Re: [WikiEN-l] GDFL compliance

2009-06-13 Thread Sam Korn

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 10:02 PM, Michael Peelem...@mikepeel.net wrote:


On 12 Jun 2009, at 11:13, Sam Korn wrote:

Right.  I certainly agree that it would be better to name the author.

But when articles are reused, they generally link to the Wikipedia
article without giving a list of usernames; I don't see why that
would be different for images.


Images are generally the work of one, or a few people, whereas
Wikipedia articles are the work of many.

In the case of the images that I've taken myself and uploaded to
Commons (CC-BY-SA license), pretty much the only thing I'm after for
myself is attribution. I believe that's a standard stance amongst
photographers that aren't also after money as a matter of routine.
I'm not sure whether I'd go through all the trouble of uploading
images to Commons/Wikipedia were that not the case.

TBH, I think giving a list of usernames/authors of Wikipedia articles
when they're reused would be best, but due to the number of authors
that's more often than not impractical.


And for the (not insignificant number of) cases where there is more than one 
contributor to an image?  E.g. where an image has been touched up by another 
user?

I'm suggesting a simple, catch-all method.  If the method we suggest isn't 
simple, it won't be followed.

I agree entirely that giving a list of users would be *best*, but I'm not sure 
that practically we have that option.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] GDFL compliance

2009-06-12 Thread Sam Korn

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 6:26 AM, Steve Bennettstevag...@gmail.com wrote:

On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 2:26 AM, Sam Kornsmo...@gmail.com wrote:

(Photo: a
href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Houses_of_Parliament.jpg;Wikipedia/a)

I imagine that would satisfy *almost* everyone.


Hell no. You didn't even credit the author.

Photo: WikiWitch at Wikipedia, under GFDL.

That's about the minimum you could get away with. You could probably
ditch the Wikipedia actually, maybe link to their Wikipedia user
page though.

(In this case, the photo is actually PD, so it's all moot).


Right.  I certainly agree that it would be better to name the author.

But when articles are reused, they generally link to the Wikipedia article 
without giving a list of usernames; I don't see why that would be different for 
images.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] RFC on paid editing

2009-06-10 Thread Sam Korn
On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 11:35 PM, Andrew Grayandrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk wrote:
 2009/6/10 AGK wiki...@googlemail.com:

 In practice, however, it would be exceedingly rare for that type of editing
 to not be problematic to some degree; the nature of the business world is
 such that paid editing would almost certainly not adhere to Wikipedia's NPOV
 policies. Consider this: if a client commissions a Wikipedia article's
 creation, would the client be satisfied with an article that did not reflect
 a stance that was at least a smidgen flattering? I wouldn't imagine so. On
 that basis, I think a blanket discouragement from editing for payment to be
 the most sensible approach to the issue.

 This only really applies to one type of paid editing, doesn't it?
 Commercial or quasi-commercial, ones where the client has a definite
 stake in the message of the article.

 You can easily have paid editing where this isn't the case at all - an
 educational group, for example, which pays people to produce content
 about a specific field without presupposing the tone of that content.
 In many cases, it may just be that the topic is one where it's hard to
 put the sponsor's slant in - mathematics, for example, would be a
 lot more resilient than alternative medicines!

 We've already had a very limited form of this - the project on Commons
 which pays for the creation of images - and there's no doubt that, if
 done carefully, this could be extended to article-writing without the
 danger of producing editorial slant in the end product. This is pretty
 much the traditional encyclopedia model, in fact - paid generalist or
 specialist editors, who may well bring their own prejudices to the
 text but aren't expected to comply with the central editorial slant
 on each.

 I agree entirely paid editing can be a bad thing - but so can unpaid
 editing for a topic you hold dear. Likewise, both can be forces for
 good. I'm not sure it's wise to completely throw away the opportunity
 for a powerful tool which we haven't used much yet, due to short-term
 fears about commercial interests.

 (In short: regulate, sure. Don't forbid; it'll bite us in the long run.)

These are all excellent points.

I would like to see the guideline state something along the lines of
You are not required to state that you are being paid to edit.
However, if it is later discovered that you have been doing so and you
did not state this openly, people will be very suspicious about your
motivations.  If you are open, honest and neutral, people are more
likely to trust you.

Also, I would like to see the end of COIN and direct its traffic to
the NPOV noticeboard -- it is highly misleading to suggest that the
conflict of interests is the problem; it is the lack of neutrality
that is the problem.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Google thinks Wikipedia is a news source

2009-06-08 Thread Sam Korn



On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 5:47 PM, Andrew Turveyandrewrtur...@googlemail.com 
wrote:


- Joe Anderson computer...@gmail.com wrote:

From: Joe Anderson computer...@gmail.com
To: wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org
Sent: Monday, 8 June, 2009 17:18:29 GMT +00:00 GMT Britain, Ireland, Portugal
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Google thinks Wikipedia is a news source

On 2009-06-07 08:48:26 +0100, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com said:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiropractic/3601011581/


Could someone speak to Google?

Surely isn't this entering Wikinews' territory somewhat?


Why? The more Wikimedia content is made available to others the better, surely? 
This is a great endorsement of our material.

If anyone complained, all they'd do is take Wikipedia off their list. They 
wouldn't necessarily add Wikinews.

Andrew
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Call for Participants: NICE interface modification

2009-06-08 Thread Sam Korn

On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 6:11 PM, Aaron Halfakerhalf0...@umn.edu wrote:

AGK,

Good point.  Our only concern is having to re-apply to the IRB.  It
seems that this change does not materially affect the general
consent/installation process, so we pulled it out and will make it
available upon requests from individuals.


Thanks for doing this, Aaron.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] GDFL compliance

2009-06-06 Thread Sam Korn
On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 12:21 AM,
Falcorianalex.public.account+enwikimailingl...@gmail.com wrote:
 We have a policy:

 [[Wikipedia:Reusing Wikipedia content]]

It would be good to have something that specifically referred to reuse
of images, since I think that is probably more common than reusing
text.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] GDFL compliance

2009-06-06 Thread Sam Korn
On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 12:55 PM, genigeni...@gmail.com wrote:
 2009/6/6 Angela bees...@gmail.com:
 On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 2:26 AM, Sam Kornsmo...@gmail.com wrote:
 (Photo: a
 href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Houses_of_Parliament.jpg;Wikipedia/a)

 I imagine that would satisfy *almost* everyone.

 Adding the license wouldn't be much harder:

  (Photo: a
 href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Houses_of_Parliament.jpg;Wikipedia/a,
  a href=http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html;GFDL/a)

 Angela

 Not really. You are still entirely reliant on wikipedia servers
 staying up and the image staying in that place which is why you should
 host the credit and probably the GFDL locally.

As I said, *almost* everyone!

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Call for Participants: NICE interface modification

2009-06-06 Thread Sam Korn

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 11:06 PM, Aaron Halfakerhalf0...@umn.edu wrote:

Hello,

I am a researcher in the GroupLens lab (http://grouplens.org) at the
University of Minnesota.  You might recognize previous work in Wikipedia
like Creating, Destroying, and Restoring Value in Wikipedia
(http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~reid/papers/group282-priedhorsky.pdf).

As part of our continuing work within Wikipedia, my colleagues and I are
conducting an academic (non-commercial) study in which we have developed
a modification that is designed to help users work together more
effectively by changing the interface for reverting other editors.

If you choose to participate in the study, you will be automatically
assigned a Wikipedia gadget that will consist of a subset of the
modifications we have developed.  As part of the study, we will be
logging your usage of the tool (ie. when you are reverting other
editors).   We will also be available for tech support and bug fixes.
Most likely there will be a survey at the completion and the complete
tool will be made available.

Consent form/installer: http://wikipedia.grouplens.org/NICE/consent/


This looks interesting -- I might have a look at the tools myself in the week 
when I have a bit more time.

I would, however, urge everyone to use the manual installation process.  I 
don't think it's good form to ask people for their credentials on another site.  Indeed, 
it is forbidden (actively prohibited) for those with Toolserver accounts to do this.

I am sure that you won't be being evil with the information, but nevertheless I 
don't think you should request it.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] GDFL compliance

2009-06-05 Thread Sam Korn

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 10:40 PM, Unionhawkunionhawk.site...@gmail.com wrote:

So, how *should* it be attributed? I'm confused...


(Photo: a 
href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Houses_of_Parliament.jpg;Wikipedia/a)

I imagine that would satisfy *almost* everyone.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Date conditional switching templates

2009-05-12 Thread Sam Korn
On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 12:36 PM, Luna lunasan...@gmail.com wrote:
 I've whipped up a quick example at 
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Luna_Santin/Dateswitch, currently:

   - {{#ifexpr: {{#time:U| {{{date|{{{3|}} }}  {{#time:U}} |
   {{{pre|{{{1|}} | {{{post|{{{2|}} }}

 Which would give us:

   - {{dateswitch | text before date | text on or after date | date}}

 This might have some problems with page cache, and honestly I'm a bit
 dubious about its utility, but from a template standpoint it shouldn't be
 too hard.

Pages with date magic should have their caches invalidated after 24
hours, I think.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Date conditional switching templates

2009-05-12 Thread Sam Korn
On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 2:53 PM, Ian Woollard ian.wooll...@gmail.com wrote:
 I suppose you could add a category to the template to help find things
 that have passed so as to permit people to remove the template and
 check that it actually happened; that would at least be an
 improvement.

Yes. Indeed, I believe that is the purpose of [[As of 2006|2006]]
links -- so you can use WhatLinksHere to find statements that need
updating.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] NPOV and how to find and maintain it

2009-05-11 Thread Sam Korn
On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 10:02 PM, Andrew Turvey
andrewrtur...@googlemail.com wrote:
 - Original Message -
 From: Sam Korn smo...@gmail.com

 No. NPOV is not determined by consensus. Wikipedia's content is
 determined by consensus with NPOV being the guiding principle.
 Something does not become more neutral because fifteen Wikipedia
 editors say it's neutral.

 --
 Sam

 True - the existence of a consensus supporting the text does not prove that 
 the text is neutral. However, it is a good indication, particular if the 
 raters come from a cross section of the community rather than just from those 
 who edit the particular pages.

But of course.  The agreement of the editors testifies to its
neutrality; it does not define it.

What the original poster (I can't remember who that was!) seemed to be
saying was NPOV is what consensus says it is.  That is backwards and
plain wrong.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] someone after non-active admin accounts

2009-05-11 Thread Sam Korn
On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 10:28 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote:
 2009/5/11 Andrew Turvey andrewrtur...@googlemail.com:
 Automatic suspension of admins who have been inactive after a certain period 
 sounds like a prudent idea - and also of admins who turn inactive after 
 posting any kind of resignation message. By all means allow them to be 
 re-activated on request without going through RFA .

 When was the last time an admin actually left after resigning? I can't
 think of anyone since Essjay!

Wikipedia:Former_administrators#Resigned has a list of quite a few
admins who resigned, several of whom appear to have stopped editing
about the same time.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Neutrality enforcement: a proposal

2009-05-08 Thread Sam Korn
On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 9:22 PM, stevertigo stv...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Durova nadezhda.dur...@gmail.com wrote:

 Please help me nuke it before this well-intentioned notion of arbitration
 does any more damage.

 -Durova


 And the thought that NPOV enforcers would be doing this enforcing, is..
 it.. it just does not generate the warm and fuzzy feeling we look for in
 good ideas.

 It's bad enough we have an Arbcom that likes to think it should'nt have to
 explain itself to anybody, let alone discuss things openly. Your vision of
 enforcement only conjures up a vision of Sean Connery in red daipers and on
 horseback, shooting at people indiscriminately with a revolver.

 SV's choice of scope: ..on Israel-Palestine articles.. cannot be serious.
 Everyone knows that theres some subjectivity involved there. Neutrality in
 that context can only found through lots of shuckling and jihad.

 SV says: [this idea] could be extended to other intractable disputes if it
 works..  Parsing: Intractable disputes.. [solved by] enforcement of
 [abstract concept], [by] 'enforcers of [abstract concept].' Sounds like
 Zardoz to me.


This is the key point, I think.  We don't have an absolute definition
of neutrality.  We don't even have a I know it when I see it kind of
system.  Neutrality -- everywhere -- is a work in progress.  Now,
SlimVirgin recognises this, which is why the proposal reads

However, looking at an editor's contributions as a whole, it should
be clear to any reasonable, and reasonably well-informed, onlooker
that the editor is regularly and substantively trying to be fair to
both sides.

That is obviously an attempt to move away from requiring neutrality
and towards requiring a good-faith effort towards neutrality, which is
the only way the proposal could work.

Nevertheless, I do not think this is enough to actually make it work.
The problem is that these disputes are so deep-seated and
controversial that such a system will be the subject of constant
attempts at gaming.  The problem will not be fixed but merely moved.

The other problem is that the system pretends that it should be clear
to any reasonable ... onlooker how the editor is trying to act.
Often, this will be the case.  Just as often, however, it will not be
so very absolutely clear and will rely greatly on the perception of
the onlooker.  This, I think, is the fatal flaw, because it is the
assumption that the whole proposal rests on, that it is always so
obvious who is trying to edit in a neutral and helpful fashion and who
is being biased.

(One additional problem is that it will create bureaucracy --
Wikipedians love bureaucracy and this would turn into something like a
rolling Israel-Palestine ArbCom.  I don't think that that would be a
positive change.)

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Neutrality enforcement: a proposal

2009-05-08 Thread Sam Korn
On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 11:24 PM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote:
 2009/5/8 stevertigo stv...@gmail.com:

 Certainly is true that one side is nationalistic and self-centered and the
 other is undereducated and lacking in conceptual sophistication. But how
 does it help our
 discussion to to say either of these things?


 The trouble with ethnic conflict articles is that, rather than a few
 problem editors, there's an effectively infinite stream of partisans.
 (For whatever reason: local education is often partisan rather than
 NPOV?) So, even though a core of opinionated-though-neutral editors
 accumulates, there's an eternal stream of people who don't know and
 don't care about NPOV or Wikipedia principles in general - as far as
 they're concerned, someone is being WRONG on the Internet.

Indeed.  The solution to Israel-Palestine disputes on Wikipedia is
that there be some lasting resolution to the meatspace
Israel-Palestine conflict.  Sadly, I think that is beyond the
capabilities of even our esteemed Arbitration Committee.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] False quote regarding Maurice Jarre

2009-05-07 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 2:09 PM, William King williamcarlk...@gmail.com wrote:
 Fox News picks up Reuters story regarding the late French composer Maurice 
 Jarre:

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519283,00.html

 Reuters interviewed Shane Fitzgerald, the Irish student who made up the false 
 quote on Jarre's Wikipedia biography.

The moral of this story is not that journalists should avoid
Wikipedia, but that they shouldn't use information they find there if
it can't be traced back to a reliable primary source, said the
Guardian's readers' editor Siobhain Butterworth.

That's about as good a piece of advice as you'll get on using facts
from Wikipedia in a journalistic or academic context.

Biographies of people who have recently died need particularly close attention

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Politician praises Wikipedia

2009-04-26 Thread Sam Korn
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?

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Re: [WikiEN-l] A morsel of substance, a truckload of nonsense

2009-04-23 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 11:04 AM,  wjhon...@aol.com wrote:

 In a message dated 4/23/2009 3:03:33 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
 thewub.w...@googlemail.com writes:

 At the  moment
 though it does rather overwhelm the rest of the article, because  of
 the extent and the formatting. As a compromise, how about putting  it
 inside a hidey box, set to hide by default? {{hidden}}


 ---

 That's an excellent idea.  I have no idea how to code that myself, so  I'm
 glad you're going to give it a shot.

Indeed it is a good idea, and I have implemented it.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Citizendium vs. Wikipedia

2009-04-22 Thread Sam Korn
On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 3:13 PM, Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com wrote:
 To be fair, I don't know how long it took Wikipedia to have an article
 for every country in the world - that would be an interesting question
 for someone to answer at some point - a standard list of countries
 with the date on which their Wikipedia articles were created (and a
 study of how the articles have increased in size since creation):

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

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/User:Sam_Korn/countries

A list generated from that page -- it's not perfect, but it's pretty
good.  The change in size is rather more difficult to study ;-)

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Citizendium vs. Wikipedia

2009-04-22 Thread Sam Korn
On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 6:19 PM, Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com wrote:
 On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 5:53 PM, Sam Korn smo...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 3:13 PM, Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com 
 wrote:
 To be fair, I don't know how long it took Wikipedia to have an article
 for every country in the world - that would be an interesting question
 for someone to answer at some point - a standard list of countries
 with the date on which their Wikipedia articles were created (and a
 study of how the articles have increased in size since creation):

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

 https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/User:Sam_Korn/countries

 A list generated from that page -- it's not perfect, but it's pretty
 good.  The change in size is rather more difficult to study ;-)

 Thanks!

 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C3%85land_Islandsoldid=726060

 Aland Islands is actually March 2003 - problem with redirects there.

 So it looks like all that low-hanging fruit went by 2002, with the
 outliers by 2004. A bit slower than I'd thought, really. Though
 Denmark is earlier than the date on your list.

 Not sure what is going on there.

I went by the links on that page, and didn't check each one!  I think
the main problem is cutpaste moves or suchlike.

But yes, the overall picture is most countries had articles by 2002,
so within two years of the beginning.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] An open letter to Jimmy Wales

2009-04-11 Thread Sam Korn
On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 4:03 PM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote:
 2009/4/11 Fred Bauder fredb...@fairpoint.net:

 Unreal! And Larry Sanger thought he could come to Wikipedia and lodge
 complaints...


 Indeed. It's the bit where he's behaving here in a manner that
 wouldn't be put up with for a second on Citizendium or any of its
 associated mailing lists or forums that's most surprising.

Can I request that this thread now end and that we don't engage in a
wholly unedifying attack on Larry, Citizendium or anyone else.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] An open letter to Jimmy Wales

2009-04-10 Thread Sam Korn
On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 10:37 PM, doc doc.wikipe...@ntlworld.com wrote:
 Oskar Sigvardsson wrote:
 This controversy has been going on for a long while now, and I just
 want to say something to both Jimmy and Larry:

 Suck it up, and take your petty fight elsewhere! I don't know what
 happened in the early days of wikipedia, and I don't much care to. You
 have different versions of the same story, and the constant carping is
 getting tiring. And wikipedia and wikipedians are getting caught right
 in the middle. Wikipedia is getting a bad rep because of all this, and
 many different users are locked in an endless struggle trying to do
 either Jimmy's or Larry's bidding.

 We don't need it. This is an issue between *you two*, and every time
 you start one of your diatribes or Jimmy asks for articles to be
 changed, it puts us, the community, in an impossible situation. It
 needs to end.

 So, on behalf of those who actually write wikipedia, I say: suck it
 the hell up!

 Larry, Jimmy readily admits that you where the original
 Editor-in-Chief of wikipedia, and with helping to form some of the
 early core policies. Isn't that enough? You've already basically
 denounced wikipedia in as many ways and places you can think of (not
 least this thread), why would you even want to be considered one of
 its chief architects? You've got a whole project to yourself, I
 suggest you stick to improving that.

 Jimmy, stop getting involved in the articles that concern yourself,
 Larry and the history of wikipedia. It's an impossible conflict of
 interest, not only for you, but for the wikipedians that are loyal to
 you (who, again, are put in an impossible situation). You know better
 than anyone that the wikipedia process works beautifully. Trust the
 process that works for the rest of the encyclopedia, and stay the hell
 away and let the editors sort it out. I think you have enough insight
 to realize that you're not neutral on the issue.

 So, please, both of you, get yourself some blogs and hash it out away
 from wikipedia servers, and away from community at large. We don't
 need it.

 Rant over.

 --Oskar

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 Thank you!

 That's about the most balanced analysis I've read yet. Far better than
 most of the pledges of allegiance to Jimmy, or the two minute hate
 response to Larry, that we've had on this list.

 As long as neutral people write the relevant articles, most of us can
 either stop caring, or draw our own conclusions on who (if anyone) is
 deluded, self-deluded, spinning, lying or otherwise manipulating history.

 Me, I'll go back to adopting the mantra of a wise man: Decline to
 participate, sorry

Hear, hear (to both of you)!

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Re: [WikiEN-l] NPOV is a big lie

2009-04-09 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 2:24 PM, Bill Carter billdeancar...@yahoo.com wrote:
 FT2: You must be a part of Wikipedia's propaganda ministry. I offer you facts 
 about one striking instance in which journalist Alan Cabal has been maligned 
 over and over again. Who knows how many other
 Wikipedia articles are being treated in such a way, and only if people
 come forward will we get a good idea.

No-one claims we have achieved NPOV.  Indeed, most everyone would
think that, ultimately, it is unattainable.  It is a goal and a
guiding principle.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] An open letter to Jimmy Wales

2009-04-09 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 5:11 PM, Larry Sanger
sanger-li...@citizendium.org wrote:
 In the end, assuming the Wikipedia community and Board reacts to this in a
 mature, decent manner, it could come out of this stronger and better.  On
 the other hand, if you pretend that it isn't happening, or dismiss my
 concerns, you'll just be digging yourselves even deeper into the hole you're
 already in.  Remember: the world is watching.

What hole are we in, pray?

Your concerns seem to be that Jimmy is not acknowledging your role and
status as you'd like, and that the community and the Board are silent
in the face of Jimmy's doing this.  For my part, this silence may be
attributed to insouciance -- I care little for the minutiae of history
now eight years old and for your personal (yes, personal) dispute with
Jimmy.

Perhaps you can explain what the world at large, the Wikipedia
community and I personally gain from publicly pursuing it.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] An open letter to Jimmy Wales

2009-04-09 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 8:21 PM, Charles Matthews
charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com wrote:
 Larry Sanger wrote:
 Two more replies...

 Charles Matthews wrote:

 Seems to me you are letting off a fair amount of steam here.
 That is a
 traditional role of mailing lists, and in particular of wikien.  Your
 unsubtle flaming of Jimmy here isn't likely to change too many minds;
 which is more than can be said for some of your past and more
 insidious
 comments on Wikipedia, in more prominent places.  So go ahead, if it
 lances the boil.


 Charles, I wrote an open letter, which has appeared on Jimmy Wales' user
 talk page as well as my blog, and now several other places--including this
 list.  I'm not merely flaming Jimmy Wales on this list.  I am publicly
 calling him to account.  I am actually trying to achieve a certain effect,
 as I've explained.

 Actually, though I may be an inner circler, the combination of
 forum-shopping and an intent to demonise by sheer assertion is not
 unfamiliar to me.  Come to think of it - tip of the tongue - ah yes,
 you've decided to treat us to some trolling. Those who have something
 in mind that is not merely effective - as mudslinging may be - tend to
 approach debates in other ways.

Fred Bauder replied:


 As the promoter of
 a competing project your interest is transparent.


 Your insinuation here, Fred, deserves no reply.

 I think that means you're not going to answer Fred, not that you needn't.

 Yes, the bit where you write: Suffice it to say that, outside of
 Wikipedia's inner circles and its Web 2.0 promoters and fans,
 Wikipedia's reputation for honesty and decency is rather less than
 sterling. You know, I think you may really feel that some people are
 inattentive enough not to notice the elisions here. You argue, it seems,
 that Jimmy Wales may not be a reliable witness in his own case. You
 don't, apparently, think you need to justify the claim that you are, in
 your own case.  You start off trashing Jimmy's reputation, and then, hey
 presto, it's Wikipedia's reputation as an anthropomorphised whole that's
 in the pillory.

To quote Mr Sanger, Wikipedia is bigger than Jimmy Wales.

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 7:04 PM, Larry Sanger
sanger-li...@citizendium.org wrote:
 Sam Korn replied:
 What hole are we in, pray?

 The reputation of Wikipedia as an endless source of scandal and dishonesty,
 coupled with this open letter, in which I decided to use whatever weight my
 views have in the court of public opinion to confront the project's
 leading light.  Deny it if you must, but you have a problem on your hands.

Endless source of scandal and dishonesty?  The reputation of
Wikipedia?  The project's leading light?

I credit none of the three.

 Your concerns seem to be that Jimmy is not acknowledging your
 role and status as you'd like, and that the community and the
 Board are silent in the face of Jimmy's doing this.

 That's only part of it, and not the biggest part.  My biggest complaint is
 that Jimmy has lied about me, and a lot of people have believed him.  I am
 determined finally to hold Jimmy Wales to account for it.

So it's personal.  There's nothing wrong with that at all; from a
certain point of view, I don't blame you.  On the other hand, I'm not
interested in getting involved.

 For my
 part, this silence may be attributed to insouciance -- I care
 little for the minutiae of history now eight years old and
 for your personal (yes, personal) dispute with Jimmy.

 Perhaps you can explain what the world at large, the
 Wikipedia community and I personally gain from publicly pursuing it.

 Well, Sam, if the honesty or dishonesty of your leader and chief spokesman
 does not concern you, if you don't care that he has used his position to
 distort the truth for personal gain, I doubt there is anything I can say
 that will convince you.

I do not consider Jimmy Wikipedia's leader or its chief spokesman.
Perhaps you underestimate the extent to which the project is
community-led, community-driven, community-focussed; I don't know.  I
am not interested, no, in this personal and now-irrelevant dispute.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Jimbo interview

2009-04-05 Thread Sam Korn
On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 4:09 PM, Fred Bauder fredb...@fairpoint.net wrote:

 Yes, but failures to present a complete spectrum of points of view can
 be
 balanced by including a NPOV article imported from Wikipedia.

 Or, indeed, by linking to the editorial pages of major newspapers from
 an NPOV article *on* Wikipedia...

 --

 That would be true if it were not for the campaign to delete external
 links and discourage their addition.

I think this campaign has passed me by...

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Jimbo interview

2009-04-05 Thread Sam Korn
On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 10:12 PM, Ray Saintonge sainto...@telus.net wrote:
 Sam Korn wrote:
 On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 12:36 PM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote:

 2009/4/5 Oskar Sigvardsson oskarsigvards...@gmail.com
 I think it's very clear that wikipedia has developed a very successful
 model, not least because many other wikis seem to almost automatically
 adopt our style and policies. In short: Wikipedia Works.

 NPOV is our key innovation. Much more radical than letting anyone edit
 the website.

 I agree.  The only way a wiki that says anyone can edit can work is
 with NPOV.  You can either enforce a POV by banning people who don't
 share your point of view, or you can explicitly endorse *no-one's*
 point of view.


 An enforced POV cannot really be neutral.

Exactly.  My dilemma is between an enforced POV and no POV (i.e. NPOV).

 (Similarly, NPOV would be extremely difficult to manage with a small
 base of users as discussion (and, to some extent, conflict) is
 essential.)


 Not really, in a paradoxical way.  Many rarely visited articles on
 non-controversial subjects already achieve that neutrality.  An
 unchallenged article written by a single person is neutral at the moment
 it is written, and remains so until challenged.  If the content is
 outrageous that neutrality will seldom last more than a few minutes.

But on other articles it would be plain impossible, the general point
I was aiming at.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Earth Deletion Discussion

2009-04-01 Thread Sam Korn
On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 7:24 PM, Brian brian.min...@colorado.edu wrote:
 So far each april fools thread I've seen has had at least one buzzkiller in
 it.

Personally, I've never understood why deliberately misleading people
is supposed to be funny.  I don't particularly enjoy having my time
wasted by people having a lark just because it is a certain day of the
year.  I don't see why we should tolerate disruption that would, on
any other day of the year, be instantly dealt with.

Now, I don't make a big deal out this on the wiki, because dozens of
people will jump down my throat with exactly the kind of language you
use.  I recognise that, apparently, other people find this kind of
thing fun and totally acceptable.  But I can certainly sympathise with
the people who you describe as buzzkillers.

For them, of course, the buzz has been killed already and they are
more than a little fed up.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia isn't just a good idea - it's compulsory

2009-03-27 Thread Sam Korn
On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 5:55 AM, Thomas Larsen
larsen.thoma...@gmail.com wrote:
 Admittedly, I haven't perused the entire article very thoroughly.
 However, I am /very/ skeptical about teaching primary school pupils
 how to blog at all, and I am strongly opposed to Wikipedia and Twitter
 taking the place of history in primary schools.

To take a contrary view, teaching proper use of Wikipedia has the
potential to *improve* history in primary schools.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia isn't just a good idea - it's compulsory

2009-03-27 Thread Sam Korn
On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM, Michael Bimmler mbimm...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Sam Korn smo...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 5:55 AM, Thomas Larsen
 larsen.thoma...@gmail.com wrote:
 Admittedly, I haven't perused the entire article very thoroughly.
 However, I am /very/ skeptical about teaching primary school pupils
 how to blog at all, and I am strongly opposed to Wikipedia and Twitter
 taking the place of history in primary schools.

 To take a contrary view, teaching proper use of Wikipedia has the
 potential to *improve* history in primary schools.

 How so?

Primarily in teaching how *not* to use it!

Naturally primary (and early secondary) education should include
teaching how to use the Internet in learning.  Given Wikipedia's
prominence, it would of course be correct for such teaching to include
the proper use of Wikipedia.  Students might be encouraged not to
regurgitate whole paragraphs from Wikipedia.

Furthermore, there is the potential that teaching students to question
Wikipedia could lead to their being more disposed to question other
sources, which is obviously very useful in the study of any subject
(and supremely history).

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia isn't just a good idea - it's compulsory

2009-03-27 Thread Sam Korn
On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:14 PM, doc doc.wikipe...@ntlworld.com wrote:
 The idea of wikipedia anywhere near a school curriculum, except perhaps
 in a brief IT lesson, horrifies me. The idea of children using wikipedia
 to challenge the official truth of a qualified teacher with but sir,
 it says on wikipedia, is laughable.

 I think that most of this discussion has missed the point that the
 English Ofsted chap in no way suggested that Wikipedia should be used as
 a teaching supplement at all, or that he had anything to do with
 informing people about history or politics. Rather he seems to suggest
 that certain internet skills blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter
 should be taught in schools, and children should be familiar with how to
 access their information. So, we no more get Wikipedia as a source of
 knowledge than Twitter, and your local blog.

 The reaction this shows the WMF should go into schools is as
 ridiculous a conclusion as it is a typical wikicentric OMG they want
 us, they really do - we always said they would.

As ever, I'm a little more optimistic than you, Scott.  I think there
is a potential use for members of the Wikipedia community to go into
schools and explain how Wikipedia should be used because

1. children /will/ encounter Wikipedia;
2. they need to know how it can be helpful and how it can be harmful; and
3. teachers are unlikely to be able to impart this knowledge.

 You want to train wikipedians in a primary school? Turn off the PCs and
 give them grammar and dictation.

And Latin.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] History started in 1995

2009-03-08 Thread Sam Korn
On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 9:17 PM, Michael Bimmler mbimm...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 2:31 AM, phoebe ayers phoebe.w...@gmail.com wrote:

 Interlibrary loans at your university (or public library) are not free
 at all. They are just free for *you*, because your university picks up
 the tab for you. The average cost of an item borrowed through ILL at a
 typical mid-size university is between $20-$30 per item. (google:
 average cost interlibrary loan, find lots of studies to this
 effect). This, however, is part of the cost of doing research.

 That's interesting...mind telling my resident University of Zurich
 librarians that bit, should you ever meet them at a conference?
 I currently get charged (and yes, the figures are the same nevermind
 whether I use it as member of the public or as enrolled student or as
 faculty member)

 7 Swiss francs for books from other libraries in the
 German-part-of-Switzerland university libraries network
 10 Swiss francs for books from the rest of Switzerland
 20 Swiss francs for books from Europe minus Great Britain
 35 Swiss francs for books from Great Britain
 45 Swiss francs for books from the United States
 depending on how much it actually cost *us*  for books from all the
 other countries

 Would love to hear some more experiences on this: Is it common in the
 US / UK for academic libraries not to charge at all for ILLs? Then I'm
 ever so slightly envious...

In the unlikely event that my university library didn't have a book
(it's a copyright library), the charge is £3 (c. 5 Swiss francs,
according to Google).  The request almost invariably goes to the
British Library.

Next-day ordering can be arranged for £9.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] BBC article on vandalism

2009-03-06 Thread Sam Korn
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote:
 2009/3/6 Andrew Gray shimg...@gmail.com:
 The BBC, presumably worrying about a slow news day, have an article on
 Wikipedia vandalism, focusing on UK politicians:

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7921985.stm

 The Lib Dem advisor quoted, incidentally, comes up with a fairly clear
 rendering of the undue weight/jumbled collection of facts BLP
 problem.

 I've just commented on the article correcting a couple of
 mistakes/misleading statements. Otherwise it is a very good article
 and accurately describes some of the problems we face without being
 sensationalistic.

Yes, but why *that* picture of Jimmy?

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Automatic death flagging?

2009-03-05 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 7:18 PM, Charlotte Webb
charlottethew...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 12:56 PM, Andrew Gray shimg...@gmail.com wrote:
 c) [[Category:Living people]] - dead people have the cat removed

 As far as I know there is no easy way to track category removal.
 Special:Relatedchanges/Category:Living_people will not show edits
 which remove the category, and any edits previously visible on this
 list (prior to category removal) will disappear from it.

 Matters of propriety may have discouraged this in the past but now
 that we have the __HIDDENCAT__ feature, we might consider adding dead
 people directly to [[Category:Dead people]].

No way to track category removal, but there is already vaguely the
function you are looking for in the API.

http://toolserver.org/~samkorn/scripts/recentdeaths.php tracks the
latest 50 additions to [[Category:2009 deaths]].

A bot could quite easily go through, say, 50 years worth of categories
and collate a list of people added to the category in the last day and
post it on-wiki.  If it would be helpful, I'll do that tomorrow.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Is Copyrighted Freeware CCbySA?

2009-02-16 Thread Sam Korn
On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 1:47 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote:
 2009/2/16 Alvaro García alva...@gmail.com:
 Doesn't the -ware suffix only show that the software isn't paid?

 No... the free part shows that. The ware part shows that it's software...

But, generally, yes: freeware means free-gratis, not free-libre.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Flagged Revisions: de:wp 99.5% reviewed

2009-02-02 Thread Sam Korn
On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 3:03 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com wrote:
 2009/2/2 Stephen Bain stephen.b...@gmail.com:
 On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 1:14 AM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote:
 http://toolserver.org/~aka/cgi-bin/reviewcnt.cgi?lang=englishaction=overviewproject=dewiki

 To my mind the more important statistic is that 98% of all articles
 have had their most recent revision reviewed.

 I agree, that's definitely the most important statistic. A more useful
 statistic would be the age of the oldest unreviewed revision.

17.8 days
http://toolserver.org/~aka/cgi-bin/reviewcnt.cgi?lang=englishaction=outofdatereviewsproject=dewiki

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Reporting Grawp to Verizon

2009-01-29 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Chris Down
neuro.wikipe...@googlemail.com wrote:
 Divulging his IP to his provider seems standard, advisable, and perfectly
 ethical. We aren't just talking about minor vandalism, he has inspired
 numerous copycats and has harassed (or his copycats have) many editors.

 I've not looked, but if our privacy policy disallows this even in such
 circumstances as this, we need to look at revising it.

It does, very explicitly.  Discussing it on an open, publicly archived
mailing list is a different matter and really seems quite unnecessary.

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Reporting Grawp to Verizon

2009-01-29 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 8:35 PM, Chris Down
neuro.wikipe...@googlemail.com wrote:

 It is the policy of Wikimedia that personally identifiable data collected
 in the server logs, or through records in the database via the CheckUser
 feature, or through other non-publicly-available methods, may be released by
 Wikimedia volunteers or staff, in any of the following situations:

1. In response to a valid subpoena or other compulsory request from law
enforcement,
2. With permission of the affected user,
3. When necessary for investigation of abuse complaints,
4. Where the information pertains to page views generated by a spider
or bot and its dissemination is necessary to illustrate or resolve 
 technical
issues,
5. *Where the user has been vandalizing articles or persistently
behaving in a disruptive way, data may be released to a service provider,
carrier, or other third-party entity to assist in the targeting of IP
blocks, or to assist in the formulation of a complaint to relevant 
 Internet
Service Providers,*
6. Where it is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or
safety of the Wikimedia Foundation, its users or the public.

 Am I missing something?

No.  But it is common sense that we should do the least amount
possible to sort the problem out.  The publication of private data in
a thread like this is completely unnecessary.  Repeat: it is quite
within the privacy policy to reveal this info to Verizon (and even
publicly on-wiki, if an IP block is helpful).  This thread is
completely gratuitous and unnecessary.

I very strongly believe we should not be vindictive in our dealing
with problematic users.  We should seek to sort out our problems, not
to cause problems for others, no matter how many problems they've
caused us.

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Reporting Grawp to Verizon

2009-01-29 Thread Sam Korn
On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 12:33 AM, Wilhelm Schnotz wilh...@nixeagle.org wrote:
 If you have *working* ideas feel free to tell us, we have already
 programmed bots that do nothing but look for his vandalism. We *have*
 done everything we possibly can on wiki that I can think of. The only
 on wiki action left to us is to block all of his ISP from editing. If
 you have alternative ideas speak out.

 To those on this thread, possibly move this to a page on wikipedia
 (the proxy project, or a case in his name on WP:SSP) Regardless some
 of his information needs to be published so we can deal with him. (on
 wikipedia or here makes no difference, both are public)

Wikis have this advantage of being editable, of course...

Name, location, IP address, everything, though?  This is completely
pointless.  I fail to see any fashion in which publishing such
information aids the effort to counter him.  I am not blind to the
problems he has caused -- I have spent no little time in dealing with
him -- but I will not agree that this thread and the complete
disregard for private data that it has contained are useful or
justifiable.

Sam

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Sam
PGP public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sam_Korn/public_key

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

2009-01-27 Thread Sam Korn
On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 2:45 PM, Nathan nawr...@gmail.com wrote:
 It doesn't mention the poll, refers to
 Jimmy's statement as coming from a blog (misattributing a source, unless
 it was crossposted from his talkpage),

FWIW, there is a link in the right-hand column direct to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#Why_I_am_asking_Flagged_Revisions_to_be_turned_on_now
describing it as a blog entry.

One of the problems with being an expert in anything (be it Wikipedia,
nuclear physics, theology or cricket) is that you notice terrible
journalism in your field!

Sam

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Rank hath its privileges

2009-01-08 Thread Sam Korn
On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 11:48 AM, Wilhelm Schnotz wilh...@nixeagle.org wrote:
 To ray, you have a point, if it is a 3rd parties copyright, it is
 their fight. Generally though I don't like the thought of that ability
 being used to undelete stuff that is not helpful to this project and
 creates these sorts of distractions, but it is now his fight.

I agree mostly with these sentiments.  If there was a case to be made,
I would argue that it should be presented as using the admin tools in
a way likely to bring the project into disrepute.

There has been no breach of our copyright policy, as the content was
not posted on Wikipedia.  I do not recall ever taking on-wiki actions
against a user for breaching the GFDL on another website.

As far as I am concerned, this is a minor, if rather stupid, abuse of
the tools.  Trout-slapping, rather than arbitration, seems in order.

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Sam
PGP public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sam_Korn/public_key

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