide information about those things that are rightly or otherwise in the news, and that people will come to WP to find information on. (That's the basis of my continuing effort to cover pseudoscience) I think your statement on that above is one of the clearest such statements, and I think what you say is a perfectly valid consideration.,Buy when we cover people this way, we need to cover them accurately. Covering them accurately means stating the limited nature of their actual scientific work, and those article I have seen rarely do that. They instead pretend that the person is notable as a scientist, and attempt to convince the reader of that .That was in fact the basis for my ill-starred attempt to write a rational article on Phelps. She's never been notable as a scientist, but rather as a figure that ORNL wants to publicize to pretend they are giving opportunities to minorities.

We have to cover the world as it is, but we also have to maintain objective standards, There are some areas where this is impossible, such as some areas of entertainment, and I simply don't work there.

I'm continuing this discussion not exactly to convince each other, but in the hope we can better understand each other's way of looking at things, and to some extent, take them into account. In other words, I am fully convinced my way of looking at these problems is basically correct, but I know it does not encompass all reasonable considerations: It's basically correct, not completely correct,. DGG ( talk ) 08:49, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Again I have some points to make. First, some scientists are not necessarily known for their science but for other aspects than just their published record. Even with scientists known for their published work, we do not make it easy on our public. We do show the ORCiD in the Source Control template but we do not show their "Scholia", it is more informative. A precedent for something similar is the inclusion of "Worldcat". As you mention "pseudoscience", you will agree that this is beside the point, the subject is diversity in Wikipedia for scientists.

The biggest beef I have with your POV is "authority". You tell me, the world that you know best and are to be trusted in this. As long as this trust is unchallenged no problem. However, your authority is challenged and what I find is that you indicate that it is subjective, you use words like "pseudo science" in this conversation and even though I know you mean it as a sidestep it comes across as a challenge to the legitimacy of the people who gain attention thanks to the "women in red" et al efforts.

The problem is that your foothold on authority is challenged for instance in this Finnish gentleman with existing awards, who has an award conferred on him by a American diabetes organisation. Diabetes is very much in the news thanks to the outrageous prizes charged by US companies for insulin. We need to cover this ground extensively. This is just another article deleted for the wrong reasons. What I find is many white US males with really poor articles who are not challenged and it becomes then all too easy to dismiss your POV as biased. That is my problem. What I ask of you is to make your criteria more objective and that these criteria are evenly applied. Thanks, GerardM (talk) 05:45, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

Question on Notability / AfD -- secondary sources based on a press release

I'd like your opinion on whether we consider a topic or person notable if they have multiple independent WP:SECONDARY WP:RS on them, but it is easy to see that the secondary sources (with by-lines of journalists working for the periodicals) were based mostly or almost entirely on the same press release. I can see an argument for and against such a person/topic being notable. I'm not familiar with any guidelines about this. What is your opinion? --David Tornheim (talk) 18:47, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

If secondary sources are based on a press release they do not cou nt for notability . They never did, and this has been clairfied by NCORP. If two or more secondary sources have essentially the same cotnent, they either arecopying each other, or a copying the same PR source, or at least are based on it, and even if the original cannot be identified, it's proof of unreliability. I and others have made this argument of many hundreds of afds , and it's never been refuted.

the real problem is that in some fields, unless the subject is truly famous, all available sources are to some extent based on press releases. We haven't fully realized this yet, except in the most obvious examples, like films in some countries. The job of a good press agent consists of getting apparently reliable sources to carry their material. I'm no sure that this can be dealt with by the GNG--either we have to greatly truncate our coverage in many important fields, or we have to base notability on some other criterion. (It has sometimes been said that the fact that secondary sources choose to reprint one particular organization's press releases shows that that organization is notable -- but most industry sources try to accommodate as many firms in the industry as possible, and beyond there it's based mainly on contacts, the most important part of the background necessary to be a good press agent. What it shows is the importance of the particular press agent, and PR people use these placements as their credentials, just as people trying to write paid editing for WP are expected to give references to their other articles ). DGG ( talk ) 03:21, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for directing me to WP:NCORP and for the full explanation. Regarding this rule in WP:NCORP:

Examples of dependent coverage that is not sufficient to establish notability:

• press releases, press kits, or similar public relations materials
• any material which is substantially based on such press releases even if published by independent sources (churnalism),...

You are saying that this also applies to people or topics, in addition to orgs? --David Tornheim (talk) 11:29, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

NCORP is not a new guideline--everything there there is basically the GNG sourcing requirements, specialized for companies. The requirement that sources for notability be sources providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements is standard. Companies are such an issue these days that it was necessary to reiterate the rule , with examples. People are a slightly different problem, because of the SNGs. Except for WP:PROF, which is an alternative to the GNG, we have never consistently decided the relationship between them and the SNG. My own position in most cases is that they too should in general be seen as replacements, but that has never really had consensus. I have suggested that often it be handled by interpreting "presumed" in its legal meaning, if it meets that requirements in the SNG, it is notable unless it can be clearly shown otherwise, and it can not be clearly shown otherwise without a comprehensive search in all reasonably likely sources, which is beyond the resources of most people here--and even with the necessary library resources smd languages and skill, it is normally beyond the time available.

But everything I say above is just how I think the guidelines we use can best be interpreted to give what we consider a reasonable result. We most of the time actually use them to justify our views about what an encyclopedia like WP ought to cover, although many people claim not to not realize it. The effective guidelines are made by our decisions. That's why I usually say something like, "it has been our consistent practice that ...." If I argue to change a guideline, it is on the basis that our decisions have changed and the guideline needs to keep up with it. DGG ( talk ) 04:04, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks from NPP

		The New Page Patroller's Barnstar
		Thanks for your recent work reviewing new articles. Foreign biography articles are often particularly difficult (at least for me), and I saw quite a few of these among your reviews. Thanks and keep up the good work. Cheers, — Insertcleverphrasehere (or here) 15:28, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

Page Deletion of....

1. You are the obvious sockpuppet of another editor, who was indefinitely blocked for adding advertising material with a promotional username--using an open proxy in both instances. , It has returned without explaining the connection, and have continued to add material which was essentially advertising; this account too has been blocked.

2.The material was added to mainspace despite the conflict of interest, with edits designed to evade our rules requiring use of draft space for new articles by new editors.

3.The material consisted of long sections of advocacy explaining the underlying problems, a long overpersonal account of how the two inventors devised the scheme and their own individual merits, & direct advertising claims about the security and other benefits. This is appropriate for the firm's web page, not an encyclopedia

4.It was sourced almost entirely to the firms own website, PR sites, mere listings, mere announcements of funding, and similar. (Tho some are in Chinese, the online translations make it obvious that everything is copied from their own press releases.)

You are, however, quite correct in your statement that we proceed to remove material of this nature as rapidly as we possibly can.

DGG ( talk ) 04:32, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

An amazingly detailed explanation for a spammer. They were on my talkpage too because I CSD tagged the page. Legacypac (talk) 17:39, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

much of it is very similar to what I've said hundreds of times, so it takes just a few minutes -- and it's here for other people to see it.

I find that an explanation of how I know they're a spammer tends to lower the chance that they'll come back, or try to protest further. .

And I know from comments made to me here and elsewhere that an explanation that makes it clear that I've actually read the article and checked the references is much more effective for both spammers and good faith but inexperienced editors than our usual notices. I only sometimes do this because there are just too many, but we really always ought to. We need to at least give the impression that this site is run by humans. DGG ( talk ) 18:10, 9 October 2018 (UTC)

NPR Newsletter No.14 21 October 2018

Chart of the New Pages Patrol backlog for the past 6 months.

Project updates

• ORES predictions are now built-in to the feed. These automatically predict the class of an article as well as whether it may be spam, vandalism, or an attack page, and can be filtered by these criteria now allowing reviewers to better target articles that they prefer to review.
• There are now tools being tested to automatically detect copyright violations in the feed. This detector may not be accurate all the time, though, so it shouldn't be relied on 100% and will only start working on new revisions to pages, not older pages in the backlog.

(why is this considered an advertisement?)

There are the following problems:

1. The article is addressed to "you"
2. Overpersonal account of the founding of the company
3. Referring to people by the first names alone
4. Repeated use of straight advertising language, eg "... makes international payroll payments faster, cheaper and easier" "in under 24 hours" "helps employees, freelancers and contractors receive their wages all over the world, "
5. Inclusion of practical details about how to use the service--this belongs on the firm's own web page only.
6. Inclusion of routine features as if they were something special.

In addition, there are major problems with the referencing:

1. Using references that merely mention the company as if they had substantial material. Every reference from something that could be seen as a major reliable source is of this nature,
2. Using references that are straight PR sites, or based on PR, or are mere announcements.

The only likely way of getting an article on Wikipedia is that the company might become so notable that there will be truly substantial, independent and non-promotional sources, and for someone unconnected with the company to want to write about it. DGG ( talk ) 19:41, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

CoinSwitch

from my Comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Draft:CoinSwitch 27 Oct 1018

One way of looking at promotionalism is that if the article is suitable for a company web page, it is promotional , not encyclopedic; another is that a promotional article gives the information the company would want to give, rather than the information a reader might want to know; yet another, is providing information that would interest none but present or potential participants or clients. associates. Either way, it's promotional. You may not have intended it as such: the nature of some subjects is that it is difficult to write an article at all without it also having large elements of promotionalism; the world is so full of promotional writing that people naturally write in that style; Wikipedia in particular, has so much promotional content from the earlier years when standards were lower that people assume that's what is wanted here. It will take us a long time tor remove it all, but the least we can do is not add to it.

. Unfortunately, those references that are of high quality seem to talk about various aspects of the industry, not this company specifically. I think that it it is very difficult within our rules to write articles on companies in this industry; there is relatively little distinguishing them which could not equally be seen as promotionalism . The only likely possibilities for articles would be industry leaders in either size, prominence, or historical role--or those which have been the focus of major scandal or regulatory action. Probably at least half of our existing articles in this field were accepted when we had not yet realized the difficulties, and need to be re-examined. As I said earlier, this problem is to some extent common to many industries, especially those dealing with immaterial objects. But the general hype in this particular field makes it perhaps the most difficult.

Editing Team newsletter.

Recent changes

• The 2006 wikitext editor is no longer supported. If you used that toolbar, then you will no longer see any toolbar. You may choose another editing tool in your editing preferences, local gadgets, or beta features.
• The Editing team described the history and status of VisualEditor in this recorded public presentation (starting at 29 minutes, 30 seconds).
• The Language team released a new version of Content Translation (CX2) last month, on International Translation Day. It integrates the visual editor to support templates, tables, and images. It also produces better wikitext when the translated article is published. [23]

Kevin

...What is truly sad is that he died so early; what is particularly unfortunate for WP is that we lost an excellent editor, and a still more excellent organizer and advocate. As I knew him, he was not the sort of person to think all of his work was perfect, any more than I think mine--although what he accomplished in the early days of the education program was much more important to WP than anything I have been able to do here. DGG ( talk ) 20:46, 6 November 2018 (UTC)

== Request on 18:48:22, 11 November 2018 for assistance on AfC submission by Robhmac ==

• Robhmac (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Erie High School (Pennsylvania) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Regarding Draft:Erie High School (Pennsylvania) I do not know what else you require for this article stub to be acceptable. I've included THREE external, third-party sources, including the school's official website, the school district's website, as well as the local newspaper article that documents how and when the school was formed by the merger of other high schools. It was never my intention to write a full article, just enough to update all of the other Erie high school pages that imply that they still exist as high schools. However, if I have not provided enough sources, can you give me some more details, such as what else should be added? Thank you so much.

Robhmac (talk) 18:48, 11 November 2018 (UTC)

If it were up to me it would be acceptable. But the purpose of AfC is to evaluate what the consensus is going to consider acceptable. The current opinion here is that unsourced articles on high schools will be deleted. I have argued against this for many years, and I thought that I had established the principle that high schools would always be considered notable or the purposes of WP. In the last year, the consensus has been otherwise, in spite of the greatest effort to prevent this change that could be made by me and the others who agreed with me. One of the characteristics of the way things work here is that the interpretations of the rules are not fixed, but can change. Nobody here can tell other people here what they must do: there is no such authority, and consequently sometimes not a great deal of stability. there really is no alternative between there being an authoritative top-down decision making and relying on the general agreement ( we could do it by voting--we don't , we do it by a sort of rough consensus.) It would be irresponsible of me to tell you it was OK when I think it likely that this will not be the decision.

How much sourcing is required is however an open question. I suggest that you first check for articles about the school in the local news sources--here ought to be some, especially if there was a period of changes in the organization and consolidation of schools in the district. Then the best approach might be to write a combination article, High schools in.... . I shall certainly support it, and I hope others will also. But the nature of WP is that neither I nor anyone else can make any promises. DGG ( talk ) 05:29, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom

I hope you run to be on ArbCom again. Please do. --David Tornheim (talk) 19:48, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

At the last minute, I have decided to. The time it takes in relation to the useful work I can do is lower than almost everywhere else on WP, and I have been able to accomplish much less than I might have elsewhere, but perhaps what I have been able to do there has been something that few of the other people on the committee have been inclined to do. Unlike some of the other candidates, I am interested in accomplishing specific things. If people support them enough to elect me I will be pleased that the committee might accomplish something; if people do not support them, then I will have been saved the frustration of uselessly trying, and will be able to redirect my time to other projects here where I know I can be effective. DGG ( talk ) 22:52, 13 November 2018 (UTC)...

NPP Review

Hi DGG! I noticed that you marked the page Google News Lab as patrolled. When I came across it, though, it still had a lot of problems, such as not linking to the page for Google, not including projects on its talk page, not including categories, etc. I'm in the process of fixing those, but I just wanted to open a conversation with you, since it's my understanding that those things are required before a page should be marked as patrolled. You're more experienced at NPP than I am, though, so if there's a rationale behind marking that sort of page as patrolled, feel free to let me know. Sorry if this comes off as accusing you of not being thorough; I'm not trying to do that, but more rather just get a sense of what the norms are in NPP since I'm new to being a patroller. Hopefully that makes sense, and thanks for your thoughts! - Sdkb (talk) 09:02, 25 November 2018 (UTC)

Sdkb, You are correct that I did not really complete this adequately. Here's why: The basic decision I was trying to make, is whether it should be necessary to send it to Draft space for further work; I almost did that, but finally decided that first, it was not just notable, but quite important, and that on a topic of as general interest here as this, it would be more likely to get the necessary improvement in mainspace. I therefore marked it as reviewed, but found it necessary to stop at that point. There's no clear practice on how much tagging is needed at NPP -- I usually do the most critical issue only. I do not usually add categories, for there are a number of people here who specialize in it; uncategorized articles are automatically marked, and they will get the needed work (and because I have considerable disagreement with the way categories are used here, so I think it better not to interfere). I usually do add the basic links--others typically get added later. I normally try to make sure the first sentence at least is clear, and the overall organization reasonably standard. But fundamentally in NPP I am looking for signs that the article shouldn't be here at all, because of promotionalism or lack of notability , or copypaste. These are the things that should not be missed.

The additional work on it you did was correct, and illustrates the way WP manages to work: people here tend to make up for each other's deficiencies.

I should also add that as a teacher, I have found it very effective to make use of my inevitable errors for the purpose of explaining how I came to make them, so that others would learn. I'm therefore always glad to have them pointed out here so I have the opportunity. DGG ( talk ) 06:32, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Thanks, that's all helpful to know! Cheers, Sdkb (talk) 07:17, 26 November 2018 (UTC)

Nomination of Rachel Parent for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Rachel Parent is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

FWIW, I comment at this afd: "as I said in AfD1, "possibly speedy delete G11 as promotionalism. A report of a non notable activist's series of minor interviews" " The article, however, was kept DGG ( talk ) 05:43, 3 June 2019 (UTC)

(about teaching paid editors)

...

2. In principle, we should teach people. This is however not easy. I've taught WP to hundreds of people in classes, and only a few have become regular editors. I've mentored a good number of PR people and others with COI, and I have found it very difficult to get them to write what is wanted, tho there have been a few successes. It is very difficult to really persuade someone that what they want to write about themselves is not what is appropriate here. It is very difficult for even a very good PR editor to get an honest non-promotional article approved by their client. (Several good PR people who have been reasonably good declared paid editors have abandoned this line of their business for that reason). And who will teach them? If I were to do nothing else, I might be able to try to teach 2 or 3 people a day, and I expect the result would be that only one of them will in the end be willing to learn. (In practice, I do 1 or 2 a week) I do not think there are more than 20 people on the English WP who are willing to do even that much. But we get over 1000 promotional articles submitted every day.

3. What I do hope to do , is to persuade people to write general articles about their industry. I and a few others have tried, and we've had some professional associations cooperate with us, and we've had some individual success. (The best example is medicine, where there's an organized effort for this, which is being done quite well. I'm not involved in that one--I prefer to try to work in the fields or aspects that are not yet going well. DGG ( talk ) 04:56, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Robert M. Epstein

I was browsing WP:REFUND and saw that you turned Robert M. Epstein into a live article. As far as I can tell, the entire content of that page, with the exception of some memberships in professional associations, is based on Epstein's own work and words. I am well aware that requirements for secondary sources are, shall we say, relaxed for people who meet WP:PROF, but that seems extreme. Furthermore, much of the content doesn't even seem based on the cited sources or even flat-out misrepresents them (in a way that promotes Epstein). Were you aware of these issues? This is a BLP, after all. Huon (talk) 18:33, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Yes, I did not do it as well as I should have. As you recognize, the membership in the National Academy of Medicine is enough to pass WP:PROF, and in my opinion even a sourced stub saying no more than that would be sufficient for mainspace, though I myself never write anything that sparse. The content needs reliable sourcing, not necessarily independent sourcing. A person's CV is suitable for that. . But you are absolutely right there are some sentences that make claims that are not supported, and I did intend to go back to the article. I removed them now. Thee's one I think could be supported but needs a cite and I marked it. I had meant to remove most of the material about university service, as I usually do; I removed it now. There's a running debate about whether to make improvements beyond those necessary to pass afd indraftspace or in main space; I take an intermediatep position, that they could be done either way. Of course, the danger of doing it in mainspace is that one might forget to go back, or, more likely with me, be diverted into other things,, so I should have done more here. Thanks for reminding me. DGG ( talk ) 18:53, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

and my difficulty is that in reviewing deleted G13s to see what shouldn't have been deleted, a/I seem to be the only one doing it and b/ there is no single step process for seeing the contents, Both of these get me frustrated every time I do it, so I get tempted to do it as quickly as possible, which is not always a good thing. DGG ( talk ) 19:02, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Help with explaining NAUTHOR/CREATIVE?

Hi DGG, I have someone arguing that coverage (ie, reviews) for an author's works doesn't count towards notability for that individual, as that would be the author inheriting notability for the works. I'm going to try to clarify my viewpoints, but I wondered if you would be willing to help as well. I think that since the article was created by one of my students, they may be assuming that I'm making the argument to save their work. (I did spiffy it up by adding the reviews and some tweaks, but I wouldn't move bad work live, of course.) I think hearing it from another person would probably help reassure them. Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:18, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

• Of course if you disagree, I totally respect that. Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 22:19, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

Reviews of their work are the principle thing that count for notability of an author. Ideally, substantial critical reviews from independent reliable sources. Authors do derive notability from their works, just as athletes from their performances, politicians from the office they win. What would possibly make an author notable except publishing notable works? Generally not their personal lives, and what else is there? Even prizes are normally for a particular work, though a few are for a whole career.

The question however is how many works, and what kind of reviews., I consider, and thousands of AfDs have uniformly confirmed, that the consensus here is that two or more notable works is enough .The usual problem comes from an author writing only non-notable works, and here I would be very reluctant to consider notability without very good sources about the author that are more than PR. The other likely dilemma is for an author who whas written a single notable work. A good case can be made forthe article being about the book, or about the author--I do not think it matters much, butI usually prefer the author because the author article has moreo f an opportunity for expansion as almost everyone who succeeds in writing one notable work writes others, but I have always opposed having 2 articles in such cases, unless the author is truly famous; there have been only a few genuine cases.

However, in practice it depends upon the reviews. Borderline significant reviews I do not consider sufficient, by which I mean the brief reviews in Publishers Weekly and the similar. I will look at the specific case later tonight.

And rest assured that if I disagreed with you I would say so. DGG ( talk ) 01:32, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for trying to soften Jytdog ruling

Though I am still worried about your opinion of WP:N, thanks for your comment here. There, but for the grace of God, go all of us who care just a bit too much about the Wikipedia. Poor Dog. --GRuban (talk) 16:50, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

User:ThoughtNoodle

Hi DGG. Since you mentioned on Jytdog's user talk that you going to try continue on with his efforts with respect to COI/Paid stuff, I wonder what you think about ThoughtNoodle. The contributions do sort of indicate (at least to me) that there might be some undiclosed paid editing going on. The editor has previously denied this before on their user talk, but there lots of overlap and an undeniable connection between the articles they are choosing to edit. FWIW, this is the kind of thing I typically asked Jytdog about to get another opinion before actually interacting with the editor-in-question. However, there's an added bonus in asking you since you are also an admin and therefore any post from you to this editor might carry a little more weight than something from me. -- Marchjuly (talk) 06:57, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Of course the likelihood is being a paid editor, but some of the articles may represent genuine interests of their own. I have never seen the point of repeatedly asking an editor after they deny it. But see Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Draft:Safari Industries. DGG ( talk ) 18:22, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

Fair enough and thank you for taking a look at this. -- Marchjuly (talk) 22:19, 13 December 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom

The spread of votes for the elected and top 2 unelected candidates was very small as compared to past elections. I am going to regard the result as a random fluctuation rather than an indication of anything. . DGG ( talk ) 17:16, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Although I am still upset about some of the things, but not seeing you for another term is more upsetting. There is now more establishment than ever, but less, if not non-existent at all, member that are willing to uphold the terms of use on what this project was and should continue to be about. But I suppose more productive work are done on the sidelines. Alex Shih (talk) 08:25, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Huh. That sucks. You had my vote, for what it's worth. Guy (Help!) 14:17, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Really sad more so as you had the Second highest number of supports after GorillaWarfare. Tactical voting appears to have done it.Really cannot see any reason to oppose you.Pharaoh of the Wizards (talk) 16:26, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

• Same here - you had my vote as well. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 16:40, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

• I thank you for re-running and for promoting stricter action on COI issues while you were on ArbCom. I'm sorry you didn't make the top six this time. Perhaps another year. Softlavender (talk) 17:33, 14 December 2018 (UTC)
• 😞 I share the same sentiments as Alex. ^{Atsme✍🏻📧} 03:06, 15 December 2018 (UTC)
• ditto the above:( Coolabahapple (talk) 13:41, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

(a band)

... as with other bands, there is also the concern that coverage that appears to be secondary might really just be the result of a press release. My sense is when the band is touring, there is a massive amount of monetary outlays promoting the concerts, so differentiating advertising from truly independent coverage is not always so easy. This article on the band's use of social media to promote itself gives a sense of the money involved and major corporate advertising connections needed to go big. Is it just because of talent? I think not. I think it is mostly about money and good PR, something I think both of us are equally concerned about with regard to Wikipedia. --David Tornheim (talk) 10:09, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

There are a number of industries built in large part upon hype. In such fields, you are completely right that it is difficult to distinguish NPOV sources from PR. In particular for some genres of music it is impossible to distinguish--what makes a group notable is the publicity it gets, not its actual music. This is true to some extent even in the world in general. PR contributors I trust have told me, what I should have realized myself, that the goals of the best PR is to get genuine news and magazine accounts written about their subject, and that essentially all magazine articles or newspaper features about most topics are to some extent based on PR no matter how high the quality of the source that publishes it.

What I think this means for WP is that for material about organizations & people connected with them & some fields of sports and entertainment, it makes no sense to use the number and type of sourcing for notability, but we must base our inclusion criteria on known or presumed real world importance, and judge it by the most objective means available For content we should consider everything no matter how commercial as a possible source, but judge it for what it is worth (for an example, the words "leading" or 'famous" is unreliable no matter where published. It's just part of the PR boilerplate & if a reputable journalist copies it, they're not being as responsible as they pretend to be.

The difficulty is that this requires the sort of judgment many enWP contributors do not have. The first step in this direction would be an explicit rule, that the extent and detail of an article depends upon the importance within its field, as judged by either objective criteria or by true experts, not upon the number of sources. DGG ( talk ) 02:55, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

I think there are recognized source for film, even new film, and even new film out of the mainstream, but it takes experts in these sub-genres to find them, and I am not. This is much more the case than it was 12 years ago: popular culture of all sorts is an academic field, and academics write books and articles. I have not had time to get back to the NYPL Film division fo do any actual work there for several years now, but we can use the criteria of recognition by experts even in these areas. I'd like to encourage any WPedian who knows and uses academic sources in this field to come forward. But there's another factor, even for critically insignificant art, if it is nonetheless popular enough , we ought to cover it, and here we need people who can judge the various source for popularity. Contrary to WP dogma, popularity is one form of notability -- so is excellence, merit, influence, and recognition. Any of these count in any field. DGG ( talk ) 04:54, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

I am ignorant about the relationship of youtube to the artists they record. Thinking about fields I do know about, there are many cases of major differences between the published version and the authors' preferred version. In discussing them, we need to talk about all released versions, though we need not necessarily link to them. (for major authors & works, we also need to talk about their unpublished manuscript versions) That's what we do with film and books. There are certainly cases where the critically preferred version is, and also where it is not, the authors official version. Art is among other things, meant to sell, and the version that is legally sold can usually assumed to be the basic version or the purpose of discussion. The question of authorial intention is a very difficult one, and I have never subscribed to the critical theory that a work means what the creator says it means, or even what he intends it to mean.

More generally, a WP article about will normally have at least the by-product of promoting the subject it discusses. An article about anything good or interesting in even the most NPOV terms will have a promotional effect. Often , this even extends to subjects where the NPOV view cannot help having have negative implications--some people will still think, bad as it is, it might be interesting. Almost every article here on a book, film, or published music has the effect of promoting it, and the financial benefit will usually go both the creator and the publisher. DGG ( talk ) 05:27, 27 December 2018 (UTC)

Facto Post – Issue 19 – 27 December 2018

Facto Post – Issue 19 – 27 December 2018 Learning from Zotero Zotero is free software for reference management by the Center for History and New Media: see Wikipedia:Citing sources with Zotero. It is also an active user community, and has broad-based language support. Besides the handiness of Zotero's warehousing of personal citation collections, the Zotero translator underlies the citoid service, at work behind the VisualEditor. Metadata from Wikidata can be imported into Zotero; and in the other direction the zotkat tool from the University of Mannheim allows Zotero bibliographies to be exported to Wikidata, by item creation. With an extra feature to add statements, that route could lead to much development of the focus list (P5008) tagging on Wikidata, by WikiProjects. Zotero demo video There is also a large-scale encyclopedic dimension here. The construction of Zotero translators is one facet of Web scraping that has a strong community and open source basis. In that it resembles the less formal mix'n'match import community, and growing networks around other approaches that can integrate datasets into Wikidata, such as the use of OpenRefine. Links Zotero Comes to Google Docs, Zotero blogpost by Dan Stillman, 19 October 2018. Category:Wikipedians who use Zotero T115158 Write a Zotero translator and document process for creating new Zotero translator and getting it live in production, long Phabricator thread 2015–17. Zotero Translators, documentation from zotero.org. Home page on GitHub for Zotero translator Javascript Example translator, for Wikisource. m:Structured Data on Commons/Newsletter/2018-12-07

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Documentation
	Thank you for providing the most directly informative user page that I have seen so far. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 01:02, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Driving to Geronimo's Grave

I don't understand your objection to pick me publishing and article about a collection of stories written by an author who has been working in the field over 40 years and has won numerous awards over his long career. Maybe if you learned a little bit about this guy, you wouldn't think his books were not worthy of articles on Wikipedia. I mean what do you want me to do? Read and comment and spoil each novella? There's nothing that pisses me off more than an editor that gives a 2 paragraph synopsis of what happens in a book to have the entire work ruined. I don't publish high school level book reports! If that has come down to doing that just to get my article published, then I'm done as an editor.PKDASD 21:39, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_R._Lansdale
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_R._Lansdale_bibliography

If you were going to write about the individual stories, yes you would have to give a very brief precis of the entire plot, including the ending. See WP:SPOILER. Everyone should realize by now that WP includes complete plots, and if they don't want to know the ending, they shouldn't come here. We're an encyclopedia , not a place to publish teasers. But I see no evidence that this particular collection is notable enough to have a WP article about it at all.

Are the individual stories notable? Have people written extensive critical commentary about any or all of them? Have any of them won an award individually? If so, they could each have an article. If these individual stories are not notable, but the overall work in that format is, which is probably the case, there would be reason for a collected article about his short stories, where each of them is described in a paragraph--this is one of the options at WP:GNG. Is this particular collection of stories notable as a collection? Is there substantial reviews of this particular collection? Did this particular collection win an award ? If it did, add that information and there can be an article.

The fact that an author is notable, does not make each of their individual works notable, much less each individual reprinted selection of them. If an author is very notable, then we can justify a separate article about each major novel, but only if an author is actually famous, which usually means Nobel prize calibre, then we probably could have articles about each of their individual works, down to each short story; but even then we usually do not go to that level except for the best known and most published-about stories. And even then we don't list particular selected works as separate articles. We haven't even done that for Shakespeare--we do justify articles for each play and each sonnets, but that's because multiple critical work has been published about each. We could probably justify articles about some of the most famous collected editions, which have been similarly discussed. But we do not even for him make a separate article for each volume containing a selection of his plays or a selection of the poems.

There may be some existing articles here at this level about Lansdale's minor works or collections similar to this one. When I have no higher priority, I will probably challenge them. I'm not going to challenge articles about his major novels--nobody would do that. DGG ( talk ) 23:13, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Re 'Trans Tryer'

Hello, DGG. Recently you wrote about a draft I created with this name. Briefly: I recently read a news item which stated that WP had a new agreement with Google Translate. Because I read that, and am an optimist, I hoped that WP had created a new, automated 'mechanism'. Fooled again.

While I was exploring that, hoping to decipher where/how this might work (after, for the last time, struggling through WP's abysmal writeup on translation) ... I created a draft container. I gave it that throwaway name to do the experiment.

A machine translation is sometimes adequate to get a decent article stubbed. It's more valuable to get the translation into a visible page, thereby gaining an audience and opening an editing field for people who may not be expert editors, but may very well be very familiar with the subject-matter. As far as I could figure out, the news release was complete BS.

I do not wish to have anything to do with using Google directly. I consider their translations to be mostly shitty (as in: why do they even bother), but they are helpful in gathering facts that are helpful for research ... names, dates, places, etc. I've used that tactic several times in the past.

I will bother only with: 1) WP will take my request for a Google translation, ship that off to Google, and 2) pick up the result and drop it into my user-box. I'll take it from there. I'd be VERY glad to take advantage of such automation to improve many existing English articles about Europeans.

I'm not interested in wasting time on process (unlike many editors) ... I want to do research and create quality writeups, not turn endless cranks. So since I'm done, if you want to translate the article, that'd be great. Thanks for asking, and if/when WP gets its act together, if I'm still alive, I'll be thrilled. Twang (talk) 08:33, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

Most people at the English Wikipedia fully share your skepticism. The use of the WP translate feature , whether with or without G Translate, is in fact not authorized here except for experienced users. As I mentioned, I do some translations of straightforward articles from frWP, and I never use it--I test it from time to time to see if it has gotten any better, but l tried a few days ago, & threw out the result and started over. The use of GTranslate as a starting point is sometimes helpful. How close it comes depends on the subject and the language, and I have never seen a translation from it that doesn't need revision--usually substantial revision. (I really do not see why machine translation can not automatically substitute it for she when referring to inanimate objects in Spanish, for example, or know to use the past tense for past events) But it's a help sometimes, like a dictionary. The actually difficult factor in doing translations is not as much language skills, as cultural and subject knowledge. The institutions mentioned need to be specified so they will be understood--the terms of art used properly--the historical events & the geography put in context.

There's a lot of machinery here that most people ignore, and only a few specialists bother with. As you realize, you don't have to know things like categories or reference format to write articles. All that is necessary is to get the article right and see that it is referenced clearly enough in any format so that some of the many people who do like to check such things can adjust the details. So I very strongly urge you to do just that: use the other language's article for information, and write an equivalent. it doesn't even have to be a translation, just an equivalent, with more or less detail as appropriate, and even a start at one that makes an understandable stub is helpful DGG ( talk ) 08:51, 15 January 2019 (UTC)

Re: Talk:Linda Gottfredson

.... (for full discussion, see my usertalk about Bias, intolerance, and prejudice

I will comment, but I cannot impose my own view of what is the correct version. No single admin can do that, though an uninvolved single admin can summarize a dispute. I will however, make some suggestions for going forward forward, including additional people to ask. .

But , having read the material, I am no longer an uninvolved administrator. I now have a definite view on the subject, which is that her published work is in no way racist . . All I can therefore do is argue for it, like any other editor. This is why I do not act as an admin in fields where I are very much about personally--and for the ones I really personally care strongly about, I will usually not even edit, for I do not like to get involved in the usual WP cross-exchanges about who of the various people with strong opinions is the most biased. I could have chosen otherwise, and used my skills in understanding scientific material and constructing effective arguments according to any arbitrary set of rules (even such as those used in WP) to try to bring important WP articles to express what I think a fair view of the subject. Some early experiences here have left me with the impression that anyone trying to give a fair view of a controversial subject will be subject to abuse from both sides and is unlikely to make progress.

I've therefore preferred to work in other aspects- , rescuing poor but improvable articles in any field I know enough to do so, and trying, conversely, to keep advertising and self-promotion out of Wikipedia.these are things I can do with needing to have an opinion on the subject. That I'm going to get involved in the argument here is one of my rare exceptions. I do need to ask you a question about conflict of interest--you can do this best by emailing me. in confidence. I'm still bound by the proises of confidentiality I undertook as an arbitrator. DGG ( talk ) 07:22, 23 January 2019 (UTC)

...... I keep it displayed at the top of my user TP under the title "To include it in a BLP or not?": A person's biography is not a good place to debate scientific theory or ideological beliefs; such debates belong in the articles that focus on those topics. For BLPs, it is enough to simply state what their views are and link to the articles which expand on those views. ^{(quote by Zaereth edited for brevity; Jimbo Wales agreed.)} Hope that helps. ^{Atsme✍🏻📧} 11:48, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

Atsme, I really appreciate the response, and agree with your referenced quote -- This line of thinking is what drives me to assist biography pages which have been written unfairly due to ideological bias.

With that said, DGG, do you intend to make the edit(s) based on the proposed changes, or would you rather another trusted member weigh in before we proceed? Thanks once again, 2601:42:800:A9DB:ECC0:551B:9183:5CD6 (talk) 04:03, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

I was waiting for the conclusion of Amendment request: Race and intelligence, [24], because the issues there are closely related, I take the result to mean that the majority of the present arb com is in agreement with my view of it, though, there also, at least one person is not. But you will notice Atsme's point, that this will probably lead to a formal RfC , in which case everything will have to be disputed here yet again. The result will be, as always, unpredictable. If so, I will probably feel that I have to comment in it, and this is a topic I very emphatically do not want to work on at Wikipedia. I shall do what I think the minimum necessary. DGG ( talk ) 05:37, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

That makes sense. Do you happen to know when a decision will be rendered on that case? 2601:42:800:A9DB:F0B3:BBB1:C14B:1097 (talk) 23:20, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

this issue is not going to be finally resolved for a long time. As I have said, I don't intend to follow it. DGG ( talk ) 02:45, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

I'm not quite so sure about that any more; perhaps what I might do would be helpful DGG ( talk ) 05:56, 20 January 2021 (UTC)` ...

Comment about revising promotional articles, from a user talk p.

But this further explains my dissatisfaction with negotiating articles with coi editors. I can revise an article till I think it acceptable, and fair, and informatively describes the subject. . What I can not do and will not do, is revise an article so if makes a more effective presentation of the subject. Presenting the subject effectively the way they would want to be presented, is the job of PR, and a perfectly respectable thing to do--elsewhere. I will not help anyone do it here, and to the extent I edit, I will reduce the article to documented informative material: forsome relevant examples, if a person's books and awards are listed once, it provides the needed information, and there is no need to list them twice over. If reviews are cited, there's no reason to pick our the favorable bits. If someone's avocational interests unrelated to notability are mentioned and linked to a source for further information, there's no need to explain them further. DGG ( talk ) 03:10, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

NYU faculty articles

Hello, I looked over Marisa Carrasco, changed "Publications" to "References" and removed the tags per the talk page comments. The references on the article, and the many not there, are enough to show notability. As noted if there are continuing neutrality concerns they can be addressed on the talk page. Many times I tag or leave comments on article talk pages, in attempts to not be a "drive-by tagger", with plans to revisit. It is made easier when there are comments of substance. Thanks, Otr500 (talk) 21:20, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

I have no concerns about her notability, because WP:PROF relies on impact, which in the sciences is measured by quotations to her publications, and the GNG and its baroque ramifications are usually irrelevant. Her citation record does show that, and I'll add them. (somebody should have already, but this is WP). There is nothing wrong with calling attention to WP:PROF articles which may imply notability , but do not show it. Most of the time the ones that need deletion for lack of notability by WP:PROF are also highly promotional, so it is rational to check carefully everything done by a promotional editor. And of course there's a degree of blatant advertising where TNT is applicable, I try to balance that factor with notability, because it is impractical to devote the time to fixing the articles where notability is just borderline. DGG ( talk ) 01:19, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2019

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment closed with a consensus in favor of deprecating The Sun as a permissible reference, and creating an edit filter to warn users who attempt to cite it.

}}

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Hello DGG. At outreach:Wikipedian in Residence your Wikimedian in Residence project at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts still has the information "under construction" as project page. Could you please link to the project page at outreach so that everyone interested can learn about your project? Thank you so much, --Gereon K. (talk) 10:14, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

actually, I haven't been doing it for several years now,and I'm not sure whether or not I will be able to return. DGG ( talk ) 10:16, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

Ok, yes, but I think it would be nice if the Wikimedian in Residence list on outreach would contain a link to the project (no matter if it's up to date or from 2012), so that interested readers could learn about the project. --Gereon K. (talk) 12:22, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

Academic publisher "monitoring"

Do you know if there's anywhere, e.g. a wikiproject, where data are collected on publishers that are cited on Wikipedia with citation templates? Having run across this citation, where Springer Publishing was listed as the publisher of something from Springer Nature, and having made the same mistake myself plenty of times (e.g. spending time seeking Publishing books at link.springer.com), I wonder if there's anywhere that could be used to find likely errors of this sort. Not computer-processable, of course, but a human could look at a list of pages citing Springer Publishing titles and identify topics, like this one, that don't have anything to do with their fields.

Also, do you know if there's a way to look up matches between URLs and publisher names in citation templates? The first diff made me wonder about finding such issues elsewhere, and here I changed a publisher from Publishing to Nature. It would be interesting to see how many articles list Springer Publishing as the publisher for items on springer.com, or list Springer Nature as the publisher for things on springerpub.com.

Thanks for your assistance! Nyttend (talk) 02:55, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

Nyttend, As you have probably guessed, this is complicated on multiple levels. .

First of all , for journals it is not usually necessary to specify the name of the publisher even in print citations l. The title is enough 95% of the time, and the usual distinction if it is not is the city of publication, and if more is needed, the dates. There are exceptions, such as when it is necessary to distinguish the publisher to indicate the degree of importance. Usually that's not reaally needed, because the name ofthe journal gives that information to those who know thesubject, but itcan be helpful--especially nowadays with predatory publishers who use titles that deliberately sound very similar to those of major journals.

This is different from books, where the name of the publisher is the key independence of reliability, and must always be included. (the place usually not, because most book publishers cooperate in several countries--it's only really need for ones that will not be recognized.. There are two questions --who actually published it, and what form of the name to use.

When one does give the name, a person is supposed to cite is what is on the item they actually use; this is not necessarily what will be on a formal record, nor will it necessarily correspond to the actual facts of production. In traditional publications, the copyeditor normalizes the citations according to house style, and what they will do with the publisher field varies--each firm has its own conventions. What you are suggesting is that we normalize it similarly. The copyeditor, or ourselves, would necessarily depend upon the library cataloging, but library cataloging has its own conventions, and these have changed radically over time and differ between countries , and do not except for rare books even attempt to be an exact record--in practice, for books, they copy what is on the item in front of them. For journals, title changes and publisher changes are common, and for both the rules are extremely complicated, being designed to cover all possible situations, and have changed with time, and vary with countries. For example, the 19th century practice was the opposite of today, to give the place always, but often not the publisher.

For the example example you gave, the original ed. and you both made errors. The original ed. didn't realize this was not the main Springer, but a separate and less important company. You made an error, for the citation in from 2009, and in 2009 there was no such firm as Springer Nature. The OCLC record lists it as Springer, so you need to change it back. [25]. OCLC and LXC doesnot usual between various forms of the corporate name.

For both journals and books, publishers change their names, or change the names of their sub-divisions (usually called imprints).They often merge and sometimes split; when this happens, sometimes the name changing to the firm that purchased another, but sometimes not and sometimes only after a period of years. They sometimes merge partially, when one publisher will sell one of its subdivisions or subject areas to another, and what happens to the name on the item similarly varies. Sometimes one publisher reprints work of another. Sometimes the responsibility for publication is divided between different publishers in all sorts of manners. Sometimes an item has different publishers in different countries. Sometimes the print and online have different publishers. Publishers have divisions i different countries, and sometimes they are in effect the same company and sometimes they are very different, as between OUP and OUP India, and this too can very with time. Often when a book is reprinted after the publisher merges, the name given will be the new publisher, but usually the new name will simply be added along with the new copyright date.

There's a problem with authority. OCLC merges the records for different versions and libraries. LC catalogs what they consider to be the version of record, but many libraries modify their copy of the record. For books other than rare books, different editions are separated, but not different printings. (In US practice, a new edition is where the contents changes, either in the main body of the text or the addition of a preface; a printing is where it doesn't. The practical distinction is whether the number of pages changes. A new copyright date is not necessarily a new ed. , because the use of revised date for each new printing if there is even a trivial difference extends the copyright the publishers will claim.) So if you take out a book from a library or buy it, the publisher on the item may be different from the publisher on the cataloging record, depending on when you or the library bought it. As a further complication, a e-print is usually just a printing variant, but since it is hard to tell, some libraries will list it separately. OCLC tries to distinguish, but in practice they mixit up in a totally irrational and unpredictable way.

Sometime an author (WP or conventional) will actually have seen the item, sometime they will copy the citation from that given in another publication; sometimes (especially in WP) they will copy it from a database. Sometimes they will have seen one form of the item, but copy the citation given in a database or catalog for a different form. Sometimes the version they have seen is an illegitimate republication that should not ordinarily be cited, but for which a genuine version is available. Sometimes they see a translation and cite the original, or do just the opposite. Often in WP they fill in the cite form wrong, listing a publisher as author , or a reprinter as publisher, or omitting one or another. Sometimes the WP rules even require that we cite an unauthentic version, such as an open access preprint, rather than the paywalled version of record.

The most important thing we need to fix in WP is to add online or print when only one is given, and to link to both the publishers version and , if available, a open access version. I believe there is in fact a project running to add the open access links. Correcting other variations, is something that affects not individual records, but all of the various WPs, and I suggest is something best left to Wikidata. At the moment, I think they are just working on journals, bjt anyone could add or elaborate a record for a book. I do not myself usually doit, for it will be most efficient as an organized exercise. In the past , I would not personally work with Wikidata, because I considered their standards too low. Now, their goals at least are higher, and the WD people now appreciate the bibliographic and semantic ambiguities. Just like WP is a long term project, so is WD., and though I would possibly now be able to cooperate with them, I am quite occupied enough here. DGG ( talk ) 06:09, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

News release tag

Dear DGG: You put a news release tag on Ned Holstein. Could you expand on your rationale? As a scientist, my biography articles are mostly about other scientists (people I have never met or dead), describing their education, a synthesis of their research, their media appearances, together with a list of selected publications; trying to do so in a stimulating, friendly and positive manner. This is about an activist though, so it is a little different than what I normally do. I tried to describe his education, his organizational affiliations, a synthesis of the advocacy arguments he uses, and his media appearances, together with a list of selected publications. How could I do this better? I want to use the sources to relay the content and logic of the advocacy, which is the core of the notability and corresponding to the research done by a scientist. To simply create a dry tally of events, activities and personal anecdotes that some Wikipedia biographies have is less informative for the reader. Any suggestions on how to move forward on these types of activist biographies? Martinogk (talk) 07:49, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

That's exactly the point. WP is not a place to do advocacy. It's an encyclopedia, and you used the same words I sometimes do in advising people how to write here: encyclopedias are inherently dry and dull. They can also be fascinating, as a framework to find out a little about a great many things. To find out a great deal, that's why we have references. But in a more positive way, the method of handling people who are known for their advocacy is to say what others have said about it, and to say it briefly, and do as much as possible of it by implication, giving titles of works and the like. (I also notice that at least half of the sources given for "Media Interviews" merely include him in a small part of a long general story; including these gives a promotional effect--and also affects notability.) The article is not supposed to be built up of quotations from his works, but by describing them. The place to use quotations, is where there is something distinctive, or where the exact wording matters. The rule for promotionalism in general ,is that we say not what the person would want others to know about him, but what others might want to know. It must be based not on his work, on what is said about his work, and there are unfavorable ones also, they must be included. It should not be written to give the impression that everyone would naturally agree-- I notice that some of the coverage of him, and some of the places where he has published, are publications that are generally considered not to be reliable sources, with WorldNet Daily as the most notorious; that he would choose to publish there implies that some aspects of his work may not be as uncontroversial as they sound.

And I can't help noticing that some of this affects some of your other articles, both those specifically on advocacy groups for shared parenting, and those on scientists who are associated with that movement. DGG ( talk ) 22:17, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – March 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (February 2019).

Guideline and policy news

Arbitration

• The Arbitration Committee announced two new OTRS queues. Both are meant solely for cases involving private information; other cases will continue to be handled at the appropriate venues (e.g., WP:COIN or WP:SPI).
  • paid-en-wpwikipedia.org has been set up to receive private evidence related to abusive paid editing.
• *checkuser-en-wpwikipedia.org has been set up to receive private requests for CheckUser. For instance, requests for IP block exemption for anonymous proxy editing should now be sent to this address instead of the functionaries-en list.

-

NPR Newsletter No.17

NPP Tools Report

• Superlinks – allows you to check an article's history, logs, talk page, NPP flowchart (on unpatrolled pages) and more without navigating away from the article itself.
• copyvio-check – automatically checks the copyvio percentage of new pages in the background and displays this info with a link to the report in the 'info' panel of the Page curation toolbar.

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:18, 15 March 2019 (UTC)

(Indian sources)

... In this specific case, an additional concern was that Indian women tend to bring up less sources from a web search than subjects in the west. Ritchie333 ^{(talk) (cont)} 17:39, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

You are right that local papers are available from the US, but not India. However, when they get national coverage, that might be quite sufficient, if the coverage were independent instead of PR. The problem for the ones we see here is the irresponsibility of many Indian sources. (and many US etc. sources as well, of course, but there's more likely to be something real) DGG ( talk ) 18:04, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

SYSTEMATICBIAS does not remotely apply for any Indian (woman) CEO, operating from a posh business area, in the 21st century. Just no. And, it's quite untrue that local Indian papers are not available over web; every major vernacular daily has an online presence and their archives date back at-least to the 2000s. Some even have digitized stuff till the 1960s.

That being said, you cannot view local newspaper articles of the 1800s over web and that's a hindrance to ours' judging notability of characters of those time spans. There is a major ongoing project to digitize old newspapers (whose publishers have shut their shop, long back) but it's way too slow and fund-crunched. Still, archives of yester-century's leading vernacular newspapers like Amrita Bazar Patrika, Jugantar et al are slowly made available for free viewing and searching.∯WBG^converse 19:16, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

I'm very glad to hear the increasing availability of sources. It might be useful to compile or identify a guide to them, and how to locate them. There's of course also the problem of translation--GT is not at its best with Hindi, but seems borderline usable; I have no idea how it handles other Indic languages. DGG ( talk ) 06:32, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – April 2019

• As a reminder, according to WP:NOQUORUM, administrators looking to close or relist an AfD should evaluate a nomination that has received few or no comments as if it were a proposed deletion (PROD) prior to determining whether it should be relisted.

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Good advice on the additional footnotes needed; thanks Sf360mk (talk) 22:07, 18 April 2019 (UTC)

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago

Awesome

Ten years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:20, 25 April 2019 (UTC)

NPR Newsletter No.18

Reliable Sources for NPP

Rosguill has been compiling a list of reliable sources across countries and industries that can be used by new page patrollers to help judge whether an article topic is notable or not. At this point further discussion is needed about if and how this list should be used. Please consider joining the discussion about how this potentially valuable resource should be developed and used.

Discussions of interest

• There has been a lot discussion about Notability of Academics

---

A beer for you!

This [26] page misled me, too. Authors and readers can go overboard promoting a book. But what I came here to say is that this is why I enjoy interacting with you. Your rational approach to evidence is deeply cheering. E.M.Gregory (talk) 17:37, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

+1 ^Atsme _Talk 📧 18:25, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2019

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2019).

Guideline and policy news

• An RfC seeks to clarify whether WP:OUTING should include information on just the English Wikipedia or any Wikimedia project.
• An RfC on WT:RfA concluded that Requests for adminship and bureaucratship are discussions seeking to build consensus.
• An RfC proposal to make the templates for discussion (TfD) process more like the requested moves (RM) process, i.e. "as a clearinghouse of template discussions", was closed as successful.

Technical news

• The CSD feature of Twinkle now allows admins to notify page creators of deletion if the page had not been tagged. The default behavior matches that of tagging notifications, and replaces the ability to open the user talk page upon deletion. You can customize which criteria receive notifications in your Twinkle preferences: look for Notify page creator when deleting under these criteria.
• Twinkle's d-batch (batch delete) feature now supports deleting subpages (and related redirects and talk pages) of each page. The pages will be listed first but use with caution! The und-batch (batch undelete) option can now also restore talk pages.

Miscellaneous

• The previously discussed unblocking of IP addresses indefinitely-blocked before 2009 was approved and has taken place.
• The 2019 talk pages consultation produced a report for Phase 1 and has entered Phase 2.

Stop moving articles to Draftspace

This is not a helpful activity. You are harming the encyclopedia and irritating veteran editors by doing this. There is minimal harm in allowing in-progress new articles to be worked on in the main article space. In some cases you have broken active links by moving existing articles from mainspace into draftspace. I don't know why this policy even exists — Wikipedia is NOT PAPER. It does not matter if there are articles that are less than notable, so long as they are eventually deleted or (preferably) improved. Please stop doing this. It is anti-social behavior and discourages contribution. I've looked over your contribution history and (at least recently) is seems to mostly consist of undoing the efforts of other editors. This must stop. --Wclark (talk) 05:23, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

EDIT CONFLICTED:

I'm sorry — this isn't your fault. You're following policy. It's the policy that's at fault, here. There's no good reason to ever delete articles, in my opinion. They don't harm anything by existing. Who cares if people write overly-positive vanity articles about private businesses, as long as they're properly sourced and halfway decent? Let the spammers create articles to their heart's content... we just need to be diligent about how we link to them. If something is legitimately mentioned in some article, I'd expect there to be an article on it. Worry about how facts are cited in existing articles, not which ones merely exist. Deleting/Renaming/Needlessly-screwing-with articles that somebody else is working on — even if they exist in the main namespace — just creates entirely avoidable conflict for no good reason. So long as links within articles are relevant, there's no real problem with allowing even the spammiest of articles to exist. Fix them (if they actually start to get traffic/links — which in and of itself indicates some measure of notability, by the way) but don't go through some rename-to-draftspace/delete convoluted approval process. --Wclark (talk) 05:53, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

• I do this to rescue and improve articles, not to delete them. When I think the subject is probably notable, but the references are not sufficient, I move the articles to draft as an alternative to nominating them for deletion, under the provisions of alternatives to deletion in WP:Deletion policy. All that anyone needs to do is to add the necessary additional references, and submit it for returning to mainspace. (It's also possible to add the references and return it outside of the drafts process, but that loses the opportunity for review.) If the references are sufficient for notability, neither I nor anyone else is likely to list it for deletion. The article will be improved, and WP will be the gainer.

It is of course technically possible to revert my moves if you disagree, even without adding references. If that is done, I will check it myself, and if I do not think there are sufficient refereneces, I will probably list it for deletion, and the community will decide. Even after such a nomination, it can still be rescued by adding references.

In earlier years, before we had Draftspace, this alternative was not available, and so many articles got deleted that need not have been. I'm very glad the procedure exists, and I use it whenever possible, because my purpose since coming here 12 years ago has consistently been to keep and rescue every article that is possible to be kept. I've rescued thousands. Ideally, it would be better if I could source them all myself, but that's beyond what one person can do; at least this starts the process of getting them sourced.

There's probably some specific article you have in mind, so I'll look at it tomorrow. . DGG ( talk ) 05:36, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

It seems like we probably agree on some deeper level here, but maybe not about how best to implement things toward that goal. Fair enough; my complaint isn't with you. Cheers, --Wclark (talk) 05:56, 14 June 2019 (UTC)

Wclark, checking, it seems there is a larger and somewhat different problem than I thought. Most of what I have been moving the last few days has been a group of articles from an improperly organized WP educational program class, whose students have ben moving or copying their own articles from draft to WP space, apparently without review from the instructor. This has caused a number of problems--it's thoroughly messed up the cross references structure -- as you noticed-- , it's created duplicate or near duplicate undeleted drafts and article, and most of their articles were unencyclopedic essays, not encyclopedia articles, with the typical unsourced opinion appropriate to school essays. Clearing this upwill be long and complicated, and I will try to do it this weekend. Since, as is generally the case with classes, the students are unlikely to return to respond to messages once they have finished the course, the drafts are very unlikely to be improved. The only thing I can think of doing is trying to rewrite myself as many of them as possible as stubs, and then move them properly to mainspace. Snf ythen try to find all the erroneous links. This has happened before, but usually the articles/drafts have been so poor that they can simply be deleted, but most of these can be rescued. Despite years of effort, there is no real way of making sure the people in a class project follow the instructions. And just as anyone can edit, anyone can run a class sometimes without even telling us. DGG ( talk ) 05:40, 15 June 2019 (UTC)

Request on 17:42:34, 16 June 2019 for assistance on AfC submission by RecordAR: Arizona_Center_for_Education_and_Research_on_Therapeutics}

• RecordAR (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Hello. Thank you for your assistance. I would like to properly revise this article.

1. You are correct that AZCERT focuses solely on heart arrhythmia caused by drug interactions; the mission of the organization is to reduce fatalities. This is a *huge* medical problem that involves hundreds of prescription medications. Does the organization need a wider focus to be considered relevant? JDRF focuses solely on juvenile diabetes. Just trying to understand.

2. Would these resources help establish the organization's credibility? Most are medical resources because it is a medical issue. https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/704202_3 https://secure.medicalletter.org/w1509a https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1767957/ https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/medication-induced-qt-interval-prolongation-and-torsades-de-pointes https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/medialibraries/urmcmedia/medicine/palliative-care/patientcare/documents/methadoneandqtcprolongation.pdf https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/744382/qtc-interval-screening-methadone-treatment https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/PUArticles/DrugInducedQTProlongation.htm

Again, thank you very much. I am trying to get it right.

RecordAR (talk) 17:42, 16 June 2019 (UTC)RecordAR

RecordAR (talk) 17:42, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for reviewing Oleson

Did you have any comments on the article? How it can be improved? Anything that bothered you? I gather from your profile that you have a strong academic background so welcome your comments on an academic’s bio. (Hope to add a talk page to the article when I have some time IRL.) Mr Serjeant Buzfuz (talk) 03:11, 18 June 2019 (UTC)

A Dobos torte for you!

7&6=thirteen (☎) has given you a Dobos torte to enjoy! Seven layers of fun because you deserve it. To give a Dobos torte and spread the WikiLove, just place {{subst:Dobos Torte}} on someone else's talkpage, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend.

7&6=thirteen (☎) 12:54, 19 June 2019 (UTC)

Draft:YEET

Philosophically, do you think repeatedly deleted drafts should be salted? 78.26 _{(spin me / revolutions)} 15:57, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

If it clear that an article cannot be written on the topic, or if the various versions are all of them advertising, I usually semi-protect after 2 or 3 times. But for the one you have in mind, Draft:History of Yeet, the current draft is significantly different from the previous versions, and if it can be sourced it might conceivably become an article. One of the deletions was a one-line stub, one here, and one or or 2 of the variants were where the term was used as a BLP violation. The most recent was similar to the present in content, but written in Wiktionary format, and belonged in Wiktionary .Since the term is in widely used--even someone like myself has seen it multiple times--, I wouldn't say it's impossible. DGG ( talk ) 16:56, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

Jenny Brown

Hi DGG. Please review my comment for you on Talk:Jenny Brown (feminist).--Elindstr (talk) 23:42, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

Submission declined: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Marina_Anca

Hi DGG,

You declined an article I submitted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Marina_Anca

I chatted with ToBeFree in the wiki chat room and he/she thought the English was understandable.

I am a native English speaker, so I'm trying to understand what I need to change to have this article accepted. Can you please advise. Thank you.

Mr. Promise (talk) 22:40, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Note: I'm not a native speaker and I didn't review the draft's sources. The text appears to be understandable, but there may be something specific you're referring to. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 23:02, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

I'm trying to get an understanding on what I need to change to get the article accepted, so any help would be appreciated. Thank you. Mr. Promise (talk) 23:11, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Hi DGG, I'm still awaiting your response so I can change my article so that I can have it accepted for publication. Thank you. Mr. Promise (talk) 11:54, 1 July 2019 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr. Promise (talk • contribs) 21:58, 30 June 2019 (UTC) Mr. Promise (talk) 11:54, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

)

Today's Wikipedian 10 years ago

Awesome

Ten years!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:54, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

WP:CEN is now open!

To all interested parties: Now that it has a proper shortcut, the current events noticeboard has now officially opened for discussion!

Thank you for your participation in the RFC, and I hope to see you at WP:CEN soon! –MJL ‐Talk‐^☖ 17:10, 26 June 2019 (UTC)

New Page Review newsletter July-August 2019

Hello DGG,

WMF at work on NPP Improvements

More new features are being added to the feed, including the important red alert for previously deleted pages. This will only work if it is selected in your filters. Best is to 'select all'. Do take a moment to check out all the new features if you have not already done so. If anything is not working as it should, please let us know at NPR. There is now also a live queue of AfC submissions in the New Pages Feed. Feel free to review AfCs, but bear in mind that NPP is an official process and policy and is more important.

QUALITY of REVIEWING

Articles are still not always being checked thoroughly enough. If you are not sure what to do, leave the article for a more experienced reviewer. Please be on the alert for any incongruities in patrolling and help your colleagues where possible; report patrollers and autopatrolled article creators who are ostensibly undeclared paid editors. The displayed ORES alerts offer a greater 'at-a-glance' overview, but the new challenges in detecting unwanted new content and sub-standard reviewing do not necessarily make patrolling any easier, nevertheless the work may have a renewed interest factor of a different kind. A vibrant community of reviewers is always ready to help at NPR.

Backlog

The backlog is still far too high at between 7,000 and 8,000. Of around 700 user rights holders, 80% of the reviewing is being done by just TWO users. In the light of more and more subtle advertising and undeclared paid editing, New Page Reviewing is becoming more critical than ever.

Move to draft

NPR is triage, it is not a clean up clinic. This move feature is not limited to bios so you may have to slightly re-edit the text in the template before you save the move. Anything that is not fit for mainspace but which might have some promise can be draftified - particularly very poor English and machine and other low quality translations.

Notifying users

Remember to use the message feature if you are just tagging an article for maintenance rather than deletion. Otherwise articles are likely to remain perma-tagged. Many creators are SPA and have no intention of returning to Wikipedia. Use the feature too for leaving a friendly note note for the author of a first article you found well made or interesting. Many have told us they find such comments particularly welcoming and encouraging.

PERM

Admins are now taking advantage of the new time-limited user rights feature. If you have recently been accorded NPR, do check your user rights to see if this affects you. Depending on your user account preferences, you may receive automated notifications of your rights changes. Requests for permissions are not mini-RfAs. Helpful comments are welcome if absolutely necessary, but the bot does a lot of the work and the final decision is reserved for admins who do thorough research anyway.

---

Stay up to date with even more news – subscribe to The Signpost.
Go here to remove your name if you wish to opt-out of future mailings.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:38, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

the WMF/enWP crisis

Please note that all responses are likely to be delayed during the crisis at Wikipedia:Community response to the Wikimedia Foundation's ban of Fram. Unlke some of the admins I know and like best, I'm not resigning my adminship or leaving WP, but I find it discouraging to work under the profound contempt for the community by those who think they are in charge, combined with their incompetence at what they are trying to do. DGG ( talk ) 06:07, 30 June 2019 (UTC)

fwiw, I consider the WMF statements as reasonably satisfactory--except that they still think arb com is not suitable for the full text of the confidential material. (so after 3 or 3 days of inactivity, I'm back.) DGG ( talk ) 08:49, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

List of IEEE Fellows

Hello DGG,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing to you because I saw that you reviewed my article List of IEEE Fellows. Another editor has suggested that Wikipedia doesn't really need a page like this since most of the fellows actually don't have their own page. I do agree with their point to some extent, but the notability guideline for academics says that all IEEE Fellows are notable. Even though most don't have their standalone articles right now, they might in the future. What do you think? Should I continue creating the lists or should I delete the ones that I have made? You can see the other editor's point of view on my talk page.HRShami (talk) 05:04, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

My own view is that since all IEEE fellows are ntoable, the llist serves also to indicate the many articles needed. We have done similar lists in many other subjects with good effect. Such lists have on occassion be challenged at AfD, and results vary-- consensus at WP is always a little unpredictable. If it is challenged, let me know, and I will comment. What would help the most is if you added some information to the items in list format--birth and death, date of election, and it possible workplace and specialty. DGG ( talk ) 05:42, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

That's my point of view too. A list will highlight all the articles we need to make and we can start working on them. Can you please take a look at this List of fellows of IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society and let me know what you think? I am adding the year of election, citation and name. When you say date of election, do you mean the date or the year? Birth and death would be a little difficult to find. In my own experience, even after thorough research on a subject, I am mostly not able to find their birth date. I will try to find the workplace they were working at when they were nominated and add it to the list for each fellow. HRShami (talk) 06:29, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

If they elect more than once a year, and you can find the exact date use it; if it is going to be difficult, year is enough--the idea is to give some idea of years of greatest activity. Over time, we'll accumulate birth date and --eventually-- death dates -- these are important identifiers and will tie into Wikidata and to the ongoing efforts to build a database of references to all scientific publications-- from those we'll eventually be able to get brief bios. Once you've got this going, the next step is to learn how to enter what you have into Wikidata. I unfortunatley don't have time to work there myself, but I can guide you to the experts in this. DGG ( talk ) 06:55, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

I will get more details about how many times fellows are elected in a year. Wikidata sounds interesting. I would love to learn how to work there. I think it would be better if I add data for the birth and death dates to Wikidata of each specific person, instead of adding them to the list page. Please put me in touch with someone who can help me with Wikidata. HRShami (talk) 06:21, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Just because

--EEMIV (talk) 16:15, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Topic ban?

Do I read it correctly that you handed out a topic ban to me for the Flyingd-dispute? The Banner talk 10:06, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

@The Banner: If I understand correctly, he is trying to say you are subject to the editing restrictions that a topic ban entails, but the scope of the restrictions is limited to List of airliner shootdown incidents (and not its talk page).

I'm here because I'm, frankly, somewhat baffled by your decision. Ignoring the bizarre suggestion that we do the opposite of Dutch Wikipedia so that both courses are implemented somewhere (which I suspect you knew was bizarre), I'm confused by the sanctions themselves. I won't question the topic ban for Flyingd, which may have been necessary and was, I think, within your discretion as closer. However, I feel I should challenge your topic ban of Robotje: even in the ANI, nobody ever suggested that Robotje's conduct was problematic, much less that it merited sanctions. I don't really know how sanctions work, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but to my knowledge, you can't impose topic bans without community consensus unless there are active arbitration remedies (discretionary sanctions), and there was no such consensus here. Consequently, I fail to see how you can topic ban him, especially without providing any explanation for why, as if the discussion made it plainly obvious.

I'm also confused by your rationale for the topic ban of The Banner, in particular the suggestion that he might think he's not a participant in the dispute. The Banner's own behavior and statements do not, that I can see, lend themselves to such a conclusion, and a scan of Talk:List of airliner shootdown incidents shows plainly that he's involved. In fact, he's more involved in the dispute itself than Robotje is; he merely disappeared when I asserted in the ANI thread that his behavior was more problematic than Flyingd's, making Robotje the only one left who believed that Flyingd's behavior merited sanctions. _{Apparently, The Banner did not disappear entirely, although his activity did drop substantially after my post, leaving Robotje far more important to the discussion than he had previously been.} I don't think it's fair that Robotje received much harsher sanctions merely, that I can see, because he was the one posting regularly in ANI.

Ultimately, because your findings were so odd, I'm not convinced you actually diligently read the ANI discussion. If you did, I respectfully ask that you clarify your reasoning for the sanctions you chose. Otherwise, I respectfully ask that you reconsider your closure. —Compassionate727 ^(T·C) 14:30, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

In fact, I took a step back out out of self-protection due to health-reasons. The Banner talk 14:48, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

My suggestion was perhaps a little ironic: it was intended to emphasise was what I had said just before, that whichever way we did it makes absolutely no difference to the encyclopedia. (and for that matter, an/i cannot actually conclude which way is better. It does not directly deal with content) ) Most quarrels based originally about content that are this extended are over something significant in some way--usually, the interpretation of something that is or could--however remotely--be interpreted in some manner to be controversial. But this is controversial is no way whatsoever. When we have such an extended dispute over something inconsequential, it's almost always a matter of style (those quarrels are peculiar also, but they seem to be a recurrent feature of enWP. They are extended generally because there is perfectly good reason for either position, but at least there's the question of what ought to be the better.) I read the whole of the enWP discussion. puzzled because I could not figure out why anybody would have thought it made a difference--I read it a second time, and concluded that it did not.

I can only conclude that the dispute arose because of previous disagreements. However, as was hinted in the discussion, these arose at the nlWP. The basis for them can only be figured out there, and it's the business of the people there to deal with it. (Even had I thought it appropriate to consider it at enWP, I would have had to rely on a rough translation, and would thus be unable to figure out the implications and tone of what had been said there--this is true even of discussions in other WPs where I know the language--the different manner of discussions and the special meanings of terms used in the discussions makes it almost impossible for someone not closely familiar with that WP to accurately understand the true sense of what is said.)

What I said is essentially the equivalent of a very narrow no-fault topic or interaction ban, as in fact had been suggested. It is in my opinion not generally helpful to try to establish blame in disputes like this. My experience from arb com is except in the truely obvious cases, different unbiased people will see this differently--even when the sequence of events is clear, it usually comes down to whether the blame should be on person who was provoked, or the person who did the provoking, and the responsibility is generally on both, because either of them could have prevented the quarrel. The purpose of ani/i is not to punish or blame, but to stop further disruption. Some admins do not like the principle of no-fault conclusions--myself, I think they are usually the best solution. I base this on my own method of avoiding disputes--after two replies or so, I just stop. If I am right, other people will have been convinced, but if I cannot convince people after two tries, further ones won't do any better. If other people did likewise, there would be very few quarrels here. That's certainly true in this case--either side could simply have stopped, because there is no sense in arousing bad feelings over something as trivial as this. There are things in the world--and even on WP--that actually matter. One could argue that honing one's skills on these trivial concerns serves as a sort of debate training for real political or other issues, but that's using WP for a purpose destructive of building the encyclopedia.

My different treatment of The Banner was specifically because--as he has just said himself right above on this page--he had thought it advisable to step back from the issue. There was therefore no need to compel him to stop--he had already done so. DGG ( talk ) 21:02, 10 July 2019 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the clarification: this all makes sense. —Compassionate727 ^(T·C) 13:46, 12 July 2019 (UTC)

another statement of promotionalism

There are two problems: the content and the sourcing.. Sources need to be references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements. Most of your references are press releases, either prwire or a publication reprinting prwire. Some are just directory information. Others look like newspaper articles, but are not independent, because they merely reprint what you told them. Some, like the Inquirer or NBC, are general information about the problem of addiction combined with a interview where they reprint what you told them. Some are just announcements of hte opening of a facility. And a fe are just directory listings. There is not a single one which fully meets the requirements.

Most of the content is a list of individual centers and the specific services they provide; this belongs on your web site, not an encyclopedia. Much of the rest is payment information, ditto.

It is extremely difficult for a person with direct COI to write an acceptable WP article. What they usually produce is just what you have produced, the information that they would like the public to know, especially prospective clients. That what PR work consists of, and there's nothing wrong with it in its proper places. Announcing your existence and fee structure to prospective clients can be a useful activity. But an encyclopedia article gives what a member of the general public who has heard of your centers might want to know. This does include the number of centers and the general locations. It also includes information about the growth of your company, but since I see it's a private company that may not be available.

If you can find proper encyclopedic sources, you can try again , but without them it will be impossible to have an article. DGG ( talk ) 20:42, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

 '

BTW, journal search links

See Template:Infobox journal#Search links if you haven't already. It adds a couple of useful links to the infobox (see [27] for what that looks like). Those aren't displayed to readers, just people who choose to see those links. Lets you verify/determine abbreviations quickly, and also look up indexing on MIAR. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 06:20, 18 July 2019 (UTC)

==Who's better 'n who==

Dear Mr Librarian, Sir, I wonder if you've encountered the article Rankings of academic publishers. I came across it for the first time today. It's ... interesting. At least three of the academic publishers that Spaniards are said to have rated highest have crap standards, In My Haughty Opinion. (I shan't name two of them, as this might upset friends who've had stuff published by them; but the third is Springer.) And those inscrutable, anglophile or leg-pulling Spaniards are said to have regarded Blackwell more highly than they did Wiley, which had already more or less gobbled it up. Et cetera. Salvageable? -- Hoary (talk) 06:35, 19 July 2019 (UTC) I've belatedly taken the trouble to click on the link and see the list (not of academic but of foreign academic publishers). The dread Edwin Mellen Press outranks, inter alia, the University of Toronto Press. What can those Spaniards have been smoking? -- Hoary (talk) 06:45, 19 July 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

		The Reviewer Barnstar
		This is for your valuable efforts for reviewing new articles in Wikipedia. Thank you. PATH SLOPU 10:30, 20 July 2019 (UTC)

(from an AfC comment)

...The standard for acceptance is not that it unquestionably pass afd, but that it probably will pass AfD. Interpretations of "probably" in this context vary--no reviewer uses just 51%, most use between 70% and 90%. These are obviously not exact numbers, because AfD is unpredictable--nobody is capable of selecting articles that will always pass, because even if the reviewer knows the standards perfectly, the AfD consensus does not always follow it. (my own estimate is that about 5%-10% of AfD decisions are wrong, in the sense of being against what would be the more usual consensus) And, very few of my acceptances have ever been deleted, because if there is a problem, I try to improve the draft myself before accepting it. DGG ( talk ) 03:30, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

(academics & public affairs)

from recent afds

• with respect to AP:AUTHOR, A co-edited volume counts much less than an authored book, and so there is only one substantial publication. This isn't enough for either WP:AUTHOR (I point out that every academic book has at lest one and usually 2 reviews, regardless of significance--the point of academic reviews of academicbooks is to tell scholars what other people are publishing--its the humanities equivalent of being listed in an abstracting service) , and her work is not cited sufficiently for WP:PROF as an influential academic./
• With respect to the public influence portion of WP:PROF as a (which, as pointed out, is essentially thesame as WP:GNG, though generally interpreted fairly narrowly), there is not substantial coverage. If references 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10 were substantially about her, or her work, they would be, but they are not. It is necessary to read the references, not just look at thetitles: in each of them, she is just one of several people quoted, to add material or perspective to the reporter's or commentator's content. None ofthe 5 give her special attention. Nor should we give any credance to the reporter describing someone they quote as an authority--that's the routine description, in order to justify using them in the first place: everyone whose opinion an essayist or reporter uses automatically is called by them an "authority". There is possibly some place to build an index of everyone ever mentioned in a magazine or newspaper, but it isn't Wikipedia. DGG ( talk ) 05:41, 3 August 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Special Barnstar

Dear DGG. I am new the Wikipedia thing (I have tried a few times before, but have never been successful in getting going). Upon some exploration today into my grandfathers page, it appears you were the one who saved it from speedy deletion and made sure his legacy was remembered after he died. I don't know how to get in touch with you but, I have some great information I would like to add to his page, but don't really know how to go about it. Maybe you would be able to coach me. He has a boat load of awesome awards that aren't listed here (i.e. Rocha Lima Medal [1967] and Hermine Aye (his mother) was the niece of the Vice Chancellor of Germany in the early 1900s. His lab still lives on beyond his own life and is still doing great things. Anyways. Thanks for saving his page and being dedicated to preserving the legacies of academics. I can't thank you enough. Banach13 (talk) 01:33, 9 August 2019 (UTC)

Banach13, the first step is finding the source for them. Then go to the page, click edit at the top, and add them with the references. Give it a try, and let me know. DGG ( talk ) 05:33, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Articles for Creation barnstar
		For accepting a raft of deserving drafts on this day. ~Kvng (talk) 20:34, 13 August 2019 (UTC)

Regarding Draft:Ishvinder Maddh

Hello. You rejected Draft:Ishvinder Maddh. I conduct a project for new editors, mostly in German-language Wikipedia, where I'm a longtime volunteer editor. The draft's author is one of them and also fluent in English so she could contribute in English Wikipedia, too. The project focusses on socially relevant topics, and Ishvinder Maddh is a well-known figure in the Austrian movie landscape and renowned as a sort of "cultural ambassador", that's why he is in our scope. The article is written in a different style than I would use (e.g. a little "excessive" use of references) - but I can't explain to the new editor what's wrong with it. :) First and foremost, I think it's written in a neutral, not in PR style. I hope you could reconsider your rejection (I'm not that familiar with enwiki's draft system), or could explain me some of the abbreviations you used. (We have a similar problem in German-language Wikipedia with new editors and insider language, now I can experience this first hand...) 1. "This submission is contrary to the purpose of Wikipedia. bio" What does "bio" in the context of the Five Pillars mean? 2. "WO does not do that" What does WO mean? 3. "Topic is contrary to the purpose of Wikipedia (AFCH 0.9.1)" (from the edit summary). What's 0.9.1? Thank you! --Raimund Liebert (WMAT) (talk) 12:12, 22 August 2019 (UTC)

Raimund Liebert (WMAT) (talk · contribs) -- I will give you a full explanation later today--this will take a while to explain properly.And I'll deal properly with the article. In the mean time, I apologize, DGG ( talk ) 15:45, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

There are several factors involved. 1. Although all the Wikipedias in the various languages I have seen appear to have problems with promotionalism , because of the very diverse readership of the English WP, there seems to be a special pressure here. I don't know the figures for elsewhere, but for many years almost half of the submissions to the English WP are eventualy rejected for either lack of notability or promotionalism, which commonly go together. For businesspeople, especially those who call themselve sentrepreneurs, the figure is probably more like 80%. Consequently we have a very high degree of suspicion. It's inevitable that we make mistakes--guessing at the numbers, we probably fail to remove about 10% , and we probably unreasonably remove about 2%. That does not excuse our errors, and we need to improve in both direction, but as a practical matter I doubt we will ever get the numbers reduced by more than half.

Furthermore, promotionalism in the world in general, and in Wikipedia in particular, is so pervasive, that even people without a promotional intend tend to write in a promotional manner. Sometimes., they even copy the style of promotional articles in WP, saying in all honesty that they think this is what is wanted. On the one hand this gives an increasing urgency to the removal of the large amount of promotionalism entered in earlier years when we had lower standards, but it also requires remembering that not all promotional-looking articles here are deliberate advertising. It's very easy to lose sight of this, and I know this is not the first time I --and others-- have done so.

There's not actually a sharp distinction between promotionalism and the incidental promotionalism that necessarily accompanies an article about any notable current individual or organization. Finding out about something will tend to encourage attention to it.and finding out about good things, or people who do good things, will inherently to at least some degree promote them.

There are a number of differences between the enWP and the deWP. I'm quite aware of them, because (though a typical of Americans I have no real speaking or writing knowledge of any language but English) as an academic librarian I have just enough reading ability in German (and in French and, borderline, in Russian) to revise articles translated from those languages into the enWP, and to fix the customary Google translations they are usually based on.

Most of what I work on is from German, because for a wide range of academic fields, the articles in the deWP are more complete than in enWP. As a rule, the articles are also better written, as there are (presumably) fewer non-native speakers in the de than the wp WP.We have a special page WP:Translating German Wikipedia of advice on this: perhaps the key difference is the greater insistence on specific formal references in enWP. (That does not mean our content is more accurate--just that we insist everything be written out, and avoid the sort of general references found in the deWP.

2.A key procedural difference is the enWP has a two-step process for accepting articles from new editors: they go first into Draft space, and are then evaluated by a process called WP:Articles for Creation, where the standard is to only pass those that have a reasonable chance of being accepted. After approval, the nrew articles go into our regular New Pages Patrol Process. The purpose of Draft space is to give editors a chance to revise--and also to decrease the likelihood of a promotional article being mistakenly accepted. (we still continue the userspace subpages for rough drafts). "AFCH 0.9.1 " is the current version of the program that handles the details. "WO does not do that" is my typo--it should have been "WP does not do that".

3.As for the draft: the reasons I judged it promotional included:

1. The duplicated list of film productions,
2. the use of vague language "facilitated" , "explored" , "ventured", "under his guidance"
3. Style characteristics such as the inappropriate use of bold face for project names, the inappropriate capitalization of terms like Tourism and Film Productions, Aviation Industries, etc.
4. The list of cities visited
5. The second picture & its legend, which is non-informative and amounts to name dropping
6. The excessive citations more than are needed to reference the actual content.--we call that WP:CITEKILL
7. And, especially, the nature of the citations: most of them are press releases, travel promotion sites, non-authoritative websites, quotes from the subject, mere mentions in general articles,

and combinations thereof.

I have reverted my earlier review, and I have re-reviewed. The promotional elements do need to be fixed. I am additionally not at all sure that the few good references are enough to support notability (of course, we recognize that almost all references available for the Indian film industry is very unreliable, with even the best news sources contaminated by the expectations that producers and other participants will pay for news coverage, so we tend to be a little flexible.) DGG ( talk ) 06:05, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your time and thoughts. I see Jenishh next week, I think your advice is most helpful.

In German-language Wikipedia promotionalism is a (social) issue in the Onboarding Program (de:Wikipedia:Mentorenprogramm) where many new editors seek support by experienced editors only because they want to write about themselves or their company. However any conflicts of interest or promotional language cannot be used as justifications for the rejection of new articles; many deletions of new articles are because of our notorious notability criteria which are also known in the general public: at least some years ago I often heard, "if you want to write about yourself, better go to English Wikipedia." Specific formal references became important a while ago, it's more like in English Wikipedia now. However there are still tons of articles without strict referencing from former years - which makes it sometimes difficult to explain to new editors why they can't write their articles like existing articles anymore. --Raimund Liebert (WMAT) (talk) 15:11, 28 August 2019 (UTC)

I have for the last 10 years been doing the same sort of activity you do, at theWP-NYC editathons. In the beginning, 8 or 10 years ago, we would try to accommodate people who wanted to do an autobiography or had strong COI. After spending an undue amount of time with them with very little positive results in articles, our practice has changed. Unless the notability and available sourcing is really excellent, we stop them. Consequently, unlike most of the editathons in the US, we have almost 100% results in our articles not getting deleted in Wikipedia . (We can't prevent them trying it outside the editathon, but we do not want it under our banner. And in practice we do effectively stop almost all of them, because--NYC being the sort of place it is--most of the people who try to get articles about themselves are early-career musicians or artists. The effective argument for them is that if their notability is inadequate, the article will get deleted--after a discussion in which it will remain on permanent record in WP why the person was found not to be notable--and that this will not help their careers.

More generally, unlike what I believe is the pattern in Europe, WM-NYC has no centralized control over editathons--any person or group who can find space and attract people can run one, and we list them on our events page if they are at least in principle open to the public and otherwise in line with the purposes of WP. Everyone in our chapter is a volunteer in the chapter, though sometimes a WPedian in residence or an employee of a co-operating institution. Our membership includes many very experienced WPedians with a range of interests (about half of us librarians or other educators) ; enough volunteers have always come to guide every event. We have no formal way to enforce standards, but we volunteers are fortunately in approximate agreement on standards & practices; when there have been disagreements, we have worked out a modus vivendi--which I think we do better for lack of much in the way of formal structure. (There are of course also non-public editing sessions usually in connection with educational programs, and one or two of us generally help there also, but we do not usually list themas current events--they are included for the record in our event archive. Please note that all of the above is only my own personal interpretation of what I think we do. DGG ( talk ) 04:36, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

as for the draft, I've accepted it. Any further improvements can be made in mainspace. DGG ( talk ) 05:12, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

Ayoub El Amloud

I know I keep droning on about this in various places, but this article is typical of the reason why I totally fail to understand why academics are considered non-notable by default until they have jumped through many, many hoops, but the quarter million bios about soccer payers are nearly all like this. Something needs to be done about this kind of SNG. Maybe I'm just biased - I am an extremely rare type of Brit who can't abide soccer. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk)

Were we to start trying to decide explicitly the appropriate relative coverage of the different fields, I foresee interminable and bitter arguments which would lead to instability, and make impossible even our very limited approach to rational decision making about individual articles. (The result, furthermore, might be very unsatisfactory--any consensus would really be a measure of the cultural understanding of the average WPedian, which in turn is a function of the level of the English-speaking world in general. )

So for practical action, the two problems are separate. For sports, the best approach is to make use of the usually ignored provision in the WP:N guideline for merging articles about technically notable subjects about which there is little information, WP:NOPAGE. (The page on the team would seem the obvious place to merge when relevant. WP:MERGE specifies two methods, merge discussion on individual talk pages, and mergers as alternatives to deletion at AfD. There's a provision for centralized listing of merge proposals; pehaps there should be a central place for discussion.

For academics, the basic hoop is having an influence on their field--I think that a reasonable approach. I have many times suggested that we accept a full professorship at a major research university as sufficient evidence of this, on hte basis that they are more equipped to judge than we are. (This can even be linked to sport criteria--in a sense, it's similar to playing on a highest level professional team.) There are various good criteria for what level of university we might require. Recently, there have been an increasing number of instances for associate professors passing afd (I think this may reflect the increasing competition in the academic world, which is causing a ancrease in standards for positions). So we might as a second step have a two level rule: full at a research university, associate ata major research university. Reflecting various discussion I've known , a decision for associate professor in a major university means a decision that the individual will be permanently of so great an influence as to attract other researchers and faculty. That's a very high standard, and such decisions by experts should be respected. DGG ( talk ) 11:09, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

Useful neologism?

You seem to have (inadvertently?) invented a new term, culturall (or cross-culturall) [28] and in all seriousness I think it has a nice ring to it. EEng 11:34, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Inadvertent, and, as you suggest, I'm going to let them stand. . DGG ( talk ) 21:32, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

08, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Thank you for reviewing and accepting Lise-Meitner-Lectures, I`ll do my best to improve this and related articles! Best regards ASchoenherr (talk) 08:16, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

Request on 13:19:05, 17 September 2019 for assistance on AfC submission by LindzSchmidt

• LindzSchmidt (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:The Inside (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Hi! I need help understanding what specific changes I should make to the page in order to meet Wikipedia's guidelines. The reason for your decline stated that it "should refer to a range of independent, reliable, published sources," and as you'll see, I included 16 entirely independent, highly reputable sources -- none of which included content produced by or for the company. Additionally, when modeling this submission, I took careful pains to ensure it matched the near-exact format of other published Wikipedia pages (such as Rent_the_Runway and Hims,_Inc.). So I'm really unsure as to what I should be editing. The more specific guidance, the better! I welcome any & all feedback. Thank you very much! LindzSchmidt (talk) 13:19, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

forthcoming, will take a few days because I 777want to give a complete answer. DGG ( talk ) 03:14, 18 September 2019 (UTC)

hi David -- quickly following up here as I know you're extremely busy, in case if fell off your radar. thanks! ( talk ) 02:20, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

LindzSchmid, Apologies for the delay.

The message said that the primary problem was promotionalism , but also said, as with most promotional articles, the problem is equally the nature of the references, and the doubtful notability of the company according to our rules. It's our standard message, because a great many other people have similar problems.

I'm going to answer in some detail, both about the particular problems and the reasons for them, as articles like this are one of the main things I work with here, and others come here to ask similar questions--and many editors who deal with them look at this page also.

(1) The preliminary problem is about conflict of interest: you have made a declaration, but not full disclosure according to WP:PAID; We do not ask you to say who you are, but rather the nature of the relationship. I will assume you are a staff member or contractor of the company whose job it is to write publicity.

(2) Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a place for publicity. Promotional content is material that says what the subject of the article would like the public to know; encyclopedic content is what someone in the general public who has heard the name of your company somewhere might want to know. The usual context for an article of this sort is something like "Mary said she bought something from X; I wonder who they are" or "I saw an advertisement from X--I'd like to see something objective about them." That's the general public--someone looking to buy furniture is best served by other resources, and the web does this fairly well--we have no need to be a directory or a product guide.

For comparison, though Rent the Runway was written in considerable part by a coi editor, the firm now has multiple refs from some of the most reliable major non-specialized sources. Hims, Inc has at least some similar very good sources. When this firm has similar sources, it will be possible to write an acceptable article.

(3) In earlier years WP accepted many such promotional articles, but recognizing that we have become a very attractive place for attempted advertising, our standards have risen. It will be many years until we remove the 50,000 or so articles we need to get rid of, but the least we can do is not add to them. The prevalence of promotionalism in the world is so great that ofter newcomers acting in perfect good faith write articles here in a promotional style, because they see so many existing promotional articles that they think that's what we want; yet others, like Hims Inc., though written by experienced editors, contain promotional elements. DGG ( talk ) 17:24, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

AFC contributions

Wanted to pop you a quick note just to recognise your extensive AFC work, I see you do a lot at AFC and feel it's an under-appreciated task, so thank you. Steven Crossin ^{Help resolve disputes!} 11:16, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Draftification

Hi @DGG:, I am confused why you moved my newly created page to AfC (Register of Professional Archaeologists)? I was under the impression that intermediate-level editors creating a new page (which satisfies WP:N) need not submit their articles for months-long review. This might only be starter page, for sure, but I don't understand why it must go through review purgatory -- indeed, I can't find any policy stating this.

However, I do not want to revert your move, so I ask that you please consider moving it back to the namespace (and/or at least, provide your reasoning). Thank you, --Tiredmeliorist (talk) 16:09, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Perhaps moved to save from deletion, with 5/8 sources being self-refs? Hyperbolick (talk) 16:11, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

hmm, ok, thanks @Hyperbolick: I cleaned it up a bit. I'm just citing the original sources here, though-- when referencing an organization's principles and guidelines, it would be erroneous to cite anyone BUT them, no? --Tiredmeliorist (talk) 16:45, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

No, reliable independent sources still prevail over self-refs. Hyperbolick (talk) 16:48, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

So it's better to cite secondary sources than primary ones?? That's how misinformation spreads. Like, what you are saying is that it is better to reference what another author wrote about this organization's guidelines than what the guidelines themselves say. I understand independent, external commentary is needed and fills in missing context (and this is certainly not the place for original research), but here I am simply summarizing their guidelines and thus referencing the primary source of the information. The use of "self ref" here seems over-zealous -- I am not even convinced that is the reason DGG draftified this. --Tiredmeliorist (talk) 17:08, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Question is, if nobody else has written anything of these guidelines, what makes them noteworthy to include? Hyperbolick (talk) 17:17, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

I am specifically addressing the "self-ref" thing, which I believe has been remedied. The article meets WP:N, and the organization's code of conduct is worth summarizing at least, as it is for every other professional organization described on Wikipedia.

I'll await a response from @DGG: on the reason he moved this to draft. --Tiredmeliorist (talk) 17:46, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Yes, when referencing an organization's internal guidelines, certainly one cites the organization itself. But to show the organization notable, one needs external sources. That's the basic principle for inclusion here, WP:N. You do have two externaal sources, refs. 2 and 3. But in each case they're printed books, and though printed books are perfectly OK for sources, we really need o have some idea how extensive the discussion is there, because it might just be a mention in a list. The way to do this is to give page numbers, and ,if it's very brief, sometimes a quotation of what it says.

That however was not the problem. The problem was that the article was promotional , indistinguishable from a web page the organization might post on its own site.. The present draft is oriented to show why the organization is needed and how important it is. Rather , it should be oriented to telling what the organization is and what it does. It needs to be directed towards what the general public might like to know, not whatthe organization would like the public to know. The way to do this is to find external sources that talk about the organizations work.

This is not the place to explain the development of archeology in the US--that should be a separate article; we do not seem to have one, and it needs to be written. DGG ( talk ) 18:35, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Draft:Gerard Reinmuth

Hi DDG

As a Creative professionals, I would like to contest the nomination for speedy deletion, however the page is no longer in existence that I can see.

It was referenced as G11 Unambiguous advertising or promotion. The information was factual and based off a number of external wiki resources as well as internal wiki references. If it was believed the content was not written from a neutral point of view i would have like the opportunity to adjust the text accordingly

According to the List of Policies Criteria for speedy deletion [1] Articles, images, categories etc. may be "speedily deleted" if they clearly fall within certain categories, which generally boil down to pages lacking content, or disruptive pages. Anything potentially controversial should go through the deletion process instead. The content was not lacking or distruptive and would not cause any controversy. The only criteria that the page could have fallen under would be a Proposed deletion of biographies of living people [2]

If you could advise on how i can proceed, as i have been advised by WP:REFUND that i should contact the administrator who carried out the deletion as the page was completely deleted overnight.

If you have any advise on how to improve the page that would be appreciated, as i am new to wikipedia posting any would appreciate any guidance.

Kind Regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gerard Reinmuth (talk • contribs) 22:38, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

No matter how notable you are, it is not a good idea to write about yourself. When you do , you are almost inevitably going to be telling what you want people to know about yourself, rather then writing from a neutral point of view what general readers might want to know; this is the essence of self-advertising, or promotionalism. In this particular instance, in addition to listing your major projects as an architect, you added a line for each saying what you thought the importance of it to be--this is the sort of information that most come fro from third-party independent published reliable sources,. In discussing your teaching, you included a long quote describing not just your educational philosophy, and also included wording extolling its merits and success. In listing awards, you included minor as well as major awards, you included being nominated along with actually winning an award, and you provided no third party references for any of this.

Ten years ago, I would probably have rewritten the page, but there is now so many autobiographies and other promotional material submitted to Wikipedia that it has become impractical. Even two years ago, I would have restored it so you can work on it further. I will no longer restore autobiographies. If any editor without a conflict of interest wants to work on it, I will resotre it to draft. If any other administrator wants to restore it so you can work on it, I have no objections. DGG ( talk ) 00:11, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

' DGG thank you for the constructive feedback, really appreciated. Can i give and external editor access to the restored draft through my profile? Gerard Reinmuth (talk) 00:47, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Request on 00:09:57, 24 September 2019 for assistance on AfC submission by Mr Kalm

:One thing you say is certainly right, and I have been saying this on and off for 12 years now: we should not call it " notability " because then when we reject an article, it does sound like an insult andis not really fair to the subject. '

What we really mean is "not suitable for an article in an encyclopedia", and that properly puts the responsibility for the decision on us. ' DGG ( talk ) 22:37, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

NCORP

....I feel the way in which certain industry segments are being presented on Wikipedia does not reflect reality – highlighing small players, disregarding bigger and more relevant ones. Rzenner (talk) 13:51, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

The proper criteria according to the current rules is references providing substantial coverage from truly third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements --and not just about initial funding or opening of facilities, etc. It's explained further at WP:NCORP. Technically, size, etc is irrelevant. I consider that absurd, with only a weak correlation to any real-world idea of significance, and have been saying so for all of my 12 years here. However, there's strong consensus to use that rule. (Though in practice, whether we consider the references adequate can be affected by such things as relative importance within an industry). And whether we accept any article can depend on whether the field has fans at WP--we go by consensus, whether the consensus is right or wrong. If you'll think about it, there's no other way a system like ours' without any actual structure of authority for questions of content could work otherwise. DGG ( talk ) 21:10, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Draft:Jeff Webb

I removed a lot of the draft so that hopefully it now isn’t an advertisement. --Kookyquail (talk) 00:34, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

To revert an edit (added out of place -- just noticed)

Sir, one of contribution made by an user "Abrjestin" in Dr. Shamsheer article is irrelevant. He removed the previous relevant edits made by other user. One of his work is that he removed a preposition "a" before"MBBS"(undergraduate) degree owned by Dr. Shamsheer (in early life paragraph). A silly grammatical error. I have also seen that you had advised him not to make such edits on his talk page but in spite of that he is not paying attention. I also think that the article page should be protected so, that any irrelevant edit should not be done by anyone. It will be very nice if you cross check the article once more. Thanks. (223.230.137.128 (talk) 16:14, 30 July 2019 (UTC))

mail

Hello, DGG. Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

Smallbones_(smalltalk) 01:13, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

Your QID

Hi David.

I'm building w:template:WiR_table_row to help automate the Wikipedians_in_Residence table. Do you have an existing qid? See wikidata:Q25212744#P106 as an example. Also, is there a wiki page to point to for the Wikipedian in Residency with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (2012-present)? Cheers T.Shafee(Evo&Evo)^talk 12:27, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

I am no longer a WIR. As I was a volunteer, it wasn't a clearly defined position and I think I stopped doing ti regularly about 8 years ago. I'll check. DGG ( talk ) 06:10, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

Trap of promotionalism?

Dear Editor, I found this thought of yours "Furthermore, promotionalism in the world in general, and in Wikipedia in particular, is so pervasive, that even people without a promotional intend tend to write in a promotional manner." I wonder if this is a trap I might be in too. When I saw your comments on Draft:Sergei_Vakarin I thought it was clear what to do and fixed most of the issues you kindly mentioned. I presented the facts and provided references. However, maybe my current style is a reflection of the trend you mention? Your editorial experience (if I could ask for a favour) would help me a lot in improving my style for any further articles I was planning about issues that are currently missing from the Wikipedia. Demetrius Phalerum (talk) 17:44, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

Yes--it will in this case be a little complicated to explain Remember the distinction between something written from the perspective of what the subject might want the reader to know, and what a reader might want to know. As a start, try reorganizing it in the sequence, Biography, Education, Positions, Research, Publications, Public Involvement--that is, pretty much the reverse of the present version. Then ping me here again and I iwll take a look. DGG ( talk ) 01:28, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

Thank you! I applied your recommended structure on Draft:Sergei_Vakarin and updated the text. It is amazing how much better the information is organized now - thanks a lot! And could I ask you - if you still see any irrelevant information - to kindly change or just delete it? Demetrius Phalerum (talk) 17:57, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

A muskrat for you!

Thanks for editing with The Black Lunch Table!----Raggachampiongirl (talk) 23:34, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Editor's Barnstar
	This weekend we celebrate International Teacher's Day. A star for you for being an invaluable teacher for the new editors of Wikipedia! Demetrius Phalerum (talk) 21:06, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 9

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past two months (August and September, 2019).

Enterprisey's links-in-logs

Tokenzero's infoboxJournal • SD0001's RFUD-helper • Danski454's code edit window size

BrandonXLF: FloatHead • ShowRevisionID • EditorFirst

Þjarkur: NeverUseMobileVersion • CleanDiffURLs

Galobtter's admin highlighter • ZLEA's Dashboard • Cobaltcigs's DisableDragDrop

SD0001's archived section finder

Miscellaneous

• MJL's Archer was used to break a Wikipedia record. See the edit in question & the updated records page for more.

Sorry for falling behind a bit. Please let me know if I missed any new scripts. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 01:55, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Pending requests

• A script to simplify merging
• A script to tweak rollback links
• ...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

---

DirectCash Bank and General Bank of Canada

@DGG:, the reason I added the WP:PROD tag to the above-captioned redirect pages is that they serve as a redirect to a list of Canadian banks; however, for clarity and information purposes, they're listed as redlinked names in the Template:Canadian banks pages (should anyone ultimately decide to create a page, and so people know they exist). Thus, clicking on that link in that footer box takes the user to yet another list making for a de-facto double redirect. If you'd let me put back on the WP:PROD tag, that'd be appreciated as my concern is the RfD deletion process doesn't have a high success rate. Doug Mehus (talk) 03:48, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

If the consensus at RfD would not be to remove, this would not be a proper use of Prod. In my opinion, the question of red links vs redirects to a list has good arguments in both directions. As I understand it, that's the purpose of the redirect with possibilities tag. DGG ( talk ) 03:53, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

DGG, That's fair re: RfD consensus, but if I explain my rationale better, I'm wondering if you might have a way to explain this in an RfD process and see my logic process behind wanting to delete the redirect (which has no real value). You see, in Template:Canadian banks, which I like to maintain religiously and regularly, that template is added to the footer of every page. Many banks and credit unions that aren't WP:Notable are still listed in that template as redlinked banks. If we have a redirect, instead of deleting the page, which redirects to List of banks and credit unions in Canada, the user clicks through from the template to the list. I just don't think that's helpful. Does that make more sense?

. Myself, I like lists because of the information they can give, but my view here has consistently been that each way one is right if it has some advantage for some users. But the problem you pose is real, and I have an idea for a workaround. More tomorrow, when I have a chance to try it out. DGG ( talk ) 04:37, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

DGG, Yeah, I do like lists, too, and I'm all for including them in those lists. I see another user (@Wugapodes:) added a clarifying footnote on WP:Printability, which is useful. However, I'm wondering if we can make this a soft redirect somehow? That is, the user sees the redirect page and chooses whether to click through? What were you thinking of?

Educational establishments

Not an RfC at all, but more a tiny group slowly but surely making changes that probably require a larger consensus. Perhaps you could take a look. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 09:53, 25 October 2019 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 10

N

Ahecht's page swap

MoonyTheDwarf's wikimap

SD0001: hide-reverted-edits • T-Watch • W-Ping • easy-merge

Enterprisey: diff-permalink • search-links • section-redir-note • fancy-diffs • EditWarChecker

Pending requests

Inline editor for cleanup tags

Script to remove empty parameters

...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

Have a great November, --DannyS712 (talk) 22:18, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

---

Content Translation Slides

Hi DGG, I am posting the slides to my presentation here as you asked. Thank you for your interest! https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rOyIssDrYehc2i_HE4wt8tDPD36xWbbZNRumVX9IZYU/edit?usp=sharing Doriszhou1224 (talk) 19:56, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

AfC COI

Howdy hello! You mentioned some draft templates you were working on in regards to AfC and COI. Captain Eek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 21:13, 9 November 2019 (UTC)

revising them a little/.I'll let you know. DGG ( talk ) 06:15, 18 November 2019 (UTC) .

"Geographies" as spacial marker for 'varied' economic realities

Hello User:DGG, It was great meeting you at WikiConference North America this year! Relating to the conversation we had, I decided to do a bit of digging, to give a bit more of a colorful idea behind the idea of geographies as a spacial marker for varied economic realities as used in the roundtable we shared in. I noted your preference for this term as opposed to (the oft-used) unnuanced hemispheric divisions for discussions relating to global issues surrounding economics, human development, and access.

The term (in this context) is a multidisciplinary approach to identifying and appealing to a more politically correct & comprehensive view of varying realities with an eye for establishing a distancing from implicit political & racial biases. It achieves this through the intentional exclusion of the terms "North" and "South"; cited as sources of the aforementioned implicit bias(es). Moreover, authors like Ahlberg et. al speak of the 'biases' resulting from;

...the shift from an explicitly racial system of stratification for example, based on colonialism, segregation and apartheid, to a system of racial hegemony.
—  Ahlberg et. al, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2019.00061/full

I would love to delve much further into the idea with you perhaps, at your convenience, either in a presentation or even a paper if you'd like.

Let's keep the conversation going.

JamaicanEditor (talk) 23:25, 12 November 2019 (UTC) Check

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Diligence
	Thank you for your diligence in contributing at AfD with policy based justifications and reliable sources. You are setting good examples for the new contributors at AfD. your good work is appreciated. DBigXrayᗙ 16:02, 14 November 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	You deserve it for your tireless work on Wikipedia and especially helping to improve pages here. ScholarM (talk) 16:36, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 11

Scripts Submit your new/improved script here

Enterprisey's reply-link

Evad37's Thanky • SuperHamster's CiteUnseen • Mattflaschen's Compare link.js

Enterprisey: diff-context • fancy-diffs • offset-history-link

BrandonXLF: NoRedirect • WatchDoc • HotDefaultSort • TodoList

Twinkle has received multiple updates

Evad37's rater is now at version 2; see the announcement here

 Miscellaneous

• Following a discussion, XFDcloser is now available as a gadget
• Evad37's extra.js collection of helper functions is now available as MediaWiki:Gadget-libExtraUtil.js
• Twinkle's morebits is now a gadget, and is easier to use in as a dependency in other scripts (see here for more)
• Last month's issue misidentified the creator of the new EditWarChecker script; it was created by Evad37

Pending requests

• A button to mark templates in the TfD holding cell as ready for deletion

A barnstar for you!

	The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
	Thank you again for your work on WP:AfD and Proposed deletions. Bearian (talk) 20:02, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

WikiConference 2019, North America: Following up after our great conversation.

Thank you so much for the time you spent with me reviewing the Laurel C. Schneider submission. The 1000+ Women in Religion Project will be working together to make this article a good model for future new articles about academics that are similar to Dr. Schneider. We just finished our presentations and work with the 1000+ Women in Religion Wikipedia Project at the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature. We did an edit-a-thon and a women's biography panel. It was a successful effort. Now I can turn my attention to the suggestions you made on the Laurel C. Schneider article. I plan to be in your area in late January or early February. Perhaps I can convince the librarians at Burke Library at Columbia to set up an edit-a-thon. Thanks again for your kind attention.--Dzingle1 (talk) 23:51, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

Student drafts

I'm not entirely clear on how Wikipedia's policies are on this. There are other drafts I was going to make for this student project, but I don't know if it's allowed. Is it?-K-popguardian (talk) 04:10, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

I would put deletion disclaimers once I'm done using them.-K-popguardian (talk) 04:40, 8 December 2019 (UTC) −

• If I understand the situation correctly you wrote a draft article Draft:Off the Hook (band) about an imaginary band to use for a student film, and said in the edit summary "To whoever finds this article, I am writing this for a student film and should not be taken seriously. Most likely when you find this I'll have taken enough screenshots so feel free to delete it if you get here." Presumably your purpose was to have scenes of someone editing this article as part of the film. This is not an acceptable use of Wikipedia . The relevant policy is WP:NOT section 2.5 item 5. "Content for projects unrelated to Wikipedia. "

− I and several hundred other editors and administrators devote many hours of volunteer work towards helping good articles get included in the encyclopedia, and making sure that inappropriate ones do not. In particular, the several dozen highly active editors reviewing Draftspace follow an intricate set of protocols to check material, see that everything goes where it ought to, advise good faith users how to improve their work, and try to persuade and if necessary remove those who would use WP for advertising and editorializing. We are thousands of drafts behind, representing material submitted in some cases as many as 3 months ago. − There is an accepted place to experiment: see WP:SANDBOX. I have accordingly created a page for you User:K-popguardian/Sandbox which you can use for the purpose. There's another way you can create sample screens: Start a page, enter your content, but do not save it: just show preview. If you accidentally save it, add a {{db-self}} line at the top.

And there's the actually best way to make an article for a film: make a real article on a notable subject. DGG ( talk ) 05:27, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Kitchenshaming is not a practice some people deal with daily, how can you say it is not notable enough? I think you are a biased reviewer.

Alieneggs (talk) 13:27, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes, I'm biased in favor of articles with good sources. DGG ( talk ) 19:30, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Draft:DC Solar

I saw you had moved this entry to draft space. It is quite notable now as a massive fraud. Lots of coverage. I added some recent sources and noted in the intro the unraveling. How do I get it approved for mainspace? Should I just remove all or most of the rest of what was there? I think it's actually an interesting legacy of a promotional effort and once the reader is informed that it was a fraud the rest is read in that context. I'm not interested enough.to want to invest.oodles.of.time into it or reworking it. I do think we should cover the subject.FloridaArmy (talk) 02:12, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

I agree it's now notable enough, but I think it needs at least one sentence indicating what happened to the races they sponsored. And to clarify it wasn't the principals who pleaded guilty.

As you recognize, this is a dilemma. A company or person that's at most borderline notable as what they pretend to be becomes much more notable once they're found out. This makes it difficult to balance the article. DGG ( talk ) 03:20, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

draft Zhang Dinghuan

I already put in inline links to the version you edited. If you edit some more, I can do the same. Please check the current version. You can see it. Thanks. QSandai (talk) 03:12, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

Abuse at you from anon IP at AfD

I would like to comment on the unnecessary abuse you received at the end of AfD Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Anil Kumar Bhalla. I believe it was totally unwarranted. I was on the verge of countering it or attempting to get it blocked but in the end rightly or wrongly chose to ignore it (I think there is sometimes advice to consider doing this). Even if we have disagreed on points I have you place neutral comments and subtle advices on the AfD upon which people could hang their arguments. The reason I got alerted to the AfD's was I had the creator of 3 the articles tagged on my talk page which led me to the AfD; I've now removed that page from my watchlist (and yours will be too annoying active to put a watch on it). Thank you. Djm-leighpark (talk) 09:45, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

Thanks. It is possible to get me angry here, but it takes much more than that. Questioning the degree to which I understand the honours system of India is not abuse, for it true I do not understand it as well as their higher educational system. The AfD was to see if it would be deleted. That can depend on other factors that the encyclopedic suitability of the subject, and I do not want to waste efforts on articles that ought to be deleted, but won't be. DGG ( talk ) 16:33, 12 December 2019 (UTC)

Cherokee Files entry

Dear DGG,

Thanks for taking so much time and energy ensuring the quality of Wikipedia.

I am writing on behalf of a student of mine who conducted some research on the Cherokee Files (formerly classified correspondence between the U.S. and the Republic of Korea during the critical 1979-1980 period). Together we determined that putting some basic information about these documents up on Wikipedia would be a useful service. Hence, his created page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Cherokee_Files.

As we are both neophytes, could you please provide a little more detail as to precisely why the page was declined? The sources used are primarily the actual files themselves. Is there a reason why that is unacceptable? Would the entire entry be more acceptable if he were to rework (or remove entirely) the "Controversy" section?

I hope to be able to use creating Wikipedia pages as a potential student assignment in the future; therefore, the more clarity I can get on what is and is not acceptable will be most appreciated!

Cheers,

Kirk W. Larsen Associate Professor of History Brigham Young University

Kwlarsen (talk) 17:10, 16 December 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a place for primary research, or for the publication of source documents, It's an encyclopedia , and everything here is supposed to be based on reliable 3rd party sources. The analysis of original sources is original research--see WP:OR for our official explanation of why this is inappropriate here. As you of course know, the interpretation of original documents requires training and expertise. We do not evaluate articles based on their academic quality, or judge whether an article summarizing primary sources is a fair summary, for we are a collection of amateurs, and unable to do so.. All that we do is ensure that they are sourced to reliable published 3rd party secondary sources, so the person who wants further information can consult them and evaluate them for themselves.

Now, in actual fact, some of us are indeed qualified experts. I've had an academic career in two fields, and although my knowledge of molecular biology is way out of date, my knowledge of publishing and librarianship is current, and I am prepared to make professional judgments in this area, just as I did before I retired from Princeton. But I do not make such judgments here, though I use my knowledge in judging whether sources are reliable.. There are several contributors here who have expertise similar to your's in history at various academic institutions. Some of them say so on their user pages; some do not, but I am aware of it because I know them personally-- and some I do not actually know for sure, but can tell from the quality of their analysis. There are other in various fields of the humanities; and there are a considerable number with high qualifications in various fields of science and technology--a few are in fact the leading experts in their specialty. Again, some declare their qualifications; some do not. And they too do not publish their research here or that of their students, but use their knowledge to judge whether articles in their areas are in fact sourced from reliable publications.

There's a full discussion of this at Help:Wikipedia editing for researchers, scholars, and academics and especially WP:Expert editors

And there is a related project also sponsored by the WMF which is open to original research: Wikiversity -- See Wikiversity:Go unto Wikimedia, academics! for an introduction to the possibilities.

and there's a new development--what I consider a really exciting and important new development: Though WP is not a place to publish original research based upon primary sources, it has always been a place to publish reviews of published research. There is no intrinsic reason why a review of research cannot be suitable both for an academic journal, and for Wikipedia, though of course considerable modification of format will be necessary. This has been developed into a formal program: see WP:Wiki to journal publication. and WP:Journal to wiki publication.

I hesitated a while before deciding what do do about this draft, because I recognize the importance of this material being easily accessible. I think personally that our rule about Original Research might not always be necessary, but I also am aware that if we did start making exceptions, we would have even greater conflicts on controversial topics than we do now. We can barely handle the disagreements on such topics, and I am therefore not willing to use here our available policy of WP:IAR, of being able to ignore all rules if necessary to improve the encyclopedia in any individual case. DGG ( talk ) 23:20, 16 December 2019 (UTC)

Book reviews

... the standard to avoid excessive weight is to place reviews of specific books in the section on the books, not the lead paragraph. Quoting from reviews is a method subject to abuse, because of cherry-picking. (And reviews even in peer-reviewed academic journals are not normally peer-reviewed. They're intended as a personal comment by an expert, not an addition to the scholarly literature. There are exceptions on rare occasions for particularly extensive evaluative reviews that are actually reviews of a field. But usually an academic journal controls the quality of views by allowing the book author to reply, and, if really necessary in rare cases, publishing a second review. The way to do it is to add the review as a footnote to the book, putting a one sentence excerpt as a quote within the footnote--see WP:CITE.

New Page Review newsletter December 2019

Reviewer of the Year

This year's Reviewer of the Year is Rosguill. Having gotten the reviewer PERM in August 2018, they have been a regular reviewer of articles and redirects, been an active participant in the NPP community, and has been the driving force for the emerging NPP Source Guide that will help reviewers better evaluate sourcing and notability in many countries for which it has historically been difficult.

Redirect autopatrol

A recent Request for Comment on creating a new redirect autopatrol pseduo-permission was closed early. New Page Reviewers are now able to nominate editors who have an established track record creating uncontroversial redirects. At the individual discretion of any administrator or after 24 hours and a consensus of at least 3 New Page Reviewers an editor may be added to a list of users whose redirects will be patrolled automatically by DannyS712 bot III.

Source Guide Discussion

Set to launch early in the new year is our first New Page Patrol Source Guide discussion. These discussions are designed to solicit input on sources in places and topic areas that might otherwise be harder for reviewers to evaluate. The hope is that this will allow us to improve the accuracy of our patrols for articles using these sources (and/or give us places to perform a WP:BEFORE prior to nominating for deletion). Please watch the New Page Patrol talk page for more information.

This month's refresher course

While New Page Reviewers are an experienced set of editors, we all benefit from an occasional review. This month consider refreshing yourself on Wikipedia:Notability (geographic features). Also consider how we can take the time for quality in this area. For instance, sources to verify human settlements, which are presumed notable, can often be found in seconds. This lets us avoid the (ugly) 'Needs more refs' tag.

Delivered by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 16:10, 20 December 2019 (UTC)

G11 declines

Hi DGG -- You and I clearly disagree about quite how promotional articles need to be for G11 to apply. Kaveh Alizadeh appears only very borderline notable and might benefit from a test at AfD. Younan Nowzaradan is, I think, probably notable if only as a television personality, but you could try redirecting to My 600-lb Life and see if you get reverted. Cheers, Espresso Addict (talk) 09:15, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes, G11 is somewhat subjective. This is why I do not delete them single handedly, nor think that any admin should., About 5% of my nominations will possibly be errors or overreach, which by itself would be too high an error rate to be acceptable or fair to the contributors. But with two people checking each other that becomes 0.25 % ,which is as good as can be expected. And certainly one person never sees all the opportunities for redirection or merge. I rely on people checking me, & I am glad that you do so. DGG ( talk ) 09:49, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Nexant Draft Review 2

Hi DGG, I'm not sure if you still remember, but thank you for taking the time to review and provide feedback for my draft a couple months back.

Per your feedback, I've rewritten things to be more readable, removed excessive sections, and added a few more sources as well. If you had the time, I would really appreciate if you could take another look to see if I went in the right direction and did it correctly this time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Nexant

Regardless, I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season so far!

Kind regards, Jasper — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.207.170.65 (talk) 10:10, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Stanza Living

Hi DGG, Thanks for your review will update the page and ask for your further suggestions. Happy Holidays. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Digital1804 (talk • contribs) 06:43, 26 December 2019 (UTC) Hey DGG I am already working on new version and trying my best to improve the article based on your suggestion. I dont see a point how marking is as advert is going to affect it. I Request you remove the tag as i am already working on it along with few other articles. Digital1804 (talk) 06:19, 31 January 2020 (UTC) Check

ne more experienced with copyright will see this and tell me. We learn from each other.). DGG ( talk ) 00:37, 27 December 2019 (UTC)  

P.S. 1990

Microsoft was founded 1975. From 1990 to 2019 is 29 years. To not include companies founded after 1990 (unless ((de))drafted) would have meant omit Microsoft until 2004 (1975+29). No article about MS DOS until 2004, let alone Windows, XP, or even Windows 7? To have Wikipedia become known as too hard to find stuff there would simply cause the first stop to be something else; speedia, speediac and speedyak .com are already taken. This P.S. is not meant to disagree in principal, but rather to note that the goal will take more work. Pi314m (talk) 22:19, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

1. I didn't speedy because I wanted to call attention dramatically; I speedied because I thought and continue to think it is necessary to start over from scratch. I never meant to imply there should not be an article, but there's a long way to go for NPOV. I'm not going to discuss specific content here--see the article talk p. 2.I have never advocated not covering new companies or organizations, tho a few people have--some because they want to avoid POV conflicts, some to avoid promotionalism , some for the greater dignity of an encyclopedia. There's a great deal of promotionalism in articles about older organizations, and I've been working systematically on some fields, like law schools. The idea of focussing on the new organizations is to focus attention, not limit it. DGG ( talk ) 02:47, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Neutrality Tag

Came across a page of an individual that had a neutrality tag slapped on it in October 2018. Says Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. There's a contentious talk page with a lot of discussion and at this point in time, I don't really know that much about him but I would like to work with you on improving the page. Would this be ok? MaskedSinger (talk) 17:30, 1 January 2020 (UTC)

MaskedSinger, first step is to tell me what page it is. DGG ( talk ) 06:05, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

DGG Of course! here or privately? MaskedSinger (talk) 17:15, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

here. People here generally do not do work like this privately. All cooperation in WP ought to be public. And others may want to see what they think about it too. Nobody owns an article. Advice: in asking about something, always tell the person right away what it is. DGG ( talk ) 17:44, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

Ok. No problem! Adam Milstein. I see now that it's a page you've had some history with. I don't know anything about the subject or the history of the page which I think in theory would make me a ideal candidate to clean it up. I only came across it via Israeli-American_Council. If this is too complicated can just leave it. But if you think it's something that can be done, I'd love to do it with your counsel. MaskedSinger (talk) 06:07, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2020

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment asks whether partial blocks should be enabled on the English Wikipedia. If enabled, this functionality would allow administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces, rather than the entire site.
• A proposal asks whether admins who don't use their tools for a significant period of time (e.g. five years) should have the toolset procedurally removed.
• Following a successful RfC, a whitelist is now available for users whose redirects will be autopatrolled by a bot, removing them from the new pages patrol queue. Admins can add such users to Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Redirect whitelist after a discussion following the guidelines at Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Redirect whitelist.

Arbitration

• The fourth case on Palestine-Israel articles was closed. The case consolidated all previous remedies under one heading, which should make them easier to understand, apply, and enforce. In particular, the distinction between "primary articles" and "related content" has been clarified, with the former being the entire set of articles whose topic relates to the Arab-Israeli conflict, broadly interpreted rather than reasonably construed.
• Following the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Beeblebrox, Bradv, Casliber, David Fuchs, DGG, KrakatoaKatie, Maxim, Newyorkbrad, SoWhy, Worm That Turned, Xeno.

Undelete/Protect page Northern_Transmissions

I would like to create a page at Northern_Transmissions but I see that it was created a deleted multiple times in 2015. Please inform me as to how to proceed. Henry A-W (talk) 00:33, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

If you have references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements, start in in draft space, by making a page Draft:Northern Transmissions. When it is reviewed , if it is judged acceptable, an administrator will move it over the protection. DGG ( talk ) 00:37, 8 January 2020 (UTC)

Thank you. I've created Draft:Northern Transmissions which is ready for review. In the course of creating it I discovered the url is blacklisted. I was unsuccessful in having it removed [29] so I have created the page without any references to the url. Since this page is about a website I can understand that a page without any references to url may not meet certain standards. Please advise.--Henry A-W (talk) 03:51, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

you probably dont remember me from montreal wikimania

I have the opinion that TW is actually the highest standard content editor we have in the wonderful land of OZ.

But then as an endless tagger, I have a very personal view, it might not fit with others... JarrahTree 06:58, 11 January 2020 (UTC)

Mohamed Trebak

Hi DGG. I was wondering if you had time to give me a quick notability opinion. Is this enough cites to meet NPROF1? Does it matter if the subject is the lead author on a paper or not? Thanks – Levivich 16:38, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

The number depends on field. He's in biomedicine, for which our effective standard is one , or better two, papers with over 100 citations each. The total number of citations doesn't matter, what matters is that whether he has done highly influential work, so it's the highest ones that show it. He would seem to clearly meet it , with 22 papers over 100, some in the 300s.

Now some details, not that it's really needed here, but as a guide to how to look at these:

But it has to be his work, not his advisors work in which he merely took part, or his student's work which he merely supervised, and that's much harder to tell. The key date is when he finished his PhD (uncertain, probably about 2003) and his postdoc(s) (2007) , taking account of a usual 1-year publication lag. . The principal author of a paper is either the first or last--there is no way to tell without looking at the academic positions of all the authors and their practices with citations and who received the principal grant under which the work was done. All of this has multiple exceptions: Sometimes a scientist's really important work is that done as a grad student or postdoc. The person is first or last position may be the most senior person, not the person whose actual idea it was or who did the bulk of the work. The person who received the main grant (which can only be seen by looking at the paper) is the head of the lab, but again may not be the person whose actual idea it was or who did the bulk of the work. All of this makes it quite a project. It is taken into account when promoting to tenure, or awarding prizes, but it really takes people who can actually judge the work--there's a limit to what can be done by bibliometrics alone.

There is a potential problem here. His most cited work was done while he was still a student or postdoc, and it seems he remained in the same general field for his later career. But this is a factor unnecessary to take into account for our purposes except if someone's borderline, and he has 9 papers with >100 references for 2010+.

Butt here's a real problem as far as we are concerned--the entire article is a direct copyvio from [30], which the article actually lists as the only reference!. (For bios, the person's website is the first place to check. ) I have tagged it for speedy deletion as copyvio. What really concerns me, is that this article comes from a regular contributor with 18,000 mainspace edits since 2017. This will need follow up. DGG ( talk ) 20:03, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Thanks. The numbers rule-of-thumb is helpful and the explanation about bibliometrics even more so (NPROF is complicated!). I didn't even notice the copyvio issue; I was just focused on the GS cites. Thanks for looking into this. – Levivich 20:24, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

draftifying

hough I'm not a new page reviewer, I imagine there are new page reviewers that move undersourced new articles to the Draft: namespace and then just use the CSD tag to delete the redirect. Is that the best way to handle that, for those without page move permissions? Doug Mehus T·C 01:32, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

@Dmehus: Yeah, if you want to draftify an article without page mover, that's how you do it. It's often perceived as more civil than nominating an article for deletion, so I don't do nominate unless I must.  I dream of horses  If you reply here, please ping me by adding {{U|I dream of horses}} to your message  (talk to me) (My edits) @ 01:35, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

I dream of horses, Thanks...yes, I always prefer to assume good faith unless it's absolutely patently clear (i.e., replacing the CEO with the name of an unrelated celebrity or something). Thanks for taking the time to clarify that for me! Doug Mehus T·C 01:37, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

• The best way to draftify is by using the script for the purpose, See the documentation at User:Mr. Stradivarius/gadgets/Draftify It does the necessary moves and leaves a message, and , for an admin, it does the necessary deletion of the redirect. A non admin will still need to nominate the redirect page for speedy. I would use the G6 speedy tag, technical deletions, because a mainspace page should not redirect to a draft space page.

If the article is totally hopeless, there's no point adding it to draft space--the criterion is whether it seems possible to make it an acceptable article. For articles that are essentially advertising, I usually nominate for G11 instead of moving to draft, but if there's a reasonable possibility of removing the advertising, then it should go to draft. (we do remove hopelessly promotional drafts by G11, but the rules for this are more limiting than for articles). If a subject is clearly notable, and the advertising can be easily removed, tho, the best course is to remove it yourself. (If only borderline notable or it would take work to remove, then draft is the better choice. ) DGG ( talk ) 01:52, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

G13 Eligibility Notices rom HasteurBot

HasteurBot, Oh, interesting. I should look into subscribing to this! I was going through the AfC drafts by date maintenance categories. (Or is that an equally common way?) And, yes, I realize I'm talking to a bot. DGG or talk page stalkers, feel free to reply (if you wish). Doug Mehus T·C 05:44, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

The way the bot works, this is a list of those about to be deleted as G13 that I have previously commented on or edited. If you have drafts in those categories, I think you'll get these automatically. There are a number of complementary ways of looking at all drafts in danger of deletion: I use Category:AfC G13 eligible soon submissions. It's supposed to be arranged with the ones about to get deleted at the front, but it doesn't always work out that way. I try to pull out academics, organizations, and historical buildings or events , all of which I know some AfC reviewers don't check carefully enough, and the authors often abandon.

An alternative method uses Wikipedia:Database reports/Stale drafts. It provides more information, but is limited to articles in the last day before deletion, and is not quick enough to catch most of them. DGG ( talk ) 06:33, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

AfD of Robert Olson

Hi DGG. Since you recently reviewed Draft:Robert A. Olson and made comments about the subject's notability, and you've also been working on the Biografer cleanup, I thought you might want to know about Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Robert A. Olson. BTW, I thought in the case of this particular article, it had been rephrased enough so that it wasn't a G12 of the NYTimes death notice cited in the article (like many other of these creations were), but you may have a different opinion on that. Cheers! – Levivich<

AfD control of bulk nominations

Hi DGG. I see you often at AfD and know that you think a lot about it.

Over the last week, I have seen two "bulk-noms" of articles to AfD (which you have probably also seen); one being of Onel5969's US GEO stubs, and another being of Scope creep's WWII German BLPs. Both have resulted in each author leaving the project (at least for a period). While the noms were in good faith, they were "technical" articles where more than simple searches for GNG were needed (e.g. Onel5969's stubs had some confusion a reading of USGA listings as they applied to GEO, while Scope creep's BLPs needed sourcing from offline sources and de-WP). Such AfDs can accumulate easy Delete !votes, while the Keeps hunt for references and sources; and some Keeps will have a finite time capacity for the number of articles they can/will participate in.

My question is whether we should have some kind of rule that a single author can only have say 2-3 of their articles nominated at AfD at a given time – unless an admin explicitly gives consent for more, and such consent only being for egregious cases of PROMO/COI/UPE/SPAM etc. The logic being that a nom could not swamp/overwhelm a creator at AfD, and that it might prompt noms to get more buy-in/have more discussion with the author to other options (e.g. merging articles into other head articles/lists etc.). Also, the outcome of the first AfDs, will greatly inform all parties on the likely trajectory afterward.

I suggest this because the potential long-term loss of either of these two above established editors vastly exceeds any considerations about whether their nominated articles should stay or go in WP (they are not egregious violations by any means). We would not need to program this rule into AfD (although maybe later), but at least an article creator could "press the panic button" if they saw lots of their articles at AfD, and give them time to gather themselves, see if they can build support/consensus etc., and reflect on how the first AfDs progress.

Is that a mad idea? Britishfinance (talk) 17:10, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

Britishfinance. apologies for the delayed response.

whether this is a good idea depends on the circumstances. Sometimes the articles are truly indistinguishable in nature, and can be nominated together in one AfD. Experience has shown this is correct only in special situations, because most groups claimed to be indistinguishable turn out not to be if anone looks carefully. --there is often notability for some of them or some special reason,

There is an an advantage from putting them together--people interested in one are likely to be interested in all, and there's a better chance of getting informed participation. The problem is notification: Very few people pay attention to every AfD. We have made a some advances gradually over the years of notifying active projects about AfDs in their area, but it for inactive projects and obscure topics it's a matter of chance. (It's true, though, that this can sometimes have the paradoxical effect of attracting people with by and large a common view, as contrasted to the general interests of active Wikipedians).

Doing them one at a time over a long period there is very likely to be low participation and inconsistent deletions.

My advice , and my practice, is to run trial nominations of two or three representative articles in order to test what the consensus is, or see if consensus is changing. Such nominations can in effect set guidelines, and are much more effective if there is a comprehensive argument including all likely people. After that, then it's easier to see what to do about the others. So rather than prohibiting grouped nominations, perhaps we need an RfC -like system for attracting attention to them.

Now, about these groups of deletions. The geography ones seem to have been decided in a reasonable way. The WorldWar II ones were mostly decided in a reasonable way also. Each article in both groups was discussed at length, and attracted a reasonable number of participants who were interested in the subject field and the notability questions involved.

I consider them good examples of doing it right,. DGG ( talk ) 00:13, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for that DGG, and I appreciate you taking the time to consider fully and respond. Makes sense to me now. Kind regards, Britishfinance (talk) 12:11, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

general notes on mass actions

More generally, there has been a trend to mass actions when a problem arises. This started with a decision 10 years ago to remove all unsourced BLPs. The non-zealots were able to get this carried out gradually and relatively few worth saving were lost. It has more recently happened with unedited Google translations done by the Translation tool, and here it affected so many fields that most of the high-priority articles were rescued. It happens about once a month with the discovery of a major sock-puppet, especially paid ones and those whose work has gone back many years. . Since there is complete consensus we do not want sockpuppets, few people try to rescue these. I sometimes do, especially because some of the non-paid people have also written decent articles.

Even more generally, WP is prone to moral panic When a problem we hadn't seen but should have seen arises, then based even on a single case, people take very drastic measures. This occurs in Real Life also--a crime by a single person once changed the course of a Presidential election. DGG ( talk ) 00:13, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

could you be so kind as to comment Re my request for help

here? If so, thank you so very much, Mr. DGG --Hodgdon's secret garden (talk) 19:37, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

Advice on how to edit 'Ceramic art'

Hi DGG. Could you please advice about the following? A month ago I created a wiki page 'Lodi ceramics', which you approved. I would now like to edit the page 'Ceramic art', section 'History', subsection 'Europe'. I could add a sentence about Lodi ceramics in the Tin-glazed pottery sub-sub-section, but this sub-sub-section is so short that it would be much better to improve this section about tin-glazed pottery adding details about Italy and the 17th-18th century at least. However I don't have enough knowledge. Adding just a sentence about Lodi ceramics feels like adding a details to a background that is missing. Alternatively, I could add a section at the bottom of the History-Europe section, titled 'Pottery in Italy', and just add the wikilink to Lodi ceramics. Similar sections already exist for Germany, Austria and Russia. What do you advice? Thanks in advance --Arkie Hodge (talk) 20:28, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

Arkie Hodge, do both. There's nothing wrong with a short section if it's in parallel with other sections. But in addition make links from the Lodi article. Within limits, the more cross-referencing the better,.

Try to provide for all the possibilities DGG ( talk ) 09:18, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

Christopher J. Handagy

I inadvertently put this in December, 2019 and then I realized it is January, 2020=))

DGG Hello, Mr. Goodman! I got back from my Christmas vacation and took my time to add a few notable book reviews to Hadnagy's draft with new sources added. It has more than 30 citations now and the text has been through significant updates and re-wording, according to your advice. Do you think it should be pending on review list or maybe you can take an extra look and let me know if there are still any issues there? If you say, it is good to go (or not), it might be helpful for a new user like me. I would really appreciate your knowledge and expertise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Christopher_J._Hadnagy

Suchexams (talk) 21:00, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

Suchexams, you need at least to make the references a little fuller using the citeweb template to show where the reference comes from. Then the book reviews should be used as references for the books, using the quote=parameter of the cite template. I'll come around in a week and show you, if you haven't done it.

Also, take a careful look about wherethe reviews are comingf rom . some are more reliable than the others. DGG ( talk ) 06:54, 21 January 2020 (UTC) DGG ( talk ) 16:32, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Annette Carson

I have taken on board the comments made by you and others relating to this article, made appropriate changes, and moved to mainspace. Can you please review and remove the rejection notice.

Thank you. The Retiree (talk) 21:59, 18 January 2020 (UTC)

I have commented further on your talkpage. DGG ( talk ) 00:30, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

Tags on Pamela E. Harris

Hi! I saw you put some tags on the new article on Pamela E. Harris. I was just wondering if you could explain further. I thought that the several in-depth independent sources published over the span of 2 years ([31], [32], [33], [34]) would easily make her pass WP:GNG. I also don't see how this article could be described as WP:SENSATIONAL. Would be very grateful if you could provide and explanation and/or suggest what you would want to see improved to get the tags removed. Thanks! Achaea (talk) 10:05, 19 January 2020 (UTC)

1. The first notice is one of our standard multi-purpose notices, which , like so many of our notices , unfortunately does not specifically describe the situation. The relevant part is that I consider it written in a promotional style, suitable more for a web page than an encyclopedia. For example, it omits listing her published work .
2. The second is that I do not think she meets WP:PROF. She is not yet notable as a researcher. Most of her papers are uncited by other mathematical papers., except her own., or cited only for other reasons than the mathematics.It is possible to meet itWP:PROF as a teacher, but the awards are junior-level. But she apparently has received enough notice to meet the general notability standard, WP:GNG, which even for an academic is an alternative.

You will notice I did not nominate it for deletion. DGG ( talk ) 05:49, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Thank you so much for approving my article! I worked hard on it!

Florence Hansen (talk) 02:30, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Eli Schechtman

Thank you for your help! Please, see my new version!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wiki82esh (talk • contribs) 22:03, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

this will take a few days. In the meantime, please double check for grammar, particularly tense. And I cannot quite identify just what prize the PM gave him. DGG ( talk ) 05:18, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Resubmission

Hi DGG, thank you for your previous suggestions about Draft:Magnum Research Limited. I have updated third-party sources and added more information (e.g. product lines, cooperations, and licensing) to the page. Could you please review the draft page again, or let me know if there is anything else I can do to improve the article?--Ria-TAN1995 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 11:22, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

@Ria-TAN1995: I've reviewed your article and declined it again due to some possible issues. I've also added some tags to the submission. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page. Regards - Aaqib Anjum Aafī (^talk) 16:38, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Resubmission of Draft:V-Nova

Hi DGG,

Many thanks for reviewing my first draft of this page. I hope I have understood the feedback correctly and addressed it in my resubmission. If anything remains unsatisfactory I would be very grateful if you can let me know what is specifically the problem. Similarly your input on ways to improve the page would be appreciated.

Thank you. IlanAstrug (talk) 15:07, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

new version

Thank you for your help! Please, see my new version "Draft:Eli Schechtman" Wiki82esh (talk) 17:19, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Sebby Frazer

Hi DGG.

How did you come to review Draft:Sebby Frazer. It was not submitted. Do you patrol new pages in draftspace? Is that usual?

This goes to the question of why do anything with things like this. If you did not MfD it, wouldn't it have been nominated for G13 in six months with zero page views? --SmokeyJoe (talk) 23:37, 22 January 2020 (UTC)

Certainly I review new pages in Draft space—it is one of the options at Special:new pages. I look for several things. 1/material that must be removed or even oversighted 2/the very worst of the playing around 3/the most outrageous of the advertising, especially if they look like undeclared paid editors 4/reasonably acceptable pages from people who abandon them and that either can go in right away or at er a copy edit or two,

My view is that the sooner the better the top and bottom of the pages are dealt with the easier it will be later on for everyone. This is especially true for the attempted "contributors" whom we need to very strongly discourage—they should be dealt with right off.

Opinions vary about how drafts should be handled, just as with everything else here. We do not know what really works best, or even if there is one way that works best. We not only can tolerate a great deal of variation, we should have a great deal of variation and experimentation , as long as we don't confuse the beginners or make contradictory statements about policy. DGG ( talk ) 01:03, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

as long as we don't ... make contradictory statements about policy.

I have been wondering, am I being chided about making contradictory statements about policy? These statements were at WP:MFD, a place without much exposure to readers, or even to the average editor. I think the statements came from a disagreement of interpretations, and such disagreements should be aired at suitable forums, like that, and then it was immediately resumed at the linked discussion at WT:CSD (where, you were proved correct). If you think it desirable for me to strike old misstatements, please say so, and I will likely do so. —SmokeyJoe (talk) 00:12, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

[[User::SmokeyJoe|

SmokeyJoe]]-- sorry -- I nothing specific in mind here.

that was just meant as a general statement to pagewatchers. DGG ( talk ) 02:32, 2 February 2020 (UTC) DGG ( talk ) 04:38, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

Eli Schechtman copyvio

I've rewritten a paragraph in Eli Schechtman that was copied from the YIVO Encyclopedia article on Schechtman: the paragraph beginning "Although Shekhtman received several Israeli literary prizes", added in this edit by an IP (who I suppose may or not the same person as the editor predominantly responsible for the draft). Do you think you could have a look through the article for any other passages that might have similar issues? There are some close-ish paraphrases I think, but I was hoping to just do a quick copyedit and don't really have the time to look into it. – Arms & Hearts (talk) 17:56, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

I had done a check against the print version, but I may have missed something., so I will check again. DGG ( talk ) 19:12, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

#########

Draft: Paul J. Tesar

Hi DGG, Thank you so much for taking the time to review and provide comments on my draft. I’m really sorry the article is lacking. I tried to be responsive to the first reviewer’s comments to substantiate notability, but perhaps the edits went too far in the other direction. I would really appreciate your expert advice in improving the page. Your comments are very helpful, and I will work on rewriting the article in a more encyclopedic format. Please let me know what else I can do to improve the article. Marissascavuzzo (talk) 00:44, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

Marissascavuzzo, first step is to answer my question---since the article is written tin the promotional style usually association with press releases, (for example, ...Tesar transitioned directly into an independent position back in his hometown... ; or talking about the many possible medical applications of the general field in which he works, ) you need to say if you have some conflict of interest, as we define it at WP:COI; in particular, if it should be the case that this involves payment of if you are in any way connected with his company or any firm working for it, you need to declare fully according to WP:PAID. And have you ever used any other username here? DGG ( talk ) 06:07, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Hi DGG! Thank you so much for your feedback and comments on the draft. I’m studying at the university and in the lab. I know Paul well, but have no affiliation with his company or any firm working for it. I also have not used another username here. My username is my name and my intent was never to be deceptive or to promote his company. I’m new to Wikipedia and am still learning the process and standards. Everything that I wrote was pulled from websites and press releases. But your comments about the style, tone, and content of the draft were very helpful and informative. I can definitely see how the article needs to be rewritten in a more neutral and encyclopedic tone. Again, my intention was never to be deceptive or for promotion purposes. I’m excited to work on this draft and continue to improve it according to Wikipedia’s standards. How should I proceed from here? Thank you again for your feedback and help, I really appreciate it. Marissascavuzzo (talk) 23:51, 8 February 2020 (UTC)Marissa Scavuzzo

Marissascavuzzo, Promotionalism is extremely common in our world, and --unfortunately — in Wikipedia. (There are several hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove.) It is therefore quite possible for a good faith editor to write in such a style even without realizing it. ( I asked about the username because of some of the earlier editing on the article, whichwas clearly done by acounts that were not good faith editors) Now that you understand what needs to be fixed, fix it and resubmit. DGG ( talk ) 00:50, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

Hi DGG, thank you so much for your advice and guidance on rewriting this draft. I really appreciate your help. I rewrote the article based on your feedback and comments. I mostly tried to make it more neutral and “encyclopedic” and took out some content to shorten it and highlight the most important parts of his research. Would you mind taking a look at the revision to see if I made the correct changes? I am happy to go back and make further edits based on your feedback. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Marissascavuzzo (talk) 01:54, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Request

Hi, DGG. I notice you declined the draft Manuel Muñiz on 16 January. I wonder if, as the man has been freshly appointed as Secretary of State (roughly a junior minister) in Spain, you may review the decision (per WP:POLOUTCOMES sub-cabinet officials are usually deemed notable), possible trim if they current content is deemed some kind of puffery notwithstanding. Cheers.--Asqueladd (talk) 01:17, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

The first thing I did was move the paragraph and references about this to the top, so it will be quickly visible. Next step is a quick despam, which I can do unless you get there first, and then I'll accept DGG ( talk ) 01:33, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

I accepted it. DGG ( talk ) 05:36, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Martha Boneta

I submitted a draft written about this subject and it was declined for being advocacy. Please help me understand what specifically would need done to have this reviewed as a Wikipedia article. She is an advocate so I am not sure if that is why or if there is specific wording that is not allowed. I wrote the facts as stated in reliable sources but I obviously got something wrong and apologize for that. I am more than happy to work on the draft of you can give me some advice on what is needed. Thank you for the help. --Narksajax (talk) 05:28, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

Narksajax, content like "Boneta says that her love of farming began when her grandmother came to live with Boneta and her family. Her grandmother grew a large vegetable garden in the backyard, and this inspired Boneta to one day own a family farm" is puffery. Try to write in a more impersonal way, and then I'll let someone else review it. DGG ( talk ) 04:17, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

regarding reviewing the page 'tel ganesan'

Hello, Thanks for moving the page 'Tel Ganesan' to Draftspace. I have been doing referencing with Wiki's autoreferencer to make citations from reliable sources. The references i have mentioned are from india's national medias. especially 1 & 2, India Today, News Today, Hindustan Times, The New India Express Etc. As the personality is an US-Indian there are numerous references are found in US based well known Newspaers, News websites like detroit free press , The Oakland press etc. The citations are made carefully after getting step by step reviews of editors which was undergon since past 3 weeks. So kindly reconsider the review going through the references posted and also guide me on any errors need to be rectified as i am a beginner.

Thank You, Jay --Jayreborn (talk) 20:30, 30 January 2020 (UTC)

All newspapers in all countries will sometimes run stories that are indistinguishable from promotion. The best newspapers are a little careful that the subject at least appears to justify it, and that what gets said has some resemblance to reality., but an interview is normally an opportunity for the founder or promotor to make a pitch for their product or service. Obtaining such articles and interviews is a primary job function of the higher class of press agents, and I sometimes think that what we measure here is not the notability of the subject but the skill and connections of the PR agent.

What I did was give you a chance to rescue the article; the alternative is that it would have been deleted, for a combination of promotionalism and not showing notability . Whether it becomes improved enough to be likely to pass AfD is up to you, and up to the possibilities of the sourcing for the subject., uSo, here's what to do:

First, you must declare whether or not you have a WWP:COI as we define it, for this, and for any other articles you may have written. In particular, if it should by any chance be a paid COI, see WP:PAID. Once you have told me this, we can go ahead and examine the references together. DGG ( talk ) 02:56, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

Hello, Thanks for the reply. I have understood your points. I have gone through the informations and i can understand what could journals do for promotion etc. As you have mentioned i have nowhere connected with this subject or anyother topics i have written so far. Also i have not involved in any kind of promotionalism or paid editing in this article and any other articles i have written. I just created articles about missing personalities and i am just learning about notability & references on living persons. It will be great you can examine and help me on creating such articles on living persons or personalities with proper & credible references which was missing. Thank you ! Jayreborn (talk) 16:41, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

Well, looking at the references, refs like 4, 7, and 21 are only incidentally about him; refs about the films are not directly about him, especially if they're from local newspapers--the role of "producer" can mean direct involvement, or just providing them oney; and I really have my doubts about whether the films themselves are notable. Refs 19,23, 24, are just listings. Anything from PR Newsrire or the link is PR, and not independent. Refs like 32 are press releases, as are many fo the others. The various honours in section 5 ar trivial--even E&Y 50 nationally is dubious for notability , and just for a US region all the more so, and for a nomination not an award, so trivial as to be better not included. Whether there will be enough of substance left to show notability is in my opinion doubtful. DGG ( talk ) 04:27, 3 February 2020 (UTC) DGG ( talk ) 04:27, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the review

Hi, thanks for reviewing the article. Since your review, I researched the subject more and found some more independent sources. I've included them as citations. I know that I've included some listings and links to the books the subject has co-authored with his wife, but I thought they would work as proof alongside the independent articles that have been published about him. Is that not right?

Also, you have asked me to remove the PR articles, but I tried to be careful about not including any press releases, self-written and published articles by the subject, or his own companies' websites. Can you please point out which ones you found to be PR? Perhaps I am not looking at them as I should, but it would be really helpful for this article and the ones I'll write in future.

Thank you so much. FelixtheNomad (talk) 20:09, 31 January 2020 (UTC)

Looking again at it, FelixtheNomad, I do not really think there is enough in the way of substantial accomplishments that it will be possible to show notability . Refs 6, 12 & 13 are examples of PR; refs 21-27 are mere notices of awards, 28 is inclusion in an unreliable directory. DGG ( talk ) 04:31, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Hi DGG, thank you so much for this. This is a very specific response that will go a long way in understanding the kind of references and citations I should use. Now I can study the ones you've marked out once again to see what makes them 'unusable' for Wikipedia entries. However, there is one little question, if you would indulge me. In cases such as this one, is it better to create a 'stub' rather than a full article if the subject is not notable enough? FelixtheNomad (talk) 11:14, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

G11 on Richard B. Lanman

You're probably right, the article's pretty hopeless. GS suggests possible notability but with multi-authored medical papers it's always hard to tell on a quick review. Cheers, Espresso Addict (talk) 06:40, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

I could probably rewrite it to show notability , by focussing only of the parts that matter here. My decision key is

I. Unquestionably extremely notable, in the sense that WP must have an article: no matter how promotional the article is, rewrite it, even if it means WP:TNT

2. Clearly notable, in the sense that WP should have an article: if extremely promotional , remove it unless some established non-COI editor wants to rewrite; but if just a little promotional , fix.

3. notable , but only ordinarily notable in the sense that WP could have an article: if promotional, remove. If not, cleanup and accept.

4.Borderline notable, in the sense that it might be possible for WP to justify an article if we wanted to be extremely inclusive: if at all promotional, or the editor a UPE, reject. If perfectly OK , accept.

5. Not notable, reject.

The key also works in another direction:

A. Highly promotional : if extraordinarily notable, accept and fix or rewrite

B. Ordinarily promotional : if very notable, fix, if just sort of notable , reject.

C. Borderline promotional : If clearly notable, fix, If not, let the editor try to rewrite

D. Not promotional except incidentally: if more than borderline notable, accept. If borderline, consider. If not at all, reject.

This particular article is the common special case of a scientist moving into industry. This typically occurs when they happen to find something that is potentially capable of commercialization. If the article emphases the academic, I tend to be lenient. If it emphasizes the commercial, and the commercial happens to be one of the rare cases where the commercial aspects are truly important, then I try to rewrite enough to keep it. In the usual case, like this, I tend to be stringent, just as much so as if there were no academic career .

This is at any rate my inclination, or what some people might call bias, about what is important, or at least ought to be important, in the world.

You and I and a number of others here know how to truly evaluate in detail a publication record. As you say, it isn't easy. it's usually outside the range of what we can practically do here. But I wish it were possible to devote the time and energy to it, for it can be very interesting exercise. It's one of the things faculty hope to teach graduate students. DGG ( talk ) 08:25, 1 February 2020 (UTC) .

Thanks for the considered response, DGG. I too evaluate articles according to the balance of notability vs promotion, but perhaps place more weight on notability than you do. I hate deleting material that's more than borderline notable, unless one would genuinely have to blank the entire article to write an acceptable version. I think we're both biased towards academic research over commercial applications. Unfortunately I am some combination of too busy/inexpert, and perhaps also too lazy, to attempt to fix all the articles that I decline to delete -- but perhaps that's what the wikiprocess is about? I hope so, but some days I fear it is failing.

I've found the discussions at RHaworth's arbitration case around what other admins consider deletable under G11 & A7 to provide considerable food for thought. Cheers, Espresso Addict (talk) 23:15, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

Please ignore this post

Goddamn! Your talk page is f'd. Anyways, had this conversation I thought you might enjoy. (I called you a "bigwig")

Peregrine Fisher, it was made clear by the community not so long ago that to add anything funny to The Signpost is a dangerous occupation. I don't see much very funny about the new Arbcom and its work either, they've had some hard cases to solve right at the beginning of their tenure, but it will be a bonanza for the next issue of the magazine. DGG is probably one of the few really nice 'bigwigs' left on Wikipedia. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 8:29 pm, Yesterday (UTC−8)

That made me laugh. I don't know what the joke is, but the punchline is "DGG is probably one of the few really nice 'bigwigs' left on Wikipedia." Crack me up! Peregrine Fisher (talk) 8:36 pm, Yesterday (UTC−8) Peregrine Fisher (talk) 09:11, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Prezzee

Hi, just wanted to follow up on this draft that you rejected two months ago. An article was published about a month ago briefly covering the subject's sales over the Christmas period. First, would this article satisfy your definition of a "true news story" as you previously stated here and second, would any of that info lend credibility to the size of the subject's operation or otherwise help towards satisfying WP:GNG in your opinion? Davykamanzi → talk • contribs • alter ego 11:33, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

It is a true news story, but it isn't substantially about the subject. It's about gift cards, and they're one of the people/firms who comment. If the firm is actually notable , there should be better. You're an experienced paid editor--did you realize the weakness in the refs but decided to give the job a try anyway? DGG ( talk ) 01:44, 2 February 2020 (UTC) .

I recognised that the refs weren't the strongest, but felt there might still be enough coverage to satisfy WP:GNG, at least from the perspective of another editor. Davykamanzi → talk • contribs • alter ego 09:26, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Davykamanzi , The standard for acceptanceof a draft is whether the article would pass AfD. I try to go by what I think the consensus would be at AfD, but I know I am not infallible—and AfD can be a little unpredictable. . Therefore, if I've declined a draft, unless there's some special issue i want to follow up, I leave further reviews to another editor. As a suggestion, if you want to make the article stronger, you might want to look for some references for information about the financial success of the firm.

DGG ( talk ) 09:36, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2020).

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, partial blocks are now enabled on the English Wikipedia. This functionality allows administrators to block users from editing specific pages or namespaces rather than the entire site. A draft policy is being workshopped at Wikipedia:Partial blocks.
• The request for comment seeking the community's sentiment for a binding desysop procedure closed with wide-spread support for an alternative desysoping procedure based on community input. No proposed process received consensus.

Technical news

• Twinkle now supports partial blocking. There is a small checkbox that toggles the "partial" status for both blocks and templating. There is currently one template: {{uw-pblock}}.

Arbitration

• Following a recent arbitration case, the Arbitration Committee reminded administrators that checkuser and oversight blocks must not be reversed or modified without prior consultation with the checkuser or oversighter who placed the block, the respective functionary team, or the Arbitration Committee.

Draft:New York Heritage

I see this subject noted in several articles and cited in several more. I'd be happy to have help on it or direction where to merge it if there is an appropriate target. Seems worth including. Thanks. FloridaArmy (talk) 22:29, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

Yes, this one is a problem. I'll try to find someone who can help. There's always a problem for sourcing with articles about confederations of organizations, so I tend to be very permissive with these. DGG ( talk ) 01:53, 2 February 2020 (UTC)

== Draft:Pepper Group ==

Hi. Thank you for reviewing the draft. I rewrote and removed some parts that read like an advertisement or does not use a neutral point of view. I also added more independent, reliable and secondary references or sources. Please check if this is acceptable now. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aurdivon (talk • contribs) 00:20, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

still does not meet WP:NCORP DGG ( talk ) 04:12, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

@DGG: Thank you for the comment. How about these 2 references?

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/news-story/pepper-surges-on-asx-debut/e9ae24e8fad970a39ef09a48c6eeae22

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pepper-group-m-a-kkr-idUSKBN1AQ00X

They have an overview, description, survey and analysis/commentary from the writer. Can these be considered as substantial coverage? Aurdivon (talk) 02:43, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Seven Nations (Bible)

Hi DGG. I just wrote up a WP:STUB, see Draft:Seven Nations (Bible) because I first tried looking this up on Seven Nations which turns out to be a disambiguation page. So I searched further on WP and found that there is information with citations about these so-called Seven Nations or Tribes to be found in Judaism and war#Wars of extinction in the Tanakh and Jewish responses. However @Jmertel23: decided to move it off to "draft oblivion" where there is a waiting time of SIX months!

This was totally unfair and in violation of WP:DONOTDEMOLISH because (a) it is just a stub, and stubs are given time, lots of time. (b) It's a topic based on BIBLE verses from the Book of Deuteronomy. (c) I subsequently added two Biblical sources from Deuteronomy Chapter 7 verses 2-3 and Chapter 20 verses 16-18. (d) I am currently editing from my mobile phone which is hard enough but that makes it very difficult to utilize Wikipedia's referencing tools. (e) As an exeperienced WP editor in good standing for over 17 years I am well-aware of WP policies and I certainly qualify as as a WP:EXPERT editor who knows what he is doing. Finally, (f) User:Jmertel should have contacted me on on my talk page instead of coming across as a boderline violater of WP:CIVIL and WP:AGF.

Thanks for hearing me out and for all your patience.

Please restore the Seven Nations (Bible) stub as soon as possible. I have asked some other editors to help out to improve the stub, hopefully they will. Thanks again, IZAK (talk) 01:11, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

sure; it needs secondary sources also, but some can simply be copied over from the other article. can you find the actual reference in Maimonides given in ref 34 of the Judaism and Wars article, and add it there. If it means what I think it does, it's a clever redefinition of "extermination" to mean what we would now call Cultural assimilation. DGG ( talk ) 02:23, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

@IZAK: Please see my response on my talk page (trying to keep the discussion in one place for clarity). Thanks! Jmertel23 (talk) 12:15, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 12

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past two months (December 2019 and January 2020).

Hello everyone and welcome to the 12th issue issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

XFDcloser (now a gadget) is this issue's featured script

Suffusion of Yellow's mark-reverted • Majavah's unslashifier

Guywan's BulletSort and HistoryHighlight

BrandonXLF's QuickEdit and CompareRevisions

Enterprisey's fancy-diff should now be able to handle everything the parser can throw at it.

Twinkle has a new update (more). It now supports partial blocks and includes the select2 library as a dependency.
Select2 is available at MediaWiki:Gadget-select2.min.js for other gadgets and scripts to use.

Miscellaneous

Until now, this newsletter has been written primarily by me (DannyS712). f others would like to contribute, help is always appreciated; this was intended to be a community newsletter.

Pending requests
A number of requests are listed at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests#Some ideas.
Some of the remaining ideas include scripts to:

• expand a diff until it covers all contiguous edits made by that user
• highlight which content (in the HTML) comes from which template
• hyperlink "per X" to the last comment X made
• show a pop-up section preview when you hover over its TOC link

...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 06:12, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

---

Deletion of Äkta Explorer

Dear DGG, I politely have to disagree with the judgement of being advertising due to the following reasons:

• The machine has not been produced for many years and is even out of support (i.e. no spare parts are produced anymore)
• The article does not endorse this device. In the opposite, it mentions its primary competing product line and mentions that the same task can be performed by essentially all chromatography systems and that the advantages only are in the specialization (some tasks are easier on this device than on general purpose chromatography systems)
• Even though I am an end user of the device, I am in no way affiliated with GE Healthcare. On the opposite, I have problems with them as imho they do misuse their duopoly position to the disadvantage of academic research (which does not have as much financial resources as the pharmaceutical industry).

It is a big problem, that there is hardly any independent information about these devices available on the internet, even though they play a central and important role in the pharmaceutical industry: namely in the purification of Biopharmaceuticals/biologics, which is the fastest growing class of drugs (every second cancer drug is meanwhile a "biologic"). What specific additions would convince you to NOT classify the article as advertising? This question is not rhetoric as I would like to get your honest answer! Notwithstanding now the fact that it is very rudimentary, but that's why Wikipedia exist that the community (including me) can improve on it over the next days, weeks and months.

I started to use the machine when it was introduced to the market (in 1994) had am still using it occasionally today. I have been teaching university courses about its use in protein purification. But again, there is no information about these devices on the internet (except for the vendors own info). The vendor has tried to start some online "community" about five years back, but without success. The device (and also its newer incarnations) is used mostly in proprietary (secretive) environments such as the pharmaceutical industry; maybe that's why these efforts have never taken off.

Thank you for your contribution, but I will try to get this article accepted with all the necessary modifications to fulfill the spirit of Wikipedia. I am just a very occasional contributor to Wikipedia. While the culture of Wikipedia is well know to frequent contributors, it is very different to e.g. the culture that I am used to (i.e. the world of scientific publication).

Regards, Mjeltsch (talk) 06:00, 6 February 2020 (UTC)

I first must apologize --I seem to have clicked the wrong button--I meant only to have it considered for deletion. I never actually delete for reasons of promotionalism single-handed, but either nominate and let another admin to check my judgment and delete, or look at the ones other people have nominated and then delete if appropriate. The intention is to avoid just such mistakes as this.

You are quite right--I judged too quickly--it looks a little the way a promotional article might look, but it isn't promotional, for the reasons you've given. (most articles on products submitted here are in fact intended as disguised advertisements, and it's all too easy to just look at the new articles as if everything that might possibly be promotional is in fact an advertisement. ) (I've restored it of course)

as it happens, I'm a molecular biologist myself & I've taught biochemistry and I can easily appreciate what the device does, though in my lab days 50 years ago things were considerably more primitive. I'm not sure though, you can really make a sustainable article for this particular brand of the device. I se our article on Fast protein liquid chromatography, which is written in a brand-neutral way, but mentions only Pharmacia . I think our readers would best be served by expanding the general article to cover in outline the two different lines of machines You could then make redirects from the different brand names. Since for specialized products like this the articles would necessarily have good deal of common material, and the differences between various brans and models can be explained briefly. I think it important to mention all the models, because in reading a scientific paper, people will come across the name in the methods section, and look under its name for some sort of explanation. If you need any help in organizing this, let me know .

I'm always glad to have a bad example of what happens when I work too fast or carelessly, because I can use it as a teaching example when trying to guide other reviewers. DGG ( talk ) 07:00, 6 February 2020 (UTC)

The idea to move the stuff to the general FPLC article and have a forward sounds reasonable to me. I will proceed in that direction when I find the time (hopefully soon). Mjeltsch (talk) 14:38, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Please review Draft Northern_Transmissions

At your suggestion I've created Draft:Northern Transmissions which is ready for review. In the course of creating it I discovered the url is blacklisted. I was unsuccessful in having it removed [35] so I have created the page without any references to the url. Since this page is about a website I can understand that a page without any references to url may not meet certain standards. Please advise. Thank you. Henry A-W (talk) 04:04, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Henry A-W, I could add the link, butthere needs to be much more in the way of information and sources. If questions about the link are preventing you from adding more, addmore, & if it is sufficient, I'll add the link. I hope you can find more for it seems reasonable that we shoudl have an article. (You were also reminded a question about COI, btw, ) DGG ( talk ) 20:33, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Ari Rastegar Draft Page

Hi DGG,

I've trimmed down more WP:PROMO content from the draft page. What else do you consider advertising on the draft? Texatexan (talk) 15:35, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

the first thing I need to ask you, is whether you have any WP:COI as we define it?

The main reason for my declining to accept the article was that it does not show notability . Almost all the references are things he wrote himself, or press releases, or interviews in which he says whatever he cares to--such interviews are not independent sources, such as e-ssuite and Forbes. The Forbes article, by the way, is not under their editorial supervision, but by a "contributor" . That's the way they indicate that they know it's PR. DGG ( talk ) 19:18, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Giora Ram

Did you mean to delete and salt the AfD page Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Giora Ram (2nd nomination)? ... discospinster _talk 23:43, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

oops. I'll fix it. DGG ( talk ) 01:37, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

Thanks!

Hi DGG, a great big THANKS for all the wikiwork you do (plus thought you might like some kittens ) Coolabahapple (talk) 01:50, 8 February 2020 (UTC)

Laia Cabrera

Thank you for your comment on Draft:Laia Cabrera : "There are serious problems with the article's non-encyclopedic style , and those are what need to be fixed". I am not an native english speaker (French) and although I have been creating the article thouroughly with references and creating a structure that is logical and solid, my formulations are not as precise as I wish they were, and would definitely benefit from a collaborator that would review the syntax. Let me know if there is a possibility there. Thank you! Yessa Deouve, February 10, 2020 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Yessadeouve (talk • contribs) 05:37, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

Surasky

I have made major changes to Draft:Russell S Surasky: removed promotional tone and improved references. Can you please take another look at the draft and provide suggestions on how to make it ready for mainspace? Thanks a lot in advance! BhasSpeak (talk) 17:32, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Thomas A Parham

Hi DGG,

Thanks for your comment on my talk page. I'll move and respond to it here.

You wrote:

"promotionalism

"Are you realy sure you meant to restore the full to a bio article? DGG ( talk ) 18:19, 11 February 2020 (UTC)"

Actually, not exactly. But I felt it was the best way to respond to your two original edits. So let's discuss.

First, you tagged the entire article with an "advertisement" claim. Then you removed what you believed to be advertisements. But then you left the advertisement tag? I'm sure you understand that looks like trying to have it both ways. If you tag something you see as a problem, then fix the problem, why wouldn't you remove the tag? Or was that simply something you overlooked when you were done?

Second, I also respectfully disagree with you in some other areas as well; and I'm happy to explain those.

1) I honestly haven't ever seen an advertising tag on a BLP before. What "product" do you feel is being advertised? Of course, I would understand if [Tim Cook|Tim Cook's] bio talked too much about the release of the next iPhone. That's a product that's for sale. But that doesn't apply here. So I felt the tag was inappropriate. Of course, I've seen BLPs with the "resume" tag when they're just dry recitations. But that isn't the case here either. And severe edits shouldn't cause it either.

2) I know you'll agree that by definition, a BLP is a biography. So why remove either a relevant WP:RS biographical quote, or an RS quote explaining something noteworthy in the BLP? You also removed half the RS honors and awards in a way that seemed abitrary.

Also I see you've "subsequently" (see what I did there :) made 2 new edits and invited discussion. So let's discuss those.

In your first edit you removed a quote because you said it was: "unreliable sourced material removed from BLP-- based on hisword only." Are you saying the source was unreliable? Because the RS was a university website. If you're saying that he himself is unreliable because it was "his word only," I believe that's acceptable (WP:BLPSELFPUB) for a brief but relevant quote about his own upbringing. There are also separate RS in the paragraph right before it, (which you also wanted to remove). There are RS links to 2 of his siblings and they both confirmed his quote on the university website.

And in your last edit you removed what you called an advert.

I'm always happy to collaborate and compromise. So let's try:

1) I agree we remove the last quote you took out. It's 2 sentences, but if you feel strongly then fine. In return, I'd like to keep his quote. I think it's interesting and important. I'll include it's from an interview, so it's not like he's just waxing nostalgic.

2) I also agree the daughters ref can be trimmed. Just listing their names is fine. I've already done that.

3) I think the list of Honors should remain intact because it's consistent with other university president BLPs, which list either honors or publications a bit, but not both. Like here, here, here, or here.

That covers it, I think. If you have anything else, let me know. Otherwise, agreed? X4n6 (talk) 22:39, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Speaking generally: my main field of interest here is academic biographies, and I'm concerned in making sure that the non-notable ones do not get included, that the notable ones show clearly the encyclopedic notability, and that encyclopedia articles don't look like promotionalism. As in other fields, probably most academic bios here are written by coi editors, sometimes the subjects themselves, occasionally enthusiastic students, but much more frequently university or department PR staff. As in other fields, promotionalism is so widespread both in the world and in Wikipedia that itis very easy for a person writing without coi in perfect good faith to write in a similarly promotional style. Promotional writing is what the subject would like readers to know about himself, in contrast to encyclopedic writing, which is what a general reader might want to know.

1) the "advertisement" tag is used for promotionalism in general. It's meant as a signal that editing is needed, not a condemnation. Articles containing promotional quotes are promotional, but fixable. Articles containing excess irrelevant personal material are promotional --they're what people or their employers like to say about themselves. What a reader cares about, is what the person's professional background is, and why the person's professional work is significant.

2) Of course we list awards and publications . We list major awards and the most important publications. Listing minor awards does not add to notability , but detracts from it, because it takes away attention from the important accomplishments. There are only 2 types of publications that list every award: CVs, where the current custom in academic CVs is to list everything possible, but WP is not a place for publishing CVs; and promotional write ups by PR staff which list everything they may think sounds impressive, but WP is an encyclopedia not a place for making people look important. Nobody outside themselves or their own university cares about local awards or minor publications. Nobody except those who know them care about their family's accomplishments--or, for that matter, their children's names.

3) A person's own statements when published by a responsible source are accepted for the routine plain facts about their life--the sort of thing that can in principle by cross-checked. hat they say about their motivations is what they want to have said, and is not always trustworthy, for they tend to exaggerate. to the extent sometimes of self-puffery.

4) Details are usually discussed on the article talk page, which is where I started this discussion. I'm not here to negotiate content, but to improve articles, and I improve them to the extent that is practical. Consider this as advice, and if we still disagree, we can continue there. and if necessary ask for other opinions. DGG ( talk ) 05:14, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

You addressed several areas, in general terms, which merit a response. So, in order to make this a colloquy and not a disquisition, I'll respond to those here and save specific concerns about the article for its talk page.

It seems you've fashioned yourself to be a kind of anti-promotionalism heat seeking missile seeking out the scourge that is promotionalism in academic entries. Hyperbolic as that sounds, it's not intended as criticism. There are several editors on this project who perform a very narrow set of functions and they perform them very well. In fact, it's a laudatory exercise if coi influence in academic articles is as pervasive a problem as you make it sound. For me, more often than not I encounter academic BLPs that are little more than stubs. Almost as though someone recognized the individual was notable, but wasn't interested in the time it took to do a deep dive. They just wanted the individual listed in the encyclopedia.

By contrast, I'm a long-term, but not particularly prolific editor, who endeavors for quality over quantity. I'd rather write 10 articles that are well-written, well-sourced, encyclopedic, yet interesting reads, than write 1000 that are boilerplate just to increase my new article count. Of course articles must be encyclopedic, but that doesn't require that they be dry. And a well-placed and appropriate quote accomplishes that. Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, so too can a good quote be far more informative than dry prose. Regarding self-quotes, obviously they can be problematic. But a brief, well-chosen self-quote can also be informative and encyclopedic.

Regarding awards and publications, you mentioned your primary interest is in the academic biographies. Mine are in universities, university administrators, entertainment personalities and other bios. In the entertainment field, persons with an enormous number of awards will have separate articles just for cataloguing those awards. I have not seen that with academic bios. Although I do recall an article with a very long list of honorary doctorates. I've also encountered lengthy bibliographies and long lists of academic awards. As I mentioned prior, I don't think these do much for the article either. The reader certainly won't read them all. It just makes the staffer or academic who wrote their own article feel they've demonstrated how accomplished they are. But there is a middle ground between too little and too much of the lists and that's where I try to work.

I've encountered editors who automatically approach every article with the general rule that 50% of every article can be removed. Reliably sourced or not. As though they're somehow saving "space." Yet I've never seen a Good Article that could be read in thirty seconds or four paragraphs. Trimming the fat always makes sense. Amputating a limb just to make the whole lighter makes no sense.

Your comment regarding not being here to negotiate but to improve, sounded like a rejection of collaboration and compromise in favor of an only you know best approach, that I found of some concern. Perhaps you didn't mean it to sound that way, or maybe you did. I suppose we'll cross that Rubicon when/if we come to it. But improving articles is why I'm here too. The work I've done should make that clear. I'm no one's PR. I'm just aiming for encyclopedic, informative and interesting articles for the reader. X4n6 (talk) 10:38, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Request on 01:58:00, 12 February 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by JMmelegrito

• JMmelegrito (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:TAP Digital Media Ventures (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Hello, Thank you very much for reviewing my draft article and I certainly appreciate the opinion of an expert Wikieditor. Just for the record, I'm neither working nor connected to TAP DMV and its employees.

May I ask what are the things that should be changed on the draft article? If there is a need for citation on the information, particularly on each of the channels, I have DVR recordings to show as a proof.

Also, If my Wikipedia article has not been approved, then why is the TAP Sports article, which contains far less details and contains only one reference, has been approved?

Hoping to hear your response. Thanks!

JMmelegrito (talk) 01:58, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

The question isn't existence, but whether there are references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements. You may want to comment at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/TAP Sports. There are several hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove. The least we can do is not add to them. DGG ( talk ) 03:28, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

*******

Request on 06:17:06, 12 February 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Marilen.buenviaje

• Marilen.buenviaje (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Antonio H. Castro Neto (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Antonio_H._Castro_Neto hi, can I get more tips on how to improve this article? it got declined by you :) thanks

Marilen.buenviaje (talk) 06:17, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

I already said at the article what to do, so do it. Watch out for adjectives of excellence or praise--they do not belong in an encyclopedia . DGG ( talk ) 09:30, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

thanks for your note

thanks for your comment just now at Wikipedia:Miscellany_for_deletion/User:Brianboulton/drafts#User:Brianboulton/drafts. I cannot understand what is going on there. I just posted a link to the page in question. I have now successfully provided fully labeled redirects pointing to each of the drafts left by this user. Also, I created a sub-directory for all such drafts, so that any editor at all can get a comprehensive list of the full set of drafts, merely by using this template.

furthermore, I made the sub-page as a sub-page for the page for all deceased Wikipedians; in other words, any other such drafts can be added to the same sub-directory, so it will be easier for such editing efforts to proceed, since we have one centralized location to view them.

can you please go back and respond to the editor there who just replied? he linked to a past version of that page, instead of the current version which I had already updated. please feel free to follow both links, and then to reply. you are welcome to reply or to contact me any time. thanks!! --Sm8900 (talk) 04:17, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Sorry for the confusion. ...my bad. Talking about this at Wikipedia talk:Deceased Wikipedians#Should we say something about etiquette in moving and page creation?.--Moxy 🍁 05:06, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

I adjusted my comment accordingly Thanks for letting me know. DGG ( talk ) 05:25, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

actually, your initial comment was totally fine and totally accurate. I would suggest that you please reinstate it. thanks. --Sm8900 (talk) 05:30, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

OK, but at this point I'm really a little confused. I'll look at it tomorrow when I'm more alert. DGG ( talk ) 06:34, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

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Draft:Neeyamo

Dear DGG,

We got a notification from wikipedia that says deleted page Draft:Neeyamo (G11: Unambiguous advertising or promotion, noticed that the request to deletion was initiated by you. We look at having a company page without any promotions with respect to the wikipedia guidelines. Can you please help us get back the deleted article and also let us know if there is anything that any content that have to be removed for a green signal to conversion into a wiki page? Irenejones2009 Irenejones2009, who is us and we ? Only individuals must edit, so I assume you are a representative of the company. If so, you must make the appropriate declaration according to WP:COI and WP:PAID. After that, we can discuss it further. DGG ( talk ) 06:47, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Dear DGG,

Read both COI & PAID and have declared accordingly. Can the wiki page go live? *******

Draft:Airoll(Vehicle)

Hi DDG,

Thank you for reviewing - Draft:Airoll (Vehicle). As per your comments some sections have been reworded as to avoid paraphrasing and an etymology section has been added to discuss the naming of the vehicle. Please let me know if any other changes are needed. *******

An OTRS inquiry

Wikimedia received a request to delete a draft article ticket:2019122210000089 the relevant draft is Draft:Joseph G. Sorokin.

At the time of the request, the draft had not been edited in just short of six months. I responded to them that it would likely be automatically deleted in a few days. However, you edited the article in the interim resetting the six-month clock.

While they were willing to accept a few days delay, my guess is they won't be happy to hear that it will take at least another six months.

Do you have any particular thoughts?

I suppose I can nominate for AFD but I wanted to check with you first.S Philbrick(Talk) 15:04, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Let me look. It will take a day or two. DGG ( talk ) 06:08, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

New Page Reviewer newsletter February 2020

Hello DGG,

Source Guide Discussion

The first NPP source guide discussion is now underway. It covers a wide range of sources in Ghana with the goal of providing more guidance to reviewers about sources they might see when reviewing pages. Hopefully, new page reviewers will join others interested in reliable sources and those with expertise in these sources to make the discussion a success.

Discussions and Resources

• There is an ongoing discussion around changing notifications for new editors who attempt to write articles.
• A recent discussion of whether Michelin starred restraunts are notable was archived without closure.
• A resource page with links pertinent for reviewers was created this month.
• A proposal to increase the scope of G5 was withdrawn.

Refresher

Geographic regions, areas and places generally do not need general notability guideline type sourcing. When evaluating whether an article meets this notability guideline please also consider whether it might actually be a form of WP:SPAM for a development project (e.g. PR for a large luxury residential development) and not actually covered by the guideline.

16:08, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

Edits Made - Following Up

Hey, DGG. I am following up on edits to the draft Granite_Telecommunications (see "Perplexed" above). We discussed the needed changes in December and I made the edits you requested at the time. Since the volume of interaction with you and the community is significant, I've quietly watching for updates. But now that we're coming up on a couple of months since the edits were made, I figure I should squeak, so I'm checking in to see if there's anything else I need to do. Also, I do plan to help with other business pages as you indicated is needed (especially since everyone's doing what I did -- make a page that looks like the other pages). In fact, I had been actively editing a range of content over the latter part of last year. But I held back since I wasn't looking for the things that you have pointed out to me here. I'll pick that back up when I see how this page nets out and I am confident that I'm not just replacing one bad edit with another... Thanks. Technutt (talk) 19:42, 13 February 2020 (UTC)

following up saturday or sunday, because you're doing good work and i want to clarify my comments in some detail, and discuss some related general issues. DGG ( talk ) 07:20, 15 February 2020 (UTC).

Sounds good. I'll check in after the weekend then. Thanks. Technutt (talk) 20:40, 15 February 2020 (UTC)

still working on it. I'm much more behind than usual. I may have to skip a few NYC editathons to catch up. DGG ( talk ) 00:31, 22 February 2020 (UTC).

Caught up myself -- I think we all are at this time... Crazy. If I should resubmit the page we are working on as a keep-alive, let me know. And I'll keep checking in. Ironically, and not for the best of reasons, it appears that I may have some extra time to help out some more here over this next bit. But aside from any of this stuff, I hope you and your loved ones are all doing well at this time. Stay safe. Technutt (talk) 20:41, 23 March 2020 (UTC)

Hey, DGG -- following up here on the edits to the Granite_Telecommunications page and some observations you had on other pages so I don't swap one bad edit for another. Let me know how to proceed. Thanks. Technutt (talk) 22:42, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

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Eleiko

Hello DGG. Hope you are well. I noticed you put Eleiko up on AfC submission. What is the article missing and do you have any tips on how I can sort it out? Best, Kjell1918 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kjell1918 (talk • contribs) 10:45, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

reply forthcoming DGG ( talk ) 00:09, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

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Draft:Ron Silver (chef)

Hi, thank you very much for taking the time to review my draft. I read the reason that you rejected it (a lack of significant coverage) and included four more reputable citations that feature Silver as the main subject, not just a passing mention. I also condensed some of the language in his biography so that every fact is backed up directly by a reputable source. I would love to get your thoughts on what more could be done or if you think that this is sufficient - want to follow the rules and create a quality page! Draft:Ron Silver (chef) MiaF1213 (talk) 16:49, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

replying tomorrow. DGG ( talk ) 07:13, 15 February 2020 (UTC)

Review of article on Noma Copley

Thank you, DGG, for reviewing my entry on Noma Copley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Noma_Copley) and for your feedback. I've revised according to that feedback, removing all "peacock terms" and making the language more formal. I also added a few additional citations that underscore the notability of the subject. I resubmitted the entry for consideration. I hope that you will find that this revised version meets all the criteria for acceptance. I look forward to your response. Thanks.Gaw54 (talk) 19:03, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

tomorrow. DGG ( talk ) 07:11, 15 February 2020 (UTC)

Sorry to pester you for a second review, but I am anxious to confirm whether or not I'm on the right track with this entry. I would very much appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to give my entry on Noma Copley another look. She has for too long been in the shadow of her former husband, William Copley, whose Wiki entry contributes, in my opinion, to her marginalization. I'm looking forward to being able to add a link to that Wiki page that enables readers to learn about his partner's role in activities for which he is being given sole credit. Thank you in advance. Gaw54 (talk) 17:18, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Gaw54, before I had the opportunity to get there , an excellent reviewer, Schwede66, has accepted it and is workin on it further. I may have a chance to do some additional removal of promotional wording. You could help by changing the mentions of her by her first name to her last, and replacing at least half of them by "she" , and decreasing the namedropping . DGG ( talk ) 01:22, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback. The use of first names is to distinguish Noma from her (ex)husband Bill and are only used when they are both mentioned. I'll take a look for other places where "she" can be used. I'm not sure what you mean by dropping the namedropping. The context both in which and with whom she worked is important to her story, as are the names of the artists who were in her collection. That's what defines a notable collection. One question: can you explain why Carroll O'Conner is in red rather than linking to the Wiki page for him? Thanks again for taking time to review.Gaw54 (talk) 01:30, 22 February 2020 (UTC) *******

Hami Aksoy

Hi, how are you? why you move this article to draft? I think this person has notability in Wikipedia this person is the spokesperson to MFA in turkey all these sources talks weekly about him — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ahmadqatari (talk • contribs) 11:18, 16 February 2020 (UTC) *******

Draft:The Roadex Project

Dear DGG. In my ignorance I appended a message for you in your Archive for September 2019 as that was the last time we corresponded. I have copied the text I inserted below. The only comment I would add to it is that I am having great difficulty in obtaining independent external evidence of the use of ROADEX technologies on public road networks as the average engineer and employing organisation involved do not normally publish such information. Engineers need to promote their work more in this regard and the ROADEX project is actively encouraging this. That said, any help/guidance you can give will be much appreciated. The text I appended in your September Archive was:

Dear DGG. Thanks again for your comments and letting me know about the help available on Teahouse. I made some changes to the ROADEX page in Sandbox following your comments and used it to replace the Draft in December. I am now picking up the page again to try to improve it further. Can I ask if you would be able to look over the current version and possibly give some advice on what is still needed? Editing Wikipedia is still a very new art to me! With best regards Ronmun (talk) 15:25, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

Eonmun, Promotional writing tells the audience what the subject would like them to know. Encyclopedic writing tells the audience what they would reasonably want to know and expect to find in an encyclopedia. Encyclopedic writing is directed to the general public who might come across the subject and want to find some objective information.

What people would reasonably like to know, is what the project has actually accomplished, and, perhaps, what it is in the process of accomplishing or plans to accomplish, in specific terms. What nobody outside the project and its supporters care about

What nobody but PR people would ever write or anyone including them would want to read is jargon such as "widest possible context." or " have been designed to help learning in the workplace and in academic institutions. All four are available in the main partner languages to encourage dissemination and implementation." "continuing to carry out joint research in areas of common interest." or " state-of-the-art surveys "or "Its aim was to move the ROADEX collaboration further" or " the web-based e-learning suite of four e-learning lessons " Nor does anyone, particularly an encyclopedia, want puffery such as "Such has been the success of the PEHKO project, and the potential operational savings it offers, that it was awarded ..". Just say what they were awards--most people know without being explicitly told that awards go to things that are deemed successes. The guide to avoid promotional wording is to say what you mean in the terms you would use in telling a person what you do.

It does matter which countries and agencies support the project. It's worth stating once, but not both in a table and in text. It does not matter to anyone but the staff how often the committee meets, nor how many of the meeting are on Skype

say partners , not Partners; don't keep repeating "ROADEX", try "the project" (not "the Project") or, even better, "it"

And, even more important, almost all the references are from the project itself. We need 3rd party references. DGG ( talk ) 23:17, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

DGG, Thank you for your suggestions. I accept them all. I needed the guidance and will take a fresh look at the draft page.Ronmun (talk) 14:01, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

DGG, Thank you for your note regarding conflict of interest. I have a statement at my User:Ronmun. Do I need to say more?Ronmun (talk) 22:23, 21 February 2020 (UTC) *******

Draft:Robert S. Gailey

Hi DGG,

Thank you for your feedback on my submission Robert S. Gailey, and for the edits you made on Jan 31st. I'm curious if you think I satisfied the Neutral Point of View with my edits on Jan 4th after your initial feedback. I cut out promotional terms and tried to focus on the publications and their impact.

Thank you for your time.

Soundingwell (talk) 03:28, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

soundingwell, what you now need to do is establish his notability as a scholar by checking in Google Scholar ofr th equivalent to see how much his peer-reviewed articles have bee cited. DGG ( talk ) 15:33, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply DGG. I did have a sentence on the number of citations in the "Career" section, but let me know if you think I should move it, perhaps to the intro, if you think it should be more of the focus of the article. I've also updated it to reference Google Scholar instead of Research Gate as that appears to have a more complete listing.

Thank you. Soundingwell (talk) 01:28, 27 February 2020 (UTC) *******

Nepal

I just spotted an old archived RSN comment from you about Nepali literature: Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard/Archive 281 § Britannica.com. It's certainly true that British study of Asian literature was superficial at least at this time, but I was wondering if you have specific knowledge around the Nepalese question? There's a specific interest in Nepal through the Gurkha regiments which I had always thought would have led to better coverage of that region, but I don't know enough about it to have an informed view. I have a bit of an interest in this as there is a substantial local Nepalese community, mainly ex-Gurkha, and my son is in the British Army and knows a number of current serving members from his time at Sandhurst. Ayo Gorkhali! Guy (help!) 11:59, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

my own interest in this area is more about Tibet than Nepal, and not primarily about politics. the 1913 EB is erratic--in some cases, most notably tantra , it is blatantly biased. But I wouldn't necessarily call it superficial--they did understand the basic linguistics. There's a French and German scholarly literature also, which I have never read (and, I think Russian.And, from a totally different perspective, Chinese) It is necessary to keep in mind the very limited number of Europeans at the time who had any knowledge of the area, and the coverage will necessarily reflect their interests and preconceptions. And, I remain unconvinced about how current Indian and tibetan and Nepalese writing is objetive, rather than a nationalist reaction. This is a very peripherial field for me. DGG ( talk ) 15:30, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

I think you're right, it might be hard to find current writing about any part of the region that is truly objective, there are so many political and religious axes being ground. Last time I was in India I discovered that renaming Bangalore to Bengaluru is still considered contentious, largely along caste lines. It's weird, because individual people in India especially - at least in my experience - are incredibly tolerant. I always put this down to the influence of Hinduism - when you have a thousand gods, fighting over one or other of them doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. But then Modi went out against Muslims, which is a bummer and really challenged my preconceptions. I love India, though. Guy (help!) 22:47, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Sander Lagast

Am I missing something, because the opening paragraphs of the text seem more like an attack section than anything else. --Mr. Vernon (talk) 21:56, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Mr. Vernon, you know, it read as self-promotion, but having read it twice I think you may be right: it is either spam by someone who has unusually low levels of self-awareness, or a rather clever piss-take by someone who doesn't like him.Guy (help!) 22:55, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

JzG What is the best way to proceed? DB-attack (removing the AfD)? Courtesy blanking? --Mr. Vernon (talk) 23:02, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Mr. Vernon, you need a rouge admin to apply a combined G11, G10, G3 and A7 rationale. Guy (help!) 23:04, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

people can have various combination of possibly friendly insults, and we have no way to tell either the actual intent, or the way it will be taken. People even say it about themselves, as a way of boasting.

As a separate issue, there is a tradition of unambiguous promotionalism in fields like self-help which make a point of how sinful the person was in their earlier life, and in the arts of how creatively they still misbehave

and, even more difficult, clever PR people sometimes deliberately include it in articles here, so they can defend against deletion at AfD, and they are sometimes successful. DGG ( talk ) 03:20, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

Benevity

Hi, thank you for looking at Draft:Benevity. I'm confused by the move into draft space, why this instead of adding maintenance tags or AfD, with no discussion on talk prior to the move?

I disagree completely on it being 'undersourced' as a) there is no unsourced material in the article, and b) it has many significant, independent, reliable, secondary sources, in my opinion more than enough to meet WP:GNG and WP:COMPANY. While it may sound promotional, a) this is simply a reflection of the reliable sources and b) I don't believe that a promotional tone justifies removing the article from the namespace.

I'm annoyed that a consensus of one was able to remove this article from the encyclopedia, and that it will now have to undergo a long bureaucratic process rather than being improved in the namespace (my first time dealing with AfC - maybe I'm wrong). Thank you. -M.Nelson (talk) 10:09, 18 February 2020 (UTC)

From WP:DRAFTIFY

Other editors (including the author of the page) have a right to object to moving the page, and to have the matter discussed at WP:AfD. If an editor raises an objection, move the page back to mainspace and list at AfD. The etiquette about moving pages during deletion and review discussions is also good advice.

I ask that you revert the article to the mainspace and that we move to AfD if necessary. -M.Nelson (talk) 01:35, 20 February 2020 (UTC)

Alright, moving on. From DRAFTIFY I found WP:ADMINACCT

Administrators are accountable for their actions involving administrator tools, as unexplained administrator actions can demoralize other editors who lack such tools. Subject only to the bounds of civility, avoiding personal attacks, and reasonable good faith, editors are free to question or to criticize administrator actions. Administrators are expected to respond promptly and civilly to queries about their Wikipedia-related conduct and administrative actions and to justify them when needed. [emphasis mine]

Please follow the administrator accountability policy and respond to my above queries. If you will not reinstate the article per WP:DRAFTIFY, please explain to me why DRAFTIFY does not apply to this scenario. Thank you. -M.Nelson (talk) 21:43, 21 February 2020 (UTC)

reply forthcoming, but it will take a fe says. DGG ( talk ) 01:32, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

Sorry to bother, but any update? Currently it feels like the effort I spent researching and writing this article was for naught, which is demoralizing and suggests to me that I shouldn't bother the next time that the article-writing itch hits. Thanks -M.Nelson (talk) 16:42, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

M.nelson, my fault entirely. apparently I am trying to do too much, and cannot keep up with the necessary responses. I'm trying to correct this. .Reply in process. watch this space tomorrow. DGG ( talk ) 23:43, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Currently, the main difficulty for Wikipedia is the widespread presence of promotionalism . NPOV is (along with WP:V) are our basic policies, and the use of Wikipedia for advertising or promoting anything makes NPOV impossible, and reduces us to the level of Google. Therefore, I and many others here spend most of our time trying to cope with the increasing number of with promotional articles -- and editors -- and consequently do have an excessive tendency to look upon everything as likely to be to some degree promotional . What makes this more complicated, is that even non-promotional perfectly good faith editors like yourself sometimes write in a way which can be difficult to distinguish from promotionalism : this is partly due to the extraordinarily large amount of true promotionalism in the world, which makes it the natural way for people to write -- but also to the particularly high level of it on Wikipedia , where people sometimes use promotional articles as models.

In dealing with this, we try to find intermediate solutions between tagging an article, but never being able to follow up, and deleting it altogether. The current method is the use of draft space. It has in most respects been quite successful-- all articles by new editors get submitted there, and we can keep track of what gets improved and what does not. The use of draft space also opens the participation in this process to non-admins. Anyone can move an article to draft, not just admins, and the process of accepting articles from draft is done by a those editors who hold the AFCH permission, as well as admins. All in al, its a fairer and more effective than our earlier ways of dealing with this (It has problems, such as from the delays, but about half the articles now get reviewed almost immediately). Another problem, common to other areas in WP , is the use of templates. They're necessary to handle the work, and as a guide for less experienced reviewers, . but the wording does not always apply.

There are several ways of looking at what promotionalism consists of: Promotional articles (and web sites) tell the reader what the company (or other subject) would like them to know; in contrast, encyclopedia articles say what the general public might reasonable want to know, having heard of the organization or other subject. Promotional writing is directed towards employees or potential employees or supporter or potential supporters, clients or potential clients.

Looking at the draft, I do consider it inadvertently worded in a promotional way. This is particularly difficult to avoid in companies of this sort--those directed to b-to-b services, and claiming to produce social as well as commercial benefits The best way for me to explain this is to modify it and then accept it, which I have just done. Part of the delay was my difficulty in figuring out how to deal with a case of writing in a clearly promotional style from an editor who had not done so previously. If you do not like what I have done, you may of course add it back, but consider first the most neutral way to word it: I sometimes say that encyclopedic writing should be concise, cold, dull, and descriptive. If you do add it back, I shall not argue, but might use afd in the old way. DGG ( talk ) 05:32, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time to re-review and make changes as well as approving the AFC. I have a different opinion than you on some of the changes but I'll leave them in as bold improvements to the article.

However I'm not all that satisfied with the process we went through. If I was a new editor you might not have assumed good faith, and if I hadn't known enough about WP policy/politics I may not have been able to prompt your response. I found this experience frustrating and demoralizing, and it was nearly enough to chase me away from the project (fortunately I was stubborn enough to pester you and eventually resolve the issue). I wouldn't be surprised if other editors in the same position (especially greener editors) would pack up and leave.

I feel WP:DRAFTIFY is very thorough and correctly interprets many aspects of WP policy like AGF, BOLD, GNG, COI, and Consensus. This part is extremely clear but wasn't followed:

Other editors (including the author of the page) have a right to object to moving the page, and to have the matter discussed at WP:AfD. If an editor raises an objection, move the page back to mainspace and list at AfD.

If DRAFTIFY is not an accurate interpretation of WP policy then it should be changed (via consensus) rather than simply disregarded. -M.Nelson (talk) 16:25, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

Articles for deletion/PayActiv

Hi David, I left a note in the discussion on Articles for deletion/PayActiv but thought perhaps here might be a better forum for updates. We appreciate the re-review of the article and are open to helping our situation. Can we work to reduce or remove the promotional language on the TALK page of the article and make our suggested edits? We want to follow policy and best practice. Let me know if there are recommendations outside of additional credible sources and language removal to be made. Thank you LucyArn (talk) 20:52, 20 February 2020 (UTC)

LucyArn, do you really think it reasonable to ask a volunteer engaged in dozens of other things to work with you personally so that you will be paid for the job you have undertaken for the benefit of an outside firm? The best advice I can give you is that it is rare, but possible, for someone with their experience in PR to be able to write acceptable NPOV WP articles, even when they work as a volunteer, because the mindset is different. It is almost never possible for someone paid for the job to write a WP article that will satisfy both their employer and Wikipedia , because the company wants to spread the good new about their services, and the encyclopedia wants to meet the needs of the public who might want to find out something objective. There is an overlap, to be sure, but the two ends are incompatible. Really good PR people know to work with other media than ours. DGG ( talk ) 08:05, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

When my entry for Ben Park

..didn't gather enough support for inclusion @ its 2nd discussion at articles for deletion you were the only other than myself so much as to mention that his 1st book had just then been published @ the cambridge university press. Second's going to be published in a few (hey! literally 3) days but's already got a half dozen reviews. Instead of - as I did today - pushing the draft into mainspace, Should - rather - I'd brought the question up in a deletion review do you think?--Hodgdon's secret garden (talk) 13:03, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

the best way would have been to ask me to move it into mainspace. (Deletion Review is a last resort) I think it will stand up as far as notability is concerned, and I'll check it for any possible improvements. If it gets listed for AfD, let me know, because there are too any for me to follow otherwise. DGG ( talk ) 19:59, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Hmm! um kay. Tried a re-drafifying mv to Draft:Benjamin Park only to have a double-direct fixer, perhaps, bot automatically move it back again. If you could "toolkit" it to there for me -- (Say - back to here?: diff -- I'd really appreciate it--Hodgdon's secret garden (talk) 23:49, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

You didn't understand. I do think it is good enough to stay, even though you moved it irregularly. I will edit it further perhaps. I removed the book reviews he wrote --they're generallyv too minor to count. What we do need is reviews of his books. DGG ( talk ) 01:07, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

• hoo wee! Not for nothing, but now, with this this thenewyorker review), I think I'd agree w historian will bagley's sentiment (kindly expressed to ben's fb wall) that his very fresh 'ascent' is now "higher on the writer/historian peak than anyone else in Mormon Studies" (even richard bushman's?)--Hodgdon's secret garden (talk) 20:06, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Draft: Joe Seddon

Hello DGG, I have edited the article above based on your feedback. Let me know if there are any further improvements you think could be made. Doogierev (talk) 23:30, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Hi. Just FYI, you forgot to put this article onto Wikidata. The person had already had an article created on other wikis, such as hrwiki, skwiki and plwiki. Informing you here because I believe interwiki linking is important, and I want you to be more careful. Thanks. 37.47.200.14 (talk) 10:45, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

I never do anything on Wikidata. What I do try to do is add the article to the languages list, but this can also be done by the many excellent and careful people who fill in the technical gaps after an article is accepted. I try to concentrate on what I can personally do best, which is judge whether an article is likely to be deleted, and on what I am one of the vey few WP reviewers to do at all, which is give detailed and appropriate advice to all good faith editors.

so I want to express my appreciation to you , and all the others checking such things. I don't think your work is any the less important than mine, and it requires equal care and equal judgment --and equal devotion to the encyclopedia. DGG ( talk ) 10:59, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

Hello DGG, Do you have any further edits which you think should be made on the article? The subject continues to be covered across the international media - BBC News, The Times, The Telegraph in the UK last week - and a big two page spread feature in Corriere della Sera this week. Doogierev (talk) 16:58, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

The problem is not primarily notability, but the rather promotional style in which he article is written. The use of quotes like "advertised as offering students “anytime, anywhere mentorship at the touch of a phone screen”"  ; the name dropping -- if he received an honour it does not mater who gave it, and if he appeared on a platform, it is irrelevant who also appeared. Wha you need to do is cut back further on such material, and also to remove all references to he Mail -- this is no regarded as a reliable or even usable source in Wikipedia. There might be enough left. DGG ( talk ) 17:31, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

Hello DGG. First of all, thank you for your ongoing feedback on this draft article - it's been incredibly instructive. I've made the changes in line with your previous suggestions: including the removal of Daily Mail citations, removal of anything which could be construed as namedropping, and the removal of direct quotes from the subject and others. I hope the style of the article is now to your satisfaction and provides an unambiguously objective overview of the subject. Let me know if there's anything else I should be thinking about. Doogierev (talk) 14:03, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Doogierev, I've done what I could to help the article, by removing excess use of the name, the organisation's name, and repeated links . But I see you left in the material about the debating and undergraduate successes. I do not see why the public should be interested in them. What I do see, is that it is setting up an image of coming from a single mother family, who succeeds in school and then in university, as a first generation Oxbridge student thus providing the background for Seddon's authenticity in offering a program for other young people to replicate his achievement. This is the way good PR is written. Wikipedia does not publish PR. DGG ( talk ) 07:21, 4 March 2020 (UTC)

Hello DGG. Courtesy ping to let you know that I've made some substantial improvements to my draft on Joe Seddon based on the feedback of yourself and others. It would be really useful to know if you think all the 'promotionalism' has now been successfully removed, and any further amendments which should be made to the article before it goes live. Stay safe, Doogierev. Doogierev (talk) 15:56, 16 May 2020 (UTC)

Many thanks for the help with my 1st page

	Many thanks for the help with my 1st page
	Thank you for the help with creating my first page. I've made the changes you mentioned in your note. I hope the edits are suitable, but feel free to alter if not. I admit to being very lost in these pages... I couldn't see how to properly reply to you following your note... this is the only way I could see ... hope ok. Many thanks, James JamesLaC (talk) 13:14, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

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Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 13

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (February 2019).

Hello everyone and welcome to the 13th issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

Cobaltcigs's DiffPreviewFindLine is this month's featured script

Amorymeltzer's History button links • Headbomb's Unreliable/Predatory Source Detector

Interstellarity's Semi-protected edit requests and Extended-protected edit requests

Amorymeltzer's Crat Highlighter now has separate colors for each user access level

Opencooper's IPtoEmoji has been updated

Pending requests

• A script to help administrators handle proposed deletions
• A script to hide newsletters when viewing another user's talk page
• ...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

---

• Discuss this issue

Draft:BioSerenity

Hello,

I apologize for the poor quality of the initial translation of the article, I've made. I've simplified the language, made it more neutral and added sources. Let me know what you think. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gaheris fils de lot (talk • contribs) 16:28, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

I commented on your talk p. DGG ( talk ) 16:51, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Ok, followed your advice and added scientific and medical sources (found them here : https://www.bioserenity.com/en/publication/). I tried to stay as neutral as possible. If you still think that it reads like an advertisement or the sources are still not good enough than I'd rather kill the article altogether at this point and wait for the company to grow or other users to chip in. I didn't want to be major contributor and I was merely trying to translate an article from the French Wikipedia that I thought might be of interest. Gaheris fils de lot (talk) 22:16, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

User page

I've had reason to come and look at your user page a few times and always found it a pleasing experience, which helps. Anyway, just wanted to say that the section "My approach to ANI, AE, and ArbCom" has a couple of spelling mistakes. All the best.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 19:16, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Your Cleanup-PR on Antonio Vidal-Puig

Dear User:DGG: May I request your help to attend the issues posed by your Cleanup-PR tag to this article. I have removed the comment about the scientist´s publications being "highly cited" as in the original, I hope this helps. I would appreciate your further indications or actions to remove any "improper sources" as implied in the tag text. Thank you.Neuralia (talk) 14:06, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

Neuralia, I took a look. You are making a good start, but there's a little more to go. Remove every adjective, and rhetorical phrases like " the exploitation of which might one day serve to advance this quest" . Try to replace use of his name with "he" or "him" . Don't use italics for emphasis. You need a specific reference immediately after each quotation. For the section on research, try to express it with fewer specialized technical terms, and make sure every technical term is linked to the corresponding Wikipedia article. Then let me know, and I'll see if Ican do anything further. DGG ( talk ) 19:18, 7 March 2020 (UTC) DGG ( talk ) 04:18, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

DGG Although with unpardonable delay, I have now attended the issues you kindly indicated in the previous paragraph, which I am sure has considerably improved the article. Your revision of the changes and reconsideration of the {Cleanup-PR} tag will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.@DGG:

Speedy deletion of article on Barry's Bootcamp

Hi, you requested a speedy deletion of an article I wrote and it was deleted. I cannot get any feedback from editors here; they just tell me it reads like an ad. It's not an ad, though. I wasn't paid. It's a prominent company that didn't have a page, and I've been making edits to pages for years and wanted to start creating pages. Can you please tell me how it read like an ad and what I can do to fix it going forward? Thank you. Djb2183 (talk) 14:21, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

(Just for context, there are two other admins who thought so also.) The problem is a mixture of promotionalism and notability -- we don't have any good prebuilt form for this, but they tend to go together. I've looked at each of the references, and every one of them is either a mere notice, or a press release, even the one on abc news. They are mostly built of interviews with the founder, who is allowed to say pretty much what he wants to. The confirmation is that they all use the same quotes, and the same 2 photos. This can be a real problem even with what would be common-sense notable subjects in some industries, because unless they're really important, nothing else gets published. The most actually promotional parts of the draft are the name dropping, and the plans for expansion, repeated in the lede. You'll need to find some source that actually discusses the firm without quoting extensively from the founder, and use that as a basis. DGG ( talk ) 09:53, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

Ok, I really appreciate this. I'll find new references to form the basis of the article and then I'll re-submit. Super helpful. Many thanks. Djb2183 (talk) 13:32, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

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Coming back to my article

Hello You asked me to make changes to the article I wrote and you reviewed. I made the changes into a draft. Can you please review it. Thank you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Frank_J._Manheim

Fmanheim1 (talk) 19:51, 6 March 2020 (UTC)

There's still too much very minor material. And, please refer to him by his last name only, or use just "he", unless there's confusion with other members of the family. Also, if you'rre a member of the family, you have a conflict of interest. Say so on the draft talk page and on your user page. You don't have to specify justwhat the relationsip is, just that there's a conflict of interest. DGG ( talk ) 09:42, 7 March 2020 (UTC)

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Thank you for the advise Ill be sure to make those changes. Can you please provide me with an example of where you think I put too many minor details? I cant seem to see any part that should be removed. Thank you for your help Fmanheim1 (talk) 18:51, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

Request on 09:40:13, 9 March 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Csengul

• Csengul (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Dita Přikrylová (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

This message is regarding the Draft:Dita Přikrylová - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Dita_P%C5%99ikrylov%C3%A1 I am trying to understand the notability requirements of Wikipedia - this is a person who has a page in Czech (https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dita_P%C5%99ikrylov%C3%A1), and I was thinking she is doing notable work to be covered in English Wikipedia as well. Articles included were about her and were secondary sources evidencing her work and her awards. Could you give a bit more insight into what sources are expected to consider a person notable? Thanks.

Csengul (talk) 09:40, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

Csengul, standards at the different WPs vary, and the standard at the english WP in particular has been increasing with time, partly in response to the increased amount of attempted promotionalism . By our current standards, the sources in the article are either announcements, or pinterviews where the subject says what they care to, which we now consider to not be truly independent. the awards would probably not be considered sufficiently significant here, especially the 30 under 30 which, in all its many variations, is a promotional gimmick. DGG ( talk ) 06:14, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

now at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Dita Přikrylová. DGG ( talk ) 09:42, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Questions about draft rejection Clodagh O'Shea

Hi!

I was wondering if you could provide some more details about why this draft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Clodagh_O%27Shea was rejected. I agree that I should add a degree history and will do so, but I am confused about some of the other comments.

The rejection noted that my article was written in a "non-neutral" tone but the only full statement that I have is: "Clodagh C. O'Shea is a professor of molecular and cell biology and current Wicklow Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences and a scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute," which is a statement of fact. Everything else is lists of publications or awards.

In addition, I am confused as to why I need to provide her top 5 cited publications with the number of citations, when this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Rocca was recently approved and has only 3 publications listed without any indication of how often they're cited.

Lastly, the comments include "And any national level awards--not junior awards or awards from their own university." I realize that the awards listed might be perceived as "junior" but the Beckman award is national and comes with a substantial grant and is important enough that it even has its own Wikipedia article. The "distinguished investigator" award is pretty common among other Wikipedia articles for scientists and that particular one was awarded by another national institute with a Wikipedia entry. I've adjusted the citations so that they come from the awarding agency instead of the Salk Institute, in the hopes that maybe that will help.

Thanks! Emiraglia85 (talk) 21:01, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

You improved the article enough, and I accepted it.

The point of AfC is to make sure the article would survive an actual deletion discussion., not what I or you might think ought ideally to be in Wikipedia. In the past, before we had the present consensus many articles on academics and researchers were deleted at AfD because people unacquainted with the field did not understand what amounted to academic notability. I understand what meets the present consensus based upon my experience at a few thousand such discussions, and what I always advise is to be on the safe side, rather than try to see what one might possibly get away with. any other advice would be irresponsible of me.

The usual consensus here about what counts as notability according to WP:PROF is the impact upon the profession. For a scientist, impact is normally measured by he extent of citation of one's peer-reviewed article. The number 5 is just a rough guide--within reason, fewer or more is often Ok also--I didn't mean to sound so prescriptive. --in practice, the top 5 I have found often turns out to be just right to clearly show the level, e.g. 250, 200, 150 125 , 90 as distinct from 250, 100 , 20, 15, 10. The top one or two in practice is ambiguous--beyond 5 usually doesn't indicate anything further, because the impact from a scientist is their best work. the numbers are indeed not essential, but they help to prevent the article even get nominated for deletion--if the article is challenged, giving these usually proves the case if they are sufficiently high. There are of course other methods of establishing , such as national level awards, or the presidency of the major national society in their field. Again, just what counts as a major award isn't exact ,except that awards from the person's orgnaization always look promotional. Even if the person is notable , a weak article looks like a press release--because the people writing press releases for academics don't really know what's important. We delete press releases, and articles that look like press releases, regardless of notability, because the basic idea of an encyclopedia is that it is different from advertising. DGG ( talk ) 05:54, 10 March 2020 (UTC) @@@@@@@

Draft: Vagiti Ultimi

Good day, @DGG:! I would like to ask a favor if you could take a look at my draft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Vagiti_Ultimi) and advice for possible changes. Thank you. Piero.hatria (talk) 15:08, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

I am not sure that it is fixable, because most of the references that do work are mere notices. . First step is to remove all adjectives of praise or quality. Second is to check the references--some do not work Third is to have someone who is fluent in English check your wording -- phrases like " proposed to the artists a concept on that oral intertwining that title of La trama bucata. " are not understandable English, though I can guess what you probably meant. . Since this is written in the style of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. DGG ( talk ) 16:34, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

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Houchang Nahavandi moved to draftspace

This is an Iranian professor and politician and famous man in Iran Hamaredha (talk) 10:29, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

Hamaredha, There were no readable source. Please try to find a source in English also--for someone in his position this shoul be easily possible. If not, available, translate the title of the publication and of the article, plus whatever it ays that is key to demonstrating notability . DGG ( talk ) 23:52, 12 March 2020 (UTC) . DGG ( talk ) 22:40, 11 March 2020 (UTC)

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Draft:Pepper Group

Hi DGG. Thank you for taking the time to review my draft and for your feedback. I rewrote and removed some parts that read like an advertisement or does not use a neutral point of view. I also added more independent, reliable and secondary references or sources. Please check if these 2 reference can be considered as substantial coverage. They have an overview, description, survey and analysis/commentary from the writer.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/news-story/pepper-surges-on-asx-debut/e9ae24e8fad970a39ef09a48c6eeae22

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pepper-group-m-a-kkr-idUSKBN1AQ00X

Please check if the draft can be approved now. Aurdivon (talk) 23:13, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

Aurdivon, promotionalism and borderline notability tend to go together. Just which of the references supporting your articles provides substantial coverage from a third-party independent reliable sources, not a press releases or mere announcement?

Hi DGG. Thank you for the feedback. I looked for references that meets that criteria and listed them below. Please let me know if these are okay.

http://www.kanganews.com/news/10705-australian-nonbank-trajectory-still-pointing-up

https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/pepper-ceo-mario-raheyem-says-lending-void-too-big-for-nonbanks-to-fill-20190131-h1ap4v

https://issuu.com/keymedia/docs/19.10_ipad/30

https://issuu.com/keymedia/docs/19.10_ipad/32

https://issuu.com/keymedia/docs/mpa_1911_ipad/30

https://www.brokernews.com.au/features/cover-story/simplifying-commercial-lenders-reveal-first-steps-to-growth-270450.aspx

https://www.brokernews.com.au/news/breaking-news/nonconforming-loans-made-easy-with-pepper-tool-242785.aspx

https://www.mpamagazine.com.au/sections/features/valuation-rate-and-property-prices-borrowers-top-concerns-for-2019-261535.aspx

https://www.theadviser.com.au/breaking-news/38919-credit-crunch-weakening-borrower-confidence

https://www.theadviser.com.au/breaking-news/39750-pickle-money-in-trademark-dispute-with-pepper

Aurdivon (talk) 05:17, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Hi DGG. I'd like to follow up on the above. Aurdivon (talk) 04:57, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

Hi DGG. I'd like to follow up on the above. Aurdivon (talk) 06:07, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Hi DGG. I hope you're doing well. Please let me know when you have checked the references above and if their okay. Aurdivon (talk) 01:33, 17 April 2020 (UTC) *******

Draft:2020 toilet paper shortage

FYI: It was originally written as a joke when I flagged it. KylieTastic (talk) 17:42, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

yes, the boundary between something too funny to be taken seriously and the actual world seems to be vanishing. DGG ( talk ) 19:00, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Thank you so much & Best wishes. Arenasky (talk) 18:46, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

Declined submission dec 2019

Dear DGG, if you could find the time, please, see my user talk page - I am slightly lost on where to post what... (and from which account: unfortunately I set up a second one, assuming writing for the engl. wikipedia would require that) - not even sure, whether you received the emails I sent you in december.(?) Anyways, thank you for your patience - I resubmitted the article today. Cheers, Marinus von Eisenstein (talk) 20:11, 14 March 2020 (UTC) (aka Marinus Eisenstein)

question

I had stacked up a ton of drafts in my userspace. I had noticed a lot of times, I move them and later, I had to tag them for deletion. Some users can rename them without leaving a redirect. Can i be enabled to do so? Starzoner (talk) 23:06, 14 March 2020 (UTC)

SI

Thank you for your comment on my submission. Staten Island women who ran. I don’t have any info on women who ran prior. Do you have suggestions on how to edit my article to cover bases? I thought it was kept factual by saying she was the first woman elected on Staten Island. @@@@@@@@

A barnstar for you!

	The Admin's Barnstar
	Thanks so much for your help! I'm trying to get better at Wikipedia in general and appreciate any help.  :) Deutschmark82 (talk) 17:18, 15 March 2020 (UTC)

Paul Andrews (Scientist)

I've amended the page on Paul Andrews (Scientist) and I'd be grateful if it can be re-reviewed as soon as possible as he's been nominated for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Emesis-historian (talk • contribs) 20:21, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

Emesis-historian, according to our article Nobel Prize, "the nominees are not publicly named, nor are they told that they are being considered for the prize. All nomination records for a prize are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize". So what is your evidence? Given your user name, and given that this is your only contribution, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection--please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of his organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures.

The article claims his work is responsible for a major medical application--what is the evidence of this, aside from his own papers? And what is the evidence for the relative role of Andrews and Sanger in their work? DGG ( talk ) 05:04, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

User:DGGI can assure you that I am not being paid to write about a fellow scientist, nor am I at Prof Andrews’ institution. I have written the article in a neutral way as required. I admire their work and feel it is not well known to the public despite its importance and it having touched many lives for the better. The role of Sanger and Andrews in developments of agents to mitigate chemotherapy-nduced emesis is stated in peer-reviewed papers in top journals, that is, their contributions have been reviewed by peers and are accepted by the research community. The basic science work they contributed to understanding the efficacy of 5HT-3 and NK1 receptor antagonists led to the drugs Granisetron and Emend, that have been and still are prescribed worldwide. Their roles are discussed at length in the Wellcome Trust ‘Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine’ report as is referenced in the article. I haven’t written other articles as I’m new to wiki page writing. I didn’t realise it was as difficult as it seems. That I know of his nomination is part of the usual leaks in the science world that surround the Nobel process, and have for decades, nothing new there. It is not mentioned in the article originally or in the amended version. Reference Daphne Christie; Tilli Tansey, eds. (2007) [https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14884/1/14884.pdf "The Discovery, Use and Impact of Platinum Salts as Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer", Wellcome Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine, History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, ISBN 978-0-85484-112-7. Emesis-historian (talk) 21:29, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

Alfried Krupp Institute for Advanced Study ANI

I've created an ANI thread about Hyrdlak's edits. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 23:35, 16 March 2020 (UTC)

#####

Paul Andrews (Scientist)

I can assure you that I am not being paid to write about a fellow scientist, nor am I at Prof Andrews’ institution. I have written the article in a neutral way as required. I admire their work and feel it is not well known to the public despite its importance and it having touched many lives for the better. The role of Sanger and Andrews in developments of agents to mitigate chemotherapy-nduced emesis is stated in peer-reviewed papers in top journals, that is, their contributions have been reviewed by peers and are accepted by the research community. The basic science work they contributed to understanding the efficacy of 5HT-3 and NK1 receptor antagonists led to the drugs Granisetron and Emend, that have been and still are prescribed worldwide. Their roles are discussed at length in the Wellcome Trust ‘Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine’ report as is referenced in the article. I haven’t written other articles as I’m new to wiki page writing. I didn’t realise it was as difficult as it seems. That I know of his nomination is part of the usual leaks in the science world that surround the Nobel process, and have for decades, nothing new there. It is not mentioned in the article originally or in the amended version. Emesis-historian (talk) 21:33, 17 March 2020 (UTC)

Reference Daphne Christie; Tilli Tansey, eds. (2007) [https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/14884/1/14884.pdf "The Discovery, Use and Impact of Platinum Salts as Chemotherapy Agents for Cancer", Wellcome Witnesses to Contemporary Medicine, History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, ISBN 978-0-85484-112-7.

I'm sorry if this came across as in any way insensitive. You had unintentionally triggered our sensitiveness to a major problem affecting Wikipedia , a problem for which you are not in any way responsible. With the increasing prominence of Wikipedia and, in particular, the increasing use of Wikipedia as a source for the first hit and information pages of Google, there has been an almost unmanageable increase in the attempted use of Wikipedia for promotionalism.In addition to the irresponsible (and illicit) paid editing rings, many university and other academic PR staff also try to insert promotional articles in Wikipedia , as do sometimes services acting on behalf of individual scientists or even the scientists themselves. (It's even more widespread in some other fields, but academic articles are what I work on most) Some of do it naively, not realising we are not a suitable medium for PR. Others continue to do this even after our requirements are made clear to them. Some declare their conflict of interest according to our rules, but nonetheless write articles that are indistinguishable from promotional web pages.

Your article had one particular feature of many such articles: the claim that a worker in basics or applied science has done something which will have multiple potential applications to human diseases. Such claims have their place--they are a staple of grant applications, and application for promotion. But they do not belong in an encyclopedia unless they are proven, not just potential; our requirements for these are at WP:MEDRS. This is not the exact same situation as the usual claim at MEDRS, but it's similar. The source you've just given will help, but it is not a peer-reviewed review article. If you know of any, by a third party, add them, or tell me here, and I'll adjust the wording.

And, frankly, your request said something usually associated with promotional writing: I need this approved right away because .... DGG ( talk ) 05:18, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

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AFC Draft Feedback

Hi DGG

Thank you for your feedback and resources. I have submitted the draft again for help to review.

Is there a particular period of time that I have to wait before it gets reviewed?

Thanks

Kutuloncat3 (talk) 07:46, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

I looked at the current version, and left a note on your talk page. DGG ( talk ) 17:46, 18 March 2020 (UTC) @@@@@@

Paul Andrews (Scientist)

Thanks for the advice DGG. I'll collate some peer-reviewed third party references to support the clinical impact and edit the article again. I totally agree the need to make sure wikipedia articles do not come across as PR. If my draft came across like that it was entirely unintentional. Emesis-historian (talk) 09:25, 18 March 2020 (UTC) @@@@@

Request on 18:47:37, 18 March 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Luresblow

• Luresblow (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Jonathan McCollum (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Luresblow (talk) 18:47, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for these helpful editorial comments, DGG. I am carefully following all of your directions in this revision. I have sought a more formal and neutral tone, mentioned books only once and removed from the lede, and delegated reviews to references. I am removing any indications of praise and cleanly separating artistic from academic pursuits. There is no conflict of interest. I am a musicologist, so I know Jon McCollum’s work well and can confirm it is having an impact. I have never been his teacher, student, lover, family member or anything like that, and have never even been employed by the same institution, just a professional colleague with some shared interests. I am not in any way compensated – no quid pro quo - for writing this entry. I hope some version of this article can be accepted since it seems worthwhile to have academic profiles on Wikipedia, and he is doing significant work.

Please understand that Wikipedia is used so extensively for promotional purposes, even by academics. This constitutes so much of a danger to the objectivity of the encyclopedia that it's necessary to ask such questions--but we normally accept any good faith assurance--I appreciate your details, but they're not necessary. And we will always primarily rely on people in the same field to contribute articles about what they know. DGG ( talk ) 00:51, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Please consider whether the article can now be approved or if additional edits are necessary. I am not sure if the headings are correctly formatted. Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Luresblow (talk • contribs) 17:41, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

I accepted it, with some modifications: one can't claim "influences" unless some connection is demonstrated, or cited by a third party--we have had people saying they were influenced by everyone famous, from Aristotle to the present. You need to add the schools that gave the degrees, and the dates.,and, preferably , the title of the thesis and the thesis advisor. You should have specific reference to the chapters in the reference works. DGG ( talk ) 18:20, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

A pie for reviewing the Eckart Conze article

Thanks :) RubenSchade (talk) 09:17, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Acrylates

Thanks for reviewing and publishing my article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentaerythritol_tetraacrylate

I have a policy of not arguing with a wiki reviewer but am so glad you pointed out that within reason a chemical article can not be too technical as that is the whole point! However, I checked with other similar articles and I admit I wrote one of them and heavily edited another. They are here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,6-Hexanediol_diacrylate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMPTA

I don't think I have the access rights to change but these three articles should be consistent. TMPTA is shortened in the title but the other two are fully spelled out. I think that should be changed. GRALISTAIR (talk) 13:23, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

I've moved the page to Trimethylolpropane triacrylate. The abbreviation will continue to work as a redirect. DGG ( talk ) 00:43, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Category deletion

Hi David

I enjoyed reading your bio, especially as we have nothing in common - I'm not an expert in anything but have a remarkably good eye for spelling errors! I have however always edited under my real name, not a particularly brave thing though, as I rarely get involved in fashionable or contentious subjects.

Could you please look at the deletion of Category:Gilbert and Sullivan performers? I became aware of this when one of the articles on my watchlist had this category removed as the category no longer existed. Gilbert and Sullivan is a well-defined and unique body of work, (not one I particularly enjoy, but have been subjected to four or five performances in the genre) and many performers have made it a speciality, and defines them as an artist; it's not just a casual association. Category:Shakespearean actors comes to mind as analogous.

When an article is put up for deletion, users who have shown an interest are usually pinged, but who gets notified about CfD? Is the only solution to keep an eye on Wikipedia:Categories for discussion in case something in which I'm interested comes up? Doug butler (talk) 20:35, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

Zimin

Hello. I have rewritten the article Draft:Dmitry Zimin that you have previously draftified. Could you please take a look at it? --colt_browning (talk) 15:35, 21 March 2020 (UTC)

• Any kind of response will be appreciated. --colt_browning (talk) 10:01, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Colt browning, I made some further copyedits for conciseness, and accepted it. DGG ( talk ) 16:28, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

• Thank you! --colt_browning (talk) 17:27, 1 April 2020 (UTC) @@@@@@@

Request on 19:15:30, 21 March 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Mw learner

• Mw learner (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Syra Madad (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Hi there, I have been researching Dr Syra Madad and was intending to create a wiki page on her. However, I saw that a draft had already been created but then declined for lack of notability. I was therefore wondering if you could elaborate on why you think Dr Madad fails to meet the notability critiera? Having checked WP:ACADEMIC and WP:BIO, I believe Dr Madad is notable enough for inclusion based on the following criteria:

WP:ACADEMIC

Criteria 7. The person has made substantial impact outside academia in their academic capacity. (Criterion 7 may be satisfied, for example, if the person is frequently quoted in conventional media as an academic expert in a particular area. A small number of quotations, especially in local news media, is not unexpected for academics and so falls short of this mark.)

Dr Madad has been frequently cited in the media with regards to her expertise in infectious disease, especially during the current coronavirus pandemic. She was also selected as an expert for the Netflix documentary 'Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak'.

• https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-expert-in-infectious-disease-preparedness-on-training-frontline-staff-2020-3?r=US&IR=T
• http://www.news12.com/story/41885952/nyc-doctor-to-be-featured-in-new-netflix-docuseries-about-pandemics
• https://www.vox.com/2020/3/15/21179296/coronavirus-covid-19-social-distancing-bored-pandemic-quarantine-ethics
• https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-ideas-to-fight-the-flu-1542723951
• https://www.bkreader.com/2019/01/28/kings-county-hospital-prepares-for-pandemic-outbreak-with-emergency-drill/
• https://1010wins.radio.com/media/audio-channel/in-depth-coronavirus-pandemics
• http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2019/nov/07/nyc-health-hospitals-urges-continuity-federal-fund/
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-program-protecting-us-from-deadly-pandemic-is-about-to-expire/2019/12/27/7c216c26-2280-11ea-bed5-880264cc91a9_story.html

WP:BIO

The subject has received significant coverage in multiple published secondary sources that are reliable, intellectually independent of each other, and independent of the subject.

Based on the sources listed above (and others not included), I believe this constitutes significant coverage of the subject.

Mw learner (talk) 19:15, 21 March 2020 (UTC)

Unlike the previous editor, you have some experience here in writing articles, and you have good work to your credit (looking at them, there are also af ew problems, which I will mention on your talk page). I think you could reasonably try to develop the page and resubmit it. It needs a good deal of bio added, but sources are available.

the problem here is that giving news interviews on matters of current concern is not making a major impact, but pure routine. (there have been a few very exceptional occasions where the interviews themselves have been matters for substantial coverage elsewhere, but I don't think that's the case here. ) What usually qualifies under that provision is a very senior bureaucrat, or someone who would equally well be notable under other criteria--for example, an author who has written important popular science books, or a very influential journalist. There needs to be some strong actually independent evidence, not just customary hype about qualifications given by the publication--most of them are written by the person or their press agent. For example [36] -- notice the PR-style vagueness about exact dates and other details .

Normally, her position has head of a small very specialized unit in a city's health department would not be likely to be considered notable But this is not normal times, and there is likely to be public interest in the qualification and background of people giving information on contagious disease. The problem here will be NOT NEWS. Obviously we're covering the pandemic in great detail, and our crowdsourcing can be more effective than ordinary reporting at keeping up to date on major events. But this may be considered peripheral.

Try it and let me know, & I will probably accept it. The guideline for passing AfC is whether it would pass AfD in mainspace; usually I can tell from experience, but this one is hard to predict. DGG ( talk ) 17:13, 22 March 2020 (UTC)

@@@@@@@

Articles for Deletion - ZunRoof

Hello,

I was publishing a page ZunRoof for my friend but it got marked for articles for deletion. Can you please help me approve it. Is there any way I can get help to get it approved. Would compensation for the article work? Please let me know what can I do to get it approved.

Kind Regards! --Aj30003000 (talk) 05:17, 23 March 2020 (UTC)

You apparently do not understand what the purpose of Wikipedia is. It is not for advertising, or publishing pages about one's friend's enterprises. The people who write here work as volunteers, including the administrators such as myself. One of the most foolish things you could do here is exactly what you have just done, offered to pay an administrator here for help in keeping an article. DGG ( talk ) 01:59, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Draft Review

Namaste DGG.

I joined Wikipedia recently and I have gone through some of the most important Wikipedia guidelines like GNG, NPOV and NCORP. I have edited a few articles to familiarize myself and I wrote about a company (link), I no longer work for (but still declared a COI). I came to know that a previous attempt was taken down through AfD and you were a participant in that talk. FYI, I strongly emphasize on NPOV so I have not promoted the company. Could you please help me review its new AfC draft and possibly suggest any improvements. It would help me become a better editor in the days to come! Thanks in advance!

Trinityfire (talk) 08:23, 23 March 2020 (UTC) @@@@@@@

Draft review

I revised the page you reviewed earlier and think I incorporated all your suggestions. Could you take a look again? Thanks! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Reinhart_Ceulemans — Preceding unsigned comment added by Saravicca (talk • contribs) 14:12, 23 March 2020 (UTC)

Make sure your references go somewhere--look at reference 6. Remember we need references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements. The ref in The millennials, for example, is a mere mention; the others seem like disguised press releases And, since this is your only contribution, and since it is written in exactly the format of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. DGG ( talk ) 18:22, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

@@@@@

Draft:Syra Madad

Hello DGG, I expanded it a bit and made it more respectable. What do you think about it ? I think it's quite close to wikipedia level. Yug (talk) 17:59, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Yug, you still need to remove some adjectives of praise or importance, check the section headings, reconsider if the article about her should be a guide to her routine statements about COVID, and try to find a better source for what she has accomplished tha her own statements in an interview DGG ( talk ) 01:23, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Press release

Hi DGG, looking to talk about which part of the article makes you believe Draft:Renowned LA is a press release? I kept it short for this reason (it's easier to get feedback).

• The first sentence and a half is basic overview and history
• The latter part of the second sentence is about who wears it to establish WP:SIGCOV
• The final sentence is about who I've found this company has worked with and who covers subject, again for WP:GNG and WP:SIGCOV guidelines

I'm thinking the later part of the second sentence where the article states celebrities who wear the brand could be redundant for WP:SIGCOV since its established in the following sentence.

I'm looking to create a few articles to keep me entertained during the Covid-19 pandemic and could use some feedback so every article I make over the next week or two doeesn't get deleted. I plan to use similar format when creating my stubs (overview and history then basic notability references). Pilot333 (talk) 14:10, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Pilot333, The draft's content is almost entirely name-dropping: the personal names of various celebrities who have worn their clothing, and the name of companies they work with . However, one of the refs is WWD; it's not accessible to non-subscribers, but if the coverage therew as substantial rather than a mere notice, it might be possible to write an acceptable article. In trying to write something here, the best way is to make sure you have three very good references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements before you start writing. The better the sources, the more confident you can be that your efforts will be successful. DGG ( talk ) 04:40, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

DGG, how would say Daily Paper or Enfants Riches Déprimés is any better than what I wrote?

@@@@@@@@@@@

Advice on a situation

If you don't mind, I could use some advice or input on a situation, not sure if I'm overreacting, under reacting, or acting appropriately, as the situation is sort of unique. This started when I placed a notability maintenance template as part of NPP and was working with the page creator here to explain the concerns. Apparently, I did not respond to his latest comment quick enough and came back to see that some article I created seven years ago had been stripped and gutted, by the user's own admittance as an act of retribution, further comments here. I reverted the edits he made, as I saw it as a WP:WITCHHUNT and an effort to be destructive instead of constructive and explained such and invited the user to comment on his concerns on the talk page. When the user started in with more passive-aggressive statements, judgments on my contributions, and empty apologies, I chose to try to WP:DISENGAGE and ask the user to stop what I perceived as harassing and continuing comments. I reverted one last time the users edits stating I would need time to review what is wrong with the article and their actions couldn't be viewed as constructive. From that the user has now set another passive aggressive deadline on me in their most recent comment on the Lucky Lou's talk page..

I'll be the first to admit, the Lucky Lou's article is problematic and in need of help and possibly not even notable. I had actually completely forgotten about this article that was created in my Wiki infancy. I would like to improve the article, but I feel that any edits I make would be met with interference and more unwanted interactions with this user. I also am concerned whether or not this user is performing the same acts of retribution against other reviewers/editors who are critical of their work. I could have handled the situation better by probably not reverting their edits and just coming back after a few days. I'm likely just going to wait for the user to move on in a continuing effort to WP:DISENGAGE as much as possible. Just wondering if I have some sort of responsibility in letting a third party know about this, to see if this user has done such actions in the past, since from what I understand retribution and unconstructive edits like this are very much against quite a few policies and I wouldn't want to see other reviewers/patrollers discouraged or attacked. Sorry to bring a bit of drama to your door, but I know you will give a fair assessment of the situation, including the things I could have done differently. If you want me to take the whole thing elsewhere, that's fine too. Cheers. Sulfurboy (talk) 21:55, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

I shall take a look.

But to notify me about something like this, I think it's better just to ask me to look at the history of the article and its talk page, and then I will be able to examine whatever may have been going on with any preconceptions. DGG ( talk ) 22:38, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

having taken a look, the only way to handle situations like this is to not get bothered by them. It isn't easy -- I get a few misguided reverts a year; it is impossible to actually win an argument about them, but I remember every one of them & keep trying to imagine some way to go back & do that. No matter how dispassionate I pretend to be, I do like to win arguments--fortunately. this place has the virtue that there's always so many other issues. DGG ( talk ) 03:19, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

House of Roper-Curzon

Any idea if Roper-Curzon family is a notable topic? As per off-wiki evidence, it was created for payment and there is a possible case of sockpuppetry as well. GSS ^💬 02:44, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

there is no such family. For the actual history see the most recent accurate version of the article on Baron Teynham. [37]. The later versions of that article are contaminated by the same imaginative genealogy. . DGG ( talk ) 05:56, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

In that case it must be nominated for deletion. I have reverted the most recent edits at Baron Teynham to non-coi version and dropped you an email. This looks like the same sockfarm. GSS ^💬 06:17, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

I'm surprized how this page was moved to main by user Passengerpigeon just within four minutes of its creation. Most of the sources have no mention of the family and/or aren't reliable so, can you please take a look? GSS ^💬 16:38, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

Yes, I was planning to check this aspect also. But it is very easy for a reviewer to make a mistake like this when working in unfamiliar fields. There's also a factor of special knowledge: as a librarian I know the inaccuracy of the usual sources for UK genealogy, & I've kept track of previous discussions here in that area. I therefore look closely at any entry on a historic English family that isn't from a known reliable editor. Additionally, many reviewers (including me) are making an attempt to immediately accept anything that seems to them clearly worthy. DGG ( talk ) 18:02, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

How different is the current article from the House of Roper-Curzon article which was AfD deleted a couple of months ago? It looks like it has the exact same notability/sourcing/OR issues that were brought up in the discussion. --bonadea contributions talk 10:00, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

@Bonadea: Looks almost the same. DGG can please G4? GSS ^💬 16:21, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

Deleted. DGG ( talk ) 22:09, 29 March 2020 (UTC) *****

I have unreviewed a page you curated

Hi, I'm Curb Safe Charmer. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, Hall's Safe & Lock Co., and have marked it as unpatrolled. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you.

Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 15:30, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

Draft: R Dub!

Draft: R Dub! you rejected the article, and I'm really confused as to why. There are 2 main reasons given for the rejection: lack of neutral / professional tone and lack of independent published sources. Could you tell me what's lacking in the first one? The 2nd one I'm just really confused by, because there are tons and tons of independent sources cited, including newspapers from various locations. Another proofreader previously asked if this person really is notable and deserves an article, so I was told to add awards proving notoriety (which I did) and to cite articles proving notoriety (which I mentioned on that proofreader's talk page and added as a note on the draft article). Could you clue me in? I'm just baffled at this point, because the article follows an exact format that I copied from other radio DJs who have articles, so if theirs are good enough, and this article follows the exact same style and format, I don't get why those are published and this one isn't. Glad for any pointers. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Smithryanallen (talk • contribs) 14:55, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

There are many hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove. The least we can do is not add to them. But before we go into details, since this is your only contribution, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. DGG ( talk ) 15:53, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

It's not for pay, I don't work with this person or anything like that. Just personal interest. I've edited articles in the past but never started one on wikipedia. I've done much more on wikitravel than on wikipedia itself.Smithryanallen (talk) 18:50, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

Apr 23 - any additional thoughts? I highlighted 'wiki 3' and notoriety as requested by a previous reviewer so looking for guidance on how to move forward. Thanks. Smithryanallen (talk)

Draft: Rocco Lupoi

Draft: Rocco Lupoi You claimed a personal opinion that the article was: "This is a promotional press release, not an encyclopedia article." Which is not based on any more explanation. This appears to be a poor justification, as the article entirely relies on external primary and secondary sources that are suitable to the "reliability" policy of wikipedia i.e. Reputable Newspapers and Media; and Academic Research Papers. Secondly on the lack of neutrality in the tone of some phrases, as it was outlined back in december by Taewangkorea, this has been corrected and rectified, to match the neutral tone standard of wikipedia. As such there is no evidence of "promotion" apart from your personal, perhaps biased judgement. I would appreciate the opinion of another Wikipedia Editor. Comment added by JackK19 (talk • contribs) 15:45, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

I think he means that subject needs notability. Researchers require a significant discovery of some sort to warrant an article of their own. What makes this scholar comparable to the achievements of another like Jordan Peterson? Pilot333 (talk) 00:23, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

My advice:

The role of AfC is not to judge articles, but to predict whether the community is likely to accept an article at AfD.

there are two possible standards for this article, WP:PROF, and WP:GNG. WP:PROF is not part of WP:GNG, but a separate guideline, and the usual way of meeting it is to show an impact on the profession through the evidence of highly cited peer-reviewed articles or books from major academic presses--there are a few auxiliary guideline such as major prizes which more ofr less amount to the same thing. We judge the amount of citations according to the field, but this is a matter of judgment for each individual AfD; the one definitely clear level is in the biomedical sciences where at least one or preferably two papers with over 100 citations each is expected. Most other fields have a lower density of publication and thus a lower level, butt here's no specific figure. It is not explicitly a comparison with others, though that is a factor which can help in thinking about the necessary level. There are many ways of doing influential work, and "significant discovery" is often too specific a term. AfD is too erratic for direct comparisons with other articles. Having one inappropriate articles does not mean we should have another, while having unwisely rejected a suitable article does not imply we should reject another. But the comparison here is not relevant, because Jordan Peterson is noto only in a completely different field, but even more important, he is not only notable, but extremely notable, and I might even say famous. People do not have to be at that level to warrant an article.

Promotionalism is a separate factor. Any one reason for WP:NOT is reason for exclusion, and NOT ADVOCACY is at least as important as NOT INDISCRIMINATE.

Looking at this specific draft: I made an error is judging it unlikely to meet notability. First, it should have been judged by WP:PROF, the highest citation figures are 79, 79, 63, 61. Materials science is a field without an established consensus at afd, but this is significant enough to make it quite possible that it would be considered to meet WP:PROF. So that part is OK, & I just re-reviewed to remove that tag.

The question then is promotionalism. I judged it promotional on the basis of the information about grants. The size of the grant is a matter of great concern to universities and consequently to researchers, for it is a very important factor is whether they will keep a researcher. It is not of much value to the reader of an encyclopedia , and material of interest primarily to the subject or his bosses is considered promotional here. In particular to be one of a number of researcher members of a department listed in a grant to the department is irrelevant--such a grant lists everyone possible to make a case for the overall merit of the unit.

Patents are considered irrelevant unless exploited to a notable extent. Universities patent everything possible in the hope of a windfall. If judged as an inventor of a particular patented process, we'd first have to judge the process notable. Therefore the mention of possible commercial applications is also usually promotional . It can be mentioned, but not emphasized.

The article is fixable. The intent of using the tag is that the article get fixed. So, JackK19, fix it and resubmit. List those highly cited papers, don't bother about the grants. Let me know, & I will accept it. DGG ( talk ) 01:13, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

@@@@@@

Draft:Benchmark School

Can G11 be used here since it just survived an AfD? Sulfurboy (talk) 01:39, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

You are right thatI should let someone else deal with it. I removed the G11. DGG ( talk ) 04:44, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

It is a nightmare of a draft. However, with how many people are monitoring it and the page creator's obvious unwillingness to improve it, there's zero chance it goes anywhere anyways. Sulfurboy (talk) 05:01, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

Thank you David, I'll try to gather the source and write other relevant articles that I know! Will work for the next draft articles in my free time from school! Appreciate it! Antony Willianson (talk) 04:44, 2 April 2020 (UTC) @@@@

Thank you for the reply. I had been trying to contact the other person who flagged this page but got no response, so it's been a somewhat disappointing experience in the community so far. But I do appreciate you taking the time out to explain the situation. Since I am able to see pages for much smaller (and lesser known) companies in India, I'm guessing the page removal was more to do with the content style than the brand's notability. Would you mind assisting me with what is required for an acceptable submission? Looking forward to learn and iterate! Ymed07 (talk) 10:58, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Help needed!

Hello David Goodman! My draft article: Robam Kenorei was declined earlier! These few days I have edited and added some information to the draft article. The reference for this dance is very rare, I could find only a few on internet! I did my best seeking help from others as well! This dance was almost vanished during the Cambodian civil war. I believed creating the article about this dance will allow others who have access to its sources to edit it! I need somebody to improve it as well but I dont know where we can get help for this draft article! This draft article will be a new article with the title "Robam" of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia like other articles such as Robam Tep Apsara (now Apsara Dance), Robam Sovann Maccha, Robam Moni Mekhala,...

Please check my edition to the draft article and inform me whether it is ready for approval! I need other editors to improve it as well! Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Antony Willianson (talk • contribs) 15:51, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

Antony Willianson. you are correct that having it in mainspace will make it more visible to others who might want to work on it, so I accepted it. And I certainly urge you to continue on related topics. You might want to ask the Dance wikiproject for help with sourcing. DGG ( talk ) 17:46, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 14

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (March 2020).

Danski454's code-link is this month's featured script

RealFakeKim's pageInfo • Guywan: InsertShortcuts • ConfirmLogout

Headbomb's Unreliable/Predatory Source Detector has been updated to include more sources

• Evad37's rater script is now on version 2.5. New features include:

1. No longer showing dropdowns for projects without ratings
2. Making use of Category:WikiProject banner templates not based on WPBannerMeta to detect templates
3. Automatically detecting Good Article, Featured Article, and Featured List status, and limiting ORES predictions to B-class

• An updated version of Twinkle was released. Features relating to the recently-enabled
  partial blocks include automatic lookup of pages and expanded options for block templates.
  See a full list of changes here
• For users of Enterprisey's easy-brfa script, the bug with transcluding new BRFAs has been resolved
• Guywan's RefCruncher has had minor updates

Miscellaneous

• For any scripts that previously made use of the edit API to change a page's content model,
  a new API module is available: use action=changecontentmodel to specify the new
  content model of an existing page. Documentation is available: mw:API:ChangeContentModel.
• The dispute resolution noticeboard wizard is no longer a gadget, but rather is loaded using
  withJS and withCSS. See the discussion at MediaWiki talk:Gadget-DRN-wizard.js

Pending requests

• A script to help file movers process requests, including
  1. renaming the file
  2. updating file links
  3. removing the {{Rename media}} template (when relevant)
• ...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

Stay safe, --DannyS712 (talk) 05:48, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

---

• About the newsletter
• Subscription options
• Discuss this issue

DGG hello, are you aware of this Google Script (fiddle) to pull data from wikipedia Covid template ? Yug (talk) 07:27, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Don't understand why the article was denied. Please help!

Hi DGG,

I saw your note about the Beyond Better Foods article, and am confused. What was on it that made it seem promotional?

Most of the articles are direct references to the existence of the company and the product, with the primary article, being a full page feature in the New York Times, goes into detailed length about the formation of the company.

The article that you referred to, the USA Today article, was listed (and ultimately summarized in a non-promotional way) with 9 other articles, merely to give an example that the products of this company have covered extensively in major outlets with extensive reach over a long period of time, which they indeed have. Would it help to remove the sentence though (although it feels relevant to establish the impact that the products that beyond better foods have had in the market)?

If you could help provide this clarification, that would be great and allow me to correct this. It seems that a major company such as this, that is available around the country and has multiple products, should be here. I see other similar companies, like Halo Top Creamery (there's a full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ice_cream_brands) all have pages.

Also I might add that this page also lists major legal controversy (which I thought was also relevant) to illustrate neutrality as well.

Thanks again for your help - these comments are in earnest and looking to find a way to improve this. Came across this while reading Lisa Lillien's page and thought there should be a connection.

Best!

Articlegooroo (talk) 02:41, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

The purpose of AfC is not to give the reviewer's personal judgment on articles. Rather, it's a place where the reviewer uses their experience of what happens at WP:AFD deletion discussions in WP to predict whether an article has a decent chance of passing an AfD. In the end, the community makes the decision.

It is quite possible that not all the ones listed there ought to have articles; There are many hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove. The least we can do is not add to them. The current standards for companies and their products, WP:NCORP, is much more rigorous than when I started here 12 years ago. It is designed to limit the coverage to those firms for which people would expect to find an encyclopedia article, because they have been the subject of substantial independent discussion in reliable source, discussion that is not based on press releases or interviews where the founder says whatever they please--even if such interviews are published in otherwise trustworthy news sources--even the best newspapers such as the New York Times has been known to do so, and even good journalists sometimes write them. The article there seems to be of that sort. The Times is respectable, and the author a skilled professional, and therefore the article actually and honestly explains at the top that it was inspired by one of the investors in the company. And that's pretty much what is expected in its "Small Business section". It's reasonable for a newspaper, but not an encyclopedia.

But in any case we need more than a single good reference, which is one of the ways we guard against this sort of PR. Some of the other reverences are not substantially about the company, but about the product category-- Redbook (2 sentences out of 5 paragraphs, Healthline, Womens Health, Today.com . One is just a collection of blurbs about assorted interesting products: refinery29, One is an openly declared press releases: NOSH. Two are PR disguised as pseudo-articles: delish.com, popsugar. And one is about a competitor: GQ.

The negative information is a feature we've been seeing more frequently: when a promotional editor does it, it's an attempt to convince the reader that the articles is neutral. And, of course, "All publicity is good publicity"

I don't think you're a promotional editor; rather, a promotional style is so common in WP, and in the real world, that it's hard to avoid. And I do not think the article hopeless; I declined it; I didn't reject it. (At AfC, "reject " is used when a article is hopelessly inappropriate, and the message that would be posted would warn the editor not to resubmit.) I think you can strengthen the article by omitting the weaker references. And then another reviewer will judge. DGG ( talk ) 03:35, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Hi User:DGG,

I"m really trying here to get this article up to snuff. What do I need to do? I tried providing a number of articles that list dietitians and certified individuals from NUMEROUS outlets, providing plaudits and listings for this company and its products. What am I missing here? Now I'm being told it reads like a press release. I feel like every time I'm moving forward its actually two steps back.

I feel like this is hopeless and yet so clearly should be something that should be here. Is there someone that can just go through and edit it as it needs, or give some kind of guidance? I'm unable to find articles that read well that I can model for a similar product or company.

Please help :/

Articlegooroo (talk) 02:13, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

Draft:The Roadex Project

Dear DDG. I trust that you are keeping safe in these unprecedented times. Thank you for your comments on the draft ROADEX project page. I have tried to take them on board and simplified the draft with less jargon and in-house references. I would welcome your thoughts on where I have got.Ronmun (talk) 15:49, 4 April 2020 (UTC) Ronmuni. I revised it further, and accepted it.. DGG ( talk ) 03:26, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

Thank you DGG. I had a declaration on my Ronmun account giving the background to the page and my involvement. I have updated it to make it current and have copied it here also. Hopefully it will be sufficient for COI.

"This account has been created primarily to document the history of the EU Northern Periphery ROADEX project and its successor ROADEX NETWORK collaboration. I am retired civil engineer and was actively involved with the ROADEX project since its inception in 1998. I held various roles ranging from steering committee member for the pilot ROADEX project, steering committee chairman for ROADEX II and project manager for ROADEX III & IV. I am currently an ad hoc adviser to the consultant ROADEX NETWORK secretariat on historical issues. I realise that there are guidelines on editing pages where there could be an apparent conflict of interest and will try to keep my text to statements of fact only, supporting by references and citations where possible. It is my intention to follow all of Wikipedia's guidelines and I will welcome any help or contributions to ensure that the ROADEX Project page remains within these guidelines".Ronmun (talk) 10:49, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

that declaration will do very well. If you want to add more, add about their accomplishments, not their plans, and use 3rd party sources. DGG ( talk ) 21:24, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

@@@@@@

About Sandeep Maheshwari

Actually I am confused with your deletion request as you told that the article is promotional but is it because in the article social blade is used? Is the reason or something else? Kashish pall (talk) 05:45, 5 April 2020 (UTC) @@@@@

Hello and thank you

Hello DGG, thank you for your insight and suggestions on the Draft:Cel-Sci Corporation. I tried to fixed as per your suggestions and your valuable comment and review is required. Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mickey Richard (talk • contribs) 09:02, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

Mickey Richard, I accepted it, but that just means I think it will pass a challenge at AfD, not that I guarantee it. DGG ( talk ) 03:55, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

Thank you very much, I completely understand. Mickey Richard (talk) 18:16, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Couid you please help me restore my article on Jerrold Mundis?

Hello DGG, I really appreciate your page where you explain your view of the universe. A great read. If you could help me restore all the hard work I did and help me get on a path to do it properly, I would be most grateful. I think it would also help a great many people. Jerrold's death is a big loss to many as I anticipated it would be.

I will leave the explanation for my appeal that I wrote for the speedy deletion. Please note that after I wrote that I added some citations from the New York Times (which I planned to do all along) to bolster my case. But alas, the initial article was gone when I returned a few hours later. If you could please help me get it back, I think it would be just.

If I have to start it somewhere else, like my sandbox, subject to approval, I will do so. But I'd love to retrieve my work thus far.

Here was my appeal:

This page is not unambiguously promotional, because... this person died 4/4/2020 from the Covid-19 virus. He is the author of 30 books, both fiction and non-fiction and has been an editor at The New York Times. He is a member of the Authors Guild, PEN American Center, and Poets & Writers, is listed in Contemporary Authors and the Directory of American Poets & Fiction Writers.

I was surprised to find there was no Wikipedia page on him so I created one. I am sure other writers and publishers will be interested in his passing and will be willing to help with this page if more needs to be added to it. At the present time I was just trying to create a factual page about a genuine important person with a writing career that spans over 40 years. Please let me know what I can do to improve this article. I was not trying to be overly promotional, just to state his importance as a public figure. His book HOW TO GET OUT OF DEBT, STAY OUT OF DEBT & LIVE PROSPEROUSLY has helped literally tens of thousands of people all over the world and is an important text in the 12 step worlds of Debtors Anonymous and Underearners Anonymous. Furthermore, the current economic crisis is sure to being more people to these 12 step fellowships for help.

I would be happy to do more research and/or make any changes or eliminate any sentences or paragraphs or citations that appear to be promotional that you deem necessary to being this article up to your standards. I was just trying to make a first pass at creating a summary of this man's importance to the world. Like I said, I was very surprised that he was not already listed in Wikipedia. Thank you for seriously considering this. I am sure many people will be looking for this article in the days to come as news of his death becomes more well known.

I realize now perhaps I should have put it in my sandbox and begun it that way. Whatever could happen to set things right, I am willing to do it to get this article up. Jerrold Mundis helped thousands of people, died Saturday of the Covid-19 virus and I would put him in the category of a professor that you cited in your DGG page. I loved what you wrote there and though he was not a professor, he had a 40 year career as a published writer and deserves to be on Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iochone (talk • contribs) 13:30, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

Iochone, Yes, you can make another try. I have combined the earlier material into the present Draft:Jerrold Mundis DGG ( talk ) 21:24, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

But to make a viable non-promotional article, you will need to remove t like "Mundis first studied debt management following the navigation of a tough spot of his own financially. Working as a freelance writer his whole life meant not having a fixed income. Needing to borrow if he didn’t manage his money properly, he had debts around $80,000. Unable to escape this cycle, he discovered there were no resources available which inspired him to write his book." or "has helped thousands of people getting out debt and made him a "superstar of getting out of debt and debt management.", and also eliminate all adjectives of praise or quality. Additionally, smashword, goodreads, , and wealthclinic are not acceptable sources: list the books --all the books, but combining multiple editions--according to their entries in Worldcat.,not amazon, because Amazon includes promotional material with their entries. Boca Raton News and other local newspapers are not really great sources--try to stick to the NYTimes and sources of similar quality.

And be aware that Wikipedia uses notable as a term of art to mean only, "appropriate for an article in Wikipedia according to its guidelines" , which has no necessary connection with the general meaning of " importance to the world" ., or whether someone "deserves" to be in Wikipedia

Finally, since the contribution was written in exactly the format of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. DGG ( talk ) 19:35, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks so much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Iochone (talk • contribs) 19:55, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

PS I am not a connected contributor, not writing this for pay and not a staff member of any organization connected to Mr. Mundis or his publishers. Thanks.

Thank you for your valuable inputs. Will definitely make the mentioned improvements in the article to make it neutral along with 3 independent sources for reference. Thanks again. Regards, Tarukh Kaul

 Tarukh Kaul (talk) 08:25, 7 April 2020 (UTC)  @@@@@'

writing about products and compapnis

If you want to write Wikipedia articles on people, don't write them on the founders of new companies. If you want to write Wikipedia articles on products, write on a generic product with multiple producers, and mention none of them. DGG ( talk ) 17:41, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Admin's Barnstar
	Thank you for your extraordinary diligence! Reciprocater (Talk) 07:37, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

Deleted Draft: Joe Lamp'l

Hi, I am new to this and just trying to create an objective article for Joe Lamp'l. My article was deleted for being too promotional. Can you help me understand how I could have better stated facts about this person's career with links to what exists on the internet without it appearing too promotional? Also, if I want to give this another try, should I start from scratch or is there a way to edit the article I wrote? Thanks! Aprentice525 (talk) 13:34, 7 April 2020 (UTC) @@@@@@@@@

Rejected Article: Heal

Hi, I was recently rejected the article for Heal(2017 documentary film) and I was wondering what sections were deemed as advertisement. I included biographical data of the individuals of the film and the purpose for their appearance in the film, overall summary of the film, background on mind-body medicine, and the few accolades it has received. As for the lack of notability reason, I believe the film is sufficient for its own article as it is widely available through Netflix. Overall, I believe my tone was neutral and so any detailed feedback would be appreciated. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CaMenendez (talk • contribs) 18:33, 7 April 2020 (UTC)

Apparently this is part of an educational project, so it was not intended to be promotional  ; unfortunately are so many hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that are promotional , that it can seem natural to write in that manner. Looking more closely, promotionalism is not the main problem. There are the following problems with the article:

1. The promotional element was the inclusion of the promotional information about the participants in the biographies. Biographies of this sort of the people in the film are not normally part of a Wikipedia article. They are , however, part of press releases. It would have been sufficient to link to the articles on the people who had them, and identify the others in a few words within the text.
2. Being available on Netflix is irrelevant. Notability of films depends upon references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements; we sometimes do use major awards as a convenient shorthand, and also some of the other factors in WP:NFILM
3. There are no third party sources about the film. Ref 1 is the film itself, 2 is the film's web page, 3 & 4 are about mind-body medicine in general. the others are about the individuals who appear in the film. The only one of them that seems to mention the film is https://robwergin.com/heal-documentary-media/ IMDB, as you know, does not count as a Reliable source to show notable ,as it includes everything it can get information on.
4. Did your course instructor suggest this film for an article? DGG ( talk ) 22:15, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Hi DGG, Thank you for the response, it cleared many of my questions. I plan on removing many of the biographies of the individuals that already have one like you mentioned. I found a couple of reviews of the film such as https://slate.com/technology/2018/01/documentary-heal-makes-important-points-about-positivity.html , https://www.filminquiry.com/heal-2017-review/ and https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/heal-1052491 among others. Perhaps I can include these reviews in a "Reception" section to address the notability and third-party issue. To answer your question, my course instructor gave the "OK" for the film. Please let me know if this is a good method to proceed. CaMenendez

U|CaMenendez}}, go ahead as you plan-those reviews are critical, especially Hollywood Reporter, if the review there was substantial. It is one of the best sources in the industry DGG ( talk ) 03:35, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

I have just made the necessary edits to the article as you suggested. I do agree that it seems to be a stronger and well-balanced article now after your suggestions, so thank you for that. Please consider the article to be published and once again, thank you for your time in helping me with this. CaMenendez

CaMenendez. There's still the problem that thedetails of the peoples illnesses are minor plot details, and the reports of them do not meet the standards for MEDRS. The list of individuals duplicates about half of this, and does not describe them in NPOV language. For example, there is no such thing as a chiropractic physician; a chiropractor is not a physician. DGG ( talk ) 19:33, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Jerrold Mundis

I realise that the article creator had approached you before he agreed to improve the draft, but now the promotional content has been restored and the draft is as bad as it was before I deleted it in the first place. Deb (talk) 10:10, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

Kirkus

Hi, saw your statement about Kirkus in afd. Is it no longer reliable due to Simon purchasing it? Will the Reliable Sources page be updated? Thanks for any help you can provide. Caro7200 (talk) 12:59, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

It reviews independently published books if they are paid to do so. But I need to check that this is still thecase. It certainly was in the past. DGG ( talk ) 17:57, 9 April 2020 (UTC)

AfC Draft Freudenberg Performance Materials

Hi DGG,

I hope you are well! I've seen that you edited the Draft: Freudenberg Performance Materials. I wonder if you have any recommendation on whether the article should be moved to mainspace or not. If you think it should be moved, I am happy to update the financials real quick. Thank you very much in advance for your feedback. Best, Conandcon (talk) 09:19, 10 April 2020 (UTC) @@@@

(talk page stalker) I won't speak for DGG, but I can tell you that if I were to review that page right now it would be a decline. There's too many sources that are press releases, unreliable blogs, or non-notable niche websites. Sulfurboy (talk) 01:34, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

I think the best course for the present would be to incorporate it into the main article or the parent firm, and do similarly with the other divisions of the company. The deWP to a considerable degree seems to accept the notability of major companies based upon common sense as well as references ,and accepts that the majority of the references wiill come from the company itself. TheEnglish WP, because of the degree to which it is underattack by promotional editiors, tends to rely moreuponstrict conformity with WP:NCORP. Personally, I think that for historic firms, the German way is better, but it is difficult to make that argument here. DGG ( talk ) 03:09, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

Thank you Sulfurboy and DGG for your feedback. Maybe two remarks: The current German version of the article uses a mix of literature, news (trade and daily press) as well as company sources such as the annual report. We had chosen other sources for the enWP as the sources are all in German and it would have been hard for independent users to check content and sources. Regarding the deWP way of handling companies: The German WP has a clear and communicated notability criteria. When it comes to companies this means that the company needs to have at least 1000 FTEs or more than 100m revenue or being listed at a regular stock exchange or have 20 sites according to article 5 OECD-MA DBA or it has to "have a dominant position or innovative leaderhsip in a relevant product group or service (independent source required)" or it had fulfilled one criteria at some point in the past. As a consultant - obviously - I believe this is a pretty straight forward way to handle this - even though the criteria regarding market position leaves space for interpretation. Regarding sources the German community seems to accept trade press and (some) company sources more likely than enWP. However, you generaly need to have independent, reliable sources to back it up. Company sources tend to be accepted when it comes to facts (e.g. employee numbers, revenue etc.).

Having said that: My intention for this query was to ask how to proceed with the draft of Freudenberg Performance Materials, as you DGG, had made some changes. I thought I maybe could be of assistance. So I did not come here to argue or discuss anything really. My primary goal is to connect companies with the community and try to get a better result for the reader at the end. All the best, Conandcon (talk) 19:33, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Conandcon, Just so it's clear (as some of your comments seem to be misdirected) the German wiki notability standard has zero bearing on whether or not this company would be considered notable on enWiki. We are two separate projects. Our concern also with this article is how it is sourced. The vast majority of the sources are either press releases, unreliable blogs with zero editorial oversight, and/or niche trade magazines which are often subject to both of the aforementioned concerns. We need to see sourcing from reliable, secondary sources.

Yes, I fully understand and respect (!) that. I was just trying to clarify the German way. I was not trying to argue or discuss. Sorry, if that has not come across clearly. Best, Conandcon (talk) 19:52, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

:I should mention that I have tried for 12 years at enWP to get the acceptance of notability based on rational criteria relevant to the importanceof the subject to the user of an encyclopedia , rather than details of sourcing. The consensus has almsot always been against me. except in some special areas. DGG ( talk ) 05:56, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Galerie Chalette

Hi DGG-- I joined Wikipedia recently, and I'm writing here because I saw your entry on the Wiki-Projects Visual Arts page as having a "primary interest is in rescuing inadequate or threatened artist biographies." Looking over all that you've written here, I'm thinking that this is a primary element of a secondary interest for you, but... reading through your page, I get the sense that you are tilting at some of the same windmills that interest me.

I started working on the Galerie Chalette page because it was something that I knew a little bit about and which I figured would lead me into an interesting and valuable group of artists. I first picked off Leon Polk Smith for serious revision, and have been working outward from there. Jean Arp and Josef Albers are probably the two most obvious notable/important artists by some measure... it was actually pretty shocking to me that Albers's teaching was not addressed in detail in the first draft I saw up.

In any case, I am now grappling with the aspect of all these pages/articles that visual elements are important to understanding much of anything in this field. I very much am trying to conform to Wikipedia's copyright/fair use policies, but still evidently haven't figured them out yet as an entire gallery was stripped out of the Galerie Chalette page (unless I am imagining things and I didn't save my changes, an entirely possible/plausible explanation). If you have the time or interest, would you mind having a look at... the Galerie Chalette, Leon Polk Smith, Jane Davis Doggett and Stephanie Scuris pages? I list the four because it shows... more broadly what I am attempting to do. Also Robert Engman, though that page really need some sorting and I haven't quite figured on the best workable approach there.

This ia a truly notable group of artists who had a notable impact through their work. But there are several different levels of complication in transferring an informational sense of their work, lives, and impact into a written account.

Oh--and here's the general statement that I'm trying to develop for my non-free fair use uploads...

"Writing about late 20th c. Art and Artists and Art Galleries

This is not easy, particularly as the bulk of the visual supporting material remains under copyright. This has led to a general avoidance of developing quality articles on these subjects. It is not possible to understand these visual topics without illustrations of the work in question. While repecting these elderly and dead artists' estates (where such exist) rights to retain copyright, it will not be possible to broaden either appreciation or understanding without some minimal visual representation of the work and context in which that work was produced."

None of this is intended as a complaint--I'm reaching out in the hope that I can improve my learning curve. My preference--doing the work in an acceptable format... the first time.

All best, Katya Sicklemoon (talk) 17:51, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

First, the general part: you will find it extremely difficult to change the NFFU criteria: The enWikipedia community takes a very narrow approach to this, and their basic principle is to keep it to an absolute minimum. The justification is to make as much content as possible usable directly in those countries that do not recognize Fair Use, and those commercial re-uses for which Fair Use would not apply even in the US. They are aware that in the US it would be legally possible to be very much broader--the US law of fair use is more liberal than any other country.

My own personal view is different, and I think we should take advantage of as much fair use as falls squarely within the current US judicial interpretation. Since some of our images are fair use even now, people reusing in non-fair use countries already know they have to be careful, and we would,, as we do, label the fair use content. My view has approximately zero chance of ever being accepted here. Some of the reason is historical: at the time WP started, copyright observance on the internet was chaotic, and outright pirating was rampant.As Wikipedia was trying to do something that had never been done before, it could well have been seen necessary to adopt a very strict approach to this to differentiate ourselves from the pirates-indeed, the eventual decision to allow fair use images at all was a close thing, and many other WPs decided differently.

My advice is not to even try. If you do, prepare tor either a quick dismissal of all your arguments without serious consideration, or a long discussion with almost everyone opposing you, and an eventual overwhelming vote against you. DGG ( talk ) 19:44, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

Hola! It took me a few days to see this...

Thank you for your serious response (and your patience in coming back to a question that I'm sure has been posed before). I note with irritation the rather good job that has been done on the John Singer Sargent page. I guess if you are a socially successful artist and popular, and have been dead since 1925, you're in good shape! The talk page there was interesting. And, yes, definitely there has been a contention over many of the images.

I have to say, coming at this from another angle... I also wonder if there is some sort of unconscious conservative bias at work against non-figurative modern art. For a lot of people, Picasso, in their mental landscape, really is the end of things.

And I will add--the gallery creep and creeps!--who seem to be doing a lot of the writing here are rather skin-crawly. I don't have any real desire to become a champion for this late 20th c coterie, but... there's such a void in the knowledge base.

Okay--I am sure you have much else to do, but I wanted to touch base to say your background info was helpful. I'll be interested to see what happens with the Galerie Chalette exhibition catalogues! And, yes, I'll try not to let a fixation on images prevent me from doing some more work on the late 20th c art guys & gals.... all best, K Sicklemoon (talk) 18:51, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

If anything, there's a certain bias against figurative contemporary art. The coverage of Wikipedia is based on what people are interested in writing, and most of the volunteers here interested in the visual arts are more likely to be interested in developing genres, or else in art history. But what is absolutely true, is that about 90% of the articles on contemporary artists are written by the press agents. As you apparently noticed, the style is distinctive and very similar to a gallery brochure. We would need a serious campaign to rewrite them, but at least we try to avoid accepting more. And the articles on galleries and dealers are a particular problem this way-- so much so, that it is very difficult to get any new ones accepted. You may be interested in our many WP:MEETUPs devoted to the arts--in the NYC area, and elsewhere, once they are able to resume. DGG ( talk ) 00:01, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Point taken. The safely dead, or the currently trying to move artwork. I... am feeling a touch naive for having jumped into the pool with the idea of filling in... the gap that comes between those two. After I put up the Stephanie Scuris page, I sent her a postcard at the address the 'net has for her. She's...90? I've never met her, but wow she was hot potatoes in the 1960s! Here's this amazing woman who made a living out of doing these huge, "important" sculptures in metal, she made a comfortable bundle, she was up there with 'the big boys,' and... she's old news, so there was no article for her. If she cared about the internet or bothered with press agents, she'd definitely already have had an entry here!

I'm still trying to figure out how far to enmesh myself in this project. Don Quixote, right?

As always, thank you for the thoughtful response. --K Sicklemoon (talk) 18:53, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Precious anniversary

Precious

Seven years!

- Happy Easter, or: the resurrection of loving-kindness --Gerda Arendt (talk) 12:12, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Paul Andrews (scientist)

Dear DGG, I've edited the page again for neutrality, added biographical details, and have added a section on clinical use of the receptor antagonists that is supported by referenced works independent of Andrews.

Many thanks for reviewing it again. Best wishes Emesis-historian (talk) 11:34, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Taidoc

Hi DGG! I'm trying hard to create my articles and started this page as a stub, can't we start out as a stub and wait for the item to become more notable? -Keiichi88 (talk) 01:15, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

first question:hav you any conflict of interest with this company, as defined in WP:Conflict of Interest? If it is in any direct or indirect sense a paid conflict of interest, see also WP:PAID for the necessary declarations. DGG ( talk ) 02:58, 14 April 2020 (UTC)

no conflict of interest, however, I do intend on continue writing listed companies, I'm just stressed out why it's not "notable". -Keiichi88 (talk) 00:43, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Keiichi88Notability for a company requires meeting WP:NCORP, several references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements . The only such ref is the money.dj, which I expected to find a mere database listing, like the ones from Bloomberg and Yahoo, or a promotional interview with the founder, as in most business "news: publications, but (judging by what seems to be a very effective Google translation) is a full detailed analysis, based on data, not just promotional statements from the company. . (judging by what seems to be the very competent Google translation) You need to find some way to include some translated quotes from it, and ideally find one more source. But for now just add some information about market share, and resubmit, and let me know on my talk page.

In general, please realize that 90% at least of articles we get submitted on new or small companies are essentially promotional, and most of them written by undeclared paid editors. We are therefore somewhat skeptical. The way to write of companies is to try to pick the longest established with the largest market share, and to look for good references before you start writing. DGG ( talk ) 07:02, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Understood! Will continue to work on it, had some time to think things through since getting rejected, but I'm determined to contribute and will follow your suggestions. Keiichi88 (talk) 06:15, 1 June 2020 (UTC)

Revised:Heal

Hi DGG, I have made the edits you previously suggested to the article including reviews for the film to address the notability and third-party issues. Please consider accepting this draft and thank you for your time and effort in helping me with this project. CaMenendez' ( talk )

you're getting there. But consider such phrases as "He has visited over 33 countries to conduct speeches about a variety of topics" this is first of all vague and meaningless,, and second sound lie it was taken from the film's publicity or introduction. Easiest way to go would be not to have numbered sections on each person, just short paragraphs. irt decreases the overemphasis of the names, and makes it sound less promotional . DGG ( talk ) 07:06, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Hi DGG, I have made the necessary edits to make the article as neutral as possible. Thank you. CaMenendez' 15 April 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

G13 Eligibility Notice

The following pages will become eligible for CSD:G13 shortly.

• Draft:HealthPocket

Thanks, HasteurBot (talk) 04:00, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Hi!

Anushka Sen article was deleted. Please restore it on my sandbox. Thank you, Dineshswamiin (talk) 05:18, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

My submission at VCE Exam Simulator (April 15)

Hi David. Thank you for taking your time to review my edit. I do see why somebody might consider the article to be non-notable enough, I guess that is subjective. The reason for writing here is to check whether you declined the page because you suspected it to be spam / written with commercial or such intentions. As I understand you deal with such spam regularly. I just want to state that my submission was not intended as spam or with commercial intentions. This is my first WP article and this took me quite some time to write and collect the references based on the feedback of Liance. I do think the quality of WP comes first, but just want to make sure it was not rejected because of some misunderstanding of the intentions for posting. The reason for posting was because it took me quite some time to figure out why it was so difficult to find a version of an VCE file that would open with an older version of the VCE Exam Simulator. While this product seems the only actually used product in this market of exam simulators it is hard to find independent information on the subject. I looked on WP because I hoped to find more on it here. Since nothing was here I hoped to facilitate by publishing the little that I do have reliable / independent information of. This might make it easier for others to add to in the future. Please let me know if this might change your POV on the submission and if there is anything else I can do to preserve this information. Paulvl (talk) 07:59, 15 April 2020 (UTC)

Question on citations

Hey DGG, First of all, thanks for reviewing my article that was submitted for creation! It is reassuring to know others take the time to ensure that shared knowledge is of good quality.

Now, as for my question I'd like to say that I am fairly new to writing Wikipedia articles. In fact, the draft about Text World Theory is my first serious article that I would love to see published. The theory itself is of course not my original research. I just read the book for a University class, saw that it had no Wikipedia page and wanted to share it for others to see.

You commented that it seemed notable, but that it needed additional references to see where the statements came from exactly. Since I am new to this and I cannot really claim that I am a complete expert on the topic myself, I heavily relied on the book that introduced the theory for students like me, plus additional sources that work with the same concepts or use the theory in a different context. Consequently, I could reference nearly every sentence to a certain passage in one of the books that I used. However, it seems to me that that would both be unnecessary as it is clear that the article is based on these books or peer-reviewed articles, as well as that it would make the entire article less enjoyable to read with this immense amount of little blue numbers.

So my question is, when can it be said that the amount of references suffices? The guidelines that I have seen on this aren't clear enough for me, so I turn to an experienced editor for help.

Thanks in advance! I will continue to work on it, but I would love to hear your tips. Owndifiction (talk) 15:00, 15 April 2020 (UTC)Owndifiction

there are several different complementary answers.

1. the amount of references suffices when nobody challenges them. this can depend on how controversial the article is, how much attention it gets, or just someone being difficult.
2. . It varies by subject: for biographies of living people, we usually do reference every substantial individual fact,--which is our own rule; for medical articles we usually reference every sentence--which is the custom in the professional literature; for articles on history, we usually give only fairly general references, though professional writing in this field usually references every individual fact, resulting in books composed about 2/3 of references, and the other humanities seem to be moving in the same direction--but normally we do not do this here, though a few Wikipedia articles written by academics in the field are written somewhat in that manner
3. . It depends somewhat on the likely familiarity of the reader with the subject, and that's the problem here.
4. . The way to go is to cite one or two standard works for most parts--you can cite them repeatedly: If in the visual editor, you cite one, and then simply copy the reference number. For specific points, then cite additional references. It's not the number of references, but their strength that matters. So for books, always give the publisher; for articles, always the journals; for web sites, avoid unless there's nothing better. DGG ( talk ) 00:07, 17 April 2020 (UTC)

Article Declined

Thank you DGG ( talk ) for your review of Draft: Aaron D. Lewis, corrections noted and would work on them. TheEpistle (talk) 00:56, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I apologize if I am reaching out incorrectly or if this is not a matter for the talk page, as I am unfamiliar with Wikipedia. I am the person who proposed deleting the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewbaker_v._Regents page. Thank you for your response to my proposed deletion. I did find a third party source on the case, a book titled The Law of Higher Education, sixth edition, student version, and cites the case for the proposition that an administrative school disciplinary matter held after a criminal prosecution for the same conduct does not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause. Does this make the case notable with respect to Wikipedia? I would volunteer to try re-writing the page to focus on its legal notability in order to remove the strange interpretation that the original author of the page, who was the plaintiff in the case, included in the article. However, I am a lawyer who represents a party who the plaintiff of this case is suing in another, unrelated matter. I discovered this article while researching the plaintiff and assumed that Wikipedia would not want off-base legal interpretations in articles written by the losing plaintiff. I believe it would be just as improper for me to write about the case given my adversarial posture to the plaintiff as it was for the original plaintiff to use Wikipedia as a place to vent about having lost the case. I would certainly try to be neutral, but the article would be better written by an expert in law (probably a lawyer or paralegal) who is not connected to the case or the parties involved in it in any way.

I am not sure how to propose that the article be rewritten, so I am leaving this note on your talk page in case you take an interest and are able to take steps to have the article be rewritten.

Best regards 207.45.84.127 (talk) 19:31, 15 April 2020 (UTC)AB

Dear 207.45.84.127, I appreciate your realistic and objective view on this. The information should be added, you should not be the one to do it, and I am no expert. I'm going to mention this to a wiki-friend of mine who, unlike me, is an attorney and has helped in similar situations; I'm sure he will deal with it competently. DGG ( talk ) 05:20, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Help regarding a 'contested deletion' response in WP:CSD case

Hi, I require help in a 'contested deletion' response for Draft talk:OnePageCRM. I took the WP:CSD action on basis of WP:G11 after being declined for same reasons earlier. The author has contested the WP:CSD. Do I need to do anything or the deleting administrator will take the decision? Please help. Thank you. Amkgp (talk) 13:03, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

Submission rejected

You rejected Draft:Renowned_LA. Does that mean it cannot be modified to fit guidelines? Will it be reconsidered with the new edits? WP:TEA was unsure. Pilot333 (talk) 13:50, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

As I use it, it means you are strongly discouraged from trying to write an article until you have references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements. Celebrity endorsements are not sufficient. substantial articles about their products are. it's the next step up from declined. The stronger further step is for the draft to be deleted as hopelessly promotional , which means you have to be very sure indeed before trying to recreate it, because if its still not good, we go to the third step, which is to delete and protect it against recreation, which means you need to first convince an administrator there's enough; the very strongest step is to delete the draft, protect , and block the editor as promotional-only, which means you have to convince the blocking admin that you intend to write acceptable articles.

But since this might be possible if you looked carefully, and since WWD is a very good source, but one that I cannot access, I'm changing it to Declined. DGG ( talk ) 23:41, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

DGG - I have changed the WWD links to their archived versions, which are indeed publicly available for your viewing pleasure. I have also removed the bulk of the celebrity endorsements except the one collaboration with Chris Brown, since I believe a magazine cover is probably significant. I believe my original article was too aggressive to prove notability, so instead of proving notability via text, I'll let the references linked do the proving. Pilot333 (talk) 02:23, 19 April 2020 (UTC)

Pilot333 (talk · contribs), I will take a look in another week or two; please excuse the delay, but things in the world are so much more difficult and depressing that I am not working at very high efficiency. DGG ( talk ) 07:49, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

DGG (talk · contribs), hope you're doing well. Work has picked up for me so I haven't been on Wikipedia as much. Here's a ton more coverage about the brand I found. Not sure if this will help with getting your approval. Let me know. Thank you. Pilot333 (talk) 17:12, 20 June 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Draft:Pauline Johnson

I have requested a topic-ban against the paid editor. The professor probably should be the subject of a BLP, but won't be as long as her flack continues to push fluff at us. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:40, 16 April 2020 (UTC)

Request on 14:33:24, 18 April 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Kojomo

• Kojomo (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Adewale Aladejana (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Dear DGG, Thank you for taking out time to review this article, but I would like you to advise on what I should do, I'm open to learning more about creating and editing Wikipedia pages. While I have read lots of articles about creating Wikipedia pages, I still find myself not getting it. I believe if you assist in editing this, it will help me to understand better. Thank you

Kojomo (talk) 14:33, 18 April 2020 (UTC)

Hyro draft

Hi DGG, thank you for your comments. I'll be sure to re-edit. I actually am not affiliated or related to the company. More of a fan who has some free time at the moment to advocate for Israeli/American companies I believe in.

Jack Feldman draft

DGG, thank you for the update and explanations regarding Draft:Jack L Feldman. I have no financial COI, but I do know the subject as a scientific colleague. Should I add a COI under Edit Summary, such as:

 ?

Thanks Vincenzo42 (talk) 5:35, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

Nikolai Udianskyi

Please have a look at Draft:Nikolai Udianskyi. I've cut out a lot of the fluff. Is this better? Thank you. --Perohanych (talk) 20:38, 20 April 2020 (UTC) Perohanych, you;ve done what you could, but the community would not consider his career notable . DGG ( talk ) 03:50, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Seeking Your Professional Opinion

Hope you are well in these crazy times!

I created a new page via AFC but it was rejected due to lack of notability. I would have thought winning App of the year would help it satisfy this and felt there was enough other sources and notable coverage for the page to be notable, but if not, not and the page shouldn't be created. What are your thoughts?

Update: Oh my @DGG:, just realised forgot to sign my entry. Apologies not myself in these times. MaskedSinger (talk) 18:15, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

You may have missed this so circling back. Is there enough here to justify the notability or no? Will abide by whatever you say. Reviewing editors can sometimes be a bit trigger happy - not sure how much time they put into reviewing the page and going over the sources. Being rejected quickly can be due to it being an open and shut case and also wanting the article to improve which is an excellent reason for it to be initially rejected. Just unsure as to where this one lies. Your inpuut would be appreciated! MaskedSinger (talk) 04:54, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Following up on this @DGG:, did you have a chance to look at the new page? Would love to know your thoughts. MaskedSinger (talk) 05:01, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for your wonderful idea @DGG:! You really are terrific. Will merge it as suggested. Thank you! MaskedSinger (talk) 04:44, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Heal Revised Round 2

Hi DGG, I have made the edits you mentioned to make the article as neutral as possible. Let me know what you think and please consider this article to be accepted. Thank you again for your time and effort in helping me with this. CaMenendez ( talk )

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Perms

Hi, I think you have reviewed some of my previous articles before. As such, I'm asking if you would object if I went to apply for autopatrol permission so it wouldn't be a burden on others. Also perhaps page mover to not leave redirects in userspace. Starzoner (talk) 21:16, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia and Information Management Software

Greetings!<

Wikipedia has an unusually robust amount of content devoted to personal information management (PIM) software. This content is useful for people trying to find the right software for their needs in a category that is flush with software titles. I realize Wikipedia may not be right place for this content, but it has been allowed to flourish here, and it now serves as a useful though incomplete reference source.

Among the useful resources is the List of personal information managers which features a table showing software specifications and in most cases a link to the Wikipedia article for each software title. Some Wikipedia articles listed in the table:

Personal Knowbase
MyInfo
Whizfolders
Calendar

I attempted to add a personal information manager (Zoot) to this collection, but the article is getting rejected with the following explanation:

This submission's references do not show that the subject qualifies for a Wikipedia article — that is, they do not show significant coverage (not just passing mentions) about the subject in published, reliable, secondary sources that are independent of the subject. Before any resubmission, additional references meeting these criteria should be added (see technical help and learn about mistakes to avoid when addressing this issue). If no additional references exist, the subject is not suitable for Wikipedia.

Among the secondary sources listed for Zoot is a full length piece in Atlantic Magazine written by James Fallows. I would think that would qualify as published, reliable and independent of the subject.

But to the larger point: while I can't argue whether or not articles about software titles belong on Wikipedia, they have nevertheless found a place here, and it seems to me that this area of Wikipedia should either be allowed to flourish or it should be removed in its entirety. If the content cannot be expanded and improved then it will exist merely as a flawed and incomplete reference.

PeterCrossXYZ (talk) 21:31, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

• Wikipedia is not a product directory. So the question is the appropriateness of an article on this product, not the general policy.

I accidentally used the wrong tag, and have now corrected it: The problem is not the references, but the lack of encyclopedic information in the article, Perhaps you can add some more material. other than a list of features, all of which seem more or less standard--and avoid advertising terms like "robust" . And please add a recent reference if youcan find one--only a current date in the infobox shows it is still in production, for all the refs were from 20 years ago. DGG ( talk ) 06:32, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Request on 22:39:44, 24 April 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Tenacious pg

• Tenacious pg (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:International Swan Day (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Hi, I wanted to request more information about the article I wrote on International Swan Day. Is there anything in particular you would need from me before you considered the coverage to be more appropriate to an encyclopedia article than a press release? The organization has been covered in a range of periodicals, as I demonstrated through citations; let me know if you need more evidence on that point.

Tenacious pg (talk) 22:39, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Tenacious pg, it consists only of the promotional language of pt.1 , and then a list of a few cities where the event has been held. If it's notable , there should be many more good references--not just local notices and items in a list.

Since this is your only contribution, and since it is written in exactly the format of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. DGG ( talk ) 18:38, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

Hello there! I am a film critic who has attended SWAN Day events, not a SWAN Day organizer. I am paid for my work as a film critic by the websites I work with, but I am not paid by or affiliated with SWAN Day. I am however passionated about advancing women in the arts. I feel the event is important for both women artists and women audiences.

Could I request to be connected with someone else at Wikipedia for a second opinion on SWAN Day’s notability? Tenacious pg (talk) 18:42, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Title change?

Sorry if this is not showing up in the right place. I don't see how one is supposed to add a "section" to your User talk. You recently approved my article on Jack Ives. I tried to get back to you by leaving a comment on that page, but you probably haven't seen it. I wanted to know if I could have the title changed to Jack D. Ives, which is how the subject almost invariably refers to himself in print (except in refs, where it is often shorted to JDIVes). He apparently cherishes his middle initial, perhaps because Jack and Ives are rather common. Thanks for your help. Hortonio (talk) 16:20, 27 April 2020 (UTC)HortonioHortonio (talk) 16:20, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

(talk page stalker)Hortonio,  Done We usually title articles with how their name is most often seen in sources and it looks like the majority of his publications and the references about him do indeed refer to him as Jack D. Ives. Cheers Sulfurboy (talk) 17:30, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

A kitten for you!

Thanks for the kudos in regard of the article about Prof. Wilhelm von der Emde!

Hager Irene (talk) 17:01, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Seeking Your Assistance in editing these Articles

• Draft:Adewale Aladejana
• Draft:Kola Oyeneyin

Hello DGG, I am a new editor still learning the rules and guidelines of Wikipedia. I have had success in creating some pages but I am currently having it difficult creating the two above. I would appreciate if you can help edit the articles or point me in the right direction as to what to correct, as I do not seem to understand what is wrong with them. Thank you. Kojomo (talk) 13:02, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

First of all: Since articles like these are your only contribution, and since they are written written in exactly the format of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay , see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. After you answer this ,we can discuss further. DGG ( talk ) 00:38, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Hello DGG, I am not a paid editor or in anyway connected to these individuals, never spoken or seen them. I am a Nigerian trying to contribute to Wikpedia, which is why I only edit Nigerian biography articles, apparently I still have alot to learn. And the reason why I messaged you in the first place. To learn more.Kojomo (talk) 10:11, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

I am not alone in having these doubts, but I will consider your statement. If you're a good faith volunteer editor, get experience with people who unquestionably meet our requirements, such as MLAs, beforeyou move into the more amorphous fields of business executives. DGG ( talk ) 10:23, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

Request on 15:49:52, 29 April 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by CharlesMerrimack

• CharlesMerrimack (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Steve Kropper (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Thanks for your efforts on Wikipedia in general, and this submission in particular. I am new at this, so bear with me. By the way, I loved this passage in your own bio. Good advice!

In the period after the February Revolution had overthrown the Tsar, when the Bolsheviks were a very small minority, Lenin's slogan was "patiently explain", as he urged the policy of talking to workers and soldiers individually to convince them of the validity of the party's program. Most of his colleagues wanted either to compromise with the more moderate politicians, in which case they would have been quickly swallowed up by their opponents, or go out immediately on the streets, where they would have been destroyed immediately. Lenin and his co-workers continued persuading until they were a majority in the key places--the forces of soldiers and sailors who would have been sent to suppress them. That's when they went out on the streets, in October, and they succeeded immediately. DGG (talk) 19:50, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Regarding the submission on Steve Kropper, I created the entry because he is besieged every week with people asking for help. If they know what he is about they will be better prepared and not waste time with the wrong approach or about approaching the wrong person. So I looked at a few dozen pages for people who have done similar work in energy, telecom and public policy. I looked at the Wikipedia guidelines, endeavored to fit them, and to tell a story that was well documented. The guy is a pioneer in energy conservation in buildings, telecom, public safety and has spent his life with an undercurrent of public service. The entry is not an advertisement as he has no upside from helping young people these days as they come to him with seeking career or political advice.

So I felt that your critique was unfair and need advice on how to help this public figure present himself so people take advantage of him in a good way. CharlesMerrimack (talk) 15:49, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

see below--this will take me another week. DGG ( talk ) 00:22, 2 May 2020 (UTC)

Issue 38, January – April 2020

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 38, January – April 2020

• New partnership
• Global roundup

Read the full newsletter

On behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --15:57, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

A goat for you!

Thanks for "goating" me along with great suggestions. They really helped.

WeavingGrace (talk) 18:05, 29 April 2020 (UTC)

Delayed Response to your comments on Draft on Udai Singh Pawar

Dear DGG,

Apologies. I created this page draft ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Udai_Singh_Pawar ) in October and got a comment from Robert McClenon. Unfortunately I did not reply in time, as did not put the time in to understand how to use the talk pages. Then in January you reviewed the page and possibly since there was no response, so you might have declined for that reason. Unless you had some other concerns, those I would be happy to address.

Very sorry for not having replied in time, but finally I used the live chat to understand how to use the talk page - I hope that I have done this correctly - and so I do have a response, below.

I would request you to take a look whenever it may be convenient. Best Regards and apologies for not figuring this out sooner. --

The film has been released as a Netflix produced Original Film (official netflix link: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/80998890) and discussed a good amount in the media, especially Indian media...

A sampling of some of these articles and some reviews are below (in addition to the pre-release articles that are there in the references section of the draft). More articles could be found if necessary, please do let me know.

https://rollingstoneindia.com/upstarts-review-unexpectedly-relatable-success-story/ https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/342155 https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/upstarts-a-real-effort-to-depict-the-start-up-world-from-inside-out/cid/1713515 https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/upstarts-the-story-behind-indias-first-film-on-startups/1642485 https://www.news18.com/news/movies/upstarts-movie-review-netflix-film-is-a-decent-tale-of-friendship-and-start-up-woes-2351809.html https://www.freepressjournal.in/entertainment/the-story-behind-upstarts-netflix-indias-first-film-on-startups https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/upstarts https://entreterse.com.br/resenha-upstarts-original-netflix-39219/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

This is an interview of Udai Pawar on CNBC that was broadcast live nationally. https://www.cnbctv18.com/videos/startup/startup-street-check-out-netflix-indias-first-film-on-startups-and-what-is-brewing-at-mygate-cars24-4548531.htm

The film was also nominated for RadioCity (top all-Indian radio station) Hitlist web awards for Best Web Film, though awards have been delayed due to covid - https://www.mid-day.com/articles/hitlist-web-awards-go-binge-on-2019s-best-desi-shows-from-ott-platforms-thank-us-later/22696284

also the director Udai Singh Pawar and his personal journey also has been featured by various respected media outlets such as...

https://theprint.in/features/udai-singh-pawars-upstarts-indian-startups-netflix/306817/ Yourstory.com Weekender feature on Udai Singh Pawar

I hope this helps.

Thank you so much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Karan5463 (talk • contribs) 14:13, 30 April 2020 (UTC) Karan5463, it will probably be about a week until I get to this--my apologies, but WP is not my current priority --doing the ordinary parts of life has gotten much harder and somewhat depressing DGG ( talk ) 07:33, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Freeman Osonuga deletion

Hello DGG; thank you for the great work you do here, I am really a great fan. I realized that you deleted Freeman Osonuga page on the basis of its promotional tone which you are very right about. I have always had the plan to re-format it in a neutral form but not had the time until today, and then realized that it has been deleted. So want to seek your consent & advice if I can re-create again since it has been continuously recreated; thank you as I await a response from you. Kaizenify (talk) 20:11, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

it will probably be about a week until I get to this--my apologies, but doing the ordinary parts of life has gotten much harder and somewhat depressing

I am going ahead to recreate the page. Thanks and hopefully you can help review aswell. Kaizenify (talk) 00:26, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 15

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (April 2020).

Scripts Submit your new/improved script here

SD0001's find-archived-section, now a gadget, is this month's featured script

Enterprisey:

1. link-deleted-revs (On error pages for deleted revisions, show a link to the Special:Undelete page)
2. undelete-backlink (On Special:Undelete pages for diffs and revisions, link back to the main Undelete page with the list of revisions)

Epicgenius's sortcategories (sorts categories in an article alphabetically)

Awesome Aasim:

1. addmylinks (adds a customizable area for links and/or text to the sidebar)
2. editrequest (tool that allows for processing and answering edit requests)

Enterprisey's reply-link has been updated to fail less, especially around template transclusions.

Twinkle released new features, including a new option to disable individual modules, support for stub template nomination at CfD, and integration with the PageTriage extension used to patrol new pages. (See full list of changes)

Pending requests

• A script to reload feeds automatically
• ...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

Miscellaneous

• Wikipedia:User scripts/Most imported scripts now also shows the number of active users for each script. It will now be updated by a bot periodically.

Hope everyone stays safe. --DannyS712 (talk) 20:27, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

---

Administrators' newsletter – May 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (April 2020).

Administrator changes

Gnangarra • Kaisershatner • Malcolmxl5

Guideline and policy news

• Discretionary sanctions have been authorized for all pages and edits related to COVID-19, to be logged at WP:GS/COVID19.

Technical news

• The Editing team has been working on the talk pages project. You can review the proposed design and share your thoughts on the talk page.
• Enterprisey created a script that will show a link to the proper Special:Undelete page when viewing a since-deleted revision, see User:Enterprisey/link-deleted-revs.

Miscellaneous

• A request for comment closed with consensus to create a Village Pump-style page for communication with the Wikimedia Foundation.

---

=Beer!

Thanks for your all your contributions! Yoleaux (talk) 05:23, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

128.91.218.136, yes please delete most of the papers, and any of the books that are unimportant. That's what I meant DGG ( talk ) 21:15, 9 May 2020 (UTC)

Seeking Guidance for AfD and Evaluating Sources

Good day. I saw your list on willingness to help on the following topics. The article in question is Drew_Chicone and I have been attempting to improve it, receive answers and guidance but generally my questions haven't been answered. I appreciate your intro where you say you want to know why if someone thinks you're doing something wrong - that is my desire as well so I can improve. If you have the time to help it would be appreciated. Mlepisto (talk) 20:28, 11 May 2020 (UTC) Mlepisto,the first step is to remove all mention of where his products can be purchased; if anyone wants to know, they can find it on his website. Then try to find a workinglink for USAtoday, and check you have working links for the others.Remove all refs without working links Depending on what the USAtoday story says, it might do it. DGG ( talk ) 23:48, 11 May 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your guidance, it is very helpful! I have been working on trying to find other sources. There was an interview on ESPN 99.3 Reel Talk Radio which is a local fishing talk radio show: http://reeltalkradio.net You don't have to listen to it I'd just appreciate your input on the credibility of the source and if I have cited it properly. Mlepisto (talk) 12:35, 12 May 2020 (UTC)

I've done what I cna to help the article. The interview will not help, because it will be basically him giving his own opinion of what he has done,. It's difficult to write articles here that necessarily depend on sources that are specialized in areas where few WPedians are knowledgable or interested. Myself, I can't say I have ever paid attention to this subject, but I'm always glad to learn and expand my horizons. WP is great for that. . DGG ( talk ) 08:41, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

Thank you. This has definitely been a learning process. I am still trying to understand the source guidelines/policies because some things seem to contradict other things and there is a lot of information, but it doesn't always resonate with the "why" question in my head. So I definitely appreciate your explanation. The writing has been challenging and time consuming but I do enjoy the internet research trying to dig up things. I pretty much have only used WP for some random small edits but mostly reading and clicking link after link and ending up going down way too many rabbit holes learning about all sorts of things I'd normally not even consider researching. Mlepisto (talk) 19:31, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

Marmol Radziner

Hi, you tagged Marmol Radziner as {{advert}}. I did a fairly massive overhaul of the page some years ago to address previously tagged editing issues. I realize that seems positively inclined towards the subject, but that merely reflects the inclination of the sources (if there was any negative reporting, I am sure that I would have found it, and would have also included it). I'm not sure how that issue can be "fixed" without removing or inaccurately reflecting sourced content. Cheers! BD2412 T 00:48, 12 May 2020 (UTC)

Just as a follow-up, I will not be at all put out if you disagree with my assessment. I generally write on less commercial topics for exactly the reason that it can be problematic to write a neutral-sounding piece on a commercial entity that only gets positive evaluations in the sources. BD2412 T 16:06, 12 May 2020 (UTC)

It will take me a few days to get there. DGG ( talk ) 04:48, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Eh, no deadline. It just caught my eye from being watchlisted. BD2412 T 13:53, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

BD2412. I returned to it again, and did some minor cleanup, but I think it still needs major revision to decrease name-dropping. DGG ( talk ) 22:41, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

I understand your concern, but the "name-dropping" merely reflects the coverage of the subject in the sources, and meets WP:NOTEWORTHY because of this coverage. If the article was based on, for example, a list of celebrity clients posted on the firm's website, or PR releases published in outlets without editorial control, that would be a very different matter. While it is true that some of its designs for non-famous persons have also received coverage, the firm derives some measure of its notability because of its designs for the celebrities reported. BD2412 T 22:56, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

I see it the same, but interpret it differently. The sources are PR, covering the architects in terms not of their buildings, but their clients. But this is not of significant encyclopedic interest as far as the architectural firm is concerned, though the houses they live in might be of encyclopedic interest in the articles on the clients. If the fact that they worked for celebrity clients is relevant at all, it should not be emphasised in extended paragraphs, but a list or a table. The references and links for them will give the necessary information for those interested from that perspective. In exceptional cases architects can be notable in terms of whom they work for, but in general they are notable for their actual architectural work. (where I usually encounter this is celebrity dentists and dermatologists, and here the entire articles are normally deleted. . We certainly should allow considerable latitude to non-coi editors in how they choose to emphasise an article, but it is inescapable that the purpose of a connected editor is to promote the firm in the terms in which the firm wants to be promoted.

But the place for this discussion is the article talk p., so the PR agent who wrote the article can try to defend it. I will copy the relevant parts of this this discussion there. DGG ( talk ) 00:48, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

Request on 08:59:08, 12 May 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Affenbrotbaum123

• Affenbrotbaum123 (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Weenect (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Hi DGG, thank you for reviewing our draft article about Weenect. This (hopefully) soon-to-be Wikipedia article is definitely not intended to read like an advertisement. Therefore, we changed the wording to be more objective and informing. Also, the sources have been reviewed and changed where necessary in order to ensure that a good blend of reliable and independent sources is used to support the given information. We hope that the article now qualifies for being published on Wikipedia as a French as well as a German version of the article have already been approved and are online now. Thanks, Affenbrotbaum123. Affenbrotbaum123 (talk) 08:59, 12 May 2020 (UTC)

I gather you represent the company. You must say so on your user page, and then I can explain further. See WP:PAID. DGG ( talk ) 18:24, 12 May 2020 (UTC)

Looking for advice

What is the correct protocol to follow if another editor deletes sourced edits? MaskedSinger (talk) 12:36, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

i have commented. DGG ( talk ) 23:47, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

thanks! i've come across a page that is reads like an ad and has a lot of unsourced material. I'm not sure how to proceed. Should I tell you the page? MaskedSinger (talk) 18:34, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

when you come across such a page, and think it unlikely to be improvable, list it for deletion at WP:AFD, and take responsibility for your own nominations. . Except, if you thing there might be something in particular I might be able to help with, then ask me. This is especially true if it is a page written by someone with whom you have previously come into conflict. DGG ( talk ) 08:26, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

Draft:New York Heritage

Is there somewhere this would fit? I came across it online and didn't know what it was. FloridaArmy (talk) 20:32, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

It should be expanded into an article on Empire State Library Network. Megs, can you help on this of suggest somebody? ``

Bravo

...on the R&I stuff. I am as fundamentalist anti-fringe as they come, but you are absolutely on the nail here. The process needs to be robust, fair and repeatable, and not favour those who are loudest or most committed. The fact is, some bullshit has significant minority support, and it's not our job to fix that. Guy (help!) 22:08, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

I appreciate your support. It is people with views like your's and mine who need to support the inclusion of non-standard views. The best way of dealing with ignorance is to let it be expressed. People tend to have unwarranted sympathy with what they think are persecuted minorities DGG ( talk ) 22:20, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

STEMcoding Draft page and definition of "local"

I am the author of the STEMcoding Project draft page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:STEMcoding_Project

Recently the page was declined because "no evidence of notability for this basically local project. 2 or 3 articles in educational magazines is not enough for notability."

There are more than a few activities on the page that are outside of Ohio, including, for example, a collaboration with Daniel Shiffman who is a professor at New York University. The article also mentions workshops at national meetings of the American Association of Physics Teachers and connections to a national group the "Partnership for Integrating Computation into Undergraduate Physics". There is also STEMcoding content on hourofcode.com which is an initiative of code.org, which is a national group. I am trying to understand where the "local project" judgement is coming from.

Chrisorban (talk) 17:42, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

The purpose of afc is to predict whether thearticle would be accepted by the community in an AfD discussion. Based on long expeience here, I think it would not. Giving talks at national meetings is rougtine for every academic, no matter how undistinguished. donot havethe final word--it youcansrethen theaticle by material published about the project by other people in references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements ,then it would probably be enough to be accepted. DGG ( talk ) 18:34, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Radio Dunedin (documentary)

Draft:Radio Dunedin (documentary) has been hanging around as a "Promising draft". Material in the draft is already presented in Radio Dunedin so I provided a reference and included the infobox from the draft. There are some sources if someone wishes to split later for a better article. As above there might need to be some formal "merging" for any history if needed. Otr500 (talk) 06:33, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Pre-establishment national treatment

I looked at Draft:Pre-establishment national treatment (shortly due for CSD:G13 per above), and it does appear to be notable enough for an article, although I do not know if the title is correct. You commented at AFC "needs 3rd party sources". I found several and added some possible sources in the comments. I do not know how to add or request a "Promising Draft" designation but this appears to be a good candidate, thanks -- Otr500 (talk) 08:11, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

I apppreciate comments like these and I try to follow them up. Fortunately, adding any content to the article resets the 6 month clock. DGG ( talk ) 04:05, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

I agree, and make comments when needed or I don't have time to get involved too deep. Sometimes I make a comment and get rewarded with something like "Do it yourself if you think it needs doing." Since my daughters non-medical observation, that I have severe ADHD, might be correct as I can get redirected fairly easy, stopping in the middle of something sometimes is not a good thing. When I grow up (a little more I suspect) or win the lottery (I heard you have to play) I would like to have multiple computers. My now starting to age laptop starts bogging down when I open more browsers and tabs that it can handle. I have 10 tabs open here, one with 3 tabs, and one with (believe it or now) 56 tabs open. I have to go close some now because that has to be close to freeze time. Otr500 (talk) 20:55, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

Otr500, I also use many windows, most with very many tabs. Fortunately, I've always tried to keep up with new equipment--I enjoy testing the limits. : my experience is that the most reliable browser for multiple windows in safari, at least on a mac. I especially like the feature of adding text shortcuts at a system level, which is faster than add-on programs. . When you can get a new machine my advice is thst the limiting factor is memory, (for images, especially videos, processor processor speed, matters, but I usually just work with text). My most recent machine is a macbook pro with 32 GB. My next will be an imac with 64. replacing one with 16. What I can save on is storage--almost everything I have is either on the cloud, or on WP itself, . 500 GB is more than enough--but it has to be solid state. I'm told I can do just as well with linux, and with much less memory, but tho I used BSD unix long ago, I've forgotten most of it. What I like most about the current mac OS is failure recovery--if it does crash wtih too many windows, and it does, about once a week, , everything always comes back again--this did not use to be the case even 2 or 3 years ago. Good luck, and may the computers keep up with you. DGG ( talk ) 09:58, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Draft : Edmond J. Safra Foundation

Dear DGG,

Thank you for your reviewing the Draft:Edmond J. Safra Foundation. I am contacting you as I would appreciate your advice on improving it. Is there an issue with the structure, specific terms or sources? Thank you very much for your help! TychéS19 (talk) 15:00, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

the main issue is with the use of langage that seems to be promoting the aims of the foundation and praising its work. The article needs to be written from the perspective of an outsider, as a plain description, without emphasis. First step is to remove all boldface except for the first use of its name, and the automatic bold in the section headings; the second is to remove all adjectives of praise or importance , and look critically at other adjectives also. The third is to try to remove all non exact quantitative words, like "several". The 4th is to try to remove all references to its own publications as far as possible, and make sureeferences to cached pages show the fulll details of the original publication, including authors. titles. publication names, and dates. . The simplest guide is that if it would do as a web p. for the organization, it isn't suitable for an encyclopedia . DGG ( talk ) 00:30, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

Dear DGG, Thank you very much for your very thorough and helpful response. I will rework my draft to address all of your comments . When the new version is ready, I will take the liberty to contact you again for your very valuable review. With best wishes, TychéS19 (talk) 12:58, 3 June 2020 (UTC)

Dear DGG, Many thanks for the guidance you provided on my earlier draft. Here is a new Draft:Edmond J. Safra Foundation based on your remarks. It would be very helpful if you would kindly have a look and indicate if there are any other revisions which you would suggest. Once again, thank you for your review and invaluable help! TychéS19 (talk) 12:49, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

TychéS19 , there remain problems. The main one is that it stil sounds like a press release from the foundation: don't use very description of why something is important As trivial matters, remove all the bold face, don't include titles like "professor" and instead of repeating the Foundation name, use "it" --and similarly for other names . DGG ( talk ) 19:39, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

Dear DGG, I have recently uploaded an updated version of the Draft:Edmond J. Safra Foundation. It follows each of your latest remarks, I have been careful to reduce the mentions of the foundation's name to a minimum and to remove the capital letters from the word "foundation". Thanks again for your precious help.TychéS19 (talk) 10:05, 23 September 2020 (UTC)

Customized discretionary sanctions

Hi, I was reviewing Wikipedia talk:Arbitration/Requests/Case/American politics 2 and it seemed to leave for a future discussion the question of "customized" sanctions devised by individual administrators applying discretionary sanctions. You and other arbs commented directly or tangentially on such a discussion, which I have made note of here. Just wondered if this is tabled for followup by Arbcom? Are you waiting for community action first? ☆ Bri (talk) 18:42, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

I would be easier for arb com to do it by its own internal resolution, and I have not given up hope for this. More later. DGG ( talk ) 00:17, 23 May 2020 (UTC)

Appearance of neutrality

Your statement at the Medicine proposed decision that personally, had I been on the committee, I would have voted for remedy 1, perhaps as modified by Colin, and simply given warnings. I would have been as neutral as possible on the underlying dispute--I would not topic block the people who might have deserved it, for fear of affecting the content issue one way or another, even to a side i might have thought right. troubles me. The idea that ArbCom would be willing to tolerate non-neutral outcomes so that it can maintain the appearance of neutrality is not what I want from an Arbitration Committee. It also lends credence to the idea, often advanced by partisans, that when working in contentious areas uninvolved administrators must be careful how they administer remedies, making sure to apply remedies only in equal measure to both "sides". I hope you will give that idea more thought before proceeding with that thinking in a future case, especially because as recently as the 2019 election you were willing to defend GWE where you did not appear to operate with that mentality. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 23:02, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

The role of the committee is not to punish people, but , as deletion policy says, to settle intractable conduct disputes--which , in reality, usually do have their origin in content disputes, as a great many RfA decisions have mentioned. this does create a dilemma, and you are right to mention it. We do not effectively settle conduct disputes by penalizing people or assigning blame--we setttle them by providing a way to apply WP policy so as to permit the communitycto resolve the underling issue in a cooperative way, and the great difficult is doing this in a way which avoids influencing content. It would be very easy, but very wrong, for arb com to settle conduct disputes by penalizing the people on one side of the dispute; the way to avoid it is to come as close as possible to penalizing nobody. cases do not generally reach arb come where one person only prevents settling of a dispute--the community nowadays usually handles these by itself. You, and possibly the committee, seem to think one side of this has prevented a NPOV decision on content, and ::I disagree.I do not know the basis of their thinking, as I do not yet know the internal discussions, but if it like many previous decisions, it is deciding who has behaved the worst when everyone had behaved badly. Since the two sides of a dispute usually in effect provoke each other, trying to decide this is pointless. The way top roceed is to find a way for the community to decide the underlying issue,--and I think the committee has done this in R1 in a way which I hope will prove very successful, whatever decision may be reached.

You say the committee should not tolerate non-neutral outcomes; if you are referring to the underlying issues, the committee can not decide this for the community, it can not directly decide which outcome of a content dispute is NPOV., and it should at least try to avoid doing so indirectly. If you mean non-neutral outcomes about who is guilty of the worst conduct, it should if possible resolve the dispute here too without assigning penalties, and I think it could be done here. I have my own view about who has behaved worst here, and it is tempting to say so, but it would not be helpful.

Now, when I am actually on the committee making a decision, rather than saying what i would have done if..., there is another factor.The committee must reach some decision, and it is not productive to prevent the formation of some sort of workable consensus, even if it is not the one I would have desired. I have therefore sometimes voted for opinions that I do not think the best result, but would settle the issue. I have usually done so in order to achieve a result which although unsatisfactory, is not as unsatisfactory as it might have been. I have only once or twice voted to oppose as a protest when I thought the commitee very badly wrong, usually by being over-legalistic. If I were doing things over, I might have done so more often. (to be continued) DGG ( talk ) 01:48, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

You mention the Discussion of the GWE case. I said at the discussion: "The matter initially presented as a contents dispute proved out to feature the continuing harassment of the principal editor on one side of a dispute, and the attempts to coordinate action against one's opponents by the use of a Wikiproject as a cabal. " And so I still think, and I consider this perfectly consonant with my views here. That case featured the use of a cabal to destroy NPOV. Arb com knows how to deal with such cases, and did so. The present case consisted mainly of the attempt to use an arb com case to affect content". Arb com has not handled this anywhere near as well. DGG ( talk ) 02:22, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

I can't reconcile what you're saying about Medicine with what you're saying about GWE. In Medicine you're saying the committee should, do nothing against editors for fear of affecting the content issue one way or another. In GWE you're saying That case featured the use of a cabal to destroy NPOV. Arb com knows how to deal with such cases, and did so. I agree with what you're saying in GWE and hope that in the future when you're active on cases that you pursue that line of thinking to its logical ends - which will sometimes mean sanctions against editors and other times not. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 18:21, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

In general, I am more likely to agree with you than not; in this case the encyclopedia would benefit more from the coperation than the removal of these editors, regardless of what I personally think of their relative roles. Each case is different, and there is often a contradiction between valid general principles. As you said, "sometimes and sometimes not" DGG ( talk ) 18:35, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Andrii Klantsa

Dear DGG! Thank you for your attention to the article Draft: Andrii Klantsa that I am creating. This man is a leading cardiac surgeon, scientist, doctor of sciences, Honored Doctor of Ukraine, saves lives every day. I am sure that under your guidance, the article will become worthy of Wikipedia. Цифров (talk) 11:50, 26 May 2020 (UTC) Цифров, please remember to add the number of citations to each of his articles. that's what we principally go by. DGG ( talk ) 16:59, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

Articles for Creation: List of reviewers by subject notice

Hi DGG, you are receiving this notice because you are listed as an active Articles for Creation reviewer.

Recently a list of reviewers by area of expertise was created. This notice is being sent out to alert you to the existence of that list, and to encourage you to add your name to it. If you or other reviewers come across articles in the queue where an acceptance/decline hinges on specialist knowledge, this list should serve to facilitate contact with a fellow reviewer.

To end on a positive note, the backlog has dropped below 1,500, so thanks for all of the hard work some of you have been putting into the AfC process!

<

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:35, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – June 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (May 2020).

Administrator changes

CaptainEek • Creffett • Cwmhiraeth

Anna Frodesiak • SQL

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment asks whether the Unblock Ticket Request System (UTRS) should allowed any unblock request or just private appeals.
• The Wikimedia Foundation announced that they will develop a universal code of conduct for all WMF projects. There is an open local discussion regarding the same.

Arbitration

• A motion was passed to enact a 500/30 restriction on articles related to the history of Jews and antisemitism in Poland during World War II (1933–45), including the Holocaust in Poland. Article talk pages where disruption occurs may also be managed with the stated restriction.

Weeve

Just an FYI on Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Weeve_(2nd_nomination) as you nominated it in 2013. No action needed. Stay safe my friend StarM 18:27, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

A like-minded DS soul

Hi DGG (No worry if replies take a while, given your TP header!)

But I was just going to say how nice it was to see an arb with as much, if not more, dislike of DS as a system than me. Both generally, but (perhaps with more relevance to what might be changed in the foreseeable future) with particular dislike on how DS somehow defaults to retaining sanctions in the event of a no-consensus!

You ever make or see any steps to change that, let me know, and I'll be right on it.

Cheers, Nosebagbear (talk) 09:34, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

Antonio Mercadante

Thank you deeply for approving this article. If there is any specific suggestion for improvement you would like to offer, I would appreciate it. Otherwise, I will try to learn from the general pages about improving articles, though the language and format they use are quite complex for me. Totihan30 (talk) 15:40, 9 June 2020 (UTC) Toti O'Brien

Totihan30. this needs to be completed by 1/ adding the bio information , since you have a references 1/add full publication info, according to WP: cite book, icluding the ISBN 3/list his major publications, 4/ fomd references to reviews of them. DGG ( talk ) 09:04, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Veeam

Hi DGG!

Long ago, you nominated Veeam for speedy deletion. You waited maybe two or three days, but no other admin deleted it. So you removed the speedy tag and tried to fix the article.

The article is problematic again now. I've nominated it for speedy deletion again; please feel free to delete it if you'd like.

I think that maybe the article may be a hopeless article about a non-notable company, and that deletion may be the best option. I suppose an okay second-best alternative might be indefinite semi-protection.

If you reply here, it would be good if you could please ping me by name.

Kind regards, —Unforgettableid (talk) 10:35, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Unforgettableid: Not just I but a number of other good editors have tried to rescue this article — possibly on the basis that we usually do have articles on manufacturing companies with a billion dollars of sales, and they have almost that. Additionally, there is an apparently-unchallenged article on their principal project, Veeam Backup & Replication. In the meantime, the company has been purchased by Insight Partners for $5 billion.[38] I don't think A7 is now valid, and the article is not entirely promotional as written, though promotionalism is its purpose, thus not a valid G11. I've removed the tag. It cannot be removed as the work of an undisclosed paid editor, because the original editor has declared his connection in his [user page]. Semi-protection would not help, nor would pending-changes protection, because the editor is autoconfirmed. It would, however, be deleted at AfD unless improved, because it's basically a list of products.

The article on their software is, however, promotional — it goes into details that would be appropriate in an advertisement. It would be valid either as G11 or merge. A merge would have to be done by VM, because it would probably be opposed. There is an alternative, of nominating it for AfD, and suggesting a merge or redirect as a solution. That's not what AfD was originally supposed to be used for, but nowadays we do such things as a broad interpretation of 'alternatives to deletion'.

We have no good solution for dealing with problems like these, except by watching and reverting changes. Either I could speedy G11, and see if it gets deleted, which it might. Alternatively, I suggest an AfD of the two articles. I think it would be possible to make it clear at the AfD that a modest combined article would be acceptable; and then it would have to be watched. I could warn the editor that he is sufficiently COI that he would need to ask for changes. And then semi-protection would work against evasion by IPs; or he and they could be blocked for promotional sockpuppetry. Or, after the AfD, both articles might be deleted. I could justify arguing either way. (This is the sort of situation which inclines me to suggest banning all paid editing, declared or undeclared, but I do not think the policy change would be accepted.)

I'm sorry this is so complicated. If I wrote the rules....

DGG ( talk ) 14:38, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

I appreciate hearing your thoughts!

Maybe an acceptable compromise rule would be this: Initially, paid editors can do paid edits, as usual. But, if they violate WP:COI, anyone can issue a warning; or, an admin can bar them from paid editing, temporarily or indefinitely. While they're barred, they can do unpaid edits, like to our Happiness and World peace articles. But, if they violate their bar, they may be completely blocked from editing.

—Unforgettableid (talk) 19:29, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

Books & Bytes – Issue 39, May – June 2020

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 39, May – June 2020

• Library Card Platform
• New partnerships
  • ProQuest
  • Springer Nature
  • BioOne
  • CEEOL
  • IWA Publishing
  • ICE Publishing
• Bytes in brief

Read the full newsletter

Article Submission of "Draft:Tang's Living Group"

Dear DGG, Thank you so much for your review of my submission of article "Draft:Tang's Living Group". For your comment of being subjective of my article, I had added 22 independent sources of third parties for its outlet listing. The factual content of my draft are all referenced from these articles. In addition, I have made several amendments to make sure that the content is strictly and directly referenced from the independent sources while referencing the practices of other Hong Kong hotels (e.g. Eaton Hotel Hong Kong). Many of them normally have only a few sources (i.e. less than 5). In this connection, could you please advise the amendments to be made for approving my draft? Many thanks! Endlesssams (talk) 02:42, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

It's a pure catalog listing of your properties.that doesn't belong in an encyclopedia, but your own website. the references are eiter advertisements/press rleases, or mere notices. DGG ( talk ) 03:39, 16 June 2020 (UTC)

Angie Hicks

Hi again! Thank you for tagging the paid biography of Angie Hicks with some article maintenance tags.

I've now nominated it for speedy deletion.

All the best, —Unforgettableid (talk) 07:22, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

perhaps it should simply be merged/redirected to angie's List;

It has also been suggested to move it and Home advisor to ANGI Homeservices, I think I would probably oppose such a drastic merge. these firms are socially important in the economy. . DGG ( talk ) 16:18, 17 June 2020 (UTC)

New Page Reviewer newsletter June 2020

NPP Sorting can be a great way to find pages needing new page patrolling that match your strengths and interests. Using ORES, it divides articles into topics such as Literature or Chemistry and on Geography. Take a look and see if you can find time to patrol a couple pages a day. With over 10,000 pages in the queue, the highest it's been since ACPERM, your help could really make a difference.

Discussions and Resources

• A discussion on handling new article creation by paid editors is ongoing at the Village Pump.
• Also at the Village Pump is a discussion about limiting participation at Articles for Deletion discussion.

Six Month Queue Data: Today – 10271 Low – 4991 High – 10271

Your recent edit to WP:COI

Last month in the section on "paid editing" you changed "you are strongly discouraged from editing affected articles directly" to "you are strongly discouraged from editing affected articles directly; you are prohibited from making more than trivial updates directly" on the guideline page for conflicts of interest. [39] Banning paid editors from directly making non-trivial edits is a pretty big change (especially considering the weight of guidelines in general); I was wondering if there was any consensus I wasn't aware of to make it. Chess (talk) (please use {{ping|Chess}} on reply) 04:26, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Chess, It is certainly the practice, because that's the point of the COI edit requests. I do not necessarily support it as a guideline--I am uncomfortable with the entire COI edit request procedure --I find i hopelessly clumsy, and do not use it or help with it. I was trying to adjust to what seems to be the actual rule. What we need is a discussion on how to handle such things (I have a firm opinion on what our policy ought to be on this and other aspects of paid editing, though it may not yet have consensus: paid editing should be banned from enWP, and then these problems would not arise.) If you think I did not state things right or do it right, please do revert and start a discussion. DGG ( talk ) 04:59, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the information. From what I've understood it hasn't been officially banned yet though and I believe the best venue for that would be an RfC. Chess (talk) (please use {{ping|Chess}} on reply) 07:46, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Chess, if we;re going to go to the trouble of RfC we migh want to see if there are other loopholes we can deal with at the same time, like a/ prohibitions on coi moves or de-merges, or expansion of redirects, or moves from user space,

b/making it explicit that all coi articles must be declared not just on the userpage, but on the arrticle talk p. and paid coi on the article pagw alao, and that paid coi tags never get removed from article pages ever; andthat coi editors may not make GA nominations, or iTN, or nominate competitors for deletion without specifying coi. etc. etc. But then we need a lightwieght procedure for minor updating., and there are so many work aorunds tht this is why I prefer banning paid editing altogether and totally, both after detection and retrospectively. DGG ( talk ) 08:30, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

The problem is that there's a lot of paid editors that we deem acceptable such as Wikimedians in Residence and all the professors in Wiki Ed (plus WMF employees). Banning all paid editors opens a litany of problems unless we can figure out a way to draw a clear line between what's OK and what's not; I don't believe it would be the best idea to give the WMF even more power to adjudicate if the guideline is unclear or expand COI/N to endlessly debate whether someone should be allowed to edit Wikipedia. I personally don't believe a ban is the best solution; we should be incentivizing better and more transparent practices on the parts of companies or individuals who may have legitimate concerns (celebrities with bad photos or obvious vandalism perhaps) but if there is an RfC that ends up with consensus to ban I'll try to help write something that covers those looholes. Chess (talk) (please use {{ping|Chess}} on reply) 02:48, 22 June 2020 (UTC)

i have rarely considered WIRs and faculty and wmf staff advising then to be paid editors. The are normally there to teach people how to write in the general field, and to assist them in using the facilities of the instutions to do so, this will usually make them COi editors to a certain degree but they are not editing specifically to promote the efforts of the foundation or of the universities. This like everything else can be perverted and there have been cases where editors in residence have devoted themselves to writing articles about the staff of the organization that is paying them. This is a mis-use of the position and people who have tried to do it in connection with the Bright Institute at Harvard and elsewhere have been stopped on the same basis that anyone else would be stopped in editing similarly. Do you of student edited we use of student editors to write articles about faculty in their own college is not desirable whether or not they are paid in money for it; it is too much like direct paid, promotional coverage. Those cases I know of here have been stopped and if there are others I would like to be informed. Rather it should be done by writing about people in the same field at other colleges. There have also been misuses of student editing in having them write articles expounding the partivulat theories of one particular professor or advisor-- this is direct promotional editing and is wrong whether paid or unpaid. Instances of this that I know about have been stopped and if there are others I would like to know about them.

The usual problem about college and faculty articles is normally that way have been written by the faculty member themself, their paid staff, or their his universities' PR staff. Much of what I do here are continuing efforts to remove such articles DGG ( talk ) 00:45, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

News and updates for administrators from the past month (June 2020).

Administrator changes

Creffett → GeneralNotability

DeltaQuad → AmandaNP

Arbitration

• Following the banning of an editor by the WMF last year, the Arbitration Committee resolved to hold an RfC regarding on-wiki harassment. The RfC has been posted at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Anti-harassment RfC and is open to comments from the community.
• The Medicine case was closed, with a remedy authorizing standard discretionary sanctions for all discussions about pharmaceutical drug prices and pricing and for edits adding, changing, or removing pharmaceutical drug prices or pricing from articles.

Please see ....

User:Smallbones/Proposed commercial editing policy

Smallbones_(smalltalk) 02:14, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

Review

Dear DGG I was looking to start a page on the impute.me project, because I think it is a nice open source project and also they just published a scientific paper about it. Then I saw there already was a deleted draft, that you reviewed. I added in 3 references from scientific literature that are more specific as you requested (=they actually talk about the project). I hope you would have time to look at it again. I hope I did it right with the references. I'm no wikipedia expert. Best regards Yinwang888 (talk) 11:57, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

There are two topics: Polygenic risk statiification, as a method of human genetic anlysis andcounseling, and the company. These need to be separate articles. The argument for the value of the method goes in the general article, not theone on the company. Btw, ref 15 does not say what your sentence referenced to it does. ---that would be an extraordinary claim that would require multiple indpendent MEDRS quality sources. The paper knows not a claim anything so broad. Pleasde reread WP:MEDRS. DGG ( talk ) 22:40, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

Request on 00:17:04, 20 July 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by AmanAdhav

• AmanAdhav (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Baba Adhav (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

A month ago, I made edits to my Wikipedia page and am currently requesting a review. I tried to keep the tone as neutral as possible in biographical terms and was hoping to receive some feedback as I am unsure about my latest updates. AmanAdhav (talk) 00:17, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

AmanAdhav, it has some major remaining problems:

1. Don't give a timeline as well as a narrative. Integrate the two.

2. Dont give personal details of no encyclopedic value and littlle interest ot he general reader

3. Try to decrease the expressions indicative of the justice of his politicla views and the merits of his activities. If you give them at all for background give them once.

Then let me know. DGG ( talk ) 04:06, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

1. 1. NEEDS CHECK

I have unreviewed a page you curated

Hi, I'm QuiteUnusual. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, Dana Bentley-Cranch, and have marked it as unpatrolled. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you. (Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.) QuiteUnusual (talk) 15:01, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

Comments on Buck's Store Museum Draft

Dear DBB,

You noted on my draft on Buck's Store Museum that "additional citations are needed to show wider notice." I'm thinking of locating more press articles on the store, citing a book that explicitly devotes a section to the store, citing an obituary of its owner, and potentially adding an image of the store once I understand the image rights involved. Of course I understand you cannot prematurely approve an article, but do you think such steps might be sufficient to help move the article to a publishable state? Thank you for your feedback! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grantwong22 (talk • contribs) 15:04, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

Grantwong22, it depends on the details --the question is whether there was general interest so it depends on where the book was published and similar factors so add them and let me know and I'll take a look. But a local obituary is worthless as a reliable source and a picture of the store if it is free from copyright would be appropriate if there's an article , but it doesn't add to the notability. DGG ( talk ) 01:04, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

DBB, I have since added more sources and have resubmitted the article for consideration. Please let me know what you think! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grantwong22 (talk • contribs) 02:24, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Grantwong22 , they all seem to be from the immediate area. Opinions vary about WP becoming a hyper-local history encyclopedia . (though I, like most of us, am very willing for it to cover my own immediate geography in exceptional detail), I, and most of us, generally make an exception for early or pioneer history--but Virginia in the late 19th century wasn't really in that stage). Since afds in this area are unpredictable, and the rule for passing afc is to have a reasonable chance at afd, I'll accept. If anyone lists it for deletion, the community decides. It shouldn't be up to the possibly aberrant views of a single reviewer. But if you can somethign outside Virginia, please do add it. DGG ( talk ) 05:36, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Rejected

DGG, we discussed earlier about looking at Draft:Renowned_LA. You said you'd get to it a couple months ago so just wanted to follow up. The list of sources continues to rise - here's a link to another dozen plus sources to help with your review. Pilot333 (talk) 19:18, 22 July 2020 (UTC) the only relevant part in thearticle itself is " covered by major fashion publications such as Complex,[7] The Source,[8] and XXL.", but they are both limited to pictures of their clothing and quotes from the designer. Most of the new ones seem to be mentions in a list of items. DGG ( talk ) 03:46, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

Discussion about WP:PROF

Hello DGG,

I would like to invite you to take part in a discussion that I have started (If the topic interests you). Thanks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Notability_(academics)#Quantifiable_metric_for_WP:NACADEMIC Earthianyogi (talk) 23:16, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

I've been there & I will have some more to say tomorrow. There are many more things to be taking account of than I think you may realize; sometimes individual decisions among people who have a common interest are the best way. DGG ( talk ) 06:02, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

re: alternatives to deletion

Redirects are fine, and I am generally very fond of WP:SOFTDELETE, but there is the problem of people restoring redirects back into the article without any notification. And while I can log speedies, prods and even drafts with Twinkle, I have yet to figure out an easy way to keep a list of redirects, so that I can check in a year or so if it hasn't been 'sneakily' restored with no rationale... There are editors who will randomly deprod stuff with no rationale, but because of the logs, I can at least check this and AfD the article. But a redirect is sneaky both ways: it's a hidden deletion that doesn't generate notifications for others, and when challenged, it often becomes a sneaky restoration. I think how to make redirects more accountable, both ways, is something to discuss. I'll ping User:Aymatth2 who may find this topic interesting enough to start a wider community discussion, just like he recently did for PRODs? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 05:26, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Pietrus, I as well as you have dealing with this for years-- keeping track let nobody messes up some good work is one of the real problems at Wikipedia, and trying to keep a list of everything we do is impractical for anyone who works as much as we do . It is equally impractical to try to keep a list of everything that has been deleted and ought to be restored or rewritten by somebody better able. We have had good number of tools added to keep track of things in the last few years and maybe we can get something some here also. Considering all of the resources that the foundation puts into administrative function, could be enough to do something that will benefit the actual encyclopedia-- which is the reason the foundation is here in the first place; as you say volunteers do seem more likely to do the work that is actually needed. DGG ( talk ) 05:57, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

I often move articles, e.g. E.g. Roan Antelope copper mine, moved a few seconds after it was created. A full article turned into a redirect. Turning a redirect into a full article is also quite normal. I often create a redirect to an article section, then decide the topic really deserves a full article in its own right. I may be wrong, but do not think many articles are converted into redirects as a sort of quiet deletion, with significant coverage of a notable subject lost, and do not think many redirects are expanded into articles as a nefarious way of creating articles on topics that do not deserve them. I suppose it would be easy enough to have a bot maintain reports on articles turned into redirects (other than via moves) and redirects turned into articles. Not sure that anyone would monitor them. Aymatth2 (talk) 14:27, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

in earlier years, it was certainly used as a quiet deletion method by a few particular editors, but I haven't seen anyone doing for at least the last year or two. However, expanding a redirect to an article to avoid scrutiny is something I have seen, usually with articles on businesses where the article is written first, with a redirect from the exec later turned into an article. This sometimes succeeds, because creating articles on both at once from a new editor is very likely to attract notice at NPP. DGG ( talk ) 23:13, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Sigh. There are so many topics with masses of solid sources, clearly notable but with no Wikipedia article, or just a tiny stub. And there are so many ways to publicize a company, product or person without using Wikipedia ... Aymatth2 (talk) 13:51, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Essam al-Emad

Welcome, how can I republish the article; I added additional sources to the article — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amrahlawymasry (talk • contribs) 09:40, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

I commented on the draft. DGG ( talk ) 17:12, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

Drugs and Alcohol Today

An editor with less than 400 edits created this uncited article on a journal. Also created Drug Science, Policy and Law. Can you or someone watching figure out what to do with it? Thanks. Softlavender (talk) 12:34, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Drug Science, Policy and Law. the other journal is indexed in Scopus, so it might be qualified for an article. DGG ( talk ) 17:14, 25 July 2020 (UTC)

Feedback request: History and geography request for comment

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Retrieving content

Hello, please give me access to the content you just deleted from my account. Melissartieda (talk) 13:25, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

surely you have access to your own advertisements. DGG ( talk ) 22:05, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

I understand

“you asked for access, but its a pure advertisement, as decided by the concurrence of two separate administrators. Declaring a COI as you have done does not give you permission to write promotional material. You asked for access, but surely you have access to your own advertisements, DGG ( talk ) 22:05, 26 July 2020 (UTC)”

It was not meant as advertising, I’m sorry you see it that way. If Wikipedia doesn’t accept it, I understand. But I am the author and I would like to have what I wrote. Please send it to me. Melissartieda (talk) 23:19, 26 July 2020 (UTC) Melissartieda (talk) 23:21, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

are you saying that "Its services and products aim to fulfill the dream of capturing the true essence of couples in America and all over the world." and similar text was not meant as advertising?

But I am going to let you see it again. I will restore it to a temporary page in your user space for a period of two days and then I will be deleted - it is at User:Melissartieda/Meli & Chris Atlanta Wedding Photography (temp)

Adding a page on Dr. Minis Shaji Thomas. reg

Dear Sir,

I had a very brief exposure to adding/editing wiki articles during my Ph.D. days at IISc Bangalore. This was somewhere in 2014 when a set of people actively writing wiki articles visited us and organized an edit-a-thon related to 'Indian women scientists'. At that time, I created pages for Dr. Indrani Bose and Dr. Aruna Dhathathreya. However, could not keep up with that due to a hectic lab schedule. But now I would like to resume this activity.

I completed a Ph.D. in Physics in 2018 from IISc Bangalore. I am interested in adding content on Indian Women Scientists, Indian Women Engineers, Indian Women Educationists, Indian Women Administrators. Can you guide me on how can I contribute to wiki contents? Can I come up with a list of potential people to be added? I would like to start with Prof. Mini Shaji Thomas. Kindly advice.

Thank you.

OK: First of all, edit under the same user name as you did before. If you no when you have the password you can request another one since your email is activated. If you don't want to do that link from your new user page to your old one Then pick the most prominent people possible who will be considered notable under our rules for WP: PROF. One way to do that is to look for people who hold an honorary named professorship because they are always considered notable. Also anyone who has ever been head of the University which in India is probably usually named vice chancellor is also considered notable., but When you write the article , write it as objectively as possible not like a profile on a university website . Give the place of birth and the education and positions held with dates do not discuss family or hobbies, find the three or four most cited papers & list them in full bibliographic format giving the citation numbers from Google scholar. Before you do this go back to the articles you already wrote and add in the necessary information and remove excessive personal material. DGG ( talk ) 19:50, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

As for Mini Shaji Thomas, she is probably qualified as director of NIT Tiruchirappalli, but a Google scholar citation figures are very low--she seems to have been primarily an administrator. DGG ( talk ) 19:57, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

I have unreviewed a page you curated

Hi, I'm Nathan2055. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, Thomas Mohnike, and have marked it as unpatrolled. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you.

(Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.)

Nathan2055^{talk - contribs} 21:49, 27 July 2020 (UTC)

....advice about a series of articles that the community is not accepting

....I have been here 13 years, 12 as an administrator.(and 5 of them on the Arbitration Committee). That qualifies me to judge whether people are following the behavioral rules; it does not qualify me to be a judge of content. For most of the 13 years I have worked predominantly with the various stages and methods by which we keep or do not keep articles; I've participated in thousands of discussions; I've rescued many hundreds of articles; I've deleted many thousand; I've improved tens of thousands. This does give me a considerable degree of knowledge about what is considered acceptable, but it too does not qualify me to be a final judge of content. No one person is: only the community is the judge, and it decides for the individual articles by the WP:AFD process. A discussion at AfD is closed by someone, usually an administrator, deciding what the consensus is, based on the policy-based arguments of those who participate. These decisions are not always what any one person would consider correct, but aim at a certain degree of consistency. There are similar processes for deciding on fundamental policy and more detailed guidelines. Over time, it becomes clear what the community opinion is regarding various questions of content.

I do not necessarily agree with these opinions. I doubt that any individual who is very active here really agrees with all of our practices, but I have very definite and opinions about what parts of our content policy should be changed. Over the years, I have been able to convince the community in a very few cases to agree with me, or I have been part of a general change in opinion. For many guidelines I disagree with, when I need to make a decision involving them, I have only two choices--stay out of the discussion entirely, or follow what I know to be the community consensus no matter how strongly I disagree. If I tried to do otherwise, I would soon be removed as an administrator; if I made myself a nuisance about it, I might even be removed from the community.

On the question of the articles you propose to write, I cannot finally decide on them, but I think I can accurately predict what the community will do: they will not accept them in their present form based on their present sources. I gave you above some advice about the type of sources that would be needed, and about what alternatives you have to keep the content from being deleted. It's up to you whether to follow them, but if you continue a campaign to get them accepted in their present version, and continue the attitude of other community members that you are expressing above, I can also predict what will happen: you will either leave on your own account when you see you are not getting what you want, or be blocked.

When I came here, a few of the articles I first wrote were deleted, and some of my changes to others rejected. When I looked around further, and saw the opinions of people here generally, I decided not to continue to try to work in some specific fields, but concentrate on others. My opinions about some of them have not changed, but as I do not try to insist on them, I have had a very satisfying and I hope useful time here. DGG ( talk ) 20:52, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Respected sir, what can I say but I am deeply touched by your response; please accept my gratitude and admiration; I might be wrong but I think I have received your message; and I have changed my mind; I will try to protect the concerned contents from vandalism as best as I can in spite of my severe disadvantages regarding rights/privileges through content enrichment; though I must confess that I am not at all optimistic about the result/effect given the existing circumstances; but after your response it is simply impossible for me personally to give up that easily which otherwise would have been a perfectly cogent and rational course of action. Thanks and regards --AranyaPathak (talk) 18:08, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

Günter Bechly

(for full discussion, see my archive of Bias, intolerance, and prejudice)

Looking at this a few months later, I continue to think that the result of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Günter Bechly was one of the 2 or 3 most disgraceful decisions I have seen at Wikipedia. DGG ( talk ) 05:38, 1 December 2020 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – August 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (July 2020).

Guideline and policy news

• There is an open request for comment to decide whether to increase the minimum duration a sanction discussion has to remain open (currently 24 hours).
• Speedy deletion criterion T2 (template that misrepresents established policy) has been repealed following a request for comment.
• Speedy deletion criterion X2 (pages created by the content translation tool) has been repealed following a discussion.
• There is a proposal to restrict proposed deletion to confirmed users.

---

Response to rejection of ...

I am not going to help anyone write an article about themselves here. There has proven to be almost nobody who can do so properly, and even if it were in some case done properly, I can not think of any circumstances when it is appropriate to the spirit of Wikipedia . When someone who knows a person's notable work wants to write an article about them, then there can be an article. Since you're clearly notable, I might consider it myself, except I do not really fell intellectually secure in your specialty.

I can not speak to what other people may choose to do, for we all act independently.

As for me, I am considering going somewhat further, and not helping any organization write an article about any of their staff; in the past I have done so if the individual is really important, but I increasingly think this also tends to lead to a breech of our principles. DGG ( talk ) 01:27, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

James Finlay

Thank you for responding to my draft on James Finlay. This is the first time that I have used this draft facility rather than entering articles directly. I am a little puzzled about the pro-forma comments at the top of the rejection. I might add that I have made extensive contributions to individual company historiies as you can see from my talk page, mainly 7-8 years ago. Dormskirk actually gave me a Star for one of them and has made helpful comments on a couple of recent entries.

The proforma text said the article was not witten in a formal tone. I am familiar with acadeemic writing and I can easily change everything into the passive tense but that can make it somewhat turgid.

The article should be neutral. I have never had any connection with the company and have no views on iit, one way or another. I am not sure in which way it was not neutral. My material has come from publlished sources.

It shoulld refer to independent sources. There are about a dozen separate references, including the company history, archives, academic articles and Companies House.

I am not sure what "peacock terms" are beiing referenced.

Your own comments at the end suggest less usse of the firm's name. That is always a balnce between clarity and repetition. Readiing through the draft I can see the name is used a lot and I can easily use "firm" or "it" more frequentlly.

You also mention removing some adjectives. I did not think they were overused but I will look again on the edit.

I don't mean to sound defensive. I have had work publlished at all levels and always welcomed criticism - it is nearly all helpful. However, on thhis occasion, I have been left a little puzzled.

Regards Bebington (talk) 09:58, 5 August 2020 (UTC)

given your obvious expertise, I'm going to accept--in fact, I should have accepted. The problems could be addressed in mainspace perfectly well. I attribute my error to the extraordinary frequency of truly promotional articles, the more sophisticated of which do indeed have the pattern I assumed, of having a decent section of the history from real sources, and a section on the present company taken from PR (this is most noticeable in historic houses converted to hotels). My apologies, for I increasing find that the deluge of promotional submissions is contaminating everything here, including my judgment. As advice, do continue writing your articles in mainspace, for other AfC reviewers are likely to make the same errror as I, for the same reason. DGG ( talk ) 00:51, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your generous response. Advice taken. Bebington (talk) 08:14, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

Paid editing

I've also emailed arbcom but it appears the conversation you had with Tycheana was far from genuine, they blatantly lied. From their own userpage they link to Freelancer where they've received payment twice for two articles (likely more) and have never once disclosed. One of which was in the last few months! Praxidicae (talk) 14:56, 5 August 2020 (UTC)

Most undeclared paid editors when they run into difficulties like this simply go away, and, if they try again, do it quietly under another username. . I have encountered only 2 or 3 who stay and protest, and none of them quite matches this pattern. I have accordingly blocked indefinitely for disruptive editing. DGG ( talk ) 23:15, 5 August 2020 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you so much and I will definitely check out the Teahouse page. Regards — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vanitapandey (talk • contribs) 22:45, 5 August 2020 (UTC)

Request on 01:49:55, 6 August 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by RedBeardBandit

• RedBeardBandit (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Ron Rangel (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Hello, I recently submitted an article (my first) and believe it was wrongfully rejected. I have added additional sources but there is some additional information. Bexar County is one of the larges counties in Texas. The local administrative judge has, in the time of COVID-19 been making unprecedented decisions regarding court access and jury trials. This has been the subject of much press coverage, some of which I included in the article. I believe that while not all district court judges are notable the local administrative judge making these historic decisions in a large Texas City is notable and worthy of inclusion in Wikipedia. Thank you for your consideration.

RedBeardBandit (talk) 01:49, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

RedBeardBandit, not see any of this as being generally significant. I think you would need national references to do that. But I leave further reviews to another reviewer DGG ( talk ) 01:58, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

Regarding the rejected submission

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_Against_the_Modern_World one of Evola's other works has an independent page, do you think I ought to merge both? Emicho's Avenger (talk) 01:32, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

Request for Comment

Hi @DGG: I wonder if you have a minute today to give your opinion on the talk page of how notable and what condition the article Derek M Yellon is in. @Dudewheresmywallet: doesn't believe it is notable, it is puff piece and keeps placing a notability tag on the article, which I have removed a couple of times. [[40]] Thanks. scope_creep^Talk 10:05, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Christopher Cannon (medievalist)

I've been cleaning this up a bit. The man is highly notable, but the draft is written up likely by a grad student who was doing a nice thing but doesn't really know what it is we do here. If you have a moment to devote to developing it, that would be great. Writing these biographies seems to be more difficult and tedious every single time. Hope you're well, DGG, in these difficult times. Drmies (talk) 14:22, 9 August 2020 (UTC)

tedious, certainly. They would be a prime candidate for automatic article writing. DGG ( talk ) 02:56, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

DGG after the last attempt at ediiting this on Christopher Cannon i am loath to meddle in case your work gets undone. If you let me know when you are done then i can fix things according to your comments, if needed. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Academy-aureus-argent (talk • contribs) 22:27, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Fantastic work DGG, thanks so much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Academy-aureus-argent (talk • contribs) 21:16, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Surreal Barnstar
	Thank you so much DGG! I appreciate it! You do rock! I do believe I corrected a few periods in error. Could you please take a final look. Thank you. Roccie ;) 05:41, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Nomination of Ahmass Fakahany for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Ahmass Fakahany is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ahmass Fakahany...e. Nathan2055^{talk - contribs} 23:03, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Notifying you as the previous accepting AfC reviewer prior to the most recent draftification and undraftification. Nathan2055^{talk - contribs} 23:03, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Editing Draft:Nikki Hunt

Hi, I've seen your comments regarding the Draft:Nikki Hunt. I've read your comments and made some changes to it. Could you kindly take a look at it again and let me know if it's acceptable? I also want to mention that I have added a COI on my talk page for this specific page. See below. Thank you so much $ Andreeatalos1990, in accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, discloses that they have been paid by Design Intervention on behalf of Nikki Hunt for their contributions to Wikipedia.Andreeatalos1990 (talk) 02:55, 11 August 2020 (UTC)

RSN comment

.... (entire discussion in [[User talk:DGG/Archive 0.11| User talk:DGG/Bias, intolerance and prejudice)

(about AfD:

I basically agree with what you say about AfD. I too think some degree of consistency in AfD is a virtue--not just simplify arguing at AfD, but for the benefit of the readers, who can better predict what they are likely to find here, but for guidance in advising people with new articles and AfC drafts--which is what i do most these days. . Since there will always be special cases, your suggestion of starting with a discussion of what is usual --and why this might be different--seems sensible--and I notice looking back that I often discuss at afD in this comparative way. There remains the question of what to do with borderline case, where they're borderline not because nobody as looked for material, but likely to remain borderline. The usual suggestions are merging, or draftifying--but merging can still lead to surreptitious deletion, and draftifying only works if there's someone to actually improve it. We need to be more willing to accept permastubs.)

...nor ought we to be guiding readers. We must present information to readers: if we personally think something is the right position, we should have confidence that the plain and honest presentation of the facts and arguments of both those supporting and opposing our position will show it. Otherwise, why are we so sure of ourselves in the first place, if we think the facts and arguments of our opponents will convince the reader. Why do we need to protect a reader from making the right judgment on their own? The people who are convinced of absurd ideas do so because in their experience and education they have heard only their side of the argument.That they haven't been taught to distinguish?--very likely so--but if they come here they will ought to find a presentation that will lead to a fair conclusion. How are we to account for their errors--their intrinsic perversity?--if that's the case, protecting them isn't going to help much. No, there is only one reason for hiding or obscuring of minimizing or denigrating one side of the argument--the fear that it might convince people after all. That's the way some politicians do things: having no reasonable views of their own that might convince anyone, they hide, ignore, or mock the views of their opponents. If they pretend to consider the evidence, they present it in such false setting and misleading graphs and statistics--and they certainly don't let their opponents have a fair chance to explain their side without being made fun of.

I'm aware of "teach the controversy--a paradigmatic example of a misleading catchphrase. Those who pretend to teach the controversy do so in a way to avoid presenting the opposing side fairly. Actually presenting objectively the history of evolutionary and anti-evolutionary thought in a neutral but academic way is an excellent way to show the falseness of the anti-evolutionary position. Actually explaining the historical development of current economic and political thought, is the clearest way to show the real motivations of some popular views. Presenting biased history of course leads to biased conclusions. How can the reader know which side is resorting to unsupportable evidence and false logic unless their views are fully presented in detail?

People who might come here to read a controversial topic who are already certain of the rightness of their positions will not be convinced by anything said here. An imaginary reader who has never heard of American politics who should happen to read certain news sources, will recognize at once they have no good case to make, just like someone who might never have heard of some pseudo-medical treatment will be, if they see the typical advertisement for it. But people who come here in order to find out what position they should support, if they find one side is minimally treated in an unbalanced way, they will just conclude we are biased and ignore us.. If the current general opinion is correct that in current politics it is just such voters who will determine the result, we have a special obligation to be scrupulously neutral. DGG ( talk ) 01:56, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

I have unreviewed a page you curated

Hi, I'm Spicy. I wanted to let you know that I saw the page you reviewed, David K. Pillai, and have marked it as unpatrolled. If you have any questions, please ask them on my talk page. Thank you.

(Message delivered via the Page Curation tool, on behalf of the reviewer.)

Spicy (talk) 00:22, 16 August 2020 (UTC)

Rahul Verma

Please take a look at this article again. Last time you merged the Uday Foundation into Rahul Verma. I am not sure if you wanted to merged Rahul Verma into Uday Foundation. Also someone edited it erroneously and entire article is messed up. Two requests, either clean up the same as you did last time and recreate new article for Uday Foundation or merged Rahul Verma into Uday Foundation. Regards Shibanihk (talk) 07:47, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

I think it could posibly make sense to merge them in either direction, but what does not make sense is to have two articles as the content is essentially identical.Since the present articles is at the person it would be simpler to keep it there. The talk page is the place to decide this. You are correct that the article has been edited irresponsibly; it has been made overly promotional , and I have just fixed it bu removing some of the promotionalism back to the way I had it, and tightened up the wording. DGG ( talk ) 09:40, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Thank you. I will try to further clean the same with some better references. Will update you once done. Shibanihk (talk) 11:08, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

Check Out Article

Hey, I saw your comment on the Draft: The Havoc of Choice. I have created the author's page, Wanjiru Koinange, care to take a look and see if it's good to go?

Thanks. JW254 (talk) 08:07, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

Good. now merge this briefly into the article in the author. DGG ( talk ) 00:41, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

Caesar's Retreat has been updated.

Hello, I have updated the draft of Caesar's Retreat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Caesar%27s_Retreat

Please check. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.90.228.45 (talk) 07:38, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

‪Frank Dunn Kern‬

...

I and other reviewers are making a special effort to try to review the clearly notable unexceptional articles as quickly as possible. The sooner we remove them from the stream of the many that need longer consideration, the better for all the new articles. DGG ( talk ) 19:44, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

Notability of Smartwings QS-1125

The subject is indeed a notable aviation incident. That a chief pilot was strongly censured in an official report was remarked on as unique by Petter Hornfeldt, a pilot and respected aviation commentator.(Hornfeldt, Petter (August 1, 2020). "Flying across Europe with a BROKEN engine! Smartwings 1125". Mentour Pilot via youtube.). The incident was not swept under the table but widely reported. Many accidents have been caused by deliberate inaction, omission and disdain for rules. Please see QS-1125 Talk. Thank for your tag/caution about notability of this new article. I hope it passes muster now.-Yohananw (talk) 00:40, 25 August 2020 (UTC)

You are perfectly entitled to remove a Prod tag. Nonetheless, I do not see how that is compatible with WP:AVIATION "The accident was fatal to humans; or The accident involved hull loss or serious damage to the aircraft or airport; or The accident or incident resulted in changes to procedures, regulations or processes affecting airports, airlines or the aircraft industry.". However, this is not my field. Fortunately, no one person makes a final decision on keeping or deleting an article; the community does, at WP:AFD. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Smartwings QS-1125 DGG ( talk ) 05:09, 25 August 2020 (UTC)

ARCA-pseudoscience

Hi, there's something I wanted to clarify for the Arbitration report for next issue of The Signpost. At ARCA-Pseudoscience, you have posted a somewhat more lengthy rationale for why the community needs to decide what pseudoscience is. It's hard for me to tell if this is agreeing with the other arbs, or if you are trying to take your approach? Or maybe it's all overcome by events by the last post by GW? Can you help with my confusion? ☆ Bri (talk) 21:03, 25 August 2020 (UTC)

in preparation--this is extremely important to me, and I want to check what I have written and post it tomorrow afternoon. DGG ( talk ) 05:26, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

Bri, as may be evident from that page, my views have changed somewhat in the course of discussion; I cannot write the extended essay I had hoped to here without much more time to think, and consideration of the consequences and interrelationships, but my current positions as an arb is that

1. Arb com deals only with behavior. Arb com can not determine which POVs are acceptable, or what POVs are mainstream.

2 I consider that the original pseudoscience discussion was fundamentally erroneous insofar as it attempted to deal with content, and similarly are all subsequent arb com decisions in the area

3. Arb com can determine how we conduct discussions, and when to remove troublemakers, but it can not do so on the basis of the positions they take on content. It can not declare in what fields WP considers certain positions to be correct. For example, it cannot say how WP can treat topics that may be called pseudoscience, except by insisting that people who obstruct discussion in this or any other area must be removed.

4. So in terms of the question asked, we as arbs are not entitled to say this particular field is pseudoscience, and we as arbs were never so entitled to say this about any fields whatsoever.

5 The community itself cannot declare that certain views are pseudoscience. It can only report whether they are called so by reliable sources, and it must take into account all relevant positions. This is the basic principle of NPOV, which neither the committee nor arb com can ignore. The community can determine the details of how NPOV is to be interpreted, but it is a content rule, so arb com cannot.

6. It is my opinion that the effect of declaring how WP can handle certain fields, by using Discretionary sanctions, encourages and perpetuates bias. As it works at present, rather than destroying cliques it facilitates them, by giving an inordinately strong first-mover advantage. There is not now any basis for using DS at all, in this or any other subject. It encourages people to use their bias, and makes it too difficult to stop them. It may not have been completely wrong for arb com to use DS in an earlier stage of WP, as an attempt to deal with "unblockable" editors, but this is not a problem at present, at least not in the same fashion.

7 Arb com can change the rules for conduct in an area under disruption, but only if it does it in a content-neutral way. It can for example make a field subject to 2RR, or 1RR. It can remove specific troublemakers from a discussion, or from a field, or from WP., or warn that the rules for conduct in a given field or a given discussion will be interpreted strictly, and do so in a way that makes it very difficult to appeal. These are dangerous powers, for it could do so in such a way as to selectively help one of two contending sides, and in my opinion it has done just that in some decisions. But at least it requires an agreement of a majority of the individual arbs to do so. Discretionary sanctions allows any of the individual admins to do the same, while making it almost as difficult to appeal as to appeal an arb com decision. This is too dangerous. It is possible that 8 out of 15 arbs may be biased, knowingly or not. It is inevitable that some one of 500 admins will be biased.

8. One of the responsibilities of arb com is the supervision of the actions of arbitrators, and if the committee thinks that they have been making decisions in a way that effectuates bias rather than NPOV, the committee is entitled to take action. This again is a dangerous power, for it might, and in some cases has, been used unfairly. But it remains a necessary function, and the committee must do it until some fairer scheme can be devised.

I have refused on that page to give my personal opinion of Ayurvedic medicine. I do have one. Its current practical application is pseudoscientific, but we must make allowances for cultural bias. It seems unlikely a priori that we are the only civilization on earth that understands the world correctly. Its practitioners think they are using theory based science validated by experience. The same is true for Western European medicine as practiced until about the mid 19th century: physicians thought they were using theory-based science validated by experiment and experience. In both cases, their theories were wrong , their experimental methods crude, and their ability to analyze experience inadequate--and their treatments correspondingly irrational and generally ineffective. In its historical aspect, ayurvedic medicine made no less sense than sense than any other any premodern medical theory,.

In our articles on ayurveda, the historical aspects would in my opinion would more clearly be treated separately from the current practice. In my opinion our repeated emphasis in our articles, especially the lead of the main article, that ayruveda is considered a pseudoscience is excessive, and indicates bias rather than NPOV. A proper statement is appropriate, but the present orientation of the entire article gives the reader the impression we are not actually a NPOV encyclopedia. (And I think we have made the same error in other subjects.) I would say these things in a discussion on the relevant talk page, except that I think that the mere fact that I'm an arb would affect the discussion.. DGG ( talk ) 04:34, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Iván Enrique Rodríguez

Dear DGG, I am buildng a collection of the contemporary Puerto Rican composers to add to Wikipedia. This was my first article. Could you help me make it better?--MahlerLover (talk) 20:45, 26 August 2020 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by MahlerLover (talk • contribs) 20:43, 26 August 2020 (UTC) When I built the article I was following the way Robert Beaser's article was made.--MahlerLover (talk) 20:45, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

Dear User:DGG I edited the article. Please let me know if it satisfy your expectations. If not, please let me know in a more specific way. Thanks so much! MahlerLover (talk) 23:48, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

MahlerLover, I added a note to the draft. It's better, but there's still no major performance or recording. It may be too early in his career, but I will leave t for others to review. This is a field of interest to me, but not expertise. DGG ( talk ) 01:00, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Dear DGG Thanks so much for your comment! I truly appreciate your knowledgeable insight a lot! I do believe your opinion in relationship to the WP:Composer: criteria needs to be addressed within the 21st century understanding of the White Frame and systemic discrimination of composers of color in classical music. For a “major orchestra” (whatever that means, as the orchestras mentioned have yearly budgets of over 14M dollras) to consider a composer of color is inherently harder If not almost impossible due to the structure of the white frame and diversity-negating status of the system. So, when considering this article and the national and international achievements (such as the historic Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music) of this composer as well as the other composers of color that I intend to write articles about, has to be understood within a place of deep knowledge of race and anti-racism. Thanks again for everything! I’ve learned a lot! MahlerLover (talk) 02:26, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Yes,, MahlerLover, I do understand the situation. The solution within WP is to make sure first that we do have articles on those individuals from other geographies who most clearly meat the conventional criteria, before trying to convince WPedians to include others. I have always been in favor of flexibility here, but the best strategy is to work from the top. If you think I haven't taken this enough into account, the way to proceed is to build up the article as strongly as possible and then resubmit. Let me know. I will do what I can to help you, but remember that I'm not the judge--the community at an AfD is the final judge, and all I can do is predict. DGG ( talk ) 08:19, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Draft: Danny Kabakibo

Dear DGG, This is the second article of mine that you have declined. The first was about Katya Cengel (a female author from the biographies needing done list). I re-wrote that article but it has not yet been re-reviewed. So I wanted to work on a new one, I thought I would try a different type of person, so a man from s technologies list. I thought I did what you had instructed. I used all very known reliable outside resources. I wrote about him and not his accolades. I am confused as to what I am doing wrong. Can you please help me understand what the problem is?

people become notable because of their accomplishments, and tthe article needs to be focussed around their accomplishments. This article, however, is focused around his youthful hobbies and opinions. He has since created a software application, bu tthere is no indication tha it is an important invention or hat it is in significant use. Sources showing notability must be references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements. Most of the sources here, 1,2, 3,5, 7, an 8, although they may look like newspapers, aren't. They are PR outlets,. Their stories are entirely based upon what the person chooses to say about themselves. to see this more clearly, look at some of the other stories in the publication. You will find none which are genuine news accounts under editorial control. References 6 and 9 are geneuine news publications. However, their stories about him are exactly the same as the PR in the straightforward PR publications--they're just what he says about himself. News sources in all countries do this: they print press release as well as actual news, and the profession of PR is in large part devoted to placing these stories. One way to see this is to look at the extravagant claims made--if they were genuine, there would be real news accounts in major newspapers about his accomplishments, Another is to compare the accounts--they ar almost identical, including even the headlines. They're all modifications of the same press handout.

In general, taking topics from the list of desired articles needs to be done carefully--anyone may place a topic there. Since PR writers know that if they write the WP articles directly, they will find the articles rejected and be banned as undeclared paid editors, this has become a common trick for inducing good-faith wikipedians to do the work for free. But the results are indistinguishable from paid editing. The best way of finding topics is list prepared for editathons, or based on genuine news accounts that you see yourself. Before you start, make sure you have at least 2, and better 3, excellent reliable independent sources from books by major publishers or major magazines or newspapers with national coverage. You will also find list of desired articles at the various Wikiproject pages. DGG ( talk ) 23:44, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

Cengal may be notable , but the article didn't show it, and neither does your revision. Notability for a reporter is very difficult to demonstrate unless they win an individual pulitzer or something equally important. Notability for an author is much easier--it depends on the reviews, and the first indication of whether there are likely to be substantial reviews in third-party published independent reliable sources, not press releases, blurbs, blogs, Amazon, or Goodreads The article didn't give it , but I should have looked further. The books are mostly from University of Nebraska Press, or one of its subimprints, which is a very good sign. I shall now add this information to the article. The place to find the information is WorldCat. Of the places where you took the reviews. none is a major publication, such as the NYT book review. Pacific Standard is an online environmental magazine, and is the best of them--see our article on it--not that despite what our article says, it is still active--I shall have to update it . NY Journal of books is of undetermined reliability(--it is not New York Review of Books, a magazine of very high prestige. ). Judging by its Web site [41]. we need an article on it. The article needs to focus on her as an author, not a journalist. To some degree, the number of copies of books in worldcat libraries can indicate significance, tho its not a formal criterion for notability . I made a start at that, and accepted it. You will find listings for additional reviews of her books in Worldcat, and there is some material to find a reference for. And check the exact name of the field in which she received a degree. DGG ( talk ) 00:49, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

The basic skill for you to acquire is to be careful and skeptical about results found on Google. You need to read them, and find out about the publication they are coming from. DGG ( talk ) 00:49, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your response. You gave me exactly the information I was looking for and I am sure I can improve both articles. I really appreciate your time. I would also appreciate very much if you could take a look at another draft of mine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Josh_Clarke_(American_football) I would rather improve it now than later after it is declined. Again, thanks so much for your answer, it helped a lot! I am very new, so I have no doubt I have plenty to learn here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by WikiJSPN (talk • contribs) 03:03, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

WikiJSPN, in some fields I know just enough to be aware that I should stay clear of them to avoid foolish blunders, and sports is one of them. DGG ( talk ) 08:21, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Thank you- I did find an answer to that. It is simply too soon. I am working on bettering the references for the Cengel page and possibly trying again with the Kabakibo page IF I can find good references or maybe something totally new. I appreciate all of your help so much!WikiJSPN (talk) 17:04, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for reviewing Draft:Scott Waldman and pending acceptance

Hi DGG, thanks for your revision of Draft:Scott Waldman. I wonder if you have the capacity to accept/decline the article and move it to mainspace if accepted. Regards. Neuralia (talk) 14:16, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Dear DGG, I noticed you removed the revision template from this article with no decision/action with regard to its acceptance. What needs to be done now to move the case forward? Thank you.Neuralia (talk) 10:21, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	For your views and works, happy to read your user page. Rahulsomantalk - contribs 23:29, 27 August 2020 (UTC)

Robert Peckham (historian)

Hello. I'm curious as to why you moved Robert Peckham (historian) to article space. It had, and still has, zero independent sources, albeit a plausible claim to baseline notability. Books written by the subject aside, the personal biographical details are completely unsourced, and the article creator's edit history seems to be nearly entirely based on the Peckham family. --Animalparty! (talk) 19:39, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

He has written 3 books published by respectable academic presses, one of them being Cambridge University Press.That makes him notable as an academic.The publications are independent sources. They are not given in standard format, but I never decline an article for that. His key achievements as such as adequately sourced. The routine facts of his education are not, but probably could be easily enough from a CV, which we accept as sourcing for such unexceptional material. I will accept or write an article about anyone who publishes a book by CUP. The time to do the remainder of the fixing is in mainspace. DGG ( talk ) 22:27, 28 August 2020 (UTC)

Created a Page for Atsuhiro Osuka

Sir, Created a page for Prof. Atsuhiro Osuka. He is a academic scientist working in the field of chemistry. So please go through it. Kindly spare some time for this article if possible. Any improvements further needed in language or content please let me know. Waiting for reply Rahulsoman^{talk - contribs} 21:29, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

see the draft for my advice. I put it there so others will see it also. DGG ( talk ) 00:28, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

updated based on your comments sir. Given reply to comments in talk session of Draft:Atsuhiro_Osuka. Rahulsoman^{talk - contribs} 13:04, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

the draft will be reviewedr in the ordinary course of events within the next month or two . If I reviewed on request, it would be unfair to everyone else. But I shall give it another look tomorrow. DGG ( talk ) 20:57, 30 August 2020 (UTC)

Submission of Draft

I have removed promotional words in this Draft: Amina Namadi Sambo, sir I would think it can be submitted as the submitted bottom were disabled by you Abbas Kwarbai (talk) 16:59, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

• • CHECK

Editing news 2020 #4

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Reply tool

The number of comments posted with the Reply Tool from March through June 2020. People used the Reply Tool to post over 7,400 comments with the tool.

The Reply tool has been available as a Beta Feature at the Arabic, Dutch, French and Hungarian Wikipedias since 31 March 2020. The first analysis showed positive results.

The Reply tool is still in active development. Per request from the Dutch Wikipedia and other editors, you will be able to customize the edit summary. (The default edit summary is "Reply".) A "ping" feature is available in the Reply tool's visual editing mode. This feature searches for usernames. Per request from the Arabic Wikipedia, each wiki will be able to set its own preferred symbol for pinging editors. Per request from editors at the Japanese and Hungarian Wikipedias, each wiki can define a preferred signature prefix in the page MediaWiki:Discussiontools-signature-prefix. For example, some languages omit spaces before signatures. Other communities want to add a dash or a non-breaking space.

Next: New discussion tool

Next, the team will be working on a tool for quickly and easily starting a new discussion section to a talk page. To follow the development of this new tool, please put the New Discussion Tool project page on your watchlist.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:47, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 17

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past two months (July and August 2020).

Opencooper's collapseBots declutters talk pages by collapsing comments made by bots

SD0001's shortdescs-in-category can be used to view short descriptions of pages in a category

WikiMacaroons's Talk to Wiki allows for voice-activated functionality and navigation of Wikipedia

WikiMacaroons's AutoShortDesc simplifies the addition of short descriptions to pages

IagoQnsi's ipareader adds a button next to IPA pronunciations to have them read out by a text-to-speech program

GeneralNotability's spihelper a script to help CheckUsers, SPI clerks, and patrolling admins with sockpuppet investigation case pages

Evad37's TimestampDiffs adds a link at the end of every comment to the diff in which it was added

Twinkle has a number of improvements including additional redirect category templates

Updates to Enterprisey's reply-link include compatibility fixes with Mdaniels5757's markAdmins script and Kephir's unclutter script

Evad37's rater is now at version 2.6.0, which updates including OOUI tweaks and the inclusion of banners for inactive projects

Pending requests

• A script to simplify addition of "connected contributor" templates to talk pages
• A script to simplify removal of the "persondata" template on mlwiki
• ...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

Stay safe --DannyS712 (talk) 19:42, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

---

Guideline and policy news

• Following a request for comment, the minimum length for site ban discussions was increased to 72 hours, up from 24.
• A request for comment is ongoing to determine whether paid editors must or should use the articles for creation process.
• A request for comment is open to resolve inconsistencies between the draftification and alternative to deletion processes.

[

}} 

Draft:Robert Charles Hider

I'm probably missing something blindingly obvious, but what is 'ck'? Cheers. Eagleash (talk) 10:57, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

my abbreviation for check--that the article will be need checking for references , in this case for the awards, for if they can be verified he is notable , . I should ideally have done then and there, but I'm trying to work as fast a possible to screen all the G13s about to be deleted at 6 months to se what I can rescue--generally out of a page of 200 , and ignoring the ones in sports and popular culture where I know too little to judge, I can rescue 3 or 4, and mark another 3 or 4 for checking later. I'm experimenting with various ways of marking them.

But yes, this time I was a little too cryptic. DGG ( talk ) 04:52, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

Oh dear, should have been able to work that out! I think that one is a possible save but have not got around to looking more closely. Sports though... much easier! Cheers. Eagleash (talk) 10:46, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

Added a couple of refs to the honours section; not necessarily very good ones. Could not find anything for thr other items and 'Fellow Royal Chemistry Society' may not carry the kudos it might be thought it would, judging by their website. Best. Eagleash (talk) 22:18, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

I added some of the citation figures, which are high enough to demonstrate he's an authority in his field. The article, of course,, would have to be thoroughly rewritten, which I may do, but not right now. DGG ( talk ) 03:54, 5 September 2020 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Justin Jedlica

This AfD has not actually been created yet. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 13:21, 3 September 2020 (UTC)

Gig Performer

Hi DGG,

You have reviewed my article about Gig Perfofmer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Gig_Performer I'm sorry to hear you rejected it. Another Wikipedia reviewer Timtrent and I put some effort to review my draft together, section by section, sentence by sentence and improve it (for which I'm very, very grateful to Timtrent - he's a really kind person). I'm sorry to hear that these few sentences still look like an advertisement; I created this draft based on similar applications like Mainstage or GuitarRig. I wanted to keep that style, short and informative.
Timtrent and I also reviewed my references so they meet Wikipedia reliability standards, and the corrected version seemed OK to both of us. I was hoping that someone will review my draft and accept it.

Can you please take another look on this draft and give me suggestions what else to do so it finally gets approved? This is my first Wikipedia article, and I really want to to anything to improve it so it finally gets accepted. Thank you very much for your feedback.
--Npudar (talk) 12:54, 5 September 2020 (UTC)

Looking at it, TT had you remove one ref, and clean up the presentation of others, but none were added , so I don't see how it could have increased the reliable referencing. The best thing you can do is find and add another substantial 3rd party source. But since it's a little out of my field I will simply remove my review, and it will get reviewed by someone else. DGG ( talk ) 00:15, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for offering advice to Npudar and for the action you have taken. Fiddle Faddle 12:15, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

:DGG, thank you very much! I have just added one more reliable 3rd party reference from a journal, 08/2020. Is there anything else Ineed to do so my short article gets accepted? Thank you for your feedback, and best regards,

--Npudar (talk) 12:19, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Civility Barnstar
	You know what this is about; Thank you for being civil and understanding even when I got a bit heated. AviationFreak💬 20:20, 5 September 2020 (UTC)

indiexpo Draft page

Hi DGG,
I am not in the staff of indiexpo company. It is a community that helps indie game developers and I am a young game developer. I am totally new on wikipedia. I started creating that page because I see other pages on wikipedia about gamejolt and itch (platforms similar to indiexpo) and I was thinking that it was a good idea to start with a page about it. Just it. I contacted few time ago the staff of the website for more news to add but it is not a press release (you can check on internet, it is totally new). And I see that also other fans of this services were editing it. I hope to be clear! If you have any questions, I am here! Thanks again, and happy editing!

MarcoOPPO ( talk ) 16:04, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

MarcoOPPO fine. That's what I hoped you would say. I will review the article tomorrow. DGG ( talk ) 03:43, 7 September 2020 (UTC)

DGG Thanks! MarcoOPPO ( talk ) 15:56, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

September 2020 (UTC)

DGG Hi DGG! I'm still waiting for your approve/review! Have a nice day! MarcoOPPO ( talk ) 15:56, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

Request on 01:15:52, 8 September 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by F09200920

• F09200920 (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Synnex Technology International Corporation (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Hi Sir, thanks for your comments, how should I modify this article ? I need to cite other reliable sources? Would Reuters /news report be considered a reliable source?

It would be very appreciated if you could let me know your advice on further improvement.F09200920 (talk) 01:15, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

F09200920 (talk) 01:15, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

Since this is your only contribution, and since it is written in the format of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. I will be glad to explain further as soon as you infrom me that you have provided the necessary information DGG ( talk ) 01:26, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Innovecs

Please have a look at Draft:Innovecs — each sentence has a reference to an independent RS --Perohanych (talk) 19:22, 8 September 2020 (UTC)

That draft does not even bother to tell the reader what the company does, other than two IT buzzwords. Sad. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 05:35, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

@Cullen328: IT service are not two IT buzzwords. Almost 1000 people in the company design, plan, deliver, operate and control information technology services offered to their customers (see IT service management article). --Perohanych (talk) 16:46, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

Perohanych, no, those are buzzwords that convey nothing of value to the reader of an encyclopedia article. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 22:31, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

reviewed and declined: No acceptable references, only placement on lists and directories, and a promotional interview by the founder on rdo.com, a purely promotional and therefore unreliable web site. You need references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements site.

I am totally puzzled that as a long-term WPedian active on the uk-WP, you regard these references as acceptable.---not just acceptable for notability , but for any purpose at all. DGG ( talk ) 11:18, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

@DGG: rdo.com ? What do you mean? There are no any references to rdo.com

As for BRDO https://en.brdo.com.ua/ — this is a team of independent experts. They prepared an Analytical report on the Ukrainian IT industry They prepared this report together with two other independent organizations — ForBis and IT-Ukraine.

Do you really consider links to Inc. (magazine) and their Inc. 500 and Inc. 5000 lists as not acceptable for Wikipedia? --Perohanych (talk) 16:52, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

The Inc item is just a directory listing

Yes, I consider inclusion in the inc lists as entirely promotional .

Did you read the piece on Brdo..com--it is just a platform for the founder to say whatever he pleases. Such interviews are never acceptable in WP -- they once were, 12 years ago, but now the. rule is WP:NCORP, a much stricter requirement.

The role of a reviewer is not to decide if a article is acceptable, but to decide whether the community is likely to find it acceptable at an AfD discussion. We do this by results of AfD discussions, and knowing the effective guidelines as they are applied, and can therefore predict what is likely to happen. My prediction is that it has less than a 50% chance of passing AfD with the current sourcing. How would it help if I approved the article and it then, as expected , got deleted.? It would be much better to try to improve it first. Of course I, like any individual, might be wrong. That's why I do not make the final decision. You can try to improve it and submit it again; someone else will review. DGG ( talk ) 17:13, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

OK, Thank you, I'll work on it. It seems that the Ukrainian Wikipedia lags behind WP-EN by 12 years :) --Perohanych (talk) 17:28, 9 September 2020 (UTC)

Request on 01:31:22, 10 September 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Oeakwari

• Oeakwari (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Onyekwere E. Akwari (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Thank you for your message. Could you please point me to the sentences you found objectionable? The pages citing his character toward the end? Or is there more? Should there be more cites? I saw that I had not cited the Wikipedia page for Dr. David C. Sabiston, who hired him and whose Wikipedia page cites his responsibility for integrating Duke Surgery. Grateful for your help.Oeakwari (talk) 01:31, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

Oeakwari (talk) 01:31, 10 September 2020 (UTC) Since this is your only contribution, and since it is written in the format of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. I will review it as soon as you infrom me that you have provided the necessary information DGG ( talk ) 03:57, 10 September 2020 (UTC)`

Books & Bytes – Issue 40

• New partnerships
  • Al Manhal
  • Ancestry
  • RILM
• #1Lib1Ref May 2020 report
• AfLIA hires a Wikipedian-in-Residence

Read the full newsletter

Tag

Hello, regarding the tag on List of cyberattacks on U.S. schools 2020, I saw that you suggested reorganizing by geographic region. can you go to the article and take a look at the chart I started and see of that will be a good organization? Thanks DGG. Lightburst (talk) 14:50, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

Lightburst. I had in mind something much simpler-- I suggest alphabetizing by state. Consider whether you're going to include a few selected ones only, or everything you can find ( in which caseI think there might be some objection to that on the basis of NOT DIRECTORY. The usual basis of selection is having a separate WP article. You should state the basis of selection you are using.

Alabama

Alabama cities, listed alphabeticaly

Alaska

Alaska cities, listed alphabetically

I suggest that until the table gets much fuller, we'd only need headings for the states. And if you really wanted to do everything, you;d need to divide into separate articles,

I consider tables a nuisance, making the article much more spread out  on the screen and   harder to read; and sortable tables shouldn't be used unless they're necessary to avoid having multiple table, to anticipate actual likely user interest, not just because we can. (I'm only talking about desktop--I would imagine they would  be much worse on the phone ,but I've  never used it for WP)

Hope this helps. DGG ( talk ) 15:19, 10 September 2020 (UTC)

Deletion discussions

Either the Twinkle deletion process is broken, or you've missed a step in a couple of recent nominations for deletion. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2020 September 11, and between the entries for Miller, California and Sheep Springs, California you've added two redlinks which need to be created with a deletion rationale.-gadfium 04:49, 11 September 2020 (UTC)

this has happened before. Either I am working too fast for the macro, or the macro is working too slowly for me. . But I remember my first year, where the afd had to be entered part by part manually every time. I'll fix these, if nobody has done so yet. DGG ( talk ) 05:16, 11 September 2020 (UTC)

They've been removed from the log, so I will consider renomination DGG ( talk ) 05:52, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

Curzon family is back

Hello DGG, any idea if any of the articles created by user Mineraltimer are notable? and is there a violation of wp:sock? You nominated House of Roper-Curzon last year and Mineraltimer created it under House of Curzon and House of Roper (now in draft). It sounds like the user is only here to promote this family. GSS ^💬 05:50, 12 September 2020 (UTC)

At his point the best course is to deal with the articles one by one, . I've nominated one more for deletion, and removed inappropriate content from others. I have also left a warning. DGG ( talk ) 03:53, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

A brownie for you!

I wish more people thought like you. I feel like you understand what Wikipedia's true intentions were and over the years people have been making up their own rules in order to feel a sense of entitlement. I would appreciate if you could look at my draft of the short web series "Becoming Jiff". Thank you. Drwho92 (talk) 06:20, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

???

Rejected Article

Hi, I'm wanting advice on an article I am trying to publish which you rejected: Draft:Robin Friend . You stated that it's "not sufficiently notable for inclusion in Wikipedia." I have had a look at the notability page and also the specific part of what constitutes a "creative professional" and I personally still don't see why it was rejected. Please could you shed some light on why you deemed Robon Friend not notable enough. Thanks.

No works in the permanent collection of major museums and no references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements/ OI note that I am the 4th of 4 reviews who all thought that this. would be unlikely to be accepted at afd, which is the criterion for passing AFC DGG ( talk ) 09:11, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

So to your first point, Robin Friend has work in the permeant collection of the Martin Parr Foundation. Martin Parr started this up to collect and preserve “significant photographic works” focused on the British Isles. In terms of reliable sources and press releases, to name a few, but I have referenced It’s Nice That, British Journal of Photography, The Guardian, Cultural Bulletin, Huck. All of these are very well recognised and established and have written extensive articles on Friend. And to your final point, this is the first time I’m hearing of anything to do with the notability of Robin Friend as a reason for the article being declined, the previous times were for lack of references. As a final point to back up Robin Friend's notability, he has shown work in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide.

I shall admit I never heard of the martin parr collection, and looking at the article on Parr, it seems a personal collection open to the public, not a major museum. But even really major personal collections can count, so I will check further. At any rate I should have declined, not rejected; I was influenced by the several previous declines. So I have reverted my review; I will think further, and if still in doubt leave it for another reviewer. DGG ( talk ) 17:52, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for reconsidering and taking back your rejection. What happens now? Do I need to do anyhting or do I just wait for it to be reviewed again?

Diet Doctor at Articles for Creation

Recently, you rejected a draft page at Articles for Creation about Diet Doctor [42]. I'd really be interested in hearing if you have any more feedback as to why the page wasn’t accepted or any tips for how I can improve it. I really didn’t think the content was an advert – it even contains some criticisms – and the cited sources explain the website is one of the largest keto websites there is. The template decline merely provides a series of generic rationales for declining. AnnaHecht1993 (talk) 15:13, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

WP rule WP:NCORP requires references providing substantial coverage from third-party independent reliable sources, not press releases or mere announcements . I don't think any of the sources given here qualified. It awas as much a comment on notability as of advertisement--I probably should have used both tags. DGG ( talk ) 23:18, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

Update

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to review the page. I actually wrote it myself. My father also has a Wikipedia page and he asked for consistency that I use the same format as his published page and just change the information and make it specific for me. This is his link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_RibacoffHarleybella0714 (talk) 13:50, 8 September 2020 (UTC) Harleybella0714 (talk) 04:10, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

WP still surprises me-- this is the first such instance I have encountered of this particular pattern. I will look at both pages tomorrow. But to start with, see WP:AUTOBIOGRAPHY, DGG ( talk ) 04:14, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the article on Daniel Ribacoff also seems extremely promotional. that is not unusual--there are many hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove. The least we can do is not add to them. I will look further at both. DGG ( talk ) 23:36, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

#$##

A question - conflict with admin Awilley

Hello David. I am in a rather unusual situation, and the admin that I'm in a conversation with recommended that I seek your opinion on it. I recently was part of a brief back-and-forth on Tucker Carlson, in which a different editor added some material (sourced), a user named Springee deleted it, and as I felt the reversion was without cause, I re-added the material. Springee continued to delete the material - I never violated 3RR, but when I researched Springee's past, I noticed that every single time anyone added anything that could be construed as negative about Tucker Carlson, he would delete it - often citing WP:BLP, even if material was well-sourced. I pointed this out on the talk page, which was the improper place to do it (I know that now) but I really didn't think it was that crazy at the time. Nonetheless, after Springee was reported for his behavior (by a different editor, I might add), the admin reviewing it, User:Awilley, decided to give Springee a "voluntary" self-1RR sanction - ie, Springee would promise to limit themselves to 1 revert per day for the next 6 months on articles related to American Politics (it turns out Springee has been deleting things on right-wing figures' and organizations' articles for a while and with great frequency). If Springee refused, Awilley would give him a formal 1RR anyway. Seems odd to me but okay, I'm not that invested in it.

Here's the problem: Awilley also decided to "offer" me the same deal, which strikes me a little like saying, "Hey I'm letting you quit this job, but if you refuse, I'm firing you". Keep in mind these things: nobody reported me for any bad behavior, I never violated 3RR, I'm the one who finally started an RfC on the issue to try and resolve the edit war, and this is really the only American Politics page I have edited in any substantial capacity recently - I was previously involved in an edit war with a sock-puppet (now blocked) on the same article. Meantime, Springee has been indiscriminately removing negative-light info from numerous right-wing articles for a while. One of the things Awilley didn't like was my calling attention to Springee's behavior on the article talk page, and while I see now that I was wrong to put it in that forum, I also believe that may have led to, or at least contributed to, someone else reporting his behavior in the first place, which is why Awilley even noticed it.

My issue with Awilley is that I feel I'm being handed the same sanction as a user whose conduct was an order of magnitude worse than my mistakes, which I assure you were born of not being that familiar with policy and the edit wars that seem to accompany American Politics pages. Springee is clearly far more experienced, but all I have learned from him is that apparently one can skirt 3RR right up to the limit and get away with it, just by quoting lots and lots of Wikipedia policies that may or may not be relevant to the situation at hand, exhausting other users until they give up. I now regret ever lifting my head up enough to point it out, because now I have Awilley looking to sanction me. As I told him, I don't necessarily feel this 1RR sanction is that big a deal - but to give me the same exact punishment as the guy who's causing all of the problems, and not looking to make Wikipedia better (he's clearly here just to defend right-wingers), is not fair. The vast majority of my editing has nothing to do with politics.

Anyway, when I voiced my concerns about this, he basically said "You'll find I can do whatever I want" but suggested you as a possible third-party to look at it. I hope you have time for this. Thank you. JimKaatFan (talk) 19:17, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

JimKaatFan:

The advice he gave you was, more exactly "The admin who I think is most likely to tell you what you want to hear is User:DGG, who has been most critical of my methods in the past." He gave honest advice: that sentence accurately describes the situation. I have no way as an individual of dealing with this, and based on long experience I see no reason to think any advice I might give directly is likely to be helpful. The only way of proceeding is to go to AE, and in the very likely event you get no satisfaction at AE, to arb com.

If you go to AE, I will support your position, and a few others will also, but it will be an unpleasant battle and as you recognise yourself, disproportionate to any possible likely gain. If it ends up at arbcom while I am still there I shall have to recuse myself, and the result will be similar. It's only fair for me to warn you that, before I joined arbcom, I always advised people never to go there, for I had never seen anyone come out the better for it. Now that I have been on that committee for 5 of the last 6 years, I am all the more convinced of my earlier advice.

What is necessary is not to deal with any particular admin as an individual, but to end completely the use of Discretionary sanctions. DS is not arb policy, but an arb com procedure, and we at arb com could end it with a simple motion. (the community could also change arb com policy to disallow it, but that is a very complicated and lengthy matter indeed) I've been urging the committee to do this for some time. (see WP: Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification and Amendment#Clarification request: Pseudoscience} ) Discretionary Sanctions gives any one of the 500 active admins who cares to act, quite inordinate power, and it's only to be expected that some, out of that 500, will be inclined to misuse it. The purpose of arb com is supposed to be to settle disputes, but the use of DS exacerbates them.

There is however some effective practical advice I can certainly give you--advice I have given others, and a few WPedians have actually taken it. Get out of the topic field of American Politics, at least until 2021. Feelings of the majority of WPedians are so strong about the immediate situation in real life, that there's been a loss of perspective. By now, reasonable judgement cannot be expected. WP is not suited for advocacy. If it's advocacy you want, and I find that a perfectly rational desire, there are more suitable places. If it's true encyclopedic coverage you want, it's too early. If it's the immediate provision of accurate information for the benefit of the public., WP should be capable of it, but experience has made it quite clear that our method of working can not hold up in the middle of an emergency. DGG ( talk ) 04:06, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Redsense Medical

What is your plan about Redsense Medical? You initially tagged it for A7 and G11, and then reverted those tags. You also then nominated it for AFD, and reverted that. I have declined Draft:Redsense Medical from draft as already existing, but I don't know whether we should redirect the draft to the article or expect the article to be deleted and leave the draft standing. What is your call? Robert McClenon (talk) 15:03, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

I ran into trouble when I wrote up the noms but didnt finish them till the next day, and the macro failed. I then tried to fix it, and got caught in a circle. My plan is to rewrite the noms, and place them immediately later today, or do it as a joint nom. Another thing to do of course, is boldly merge, but I would then still want to afd the merged article.

Your idea of moving them (both?) to draft might be ok also, except it will prolong the problem, and when the coi is that clear I think it better to get rid of them once and for all. . But before I do anything else, I want to check the med literature this evening. DGG ( talk ) 17:08, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Maybe I wasn't clear. I meant that, with a draft and an article, either the draft should be redirected to the article, or the article should be deleted and the draft left standing. If you think that the article should be deleted, because of conflict of interest and other reasons, then I will support the deletion. I expect however that if you also nominate the draft for deletion, some of the MFD regulars will want to Keep it. I know that DES will say that it might be notable, and will oppose deletion of drafts in general. What SmokeyJoe will say will vary from week to week. Robert McClenon (talk) 03:51, 19 September 2020 (UTC)

what I think might not be clear is our procedures . If the article gets deleted first, your reason for decline no longer holds, & that was my reason for listing both. I nominate for MfD if I think it should be deleted, unless I think no one else will support deletion. The question of how bad a draft should be before it gets deleted, just as you say, is much disputed among the few of us who are interested in this. Since it's a judgement call, and I can imagine no explicit guidelines that would make the decision easier, I know no way to resolve it except to continue to send drafts to MfD in the hope that a pattern will develop. DGG ( talk ) 05:22, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

####'

Olimex

Hello DDG. I've noticed that you set Olimex to being protected from creation due to copyright violations after a couple of incidents. That's understandable at the time, but it seems a bit odd now that it's effectively banned indefinitely due to something that happened over four years ago! I've created what I think is a reasonable initial article at Draft:Olimex. Would it be possible to remove the protection so it could be published? Note that I have absolutely no connection to Olimex and the new article draft contains no copied copyrighted text. Thanks - odg (talk) 23:04, 20 September 2020 (UTC)

I have removed the protection. But looking at your draft, I doubt that it acceptable: I have made a comment on the page explaining why, but I am not myself going to decline it. DGG ( talk ) 05:10, 21 September 2020 (UTC)`

###

Draft:Eran Elinav

Dear DGG!

As you approved lately my other article (Albert Rubin) I would like to suggest that you will look at my Draft:Eran Elinav, about a prized international immunologist and microbiota researcher (Paid-contribution). The article is waiting to be approved since 14 May 2020‎.

Thank you- Ovedc (talk) 13:17, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

It is permitted to edit for pay. But when you do, you should not expect volunteer editors to have to copyedit for style, or deal with missing sources. Learn the detailed rules--asking money for writing for a publication for which you do not know its style is not reasonable. Speaking for myself, I very much resent doing work on articles for which someone else is receiving money. And for paid work, asking any particular reviewer to review an article is not a good idea--my feeling is it makes us complicit in aiding your coi editing. Wait your turn in the queue. DGG ( talk ) 18:50, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

Request on 13:58:30, 24 September 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by Smtsmith

• Smtsmith (talk · contribs)
  • Draft:Tessie San Martin (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Thank you for reviewing this Wikipedia page! I would like to point out that Tessie San Martin is the President and CEO of the U.S. office of a Billion dollar a year organization, impacting the lives of more than 20 million girls over the past decade. She leads the largest nonprofit in the state of Rhode Island. In this capacity, Tessie is a frequent speaker at events and is regularly quoted as an expert in the international development field in the media. She has made significant contributions to the field of modernizing U.S. government foreign assistance. Her counterparts include Carolyn Miles, CEO of Save the Children; Michelle Nunn, CEO of Care; and David Millibrand, CEO of the International Rescue Committee, all of whom have Wikipedia pages. I respectively ask that you reconsider Tessie’s relevance as a public figure.

Smtsmith (talk) 13:58, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

she might possibly be notable , but what you have written is a press release. Another reviewer declined it also. Since this is your only contribution, and since it is written in the format of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. I will comment on it further it as soon as you infrom me that you have provided the necessary information DGG ( talk ) 15:09, 24 September 2020 (UTC)

"???'

Narine Arakelian

FYI I took the G4 off this page and then cleaned it up a bit. She is clearly notable, having been a headliner at the Venice Biennale twice. I will add more sources in the coming days.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 21:23, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

OK. This is the sort of field where you know better than I. And for everything, I seem to have a current bias for removing promotionalism even at the cost of removing notability. It can be a tricky thing to adjust, and I can't reasonably insist on my own preferences since consensus here is uncertain and unstable. DGG ( talk ) 00:54, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

Thanks. Sourcing is not going to be terrific, but I think it will be enough. It is probably going to have to be significantly trimmed to take care of the promotion that you mention.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 01:00, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

@DGG: I have pretty much hit the wall on finding more sources. Were it to go to AfD at the moment I would likely say "On the one hand the sourcing is still quite poor-ish. On the other hand, she seems to meet our NARTIST criteria for having been in the Venice Biennale twice." Notability is right on the edge of a very thin fence here.ThatMontrealIP (talk) 00:45, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

ThatMontrealIP, In ambiguous cases, sometimes the only fair thing to do is to take it to afd and let the community decide But you've cleaned it up so drastically that I do not see any reason to do that, as there are more substantial problems. All that you really need to do now is to watch it for re-addition of the spam. If you think it would help, ask me here for protection or semiprotection. DGG ( talk ) 01:46, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

 )

g11 and biographies

I like to message users when I delete their creations, and I use User:Deepfriedokra/g11 where needed. But I'm seeing more biographies G11 tagged, and I feel I need a fresh message or an adjustment of the current one. Would you mind commenting at User talk:Deepfriedokra/g11#Adjusting for biographies to help me help them? --Deepfriedokra (talk) 18:14, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

I have commented there, and will comment again. DGG ( talk ) 08:33, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

Draft:John William Helton processing

Hi DGG,

It looks like there was en edit-conflict in the AFC flow for this article. User:Sulfurboy accepted it, moving it to mainspace John William Helton, and leaving a redirect at the Draft: original location. You tried to decline the draft, but wound up doing so on that redirect. Could you two come to an agreement on whether it should remain in mainspace or be sent back to draft (presumably with a reset six-month timer)? DMacks (talk) 09:41, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

DMacks, Defer to whatever DGG says. I'm currently inactive due to covid work demands. Plus, DGG has a better grasp of notability criterions. Cheers Sulfurboy (talk) 13:13, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

Let me check that I did do it right. I've been known to make errors of this sort. DGG ( talk ) 10:48, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

???""""

Creating Article about Crowdera

Sir, I am an employee of the organization named Crowdera. It is a six year old crowdfunding platform. We have tried to create an article back in 2016 but due to not being aware of the policies of Wikipedia, the article violated several rules and was deleted. By this time, the company have become well known. There are a lot of references about the company in independent sources as Wikipedia policy says. So possibly the company is now notable against the yardstick of Wikipedia. If the previous creations have caused annoyance, I sincerely apologize for that and earnestly request you to kindly consider allowing the recreation of the article in present situation. I have a small draft with me which I have written at the time following all the guidelines of Wikipedia like neutral point of view, stating facts etc to best of my ability. I would request you if you kindly see the draft article. I have already disclosed the Conflict of Interest as I have a relationship with the organization. I am creating the draft in the name of Crowdera Crowdfunding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Crowdera_Crowdfunding) as I can't create in the name of Crowdera. I will look forward to your valuable comment and kind consideration. Thank you for giving your valuable time - Nishant — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mindtheyellow (talk • contribs) 11:03, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

I thank you for your candid comment, but you would do much better to wait until someone not connected with your firm recognizes its importance, and makes an article for it. When you're notable , other people will know about you DGG ( talk ) 15:21, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your guidance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mindtheyellow (talk • contribs) 20:08, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

?????

DS

You talk a lot of sense about DS, but I have concerns about how you see us managing intractable long-term disputes without them. What would you do with, say, a chiropractor who constantly demands that we change the page on chiropractic to state that innate is real? Would you just send this to ANI as tendentious editing?

AE started out well but has become one of the most capricious processes we have. My personal view is that this is largely an artifact of the underlying weakness of Wikipedia: we have no robust mechanism for definitely resolving content disputes, so any substantial content dispute will escalate and roll around the various drama boards until the first person loses their temper and gets banned. DS was designed to stop this, which it kind of does, but in a distinctly heavy-handed way. Ten or fifteen years ago we wasted a lot more time with disruptive editors, but also dealt out a lot less summary justice to people with half a dozen edits (leaving aside obvious vandals).

In particular, I think dispute resolution practice hasn't yet taken on board the more nuanced approach we can take using partial blocks. Anyway. I can't make up my mind whether DS is fundamentally a shit-show or just an example of, as per Churchill, "the worst system apart from all those others which have from time to time been tried". Do you have an essay on "if not DS then what", as it were? Thanks. Guy (help! - typo?) 11:05, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

Reply in process, but two preliminary points: I agree with you that the capability for partial blocks may provide the solution. But second, how to handle areas like parascience adds the additional complication that you and I represent-- a persisting disagreement between how we ought to deal with the topic area, although we both have the same view of the underlying reality. This is a difference that amounts to what I see as a challenge to the concept of NPOV, and in my mind , therefore to the entire basis of the encyclopedia. There can indeed be disruption that must be dealt with, but it can be hard to distinguish here between disruption and the fair presentation of a minority viewpoint. It will be easier here to deal with disruption in areas where there is no right or wrong, and good faith editors of knowledge and experience disagree and always will disagree about the actual facts and the interpretation, such as ethnic conflicts, and there is not and will never be a majority viewpoint. The possible justification for the use of DS I think always was here. Please wait a few days. because this is the sort of thing I do not like to formulate in one go at it. DGG ( talk ) 05:31, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

• @JzG:: Per your comments above, it is my opinion that DS has evolved into exactly what it was not intended to be. It is a combination of a "shit-show" and "the worst system apart from all those others which have from time to time been tried". While the intention was commendable, and possibly needed in some cases, the current system ends up harming Wikipedia more than it helps. I do not, and I will surmise many others, edit pages that are under DS except maybe some grammar corrections. Those that know how the system works can use it to their advantage. Other editors that do edit often end up in a losing battle (an example "might" be User:JimKaatFan in the above mentioned Tucker Carlson article) where the logical (and prudently wise) advice is to "Get out of the topic field of American Politics, at least until 2021". The really wise advice would be "stop editing articles under any DS because the powers-that-be will go the direction they choose". As part of dispute resolution how sad is it that the directive to "stop misconduct and damage to the encyclopedia" is replaced with "punish all involved to easily solve the issue". Just the threat of possible ArbCom intervention means --- "run" or likely be sanctioned. I commend DGG (and others) that continually look for ways to possibly "straighten out the mess" but like the U.S. Electoral College, that has been deemed flawed, there does not appear to be a better system. I hope at some point we will not have to advise editors to leave a project or area because impending sanctions will likely result. Our "feelings", one way or the other, should not even be a consideration when we put on the Wikipedia editing hat. In my opinion, if there is no "disruption" or "misconduct" then long term general sanctions imposed on articles are more of a hindrance than help. Otr500 (talk) 16:55, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Otr500, I'm not going to disagree, but there are so many potential downsides to wholesale removal that I think we would need to be very careful about it. I do think that we should be more willing to introduce more granular sanctions - for example, people who routinely add badly-sourced content can now be blocked from mainspace, but still propose changes on Talk.

We should also make more use of escalating blocks, and be quicker to reject rambling complaints and we should use interim sanctions while other options are explored. Guy (help! - typo?) 20:51, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne PR

Dear David,

I neutralized the tone regarding academic rankings for EPFL. Could you kindly let me know if there are additional points that could warrant the PR tag that you recently added on that page? I will try to work on that as soon as possible :)

With my gratitude and best regards,

BatYote. (talk) 14:59, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

I shall get there, but not for a few days. DGG ( talk )

BatYote.. Quite a few changes remained necessary to decrease an exceptionally great overemphasis on ranking, repetition and wordiness, unsourced expressions of excellence, and external links within the body of the text. I've made them myself, for I have learned it is impractical to expect coi editors to do so. It is very rare that I am willing to do the work rewrite an article by a paid connected editor to this extent, but it is my special field.

It's true there are many other university articles at least equally promotional; indeed, there are many hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove. They will take many years to remove or rewrite. The least we can do is not add to them. DGG ( talk ) 01:15, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Dear DGG, thank you so much for your work. I wholeheartedly agree with you, and whilst I am indeed employed by EPFL, I have no interest in the promotion of this institution. As a scientist myself, I abhor and refrain from overstatements and unfounded claims. Please note that this article was written well before I started this editing venture on wikipedia. On the other hand, it is evident that this article warrants profound revision to improve its structure and content. I am well aware that as a coi editor, I am not ideally profiled for such a task. Nevertheless, I do trust my intellectual honesty. Would there be an option for me to propose a revised form of the article, that you or other editors could then review before the changes are implemented to the mainspace? I would be very happy to collaborate with you on this subject.

Thanks again and best regards,

Olivier BatYote. (talk) 12:11, 7 October 2020 (UTC)

BatYote., Yes, you can do this. There are two options: if it can be done within the existing structure, propose the changes on the article talk page. If it requires more complete reorganization, make a page in your user space User:BatYote/EPFL revision, and note it on the article talk page, indicate the COI, and then get back to me here and I will look at them. DGG ( talk ) 16:52, 7 October 2020 (UTC) ###

Administrators' newsletter – September 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (September 2020).

Guideline and policy news

• A request for comment found consensus that incubation as an alternative to deletion should generally only be recommended when draftification is appropriate, namely 1) if the result of a deletion discussion is to draftify; or 2) if the article is newly created.

Technical news

• The filter log now provides links to view diffs of deleted revisions (phab:T261630).

Miscellaneous

• Office actions may now be appealed to the Interim Trust & Safety Case Review Committee.

---

Deletion of page on 09:59, 25 August 2020 by DGG - Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy (G11: Unambiguous advertising or promotion)

Hello David,

I hope you are well. I am new to navigating wikipedia so please forgive me if this is not the correct approach. I work in the marketing team at Fragomen and we recently learned that our page has been deleted by yourself for unambiguous advertising:

09:59, 25 August 2020 DGG talk contribs deleted page Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy (G11: Unambiguous advertising or promotion)

We were hoping to get the page re-instated and also get the link put back into this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_law_firms_by_revenue

I would be really happy to discuss and can work on any edits required in order to remove the text that is advertising the firm. I have created a profile for editing and can do this asap.

Please let me know next steps and how I can help to get this page back online as my firm values the unbiased integrity of wikipedia and feel we are at a loss without a presence on the tool.

Many thanks, Karen — Preceding unsigned comment added by ThoughtfulCreativity247 (talk • contribs) 09:12, 2 October 2020 (UTC)

ThoughtfulCreativity247

The usual general reply is, that If your firm values the unbiased integrity of Wikipedia it should wait until someone unconected with the firm decides as volunteer to write an article. If we let firms write their own articles, the integrity would soon disappear.

But more specifically, the draft reads, " and is recognized [1]as the world's largest firm that focuses its practice solely on global immigration law.", where ref 1 refers to US News Best Law Firms, which is not considered a very reliable source.

However, If you are such a firm, unless you do a purely routine practice, you will have been involved in a least some major precedent-setting cases in several countries, cases important enough to have WP articles about them. What are they? If you can show this, there might indeed be a possibility for an article, and if they are important enough, I might even help you write it.

There is, btw, a custom here that even when people disclose their real names, we use their Wikipedia names DGG ( talk ) 03:47, 4 October 2020 (UTC)

Cant enough thank you @DGG: for reviewing my article Shanta Hublikar. Many of my articles are still waiting even after months. But thanks a lot sir. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 NinadMysuru (talk) 14:08, 3 October 2020 (UTC) ??????

Nomination of PayU for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article PayU is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/PayU (3rd nomination) until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Priyanjali singh (talk) 15:15, 3 October 2020 (UTC) ??????

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pretty Nose (2nd nomination)

I noticed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pretty Nose (2nd nomination) you wrote: "I have a non-specialist awareness of the general situation, and am very aware of the policy implications". What is the "general situation", and what are the policy implications? Thanks! Magnolia677 (talk) 16:52, 4 October 2020 (UTC)

the general situation is the manner in which we can use oral and non traditional sources in WP. The policy questions are cultural bias, NPOV, and , especially, WP:V,. An additional consideration is whether the nature of the discussion requires starting over. As for any assumption about which way I am thinking, I have, as usual, written rationales for several different conclusions to see what is best. As I consider this a test case, . I am equally concerned with trying to give my view about how articles such as this should be handled. DGG ( talk ) 00:34, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your response. I nominated a few similar articles and had two editors question my motivations here. There was absolutely no ill intentions to my AFDs, and before nominating these articles (I withdrew one), I searched WT:BIO for any previous discussions about the notability of American Indians, and looked online for sources to support notability and improve the article. If you have a moment, please look through the edit history at Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, where you will see I spent much time improving the article and then working towards its "good article" status. Please also have a look at this satellite image of Pletcher Road, which leads to the former LOOW site, and see how at one time it appears to have been a two-lane road. In fact, it was a two-lane road, and the reason for this was because they didn't want trucks carrying radioactive waste to smash head-on into each other on the way to and from the dump. How do I know this? Someone who used to work there told me. Unfortunately, I could not find any source to support this likely fact, so I could not add that to the article, because like many editors, I follow the rules that have been agreed upon by consensus so the quality and reliability of Wikipedia remains high for its readers. I don't always like that, and it is unfortunate some histories have a plethora of detail while others have little, but that is a reality I cannot change. Magnolia677 (talk) 10:57, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

We need to recognize the degree of reliability in oral sources. In the example you gave just above, had it not been merely "a person who works there" but "the engineer in charge", I'd say to possibly use it, certainly if we had name and date, especially if it is congruent with the spatial data. We normally use a person's account of his childhood in a university oral history; it may well contain significant omissions, especially if released during their lifetime, but I think readers realize it. What a person says his grandmother told him, is much less likely to be reliable. In the passage through generations, things tend to get amplified --or forgotten. "My father, your grandfather, ran for congress" may mean that he often talked about how he would like to have run for congress. Formal oral records of non-literate groups recited by specialists are a special case; they often match written and archeological data to some degree, but not completely. The bestcurrent is to say in the text where the accounts come from, assume people with common sense will draw reasonable conclsions, and never state possibly disputable facts in the lead or in WP's voice.

The people questioning motivations reflect more on them than on you. But to avoid such problems , when I wish to nominate a groups of closely related articles, I nominate the weakest, and judge from the result how to handle the others. DGG ( talk ) 16:41, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your thoughtful response. Most of my AFDs are to garage bands and rap musicians, where the response is quite different. All the best. Magnolia677 (talk) 17:36, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Re: Speedy deletion nomination of Hydro Flask

I saw that you nominated a page I recently created, Hydro Flask, for speedy deletion. I am quite confident that the page need not be deleted and I have contested it as prompted, but I thought I would attach my response here as well for you to see.

Honestly, I struggle to understand why this page has been nominated for speedy deletion. First of all, I have no connection to this company--I do not even use their products nor do I want to. Every single statement I made in this article is supported by at least one independent, reliable source, with the exception of Hydro Flask's tagline, which is supported by their website. This company is undoubtedly notable, as evidenced by the coverage of it which can be found in my references. The only thing I can think of is that this is about the beginning of the article mentioning the popularity and quality, but that too is supported by reliable sources and is not my attempt to make their brand sound cool.

Los Angeles Times: "Now we’re in the era of must-have water bottle." "A Hydro Flask has become the kind of gift that can send a tween into paroxysms of joy." How it distinguished itself from any other bottle at sporting goods stores and became a hot fashion accessory is a story about the convergence of several cultural threads: anxiety about the environment, a surge in attention to self-care and wellness, and the simple desire to keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold."

CNN: "The Hydro Flask craze is in full swing. It seems wherever you go, there’s someone smugly drinking ice-cold water from a colorful metal water bottle while side-eyeing the disposable plastic bottle in your hand." "Hydro Flask has recently found broader popularity among millennials, Gen Zers and VSCO girls alike." "There are real, tangible reasons people are going crazy for these bottles." (goes into much more detail on this).

USA Today: (This one is not the subject of the article but it still attests to the popularity) "When we tested water bottles this year, the Hydro Flask was one of our favorites. Not only is it a fantastic water bottle, but it is also extremely trendy."

Links are provided in the article's references.

mossypiglet (talk) quote or something 00:00, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

The article primarily repeats the company's advertising. The fact hat the advertising is found in the purportedly editorial content of sources does not justify it. I accept that you had no promotional intent, but we judge by the nature of the article, not the intent. It might be possible to write an acceptable article on this, but I suggest that you are more likely to do it by starting over. DGG ( talk ) 00:28, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

I am attempting to edit the article, and remove the rest of the origin story whose source can only be the promotional self-serviing statements of the founder, and the absurdly false claim to being the first such bottle for cold liquids. Then I wlll see what is left and decide about AfD. DGG ( talk ) 19:05, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

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Draft:Joey Gonzalez

Hi, you said this article is "basically advertising for a non-notable individual." But he is as equally notable as any other CEO of a fitness brand. SoulCycle, Flywheel, etc.--those founders/CEOs all have individual Wikipedia pages. And I don't understand how it's advertising. The text doesn't go into detail about the company he runs/the services it offers. It's just the bare facts about his background and career. What can be done to fix it? Thanks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Joey_Gonzalez

Djb2183 (talk) 15:47, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

There are many hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove. The least we can do is not add to them DGG ( talk ) 16:25, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

I hear you. The guy is a big deal, though, running a major company. He goes on national TV shows and is really well known. If there's really no way to create the page, I'll let it go and move on, but he seems pretty notable to me. Especially in the health and wellness communities, which are enormous. Thanks. Djb2183 (talk) 16:51, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Looking at the draft, almost every reference is a press release, or an interview where he says whatever he pleases. None of this are independent. The one reliable source is the NYTimes article, and it is mostly about the general phenomenon. It does discuss the group sufficiently that it seems sufficient to justify the article on Barry's, but not sufficiently about the individual.

Just as a suggestion, considering that one of the two firms you mention is bankrupt, at least in part because of COVID, and the other, with related ownership, is in serious financial difficulties, an addition to the article on Barry's about the extent to which it too has been affected would seem appropriate. One good article is better than two weak ones. DGG ( talk ) 17:30, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Ok, this is all making sense. I think I'm getting the hang of what you're saying. Last question: as far as sufficient sourcing for the Gonzalez article goes, I did feel as though several of the articles I cited were authoritative and unbiased and did not rely on his words to portray him. Would you mind adding some more color to what exactly the ideal source would be? This way I can go back out and find the proper articles. Many thanks. And to your point about FlyWheel and SoulCycle, thanks for that as well. I'll start writing/researching some stuff. Djb2183 (talk) 19:43, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

###

Saving G13 stale drafts

Hi, DGG,

I've been on G13 patrol for a little over a week and have noticed quite a few drafts you have rescued from deletion as stale drafts. I think that is awesome! But I also noticed the large number of editors listed as participants at AFC and I think that you shouldn't be shouldering this burden alone.

Do you think you might convince a few of the AfC regulars to glance over User:SDZeroBot/G13 soon or User:SDZeroBot/G13 soon sorting once a day and pull out any promising drafts? There is also Category:AfC G13 eligible soon submissions for drafts closest to G13 status but there are thousands of drafts in this category which can be overwhelming while the SDZeroBot pages are moderately sized and G13 soon sorting is arranged by topic which can be handy.

I think that editors who regularly evaluate submitted drafts for their quality would be better judges of article potential than myself. Just a thought. Thanks. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:45, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

I I have no effective way of persuading people except by example. (and sometimes giving problems a little publicity, as you are helping me do now)

It's a problem designing the best strategy. Having several different way & people reviewing the same material is in principle good. Whether something is worth saving is a matter of judgment, and we all differ in this, which is desirable. Often, it is impossible to predict without actually working on an article whether it can in fact be rescued, and nobody has ever been able to accurately predict what will pass AfD. Experience is of limited usefulness when confronting a chaotic process . But all the methods are especially inefficient because half of the material is absolutely hopeless and should have been removed long before the 6 months. We have no mechanism for doing that except MfD, but a few reviewers inist on keeping because they think its better to let everything simply wait the 6 months--they may not be realizing how much it clogs up the system. BTW, Category:AfC G13 eligible soon submissions is not as overwhelming as it looks, because they're arranged in chronological order. The ones closest to the month's end come first, about 2 days per page of 200.

There are also a few other devices, like deleting more liberally as G1, G2, G3, and deleting duplicates by G6. We're both admins; I almost always nominate and let another admin delete, but I'll do it myself if it's truly obvious, especially in draft. . DGG ( talk ) 06:20, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

Speedily deleted article Lido Learning recreated?

On September 30, you speedily deleted Lido Learning. An article with the same name has been created. You might want to see if it's the same article that you previously deleted; I don't have access to the deleted article but the editor who created it was involved in the deletion discussion linked above. ElKevbo (talk) 20:02, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

check###

Awards for Academics?

Hi DGG.

I usually write Wikipedia pages about Professors and Academics. You have been helping me around here and there. So I thought of brining this query to you. What are some of the most important academic awards that do not have a Wikipedia page? For instance, the IEEE Medal of Honor is an important academic award, but it already has a page. Does a list exist somewhere on Wikipedia where I can find the awards that we really should have articles about? What is a good structure for the page of an award?HRShami (talk) 05:16, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

The general practice is that if the award has been established for more than a few years, and if most (or, even better, almost all,) of the people who have received it are notable enough to have WP bios, thenthe award should have a page. It is often very difficult to find true substantial third party sources, but it is always possible to find the web page forthe award, and the mentions of it it articles about it being awarded, so in practice it can be an exception to GNG. The logic is a little circular, for once we have the article on the award, it can act as at least an indication of probable notability , but normally only the highest level national award in a profession is enough to prove notability by WP:PROF. Challenged articles on awards can be brought to AfD--some are kept, some deleted. The use of anaward to show notability is idscussed in the individuall afds, or sometimes at WT:NPROF, of the talk pages for the various wikiprojects.

As you have notice, the award you mentioned is, (1) the highest level award of the major international society in a very broad field, and (b) there are pages for everyone who has been awarded it. DGG ( talk ) 06:51, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

Hmm. Is there some list where I can find the awards that should have a Wikipedia page? Or do you have some Awards you would like to see pages of? I only want to write about Awards in Academics.HRShami (talk)

Also, can you please take a look at this. On this page, the members are listed according to alphabetical order, but if we list them alphabetically, there is not difference between a list page and a category page? Should I organize them based on year the membership was awarded?HRShami (talk) 10:30, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Wadih al-Maskin

Hi. Thank you for looking at Draft:Wadih al-Maskin. I answered your question on the page itself. Hope that is the correct place.S713 (talk) 17:00, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

AfC notification: Draft:Wadih al-Maskin has a new comment

Thank you for your answer. I hope I have adressed your other questions on Draft:Wadih al-Maskin. S713 (talk) 18:29, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

 ::?????

AfC & G13 eligible soon category question

Like I said, I've been working in this area for about six weeks and each night, User:SDZeroBot/G13 soon has consistently listed around 250 drafts coming to G13 status in 7 days. That number can fluctuate between about 200 and 350 drafts and out of that total number you, and a few other AfC editors, remove about 20-25 drafts from each day's list that you see as having potential. y. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:40, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

So, DGG, Category:AfC G13 eligible soon submissions is up to 3,300 drafts! Some related discussion about this is at User talk:MusikAnimal#G13 database report with help from ProcrastinatingReader. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 00:53, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

Count is now up to 4,800+ drafts and that is considered a backlog! So, looks like things are back to normal. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 17:22, 6 November 2020 (UTC) TC)

Request on 13:36:02, 29 October 2020 for assistance on AfC submission by CorbinCopy

... There are many hundred thousand articles in WP accepted in earlier years when the standards were lower that we need to either upgrade or remove. The least we can do is not add to them. Looking at the draft you wrote, a Wikipedia article must have substantial 3rd party reliable published sources, not blogs or postings or mere notices . None of your references meet this test--even the NYTimes ref is a mere mention in a list of dozens of different transactions, bizjournals is a place for distributing press releases, the retailwire interview is a platform for Dougherty to say whatever he cares to & is therefore not independent, the award is not an award but only an honorable mention, and Dougherty wrote the other 2 himself. and, Since this is your only contribution, and since it is written in the format of a press release, it is reasonable to ask whether you are a connected contributor, in which case you must declare the connection. Please see our rules on Conflict of Interest If you are writing this for pay or as a staff member of the organization, see also WP:PAID for the necessary disclosures. DGG ( talk ) 15:58, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Looking for advice

I am newcomer here. I have read the general set of rules in Wikipedia but I am not sure what should be my next step. It would be helpful if you could assess my short number of edits so far and give some feedback. My ultimate goal is to improve articles within my expertise. Since I have other things to do in real life, I would like to know how to contribute as efficiently as possible so that I don't waste valuable time and energy. I have no interest to be in this platform except my altruistic mind says otherwise. Red Society 01 (talk) 23:47, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Red Society 01, if DGG is willing to help you will be in good hands. (talk page watcher) -- Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 23:51, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Red Society 01, you have started out well, by learning the syntax by making small improvements in articles; the usual advice is to now move on to adding whole sections, but I suggest you also try rewriting poorly written articles. When you come to write new articles from scratch, you may encounter difficulties in finding find new subjects in cricket, but there is an immense range to work on in socialism. You'll find it much easier in that field to start with biographies of already deceased people--writing articles on movements and general topics can be complicated, and bios of living people require finding very good sourcing, which sometimes can be difficult--in choosing a topic, first find references before you start writing, and go where the available sources take you. I don't know your background or education, but regardless of how great it is, you can expect to learn a good deal more by working here. Try to avoid current politics, or nationalistic movements, until you have much more experience--if you encounter a disputed area, go somewhere else. You can expect some of your articles to not be accepted--it happened to be at the beginning also; success here requires patience. It's not easy here to be efficient--the only suggestion I can give you is to find a good source or group of sources, and use it as the basis for several articles. I unfortunately won't really be able to keep up with your work, but if you encounter some real difficulty beyond the ordinary, ask me. As long as you're not quarrelsome, people will help you. DGG ( talk ) 04:05, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

Cheyanna's Champions

I would also like to point out that, while the you are entitled to your opinion, the use of the word "tabloid" in referring to a charity like this would be quite disturbing and offensive to anyone helped by this charity who happens to read what you said, especially the children. I kept that separate from the AfD because it never should have been said in the first place, imo, and it serves no purpose to continue to perpetuate such degrading and demeaning terms in regards to this legitimate charity organization or any other whether they deserve an article here or not. --Tsistunagiska (talk) 14:08, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

You misunderstood. I said, as a direct quote from the redirect to the basic policy WP:Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, NOTTABLOID. I was referring to the inclusion criteria for wikipedia, what it does and does not cover. It's a frequent abbreviation in AfD debates when an editor wants to say that the material over-personal or an appeal to the emotions. My complete rationale for deletion was "essentially advocacy." The usual personal story., with the usual promotional coverage. WP is not a tabloid]] . There is no way to read "tabloid" as referring to the charity--it refers to a style of publication. Calling a charity's fund raising appeals an appeal to the emotions is not an insult either. It is appropriate & expected for any charity to publish appeals to the emotions. It's the basic way they raise funds--even the most notable national and international organisations. . It's what I respond to when I give money, and I give to both national and local organizations--even those as local as my own neighborhood; including one as local as a few blocks of my own street. There's nothing wrong with local charities, and calling a charity local is not an insult. It's appropriate to use tabloid-style material when appealing for money; but an encyclopedia does not contain appeals for money. DGG ( talk ) 16:51, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't think I misunderstood at all. There was no direct appeal for money in the article, as written. There was no overt request for money in the article, as written. There was no reason why one would assume the article is asking for money. It isn't written as a "tabloid" article would. They aren't including any financial goals of the organization which one would assume when appealing for funding. We have articles on all sorts of 503c organizations that explain what they were created for and what they do as an organization. I don't consider that advocacy I consider that reporting what the sources say. In regards to the way the article is written, AfD is not for cleaning up an article. If a subject passes GNG, as it is literally written, it most definitely should be included. When there is gray area there should be discussion and essays or guidelines can be used to argue one way or another. I see that the organization passes GNG as it literally written. --Tsistunagiska (talk) 17:51, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

As this is my talk page, I get the last word here. As for the article, the community will decide, neither you nor me. DGG ( talk ) 06:04, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

But, just for the record, and intended as guidance:

There are many reasons for deletion besides notability. The basic rule for inclusion in WP is the policy WP:NOT, and this applies both to whether we should have an article, and what an article should say. Material which is essentially advertising or advocacy does not belong in the encyclopedia regardless of how notable the subject is, or we'd end up being a medium for publicity for notable subjects. We don't do advocacy, but provide information, though admittedly this sometimes is not a clear-cut line. We have no formal definition of advocacy in our rules because of its many forms: it's a matter of judgment, not of strict definition. I think of it like this: Advocacy provides the readers with what the organization would like to tell them, and is typically addressed to prospective customers/investors/donors/students/applicants/ etc. In contrast, an encyclopedia article is addressed to the general reader who may have heard of the organization, and wants to know what it is and something about what it does. I find a useful rule of thumb is if it reads like an organization's web site, it isn't suitable for an encyclopedia . This can be applied dispassionately, and equally so to what one approves or or disapproves, equally so to the horrible or the laudable. .

AfD does not explicitly clean up an article. AfD can do so nonetheless, because a clean articles is more likely to be accepted by the community. In actual practice, the most effective way to force an article to be clean, at least in relatively simple cases, can be to nominate it for deletion. This often works with articles on organizations, though it works even better for biographies.

As for the GNG, whether a subject meets GNG depends on how one interprets the key words, significant, independent , and reliable. It's not a matter of strict or literal reading--these are not qualities that can be defined strictly or literally. For example, local news is not truly independent because local news sources generally feel obliged to cover everything in their area. And here again, it's a matter of degree, and many cases could be argued either way. (And I've generally chosen which way to argue on a holistic view of suitability for the encyclopedia) DGG ( talk ) 05:30, 31 October 2020 (UTC)

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Appian Corporation

Hello, I'm reaching out because you added a {{Cleanup-PR}} flag to Appian Corporation but you did not note why. For full transparency, I have a declared COI and have been working with other editors to update the page through talk page requests. Can you elaborate on the part(s) of the article you are mainly concerned about in relation to the flag? I'd love to help cleanup any concerning language or content. Thank you! JMGAppian (talk) 20:14, 30 October 2020 (UTC)

The template's wording is a little unfortunate, because it's the one we use for too many things. It basically means, in this case, that the article resembles a company web page, but not to the extent of being downright advertising. The following changes would help:

1. What we need are substantial 3rd party indepedent reliable published sources, not blogs or postings or mere notices, especially notices of sales or of funding--see WP:NCORP for the current rules. About half the references are mere notices, and a numberof other promotional . 4 or 5 strong references are better than 42 weak ones.
2. Try not to sound like a list of products,
3. Don't use references like #20 where the article, though in PCWeek, is actually the head of the company giving a walk-through about his product, rather than being a product review written by an independent reviewer. Reference 2 rather surprised me. I didn't expect to see such blatant PR is the Washington Post--now I know better. But the WaPo is still basically honest--it says it's just quoting the company. That does not count as independent. Be careful with Forbes: ref 40 is written by a "contributor", not by their staff. It's not subject to their usual editorial supervision, and therefore not reliable.
4. try not to write as a list of one-sentence paragraphs.
5. Try not to use the company name as much. Generally "it" works very well.
6. Remove poorly sourced claims or puffery--the "leader" in the first paragraph turns out to mean only one of 11. The term should usually be limited to mean 1st or possible top 2 or 3. DGG ( talk ) 04:19, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

I really appreciate you taking the time to break this down, and I do agree that these are all clear areas for improvement. These are issues that were already on the page prior to my involvement and there's only so much I feel I can reasonably ask at a time through talk page requests so these issues fell to the wayside. I'll draft up these changes and see about getting those implemented. Again, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback! JMGAppian (talk) 23:51, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

I pinged you on the article's talk page, but wanted to follow up here as well. If you have the time, I'd really appreciate you taking a look at the changes I've suggested to address your concerns above. Happy to discuss anything that you feel still needs to be addressed. Otherwise, if you feel that the issue has been addressed sufficiently, feel free to paste from the sandbox. Thank you! JMGAppian (talk) 15:26, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

Hello, just wanted to reach out again to see if you'd have the time to review the changes I mocked up in response to your concerns and the {{Cleanup-PR}} flag you had added. You can see the changes here. Please feel free reach out if you have additional concerns or requests. Thank you! JMGAppian (talk) 17:17, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

:I will take a look today or tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder. DGG ( talk ) 17:55, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Hello, I'm reaching out to see if you had any questions or concerns about the sandbox mockup. Thank you. JMGAppian (talk) 15:04, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

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Administrators' newsletter – November 2020

News and updates for administrators from the past month (October 2020).

• Community sanctions now authorize administrators to place under indefinite semiprotection any article on a beauty pageant, or biography of a person known as a beauty pageant contestant, which has been edited by a sockpuppet account or logged-out sockpuppet, to be logged at WP:GS/PAGEANT.

Arbitration

• The Anti-harassment RfC has concluded with a summary of the feedback provided.

AFC

I tend to not clear the duplicates in Draft space if the article doesn't meet the guidelines to be accepted, mainly because, so if the person in working on the article wants to add to the article, they can do that, and remove the duplicate section themselves when they resubmit their articles. But either way, it's just sitting in draft space, and It's not fatal for the article to be doubled. But it doesn't really matter either way. --Thegooduser Life Begins With a Smile :) 🍁 22:30, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

Oh and is EN wiki loading slow for you too? Or is it just me? --Thegooduser Life Begins With a Smile :) 🍁 22:31, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

yes, it doesn't matter much, but I have a tendency to do fixes that affect the basic structure myself, if only so I can understand what I'm reviewing. This was a simple one, but if it looks notable and would take more complex reorganization, I do it. I k now I do this more than most reviewers--it wasnt meant as blame, but as explanation to the contributor . ,

enWP is fast as usual for me here. NYC, FIOS, recent iMac, Safari. The AFCH macro, on the other hand, is almost always too slow. DGG ( talk ) 22:50, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

I have been spending most of my time on the Simple English Wikipedia, I'm always shocked by the size and complex language EN wiki uses everytime I come and visit! --Thegooduser Life Begins With a Smile :) 🍁 22:54, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

Think of it as trying to lift a set of the printed Brittanica with one hand. DGG ( talk ) 23:15, 1 November 2020 (UTC)

A pie for you!

It seems to have been awhile since anyone has thanked you for all the hard work you do at AfC. Your willingness to help new editors, and to take on tough cases has not gone un-noticed. Thank you. 78.26 (spin me / revolutions) 01:44, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Requesting your kind advice to improve Draft:Louis Tartaglia

Dear DGG, given your experience in the edition of academic biographies and your good disposition to help learning editors like myself, I would like to request your advice and details to improve my project Draft:Louis Tartaglia. The case may be unusual in as much as the biographed person combines two dissimilar although complementary occupations: scientist and entrepreneur. I hope your advice will serve to improve the article with a view to its eventual move onto main space. Many thanks.

submitted 08:36, November 2, 2020‎ bu User:Neuralia

Don't use jargon: "help launch " , "help found", " seminal","began his research path ", "start, build, and initially manage"-- a trio like that is Dept of Defense jargon.

Don't use vague terms. The word "several" is meaningless. "described important molecular connections"

we don't say " A brief account of Tartaglia's career is visible on his Bloomberg profile.", but just link to it, or give it as an external link.

Give his whole career chronologically,

Avoid wordiness not "Tartaglia´s further research went on to clone and characterize a number of other genes important in obesity and diabetes" but He also characterized the X, Y and Z genes. wwithooth a link to the papers. The coauthors will be found in the link, not the article. don't say

you may not make therapeutic predictions "dy, expected to constitute a novel target for anti-obesity therapy in humans.[18]" is unacceptable

If you want to talk about citations, do it objectively, in a list of most cited papers.

" this discovery was announced on the front page of the New York Times " is over-enthusiastic for any work lesser in stature than Nobel-prize level.

scientific papers are cited with a formal citation, as in ref 14 not just to the database like pubchem as in ref 24, or 12

bizjournals, is PR

a MIT magazine dsecribing its own peoples' work is PR, not 3rd party journalism. DGG ( talk ) 03:08, 3 November 2020 (UTC)

###

New York Poetry Forum

I'm not in favor of moving this to draft, as that leaves a gap in the listing of a national structure of poetry societies affiliated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. The notability is not invested in the individual affiliates, but with the national structure. This particular entry has very little to no online presence and it may remain only a stub, but it's still part of the overall structure and removing it has left red links. I've emailed the listed officer to request further information, but there may not be a response, so this may not be incubated any further. Please move it back to stub status. Thank you. Pkeets (talk) 17:23, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

P.S. I'm autoconfirmed so I can move it myself, but I'd rather not get in an edit war with you. Pkeets (talk) 22:51, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

PKeets, it is possible, but very unusual to restore a draft to mainspace other than through the AfC process. Were you to do that, I would not revert you, but I would nominate the article for deletion. The best thing you can do, as I know you realize, is to add third party references. As for gaps in the structure, I checked a few of the others and also found no third party references. I have great respect for your project in adding articles on notable women, but it is quite rare here for us to have articles for state branches of any national association: I looked at the most important one I could think of, the NAACP, and we do not seem to have articles on any of its branches. Nor do we have articles on any of the branches of National Organization of Women. Of course it might happen that a particular branch will have sufficient substantial 3rd party reliable published sources, not blogs or postings or mere notices to be notable, DGG ( talk ) 02:30, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

So now you're going to criticize the whole body of work? Every little town in the US has an article, right? - third party sources or no. Plus, I see above you have a record of doing this to experienced editors. These are only stubs, and I'm sure the individual chapters can add a lot to them - literary organizations are seldom at a loss for words. Some chapters look to be very active and other like NY, not so much, but still this looks to be an important resource for poets in the US, and Wikipedia has apparently been totally unresponsive to it until now. I'll check around for more sources. I've already added a couple to NY. Pkeets (talk) 02:57, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

It is not I who do this. If I nominate for deletion, I leave it to the community to decide. Normally after I nominate an afd, I respond at most once more in the discussion, unless there's a particular special point. Sometimes they agree with me, sometimes they don't. All of my experience can't convince the community when they disagree. I managed 12 years ago to change consensus to accept articles on all high schools, and then 2 years ago the community decided differently, and I argued both the RfC and its interpretation for a few months, and then accepted it had changed, and articles on which I along with a few others had spent years working for have been getting deleted. For that matter, on the very example you give, I did indeed try to keep the policy that every inhabited or formerly inhabited populated place, should have an article, but the consensus again has changed against me, and I no longer argue ones I know I'll probably lose.

I think in general in the last few years the general feeling here has changed to avoid very small articles. Good encyclopedias have been made with them, and also by combining into large articles. Either way can work, and I can work with either. But nobody can work effectively without some kind of consistency.

What you see above is not my fighting against stubs. What you find in my talk is my fighting against promotionalism . That is something which matters. Whatever the notability standards , this would still be an encyclopedia. If we included promotionalism, then we're just another version of the googles. That's something I care about.

Similarly, I care about NPOV. With articles biased towards one side of an issue, we won't be an honest encyclopedia, and there's no reason for anyone who wants to learn the actual facts about the world to come here.

But article size and similar things, they can be done in many different ways without our losing our purpose. DGG ( talk ) 07:14, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

How about Wikipedia being a resources where people can quickly find information? I personally don't read long articles. If it's really long, I just check the lede. Pkeets (talk) 14:10, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

"Quickly find information" is the opposite of "encyclopedic" it's the difference between an Encyclopedic dictionary. such a the one-volume Columbia Encyclopedia. and printed works like the Brittanica.The practical place online to quickly find information is not Wikipedia , but Google.

But in an encyclopedia , there are multiple equally valid ways of arranging the material: related short articles, a few long articles, WP:Summary style, a mix depending on the amount of information available, a mix depending upon the perceived importance, a mix determined by the people working on each broad topic area, or (at the low end of validity), a mix depending on the preferences of the people doing the writing for each individual article,. My. own preference is WP:Summary style for substantial topics, and Annotated lists for others, but that's just me.

In any case, as I said a little above, I'm much more concerned about questions Reliable sourcing, NPOV, and avoiding promotionalism DGG ( talk ) 05:53, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

(stillin draft, Dec. 11) ###

Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Casey_Trees

I saw you nominated this, but before I could do more research, the discussion was closed. In the meanwhile, I asked off-wiki a person whom I know with significant experience in the NFP world of DC and he wrote to me, that "it is well known and reputable." Bearian (talk) 17:42, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

as a preliminary comment, it has not been the case that "well known" had ever had consensus to accepted as an equivalent of "notable", and I think it is very clear consensus that "reputable" has no relation to notability whatsoever. As you know, I have long argued that we should judge by real work importance, rather than sourcing. but the consensus has been consistently against me for the last 14 years. Even if the 90% of WPedians who disagree with me were to suddenly change their mind, , I think they'd expect something more than "well known".

There is of course the use of IAR, but IAR has normally been used in AfD discussions as a justification for prejudice--either prejudice for including an article for something that is greatly approved of at WP, or prejudice agains including something which many WPedian dislike. DGG ( talk ) 01:54, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

(closed as noconsensus) DG

AfD on ...

... When two people get into an angry dispute like the one I have just removed from my talk p., there's no point in trying to apportion the blame, or accusing each other of harassment. This is one of the difficulties of the way arb com and AE and ANI work--they try to find the most party who has behaved the worst, and sanction them. That's not the way I work. I try to prevent personal disputes from occurring, or at least from continuing, or at the very least, escalating. The place to discuss notability is the afd. The place for the rest of this is nowhere. I can't affect the world outside WP, but I can try to prevent this from happening on-wiki, or , at the very least, on this page. DGG ( talk ) 20:48, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Real Life Barnstar
	You are not only good administrator but also good user-friendly member of Wikipedia. I appreciate your sentiments. 🇮🇳DRCNSINDIA (talk) 14:54, 25 November 2020 (UTC)

Robert C. Bassler

I've been watching Draft:Robert_C._Bassler since I responded to the author on the AFC help page. The author has gone through and made *major* cuts, perhaps *too* much, IMO. Given the current state of the article, I think that moving it back to mainspace is appropriate, or maybe just going through and making more exact suggestions.Naraht (talk) 15:09, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

there are some fixes needed; I think as it stands it would not pass afd, but if fixed, it might. DGG ( talk ) 01:48, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Rejected drafts

Hi, DGG,

I have had little involvement with AFC over the years but I am taking care of hundreds of stale drafts these days. Plenty of them have been rejected by AfC reviewers but, to my untrained eyes, even though they don't have 4 or 5 reliable sources, they would definitely make decent stub articles. I'm just wondering if AfC reviewers have high standards, looking for every claim to have verification, and declining articles that, are not in great shape now but if given time & attention, might make decent articles in the future. Or are reviewers discouraged from accepting submissions that would just be stubs? Just wondering. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 02:53, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

The basic standard is that the draft will be likely to pass AfD, but as usual at Wikipedia, every reviewer uses their own interpretation. The key word is "likely". Remembering the discussions from 4 or 5 years ago, it was established that it does not mean 51%, but also not 99%. Most reviewers say they interpret it at between 60 and 80 %, but in practice the actual range in 80 to 90%. However, most reviewers probably think more globally than numerically. There will always be disagreement about what ought to pas AfD, and many us tend to judge by what we think ought to pass, more than what we think will in the current state of things pass.

I do not try to judge what the community will do at afd for drafts not in my fields of interest, for I do not review them. In practice very few of my approved drafts have ever been rejected, but that's because if they're borderline I will if necessary fix them myself. A relatively small number of other people also do that.

There is considerable pressure to keep the level high--nobody wants to be called out for passing something that the community rejects, nobody wants to have a long discussion getting an article improved and then seeing it rejected, and there's even a warning message at various places about listing for deletion or changing the status to unpatrolled for something that passed AfC--whereas reviewers rarely get blamed for declining a draft.

For the 6 month old drafts now appearing for G13, some of them are by notably over-demanding reviewers. For the ones that are declined for clearly incorrect reasons, I will say so in a comment, which postpones them. An article does not need 3 or 4 reliable sources showing notability to pass; one is enough if it's good enough, like being in a standard encyclopedia. But I will often decline them and ask for more, in order to increase the chance that it will actually pass. I take into consideration whether further sources are likely. I also at least nowadays, carem ore about promotionalism than notability. I will not pass a basically promotional article regardless of notability -- although if it is extremely notable, i will once in a while remove the worst of the promotionalism and pass it.

What concerns me even more than the mis-reviewed drafts are the ones that are good enough, or almost good enough, but never got submitted. If I think they might be good enough, I will always at least fix them a little and postpoen them, or even just submit and accept them.

My advice is to follow your instincts about what belongs in Wikipedia. I tend to check deleted G13s a little as well as ones not yet at 6 months. I do not check something if its obvious from the title that its hopeless or not in my field. I see many that you've deleted, and I restore about 1/10 of them, I consider 90% agreement between two reviewers as good as can be expected.

There are not merely 2 classes of articles at AfC--the passes and the fails. There are 3: the hopeless, the improvable, and the adequate. I'd say the proportion as they arrive in draft is 40-50-10. As formally submitted, it's 20-60-20. Dealing with the ones in the middle takes more work than the available people can do. That's the basic problem. It's mot the fault of draft and afc, before we had it, there was the same proportion at New Page Patrol. We tended to accept everything that was possible, about 50%, which is how the early junk got into WP, and, if not of great interest to people, never got improved. Unsatisfactory as it is, the current way is better. DGG ( talk ) 04:48, 30 November 2020 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 18

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past three months (September, October, and November 2020).

[

SD0001's W-Ping is this month's featured script

Sportzpikachu's bookmarks adds a bookmarks section to the navigation toolbar

SD0001's deleted-metadata-link.js adds links to the deletedrevisions API output for deleted pages

A new JavaScript snippet, MediaWiki:AFC-add-project-tags.js, can be used to add WikiProject tags to drafts at Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Add WikiProject tags without actually needing to install a user script.

GeneralNotability's ip-ext-info.js adds extended info on IPs in a popup with their range, ASN, and ISP

TheTVExpert's rmCloser helps with closing and relisting requested moves.

Enterprisey's parsoid-round-trip uses Parsoid to convert wikitext to HTML and back, and then shows the result and the difference between the original wikitext and the post-conversion wikitext.

Pending requests

• A request for a script to make it easier to archive specific list entries, rather than whole discussion sections
• ...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

Twinkle has made a number of improvements, including using a change tag to identify actions made with it and automatically filing edit requests for protected XfD nominations.

SD0001's shortdescs-in-category is now compatible with scripts modifying category listings, such as Equazcion's CatListMainTalkLinks

GhostInTheMachine's TalkHelper2 is a newer version of their prior script, TalkHelper

GeneralNotability's spihelper updated to 2.2.10, fixing a number of small bugs, automatically tagging globally locked socks as such in the sockpuppet template, and restoring open cases following an SPI history merge.

Enterprisey's script-installer gadget has been updated with more internationalization of messages, as well as addition of a user preference, window.scriptInstallerInstallTarget to allow controlling where new scripts are to be installed.

Miscellaneous

• The second edition of the m:Coolest Tool Award will be taking place in December.
• Enterprisey's links-in-logs script has now been implemented as part of MediaWiki core, see gerrit:640761 and phab:T207562.

My apologies for the delayed issue. As always, if anyone else would like to contribute, help is appreciated. Stay safe, --DannyS712 (talk) 18:20, 1 December 2020 (UTC)

---

RE: Articles for creation: Sun and Moon Pagodas has been accepted

I guess responding to a new message notification is a force of habit—even as an IP address rather than a username. Thank you for reviewing and accepting Sun and Moon Pagodas for article creation. Your username sounds familiar, I used to be a Wikipedian but it looks like I was leaving just as you were arriving. I know the notice is boilerplate, nevertheless I thank you for the invitation to sign up. However, I will not be rejoing Wikipedia as I am still unsure this is a community that I would find welcoming as most of the concerns I had when I stepped away seem to have gotten worse over the years. Even so, I am glad to see Wikipedians like you serving on committees, defending obscure—but notable—subjects from deletion, and investing in their creation. I hope you have continued success. Cheers! -24.35.158.128 (talk) 13:20, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

as before, there are more contentious corners and less contentious. The general attitude is considerably more bureaucratic, as we are better at devising new rules than removing obsolete ones. But it is also more predictable, and in most fields the personalities don't matter as much as in 2006: there's nobody who has the same kind of influence some people had then. In general, the article content is better, and as long as one stays away from fields like American politics reasonable people can do thing without trouble. So please try a few more. DGG ( talk ) 16:58, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Dean Lomax

Hi DGG, I'm a bit confused by these comments:[43]

That draft is just a recreation of what was brought to AfD which was closed as delete. Maybe you weren't aware of that AfD when you made the comment the subject was notable and removed the speedy deletion. We're basically in the same position as when the draft was speedy deleted back in 2019, so I'm curious why the tag was removed without deletion this time? Kingofaces43 (talk) 16:03, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

I consider the original deletion closing an error: "detailed discussion of sourcing is that what is there is not about the subject but their discoveries." is in complete opposition to WP. :PROF. The problems listed there can be fixed, which I intend to do. This is a lot simple than DelRev, because it can lead dieectly to a decent article.Naturally, this puts the burden on me , but it is my field. (there is, you ay be aware, a little wiki-politics involved in trying to avoid recognzing notability of entomologists; there have been more important inequities, which I intend to work on . but this will be a start) ). If you don't like what I do, when I put it in mainspace, there;\'s afd 2, but I hope it will get more careful attention this time. DGG ( talk ) 09:18, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

I must have been cross-eyed when I read the draft comment because I thought it was part of the speedy deletion template for a second, so ignore that last bit of reverts on my part there. Not to nitpick, but given your statement above without really editing the draft and removing the deletion tag, it does come across a little WP:SUPERVOTEy as the closest way to describe it. The better option like you mention is to work on the burden aspect by editing content, and there are a few months for that now that the clock technically restarted.

I'd disagree about WP:PROF since part of that is the "average professor test" that I alluded to at the AfD (i.e., naming/discovering species is kind of normal among taxonomists). If sources start commenting that he stands out due to sheer volume/quality of work, that'll pass the threshold for me. I actually asked our resident taxonomist down the hall about that article and their thoughts were similar to mine (but kinda cool on the local popular science/education side of things). My vote then was more of a notability TOOSOON issue though, so obviously my opinion can change.

As for entomologists, maybe I've been missing out on some AfDs this year, but where has some of this politiking been going on? I'd definitely chime in if I thought an entomologist was notable (and it'd be easier for me to dig up more sources), though I'd put a lot of scrutiny on it too like I do above in terms of what a "normal" professor tends to do. Kingofaces43 (talk) 01:10, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

• Supervote refers to my over-riding the community consensus in a afd or afc. That's not what's in question here. In trying to restore an article, if the community disagrees with what i do , the consensus will correct me. But none of that is what happened here either. No admin action is in question. Anyone can remove a speedy tag. Anyone can stop a G13 deletion, and any admin's G13 deletion will normally be restored on request. That's all I did. I haven't even restored the article yet. as I said, there are two acceptable ways to restore an article that's deleted at afd: Del Rev, or making a new one, where it it should be improved enough to have a reasonable chance.. If it wasn't protected anyone can do that. But I didn't even do that yet. I just put it into Draft, which is being as cautious and conservative as I would advise anyone. I think the consensus for AfCs is that a prior deletion is no bar to making an AfC, unless the AfC is also protected, which is very rare.

In carrying out admin actions, I follow the community consensus rather closely, particularly because I am quite aware that some of my opinions about what that consensus ought to be are not (yet) accepted. In editing, however, I have the same right as anyone to be BOLD, because the community can & sometimes does correct me. In giving someone advice about policy, I try to be very safe and conservative, and I never advise people to see what they can perhaps get away with. . In expressing my opinion about what guidelines are, when in a discussion, I use my judgment, keeping in mind the full range of permissible interpretations, and that the effective deletion policy anad notability guidelines are what happens at AfD, which can be quite variable.

The "average professor test" reads " When judged against the average impact of a researcher in a given field, does this researcher stand out as clearly more notable or more accomplished?". In my opinion, this as written is not helpful, because it depends 1/on the definition of "a researcher in the field" which could mean anyone from a grad student who has published a paper on up, but probably means anyone who is making a profession out of research in a subject which to my understanding is someone on a tenure track position or the equivalent. and 2/ "stand out clearly", which is totally vague and can only have an operational meaning of anyone who stands out clearly in the consensus of the community at any particular AfD. It also uses a word that isn't in any other of the other guidelines "accomplished"--which is about as indefinite as one can get. Considering the great flexibility of the guidelines here, it's remarkable that about 95% of the individuals submitted are clear one way or another--and even 80 or 90% of those challenged at AfD!

As applied to taxonomists, the standard is not clear as to how many species--it obviously depends on what sort of organisms one is working with. I think that although the consensus at afd in the past has sometimes been that a single species is enough, this is no longer the case & more is required. I agree that even in the broadest interpretation a single species would be much too wide for those working on, say, coleoptera. (as for the political examples, I meant wiki-politics, not RW politics. I need to look--the story is a little complicated) DGG ( talk ) 05:47, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

FeGiS

Dear DGG, thank you for accepting our draft and your helpful comments. Regarding to your comments wie have improved our article FeGiS: - Added new inline citations (e.g. Publication in Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology University Library) - Added specific terms of road traffic safety - Added more detailed information regarding our existing sources, so it is easier to verify them Are these corrections sufficient for removing the comemnts above the article? Thanks in advance for your answer. User Sichere Straßen — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sichere.Straßen (talk • contribs) 09:02, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Sichere.traßen, the references are indeed much improved. The main problem now is the wordiness and the style of writing which rather resembles a report by the organization. See if you can revise to make it as compact as possible. I need to alert you that it has in the past proven difficult to get articles on components of the EC framework programs accepted, so it is possible that my approval might be challenged. DGG ( talk ) 04:33, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Omar Ayesh

Can we remove the PR tag on Omar Ayesh article? What other changes would you suggest? Smilingbandit (talk) 00:16, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

who's "we" ? You did not declare any COI? DGG ( talk ) 03:25, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

deWP-enWP

I hope that I'm correct in replying here to the comment you made on Olaf Kosinsky's talk page concerning the translation from German to English Wikipedia. I have read your comment and I must admit, I hadn't noticed the differences until you pointed them out specifically, like the example on Rudolf Pichlmayr. Thank you for that and I'll take it into consideration when working on future articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MMike94 (talk • contribs) 10:16, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 19

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (December 2020).

Enterprisey's script-installer, a gadget that makes it easier to install scripts, is this month's featured script

Enterprisey's copy-section-link adds popups to section headers which has an appropriate wikilink and external link to the section.

DannyS712's FindBlacklistEntry can be used to figure out which line(s) in either the local or global spamblacklist prevent a particular url from being added.

Nardog's CodeEditorAssist allows customizing the code editor, including changing the color theme and enabling live autocompletion.

Cobaltcigs's IllWill allows searches wikidata.org for foreign-language sitelinks, to populate {{ill}} and replace plain red links.

Twinkle has made a number of improvements, most notably full support for expiring watchlist items.

Evad37's MoveToDraft is now at version 2.5.1, with changes including:

• checks for move conflicts and better options if move fails
• the addition of {{Drafts moved from mainspace}} after moves
• updating the default move log and notification texts to be more in line with WP:DRAFTIFY

Enterprisey's cv-revdel now handles failures more cleanly, including reporting failures caused by the spam blacklist.

Bradv's Notepad.js script has been updated with new styles and a new launch button.

A beta version of XFDcloser is available for testing, and brings a new user interface for dialogs and some preferences for customization.

Miscellaneous

• The Watchlist Expiry feature worked on by the Community Tech team has been enabled on Wikipedia. For scripts that include watching or unwatching pages, developers may want to update their code to take advantage of the new functionality. See the documentation on mediawiki.org.
• As noted in the prior issue, Enterprisey's links-in-logs script has now been implemented as part of MediaWiki core. By my count, this is his third script that was replaced by implementing the code in MediaWiki core or an extension, along with link-section-edits and abusefilter-hide-search. Additionally, his reply-link script is being converted in part to mw:Extension:DiscussionTools. Are there any other scripts that might be worth integrating directly in MediaWiki? Thoughts would be welcome at Wikipedia talk:Scripts++.

DannyS712 (talk) 00:19, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

---

The World Academy of Art and Science Page

Dear Dr. Goodman, This is Ranjani Ravi, an Associate Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, an intl thinktank the wiki page of which you edited recently on November 9, 2020 (Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=World_Academy_of_Art_and_Science&action=history). The Management section of the page previously listed the names of most Management members, which I agree, is not necessary but we would like to retain the names of Vice President, Secretary General and Honorary President because of the increasingly important role they play in the Academy which is a non profit organisation that addresses world problems. Not as a form of self promotion or anything, just to make them get the recognition they deserve. But I recently checked the page and found some names missing and that's how I came here.

Having said that, please, I would like to the rationale behind your deleting the names. Is the norm usually to include just the names of President and Chair? Thank you so much in advance.

Best regards Ranjani Ravi Associate Fellow, World Academy of Art and Science Editor, Cadmus Journal http://cadmusjournal.org — Preceding unsigned comment added by Inajnar (talk • contribs) 01:58, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

the role they play in the academy is of interest to the members of the academy, not the general public who reads an encyclopedia . To the extent you think it is of interest to those interest in the academy, you have your own web site. People with any specific interest in the organization will find it there.

I point out also that there is considerable other material in that article which could be considered`promotional, and not appropriate to an encyclopedia ; it is likely to be removed as well. "Getting people the recognition they deserve" is not the function of an encyclopedia . It's the function of a press release. DGG ( talk ) 02:26, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

The New York Experience

I wrote The New York Experience article, then decided not to publish it on Wikipedia. It appears that you published it on Wikipedia without my permission. How do I take it down?Milst1 (talk) 23:55, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

as a courtesy, I have replied only on your user talk page, not here. DGG ( talk ) 02:21, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Possible PAID—second opinion

Hi DGG, I am reaching because I remember your input after I submitted by COI/undisclosed paid editing incident for Eurasia Group a few months ago, and your experience with related issues. In brief, I am strongly suspicious that an article rewritten a few years ago by a fairly established user was very likely undisclosed paid editing. I would like a second opinion on the evidence I gathered before making such an accusation. Is there a way to do so privately, either with you or another COI issue experienced editor? Thanks! WhinyTheYounger (talk) 02:13, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

WhinyTheYounger E mail me from your user account. DGG ( talk ) 00:12, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Charles R. Cutler

Me again, hopefully less controversially :D Curious if you think WP:PROF standards have changed since 2012 when you thought he met the notability bar due to his membership in NAE. If so, happy to remove the tag but I wasn't able to find any sourcing which was what had led me to possible PROD before I saw your comment. Thanks, as always. StarM 18:41, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

NAE is one of the things considered an absolute pass. This applies to the United States National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine. They're not subordinate bodies of lower status, but co-equal parallel parts of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine . It's useful, because it is otherwise difficult to sort out the most notable for some of the career paths in the NAM, and it can be very hard to decide otherwise for people in specialties that don't publish in the usual way in the NAE. I am aware of no contradictory decisions ever. If you know of any, please tell me , because I intend to challenge them and expect to be successful.

The article you mention is a good illustration of the value of the standard. I'm sure a great deal more could be written, but it wouldn't be easy for most of us to do it. DGG ( talk ) 00:27, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, as always, and for getting to the removal of the notability tag before I got back to the article. I don't know of any deleted, I just wasn't sure whether standards might have changed or not. My red flag was his re linked work, but I can understand why that might not apply in his case. My main goal with these tremendous backlogs is to get some attention to these mostly-forgotten articles. For some that might be deletion in some form, in others hopefully a project or other tag gets the right eyes on them. I'll see if I can find a good home to "adopt" this one who might have access to sources needed to shore it up. Thanks again. StarM 00:39, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

I will help rescue (or , when necessary delete) as much as I can--don't be reluctant to ask. I'm very willing to be directed to where I am needed. As you say, the problem is in how to appropriately distribute the work. Usually I like it tat we are an anarchy, but it has its limitations. DGG ( talk ) 06:26, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Thank you!

Thanks for your help! Eli185 (talk) 16:27, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Draft:Jiliang Tang

Hi DGG -- Could you possibly take a look at stale draft Draft:Jiliang Tang -- a computer scientist with apparently high citations in GS. The draft appears to have been created by a student with permission from the subject. It's been declined twice, the subject is fairly early career (assistant prof, PhD 2015)[44]. I postponed the G13 based on the GS profile [45]. Thanks, Espresso Addict (talk) 06:02, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

I think I missed spotting this one, so thanks! I'll deal with it. it may take some analysis of the actual citations to decide, and computer science has its own peculiar publication patterns.. It is discouraging when new eds or classes write inadequate articles on notable people, and I wish we had a way of catching them earlier than the six months. DGG ( talk ) 06:53, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Excellent, thanks. I've improved it a touch and the creator has re-engaged and submitted it for review. Even if Tang isn't quite over the threshold now, I think he will be soon, especially as he appears to have a book in press with Cambridge University Press. I never know what to do with such articles; deleting plausible drafts G13 every 6 months is such a waste of everyone's energy. Cheers, Espresso Addict (talk) 07:29, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

there are several routes to a solution--mostdesirable, fixing them when submitted, but if not getting them before 6 months, or if not at least getting them at 6 motnhs, or, at worst, deleting htem longer. But I intend to try something in Janaury, now that I'll be free from the arb com prison: making a list of everything I postpone, and trying to distribute it. .

and there's another dilemma--when we fix it enough to go itnto main space, how much do we fix it--just enough, enough so it would pass afd without our needing to defend it, or into an actually decent article. I know the first is more efficient, but if I am going to work on something, I want to do it in a respectable fashion. DGG ( talk ) 07:38, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

I've been wondering for a while if a wikiproject or the like might be the way to go. I try to pick up expired drafts when I can, but I rarely do more than postpone these days -- there's just too much, one always feels to be drowning in it. Often I find that the drafts I pick up (independently) have been postponed by you 6 mths or 12 mths ago. Might a joint list of postponed items from established editors be useful?

Women in Red is a great resource if the subject happens to be female, but I often feel like proposing Men in Red for the academics/writers/historical figures/non-Anglophone people &c&c that aren't sportspeople or American/British politicians. No doubt that would make me very popular :) Cheers, Espresso Addict (talk) 08:07, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

We already have the AfC project, and it does fairly well. If I were going to find a slogan, it would be pople in red, possibly divided up by subject. Women in red had done splendidly, once hey realizred they needed to be selective. I'fd not be opposed to other subgroup or national projects, iif they can get enthusiasts., but dividing people in these ways is not an ideal way to build a truly npov WP. I think we could do academics sucessfully on a university by university basis, with optional participation of the students in the schools involved. If we don't do something like this, the college pr people will do it for us, smd it makes even more work trying to get them to do it right. But the more specific the better. I would start with the subject lists in List of members of the National Academy of Sciences. first making a a list of everyone who has every been in the groups involved, and working on the redlinks. --the NAS has the advanrage of bios on deceased members available., but we haven't used them except sporadically. Other ideas welcome. We should take advage of the fact that for certain honors, everyone it is is notable, and we could start with the most basic stubs. This is a suitable place for wikidata to help us with a list, tho I wouldn't want to write even stubs on the basis of the information there. If we have 1 or 2 more people, we could start tomorrow. DGG ( talk ) 10:34, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

I'd be interested in joining a group that wanted to build up the coverage of academics, though my preferred focus would probably be Brits. (I'm much less familiar with the American education system, and they tend to have better coverage.) Last I looked there were still some redlinks in the Fellows of the Royal Society lists, which confers bullet-proof notability (and also has bios for deceased fellows, although as I recall they're not currently free), and moreover the bulk of the articles that exist are extremely poor. It would also be extremely useful to get some community discussion on precisely what honours/similar constitute bullet-proof notability, to the point it's worth going through lists indiscriminately. I tend to be very conservative, and in consequence I don't think I've ever had an article I created deleted, but it's meant I tend to investigate people in detail and then NOT start the article because I'm not certain whether they are quite there yet... Not so much FRS-type awards, but (off the top of my head) presidents of national but specialist bodies, professorships at less-prestigious universities, invited autobios in various Annual Reviews (I did some of these a while ago and got pushback that they weren't independent), citations in disciplines off the mainstream, and -- broadening to writers -- precisely which writing awards count. Every time one brings this kind of issue up at general noticeboards, one hits variants of "just meet the GNG" or "three good sources" arguments, that ... aren't really helpful.

What would be excellent would be a single talk page where one could bring bios -- or ideas for bios -- not relating to women and get the kind of enthusiastic, positive but not uncritical support, advice and collaboration that the Women in Red project routinely offers on bios of women. For example, I recall encountering an apparently good-faith editor who was trying to build articles on civil engineers who'd served as president of a society of which the editor was also a past-president, and had been meeting storms of deletion requests on the grounds that the society didn't provide an independent source for its presidents. I know nothing about civil engineering, and most of the people were in commercial companies rather than universities, and of course they were all male, so I had to leave the creator to flounder. Architects are another discipline where apparently good-faith contributions tend to get rejected, in my experience.

I don't know about creating microstubs; they tend to put me off contributing sometimes because someone's "stolen" the creator rights, but it might make it easier for new editors to contribute (which could be positive or negative, given the quality of the average newbie edits). I worry that an autopatrolled editor could start a microstub and then a student expand it into a promotional wreck, without going through Articles for Creation or New Page Patrol.

Anyway, just a few jumbled thoughts to mull over the solsticial period! Cheers, and festive greetings if they're appropriate, Espresso Addict (talk) 04:18, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Ideally, in a borderline situation the thing to do is to do the article, and see if it gets accepted, but of course nobody want to spend effort on things that won't be accepted, so it is always a balance. Beginners I advise to start at the top; experienced people like us can take chances. Similarly, microstubs can be argued both ways--I personally create them, because I know my own inclination is to edit an existing article rather than start a new one. But I'm overall not all that concerned with people in mainstream fields as for some other topics, such as the practical side of life in general. It's very hard to go out and specifically look for sources--the technique has to be to find a good encyclopedic source, and work from it. Architects I think have a usable standard: notable buildings, and monographs about the person.

An excellent technique for all of this is editathons. It simply doesn't work online, and least not for me or for any I've seen, but in a place like NYC we've done very well with both small and large groups. The very best have been the ones at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum. Maybe next fall... DGG ( talk ) 01:39, 24 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for your opinion on K D Krori by the way. I haven't stepped into AfD for a while, and was surprised at how many people whose notability seems to me fairly clear are currently being debated just in the Academics & educators list -- deletionists clearly don't take time off at Christmas/New Year...

I've not lived in/near a city since the foundation of the 'pedia, so I've never attended an in-person editathon. I've never succeeded in helping/encouraging a person to edit offline, despite trying many, many times with my online/offline acquaintance. There seems to be an enormous barrier to surmount before people make even one successful edit, even among people who are fluent in English, highly educated, used to professional or academic writing, and highly computer literate. In terms of online ones, I can't imagine it working with beginners but the British stub expansion that was held in March 2020 worked quite well, with established editors competing for prizes and improving ~thousand articles in the month. So looking forward to autumn, already! I'm trying to reconcile myself to the fact that I will have to shield till then, when I haven't been out in public since the beginning of March.

The new free sources in the Wikipedia Library need to be more widely publicised; I only worked out what was newly available without application the other week, and there must be a lot of qualifying editors who've never heard of it. The OUP collection is particularly useful; I've been working on a music theorist based on Grove's, and on a spotcheck there must be thousands of Grove's bio entries without articles. Resolution for 2021 to write more articles and get less drawn into fractious venues that make me walk away for 6 months; we will see how well that goes. Espresso Addict (talk) 07:25, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

Draft:InStride

Hey DGG, I noticed you marked the post I made for Draft: InStride as sounding more like an advertisement and I wanted to see if you could provide any updates/recommendations on how to improve this?

InStride Type – Private Industry – Education Founded – 2019 Area Serves – Worldwide Website – InStride.com InStride is an American education technology company located in Los Angeles, California. Background InStride enables employers to provide degrees and credentials to their employees through its partnerships with academic institutions across the United States, Mexico, Europe, and Australia. Its seed funding was provided by Arizona State University and The Rise Fund, a global impact investing fund managed by TPG Capital.[5] Vivek Sharma is the company’s CEO.

to be a little more exact, this does not show notability AND it's promotional--I could have applied both templates. The Inside Higher Ed articles, and the other ostensibly third party sources, are essentially promotional writeups--promotional for both the firm and for the university . The article itself is a mere directory entry. Wording like "enables employers to provide degrees and credentials to their employees through its partnerships with academic institutions across the United States ..." is advertising-talk, from enables through across .

In a previous discussion, you claimed no Conflict of Interest (with respect to Kat Nouri .) I've looked at your other drafts. I am a little puzzled how you select your topics. DGG ( talk ) 05:30, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Beddit

I noticed that you labelled the article I created as sounding like an advert. Can you give me any advice on how can I fix the article to not sound like an advert? Thanks in advance! X-Editor (talk) 01:56, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

emphasis on the trivial differences between versions, and the labelling of the product. Use of multiple minor articles and unauthoritative websites as references. I just tagged it for problems; not listed it for deletion. DGG ( talk ) 05:58, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know what the general problems with the article are. I removed some of the trivial info in the article. But would you mind telling me what these minor articles and unauthoritative websites are so I can remove their references? Thanks! Also, what labelling in the article do you consider problematic? I also understand that you didn't nominate it for deletion and just tagged the article instead. X-Editor (talk) 21:34, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

for an example of what I mean see my revision to Hello (company) I removed overuse of the corporate and the product name and substituted generic terms, combined 1 sentence paragraphs, eliminated minor product details of a device no longer manufactured, and condensed the presentation generally. I removed one unreliable source; What now needs to be done is to remove the refs to the unreliable Business Insider interviews, which are promotional interviews where the subject simply says whatever they care to,--such interviews are not longer considered reliable sources. I didn't remove it because its the unique source given for one of the statements, but its information that can probably be found in the others. All of these are common faults of promotional editing. So much of the information about companies in WP is promotional coi editing that it's very easy to fall into the same style. (I also added that one of the refs was from the NYT--promotional eds. often don't realize what we consider strong indications of significance)

Beddit is less of a problem, because there is more to say. Clean it a little, and remove the tag., DGG ( talk ) 19:35, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

I removed the BI refs in the Hello article and cleaned up the article as well. I also did the remaining cleanup needed for the Beddit article and removed the tag. Thanks for helping me! Although there is some info in the Hello article that belonged to the BI articles that might not be in the other articles, but I don't have the time to go through all of those other sources to see which content to remove. It would be nice if you could that as well. X-Editor (talk) 01:39, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

It's your responsibility, not mine, to fix the articles you write. The reason I did so much editing here was as a demonstration, because it can be the best way to make things clear. DGG ( talk ) 04:57, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

I was just making a suggestion, but I'd be fine with doing it myself. X-Editor (talk) 20:13, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

Understood. DGG ( talk ) 20:33, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

WP:MOSFAQ2

I adapted the top half of your close at WP:BIRDCON into a new lead section at Wikipedia:Manual of Style extended FAQ, though this took some juggling of text around, and some massaging to replace redundant phrasing, plus some tweaks for clarity, and some links.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  04:18, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

Draft:Jared_Roach

DGG, thanks for your input last year. Could you take another look at Draft:Jared_Roach and see if I have addressed your concerns? Thanks, Jared. Jaredroach (talk) 05:15, 3 January 2021 (UTC)

commented at the draft. DGG ( talk ) 01:29, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks again for your feedback. I have addressed your latest comments. Could you take another look.? Jaredroach (talk) 07:38, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

Jaredroach, I removed what I consider trivial material, material based on unreliable sources, and replaced the many uses of your name with "he". The next step is to respond to the remaining italicized comments. And I think it would be useful to have a sentence of two explaining just what you mean by "the first complete whole-chromosome human haplotypes" -- how is this different from a complete gene sequence ,which I thing was done quite some times ago, Or is the innovative work merely that it was done for a family of 4, not a single individual? Remember, that every individual claim needs a RS. DGG ( talk ) 00:49, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

DGG, Thanks for your help with editing. I think I have addressed all of these requests/concerns now. Jaredroach (talk) 23:51, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – January 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (December 2020).

Administrator changes

Hammersoft

Andres • Brion VIBBER • Rkitko • Thatcher

CheckUser changes

Barkeep49 • BDD • CaptainEek • Primefac

Oversight changes

Barkeep49 • BDD • CaptainEek

Joe Roe

Guideline and policy news

• Speedy deletion criterion T3 (duplication and hardcoded instances) has been repealed following a request for comment.

Technical news

• You can now put pages on your watchlist for a limited period of time.

Arbitration

• By motion, standard discretionary sanctions have been temporarily authorized for all pages relating to the Horn of Africa (defined as including Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and adjoining areas if involved in related disputes). The effectiveness of the discretionary sanctions can be evaluated on the request by any editor after March 1, 2021 (or sooner if for a good reason).
• Following the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections, the following editors have been appointed to the Arbitration Committee: Barkeep49, BDD, Bradv, CaptainEek, L235, Maxim, Primefac.

Robin Callan - Draft

....

sometimes the work done in trying to save something turns out to not be worthwhile; I try to judge this before I start, but my judgment is not always correct. I am always trying to improve my skill at rescuing articles, and I have learnt from this one that I should have insisted on much more drastic revisions from the beginning I know it matters to you, and if I encouraged you unduly, I apologize. This is s why it is difficult to edit with any degree of coi: success here requires a considerable degree of detachment. DGG ( talk ) 05:50, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Draft-Frank J.Manheim

...

the purpose of an encyclopedia is to be a place where people in the general public can go to find basic information about people and things that are sufficiently notable that they will have heard of them. Just as we're not here to make someone notable initially, we're not hereto provide everything that might be interesting about a person to those who already know about him. That's the purpose of biographies, amnnd there are plenty of places to publish this material. I like full biographies of people I care about; I read them on the internet, I get them from libraries, I sometimes buy them, and I've a few times even watch a film or video about a person I particularly care about. But for people I just want to know something about, the amount of material I want to know typically reflect the importanceo f the person, and will very rarely indeed extend to anecdotes about their hobbies or personal life or early interests. See WP:EINSTEIN.

And this is exactly why it is difficult to write about people with whom there is a conflict of interest. I'll give an example. I wrote a short bio of my thesis advisor, because it was asked for by the relevant work group dealing with members of the national academy of sciences. I didn't include everything I knew, either personally, or from department gossip, or what he said about himsel fin the books he had written (including an autobiography), Those who are interested enough will red the autobiography, and his other books, and interviews. Perhaps someone will write a full biography. Now, if he had been very famous to the general public, like Pauling or Feynman, I would have included considerably mrore, basedon the many books and other published avvoutns that have been written by and about them.

As for the article, I shall deal with it. Nobody owns an article, and the editor you mention has as much right to edit it as you or I. I've worked with that editor many times before, and we fdo not always agree about what ought to be in an article, but we'll work something out. The one person who should stay away at this point is you, because there's a conflict of interest. DGG' ( talk ) 02:09, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Re: Draft: Paul Legrand

Hi, sorry, not sure how to link to draft page, but if you think it would work better merged into the Boucheron firm's page, I can do that :) Thank you for your comment. Red Fiona (talk) 21:06, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

I'll get there, but probably not today. DGG ( talk ) 02:16, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Redfiona99, I looked at the Boucheron article, and it needs so much work that I wouldn't recommend merging anything into it, at least not until it is rewritten. It might be much better if you could add some bio details for Legrand, and submit it as a separate article. He seems important enough -- and I've looked at your other excellent work on French artists, especially in the applied arts---we need a good deal more articles like them. There's no real need for you to go through draft unless you want to. DGG ( talk ) 07:27, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

Request Edit Template

Hi DGG, I read your comments at User talk:MarioGom#Appian Corporation about the request edit template, and finding alternatives. I'm posting here to avoid derailing JMG's request and going off-topic.

It was stated in the discussion promotionalism & sourcing & notability can best be evaluated in the context of the whole article . I know "request edit" doesn't work that way. I think this argument says request edits are usually posted in sections by COI editors, instead of the COI editor proposing all of an article's edits in one ticket, and causes the backlog that we see in the queue today. If I misinterpreted this argument, I am sorry and hope it will be clarified.

I agree that promotional language, source and notability need to be evaluated together when fulfilling request edits. However, I actually think the template has a different problem: many "quick" proposals (changing a paragraph, removing a sentence or updating the company's revenue) are completed quickly because it takes a short time to assess. Article rewrites (where promotionalism, sourcing and notability are evaluated together) linger in the queue for months because those request take a long time to assess. For example, I think if you did not volunteer to assess JMG's request it would have stayed in the queue for at least three more months because of the work required.

The backlog at request edit needs to be reduced because COI editors don't want their edits to sit in a queue for five months. If edits aren't completed COI editors will ignore the process and implement the edits themselves, causing worse problems for Wikipedia. I don't know how to speed up this process, but here's some options: AfC has a structure for reviewing articles, even though it has a backlog, too. Updating and simplifying the template's reviewer instructions might encourage other editors to join this area. Perhaps having a new user right like pending changes reviewers or rollbackers will encourage wiki hat collectors to give the area a try (and I don't consider hat collecting to necessarily be a bad thing, as long as editors use the roles they apply to).

I'm just throwing some ideas out there to try to fix the process. Thanks for reading this long message.

I think we agree--for fixing quick updates, we need something quick. For revising for promotionalism it's much better to work with the whole article. There are a few other processes split this way. But even for working with the whole article, I personally prefer they either suggest an alternative version, or make the changes they want and I will then revise. What I try to avoid is bargaining back and forth. The coi editor should make their case, and then let the reviewer handle it. DGG ( talk ) 23:28, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

I like splitting the process, but will it create another bureaucratic process for COI editors to mess up? Rather than split the process, we need to encourage editors to tackle the larger requests.

I hate the bargaining, but I don't know how to eliminate it. The bargaining is good because editors make mistakes or sometimes the COI finds better sources. One change could be the AfC process: the whole request gets denied and the author has to fix the problem parts and resubmit their preferred version. The problem with this is the second reviewer might be duplicating work by checking sources and what-not. Also, AfC is also backlogged.

If I was king of Wikipedia I would survey editors to find out why they are not participating in this process, especially editors who have participated in the past or regularly participate in COIN. My hypothesis for the lack of participation is: people want to work on their own favourite articles, don't want to help companies promote themselves, are put-off by the volume of work and just aren't interested in this aspect of Wikipedia. Z1720 (talk) 23:55, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Mughal Karkhanas

Hello User:DGG Sir, I am grateful for your edits on the subject. The queries you raised are resolved. Kindly check and advise. Thanks and best regards RV (talk) 01:16, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

I might get there by Monday or Tuesday DGG ( talk ) 01:52, 9 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, please take your time. Warm regards RV (talk) 13:41, 9 January 2021 (UTC)

RAJIVVASUDEV (talk · contribs), I think the article is quite good as it stands--the only thing really needed is to explain each special term at least briefly, DGG ( talk ) 10:49, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

​ Sir, thanks, I shall do that. Best regards RV (talk) 11:26, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

Enlabs draft

Hello DGG,

Thank you for reviewing Enlabs draft page couple of months ago. I have now made changes to the draft, removed low-quality and industry-related references and added new references from Reuters, MSN.com and others.

I already talked about the draft to Cerebellum who also reviewed the draft and seemed to be happy with the changes, but wanted another reviewer to take a look at it for the final call. If you have time, could you please take a look at the draft?

Any feedback would be appreciated, cheers.

Randomhero77 (talk) 10:36, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

I might get there by Monday. DGG ( talk ) 01:52, 9 January 2021 (UTC)

OK, Randomhero77, I've taken a look at the current version. First thing to do is to combine sentences into paragraphs, and try to use "it" or "the firm" instead of the company name whenever possible. . Second, it is still the the case that all the information seems to refer to financing, some of it in perhaps more detail than necessary. Try to find something else to add, if you can find sources. DGG ( talk ) 10:59, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for checking it out DGG. I have now combined sentences into paragraphs where it made sense in my opinion, mostly in the history subheading. Removed company name where possible. Also added new Brands heading so there would be more than just acquisitions related references. Hope I didn't make the Brands sections look too promotional. Let me know what you think if you have time.Cheers. Randomhero77 (talk) 11:55, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

DGG I fixed that one confusing sentence which appeared to be just a typo. I did reply, but not sure if I did it in the correct place as I'm still bit of a Wikipedia amateur. Thought I'll give a quick update here as well. Cheers. Randomhero77 (talk) 09:53, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for Arbitration Service

Thanks for your service on the Arbitration committee. A thankless but so important job! ---- Michael Scott Cuthbert (talk) 21:08, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

username

User:David Goodman is not taken, so you could change your username ..... 0mtwb9gd5wx (talk) 18:39, 9 January 2021 (UTC)

I have been here so long that I now think of my actual identity as DGG. DGG ( talk ) 18:54, 9 January 2021 (UTC)

thank you for drafting

appreciate your consideration. WakandaQT (talk) 04:08, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

Help with amending draft for Draft:Cerus_Corporation

Hi, I have some questions about your comment on my draft for Draft:Cerus_Corporation. Thanks for your time in helping me get it right.

You ask to remove every reference that is a press release. I removed five such references. I believe all the remaining primary source references are strictly focused on very simple datapoints as listed below. Are these press releases acceptable uses for minor claims like these?

• Date company was conceived and subsequent company name change from Cerus Technologies to Cerus Corporation (SEC 10-K filing)
• Revenue amount in 2019 (I removed all other BusinessWire refs)
• Employee head count in 2019 (Bloomberg - I can remove the second usage of Bloomberg ref in favor of other supporting sources)
• Establish Dr Corash and Dr Hearst as the founders (both US News and SEC S-1 - I can drop one of these, which is more acceptable to keep?)
• Cross licensing deal with Baxter Medical which got Cerus into the EU (Memphis Business Journal and Infection Control Today - is the latter acceptable I can remove the former)
• still working on identifying remaining claims only documented in the FDA-released medical labels supplied by Cerus, for which I don't have other acceptable references

The two references that previously said simply from "Associated Press" have been updated to reflect the archived hard copy newspapers where they were published (Gettysburg Times and Tuscaloosa News). Are these consider sufficient news outlets to keep these references? If not, is there a documented definition in Wikipedia that separates a "major" newspaper from the others?

I am still working on addressing Nightenbelle's concern about REFBOMB. To be fair, all the refs are at then end of each passage, and each passsage uses all the assigned refs. I am trying to be careful and thorough because medical topics have a higher bar. I would like to continue culling refs but I really need to know which remaining refs are completely barred versus which refs are simply raising an eyebrow -- it might be the latter refs are underpinning only minor additions where I could not find those additions in any other medical journal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Frazierjason (talk • contribs) 06:12, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

yes you can use primary references for such uncontroversial data points. But it's better if they can be gotten from an official document, like a US 990. . The pt of REFBOMB is that if you have a strong ref for something ,there's no point in having weak refs for the same point also.

Thanks for this clarification. US IRS 990 forms are only intended for tax exempt (e.g. nonprofit) orgs, while publicly traded companies must publish the SEC forms. They seem equally "official" to me; the company/org publishes these primary sourced tax documents to the govt for public dissemination, attesting they are factual and complete. It's up to the IRS or SEC if they want to audit the truthiness of these forms. If there are other kinds of commonly disclosed US or EU govt forms from public companies that are more acceptable to WP, I'd be happy to search if you can give me a form name. Frazierjason (talk) 01:18, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

I shall check the draft in a day or two. Please have patience--we've been running an online editathon in NYC and I'm somewhat behind. (And this is the weekend of the annual Modern Language Association meeting--online this year--I'm trying to catch as much of it as I can and use some for WP. DGG ( talk ) 07:13, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

Frazierjason As for the government forms, I said carefully "for example" For US public companies, of course its the SEC forms, and we generally use the annual Form 10-K/ They contain financial statements; they also contain descriptions of the business, Management statements, & forward-looking projections, as our article explains. The most part is the independent auditor's report, We do accept the numbers on them. (though we also know that interpreting the meaning of these numbers is an art, and needs an expert secondary source) -- Anyway I wasn't suggesting you not use them, but that you should use them. . More later DGG ( talk ) 12:09, 15 January 2021 (UTC)\

Frazierjason, I commented further at the article. DGG ( talk ) 04:48, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Draft:Rt Rana

Hello Dear DGG , I expanded it a bit and made it more respectable. What do you think about it ? I think it's quite close to wikipedia level. Rajuiu (talk) 15:35, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

You have made it considerably worse by restoring unsourced promotional material, such as the "Notable Lines", and still using totally unreliable sources such as twitter , pinterest, and youtube DGG ( talk ) 17:27, 10 January 2021 (UTC)

I'm sorry DGG Draft:Rt Rana content was removed by ip user so that restored

and now i accepted your comments and removed some promotional material unreliable sources thanks Rajuiu (talk) 03:28, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

you are still using sources like youtube and goodreads. I don't think he's likely to be notable, so there's no point in my looking at it further . DGG ( talk ) 03:58, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

thank you. dear DGG he is notable announcer in srilanka and he is doing official government notable announcing programs such as india and srilaka government official programs . thanks Rajuiu (talk) 15:05, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia has its own concept of notability , which is that the person has to be notable enough to be substantially discussed by multiple independent reliable sources. The sources are all either just notices, or were written by him or his employer. Wikipedia's use of the word sometimes does, and sometimes does not, correspond to the much more general way the word is used in the real world. DGG ( talk ) 16:07, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

Draft:Emily Tamkin

Thanks for reviewing. Draft:Emily Tamkin

First, neither I nor the author are the subject of the article nor do we know her — you suspected that it was written by the subject. Solved.

Second, you found the article to be promotional in nature. I deleted some parts, added others, and re-arranged it. The text had a bit of a light tone which I also thought was unsuitable so amended that.

Can I include these two sentences? They are a little lighthearted, but notable sources and informative, what do you think?

She learned Yiddish during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] https://www.newstatesman.com/international/2020/06/learning-yiddish-language-pandemic-classes-lockdown

Tamkin has a dog named Shiloh who occasionally makes interview appearances. As of 2019, she had a boyfriend.[11] https://www.cjr.org/first_person/diary-laid-off-buzzfeed-reporter.php

What are you thoughts on the article now? Thanks.

Matriarch-info (talk) 01:44, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

WP makes great effort to be as stogy as old-fashioned encyclopedias. The more personal anecdotes , the more it looks like autobio or COI or promotionalism

If she's notable, it would be as an author. She has one book. The VOA interview is promotional . The Times of Israel article is not a review, but a promotional interview. A promotional interview is one where the interviewer asks leading questions, and the author talks about themself, saying whatever they care to. Kirkus is a borderline source. The article says she's writing another book. Try again when it's published, and gets reviews. Real reviews. DGG ( talk ) 01:35, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Andrew Edmund Goble

Yet another questionably notable academic. Bearian (talk) 22:07, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

from his web site, 1 book, 4 articles. Not usually enough. I'll watch for the afd

Amanda Brock draft

Hi DGG, thank you for your comment on my draft page of Amanda Brock (current CEO of OpenUK) - I myself am not affiliated with OpenUK, but my company is partly, I have declared this and done my best to write from a completely neutral perspective (this is my first time writing a Wikipedia page, so apologies if it's not perfect) and to include as many citations as I could. I was just wondering if maybe you'd be able to have another look at it, or possibly give pointers as to how it could be improved to get approved? Thanks! Amurphy79 (talk) 09:19, 14 January 2021 (UTC) A.Murphy

I reviewed it , trying to explain in a little more detail. It is extremely difficult to write a properly NPOV encyclopedic biography as a connected contributor. It's not the number of citations, but their quality, and , in particular, whether they are dryly independent of the subject. DGG ( talk ) 08:54, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

I have saw and tried to improve upon your corrections, thank you for your time and patience, i'm trying to ensure it doesn't get deleted/can hopefully be approved. Will keep trying to improve. Amurphy79 (talk) 15:22, 18 January 2021 (UTC)

Sharecare article assistance

Hello DGG! I work with Sharecare and am helping flag appropriate updates to the article (Reaching out instead of making the edit myself in keeping with Wikipedia Terms of Use & conflict of interest rules). Do you have a moment to review my request at Talk:Sharecare? It remains unanswered though I included the edit request template and have posted to a few relevant WikiProjects.

I saw that you're among previous contributors to the current article, so I thought this could be of interest to you. Any feedback you may have will be welcome. Thanks for any consideration. Thanks! SCbhaynes (talk) 22:59, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

commented there. The best thing to do with the new sections might be to abridge it, using only the necessary refs. DGG ( talk ) 11:18, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

Deletion review for Miss Grand

An editor has asked for a deletion review of Miss Grand. Because you closed the deletion discussion for this page, speedily deleted it, or otherwise were interested in the page, you might want to participate in the deletion review. Paul_012 (talk) 09:54, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

perfectly reasonable. I found I could not think of anything better than my earlier suggestion. DGG ( talk ) 11:08, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

Request to remove advert template

Hi! In August 2018 you applied the Advert template to Concord Law School. In the intervening time, the page has undergone significant edits by users not associated with the school, and with the aid of a couple Requested Edits, I've been able to integrate additional external references/source documents. Most recently, on January 10, 2021, the editor who reviewed my latest COI edit request also took a pass at removing remaining promotional language on the page. For these reasons, could you take a look and see if the advert template can be lifted from the page? Ewqwdqemdh (talk) 20:01, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

I will check in a few days. DGG ( talk ) 20:06, 19 January 2021 (UTC)

Draft Sosnovskiy Leonid

Dear DGG, I ask for help in finalizing the draft article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Leonid_Adamovich_Sosnovskiy. I corrected most of the comments, in particular, I deleted unnecessary and superfluous details in Professional employment and Scientific activities, awards, etc. But the article was again rejected. Please help bring it up to the standards of the English Wikipedia so that the article will be accepted. Barejsha02 (talk) 06:30, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

I have consulted the Physics wikiproject on this one. I am not going to approve it unless the consensus there is that he is notable, and even then it would probably need very major rewriting. DGG ( talk ) 07:36, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

Draft:Tammy L. Kernodle

Hi DGG. Thanks so much for your feedback on Draft:Tammy L. Kernodle.

1. Refs are needed for the facts of her bio, but the sort of refs that establish notability by GNG are not required to WP:PROF.

I believe all of the facts in the bio are referenced according to the work that supports those facts.

2. The publications go only in the list, they do not need references; they reference themselves.

I corrected this.

3. Notability would be very strongly aided by book reviews of her book: look for them and add them as references.

I added part of Sherrie Tucker's review of Kernodle's book with citation.

4. The first paragraph in the lede is enough for the lede. The second goes later, under Professional activities.

I fixed this.

5. Being quoted as an expert has limited value--a few key ones are enough.

I included JSFarman's references as the final paragraph in the "Career" section.

Do you have any further suggestions before resubmitting? Would you be willing to check formatting at this point?

Most gratefully, SyLvRuUz (talk) 22:11, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

It would be good to check for additional reviews. And be careful about using selected quotes from reviews--it can seem like cherry-picking--everyone who write a review ofa book always includes something laudatory about hte author, no matter what they may go on to say later. (as I know, for I've written over a hundred for Choice and elsewhere) I'd put that quote into the footnote using the quote= parameter of the cite template, not the text. And never use external references in the text.--they make it look as if someone who does not yet have an article does already have one--if you think the person notable enough that there should be an article, use the ordinary internal link, it will show up in red. I'll check in a few days. DGG ( talk ) 00:42, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for this feedback, and for your patience. I think I've addressed all of your concerns with my revisions. Let me know if you find it fit to resubmit when you next check. Or is it pro forma to resubmit without asking an editor? Again, thanks for your patience with a new contributor. Gratefully and with the utmost respect, SyLvRuUz (talk) 03:14, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Feedback request: Wikipedia policies and guidelines request for comment

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Wrong section

Is this meant to be in the ===Survey=== section? WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:22, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

yes, thanks for catching it -- I just moved it. DGG ( talk ) 01:39, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Editing news 2021 #1

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this newsletter

Reply tool

Completion rates for comments made with the Reply tool and full-page wikitext editing. Details and limitations are in this report.

The Reply tool is available at most other Wikipedias.

• The Reply tool has been deployed as an opt-out preference to all editors at the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedias.
• It is also available as a Beta Feature at almost all Wikipedias except for the English, Russian, and German-language Wikipedias. If it is not available at your wiki, you can request it by following these simple instructions.

Research notes:

• As of January 2021, more than 3,500 editors have used the Reply tool to post about 70,000 comments.
• There is preliminary data from the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedia on the Reply tool. Junior Contributors who use the Reply tool are more likely to publish the comments that they start writing than those who use full-page wikitext editing.[46]
• The Editing and Parsing teams have significantly reduced the number of edits that affect other parts of the page. About 0.3% of edits did this during the last month.[47] Some of the remaining changes are automatic corrections for Special:LintErrors.
• A large A/B test will start soon.[48] This is part of the process to offer the Reply tool to everyone. During this test, half of all editors at 24 Wikipedias (not including the English Wikipedia) will have the Reply tool automatically enabled, and half will not. Editors at those Wikipeedias can still turn it on or off for their own accounts in Special:Preferences.

New discussion tool

Screenshot of version 1.0 of the New Discussion Tool prototype.

The new tool for starting new discussions (new sections) will join the Discussion tools in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures at the end of January. You can try the tool for yourself.[49] You can leave feedback in this thread or on the talk page.

Next: Notifications

During Talk pages consultation 2019, editors said that it should be easier to know about new activity in conversations they are interested in. The Notifications project is just beginning. What would help you become aware of new comments? What's working with the current system? Which pages at your wiki should the team look at? Please post your advice at mw:Talk:Talk pages project/Notifications.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 01:02, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

A goat for you!

Goat

Sahaib3005 (talk) 17:44, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Books & Bytes - Issue 42

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes
Issue 42, November – December 2020

• New EBSCO collections now available
• 1Lib1Ref 2021 underway
• Library Card input requested
• Libraries love Wikimedia, too!

Read the full newsletter

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --14:00, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

Crest Capital

FYI. I've asked the requesting editor to make the improvements quick-fast, maybe this time next week can have another look and renom if required? Cheers, Daniel (talk) 19:12, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

Feedback - New Editor need help with article

Article was re-drafted but the review comments state article reads like manual. Article isn't manual, it provides factual information as an encyclopedia topic. Do you have suggestions on how to correct article?

Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by AWTNP (talk • contribs) 16:07, 28 January 2021 (UTC) --AWTNP (talk) 16:19, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

I gather this is about Articles for creation: Tip Reporting . Try to make it sound less like an IRS help page; it should contain only material of interest to the general reader, not information only relevant to those who might need to know how to report tips to the US IRS -- and , if you are going to only discuss the US, say so.

Specifically, it shouldn't refer to all the detailed IRS publications in the text, just the key ones--a list of relevant publications can be given as a part of the External Links section. . State the rules in plain language, not IRS-jargon, and certainly not in plain language and also in the IRS jargon. It has to be worded so nobody would think this is specific tax advice, because WP does not give legal advice.

If you can find references that are not government publications, use them also.

AWTNP, I hope this helps . DGG ( talk ) 16:27, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Administrators' newsletter – February 2021

News and updates for administrators from the past month (January 2021).

Administrator changes

Hog Farm

Mattflaschen • Nandesuka • Savidan • Wangi

CheckUser changes

Berean Hunter • Xeno

Oversight changes

Someguy1221 • Xeno

Arbitration

• The standard discretionary sanctions authorized for American Politics were amended by motion to cover post-1992 politics of United States and closely related people, replacing the 1932 cutoff.

Miscellaneous

• Voting in the 2021 Steward elections will begin on 05 February 2021, 14:00 (UTC) and end on 26 February 2021, 13:59 (UTC). The confirmation process of current stewards is being held in parallel. You can automatically check your eligibility to vote.
• Wikipedia has now been around for 20 years, and recently saw its billionth edit!

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:09, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

Richard Onses

I think this person is not notable as either as politician or an academic. Your thoughts? Bearian (talk) 01:58, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Iagree, see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Richard Onses. DGG ( talk ) 05:13, 3 February 2021 (UTC).

Organizational orientations

For you or your other academic/library TPSers, anyone have an interest in adopting this article? The topic is notable, but it has been tagged forever, likely because no one knows where to even begin to transform it. Thanks either way. StarM 15:19, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

I did the first step, by moving it to Organizational orientations theory, I think the next step would be to condense, which I could probably do. But, judging from the use of the term in Google Scholar, it's not necessarily notable [50]. The researcher who devised it, however, certainly is, based on their other work in the general area [51]. My current inclination is to turn it into an article on McCroskey, mentioning the theory as part of their work. DGG ( talk ) 05:52, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Thank you. I definitely see some good sourcing on McCroskey. I think the sourcing I'd seen on the theory were likely not ones that would meet academic guidelines anyway. StarM 15:08, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Endeavor Business Media

Hi DGG, I'm still trying to learn how to communicate on Wikipedia, so I'm not sure I'm supposed to respond to our conversation on your talk page or mine -- I appreciate your patience! I did want to follow up on my request to see if you would be able to restore the draft I started for my company, Endeavor Business Media, as I am attempting to create a Wikipedia page. I declared a conflict of interest on my user page, so I'm ready to get started. Here is the rest of our conversation on the topic, copied from my talk page (apologies if this duplicates work):

The first step is to declare the conflict of interest on your user page, which is User: Abigail Christine. You say you work for the company, ans if your job is to write PR for them or anything similar, say so. The second step is to write a factual acrticle in draft space. On that article's talk page, say again that you havea conflict of interest.

I assume you have a copy of what you posted. If not, let me know here. DGG ( talk ) 01:59, 31 January 2021 (UTC)

Thanks DGG - I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction. I will follow those steps. Would it be possible to restore my previous draft, so I can work from there? I have a draft on my computer but I made some changes along the way. Thank you for your help! Abigail Christine (talk) 22:55, 31 January 2021 (UTC) Abigail Christine (talk) 19:13, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

I can send you the draft, if you activate your email, which you can do from the User profile page of your user preferences. See Help:Preferences DGG ( talk ) 05:52, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Scripts++ Newsletter – Issue 20

News and updates associated with user scripts from the past month (January 2021).

Hello everyone and welcome to the 20th issue of the Wikipedia Scripts++ Newsletter:

Ajbura's anrfc-lister assists with listing discussions at WP:ANRFC to request that they receive a formal close

Bradv's endlesscontribs provides for endless scrolling of contributions pages

Evad37's livenotifications displays notification alerts and messages in a little popup box, (almost) live as they happen

Terasail's Edit Request Tool allows users to reply to, close or remove protected edit requests

Yahya's SNA (Start New Article) allows you to start a new article or draft from the navigation bar.

Nardog:

• CatChangeLinker bluelinks the "(diff | hist)" part of category additions/removals on your watchlist.
• CatChangesViewer lists recent category additions/removals on a category page.
• Consecudiff adds links to diffs of consecutive edits by the same user on watchlist, history, etc.
• DiffFontSwitcher allows you to toggle between fonts for diff by clicking a line number.
• MoveHistory lists the past moves a page has gone through.

Novem Linguae:

• UserHighlighterSimple is a fork of Chlod's UserHighlighter with a simplified color scheme.
• VisualEditorEverywhere displays the Visual Editor edit tab and section links on pages that don't normally have them.

User:Enterprisey/undo-last-edit.js - no longer tries to load on special pages.

User:Ahecht/Scripts/pageswap - version 1.4 fixes reading destination from form field if destination is not in article namespace, and fixes self redirects.

Wikipedia:XFDcloser - version 4 brings a new user interface for dialogs, some preferences for customising XFDcloser, major behind-the-scenes coding changes, and resolves various issues raised on the talkpage. Also, since version 3.16.6 non-admin soft delete closure have been allowed at TfD.

Miscellaneous

• For people interested in creating user scripts or gadgets using TypeScript, a types-mediawiki package (GitHub, NPM) is now available that provides type definitions for the MediaWiki JS interface and the API.
• A GitHub organization has been created for hosting codebases of gadgets. Users who maintain gadgets using GitHub may choose to move their repos to this organization, to ensure continued maintenance by others even if the original maintainer becomes inactive.

Pending requests

• A script to ease reviewing Good Article nominations
• ...and many more, all available at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests

As always, if anyone else would like to contribute, including nominating a featured script, help is appreciated. Stay safe, and happy new year! --DannyS712 (talk) 01:17, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

---

please see

If possible please take a look here. I requested it yesterday but did not got response from any admin. request on wrong place? --আফতাবুজ্জামান (talk) 16:28, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but this is not one of the things I usually work on. DGG ( talk ) 02:07, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Isaija II and the AFC script

I noticed this in main space with afc aretacts, yet you accepted it using the sript. My memory suggests this has happened to you before, but I cannot recall the circumstances. There's nothing wrong. I just felt you might wish to examine the history and consider what, if anything, to report about the script Fiddle Faddle 16:24, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

I sometimes work too fast for it=it sometimes works too slow for me. The response time of the script varies, and I don't know why; but my impatience also varies so its had to separate out the factors. But the script isn't anywhere as bad as in previous years--at the beginning, I did it manually instead because manually was easier and faster. DGG ( talk ) 23:29, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

I remember the days of manual acceptance. The script was a lovely surprise when it arrived Fiddle Faddle 08:30, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Andre Waismann

Hello, DGG! Thanks for reviewing the page I created! The page had been under many discussions and consensus had been reached with 3 other reviwers (scope_creep, chicdat and Timtrent) regarding its contents and tone. They believed the text was neutral after a series of edits and that was the reason for me to re-submit it. However, I'd be glad to work on its tone of neutrality if you can detail. The text mostly cites the facts that happened without any emotional characteristics added, so I'd be glad to hear from you what triggered your attention as "advertorial content". We can discuss it on the Talk Page of the article and I'd like to invite all the editors who contributed for a more constructive discussion. אור פ (talk) 08:08, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

אור פ, I am simply an editor, as is DGG. Their opinion and mine differ from time to time. That is as it should be. My job in this case was to accept it since I believe it has a better that 60% chance if surviving an immediate deletion process. Now it is an article it is subject to the same rigour that all other articles are (eventually) subject to.

My usual advice to any editor who creates an article is to be its father not its mother. If you can improve it to meet a critique then do so, but if you cannot see an issue then ignore the article and let others take over the work. When we create an article we often stand too close to see its faults. And every article, even one stated to be a good article has faults. Fiddle Faddle 08:29, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

{u|אור פ}}, I agree with Fiddle that the article would probably pass AfD, at least if revised. And I agree with them also about the advisability of not becoming over-committed to the particular text of an article--I follow that advice myself. A key thing you could do to strengthen the article is to make sure his most referenced publications are listed, and give the no. of citations from Google scholar or equivalent, Then, remove minor work, such as conference talks--including them is part of what makes the tone sound like a personal web page or CV rather than an encyclopedia article. And make sure there is are references to support his method of treatment that will meet the ]WP:MEDRS criteria. (another excellent editor has just removed so newspaper articles that very decidedly are not reliable sources in the subject).The reader needs to know from 3rd party reliable sources the degree to which his methods are generally accepted in scientific medicine, DGG ( talk ) 12:20, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Hi, DGG! I believe I contributed enough to the article about Dr. Waismann and I don’t want to be deemed «over-committed». Therefore, I prefer to abstain from editing the article and contribute to other projects. אור פ (talk) 06:28, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

OK, I will if I have time do some checking on this myself, . DGG ( talk ) 07:25, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Draft:Ako Akhalaia

Hello Dear @DGG:, I am writing as the author of an article - Draft:Ako Akhalaia. I, myself, am One of the contributors and editors of Georgian Wikipedia. It’s been a while since my submitted article is in the drafts section. You say that person - Ako Akhalaia does not meet the recognition criteria, and the article needs additional resources. Fifteen certified links accompany the article. Here are the leading media agencies of Georgia, the Public Broadcaster, etc. He is Also the official Representative of the Cannes Lions Festival in Georgia + Publisher of Harvard Business Review. This person is the founder of the most popular Marketing magazine in Georgia. His awareness in this area is very high. You can quickly check and verify this. We want to make sure that he can be found in the English Wikipedia as well, so if you do not mind, please, review the article again and help us as colleagues publish the article. I really appreciate any help you can provide.--გიორგი ჩუბინიძე (talk) 23:01, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

Each encyclopedia has its own standards. Our current standards for this sort of a career ar e gradually becoming increasing stringent. All that AfC is supposed to do if to say whether or not a draft is likely to be kept as an article. In its current state, based on my considerable experienmce at AfD, it is not likely to be kept. The question of whether I personally feel it should or should not be kept is irrelevant..

The problem with the article is the nature of the sources. The references that are in English are either just notes that he is a member of something, or his own basic bio, or an interview in which he says whatever he wants to, or him speaking about himself at a forum. For the Georgian ones, tho I did not attempt to translate them, they seem similar, especially with respect to what he says ata forum or interview. We no longer consider such interviews or talks as independent references.

Possibly the Georgian WP jiudges notability by whether someone is intrinsically important. The enWP probably should do that, but it does not. It judges only by whether there are multiple substantial independent sources.. DGG ( talk ) 01:07, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

David Biro

Hi DGG. Thanks for moving David Biro to draft. I took a pass or two at it, and I think it looks more like a Wikipedia article now. At least the reviews support notability, and it's not completely primary sourced. Would you take another look at Draft:David Biro and see if you think it looks mainspace-ready now? Russ Woodroofe (talk) 11:59, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

DGG, ok, so I didn't hear anything back from you over a few days. I suspect that you missed my comment in the excitement below it on your talk page. I've moved the David Biro page back to mainspace: I judge it to be in reasonable shape, and the NAUTHOR case looks solid. If you still have serious concerns, I don't object to moving back to draft. Russ Woodroofe (talk) 09:35, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

Russ Woodroofe: It acceptable. Add more book reviews as available. Kirkus and PW are the weakest place for reviews. DGG ( talk ) 17:08, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

AE comment

Hi, David. I've just read your treatise in full (long but worth it!) and I wanted to thank you for pretty much providing the best piece of insight in that entire sorry ordeal. Thank you for making me think deep. Best, El_C 16:18, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

El C, but it's wrong. DGG wrote: "The fundamental fault is that of arb com" for having passed the sourcing remedy. But the sourcing remedy was the one good thing to have come out of that case. Look at the sourcing in The Holocaust in Poland in January 2018. Citations not written clearly. Some good scholarly sources, but also museum websites, Basic Books, Stackpole Books, Jewish Virtual Library, Aish.com, American Jewish Committee, jewishgen.org, thoughtco.com, h-net.org, internationalresearchcenter.org, polacyizydzi.com, and so on. And really, this was one of the better articles in the area. SarahSV ^(talk) 19:43, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Sarah, yes, I agree with you that the sourcing requirement is indeed paramount, for all the wikivoice stuff. I think that David was making perhaps a more nuanced point (unless I misread) about also expressing the popular views of both sides, as opposed to just the straight-up social scientific end of things (which is the alpha and omega, of course). And, also, what about the so-called peer review works coming out of Poland? The whitewashing that has been furiously pushed by successive Polish governments on their academia is clearly grossly out-of-step with scholarly standards — what do we do with those? Just can't really trust anything coming from Poland these days on the APL front, obviously. Maybe I missed it, but did WP:APL even address that critical problem? As always, I bow in deference to your superior knowledge about Holocaust historiography, overall. El_C 20:56, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

The popular views are all over the place. Wikipedians aren't Holocaust historians; we can't use all the sources historians would use. There is a vast, English-language, mainstream Holocaust scholarship, and there's no reason not to base our articles on it ("English-language" includes translated works). The historians deal with the whitewashing. It may mean that we're a bit behind, but it's like MEDRS; we wait for review articles, rather than using clinical trials. The biggest problem is that people don't want to do the reading. It's much easier to grab something from a website. SarahSV ^(talk) 22:16, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Right, no "preprints" at APL, either, please. Imagine if we could get someone like a Yehuda Bauer to contribute even 30 minutes a week. How things would look. What, I can dream! El_C 22:40, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

That is something the WMF might pay for: a fund to pay subject-matter experts to review certain articles. Someone would have to apply for a grant and so on. I don't have the energy, but I think it's a great idea. There was a plan to do it for FACs a few years ago, but I can't remember what came of it. Some academics will review without payment if you ask them. SarahSV ^(talk) 00:30, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

There was a proposal long ago by arb com to do something of the sort. The community rejected it furiously. The idea behind WP is that it's an amateur, non-authoritative work. I think that's worth holding on to. There's a need for expert encyclopedias also; I like the idea myself, , and was one of the original subject editors of Citizendium--it didn't work, and one of the reasons was bitter disagreement about the quality of the experts. When some medical editors ore recently wanted to do that, they formed a separate but affiliated organization. ) DGG ( talk ) 00:54, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

But, Sarah, the reason for using English language sources is accessibility to readers on the enWP, not intellectual superiority. DGG ( talk ) 00:59, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

I didn't say anything about "intellectual superiority" (not even sure what you mean by that). DGG and El C, the problem is that none of the dedicated articles we host related to the Holocaust in Poland (that I have seen) reflect the scholarship. Today I was reading about Zegota, a Polish group set up to help Jews (lots of problems, antisemitism, poorly supported, underfunded, and so on), then I go to the Wikipedia article and the problems are missing or only slightly alluded to. We could use the ArbCom sourcing requirements to change the article, but it would be a battle and it's just not worth it. SarahSV ^(talk) 01:49, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

I don’t know what Wikipedia article on Zegota you read, but the one on en wiki has an entire section entitled “Financial difficulties” based on works of prominent Holocaust scholars (Polonsky, Winstone, Kermish etc) That’s a bit more than “slightly alluded”. Volunteer Marek 03:40, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

(edit conflict) David, because this is such a key subject, I think what she's saying is that much of the preeminent scholarship has already been translated to English. I always prefer reading anything in Hebrew over English (just because I find it easier), but, for example, I've probably read twice more Yehuda Bauer works in English than in Hebrew. By virtue of, as you say, their accessibility alone. [After edit conflict:] Sarah, there's few subjects where truly representing WP:V is more worthy of a struggle, I would challenge! El_C 01:57, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

The subjects that are a challenge to NPOV are those where we are convinced rationally we are correct, and feel emotionally very sure that our being correct is important. The treatment of the Jews in postwar Poland is one of them, as a sign of our rejection of bigotry. The two most critical others here in the past year or so have been climate change and American politics. In all these I agree with the great majority of people here: I am positive we are right, and I find it extremely difficult to imagine how anyone of good will could possibly think otherwise. In all these I (and we) very much want our view to prevail, and we want people who read WP to agree. I've said, and I think we agree, that a key purpose of WP is to represent information that can be used for practical action to support the side which must prevail. The only fair and effective way to do this is to present what each side had to say, even the most evil or most idiotic, and to give readers the opportunity to judge for themselves. It is wrong to pretend the opponents do not exist, or to label their views in such a way that readers will reject them without listening.

The proof of that is to observe who characteristically and necessarily argues to suppress or label their opponents: Nazis and Stalinists and fascists and supporters of dictatorial regimes more generally, racial or religious or nationalist bigots, or people or firms or nations obtaining advantage from the adoption of their views. They all cannot risk anyone saying otherwise and actually finding the truth. For us, whom I assume are none of these things, to adopt their methods is to tacitly admit that we might possibly lose the argument if we give others a fair hearing. As I said long ago on my talk page, I follow J.S. Mill in this: the answer to bad argument is good argument. Anywhere I read only one side, or where one side is labelled from the start as being wrong, I know that people are trying to manipulate me.

This is especially true for an encyclopedia. To the extent we are trusted, it will not be because we are right, but because we are honest. The only way to show we are honest to to present the facts and arguments that go against us as carefully as the ones we think correct. The reader will judge. Any compromise with this is a sign that we distrust the reader's intelligence and judgment so much that we are afraid to disclose that there are those who disagree. DGG ( talk ) 06:04, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

I don't feel or think any of the things you've described. What I want to do is summarize current, mainstream Holocaust historiography, whatever it says. SarahSV ^(talk) 06:17, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

exactly. You want to summarize only the mainstream. And it's curious that what we personally believe is always the mainstream. DGG ( talk )

and the page is closed for the night. DGG ( talk ) 06:26, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Kindly Review this Page, Dr. GSK Velu

Hello Mr David Goodman, I have newly joined WIKIPEDIA and still exploring all the norms of it. I intend to add a person's information to WIKIpedia page based on his notability. I am professionally attached to this person. As I am new to this, Please help in reviewing the page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Dr._GSK_Velu Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Satapathysobhana (talk • contribs) 08:57, 11 February 2021 (UTC) Satapathysobhana, before you attempt to write about people with whom there is a conflict of interest, learn how to work here by working on topics of personal interest to you where this is not the case--and when you do so, it's better to add to existing articles before you start new ones--that's the way to learn. DGG ( talk ) 02:09, 12 February 2021 (UTC).

File:Higood1870.jpg - photo from 1870 is "Source: Own work"

Used by Hiram Good:
User talk:Leelynchtinman claims File:Higood1870.jpg from 1870 is "Source: Own work". This is a most unusual photo. User talk:Leelynchtinman could not have made the photo, if from 1870, so it must have a provenance. I would like to propose for deletion, since without a provenance, one can't show it is not a 2021-contemporary costume photo. The subjects look too modern.

P.S. User:XLinkBot complained about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmu4bV-mldc on Ishi

• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2182390/
• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1833268/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sHtHnsIk2w
• https://www.youtube.com/user/tinman2000able/about

seems legit, do you agree?

.... 0mtwb9gd5wx (talk) 10:33, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

0mtwb9gd5wx, the file is in Wikimedia Commons, which is a separate project. You need to go there to deal with it. Start at | their Help Desk DGG ( talk ) 17:04, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

Good morning. Requested changes from NowMedical

Hi DGG. I was hoping you might be willing to take a look here and provide any feedback. Thank you. MarthaLuke (talk) 18:34, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Draft Review

Hi, David. Trust you are doing great. Please I'd like to request a review of my draft at Draft:Sydney Talker. Thank you! Mondayudowong (talk) 07:51, 13 February 2021 (UTC)