[Gendergap] Sesame Street articles

[Christine Meyer]

This may not qualify as appropriate for this list, but in the little bit of
time I've been in this mailing list I've seen that articles written by women
are fair game.  I also believe that this would be appropriate because the
subject, the children's television show Sesame Street, is a
female-oriented subject.  These articles have been largely neglected, I
think, because The Show's viewers are small children and their parents, a
demographic that doesn't tend to edit Wikipedia.  For that reason, I think
that they also fulfill the systematic bias.  (I also edit other articles
that apply, including articles about other children's television shows such
as Blue's Clues--a GA, and The Wiggles--my first FA).

BTW, Sesame Street (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street) is currently
up for FA.  This article was delisted in 2008, for good reason, and I've
been working on it ever since.  It's been quite a journey.  I've become an
expert on The Show, have amassed a small library of SS books, and have
experienced a great amount of joy in the process.  FA is so close!  All
weekend, I'm thinking, C'mon!  It's a holiday weekend; surely you have the
time to pass it! ;)  If it passes, it will be my 9th FA, and my 1st to pass
in only one FAC.

The interesting thing about this article is that it's essentially a series
of summaries of forked articles, all of which I created or re-wrote.  The
first of these forked articles, History of Sesame Street, was the first of
these articles to become an FA.  Many of the others are also FAs or GAs.
Currently, I'm helping someone write Sesame Street in the U.K. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street_in_the_U.K.) that demonstrates
the need for improvement for these articles.  I'm thinking that the creator
is either a member of the demographic mentioned above or a second-language
learner.  At the very least, he's a horrible writer.  I was going to just
let it go (there are scores of badly-written articles on WP, you know), but
I decided that if I did, I'd be embarrassed by the association.  Ugh, what a
pain!

For the most part, other than this fellow and maybe two other editors in all
of WP, I've been mostly alone in this endeavor.  That's why it's taken three
years to get Sesame Street to FAC.  There are benefits to working this
way; I've experienced very little of the drama that I've seen with other
editors who tend to edit high-profile and controversial articles. I've also
had, for the most part, very positive experiences as a content editor.

OTOH, the articles I focus on tend to be highly vandalized.  (Don't get me
started on Steve Burns!)  Personally, I think that's the key to becoming
indoctrinated to become a successful WP editor; begin with articles that
don't get a lot of attention and ones you can learn from and have the
freedom to make mistakes.

Christine
User:Figureskatingfan
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Re: [Gendergap] Changing the Ratio in Wikipedia

[Christine Meyer]

This is a great idea, and I've accepted the invitation to join this on
Facebook.  Although I'm going to be rebellious and instead of working on the
article about a woman in STEM, I'm going to continue to work on [[Maya
Angelou]].

I've been working on several of Dr. Angelou's articles for the past few
years; most of them are either GAs or FAs, including her most important
autobiography, [[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings]].  Her main bio page needs
lots of work, so these days I've been doing some more research.  Five out of
six of her autobiographies have been expanded, and they're at least GAs.
I've been pretty much alone in this endeavor, but it's been enjoyable and
I've learned lots from, to borrow from one of Angelou's poems, a phenomenal
woman.

Articles about autobiographies and their writers aren't well represented on
WP, and I believe that she's the only African African author that has a FA.
Black writers, both male and female, of any genre, aren't well represented,
either.  So forgive me if my efforts don't technically fit the perimeters of
the event.  Or not--either way, I don't care, and as my mother would say,
I'm gonna do what I want anyway. ;)

Christine
User: Figureskatingfan

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 6:35 AM, Amy Senger a...@1x57.com wrote:

 Hi Everyone -

 TechCocktail just ran a post about Changing the Ratio of female editors
 in Wikipedia: http://techcocktail.com/changing-the-ratio-wikipedia-2011-10

 And it mentions the Facebook campaign I've started to change your profile
 pic on Ada Lovelace Day (this Friday, Oct 7) and to edit or contribute to
 the Wikpedia page of a woman in STEM. I hope you'll join me:
 https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154261054664442

 Best,
 Amy
 --
 *
 co-founder, 1X57
 www.1x57.com http://1x57.com/
 M: 202.423.6609
 T: @sengseng http://twitter.com/sengseng

 *

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Re: [Gendergap] the state of civility on en.wiki

[Christine Meyer]

I think that we've all had our share of conflict in Wikipedia.  I also
believe that conflict resolution is a difficult skill to both learn and use,
and I suspect that the folks who have difficulty with it on the internet and
forums like WP also have difficulty with it IRL.  The skills one needs IRL
transfer to on-line forums.  The issues that have already been brought up
confound it.

I strongly believe that we are who we are, even on-line, but the anonymity
of the internet augments it.  IOW, if someone's a jerk on-line, he or she
will be a jerk off-line.  It takes even more skill to deal with the jerks of
the world, and it's worse on-line.  Women have been socialized in a certain
way to deal with conflict and bullies like this editor seems to be, so we
have a particular difficulty with it.

Personally, I think the key to dealing with jerks on WP is not blocks,
although they're an important tool.  People change their behavior,
especially if it's entrenched, through relationships and social pressure.
I've driven away many a jerk in many a community I've been a part of, but
only with the support of others.

I'm not saying that you should become friends with this jerk.  I'm sure,
though, that there has to be other out there who share your opinion, so I
would think that a good way to handle it would be to team up with them, and
then accumulate evidence regarding his inappropriate behavior.

Perhaps all he just needs to learn how to be civil, and some education is
necessary.  Is it up to us to educate folks about how to behave
appropriately on the internet?  Sometimes it is.  People were kind,
generous, and patient with me when I learned, both on-line and off, so why
shouldn't I pass that on?

I've been lucky enough to avoid some of the conflicts I've seen on WP,
mostly because I tend to avoid conflict and because of the articles I tend
to edit, which aren't at all controversial.  I've had some successes, and
some failures, and would like to hear others' experiences.  Perhaps this can
be a place for that?

Christine
Username: Figureskatingfan



On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.comwrote:


 I think one of the big challenges is that strategies for coping with
 incivility on a day-to-day basis are often at odds with broader strategies
 to effect systemic change. Sometimes, the only way to get through a specific
 situation with one's sanity and dignity intact involves a bit of appeasing
 or lenience; but in the long run, appeasing and lenience make civility
 issues more difficult to solve. I don't think there's an easy answer to this
 tension, but I do think that talking about the various relevant experiences
 we've had will be useful; so I'm glad this discussion is taking place.


 And that's just it - we have to explore this through systemic change and
 taking a broad look at everything and seeing what policies can be developed
 and changed. I have learned to channel my mad as hell mantra into change
 change change and it'll take time, but it's the best tool and the best
 weapon that I have (and the rest of us have!).

 Being civil, having good manners and being nice to one another (wikilove
 baby!) should not be a bad thing and it seems that Wikipedia in some
 regards thinks it is. This isn't about censorship, it's about using the
 manners one's parents and so forth taught them (or at least my parents did)
 and being civil. What's so bad about that?

 3

 Sarah


 --
 GLAMWIKI Partnership Ambassador for Wikimedia http://www.glamwiki.org
 Wikipedian-in-Residence, Archives of American 
 Arthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch
 and
 Sarah Stierch Consulting
 *Historical, cultural  artistic research  advising.*
 --
 http://www.sarahstierch.com/


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[Gendergap] WP stalking

[Christine Meyer]

I've heard about this kind of thing happening to other women in Wikipedia,
but this is the first time this has ever happened to me personally.  A few
weeks ago, I got a phone call from a guy who said he wanted to talk to me
about what it was like being the parent of children with special needs.  He
also said that he got my number from my church, so I told him that I was
busy at the moment (which I was) and that he could call me back later.

Yesterday afternoon, he called me back.  I asked him where he got my number
and how he found out about my parenting status.  He said that he read what
I had written on Wikipedia about my children, and that he wanted to talk to
me about it because he was also developmentally disabled and had some
syndrome that I didn't recognize.  (It wasn't Asberger's, I don't
think.)  He also said that he had gotten my number from some church
thing, and that they had confirmed my phone number.

I told him that it was very inappropriate for him to call me, and he said,
Well, you said I could call you back!  I answered that I was in the
middle of something the first time he called me, repeated how inappropriate
he was being, and that I wasn't willing to speak with him over the phone.
He said, You said all that on Wikipedia, and I said that I didn't have my
phone number there, to which he responded, But your email address is
there, and I said he could email me but calling me was again,
inappropriate, and we hung up.

Like I said, it was the first time something like this has happened, even
after more than four years of active participation in WP.  It's somewhat
disconcerting to me.  When I think about it, this guy had to actively hunt
down my phone number.  He looked at my userpage, which has infoboxes
stating that I'm a parent of two children with developmental disabilities,
that I live in a small town in Idaho, and that I'm Catholic.  (This makes
me want to remove those infoboxes.)  He actually went to the trouble of
calling one of the the two Catholic churches in my town and confirm my
number with them, which they did quite honestly because I'm on a church
committee and active in the community.  Freaky, huh?

I know that you need to tell people when something like this happens,
especially people in your life.  (I haven't been able to tell my husband
about it yet; he's been working all weekend and we're coming off of a
particularly stressful family situation.)  So that's what I'm doing now.  I
can totally see why so many women don't identify their gender on WP now.
I'd also like to get some advice from the members of this list, and to see
if anyone else has had a similar experience and what they did about it.

Thanks,
Christine
--
Christine W. Meyer
User: Figureskatingfan
christinewme...@gmail.com
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Re: [Gendergap] WP stalking

[Christine Meyer]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. This really is a great list
and I appreciate your support.
I'm fairly confident that this isn't going to be as serious as the horrible
experiences others have had with WP stalking. I suspect that all it is is
some clueless guy with very little social skills who honestly didn't know
that he was behaving inappropriately until I told him so. (Oh,
wait--doesn't that describe most of WP?) g Hopefully, the one phone call
will be all that will come of this. If it doesn't, I'll contact the WMF if
further actions need to be taken.
That being said, I've removed some of my identifying information on my
userpage. I still think it's important to self-identify as a female, so I
didn't remove that. My husband has been informed of what's happened. (He
appreciated it, but had very little sympathy: That's why I never put any
of that information on the internet.) I intend on calling my church this
morning.
Again, thanks for the support and great advice. If the situation escalates,
I'll keep you informed.
Christine
User:Figureskatingfan


On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 4:45 PM, Nina Wikipedia nina.wikipe...@gmail.comwrote:

 I have got some calls about Wikipedia. I was in the board in Wikimedia
 Norway some years and president 1 year and got calls for journalists and
 other people those years. The last call I got about 1 week ago was from a
 woman who wanted to use one of my pictures in a book and ask me if it is
 ok.
 In Norway you only  need to have a persons name to get the number :
 http://www.gulesider.no/person/resultat/nina+Aldin+Thune  I have never
 told much about my family in the userpages.
 http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruker:Nina  ,
 https://plus.google.com/109860657201319190669/about  only that I
 am housewife, and mother .

 Those calls have never been a problem, but I can understand that it could
 be, so as Risker/Anne says  «reconsider how much personal information you
 want to share about yourself online»  and ask someone  get stuff taken down.


 Nina
 nina.wikipe...@gmail.com




 Den 14. nov. 2011 kl. 00:58 skrev Risker:

 Likewise, Christine, I stand ready to assist you.  I'd suggest that yes,
 you reconsider how much personal information you want to share about
 yourself online; remember, Wikipedia userpages aren't just on Wikipedia,
 they're spidered all over the web.  Once the information is out there, it's
 difficult to put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak.

 Nonetheless, if you'd like help trying to get stuff taken down, let me
 know.

 Risker/Anne


 On 13 November 2011 18:47, Lika Tika likatikalikat...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Christine,

 I'm so sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately, something similar
 happened to me not long ago (although not related to Wikimedia). If you
 need any help taking your personal information offline, please let me know,
 I'm more than happy to help.

 Have you let the wiki admins know, it might be a good idea.

 All the best to you.

 On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Christine Meyer 
 christinewme...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've heard about this kind of thing happening to other women in
 Wikipedia, but this is the first time this has ever happened to me
 personally.  A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from a guy who said he
 wanted to talk to me about what it was like being the parent of children
 with special needs.  He also said that he got my number from my church, so
 I told him that I was busy at the moment (which I was) and that he could
 call me back later.

 Yesterday afternoon, he called me back.  I asked him where he got my
 number and how he found out about my parenting status.  He said that he
 read what I had written on Wikipedia about my children, and that he wanted
 to talk to me about it because he was also developmentally disabled and had
 some syndrome that I didn't recognize.  (It wasn't Asberger's, I don't
 think.)  He also said that he had gotten my number from some church
 thing, and that they had confirmed my phone number.

 I told him that it was very inappropriate for him to call me, and he
 said, Well, you said I could call you back!  I answered that I was in the
 middle of something the first time he called me, repeated how inappropriate
 he was being, and that I wasn't willing to speak with him over the phone.
 He said, You said all that on Wikipedia, and I said that I didn't have my
 phone number there, to which he responded, But your email address is
 there, and I said he could email me but calling me was again,
 inappropriate, and we hung up.

 Like I said, it was the first time something like this has happened,
 even after more than four years of active participation in WP.  It's
 somewhat disconcerting to me.  When I think about it, this guy had to
 actively hunt down my phone number.  He looked at my userpage, which has
 infoboxes stating that I'm a parent of two children with developmental
 disabilities, that I live in a small town in Idaho, and that I'm Catholic.
 (This makes me want

Re: [Gendergap] WP stalking

[Christine Meyer]

Excellent point.  I agree that it's not inappropriate to be visible as a
woman, but it's about privacy and safety.  I know men who as a rule don't
put out personal information on the internet for similar reasons.  Maybe
I've gone to the other extreme by removing my infoboxes from my userpage,
and I may put some of them back.

BTW, my church didn't confirm my number as I originally thought.  When I
spoke to the secretary yesterday (you all know she holds the most power in
any church, right?), she reminded me that since I'm on a committee, my
phone number has been published along with other members of the committee.
It's definately something that needs to be addressed at our next meeting.
Churches tend to be a little behind in knowing how to provide information
and safety, so we need to learn.  I'm willing to be the test case, at least
in this situation which isn't all that serious.

Christine


On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 7:28 AM, Helga Hansen
he...@maedchenmannschaft.netwrote:

 Wow, did everybody here just blame the victim? “If you had done x this
 wouldn't have happened.” No. This is exactly the point that keeps women
 from participating in everything, incluiding being visible in Wikipedia and
 talking openly about their interests!

 It was inappropriate of the guy to stalk you and inappropriate of the
 church to confirm your number without your consent. It's not inappropriate
 to be visible as a woman!

 Helga

 On 14.11.2011, at 18:22, Christine Meyer wrote:

 Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. This really is a great list
 and I appreciate your support.
 I'm fairly confident that this isn't going to be as serious as the
 horrible experiences others have had with WP stalking. I suspect that all
 it is is some clueless guy with very little social skills who honestly
 didn't know that he was behaving inappropriately until I told him so. (Oh,
 wait--doesn't that describe most of WP?) g Hopefully, the one phone call
 will be all that will come of this. If it doesn't, I'll contact the WMF if
 further actions need to be taken.
  That being said, I've removed some of my identifying information on my
 userpage. I still think it's important to self-identify as a female, so I
 didn't remove that. My husband has been informed of what's happened. (He
 appreciated it, but had very little sympathy: That's why I never put any
 of that information on the internet.) I intend on calling my church this
 morning.
  Again, thanks for the support and great advice. If the situation
 escalates, I'll keep you informed.
 Christine
 User:Figureskatingfan


 On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 4:45 PM, Nina Wikipedia 
 nina.wikipe...@gmail.comwrote:

 I have got some calls about Wikipedia. I was in the board in Wikimedia
 Norway some years and president 1 year and got calls for journalists and
 other people those years. The last call I got about 1 week ago was from a
 woman who wanted to use one of my pictures in a book and ask me if it is
 ok.
 In Norway you only  need to have a persons name to get the number :
 http://www.gulesider.no/person/resultat/nina+Aldin+Thune  I have never
 told much about my family in the userpages.
 http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruker:Nina  ,
 https://plus.google.com/109860657201319190669/about  only that I
 am housewife, and mother .

 Those calls have never been a problem, but I can understand that it could
 be, so as Risker/Anne says  «reconsider how much personal information you
 want to share about yourself online»  and ask someone  get stuff taken down.


 Nina
 nina.wikipe...@gmail.com




 Den 14. nov. 2011 kl. 00:58 skrev Risker:

 Likewise, Christine, I stand ready to assist you.  I'd suggest that yes,
 you reconsider how much personal information you want to share about
 yourself online; remember, Wikipedia userpages aren't just on Wikipedia,
 they're spidered all over the web.  Once the information is out there, it's
 difficult to put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak.

 Nonetheless, if you'd like help trying to get stuff taken down, let me
 know.

 Risker/Anne


 On 13 November 2011 18:47, Lika Tika likatikalikat...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hi Christine,

 I'm so sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately, something similar
 happened to me not long ago (although not related to Wikimedia). If you
 need any help taking your personal information offline, please let me know,
 I'm more than happy to help.

 Have you let the wiki admins know, it might be a good idea.

 All the best to you.

 On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Christine Meyer 
 christinewme...@gmail.com wrote:

 I've heard about this kind of thing happening to other women in
 Wikipedia, but this is the first time this has ever happened to me
 personally.  A few weeks ago, I got a phone call from a guy who said he
 wanted to talk to me about what it was like being the parent of children
 with special needs.  He also said that he got my number from my church, so
 I told him that I was busy at the moment (which I was) and that he could

Re: [Gendergap] [Foundation-l] Fundraising is for men

[Christine Meyer]

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 7:23 AM, emijrp emi...@gmail.com wrote:

 2011/12/1 Carol Moore carolmoor...@verizon.net

 Fundraising from women is an interesting topic. You may think comments
 about sexism and the Wikipedia community are nonsense, but guess what.
 Women who take a lot of sexist nonsense AT wikipedia sure aren't going
 to donate TO wikipedia, are they?

 Also, since women in general are busier with work AND family
 responsibilities, so often the women who have the most time to edit are
 unemployed, disabled, retired or otherwise on limited incomes.


 [citation needed]

 Furthermore, editing Wikipedia only requires 30 minutes a day/week. I'm
 sure all women waste more time watching TV. But watching TV is funnier for
 most the people.

 In the other hand, looks like women in all ages have time to waste in
 Facebook
 http://www.kenburbary.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Image1_thumb3.pngAnd 
 gender balance is fifty-fifty.


 The above statement about the women who have the time to edit WP is
patently false, and not my experience with the women I see around the
project.  Most of those women are single and childless; I think that I may
be the only serious WP content editor who is married and has children, or
at least the only one I know about.  The above statement also buys into the
stereotype that we're trying to combat in WP.

I think it's true that most women are busy with homes and family, and they
choose to volunteer their time in other ways.  I volunteer in other ways,
too,  and my interests in WP match my interests in home and family.  I
spend an average of 30 minutes a day editing, and I think of it as both a
creative outlet and as a way to volunteer.  I wonder if WP editing were
presented to women in that way it would make a difference.

Want to make the world a better place?  Edit Wikipedia! ;)

Christine
Username: Figureskatingfan
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Re: [Gendergap] Bothersome? (Re: Pimp)

[Christine Meyer]

On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 11:25 AM, Ole Palnatoke Andersen 
palnat...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sun, Dec 25, 2011 at 7:41 PM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 ...
  It's a shame that my posts have been so bothersome for the list, I never
  knew that I was only making things worse, or not helping at all.

 I, for one, do not find your posts bothersome.
 I find no problem with having one gender-neutral article for barbers
 and hairdressers or for pimps and madams, but I do find it better to
 have *two* good articles on the respective subjects.


I agree.  The point of Wikipedia/Wikimedia as a whole is to have
high-quality articles, and any way we can do that, and do something about
the gender bias in both projects, the better.  I also understand Sarah's
defenseness.  It seems that content editors get the short end of the stick,
to the point that many good editors leave.  Keep up the good work, Sarah.

Christine
User:Figureskatingfan
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Re: [Gendergap] Sarah Stierch on Huffington Post! On why women should care about SOPA and PIPA.

[Christine Meyer]

Yes, well said and well written.  Congrats on this WP-less day.

Christine Meyer
User:Figureskatingfan
On Jan 18, 2012 11:37 AM, Pete Forsyth petefors...@gmail.com wrote:

 Subject line says it all. That's right, on the day that the most
 widely-read original content site on the Internet went black in protest of
 the SOPA and PIPA bills, Sarah went to the *second* most widely-read
 original content site [1] to talk about it:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-stierch/sopa-blackout_b_1213149.html

 Great post, Sarah!

 -Pete
 [[User:Peteforsyth]]


 [1] Fact-check that, please?

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Re: [Gendergap] So what have you been working on lately article wise as a woman or about women?

[Christine Meyer]

On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 12:46 PM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.com wrote:

 On 6/8/12 10:17 AM, Christine Meyer wrote:

 I like this thread but have hesitated contributing to it because I'm a little 
 worried that you'll all laugh at me... ;)


 Christine! I'm so glad you shared this. I know you really enjoy writing 
 children-based subject matter and you inspired me to rewrite the article 
 about the *actual* Sesame Streetstreet 
 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street,_New_York,_New_York) which was 
 really entertaining and a super fun article to write.

 While parents probably aren't seeking that out specifically (it's more of a 
 subject I'd use to win a bar bet with), if people use Wikipedia for medical 
 research, etc, why shouldn't parents be utilizing Wikipedia to research the 
 best media, tools and so forth for their children's lives? I also think that 
 one of Wikipedia's missions is to document this type of material - I'm sure 
 there is some small group of children's subject historians, but..


Thanks, Sarah, how nice you are.  And thanks for the barnstar on my WP
talk page.  Those are fun to get!

Re: children's subject historians, there are a few editors that
specialize in children's literature.  There is a large amount of
research into children's media, and yes, WP should be a repository of
it.  The more editors working on these articles, the better.  There's
so much more that can be done for them.  I've just scratched the
surface by bringing [[Sesame Street]] back to FA.  It was actually
delisted at one point, for good reason, and it took me three years to
bring it back to featured status.  During that time, I improved and/or
created ten more articles and three lists.  I was shocked at the sheer
volume of literature out there about The Show, and some very reputable
scholarly lit at that.  My own personal library about SS books is
quite large.  I have lots of stories about my experiences editing
these articles, and lessons I've learned.  It's been hugely fun.


 and we get lots of good services for them, so I have more time on my hands 
 than parents of young children.  Plus, I have an obsessive personality, so 
 when I get involved in volunteer organizations, I tend to be compulsive about 
 it.  I also love writing.  It gives me a great deal of pleasure to know that 
 topics like this that aren't well represented have been improved mostly due 
 to my efforts.  (I also edit [[Maya Angelou]] articles.)

 I am the same way. Wikipedia = awesome outlet for OCD type behavior!!!

 While I have no children nor do I really hang out with any, I am familiar 
 with the show Yo Gabba Gabba! from hip friends with kids. I just found myself 
 disappointed that the characters don't have their own individual articles, 
 but, I guess they don't quite merit it at this point. 
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brobee (redirect!)

I love Yo Gabba Gabba.  Very hip show.  The challenge in creating and
improving articles about it and pretty much any show is that there
simply aren't good sources about it.  There's a lot out there, but
like my experience with The Wiggles, it's repetitive, fluffy, and
promotional.  The media and much of academia doesn't take children's
media seriously enough.  I'm knowledgeable enough about the subject
now to have my own opinions, though, like how YGG is a throw-back to
the days of short sketches like the early days of SS.  Blue's Clues
changed children's TV from a magazine, sketch-like format to more
narrative one, with actual stories, and YGG has gone back.  It's all
about being cool and hip and engaging children.  It proves that you
don't have to have glitzy production values to be successful.

And yes, I tend to have children's songs in my head all the time... ;)

Christine

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[Gendergap] Maya Angelou

[Christine Meyer]

I've been doing my part in addressing the gender gap in en.Wikipedia, and
this week marks a major accomplishment for me in this area and for me as an
editor.  [[Maya Angelou]] is now a featured article.

I've been literally working on Angelou's article for years; my very first
edit of it was early in my WP-editing career, in September 2007: [diff
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maya_Angeloudiff=prevoldid=158867180].
 It took this long mostly because I do have a life, most of the time.  When
I came across it, I realized that Angelou's work and life was sorely
underrepresented and not at all comprehensive, way before I came to
understand the gender gap in this project.  I also realized that in order
to do the subject justice, I needed to become a MA-expert, something
I definitely was not at the time.  I realized that at the very least, I
needed to read her six autobiographies, and while I was at it, write
articles about them.  Only one article existed at the time: her first
autobiography  [[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings]], which was in
a pitiable state.  A year's worth of research, a lot of assistance from
some of the most premiere editors in the project, and 3 FACs later, it
became an FA.

In the ensuing years, I created and wrote articles about Angelou's five
remaining autobiographies (one is a FA, the others are GAs), some ancillary
articles about her other works, and a couple of lists.  ([[Works of Maya
Angelou]] is currently up for FLC.)  After I completed the article about
Angelou's final autobiography, I worked to get her bio up to snuff, and it
had a relatively easy FAC, my first FA to pass in its first candidacy.  I
think that was due to the fact that the article was truly prepared before
it was submitted.  For anyone who wants to drive an article through the FAC
process, that's my advice: make sure it's ready to be reviewed, and do not
use FAC (or GAC, even) to review it.  There are other places for that, so
use them before bringing it to FAC.

My next goal is to create a Maya Angelou Featured Topic.  There are some
things that need to be accomplished before that; my goal is to get there
before Dr. Angelou's 85th birthday in April.  I'm certain, at the very
least, that her bio will on the front page.  Ironically, this is the week I
started researching the article about another elderly and important woman:
 [[Joan Ganz Cooney]], co-creator of Sesame Street.

Christine
Username: Figureskatingfan
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Re: [Gendergap] Maya Angelou

[Christine Meyer]

Wow, how nice is this.  As a WP editor, you don't expect any recognition so
I appreciate your kind words and the kind words of others who have
responded.

Christine


On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.comwrote:

  I second everyone's comments before mine! I was actually out with a
 friend and was saying oh wow, Figureskatingfan has been working on Maya
 Angelou.. and was bragging (for lack of a better word!) about how awesome
 your work is with Wikipedia and how amazing your new news about Miss
 Angelou is.

 Your work is inspiring and so amazing!!!   Congratulations !!!

 -Sarah


 On 8/1/12 3:16 AM, Cynthia Ashley-Nelson wrote:

 My own thoughts echo those expressed by others. Great job, Christine! No
 surprise though, I think your work is outstanding!

 Cindy

 On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 12:59 AM, Sydney Poore sydney.po...@gmail.comwrote:

 Christine, that's truly awesome. :-)

 I've watched you working on the Maya Angelou topic for years now, and
 thrilled to see that you've got her biography to FA. It will be fantastic
 for her article to be on the main page on her birthday as a feature article!

 Sydney
 User:FloNight

  On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 12:24 AM, Christine Meyer 
 christinewme...@gmail.com wrote:

  I've been doing my part in addressing the gender gap in en.Wikipedia,
 and this week marks a major accomplishment for me in this area and for me
 as an editor.  [[Maya Angelou]] is now a featured article.

  I've been literally working on Angelou's article for years; my very
 first edit of it was early in my WP-editing career, in September 2007:
 [diff
 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maya_Angeloudiff=prevoldid=158867180].
  It took this long mostly because I do have a life, most of the time.  When
 I came across it, I realized that Angelou's work and life was sorely
 underrepresented and not at all comprehensive, way before I came to
 understand the gender gap in this project.  I also realized that in order
 to do the subject justice, I needed to become a MA-expert, something
 I definitely was not at the time.  I realized that at the very least, I
 needed to read her six autobiographies, and while I was at it, write
 articles about them.  Only one article existed at the time: her first
 autobiography  [[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings]], which was in
 a pitiable state.  A year's worth of research, a lot of assistance from
 some of the most premiere editors in the project, and 3 FACs later, it
 became an FA.

  In the ensuing years, I created and wrote articles about Angelou's
 five remaining autobiographies (one is a FA, the others are GAs),
 some ancillary articles about her other works, and a couple of lists.
  ([[Works of Maya Angelou]] is currently up for FLC.)  After I completed
 the article about Angelou's final autobiography, I worked to get her bio up
 to snuff, and it had a relatively easy FAC, my first FA to pass in its
 first candidacy.  I think that was due to the fact that the article was
 truly prepared before it was submitted.  For anyone who wants to drive an
 article through the FAC process, that's my advice: make sure it's ready to
 be reviewed, and do not use FAC (or GAC, even) to review it.  There are
 other places for that, so use them before bringing it to FAC.

  My next goal is to create a Maya Angelou Featured Topic.  There are
 some things that need to be accomplished before that; my goal is to get
 there before Dr. Angelou's 85th birthday in April.  I'm certain, at the
 very least, that her bio will on the front page.  Ironically, this is the
 week I started researching the article about another elderly and important
 woman:  [[Joan Ganz Cooney]], co-creator of Sesame Street.

  Christine
 Username: Figureskatingfan


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 Best regards,

 Cindy Ashley-Nelson
 Yes. *Her again.*
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cindamuse



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 *Sarah Stierch*
 *Wikimedia Foundation Community Fellow*
 Mind the gap! Support Wikipedia women's outreach: donate 
 todayhttps://donate.wikimedia.org/
 

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Re: [Gendergap] Maya Angelou

[Christine Meyer]

Sorry it's taken me a little while to respond to this thread; I was out of
town.  How Dr. Angelou should be referred to in her bio article has
actually been an issue in the past.  See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Maya_Angelou/Archive_1#Honorifics.  Of
course, this was early in the article's development, and it's obvious that
I was still learning the basics and that I had missed the mark.  In the
time since, though, you'll notice that it followed WP policy more closely,
and as is standard, she's referred to as her last name throughout.

The link above does explain, though, why honorifics are so important to
Angelou.  I agree with whiteghost below; since Angelou's degrees are
honorary, they're not what makes her notable, so it isn't in the lead.  I
also think that her honorary degrees, while not being academic, are
legitimate because much of her career is academic-based and literary.  Many
of the other articles about her discuss her self-education and literary
influences.

I also think that the reason Angelou and those around her insist so
strongly that people call her Dr. is a reaction against the extreme
racism and sexism she's experienced in her life.  She deserves respect, and
deserves insisting that people treat her with respect.  It needs to be
clarified and demanded because what's behind people insisting on calling
her Maya and even Ms. is subtle racism and sexism, even if they're not
aware of it.  It verges on over-reaction, but anyone who knows Angelou's
struggles and how she's fought against racism and sexism should understand
it.

These days, when young people simply aren't taught to respect their elders,
it's nice to have a model of an elderly woman who insists on treating
others with respect and insisting that people treat her with respect.

Christine
User:Figureskatingfan


On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 4:33 PM, whiteghost .ink whiteghost@gmail.comwrote:

 While Angelou apparently has adopted the use of the doctor, *It is not
 customary, however, for recipients of an honorary doctorate to adopt the
 prefix 'Dr'*  and many universities, however, request that an honorary
 graduate refrain from such practice. See http://goog_748452647Honorary
 degrees 
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degrees#practical%20use#practical
 use.

 As an extra point, sometimes honorary degrees (although not in this case)
 have been given to people whose accomplishments are in fields other than
 intellectual, as a means of trying to derive prestige for the institution
 from its association with the person. For example, Cathy 
 Freemanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Freemanwas given one. Freeman is 
 an amazing athlete but she is no intellectual. I
 remember one offended quietly hardworking academic, on learning of this
 award, asking for an honorary Olympic medal, so long as it wasn't in
 synchonised swimming. Thankfully, it seems that here at least, honorary
 doctorates are given these days for for intellectual achievement.

 Even a professional academic such as Marie 
 Curiehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curiedoes not have her degree in 
 the lead. Perhaps she should, but as with most
 real academics, the doctorate is the foundation, that is, the beginning,
 not the end of their achievements. The case of  Agnes and Margaret 
 Smithhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_and_Margaret_Smithis instructive. 
 They were world famous scholars, many of whose honorary
 degrees were granted by German universities at a time when their own
 university (Cambridge) did not award degrees to women.

 The place for earned degrees may be in the lead, but generally, honorary
 ones should be in the text under Awards.

 Whiteghost.ink



 On 5 August 2012 07:29, Emily Monroe emilymonro...@gmail.com wrote:

 I think the standard way to name a human subject of a Wikipedia article
 is by their bolded full name at the first mention (so *Dr. Maya [middle
 name(s)] Angelou*) and then by their last name (Angelou) by then on
 .
 From,
 Emily



 On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 4:24 PM, Valerie Aurora vale...@adainitiative.org
  wrote:

 On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 2:17 PM, Pete Forsyth petefors...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  On Aug 1, 2012 11:09 AM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  Miss Angelou
 
  Sorry to be a nitpicker, but while in high school I had the privilege
 of
  meeting DOCTOR Angelou (through a Facing History and Ourselves
 program), and
  it was impressed on us early and often (and effectively, it seems)
 before
  that meeting that DOCTOR Angelou's name is DOCTOR Angelou, not Maya,
 Miss
  Angelou, etc :)

 I forget to use women's titles sometimes too, but if I remember, I
 take positive pleasure in calling women with PhD's Dr. - especially
 in areas where people don't often use their titles. :)

 -VAL

 --
 Increasing the participation of women in open technology and culture
 http://adainitiative.org

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Re: [Gendergap] Anita Sarkeesian, again

[Christine Meyer]

I remembered this thread as I began my most recent GAC-review, Mona Sax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Sax.  Sure enough, the nominator and main
editor of this article is the same guy who was topic-banned!  I only chose
it because I wanted to review an article and it's short.  I know almost
nothing about gaming, but not knowing about a topic has never stopped me
from reviewing an article; I tend to choose ones that are at the top of the
queue and to expand my knowledge about stuff I don't know much about.

I was still tempted, though, to fail it on principle, but that would be the
wrong principle.  The guy doesn't come across as all that smart; plus,
English isn't his native language and he's using that as an excuse for his
weak prose.  (As a second language-user myself, I tend to not accept that
as a reason to be a weak writer, since just because you're a native speaker
of English doesn't mean that you can write well in it, and plenty of
non-native speakers are good writers.)  Thus far, we're being polite with
each other, although I must admit that part of me wonders how it'll turn
out and if me being a girl will come into play.

Will keep you informed!

Christine
User: Figureskatingfan

On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 11:26 AM, Andreas Kolbe jayen...@gmail.com wrote:

 Diff of the quoted edit, for reference:


 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Anita_Sarkeesiandiff=prevoldid=523584174



 On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 7:21 PM, Andreas Kolbe jayen...@gmail.com wrote:

 I think most people here will remember the appalling harassment Anita
 Sarkeesian suffered in YouTube and on Wikipedia.

 If not, see


 http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-misogyny-and-silencing-on-youtube/

 http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-and-misogyny-via-wikipedia/

 So now we have another ANI thread on her biography


 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#BLP_issues_at_Anita_Sarkeesian

 The discussion is whether a chap who made the following comment (among
 many others) should be topic-banned from her biography:

 ---o0o---

 Now she has over 4 million views, which is a huge leap (relatively),
 despite not publishing any new videos since then - these 3 million new
 views, and a big fame (especially among gamers), and the notability (also
 on Wikipedia), and the money (from donations), all of it was only due to
 the massive trolling response to her trailer video for a Kickstarter
 project, which she then *media-savy way used to start a huge moral panic
 (a smooth move, I'll admit) instead of just ignoring it, or do things like [
 http://www.destructoid.com/bioware-writer-s-vagina-versus-the-internet-06.phtmlcounter-attack
  literally using her vagina,
 * which is what Hepler did], and so this is what she is best known for
 (note: best).

 ---o0o---

 That guy is the most frequent editor of her biography's talk page, having
 made over three times more edits to it than the next editor.


 http://toolserver.org/~daniel/WikiSense/Contributors.php?wikilang=enwikifam=.wikipedia.orggrouped=onpage=Talk:Anita_Sarkeesian

 The ANI discussion has been running for a week.

 Andreas



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[Gendergap] TFA for March 16

[Christine Meyer]

I hafta ask: what does everyone think of Today's Featured Article on
Wikipedia?  I will go on the record by saying that I love it.  It's witty
and one of the best-written things I've read on WP.

Christine
--
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User: Figureskatingfan
christinewme...@gmail.com
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Re: [Gendergap] Women on the list: what have you been editing lately?

[Christine Meyer]

This is the kind of thread I like... ;)

I've put myself in the Wikicup, so many of my edits are with the
competition in mind.  I have a FA ([[Heart of a Woman]], Maya Angelou's
fourth autobiography) that just passed, and I have four others languishing
at GAC.  I also have an Angelou featured topic that's getting close to
passing.  I've been reviewing a lot of GAs these days; for some reason, a
lot of basketball articles, a subject I know very little about.  (That's
the fun of reviewing articles--you get exposed to all kinds of new and
different topics.)  Fortunately, the article I'm currently reviewing for
GAC has gender-gap connections, [[Australia women's national wheelchair
basketball team at the 2012 Summer Paralympics]].  I recently reviewed
[[Cobi Crispin]], one of the major players for the Aussie team.  These
girls are very impressive.

The Wikicup has really tapped into my competitive streak.  We're currently
two weeks into the third round.  I easily passed the first, and stayed at
about hafl-way through the pack during the second, although I was second in
my pool, behind an editor who came in third last year.  Right now, my
scores are low, but once my FA goes through, I'll be in contention.  Very
fun!

Christine
User: Figureskatingfan


On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 1:36 PM, Emily Monroe emilymonro...@gmail.comwrote:

 I tend to avoid AfC, and #wikipedia-en-help because the people who tend to
 it also tend to really violate WP:OWN in a good-faith and incompetent
 manner. I'm sure the majority of articles in AfC will eventually pass
 muster, even if they don't when they are first reviewed. The few who can't
 is what makes me very, very wary of helping with AfC backlog.

 I tend towards new and random page patrol, and vandal fighting myself.
 I've somewhat recently downloaded Huggle on my mac. There was some issues
 with Huggle starting at first (Huggle needed to shut down kind of
 messages), but since Wine Bottler updated, I haven't had any issues with
 that.

 From,
 Emily


 On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 11:57 AM, Carol Moore DC carolmoor...@verizon.net
  wrote:

 On 5/18/2013 12:35 PM, Jane Darnell wrote:

 Good luck with the AfC backlog Sarah - it depresses me to just think
 about that.


  *Wow, I didn't even know it existed. So there actually are people who
 will create an article (of interest to them) if you put up some refs, maybe
 an outline.  I have a bunch of folders with that sort of thing just keeping
 adding refs to but never get around to...

 Definitely something to help increase number of women-related articles
 (though not too many of mine are).

 Or increase our ability to generate them, especially those who may be
 have more enthusiasm for the referencing stage than the writing and
 defending edits stages...


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Re: [Gendergap] Fwd: Edit-a-thon for editing articles on violence against women

[Christine Meyer]

Sounds great.  Do you know the list of Wikipedia articles being worked on
for the edit-a-thon?  Or where this list of ten is that's mentioned?

Thanks,
Christine
User:Figureskatingfan


On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 12:40 AM, Rohini Lakshané roh...@wikimedia.inwrote:

 This weekend I'm remotely participating in an edit-a-thon for editing
 articles pertaining to violence against women. (The text of the event
 announcement is attached.) Has anyone else conducted or participated in
 events specific to articles on violence against women, sexual violence,
 sexual harassment, and similar topics? I'd like to hear your experiences.

 Regards,
 Rohini
 --
 Chairperson (Special Interest Group), Gender gap,
 Wikimedia Chapter (India)


 -- Forwarded message --
 From: Rohini Lakshané roh...@wikimedia.in
 Date: Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 2:00 PM
 Subject: Wikipedia edit-a-thon on Dec 7-8 in Delhi for articles on
 violence against women
 To: Wikimedia India Community list wikimediaindi...@lists.wikimedia.org


 Breakthrough, a global human rights organisation that runs campaigns such
 as Bell Bajao, and Wikimedia Chapter (India) are conducting a Wikipedia
 edit-a-thon in Delhi on December 7 and 8 for editing articles pertaining to
 violence against women. Facebook page of the event:
 http://www.facebook.com/events/181325168737101

 *Basic idea behind this session*:  A crucial problem with several
 Wikipedia articles on sexual violence, especially in the Indian context, is
 that often there are no articles or that articles have been deleted. It
 would be a knowledge advocacy session to increase gender sensitive editing
 in Wikipedia.

 The session will involve editing of articles pertaining to various aspects
 of violence against women in India. A list of about 10 Wikipedia articles
 has been drawn up for editing.  The session will be live-blogged. Remote
 participation will be enabled through IRC channels.

 The edit-a-thon is a part of the 16 days of activism against gender based
 violence starting 25th November (International Day for the Elimination of
 Violence against Women) to 10 December (International Human Rights Day).
 This is a global campaign that aims at raising awareness about gender-based
 violence as a human rights issue. This hackathon will be mainly focussed
 towards data visualisation and several organisations are providing us with
 statistical datasets and other kinds of data including audio and video.
 --
 Chairperson (Special Interest Group), Gender gap,
 Wikimedia Chapter (India)


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Re: [Gendergap] A reason to celebrate

[Christine Meyer]

Hi all,

Yes, I'm responsible for the Angelou article.  I must say, when I saw the
view counts in the Signpost, I was overwhelmed and honored that for my part
in bringing Dr. Angelou's bio article, as well as all seven of her
autobiographies, the list of her works, and articles about her poetry and
themes in her autobiographies, all to FA status.  I also feel proud that
the English WP honored this great artist with high-quality articles when
the world most needed them.

Like with the other article you mentioned, the Angelou articles all had
Adedewit's influence.  Early in my WP editing career, way back in 2007, she
mentored me.  She (along with User:Scartol) basically led me by the hand
through the article development process  as we worked on [[I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings]], Angelou's first autobiography.  She taught me how to do
research, gather sources, write scholarly, and find appropriate images.  I
remember going to her talk page at one point, and freaking out because I
felt overwhelmed by the fact that here I was, a middle-aged white woman
from the West Coast, trying to write about racism and childhood rape.  She
was very calm with me and told me, Well, you took this on and now you need
to finish it.  Which eventually I did.  We suffered a terrible loss this
year.

I'm thankful for being exposed to the life and writings of Dr. Angelou,
something I wouldn't have done if it weren't for WP.  Millions of people
looked at something that I basically wrote, and that's incredible to me.
 It makes all the gender gap garbage we go through worth it.

Christine/Figureskatingfan.


On Sun, Jun 8, 2014 at 3:08 PM, Yana Welinder ywelin...@wikimedia.org
wrote:

 Hi Risker,

 That is awesome!  I was really pleased to see that too.  Thanks to
 everyone who worked on the two articles!

 On a somewhat related note, I started a twitter account this week (as a
 minor side project) to tweet about notable women on their birthdays with
 their Wikipedia articles to raise awareness: https://twitter.com/sis_ninja.
 If anyone on this list have particular Wikipedia articles that you would
 like to be included, please shoot me an email.

 Best,
 Yana


 On Sun, Jun 8, 2014 at 1:34 PM, Risker risker...@gmail.com wrote:

 Looking at the Signpost today, I was really pleased and pleasantly
 surprised to discover that the top two most-viewed articles this past week
 were biographical articles about women.  Not only that, they were both
 featured articles, so our reading public got a really good, informative
 article.


 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2014-06-04/Traffic_report

 A thank you to Christine for the Maya Angelou article, and to Sage Ross
 (with support from Awadewit) for the Rachel Carson article.

 Risker/Anne

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Re: [Gendergap] A reason to celebrate

[Christine Meyer]

Thank you all! I appreciate the kind words.
On Jun 10, 2014 3:14 PM, Keilana keilanaw...@gmail.com wrote:

 I want to add my kudos! Your work on Maya Angelou articles is nothing
 short of inspiring. Thank you!

 -Emily


 On Mon, Jun 9, 2014 at 1:15 PM, Sydney Poore sydney.po...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 I truly appreciate your work on this and related articles. They stand out
 as an example of the high quality of work that Wikipedians can produce.

 Warm regards,
 Sydney
 On Jun 9, 2014 1:16 AM, Christine Meyer christinewme...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Hi all,

 Yes, I'm responsible for the Angelou article.  I must say, when I saw
 the view counts in the Signpost, I was overwhelmed and honored that for my
 part in bringing Dr. Angelou's bio article, as well as all seven of her
 autobiographies, the list of her works, and articles about her poetry and
 themes in her autobiographies, all to FA status.  I also feel proud that
 the English WP honored this great artist with high-quality articles when
 the world most needed them.

 Like with the other article you mentioned, the Angelou articles all had
 Adedewit's influence.  Early in my WP editing career, way back in 2007, she
 mentored me.  She (along with User:Scartol) basically led me by the hand
 through the article development process  as we worked on [[I Know Why the
 Caged Bird Sings]], Angelou's first autobiography.  She taught me how to do
 research, gather sources, write scholarly, and find appropriate images.  I
 remember going to her talk page at one point, and freaking out because I
 felt overwhelmed by the fact that here I was, a middle-aged white woman
 from the West Coast, trying to write about racism and childhood rape.  She
 was very calm with me and told me, Well, you took this on and now you need
 to finish it.  Which eventually I did.  We suffered a terrible loss this
 year.

 I'm thankful for being exposed to the life and writings of Dr. Angelou,
 something I wouldn't have done if it weren't for WP.  Millions of people
 looked at something that I basically wrote, and that's incredible to me.
  It makes all the gender gap garbage we go through worth it.

 Christine/Figureskatingfan.


 On Sun, Jun 8, 2014 at 3:08 PM, Yana Welinder ywelin...@wikimedia.org
 wrote:

 Hi Risker,

 That is awesome!  I was really pleased to see that too.  Thanks to
 everyone who worked on the two articles!

 On a somewhat related note, I started a twitter account this week (as a
 minor side project) to tweet about notable women on their birthdays with
 their Wikipedia articles to raise awareness:
 https://twitter.com/sis_ninja. If anyone on this list have particular
 Wikipedia articles that you would like to be included, please shoot me an
 email.

 Best,
 Yana


 On Sun, Jun 8, 2014 at 1:34 PM, Risker risker...@gmail.com wrote:

 Looking at the Signpost today, I was really pleased and pleasantly
 surprised to discover that the top two most-viewed articles this past week
 were biographical articles about women.  Not only that, they were both
 featured articles, so our reading public got a really good, informative
 article.


 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2014-06-04/Traffic_report

 A thank you to Christine for the Maya Angelou article, and to Sage
 Ross (with support from Awadewit) for the Rachel Carson article.

 Risker/Anne

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Re: [Gendergap] Look who's in the paper!! :)

[Christine Meyer]

Thanks Sarah.  I'm actually surprised at how well it was written.
Sometimes the press gets stuff about WP so wrong, but this time the
reporter did a good job.

Christine
Username: Figureskatingfan

On Wed, Oct 29, 2014 at 3:55 PM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.com
wrote:

 The super awesome WikiWoman Christine Meyer is!

 This is a most excellent article - thank you Christine for your ongoing
 work!

 http://www.inlander.com/spokane/writing-her-place/Content?oid=2372780

 Sarah

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 Sarah Stierch

 -

 Diverse and engaging consulting for your organization.

 www.sarahstierch.com

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Re: [Gendergap] Look who's in the paper!! :)

[Christine Meyer]

Pine, I was also asked to participate by User:Another Believer, and will go
check it out.  I've just joined the mailing list.

I'd love to help WSU become more involved in Wikipedia.  I believe that the
librarians would be interested, but they don't know how to go about such a
thing, so an outreach event would be helpful.

Thanks,
Christine

On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 2:42 PM, Pine W wiki.p...@gmail.com wrote:

 I am trying to catch up on email, and just now responding to this nice
 thread about work by a colleague in Cascadia Wikimedians territory at
 Washington State University. Thanks for your work Christine, and I hope
 that you will join the Cascadia Wikimedians email list:
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia and watch
 our Meta page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_Wikimedians Let
 me/us know if you'd like to do outreach at WSU, our user group will be
 happy to help and we might even have Wikimedians want to visit WSU in
 person from UW and other areas if you'd like to have an outreach event.

 Regards,

 Pine


 On 29 October 2014 22:55, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.com wrote:

 The super awesome WikiWoman Christine Meyer is!

 This is a most excellent article - thank you Christine for your ongoing
 work!

 http://www.inlander.com/spokane/writing-her-place/Content?oid=2372780

 Sarah

 --

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 -

 Diverse and engaging consulting for your organization.

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Re: [Gendergap] Rosiestep in Huffington Post (yay good news)

[Christine Meyer]

Yah Rosie!  I am proud to say that I have met Rosie in person, and can
attest that she's a great person.  Very nice article.

Christine
Username: Figureskatingfan

On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 10:01 AM, Sarah Stierch sarah.stie...@gmail.com
wrote:

 yay rays of sunshine :)


 http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/netha-hussain/rosie-stephenson-the-woma_b_6302636.html

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 -

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Re: [Gendergap] Regular editathons in Sweden about women and literature

[Christine Meyer]

I'm very interested in this kind of thing, so much so that I'd like to
follow a similar model locally.  I'm not sure that I live in a large enough
area to make it feasible, though.  However, I think that it's a good model
to recruit and retain editors, especially women, who tend to like editing
in community.  Wikimedia should pursue this.

As far as a name for regular editing sessions like this, it reminds me a
club--a group of people who meet regularly to accomplish some kind of task,
like a book club or Toastmasters.  How about something like, Wikipedians
Club.  I'm sure there's a more creative name than that.  And then we could
have individual chapters with more creative names, based on topic or
geography.

Christine
User:Figureskatingfan

On Fri, Jan 2, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Kerry Raymond kerry.raym...@gmail.com
wrote:

   The key comment is this: “We are also considering ways to get the
 people most interested in going to those editathons to also run them
 (empowering them, in effect).”

 If edit-a-thons are to achieve scale, it’s necessary that once
 established, the group will continue under its own momentum. This frees up
 the original organisers (or new members who have “graduated” to become new
 organisers) to move on and establish similar groups.



 Just an aside, I think we need a different term for this kind of regular
 edit session. Perhaps it’s just my own cultural baggage, but I associate
 the “-a-thon” as a big once-off event e.g.



 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Canberra/2014-08-14-Wikibomb



 rather than something smaller but more regular and ongoing. Maybe we
 should call it an editfika J



 Kerry

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Re: [Gendergap] Stepping down as list mod - volunteers needed

[Christine Meyer]

I'm fine with Carol as well. It would certainly send a message.

Christine
User:Figureskatingfan
On Jan 25, 2015 3:06 PM, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote:



 On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 4:47 PM, Carol Moore dc carolmoor...@verizon.net
 wrote:

 On 1/25/2015 2:09 PM, Chris Keating wrote:


 I'd be happy to help, assuming another man doesn't imbalance things

 Chris


  I definitely think we need another woman.  I'd step up, but as a
 banned from wikipedia feminist already, I won't embarrass anyone by doing
 so.

 CM


 _


 I agree, I think the replacement list mod needs to be a woman. I wouldn't
 object to it being Carol, despite the ban.


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Re: [Gendergap] A path back for day-two editors (was: Wikipedia Day NYC 2015 mini-conferenceh for te project's 14th birthday)

[Christine Meyer]

Kerry and all,

I've been thinking about much of what you wrote.  Being in this list has
made me think about how to recruit and retain more female editors.  I
attended Emily's training about how to conduct workshops and edit-athons in
Washington, D.C. last fall, which was a very valuable experience.  Many
things germinated during the training, including Rosiestep's creation of
the Women Writers Project (I'm proud to say that I was present, in the same
room, when she created it) and the planning stages of the GA Cup, which was
hugely successful.  There was an off-hand remark made during the training
that I think all the edit-athons and workshops that have occurred since has
borne out--that the most successful edit-athons in terms of recruiting new
editors have been reoccurring.

I wonder if the answer is the creation of editing clubs, something that has
been discussed here before.  The reason I'm thinking this way is that I'm
preparing an educational session I'm leading at the end of April, at the
District 9 Toastmasters spring conference in Yakima, Washington.  (I'm a
very active Toastmaster, like I'm a very active Wikipedian.)  It won't be a
workshop about how to edit WP, but a more general session about how to more
effectively use WP to write speeches, although I am providing participants
with a resource list about editing.  So I've been thinking about how being
a Toastmaster has made me a better WP editor, and how being an editor has
made me a better Toastmaster.

I'm starting to believe that a more effective way to recruit editors is to
create clubs like Toastmasters, which meet regularly (once or twice a
month) and have a core of 7 or 8 people.  TM states that 20 members make a
healthy club, and they should know; they've been in existence for 90
years.  I agree that editors are born, not made.  (Which is ironic, because
TM's tag line is, Where leaders are made.)  Editing clubs, though, are
ways to find those folks, and to mentor them through the complex WP
policies.  If they exist on college campuses, they can be folded into the
university's existing club structure.  They can, like TM clubs, be held in
church basements or in hotel conference rooms or in hospital meeting rooms.

I get what you say about experienced editors have little patience with the
bungling newbies.  However, if it weren't for a few more experienced
editors who mentored me through my bungling stage, I probably wouldn't be
here today.  Adrienne Wadewitz, btw, was one of them.  I think that we, as
experienced editors, have a responsibility to mentor newbies--to pay it
forward like others helped us when we were newbies.  Shoot, I still need
it.  For example, I'd say that I'm a very experienced editor, and I'm
stupid when it comes to creating tables.  I'm getting assistance with that
as we speak, in my most recent FLC (
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Featured_list_candidates/List_of_Sesame_Street_Muppets/archive1redirect=no
).

Anyway, that's what I've been thinking.

Christine
User: Figureskatingfan


On Wed, Mar 25, 2015 at 1:01 AM, Kerry Raymond kerry.raym...@gmail.com
wrote:

   Certainly my own experience with edit training and edit-a-thons is
 that, while people (both male and female) seem to enjoy the workshop, they
 don’t come back for more. I increasingly share the view that Wikipedians
 are born not made. I am not sure that outreach achieves very much, given it
 is very difficult to scale. So, I am inclined to think that the best
 investments are in nurturing new organic (as in “self-selecting”) editors
 and maintaining the enthusiasm of the longer-terms editors. I think it is
 ultimately “the community” that grinds all of us down in the long term.
 I’ve heard it expressed in different ways by different folks. Some say
 they’ve just sick of the vandalism fighting. Personally I did a very short
 stint as a reviewer for Articles for Review because so many were of them
 looked dubious notability and probably CoI that I thought why am I
 bothering (the wrong attitude I know but at least know I understand why AfR
 produces so few accepted articles – I think you either walk away or turn
 into a Auto-Reject Reviewer). Others get tired of fixing problems created
 by an endless stream of newbies making the same well-intentioned but
 inappropriate edits. My personal peeve is the Lamington article which is
 frequently changed to say it was invented in New Zealand, but with no
 sources provided, in an article that currently documents every known early
 mentions of lamingtons and shows all of them are Australian in origin
 (sorry, Kiwis, but you need evidence to back up your persistent claims).
 Others get tired of having run-ins with same grumpy old editors, the
 gatekeepers, etc. The interaction between the
 I’ve-really-had-enough-of-these-newbies and the
 bumbling-but-well-intentioned newbie is clearly a bit part of the problem;
 it seems one of them gets burned by the interaction (either the old hand
 flays the 

Re: [Gendergap] Outcome of IdeaLab/Inspire campaign

[Christine Meyer]

You make some good points, Ellie.  However, it's been my experience that
even a basic knowledge of HTML helped me learn Wiki syntax.  I am by no
means a coder, although I am married to one.  Perhaps a better way to frame
it is that learning Wiki syntax can help you learn to code easier?

Christine
User:Figureskatingfan

On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 3:20 PM, Ellie K myindigol...@gmail.com wrote:

 I read Marie Earley's message about the Inspire campaign, and
 specifically about the Pinterest-related proposal.  I was interested in the
 Pinterest proposal too!  I use Pinterest for fun. As far as I know, I was
 the only one to endorse it (I am FeralOink on WP, Ellie Kesselman IRL).

 Marie said this in her message on the GenderGap mailing list:

 ​​
 If the pitch to women were learn code by editing Wikipedia then I think
 there would be a greater take up...
 ​​


 Yes, I agree that there would be a lot of interest from women if that were
 true. However, editing Wikipedia and learning to code have nothing to do
 with each other. Learning Wiki syntax for editing is something that can
 take bona fide programmers a (brief) while to learn, as it is markup with
 many additional Mediawiki-specific features. More to the point, Wiki syntax
 isn't a programming language, nor does it closely resemble HTML or CSS,
 which are not programming languages either. The only people who code on
 Wikipedia are the Wikidata folks and those who build utilities (many in
 Python, I think) for whatever the toolserver is called now. Most Wikipedia
 editors are not going to have any interaction with these few folks, nor any
 means to learn the skills they have.

 I'm sorry for sounding negative, but I don't want to mislead women into
 thinking they will learn a job skill like programming (coding) by editing
 Wikipedia. There are many other things one may learn by editing Wikipedia,
 but they aren't so easy to articulate and vary by individual.

 --Ellie Kesselman (FeralOink)

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Re: [Gendergap] [LGBT] Arbcom election

[Christine Meyer]

I'm in an even smaller minority, Risker. All that plus middle aged,
Caucasian, and parent of children with disabilities.

Christine
User:Figureskatingfan
On Nov 24, 2015 10:46 AM, "Risker"  wrote:

> :-)  I am beginning to wonder if being a straight, cis, monogamous married
> woman puts me into a microscopic minority on Wikimedia projects.  :-)
>
> Risker
>
>
> On 24 November 2015 at 13:16, Keilana  wrote:
>
>> Hi Fae,
>>
>> Opabinia regalis and I both identified ourselves as bisexual women on our
>> question pages. Hope that's useful.
>>
>> -Emily
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 11:01 PM, Fæ  wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for highlighting it. Unfortunately there are a lot of pages to
>>> wade through with user questions, so things like being a woman or
>>> identifying as LGBT are handy things to mention in passing in the
>>> candidate statement. It certainly would influence my vote...
>>>
>>> I agree, as this is a critical part of the election this year it would
>>> be interesting to see an aggregation of gender and LGBT stats, or a
>>> "diversity index", for candidates and the eventual Arbcom elected, and
>>> to see this compared to past years. Perhaps if someone is writing up a
>>> Signpost article they could include this small bit of research? ;-)
>>>
>>> Fae
>>>
>>> On 24 November 2015 at 04:42, LFaraone  wrote:
>>> > On Tue, 24 Nov 2015 at 04:21 Fæ  wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> This year sees a much more interesting selection of candidates, though
>>> >> a lack of any *openly* LGBT candidates as far as I could tell from the
>>> >> statements.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > Several candidates (myself included) mentioned our queerness in our
>>> > responses to the demographics questions asked by some editors. I don't
>>> know
>>> > if there's been any on-wiki aggregation of that data, however.
>>> >
>>> >   -- Luke // LFaraone
>>> --
>>> fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
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