User talk:JMF
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The Signpost: 2 August 2026
[edit]- In the media: Union drive, most prolific editor make headlines
AI's impact on Wikipedia, World Cup editing, and encyclopedia's place in public life.
- News and notes: Foundation rejects voluntary recognition of union, proposed board eligibility rules sharply restrict candidates
Further: harassment allegations at Wikimania, and new RfC for Abstract Wikipedia.
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A recap of Noé Gasparini's Wikimania 2026 presentation on the variety of wikipress outlets.
- In focus: Is Larry Sanger the co-founder of Wikipedia?
A look over the years.
- Arbitration report: Think, and not just about content
ArbCom continues business.
- News from Diff: Meet the Wikimedians of the Year 2026!
Wikimedians of the Year 2026 announced at Wikimania 2026 - Paris.
- On the bright side: The beautiful game
2026 Men's FIFA World Cup, Wikimania music, and wikipress.
- Traffic report: Odyssey and Oyarzabal
To take you in the sun to (Ithaca), to show you the World Cup, it's the time of the season for editing!
- Comix: Well-spotted
You dasherdly—dash–dash−dash-dash!
(This message was sent to User talk:John Maynard Friedman and is being posted here due to a redirect.)
Infobox help
[edit]I saw you were trying to build an Infobox... One of the few areas of the wiki I am VERY familiar with. Happy to help if I can? What's the topic? Give me the rundown! Zackmann (Talk to me/What I been doing) 22:00, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
- And I thought you liked to steer clear of flame wars!
. I think my stone soup is almost ready to serve but see Talk:January 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)#Pending edit war over a very strange opening sentence and in particular Talk:January 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)#Suggested solution: an infobox. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 22:13, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
Your thread has been archived
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Hello JMF! The thread you created at the Teahouse, You can still read the archived discussion. If you have follow-up questions, please .
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ART/MK
[edit]Thanks for your clean up of the Milton Keynes public art article, I dream of a proper list of works, but other than ART UK have struggled to find a definitive list. It would be a great project for the next few years! I've recently uploaded a few from a recent trip to MK. No Swan So Fine (talk) 19:45, 19 August 2026 (UTC)
- The Parks Trust page I put in External Links has a good selection. Of course they won't have the two young women outside the library or Frink's Black Horse outside Lloyds Bank. So yes, a real labour of love for someone. The challenge will be to demonstrate notability by external references. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 22:51, 19 August 2026 (UTC)
The Signpost: 24 August 2026
[edit]- News and notes: Union process progresses, unanswered questions about Littler Mendelson remain
And Raju Narisetti leaves WMF board after nine years.
- In the media: Wikipedia editors save Sam Altman's life
Can AI do that? Meanwhile, Ruwiki gives porn the shaft, and has Grokipedia ghosted?
- Recent research: Women in blue? Wikipedia's gender gap reverses in some areas
And other new research findings.
- Discussion report: Again and Again
The community comes to consensus.
- Traffic report: Look out, here comes the Spider-Man!
Plus The Odyssey and varied topics caught in his web.
- Humour: Her tastes, her Wikimania, her upcoming tour... Baby Globe reveals everything
A short (parody) interview with Baby Globe via the French wikipress outlet, Regards sur l’Actualité du mouvement Wikimédia (RAW).
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Blue Angels, Indigenous Peoples' Day, and the Perseids meteor shower.
- Opinion: Are we embarrassed yet?
One editor wants to find out more about a Department of Justice investigation of Wikipedia and its editors.
- Special report: Paris Syndrome: Labor Strife, AI Anxiety, and a Leadership Test at Wikimania 2026
Notes from a delightful Wikimania and the ugly week that followed.
- Comix: WP:FAOWN
"Explaining civilly" probably should go both ways...
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Note
[edit]Please note that the current consensus is not to change Kiev to Kyiv in historical contexts. Thanks. Mellk (talk) 19:48, 30 August 2026 (UTC)
hyphens
[edit]Sadly, they've done lots of science-fiction changes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Amakuru Vicarage (talk) 16:37, 4 September 2026 (UTC)
- @Vicarage: Let's let the discussion play out at Talk:Science fiction convention#hyphen first. It can be counter-productive to get into a move/revert war.
- Meanwhile, the best approach is to leave an invitation at every affected SF talk page to contribute to the discussion. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 16:44, 4 September 2026 (UTC) edited to clarify that I mean affected articles only. -- 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 18:48, 4 September 2026 (UTC)
- I plan to do nothing, I focus on Wikidata now. Glad you've taken this up. Vicarage (talk) 17:21, 4 September 2026 (UTC)
A brownie for you!
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Just a small thanks for being so easygoing at the RM - I hope you don't take offense in me cutting to the chase with the close but I've just seen countless examples at which something like this can drag out for months... Anyways have a great day, Squawk7700 (talk) 22:18, 4 September 2026 (UTC) |
- @Squawk7700: It wasn't difficult - two sections with the same name is just asking for trouble in the normal course of events. It must play merry hell with any automatic processing. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 22:27, 4 September 2026 (UTC)
Old Style and New Style conversions
[edit]A few weeks ago you recommended I work on these, and today I was bored so I did:
- Template:New Style to Old Style (Russian)
- Template:Old Style to New Style (Russian)
- Template:New Style to Old Style (British)
- Template:Old Style to New Style (British)
What do you think? 🎸平沢唯は俺の嫁🐱 (talk | contribs | Yui shrine) 09:30, 15 September 2026 (UTC)
- @ILoveHirasawaYui: You are a hero (and a sucker for a hard-luck story )!
- This is great, but the 'British' version hits the dreaded start of year problem. You have handled it "according to the book", but most people don't. My first test was with Robert Hooke and here is the footnote I wrote there:
These dates are according to the Julian calendar, which was still in use in England at the time. His date of death raises an additional complication: formally the civil year began on 25 March although common practice then as now was to start the year on 1 January. Thus his legal date of death was 3 March 1702 but was 3 March 1703 according to common usage and as shown here. According to the dual dating practice at the time it would have been recorded in church records as 3 March 1702/3. Wikipedia follows the convention adopted by most modern historical writing of retaining the dates according to the Julian calendar but taking the year as starting on 1 January rather than 25 March. (According to the Gregorian calendar that was used in most of Europe, he was born on 28 July 1635 and died on 14 March 1703. The deviation between the calendars grew from ten to eleven days between his birth and his death because the Julian calendar had a 29 February 1700 but the Gregorian calendar did not. For a more detailed explanation, see Calendar (New Style) Act 1750.
- Using {{Old Style to New Style (British)}}, 3 March 1702 [N.S. 14 March 1703] was his correct legal date of death and the conversion is spot on.
- Using {{Old Style to New Style (British)}}, 3 March 1703 [N.S. 14 March 1704] was not his date of death as conventionally recorded and the conversion is spot off.
- Using {{Old Style to New Style (Russian)}}, 3 March [N.S. 14 March] 1703 was his date of death as conventionally recorded and the conversion is spot on.
- So what to do? Would it make sense simply to change the name of the templates? So the current "(British)" would become "(British legal)" and current "(Russian)" would just drop the disambiguator? [That would mean that it would replace the current template - no tears shed there! but you would have to accept
3 March | 1703as a valid alternative input (and discard the supplied manual conversion}.] - The same logic might apply to {{New Style to Old Style (British)}},
- Using {{New Style to Old Style (British)}} gives 14 March 1703 [O.S. 3 March 1702] which again is legally correct but unconventional. "(British legal)" would make it unambiguous.
- If you accept my suggestion, the next stage will be to open it up for wider discussion because this topic is not really my field, I just fell into it in passong. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 17:21, 15 September 2026 (UTC)
- I don't think this is necessary, because if we're writing both the Old Style and New Style dates anyway, it doesn't make any sense for the Old Style date to use the conventional year instead of the legal one. People understand which exact date we're talking about because the Gregorian date is there, and the whole point of dual dating is to put both the Gregorian/conventional year and the legal one. Also, we'd run into the problem of when exactly the convention was for years to begin on 1 January.
- But I do think it's a good idea to rename the templates to something else, which makes it clear that the only difference between them is the date of New Year's in the Old Style. Maybe "Gregorian to Julian"/"Julian to Gregorian" for Russian, and "British Old Style to New Style"/"New Style to British Old Style" for British. Funnily enough, I had my edit to Unification of Moldavia and Wallachia reverted because "there's nothing russian here". I didn't know how to explain that it's just a badly named template. 🎸平沢唯は俺の嫁🐱 (talk | contribs | Yui shrine) 21:55, 15 September 2026 (UTC)
- I have to emphasise that the strict legal form (y/c 25 March) of an Old Style date is very rarely used when writing about historical events - and when it is, the author will take pains to make that clear, because it is unconventional. Thus, for most articles on Wikipedia, the type of conversion required for dates in British and American history is actually the one you have called "Russian". Equally, for some articles, the one you have called "British" is required and their editors will thank you for having created it.
- It is for these reasons and following the precedent of PRIMARYTOPIC, I want to reiterate firmly my view that you should discard the disambiguator "Russian" from those pair of templates and qualify the pair you have called "British" as "Legal British".
- I have an inkling of much time you must have spent on getting these templates working and I really appreciate that and thank you for having done so. But the real mark of success will be that editors start using them. Unfortunately your current choice of names is a significant obstacle to that happening. That eventuality would pain me as it would mean that I have wasted your good will on a fruitless exercise. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 23:07, 15 September 2026 (UTC)
- You're right that the legal form of the Old Style was rarely used... on its own. But it was very commonly used in dual dating alongside the Gregorian calendar, which is exactly what the template is doing. Anyway, I've renamed the templates to these names, which will hopefully make their function unambigious:
- 🎸平沢唯は俺の嫁🐱 (talk | contribs | Yui shrine) 01:24, 16 September 2026 (UTC)
- Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote
Equally, for some articles, the one you have called "British" is required and their editors will thank you for having created it.
It is definitely needed. Your name has the benefit that "Annunciation style" was not just British (and not even strictly British as in "Great Britain" because Scotland stopped using it "after the last day of 1599"). - So time for you to formally announce the release of the templates in new sections of the various existing OS2NS/NS2OS talk pages! 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 10:46, 16 September 2026 (UTC)
- Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote
The Signpost: 16 September 2026
[edit]- News and notes: The Balance of Power
Wikimedia employees unionize, officer departs, The Signpost gains sister on Wiktionary
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The image gallery anyone can edit.
- Disinformation report: Have UN Secretary-General candidates manipulated Wikipedia?
Speaking diplomatically, not all of them.
- Recent research: Google's AI overviews may have reduced search engine referrals to English Wikipedia by 5%
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- WikiConference report: The backwater symbiosis – reflections from Wiki Conference India 2026
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The recently deceased dominate while still leaving room for some entertainment.
- Serendipity: Wikipedia Family Mosh Pit
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- Obituary: Passing of Gobonobo, community leader advocating for women and minorities
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- On the bright side: Fantasy video games, hopeful science fiction, and the change of seasons
The Legend of Zelda, Star Trek, and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
- Comix: The Adventure of the Unknown Corpse
An elementary case for fiction's greatest detective.
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Books & Bytes – Issue 76
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Issue 76, July–August 2026
- New partnership: The Chronicle of Higher Education
- New Partnership Manager joins the team
- Spotlight: TWL page on Meta
Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team – 11:45, 23 September 2026 (UTC)
(This message was sent to User:JMF and is being posted here due to a redirect.)
You are wrong in your comment. When the long s was used, it was normally used at the beginning and at the middle of words, and the short s was used at the end of words. Burzuchius (talk) 20:04, 28 September 2026 (UTC)
- @Burzuchius: To be more precise, never used as a capital letter. Either way, the claim was an unsourced conjecture and had to go. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 20:22, 28 September 2026 (UTC)
looptail and opentail g
[edit]I agree with your maintenance of the examples on G, though there are some outliers like Fira Sans that are sans-serif with a looptail glyph, and apparently a very small few that are serif with opentail glyphs (Google Fonts serif g). Perhaps using images as ⟨
, 
⟩ could be preferable to avoid any potential for confusion, regardless of fonts in use. ~ oklopfer (💬︎) 20:47, 28 September 2026 (UTC)
- Good idea, I'll try that. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 06:07, 29 September 2026 (UTC)
Signing Comments
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Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. When you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, such as at User talk:~2026-52972-59, please be sure to sign your posts (but never when editing articles). There are two ways to do this. Either:
- Add four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment, or
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located above the edit window.
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This will automatically insert a signature with your username and the time you posted the comment. This information is necessary to allow other editors to easily see who wrote what and when.
You've been here more than two decades, and I'm relatively still the new kid on the block. I used the standard template that ironically begins with "Welcome to Wikipedia". Thanks, nevertheless, for reading this, and for indulging me! 😞 Enćenćecasïdća (talk) 11:58, 2 October 2026 (UTC)
- By the way, on that Talk Page, I used the Template:Unsigned. Enćenćecasïdća (talk) 12:01, 2 October 2026 (UTC)
- @Enćenćecasïdća: yes it is true that I failed to sign my message, but your response is an (unintended, I assume) over-reaction. I guess that you were not aware of a few conventions that apply in this case (and that you need bear in mind for future reference}:
- For simple one-of errors that are not yet another instance of careless or inconsiderate editing, just fix the error and move on.
- The edit-warning suite of messages are primarily intended for new editors and are carefully worded accordingly. It is generally inappropriate to issue a template warning to an experienced editor, again unless it is in response to yet another instance of careless or inconsiderate editing and then only after you have you raised the issue informally and briefly on a previous occasion. Be very careful not to engage in WP:HOUNDING.
- If the offending edit was done using the mobile interface, be particularly forgiving.
- 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 10:21, 3 October 2026 (UTC)
- @Enćenćecasïdća: yes it is true that I failed to sign my message, but your response is an (unintended, I assume) over-reaction. I guess that you were not aware of a few conventions that apply in this case (and that you need bear in mind for future reference}:
The Signpost: 13 October 2026
[edit]- News and notes: AELECT returns, Jimbo gives a union update, VisualEditor is now default
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A cross-country and cross-wikipedia comparison of the likelihood of having a biography in Wikipedia.
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about what happened with the E wikipedia page
[edit]hi, why was my version of the E wikipedia pag removed because of the "silly list of languages" because I included asian languages and a lot of southeastern languages use the letter E, so i pointed this out. it does not make sense why you listed this as silly. Besides, are you a moderator? 55618sh (talk) 14:55, 30 October 2026 (UTC)
- @55618sh: Thank you for raising this directly with me (per WP:BRD) rather than counter-reverting.
- I removed it because it is detailed material that does not belong in the lead. WP:LEAD says that the purpose of the lead (opening) paragraph(s) is to summarise the key points of the article. So "used by a variety of European and some Asian languages" is a summary, listing those languages is not. It is the job of the body text to say what they are (and how the letter is used in them. "Silly" was an inappropriate word to use and I withdraw it. That does not change the fact that it doesn't belong in the lead. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 15:50, 30 October 2026 (UTC)
- I'm new sometimes i forget to do that (facepalm emoji) 55618sh (talk) 16:13, 30 October 2026 (UTC)
The Signpost: 1 November 2026
[edit]- News and notes: AELECT5 concludes, a Wikimedian arrested for treason, and updates to GANs and FARs
Nine new admins, three arrests, and a lot of GAN RFCs.
- Recent research: How Wikipedians use (or don't use) LLMs; experienced editors contribute more to "underproduced" articles than newbies
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Have the Borg landed on Wikipedia?
- In the media: Stop the internet, I was deleted
Can toeing the line stop the apocalypse?
- News from Diff: Why Wikimedia Is Speaking Up in a Major AI Copyright Case
When AI companies use copyrighted information, does it qualify as fair use?
- By the numbers: Wikipedian Nobel Prize 2026
Which language versions of Wikipedia had biographies of laureates before Nobel announcements?
- On the bright side: Gone fishing
Touring Thailand, exploring iridescence, and translating prairie dog.
- Traffic report: October, and the articles are stripped bare
Lots of deaths, Indian movies, and monsters. Happy Halloween!
- In focus: Two Roles, One Wikimedia Education Ecosystem
What happens when different approaches to Wikimedia education connect?
- Comix: Inactivity
Zounds!
