User talk:FastLizard4/Archive 13
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The Signpost: 02 December 2015
- Op-ed: Whither Wikidata?
Issues of quality and verifiability threaten the project.
- News and notes: Online harassment consultation; High voter turnout at ArbCom elections
How the community can have its say on two important matters.
- In the media: Is Wikidata as transparent as it seems?; Wikimedia Fund-raising drive launches
Concerns about Wikidata and WMF fundraising.
- Traffic report: Jonesing for episodes
The new Netflix series heads the list.
- Featured content: This Week's Featured Content
Newly promoted featured content.
- Technology report: Tech news in brief
Community technical news.
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:22, 6 December 2015 (UTC)
The Signpost: 09 December 2015
- News and notes: ArbCom election results announced
The three scrutineers announced the results, a little more than three days after the close of voting.
- Op-ed: Wikidata: Knowledge from different points of view
A response from Wikidata.
- In the media: Political editing in the context of the US presidential primaries
Another election, another series of edit wars.
- Gallery: Wiki Loves Monuments 2015 winners
The top 25 images.
- Traffic report: So do you laugh, or does it cry?
Another death tops the report this week.
- Featured content: Sports, ships, arts... and some other things
This week's featured content.
- Technology report: Tech news in brief
Community technical news.
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:39, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
The Signpost: 16 December 2015
- In focus: Drone photography: New possibilities and new challenges
Creating content in the sky.
- In the media: Wales in China; #Edit2015
Jimmy Wales finds his words edited on the Internet.
- Arbitration report: GMO case decided
Keeping up with the committee.
- Featured content: An unusually slow week
Featured content
- WikiProject report: Women in Red—using teamwork and partnerships to elevate online and offline collaborations
Tackling content gaps through collaboration.
- Traffic report: A feast of Spam
More data, more problems.
- Gallery: WikiConference USA 2015: images, slide decks, and videos
A look back at October.
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:57, 19 December 2015 (UTC)
IRC Access
The Signpost: 30 December 2015
- News and notes: WMF Board dismisses community-elected trustee
In a monumental move, the Board ousted one of its own
- Arbitration report: Second Arbitration Enforcement case concludes as another case is suspended
The latest news from ArbCom
- Featured content: The post-Christmas edition
A report covering material promoted from 13 to 26 December
- Traffic report: The Force we expected
In a development that should surprise no one, Star Wars takes the first place prize
- Year in review: The top ten Wikipedia stories of 2015
We review the top ten stories that defined the Wikimedia movement in 2015
- In the media: Wikipedia plagued by a "Basket of Deception"
The latest news coverage from around the movement
- Gallery: It's that time of year again
Christmas time is here.
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:35, 30 December 2015 (UTC)
Kharkiv07 IRC
The Signpost: 06 January 2016
- News and notes: The WMF's age of discontent
Trouble with the Board of Trustees
- In the media: Impenetrable science; Jimmy Wales back in the UAE
Wikipedia's science articles are "effectively incomprehensible"
- Arbitration report: Catflap08 and Hijiri88 case been decided
Current Committee decisions
- Featured content: Featured menagerie
Featured content
- Recent research: Teaching Wikipedia, Does advertising the gender gap help or hurt Wikipedia?
Current academic research on Wikipedia and related projects
- WikiProject report: Try-ing to become informed - WikiProject Rugby League
Sports!
- Technology report: Tech news in brief
Community technical news
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:48, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 13 January 2016
- In the media: War and peace; WMF board changes; Arabic and Hebrew Wikipedias
A look at movement coverage "in the media"
- Community view: Battle for the soul of the WMF
Liam Wyatt shares his thoughts in "community view"
- Editorial: We need a culture of verification
Our co-editor-in-chief, Gamaliel, shares his thoughts on the 15th anniversary of Wikipedia
- In focus: The Crisis at New Montgomery Street
William Beutler discusses problems inside the WMF.
- Op-ed: Transparency
James Heilman talks about why he was removed from the WMF board.
- Traffic report: Pattern recognition: Third annual Traffic Report
What was the most-viewed article of 2015? Read to find out!
- Special report: Wikipedia community celebrates Public Domain Day 2016
WE LOVE PUBLIC DOMAIN DAY!
- News and notes: Community objections to new Board trustee
A look at community objections to a new Board trustee
- Blog: Inside the game of sports vandalism on Wikipedia
Jeff Elder talks sports vandalism on the Wikimedia blog
- Featured content: This Week's Featured Content
A review of the featured content promoted this week
- Arbitration report: Interview: outgoing and incumbent arbitrators 2016
We sat down with both incoming and outgoing arbitrators to get their thoughts on the committee.
- Technology report: Tech news in brief
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community.
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:17, 16 January 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 20 January 2016
- News and notes: Vote of no confidence; WMF trustee speaks out
The continuing controversy over a new Board appointment.
- Op-ed: Not a pretty picture: Thoughts on the "monkey selfie" debacle
Is Wikimedia taking the right approach?
- In the media: 15th anniversary news round-up
The news media remembers we're still around.
- Traffic report: Danse Macabre
A cheery week.
- Featured content: This week's featured content
Newly promoted content.
- Blog: Fifteen years ago, Wikipedia was a very different place
A talk with MediaWiki developer : Magnus Manske.
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:22, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 27 January 2016
- Op-ed: Lila Tretikov: the WMF needs your input in developing our strategy
Participate in the new strategy initiative.
- News and notes: Geshuri steps down from the Board
Newly appointed trustee leaves following a community outcry.
- In the media: Media coverage of the Arnnon Geshuri no-confidence vote
Board turmoil gets the attention of journalists.
- Recent research: Bursty edits; how politics beat religion but then lost to sports; notability as a glass ceiling
Current research involving Wikipedia.
- Traffic report: Death and taxes
Some things never change.
- Featured content: This week's featured content
Newly promoted content.
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:24, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 03 February 2016
- From the editors: Help wanted
Help us continue to publish on a weekly (-ish) basis.
- Special report: Board chair and new trustee speak with the Signpost
New member María Sefidari joins the Board of Trustees.
- In focus: The Knight Foundation grant: a timeline and an email to the board
James Heilman speaks out about the events leading up to his dismissal from the Board.
- Op-ed: So, what’s a knowledge engine anyway?
Examining the issues at the heart of recent Board disputes.
- News and notes: Harassment survey 2015; Luis Villa to leave WMF; knowledge engine background
A survey released, another major departure from the Foundation.
- Arbitration report: Catching up on arbitration
More cases, more problems.
- Traffic report: Bowled
Some sort of sporting contest tops this week's traffic.
- Featured content: This week's featured content
Newly promoted content.
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 03:30, 9 February 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 10 February 2016
- News and notes: Another WMF departure
- In the media: Jeb Bush swings at Wikipedia and connects
- Featured content: This week's featured content
- Traffic report: A river of revilement
The Signpost: 17 February 2016
- Special report: Search and destroy: the Knowledge Engine and the undoing of Lila Tretikov
Examining the impact of the knowledge engine
- Op-ed: Shit I cannot believe we had to fucking write this month
A new column that examines the articles that are helping to fight systemic bias
- Featured content: This week's featured content
One article, three lists, and five images attained featured status this past week
- Traffic report: Super Bowling
The biggest annual event in America takes over Wikipedia viewership
- Technology report: Tech news in brief
The news for the nerd inside of us
- Blog: Antonin Scalia and the editor tracking his legacy
The American Supreme Court justice's impact on the life of a Wikipedia editor
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:33, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 24 February 2016
- Special report: WMF in limbo as decision on Tretikov nears
The Board of Trustees may be deciding the direction of the Foundation.
- Op-ed: Backward the Foundation
Parting words from a WMF employee,
- Traffic report: Of Dead Pools and Dead Judges
Another grim week in traffic statistics.
- Blog: Wiki Loves Africa brings the continent’s fashion to the world
Wiki Loves Africa photo competition focuses on continent’s varied fashion traditions from north, south, east, and west.
- Arbitration report: Arbitration motion regarding CheckUser & Oversight inactivity
Committee motions and business.
- Featured content: This week's featured content
Newly promoted featured content.
- Technology report: Tech news in brief
Community technical news.
The Signpost: 02 March 2016
- News and notes: Tretikov resigns, WMF in transition
A tumultuous time at the Wikimedia Foundation
- Featured content: This week's featured content
Newly promoted articles and images.
- Traffic report: Brawling
Politics and wrestling top the traffic statistics.
- Recent research: Wikipedia and paid labour; Swedish gender gap; how verifiable is "verifiable"?
Current academic research about the encyclopedia and related projects.
- Blog: Wikimedia Foundation details requests to alter or remove content in new transparency report
The WMF reports on incoming requests.
The Signpost: 09 March 2016
- News and notes: Katherine Maher named interim head of WMF; Wales email re-sparks Heilman controversy; draft WMF strategy posted
Controversy, change, and everything between.
- In the media: Wikipedian is break-out star of International Women's Day; dinosaur art; Wikipedia's new iOS app and its fight for market share
Perhaps we're turning over a new leaf as a front-runner in the fight for equality?
- Op-ed: A modest proposal for Wikimedia’s future
A look at the future of our parent foundation.
- Featured content: Five articles, four lists, a topic, and five images were promoted this week.
This week's featured content
- Technology report: Wikimedia wikis will temporarily go into read-only mode on several occasions in the coming weeks
Finally, a break for the vandalism fighters!
- WikiCup report: First round of the WikiCup finishes
Your detailed look at one of Wikipedia's largest contests.
- Blog: The new alchemy: turning online harassment into Wikipedia articles on women scientists
By night, she smites trolls on the Internet with positive punishment: for each harassing email she receives, one Wikipedia article on a woman in science is created.
- Systemic bias: Revenge of "I can’t believe we didn’t have an article on ..."
Wherein I am STILL fucking angry about systemic bias and am highlighting kick-ass articles we created and improved this month in our never-ending quest to fix it.
- Traffic report: All business like show business
The Oscars, Super Tuesday, and Super Saturday"
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- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:54, 13 March 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 16 March 2016
- News and notes: Wikipedia Zero: Orange mobile partnership in Africa ends; the evolution of privacy loss in Wikipedia
Parties could not agree on extending the 2009 agreement.
- In the media: Wales at SXSW; lawsuit over Wikipedia PR editing
Two board members on stage at the popular yearly event.
- Op-ed: Hard work needed to address Wikimedia’s leadership challenges
The road ahead for the WMF.
- Discussion report: Is an interim WMF executive director inherently notable?
Wikipedia news sparks editing disagreements.
- Featured content: This week's featured content
Featured content
- Technology report: Watchlists, watchlists, watchlists!
An interview with a MediaWiki developer.
- Traffic report: Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States
Time to move abroad.
- Wikipedia Weekly: Podcast #119: The Foundation and the departure of Lila Tretikov
The popular podcast returns.
- Blog: It “revolutionized the way German-speaking people inform themselves about the world”: Fifteen years of the German Wikipedia
A Deutschland anniversary.
The Signpost: 23 March 2016
- Interview: Exclusive: interview with interim ED Katherine Maher
The Signpost speaks with the incoming WMF interim executive director.
- News and notes: Lila Tretikov a Young Global Leader; Wikipediocracy blog post sparks indefinite blocks
The outgoing ED to be honored at Davos.
- In the media: Angolan file sharers cause trouble for Wikipedia Zero; the 3D printer edit war; a culture based on change and turmoil
Piracy and controversy.
- Traffic report: Be weary on the Ides of March
Are readers exhausted?
- Editorial: "God damn it, you've got to be kind."
All of us can do better.
- Featured content: Watch out! A slave trader, a live mascot and a crested serpent awaits!
The week in newly promoted content.
- Arbitration report: Palestine-Israel article 3 case amended
Motions from the Committee.
- Wikipedia Weekly: Podcast #120: Status of Wikimania 2016
Discussing the upcoming Italian Wikimania.
The Signpost: 1 April 2016
- News and notes: Trump/Wales 2016
A surprise political announcement.
- In the media: Saskatoon police delete Wikipedia content about police brutality
Police haul away some article content.
- WikiProject report: Why should the Devil have all the good music? An interview with WikiProject Christian music
Rock out to this interview with project editors.
- Traffic report: Donald v Daredevil
¿Quién es más macho?
- Featured content: A slow, slow week
- Technology report: Browse Wikipedia in safety? Use Telnet!
Set your Wayback Machine.
- Recent research: "Employing Wikipedia for good not evil" in education; using eyetracking to find out how readers read articles
Current research about Wikimedia projects.
- Wikipedia Weekly: Podcast #121: How April Fools went down
A roundtable discussion about current Wikimedia issues.
- Blog: Growing hashtags: Expanding outreach on Wikipedia
Using hashtags to track the results of Wikimedia outreach.
The Signpost: 14 April 2016
- Op-ed: Should prison inmates be permitted to edit Wikipedia?
They do have plenty of time on their hands
- News and notes: Denny Vrandečić resigns from Wikimedia Foundation board
More turnover in the foundation
- In the media: Wikimedia Sweden loses copyright case; Tex Watson; AI assistants; David Jolly biography
Copyright laws, prisoners, and the future of technology
- Featured content: This week's featured content
Featured content
- Traffic report: A welcome return to pop culture and death
American politics seem to have finally bored people
- Arbitration report: The first case of 2016—Wikicology
The drought is finally over!
- Gallery: A history lesson
A look at political satire, brought to you by Wikipedia and Commons
The Signpost: 24 April 2016
- News and notes: Lunar project; steering group formed to search for next executive director
Maybe the rover could find an ED on the moon...
- Op-ed: Knowledge Engine and the Wales–Heilman emails
When is competing with Google not competing with Google?
- Special report: Update on EranBot, our new copyright violation detection bot
Help wanted!
- Traffic report: Two for the price of one
What's better than one traffic report? Two!
- Featured content: The double-sized edition
10 articles, 6 lists, and 11 pictures have been promoted in this cycle
- Arbitration report: Amendments made to the Race and intelligence case
When it rains, it pours
The Signpost: 2 May 2016
- News and notes: Wikimedia Switzerland's board and paid-editing firm; passing of Ed Dravecky
Wikimedia Switzerland board members involved in paid-editing firm
- In the media: Wikipedia Zero piracy in Bangladesh; bureaucracy; chilling effects; too few cooks; translation gaps
More reports surface of pirates' new favorite database: Wikimedia Commons
- Traffic report: Purple
Prince's death breaks traffic report records
- Featured content: The best ... from the past two weeks
Seven articles, six lists, and four pictures were promoted these weeks
- Arbitration report: Two editors unbanned; Wikicology case enters workshop phase; Gamaliel restricted from Gamergate at his own request
Arbitration news
- Recent research: The eight roles of Wikipedians; do edit histories expose social relations among editors?
Making sense of Wikipedia's social network
On ACC not storing antispoof results
Hey FastLizard4 - I've been using the ACC process for a while and so far it's been fine. Just a question about request #170659 - I've noticed that while the tool didn't log anything under the antispoof extension, when going to create the account it tripped the extension stating the name was too similar to another. I'm concerned about this because if an account has two or more similar usernames, and none of them are logged in the tool, will MediaWiki list all of the similar usernames or just one? If it lists just one then overriding the extension might be an error if I don't know the username of the other similar account(s). Either way, do you know why the tool isn't logging these similar usernames?
Also, as a sidenote I currently don't have access to the IRC with the username 'NottNott' - hopefully it would be fine to be whitelisted. Thanks for your help up to this point by the way
NottNott|talk 16:30, 7 May 2016 (UTC)
- @NottNott: Hello! I went ahead and whitelisted you on IRC, so you should be all set to join the channel now. Also, I sent you an email a few minutes ago regarding ACC; please read it as soon as you can, as it's important.
- Now, to answer your question about antispoof - the problem stems from the fact that ACC does not have access to CentralAuth's antispoof results, so it may not always display the same results. This is a known upstream bug in the tool, and is tracked over on our GitHub repository here. (By the way, if you encounter any bugs with ACC, the GitHub repository I linked to is the place to both search to see if they've been reported before, and to report any new bugs or make feature requests.) As for the MediaWiki software, though I'm not 100% sure (i.e., I haven't read the code), I do believe it will show all spoof conflicts on attempted account creation.
- Let me know if you have any other questions, and have a good one! --FastLizard4 (talk•contribs) 05:56, 8 May 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 17 May 2016
- News and notes: Affiliates' nomination of WMF trustees announced; FDC's straight talking to WMF
Christophe Henner and Nataliia Tymkiv respond to the Signpost's questions
- Op-ed: Swiss chapter in turmoil
Paid-editing controversy
- In the media: Wikimedia's Dario Taraborelli quoted on Google's Knowledge Graph in The Washington Post
Citations needed
- Featured content: Two weeks for the prize of one
Nine featured articles, eight featured lists, and six featured pictures
- Traffic report: Oh behave, Beyhive / Underdogs
Prince gives way to Captain America
- Arbitration report: "Wikicology" ends in site ban; evidence and workshop phases concluded for "Gamaliel and others"
News from two arbitration cases
- Wikicup: That's it for WikiCup Round 2!
35 competitors move on to round 3
The Signpost: 28 May 2016
- News and notes: Upcoming Wikimedia conferences in the US and India; May Metrics and Activities Meeting
Dates and venues for WikiCon USA 2016, WikiCon India 2016, 2016 Glam Boot Camp and 2016 Wikimedia Diversity Conference
- Special report: Compensation paid to Sue Gardner increased by almost 50 percent after she stepped down as executive director
Sue Gardner appears to be earning more money as the WMF's special advisor than she did as its executive director
- In the media: The perils of Wikipedia's monopoly; Wikipedians' fragility; Street Sharks hoax
Not everything you read online is fact
- Featured content: Eight articles, three lists and five pictures
Another eight featured articles, three featured lists and five featured pictures
- Op-ed: Journey of a Wikipedian
Mental health carries a powerful stigma. The more we are open about it, the less that weighs all of us down
- Arbitration report: Gamaliel resigns from the arbitration committee
Gamaliel and others case nears its end, and there are new 30/500 rules
- Recent research: English as Wikipedia's Lingua Franca; deletion rationales; schizophrenia controversies
Round-up of recent Wikipedia research
- Traffic report: Splitting (musical) airs / Slow Ride
We've recently come into possession of a new tool.
- Blog: Freely licensed magic at Eurovision
Albin Olsson has been right there with them, capturing dramatic images of singers from around the world.
The Signpost: 05 June 2016
- News and notes: WMF cuts budget for 2016-17 as scope tightens
The Signpost analyzes the WMF's revised annual plan
- In the media: Jimmy Wales on net neutrality—"It's complicated"—and his $100m fundraising challenge
Recent press interviews
- Featured content: Overwhelmed ... by pictures
One article, one list, and seven images were featured this week
- Traffic report: Pop goes the culture, again.
Film and television maintain a strong grasp on Wikipedia's readership
- Arbitration report: ArbCom case "Gamaliel and others" concludes
The final results of the heated case
- WikiProject report: WikiProject Video Games
We sat down with the writers of some of the most vistied Wikipedia articles
The Signpost: 15 June 2016
- News and notes: Clarifications on status and compensation of outgoing executive directors Sue Gardner and Lila Tretikov
WMF board chair Patricio Lorente answers questions
- Special report: Wikiversity Journal—A new user group
Wikimedia enters academic publishing
- Featured content: From the crème de la crème
Eleven featured articles, nine featured lists and fourteen featured pictures
- In the media: Biography disputes; Craig Newmark donation; PR editing
Recent media coverage of Wikipedia and Wikimedia
- Op-ed: Commons Picture of the Year; Wikidata licensing
Two for the price of one—do the popular Commons image contest and Wikidata licensing serve the community as well as they should?
- Traffic report: Another one with sports; Knockout, brief candle
Wikipedia's most read articles in the last two weeks
- Blog: Why I proofread poetry at Wikisource
Poetry: “it is the stuff of the soul; it speaks to the body, the mind, and the spirit alike.” Sonja Bohm worked for years to get all of Florence Earle Coates’ poetry online, and now proofreads poetry on the English Wikisource, the free library. We asked why.
The Signpost: 04 July 2016
- News and notes: Board unanimously appoints Katherine Maher as new WMF executive director; Wikimedia lawsuits in France and Germany
News from Wikimania and the courts
- Op-ed: Two policies in conflict?
Paid-contributions disclosure vs. outing
- In the media: Terrorism database cites Wikipedia as a source
Reliability worries
- Featured content: Triple fun of featured content
Six articles, nine lists, one topic and thirteen pictures promoted
- Traffic report: Goalposts; Oy vexit
European football and politics dominate the top-10
- Blog: Jimmy Wales names Emily Temple-Wood and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight as Wikipedians of the Year
From the Wikimedia Foundation blog
The Signpost: 21 July 2016
- News and notes: Board faces diversity and skill-base issues in new FDC appointments
Four seats to be filled in top WMF grantmaking body; General Counsel and Secretary Geoff Brigham leaves Wikimedia
- Discussion report: Busy month for discussions
New ArbCom restrictions; genetically modified food safety
- In the media: Women in science editathon gets national press; Wikipedia "shockingly biased"
Female scientists in India; Cracked.com probes Wikipedia's weaknesses
- Featured content: A wide variety from the best
Promotions in four featured-content forums
- Traffic report: Sports and esports
Northern summer makes sport the winner
- Arbitration report: Script writers appointed for clerks
Plus a clerk appointment and two motions
- Recent research: Using deep learning to predict article quality
Plus navigating the Chinese Wikipedia, and talkpage sentiment
The Signpost: 04 August 2016
- Editorial: Wikipedia policy suppresses sharing of information
And the Signpost loses and gains a co-editor-in-chief
- News and notes: Foundation presents results of harassment research, plans for automated identification; Wikiconference submissions open
WMF and Alphabet are developing an algorithm designed to detect personal attacks
- In the media: Paid editing service announced; Commercial exploitation of free images; Wikipedia as a crystal ball; Librarians to counter systemic bias
Plus Android and Taylor Swift
- Obituary: Kevin Gorman, who took on Wikipedia's gender gap and undisclosed paid advocacy, dies at 24
Condolences are being left on his English Wikipedia talk page
- Traffic report: Summer of Pokémon, Trump, and Hillary
Pokémon Go led the chart for two weeks running
- Featured content: Women and Hawaii
Eight articles, two lists and fourteen pictures were promoted
- Recent research: Easier navigation via better wikilinks
Plus: new Wiki Studies journal, Wikipedia usage on Twitter and more
- Blog: All-new notifications page helps Wikimedians focus on what matters most
WMF announces enhancements to the notifications system
- Technology report: User script report (January to July 2016, part 1)
New user scripts and other tech news
The Signpost: 18 August 2016
- News and notes: Focus on India—WikiConference produces new apps; state government adopts free licenses
Conference draws highly diverse and productive participation, and several years' advocacy pays off in a new government policy
- Special report: Engaging diverse communities to profile women of Antarctica
Guest post recaps in-depth engagement of experts to address Wikipedia gender gap while improving coverage of their field
- In the media: The ugly, the bad, the playful, and the promising
Wikipedia coverage ranged from sobering to playful in this issue's roundup
- Featured content: Simply the best ... from the last two weeks
Eight articles, eleven lists, one topic and five pictures were promoted
- Traffic report: Olympic views
Politics gives way to sports, TV and film
- Technology report: User script report (January–July 2016, part 2)
A review of numerous useful Wikipedia customizations
- Arbitration report: The Michael Hardy case
New case opened, and a reminder to administrators not to impose blocks based on private information
The Signpost: 06 September 2016
- News and notes: AffCom still grappling with WMF Board's criteria for new chapters
The Board’s two-year moratorium on new chapters and thematic organisations has expired; presentation of new criteria is reigniting smoldering controversies and introducing new ones
- Special report: Olympics readership depended on language
A comparison of the 15 most-read articles related to the Olympics, in seven language editions of Wikipedia
- In the media: Librarians, Wikipedians, and a library of Wikipedia coverage
Wikipedia gaining ground in credibility among librarians; and a healthy helping of media coverage
- WikiProject report: Watching Wikipedia
An interview with WikiProject TV member CAWylie
- Featured content: Entertainment, sport, and something else in-between
Twelve articles, eight lists and four pictures were promoted
- Traffic report: From Phelps to Bolt to Reddit
An update on two weeks of Wikipedia traffic, based on a new and improved tracking tool
- Technology report: Wikimedia mobile sites now don't load images if the user doesn't see them
New scripts and technical news
- Recent research: Ethics of machine-created articles and fighting vandalism
One study encounters critique of its ethics from Wikipedians; another critiques the ethics employed by Wikipedia
- Blog: Upload of free photos from Swiss library underway
Switzerland's largest public science library is uploading 134k photos
The Signpost: 29 September 2016
- News and notes: Wikipedia Education Program case study published; and a longtime Wikimedian has made his final edit
Medical school class's Wikipedia contributions profiled as case study; and a remembrance of Ray Saintonge, Wikimedian since 2002
- In the media: Wikipedia in the news
This edition's roundup of media coverage
- Featured content: Three weeks in the land of featured content
Nineteen articles, eleven lists, one portal and twelve pictures were promoted
- Arbitration report: Arbcom looking for new checkusers and oversight appointees while another case opens
TRM, CUOS '16, R&I, RfC
- Traffic report: From Gene Wilder to JonBenét
Four weeks of Wikipedia's most popular articles examined
- Technology report: Category sorting and template parameters
Titles with numbers now sort numerically, and a new tool to check how template parameters are used
ACC IRC Access
Request for opinion
Hi FastLizard4: Sorry to trouble you, but I could not help but notice your expression of affection for TOS on the Wikipedians who like Star Trek: The Original Series page, and so I would be curious of your thoughts on the notability of a Star Trek author for whom I just created a Wikipedia article -- which may be promptly destined for the trash pile. As a newcomer here at Wikipedia, my first article attempt was indeed recommended for deletion within hours of its creation by a senior user named JzG who seems to me to be overly hostile and dismissive of Star Trek, calling it fancruft (= trivial, obscure, of importance to just a tiny group of fanatics) . Since you are a Trek fan, if it is also your good faith opinion that my subject is in no way deserving of an article on this site; and you could let me know, I would feel much more comfortable with the justice of the pending deletion action. My proposed article may be seen here, assuming you visit the page soon enough ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gurian Kind Regards. Tosresearcher (talk) 05:37, 7 October 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 14 October 2016
- News and notes: Fundraising, flora and fauna
Wikimedia Foundation reports on fundraising challenges and new initiatives; Indian botanists rally to build Wikimedia Commons' photo collection
- Discussion report: Cultivating leadership: Wikimedia Foundation seeks input
A new "peer academy" is proposed to find and support leadership in volunteer communities
- In the media: A news columnist on the frustrations of tweaking his Wikipedia bio
And this edition's roundup of media coverage
- Technology report: Upcoming tech projects for 2017
A new editor, a new parsing algorithm, and another server switch
- Featured content: Variety is the spice of life
Twelve articles, twelve lists and twenty-one pictures were promoted
- Traffic report: Debates and escapes
Donald Trump remains a view-magnet, others change their channel
- Recent research: A 2011 study resurfaces in a media report
We explore the study, which sought insights from Wikipedia metadata into global events
The Signpost: 4 November 2016
- News and notes: Finally, a new CTO; trustee joins Quora; copyright upgrade impending
Victoria Coleman to fill long-vacant CTO role; Trustee Kelly Battles joins Quora executive team; last week for community input on Creative Commons 4.0 license
- In the media: Washington Post continues in-depth Wikipedia coverage
Plus our roundup of recent media stories
- Wikicup: WikiCup winners
Winners of the tenth annual WikiCup competition announced and profiled
- Discussion report: What's on your tech wishlist for the coming year?
Progress on the 2015 Community Wishlist for tech features; and plans for a new Wishlist
- Technology report: New guideline for technical collaboration; citation templates now flag open access content
Proposed best practices for communication and community involvement, and an improvement to Wikipedia's citation infrastructure
- Featured content: Cream of the crop
Fourteen articles, six lists and fourteen pictures were promoted
- Traffic report: Un-presidential politics
Two weeks of insights into the mind of the mob
- Arbitration report: Recapping October's activities
Two cases closed, and an administrator loses editing rights
- Recent research: Why women edit less, and where they are overrepresented; article importance and quality; predicting elections from Wikipedia
A recap of recent research in our realm
Wikipedia:WikiProject United States/The 50,000 Challenge
| You are invited to participate in the 20,000 Challenge, aiming for 20,000 article improvements and creations for articles relating to the United States. This effort began on November 1, 2016 and to reach our goal, we will need editors like you to participate, expand, and create. See more here! |
--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:37, 8 November 2016 (UTC)
IRC Nick
Hi FastLizard4,
I am In_veritas on IRC.
Thanks In veritas (talk) 20:07, 31 October 2016 (UTC)
I own the NickServ account Sunmist on freenode. Sunmist (talk) 23:38, 14 November 2016 (UTC)
ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!
Hello, FastLizard4. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.
The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.
If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
The Signpost: 4 November 2016
- News and notes: Arbitration Committee elections commence
An overview of the English Wikipedia ArbCom election; brief notes as Asian and African initiatives wind down
- In the media: Roundup of news related to U.S. presidential election and more
Election prompts media to explore themes important to Wikipedians, including news literacy, privacy, and data security
- Blog: The top fifteen winning photos from Wiki Loves Earth
115,000 images were submitted as part of the annual competition.
- Gallery: Around the world with Wiki Loves Monuments 2016
A sampling of photo submissions to the annual photography campaign
- Featured content: Featured mix
Eight articles, two lists and nine pictures were promoted
- Special report: Taking stock of the Good Article backlog
A close examination of the efficacy of the GA Cup contest, a longstanding effort to reduce the backlog of articles awaiting review
- Op-ed: Fundraising data should be more transparent
Empowering volunteers and local chapters to engage with fundraising would yield varied benefits
- Traffic report: President-elect Trump
Someone is likely to dominate traffic for a long time
The Signpost: 22 December 2016
- Year in review: Looking back on 2016
Roundup of the year's news from the Wikimedia world, featuring Wikipedia's 15th anniversary and organizational disarray at the Wikimedia Foundation
- News and notes: Strategic planning update; English ArbCom election results
WMF reflects, to some degree, on its past approaches to strategic planning
- Special report: German ArbCom implodes
The German Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee loses more than half its members amid political feud
- In focus: Active user page filter prevents vandalism and harassment
A proposal from the Inspire Campaign to address harassment was recently implemented to prevent unconstructive and malicious editing on user pages
- Op-ed: Operation successful, patient dead: Outreach workshops in Namibia
Even a well executed outreach event can yield disappointing results
- In the media: In brief: Coverage of gender gap initiatives, banner fundraising, and more
Wikipedia women in the news, and media reacts to 2016 ad banner campaign
- Featured content: The Christmas edition
Twenty-three articles, ten lists and twenty-one pictures were promoted
- Technology report: Labs improvements impact 2016 Tool Labs survey results
And a roundup of recently-added tools
- Traffic report: Post-election traffic blues
Four weeks of popular article analysis
- Blog: Wiki Loves Monuments contest winners announced
Winning photos in world's largest photography contest reveal a world of monuments—and the volunteers who love them
- Recent research: One study and several abstracts
Privacy and Tor, and several other studies
The Signpost: 17 January 2017
- From the editor: Next steps for the Signpost
Building toward better recruitment and retention
- News and notes: Surge in RFA promotions—a sign of lasting change?
A close look at the history of approving administrators on English Wikipedia, and a roundup of news
- Interview: What is it like to edit Wikipedia when you're blind?
The wiki environment can appear deceptively uniform, but it masks strikingly different editorial experiences
- In the media: Year-end roundups, Wikipedia's 16th birthday, and more
The latest media reports
- Featured content: One year ends, and another begins
Twelve articles, thirteen lists and twelve pictures were promoted
- Arbitration report: Concluding 2016 and covering 2017's first two cases
Various minor developments
- Traffic report: Out with the old, in with the new
If you're reading this, you escaped 2016 alive
- Technology report: Tech present, past, and future
Data sets now available on Commons, wishes to be worked on in 2017, and a recap of the Wikimedia Developer Summit
- Recent research: Female Wikipedians aren't more likely to edit women biographies; Black Lives Matter in Wikipedia
And several other research papers reviewed and summarized
The Signpost: 6 February 2017
- Arbitration report: WMF Legal and ArbCom weigh in on tension between disclosure requirements and user privacy
The two statements prompt extensive community discussion; plus, our updates on recent ArbCom decisions
- Special report: Wolves nip at Wikipedia's heels: A perspective on the cost of paid editing
Undisclosed paid editing by a financial broker mired in scandal spans years, impacting Wikipedia's editors and readers
- News and notes: Official WMF rebuke to Trump policy; WMF secures restricted funds
Foundation's latest foray into political waters, and grants funding structured data and anti-harassment measures, met with enthusiasm and concern
- In focus: WMF strategy consultant brings background in crisis reputation management; Team behind popular WMF software put "on pause"
Several developments in the $2.5 million strategic planning process explored, and a team within the software production department is sidelined
- WikiProject report: For the birds!
Our second interview with the productive WikiProject Birds crew
- Op-ed: How to make editing workshops useful, even if participants don't stick around
Veteran editing workshop leader responds to a previous Signpost op-ed
- In the media: Presidential politics, periodic table, and our periodic roundup of updates
Wikipedia's response to Trump inauguration and a fruitful, public "edit war" lead our media updates
- Technology report: Better PDFs, backup plans, and birthday wishes
Plus the latest scripts, bots, and tech news
- Traffic report: Cool It Now
Three weeks of the most popular Wikipedia articles
- Featured content: Three weeks dominated by articles
Twenty-eight articles, seven lists, two topics and four pictures were promoted
- Forum: Productive collaboration around coordinated protest marches; Media and political personalities comment on Wikipedia at its 16th birthday celebration
Women's marches on seven continents attracted strong Wikipedia engagement; Media luminaries and a presidential candidate joined WMF boss Katherine Maher at a New York gathering
The Signpost: 27 February 2017
- From the editors: Results from our poll on subscription and delivery, and a new RSS feed
The Signpost's poll suggests we should take a cautious approach to the Newsletter Extension, under development; and our RSS feed is functional once again
- Recent research: Special issue: Wikipedia in education
This month's edition focuses on research about the role of Wikipedia in education
- Technology report: Responsive content on desktop; Offline content in Android app
Demonstrations of developers' experiments and works in progress
- In the media: The Daily Mail does not run Wikipedia
Is the Daily Mail fake news and your media roundup
- Gallery: A Met montage
A selection of CC0 images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Special report: Peer review – a history and call for reviewers
An overview of English Wikipedia's peer review process
- Op-ed: Wikipedia has cancer
Increased WMF spending every year is not sustainable
- Featured content: The dominance of articles continues
Fifteen articles, two lists, and six pictures were promoted
- Traffic report: Love, football, and politics
They may not mix in life, but they do in popularity
- Blog: WikiIndaba 2017: A continent gathers to chart a path forward
Republished from the Wikimedia blog
Happy birthday!
| Wishing you all the best on your birthday! From the Wikipedia Birthday Committee. |
Warm regards, Mz7 (talk) 02:22, 29 May 2017 (UTC)
- Thank you kindly, @Mz7! --FastLizard4 (talk•contribs) 00:05, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
Account creation
Hey there Lizard! I am contacting you as an OTRS volunteer. I understand you were involved in the decision not to open up an account for a user named John Lawrence Matthews pending verification of identity (I have a reference for you for that: ACC# 186978). I have now verified this individual's identity via VRTS ticket # 2016120910025548— could I get you to agree to open up the account? Please let me know if not so I can contact the individual requesting the account. Thank you! KDS4444 (talk) 02:56, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
- @KDS4444: Hello! Unfortunately, that account request is too old for us to handle - we regularly clear the private data (IP and email addresses, etc.) associated with old requests to protect the requesters' privacy. Please ask the user to submit a new account request at https://accounts.wmflabs.org/index.php, ensuring that they enter the same email address that they used to email OTRS and including the OTRS ticket number in the "Comments" box, and we'll get right on it (or, if you'd prefer, you can assign the OTRS ticket to me and I can respond directly, since I have OTRS access myself). Thanks! --FastLizard4 (talk•contribs) 11:45, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
The Signpost: 9 June 2017
- From the editors: Signpost status: On reserve power, help wanted!
Inviting new writers, editors, and ideas
- News and notes: Global Elections
WMF Board election results, and FDC elections begin
- Arbitration report: Cases closed in the Pacific and with Magioladitis
Two cases were closed from 19 February to 27 March.
- Op-ed: Wikipedia's lead sentence problem
Lead sentence metadata is out of control and a serious impediment to readability
- Featured content: Three months in the land of the featured
Eighty-eight articles, forty-three lists, five topics and twenty-two pictures were promoted
- In the media: Did Wikipedia just assume Garfield's gender?
Garfield is male, and other places Wikipedia made the news
- Recent research: Wikipedia bot wars capture the imagination of the popular press
...but are they real?; personality and attitudes to Wikipedia; large expert review experiment
- Technology report: Tech news catch-up
Bots, scripts, tools, and changes from February to June 2017
- Traffic report: Film on Top: Sampling the weekly top 10
Two weeks of film dominance: Baahubali and the Academy Awards
The Signpost: 23 June 2017
- News and notes: Departments reorganized at Wikimedia Foundation, and a month without new RfAs (so far)
While the English Wikipedia community produces no new requests for adminhood in June, the Wikimedia Foundation makes changes to the Product and Technology departments.
- In the media: Kalanick's nipples; Episode #138 of Drama on the Hill
The anatomy of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's chest area has been the talk of the month. But so have high-profile edits, hacked articles, and one particular newborn growing up.
- Op-ed: Facto Post: a fresh take
Exploring sourcing issues in Wikimedia projects, a solution in Wikidata and fact mining, and a newsletter to continue the conversation.
- Featured content: Will there ever be a break? The slew of featured content continues
22 featured articles, 17 featured lists, 7 featured pictures
- Traffic report: Wonder Woman beats Batman, The Mummy, Darth Vader and the Earth
Summer blockbusters and sports, Trump and world events.
- Recent research: Utopian bubbles: Can Wikipedians create value outside of the capitalist system?
A researcher applies Marxist critiques of political economy to investigate whether gamification, a culture of altruism, and other anti-corporatist influences on peer production can create a sustainable gift economy in a project like Wikipedia.
- Technology report: Improved search, and WMF data scientist tells all
Search now can include sister projects; EpochFail
The Signpost: 15 July 2017
- News and notes: French chapter woes, new affiliates and more WMF team changes
The English Wikipedia sees its first new admin of the season, discord rocks Wikimedia France, some tweaks to the WMF reorg, and a new WMF annual plan mark this issue's community news.
- Featured content: Spectacular animals, Pine Trees screens, and more
Recently promoted articles, lists, and pictures.
- In the media: Concern about access and fairness, Foundation expenditures, and relationship to real-world politics and commerce
A grab bag of alt-right speech, classical scholars, the dark web, elicited European tourism, $500,000 golden parachutes, forgery, the Great Firewall, net neutrality, nukes, paid editing, porn, and terrorism.
- Recent research: The chilling effect of surveillance on Wikipedia readers
A closer look at the research that found that the 2013 Snowden revelations coincided with a significant drop of pageviews for privacy-sensitive Wikipedia articles
- Op-ed: Why Task Forces are Dying in 2017
...and is there anything we can do to stop it? Opinions and examples from across the project.
- Gallery: A mix of patterns
An interesting mix of patterns and colors to brighten your day...
- Humour: The Infobox Game
Enjoy the Parameters: The Infobox Game can be enjoyed by everyone, not just those interested in water buffalo breeds, volcanic hotspots or the mysterious heteroisoform, and some day just might spawn an important facet of the financial derivatives industry.
- Traffic report: Film, television and Internet phenomena reign with some room left over for America's birthday
Popular interest in celebrities, blockbusters and an upcoming season of a popular television show drive traffic, with a smattering of world events, holidays and a Reddit storm around – surprise – free porn for the U.S. Congress.
- Technology report: New features in development; more breaking changes for scripts
Syntax highlighting, changes to Recent Changes, Wikidata on the enhance watchlist, accessible editing buttons and jQuery upgrade may break scripts.
- Wikicup: 2017 WikiCup round 3 wrap-up
The heat turns up on the 32 contestants who entered round three: 13 featured articles, 82 good articles, 167 DYKs, but we had to pick just eight of them to advance.
The Signpost: 5 August 2017
- News and notes: Non-English special edition! 99% no news about English-based wiki communities!
Wikimania in Montreal, lawsuit in Sweden, challenges in France
- Recent research: Wikipedia can increase local tourism by +9%; predicting article quality with deep learning; recent behavior predicts quality
Local tourism gains +9% when Wikipedia articles are improved; significant improvements in predicting article quality with deep learning; recent editor behavior is a strong predictor of content quality
- WikiProject report: Comic relief
An interview with a project that is centered around comics.
- In the media: Wikipedia used to judge death penalty, arms smuggling, Indonesian governance, and HOTTEST celebrity
Wikipedia and reliable sources of information continue to define each other
- Traffic report: Swedish countess tops the list
Plus plenty of sports, film, and television
- Blog: Canadian Supreme Court rules against Google in favor of worldwide court orders
The Canadian Supreme Court ruled that Google must remove search results worldwide, dismissing concerns that this may impede freedom of expression for people outside of Canada or inspire other countries to censor speech.
- Special report: Sharing Wikipedia offline medical information in the Dominican Republic
Wikimedia contributors support each other's projects in many unexpected ways
- Featured content: Everywhere in the lead
Recently promoted articles, lists and pictures – with a very heavy one in the mix
- Technology report: Introducing TechCom
The Architecture Committee adopts a new charter and name; and the latest in script, bot, and tech news
- Humour: WWASOHs and ETCSSs
An elite squad of highly insightful editors can lead the way for other editors who may need to retrain their faces into forming a smile.
The Signpost: 6 September 2017
- From the editors: What happened at Wikimania?
Please share your Wikimania 2017 experiences!
- News and notes: Basselpedia; WMF Board of Trustees appointments
Some of the goings-on from Wikimania 2017.
- Featured content: Warfighters and their tools or trees and butterflies
Take your pick of the best of Wikipedia.
- Traffic report: A fortnight of conflicts
White supremacists v. anti-fascism groups, Mayweather v. McGregor, Moon v. Sun.
- Special report: Biomedical content, and some thoughts on its future
Wikipedia's medical and scientific content has come a long way since 2001. Here are some thoughts on how it may continue to evolve.
- Recent research: Discussion summarization; Twitter bots tracking government edits; extracting trivia from Wikipedia
A list of recent research publications on various topics.
- In the media: Google's Ideological Echo Chamber; What makes someone successful?
Plus the latest reports of vandalism and mistakes in Wikipedia.
- WikiProject report: WikiProject YouTube
WikiProject YouTube is a new project on both English and Simple English Wikipedia.
- Technology report: Latest tech news
Syntax highlighting, failed login notifications, watchlist filters, and more.
- Wikicup: 2017 WikiCup round 4 wrap-up
Ships, typhoons, birds, and more!
- Humour: Bots
They do the things you don't want to do (and sometimes things you don't want done).
The Signpost: 25 September 2017
- News and notes: Chapter updates; ACTRIAL
News from Wikimedia France, Wikimedia Macedonia, and Wikimedia Israel's; Autoconfirmed article creation trial begins
- In the media: Monkey settlement; Wikipedia used to give AI context clues
Also: Jeopedia, Dubaipedia, shaping science, fake quote reused by scholarly sources
- Humour: Chickenz
The best that poultry has to offer
- Recent research: Wikipedia articles vs. concepts; Wikipedia usage in Europe
Plus the latest research publications.
- Technology report: Flow restarted; Wikidata connection notifications
Plus more tech news, and the latest scripts and bots
- Gallery: Chicken mania
Complimenting this issue's Humour about chickens...
- Special report: Two steps forward, one step backward: The Sustainability Initiative
Finally we're seeing some initial successes, but the Wikimedia movement is still far from being environmentally sustainable.
- Traffic report: Fights and frights
Boxing, hurricanes, clowns, and more!
- Featured content: Flying high
Newly featured birds, planes, and high achievers