Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ral315 (talk | contribs) at 03:56, 29 January 2007 (Cleanup old suggestions.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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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. Template:SignpostNavigation

Misplaced Pages in Dutch media

I've kept an eye out for recent mentions of wikipedia in Dutch media. Last Wednesday, online magazine Techzine had an article about the new search tool Wikisearch: . Translation:
"SearchMe will soon announce Wikisearch. This search engine checks Misplaced Pages, as the name indicates, but also the websites mentioned on Misplaced Pages. Misplaced Pages is a lot more intelligent than Misplaced Pages's standard search engine. The hits are also presented more clearly than on Misplaced Pages's own search. The search engine doesn't contain spam or any other pollution, but unfortunately it doesn't show all the relevant subjects either, which is the case in the Misplaced Pages search. Like with Google, the first results will be from Misplaced Pages itself, with the ordinary relevant links after them. Misplaced Pages fully cooperates with this initiative. Apart from the website, there will be plugins for Firefox, IE7 and Opera."
Leading newspaper Trouw had an op-ed of a student of a teacher training college, about the problems of the education of new teachers: . He particularly criticizes the lack of guidance, saying: "As a student, I demand structure and knowledge I will be able to rely on later in life. I now miss what used to be normal in education. The current generation of students have to find their way on their own. We will become known as the 'wikipedia-generation'." Aecis 20:24, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

New User Talk Messages (Warnings)

It's probably past deadline, but the new User Warning Templates went live a little less than an hour ago. You can find the new templates at WP:UTM -- lucasbfr 20:51, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

WikiXRay

Some users are working on software to analyze Misplaced Pages articles en masse at Misplaced Pages:WikiXRay. I hardly understand it all. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 10:03, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Same here. I've asked Felipe Ortega if he'd like to write a short piece for Signpost, explaining this all. -- Zanimum 16:28, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Microsoft offers money to someone for fixing up an article

A random blog post and Slashdot discussion about it on Microsoft offering to pay this fellow to fix up the Microsoft Office Open XML article's alleged anti-MS biases. (Well, if you look at the specs, there's some wording issues in the article, but I don't think MS could make the Criticism section go away as easily as the blog post suggests. =) --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 14:50, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Here's an AP article after it blew up: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/300851_msftwiki24.html. Gzkn 07:58, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Apparently this was on NPR as well. -Ravedave 20:16, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Even CNN picked up the AP story --- RockMFR 22:04, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

small=yes template parameter

I was reading the new edition (another fine job by all the writers, as we've come to expect) and the item about the talk page template item made me realize that I never saw an item about the small=yes parameter, which is a godsend for talk pages that are template top-heavy. According to Misplaced Pages talk:Mini talk page template, it gained consensus in early November, though the instructions are currently at Misplaced Pages:Talk page templates#Small option. It appears that most commonly-used templates have had the additional parameter added over the past couple of months, but I only became aware of them a few weeks ago. See Talk:Australia and Talk:Rwandan Genocide for examples of how the TOC is now actually visible on the first screen. - BanyanTree 17:08, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Jimmy a "Young Global Leader" nominee

According to Sandra Ordonez, the WMF's new external communications staff,

-- Zanimum 19:33, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Note that there's 249 other nominees, so it's a longshot, likely. The others include Princess Victoria of Sweden and the CEO of Lego. http://www.younggloballeaders.org/scripts/Modules/Addresses/yglsearchAddress.aspx?srh=1&ddlYear=&ddlStakeholder=&ddlRegion=&ddlSex=&ipp=10&idn=1 -- Zanimum 19:42, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Surely an obscure, bearded man will beat out the Princess of Sweden... Ral315 (talk) 00:42, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

But that obscure bearded man might be an Indian business man offering microcredit to Africans. -- Zanimum 16:05, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Sandra

Also the fact Sandra's now with WMF is worth a sentence or two. -- Zanimum 19:43, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Indeed. Ral315 (talk) 00:43, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

• I am new to wiki so bare with me

Dutch blogger about Microsoft-Misplaced Pages-gate

Like probably many other Dutch bloggers, a Dutch ICT blogger has written about Microsoft hiring or wanting to hire a blogger to fix the article: Microsoft kan lepels buigen (Microsoft can bend spoons). A translation:
"What's the difference between a spokesperson and Uri Geller? The latter is honest about bending things. Microsoft shows that, with its response to the announcement of an American blogger that he will 'balance' (read: make friendlier towards Microsoft product) Misplaced Pages articles about Microsoft.
The discussion at Techcrunch is now about whether Microsoft itself has tried to edit the disputed Misplaced Pages articles in a decent way, namely by discussing. After a long search, blogger Michael Arrington managed to find only one edit.
But even if it had been one hundred. As though you are allowed to dupe if you first try to get your way decently. That way I would be allowed to cheat on my girlfriend because she yelled 'no fucking way' when I suggested an open relationship. Great idea, Microsoft!"
Aecis 12:25, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Associated Press: Microsoft in hot water over Misplaced Pages edits

Not sure if this has been picked up yet, here's the CNN article: "Microsoft Corp. has landed in the Misplaced Pages doghouse after it offered to pay a blogger to change technical articles on the community-produced Web encyclopedia site...."

Link:

Edit:Crap, I should have read the one above me before I wrote this. Oh well, you can use it for "Misplaced Pages in the News". GhostPirate 19:33, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Rick Jelliffe, the guy who was approached by Microsoft, has offered a rebuttal, arguing that the COI policies are ambiguous on the type of editing he was asked to carry out. - BanyanTree 21:26, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm wondering when Misplaced Pages:Doghouse will turn into a blue link... Titoxd 21:33, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Ban of wikipedia as reference at Middlebury college

Article: A Stand Against Misplaced Pages and writeup at Slashdot. The 1st post on slashdot is great: "I wonder how many of those professors had actually been misinformed. I've had a handful of professors state information that I found out later to be in disagreement with a larger community. Most of them don't like to be told or find out that they are wrong. On the other hand, I don't blame them for doing this. Misplaced Pages might be a good place for determining what books you could find good information in, but not as the reference itself." -Ravedave 21:03, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Stablepedia

This is an interesting idea... http://stablepedia.org/default.asp

The Placebo Effect 01:53, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Resolutions

There's a few resolutions at foundation:Resolutions that should probably be covered, including the formation of an advisory board (resolution passed in July). Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 15:02, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Citizendium update

It would be nice to see a story about the current state of Citizendium, since they opened up the sign-up process recently so that anyone can browse the pilot wiki and/or edit (after signing up). Of possible note:

• "Unforking": Citizendium deleted all content that had been ported from Misplaced Pages but not edited since, to encourage the creation of new articles from scratch. There was some discussion of switching to a non-commercial license (e.g., CC-BY-NC) on the forum, but it looks like that probably won't happen.
• Scope: Citizendium is apparently happy with articles like Choosing a dog.
• Approved articles: Thus far, there are six approved articles: Barbara McClintock, Biology, Chiropractic, Horizontal gene transfer, Metabolism, and Wheat. Content from the introduction of the CZ version of Biology was introduced to Biology; after Larry Sanger noted the failure to credit CZ on the talk page, the changes were reverted and purged from the article's history.
• Live articles: There are currently almost 1000 "live articles", though most are copies of Misplaced Pages articles.
• Activity: By my very rough estimate, CZ is now getting about 300 mainspace edits per day. (By comparison, Uncyclopedia is somewhere around 3000.)

--ragesoss 00:48, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

250,000 articles now assessed on English Misplaced Pages

This past weekend the WikiProject based quality assessments passed the quarter million mark, with over 300 projects now involved, ranging from A-league to Zoroastrianism. Over 60,000 articles have also been assessed for importance. The Misplaced Pages 1.0 team is now testing a bot that will select suitable articles from these lists for offline publication.

Hey, I'm excited! Cheers, Walkerma 03:15, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Save Men’s Rights in Misplaced Pages

David R. Usher (User:Davidrusher posted an column at MensNewsDaily.com on January 28th titled "Call For Short Papers From Men’s Rights Leaders: Save Men’s Rights in Misplaced Pages". Usher, "Senior Policy Analyst for the True Equality Network and President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, Missouri Coalition", wrote that Misplaced Pages edits he had done (primarily to the Men's rights article) had "met with resistance and even astonishment by some Misplaced Pages editors, most of whom were raised to think like feminists do." Usher called for other rights leaders to get involved:

"We need thoughtful, accurate, fully-cited short objective summaries on all major topics of import added into Misplaced Pages at the earliest possible time. Every leader who has a credible track record, and some authority in the movement, should invest time in this important project."

On the same day, User:MrDarcy posted a message to Usher on his Misplaced Pages talk page, saying that the column "was a direct violation of Misplaced Pages policy", citing Misplaced Pages:Sock puppetry#Advertising and soliciting meatpuppets, and asking that Usher retract his call for an new Misplaced Pages editors. -- John Broughton (☎☎) 03:37, 29 January 2007 (UTC)