Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2015-01-07

Interview with Jakob, one of Wikipedia's more prolific waterway contributors

User:Jakec has been a Wikipedia editor for over two years and has been a writer of many recent Did you know articles on Wikipedia, including multiple articles on rivers and streams in the state of Pennsylvania.

Jakob, tell us a little about what brought you to edit on Wikipedia? When did you first start editing, and what were your first impressions of the site?

Back in 2012, when I joined, I was interested in exploring my local area via Google Maps. Naturally, I came to know something about local geography after a while. In August 2012, I was describing some details about a local mountain to someone, who suggested (sarcastically, I think) that I write a Wikipedia article on the mountain. I took the person literally and added a sentence about the mountain into the article on Columbia County, Pennsylvania. I registered an account a few days later and for a few months mostly did sporadic minor editing, such as replacing a few town articles' population data from the 2000 census with population data from the 2010 census. I began editing more actively in early 2013, but didn't become a very active content creator until later that year.

My first impression of Wikipedia was luckily very positive. The people I interacted with in my early days on the site were for the most part professional, civil, and willing to help newbies. The Teahouse also proved especially helpful in my first few days and weeks of editing.

What brought you to edit waterway articles in Pennsylvania, and what made you decide to nominate all of these articles for Did you know?

The first Pennsylvania stream article I edited was Fishing Creek (North Branch Susquehanna River), back in the fall of 2012, not long after I joined. I had visited the article out of curiosity and was somewhat disappointed to find that there were only two sentences. Over the next few months, I added a lot of info to it and in early 2013 it became one of my first Good Articles. Around that time, I also discovered the articles on the nearby Catawissa Creek and Nescopeck Creek via the navbox at the bottom of the Fishing Creek article. I began expanding those two articles as well and eventually began creating a few articles on some of the larger creeks in the area. I started creating more stream articles in early 2014. During the summer of 2014, I began to create them more systematically, starting articles on all or nearly all of the streams in a watershed, which is what I'm still doing. As for nominating articles for DYK, I basically do it because it's fun to share some interesting facts with a broad audience and have my work on the main page.

Have you had any conflicts with editors in the process of adding your work to the site, and how did you deal with them?

Actually, I haven't really run into to that many content-related conflicts. I'm pretty much the only person who's really actively creating articles on Pennsylvania streams these days (though there were a few other content creators in the field before my time), so there aren't many people to have content disputes with. I've gotten into a few disputes over trivial things such as article ratings and minor wording issues, though, and hashing it out on the other editor's talk page (or sometimes the article talk page) often results in something acceptable.

I see that you also edit other Wikimedia projects. How is the culture of those projects different from the English Wikipedia?

Besides the English Wikipedia, I mostly edit Wikidata and Commons. One thing that I've noticed about the culture on those projects is that they're much more inclusionist than the English Wikipedia. For instance, one of Wikidata's inclusion criteria is that a page (items, as they are called on that site) "refers to an instance of a clearly identifiable conceptual or material entity". On Commons, files just have to have "educational value" in order to be kept. More generally, the other projects are more freewheeling, expecting people to rely more on common sense than a lot of rules (though obviously there are some).

If someone wanted to get involved in local waterway articles for their own state or country, what advice would you give them?

Creating waterway articles is definitely something that is worth doing and it's also quite easy. There aren't very many existing articles (at least compared to the number of waterways out there), the bar for inclusion is pretty low, and sources are typically abundant. Maps show pretty much every named tributary and there are a few databases that have some basic information on every named stream. All of that information is useful, but definitely other information should be added if it can be found.

Kock up

As no articles were promoted to featured article, no articles - that is, "a", "an", or "the" - will be used in rest of this report.

The above is a terrible idea. I mean, "is terrible idea".

The editors proposing the above plan have been sacked.

Two featured lists were promoted this week.

• Guy Sebastian discography (nominated by Usfun8991) Guy Sebastian is an Australian singer-songwriter who's had considerable commercial success. He first came to public notice by winning the first series of Australian Idol in 2003. Since then he's gone on to release eight successful albums and seventeen top-twenty singles, one of which, Battle Scars, reached number 2 in the Norwegian charts. He recorded a cover album of soul classics, The Memphis Album, in Memphis with members of the M.G.'s- this was Sebastian's "Memphis Soul period", which left traces in his next album, Like It Like That. His later albums show a mix of soul, R&B and pop. Rumours that Sebastian's next album will be covers of Norwegian death metal songs with a didgeridoo band are apparently untrue.
• List of songs recorded by Thirty Seconds to Mars (nominated by Earthh) Thirty Seconds to Mars is a four-piece rock band from Los Angeles. They've recorded over 60 songs, most written by Jared Leto or his brother, Shannon. In 2013 their single "Up in the Air" was premiered from the International Space Station after a copy was sent up in a rocket. Thirty Seconds' musical style ranges from progressive metal and space rock to synth rock and heavy metal, incorporating on the way "ethereal sonics", "killer choruses" and "intense screaming vocals". The single was played at high volume twice on the ISS, and then the neighbours came round to complain.

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  Eurasian eagle-owl
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  Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Durbar Court

Twelve featured pictures were promoted this week.

• Adoration of the Shepherds (created by Giorgione, nominated by Hafspajen) Christmas came and went, and probably won't even call, the bastard, but Giorgione's beautiful Adoration of the Shepherds passed featured picture in the meantime. Giorgione is considered by art historians to be one of the most interesting, enigmatic and influential of the Renaissance Venetian painters. The theme Adoration of the Shepherds is different from the similar Adoration of the Magi. While the Magi are often represented as rich, colorful and exotic magnates bringing with them myrrh, incense, ivory, camels, monkey and peafowls, the shepherds are poor people. The scene is an intimate one, with the simple shepherds who came to Bethlehem and are the first to recognize Christ's divinity and thus kneel down in front of him. The article spends little time talking about the lovely composition, with brightly-lit fields leading to a dimly lit cave that highlights the holy family, and tiny cherubim hovering around, watching the birth, and occasionally looking disturbingly skull-like, such as the one on the left. Eep. No, the article concentrates on the importance of signing your work: If you don't, you might get your work claimed by Titian, Vincenzo Catena, or Giovanni Cariani, or, worse, have the majority of art experts assign it to Giorgione when it's actually by you. Add a signature and there'd be no doubt.
• Portrait of Hendrik Merkus, Baron de Kock, Army Commandant and after 1826 Lieutenant Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (created by Cornelis Kruseman, nominated by Crisco 1492) This painting, with an admittedly somewhat long title, is a portrait of Hendrik Merkus, Baron de Kock, Army Commandant and after 1826 Lieutenant Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.
• Durbar Court (created by Colin, nominated by Tomer T) This magnificent court is part of the former India Office (now part of the main building for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government). Slated for demolition in the 1960s along with the rest of Whitehall, it would have been replaced with some concrete boxes designed by Leslie Martin. Fortunately the plans were abandoned in 1971, due to lack of money and a determined public campaign (though one suspects "lack of money" was the real reason for abandonment). The Durbar Court was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and Matthew Digby Wyatt. It's got Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns made from red and grey granites from Scotland, and a gorgeous marble floor with stone from Greece, Sicily and Belgium. A Durbar court was a place where Shahs and Sultans conducted business in the warm climes of Persia and India; this particular court, under the grey skies of smoggy London, only saw civil servants hurrying from office to office.
• La Mousmé (created by Vincent van Gogh, nominated by Crisco 1492) La Mousmé is a painting by Vincent van Gogh from 1888; a work from the period when he was experimenting with the ways of expression typical of Japanese woodprints and Japanese artwork. La Mousmé is inspired by Pierre Loti's novel Madame Chrysanthème - a very fashionable novel at the time. This painting is from a series that represented different aspects of ordinary life, from one of Van Gogh's happier periods of life, a prolific time, when in less than 444 days Van Gogh made about 100 drawings and produced more than 200 paintings. La Mousmé's outfit is a blend of modern and traditional, with the bright colors of the skirt and jacket typical for the southern region of Arles. Van Gogh's painting is focused on the girl's face, depicting her in the colors of a girl from Arles, but with a Japanese influence. The painting is part of the National Gallery of Art collection in Washington, D.C.
• Gloriette in the Schönbrunn Palace Garden (created by Thomas Wolf, nominated by Tomer T) A gloriette is a building in an elevated position in a garden, designed to be an outlook over the foliage. This one, at Schönbrunn Palace, was built in the Early Classicist colonnaded style on the crest of a hill in 1775 for the Austrian Emperor, and has a view over Vienna from the roof. It is basically an architectural folly: buildings and other erections given unusual shapes, meant to show off the owners' ability to spend money on frivolous things. While many follies serve little to no purpose, the Gloriette is of the type that are usable despite the eccentric shape, similar to the Dunmore Pineapple. It consists of a central section built like triumphal arch, crowned with the imperial eagle. The roof is flat with a balustrade and can be accessed by a stairway. Emperors had their breakfasts there until the end of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918. Destroyed in the Second World War, it was reconstructed and now serves as a café, serving unemployed Emperors (and the hoi-polloi) with Sachertorte.
• Eurasian eagle-owl (created by Carlos Delgado, nominated by Jim Carter) With a wingspan of 200 cm (79 in) the Eurasian eagle-owl is one of the largest species of owl. It is a largely nocturnal owl that mostly chooses to live in mountainious regions, steppes and remote places, preferring to nest on cliff ledges, and other concealed locations. It hunts at night, on the taiga, along rocky coast lines and over steppes and grasslands, catching birds, small mammals, fish, reptiles and (surprisingly) earthworms. Its great size, barrel-shaped build, yellow-orange irises and ear tufts give this owl a distinctive appearance. The beak and the feet are black, while each feather has a buff or cream-coloured edge. The calls they make is a deep resonant OOooh-huu that can be heard at great distance, repeated at intervals. Other calls include a rather faint OO-OO-oo and a harsh kveck-kveck. Annoyance at close quarters is expressed by bill-clicking and spitting, and a defensive posture.
• In a Roman Osteria (created by Carl Bloch, nominated by Crisco 1492) In a Roman Osteria is a painting by the Danish painter Carl Bloch from 1866. The painting depicts the artist in Rome at a restaurant, together with his friend and major supporter Moritz G. Melchior (facing us). The painter, Bloch, is sitting at a table turning his back to the viewers, talking with his friends. The pretty girls in the foreground are the couleur locale, together with their "protector", who keeps a clasp-knife in his pocket, and is giving the viewer a dirty look. They are enjoying a hearty meal of cabbage and crusty cobs with sweet red wine, which is attracting wasps and flies. The painting was acquired by the National Gallery of Denmark in 1935, and is displayed there.
• Apollo 17 Moon panorama: Taurus–Littrow lunar valley (created by Apollo 17, nominated by The Herald) Claims of carnivorous moon-rocks eating later missions aside, Apollo 17 marked the last time humans have set foot on another chunk of rock than our own. This panorama of the lunar valley Taurus-Littrow thus represents a height of human achievement that we have failed to reach again since, which is kind of depressing, really.
• Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia one-koruna note (prepared and nominated by Andrew Shiva (Godot13), using specimens from the National Numismatic Collection, Smithsonian Institution) This is a banknote from Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, "an autonomous Nazi-administered territory", which came into being after Adolf Hitler intimidated the Czech President, Emil Hácha, into allowing the German occupation of what was left of Czechoslovakia. It's a Czechoslovak note on which a circular inkstamp has been impressed, with the name of the Protectorate in German (at top) and Czech (below); the German is in Fraktur, a typeface regarded at the time as a "true German script". The act of a rubber stamp slamming down onto a piece of paper representing the country rather effectively symbolises the loss of freedom implied by this note.
• Hydnellum ferrugineum (created by Myrabella, nominated by Tomer T) Hydnellum is a genus of fungi referred to as the "tooth fungi", because, instead of the usual gills that many mushrooms have under their cap, the tooth fungi have small tooth-like projections. Most of the mushroom species that are tooth fungi are edible and safe - but not this one, apparently. Hydnellum ferrugineum has a white to pink body covered by drops of a red liquid. Yes, the fungus bleeds, and has teeth. Be afraid. Night of the Fungus coming to theatres near you this autumn!
• Flaming June (created by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, nominated by Armbrust) This painting failed to sell at auction in the 1960s (its reserve was $140) yet in 2001 a study for the painting sold for $163,000! Now, critical appreciation has risen even higher - it's a Featured Picture on Wikipedia! Flaming June is a painting from 1895 by Sir Frederic Leighton. Considered to be Leighton's magnum opus, it depicts a sleeping nymph or naiad covered by a gown made of transparent material of stunningly bright colour. The position of the sleeping woman gave Leighton and the voters at featured pictures a great deal of trouble. Flaming June is displayed at the Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico, having been purchased by the museum's founder, Luis A. Ferré, who was a noted industrialist, and, for a time governor of Puerto Rico. In recent years, with the renewal of interest in Victorian art, it has been loaned to important expositions around the world, such as at the Prado, Madrid, in 2008 and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany, in 2009.
• The Magdalen Reading (created by Rogier van der Weyden, nominated by Crisco 1492) The Magdalen Reading is a quiet and meditative representation of Mary Magdalen, one of the women around Jesus, by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden, and the article on it is well-worth a read. The woman depicted in the painting is identified as Mary Magdalen by the jar of ointment placed beside her, her traditional attribute in Christian iconography. She is depicted completely absorbed in her reading, the only movement in this contemplative image being the turning page. Mary Magdalen is a figure that is mentioned several times in the stories around Jesus - and there is some learned discussion about whether the stories relate to several women or just one; this figure is based on Mary of Bethany, the woman who sat at Jesus' feet and "listened to His Word", often seen as contemplative, as opposed to Mary's sister Martha with her active and perhaps superficial life, who scolded her for listening and not working, not being as busy and useful as she was. For Biblical times, for Mary to sit at Jesus' feet, and for him to allow her to do so, was in itself controversial and unusual. A woman in the view of first-century Judaism was regarded as being worth less than a man, and the men usually ignored them, and didn't even talk to them in public.