User talk:Miniapolis/Archives/2013/January

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

Northern Inuit Dog

Hi, I have removed the two external links you added to Northern Inuit Dog as they were both to breeders personal websites - sorry, these do not get included in dog breed articles as they are trying to sell pups. Thanks for trying to find extra info about the breed though. SagaciousPhil - Chat 17:57, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, it's a judgment call; WP:ADV says, "Links to potentially revenue-generating web pages are not prohibited, even though the website owner might earn money through advertisements, sales, or (in the case of non-profit organizations) donations". I can understand why these wouldn't be welcome in breed articles, though :-), and still agree with you that the topic is not sufficiently notable; the only decent source (and it's not much) is that zoo-veterinary-group paper. Happy New Year and all the best, Miniapolis (talk) 18:27, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

We're just starting to get ready for New Year celebrations (we're in Scotland)! The guidelines for dog breed articles actually state not to add breeder sites as external links - even breed clubs are frowned on as it could get out of hand with the number of them. I try to use the better breed club websites for references as most have pretty in-depth histories, health etc. I'm just removing a breeder link from one of the BSD articles as it keeps being added (and oh look, they just happen to have a litter recently whelped!)

. Have a great New Year! SagaciousPhil - Chat 18:39, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

GOCE 2012 Annual Report

Guild of Copy Editors 2012 Annual Report

The GOCE has wrapped up another successful year of operations!

Our 2012 Annual Report is now ready for review.

– Your project coordinators: Torchiest, BDD, and Miniapolis

Sign up for the January drive! To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 00:39, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

2013

File:Happy New Year 2013.jpg

Have an enjoyable New Year!

Hello Miniapolis: Thanks for all of your contributions to Wikipedia, and have a happy and enjoyable New Year! Cheers, Northamerica1000^(talk) 07:40, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year 2013}} to people's talk pages with a friendly message.

Thanks, and Happy New Year to you too! All the best, Miniapolis (talk) 21:25, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

GOCE Coordinator

Congratulations on becoming a coordinator! As you probably already know, the main tasks involve making sure all the pages are kept up to date and properly organized. If you haven't already, add WP:GOCE/COORD to your watchlist, since that's where we can consult with each other on administrative questions. I'm working on putting together a task list to make it easier to remember all the little details of project maintenance. Let me know if you have any questions. —Torchiest ^talk_edits 14:26, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Here is the task list I'm working on. —Torchiest ^talk_edits 15:18, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! Must admit I'm a bit daunted by the learning curve, but it'll work out fine. Happy New Year and all the best, Miniapolis (talk) 15:56, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Haha, don't worry. It's mostly just making sure everything is running smoothly. The GOCE mostly runs itself. Mostly. ;) —Torchiest ^talk_edits 21:06, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

It's the "mostly" I'm thinking about :-). All the best, Anne Miniapolis (talk) 21:24, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Interested in Mentorship

Hello Miniapolis,

I've come to your page via my membership in the Guild of Copy Editors. I have been editing wikipedia for two and a half years or so. I'm from Guam and have an interest in Guam related articles and Micronesia related articles. As you can see from my contributions most of my edits are Gnome-like, nothing spectacular. I enjoy wikipedia and learn more and more everyday. I am by no means an expert. But I try. That being said, after almost three years here I would like to make more significant edits and perhaps even create a page or two. But I feel I'm not ready. So I'm looking for some sort of Copy Edit mentorship. I don't know what that would entail and if you would be interested in mentorship but I feel I've learned about as much as I can here without asking for help. Thank you. Sprinkler21 (talk) 04:01, 1 January 2013 (UTC)Sprinkler21

Hi, Sprinkler21, and thanks very much from a fellow gnome for your interest in improving the Guam- and Micronesia-related articles. I enjoy WP for the same reason you do: there's so much to learn! Take a look at this page; it has just about everything you need to know in one place. As you probably know, the January backlog-elimination drive has just started, and a good way to get started copyediting is to work on the backlog. One hint I learned from Stfg: instead of using the {{GOCEinuse}} tag (which tends to get removed if you get sidetracked for any reason), just remove the {{copyedit}} tag before you begin; as long as you remember to finish the article, that works well. Hope this helps, and I'll keep an eye on your articles. Happy New Year and all the best, Miniapolis (talk) 15:54, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! Sprinkler21 (talk) 03:38, 2 January 2013 (UTC)Sprinkler21

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Video games

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The Signpost: 31 December 2012

From the editor: Wikipedia, our Colosseum

In the impersonal, detached Colosseum that is Wikipedia, people find it much easier to put their thumbs down. As such, many people active in the Wikimedia movement have witnessed a precipitous decline in civil discourse. This is far from a new trend, yet many people would agree that it all seemed somehow worse in 2012.

In the media: Is the Wikimedia movement too 'cash rich'?

A recent, poorly researched and poorly written story in the Register highlighted the perceived "cash rich" status of the Wikimedia movement. ... The Telegraph and Daily Dot, among others, have alleged that there are multiple links between the WMF, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, and Kazakhstan's government, which is, for all intents and purposes, a one-party non-democratic state.

News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser a success; Czech parliament releases photographs to chapter

On 27 December the Wikimedia Foundation announced the conclusion of their ninth annual fundraiser, which attracted more than 1.2 million donors. The appeal reached its goal of US$25 million, even though fundraising banners ran for only nine days.

Technology report: Looking back on a year of incremental changes

In the first of two features, the Signpost this week looks back on 2012, a year when developers finally made inroads into three issues that had been put off for far too long (the need for editors to learn wiki-markup, the lack of a proper template language and the centralisation of data) but left all three projects far from finished.

Discussion report: Image policy and guidelines; resysopping policy

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include ...

Interview: Interview with Brion Vibber, the WMF's first employee

Brion Vibber has been a Wikipedia editor for nearly 11 years and was the first person officially hired to work for the Wikimedia Foundation. He was instrumental in early development of the MediaWiki software and is now the lead software architect for the foundation's mobile development team.

Featured content: Whoa Nelly! Featured content in review

At the beginning of the year, we began a series of interviews with editors who have worked hard to combat systemic bias through the creation of featured content; although we haven't seen six installments yet, we've also had some delightful interviews with people who write articles on some of our most core topics. Now, as we close the year, I would like to present some of my own musings on the state of featured content—especially as it pertains to systemic bias and core topics.

WikiProject report: New Year, New York

This week, we're celebrating the New Year from Times Square by interviewing WikiProject New York City. Since December 2004, WikiProject NYC has had the difficult task of maintaining articles about the largest city in the United States, many of which are also among the the most viewed articles on Wikipedia. The project is home to 22 Featured Articles, 7 Featured Lists, 32 pieces of Featured Media, and a lengthy list of Did You Know? entries.

Recent research: Wikipedia and Sandy Hook; SOPA blackout reexamined

Northeastern University researcher Brian Keegan analyzed the gathering of hundreds of Wikipedians to cover the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. ... A First Monday article reviews several aspects of the Wikipedia participation in the 18 January 2012, protests against SOPA and PIPA legislation in the USA. The paper focuses on the question of legitimacy, looking at how the Wikipedia community arrived at the decision to participate in those protests.

December 2012 Wikification Barnstars!

		The Bronze Wikification Barnstar
		Thank you for wikifying 31 articles during the December 2012 drive. benzband (talk) 17:01, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

		The Working Wikifier's Barnstar
		Also, congratulations on your 7th place leaderboard appearance in the December 2012 drive. Keep it up! benzband (talk) 17:01, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Happy New Year, benzband (talk) 17:01, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, and Happy New Year to you too! All the best, Miniapolis (talk) 18:15, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Circumcision

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Dog conch

Thank you so much Miniapolis for your very prompt response to my request for a copy editor to help us with the FA review of Dog conch! This is Project Gastropods very first attempt at an FA, so we are newbies at this. Plus much of the text of the article was put together by people for whom English is not their first language. Your copy edits so far look really great, and thanks so much for putting in alt text on the images, something we (and the reviewers so far) have overlooked! Invertzoo (talk) 19:03, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

		The Nudibranch of Niceness
		For your kindness in volunteering to copyedit Dog conch, which is part of Project Gastropods, I present you with this unusual gastropod award, created by Anna Frodesiak, one of our members. Many thanks, Invertzoo (talk) 19:12, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

I love it! Thanks very much; I'm glad to help, and should finish it tomorrow. All the best, Miniapolis (talk) 02:43, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Minimal pair

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The Signpost: 07 January 2013

Op-ed: Meta, where innovative ideas die

Meta is the wiki that has coordinated a wide range of cross-project Wikimedia activities, such as the activities of stewards, the archiving of chapter reports, and WMF trustee elections. The project has long been an out-of-the-way corner for technocratic working groups, unaccountable mandarins, and in-house bureaucratic proceedings. Largely ignored by the editing communities of projects such as Wikipedia and organizations that serve them, Meta has evolved into a huge and relatively disorganized repository, where the few archivists running it also happen to be the main authors of some of its key documents. While Meta is well-designed for supporting the librarians and mandarins who stride along its corridors, visitors tend to find the site impenetrable—or so many people have argued over the past decade. This impenetrability runs counter to Meta's increasingly central role in the Wikimedia movement.

WikiProject report: Where Are They Now? Episode IV: A New Year

The dawning of a new year offers both a fresh slate and an opportunity to revisit our previous adventures. 2012 marked the fifth anniversary of the WikiProject Report and was the column's most productive year with 52 articles published. In addition to sharing the experiences of Wikipedia's many active projects, we expanded our scope to highlight unique projects from other languages of Wikipedia, and tracked down all of the former editors-in-chief of the Signpost for an introspective interview ... While last year's "Summer Sports Series" may have drawn yawns from some readers, a special report on "Neglected Geography" elicited more comments than any previous issue of the Report. Following in the footsteps of our past three recaps, we'll spend this week looking back at the trials and tribulations of the WikiProjects we encountered in 2012. Where are they now?

News and notes: 2012—the big year

The past 12 months have seen a multitude of issues and events in the Wikimedia foundation, the movement at large, and the English Wikipedia. The movement, now in its second decade, is growing apace in its international reach, cultural and linguistic diversity, technical development, and financial complexity; and many factors have combined to produce what has in many ways been the biggest, most dynamic year in the movement's history. Looking back at 2012, we faced a difficult task in doing justice to all of the notable events in a single article; so the Signpost has selected just a few examples from outside the anglosphere, from the English Wikipedia, and from the Wikimedia Foundation, rather than attempting to cover every detail that happened.

Featured content: Featured content in review

Over the past year, 963 pieces of featured content were promoted. The most active of the featured content programs was featured article candidates (FAC), which promoted an average of 31 articles a month. This was followed by featured picture candidates (FPC; 28 a month). Coming in third was featured list candidates (FLC; 20 a month). Featured topic and featured portal candidates remained sluggish, each promoting fewer than 20 items over the year.

Technology report: Looking ahead to 2013

Following on from last week's reflections on 2012, this week the Technology report looks ahead to 2013, a year that will almost certainly be dominated by the juggernauts of Wikidata, Lua and the Visual Editor.

Copy Edit Drive

Just wondering what the wordcount signifies? Is it words added, words changed, etc? It may seem like an odd question, but I've copy-edited Andrew A. Jacono, and since quite some text was irrelevant or just superfluous, I ended up with about 120 words less than the original... Thanks in advance! Mathijsvs (talk) 12:02, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Hi, and welcome to the GOCE! The word count is the number of words in an article before it's copyedited. There's an easy-to-install script (meaning even I could do it :-)) on the main drive page which will add a "Page size" link to the Toolbox on the left side of the page (if you're copyediting a section instead of a whole article, the page-size link works when you click to edit and then click "Preview"). If for some reason you want to do it the old-fashioned way (for example, if your article has a lot of lists or tables; the page-size script doesn't count them), copy and paste the article itself (minus any infoboxes, etc. at the beginning and references, etc. at the end) into any word processor that will give you a word count (I use MS Word). Hope this helps. Have fun and all the best, Miniapolis 22:28, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

That explains a lot, thanks! :) Mathijsvs (talk) 04:33, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Jill Marsden

Yeah, sorry about that, please revert my revert. I see what you were doing now. Bleaney (talk) 00:19, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

No problem, and thanks for your understanding. All the best, Miniapolis 01:28, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Miniapolis. You have new messages at David FLXD's talk page.
Message added 05:59, 11 January 2013 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

David_FLXD (Talk) 05:59, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Please comment on Category talk:Traditional knowledge

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Geet Ramayan copyedit

Hi. Thank you very much for you much appreciated edits on the article. - Vivvt • (Talk) 22:24, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Glad to help! All the best, Miniapolis 22:28, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for January 12

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A little request

Hey! Could you take a little look at Santa María de La Cabeza castle and do some copyedits to it? It's a pretty short article and should only take some 20 minutes to read and copyedit. I have worked on it doing copyedits, but I'm still not comfortable with it and may need an outsider to fix what I can't see. Thanks. — ΛΧΣ²¹ 15:42, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

P.D. It is already listed at GOCE's copyedit requests. — ΛΧΣ²¹ 15:42, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Sure. Miniapolis 15:44, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

For you

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		For all your help copyediting my articles when I need your help :) — ΛΧΣ²¹ 19:38, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! Miniapolis 19:39, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Good articles

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Re: Deadalive

Just wanted to drop by and express my thanks that you copyedited "Deadalive"! It looks great!--Gen. Quon (Talk) 02:12, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay; we're chronically short-staffed :-). Good luck with FA and all the best, Miniapolis 02:16, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

The Signpost: 14 January 2013

Investigative report: Ship ahoy! New travel site finally afloat

After six years without creating a new class of content projects, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) has finally expanded into a new area: travel. Wikivoyage was formally launched—though without a traditional ship's christening—on 15 January, having started as a beta trial on 10 November. Wikivoyage has been taken under the WMF's umbrella on the argument that information resources that help with travel are educational and therefore within the scope of the foundation's mission.g

News and notes: Launch of annual picture competition, new grant scheme

On January 16, voting for the first round of the 2012 Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year contest will begin. Wikimedia editors with 75 edits or one project are eligible to vote to select their favorite image featured in 2012. ... On January 15, the foundation launched its latest grant scheme, called Individual Engagement Grants (IEG).

WikiProject report: Reach for the Stars: WikiProject Astronomy

This week, we set off for the final frontier with WikiProject Astronomy. The project was started in August 2006 using the now-defunct WikiProject Space as inspiration. WikiProject Astronomy is home to 101 pieces of Featured material and 148 Good Articles maintained by a band of 186 members. The project maintains a portal, works on an assortment of vital astronomy articles, and provides resources for editors adding or requesting astronomy images.

Discussion report: Flag Manual of Style; accessibility and equality

Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

Special report: Loss of an Internet genius

Comforting those grieving after the loss of a loved one is an impossible task. How then, can an entire community be comforted? The Internet struggled to answer that question this week after the suicide of Aaron Swartz, a celebrated free-culture activist, programmer, and Wikipedian at the age of 26.

Featured content: Featured articles: Quality of reviews, quality of writing in 2012

Continuing our recap of the featured content promoted in 2012, this week the Signpost interviewed three editors, asking them about featured articles which stuck out in their minds. Two, Ian Rose and Graham Colm, are current featured article candidates (FAC) delegates, while Brian Boulton is an active featured article writer and reviewer.

Arbitration report: First arbitration case in almost six months

The opening of the Doncram case marks the end of almost 6 months without any open cases, the longest in the history of the Committee.

Technology report: Intermittent outages planned, first Wikidata client deployment

The Wikidata client extension was successfully deployed to the Hungarian Wikipedia on 14 January, its team reports. The interwiki language links can now come from wikidata.org, though "manual" interwiki links remain functional, overriding those from the central repository.

Please comment on Talk:Michael Szilágyi

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A cookie for you!

For the copyediting of Geet Ramayan. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {T/C} 11:16, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

Glad to help; it's a very interesting article! All the best, Miniapolis 14:21, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

GOCE mid-drive newsletter, January 2013

Guild of Copy Editors January 2013 backlog elimination drive mid-drive newsletter

We are halfway through our January backlog elimination drive.

The mid-drive newsletter is now ready for review.

– Your project coordinators: Torchiest, BDD, and Miniapolis

Sign up for the January drive! To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list. Newsletter delivered by EdwardsBot (talk) 00:45, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Psychic Readings Live

Hi Anne. Good move! In addition, thngs like "... programme's launch .[4]" stink of copy-paste, possibly in this case from elsewhere in wikipedia, as there's an unsuperscripted "[dated info]" later on. Have you run copyvio checks? Cheers, Simon. --Stfg (talk) 17:04, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for contacting me about this. I did think this just needed a copy edit when I nominated it, but I see things have gone seriously downhill since then and it actually has several issues. Deletion may be the best option. Alternatively, to start from scratch again. I'm happy if you want to remove this from GOCE. Paul MacDermott (talk) 18:39, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

This was the version I submitted. As you'll see it had its problems, but was fairly well referenced. I'll confess I haven't checked it since then so didn't know someone had added lots of copyvio stuff. I'm going to revert back to that, and see if I can do something with it. Paul MacDermott (talk) 18:54, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm not certain that it was copyvio -- could have been vandalism or incompetence. See how in the first paragraph of this edit, for example, a perfectly good named ref gets replaced with "[2]". Who knows why! The version of 30 December still looks like a normal article. --Stfg (talk) 19:07, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Looking through the history there's been a lot of anon ips editing this - I suspect many of them by disgruntled viewers. I've edited my last version from 4 December and taken out the unreferenced material. This is now the visible version, which should hopefully be ok. I'll keep a closer eye on this and watch out for any changes. Paul MacDermott (talk) 19:17, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

One of the IPs seems to be an SPA; I'll leave a note on their talk page (for what that's worth :-)). I haven't checked the other(s) yet, and will be on a few days' wikibreak due to a family visit but will get back to this ASAP. Thanks to you both for the clarification and all the best, Miniapolis 00:27, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for January 19

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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Pronunciation

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Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Good article nominations

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The Signpost: 21 January 2013

News and notes: Requests for adminship reform moves forward

The English Wikipedia's requests for adminship (RfA) process has entered another cycle of proposed reforms. Over the last three weeks, various proposals, ranging from as large as a transition to a representative democracy to as small as a required edit count and service length, have been debated on the RfA talk page. The total number of new administrators for 2012 was just 28, barely more than half of 2011's total and less than a quarter of 2009's total. The total number of unsuccessful RfAs has fallen as well. These declining numbers, which were described in what would now be considered a successful year (2010) as an emerging "wikigeneration gulf", have been coupled with a sharp decline in the number of active administrators since February 2008 (1,021), reaching a low of 653 in November 2012.

WikiProject report: Say What? — WikiProject Linguistics

This week, we spent some time with WikiProject Linguistics. Started in January 2004, the project has grown to include 7 Featured Articles, 4 Featured Lists, 2 A-class Articles, and 15 Good Articles maintained by 43 members. The project's members keep an eye on several watchlists, maintain the linguistics category, and continue to build a collection of Did You Know? entries. The project is home to six task forces and works with WikiProject Languages and WikiProject Writing Systems.

Featured content: Wazzup, G? Delegates and featured topics in review

This week, the Signpost's featured content section continues its recap of 2012 by looking at featured topics. We interviewed Grapple X and GamerPro64, who are delegates at the featured topic candidates.

Arbitration report: Doncram case continues

The opening of the Doncram case marks the end of almost 6 months without any open cases, the longest in the history of the Committee.

Technology report: Data centre switchover a tentative success

On 22 January, WMF staff and contractors switched incoming, non-cached requests (including edits) to the Foundation's newer data centre in Ashburn, Virginia, making it responsible for handling almost all regular traffic. For the first time since 2004, virtually no traffic will be handled by the WMF's other facility in Tampa, Florida.

New message

How have you been my friend? It's been a while! :) I've finally nominated Kareena Kapoor for FA and was wondering if you would be able to comment on the FAC. Thanks! -- Bollywood Dreamz ^talk 04:11, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Be glad to, today or tomorrow (as soon as I finish the article I'm copyediting). All the best, Miniapolis 15:19, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:John Calvin

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Thanks for the heads up

I have removed all of my entries, pending review. Using your guidance, I selected an article on the list, and did my best. Would you please take a look at my work and let me know if I am back on track? Buster40004 Talk 22:41, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Will do, ASAP. All the best, Miniapolis 23:06, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Great, but the word count I got was 941. How have you been obtaining your word counts? All the best, Miniapolis 23:10, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Hmmmmm. I thought I should use the difference between the start count and the finished count.

941 words of "readable prose size" after editing, 912 words before, difference of 29 words. Should I report the ending total? Buster40004 Talk 03:06, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

The number you want to use is the readable prose size before you begin editing; after a copyedit, most articles are a bit shorter. All the best, Miniapolis 14:54, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

But I just noticed that your example is a bit longer :-). No worries; just use the word count before you begin in the future. Miniapolis 14:56, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! I understand it now, Buster40004 Talk 23:42, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, the bookkeeping seems so complicated at first but it's manageable once you get used to it :-). Have fun and all the best, Miniapolis 01:04, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks very much

Thanks very much for undertaking the WP:GOCE copyedit for Beck v. Eiland-Hall, much appreciated, — Cirt (talk) 21:58, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

My pleasure; it's an excellent article, and I love a happy ending :-). I'll have it done tomorrow. All the best, Miniapolis 01:08, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Okay, sounds great, keep me posted, — Cirt (talk) 21:36, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Almost done. Great article! All the best, Miniapolis 22:11, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks again! Would it be alright to notify you and ask your input, in further steps along the quality improvement process, for example next step peer review and step after that, perhaps, FAC??? — Cirt (talk) 22:41, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Sure—I'll be glad to help. It's a good idea to have a peer review before submitting the article to FAC; they look at image-permissions, footnotes and what-not. Let me know and all the best, Miniapolis 23:42, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Neuro-linguistic programming

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The Signpost: 28 January 2013

In the media: Hoaxes draw media attention

On New Year's Day, the Daily Dot reported that a "massive Wikipedia hoax" had been exposed after more than five years. The article on the Bicholim conflict had been listed as a "Good Article" for the past half-decade, yet turned out to be an ingenious hoax. Created in July 2007 by User:A-b-a-a-a-a-a-a-b-a, the meticulously detailed piece was approved as a GA in October 2007. A subsequent submission for FA was unsuccessful, but failed to discover that the article's key sources were made up. While the User:A-b-a-a-a-a-a-a-b-a account then stopped editing, the hoax remained listed as a Good Article for five years, receiving in the region of 150 to 250 page views a month in 2012. It was finally nominated for deletion on 29 December 2012 by ShelfSkewed—who had discovered the hoax while doing work on Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs—and deleted the same day.

Recent research: Lessons from the research literature on open collaboration; clicks on featured articles; credibility heuristics

A special issue of the American Behavioral Scientist is devoted to "open collaboration".

WikiProject report: Checkmate! — WikiProject Chess

When we challenged the masters of WikiProject Chess to an interview, Sjakkalle answered our call. WikiProject Chess dates back to December 2003 and has grown to include 4 Featured Articles and 15 Good Articles maintained by over 100 members. The project typically operates independently of other WikiProjects, although the project would theoretically be a child of WikiProject Board and Table Games (interviewed in 2011). WikiProject Chess provides a collection of resources, seeks missing photographs of chess players, and helps determine ways that Wikipedia's coverage of chess can be expanded.

Discussion report: Administrator conduct and requests

New discussions on the English Wikipedia include...

News and notes: Khan Academy's Smarthistory and Wikipedia collaborate

To many Wikimedians, the Khan Academy would seem like a close cousin: the academy is a non-profit educational website and a development of the massive open online course concept that has delivered over 227 million lessons in 22 different languages. Its mission is to give "a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere." This complements Wikipedia's stated goal to "imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge", then go and create that world. It should come as no surprise, then, that the highly successful GLAM-Wiki (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) initiative has partnered with the Khan Academy's Smarthistory project to further both its and Wikipedia's goals.

Featured content: Listing off progress from 2012

This week, the Signpost featured content section continues its recap of 2012 by looking at featured lists. We interviewed FLC directors Giants2008 and The Rambling Man as well as active reviewer and writer PresN.

Arbitration report: Doncram continues

The Doncram case has continued into its third week.

Technology report: Developers get ready for FOSDEM amid caching problems

As reported in last week's "Technology Report", the WMF's data centre in Ashburn, Virginia took over responsibility for almost all of the remaining functions that had previously been handled by their old facility in Tampa, Florida on 22 January. The Signpost reported then that few problems had arisen since handover. Unfortunately that was not to remain the case, with reports of caching problems (which typically only affect anonymous users) starting to come in.