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Latest comment: 8 days ago by MediaWiki message delivery in topic The Signpost: 24 August 2026


Research info from User:Cunard

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(copied from his talkpage)

I find a lot of the sources through databases available through Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library (TWL) as well as other databases I have access to. When searching for sources for AfD, the resources I find most useful are the British Newspaper Archive, EBSCO, Gale (Wikipedia:Gale), ProQuest, and Wikipedia:Newspapers.com, and to a much lesser extent Wikipedia:Newspaperarchive.com. I also have access to NewsBank which The Wikipedia Library is missing. NewsBank frequently has sources that the other databases don't have (and vice versa). Some academic institutions and public libraries grant access to NewsBank. I also do searches on Internet Archive, Google, Google Books, Google News, and Google Scholar.

Using Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Oasis (British TV series) as an example: For Oasis (British TV series), I was able to find a television review in The Stage via the British Newspaper Archive and ProQuest as well several articles in Newspapers.com. Compared to to topics with unique names, it was more difficult to find sources for Oasis, which is a common name. I refined the search by searching for "Oasis" and people or topics related to the television series such as "Carlton Television", "Carlton", "ITV", "CITV", "Zenith North", "Dean Gaffney", "John Simm", "Posh Robert", "wasteland", "The Jungle", and "Byker Grove" which helped filter out irrelevant results. Another tip is I used quotation marks around search terms so that the query returned only results with those exact phrases. When there were too many results, I also refined the searches by narrowing search results to the years 1992 to 1994 since the television series aired in 1993. For some topics, I do several combinations of searches in multiple places which is why for some of the harder cases it takes me between one and three hours for source searches.

Cunard (talk) 09:32, 27 August 2024 (UTC) )Reply

The Signpost: 10 March 2026

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  • Special report: What actually happened during the Wikimedia security incident?
    A horrifying exploit took place, which could have had catastrophic and far-reaching consequences if used maliciously; instead, it seems to have happened by accident and was used for childish vandalism. How did this happen, and what did the script actually do?

The Signpost: 31 March 2026

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Wikipedia:Destubathon of the Americas

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You are invited to participate in the Destubathon of the Americas, a contest/editathon which will run from May 1 to May 31. The goal is to destub as many of our 475,000+ stubs for the Americas (from Alaska down to Chile) as possible. A good chance to have fun in expanding many of our old stale stubs and win up to £2000 ($2680) in Amazon vouchers for expanding stub articles. Sign up in the Contestants/participants section on the contest page if interested. Even if not interested in prizes you are still warmly welcome to participate in it as an editathon! Hopefully we can achieve something significant in the month of May together! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:34, 15 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 21 April 2026

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The Signpost: 22 May 2026

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  • Recent research: WikiLambda the Ultimate
    Does Abstract Wikipedia help fight "One ring to rule them all" solutions for knowledge access - or does it implement one itself?
  • Gallery: Earth Day and Mother's Day
    Earth Day was on 22 April, and Mother's Day was on 10 May (in the US and many other countries).

Hiya!

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Sorry abt the misunderstanding. My talk page has sections, which are linked on there. Here is the complaints section, where your message is: User talk:Spravato/Complaints. I have no COI, but sometimes I get impulsive and just act on bad ideas basically. If admins feel a TBan is needed I can take that tho. 🥤Spravato!🍒/🧋 06:47, 12 June 2026 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 21 June 2026

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ANI notice

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Information icon There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is Conduct concern regarding User:Softlavender at AfD. Bes2224 (talk) 11:30, 10 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 13 July 2026

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  • News and notes: An exclusive club
    Wikipedia Co-Founder Larry Sanger gets a community ban for canvassing.
  • In the media: Battle for a soul – who won?
    Commissars, winners and losers, blocks or bans, a Wiki red card, social engineering on wikis, and Swift action!

Articles for Creation backlog drive

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Hello Softlavender:

WikiProject Articles for creation is holding a month long Backlog Drive in August!
The goal of this drive is to reduce the backlog of unreviewed drafts to less than a month of outstanding reviews from the current 3+ months. Bonus points will be given for reviewing drafts that have been waiting more than 30 days. The drive is running from 1 August 2026 through 31 August 2026.

You may find Category:AfC pending submissions by age or other categories and sorting helpful.

Barnstars will be given out as awards at the end of the drive.
There is a backlog of over 5000 pages, so start reviewing drafts. We're looking forward to your help! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:38, 19 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

ITN recognition for Bill McGlaughlin

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On 31 July 2026, In the news was updated with an item that involved the article Bill McGlaughlin, which you updated. If you know of another recently created or updated article suitable for inclusion in ITN, please suggest it on the candidates page. Schwede66 07:59, 31 July 2026 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 2 August 2026

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  • 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!

File:Bill McGlaughlin recording Exploring Music.jpg listed for discussion

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A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Bill McGlaughlin recording Exploring Music.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for discussion. Please see the discussion to see why it has been listed (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry). Feel free to add your opinion on the matter below the nomination. Thank you. Based5290 :3 (talk) 18:32, 2 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

Disputed non-free use rationale for File:Bill McGlaughlin recording Exploring Music.jpg

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Thank you for uploading File:Bill McGlaughlin recording Exploring Music.jpg. However, there is a concern that the rationale provided for using this file on Wikipedia may not meet the criteria required by Wikipedia:Non-free content. This can be corrected by going to the file description page and adding or clarifying the reason why the file qualifies under this policy. Adding and completing one of the templates available from Wikipedia:Non-free use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your file is in compliance with Wikipedia policy. Please be aware that a non-free use rationale is not the same as an image copyright tag; descriptions for files used under the non-free content policy require both a copyright tag and a non-free use rationale.

If it is determined that the file does not qualify under the non-free content policy, it might be deleted by an administrator seven days after the file was tagged in accordance with section F7 of the criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions, please ask them at the media copyright questions page. Thank you. Wikipedian Talk to me! or not 22:25, 6 August 2026 (UTC)Reply

The Signpost: 24 August 2026

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  • On the bright side: The great outdoors
    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.
  • Comix: WP:FAOWN
    "Explaining civilly" probably should go both ways...