Re: [WikiEN-l] Loose ends (was other stuff)
2009/9/28 Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com: OK, here's an old-style formulation: X is to current policy and policy-review discussions as RfAr is to the Workshop. What would X be? That's probably horribly accurate, considering the arbcom tends - fairly reasonably - to regard the workshops as somewhere annoying people go to be ignored ... - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] So what does Flagged Revs feel like?
2009/9/29 Gregory Maxwell gmaxw...@gmail.com: Quality is just the default. Draft(unflagged) Checked Reviewed, perhaps? I suspect it's actually important to get this right first time - on en:wp, policy formation is by someone making up a makeshift apparatus off the top of their head, then later editors assuming this hacky lashup is actually a gleaming carefully-designed stainless steel apparatus and defending it past the point of actual death. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Age fabrication and original research
2009/10/1 Surreptitiousness surreptitious.wikiped...@googlemail.com: You've misread me. The key question is, why should we summarise this plot. That's what's causing the problems with fiction on Wikipedia at the minute. Although having said that, the drama does seem to have died off a bit lately. Which kind of suggests a consensus of sorts exists. Yeah. Don't prod it with sticks too hard for the moment ;-p Though grossly excessive plot summaries are getting tagged as such, and many are being greatly improved as individuals get around to them. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Age fabrication and original research
2009/10/1 Ken Arromdee arrom...@rahul.net: This is logical, but only proves that our rules contradict ourselves every which way. Yes. The rules are not a consistent legal framework, they're a series of quick hacks. If you regard them as an immaculate stainless steel construction of flawless design every component of which is intended to mesh perfectly with every other component ... then you have badly misunderstood how Wikipedia works and will be continually frustrated (much as you are now). That a lot of people seem to assume this doesn't make it any truer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Practical_process - does this help explain how we got here? I'm not saying it's desirable, I'm saying this is how it is. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Age fabrication and original research
2009/10/1 FT2 ft2.w...@gmail.com: The problem is there comes a point where you can't improve them in terms of definitiveness without them being so long as to defeat easy readability (tl;dr). At that point we rely on the reader to figure it out. if you can spot improvements that others haven't, and they reflect the spirit better than the present wording, then Be Bold and see if others agree they are an improvement, and fix them! Yes. The key problem is that no rules can stop stupidity or bad faith. Particularly not stupidity. Ken, you appear to be demanding wording that will be so good that people can't apply it stupidly. There is no such possible quality of wording where human judgement can possibly be involved; and removing human judgement makes it stupider. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Age fabrication and original research
2009/10/1 Ken Arromdee arrom...@rahul.net: Well, the last time I ran into this was the way IAR is worded. For such a short rule it has a huge flaw: it says you can only ignore rules for the purpose of improving or maintaining the encyclopedia. The result is people constantly claiming that you can't ignore rules for BLP or privacy concerns, since helping the BLP subject is not a form of improving the encyclopedia. Obviously it would be overkill to edit IAR itself, but nobody was even interested on the talk page of WIARM, except one person who said that it's okay that's badly worded because our rules don't literally mean what they say. Handy guide to IAR: If the reactions to your actions when you try to apply IAR are you're clueless, then perhaps you don't understand IAR. But, by all means, do please keep posting to wikien-l about IAR. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Reliable sources for deaths
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. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Accepting the challenge to create a new article as a newbie and see if it lasts 2 minutes - or 7 days
2009/10/9 George Herbert george.herb...@gmail.com: This is very good data in the how friendly are we to newbies question. Thanks for running the test. Please send another update in a couple of more days at least, I am too busy to follow on-wiki but I want to see more of the results of this. Needs writing up for the Signpost too. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] FTC Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
2009/10/8 Fred Bauder fredb...@fairpoint.net: This may apply from time to time to certain of our editors. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm Yes. It actually came up in a discussion of a particular company who are known to employ astroturfers via their PR company. The catch will be whether the recommendation has any teeth, i.e. if the FTC shows any practical signs of caring in the slightest. We'll see. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] FTC Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials
2009/10/9 Durova nadezhda.dur...@gmail.com: The report on National Public Radio the other day stated it was unlikely the FTC would be very aggressive about this. Yet the piece's principal focus was bloggers. It'd be an interesting question how they'd handle the matter when it bleeds over to Wikipedia. About two seconds after the dedicated POV warriors add it to their alleged COI arsenal. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] How friendly are we to Newbies? Update on the create an article as a newbie challenge
2009/10/30 WereSpielChequers werespielchequ...@googlemail.com: I'm hoping that we won't have too many trick articles in this process, or articles that should be deleted but not by CSD (the criteria are write an article that doesn't meet the deletion criteria. Yeah, any such article ahs to be done in good faith, not an attempt to catch people out. The test criterion is anonymity. Write as good an article as you would in your known identity. I think we've tested the charge that a new article submitted to Wikipedia will be tagged for deletion in two minutes and is guaranteed not to last seven days. But it would be a Pyrrhic victory to respond to the press that It is still possible for a good article to be added to Wikipedia by a newbie, as we'd have to concede that enough get deleted by over-enthusiasm at CSD to constitute a problem - the press exaggerated the problem, but they didn't entirely invent it. We've also established that neither welcoming nor wikification are currently keeping up with the flow of newbies and their articles. I do, however, strongly suggest a writeup for the Signpost. I'd also suggest getting the functionaries - which is the group on Wikipedia of people who've had most editorial and administrative privileges for a substantial length of time - to contribute their experiments as well. Discussion on the funcs list indicates there's a real problem. That way, the admin population can't dismiss it as just you whining - but something the arbs are seeing as well, and consider below the ideal of admin behaviour. We're after a cultural change, after all. [cc'ing to functionaries-en - funcs, you may wish to join the wikien-l thread or contact WereSpielChequers directly.] - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] How friendly are we to Newbies? Update on the create an article as a newbie challenge
2009/10/30 geni geni...@gmail.com: 2009/10/30 David Gerard dger...@gmail.com: 2009/10/30 WereSpielChequers werespielchequ...@googlemail.com: I'm hoping that we won't have too many trick articles in this process, or articles that should be deleted but not by CSD (the criteria are write an article that doesn't meet the deletion criteria. Yeah, any such article ahs to be done in good faith, not an attempt to catch people out. The test criterion is anonymity. Write as good an article as you would in your known identity. Not a reasonable test since anything that heavy with markup is unlikely to look anything like something created by a new user. I fear it won't be that bad a test. Try doing your usual editing as an anon. You'll be surprised just how preremptorily anons get treated these days, and the excuses for the clearly unthinking actions. (How dare you! I couldn't possibly cope with the load if I had to think about what I was doing! Really.) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] How friendly are we to Newbies? Update on the create an article as a newbie challenge
2009/10/30 Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com: So where do we stand now on your comment (of not too long ago) that the preferred mode for reversing a bum speedy deletion is not to notify the deleting admin? That was fatigue from dealing with too many people reacting as I described. It is of course way less than ideal. (I tend to deal with wikidrama by saying fuck it and figuring in a year it either won't matter or we're doomed anyway.) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] WIKIPEDIA FOREVER
2009/11/12 Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com: Soxred93 wrote: Maybe the Foundation is trying to teach us a lesson. Maybe they want us to stop complaining about ads, so they intentionally run a bad one. In the next few years, we'll have this to look back on and say, it could always be worse. It is pretty much traditional for the fundraiser to cause controversy, in fact. I know how Oleg feels. These days I ignore the ads, since I don't see why I should give money well as time: and they are obviously aimed at Wikipedia's readers, who outnumber the people seriously involved with the site by a factor of 10,000 or more by now. I don't see the banner any more: I don't remember dismissing it. The banner mechanism was actually broken in IE6, so it was switched off for a day or two while that gets fixed. I understand the banners have been redone in Initial Capitals, not ALL CAPITALS :-) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] WIKIPEDIA FOREVER
2009/11/13 stevertigo stv...@gmail.com: Well its tacky - if for no other reason that it presumes to represent Wikipedia's eternal presence. Which is an interesting thought about futurism, but one that needs an essay to link to. And the slogan is in SHOUTCASE, which everybody knows is the quasi-official font of tacky. At least it wasn't in Comic Sans. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Wiki wiki in popular culture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80HZCap3aWU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C66LOXsxVFY (The first was a hit in 1983. The second, I have no idea of the provenance of.) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia fundraising slogans from identi.ca and Twitter
2009/11/15 William Pietri will...@scissor.com: David pointed us to a variety of clever slogans written by the public. Isabell was speculating that most of them wouldn't work. I'm just saying that we don't have to speculate; we can run all the ones that don't seem blatantly counterproductive, and find out how well they do. Even better, we can automatically optimize which we show and how. That's not to say we can't depart from the most effective options if we want to. But it seems like a good place to start. It is not in fact that easy - because every slogan has to be translated into a pile of languages (by volunteers), and every banner has to be tested thoroughly in all translations (some this year broke in IE6/7). So there really isn't that much room to move. Erik Moeller posted about this on the wiki, explaining in detail what's going on, but I can't find the link right now. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Erik on the fundraiser
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Fundraising_2009/Alternative_banners#An_update_on_the_fundraiser - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Wikitech-l] Downtime this morning
-- Forwarded message -- From: Andrew Garrett agarr...@wikimedia.org Date: 2009/11/16 Subject: [Wikitech-l] Downtime this morning To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org Hi all, There has been some downtime this morning (about 15 minutes) due to a software update. I pushed a software update, and immediately servers started crashing according to nagios. Looking at ganglia, it looks like the issue was the familiar issue where scap pushes a few 4-CPU apaches into swap, which then crash and come back a few minutes later. This time, however, obviously a key memcached node fell over, causing a database overload, resulting in the site being mostly inaccessible for about ten minutes. I prepared to revert the software update, but determined that the problem was not the software update, and a scap would exacerbate the issue. The problem resolved itself spontaneously. We need to fix things up so the scap script is less liable to push machines into swap :) -- Andrew Garrett agarr...@wikimedia.org http://werdn.us/ ___ Wikitech-l mailing list wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] How friendly are we to Newbies? Create an article as a newbie challenge now paused
2009/11/16 Ryan Delaney ryan.dela...@gmail.com: No argument there. What's important about this case is that (as it has been explained to me, anyway) someone was deliberately writing a bad article with the express intention of being a pain in the ass. That's gaming the system in a disruptive way to make some kind of political point, and we generally frown on that for obvious reasons. Yes, that's just being silly. A test is to write an article as if you're not a known experienced editor, but still try to do a reasonable job on it. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] NASA scientist tells conspiracy theorists to go to Wikipedia
http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/intro/nibiru-and-doomsday-2012-questions-and-answers I was struck by the repeated suggestions to look this stuff up on Wikipedia. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] The Internet? Bah!
2009/11/17 Nathan nawr...@gmail.com: On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 1:07 PM, stevertigo stv...@gmail.com wrote: http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554 Linked and digged from a current article. Quite chuckleworthy. Now that it is what it is, any idiot can look back and say it was obvious what would happen. Far more people got it wrong 15-20 years ago, and I guess its good for a chuckle (especially since this particular writer was so condescending) - but hindsight is as perfect as foresight is rare. And at least Clifford Stoll actually knew what the heck he was talking about, unlike most media pontificators at the time. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] BLP task force meeting
2009/11/23 Giacomo M-Z solebaci...@googlemail.com: Always paranoia, when you can't provide a satisfactory answer or explanation. If I am paranoid, let me tell you that you are quite pathetic. Having to have secret little chats because you can't have it all your own way on wikipedia. Who the hell are you anyway? Giano has been placed on moderation for personal attacks. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] BBC blog on WSJ study
2009/11/25 Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com: Up to three BBC TV interviews will be occurring today. They are scheduled on the BBC News Channel for 5.50 pm, 7.50 pm (that should be me), and we think Newsnight. I haven't had a call about Newsnight as yet - anyone got this one? - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] BBC blog on WSJ study
2009/11/27 Durova nadezhda.dur...@gmail.com: It's hard to understand the conjecture that Wikipedia ties in with those plans. If anything, Wikipedia's habit of referencing historic news articles would help Mr. Murdoch's bottom line because it sends traffic to old articles, which can generate advertising revenue from old news that would otherwise be valueless. Dunno about Murdoch, but the NYT was making similar noises about Google and in fact claimed that Wikipedia was ripping them off by referencing their articles: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/technology/internet/22wiki.html So, in essence, many Wikipedia articles are another way that the work of news publications is quickly condensed and reused without compensation. This is more than a little rich considering Wikipedia is the number-one universal backgrounder for working journalists. A number of us shouted WHAT ON EARTH rather loudly: http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/technology/internet/22wiki.html - but we've yet to hear a peep from Noam Cohen explaining just precisely what the hell he was playing at. I urge the next person he calls to question him closely on this one. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] BBC blog on WSJ study
2009/11/27 Bod Notbod bodnot...@gmail.com: And the *most* newsworthy stuff makes it into Wikipedia. As a reader of Wikipedia I think it's absolutely great. As an editor I'm astonished at what fellow editors accomplish with topics. But if I put myself in the shoes of journalists and newspaper owners I would be thinking there's something unfair going on. Maurice Jarre was unavailable for comment. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] BBC blog on WSJ study
2009/11/27 Bod Notbod bodnot...@gmail.com: On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 5:29 PM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: And the *most* newsworthy stuff makes it into Wikipedia. As a reader of Wikipedia I think it's absolutely great. As an editor I'm astonished at what fellow editors accomplish with topics. But if I put myself in the shoes of journalists and newspaper owners I would be thinking there's something unfair going on. Maurice Jarre was unavailable for comment. I recognise the name but I'm not entirely sure what part of my chain you're yanking. What was that story again? http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0506/1224245992919.html Copy'n'paste going around the world with no checking whatsoever. As I say, I love Wikipedia, but putting on media boots I can see us as a problem. This doesn't mean their opinion has a leg to stand on, however. We do this stuff so people can use it, but it's a bit off to turn around and claim we should be paying them for the privilege. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Wikimediauk-l] Anyone visiting VA with a camera soon?
Thomas Dalton just volunteered for something. Anyone got favoured VA exhibits we don't have a pic of? Get back to him with room, collection, cabinet, etc :-) - d. -- Forwarded message -- From: Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com Date: 2009/12/5 Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Anyone visiting VA with a camera soon? To: wikimediau...@lists.wikimedia.org I have an afternoon to kill in London this Thursday and I own a digital camera. I'm not sure I've ever been to the VA, so I wouldn't mind a visit. Give me a list of things to photograph! 2009/12/4 David Gerard dger...@gmail.com: I just wrote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphonicon . I notice there's one in the VA, and the VA is quite happy to have people taking photos to put in Wikipedia ... anyone stopping by any time soon? - d. ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org ___ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment idea: missing article lists
I'd like to work out some way of advocating the missing article lists to potential new contributors. On en:wp: http://enwp.org/WP:WANTED http://enwp.org/WP:MISSING I've been writing new stub articles just from those in the past couple of days. It reminds me of how and why I got hooked on writing an encyclopedia. What would be a good way of advocating these to n00bs? See this list? Write a coupla paragraphs with a coupla good references and it'll go in. Suppose I should help process the new articles from unconfirmed users queue ... where is that these days? - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment idea: missing article lists
2009/12/5 altally altal...@googlemail.com: On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 11:35 AM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: I'd like to work out some way of advocating the missing article lists to potential new contributors. On en:wp: http://enwp.org/WP:WANTED http://enwp.org/WP:MISSING I've been writing new stub articles just from those in the past couple of days. It reminds me of how and why I got hooked on writing an encyclopedia. I personally think we are at the stage where we should be spending time improving what we have, rather than creating more work. We aren't low on articles. I'm working on the theory that volunteers will work hard at whatever they damn well feel like. This is one way to get n00bs in, and doesn't preclude other approaches. And we have lots of articles, but there are plenty of areas in dire need of improvement. We didn't have [[euphonicon]] until I wrote it yesterday. (Using book references - specifically, the Amazon scans!) Music in particular is sadly lacking beyond relatively recent popular music. We continue to have terrible systemic bias, as documented in the Guardian recently. Summary: there's still a lot of encyclopedia to go. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment idea: missing article lists
2009/12/5 Carl (CBM) cbm.wikipe...@gmail.com: The difficulty I see for newcomers improving existing articles is that, as newcomers, they don't know which things they can change and which things they should leave alone. [snip examples of highly-discussed wordings] Any article relating to religion can be like this. As late as 2004 there was room for me to improve the articles on the Gospels with no specialist knowledge ... no chance now. And real-world controversial topics ... w00t! One rewarding task for new users is expanding stubs. With that sort of editing, they have much more discretion in how to organize and phrase the content, and they are more likely to feel empowered to edit. Yep! That's in there with the missing article lists. It's really good that stubs are already sorted by topic to quite fine detail. So: point newbies at the stubs in their specialist area. Look, you can edit these right now. That book on your shelf? It's a good reference. Go for it. These ideas are marvellously useful :-) Someone want to put them on the strategy wiki too? I assume there's a section on n00b recruitment. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Wikimediauk-l] Anyone visiting VA with a camera soon?
2009/12/6 Steve Bennett stevag...@gmail.com: On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 11:01 PM, Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com wrote: Something for Commons, though? That's tricky, since Commons by definition only stores media, it doesn't have a framework of concepts to hang media off by default. That's why it would be very natural to use the Wikipedias as that framework, but to somehow channel the requests to a central place on Commons. Building a place and linking it from Commons would work for everyone, I think. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment idea: missing article lists
2009/12/6 Daniel R. Tobias d...@tobias.name: It's happened to me a few times, that I've created a new article where I thought there was a gap, then later found there to be one already under a slightly different name. That'ds why quite a lot of my editing is actually creating redirects! Usually when I want to look something up, don't find it straight away and start searching on variations. Creating forests of redirects is useful to the reader. Certainly to me as a reader. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] new articles from unconfirmed users queue - where is that these days?
2009/12/6 WereSpielChequers werespielchequ...@googlemail.com: One place to find new articles from unconfirmed users is http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:NewPageshidepatrolled=1 But I also find rich picking at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Empty_pages_for_speedy_deletion And sadly all to often at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nonsense_pages_for_speedy_deletion No, I mean the pages where anons and unconfirmed editors write pages they propose be created. Looks like it's [[WP:AFC]]. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated
-- Forwarded message -- From: phoebe ayers phoebe.w...@gmail.com Date: 2009/12/6 Subject: [Foundation-l] reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org Erik Zachte ran another analysis on the numbers and concluded that the number of new editors on the English Wikipedia is *growing*, and that the number of editors who edit regularly is basically holding steady. It still looks like we hit a peak of new editor growth in late '06, but the ongoing loss of editors is not as pronounced as previously reported. http://infodisiac.com/blog/2009/12/new-editors-are-joining-english-wikipedia-in-droves/ -- phoebe ___ foundation-l mailing list foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment idea: missing article lists
2009/12/6 Gregory Maxwell gmaxw...@gmail.com: When the (insufficiently anonymized) AOL search data was released I took the top query terms where there were no wikipedia articles and went about making redirects: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Gmaxwell/seo I'd like to think it helped... There are probably more from that list which could stand to be created. I've just been spending this morning before work creating a pile of them :-D Most of the typos for MySpace.com and google.com had been created and deleted by db-R3 (typo unlikely to happen in real life). I recreated them with an edit summary pointing to that page, as evidence that people's typing really is consistently much worse than we'd like to think ... - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Newbie recruitment idea: missing article lists
2009/12/7 Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com: And there is a further argument that [[Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#Redirects]] should reflect this by stronger wording. As in if any doubt, don't nominate or delete, since the resource implications of retaining a redirect for a typo are tiny. I.e. much less than arguing about it. I'm sure there's a productive aspect to RFD. Perhaps the regulars are better occupied there than elsewhere? I haven't studied the matter closely, I must note. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] On this day in history...
2009/12/8 Jim Redmond j...@scrubnugget.com: Who says we can only feature Pearl Harbor-related articles or images on December 7? The daily FA and FP should reflect our best works, whether or not they're related to some significant anniversary. If that means that the article on the USS Arizona is featured on the Main Page in February, then that's fine by me. That said, people like to match articles to dates. I know Raul sometimes takes requests for the Featured Articles, within reason and with planning. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Do we try to watch(list) the encyclopedia too much?
2009/12/10 Mike Pruden mikepru...@yahoo.com: Personally, I found unloading my watchlist liberating, and I would hope that more would do the same. There's always that steady stream of vandal-fighters to stomp out any clear vandalism that pops up. It's hard to explain, but I think it's a good exercise in assuming good faith that others will make constructive edits in efforts to improve pages. I gave up using my watchlist in late 2004. Haven't missed it. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Do we try to watch(list) the encyclopedia too much?
2009/12/10 Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com: The logic is wrong, in that the pile-up factor is not the main issue: coverage on someone's watchlist at all is the issue. Divide the number of articles by the number of active Wikipedians and you find that unless many people have four-figure watchlist lengths there will be plenty not watched at all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:UnwatchedPages (visible to admins only, for obvious reasons) has nothing in the list at all, so someone bothers putting stuff on at least one watchlist. How well it's *actually* watched is, of course, another matter ... - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Wikitech-l] Update on single-revision deletion
-- Forwarded message -- From: Andrew Garrett agarr...@wikimedia.org Date: 2009/12/10 Subject: [Wikitech-l] Update on single-revision deletion To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org Just a note to say that I didn't go ahead with my planned implementation of revision suppression for all administrators, because Aaron said that he would rather that I wait until bug 20928. Once that is fixed, I will again look into deploying single-revision deletion for administrators. https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20928 -- Andrew Garrett agarr...@wikimedia.org http://werdn.us/ ___ Wikitech-l mailing list wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] oh dear
Wikipe-tan on b3ta. http://www.b3ta.com/board/9830507 - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Annual fundraiser: which banners work
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2009/12/11/annual-fundraiser-checking-banner-results/ - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] McSweeney's: I Am Locking The Wikipedia Article On Our Sex Life
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2009/12/10trotter.html (spotted by mgodwin) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Extracting main titles from enwiki-latest-all-titles-in-ns0.gz
This is probably not the right place, you would want wikitech-l (where I've cc'ed this reply). - d. 2009/12/11 Behrang Saeedzadeh behran...@gmail.com: Hi, I have downloaded enwiki-latest-all-titles-in-ns0.gz and I want to extract main titles and store them in another file. For example, some titles have meta information (e.g. disambiguation etc.) and I want these to be removed. Can I remove all the text between parentheses from the titles to achieve this? Also some titles start with the ! character. and some are enclosed between two or three of them such as !Adiso_Amigos!. What is the purpose of ! in such cases? Also why some titles are enclosed between two double quotes such as 400_Years_of_Telescope? Finally, is there a document describing all these conventions? P.S: Is this the right place to ask such questions? Cheers, Behrang Saeedzadeh --- http://my.opera.com/behrangsa http://twitter.com/behrangsa ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] The story of an article
2009/12/18 Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com: On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 11:48 PM, Pete Forsyth pfors...@wikimedia.org wrote: Does anybody else have an article they'd like to explore in this way? Or feedback on the Celilo Falls overview? I'd love to do something similar! Are there other tools that can be used to delve into the article history? Doing something like this for one of the larger and most-viewed articles on Wikipedia would be a major undertaking. Of course, there are past hits. Heavy Metal Umlaut: The Movie. http://jonudell.net/udell/gems/umlaut/umlaut.html http://jonudell.net/udell/2005-01-22-heavy-metal-umlaut-the-movie.html Today's screencast traces the evolution of Wikipedia's Heavy metal umlaut page. I noticed it when both Tim Bray and David Weinberger pointed to it, but the page actually dates back to April 15, 2003. It's a wonderfully silly topic, but my point is somewhat serious too. The 8.5-minute screencast turns the change history of this Wiki page into a movie, scrolls forward and backward along the timeline of the document, and follows the development of several motifs. Creating this animated narration of a document's evolution was technically challenging, but I think it suggests interesting possibilities. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] The story of an article
2009/12/18 David Gerard dger...@gmail.com: Of course, there are past hits. Heavy Metal Umlaut: The Movie. http://jonudell.net/udell/gems/umlaut/umlaut.html http://jonudell.net/udell/2005-01-22-heavy-metal-umlaut-the-movie.html Apparently someone wrote a GreaseMonkey script to do something like this for any article: http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/can-contracts-survive-in-grassroots-ecosystem-720 - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] WikiFauna essays
2009/12/18 Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Wikipedia_fauna Amazing. I'm sure I remember that from Uncyclopedia ... http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Wiki - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] WikiEN-l Digest, Vol 77, Issue 22
2009/12/19 Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com: Does that include the WMF wiki (that is restricted access to WMF staff or something, isn't it?) and the MediaWiki wiki (is that just developers?). I know I could go and look this up, but I don't tend to go outside en-wiki very much, though I have started and used accounts on Commons (not SUL because the name was taken) and Wikisource and Meta, but nothing else. Just point me to a list of the meta WMF wikis, if that would be easiest (i.e. the non-content orientated WMF wikis). Some of the private wikis (the WMF site is basically a private wiki that the world can read) aren't in SUL. Everything that should be world-editable is, I think. (I speak with no authority on this.) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Climate change on Wikipedia
2009/12/19 Amory Meltzer amorymelt...@gmail.com: I'll add that it doesn't appear to actually be a story yet, just a submission made through Firehose. Regular /.ers have clearly spoken as to how they feel about it, as noted by the colorful tags placed on the submission and its poor rating. Meanwhile, the article itself is a misleading, erroneous opinion piece by a very clearly biased individual. Indeed. Ken was presumably sent this link by a troll and mistook it for something that actually had any chance of ending up published. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Climate change on Wikipedia
2009/12/19 Fred Bauder fredb...@fairpoint.net: We all know William Connolley is an advocate for taking climate change seriously. However there remains a lack of reliable information which negates his position. If there was such information, those of us who follow this issue would have settled his beeswax fast enough. Yeah, pity he's one of those evil conspiratorial climate scientists and actually knows much more than you or others about the issue. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Climate change on Wikipedia
2009/12/21 Abd ul-Rahman Lomax a...@lomaxdesign.com: The article was likely overstated. However, the editor involved did have a substantial history of using administrative tools with respect to global warming and related articles, as well as extensive editing in the area, taking a consistent position, supporting a consistent point of view. I encountered this myself when I helped avoid the deletion of an RfC that was written by Raul654, certified by WMC, then it was noticed that Raul had not certified it. Then I read the RfC and was horrified, and that was the beginning of my involvement with WMC and others active with the global warming article. This is the one you were taken to arbitration over, and was the source of your proposal that experts be banned from editing articles on their expertise. Global warming nutters are really special. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] How smart people fail to share
Everyone reading this list is probably pretty smart - Wikipedia is a nerd magnet, after all. So I liked this blog post explaining how people fail to share: http://www.lifebeyondcode.com/2009/12/26/why-some-smart-people-are-reluctant-to-share/ Can you explain the obvious to people it isn't obvious to? With references? - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Help Wanted
2009/12/27 Gwern Branwen gwe...@gmail.com: Thought this was kind of interesting: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/researcherjob The ideal person is probably someone who’s contributed to Wikipedia. Yeah, that's from User:Aaronsw, so someone who knows precisely what he's asking for there ;-) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] The Wikiman
http://www.b3ta.com/board/9853083 - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Image credits on the main page (revisited?)
2009/12/30 Nathan nawr...@gmail.com: Is there a guideline that prevents a restorer (or other author) from crediting themselves in the image itself? Other discussions I've seen today about this subject include the topic of in-image credit, beginning with its expected presence in traditional media and debating whether its acceptable in digitally produced/edited media formats. Yes: watermarks will be removed with extreme prejudice. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Watermarks That's not policy as such, but watermarks are routinely taken out and shot. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] The story of an article
2010/1/2 altally altal...@googlemail.com: Yes, it's not that difficult to create an account and wait a few days is it? It cuts off huge amounts of easy participation way too early. Citizendium is the extreme case of this, and their restrictive requirements have arguably crippled them and led to their current all-but-moribund growth rate. It sounds like a good idea, but it isn't. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] The story of an article
2010/1/4 Steve Bennett stevag...@gmail.com: On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 1:51 AM, altally altal...@googlemail.com wrote: When I started, I created an account from the beginning. Why? Because it wasn't hard to notice the big Sign in/create account link in the corner. Newbies aren't all clueless idiots. You are making the mistake of assuming newcomers all have no idea what they are doing. It's a fair approximation. Go look at the Usability videos if you need a demonstration. +1 Go look at these. Really. http://usability.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AAllPagesfrom=to=namespace=6 - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Why we need a good WYSIWYG editor
Edit completion rate - someone not merely clicking edit, but actually editing and hitting save - goes *way* up. Based on Wikia's experience: http://wikiangela.com/blog/end-of-2009/#comment-26732 http://twitter.com/joshuaclerner/status/3602544810 Wikitext used to be a lot simpler. Now it's impenetrable computer code. This is not good enough. There are all sorts of reasons why WYSIWYG editing in Mediawiki is a Hard Problem. But FCKeditor is really very good these days and I'd strongly recommend it for any fresh wikis. Turning it loose on existing piles of wikitext such as, ooh, en:wp, is probably a different matter. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Why we need a good WYSIWYG editor
2010/1/4 Gregory Maxwell gmaxw...@gmail.com: I think that, fundamentally, WYSIWYG isn't the right model for Wikipedia or even wikis in general. What fits our model is what you get is what you mean. We really shouldn't want most editors worrying too much about how the page looks because its important for readers that the look and feel be very consistent across the site and not change constantly reflecting the standards of tens of thousand of distinct authors. You may think that a semantic markup system is just the ticket, but people who casually write stuff almost universally pick presentational markup and do the semantic bit in their heads, where it belongs. Whatever number of decades it is of computer scientists and other enthusiasts for semantic markup haven't changed this, which leads me to suspect they won't. Wikitext uses '' and ''' for emphasis purposes, not cite address quote etc. Why is that? - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Why we need a good WYSIWYG editor
2010/1/4 Gregory Maxwell gmaxw...@gmail.com: So lets not confuse the usability goals or making editing SIMPLE, NON-INTIMIDATING, and DISCOVERABLE all of which are very much wiki concepts, with the values of WYSIWYG which encourages increased but hidden complexity. And never mind the actual numbers from Wikia, which look very like having a WYSIWYG system for presentational markup was *the* key to having people actually complete a planned edit rather than click 'edit', go what on earth at the computer guacamole and go away? Obivously proper usability testing would be needed. But, y'know, there's nothing wrong with bad presentation in the edit. This is a wiki, someone will be around with a bot to fix it in about two minutes. The barrier is getting them to contribute at all and not run away screaming forever. I believe you posted something recently pointing out how easy it is to get someone to run away screaming forever. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Why we need a good WYSIWYG editor
2010/1/4 Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.com: 2010/1/4 David Gerard dger...@gmail.com: And never mind the actual numbers from Wikia, which look very like having a WYSIWYG system for presentational markup was *the* key to having people actually complete a planned edit rather than click 'edit', go what on earth at the computer guacamole and go away? You need to look at more than just one number. Of course WYSIWYG will increase the number of people completing edits, has anyone suggested otherwise? The problems described in this thread aren't problems that would show up in that number. Absolutely, and we have to test thoroughly and not break what we have. But I think a lot of en:wp regulars forget just how horribly intimidating wikitext is. (I'm desperately waiting for MediaWiki 1.16 so I can put the latest FCKeditor on my work wiki, then I know quite a lot more people will use it - all the ones who are too afraid to edit because I'm not a programmer. And that's on our relatively uncomplicated office wiki! They see wiki markup, they think computer code, I am teh dumb and don't do anything. This is anecdote, not data, but it's an anecdote I experience rather too often.) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Fwd: Why we need a good WYSIWYG editor
[to list as well, sorry Shlomi!] 2010/1/4 Shlomi Fish shlo...@iglu.org.il: I personally detest all WYSIWYG web-based editors. They are slow and clunky and produce broken markup, and just get in the way. I'm also not fond of WYSIWYG word processors and prefer using XHTML or DocBook/XML or other non- WYSIWYG markup languages. If you are going to enable such a feature, please make it optional. Oh, absolutely. It's just that you and I are maybe 10% of the possible editor pool. We have to not put up a gigantic barrier to the other 90%. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] The story of an article
2010/1/4 William Pietri will...@scissor.com: In this case, I'd expect creating an account and waiting 3 days to lose 50-90% of the contributions we'd get with an unimpeded flow. (To what extent we value or want those contributions is a different question; I'm just talking about raw user actions.) What was Aaron Swartz's numbers - a huge percentage of the actual text kept in articles added by anons? Then heavily processed by the regulars. But keeping out the n00bs is how to make Wikipedia decline into complacency. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Why we need a good WYSIWYG editor
2010/1/5 William Pietri will...@scissor.com: I think we could stave off critical mass and keep painful errors pretty low with an approach like that. Also, uh, dudes. We have a working live example on a few thousand existing MediaWiki installations, called Wikia. Some of the fears listed in this thread really just don't make sense as objections given they're not happening on the actual real-life example. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Wikitech-l] Flagged revs on en:wp?
-- Forwarded message -- From: William Pietri will...@scissor.com Date: 2010/1/6 Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Flagged revs on en:wp? To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org On 12/13/2009 03:28 PM, William Pietri wrote: That seems like a fine thing to do. I've already promised to post an update here once we have a clearer picture; I'll write up a more general-audience version for the blog, too. As promised, here's an update: http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2010/01/flagged-revisions-your-questions-answered/ Feel free to drop me a line with questions or comments. William ___ Wikitech-l mailing list wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Fundraiser hits target
2010/1/6 Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com: Anyway, we'll presumably still be discussing some of the same issues in 2011, whatever the Wall Street Journal thinks (and it is good to see that the media frenzy on WP over, it's official didn't leave a mark). Well, no. The media can tell itself the story that this non-centralised information model can't possibly work, but it nevertheless continues to be ridiculously mainstream with no effort whatsoever to make it so. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] The Curious Incident of the Fans in the Night
2010/1/18 Gwern Branwen gwe...@gmail.com: Did you know there's not one single use of the term 'Scientology' on neilgaiman.com or any subdomains? Given his family is Scientologist, he was raised a Scientologist in a major bastion of Scientology, married a Scientologist, and so on, and given that people have been interested in all the foregoing for a long time, and also given that he used to have comments on the website, and *also* given that he is historically very responsive to random questions about just about anything* - the utter silence must be deliberate. Which is as one would expect. This is not uncommon amongst second-generation Scientologists who aren't into it. I am *amazed* he talked about it for the New Yorker. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] The Curious Incident of the Fans in the Night
2010/1/18 Ken Arromdee arrom...@rahul.net: The problem is that Wikipedia policies pretty much encourage editors to filibuster changes they don't like by demanding sources and questioning the sources. This is useful when there's a serious question about whether the information is accurate, but it's also abused when there's no serious question about the information's accuracy and the request for sources is used to block something they want to exclude for other reasons. If someone then provides a valid source anyway, the source just gets repeatedly questioned regardles of whether it follows Wikipedia's sourcing rules. If they want to filibuster the reliability of this source, it speaks of some child being Robert Heinlein's great-grandson ... Heinlein didn't have any children. I wonder where they got that from. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/21 Gwern Branwen gwe...@gmail.com:
On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 8:25 PM, Apoc 2400 apoc2...@gmail.com wrote:
Is there anyone here who can do something about this before it becomes an
even bigger wheel-war?
Yes, the Arbcom has done something about it. Specifically, it has
patted them on the head and said, 'good job, guys! Just be quieter in
the future'.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case#Motions
Excellent and proper, per BLP. This isn't actually an IAR case, IMO -
it's clear by BLP.
The Committee hereby proclaims an amnesty for all editors who may
have overstepped the bounds of policy in this matter. Everyone is
Good one.
our project. The Committee recommends, in particular, that a request
for comments be opened to centralize discussion on the most efficient
way to proceed with the effective enforcement of the policy on
biographies of living people.
Yep.
Policy formation and change on English Wikipedia has been
fundamentally *broken* for about four or five years. Finally, enough
prions have accumulated to demonstrate actual symptoms of severely
advanced Mad Cow Disease.
Fortunately, we have enough sensible stuff encrusted in with the
prions that when the ArbCom have a mind to sensible action, they have
the tools they need.
Translation: BLP now means anything whatsoever unsourced is evil to
be burned with fire; anything is justified in pursuit of previous;
I believe that's what BLP meant in 2006, but I was just writing the
policy draft, so don't mind me.
IAR
now means flagrant admin abuses are justified if you can cite
imaginary bits of a policy, and other admins have to sit there and
take it;
admin abuses of users or of policies that BLP overrides? 'Cos it is,
and was always intended to be, a trump card.
silent mass deletions are now an acceptable admin tactic.
That bit's not ideal, I'd think they should be listed first. Perhaps a
{{BLP-prod}}, where someone has a few days to put the references in.
OR THE ARTICLE DIES.
I particularly enjoy the 'innocuous statements' point. It's
reminiscent of the best Cold War paranoia: your friend, your
co-worker, or even your dog could secretly be a Commie agent! No one
is safe! Not even *you*. I have a list of 55 unsourced
innocuous-seeming statements in the [[State Department]]...
I think you're getting a bit silly there.
- d.
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/21 David Gerard dger...@gmail.com:
That bit's not ideal, I'd think they should be listed first. Perhaps a
{{BLP-prod}}, where someone has a few days to put the references in.
OR THE ARTICLE DIES.
Added to the newly-opened RFC page:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Biographies_of_living_people
- d.
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/21 The Cunctator cuncta...@gmail.com: Why don't we just delete Wikipedia? Then we won't have any of these problems. * Only if we can delete Citizendium too. - * And Britannica. - * Can we delete Fox News? - ** You cannot kill that which does not live. - * The devs are rolling out a new MediaWiki function to delete the actual subject when the article is deleted, all this may be moot - * I liek mudkipz - - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/21 Emily Monroe bluecalioc...@me.com: As I understand it, a bunch of adminstrators deleted a bunch of articles that they felt violated BLP aganist community consensus. Community consensus isn't a valid reason to violate BLP. en:wp is a top-5 website of massive impact, not a personal playground enjoying something akin to parliamentary privilege 'cos it says so. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/21 Bod Notbod bodnot...@gmail.com: Now, presumably if I use the IMDB biog as a reference I bet I will be done for copyvio, even though our article came *first*. So... what to do? Deletion looms. Explain the situation on the talk page. Basically, you wrote the text on IMDB as well. There is nothing wrong with this. As a reference, it's now basically a first-party reference - it's a bio approved by the subject. Not enough for third-party, but good for e.g. resolving innocuous, etc. If it ends up deleted, hey. See if you can recreate from third-party sources with the approved bio as is usable. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/21 geni geni...@gmail.com: 2010/1/21 David Gerard dger...@gmail.com: not a personal playground enjoying something akin to parliamentary privilege 'cos it says so. Your argument that anyone on wikipedia enjoys something akin to parliamentary privilege should be interesting. Your reading comprehension appears defective, as I was saying the opposite. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
Does anyone have a summary of the articles deleted in the present blood-crazed axe frenzy? Is there a list up? And/or a description of the general type of BLP deleted? I understand many were hardly-viewed articles with no edits in the last six months. Which sounds innocuous enough, but remember that [[John Seigenthaler]] was one of those until the subject noticed. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/22 James Farrar james.far...@gmail.com: Some people won't be satisfied until Wikipedia has no BLPs. No true Strawman will be satisfied until authority reassures him Wikipedia has no BLPs. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/22 David Goodman dgoodma...@gmail.com: Chicken Little is a fairly good comparison. I see in this group of BLPs only the possibility of potential problems. I am waiting for evidence that any of those deleted without checking so far has done harm by being there. [[John Seigenthaler]] would have been a good example member of this group. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/22 David Goodman dgoodma...@gmail.com: If this does not meet the standard for disrupting Wikipedia to make a point, I do not know what would. Evidently. WP:POINT is about doing something you *don't* want to have happen to make a point, not about doing things spectacularly in general. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
2010/1/22 Ryan Delaney ryan.dela...@gmail.com: You probably won't be getting that evidence, since the way the policy is in place, the burden of proof isn't on the person removing the content-- it's on the person adding it. That's not just how BLP works, but the verifiability policy as well, and that's a Good Thing(tm). If people want to add content to Wikipedia, they ought to be providing sources for it. We're somewhat lax about enforcing that when it's inanimate objects, but we aren't lax about it when we're talking about real people. That seems to me to be the right balance. It does really suck that this is trashing what are mostly likely perfectly okay pieces that people put work into. This needs to be acknowledged and we need to work to alleviate the suck from it. the_wub's list will help recover stuff, and hopefully things will proceed in a less axe-crazy manner henceforth. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Administrator coup / mass deletions
On 23 January 2010 23:00, Ryan Delaney ryan.dela...@gmail.com wrote: Repeat after me: Pure Wiki Deletion. Last time the subject came up, I believe the advocates were asked for any examples, anywhere, of wikis that use Pure Wiki Deletion. I don't think they came up with any at all. Are there any? (Is it possible that the biggest and most popular wiki in the world might not be the best place to make the very first one?) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] List of the deleted articles (was: Administrator coup / mass deletions)
2010/1/25 Apoc 2400 apoc2...@gmail.com: The meme that unsourced articles are pure crap is just wrong. Some are quite well written, but by someone who didn't know (or care?) about our sourcing requirements. Well, yes. The problem with unsourced BLPs is that they're dangerous in ways that unsourced other articles aren't. Thank you VERY MUCH for your hard work on this. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] In defence of the minor edit
On 29 January 2010 01:35, David Goodman dgoodma...@gmail.com wrote: (Incidentally, a fair number of the unsourced BLPs are in fact copyvios, and when I see that, I speedy deleted on that ground, unless it seems important enough to rewrite. ) Take care there - I increasingly see website bios that are basically the Wikipedia bio copied, 'cos they liked it! - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia in popular culture
http://twitter.com/alisonclement/status/8421314259 Yesterday I asked one of my students if she knew what an encyclopedia is, and she said, Is it something like Wikipedia? - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia in popular culture
On 30 January 2010 20:14, Ian Woollard ian.wooll...@gmail.com wrote: That's probably an unusually accurate answer ;-) It's quite a hard question. A lot of people have a fairly intuitive feel for it, but they cannot tell you why. I actually looked around in the literature to try to find a workable definition for what an encyclopedia is, and the best answer I found that, for a significant number (although certainly not the majority) of articles, the Wikipedia goes outside it. Wikipedia is what an encyclopedia *will be*. I'm seeing specialist encyclopedias increasingly go to wikis these days. There's still a place for the one smart person writes about everything model in specialist encyclopedias, and some place for a bunch of smart people write about everything. For general encyclopedias, Wikipedia has made both models economically obsolete. (Many lament this.) I can see wikis doing the same for specialist encyclopedias. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Virtual Revolution (BBC)
On 30 January 2010 23:15, Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com wrote: I hadn't heard the one about Arianna Huffington being an interesting person, but not exactly a revolutionary. I suppose one caps that by saying Keen is an uninteresting person, but ... precisely because of that ... is a counter-revolutionary. Did he troll for a book much? - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Images that are PD in their country of origin
On 8 February 2010 00:16, Ian Woollard ian.wooll...@gmail.com wrote: My understanding is that the Wikipedia doesn't really have any risk under the law. Provided the strictures of the DMCA are followed, any uploaded copyrighted material simply has to be removed promptly if they receive a copyright violation notice. If the strictures of the DMCA aren't followed then the Wikipedia/media could be in big trouble. The problem for Commons is also reusability - Wikimedia could get away with just about anything, but reusers may not. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Images that are PD in their country of origin
On 10 February 2010 13:21, Andrew Gray andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk wrote:
I've sometimes thought that, in an ideal world, we should just phase
out PD-old and all its forms - it's often, as you say, wishful
thinking, or sometimes (and I know in my early days I did this) a
cover for a misunderstanding about just what the thresholds are.
So what'd we replace it with? Something functionally like...
{{copyright
|date=1895
|location=Germany
|author=anonymous
}}
...and have it then spit out, well, this image is free under German
copyright law (sect. 473 ii) and in the United States (Title 15, 7)
or the like, with an option to click to have it generate a copyright
status in Canada or France or where have you. We do *have* this data
for a sizable proportion of our images, after all, and it's a bit lazy
when we take all this and slap a well, PD, I guess rubber-stamp on
it!
I doubt this is *practical* in the near term, of course, but it's a
thought. Any other ideas?
I think this is a brilliant idea and would deal with the problem
marvellously. And it should be reasonably easy to implement in an
incremental manner without disruption.
cc to commons-l - is there anything about this that'd be hard? Apart
from going through a zillion images. The key point is it wouldn't
disrupt anything existing.
- d.
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[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] [Announcement] Extension of user experience work
-- Forwarded message -- From: Erik Moeller e...@wikimedia.org Date: 2 March 2010 00:14 Subject: [Foundation-l] [Announcement] Extension of user experience work To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org Hello all, our very positive revenue perspective (we have already exceeded our fundraising targets for the fiscal year, and received the additional $2M from Google) allows us to do something we've hoped to be able to do: make our investment in user experience work permanent, as opposed to releasing most of the current user experience team and ending the project. It makes obvious sense for any major website to have a permanent team focused on user experience improvements in the broadest sense. This includes eliminating obvious barriers to entry, but beyond that, we want to improve the experience as a whole for both readers and editors. We're now referring to this work as user experience (UX) work, which includes usability. Naoko will be Head of UX Programs, while Trevor will be the lead front-end developer on the team. Congratulations to both of them. :-) Naoko is currently assessing the remaining contracts and will share further information as these decisions are finalized. In the immediate future post-April, we'll be concerned with tying up loose ends from the usability initiative, and finishing functionality that we had to put in the parking lot. We'll work on a roadmap and staffing plan for 2010-11 and beyond as part of our business planning process. Our long-term focus will be determined in significant part based on the recommendations from the strategic planning process; see especially the community health recommendations: http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Task_force/Recommendations/Community_health While we haven't finalized priorities, the single biggest piece of work is likely going to be the transition to a rich-text editor as the default editing environment for all Wikimedia Foundation wikis. But, user experience to us also means assessing how people self-organize and communicate in Wikimedia projects, how they get stuff done, and how they read and navigate our projects. Even among the areas of work we've already identified, there's enough to keep us busy for many years. :-) Please note that the original usability initiative hasn't concluded yet. The team is working on its final release, which will include some of the most-anticipated changes, including collapsing of templates to simplify the editing interface, and the production release of the new feature-set to all users. As always, we'll continue to communicate progress through http://blog.wikimedia.org/ and http://techblog.wikimedia.org/, and feedback and participation is welcome at http://usability.wikimedia.org/. All best, Erik -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate ___ foundation-l mailing list foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Notability for FLOSS - the public's reaction
On 5 March 2010 13:25, Gwern Branwen gwe...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 5:58 AM, Charles Matthews Oh yes, and what Carcharoth said about FLOSS history needing the secondary sources: if they don't write the history, it isn't just WP coverage that suffers, but the whole documentation, especially if the primary sources are emails, perishable web pages, and suchlike. So basically, 'if you guys choose to use modern media like wikis and blogs, and not dead tree formats, then don't cry about your articles being deleted - it's all *your* fault! Cut your hair, you damn hippies!' A lot of these deletions are on the complete absence of evidence that anyone outside the project actually cares. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Notability for FLOSS - the public's reaction
On 5 March 2010 13:30, Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com wrote: On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 1:28 PM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: A lot of these deletions are on the complete absence of evidence that anyone outside the project actually cares. By project you mean dwm, not Wikipedia, I presume? :-) Yes. The objections are this is noteworthy for having x thousand downloaders and a busy forum. But no note outside of that. There's typically (I say *typically*) little evidence that anyone who doesn't already know about the project would ever, ever look it up. The YCombinator thread has a comment pointing out that they want to get into Wikipedia precisely *because* it isn't a random-crap bucket. No-one has as a checklist item make sure there's a Knol about our project. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Steven Walling: Why Wikipedians Are Weird
This is beautiful and true, and you must watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEkF5o6KPNI (I have been at a pub with a trivia quiz where the table of Wikipedians didn't enter because it wouldn't be fair.) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Another notability casualty
On 7 March 2010 00:00, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax a...@lomaxdesign.com wrote: Onus? No, I'm seeing masses of highly experienced editors leaving the project, with those replacing them being relatively clueless, as to the original vision, which was itself brilliant but incomplete. You aren't allowing for the typical length of intense participation in *any* online environment typically being 18-24 months (MMORPGs, etc), and that the stated reason may not be the reason. (Protip: someone who gets blocked as much as you do should consider the possibility there are things they fundamentally don't understand about the environment.) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Reasons to put Google ads on Wikipedia
The sheer lulz potential. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AdOfWin - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] bringing back the theory
On 21 March 2010 16:25, Tyler programmer...@comcast.net wrote: I'm new to this list, but I read in this beloved book I own that there has been an ongoing discussion that accounts created at the English Wikipedia will one day also work for Wiktionary, foreign Wikipedias and other Wikimedia projects. How come that hasn't come yet? Single User Login, which is alive and well and working! http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Unified_login Basically, it should Just Work - you log into one project, it tells you it's logging you in everywhere else too, and then if you go to another WMF wiki you see yourself logged in there too. See that page on meta for assorted hiccups in this ideal vision :-) - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Wikipedia-l] Trending Topics On Wikipedia
-- Forwarded message -- From: Everton Zanella Alvarenga everton...@gmail.com Date: 2010/3/15 Subject: [Wikipedia-l] Trending Topics On Wikipedia To: Mailing list do Capítulo brasileiro da Wikimedia. wikimediab...@lists.wikimedia.org, wikipedi...@lists.wikimedia.org Google has Google Trends, Twitter has trending topics, and now so does Wikipedia. Pete Skomoroch, a Senior Research Scientist at LinkedIn and blogger at Data Wrangling, built a trending topics page for Wikipedia. The homepage ranks the top-25 Wikipedia articles with the most pageviews over the past 30 days, as well as the fastest rising articles in the past 24 hours. More: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/11/wikipedia-trending-topics/ http://www.trendingtopics.org/ -- http://blogdotom.wordpress.com/sobre ___ Wikipedia-l mailing list wikipedi...@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] declining numbers of EN wiki admins
On 25 March 2010 20:45, Kwan Ting Chan k...@ktchan.info wrote: Well, they're not dwindling since admin rights don't get taken away on inactivity. ;-) But to the general question, because the standard expected of a candidate for RfA has gone up over the years? And because going through a continuously ratcheted-up gauntlet is rather too demeaning for people to consider worth the effort? - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] declining numbers of EN wiki admins
On 26 March 2010 08:57, Charles Matthews charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com wrote: Given that WikiProjects generally will have a better idea of the character and contributions of participants (compared to those whose idea of RfA is an extended box-ticking process), I'd like to see projects look around and nominate some of their stalwarts who don't yet have the mop and bucket. Anecdotally, I see a lot of people decline the opportunity because the RFA gauntlet is so obnoxious. Phantomsteve's question (length of active use for admins as opposed to non-admins) is an excellent one, though, and numbers well worth running (i.e. I would if I knew how to). - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
[WikiEN-l] Inside Higher Ed: Does Wikipedia Suck?
This is about a very useful study that brought home to college students that wp is what it is, not what it isn't. http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/instant_mentor/weir22 - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikipedia Freedom Fighters?
On 28 March 2010 17:18, William Pietri will...@scissor.com wrote: I just received an odd email suggesting I hand over my admin account to the Wikipedia Freedom Fighters. I see that they did something similar back in May. Whether this is an actual effort or just a way to stir up trouble, I dunno -- the content was ridiculous enough that I figure it's probably trolling -- but I figured I'd mention it. Indeed. Best filed with any other phishing or trolling. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
