I am concerned. Although it is purported to be "by and for the Wikimedia volunteer community", the blog is clearly run by the WMF, the editorial team is made up of WMF staff, the WMF handles moderating, the guidelines were written by the WMF, the blog was created by the WMF without community consultation or input, and the structure and category system are clearly WMF-oriented. Also, it's based on WordPress, yet again, and with a very problematic privacy policy which probably won't be acceptable to many in the community.
This is not a positive development, in my opinion. -- Yair Rand בתאריך יום ד׳, 15 ביולי 2020 ב-15:31 מאת Andy Mabbett < a...@pigsonthewing.org.uk>: > On Wed, 15 Jul 2020 at 18:50, Chris Koerner <ckoer...@wikimedia.org> > wrote: > > > Diff builds on lessons and experiences from the > > Wikimedia Blog, the Wikimedia Foundation News, and Wikimedia Space; > > previous posts from these channels are archived on Diff. > > Based on my involvement with the Blog, I've identified some issues... > > At the request of the WMF, in 2017 I wrote a blog post, which was > published - after WMF's editorial approval - at: > > https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/11/29/astronaut-spoken-voice/ > > an independently-archived copy may be found at: > > > https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/11/29/astronaut-spoken-voice/ > > This has now been republished at: > > https://diff.wikimedia.org/2017/11/29/astronaut-spoken-voice/ > > to which the original URL has now been redirected. > > > The new version of the article has footer, saying: > > Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, and > as such was written under a different editorial standard than Diff. > > I am concerned that this unexplained comment may not reflect well on > me, as the named author. > > > The new version of my author profile page: > > https://diff.wikimedia.org/author/cap-andy-mabbet/ > > is missing the thumbnail image for the blog post; compare with the > archived version: > > > https://web.archive.org/web/20191218122440/https://blog.wikimedia.org/author/andy-mabbet/ > > (the spelling error in the URL has carried over from the original). > > > The channel > > is primarily intended for community-authored posts, in which > > volunteers can share their stories, learnings, and ideas with each > > other. > > I didn't write the above post simply to share the story with other > volunteers; it was written - I again emphasise, at the WMF's request - > for a global audience, and presented to the press as such, as part of > a joint publicity initiative with the European Space Agency. > > > content on Diff can be written and > > translated into languages to reach a wide audience. > > My original post - as can be seen from the banner in the version at > the Internet Archive - was kindly translated into Italian (apt, as the > subject was an Italian Astronaut) and French. The banner containing > the links to those translations is missing from the "Diff" copy. > > The original URLs of the italian and French versions: > > > https://blog.wikimedia.org/it/2017/11/29/wikipedia-lascia-il-pianeta-terra > > > https://blog.wikimedia.org/fr/2017/12/01/wikipedia-quitte-la-planete-terre > > now redirect, respectively, to: > > > https://diff.wikimedia.org/it/2017/11/29/wikipedia-lascia-il-pianeta-terra > > > https://diff.wikimedia.org/fr/2017/12/01/wikipedia-quitte-la-planete-terre > > each of which are returning a 404 error. > > Several links to the original Italian URL, from the Italian-language > Wikipedia, including those in encyclopedia articles, and two links to > the original French URL on the French-language Wikipedia, are now > broken. Obviously this also applies to any external sites that link to > them, too. > > > Still curious to learn more? > > Yes: What consultation was carried out with contributors, and the > wider the Wikimedia community, to inform this change? > > -- > Andy Mabbett > @pigsonthewing > http://pigsonthewing.org.uk > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
