User talk:Billinghurst

You can't beat a pickled egg

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billinghurst (talk page)

IRC cloak request: I confirm that my freenode nick is sDrewth

Note: Please use informative section titles that give some indication of the message.

Wikisource has a number of active Wikiprojects that could use your help in tackling these large additions to our library. Popular Science Monthly Project Work: Popular Science Monthly

Category:Authors with missing death dates -> Category:Authors without death dates

explore making this change. They are not missing if they are not dead, so we should cater for both scenarios without confusing things. Only would be missing of the person is alive 130 years after death. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:43, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

link templates — to build

• Dictionary of Indian Biography
  • ... link Y
  • ... lkpl Y

— billinghurst sDrewth 23:47, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

• The Builders of American Literature
• check whether useful for Oregon: Her history, her great men, her literature

• Convert Template:American Review link
• Build Template:American Historical Review link

DNB contributor template cleanup

Hi. I've been recently working on cleaning up the DNB contributor templates for ambiguous ones to match in line with existing similar ones. Can you please turn these into disambiguation pages similar to what's in Category:Dictionary of National Biography ambiguous contributor templates and disambiguate these with AWB? They're transcluded in so many pages, so they would require too many tabs to be opened if done manually.

• Template:DNB CM: ambiguous given Template:DNB CM Maclean
• Template:DNB EG: ambiguous given Template:DNB EG Green
• Template:DNB FR: ambiguous given Template:DNB FR Rogers
• Template:DNB GCB: ambiguous given Template:DNB GCB Bourne
• Template:DNB HMS: ambiguous given Template:DNB HMS Spooner
• Template:DNB JAH: ambiguous given Template:DNB JAH Herbert
• Template:DNB JHL: ambiguous given Template:DNB JHL Longford
• Template:DNB AM: redundant to Template:DNB AM Miller. but Template:DNB AM Mackie exists.
• Template:DNB JH: redundant to Template:DNB JH Humphreys, but Template:DNB JH Hooper exists.
• Template:DNB TS: redundant to Template:DNB TS Seccombe, but Template:DNB TS Sinclair exists.

During the cleanup, I also ran into Template:DNB AH Hartshorne, which seems to have been created in error since none of the DNB contributor lists attach Albert Hartshorne to any initial but "A.H-e." Making it a redirect to Template:DNB AH-e would be misleading because "A.H." was never used for his work on the DNB, so I might consider it for deletion. ミラP@Miraclepine 03:03, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

@Miraclepine: Please leave them for the moment as I am talking about Xover about a better way to deal with these. The current situation is ugly, and it is just getting more complex and unsustainable. — billinghurst sDrewth 03:30, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you. I've subscribed to the conversation on Xover's talk page for further developments in the meanwhile. ミラP@Miraclepine 04:29, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

August 2023 to do

• records checks
  • track death for Author:Michael Barrett
  • detail for Author:John George Anthony Skerl
  • Author:Thomas Helsby
  • Author:Charles Everitt
  • revisit author:Robert Edward Anderson
  • Author:Adam Luke Gowans
  • Author:Reginald Littleboy
  • Author:Griffith Price Williams
  • Author:Mrs. Ernest Newman
  • Author:John Pre Vanewords
  • Author:Laura Ensor
  • author:Armin Tenner
  • author:Ponsonby Annesley Lyons
  • Author:Patrick Laurence Connellan
  • Author:John Fraser (fl. 1883) US cleric
  • Author:George Hay (Physiologist) Glasgow 1883, though apparently visiting and living western side of Atlantic
  • Author:William Simons, Charleston, SC, 1880s
  • Author:Wilfred L. Steel , can see person b. 1890, though that doesn't seem right, living vicinity of Stone, Staffs in 1913, though no clear records for person of that name in 1911
  • Author:William Browning Smith, is it really William?
  • Author:Robert Edward Anderson London 1880s
  • Author:John Gibson (d. 1887) Scottish scientist
  • Author:Herbert Rix
  • Author:John Stephen EB9
  • Author:Montagu Browne or is it Alexander Montagu Browne
• Author:Algernon Blackwood continue moving works to subpages of parents
• ponder St. Nicholas pages, have edited by through subpages, not just volumes, and the illustrators have been added as related_authors; definitely needs work, apply {{default layout|Layout 2}} to the pages, and remove the css code that sets a max-width
• {{al}} set this up so it substitutes automatically, then clean up
• {{pol}} set this up so it substitutes automatically, then clean up
• Translations from Camoens; and Other Poets, with Original Poetry needs a AuxToC built, and contributor components rather than authors, maybe also use override_translator rather than translator for cleanliness
• Works to consider
  • find the best ocr of https://archive.org/search?query=Peasant+Proprietorship
• Think about "redirects here" for disambig pages (The ..., The ...s, A ..., ...s)
• DNB contributor => 1st supplement separation from 1885-1900, and each their own? also remove {{sc}} from usages
• bring over my /archive/ edit filters from metawiki
• more work to do on Index:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/styles.css and template:hussey Churches table header related pages
• EB9 contributor => {{contributed to}}, will need noinit variable, and also formatting internal
• transcribe obit noted at Author talk:William Prideaux Courtney
• transcribe obit noted at Author talk:Israel Davis

DNB contributor

• DNB contributor
• DNB contributor 2ndSupp
• DNB contributor 3rdSupp

1. need to ensure that all data is present on author pages
2. push "contributor to creative work" / "biographer" / "initials"
3. construct the QS components (see if we can do anything with harvest tool first)

Petscan / QS pushes

• Category:Ornithologists as authors needs push in, then tidy up

— billinghurst sDrewth 23:49, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Sep 2023 to do

• Template:ShowTransclude

  Look to convert this template to instead utilise <ref follow=...>

• Fix ToC Page:Horses and roads.djvu/11++ to use css
• double transclusion of same index: The Haughs of Crumdel / Haughs of Crumdel (2) => shuffling, editing and deletions required

— billinghurst sDrewth 22:31, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Tech News: 2025-48

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Updates for editors

• Last week, the Wikimedia Search Team recreated the "DWIM" (Do What I Mean) gadget functionality server-side, for Russian and Hebrew Wikipedias. This feature adds cross-keyboard suggestions to the standard search-box suggestions. For example, searching for cxfcnmt on Russian Wikipedia will now add suggestions for счастье ("happiness") that the user probably intended. They plan to enable this feature for other Russian and Hebrew wikis this week. [1]
• Later this week, users of the "Improved Syntax Highlighting" beta feature will have syntax highlighting available in DiscussionTools. This requires that the "Enable editing tools in source mode" preference be set. [2]
• Campaign events extension – the set of tools for coordinating events and other on-wiki collaborations has now been deployed to all Wikimedia wikis. A new feature known as Collaborative contribution to help organizers and participants see the impact of activities has also been added. Join the upcoming learning session to see the new feature in action and share your feedback.
• View all 24 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the bug which stopped CodeReviewBot from working, has now been fixed. [3]

Updates for technical contributors

• Users of Wikimedia API can join a usability study to help validate the new design of Wikimedia REST API sandboxes. Interested participants should fill the recruitment survey. [4]
• The MediaWiki Interfaces team is deprecating XSLT stylesheets within the Action API. Support for format=xml&xlst={stylesheet} will be removed from Wikimedia projects by the end of November, 2025. In addition, it will soon be disabled by default in MediaWiki release versions: v1.43 (LTS), v1.44, and v1.45. Support for XSLT stylesheets will be fully removed from MediaWiki v1.46 (expected to release between April and May 2026). [5]
• The WDQS legacy endpoint (query-legacy-full.wikidata.org) will be decommissioned at the end of December 2025, and finally closed down on 7th January 2026. After this date, users should expect requests to query.wikidata.org that require the full graph to fail or return invalid results if they are not rewritten to use SPARQL federation. The team encourages users to ensure that tools and workflows use the supported WDQS endpoints (https://query.wikidata.org/ - Main graph or https://query-scholarly.wikidata.org/ - Scholarly graph). For support with migrating use cases, please review the Data Access and Request a Query pages for details and assistance on alternative access methods.
• Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki

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MediaWiki message delivery 15:56, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

Tech News: 2025-49

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Updates for editors

• The Wikipedia Year in Review 2025 will be available on December 2 for users of iOS and Android Wikipedia apps, featuring new personalized insights, updated reading highlights, and refreshed designs. Learn more on the review's project page.
• The Growth team is working on improving the text and presentation of the Verification Email sent to new users to make them more welcoming, useful and informative. Some new text have been drafted for A/B testing and you can help by translating them. See Phabricator.
• Add a link will now be deployed at Japanese, Urdu and Chinese Wikipedias on December 2. Add a link is based on a prediction model that suggests links to be added to articles. While this feature has already been available on most Wikipedias, the prediction model could not support certain languages. A new model has now been developed to handle these languages, and it will be gradually rolled out to other Wikipedias over time. If you would like to know more, please contact Trizek (WMF).
• View all 34 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the issue where search boxes on some Commons pages showed no results due to switch from SpecialSearch to MediaSearch, has now been fixed. [6]
• Two new wikis have been created:
  • a Wikipedia in Toki Pona (w:tok:) [7]
  • a Wikiquote in Nigerian Pidgin (q:pcm:) [8]

Updates for technical contributors

• Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki

In depth

• The Wikimedia Foundation is in the early stages of exploring approaches to Article guidance. The initiative aims to identify interventions that could help new editors easily understand and apply existing Wikipedia practices and policies when creating an article. The project is in the exploration and early experimental design phase. All community members are encouraged to learn more about the project, and share their thoughts on the talk page.

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MediaWiki message delivery 18:57, 1 December 2025 (UTC)

Tech News: 2025-50

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Weekly highlight

• Anybody who wishes to secure their user account can now use two-factor authentication (2FA). This is available to all registered users of all Wikimedia projects. This is part of the Account Security initiative. Later, 2FA will be required for all users who can take security- or privacy-sensitive actions.

Updates for editors

• Following last week's deployments, the Add a link feature, which allows editors to add suggested links during editing, will be available to an additional 33 Wikipedias starting on 9 December. This expansion is possible thanks to the new prediction model that now supports all languages, including those that were previously not covered. While the feature has been available on most Wikipedias for some time, this rollout brings us closer to using the improved model everywhere. If you have any questions or would like more details please contact Trizek (WMF).
• Last week, the Search Platform team added transliterated as-you-type search suggestions to Georgian wikis. If there are only a few regular search suggestions, then queries in Latin or Cyrillic script are now rewritten into Georgian script to look for more matches. For example, searching for either bedniereba or бедниереба will now suggest the existing article about ბედნიერება ("happiness"). You can recommend other languages where transliterated suggestions would be useful on Phabricator for future development.
• Later this week, a controlled experiment will begin for editors on the 100 largest Wikipedias who are editing a section in the mobile web visual editor. 50% of these editors will notice a new "Edit full page" button that will enable them to expand their editing session to the whole page. This feature is intended to make it easier for people on mobile web to edit any article section, regardless of which section-edit icon they tapped to begin. The experiment will last ~4 weeks. You can find more details about the project.
• Later this week, the Reader Growth team will launch a mobile web experiment to expand all article sections by default (currently they are collapsed by default) and pin the section header the user is currently reading to the top of the page. The experiment will affect 10% of users on Arabic, Chinese, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese Wikipedias. [9]
• The Wikipedia Year in Review 2025, a feature in the Wikipedia mobile apps (iOS and Android) that provides users with a personalised summary of their engagement with Wikipedia over the year, is now available on the iOS and Android apps. This edition includes expanded personalised insights, improved reading highlights, new donor messaging, and updated designs. Open the app to view your Year in Review and explore your reading journey from 2025.
• A recent software bug caused edits made with VisualEditor to make unintended changes to wikitext, including removing whitespace and replacing spaces with underscores in wikilinks inside citations. This was partially fixed last week, and further fixes are in progress. Editors who used VisualEditor between November 28 and December 2 should review their edits for unexpected modifications. [10]
• View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the incorrect handling of URLs copied from the address bar of Microsoft Edge users, has been resolved. [11]

Updates for technical contributors

• Starting this week, users of the "Improved Syntax Highlighting" beta feature will have CodeMirror as the editor for Lua, JavaScript, CSS, JSON and Vue content models, instead of CodeEditor. With this, the linters will be upgraded. This is part of a larger effort to eventually replace CodeEditor and provide a consistent code editing experience. [12]
• Developers are encouraged to take the 2025 Developer Satisfaction Survey, which remains open until 5 January 2026. If you build software for the Wikimedia ecosystem and would like to share your experiences or feedback, your participation is greatly appreciated. [13]
• There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

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MediaWiki message delivery 17:45, 8 December 2025 (UTC)