Tech News: 2015-10
16:41, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
Discussion which may interest you at WP:FRS
Please see this discussion relevant to Legobot. SPACKlick (talk) 14:56, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
The Signpost: 04 March 2015
- From the editor: A sign of the times: the Signpost revamps its internal structure to make contributing easier
We received a large amount of feedback in our survey indicating that our readers found the idea of contributing to the Signpost difficult due to our opaque internal structure.
- News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation and OTRS team both publish reports, indicate operating changes
The Wikimedia Foundation released their Quarterly Report last week covering the three months October to December of 2014.
- Editorial: Conspiracy theories distract from real questions about grantmaking report
Last week, my colleagues on the Signpost produced a news report covering a minor controversy about a report commissioned by the Wikimedia Foundation. Written by the staff of The Lafayette Practice, a French research firm, it proclaimed the WMF as a leader in the practice of participatory grantmaking.
- Traffic report: Attack of the movies
The Report this week is dominated by the Academy Awards, taking the top 4 spots and 13 of the Top 25.
- Arbitration report: Bradspeaks—impact, regrets, and advice; current cases hinge on sex, religion, and … infoboxes
In the first of what the author hopes will become a regular feature of the Arbitration report, the Signpost speaks to veteran arbitrator Newyorkbrad, who recently retired from the committee after almost seven years of arbitrating. The Signpost was keen to hear his thoughts on his time on the committee and on the past, present, and future of ArbCom.
- Interview: Meet a paid editor
Before being indefinitely blocked, User:FergusM1970 made more than 4600 edits on the English Wikipedia, spread over eight years. In the last two years, he was paid to edit several articles for clients that included the Venezuelan energy company Derwick Associates. We spoke with him about his experiences.
- In the media: Kanye West rebranded; Wikipedia in court; editors for hire
Numerous news outlets are reporting that the domain loser.com now redirects to the Wikipedia article for rapper Kanye West. Page views on West’s Wikipedia article skyrocketed to almost 250,000 views on March 2, up from less than 19 thousand the previous day.
- Featured content: Ploughing fields and trading horses with Rosa Bonheur
Two featured articles, four featured lists, and 38 featured pictures were promoted this week..
- Technology report: Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
The Signpost has arranged to mirror Tech news from Meta-Wiki to supplement the long-form tech coverage in our infrequent Technology report..
- Blog: Black History Month edit-a-thons tackle Wikipedia’s multicultural gaps
Black History Month is celebrated annually in the United States in February, to commemorate the history of the African diaspora. For this occasion, Wikipedians worked together to honor black history and to address Wikipedia’s multicultural gaps in the encyclopedia, hosting Wikipedia edit-a-thons throughout the United States, from February 1 to 28, 2015.
Tech News: 2015-11
15:18, 9 March 2015 (UTC)
Non-free historic image license tag
Hello, I’m a little bit confused with this license tag for when it is valid and when it is not? The only thing I understand that it is not suitable for the Commons, but when it is valid in Wikipedia? There are some photos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1948_Swallow_downwind.jpg or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chrisye_in_1977.jpg uploaded with the rationale of “Identification of singer during his early career” or “The image is used to show the Gold medal winner of the 1948 Olympic Sailing at Torbay, a subject of public interest. The significance of the picture is to help the reader grab the atmosphere of the event in a way that words alone could not convey“. I’m currently heavily and almost completely reworking the Lithuania national basketball team article and the historic pictures of the awarding ceremonies would be really useful in it. Though, I’m unable to find any free pictures of some moments and consider using a few copyrighted pictures with this license tag. I already tried uploading some of such pictures in the past and all of them were deleted. Could you please explain me when this tag is valid? The documentation of it is kind of difficult to understand. Could I use, for example, these pictures:
- In EuroBasket 2003 section (not expanded it yet): http://www.fibaeurope.com/files/%7B0DFB9A41-0EAD-4461-A54C-7BC7E5407D81%7Dlarge_h.jpg or http://www.fibaeurope.com/files/%7BB7121D46-306B-4DA7-9114-2A4B83AA2702%7Dlarge_h.jpg or another one extracted from book which shows the meeting of the team (Lithuania won the competition that year and these pictures shows the Lithuania national team players after the successful final game)
- Pictures taken after the EuroBasket 2007 bronze medals game can be found there: http://www.uch.lt/2007/09/17/eurobasket.html and would improve that section greatly.
- I also consider extracting the unsuccessful Šarūnas Jasikevičius shot when the clock was running down as picture from the video recording of the 2000 Summer Olympics semi-final versus the United States national team. At some point the close-up view is shown and after it, Jasikevičius’ upset is displayed (he rests one of the advertising boards and drops his head down). If his shot would have been accurate, Lithuania would have advanced into the Olympic final for the first time.
- It is also possible to extract some photos from books with the awarding ceremonies in 1992 Olympic Games and 2000 Olympic Games.
- There also is no illustration from the EuroBasket 2013 awarding ceremony where Lithuanians became the European vice-champions. Could this picture be used: http://www.sekunde.lt/media/2013/09/LT.jpg ?
— Pofka (talk) 14:54, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
A week?
110.13.152.73 (talk · contribs) after some of the most tenacious vandalism and socking too.
Why don’t you give them a barnstar and make them editor of the week too? 8-( Andy Dingley (talk) 23:02, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
- Huh? I have no idea about the specifics of that IP, I was pinged on IRC for an emergency block, and the previous block was 72h, so I went up to the next duration which is 1 week, and went back to what I was doing. I can look into it more if you’d like me to extend it, but you can give them the barnstar yourself. Legoktm (talk) 23:45, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
The Signpost: 11 March 2015
- Special report: An advance look at the WMF’s fundraising survey
The Wikimedia Foundation gave the Signpost an advance copy of the results of a survey of English Wikipedia readers regarding Wikimedia fundraising, due for official release today.
- News and notes: WikiWomen’s History Month—meetups, blog posts, and “Inspire” grant-making campaign
The community has arranged a number of commemorative initiatives focused on the gender gap, under the banner “WikiWomen’s History Month”.
- In the media: Gamergate; a Wiki hoax; Kanye West
ThinkProgress tech reporter Lauren C. Williams wrote a long article on how the Gamergate controversy has spilled over onto Wikipedia.
- In focus: WMF to NSA: “stop spying on Wikipedia users”
In an effort to protect and maintain the privacy of Wikipedia’s thousands of editors, the Wikimedia Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the United States’ National Security Agency, Department of Justice, and the Attorney General.
- Traffic report: Wikipedia: handing knowledge to the world, one prank at a time
A dull week, with only three new entries in the top 10; a UFC champion, a Google Doodle and a Hindu festival involving people throwing powder at each other (though that does sound fun).
- Featured content: Here they come, the couple plighted –
Six featured articles, three featured lists, and forty featured pictures were promoted this week.
- Op-ed: Why the Core Contest matters
I continue to be excited about the Core Contest because I see it as a way of encouraging the expansion of broad articles that are typically neglected by our article improvement incentives.
Tech News: 2015-12
15:15, 16 March 2015 (UTC)
The Signpost: 18 March 2015
- From the editor: A salute to Pine
We announce with sadness and gratitude that Signpost publication and newsroom manager Pine will be stepping back to focus on other Wikipedia and Wikimedia-related endeavors.
- News and notes: SUL finalization imminent; executive office shake-ups at the Foundation
This process is now entering its long-awaited final phase with the upcoming SUL finalization, scheduled for April 15, less than a month away. … Wikimedia Foundation chief talent and culture officer Gayle Karen Young announced her retirement from the Foundation this week. Young will be replaced in that role by interim chief operating officer Terry Gilbey. According to the Foundation’s job description for the title as it was applied in the past, Gilbey will be in charge of “overall administration and business operations of the Wikimedia Foundation.”
- In the media: NYPD editing articles regarding allegations of police brutality and misconduct
On March 13, Kelly Weill of Capital New York revealed that numerous Wikipedia edits originated from 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the NYPD. Most of the attention has focused on a number of their edits to articles about incidents of alleged police brutality and controversial police practices.
- Op-ed: Does the Wikimedia fundraising survey address community concerns?
The publication of the Wikimedia survey findings on fundraising questions came three months after significant concerns were voiced about the design and wording of the December 2014 fundraising banners and e-mails.
- Featured content: A woman who loved kings
Four featured articles, four featured lists, and thirty-five featured pictures were promoted this week.
- Traffic report: It’s not cricket
If not for Kayne West’s dubious repeat at #1, the 2015 Cricket World Cup (#2) would have made the top spot, albeit in a generally slow news week.
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Tech News: 2015-13
15:10, 23 March 2015 (UTC)
The Signpost – Volume 11, Issue 12 – 25 March 2015
- News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation adopts open-access research policy
Last week the WMF announced the release of its long-awaited open-access policy.
- Op-ed: How my father’s railroad image collection now benefits the world: the value of digitization
Once when I was young, growing up in the 1990s, my father pulled his collection of railroad slides out from the basement, set up his projector, and shared a glimpse into American railway history with our family.
- Featured content: A carnival of animals, a river of dung, a wasteland of uncles, and some people with attitude
Four featured articles, three featured lists, and twenty-two featured pictures were promoted this week.
- Special report: Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2014
The Wikipedia Commons annual Picture of the Year contest has concluded, with 6,698 people voting, its largest participation yet.
- Traffic report: Oddly familiar
This week’s list is reminiscent of lists from the early days of this project: a preponderance of famous faces, Reddit threads, and Google Doodles.
- Recent research: Most important people; respiratory reliability; academic attitudes
The authors attempt to answer the question “Who are the most important people of all times?” Their findings clearly show that different Wikipedias give different prominence to different individuals.
- Blog: The Wikipedia Library Team reflects on its new Visiting Scholars program
A university gives a top Wikipedia editor free and full access to the university library’s entire online content—and the Wikipedia editor, who is unpaid and not on campus, then creates and improves Wikipedia articles in a subject area of interest to the institution.
GA bot ignores me
I haven’t received talk page notifs about my last three GANs (God’s Choice (nom), Windosill (nom), Vainglory (video game) (nom)). Any idea what’s up? Likely something to do with my signature, I imagine. Thanks for maintaining your bots—they’re really helpful. czar ⨹ 20:34, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
Related thread at User talk:The Herald#Legobot misplacing GA notifications by sending them to User:example.3F czar ⨹ 11:50, 30 March 2015 (UTC)
Tech News: 2015-14
15:18, 30 March 2015 (UTC)