Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2007-08-27
WikiWorld comic: "Helicopter parent"
This week's WikiWorld comic uses text from "Helicopter parent". The comic is released under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere.
News and notes
German user acquitted for distribution of pornography
A user was acquitted this week of a charge of distribution of pornographic material, for linking to a pornographic site from a discussion page on the German Wikipedia. Mutter Erde linked to a pornographic site in April 2005; the link was removed after just a minute on the site, and his account was the subject of a block war before finally being banned in May 2005.
The site Mutter Erde linked to was legal for adults to view, but illegal for users under 18. Because the link was accessible to all users, regardless of age, a German Wikipedia administrator, Markus Schweiß, filed a criminal complaint against Mutter Erde in Berlin, under STGB § 184. Schweiß was the target of harassment and personal attacks by Mutter Erde. The case was decided last week, with the judge ruling that due to the short visibility of the links, the statute did not apply. Though the judge considered that the links were still present in the page's revision history, he ruled it irrelevant, as the links were not immediately visible without special action by the reader. The German community newspaper, WikiKurier, covered the story (in English).
BJAODN deleted/moved, arbitration case closes quietly
The miscellany for deletion discussion on Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense (see archived story) closed this week; as a result, the subpages, with the exception of a few select pages, were deleted, and the main page was moved to Wikipedia:Silly Things. Phil Sandifer closed the debate:
I will say, off the bat, that I am ignoring the GFDL question in this close. Simply put, that is a legal issue, and I do not believe that legal issues are best decided via a !vote of untrained community members. This leaves one major argument for deletion - the argument that BJAODN is a monument to vandalism. It also leaves one argument for keeping - that BJAODN is funny. While it is tempting to treat this as a matter of "I don't like it" vs. "I like it" and just count votes, I do not think that this is appropriate here. Simply put, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and "it encourages vandalism" does inherently trump "it's funny" as a reason for doing or not doing something. And looking at BJAODN, the lack of care or judgment taken with it is disappointing to say the least. I do not think that anybody in this MfD would seriously argue for a pressing need to memorialize the claim that there exists a line of Pepsi called "Penis Pepsi" that "tastes like big foots dic" (sic). And yet we did. It is also telling to me that, despite the promises of many to fix the lack of attribution in BJAODN, none of it was actually fixed, suggesting a page that is not the subject of any serious work or effort.
I am therefore persuaded by the claims that the page is simply a monument to vandalism. On the other hand, I am also persuaded by the claims that the page is an institution. To this end, I have left certain subpages unscathed - things that compile non-encyclopedia edits (Help desk, unblock), deleted articles with freaky titles, two that were just reposts of a discussion, the Colbert page, stupid article ideas, and the best-ofs. I do not close the door to some of these being individually nominated, and would not consider such nominations querrelous (sic) or cases of asking the other parent.
Sandifer later clarified some of his closure, including the page's move: I will also note that I, as part of the close, moved the main BJAODN page to Wikipedia:Silly things to emphasize the break from the previous tradition of BJAODN. This is part of the close, and probably shouldn't be edit warred over. The closure was later brought to deletion review, where the closure was endorsed.
With the MFD closed successfully, and no serious conduct issues, the arbitration case was closed: As the underlying dispute has been satisfactorily resolved by the community, and as no evidence of bad-faith actions by any party has been presented, this case is closed with no further actions being taken.
Wikimania 2008 bids accepted through Thursday
Bidding for Wikimania 2008 is still open. New bids will be accepted through Thursday, August 30, at which time no new cities will be accepted. Bids must be finalized by September 23; on that day, a public meeting will be held, and over the following two weeks, a question-and-answer period will help the judges with their final decision, currently scheduled for October 6. As of this time, three bids have been entered: Cape Town, Alexandria, and Atlanta.
Briefly
- The English Wikipedia has reached 10,000,000 total pages.
- The Serbian Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
- The Volapük Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
- The Polish Wikinews has reached 5,000 articles.
In the news
WikiScanner generates more discoveries for the media to devour
Most news coverage this week related to the recent invention of WikiScanner, a tool that links anonymous edits with the organisations from which they apparently originated (see archived story).
- Australia ([1], [2]): Edits have been linked to the Prime Minister's department, although the PM denies any involvement. The Defence Department has now restricted access to Wikipedia, preventing personal editing after edits from their computer systems were revealed. The Foreign Minister thought that Wikipedia "sites" are "a bit, sort of, a bit anti-government".
- Canada ([3]): Vancouver mayor accused of an obsession with his public image
- Scotland ([4]): local government in Scotland caught editing articles
- General ([5]): repeats findings from last week
- Warnings ([6]): this article warns about the dangers to public servants of editing Wikipedia, and how the organisations should respond to meet this need.
Why we can still trust Wikipedia
Why we can still trust Wikipedia: University of Sydney student Tamsin Lloyd begins by saying that we are being required to question the truth more and more, especially since the WikiScanner revelations. She outlines the basic principles of how Wikipedia works, and discusses some of the things that ensure quality. For example, a strong social structure, where there is "a strong internal 'praise/shame' economy", results in a community where members who play foul are noticed quickly. She concludes that while Wikipedia is not perfect, it is more committed to the "information cause" than many journalists. Lloyd is currently writing her thesis on online communities, focusing on Wikipedia as a case study.
Features and admins
Administrators
Five users were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: Haemo (nom), Resolute (nom), Trusilver (nom), @pple (nom) and Balloonman (nom).
Bots
Ten bots or bot tasks were approved to begin operating this week: VsBot (task request), BotanyBot (task request), HermesBot (task request), Valhallasw-bot (task request), Computer (task request), HermesBot (task request), MetsBot (task request), BetacommandBot (task request), StatusBot (task request) and Computer (task request).
Featured content
Sixteen articles were promoted to featured status last week: Gunnhild Mother of Kings (nom), Fantastic Universe (nom), Mary: A Fiction (nom), Majungasaurus (nom), Troy McClure (nom), Ronald Reagan (nom), The Slave Community (nom), Richard Hawes (nom), Pham Ngoc Thao (nom), Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act (nom), Symphony No. 3 (Górecki) (nom), Song Dynasty (nom), Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (nom), Oklahoma (nom), Triptych, May–June 1973 (nom) and Orion (mythology) (nom).
Seven articles were de-featured last week: Goa (nom), Flag of the Republic of China (nom), Electronic amplifier (nom), Greco-Buddhism (nom), Russian language (nom), Sverre of Norway (nom) and History of Russia (nom)
Seven lists were promoted to featured status last week: Timeline of Mary Wollstonecraft (nom), Global Peace Index (nom), List of Governors of California (nom), List of current champions in WWE (nom), List of Kingdom Hearts media (nom), James Norris Memorial Trophy (nom) and List of National Rugby League golden point games (nom).
No lists were de-featured last week.
Two portals were promoted to featured status last week: Portal:Environment (nom) and Portal:Illinois (nom).
One topic was promoted to featured status last week: Kingdom Hearts series (nom).
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: Old Dan Tucker, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sheerness, William Goebel, York City F.C., and Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: United States Capitol, German wasp, Cards depicting historical events in ballooning, Royal College of Music, Map of the Falkland Islands, Panorama of Edo, and NGC 2244.
Four pictures were promoted to featured status last week and are shown below.
![The [Franco-Prussian] War: Fall of Strasbourg - Departure of French Prisoners](/wiki/File:StrasbourgSiege.png)
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 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.
Fixed bugs
- Headings are now numbered correctly in Special:Statistics if the option to 'Auto-number headings' in a user's preferences is turned on. (r25040, bug 9026)
- The category tree of subcategories that appears on category pages now works correctly in situations where the category's name is of the form Category:languagecode:name. (r25130, bug 10883)
- Also, the category tree links now produce a more informative error message when they can't load the information they need for some reason. (r25135, bug 11015)
- The MediaWiki messages used to display EXIF information for images again can be formatted as wikitext rather than being raw text (this feature existed before, but was removed by mistake). (r25148, bug 11065)
- A link to the deletion confirmation page for an image (which would only be usable by administrators) now accepts &wpReason=reason in the URL to give a default deletion reason when the confirmation page is opened. (r25191, bug 11079)
New features
- 'My preferences' now has a keyboard shortcut, consisting of some combination of modifier keys (depending on the browser used) and the 9 key. Likewise, a keyboard shortcut for the 'upload' button when uploading an image or other file has been added (modifier keys and s). (r25080, bug 5206)
Ongoing news
- Internationalisation has been continuing as normal; help is always appreciated! See m:Localization 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 accepted three new cases this week, and closed three cases.
Closed cases
- BJAODN: A case involving an alleged wheel war over the deletion and undeletion of Wikipedia:Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense, which many alleged to be a GFDL violation, by Georgewilliamherbert and Alkivar, among others. The case was summarily dismissed, because the matter was satisfactorily resolved within the community.
- List of Republics: A case brought by Nema Fakei involving disputes on List of Republics and related articles, involving the conduct of WHEELER and other editors. As a result of the case, WHEELER was banned for one year.
- Jeffrey O. Gustafson: A case brought by John254 alleging incivility and other misconduct by administrator Jeffrey O. Gustafson. As a result of the case, Mr. Gustafson's administrator privileges were suspended for 30 days.
New cases
- Artaxarex: A case involving alleged POV-pushing, incivility and sockpuppetry by Artaxerex. Artaxerex denies the allegations, and alleges that Shervink and others are focusing on getting him blocked, and that certain editors push an Iranian nationalist POV.
- Jmfangio-Chrisjnelson: A case involving alleged edit warring, hostility and incivility between Jmfangio and Chrisjnelson.
Voting phase
- Allegations of apartheid: This case concerns the conduct of various editors in connection with a group of articles whose titles include the words "Allegations of apartheid". It has been alleged that these articles were created in violation of Wikipedia:Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point, after several deletion debates concerning Allegations of Israeli apartheid resulted in that article being kept. Issues have also been raised concerning comments made in deletion discussions and reviews. Several users who have created and edited the "Allegations of apartheid" articles have strongly denied any inappropriate conduct. Voting on most proposals is split, but those with a current majority include an amnesty for past actions, or restrictions enjoining various editors from participation related to allegations of ... apartheid articles.
- Catalonia: A case brought by Physchim62 involving alleged edit warring, possible sockpuppetry, and other misconduct by various editors on Catalonia, Valencian Community, and related articles. A proposal banning Maurice27 for thirty days has the support of three arbitrators, and one encouraging the parties to continue with the normal consensus-building procedure has five.
- Boris Stomakhin: A case involving a dispute between Biophys and Vlad fedorov, involving alleged BLP and 3RR violations, block evasion, and edit-warring. A remedy banning Vlad federov for one year has the support of four arbitrators.
- Great Irish Famine: A case initiated by SirFozzie, involving allegations including misuse of sources and harassment relating to Great Irish Famine and other Ireland/Northern Ireland articles. Arbitrators are voting on arbitrator Mackensen's proposals to place the Great Irish Famine article under the "mentorship" of three to five administrators and restrict Sarah777's editing, as well as proposals by arbitrator Kirill Lokshin that would ban Sarah777 from Wikipedia for one year and place MarkThomas on civility parole.
- Attachment Therapy: A case initiated by Shotwell, who alleges that other editors have engaged in POV pushing and tendentious editing on attachment therapy and related articles. During the case, checkuser indicated that DPeterson had created at least four sockpuppets that were used to edit-war on these articles and create the appearance of consensus. A proposed decision by Kirill Lokshin, with the support of seven arbitrators, would ban DPeterson for one year and would remind the other parties to exercise care while editing articles as to which they may have a conflict of interest.
- COFS: A case initiated by Durova based on a discussion at the community sanctions noticeboard. The case involves allegations of tendentious editing by various editors, sockpuppetry, conflicts of interest, and other user conduct issues on Scientology related articles. The proposed decision, which has the support of six to nine arbitrators, would ban COFS for 30 days for POV editing and require him to change his username and disclose any duties he may have to the Church of Scientology before resuming editing. A proposal banning Anynobody from harassing Justanother has the support of three arbitrators.
Motion to dismiss
- Vision Thing: A case initiated by Infinity0 concerning alleged edit-warring on anarchism, anarcho-capitalism, and related articles. The dispute has already been the subject of a prior arbitration case, Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Infinity0, involving some of the same parties. A motion to dismiss the case for lack of evidence has the support of seven arbitrators.
Motion to close
- Armenia-Azerbaijan 2: A case alleging misconduct by various editors, some of whom were previously placed on revert parole in an earlier case, on articles relating to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and related matters. If closed, a proposed decision would be implemented placing those editors already subject to the revert parole on probation as well, and would impose identical remedies on any other editors who are identified as editing these articles aggressively and uncivilly.