Case study of Wikimedia Education Program published; remembrance of departed colleague Ray Saintonge (Eclecticology)
Medical-school class profiled as case study of Wikipedia Education Program
A team of students, academics, researchers, and Wikipedia contributors have produced "Why Medical Schools Should Embrace Wikipedia", a case study of the Wikipedia Education Program, published in the journal Academic Medicine. (I was one of the co-authors.) The research presents the study method and outcomes for several groups of medical students editing Wikipedia health-related articles. This paper is the first academic case-study of the Program. It models a method for reporting audience reach for Wikipedia editing projects, grants credibility for Wikipedia editing in the sensitive space of medical schools, and presents a thorough classroom outreach and follow-up model which interested instructors may replicate.
- Azzam, Amin; Bresler, David; Leon, Armando; Maggio, Lauren; Whitaker, Evans; Heilman, James; Orlowitz, Jake; Swisher, Valerie; Rasberry, Lane; Otoide, Kingsley; Trotter, Fred; Ross, Will; McCue, Jack D. (2016). "Why Medical Schools Should Embrace Wikipedia". Academic Medicine: 1. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001381. ISSN 1040-2446.
In the study, a class on editing Wikipedia was offered between 2013 and 2015 to final-year medical students. Collectively, 43 students edited 43 Wikipedia articles. Student contributions were reviewed by classroom peers, topic experts, and the Wikipedia community. Following the class, the Wikipedia articles edited by the students were accessed more than 22 million times by Wikipedia readers. The authors of the paper argue that students met learning goals by editing Wikipedia, and that Wikipedia is an efficient way for anyone to share information with a large, relevant audience.
The research is significant because Wikipedia continues to gain popularity as a source of medical information among health-science professionals and students. Having a Wikipedia editing case-study in a medical school is especially pertinent because readers use the information to inform healthcare decisions.
Historically, many Wikipedia outreach projects have focused on reporting Wikipedia participation. This study highlighted the impact to readers by tracking Wikipedia pageviews of the articles edited by the students. Although a comparison to other publishing channels was outside the scope of the study, the paper does provocatively ask if a student-written article "garners over 100,000 views/ month, might those edits constitute the greatest contribution to the medical literature in that student’s nascent career?”
Following this paper’s publication, the authors make the following calls to action:
First, they would like Wikipedians to support instructors in considering class projects that include student Wikipedia editing. When an instructor and students can accept the time involved in the Wikipedia Education Program, the students gain practical experience in new media publishing; Wikipedia editors access high-quality information to process; professors have the opportunity to guide text in their field of expertise that will be widely read around the world; the school gains prestige for making a real-world impact, and Wikipedia readers have access to improved information in Wikipedia articles.
Second, the authors would like ask whether any method exists which is more efficient to share general interest information than Wikipedia. Right now, Wikipedia’s significance is broadly doubted in education, publishing, and the media. Despite the doubts, perhaps no other organization reaches a larger or more relevant audience than Wikipedia in medicine, or any other field for that matter. Are there other reputable authorities who will make their readership metrics public for comparison? LR
Ray Saintonge (Eclecticology) dies
| “ | After a courageous battle with cancer, my loving husband, my best friend, and a wonderful father passed away peacefully yesterday morning. Thanks to everyone who helped us through this journey. | ” |
Thus Ray Saintonge's wife announced the death of the longtime Wikimedian. Raymond Michael Saintonge, better known to many Wikimedians as User:Eclecticology, died at the age of 73 on September 12, 2016, with his family at his side.
True to his username, Ray impacted numerous facets of the Wikimedia world in a wiki career of 14 years. His local newspaper in Richmond, British Columbia published a death notice, and many Wikimedians learned of his passing through a message posted to Facebook (not publicly visible), and republished to the Wikimedia-L email list, comprising a short message from his family in English and French.
Ray first edited Wikipedia in February 2002, with a series of additions to the Library of Congress catalog scheme page. Making more than 1,000 edits in his first month, to topics as varied as chess, Shakespeare, indigenous peoples, as well as service pages like disambiguation and talk pages, he had clearly found a platform that facilitated exploration of his varied interests. His English Wikipedia user page still carries a barnstar, awarded in 2011, for his contributions to The Cambridge Modern History. Ray was among those credited by Andrew Lih, in the acknowledgments for his 2009 book Wikipedia Revolution, as among "those who gave special insight on the community".
But Ray didn't stop with Wikipedia; according to his several user pages, he was involved with the launch of Wikisource, and was Wiktionary's first bureaucrat. Over the years, he accumulated 36,000 edits to 62 Wikimedia sites. His early and ongoing engagement was cited in a 2008 email discussion building the case for registration of the Wikimedia trademarks in Canada. One illustration of the breadth of Ray's interests was his work on the "Authors lists" for the site Canada's Early Women Writers, a project based at the University of Alberta, where his detailed work is in evidence in the discussions at the bottom of the initial page.
Ray attended each of the first ten annual Wikimania conferences, beginning in Frankfurt in 2005. He shared this distinction with just seven others. Colleagues praised his unwavering attendance, his pleasant manner, and his insights in their comments on Wikimedia-L.
Ray's contributions to Meta Wiki reflect his ongoing interest in the policies and organizational structures of the Wikimedia movement. For many years he was a valued participant in mailing lists such as Wikimedia-L (previously known as Foundation-L). He ran for a seat on the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees in 2008; his candidate statement offers a glimpse into his background, his personality, and his philosophical views relating to Wikimedia. He mentioned his career as a tax consultant, and his volunteer work in his son's school district; and described himself as a "manic" book collector and a "clutterholic". He emphasized his interest in governance issues, and in the importance of grassroots leadership and the autonomy of Wikimedia projects. He expressed concern about technical obstacles to editing, and advocated for chapters taking a leading role in decentralizing Wikimedia's organizational structure. In 2014, he added his name to a letter to Wikimedia Foundation leadership (which I wrote), reflecting his ongoing interest in less centralized control.
Ray's interest in governance and politics never pushed aside his core appreciation for sharing knowledge, or his drive to connect with colleagues. A moment recalled by Benoit Rochon, a colleague at Wikimedia Canada who was visiting Ray's home, reveals that passion: Ray, with eyes sparkling, handed Benoit the oldest book he has ever held in his life. Llywrch—himself no stranger to the challenges of an unusual username—recalled Ray sharing his own amusement that nobody could pronounce his username.
Ray served on the Chapters Committee from 2010 to 2013, during which time it changed its name to the Affiliations Committee (AffCom), and adjusted its scope. It was during Ray's tenure on AffCom that I made his acquaintance at several conferences; we shared a hotel room, and several enjoyable conversations, during the 2011 Wikimania conference. Ray and his colleagues on AffCom grappled with governance issues that continue to the present day, as covered in the previous edition of the Signpost.
In 2011, Ray joined the Board of Directors of Wikimedia Canada, where he served for several years. In 2012, the founder of the site Wikilivres (an independently run site that complements Wikisource, hosting books which are in the Public Domain in Canada but not yet in the United States) needed to step aside; Ray, who had participated there since 2009, took the reins. The Wikilivres community is currently discussing its plans going forward, and appears likely to transition smoothly to a new operator.
Marcus Cyron has written In memory of Ray on the German Wikipedia's Kurier.
Those who knew or knew of Ray are encouraged to share memories in the comments below, or on one of his various user pages. Ray's family would appreciate donations in his name to the BC Cancer Foundation or the Salvation Army Rotary Hospice House. PF
Brief notes
- Major download savings for mobile devices: Mobile devices account for about half of all traffic to Wikimedia sites, and downloading all images in an article has always been problematic where bandwidth and quotas are limited. The Wikimedia Foundation has launched a new system by which images are downloaded only when the reader scrolls down to them. One test in Indonesia showed a download saving of 32%. More details at Jon Robson's blog for the WMF.
- Wikimedia Foundation Endowment's Advisory Board adds third member: Peter Baldwin, history professor and philanthropist, joins Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and venture capitalist Annette Campbell-White on the board, which was established in late 2015.
- Lack of VisualEditor on talk pages: an impediment for new editors?: John Cummings, the Wikipedian in Residence for UNESCO, opened a discussion at the Village Pump, proposing that the VisualEditor software be enabled on article talk pages. The proposal has drawn a variety of views, including apparent opposition from the Wikimedia Foundation, which may favor waiting until mid-2017, when it plans to introduce discussion-oriented features.
- French Wiktionary offers English edition of its monthly newsletter: The French Wiktionary has been publishing a monthly newsletter, Actualités, since early 2015, oriented at readers interested in words and lexicography. They have translated their August 2016 edition into English.
- Wikipedia citation of academic papers considered in standard recommendations: The US National Information Standards Organization (NISO) released a report, Outputs of the NISO Alternative Assessment Metrics Project, which makes recommendations for altmetrics (a method of analysis to assess the influence of scholarly publications that looks beyond citations in peer-reviewed sources). Wikipedia is considered an important data source, and the report explores the significance of addition and removal of scholarly sources in Wikipedia articles. Meanwhile, Casey Phillips, a news and entertainment reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, also mused on the value of being cited by Wikipedia in his column: In Tune: Is being a source on Wikipedia 'making it'? Probably not. (Sept. 22)
- Wikipedia Library reports on "research help" pilot: The Wikipedia Library team at the Wikimedia Foundation has reported on a pilot project it conducted, beginning in December 2015, which added a "research help" link to 10,000 Wikipedia articles. The pilot was intended to help readers evaluate the role of Wikipedia in research.
- New article protection level ("extended confirmed") implemented: A new protection level has been announced that may be used only in cases where "semi-protection has proven ineffective", prevents editing by users with fewer than 30 days' tenure or fewer than 500 edits.
This edition's roundup of media coverage
In brief
- Science fiction anticipated Wikipedia: Contemporary commenters have noted that science fiction author H. G. Wells anticipated the coming of Wikipedia in his 1938 essay collection World Brain. Popular science magazine Scientific American continues this recognition in a video review of Wells' work, in which point five at 1:20 states, "H. G. Wells invented Wikipedia". (Sept. 8). Previously, in 2012, Tor.com credited Isaac Asimov's Encyclopedia Galactica as foreshadowing Wikipedia.
- Brazilian court rules that Wikipedia may republish publicly available information: The Wikimedia Foundation won a case brought by Brazilian Rosanah Fienngo, in which she objected to the Portuguese Wikipedia's publication of personal information she had provided to a gossip web site. Tech writer Glyn Moody covered the ruling for TechDirt. (Sept. 19)
- Interaction among Wikipedia bots researched: A paper, "Even Good Bots Fight", has been submitted to the journal Science Advances, and was covered in the MIT Technology Review, TechCrunch, the Register, and elsewhere. The paper, which has not yet completed academic peer review, considers bots on multiple online platforms, but emphasizes Wikipedia, as a controlled environment where bots' "benevolence" is assessed and managed. It identified bots that edited inter-language links—now obsolete, because of the emergence of Wikidata—between 2001 and 2010 as reverting one another more frequently than other bots. (Sept. 20)
- Let us beat term papers into articles: The Los Angeles Times reports that college students are editing Wikipedia "to rewrite the wrongs of Internet science"—as a part of their college assignments. The article discusses the efforts of the Wiki Education Foundation to train professors to improve Wikipedia content. (Sept. 20)
- Notable death or memorial page?: Israeli English media reported widely on the deletion of an article about Dafna Meir from the Hebrew Wikipedia on the basis of being a memorial page. On the English Wikipedia, deaths like Meir's and others are compiled at List of violent incidents in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, January–June 2016 (Meir under January 17). Meir's case has also been discussed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Israel#Dafna Meir. (Sept. 16)
- Wicked Girl: Actress Lena Dunham was pleased and amused to see her Wikipedia article incorrectly claim she was briefly married to crooner Chris Isaak. The vandalism was in the article for about 12 hours from addition, becoming social media share-bait, and removal. (Sept. 15)
Three weeks in the land of featured content
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
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Nineteen featured articles were promoted these weeks.
- The bluebuck (nominated by FunkMonk, Sainsf and 7&6=thirteen) is an extinct species of antelope that lived in South Africa until around 1800. It is congeneric with the roan antelope and sable antelope, but was smaller than either. It was sometimes considered a subspecies of the roan antelope, but a genetic study has confirmed it as a distinct species.
- The Yugoslav torpedo boat T1 (nominated by Peacemaker67) was a sea-going torpedo boat that was operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1941. Originally built as 76 T, a 250t-class torpedo boat built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1914, she was armed with two 66 mm (2.6 in) guns and four 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes, and could carry 10–12 naval mines.
- The 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division (nominated by EnigmaMcmxc) of the British Army was active during both the First and Second World Wars. The division's baptism by fire came in the first days of the Battle of the Somme, where it captured the strongly held Mametz Wood at the loss of nearly 4,000 men. After a distinguished record during the first world war, it ceased to exist by March 1919, but was reformed in 1939. It was never deployed overseas as a division, having been restricted to home defence duties around the United Kingdom. In 1944, it was disbanded and than recreated as a training formation. In this form, the division completed the training of recruits, who were then dispatched overseas as reinforcements. At the end of the war, the division was again stood down.
- The Left Hand of Darkness (nominated by Vanamonde93) is a science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 1969. The novel follows the story of Genly Ai, a native of Terra, who is sent to the planet of Gethen as an envoy of the Ekumen, a loose confederation of planets. Ai's mission is to persuade the nations of Gethen to join the Ekumen, but he is stymied by his lack of understanding of Gethenian culture. Individuals on Gethen are "ambisexual", with no fixed gender identity. This fact has a strong influence on the culture of the planet, and creates a barrier of understanding for Ai. The novel became immensely popular; in 1970 it won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards as the year's Best Novel, and established Le Guin's status as a major author of science fiction.
- Chicago Pile-1 (nominated by Hawkeye7) was the world's first nuclear reactor to achieve criticality. Its construction was part of the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to create atomic bombs during World War II. It was built by the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, under the west viewing stands of the original Stagg Field. The first human-initiated, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurred in CP-1 in 1942 under the supervision of Enrico Fermi, who described the apparatus as "a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers". In 1943, CP-1 was moved to Red Gate Woods, and reconfigured to become Chicago Pile-2. There, it was operated until 1954, when it was dismantled and buried.
- Yugoslav monitor Drava (nominated by Peacemaker67 and 23 editor) was a river monitor operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1941. She was originally built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy as the name ship of the Enns-class river monitors. As SMS Enns, she was part of the Danube Flotilla during World War I, and fought against the Serbian and Romanian armies from Belgrade to the lower Danube. After World War I she was provided to the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and renamed Drava. She remained in service throughout the interwar period, but was not always in full commission due to budget restrictions. During the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, Drava spent six days shelling airfields near Mohács in Hungary and fought off a small flotilla of Hungarian gunboats. Later she was attacked by Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers of the Luftwaffe. The anti-aircraft gunners on the ship claimed three enemy aircraft, but nine of the Stukas scored hits. She was raised and scrapped by Hungary during their occupation of parts of Yugoslavia.
- Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed (nominated by Iridescent) is a 45.1 by 55.9 cm (17.8 by 22.0 in) oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1830. It shows a scene from the Histories by Herodotus, in which Candaules, king of Lydia, invites his bodyguard Gyges to hide in the couple's bedroom and watch his wife Nyssia undress, to prove to him her beauty. Nyssia notices Gyges spying, and challenges him to either kill himself or Candaules as a punishment; Gyges chooses to kill Candaules and to take his place as king. The painting shows the moment at which Nyssia, at this point unaware that she is being watched by anyone other than her husband, removes the last of her clothes. The painting was immediately controversial, and perceived as a cynical combination of a pornographic image and a violent and unpleasant narrative, and it was condemned as an immoral piece of the type one would expect from a foreign, not a British, artist.
- Title TK (nominated by Moisejp) is the third studio album by American alternative rock band the Breeders, released in 2002 by 4AD in the United Kingdom and Elektra Records in the United States. The album generated three singles: "Off You", "Huffer", and "Son of Three". Title TK reached the top 100 in France, Germany, the UK, and Australia, and number 130 in the US. The reception of Title TK has been generally positive; appraisal has included commendation for Albini's contributions to the sound of the album, and for how the arrangements isolate the individual musical components, such as vocals, guitar, and drums.
- The Ecstatic (nominated by Dan56) is the fourth studio album by American rapper Mos Def. After venturing further away from hip hop with an acting career and two poorly received albums, Mos Def signed with Downtown Records and recorded the album primarily at the Record Plant in Los Angeles. The Ecstatic was described by music journalists as a conscious and alternative hip hop record with an eccentric, internationalist quality. Released in 2009, it charted at number nine on the Billboard 200 and eventually sold 168,000 copies.
- St Botolph's Church (nominated by Noswall59) is an Anglican place of worship in the village of Quarrington. Recognised for its age and tracery, the church has been designated a grade II* listed building. The oldest parts of the building date to the 13th century, although substantial rebuilding took place over the following century. With capacity for 124 people, the church serves the ecclesiastic parish of Quarrington with Old Sleaford.
- J. R. Kealoha (nominated by KAVEBEAR) (died 1877) was an American Union Army soldier of Native Hawaiian descent. Kealoha enlisted in the 41st United States Colored Infantry, and participated in the Siege of Petersburg. He was present at the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
- Lazarus Aaronson (nominated by P. S. Burton) (1895–1966) was a British poet and a lecturer in economics. As a young man, he belonged to a group of Jewish friends who are today known as the Whitechapel Boys, many of whom later achieved fame as writers and artists. Though less radical in his use of language, he has been compared to his more renowned Whitechapel friend, Isaac Rosenberg, in terms of diction and verbal energy. Aaronson's poetry is characterised as more post-Georgian than modernistic, and reviewers have traced influences from both the English poet John Keats, and Hebrew poets such as Shaul Tchernichovsky and Zalman Shneur. In total, he published three collections of poetry: Christ in the Synagogue (1930), Poems (1933), and The Homeward Journey and Other Poems (1946).
- Ride the Lightning (nominated by Retrohead) is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released in 1984, by the independent label Megaforce Records. The album was recorded in three weeks with producer Flemming Rasmussen at the Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark. Although rooted in the thrash metal genre, the album showcased the band's musical growth and lyrical sophistication. Instead of relying strictly on fast tempos as on its debut Kill 'Em All, Metallica broadened its approach by employing acoustic guitars, extended instrumentals, and more complex harmonies. The album received positive response from music critics, who saw it as a more ambitious effort than its predecessor. It peaked at number 100 on the Billboard 200, and sold half a million copies by November 1987. It was certified 6× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2012 for shipping six million copies in the United States.
- Cortinarius violaceus (nominated by J Milburn and Casliber) is a fungus in the webcap genus Cortinarius native across the Northern Hemisphere. The fruit bodies are dark purple mushrooms with caps up to 15 cm (5.9 in) across, sporting gills underneath. The stalk measures 6 to 12 cm (2.4 to 4.7 in) by 1 to 2 cm (0.39 to 0.79 in), sometimes with a thicker base. The dark flesh has a smell reminiscent of cedar wood. Forming symbiotic relationships with the roots of various plant species, it is found predominantly in conifer forests in North America and deciduous forests in Europe.
- The 2003–04 season (nominated by Lemonade51) was the 109th in the history of Arsenal F.C. It began on 1 July 2003 and concluded on 30 June 2004, with competitive matches played between August and May. The club ended the Premier League campaign as champions without a single defeat – a record of 26 wins and 12 draws. Arsenal fared less well in the cups, eliminated in the FA Cup and League Cup semi-finals by Manchester United and Middlesbrough respectively, and at the quarter-final stage of the UEFA Champions League by Chelsea.
- The CMLL World Middleweight Championship (nominated by MPJ-DK) is a professional wrestling world championship promoted by the Mexican wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. The official definition of the middleweight division in Mexico is a person between 82 kg (181 lb) and 87 kg (192 lb), but the weight limits are not strictly adhered to. As it is a professional wrestling championship, it is not won via legitimate competition; it is instead won via a scripted ending to a match or on occasion awarded to a wrestler because of a storyline. Since its creation in 1991, there have been 17 individual championship reigns shared between 12 wrestlers.
- William Borah (nominated by Wehwalt) (1865–1940) was an outspoken Republican United States Senator, one of the best-known figures in Idaho's history. A progressive who served from 1907 until his death in 1940, Borah is often considered an isolationist, for he led the Irreconcilables, senators who would not accept the Treaty of Versailles, Senate ratification of which would have made the United States part of the League of Nations.
- Vincent van Gogh (nominated by Modernist, Ceoil, Victoriaearle and John) (1853–1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold, symbolic colours, and dramatic, impulsive and highly expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. He sold only one painting during his lifetime and became famous after his suicide at age 37, which followed years of poverty and mental illness.
- Komm, du süße Todesstunde (nominated by Gerda Arendt) is a church cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Weimar for the 16th Sunday after Trinity, probably first performed in 1716. The text of the cantata was provided by court poet Salomon Franck. He based it on the prescribed gospel reading about the young man from Nain. His text reflects on longing for death, seen as a transition to a life united with Jesus. The text includes as a closing chorale the fourth stanza of the hymn "Herzlich tut mich verlangen" by Christoph Knoll.
Featured lists
Eleven featured lists were promoted these weeks.
- Ayrton Senna (1960–1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won three Formula One world championships. Senna contested 161 races in his career which included, 41 Grand Prix wins (nominated by Lourdes); the majority of his race victories were for the McLaren team with 35. He was most successful at Monaco, where he won six times during his career, including a record five consecutive times between 1989 and 1993. His largest margin of victory was 1:23.199 at the 1993 European Grand Prix, while the narrowest margin was at the 1986 Spanish Grand Prix, when he beat Nigel Mansell by 0.014 seconds.
- Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562) was a Reformed theologian of the Reformation period. His bibliography (nominated by Jfhutson) contains five biblical commentaries, six major theological and philosophical works and 329 letters.
- Lecrae (born 1979) is an American Christian hip hop artist. In total, he has won sixteen awards and received an additional twenty-eight nominations (nominated by 3family6).
- Montana is a state located in the Western United States. According to the 2010 United States Census, Montana is the 7th least populous state with 989,417 inhabitants but the 4th largest by land area spanning 145,545.80 square miles (376,961.9 km2) of land. There are 129 cities and towns in Montana (nominated by Mattximus).
- The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award of India. Instituted in 1954, the award is conferred on "distinguished service of a high order", without distinction of race, occupation, position, or sex. The recipients receive a certificate signed by the President of India and a circular-shaped medallion with no monetary association. The recipients are announced every year on Republic Day and registered in The Gazette of India. A total of 133 awards were presented in the 1980s (nominated by Dharmadhyaksha and Vivvt), including ten foreign recipients.
- The Davis Cup is an annual international team event in men's tennis, which is run by the International Tennis Federation, who describe it as the "World Cup of tennis". Since its establishment in 1900, 14 nations have won the competition (nominated by NapHit). The United States are the most successful nation in the history of the competition, with 32 victories.
- Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. His bibliography (nominated by SchroCat) is made up mostly of publications in periodicals and newspapers, and he was also interviewed nine times during his lifetime. He also wrote seven novels, twelve short story collections and seven scripts.
- Bridge of Spies is a 2015 historical legal thriller directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is set during the Cold War and is based on the 1960 U-2 incident and its aftermath. Tom Hanks plays lawyer James B. Donovan who is tasked with negotiating the release of the captured American pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) in exchange for the convicted KGB spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance). It grossed a worldwide total of over $165 million on a production budget of $40 million. The film garnered many awards and nominations (nominated by Cowlibob) in a variety of categories with particular praise for Rylance's performance. Bridge of Spies received six nominations at the 88th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Score. Rylance went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
- Parks and Recreation is an American situation comedy created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. The show premiered on NBC in 2009 and concluded in 2015 after airing seven seasons. The sitcom was nominated for a variety of awards (nominated by Mymis), including fifteen Primetime Emmy Award nominations, twice as a series and twice for writing.
- Evita is a 1996 American musical drama film based on Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical of the same name about First Lady of Argentina, Eva Perón. Directed by Alan Parker and written by Parker and Oliver Stone, the film starred Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce in the leading roles. Made on a budget of $56 million, it grossed over $141 million worldwide. The film garnered awards and nominations (nominated by IndianBio) in several categories and has won 19 awards from 40 nominations, with particular recognition for Madonna, Parker, Rice, Webber, and the song "You Must Love Me" from the film.
- Gwen Stefani (born 1969) is an American singer and songwriter. She has recorded songs (nominated by Carbrera) for three studio albums and one EP, and has been featured on songs on other artists' respective albums.
Featured portals
One featured portal was promoted these weeks.
- The highway system of the U.S. state of California (nominated by Rschen7754) is a network of roads owned and maintained by the state of California through the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Most of these are numbered in a statewide system, and are known as State Route X (abbreviated SR X). United States Numbered Highways are labeled US X, and Interstate Highways are Interstate X, though Caltrans typically uses State Route X for all classes.
Featured pictures
Twelve featured pictures were promoted these weeks.
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Arbcom looking for new checkusers and oversight appointees while another case opens
- The Rambling Man case
A new case has been accepted by the Arbitration Committee. Filing party Banedon requested a case against The Rambling Man, an administrator since 2007 and helper at In The News and Today's Featured List, alleging that the editor has long-term civility issues.
Eight members of the committee voted to accept the case, with Casliber recusing. Arbitrator DGG, who voted to accept the case, stated "there seem to be unresolved problems", making reference to the several ANI cases being made on The Rambling Man since 2014. DeltaQuad opposed the case, stating double jeopardy as the reason.
- Checkuser/oversight appointment 2016
On 9 September, the committee announced that it is performing a round of checkuser and oversight appointments. Arbitrators DeltaQuad and Opabinia regalis will oversee the process. Applications closed at 23:59, 20 September 2016 (UTC). For more details, see the 2016 CUOS appointments page.
- In brief
- Requests for comment for the Arbcom election 2016: A request for comment has been made for the upcoming Arbcom election in December. Its purpose is to "provide an opportunity to amend the structure, rules, and procedures of the December 2016 English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee election and resolve any issues not covered by existing rules". The RFC will be open until 30 September.
- Arbitration motion regarding race and intelligence: On 1 September, the committee announced that the March 2014 requirement restricting Ferahgo the Assassin from "editing articles about the palaeontology of birds and dinosaurs and editing any talk or process pages reasonably and directly associated with improving the quality of those articles" was rescinded. This was part of the user's unbanning in 2014. Other restrictions accompanying the unban remain in force, as well as the topic ban on "race and intelligence" from 2010 and the two-way interaction ban between Ferahgo and Mathsci made back in April 2016.
From Gene Wilder to JonBenét: Four weeks of traffic
Your Top 10 most-viewed Wikipedia articles for the weeks of August 28 – September 3, September 4–10, September 11–17, and September 18-24, 2016.
For the full top-25 lists (and archives back to January 2013), see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles every week, see WP:MOSTEDITED.
Week of August 28 – September 3, 2016
Lull: The end of the Olympics has brought a bit of a lull this week. Actor Gene Wilder's death (#1) received significant attention and 3.5 million views, also lifting his second wife Gilda Radner (#8), who died of ovarian cancer in 1989, into the Top 10. Netflix's Stranger Things continues to show strange staying power, at #3 this week. The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards also propelled a number of performers into the Top 25, and Rihanna to #9. Oddly though, after our commentary on Reddit last week, a full six articles apparently fueled by Reddit made it into the Top 25 (all outside the Top 10). This includes slots 22–25, which wouldn't have made it last week when the threshold to make the Top 25 was a bit higher. And though I happen to know that #25, Thomas Day, was actually the subject of the "Stuff You Misssed in History Class" podcast the day before its Reddit thread, so that was no doubt the original inspiration for the post.
As prepared by Milowent, for the week of August 28 to September 3, 2016, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the newly revamped WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Gene Wilder 
3,500,029 
The American comedian, born Jerome Silberman (a fact I just learned), very popular in a number of 1970s and 1980s films, died at home in Connecticut on August 29. He had been out of the spotlight for a number of years and died of complications from Alzheimer's disease, a condition he had kept private. 2 Colin Kaepernick 
1,294,476 
This American football player is getting a lot of attention for choosing to sit during the national anthem, as a protest against the treatment of people of color, see Colin_Kaepernick#National_anthem_protest. There's a lot of strong opinions going around America about this, so I'll leave mine out for once. 3 Stranger Things (TV series)
999,668 
This Netflix science-fiction series is basically an 8-hour homage to early 80s kid-centric flicks like E.T., The Goonies and Explorers, though aimed mostly at adults. It has been a smash hit for Netflix, evidenced by its continuing appearance on this chart – seven straight weeks. Netflix recently ordered a second season. 4 Juan Gabriel
925,762 
This Mexican singer and songwriter died of a heart attack at his home in California on August 28. He was clearly very popular in the Spanish-speaking world, as the Spanish version of his article got well over two million hits in the same timeframe. 5 Queen Victoria 
848,142 
Not a Google Doodle or a significant anniversary, but the debut of the British television show Victoria. 6 Killing of Harambe 
664,596 
What began as a heartfelt reaction to what some felt was the unnecessary killing of a silverback western lowland gorilla (pictured, though not him specifically) has morphed over the last three months into online trolling and racist abuse, along with the standard targeted misogyny. What the troll army hopes to accomplish is never clear, but whatever it is it doesn't involve helping gorillas. 7 Deaths in 2016 
663,187 
The views for the annual list of deaths are remarkably consistent on a day to day basis. It was consistently higher in the first half of 2016 with a string of highly notable deaths. 8 Gilda Radner 
625,108 
The Saturday Night Live original cast member, film actress, and wife of #1 died in 1989 from ovarian cancer. 9 Rihanna
605,079 
The singer was featured at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. 10 Pablo Escobar
601,802 
Narcos is back.
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Week of September 4–10, 2016
Plata y mas plata: Wikipedia's viewers seem determined to tune the real world out this week, with pop culture in overwhelming dominance once again. And leading the charge is, of course, Netflix's series Narcos, which was similarly dominant during its first season last year. A close runner up is Clint Eastwood's hero hagiography Sully, which, like his previous American Sniper, came with a spicy touch of controversy to turn eyeballs its way. Even the real world seemed focused on the departed, since two of the non-media generated entries were both dead icons: Mother Teresa and Steve Irwin. The only genuine bit of real world horror was the troubling early release of Brock Turner, over which many of our users likely felt a very personal fear.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of September 4 to 10, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the newly revamped WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Pablo Escobar
2,309,885 
Narcos is back. And apparently people weren't sufficiently informed about its subject last year, because numbers are up fourfold on last week and he's reclaimed his throne at the top of this chart. A suspiciously high 75% mobile count, but there's no reason for it not to be here. 2 Mother Teresa
1,155,944 
The Albanian missionary, who, depending on your point of view, was either the modern paragon of holy virtue or a hideous amalgam of all the faults of organised religion, was canonised this week as Saint Teresa of Calcutta before a crowd of thousands. 3 Ann Coulter
987,975 
It must have looked good on paper. Have not-quite-has-been actor Rob Lowe over for a celebrity roast and get professional aggressor Ann Coulter to lead the attack. Unfortunately, after years of bilious vitriol spewed through various media at basically everyone who wasn't her, it seems Ann had reached some kind of critical mass, because the tide of battle turned, and everyone decided to roast her instead. 4 Stranger Things (TV series)
846,657 This Netflix science-fiction series is basically an 8-hour homage to early 80s kid-centric flicks like E.T., The Goonies and Explorers, though aimed mostly at adults. It has been a smash hit for Netflix, evidenced by its continuing appearance on this chart – eight straight weeks. Netflix recently ordered a second season. 5 Narcos
752,660 
The second season of the TV series about the rise of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar (see #1) premiered in its entirety on Netflix on September 2. 6 Harley-Davidson
675,195 
The standard toy for middle-aged, middle class white guys to enact their rebellious and countercultural fantasies got a boost this week thanks to Harley and the Davidsons, a three-part drama that aired to middling reviews but stellar ratings, giving the Discovery Channel their best week in years. 7 Deaths in 2016
647,054 The views for the annual list of deaths are remarkably consistent on a day to day basis. It is consistently higher in the first half of 2016 with a string of highly notable deaths, but things seem to be calming down a bit. 8 2016 Summer Paralympics
644,210 
The Olympics's less heralded encore got underway this week in Rio de Janeiro. We in the UK are good at Olympic events because we spend lottery money on them, but in recent years we've given special notice to the Paralympics, mainly because we did them so well last time. 9 Rob Lowe
615,920 
The former Brat Packer and West Wing star was the intended target of a celebrity roast on Comedy Central this week, but the format eventually collapsed when the team turned on Ann Coulter (see #3). 10 Killing of Harambe
554,465 What began as a heartfelt reaction to what some felt was the unnecessary killing of a silverback western lowland gorilla (pictured, though not him specifically) has morphed over the last three months into online trolling and racist abuse, along with the standard targeted misogyny. What the troll army hopes to accomplish is never clear, but whatever it is it doesn't involve helping gorillas.
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Week of September 11–17, 2016
Anniversaries: The anniversaries of historic events are frequent visitors to this Report, but instead of being led by the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks (#4) this week, as we expected, we have the 11th anniversary of the Corrupted Blood incident (#1) video game event, which occurred in World of Warcraft and in which literally no one died, even the game's characters which can be reincarnated. We can all scratch our head over that one, but the ways of the internet are complex. See the chart comments for more on that. And the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Murder of JonBenét Ramsey comes in at #10 because of a new miniseries.
As prepared by Milowent, for the week of September 11 to 17, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the newly revamped WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Corrupted Blood incident
1,636,405 
Like professional wrestling, gaming is an activity that is very popular among a group of the population, yet most of the rest of us are not very aware of the goings-on in that area. And while wrestling events often reach the top of this chart (SummerSlam 2016 hit #1 three weeks ago), gaming events simply don't. Yet, the 11th anniversary of this "virtual plague" in World of Warcraft drew a great deal of attention on September 13–14 (and 1.4M views on Sept 13, the actual anniversary). In this event, a game update included a new character that could inflict a "corrupted blood" disease that damaged characters over time. It could spread to nearby characters, but was not intended to spread out of the area where it was introduced. A programming error allowed the disease to spread, and it caused death and mass mayhem for a week. A primary driver of traffic was a Reddit thread on the /r/gaming subreddit. Normally only Reddit threads from the todayilearned subreddit can direct enough traffic to this chart, but the gaming thread already has over 5700 upvotes. Of course, the fact that this event got more views than the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks (#4) does not mean the this virtual plague got more worldwide attention. Instead it is just another example of how Wikipedia article popularity is only a proxy for measuring cultural attention. 2 Pablo Escobar
1,494,049 Down from 2.3 million views last view, but Narcos is back on your television screens for another week. Mobile views are on the high side again (73%) but nothing suggests these views are not legitimate. 3 Alexis Arquette
1,320,202 
Arquette, part of the Arquette family of actors, and known for transitioning her gender to female, died on September 11 at age 47 of undisclosed causes. 4 September 11 attacks
1,155,678 
The fifteenth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in world history fell this week. It fell on the first day of the week, so that may be why it is only #4 for the week this year, as compared to #2 the last two years. 5 Roanoke Colony
870,775 
The sixth season of American Horror Story, dubbed American Horror Story: Roanoke debuted on September 14. It invokes the story of England's failed attempt to establish a colony in America in the 1580s, where by 1590 all inhabitants had disappeared and could not be located. The only clue left behind by the "lost colony" was the word "CROATOAN" carved into a post. 6 Yma Sumac
811,712 
Google ran a Doodle on what would have been the 94th birthday of the Peruvian soprano. The Doodle only appeared in the United States and certain South American countries (of course including Peru). 7 Donald Trump
688,121 
Press coverage in the United States is at 25% Donald Trump every day, it seems. On September 16, Trump promised to give a press conference regarding his current views on birtherism. Starting in 2011, Trump had led the charge into the specious claims that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. At the press conference, Trump mostly touted his new D.C. hotel (where the event was held) and endorsements from some veterans, and concluded the conference by quickly admitting Obama was born in the United States, and then claiming Hillary Clinton had been the one pushing the rumor, apparently to deflect any implications of his years of obvious and absurd lying about the subject. The press has been highly critical of the event, with CNN anchor Jake Tapper even calling it a "political Rick roll". 8 Edward Snowden
671,125 
The film Snowden was released in the United States on September 16. 9 UFC 203
667,115 
Stipe Miocic defeated Alistair Overeem is the featured match of this September 10 event held at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. 10 Murder of JonBenét Ramsey
649,805 
In addition to the O. J. Simpson murder case, the 1990s also brought us this second over-covered over-sensationalized and exploited murder. A new mini-series on American television 'The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey has brought another round of attention as we approach the 20th anniversary of the girl's death.
Week of September 18–24, 2016
J'Accuse! pour pauvre petit JonBenét: In the United States, hundreds of children are murdered every year, and, thanks to an average homicide clearance rate of 64%, will likely have their deaths unanswered. But we as a culture, and perhaps as a species, can't handle that. So instead we shine lights on specific examples particularly deviant or prurient in their details, dubbed "media friendly", allowing us to shelter in our moral outrage. And boy did the murder of poor JonBenét Ramsey give us the chance to do that. JonBenét was a product of that strangely American industry, child beauty pageants, which, with their overly made up contestants made to look like living Barbie dolls, gave her murder a slightly paedophilic cast despite having no proven connection to her murder. And with the media having anointed her as their icon of shattered innocence du jour, it is unsurprising that, with the approaching 20th anniversary of her death, the media have again chosen to anoint themselves the sole arbiters of truth and justice in her murder. Several television specials accounting the details of her death or offering new "evidence" have been shown or are in development, but the clear driver of views for this list is The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey, a CBS "documentary" that aired on Monday and Tuesday this week. Unlike the more cautious (rational) approaches taken by other networks, CBS decided to flat out name their chosen suspect, JonBenét's then nine-year-old brother, Burke. Needless to say, they're now getting threatened with defamation suits, and in the ensuing lahar of speculation, people turned to Wikipedia for clarity. He're hoping we provided it.
Speaking of unfounded accusations, rumours are again flying around the divorce of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, with echoes of Brad Pitt's previous divorce coaxing the media to turn on poor Marion Cotillard, who still managed to get her own back online. Celebrity presence on this list was also due to actual accomplishment, however; the Emmys also featured.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of September 18 to 24, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Murder of JonBenét Ramsey
1,155,334 In the lead up to its 20th anniversary, the puzzling murder of this six-year-old beauty queen has become a topic of discussion thanks largely to the suggestions (as opposed to outright accusations, mind you) levelled by the CBS documentary The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey. 2 Angelina Jolie
1,140,991 
As I have said many times in the past, I care not a jot for the private lives of celebrities. Divorces are never pleasant, least of all for the children, of which she has many, so I hope that, once the walls of tabloid illusion are blown away in the wind, she'll be able to provide them with a stable environment in which to grow up. 3 Pablo Escobar
1,091,369 Narcos is back on your television screens, meaning Don Pablo is back on the list for another week. 4 Marion Cotillard
884,417 
You know who else cares not a jot about the private lives of celebrities? Marion Cotillard, who filmed the spy thriller Allied with Jolie's husband Brad Pitt in the lead up to the divorce. This led to speculation that an affair between the two was the catalyst for the proceedings, presumably on the grounds that she is the only woman on Earth with whom one could contemplate cheating on Angelina Jolie. Cotillard, who by all accounts is in a longterm and happy relationship with French actor Guillaume Canet, with whom she is currently expecting her second child, refuted the claims with a withering post on Instagram that included the delicious line, "This crafted conversation isn't distressing. And to all the media and the haters who are quick to pass judgment, I sincerely wish you a swift recovery." Burn! I'd like to call her wonderfully down to earth, but she also believes in the moon landing hoax and 9/11 conspiracy theories. 5 Brad Pitt
851,307 
Ever since starting this list I've had that abominable song by Shania Twain rolling through my head: "OK, so you're Brad Pitt! That don't impress me much!" It seems those words were a curse. A very, very, very, long-delayed curse, but a curse nonetheless. Not that Brad Pitt is likely to be lonely long. 6 Deaths in 2016
625,921 The views for the annual list of deaths are remarkably consistent on a day to day basis. It is consistently higher in the first half of 2016 with a string of highly notable deaths, but things seem to be calming down a bit. 7 Pink (2016 film)
593,314 
This Bollywood drama, starring Amitabh Bachchan (pictured), about three girls falsely accused of prostitution and attempted murder by the boys who sexually assaulted them, grossed ₹210.5 million ($3.2 million) in its opening weekend. Despite its heavy subject matter, being Bollywood, it still has musical numbers. 8 Stranger Things (TV series)
589,801 This Netflix science-fiction series is basically an 8-hour homage to early 80s kid-centric flicks like E.T., The Goonies and Explorers, though aimed mostly at adults. It has been a smash hit for Netflix, evidenced by its continuing appearance on this chart -- ten straight weeks. Netflix recently ordered a second season. 9 Richard Garfield
570,257 
The creator of the first ever trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, is the great-great grandson of US President James Garfield, as learned in a Reddit thread this week. 10 Jennifer Aniston
542,402 
Despite having nothing whatsoever to do with her ex-husband's current breakup, the tabloids have latched her onto his every relational flutter for so many years that she's now back in the storm by sheer association.
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Category sorting and template parameters
Revamped category sorting
Category sorting has been revamped on English Wikipedia. Titles are now sorted according to the Unicode collation algorithm (phabricator task). The most noticeable change is that characters which differ only in diacritics are now sorted together. Also, numeric sorting is now supported, closing a 10-year-old bug. This should, in many cases, alleviate the need for custom keys to be defined using the DEFAULTSORT behavior switch.
It took approximately a week to regenerate all of the sort keys for English Wikipedia. During this time (29 August to 6 September), sorting in categories was unreliable, prompting reports and discussion in several threads on the technical Village Pump (now archived). One remaining issue is that hyphens are now sorted before commas. This means that hyphenated surnames are sorted earlier if articles use DEFAULTSORT keys of the form "Surname, First name". For example, sorting Jessica Ennis-Hill (sort key "Ennis-Hill, Jessica") before Andy Ennis (sort key "Ennis, Andy"). The issue is being investigated. One proposed solution is to switch to using "Surname First name" in DEFAULTSORT keys.
Improvements to category sorting were one of the projects worked on by the WMF's Community Tech team. The "Numerical sorting in categories" proposal was ranked #5 on the 2015 Community Wishlist Survey, having received 85 support votes. The new collation has also been deployed to Swedish Wikipedia, and may be rolled out to other wikis which agree to switch to the new sorting system.
See how template parameters are used
The Template Parameters tool is now available on Tool Labs, for viewing template parameter usage. It works with TemplateData to show the validity of parameter names that are used in template transclusions. For a required parameter, it can display a list of pages where the template is missing the parameter. The tool also shows commonly used values for each parameter. The data is updated monthly.
As an example, the parameter usage for Template:Multicol is as follows (as of 1 September):
| Parameter name | Valid name? | Value count | Unique values (count) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yes | 706 | > 50 unique values |
| 2 | Yes | 28 | 0 (1 page) 0.38em (1 page) 0px (1 page) 10px (1 page) 2px (9 pages) 3em (2 pages) 3px (3 pages) 4px (6 pages) 6px (1 page) 8px (3 pages) |
| width | No | 16 | 100% (3 pages) 40% (1 page) 50% (2 pages) 60% (1 page) 70% (3 pages) 90% (4 pages) 95% (1 page) auto (1 page) |
In brief
Newly approved bot tasks
- FastilyBot (task 12) – Leaves courtesy notifications for users whose files are nominated for deletion at Wikipedia:Files for discussion, if they were not notified.
- BU RoBOT (task 27) – Tags articles related to WikiProject College football as requested by the project.
- Dexbot (task 7) – Changing <ref name="foo "bar"> to <ref name="foo bar">
- Bender the Bot (task 2) – HTTP → HTTPS conversion for Google News and Google Books links
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available. [1][2][3]
- Recent changes
- Word-level diffs now work in longer paragraphs. [4]
- Interactive maps now have a frame by default. This is to make them look like other multimedia objects. This affects all Wikivoyages, the Catalan, Hebrew, Macedonian Wikipedias and Meta. [5]
When you preview the MediaWiki:Captcha-ip-whitelist page it will show validation output of the listed IP addresses instead of the list of addresses only. This can help you to identify if your whitelist rules will work or not. [6]- The Wikimedia Commons app for Android can now show nearby places that need photos. [7]
- You will be able to use
<maplink>on all Wikipedias. It creates a link to a full screen map. [8][9] <maplink>and<mapframe>can now use geodata from Open Street Map if Open Street Map has defined a region and given it an ID in Wikidata. You can use this to draw on the map and add information. [10][11]- Sometimes when you mention another user they don't get a notification. You will now be able to get a notification when you successfully send out a mention to someone or be told if they did not get a notification. This will be opt-in. [12][13]
- The RevisionSlider will be available as a beta feature on all wikis from 13 September. This will make it easier to navigate between diffs in the page history. [14]
- A new user right will allow most users to change the content model of pages. [15][16]
- Problems
- Last week's MediaWiki update was rolled back because of bugs. Creating new accounts did not work between 15 September 19:10 UTC and 16 September 12:50 UTC. [17][18]
- Changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki will hopefully be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 20 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 September. It will be on all wikis from 22 September (calendar). This is the version that was meant to go out last week.
- Future changes
- The CheckUser extension could work differently in the future. There is a Request for Comments to figure out how. [19]
- When you search on the Wikimedia wikis in the future you could see results from sister projects in your language. You can read more and discuss how this could work.
- Wikidata will start working on adding support for Wiktionary. The Wikidata development team is now taking one last look at the development plan. [20]
