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This page is for suggesting news to be covered in the next Signpost. For general discussion, comments or questions regarding The Signpost, please see our feedback page.

Angola users are using Misplaced Pages Zero to share content from the wider Internet

Via Slashdot: Motherboard reports users are uploading content - often in violation of Commons copyright policies - so users in Angola, where data is extremely expensive, can access them through Misplaced Pages Zero and Facebook Free Basics. --Kakurady (talk) 18:45, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Also on Techdirt shoy (reactions) 14:09, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

If I'm reading these correctly, it's not that they are uploading at Commons but at the Portuguese Misplaced Pages. (I would think that if they were being uploaded to Commons this would have been discovered a lot sooner). --MASEM (t) 15:28, 25 March 2016 (UTC)

Follow-up to "Is an interim WMF executive director inherently notable?"

• WP:Navel-gazing

I read the piece "Is an interim WMF executive director inherently notable?" by Josve05a.

We've had some other related types of deletion debates on Misplaced Pages over the years where users use the term "navel-gazing" as part of their argument.

I've created the essay, WP:Navel-gazing which so far brings together fifty (50) case studies of use of the term in deletion debates.

There's hundreds more results at search link for occurence of "navel-gazing".

Could be interesting to for someone to analyze those for The Signpost.

Good luck,

— Cirt (talk) 21:02, 27 March 2016 (UTC)

2015 rally continues

Would you like a paragraph or so on editor numbers? The 2015 rally in editors saving over 100 edits a month in mainspace that I broke on the signpost last year has continued for 14 months now. User:WereSpielChequers/100+_editors#as_per_Feb_16_stats On the flipside the number of new autoconfirmed editors may be down, but the figures there are unstable and possibly inaccurate. ϢereSpielChequers 14:38, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

Exam by Misplaced Pages replaces ‘increasingly unappealing’ essays

• Chris Havergal (31 March 2016). "Exam by Misplaced Pages replaces 'increasingly unappealing' essays". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 31 March 2016.

"Many academics spend their time telling students not to use Misplaced Pages in their coursework, but one university has taken a different approach.

Lecturers on some modules at the University of Sydney are setting students the task of editing and authoring entries for the online encyclopedia instead of getting them to sit exams or write essays."

— Cirt (talk) 02:58, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

How to Create ‘Wikiplomacy’

• Ruth Steinhardt (28 March 2016). "How to Create 'Wikiplomacy' - U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom says future of diplomacy depends on human networks, not just digital ones". GW Today. Retrieved 31 March 2016.

"In the early 2000s, Encarta briefly outsold the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica, historically the top seller in the field. But by 2009, despite being backed by the richest company in the world, Encarta had been discontinued. It was unable to compete with Jimmy Wales’ user-generated, user-audited Misplaced Pages, which had become and remains the predominant model for sharing knowledge.

...

Instead, he suggested, managing relationships between countries in the 21st century will be most successful when it focuses on “analog diplomacy in a networked world”—what Mr. Barzun jokingly called “Wikiplomacy.”"

— Cirt (talk) 03:02, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

Saskatoon police removed 'starlight tours' section from Misplaced Pages, student says

• Dan Zakreski (31 March 2016). "Saskatoon police removed 'starlight tours' section from Misplaced Pages, student says". CBC News.

"A university student working on a project about police brutality says he uncovered how someone inside the Saskatoon police station deleted the section on "starlight tours" from the department's entry on Misplaced Pages.

The deleted section referred to cases of the Saskatoon police taking aboriginal men and women to the edge of the city in the winter and abandoning them, a practice known as "starlight tours.""

— Cirt (talk) 02:20, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

The Best Articles Misplaced Pages Deleted This Week

• Ashley Feinberg (March 30, 2016). "The Best Articles Misplaced Pages Deleted This Week". Gawker.

"When the faceless editors of Misplaced Pages decide an article is not fit for public consumption, it’s gone, only accessible to the site’s top editors—at least, it was. After a brief interlude, we’re back sucking up Misplaced Pages’s detritus to give you the best of what Misplaced Pages has deemed the worst. And this week’s set is very, very good."

I'd never happened upon this Gawker feature before.

It's really neat !

— Cirt (talk) 02:22, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

New Wikmedia Fundraising campaign

m:2016-2017_Virtual_Reality_Fundraising_campaign

Jseddon (WMF) (talk) 10:50, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Must be the subject of a Misplaced Pages article before we consider you

See this thread at the Teahouse - Misplaced Pages:Teahouse/Questions#User:Uchu_RRFisher_and_an_apparent_requirement_for_applicants_to_be_in_Wikipedia - is the position being approached where being the subject of a WP article is necessary to be considered for an appointment? In this case the AIAA (presumably the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) commented on the fact that the applicant for a place on an advisory committee does not have a WP page about him whereas the other applicants do. Nthep (talk) 12:24, 3 April 2016 (UTC)

Extendedconfirmed user rights & 30/500 page protection

A short summary of the new extendedconfirmed user rights and the 30/500 page protection; with links to the relevant ArbCom decisions, RfCs etc. May possibly include: a very brief history; a couple of short quotes from the Arbs explaining the whys & wherefores. I may be able to draft something. - Ryk72 14:25, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

@Ryk72:Where are there some helpful explanatory links about this new development ? — Cirt (talk) 14:30, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Hi Cirt, I think at a minimum we would want to include reference to this and the ArbCom . I'd also consider that we might call out the recent changes/additions at WP:Protection policy#Arbitration 30.2F500 protection, WP:Requests for page protection, WP:User access levels, WP:Requests for permissions, and any highlights in the discussions on the associated Talk pages. - Ryk72 14:44, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Okay, thank you, hopefully that is helpful information for The Signpost editors ! :) — Cirt (talk) 14:46, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

There are also some additional links in the Notes: section of Special:AbuseFilter/698, which explain some of the history; but I think it would be a little bit following the White Rabbit to include full details of all of them. - Ryk72 15:08, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Server migration will prevent editing

I think it would be a good idea to follow up on Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/2016-03-09/Technology report with a brief announcement of the new dates. There is information in m:Tech/Server switch 2016, and the official schedule is at wikitech:Switch Datacenter#Schedule for Q3 FY2015-2016 rollout. This will start at 14:00 UTC on Tuesday, 19 April and Thursday, 21 April, which is mid-afternoon for many of our European editors and morning for North American editors. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:32, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Senate candidate David Jolly's PR office edits article

...and admits it to Buzzfeed. Two news reports state that David Jolly's PR firm has been editing the article on him. He is a candidate for the US Senate in Florida. See Buzzfeed and The Hill. A staffer with a similar user name has said s/he made edits to Jolly's page. They have only 2 edits, which look quite POV. They have disclosed in the Buzzfeed story, but not yet on-Wiki, per WP:PAID. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 18:28, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Why the Egyptian Revolution is Like Misplaced Pages

• Wael Ghonim (4 April 2016), "Quora Question: Why the Egyptian Revolution is Like Misplaced Pages", Newsweek, retrieved 7 April 2016

By the notable Wael Ghonim.

— Cirt (talk) 23:39, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Trending News: Misplaced Pages Just Deleted The Best Drinking Game From The Internet

• Ian Lang (6 April 2016), "Misplaced Pages Removes 'Stump' Drinking Game Article - Trending News: Misplaced Pages Just Deleted The Best Drinking Game From The Internet", AskMen, retrieved 7 April 2016

Interesting passage:

"The entry for Stump was one of them, with Misplaced Pages's reason being that the game's not notable enough. But Jimmy Fallon and Elijah Wood played it on Late Night in 2010, so here's hoping more attention will raise its profile enough to keep the page alive."

— Cirt (talk) 23:44, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Swedish Court: Misplaced Pages Hosting Photos Of Public Artwork Is Copyright Infringement For Some Reason

• Timothy Geigner (6 April 2016), "Swedish Court: Misplaced Pages Hosting Photos Of Public Artwork Is Copyright Infringement For Some Reason", Techdirt, retrieved 7 April 2016

Perhaps this one could use some more digging and investigative journalism as an in-depth story by the talented people at The Signpost ?

Just a suggestion,

— Cirt (talk) 23:47, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages Year of Science: An Open Opportunity for Participation

• Sheryl P. Denker (April 14, 2016), "Misplaced Pages Year of Science: An Open Opportunity for Participation", PLOS: Diverse ideas on science and medicine

"The Wiki Education Foundation (Wiki Ed) has announced the 2016 Misplaced Pages Year of Science, an initiative to improve Misplaced Pages’s potential for communicating science to the public. Through its Classroom Program (where students write Misplaced Pages articles on class-related topics in place of a traditional research paper) and with collaborations from Misplaced Pages editors, Wiki Ed will engage scientists to improve the breadth and depth of scientific content on Misplaced Pages."

— Cirt (talk) 18:50, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Tool tells Misplaced Pages editors which articles to translate

• Tom Abate-Stanford (April 15, 2016), "Tool tells Misplaced Pages editors which articles to translate", Futurity

"To help editors in different linguistic communities identify important missing articles, computer scientists at Stanford and the Wikimedia Foundation have created a recommendation tool that identifies the most important articles not yet available in a given language. Editors can use these recommendations and, if they are multilingual, find an article in a second language familiar to them and get other help in order to translate the article for local Misplaced Pages readers.

— Cirt (talk) 18:52, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

A four year, action-packed experience with Misplaced Pages

• Sailesh Patnaik (April 15, 2016), "A four year, action-packed experience with Misplaced Pages", Opensource.com

"I consider myself to be an Odia Wikimedian. I contribute Odia knowledge (the predominant language of the Indian state of Odisha) to many Wikimedia projects, like Misplaced Pages and Wikisource, by writing articles and correcting mistakes in articles. I also contribute to Hindi and English Misplaced Pages articles.

1st day at Odia Misplaced Pages meetupMy love for Wikimedia started while I was reading an article about the Bangladesh Liberation war on the English Misplaced Pages after my 10th board exam..."

— Cirt (talk) 18:55, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Reed Elsevier, Scholastic and other publishing houses target Misplaced Pages in "bizarre anti-piracy rampage"

See https://torrentfreak.com/harry-potter-publisher-goes-on-a-bizarre-anti-piracy-rampage-160414/ (coverage of DMCA takedown notices received by Google). Some other media coverage: , (in French), (in German, observing that such "absurd" takedown notices against Misplaced Pages have only become frequent recently, since the end of 2015). Regards, HaeB (talk) 05:46, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

This does indeed seem odd. I can readily believe that major publishers could issue vast numbers of valid takedown notices for copyvio text that still lingers in WP articles, despite our considerable efforts to remove it - but this doesn't seem to be what's happening. Scolastic's request of 1 April (Request ID: 329507) 1lists many sites, but the only WP page listed is User:Robertson-Glasgow, which is just a huge bibliograpy of things he's read, some no doubt published by Scholastic. Johnbod (talk) 13:21, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

One Easy Way to Make Misplaced Pages Better

via User:Fuzheado: One Easy Way to Make Misplaced Pages Better - article in The Atlantic - mention how it would be difficult for a user to follow the citations for verification of WP articles, and proposes a verifiability meter which could serve as an indicator. - kosboot (talk) 16:12, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

We covered that study in the February edition of "Recent research"/the Wikimedia Research Newsletter (see also talk page there). Regards, Tbayer (WMF) (talk) 03:18, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Art

The Signpost isn't your typical Newspaper. Some papers still do, but in the past, beyond the informational value, Papers offered an entertainment value. The Raven by Poe was first published in New-York Mirror. It would be nice to see something like this. If not with each addition then perhaps as either a Quarterly or Yearly addition. Works that in someway encompass something of an encyclopedic benefit. Perhaps poetry that demonstrated dactylic or iambic pentameter. Perhaps some Haiku. My main example would poetry but that is not anything to limit it to as there are various forms of art to consider. I think this would certainly be an interesting addition to the sign post. Thanks for you consideration.-Serialjoepsycho- (talk) 11:00, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Weighill publicly apologizes for Misplaced Pages page edit

• Charles Hamilton (21 April 2016), "Weighill publicly apologizes for Misplaced Pages page edit", Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Follow-up development to previously reported in The Signpost, at:

"Saskatoon police delete Misplaced Pages content about police brutality".

Cheers,

— Cirt (talk) 23:53, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

You Can Help Choose What Misplaced Pages Articles Aliens Get to Read on the Moon

• Clinton Nguyen (21 April 2016), "You Can Help Choose What Misplaced Pages Articles Aliens Get to Read on the Moon", Mic

and

• Devin Coldewey (21 April 2016), "To the Moon! Lunar XPRIZE team looks to send Misplaced Pages into space aboard homemade rover", TechCrunch

Sounds exciting !!

— Cirt (talk) 23:55, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

One Easy Way to Make Misplaced Pages Better

• Adrienne LaFrance (22 April 2016), "One Easy Way to Make Misplaced Pages Better - Researchers say the online encyclopedia should have a source-o-meter on each page, reflecting the quality of citations", The Atlantic

"Researchers say the online encyclopedia should have a source-o-meter on each page, reflecting the quality of citations"

...

— Cirt (talk) 00:50, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

• Alas, "quality" has diverse interpretations. It's hard enough already to organize good Misplaced Pages:Assessments to put on the talk page. Imagine getting assessments good enough to put directly onto the article. Jim.henderson (talk) 18:51, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

WMF Global Ban - follow-up to prior coverage in The Signpost

1. Prior coverage in The Signpost at Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/2016-03-23/News and notes.
2. Request for Comment that was started 6 days prior to the WMF action, at LINK.
3. WMFOffice (talk · contribs) action at Meta DIFF and English Misplaced Pages DIFF.
4. May be verified at LINK, and can also be seen at LINK.

Thank you,

— Cirt (talk) 01:01, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages Signpost newsroom