Wikipedia talk:Teahouse/Host lounge/Archive 11

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Archive 5 ← Archive 9 Archive 10 Archive 11 Archive 12 Archive 13 Archive 14

removal of profiles/check-in

I am at a loss for why I keep getting these notices. I make a point of answering questions at least once a week. Is that not enough? Gtwfan52 (talk) 01:41, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Updated wishlist and new guidelines page

Hi all! I've spent some time at Open Help Conference (with Ocaasi and a couple of others) this week working on an updated format for the Teahouse wishlist so that we can better describe new TH features and help each other work on creating them, tracking progress as we go, etc. It is now called the Wishing well. We've also started writing up a brief set of design/build guidelines to explain some of the original thinking behind Teahouse design for folks who want to join in making awesome things for Teahouse. :-) Looking forward to everyone's feedback! Siko (talk) 21:11, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Software support for Teahouse hosts (WP:Snuggle)

Hey folks. I've built and released a tool to help you identify good-faith newcomers in need of assistance/Teahouse invite. I'm posting to invite you to give it a try. Just point your browser to snuggle.grouplens.org to get started. The interface lists out newcomers sorted by a computed probability that they're acting in good faith using a system build on top of a reimagining of counter-vandal bot scores.

I'm really interested in making sure that Snuggle ends up being a useful tool for Teahouse hosts and wiki mentoring in general, so I'd like to hear your feedback. Thanks! --EpochFail(talk • work) 14:38, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Interesting, though since many of our invites are automated through HostBot, I'm not sure how much it will be used. Maybe talk to J-Mo and see if he can integrate this into HostBot somehow? Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 14:42, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
Snuggle isn't just for finding newcomers that need invitations. Snuggle is intended to be used to monitor good newcomers and support them as they learn to be productive editors. It's my hope that Snuggle ends up being complimentary to the Teahouse -- that when you're in a mentoring mood, you can use Snuggle to find newcomers who need a hand. Also, a quick scan through Snuggle's user browser suggests that HostBot is missing a lot of good newcomers. --EpochFail(talk • work) 14:03, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
Yeah, HostBot invites newcomers based on some pretty coarse-grained criteria. And it's limited (by the rules of the current approval) to ~100 new users per day. I'm sure there are a lot more newcomers waiting to be invited/mentored/snuggled out there. However, it WOULD be nice to integrate some of Snuggle's good-newcomer-identification special sauce into the HostBot invite criteria. - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 02:43, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
  • @EpochFail, Writ Keeper, and Jtmorgan: If the selection process was better for the editors that HostBot invites, I would say that it would be just cause to go back and request that the limit be raised from 100 to 250, 300, or even 500 invites per day... Technical 13 (talk) 11:51, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Visual editor going live

With the Visual Editor going live tonight, this is going to effect how we answer some questions as we're going to have to specify "how to" answers either in VE or under the current system or both. So - Q "How do I add references?" can't just be answered by "add <ref></ref> tags and put your reference text in between". NtheP (talk) 21:54, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Another heads up

Automatic enabling of Hot Cat in Special Preferences has been disabled following an RFC at Village Pump (policy). This means it's been disabled for everyone and needs to be re-enabled for us oldies or for new users enabled for the first time. NtheP (talk) 22:32, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

  • Yeah, I just noticed this and almost thought (gasp!) that HotCat was gone forever! Thanks for the reminder. I, Jethrobot drop me a line (note: not a bot!) 00:04, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Category cleanup

Hi. I was looking through the pages, and saw that Category:Wikipedia Teahouse has many editors' common.js/.css pages within it, due to "<noinclude>[[Category:Wikipedia Teahouse]]</noinclude>“ code...

Notes I made, which might help:

@Writ Keeper: as you might know in particular, if these categories have a valid need to remain. Thanks! –Quiddity (talk) 22:03, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

Nope, removed, along with a bunch of crap from people's .js/.css pages, including but not limited to the stray noinclude category (noinlude doesn't work on preloads) and misformatted CSS comments, all of which were probably breaking things. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 17:17, 6 July 2013 (UTC)
I'll be the first to admit I have no understanding of what you did on my CSS page, but thanks. Teahouse loads and functions much better now. Gtwfan52 (talk) 17:32, 6 July 2013 (UTC)
Start Snuggle

Wiki-mentors, I made you a tool. IRC discussion Wed. July 17th @ 1600 UTC

Snuggle users and the Teahouse are co-hosting an IRC office hours session (Wed. July 17th @ 1600 UTC - #wikimedia-office connect) to discuss the state of new editor support in Wikipedia and introduce you to WP:Snuggle, a web-based tool designed to make finding good-faith newcomers who need help fast and easy. Give it a try by pointing your browser to http://snuggle.grouplens.org.

See the agenda for more info. --EpochFail (talk), Technical 13 (talk), TheOriginalSoni (talk) 17:06, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

2013 Maître d'ing

Hey hosts-- I've covered maître d' duties for the rest of July and some of August; perhaps a few someones can pick up a week or two over the next few months? We've had a bit of a lull this summer. It's good to make sure we have someone checking on host responses, making sure that guests are aware when we move questions to the top, screening new hosts to make sure they seem reasonably prepared, etc. Let me know if you're signing up below. Thanks a bunch, I, Jethrobot drop me a line (note: not a bot!) 21:59, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

I also added in calendars for the rest of the months to round out the year. I, Jethrobot drop me a line (note: not a bot!) 22:23, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Teahouse Badges

Hey! Ocaasi suggested I work on the badge program here with everyone instead of posting on multiple talk pages about the work I have been doing on improving the layout, design, and functionality. So, here I am! I'll add a rundown of what I've come up with so far, and we can see what people like and don't like and see what we can do to make it look nice to everyone. I'm waiting on the bus home, so I need about 45 minutes to an hour. Technical 13 (talk) 20:15, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Okay, so it has been a little longer than 45 minutes... Got home to a chaotic house... Anyways, so far I've made the following changes:
On WP:Teahouse/Badge/Large I changed the padding a smidge and added a couple table rows to include the {{{message}}} and {{{signed}}} parameters when existent.
On WP:Teahouse/Badge/Format and WP:Teahouse/Badge/Answer I added some instructions to the documentation for the change in the large badge. /Format diff and /Answer diff.
Then, finally for the small badges I created a full set of -sandbox templates (WP:Teahouse/Host-sandbox, WP:Teahouse/Badge/Small-sandbox, WP:Teahouse/Badge/Host-sandbox, WP:Teahouse/Badge/Answer-sandbox, WP:Teahouse/Badge/Question-sandbox, WP:Teahouse/Badge/Easter_egg-sandbox, WP:Teahouse/Badge/Welcome-sandbox, WP:Teahouse/Badge/Genie-sandbox, WP:Teahouse/Badge/Maitre_d'-sandbox, and WP:Teahouse/Badge/Saucer-sandbox).
Specifically, I changed this stuff on host, this stuff on small, and added a qty parameter to the rest. Technical 13 (talk) 00:15, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
Oh, and a full test case can be seen for the small badges → User talk:TheOriginalSoni#Teahouse Badges Technical 13 (talk) 00:20, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

Posting the small badges here so everyone can see it. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 00:32, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host-sandbox

joined: 12:14, 29 March 2013 (UTC)


  • Are these new numbers functional, T13? TheOriginalSoni (talk) 14:18, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
    • They haven't been made live yet, and no-one is discussing it. User:Jtmorgan, since there are no objections, the only hold up I can see is a possible conflict with HostBot. I've been using the sandbox version for myself since I created it, has there been any problems with HostBot? I see that it still sees me and puts me in the "active hosts" box up top, but I'm not sure if that is just a queue of everyone based on an api call for recent edits. I would love to see this go live! Technical 13 (talk) 15:02, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
Reply I'd like to point out that Ocaasi made other comments on your talk page, Technical 13, that have not been addressed: "My visual instinct is that the numbers are too big and overshadow the actual small badges. I know you have some vision concerns, but they read as a bit blocky to me and I think smaller and a smoother font would be more aesthetically pleasing. As for other major changes like that, it'd be great if you could propose and discuss them; we have a couple designers working on Teahouse and certain elements are actually being tested to get metrics right now, so it might be wise to coordinate such changes with our research approach to make sure we're not changing course too much mid-test." I agree with Ocaasi but did not want to pile it on by repeating the same things, but arguably there are objections. Further, you have made a few other changes since this was proposed without discussing those, either. Please have patience with us. Not-talking about a particular thing does not imply an answer or an approval. heather walls (talk) 15:59, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
I thought there was another discussion some where, but my mind is stretched to the max with the "divorce" I'm dealing with and finals week. I have no problem with reducing the size a couple points, moving the number a few pixels further from the center, and/or picking a different font. Feel free to reformat it to look nice to "most" people. If you make the numbers too small, I'll simply wrap them in a class= and format them slightly larger for me locally and offer that code to anyone else interested. Happy editing!!! Technical 13 (talk) 21:33, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
Bumping thread for 60 days. Technical 13 (talk) 22:49, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

I would like to remove myself entirely from this project

Can't remember what I need to do. Seems I have to remove myself from the Host landing, is that correct? A little help please.--Amadscientist (talk) 18:49, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

I think that did it. If I have to remove anything else let me know. Good luck guys. I'll stop by once in a while to help without listing myself when time permits.--Amadscientist (talk) 00:23, 27 July 2013 (UTC)
I will re-add myself sometime in the near future. I still have a few things to sort out.--Mark Miller Just ask! WER TEA DR/N 21:45, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

Aligned project for teaching new editors about Wikipedia

Hi there! I thought hosts might be interested in The Wikipedia Adventure a project for an onboarding game that's currently in development and has some similar goals to the Teahouse. It also teaches new editors about the existence of Teahouse for getting help. Cheers! Siko (talk) 21:26, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

I just tried it. I don't know whether it is because I do not use the visual editor or because I already have a user and a talk page, but it hangs up whenever it wants to do something to my pages. Gtwfan52 (talk) 07:45, 16 August 2013 (UTC)
Hey Gtwfan52! The Wikipedia Adventure uses the visual editor. Not only that, but there's a visual editor bug which prevents guided tours from properly advancing. The first issue I can't fix for you ;) but it will be less of an issue when VE is out of beta. The second issue is coming down the code pipeline in the next few weeks (I hope). Curious to hear your thoughts about any parts of the adventure, working or not... cheers, Ocaasi t | c 09:02, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

What behavior are we reinforcing?

Is there any evidence that this has been happening here? The statement seems needlessly dramatic and honestly, I don't put much weight into it based on my experiences here, but I figured it might be worth discussing here if anybody had a legitimate concern about it. I, Jethrobot drop me a line (note: not a bot!) 15:05, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

No. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 15:26, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Looking for a few IEG members

Hey folks,

Awesome projects like the Teahouse were funded so that individuals could work on ideas they thought mattered to Wikipedia's community. We have a whole program dedicated to that called Individual Engagment Grants. Not only is our second round of funding starting up in October, but we are also looking for a few more Committee members. It's a neat gig, you get to help develop deas about improving Wikipedia from conception through to funding, and it's low on pressure but high on interesting ideas. Come and check it out: Join the committee. Cheers, Ocaasi t | c 00:46, 30 August 2013 (UTC)

Generation Wikipedia: Wikimeda Youth Conference

Hey Hosts,

I thought you might be interested in a proposal that I've been working on. It's up on Meta as an IEG submission: Generation Wikipedia Cheers, Ocaasi t | c 22:09, 24 September 2013 (UTC)

How often to use the Talkback template?

Just wondering how often I should use the Teahouse Talkback template for responses to a single question? If the guest has already responded to the first response to their question, do subsequent responses from a host in the same discussion merit additional Talkback templates being placed on their user talk page? Or is once enough, and we can assume that the guest is aware of the discussion and doesn't need any further notification of subsequent responses? AugurNZ ✐⌕ 23:04, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

  • I only use them the first time or if I ask a question that I don't get a response to in six to ten hours Technical 13 (talk) 23:19, 29 September 2013 (UTC)

Recent question

The "Emotional/Mental Therapy" question clearly isn't in the domain of the Teahouse. I have replied to the user on their talk page. Perhaps the question should be removed from the page? --LukeSurl t c 00:27, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Teahouse scripts

Are the Teahouse scripts not working? I've noticed that other scripts don't work for me now either like a few status changer scripts I've tried. Anyone else? — (っ◔◡◔)っRoss Hill 00:57, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Nevermind it's fixed. I had css code in my common.js. — (っ◔◡◔)っRoss Hill 01:12, 9 October 2013 (UTC)

Alpha Testers needed for The Wikipedia Adventure

Hi folks, I've been working for the past 7 months on an interactive guided tour for new editors called The Wikipedia Adventure, as part of a WMF Individual Engagement Grant. The game is an experiment in teaching our aspiring future editors in an education but playful way.

  • This week I need some alpha-testers to kick the tires and basically try to break it. I'm interested in general impressions and suggestions of course, but I'm really looking for gnarly, unexpected browser issues, layout problems, workflow bugs, and other sundry errors that would prevent people from playing through and having a positive experience.
  • If you're able to spend 1-3 hours doing some quality assurance work this week, you would have: a) my sincere gratitude b), a sparkly TWA barnstar, c) special thanks in the game credits, and d) left your mark on Wikipedia's outreach puzzle and new editor engagement efforts
  • Please note that the game automatically sends edits to your own userspace and it lets you know when that will happen. If you want, you can register a new testing account just for the game, but it won't work properly unless you're logged-in by step 8 of mission 1 when it lets you register on the fly.

If you're interested, please add your name below and have at it. You can post feedback to WP:TWA/Feedback. Thanks and cheers! Ocaasi t | c 20:51, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Try out The Wikipedia Adventure

I'm interested and on the bug-hunt. Will report back this week

  1. Yintan  09:23, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

Generation Wikipedia: Wikimeda Youth Conference Proposal

Hi folks! For the next round of Individual Engagement Grants from the WMF, Keilana and myself have proposed Generation Wikipedia, a pilot, week-long summer conference for young Wikipedians and Wikimedians from around the globe, to develop skills, leadership, and community in a safe environment. Please come and check it out: Generaton Wikipedia Cheers, Ocaasi t | c 02:44, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

Re-imagining Mentorship IEG proposal

Hi all!

An Individual Engagement Grant entitled "Reimagining Mentorship on Wikipedia" is currently under review at Meta. As part of our research into the best approach to take when we work on this project, we are seeking feedback and ideas on how to best achieve this project, and as the Teahouse is one forum that new users utilise a lot, I hope Teahouse hosts would consider giving feedback and comments on our proposal. It would be greatly appreciated! :) Steven Zhang (talk) 03:23, 24 October 2013 (UTC)

Duplicate "hosts"

Is it a mistake that Pratyya Ghosh, Jr8825 and Ocaasi occur twice each in the list? --Ettrig (talk) 13:57, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Hi, Ettrig. Yep, it's a mistake. I've described a proposal for fixing it below! - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 20:08, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

To be back at the Hosts list

Hello everyone, I recently saw that I was not at the list of Hosts... why is that? And how can I earn a place again? Thanks! :D Miss Bono [hello, hello!] 14:17, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Hey Miss Bono-- there are usually two reasons why you're no longer listed. One, you may not have posted or responded on the Q&A board in a little while. You can check-in here, which will put yourself back on the list if you're on in the host breakroom. Second, there was a weird problem a few months back with some hosts getting removed from the list (including myself), which you can read about in the above discussion. In the second case, if you can't find your profile in the host breakroom, you might just consider making a new host profile. I can't find you on the host breakroom, so you might want to dig up your old profile using the page history and just make a new one (which is what I did). I, Jethrobot drop me a line 14:58, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
The pinging didn't work I, Jethrobot, thanks for the help. I think I am going to create a new profile :D Can you provide a link for me to create another profile. It seems like the flu is driving me mad and I cannot find it. Miss Bono [hello, hello!] 15:28, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
Huh, that's weird. Pinging usually works when I use the {{u}} template like this: Miss Bono. Did it work this time? Anyway, you can make a new profile here. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 16:33, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
Yes, it worked this time. Thank you very much! Miss Bono [hello, hello!] 17:23, 16 October 2013 (UTC)
Hiya Miss Bono. Sorry about that. I've described a proposal for fixing this problem (once and for all?) below. - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 20:10, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
Thanks Morgan! :) Miss Bono [hello, hello!] 20:11, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

Host listings

I am thoroughly confused. I cannot find myself anywhere in the host listings, either active or on break. In addition, there are several hosts that are listed multiple times. Is there a problem? I hope I didn't get fired and somebody forgot to tell me! Gtwfan52 (talk) 04:48, 6 September 2013 (UTC)

  • J-Mo, I've noticed the "multiple listings" bug myself. I'm unsure why you are not there Gtwfan52, but am wondering if it has anything to do with HostBot. Technical 13 (talk) 12:24, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
    • That was my guess. Gtwfan52 (talk) 17:21, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
  • This happened to me as well, and while at first I thought it was because I changed my username, I think my profile had been gone long before that. I've since added myself back in. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 17:24, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
So, you're saying HostBot is both EATING and CLONING people?!?! Bad robot. I've tried to fix this bug before actually. It's intermittent, so it's been tricky to hunt down. I thought I fixed it a few months ago... evidently no such luck. I've halted the profile moving scripts and am looking into it now. Sorry about that, y'all. I'll post here with updates. - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 23:54, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
Update: Gtwfan52, I've described a proposal for fixing this persistent issue below. Thanks for your patience, - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 20:12, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

Refactoring the host list

Hi all,

Starting a new thread since this applies equally to three of the threads above. I'm reconfiguring the way HostBot shuffles our profiles around on the host profile page, to fix a persistent bug that caused profiles to be sometimes duplicated, sometimes deleted when as they were moved to and from the breakroom. I worked on trying to fix the bug directly for quite a while, but couldn't guarantee it wouldn't pop up again (TL;DR HostBot uses both the API and a replica MySQL database to move profiles between the two pages, and these two resources are sometimes very slightly out-of-sync, which I believe is what caused the weird cloning/deleting issue). So, what I propose to do is just simplify things a bunch:

  • From now on, all our host profiles stay on the host landing page.
  • They will be ranked based on how many edits a given host has made to Teahouse pages within the past two weeks, leaderboard-style. Those who haven't edited recently will be randomly ranked below active editors.

This should prevent the duplication/removal issue completely, because the bot will only be moving profiles around within the same page. At the same time, it still assures that active hosts get top billing, which I think is important because the majority of people who have created profiles aren't actively hosting right now. It also obviates the need for checking in, and takes the breakroom out of the picture completely, so I plan to decommission those pages. I've tested this out in my sandbox: that page currently contains a list of all profiles from the landing host page and the breakroom (as of a few days ago), ranked by # TH edits within the past two weeks (also as of a few days ago). There are a few small bugs to work out: for example, I, JethroBT has changed his username since he became a host, and so my db table needs to be updated before it recognizes his recent edits and ranks his profile appropriately. But in general this should be a simpler solution.

What do you all think? The other option is I paste this merged list to the landing page by hand, and we just manually curate the list from now on--no bot involved.

To all of you who had to re-create your profile, sometimes repeatedly, when HostBot pulled its vanishing act, my apologies again for the confusion and the hassle. :) - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 20:05, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

  • Endorse This seems like a straightforward way to sidestep this bug, and I think newer editors will still find it relatively easy to find active hosts even with the breakroom out of the picture. Thanks, J-Mo! I, Jethrobot drop me a line 20:16, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
  • Support - Go ahead with it. -- t numbermaniac c 21:47, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
  • Yup Short of making an all new profile (which would be sad, cause I have lost that neat pic of the cat (MY cat, that sadly went to my ex in our divorce)), I have not been able to get myself back in the listings. Whatever works! Gtwfan52 (talk) 05:38, 26 October 2013 (UTC)
You mean this adorable kitteh, Gtwfan52? ;) Reminder: you can always, always get your profile back. Just hit up the revision history of the landing page and pick a date shortly after your joined TH. I'm enabling the new less-sucky ranking system today... Cheers, - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 19:37, 28 October 2013 (UTC)

Some sad news

User:Jackson Peebles is no longer with us, he passed away in late October. Jackson was a Western Michigan University Honors student studying behavioral science and biology. He worked as an ice hockey referreee and volunteered with the Red Cross. His Wikipedia efforts focused on counter-vandalism and adoption, "greeting new users, encouraging civility, and [obsessively] reviewing recent changes".

Jackson was a Teahouse host, an instructor in the Education Program, and the lead on a Video Tutorials Project through the WMF. User:Go Phightins! originaly adopted Jackson but he went on to run his own adoption school and facilitated a Western Michigan University course himself. Among his userboxes he said, "This user is not a Wikipedia administrator but would like to be one someday."

Jackson was born in 1992 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He graduated Mattawan High School and was Senior Class President there. At Western Michigan University, he was a 2011 Medallion Scholar. He worked at the Waldo Library at the reference desk and volunteered for the National Alliance for Mental Illness. He was one of three students in the nation invited to represent the US at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent’s Global Youth Conference in Vienna in 2012.[1]

Jackson had recently proposed a WMF Individual Engagment Grant called Reimagining Wikipedia Mentorship. "I think this project is incredibly important and should be pursued," User:EpochFail wrote in an endorsement. The grant scored highly, solid 4 out of 5 and looked likely to be funded. "A very interesting concept...may become a 'keystone piece' in the new editor onboarding process." wrote one IEG committee member. Another wrote, "Taking a 'Teahouse approach' in building sustained motivation and preventing editor dropouts is a wonderful opportunity to develop a true mentor-mentee support system that would increase the activity of new contributors." Finally, "Proposers are highly qualified and driven mentors with a useful background in teaching new editors and understanding the learning process."

On Wikipedia, Jackson earned barnstars in Mentorship, Random Acts of Kindness and Resilience. Friends and teachers glowingly recalled his sense of humor and his hard work ethic.

His last edit to our site was on October 21 2013, the day he died. Jackson welcomed an i.p. editor to Wikipedia: "Thank you for your contributions, such as the one you made to Nikah mut‘ah. I hope you like the place and decide to stay."

Please leave remembrances and condolences on Jackson's talk page. We'll try and contact the family and share your thoughts with them. Donations to the Kalamazoo NAMI chapter would have made Jackson very happy and are the family's wish. Ocaasi t | c 14:26, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Suggest removal of a host profile

This profile should be deleted per this, which closely related to this and this. Voceditenore (talk) 10:56, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

Go for it. Project members routinely cull the host profiles page when editors who don't have enough experience, etc. create a profile. For editors who don't have enough experience, I usually leave a message on their talk page explaining the removal. For this editor, that's probably not as necessary. - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 21:56, 19 November 2013 (UTC)
I'd rather not "go for it", J-Mo :). I'm not a host here and rarely participate in answering queries. I think it's better if Teahouse members do that sort of removal. Voceditenore (talk) 09:39, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
Tis done. NtheP (talk) 11:38, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
Can someone remove Bonkers the Clown please? He is blocked indef I think. Thanks, Matty.007 19:51, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Love templates and design? :)

We have a paid wiki-design contract position with the Wikimedia Foundation: We need your help making it easier for Wikimedians to participate in the movement and with each other!

  • Travel and Participation Support Grants is looking for someone to help design and build a new portal on meta-wiki to make this grants program easier to navigate and more fun to use. You'd be working with me, to make something suitable for this program that fits with other grants pages on meta-wiki. We’d prefer someone with wiki and template knowledge (this would outweigh other experience). Please see the job description for details, pass it along to anyone you know, and feel free to ask me or Siko if you have any questions. We look forward to speaking with you!
(We’re posting around the community because we’d love to hire a Wikipedian and thought some people here might be interested.)
heather walls (talk) 02:56, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Individual Engagement Grant for Reimagining Mentorship

Hey hosts. A small team of editors, including myself, have completed a proposal for an Individual Engagement Grant aimed at developing a more lightweight and accessible version of mentorship / adoption. The proposal is located at meta:Grants:IEG/Reimagining Wikipedia Mentorship, and we are open to any feedback or ideas you may have. Please check it out if you have some time. Take care, I, Jethrobot drop me a line 07:03, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Help needed and still in the dark about a lot. Thanks :)

Hello Tearoom.

I am having some trouble. A lot of it is technical and some of it is in creating the page I started. My first ever one for a wonderful entertainer Anastasia S. Fontaines. I was assisted by some of the very helpful and patient editors on wikipedia. Really cool people. I'm concerned at why some of the links and magazine articles were removed. They were reference articles. There are 3 separate articles 2 were in the same magazie out of those articles 2 were focused solely on Ms. Fontaines . One had a 3 page spread on her. That one in INSTYLE The other was a whole page article on solely Ms. Fontaines that one for MArie Claire. Then there was a 3rd that was about a group of people in the Entertainment industry attending LAFF (Los angeles Film festival) and Anastasia was a key part of that article. An unknown editor deleted the reference to those articles and I was given the reason being that it was doubled up. It was not infact it just happens that Ms.Fontaines was interviewed twice by the same magazine. Different articles for a different issue. One of the editors left a reply stating that none of the articles were about Ms. Fontaines therefore she is perhaps not notable enough when in fact 2 of the articles were about Ms. Fontaines and Ms. Fontaines alone. Can you help me to resolve this misunderstanding and find out why separate articles were deleted. Those being the ones Anastasia Fontaines was featured in? The other concern is that I have so little time to work on this before the proposed deletion. I believe when the editors understand that the articles on Ms. Fontaines were stand alone articles that would cease the deletion process but I need to know how best to communicate that. And if that communication process takes more than the time for the "possible deletion" deadline, can I be granted some more time. I was under the weather and couldn't work on this in the last few day at all. Thanks thanks thanks to all of you!!!! Venus2211 (talk) 02:50, 16 May 2014 (UTC)Venus2211 P.S. How do I do emoticons on here ;)

FLOW and the WP:Teahouse

Hi everyone! I've started a discussion at Teahouse talk. Join if you're interested! heather walls (talk) 23:48, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

About Carliitaeliza

Why is User:Carliitaeliza featured on the Teahouse front page as a Host, but she's retired her account? - Peter "SB" Ekman (talk) 01:48, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Get lost with technicalities

i get completely lost with computer systems - i asked for help earlier and tried to find the the room help line and just had to choose someone

is there just a quick general forum for small beginners questions??

anyway i think ive got it right now ... thanks if you take a lookTaming the hedgehog (talk) 17:32, 12 June 2014 (UTC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Four_Noble_Truths#Different_Interpretations

Robin Taming the hedgehog (talk) 12:38, 12 June 2014 (UTC)TamingthehedgehogTaming the hedgehog (talk) 12:38, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Help needed! The Squids page was forced to merged with LaTour

Apparently zero research went into this action, LaTour derived from The Squids and not vise versa. No real research by music experts went into this decision as The Squids were accused of being "just a garage band who never charted." My case has been clearly stated on the talk page were which I was blocked for trying to help the situation without knowing Wiki guidelines. I am unblocked now and I created a user profile solely for the use of getting back their page, as because as much as I try to learn this, it's simply just foreign language to me, meanwhile both The Squids and LaTour get dissed unfairly of their pages. Also, the actual merge is missing The Squids photo onto LaTours page and I just don't know how to get this done.

Here is the link to The Squids page with the last edits before the merge

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Squids&oldid=611365021

None of this would have went down if there were any actual research was done making me feel this was done in hate. Hoping somebody with some expertise can step in while I try to learn things around here for future projects. Thanks. LeslieCola (talk) 03:05, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Hi LeslieCola,

If you have a problem of this nature, you are best contacting an Administrator on their talk page; they'll do their best to help you. Dathus Talk 16:32, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Question button?

Is the question button working for you guys? It goes straight to WP:question for me and I can't figure out why. heather walls (talk) 20:02, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

@Heatherawalls: Hey Heather, that's really strange. I'm not experiencing that issue at all, and the interface appears to open normally for me. I did notice that there is a hyperlink on the button that directs you to [2]. Going to try and remove it... I, Jethrobot drop me a line 05:33, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
So, I don't know how to fix it. But I suspect the issue is somewhere in Template:TH question page or, more likely, in Wikipedia:Teahouse/Question-form2. The "Ask a question" text is a parameter in the template seem to mistakenly produce a hyperlink for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ask_a_question. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 06:34, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
Should be fixed. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 16:24, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
It is working for me now, thank you all so much! Hey Writ Keeper :) heather walls (talk) 18:10, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

Host profiles?

Hey, I've been with the Teahouse since it started, and while I haven't been active as much as I'd like, I am starting to become more so as my work allows me some downtime that I've been using to work on the project. I don't see my profile info in the new format. Any ideas how/where I can get it added? Thanks! --McDoobAU93 16:05, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Here you go! You can copy/paste it into the list here. Welcome back :) - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 20:16, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Joanna's talk

Hi, guys Welcome to my free talking paradise ʃ — Preceding unsigned comment added by QQjoanna (talk • contribs) 13:09, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Trying out new wording for HostBot invites

Hi y'all. Over the next few months, I plan to test out some new wording on the HostBot invitation template. Instead of all invites saying "get help from peers and experienced editors", half the invites will say "get advice from your peers" and half will say "get advice from experts".

Here's a sample of the two new invites:

Peer support

Teahouse logo

Hi New editor! Thanks for contributing to Wikipedia. Come join other new editors at the Teahouse! The Teahouse is a space where new editors can get help from other new editors. These editors have also just begun editing Wikipedia; they may have had similar experiences as you. Come share your experiences, ask questions, and get advice from your peers. I hope to see you there! Jtmorgan (I'm a Teahouse host)

Visit the Teahouse
This message was delivered automatically by your robot friend, HostBot

Experienced editor support

Teahouse logo

Hi New editor! Thanks for contributing to Wikipedia. Come join other new editors at the Teahouse! The Teahouse is a space where new editors can get help from experienced editors. These editors have been around for a long time and have extensive knowledge about how Wikipedia works. Come share your experiences, ask questions, and get advice from experts. I hope to see you there! Jtmorgan (I'm a Teahouse host)

Visit the Teahouse
This message was delivered automatically by your robot friend, HostBot

I want to know whether the invitation is framed will influence how many newcomers visit, and how they participate. I think the effect will be subtle, if there is an effect at all. Last time I tested different template wording, there wasn't a noticeable difference. So I suspect you won't notice any changes on the Q&A board, but if you do, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

There's a write-up of the test here, for your reference. I will post a link to our results on this talk page, after the test is concluded. It's currently scheduled to run through September. Cheers, - J-Mo Talk to Me Email Me 23:23, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

The Co-op

Hey hosts. Just wanted to make a quick note that our Individual Engagement Grant proposal, Reimagining Wikipedia Mentorship was approved, and we are through the first month of our grant. Our space will be called the Co-op, and I've posted some news detailing our first month's progress. Please check it out; if you are interested in mentoring through this space, please let me know, as we would love to have your help later this year. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 18:37, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

Minimum qualifications to be a host?

I just noticed that a good faith attempt by an editor to add a host profile was reverted by SuperMarioMan with the edit summary "You'll need more experience of Wikipedia to be a host...".

So my question is...what are the minimum qualifications to be a Teahouse host and where are they listed?--Mark Miller (talk) 03:11, 23 August 2014 (UTC)

No clue. At some point, I was a host (one of the earliest, IIRC), and then at some point someone decided to take my name off the list. No idea who decides these things or how they get decided. I never worry about this stuff. I help out when and where I can, and I leave the worrying about official titles to people who apparently have enough time and brainpower to devote to such worrying. Lord knows I don't. --Jayron32 03:21, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
Gotta agree with you there. I took my name off the list long ago but still answer questions and help out when I can, but I just wonder where editors are supposed to get the information to know they don't qualify to be an official host. I find it to be an editor retention issue. if there is no standard...we should not be reverting editors making host profiles. If there is a standard...it should be posted where everyone can see it.--Mark Miller (talk) 03:34, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
Oh...by the way, they automated the removal of names if you don't help out over a certain period I believe. it is easy to get your name re-added if that is what you desire.--Mark Miller (talk) 03:35, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
I don't think the automatic removal happens anymore. In most cases the profiles reverted are made by complete newbies who are obviously not ready. I think it is mainly a matter of common sense and is not official. Why Jayron32 would be taken off I have no idea. Any edit can be reverted if there is a good reason.Charles (talk) 09:29, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
Hmmmm. That is very interesting. Thanks for replying.--Mark Miller (talk) 09:46, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
I'd like to hear from SuperMarioMan on this one, as I've noticed he has removed many profiles recently. That said, I think the Host start page lays it out pretty simply. Through their contributions, hosts probably should show some evidence of the following-- are they:
An editor who understands how Wikipedia works?
Helpful to new people, with a clear and friendly manner?
Familiar with the Teahouse project?
Editors who are struggling with fundamental editing skills probably aren't ready to be hosts, as they can't answer most questions we get. Editors who haven't shown much evidence of communicating with other editors, or whose communication is awkward or unclear are probably not ready to be hosts. And editors who haven't actually used the Teahouse probably aren't ready to be hosts (this happens a lot). When I do remove profiles, I think it is a good practice to follow-up with editors on their talk page to let them know why, suggest what they might do to get ready for hosting, and reassure and encourage them to use the Q&A space. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 10:51, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
There we go. That's what I was looking for. The host start page! Could we get that information placed in a more obvious location? It might be helpful to keep disappointment and frustration to a minimum.--Mark Miller (talk) 10:57, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
@Mark Miller: Well, we could definitely put it up at the Host Lounge or think about whether we can have it somewhere on the Landing Page or elsewhere, but in terms of ensuring that it's visible to prospective hosts I think they must see it. The host start page allows them to create a host profile that's added to Wikipedia:Teahouse/Host_landing. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 11:03, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
I'm not so sure everyone is seeing that or actually navigating through the same channels to get to the host landing. Not sure though. I have had an issue in the past navigating all the pages and was just thinking it might be something to slightly emphasize...but, of course, only if we come to a clear consensus to do so, There are good arguments as to why we wouldn't do that.--Mark Miller (talk) 11:13, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
@Mark Miller: Well, the only other way I can think of at the moment is using the navbar to get to the Host Landing, where they would need to create a profile manually. That's possible, but it seems less likely, particularly for newer editors. Anecdotally, I haven't seen it too often. You can tell when someone uses the Host start page button when {{subst:REVISIONUSER}} appears in the edit summary there (example), which is what I usually see. As a follow-up idea, I wonder if some editors who make host profiles may be interpreting those expectations differently than we think, or that they are not reading them at all. I don't know what to do about the latter case (we may have to accept that this will happen sometimes, regardless of what we do), but we can try to be more explicit about these three expectations (without getting too detailed; I think we ultimately do want to keep this simple). For instance, we might say:
  • An editor who understands how Wikipedia works? (e.g. Do you have a basic understanding of policies on Wikipedia and how-to, like how to upload an image?)
  • Helpful to new people, with a clear and friendly manner? (e.g. Have you talked a bit with other editors on Wikipedia?)
  • Familiar with the Teahouse project (e.g. Have you used the Q&A section to ask some questions already?)
Not that we have to use these particular examples, but I think trying to give more concrete cases may be more instructive for prospective hosts in understanding these expectations, and won't require us to remove profiles so often. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 11:34, 23 August 2014 (UTC)
  • Since my name was mentioned ...

    No, there do not appear to be any formal minimum requirements for hosting. However, Wikipedia:Teahouse/Hosts invites (albeit in very small text) "experienced" editors to serve as hosts. I myself remove only new users who are taking their first steps on Wikipedia – i.e., they could not be considered "experienced", are most likely unaware of what hosting entails, or may well have been looking for the guest-profile pages instead (of which I always place a reminder in my edit summary, which I do try to make as friendly as I can). I should point out that many of these accounts are only a few days old. My decisions are based on a combination of number of edits and length of tenure. Since one of the primary aims of the Teahouse is to demystify the project for new users, it stands to reason that new users themselves are unsuited to the task of hosting it.

    Should minimum requirements be imposed? In my opinion, probably – WP:WPAFC's criteria for AfC draft reviewers, as specified at Wikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creation/Participants, may be a good place to start. At the very least, the general expectations of hosts (i.e. that they should be knowledgeable, approachable and familiar with the Teahouse) need to be made a lot more visible, not least on the landing page itself.

    I may have more to add later. SuperMarioMan ( talk ) 12:13, 23 August 2014 (UTC)

  • There is no current situation just something that I noticed for the first time and it made me think about whether or not we are being clear enough about expectations of our Teahouse hosts to be allowed a profile. I only ask this, because obviously being a host is not a requirement to help out at the Teahouse and we encourage all users to ask and answer questions. So...I guess what I am wondering...is the Host Profile really necessary? Now, in many ways I could answer that myself and say..sure, community involvement is one of the main reasons we have the Teahouse and giving editors the ability to, not just feel like they are taking part, but actively become a registered member of a part of the Teahouse community is one of the ways we attempt to bring editors together to collaborate. But if we have problems with less than experienced editors wishing to become hosts and we remove them based just on that, I think we lose something that the Teahouse has come to represent, and that is community involvement. I don't have a real problem with removing editors from the Host profile page except for the possible retention issue that could create. It could be discouraging. I wonder if perhaps we could start a JR host program and accept all new, inexperienced editors so they can learn from example and possible mentoring from other hosts? Thoughts?--Mark Miller (talk) 20:12, 23 August 2014 (UTC)

Alternative official titles

Jayron32 mentions "worrying about official titles" above. As anyone who has studied the life and cultural impact of Idi Amin will know, official titles can be fun! I have appointed myself a Junior Wrangler at the Teahouse. (This came about when the titles available included host, maitre d', founder and awesome founder; I thought that adding a fifth couldn't do any harm.) It didn't occur to me when inventing this position to specify any minimum requirements, but obviously anyone who has been Senior Wrangler would be ineligible. Other ideas are welcome. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 16:08, 23 August 2014 (UTC)

Scripts

I thought I was installing scripts to help communicate with those who visit the teahaouse, but then I realized that I don't even know what a 'script' really means! Excuse my ignorance on that. I have just become a teahouse host and have been doing 'hosting' duties working with the welcoming comittee and patrolling new pages. Are scripts neccesary? I am really good at using templates, can't I just do that? bpage (talk) 01:15, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

@Bfpage: Scripts or no scripts, you're totally fine. Scripts are little bits of javascript that you add to your Special:MyPage/common.js page. Feel free to look at mine if you want to see what some of these scripts do, as they help with all sorts of things on Wikipedia. As a side note, I think hosts have been leaning more toward the use of the notifications system in terms of replaying back to guests at the Teahouse rather than using talkback templates. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 02:32, 2 September 2014 (UTC)
Thank you so much for cluing me in on this. I will definitely take a look at your page as an example.
bpage (talk) 12:45, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Host landing looks great

what did you do and how did you do it?

  Bfpage |leave a message  18:19, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
@Bfpage: Good question-- it's not exactly obvious who got started builing the Teahouse pages. You'll likely want to talk to Heatherawalls (graphic designer) and Missvain about the work put into the landing page. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 21:45, 16 October 2014 (UTC)
Yes! Heather designed it. =) Missvain (talk) 04:32, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

How do I become a Host?

Hi, my name is Zane and I am interested in becoming a Host for Teahouse and I want to earn my badge for becoming a Wikipedia Host. How do I become a host for Teahouse? Thank you very much!

Chesivoirzr (talk) 02:16, 23 October 2014 (UTC)Chesivoirzr

@Chesivoirzr: Hey Zane. Thanks for your interest in hosting the Teahouse. The general principles about hosting come from two places. First, here where you sign up:
Are you:
  • An editor who understands how Wikipedia works?
  • Helpful to new people, with a clear and friendly manner?
  • Familiar with the Teahouse project?
...and on the host lounge page here where expectations are listed with regard to answering questions:
  • Welcome everyone
  • Be polite and patient
  • Keep it simple
  • Avoid over-linking
  • Leave a notification
All that said, having looked at your editing history, I do not think this is a good time for you to host, as you are still learning a lot about editing (which is totally fine). We don't expect hosts to have complete knowledge about Wikipedia, but we do expect them to have spent some time editing and working with other editors to have a little experience that can inform responses at the Q&A board. I, Jethrobot drop me a line 05:07, 23 October 2014 (UTC)

Are we losing our friendliness?

I have been reading some of the replies lately, and I believe that I am overly sensitive to this, but it is still seems to be a developing problem. Some of us are forgetting to politely greet the editor who comes looking for an answer. And I've noticed, just like the rest of Wikipedia that our answers are short and curt and we are also assuming too much that the editor is familiar with all of the jargon used on Wikipedia. For example, I believe when we tell an editor that they should see WP:SOMETHING for more information, we are assuming that the editor even knows what that link leads to. I consider myself a newer editor even though I've had over 2000 edits. And I can't even understand some of the answers that I've been reading. I think anyone coming to the Teahouse should understand an answer.

We can do better. So please don't be offended if I contact you on your talk page and point out that I think that some of your answers were not quite as friendly as they could be.

  Bfpage |leave a message  12:53, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
I've been noticing a little of this as well, though I haven't called anybody out on it, probably because I am guilty of it myself from time to time. I don't think we are losing our friendliness, though. I usually try to put a "thanks for your question" or "welcome to the teahouse" or something like that in most of my initial responses to questions, and try to avoid WP: shortcuts and would rather put wikilinks to help page in prose. When it makes sense, I try to explain things in prose rather than direct them to a help page (e.g. simply telling them that their account needs to be four days old and have at least 10 edits to upload image rather than just say "you need to be autoconfirmed." I, Jethrobot drop me a line 19:15, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
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