Re: [Wikimedia-l] Why the Wikimedia Foundation should openly articulate its political POV by establishing a new neutral wiki for world political knowledge (modeled on Wikipedia)
On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 3:00 PM, Carmen yarru...@charter.net wrote: For example, in the encyclopedic Wikipedia, there's one article called Brooklyn Bridge... Actually, I've just considered this a bit longer (for my sins). It occurs to me that perhaps you're not looking at big issues (like abortion) but you perhaps mean something that would invigorate local politics? You did give the example of building a bridge after all. I suppose that would be an innovation: a wiki that covers political issues that would be considered non-notable on Wikipedia. The trouble you're going to have then, though, is participation. How many people are going to want to join together to create a few pages detailing the decision to stop the 34B bus service? Bodnotbod ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Announcement: IRC Office Hours
Just thought I'd bump this thread due to the IRC sessions imminence and add value with a link to Gayle's staff page on the Foundation wiki: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/User:Gyoung Bodnotbod ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Watchlist email notifications enabled on all wikis
On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 00:05, John Vandenberg jay...@gmail.com wrote: Please, do not enable this feature by default. A lot of people do not like 10 emails/day in their mailbox, and I have such amount of watchlisted edits even in smaller projects like Meta. Then turn off the feature. New users dont know how to turn it on. The emails can explain how to turn it off. So the feature sends out one email per watchlist edit? If so, I can imagine a few users finding themselves with hundreds of emails before they next checked their mail and saw any opportunity to switch it off. Could a site banner be put up just to let users know it's there, perhaps with a link to a page of explanation about what it does and how to switch it on? Sounds better to me than risking potential surprise email barrages. Bodnotbod ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Watchlist email notifications enabled on all wikis
On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 00:05, John Vandenberg jay...@gmail.com wrote: New users dont know how to turn it on. ...and I've just had a little trouble myself. I looked under the 'watchlist' tab of my prefs. It isn't there. It's under 'user profile'. Hmmm. Bodnotbod ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] Announcing Haitham Shamma and the Editor Growth and Contribution Program
Welcome Haitham! Just for a bit of clarification, the post says: Haitham is joining the Wikimedia Foundation in order to support new editor growth on small-to-medium sized Wikimedia projects, And then... Haitham will be beginning his work with the Arabic Wikipedia community, and based on what is learned there, he’ll be moving into other languages and geographies soon. So it sounds like when small *projects* are spoken of this means 'small wikipedias' not, say, Wikiversity. Is that an accurate reading? Bodnotbod ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Editor retention implies social features
On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 18:41, Jan Kučera kozuc...@gmail.com wrote: Hi there, how do we want to work on editor retention if we lack social features at all??? These go in the right direction: http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Improving_our_platform http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Social_features Is WMF going to act finally??? Kozuch Hello, I put together that second link during the strategy process. Others have since added to it but the page looks much the way I remember it from back then. It's really hard for me to recall quite what I was thinking. I did believe that some kind of social glue would make the site more sticky (as the geek parlance goes) but whether I still believe that would lead to a better encyclopedia... I guess I'm not so sure about that now. Probably I was more driven by a sense of loneliness and isolation I felt whilst I did my Wikipedia work. Thing is, I think there are already vibrant communities within Wikipedia and I'm sure there are bonds. Although, I confess, I'm guessing because I'm not involved with any of them. But I would assume that those that put together Signpost each week feel connected. Those in the Military History group I imagine work together. I think if one wants to join a group for social interaction there are plenty of possibilities open to one. So now, time having passed since I put together that page, I more feel that the type of stuff I do on Wikipedia doesn't really lend itself to bonding. I tend to read articles on myriad topics and follow where my curiosity takes me. Is there the possibility of an Autodidact reader's group? If so, what would they talk about? I read *this* today! Cool! Today I read this *other* thing! Is there much value in such exchanges? It seems to me that, no, there probably isn't. There is also the Copyeditors Group but my relationship to it is that there is plenty of info there for me to learn from but I don't feel qualified to add to it. But I do know where to go if I have a question, which is not to be sniffed at. So if I am left daunted I know where to find support. Good. What do I think about it all now... Personally, I think there is no good on-wiki way to address my feelings of loneliness as a volunteer but - guess what - that's fine! Because if I want to salve my solipsism then I am a member of plenty of other websites where I have friends to talk to. However, I imagine there are ways to improve things for the groups that already exist. I would suggest anyone wishing to pursue this interviews regular contributors to the larger Wikigroups such as MILHIST and the Signpost crew. What innovations can be made to MediaWiki to help them do what they're already doing more easily? Maybe liquid threads is enough? (I'm afraid I'm not a fan). Perhaps it would be better if the Signpost guys, for example, want to feel more bonded they simply exchange Twitter/Facebook details? Of course many people want their Wikipedia identity to be separate from their identity elsewhere and so would not wish to share such details. Is there a solution to that? Dunno. To finish: your post as quoted at top states there are ZERO social features. People can quite readily share text and images; there's a talk page on EVERY page we have. I'm not sure what else you expect a computer to do short of adding Skype/Voicemail. en.wp.User:Bodnotbod ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
