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In the media

Year-end roundups, Wikipedia's 16th birthday, and more

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By TeeVeeed, Milowent, and Pete Forsyth



In brief

If the BLT's simplicity earns its inventor "hero" status, what of the villain who invented this monstrosity?
  • Seeking sandwich history: A Gizmodo advertorial for the Hormel meat company asked about the invention of the BLT: What Hero Invented the BLT? The author quoted the Wikipedia article and looked for further information about the history of the sandwich. Our BLT article was first created in September 2002. Despite the article's having achieved the good article status in 2011, no one has uncovered such a "heroic" inventor. Lucikly, Hormel has not attempted to claim inventorship to date. Though not mentioned by Gizmodo, there was a period of time where our article on S'mores claimed they were invented by "Loretta Scott Crew", a falsehood which still gets repeated from time to time. (December 16)
  • Students heard that Google was trustworthy and Wikipedia was not: That's the message Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd heard in researching her book It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. She wrote up the issue in Did Media Literacy Backfire?, a post for the Data & Society Points blog. (January 5)
  • Beyond the locker room: When a Miami Dolphins quarterback took a hard hit during a football game, editors got busy vandalizing the Matt Moore article to report him as "deceased". The edits and Twitter reaction were noted by sportswriters at all22.com and the Palm Beach Post. The Post article also noted a trend in such edits relating to sports events. (January 9)
  • Viewing stats make beautiful music: In a story about past "Best New Artist" Grammy winners, the Tucson Sun covered the entertainment data project PrettyFamous. Using Wikipedia article view statistics as part of an algorithm to assign a "Musician Score", the project determined artist popularity and interest. (January 13)





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Fixed - thanks! -Pete Forsyth (talk) 11:35, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

'404 no more' Am I blind or did we forget to link to or name such an extension? What a great way to be non-helpful: "there is this cool tool you may find useful. We won't link it and won't mention its name. Go see if you can find it with those vague clues." Fail. Can the author please expand this blurb with something that won't make people waste few minutes trying to find this extension?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 14:28, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

https://blog.archive.org/2017/01/13/wayback-machine-chrome-extension-now-available/ links to it; added. 174.16.120.55 (talk) 17:33, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Piotrus, blind, perhaps? But don't let that slow you down. I've made the link a little clearer, and I will find an intern to brutalize for this transgression. Please feel free to contact our subscription department for a full refund on this edition! -Pete Forsyth (talk) 17:46, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm, I still don't see a link to the extension in the old version. Just article about the extension. The blog link is better, but I wonder, is there any reason not to link to the installation page at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wayback-machine/fpnmgdkabkmnadcjpehmlllkndpkmiak ? I mean, why not make it easy to people? Anyway, thanks for the note, better few hoop jumps needed than no info at all :) --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 00:28, 18 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Piotrus, your initial comment was quite hostile. I am not personally offended, but I am quite concerned about the ideas that our authors in general might have to contend with this kind of response. Please understand: if somebody were to attack one of your research reviews with the level of hostility you have shown here, I would not tolerate it. This may or may not matter to you, but I'm sure it matters to some of our contributors.
We could use more help in collecting and writing up these pieces. If you would like to take it on, please let me know. If you contribute regularly, you will have a great deal of influence over how things are described and linked. -Pete Forsyth (talk) 01:36, 18 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Peteforsyth You are right I was... a bit too frank, or sarcastic. I usually try to keep my temper, but around that time I was dealing with another wiki problem, and, well, it's no excuse. I hope nobody was offended, it was not my intention, I just wanted to point out that an important link was missing/obscured, and should have done it in a more neutral tone. Once again, I appreciate the time that you and others put towards writing those pieces. Cheers, --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 15:09, 18 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for acknowledging. You have no quarrel from me, the initial version was less than ideal. I think now, it's fine; the extension itself is prominently linked in both the blog post and the news story. I appreciate your feedback, and this followup means a lot to me. Thank you, as well, for your excellent research reviews. -Pete Forsyth (talk) 19:26, 18 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Installed the extension. Nice :-) Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 22:58, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Please let us know if you find yourself using it for the long term! -Pete Forsyth (talk) 19:26, 18 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
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