Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 00:38, 1 September 2008

• WP:POST/N/S
• WP:POST/TIPS
• WP:TIPLINE

Welcome to The Misplaced Pages Signpost's Tip Line. There are two ways to leave tips:

1. Add a tip on this page
2. Anonymously e-mail us at WikipediaSignpost@Gmail.com (for convenience, you may use this link)

Not every mention of Misplaced Pages in the media will make it into Signpost. Consider editing Misplaced Pages:Press coverage 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. Ral315 (talk) 05:43, 3 January 2008 (UTC) Template:SignpostNavigation

Calendar of upcoming events

I intend this to be a sort of calendar of upcoming events, on and off Misplaced Pages (particularly non-obvious events, that might be easily missed) -- things that readers might be interested in. Anyone can add events here.

• The print version of the German Misplaced Pages is to go on sale priced €19.95 (£16). For every copy sold, €1 goes to Wikimedia. The book contains the 50,000 most searched entries and contains a list of 90,000 authors. Story in The Guardian. ISD (talk) 08:47, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Requests for WikiProject features

If you'd like your WikiProject featured in an upcoming WikiProject report, feel free to list it here. Note that these requests are entirely advisory, and may or may not be used in future reports. Please do not "support" or "oppose" individual requests, and keep requests short and concise. Ral315 (talk) 05:51, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

• WP:DINO, with over 90 members, the Dinosaur WikiProject is really dedicated to dinosaur coverage. See achievements for more information. Bibliomaniac15 21:51, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

• WikiProject Oregon is a lively and productive project that currently supports over 5000 articles, and has a dedicated core group of editors who work toward getting articles to GA and FA. Currently we are working on a response to the Oregon Historical Society's announcement that they are starting a collaborative encyclopedia project that will somehow be better than Misplaced Pages. Katr67 (talk) 02:21, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

• WikiProject Saints, the only project which to my knowledge has gotten a barnstar from an outsider as a project. And, of course, considering it just declared indpendence, Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Kosovo might be the most timely. John Carter (talk) 19:17, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Textile Arts nearly died and came back to life. Originally begun in early 2007, by the start of December it had dwindled to just two active members. For a view of how much it's revived, here's its March newsletter (featured pictures, good articles, DYKs, and a featured portal drive). Durova 09:19, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

• I think Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Categories/uncategorized might be a nice success-story to include in some edition of the Signpost. Various gnomes have hacked away at this backlog ever since bots like Alaibot started populating it a year and a half ago. Of course, this is a never-ending task but it's an important one and the backlog typically hovers around 2000 articles (compared to 10 times that a year ago). Pichpich (talk) 13:42, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

• WikiProject Long Island. Theres tons of things that happened in WP:LINY that would be great for the signpost. Nothing444 13:12, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Professional wrestling. The GA nominations have been overloaded for several months with articles that they've been working on. Royalbroil 14:36, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages:Spotlight. We have just restarted and our first article was elevated to a GA by our effort. We have already created new templates and even a barnstar. The one thing we are missing is people. The last article (Kristallnacht) was a 3-person job, and we could do with a little feature just to let people know we're back Dendodge 17:45, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

• WikiProject Environment. It has quite a bit of members and quality of articles (5 FA, 20 GA, 3 GAN). It has a task force that has attracted an English course in University of Kansas to improve environment-related sections in Misplaced Pages articles. OhanaUnited 13:21, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

• WikiProject U.S. Roads. There have been a recent surge of good articles, making a total of 12 featured articles, 2 featured lists, 1 featured picture, 2 featured topics, 9 A-Class articles, and 117 Good articles. There are five main users that should be interviewed, and they are Rschen7754, Scott5114, O, Kéiryn, and NE2. --CG 03:41, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

• WikiProject Comedy - It contains over 50 featured works, over 200 GAs, and has just under 50 members. ISD (talk) 08:43, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

The Misplaced Pages Story

Would it be possible to mention and mention that Fuzheado (Andrew Lih) would like to have people to help make the final chapter? The Placebo Effect 03:20, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

WikiScanner now more powerful

Virgil Griffith, creator of WikiScanner, has announced some updates to his project. Some of them are available now, others will go online in two weeks. The biggest change is that WikiScanner will now be able to automatically identify some potential conflict-of-interest edits: any edit by organization's IP to that organization's article or to any article that links to that article is flagged, as well as any article on a trademark controlled by the organization (based on the trademark database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office).

Griffith has also trawled the Misplaced Pages database for every instance of a "signed" IP comment being replaced with a username (as happens, e.g., when a user accidentally makes a comment while logged out, then removes their IP and replaces it with their name). He dubs this the Poor Man's Checkuser, which covers 17,000 IPs and 13,000 usernames. This includes, according to the Wired coverage, "most of the Misplaced Pages administrators".

Between the two of these features, it may be possible to identify some registered users who make COI edits. According to Wired, Griffith has assembled a "SockPuppetry" page listing all the matches between IP-linked usernames and organizations. Although this may not be online yet.

Griffith has combined WikiScanner with a detailed list matching MIT IP addresses to particular locations on campus to create Beaver Scope, an attempt to stir up trouble at Caltech's rival school. (Griffith is a Caltech graduate student.)

He has also announced a new tool, "WikiGanda", which is "designed to uncover edit wars between two factions", as well as another tool that will be revealed in two weeks that "Griffith isn't prepared to discuss".--ragesoss (talk) 15:44, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Coverage in Forbes:

• Greenberg, Andy (2008-07-19). "Security: The Wiki-Hacker Strikes Again". Forbes. Forbes.com LLC. Retrieved 2008-07-19.

Most interesting development. Cirt (talk) 17:56, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

I've moved. ;) Good work, Virgil. Durova 00:48, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Potential sockpuppetry tool

The potential sockpuppetry tool is available (since when, I don't know): http://wikiwatcher.virgil.gr/psp/

Still no word on WikiGanda or the other unnamed tool.--ragesoss (talk) 21:20, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Google Knol goes live

Google Knol has gone live - http://knol.google.com/k/knol#

I've reviewed a few of the posted knols. On the upshot, it looks like Google got some bone fide experts to write them, and their credientials are posted. Also, they have copyright information posted right up front, and a number of them use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (so we can re-use their materials).

On the downside, it looks like not a single Knol has a hyperlink to any other article (so they are web dead-ends). Browsing the site in general is a disaster - pretty much the only way to do it is to go through the big list of all knols.

It might be worth having someone do a side-by-side comparison of their lung cancer article and our Lung cancer article (which is a featured article). Raul654 (talk) 19:36, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Further thoughts: some of the knols are listed as collaborations, but if you check their equivalent of edit histories (like this one - http://knol.google.com/k/norah-terrault/hepatitis-c/1w026jckgcwg2/4?locale=en&path_author=norah-terrault&path_title=hepatitis-c#revisions ) often times it's only one person.

Second, it might be worth dropping one or two of their collaborators an email and asking what motivated them to contribute to Knol. Raul654 (talk) 19:41, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The intro paragraph at the top of lung cancer sounds awful familiar. Immediately you can tell that this site will be more like about.com than Misplaced Pages as there are a lot of how-to articles. I tried to compare an article, but wikipedia doesnt have toilet clogs (). Also I don't see any guidelines on how articles should be styled. It also seems that NPOV isn't one of their main goals. "Voice your opinion. Your name is behind your knol, and it should reflect your unique point of view." . Overall it really isn't a wikipedia or even a citezendium competitor. -Ravedave (talk) 23:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I looked at their ADHD content, since ours is dismal. They have Russell Barkley writing; that's very good. Knol has eight excellent ADHD articles; we have, basically, almost nothing of quality. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:06, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

WP:SOFIXIT :P Steven Walling (talk) 00:56, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Looking at their Asperger and autism info, they definitely accept an advocacy/POV slant that we don't. Perhaps Eubulides (talk · contribs) could comment indepth. They don't have a Tourette syndrome article, but one of their other articles links to ours. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:15, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

I've been working on the Knol article some, and there are more news sources there if anyone needs them for Signpost coverage. Steven Walling (talk) 00:02, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

NYTimes: Wikimedia, Meet Knol, "For now, Knol has only a few hundred articles, compared to the nearly 2.5 million in Misplaced Pages’s English language version. And for now, the best place to follow the debate on whether or not Knol is a Misplaced Pages killer is on the Knol entry on, where else, Misplaced Pages." --JayHenry (talk) 01:33, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Doing user-generated content proud, a ohmynews.com article points out dozens of cases where Knol users have copied Misplaced Pages articles without attribution and passed it off as their own work. - BanyanTree 12:04, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

I've already reported a few instances to Google (for Sun and Star Trek). I clicked on the "Flag inappropriate content" link, selected "other" reason, and linked to the Misplaced Pages page from which the content was copied, with a note that it was an "unattributed copy" of that page. Some of these copied articles on Knol also impose further restrictions on redistribution, clearly violating the GFDL. Mindmatrix 13:53, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Aside: I think we should report all these GFDL/copyright violations. Ironically, each Knol also has links to "similar content" on the web; for example, the Knol about the Sun lists the Wikpedia page as 76% similar. Of course, we know there's a reason for that... Anyway, is there a discussion about this elsewhere on WP? Mindmatrix 14:02, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Not really, although WP:AN would be a good place to start. Titoxd 20:24, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Discussion at Misplaced Pages:Village pump (miscellaneous)#Google Knol to copy Misplaced Pages? - BanyanTree 14:58, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

And now Misplaced Pages:Mirrors and forks/Knol. - BanyanTree 00:08, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Differences between Knol and Misplaced Pages.--ragesoss (talk) 22:43, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

News from Australia

Durova 23:51, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

The on-wiki discussion about this, which started on Tuesday following a leak printed at this blog, can be found here. Orderinchaos 23:55, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

The main article appears to be here. In this part of the world, at least, this spectacular stuff-up has received more attention than the launch of Knol, which hit the presses only a few hours earlier. Orderinchaos 10:20, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Yet Another MyWikibizesque Move

An article details the exploits of Anvil Media Inc. And looks like it's already been AN'd, ANI'd, COIN'd, RFCU'd and BLOCK'd. =) --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 16:04, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd say this could now be a case study in why one should never publish a case study on how Misplaced Pages was used to drive traffic to a commercial website. The phrase that comes to mind (with respect to the work done by Misplaced Pages editors in searching for and removing stuff added by the PR firm involved) is something like "scorched earth". -- John Broughton (♫♫) 01:35, 31 July 2008 (UTC)

Medpedia

A wiki-based expert-only medical encyclopedia called Medpedia (official site) is launching at the end of 2008. It's being supported by several major medical schools, and will used the GFDL (meaning we can crib whatever's good and get the best of both worlds: expert contributions, without alienating experts through our sometimes expert-hostile culture).--ragesoss (talk) 02:54, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

BLP issues at John Edwards

A WP:BLP dispute has generated notice in the press. Relevant on-wiki discussions are located at Talk:John Edwards, Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Request review: protection of John Edwards, and Misplaced Pages:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard#John Edwards' bio brewing issues. Off-wiki commentary is located at , , , and . --Allen3  23:29, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Expert evaluates article

Misplaced Pages in the news; see this review of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/05/AR2008080502171.html

Yay, thank you. I always like when we get an expert content review, good or bad. --mboverload@ 20:56, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

So is there a FAR-like "This article was the topic of an outside review..." template? -- SEWilco (talk) 03:06, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Yep, {{External peer review}}. Nanonic (talk) 03:13, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

For what it's worth, the author of the article attended the May 17th Washington DC meetup, as noted in the "after-action report". He discussed what he was working on with a number of Wikipedians, including (I think) one or two with whom he had talked to previously. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:47, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

A-class review overhaul

It looks like MILHIST just retooled their A class review system to better assess such article, apparently in response to a percieved gap between A-class articles and the current FA class criteria. It may be something worth writing about. 75.56.179.62 (talk) 22:22, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Per the internal announcement template: {{WPMILHIST Announcements}}, it seems as though Panzer I was the first article to be approved under the new criteria on 7 August 2008. Here is the criteria, and a FAQ also exists within the project on this. -MBK₀₀₄ 22:33, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Wall Street Journal article

A large article covering the meetup in Alexandria, and a comprehensive look at many elements of Misplaced Pages was published today in the Wall Street Journal. --Nehrams2020 (talk) 23:22, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

One of the best written articles about Misplaced Pages in a long time. --mboverload@ 23:42, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

A shame the story was not written on a Wiki :) The author made the minor mistake of presenting admins and sysops as different groups. Not to bash on the author, but you can nearly always find such minor mistakes in nedia articles about Misplaced Pages, and it does accidentally highlight one of Misplaced Pages's incredible strengths. It's such a minor error. Do you think the WSJ will correct it? --JayHenry (talk) 01:38, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

My favorite part is that it focuses on GAs and doesn't mention FAs at all. It's quite surprising. --Nehrams2020 (talk) 03:49, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

University of Virginia student expelled because of Misplaced Pages

Opening paragraph from a Washington Post story of August 10, 2008: "It hit Mark Gruntz all at once, while he was sitting flat-broke in an airport in Greece: He had lost credit for three summer courses, wasted $11,474 in student loans and gotten kicked off a boat. All because he hadn't cited Misplaced Pages enough in a paper about a movie." -- John Broughton (♫♫) 13:29, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Wow, chilling effects. No wonder today's so cold in Toronto. OhanaUnited 16:46, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

NYT on Hunts Point

See the article. Steven Walling (talk) 18:27, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Working group on ethnic and cultural edit wars

As part of the ArbCom Palestine-Israel articles case, a Working group was established to spend six months investigating the problem of ethnic and cultural edit wars, provide data about the problem, and recommendations on how to proceed. The final report from the working group is now available, so anyone that wishes to review it, please see: Misplaced Pages:Working group on ethnic and cultural edit wars/2008 report. --Elonka 19:56, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

McCain speech appears partly plagiarized from Misplaced Pages

John McCain gave a speech today on the South Ossetia war, and it appears that several parts giving background on Georgia history were adapted from the text of Georgia (country). A blog post by Taegan Goddard of CQPolitics.com points to this revision as the possible source, and highlights three passages of similarity between the speech and the article.--ragesoss (talk) 23:29, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

(Maybe Mark Gruntz is interning with McCain's speechwriting staff.)--ragesoss (talk) 23:41, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Very unconvincing, if you ask me. bibliomaniac15 16:16, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi. Hmm, it appears he did use more than six words in a row without citing his source, which qualifies as plagarism by many standards. I don't know if presidential candidates are allowed to base their speeches off Misplaced Pages, however. I think it deserves some mention under "Misplaced Pages in the news". Thanks. ~AH1 17:57, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Doesn't look that similar to me, but in any event, Misplaced Pages text is released under the GFDL, so it wouldn't be plagiarism, per se. –Juliancolton 18:07, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

• McCain camp denies it: "McCain camp dismisses plagiarism rap", Jonathan Martin, Politico.
• Decent analysis of the implications: "McCain Gets Wiki", Andrew Romano, Newsweek Stumper blog.

Most of the people who've covered this story so far seem to accept that Misplaced Pages was the source of those phrases. That degree of similarity just doesn't happen by coincidence; a University of Virginia student would have had a tough time explaining it if that speech was turned in as a course assignment. As to plagiarism, the GFDL is irrelevant (and requires attribution in any case); using others words as if they were your own is plagiarism, regardless of the copyright situation.--ragesoss (talk) 23:49, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

You know it's big when it gets covered by The Onion: Lampman (talk) 17:07, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

I caught this by accident while reading through American Voices, and I couldn't stop laughing when I got to the "kosher meatpacking" comment -- I had just read that one, and wondered if they'd cribbed that from Misplaced Pages. Ral315 (talk) 06:55, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

It was on The Colbert Report too --Stlemur (talk) 12:49, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

And now someone from the Wikimedia Foundation has replied. --Stlemur (talk) 22:23, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Try asking Google about McCain's phrasing. The first search result at state.gov uses similar phrasing. Also check the claim about Misplaced Pages, as the phrase "one of the first countries to adopt Christianity" in Georgia is not referring to Georgia. -- SEWilco (talk) 02:50, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages tops in search results

From "Targeting Search Engine Rankings", in Internet Retailer magazine, August, 2008:

A new nine-week study by Internet Retailer ... of more than 300 keywords in 20 merchandising categories on Google reveals that ...

Misplaced Pages.org ... held 17 of the spots , including 11 No. 1 spots.

Whenever a retailer sees a Misplaced Pages listing appear in search results, that retailer should immediately ask: "Are there pages on my web site that meet the searchers' informational needs?" says Shari Thurow, founder and search optimization director at consultants Omni Marketing Interactive.

-- John Broughton (♫♫) 23:17, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Featured Topics - record month

Just a heads up that if the current four featured topic candidates all pass (and it looks like they will) then this month will see the most featured topics promoted of any month, with 7 promoted and 2 additions. And it'll only be mid-August by that point, so there could be more nominations to come. (The previous record is 5 promotions and 1 addition) - rst20xx (talk) 23:55, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

This could be a Dispatch topic, and should include an entire overview and history of Featured topics. Please collaborate over at WT:FCDW; the 25th issue is open as of now. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:01, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, that'd be a great dispatch subject. Ral315 (talk) 01:53, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Temp file started at Misplaced Pages:FCDW/TempFT‎, awaiting a date pending clarity on the milestone. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 15:41, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

BBC 'wikifies' their stories

For the first time today I noticed a new 'trial' feature on the BBC News website. For example, visit here and click to turn on in-page links. They are to Misplaced Pages articles. Could be a good way of raising the profile of some articles. More info from the Beeb is here. Splash - tk 14:27, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

I've seen two so far; the other one is here. Damn cool stuff, I say! rst20xx (talk) 19:47, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

The links option is only available in the UK version of the site. To see the option select "UK Version" as the site version from the left-hand side bar. Regards, Ganeshk (talk) 22:17, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Here's another with not so many links. This is great idea! One of the best uses of Misplaced Pages by a major external site I've ever seen. —Vanderdecken∴ ∫ξφ 13:07, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Checkuser improvements

The developers (specifically, user:Voice of All) have recently been improving the checkuser UI. A number of long-needed long-requested features have finally been added. Raul654 (talk) 16:31, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Any "before and after" screenshots for comparison? OhanaUnited 19:12, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about before shots, but here's some screenshots of the new features. Raul654 (talk) 03:04, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

• The "duration" drop-box on the right is new.
• The external links to sites that track those IPs are new
• The ability to tag and block users from the checkuser screen (at the bottom here) is new. Also, in the black out area listing users, it now displays a warning if that user has been previously blocked.

Single-page View...

...missing!

Interwiki-Link-Checker working again

The Interwiki-Link-Checker, which has been down for some months, is back working again. The IWLC provides a valuable resource for generating inter-language interwiki links between different language editions of Misplaced Pages. -- The Anome (talk) 01:15, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I am absolutely lost in this tool. OhanaUnited 02:35, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Click the link "START IWLC"; pick a language pair (columns 2 and 3); then click on the link in column 1 (which I believe is the number of article pairs that need to be checked). You'll then be shown pairs of articles; click on the appropriate number ("1" through "7") to tell the program what you think of each pair (same subject, not the same subject, one or both is a disambiguation page, one or both is a redirect, etc.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 01:26, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

This Week's wikiproject

Perhaps this week we could feature the Olympics wikiproject WP:OLY on the signpost, as it would be fitting, and perhaps garner more support for the project, as about 350 new articles have been or are being created for these games, and we are in the midst of populating them with prose and results, coordinated by continuous question and answer sessions on the talk page WT:OLY. Jared (t)  15:40, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I think that is a great idea. If someone will do the work of writing it up. Remember (talk) 16:29, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Meetups

There's several meetups coming up - Misplaced Pages:Meetup/New Orleans and Misplaced Pages:Meetup/NYC. It might be worth having a mention of these in the signpost. Raul654 (talk) 16:50, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Latest News on Misplaced Pages Article View Stats

If anyone is interested, I have the latest information on the status of the Wikimedia Foundation's page view stats, with a response from the person in charge of it, Erik Zachte. --David Shankbone 22:21, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

The times plagiarises wikipedia

--Manboobies (talk) 02:20, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

A better link: User talk:Jimbo Wales#Copyright Infringement. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 01:00, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Important court case in USA

"Advocates of open source software have hailed a court ruling protecting its use even though it is given away free" - BBC News Tompw (talk) (review) 20:41, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages wins Quadriga-Award

Misplaced Pages has won this years Quadriga (award), along with three other Persons. The prize carries a value of 25,000 € (which is about $37.000). Jimbo will receive the award on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation. German email with more information --Church of emacs (Talk | Stalk) 14:16, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Correction: The money goes to the German Wikimedia Chapter, not the Wikimedia Foundation --Church of emacs (Talk | Stalk) 22:49, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Stir-fried wikipedia?

I was in a restaurant in Beijing last month and they served wikipedia:

• Menu item 303: Stir-fried wikipedia (or Stir-fried wikipedia with pimentos) RMB 168
• Menu item 304: Steam eggs with wikipedia RMB 48
• Menu item 305: Fried special wikipedia RMB 128

If Signpost is interested I've got photos of the menu etc, the name of the restaurant etc. --Kleinzach 09:08, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

If I would order a wikipedia, then what would I get? I don't know if this subject would fit anywhere in the Signpost, but upload those photos anyway! Cheers, Face 12:21, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

This already made the rounds last year among some blogs, including BoingBoing: , - see the photos there. Regards, HaeB (talk) 15:44, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Same restaurant! Thanks for letting me know. --Kleinzach 01:33, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

*drops dead* It must be those stupid machine translators that did this. They translate Chinese into English, only to change it to Chinglish (that is, a bit of Chinese inside English, but no Chinese or English person would be able to understand). I have seen worse though, such as these ones. The worse is that I seen one in train station and so it's supposed to be correct. But the foreign guy standing beside me looks puzzled because he has no idea what they wrote as the translation for English. Since I could read Chinese, I just told him the room says it's train station's security office. OhanaUnited 15:33, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you are right, but the explanations proposed at the first link sound more plausible to me. (The prevalent version sounds much like the popular story for the origin of the kangaroo's name.) In any case, the signs are excellent: "The national scenery zone ratified by State Council is a precious national legacy fashioned by the hand of God as a pleasant holiday resort." Bloody hilarious.

(I do feel a little sorry when I see formal, expensive, well-designed signs with errors like that, though. It's such a pity.) Waltham, The Duke of 19:19, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Newyorkbrad is back

User:Newyorkbrad has returned. He made a statement here (with much rejoicing below that). NotTheWikipediaWeekly interviewed him here.--chaser - t 05:55, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

From the link above:

"As a personal favor, I request that undue attention of the "Newyorkbrad's back!!!!" variety not be placed on my return. This will be sincerely appreciated."

Given the above, it would seem like a reasonable courtesy to check with Newyorkbrad if he's OK with it, before considering writing a Signpost article. -- The Anome (talk) 11:46, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

What can happen when Google ranks a Misplaced Pages user page as first in search results

Brianna Goldberg, "Google Twins: I want to be number one", National Post, August 22, 2008. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 23:10, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

San Francisco Chronicle story

"Wikimedia pegs future on education, not profit", Chris Cadelago, San Francisco Chronicle, August 24, 2008. A fairly lengthy article, marred by a number of minor errors.-- John Broughton (♫♫) 15:50, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

German Misplaced Pages test article rating

Since 25 August, the German Misplaced Pages has been testing a new feature: article rating. Anonymous users and those who don't have the necessary rights to update the stable version of an article (another feature currently being tested on the German Misplaced Pages) see a box at the bottom of every article and are asked to rate the article's reliability, completeness, neutrality and presentation, each on a scale identical to the one used for grades in German schools.

Since the feature was apparently switched on without prior discussion, a vote about its continued use was initiated on 26 August. At the time of writing, the overwhelming majority of participants in that discussion favored the immediate removal of the feature, followed by a thorough discussion. AxelBoldt (talk) 02:05, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

The German Misplaced Pages is not the first project where this feature was switched on: Apart from the test and labs wikis, it has been live on en.wikinews since August 22 (00:27 brion: FR feedback on on enwikinews as well). The feature is a part of the FlaggedRevs extension.

Example of the resulting feedback graphs: Rating history for "Hey Jude". There is also a feature (Special:ProblemPages) to search for pages with bad ratings.

The feedback box uses a five-point scale (0 to 4). German schools use a six-point scale (1-6).

Regards, HaeB (talk) 13:37, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Later on 26 August, the vote was closed and the feature was deactivated, with the explanation that it had been switched on prematurely as a result of a misunderstanding. AxelBoldt (talk) 20:37, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Jimbo interviewed by ESPN

An Interview with Misplaced Pages Founder (and Crimson Tide fan) Jimmy Wales, on espn.com Steven Walling (talk) 22:54, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Featured sounds

The poor stepchild of Misplaced Pages's featured content types has seen a surge of interest this summer. Although featured sounds have been a category since August 11, 2005, as recently as June 25, 2008 Misplaced Pages had only 14 featured sounds. The count is now 26 featured sounds with 21 nominations underway. Current featured sound candidates include several classical music selections and historic political speeches, also ranging to ragtime instrumentals, a Papua New Guinean dance, two songs with Carmen Miranda, and a song sung entirely in Korean. Durova 09:49, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

You must have confused featured sounds with future sounds. :-D Waltham, The Duke of 09:58, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Heh (nudges you into the voting booth) ;) Durova 10:08, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

21 noms? *faints* OhanaUnited 14:19, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Slovak wikipedia

Slovak wiki has reached 100,000 articles. Just to let you guys know. Spencer 21:57, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Chortle.co.uk

A story from their "Weekly Trivia File":

"From the Misplaced Pages page of stand-up Nick Doody, pictured: ‘After a brief stint as a mercenary in Indochina, he now resides in London, England and is understandably scared of spoons.’"

ISD (talk) 11:53, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Sarah Palin, Joe Biden articles get flurry of edits just before VP announcements

Somebody was editing the Sarah Palin and Joe Biden articles furiously just before the announcements, according to the Washington Post. I know All Things Considered on National Public Radio also had a story.

• Washington Post: "Misplaced Pages Edits Forecast Vice Presidential Picks"

"Perhaps more tellingly, some of the same users editing her page were almost simultaneously updating McCain's Wiki entry, adding information dealing with accuracy, sources and footnotes to each."

• Story on NPR's "All Things Considered"

-- Noroton (talk) 04:57, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages in Harper's Magazine

Crossposting this (permalink) per suggestion. Franamax (talk) 21:41, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

So someone from CAMERA called it a "flawed Misplaced Pages experiment"? Perhaps you should also crosspost this at Talk:Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. Maybe a small mention of it could be included in the article? Cheers, Face 21:54, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

No, the CAMERA thing wasn't the "flawed experiment", it was Misplaced Pages itself that is the flawed experiment. The letter spoke more to the CAMERA attempt to address those "flaws" by urging its readership to get involved. It disavowed a concerted attempt to gain influence - take that as you way. Franamax (talk) 00:38, 1 September 2008 (UTC)