Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-04-17/SPV

Our new weekly series, M.A.N.I.A., was delayed a day this week due to computer problems. Apologies also on the late publication; I was hoping Sj would be able to get his computer up in time to finish his article.

Plan on M.A.N.I.A. showing up again next week; until then, satisfy your Wikimania craving by visiting the official Wikimania 2006 Wiki.

As always, thank you for continuing to read the Signpost.

— Ral315

Wikipedia has been matched up against other online encyclopedias in a new test, but with somewhat different results. In contrast to the Nature study last December, whose validity the Encyclopædia Britannica contested after it showed Wikipedia content was comparable but slightly more error-prone than Britannica’s, this comparison actually rated Wikipedia ahead.

The comparison appeared in the May issue of the monthly science and technology magazine BBC Focus, which reached newsstands last week. It was based on the reviews of a virologist on the topic of bird flu (specifically the article on the H5N1 strain), an engineering expert on railway designer George Stephenson, and an astronomer for the coverage of planetesimals. Besides Wikipedia and the Encyclopædia Britannica, the other sources tested were Encarta and InfoPlease.com, which uses the Columbia Encyclopedia and is, like Wikipedia, free of charge to users. In addition, the journalist working on the project evaluated the usability of each encyclopedia's website.

With respect to bird flu, virologist Richard Elliot deemed Wikipedia's entry more up-to-date than its competitors', but did note that its terminology section was "confused and contains errors". The reviewer of the Stephenson article was impressed by its detail, noting that it was the only one to point out that Stephenson was responsible for the standard gauge used on most of the world's railways. Despite the praise, this article would not qualify for featured article status at present, because it contains no references.

Astronomer Duncan Steel criticized the Planetesimal article for "confusing statements that contain factual errors and punctuation outrages". However, he described his main beef with Wikipedia as being an unrelated issue, its coverage of asteroids. Specifically, he mentioned the lack of an article on Arrius, which he named for his younger son, whereas an article already existed for Elbsteel, named for his eldest son. As Steel observed, "This causes arguments at home!" The oversight was rectified by VampWillow after the story appeared.

Overall, Wikipedia was the only encyclopedia in the test to be rated 4/5, or "Good". Britannica and Encarta were each given a 3/5 ("Average"), and InfoPlease only a 2/5 ("Dodgy"). The article's summary pointed out that, because all the encyclopedias had errors and omissions, "they should be viewed as starting points for your research rather than as all-encompassing fountains of knowledge". But it concluded that Wikipedia, although "only marginally more accurate", is, because of its number of articles and ability to incorporate current news, "most likely to have what you need".

Whether Wikipedia competes directly with Britannica and the others is a matter of some dispute; Britannica officials have recently tried to emphasize that, whatever Wikipedia's merits, the two are not truly comparable. However, the prospect of competition for Wikipedia also came up in another context last week—this time, as an argument for network neutrality. This issue is the focus of considerable lobbying in the United States Congress, and provides another instance of a politician's invoking Wikipedia (for previous examples, see this archived story).

In this case, the politician was U.S. Representative Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts. In a blog at The Huffington Post, Markey wrote in support of maintaining network neutrality. Arguing that to do otherwise would allow phone companies to discriminate on an economic basis, he asked "Would Wikipedia have earned its current prominence if it had to compete against a commercial alternative with inferior content, but that users could access faster?"

Presumably, Markey was speaking hypothetically, not describing the current situation, in which Wikipedia users still occasionally encounter access difficulties. And, the latest study notwithstanding, some of the commercial competitors undoubtedly would hotly contest whether they can fairly be described as having "inferior content".

An attempt to post a fake vanity biography on Wikipedia made news last week, even though the article had been created months ago and deleted as a hoax. As a result of this attention, the article has been re-created and now focuses on the news coverage about the hoax's perpetrator.

The subject, Alan Mcilwraith, apparently edited Wikipedia using the account User:MilitaryPro, which he used to add himself to the List of honorary British Knights on 4 October 2005. This was reverted two hours later by Necrothesp, who noted that "Google has never heard of him — pretty good for someone supposedly knighted this year". Mcilwraith proceeded instead to create a supposed biography of his career and uploaded several photos of himself in military uniform. Average Earthman added a Cleanup-verify tag, noting, "This smells like a hoax to me."

Finally, RussBlau submitted it to Articles for deletion on 20 October. The article spent the usual five days going through that process, and near the end Mcilwraith apparently noticed this and tried to blank the article. Comments were unanimously in favor of deletion, and the article was then deleted by Woohookitty.

When the article was re-created in December, Average Earthman noticed it again and tagged it for speedy deletion, but this was changed to a cleanup tag by Brookie. Deltabeignet finally deleted it two days later after Average Earthman re-tagged it for speedy deletion. Average Earthman jumped on yet another attempt to re-create the article in February within minutes, and Katefan0 then deleted it, leaving a protected placeholder to prevent further re-creation.

Mcilwraith, in reality a call-centre employee in Glasgow, had apparently also been passing himself off as a decorated war hero to local civic groups. This led the local paper, the Daily Record, to publish an exposé on 11 April 2006 and mention his Wikipedia antics. Coverage then spread to a number of other British publications. Responding to media interest in the Wikipedia angle, David Gerard wrote an extensive explanation as a case study in how Wikipedia deals with hoaxes.

While the press frequently mentioned Wikipedia in their coverage, they typically did so briefly, such as to quote from Mcilwraith's faux biography. Average Earthman complained that the stories gave the impression Wikipedia had only just discovered the hoax, appearing as they did some time after the situation had been dealt with. A similar previous incident happened when Joshua Gardner tried to pass himself off as a Duke of Cleveland by writing an article about his claimed persona (see archived story). This happened in May 2005, and the hoax was promptly identified and deleted, yet media coverage about the story didn't hit until January 2006.

In response to the media coverage, Henrygb unprotected the placeholder and recast the article as the story of the hoax itself. Alkivar restored the deleted revisions for the hoax version of the article, so that the full sequence can now be traced in the article's history.

A new tool was released last week intended to bring revenue to Wikipedia from advertising on a partner site, Answers.com. However, the occasion prompted renewed scrutiny of the relationship and the business practices of Wikipedia's partner.

On Tuesday, Jimbo Wales added a link to the new Wikipedia edition of the 1-Click Answers tool on the Wikipedia:Tools page, which covers various external tools related to Wikipedia. The tool in question allows users to click on words in any program on their screen and bring up content from Answers.com related to the term, in this case specifically from Wikipedia. It also comes with a toolbar where you can type in terms and do the same thing.

On the Answers.com website, the tool is available for download from a dedicated page. However, it is not mentioned on the primary page that lists the free downloads available from the site. In addition, the Wikipedia edition is offered only for Windows, unlike the regular tool which also provides a version for Mac OS X.

The arrangement was first revealed last October and became the focus of some controversy in the Wikipedia community (see archived story). The partnership was the subject of a press release and the value of Answers Corporation stock briefly spiked upward after the announcement. According to the agreement, some of the revenue from the tool would be passed on to the Wikimedia Foundation. A 60-day trial period is contemplated, although it was originally anticipated to start at the beginning of the year.

One concern raised at the time of the original announcement involved the Answers.com terms of use, which attempt to restrict use of the content in a way that goes beyond the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Whether this would have any legal effect is doubtful, and the terms of use are part of a generic page covering all Answers.com content, much of which is only available under more restrictive terms. Greg Maxwell called the terms "unacceptable" and argued the link should be rejected unless the terms of service are amended. However, jacoplane pointed out that the terms do acknowledge that content provided by others is "governed by the specific terms of service governing such third party content" and their copyrights page does mention the GFDL. Jimbo Wales also said Answers.com would look at rewriting the terms of service to make this more clear.

Since the original announcement, Answers.com's parent company, Answers Corporation, has also been involved in patent litigation related to the tool. In March, Answers filed a claim in a Tel Aviv court against Babylon Ltd., another Israeli company, seeking 1 million sheqels in damages (about US$210,000).

In response, Erik Möller objected to listing the tool because of Answers' business practice of using controversial software patents. He pointed out Wikipedia's own restrictions on using patent-encumbered media formats. While acknowledging that many companies collect software patents, he criticized the aggressive use of them in litigation, raising the possibility that it could be used against open source developers as well (creation of an equivalent free software tool has been discussed, but apparently not pursued). Möller called for the partnership to be cancelled, and suggested that if the listing on the Tools page mentioned revenue for Wikimedia, it also needed to point out the patent controversy.

A new anti-vandalism application, dubbed VandalProof, was recently released. Created by AmiDaniel and inspired by CryptoDerk's Vandal Fighter, the tool makes finding vandalism, warning users, checking out other contributions by vandals and watching articles easier. Because of security reasons, users must first be approved by the moderators of the application in order to use it. As of April 29, over 200 users had been approved for the tool. Please note that the application is exclusively for use with Windows based PCs with Internet Explorer.

Ragib, a native of Bangladesh and administrator on both the English and Bengali (or Bangla) Wikipedias, reports some developments with the Bengali Wikipedia in addition to its recent milestone (see below). He relates that the project was mostly dormant until a publicity campaign starting last month in Bangladeshi media brought in a number of new volunteers. Underrepresentation of particular languages has been a longstanding concern for Wikimedia Foundation projects. Bengali is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, ranking somewhere between fourth and seventh, depending on how speakers are counted and whether non-native speakers are included.

• The Greek Wiktionary has reached 14,000 entries.
• The Japanese Wikipedia has reached 50,000 registered users.
• The Finnish Wiktionary has reached 20,000 entries.
• The Breton Wikipedia has reached 6,000 articles.
• The Vietnamese Wikipedia reaches 8,000 registered users.
• The Nynorsk Wikipedia has reached 15,000 articles.
• The Bengali Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Haitian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Russian Wikipedia has reached 70,000 articles
• The Azeri Wikipedia has reached 3,000 articles.
• The Indonesian Wikipedia has reached 22,000 articles.
• The English Wikipedia has reached 50,000,000 edits since July 2002.
• The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 200 articles.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 400 registered users.
• The Slovenian Wikipedia has reached 3,000 registered users.
• The Ido Wiktionary has reached 40,000 pages.
• The Korean Wikipedia has reached 23,000 articles.

San Francisco bureau chief for The Register and Wikipedia critic Andrew Orlowski discussed a Wikipedia criticism site, WikiTruth, in an article published in the The Guardian on 13 April. WikiTruth includes versions of articles that were blanked or protected under the Office Actions policy. The article was linked to by Slashdot, and resulted in a continuing deletion debate on the WikiTruth article.

Jimbo Wales spoke to an audience of about three hundred students at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida on 12 April. His presentation was reported the following day in The Gainesville Sun.

Jason Scott discussed "The Great Failure of Wikipedia" during a presentation at Notacon on 8 April (transcript).

Wikipedia was featured on Five's The Gadget Show on 17 April (repeated 22 April). They gave an introduction to the concept, and attempted some bogus edits which, they reported, were quickly reverted (e.g., changing information on the Italy article, fixed by Everyking within a minute). The same IP address made edits to Jon Bentley and The Gadget Show. The show also made comparisons between Wikipedia and the online version of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and mentioned the controversy over Jimbo's edits to his biography.

The reporter decided that Wikipedia is better on pop culture than Britannica (citing Brad Pitt), that Britannica's Bill Gates article is clearer than Wikipedia's, and that political balance is an issue for Wikipedia, mentioning the semi-protection of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. Wikipedia was praised for being more up-to-date: Britannica's Blair article features information only up to last July, but Wikipedia's includes a parliamentary debate from March this year. The reporter concluded that Wikipedia - which, unlike Britannica Online, can be accessed free of charge - is excellent value for money.

The programme's website has a long summary of the feature ("WIKI!").

According to The Boston Herald, high-profile travel website TripAdvisor has added a wiki to its site, allowing visitors to write articles about travel destinations and so forth ("TripAdvisor imitates Wikipedia"). It is still in beta testing, developing sections on the U.K. and California. It remains to be seen whether it will compete with Wikitravel, a Creative Commons-licensed spin-off of Wikipedia with over 10,000 articles and 5,000 users.

• "Online encyclopædia Wikipedia aircraft group allege deliberate misleading Airbus and Boeing entries", Flight International
• "The tough position of Wikipedia", The Daily Barometer, Oregon State University
• "Wikipedia site filled with major mistakes", Warren Boroson, Daily Record, Morristown NY, USA

• "How much do you trust Wikipedia?, PBS Media Shift (a blog by Mark Glaser)
• "Problems for Wikipedia", PC Review

Five users were granted admin status through Requests for Adminship last week: Jedi6 (nom), Dijxtra (nom), Kilo-Lima (nom), Master Jay (nom) and Kaisershatner (nom)

In addition, BradPatrick, legal counsel to the Wikimedia Foundation, was sysopped by Foundation employee Danny Wool.

The 100th featured list was promoted this week. The overall number had been hovering around the milestone for a week, but because of delistings had not surpassed the milestone until both List of 2005 Atlantic hurricane season storms and List of Alberta premiers were promoted on 15 April, bringing the total number of featured lists to 101. List of Formula One drivers was promoted earlier in the week. No lists were de-featured last week.

Six articles were promoted to featured status last week: Mariah Carey, Corinthian War, Ina Garten, Music of the United States, Sanssouci and Rabindranath Tagore. No articles were de-featured last week.

The following featured articles were displayed last week on the main page as Today's featured article: OpenBSD, Fanny Blankers-Koen, Canadian federal election, 1993, Samuel Beckett, Eldfell, Equal Protection Clause and Joan of Arc.

The latest portal to reach featured status is Portal:India.

Eleven pictures reached featured picture status last week:

• Iris xiphium
  Iris xiphium
• 
  Alchemist's Laboratory
• 
  Huli Wigman

• 
  Malé
• 
  Extra-vehicular activity
• 
  Joan of Arc

• 
  Another Place
• 
  Grand Tetons
• 
  Dinner Plain

• 
  Leadenhall Market
• 
  Bat

Last week, a new option was added to the preferences page, enabling users to force edit summaries. If the option is turned on and an edit without a summary is attempted, MediaWiki will then ask for confirmation of the edit, reminding the user that no edit summary has been entered. This option had been available previously as a user script.

Developer Tim Starling has enabled the ParserFunction extension on all Wikimedia wikis. The extension allows for the simplification of logic code and "mathematical expressions and conditional constructs", according to Starling. Several templates have already been simplified because of the extension.

A loophole in the spam blacklist was corrected by developer Rob Church. Previously, any URL in the spam list could be added by inserting hidden comments (<!-- -->) in the address; the loophole was being exploited by those who wished to add the spam sites. The change now prohibits the addition of the sites listed, even if comments are inserted in the website address.

Server-related events, problems, and changes included:

• 12 April — English Wikipedia moved to separate cluster from other databases
• 13 April — CAPTCHAs enabled on Chinese Wikipedia to fight a vandalbot attack
• 15 April — English Wikipedia's main database server crashes, site briefly in read-only mode

The Arbitration Committee closed two cases this week. In addition, a motion passed in a prior case.

A case against administrators involved in a wheel war was closed on Wednesday. As a result, Guanaco was desysopped, MarkSweep was banned from userbox-related administrative actions and cautioned regarding the use of rollback privileges, and StrangerInParadise was placed on personal attack parole for one year. The dispute involved abuse of administrative privileges, not all involving userboxes, and incivility and disruption. The Arbitration Committee also banned Guanaco from requesting adminship, in light of his previous desysopping in a prior case.

A case against ZAROVE was closed on Tuesday. As a result, ZAROVE was banned indefinitely from articles relating to Acharya S, and prohibited from making any comments relating to Acharya S. ZAROVE, a frequent editor on the page, had released personal information about the subject of the article.

A motion in the prior case against Lightbringer, to formally ban the user for one year for sockpuppetry, passed with 6 support votes and no opposition.

Cases were accepted this week involving users SqueakBox and Zapatancas, and Monicasdude (user page). Both are in the evidence phase.

Additional cases involving Messhermit (user page), Jacrosse (user page), Terryeo (user page), Marcosantezana (user page), users DarrenRay and 2006BC, FourthAve (user page), and editors on Depleted uranium are in the evidence phase.

Cases involving Aucaman (user page), Agapetos angel (user page), Locke Cole (user page), Lou franklin (user page) and editors on Bible verse articles are in the voting phase.

No motions to close are currently on the table.