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Volume 4, Issue 43 — 2008-11-10 Fundraiser opens: Over $500,000 raised in first week ArbCom elections: Nominations open Book review: How Wikipedia Works MediaWiki search engine improved Four Board resolutions, including financials, approved News and notes: Vietnamese Wiki Day Dispatches: Historic election proves groundbreaking on the Main Page Features and admins Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News The Report on Lengthy Litigation Archives·Newsroom·Tip line·Single-page·Subscribe Episode 65: Censorship while you sleep Including an interview on gov't sponsored censorship. Other topics include: the fundraiser; GFDL changes; the abuse filter; election coverage and more. Subscription · Feedback · Talk to us on skype! not|the|wikipedia|weekly Next Skypecast: 20:00 UTC November 18, 2008 (details/sign up) Latest: Episode 36 10th Nov 2008 Improving and refining articles

Notices

• Are you registered to use AutoWikiBrowser? If so, there are a number of uncompleted AWB tasks that need you at Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser/Tasks. The latest task is a major one, to fix the formatting of CIA World Factbook data that has been copied to many "Demographics of x" country articles.
• A trial of flagged revisions over featured articles has been proposed at Wikipedia talk:Flagged revisions#Trial. Your participation in the discussion is invited.
• Want power? See this: Wikipedia:Linky tutorial.

Project pages seeking contributors

Discussions

Discussions in the following areas have requested wider attention:

See also: Wikizine · In the media · News · Announcements · Mailing lists · Meetups

Help out

Wikipedia is, by number of articles, the largest encyclopedia ever to exist. However, many articles are stubs, or otherwise need attention. If you like, go ahead, be bold, and jump right in. If you are not ready to fly solo, you can participate in a Collaboration.

Things to do

• Respond to a request for comment, Wikiquette alert or provide a third opinion.
• Adopt a basic topic list, to help develop and maintain a table of contents to a major subject on Wikipedia.
• Give a requested editor review.
• Can you draw or take pictures? Make a requested image.
• Peer review or give feedback on some articles.
• Make recommendations on articles listed at Good article reassessment.
• Respond to the Reward board or Bounty board.
• Are you good at photo editing? Then try cleaning up some of these images, or helping out at the Graphics Lab.
• Can you use GIS tools? Help make requested maps.
• Can you communicate in another language? There are articles that need translation into English. You can also proofread a translation.
• Let SuggestBot suggest pages for you to improve.
• Update pages with old (ref or note template) citations to the new references format.
• Patrol new pages and help improving new articles.
• Frequent IRC user, or a wikignome? Visit WikiProject Spotlight to join in on their latest collaboration.
• Category:Wikipedia backlog always needs attention.

Fix-up projects

Open tasks

Here are some tasks you can do:

• Wikify: Tred Barta, Management control system, Maria Kuznetsova, Gerard Moultrie, Lyndon Remias, List of mayors of St. Gallen, More...
• Copyedit: Icebreaker Fyodor Litke, New York Press, Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant, The Real Ghostbusters (comics), Nankana Sahib District, Paul Reynolds (musician), More...
• Update: Economy of Germany, Universe at War: Earth Assault, Frontlines: Fuel of War, Chen Quan, Fei Junlong, Nie Haisheng, More...
• Style: Andrew Glover, Mumsnet, Avogadro's law, Walter Schoel Engineering Co., Ptawug, Samuel Oboh, More...
• Cleanup: Superstition, Jay Vasavada, Wekîl Mustafayev, Newfie, Elevator consultant, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War, More...
• Verify: History of the Royal Australian Navy, Teddy Geiger, Paul G. Kirk, Jr., Pulchrana signata, Sylvirana nigrovittata, Squalius aradensis, More...
• Neutrality: New Vrindaban, Rover K engine, Action T4, Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2008, BBC Radio 3, Speed trap, More...
• Original research: Wedge Antilles, Ghostbusters (franchise), The Centurions (TV series), Euro-Trance, Jeff Tortora, African Unification Front, Carbon tax, Meritocracy, Entryism, Exit number, More...
• Merge: Kajikawa Yoriteru, Kajikawa Yoshiteru, Political campaign, Truncation, Yukito Tsukishiro, Dissection problem, More...
• Articles to be split: LGBT characters in comics, Containerization, Beef, Jack Kirby, More...
• Stubs: Shipping authority, International Academy of Humanism, Serviced apartment, Majid Al Futtaim Group, Self-Organized Time Division Multiple Access, Smith predictor, More...
• Expand: The National Council Against Health Fraud, China National Tobacco Co., European Civil Service, George Junior Republic, GJR (George Junior Republic), Yuji Nagata, Gun politics in Austria, Massachusetts Miracle, More...
• Article Requests: Brillouin's theorem, Ewald Weibel, Islamic liturgy, Batwing Coral Crab, Constitution of Kenya, Ashre, Trevor disease, Piet Botha, Cucurbita mixta, Olympic Australis, More...
• Image Requests: Christmas Mountains, Tortilla art, Persian embroidery, Narragansett Turkey, Iwokrama Forest, Vaal Dam, Liverpool-Parramatta T-way, Wako University, More...
• Mediation Cabal: Space music, DCEETA, or Help mediate an open case!

Not sure where to report a certain type of problem with article content? If it exists, it is probably listed at Wikipedia:Maintenance.

Collaborations

To improve the quality of articles that are short or lacking in detail, Wikipedia's community organizes collaborations to expand articles.

Core topics collaboration

The Amazon River flowing through the rainforest

The Core Topics Collaboration works to improve essential Wikipedia topics. The current collaboration is Amazon rainforest.

The Amazon Rainforest (Brazilian Portuguese: Floresta Amazônica or Amazônia; Spanish: Selva Amazónica or Amazonía) is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon Basin of South America. The area, also known as Amazonia, the Amazon jungle or the Amazon Basin, encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), though the forest itself occupies some 5.5 million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres), located within nine nations: Brazil (with 60 percent of the rainforest), Peru (with 13 percent of the rainforest, second after Brazil), Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations bear the name Amazonas after it. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

You can help pick the next Core Topic collaboration article.

Collaborations by topic

Other collaborations

Active improvement teams

• Countering systemic bias
• Version 1.0
• Cleanup Taskforce
• Spam fighting team
• Categorization projects

WikiProjects

WikiProjects are ongoing team efforts to improve articles having to do with a particular subject, and to manage the logistics of that topic. Hundreds exist—examine the master list to find one that interests you. They are separate from, though may work with, Collaborations.

Language translation

Wikipedia is not just in English. Versions exist in many different languages. To fill in some of the English Wikipedia's gaps, we translate articles from other languages into English. You can view a list of articles that need translation from any language, or, in a few cases, by only one language (this is only available for the more popular languages).

Guidelines, help & resources

Wikipedia has many help pages, policies, and departments. Here are some of the most general. For a comprehensive list of Wikipedia's departments, see the Wikipedia department directory.

Help

• Wikipedia help – Browse help pages
• Where to ask questions

Editing

• The Manual of Style guidelines and tutorial
• How to edit a page
• Contributing
• How to write a great article
• Where to find information for articles
• A list of template messages
• What special pages are
• Tools for editing
• Request newspapers or magazines

Policies and guidelines

Wikipedia has many established policies, guidelines, conventions, and traditions. This is a very brief sampling of some of the most important; for more information, see the main policies and guidelines page. Policies and guidelines apply to both articles and how to work with fellow editors. For easy access, the shortcuts to the pages are also listed.

Article standards

Working with others

Resources

New user information

Introduction · Sandbox · Help · Adoption · What Wikipedia is not · Glossary · Account benefits · Planning school assignments

Ways to communicate

Contact (overview) · Discussion pages · Mailing lists · IRC chat · Meetups · User pages · Requests for comment · Public watchlists · Regional notice boards · Administrators' noticeboard · Requests for article feedback · Local Embassy

Community support groups and programs

Welcoming committee · Editor assistance · Wiki-adoption · Birthday Committee · Harmonious editing club · Kindness Campaign · Reach out · Stress alerts · Wikipedia awards program · Dept. of Fun · One featured article per quarter · Missing encyclopedic articles

Common procedures

Featured content · Good articles · Requests for feedback · Deleting a page (full policy) · Moving a page (naming policies) · Protecting a page (full policy) · Reverting a page · Administrator nominations (summaries) · Category-based access

How to resolve conflicts

Stay cool! · Be nice to newcomers · Alert others · Dispute resolution · Arbitration policy

Community information

About Wikipedia · Goings-on · About Wikimedia · Wikipedians · Wiki-adoption · Donations · Administrators · Babel · Culture · Games · Humor · Mottoes

Related communities

Tip of the day...

It is proper "Wikiquette" (WI-kee-ket) to sign your messages on talk pages. When you edit a message, at the top of the edit box is a row of square buttons. One of them looks like a signature (). When you click on it, it inserts the signature code (~~~~) wherever the blinking cursor is. When you save the page, this code is converted to your signature followed by a date stamp. You can also type in the code manually. To sign without a date stamp, use three tildes (~~~) instead.

Bonus tip: you can customize your signature in your preferences menu.

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