[WikiEN-l] Lobbyists and Wikipedia (again)

2011-12-06 Thread Sam Blacketer
There's an interesting story leading in the British newspaper the
Independent this morning based on an undercover sting of lobbyists Bell
Pottinger:

Discussing techniques for managing reputations online, Mr Wilson mentioned
a team that could 'sort' Wikipedia.

'We've got all sorts of dark arts,' added Mr Collins. 'I told him [David
Wilson] he couldn't put them in the written presentation because it's
embarrassing if it gets out.'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/caught-on-camera-top-lobbyists-boasting-how-they-influence-the-pm-6272760.html

There might be some editors who want to start an immediate investigation to
search for the members of this 'team' but I think that would probably be a
waste of time which would put suspicion on a large number of innocent
editors. It's always possible Bell Pottinger were boasting.

What might be better is to stress that any lobbyist seeking to use 'dark
arts' to correct inaccurate or unfair Wikipedia articles, or to add
properly sourced positive information, is best advised to use OTRS and to
provide sources. It seems to me that current policy and guideline pages are
much heavier on telling people what not to do and threatening dire
consequences, than they are on helping people to help us.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Lobbyists and Wikipedia (again)

2011-12-06 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Tom Morris t...@tommorris.org wrote:


 This sounds like a splendid idea. Perhaps we could supplement it by
 informing criminals that they can avoid a life of crime by getting an
 education and a job, or maybe we could tell politicians to tell the
 truth. Or maybe News of the World journalists could be informed of the
 many story-gathering opportunities that don't involve hacking into
 people's voicemail systems.


I don't know, but do any of the examples you cite involve the use of
Wikipedia, you know that website where they assume good faith?

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Rating the English wikipedia

2011-02-16 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 8:56 PM, Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.ukwrote:


 There is a project (even longer-running and slower-burning than the
 ODNB) to construct a reference work covering all MPs, at least as much
 as they're known, along with various other bits and pieces:

 http://www.histparl.ac.uk/about.html


Or try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Parliament for some
explanation of its history.


 In the past sixty years, they've managed to cover a little over half
 the timeframe in twenty-eight (!) volumes. I have never seen their
 work, I admit, but I'd be intrigued to...


I have the CD-Rom containing the volumes published up to 1998 and 12 volumes
published since then are on a shelf just above the computer. They are very
interesting studies, delving very deep into manuscript sources and using as
their sources letters between various senior politicians preserved in the
archives. They concentrate only on the subjects' Parliamentary and political
activities, so for example the only mention of the diary of Samuel Pepys (MP
for Castle Rising 1673-79, Harwich 1679 and 1685-88) is that Pepys stopped
writing it before he became an MP.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] BLP task force meeting

2009-11-23 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 11:53 AM, Giacomo M-Z solebaci...@googlemail.comwrote:

 If there is going to be an IRC meeting concerning Wikipedia, are the  logs
 of it going to onto the mailing list and to be published on Wikipedia? If
 not - why not?


I don't see what's wrong with posting the logs on the BLPTF pages on meta.
The log for a previous meeting was already circulated on the BLPTF mailing
list and the mailing list is going to be made public at the conclusion of
the taskforce.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] BLP task force meeting

2009-11-23 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 3:56 PM, Giacomo M-Z solebaci...@googlemail.comwrote:


 Having to have secret little chats because you can't have it all your own
 way on wikipedia.


It's not secret. Anyone can come and the log of the last meeting is here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/BLP_Task_Force/Meeting_agenda/Minutes

I imagine the log of the more recent meeting will appear on meta soon.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Observer WP airbrushing story implicates House of Commons IP

2009-10-18 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 5:21 PM, Gwern Branwen gwe...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 11:45 AM, Charles Matthews
 charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com wrote:
  And when later sthe tory says The changes – designed to portray
  [Edward] McMillan-Scott as a europhile – were made from a computer with
  an internet IP address named Strasburg , what do they mean? They mean
  there was an account named Strasburg, would be the simple
  interpretation. (And this might be another subediting gremlin.) There is
  an implied link between the two editors, but we couldn't possibly
  comment, I guess.

 Obviously they mean User:Strasburg, as he has 5 edits to [[Michał
 Kamiński]].


But note also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/136.173.162.144 which is
registered to the European Parliament in Luxembourg and has a lot of
contributions to articles on current British MEPs - including blanking
sections of Edward McMillan-Scott's biography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_McMillan-Scottdiff=prevoldid=302006604

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Reliable sources for deaths

2009-10-07 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 10:54 PM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Wylie

 My source for the death is a tweet.

 It is a tweet from the official Bletchley Park feed, so I think it's
 reliable enough ... but I've asked them for more, and a photo if they
 can :-)

 Remember: reliable sources is a guideline and requires the
 application of good sense.


Indeed. I would think that twitter feeds can be reliable under the same
approach as for blogs - if the blog is an official source of information by
a media outlet, or other institution which is reliable, it is a reliable
source.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikimedian image restorations exploited on eBay

2009-09-18 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 9:40 PM, Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.comwrote:


 If you paint the eyes back onto the Sistine Chapel ceiling, have you
 truly restored it? Or have you created something new?


For that matter, what about the restoration of the Dresdner Frauenkirche?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresdner_Frauenkirche

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Re: [WikiEN-l] News agencies are not RSs

2009-06-29 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 4:55 PM, geni geni...@gmail.com wrote:

 2009/6/29 Gwern Branwen gwe...@gmail.com:
  “We were really helped by the fact that it hadn’t appeared in a place
  we would regard as a reliable source,” he said. “I would have had a
  really hard time with it if it had.”
  ...

 The question is though is is
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pajhwok_Afghan_News genuinely not a
 reliable source?


What was that underlying principle which was codified after the Brian
Peppers deletion debates? Ah yes, 'basic human dignity', now to be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Basic_dignity.

This case is more about basic common sense. If someone's life may be
endangered by what is on their wikipedia biography but is not widely
reported elsewhere, I would expect that anyone sensible would find some way
of applying policy so as to keep the life-endangering stuff off it. And that
would take precedence over secondary arguments over whether obscure news
agencies were reliable.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] News agencies are not RSs

2009-06-29 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 8:42 PM, Risker risker...@gmail.com wrote:

 While I cannot speak for the New York Times, Canadian media have acted in
 the same way to protect members of NGOs who have been kidnapped.


There's a two-year-old ongoing kidnapping in Iraq involving five Britons - a
consultant and four security guards. The consultant was named immediately
but the security guards were not; eventually their first names only were
released*. That embargo has held through the British media and no foreign
media has broken it either.

There is much more of a culture in Britain whereby voluntary media embargoes
are held to (think Prince Harry in Afghanistan, for example). There are
definitely circumstances where, although the law should not be used, it is
still in everyone's interests if certain details are not reported. In the
abstract the press doesn't report things simply for the pleasure of seeing
them reported, but because they are important and it is in the public
interest that they should be known. An encyclopaedia isn't in the exact same
position but it is close enough.

* Two of the security guards died during their captivity; when their bodies
were repatriated last week their full names were released. It became
possible to check and neither had been mentioned in any British publication.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Ramifications to wikipedians of unmasking of police blogger?

2009-06-16 Thread Sam Blacketer
Whatever one thinks of the decision by The Times to run a story about him,
it is plainly right that he should not have been able to maintain his
anonymity through the courts. It would have been very surprising if the
court had found otherwise.

Attempting to find the real person behind a literary pseudonym has a long
heritage; one of the stories that Hitler Diaries journalist Gerd Heidemann
worked on for Stern magazine was about the identity of famed and mysterious
German thriller writer B. Traven, for instance. The real identity of 'Simon
Haxey', who wrote one very well-informed book about the internal workings of
the Conservative Party in the late 1930s, is still unknown.

As Oscar Wilde wrote, if one tells the truth, one is sure sooner or later to
be found out. Take it from one who knows.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Ramifications to wikipedians of unmasking of police blogger?

2009-06-16 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Stephen Bain stephen.b...@gmail.comwrote:


 My first impression is that this seems to be consistent with current
 UK privacy (ie, expanded breach of confidence) jurisprudence, though
 I haven't read the whole case yet. Does anyone know where a copy of
 the decision might be available? Looks like it will be another
 important case in this developing area.


Best place for current UK court judgments is BAILII: http://www.bailii.org/

Not everything gets there but high-profile cases in the higher courts
normally do.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Ramifications to wikipedians of unmasking of police blogger?

2009-06-16 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 3:46 PM, Sam Blacketer sam.blacke...@googlemail.com
 wrote:

 On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 3:42 PM, Stephen Bain stephen.b...@gmail.comwrote:


 My first impression is that this seems to be consistent with current
 UK privacy (ie, expanded breach of confidence) jurisprudence, though
 I haven't read the whole case yet. Does anyone know where a copy of
 the decision might be available? Looks like it will be another
 important case in this developing area.


 Best place for current UK court judgments is BAILII:
 http://www.bailii.org/

 Not everything gets there but high-profile cases in the higher courts
 normally do.


Update: It's there already:
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2009/1358.html

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Docs look to Wikipedia for condition info: Manhattan Research

2009-05-24 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 12:12 AM, Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.comwrote:


 With vandalism, I think there is a duty of care to check the recent
 history and go back to the last version before the vandalism started.
 Sometimes you have to stop and look quite carefully, but if you don't,
 who else will?


I agree. Quite often vandals will come in and keep making vandal edits until
they are stopped. It only needs some other user to make a routine edit in
the middle for the reverter to miss the earlier edits, which might mean that
the article will be left with vandalism that appears to have been accepted
as valid. It's always worth investigating the history, and also whether the
account or IP has vandalised anything else, when doing a vandal revert.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Politician praises Wikipedia

2009-04-26 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 10:04 PM, Sam Korn smo...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 7:45 PM, James Farrar james.far...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  Well, in relative terms, anyway:
 
 
 http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2009/04/The_age_of_austerity_speech_to_the_2009_Spring_Forum.aspx
 
  http://tinyurl.com/dxdujw
 
  Our government spends nearly £400 million a year on advertising to
  reach sixty million people while Wikipedia, one of the largest
  websites in the world, spends about one per cent of that to reach 280
  million people.
 
  Not sure if his figures are accurate, but it's intriguing.

 Does this mean the Tories will be composing their next manifesto by
 wiki?  If so, is David Cameron founder or co-founder?


It shows some confidence that he should mention wikipedia, given the
problems over the Titian edits not so long ago.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] Board statement regarding biographies of l...

2009-04-23 Thread Sam Blacketer
On 4/23/09, Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com wrote:

 What do we do about well-sourced information which turns out to be
 incorrect? I don't think policies cover this area particularly well, but the
 commonsense view is to word it something along the lines of:

 A national newspaper in 2007 reported that celebrity x had been arrested
 for taking drugsref /ref; however this was later shown to be untrue
 ref /ref

 If it's not that important you can always include the details in a
 footnote:

 Joe Blow (b. 15.1.74) refNote the New York Times stated he was born on
 January 14 - (ref). However, this source shows the actual date to be 14 Jan
 /ref

 The added advantage is it means editors don't add the incorrect information
 in again at a later date.


This is what I've done on a few occasions when it's obvious that one source
has got it wrong - see the footnote relating to the birthdate of Emlyn
Garner Evans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emlyn_Garner_Evans. However there
are always some where it is impossible to tell which of the conflicting
sources has got it right; see Edward Doran for an example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Doran.
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Edward Doran

2009-04-23 Thread Sam Blacketer
On 4/23/09, wjhon...@aol.com wjhon...@aol.com wrote:

 In the 1901 England Census, there are four Edward Doran's born between 1884
   and 1894 inclusive, who state that they were born in Lancashire.  If we
 could know the names of his parents, in his Wikipedia article (I did not
 see
 them listed) then we could pin it down to a single entry.

 None of them state they were born in Failsworth
 Rather the placenames stated, in Lancashire, for these four boys were

 Rochdale,   Barrow,  Oldham,  Newton Heath


Failsworth is not a registration district in its own right; it would be part
of Oldham.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Green Ink Day (stick to Alan Cabal)

2009-04-09 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 8:47 PM, Bill Carter billdeancar...@yahoo.comwrote:

 NOTE: The deletion review was actually held on March 30th to April 4th or
 5th. You made an error. Furthermore, it was speedy deleted. You CANNOT
 speedy delete an article with 40 fucking references. This is scandalous.


It is not really reasonable to say the article was speedily deleted. The
third AfD debate (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Alan_Cabal_(3rd_nomination))
ran for the full time, and ended in a clear delete consensus.

The article was then created again, which made a clear case of speedy
deletion under criterion G4 (recreation of previously deleted material).
Only after this was noticed and the article deleted under G4 was the AfD
close taken to deletion review. During this debate the article history was
restored so that non-admins could see the article. A further full time
debate was held. There was no consensus to overturn the close, so when the
deletion review ended the history was again deleted.

Deletion debates do not always come to the right decision, but when they
don't, it is a mistake and not a scandal. The reason for the article being
nominated for deletion was lack of notability, and not lack of references.
The problem with the references is, I suspect, that too few of them are in
the sort of mainstream publications which would make a clear case of
notability.

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[WikiEN-l] Interesting remark in Guardian blog

2009-03-16 Thread Sam Blacketer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/16/internet-copyright-lawcaught
my eye because of its rather alarming headline. However it's about
copyright law; the headline refers to this paragraph:

In a second thought experiment, imagine that it's five years ago and you are
responsible for developing the most comprehensive and up-to-the-minute
encyclopedia the world has ever seen. One strategy is to create a global
company, employ the brightest people available, check every fact produced,
and implement the most rigorous editorial controls. A second option is to
just create a website and let anybody put up anything. Again, we'd mostly
have opted for the first strategy, and the world wouldn't have
Wikipediahttp://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/10/wikipedia.internet
.

I might quibble with the description let anybody put up anything but the
author makes an interesting point.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] BBC article on vandalism

2009-03-06 Thread Sam Blacketer
On 3/6/09, K. Peachey p858sn...@yahoo.com.au wrote:

  Yes, but why *that* picture of Jimmy?

 I would say that BBC gets all their photos though Getty Images, and
 thats just the image that they had on file when BBC first wanted one
 so that became their file photo for jimbo and has never updated it.


BBC News online has always preferred to use wierd/odd pictures to ordinary
looking ones. If it's someone for whom there are a lot of images, they will
always use the one taken mid-grimace, or when they were wearing a silly hat,
or when someone in a gorilla suit was behind them.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] How to raise the tone of the wiki

2009-02-09 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 11:29 PM, Phil Nash pn007a2...@blueyonder.co.ukwrote:


 Personally, I'm usually the fourth person, totally boggled as to why people
 care about Celebrity Come Dancing in the slightest, as an unconstructive
 intersection of two concepts lacking in long-term cultural significance,
 but
 then, perhaps that's why I've become more interested in medieval Wiltshire
 monasteries of late. P.Ss, if you know of anyone who would, er, pay me
 money
 for doing this, please let me know, as I do miss being able to afford
 cheese. And meat.


There is the Institute of Historical Review, and has the VCH of Wiltshire
been completed yet?

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[WikiEN-l] Flagged revisions in The Sunday Times

2009-02-07 Thread Sam Blacketer
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5682896.ece

Slightly confused article headed The wiki-snobs are taking over by Giles
Hattersley. Misnames 'administrators' as 'arbitrators'. Towards the end the
author claims My entry features at least two errors, one libellous (unless
my mother has been keeping a dark secret, I am not Roy Hattersley's son)
which has me befuddled since there is no entry on Giles Hattersley nor was
there ever one (unless it's been oversighted).

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Re: [WikiEN-l] BBC article on Flagged Revisions

2009-01-27 Thread Sam Blacketer
On 1/27/09, Alvaro García alva...@gmail.com wrote:

 It's have, not hav.


Unless you are Nigel Molesworth, hem hem.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Biography of Living persons

2008-12-29 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 7:15 PM, wjhon...@aol.com wrote:

 In a message dated 12/29/2008 9:33:08 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
 andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk writes:

 In many  ways, the most effective solution would be a hard-and-bright
 line like the  DNB uses - no-one who is alive, end of story, and we
 could deal with living  people as tangential notes in their work. But
 it certainly wouldn't be  popular!

 Oh silly that would never fly!
 No article on George Bush?  No article on John Major?
 No article on Brad Pitt?


That might look odd but it could certainly be justified. However, the real
problem with only including biographies after the deaths of the subjects is
that this is a general encyclopaedia and not a specific list of biographies;
biographical information is found in a very wide range of articles. Hence it
is no use having a rule which prohibits a biography of (for example) Bill
Clinton until he dies, which then permits an article about the impeachment
in 1998 which must discuss other claimed examples of his infidelity in order
to be comprehensive.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] UK censorship: I'm on BBC Radio 4 Today show tomorrow 8:20am

2008-12-09 Thread Sam Blacketer
The latest news is souding hopeful:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/09/wikipedia-censorship-iwf-reconsiders

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Re: [WikiEN-l] UK censorship: I'm on BBC Radio 4 Today show tomorrow 8:20am

2008-12-07 Thread Sam Blacketer
Don't know if this is any use but a press search dug up an entry in The
Sun's WWW column from 18 January this year.

zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/index.htm

WHAT IS IT? The Museum Of Bad Album Covers - an online collection of the
worst sleeve art ever committed to cardboard.

WHAT'S ON OFFER? Ever received one of those Christmas gift books about great
album artwork?

Here is the perfect antidote (or something to make you fully appreciate the
covers in your book).

This is a truly appalling selection of album art - tasteless (Boxer's Below
The Belt), bizarre (Phil Barry's Songs For Gay Dogs) and every one will
leave you pondering: Whatever were they thinking?

Of Course, Kevin Rowland's My Beauty - with the Dexy's frontman pictured in
drag and flashing his knickers, earns a place - but more obscure acts like
The Frivolous Five and Mike Terry are well worth a giggle. Visitors to the
site have also voted for a top ten of the most dreadful offerings, but be
warned, the album at No1 - Scorpions' Virgin Killer - is highly offensive.

You can enjoy a soundtrack while trawling this site by clicking on Bad Music
Radio to hear streams of the worst music ever.

Hear monstrosities like William Shatner's Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and
Mr T rapping.

WORTH A CLICK?: Cover your eyes.


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Re: [WikiEN-l] [Foundation-l] Trouble in Ireland

2008-12-02 Thread Sam Blacketer
On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 10:59 AM, Michael Everson [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote:

 In case anyone is curious, see:


 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Tariqabjotudiff=255356231oldid=255352300#Congrats_for_bravery

 and the expected

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:ANI#Ireland_page_moves


Have to say that regardless of my feelings on the matter, that was a dubious
reading of the 'consensus of the discussion'.

-- 
Sam Blacketer
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