Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2013-10-23
Grantmaking season—rumblings in the German-language community
The generosity of German readers and to a lesser extent other direct donors has enabled Wikimedia Germany to grow—uniquely among the chapters—into something resembling an industry, with more than 50 employees expected in 2014 (up from 43 this year) and an activities portfolio that far exceeds that of any other WMF affiliate. At the start of this month the chapter published its draft 2014 annual plan, which will be considered for adoption by the chapter's general assembly on 30 November. The draft plan shows annual revenue of $6.6M for this year (of which nearly $0.7M was not spent and has been brought forward), rising to $7.2M in 2014, an increase of nearly 9% (inflation in Germany is about 1.4%, according to tradingeconomics.com). Software development is slashed by more than a third, from $1.71M to $1.13M, largely because of the winding down of substantial project work. Communications/PR will be boosted from $440k to $611k. The evaluation of programs will cost $264k. "Administration" costs will almost double to $1.24M, much of this due to "higher rent for the larger premises needed to accommodate new staff", whose numbers will rise from 2.0 to nearly 4.5 FTE, including a full-time intern. The salary, bonus, and overheads for the executive director, Pavel Richter, and the costs of his full-time assistant (but in the table listed as 1.5 FTE plus a 0.5 FTE intern), will remain at $305.5k. The board will again have an almost full-time assistant plus travel and accommodation costs, rising a third to a total of $167k.
A statement by the chapter's auditors complains that they were given access to the draft only nine weeks ahead of the assembly: "Since the Executive Director had to be reminded that the published draft needs to include a statement by the auditors, the inspection was performed on short notice and the budget draft was initially published without the statement by the auditors. "The Executive Director and the Supervisory Board are expected to make next year’s budget draft available to the auditors in a timely manner."
The auditors were concerned about risks involved in "the fundraising agreement" with the WMF, and that many chapter members had wanted more detailed information on planned expenses (a point that seems to be evident on the talk page). The auditors stated that they too are:
| “ | unsatisfied with the too abstract character of items. ... to achieve this, the few but financially large items are to be broken down, so that—where possible—each item amounts to less than €100,000. Known projects like the WikiCon, Wikidata or the Community Project Budget must be clearly identifiable. ... The auditors consider it critical that the 8th General Assembly’s resolution [in 2011], according to which the budget draft is to be 'drawn up in an open, collaborative process' in which 'every interested person may participate' ... has not been put into practice here. Yet again the Wikimedia Deutschland office has published and submitted a budget to the FDC without the members having had the opportunity to actively participate in an open draft. Moreover, the members were only inadequately informed about the publication of the budget. | ” |
In reply to this somewhat scathing report, the executive director rejected the auditors' concerns about stability of funding after next year, stating that he "will of course negotiate appropriate agreements with the Wikimedia Foundation in the years to come". Of the auditors' complaints about lack of financial detail, Richter wrote: "the financial items are broken down in a more detailed manner—as was requested—in the programs’ operational goals themselves. The financial tables have been structured ... to make this year’s and last year’s figures comparable." Flexibility would be impossible "if we are expected to predetermine them all the way down to the level of single events and workshops."
The publication of the draft plan has been associated with critical feedback from the community on the talk page of the German-language version of the plan, some of which is similar in theme to queries on the talk page of the chapter's current FDC application. The feedback is consistent with the historically difficult relationship between the editing community and the chapter in Germany. For example, concerns have been expressed about the reportage of projects in the past financial year. A controversial collaboration on fact-checking between the chapter and ZDF, a German public television network, has come under fire; deployed in the run-up to last month's general election for the federal parliament, the project has been branded variously a success and a failure. The collaboration sparked major controversy in the editing community in April, leading to a community vote against the concept. However, the chapter disregarded the vote at the time and continued with the initiative. Now, Wikimedia Germany has publicly acknowledged that the project "has to be considered a failure".
The FDC applications by the Austrian and Swiss chapters have also resulted in interesting comments. Of the Austrian bid, FDC member Anders Wennersten wrote in a similar vein to those who feel the German application lacks detail: "I understand that you need more staff but am concerned over the proposed growth way above guardrails. Could you elaborate on resources needed for adminstration [and] express this need in terms of [full-time-equivalent staffing] and break it down into types of [administration]". The Signpost notes that the application states that "being a service provider for the Austrian community (and also neighbouring communities, e.g. in Germany) is centrepiece for WMAT's self-conception and strategy", although it is unclear from the text how such staffing would be allocated, and how the Austrian, German, and Swiss chapters will minimise wasteful overlap, given that Wikimedia Germany will have nearly 6.5 FTE employees in its communities team in 2014.
At the Swiss application talk page, Wennersten asked questions about what he described as the uncertain focus of the education program and the justification of a half-time administrative assistant, when "experience from other chapters indicates that the need is usually somewhat smaller, like 0.25 FTE". A question from an anonymous editor was asked about possible conflict of interest in the appointment of the former president of the chapter to the position of chief science officer; readers are invited to peruse the thread to judge this matter for themselves.
The Wikimedia Foundation encourages community queries and comments on all 11 FDC applications until the end of October, when the formal assessment process will start.
In a related issue, there has been a debate on the Wikimedia mailing list—initiated by the chair of the FDC, Dariusz Jemielniak (User:Pundit)—concerning the fact that the WMF is eligible to apply for funding from its own FDC, and does indeed do so (to the tune of more than $4M in the first year). The view of one correspondent, Nathan, was that "from both a practical and legal perspective the authority of the FDC comes from the WMF; this is the fundamental problem with having it purport to 'review' the Foundation's spending and activity." Risker, from the English Wikipedia, wrote that: "the opportunity for conflict of interest is extremely high, and there's pretty much no way that the FDC can make recommendations on the overall budget (and the very sizeable portion of said budget that is largely dispensed based on their recommendation) without crossing the line into at least perceived conflict of interest." Pundit subsequently defended the FDC against claims that it might be merely a rubber stamp in this respect. The results of the thread are inconclusive.
In brief
- Airtel joins Wikipedia Zero: The Wikimedia Foundation has announced via press release that Airtel, a global telecommunications company based in New Delhi, India, has joined their Wikipedia Zero program to provide free access to Wikipedia to sub-Saharan Africa. This agreement differs from previous partnerships in that it includes a pilot program to provide free access to Wikipedia through text messaging—not through just data. The deal will add about 70 million users to the 517 million already in the program.
- Wikimania Committee: A committee has been formed to help organize future Wikimanias, the annual gathering of the Wikimedia movement. The founding members have all been involved in planning past Wikimanias.
Reader comments
Your average week ... and a fish
Media, sports and Google Doodles dominate, though a very odd fish decided to crash the party.
For the top 25 articles of the week, plus analysis and exclusions, see: WP:TOP25.
For the week of October 13–19, the ten most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Facebook 
500,402 
A perennially popular article 2 The Walking Dead (TV series) 
476,950 
The fourth season of the popular TV series premiered on October 13. 3 Gravity (film) 
461,752 Alfonso Cuarón's spaceborne action/art film is now the critical/commercial blockbuster of the year, combining a nearly $300 million, 17-day worldwide box office take with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 4 Breaking Bad
422,688 
Despite ending for good two weeks ago, this 5-year televisual exploration of one man's descent into evil continues to drum up interest. 5 Friedrich Nietzsche
399,786 
The guy who coined the phrase "That which does not kill us makes us stronger" got a Google Doodle to celebrate his 169th birthday on October 15. 6 Oarfish
373,815 
The rarely seen giant deepwater fish, inspiration for many tales of the sea serpent, hit the news when two dead specimens were found in a week off the coast of California. 7 Atlas Shrugged
372,680 
Ayn Rand's novel has been in the news during the week of its 56th anniversary, and the announcement that the third part of the film adaptation has begun shooting. Some sites have noted the irony that the film of a book that makes a virtue of selfishness required a Kickstarter campaign to get funded. 8 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification
367,329 
The global race to the finals of the world's most popular sporting event has actually been running since 2011, but kicked into high gear this month as the various world soccer federations reached the end of their qualifying runs, including Europe this week. 207 national teams entered the race; to put that in perspective, there are only 254 recognised countries and territories on Earth. The total number of people on the planet who have not cheered their home side in this tournament could probably fill a moderately-sized town. 9 List of Bollywood films of 2013 List 365,792 
An established staple of the top 10. 10 Dead Rising 3 
364,911 These days video games and zombies go together like, well, everything else and zombies. The latest in this franchise is slated to be released on 22 November as a launch title for the Xbox One.
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Reader comments
Your worst nightmare as a child is now featured on Wikipedia
Featured articles
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Twelve featured articles were promoted this week.
- U.S. Route 23 in Michigan (nom) by Imzadi1979. The second-longest highway in the U.S. state of Michigan (and the nominator's sixth nomination from the top 10 longest Michigan highways), this route runs from near Lambertville in the south to Mackinaw City in the north, and measures at 362 miles long (583 km).
- John Sherman (nom) by Coemgenus. Serving at various times as a United States Congressman, Senator, Secretary of the Treasury, and Secretary of State, Sherman was the younger brother of Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman and prominent Republican politician in his own right. Sherman impacted legislation and regulation in a number of areas, from immigration to monetary policy, and most notably, the antitrust act that bears his name.
- Cabbage (nom) by Dana boomer and Sasata. This leafy green cruciferous vegetable has been cultivated by humans since at least 1000 BC, and by 2011 at least 69 million metric tons of cabbage were produced worldwide, half of which was grown in China. Cabbage can be steamed, pickled, sautéed, braised, stewed, or eaten raw, but watch out for packages of shredded cabbage, which have been linked with various food-borne illness outbreaks.
- Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (nom) by Wehwalt and FriendlyRiverOtter. In a United States Supreme Court decision that still torments law students in U.S. Constitutional Law classes today, the nine justices wrote a total of six opinions, with the judgment of the court being delivered by two blocs of four justices each joined in supporting various parts of Justice Lewis Powell's opinion, which held that educational institutions couldn't use specific racial quotas in the admission of students. The whole mess wasn't sorted out until the Court's 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger.
- No. 36 Squadron RAAF (nom) by Ian Rose. No. 36 Squadron is a strategic transport squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force, and saw service in World War II, the Korean War, the Indonesia–Malaysia Konfrontasi, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 1958, No. 36 became the first non-US operator of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, but these days the unit operates Boeing C-17 Globemaster IIIs. In 1989, No. 36 provided civilian air transport services during a particularly long airline pilots' dispute.
- Great North of Scotland Railway (nom) by Edgepedia. The GNSR (or GNoSR) was a small Scottish railroad line that operated between 1845 and 1922, after which time it was subsumed by the London and North Eastern Railway due to the effects of the Railways Act 1921. With a main line running from Aberdeen to Keith, the railway had a total of 333 1⁄2 miles (537 km) of track. Despite initial difficulties and a period of financial troubles in the late 19th century, the railroad eventually expanded by the end of that century.
- Deepika Padukone (nom) by Smarojit and Dr. Blofeld. This Indian actress has made a name for herself in the Bollywood industry, in addition to having been a successful badminton player and fashion model. Having made her debut in 2006's Aishwarya, Padukone has appeared in twenty-four Hindi films. She is currently one of the highest paid actresses in Bollywood, and was at the top of 2008's "Hot 100" list by Indian Maxim.
- Pinniped (nom) by LittleJerry and Sasata. The members of this clade of "semiaquatic marine mammals" are known to most of the English-speaking lay world as "seals". This name belies the diverse roster of extant and extinct species, of which there are at least 33 and 50, respectively. Most pinnipeds inhabit the cold waters throughout the planet, and possess a layer of blubber, as well as full coats of fur (except for the walrus) to keep them warm.
- 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) (nom) by Peacemaker67 and 23 editor. This unit was a mountain infantry division of the notorious Waffen-SS, and is best known for having participated in a number of brutal actions targeting Jews and Serb civilians in Yugoslavia. Composed primarily of Muslim Albanians and led by ethnic German officers, the unit only saw combat during an anti-partisan campaign in Montenegro in the summer of 1944. After the war, divisional commander August Schmidhuber was found guilty of war crimes and hanged in 1947.
- Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryū (nom) by Sturmvogel 66. The third article concerning the Japanese aircraft carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor to reach featured status, this vessel participated in the early stages of World War II before December 7, 1941, and after taking part in the surprise attack on the United States, Hiryū continued to fight in the Pacific and Indian Oceans before being scuttled after the Battle of Midway due to the severe damage it sustained.
- 24th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Karstjäger (nom) by Peacemaker67. Another of the thirty-eight divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS, this unit consisted primarily of ethnic German troops from Yugoslavia and South Tyrol. Notably, the unit participated in a rearguard action in the Alpine passes of Italy during 1945, permitting other German units to retreat in the face of an advance of British and New Zealand forces.
- Little Tich (nom) by Cassianto. The English comedian and dancer was active on the "music hall" scene of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Reaching only 4 feet 6 inches (137 cm), the performer made light of his short stature and other physical abnormalities in his act. For a period of six years, he performed in his own musical theatre company. Little Tich died in 1928, but his name would live on in the slang term "titchy", which is used to describe something as small.
Featured lists
Four featured lists were promoted this week.
- List of nature reserves in Barnet (nom) by Dudley Miles. The London Borough of Barnet has large areas of green space and farmland, some of which are under designations intended to protect them from inappropriate development. As well as 2,466 hectares (6,090 acres) hectares of green belt, Barnet has another 690 hectares (1,700 acres) of Metropolitan Open Land receiving such protection.
- Mikhail Youzhny career statistics (nom) by Trust Is All You Need. Mikhail Youzhny is a Russian professional tennis player who has won nine ATP singles titles, and nine ATP doubles titles in his career to date. Youzhny has reached the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slams, as of 2013 only 11 other active players have managed to do the same. He has reached a Grand Slam semifinal twice, both at the US Open, in 2006 and 2010.
- List of National Natural Landmarks in Alaska (nom) by Dana boomer. Alaska has 16 of the almost 600 National Natural Landmarks in the United States. They cover areas of geological and biological importance, and include craters, volcanoes, glaciers, lakes, islands and habitats for several rare species. The first set of five designations was made in 1967, while the most recent were made when two new sites were designated in 1976.
- Pakistan national cricket team record by opponent (nom) by Sahara4u. The Pakistan national cricket team represents Pakistan in international cricket and is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status. Pakistan first competed in international cricket in 1952. As of 2013, have played 375 Test matches, of which they have won 116 matches, lost 105 matches. The other 154 matches were drawn.
Featured pictures
Four featured pictures were promoted this week.
- Pied Kingfisher (nom, related article) created by Вых Пыхманн and nominated by Tomer T. This water kingfisher is found in Asia and Africa, and is the world's third most common kingfisher. Researchers suggest that there is some degree of relation to the American green kingfisher, but the exact nature of that relationship is unknown.
- Small Tortoiseshell (nom, related article) created by Jörg Hempel and nominated by Tomer T. The Small Tortoiseshell is a butterfly found throughout Europe and Asia, although recent data indicates the species' population is declining. The males of this species are one of the few sets of butterflies that display territorial behavior.
- Coral outcrop on Flynn Reef (nom, related article) created and nominated by 99of9. Nominated by the creator due to it being "emblematic of the colour and diversity of reef corals", this featured picture depicts a small portion of the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns. The photograph includes several of the 400 coral species inhabiting the reef.
- Wah-ro-née-sah (The Surrounder), an Otoe chief (nom, related article) created by George Catlin and nominated by MatGTAM. This 1832 painting by Catlin, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the old west, was one of 500 paintings of similar subjects done by the painter.
Reader comments
More discussion of paid advocacy, upcoming arbitrator elections, research hackathon, and more
This is mostly a list of Non-article page requests for comment believed to be active on 24 October 2013 linked from subpages of Wikipedia:RfC, recent watchlist notices and SiteNotices. The latter two are in bold. Items that are new to this report are in italics even if they are not new discussions. If an item can be listed under more than one category it is usually listed once only in this report. Clarifications and corrections are appreciated; please leave them in this article's comment box at the bottom of the page.
Style and naming
- The only item in this category is listed in another section of this report.
Policies and guidelines
- Proposal to merge some criteria for speedy deletion
- Promote "Wikipedia:No paid advocacy" to a site policy?
- Promote "Wikipedia:Rough consensus" to a site guideline?
- "...Rules and procedures for the upcoming Arbitration Committee Election, including selection of the Election Commission"
WikiProjects and collaborations
- "Should 'Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation/Malplaced disambiguation pages' be given a prominent note at the top indicating that the page itself is not an official policy or guideline?"
- "RFC on the platform of the ArbCom Reform party for the 2013 ArbCom elections"
- Music genre field in infoboxes
Technical issues and templates
Proposals
English Wikipedia notable requests for permissions
(This section will include active RfAs, RfBs, CU/OS appointment requests, and Arbcom elections)
Meta
- "The first Wikimedia Research Hackathon takes place in cities around the world." on 9-10 November 2013
- "The new Evaluation portal launches to support the community in evaluation practices."
- Start Wikireference as a new Wikimedia project?
- Start Wikifiction as a new Wikimedia project?
- Trademark practices
- Scope of the Ombudsman Commission
- Draft Privacy Policy - comments accepted until 15 January 2014
Upcoming online meetings
- "Flow", 24 October 18:00 UTC
- "Inaugural L2 (Labs2) Research Hackathon", 9 November 1:00 UTC to 10 November 2:00 UTC
- "Engineering Community Team", 12 November 17:00 UTC
- "Engineering Community Team", 17 December 17:00 UTC
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- "Swedish Museums freely sharing images from their collections"
- "Presenting about Wikipedia to academic audiences"
- "Inspiration from the Wikimedia Affiliates’ coolest projects"
- "Request for proposals: New datacenter in the continental US"
- "Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner’s response to paid advocacy editing and sockpuppetry"
- "Scientific multimedia files get a second life on Wikipedia"
- Join the inaugural Wiki Research Hackathon on November 9"
- "Speaking about free knowledge and the law at Yale ISP"
- "A farewell letter from Jay Walsh, Communications Director"
- "Amical Wikimedia awarded for its contribution to the Internet in Catalan"
- "October report for the Wikisource vision development and online survey"
- "Emily Temple-Wood: A cool Wikipedian on a big mission"
- "'Good Pictures do Matter' – Miha Grmek"
- "A bird’s eye view of 'Wikiproject Sauerland' on German Wikipedia"
- "Prominent wildlife photographer donates images to Wikimedia Commons"
- "Umniah first to launch Wikipedia Zero in Jordan"
- "Scholarships allowed Wikimedians from around the world to attend Wikimania"
- "Wikimedia Highlights, August 2013"
- "Wikimedia Foundation Report, August 2013"
- "Wikimedia Commons, 'a step towards equality and freedom'"
- "A monumental Saturday in Puebla, Mexico"
- "The Hidden Wikipedia: a view from 2022"
- "Wikimedia engineering report, September 2013"
- Inspiration from the Wikimedia Affiliates’ coolest projects
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"Wikimarathon with Amical Wikimedia" -
"Moebius at Ibero 90.9 radio station" in Mexico -
"Rishon LeZion West Aerial View", a photo "taken as part of WikiAir in Israel, in cooperation with The Israeli Association of General Aviation". -
"Upper Cretaceous rock exposure (geological natural monument)", a 3rd place winner photo in the Wiki Loves Earth contest by Wikimedia Ukraine. -
Monthly gathering of Wikipedians in Taipei.
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Reader comments
The decline of Wikipedia; Sue Gardner releases statement on Wiki-PR; Australian minister relies on Wikipedia
The decline of Wikipedia
MIT Technology Review published a long article on what it called "The decline of Wikipedia". Editor involvement has decreased since 2007; according to the article, this has had an adverse qualitative effect on content, particularly on issues pertinent to non-British and American male geeks.
| “ | Among the significant problems that aren't getting resolved is the site's skewed coverage: its entries on Pokemon and female porn stars are comprehensive, but its pages on female novelists or places in sub-Saharan Africa are sketchy. Authoritative entries remain elusive. Of the 1,000 articles that the project's own volunteers have tagged as forming the core of a good encyclopedia, most don't earn even Wikipedia's own middle-ranking quality scores. | ” |
Noting that Wikipedia "threw out centuries of accepted methods" for compiling an authoritative and comprehensive reference work, the article goes on to detail efforts under Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner to decrease the gender gap and attract new editors, including the ill-fated VisualEditor and its associated calamities, trying to develop an overall more-diverse editor group. "Because Wikipedia has failed to replenish its supply of editors, its skew toward technical, Western, and male-dominated subject matter has persisted," the article says. Jimmy Wales commented, "The biggest issue is editor diversity." If there aren't confident, new editors coming to Wikipedia with a drive to write great articles about Wikipedia's underrepresented content, then the encyclopedia will not improve, and will be in an eternal state of "decline" in quality, while its popularity and use through outlets such as Siri and Google search results increases.
In summarising its view of the state of Wikipedia, the article concluded that Wikipedia –
| “ | may be unable to get much closer to its lofty goal of compiling all human knowledge. Wikipedia's community built a system and resource unique in the history of civilization. It proved a worthy, perhaps fatal, match for conventional ways of building encyclopedias. But that community also constructed barriers that deter the newcomers needed to finish the job. Perhaps it was too much to expect that a crowd of Internet strangers would truly democratize knowledge. Today's Wikipedia, even with its middling quality and poor representation of the world's diversity, could be the best encyclopedia we will get. | ” |
Wiki-PR scandal prompts press statement from Sue Gardner
Media interest in the Wiki-PR sockpuppeting story broken first by The Daily Dot and then further reported on in Vice (see Signpost articles last week and the week prior) prompted outgoing Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner to issue a press statement which sparked widespread coverage in the mainstream media, led by the BBC, The Guardian and The Independent in the UK, and the Wall Street Journal, Time, Slate and the Washington Times (quoting coverage in The Signpost) in the US. Tech sites including Ars Technica, Web Pro News, Venturebeat, Tech2, CNET, Computerworld UK, The Register and many others also reported the story. (A more complete collection of related press articles is being compiled on Meta.)
Here is Sue Gardner's statement in full:
| “ | Editors on the English Wikipedia are currently investigating allegations of suspicious edits and sockpuppetry (i.e. using online identities for purposes of deception). At this point, as reported, it looks like a number of user accounts—perhaps as many as several hundred—may have been paid to write articles on Wikipedia promoting organizations or products, and have been violating numerous site policies and guidelines, including prohibitions against sockpuppetry and undisclosed conflicts of interest. As a result, Wikipedians aiming to protect the projects against non-neutral editing have blocked or banned more than 250 user accounts.
The Wikimedia Foundation takes this issue seriously and has been following it closely. With a half a billion readers, Wikipedia is an important informational resource for people all over the world. Our readers know Wikipedia's not perfect, but they also know that it has their best interests at heart, and is never trying to sell them a product or propagandize them in any way. Our goal is to provide neutral, reliable information for our readers, and anything that threatens that is a serious problem. We are actively examining this situation and exploring our options. In the wake of the investigation, editors have expressed shock and dismay. We understand their reaction and share their concerns. We are grateful to the editors who've been doing the difficult, painstaking work of trying to figure out what's happening here. Editing-for-pay has been a divisive topic inside Wikipedia for many years, particularly when the edits to articles are promotional in nature. Unlike a university professor editing Wikipedia articles in their area of expertise, paid editing for promotional purposes, or paid advocacy editing as we call it, is extremely problematic. We consider it a "black hat" practice. Paid advocacy editing violates the core principles that have made Wikipedia so valuable for so many people. What is clear to everyone is that all material on Wikipedia needs to adhere to Wikipedia's editorial policies, including those on neutrality and verifiability. It is also clear that companies that engage in unethical practices on Wikipedia risk seriously damaging their own reputations. In general, companies engaging in self-promotional activities on Wikipedia have come under heavy criticism from the press and the general public, with their actions widely viewed as inconsistent with Wikipedia's educational mission. Being deceptive in your editing by using sockpuppets or misrepresenting your affiliation with a company is against Wikipedia policy and is prohibited by our Terms of Use. We urge companies to conduct themselves ethically, to be transparent about what they're doing on Wikipedia, and to adhere to all site policies and practices. The Wikimedia Foundation is closely monitoring this ongoing investigation and we are currently assessing all the options at our disposal. We will have more to say in the coming weeks. |
” |
Wiki-PR's Jordan French in turn released a statement that was quoted in full by the Wall Street Journal and in part by the Washington Times as well as in PR Week. Here is the text as given by Wall Street Journal writer Geoffrey A. Fowler:
| “ | Hi Geoff,
Thank you. We're as boring as any other research firm. The "PR" in Wiki-PR is a misnomer– we're a research and writing firm. We counsel our clients on how to adhere to Wikipedia's rules. We research the subject and write in an accurate and properly referenced way about it, filling a hole at Wikipedia for many subjects—concepts, companies, people—even astronomy—in which other editors lack an interest. Our people do a lot of work for free on Wikipedia, just because it's interesting and helpful to the Wikipedia community. Rules at Wikipedia exist to thwart promotionalism and advertising and we follow those rules. If we don't, the material promptly gets removed and we see a "promotionalism" or "advertising" flag at the top. The system works efficiently. Most big PR firms have an agenda to get their clients ROI. Most big PR firms are also expensive. They don't know the rules as well because they do PR work, broadly, and try to promote. We don't have those incentives. Most of our arrangements are for Wikipedia consulting at an hourly or flat-fee rate for a period of time. To be fair, regular editors on Wikipedia do a stellar job. It's usually unregistered IPs that go on to Wikipedia to attack companies and people with views and ideologies they want to advance. What we do is get Wikipedia to enforce the rules so our clients are presented accurately. We do paid editing and not paid advocacy. Our primary goal is to improve Wikipedia. We're part of the fabric of Wikipedia—an integral part—and useful where volunteers don't want to or cannot put in the time to understand a subject, find sources, code, upload, and professionally monitor a page. We say "no" to clients frequently—in a rigid effort to avoid promoting or advertising. We routinely temper client expectations on promotionalism and advertising and spend boundless time explaining Wikipedia's editorial standards to those who might not be familiar with them. We're part of the solution and not the problem. And I'll be the first to admit that we've made bad calls on "notability", which just means whether a subject has enough news coverage to support a Wikipedia page. We're always monitoring Wikipedia's official policies to ensure compliance. Senior Wikipedia administrators closed the sockpuppet investigation after concluding that we were paid editors paying other editors. Volumes of Wikipedia pages we didn't work on were wrongly swept into that investigation. We do pay hundreds of other editors for their work– they're real people and not sockpuppets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sockpuppet_investigations/Morning277 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Long-term_abuse/Morning277 There is a rather silent majority on Wikipedia that supports paid editing. What we do isn't magic. Our singular mission is to respect other editors and follow the rules. Some rules overlap and conflict, but that's part of the process with any open-source project like Wikipedia. Designing a market and eco-system can be very difficult, though Wikipedia's leadership has done a pretty good job. Best, Jordan |
” |
Wiki-PR duo bulldoze a piñata store; Wifione arbitration case; French parliamentary plagiarism
1 April 2015
With paid advocacy in its sights, the Wikimedia Foundation amends their terms of use
18 June 2014
WMF bites the bullet on affiliation and FDC funding, elevates Wikimedia user groups
12 February 2014
Wiki-PR defends itself, condemns Wikipedia's actions
29 January 2014
Foundation to Wiki-PR: cease and desist; Arbitration Committee elections starting
20 November 2013
The decline of Wikipedia; Sue Gardner releases statement on Wiki-PR; Australian minister relies on Wikipedia
23 October 2013
Vice on Wiki-PR's paid advocacy; Featured list elections begin
16 October 2013
Wiki-PR's extensive network of clandestine paid advocacy exposed
9 October 2013
A community ban discussion at the Administrators' Noticeboard saw overwhelming support for banning Wiki-PR from the English Wikipedia. Administrator Fram closed the discussion on 25 October 2013 and enacted the ban. As of 26 October 2013, Wiki-PR's website looks unchanged.
Australian cabinet minister: "I looked up what Wikipedia said"
The Sydney Morning Herald notes that Australian Minister for the Environment Greg Hunt, a member of the centre-right Liberal Party, "uses Wikipedia research to dismiss links between climate change and bushfires". Hunt had admitted his use of Wikipedia in a statement made to the BBC.
| “ | Environment Minister Greg Hunt has hosed down suggestions of a link between climate change and increased bushfire intensity, saying he had "looked up what Wikipedia" said and it was clear that bushfires in Australia were frequent events that had occurred during hotter months since before European settlement. | ” |
Hunt's comments came in response to concerns raised by scientists, environmental groups and politicians that extreme weather events—such as the current massive bushfires in New South Wales—were linked to climate change, and in the wake of statements by the head of the UN's climate change negotiations, Christiana Figueres, and former US vice-president and climate change activist Al Gore criticising the Australian government for its decision to scrap a carbon tax.
In a follow-up article, The Sydney Morning Herald noted "Wikipedia's verdict on Greg Hunt: 'terrible at his job'." The fact that Hunt used Wikipedia to dismiss concerns over global warming was promptly added to his Wikipedia biography (in an edit that included some expletives), and then deleted again. This was not the only such edit, as The Sydney Morning Herald noted:
| “ | The entry for a few delicious minutes on Thursday included the following pearl: "Since the 2013 election, Hunt has become the Minister for the Environment. He has already proven to be terrible at his job, to no surprise".
We can't be entirely sure whether this is accurate. Just about anyone with an opinion, wicked or otherwise, can edit Wikipedia. |
” |
Hunt's biography was semi-protected as a result. The affair, also covered in the UK by The Telegraph and The Guardian, sends a curiously mixed message about both the perceived authority of Wikipedia, and its perceived lack of authority.
In brief
- Chapter funding: Sue Gardner's warnings of the potential for corruption in FDC funds allocation and her doubts that chapter spending contributes adequate value for money to Wikimedia projects attracted further coverage, especially in Europe and Latin America—including Webwereld and Computerworld in the Netherlands, Wired and Downloadblog in Italy (with a response from the Italian Wikimedia Chapter), Silicon News in Spain, Marlex in Mexico, El País in Uruguay, Entorno Inteligente in Argentina and 163.com in China. Slate too touched on the topic, in an article that also reviewed the sockpuppet case and the MIT Technology Review article covered above.
- Behavioral ecology on Wikipedia: The St. Louis Beacon reported on a Washington University undergraduate course in behavioral ecology that "is an officially designated Wikipedia course, where students learn not only about subjects like social insects but also about how to translate their scientific knowledge into terms the Wikipedia-using public can understand."
- Big data: CIO Magazine ponders the idea of Wikipedia as an originator of the modern big data movement.
- University of Texas editathon: The Daily Texan reported on the first editathon at the University of Texas, and the problems of accessing sources hidden behind a paywall.
- Fundraising. ThirdSector reports on a talk by Zack Exley, former chief community officer of the Wikimedia Foundation. Exley described the Foundation's strategy of testing different fundraising messages to determine the most effective one. Among the new information shared was the fact that testing showed that highlighting keywords in a solicitation increased donations by up to 22%.
- Pundits on Wikipedia: Invezz.com commented on how important it is to investment pundits to have a Wikipedia biography.
- Jimmy Wales at Ideafest: Flanders Today covered Jimmy Wales' participation in the Ideafest seminar in Brussels, where "experts will discuss whether the free sharing of research results, so-called 'open science', could counter plagiarism and fraud."
- Editors worn down: The New Statesman had a piece on editor fatigue, touching on the Wiki-PR story and Wikipedia's editor and admin retention problems. The article contained a number of errors though—the last admin was not appointed in September 2011, and it is somewhat misleading to say that admins—who can be as anonymous as all other editors—are only "appointed after a rigorous screening process which includes background checks and a written test."
- Sex cult tries to invent 1000-year history through Wikipedia: The Kernel reported on an elaborate hoax involving fake newspaper articles and spurious historical references to a "Secret Order of Libertines" inserted in Wikipedia. A related file on Commons has been nominated for deletion.
- Airtel partnership: IT News Africa announced a new partnership between the Wikimedia Foundation and Airtel to provide free mobile access to Wikipedia to Airtel customers in Africa.
- Arbitration Committee criticised for handling of Manning case: The Guardian reports that the arbitration committee has received criticism from British campaign group Trans Media Watch for its handling of the recent Manning naming dispute. The Guardian article, which erroneously claims that the arbitration committee was "called in to make the final decision on which name should be at the top of Manning’s page", quotes a Trans Media Watch statement saying, "We feel that Wikipedia's banning of certain editors for calling people transphobic reflects a wider cultural problem whereby identifying someone is prejudiced is seen as worse than being prejudiced. If the arbitration committee thinks that 'transphobe' is a slur, it might want to reflect on why that is." The arbitration committee had sanctioned a number of editors on both sides of the divide, some for engaging in discriminatory speech, and others for accusing other editors of transphobia. Trans Media Watch continued, "We would like to see Wikipedia demonstrate more self-awareness in its approach to social issues and more consistency in its treatment of cases like this. There are hundreds of pages on Wikipedia about notable people known by names other than their first names, yet we don't see this kind of fuss made in relation to those about, say, George Osborne or Jodie Foster, or even other trans people like Chaz Bono, who was also well known to the public under a different name."
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Elements of the world
This week, we headed to an elementary subject with WikiProject Elements. Founded by Mav in 2002, this project has grown to have 19 featured articles, 2 featured topics, and 68 good articles. The project also has a list of templates, and a periodic table of elements filled with pictures. This week, we interviewed King jakob c 2, Double Sharp, Sandbh, Jacob S-589, DePiep, and StringTheory11.
- What motivated you to join WikiProject Elements? Do you have a professional background relating to elements? Have you contributed to any of the project's good or featured articles?
- King jakob c 2: I've been interested in elements for years, but I'm don't have a professional background relating to elements. Back in January, I started working on expanding Chalcogen to a Good Article (It looked like this before the expansion). I got lots of help from the Wikiproject on the way, and I was interested in working on some more periodic table group articles, so I decided to join. As I said above, I did most of the work in getting Chalcogen from start-class to good article. I also reviewed the good article nomination for Thulium.
- Double sharp: Interest in chemistry, mostly. I haven't got any FAs yet, though I plan to, but here are my GAs: carbon (just a bit of work, mostly citations), alkali metal, meitnerium, roentgenium, darmstadtium, ununtrium, ytterbium (some of it), hassium, thulium (just a bit of work, mostly citations).
- Sandbh: I joined so as to benefit from the advantages of working in a project team, including getting to know some of the more senior project members better, whose previous contributions I'd been regularly encountering. I have a professional background but not in the elements. When I was younger I thought I'd be an architect (family influence); then a metallurgist (because I thought the name sounded cool); and then a chemist (out of intrinsic interest; I think I was the only person, apart from my teachers, who read the Journal of Chemical Education in high school). However, life didn't turn out that way. If you have a professional background—good. If you don't—good. Some of the best ideas in science have come from people who've been regarded as 'amateurs'. I don't keep that much track of the grade status of the articles I've worked on.
- Jacob S-589: I was interested in the elements for around four years before I joined; I really joined so that I could try to improve things and fix typos... the little stuff, but the big stuff too.
- DePiep: My route to the elements: I have an academic technical background, but not in physics or chemistry. I had build many templates with CSS and
{{#if:}}code elsewhere. Then I discovered the multitude of periodic table (PT) templates, graphs & infoboxes that could use a cleanup (April 2012). We standardized colors and legends and layout and such. I learned that scientists (who are working on content text) have a tendency to organize the project like a private laboratory: "Don't worry, I know where the stuff is". I'd say that is nice if not cute. Once I got that I could talk more effective, forgetting that every academic works and thinks like I do. I avoided stepping into scientific knowledge stuff and started working to just show the pages better (some people even ask me for things now). I discuss color effects, the visual strength of column structure, layout standardization. We at enwiki now have the element names in the basic PT (from), lots of readers will like that. It is now atop on my userpage, first thing I see when the wikisun rises (wikiwakeup). Still I have not written a single FA/GA page because templates & graphics are not part of the judgement... but my edits are on each and every FA/GA page ;-). My greatest wiki experience was one day last August. On a Saturday morning I woke up to see that a content consensus decision was made in the project, after a 15 months long talk. That day I could edit some 500 article pages in content space (mostly through templates; edits were sitting prepared in a sandbox). The power to edit every periodic table page in a #1 encyclopedia. Felt being Mendeelev, took a holyday. - StringTheory11: I'm quite interested in the physical sciences, so I guess I joined due to this. I remember that one day, I stumbled across this project through some link, and eventually after improving a few articles I decided to join. I have been a primary author in bringing alkali metal and ytterbium to GA status (DS is now attempting to bring alkali metal to FA, as far as I'm aware), and was the primary author in bringing periodic table to featured article status. However, once something's at FAC, we all pitch in and help, which helps build a collaborative atmosphere. I do not have any sort of professional background in chemistry.
- Do you actively try to make the pages in the Periodic Table by Quality better?
- Double sharp: If you mean "do I improve the articles", yes. Mostly, though, this is on the elements I happen to know a lot about (main group, actinides, or transactinides).
- Sandbh: No, not actively. I tend to work on or contribute to the categorisation-related articles, like metalloids, dividing line between metals and nonmetals, nonmetals, and periodic table.
- Jacob S-589: When I first joined, I focused on some low-quality articles, but I really work on more of everything now.
- DePiep: As told above, I do not edit articles but I do improve templates & graphs. I think I make them better yes. And by template, all of them at once. Mostly after talking, but I have an, eh authority, to edit minor things on my own with good reason.
- StringTheory11: I used to be more active in this department, but reduced free time lately has prevented me from doing so (not to mention that I've also been working on articles outside of WP:ELEM lately). As I mentioned in the last question, I have two GAs and one FA here, and I've also worked to update the table itself when people forget to update it after changing quality. I've also brought a few other articles from lower classes up to B-class.
- One of your eventual goals is to make all of the articles in your Wikiproject a Good Article. So far, you have done an amazing 57%. When do you expect for this goal to be completed?
- Double sharp: Wow, so many. That's awesome. (But that's just the articles on the PTQ, which doesn't include some of the more obscure subarticles like compounds of zinc, history of fluorine, etc.) Some of our project members did analyses on this in the last days of 2011, a year when GA production was at a yet unsurpassed high. Naturally, TCO's prediction was thus optimistic and predicted that this goal would be complete in 2014. But now, from 2012, we've been focusing a lot on the overhaul of our periodic table and how we classify elements in it – witness our gigantic fifteenth talk page archive (warning: almost 400 kB), and that has naturally taken time away from most of our content authors. I doubt this will happen exactly as he thought then. We still have a long way to go for this, and many of the non-GAs are seriously important elements. Really. It's kind of a problem with WP as it is now, that the benefits of writing highly-viewed articles to readers are not appropriately reflected in what is worked on – presumably because they are too scary for one to consider writing them without a collaboration. (I've been trying to get some sort of collaboration up for an iron FA, because it's way too scary and important for me to feel like covering all the aspects, especially after writing alkali metal; if any Signpost readers are interested, feel free to suggest working with me...) But for the most important articles, I feel the goal should not be GA, but FA. GAs tend to stagnate where they are. How often have you seen a user work a GA he did not write to FA? (It doesn't happen all that often, does it? You can help buck this trend by doing that, preferably on one of our articles... :-P) As a result you have articles like tungsten, copper, lead and carbon which are worthy of being worked to FA, but have been stagnating at GA for a considerable amount of time. And when I work on something, I tend to not do everything at an equal rate, instead focusing in-depth into each area in turn and writing a lot of content about it. It's basically aiming for A as a stop on the road to FA, rather than having GA take that role. Now A doesn't have a formal process for review here (it used to, but it was barely used), and its definition tends to be simplified into "ready for FA", so it is generally not as respected for "accolades". (You can help change that.) B+ also tends to get hurt in redefinition to "ready for GA". I generally expect that we will most probably be able to get everything to GA as soon as we set our minds on to it – and so I'm not going to give you a date, because it depends a lot on how much time we have to edit here. But in general, I submit that getting everything to FA is a worthier goal. It will most likely be much longer before we get that goal done (our A-class articles have been thoroughly whacked at FAC several times: case studies are fluorine, metalloid, element 117), but it will be a much better thing to aim for. Harder it may be, but it will be better for the readers, who are our audience, after all. (P.S. some hypothesized elements may indeed never get there till they are synthesized, but I see no reason why a known synthetic element could never get GA or FA. I'm trying to prove that by GA-ing every period 7 element...)
- Sandbh: I don't have any particular expectation as to when this might happen. I suspect this is partly becos we work on the project for fun, so while we're all here to write good element-related articles, we all have our own areas of interest. When these areas of interest align, coincidentally or consciously, there's usually a synergistic dividend.
- Jacob S-589: I think that it probably won't be too long (by 2015 at most) for the more common elements, but the synthetic and hypothesised elements may never be up to such a high quality.
- DePiep: "When" is not a good question on Wikipedia. Every step ahead is an improvement.
- StringTheory11: I'm pretty sure that this won't happen for quite a long time, especially given the recent lack of GA nominations (apart from all those fluorine-related articles). However, I remain confident that we will eventually reach our goal, no matter how long it will take. After all, there's a relatively low number of articles.
- Do you participate in the Isotopes task force?
- King jakob c 2: No, but I've done some minor work involving isotopes over at Wikidata.
- Double sharp: Yes. Considering my main focus in writing has shifted to the superheavy elements for now, it's a very logical step to look through the isotopes – they make up almost all the things we know about those elements, after all.
- Sandbh: Oh, no. The elements in their standards states are challenging enough for me.
- Jacob S-589: I work a little on the pages, mainly when there's a discrepency between the infobox and the isotope page itself.
- DePiep: No, but sometimes I synchronize it. There is a good isotopes page system, with redirects. Automatable. We had better make more natural links with chemistry, molecules for example. Though that is a more complicated area.
- StringTheory11: No; this task force is honestly pretty much dead at this point.
- How can a new contributor help right away?
- King jakob c 2: I'd say good tasks for new users would be expanding some start-class and stub-class articles, or maybe participating in the discussions on the project's talk page.
- Double sharp: I tend to disagree with that, because I'm quite sceptical regarding whether the d-block groups actually deserve their own articles (horizontal similarities across a period become important here, so you can't just understand an element in relation to its vertical neighbours, which you can sort of do in the p-block). But participate in the discussions, if you have a substantiated or substantiable viewpoint! (I should warn though that they mostly centre around classification of elements in the periodic table, and I would recommend doing a lot of background reading on this. The pdfs we link to in the discussions can be very helpful for this.) But most importantly, work on the articles. Preferably an element article, but anything is welcome. You will learn a lot about the chemistry and physics of that element in the process, and will have fun (I hope) working with us.
- Sandbh: Just being a new contributor helps. Contributions to our project talk page are always welcome.
- Jacob S-589: Try to help out with short-term goals. Since I'm a fairly new user myself (a few months), the times when I would try to do something and be corrected or pointed in the right direction are still fresh in my mind; you really tend to learn as you go.
- DePiep: Phew, elements is a tough topic. In high school, one could check facts. In uni, at 20, one could challenge statements. Use the talk page to discuss (great nowadays, having internet). Relations with chemistry (molecules) or physics (isotopes, ...) are a challenge. Still there are non-project editors who make the improving point. Not exactly a "new" editor
(new to the project?), butAxiosaurus recently challenged thepoor element/post transition elementissue, after the August 2013 changes. Today his comments & contributions are discussed at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Elements#Make_the_group_12_elements_poor_metals.3F. I'm not into it that much, but it looks like his contributions will have effect. - StringTheory11: There's a ton of stuff that a new contributor can do. If someone wants to help out, they can really do anything from bringing some start-class article to C-class to just working on fixing typos. If there was a number one thing that needs to be done though, I would say that the most important thing to do would be to improve our most viewed articles, such as gold and iron, which have incredibly large numbers of views.
- Is there anything else you'd like to add?
- Sandbh: 'The elements surprise us in our researches, challenge us in our categorisations, and follow us in our slumbers. They stretch like an untamed sea before us, mocking, puzzling, and mumuring faint relevations and possibilities.'—adapted from the words of Sir William Crookes, in 'The genesis of the elements,' Proceedings of the Royal Insitution, XII, Friday, February 18th, 1889, pp. 37‒60 (37) [PS: How awes is the Internet Archive?]
- DePiep: One interesting thing about elements and periodic table is, that is is a very very old wikipedia topic. Some pages were copied into wp from nupedia in September 2001. When there were 2800 articles and 55 editors. ([1]; now defunct because the template was deleted?). In 2005–2007 the basic templates were made (by famous editors, some still around). Nowadays we are still
changingediting upon these basic things. Let me add this quote about the periodic table: "Her character is a constant revealing to me". And character the periodic table has. (Actually, it was CC who said this about his wife OO -- praise the sun when you can say it). - Double sharp: Since everyone's using a quote, here's one: "I frequently think about beryllium..." (Nimur on the science reference desk). That's especially appropriate, because beryllium was pretty much our first article to be organized in something approaching our current pages: see this 2002(!) revision. I suppose we could consider 17 September 2002 to be our unofficial founding day, in which case we're now just over 11 years old as a project (though the founder is missing).
- StringTheory11: As somebody mentioned, we have quite a few GAs and FAs. However, this work isn't done by a long shot, and we could use all the help we could get!
Next week we'll head to the graveyard to learn about dead projects. Until then, don't forget to check out the archive!
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