Misplaced Pages

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Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/Navigation

This page is for suggesting news to be covered in the next Signpost. For general discussion, comments or questions regarding The Signpost, please use Misplaced Pages talk:Misplaced Pages Signpost.

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Not every mention of Misplaced Pages in the media will make it into the Signpost, but please consider adding to Misplaced Pages:Press coverage 2024 or Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages as a press source so we have a comprehensive record. Please do not post newsletters to this page; news from WikiProjects is always appreciated, but templated messages are much more likely to be ignored.

Editor of the Week template--make a regular section?

It was nice to see the Editor of the Week infobox featured in this week's interview with WikiProject Editor Retention. What would people think of making the EotW a regular Signpost feature? The EotW template is prepared and updated weekly by that WikiProject (the queue already has six more approved nominations ready to go), and could be used as a sidebar in News and Notes or another section. It'd be a great way to introduce some deserving but lower-profile editors to the community at large. -- Khazar2 (talk) 15:40, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

If other editors could see how much these nominees have done for our encyclopedia, and that could be converted into positive feedback during their time as our EotW, the positive feedback as a whole to building a stronger WikiCommunity would be immense. TheOriginalSoni (talk) 16:08, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Hi there, I don't think that this award, while noble, should have a place in the Signpost. My apologies. Ed  16:20, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

No problem--but is it okay to ask why? It seems like profiling a weekly editor would fit naturally alongside profiling a weekly project and recently promoted content. Thanks in either case. -- Khazar2 (talk) 16:23, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Oh, that's perfectly okay, don't worry. :-) We have traditionally shied away from showcasing a single editor, whether it be positively or critically, unless it comes in some other context. As for the award itself, it's just not important enough in my eyes. We're a newspaper aiming to cover the entire Wikimedia movement; giving precedence to one project's (en.wp) WikiProject's editor of the week doesn't mesh with that goal. Ed  17:06, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Makes sense. I appreciate your considering it, and keep up the good work here! -- Khazar2 (talk) 17:13, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Thank you, and thanks for understanding! Regards, Ed  19:48, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

Ed, I disagree. We are a community newspaper of English Misplaced Pages that also covers movement-wide news. We cover English Misplaced Pages WikiProjects, Featured content, ArbCom activity, new administrators, and RFCs. I think it would be ok for us to include the ENWP Editor of the Week as well, and I think this would be good for editor morale and community sporit. --Pine 06:32, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

All of which are wide-ranging activities on the project, whereas the editor of the week is an award put out by a single small project. Ed  19:30, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

GLAM-WIKI 2013

GLAM-WIKI 2013 was held in London earlier this month. Recordings of some of the presentations are available on meta. I'm not sure that the conference has been covered by the Signpost yet? Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 18:37, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

We are covering (in a relatively short article) the GLAM boot camp being held in DC this weekend this week; I believe that Wikizine is planning comprehensive coverage of the London event for the first or second issue in May. Ed  18:53, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

Speaking of GLAMorous things, you might want to cover the first GLAMout (a Google Hangout devoted to GLAM issues) to be held this Friday, May 3, 12noon PDT/3pm EDT. (Also: It was a pleasure meeting you.) -- kosboot (talk) 20:56, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

SUL/the end of WP:CHU/renaming now to happen soleley at meta/incompatibility of various username policies

See and associated tak page. We have just under a month to figure out how to work in this new reality where our crats will no longer be able to rename users. Only stewards are to have that ability and all renames will be at meta. What is less clear is if it is to be expected that the stewards understand the username policies of individual projects and how we handle names that may be okj on one site but not another, how users blocked from meta could aver ask for a change, and all the usual details that developers don't think of and leave it to the community to resolve. In less than month from when they first informed us of it, in case you missed that the first time. Beeblebrox (talk) 00:04, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

I agree it'll be a big change, but between meta:User:DerHexer/Crats by users renamed and Misplaced Pages:LOGACTIONS#User_renames, I think we should be ok as long as the other stewards slow down and I keep checking the right pages before bed at night. MBisanz 00:57, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

I imagine we will be able to work out something that works reasonably well eventually, the problem is we don't have till "eventually" we have until the 27 of May. I'm concerned as well that both a dev and some meta users seem to think the various username policies just need to be reconciled and there is a "one size fits all" solution that will work on all WMF sites. While the foundation has the authority to override our local policy on this matter, meta most certainly does not, and previous experience suggests that one moth is far too short a time to expect the meta community to come to a consensus and act on it on such a big issue. If you look around RFCs there it is a simple matter to find things that were opened months or even years ago and never closed or actioned in any way. Also we will need to rewrite every single one of our username-related templates but we don't as yet actually know what they will need to say. Six months might have been enough time to get this together. I would have expected devs to understand that is that is the type of time frame they always want for big changes, but apparently they think reconciling the policies from all WMF sites into one universal policy should only take a few weeks. Not trying to bash the WMF, but a lot more notice would have been nice. Beeblebrox (talk) 01:09, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

BBC interview with Jimmy Wales

The BBC has a report of an interview with Jimmy Wales here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22160988 . The article is split roughly 50:50 between discussing MOOCs and (particularly in the latter half of the article) Misplaced Pages. -- The Anome (talk) 08:24, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Interesting interview. I'll just note that our article on MOOCs is completely inadequate. I say that having written about half of it, and rewritten the rest 3 or 4 times. Most of the problem is that there are just not enough people contributing there, part of it is that it is a fast moving topic, and part of it is simply that I'm no expert on the topic. All contributions would be appreciated. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 15:45, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Op-ed in The Telegraph on notability

See Misplaced Pages: you don't get to decide who's interesting. Dcoetzee 20:37, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

It certainly seems odd to see so much written these days about Misplaced Pages's inner processes, in this case AfD. But this article is particularly clueless, the author taking no time to find out anything about what she's writing about. On the same webpage there are two other articles, seemingly higher rated by the Telegraph, titled "Why bras don't work" and "What Muslim women want in the bedroom". Both IMHO better informed, in better taste, and much more interesting. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 19:12, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

FDC election deadline coming up

The deadline for candidate submission for the FDC elections is May 17, see Meta FDC elections. There are currently no candidates for the 2 positions on the committee and for the single FDC ombudsman position. There are also no questions asked of the candidates - it might be easier to apply if folks knew what the questions would be.

Given last week's brawl on the comments at News and Notes about the FDC and its policies and procedures, Ida thunk everybody would want to be on the committee.

I'll likely apply this week, and perhaps there are others who are just afraid to be the first. Questions will help. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 22:55, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

RFC regarding the scope of the Ombudsman Commission

An RFC regarding the scope of the Ombudsman Commission has been launched at m:Requests for comment/Scope of Ombudsman Commission. As an Ombudsman, I am available for comment should the Signpost wish to get a quote or an interview. --(ʞɿɐʇ) ɐuɐʞsǝp 23:11, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the note; we included a note last week and have done so again this week. Ed  00:53, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia breaks from Wikia

This is slightly old news in internet terms, but important nonetheless. One might also be interested in reading this: https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/Submissions/The_rebirth_of_Uncyclopedia_-_the_story_of_a_community_that_decided_to_take_its_hosting_into_its_own_hands. Killiondude (talk) 06:11, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, that's a bit too old. :-) Ed  00:53, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Non-staff admins+crats lose their rights on wmfwiki

wmf:Special:Log/rights, and the ensuing thread on wikimedia-l. Legoktm (talk) 06:01, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

This definitely warrants a note in the Signpost. All in all, sad turn of events. Killiondude (talk) 00:23, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

This will be our feature story in "News and notes" this week. Thank you both! Ed  00:53, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Name of Ombudsman Commission

m:Talk:Ombudsman commission#Gender neutrality -- the discussion might be worth covering. Sumana Harihareswara 14:39, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

This will be in this week's "News and notes". Thanks! Ed  00:53, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

More notable wikipedians

Missing details: the sanitisation of Tom Waterhouse's Misplaced Pages page Hawkeye7 (talk) 03:45, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

This will be in this week's "In the media". Thank you! Ed  00:53, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Sue Gardner on The Story with Dick Gordon

Sue Gardner was on today's NPR radio program The Story with Dick Gordon. Here is a synopsis and link to audio of the interview. It was pretty good. Something to highlight in the 'In the Media' section maybe? --Jayron32 00:37, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

I will try to remember to hit that next week. Ed started publication for this week, I believe. Thanks for keying me in on it. Go Phightins! 00:48, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Hiring (more) community liaisons

WMF have announced they want to hire an indeterminate number of new community-liaison people: see here. The goal seems to be to have one working with each of the major developments (VisualEditor, Flow, etc), though no doubt Philippe will correct me if I've misinterpreted! Non-English capabilities a plus, but of course that doesn't rule out predominantly enwiki people. Andrew Gray (talk) 11:44, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

I was just coming to post this here ;p. The goal is initially to prioritise the VisualEditor; once we've properly socialised and deployed that, I imagine we'll try to apply the CLs elsewhere (where 'elsewhere' is and in what role will be dependent on how the VE socialisation works out, in the sense that if it goes really well, it's going to have implications for how we socialise other features, too). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 16:07, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

Qworty/Robert Clark Young

A pretty extensive article on User:Qworty appeared on Salon. Qworty admitted on his user talk page that he's Robert Clark Young, and there's a pretty extensive pile of conflicts of interest going on. The hammers of ANI went down, and it looks like a community ban is definitely ensuing. Further details also in Wikipediocracy. --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 22:38, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

Yes, needs coverage I think Johnbod (talk) 14:56, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Latest article at "Misplaced Pages’s anti-Pagan crusade". Dcoetzee 22:58, 25 May 2013 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages as an open source project to avoid

ITWorld This source recommends open source projects for beginners and ends with some projects to avoid, including the Linux kernel and Misplaced Pages. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 16:40, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

They're right and the poorly thought out grphical design features like the new notifications aren't helping either. Kumioko (talk) 16:46, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Might as well quote them "A well-known woman in open source explains it this way, 'They have a lot of people doing outreach and they have passionate people working to get more people in as editors and a more diverse set of editors. But if you read the Gendergap mailing list, it looks like the place is a horrible place to be.' " I certainly understand why many women would think this, but I'll also point out that it's not just women - this can be a "horrible place" to edit for any newby, and for many experienced editors as well. Seems like it's time to try for another push for civil editing and a "less hostile environment" (writing "friendly environment" unfortunately would be unrealistic at this point). Smallbones_(smalltalk) 21:02, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Your right. . Kumioko (talk) 21:08, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps this is more appropriate to the discussion section but I posit: The original is hardly a reputable statement of fact. "A well-known woman" - unnamed. It could be the deranged homeless lady on the street for all anyone knows. I wonder to what extent Misplaced Pages's problems are the problems of any crowdsourcing project. Just like that list containing the evolutionary social stages of an email list (from enthusiasm eventually leading to hostility -- here's an example: The Natural Life Cycle of Mailing Lists), perhaps all crowdsourcing projects (be it organizations, families, political parties, etc.) will suffer from the same social evolution, and Misplaced Pages takes the brunt of complaints since everyone knows it. -- 21:33, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

I've requested a clarification because I think it's MediaWiki, not Misplaced Pages, that ought to be compared to Drupal, Python, PostgreSQL, etc. Sumana Harihareswara, Wikimedia Foundation Engineering Community Manager (talk) 16:19, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

That is perhaps technically true however 99.% of the world doesn't know the difference so they think Misplaced Pages anyway. But it doesn't eliminate the bigger problem that Misplaced Pages does exude the characteristics and traits of a site that is not freindly to novice beginner editors who do not already know the ways of the Wiki. I'm not just talking about the need to know a little HTML and to learn Wikicode and things of that nature. I'm more concerned about the way we treat each other and new editors. When they join and see the gigantic rift between what we call admins and editors, then wonder why an editor who has been here for years is treated like a second class citizen because they don't have the admin toolset, and then add to that the complication of learning the system and breaking through the toxic culture that has been rooted here, they leave and frequently don't come back. What's even worse is they tell their friends about the horrible experience they had and then they write articles about us that tells people that they shouldn't bother editing here. Some people here do not like that I am so vocal about the problems but articles like this illstrate the seriousness of the situation. Its not just me spouting hyperbole, there is a problem both in function and in perception that needs to be addressed. Rather than look at stories like this as attacks we should look at them as opportunities for growth and development. They have identified the problem but they can't fix it, we have to do that. Kumioko (talk) 16:43, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

There's a deeply flawed premise in the article: that there's any simple, one-size-fits-all answer to the question "Is Misplaced Pages a good project for a newbie to work on?" There are so many things you can do, and so many ways you can go about it, and so many kinds of people you can encounter, that it's a meaningless question. You might as well as, "is Earth a good planet to live on?" Just to begin with, picking the gendergap list out of the…dozens? hundreds? of email lists we have is an odd choice. There's nothing remotely systematic in how they chose any of the projects, it's a pretty casual piece. While I'm glad to see this mentioned here (and shout-outs to some awesome free/open source projects), I don't think we should cover the story in the Signpost. -Pete (talk) 18:02, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Not very well-informed hearsay by someone (who?) who has apparently never edited WP. Zzzzzzz... Johnbod (talk) 18:27, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

I would also suggest the internet as a project to avoid ;) Kaldari (talk) 21:42, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Jerusalem lead RfC

Hello all. :) If you're having a discussion report next week, could you consider including Misplaced Pages:Requests for comment/Jerusalem? This is a binding RfC mandated by ArbCom, so is slightly different from your common-or-garden content dispute. It is also one of Misplaced Pages's longest-running disputes, having first started back in 2003. If you want you could probably get a few comments from the participants of the moderated discussion (conducted by yours truly) that led to the formulation the RfC text. But in any case, a mention of the discussion page would be much appreciated. All the best — Mr. Stradivarius 14:17, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the mention! — Mr. Stradivarius 08:25, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

You're very welcome! Ed  08:27, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

Status update on the toolserver follower Tool Labs

Last weekend, the Wikimedia Hackathon took place in Amsterdam. Now it is time for a status update on Tool Labs and the plans to migrate from the Toolserver to Tool Labs. According to the Road map Tool Labs will have all necessary features by the end of June 2013. As of then, tool maintainers will have one year to migrate their software. By the end of 2014, at the latest by the end of December 2014, the Toolserver shall be empty and decommissioned.

What is working? First of all: Tool maintainers do not have to care about virtual instances oder other background stuff. You develop on a login server that is similar to Toolserver, e.g. with the infrastructure for webservices. You will work on Ubuntu Precise servers. At the moment, there are replicas of six out of the seven database clusters available. The last one (with Central Auth) is due in June. So you can already work with all the big and many small Wikipedias, with Commons and Wikidata. You have access to all data that is visible to registered users without special privileges in a wiki. You can create you own user databases. According to the first experiences, Tool Labs is fast.

Apart from home directories, you have shared project storage. Tool Labs wants to make it as easy as possible to develop software together, this is why you can add others to your projects yourself via the web interface. There is a time travel feature! You can reset you files to the state of the last three hours, the last three days and the last two Sundays. The job system that is used in Tool Labs is OpenGridengine. You can find an intro on the Tool Labs help page. Bugs can be reported in WMF's Bugzilla: Please use the product "Wikimedia Labs" and one of the components "Tools" or "Bots". If you miss software in Tool Labs that could be of interest for others, too, go file a bug!

What about "Tools" versus "Bots"? These are the names of the two projects Tool Labs consists of. The larger environment Wikimedia Labs is organized in projects, two of which form Tool Labs. They are an environment inside Labs that is customized especially for Toolserver users. The naming might be a bit misleading: The difference between "Tools" and "Bots" is not what you run in which project, but that you can run your tools in two different environments. The "Tools" project is a stable environment maintained by four admins (one of them a volunteer). There are no experiments with software versions here. In contrast to this, the "Bots" project is a more flexible environment in which you can play with changes in the environment itself, too. Here, it will be more easy to get root acces. (If you are interested, ask your way around the mailing list.)

Open tasks? Apart from the open tasks on the road map, the documentation needs improvements. Here you can help! The pioneers among you can help others a lot by documenting experiences. Thanks to Magnus Manske and to Russell Blau for the docs! Follow their example! We are thinking about how to redirect deprecated links to migrated tools in the easiest possible way. The Tool Labs user interface needs love - feel free to come to us if you want to help here!

If you run into problems or have questions when migrating tools, ask! The best places are the labs-l mailing list or the IRC channel #wikimedia-labs . The admins' nicks are Coren and petan. Here is a FAQ that you can continue. And finally: If you find your tool needs more adaptation than you think you can manage on your own, talk to Johannes Kroll or to Silke Meyer at WMDE for support!

Happy hacking! Silke WMDE (talk) 16:18, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

Nader library disavows Misplaced Pages

The NaderLibrary (which appears to not be actually sponsored by Ralph Nader) has completely disassociated itself from Misplaced Pages. Sorry, I'm not allowed to post a link to its statement. Cla68 (talk) 22:29, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

http://www.naderlibrary.com/wikipedia.toc.htm Looking at the site, I am not very worried. --  Gadget850 22:52, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

"The Ralph Nader Library, inspired by Ralph Nader's tremendous contributions to the welfare of human beings, is a project of American Buddha, an Oregon nonprofit corporation that makes available selected artistic and literary works under a system of voluntary, free online lending, under the fair use exclusion from copyright liability accorded to libraries and archives ..." Same here. Ed  01:15, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, looks like the site is run by a very small, fringe group. I wonder how they get away with using Ralph Nader's name? Cla68 (talk) 06:05, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

The NaderLibrary was associated with Misplaced Pages? News to me. Looks like this might be related to unsuccessful attempts to get Jim Hawkins (radio presenter) deleted. Kaldari (talk) 07:29, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

Dutch Wikimedia editor survey results

This is a followup to an earlier suggestion here. The whole report (in English) is here.

• There is a great willingness among the Dutch population to contribute to Wikimedia or Misplaced Pages. Contributions of one form or another, but whatever form that contribution might be varies according to the group mentality: "new conservatives" may be more interested in cultural heritage, while 'postmodern hedonists' more excited about new trends. What different groups require depends on the contribution that WMNL may expect of them. This should be further worked out into concrete recruitment activities.

• There is a reasonable influx of new Misplaced Pages editors (100 per month). Recruitment Activities of WMNL should focus on increasing the diversity of editors (eg gendergap, age, minorities) and retention of new editors.

• The atmosphere inside the editor community is not universally experienced as welcoming. Although WMNL does not deal directly with the Dutch Misplaced Pages project, it could develop activities that provide support to improve this atmosphere, eg offering training for moderators and coaches or give support to a "Tea House" for the Dutch Misplaced Pages community.

• A number of tools that are in use on Misplaced Pages (bots) seem to assume 'bad faith' and presort many edit operations ny newcomers as vandalism when they are done. With the best intentions This does not contribute to a good working atmosphere and scares off new editors. In itself, this is beyond the scope of the WMNL association but possibly stimulate adjustments.

• WMNL has little insight into the composition and background of the Dutch Misplaced Pages editor community. Facebook groups and social media can be better used to get / keep up with editors who are interested in contact.

• The relative obscurity of WMNL among Misplaced Pages editors is of concern.

• WMNL should offer Misplaced Pages editors the chance to register their contact details along with their interests and expertise on a voluntary basis. A similar survey of interests and expertise on a voluntary basis should be made available for the existing members of WMNL whose contact details are already known.

• Recruitment of members and supporters of the association is relatively easier than recruitment of Misplaced Pages editors. It is suspected that signing up as a donor is easier for many people than it is to become a member. This option should be further developed.

• A report about this meeting - with emphasis on the issues that relate to Misplaced Pages - should be published in the equivalent of the Village pump on the Dutch Misplaced Pages, known as "De Kroeg".

The above is a translated list of conclusions from a meeting by interested Dutch Wikimedians and the Motivaction survey report writers on May 4th 2013. Jane (talk) 12:43, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

The Most Controversial Topics in Misplaced Pages: A Multilingual and Geographical Analysis

InfoDocket (on Library Journal) has picked up this draft chapter. It's from a forthcoming book, Global Misplaced Pages: International and cross-cultural issues in online collaboration (expected 2014). The authors take a look at controversial topics and edit wars to form conclusions. From the authors' abstract: "We demonstrate that Misplaced Pages is more than just an encyclopaedia; it is also a window into divergent social-spatial priorities, interests and preferences." -- kosboot (talk) 17:36, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

It'll be interesting to know how much of the book will deal with Misplaced Pages. -- kosboot (talk) 19:05, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

According to the chapter, the 4th most controversial article on the English Misplaced Pages is LWWEe. WTF? Kaldari (talk) 04:57, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Gawker says List of WWE employees, which redirects to List of WWE personnel. Trivialist (talk) 00:20, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

A couple technical updates

The experimental Thanks extension was deployed to English Misplaced Pages on May 30. Also, as of May 30th, videos are now displayed in a modal viewer when you click on the thumbnail in an article. See Congenital insensitivity to pain for an example. Kaldari (talk) 00:54, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

Distributing the Edit History of Misplaced Pages Infoboxes

Sometimes you can find interesting things just by searching "Misplaced Pages" on Twitter. The following sounds like it might have been covered before, but in case not: Google Research's blog post discusses how Google collaborated with Wikimedia Deutschland to analyze the history of Misplaced Pages articles in the hope that it will be useful in helping machines learn how to extract data from documents. -- kosboot (talk) 01:58, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

How to organize your own Misplaced Pages edit-a-thon in CHE

Nice to see a positive article (by Adeline Koh) in the Chronicle of Higher Education (which has trashed WP in the past) on using edit-a-thons to address imbalances: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/how-to-organize-your-own-wikipedia-edit-a-thon/49757. -- kosboot (talk) 02:11, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

I suppose it was. Sir Rcsprinter, Bt (talk to me) @ 17:01, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I could see where many Wikipedians could be defensive about this. After all, the article is talking about getting inexperienced people together to make mass edits, possibly for political reasons. It *almost* looks like some of those appeals that went out in the mass media trying to vote-stack some RfCs. But it is not really the same - it is bringing in new editors, who hopefully will stay with us. We might even call it "The edit-a-thon that anybody can organize." It might be a bit messy, but ultimately it's something we should encourage. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 18:18, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I note the hostility (Rcsprinter123) and the skepticism (Smallbones). I think many of us might still be recovering from WP's heydey around 2007-2009 where it seemed like every article was being vandalized with an overload of toilet humor (often multiple times a day or hour). But those days are over and it's long past the time to let go of those memories and defensive attitudes. We need not use a sledgehammer if today an IP address makes an well-intentioned if erroneous edit. Perhaps that's what contributes most to the non-Wikipedians' perception of WP as a nasty place. "Good faith" is somewhere in those principles. -- kosboot (talk) 20:15, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Don't worry, I'm always skeptical, which is not incompatible with AGF. Keep up the good work. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 20:49, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

1-year anniversary of IPv6 deployment on Wikimedia websites

Tomorrow will mark the first anniversary of IPv6 deployment on Wikimedia, which to me would be something worth covering in the technology report.--Jasper Deng (talk) 20:15, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Assigning Misplaced Pages editing: Triangulation toward understanding university student engagement

Assigning Misplaced Pages editing: Triangulation toward understanding university student engagement is an article in First Monday. It's a scholarly written and positive case-study of using WP in the classroom. -- kosboot (talk) 23:04, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

I'd like to piggyback and plug the Campus Ambassador program mentioned in the article. Fall Semester will start in a couple months. I think advertising WMF outreach could attract many Wikipedians who don't know how much good they could accomplish on their local college campus. Students with access to academic sources being mentored by professors and guided by Ambassadors (campus and online) could really improve the wiki. This essay shows that both students and professors felt more learning and engagement was had by bringing classwork to Misplaced Pages.

I enjoyed my past semester as an Ambassador and look forward to the Fall. I'd encourage everyone to get involved. Chris Troutman (talk) 05:52, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

Maybe you could write an article for the Signpost as well as for the Ambassador documentation. :) -- kosboot (talk) 01:39, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Edit-a-thons simultaneously in several countries in several language versions of Misplaced Pages

Upcoming 29 June a group of several edit-a-thons will be held on 29 June in several countries in several language versions of Misplaced Pages about the subject of the World War I. This includes a multilingual edit-a-thon in Belgium. Another edit-a-thon is in Doorn, the Netherlands, both aiming on the Dutch Misplaced Pages and other language versions if multilingual users are present. Info at: meta:World War I edit-a-thons. Romaine (talk) 03:22, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Daily Dot on Commons

The Daily Dot just published a story by Kevin Morris on Pricasso's painting of Jimmy Wales, the WP editor who apparently made a quid-pro-quo arrangement for it, and the current Commons' crisis. I'm not allowed to link to the actual article. Cla68 (talk) 13:05, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

That's weird. Here's the link and the first few graphsDan Murphy (talk) 13:14, 25 June 2013 (UTC):

The other day, Australian artist Tim Patch slipped out of his hot pink speedo and slathered his flaccid penis in paint.

It was a pretty normal day in the studio for Patch, who goes by the stage name Pricasso. (Yes, that's Pricasso.) The sandy-haired Aussie has carved out a successful niche in the art world thanks to the versatility of his genitalia, which he uses to paint vivid portraits of celebrities, or anyone with the inclination and $200 Australian.

This day's painting was special, however. For one, the man commissioning the painting used never revealed his real name. And rather than pay money directly, he suggested a trade: I'm going to write a Misplaced Pages article about you, he said, and you penis-paint the face of Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of the largest and most influential encyclopedia in the world. The painting would then be added to the article.

"I was surprised that someone would do an article on me," Pricasso told me. "I thought what the hell—I'd do it."

Size in volumes

Up to 1799 so may make it to 1800 by time of publication. timing connects well with this scientific American article:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/overthinking-it/2013/06/27/when-the-last-of-us-are-left-how-long-would-it-take-to-transcribe-wikipedia/

Geni (talk) 16:42, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Jimmy Wales Is Not an Internet Billionaire

Jimmy Wales Is Not an Internet Billionaire in the forthcoming New York Times Magazine is the best article on Jimbo, perhaps even on Misplaced Pages, that I've seen in a long time. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 22:43, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

I agree. Great article. Sounds like a slam dunk for the lead story in this week's In the Media section. Unfortunately, I won't be around, as I would gladly do the writeup. Keilana and Andreas, this looks to me like a winner. Go Phightins! 00:01, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

NRHP at 50% news, for July 3 signpost

I'd like to request a news-type announcement, in the July 3 Signpost, of WikiProject NRHP achieving a major milestone of 50%. I think this news announcement could possibly be picked up by news coverage external to Misplaced Pages, from the Signpost article or otherwise, but this is currently a news announcement from me and the rest of the Wikiproject. This is akin to Signpost announcement in 2010 of the unsourced BLP project achievement of a major milestone, in Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/2010-05-24/News and notes#Unsourced BLP drive on track to clean up or remove 50,000 entries by year's end. The following is my first suggested draft; the indicate comments not meant to be included in the final article. It could use some fine-tuning of numbers as of July 2 or July 3. I would be happy for this to be edited. Let me know how I can help further, please. For posting to reach the wikiproject, please see/add to: Misplaced Pages talk:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places#Half-way. I think this is an amazing achievement, and hope that this can be shared in the July 3 Signpost. The NRHP wikiproject has completed several major editing drives on July 4's: on July 4, 2008 completed covering all U.S. National Historic Landmarks; on July 4, 2009 completed "table-izing" the List of RHPs. --doncram 00:28, 1 July 2013 (UTC))

Something like (to be edited):

(begin suggested article)

WikiProject NRHP, which began in 2006, in the last week has just hit the half-way mark of creating articles describing every historic place listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Comprising 1.03% of all mainspace English Misplaced Pages articles, the articles indexed from List of RHPs cover historic houses, ships, historic districts, archeological sites and more. Its 44,170 articles now are top Google hits for most of the NRHP sites; the Wikiproject members are proud to bring details of local American history to the people in this way. 50% coverage prepares the project well for the 2013 Wiki Loves Monuments photo campaign. (In 2012, the WLM participant photo submissions brought NRHP list-articles over the 50% mark in terms of having photos; in 2013 more new photo submissions can go directly into articles containing significant coverage.) The 44,170 article achievement is the number of individual NRHP-listed sitenames developed as an individual article, or covered in a combination article; the WikiProject actually has 51,580 articles, counting multiple separate articles for "contributing properties" within historic districts, and counting other types of articles. Congratulations, and thanks to all of you who have contributed! (end of suggested article)

The unsourced BLP drive was, I think, much more newsworthy than progress in the rote creation of articles from rows of a database - a problem which is, alas, very widespread. bobrayner (talk) 00:52, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages Signpost newsroom