Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/In the media
Addressing the relatively high number of problems that have affected the Wikimedia Deutschland–run Toolserver over the past month, WMDE software developer Daniel Kinzler has said that the chapter is now "getting a grip on the problem" (toolserver-l mailing list). Blaming the severity of the recent problems on a lack of system admin time, along with the problems this caused in trying to deliver a much-needed expansion in hard-disk space for the server, Kinzler identified a number of positive steps WMDE was now taking to rectify the issue. We quote his six bullet points:
Technology commentator MZMcBride welcomed the development, adding that Kinzler's words were "much appreciated. I think we all look forward to a more stable Toolserver in the future". Nonetheless, some may be concerned that the development of an integrated "Wikimedia Labs", whilst undoubtedly able to offer a richer set of features for tool developers, will crowd out the semi-independently run Toolserver in the mid to long term. In April, The Signpost reported how the WMF was backing its Wikimedia Labs project with some $1.5 million, far in excess of the operating costs of the Toolserver.
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.
In a post on the wikitech-l mailing list, Vice President of the WMF Erik Möller appealed for more people to contribute to the MediaWiki.org resource pool. "If you have a little bit of time to spare, a nice community-building thing would be to feature events more prominently on MediaWiki.org", he wrote.
{{dablinks}} template. Editors are encouraged to comment on proposals.Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/Opinion
The national program for digital content in Saudia Arabia, which was initiated by KACST, a Saudi scientific institution, produced three short videos covering an introduction to Arabic Wikipedia, how to edit an article, and how to create a new article, at lengths of 2:58, 5:03, and 3:36 minutes, respectively.
The videos, directed by Alaa Maktoum and Fuad Al-Hatlan, were produced with attractive graphics effects along with narration in Arabic, with the aim of encouraging more contributions to the Arabic Wikipedia. Arabic has hundreds of millions of native speakers and spans more than a dozen countries, underscoring the importance of this Wikimedia Foundation project.
The videos have been advertised on the top banner of the Arabic Wikipedia for the past two weeks, and have attracted more than 60,000 viewers on YouTube. The three videos were also uploaded on Commons, and are planned to be included within the welcome message for new registered users.
In a press release, the Smithsonian Institution announced that the Archives of American Art has contributed 285 digitized photographs from the Federal Art Project’s Photographic Division collection to Wikimedia Commons. Most of the pictures are from 1935 to 1942, the active years of the Federal Art Project.
While the Archives have been previously made available on its website, the release notes that: "this is the first time that high-resolution scans have been made available for unrestricted use by the public". Liza Kirwin, acting director of the Archives said, "By placing these images in the Wikimedia Commons we hope to foster online learning and discovery and to promote an open exchange of ideas about the history of American art. We are delighted to be the Smithsonian’s first contributor to Wikimedia."
The donation comes in the wake of a residence at the Archives during the summer of 2011 by Wikipedian Sarah Stierch (see Signpost coverage), who expressed her hope that this will be "the first of many from the Smithsonian.”
In the first MfD of its kind, an active WikiProject was nominated for deletion last week. The debate, the largest in bytes since the deletion of a user's cache of evidence against others two months ago, has just been closed as "keep".
The nomination cited problems of scope as the justification for deletion, arguing that 'the terms "conservative" and "conservatism" have been used to describe people and concepts which have flip-flopped over time between liberal and conservative'; however, concerns over bias soon surfaced and appear to be at the root of the deletion request. The WikiProject publishes a newsletter by the name of "The Right Stuff", and some of the project's members indicated a desire to counter liberal bias in Wikipedia. One editor wrote on the signup page that he was joining for the purpose of "enlightening conservative people & topics in a world darkening with liberalism".
WikiProject Conservatism is one of a number of WikiProjects covering specific ideologies, where most of the people interested enough to join will be of that persuasion; one member of WikiProject Socialism signed up because they were "interested in spreading awareness", WikiProject Feminism is listed as a step forward for feminism on the Internet by the Geek Feminism Wiki and one of the official userboxes of WikiProject Atheism features the Invisible Pink Unicorn, a satire of theist beliefs.
In the end, the project was overwhelmingly kept, with most of the keep votes addressing the first reason for deletion. It was pointed out other WikiProjects with similarly broad scopes are functioning, such as WikiProject Medicine. The issue of bias was mostly sidestepped with the critics of the WikiProject being directed to dispute resolution processes. Some had already tried such avenues, though; a request for arbitration had been submitted the day before the MfD but was declined by a significant margin; arbitrator Newyorkbrad declared "obvious decline, as there's no evidence of any attempt at prior dispute resolution of any nature. In fact, there's no evidence of a specific dispute, defined as one user telling another that he or she disagrees with something, even existing."
It is unclear whether the dispute is over, but Lionelt, the project's founder, will continue to stand in its adamant defense, offering on the project's talkpage a toast to its members for their perseverance, prefaced by a public address:
I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to the Community for their support of this amazing and special group of editors. The attempt to delete the project has been soundly and decisively defeated. The consensus is that the members have accorded themselves with honor and integrity according to Wikipedia policies. The consensus is that charges of activism, advocacy, and vote-stacking are baseless and without merit. The future of this project is secure. It has been said that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. This assault on the project will indeed strengthen us. I urge every member to rededicate themselves to collaboratively working together to improve conservatism-related articles.
Strident discussion of the meaning of the MfD and the future direction of the project continues on the talkpage.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/In focus
No cases were closed or opened this week, leaving one open. The Arbitration Committee declined two requests for new cases, on Azerbaijan-Armenia-Iran-Turkey, deciding that the existing discretionary sanctions/arbitration enforcement regime is sufficient, and on WikiProject Conservatism, because of a perceived lack of prior dispute resolution; the WikiProject was unsuccessfully nominated for deletion around the same time (see "News and Notes").
It is still possible to submit evidence and proposals in the Abortion case. Nearly 70 kb of text has been contributed, but at the time of writing the last edit to the evidence page[1] was over three weeks ago.
A request to amend the Digwuren case has been made to allow for editors topic-banned from arbitration enforcement to participate in the Mediation Cabal case Holodomor. Arbitrators were divided as to whether the request ought to have been submitted at the Arbitration Enforcement forum itself, but seemed open to deferring to the judgement of the mediator who submitted the amendment request.
Discussion surrounding a request to amend last year's contentious Climate change case to lift the topic ban on William M. Connolley entered its second week. While arbitrators again appear open to granting some measure of leniency, some sought greater acknowledgement of the rationale of the original decision and the events leading up to it from the topic-banned editor. A motion to lift the climate change topic-ban on William M. Connolley while retaining the prohibition of his editing articles on living people related to the topic area has attracted five support votes, one oppose, and one neutral from the participating Committee members at the time of writing.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/Humour
