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BLP deletion rules discussed amidst controversial AFD
In the midst of a controversial deletion request regarding the article Giovanni di Stefano, SlimVirgin "re-proposed" a change to Wikipedia's deletion policy. If enacted, deletion discussions of biographies of living persons would result in the deletion of the article if no consensus regarding the issue was established. Currently, such a no-consensus result would, by default, result in the article being kept.
BLP proposal
The proposal has been made in various forms for at least a year. In the wake of a discussion over whether Daniel Brandt should be deleted (see archived story), the suggestion was mentioned in an e-mail by Jimmy Wales in April 2007, and formally put forth for discussion soon afterward by SlimVirgin. This discussion came to no consensus, and was not implemented.
The proposal came up again last Saturday, April 19, when Doc glasgow created the essay Borderline biographies, advocating a guideline to be applied only as necessary:
Whilst many Wikipedians do not believe that we should automatically delete an article out of consideration to the views or interests of the subject, administrators may consider that it is irresponsible to simply default to keep in the case of low-notability biographies. In cases where there is a reasonable belief that the article may cause distress to the subject or, due to a lack of interest, there may well be problems in maintaining the article in a fair and accurate state, administrators may wish to require a positive consensus that Wikipedia requires to retain the article. In short, in the absence of consensus to retain, Wikipedia may be best served by defaulting to delete the article (or relist where participation has been low).
The proposal, as re-submitted by SlimVirgin, would trigger the deletion of any BLP in the absence of consensus to keep it:
When the biography of a living person is submitted for deletion, whether at the request of the subject or not, the default presumption in favor of retention is reversed. That is, if there is no consensus to keep the BLP in the opinion of the closing admin, the article will be deleted.
The suggestion triggered a flurry of comments (over 300 in the course of 48 hours) regarding the issue. As of press time, about 70% of the comments supported such a change in the policy, with about 30% opposing.
In support, Kat Walsh argued that "It's a small thing, changing a default, and doesn't hurt the ability to keep any article if there is consensus to keep it. The Wikipedia project isn't meant to affect what is known about a person or how prominent they are, only to make encyclopedic note of it. I am generally in favor of being broadly inclusive of information on all sorts of topics—but in the case of people, especially those who are only barely public, we need to be mindful of what we are doing and what effect we have."
JoshuaZ noted, however, that "If the community consensus taking into account a BLP-penumbra issue doesn't call for its deletion then we shouldn't delete. We already have admins able to close no consensus as delete if they think the strength of the arguments is strong enough. There's no reason to make this any stricter. ... The fact that this would result in many deletions where there are no actual concerns for the individuals in question makes it particularly jarring."
Controversial BLP
Just as discussion over the article on Daniel Brandt triggered the first major discussion on this change in 2007, discussion over the article Giovanni di Stefano seemed to trigger this discussion, at least in part.
Giovanni di Stefano is an Italian European lawyer, who has served on the defence team on many high-profile cases, including the trial of Saddam Hussein and that of Jeremy Bamber. His involvement on these cases and in other cases has made di Stefano a controversial figure, whose Wikipedia article has been the source of concern in the past. The article was deleted by Wales on April 24, 2007, but a deletion review ruled that the article could be re-created, with full sourcing. Fred Bauder deleted and stubbed the article twice, once each in November and December 2007.
The article was nominated for deletion on April 19, by Lawrence Cohen. Cohen cited BLP concerns, and a threat of legal proceedings by di Stefano, in his nomination:
The subject of this article, Giovanni de Stefano, wants this article gone. To the degree that this user is willing to initiate legal proceedings over it, as seen here. As the WMF and the community hasn't taken action to protect this BLP subject per the standards that any BLP subject should be entitled to, and the possible existence of this article threatens the name and reputation of this BLP subject, and both the project and any individual editor who has touched the article is potentially at risk, the local community should simply remove the article. ... If real people are negatively affected, we do the right thing, and stop hurting them.
Aecis disagreed, arguing, "All the information in the article is sourced to extremely reliable sources. If the subject disagrees with the information contained in those sources, he should take it up with the people behind those sources. We've bent over backwards for the subject, as we should with any possible BLP violation. But that's all that can be expected of us. If the subject has valid concerns, they should be addressed in the article. But 'the subject doesn't want to have an article about him' is never a ground for deletion."
Seraphimblade noted that:
The Foundation has a perfectly qualified person to evaluate the nature and merits of legal threats, unlike the vast majority of participants in this discussion, myself included. If they decide action must be taken due to legal issues, they can and will do so. Until and unless that occurs, we have a well-referenced article on a relatively public person. Granted, much of that person's notoriety is negative in nature, but that in itself is not a BLP violation. The subject is also a good distance past marginal or questionable notability, so the question of deletion upon request really does not come into play here, as that should only be used in cases where the subject is on the edge of the notability requirements, not well past them.
Consensus was clear on the AFD, with about 85% of those commenting supporting keeping the article. Interestingly, the proposal made by SlimVirgin would not apply to di Stefano's article, because a consensus stands to keep the article.
Discussions on SlimVirgin's proposal, and on the article on di Stefano, are continuing.
Threat made against high school on Wikipedia, student arrested
Image: Ixnayonthetimmay
A student at Glen A. Wilson High School in Hacienda Heights, California was arrested Friday on suspicion of making criminal threats against students via the Wikipedia article on the school. The threats were first noticed by Wikipedia administrators, who notified local police of the threats. As a precautionary measure, the school was closed on Friday.
The student was arrested on Friday at approximately 11:30 a.m. PDT, according to a statement from Hacienda La Puente Unified School District Department of Police and Safety Chief Al Vasquez made to Pasadena Star-News. Described as a male minor by Hacienda La Puente Unified School District police, he confessed to making threats against students at the high school via a post to the Wikipedia article about the school. The student made "a complete confession", said Superintendent Barbara Nakaoka to the Whittier Daily News. She also said that "Our police officers are continuing to work with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to determine the validity of the threat."
Sheriff's Lt. Victor Sotelo told the Whittier Daily News that the police filed a "detain petition" which recommends that the minor not be released to his parents, and be held at juvenile hall. The California Youth Authority will decide what happens to the boy next. Lt. Sotelo said that law enforcement searched the student's home and recovered evidence.
Dreadstar notified others about the threat in a post to the Administrators' incident noticeboard on Wednesday April 16, at 8:58 p.m. PST, saying: "Can someone review this threat to see if any action should be taken?" Administrator John Reaves contacted local police in Los Angeles at 9:40 p.m. PST, and was in contact with a detective in order to work with the Internet service provider to find more information on the IP address that made the threat.
Los Angeles County sheriff's officials contacted Hacienda La Puente Unified School District police and informed them of a threat made against Glen A. Wilson High School posted to its article on Wikipedia. Two threats were made via posts to the Wikipedia article: an initial post, and a subsequent threat when the first post was removed by a Wikipedia editor.
The Los Angeles Times quoted a portion of the threats: "This is a warning. Do not remove this from this page. On Friday, April 18, 2008, there will be a shooting at this school. Current list of victims to be shot on this day: ...", said the initial post. The post named a hit list of specific students, and also said a shooting would affect "a good majority of the badminton team and almost every single fob." (NB: Fob). The poster threatened: "Take this text down and it will guarantee their death..."
While police were in the process of contacting the specific students named in the threat, a second threat was made on Wikipedia: "You removed my last edit. I gave you a fair warning. Now the people listed in my previous edit will be victims in the Glen A. Wilson Shooting to occur this Friday. Your lack of attention to the seriousness of my warning will now be the reason as to why you will receive all fault of this event." The threats were later removed from the edit history of the article by Wikipedia administrator Persian Poet Gal, at 9:08 p.m. PDT on Friday, after the student had been arrested.
All students' backpacks were searched before classes began Thursday. At the time Hacienda La Puente Unified School District police told the Pasadena Star-News that the random checks were a precautionary measure related to the upcoming anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, which took place April 20, 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded many others in Columbine High School in Colorado before committing suicide.
Classes were canceled at the high school on Friday. In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Chief Al Vasquez explained the decision to close the school: "If I had not thought it was credible, we would not have closed the school. I mean, not one but two threats." Chief Vasquez said that the high school would be open for classes on Monday.
Sources
- "Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents - Threat", Wikipedia, April 19, 2008.
- Sun Yunlong. "School student arrested for making online threats", Xinhua News Agency, April 19, 2008.
- Molly Hennessy-Fiske. "Hacienda Heights high school student arrested in online threats", Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2008.
- Brian Day. "Student arrested in suspected Web threats", Whittier Daily News, April 18, 2008.
- "Student arrested in high school threats", Pasadena Star-News, April 18, 2008.
- "Increased security at Wilson High", Pasadena Star-News, April 17, 2008.
Global login, blocking features developed
Two new features related to Single User Login have been developed over the last few weeks. A global login system was enabled this week on Wikimedia's secure server, allowing any administrators with a Single User Login account to login once in order to access all public Wikimedia sites. Also written, and currently being discussed, is a global IP blocking mechanism, which would allow a certain class of users to block IPs from editing any Wikimedia site.
With the new global login system, when a user logs in with a global account, a cookie is set that holds the login information for all sites where the user has already logged in once. If the user has not yet logged in at least once on that wiki, they must log in to that wiki individually; however, with the Single User Login system, the account is created automatically upon logging in locally, without the need to create the account manually.
Global blocking, meanwhile, has not yet been enabled. The extension, written by Andrew Garrett, allows a specified usergroup to make blocks on IP addresses across all Wikimedia wikis. Wikis would be allowed, however, to opt-out of the site-wide blocks, so that individual communities who had issues with the system would be allowed to avoid it.
Discussion is currently ongoing as to the specifics of how the extension should be handled, including the specific groups to receive this right. Among the groups who have been named as possible candidates for global blocking privileges include stewards, administrators on the Meta-Wiki, checkusers, some members of the Small Wiki Monitoring Team, or a possible new usergroup, whose specific requirements and procedures would be up for discussion.
The global blocking extension also includes a list of all active global blocks (GlobalBlockList) and a log of all global blocks and unblocks, available on each individual wiki. The extension does not block individual usernames, although some other developers have expressed an interest in writing such a feature in the future.
Other global features yet to be written include shared preferences across multiple accounts, and the ability to rename a global account. It is not clear when or if these issues will be remedied in the future.
Another aspect of the system that has been discussed, but not yet implemented, is support for OpenID. Wikimedia CTO Brion Vibber suggested that Wikimedia would likely at some point become an OpenID provider, and may at a later date, after careful testing, allow users to log in with an OpenID account from another site.
WikiWorld: "Disruptive technology"
- This comic originally appeared on May 21, 2007.
This week's WikiWorld comic uses text from "Disruptive technology". The comic is released under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere.
News and notes
Wikimania security FAQ posted
Wikimedia general counsel Mike Godwin posted a revised FAQ regarding the security of Wikimania 2008. Godwin, who was tasked with coordinating a security assessment, said that the FAQ was "an interim progress report" for the Board and community to discuss, with a full assessment to come later.
Wikimania 2008, which will be held in Alexandria, Egypt, has been the subject of questions about the safety of Wikimedians, particularly LGBT and Jewish Wikimedians. The FAQ attempted to answer these concerns; some of the more pertinent questions include:
5) How will security needs be addressed?
Our advice from the consulate was that, so long as an event has a local sponsor (as we have with the Library), the sponsor and local police will coordinate security needs. So it remains important to work closely with the Library to inform them if special arrangements need to be made (if, for example, there's an event with a large number of VIPs attending).
6) What kind of security arrangements will be made with regard to transportation to and from Wikimania events?
In cases where transportation is required, the local partner will normally arrange with local police to have a police car accompanying moving shuttles with tourists. If told in advance, police will provide this for any buses at any time.
7) Are there kinds of public behavior, otherwise acceptable in many other cultures, that ought to be avoided in Alexandria?
The short answer from the local team is this: "Kissing in public, regardless of sex, is the only taboo around here."
8) Is there any need for attendees to travel in groups?
No, says the local team.
9) Are there religious issues or expressions that should be avoided?
One report from the local team: "wearing [a yarmulke] or a large [Star of David], considering the current circumstances, will make Jews stand out, which may not be very good. This said, Jews have been moving safely and freely around Egypt. However, considering the current escalation of the situation in Israel/Palestine, flaunting such religious symbols may result (at worst) in harassment, I don't know if this situation will continue till the conference or not."
10) Are there any issues with how members of religious minorities, sexual-orientation minorities (e.g., lesbians, gays, bisexuals), or racial minorities present themselves? Should female attendees be alert to any issues of self-presentation that might disturb Egyptians?
From the local team: "For Females, Just to not be overly liberal in dress code, shorts are ok, bikinis are not." Note from Mike: We got essentially the same advice from the consulate. Typical Western clothing is understood to be acceptable for women, just so long as it is not overly revealing or provocative. The INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS HANDBOOK has lots of photos of students, men and women, in western dress. There is also advice about what to pack (travel light or you'll be spending time in the customs office).
German Wikipedia to be offered as one-volume paper encyclopedia
Parts of the German Wikipedia will be offered in a one-volume paper encyclopedia to be published by Bertelsmann. The first edition will contain the introductions to 50,000 articles, and will retail for €19.95. It will be available in stores, and for each copy sold, Wikimedia will receive one euro. The project has been spearheaded by Wikimedia Deutschland, the German Wikimedia chapter.
Wikipedia Takes Manhattan
Wikipedia Takes Manhattan, a 12-hour photo scavenger hunt aimed at fulfilling photo requests of various Manhattan and other New York City places and landmarks, was held on April 4, and this week, the group finished uploading all photos and adding them to their respective articles. The hunt was organized by Pharos and other Wikipedia volunteers, Free Culture @ Columbia and Free Culture @ NYU, and Wikimedia New York City. In all, 92 separate sites were photographed, from a list of 188 total sites.
A full gallery of all photos is on Wikimedia Commons at commons:Commons:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan/Gallery.
The event is the first of the Wikipedia Takes The City model; future hunts are tentatively planned for Nashville, Tennessee, Belgium or the Netherlands, and another Manhattan event in Fall 2008.
Three job openings
The Wikimedia Foundation announced three new fundraising job openings this week, open until May 15:
- Head of Major Gifts (a.k.a. Major Gifts Officer) — responsible for executing the Foundation's major gifts strategy.
- Head of Community Giving — responsible for fundraising efforts targeting the general public.
- Development Specialist — responsible for managing donor information, and supporting the other two positions.
All three positions require at least a bachelor's degree, with an advanced degree preferred; other requirements, including required and preferred job experience, vary by position.
Briefly
- A Wikimedia Foundation blog started on April 11. So far, the blog has been used by Foundation staffers to highlight various issues, and make announcements, including the 2,000th English featured article, and the aforementioned Wikimedia job openings.
- The Japanese Wiktionary has reached 30,000 articles.
- The Malayalam Wikipedia has reached 5000 registered users.
- The Albanian Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
- The Indonesian Wikipedia has reached 80,000 articles.
In the news
Response to IT professor
Yet another academic against Wikipedia – Last week, we covered the Deakin University professor who believes that Wikipedia crowds out expert knowledge. Christopher Dawson, a high school teacher, responds to her key contentions, saying that she misses the point of Wikipedia. He notes that Wikipedia should never be the only source for students, but then again, no other source should be relied upon by itself. He notes that Wikipedia is a great starting point for research, and the professor herself admitted that her students found Wikipedia to be "a good place to get a general understanding of a topic". Dawson believes that the key point is that students need to be discerning when they read Wikipedia, as with any other material placed online.
Other mentions
Other mentions in the online media include:
- Hacienda Heights high school student arrested in online threats – A student at a California school was arrested for making criminal threats against students via Wikipedia (see related story).
- Wikipedia takes business approach – Despite recent questions about his use of expenses and his personal life, Jimbo Wales is focused on ensuring that Wikipedia has the resources to grow.
- A pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia – This article claims that a group called CAMERA is intending to take over Wikipedia by stealth and install a pro-Israel bias (see related discussion at WP:ANI).
- Wikipedia Article creates Circular references – A Wikipedia article was used as the source of a claim made in a news website, which was then used as a reference on Wikipedia.
- Wikipedia vs Encyclopaedia: A question of trust? – This article compares Wikipedia with two DVD-based encyclopedias and asks whether there is any scope for traditional encyclopedias given Wikipedia's existence.
Dispatches: Monthly updates of styleguide and policy changes
How on earth do featured-content nominators and reviewers keep abreast of changing guidelines and rules?
Even a brief reading of the criteria for Wikipedia's featured content reveals a host of links to pages that have a major bearing on tasks of both nominators and reviewers. For example, the featured article criteria presuppose a knowledge of the Manual of Style and its many subpages, other important styleguides, and policy pages such as those that regulate the use of non-free content, captions, verification, sources, and when to cite. In a user-generated environment, these styleguides and policy pages are subject to continual modification, which makes it hard to keep track of how they impact on the task of preparing, reviewing, promoting and maintaining our very best work.
At last, a solution!
FAC delegate SandyGeorgia and others came up with the idea of a centralised location at which all significant styleguide and policy changes are summarised periodically. This has been implemented recently in the form of a new service to the community: monthly updates of styleguide and policy changes. The changes are now published shortly after the start of each month, and are transcluded at the talk pages of the featured content candidate processes and the major styleguides. This enables all Wikipedians to keep abreast of what is happening, quickly and conveniently. Copy-editing and trivial changes are generally not included in these summaries, and when the monthly diffs boil down to substantive changes, the result is unexpectedly straightforward.
Some of the changes may sound fussy, but these details do help to make the project stylistically cohesive. Take, for example, a recent alteration to the Manual of Style in January, that a sentence fragment in a caption finish with a period if there's already a full sentence in the caption. An example is the caption for the image of Niccolò Machiavelli at the bottom – oops!
You can help
While we can't guarantee that all substantive changes are included in every monthly update, we try to cover a reasonably broad number of pages in our monthly surveys of diffs. But you can help to keep us on our toes. Contributors to styleguide and policy pages are asked to notify us of changes for each upcoming monthly summary by posting a brief note of substantive changes (with a diff) on the talk page.
At some time in the future, consideration will be given to moving the service into the Wikispace. The summaries for the past three months appear below.
March 2008
- Multiplication symbols. Inserted: Do not use an asterisk to represent multiplication between numbers in non-technical articles. The multiplication sign in exponential notation (2.1 × 108) may now be unspaced, depending on circumstances (2.1×108); previously, spacing was always required in exponential notation.
- Punctuation in quotations. "Punctuation" was added to the requirement that "Wherever reasonable, preserve the original style, spelling and punctuation".
- Em dashes. "Em dashes are normally unspaced" was strengthened to "should not be spaced".
- Instructional and presumptuous language. "Clearly" and "actually" were added to the list of words that are usually avoided in an encyclopedic register.
- '"Pull" and block quotes. Removed: Pull quotes are generally not appropriate in Wikipedia articles. Added: Block quotes can be enclosed using {{quotation}} or {{quote}} (as well as the existing specification, i.e., between a pair of <blockquote>...</blockquote> HTML tags).
- Numbers as figures or words. The lead statement expressing the default was reverted to the wording that pertained until it was changed last month: "In the body of an article, single-digit whole numbers (from zero to nine) are given as words; numbers of more than one digit are generally rendered as figures, and alternatively as words if they are expressed in one or two words."
- "See also" sections. It was clarified that links should be presented in a bulleted list, and that rather than grouping them by subject area, it is helpful to alphabetize them.
- Added: "Nominators must be sufficiently familiar with the subject matter and sources to deal with objections during the FAC process. Nominators who are not significant contributors to the article should consult regular editors of the article prior to nomination."
- As an alternative to striking out their "objection", reviewers may "cap off their resolved comments; the cap should include the reviewer's signature, and editors [not nominators] should cap only their own commentary.
- Criterion 8. The second clause was removed: "Non-free content is used only if its presence would significantly increase readers' understanding of the topic
, and its omission would be detrimental to that understanding." - Enforcement. Inserted: An image with a valid non-free-use rationale for some (but not all) articles it is used in will not be deleted. Instead, the image will be removed from the articles for which it lacks a non-free-use rationale.
February 2008
- Numbers as figures or words. In the body of an article, whole numbers from zero to ten (rather than the previous zero to nine) are spelled out in words. [Now inconsistent with MOSNUM] The previous insistence that ordinals for centuries be expressed in figures (the 5th century) has been made optional (the 5th century or the fifth century).
- Avoid first-person pronouns. It is now acceptable to use we in historical articles to mean the modern world as a whole (The text of De re publica has come down to us with substantial sections missing).
- Foreign terms. "Unitalicized" was added to this point: "A rule of thumb is: do not italicize words that appear unitalicized in an English language dictionary."
- Spelling and transliteration. [Additions underlined, removals struck through]
For terms in common usage,use anglicized spellings; native spellings are an optional alternative if they use theLatinEnglish alphabet. The choice between anglicized and native spellings should follow English usage (e.g., Besançon, Edvard Beneš and Göttingen, but Nuremburg, role, and Florence). Article titles follow our naming conventions. Diacritics are optional, except wherethey are required for disambiguationEnglish overwhelmingly uses them, whether for disambiguation or for accurate pronunciation (résumé, café). Where native spellings in non-Latin scripts (such as Greek and Cyrillic) are given, they normally appear in parentheses(except where the sense requires otherwise),and are not italicized, even where this is technically feasible.
- "See also" sections. Slight rewording: Links already included in the body of the text are generally not repeated in "See also"; however whether a link belongs in the "See also" section is ultimately a matter of editorial judgment and common sense.
- End sections. Greater flexibility is now permitted in the order of these sections: although the preferred order [of the sections is "See also", "Notes" (or "Footnotes"), "References" (or a combined Notes and references), "Bibliography" (or Books or Further reading), and "External links", it is permissible to change the sequence of these ending sections if there is good reason to do so. However, if an article has both "Notes" and "References" sections, "Notes" should immediately precede "References".
- Op. cit. was added to Ibid as an abbreviation that should not be used in footnotes.
- Addition (underlined): "Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be removed from any article, and if it is, the burden of proof is on the editor who wishes to restore it."
- Phrase added (underlined): Before nominating an article, nominators may wish to receive feedback by listing it at Wikipedia:Peer review or the League of Copyeditors.
- Phrase added (underlined): Nominators are expected to respond positively to constructive criticism and to make an effort to address objections promptly.
- Minor changes to the mechanics of adding a nomination.
- Addition: "[Stating at the top of the page] a reason for nominating, and a declaration of "Support" are not necessary."
January 2008
- Non-breaking spaces. Added: "In compound items in which numerical and non-numerical elements are separated by a space, a non-breaking space (or hard space) is recommended to avoid the displacement of those elements at the end of a line." A caveat was inserted concerning disadvantages of using the {{nowrap}} template.
- Captions. Added: If a caption contains a complete sentence, any other sentence fragments in the caption should themselves end with a period.
- Added: "If a nominator feels that an Oppose has been addressed, they should say so after the reviewer's signature rather than striking out or splitting up the reviewer's text.... nominators should not alter, strike, break up, or add graphics to comments from other editors; replies are added below the signature on the reviewer's commentary."
- Criterion 3. Removed: "If your image is greater than 500–600px add {{non-free reduce}} to the Image: namespace and someone from Wikipedia will shrink the image to comply with this guideline."
WikiProject Report: The Simpsons
This week we interviewed Gran2 about his involvement and perspective on the Simpsons WikiProject. A relatively large project with over ninety members, it has two featured topics (Season 8 and Season 9); a featured portal, 25 other forms of featured content, two A-class articles, 83 good articles and 660 other. Quite an achievement for a Project with such limited scope.
- Brief assessment
The Simpsons WikiProject is considered by a few members of the community to be the best represented on Wikipedia, in terms of the quality of its articles. Started on September 4, 2005 by Keyser Söze (talk · contribs), the Project has been going for over 2½ years (as with the the Tropical Cyclones Project, in the 17th March report). The member list has developed significantly since the near-original 6-7 to the (current) 90 members, with a few others being discounted as 'inactive' or 'retired'. Its goals and other adminstrative actions for Wikipedia are listed here. A full list of departments, sister projects and other related content can be found here.
- Questions
- Does the Project focus just on the Simpsons or on other areas too? What are its main aims?
- Well the project's main aim is "to better organize information in articles related to the television series The Simpsons," as the defined by our WikiProject page. This basically means that we aim to write our articles in an out-of-universe way, using second and third-party sources to prove notability: creation, production and critical reception information for example. Fiction is a very hot topic and contentious issue at Wikipedia. Therefore we aim to reliably source and organize as much of our content as possible, and merge anything which has no real world significance. We do predominantly focus on The Simpsons, but as it is one of the most popular shows of all-time, there are many articles in our scope which branch out into other areas as well. Aside from the TV show, there's the film, video games and other merchandise. On top of that there is the staff and cast. One of my favourite articles is Hank Azaria who, although he has had a lot of fame from working on The Simpsons, has done a lot of other projects as well. We try and get a nice balance between the articles directly related to the show and those about the behind the scenes aspects.
- With such an open topic, do you feel that articles within your scope are vulnerable to mass original research?
- This is a recurring problem which we face each day. As said in answer to the previous question, we strive to source articles as much as we possibly can, particularly those with easily disputable information. When it comes to original research, "Cultural references" sections are frequent targets. Such jokes are always inserted into episodes of The Simpsons and have become one of its many hallmarks, but a lot of them can be perceived as meaning different things by different people. As such our policy has been "if you can't source it, it goes". This often leads to conflicts as people react angrily when Cultural references they have added are removed because they are not sourced. Occasionally though, there are some funny results. I remember once, someone added to the 1994 episode "Bart of Darkness" that it was based on the 2007 film Disturbia and not actually Rear Window, as is the real case. Other areas are not as bad, bias or personal opinions are quickly reverted and trivia or continuity errors are removed as standard anyway. Often, unsourced material relating to the production of the series is mentioned in the DVD commentaries anyway, and so is easily fixed.
- Do you enjoy working with the content? Have you ever used any of the comedy, for example?
- The Simpsons is my favourite show and the fact that it's a comedy makes it a lot more enjoyable for me to edit than it would be if I was editing something like Osmosis, for example. Many people may think that The Simpsons isn't exactly the most important topic that Wikipedia "should" be covering, and they’re entitled to their opinion. But, I really don't want to write an article about Osmosis or something else of worldly importance, not at this stage in my life at least. It doesn't interest me. Comedy however, does and so is the main driving force behind my chosen to edit these types of article. We try and include any really significant quotes from the staff and the show itself (most of which are funny) in order to broaden the effect of our articles, whenever it's appropriate and possible.
- Has there ever been any serious discussions within the Project that have helped it to progress in any way?
- I can think of a few occurrences off-hand. I remember back around a year ago, we decided to start a drive to improve more of our articles to a higher quality status; we selected a number of core articles and episodes to work on, and came up with a style guide for each type of page. This has really helped us shape our achievements and develop into one of the most successful WikiProjects devoted to an individual media production. Also, we've often discussed merging or deleting a large number of our articles, which have no real-world notability - primarily characters.
- Does the project's success reflect the dedication which has been displayed in the past?
- Certainly, without the dedication of our members we would not have had nearly as much success as we have done. I remember at the beginning of 2007: we had one featured article, one featured list, and one good article as well as only really three active members. Twelve months later we have greatly increased that number to 13 FAs, 12 FLs and 83 GAs, not to mention two featured topics and a featured portal. Over the year we became better at producing quality articles and focusing our efforts with schemes such as Featured topic drives, as well as recruiting a few more dedicated, active members, who have all worked more than hard. There's no doubt our success is a reflection of our editor's great work.
- What is there to introduce new members?
- We recently produced an advertising banner in the hope of attracting more members. On top of that we have a welcome template to explain the basics of the topic to new members and to encourage them to stick around and help in any way they can. We also encourage any new members to ask some of the more experienced editors in the project if they are unsure about something, to help them settle in.
- Lastly, for a little fun, who is your favourite member of the family?
- I was going to try and be groundbreakingly original, but in all honesty, my favourite family member is Homer. My favourite character overall is actually Superintendent Chalmers.
Features and admins
Administrators
Two users were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: R. Baley (nom) and Sabine's Sunbird (nom).
Bots
Eight bots or bot tasks were approved to begin operating this week: KhanBot (task request), Chris G Bot 3 (task request), SMS_Bot (task request), FairuseBot (task request), MBisanzBot (task request), JL-Bot (task request), StormBot (task request), and Rick Bot (task request).
Featured pages
Sixteen articles were promoted to featured status last week: Lazare Ponticelli (nom), Ian Craig (nom), Maynard James Keenan (nom), Rufus Wilmot Griswold (nom), Guitar Hero (video game) (nom), Tropical Storm Barry (2007) (nom), State of Vietnam referendum, 1955 (nom), Valley Parade (nom), History of Norwich City F.C. (nom), David Suzuki: The Autobiography (nom), Emery Molyneux (nom), 1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing (nom), Navenby (nom), New York State Route 174 (nom), The General in His Labyrinth (nom), and Partners in Crime (Doctor Who) (nom).
Nine lists were promoted to featured status last week: List of cricketers called for throwing in major cricket matches in Australia (nom), List of International Mathematical Olympiads (nom), List of UEFA Intertoto Cup winning managers (nom), Twelve Imams (nom), Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 5) (nom), Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 6) (nom), List of New York Giants head coaches (nom), List of True Tears episodes (nom), List of tallest buildings in Pittsburgh (nom), List of North Carolina hurricanes (nom), Wisden Cricketers of the Year (nom), and List of Irish Victoria Cross recipients (nom).
Two topics were promoted to featured status last week: Star Wars episodes (nom) and North Carolina hurricanes (nom).
No portals were promoted to featured status last week.
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: 1999 Sydney hailstorm, Ailanthus altissima, Virginia Tech massacre, Dawson Creek, Cannibal Holocaust, Emma Goldman and Reactive attachment disorder.
Former featured pages
Four articles were delisted recently: Sperm Whale (nom), Crash test dummy (nom), A Tale of a Tub (nom), and Prisoner's dilemma (nom).
One list was delisted recently: List of Ohio county name etymologies (nom).
Featured media
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Red-headed Woodpecker, Gilbert and Sullivan, First aerial refueling, 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 gun, Red lionfish, Green Grass-Dart Skipper Butterfly and Hairy Toad Lily.
No sounds were featured last week.
No featured pictures were demoted recently.
Three pictures were promoted to featured status last week and are shown below.
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Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Note that not all changes described here are necessarily live as of press time; the English Wikipedia is currently running version 1.44.0-wmf.2 (8fd6c9c), and changes to the software with a version number higher than that will not yet be active. Configuration changes and changes to interface messages, however, become active immediately.
Fixed bugs
- Editing a section no longer strips leading whitespace from the start introduction section. (r33314, bug 13728)
- Some features of the redirect system were accidentally broken, and then fixed again:
- "Add pages I create to my watchlist" now also watches uploaded images. (r33387, bug 13725)
- Transclusions of Special:Newpages no longer incorrectly show a drop-down box. (r33389, bug 13756)
- Special:Whatlinkshere now pages properly when filtered to show only a certain type of backlink. (r33607, bug 12793)
- The api's list=search no longer incorrectly returns deleted pages. (r33608, bug 13792)
New features
- Special:SpecialPages now shows special pages sorted into groups. (r33197, bug 10457)
- The api can now query for protection against creation (a 'protected title') as well as the other sorts of protection. (r33473, bug 13768)
- Related Changes has a new option to show recent changes on pages that link to the specified page. (r33235)
Ongoing news
- Internationalisation has been continuing as normal; help is always appreciated! See mw:Localisation statistics for how complete the translations of languages you know are, and post any updates to bugzilla or use Betawiki.
The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee opened two new cases this week and closed one case, leaving three cases currently open.
Closed case
- Strider12: A case involving an Abortion-related dispute between Strider12 and MastCell. As a result of the case, Strider12 was banned for one year.
New cases
- Tango: A case involving a controversial block of MONGO by Tango under this finding.
- Homeopathy: A dispute involving a number of editors over the Homeopathy article.
Motion to close
- Prem Rawat: A case involving the actions of editors on Prem Rawat and related articles. If closed, remedies would pass placing Rawat-related articles on article probation and instructing editors with a possible or perceived conflict of interest to comply with Wikipedia policies on NPOV and conflict of interest. However, the motion to close is opposed by three arbitrators.