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User talk:David Fuchs/Archive 46

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Message on DS review page

Hello David Fuchs,

I've left the message below the DS Review page [1], and hope you and all the other arbitrators will take a look and leave a note indicating that you've looked at the discussion of the important issues with DS, with indefinite bans, and with the phrase 'broadly construed' which have been raised throughout that page. NinaGreen (talk) 22:00, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Two arbitrators, AGK and Roger Davies, have added occasional comments to this page concerning the significant changes which have been suggested here, all of which are quick, easy and effective fixes which would (1) drastically reduce arbitrator and administrator workload; (2) permit the reduction in the incredibly high number of administrators (1400), as a result of (1), and allow for the elimination, almost entirely, of WP:AE; (3) improve Wikipedia's public image; (4) improve the general atmosphere on Wikipedia, making it more collegial and far less adversarial; (5) significantly improve editor retention. However are the other 13 arbitrators at all aware of these suggestions? The lack of any comments from them in this review suggests they may not be. Could the other arbitrators just drop a note here to indicate that they are aware of the suggestions? Obviously change can never take place if the people who can effect if aren't aware of the problems which have been identified in this discussion and the suggestions which have been made for fixing them.

The Signpost: 29 January 2014

There are times when this job is hard. As an analogy, imagine navigating in fog at night, except you don't know where you are, you don't know where you want to go, and your flashlight keeps dying on you.
Contests have existed almost as long as the English Wikipedia. Contestants have expanded hundreds of articles and made tens of thousands of edits. Although it may seem as though there aren't any negatives to contests, they have occasionally become a divisive topic on the English Wikipedia.
Wiki-PR, a public relations agency, whose employees used a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts to create, edit, and maintain several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients, has told Business Insider that it was demonized by the online encyclopedia. Jordan French, Wiki-PR's CEO, said he believes the Wikimedia Foundation "painted" his company to look like an "evil entity" that is "scrubbing truths from Wikipedia".
The Kafziel case has been closed, with Kafziel losing his administrator status as a result.
An author experimented with "a promising type of assignment in formal translator training which involves translating and publishing Wikipedia articles", in three courses with students at the University of Warsaw.

Coming up in February!

Hello there!

Our February WikiSalon is coming up on Sunday, February 23. Join us at our gathering of Wikipedia enthusiasts at the Kogod Courtyard of the National Portrait Gallery with an optional dinner after. As usual, all are welcome. Care to join us?

Also, if you are available, there is an American Art Edit-a-thon being held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum with Professor Andrew Lih's COMM-535 class at American University on Tuesday, February 11 from 2 to 5 PM. Please RSVP on the linked page if you are interested.

If you have any ideas or preferences for meetups, please let us know at Wikipedia talk:Meetup/DC.

Thank you, and hope to see you at our upcoming events! Harej (talk) 18:41, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Comment placed on Roger Davies' Talk page

I've placed the comment below on Roger Davies' Talk page under the heading 'Correction to collapsed discussion' and am copying it here because the point is obviously one of vital concern to all arbitrators. NinaGreen (talk) 18:46, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Roger,

Could you please correct this comment you made at [2]:

This is your fourth edit since you were asked to back off yesterday. Whatever benefit there might have been in your contributions has been lost in the - to put it mildly - freeranging nature and inquisitorial tone of your comments. You have singlehandedly provided about half the commentary over the last month, sometimes derailing discussions, stopping others in their tracks, and contributing greatly to bloat. Please now step right back.

Your statement is inaccurate. I made only a single comment after I was told my comments were unwelcome by AGK yesterday, and that comment was made in reply to a question asked of me by Robert McClenon. Can another editor no longer ask me a question, and receive a reply? The four 'edits' were merely 'fixes' to that single comment, as is obvious from the edit history. Please correct that inaccuracy by removing your statement which implies that I made four separate comments after being told my comments were unwelcome, and which fails to recognize the fact that I was replying to a question asked of me by Robert McClenon. Your statements that I have 'derailed discussions' or 'stopped others in their tracks' are also both inaccurate. I have never done that, nor have you provided an example of either. I have merely raised questions, and in almost every single case an administrator, either you, AGK, or Salvio has abruptly shut down any discussion of the questions I have raised. The questions I've raised are valid ones. Perhaps they seem 'inquisitorial' to you and to other administrators because you are committed to discretionary sanctions and you cannot look at them from the point of view of the vast majority of Wikipedia editors who find DS strange, unjust, and harmful to the project.

Also your own comments which you later added to that section directly contradict the information provided to me by Robert McClenon, so why has Salvio been permitted to collapse the discussion with the comment 'Asked and answered' when the question obviously hasn't been answered? You state unequivocally earlier in the discussion that I was the only one ('one notable exception') who didn't understand the difference between the powers exercised by administrators in DS and in non-DS situations, and Salvio rudely told me that my question had been answered before, and that I was exhibiting 'supine ignorance'. The discussion now shows I was clearly not the only one who didn't understand the difference, since your later comment completely contradicts the explanation of the difference given by Robert McClenon. It is not healthy for Wikipedia when even an experienced editor like Robert McClenon obviously doesn't understand the difference between the powers, and when you have to tell Robert that his explanation is completely wrong, and when no Wikipedia editor can find anywhere on Wikipedia a clear difference and distinction between the powers. The only way to fix this is to set out on the DS project page a clear explanation of the difference between the powers of arbitrators, the powers of administrators in DS situations, and the power of administrators in non-DS situations. At present the differences are completely blurred, and no Wikipedia editor has access to a clear statement of what an administrator is actually authorized to do in DS situations as opposed to non-DS situations, or how the powers of administrators differ from those of arbitrators. Robert McClenon stated that administrators in DS-sitations have been given 'arbitrator-like powers'. By what authority has this happened, since administrators were not elected to be arbitrators? This blurring of powers, the refusal to clearly set out for the benefit of all Wikipedia editors the differences between the powers exercised by arbitrators, administrators in DS situations and administrators in non-DS situations, and the handing over of arbitrators' powers to administrators who were never elected to exercise such powers is not healthy for Wikipedia, nor is it healthy for Wikipedia for you, AGK and Salvio to shut down discussion of such a vital point. Nor is it healthy for Wikipedia for you to shut it down on the basis of an inaccurate statement about my comments (see above).

The Signpost: 12 February 2014

As reported in various media outlets this week, including The Next Web and The Daily Dot, this past week, Wikimedia Commons and various language Wikipedias are working together to encourage subjects of Wikipedia articles to record a 10-second clip of their voice to be appended to their Wikipedia article.
Software evolution does not always mean that features are being added. It also means that old fat is being trimmed. It is no different for MediaWiki.
In a bold move, the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees has announced a major change in policy concerning affiliated groups in the worldwide movement, and FDC funding levels to eligible chapters and thematic organizations over the next two years. Both decisions were published last Tuesday after considerable post-meeting consultation with the FDC and the Affiliations Committee (AffCom). The core of the first decision is
Thirteen articles, three lists, and twenty-five images were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia from 19 January to 1 February.
Two great sporting events, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, collide in one week, transforming the top ten into a festival of flying feet, a carnival of colliding caraniums and a bacchanal of bouncing balls, combined to influence Wikipedia's most popular articles last week.
In celebration of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, we revisited the team at WikiProject Russia to learn how the project has changed since our first interview in 2011.

Feedback for future FAC

Hey Fuchs, would you have time to have a look at my peer review or A-Class review for GTA V? I liked the feedback you gave on Skyrim so I thought you'd be a good help. CR4ZE (t) 11:04, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

@CR4ZE: I'll try and take a look; my usual caveat about badgering me if I haven't gotten to it in a few days, and that it will likely take me a while, apply. :) Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 16:55, 17 February 2014 (UTC)
. CR4ZE (t) 03:49, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 February 2014

The Wikimedia Foundation has proposed to modify the Wikimedia projects' Terms of use to specifically ban undisclosed paid editing. ... Dimitris Liourdis, a lawyer in training who moonlights as an administrator on the Greek Wikipedia, is embroiled in a legal dispute with a Greek politician over alleged edits made to his Wikipedia article.
Runa Bhattacharjee has notified the community that the Foundation is ready to turn the Universal Language Selector back on.
WikiProject Countering System Bias aims to combat imbalanced coverage while encouraging neglected cultural perspectives and points of view, both in articles and in the larger Wikipedia community. As you'll see from the varied experiences and motivations of our nine respondents, the biases that the folks at WP CSB tackle run the full gamut of human characteristics and dispositions. The interview that follows unveils many of Wikipedia's greatest shortcomings.
Five articles, seven lists, forty-three pictures, and two portals were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia in the last two weeks.
Valentines Day got a somewhat muted reception this week, overshadowed by continuing coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the death of Shirley Temple.

March 2014 GAN Backlog Drive

It's that time again! Starting on March 1, there will be another GAN Backlog Drive! There will be several changes compared to previous drives:

  • This drive will introduce a new component to it; a point system. In a nutshell, older nominations are worth more points than newer nominations. The top 3 participants who have the points will be awarded the Golden, Silver, or Bronze Wikipedia Puzzle Piece Trophy, respectively.
  • Unlike the December 2013 Backlog Drive, earning an additional barnstar if you reached your goal has been removed.
  • The allowance to have insufficient reviews has been lowered to 2 before being disqualified.
  • An exception to the rule that all reviews must be completed before the deadline has been created.

Also, something that I thought I would share with all of you is that we raised $20.88 (USD) for the WMF in the December 2013 drive. It may not sound like a lot but considering that that was raised just because we reviewed articles, I would say that's pretty good! With that success, pledges can be made for the upcoming drive if you wish.

More info regarding the drive and full descriptions regarding the changes to this drive can be found on the the drive page. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a message on the drive talk page.

I look forward to your participation and hope that because of it, some day the backlog will be gone!

--Dom497

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:58, 22 February 2014 (UTC)

Checkuser request

Hello, David. I wonder whether you would be willing to have a look at an SPI that has been waiting for a CheckUser for nearly three weeks. I am close to closing it as a duck case, but for several reasons I would prefer to have a CheckUser opinion if possible. The case is at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Scholarscentral. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 18:44, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the work on Scholarscentral. But did you get a chance to check on Srinubabuau6 (talk · contribs)? See here for the rationale. Nomoskedasticity (talk) 21:29, 25 February 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 February 2014

About a week ago, the Wikimedia Foundation proposed to modify the Wikimedia projects' terms of use to specifically ban paid editing, by adding a new clause titled "Paid contributions without disclosure". We have asked two users, one in favor of the measure (Smallbones) and one opposed (Pete Forsyth), to contribute their opinions on the matter.
Eight articles, three lists, and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
This week, we found three Ph.D.s willing to give us a crash course on WikiProject Neuroscience.
Ukraine has been gripped by widespread protests over the past three months. Due to a decision by former president Viktor Yanukovych—at Russia's urging—to abandon integration with the European Union, the country was (and in many ways still is) split between the Europe-favoring Ukrainian-speaking western half and the Russian-speaking east and south. Hundreds have died during the unrest, leaving thousands of family members and friends to bury their loved ones. This week our Wikimedian colleagues in Ukraine are facing that challenge after the death of one of their own.
Following a trend started by Wikimedia Israel, Wikimedia Argentina has published an open letter challenging the recent deletion of hundreds of images from the Commons under its policy on URAA-restored copyrights, relating to the United States' 1994 Uruguay Round Agreements Act.
The 2014 Winter Olympics had more of an impact on the Top 25 than the Top 10, which had to shoulder old stalwarts like the death list, Reddit threads, TV shows and the eternal presence of Facebook; still, with four slots, it's the most searched topic on the list.
The monthly roundup of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, edited jointly with the Wikimedia Research Committee.

GAN March 2014 Backlog Drive

The March 2014 GAN Backlog Drive has begun and will end on April 1, 2014! Sent by Dom497 on behalf of MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:01, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

DC Meetups in March

Happy March!

Though we have a massive snowstorm coming up, spring is just around the corner! Personally, I am looking forward to warmer weather.

Wikimedia DC is looking forward to a spring full of cool and exciting activities. In March, we have coming up:

  • Evening WikiSalon on Wednesday, March 12 from 7 PM – 9 PM. Meet up with Wikipedians for coffee at the Cove co-working space in Dupont Circle! If you cannot make it in the evening, join us at our...
  • March Meetup on Sunday, March 23 from 3 PM – 6 PM. Our monthly weekend meetup, same place as last month. Meet really cool and interesting people!
  • Women in the Arts 2014 meetup and edit-a-thon on Sunday, March 30 from 10 AM – 5 PM. Our second annual Women in the Arts edit-a-thon, held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Free lunch will be served!

We hope to see you at our upcoming events! If you have any questions, feel free to ask on my talk page.

Harej (talk) 05:11, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

If you or someone could make a comprehensible summary of sections 1.1 through 1.4, that could be used to create a second article titled Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War. That would split the current revision into two separate articles, only leaving the current political line under the original title. However, do not confuse my willingness to cooperate based on your personal perception with satisfaction, because tagging and criticizing an article that is: 1- New and hence unpolished, and 2- The work of months of formal research and writing -and just floating away- was incredibly rude.

BTW, it may "ramble", but in its original incarnation it was barely 1k bytes. I have seen several biographies that go well over 100k (and that is without counting their sub-articles), and a single biography is rarely as complex as writing a concise summary of a multisectoral and diffuse political movement. Hell, just take a look at the merger proposal of a 11k article into the already bloated 150k Grand Theft Auto V and tell me that my political article is "too long". Seriously, how "academic" and complex can a video game be to deserve such a huge article? That article is truly ridiculous and should be tagged for having an inordinate length when weighted against the notability of its subject. El Alternativo (talk) 02:05, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

@El Alternativo: There is nothing "incredibly rude" about tagging an article, especially if it's a problem that cannot be ameliorated by any simple tweaks. I have thus restored the tag. Setting up false equivalencies and combative language is what strikes me as less helpful than opening a dialogue on the tagging. (If you want to tag Grand Theft Auto for length, no one is stopping you—I have had no involvement with it, and even if I did that's not any reason to argue against suggestions for improvement.)
As for "rambling", I read the entire article and still came away confused—there are people dropped into the article with no introduction, blow-by-blow accounts of elections a general presumption readers know Puerto Rican politics. That's not useful for a general purpose encyclopedia and if you want people to actually *read* the article instead of clicking away bored or frustrated, that's a serious issue.
I would say comparing the Free association movement to a video game as to merits is a singularly folly task. To play the "opposition" as to why GTA merits a longer article—it is the fastest-grossing entertainment property in human history, and players quadruple the population of Puerto Rico. More people probably care or know about GTA worldwide than care or know about Puerto Rico—so you see where this game of "My topic is more important" is not conducive to actually improving articles.
When I have time to go through the article again I will be happy to post a more in-depth list of issues on the article talk page. Thanks, Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 16:02, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
Most people are simple minded and shallow, so its likely that more "care" about GTA, but that does not change the fact that it is an academically irrelevant topic. Like all fads, their relevancy is tied to the attention span of people, bring a superior product and it is suddenly replaced. You must have seen the critics that appear every time that one of these games is featured in the main page, so I'm not exactly in the minority. Back to the matter at hand, I gave you an alternative to change the article and cut its length in half, if you can't do it then you should at least help to bring someone capable of doing it since you seem so bent on keeping the tag. Condensing the first sections into a summary should deal with at least that concern. I don't have any problems with applying other changes, as long as the reviews don't involve quips. El Alternativo (talk) 21:35, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
The article is now 160k, if you can condense the content that was moved to Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War into a summary of 10k or less, length should not be an issue. El Alternativo (talk) 23:16, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
Since the article is now about a third shorter, the format has been changed and you haven't said or done anything in a while, I will remove the tag within a day. Any other issues that you have with it, post them on the talk page. El Alternativo (talk) 02:49, 11 March 2014 (UTC)

An RfC that you may be interested in...

As one of the previous contributors to {{Infobox film}} or as one of the commenters on it's talk page, I would like to inform you that there has been a RfC started on the talk page as to implementation of previously deprecated parameters. Your comments and thoughts on the matter would be welcomed. Happy editing!

This message was sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of {{U|Technical 13}} (tec) 18:27, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Thanks

Can't click "thank you" anywhere here, so thank you. Drmies (talk) 00:24, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Arbitration request motion passed

An Arbitration Clarification request motion passed. You contributed to the discussion (or are on the committee or a clerk)

The motion reads as follows:

  • By way of clarification, the formal warning issued by Kevin Gorman was out of process and therefore has no effect. The provisions of WP:BLPBAN will be reviewed by the Arbitration Committee and where necessary updated.

For the Arbitration Committee, --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:59, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

(test) The Signpost: 05 March 2014

There's nothing like a good old bit of Cold War nostalgia, combined with a suitably scary international incident, to focus our attention on the real world. That said, nothing could stem our outpouring of affection for the beloved comedian Harold Ramis, whose death managed to top the week in the face of those international concerns.
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...
This week, the Signpost caught up with the Wikipedia Library (TWL), which aims to connect reference resources with Wikipedia editors who can use them to improve articles. Funded through the Wikimedia Foundation's Individual Engagement Grants program, TWL has a new "visiting scholars" initiative and a microgrants program in the works.
The WikiCup competition is ongoing, while six articles, three lists, and ten pictures were promoted to "featured" status of the English Wikipedia this week.
This week, the Signpost delved into the English Wikipedia's Article Rescue Squadron.

Reply at Amendment request

Hi there, I left a reply to your comment, in my section at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification_and_Amendment#Amendment_request:_Cirt_and_Jayen466.

Thanks very much for your attention to this matter,

Cirt (talk) 17:06, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 12 March 2014

Wikimedians around the world gathered to celebrate Women's History Month and the associated International Women's Day by holding editathons. If you lived in the United Kingdom, you had the opportunity to attend Wikimedia UK's event at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, part of University College London and host to one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese artifacts in the world.
An intensely busy week, as a confluence of celebratory, curious and urgent topics pushed typical residents like Facebook and Deaths in 2014 out of the top ten entirely.
Five articles, two lists, and 52 pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
This week, we interviewed Anaxibia from the Russian-language Entomology WikiProject.

Discretionary sanctions 2013 review: Draft v3

Hi. You have commented on Draft v1 or v2 in the Arbitration Committee's 2013 review of the discretionary sanctions system. I thought you'd like to know Draft v3 has now been posted to the main review page. You are very welcome to comment on it on the review talk page. Regards, AGK [•] 00:16, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 March 2014

Non-US editors and chapters have taken issue with a multitude of image deletions done on the Wikimedia Commons to comply with the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, a US law that brought the country into compliance with the Berne Convention.
This week, we visited WikiProject History, an ancient project with roots dating back to 2001. The project is home to 196 pieces of Featured material and 483 Good and A-class articles independent of the vast accomplishments of its various child projects. WikiProject History maintains a lengthy list of tasks, oversees the history portal, and continues to build Wikipedia's outline of history.
In a record-breaker, the English Wikipedia has a new largest good topic: the 71-article Light cruisers of Germany, which concerns the light cruisers used by Germany during the 20th century.
Twelve articles, fourteen lists, and six pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
One of the first university Wikipedian in residence positions, hosted at Harvard University in 2012, has jumped back into the spotlight amid questions about its ethical integrity.
The utterly mystifying events surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which has not fallen from the sky so much as vanished from it entirely, has left an information-starved public scrambling for precedents, some logical, some... not.
The Wikimedia engineering report for February 2014 has been published. A summarized version is also available. Major news include

An exciting month of wiki events!

Hello there,

I am pleased to say that April will be a very exciting month for Wikipedia in Washington, DC. We have a lot of different events coming up, so you will have a lot to choose from.

First, a reminder that our second annual Women in the Arts Edit-a-Thon will take place on Sunday, March 30 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Coming up in April, we have our first-ever Open Government WikiHack with the Sunlight Foundation on April 5–6! We are working together to use open government data to improve the Wikimedia projects, and we would love your help. All are welcome, regardless of coding or editing experience. We will also be having a happy hour the day before, with refreshments courtesy of the Sunlight Foundation.

On Friday, April 11 we are having our first edit-a-thon ever with the Library of Congress. The Africa Collection Edit-a-Thon will focus on the Library's African and Middle East Reading Room. It'll be early in the morning, but it's especially worth it if you're interested in improving Wikipedia's coverage of African topics.

The following day, we are having our second annual Wiki Loves Capitol Hill training. We will discuss policy issues relevant to Wikimedia and plan for our day of outreach to Congressional staffers that will take place during the following week.

There are other meetups in the works, so be sure to check our meetup page with the latest. I hope to see you at some of these events!

All the best,
James Hare

(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 01:29, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

71.202.123.2

Hi,

I've lowered the block on 71.202.123.2 to 72 hours, as that's a dynamic IP which really shouldn't be blocked indefinitely. Legoktm (talk) 16:55, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 March 2014

April Fools' Day is rapidly approaching. Every year, members of the community pull pranks and make (or attempt to make) humorous edits to pages across the project. Every year, the community follows April Fools' Day with a contentious debate about whether or not it is necessary to impose limits on April Fools' Day jokes for future years. It is a polarizing issue.
Topics like the 2014 Crimea crisis or the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 eased down the list, making way for such traditional topics as St Patrick's Day, Reddit threads and even Google Doodles, which have reappeared after a long absence.
Have you wondered about differences in the articles on Crimea in the Russian, Ukrainian, and English versions of Wikipedia? A newly published article entitled "Lost in Translation: Contexts, Computing, Disputing on Wikipedia" doesn't address Crimea, but nonetheless offers insight into the editing of contentious articles in multiple language editions through a heavy qualitative examination of Wikipedia articles about the Kosovo in the Serbian, Croatian, and English editions.
Results for the two-stage 2013 Commons Picture of the Year have been announced. This year's winning photograph (above) shows a lightbulb that has been cracked, allowing inert gas to escape—and oxygen to enter, so that the tungsten filament burns. From the flames rise elegant curls of blue smoke.
Four articles, two lists, and twelve pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
On 3 April, we will roll out some changes to the typography of Wikipedia's default Vector skin, to increase readability for users on all devices and platforms. After five months of testing, four major iterations, and through close collaboration with the global Wikimedia community, who provided more than 100 threads of feedback, we’ve arrived at a solution which improves the primary reading and editing experience for all users.
As you have probably read on this weeks op-ed, or via various other channels of announcement, 3 April will see the introduction of the Typography refresh (or update) for the Vector skin on all Wikipedias. Other projects like Commons will have this update rolled out a few days prior.
This week, the Signpost interviewed the English Wikipedia's Mountains WikiProject.

request for checkuser

Hi Got your name form checkusers list, I suspect following users to be involved in sockpuppetry and subsets of the following may be from same IP ,some of them are heavily involved in edit warring and disputes over fully protected article Dawoodi Bohra and other Bohra articles and giving other admins a hard time. One of the user Araz5152 created a hoax article [Qutbi bohra] which had to be completely transformed by another reliable author. So do let me know about the investigation


Mufaddalqn SamanthaPuckettIndo

Markdrows Md iet Murtazajamali DistributorScientiae Araz5152 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Summichum (talkcontribs) 09:35, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q1 2014

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 7, No. 1 — 1st Quarter, 2014
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q1 2014, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

Hello

I was recently reading through a lot of old threads back when I was starting out and thinking about all the editors that I bumped into on the site, I realized that the ones that I had great interactions with disappeared over the years. So, all I want to say is, thanks. We don't interact as much but its good to know that you're still kicking it these days. GamerPro64 05:53, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 02 April 2014

The run-up to the conference has seen the unfolding of two fractious threads on the Wikimedia public mailing list, both of which may serve as background for the last session at Berlin: "Future of the Wikimedia Conference".
This week, we visited with WikiProject Germany.
The annual Wikimedia Conference is about to start in Berlin, hosted by Wikimedia Germany, which won the bid to hold the event over three others. This will be the fifth time the chapter has hosted the Wikimedia Conference—it did so from 2009 to 2012, with attendance ranging from 100 to 180 Wikimedians. This year 160 people are expected at the four-day event, which is mainly for representatives of affiliated Wikimedia organisations. The conference has been built around two themes: Organisation, structures, and grants and Success and impact.
The Signpost's "Featured content" writers had a bit of fun this week.
The mysterious fate of MH370 still tops the list, but in all other respects our readership has retreated from the real world into its pop-cultural happy place: TV, movies, music, Reddit and Google Doodles all made an appearance.

The Signpost: 09 April 2014

Community review is open for the four applications in the second and final round of applications to the WMF's Funds Dissemination Committee for 2013–14. Three eligible organisations have applied for funding under the newly named "annual program grants": Wikimedia France, Wikimedia Norway, and the India-based Centre for Internet and Society, which last November was recognised as eligible to apply for FDC funding purposes.
This week, we interviewed the Law WikiProject.
"I remember laughing and talking and laughing and talking at Wikimania 2012. I took this picture of her that she used for a long while as a profile pic. Someone on Facebook said it looked 'skepchickal', which she loved."
Television has always been a topic of choice on this site, but it exploded this week. Fully six slots were devoted to television shows, as the final episode of How I Met Your Mother, one of the most popular Wikipedia searches of the last few years, coincided with the season finale of The Walking Dead and the upcoming fourth season of Game of Thrones. The number rises to 8 if movies released on video and new TV tech are are included.
Five article, five lists, and ten pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

LGS GTC

Hey, David. I've finally finished work on the Looking Glass Studios video games GTC, and I'll be nominating as soon as the last few articles pass GAN. For a few years, I've planned to ask you to make a mirror graphic to be the topic image when the time came. It would be a massive help. If you're too busy, could you recommend another Photoshop whiz for me to contact? Thanks a bunch. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 16:06, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

A few. I envisioned it as a slightly ornate mirror, shown at a 45 degree angle like your Guilty Spark icon. Colors like the blues or grays you've used in a lot of your other images. The main thing was that I wanted it to be in your style, which I've always thought was slick and cool. So don't feel too constrained by those suggestions. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 20:23, 21 April 2014 (UTC)
And I should add that you agreeing to this is like a dream come true. Huge thanks. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 20:24, 21 April 2014 (UTC)
I'll work on some ideas and send them to you by the end of the week. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 21:28, 21 April 2014 (UTC)
I know you're super busy, but I was wondering if you've had any time to draft image ideas yet. There's no big hurry--just wondering. Thanks. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 18:57, 1 May 2014 (UTC)
Sorry for the delay, I'll post something this evening. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 11:57, 7 May 2014 (UTC)
@JimmyBlackwing: sorry for the delay. Here's some rough concepts. Let me know if there's anything you like in those sketches and I'll work from there. [3] Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 02:29, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
No problem about the delay. And wow, this stuff already looks great. I love the bottom left one, but I think my favorite concept is the one on the bottom right—with the LGS text reflected in the angled looking glass. I can't wait to see where you take it. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 03:49, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
Tell ya' what, I'll develop both of them a little further and you can make the final decision. I'll try and get that done tonight or tomorrow. Harass me if I don't! Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 15:32, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
Here's one... [4] Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 03:14, 9 May 2014 (UTC)
Nice! Can't wait to compare the two. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 20:32, 13 May 2014 (UTC)
And the other [5] Make your choice! Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 03:40, 16 May 2014 (UTC)
The second one just blows my mind. So good. It's like a significantly better version of the image I've visualized for the last few years. I can't wait to use it as the topic image. Thanks a million. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 04:15, 16 May 2014 (UTC)
K. You can grab and upload that one if you want (it's a PNG) or you can wait for me to get home tonight and upload it to the Commons. :) Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 13:39, 16 May 2014 (UTC)
It's your work, and I don't have a clue how to upload to Commons, so I'll let you handle it. Thanks again. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 00:24, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
Yar. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LGS_topic_icon.png Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 03:26, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
Many thanks. I don't plan on leaving Wikipedia entirely, though. User:Mitaphane is getting rid of his Next Generation and EGM collection, and, as it stands now, it looks like I'll be picking them up and taking his place at WP:VG/RL. So, I'll still be around to help anyone who needs a scan from those magazines. But I doubt I'll return to article writing unless one of the LGS articles gets sent to FAR or GAR. JimmyBlackwing (talk) 18:39, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 April 2014

The annual Wikimedia Conference wound up last Sunday, 13 April—a four-day meeting costing several hundred thousand dollars, hosted in Berlin by Wikimedia Germany and attended by more than 100 Wikimedians.
Hey you—yeah you, the Wikipedian! Do you want to help a museum, a library, a university, or other organization explore ways to engage with Wikipedia? Great—you should offer your expertise as a Wikipedian in residence!
Cynthia Ashley-Nelson, who edited as "Cindamuse" on the Wikimedia projects, passed away in her sleep at the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin on 10 April.
This week, we visited WikiProject Catholicism.
After just over a month of deliberation, the Wikimania jury has selected Wikimedia Mexico's bid to host Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City, with a proposed date of 15–19 July.
If I were the kind of person who made snap judgments based on flimsy evidence, I'd say our readership is in a funk.
Fourteen articles, four lists, seven pictures, and one topic attained "featured" status on the English Wikipedia over the last two weeks.

Page Needing Assistance On Ongoing Issues

Can you assist please on editing this page? Many users who have said the same thing ad naseum with an interest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronn_Torossian and this related page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:5W_Public_Relations Richielapiock (talk) 10:05, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Two edit-a-thons coming up!

Hello there!

I'm pleased to tell you about two upcoming edit-a-thons:

  • This Tuesday, April 29, from 2:30 to 5:30 PM, we have the Freer and Sackler edit-a-thon. (Sorry for the short notice!)
  • On Saturday, May 10 we have the Wikipedia APA edit-a-thon, in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, from 10 AM to 5 PM.

We have more stuff coming up in May and June, so make sure to keep a watch on the DC meetup page. As always, if you have any recommendations or requests, please leave a note on the talk page.


Best,

James Hare

(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 20:38, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 April 2014

Like hammering a square peg into a round hole, the Wikimedia Foundation has submitted a draft annual plan for 2014–15 to its own Funds Dissemination Committee. Unlike the WMF's submission to the FDC's inaugural round in October 2012, the "proposal" does not seek funding.
Not much to report this week. The same post-Easter celebrations (4/20, Earth Day) were popular again this year, except last year we were still reeling from the Boston Marathon bombing.
The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that its new executive director will be Lila Tretikov, until now a chief product officer in Silicon Valley.
This week, we unraveled the mysteries of WikiProject Genetics.
Ed Roley, Associate Director of Integrated Media at the Peabody Essex Museum, talks about GLAM engagement with Wikipedia.
Four articles and sixteen featured pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
Can you predict the number of seasonal influenza-like illness in the U.S. using data from Wikipedia?

The Signpost: 07 May 2014

The English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) introduced the first form of what are known as the "discretionary sanction" (DS) in 2009. A new DS regime, called Discretionary sanctions (2014), is the result of an elaborate review process involving both the community, since last September, and the committee, for more than a year.
For all the claims of Wikipedia bringing the world's knowledge to all who want it, it seems the human race most wants is a tabloid newspaper; a quick source for TV listings, pop culture facts, celebrity gossip and, above all, scandal—with some nice juicy racism thrown in too.
In a live video stream on 1 May, the Wikimedia Foundation announced that Lila Tretikov will be replacing Sue Gardner, its executive director. Gardner, who has been in the position since 2007, declared her intention to leave more than a year ago.
Round 3 of the 2014 WikiCup has just begun; 32 competitors remain.
Boston Children's Hospital postdoctoral fellow David McIver and a team have determined that using page view statistics from Wikipedia, they can track flu progression better than the Center for Disease Control can using Google searches.
Formed in 2003, the Eurovision WikiProject boasts four featured articles and 22 good articles. The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 is currently taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, so we went to the stage to talk with one of the project's members.
Four articles, two lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

Meet up with us

Happy May!

There are a few meetups in DC this month, including an edit-a-thon later this month. Check it out:

  • On Thursday, May 15 come to our evening WikiSalon at the Cove co-working space in Dupont Circle. If you're available Thursday evening, feel free to join us!
  • Or if you prefer a Saturday night dinner gathering, we also have our May Meetup at Capitol City Brewing Company. (Beer! Non-beer things too!)
  • You are also invited to the Federal Register edit-a-thon at the National Archives later this month.

Come one, come all!

Best,

James Hare

(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 20:20, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 14 May 2014

On 2 May 2012, the Wikimania jury announced that Hong Kong's bid to hold the 2013 event had beaten four other proposals. Moderator James Forrester wrote: "The Jury has confidence that the Hong Kong bidding team will pull off a magnificent Wikimania,"—and indeed there were positive comments about the event from most attendees.
This week, the Signpost jumped over the ocean to chat with the Puerto Rico WikiProject.
Editors of Australian-related topics on the English Wikipedia may have noticed an odd addition if they viewed the article's talk pages. For example, on Talk:Darwin, Northern Territory, they might be drawn in by the question mark, nested within what is often a sea of WikiProject templates: "Need help improving this article? Ask a librarian at the National Library of Australia, or the Northern Territory Library." Just what is this?
Six articles, seven lists, and four pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.
Eurovision is known for being political, and it was a doozy this week.
The Media Viewer is scheduled to launch on the English Wikipedia next week.

What's your input on this?

Right here we have a discussion about what's appropriate to list as a media adaptation of Journey to the West. The page states that obscure references to the story, or else the featuring of one character doesn't count, but another editor disagrees. What are your thoughts on this? DARTHBOTTO talkcont 18:30, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Ping, as requested czar  23:00, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 21 May 2014

Last Sunday the board of Wikimedia Germany passed 9–1 a vote of no confidence in the chapter's executive director, Pavel Richter, who has held the position since 2009. With more than 50 employees, an annual budget approaching $10 million, and the right to conduct its own fundraising through the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) site banners, Wikimedia Germany is the second-largest organisation in the movement after the WMF itself. The decision was announced on the Wikimedia mailing list by the chapter chair, Nikolas Becker.
Thirteen articles, sixteen pictures, and one topic were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
It's a relief to see Google Doodles having an impact again; their wide coverage means that they inspire curiosity on many subjects which, for reasons of nationality, ethnicity or gender, might not be known in the English-speaking world. It's a shame then, that Wikipedia so often fails to keep up; articles on Google Doodles are almost invariably C-class, and seldom do justice to their subjects. Still, interest in Google Doodles has been waning in recent months—Audrey Hepburn last week was the first to top the list since December—so any rise in popularity is worth celebrating.

Proteus FAC #2

Hi David, as you shared your thoughts in the recent Peer Review, I thought you might like to know that I have opened a new FAC for Proteus (video game). It would be great to hear your opinion on the article again. I added the changes you suggested in the PR, apart from the source archiving; it's quite a time consuming task that I don't really have time for at the moment and as far as I'm aware it shouldn't be a deciding factor for FAC. Sam Walton (talk) 20:41, 25 May 2014 (UTC)

Request for comment

Hello there, a proposal regarding pre-adminship review has been raised at Village pump by Anna Frodesiak. Your comments here is very much appreciated. Many thanks. Jim Carter through MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:46, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

Hello. As you have previously been involved with the milestones for the Dota 2 article by giving input, I figured it would be courteous to notify you that said article is up for Featured Article status. I am welcoming you to give your input! DARTHBOTTO talkcont 18:34, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

Washington, DC meetups in June

Greetings!

Wikimedia DC has yet another busy month in June. Whether you're a newcomer to Wikipedia or have years of experience, we're happy to see you come. Here's what's coming up:

  • On Wednesday, June 11 from 7 to 9 PM come to the WikiSalon at the Cove co-working space. Hang out with Wikipedia enthusiasts!
  • Saturday, June 14 is the Frederick County History Edit-a-Thon from 11 AM to 4 PM. Help improve local history on Wikipedia.
  • The following Saturday, June 21, is the June Meetup. Dinner and drinks with Wikipedians!
  • Come on Tuesday, June 24 for the Wikipedia in Your Library edit-a-thon at GWU on local and LGBT history.
  • Last but not least, on Sunday, June 29 we have the Phillips Collection Edit-a-Thon in honor of the Made in America exhibit.

Wikipedia is better with friends, so why not come out to an event?

Best,

James Hare

(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 01:41, 31 May 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 28 May 2014

With the promotion to featured article of Grus (constellation) on 17 May, Casliber became Wikipedia's second featured-article centurion, following Wehwalt's groundbreaking achievement last December. Cas's first FA, Banksia integrifolia, a group effort, was promoted on 16 November 2006. His first solo project, Diplodocus, followed in January 2007; he has rarely been off the FAC since. In a second story, Ward Cunningham, an American computer programmer who invented the wiki, was interviewed by the WMF.
Wikipedia editor Sven Manguard's work is quite underappreciated a lot of the time, most likely because people haven't heard of it yet: He's developed good relationships with game companies, and is thus able to get full-resolution screenshots released under a Creative Commons license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere. This week's trove of new featured items on the English Wikipedia comprises seven articles, three lists, and four pictures.
In the US, Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer, and summer is definitely on people's minds this week, with summer films Godzilla and X-Men: Days of Future Past, the apparently designated summer song "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea, and summer TV show, Game of Thrones.
Wikipedia in the eyes of its beholders; "Chinese-language time zones" favor Asian pop and IT topics on Wikipedia; and bipartite editing prediction in Wikipedia.

The Signpost: 04 June 2014

Individual engagement grants (IEGs) are announced twice yearly by a volunteer WMF committee, the most recent of which we covered last December. The scheme, launched at the start of last year, awards funds to individuals or teams of up to four to produce high-impact outcomes for the WMF's online projects. It favours innovative approaches to solving critical issues in the movement.
New trustee Frieda Briosch from Italy: we face "a couple of headaches", she says: "how to boost editors, which includes the development of the next strategic plan, and how to keep our project always 'glamorous'."
I never feel quite adequate trying to paraphrase Sumana's words: she is so articulate. I highly encourage every person who reads this article to directly watch her keynote—it directly speaks to a lot of Wikimedia's most significant issues, made with great eloquence. We have a serious issue with retaining editors, and parts of her speech could serve as a pretty good partial blueprint towards how we could begin to fix that problem.
David Iliff, or Diliff, as he is known on here outside of the file pages for his many, many, excellent photographs, is one of Wikipedia's longest-standing professional-standard photographers. This week, the Signpost salutes him.
The month of May saw significant coverage concerning the reliability of Wikipedia's medical articles.
The northern summer is a time when one is meant to celebrate the exuberance of life; instead, commemoration of the dead was a significant theme this week.

The Signpost: 11 June 2014

Eleven public relations agencies have declared their intention to follow "ethical engagement practices" in Wikipedia editing. The results were published last Tuesday: a joint statement from the participating PR agencies—representing five of the top ten global agencies and all but one of the top ten in the United States—clarifying their views and practices with regards to the Wikimedia projects.
It seems that, more than commemorating the great moments in our history, more than even anticipating great sporting events, what our audience wants is the weird.
William Beutler (WWB), author of the blog The Wikipedian, is a long-time editor and community-watcher. He is also a paid editor (WWB Too). Well—not anymore—because he gave up direct editing of articles in 2011. Instead, for the past three years he has followed Jimmy Wales' Bright Line rule in acting as a researcher and consultant for companies and clients that want to suggest changes to Wikipedia articles and engage on the Talk page.
Last week we reported the announcement of two new affiliate-selected WMF trustees. The board of trustees is the most powerful and influential body in the movement, and chapters have been permitted to select two of the 10 seats since 2008, for two-year terms that start in even-numbered years.
Five articles, one list, twelve pictures, and one topic were promoted to 'featured' status last week on the English Wikipedia.

The Signpost: 18 June 2014

The Wikimedia Foundation has amended its terms of use to ban editing for pay without disclosing an employer or affiliation on any of its websites. The broad scope of these changes will allow the WMF to selectively enforce their terms of use to avoid ensnaring well-meaning editors.
Five articles, five lists, 22 pictures, and one portal were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
The Bangladesh chapter of the Wikimedia movement was formed in 2009. They received official local registration from the national authorities on 10 June 2014. The long road in between was subject to much persistence, patience, and luck—along with a good deal of worry.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the main draw this week, taking four slots. People appeared desperate to bone up on their trivia; checking not only this year's World Cup, but the last one. Even so, they still couldn't push Game of Thrones from the top ten. It will be interesting to see what happens come next week's season finale.
This week, the Signpost came in from the hinterland to interview members of the Cities WikiProject.

Main Page appearance: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

This is a note to let the main editors of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan know that the article will be appearing as today's featured article on July 5, 2014. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. If you prefer that the article appear as TFA on a different date, or not at present, please ask Bencherlite (talk · contribs). You can view the TFA blurb at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 5, 2014. If it needs tweaking, or if it needs rewording to match improvements to the article between now and its main page appearance, please edit it, following the instructions at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/instructions. The blurb as it stands now is below:

Nicholas Meyer

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film. The genetically engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), a character from the 1967 Star Trek television series episode "Space Seed", escapes from exile to exact revenge on Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner). The crew of the USS Enterprise must stop Khan from acquiring a powerful terraforming device named Genesis. The film concludes with the death of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), beginning a story arc continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. After the poor response to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, series creator Gene Roddenberry was forced out of the sequel's production. Nimoy only reprised his role as Spock because the character's death was intended to be irrevocable. Negative test audience reaction to Spock's death led to significant revisions of the ending over the objections of the director, Nicholas Meyer (pictured in 2008). The Wrath of Khan was a box office success, and critical reaction was generally positive. It is generally considered to be the best film of the entire Star Trek series and is credited with renewing interest in the franchise. (Full article...)

You (and your talk-page stalkers) may also be interested to hear that there have been some changes at the TFA requests page recently. Nominators no longer need to calculate how many "points" an article has, the instructions have been simplified, and there's a new nomination system using templates based on those used for DYK suggestions. Please consider nominating another article, or commenting on an existing nomination, and leaving some feedback on your experience. Thank you. UcuchaBot (talk) 23:01, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 25 June 2014

The US National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) have committed to engaging with Wikimedia projects in their newest Open Government Plan. The biannual effort is a roadmap for how the agency will accomplish its goals in the digital age.
Despite the interest generated by its season finale, Game of Thrones still couldn't top the World Cup, which still dominated interest, as evidenced by the fact that this top 10 is virtually identical to last week's, just with a different dead celebrity.
In her first interview since taking office, Lila Tretikov, the Wikimedia Foundation's new executive director, speaks about grantmaking, the global south, and the gender gap.
Discussions on the English Wikipedia this week include...
Ten articles and eleven pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
This week, the Signpost visited the land of Disney, blockbusters, explosions, dream sequences, and cultural masterpieces: film.
In a recent paper, Jacob Solomon and Rick Wash investigate the question of sustainability in online communities by analysing trends in the growth of WikiProjects.

The Great American Wiknic and other events in July

I am pleased to announce our fourth annual picnic, the Great American Wiknic, will take place at Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, July 13 from 1 to 5 PM (rain date: July 20). We will be hanging out by the statue of Dante Alighieri, a statue that was donated to the park in 1921 as a tribute to Italian Americans. Read more about the statue on Wikipedia. If you would like to sign up for the picnic, you can do so here. When signing up, say what you’re going to bring!

July will also feature the second annual Great American Wiknic in Frederick, Maryland. This year’s Frederick picnic will take place on Sunday, July 6 at Baker Park. Sign up here for the Frederick picnic.

What else is going on in July? We have the American Chemical Society Edit-a-Thon on Saturday, July 12, dedicated to notable chemists, and our monthly WikiSalon on Wednesday, July 16.

We hope to see you at our upcoming events!

Best,

James Hare

(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 21:22, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q2 2014

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 7, No. 2 — 2nd Quarter, 2014
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q2 2014, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:06, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 02 July 2014

The Los Angeles Times highlighted a recent Wiki Education Foundation (WEF) course at Pomona College in their article "Wikipedia pops up in bibliographies, and even college curricula". We interviewed Char Booth, the campus ambassador for the course, for additional details.
With Game of Thrones over for another year, the World Cup dominated yet again. And that is pretty much that. This list isn't likely to be particularly eventful until the Cup is won.
Wikimedia Israel (WMIL) has won a Roaring Lion in the category of Internet and cellular for its public outreach during the tenth anniversary of the Hebrew Wikipedia in July 2013.
Six articles, five lists, seventeen pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
This week, the Signpost visited the Indigenous peoples of North America WikiProject.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Wikimedia Deutschland's Toolserver project was switched off, marking the end of one of the Wikimedia movement's longest running Chapter-led projects. The Toolserver, which was in fact a collection of servers, first came online in 2005, hosting hundreds of webpages and scripts ("tools") made available for use by Wikimedia readers, editors and administrators.

Thanks and a Question

Note: I am also sending this message to Worm

Hello Worm and David! I hope this message finds you at a good time. I was searching through the arbcom list of active arbitrators and found that only three of you remain active from the Argentine History case (how incredible that a year has already passed?). I wanted to thank you both for having believed in me (even if one of you, ehem...David...ehem, was a bit harsh by mentioning a certain rope). I have indeed fulfilled my promise to bring the article Falkland Islands to featured status, in order to demonstrate that the sanctions applied against me were far too harsh and misled by misinformation (or perhaps disinformation). During this past year I have also led two articles to featured status, the Peru national football team and Pisco Sour.

Before appealing the sanction, I would first like to continue demonstrating my quality as a serious editor by taking the article of the United States to featured status (my current sandbox plan is here, including planned pictures and a new introduction). However, since part of US history overlaps with the history of Latin America, my question to you both is if me working on this tangential topic within the US article would would be an issue? Regards.--MarshalN20 Talk 18:10, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Hey Marshal. At first blush I'd say that US history, especially in the general view of a main topic, is tangental enough from Latin American history it's no issue, but I would encourage you to file a Request for clarification just to make sure my fellow arbs agree and there are no concerns. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 17:10, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Short review

I'm writing a third paragraph for this that can be viewed here [6]. I'd like your input on it. Its source is next to it. « Ryūkotsusei » 23:35, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 09 July 2014

Last May, James Forrester announced to the world that London had been awarded the 2014 Wikimania conference. Functioning as the Wikimedia movement's annual conference, it is separate from the chapter-focused Wikimedia Conference. The first, located in Frankfurt, took place in 2005 and had 380 attendees. London, the tenth, is now expected to attract 1500. With Wikimania ambition, attention, and attendance rising significantly over the last nine years, how have this year's monetary costs come to be?
After an extremely close race, round three is over. 244 points secured a place in Round 4, which is comparable to previous years—321 was required in 2013, and 243 points in 2012.
The Wikimedia Education Program currently spans 60 programs around the world; students and instructors participate at almost every level of education. The Education program Signpost series presents a snapshot of the Wikimedia Global Education Program as it exists in 2014.
Five articles, six lists, and nine pictures were promoted to 'featured' status last week on the English Wikipedia.
As with the troubled release of the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) flagship VisualEditor project, the release of the new Media Viewer has also been met with opposition from the English Wikipedia community.
Unsurprisingly, the World Cup continued to dominate the English Wikipedia's viewing statistics. In particular, the record-breaking performance of US goalkeeper Tim Howard and the tournament-ending injury to Brazil's Neymar drove large amount of views to their articles.

Please help me

Please help me out from user Redtigerxyz's edit war.Each and every single edits of mine interrupted by him.long before he did the same. again he started.Really this is painful for me.He might be join with some other editor then my move is so pitty.before he did the same so said.if you see the history of mine and him then you come to know.please help me in this.thank youEshwar.omTalk tome 20:39, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 16 July 2014

On the same day the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) announced it would offer assistance to English Wikipedia editors embroiled in a legal dispute with Yank Barry, the lawsuit has been withdrawn without prejudice at the request of Barry's legal team—but this action is being described as "strategic" so that they can refile the lawsuit with a "new, more comprehensive complaint."
This week it's still more and more World Cup, with five entries out of the top ten (and 14 out of the Top 25).
It all started in late 2005, when we first held lectures about Wikipedia in two educational institutions (universities) ...
Eight articles, three lists, and 28 pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
The Swedish Wikipedia's prolific Lsjbot, which has created a significant proportion of the site's 1.7 million articles and has nearly single-handedly pushed it to being the fourth-largest Wikipedia, was covered in the Wall Street Journal this week. The newspaper reported that the bot has created 2.7 million articles, which is apparently a reference to the Waray-Waray and Cebuano Wikipedias, where Lsjbot is also active, and that "on a good day", it creates 10,000 articles.

Battle of Fort Stevens Edit-a-Thon!

Greetings!

Sorry for the last minute update, but our friends at the DC Historical Society have scheduled a Battle of Fort Stevens Edit-a-Thon to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War battle fought in the District. The event will last from noon to 2 PM on Wednesday, July 30. Hope you can make it!

Best,

James Hare

(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 21:16, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

George and Gracie

Just curious, if the whales in Star Trek IV were named Laurel and Hardy, would you still require a citation to say that they were named after Laurel and Hardy? howcheng {chat} 04:50, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

@Howcheng:. Yes. See WP:V. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 23:04, 24 July 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 23 July 2014

"Great success" in Israel universities is leading to collaboration and editing in high schools.
Last week I predicted that the World Cup dominance on the report would be over—but I was wrong. The World Cup Final fell on the 13th of July, which was actually the first day of the week covered by this report, not the last day of the last report. Hence, five of the Top 10 this week are again World Cup related-topics.
Galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) today are facing fewer barriers to uploading their content onto Wikimedia projects now that the new GLAM-Wiki Toolset Project has been launched. The tool, which is the fruit of a collaboration between Europeana and several Wikimedia chapters, relieves GLAMs from having to write their own automated scripts and gives them a standardized method of uploading large amounts of their digitized holdings.
The English Wikipedia's did you know (DYK) section has been a feature of the site's main page since February 2004. From the beginning, the section has served as a place to highlight Wikipedia's newest articles. But over the last few years, the did you know section has gotten steadily larger and more complex, and non-notable or plagiarized articles have occasionally slipped through the reviewing process, leading numerous editors to call for reforms to the system. We asked two editors to share their views.
Ten articles, five lists, and 25 pictures were promoted to featured status on the English Wikipedia last week.

The Signpost: 30 July 2014

In Common Knowledge: An Ethnography of Wikipedia, Dariusz Jemielniak discusses Wikipedia from the standpoint of an experienced editor and administrator who is also a university professor specializing in management and organizations. In Virtual Reality: Just Because the Internet Told You, How Do You Know It's True?, Charles Seife presents a more broadly themed work reminding us to question the reliability of information found throughout the Internet.
Kim Osman has performed a fascinating study on the three 2013 failed proposals to ban paid advocacy editing in the English language Wikipedia. Using a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach, Osman analyzed 573 posts from the three main votes on paid editing conducted in the community in November 2013.
Another hoax on the English Wikipedia was uncovered this week—not by any thorough investigation, but through the self-disclosure of an anonymous change made when the editors were in their sophomore year of college. The deliberate misinformation had been in the article for over five years with plenty of individuals noticing, but not one suspected its authenticity. This leads to one obvious question: how many more are there?
A "program of heroes" is leading the charge in Egypt.
We indeed moved far away from football this week, and further into much more serious issues of war and death. The Israel-Palestinian conflict continues to dominate the news, and the top 10, with Gaza Strip, Israel, and Hamas. The top 25 also includes Palestine and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Death also lies behind the popularity of James Garner, the American actor who died on July 19th, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and deaths in 2014.
Two articles, four lists, and seven pictures attained featured status on the English Wikipedia last week.


Resolution

Dear David Fuchs, please see this polite request, and provide a positive thoughtful response there, if you have one. All the best: Rich Farmbrough00:57, 9 August 2014 (UTC).

The Signpost: 06 August 2014

As the start of Wikimania proper on 8 August approaches, the Signpost looks ahead to what its dozens of presentations might offer the technologically-inclined, whether attending in person or taking advantage of what promises to be a strong digital offering.
Serious news continues to dominate the most popular articles chart on Wikipedia this week, with the Ebola virus disease far and away in the top spot. In the top 25, we see the related articles Ebola virus, which talks about biological aspects, at #18 and 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak at #19.
Eight articles, fifteen pictures, and two topics were promoted to featured status on the English Wikipedia last week.
"Major growth" expected in Mexican university after a Wikipedia program is formally accepted by the school's administration.
The Wikimedia Foundation has published its first transparency report, covering from July 2012 to June 2014. The move comes on the same day the organization announced that Google, in order to comply with a recent court order upholding the "right to be forgotten", has removed a number of Wikipedia articles from their European search results.

WikiProject Good articles Future GAN Backlog Drive

Hello everyone! Hope you've all been having a great summer!

TheQ Editor recently proposed the idea of having another Backlog Drive in either September/October or November/December of this year. For those of you who have participated in the past two drives you know I was the one who organized them, however, come September, this will be my most important year in school so I will not be able to coordinate this drive (if it happens). TheQ Editor has volunteered to be a coordinator for the drive. If any of you would like to co-coordinator, please notify TheQ Editor on his talk page.

If you would be interested in participating in a Backlog Drive sometime before the end of this year, please notify TheQ Editor. Also, make sure to specify what month(s) work best for you.

At the time this message was sent out, the backlog was at 520 nominations. Since May, the backlog has been steadily increasing and we are currently near an all time high. Even though the backlog will not disappear over one drive, this drive can lead to several others which will (hopefully) lead to the day where there is no longer a backlog.

As always, the more participants, the better, and everyone is encouraged to participate!

Sent by Dom497--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:52, 16 August 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 13 August 2014

Slate reports that Tom Scott, co-creator of the emoji social network Emojli, created a Twitter bot called Parliament WikiEdits to automatically tweet a link to any Wikipedia edits made from an IP address belonging to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Scott's bot initially did not tweet any links to edits made from Parliament and, according to Scott, an "insider" reports that their IP addresses changed. Despite this, Scott's Twitter bot has inspired similar creations in numerous other countries.
It's been a grim few weeks. It says something that formerly arresting crises like the war in Ukraine, Boko Haram and the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, despite still being ongoing, have fallen out of the top 10 to make way for the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak and the equally if not more intense conflict against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
"Education is at the core of the Wikimedia Foundation’s mission."
Wikimania 2014 was held last week in the Barbican Centre in London. Below, the Signpost's former "Technology report" writer Harry Burt (User:Jarry1250) shares his thoughts on a bustling conference.
Wikimedia Foundation staff members have now been granted superpowers that would allow them to override community consensus. The new protection level came as a response to attempts of German Wikipedia administrators to implement a community consensus on the new Media Viewer. "Superprotect" is a level above full protection, and prevents edits by administrators.
Erythrophobia is the fear of, or sensitivity to, the colour red. Recently, I have seen more and more erythrophobic Wikipedians; specifically, Wikipedians who are scared of red links. In Wikipedia's early days, red links were encouraged and well-loved, and when I started editing in 2006, this was still mostly the case. Jump forward to 2014, and many editors now have an aversion to red links.
The Observer reported (August 2) that Google would "restrict search terms to a link to a Wikipedia article, in the first request under Europe's controversial new 'right to be forgotten' legislation to affect the 110m-page encyclopaedia."
Eight article, six lists, and two topics were promoted to featured status last week.

The Signpost: 20 August 2014

Dorothy Howard interviews Michael Szajewski, archivist for digital development and university records at Ball State University.
Comedian Robin Williams' untimely death takes the top spot.
At the plate with WikiProject Baseball!
Denny Vrandečić argues that "We should focus on measuring how much knowledge we allow every human to share in, instead of number of articles or active editors."
Ten articles and three pictures were promoted to featured status last week.

Orphaned non-free image File:Dante transparent.png

⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Dante transparent.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 09:51, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

GA Cup

Hello everyone! We hope you have all been having a great summer!

As we all know, the recent GAN Backlog Drives have not had any big impact on the backlog. Because of that, me (Dom497), Figureskatingfan, and TheQ Editor have worked on an idea that could possibly finally put a dent into the massive backlog. Now, I will admit, the idea isn't entirely ours as we have took the general idea of the WikiCup and brought it over to WikiProject Good Articles. But anyways, here's what we have in mind:

For all of you that do not know what the WikiCup is, it is an annual competition between several editors to see who can get the most Good Articles, Featured Article's, Did You Know's, etc. Based of this, we propose to you the GA Cup. This competition will only focus on reviewing Good articles.

For more info on the proposal, click here. As a FYI, the proposal page is not what the final product will look like (if you do go ahead with this idea). It will look very similar to WikiCup's page(s).

The discussion for the proposal will take place here. Please let us know if you are interested, have any concerns, things to consider, etc.

--Dom497, Figureskatingfan, and TheQ Editor

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:28, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 27 August 2014

Journalistic integrity, Congressional edits, and other news.
More discussions about Media Viewer, Superprotect, and software development
"This was a week when an actual virus, Ebola, competed for attention with several viral social phenomena; most notably the Ice Bucket Challenge..."
Sixteen articles, five lists, five pictures, and one topic were promoted.

Wikipedia and YOUR History: Taking Control of the Internet

Come one and come all. To a presentation at the Laurel Historical Society about how you can help verify, validate, and edit the information that is on the front line of local history.

Picture your self leading the masses to improve Wikimedia one article at a time.
  • Show the Internet who is the better editor.
  • Be the creator of culture that you know you are.
  • Spread the knowledge of noteworthy people who no one but you cares about.
  • Lead the charge to a better Wikipedia --- eventually.


Geraldshields11 (talk) 02:08, 6 September 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia and YOUR History: Taking Control of the Internet

See you at the Laurel Pool Room, 9th and Main Street, Laurel, MD on Thursday, September 11, 2014 at 7:00 PM EST. See http://www.meetup.com/Wikimedia-DC/events/205494212/ for more information. Geraldshields11 (talk) 02:13, 6 September 2014 (UTC)

Wikimedia DC invites revolutionaries, free thinkers, and other sundry editors to a DC WikiSalon

The WikiSalon is a special meetup usually held during the first and third full weeks of every month, from 7 PM to 9 PM. It's an informal gathering of Wikimedia enthusiasts, who come together to discuss Wikimedia wikis and collaboratively edit. There's no set agenda, and guests are welcome to recommend articles for the group to edit or edit on their own.

If you're coming by Metro, the closest station is Dupont Circle (on the Red Line). If you're driving, a lot of parking opens up downtown after 6:30 PM, so finding a parking space (even a free one) should be easy. Once you've found the building, go to Cove on the second floor. We will be in the conference room.

When: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Where: The Cove, Dupont Circle, 1730 Connecticut Avenue NW, 2nd floor, 20009, DC


For more information, see http://www.meetup.com/Wikimedia-DC/events/205500822/


My best regards, Geraldshields11 (talk) 02:25, 6 September 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 03 September 2014

"On 1 September, the Arbitrators voted to suspend the Media Viewer case for 60 days. After the suspension period is up, the case is to be closed unless the committee votes otherwise. The case suspension comes in response to several new initiatives and policies announced by the Wikimedia Foundation that may make the case moot. In the same motion, the committee declared that Eloquence's resignation of the administrator right was "under the cloud" and that he can only regain the right through another RfA."
Two articles, one list, and ten pictures were promoted
Doc James and some collaborators are working on quick detection of copyright violations
"This week we saw three of the top ten articles remain in place, with the Ice Bucket Challenge at #1, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at #2, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant at #5, all for a second straight week..."
"This week, the Signpost went out to meet WikiProject Anatomy, dedicated to improving the articles about all our bones, brains, bladders and biceps, and getting them to the high standard expected of a comprehensive encyclopaedia."
The latest roundup of research about Wikimedia

Wikimedia DC's Wonderful meetups

Wikimedia DC's Upcoming meetups

  • Thursday, September 11: “Wikipedia and YOUR History: Taking Control of the Internet, One Article at a Time!”
    A presentation at the Laurel Historical Society about how you can help verify, validate, and edit the information that is on the front line of local history. Laurel Pool Room, 9th and Main Street in Laurel, MD. 7 PM.
  • Wednesday, September 17: WikiSalon
    Come for the pizza, stay for the conversation. 7 PM – 9 PM
  • Saturday, September 20: September Meetup
    Get dinner and drinks with fellow Wikipedians! 6 PM
  • Sunday, September 21: Laurel History Edit-a-Thon
    Local history for Wikipedia! 10:15 AM – 4 PM
  • Saturday, September 27 – Sunday, September 28: Please RSVP for the Open Government WikiHack at Eventbrite by clicking on the link. The National Archives and Records Administration and Wikimedia DC are teaming up to come up with solutions that help integrate government data into Wikipedia. 10:30 AM – 5 PM each day

My best regards, Geraldshields11 (talk) 22:49, 6 September 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 10 September 2014

Last month, I wrote an open letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, inviting others to join me in a simple but important request: roll back the recent actions—both technical and social—by which the Wikimedia Foundation has overruled legitimate decisions of several Wikimedia projects.
Even though it's not quite 3/4 over, it's safe to say that 2014 will go down as a year of war, mass murder, plane crashes and terrible diseases. While certainly paying it some heed, it's not surprising that Wikipedia viewers tried this week to find any alternative to that litany of tragedy and pain, and their chosen method of escape was, as usual, celebrity.
The amazing and strange tongue-eating louse replacing a fish's tongue! Because isopods, the subject of a new featured article, are both awesome and really damn weird!
This week, the Signpost decided to have a look around with WikiProject Check Wikipedia a maintenance project not concerned so much with articles' content, but in all the tiny errors that are to be found scattered within them. Their front page gives a list of things they mainly focus on ...

WikiProject Good Articles - GA Cup


WikiProject Good articles is holding a new competition, the GA Cup, from October 1, 2014 - March 28, 2015. The Cup will be based on reviewing Good article nominations; for each review, points will be awarded with bonuses for older nominations, longer articles and comprehensive reviews. All participants will start off in one group and the highest scoring participants will go through to the second round. At the moment six rounds are planned, but this may change based on participant numbers.

Some of you may ask: what is the purpose for a competition of this type? Currently, there is a backlog of about 500 unreviewed Good article nominations, almost an all time high. It is our hope that we can decrease the backlog in a fun way, through friendly competition.

Everyone is welcome to join; new and old editors! Sign-ups will be open until October 15, 2014 so sign-up now!

If you have any questions, take a look at the FAQ page and/or contact one of the four judges.

Cheers from NickGibson3900, Dom497, TheQ Editor and Figureskatingfan.

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:04, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

To receive future GA Cup newsletter, please add your name to our mailing list.

The Signpost: 17 September 2014

The Hürriyet Daily News reports on a series of posts on Twitter from Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Ömer Çelik.
As Scotland is deciding its future this week, we thought it might be a good idea to get to know the editors of WikiProject Scotland and talk to them about the project.
A prominent Wikipedia researcher has discovered that the encyclopedia's widely used article traffic statistics are missing out on approximately one-third of total views.
There is no unifying theme we can slap on top article popularity this week.
Four articles, two lists, and 51 pictures were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.

The Signpost: 24 September 2014

Six articles, four lists, one topic, and 17 pictures were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.
The Hindustan Times speculates (September 18) that politicians and their supporters are "sanitizing" their articles in advance of the 2014 Maharashtra State Assembly election. The Times notes the absence of significant controversies in the articles of particular politicians and the presence of heavily promotional language.
0.75% of Wikipedia birthdates are inaccurate, reported Robert Viseur at WikiSym 2014. Those inaccuracies are "low, although higher than the 0.21% observed for the baseline reference sources". Given that biographies represent 15% of English Wikipedia, the third largest category after "arts" and "culture", their accuracy is important.
This could be the beginning of a new era for this list. Until now, decisions to remove suspicious content have been largely educated guesswork. This week though, we have a new collaborator who can shine a light on the origins and patterns, sorting once and for all the webwheat from the cyberchaff.
A year and a week later, we're with some of the members of WikiProject Good Articles, who wanted to share the news of their upcoming contest within the project, the GA Cup. The aim of this friendly competition, which is held in the same light friendly manner of the WikiCup and the Core Contest, is to reduce the backlog of unreviewed articles at Good article nominations which has been a constant problem for quite a few years for those running the GA process.
Banning Policy finishes the workshop phase on 23 September. Parties have proposed findings of fact on the topics of the 3RR, the role of Jimbo Wales, and proxying for banned users. A request for arbitration was posted on 20 September about Landmark Worldwide.

Belle Knox AFD #2

The second AFD for Belle Knox has been overturned and relisted. As you commented on the original AFD, you may wish to comment on this one as well. As there have been developments and sources created since the time of the original AFD, please review to see if your comments/!vote are the same or may have changed. Gaijin42 (talk)

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q3 2014

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 7, No. 3 — 3rd Quarter, 2014
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q3 2014, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:30, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 01 October 2014

Contributing to the Signpost can be one of the most rewarding things an editor can do.
This article was first published in the Signpost in 2009. Written by several long-standing editors, including the late Adrianne Wadewitz, the article was subjected to extensive commentary and ultimately influenced the English Wikipedia's plagiarism guideline. With recent debates about close paraphrasing vis-à-vis plagiarism, we feel that this dispatch retains its relevance and deserves a second airing.
The argument on Wikipedia over the benefits of crowdsourcing versus the primacy of "expert" contributors stretches back to co-founder Larry Sanger's break with the project to start the alternative Citizendium.
This week, the Signpost went down to the farm to have a look at the work of WikiProject Agriculture, which has been in existence since 2007 and has a scope covering crop production, livestock management, aquaculture, dairy farming and forest management.
Jews wished each other Shanah Tovah ("Good year") this week as Rosh Hashanah was our most popular article. It was also a week not dominated by heavy news and tragedies, so aside from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (#2, sixth week in the Top 10), our popular article list runs the gamut of current events including new television series Gotham (#3), the 2014 Asian Games (#4), and Reddit-fueled popularity for German director Uwe Boll (#7).
As the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the American Civil War draws to a close, the race to improve content continues. The Battle of Franklin, fought on November 30, 1864, will, quite appropriately, be Picture of the Day for November 30, 2014, its 150th anniversary. If you want to help commemorate the American Civil War, why not help out at the Military History WikiProject's Operation Brothers at War. Or help out with the World War I centennial, just starting up, Operation Great War Centennial.

The wonderful annual meeting! And more!

Hello, fellow Wikipedian!

I am excited to announce our upcoming Annual Meeting at the National Archives! We'll have free lunch, an introduction by Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, and a discussion featuring Ed Summers, the creator of CongressEdits. Join your fellow DC-area Wikipedians on Saturday, October 18 from 12 to 4:30 PM. RSVP today!

Also coming up we have the Human Origins edit-a-thon on October 17 and the WikiSalon on October 22. Hope to see you at our upcoming events!

Best,

James Hare

(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 21:20, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 08 October 2014

Also, Wikimedia Norge and Nobel Peace Center edit-a-thon
2 Featured articles, 4 Featured lists, 62 Featured pictures, and 2 Featured portals were promoted.
The first case of the Ebola virus on US shores sent people into a tizzy, rushing to their keyboards to try and learn what they could.
No seriously, it is.

The Signpost: 15 October 2014

Why does Wikipedia still use the gendered pronouns "she" and "her" for ships?
Ben Koo of the sports blog Awful Announcing investigated how player Joe Streater's name became involved in recent years with a historic sports scandal.
The Banning Policy case was closed on 12 October. Arbcom affirmed that users have "considerable leeway" in terms of how their talk pages are managed.
Nine articles and twenty-six pictures were promoted to featured status on the English Wikipedia.
This week we sat down with The Earwig to learn about his wikitext parser.
We are pleased to report that the WP:5000 has now been updated to include mobile views, including a column reflecting the percentage of views coming from mobile devices.
Today, it's the turn of WikiProject Ohio to give us an interview probing deep into of how they manage to run a project covering one fiftieth of the United States, and the workings of how they manufacture their successes and other articles.

The Signpost: 22 October 2014

Four articles, four lists, and fifty-three pictures were promoted to featured status.
Our op-ed writer this week opines that the organization of Hong Kong's "Umbrella Revolution" resembles how Wikipedia is organized.
Among many newsworthy stories this week, the Signpost notes the passing of Italian Wikipedia administrator and former Wikimedia Italia treasurer [Cotton
Ebola, movies and television articles appear in this week's top ten.
PaintedCarpet explains that "WikiProject Orphanage aims to connect all Wikipedia pages, so that pages can be found and read more easily."

El Clasico

Hi David, i messaged Courcelles on this but I don't think he's that active, I've mentioned this article El Clasico being an issue before (Barcelona fans and Madrid fans constantly arguing back and forth). I've tried to weigh in as a neutral (Liverpool fan in the UK.,,hardly ever edit on Liverpool for this reason) and there is an issue with a Madrid fan (Cid Campeador3) censoring material. Ok here are the two versions.

Me, a neutral observer from the UK, support neither team so my only aim is accuracy and to maintain neutrality. Ive adhered to WP:RS and used reliable sources, adhered to WP:NPOV by having the back story (General Franco wasn't pro one side or the other) to maintain balance...and gave a background of the build up to the game and the game itself;. The English sources (ie.The Guardian, The Independent etc). have no allegiances/bias and call a spade a spade.


Real Madrid 11 - 1 Barcelona

In 1943, Barcelona faced Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the 1943 Copa del Generalísimo. That was the General’s Cup, before Spain was made a republic, now called Copa del Rey. The first leg match, played at Barcelona's Les Corts stadium in Catalonia, ended with Barcelona winning 3–0.[1] The Catalans had supported Barcelona so vociferously that they were vilified by the Madrid-based newspaper Ya which argued that they had "whistled at the Madrid players with the clear intention of attacking the representatives of Spain".[2] General Franco wasn't obsessed with one side or the other, more with keeping down anyone with an independent thought in their head such as the Catalans, so his regime got to work.[2] Before the second leg in Madrid, the Barcelona team received an uninvited guest just before kick-off.[3] He carried an even more unwelcome message;

“Do not forget that some of you are only playing because of the generosity of the regime that has forgiven you for your lack of patriotism.” - Count of Mayalde, Franco's head of state security.[2]

In one of the most intimidating atmospheres in football history, within half an hour Madrid were three goals ahead and Barcelona capitulated as they added to their tally to make it 8-0 before half-time with goals in the 33rd, 35th, 39th, 43rd and 49th minutes.[2] At half-time Barcelona were reluctant to come out for the second half.[1] Madrid dominated and scored three more, winning the game 11-1 (11-4 on aggregate).[1] A newspaper called the scoreline "as absurd as it was abnormal".[1]

According to football writer Sid Lowe; "There have been relatively few mentions of the game [since] and it is not a result that has been particularly celebrated in Madrid. Indeed, the 11-1 occupies a far more prominent place in Barcelona's history."[1] Fernando Argila, Barcelona's reserve goalkeeper from the game, said: “There was no rivalry. Not, at least, until that game."[1]


This material was then removed by Cid Campeador3, Madrid fan (from Madrid). He deleted reliable material from English references, deleted much of the sourced background of the game and the game itself (censoring), uses a Spanish source (diariogol) that we don't know the reliability of. Spanish sources tend to be biased (either pro one team or the other).


Real Madrid 11 - 1 Barcelona

In 1943, Barcelona faced Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the 1943 Copa del Generalísimo, competition nowadays called Copa del Rey. The first leg match, played at Barcelona's Les Corts stadium in Catalonia, ended with Barcelona winning 3–0.

At the second leg, in a strongly intimidating atmosphere, within the first half, Real Madrid had already scored eight goals. The final result was 11-1.

According to Josep Valle, Barcelona player during that season, Barcelona players were angry and infuriated because of the aggressiveness from the home crowd during the match, and also because of the violent style of playing they claimed Real Madrid was using.[4]

In these circumstances, Barcelona coach Juan Jose Nogués and all his players decided that they were not going to play the second half.[5] Then, the Superior Chief of Police of Madrid appeared, identified himself, and told Barcelona coach:

"You all have to go to the field, if you don't, we will take you all to the Police station."[6]

Josep Valle claims Barcelona suffered that big defeat because of the pressure from the home crowd.[7]

References

David you be the judge, or others on arbcom. Ive done my best to keep the article neutral and I personally believe if you have a strong alliance to one side you shouldn't edit as you have a natural bias. We all do. This is what I see in the Madrid fan's edit and censorship of reliable references. It's partly the reason I would have liked this page locked as therefore at least established editors can use it, and any discussion can take place on talk on any issues or changes required. Look at the edit hostory of the article, Ive edited biased material from both sides and I'm tired of trying to manitain the neutrality of the pags tbh. I'd like your input on this. Carlos Rojas77 23:25 25 November 2014 (UTC)

@Carlos Rojas77: Hello Carlos. ArbCom is the last step in dispute resolution; as such I really don't want to give any thoughts on the matter specifically, other than suggesting that taking the sources involved to WP:RSN, or starting an WP:RFC on the topic would be good steps in trying to resolve the issue. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 15:46, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 29 October 2014

By the way, there is a monster at the end of this article
Noam Cohen reports in The New York Times (October 26) that Wikipedia's "Ebola Virus Disease article has had 17 million page views in the last month," an indication of the public's reliance on the online encyclopedia.
Rather than the usual WikiProject Report, this week our guest author Jheald is telling us about a campaign to identify thousands of old maps which have been digitised, to make them available for georeferencing and upload
Ebola virus disease leads the Report for the fourth straight week. The rest of the list is primarily a mix of pop culture topics, including movie Avengers: Age of Ultron (#4) whose trailer was leaked early, and the death of Oscar de la Renta (#7). A BuzzFeed article on creepy Wikipedia articles, no doubt well-timed with Halloween (#9) around the corner, was responsible for three articles in the Top 25, including June and Jennifer Gibbons (#10), Taman Shud Case (#17), Joyce Vincent (#25). And the internet-run-amok controversy of Gamergate cracked the Top 25 for the first time at #19.
In new research conducted in light of proposed changes to data protection legislation in the European Union (EU), authors Bart Custers, Simone van der Hof, and Bart Schermer conducted a comparative analysis of social media and user-generated content websites’ privacy policies along with a user survey (N=8,621 in 26 countries) and interviews in 13 different EU countries on awareness, values, and attitudes toward privacy online.

The Signpost: 05 November 2014

"Rachel Feltman, in The Washington Post (November 4), examined research in which a team, mostly from Los Alamos National Laboratory, headed by Kyle Hickman developed a model that enabled them "to successfully predict the 2013-2014 flu season in real time" by employing "an algorithm to link flu-related Wikipedia searches with CDC data from the same time." Apparently when individuals search for information about the flu and its symptoms in Wikipedia when they feel ill, this generates data useful in forecasting the the flu season."
"It is, perhaps, ironic that humanity chose the week of Halloween to finally put its fears to bed. Let's face it: 2014 has been a year of tragedies, conflicts, plagues and pain, and eventually something had to break... Whether we at last came to terms with our limited ability to affect events, shoved those events under the carpet, or just decided to let go and move on, we turned our eye to more positive things, such as sports heroes, hotly anticipated movies, and lifelong learning; two Google doodles appeared in the top 25 for the first time since the beginning of August."

The Signpost: 12 November 2014

"Technology media outlets are abuzz after the November 6 unveiling of the Amazon Echo, an Internet-connected voice command device"; "The EUobserver talks (November 4) with Dimitar Dimitrov (User:Dimi z) about the lack of freedom of panorama in some European Union countries and its implications for Wikimedia projects"; "Scott Cantrell, classical music critic for the Dallas Morning News, recounts efforts to verify an uncited claim in the Wikipedia article for the Béla Bartók opera Bluebeard's Castle."
This was very much a week dominated by holidays and pop culture over current events, with new film Interstellar taking the top spot followed by holidays Day of the Dead (#2), Guy Fawkes and his Night (#4 and #5), and Halloween (#8, and its third week on the list). And a foursome of television shows, all return visitors, appear to setting up residence on the greater Top 25: The Walking Dead (#11), American Horror Story: Freak Show (#14), Gotham (#16), and The Flash (#18).
Nine articles, two lists, and 55 featured pictures were promoted during the week of 26 October.
We return to our interview format this week, speaking with the participants of WikiProject Hospitals. This project, formed in 2010, has no Featured content and only three Good articles, yet aided by around 30 hard-working Wikipedians covers a topic that is essential to life.

Duplicate vote

Hey heads up you voted both support and Oppose on Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Gender Gap Task Force/Proposed decision#Proposed remedies 1.1 - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 03:33, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

@Knowledgekid87: Thanks for the heads-up. I got e/c'd twice and apparently messed things up the third go-'round. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs(talk) 03:45, 17 November 2014 (UTC)
Welcome and yeah ec's can do some crazy stuff O.o . - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 03:48, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 26 November 2014

Four articles, four lists, eleven pictures, and one topic were promoted.
Numerous media outlets are reporting on a November 14 statement on the website of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library announcing the formation of a Russian "alternative" to Wikipedia, a "regional electronic encyclopedia" dedicated to "Russian regions and the life of the country".
The monthly roundup of research related to Wikimedia.
It's time for this year's edition of the Report looking at possibly our largest wikiproject: Military history. Since our last interview in June 2013, the project has had no break in its huge quest to document everything in their scope, that is, militaries and conflicts of the past. As usual, its participants were eager to answer the questions posed by The Signpost and update us on how they are doing.
Often times in popular culture, a subject will be quite popular among a distinct niche of people or region of the world, but little-known elsewhere -- like a musical artist that is boasted to be "big in Japan". The Traffic Report provides a bevy of examples this week.

This is to inform you that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which you nominated at WP:FAC, will appear on the Wikipedia Main Page as Today's Featured Article on 28 December 2014. The proposed main page blurb is here; you may amend if necessary. Please check for dead links and other possible faults before the appearance date. Brianboulton (talk) 23:43, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 03 December 2014

End-of-the-year meetups

Hello,

You're invited to the end-of-the-year meetup at Busboys and Poets on Sunday, December 14 at 6 PM. There is Wi-Fi, so bring your computer if you want!

You are also invited to our WikiSalon on Thursday, December 18 at 7 PM.

Hope to see you at our upcoming events!

Best,

James Hare

(To unsubscribe, remove your username here.) 02:22, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 10 December 2014

DP FOF#3

...appears to be inaccurate, as pointed out on the PD talkpage. See https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools/ec/?user=EatsShootsAndLeaves&project=en.wikipedia.org for details.--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 19:33, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 17 December 2014

The Signpost: 24 December 2014

Prefix: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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