On Thursday, June 23, a user going by the name of "MaliceAforethought" began leaking selected email threads of Arbcom-l, the Arbitration Committee's non-public mailing list, on Wikipedia Review. The issue was promptly noted on the Committee's talk page.
On June 27, arbitrator (and list admin) Roger Davies stated that "we have not established the source of the data theft though our investigations are continuing", dismissing the conclusion of an earlier investigation that had indicated the leak was probably the result of an unauthorized person gaining access to the Yahoo email account of one arbitrator, whose access to all private mailing lists and wikis was temporarily revoked. Another arbitrator, who had been inactive since February, returned to editing on Friday, June 24. As he did not respond to emails, when he edited again the following day, his account was globally locked, and his special permissions and mailing list accesses were temporarily revoked, but then reinstated after the Committee confirmed his identity. Roger Davies later emphasized that "there is no credible evidence at all to suggest that [these two arbitrators] were responsible, either directly or indirectly". He also told The Signpost he was "unaware of any evidence, credible or otherwise, implicating any other arbitrator", and noted that the entire list archive appears to have been compromised, going back to July 2005. At the time of writing, the leaker was continuing to post new threads purporting to be from the Arbcom-l archives, which have amounted to around 20 threads so far.
Also on June 27, the Mailmansite password was changed[dead link]. A further announcement about these security issues is expected in the next few days.
While the leaks so far do not appear to have revealed any particularly controversial actions of ArbCom, there has been great concern about the amount of personal information revealed, not only about ArbCom members but also – as arbitrator Kirill Lokshin pointed out – within "the various material (including evidence, complaints, requests for assistance, and so forth) submitted by other editors [to the list]; in many cases, this correspondence includes personal information (real names, addresses, telephone numbers, ages) whose release could have negative consequences for editors and non-editors with no relation to the Committee". In a related discussion, the long-term retention of Checkuser data was questioned. As explained by Dominic, efforts have already been underway to address such concerns: The archives of the closed Checkuser-l mailing list are currently being removed, in favor of a recently established private Checkuser wiki that is intended only to "host the data from investigations that actually needs to be retained for the future due to persistent abuse". According to Kirill Lokshin, a similar solution has been considered for Arbcom-l (involving the existing Arbcom wiki), but it "would be prohibitively time-consuming for arbcom-l due to the immense volume of the archives; and there have been security concerns with the arbitration wiki as well."
In 2009, there had already been concern about a former arbitrator publishing selected e-mails from the Arbcom-l archives (obtained while authorized) on an external site.
See also a current RfC on account security and last year's Signpost coverage of an assessment of Wikipedia's password security, including a list of former incidents where user accounts had been compromised.
WikiLove to be rolled out on the English Wikipedia, flanked by new research
The modified editing bar, showcasing the WikiLove tab
On the Wikimedia Foundation's blog, a new tool was announced last week, called WikiLove (after the concept). WikiLove has been developed into a MediaWiki extension (after first becoming available three months ago as a user script), and is currently in testing at the prototype wiki. The tool, which displays only on userpages, is represented by a red heart icon on the edit bar. Clicking on it will open a menu with options for giving awards: specifically, barnstars, various food and drink items, kittens, as well as an option to make your own award. The tool is designed to be simple and elegant; the user need only fill out a few fields and select an image or barnstar, and the message is even auto-signed.
Users are encouraged to go to the Prototype Wiki, create an account, and experiment with the tool (note: because of a known bug, creating an account requires editors to check the Remember Me box). WikiLove will be rolled out of testing on June 29, 2011 (assuming no last-minute delays), and the English Wikipedia will be first to receive it. Users can opt to disable it by going to My Preferences → Editing → Labs Features, and disabling the experimental feature. WikiLove also automatically updates special databases to help study its impact on Wikipedia, and the designers are looking into related tools for welcoming and encouraging new editors.
The Foundation's announcement describes some motivations for the introduction of the new tool: A recent survey on Wikipedia editors (see previous Signpost story) found that among 17 choices, being looked down on by more experienced editors is the most common reason for editing less (69%), and receiving praise from others is the most common reason for editing more often (78%). In addition, recent results on newbie teaching strategy trends from the Wikimedia Summer of Research have shown that the number of warnings and criticisms that new editors receive has increased, combined with "a significant drop in messages including praise and thanks", as shown in the graphs above.
In brief
WMF moves to defend public domain: As announced earlier (Signpost coverage), the Foundation has joined forces with several educational institutions to support an Electronic Frontier Foundation Amicus brief regarding the Golan v. Holder case. The case stems from US acceptance of the Berne Convention in 1994, an act which granted copyright protection to several foreign works that were previously in the public domain according to the Copyright Act. Last week, Geoff Brigham, the General Counsel of WMF, announced that the amicus brief had been filed, and explained the relevance of the case to Wikimedia "in light of the tremendously important role that the public domain plays in our mission": "To put it bluntly, Congress cannot be permitted the power to remove such works from the public domain whenever it finds it suitable to do so. It is not right – legally or morally." More information, including the Amicus brief, is available on the EFF page.Logo of the Wikimedia Language committee
Closing projects policy to become official: An updated process for closing and deleting defunct Wikimedia projects was accepted by the Wikimedia Board this week. Wikimedia projects are closed and sometimes deleted when they are deemed terminally inactive by the community (a list of all closed projects is available here). Debates generally center on whether inactivity or an opportunity for growth is more important. However, it lacks a coherent model for determining majority, which can result in single users occasionally acting in ways that are at odds with the discussion. Originally drafted by Language committeememberSPQRobin, the new framework aims to standardize the operation by leaving the ultimate decision to the Language committee, which reports to the Board of Trustees. This is more consistent with the parallel Language proposal policy, and it is hoped that the new framework will make closing discussions more meaningful. Because of objections by the community, as of writing, the policy has been put under review again.
Two new advisory board members: Last week, Jessamyn West (Board vote) and Veronique Kessler joined the Wikimedia Foundation's advisory board. In the debate about Wikipedia's gender gap earlier this year, West, a US librarian, had contributed insights from her work as community manager at Metafilter (Signpost coverage). Kessler is the outgoing Chief Financial and Operating Officer (CFOO) of the Foundation (having been in office since February 2008 and leaving at the end of this month).
Wikimedia and libraries: A posting on the Foundation's blog covered various aspects of "Wikimedia and libraries – a symbiotic relationship", such as the appearances by Liam Wyatt at the EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) General Assembly in Minsk, Belarus (slides), and by Sue Gardner in the President's Program of the American Library Association's annual convention (both last weekend). According to a summary of her talk, she "showed slides of the rather lavish offices of Google and compared them with Wikipedia’s semi-shabby facilities" and answered a question about COI edits by remarking that Wikipedias are "vigilant in their defense of editorial integrity". Asked about upcoming changes, she said that "we are looking for ways to increase serendipity".
IRC office hours, fundraiser test: The log for the June 23 IRC office hour with Sue Gardner has been posted. One of the topics was the recent test of fundraising banners (in preparation for the end of the year donation drive), where one of the much-used personal appeals by Jimmy Wales was for the first time outperformed in donations by one from another person, Wikimedia tech staff member Brandon Harris (User:Jorm). As explained on his personal blog, the appeal was crafted by the Community Department's newly hired "storytelling" team, based on an interview. Gardner commented that "This was a huge big deal, because the implication is that we can crack the code – we can successfully augment Jimmy with other folks who are just as appealing. It's good news for the financial sustainability of the movement" (a topic that has concerned WMF recently in preparation of the annual plan; also, the new position of Director of Sustainability was recently posted to the Foundation's job openings page).
Majority of Wikipedians are multilingual: A series of blog posting about the results of the Foundation's recent editor survey continued by hightlighting the result that the "Majority read and edit more than one language Wikipedia".
List of large languages without Wikipedias: Millosh has posted, via the foundation-l mailing list, a rough sketch of languages with more than a million and more than 100,000 speakers who remain unserved by a Wikipedia project in their native language, in a country with an existing Wikimedia chapter. India has 45 languages with more than a million speakers, Indonesia 15, and the Philippines 6. There are dozens of languages over the 100,000 mark without a project. However, the list is very rough; the many variations of Chinese have not been included, and several sign languages (which would be difficult to put into text) have been included in the list. Nonetheless, it has been pointed out that the list might be valuable for future wikis. In May, Millosh had already posted a similar list of "Missing Wikipedias" (Signpost coverage).
Larry Sanger re-enters Citizendium leadership: Nine months after the free wiki-based online encyclopedia Citizendium had adopted a charter (consisting of 55 articles laying a constitution-like foundation for the project's governance), and its founder Larry Sanger was replaced (as planned) as editor-in-chief by an elected "Management Council" (Signpost coverage), project members voted to modify the charter by four amendments, and elected new Management Council members, among them Sanger (with 22 votes, the second-highest number).
National Portrait Gallery remedies Wikipedia plagiarism: In March (Signpost coverage: ""Copyright irony": UK's National Portrait Gallery appears to have copied from Wikipedia without permission), Wikipedians had reported text on the website of the UK's National Portrait Gallery that was obviously copied from Wikipedia without attribution. After the matter was brought up again on Foundation-l earlier this month (NPG still violating copyright")", the NPG was contacted a second time by the WMF's "GLAM fellow" Liam Wyatt User:Witty lama, and removed the offending text. In 2009, The National Portrait Gallery started a widely publicized controversy by threatening a lawsuit in English courts against Derrick Coetzee, a Wikipedia and Commons administrator, who had used a software tool to upload photographs of out-of-copyright paintings from the gallery's website to Commons (see Signpost coverage). While such copying is legal under U.S. law according to Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., the legal situation in the UK is unclear. The December 2010 GLAM-WIKI conference in London (Signpost coverage) saw a dialogue between Wikimedians and a representative of the NPG.
Russian president uploads image to Commons, as part of RIA Novosti donation
One of the donated images, Defenders of Leningrad'. Great Patriotic War soldiers in attack (1943)
Beginning a collaboration with the Russian Wikimedia chapter, the state-owned Russian International News Agency (RIA Novosti) started uploading historical images to Commons last week, consisting of highlights from the archives of its predecessors Sovinformburo and APN. The project, dubbed "Eternal Values", coincides with the agency's 70th anniversary and is supported by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who uploaded one of the images himself. The first batch of uploads consists of around 100 photos from the Great Patriotic War.
In a RIAN video Medvedev is shown uploading to "Vikisklad" (Wikimedia Commons, literally "Wiki warehouse") from around the 18-minute mark.
German New Right press attacks Wikipedia: The Junge Freiheit, the leading German New Right weekly newspaper, covered Wikipedia as a main topic this week, claiming that the community censors content and runs a Nineteen Eighty-Four-like project. The comment by the editor-in-chief can be read here.
Wiknics: Wikipedians and Wikimedians met in 18 cities around the country to celebrate the first US-wide wiki-meetup-a-thon. (Washington Post)
"When in doubt, rely on Wikipedia": Swedish health expert Hans Rosling was recently interviewed about social media and "teaching in the digital age". As "special skills" that are important for students today, he named "Critical thinking, reasoning and a quest for sources of all information. And when in doubt, rely on Wikipedia. It is amazingly good, especially if you carefully read the history of the text of interest." The interviewer, a lecturer at the Bundeswehr University Munich, added: "To throw Wikipedia out of our classrooms because of its flaws ignores the much deeper lessons we could be teaching our students about managing massive amounts of information and developing meaningful, up-to-date analytical skills in the digital age."
Jimmy Wales in Israeli presidential conference: As reported (with video) by the Jerusalem Post, Jimmy Wales spoke about the "consumer-driven media revolution" at "Facing Tomorrow" Presidential Conference in Jerusalem last week. About Wikipedia, he said that "Everything in Wikipedia, everything in the Wiki-world really, is a social innovation, not a technical innovation".
Jimmy Wales about bribes and wedding dresses: In an recent audio interview with World Radio Switzerland, Jimmy Wales was asked "whether someone can influence a Wikipedia entry through bribes and about other issues, including the censorship situation in China". He also cited the article about the Wedding dress of Kate Middleton as an example for content that is under-represented due to Wikipedia's gender gap.
Wikipedia as model for natural linking: Search engine optimization blog SEOMOZ analyzed a large number of links pointing to Wikipedia, presenting some of their statistical characteristics as "The Wikipedia Model" of a natural link structure - deviations from which would indicate artificial (paid) links.
This week, we turned our attention to WikiProject Comics. Started in December 2004 by Phthoggos, the Project aims to increase, expand, improve, and better organize articles related to comics in Wikipedia. The Project is home to more than 37,800 articles, with 22 Featured articles, 2 Featured lists, and 102 Good articles. It currently has 307 participants. The Signpost interviewed Project members Tenebrae, J Greb, and Fram.
Tenebrae is a Master Editor and has been a Wikipedian since 2005. He became involved with WikiProject Comics "When I noted that some of the greats in this field, such as Joe Maneely, George Tuska and Gary Friedrich, had no articles, I felt, as a journalist and someone in the rare position of being both old enough to know their work and long-familiar with writing for the web, that if I didn't give them their due on this often younger-skewing Project, who would? I've since created 94 comics-creator bios plus a slew of related articles". J Greb is an administrator and has been on Wikipedia since 2006, and joined the WikiProject Comics because "Initially it was a desire to add information on topics related to my hobby. More and more, it has become trying to balance a belief that at least basic information about most aspects and elements of comics, should be present with respect for and use of, community derived policies and guidelines on content." Fram has been a Wikipedian since 2005 and is also an administrator: "I'm a Belgian editor, interested in (mainly European) comics, and I wanted a place to get feedback on what I was doing, and to discuss some standards, naming conventions, [etc.]".
Your Project has over 37,800 articles associated with it. How does the Project keep all these up to standard, and what are its biggest challenges?
Tenebrae: This is our biggest challenge. Well-meaning fans, whose intimate knowledge of certain subjects are critically important and welcome, tend to treat Wikipedia articles as fan sites, filling them with minutiae and fictography of interest only to hardcore fans and not the general public. We need to better institute in them the notion that this is an academic encyclopedia, and that 10,000-word articles with issue-by-issue details like "Spider-Man knocked out Electro and then found Mary Jane behind the door" are not really helpful in that regard.
J Greb: Right now, there are a number of editors that work through articles trying to bring a degree of consistency based on the Project's Manual of Style pages. But the biggest challenge we have is two fold. The first is for editors, new and old, to set aside a fan's desire to be overly detailed. Go in with a desire to see a writer, artist, series or character treated right, but remember that articles are for general use. The second is skewing in favor of either the new or the old. Most of us have our favorite series or version of something, but we have to remember that a topic needs to be treated as a whole, not just what we tend to gravitate to, or what is immediately available on the web or today's store shelves.
Fram: Articles on comics from non-English speaking countries are often the work of one or two editors, and the quality of those articles varies wildly. Information about the author, the publisher, etc. may be lacking, while all characters are described in loving detail. Like with most pop culture areas, comics articles are often written from a fan's point of view, rather than from a neutral point of view.
WikiProject Comics has 22 FA-class articles, 2 FLs, and 102 GA-class articles. How did your Project achieve this and how can other Projects work toward this?
Tenebrae: We have a nucleus of veteran editors who communicate well with each other, do a good job of soliciting Project-wide input, and try to bring along new editors who learn and respect the Five Pillars. Sadly, some of the founding fathers of the Project, who helped move articles along with this goal in mind, have understandably reached a point of fatigue. If we can reduce the fan-site mentality, that will help reduce fatigue in current editors.
J Greb: In most cases, these are the result of a handful of editors working very had on very important topics to take what other editors have provided, and polish and complete them to either "Good" or "Featured" status. The biggest thing is that all editors need to look at what they have done and strive for that type of work, either in maintaining those articles or improving others. It is also worth noting that a number of those articles are in the hands of multiple Projects, showing a good degree of cooperation.
Fram: To be fair, a significant number of these are more the work of the WikiProject Film than of the WikiProject Comics. We have some very good editors who have created very fine articles, but in general, we don't have a dedicated drive towards GA and FA articles. Many comics-related subjects have less high-quality, independent sources to be used in upgrading articles than more "serious" topics.
Does WP:COMIC collaborate with other WikiProjects?
Tenebrae: Yes, WP:FILM. Unfortunately, there appears to be no overall "WikiProject Fiction" that might help us educate editors and enforce Wikipedia:Manual of Style (writing about fiction), and postings at that talk page had generated little interest or help.
What are the most pressing needs for WikiProject Comics? How can a new contributor help today?
Tenebrae: The former: to reduce fancruft. The latter: to learn the Five Pillars before contributing.
J Greb: The most pressing need in my mind would be the ability to set the fan aside and reduce the minutia and hype. As for how new contributors can help, come into the editing with a willingness to learn and work with others. Also, come with a desire to work with the material.
Fram: Apart from the responses above, the most pressing need is something that many other Projects struggle with as well: the underrepresentation of many countries on Wikipedia. We do not have enough information on comics from Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world.
Anything else to add?
Tenebrae: This wonderful, Utopian idea of a free encyclopedia covering topics both traditional and nontraditional, can be one of the most important contributions the web has ever given. I hope that our small portion of it continues to strive toward that ideal.
J Greb: One thing I think is important is that we remember that articles are going to exists that can be justified, but will not reach the level of "Good". While the GA and FA articles are desirable, all articles deserves an honest look and honest work to make them the best they can be.
From the new featured topic Islands of Scotland, prepared by Ben MacDui and many other editors. Here, St Kildans sit on the village street in 1886. This rare image is from the National Trust for Scotland, which owns the entire archipelago of St Kilda, one of the most northerly and distal parts of the British Isles. Among the dramatic geological features of the more than 800 islands of Scotland are the highest sea cliffs in the UK.
This week's "Featured content" covers Sunday 19 – Saturday 25 June
Featured pictures
New featured picture: 18-year-old Ksenia Semenova, champion Russian gymnastNew featured picture: British musician Ebony Thomas on stage in Barcelona, SpainBad-hair day? Only for those who dare to eat Verpa bohemica, a fungus known as a "false morel", since unlike true morels, it is now known to be poisonous. The species is the topic of a newly featured article.Two images were promoted. Medium-sized images can be viewed by clicking on "nom":
Ebony Thomas (nom; related article), also known as Ebony Bones, is a British singer-songwriter, record producer and actress born in 1972. (created by "Alterna2" user on Flickr).
Ksenia Semenova (nom; related article), Russian gymnast who was the 2007 World Champion on the uneven bars, 2008 European Champion on the uneven bars and the balance beam, and 2009 European All-Around Champion. The nominated image was the subject of considerable debate about the use of colour, and was treated with a warming filter and levels adjustment (created by User:Mediacrat, modified by User:Jjron).
African Crake (nom), which is "positively extrovert compared to most of its relatives, which typically skulk in dense swamps", according to nominator Jimfbleak.
Mercury dime (nom), which depicts how warped the artistic sense of Americans can be, who mistook the female goddess of Liberty for the male god Mercury. (Wehwalt, from the US)
Taxonomy of lemurs (nom), which remains controversial today due to disagreements over the definition of "species". Having independently evolved on Madagascar, lemurs have diversified to fill many niches normally filled by other types of mammals. (Visionholder, whose life, he says, "is centered around these amazing prosimian primates".)
Verpa bohemica (nom), a mushroom species formerly thought to be edible (and still eaten by some), but now considered dangerous to eat. (Sasata)
Islands of Scotland (nom), with eight featured articles and lists, and eight good articles. There are more than 800 islands of Scotland, and Wikipedia's topic covers such aspects as the history, geology, and wildlife of all the important archipelagos. (nominator Ben MacDui; picture at top)
Russavia-Biophys case: Last week, the Committee passed a motion which lifted the topic ban that was placed on Biophys (talk·contribs) at the conclusion of the case. The topic ban had prohibited Biophys from editing articles relating to the Soviet Union and former Soviet Republics. Biophys was reminded that the 1RR restriction in this topic area remains in force, and that further disruption related to this case may result in the topic ban or other remedies being re-imposed by the Committee.
Macedonia 2 case: Last week, the Committee passed a motion which lifted the restriction that was placed on administrator Future Perfect at Sunrise (talk·contribs) after he was temporarily desysopped at the conclusion of the case. The restriction had prohibited Future Perfect at Sunrise from using administrative tools in the Greek and Macedonian topics. Future Perfect at Sunrise was reminded to abide by the policies guiding administrative acts in areas where one is involved, and to apply particular care to avoid conflict in areas related to Greece and Macedonia.
This week saw the final release of MediaWiki 1.17.0 to external sites. Since Wikimedia wikis have been running a version of it for some months now, its feature set (highlighted in a post to the wikitech-l mailing list and a blogpost to accompany the release) will be familiar to regular Signpost readers: the new ResourceLoader, category sorting, and the usual array of new features and bug fixes. 1.17 also features a new installer that makes it easier to set up a new wiki from scratch, especially where the user is not experienced with writing code, and better support for the Oracle database system. 1.17 comes 11 months after the last major release, 1.16.0.
This gap between releases is something that many developers are keen to avoid with 1.18, which has been already been stabilising for nearly two months (see previous Signpost coverage). The process of stabilisation includes reviewing all the code developed for 1.18: code which stretches to thousands of revisions. As of the beginning of June, there were still over 1600 left to be checked. As the most experienced developers, those able to perform code review, have swapped their focus from 1.17 to 1.18, the pace of code review has quickened (chart). After several weeks of missing tentative targets which would focus on a deployment in early August, it was announced this week that the 1000 target would be broken, only a day or two behind schedule (wikitech-l). (At the time of writing, the number of revisions still to be reviewed stands at approximately 825.)
In brief
Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for many weeks.
According to the Foundation-maintained "Software deployments" page, the UploadWizard was updated on 23 June, whilst next week will see improvement to the ArticleFeedback extension and an improved caching mechanism to speed up server processing times.
The Wikimedia Techblog carried a post describing the WikiLove extension, designed to be a friendly alternative to the automated warning systems of Twinkle and other gadgets. See also this week's "News and notes"
Sanskrit-language Wikipedias now have the Narayam extension activated. It allows users to write in the Sanskit script much more easily via an automated transliteration system. It remains strictly optional.
Tomasz Finc, a developer with the WMF, summarised the results of a recent usability study of the Kiwix Wikipedia reader in a blogpost on the Foundation's blog. Among the issues participants found tricky were managing bookmarks, using Kiwix's tabbed interface, and getting to grips with the keyboard shortcuts it does and doesn't support.
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