Wikipedia:Simple talk/Archive 92

This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Normally I wouldn't make a request for a specific article, but I think that it is important for us to have good articles on major world religions. I am currently undertaking a major simplification of Hinduism. The page already has lots of uncited stuff, and some rather POV statements; and some of it is difficult to simplify. I am doing my best, but if anybody is familiar with the religion, I would highly appreciate somebody looking over my work. Thanks, Kansan (talk) 19:59, 29 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you get a chance head over to WP:RFD and weigh in on a few of the nominations, we have several with little or no input and even one that was relisted due to lack of input and still has not gotten any input and close to its extended closing date. chris†ianrocker90 23:07, 29 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We have seven PADs right now, and little to no hope of giving each the attention deserved. We probably should extend the time limit on the existing ones, so we have a hope of fixing them Purplebackpack89≈≈≈≈ 19:07, 1 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would agree, but only if someone shows any interest in actively fixing them. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:23, 1 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I have been a member of en:wiki for a few years and am interested in helping out here. I am wondering if it is acceptable to translate en:wiki articles into Simple English? I would guess much the same occurs with languages. Thanks Martyx (talk) 14:45, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hello and welcome. Yes, you can do that, although attribution is required (a note on the talk page would do). You can copy the article into your userspace (or have it done for you), simplify it, then move it into mainspace. Thanks and welcome aboard! Kansan (talk) 14:47, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your very quick response! I have noticed that help is needed with PAD so I will also look there. •martyx• talkcontribgallery 14:54, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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All the articles listed at PAD need a lot of work to keep their current status - I am not really sure you know the amount of work involved there. My current take on these articles is that it is probably better to demote them now, and go through the procedure again, once they are close...--Eptalon (talk) 18:15, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

From what I've seen I think you are correct. It does look like alot of work •martyx• talkcontribgallery 09:13, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Guys, I don't want to overload the demotions page but I want us to look seriously at saving Giant panda from demotion. Primarily we have at least five dead links which must be addressed. I've tweaked a fair bit of the article, but we can't sustain a GA which has 20% dead linkage. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:43, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm at work right now so can't give it the thorough attention a GA should at the moment, but this evening, I'd be willing to try to find alternative citations for anything deadlinked (and more thoroughly copyedit/review the article). Kansan (talk) 19:46, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't really think it's being overloaded - all the articles that are coming through are the 'early' GAs and VGAs from 2008 when the system was incepted, and standards do in general seem to be much lower than they are now - all the articles from late 08-09 onwards don't seem to have (as m)any issues. Just nom it, imo. Goblin 19:53, 4 May 2011 (UTC) I ♥ Pmlineditor![reply]

I'll give Kansan and anyone else who's bothered a couple of days grace. Then it'll head to PAD. Cheers guys. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:59, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Fair comment :) - agree fwiw. Kudos to Kansan for taking the time to try and go through a number of the articles and save them! Goblin 21:48, 4 May 2011 (UTC) I ♥ Barras![reply]

• I mentioned something to this effect on the Giant panda talk page, but it seems that most of the dead links are to newspaper articles about zoos getting pandas, and these articles (often dated to several years ago) being used as evidence that these zoos have pandas. Furthermore, these are all being synthesized together as evidence that there are exactly 12 zoos in the world outside of China that have this animal. I don't think this is best; I think it's better that we look for up to date sources (nothing before 2011) and try to list whatever examples we can instead of giving an exact number of zoos. This way, it's more likely to stay accurate over time. Kansan (talk) 06:35, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

  this website lists the pandas, although don't know if it's up to date. Yottie ^=talk= 08:15, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

  A couple of the pictures of the panda's have dates as of Feb. 2011 so the list is probably kept up to date. -DJSasso (talk) 11:35, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, another one. This was promoted over three years ago and is now showing its age. Please address the following or it will be nominated for demotion as I feel it is now nowhere near our current expectations for good article quality.

• Just three in-line citations is woefully inadequate.
• Five of the six references are in German. This is Simple English Wikipedia. This is a bad thing.
• The two "other websites" are in German. See above.
• In fact, the only thing referenced in English is the population, and that has a 2010 projection figure which isn't mentioned here...
• The en.wiki article is about twice the size with many more sections making for more complete coverage, this should be reflected here.
• Bern is a disambiguation page.
• Sections like "Geography", "Places of interest", "Transportation" are completely unreferenced.
• What are things like "Burghalde", "Aquatinta"?

Overall, it's a poor, small article and shouldn't be GA. If anyone who knows the subject matter better is prepared to fix these things, let me know, otherwise I'll send it to WP:PAD in a few days. The Rambling Man (talk) 19:58, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's really lacking in references. There are many other issues but I've tagged a few of the main problems. I'll just pop over to WP:PAD to nominate this one for demotion now. Please do your best to save it. The Rambling Man (talk) 20:18, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We still have too many irons in the fire at PAD. Purplebackpack89≈≈≈≈ 21:07, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No-one's doing anything about them either. I'm just embarrassed that this Wikipedia has so many weak articles which are claiming to be "the best" we can offer. I don't want to see Hendrix on the main page with so many {{cn}} templates. It needs to be fixed or demoted. The Rambling Man (talk) 21:17, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed with TRM - the articles are in an awful state by-and-large (See comment above) and it's much better to get rid of them completely than it is to hang around and not nominate them because 'we already have enough'. Why not do something about it and fix them, then? It looks better to have lots of bad articles up for demotion than lots of bad articles being showcased as our best. Kudos to TRM for taking the time to go through them all. Goblin 21:46, 4 May 2011 (UTC) I ♥ Juliancolton![reply]

For what it's worth I think any article that isn't up to scratch should be sent to PAD unless an editor is actively trying to fix it. Our wiki, with the low editor count, can be slow to fix articles, so in the interest of keeping the best of the best on the main page I think it's best to demote, and then in our own time bring them back up to scratch. That is the way this wiki seems to work best. Kudos to the editors working to fix these articles up. I am very guilty of not doing enough in terms of good content creation, and I think those working to keep these articles good should be thanked.--Gordonrox24 | ^Talk 21:56, 4 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi guys, Another daft question (You'll get used to these!). Can I place draft articles in a draft, i.e. HTC/Draft, or should I use my own space for this purpose i.e. User:Martyx/HTC ? •martyx• talkcontribgallery 09:16, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You should use your userspace for drafts, and then you can move them into the mainspace when they are finished - subpages are discouraged(?) in the mainspace. Goblin 10:27, 5 May 2011 (UTC) I ♥ Pmlineditor![reply]

I did think that. Just wanted to confirm. Thanks •martyx• talkcontribgallery 12:01, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Where can I found some page on Wikipedia that's explaining slightly the difference between simple English and complicated English? — This unsigned comment was added by Farizluqman (talk • changes).

Basic English might help. Or maybe Wikipedia:How to write Simple English pages. Deadstar (talk) 15:06, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Whilst I'm always one for being WP:BOLD. Since this is my first time, I thought I would check with you guys first before merrily overwriting existing articles. Please see Talk:HTC Corporation, Talk:Smartphone, and Business alliance. I will also be creating en:Open Handset Alliance as these are all linked to the HTC article. I'm not a big fan of redlinks! •martyx• talkcontribgallery 11:39, 6 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

They all look fine to me - it's a wiki so you're more than welcome to edit, and completely over-writing existing articles is fine if it's in the name of improvement, all of which your suggested changes are - good work! Goblin 15:45, 7 May 2011 (UTC) I ♥ Microchip08![reply]

Each week on New Changes, two new article titles appear as part of TotW. How are they decided? People vote. Well, actually very few people vote. If anyone active here on Simple could take a few minutes once in a while to vote it would really help. This project seems like a natural part of the purpose of Simple English Wikipedia. If translations are done here (often from en to simple) then it should help translators in other languages too. It would be a good way to show the value of Simple to other wikis. Some of the candidates are really interesting, but some are actually quite hard to translate. If a few of us vote, we should see some great new articles here on Simple with lots of interwiki links.

Thanks, Gotanda (talk) 03:13, 7 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I notice something: does this wiki have anything about vandalism? Like a WikiProject about vandalism, or a category or something. The other Wikipedia has a Vandalism study. I'm wondering...does this one have something like that to? Thanks! 67.142.161.18 (talk) 13:36, 7 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We all monitor RC's and we've got bots also. As for a wikiproject, they tend to die fast. Furthermore, everyone nobody that would join such a thing is already watching. If you with to get involved, feel free. fr33kman 14:43, 7 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Got it, thanks for the info. 67.142.161.18 (talk) 15:19, 7 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I came across Schools-Wikipedia.org yesterday, and thought that by simplifying some of the articles from there we could get some nice articles, potentially GA/VGA. Some may be a little out of date, but the articles were checked before being chosen, so there shouldn't be an issue with the content of a lot of them. Just need refs and simplification. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know about this, I'm going ahead with it. Help would be appreciated. Yottie ^=talk= 16:24, 7 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Announcing the Derby Multilingual Challenge This is the first multilingual Wikipedia collaboration. All Wikipedians can take part, in any Wikipedia language. The challenge runs from 1 May until 3 September 2011. Sign up now! " Wikipedia is particularly pleased to see that Derby Museums are encouraging the creation of articles in languages other than English." (Jimmy Wales, 14 January 2011)

Andrew Dalby (talk) 13:53, 2 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Translated" - nothing needs changing to Simple really, though perhaps someone else can glance an eye on the ol' message. I'll be taking part, that's for sure - I am down the road after all! ;-) Goblin 21:49, 4 May 2011 (UTC) I ♥ Belinda![reply]

Will join! --SEPTActaMTA8235 15:43, 9 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is an entry from "Pigs on the Wing" below. In the lead at present are Catalan, Indonesian, Russian and about 25 other languages. Come on Simple only about 2-3% are yours so far! Show yourselves off Victuallers (talk) 21:34, 9 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

...is invisible. Propose those centralize on Simple Talk. Jon@talk:~$ 16:12, 8 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion review? Yottie ^=talk= 16:16, 8 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Generally they just sit there until there is a consensus for them to be undeleted. And eventually if no one speaks up for it they are removed. Nothing out of the ordinary is happening there. Its not a formal process like deletion. It's usually obvious pretty quickly if something should be undeleted. Those that just sit there generally shouldn't. -DJSasso (talk) 18:48, 8 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if this is too serious, but whenever I look this wiki up through Google, the results come up with the Simple English Wikipedia. Now the 1st result, underneath it says that this wiki is intended for people who's first language is not English. Can anybody fix that? Reverter (talk) 13:57, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That is correct. This wikipedia is for people who do not speak english as a first language. If you speak english as a first language the English wikipedia is more appropriate for most people. -DJSasso (talk) 13:59, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As far as I know, this wiki is intended for people whose first language is not English, so there is nothing to fix really. NotImportant (talk) 14:01, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

English is my native language but they use such complex words and phrases on en, I much prefer this wiki. chris†ianrocker90 15:07, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I echo CR90. Also, I have read many reviews saying that it has helped English/American people understand complex articles on enwp. But initially it wasn't really intended for native speakers. Yottie ^=talk= 15:09, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, thanks for the info. I misunderstood it; I thought some vandal changed it so people would think we speak German or something...I've really got to cut off the sugar:) Reverter (talk) 17:32, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've copied an en.wikipeida article I wrote , The King of Rome, and edited it here. Any constructive comments appreciated! Pigsonthewing (talk) 20:09, 9 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I see that your article is now available in 4 or 5 languages. Impressive. There are now 6 editors from languages like Czech, Catalan, Russian who are in the lead at the moment. Victuallers (talk) 15:20, 13 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I need an article created or imported/simplified from en but I don't have the knowledge to accurately do it so I was wondering if anyone could do it for me? It's Plexiglas, if anyone can, thanks. chris†ianrocker90 15:06, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'll get to it; it depends on how much time I have. However, I'll have a 400+ word article up by May 12, 2011, at 24:59 UTC. Reverter (talk) 18:47, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've imported it and moved it to User:Christianrocker90/Poly(methyl methacrylate). You can work on simplification there. Either way (talk) 21:03, 10 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have proposed a guideline here. chris†ianrocker90 13:58, 13 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]