Volume 5, Issue 49 marks the 250th issue of The Wikipedia Signpost. It's been an incredible honor to work with the talented group of Signpost editors this year, and I think that the enduring interest of readers and editors is powerful testimony (even without Erik Zachte's recent statistical demonstration) that the Wikipedia community remains strong. I offer my sincerest thanks to everyone—readers, writers, commenters, suggesters—who has participated in the Signpost over the past five years.
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It seems incredible that it's been 250 issues. I started publishing the Signpost for Issue 32 in August 2005, after editor and founder Michael Snow took a brief break. Over the three-plus years that I was editor, I worked with a number of incredible Wikipedians. I want to thank a few of them (and this is by no means an exhaustive list, nor does it cover the many people who have helped since I left last December):
Throughout my time within the Wikimedia community, I've seen numerous editors come and go. Just looking at a list of Signpost contributors first published in our 200th issue, I see so many names of friends and colleagues who no longer contribute regularly to Wikipedia. And my name is among them; I rarely edit the encyclopedia anymore (although I do moderate the foundation-l mailing list). But this doesn't mean that Wikipedia is dying. Like every other community, Wikipedia editors come and go regularly. Sure, some move on because they are disillusioned, or have a grievance with another community member. But the vast majority of those who leave are simply moving on to other things - something that is only natural in an environment like Wikipedia's.
While I miss working with you, my friends, who continue to edit, and I missed working with the colleagues who left before me, Wikipedia continues to move forward. The encyclopedia is stronger than it has ever been, and the Signpost is as well. I look forward to seeing the 500th issue in 2014. In the five years to come, know that whether you continue to edit Wikipedia, or whether you move on to bigger and better things, that your work is appreciated, and hopefully you've made a few friends along the way.
Thanks for reading the Signpost.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-12-07/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-12-07/In the media
This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Some bug fixes or new features described below have not yet gone live as of press time; the English Wikipedia is currently running version 1.44.0-wmf.12 (8b8c762), and changes to the software with a version number higher than that will not yet be active. Configuration changes and changes to interface messages, however, become active immediately.
Four new bot tasks were approved this past week:
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-12-07/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-12-07/Opinion
In the wake of the Wall Street Journal story on editors leaving Wikipedia (see previous stories: 11-30, 11-23), Erik Zachte, data analyst for the Wikimedia Foundation, ran another analysis of the numbers and concluded that the survival analysis methodology used in Felipe Ortega's research was flawed. In a blog post, Zachte concludes that in fact the number of new contributors on the English Wikipedia may have been growing, not declining at all, and the number of editors who edit regularly every month has basically been holding steady. While new editor growth peaked in late 2006, Zachte's graphs show the Journal's report on the loss of Wikipedians in recent months as being greatly exaggerated.
The widely covered statistic from the Wall Street Journal, taken from followup research to Ortega's dissertation, was that Wikipedia had lost 49,000 editors in the early months of 2009, a dramatic drop-off compared to earlier periods. However, Zachte shows that this high number is in part the result of over-counting recent editor departures, since many occasional editors who go long periods without editing will eventually return. In a second blog post, Zachte emphasizes the uncertainty inherent in correcting for this over-counting; he states that "It is hard to tell whether this line [estimating net change in active editors] will cross from negative to positive after successive corrections as per my analysis."
As another followup to the many recent media stories about their work, the latest episode of Wikipedia Weekly features an interview with Ed Chi and Felipe Ortega about their research into the possible decline of Wikipedia's contributor base.
Rand Montoya, head of Community Giving for the WMF, blogged about the annual fundraiser (see launch coverage: 11-23, 11-16, 11-09), highlighting the many new things that the fundraising team has implemented for this year's fundraiser.
The fundraising sitenotices continue to be switched out based on how well they are performing. According to Montoya, the current sitenotices running are:
Statistics for how this year's fundraiser compares to the previous two years can be seen here (the orange bar represents 2009).
Naoko Komura from the Usability Initiative has posted some statistics on how many people have tried out their beta tools, including the new Vector skin and the new editing toolbars. There are now almost 300,000 users of the Vector skin, with 79% of those who tried it choosing to keep the new design. The retention rate is highest on the English Wikipedia at 83%. On the Japanese Wikipedia, where editors have expressed problems with reading the smaller font size, it is only 60%.
The usability team found that users of the new skin were more likely to be using Mozilla Firefox, perhaps indicating issues with the code in Internet Explorer (which usually enjoys higher usage across Wikimedia projects).
In addition to sharing these quantitative statistics, they have also published the comments from their surveys which provide more specific use cases and issues. They are now discussing the timing for the new settings to become default on all Wikipedias.
The multimedia usability project is also asking for help with their domain research -- looking at how other websites accomplish tasks like uploading photos.
Finally, another report on November's multimedia usability meeting in Paris is available.
There is a new Criterion for Speedy Deletion, A10: "'Recently created article that duplicates an existing topic." The text of the criterion reads:
The criterion was added on November 28 by Backslash Forwardslash, the same user having proposed it over two weeks earlier, on November 12. Both the proposal and the adoption have proven controversial, with discussion occurring here. Internet emerges was one of the first articles to be deleted under the criterion. A template has been created at {{Uw-csd-a10}}, and the criterion is also available through the editing tool Twinkle.
Two food-related writing challenges are currently ongoing: Bacon Challenge 2010 and Doughnut Days 2009.
This is the second year for the Bacon Challenge. This year's results include Snake 'n' Bacon, Stegt Flæsk, National Pig Day, bacon vodka, Mitch Morgan, and the peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich. For the 2010 event participants are competing to win the much coveted Bacon WikiCup.
For Doughnut Days, which finishes up at the end of this month, articles including mandazi, potato doughnut/ "spudnut", Dutchie (pastry), adhirasam, zippuli, and quesito have been added. According to ChildofMidnight, "Both events have a distinctly international aspect and are meant to be fun as they don't deal with the most hard-hitting of article issues. Still, there's something to be said for the importance and significance of bacon and doughnuts... although I'm not sure just what that something is."
German Wikipedians recently completed a successful initiative to create freely licensed photos of politicians in the German state of Lower Saxony, as reported by the "Kurier", the Signpost's German sister publication. Members of a local Wikipedia meetup visited the state's parliament (the Landtag in Hanover), and, supported by the office of its president, invited all the current members of parliament to be portrayed. During two days they took photos of 136 of the 152 members, including the state's head of government and almost the entire cabinet. On the occasion, the Wikipedians had many conversations with the politicians about Wikipedia and free content, fielded some reports of small errors in their Wikipedia biographies, and gave live demos of editing Wikipedia.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-12-07/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-12-07/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-12-07/In focus
The Arbitration Committee did not open or close any cases this week, leaving five cases open.
The Tothwolf case has entered its fourth week of deliberations. The case, which concerns a long-standing dispute between Tothwolf and several other editors, was filed by third party Jehochman. Some preliminary workshop drafting has taken place, though no arbitrators have yet responded to any of the proposals; a draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Wizardman, is expected by 13 December.
The Ottava Rima restrictions case has entered its fourth week of deliberations. The case was filed by Ottava Rima to appeal an editing restriction imposed following a community discussion on the administrators' noticeboard. A large number of proposals have already been made on the workshop page; a draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Wizardman, is expected by 7 December.
The Asmahan case has entered its 12th week of deliberations, and its first week of voting. The filing editor, Supreme Deliciousness, alleges that Arab Cowboy has engaged in a variety of disruptive behavior on the "Asmahan" article; Arab Cowboy denies the allegations, and claims that Supreme Deliciousness is pursuing a disruptive agenda of his own.
The proposed decision, written by arbitrator Wizardman, would impose topic bans and editing restrictions on both Supreme Deliciousness and Arab Cowboy, as well as placing the "Asmahan" article on probation. No other arbitrators have voted on the proposed remedies.
The Socionics case has entered its ninth week of deliberations, and its second week of voting. The case was filed by rmcnew, who alleged that Tcaudilllg has engaged in edit-warring and personal attacks. Tcaudilllg has denied the allegations, calling them "ad hominem attacks on [his] character".
The proposed decision, written by arbitrator Carcharoth, would ban both rmcnew and Tcaudilllg for one year, as well as indefinitely banning them from all Socionics-related topics, pages, and discussions. The remedies are currently passing unanimously, and the case is expected to close in the near future.
The Eastern European mailing list case has entered its 12th week of deliberations, and its eighth week of voting. The case concerns a set of leaked mailing list archives which are alleged to show an extensive history of collusion among numerous editors of Eastern European topics. Standard workshop procedures have been suspended for the case, so normal drafting of proposals by the parties and other editors has not taken place.
The proposed decision, written by arbitrator Coren, would strip Piotrus of his administrator status, ban him for three months, and place him under a topic ban for one year; ban Digwuren and Martintg for three months and also place them under year-long topic bans; and issue a number of admonishments and reminders, as well as an amnesty for all participants of the mailing list not otherwise sanctioned. Additional proposals made by other arbitrators include bans for Tymek, Jacurek, and Radeksz, as well as more nuanced topic bans for Piotrus and Digwuren. Voting on the proposals remains divided. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-12-07/Humour
