Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2013-05-13
WMF–community ruckus on Wikimedia mailing list
Dear [admin's name],
Thank you for your work with the Foundation wiki. At this time, we are formalizing a new requirement, which is that administrator access is given only to staff and board. I am having administrator access to accounts that are neither staff or board be disabled, effective immediately.
Sincerely,
Gayle [Karen Young, the WMF's Chief Talent and Culture Officer]
Thus came an email to community volunteers who until last Friday had been administrators on the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) official website, wikimediafoundation.org. In a torrid week for Foundation–community relations, this sparked a highly emotional reaction on the Wikimedia-l mailing list—one of the largest off-wiki methods of communication for the Wikimedia movement.
The Foundation's site has been around since 2004, when its home page described Wikipedia as "the award-winning online encyclopedia". However, unlike all other WMF sites, which are freely editable by anyone, the Foundation's official site has never been fully open to community editing. Its "Welcome" page states that "this wiki does not exactly follow the same rules as the other Wikimedia projects, since it is not open to all for editing, and in case of disagreement, the organ of decision will be the Board." The WMF uses the site to publish its Board of Trustees' resolutions, to present information about its staff and contractors, and as part of the fundraising process, among other purposes.
The desysopping was a source of considerable upset among participants on the Wikimedia-l mailing list, with some community members accusing the Foundation of intentionally pushing the community away. The motives for the action were initially unclear, even after an explanation from Young on her Foundation website user talk page:
I'm limiting admin rights on this wiki to Foundation staff and board members. You'll still be able to do everything a normal user can do, and if you have a particular project you're working on which brings with it a good justification for admin rights, I'm sure people will be happy to give you those rights for the duration of that project.
The abrupt action and its accompanying email was likened to being summarily terminated from a place of employment—the key difference being that those fired were volunteers, or people who edit because they believe in the movement and its mission. Community members characterized it as "tactless and rude", a simple "thanks, bye", and as the "corporate version of ordering someone off your lawn". The situation was apparently exacerbated by the unfortunate timing of the actions—at the start of the weekend break in the US—and the lack of an early response intensified the mounting furor on the mailing list.
Community members used the incident to remark on what they perceived as centralizing actions being taken by the Foundation in recent months. MZMcBride noted that these have included restricting blog access, Bugzilla adminship, and shell access, the latter leading to the loss of volunteer system administrators. The Foundation's Executive Director, Sue Gardner, said the incident was in the interests of simple efficiency. Gardner said it was her understanding that volunteer editors on the Foundation's site have reverted changes made by Foundation staff, and vice versa. The resulting long discussions, typically one-on-one (as opposed to large community debates), have occasionally taken an inordinate amount of time away from the Foundation's paid staff. Gardner said that the staff working on the website have been assigned tasks to complete, and these discussions are not an ideal use of their time.
Gardner does not believe that the Foundation revoked administrators' powers to spite the community. "This decision is not about 'the community' versus 'the WMF'", she said, but about enabling the WMF's paid staff "to do their work on the WMF wiki with some reasonable degree of efficiency and effectiveness." It also clarifies the proper structure on the Foundation site, where the Foundation takes the editorial lead, in contrast with the projects, where the editing community takes the editorial lead and the Foundation provides background assistance. Returning to the removal of administrative rights, Gardner said, "People can disagree with this decision, and that's okay. But ultimately, the Wikimedia Foundation is responsible for the Wikimedia Foundation wiki: it's our job to figure out how best to manage and maintain it. That's what we're doing here."
WMF has not identified any specific incidents that prompted its decision, though staff interactions with MZMcBride may have been a trigger. In January 2012, a disagreement with a contractor led WMF Deputy Director Erik Möller to threaten deactivation of MZMcBride's WMF wiki account. In March 2013, MZMcBride proposed deletion of over one thousand pages. In response to that proposal, Director of Community Advocacy Philippe Beaudette hinted at the possibility of removing userrights, saying that Senior Communications Director Jay Walsh "has requested that I not issue any further userrights here until a conversation has been had about the direction of the wiki and its management." Conversations in these incidents raised the same points about the WMF wiki's unique purpose and Foundation control as Gardner's recent explanations. The event also brought up the question of merging the WMF site into Meta, the coordinating website for the Wikimedia movement, including the Foundation, the projects, related entities, and community members.
Gayle Karen Young apologized for her handling of the incident, and continued with her thoughts on the divided community that the Foundation faces every day:
| “ | ... I wish people could see how ... it can be sometimes just exhausting to try to please so many different voices. Some of you may think that the Foundation doesn't think about the community—and I think we sometimes listen so much that it's a little crazy because, as has been explained to us, the community is not one voice, not one thing, not one person. It's a vast, beautiful, sometimes conflicted, sometimes coordinated people working on this enormous shared endeavor. So it's not that community is not worth listening to, but how and where and to what pieces, and how do we get better at it and how do we amplify the constructive voices and not let deconstructive voices (both within the Foundation and without) tear us down because this work is hard. ... / ... So sometimes I forget we're on the same side, and thank you for reminding me. Thank you for the temperate voices, the ones who present a point of view I hadn't considered. As you can likely imagine, I hear more that way. Most people do.
... So...listening, thinking... also tired, but optimistic, and I hope and want to keep doing better. |
” |
In brief
- Criticism of Affiliations Committee's perceived profligacy: In addition to the removal of administrator rights, a flurry of emails were sent on the Wikimedia-l mailing list relating to the Affiliations Committee's (Affcom) proposed US$40,000 travel budget for its annual meeting, which will be held in Hong Kong at Wikimania 2013, and its included $200 per night lodging cost. Community inquiries began after a blog post focused on a proposed (now passed) resolution to request US$40,000 to send nine of its ten members to the annual meeting. Discussion then moved to Meta on both the Affcom talk page and talk page of the resolution. Affcom defended its proposed lodging outlay by pointing to the Foundation's official travel policy, which states in part that "WMF travelers shall be reimbursed the actual and reasonable expenses for accommodation while traveling on WMF business. A single room with a private bath is the standard." The $200 per night figure stems from this requirement and the Foundation's choice of hotels in Hong Kong; the Affcom chair commented that the actual price may be lower, especially if the WMF’s travel organizer chooses a different location.
- Upcoming elections: Nominations for the upcoming board, Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), and FDC Ombudsperson elections will close on 17 May. At the time of publication, with less than two days to nominate, three more candidates have put themselves forward for election as trustees: Francis Kaswahili Kaguna (Francis Kaswahili), from Tanzania in East Africa; Jeromy-Yu Chan (Yuyu), from Hong Kong; and Samuel Klein (Sj), from the United States. There are now two candidates for the two vacant seats on the FDC, including newly nominated CristianCantoro from Italy; and no candidates for the position of ombudsperson.
- SUL centralization delayed: In related news, the planned finalization of the single user login (SUL) system has been delayed until August due to the Foundation elections, where voter identity will be at issue, and because the visual editor will be deployed soon after, which will require the close attention of WMF engineers.
- Chapters association: The chapters association, fresh from the Wikimedia conference in Milan, has started an ambitiously titled public newsletter, WCA/Journal. The association has modeled it after the Kurier, the German Wikipedia news outlet, and has high hopes for it:
| “ | Facilitating collaboration among Wikimedia organisations is the major topic the WCA has committed itself to. The WCA/Journal is one big piece in the mosaic of tools and communication spaces we provide in order to start and grow the exchange of ideas, solutions and projects. It's [sic] purpose is to make organisations aware of each other's work, give them some entry points for collaboration, make their success stories visible and share their experiences. | ” |
- German chapter: The largest Wikimedia chapter, Wikimedia Germany, which received nearly US$2 million from the FDC in last October's round, has released their 2012 annual report and a translation of its detailed plan for 2013. Included in the latter is the chapter's projected expenditures of a total of $8.6 million, with fundraising costs at nearly $360,000.
- Main page RfC: The design and appearance of the English Wikipedia's main page, which has not been significantly altered since 2006, is the subject of a new request for comment. Previous assessments have been unkind, calling it ugly and "remarkably unattractive", and that a "superficial makeover" of the page may be "just the thing Wikipedia needs to begin growing in a more meaningful way."
- Ombudsman and gender neutrality: A proposal to rename the Foundation's ombudsman position to a gender-neutral term has been met with resistance, including from one of the current ombudsmen, Thogo: "Just to sum up this rather useless discussion: There is absolutely no problem to solve here. So, please don't waste your time. ... This über-artificial crampy political correctness is nothing but annoying, and it shows that people are either not aware of the grammar or are trying to manipulate it for political reasons." In addition, as reported last week, the request for comment (RfC) on the proposed expansion in scope of the movement-wide Ombudsman Commission is still open.
- Museum case studies needed: The Museum Association, which describes itself as a "membership organization for everyone working in museums, galleries, and heritage," has published a call for examples of Wikimedia and museum collaborations that they can use in the June issue of their journal, Museum Practice.
Reader comments
Knock Out: WikiProject Mixed Martial Arts
- Check out the new WikiProject Scheduled Tasks which seeks to keep track of articles that need to be updated when a specific event occurs in the future
This week, we spent some time watching WikiProject Mixed Martial Arts. The project was started in August 2005 and grew to include 12 Good Articles and a Featured List. The project maintains a list of resources, keeps track of fighter biographies, runs its own bot, and provides a variety of templates. We interviewed TreyGeek.
What motivated you to join WikiProject Mixed Martial Arts? Are you also a fan of boxing, professional wrestling, or another form of martial arts?
- As a fan of MMA, while reading the articles I found a high level of vandalism in those articles. I joined Wikipedia and the WikiProject to help revert those edits, to communicate about articles needing improvement and general issues within the project space. My involvement has grown in the seven years since then, though I become inactive at times due to off-wiki responsibilities. I also run User:MMABot which helps to try and keep parts of articles standardized.
Does the project focus primarily on pay-per-view events or does the project's scope also include articles describing events in the near and distant past? Are some eras better covered than others?
- The intent of the project (as I see it) is to develop good articles about any notable MMA event (whether it aired on PPV or not) and any notable MMA individuals (fighters, promoters, coaches, etc.). The beginnings of MMA is probably does not have the best coverage as there was a general lack of publicity over the sport (aside from the controversy surrounding it). Therefore, finding reliable sources for notable events and persons from that time period is difficult to find. An issue we are encountering with current events is the results from the event being slapped up into a Wikipedia article with little to no context in terms of what lead up to the event and the matches with in it, discussion of the event itself and any after effects.
How much does mixed martial arts crossover with other forms of martial arts? Does WikiProject Mixed Martial Arts collaborate with any other projects? What can be done to improve communication between Wikipedia's martial arts projects?
- The sport itself is the coming together of multiple martial arts and combat sports. It's not uncommon to hear that a particular fighter traveled to Thailand to practice Muay Thai or kickboxing or that they brought into their gym a coach specializing in boxing or wrestling. There's not a lot of communication or collaboration between WP:MMA and WP:Martial Arts, WP:BOXING, or WP:Kickboxing because, I think, all of the WikiProjects are lacking active members which would help foster that communication and collaboration.
Has it been difficult to find reliable independent sources about mixed martial arts? Where can editors find useful references when building mixed martial arts articles?
- As mentioned before, the early period of MMA doesn't have a lot of reliable sources since there wasn't a lot of coverage back then. As I understand it, there was print coverage in Japan, but that coverage never really made it online. As for current references, Sherdog has become the de facto source for fighter records and event results. There are other MMA-focused websites, such as MMAJunkie.com and MMAWeekly.com, that cover the sport. Caution is often suggested as some of the stories on these sites border on reporting of rumors as opposed to actual news. There's also been a recent push to use more mainstream sources (ESPN, USA Today, etc.) to help bolster notability claims.
Are freely-licensed images available to illustrate articles about fighters and events? What are some useful tips for editors to acquire images for articles about mixed martial arts?
- Free images are available for fighters as fans and editors will upload their own photos to Commons. A similar thing occurs with some events, though those are sometimes less easy to work into an article. There is a lot of fair-use images used for event posters and promotional images.
What are the project's most urgent needs? How can a new contributor help today?
- A lot of articles, especially those about events, are very short articles. Those articles need expanding to discuss what lead up to the event and the matches at the event, what occurred during the event and any after effects of the event. There are also a number of stand-alone event articles for small promotions in which the event by itself may not be notable. Sending some of these non-notable articles to AfD or combining them into a single article (such as "Year in" articles) would be needed.
Next week's article will delve into a Greco-Roman world. Until then, ponder our classic articles in the archive.
Reader comments
A mushroom, a motorway, a Munich gallery, and a map
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from May 5, 2013 through May 11, 2013.
Featured articles
Fourteen featured articles were promoted this week.
- Boletus luridus (nom) by Casliber and Sasata. Boletus luridus, commonly known as the lurid bolete, is a fungus of the bolete family, found in deciduous woodlands on chalky soils in Asia, Europe, and eastern North America. Fruit bodies arise in summer and autumn and may be abundant. It is a solid bolete with an olive-brown cap up to 20 cm (8 in) in diameter, with small reddish pores on the underside. The stout ochre stem reaches dimensions of 8–14 cm (3–6 in) tall and 1–3 cm (0.4–1.2 in) wide, and is patterned with a reddish meshwork. Though edible when cooked, it can cause gastric upset when eaten raw and can be confused with the poisonous Boletus satanas.
- USS Kearsarge (BB-5) (nom) by Inkbug. The USS Kearsarge (BB-5) was the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships. It was a United States Navy ship, named after the sloop-of-war Kearsarge. Her keel was laid down by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company of Virginia on 30 June 1896, she was launched on 24 March 1898, and commissioned on 20 February 1900. Between 1903 and 1907 Kearsarge served in the North Atlantic Fleet, and from 1907 to 1909 she sailed as part of the Great White Fleet. In 1909 she was decommissioned for modernization, which was finished in 1911. In 1915 she served in the Atlantic, and between 1916 and 1919 she served as a training ship. She was converted into a crane ship in 1920, renamed Crane Ship No. 1 in 1941, and sold for scrap in 1955.
- Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 (nom) by Nikkimaria. The Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 occurred on 9 August 1942 during the Second World War, while the city of Leningrad was under siege by Nazi German forces. Dmitri Shostakovich had intended for the piece to be premièred by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, but because of the siege that group was evacuated from the city. The world première of the symphony was held in Kuibyshev with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. The Leningrad première was performed by the surviving musicians of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra, supplemented with military performers. Most of the musicians were starving, which made rehearsing difficult: musicians frequently collapsed during rehearsals, and three died. The orchestra was able to play the symphony all the way through only once before the concert.
A portrait of Norman Selfe. - Norman Selfe (nom) by Wittylama. Norman Selfe (1839–1911) was an Australian engineer, naval architect, inventor, urban planner and outspoken advocate of technical education. After immigrating to Sydney with his family from England as a boy he became an apprentice engineer, following his father's trade. Selfe designed many bridges, docks, boats, and much precision machinery for the city. He also introduced new refrigeration, hydraulic, electrical and transport systems. For these achievements he received international acclaim during his lifetime. Decades before the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built, the city came close to building a Selfe-designed steel cantilever bridge across the harbour after he won the second public competition for a bridge design.
- Gustav Holst (nom) by Brianboulton and Tim riley. Gustav Holst (1874–1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed a large number of works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success. His distinctive compositional style was the product of many influences, including the English folksong revival of the early 20th century.
- California State Route 75 (nom) by Rschen7754. State Route 75 is a short, 13-mile (21 km) expressway in San Diego County, California. It is a loop route of Interstate 5 that begins near Imperial Beach, heading west on Palm Avenue. The route continues north along the Silver Strand, a thin strip of land, through Silver Strand State Beach. It passes through the city of Coronado as Orange Avenue and continues onto the San Diego–Coronado Bay Bridge, which traverses the San Diego Bay, before joining back with Interstate 5 near downtown San Diego at a freeway interchange.
- Freedom for the Thought That We Hate (nom) by Cirt. Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment is a 2007 non-fiction book by Anthony Lewis about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of thought, and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The book starts by quoting the First Amendment, which prohibits the United States Congress from creating legislation which limits free speech or freedom of the press. Lewis traces the evolution of civil liberties in the United States through key historical events. He provides an overview of important free speech case law, including United States Supreme Court opinions in Schenck v. United States in 1919, Whitney v. California in 1927, United States v. Schwimmer in 1929, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan in 1964, and New York Times Co. v. United States in 1971.
- God of War (video game) (nom) by JDC808. God of War is a third person action-adventure video game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. First released on March 22, 2005, for the PlayStation 2 console, it is the first installment in the series of the same name and the third chronologically. Loosely based on Greek mythology, it is set in Ancient Greece with vengeance as its central motif. The player controls the protagonist Kratos, a Spartan warrior who serves the Olympian Gods. The goddess Athena tasks Kratos with killing Ares, the God of War, who is responsible for Kratos accidentally killing his family. As Ares besieges Athens out of hatred for Athena, Kratos embarks on a quest to find the one object capable of stopping the god: the legendary Pandora's Box. After an epic quest, Kratos is successful and replaces the defeated Ares as the new God of War.
Hurricane Hattie brutally affected British Honduras (present-day Belize). - Hurricane Hattie (nom) by Hurricanehink and TheAustinMan. Hurricane Hattie was the strongest and deadliest tropical cyclone of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season, reaching a peak intensity equivalent to that of a Category 5 hurricane. The ninth tropical storm and seventh major hurricane of the season, Hattie originated from an area of low pressure that strengthened into a tropical storm over the south-western Caribbean Sea on October 27. Moving generally northward, the storm quickly became a hurricane and later major hurricane the following day. Hattie then turned westward west of Jamaica and strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h). It weakened to Category 4 before making landfall south of Belize City on October 31. The storm turned south-westward and weakened rapidly over the mountainous terrain of Central America, dissipating on November 1.
- Creek Turnpike (nom) by Scott5114. The Creek Turnpike is a 33.22-mile-long (53.46 km) freeway-standard toll road that lies entirely in the United States state of Oklahoma. The turnpike forms a partial beltway around the south and east sides of Tulsa. The Creek Turnpike's western terminus is at the Turner Turnpike in Sapulpa, while its northeastern terminus is at the Will Rogers Turnpike in Fair Oaks; both ends of the Creek Turnpike connect with Interstate 44. Along the way, the highway passes through the cities of Sapulpa, Jenks, Tulsa, and Broken Arrow, and the counties of Creek, Tulsa, Wagoner and Rogers.
- Japanese battleship Yamashiro (nom) by Dank and Sturmvogel 66. Yamashiro was the second of two Fusō-class dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Launched in 1915 and commissioned in 1917, she initially patrolled off the coast of China, playing no part in World War I. In 1923 she assisted survivors of the Great Kanto Earthquake. Yamashiro was modernized between 1930 and 1935 with improvements to her armor and machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. Nevertheless with only 14-inch guns she was outclassed by other Japanese battleships at the beginning of World War II, and played auxiliary roles for most of the war. By 1944, though, she was forced into front-line duty, serving as the flagship of the Southern Force at the Battle of Surigao Strait. During fierce night fighting in the early hours of October 25 against a superior American force, Yamashiro was sunk by torpedoes and naval gunfire.
Saratoga during World War II. - USS Saratoga (CV-3) (nom) by Sturmvogel 66. USS Saratoga (CV-3) was a Lexington-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy during the 1920s. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. She was one of three prewar US fleet aircraft carriers, along with Enterprise and Ranger, to serve throughout World War II. The ship took part in the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the New Georgia Campaign and the Bougainville Campaign. During the Battle of Iwo Jima it was badly damaged by kamikaze hits and was forced to return to the United States for repairs. During this time it was permanently modified as a training carrier. In mid-1946 the ship was a target for nuclear weapon tests during Operation Crossroads. She survived the first test with little damage, but was sunk by the second test.
- Tripura (nom) by Dwaipayanc. Tripura is a state in North East India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers 10,491 km2 (4,051 sq mi) and is bordered by Bangladesh to the north, south, and west, and the Indian states of Assam and Mizoram to the east. As of 2011, the state has 3,671,032 residents, constituting 0.3% of the country's population. Indigenous communities, known in India as scheduled tribes, form about 30 per cent of Tripura's population. The Kokborok-speaking Tripuri people are the major group among 19 tribes and many subtribes; Bengali people form the ethno-linguistic majority.
- Duino Elegies (nom) by ColonelHenry. The Duino Elegies are a collection of ten elegies written by the Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke, who is "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", began writing the elegies in 1912 while a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis at Duino Castle. The poems, 859 lines long in total, were dedicated to the Princess upon their publication in 1923. During this ten-year period, the elegies languished incomplete for long stretches of time as Rilke suffered frequently from severe depression—some of which was caused by the events of World War I and being conscripted into military service. Aside from brief episodes of writing in 1913 and 1915, Rilke did not return to the work until a few years after the war ended. With a sudden, renewed inspiration—writing in a frantic pace he described as a "boundless storm, a hurricane of the spirit"—he completed the collection in February 1922 while staying at Château de Muzot in Veyras. After their publication in 1923 and Rilke's death in 1926, the Duino Elegies were quickly recognized by critics and scholars as his most important work.
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Featured lists
Three featured lists were promoted this week.
- Leuchtenberg Gallery (nom) by Fram. The Leuchtenberg Gallery was the collection of artworks of the Dukes of Leuchtenberg, on public display in Munich. Widely recognized during the 19th century, it is considered one of the most important private collections of all time. It is located at the Palais Leuchtenberg, in Munich, and several of its elements have been moved to other galleries across the globe.
- Latin Grammy Award for Best Salsa Album (nom) by Hahc21 with Status. The Latin Grammy Award for Best Salsa Album is awarded yearly at the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony, and given to vocal or instrumental salsa albums recorded by solo artists, duos or groups. The accolade was first presented in 2000 to cuban singer Celia Cruz.
- Kevin Shields discography (nom) by Idiotchalk. Irish musician Kevin Shields has released three studio albums as a member of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. Beginning his musical career in the late 1970s, he formed My Bloody Valentine from 1983 until its disbandment in 1997. Later on, he collaborated with a wide variety of artists as a solo singer.
Featured pictures
Three featured pictures were promoted this week.
- Manhattan in 1873 (nom, related article) originally created by George Schlegel, restored by Adam Cuerden, and nominated by Mediran. George Schlegel Lithographing Co. (1849–1957) was a printing company based in New York. This lithograph shows the Manhattan borough of New York City as it appeared in 1873.
- Saint-Augustin drawing (nom, related article) created by Victor Baltard and nominated by Tomer T. The Église Saint-Augustin de Paris (Church of St. Augustine) was built between 1860 and 1871. Victor Baltard was the architect. The church is approximately 100 meters (330 ft) long and 80 meters (260 ft) high.
- Armenian Genocide (nom, related article) created by Sémhur and nominated by Proudbolsahye. The Armenian Genocide involved the post-World War I Ottoman Empire's maltreatment and execution of ethnic minorities in its territory such as Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. The death toll is estimated at 1 to 1.5 million people. Although the consensus among historians is that "genocide" is the correct term, the government of Turkey disputes this, and government officials attempted to prosecute author Orhan Pamuk in 2005 for his statements concerning the deaths of Armenians. The charges were dropped for technical reasons after an international outcry and an inquiry from the European Union.
Reader comments
PR firm accused of editing Wikipedia for government clients; can Wikipedia predict the stock market?
PR firm accused of editing Wikipedia for government clients
An article published on May 10 on Odwyerpr.com written by Greg Hazley documented a "sparring match" between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and public relations firm Qorvis partner Matt Lauer. Lauer, who is not related to the Matt Lauer of the US' Today show, disputes Wikipedia's guideline discouraging public relations firms from editing articles on their clients, saying "This inane policy would violate the basic tenets of even the most partisan of small-town newspapers or the most crooked court rooms. This dangerous policy violates the fundamental rules of reporting, of debate, and of discussion." Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Paid editing Wales responded via Twitter, saying "Your complaints are deeply dishonest to the point of being embarrassing."
Lauer's firm, Qorvis, created several sockpuppets to try to "whitewash" the pages of his clients. There was a thread about this on Wales' Wikipedia talk page regarding Qorvis in February which referenced a sockpuppet investigation into the matter. When it was confirmed, Wales suggested to Lauer that his clients should fire him for his misuse of Wikipedia.
A previous article in the Daily Dot detailed some of Wikipedia's "voluminous" evidence against Qorvis—though Lauer denies that it is true—and continued to slam Lauer:
| “ | Remember Lauer's claim that some creatively slanderous Wikipedian had written that CEO Michael Petruzzello was known as the "Super Gypsy among the Washington elite?" The Daily Dot discovered that the edit was actually made by the exact same Qorvis IP address listed above: 38.100.14.250. Either inside jokes from Qorvis staffers were leaking on to Wikipedia, or the "Super Gypsy" really is Petruzzello's nickname. Regardless, the fact that Lauer omitted this key information from his blog post shows that either he's either [sic] being dishonest or is ignorant of what his employees are doing on Wikipedia. Either way, it calls into question everything else Lauer has said about Qorvis' activity on the site. | ” |
The O'Dwyer article concludes with a comment from Wales stating that in his experience, which he describes as "comprehensive", people who are paid representatives are bad editors who insert biased information and that they do it because "that is what paid advocates do." Still, despite Wales' strong words, Wikipedia's conflict of interest and paid editing guidelines are purposely vague, and attempts to strengthen or weaken them have faced strong resistance.
Can Wikipedia predict the stock market?
A report conducted by researchers at the Warwick Business School has concluded that a trading strategy based on the frequency of views would have yielded up to a 141 per cent improvement over a random strategy. IT Business of Canada wrote about the report. Their article commented that:
| “ | While basing a trading strategy solely around such data is likely a risky proposition, it is an interesting real-world case study of big data in action, and how publicly accessible information on group behavior can be used to make better and more informed decisions. | ” |
The report found that using Wikipedia from late 2007 to 2012 may have "provided some insight" into how the market was going to perform, but said that no such relationship exists between views of Wikipedia articles on actors and filmmakers.
The report can be viewed in its entirety via Nature.com here.
In brief
- Australian bookmaker and COI: The Wikipedia article on Tom Waterhouse, who is described there as a fourth-generation bookmaker and businessman, came into the public spotlight this week after the Age, an Australian newspaper, published an article detailing his staff's alleged involvement. While Waterhouse is quoted as saying that "I've only asked them to make sure [the content] abides by what is legal," the newspaper detailed efforts by several editors to remove well-referenced information.
- Citation needed: boingboing.net published a brief blurb regarding the Wikipedia article entitled citation needed which, ironically, does not have any [citation needed] tags.
- Rachel Johnson factual error: A brief article in the London Evening Standard commented that Rachel Johnson's Wikipedia page had a factual error and that, when she tried to correct it herself, she received a rebuke from administrator Orangemike. The error has now been fixed after the implementation of a reliable source. Mike commented to The Signpost that he was not contacted by the paper prior to their running the story and that he left the "usual warning" about conflicts of interest.
- Wikipedian featured: The Oregonian published a feature on Wikipedian Jason Moore, who lives in Oregon. On Wikipedia, he is known as Another Believer. (Editor's note: Jason gave the Signpost permission to disclose his real name.)
- Track Wikipedia edits live: TheAtlanticCities.com released an article announcing the creation of a live map tracking from where in the world Wikipedia edits come. The map, which can be viewed here was designed by two programmers and uses geographic locations of IP addresses to generate its data.
- Basketball player called "faggot" on Wikipedia: The Huffington Post published an article with a screenshot of this diff before the revision was deleted. The revision showed an edit that read, "He just revealed he is a faggot!" The Huffington Post obtained the screenshot from Queerty.com, which in turn received it from an "eagle-eyed reader".
Reader comments
Race and politics opened; three open cases
The Race and politics case has been accepted for arbitration, and the evidence phase is now open. Two other cases remain open.
Open cases
The evidence phase of this case, which deals with sourcing methods in articles pertaining to race politics, is scheduled to close May 21, 2013, the workshop is to close on May 28 and the proposed decision is scheduled to be posted June 4.
In the case, brought by Lecen, an editor is accused of systematically skewing several articles involving former Argentine president Juan Manuel de Rosas to portray a brutal dictator as a democratic leader, in keeping with the political motives of Argentine "nationalists" or "revisionists".
The evidence stage was scheduled to close 12 April 2013, the workshop stage on 19 April, and a proposed decision was scheduled for 26 April.
This case was brought to the Committee by KillerChihuahua, who alleges the discussion over this American political group has degenerated into incivility. Evidence for the case was due by 20 March 2013, the workshop was to close on 27 March, and a proposed decision was scheduled for 3 April.
Other requests and committee action
- Clarification request: WP:ARBPIA/Jerusalem: A request by Sm8900 seeking advice over a committee-mandated RFC that appeared to have bogged down was closed with the committee advising against intervention in the current process or assessment of effectiveness of the mandated dispute resolution process before its completion.
- Clarification request: Scientology: A request by Prioryman seeking to clarify the scope of discretionary sanctions in Scientology-related articles was closed with the advice that discretionary sanctions apply to any edits that are about Scientology and are deemed disruptive, whether or not the relevant articles are tagged with the appropriate wikiproject banner.
- Clarification request: TimidGuy ban appeal: A 29 April 2013 request, initiated by MastCell, requests the release of voting information for the rejection of Will Beback's ban appeal, or failing that, an explanation of why such information cannot be provided. (Note: this is not the same as the request of the same name brought on April 5, 2013, by IRWolfie.)
- Clarification request: Discretionary sanctions appeals procedure: A request to clarify the appeal process for discretionary sanctions warnings was filed by Sandstein.
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