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22 July 2015

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Change the world
WikiProject report
Some more politics
Technology report
Tech news in brief
 

2015-07-22

Change the world

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By Go Phightins!

I bet we got you to click with that title! Now that you're reading anyway, we want to take a moment to ask you to consider contributing to the Signpost. Before you click off the page deeming this another tedious call for contributors, there is one specific, non-time-consuming way you can help us with limited commitment: basically, we want to create a list of backup writers to whom we can turn if a regular writer is unavailable. You would never be under any obligation to contribute, but we just want a list of some people who have some basic knowledge of Wikipedia and are interested in potentially contributing once in a while. You can designate yourself for a certain section (we especially need people who can help with the arbitration report, news and notes, and in the media), or just as a generalist willing to serve as an occasional pinch hitter. Please see our informal sign-up sheet in the newsroom.



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2015-07-22

Wikimanía 2015; Lightbreather ArbCom case

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By Go Phightins! and Gamaliel

Wikimanía draws to a close

Wikimanía 2015 drew to a close in Mexico City, Mexico. An "annual conference celebrating Wikipedia and its sister free knowledge projects", Wikimania features remarks from some leading players from the Wikimedia Foundation as well as the free knowledge movement. Overall, most attendees "were really quite impressed with how smoothly the conference went", according to Andrew Lih, who added that in terms of food and venue it was much like a corporate conference.

WMF executive director Lila Tretikov gave a presentation entitled United in Knowledge in which she encouraged Wikimedians to "be bold, break your own rules", much to the chagrin of some attendees, who view that as a misinterpretation of WP:BOLD and WP:BRD. Lih said that although the speech was somewhat unrefined, it is difficult to communicate effectively with newbies and veterans simultaneously. "I do think Lila needs a few more of these before she gets her message calibrated and seasoned", he said. "Part of it is English as her second language, and part of it is that we have a real demanding community."

Additional reaction to the keynote speeches is in this week's Wikimanía report from Peaceray, a conference attendee.

Perhaps the biggest downside, according to Lih, was the lack of video recording; only keynote speeches were recorded, leaving attendees to do their best with limited equipment – many of them expressing outrage on the special Wikimania mailing list and Twitter at what they felt was an unconscionable oversight. Speaking to the value of video recording, Lih wrote,

Even WMF staffer Asaf Bartov expressed agreement that the lack of video recording was problematic. The issue was even raised in June, but received no reply, something Hydriz called "rather disappointing." Other posts focused on the perceived value of video when weighed against the cost. On Twitter, one tweet bemoaned, "I thought the idea of video recording sessions was that you dont [sic] have to (go) yourself."

Ultimately, some sessions were recorded in audio only, and others with smartphone video capabilities, and posted to YouTube. At this point, it is unknown who is at fault for the lack of video, but Lih says that Ivan Martinez, the event's local coordinator, told him that "hiring the hotel or local team to do it professionally would have been very expensive", so the plan was for the WMF to handle it. Unconfirmed reports are that the staffer who was supposed to be in charge of that aspect of the conference is no longer employed by WMF. The Signpost emailed Ellie Young, the WMF's conference coordinator, multiple times seeking comment on this and other aspects of the conference. We received no response.

Wikimanía attendees

However, on the mailing list, WMF storyteller Victor Grigas reported that based on his conversations with "the team doing video recordings", only certain talks would be recorded because last year it was expensive to record everything, something he emphasized was not his decision. More interestingly, he said, "All the footage that the video team is shooting will be owned (copyright) by Wikimedia Mexico per their contract, so if there are particular clips you want later, contact WMMX." WMF was unable to clarify the remarks due to multiple staff vacations. The Signpost will run a follow-up story next week.

The conference was also not without technical glitches. According to several attendees in contact with the Signpost, Internet service was down for upwards of 20 minutes at one point. "[T]here seemed to be a major hiccup each day ... but otherwise I'd say it was pretty solid. Compared to other Wikimanias, I'd rate it very good. But all you need is one 20 minute stretch, at a critical time, to ruin your day", Lih said. Other attendees complained that the Internet was slow; a Phabricator ticket indicates at least one problem was rectified.

Other conference highlights included Jimmy Wales' speech, which focused on issues of Internet freedom and noted that of 234 governmental requests to remove content from Wikipedia, none were granted. Wales also gave away the bride at a wedding of two Israeli Wikipedians at the conference, Darya and Avner Kantor, whose love story was featured on the WMF blog earlier this year.

As Wikimania 2015 draws to a close, attention turns to the 2016 iteration of the conference, slated to be held in Esino Lario, Italy. Although there are serious questions as to whether infrastructure available in the small Lombardy town is conducive to a large conference such as Wikimania (see previous Signpost coverage), at the site presentation in Mexico City, Iolanda Pensa (Iopensa), the lead organizer for the conference, answered the question "Why Esino Lario?" simply by saying "Because we can."

Lightbreather Arbitration case

Even before it closed on July 17, the Arbitration case involving Lightbreather attracted widespread comment. Lightbreather herself posted a banner on her userpage on July 1 declaring "Retired due to sexual harassment", only returning two weeks later to make edits to the talk page of the proposed decision.

The language in one of the proposed principles attracted widespread comment. Regarding the inability of the community and the Committee to effectively address serious cases of harassment, the principle suggested that victims should consider "lowering their profile until the threat is past". This prompted objections on- and off-wiki. SlimVirgin wrote that the proposed decision supports the idea that "women who are being baited are expected to keep quiet or stop editing". A number of the Arbitrators agreed. One of them, Euryalus, wrote "I opposed the reference to people being advised to keep quiet and lower their profile of harassed, for precisely the reason you outline - it tells people to let the harassers win. What we should be telling people is to make a fuss about harassment through the right channels, and for those channels to work well enough that the harassment gets dealt with." The offending language was removed by Roger Davies on July 13 "in an endeavour to achieve consensus".

Despite this, the final decision, which included a site-ban for Lightbreather, was still controversial on-wiki and attracted comment offsite. Brianna Wu, a game developer who has been the victim of significant harassment herself, tweeted: "The whole case is shameful. She asked Wiki to take action against sexual harassers, they didn't. They ban her, no punishment for harassers." On User talk:Jimbo Wales, Robert McClenon placed the blame on the Wikimedia Foundation, not on the Arbitration Committee: "My opinion is that the WMF has not done enough. Off-wiki harassment of Wikipedia editors is an existential threat to the neutrality of Wikipedia...Off-wiki harassment is a threat both to the neutrality of Wikipedia and the editors of Wikipedia." CorporateM began an RFC asking whether or not Wikipedia should have "a sexual harassment policy or a part of the harassment policy focused on sexual harassment."

Coverage of the case itself will appear in next week's Arbitration Report.

Brief notes



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2015-07-22

Wikimanía 2015 report, part 1, the plenaries

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By Peaceray

The conference venue

The main conference of Wikimanía 2015 occurred from Friday through Sunday, the 17 to 19 July, at the Hotel Hilton Mexico City Reforma, across from the Alameda Central in the historic center of Mexico City. The education pre-conference and hackathon took place the two days before the main conference.

The plenary talks

Lila Tretikov

Iván Martínez, the Wikimanía 2015 coordinator, welcomed the attendees on Friday, then introduced WMF's executive director, Lila Tretikov, who gave the opening plenary address. First, she briefly listed her diverse meetings with WikiArabia, Wikimedia Israel, the Wikimedia Conference 2015, the Wikimedians of the Levant, and Wikimedia Polska, and teleconferencing with the Museo Soumaya editathon. Tretikov compared the growth of Wikimedia to that of cultivating grapes, evolving from seedlings to a cohesive and productive vineyard, in which “together, we are more than the sum of us”. She noted our current challenges: five billion people newly online in this next decade, fast-moving and technology-savvy users, the expanding role of artificial intelligence in knowledge creation, changing knowledge formats, and the opportunities presented by institutions eager to share their knowledge. Tretikov then outlined the strategy consultation that the WMF undertakes with editors across many countries, Wikimedia projects, and languages, and the WMF's desire to partner technology and our communities for innovation. She cited new tools such as editing and adding citations in Visual Editor, Revscore, content translation (including a recommendation algorithm to match translators with missing articles), and new mobile tools (e.g., collections). She noted that the 2015 election of three WMF board members was a team effort in process improvement and editor/voter outreach. Tretikov closed by recommending that we be bold, return to openness and collaboration, focus on what we love and let go of the rest, unite and integrate our work, and embrace diversity.

A pdf from Tretikov 's presentation is here.

Luis von Ahn

Luis von Ahn, co-founder of ReCAPTCHA and duoLingo, spoke on Saturday. He explained that after initially developing this widely used version of the captcha, he grew to feel guilty about occupying users' time solely to distinguish between humans and bots, and that as a result of this ambivalence he had developed a means of presenting a second word in the captcha to aid in translating textual images from scanned books that are unreadable by computers. By pairing an unknown word image with a known one, the captcha server program would use the known word in the image pair to verify the user as human, and would record the response for the unknown word in the image pair until enough human responses were obtained to reliably identify its meaning.

After selling ReCAPTCHA to Google in 2009, he turned his attention to the educational needs of the underprivileged in countries like his birth place of Guatemala, where there is a great need for an inexpensive means to learn English for economic advancement. Thus, duoLingo was born, a free app and web application that required only a smart phone or a computer to use. Honed by applying lessons learned from usability statistics obtained by automated feedback, duoLingo has more than 100 million registered users, and has been extended to a dozen language pairs, although it is largely limited to those of Roman script.

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales delivered the closing remarks. He concentrated on the freedom-of-expression issues that some Wikipedia users and editors are experiencing. He listed two examples and a related philosophical conundrum:

  • The initial total blocking of Wikipedia by the Chinese government, followed by a period of filtered blocking of individual pages, then back to a total ban when WMF instituted HTTPS as the web protocol for accessing Wikipedia. He stressed that one of the arguments he would use in his discussion with the Chinese government on the WMF's behalf was that because of the government's blocking actions, the perspective of China within Wikipedia would be represented only by editors outside mainland China
  • There are editors who are intimidated and threatened due to their work. In particular, Wales recounted the story of an editor who simply had recorded the results of anti-government protests in Venezuela, including it in articles and uploading photographs to Commons. This editor received death threats and fled the country as result. Venezuela then revoked his passport, leaving him in a legal limbo in which he cannot return to his country or travel elsewhere, and is uncertain of his refugee status where he is.
  • The philosophical conundrum that Wales presented was the problem of reliably citing articles about topics that are within countries in which the mass media is controlled by the government. In these cases, the only available references may be those that the government permits.

Wales' announcement of Wikipedian of the year was made in pectore, meaning that he did not reveal the name at this time because doing so has the potential to bring reprisal or harm to the recipient. He also named two honorable mentions, Susanna Mkrtchyan, president of Wikimedia Armenia who has recently been instrumental in promoting the Western Armenian Wikipedia (see also the Signpost coverage), and Satdeep Gill for his contributions and promotion of the Punjabi Wikipedia.



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2015-07-22

Novelists annotate Wikipedia; Wales promotes TPO; Working for free

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By Gamaliel

Three novelists annotate their Wikipedia articles

The magazine New York reports that three novelists "have found a way to control the Wikipedia narrative" by using the annotation website Genius to annotate their own Wikipedia articles. They have supplied numerous thoughtful and introspective comments about their work, friends, and collaborators, which are sure to be mined for future Wikipedia edits. They have also made substantial comments about the effect their Wikipedia articles have had on them, an in-depth reflection that is rarely seen from the subject of an article—more common are angry complaints or passing comments in an interview. New York writes that these authors have used Genius "mostly as a way to play with the form but also as a way to correct, explain, and rewrite a story that someone else has written about them." (July 16)

Emily Gould

Emily Gould, subject of Emily Gould

Emily Gould (Friendship) wrote about her article:

One of those moments is the subject of the greater part of the text in her Wikipedia article, a "Criticism" section devoted to a 2007 panel discussion on the CNN show Larry King Live, where Gould, who was co-editor of Gawker at the time, was confronted about a Gawker feature by Jimmy Kimmel. She wrote:

Gould reflected on the classification of her occupation as "writer, editor, blogger":

Gould also noted that her birth year (cited to a 2014 print publication) was incorrect and wrote of her dislike of her infobox photo, taken by a Wikimedian in 2009:

Sheila Heti

Sheila Heti, subject of Sheila Heti

The article for Sheila Heti (How Should a Person Be?) describes her as "a Canadian writer and editor". Heti wrote, "I don’t feel particularly connected to Canadian literature" and "I don’t know why it says, 'and editor' at the top. I always find that kind of weird." Of her inclusion in the category Category:Canadian women novelists, Heti concurred with Amanda Filipacchi's prominent criticism of Wikipedia's gender categories (see previous Signpost coverage) and wrote, "I think it would be better not to have this category at all." She was, however, pleased with her inclusion in Category:Living people, quipping "This is the best category to be in."

Like Gould, Heti objected to her infobox photo, which was also taken by a Wikimedian, this one in 2013. Unlike Gould, Heti removed it "because it was the worst photo that had ever been taken of me. It was a camera photo from a bad angle, blurry, and I felt I looked disgusting. I considered replacing it but I felt too cautious and left it blank."

Heti reflected on Wikipedia's ability to magnify and propagate minor comments and incidents. Included in her article is a comment from a 2007 interview in which she said, "Increasingly I'm less interested in writing about fictional people." Heti wrote:

Chris Kraus

File:Chris kraus.jpg
Chris Kraus, subject of Chris Kraus

Chris Kraus (I Love Dick) discussed the creation of her article in August 2006:

Her current opinion of the article, however, is negative:

Wales promotes The People's Operator US launch

File:Kyocera VP-210 CP+ 2011 (Jimmy Wales).jpg
Jimmy Wales, subject of an interview

The People's Operator is a UK-based mobile virtual network operator and social networking service which allows its customers to direct 10% of what they spend to charities of their choice. TPO is coming to the United States, and TPO chairman Jimmy Wales is the public face of their rollout. Wales told Vanity Fair that he saw parallels between his work for TPO and Wikipedia: "I’ve discovered in my work that if you can give people the tools they're looking for, that allow them to accomplish the goals that they have for themselves, they can do amazing things. Here, if you want to raise money for your local hospital, we can give you the tools to do that." In a wide-ranging interview with HuffPost Live, Wales touched on a number of topics besides TPO. (July 21)

When asked about the Sunshine Sachs controversy (see previous Signpost coverage), Wales encouraged PR companies to be "transparent" and said of undisclosed paid editing:

Wales spoke about Wikipedia's involvement in the NSA lawsuit (see previous Signpost coverage) and his reaction to British Prime Minister David Cameron's call to ban encryption:

Wales reflected on changing perceptions of the quality of Wikipedia over the years:

One of those ways is the gender gap:

Working for free

Justin Knapp, subject of a profile

In the wake of the volunteer moderator uprising on the social media website Reddit, Caitlin Dewey of the Washington Post examines how and why people work for free on websites on the social web. As she bluntly puts it "A century ago, you might’ve dubbed it robber-barony or sharecropping — if not, you know, outright slavery. In 2015, though, we call it the social Web: a glorious dystopia where everybody works for likes — as in, “for free” — while a handful of tech tycoons profit." Dewey notes that the free labor of Wikipedia's volunteers "plays a large role in the $51 million in donations that Wikipedia scored last year — and also in the staggering $16.5 billion in revenue that Google reported in 2014", especially due to the inclusion of Wikipedia data in Google's Knowledge Graph.

Dewey spoke with Justin Knapp (Koavf), the most prolific of those volunteers who is at the top of the List of Wikipedians by number of edits. Dewey writes "With nearly 1.5 million contributions, the 33-year-old Wikipedian is more active on the site than literally anyone else — including members of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation’s paid staff." Dewey contrasts the billions taken in by tech companies with Knapp's life in Indianapolis, where he works three jobs and drives a fifteen-year-old car. She identifies Knapp's motivation with the sociological term "affective currency", which describes intangible motivations and benefits that such people get out of their work. Knapp says "I understand that some people want to be paid to do what they love. But when you put a number on the thing you love, it can't be priceless. If you don't put a number on it, you assign the value and the meaning to it, yourself — you don't negotiate that with the market."

Efforts to compensate such volunteer labor are still in their infancy. One idea mentioned by Dewey was offered by Wikipedian Dorothy Howard (Vaughn88) last year in an essay where she raised "the question of compensating certain classes of 'super-editors' for major contributions." She suggested following the model of YouTube's Partner Program by compensating those editors through donations to Wikipedia. She wrote "This type of project would allow for more fair digital labor practices and would compensate viewers for their major contributions to the site's legitimacy as a reliable source." (July 22)

Congressman's bizarre tweet prompts Wikipedia vandalism

Congressman Steve King, subject of vandalism

On July 17, a pro-immigration reform Twitter account posted a picture of Julian Castro, the Democratic Party United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, along with a statement he made on MSNBC regarding the possibility of Latino voters favoring the Republican Party: "The GOP can kiss the Latino vote goodbye." Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa, tweeted in response "What does Julian Castro know? Does he know that I'm as Hispanic and Latino as he?"

The meaning of King's tweet is unclear. King, who is of Irish, Welsh, and German ancestry, is not Latino, as many critics on Twitter immediately pointed out. NBC News notes that "King is not listed among Hispanic members of the House in a list kept by the House Press Gallery." However, Castro was born in San Antonio, Texas and is of Mexican descent. NBC News and Politico speculated that the tweet was in reference to reports that Castro is not fluent in Spanish. (Many Americans of Latino descent do not speak Spanish.) Both news outlets reported that King's office did not respond to their requests for clarification.

A number of political news outlets and blogs, including Mediaite, Salon, and Raw Story, noted that King's Wikipedia article was quickly updated to reflect King's declaration. "Hispanic" was added to his Irish, Welsh, and German ancestry, cited to the tweet. His name was translated into Spanish from "Steven Arnold 'Steve' King" to "Esteban Arnoldo 'Steba' Rey". A comment was added claiming King admitted to being "the child or grandchild of illegal immigrants." All of these changes were quickly reverted. Unlike most cases of vandalism driven by off-site events, the vandalism quickly subsided and article protection was not required. Two days later, however, King's infobox picture was replaced with that of professional wrestler Rey Mysterio.

King has a history of offensive and racially-charged remarks about Latinos and immigrants. Most notoriously, in 2013 he said of the children of illegal immigrants: "For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert."

In brief




Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next week's edition in the Newsroom or contact the editor.


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2015-07-22

The Nerds, They Are A-Changin'

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By Serendipodous

Summary: When I was a kid, being a nerd meant wanting to go to Pluto. Well now we have gone to Pluto and all my fellow nerds want to talk about is Comic Con and the latest Marvel movie. It seems seeing a trailer for a movie they're all going to see anyway is more important than viewing landscapes as yet unseen by human eyes and unlikely to be seen again. And no, my peevishness has nothing to do with my being the chief editor of the Pluto article. Well, maybe a bit.

For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.

As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of July 12 to 18, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes
1 Suicide Squad C-class 1,817,973
DC Comics' ramshackle crew of pressganged supervillains, forced to do the will of a shadowy organization or let their heads explode, are the stars of one of the most anticipated films in the upcoming DC Cinematic Universe. This week, at San Diego Comic Con, Warner Bros released the film's first trailer, which, from the Wikipedia views, seems to have gotten the fans more excited than the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie.
2 Joaquín Guzmán Loera B-Class 1,671,857 This ruthless narco-trafficker, boss of the Sinaloa cartel and reportedly the world's 14th richest man, became an enduring folk hero and the subject of a hundred "narcocorridos" (folk songs glorying the deeds of the great drug lords) after he escaped from a top-security prison in 2001. He was on the lam for 13 years before his recapture in 2014. And now, get ready to tune up your guitars mariachis, because he just did it again. On 11 July, he escaped his prison cell through a tunnel under the shower; by sheer coincidence the only blind spot for the surveillance cameras. If, at this point, you're having flashbacks to The Shawshank Redemption, ditch them: the tunnel was professionally constructed, contained electric lighting, was 1.7 metres tall and 1.5 km long, and included a motorcycle. And no one noticed it being built. Apparently. Oh, and despite being the world's most wanted fugitive, he apparently has an active Twitter account with half a million followers. Frustratingly (but appropriately) the views for this article are a bit dodgy, since they all appear to be for his longer name, which is a redirect. Still, the mobile count is good and the topic is valid, so I can't really argue.
3 Suicide Squad (film) Start-Class 1,608,426
See #1.
4 Pluto Featured Article 1,491,263
Does it ever astonish you how often things work? We had one, just one, chance to get this right, and after 11 years in political limbo, three years in development, and nine years in space, everything hinged on a series of pre-programmed actions performed over the course of just 22 hours by a computer 4.7 billion miles away. During that time, the probe was radio silent; we had no idea if it had survived or not. If we hadn't received its bleep of hello then the entire mission would have been for nothing, and it is doubtful I or any of you would have seen the results in our lifetime. Think on that. And then remember that this event was out-viewed by an escaped drug lord and the trailer for a comic book movie.
5 Satoru Iwata C-Class 1,253,657
The famously ebullient CEO of Nintendo, who often incorporated bananas and caricature puppets into his presentations, winning him the admiration of gamers, died suddenly of cancer this week at the age of just 55. The first CEO of the company not related to the founding Yamauchi family in its 128-year history, he nonetheless strictly maintained its ethos that Nintendo products were for everyone, not just children or adults. In a moment that could have come from one of their games, a rainbow appeared over Nintendo's Kyoto HQ on the day his death was announced.
6 Novak Djokovic B-class 857,933
The Wimbledon Men's (sorry, Gentlemen's) singles final wasn't held until the 12th, which meant that Best Tennis Player of All TimeTM Roger Federer got all the attention last week, before his final defeat at the hands of this Serbian wunderkind, who appropriately now gets his due. And he should; he won last year too.
7 Baahubali (film) C-Class 853,839
At $41 million, this sprawling, two-part historical epic is the most expensive film in Indian history (no, it isn't actually Bollywood, since it was made in South India, much to Bollywood's chagrin). Starring the Telugu actor Prabhas (pictured), the first part, subtitled "The Beginning", broke box office records upon its release on July 10, earning Rs 2.15 billion ($34 million) worldwide in just 5 days.
8 Ant-Man (film) C-class 846,555 Personal editorial alert: As an avid fan of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz (I said I was a nerd), I was wary when writer/director Edgar Wright unceremoniously dumped the highest-profile project of his career because Marvel Studios refused to give him full creative control, particularly since Marvel kept this project alive for a decade mainly because he was interested in it. Afraid the damage caused by his departure would be irreparable, I began to speculate if there was a "Number 12 curse"; that no studio, no matter how beloved or respected, can go 12 movies without a critical bomb. Pixar's 12th was Cars 2; this was Marvel's. Well, they managed to avoid the critical mauling (the film's RT score is a decent 79%, though critics in my UK home have been crueller- no doubt in solidarity with Edgar), but the box office is somewhat iffy; while it opened at #1 (like every other Marvel Studios film to date), it had the lowest per-screen average of any film in the franchise. The film could still be buoyed by good word of mouth however.
9 New Horizons B-class 839,290
The fastest spacecraft ever launched finally reached its destination after 9 years of traversing the interplanetary void. It may not be as cute as Sojourner but it is a stalwart little thing which, as several memes pointed out this week, cost less taxpayer money than several refurbished stadiums. And its mission isn't even over yet; the team hopes to redirect it to another Kuiper belt object before it leaves the Solar System's charted regions.
10 Roger Federer Good Article 791,565
The man widely regarded as the best tennis player of all time lost the Wimbledon title to Novak Djokovic in a titanic 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 showdown.


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2015-07-22

Some more politics

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By Rcsprinter123


Your source for
WikiProject News
  • 2ReinreB2 is attempting to revive the Percy Jackson Task-force (located here) and has also suggested that this project's scope be expanded, maybe even to the point of renaming the project. The proposal in brief. Would appreciate the help of any interested users.
  • If you would like your WikiProject featured in the report, please submit a request at the WikiProject Desk
Submit your project's news and announcements for next week's WikiProject Report at the Signpost's WikiProject Desk.

Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

— Winston Churchill
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An active project which we haven't for some reason interviewed here before: WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom. Taking us through the polling booth and beyond are JRPG, This is Paul, and Cloptonson.

What motivated you to join WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom? Are you active on the political scene, even held office, or just interested?

  • JRPG: I'm a member of a political party with a place on the executive committee of my local constituency. I studied 'British Constitution' at school which started a lifelong interest. I led a local political campaign about lost pensions under Ros Altmann's leadership and appeared numerous times on TV including The Politics Show. I met about 20 MPs and several ministers over a period of 5 years and also worked as a volunteer in an MP's office. There I learnt how to avoid letters being intercepted by parliamentary assistants & hence ensure the MP sees my letter. I also learnt of the persuasive power of a local newspaper relative to the whips.
  • This is Paul: I've always been interested in politics, largely I think because I was growing up during a decade when the country was undergoing some dramatic changes, and I realised the decisions our politicians were making affected so many aspects of our day-to-day lives. I haven't personally been politically active though. At university I took a degree in business studies, although the course encompassed some aspects of politics as well, and was a student in the years preceding the 1997 general election. I remember it as an interesting time to be at university. I suppose I saw joining the project as a way of improving our coverage of the topic, and hope I've made a small contribution to that end, as well as expanding my own political knowledge.
  • Cloptonson: English law was my best O-level subject and political history was my major topic of interest when studying at A-level (though I got poor exam results for health reasons) and I grew up in a politically aware paternal family with a propensity to support Labour. None of them achieved political office (my father – born under Ramsay Macdonald and died under Tony Blair) and a paternal great uncle were respectively unsuccessful local council Labour and Liberal candidates). To the best of my knowledge, I am unrelated to any past or present MPs, which gives me a freedom from vested interests when working on biographies. I was working on Wikipedia's biographical and constituency articles before I joined the project. What did get me to join was to advertise my interest in biographical facts about MPs and encourage help about potential records. I have flagged up contenders for shortest lived MPs, first Christian Scientist and first Spiritualist Church MPs, youngest woman MP to die in office, heaviest Prime Minister, to mention a few.
Sand-coloured building of Gothic design with large clock-tower.
Parliament meets at the Palace of Westminster

Have you contributed to any of the project's 46 featured articles, 6 featured lists, and 89 good articles? Are you currently working on promoting an article to FA or GA status?

How did the project manage when dealing with the recent general election in the UK? Was there any co-ordination in updating unfolding results and coverage?

  • JRPG: Unfortunately there was a major problem with WP:SPAs from UKIP unaware of the rules and writing their own usually uncited opinion of candidates. Also some candidates using what looked like PR men to write their article. In some cases I think I could even recognise the style. The Telegraph and Guardian both published instances of where favourable edits came from within Parliament and I was one of the editors who updated the pages to show this poor behaviour. IPs, however, did help to get the result out.
  • This is Paul: A large event such as a general election always presents a challenge, but I think we were successful in staying up to speed with it. My own contribution was a couple of biographies about newly-elected MPs, which I'm now working to expand.
  • Cloptonson: I agree with This is Paul. I contributed minimally, with adding voting figures for that general election in some of the constituencies in my home county, Shropshire, the day after polling, and minor biographical details for one (subsequently unsuccessful) candidate incumbent MP and a former MP who declared support for a party other than one he sat for.

Does WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom collaborate with any other WikiProjects, such as WP Law or the politics of another country? Has the project taken advantage of Wikipedia's sister projects, like Wikisource or the Commons?

  • JRPG: I'm not aware of any collaboration. I have a strong interest in Law and believe that lawyers on both sides in the Commons make a disproportionate contribution, particularly on select committees. They are also in contact with ordinary people.
  • This is Paul: There are a few country-specific politics projects, like the one for Australia, but I'm also not aware of any collaboration between them. I'm sure there's scope for it to happen though. Sadly the parent Politics project seems to be largely inactive at present.

Is it difficult to find images to illustrate political articles? What topics are most in need of diagrams and photography?

  • JRPG: That's made me think! My father was a professional photographer and I always regarded his caption as crucial. A captioned photograph showing inner city deprivation might win a newspaper award but it could be both intrusive and potentially wp:npov. Showing floods, a posh new bridge or hospital facilities etc. would be less so as those are of community importance. I often ring constituency offices to ask for MP photographs but have had a lot of problems getting them to understand the real need to return the email necessary to renounce copyright. Maddening! Irrespective of our opinion of an MPs views, we should provide the best photographs available and that means ones that they're happy with.
  • Cloptonson: An authentic portrait or picture of a sculpture is always welcome. Via talk pages and unbiased by political sympathy I have flagged up a few pictures that I had reason to doubt were of the subject of the article, and urge someone to find a replacement for the cycle-helmeted pic chosen for Sir Peter Bottomley's article to do his features better justice!
Possible next Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn

Which political party do you vote for, and why? Does that party usually win in your home constituency?

  • JRPG: I make a point of NOT stating my political party -and have been accused of bias by both main parties when reducing wp:undue expense-related verbiage. Despite being a wp:rs the Telegraph got completely carried away in a number of cases during the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal. I have never lived in a constituency where the candidate has won and even when I moved to a marginal, the boundary commission went and scuppered my plans. However I don't hesitate to write to my MP or visit him if I feel I have a contribution to make. I always assume he will work with me to help his constituents regardless of political differences. Usually if you make that clear they will help.
  • This is Paul: I support the Labour Party, but a Labour candidate hasn't been elected in my constituency for some years. Sadly though declaring my political allegiance has led to accusations of bias, particularly from the occasional "cybernat" while editing articles about Scottish politics, but I endeavour to be neutral in my contributions to Wikipedia.
  • Cloptonson: I have voted mainly for Labour candidates but I do not let my personal sympathies get in the way of helping to build a good biography of a politician from another party. My home constituency in England is predominately Conservative voting and since 1923 only had a non-Conservative MP in 1997–2005. I have also worked on job creation stints for local government and since 1987 have been continually employed in a central government department (where my Wikipedian activity is known among my colleagues), which gives me an added insight into our political system but I do not misuse Wikipedia to leak restricted information or to feed comments on contentious current issues – nor do I access Wikipedia during my working hours, unlike the Liverpool civil servant who got sacked having made comments on the Hillsborough football ground tragedy.

What are WikiProject Politics of the United Kingdom's most urgent needs? How can a new member help today?

  • JRPG: A new member familiar with WP:Suggested sources, wp:Editorial wp:NPOV, WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV and WP:UNDUE could reads and improve many political articles. I am saddened at the number of new IPs who are clearly interested in politics but who vandalise articles with uncited opinion. I'm now trying to be friendly, asking if they can contribute using a suitable source and offering to help.
  • This is Paul: We have a lot of short articles that need expanding, particularly those about members of the UK's various legislative bodies. A good starting point might be to find a subject that interests you then work on improving it. The use of quality sources such as the BBC, The Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph to support new material is of paramount importance though. Adopting the article about your local MP, MSP, AM, etc, might also be a good way to get started.
  • Cloptonson: I agree with This is Paul's suggestion about adopting a local legislator, this would spread the burden. I am particularly watchful of articles on Shropshire politicians.

Anything else you'd like to add?

  • JRPG: In politics it's important to avoid wp:editorialising and properly quantify achievements. The main parties assess a candidate by comparing his achievement with that of his party as a whole, e.g. how the swing in his constituency compares with the national average. We need to make sure people know how to do this. Also to define what is notable -every MP has campaigned to save their local hospital.
  • This is Paul: I think the important thing to remember with a topic like politics is that it's essential to approach it from a neutral point of view. Often you may find yourself working on articles about people whose opinions you do not share and subjects with which you profoundly disagree, so you need to have a balanced perspective.
  • Cloptonson: I too avoid editorialising and partisan bias.

    Reader comments

2015-07-22

The sleep of reason produces monsters

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By Xanthomelanoussprog, WPPilot, Gamaliel and Hafspajen


This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 05 July to 11 July.


Three Featured articles were promoted this week.

  • Capon Chapel (nominated by West Virginian) Capon Chapel is situated two miles south of Capon Bridge, West Virginia, USA. It's a small church, built from logs in the 1850s. The area was a stronghold of the Baptists in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and there was probably a Baptist church on the site. The first burial in the cemetery occurred in 1816, but the first certain mention of a church was in a land grant of 1852, referring to a house of worship "for the use of all orthodox Christians". Primarily used by the Baptists until the early part of last century, it became a stop on the local Methodist preachers' circuit, and as Baptist use declined, the Methodists became the chapel's users and carers. Today it is part of the United Methodist Church.
  • Tom Simpson (nominated by BaldBoris) One of Britain's most successful racing cyclists, Tom Simpson competed victoriously in several professional cycle races, including the Tour de France, the Tour of Flanders, the Bordeaux–Paris race, the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and the 1956 Summer Olympics. Simpson learned to ride the bicycle at the age of twelve and a year later he joined a cycling club where he participated in his first road race. Simpson collapsed and died at the age of 29 in the thirteenth stage of the 1967 Tour de France, during the ascent of Mont Ventoux. His collapse was caused by high daytime temperatures (reaching up to 53° C) combined with his having mixed amphetamines and alcohol.
  • Witches' Sabbath (The Great He-Goat) (nominated by Ceoil) An excellent art article from our art expert Ceoil and company. Francisco Goya painted Witches' Sabbath in the early 1820s, in oils on the plaster wall of his home near Madrid. It's one of a set of fourteen murals that Goya left to his grandson, along with the house, when the artist left for exile. Goya gave neither title nor explanation for any of them. The Sabbath has been interpreted as Satan in the form of a goat, dominating a group of fearful witches. To the right sits an enigmatic young girl. Goya was an artist of peculiar imagination, who in his so-called Black Paintings mocked clerical institutions and ridiculed the stereotypes of witches and the grotesque side of their festivities and ceremonies. He portrayed ugly and malformed figures whose hideousness he accentuated with the use of loose brushwork. The grotesque faces provide a scary, frenzied atmosphere to his pictures. They have been seen as his artistic response to a "first-hand and acute awareness of panic, terror, fear and hysteria." Or something like that....

Two Featured lists were promoted this week.

  • 73rd Academy Awards (nominated by Birdienest81) Honoring films from the year 2000, the Best Picture Oscar went to Gladiator, Ridley Scott's Roman fighting epic which was probably the worst of the five nominees from that year. It took home five wins, including Best Actor for Russell Crowe, but notably no wins for its director or screenwriters, a first for a Best Picture since 1949. Best Director went to Steven Soderbergh; his films Traffic and Erin Brockovich both received nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, the latter nomination making him the third person to ever get double nominations for directing. Playing the title role in the David and Goliath story Erin Brockovich won Julia Roberts Best Actress. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon didn't win any of the major awards it was nominated for, but picked up four Oscars, including one for its stunning score by Tan Dun. Two of the best films of 2000, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Almost Famous, were snubbed, receiving only nominations for minor categories, and no wins.
  • List of works by Dorothy L. Sayers (nominated by SchroCat) Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a prolific English intellectual writer, essayist, poet, playwright and Christian humanist. She is best known nowadays for her "whodunits" featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, the gentleman detective, who has as his special hobby solving mysteries. He is a funny and sophisticated character – not the hardboiled trenchcoat-wearing detective, but the well educated and cerebral gentleman, with exquisite taste in wine, cars, clothing and books. Her first detective novel, Whose Body?, from 1923, features the naked body of a man wearing pince-nez, left in someone's bathtub as a joke. In the 1930s Sayers ceased writing crime stories and turned instead to religious plays and essays, and to translating literary works, from medieval French and Italian into English. These included Tristan by Thomas of Britain, and Dante's Divine Comedy. The latter is considered one of the greatest works of world literature; her translation of the Divine Comedy is Sayers's magnum opus.
Hubble Space Telescope's 25 years anniversary is celebrated with a picture of celestial fireworks: the giant cluster of stars called Westerlund 2
Napoleon on the gold 20 franc
Lyriothemis acigastra
Netherlands East Indies Java Rupee from 1803
Wrocław Główny railway station's platform


Twenty-nine Featured pictures were promoted this week.

  • Verdi, Strauss and Halévy
The Great He-Goat


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2015-07-22

"One small step..."

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By Gamaliel

Forty-six years ago this week, the Apollo 11 mission took three men into outer space and two of them, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, were the first humans to set foot on the surface of the Moon. It was a great achievement not just in American history, but in human history, marked by Armstrong's memorable phrase "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." The photographs of that mission remain among the most recognizable in recent history. Of the photograph of Aldrin taken by Armstrong on the lunar surface taken, Aldrin tweeted this week: "I have 3 words to describe why this photo Neil took of me is so iconic: Location, location, location." The final photograph is not as famous. It is a photo uploaded by a Wikimedian taken by his grandfather of his mother as a young girl during this historic moment, a great example of how ordinary Wikimedians can contribute to documenting their world and its history.













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2015-07-22

Tech news in brief

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By Wikimedia tech ambassadors
The following content has been republished as-is from the Tech News weekly report.

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes this week

  • The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from July 21. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from July 22. It will be on all Wikipedias from July 23 (calendar).
  • You now see more warnings in the image viewer. They tell you to be careful when using the image, for example if it shows a person. [1]

Meetings

Future changes

  • Soon you won't be able to use MathJax to display math. [2]


Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.



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