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Archive 30

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Archive 34

Archive 35

Archive 36

The Signpost should write about... Categories of created articles.

Last year, I published an article about a set of tools to analyse the list of articles created by a user. I've just developed a new tool which analyses all categories associated to the list of articles created by a user.

PAC2 (talk) 21:44, 16 May 2024 (UTC)

• based on last year's article, this one should probably be accepted, but I'm not in my comfort zone on tech. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 18:00, 14 July 2024 (UTC)

Re: 10 down in Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-07-22/Crossword, may I suggest incorporating Greater ani (deliberately hidden) into the crossword? Or perhaps it was already used in one of the previous issues? Found in (spoiler alert) an archived discussion. —⁠andrybak (talk) 15:14, 27 July 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... the Wikipedia article about Wikipedia and how technically that whole article goes against WP:COI because everyone who has ever contributed to that article has a COI with Wikipedia. That would be an interesting Humour article!

Shadestar474 ^(talk) 01:26, 28 July 2024 (UTC)

@Shadestar474: I already had something like this noted down as a potential draft. On the Wikipedia talk page, you can see that an AfD is ran on some April Fools' Day with this logic. Is your suggestion for someone else to write it, or would you like to collaborate on it? (Humour is not my strong suit.) Svampesky (talk) 23:59, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

I’m not very good at humour, either, so I was thinking that maybe one of the more experienced humour writers could write it? Shadestar474 ^(talk) 09:04, 31 July 2024 (UTC)

Well, we have some experienced writers, and some humour writers, but I'm not sure we have any experienced humour writers. April 1 is an especially difficult time to write humour. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 22:23, 11 August 2024 (UTC)

We should probably just get one of the humour writers to write it, then? Shadestar474 ^(talk) 22:38, 11 August 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... Internet Archive has lost its appeal in Hachette v. Internet Archive, the long-running, closely watched copyright case over the scanning and lending of print library books

~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 23:13, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... criticism by the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore of changes made to the lead section of the article Zionism between 2023 and now: https://x.com/simonmontefiore/status/1836032108105490799?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw. "History needs to be balanced & authoritative, based on facts and knowledge. Its replacement here @wikipedia by prejudiced ideology, distorted facts, and ahistorical fakery is alarming . @wikipedia is (was) respected & important because it presents facts & history without bias. Sometimes there were duels on pages between historical schools of thoughts but ultimately its editors wished to present history based on facts and balance. Has this page been captured by activists? It looks like it has. If so dear @wikipedia come back: You are part of the wider underpinnings of truth, authoritative history and factbased reportage that we desperately need in our society to foster the trust in information, reporting and scholarship, and the respect for learning and evidence that we need for our democracies to work. These principles are under attack in our academies, our media and of course in social media. @wikipedia has with a few exceptions been rare sanctuary of standards. We need you. Plse restore those all important principles"

This was in a quote tweet of a post which may have gone viral yesterday; at any rate the original post seems to have sparked Twitter activity reported on at https://www.israelhayom.com/2024/09/17/wikipedia-entry-now-calls-zionism-colonialism/ and https://www.jns.org/wikipedia-defines-zionism-as-colonialism-sparking-outrage/. (Those two webpages are essentially the same article.) At Talk:Zionism § Bat Signal a user notes that "page views for this article more than doubled from the average yesterday". Ham II (talk) 19:29, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... Asian News International court case against Wikimedia Foundation. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/delhi-hc-warns-wikipedia-over-ani-defamation-case-issues-contempt-notice-11725517336837.html in the next In the news report.

A draft: India's Asian News International (ANI) has brought Wikimedia Foundation to the courts over what they alleged to be defamatory content on the article about themselves, which currently stated that they "[had] been accused of having served as a propaganda tool for the incumbent central government, distributing materials from a vast network of fake news websites, and misreporting events on multiple occasions." Wikimedia Foundation is being compelled by the courts to give personal information of some editors who have edited the article. ANI as a source was determined in 2021 RfC that for general reporting, it is between marginally reliable and generally unreliable; it should be attributed in-text for contentious claims; and generally unreliable and questionable for its coverage of domestic and international politics, and other topics that the Government of India has a stake due to reported dissemination of pro-government propaganda. (WP:RSPANI)

– robertsky (talk) 08:38, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, added it to Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue/In the media, with a link to our earlier coverage in Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-07-22/In the media.

Regards, HaeB (talk) 02:44, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... Wikipedia:Administrator elections. These are right around the corner (October) and will be a big change for enwiki. You can find a summary of some important details at Wikipedia:Administrator elections/MMS/Election schedule. This probably doesn't need a whole article, but would be good to mention somewhere. –Novem Linguae (talk) 02:23, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

@Novem Linguae Thank you for suggesting this: it will feature in one of the lead stories on "News and notes", courtesy of @Soni! : ) Oltrepier (talk) 20:40, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... South China Morning Post wrote this piece "Wikipedia bans user for ‘alleged trolling, doxxing and intimidation’ of Hong Kong journalists"

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3278559/wikipedia-bans-user-alleged-trolling-doxxing-and-intimidation-hong-kong-journalists

Cross referencing Global ban list confirms the user is Flamelai (blocked here locally in July 2023 under WP:NOTHERE)

SYSS Mouse (talk) 01:33, 16 September 2024 (UTC)

See also n:Chinese Wikimedian banned amidst largest ‘harassment’ campaign against Hong Kong journalist (draft by User:Cypp0847). Regards, HaeB (talk) 02:25, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

@SYSS Mouse Thank you for suggesting this! A short piece about the global ban will feature in the "News and notes" section of the upcoming issue, so watch out for it! Oltrepier (talk) 20:41, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... Seems something is happening at the Azerbaijani Wikipedia [1] (OC Media). Related discussions at [2][3]. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:57, 18 September 2024 (UTC)

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång Thank you for suggesting this: it will feature in the "In the media" section of the upcoming issue! Oltrepier (talk) 20:42, 22 September 2024 (UTC)

Here's a creationist website article asking the question "Is Wikipedia distorted by ideology and propaganda?" https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2024/09/18/is-wikipedia-distorted-by-ideology-and-propaganda/ Amusing, to say the least. — The Anome (talk) 03:20, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

Since when is Jerry Coyne a creationist? Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 08:33, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... There is a new WP-article, Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation, you have probably heard of the subject. However, that WP-article has now been mentioned in the court, and not approvingly:[4][5]

Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:07, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

The court hearing is to be held on 25 October. I think we can roll this into that hearing if Signpost isn't released by then. – robertsky (talk) 11:25, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

I correct myself, it seems to be barely within the deadline for the next issue. – robertsky (talk) 11:44, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

and WP:Office has oversighted it. SYSS Mouse (talk) 18:46, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Hello. Initially for my own interest, I created a series of bar charts to evaluate the link counts Wikipedia's top-level policy pages (as of the first full week of November). I'd like to offer these up if anyone working on the Signpost would like to use them for an article:

• User:Rjjiii/Core content policy link counts

Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 19:40, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

Found this news article frustrating': Aussie Wikipedia editors burn out: New study highlights disagreements, racism, and 'edit wars' Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:26, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:26, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... According to this video, c. 16:00-17:00, the WMF have stopped fund-raising in India for the time being. May be worth a mention. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:30, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

when did Snoop Dogg start to become a famous person and how Amogelang22 (talk) 11:47, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello, @Amogelang22. This page is for suggesting items to go into Signpost, the Wikipedia internal newsletter, so it is usually only about matters involving Wikipedia or its associated sites, or the Wikimedia Foundation, not general knowledge.

For general questions, the Reference Desk is the place to ask; but I think your questions are answered at Snoop Dogg. ColinFine (talk) 16:23, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about...

In addition to Wikipedia's Indian problem: Settler colonial erasure of native American knowledge and history on the world's largest encyclopedia study, there's a recent study about Australia-related articles that found problematic coverage of Indigenous topics:

To engage with place in the Australian context is inevitably an engagement with settler-colonialism. This research concludes that First Nations histories, current experiences and voices remain marginalised on Wikipedia, reflecting the literature (Thorpe, Sentance & Booker 2023; Gallert et al. 2016; Bjork-James 2021). There are other omissions as well. Lucas argued that “basically any non-white experiences or non-dominant experiences are omitted.” Gabriel felt that Wikipedia was “quite a hostile space to marginalised people” and that there is “a really frustrating lack of space, I suppose, to me in all three elements: being a regional Australian; being queer; being disabled. None of them feel like something that Wikipedia really quite welcomes a lot of the time.”

[6][7]

The previous journal article was covered in the Signpost (Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-10-19/Recent research) and there was also a response to it (Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-06-08/Opinion). Can we also mention the most recent study in one of the upcoming Signpost issues? Bogazicili (talk) 14:26, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

I would like to see a brief monthly note in The Signpost about the c:Commons:Photo challenge themes. It could probably be a simple, standardized blurb, e.g., The c:Commons:Photo challenge for December 2024 is to upload photos you have taken of pastel colors and footprints. Photos must be taken by the uploader. Vote for your favorites from last month's challenge.

WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:28, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

One for your listing of recent Wikipedia-related publications:

Eppstein, D.; Lewis, J. B.; Woodroofe, Russ; XOR'easter (2025). "Princ-wiki-a mathematica: Wikipedia editing and mathematics" (PDF). Notices of the AMS. 72 (1): 65–73..

—David Eppstein (talk) 18:55, 20 December 2024 (UTC)

@David Eppstein Thank you for your submission!

I guess @HaeB might find this pretty interesting for his "Recent research" column... Oltrepier (talk) 21:23, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

Already appeared in the last issue, thanks. —David Eppstein (talk) 22:14, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

{{done}} Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 06:34, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... The 138th annual meeting of the American Historical Association is meeting in New York City and features a panel discussion on the topic Open Knowledge as Pedagogical Praxis: How Faculty and Students Are Opening up the Field of History by Improving Wikipedia. (This session is in-person only and meets Saturday morning, January 4 at 10:30-12 pm.) - kosboot (talk) 01:34, 23 December 2024 (UTC) kosboot (talk) 01:34, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

@Kosboot Done, thank you for flagging it! Oltrepier (talk) 13:32, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... Possible total project capture of the Hebrew Wikipedia. See the RFC page at Meta. I saw a lot of HEWP users complaining about ongoing unfair treatment of the people, including mass blocks on the users that current admins don't agree with their viewpoint.

Ahri Boy (talk) 16:43, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

@Ahri Boy It's likely too late to feature this, but we'll look into it for the next issue! Oltrepier (talk) 13:33, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... Wikipedia’s Lies Against Israel and How to Protect Historical Truth, YT-video by/with one Aaron Bandler. At the time of writing, I haven't seen it, 1h+, but the guy is a journalist. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:45, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

And another thing: Wikipedia:Village_pump_(miscellaneous)#Heritage_Foundation_intending_to_"identify_and_target"_editors. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:41, 8 January 2025 (UTC)

@Gråbergs Gråa Sång The VP discussion will feature in the lead story on In The Media. Thank you for flagging these! Oltrepier (talk) 13:33, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't want to brag / self-promote, but I got recognized for my "extra stupid" [sic] RfC close in this newspaper or magazine or something [8]. Several other editors are also mentioned! Chetsford (talk) 02:53, 21 March 2025 (UTC)

{{done}} I placed this in In the media before I saw this request. See issue 5. ☆ Bri (talk) 20:21, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... the release of Ziyad Alsufyani from jail. Unfortunately Osama Khalid remains in prison. Source: https://x.com/ALQST_En/status/1899417275733574124

Pyb en résidence (talk) 20:08, 22 March 2025 (UTC)

• {{done}} @Pyb en résidence: Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2025-04-09/Special_report Bluerasberry (talk) 14:13, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about...

• To no-one's surprise, daily readership of the Tariff article shot up from less than 5000 a day to over 60,000 on 3 April. (template:Annual readership is currently suspended but the data is available externally.) --𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 10:27, 7 April 2025 (UTC)

• {{done}} Thank you, JMF. I'm including this in the upcoming News and notes. Would you like authorship credit in the byline? ☆ Bri (talk) 21:14, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

  Thats good to known

  Credit wouldn't be appropriate but thank you for asking. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 22:40, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

If there's a round-up of ongoing online collaborations, there's the 420 Collaboration and the Philodendron Garden Party, which lasts until the end of May. Thanks! ---Another Believer _(Talk) 18:12, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

• {{done}} @Another Believer: added to next issue's News and notes. ☆ Bri (talk) 14:15, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

  Thanks! ---Another Believer _(Talk) 14:17, 17 April 2025 (UTC)

Request a poll re external plagiarism. How many times have you noticed your work on Wikipedia has been lifted verbatim and published elsewhere under another name?

I think it would be an interesting response from long-time editors. Happens to me a lot, which maybe says I did a good job if someone wants to steal it. My most recent was Loyal Valley, Texas. But the most blatant was someone who published a book under their own name from my content they copied verbatim: [9]. — Maile (talk) 16:27, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Planning for m:Wikipedia 25 is kicking off. Ed Erhart (WMF) (talk) 20:18, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

@JPxG: I'm not sure if you or anyone else has seen this suggestion and the one above it. Ed Erhart (WMF) (talk) 06:08, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

"Even Wikipedia recognises the gravity of the situation its contributors in Belarus now face, to the extent that they have overridden their own protocols and deleted the entire edit history for Belarus-related articles that could land its users in trouble." That's interesting. From Novaya Gazeta. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:20, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... Jordan Prosser (10 February 2025), "Want to know how the world ends? Try this Wikipedia page", The Guardian. One for In the media (probably the In brief section). Ham II (talk) 15:09, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... this news article - Remove derogatory and objectionable reference from Wikipedia about Sambhaji Maharaj: Fadnavis

Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis has asked Maharashtra police to remove "derogatory and objectionable references" about Sambhaji in Wikipedia.

Srf123 (talk) 10:01, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

There's something odd about the font used to overlay the images on the main Signpost page (within the Signpost/snippet template). I think it's supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek, retro call out or homage to Web 1.0 graphic design, and I get that, but the readability of the font is lacking due to the fat (or bold) typeface. It would help if there was increased legibility in the font. Viriditas (talk) 23:01, 1 March 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... the Museum of all Things. Someone mentioned it in the German Signpost equivalent and someone should do so here as well! So far it only has an English version anyways.

Lupe (talk) 10:34, 3 March 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about...

Kjersti Flaa broke through the WP:N wall, mainly by being BLP2E. At least an editor currently blocked thought so[10], but personally I agree. Flaa has been vaguely connected to something WP calls It Ends with Us controversy (no, I never heard about that either). She made a YT-video about being on WP[11] which has 3 628 comments atm, and the WP-article about her has been mentioned in Verdens Gang:[12] Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 05:30, 10 March 2025 (UTC)

The Signpost should write about... something along the lines of a thank you to the WMF/Jimbo for keeping Wikipedia safe and free.

‍Relativity ⚡️ 01:26, 24 March 2025 (UTC)