The Wikimedia Foundation has proposed to modify the Wikimedia projects' Terms of use to specifically ban undisclosed paid editing. This is the Foundation's first major move against the much wider category of paid editing, rather than advocacy, putting it all in the category of "deceptive activities". Paid advocacy occurs when someone is "paid to promote something or someone on Wikipedia". Paid editing encompasses all of that and more, being broadly defined as "accepting money to edit Wikipedia", which the English Wikipedia's policy notes is not necessarily an issue as long as "transparency and neutrality are key."
The amendment would add the following clause to the end of section four of the global terms of use:
Paid contributions without disclosure
These Terms of Use prohibit engaging in deceptive activities, including misrepresentation of affiliation, impersonation, and fraud. To ensure compliance with these obligations, you must disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution to any Wikimedia Projects for which you receive compensation. You must make that disclosure in at least one of the following:
a statement on your user page,
a statement on the talk page accompanying any paid contributions, or
a statement in the edit summary accompanying any paid contributions.
Applicable law, or community and Foundation policies, such as those addressing conflicts of interest, may further limit paid contributions or require more detailed disclosure. For more information, please read our background note on disclosure of paid contributions.
As of publishing time, comments on the talk page have gone beyond 50 sections, and a referendum on the amendment has a majority in support—though an unusual number of votes have been posted without a signature.
I am an experienced Wikipedia editor, perhaps an administrator. A friend is an author who has published several novels that are still in print. He does not have a Wikipedia article, and would like to have one. Knowing that I'm active on Wikipedia, he asks me to create an article for him. He gives me information about his background and books to include in the article. There is no question in my mind that the author meets the applicable notability guideline. May I write the article? Do I have to disclose anything if I do write the article? If my friend offers to take me to dinner to thank me for agreeing to write the article, may I accept?
Example 2:
I work at a university library. The library contains archival and manuscript collections of the personal papers of dozens of historical and literary figures, which are of interest to scholars. Our collections are underutilized, and we would like to have more visitors use them. I want to add a short paragraph to the Wikipedia article of each person whose papers our library holds, mentioning that his or her papers are at our facility and providing a link to the online finding aid. May I do so?
Example two takes on even greater importance when considering the growing GLAM-Wiki movement, which promotes galleries, libraries, archives, and museums and now has its first official user group (the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium); it boasts a number of successes, most notably in content uploads to the Wikimedia Commons.
The practice of paid advocacy has been a public problem on the English Wikipedia since October, when a clandestine ring of editors working for the public relations agency Wiki-PR (now Status Labs Image Management) was exposed by the Signpost and several other news outlets. The Foundation quickly moved against the firm, issuing a surprisingly strong statement from executive director Sue Gardner the same month and an order to "cease and desist" in November.
Although the English Wikipedia is the largest and most visible of the various Wikimedia projects, its paid editing policies have no effect on other Wikimedia projects. The German Wikipedia and its local support team keep a register of official institutional editor accounts. It has a "user verification" system in place that attempts to prevent unauthorized people from operating from what would appear to be an official account for a business or individual. The process is simple, involving an email from a company domain sent to Wikimedia's OTRS system. The result is editors like Benutzer:Coca-Cola De, an account for the Coca-Cola Company.
The Swedish Wikipedia also welcomes paid editors. Anders Wennerstenwrote in January that the paid editing problem "is a privilege that only the biggest version [the English Wikipedia] can have" and as long as paid advocates play by the basic rules, they are key stakeholders in ensuring that the Swedish Wikipedia continually improves in "value and quality", despite its small core of active editors. He continued on this track in a more recent mailing list post, saying that the "fruitful cooperation" between paid and unpaid editors was a driver of quality content on the site. The proposed amendment, in Wennersten's eyes, would be helpful as a guideline—but as a mandatory part of the Terms of use, would "actually hurt our community and work."
So, too, does the Norwegian Wikipedia. Erlend Bjørtvedt, the Vice Chairman and Treasurer of Wikimedia Norway, said that a major discussion among the site's administrators concluded that a straight ban on paid editors was wholly impractical, as it would also ban editors who were working for public institutions. Edits from third parties paid to edit for a commercial entity and non-neutral editing for pay are frowned on, but the site attempts to judge editors on their actions, not affiliation. In fact, according to Bjørtvedt, employees' editing their employers' articles "is not only tolerated, but quite common" on the site. Bjørtvedt is an example of this: he is a Vice President of Telenor, a global telecommunications company, and he has edited the company's article 233 times, while the next two contributors combined have a total of 27 edits.
Editor faces legal proceedings for Wikipedia edits
The will of Andreas Papandreou (pictured), a former prime minister of Greece, is the basis of legal proceedings brought against a Greek Wikipedian by Papandreou's former son-in-law, Theodore Katsanevas.
Dimitris Liourdis, a lawyer in training who moonlights as an administrator on the Greek Wikipedia, is embroiled in a legal dispute with Theodore Katsanevas, a Greek politician, over alleged edits made to his Wikipedia article. Liourdis, who edits Wikimedia sites as Diu, is likely to receive a heavy criminal sentence if convicted. His legal fees are being covered by the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the various Wikimedia sister projects, through their Legal Fees Assistance Program.
Liourdis' predicament was first publicized on the Wikimedia blog, apparently in response to a legal setback—on 13 February, Liourdis was ordered to remove the offending statements from Katsanevas' Wikipedia article. Arstechnica, The Press Project, Nonprofit Quarterly, and the Washington Post's "Switch" blog, among others, quickly followed.
Legal proceedings were initiated on the basis of a single sentence added in one of Liourdis' 22 edits to the article, which reported that Katsanevas was castigated as a "disgrace" in the will of Andreas Papandreou, who at the time of his death in 1996 was Katsanevas' father-in-law. While Liourdis did not add any sources with this edit, at the time legal action was initiated, there were several reputable references. The English Wikipedia's new article on Katsanevas supports its own sentence with eight sources.
Katsanevas also sued the Greek Free/Open Source Software Society, apparently in the misguided belief that it runs Wikipedia.
Liourdis' hearing is set for 11 March. He is currently blocked on the Greek Wikipedia for edit warring while attempting to comply with the court's order. The end result, as of publishing time, is that the information is still in Katsanevas' Greek Wikipedia article, it has received thousands of views, and new articles have been created in English, Catalan, Polish, Yakut, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Italian.
In brief
Policy drafts closed to community comments: The Foundation has closedthree community consultations after a five-month consultation period. The discussions, on privacy, data retention, and Access to nonpublic information, will be codified into formal Wikimedia policies. The Wikimedia blog has more from the Foundation's Michelle Paulson here and here.
Redesigning Wikipedia: A Swedish design firm has published a set of proposals that updates the site: "While big parts of the internet have gone through an amazing journey in terms of typography these last years, Wikipedia's reading experience is still stuck in the 90's. We wanted to take a few days and propose a direction through which Wikipedia could move forward, focusing on articles and reading without necessarily having to change too much of what it is and should continue to be."
On January 21 2014 the MediaWiki extension Universal Language Selector (ULS) was disabled on this wiki. A new preference was added for logged-in users to turn on ULS. This was done to prevent slow loading of pages due to ULS webfonts, a behaviour that had been observed by the Wikimedia Technical Operations team on some wikis.
We are now ready to enable ULS again. The temporary preference to enable ULS will be removed. A new checkbox has been added to the Language Panel to enable/disable font delivery. This will be unchecked by default for this wiki, but can be selected at any time by the users to enable webfonts. This is an interim solution while we improve the feature of webfonts delivery.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please inform other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent software changes
The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf14) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on February 13. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on February 18, and all Wikipedia wikis on February 20 (calendar).
The new search tool (CirrusSearch) now gives more importance to content namespaces if you search in several namespaces. [3]
You can now directly link to files viewed with MultimediaViewer, the new tool for viewing media files. [4]
You can read the summary of the Wikimedia technical report for January 2014. [5]
Problems
On February 9, Wikimedia Labs was broken for about 2 hours due to an XFS file system problem. [6]
On February 11, there were problems with VisualEditor for about 20 minutes due to a server logging issue. [7]
On the same day, for about 20 minutes there were issues with page loading due to database problems.
There were issues with page loading between 21:00 UTC on February 13 and 11:00 UTC on February 14 for users in Europe. It was due to a cache server problem.
On February 14, all sites were broken for about 15 minutes for users in Southeast Asia, Oceania and the western part of North America. It was due to problems with cache servers.
VisualEditor news
The link tool now tells you when you're linking to a disambiguation or redirect page. [8]
You can now change image display (like thumbnail, frame and frameless) with VisualEditor. [9]
Wikitext warnings will now hide when you remove wikitext from paragraphs you are editing. [10]
You will soon be able to create and edit redirect pages with VisualEditor. [11][12][13]
The Tyop Contest is underway, but you can still join and eliminate spelling and grammatical errors on Wikipedia
Submit your project's news and announcements for next week's WikiProject Report at the Signpost's WikiProject Desk.
A mascot, perhaps?
When we invited WikiProject Countering Systemic Bias to an interview, nine passionate Wikipedians answered our call and offered greater insight than our admittedly inadequate questions would have prompted. WikiProject Countering Systemic Bias aims to combat imbalanced coverage while encouraging neglected cultural perspectives and points of view, both in articles and in the larger Wikipedia community. As you'll see from the varied experiences and motivations of our nine respondents, the biases that the folks at WP CSB tackle run the full gamut of human characteristics and dispositions. The interview that follows unveils many of Wikipedia's greatest shortcomings, and we're glad to be guided through it all by Johnny Au, Kosboot, Uyvsdi, Figureskatingfan, Carptrash, Hildanknight, Sionk, Groupuscule, and Djembayz.
What motivated you to join WikiProject Countering Systemic Bias? What forms of bias do you encounter most often in Wikipedia's articles and community?
Johnny Au: There are many Wikipedia articles that read as if only one country exists (most often, the United States). I was motivated to add in examples from other countries.
Kosboot: I admire Sue Gardner greatly. For some years she has been talking about the lack of women and underrepresented editors and how the lack of their voices are limiting Wikipedia and threatens its long-term acceptance. This has begun to intersect with my work as a librarian as I see that more people are talking about how only certain people whose records are preserved create the image of history. Because I wanted to counteract that tendency and wanted to make "other" voices heard, I joined the group.
Uyvsdi: I come across Native American editors all the time; usually editing their own articles ;) or updating information about their tribes. I usually offer a welcome message. Native friends have requested that I work on certain articles, and I've helped friends from other tribes get their images uploaded to WikiMedia Commons.
Figureskatingfan: Ever since I started editing Wikipedia in 2007, I found myself drawn to articles that paralleled my interests, and found that they were severely under-served and were about topics that were seriously underrepresented. I found, for example, that articles about Maya Angelou were either in major disarray or were non-existent, and took it upon myself to do something about it. Shortly after bringing the article about Angelou's first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, to FA, I discovered the project and began to learn about the gender gap here. Seven years later, six out of seven of Angelou's autobiographies are FAs, as is her bio article. I'm proud of this accomplishment, and for the small part I've played in countering the bias that caused the situation in the first place.
Carptrash: I believe that Wikipedia is largely edited by white, educated males, so perspectives from that group abound. I notice them when editing gender related articles, which I don't do so much anymore after being banned for (among things) suggesting that editors who were red linked were probably communists. Art articles frequently suffer from a male, western dominated POV too.
Hildanknight: I chanced upon the CSB WikiProject a few months into my editing career and, being from Singapore (often described as a microcosm of Asia), I realised I had found my calling. Naturally, geographical bias on Wikipedia is my main concern, having noticed that coverage of Asian (especially Chinese and Muslim) topics is full of glaring omissions and many articles are even slanted negatively.
Sionk: I've stumbled across various initiatives of SarahStierch which have concurred with my own interests, for example I created the List of female architects as part of Womens History Month, and joined WikiProject Women artists because I find myself creating and improving several articles in this area. I guess I consider myself older and wiser, with a broader world view than the typical young male US-centric demographic.
Groupuscule: "Countering Systemic Bias" is a life mission—and necessary for anyone seeking truth in this world. Wikipedia's biases reflect those of its male, Western, computer-literate, academically-trained user base. These biases are reinforced by a somewhat elitist atmosphere which tends to be dismissive of alternative viewpoints. Contrast the vehement labelling of Ayurvedic medicine as a "pseudoscience" (also see "List of topics characterized as pseudoscience" and "Wikipedia:Fringe theories") with the praise for string theory ("many theoretical physicists believe ... a step towards the correct fundamental description of nature"). The accumulated wisdom of generations versus today's hot topic; centuries of evidence versus virtually none; yet the former is policed and the latter extolled.
Are some topics more prone to systemic bias? What can be done to reduce the impact of systemic bias in Wikipedia's articles?
Johnny Au: They generally vary. Often, general articles that have place-specific examples are prone to systemic bias. Adding in examples from other countries helps reduces the impact of systemic bias.
Kosboot: With all due respect, the question itself is an example of systemic bias because it makes the assumption that it's only articles that are in need of revision. Articles in the press about editing conflicts in Wikipedia have described such discussions as typical of the aggressive tactics that one finds in male-oriented sports. The way Wikipedians debate hot topics is one example where, frequently, those that are the most loudest get their way. From the very first day I became an editor (in 2006), I have always felt that Wikipedians take an excessively aggressive stance to what constitutes notability--the process itself shuts out underrepresented voices. Many Wikipedians are not willing to accept that notability might be defined in ways other than reference books and world-famous newspapers. But to accept the voice of other cultures (particularly Native Americans in the United States), one has to accept non-standard sources for notability. So it's not just individual (or a mass of) articles but the way in which many aspects of Wikipedia is conceived and executed inherently contain systemic bias.
Carptrash: Identify it (bias) and deal with it. Although the talk pages can be very contentious on occasion, mostly they work very well in allowing editors to sort stuff out. The chance to do that is one of the wonders of Wikipedia. I favor making editors register in order to edit because I feel that even in a very small way this makes them more accountable.
Sionk: There's a strong (and deeply annoying) tendency towards recentism, reporting minutiae about the latest pop celebrity or album, or sports results. I often come across an American bias, for example an underlying "He's American so he must be notable" default reaction in AfD discussions. How to reduce this, well, maybe it's impossible on an English laguage Wikipedia dominated by American male editors. Wikipedia seems to lurch from one reactive initiative to the next, for example when the ghettoization of women authors was raised in the national press.
Hildanknight: Perhaps you should ask, and we should discuss, which policies are more prone to systemic bias. One obvious example is the policy against open proxies, which hinders editors living in countries where such proxies are needed to circumvent government censorship. That the policy on the use of sources in languages other than English is also unclear may lead to uneven notability guidelines and unfair deletions. In addition, the policy that Wikipedia is not censored has been interpreted in a manner that deters participation by editors from more conservative Asian cultures. Policy pages should also be rewritten to be more understandable by contributors for whom English is a second language.
Figureskatingfan: As editors, we tend to edit articles about topics that interest us. I'm a woman, so I tend to be attracted to articles that are female-oriented: women authors, children's television and music. There are a preponderance of articles about sports, games, and military history on WP because there are more men that edit articles than women. The solution, for me, is to recruit more women to edit, because they'll naturally be drawn to more female-oriented articles. I also think we need to retain the women editors we already have. How to do that? I have no idea, and am glad that smarter people than me are trying to figure that out. In the meantime, if you're a woman editor, work on articles that interest you, have fun with them, and you'll automatically help solve the bias and gender gap problem.
Geolocated images in Wikimedia Commons
What steps can editors take to reduce the influence of their own biases when creating new articles or expanding existing ones?
Johnny Au: Learn about the perspectives of other countries. Tell those who live in countries not represented to add them in.
Djembayz: There is a saying, "Nothing about us, without us." Adding perspectives, cites, and direct links to materials published by underrepresented groups enables Wikipedia readers to locate authentic information.
You may be surprised how much immigrants who live near you have to say about Wikipedia. Try asking them about coverage of their hometown, and what needs to be improved.
Kosboot: You have to continuously listen to opposing or differing views particularly those you may not agree with. Even though you think you may be an expert, you have to hear what other people say and think about how their point of view makes a contribution. Outside of purely editing, one should find ways to engage people from underrepresented groups so that they can contribute.
Groupuscule: Cosigning on all of the above... Listen! Ask for help! Go to the source. And try to always push your boundaries: think, wait a minute, does this topic apply outside of the traditional realm(s) that first occur to me?
Have you ever needed to discuss systemic bias with an editor who contributed in an unhelpful or disruptive way? What is the best way to approach these editors and help them become a productive part of the Wikipedia community?
Johnny Au: No. I often tell them about being in another person's shoes.
Kosboot: With the exception of a few issues about which I feel passionate, I generally try to avoid fights. I often find that even though I feel I have the better point of view, it is overruled in favor of other choices. The option of being in the other person's shoes (as Johnny Au says) is a beginning, but if often requires a lot more: finding the right kind of language where the other person will listen to you, or finding issues that the other person will accept. Needless to say, it is very exhausting procedure and I see many people abandon discussions rather than try to have their voices and points of view heard.
Carptrash: I must confess that this is a weak area in my editing skills, particularly when I feel another editor is pushing an agenda rather then, say, "wrong" facts.
Djembayz: Yes, and I find I need to avoid the temptation to read too much into things. For example, the statement "Turn the red links on the Gender Gap red list blue!" is not a US political campaign slogan. WP:AGF means accepting that awkwardness and misunderstandings are part of the process.
Sionk: I've recently come across bitter arguments about bias in sports articles, for example. I've tried to find a practical way to move the discussion forward. These discussions seem to quickly resort to personal name-calling, quite probably out of frustration and cynicism. There's nowhere I know of that can mediate in these type of disputes, because Wikipedia, its projects and arbitrators seem to have biases of their own.
Hildanknight: To me, a far greater challenge is dealing with established editors in good standing who are not aware of, or even refuse to acknowledge, the problem of systemic bias or their own biases. For example, editors who nominate many articles about poorly represented topics for deletion, when a quick search for sources (in the right languages) would have revealed obvious notability. Having realised there is little point in arguing with such editors, I now stick to working in my little corner.
Does WikiProject Countering Systemic Bias collaborate with any other projects? What can other WikiProjects do to combat systemic bias?
Johnny Au: Not much. Other WikiProjects can chip in and add in more prespectives.
Djembayz: One of our functions is being a central message board for all the other WikiProjects working to counter systemic bias. Sometimes these projects don't have enough visitors to respond quickly when an article is proposed for deletion, or to other concerns, such as editor conduct. This is when posting a notice at the WikiProject Countering Systemic Bias talk page can help locate interested editors.
Many of us work in other WikiProjects that create content about under-represented groups or topics, and check in with WP:CSB from time to time.
Hildanknight: Collaboration is needed to coordinate efforts to counter systemic bias, but there is hardly any. Other WikiProjects should conduct CSB drives. For example, WikiProject Films could compile a list of 100 historically significant movies from Asian countries, or WikiProject Schools could identify 50 highly notable special education schools, then aim to bring at least 10 of their articles to GA status within a year.
What are the most urgent needs of WikiProject Countering Systemic Bias?
Johnny Au: There needs to be more members, including those who update the open tasks there (often, I was the only one updating the open tasks for a few years), as well as more awareness of systemic bias. A new member can help by adding in a perspective from another country.
We need a way to prioritize articles important for countering systematic bias for editors with language and translation skills.
Kosboot: More members, yes. My wish would be a 6th pillar to Wikipedia's WP:FIVE, so that everyone would be aware of the tendency to create systemic bias. Awareness would be the first step to fixing it.
Sionk: It is such a widespread and general problem/topic as to appear insummountable to people. Creating specific initiatives (such as WikiProject Women artists for example) is a tangible way to move things forward. Are these related initiatives coordinated in any way?
Hildanknight: Reading the WikiProject talk page may give the impression that this WikiProject is a NATO (Singlish for "no action, talk only") that only exists for people to rant. That the explanation of systemic bias was moved to a subpage makes the main WikiProject page far less helpful. Of course, we want more editors to get involved in countering systemic bias, but the WikiProject already has four hundred members. To me, the most urgent need is meaningful communication between the four hundred members, to set concrete directions and goals that can be worked towards.
How can a new member help today?
Djembayz: Make some improvements on an article about a country you do not live in. Find some reliable information from another language Wikipedia, or from another country, that you can add to an article written in your own language. If you can contribute to the non-English Wikipedias using non-English language sources, this is a great way to improve balance, because these articles can be translated into other languages.
Contributing to articles about women improves balance. If you want something easy, go for talk page assessment of women's biographies. For something more challenging, try adding infoboxes to women's biographies.
Pick a WikiProject about an unfamiliar nationality or ethnic group, and assess a few biographies. You don't need specialized knowledge to assess a biography as Stub, Start, or C Class.
Uyvsdi: And Wikipedia:WikiProject Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Articles pertaining to Indigenous peoples south of the US border a woefully inadequate (with the exception of precontact Mesoamerican articles). My Spanish is subpar but it's easy to glean information from the Spanish-language and Portuguese-language Wikipedias using Google Translate.
African biography reference books on the shelves of the Library of Congress Main Reading Room
Djembayz: If you live near a public library with a copy of Encyclopedia Africana, stop by and use it to write an article.
Kosboot: There are so many biographical articles about men where we know that their wives were just as important a contribution to their work. An easy beginning task would be to amplify (perhaps eventually forking) such articles. Writing articles on those neglected is one way to begin sensitizing oneself to systemic bias. The United States has a huge population of Latin-American people: How come there are not more of them on Wikipedia? What can we do as a community to engage them? Answering those questions should keep everyone busy for a few years. ;)
Figureskatingfan: If you're a woman editor, edit articles about topics that interest you, even if they're not female-oriented, because you'll bring a much-needed different perspective. And stand up for yourself if you feel slighted because of your gender; never back down.
Next week, we'll fire some of your neurons. Until then, travel the synaptic highway in the archive.
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from February 2, 2014 through February 15, 2014. Subject descriptions are quoted from the articles and portals; see their histories for attribution.
Asmara Moerni (Indonesian: "True Love") was a 1941 romance film, now lost, from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) directed by Rd Ariffien and written by Saeroen. The film followed a doctor who falls in love with his maid, as well as her failed romance with a fellow villager. The black-and-white film catered to the growing native intelligentsia and was a commercial success, despite mixed reviews. – Nominator: Crisco 1492
Kenneth Horne (1907–1969) was an English comedian and businessman. He is perhaps best remembered for his work on three BBC Radio series: Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh (1944–51), Beyond Our Ken (1958–64) and Round the Horne (1965–68). – Nominator: SchroCat
Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents is the collective name for two small late-15th century portrait panels by the German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer. They show the artist's parents, Barbara Holper and Albrecht Dürer the Elder, when she was around 39 and he was 63. The portraits are unflinching records of the physical and emotional effects of ageing. – Nominators: Ceoil, Victoriaearle, Maralia
Carnotaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period, between about 72 and 70 million years ago. The only species is Carnotaurus sastrei. Known from a single well-preserved skeleton, it is one of the best-understood theropods from the Southern Hemisphere. – Nominator: Jens Lallensack
Ralph Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He worked in films throughout most of his career, and played more than sixty cinema roles. From an artistic but not theatrical background, Richardson had no thought of a stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft in the 1920s with a touring company and later the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In 1931 he joined the Old Vic, playing mostly Shakespearean roles. He led the company the following season, succeeding Gielgud, who had taught him much about stage technique. After he left the company, a series of leading roles took him to stardom in the West End and on Broadway. – Nominator: Tim riley
List of SpongeBob SquarePants episodesSpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. Since its debut on May 1, 1999, 189 episodes (357 segments) of the series have been broadcast; its ninth season premiered on July 21, 2012. The series is set in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom, and centers on the adventures of SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny), an over-optimistic sea sponge that annoys other characters. The majority of the show characters includes: a starfish named Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke), SpongeBob's best friend; Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown), a miserly crab obsessed with money and SpongeBob's boss at the Krusty Krab; Squidward Tentacles (Rodger Bumpass), an arrogant and ill-tempered octopus; Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence), a squirrel from Texas; and Plankton (Mr. Lawrence), a small green copepod and Mr. Krabs' business rival. – Nominator: Mediran
Timeline of the 2012 Pacific hurricane season The 2012 Pacific hurricane season was an above-average year in which seventeen named storms formed.[nb 1] The hurricane season officially began on May 15 with the formation of Tropical Storm Aletta in the East Pacific—defined as the region east of 140°W—and on June 1 in the central Pacific—defined as the region west of 140°W to the International Date Line—and ended on November 30 in both basins. These dates conventionally delimit the period during each year when most tropical cyclones form. The final cyclone of the year, Tropical Storm Rosa, dissipated on November 3. – Nominator: TropicalAnalystwx13
List of municipalities in Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is the sixth-most populous province in Canada with 1,033,381 residents as of 2011 and is the fifth-largest in land area at approximately 588,000 km2 (227,000 sq mi). Saskatchewan's 786 municipalities cover 52.7% of the province's land mass and are home to 94.1% of its population. They are local government "creatures of provincial jurisdiction" with natural persons power.[4] One of the key purposes of Saskatchewan's municipalities are "to provide services, facilities and other things that, in the opinion of council, are necessary or desirable for all or a part of the municipality". Other purposes are to: "provide good government"; "develop and maintain a safe and viable community"; "foster economic, social and environmental well-being" and "provide wise stewardship of public assets." – Nominator: Mattximus
World Fantasy Award for Best Novella The World Fantasy Awards are given each year by the World Fantasy Convention for the best fantasy fiction published in English during the previous calendar year. The awards have been described as one of the three most prestigious speculative fiction awards, along with the Hugo and Nebula Awards. The World Fantasy Award for Best Novella is given each year for fantasy novellas published in English. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novella if it is between 10,000 and 40,000 words in length; awards are also given out for longer pieces in the novel category and shorter lengths in the short story category. The World Fantasy Award for Best Novella has been awarded annually since 1982, though between 1975—when the World Fantasy Awards were instated—and 1982 the short fiction category covered works of up to 40,000 words. – Nominator: PresN
Natalia Kills discography The English singer-songwriter Natalia Kills has released two studio albums, one extended play (EP), and seven singles as a solo artist, as well as four as a featured artist, and thirteen music videos. She began her musical career by releasing a standalone single, entitled "Don't Play Nice", under the alias of Verbalicious, with label All Around the World. – Nominator: Prism
The 71st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1998 and took place on March 21, 1999, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the third time. – Nominator: Birdienest81
List of The New 52 publications In September 2011, DC Comics relaunched their entire line of publications, dubbing the new publishing initiative as The New 52. The relaunch saw DC introduce same day release of physical comics with digital platforms, as well as characters from the former Wildstorm and Vertigo imprints being absorbed into a rebooted DC Universe. The intent was to publish 52 ongoing titles each month across the DC Universe. However, DC has also counted one-shots, miniseries and maxiseries in that number. In subsequent Septembers following the launch, DC has featured unique publishing initiatives to commemorate the relaunch. – Nominator: Favre1fan93
Boat tour on Tasman Lake – Tour boat among the icebergs on Tasman Lake, a proglacial lake formed by the recent retreat of the New Zealand's Tasman Glacier - creator: Avenue; nominator: Tomer T
Allie Mae Burroughs – A photograph of Allie Mae Burroughs, wife of a cotton sharecropper, which became a symbol of the Great Depression - creator: Walker Evans; nominator: Tomer T
Mission patch of NROL-39 – Mission patch of National Reconnaissance Launce 39, featuring a giant octopus - creator: NRO; nominator: HectorMoffet
Streatham portrait (nom): recently rediscovered painting believed to depict Lady Jane Grey, who was England's de facto monarch from 10 to 19 July 1553. - creator: unknown; nominator: Crisco 1492
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry and currently under the ownership of CBS. The franchise began in 1966 with the television series Star Trek, later referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series. This series, its spin-off shows: Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise, as well as the film series make up the core of the franchise's mythos. While the critical response to much of the franchise varies, many individual Star Trek episodes and films have won awards and honors including Emmy Awards, Hugo Awards and an Academy Award. – Nominators: Miyagawa and Cirt
Freedom of speech is the political right to communicate one's ideas via speech. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, as with libel, slander, obscenity and incitement to commit a crime. The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). – Nominator: Cirt
Valentine's Day got a somewhat muted reception this week, overshadowed by continuing coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the death of Shirley Temple.
For the complete top 25 report, including exclusions, see WP:TOP25
For the week of February 9 to 15, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most viewed pages* were:
This year's Valentine's Day only drew about half the views of last year's; perhaps people just aren't in a canoodling mood. One could certainly blame the weather, or the economy. Or both.
It is somewhat apropos that the woman once known as America's Sweetheart would die within a week of Valentine's Day. That said, it's doubtful this two-time US ambassador would have appreciated the association. Given the reasons that former child stars usually appear on this list, the fact that she made so little news in the last few decades can be seen as an example.
The sub-tropical resort that Vladimir Putin for some reason chose as the ideal location to host the Winter Olympics has become something of a talking point, given that it is one of the few places in the entire country that doesn't get snow in the winter, leading to the slightly ridiculous scenario of a country that regularly sees double-digits below zero temperatures having to spray artificial snow.
Initially, this curious mobile video game was noted either for its insane difficulty or its suspiciously familiar pipes. However, it suddenly exploded when its Vietnamese developer took it off the market, claiming that its addictive nature was contrary to its casual intent. You gotta hand it to a guy who removes his own product from sale because people like it too much.
This was one of the most-viewed articles of 2013, and there remains a certain suspicion that, like many articles on technical subjects, it may be over-inflated. However, it is important enough to be given the benefit of the doubt. It is something of a crisis, though not one that is necessarily apparent. It may come as a surprise to some, but the Internet is, for lack of a better word, full. Every computer online is assigned a specific address, made up of a sequence of numbers, that allows other computers to contact it over the Internet. The original number sequence, known as IPv4, is currently the norm for ~99% of online computers. It allows for a maximum of about 4.3 billion addresses; a number that maxed out in January 2011. The long-term plan is to migrate over to IPv6, which allows for 3x1038 addresses; however, since this would require a massive software and even hardware upgrade, many companies are reluctant to undertake it. Until now we've been stalling for time by harvesting abandoned addresses and re-allocating them, a decidedly short-term measure.
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