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28 February 2019

 


2019-02-28

Help wanted (still)

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By Bri

Renewal as the seasons change


Welcome to this month's issue of the only notable publication by the Wikipedia community; for the Wikipedia community. We do hope that whether you are recovering from a bitter winter or a blazing summer that you consider the changing seasons as a reminder that nothing remains the same (even the dear old Signpost).

If you can spare some time to help in the Newsroom, we would appreciate seeing new people there. If you can spare time to comment on content to help us stay on track, we would also appreciate that. Take up the challenge, and you will never regret it!


2019-02-28

Binge-watching

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By Acorri
This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga (January 20 to February 9, February 17 to 23) and Stormy clouds (February 10 to 16).

Skies on Fyre, Netflix Burns Higher (January 20 to January 26)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 20 to 26, 2019)

In the rain, in the streets, you're amazed by all the things that you see. And then you pick up the phone to look for what shows up in whatever you're binge-watching, as noticed by this week with a lot of entries regarding Netflix content, with real events regarding murder (#1) and fraud (#2, #4), and fictional events regarding sex, obsession and even more murder, along with a prestige movie that scored high in the Academy Award nominations. The Oscars somehow only brought in the subject of a nominated short, not counting Freddie Mercury (#8), whose biopic somehow is up for Best Picture. Sports are also very present, with three tennis players, three entries in anticipation for the Super Bowl (#5, #9), a disappeared footballer (#6) and another who changed clubs. Otherwise, two politics entries (#3), holidays on both the US (#10) and India, a hit movie (#7), a band on TV, and of course, the recently deceased.

So, why don't you hang up, won't you back up, pack up and head for higher ground. For the week of January 20 to 26, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 Ted Bundy 2,514,987
This infamous serial killer (just reading the lead on his article is a chilling experience) is the subject of Netflix docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, and also had a movie about him, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile – where Bundy is portrayed by Zac Efron – premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
2 Fyre Festival 2,040,682
Both Netflix and Hulu released documentaries on how a would–be music event instead became one hell of a fascinating trainwreck – long story short, the idiots in charge (#4) put more effort at marketing the thing than ensuring there was something for the attendees.
3 Kamala Harris 1,565,817
The Democractic Party has one more woman intending to run for president in 2020, namely this Californian senator.
4 Billy McFarland (entrepreneur) 1,479,433
Enter the page, and right away there is the message "It has been requested that the title of this article be changed to Billy McFarland (fraudster)." This shows how much of a scam the Fyre Festival (#2) planned by McFarland became.
5 Tom Brady 1,205,325
By guaranteeing his ninth appearance in the NFL championship game, Mr. Gisele Bündchen can by himself replace his team in the table here. One more reason why he's called the gridiron GOAT.
6 Emiliano Sala 1,163,536
The plane of this Argentinian footballer vanished atop the English Channel, and following inconclusive searches, the French and British governments gave up on finding the aircraft or survivors, though a privately-funded expedition started afterwards.
7 Glass (2019 film) 1,017,196
19 years after the superhero movie where Bruce Willis was unbreakable and two after James McAvoy was the supervillain with split personalities, writer\director M. Night Shyamalan (pictured) closes a trilogy, with both being used by Samuel L. Jackson's schemer with glass bones. Critics haven't responded well (in my opinion, it's passable but a bit underwhelming), but audiences didn't care: Glass topped the US box office for two weeks, and it has already made its $20 million budget eight times over worldwide.
8 Freddie Mercury 1,015,005
Sixteen reports straight with the late, great Queen frontman whose biopic has become an awards contender (including a Best Picture nomination, to the surprise of many). About this impressive run, let's sing:
9 Patrick Mahomes 945,191
For all his heroics during the regular season and the previous game of the playoffs, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback fell short on the AFC Finals, losing in overtime to the New England Patriots of Tom Brady (#5).
10 Martin Luther King, Jr. 936,572
January 15th could've been the 90th birthday of this minister and civil rights spokesperson. Instead, it's the holiday homaging him, as, in the words of some guy named Paul:

Killer Behind You (January 27 to February 2)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (January 27 to February 2, 2019)

Nearly half the entries from last report return here. This includes the serial killer who again tops the list, this time joining the select few who had 5 million weekly views (that's the power of a Netflix show!), and somehow isn't even the only murderer on the report, as another who was the subject of a TV episode enters at #24. Other returns are the subjects of Fyre (#3, #6), Bohemian Rhapsody (#5), The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (#7), Get Me Roger Stone and Super Bowl LIII, box office hit Glass, a Senator running for President (#4) – not the only one with White House plans here, mind you – and that never-leaving death list (#9), along with someone who might soon enter it, the victim of a plane accident. Adequate to the bleak #1, there are some somber subjects, such as hate crimes (#8), racist incidents, a movie about assassins, and a recent death. But on happier notes, there's wrestling (#2), tennis (#10), TV musicals, Bollywood, Hollywood, video games and a Google Doodle.

For the week of January 27 to February 2, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 Ted Bundy 5,179,244
Along with being on Netflix with docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, this infamous serial killer had a movie about him, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Bundy used his good looks – the movie even has him played by Zac Efron – to lure women into deadly and downright disturbing situations (just read the lead on his article, that as a good indicator of Bundy's screwed up behavior, describes him as "necrophile"). So seeing female viewers describe a rapist murderer as "hot" understandably led the streaming service to call out on such comments.
2 Royal Rumble (2019) 1,881,283
WWE's latest pantomime, held in a baseball park and featuring male and female versions of the namesake match featuring 30 fighters – both these matches were won by men, 'The Rumble Slayer' Seth Rollins and 'The Man' Becky Lynch (pictured).
3 Fyre Festival 1,447,298
Both Netflix and Hulu released documentaries on how this would-be music event in the Bahamas became a fascinating trainwreck: the ads sold a paradise full of models with top-notch service, while the incompetents in charge (#6) instead only provided a rocky beach where attendees felt like hurricane survivors, complete with disaster relief tents.
4 Kamala Harris 1,352,141
With this Californian senator announcing a campaign to run for president, the Democrats now have four possible women hoping they can get nominated like Hillary.
5 Freddie Mercury 1,015,005
"Oh, but I still get my pleasure, still got my greatest treasure!" After all, Bohemian Rhapsody is the 70th highest grossing movie ever, and Rami Malek keeps on winning awards for his portrayal of the king of Queen.
6 Billy McFarland (entrepreneur) 922,479
Actually, the article name is now "Billy McFarland (fraudster)",[1] given McFarland's business endeavours are irrelevant compared to how he's in prison for the scam that was the Fyre Festival (#3).
7 Andrew Cunanan 838,286
One of the new titles on Netflix's library is The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, one year after its original airing. Binge watchers decided to discover more on both victim and perpetrator, with more views for the latter, who killed four other people and later shot himself, and is portrayed in said show by Darren Criss (pictured).
8 Jussie Smollett 712,587
In a sad showcase of how the US are still racist, this former child star, now with a big role on Empire, was victim of a hate crime in Chicago, where Smollett was beaten by masked men who yelled slurs and "This is MAGA country!", and later tied a rope around his neck. See February 17 to 23.
9 Deaths in 2019 699,407
The lives we make
Never seem to ever get us anywhere but dead
10 Novak Djokovic 693,477
Another record was set by the current tennis #1, who by beating rival Rafael Nadal (who missed the list at #26) became the biggest winner ever of the Australian Open with seven titles.
  1. ^ 36,278 of the views came after the rename

Superb Owl (February 3 to 9)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 3 to 9, 2019)

American football's popularity leads to another Super Bowl week report where the big game dominates, with 12 entries. And yet like last year #1 is unrelated: while rapper 21 Savage is from the same Atlanta where the NFL final happened, he instead topped the report because ICE arrested him for possible deportation. Other than plenty of entries returning from our last list, there's a young politician on the spotlight, two Google Doodles, and two actor deaths.

For the week of February 3 to 9, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:


Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 21 Savage 3,268,645
Rappers getting in trouble with the law is nothing new. But it usually isn't for illegal immigration claims like the one faced by Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, who turned out to be British with a possibly expired visa. Threats of deportation ensued.
2 Tom Brady 2,383,494
Nine Super Bowls, and on the one held on February 3rd, Brady got his sixth title at the age of 41. He easily surpassed idol Joe Montana as the greatest gridiron player ever, and is married to a supermodel (who missed the list at #26) to boot. There's nothing left for him to do, so why doesn't Brady retire?!
3 Ted Bundy 1,812,605
Only four letters are different between "Tom Brady" and "Ted Bundy", but the latter is a much more despicable person: Bundy slaughtered at least 30 women, and either violated the corpses or kept parts of them as souvenirs. Interviews with him are available on Netflix, and a biopic saw its trailer drop after a festival premiere.
4 Julian Edelman 1,611,110
In spite of a threat to miss the 2018 season due to a doping claim, the Patriots wide receiver got his third Super Bowl ring, and was named the game's MVP, no less.
5 Adam Levine 1,197,017
The Super Bowl's half-time show was done by Maroon 5, whose frontman is easily becoming more famous with things such as being a judge on The Voice.
6 Super Bowl LIII 1,135,664
I'm no fan of American football. And yet the 53rd Super Bowl managed to be even worse than I expected, with the teams rarely scoring, and the boring outcome where the already victorious enough New England Patriots tied the Pittsburgh Steelers as the biggest champions with six titles.
7 List of Super Bowl champions 1,125,020
8 Emiliano Sala 1,107,974
Actual football, for a change! Only for a tragedy, as two weeks after the plane in which this Argentinian travelled disappeared, his body was found at the bottom of the English Channel. All the big clubs paid their respects.
9 Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge 879,080
Google homaged the 225th birthday of the German chemist who identified caffeine, that stimulant who many people can't start their days without.
10 Freddie Mercury 858,616
"We Are the Champions" , written by the ever-popular Queen frontman, is unescapable after sporting events. And sure, seemingly every Spotify account in New England started playing it after the Super Bowl, and even the Boston police got along.


Hallmark Awards (February 10 to 16, 2019)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 10 to 16, 2019)

This was not the most fun report of all time to compile for me on a personal note, given how heavily laden it is with topics that I am not remotely intrigued by – specifically, its focus on the superficial and cynical "love" propagated by the purveyors of gift cards and boxed chocolates, and its fascination with the Grammys, which I feel is the least interesting of the EGOT quartet. I am reluctant to say that music is dead, but a quick glance at the most popular artists with the regal readers of Wikipedia does little to dispel this sentiment. Nonetheless, courtesy of Google and Gunnm, there are some welcome distractions. All I can really say, truthfully, is that this is Report. Don't catch your attention slippin' now.

Thus, for the week of February 10 to 16, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 Valentine's Day 1,415,624
I can dim the lights and sing you songs full of sad things.
We can do the tango just for two.
I can serenade and gently play on your heart-strings.
Be a Valentino just for you.

Ooh love, ooh loverboy,
What're doing tonight, hey boy.
Set my alarm, turn on my charm.
That's because I'm a good old-fashioned lover boy.
2 Freddie Mercury 1,414,310
3 Alliance of American Football 1,396,098
Are you sad that the gridiron season has come to an end? Do you miss the presence of the Gronks and Gurleys of the world every Sunday? Do you wish that there was a truncated version of the sport? Do you think that having inferior players will improve the quality of the game (if it can get worse)? Do wonder where all of those Browns' draft picks wound up? If so, then I have the answer you – a brand new league, here to stay...

After a stay of execution, that is.
4 Ted Bundy 1,155,963
A two-pronged offensive from Joe Berlinger has seen the most infamous non-astrological serial killer in US history returned firmly to the public zeitgeist – first, there was the seemingly obligatory Netflix series, sending a Bundy Bunch of binge-watchers to the no longer BLP to investigate the malevolent man in greater detail. Then, there is the continuing furore surrounding Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, where cinemagoers will see Troy Bolton play the heinous criminal, where he will presumably get their heads off the court.
5 Dolly Parton 964,290
The most successful theme park enthusiast to not have an alleged affinity for the Nazis, Dolly Parton has worked incredibly hard on a regular schedule to forge a monumentally successful career in country music, a career which was touchingly commemorated at the Grammys by a cascading cornucopia of stars. This evidently reminded the denizens of the Internet about the Jolene singer, who remained in the news throughout the week with murmurs of an upcoming Netflix series, all of which combined to propel Parton to a lofty perch in the report.
6 Cardi B
(Okurrrr?) 		859,087
A stalwart of the report for sometime now, the continued mainstream prominence of the apian artist serves as testament to her victory in the great female rap war of the 2010's over her serpentine belligerent. Cardi B had another characteristically busy week, appearing in trademark style at the Grammys and releasing another finessed hit with music resident Jackson regen. Having placed at #11 in last year's report, early signs indicate that the swarm of interest surrounding the (other) Queen B will not dissipate any time soon.
7 Grammy Award records 719,515
Following the most recent iteration of the awards, a whole swarm of aural aficionados ventured to Wikipedia to see how Childish Gambino fared amongst the all-time greats. My major takeaway from the list however, was just to reaffirm my dislike of the Grammys – U2 have won 22 Grammys, and only two of them were for their best album, while they got eight for dismantling their distinctive, interesting sound. There may be a solid and accurate award show for musicians, but I still haven't found it.
8 Deaths in 2019 718,993
Once again, try as we might to distort the will of Darwinism, people continue to die, and we can do nothing to save them. Although, given the most prominent loss of the last week, it seems likely no one can.
9 Alita: Battle Angel 714,885
Having actually gone to the cinema to see the latest Hollywood attempt at an anime adaptation, I can gladly attest to the splendour of the special effects, where the influence of producer James Cameron is very clearly felt – not since the journey to Pandora have I been so impressed at the multiplex. Sure, the film is somewhat devoid of a satisfying conclusion, and is laden with the usual grab bag of plot contrivances, but for a movie that appeared to be an impending, immense implosion of unintelligible nonsense, it is surprisingly adept.
10 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 689,545
Political reform is great and all, but unless your AOC can hit one, then I am not really interested.
Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (February 17 to 23, 2019)

Fashion! We are the Wiki squad, and we're coming to town (February 17 to 23)

It's a bit of a slow week, to the point the last entries couldn't even break 400,000 views. And the subjects that got the most views are the usual offenders: the recently deceased, the latest Hollywood and Bollywood hits, the latest things people are binging on Netflix, wrestling events, politics, Google, Reddit... plus, expectations for the Academy Awards that will dominate next week's Report, some people getting arrested, and a terrorist attack.

For the week of February 17 to 23, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank Article Class Views Image About
1 Karl Lagerfeld 2,498,583
The German creative director who made a name for himself in big fashion houses of both France and Italy died at the age of 85 of a pancreatic cancer.
2 The Umbrella Academy (TV series) 1,978,854
Netflix has a new superhero sensation, but drawing from Dark Horse Comics (#5) instead of the big two. Ellen Page is one of seven gifted people who once studied together under the wing of an eccentric billionaire, and eventually start to uncover (and possibly prevent?) an apocalyptic plot.
3 Freddie Mercury 1,842,284
One of the few men whose biopic could have box office comparable to a superhero movie ($860 million worldwide!) and even get Oscar nominations. No time for losers, as Farrokh Bulsara is undeniably the champion.
4 Jussie Smollett 1,682,857
A few weeks ago, this actor was seemingly a victim of a hate crime, which would be shameful for the country. Instead, he allegedly forged a hate crime as a publicity stunt to further his career, leading Smollett to get arrested, which is probably even more shameful, but only for himself.
5 The Umbrella Academy 1,622,346
My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way collaborated with Brazilian penciller Gabriel Bá (both pictured) to create this comic, now adapted as a Netflix series (#2).
6 Steve Irwin 1,579,247
Google homaged the birthday of The Crocodile Hunter, who for all his courage in dealing with dangerous reptiles, sadly died 13 years ago attacked by a fish which usually isn't lethal, the stingray.
7 Robert Kraft 918,875
After many Super Bowl rings, the owner of the New England Patriots tried to get involved with a prostitution ring in Florida and is now facing an arrest threat.
8 List of The Umbrella Academy characters 837,600
See #2, #5. And since it's hard to avoid it:

When the sun shine, we shine together, told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be your friend, took an oath, I'ma stick it out to the end
Now that it's raining more than ever, know that we'll still have each other
You can stand under my umbrella!

9 Deaths in 2019 763,259
Better honor the deceased with the artist I already quoted:

But now it's time to go, curtain's finally closing
That was quite a show, very entertaining
But it's over now (But it's over now), go on and take a bow

10 Elimination Chamber (2019) 710,100
The latest edition of a WWE pantomime, where the main event has the ring surrounded by a tent-like cage.

Exclusions

  • These lists exclude the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-02-28/In the media


2019-02-28

Tool labs casters-up

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By DannyS712 and Evad37

Problems in the tool labs

Some unfortunate lab incidents occurred this month.

A series of incidents in mid-February resulted in some Toolforge and Cloud VPS services being unavailable. Toolforge and Cloud VPS (formerly known as Tool Labs and Wikimedia Labs) allow Wikimedia community developers to host bots such as Cydebot, semi-automated editing tools such as Huggle, and webservices such as InternetArchiveBot's management interface.

On February 13 and 14 February, the PAWS service was offline due to database connection issues. Several tables crashed – most were able to be repaired, but two were unrecoverable.

The Cloud VPS infrastructure also experienced a "mysterious hardware failure" involving three separate solid-state drives. Turning them off and on again initially appeared to resolve the issue, but that was short-lived. During this time https://tools.wmflabs.org/ was down, responding with a 500 Internal Server Error. There was also some data corruption caused by the disk failure.

The hardware problems were fixed by 16 February, with the service described as "mostly stable right now"; however the database connection issues remained, with dependent tools and services still affected. The Cloud Services team estimated that at least ten days would be required for a full recovery.

On 18 February, the tools database service was switched to a new server, resolving the connection issue.

E

Gadgets Galore

This month Wikipedia gained three new interface administrators: Evad37, Galobtter and Enterprisey. I'm excited to see what our new IAdmins do; they all seem eager to work with gadgets. Speaking of gadgets...

As mentioned last month, Enterprisey recently proposed that their "Script Installer" tool become a gadget. On the other hand, Galobtter has already begun making their short description helper into a gadget; it is current available for installation in your preferences under "Editing". Looking ahead, Evad37 says that they plan to suggest that their XfD closer and Rater tool become gadgets.

Additionally, this month saw the proposal of two other gadgets. Cyberpower678 has brought up adding a "Read Now" feature for book references; a working demo is available. FR30799386 has also proposed making their mobileUndo script into a gadget.

A grant request has also been made for funding to expand the ProveIt gadget. Planned improvements include compatibility with both the visual editor and the new wikitext editor.

D

In brief

Miniature Gadgets?

There is an ongoing discussion about a proposal to create a pseudo-namespace for housing "script modules". Such snippets of code could be easily reused by different script developers through a unified framework. Learn more here.

New user scripts to customise your Wikipedia experience

For further news and updates associated with user scripts, see the Scripts++ Newsletter

Bot report

New admin bots

This month, MusikAnimal filed a BRFA for MusikBot II, an Admin bot that would automatically configure protection for certain templates and modules. So far, MusikBot has successfully finished its trial, protecting 47 different templates and modules.

Recently approved tasks
Current requests for approval

Latest tech news

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community: 2019 #6, #7, #8, & #9. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available on Meta.

Mobile
  • You can use the ambox CSS class to show page issues to mobile readers. When you use ambox there are classes you can use.
  • When you thank someone on the mobile web you will now have two seconds to cancel the thank. This is in case you clicked on the thank button by accident. [1]
  • There is a proposal to add a red link to mobile search results if there is no page with that name. This is how it works on desktop. You can leave feedback. [2]
  • There is a new version of the iOS Wikipedia app. It has for example syntax highlighting and new toolbars to make it easier to write wikitext. It also has night mode, a find-on-page function and other things. You can give feedback and suggestions. [3]
  • The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add Wikidata descriptions to Wikidata objects that have Wikipedia articles but no Wikidata descriptions. It will only invite users who have added a number of Wikidata descriptions in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback.
Other recent changes
  • It was easy to untick a box by accident in Special:Preferences. This will now be fixed. [4]
  • When you look at your watchlist or the recent changes page you can use the new filters for edit review. There you can choose tags to filter different edits. Empty tags will no longer be shown. [5]
Meetings
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting takes place every Wednesday from 4:00–5:00 p.m. UTC. See how to join here.

Installation code

Further information: Wikipedia:User scripts § How do you install user scripts?
  1. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1=User:Suffusion of Yellow/filter-highlighter.js}}
  2. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1=User:Abelmoschus Esculentus/DiscussionCloser.js}}
  3. ^ Copy the following code, edit your user JavaScript, then paste:
    {{subst:lusc|1=User:Evad37/timeless-newMessageHighlight.js}}


2019-02-28

Optimist's guide to Wikipedia

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By Bishonen and Bri
Assume good faith even if it kills you.

This month's essay was written by User:Bishonen. Enjoy.

Optimist's guide to Wikipedia

  1. Frequent references to WP:AGF are a sure sign a user is in good faith.
  2. Frequent references to WP:NPA are a sure sign a user cares deeply about politeness and are themselves very courteous.
  3. If a person edits Wikipedia largely or solely to promote one side of a contentious issue, they're likely to have spent years of their life studying it. Therefore they're almost certainly an asset to the project.
  4. Patriotism is a virtue. Wikipedia needs to encourage virtuous people to edit as much as possible here, especially to add material about their own country.
  5. The best way to make established users more civil is to block them for a while. (Ask an admin to do it if you're not one yourself.) In the rare cases where that doesn't help,[1] you can try putting a civility template on their page, or telling them about the policy WP:CIV, which they may not be aware of.
  6. When people insist that before blocked users can be unblocked, they must apologise, admit their mistakes, agree to learn to avoid previous pitfalls, work to address all of the issues, pave the road, seek redemption, face the music, show that they understand why exactly they were blocked and how right it was that they should be, or show remorse, it's probably not because the insister would like to see a show trial or ritual humiliation.[2] More likely they have some psychiatric training and know how important it is to resolve conflicts and seek reconciliation, and how much better the delinquent would feel afterwards.
  7. The use of WP:ROPE in a discussion simply means the user wants to give somebody a second chance, not that they enjoy invoking violent metaphors or are out to ambush somebody.
  8. The use of WP:STICK in a discussion means the user didn't want to bore the reader with all the good arguments they could have added.
  9. The use of WP:OWN in a discussion doesn't mean the user is all out of real arguments for the version they prefer, it simply means… hmm. Working on that one.
  10. It's good to add a touch of humour to discussions that are threatening to get heated. For instance, references to WP:TROUT will make everybody laugh, thus defusing bad situations.
  11. "Enforcer" phrases such as The facts are the facts, It's that simple, End of discussion, Simple as that, and Period will add force and truthiness to any statement in any Wikipedia discussion.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Like this time
  2. ^ A talkpage post by User:Diannaa
  3. ^ Favoured by the highest in the land. Diffs on request.

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-02-28/Opinion


2019-02-28

Front-page issues for the community

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By Bri and Pine

Encyclopedias for Deletion banner campaign proposal

Screenshot of the top-half of the English Wikipedia main page with the banner "To all our readers in Germany" at the top
Prior informational banner seen from a German IP address in July, 2018
For more background, see "European copyright law moves forward" from the October 1, 2018 Signpost

Subsequent to the adoption of the final version of EU Copyright Directive / Article 13, a Village pump proposal appeared for a Wikipedia banner campaign in protest. The discussion continues on whether this constitutes advocacy in "Wikipedia's voice". WMF News (formerly "blog") also posted a piece on this, "Problems remain with the EU's copyright reform". B

Passing of Corinne

Pale Blue Dot displayed by User:Corinne on her userpage.
"Every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam." – Carl Sagan
Posted to wikimedia-l by Pine

Dear colleagues of wikimedia-l,

I learned today of the 2018 passing of User:Corinne. I feel that Corinne's substantial contributions to Wikimedia merit forwarding the news of her passing to this email list. Corinne had a Master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. User:Miniapolis wrote, "Corinne was a fellow coordinator of the Guild of Copy Editors, and we had come to know each other off-wiki as well. Corinne's specialty was request articles, and her copyediting skill (second to none) was a factor in many Good and Featured Articles." Corinne made over 25,000 contributions to English Wikipedia.

Contributors have written memorials on her talk page. She was posthumously added to the Guild of Copy Editors Hall of Fame.

May she rest in peace.

Brief notes

Welcome image on userpage of English Wikipedia's newest admin, Evad37
  • Wikimania scholarships: Scholarships for Wikimania 2019 are available. Deadline to apply is March 15, 2019, 23:59 UTC.
  • Elections for WMF board: Community affiliate selected WMF Board seats are up for election. See details at this month's In focus report.
  • Partial blocks: Partial blocks are under development as a software feature by WMF. They could be used to enforce topic bans on English Wikipedia. They were announced as functional as of February 13 and could be applied pending policy decisions on logging, notices and a few other issues.
  • New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrator, Evad37 also a frequent contributor to The Signpost. Seven administrators were desysopped due to inactivity in February.

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-02-28/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-02-28/Op-ed


2019-02-28

Wikimedia affiliate organizations seek community participation in 2019 board election

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By Lane Rasberry

2019 election announcement

Get out the vote!

The Wikimedia Affiliates Election Committee invites readers of The Signpost, their colleagues, the broader Wikimedia community, and humanity at large to participate in the 2019 Affiliate Selected Board Seats Election. The stakes are 2 of 10 seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Persons in these positions will approve or reject each US$100,000,000+ planned annual budget of the Wikimedia Foundation and oversee the activities of Wikimedia Foundation director and CEO, Katherine Maher.

As with all things wiki, everyone is invited to participate in any aspect of the election. In this particular election, the appointment of these seats is at the recommendation of affiliates based on the established consensus that the best way to advance the Wikimedia mission is with the direction of representatives from Wikimedia community organizations. Consequently, this election proceeds at the behest of Wikimedia affiliates, who choose to use this general community outreach process as their candidate selection method. Nominations open soon. Develop the schedule of the election in anticipation of having all outcomes reported far enough in advance for the newly appointed trustees to convene with the board on 14 August 2019 at the Wikimania 2019 conference in Sweden. The expectation is that the ideal candidates shall advocate for the growth and success of Wikimedia affiliates to the benefit of the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia Movement.

About the Wikimedia Foundation board

WMF Board of Trustees in 2018

The Wikimedia Movement is unique for its reliance on community participation even at the level of governance of the Wikimedia Foundation as steward of the Wikimedia projects and administrative support of the Wikimedia Movement. All trustees have an equal term and stand for regular reelection. For beginners to understand the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, think "1, 2, 3, 4" to remember the allocation of seats on the Board of Trustees. There is 1 Founder's seat for Jimbo Wales whom the board itself has the option to confirm each term. There are 2 seats for Wikimedia movement affiliates which are the subject of this Affiliate-selected Board seats election. 3 seats are for election for Community Seats of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, which is the general election by persons who have a Wikimedia account and actively use it. Famously, that is the most important election on the Internet. The remaining 4 seats are at the appointment of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee and typically go to professionals who provide necessary expertise to achieve the goals of the board and time.

Anyone may read about historical elections in the Wikimedia archives. Anyone can draft commentary, policy, outreach materials, or any other election materials in the meta:Meta-Wiki space to encourage global participation in the elections and Wikimedia community governance.

About this election

The ~140 Wikimedia movement affiliates which are registered Wikimedia community organizations can each cast one vote in this election.

Please note that only Wikimedia affiliate organizations can vote. Each organization gets one vote. This means that there will be about 140 possible votes in this election, as the Affiliations Committee recognizes that many Wikimedia community organizations. Of these, there about about 40 Wikimedia chapters which represent geographic regions. All chapters have had the opportunity to vote in multiple previous elections. There are about 100 Wikimedia user groups, each of which has passed a less strict level of organization than the chapters and which represent either a geographic or thematic group of Wikimedia editors. All user groups are having their first opportunity to vote in this election. User group voting is a recent development coming from a December 2018 by-laws proposal from the board of trustees and its 19 February 2019 adoption by the board.

The election will use single transferable vote so that organizations can rank their preferred candidates. To stand for nomination, a candidate must have the recommendation of a current Wikimedia affiliate organization.

Wikimedia organizations govern this election! Anyone seeking changes to the nature of the election should publish their ideas and assist the Wikimedia affiliate organizations of their choice in establishing consensus for change. Many details about this election are undefined. Any individual may make election proposals. The consensus of organizations and discussion on the talk page will confirm election procedure. The Affiliate-selected Board seats election FAQ answers some questions, but it also requires an update for 2019.

How to participate

The United Nations General Assembly is one of the models for this election and process.

Participate in the election with the activities that will promote the democratic process, a positive experience for all involved, and productive outcomes for all. Here are the most common ways to participate based on trends from previous elections:

Encourage the nomination of candidates

Probable candidates are experienced Wikimedia contributors who have a history of Wikimedia community organization in the Wikimedia affiliate organization system. Possible candidates are non-fictional and have a pulse, although this is wiki and consensus could change even that. This election is serious and Wikipedia is your favorite media channel for sharing general reference and educational content. Please respect the integrity of the election, and at the same time, participate in the election in the spirit of wiki. A modest organizer of any small Wikimedia community can seek a nomination and change the direction of the election discussion, perhaps by making election promises which other candidates will mirror. WP:Be bold both in encouraging your wiki colleagues to stand for election and in accepting nominations yourself if you think you can fill an essential need in the Wikimedia Movement at the level of administrative governance. Past trustees in this role have been talented and many of them modest.

Discuss the election on-wiki

Start and join conversation about the election by inviting all interested stakeholders to discuss on or off-wiki.

The Wikimedia community is vast and the majority of stakeholders in this election underappreciate the opportunity that this election process offers. Anyone can start a conversation on wiki, and anyone can write and direct messaging and invitations to participate to individual organizations which might vote. Localization of discussion about the election is important for diversity and inclusion in the voting process. Global participation makes for a robust election. Anyone who identifies challenges and shortcomings should publish what they see for the betterment of this and all subsequent elections.

For this election it is especially helpful for anyone who can teach Wikimedia community governance and election participation to contact Wikimedia user groups who might have membership which is unaware of this election!

Discuss the election off-wiki

Wiki is in the Wikimedia platforms and it is also in the conversations you have offline with Wikimedia editors and non-editing users. If you can present the fact or details of the election to any community of Wikimedia users then consider documenting and reporting your outreach. Wikimedia projects have 500 million / 50 crore users every month, and over the past 20 years probably have distributed content to 2 billion people or 25% of humanity. If you are reading this article then probably there is no one in your social circle who is outside the Wikimedia knowledge sphere. Tell them about the election over tea and coffee! Invite everyone to register a wiki account and do wiki participation!

Conduct the usual wiki oversight

Beware the Illuminati et al. Also note that wiki transparency is the best protection against fake news.

Draft policy, scrutinize the voting system, research and report on the candidates, and seek to root out any secret society or hidden cabal that might be puppeteering the election committee. Please only engage in conspiracy theories which avoid WP:Original research and cite WP:Reliable sources. If you are aware of anyone who develops wiki election madness then either direct them to publish their criticisms into the Wikimedia permanent and public record or refer them to the relevant Wikipedia:Dispute resolution process as needed.

Questions

Please direct questions about the election to the Wikimedia discussion forum of your choice or as a last resort to the talk page for the election itself or international organization catch-all, the Wikimedia-l email list. On behalf of the Wikimedia Affiliates Election Committee, which incidentally does not exist and which you can join and establish, Blue Rasberry .


2019-02-28

A quiet month for Arbitration Committee

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By Bri

Arbs create new way to report abusive paid editing

A new OTRS queue paid-en-wp@wikipedia.org was reported by the Arbitration Committee. More details can be found at Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard#New OTRS queues.

GiantSnowman case wraps

The GiantSnowman case closed 10 February with "GiantSnowman admonished and placed under review" being the only passing remedy.


2019-02-28

Pronouns beware

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By Barbara Page and SMcCandlish


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