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Welcome to Meta!
Hello, AugurNZ/Archives/2015-05-12. Welcome to the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki! This website is for coordinating and discussing all Wikimedia projects. You may find it useful to read our policy page. If you are interested in doing translations, visit Meta:Babylon. You can also leave a note on Meta:Babel or Wikimedia Forum (please read the instructions at the top of the page before posting there). Happy editing!
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Bot testing
Hello AugurNZ. I happened to notice you making an edit on test.wikipedia.org and was intrigued to see you are using pywikipediabot. Can I ask what computer you use to run your bot code at present? Is it on some kind of Ubuntu? I have an account called User:EdJohnstonBot on the test wiki but as yet it hasn't done anything. My usual talk page is en:User talk:EdJohnston. Thanks, EdJohnston (talk) 15:18, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
Hi Ed, first let me thank you for being the first to contact me here at my new centralized talk page. I wasn't quite sure how this would work and whether anyone would use it, but I see you had an account here on Meta already, so that's all good. Yes, I am running Pywikipediabot from my Ubuntu 12.04 installation on The Test Wiki. I have had quite a bit of success with using it so far, including being able to leave templated messages (such as block notices) on user talk pages, adding and moving categories, etc. I haven't applied for bot status yet on the Wikipedia Test Wiki. Let me know if there is any way I can help you with your bot. AugurNZ✐⌕18:29, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
Yes, I had exactly the same problem at first. I solved it myself by installing BeautifulSoup through the Synaptic Package Manager and then re-running generate_family_file.py. I have been told on #pywikipediabot that this is a known issue, and when installing from the repository, you should choose (N)o when prompted to install BeautifulSoup, then it will work properly after that if you answer (Y)es to the subsequent prompts. My thetestwiki_family.py file for The Test Wiki is available here. My user-config.py is available on GitHub. AugurNZ✐⌕22:30, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
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That link is broken again, I think. The redirect is no longer working. I assume someone has indiscriminately treated it as a '"broken redirect" and deleted it. Can this be fixed again please? AugurNZ✐⌕22:38, 8 September 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for contacting me John, and for linking me to the GLAM event. I'm still quite new to Wikipedia and other WMF projects, but I have experience with wiki editing on other projects that use MediaWiki software. I'm very interested in disability-related issues, being that I have Asperger's, and my wife was born with Spina Bifida. I'll contribute as much as I can during the GLAM event, but I'm still not a very confident editor. Being an Aspie, I tend to have problems with social contact and I can often be taken the wrong way by others, leading to misunderstandings, complaints, and disputes that I'm often not even aware of causing. I am in the process of creating an essay about this, which I hope will be included in the papers of the upcoming Wikimedia Diversity Conference. AugurNZ✐⌕07:40, 21 September 2013 (UTC)
It is great to have you onboard. Thanks for popping into the Oz IRC channel. I'll also idle in the NZ channel and try to help you get some traction there. I'll try to connect you with wiki people in Auckland. There are quite a few, but the last meetup was in 2011 ; see w:Wikipedia:Meetup/Auckland 6. The wiki community has quite a few Aspies; probably higher than average for online communities, and definitely a higher percentage than found in physical communities. Physical meetups of Wiki people are usually results in a very diverse bunch of people. :-) The Assume Good Faith principle incorporates the need for online communities to be inclusive of people with social and linguistic differences; I hope you find people here apply that principle in their communication with you. John Vandenberg (talk) 02:06, 22 September 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for this useful info. The email that I CC'ed you in on isn't really "about" aspies as such. The edit-a-thon I'm planning is about disability in general, and for the local meetup end of things I'm planning to leverage my local aspie support group purely because aspies are often into computers.(huge generalization) Other than the local meetup, I was hoping to get some online input for the edit-a-thon just from other WikiProject Disability members, whether they have Asperger's or not. :) AugurNZ✐⌕23:47, 24 September 2013 (UTC)
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Re: Need help with centralizing/globalizing
Hi. I do not know how to import JS and CSS across Wikimedia projects so that other users can see it. That would be great though. Templates too would be nice.
Maybe Wikia has figured out a way for sharing JS and CSS across wikis. It has shared help across wikis:
Thanks for replying to my message on your Wikipedia talk page, Timeshifter. I'm not sure what Wikia are doing to achieve their "Shared Help" feature. I looks like some sort of global namespace redirection or something. As for importing infoboxes, I think that has more to do with setting up a personal wiki instance, being that your link goes to the manual for the MediaWiki software, and anything that starts with $wg is generally about stuff that regular users, or even admins, can't gain access to on WMF projects. That's behind-the-scenes stuff that you need server access for. Thanks anyway for the reply. I'll ask someone who is already doing this. PiRSquared17 recently linked me to SynchBot, which has been used by several other editors to establish their own global JS and CSS importing, so I might go pester one of them to find out how it was done. Thanks anyway for getting back to me. AugurNZ✐⌕23:58, 22 September 2013 (UTC)
(Note: If you have any other questions, you can ask Pathoschild or me.) By the way, I think (IIRC) you actually can view the "wg" settings. PiRSquared17 (talk) 23:59, 22 September 2013 (UTC)
Awesome, thanks for that, PiRSquared17. While you're stalking my talk page, any chance you could help answer my question? :)
You're importing User:AugurNZ/global.js, not /common.js. The stylesheet seems correct, but the "http:" part will come back to bite you if you ever decide to switch to using HTTPS, so I recommend leaving it with "//" at the beginning. Perhaps you could use wikilinks in your sig instead of external links? Like this: whatever font stuff you want. If you use an external link, at least remove "http:". PiRSquared17 (talk) 00:34, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
Oh, I just realized why the CSS is broken. The comments are not needed, and you're using the wrong comment format. In CSS, comments are /* ... */, not // ... PiRSquared17 (talk) 00:44, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
@PiRSquared17: Thanks for that. I should have looked closer at it when I was copy/pasting from elsewhere. I have applied your suggested fix for both my custom JS and custom CSS on Wikipedia, and I'll roll it out to my other WMF project userspaces later, along with a few other minor changes, such as those suggested by LauraHale and Salvidrim. I'll alter the sig at the same time too, as you suggested. Thanks again for all your help. AugurNZ✐⌕03:00, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
AugurNZ. SynchBot sounds interesting. About your talk page. I find it hard to read. The dark blue background makes links especially hard to read. Black text is also difficult to read against the dark background. --Timeshifter (talk) 01:01, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for the feedback on that, @Timeshifter. I should have been more thoughtful about my color choices, being that I claim to be interested in diversity and disability issues. Strong contrasting colors are best for those with visual impairment. I'm not saying that you are visually impaired at all, I'm just saying that I should have been more aware of it in the first place, so thanks again for bringing that to my attention. AugurNZ✐⌕03:05, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
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Excellent, I was waiting to see what you put up on FB about it, but that is even better. I'll be sure to join the discussion. AugurNZ✐⌕05:14, 23 September 2013 (UTC)
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Signature link
Hello! Could you please remove the "Meta:" from your signature link? If you must make it an interwiki link to Meta for some reason, use "m:". There is a Meta: namespace here, so your signature is broken. Sorry for bothering you. PiRSquared17 (talk) 03:13, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for pointing that out. I was trying to standardize my signature across all WMF projects that I have an account registered on, and someone suggested that an IW link would be better than an external link for that. I guess on Meta-Wiki itself I don't really need either, do I? Silly me. Thanks for your help. AugurNZ✐⌕03:38, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
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KFC
I hadn't realised it was your first edit! Welcome to Wikipedia. I was very impressed by your addition. As you may know, I am aiming to get the KFC page up to FA status, and I didn't see any need to change your contribution. I had been intending to move the controversies section from the History page to the Main Article anyway, your addition just proved to be the catalyst to finally get round to it. Keep Wikipediaing, and have fun! Farrtj (talk) 14:47, 26 September 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for replying to my message on your talk page. This wasn't my "first" edit, obviously, but it was my first "substantive" edit, contributing useful and relevant information on the English Wikipedia. As I mentioned at the Teahouse, it was nice to see it "released into the whirlpool of the publicly edited encyclopedia." Hehe. Thank you for your lovely welcome. I hope to bring some pages up to GA and FA status oneday, particularly pages that have to do with diversity issues. AugurNZ✐⌕21:51, 26 September 2013 (UTC)
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Thanks for that, it is very sad, but not unexpected. Wifey is taking time off work on Friday and we'll both be going to the funeral. AugurNZ✐⌕03:22, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
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Not really sure what you meant
I apologise if my previous attempt to notify you about Wikipedia's guidelines for avoiding hemispheric bias were misdirected. I followed the link from the Teahouse posted by one of your students, to the talk page of Verizon FiOS, and ultimately to your course page as linked in the notice added by this edit. You appear to be consistently violating the chronological guidelines for seasonal references in the Wikipedia Manual of Style (MOS). While this may be appropriate at Cornell University, on Wikipedia it would be preferable if you were to adopt a more hemisphere-neutral tone.
Also, as an instructor of a course that teaches about "Engaging in discussion with other Wikipedia editors" and "Reflecting on the process of becoming part of the Wikipedia community", I would have expected more from you than just reverting my honest attempt to engage you in discussion on this issue. AugurNZ ✐⌕ 21:03, 30 September 2013 (UTC)
I don't know what "chronological guidelines for seasonal references" are, and what "hemisphere-neutral tone" is. You can explain this to the students and to me on the Verizon FiOS talk page.
Also not sure what you mean by following from a Teahouse link to the Verizon FiOS talk page, to the course page - why can't you just notify the student about the guidelines in the teahouse and/or the Verizon FiOS talk page? The course page is for the entire class and not for a specific group, which is why I simply moved your comment to the talk page of Verizon FiOS - I did not revert your discussion just moved it to the Verizon FiOS talk page. Why is this incorrect to do?
One reason that instructors like me and the students in my class need a lot of support from other Wikipedia editors in making edits to Wikipedia articles is that we are not experienced in this. I am experienced in teaching concepts about Online Communities, and this is why we are all experimenting with becoming members of the Wikipedia community. We need a bit more scaffolding, support, understanding, and forgiving. There is ample research that Wikipedia's growth has slowed down and that newcomers do not feel welcomed:
Halfaker, Kittur, & Riedl, 2011. Don't bite the newbies: how reverts affect the quantity and quality of Wikipedia work. WikiSym '11.
Musicant, Ren, Johnson, & Riedl, 2011. Mentoring in Wikipedia: a clash of cultures. WikiSym '11.
Morgan, Bouterse, Walls, & Stierch, 2013. Tea and sympathy: crafting positive new user experiences on wikipedia. CSCW '13.
Thank you for your consideration LeshedInstructor (talk) 13:49, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
Thank you for replying to my second attempt to contact you about this issue. I was unaware that you had "simply moved [my] comment to the talk page of Verizon FiOS" as I didn't add Verizon FiOS to my watchlist, as there was no need for me to do so. The net result was that it appeared to me as though you had simply reverted my edit without any response. I then attempted to communicate with you on your own talk page about this issue, and instead of replying there you came here to my talk page on Meta-Wiki, despite the clear notice at the top of my talk page which says...
If I left you a message: please answer on your talk page, as I am watching it.
If you leave me a message: I will answer on my talk page, then notify your talk page.
What part of that did you not understand? Also, you have suggested above that you do not understand what I said about hemispheric bias and the Wikipedia Manual of Style guidelines, yet I have gone out of my way to link you to all the appropriate information about it, including B.d.mills' excellent treatise on the issue. My objection to your use of the term "Fall 2013" has nothing whatsoever to do with the Verizon FiOS article, other than that one of your students had used this hemispherically biased phrase on the talk page of Verizon FiOS, in a notice box at the top of the page. Now I see that this practice is encouraged by your own extensive use of it. Please read and comprehend the material I have linked you to, so that you may understand why the use of the phrase "Fall" to describe months of the year is inappropriate on an encyclopedia with global reach like Wikipedia.
Finally, I'd like to point out that, despite your claim that the reason "instructors like me ... need a lot of support from other Wikipedia editors in making edits to Wikipedia articles is that we are not experienced in this", and your supporting literature citations, you have actually been on Wikipedia for longer than I have! According to your own contributions, you registered in 2011. I've only been contributing consistently on WMF projects for less than a month!
This all leaves me wondering what you are doing teaching a course, at University level mind you, about engaging with Wikipedia, when you openly confess to being "...not experienced in this". AugurNZ✐⌕21:35, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
In response to your comment addressed "[t]o the students editing this article" that "this comment was left on the course talk page, but I felt it is more appropriate here so I moved it from there" on the Verizon FiOS talk page, I have invitedKevin Rutherford of the Wikipedia Education Program, who originally granted the course instructor right on your account, to participate in this discussion. Perhaps he can explain to you better than I could, why a general discussion about Wikipedia Manual of Style guidelines has no place being on a talk page in article space, and that such generalised communication with your students in article space is inappropriate. AugurNZ✐⌕22:55, 1 October 2013 (UTC)
Now I understand what you mean by hemispherism bias - the fact that the term "Fall 2013" is used to indicate months of a year in the course assignment template. I am really sorry if I hurt your feelings or anyone else's. This was completely innocent. The template was given to us by the educational outreach program people in the Wikimedia foundation, I did not create it but am simply following the instructions given to me. If you have a better suggestion for what should be in the template, I suggest that you contact User:JMathewson_(WMF) who has been guiding us in this process.
I am also sorry for removing your comment without notifying you about it and making you think that I simply reverted it. Again, this was an innocent attempt to put things in the right place. I thought your comment related to the Verizon FiOS article, but now I am aware that your comment was about all the course assignment templates that were put on all the articles being edited by students.
Also, I don't recall the first attempt to contact me, and am sorry that I did not respond sooner.
Finally, I am aware that my Wikipedia account is not new, but I haven't been editing much, I am not a real "techy", and I am here to teach students about Online Communities, with Wikipedia being an example of such a community. I am still a newbie despite my account being old. I seem to know a lot less about the ins and outs of Wikipedia than you do. This is one reason why the Wikimedia educational outreach program exists, to help me in this process.
I am not trying to heat up any conversation, just asking for some clarifications and support. That's all. Thanks for your understanding. LeshedInstructor (talk) 00:50, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
Leshed, you're doing nothing wrong here, and you are fairly new to this site, so you really have done nothing wrong. Augur, you should know better than this than to bite people, so you really owe Leshed an apology over attacking him for something that their student did. So what if "Fall 2013" is biased. As long as everyone else knows that they are from the Northern Hemisphere, you really shouldn't give a damn about what anyone writes. Now, please stay away from Leshed and don't interact with them unless they are doing something insanely destructive, as there is no reason to be attacked because the seasons are "hemispherically biased." Kevin Rutherford (talk) 03:24, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
One point that I forgot to add, and something that isn't really a major concern: I really don't see the point of dragging any editors beyond their home Wiki, as it further serves to confuse and discombobulate them. In the future, I'd advise working on the Wiki that is the issue, so that people aren't further confused beyond what you are asking of them. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 03:27, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
Countering systemic bias - Global perspectives task force.Hi Kevin, thank you for so eloquently stating what I can only assume is your synopsis of the WP:IAR policy. My humble apologies to Professor Leshed. It seems that there is no need to follow any rules or guidelines on Wikipedia, as per WP:IAR, so it was wrong of me to ask you and your students to follow the stated WP:SEASON guideline. Maybe we shouldn't even bother with the upcoming Wikimedia Diversity Conference, nor worry about systemic bias on Wikipedia, as all these things can be explained away simply with WP:IAR, it seems.
As to "dragging any editors beyond their home Wiki", I seem to recall that my first attempt at opening discussion about this issue was on Wikipedia, and my second attempt to open this discussion was also on Wikipedia. As mentioned above, Professor Leshed decided to reply here on my talk page on Meta-Wiki, rather than reply to either of my posts on Wikipedia. I certainly didn't "drag" her here. AugurNZ✐⌕07:12, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
Regarding the {{Course assignment}} template, there is nothing on that template's documentation page which insists that you must use hemispherically biased language for the |term= parameter. It is just as possible to use |term=Aug-Nov 2013 or whatever the length of your term is, without having to use seasonal wording. But then, I guess under WP:IAR, this doesn't matter anyway, and you can pretty much do what you like. AugurNZ✐⌕11:48, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
This issue has really been blown out of proportion. It could easily be fixed by adding the months or (less desirably IMHO) adding "(Northern Hemisphere)". Leshed: you obviously acted in good faith, so don't feel bad. You really didn't intend to do anything wrong. PiRSquared17 (talk) 15:49, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
@PiRSquared17: Thanks for that, I totally agree that this molehill has turned into a mountain. Was it wrong of me to suggest rewording the notice on that article's talk page to use more inclusive language? Was I wrong to assume that, as my suggestion had nothing whatsoever to do with Verizon FiOS, that the discussion about the wording needed to be taken elsewhere? Should I have just been bold and made the change myself without politely asking about it first? I've only been on Wikipedia and WMF projects for about a month now, and I'm trying to engage in civilized discussion about something that was seemingly supported by a guideline established by consensus, yet I get accused of "biting people" and "attacking people", and have an interaction ban suggested against me. This was a simple request for inclusive language to be used. Nothing more. AugurNZ✐⌕19:25, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
@AugurNZ: You mention only having been involved on Wikimedia projects for about a month. So you should know that many editors hold the "don't bite the newbies" policy in much higher esteem than a lot of other ones. Yes, Professor Leshed (a female, by the way. Just clarifying as people keep assuming she is male), has had an account longer than you have. You may have noticed that editors contribute to Wikipedia at different paces. We've also done research in the Wikipedia Education Program that does not indicate any correlation between a professor's number of edits and her/his efficacy in using Wikipedia as a tool in the classroom. As Professor Leshed pointed out, her expertise helps guide the students through a particular set of learning objectives, and some volunteers in our program (as well as other editors) then help support the students through the editing process, which is why she does not need to know every Wikipedia policy in order to have a positive impact on Wikipedia. You asked if it was wrong for you to "suggest rewording". Your tone was the bigger issue. Saying things like "What part of that did you not understand?" is incredibly condescending and uncalled for. In fact, Professor Leshed spoke to me off-wiki and mentioned that something like this would drive her away from using Wikipedia in the classroom. Each semester, she brings at least 20 new editors onto Wikipedia to contribute in some way, and it's sad to think that one editor's negative and attacking attitude could rid Wikipedia of that positive contribution. That's what we mean by "don't bite the newbie".
Yes, sometimes people will write something that applies more to their region/language/cultural experience—just as I wouldn't go editing all British or Australian spellings into American spellings, I don't think it was necessary for you to react in the way you did. Nobody here is trying to attack you for working in good faith of improving the encyclopedia, and I did stand up for you off-wiki to Professor Leshed, but I hope you also see how your comments were an overreaction that could have potentially derailed a project that a lot of people (including Professor Leshed, User:Ktr101, me, etc.) have put much effort into. Please forgive that every step won't be perfect. Thanks! JMathewson (WMF) (talk) 20:10, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
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Wikibreak
Feel free to take a wikibreak, but please don't leave forever over that issue. Don't be discouraged by any mistakes (in this case I'd say it's arguable) you make. Learn from them. PiRSquared17 (talk) 18:15, 13 October 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for that PiRSquared, but to be honest, I really can't see the point of staying active here. A representative of the Wikimedia Foundation has clearly indicated on my own talk page that the Wikimedia Foundation is NOT honestly interested in diversity issues. And now, when I try to upload to Commons some photographs that I took with my own camera, of some artwork created by a person with a disability, (who I happen to know personally), who is not Internet savvy and doesn't want to be on the Internet himself, but who gave me verbal permission to post my photographs of his artwork on the Internet under a permissive CC-BY-SA license, these photos have all since been removed from Wikimedia Commons. This seems to be yet another example of what Liz was saying before about a bias against new editors/posts that seems prevalent among administrators and more experienced editors of Wikimedia projects.
I started out enthused about the openness of the Wikimedia Foundation's projects. I started out enthused about Creative Commons licensing. Heck, I even have paper copies of brochures from Creative Commons NZ about the licensing options available, and I've been handing them out to makers, artists, and other creative types to encourage the use of CC licensing.
You have that classic quote of the WMF's vision on your profile page, PiRSquared, "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge." (quote). Well sorry, after my own experiences of the WMF and their projects, I CAN'T imagine that world any more. I used to be able to, but the reality doesn't match up to the vision. AugurNZ✐⌕19:46, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
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Copied from Commons:User talk:Jamelwoodward
Hi Jim, as you say at the top of your own talk page here, "I like to keep discussions in one place". For that reason I have a notice at the top of my own talk page, along with an edit notice on that page, asking for messages to be left on my profile at Meta-Wiki. It seems despite my best efforts you have ignored both of those requests and gone ahead and posted a comment on my talk page here on Commons. Please fix this. Thanks. AugurNZ ✐⌕ 06:57, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
Sorry, but this is not going to happen, for two reasons:
First, it is absolutely standard Commons practice to do as requested above, keep a conversation in one place on Commons for all Commons users to read and follow on their Commons Watchlists. If I were to leave a message for you on your Meta talk page, it would mean that I would have to maintain and watch a Watchlist on Meta. Commons serves all 200+ WMF projects and many Commons users, like you, have their home on another WMF project. Carrying your request out for all Commons users might mean that an active Commons user would have to maintain and watch Watchlists on tens if not hundreds of WPs and other projects.
More practically, it simply won't happen. I didn't leave the message on your Commons talk page. I did not see your talk page until a few minutes ago. The message was left by the "Nominate for deletion" script which appears in the left column of every page. The script accepts the DR reason, creates the DR, logs it, adds the DR tag to the subject page, and adds the notification to the uploader's Commons talk page. Since it's a four step process, very few people create a DR any other way. The script, of course, doesn't read the notice you left asking for special treatment.
Please remember that Commons is a volume operation. We delete more than 1,000 files every day. 75% of that work is done by the ten most active Admins and we are, at the moment, falling seriously behind in our work. We simply do not have time to give special treatment to everyone and certainly don't have time to stop using the "Nominate for deletion" script and check every user's talk page for a place to drop the message.
You can solve this be enabling an e-mail every time your Watchlist on Commons changes. Go to Preferences>User profile from the link in the top right corner of every Commons page and page down to the bottom.
Since I'm not sure you will come back here to read this, I will copy it to your Meta talk page. . Jim . . . . (Jameslwoodward) (talk to me) 10:31, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
"We delete more than 1,000 files every day." Wow, that's a statistic to be proud of? It should become a by-line/tagline: "Wikimedia Commons - Deleting more than 1,000 files every day." So I guess projects like Global-Wiki are dead in the water with such inflexible attitudes as yours. Good to know. Thanks. AugurNZ✐⌕20:50, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
Sarcasm is not constructive. It is unfortunate that we must delete a significant fraction of the files that are uploaded but that is the case. If Commons is to remain a trusted resource for newspapers, magazines, and book publishers who care about copyright, we must be seen to care about copyright and therefore delete the many copyvios we get every day -- including yours, since without permission from the artist the robots are a copyright violation.
As for your request for special treatment, I suggested a logical alternative -- an e-mail notification. It would certainly be possible to have the "nominate for deletion" script inspect each talk page for requests such as yours, but the volunteers who write scripts have more pressing things to do than accommodate requests that would benefit only a limited number of users -- yours is the second such request I have seen. It would also be possible to write software that would consolidate watchlists across all the WMF projects, but the same answer applies.
So, from my perspective, I see a newbie who wants special treatment on Commons and lashes out with sarcasm when he doesn't get it. Since the roughly 25,000 monthly individual users of Commons, almost all of whom have home pages on another WMF project, manage to get along without what you request, as I said above, it's not going to happen. I'm all for flexibility, but it's not being inflexible to refuse to seriously inconvenience many people for the benefit of one. The exception to this, of course, is helping people with handicaps, but I don't see how that applies here. Jim . . . . Jameslwoodward (talk to me) 10:56, 26 October 2013 (UTC)
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Hi, as you worked on the article when it was still a draft, I just want to let you know I have taken it to mainspace. There are suggestions for improvements on the Talk page. Dodger67 (talk) 12:19, 30 December 2013 (UTC)
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User from WMF project
I am developing the {{User from WMF project}} template, which is for users from other WMF projects if they don't have a SUL unified account, when introducing themselves on a talkpage. Because I have a centralized talk page here on Meta-Wiki, and I ask that all correspondence to me on other WMF projects be redirected to here, I am aware that there may be situations where users from other WMF projects may not have an account registered here on Meta, or they may be using a different username here. That is why I have been developing this template. Here are some examples of what it does...
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Essay: Asperger's, AGF, and the UN-CRPD
I once had a pastor (a member of the clergy) tell me that I came across as being "arrogant". This came as quite a shock to me. For a start, I didn't think a minister of the cloth would stoop so low as to insult one of their parishioners like that. For another thing, I didn't see myself as being arrogant at all, so I had no idea where this comment was coming from.
This event occurred some 5 years before I was formally diagnosed as an adult with Asperger syndrome. I now understand that what the pastor was reacting to was the speech and language traits of my (then) undiagnosed Asperger's. It seems that we aspies (a term first used in print by Liane Holliday Willey in 1999)[essay1 1] tend to have unusually pedantic, formal or idiosyncratic speech.[essay1 2] Such traits could no doubt be misinterpreted as arrogance.
I can only assume that such speech and language traits would carry over to written language as well as the spoken word. In this essay I will postulate that the policy of assuming good faith (AGF) is particularly relevant to those of us editors who are on the Autistic spectrum, and who may otherwise draw such reactions as exemplified by my (former) pastor. I will conclude with a plea for wiki editors in general to become more accepting of differences in linguistic style and tone, in order to conform more closely with the intent and spirit of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD).
↑Willey LH (1999). Pretending to be Normal: Living with Asperger's Syndrome. Jessica Kingsley. pp. 71, 104. ISBN1-85302-749-9.
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Preparation for an edit-a-thon
I am working on hosting a small introductory edit-a-thon here in Auckland. The edit-a-thon will be related to both WikiProject New Zealand and WikiProject Disability and will focus on creating pages for notable disability arts, advocacy and support organisations in Auckland. I'm not creating the project page for the meetup just yet, as I'm awaiting confirmation of the venue first. I have sent an email to Autism New Zealand (Auckland branch) to request the use of their premises for this event. I am on the Autism spectrum myself, having been formally diagnosed with Asperger's in 2011, and I have been involved with Autism NZ Auckland in the past.
I'm anticipating that some of my fellow aspies will be interested in participating in this edit-a-thon. Unfortunately, the venue itself is not accessible (despite being the offices of a disability support organisation). However, as this is going to be my first edit-a-thon, it is only going to be quite small anyway, and I'm only anticipating having the regular participants of the "Adult Aspergers and Autism Spectrum Social Group" present during the event. This is a familiar and non-threatening environment, and introducing many outsiders could be problematic in such a situation anyway. I would, however, appreciate having an Aucklander with more experience of the WMF and of Wikipedia to attend the event, even for just the first hour, to do the Intro to Wikipedia presentation as a guest speaker. If anyone is interested in helping out with this, please leave me a message on my talk page.
I have been advised that the meeting room at Autism New Zealand will not be available for such meetings any more, since they have moved to a new shared premises and no longer have sole claim to the meeting room. I'm going to try for other like-minded venues, such as CCS Disability Action and Independent Living Service, (formerly known as the Disability Resource Centre), which are both located in Erson Avenue, Royal Oak. Another that springs to mind is Be. Accessible. I'm hoping that a specifically disability-oriented support organisation will be willing to allow us to use their venue (and Internet connection) for free for this event. If all else fails, there is always the Auckland Central Library with free wifi access (100MB daily data cap).
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Promoting the work of the WMF in NZ
I see there is a stalled proposal to establish a WikiMedia chapter here in New Zealand. It looks like it has been stalled since about 2006, and the subdomain (nz.wikimedia.org) has been locked by consensus decision. I am interested in seeing a local chapter formed to promote the work of the WikiMedia Foundation in Aotearoa/New Zealand in the future.
I'm not a "man of means" myself, by no means. But I do see the intrinsic value of accessible, free knowledge. I would like to be involved somehow in bringing freedom of knowledge acquisition to my fellow Kiwis through the projects of the WikiMedia Foundation.
Towards this end, I have today (18-Aug-2013) made contact with the Australian local chapter. I have sent a request for a new account on their site, with the following comment/reason for the request:
I'm interested in the possibility of reviving a Wikimedia chapter here in New Zealand
(http://nz.wikimedia.org) and I thought it would be wise to seek advice and cooperation
from our neighbours in Australia.
I'm Example from the wikipedia project.
I'm Example from the news project.