Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2018-01-16

The Wikimedia Foundation has made two new leadership appointments in its Communications department. Heather Walls, interim Chief of Communications, will become the Chief Creative Officer, a newly created position.

[Walls will have] responsibility for the Communications department operations, and a mandate that focuses on helping people better understand our values and mission through our brand. She will oversee the organization and movement’s voice, tone, and visual assets, and how they are incorporated into everything from our recent awareness videos to our press statements.
— Executive Director Katherine Maher

Kui Kinyanjui will take on the position of Vice President of Communications, in charge of both traditional and digital communications, and will report directly to the Chief Creative Officer. Kinyanjui will take up her new position in early March, working remotely from Nairobi, Kenya.

Further information is available in Executive Director Katherine Maher's post on the Wikimedia-l mailing list.

The WMF's Community Resources team has started an experimental Community Capacity Map (CCM). The page presents self-assessments of capacities of Wikimedia communities in a variety of fields, such as communications and media relations, community health, and technical skills.

How many Wikimedia communities have embraced advanced Wikidata use? How many have active social media accounts? Which groups have a written, current strategy? What are the most common gaps in capacity in Latin America? or in Eastern Europe? What kind of investment in capacity building would be likely to bring the most value?
— Meta:Community Capacity Map/About

The CCM aims to track these capacities over time, and help identify areas that need improvements – not only for the community groups themselves, but also independent experts, volunteers, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Further information is available on Meta.

• New user-groups: The Affiliations Committee announced the approval of this week's newest Wikimedia movement affiliate, the Wikimedia Community User Group Botswana.
• New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrators, Joe Roe and Muboshgu.
• Milestones: The following Wikipedia projects reached milestones recently: Marathi Wikipedia: 50,000 articles (22 December); Serbian Wikipedia: 500,000 articles (14 January).
• Reports: The MediaWiki Stakeholders' Group's 2017 Annual Report and the 2017 WikidataCon Report have been published.

Brigid Hughes was a success story. She had graduated from Northwestern University, and taken a job at The Paris Review as a lowly intern. She rose astronomically, to managing editor, and then succeeded George Plimpton as the executive editor of the magazine. After a year, she was not rehired as the editor, and was succeeded by Philip Gourevitch. Gourevitch left, and was replaced by Lorin Stein. Stein was pushed out after several incidents of sexual misconduct were discovered. The New York Times was one of those who criticized Stein heavily, and wrote that Stein was the third editor to "hold the title in the magazine's 58-year history, and the second to follow George Plimpton, himself a legendary New York social figure." The Times, however – rather glaringly – forgot an editor. Julie Bosman (the author of the article) left out Brigid Hughes.

Antoine Wilson and others had written to Bosman, urging the correction to be made, but Bosman resisted the change, as at the time Hughes was not listed on the masthead of the Review at all. The correction to the article was issued in December 2017. However, Hughes was left out in The New Yorker, informative pieces, and, yes, even The Paris Review's Wikipedia Page. An anonymous editor, with an IP address registered to The Paris Review, removed any mention of Hughes from the Paris Review page, on at least one occasion. Hughes was not re-added to the page until November 2017, and an article did not exist on her until December 7, 2017.

In an interview of Stein, he himself ignores that Hughes was editor. When asked "You're following on the heels on some of the great editors of their day, This was a daunting task, I assume, stepping into those shoes." Stein responds "Well. Yeah. In a funny way, George Plimpton edited the magazine from 1953 until he died in 2003, and then Philip Gourevitch, uh, terrific reporter, did it for five years and then quit to write a book, so I’m number three, and Philip really, that was hard, what Philip had to do because George Plimpton — Norman Mailer called him the most loved man in New York, but he was not just in New York, people worship him, rightly so." (Adapted from a Longreads Story)

The Daily Mail, which has a belligerent (to say the least) relationship with Wikipedia has just become the latest in a series of newspapers to copy from Wikipedia. In an article about a BBC documentary soon to come, they copied over six sentences.

"The present version of St Edward's Crown was made for Charles II in 1661. It was fashioned to closely resemble the medieval crown, with a heavy gold base and clusters of semi-precious stones, but the arches are very much Baroque."

– In this sentence, the only difference is that "decidedly" has been changed to "very much".

"In 1671, one Thomas Blood briefly stole the crown from the Tower of London, flattening it with a mallet in an attempt to conceal it."

– Only difference: "one" has been added before "Thomas Blood".

"After the coronation of William III in 1689, monarchs chose to be crowned with a lighter, bespoke coronation crown or their state crown"

– Word-for-word copy.

"Edward VII intended to revive the tradition of using St Edward’s Crown in 1902, but on coronation day he was still recovering from an operation for appendicitis, and instead he wore the lighter Imperial State Crown."

– Word-for-word copy.

"In 1953 Queen Elizabeth II adopted a stylised image of the crown for use in coats of arms, badges, logos and other insignia throughout the Commonwealth realms to symbolise her royal authority."

– Word-for-word copy.

• Toby Young: The Guardian reports that Toby Young, a British journalist and director of the New Schools Network, has edited his Wikipedia page over 250 times in the past ten years, under account User:Tyoung8 and others.
• The case of razor blades: Poynter Institute reported that crowdsourced lists are analogous to Wikipedia wrapped in razor blades. By all means examine it—but do so carefully or there may be a lot of blood on your hands.
• Erasing antisemitism: Tablet reported on attempts to manipulate, "obfuscate" by renaming, or outright delete the page Antisemitism in the Labour Party.
• Cyborgs on Wikipedia: The Sun reported that the United Kingdom Commons Culture Committee suspects Russian "cyborgs" are planting fake news on Wikipedia. The Sun quoted an unnamed source as saying "It seems not enough checks are being done by Wikipedia to make sure the content on there is not fake."

Twenty-two featured articles were promoted.

• Elcor, Minnesota (nominated by DrGregMN) is a ghost town in the U.S. state of Minnesota which existed between 1897 and 1956. In November 1890, the seven Merritt brothers discovered ore on the Mesabi Range, and a new iron rush began. An influx of people of many ethnicities from many nations followed, and Elcor became a microcosm of U.S. immigration, mirroring the cultural assimilation of the time. At its peak around 1920, Elcor had two churches, a post office, a mercantile, a primary school, a railroad station, its own law enforcement, and housed a population of nearly 1,000.
• The golden jackal (nominated by William Harris) is a wolf-like canid that is native to Southeast Europe, Southwest Asia, South Asia, and regions of Southeast Asia. Compared with the Arabian wolf, which is the smallest of the gray wolves, (Canis lupus), the jackal is smaller and possesses shorter legs, a shorter tail, a more elongated torso, a less-prominent forehead, and a narrower and more pointed muzzle. The golden jackal's coat can vary from a pale creamy yellow in summer to a dark tawny beige in winter. It is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List due to its widespread distribution and high density in areas with plenty of available food and optimum shelter.
• The British hydrogen bomb programme (nominated by Hawkeye7) was the ultimately successful British effort to develop hydrogen bombs between 1952 and 1958. Operation Grapple involved Britain's first airdrop of a thermonuclear bomb. Although hailed as a success at the time, the first test of the Green Granite design was a failure. The second test validated Orange Herald as a usable design of a megaton weapon, but it was not a thermonuclear bomb, and the core boosting did not work. A third test attempted to correct the Green Granite design, but was another failure. In the Grapple X test in November 1957, they successfully tested a thermonuclear design. The Grapple Y test the following April obtained most of its yield from nuclear fusion, and the Grapple Z test series later that year demonstrated a mastery of thermonuclear weapons technology. An international moratorium on nuclear tests commenced on 31 October 1958, and Britain ceased atmospheric testing for good. The successful development of the hydrogen bomb, along with the Sputnik crisis, resulted in the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement, in which the nuclear Special Relationship was restored.
• RSPB Minsmere (nominated by Jimfbleak) is a nature reserve owned and managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Minsmere, Suffolk. The 1,000-hectare (2,500-acre) site has been managed by the RSPB since 1947 and covers areas of reed bed, lowland heath, acid grassland, wet grassland, woodland and shingle vegetation. The nature reserve is managed primarily for bird conservation, particularly through control and improvement of wetland, heath and grassland habitats. The reserve has a visitor centre, eight bird hides and an extensive network of footpaths and trails. Entry is free for RSPB members. Potential future threats to the site include flooding or salination as climate change causes rising sea levels, coastal erosion and possible effects on water levels due to the construction of a new reactor at the neighbouring Sizewell nuclear power stations.
• The More Hall Annex (nominated by SounderBruce) was a building on the campus of the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, that once housed a functional nuclear research reactor. It was inaugurated in 1961 and shut down in 1988, operating at a peak of 100 kilowatts thermal, and was officially decommissioned two decades later in 2007. The reactor was housed in a reinforced concrete building designed in the Brutalist architectural style by UW faculty members. They designed the reactor room with large windows which allowed observation from the outside, in an attempt to demonstrate the safety of nuclear energy. The Nuclear Reactor Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, after a campaign led by an architecture student in response to the proposed demolition of the building. Despite concerns from preservation groups and the City of Seattle, the UW Board of Regents had the building demolished in July 2016. It will be replaced by a new computer science building that is expected to open in January 2019.
• The Rhode Island Tercentenary half dollar (nominated by Wehwalt) is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1936. The coin was designed by John Howard Benson and Arthur Graham Carey. Members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation sought a coin for the 300th anniversary of Providence, and Senator Jesse Metcalf added authorization for one to a bill for another commemorative coin that had already passed the House of Representatives. The amended bill was approved by both houses of Congress, and was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A total of 50,000 coins were struck at the three mints then in operation. When the coins went on sale on March 5, 1936, the quantity made available to the public sold out in a matter of hours. Rhode Island insiders were holding back quantities for later sale once prices rose. That conduct incensed coin collectors, and the abuses led Congress to move toward banning commemorative coins. The coins are listed for hundreds of dollars today, depending on condition.
• Knuckles' Chaotix (nominated by Joebro64) Is a 1995 side-scrolling platform game developed and published by Sega for the 32X. A spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the game features Knuckles the Echidna and four other characters collectively known as the Chaotix. Critical reception to Knuckles' Chaotix has been mixed. Critics found the tethering physics cumbersome, although some appreciated it as an attempt by Sega to innovate in the series. It is seen as the last in the "classic" 2D style of Sonic games before the series moved to 3D. Some characters and concepts introduced in the game were featured in later Sonic games and media. Despite interest from fans, it has not been re-released beyond a brief period through GameTap in the mid-2000s.
• Chains of Love (TV series) (nominated by Aoba47) is an American dating game show that aired for six episodes in April and May 2001 on United Paramount Network (UPN). Adapted from a Dutch television series, it revolves around a man or woman being chained to four members of the opposite sex over four days and nights. This person, identified as the "Picker", is given $10,000 and can remove three contestants one at a time. The Picker can give a portion of the money to each eliminated participant. When left with a single partner, the Picker can choose to either split the money or keep it. American television personality Madison Michele hosted each episode.
• Segundo Romance (nominated by Erick) is the tenth studio album by Mexican singer Luis Miguel, released on 30 August 1994 through WEA Latina. Like Miguel's 1991 album Romance, Segundo Romance comprises cover versions of boleros (Latin ballads) written between 1934 and 1993. It was produced by Miguel with Juan Carlos Calderón, Kiko Cibrian and Armando Manzanero and recorded in early 1994 at the Record Plant in Los Angeles.
• Cragside (nominated by KJP1 and DBaK) is a Victorian country house near the town of Rothbury in Northumberland, England. It was the home of William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, founder of the Armstrong Whitworth armaments firm. The original building was a small shooting lodge which Armstrong built between 1862 and 1864. In 1869, he employed the architect Richard Norman Shaw to enlarge Cragside. The result was described by the architect and writer Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel as "one of the most dramatic compositions in all architecture". Armstrong filled the house with a significant art collection; he and his wife were patrons of many 19th-century British artists. Cragside became an integral part of Armstrong's commercial operations: honoured guests under Armstrong's roof, including the Shah of Persia, the King of Siam and two future Prime Ministers of Japan, were also customers for his commercial undertakings. In 1971 the National Trust asked the architectural historian Mark Girouard to compile a gazetteer of the most important Victorian houses in Britain which the Trust should seek to save should they ever be sold. Girouard placed Cragside at the top of the list; in 1977, the house was acquired by the Trust with the aid of a grant from the National Land Fund. A Grade I listed building since 1953, Cragside has been open to the public since 1979.
• The 2006 Bank of America 500 (nominated by MWright96) was the 31st stock car race of the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and the fifth in the ten-race season-ending Chase for the Nextel Cup. It was held on October 14, 2006, before a crowd of 175,000 in Concord, North Carolina, at Lowe's Motor Speedway. The circuit is one of ten intermediate tracks to hold NASCAR races. The 334-lap race was won by Kasey Kahne of the Evernham Motorsports team, who started from second position. Jimmie Johnson finished second and Jeff Burton came in third.
• Super Mario World (nominated by Jaguar) is a 1990 side-scrolling platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The story follows Mario's quest to save Princess Toadstool and Dinosaur Land from the series' antagonist, Bowser, and his children, the Koopalings. Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development developed the game led by director Takashi Tezuka and producer and series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. It is the first entry in the Super Mario series developed for the SNES. Super Mario World was a critical and commercial success, and is often considered one of the greatest video games of all time. It sold over 20 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling game on the SNES.
• The Greek battleship Salamis (nominated by Parsecboy and The ed17) was a partially constructed capital ship, referred to as either a dreadnought battleship or battlecruiser, that was ordered for the Greek Navy from the AG Vulcan shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, in 1912. She was ordered as part of a Greek naval rearmament program meant to modernize the fleet, in response to Ottoman naval expansion after the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Salamis and several other battleships—none of which were delivered to either navy—represented the culmination of a naval arms race between the two countries that had significant effects on the First Balkan War and World War I.
• Nigel Williams (conservator) (nominated by Usernameunique) was a British conservator and expert on the restoration of ceramics and glass. From 1961 until his death he worked at the British Museum, where he became the Chief Conservator of Ceramics and Glass in 1983. There his work included the successful restorations of the Sutton Hoo helmet and the Portland Vase.
• The Tottenham outrage (nominated by SchroCat) of 23 January 1909 was a wages theft in Tottenham, north London, that resulted in a two-hour chase between the police and armed criminals over a distance of six miles (10 km), with an estimated 400 rounds of ammunition fired by the thieves. The robbery, from the Schnurmann rubber factory, was carried out by Paul Helfeld and Jacob Lepidus, Jewish Latvian immigrants. Of the twenty-three casualties, two were fatal and several others serious, among them seven policemen. The two thieves committed suicide at the end of the pursuit.
• The Lancashire Fusiliers War Memorial (nominated by HJ Mitchell) is a First World War memorial originally dedicated to members of the Lancashire Fusiliers killed in that conflict. Located in Gallipoli Gardens in Bury, Greater Manchester (historically in Lancashire), in north-west England, it was unveiled in 1922—on the seventh anniversary of the landing at Cape Helles, part of the Gallipoli Campaign in which the regiment suffered particularly heavy casualties. It originally sat outside the Lancashire Fusiliers' headquarters in Wellington Barracks but was relocated when the barracks closed in the 1970s. It was moved again in 2009, this time to sit in a public park renamed Gallipoli Gardens, outside the Fusilier Museum, which moved at the same time. The memorial was designated a Grade II listed building in 1992. It was upgraded to Grade II* in 2015 (on the centenary of the Cape Helles landing), along with two other memorials related to the Gallipoli Campaign; later that year it was recognised as part of a national collection of Edwin Lutyens' war memorials.
• Kate Winslet (nominated by Krimuk2.0) is an English actress. She is known for her portrayals of angst-ridden women, typically in period dramas and tragedies. Winslet is the recipient of several accolades, including three British Academy Film Awards, and is among the few performers to have won Academy, Emmy, and Grammy Awards.
• The southern boobook (nominated by Cas Liber) is a species of owl native to mainland Australia, southern New Guinea, Timor and the Sunda Islands. The smallest owl on the Australian mainland, the southern boobook is 27 to 36 cm (10.5 to 14 in) long, with predominantly dark brown plumage with prominent pale spots. It has grey-green or yellow-green eyes. It is generally nocturnal, though is sometimes active at dawn and dusk, retiring to roost in secluded spots in the foliage of trees. The southern boobook feeds on insects and small vertebrates, hunting by pouncing on them from tree perches. Breeding takes place from late winter to early summer, using tree hollows as nesting sites. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the southern boobook as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population.
• Arthur Sullivan (nominated by Ssilvers and Tim riley) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, ten choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord".
• The Rogožarski IK-3 (nominated by Peacemaker67) was a 1930s Yugoslav monoplane single-seat fighter, designed by Ljubomir Ilić, Kosta Sivčev and Slobodan Zrnić as a successor to the Ikarus IK-2 fighter. Its armament consisted of a hub-firing 20 mm (0.79 in) autocannon and two fuselage-mounted synchronised machine guns. It was considered comparable to foreign aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109E and came into service in 1940. The prototype crashed during testing; a total of twelve production aircraft had been delivered by July 1940. Six IK-3s were serviceable when the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia began on 6 April 1941. All six were in service with the 51st Independent Fighter Group at Zemun near Belgrade. Pilots flying the IK-3 claimed 11 aircraft shot down during the 11-day conflict. According to one account, to prevent them from falling into German hands, the surviving aircraft and incomplete airframes were destroyed by their crews and factory staff. Another account suggests that one aircraft survived the invasion and was later destroyed by sabotage. The IK-3 design was the basis for the post-war Yugoslav-built Ikarus S-49 fighter.
• Valley View (Romney, West Virginia) (nominated by West Virginian) Is a mid-19th-century Greek Revival residence and farm overlooking the South Branch Potomac River northwest of Romney, West Virginia. Valley View is atop a promontory where Depot Valley joins the South Branch Potomac River valley.
• Ho Ho Ho (nominated by Aoba47) is a 1997 Christmas album and the third studio album by American singer and drag queen RuPaul. Released on October 28, 1997, by the record label Rhino, it is RuPaul’s first album featuring Christmas music and consists of thirteen tracks. Music critics frequently described the album as an example of camp though RuPaul clarified that it included several more serious covers, specifically "All Alone on Christmas" and "Hard Candy Christmas". Ho Ho Ho was praised by critics following its release and during retrospective reviews; its cheerful and humorous compositions were frequently cited as the album's highlights, though some commentators responded negatively to the record's use of humor and the lack of clarity in its overall message. It was included in a 2016 parody list discussing the alt-right, the "War on Christmas", and the bathroom bill. The album peaked at number 27 on the Heatseekers Albums Billboard chart, selling a little more than 4,000 copies in one week. To support the record, RuPaul filmed a television special as part of his VH1 talk show The RuPaul Show (1996).

Nine featured lists were promoted.

• Quantico (season 2) (nominated by Krish)
• Steve McQueen filmography (nominated by Ssven2)
• List of protected cruisers of Italy (nominated by Parsecboy)
• List of Red Bull Air Race World Championship winners (nominated by The Rambling Man)
• List of Presidents of India (nominated by Force Radical)
• Laureus Sport for Good Award (nominated by The Rambling Man)
• Laureus World Sports Award for Action Sportsperson of the Year (nominated by Harrias and The Rambling Man)
• List of World Heritage Sites in Serbia (nominated by Tone)
• List of BioWare video games (nominated by The1337gamer )

One featured topic was promoted.

• Amy Adams (nominated by Krimuk2.0), an American actress known for both her comedic and dramatic performances. As of 2017, she is among the highest-paid actresses in the world and has received several awards, including two Golden Globe Awards, and has been nominated for five Academy Awards and six British Academy Film Awards..

Ser Amantio di Nicolao has the most edits of any Wikipedian – over two million live edits. He started editing in 2004 and created his current account in 2006. This interview asks him to reflect on how he started, what kept him going, and what he looks forward to in the future of Wikipedia.

• How did you come to Wikipedia?

Oh, Lord...been so long I hardly remember. I was in college back when Wikipedia got started, and like a lot of us early adopters I can recall seeing it creeping up the ranks of the Google search results as I was doing research for class. I remember seeing the tagline, "the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit", and honestly rolling my eyes at it a bit – it all sounded too good to be true. But it kept seeming to get more popular, and somewhere in 2004 I started making a few IP edits. That was back when IPs could create articles, too, and I created one on Peter Francisco that June. (I probably shouldn't admit to this, but he's my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather...I still think he's notable, though. :-) ) I created a couple of others (Francisco's Fight, Francis Salvador) and sort of kept popping in and out over the next couple of years, creating a couple of accounts, making a handful of edits, forgetting passwords, etc. Finally, in January 2006 (my last semester of college) I created my current account (as AlbertHerring) and affixed to it a password that I was sure of remembering. I did a few more edits than usual, but with finals, graduation, and the job search I let it slide again. Looking back over my contributions, I find that I was reasonably active until the beginning of 2007, which is when I got my first job. I didn't really begin editing in earnest until late in the year, when they finally installed a computer at my desk and when I started having some downtime between phone calls (I was an office assistant for a tour company.) It was about that time that Dr. Blofeld was beginning his campaign of mass-adding the communes of France; I saw a way that I could do a fairly large level of useful work, and followed suit. Haven't looked back since. :-)

• What are you proudest of doing on Wikipedia?

Lots of stuff.

I created articles on many of the community councils of Lesotho back in '09 or '10 or so, and came back a few months later to see those translated into Ukrainian. That still, even today, blows my mind, to think that I had a small hand in making that information available in a language in which it didn't yet exist. (Four, actually: looking at one of them now I see it in Bulgarian, Swedish, and Cebuano as well.) I've done a lot of work with WikiProject Women in Red – 604 articles on notable women last year, plus a couple this year. (There will be more, don't worry...)

I've written articles and taken photographs for WikiProject National Register of Historic Places, which I joined fairly early in its life; User:Nyttend and I between us have illustrated a fair chunk of Virginia. Also I worked up the article on Pohick Church from barely more than a stub to what you see today. I also tweaked a lot of the infobox maps on NRHP sites to allow them to show both the state and the country, thereby using a tool that I'm very glad we have.

Lots of stuff, but these are the biggest ones.

• How has Wikipedia changed in your time here?

I think it's become much less-welcoming to new members; I applaud efforts to change that, but I think we've got a lot of work to do yet. Bureaucracy has become more of a hassle than it used to be. More arcane, too – I think there are vast swaths of behind-the-scenes stuff that confuse even established editors, let alone new ones.

There has been a much more concerted attempt at addressing the variations of systemic bias...we still have a lot of work to do, but I think we've made incredible strides over the past few years.

• What advice do you have for new editors?

Feel free to make mistakes...I made some beauties in my first years here. (Still do, more often than I'd like to admit.) Take criticism well...don't bristle, even (especially) if it's well-meant. Engage with people who talk to you – if you don't understand something they're saying, then ask. Most of us will be happy to explain.

The learning curve is steeper than I'd like, but I think it can be managed.

• How do you see your contribution to WP over the next few years?

As Dorothy Sayers said: "As my whimsy takes me." I don't often know from week to week what I'm going to work on next – there are so many things that need doing. I like not limiting myself to one thing, or another.

• How do you see Wikipedia changing?

I see systemic bias continuing to be addressed...it's going to take time, especially given our size, but we'll get there. I see us expanding the idea of notability...we're already rewriting the canon of various fields, so to speak, re-inserting people into the narrative who have been long ignored. I'd like to see us growing our editor base, but I'm not sure how feasible that is.

• Are there any basic changes that you would like to see implemented?

I'm sure I'll catch a lot of heat for this, but I think it's time we start seriously looking at bots to create some of the needed geographic articles. Species articles, too, but geographic especially. Dr. Blofeld has been saying this for a while, and I echo it. I see the downsides to such a plan, but I think there are plenty of upsides as well...most importantly, that it will ensure certain types of basic coverage while freeing up human editors to do more substantive work.

• How do you feel having administrative capability sets you apart from other editors, if at all?

Well, it gives me blocking rights...which I don't use but sparingly. I like being able to move images over to Commons without having to ask for help. That's actually something else I should have mentioned yesterday under the rubric of "basic changes"...I think the administrator creation process is ridiculously complicated. I understand why it is, but I think things would be a lot smoother around here if we considered giving some of those rights to more editors. Intermediate rights, maybe...not full administrative rights, but a few of the lower-key things, for trusted editors.

• After two million edits, do you ever get tired, or consider leaving Wikipedia?

Occasionally...rarely. Sometimes I take a little time to back away, but rarely more than a week (unless I'm on vacation). Too much to do. (I've had dreams of editing...I can guarantee I'm not the only long-term editor who's had those.)

• Do you feel that Wikipedia will ever stop growing, or become obsolete?

I doubt it very much...but then, I don't know what technology will be like in 20 years or more. Put it this way: I suspect it will only get obsolete if/when the internet does.

• Anything else you’d like to add?

Can't think of anything at the moment – if there's anything else I'll let you know.

New user scripts to customise your Wikipedia experience

• WatchlistSorter^[1] (source) by User:The Transhumanist – sorts your watchlist by namespace, making it much easier to browse.
• TextDiff^[2] (source) by User:Evad37 – Adds a button to diff pages that shows a simpler, text-only diff. It is often difficult to see the actual changes to the text amongst the templates and other markup.

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community: 2018 #2 & #3. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available on Meta.

• Recent changes
  • On Wikidata, the "save" button when you edit is now called "publish". This means all Wikimedia wikis have now changed from "Save page" to "Publish changes". This is to help new editors understand what it does. [1][2]
  • Some edits will get an automatic tag on all wikis. This will happen when making a page a redirect, blanking a page, removing almost all content, undoing an edit, or rolling back an edit. You can see the tags for example in the recent changes feed, article history, user contributions or on your watchlist. Some wikis had already marked edits like these in other ways. [3]
  • Special:UnusedFiles shows files that have been uploaded but are not used. It will show a file that is not used on the wiki it has been uploaded to, even if the file is used on another wiki. The new Special:GloballyUnusedFiles page on Commons only shows files that are not used on any wiki. [4]
  • Structured discussions now uses the 2017 wikitext editor instead of the old custom editor. This will work with your preference for wikitext or visual editor. The documentation has been updated. [5][6]
  • Wikidata moved to its own database servers. This is because it is growing and needs more resources. Because of this you were able to read but not edit Wikidata and the German Wikipedia between 06:00 and 06:30 UTC on 9 January. [7]
  • The font size in the editing window will change slightly for some users. It will now look the same on all browsers and operating systems. [8][9]
  • Bureaucrats on Wikimedia wikis where the Translate extension is installed can now add and remove the translation administrator permission by default. Administrators of wikis where this extension is enabled can add and remove this permission to or from themselves. Wikis that used a different configuration before have not changed. [10]
  • WikiEditor's ResourceLoader modules have been simplified to one: ext.wikiEditor. All the other modules are now deprecated aliases and should be removed. [11]
  • There is a new Discourse test support channel for Wikimedia developers. You can ask questions or answer others questions about MediaWiki and Wikimedia software development. [12]
• Problems
  • Older versions of the Chrome web browser on mobile devices may see the PDF download button, but it does not work. The developers are looking into the problem. [13]
  • With the new filters in the recent changes, "Exclude selected" in "Namespaces" did not work for "Saved filters" between 13 December and 2 January. When you loaded the saved filter all other namespaces were excluded instead. This has now been fixed. If you made any changes to your saved filters between 13 December and 2 January, you need to save your filters with excluded namespaces again. [14]
  • The latest version of Google Chrome broke how section links are shown in the address bar. You now see #R%C3%A9sum%C3%A9 instead of #Résumé even if MediaWiki did not encode it that way. This happened in early December. This problem has been solved. The fix will be in Chrome 64 (23 January) or Chrome 65 (6 March). [15]
  • Last week's MediaWiki update was rolled back. This was because of a bug that changed non-ASCII characters when a page was edited. [16][17]
  • Some POST requests to the API took longer than usual in parts of December. This affected the Wikidata UI and some gadgets the most. It has now been fixed. [18]
• Future changes
  • A few hundred wikis with less than ten high-priority errors in Linter categories will switch to use the Remex parsing library. This is to replace Tidy. It will happen on 31 January. Other wikis will be recommended to switch soon when they have fixed the errors that must be fixed. Tidy will be removed in the middle of 2018. [19][20]

I have serious problems. Every time I log in, I am overwhelmed with an uncontrollable urge to vandalize. Once I talk myself down from the ledge, take a deep breath, and give myself a couple of slaps it eventually passes. So then I get back to work. I put on my grown-up face and dig in and the urge to vandalize begins to dissipate. One day it got really bad. I took a break and then typed the word 'squirrel' into a Google news search box. Squirrels are a very notable group of rodents, btw. I hit the mother lode.

But now they're back. My urges, I mean (not the squirrels).

A very wise and experienced editor agreed to a counseling session to deal with my issues. Though they admitted that they did not possess a sense of humour, they advised me to take out those urges in/on The Signpost. This seemed like a reasonable option when compared to being blocked.

It is frustrating to see how much content is really missing in Wikipedia and in all its mirrors. I still maintain that article creation is NOT vandalizing, but writing on topics that are inherently humourous is the placebo I need to NOT vandalize. Perhaps others may need an outlet to thwart their own urges to vandalize the encyclopedia. Therefore, and thusly I have created another list that appears below. The redlinks below have accompanying references, some of which are fabulous, non-sensible blogs, but can support the general notability guidelines of these topics. You can thank me for finding these references in the comments section below. I did the work and I am offering others the chance to experience honor, popularity, fame, glory, DYKs, barnstars, rambunctious talk page discussions, deletions, reversions, topic bans and Signpost articles about what you've done. They are:

Conduct of Mister Wiki editors was opened on 1 December, and closed on 7 January. As reported in the previous two issues of The Signpost, this case centered on the provisions of WP:PAY (paid editing guidelines), conflict of interest, and administrator conduct.

A majority of the arbs voted to de-sysop Salvidrim!. Salvidrim! then requested de-sysop by bureaucrats less than hour after the majority vote was cast. Salvidrim! and Soetermans were found to be in breach of WP:PAY. Both editors were prohibited from reviewing articles for creation drafts, or moving Articles for Creation (AfC) drafts created by other editors into mainspace. A proposed prohibition on paid editing by these editors was only supported by DGG and failed.

Arb Opabinia regalis, who abstained from the vote to de-sysop, had this to say about the case and the arbs' reasoning in it.

“	[I]t's hard to avoid the conclusion that we have to do something serious about a volunteer administrator using both the admin tools themselves and his standing within the community for personal gain... [An Arbcom] case doesn't evaluate "community trust", there isn't even really a reliable way to do so - we all know RfA is broken ... I also really dislike making arbcom decisions with a view toward "how things look from the outside" or out of "pour encourager les autres" considerations, but in thinking this through I find it hard not to consider the larger implications of the case.	”
— Opabinia regalis

Notes on a proposed decision began to appear on 31 December. Included in the notes was a new statement based on private correspondence indicating that Salvidrim! had initiated a checkuser block review at the request of an unnamed banned editor. Another statement based on private correspondence indicated that he had "repeatedly coached [a Mister Wiki executive] on how to avoid drawing community scrutiny" (Finding of Fact 2A). Although several arbs had already voted to desysop, these actions appeared to galvanize the final few votes and 2A was specifically cited by at least one.

Community discussion during the case was robust with over a dozen editors (not including the committee or named parties) providing input. Discussion covered not just conduct specific to the case, but broader questions of community response to paid editing in general, the onus on admins and other trusted roles to provide transparent and well-separated actions, and the roles of various reporting and enforcement mechanisms such as noticeboards. Process vulnerabilities such as "corruption of AfC" and sockpuppet investigations were concerns for some.

The case was closed without new major policy. Two items concerning paid editing were fine-tuned in the committee's decision (emphasis that of the Signpost, not the committee):

1. Paid editing is defined as "an edit made, or an on-wiki action taken, by an editor in return for payment to or for the benefit of that editor".
2. Conflict of interest extends to "any article or subject that [a] firm has been retained to edit, even if they were not directly paid to take action in relation to that specific article or subject".

It was left to the community at two open RfCs to decide whether administrators or others with advanced rights may use their privileged toolset when engaged in disclosed paid editing (VPP RfC and WT:ADMIN RfC). – B

By Jytdog

A lot of people thought this was a case about the principle of whether it is OK for admins to edit for pay, commercially, but it wasn't. It was really, really local – just about how Salvidrim! conducted himself and what the consequences would be. It involved Soetermans a bit but there was no real controversy there.

The most surprising thing in the case to me, is the 2nd stated principle, which I will quote here:

2) Because Wikipedia is intended to be written from a neutral point of view, it is necessary that conflicts of interest are properly disclosed, and articles or edits by conflicted editors are reasonably available for review by others. Editors are expected to comply with both the purpose and intent of the applicable policies, as well as their literal wording.

You won't find that in writing anywhere else in Wikipedia, but I believe it expresses the living consensus in Wikipedia, and it is present in every other publishing institution that takes its responsibilities to readers seriously. We as an editing community are living our way into what that means concretely.

The key findings of fact were about Salvidrim!'s poor judgment in avoiding community review. In the surface of the decision it is clear that this was about avoidance of review of conflicted edits. In discussion of the desysop decision, you will see that this was also about avoidance of review, in the sense of Salvidrim! not going to RfA himself to assess the level of community trust in him; the fact that we were having an Arbcom case at all, became part of the issue. Salvidrim! was transparent about his paid editing, and he was very forthcoming in providing private evidence to Arbcom, and everybody appreciated both.

The desysop was not a happy outcome but in my view was appropriate. I think even those opposing the desysop, wished that Salv had put his admin status up for community review after all this broke, and before the Arbcom case was filed.

Views expressed in this op-ed are not necessarily shared by the Signpost; responses and critical commentary are invited in the comments. (Want to write an op-ed of your own? See our submissions page.)

No new cases were accepted by the committee. A request titled "Michael Moates White House press corps" was rejected December 22. – B

ArbCom enacted a change to the discretionary sanctions procedure, adding new requirements for administrators when imposing page-level restrictions. – B

2017 has been a tumultuous and intriguing year,^{[citation needed]} and with it came a swath of things which readers came to English Wikipedia to learn about. The topics are diverse, incorporating pop culture, politics, pre-eminent deaths and perennially popular pages. In the spirit of sharing knowledge, trivia, opinions, and ideas, we prepared the 50 most read articles of the year with hand-written commentary.

Without further ado, here is a special Top 50 Report for 2017. We aim to educate, engage, entertain, and enthrall. Enjoy.

• 1. Which entry in the Top 50 struck you the most?

  For me personally, it was the prominence of the Queen. She ranks at #3 on the list, which is phenomenal when you consider the fame and ubiquity of many of the entries which fall below her. As well as being testament to the terrific power of Netflix, I think that the continued strong performance should act to dispel the myth that no one cares about the monarchy. It is also a sign that many readers don't journey to Wikipedia for negative news, but rather come for knowledge. This is a surefire sign for me that the encyclopedia, despite often carrying a tone that is somewhat negative (just look at the entries above), is succeeding in its mission to inform, a point that is bolstered by the sheer quality of the Queen's article (it is a Featured Article after all). Provides me with hope, reassurance that the time of Wikipedians is unwasted, and belief that the mission of Jimmy Wales is still being fulfilled. Stormy clouds (talk)

  It's interesting to see which media properties hit the top. While it was pretty clear the most popular show would probably be Game of Thrones, I certainly wouldn't have predicted at the start of the year that the second most popular show would be 13 Reasons Why, or that the most popular film would be Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, a show and film that, had I not been working on the weekly lists, I doubt would have particularly entered my sphere of knowledge. OZOO (t) (c)

  Along with something that was mentioned once, that people somehow seek the subjects of history-based television instead of the shows themselves (the Queen, Pablo Escobar – even if the latest season of Narcos wasn't about him!), and as I mentioned in the list, the top Hollywood movie being It, I was surprised by the high views on Millennials, which averaged 30,000 daily. It certainly owes to all the negative conotation and scapegoating garnered by this generation, which apparently I'm part of (though I prefer the previous name, "Generation Y", as me and my contemporaries are frequently frustrated and asking "why?"; and don't know if only because I'm getting old, but what I see from Generation Z makes me feel the next ones are worse). igordebraga ≠

  This list isn't particularly different from last year's, allowing for the fact that 2016 was a US election year. But the appearance of millennials, as noted by Igor, is striking. I think it can be tied to the political theme of the year, since politics in the last two years or so have divided largely along generational lines, with the young tending towards progressive populism and the old tending towards right wing populism. Serendi^podous 01:44, 2 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

• 2. Which entry frustrated you to the greatest degree?

  I feel like this should be explicable from my authorial stance on the singer, but it is absolutely Ed Sheeran. It may speak a lot to my own temperament and personality that, in a year riddled with death and rife with disappointment, it is a somewhat innocent and harmless musician who arouses such virulent venom in me, yet here we are. In the past, political turmoil and conflict has produced some great art, from Guernica to the wonder of Woodstock. The fact that this is the most popular music of the day, with its simplistic rhymes and aimless, ambling messages, is enraging to me, particularly given his omnipresence. After beginning with optimism, seeing him pop up in a place that he should not be again was frustrating, and sapped me of all that accumulated positivity. But hey, I am just thinking out loud. Stormy clouds (talk)

  To me, what frustrates me marginally is the seeming lack of political interest from Wikipedia users. While President Trump, the First Lady and former President Obama get in, they are the only political figures, with the electoral trials of President Macron, Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister May, and the downfall of Mr. Mugabe not attracting lasting interest. Not even India, the main contributor to the list aside from the US, is able to get a politician into it. OZOO (t) (c)

  Out of all the people who died this year, the only one that entered the Top 50 was a madman that led a murderous cult - aside from the singer I never liked we indirectly included. Specially as the one famous death that really struck me, Chris Cornell (who even was indirectly responsible for the death of his friend Chester), deserved better than #56, directly below The Fate of the Furious. igordebraga ≠ (At last count, Albert Einstein snuck in between them. — JFG ^talk)

  Having curated this list for nearly four years now, what has frustrated me since day one is that, having been offered the single greatest source of free knowledge in world history, people tend to use it to seek out information they could easily obtain elsewhere- film release dates and reviews, TV times, celeb bios. It's certainly better than the early years, when people used Wikipedia primarily to look up "naughty" words, but still, it raises the question, are we really helping people? Serendi^podous 01:44, 2 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

• 3. Many of the entries in the report share similarities and recurrent themes, with movies and television proving especially prominent. What did you make of these developments this year?

  It speaks to the power that entertainment now holds over us, in my view. I don't subscribe to the idea of the Golden Age of Television, especially given that, as a keen observer of all of the television series listed here, I was not overtly enamored by any of them in this year. On the film size, it is not particularly surprising to see so many appear with such prominence. The popularity of super-hero flicks and Star Wars amongst those who peruse the encyclopedia speaks volumes regarding the demographics of Wikipedia (even if the best one missed out). It is also of note that many of the best films released theatrically in my locality in 2017, at least in my view, fail to make an appearance in lieu of derivative nonsense. However, as Bob Dylan foretold, in his prescience and pre-eminence, the times are a-changin', and this is evident from the performance of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. Its power is indicative of an integral and irreversibly culture shift on the internet, and I find this development far more intriguing than the continued adventures of Thor, Diana Prince et al. Stormy clouds (talk)

  Netflix's shows should not be counted as "TV", they are webcasts, and should be treated as such. Split is higher than I expected, and I certainly didn't expect the three Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to be lower than the two from the DC Extended Universe. OZOO (t) (c)

  The news are so upsetting that it's no surprise people are resorting to escapism, even if with cultural products regarding darker themes - 2017's list has three horror movies, entries related to three Netflix series with heavier subjects (teen suicide! monsters in a small town! Colombian drug dealers!), and the only world that's worst than ours, the one of Game of Thrones. Even if I'm not a big television guy, there's no doubt the medium - although Netflix is a more grey area - is attracting big creators and actors, and while it might not to be a New Hollywood situation, studios certainly a concern to make better products and take people away from their homes (after all, many Wikipedia visits might be people wanting to know if the movie's response is positive!), no matter if the budget is low - the aforementioned horror films - or based on a property that makes it automatically profitable - the only movie in the list critics didn't really like was Justice League, which reviewers still pointed out was better than the two DC offerings from last year. igordebraga ≠

  I've always been puzzled by which movies appear on this list; there never seems any rhyme or reason. Box office? Yes, most on the list were big hits, but the biggest hit of the year, Beauty and the Beast, is nowhere to be found. Critical acclaim? That certainly could explain Get Out and Logan, but not Split. Controversy? Then where was Ghost in the Shell or Death Note? Looking for a rationale is like looking for a pattern in the prime numbers. You think you see it and then it just slips away. Serendi^podous 01:44, 2 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

• 4. What entries do you anticipate making their way onto the list in 2018?

  Given the popularity of pop culture amongst purveyors of Wikipedia, I imagine that Avengers: Infinity War will reign supreme, alongside what ever else the magicians have to offer for us. Politics will also play a prevalent role, as ever, with the Don likely to continue his reign near the pinnacle of people's minds, in spite of the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns. Sadly, death will account for many a spot, especially as some legends reach their inevitable end and depart. On a more positive note, the football aficionado in me relishes the return of the World Cup, and is hoping against hope for a recurrence of the splendor that was '05, and Super Mo will take the spot held in this list by Cristiano Ronaldo. Maybe it is wishful thinking, but stranger things have happened. Stormy clouds (talk)

  I anticipate Deaths in 2018 topping the list, and probably President Trump holding onto second. Probably there will be an assortment of films, TV, and webcasts promoting themselves, and hopefully their subjects, into the list. In a World Cup year, I would expect to see an assortment of soccer stars, although my colleague Mr. clouds is incorrect in his predictions of a 2005 recreation, as it is clearly going to be Raheem Sterling's year. Finally, there will doubtlessly be a number of names taken from the Deaths in 2018 longlist, although this is not the time to predict who the grisly reaper will be mowing. OZOO (t) (c)

  Superhero movies, even if there are way too many next year (Aquaman on the DC side and eight Marvels - three MCU, three X-Men, two Spider-Man) for all to get into the list. Even if the United States are not going to the World Cup, the rest of the world cares enough about football to allow for big views (here's hoping Neymar doesn't get broken like last time!). And of course, the top two entries for two years running - the ones we revere dying, and The Donald doing something stupid and\or controversial. igordebraga ≠

  Probably a similar spread as this year. Star Wars will have the spinoff film Solo to cover for The Last Jedi, and I doubt people will lose their fascination with death, politics, or sports anytime soon. The Winter Olympics should feature, and so will some of the celebrities that will have died. In terms of politics, I imagine Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, and maybe John McCain will make it. A lad insane talk

  With Game of Thrones and Stranger Things off until 2019, and The Crown not likely to appear until December, we can likely expect movies to dominate even more strongly next year. The upcoming US midterm elections will likely generate huge interest, as will the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Serendi^podous 01:57, 2 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

← Last year's report

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