User talk:Dave Braunschweig/2021

Google Summer of Code?
Hi, Dave:

Have you considered applying for a Google Summer of Code intern?

Their deadline is February 19.

That link is for people working with. However, you probably know Google's Summer of Code program better than I do. I would think that Google would be eager to fund projects to improve almost any major component of the Wikimedia system.

Best Wishes, DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 16:31, 16 January 2021 (UTC)

Email
—Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 00:35, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Setting up a category?
Hello David,

you may remember that three years ago I ran a class on editing Internet projects using Wikiversity as a part of the regular class offered to students at the Institute of English and American studies at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. You helped me set an umbrella category for these propects at: Editing Internet Texts

The coming semester (begining on March 1st) I will teach a class on "Web Translation Projects", which will focus on various theoretical and practical aspects of translation and which I would like my students to carry out using Wiki tools and share at Wikiversity. Would it be a good idea to set up another category (eg. Internet Translation Projects) that would aggregate particular projects or should we use the existing category (Editing Internet Texts - - the category involved non-translation projects too)? In either case I would appreciate your guidance on how the students should proceed when setting up their Wikiversity pages/projects so that they are a part of that category.

Thank you for your help, it's nice to be back in Wikiversity :-) --Iszmael (discuss • contribs) 08:43, 15 February 2021 (UTC)


 * It's really up to you. If these are different courses you teach, they should probably be different learning projects here at Wikiversity. We can copy Editing Internet Texts and create a separate Web Translation Projects if that works for you.
 * Also, see Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105i/Section 22 for an example of how an input box can be used to help students create their pages as subpages of the course learning project rather than accidentally creating them elsewhere.
 * Finally, note that it is possible to have translations in other languages using the template. The English page is the main page, and it can have translations in other languages as subpages. If you need any help setting this up, please let me know. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:45, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

Thank you @Dave Braunschweig for the suggestions - yes, creating a separate Web Translation Projects would be ideal. I'll have a look at Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105i/Section 22 and let the students know how to proceed. As far as the translation into other languages is concerned, I'll think about it, consult the students and get back to you. --Iszmael (discuss • contribs) 17:26, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

I would appreciate if you set up an umbrella category Web Translation Projects for my students and create an input box to make sure all my students stay within this category. The class starts on the coming Monday and they will create their pages in the second part of March, when they have a better grasp on Wiki philosophy and editing skills. Thank you for you help. Iszmael (discuss • contribs) 22:59, 21 February 2021 (UTC)


 * See Web Translation Projects. Enjoy! -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 01:13, 22 February 2021 (UTC)


 * @Dave Braunschweig Thank you for your help! Iszmael (discuss • contribs) 08:41, 22 February 2021 (UTC)

Application for new learner activity, lock and warning report udraw.
Sir, I sincerly said that i m new learner in the wikiversity. In the learning oportunity disclaimer me. Sincerly Mustafa ali hyder hero New learner. MUSTAFA ALI HYDER HERO (discuss • contribs) 14:40, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

Draft:Privacy Comes With A Price - Suggestion: Expiration date
Hi. I have noticed that you have been concerned about the Draft space, ie when you helped me learn about that one should not link to pages in Draft space. The least thing I want is to abuse the Draft namespace and I've come up with a plan:

Each time I create a new draft I add an expiration date. If the expiration date is reached a notice on the page suggests to potential participants that they can submit the draft page for deletion or I might do it myself if I look it up and discover that I'm no longer motivated to work on a project.

The idea is that each time I edit the page and consider my own edit as useful and not just a trivial edit then I change the expiration date to a stable value, ie. 1 week or 1 month or 1 year or anything in between and beyond.

What do you think about my idea? It is mostly about managing my own behavior on Wikiversity and could potentially benefit(with a risk it will have an opposite effect) me to be more productive here and possibly also more focused. Do you have any suggestions/ideas about what a 'reasonable' time would be for inactivity on a certain Draft namespace page according to my idea? If you have your own ideas about this or on another topic please let me know. LotsofTheories (discuss • contribs) 21:15, 12 March 2021 (UTC)


 * See Wikiversity_talk:Drafts. Wikiversity consensus is that Draft: resources that haven't been updated in the last 180 days may be deleted. The last cleanup was January 2020. Resources to be deleted were tagged with a 30-day proposed deletion notice. As long as your active, it won't be a problem. The other option would be to move pages to your own User: space. User: pages don't currently have any expiration. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 21:40, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

message from MaintenanceBot
Hello Professor Braunschweig,

I just received this message:

I double-checked this file and it has info and licensing. I don't know what they're talking about. Could you help? Thanks.

ThaniosAkro (discuss • contribs) 00:22, 29 March 2021 (UTC)


 * See . If it doesn't load correctly, it gets flagged as missing information. Now corrected. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 00:26, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Many thanks.

ThaniosAkro (discuss • contribs) 00:35, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

New MediaWiki logo
Hi, MediaWiki has a new logo (see here). Can you please update Main Page/Wikimedia projects to use File:MediaWiki-2020-icon.svg instead of File:MediaWiki-logo.svg. Thanks --Nintendofan885 (discuss • contribs) 11:08, 1 April 2021 (UTC)


 * ✅ -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 13:03, 1 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Sorry for butting in here, but I see that the logo at Mediawiki itself has not been changed yet? Just curious. Ottawahitech (discuss • contribs) 15:28, 1 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Perhaps you need to refresh your browser cache. The logo I see at mw:MediaWiki is the 2020 version. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 15:50, 1 April 2021 (UTC)

Happy Easter!
Hi there! It’s IamTheAstronomer here. I am here to wish you and the other Wikiversity editors a happy Easter this year. I know we are all going through tough times but we’ll get to the other side. Thank you and happy Easter and editing! --IamTheAstronomer Talk 15:15, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Sorry
Sorry about the custodianship thing with user encouragement and now I know that what I am doing is setting off red flags so I’m sorry for that. --IamTheAstronomer Talk 09:37, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

Commercial Links
Directly remove - discuss removal on talk? I guess if the improvement of the learning resource was the objective, then the improvements are welcome in the wikiversity learning resource itself. --Bert Niehaus (discuss • contribs) 14:47, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Links removed


 * Please use something like to provide a reference. By including the external link on this page, you have duplicated and/or added legitimacy to the marketing. Regarding the content itself, the linked page has value, but it is also certainly a marketing page. It's up to you. I looked at it and left it as is, but I didn't notice the bottom paragraph the first time I checked. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 15:13, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you Dave, sure the diff would be the better option to ask about the removal. Excuse me. Thank you for your opinion. I just want to be very careful in removing other contributions for a learning resource. all the best, great to have you here in Wikiversity, --Bert Niehaus (discuss • contribs) 15:20, 15 April 2021 (UTC)

Soft redirects
Are there soft redirects here? I am not active here, and so I'd like a link to my meta talk page that is easy to see. Thanks, --Ferien (discuss • contribs) 19:53, 20 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Yes, you can use either a or use a sister link. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:11, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

locator for lists in Wikimedia projects
Hi, Dave:

Might there be something in the MediaWiki software that would allow someone to find the nearest item on a list? If this does not currently exist, what might it take to create it?

My particular application at the moment is helping users find the nearest radio station in the List of Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates or the List of community radio stations in the United States.

I'm thinking of something that would allow someone to enter at minimum latitude and longitude (and preferably something more user friendly like a street address or postal code) and find the nearest item in a list of Wikidata items with coordinate location information. That kind of thing is available with many and probably all modern smart phones using in part the Global Positioning System.

Beyond that, it would be helpful to be able to plot that in Google Earth relative to reception areas of different stations using information from something like the US FCC. That's doubtless doable but harder.

Thanks, DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 20:49, 21 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I haven't seen anything like that here that I can recall. I'm not sure if this is a question for someone at Wikipedia, where there are many more templates than we have here, or if it is a question for someone at Meta or even Wikimedia to see what is possible. It sounds interesting, but I don't currently have any time I could dedicate to implementing it. It might be something MediaWiki could get a summer intern to work on if they support the idea. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:00, 21 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I found it: MediaWiki:API:Nearby places viewer.  I thought you might like to know.  Thanks,  DavidMCEddy (discuss • contribs) 20:07, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

infinite category
I am sorry, I only tried to fix it. There is Category:Wikiversity portals and inside is Category:Portals, inside is Category:Wikiversity portals, inside is Category:Portals and …. If You can do it better way, I would really appreciate that. Maybe it has some meaning … --DenisaCZ (discuss • contribs) 16:07, 27 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Sorry, you were correct. That needed to be revised. There just wasn't anything in the edit summary indicating why the change was made. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 16:22, 27 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks, my fault (kat meant category). Sorry for my bad English. : ) --DenisaCZ (discuss • contribs) 16:25, 27 April 2021 (UTC)

message from McWhitmire
Hello Professor Braunschweig,

I recently had a page deleted by a moderator while I was working on it. I disagreed with the deletion and today I found that you had replied to me. You informed me that you moved my page under my username. The problem that I still have is that the page was full of content and almost complete prior to the moderator deletion. Is there any way to recover all the information and work that I already had on the page? For now the page is blank except for the "Hans Feizi" at the top.--Mcwhitmire (discuss • contribs) 13:42, 28 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I checked yesterday and again this morning. There is no saved content beyond what is already visible in page history. See . Nothing was deleted. What I suspect happened is that the moderator added the Delete tag. When you went to save your contribution, you saw the page had changed, but did not commit your changes to overwrite that message. Since you never actually saved your changes, there is nowhere we can recover them from.
 * Please ask your instructor to remind students to use the Creating a New Page section at The Ancient World (HUM 124 - UNC Asheville) when starting new content. Pages created under course projects are generally left alone. Pages created in main space with very little content (as you had yesterday) are treated as test pages or vandalism and may be removed before you make progress on them.
 * Also, in general, never trust online computer systems to save your important work. Always keep a local copy, just in case. If you'd like, you can have your instructor contact me to confirm that there was an issue with you saving your content. Perhaps an extension can be granted to give you more time to meet course requirements. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:10, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

User Page in other Wikiversity
Dear Dave, a user page was created https://ar.wikiversity.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AF%D9%85:Bert_Niehaus but I cannot read arabic and so I cannot respond to anything there. If there is something written on that page and I do not have the choice to correct anything there. Do you have any recommendations for that? May be I should not click on interlanguage links that are created for learning resources I contributed to. E.g. on "Mandarin" for Open Educational Resources best regards, Bert

--Bert Niehaus (discuss • contribs) 07:01, 10 May 2021 (UTC)


 * It appears to be a copy of your meta:User:Bert_Niehaus page. You can use Google Translate to loosely translate most content, including Arabic. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 13:43, 10 May 2021 (UTC)

Researching sources
Thank you for that message. I guess I got too caught up in historical method for that! I actually wouldn't mind if more editors helped me make this into a sort of Wikiversity mini-project, could be quite good. --Chelston-temp-1 (discuss • contribs) 16:49, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * A learning project on how to Apply the Historical Method with examples might be very interesting. Unfortunately, it's not my area of expertise and I already have several projects I'm working on. But thanks for asking! -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 17:13, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

Dinosaur reconstructions today suck
Why are we seeing feathers on dinosaurs now? That is so stupid, since lizards are dinosaurs and like modern lizards, all dinosaurs are completely scaly and had pronated wrists. Feathers had completely ruined dinosaurs and made them dumb and nonscary, in real life, dinosaurs were awesome and scary, scaly monsters like how Jurassic Park and Jurassic World taught us. This popular image needs to stay forever. Baymaxis100 (discuss • contribs) 20:03, 20 May 2021 (UTC)

Moving Content
Greetings Dave--I'm about ready to move the syllabus and its subpages over--if you have any tips for doing it collectively, please let me know or direct me to the resource (looked around and couldn't find anything specific). Thank you for your help and encouragement thus far! --Leaton01 (discuss • contribs) 16:39, 25 May 2021 (UTC)


 * It's not an option for "regular" user accounts. Curators can do this. Because of the nature of your request and the complexity of the content, I've temporarily given you Curator rights so you can do this yourself. Going forward, it might be worthwhile for you to request this access permanently. Let me know if you have any problems. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 16:48, 25 May 2021 (UTC)

Gaal Sandor's userspace content
Most of their contributions are an attempt to refute basic geometry like the formula C=2*pi*r for the circumference of a circle. I do not understand why you humor them. I realize we have more leeway in our userspace, but there's a big difference between using it to develop a hypothesis or an idea, and using it to publish something that is incontrovertibly wrong. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out which is which, so please do not allow them to discredit Wikiversity. AP295 (discuss • contribs) 20:22, 30 May 2021 (UTC)


 * In the past, the Wikiversity community has been tolerant of most user space content. Please feel free to create a Requests for Deletion discussion if you'd like to test the waters and see if there is support to remove this content now. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 01:43, 31 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Forgive me for being presumptuous, but I wouldn't think it's necessary to go through an RFD in order to remove a page that attempts to disprove Archemedes' 2000 year old result, regardless of the namespace. AP295 (discuss • contribs) 03:15, 31 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Yes, an RFD is necessary. At this point it is just a request by one user to delete content posted by another user. There is no consistent history or mandate from the community so far to delete user content we think has no educational value. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 12:53, 31 May 2021 (UTC)


 * What is the mission of Wikiversity? AP295 (discuss • contribs) 12:55, 31 May 2021 (UTC)


 * See Mission. After reviewing the mission, see Deletions. If you would like to make a case for a page's content not being consistent with Wikiversity mission, see Requests for Deletion. Additional posts here to discuss this will not achieve the outcome you desire. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 13:07, 31 May 2021 (UTC)

Unsure about copyleft icons use
Dear Dave, I saw you edited the resource I recently created for an open science course (thnx) and I would like to know if you can help me with a doubt I have about some of the icons used there. I'm still not very aware of those details and unsure if examples like this png file fit properly the usage permission rules. It's original from https://thenounproject.com/ repository, referred once uploaded to Wikiversity as Creative Commons (with its specific link and author name) but on the other hand not directly created by me as editor of the overall content. Thnx in advance for any feedback on this! --Esenabre (discuss • contribs) 11:27, 4 June 2021 (UTC)


 * See File:Creative commons license spectrum.svg. CC0, CC-BY, and CC-BY-SA are all compatible, with CC-BY-SA being the most restrictive. You can use CC0 and CC-BY content on Wikiversity. We would, however, prefer that these images be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons so that they may be used by anyone rather than only at Wikiversity. The images you would upload to Wikiversity are the ones that are Fair Use only, as Commons won't accept those. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 12:32, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Deleting redundant links to subpages
Dear Dave Braunschweig,

as part of a real-world course at the Jagiellonian University in Poland, I have created an entry under the Web Translation Projects page, which contains links to each of the students' entries. After creating a couple of subpages under my entry, Approaches to Translating Dialect, I have encountered the following problem: instead of just one link to my entry appearing on the Web Translation Projects page, there are now also 10 additional links to each of the subpages that I have created. This adds visual clutter to the Web Translation Projects page and I wonder if you would have any recommendations on what I should do, or whether you have any power, to get rid of those additional links on the page and leave only the link to my main entry. If this helps, I have created the subpages as separate first, and only then linked them to my main project entry, perhaps that is the problem. Thank you in advance for any help --Julkubi


 * It is working as designed. The only way to change it is to list the subpages manually. See . -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 19:31, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Thank You
Hi Dave thank you so much for the support you have given me I really appreciate it. It means a lot to me! Thank You! Bambolwethu Mtsishe (discuss • contribs) 20:00, 4 July 2021 (UTC)

Hello Dave and thanks for the edits
Hey I forgot my old password so am using this, my original WP handle for my new projects. I reember you were always so helpful so I wanted to give you a shouto out. Stay well covid "ain't over till its over"/ Wikidgood (discuss • contribs) 21:21, 17 July 2021 (UTC) Wikidgood (discuss • contribs)

Thank you for your assistance
Dear Dave,

as the summer semester came to an end and my students finished (taking things metaphorically, because Wiki projects are really never finished, are they? :-)) their projects at [] I would like to thank you for your assistance and technical supervision, which were very helpful and gave my students additional reassurance in whatever they were doing. On the whole, they found Wikiversity an interesting challenge (none of them had any prior knowledge of Wiki coding language) and they all admitted the experience was important and quite educational, even if their editing skills needed a lot of practice. What they found most daunting and (unnecessarily?) complex was the process of updating external graphic files - I do agree that although the logic (mostly legal) of it is clear,  the process itself is uninviting. Be that as it may, they all enjoyed the challenge and I was happy about it. Let us hope they will come back and contribute more to their projects or some other ones. Once again thank you for everything. --Iszmael (discuss • contribs) 12:47, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Informal Learning Activities
Dear Dave,

In what seems like a long time ago I asked if I could start a resource from which people could learn informally. I was given a yes and I did a lot of work that can be seen at Informal learning activities. I thought I was just starting something that Wikiversity people would look after and extend. After I had done quite a bit of work on it, I waited for some action. None came, and the project sort of drifted out of my consciousness until very recently. This sort of thing seems to happen when you're in your 80s (I turn 88 next month). I still think the material could be popular and useful, even with just my starting material. As my skills at coding are fading (note the way I set this message up; I'm sure there's a better way), I would be grateful for your advice on what to do now. It might be better if we discussed this through email, for which my address is (hidden) because I only got here after a bewildering wander around the Wikiversity web site. Sorry if I annoy you with this,--Neville Holmes


 * First, I recommend that you take a look at Statistics. What the monthly statistics show is that Wikiversity users have relatively specific interests. Our most popular resources have anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 views a month. The top 1,000 resources have at least 100 views a month. Many of the top pages are subpages, meaning that users are likely finding the page through an Internet search vs. browsing Wikiversity specifically. We've never had any statistics showing that pages with extensive link maps draw interest. In fact, several years ago I did a cross-tab of hundreds of pages that showed the more links on a page, the less likely the page was to be viewed. Next see Informal learning activities page views. Current interest in this project is around 7 views a month. So far, informal "wandering" doesn't seem to be something many users are interested in.


 * If I were to make improvements in the project, I would first eliminate the abbreviations wherever possible. For example Informal learning activities/Wndrng would be much more user-friendly if it was Informal learning activities/Wandering. It would also allow for Internet searches, since a user isn't likely to type wndrng when searching for this type of content. Similarly, the templates being used for this project are quite difficult for others to follow and reuse as currently named.


 * In general, off-wiki discussions are discouraged, and typically only used when we need to discuss editors vs. discussing content. The best place for this discussion would be Talk:Informal learning activities. Feel free to continue the conversation there, and thanks for asking. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 19:26, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * I looked at this experiment and it took a while for me to understand the terminology, but once I did, I thought it was an interesting idea. SelfieCity (discuss • contribs) 22:00, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

CS1/CS2 Should 'escape' square brackets in title paramaters...
A large number of Missing tag errors identified in:- https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Special:LintErrors/missing-end-tag

appear to be due to the presence of [] brackets in the title=parameter which causes the output from the module when processing a title URL pair to terminate the nominal external link syntax too early, leading to a malformed syntax as titles are also placed in italics.

What should happen is that the title parameter is appropriately escaped for characters like this BEFORE it's paired with any relevant URL.

I lack the necessary Lua skills to implement this change, and an edit to highly used modules, would require custodian and or interface admin approval in any event. ShakespeareFan00 (discuss • contribs) 20:34, 7 August 2021 (UTC)


 * I opted to replace the square brackets with parentheses. All done. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 03:17, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Referencing help
Hi Dave, I was just wondering if you would be able to assist me. I want to use the Wikiversity automatic referencing but is there a way to make the reference style APA? Thank you --U3204463 (discuss • contribs) 01:02, 18 August 2021 (UTC)


 * I was looking at mw:Help:Cite, but I didn't find anything obviously helpful. I know in the past people working on Motivation and Emotion chapters have formatted their references manually. I suspect there isn't an easy way to get APA formatting, but you might want to check with your professor to be sure. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 01:41, 18 August 2021 (UTC)

No worries thank you!! --U3204463 (discuss • contribs) 01:29, 19 August 2021 (UTC)

Wikiversity Advisor for Wikimedia Grant
Hi !

Thank you so much for taking the time to endorse the Eventmath proposal that Brendan and I submitted to the Wikimedia Project Grants program. We're happy to say that we've reached the due-diligence stage and are awaiting a final decision from the committee.

From your user page and history, we see that you have significant experience and expertise regarding Wikiversity policies and practices. With that in mind, I'm writing to ask if you would be able to serve as an advisor for the Eventmath grant. I'm also reaching out to to ask if he can join us in the same capacity.

Specifically, we propose a monthly video call with the two of you as we implement the primary grant activities from late May through mid-August. During these meetings, we could provide project updates and also address any questions that arise as we implement our plan.

If this works for you, we invite you to add yourself to the proposal in a new section titled "Wikiversity advisors," just above "Interested users and contributors." We appreciate your consideration. We're very excited to contribute to Wikiversity and would be super grateful for the opportunity to work with you!

Thanks again,

Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 03:05, 8 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks for asking. From my perspective, monthly support would be too little and too far in between to be meaningful. I'm also concerned about setting a precedent where we engage in off-wiki support as a primary means of communication. Please reconsider your request. I am willing to serve as an advisor on your efforts, but it is important that these efforts be integrated with the Wikiversity community rather than through a custom approach. It's also important that we focus on open support options everyone may participate in and learn from, if they so choose. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 21:33, 8 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you so much for your quick reply! That's great advice regarding transparent support that everyone may participate in and learn from.
 * Thank you so much for your quick reply! That's great advice regarding transparent support that everyone may participate in and learn from.


 * We do envision most of our interactions occurring on Wikiversity itself on an as-needed basis, subject to your availability. Our idea is that the scheduled video calls would be secondary. Their purpose would be to provide structure: a meeting schedule will facilitate regular updates in the form of public project documentation. We also expect that real-time interaction will quickly surface pertinent issues, in order to allocate our time and funds more efficiently.


 * To ensure that the support is open, we can post meeting minutes to Wikiversity, and even a recording of the call if desired. I like the idea of posting minutes and had not thought of it until you raised these points, which I think is a nice example of the value of collaboration!


 * Regarding precedent, I will say that monthly meetings were suggested to us by a Wikimedia Foundation employee who has extensive experience with the grants program, so this approach is already valued as part of the grant process. If you see it as inappropriate for other activities, then perhaps the video calls could be restricted to grant support. Since grants involve funding, the additional project documentation facilitated by the meetings may be warranted.


 * If you have additional concerns regarding the video calls, I'd be happy to continue this discussion and will appreciate any additional expertise that you can share. In particular, if you would still prefer an alternative approach that does not involve video calls, then we will certainly be open to that.


 * Thank you again,
 * Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 22:47, 8 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I think we already have an excellent precedent for establishing an organization within Wikiversity, which is the WikiJournal User Group. They use public Wikiversity discussions whenever possible, but as a refereed journal, obviously must have private communications.  @ Greg: When you are ready to start, let me know.  Our first order of business is to pick a name for this entity.  I propose Draft:Eventmath with the understanding that it will soon be moved to Eventmath.  We can create several subpages under this name before it becomes awkward to change names. --Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 16:34, 11 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Terrific! WikiJournal is very interesting, and I see that the WikiJournal User Group communicates via an open email list, open video meetings (with meeting minutes), and on-wiki discussion pages. That's in line with what I had in mind, with the helpful addition of an email list. Similarly, we could have the following communication channels, each accessible from the main Eventmath page:
 * An Eventmath discussion page on Wikiversity can be home to general questions and answers.
 * As required by the grant process, project documentation pages on Meta can document grant activities (meeting minutes could go here).
 * An open email list on lists.wikimedia.org can apprise the Eventmath community of major project updates (such as workshop dates). This will take a little work, so Brendan and I can discuss this further (if anyone has relevant experience, we'd be happy to hear about it here).
 * An open email list on lists.wikimedia.org can apprise the Eventmath community of major project updates (such as workshop dates). This will take a little work, so Brendan and I can discuss this further (if anyone has relevant experience, we'd be happy to hear about it here).


 * The final grant approval decision is scheduled to be announced by the Wikimedia Foundation on April 22. If approved, we plan to begin work on the project on May 24; that's when Brendan and I will both have enough time to begin in earnest. After the grantees are announced, we'll reach out to schedule the video calls. (We could address the first order of business that Guy raised in an initial video meeting. For now, we are considering a tabbed main page patterned roughly after WikiProject Mathematics on Wikipedia and not dissimilar to the WikiJournal User Group page; in any case, starting out with Draft:Eventmath makes sense to me.)


 * I have one follow-up question: Are you (Dave Braunschweig and Guy vandegrift) both on board with the monthly meetings? I know Dave expressed reservations, so I'd be happy to discuss this further. Thank you both so much for taking an interest in our project and for spending time helping us!


 * Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 08:03, 12 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Having recently retired, I have plenty of time for a new project. I have no problem with monthly video meetings.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 23:49, 12 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Great! Thanks for confirming. I'm looking forward to working together! Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 03:02, 13 April 2021 (UTC)


 * I've added my name to the proposal under Wikiversity advisors. I still see on-wiki support as needed to be of greater importance to the project's overall success than monthly video meetings. We'll see how the scheduling and agendas for the video meetings works out. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 00:33, 14 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you so much! and I are looking forward to working with you and . We'll reach out to you once the grantees are announced, which we still expect to happen on April 22. Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 05:40, 14 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Just a small comment, an event triggers the consideration of topics and learning resources around the event. The learning resources behind the event must be developed in a sound way independent of the event description. Just a short example. A hacker attack on an institution is the event, the learning resource for the event refers e.g. to IT methods that can be learned to protect the IT infrastructure and might also refer to learning resouces for students to improve their own IT-Risk literacy in using IT systems. The MATH part of it might refer to Number Theory and the background of encryption used as basic introduction of the event. So the foundations would be to develop a good number theory course for EventMath. At least to role out the required course units to handle such type of events within a learning resource. Lets see which topics are selected and developed within Wikiversity, collaboratively scoped, defined with course units, .... COVID-19 shows that good underlying learning resources that can be used in an event must be developed in advance and in collaboratively way to consider different required expertise and scientific disciplines. If EventMath provides an infrastructure for a collaborative planing of learning resources and collaborative implementation prior to an event, then that would be a great achievement independent of the funding of EventMath just by using the available infrastructure in MediaWiki and the existing communication procedures within the Wikiversity community. All the best and regards, --Bert Niehaus (discuss • contribs) 07:06, 16 April 2021 (UTC)




 * Thank you both again for agreeing to help and I with Eventmath! To see the work we've done for Eventmath until now, you can check out our monthly project updates. We'll be adding an August report later tonight.


 * We are beginning to work in earnest on the actual Wikiversity pages now, so we would like to begin the monthly advisor meetings to discuss our progress and plans. Currently, we have two locations for Eventmath on Wikiversity. First, the initial skeleton is in the portal namespace. Second, per the guidance from above, our new version of Eventmath is in the main namespace, where we've begun work on a new tabbed interface. We do like that the main namespace makes for a shorter URL and potentially has SEO advantages, so we plan to eliminate the initial skeleton from the portal namespace once we're finished with it.


 * Now that we're going to be building more extensively on Wikiversity, it would be terrific if you and Guy would still be available for our first video call! We would use the time to share more detailed updates on our plans for next month and to learn from your experience regarding Wikiversity practices. So that others can learn from our project, we are planning to post meeting minutes as part of our monthly grant reports. Would you be available next week, and are there any days and times that would be good for you? If next week is not good, we can work around your schedule.


 * Thanks again for your support!
 * Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 22:26, 15 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I have an open schedule for the meeting. If you give me a few days' notice I am almost certain to be able to fit it in. --Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 02:52, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Please don't edit archived discussions.

While I might be available to meet, I'm still not understanding why a synchronous meeting is necessary. Please provide a complete agenda with the questions you have so we can maximize the use of our time.

Also, while I might be available, I am not interested in sharing my personal schedule with the entire world. Letting the world know what I am doing and when I am doing it raises security risks. I have received death threats due to my work on Wikiversity. I can't take any of this lightly. Any meeting arrangements will need to be made privately.

Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 15:19, 16 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Re: Dave's suggestion of not meeting online: It is the "culture" of Wikiversity to work publically through written discussions. While I am willing to do online meetings, I think that whenever possible, written public discussions could better engage the Wikiversity community. Let me know if you want to start a page somewhere.--Guy vandegrift (discuss • contribs) 03:26, 18 September 2021 (UTC)


 * I have carefully considered this opportunity and decided that I need to decline the synchronous meeting. First, I can't recall any time over the last nine years that there has been a meeting like this involving anyone at Wikiversity. There have been in-person meetings of Wikiversity editors, but these were for social purposes rather than support. Second, in fairness to all, there is no way for me to meet in person with one user and then decline the same opportunity for others. Since I am not willing to meet with everyone who asks, I need to not be willing to meet with anyone who asks. I am confident that whatever support is required can be provided through regular Wikiversity support channels. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:01, 18 September 2021 (UTC)


 * No problem! Thanks for giving this such careful consideration. Our main goal in this discussion is to open up lines of communication. Since you both prefer asynchronous, written discussions on Wikiversity, Brendan and I are both happy to use that format.


 * We propose the Eventmath discussion page as the primary location for further discussion, on an as-needed basis, since we won't be holding regular meetings. Once we start welcoming new contributors through our workshops and other initiatives, we can archive these early discussions if they are no longer relevant.


 * As discussed in our proposal, we do plan for our workshops to be synchronous. Many new Eventmath contributors may be educators who do not have experience with wikis, so we would like to make the process as approachable as possible for them. Fortunately, participants will start their own Eventmath entries during these workshops, so the results of their work will be published on Wikiversity. Perhaps we could also publish minutes for these synchronous events. The meeting minutes from the WikiJournal User Group may serve as inspiration, and we could potentially link to our own minutes from the Eventmath Impact tab.


 * --Greg at Higher Math Help (discuss • contribs) 02:15, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

Transwiki imports
At voy:Wikivoyage:Votes for deletion, the discussion of a possible transwiki to Wikiversity was discussed. You may have an opinion on whether the topic (American Colonialism) is appropriate for Wikiversity, but more significantly, if transwikis were to be done, it would be necessary for someone to have the transwiki import right. If I were to apply for that right, where would the application be done? Thanks, SelfieCity (discuss • contribs) 17:49, 25 September 2021 (UTC)


 * See Special:ListGroupRights. Curators are able to import from other wikis. However, Special:Import doesn't currently list Wikivoyage as a source, so none of us can import directly at the moment. Perhaps we could request a steward import it for us. To request curator status, see Candidates for Custodianship. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:47, 25 September 2021 (UTC)


 * Can you import from Wikivoyage? -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:47, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
 * I do not believe I can. I went on Special:Import and I couldn't find a source wiki for wikivoyage. —Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 15:09, 26 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Transwiki discussion hasn’t gone anywhere for now, but it’s a neat idea and if transwikis between the sites were made possible, it would at least open the possibility of some well-written textbook-style content to be imported here, as it is useful and reliable information but not always best suited to a travel website. SelfieCity (discuss • contribs) 02:06, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

We now have the ability to import from Wikivoyage. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 00:43, 4 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Good. Thank you for letting me know. SelfieCity (discuss • contribs) 01:12, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

User:LotsofTheories
Hi. I own or owned that account(User:LotsofTheories) but I'm not sure if I have access to it any longer. Regardless of diving deeper into why I can't access that account any longer I just want to say what I'm interested in so that my future edits does not cause any confusions regarding that account, so it doesn't raise any red flags.

I am still interested in:
 * neurotypes
 * The Neurodiversity Movement
 * Method of Loci
 * Autism and the "Autistic identity"
 * OSes:
 * Qubes OS
 * Trisquel
 * Open Interviews(I love the idea of this though I haven't put it in practice yet)
 * A lot of other things I'm not mentioning but that is part of what User:LotsofTheories was interested in(among other things Wikidata).

New interests or 'updates' might be as follows(not in a hurry to do this, might never happen):
 * (far fetched idea) Interested in combining a family member's fascination with technology with possibly developing educational resources regarding member's interests.
 * inspired by family member, conduct experiments from an 'experiment book' that might be related to pressure, electricity etc.
 * possibly add materials to latest interest in Arduino. I can gain from delving into this, both by learning more about Arduino myself and by doing this showing I am interested and create better family tree bond with family member by showing interest in things that individual is interested in.

I am not asking to get any privileges that account has/had(I wish this account be treated as if I'm a new user). I am just seeking to state what I'm interested in(same as that user) but I can't prove at the moment and its not in my current interest to prove that I'm that user but if its asked of me I'll look into my hardware and storage to see if I can find any traces of any affiliation to that account(currently doing a search on).

I haven't done any edits yet but I was aiming to do 1 edit about how to find URLs when downloading ie. .deb packages from a software repository to use as a reference in Wikidata. My edit was blocked(due to containing a link). I am not reporting this as a problem, just attempting to state background information so that if any connections are made between me and User:LotsofTheories I have managed to say something about it before anybody else learnt about it or made any relevant connections.

I hope that this message did not waste your time. Oduci (discuss • contribs) 07:12, 24 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Doing an edit just to say that I've searched my "backup laptop"(not with intention for backups but using this since my Qubes computer showed signs of malfunction which triggered me and caused me to switch computer on a more permanent basis, I still need to get that computer repaired, although I have a long password which I did not use strong mnemonics for so access to information stored on computer, highly unlikely) and searched file names and inside of all files with the text "lotsoftheories". I have more equipment to search(gaming computer and work computer) if asked of me. Oduci (discuss • contribs) 07:19, 24 October 2021 (UTC)


 * It appears that this is now your fourth account, including User:Datariumrex and User:RustProton. That's a bit unusual, but it isn't a problem as long as it is disclosed and you don't try to use multiple accounts inappropriately. Regarding blocked edits, new users have limits that take a few days and a few edits to clear. Try contributing things other than URLs for a few days. Thanks! -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 13:46, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

Prejudice serious enough to be nominated for speedy deletion
Hello. Before reading this please check the [|'Emotional dysfunction(ECD)' section of 'Empathy Model'].

I would like to clear up a few things. The reason I do not have trouble editing is not due to previous wiki editing experience but because I read the guidelines and search how to do a specific edit, in addition to being familiar with coding and having browsed various wikimedia projects. This is my only accout and my sole purpose in joining wikiversity was to delete the prejudicial page,'Empathy Modle'.

The 'empathy model' is a mixture of prejudice against people with mental disorders and personal opinions of low educational value that to improve it would be the same as deleting the page and starting a new one. The pages were mainly edited by one user and has not been edited by numerous wikiversitans.

[|The 'Emotional communication dysfunction(ECD)' section of 'Empathy Model'] is not the sole part prejudice to people with mental disorders. The page contains statements such as; [];

[]; []; [].
 * There is a dispute on whether mirror neurons affect empathy, there is no mainstream theory on the relation of spindle neurons to schizophrenia and autism.
 * Coccain addiction is not the same as Narcissism.
 * The page containing user conversations is also highly prejudice.[]
 * 'overly personal views' among the reason for speedy deletion means that because unprejudicial contents of the pages are mainly personal opinions with low educational value deleting the whole page is not so much a damage as leaving it undeleted.

Thank you.

//1ab23c


 * Thank you for the update. However, this is not the place for this discussion. Please use either the talk page at Talk:Empathy Model or Requests for Deletion. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 13:44, 6 November 2021 (UTC)

importing from xml dump
Hi Dave. Do you have the ability to import from XML dumps? Specifically, for those generated by http://topicpageswiki.plos.org/wiki/Special:Export, since there is a plan to integrate over that content to here (approx 40 pages) and it'd be ideal to maintain the edit history if possible. Happy to open a phabricator ticket if easier for them to do. T.Shafee(Evo&#65120;Evo)talk 03:34, 15 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Importing from XML requires the importupload right. No one has that right, but bureaucrats can now grant that right. As this will be the first use of this right, we should discuss the opportunity in the Colloquium to make sure there are no concerns or objections. I can't grant the right to myself, or at least not without community approval. Jtneill can grant to me, or I can grant to you, etc. If you're willing, the easiest approach is probably for me to approve you, after giving everyone a little time to comment. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 04:05, 15 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Aha, that makes sense. I've now added a note there for discussion. Thanks for explaining. T.Shafee(Evo&#65120;Evo)talk 11:01, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

Language Labels - Translation - "undefined" overwrite
The language labels left menu for translations. Seemed to me that there were some modification at the language module for translations in the english Wikiversity.
 * Demo link 3D Modelling
 * the label for the languages "German" or "English" are overwritten in the DOM tree of the Mediawiki page with "undefined", so instead of showing the language name. The links are still OK.
 * Overwriting the language label seem to appear a bit temporarily delayed, so the language label are display for the fraction of a second.
 * the overwriting language labels "German" "English" with "undefined" works specificly for authors that are logged in with there account,
 * the overwriting appears Mac, Linux, - Firefox and Chrom(e)(ium) if users are logged in,
 * the modifications appear not in the german Wikiversity of the same page / translation so the modification "language label overwrite" are made in english Wikiversity only. So it seems not an issue of all MediaWiki installations for Wikiversity in gemeral.

As there are not many translators in the english Wikiversity it guess it is not to real issue and in any case on hover with the mouse the underlying link appears, so that the logged in authors can identify the language with this simple work around. --Bert Niehaus (discuss • contribs) 09:00, 13 December 2021 (UTC)


 * Perhaps this is now resolved. I don't see a problem with the "In other languages" links on the left at 3D Modelling. The links are added automatically based on Wikidata entries. If you still see a problem, perhaps it is related to native browser language selection (some combination of client side and server side). If you do still have a problem, try filing a phabricator request.
 * I don't think this should be described as translations. It's really related Wikiversity content in other languages vs. a translation. We do have actual translation options. See for details.
 * Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 22:14, 14 December 2021 (UTC)
 * No worries about that, the performed modification are very specific and they still occur on the english Wikiversity only and the lanuage labels appear also in Italian (Space and Global Health) and German (Water) translations correctly, The modifications at the english Wikiversity seem to be introduced or implemented around October 1st, 2021. Anyway, I can live with it, because the modification are highly specific for "logged in authors" dealing with translations on the english Wikiversity only - capacities for implementations in the Phabricator environment should be saved and people should not be bothered, because with your feedback I regard that as minor issue. --Bert Niehaus (discuss • contribs) 09:45, 15 December 2021 (UTC)