Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2023-08-31

Comments

The following is an automatically-generated compilation of all talk pages for the Signpost issue dated 2023-08-31. For general Signpost discussion, see Wikipedia talk:Signpost.

Draftspace: Bad Jokes and Other Draftspace Novelties (3,104 bytes · 💬)

Having tried my hand at reviewing drafts in the last few months, I agree that AfC can be a brutal process sometimes: going through the various submissions is inevitably time-consuming (as I learned when I submitted my own drafts), and running into poorly sourced pages, or even hoaxes, just doesn't help us... Luckily enough, there are still some instances where you're able to build a constructive conversation with newer users and give them some advice to improve, so that's definitely a silver lining! Oltrepier (talk) 13:09, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Though I've only created a few small articles, I've never used the Draft space myself. I don't really see the point. I create a User space sandbox article while working and expanding, and then directly move it to mainspace. Ciridae (talk) 09:04, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

From my experiences it's really more a matter of principle than anything else; It saves time if you misjudge the quality of a draft so it just gets sent back to you draftspace instead of getting deleted and then reinstated and allows for people to discuss and review articles without the pressure of them being live in mainspace as you're doing it. Everyone screws up once or twice in their lives, using drafts just helps establish that assumption of good faith.Orchastrattor (talk) 00:23, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

I personally use draftspace when I plan to publish an article within a month and/or assume that other editors might be intersted in developing it too. This is because when someone visits a nonexistent mainspace page with the same title as a draft, a message says "There is a draft for this article at Draft:Article name", which invites other people to improve it. I use userspace if the topic isn't new, trending or future-related and if I haven't found much sources that demonstrate notability yet. ObserveOwl (chit-chat • my doings) 15:35, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

This article seems somewhat mean to CatLover 1137, who is likely a small child or otherwise immature judging by their behaviors, and doesn't really need the callout. casualdejekyll 01:43, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

To be fair, that's an accurate description of how cats are. (In seriousness -- I have great respect for the AfC team, they do yeoman's work and I used them myself when I was just starting out.) RexSueciae (talk) 23:49, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

I’m surprised nobody mentioned how that code cutting thing looks like ChatGPT Aaron Liu (talk) 17:29, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

From the editor: Beta version of signpost.news now online (6,809 bytes · 💬)

New site looks beautiful, but note that pages such as https://signpost.news/Newsroom/Quick_Start have links to edit such as https://signpost.news/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Newsroom/Quick_Start&action=edit&section=1 which pull up errors:

An error occurred

500

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'redirects')

at Object.fetchAndProcessData (/root/2023-aug-sinepost/sinepost/controllers/wikiController.js:14:29)

at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)

at async /root/2023-aug-sinepost/sinepost/routes/index.js:48:25

Nice job otherwise. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 00:54, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Oh, yeah. I am not really sure how to implement section-edit links for now, and had meant to .mw-editsection { display:none; } but forgot. jp×g 01:13, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Could you send me the newspaper to my email inbox, like an email newsletter? Benjamin (talk) 02:59, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

So this is a live mirror with no caching? -- John of Reading (talk) 06:29, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Yeah, if you write "peepee poopoo" in this article and then go to it over there it'll show up lickety-split. I have some vaguely defined future plan to set up a caching system (since right now my server has to transfer the data twice for each query) but while thinking about this in the shower I realized it would be pretty complicated and require a lot of work. We will see how motivated I am when I look at the hosting bill next month, I guess. jp×g 09:06, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Note: I would suggest that anyone interested in actually doing this come up with a different string to test with, and do it on some page that isn't from the current issue. jp×g 09:22, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Interesting idea, I will say the thing that stands out most immediately is the yellowed paper look of the website, not exactly appealing in my opinion. —The Editor's Apprentice (talk) 08:25, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

This looks pretty promising, thank you for the immensely hard work you're putting in! I've taken a quick look at the various sections, and I'd just point out a few graphical issues. Firstly, some of the pictures included in the articles look misplaced and tend to "invade" quotes (see this page for context); secondly, I think you could just stick to the "standard" layout used here, that is, white background and blue hyperlinks, instead of rose and grey, or maybe you could just use an ever lighter shade of rose! Finally, the bold font used for the articles' headlines and paragraphs is a bit too hard-hitting for the eyes, but maybe my myopia is the one to blame in this case... On a similar note, what about including an option to switch from light to dark background, and vice versa? Anyway, keep it up! : ) Oltrepier (talk) 09:47, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

This whiffs of the URL shortener problem to me. When the mirror inevitably ceases to function (and I do think it's inevitable) and assuming it sees much use (though I don't think it will, which adds to the inevitability) are we not just generating future dead links? I suppose directly translating from en.wp to sp.news URLs does mitigate the issue somewhat (I can search "2023-08-31/From_the_editor", for example, and get to the Wikipedia article just fine) but I remain very wary. Tantusar (talk) 10:55, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Well, in that case, due to the URL structure, I could do what was on signpost.news for about a year before that (a simple DNS redirect from the root domain to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/*). This costs somewhere on the order of a couple hundred bucks per decade, so maybe we can hold a "fun raiser" of sorts. jp×g 19:07, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Feedback: I enjoyed the new site of The Signpost. However, it felt that this site needs some improvements. Basically what I mean is that, even though the it is in the beta stages, I would suggest adding more features to be level to other news sites. No mobile view (which can be hard for users to read its content in some cases), no share links, search bar behind the "Archives" section, lack of illustration on the main page, and others. Overall, the site fells like one browsing a site in the 2010's. While some features are okay, like the yellow tint, it would be favorable to add such features. Toadette ^(chat)/_(logs) 11:45, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

Hot dog!! JPxG you've done a gorgeous, uplifting thing. I happen to like the look of the site very much ;~). And you imported the backlog with all of its tags... it took me all of ten seconds to satisfy idle curiosity and track down some ancient history on early Wikimania coverage. – SJ + 22:24, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

I think this is a pretty cool initiative ! When i get back from vacation ill take a deeper look. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:03, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

I'm confused by the comparison of Wikipedia URLs with The Wetumpka Herald URLs. Surely ours are better than the fugly UUID in the Herald URL? 93.72.49.123 (talk) 21:53, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Beautiful, incredible, amazing, wondrous, dope, awesomesauce, etc. Thanks! Can't wait to see where this goes! Crunchydillpickle🥒 (talk) 01:25, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

Humour: The Dehumourification Plan (2,361 bytes · 💬)

• So, is OK? I don't want to get in trouble or anything. ☆ Bri (talk) 00:47, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
• We need to unite against this anti-fun paramilitary. They are a threat to Wikipedia peace and security. Although, we should work together to destroy the biggest circus in the world. Like the US and USSR in WW2. CLYDE ^{TALK TO ME}/_{STUFF DONE} 00:50, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
• Yeah, but what if someone finds it fun to take away others' fun? :/ ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 00:59, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
• Humour is shocking. How do we convey that in the lip-readers version? The Banner talk 10:47, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
• The most important thing is that we Wiki-users do not get Scared! ---Zemant (talk) 14:52, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
• So I should skip the laugh track when I record the London Necropolis Railway audio file? -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 21:29, 31 August 2023 (UTC)
• So, the process will be completed by the "Degenerate Era" of the universe (which is expected to begin in 10¹⁴ years)? That's insane! GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 17:25, 1 September 2023 (UTC)
• I recommend indefinite blocks of any editor who goofs off on April Fools Day. Cullen328 (talk) 21:28, 7 September 2023 (UTC)

In the media: Taking it sleazy (28,080 bytes · 💬)

Hunter Biden

• Interesting that there was no discussion of the administrators being "in kahoots" with article subjects when Vivek Ramaswamy was revealed to have hired people to scrub his Wikipedia page a couple weeks ago. I wonder what the difference could possibly be for such esteemed sources like The Federalist to bring this issue up. ThadeusOfNazereth(he/him)^{Talk to Me!} 11:37, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

  The edits on Vivek Ramaswamy's biography were reversed, the edits on Hunter Biden's biography were not reversed. Here is the difference you wondered about. BookNotion (talk) 12:01, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

Orlowski

• The Orlowski piece is pretty spot on. Regardless of how much you may support a social or political cause, readers who support it too should donate to that cause. What people are donating to here is this cause, with the reasonable expectation this is what their money will be used for. Even paying zillion dollar golden parachutes for high level employees can at least somehow be connected back to the project, even if it's not the most responsible use of funds.
  This right here, increased access to free knowledge, is supposed to be the social justice cause. Many people don't have access to a library. Even in developed parts of the world like the US, we've got people banning books and even banning libraries. So who fills that gap? I dunno, probably the first friggin thing that shows up when you google basically anything. GMG^talk 10:56, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

This is one of the reasons why I advise people to not give money to the WMF anymore. They are better off donating time by editing any of the projects. However, I disagree with Orlowski about contributors being paid; that's a terrible idea. Ciridae (talk) 08:42, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

• Paying editors is one of those ideas that seems "fine" (barely) in theory but would be virtually impossible to implement in any kind of equitable way. ThadeusOfNazereth(he/him)^{Talk to Me!} 11:45, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

  We could still hire a bunch of extra programmers if nothing else. Just because content needs to be volunteer to ensure neutrality, doesn't mean WP:PHAB needs to be the same way. GMG^talk 12:07, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

  GreenMeansGo, ThadeusOfNazereth, Ciridae: It is worth noting that even today, some volunteers do get paid by the WMF, both for committee jobs and for certain types of editing.

  See discussion at User_talk:BilledMammal/2023_Wikimedia_RfC for examples and thoughts about spending priorities. Andreas JN466 12:18, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

• Please note that The Telegraph column linked here contains numerous inaccuracies. For background, before the article was published, our team provided a detailed response to questions from the reporter. Unfortunately, no part of the Foundation's statement was included in the published piece. This is not the first time that, despite providing the author with information and answering their questions, they have misrepresented how the Foundation works. Since the piece was published last Monday, our team has contacted The Telegraph requesting an immediate correction on several points related to the Foundation, including (in summary):

- It is misleading to say that just 2% of Wikipedia's revenue goes to hosting costs. Data centers and technical infrastructure require significant staffing to operate and maintain, in addition to other equipment and operating costs. Nearly half (48.7% or $86.1 million) of our budget is spent directly on technical infrastructure.

- Comparing Wikipedia's operating expenses now with 2010 numbers is a false equivalent, given we now have the same (if not higher) levels of traffic as many other for-profit internet companies at a fraction of the budget and staffing.

- The Knowledge Equity Fund is not funded through the Wikimedia Endowment. It is a one-time fund of $4.5 million that is still being allocated.

- The Wikimedia Endowment is a permanent safekeeping fund, and the full value of the fund is not available for use.

- The Foundation does not apply fundraising overruns intended to support Foundation operating costs to the Endowment.

- The article mischaracterizes Foundation spending and accountability, misrepresenting the facts. As we told the reporter before the article was published, our annual operating budget in FY 2022-23 was $175 million. The Board of Trustees sets our annual budget. The Wikimedia Foundation has long-followed industry best practices for nonprofits and has consistently received the highest ratings by nonprofit groups like Charity Navigator for financial efficiency and transparency.

LDickinson (WMF) (talk) 17:27, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

@LDickinson (WMF) Let's have a look at these complaints, taking each in turn.

1. It's not "misleading" to report the precise figure given for "Internet hosting" in the WMF's own audited financial statements. Moreover, the Telegraph article clearly distinguishes between staffing and hosting costs. It says: Salary costs have also ballooned: from $7m in 2010/11 to $88m in 2021/22. A mere 2pc of the money raised goes on hosting costs.
2. The WMF was a top-10 website operator in 2010. The increase in page views since then has hardly been earth-shattering, according to stats.wikimedia.org, especially given the reduction in bandwidth costs since then – from 13.8B in August 2010 to 24.7B in August 2023.
3. The article does not claim that the Knowledge Equity Fund is funded through the Wikimedia Endowment. It separates them quite clearly, describing the Knowledge Equity Fund as "another recipient" of WMF money, in addition to the Wikimedia Endowment.
4. You say, the full value of the fund is not available for use. Again, the article does not claim otherwise, but specifically points out that the WMF intends to grow the pot further.
5. You say, The Foundation does not apply fundraising overruns intended to support Foundation operating costs to the Endowment. The Foundation made annual donations of $5 million to grow the Endowment, in addition to millions of dollars in donations it passed through to the Endowment. (Since 2021, this has included all money left to the WMF in someone's will.) The WMF has also donated significant staff resources financed through Wikipedia donations. As for the Knowledge Equity Fund, the WMF itself announced the Knowledge Equity Fund as a way to use a fundraising overrun.
6. You have failed to address one of the key points of the article: that after more than seven years, we still lack basic details of the Endowment's expenses and salaries. We learnt from Jimmy Wales last month that over the past couple of years, the Endowment seems to have had annual expenses of around $2 million, but that raises as many questions as it answers. All questions since have remained unanswered. Regards,

Andreas JN466 08:51, 6 September 2023 (UTC)

From User talk:BilledMammal/2023 Wikimedia RfC#Fact_check, please.:

"I have asked again and again for a copy of the legal document that says that the W?F cannot drain the endowment principle to continue spending if things go bad. So far, nothing but the usual W?F silence when asked reasonable questions."

--Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 15:45, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

@LDickinson (WMF), you claimed "The Wikimedia Endowment is a permanent safekeeping fund, and the full value of the fund is not available for use", part of which which you copied from [1]. That page goes on to say "This policy will be reviewed by the Investment Committee annually". Do you have a shred of evidence that supports the above claim? It sure looks like "permanent until we decide to change it".

And, BTW, what's the deal with people from the W?F making statements and then not participating in the discussion they started? Are you being pressured by management to never have any back and forth interaction with the volunteers? --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 07:24, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

(...Sound of Crickets...) --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 10:59, 19 September 2023 (UTC)

You're quite familiar with that sound now, aren't you? Andreas JN466 18:41, 19 September 2023 (UTC)

The Foundation treats editors like Reddit treats mods. You're all imminently replaceable. GMG^talk 19:00, 19 September 2023 (UTC)

It appears that a W?F "Senior Communications Manager"[2][3] has the same relationship to communication[4][5] that a fireman has to fire. Feel free to add a polite comment to those two talk pages saying that you would also like an answer to the above questions. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 21:59, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

@Guy Macon Alternate Account: Candidly, your comments here (beginning "There is a word that I choose to avoid that describes someone…") on 10 September made me feel uncomfortable. You may have chosen to avoid calling me a name because you know it is against project guidelines, but the comment is unkind and unconstructive, especially towards someone you are interacting with for the first time. My feelings of discomfort were reinforced by your later comment here (beginning "It appears that W?F Senior Communications Manager…"), which also links to my personal Meta profile. In recent days, I have seen your many messages requesting a response from me, including comments on my personal talk pages and the Communications Department's talk page. I've also seen your comment encouraging others to comment on my talk page, and I received your email requesting that I respond. I feel that I am not being engaged in an appropriate way. I hope this provides clarity on why you have not seen further responses from me in this space.  LDickinson (WMF) (talk) 20:50, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

I care very little about your discomfort, @LDickinson (WMF):. Please don't think that your passive manner is going to fix this problem. Guy Macon and others have made points about what could seem to be deliberate financial mismanagement. If you're not up to representing the WMF then this might be the sign that it's time for you to move on to other projects. Chris Troutman (talk) 21:07, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Chris, if you have or know of any allegations of "deliberate financial mismanagement" I urge you to bring them directly to me, and not attack staff in this way. What on earth are you talking about? Jimbo Wales (talk) 10:53, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

And yet when direct allegations that the WMF is giving money from donors to community banned editors with serious safeguarding issues - to run events where vulnerable people would be present, you didnt indicate you were paying it any attention given your action of sweeping it out of sight. Perhaps you would like to earn some trust by indicating what due diligence the WMF did before handing over cash, what safeguarding checks were done, what discussion was had over the optics of giving money leveraged through the community to someone who has been very much, repeatedly, rejected by multiple projects. Did you in fact act on that report? Did you in your position on the board exercise your duty of oversight to find out why the processes for grants went so very wrong? Did you ask for any lessons learned? A report? Did you even fire off a 30 second email to someone about it and ask them to look into it given the seriousness of the allegations? Only in death does duty end (talk) 19:59, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

Yeah...@LDickinson (WMF):...I'm inclined to agree with the above, at least in some measure. The stewardship of large sums of money is a very serious issue, and I think it behooves the Foundation to communicate openly and promptly about it. This is especially so when accusations are appearing in print in a national paper of record. To not respond to community concerns for some three weeks, and then replying that it makes you uncomfortable, I could understand how someone might interpret that as flippant and dismissive.

At the very least, it seems to show a disconnect between cultures. This is the factory floor where the sausage making is done. We're mostly quite used to being called on the carpet, even for something as small as a hyphen or a dash in prose. Hopefully you can understand how it might seem out-of-sorts for a communications manager to not want to...well...communicate. GMG^talk 23:15, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

That's a lot of words that fail to actually answer the question asked. Translation: If you DON'T aggressively push for an answer, I will simply remain silent and not answer the question. If you DO aggressively push for an answer, I will claim that I am not required to answer because you aggressively pushed for an answer. Either way, I get to avoid answering. Please note that other editors have asked the same question without any hint of the "unkind and unconstructive" behavior that I am being told is the reason why I did not get an answer. They too have not recieved an answer. Here is a bold idea: try answering when people ask reasonable questions. Even a small amount of actual communication will reduce the frustration editors feel when you stomewall them. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 23:48, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Guy this kind of pile-on abuse of a staff member is extremely unfortunate and saddening to everyone. Please stop it immediately. You want to heap abuse on someone, bring it to me. The question you are asking is not sensible and/or has already been answered. Let me give you the relevant quote: "The purpose of the Wikimedia Endowment is to serve as a permanent safekeeping fund to generate income to support the operations and activities of the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity. The following investment policy is meant to guide the long-term investment strategy of the Wikimedia Endowment; this policy is reviewed by the Investment Committee annually." That's it, that's the whole story, there is nothing further that can be added by anyone. This isn't stonewalling, it's just facts.

You appear to be asking for something that doesn't exist, that no one claimed or suggested in any way exists, and accusing people of lack of transparency for either not knowing what the hell you are asking about, or not being able to produce a non-existent document. If you are trying to ask, is there any separate legal requirement that is imposed or could be imposed on the Wikimedia Endowment such that the principle could never be touched under any circumstances, then the answer is no, there is not, and there could not be. The Wikimedia Endowment is now a 501(c)(3), the purpose of which is, to again quote what you've already been told, "to serve as a permanent safekeeping fund to generate income to support the operations and activities of the Wikimedia projects in perpetuity." In normal times, that means, as a matter of policy set by the endowment board (in particular the investment committee makes recommendations to the wider board) that we have no intention of touching the principal, we intend to make grants at a level that's consistent with ongoing growth in the fund, etc. It also means that, in some kind of existential crisis or whatever, that principal could be available for safekeeping.

What appears to be happening here is that you've got some idea in your head that something nefarious is going on and so you are asking about a legal document that doesn't exist and can't exist, and that no one has ever implied has existed.

Let's be realistic here. If someone points to the endowment fund and says "See, look, they could just cancel fundraising this year, and spend that money instead" they are simply wrong. In order to do so, the WMF would have to ask the endowment for a huge grant to cover annual expenses, and I can tell you as a board member of the endowment, I think that would be viewed incredibly negatively. That is not the purpose of the endowment fund. It's one of the big selling points that I very often talk to potential major donors about - that the endowment is not just a really big bank account for some future profligate CEO to spend through, it is a fund set up - expressly and clearly and transparently - "to serve as a permanent safekeeping fund." When staff respond by pointing that out, they are giving you the exact full and correct answer. End of story. Jimbo Wales (talk) 09:06, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

I'm not sure I see it as a totally illegitimate line of questioning. The community has largely been lukewarm to outright resistant at attempts to address larger issues that don't trace quickly back to content, editors, and readers. In the case of the blackout discussion a few years back, even resistant to things that arguably do. From memory, these argument mainly centered on the necessity of being above suspicion and the risk of being seen as overtly partisan.

Not to say that any of these causes aren't worthy goals. Just to say that the community has a pretty steady track record of trying to partition between the core mission, and other goals that we may all agree are honorable, but yet remain separate in scope. GMG^talk 12:19, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

I'm not sure which line of questioning you mean in particular? I think there are few lines of questioning that would ever be totally illegitimate, but casting aspersions on good staff who have given a complete answer by implying that they are not doing their job properly isn't going to be part of very many legitimate lines of questioning. Your original question was fine, although calling the Orlowski piece "spot on" isn't something I would endorse - it was typical of him, he's been gunning for me and for Wikipedia for many years. (Once wrote a piece with a headline comparing us to the Khmer Rouge.)

As for me, I fully and completely agree that if someone wants to donate to some other worthy goal (let's say, famine around the world, they should donate to those causes, and we should stick to what we're good at. I don't know of anyone at the WMF, nor any grants that we have made, that don't adhere to that 100%. What someone like Orlowski wants to do is paint us as some kind of deceptive left wing front organization funding causes that have nothing to do with our mission - I understand that, that's Andrew Orlowski, he's not an honestly interested party, he's a troll and always has been.

Our goal is, and always has been, to create a high quality encyclopedia written with a neutral point of view, a free encyclopedia for every single person on the planet. And we know, and have widespread consensus through huge community processes, that one of the ways we haven't succeeded yet is that Wikipedia tends to be written by a certain type of person (a person very much like me, to be clear), and that as a result, we have weak coverage of many topics that are important, and we have biases that are hard for us to spot because they aren't issues that we know about or have considered.

I think it is of course possible, and desirable, for us to have thoughtful conversations about particular grants, or particularly types of grants, to ask ourselves whether they are working. I don't think we should respond in a fearful or knee jerk fashion to low quality tabloid newspaper trolling. Jimbo Wales (talk) 15:19, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

The basic details of the Equity Fund don't really seem to be in dispute. It's stated purpose is to provide grants external to WMF projects in pursuit of broader social/political aims. Again, not disagreeing with the causes but the methods.

Meta has never been an extremely accurate way to gauge the views of the community at large. Meta has always been an enclave. That's likely part of the disconnect, having a group of contributors the size of...umm...the Norwegian Wikipedia making high level decisions. GMG^talk 17:07, 29 September 2023 (UTC)

I purposely waited three days before responding to any of the above. As is my policy, when someone asks me to stop doing something I stop doing it whether or not I agree. Jimbo asked, so I am stopping. Unless there is a compelling reason to respond to something I intend this to be my last post in this discussion.

There are times when I agree that I was out of line and in those cases I apologize as well as stopping whatever I was asked to stop doing. This is not one of those cases. It is a verifiable fact that a certain individual wrote "It is misleading to say that just 2% of Wikipedia's revenue goes to hosting costs" and then went on to "refute" the claim by telling us what was spent on something other than hosting costs.[6] It is a verifiable fact that within a day another editor attempted to politely engage in a civil discussion regarding that claim.[7] It is a verifiable fact that for the next 23 days the only response was silence, then a post refusing to actually answer the question asked[8] as editor after editor asked for a response. [9][10][11][12]

Refusing to engage in any sort of communication when that is your job title is not OK. Refusing to engage in any sort of communication with multiple editors because one of them made you feel uncomfortable is not OK, especially when the other editors tried to engage with you for many days before the offending editor did anything to make you feel uncomfortable.

This is (I hope) my final word on this matter. I believe the diffs above speak for themselves and will not comment further. --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 19:02, 2 October 2023 (UTC)

Katherine Maher

I'm glad for her, but... world tour early 2022? In the middle of COVID?! Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.5% of all FPs.} 08:30, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

News and notes: You like RecentChanges? (1,414 bytes · 💬)

• Although RecentChanges is almost useless on the mega-large Wikipedia, it is more important on smaller wikis like those hosted on Fandom.— VORTEX³⁴²⁷ (Talk!) 10:48, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

• I have to chuckle over the size differential. I am an admin on a Fandom Wiki and the entire site has slightly fewer views than the article on South Dakota. -- Dolotta (talk) 12:46, 3 September 2023 (UTC)

• Tough voluntary work, editing surely is. But family and personal time are more important my friend. Don't miss the bus and the vacation. Have fun and safe travels. Lourdes 09:43, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

The Wikipedian Dream is something to truly strive for.Baudshaw (talk) 16:57, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

• I just wanted to say thank you for the American Psycho reference. 2600:1702:A00:5C20:72F1:BEBC:772B:CDBD (talk) 05:06, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

Recent research: The five barriers that impede "stitching" collaboration between Commons and Wikipedia (4,552 bytes · 💬)

Really good to see some research in this area. It deserves so much more honestly. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:15, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Minor matter, I suspect ". . . host more images of a subject that could conceivably be needed to illustrate pages on other projects . . ." might better be "than could".

Down to substance, somewhat, I sometimes hope Wikidata will help with our problems with searches, categorization, and languages in Commons. Some day, far in the future, I fear. Thus far, the cost (mainly in annoyance to old-time cat wranglers like me) of implementing Structured Data is more easily visible than the benefit. Jim.henderson (talk) 23:53, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks! (the typo, not Commons - yet)

Btw, someone also started a thread on the Commons village pump about this review and paper. Regards, HaeB (talk) 03:36, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

Excellent research topic. I think a major problem for the future is the new skin not putting a link to Wikimedia Commons on the left. It massively hinders discovery of the resources Wikimedia Commons has, which people should be able to find. I intend to petion more about this in future, and it's a major reason why I've switched back to the old skin.
The point about photo replacement is very good to note. This could be added to the watchlist ("on Commons, a photo on the article was overwritten with a different one").
With the problem that Wikimedia Commons has lots of photos: this is a good thing. People may be looking for something unexpected. There's a trend for major topics on Wikimedia Commons to create a curated highlights gallery of images and link wikipedia articles to this rather than the category. I'm very opposed to this, it hinders discovery of photos if people are looking for something unusual that the gallery creator wasn't expecting. It's much better to have that kind of gallery in the Wikipedia article, presenting photo highlights, and a link to the Wikimedia Commons category for people looking for something unusual. Blythwood (talk) 23:16, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

• The characteristics, or problems, identified all exist, but are perhaps not major. Commons is absolutely enormous, and the "curation" process can only work in a very patchy way. Commercial picture libraries work on the principle that you can never predict what will interest a user, so you just offer everything you have. So I think the solution proposed for "barrier 2" "The process would enable editors from both platforms to figure out whether an image warrants significance in any contexts collaboratively, rather than relying on judgement of editors from one platform or the other" is a complete non-starter. Johnbod (talk) 23:34, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

• • It does feel as if non-English searches get pretty short shrift on Commons. For instance "forest" gets 1,321,948 hits, but "forêt" (in French) gets 29,638. "skogen" ('the forest') in Swedish gets just 1,329, and the first batch of images are about a place with that in its name, not forest at all; whereas "skog" (forest in general, in Swedish) gets 1,459,858, and the first batch combines quite a few images of forest with people of that name. The Greek "δάσος" (forest) gets 1,335,550, but many of the first batch of images are of mangrove forests, which might seem rather a specialised result. My curiosity piqued, I tried the Indonesian for forest, "hutan" (rain forest is "hutan hujan", a good word, huh?): it returns an impressive 1,323,199 results, the first batch mixing forest resorts, forest parks, forest, and a boat named after a forest. On the other hand, "hutan hujan" on the other hand returns 13,228 results, where "rain forest" gives just 5,872. About all one can safely conclude from this brief and wholly unscientific experiment is that search is language-dependent, or to put it another way, not very reliable for anyone arriving and searching in their own language. Chiswick Chap (talk) 17:10, 9 September 2023 (UTC)