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Article display preview: TKTK – TKTKObituarySarahSVRIP

This is a draft of a potential Signpost article, and should not be interpreted as a finished piece. Its content is subject to review by the editorial team and ultimately by JPxG, the editor in chief. Please do not link to this draft as it is unfinished and the URL will change upon publication. If you would like to contribute and are familiar with the requirements of a Signpost article, feel free to be bold in making improvements! This draft article ... Y ... has a title defined. SarahSV Y ... has a blurb defined. RIP N ... is not yet ready to be copyedited. N ... has not yet been copyedited. N ... does not have an image. N ... is not yet approved for publication. Writer resources ... The Newsroom (talk) Content guidance Cheatsheet Formatting Resources Style Submissions Suggestions Previous "Obituary"s deadlines Writing: 23 December 00:00 (-2 days ago; 200%) <div class="percentage-bar-fill" style="background-color:#00ff00; width: Expression error: Unexpected < operator%;">Publishing: 24 December 00:00 (-1 day ago; Expression error: Division by zero%)Deadline has started. (refresh) Last revised 17:46, 25 June 2021 (UTC) (3 years ago) by Smallbones (refresh)

SarahSV

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An honest woman here lies at rest,

As e’er God with Her image blest:
The friend of all, the friend of truth;
The friend of age, and guide of youth:
Few hearts like hers, with virtue warm’d,
Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:
If there’s another world, she lives in bliss;
If there is none, she made the best of this.

— Adapted from Robert Burns, Epitaph for My Own Friend

An honest woman here lies at rest,
As e’er God with Her image blest:
The friend of all, the friend of truth;
The friend of age, and guide of youth:
Few hearts like hers, with virtue warm’d,
Few heads with knowledge so inform’d:
If there’s another world, she lives in bliss;
If there is none, she made the best of this.

The Misplaced Pages community was deeply saddened in early May to hear of the death of SlimVirgin, also known as SarahSV or Sarah, who began editing in November 2004, and became an integral, respected and influential member of the community. She was foundational in developing many of Misplaced Pages's core policies, including biographies of living persons, no original research and verifiability, and with a wide range of interests, wrote some of Misplaced Pages's finest content.

A prolific contributor, her 177,000-plus edits give insight into the project's often difficult evolution almost since its beginning. In March 2005, she was nominated for adminship and promoted with a majority of 77 to 1. SarahSV's intelligence, direct manner, broad range of policy knowledge, and lucid writing were highly regarded, and for many years her talkpage was the second-most-watchlisted, after Jimbo Wales'. Several editors, on learning of her passing, described her on her talk page memorial as "irreplaceable" to Misplaced Pages. Her final edit was made on April 18, 2021.

Policy development

From her first week on Misplaced Pages, SarahSV embraced controversial subjects, with her creation of the article on the Death of Jeremiah Duggan, related to the LaRouche movement, which led to her first arbitration case. She was instrumental in establishing verifiability, not truth,

She helped developed a number of policies that are today core to the project. After the 2005 Seigenthaler biography incident, she played a key role in formulating an early draft of the biographies of living persons policy, and negotiating community acceptance. She continued to watch over and hone the policy, and made nearly half of all edits to the policy's page. In 2006, SarahSV proposed that the verifiability and no original research policies be consolidated as attribution. Although that merger did not gain consensus after a vote of 424 supports and 354 opposes, her leadership led to significant improvement of both policies, which have served as templates to similar policies on more than 70 other Wikipedias. In recent years she was highly active in simplifying, clarifying, and structurally improving the conflict of interest guidelines and related pages.

She was subjected to extensive harassment, stalking, and misogyny, both on- and off-wiki, particularly in the early years of her Misplaced Pages career. Her experiences helped to inform the community's policies on personal attacks, harassment, and the use of external attack sites. Over time, many of these principles have been incorporated into both Wikimedia Foundation and broader Wikimedia community policies; the current draft of the Wikimedia community universal code of conduct reflects many of those principles.

Creation of the Gender Gap Task Force

Since her early years at Misplaced Pages, SarahSV actively sought to highlight and counter systemic bias, and to reduce the gender gap. In May 2013 she formed the Gender Gap Task Force to gather information on existing editorial and content gaps and to reduce them by encouraging new editors and related content development. The Task Force's core has grown to more than 170 editors who work closely with other WikiProjects when promoting content drives.

SarahSV participated on the Gender Gap Mailing List, promoted editing salons focused on relevant subjects, wrote and improved articles about women, and authored the essay Writing about women. Of particular note, she brought the Female genital mutilation article to featured article status in 2014. The article was described by the late Brianboulton as covering "a difficult and challenging topic", and as "an important contribution to Misplaced Pages". J Milburn agreed, congratulating her "fortitude in tackling such a difficult and yet important subject". On February 6, 2015, on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, it appeared on Misplaced Pages's homepage as Today's featured article. The article was later recognized by the community with a Million Award.

Featured and other article work

SarahSV was a meticulous researcher who was expert at evaluating sources and a clear and concise writer. She had eclectic interests and worked on a broad range of topics—including justice, race relations, philosophy, literature, human and animal rights, the Holocaust, religion and faith, current events, and conspiracy theories. She was greatly respected within the FAC community where the quality of her nominations set new standards, was active on FAC talk, and made important contributions to setting and improving standards for featured articles. She was a highly lucid, facts based and demanding reviewer, that via her unbending efforts to establish correct use of sources, many found intimidating. A consensus is that her guidance was always constructive: on reviewing one a biography, she advised editors to "bring out some of the colour, things that make him three-dimensional for the reader ... bring him to life".

She brought Bernard Williams to featured-article status in December 2004, followed in 2006 by three further featured articles: Joel Brand, Rudolph Vrba, and Elie Wiesel's book Night. She nominated Brown Dog Affair in 2007 as a collaboration with other editors. In 2009, she successfully nominated Abu Nidal, Stanley Green, and Marshalsea, followed a year later by the Killing of Muhammad al-Durrah and Death of Ian Tomlinson. In 2014 she was part of a collaboration that brought Ezra Pound to FA status.

SarahSV's editing stats show both the breadth and depth of her focus. She uploaded almost 3000 files, created 4174 pages and edited over 22,000. There are twelve pages that she edited more than 1000 times. When working on articles intended for good article or featured status, she often expanded related articles, such as the Holocaust, Rudolf Vrba, and Christian Science. Other articles on typically difficult subject matter that can be in large part credited to her, include veganism, Bad Pharma, the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, and Chelsea Manning. She was continuing her work on the Holocaust and the Auschwitz concentration camp until her last edits in late-April 2021.

Citations

1. created page. Misplaced Pages:Verifiability, not truth, April 13, 2008
2. "it's fine as it is". Misplaced Pages:Attribution/Poll, March 21 2007
3. "creating page". Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Gender gap task force, May 7, 2013

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Images and Galleries

Sidebar images To put an image in your article, use the following template (link): I understand the primacy of pure feeling in creative art. {{Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/Templates/Filler image-v2 |size = 300px |fullwidth = no |alt = TKTK |caption = |image = }} This will create the file on the right. Keep the 300px in most cases. If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes. Inline images Placing {{Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/Templates/Inline image |size = 300px |align = center |alt = TKTK |caption = |image = }} (link) will instead create an inline image like below The significant thing is feeling, as such, quite apart from the environment in which it is called forth. Galleries To create a gallery, use the following <gallery style="float:right;" mode=packed | heights=200px> |TKTK |TKTK </gallery> Each line inside the tags should be formatted like File:Whatever.jpg|Caption). This creates: Art no longer cares to serve the state and religion, it no longer wishes to illustrate the history of manners. It wants to have nothing further to do with the object as such, and believes that it can exist in and for itself. If you want it centered, remove tstyle="float:right;" from the first line.

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Side frames

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. A caption Side frames help put content in sidebar vignettes. For instance, this one (link): {{Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/Templates/Filler frame-v2 |1 = Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. |caption = A caption |fullwidth = no }} gives the frame on the right. This is useful when you want to insert non-standard images, quotes, graphs, and the like. Example − Graph/Charts Further information: Category:Graph, chart and plot templates Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. A caption For example, to insert the {{Graph:Chart}} generated by {{Graph:Chart |width=250|height=100|type=line |x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8|y=10,12,6,14,2,10,7,9 }} in a frame, simple put the graph code in |1= {{Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/Templates/Filler frame-v2 |1= {{Graph:Chart |width=250|height=100|type=line |x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8|y=10,12,6,14,2,10,7,9 }} |caption=A caption |fullwidth=no }} to get the framed Graph:Chart on the right. If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes.

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Article series

To add a series of 'related articles' your article, use the following code Related articlesVisual Editor Five, ten, and fifteen years ago 1 January 2023 VisualEditor, endowment, science, and news in brief 5 August 2015 HTTPS-only rollout completed, proposal to enable VisualEditor for new accounts 17 June 2015 VisualEditor and MediaWiki updates 29 April 2015 Security issue fixed; VisualEditor changes 4 February 2015 More articles Draft namespace, VisualEditor meetings 25 December 2013 Sockpuppet investigations, VisualEditor, Wikidata's birthday, and more 6 November 2013 Last call for Wiki Loves Monuments; Community–WMF tension over VisualEditor 25 September 2013 Making Misplaced Pages more accessible 4 September 2013 Gallery improvements launch on Misplaced Pages 28 August 2013 The VisualEditor Beta and the path to change 31 July 2013 Defining consensus; VisualEditor default state; expert and layperson terms in article titles 31 July 2013 VisualEditor in midst of game-changing deployment series 3 July 2013 VisualEditor will "change world history" 12 June 2013 VisualEditor, elections, bots, and more 12 June 2013 The Visual Editor: Where are we now, and where are we headed? 25 March 2013 Visual Editor "on schedule" for July rollout 18 March 2013 Looking ahead to 2013 7 January 2013 The new Visual Editor gets a bit more visual 10 December 2012 Second Visual Editor prototype launches 25 June 2012 Visual editor demo launched, hailed as "most important change to our user experience ... ever"; but elsewhere over-hasty deployments criticised 19 December 2011 Full steam ahead on Visual Editor, the avoidance of lock-breaking and 1.18b1 release 7 November 2011 {{Signpost series |type = sidebar-v2 |tag = VisualEditor |seriestitle = Visual Editor |fullwidth = no }} or {{Signpost series |type = sidebar-v2 |tag = VisualEditor |seriestitle = Visual Editor |fullwidth = yes }} will create the sidebar on the right. If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes. A partial list of valid |tag= parameters can be found at here and will decide the list of articles presented. |seriestitle= is the title that will appear below 'Related articles' in the box. Alternatively, you can use {{Signpost series |type = inline |tag = VisualEditor |tag_name = visual editor |tag_pretext = the }} at the end of an article to create For more Signpost coverage on the visual editor see our visual editor series. If you think a topic would make a good series, but you don't see a tag for it, or that all the articles in a series seem 'old', ask for help at the WT:NEWSROOM. Many more tags exist, but they haven't been documented yet.

Discuss this story

• Thank you for having this obituary in The Signpost. Several amazing editors have died this year and it's a great loss for the project. Thanks for reminding us about some of SarahSV's contributions. Liz 20:37, 27 June 2021 (UTC)
• Thanks to all who contributed to this obituary in Sarah's memory. Her spirit shines on, and not just through her momentous accomplishments. El_C 00:28, 28 June 2021 (UTC)
• Don't get me wrong, I appreciate this. I just find it a bit too late. --Firestar464 (talk) 03:46, 28 June 2021 (UTC)
  • This is the first issue of The Signpost published since the death of SlimVirgin. ☆ Bri (talk) 03:55, 28 June 2021 (UTC)
    • Aye. The Signpost is undermanned, if anyone thing this should have been published earlier, WP:BEBOLD and help TS team to wrap things up more quickly. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 05:17, 28 June 2021 (UTC)
      • I appreciate this, no matter how late. R.I.P. Slim Virgin and thank you.--Mark Miller (talk) 06:57, 28 June 2021 (UTC)
        • I'm very sorry to learn this. It was when researching The World and Misplaced Pages (many years ago) that I first saw SlimVirgin's work. I described her as "brave enough to court all kinds of controversy" and noted that she "withstood the pressure of scurrilous attacks from the shadows beyond the encyclopedia". Andrew Dalby 12:54, 28 June 2021 (UTC)
• Oh, that's sad news! I never had the pleasure to work with her, but if we indeed owe Misplaced Pages:Verifiability, not truth to her, then for that alone I salute her. Although such a prolific editor can not be replaced, I feel like her legacy will live on in the work she did, and the policies that we follow. Thanks for the obituary. --LordPeterII (talk) 12:48, 29 June 2021 (UTC)
• She did so much to help make Wiki what it is today. Thank you, SV, for everything. XFalcon2004x (talk) 13:45, 30 June 2021 (UTC)
• I'm sorry to hear this. From my early interaction with SlimVirgin I liked her. Springee (talk) 02:35, 3 July 2021 (UTC)
• This is very sad to hear. One way to honor her memory would be to help at WikiProject Women as there is still a huge gender gap on Misplaced Pages. –Gladamas (talk · contribs) 07:13, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
• A great loss to everyone. She was a giant! She was very supportive! What a wonderful person. She will be sorely missed. Rest in peace, from your friend, IZAK (talk) 08:47, 23 November 2021 (UTC)
• Very sorry to belatedly learn this sad news. May she rest in peace. She will be sadly missed. A few years ago I found myself having to briefly try to offer info to a feminist newbie on the pitfalls liable to be encountered if she wanted to survive as a female and feminist in Misplaced Pages (not so long after some leading feminist editors had got booted out), an area about which as a male I inevitably know almost nothing, but it was then just a simple matter of pointing her in Sarah's direction. If I ever have to do the same again, it will probably require me to do some Original Research to find out in whose direction such a newbie should now be pointed. Tlhslobus (talk) 21:00, 2 December 2021 (UTC)
  

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