Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2012-06-18
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/In the media
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
May engineering report published
| “ | In May 2012:
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—Engineering metrics, Wikimedia blog | ||
The Wikimedia Foundation's engineering report for May 2012 was published this week on the Wikimedia Techblog and on the MediaWiki wiki, giving an overview of all Foundation-sponsored technical operations in that month (as well as brief coverage of progress on Wikimedia Deutschland's Wikidata project). Two of the headlines for the month have already received coverage in previous issues of the Signpost (work on a new universal language selector and a Wikidata/RENDER summit followed by a hackathon, both hosted in Berlin). Other headlines selected for the report comprised the publication of the second volume of Architecture of Open-Source Applications, which contains a chapter on MediaWiki; a new and easier way to view a wiki's interwiki map (Wikimedia blog); and the surpassing of the one million milestone for images uploaded using Wikimedia Commons' Upload Wizard, which was first deployed in December 2010 (see previous Signpost coverage).
Elsewhere, the roundup contained details of a new Wiki Loves monuments mobile app; the conversion of the final aspects of the other Wikimedia apps that used screenscraping to instead get their data from the MediaWiki API; and the rapid upgrade and renewal of the Foundation's oldest servers (many of which were over four years old). Readers who recall the WMF's assurance in early February to undertake a full review of Gerrit three months after the Git switchover will also appreciate the inclusion of the news that Brion Vibber has agreed to lead that review, publishing his conclusions in early August. The report also noted that the outgoing bugmeister Mark Hershberger has completed a guide for triaging new bugs to allow volunteers to understand and more frequently contribute to the process.
On the negative side, code review was a significant issue in May, with the number of "unreviewed" commits nearly doubling to 250. The figure – although muddied by methodological problems – is already pushing on the target code review limits, less than three months after the Git switchover when it was approximately at zero.
Corrections:
- ^ Originally reported as 41, later revised upwards.
In brief
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Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for many weeks.
- IE7 support reaffirmed: The issue of continuing to support the antiquated Internet Explorer 7 browser was debated on the wikitech-l mailing list after the recent news coverage surrounding the Kogan IE7 tax.
- Time for change? The MediaWiki logo: The possibility of moving to an improved MediaWiki logo has been proposed.
- MediaWiki 1.19.1, 1.18.4, 1.17.5 released: Updates to MediaWiki 1.17, 1.18 and 1.19 were released this week to allow wiki owners to take advantage of a fix for bug #36938, which had made MediaWiki vulnerable to XSS attacks. The update to MediaWiki 1.19 also contained unrelated bugfixes.
- Visual editor prototype to be tested: The visual editor in development will be trialed on mediawiki.org beginning on 21 June.
- 3 million null edits to Commons: Due to templates changes failing to propagate properly from last year, a bot will go around making null edits. A side effect of this is that galleries may take longer to load.
- Four bots approved: 4 BRFAs were recently approved for use on the English Wikipedia:
- Alirezabot's 1st BRfA, adding, removing and modifying interwiki links;
- KLBot2's 1st BRfA, adding, removing and modifying interwiki links;
- Makecat-bot's 1st BRfA, adding, removing and modifying interwiki links;
- BattyBot's 10th BRfA, using AWB's general fixes to change {{No footnotes}} to {{More footnotes}} if an article has at least one inline citation.
- At the time of writing, 17 BRFAs are active. As usual, community input is encouraged. If you have your own idea for an automated task, why not add it to the bot request page? Many bots help keep our wiki together running around and doing those little edits that would be far too tedious to do manually.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/Opinion
Ground shifts while chapters dither over new Association
Ground shifts while chapters dither over new Association
18 June 2012
Foundation finance reformers wrestle with CoI
11 June 2012
Finance debate drags on as editor survey finds Wikipedia too bureaucratic
14 May 2012
Projects launched in Brazil and the Middle East as advisors sought for funds committee
9 April 2012
Funds, fiduciaries, and the Foundation: the complex dynamics of scaling
9 April 2012
Berlin reforms to movement structures, Wikidata launches with fanfare, and Wikipedia's day of mischief
2 April 2012
An introduction to movement roles
2 April 2012
Chapters Council proposals take form as research applications invited for Wikipedia Academy and HighBeam accounts
19 March 2012
Sue Gardner tackles the funds, and the terms of use update nears implementation
12 March 2012
Chapter-selected Board seats, an invite to the Teahouse, patrol becomes triage, and this week in history
5 March 2012
Finance meeting fallout, Gardner recommendations forthcoming
27 February 2012
Fundraiser row continues, new director of engineering
20 February 2012
Fundraising proposals spark a furore among the chapters
13 February 2012
Wikimania a success; board letter controversial; and evidence showing bitten newbies don't stay
8 August 2011
Negotiations among the chapters—the national Wikimedia entities—over the creation of an umbrella organisation appear to have stalled just weeks before the scheduled announcement of the arrangements for the new organisation at Wikimania in Washington DC (12–15 July). Meanwhile, in another move prompted by resolution of the foundation board at the Berlin conference in April, the first signs of a structure for user groups and thematic organisations were published on Meta on 18 June. These two new entities will comprise additional layers of real-world organisations—a significant structural change for the movement and a potential challenge to chapters' existing roles.
- Wikimedia Chapter Association
At Berlin, the 25 represented chapters (out of 39) agreed to establish the Wikimedia Chapters Association (WCA) in response to the ongoing reform of Wikimedia's organisational structures. The WCA is designed to coordinate the efforts of the chapters and advocate their interests in relation to the WMF, which distributes funding and resources such as the right to use trademarks to support chapters' work. The WCA will be designed to improve chapter transparency and accountability, and to develop best practices on relevant issues such as GLAM initiatives. The intention is to hire staff and to formally agree on a location for a centralised office for the WCA. The Signpost believes this will most likely be in the Belgian jurisdiction.
The chapter representatives agreed on a letter and a time frame to be pursued by an elected steering committee. An important aim was to finalise the arrangements in time for the announcement of the foundation's finance reforms at Wikimania; these reforms will be critical to the work of the chapters, which depend heavily on foundation funding for their promotion of Wikimedia-related activities in their areas. (In a related development, it is widely expected that the new Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) will involve much stricter auditing of chapters that apply to it for operating costs.)
However, preparations for the new WCA and its council—whose members are to be elected by the chapters—have run into trouble over communications on key issues between members of the steering committee, which is charged with preparing the standing orders that will set out the basic structures for the WCA. According to the schedule, where to locate the new entity should already have been agreed on, and the results published weeks ago.
The steering committee has not responded to on-wiki inquiries regarding the state of play—even to queries by the new chapter-selected WMF trustee–elect, Alice Wiegand, who enquired in May and again in June.
English Wikipedia arbitrator Kirill Lokshin represents Wikimedia DC in the WCA process. He told the Signpost, "it's obvious to everyone that the process is far behind schedule", but that this is unsurprising given what he believes is an "unrealistically aggressive" timeline. He emphasised that the standing orders drafted by the steering committee as well as the two alternative proposals, of which he drafted one, contain the required basics and that disagreements are focused on procedures rather than substance.
"There has been a great deal of confusion," he said, "both among the steering committee members and among the participating chapters, between the location where the WCA is to be incorporated and the location where the WCA should operate." The steering committee "has interpreted its mandate merely as providing recommendations to the WCA Council on these topics. Since there is currently no mechanism for the Council to make any decisions—and, indeed, no real indication of who the members of the Council actually are—this has made it impossible to proceed towards a decision even if the steering committee's recommendations were to be finalized." However, the chair of the WCA steering committee, Tomer Ashur, disputed this view: “I am not sure this was indeed the initial plan. We do not interpret the mandate as merely providing recommendations rather than providing recommendations that if not challenged [will] become decisions.“
Kirill told the Signpost that he remains hopeful of progress before Wikimania on the three major infrastructure elements: recommendations for a location, and drafts of the job description for the Secretary-General and of the standing orders.
To make things more complicated, the biggest chapter, Wikimedia Germany, elected its representative, Markus Glaser, to the WCA by membership vote last week. He has stated that his priorities will be to achieve "far-reaching decision-making power" for chapters over the Wikimedia projects in relation to any controversial changes to the technical platform, and to partially roll back the foundation board's financial reforms by arguing for financial autonomy of the German chapter in relation to what he referred to as "sovereignty" over donations to the movement in Germany.
- Are the chapters alone enough? New models for participation
Regular chapter status is generally bound to activities in a nation state (with the notable exception of the two US chapters, Wikimedia DC and New York). The inflexibility of this model came to a head during an application for chapter status to promote Wikimedia's mission in the Catalan language, which is mainly spoken in Spain but is also the official language of Andorra.
In response to this, two participatory models are under development by the foundation's Chapters Committee (soon to become the "Affiliations Committee", if the WMF board approves its new charter): user groups and thematic organisations. Recognition as a thematic organisation would be a necessary step for using Wikimedia trademarks and applying for funds from the WMF, and would require a relatively formal structure consistent with local jurisdictions. The suggested minimum number of people involved in a thematic organisation is 20.
On the other hand, many Wikimedia communities have meetups and other informal groups that have no official status, and which currently cannot apply for support, grants and the ability to use trademarks to help them in their work. No formal incorporation will be required to gain recognition under the new user group concept, which will give limited access to Wikimedia trademarks and possibly other resources.
The upcoming Wikimania will be one of the most important events for the movement for some time: during the event, the WMF board will consider approving the new Affiliations Committee and the two new participation roles, as well as debating the new financial structure to distribute movement funds. At the same time, chapter representatives will attempt to finalise the shape of the WCA.
Brief notes
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- Wiknic 2012: Preparations for the annual Great American Wiknic, scheduled on and around 23 June this year, are under way. there will also be a Wiki World's Fair event on July 7 on Governors Island in New York Harbor. International volunteers will attend and then travel to Washington, D.C., for Wikimania.
- GLAM article challenge results: The GLAM co-operation project with the Teylers Museum announced its writing challenge results. Overall, more than 600 articles on Teylers-related subjects in 13 language versions of Wikipedia played their part. Effeietsanders came first, with Davidpar second and Jane third.
- US National Archives WikiProject sought: The GLAM Wiki project NARA is looking for a coordinator to work with the Archives Wikipedian in Residence. The institution also published its new open-government plan, pointing to Wikimedia communities as important stakeholders.
- GA review drive: The Good Article backlog elimination drive June–July 2012 is gearing up and will run until 15 July.
- Milestones: Among the many milestones reached by Wikimedia projects over the past month are two minority-language Wikipedias: one is the Tlukankulu Tsonga Wikipedia, which has reached 200 articles. The Tsonga language, also known as Xitsonga, belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger–Congo languages, and itself embraces at least four variants. Tsonga, which uses the Roman alphabet, is spoken by about 2 million people in South Africa (where it is an official language), 1.5 million in Mozambique, and 100,000 in Zimbabwe. These people are often known as the Shangaan. Far to the north, Picard is a set of languages related to French, spoken on either side of the French–Belgian border. The Picard Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles. But although many people regard Picard as just a dialect of French, an example of the difference between Picard and French suggests significant differences: J'ai prins min louchet por mi aler fouir min gardin. French: J'ai pris ma bêche pour aller bêcher mon jardin.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/In focus
Three open cases, GoodDay case closed
The Committee opened and closed one case this week, leaving a total of three open.
Open cases
Fæ (Week 4)
The case concerns alleged misconduct by Fæ. MBisanz claims that Fæ "has rendered himself unquestionable and unaccountable" regarding his conduct because he responds rudely and personally attacks those who question him. MBisanz alleges that Fæ mischaracterises commentary about his on-wiki conduct as harassment and while Fæ has been mistreated off-wiki and possibly on, his violent responses to on-wiki commentary "has become the issue itself."
Proposed decisions are due by 26 June. Clerks have been authorised to remove uncivil comments and accusations where there are no diffs to support them; the users responsible will receive a single warning. If further incidences occur, clerks may block the user for a period of time at their discretion. Users are reminded that no speculation is allowed, and submissions must be factual and direct; where submissions contradict those of other editors, sufficient diffs must be provided.
Falun Gong 2 (Week 3)
The case was referred to the committee by Timotheus Canens, after TheSoundAndTheFury filed a "voluminous AE request" concerning behavioural issues in relation to Ohconfucius, Colipon, and Shrigley. The accused editors have denied his claims and decried TheSoundAndTheFury for his alleged "POV-pushing". According to TheSoundAndTheFury, the problem lies not with "these editors' points of view per se "; rather, it is "fundamentally about behaviour".
Proposed decisions are due to be made by 30 June.
Perth (Week 1)
The newly opened case filed by P.T. Aufrette concerns the suitability of the new move review forum, after a contentious requested move discussion (initiated by the filer) was closed as successful by JHunterJ, and several views suggested that the move was not supported by consensus. After a series of reverts by Deacon of Pndapetzim, Kwamikagami and Gnangarra, the partiality of JHunterJ's decision was discussed, as was Deacon of Pndapetzim's own academic interests.
Evidence submissions and proposed decisions are due on 28 June and 12 July, respectively.
Closed cases
GoodDay has been indefinitely prohibited from making any edits or participating in discussion concerning diacritics anywhere on the English Wikipedia. The topic ban includes the conversion of any diacritical mark to its basic glyph on any article or page (broadly construed) and any edit that adds an unaccented variation of a name or word as an alternative to diacritics. GoodDay was warned that should additional violations of Wikipedia's conduct policies (especially of the nature recorded as findings of fact) occur, stronger sanctions (up to a ban from the project) may be imposed without further warning from the committee. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-06-18/Humour