Re: [Wikimedia-l] C-team Statement on the Code of Conduct

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Hey,
As a member of Code of conduct committee I just wanted to express how much
I appreciate your statement. The work we are doing is not fun, we are
dealing with frustrations, harassments, trolling, and all sorts of the dark
side of the Wikimedia movement but I genuinely believe that this type of
work is vital to keep the movement moving forward, to make us more
welcoming and foster a diverse environment.

All of the support I've received, private and public, online and offline is
overwhelming. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

Best
On Tue, Aug 14, 2018 at 7:46 PM Victoria Coleman 
wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> The executive leadership team, on behalf of the Foundation, would like to
> issue a statement of unequivocal support for the Code of Conduct[1] and the
> community-led Code of Conduct Committee. We believe that the development
> and implementation of the Code are vital in ensuring the healthy
> functioning of our technical communities and spaces. The Code of Conduct
> was created to address obstacles and occasionally very problematic personal
> communications that limit participation and cause real harm to community
> members and staff. In engaging in this work we are setting the tone for the
> ways we collaborate in tech. We are saying that treating others badly is
> not welcome in our communities. And we are joining an important movement in
> the tech industry to address these problems in a way that supports
> self-governance consistent with our values.
>
> This initiative is critical in continuing the amazing work of our projects
> and ensuring that they continue to flourish in delivering on the critical
> vision of being the essential infrastructure of free knowledge now and
> forever.
>
> Toby, Maggie, Eileen, Heather, Lisa, Katherine, Jaime, Joady, and Victoria
>
>
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct <
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct>
>
>
>
>
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[Wikimedia-l] Code of conduct committee call for new members

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Hello all,

It's coming close to time for annual appointments of community members to
serve on the Code of Conduct (CoC) committee. The Code of Conduct Committee
is a team of five trusted individuals plus five auxiliary members with
diverse affiliations responsible for general enforcement of the Code of
conduct for Wikimedia technical spaces. Committee members are in charge of
processing complaints, discussing with the parties affected, agreeing on
resolutions, and following up on their enforcement. For more on their
duties and roles, see
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct/Committee


This is a call for community members interested in volunteering for
appointment to this committee. Volunteers serving in this role should be
experienced Wikimedians or have had experience serving in a similar
position before.



The current committee is doing the selection and will research and discuss
candidates. Six weeks before the beginning of the next Committee term,
meaning 8th of April 2018, they will publish their candidate slate (a list
of candidates) on-wiki. The community can provide feedback on these
candidates, via private email to the group choosing the next Committee. The
feedback period will be two weeks. The current Committee will then either
finalize the slate, or update the candidate slate in response to concerns
raised. If the candidate slate changes, there will be another two week
feedback period covering the newly proposed members. After the selections
are finalized, there will be a training period, after which the new
Committee is appointed. The current Committee continues to serve until the
feedback, selection, and training process is complete.

If you are interested in serving on this committee or like to nominate a
candidate, please write an email to techconductcandidates AT wikimedia.org
with details of your experience on the projects, your thoughts on the code
of conduct and the committee and what you hope to bring to the role and
whether you have a preference in being auxiliary or constant member of the
committee. The committee consists of five members plus five auxiliary
members and they will serve for six months; all applications are
appreciated and will be carefully considered. The deadline for applications
is end of day on 5th of April, 2018.

Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any users who you think
may be qualified and interested.


Best,

Amir on behalf of the CoC committee
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[Wikimedia-l] [CoC] Call for feedback on the proposed amendments

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Hello,
Based on the text of Code of Conduct in technical spaces "Every three
months, the Committee collects the ideas proposed (if any) and organizes a
call for feedback announced in the main technical spaces." [0]

This is our first call for feedback on the proposed amendments and we
humbly ask you to chime in and help us make the code of conduct better.
Voice them in the talk page of the code of conduct.

The proposed amendments are:
* Explicitly mentioning Tool Forge (formally known as tool labs) in the CoC
[1]
* Including GitHub-hosted projects that are connected to the Wikimedia
community [2]
* Removing the part allowing discrimination when it's required by law. [3]
* Adding a part of mentioning impersonation as an unacceptable behavior. [4]


[0]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Code_of_Conduct/Amendments
[1]:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Code_of_Conduct#Suggested_Amendment:_Add_tool_labs
[2]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Code_of_Conduct#Suggested_Amendment:_Include_GitHub

[3]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Code_of_Conduct#Suggested_Amendment:_Remove_.E2.80.9Cunless_required_by_law.E2.80.9D
[4]
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Code_of_Conduct#Suggested_Amendment:_No_impersonation

Thank you,
Amir on behalf of the Code of Conduct committee
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Chapter De-Recognition: Wikimedia Philippines

[Amir Ladsgroup]

I have a request and/or question. I've got the idea from "Incident report".
When things don't go as planned in servers, we write an incident report and
try to learn from lapses happened. Now my question is. Has something
similar done for chapters that get de-recognized? Do you want to talk to
volunteers in those chapters and investigate why this happened so other
chapters can learn and fix mistakes early on? Sometimes it's outside our
control (for example socioeconomic situation in a country can contribute to
amount of activities in the chapter) but maybe there are issues in the
governance of the chapter that can lead to such cases.

I know AffCom members are volunteers and this might be too much for a group
of volunteers which have already a lot on their plate. Just for
consideration.

Thanks and keep the great work up.
Best

On Sun, Apr 23, 2017 at 7:20 PM Fæ  wrote:

> Itzik has put it nicely. The volunteers in Affcom are committed folks,
> and it is reassuring that multiple steps are taken to encourage
> struggling affiliates to meet the basic requirements.
>
> Running a chapter is a hard burden for a small group of volunteers,
> particularly if relying on volunteers to produce monthly reports and
> run accounts. There no shame it letting it go if not enough volunteers
> want to take this on.
>
> For those involved who may feel discouraged, I recommend keeping an
> social group running, even on a very informal and ad hoc way. Later,
> it may be worth considering the benefits of recognizing a small
> society as an affiliate User Group, where the administrative
> requirements are very small indeed. In fact it can be rather nice not
> to have to worry about holding money, running accounts or even
> managing memberships, none of this being a firm requirement. The
> reporting is just 'logging' of related events and projects, the sorts
> of things small societies want to do for ourselves, yet gives you the
> modest benefit of being able to use "Wikimedia" as a brand and logo
> for events.
>
> Thanks,
> Fae
> Wikimedia LGBT+
>
>
> On 23 April 2017 at 09:14, Itzik - Wikimedia Israel
>  wrote:
> > Thank you Maor for the update.
> >
> > We usually love to see our movement expend and welcome recognition of new
> > organizations, but I strongly believe that we continuously need to check
> > and evaluate our current organizations.
> >
> > Our brand, name and reputation are part of our core assets - and while
> it's
> > not an easy step, I appreciate Affcom efforts not only to recognize new
> > ones but also to de-recognize organizations that are not longer active or
> > non-compliance with our movement requirements.
> >
> > Few weeks ago in Berlin we had a first meeting to start discuses what is
> a
> > "movement accountability" and how we evaluate organizations who operate
> > outside of the FDC process and I believe Affcom have a significant part
> in
> > it.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *Regards,Itzik Edri*
> > Chairperson, Wikimedia Israel
> > +972-54-5878078 <+972%2054-587-8078> | http://www.wikimedia.org.il
> > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
> > sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment!
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 22, 2017 at 9:49 PM, Maor Malul  wrote:
> >
> >> *
> >>
> >> Dear all,
> >>
> >> *
> >>
> >> **
> >>
> >> *Recognition as a Wikimedia affiliate - a chapter, thematic
> organization,
> >> or user group - allows an independent group to officially use the
> Wikimedia
> >> name to further the Wikimedia mission, with certain duties and
> >> responsibilities.  While most Wikimedia affiliates adhere to the basic
> >> compliance standards set forth in their agreements with the Wikimedia
> >> Foundation, a protocol has been developed to address the exceptional
> cases
> >> when a Wikimedia affiliate does not meet minimum compliance standards
> and
> >> their continued recognition as a Wikimedia affiliate presents a risk to
> the
> >> Wikimedia movement.*
> >>
> >> *
> >>
> >> On September 9, 2016, Wikimedia Philippines was notified of their
> >> suspension as a Wikimedia affiliate due to long standing and serious
> >> governance issues, as well as non-compliance with reporting requirements
> >> which go as back as 2014, has been sent multiple warnings regarding
> them,
> >> and on the date mentioned above,  was provided with an explicit list of
> >> tasks and deadlines in order to return to compliance with their chapter
> >> agreement. The chapter failed to complete these tasks by the deadline of
> >> November 28, 2016, and was consequently notified that they would no
> longer
> >> be recognized as a Wikimedia chapter after the termination of their
> Chapter
> >> Agreement on March 1, 2017.  It is important to make clear that the
> >> Affiliations Committee will continue to support other organized
> Wikimedia
> >> communities and their activities in the Philippines.
> >>
> >> If you have questions about what 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Wikitech-l] The Revision Scoring weekly update

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Hey,
It's in arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.03861
Any feedback is welcome :)

Best

On Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 3:37 PM Richard Nevell <
richard.nev...@wikimedia.org.uk> wrote:

> Having guidance on quality helps people learning about Wikidata understand
> what they should be aiming for.
>
> The paper on vandalism detection in Wikidata sounds interesting, where can
> I find it?
>
> Richard
>
> On 17 March 2017 at 09:09, Gerard Meijssen 
> wrote:
>
> > Hoi,
> > I noticed the notion about "quality in Wikidata". The approach is very
> much
> > in line with what is the norm in Wikipedia. This is inot the right
> approach
> > for Wikidata. Many of the items in Wikidata can be of high "quality"; ie
> > the statements have a source and there are enough labels but the true
> value
> > of these items are in the use of these items as statements in other
> items..
> > (for instance a university indicates that someone studied there).
> Another
> > quality point is that for authors a VIAF statements allows for the
> linking
> > in Wikipedias in external sources. This is of a high importance, it makes
> > Wikidata useful and, if that is not of a quality consideration what is?
> >
> > One other aspect of Wikidata is that it is still highly immature. Just
> > consider the statistics for labels and statements [1] . This is only the
> > first month where less than 10% of our items have no statement.. We talk
> > about quality but quality should have a practical meaning. Just saying
> this
> > or that item is so good, it makes for stamp collecting. The point of a
> > stamp is not to collect them it is to send mail. Quality means that we
> know
> > how many articles have been written in one or more editathons. It is in
> > finding for a collection of items that it is better known what award,
> > schooling has been achieved by the people that was written for. It is in
> > using Wikidata to indicate what categories could be in what Wikipedia
> > article.
> >
> > Quality needs to be actionable. What is the use of static quality?
> > Thanks,
> >   GerardM
> >
> >
> > [1] https://tools.wmflabs.org/wikidata-todo/stats.php?reverse
> >
> > On 17 March 2017 at 02:19, Pine W  wrote:
> >
> > > Sharing some good news, both about the progress of ORES and (my primary
> > > inspiration for sharing this email) significant improvements in article
> > > quality thanks to WikiProject Women scientists. The latter has been
> > > designated as the Keilana Effect.
> > >
> > > Pine
> > >
> > >
> > > -- Forwarded message --
> > > From: Aaron Halfaker 
> > > Date: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 at 2:14 PM
> > > Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] The Revision Scoring weekly update
> > > To: Application of Artificial Intelligence and other advanced computing
> > > strategies to Wikimedia Projects 
> > > Cc: wikitech-l 
> > >
> > >
> > > Hey folks!
> > >
> > > I should really stop calling this a weekly update because it's getting
> a
> > > bit silly at this point.  :)   But if it were a weekly update, it would
> > > cover the weeks of 42 - 46.
> > >
> > > *Highlights:*
> > >
> > >- 3 new models: Finnish Wikipedia (reverted) and Estonian Wikipedia
> > >(damaging & goodfaith)
> > >
> > >
> > >- We estimated and agreed on funding for ORES servers in the next
> year
> > >with Operations
> > >
> > >
> > >- We published a paper about vandalism detection in Wikidata and a
> > blog
> > >post about the massive effect of some initiatives on coverage of
> Women
> > >Scientists in Wikipedia.
> > >
> > >
> > > *New development:*
> > >
> > >- We added recall-based threshold metrics to the new draftquality
> > model
> > >which should help tool devs know what which new page creations to
> > > highlight
> > >for review[1]
> > >
> > >
> > >- We added optional notices for ORES pages which will help us
> visually
> > >distinguish our experimental install in WMFlabs from the Prod
> install
> > (
> > >ores.wikimedia.org)[2]
> > >
> > >
> > >- We added basic language support for Finish (Thanks 4shadoww)[3]
> and
> > >deployed a 'reverted' model[4]
> > >
> > >
> > >- We lead a discussion in Wikidata about "item quality" that
> resulted
> > in
> > >a Wikipedia 1.0 like scale for Wikidata quality[5,6] and designed a
> > >Wikilabels form to capture the gist of it[7]
> > >
> > >
> > >- We enabled the ORES Review Tool on Czech Wikipedia[8]
> > >
> > >
> > >- We configured ChangeProp to use our new minified JSON output to
> save
> > >bandwidth[9]
> > >
> > >
> > >- We extended the Estonian language assets (Thanks Cumbril)[10] and
> > >deployed the 'damaging' and 'goodfaith' models[11,12]
> > >
> > >
> > >- We enabled a testing model for 'goodfaith' on the Beta Cluster to
> > make
> > >it easier for the Collaboration team to run tests with their new
> > 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] More politics: "WMF Annual Report"

[Amir Ladsgroup]

We are not taking a stand in different positions each party is taking on
economical matters. No one here wearing a donkey hat. Problem begins when a
party takes inhumane stance, fighting against it should not be considered a
political move. Trust me, that's exactly what happened in Iran.

Best

On Wed, Mar 8, 2017, 10:50 AM Rogol Domedonfors 
wrote:

> James
>
> On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 7:10 AM, you wrote:
>
> >
> > Do you think remaining politically neutral is compatible with
> > remaining accurate?
> >
>
> I would say yes.  Let me put two converse questions to you.  Do you believe
> truth and accuracy are to be found only at one ppint on the spectrum of
> political belief?  Do you believe that facts about (how the world is) are
> identical with beliefs about (how the world ought to be)?
>
> "Rogol"
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Politics

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Here is my two cents:
Most of criticism I saw boils down to these ones:
- It's politics and we should not make political statements: It's not just
political anymore, it's a humanitarian crisis. Handcuffing a five-year-old
boy in airport because of the country he was born is inhumane. Let's not
forget Holocaust was made by a democratic regime and it was completely
legal.
- There are worse things going on in other regimes: Yes, we have ISIS,
mullahs in Iran, etc. but look at the impact. This ban caused hate crimes
against Muslims all over the world. Terrorist attacks in Canada, setting
fire mosques in Texas are all because of this simple ban. if humans stay
silent, worse things happen to them. Let's learn from history.
 - People have different opinions, let's respect that: Yes, but Wikimedia
movement has core values such as inclusiveness and we need to stand for
those values when they are under threat. I take the gay rights example. If
someone makes a homophobic comment, they should be banned (per WP:NPA). So
if someone is as homophic AF and they want to be a part of the movement,
they need to park it at the door when they edit because inclusiveness is a
core value. One other core value is simply "Knowledge knows no boundaries"
and we need to stand for that, political or not.
 - People in WMF voted for Trump: If that's true, which I don't know
because anyone from WMF I know were publicly against Trump, It's very
saddening to see someone who works for WMF votes for someone who
practically opposed everything Wikimedia movement stands for. But It's a
personal matter outside the scope of this discussion. WMF can take a stand
when it's related to its values. Like what happened with SOPA and it is
possible that some employees were for SOPA but it was not the reason not to
take the stand. It's the same today as well.

May FSM bless you, Ramen.
Best

On Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 4:11 AM Gnangarra  wrote:

> The WMF has an obligation to respond to any changes where its based that
> impact on the movement or potentially impact on the movement, and that
> includes staff members or operational activities under taken.
>
> It cant respond to such changes without taking a POV regardless of the
> situation its not about the under lying politics.
>
> On 3 February 2017 at 08:26, Natacha Rault  wrote:
>
> > Had the WMF statement been issued on Wikipedia, now that would have
> > neutrality issues from a wikioedian point of view.
> > The WMF is not Wikipedia, and does have a political activity: being in
> > favour of sharing free knowledge is altogether a political statement, as
> > freedom of sharing knowledge is not something which is accepted by all
> > political regimes (please remember the globality of the movement, this is
> > not just an american issue, it is a planetary one). One only needs to
> think
> > about the influence of Diderot and the encyclopedists in the French
> > revolution to understand that an encyclopedia, albeit seemingly neutral,
> > has very concrete political influences in major political regime changes.
> > That the WMF which relies on the free movement of people and ideas to
> > fulfil its mission should be worried and issue a statement is quite
> normal
> > - not to say courageous. After all there is a notion called "freedom of
> > speech".
> > A foundation has actually no obligation to be fully transparent, and WMF
> > is making notable efforts in a context  where advertising, non disclosed
> > paid editing and lobbying are representing (in my opinion) a much greater
> > threat to neutrality than a public statement on this particular matter.
> > I am personnallly pretty impressed from across the ocean: in the 30s had
> > some leaders shown more courage maybe Hitler would not have been able to
> > start a genocide.
> > This not only political, this is common sense, and living in Switzerland
> > might influence a very pragmatic and down to the roots approach.
> > We are watching from over the ocean, as europeans these refugee bans
> > remind us of very dark memories.
> >  Katherine Maher did a statement and so what? That does not prevent
> > wikipedians from editing, and confronting opinions to approach NPOV
> > (actually there is no achieved NPOV on Wikipedia in what concerns the
> > gender biases as far as I see it)
> > Bravo Katherine this is what I say, Sandberg has not even uttered a
> tweet!
> > Neutrality should not mean surrending to the powerful by remaining
> silent.
> >
> > Nattes à chat / Natacha
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > Le 3 févr. 2017 à 00:05, Leigh Thelmadatter  a
> > écrit :
> > >
> > > I voiced my opposition to the statement on Facebook but Yair states the
> > case far more eloquently. Many acts by many countries could be a possible
> > threat to Wikimedia, where do we draw the line?
> > > Why was there no community discussion prior to the statement?
> > > Sent from my iPhone
> > >
> > >> On 02/02/2017, at 3:37 p.m., Yair Rand 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Concerns in general

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Yes they are: https://dumps.wikimedia.org/mirrors.html and three out of
four of them are outside U.S.

Best

On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 3:26 PM Gerard Meijssen 
wrote:

> Hoi,
> No they are not backed up outside the USA. I am not so sure there are off
> line backups/
> Thanks,
>   GerardM
>
> On 27 January 2017 at 10:10, Peter Southwood  >
> wrote:
>
> > I hope the servers are backed up outside the USA in at least two places
> > and that the data is also backed up off-line somewhere to make it
> > unhackable.
> > Cheers,
> > Peyer
> >
> > -Original Message-
> > From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-boun...@lists.wikimedia.org] On
> > Behalf Of Romaine Wiki
> > Sent: Friday, 27 January 2017 5:34 AM
> > To: Wikimedia
> > Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Concerns in general
> >
> > Today I was reading in the (international) news about websites with
> > knowledge on the topic of climate change disappear from the internet as
> > result of the Trump administration. The second thing I read is that
> before
> > something can be published about this topic, the government needs to
> > approve this.
> >
> > Do you realise what the right word for this is? censorship.
> > Even if it is only partially.
> >
> > Luckily there are many scientists working on getting all the data abroad,
> > out of the US to ensure the research data is saved, including on servers
> in
> > the Netherlands where Trump (hopefully) has no reach.
> >
> > In the past week I was reading about the Internet Archive organisation,
> > who is making a back up in Canada because of the Trump administration. I
> > did not understood this, you may call me naive, but now I do understand,
> > apparently they have some visionary people at the Internet Archive.
> >
> > I miss a good answer to this situation from the Wikimedia Foundation.
> >
> > Trump is now promoting harassment and disrespect, already for some time,
> >
> > What signal is given to the rest of the world if an America based
> > organisation is spreading the thought of a harassment free Wikipedia and
> > the free word, while the president of the US is promoting harassment,
> > disrespect and censorship on a massive scale.
> >
> > This is just the first week of this president!
> >
> > I am 100% sure everyone in the Wikimedia movement is willing to make sure
> > Wikimedia faces no damage whatsoever, including in WMF, but to me this
> > still starts to get concerning.
> >
> > If we as Wikimedia movement think that free knowledge, free speech,
> > freedom of information, etc are important, I would think that the
> location
> > where the organisation is based is that country where liberty is the
> > largest, I do not know where this is but it is definitely not the US.
> >
> > To my impression WMF is stuck in the US, so I do not believe they would
> > actually move when the danger grows.
> >
> > But I think it is possible to make sure risks are spread over the world.
> > Certainly as we are an international movement that intends to cover the
> > knowledge of the whole humanoid civilisation.
> >
> > To come to a conclusion, I think WMF and the Wikimedia movement should
> > think about a back-up plan if it actually goes wrong.
> >
> >
> > If you do not agree with me: that is perfectly fine, that's your right
> and
> > should be protected.
> >
> > Thank you.
> >
> > Romaine
> > ___
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> > -
> > No virus found in this message.
> > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
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> 01/26/17
> >
> >
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Apple Pay donations

[Amir Ladsgroup]

One rather unrelated thing: if you buy from smile.amazon.com, Amazon
donates 0.5% of your purchase to a non-profit foundations of your choice.
WMF is there and I chose it as mine. Maybe we can lobby and ask them to put
it on top of the suggestions.

Best

On Tue, Nov 15, 2016 at 4:42 AM Steven Walling 
wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> Today Apple announced a bunch of 501(c)3 partners which now can use Apple
> Pay to make instant donations. Announcement at:
> http://www.apple.com/newsroom/2016/11/a-touch-of-giving-with-apple-pay.html
>
> Does WMF fundraising have plans to integrate with Apple Pay, especially on
> mobile devices? I understand that right now it's limited to the US and the
> team has been focusing a ton on international payment providers (which is
> great). Given that payments on mobile are such a huge headache and
> declining desktop traffic to Wikimedia properties, it might be an
> interesting pilot to explore nonetheless.
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] How should security of Wikimedia accounts be better?

[Amir Ladsgroup]

There is no need to store phone number at all.
You need to install an app called "Google Authenticator" or similar ones.
Then you scan a QR code from a special page in Wikipedia. Then every time
you want to login, you need to give username, password and a short-lived
token the app gives you. See this for more details:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/labs-announce/2016-March/000104.html



On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 5:38 PM Fæ <fae...@gmail.com> wrote:

Good point Vito,

I agree that mobile numbers are personal information. However, my
understanding of the two-factor process would be that it can set up so
that mobile numbers are *guaranteed* to never be logged or archived
and only stored in a constrained way for a verification number to be
issued. There are various ways of getting two-factor processes to
work, so methods that do not rely on mobile numbers may suit
volunteers that are worried about sending their mobile phone number to
any server in the USA, where there are always questions about secret
access and storage for government agencies.

We can require that guarantees are given and transparently assured for
how any personal information like this is handled by WMF implemented
software. It could even be an area that requires legally meaningful
assurance, or local processing to avoid, say, Europeans sending any
personal data to the USA.  ;-)

Fae

On 12 November 2016 at 13:53, Vi to <vituzzu.w...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My phone number is something I consider highly sensitive. Linking this
kind
> of data to my online identity would be an unacceptable risk for me.
>
> Vito
>
> 2016-11-12 13:37 GMT+01:00 Amir Ladsgroup <ladsgr...@gmail.com>:
>
>> As far as I know 2FA is already implemented and mandatory for WMF staff
>> accounts and wikitech accounts. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T107605
>>
>> I emphasized on having 2fa for CUs, oversights and others with private
data
>> access: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T107605#2570342
>> Not sure what's blocking this.
>>
>> Best
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 3:57 PM Craig Franklin <cfrank...@halonetwork.net
>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > I know it's been said many times, but two-factor authentication,
>> mandatory
>> > for accounts with advanced privileges and optionally available for
>> everyone
>> > else, would seem to be a logical step.  It's not foolproof, but it
would
>> go
>> > a long way to making us less of a soft target.
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> > Craig
>> >
>> > On 12 November 2016 at 22:22, Fæ <fae...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > > Do any of the volunteers contributing to this list have ideas for
>> > > changes that may make a significant difference to security?
>> > >
>> > > Yesterday saw Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia account getting hacked, in the
>> > > process appearing to promote an organisation.[1] It was not the only
>> > > account compromised. This is being analysed, though as there are
>> > > security issues being examined, the analysis has not been made public
>> > > so far; plus it's the weekend :-)
>> > >
>> > > Over the last few years, there have improvements on account set-up
and
>> > > choice of passwords, along with user suggestions for better account
>> > > management. Users can also chose to use committed identities[2] to
>> > > make account recovery easier, and are encouraged to use more secure
>> > > passwords. Two-factor authentication,[3] such as using mobile phone
>> > > text messages, has been suggested a few times by volunteers, and this
>> > > might be a good moment to encourage the WMF to have better facilities
>> > > built into the projects. We could even make two-factor identification
>> > > a requirement for trusted users, such as administrators, important
>> > > bots, and "high profile" accounts, where they may have special rights
>> > > that could cause a fair amount of disruption if a hacked account were
>> > > not identified quickly. Considering that some administrator accounts
>> > > can lie dormant for many months without the actual user monitoring
it,
>> > > these could end up being far more disruptive than well-watched
>> > > accounts like Jimmy's.
>> > >
>> > > We may want extra security to remain mostly optional, keeping our
>> > > projects simple to access. Education of new volunteers and trusted
>> > > users may be critical for making it effective, such as avoiding
social
>> > > hacking. A clearer understanding of what the communit

Re: [Wikimedia-l] How should security of Wikimedia accounts be better?

[Amir Ladsgroup]

As far as I know 2FA is already implemented and mandatory for WMF staff
accounts and wikitech accounts. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T107605

I emphasized on having 2fa for CUs, oversights and others with private data
access: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T107605#2570342
Not sure what's blocking this.

Best

On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 3:57 PM Craig Franklin 
wrote:

> I know it's been said many times, but two-factor authentication, mandatory
> for accounts with advanced privileges and optionally available for everyone
> else, would seem to be a logical step.  It's not foolproof, but it would go
> a long way to making us less of a soft target.
>
> Cheers,
> Craig
>
> On 12 November 2016 at 22:22, Fæ  wrote:
>
> > Do any of the volunteers contributing to this list have ideas for
> > changes that may make a significant difference to security?
> >
> > Yesterday saw Jimmy Wales' Wikipedia account getting hacked, in the
> > process appearing to promote an organisation.[1] It was not the only
> > account compromised. This is being analysed, though as there are
> > security issues being examined, the analysis has not been made public
> > so far; plus it's the weekend :-)
> >
> > Over the last few years, there have improvements on account set-up and
> > choice of passwords, along with user suggestions for better account
> > management. Users can also chose to use committed identities[2] to
> > make account recovery easier, and are encouraged to use more secure
> > passwords. Two-factor authentication,[3] such as using mobile phone
> > text messages, has been suggested a few times by volunteers, and this
> > might be a good moment to encourage the WMF to have better facilities
> > built into the projects. We could even make two-factor identification
> > a requirement for trusted users, such as administrators, important
> > bots, and "high profile" accounts, where they may have special rights
> > that could cause a fair amount of disruption if a hacked account were
> > not identified quickly. Considering that some administrator accounts
> > can lie dormant for many months without the actual user monitoring it,
> > these could end up being far more disruptive than well-watched
> > accounts like Jimmy's.
> >
> > We may want extra security to remain mostly optional, keeping our
> > projects simple to access. Education of new volunteers and trusted
> > users may be critical for making it effective, such as avoiding social
> > hacking. A clearer understanding of what the community would want to
> > see improved would probably help set development priorities.
> >
> > Links
> > 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales#Compromised
> > 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Committed_identity
> > 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Fae
> > --
> > fae...@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
> >
> > ___
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> > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] LGBT+ safety considerations for conference venues

[Amir Ladsgroup]

There are two aspects in this situation. We have the law and we have the
enforcement. We know that most of ME countries have laws against LGBT
people and actively enforce it but for example in India even though there
is a law but it's not being enforced. On the other hand in North Carolina
(and lots of red states) we have the bathroom bill but not really enforced
(Imagine a policeman standing in every bathroom checking people's IDs) *but
*if police sees a trans person walking down the street they might arrest
him/her because of other reasons such as not having prescription
of hormone drugs (See the video) so they are enforcing an unwritten law
which is crazy and making the situation more complex.

The committee needs to take this into consideration.

Best

On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 10:34 PM Pax Ahimsa Gethen <
list-wikime...@funcrunch.org> wrote:

> Agreed, that link is just a broad overview. There are many other pages
> that drill down to specific laws and policies of regions and cities that
> affect the safety of LGBT+ people. From Amir Ladsgroup's reply it does
> sound like the Wikimania committee is aware of these issues and taking
> them seriously. Hopefully all conference and meetup planners will do the
> same.
>
> - Pax
>
>
> On 10/16/16 11:45 AM, Ilario Valdelli wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I suppose that it should be a group of people to give relevant reasons
> > and to be more proactive when selecting a bid mainly if connected with
> > a poor respect of rights or with the safety of some specific diversities.
> >
> > The link you give is more related to the rights than to the safety of
> > people. In my opinion is incomplete. For instance North Carolina is
> > not mentioned and looking at your link I would suppose that the whole
> > USA is a safety place.
> >
> > I would suggest to your group/you to list places where your life can
> > be at risk, places where diversities like LGBT are not accepted, and
> > safety countries or towns. Afterwards to push it as important
> > aspect/policy to consider when selecting a town for a conference
> > within Wikimania community.
> >
> > This may help a lot and may give more useful and transparent material
> > to the selection committee of Wiki conferences (because I have
> > understood that your reasons would include the selection not only of
> > Wikimania).
> >
> > Kind regards
> >
> > On 16.10.2016 19:20, Pax Ahimsa Gethen wrote:
> >> Thanks Anna. I forgot to include this relevant link (which I also
> >> posted in the Facebook discussion):
> >>
> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory
> >>
> >> - Pax
> >>
> >>
> >> On 10/16/16 10:14 AM, Anna Stillwell wrote:
> >>> These are lovely suggestions / requests. Thank you for raising them.
> >>> I'm
> >>> happy to hear of your positive experience at WikiConference.
> >>>
> >>> +1
> >>> /a
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 8:10 AM, Pax Ahimsa Gethen <
> >>> list-wikime...@funcrunch.org> wrote:
> >>>
>  Hello all. I had a positive experience at WikiConference North America
>  last weekend, where I gave a talk on transgender issues and
>  Wikipedia.[1]
>  I'm posting because there's an active discussion in Wikipedia
>  Weekly on
>  Facebook about choosing a host country for Wikimania 2018.[2] I am
>  concerned that some of the suggestions are not taking into account the
>  safety of LGBT+ people; not just those attending the conference,
>  but also
>  those living in the host country.
> 
>  As a queer trans atheist in a same-sex marriage, there are a number of
>  places where I am considered a criminal for just existing or going
>  about my
>  daily routine. This applies to some parts of the U.S. as well, by
>  the way;
>  I won't be visiting North Carolina as long as it's illegal for me
>  to use
>  the men's restroom there. Please keep these considerations in mind
>  when
>  planning meetups and conferences. Thank you.
> 
>  - Pax aka Funcrunch
> 
>  [1] http://funcrunch.org/blog/2016/10/12/making-connections-at-
>  wikiconference-north-america/
> 
>  [2] https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediaweekly/permalink/
>  1114259788621851/
> 
>
> --
> Pax Ahimsa Gethen | http://funcrunch.org
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimania-l] LGBT+ safety considerations for conference venues

[Amir Ladsgroup]

We talked about this in the LGBT meetup in Wikimania several times. As far
as I remember it is a huge concern for coordinators and Wikimania committee
when considering a bid for Wikimania. IIRC, there are several examples that
situation of LGBT laws was a reason to reject a bid.

So I assure you Wikimania committee is aware of these issues and keeps this
in their mind when deciding on bids. (I must note I'm not in these
committees. I talked about it with them before as a member of Wikimedia
LGBT)

I'm really saddened by the stupid laws made by ignorance of people. Let's
laugh at it and then educate them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIvCh3EQv1Q :)

Best

On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 8:57 PM Pine W  wrote:

> Hi Pax,
>
> My understanding is that WMF is doing a strategic review of Wikimania. If
> that is correct, considerations like the ones you raise about location
> could be included in the scope of that review. I'm pinging Ellie with the
> hope that she can provide information about the status of WMF's thinking
> about Wikimania, perhaps in a new thread. Wikimania involves significant
> amounts of time and money, and I am hoping that WMF will develop ways to
> align Wikimania with WMF and community strategic goals.
>
> Pine
>
> On Oct 16, 2016 08:10, "Pax Ahimsa Gethen" 
> wrote:
>
> Hello all. I had a positive experience at WikiConference North America
> last weekend, where I gave a talk on transgender issues and Wikipedia.[1]
> I'm posting because there's an active discussion in Wikipedia Weekly on
> Facebook about choosing a host country for Wikimania 2018.[2] I am
> concerned that some of the suggestions are not taking into account the
> safety of LGBT+ people; not just those attending the conference, but also
> those living in the host country.
>
> As a queer trans atheist in a same-sex marriage, there are a number of
> places where I am considered a criminal for just existing or going about my
> daily routine. This applies to some parts of the U.S. as well, by the way;
> I won't be visiting North Carolina as long as it's illegal for me to use
> the men's restroom there. Please keep these considerations in mind when
> planning meetups and conferences. Thank you.
>
> - Pax aka Funcrunch
>
> [1]
> http://funcrunch.org/blog/2016/10/12/making-connections-at-wikiconference-north-america/
>
> [2]
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikipediaweekly/permalink/1114259788621851/
>
> --
> Pax Ahimsa Gethen | http://funcrunch.org
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farsi Wikipedia

[Amir Ladsgroup]

I talked to Mohsen earlier and convinced him it's Persian. I hope it uses
Persian more often :D

Best

On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 1:25 PM Shlomi Fish  wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Jul 2016 22:40:12 +0430
> Mardetanha  wrote:
>
> > I would to let everyone know, after 13 years and millions of edits,
> Finally
> > Farsi Wikipedia has reached 500,000 article. This is a very historic
> moment
> > for all us in Farsi Wikipedia.
> >
> > Mardetanha
>
> Congratulations to the Persian Wikipedia contributors on reaching this
> landmark! Well done, and good luck in the future.
>
> One small nitpick if I may:
>
> http://behdad.org/farsi.html/
>
> “Persian is the English word for Farsi.”
>
> Regards,
>
> Shlomi Fish
>
> --
> -
> Shlomi Fish   http://www.shlomifish.org/
>
> *shlomif:* hack, hack, hack ; save ; make ; make test; commit. And start
> over.
>
> *mrjink:* hack, hack, hack; save; make; swear; fix typos; save; make; make
> test; swear some more; hack some more; save; make; make test; cheer;
> commit.
>
> *meep:* hack, make, test, segfault, oh noes, revert to previous revision
>
> Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Farsi Wikipedia

[Amir Ladsgroup]

We set up a page for people to send their congratulations.
https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%88%DB%8C%DA%A9%DB%8C%E2%80%8C%D9%BE%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%A7:%D8%AC%D8%B4%D9%86_%DB%B5%DB%B0%DB%B0%D9%87%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86_%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87

The community would be happy to see congratulation from people in the
Wikimedia movement.

Cheers

On Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 11:14 PM Tanweer Morshed 
wrote:

> That's a fabulous news! Heartfelt congratulations to all the Farsi
> Wikipedians :)
>
> On Thu, Jul 28, 2016 at 12:34 AM, Shani  wrote:
>
> > Wonderful news! Congrats!
> >
> > Shani.
> > On 27 Jul 2016 21:32, "Cornelius Kibelka" <
> cornelius.kibe...@wikimedia.de>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Congratulations, great news!
> > > !تبریک می گویم!
> > >
> > > C.
> > >
> > > On 27 July 2016 at 20:27, Ivan Martínez  wrote:
> > >
> > > > Congratulations!
> > > >
> > > > 2016-07-27 13:15 GMT-05:00 Kevin Payravi :
> > > >
> > > > > Awesome to hear, Mardentanha! Congratulations to you and the rest
> of
> > > the
> > > > > Farsi Wikipedia editors.
> > > > >
> > > > > Kevin Payravi
> > > > > W: www.kevinpayravi.com
> > > > > E: kevinpayr...@gmail.com
> > > > > P: (330) 554 - 3397
> > > > >
> > > > > On Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 2:13 PM, Asaf Bartov <
> abar...@wikimedia.org>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > Fantastic news!  Congratulations to all Farsi contributors! \o/
> > > > > >
> > > > > >A.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > On Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 11:10 AM, Mardetanha <
> > > > mardetanha.w...@gmail.com>
> > > > > > wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > I would to let everyone know, after 13 years and millions of
> > edits,
> > > > > > Finally
> > > > > > > Farsi Wikipedia has reached 500,000 article. This is a very
> > > historic
> > > > > > moment
> > > > > > > for all us in Farsi Wikipedia.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Mardetanha
> > > > > > > ___
> > > > > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
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> > > > > > > Unsubscribe:
> > > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> > > > > > >  > > ?subject=unsubscribe>
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > --
> > > > > > Asaf Bartov
> > > > > > Wikimedia Foundation 
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely
> share
> > in
> > > > the
> > > > > > sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
> > > > > > https://donate.wikimedia.org
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> > > > > >
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> > > > >  ?subject=unsubscribe>
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > *Iván Martínez*
> > > >
> > > > *Presidente - Wikimedia México A.C.User:ProtoplasmaKid *
> > > >
> > > > // Mis comunicaciones respecto a Wikipedia/Wikimedia pueden tener una
> > > > moratoria en su atención debido a que es un voluntariado.
> > > > // Ayuda a proteger a Wikipedia, dona ahora:
> > > https://donate.wikimedia.org
> > > > ___
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> > > > 
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Cornelius Kibelka
> > > Program and Engagement Coordinator (PEC), GHM
> > > for the Wikimedia Conference
> > >
> > > Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
> > > Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
> > > http://wikimedia.de
> > >
> > > Stellen Sie sich eine Welt vor, in der jeder Mensch an der Menge allen
> > > Wissens frei teilhaben kann. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
> > > http://spenden.wikimedia.de/
> > >
> > > Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
> > > Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg
> > unter
> > > der Nummer 23855 

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Clarifications on 2014 Form 990

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Thanks Patricio for the detailed answer which fully eliminated my concerns.
One thing that bothers me all the time is the very late answer from the
board. I'm pretty sure so many comments about Sue wouldn't be said if you
sent this response earlier. We've been through this that these statements
needs to be checked by the board, legal, probably comms, etc. and I
understand it's time consuming but this is another case of a publicity
crisis that could've been avoided by a faster response.

Do you have any plans to improve this?
Best

On Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 6:40 AM Kat Walsh  wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 6:50 PM, MZMcBride  wrote:
> > Patricio Lorente wrote:
> >>We’ve heard your questions and want to address them broadly, as well as
> >>provide more information about the breakdown of Sue’s compensation during
> >>this time.
> >
> > Thank you for this e-mail.
> >
> >>One point of confusion is for the period this compensation covers. This
> is
> >>reasonable, this confused even some of us involved in preparing this
> >>response. Although the majority of activities reported on the Form 990
> >>cover the Foundation’s fiscal year (specifically, the six months between
> >>July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015), the IRS requires that details about
> >>compensation for certain highly-paid individuals are for the full
> calendar
> >>year in which the fiscal year begins or ends.
> >
> > This parenthetical confused me. Six months from July 2014 to June 2015?
> >
> >>(2) Retention bonus to compensate Sue for lost opportunities during the
> >>transition period: $165,000.
> >
> > This is the key piece that I think most people didn't understand or
> > realize. Was this information published anywhere previously (e.g., in the
> > Board minutes)? I wouldn't expect to see an exact amount, of course, but
> > this is a pretty substantial amount of donor money, so I'd expect at
> least
> > a "we approved a retention bonus for special advisor Sue Gardner"-type
> > notice somewhere, typically on wikimediafoundation.org.
> >
> >>Sue’s special advisor status with the Foundation ended on May 31, 2016,
> >>and she is no longer on contract with the Foundation or receiving any
> >>compensation from it.
> >
> > I can't help but think about the tempestuous past year that the Wikimedia
> > Foundation has had, including issues with Sue's immediate successor.
>
> I left the board in the middle of this process, so I was present for
> part of the discussions around what would happen but not all of it,
> and my understanding may be out of date.
>
> The understanding I left with is that the Special Advisor role would
> be created and would be paid regardless of whether she was actually
> being consulted--so that the outgoing ED would continue to reserve
> time to be available, and the new ED would not have a financial
> incentive to end the relationship early. However, this doesn't
> guarantee that the relationship would continue to any significant
> degree, only that the consulting time was already reserved and paid
> for.
>
> -Kat
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] VIDEO: This is the Wikimedia Foundation & This is Wikipedia

[Amir Ladsgroup]

This is super awesome. Thank you Victor!

Best

On Fri, May 6, 2016 at 2:45 AM Omar David Sandoval Sida 
wrote:

> Nice video, thanks for sharing!
>
> 2016-05-05 17:01 GMT-05:00 Victor Grigas :
>
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > I just uploaded 2 videos here:
> >
> >
> >
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:This_is_the_Wikimedia_Foundation.webm
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQzZI0l3IOw
> > https://vimeo.com/165444283
> >
> > and here:
> >
> > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:This_is_Wikipedia.webm
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gi129oEk0M
> > https://vimeo.com/165495822
> >
> > Each is an attempt to explain the Wikimedia movement in under 2 minutes
> > through the lens of a fundraising appeal.
> >
> > I'd like to be able to make more videos in this style (with burned-in
> > innertitles) in various languages, and I'd like to be able to collaborate
> > and create media with others to do that. I think the way to start that is
> > to draft a tutorial for how to make or fork these so that anyone could
> make
> > their own version, with their own messaging. This would probably live on
> > the WMF blog, and also on Meta.
> >
> > If such a tutorial would be of interest to you, I'd love to chat - please
> > message me off list.
> >
> > Thank you!
> >
> > --
> >
> > *Victor Grigas*
> > Storyteller  and
> > Video
> > Content Producer
> > Wikimedia Foundation
> > vgri...@wikimedia.org
> > https://donate.wikimedia.org/
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Why we changed

[Amir Ladsgroup]

I think the impact of HHVM rollout hasn't tested on new user survival rate
[1] they might become very active later.

[1]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Surviving_new_editor

Best
On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 1:14 PM Ori Livneh  wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 1:26 AM, Tim Starling 
> wrote:
>
> > On 22/02/16 18:45, Erik Moeller wrote:
> > > The numbers for "very active editors" appear to have stabilized at a
> > > slightly higher level than previously. I can't find any firm
> > > conclusion on what has caused this in Wikimedia's public
> > > communications, but the HHVM rollout, long-planned and implemented in
> > > December 2014 under Ori Livneh's leadership seems like a plausible
> > > hypothesis:
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/29/how-we-made-editing-wikipedia-twice-as-fast/
> >
> > I don't think it is plausible, given the data collected at:
> >
> > <
> >
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:HHVM_newcomer_engagement_experiment
> > >
> >
> > 25,000 new users were put into an HHVM bucket, so the whole site was
> > twice as fast for them. Then they were tracked for a week. There was
> > no improvement in engagement or productivity.
> >
>
> Erik is supposing the impact was felt by highly-active editors, a
> hypothesis which was not tested by this experiment. Few users become active
> editors; few active editors become very active; and few very active editors
> become very active in their first week as registered users, which is all
> that the experiment considered -- the activity of new users during their
> first week.
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[Wikimedia-l] Technical issues of Wikimedia [was: Particular interests and common ground]

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Hey Milos,
You talked about things that I'm in no place to comment but I want to
emphasize on this part of your email:
"For the last 8 years, just two things have been working without
problems in WMF: Money and tech infrastructure (servers, "plain"
MediaWiki, optimizations etc.)."
We hear about technical issues of Wikipedia a lot. We hear Wikipedia is
behind in technology, that it's underperforming. etc. etc. It's not just
you. It's a lot of people in the community of editors too. I highly doubt
that I can comment on this matter, there are definitely better people but I
can't keep it anymore. Maybe my perspective as a non-WMF employee who works
in technical issues would be worth publishing.

The process of getting something technical done is as the same as editing
in wiki. It needs a certain amount of expertise like editing most of the
articles as well. Anyone can make a patch for every part of Wikipedia and
after some code review. it's there. IMO saying "technical parts of
Wikipedia sucks" is as the same as "Wikipedia sucks". Technical space of
Wikimedia is filled with volunteers. I saw unimaginable times that people
work over the weekend, take a day off and then work again because unlike
most companies people care about their job in a good way. Helping in
technical issues just need passion and caring. Let me tell you a story. I
didn't know how to write a line of code in my first three years of editing
Wikipedia. I was just a teenage boy who was making articles about movies he
watched, songs he liked, etc. and then I cared about Wikipedia so much that
I wanted to help more and I heard about cool things called robots (and
believe me, for a very long time I thought bots are physical things that
edit Wikipedia) so I tried to read about it, there was virtually no help in
Persian and my English was so bad that I needed dictionary for everything I
read (google translate was a sci-fi idea back then) but I learned and
learned and I'm still learning just to make Wikipedia a better place, I
hate programming as a goal, it's just a mean.

I just want to remind you people done a hell out of job in technical
aspects. It wasn't just in their working time. It was also a huge volunteer
time too, either by staff or non-WMF employees. Feeling this advantages is
not hard. Just take a look at Google's Knol. It was done by *the* Google
and it's this. We, as a movement, are competing with companies like Google,
Facebook or twitter the same way we are competing with Britannica.
Honestly, I think if someone just published a statement saying "There is a
cool project called Knowledge Engine but we don't have money for it, We can
just give you a space to put your source code and test it, and running it."
We would be knocking over google by 2020, as what we did with Britannica.

I think, maybe I'm wrong please correct me if I am, the biggest problem is
the user interface design of Wikipedia. It looks boring. I know there were,
and there are great designers who also love Wikipedia the same way you do.
I saw what they are capable of. Look at Winter or preferences redesign [1].
They are capable of making Wikipedia ten times more user-friendly and
beautiful. I don't know why it hasn't happened, maybe the community is too
conservative, maybe it's some kind of branding. I asked my life partner and
he said Wikipedia looks beautiful to the most of its readers, the same way
a fresh cupcake smells good, because Wikipedia is awesome. I guess people
who work in bakeries doesn't like the smell of cupcakes as much as other
people.

My last words: If you encounter any technical issues, please report and if
you think it's important to solve technical problems you are more than
welcome to join the club. Just check out the developer hub [2] and
there are tons of manuals in the internet, also there are people in IRC
channels willing to help.

[1]: It aches my heart every time I see it:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Redesign_user_preferences

[2]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_hub

I hope more people chime in and comment to fix this misconception or
correct me.
Best
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] An Open Letter to Wikimedia Foundation BoT

[Amir Ladsgroup]

I disagree Yaroslav,
1- This affects Wikipedia indirectly.
When downtime goes up alongside with editing time, we will lose users.
New users won't stay, etc. it damages new user retention and therefore,
the viability of the project in the long term.
2- Wikipedia is up because of its editors but also because we have a huge
infrastructure around it. A simple example: A hypothetical buggy release of
mediawiki due to lapses of inexperienced staff (because we lost
experienced ones let's say for a similar incident in the future) can lead
to a huge security breach and losing a huge amount of trust. This damage
can't and won't be fixed.
3- Staff and editors are not totally separated, living in a different
world. It's a chain filled by volunteer organizers and volunteer
developers. People who are active in chapters, technical projects etc. If
staff lose their trust in WMF, all other members of the chain will fall
afterwards. A simple example: pywikibot is being maintained entirely by the
volunteers but some of them are staff in their volunteer capacity. We lose
them, then we lose other maintainers of pywikibot and then eventually bots
will fail to run what do you think if we don't have any bots in wikis,
especially small wikis? Think of GLAM. Reach out programs, etc.

A note: These are extreme cases. I hope they will never happen.

Best

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 1:22 AM Yaroslav M. Blanter 
wrote:

> On 2016-02-18 21:20, Leila Zia wrote:
> > Hi Dariusz,
> >
> > I want to share with you the following relatively scattered thoughts
> > and
> > leave it to you to decide how to continue engaging with us. :-) I hope
> > you
> > find them helpful:
> >
> > * BoT has been too silent, given the state of matters. I'm much more
> > worried about our volunteers when I say this, than the WMF's staff
> > (which
> > I'm one of).
>
> To be honest, most volunteers do not care. We understand of course that
> if things would go really wrong, for example, servers stop running, or
> money runs out and ads are introduced, or English Wikipedia admins
> continue resigning/being desysopped without proper replacement, so that
> we have ten active admins, then we are in serious trouble. But as far as
> things are running quasi-normal, we just continue. I was making 50 to
> 100 edits per day five years ago, I am making 50 to 100 edits per day
> now, I will probably still be making 50 to 100 edits per day in five
> years, unless I die or leave because of a serious demotivation - and
> this demotivation is unlikely to be related to WMF. I think staff are
> way more vulnerable to all kinds of events.
>
>
> > * Because of the lack of clear communications by the BoT, I'm uncertain
> > whether there is an acknowledgement by the BoT about the issues we are
> > facing. What can assure me at the moment is to see a list of items the
> > BoT
> > sees as problematic, and a plan for addressing them, and a schedule for
> > when we should expect seeing them addressed. (Half-jokingly: maybe we
> > need
> > a phabrictor board for the BoT to track specific tasks that can be
> > shared
> > publicly and their prioritization).
> >
>
> This is a cool idea. It is a pity it has zero chances to be realized.
>
> Cheers
> Yaroslav
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Update from the Board

[Amir Ladsgroup]

May I ask a question:
Do you think it's ethical to ignore community demand for an explanation or
a statement for *three weeks *and then issue a statement just within *three
hours* after the story publishes in BBC
 ? Is publicity and public
image of WMF BoT is this important to you comparing to what community asks?

Note: the BBC story has published in "2016-01-26T18:10:21+00:00" UTC. You
can check when the statement has issued.

I really really want to be mistaken, please tell me I'm mistaken

Best

On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 5:50 AM Elliott Eggleston 
wrote:

> Let me echo the call for more frequent, substantive updates from the board.
> Articles about the controversy are on Ars Techinca
> <
> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/01/editors-demand-ouster-of-wikimedia-board-member-involved-in-no-poach-deal
> >
> and the BBC , and have made
> it
> to the front page of Reddit
> <
> https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/42r7t3/wikipedia_editors_revolt_vote_no_confidence_in/
> >.
> This has gone beyond diminishing the staff's and community's trust in the
> board and is now damaging the image of the entire movement. The idea that
> "Wikipedia is something special" where integrity and transparency are
> priorities has attracted editors, donors, and employees. Let's not lose
> that.
>
> -Elliott
>
> On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 12:28 PM, Lodewijk 
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Alice,
> >
> > thanks for the update. It's been quite a while - and you don't seem to
> give
> > a clear time table for further updates. The silence is damaging, and I
> hope
> > it goes away quickly, allowing some honest conversation. I can understand
> > that you want full information, but please also note that the
> conversation
> > in the community continues, with or without the board (whether we like it
> > or not) - and I'd prefer your voices of reason to be part of that. Could
> > you at least check back every few days to confirm you're still discussing
> > it, that there's still investigation going on, etc? For us, it is hard to
> > differentiate between nothing going on, or busy discussions in a
> backroom.
> >
> > After this all is over, maybe it is good to sit back, and consider some
> > kind of protocol or standard approach for a next time - because there
> > always will be a next time.
> >
> > Best,
> > Lodewijk
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 9:14 PM, Alice Wiegand 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Dear all,
> > > the Board has read your messages and is discussing the concerns you
> have
> > > raised about Arnnon Geshuri’s appointment. We need to consider all
> > > information and we have conversations among ourselves. Arnnon and the
> > board
> > > are listening to your worries and talking with community members,
> > > considering people's opinions and his own next steps.
> > >
> > > In the recent round of appointments, the Board identified that we
> needed
> > > support and expertise in two areas: financial oversight and planning,
> and
> > > human resources. Kelly and Arnnon were identified through the process,
> > > reviewed alongside other nominees, and selected as finalists based on
> > their
> > > expertise and backgrounds. We all agreed they were excellent candidates
> > and
> > > people, and supported their progress as finalists.
> > >
> > > We understand this conversation will continue, and we will continue to
> > > monitor it. However, we want to be clear that the Board approved Arnnon
> > > unanimously and still believes he is a valuable member of the team.
> > >
> > > Please see this as a brief update. We owe you a more detailed response,
> > and
> > > we plan to come back to you with more information soon.
> > >
> > > Alice.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Alice Wiegand
> > > Board of Trustees
> > > Wikimedia Foundation
> > >
> > > Support Free Knowledge: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
> > > ___
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[Wikimedia-l] Redirect blog.wikipedia.org to the Wikimedia Blog

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Hey,
The subject is self-explanatory (also I have this suggestion for
blog.wikiquote.org and other projects as well)

What do you think?

Best
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Redirect blog.wikipedia.org to the Wikimedia Blog

[Amir Ladsgroup]

We already have some subdomains that are not related to language, biggest
example: ten.wikipedia.org

My motivation of this request is that makes access for people who doesn't
know what's wikimedia easier. Everyone knows wikipedia but less people know
about wikimedia and the organization behind wikipedia. I had to explain
this everytime I'm invited by WMF and visa officer asks me "what is
wikimedia?" it may lead to better recognition of WMF by wikipedia readers.
I won't make a huge difference. Just a redirect.

Best

On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 4:56 AM MZMcBride <z...@mzmcbride.com> wrote:

> Amir Ladsgroup wrote:
> >The subject is self-explanatory (also I have this suggestion for
> >blog.wikiquote.org and other projects as well)
> >
> >What do you think?
>
> Hi.
>
> Why? The request is self-explanatory, but the uses and use-cases are not.
>
> MZMcBride
>
>
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia websites is not accessible almost everywhere in Iran

[Amir Ladsgroup]

A quick update: It's back but still unavailable in some ISPs.

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 10:24 PM Denny Vrandecic <dvrande...@wikimedia.org>
wrote:

> Oh, thanks for the report. IP blocks suck more than DNS meddling...
>
> On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 11:12 AM, Amir Ladsgroup <ladsgr...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > It seems IP of WMF wikis is being blocked so AFAIK it doesn't really
> depend
> > on domain name.
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 9:32 PM Denny Vrandecic <
> dvrande...@wikimedia.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > IIRC we used to have the alternative URL
> > >
> > > https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikinews/fa/wiki/
> > >
> > > in order to access
> > >
> > > https://fa.wikinews.org/wiki
> > >
> > > but it seems that these were turned into redirects, probably when the
> > https
> > > switch happened.
> > >
> > > Would it be an idea to not make them redirects but return the content
> on
> > > the wikimedia domain, or, even better, on the wikipedia domain (and
> maybe
> > > any of our domains) as well?
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Denny
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 10:34 AM, Mardetanha <
> mardetanha.w...@gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Not all WMF websites are blocked in Iran, Till now commons is blocked
> > and
> > > > Fawikinews (starting this evening), as far as I contacted local
> > > > authorities, they didn't confirm the block, they only said it might
> > > > technical issue, I am still try to get more information to see what
> is
> > > > happening
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Mardetanha
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 8:33 PM, Amir Ladsgroup <ladsgr...@gmail.com
> >
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > It had started with Wikimedia Commons and then
> upload.wikimedia.org
> > > (so
> > > > no
> > > > > images) and now Persian Wikinews and I just realized except a few
> > > number
> > > > of
> > > > > ISPs all WM websites are blocked everywhere. Obviously analytics
> can
> > > give
> > > > > more details.
> > > > >
> > > > > I talked with legal team in Wikimania and asked them for a direct
> > talk
> > > or
> > > > > any kind of negotiation with Iranian government to make things
> easier
> > > but
> > > > > It's going worse. they lifted block on CNN once Rouhani had
> interview
> > > > with
> > > > > them two years ago.
> > > > >
> > > > > Any ideas?
> > > > >
> > > > > Best
> > > > > ___
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia websites is not accessible almost everywhere in Iran

[Amir Ladsgroup]

It seems IP of WMF wikis is being blocked so AFAIK it doesn't really depend
on domain name.

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 9:32 PM Denny Vrandecic <dvrande...@wikimedia.org>
wrote:

> IIRC we used to have the alternative URL
>
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikinews/fa/wiki/
>
> in order to access
>
> https://fa.wikinews.org/wiki
>
> but it seems that these were turned into redirects, probably when the https
> switch happened.
>
> Would it be an idea to not make them redirects but return the content on
> the wikimedia domain, or, even better, on the wikipedia domain (and maybe
> any of our domains) as well?
>
> Cheers,
> Denny
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 10:34 AM, Mardetanha <mardetanha.w...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Not all WMF websites are blocked in Iran, Till now commons is blocked and
> > Fawikinews (starting this evening), as far as I contacted local
> > authorities, they didn't confirm the block, they only said it might
> > technical issue, I am still try to get more information to see what is
> > happening
> >
> >
> > Mardetanha
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 8:33 PM, Amir Ladsgroup <ladsgr...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > It had started with Wikimedia Commons and then upload.wikimedia.org
> (so
> > no
> > > images) and now Persian Wikinews and I just realized except a few
> number
> > of
> > > ISPs all WM websites are blocked everywhere. Obviously analytics can
> give
> > > more details.
> > >
> > > I talked with legal team in Wikimania and asked them for a direct talk
> or
> > > any kind of negotiation with Iranian government to make things easier
> but
> > > It's going worse. they lifted block on CNN once Rouhani had interview
> > with
> > > them two years ago.
> > >
> > > Any ideas?
> > >
> > > Best
> > > ___
> > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
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> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia websites is not accessible almost everywhere in Iran

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Block depends on so many factors, depends on ISP you can see wide range of
behavior, for me nothing is blocked since my ISP is IPM. This behavior is
changing and that's worrying to me. Wikipedia was accessible using Irancell
in Tehran but right now it's not. More worrying, upload.wikimedia.org is
blocked so without proxy there is no image (except images in cache)
anywhere in any wiki. People in Shiraz don't have access to any WMF wiki at
all but as I said we need to check more deeply into this matter and start
talking to the government or anyone useful ASAP. I will talk to some people
tomorrow in a conference I will attend.

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 9:27 PM Mardetanha <mardetanha.w...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Not all WMF websites are blocked in Iran, Till now commons is blocked and
> Fawikinews (starting this evening), as far as I contacted local
> authorities, they didn't confirm the block, they only said it might
> technical issue, I am still try to get more information to see what is
> happening
>
>
> Mardetanha
>
> On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 8:33 PM, Amir Ladsgroup <ladsgr...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > It had started with Wikimedia Commons and then upload.wikimedia.org (so
> no
> > images) and now Persian Wikinews and I just realized except a few number
> of
> > ISPs all WM websites are blocked everywhere. Obviously analytics can give
> > more details.
> >
> > I talked with legal team in Wikimania and asked them for a direct talk or
> > any kind of negotiation with Iranian government to make things easier but
> > It's going worse. they lifted block on CNN once Rouhani had interview
> with
> > them two years ago.
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> > Best
> > ___
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[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia websites is not accessible almost everywhere in Iran

[Amir Ladsgroup]

It had started with Wikimedia Commons and then upload.wikimedia.org (so no
images) and now Persian Wikinews and I just realized except a few number of
ISPs all WM websites are blocked everywhere. Obviously analytics can give
more details.

I talked with legal team in Wikimania and asked them for a direct talk or
any kind of negotiation with Iranian government to make things easier but
It's going worse. they lifted block on CNN once Rouhani had interview with
them two years ago.

Any ideas?

Best
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Cebuano and Waray-waray Wikipedias among Top 10

[Amir Ladsgroup]

I'm a bot operator in Persian Wikipedia (~500K articles) and I'm directly
or indirectly responsible for creating more than half of the articles in
that Wiki using automated or semi-automated tools that I built. If our
language used Latin alphabet, we definitely would be one of the five
biggest wikis.

I'm telling this to emphasize I'm not against bot-creating articles in
general but I agree this is not the way we build Wikipedia.

We create articles of Wikipedia for people to read. Even if your articles
has a very low quality eventually someone will improve it [1] but articles
that have reader. How many of these articles will be read by people?
Honestly I think 100K out of the 1M was enough.

That's why we created articles by bot in broad topics in Persian Wikipedia
(minor planets 16K, villages of Iran 70K, national heritages of Iran 20K,
cities of the world ~20K, chemical compounds 10-20K) because 20K articles
in same topic attracts less then half of reader comparing to combination of
10K in one topic and 10K in another topic.

[1]: IPs can't create article, we enabled it once, disaster. but they can
edit articles (low-quality-bot-created articles) and it attracts to add
something and after a while they become a regular editor. That's why
Persian Wikipedia has one of the highest growth rate in number of users and
active users. So bot-created articles can be useful but not this way.
Best

On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 1:54 PM, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Hoi,
 I would not say that the Encyclopaedia Britannica is NOT an encyclopaedia.

 The objective of Wikipedia is EXACTLY that it is read. Not that it is
 edited.

 You can argue all you like against bot generated articles but in the final
 analysis it is doing a much better job than not providing information.
 Arguably it is not needed to save them as articles because it is possible
 to generate them on the fly based on information from Wikidata and cache
 the results but that is EXACTLY the kind of technology that would bring
 missing information to any Wikipedia without distorting the number of
 articles for people who only care about editors and editing. It is EXACTLY
 the kind of technology I would welcome the WMF to explore.
 Thanks,
   GerardM

 On 6 July 2015 at 11:09, Ilario Valdelli valde...@gmail.com wrote:

  https://war.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinaurog:ActiveUsers
  https://ceb.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espesyal:ActiveUsers
 
  An encyclopedia in the first 10 places without a community is it an
  encyclopedia?
 
  Is the community important to say that wikipedia is wikipedia? In this
 case
  these projects are demonstrating that Wikipedia can renounce to one of
 its
  pilaster.
 
  In my opinion the impact of Waray Waray or of Cebuan is a demonstration
  that any strange language can have a big traffic if it is placed in the
  first places of the ranking because it will be best ranked in search
  engines.
 
  But an impact is something that produces effects and dissemination. I
  don't see impact because the bot has increased only one measure (page
 view)
  and nothing else.
 
  If the impact must be produced with SEO, the parameters of evaluations
 must
  change.
 
  It is different when a bot is running in an encyclopedia supported by a
  mature community, because the articles will be improved in quality and
  will generate more and more effects.
 
  Regards
 
 
 
  On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 10:55 AM, Gerard Meijssen 
  gerard.meijs...@gmail.com
  wrote:
 
   Hoi,
   How do you know that there is no impact ?
  
   https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthlyCombined.htm
 shows
   clearly how much Cebuano has grown considerably in page views. The same
  is
   true for Waray Waray. Compare it to languages with a similar number of
   speakers. Please explain how this is not a real impact !
   Thanks,
 GerardM
  
   On 6 July 2015 at 10:20, Ilario Valdelli valde...@gmail.com wrote:
  
This is an example about how to produce a formal impact without a
   real
impact.
   
   
   
On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 7:31 AM, Salvador A salvador1...@gmail.com
   wrote:
   
 Hi!

 I just I noticed that Cebuano and Waray-waray Wikipedia are inside
  the
list
 of the 10 Wikipedias with more articles.[1] It seems it happened
  during
 this weekend. Maybe in the case of Waray Wikipedia happened a
 little
 before. Somebody knows when did it was exactly? Did I miss a thread
 announcing this?

 Waray-waray is now the 6th place and Cebuano has surpassed it.wiki
  and
 es.wiki and gained the place number 8, mainly due to Lsjbot
 work.[2]
 Definitely a milestone in Wikipedia and bots history.

 [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias
 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lsjbot


 --
 *Salvador Alcántar*
 *@salvador_alc*
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Pywikipedia-l] Fwd: [Wikitech-l] API BREAKING CHANGE: Default continuation mode for action=query will change at the end of this month

[Amir Ladsgroup]

Can you name one?

On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 5:02 AM John phoenixoverr...@gmail.com wrote:

 This is something that the pywiki devs need to fix in compat. Please dont
 give me shit about moving to core. I have yet to have it not fatally error
 out in less than 10 minutes of using it. There are still a lot of features
 that core doesnt have, or that are poorly implemented.

 On Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 8:27 PM, Pine W wiki.p...@gmail.com wrote:

 Forwarding because of the significance of the change for bots. My
 understanding is that this affects all wikis, so please get this
 information out to relevant bot operators on all wikis. Translated
 messages
 may be very much appreciated.

 Pine
 -- Forwarded message --
 From: Brad Jorsch (Anomie) bjor...@wikimedia.org
 Date: Jun 2, 2015 1:43 PM
 Subject: [Wikitech-l] API BREAKING CHANGE: Default continuation mode for
 action=query will change at the end of this month
 To: Wikimedia developers wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org, 
 mediawiki-api-annou...@lists.wikimedia.org
 Cc:

 As has been announced several times (most recently at
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2015-April/081559.html),
 the default continuation mode for action=query requests to api.php will be
 changing to be easier for new coders to use correctly.

 *The date is now set:* we intend to merge the change to ride the
 deployment
 train at the end of June. That should be 1.26wmf12, to be deployed to test
 wikis on June 30, non-Wikipedias on July 1, and Wikipedias on July 2.

 If your bot or script is receiving the warning about this upcoming change
 (as seen here
 https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=querylist=allpages, for
 example), it's time to fix your code!

- The simple solution is to simply include the rawcontinue parameter
with your request to continue receiving the raw continuation data (
example


 https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=querylist=allpagesrawcontinue=1
 ).
No other code changes should be necessary.
- Or you could update your code to use the simplified continuation
documented at
 https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Query#Continuing_queries
(example

 https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php?action=querylist=allpagescontinue=
 ),
which is much easier for clients to implement correctly.

 Either of the above solutions may be tested immediately, you'll know it
 works because you stop seeing the warning.

 I've compiled a list of bots that have hit the deprecation warning more
 than 1 times over the course of the week May 23-29. If you are
 responsible for any of these bots, please fix them. If you know who is,
 please make sure they've seen this notification. Thanks.

 AAlertBot
 AboHeidiBot
 AbshirBot
 Acebot
 Ameenbot
 ArnauBot
 Beau.bot
 Begemot-Bot
 BeneBot*
 BeriBot
 BOT-Superzerocool
 CalakBot
 CamelBot
 CandalBot
 CategorizationBot
 CatWatchBot
 ClueBot_III
 ClueBot_NG
 CobainBot
 CorenSearchBot
 Cyberbot_I
 Cyberbot_II
 DanmicholoBot
 DeltaQuadBot
 Dexbot
 Dibot
 EdinBot
 ElphiBot
 ErfgoedBot
 Faebot
 Fatemibot
 FawikiPatroller
 HAL
 HasteurBot
 HerculeBot
 Hexabot
 HRoestBot
 IluvatarBot
 Invadibot
 Irclogbot
 Irfan-bot
 Jimmy-abot
 JYBot
 Krdbot
 Legobot
 Lowercase_sigmabot_III
 MahdiBot
 MalarzBOT
 MastiBot
 Merge_bot
 NaggoBot
 NasirkhanBot
 NirvanaBot
 Obaid-bot
 PatruBOT
 PBot
 Phe-bot
 Rezabot
 RMCD_bot
 Shuaib-bot
 SineBot
 SteinsplitterBot
 SvickBOT
 TaxonBot
 Theo's_Little_Bot
 W2Bot
 WLE-SpainBot
 Xqbot
 YaCBot
 ZedlikBot
 ZkBot


 --
 Brad Jorsch (Anomie)
 Software Engineer
 Wikimedia Foundation
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Design of BoT election banner

[Amir Ladsgroup]

The banner without the ribbon is good, but the ribbon is unnecessary and
too flashy IMHO, I asked several people and didn't get even one positive
feedback. And my friends agreed it is the ribbon. We could use something
else to make the banner noticeable, now it's noticeable but in a bad way.

Best

On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 9:24 PM James Alexander jalexan...@wikimedia.org
wrote:

 Aye, I asked a designer to give some nice options and presented them to the
 committee. While there are certainly some people who have not liked the
 banner I have generally heard good feedback overall from community members
 (significantly more good then bad) and have made adjustments to the banner
 to make it more accessible after some comments over the past 2 days. The
 banner is certainly a bit more colorful then most but that is, indeed, very
 much on purpose.

 The board specifically asked Philippe and I to create some banners that are
 a bit flashier so that we could draw attention to the call for candidates
 (and the desire for diversity) and, later, the election itself. There was a
 strong concern that the traditional banners were significantly harder to
 notice and pay attention too and that drawing your eye was important for
 this work.

 There is no doubt that *any* banner gets complaints and is at some level
 intrusive. However, I will say that it was important to me, personally, not
 too be 'too' flashy. This is an election banner, not a fundraising banner,
 and that's why I made it clear to our designer that it had to be smaller
 and 'relatively' simple comparatively (this is actually smaller then
 many/most banners that are shown for non-fundraising purposes just
 brighter) and I think we came to a safe balance.

 James Alexander
 Community Advocacy
 Wikimedia Foundation
 (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur

 On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 9:03 AM, Gregory Varnum gregory.var...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  I should note it was a WMF design consultant that did this and not a
  volunteer (well - that it was not a committee volunteer I can verify). My
  understanding was they were working from UX team's guidelines as they
  design other banners for WMF. The request that we received was to go
 with a
  banner design that was intentionally not the same as others. However, I
  will pass the notes along for the next designs.
 
  Also, I recognize it wasn't about the banner's existence or performance
 - I
  meant that I hear complaints about the design of nearly every banner that
  goes up. I cannot, off the top of my head, think of a recent banner that
 I
  haven't heard a few folks offer opinions about improving the look of. My
  personal opinion is that it's an ongoing process, and the banners used
  often reflect a snapshot in strategies being tried at that exact moment.
 
  -greg
 
  On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 11:45 AM, Szymon Grabarczuk 
  tar.locesil...@gmail.com wrote:
 
   Oh, it's not about the idea of banners or about their usual
 performance,
   it's about this particular ribbon. When I set anonnotice or sitenotice
  on a
   big wiki, I aim the statement to be aligned with UX... discoveries.
 Don't
   set extensive dark backgrounds (unless it's about to be
   accessibility-oriented), use one colour palette, don't use many icons,
   borders or any additional/unnecessary/redundant elements in general, be
   consistent. WMF has UX team (it even has a Visual Experience
 Designer), I
   kindly suggest to watch their efforts and make our users benefit from
  that.
  
   On 22 April 2015 at 16:58, Gregory Varnum gregory.var...@gmail.com
   wrote:
  
To be clear by our banners I meant Wikimedia banners - not
 elections
banners. ;)
   
-greg
   
On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Gregory Varnum 
   gregory.var...@gmail.com

wrote:
   
 I appreciate that there are basically always concerns with our
  banners.
 Generally, I hear from volunteers on nearly every banner we use. ;)

 That said, it would be helpful to have some more constructive
  feedback
   to
 pass along to the next committee. What exactly would you suggest be
 changed? Passing along the note and some people disliked the
  banners
   is
 unlikely to produce much actual change.

 Anything specific we can pass along? Also, any examples of
  alternatives
 can be saved and passed along as well.

 -greg (User:Varnent)
 Coordinator, 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

 On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 10:21 AM, Szymon Grabarczuk 
 tar.locesil...@gmail.com wrote:

 I must agree with that. I've received clearly negative feedback
 from
 several volunteers.

 On 22 April 2015 at 13:18, Amir Ladsgroup ladsgr...@gmail.com
   wrote:

  It's horribly ugly, I expected more.
 
  I don't want to de-value someone's work (a person or persons
 that
  I
 don't
  know) but we had way better designs before.
 
 
  Best
  --
  Amir

Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement: WMF to file suit against the NSA

[Amir Ladsgroup]

I created draft of the article about the case
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Wikimedia_v._NSAin English Wikipedia.
I'm not sure it's not too soon to move this draft to the main namespace.
Please add content and then move it to main ns when you think it's ready.

Best

On Tue, Mar 10, 2015 at 4:31 PM, ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) vp2...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Greatly done!
 This is not just news. It is a mark that will be recorded in bold letters
 in the history of human's quest for knowledge.


 -user:ViswaPrabha
 https://ml.wikipedia.org


 On 10 March 2015 at 18:15, Tomasz Ganicz polime...@gmail.com wrote:

  https is generaly increasing privacy of the users. http can be listen
 by
  anyone. It is like using walkie-talkie - anyone with radio-scanner can
  listen :-)
 
 
 
 
 
  2015-03-10 13:26 GMT+01:00 Comet styles cometsty...@gmail.com:
 
   for an organization taking on the NSA  for spying..why are we using
   https? doesn't that show that we are already scared of them and
   running with our tail between our legs?
  
   On 3/10/15, Dariusz Jemielniak dar...@alk.edu.pl wrote:
this sounds exactly as a thing we, as a movement, need institutional
support of WMF for. Thanks for doing that.
   
dariusz pundit
   
On Tue, Mar 10, 2015 at 8:53 AM, Michelle Paulson 
   mpaul...@wikimedia.org
wrote:
   
Hi All,
   
I’m writing to let you know that today the Wikimedia Foundation[1]
 is
filing suit against the National Security Agency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency, the
   Department
of
Justice 
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice
,
and the U.S. Attorney General
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney_General[2]
 in
   order
to challenge certain mass surveillance practices carried out by the
  U.S.
government. We believe these practices are impinging the freedom to
   learn,
inquire, and explore on Wikimedia sites.
   
Since the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures, we’ve heard concerns
  from
the
community about privacy on Wikipedia. This lawsuit is a step towards
addressing the community's justified concerns. We believe that the
surveillance methods being employed by the NSA under the authority
 of
   the
FISA
Amendments Act

   
  
 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act_of_1978_Amendments_Act_of_2008

negatively impact our users' ability and willingness to participate
 in
   our
projects. Today, we fight back.
   
An op-ed

   
  
 
 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/opinion/stop-spying-on-wikipedia-users.html?_r=0

by Lila and Jimmy about the lawsuit, and Wikimedia's stance on
   government
surveillance, appeared in The New York Times this morning.
  Additionally,
we
just published a blog post
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/03/10/wikimedia-v-nsa/ with more
information about the suit. (The post will also up on Meta for
translation).
   
Best,
   
   
Michelle Paulson
   
Senior Legal Counsel
   
Wikimedia Foundation
   
mpaul...@wikimedia.org
   
[1] We are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Liberties_Union
  (ACLU).
Other plaintiffs include The National Association of Criminal
 Defense
Lawyers http://www.nacdl.org/, Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/, Amnesty
International USA http://www.amnestyusa.org/, Pen American Center
https://www.pen.org/, Global Fund for Women
http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/, The Nation Magazine
http://www.thenation.com/, The Rutherford Institute
https://www.rutherford.org/, and Washington Office on Latin
 America
http://www.wola.org/.
   
[2] Other named defendants include: Michael Rogers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_S._Rogers, in his official
capacity
as Director of the National Security Agency

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_the_National_Security_Agency
   
and Chief of the Central Security Service; Office of the Director of
National Intelligence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_National_Intelligence;
   James
Clapper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Clapper, in his
   official
capacity as Director of National Intelligence; and Eric Holder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Holder, in his official
 capacity
as Attorney
General 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney_General
  
   of
the United States.
   
   
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