Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/In the media
| “ | I want to thank *everyone* for being so totally awesome with this process. I've put a lot of work into trying to do this right and the feedback (positive and negative) has been immensely helpful and at times nearly overwhelming :) | ” |
—Developer Chad Horohoe, who oversaw the migration | ||
As scheduled, on March 21 ("Git day"), MediaWiki was officially switched over from the older version control system Subversion to the newer competing system Git. As a result, developers ceased to be able to use Subversion to contribute to core MediaWiki code or over 100 of its WMF-deployed extensions. The switchover went remarkably close to plan, although the preceding code review backlog meant that some 100 revisions had to be initially reverted and then reintroduced afterwards as new-style patchsets. Developers are also now rapidly getting acquainted with the new code review system Gerrit, the Git-friendly replacement to the MediaWiki-based Subversion code review system that had been in use for years. Non-WMF-deployed extensions remain Subversion-based, though many will be moved over to Git in the coming weeks.
The changes sparked numerous threads on the wikitech-l mailing list as developers started to come to grips with the issues arising from the switch. Such issues ranged from working out the changes a developer made when amending a patchset to creating naming conventions and figuring out how to download MediaWiki releases and other snapshots directly from the central Git repository. A separate thread addressed problems in assigning ChangeIds (a vital new identifier used for code review) during merges and part-merges, whilst the question of managing Gerrit user permissions (such as the ability to approve code) was described in significant detail in another thread by Volunteer Development Co-ordinator Sumana Harihareswara. Overall, there seemed to be a sense of cautious optimism among the developer community that all the glitches and performance bottlenecks could be resolved in time.
Director of Platform Engineering Rob Lanphier described the way ahead: "In the short term, we're still deploying [to Wikimedia wikis] from Subversion... [so] all non-urgent deployments should hang on until we finish the work here ... We're currently planning security releases [see In brief] for 1.17, 1.18, and 1.19, which will be released from Git. In the medium term, we plan to have far more frequent deployments, starting as early as April 9. ... With the combination of Git and the workflow changes it enables, we're pretty excited by our new ability to deploy code more frequently, and we're pretty optimistic that we'll be able to actually get that benefit sooner rather than later".
The latest features developed for Wikipedias' mobile site variants will be going live to beta users immediately, it was announced this week. The updates being deployed include "changes to the footer, a cleaner design for revealing and hiding sections, and a revamped full-screen search experience", the announcement revealed.
One new feature that has the potential to make it in some form into the desktop site is the inclusion of an "in place" citation display system. Under the new system being introduced, [1][2][3]-style links on the mobile site will prompt a simple dismissible overlay of the content of the citation (pictured right), rather than scrolling the browser down to the applicable references section. The WMF team behind the update are keen to receive as much feedback as possible on this and all other aspects of the update, according to Software Developer Jon Robson, who made the announcement. He asked users interested in testing out the new features to opt-in to using them and then to try browsing their Wikipedia's mobile site (e.g. http://en.m.wikipedia.org), reporting any problems to a dedicated page on MediaWiki.org.
Improving performance of Wikimedia wikis on handheld devices was targeted as an area of "high strategic significance" in March 2011's product whitepaper, with the particular aim of expanding Wikimedia's audience in areas of the world with comparatively few desktop computers. The latest available statistics show that the mobile site – not to be confused with either the official Wikimedia Android app or its iOS counterpart (both of which attempt to take advantage of device-specific feature sets) – now accounts for over 10% of all Wikipedia page view requests.
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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.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/Opinion
| Final decision in Muhammad images case February 8, 2012 |
| German Wikipedia continues image filter protest October 31, 2011 |
| The global mission, the image filter and the "German question" September 26, 2011 |
| Personal image filter referendum highlights polarization August 5, 2011 |
| "Personal image filter" to offer the ability to hide sexual or violent media March 31, 2011 |
| Draft of controversial content recommendations published September 27, 2010 |
| Board resolution on offensive content July 28, 2010 |
| Porn madness May 10, 2010 |
| Larry Sanger accuses Wikimedia of hosting illegal images April 12, 2010 |
| Explicit image featured on German Wikipedia's main page March 3, 2010 |
A new chapter opened in the controversial content saga this week, as fallout from an ArbCom ruling earlier this year regarding the handling of images of Muhammad (Signpost coverage). Among other parts of its decision, the committee approved by a 6–4 vote a remedy requesting the community to establish a final consensus on the content issue, which is beyond the authority of ArbCom. This request for comment (RfC) opened on March 20.
The discussion centers around ten questions and options for how to balance Wikipedia's policies and guidelines – which themselves require interpretation – with a view widely held in significant parts of Islam that prohibits the display of images of Muhammad.
To facilitate the process of reaching a decision, the RfC provides a short summary of historical facts – for example, the differences between Shia and Sunni views on the matter, and how Wikipedia has handled the case until now. The relevant key policies to be reconciled with any decision taken are verifiability and the neutral point of view.
The renewed discussion was quickly noticed by the German Wikipedia community, which has traditionally been very skeptical of the controversial content issue, and the Kurier picked up the story within hours. The resulting discussions focused on the different tools employed by the English and German communities to deal with controversies, and how widespread problems are in relation to aniconism. It was quickly pointed out that this view is not only held in Islam but in other religions as well.
The RfC came shortly after debates on another controversial content issue: allegations of child porn. The debate had taken center stage since allegations on March 7 on Commons and the wide-ranging transwiki discussions, in which Germans also played a prominent part, led to office action against one editor, Beta M, and shifts in Meta policy.
The request for comment will close at 23:59 on April 19, after which a team of three uninvolved administrators are set to perform the task of consensus analysis. Editors interested in taking part should take into account that ArbCom has authorized the use of discretionary sanctions on "all pages relating to Muhammad, broadly interpreted."
The Wikimedia Foundation has begun the "community launch" of the new official Wikimedia merchandise store, offering Wikipedia T-shirts, hoodies, pins etc., with the goal "provid[ing] affordable high-quality merchandise to the project volunteers and the general public to reward its volunteers and spread the Wikimedia and project brands around the world", according to the FAQ by James Alexander, who recently became merchandise manager at the Foundation (moving from the Community Department).
Wikipedians have expressed the wish to be able to show their affiliation with the project by means of a Wikipedia T-shirt as early as 2001, and around the time of Wikipedia's first anniversary in January 2002, a T-shirt design vote was held (with one suggested slogan proudly proclaiming "20,000 articles created in one year"). A CafePress store was set up, but is now being discontinued in favor of the new outlet, because there "we had low-quality merchandise and made basically no money (while Cafepress made quite a lot and had rights to use our trademarks)", as Alexander explains. The new shop currently uses the Shopify platform and has a San Francisco–based contractor help with order fulfillment and shipping, but is hosted on a wikimedia.org domain.
Back in 2001, merchandise had been thought of as a possible source of income to cover the costs of hosting Wikipedia, but the annual fundraising has long been found to be a more effective means of achieving this, and the FAQ makes it clear that the shop is "not intended to become a profit center. The proceeds go back into the shop to keep costs low, subsidize shipping and help provide merch specifically to community members."
Other than through the old CafePress store, "the only normal way to get merchandise was specific real life events (Wikimania, Wiki10 etc.) or doing something special with the WMF or a chapter", says Alexander, referring to the tenth anniversary of Wikipedia last year, which – like the first anniversary – provided another impulse for the development of global Wikipedia merchandise: the Foundation developed "party packs" consisting of T-shirts, buttons and other items designed for the celebrations, and mailed them to Wikimedia chapters or other affiliated groups worldwide, gaining experience in the global delivery of such items (Signpost coverage). Affordable global shipping and the involvement of Wikimedia chapters continue to be objectives of the new shop.
James Alexander illustrates the outreach power of Wikipedia merchandise with an anecdote: "At a GLAM event late last year in NYC, four or five Wikimedians were outside the museum after meetings, talking. One of them had an old Wikipedia bag that was recognized by a girl walking by. She ran up and asked them if they 'really edited Wikipedia'. When they said yes she 'giggled', asked if she could hug them (and did), and then just said that they had no idea what the project meant for her, and ran off." To expand the current choice, community members' design ideas are being solicited, in particular for merchandise for Wikipedia's sister projects.
On March 21, Sue Gardner, the Wikimedia Foundation's executive director, announced a change in the structure of WMF departments and the creation of a new editor engagement experiments team to look at new options to tackle declining participation in Wikimedia projects.
The shake-up notably sees the disintegration of the current Community department, from which the new team's members are mostly drawn. The unit, created in June 2010 to engage with and support an expansive vision of the Wikimedia community that included readers and donors (Signpost coverage), will in the future focus on fundraising. Some of its remaining staff members will be moved to the Engineering and the Global Development departments.
The announcement sparked discussions on foundation-l, questioning whether it is wise to focus primarily on quantifying wiki activities rather than widening the focus to include the quality of new contributors and the costs of experimentation in the area. The departmental changes as such are aimed at pooling resources on issues related to projects such as the Visual Editor, a context in which the new team is supposed "to conduct many quick experiments", and will take effect on April 16.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/In focus
The Arbitration Committee neither opened nor closed any cases this week, leaving one open.
This case was brought to the Committee by SarekOfVulcan to "break the back" of a long-running dispute involving pages governing article naming and the Manual of Style (MoS). The case was closed on March 24 after a week of voting by arbitrators. Passing principles include a statement on the status of the MoS guideline, addressing how it is not "a collection of hard rules" and how changes to MoS pages should reflect consensus.
Beyond the principles in the decision, arbitrators found that Pmanderson has had a long history of conduct issues and had abused an alternate account in the course of the dispute, and that Born2cycle's behaviour in the topic area has hindered attempts to resolve the dispute. As a result, Pmanderson was indefinitely restricted from engaging in discussions and edits relating to the Manual of Style or policy concerning article titles, and Born2cycle was warned to be more open to compromise. In addition, discretionary sanctions have been authorised for all pages relating to MoS and article titles policy.
A review was opened of the Race and intelligence case as a compromise between opening a new case and ruling by motion. The review is intended to be a simplified form of a full case and will cover conduct issues that have purportedly arisen since the closure of the 2010 arbitration case. The evidence phase is expected to close soon, to be followed by the posting of the proposed decision by next week.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-26/Humour
