Welcome to this month's issue of the only notable publication by the Wikipedia community; for the Wikipedia community. We do hope that whether you are recovering from a bitter winter or a blazing summer that you consider the changing seasons as a reminder that nothing remains the same (even the dear old Signpost).
If you can spare some time to help in the Newsroom, we would appreciate seeing new people there. If you can spare time to comment on content to help us stay on track, we would also appreciate that. Take up the challenge, and you will never regret it!
Subsequent to the adoption of the final version of EU Copyright Directive / Article 13, a Village pump proposal appeared for a Wikipedia banner campaign in protest. The discussion continues on whether this constitutes advocacy in "Wikipedia's voice". WMF News (formerly "blog") also posted a piece on this, "Problems remain with the EU's copyright reform". B
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Dear colleagues of wikimedia-l,
I learned today of the 2018 passing of User:Corinne. I feel that Corinne's substantial contributions to Wikimedia merit forwarding the news of her passing to this email list. Corinne had a Master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. User:Miniapolis wrote, "Corinne was a fellow coordinator of the Guild of Copy Editors, and we had come to know each other off-wiki as well. Corinne's specialty was request articles, and her copyediting skill (second to none) was a factor in many Good and Featured Articles." Corinne made over 25,000 contributions to English Wikipedia.
Contributors have written memorials on her talk page. She was posthumously added to the Guild of Copy Editors Hall of Fame.
May she rest in peace.
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The Wikimedia Affiliates Election Committee invites readers of The Signpost, their colleagues, the broader Wikimedia community, and humanity at large to participate in the 2019 Affiliate Selected Board Seats Election. The stakes are 2 of 10 seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Persons in these positions will approve or reject each US$100,000,000+ planned annual budget of the Wikimedia Foundation and oversee the activities of Wikimedia Foundation director and CEO, Katherine Maher.
As with all things wiki, everyone is invited to participate in any aspect of the election. In this particular election, the appointment of these seats is at the recommendation of affiliates based on the established consensus that the best way to advance the Wikimedia mission is with the direction of representatives from Wikimedia community organizations. Consequently, this election proceeds at the behest of Wikimedia affiliates, who choose to use this general community outreach process as their candidate selection method. Nominations open soon. Develop the schedule of the election in anticipation of having all outcomes reported far enough in advance for the newly appointed trustees to convene with the board on 14 August 2019 at the Wikimania 2019 conference in Sweden. The expectation is that the ideal candidates shall advocate for the growth and success of Wikimedia affiliates to the benefit of the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia Movement.
The Wikimedia Movement is unique for its reliance on community participation even at the level of governance of the Wikimedia Foundation as steward of the Wikimedia projects and administrative support of the Wikimedia Movement. All trustees have an equal term and stand for regular reelection. For beginners to understand the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, think "1, 2, 3, 4" to remember the allocation of seats on the Board of Trustees. There is 1 Founder's seat for Jimbo Wales whom the board itself has the option to confirm each term. There are 2 seats for Wikimedia movement affiliates which are the subject of this Affiliate-selected Board seats election. 3 seats are for election for Community Seats of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, which is the general election by persons who have a Wikimedia account and actively use it. Famously, that is the most important election on the Internet. The remaining 4 seats are at the appointment of the Wikimedia Foundation Board Governance Committee and typically go to professionals who provide necessary expertise to achieve the goals of the board and time.
Anyone may read about historical elections in the Wikimedia archives. Anyone can draft commentary, policy, outreach materials, or any other election materials in the meta:Meta-Wiki space to encourage global participation in the elections and Wikimedia community governance.
Please note that only Wikimedia affiliate organizations can vote. Each organization gets one vote. This means that there will be about 140 possible votes in this election, as the Affiliations Committee recognizes that many Wikimedia community organizations. Of these, there about about 40 Wikimedia chapters which represent geographic regions. All chapters have had the opportunity to vote in multiple previous elections. There are about 100 Wikimedia user groups, each of which has passed a less strict level of organization than the chapters and which represent either a geographic or thematic group of Wikimedia editors. All user groups are having their first opportunity to vote in this election. User group voting is a recent development coming from a December 2018 by-laws proposal from the board of trustees and its 19 February 2019 adoption by the board.
The election will use single transferable vote so that organizations can rank their preferred candidates. To stand for nomination, a candidate must have the recommendation of a current Wikimedia affiliate organization.
Wikimedia organizations govern this election! Anyone seeking changes to the nature of the election should publish their ideas and assist the Wikimedia affiliate organizations of their choice in establishing consensus for change. Many details about this election are undefined. Any individual may make election proposals. The consensus of organizations and discussion on the talk page will confirm election procedure. The Affiliate-selected Board seats election FAQ answers some questions, but it also requires an update for 2019.
Participate in the election with the activities that will promote the democratic process, a positive experience for all involved, and productive outcomes for all. Here are the most common ways to participate based on trends from previous elections:
Probable candidates are experienced Wikimedia contributors who have a history of Wikimedia community organization in the Wikimedia affiliate organization system. Possible candidates are non-fictional and have a pulse, although this is wiki and consensus could change even that. This election is serious and Wikipedia is your favorite media channel for sharing general reference and educational content. Please respect the integrity of the election, and at the same time, participate in the election in the spirit of wiki. A modest organizer of any small Wikimedia community can seek a nomination and change the direction of the election discussion, perhaps by making election promises which other candidates will mirror. WP:Be bold both in encouraging your wiki colleagues to stand for election and in accepting nominations yourself if you think you can fill an essential need in the Wikimedia Movement at the level of administrative governance. Past trustees in this role have been talented and many of them modest.
The Wikimedia community is vast and the majority of stakeholders in this election underappreciate the opportunity that this election process offers. Anyone can start a conversation on wiki, and anyone can write and direct messaging and invitations to participate to individual organizations which might vote. Localization of discussion about the election is important for diversity and inclusion in the voting process. Global participation makes for a robust election. Anyone who identifies challenges and shortcomings should publish what they see for the betterment of this and all subsequent elections.
For this election it is especially helpful for anyone who can teach Wikimedia community governance and election participation to contact Wikimedia user groups who might have membership which is unaware of this election!
Wiki is in the Wikimedia platforms and it is also in the conversations you have offline with Wikimedia editors and non-editing users. If you can present the fact or details of the election to any community of Wikimedia users then consider documenting and reporting your outreach. Wikimedia projects have 500 million / 50 crore users every month, and over the past 20 years probably have distributed content to 2 billion people or 25% of humanity. If you are reading this article then probably there is no one in your social circle who is outside the Wikimedia knowledge sphere. Tell them about the election over tea and coffee! Invite everyone to register a wiki account and do wiki participation!
Draft policy, scrutinize the voting system, research and report on the candidates, and seek to root out any secret society or hidden cabal that might be puppeteering the election committee. Please only engage in conspiracy theories which avoid WP:Original research and cite WP:Reliable sources. If you are aware of anyone who develops wiki election madness then either direct them to publish their criticisms into the Wikimedia permanent and public record or refer them to the relevant Wikipedia:Dispute resolution process as needed.
Please direct questions about the election to the Wikimedia discussion forum of your choice or as a last resort to the talk page for the election itself or international organization catch-all, the Wikimedia-l email list. On behalf of the Wikimedia Affiliates Election Committee, which incidentally does not exist and which you can join and establish, Blue Rasberry .
An ongoing discussion is happening right now at Wikipedia:Talk pages consultation 2019 at the Wikimedia Foundation's request to consider how discussion pages (including talk pages as well as pages like WP:ANI, WP:AFD, and WP:VPR) can be improved. Discussion pages have been a major focus of the WMF for some time. Previously, the Foundation has invested significant resources into tools to make these pages more accessible (especially for new users).
LiquidThreads (see this example page from a non-WMF wiki), Wikimedia's first attempt, was introduced in 2006. A 2011 RfC resulted in a consensus to not enable it anywhere on English Wikipedia. Development of a similar system, best known on this site as "Flow" and renamed to "Structured Discussions" in 2017 (example Flow page), began in 2012. Flow was activated on some talk pages as a test, but was never deployed on the English Wikipedia on a larger scale. In 2016, Flow was officially uninstalled from the English Wikipedia; at the time of its uninstallation, it was only deployed on two pages, WT:WikiProject Hampshire and Wikipedia talk:Flow/Developer test page. Flow has also been removed from Meta and Commons. Development of Flow ended in 2015 (see previous Signpost coverage, "Flow placed on ice").
The common (no pun intended) thread among both of these was that they were removed from the site after they were met with strong opposition from English Wikipedia editors, with several editors citing lack of consultation with the community by the WMF as a reason for these projects' failure. As the WMF returns to the issue of talk pages, it now seeks to avoid its past mistakes and start this consultation so that the result of their work is amenable to a larger number of communities. In particular, English Wikipedia's opinions are likely to be considered especially carefully, as it is the largest Wikimedia site.
So, what is the WMF looking to get out of this? It is best put on the main page for the consultation:
One sentence, one paragraph, and one document that describe the overall direction of what we will build.
By the end of this consultation, we'll have an overall product direction for a set of communication features that a product team will be able to work on in the coming fiscal year. We'll have a rough consensus that our contributors agree with that overall approach, including both new contributors and longtime veterans, in multiple languages and across multiple projects.
By the end of the consultation, we'll be able to answer these questions:
The result will not be a complete, detailed product specification. Detailed plans will be developed and revised by the product team over time, informed by design, testing and continued close partnership with our users. But we'll have a solid place to start, and we'll be confident that the team is on the right track.
To encourage trust and good faith, the consultation and ultimate product development will be entirely public and transparent. Every step will be documented on wiki.
For this process to work, we need to be open to all kinds of directions. It's possible that at the end of this consultation, we end up with any of the following:
While we are interested in all good ideas, and might take some up in future, some things are out of scope for the current project:
As some readers might recall, last April an RfC was held about ending the system of portals. The namespace survived, and since then the Portals WikiProject has been hard at work, creating over 4000 new portals. This streak may be ending soon, however: there is a discussion of pausing the creation of portals using semi-automated tools, which is how many of the portals were created. See the full discussion here. D
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Sixteen featured articles were promoted this period.
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Eleven featured lists were promoted this period.
Twenty seven featured pictures were promoted this period.
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One featured topic was promoted this period.
A new OTRS queue paid-en-wp
wikipedia.org was reported by the Arbitration Committee. More details can be found at Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard#New OTRS queues.
The GiantSnowman case closed 10 February with "GiantSnowman admonished and placed under review" being the only passing remedy.
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In the rain, in the streets, you're amazed by all the things that you see. And then you pick up the phone to look for what shows up in whatever you're binge-watching, as noticed by this week with a lot of entries regarding Netflix content, with real events regarding murder (#1) and fraud (#2, #4), and fictional events regarding sex, obsession and even more murder, along with a prestige movie that scored high in the Academy Award nominations. The Oscars somehow only brought in the subject of a nominated short, not counting Freddie Mercury (#8), whose biopic somehow is up for Best Picture. Sports are also very present, with three tennis players, three entries in anticipation for the Super Bowl (#5, #9), a disappeared footballer (#6) and another who changed clubs. Otherwise, two politics entries (#3), holidays on both the US (#10) and India, a hit movie (#7), a band on TV, and of course, the recently deceased.
So, why don't you hang up, won't you back up, pack up and head for higher ground. For the week of January 20 to 26, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | About | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ted Bundy | 
|
2,514,987 |  |
This infamous serial killer (just reading the lead on his article is a chilling experience) is the subject of Netflix docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, and also had a movie about him, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile – where Bundy is portrayed by Zac Efron – premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. | |||
| 2 | Fyre Festival | 
|
2,040,682 |  |
Both Netflix and Hulu released documentaries on how a would–be music event instead became one hell of a fascinating trainwreck – long story short, the idiots in charge (#4) put more effort at marketing the thing than ensuring there was something for the attendees. | |||
| 3 | Kamala Harris | 
|
1,565,817 | .jpg) |
The Democractic Party has one more woman intending to run for president in 2020, namely this Californian senator. | |||
| 4 | Billy McFarland (entrepreneur) |
|
1,479,433 | .jpg) |
Enter the page, and right away there is the message "It has been requested that the title of this article be changed to Billy McFarland (fraudster)." This shows how much of a scam the Fyre Festival (#2) planned by McFarland became. | |||
| 5 | Tom Brady |
|
1,205,325 |  |
By guaranteeing his ninth appearance in the NFL championship game, Mr. Gisele Bündchen can by himself replace his team in the table here. One more reason why he's called the gridiron GOAT. | |||
| 6 | Emiliano Sala | 
|
1,163,536 |  |
The plane of this Argentinian footballer vanished atop the English Channel, and following inconclusive searches, the French and British governments gave up on finding the aircraft or survivors, though a privately-funded expedition started afterwards. | |||
| 7 | Glass (2019 film) |
|
1,017,196 | .jpg) |
19 years after the superhero movie where Bruce Willis was unbreakable and two after James McAvoy was the supervillain with split personalities, writer\director M. Night Shyamalan (pictured) closes a trilogy, with both being used by Samuel L. Jackson's schemer with glass bones. Critics haven't responded well (in my opinion, it's passable but a bit underwhelming), but audiences didn't care: Glass topped the US box office for two weeks, and it has already made its $20 million budget eight times over worldwide. | |||
| 8 | Freddie Mercury |
|
1,015,005 |  |
Sixteen reports straight with the late, great Queen frontman whose biopic has become an awards contender (including a Best Picture nomination, to the surprise of many). About this impressive run, let's sing:
| |||
| 9 | Patrick Mahomes |
|
945,191 |  |
For all his heroics during the regular season and the previous game of the playoffs, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback fell short on the AFC Finals, losing in overtime to the New England Patriots of Tom Brady (#5). | |||
| 10 | Martin Luther King, Jr. |
|
936,572 |  |
January 15th could've been the 90th birthday of this minister and civil rights spokesperson. Instead, it's the holiday homaging him, as, in the words of some guy named Paul:
|
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Nearly half the entries from last report return here. This includes the serial killer who again tops the list, this time joining the select few who had 5 million weekly views (that's the power of a Netflix show!), and somehow isn't even the only murderer on the report, as another who was the subject of a TV episode enters at #24. Other returns are the subjects of Fyre (#3, #6), Bohemian Rhapsody (#5), The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (#7), Get Me Roger Stone and Super Bowl LIII, box office hit Glass, a Senator running for President (#4) – not the only one with White House plans here, mind you – and that never-leaving death list (#9), along with someone who might soon enter it, the victim of a plane accident. Adequate to the bleak #1, there are some somber subjects, such as hate crimes (#8), racist incidents, a movie about assassins, and a recent death. But on happier notes, there's wrestling (#2), tennis (#10), TV musicals, Bollywood, Hollywood, video games and a Google Doodle.
For the week of January 27 to February 2, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | About |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ted Bundy |
|
5,179,244 | |
Along with being on Netflix with docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, this infamous serial killer had a movie about him, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Bundy used his good looks – the movie even has him played by Zac Efron – to lure women into deadly and downright disturbing situations (just read the lead on his article, that as a good indicator of Bundy's screwed up behavior, describes him as "necrophile"). So seeing female viewers describe a rapist murderer as "hot" understandably led the streaming service to call out on such comments. |
| 2 | Royal Rumble (2019) |
|
1,881,283 |  |
WWE's latest pantomime, held in a baseball park and featuring male and female versions of the namesake match featuring 30 fighters – both these matches were won by men, 'The Rumble Slayer' Seth Rollins and 'The Man' Becky Lynch (pictured). |
| 3 | Fyre Festival |
|
1,447,298 |  |
Both Netflix and Hulu released documentaries on how this would-be music event in the Bahamas became a fascinating trainwreck: the ads sold a paradise full of models with top-notch service, while the incompetents in charge (#6) instead only provided a rocky beach where attendees felt like hurricane survivors, complete with disaster relief tents. |
| 4 | Kamala Harris |
|
1,352,141 | |
With this Californian senator announcing a campaign to run for president, the Democrats now have four possible women hoping they can get nominated like Hillary. |
| 5 | Freddie Mercury |
|
1,015,005 | .jpg) |
"Oh, but I still get my pleasure, still got my greatest treasure!" After all, Bohemian Rhapsody is the 70th highest grossing movie ever, and Rami Malek keeps on winning awards for his portrayal of the king of Queen. |
| 6 | Billy McFarland (entrepreneur) |
|
922,479 | |
Actually, the article name is now "Billy McFarland (fraudster)",[1] given McFarland's business endeavours are irrelevant compared to how he's in prison for the scam that was the Fyre Festival (#3). |
| 7 | Andrew Cunanan |
|
838,286 |  |
One of the new titles on Netflix's library is The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, one year after its original airing. Binge watchers decided to discover more on both victim and perpetrator, with more views for the latter, who killed four other people and later shot himself, and is portrayed in said show by Darren Criss (pictured). |
| 8 | Jussie Smollett |
|
712,587 | .jpg) |
|
| 9 | Deaths in 2019 | 
|
699,407 |  |
The lives we make Never seem to ever get us anywhere but dead |
| 10 | Novak Djokovic |
|
693,477 | _(38823778745)_(cropped).jpg) |
Another record was set by the current tennis #1, who by beating rival Rafael Nadal (who missed the list at #26) became the biggest winner ever of the Australian Open with seven titles. |
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American football's popularity leads to another Super Bowl week report where the big game dominates, with 12 entries. And yet like last year #1 is unrelated: while rapper 21 Savage is from the same Atlanta where the NFL final happened, he instead topped the report because ICE arrested him for possible deportation. Other than plenty of entries returning from our last list, there's a young politician on the spotlight, two Google Doodles, and two actor deaths.
For the week of February 3 to 9, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 Savage |
|
3,268,645 |  |
Rappers getting in trouble with the law is nothing new. But it usually isn't for illegal immigration claims like the one faced by Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, who turned out to be British with a possibly expired visa. Threats of deportation ensued. |
| 2 | Tom Brady |
|
2,383,494 |  |
Nine Super Bowls, and on the one held on February 3rd, Brady got his sixth title at the age of 41. He easily surpassed idol Joe Montana as the greatest gridiron player ever, and is married to a supermodel (who missed the list at #26) to boot. There's nothing left for him to do, so why doesn't Brady retire?! |
| 3 | Ted Bundy |
|
1,812,605 |  |
Only four letters are different between "Tom Brady" and "Ted Bundy", but the latter is a much more despicable person: Bundy slaughtered at least 30 women, and either violated the corpses or kept parts of them as souvenirs. Interviews with him are available on Netflix, and a biopic saw its trailer drop after a festival premiere. |
| 4 | Julian Edelman |
|
1,611,110 | .jpg) |
In spite of a threat to miss the 2018 season due to a doping claim, the Patriots wide receiver got his third Super Bowl ring, and was named the game's MVP, no less. |
| 5 | Adam Levine |
|
1,197,017 |  |
The Super Bowl's half-time show was done by Maroon 5, whose frontman is easily becoming more famous with things such as being a judge on The Voice. |
| 6 | Super Bowl LIII |
|
1,135,664 |  |
I'm no fan of American football. And yet the 53rd Super Bowl managed to be even worse than I expected, with the teams rarely scoring, and the boring outcome where the already victorious enough New England Patriots tied the Pittsburgh Steelers as the biggest champions with six titles. |
| 7 | List of Super Bowl champions |
|
1,125,020 | .jpg) | |
| 8 | Emiliano Sala |
|
1,107,974 | |
Actual football, for a change! Only for a tragedy, as two weeks after the plane in which this Argentinian travelled disappeared, his body was found at the bottom of the English Channel. All the big clubs paid their respects. |
| 9 | Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge |
|
879,080 |  |
Google homaged the 225th birthday of the German chemist who identified caffeine, that stimulant who many people can't start their days without. |
| 10 | Freddie Mercury |
|
858,616 |  |
"We Are the Champions" , written by the ever-popular Queen frontman, is unescapable after sporting events. And sure, seemingly every Spotify account in New England started playing it after the Super Bowl, and even the Boston police got along. |
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This was not the most fun report of all time to compile for me on a personal note, given how heavily laden it is with topics that I am not remotely intrigued by – specifically, its focus on the superficial and cynical "love" propagated by the purveyors of gift cards and boxed chocolates, and its fascination with the Grammys, which I feel is the least interesting of the EGOT quartet. I am reluctant to say that music is dead, but a quick glance at the most popular artists with the regal readers of Wikipedia does little to dispel this sentiment. Nonetheless, courtesy of Google and Gunnm, there are some welcome distractions. All I can really say, truthfully, is that this is Report. Don't catch your attention slippin' now.
Thus, for the week of February 10 to 16, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | About |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valentine's Day |
|
1,415,624 |  |
I can dim the lights and sing you songs full of sad things. We can do the tango just for two. I can serenade and gently play on your heart-strings. Be a Valentino just for you. Ooh love, ooh loverboy, What're doing tonight, hey boy. Set my alarm, turn on my charm. That's because I'm a good old-fashioned lover boy. |
| 2 | Freddie Mercury |
|
1,414,310 |  | |
| 3 | Alliance of American Football |
|
1,396,098 |  |
Are you sad that the gridiron season has come to an end? Do you miss the presence of the Gronks and Gurleys of the world every Sunday? Do you wish that there was a truncated version of the sport? Do you think that having inferior players will improve the quality of the game (if it can get worse)? Do wonder where all of those Browns' draft picks wound up? If so, then I have the answer you – a brand new league, here to stay... After a stay of execution, that is. |
| 4 | Ted Bundy |
|
1,155,963 |  |
A two-pronged offensive from Joe Berlinger has seen the most infamous non-astrological serial killer in US history returned firmly to the public zeitgeist – first, there was the seemingly obligatory Netflix series, sending a Bundy Bunch of binge-watchers to the no longer BLP to investigate the malevolent man in greater detail. Then, there is the continuing furore surrounding Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, where cinemagoers will see Troy Bolton play the heinous criminal, where he will presumably get their heads off the court. |
| 5 | Dolly Parton |
|
964,290 |  |
The most successful theme park enthusiast to not have an alleged affinity for the Nazis, Dolly Parton has worked incredibly hard on a regular schedule to forge a monumentally successful career in country music, a career which was touchingly commemorated at the Grammys by a cascading cornucopia of stars. This evidently reminded the denizens of the Internet about the Jolene singer, who remained in the news throughout the week with murmurs of an upcoming Netflix series, all of which combined to propel Parton to a lofty perch in the report. |
| 6 | Cardi B | (Okurrrr?) |
859,087 |  |
A stalwart of the report for sometime now, the continued mainstream prominence of the apian artist serves as testament to her victory in the great female rap war of the 2010's over her serpentine belligerent. Cardi B had another characteristically busy week, appearing in trademark style at the Grammys and releasing another finessed hit with music resident Jackson regen. Having placed at #11 in last year's report, early signs indicate that the swarm of interest surrounding the (other) Queen B will not dissipate any time soon. |
| 7 | Grammy Award records |
|
719,515 |  |
Following the most recent iteration of the awards, a whole swarm of aural aficionados ventured to Wikipedia to see how Childish Gambino fared amongst the all-time greats. My major takeaway from the list however, was just to reaffirm my dislike of the Grammys – U2 have won 22 Grammys, and only two of them were for their best album, while they got eight for dismantling their distinctive, interesting sound. There may be a solid and accurate award show for musicians, but I still haven't found it. |
| 8 | Deaths in 2019 |
|
718,993 |  |
Once again, try as we might to distort the will of Darwinism, people continue to die, and we can do nothing to save them. Although, given the most prominent loss of the last week, it seems likely no one can. |
| 9 | Alita: Battle Angel |
|
714,885 |  |
Having actually gone to the cinema to see the latest Hollywood attempt at an anime adaptation, I can gladly attest to the splendour of the special effects, where the influence of producer James Cameron is very clearly felt – not since the journey to Pandora have I been so impressed at the multiplex. Sure, the film is somewhat devoid of a satisfying conclusion, and is laden with the usual grab bag of plot contrivances, but for a movie that appeared to be an impending, immense implosion of unintelligible nonsense, it is surprisingly adept. |
| 10 | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez |
|
689,545 |  |
Political reform is great and all, but unless your AOC can hit one, then I am not really interested. |
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It's a bit of a slow week, to the point the last entries couldn't even break 400,000 views. And the subjects that got the most views are the usual offenders: the recently deceased, the latest Hollywood and Bollywood hits, the latest things people are binging on Netflix, wrestling events, politics, Google, Reddit... plus, expectations for the Academy Awards that will dominate next week's Report, some people getting arrested, and a terrorist attack.
For the week of February 17 to 23, 2019, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | About |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karl Lagerfeld |
|
2,498,583 |  |
The German creative director who made a name for himself in big fashion houses of both France and Italy died at the age of 85 of a pancreatic cancer. |
| 2 | The Umbrella Academy (TV series) |
|
1,978,854 | .jpg) |
Netflix has a new superhero sensation, but drawing from Dark Horse Comics (#5) instead of the big two. Ellen Page is one of seven gifted people who once studied together under the wing of an eccentric billionaire, and eventually start to uncover (and possibly prevent?) an apocalyptic plot. |
| 3 | Freddie Mercury |
|
1,842,284 | .jpg) |
One of the few men whose biopic could have box office comparable to a superhero movie ($860 million worldwide!) and even get Oscar nominations. No time for losers, as Farrokh Bulsara is undeniably the champion. |
| 4 | Jussie Smollett |
|
1,682,857 |  |
A few weeks ago, this actor was seemingly a victim of a hate crime, which would be shameful for the country. Instead, he allegedly forged a hate crime as a publicity stunt to further his career, leading Smollett to get arrested, which is probably even more shameful, but only for himself. |
| 5 | The Umbrella Academy |
|
1,622,346 |  |
My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way collaborated with Brazilian penciller Gabriel Bá (both pictured) to create this comic, now adapted as a Netflix series (#2). |
| 6 | Steve Irwin |
|
1,579,247 |  |
Google homaged the birthday of The Crocodile Hunter, who for all his courage in dealing with dangerous reptiles, sadly died 13 years ago attacked by a fish which usually isn't lethal, the stingray. |
| 7 | Robert Kraft |
|
918,875 | |
After many Super Bowl rings, the owner of the New England Patriots tried to get involved with a prostitution ring in Florida and is now facing an arrest threat. |
| 8 | List of The Umbrella Academy characters |
|
837,600 | .jpg) |
See #2, #5. And since it's hard to avoid it:
When the sun shine, we shine together, told you I'll be here forever |
| 9 | Deaths in 2019 |
|
763,259 | |
Better honor the deceased with the artist I already quoted:
But now it's time to go, curtain's finally closing |
| 10 | Elimination Chamber (2019) |
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710,100 |  |
The latest edition of a WWE pantomime, where the main event has the ring surrounded by a tent-like cage. |
A series of incidents in mid-February resulted in some Toolforge and Cloud VPS services being unavailable. Toolforge and Cloud VPS (formerly known as Tool Labs and Wikimedia Labs) allow Wikimedia community developers to host bots such as Cydebot, semi-automated editing tools such as Huggle, and webservices such as InternetArchiveBot's management interface.
On February 13 and 14 February, the PAWS service was offline due to database connection issues. Several tables crashed – most were able to be repaired, but two were unrecoverable.
The Cloud VPS infrastructure also experienced a "mysterious hardware failure" involving three separate solid-state drives. Turning them off and on again initially appeared to resolve the issue, but that was short-lived. During this time https://tools.wmflabs.org/ was down, responding with a 500 Internal Server Error. There was also some data corruption caused by the disk failure.
The hardware problems were fixed by 16 February, with the service described as "mostly stable right now"; however the database connection issues remained, with dependent tools and services still affected. The Cloud Services team estimated that at least ten days would be required for a full recovery.
On 18 February, the tools database service was switched to a new server, resolving the connection issue.
This month Wikipedia gained three new interface administrators: Evad37, Galobtter and Enterprisey. I'm excited to see what our new IAdmins do; they all seem eager to work with gadgets. Speaking of gadgets...
As mentioned last month, Enterprisey recently proposed that their "Script Installer" tool become a gadget. On the other hand, Galobtter has already begun making their short description helper into a gadget; it is current available for installation in your preferences under "Editing". Looking ahead, Evad37 says that they plan to suggest that their XfD closer and Rater tool become gadgets.
Additionally, this month saw the proposal of two other gadgets. Cyberpower678 has brought up adding a "Read Now" feature for book references; a working demo is available. FR30799386 has also proposed making their mobileUndo script into a gadget.
A grant request has also been made for funding to expand the ProveIt gadget. Planned improvements include compatibility with both the visual editor and the new wikitext editor.
There is an ongoing discussion about a proposal to create a pseudo-namespace for housing "script modules". Such snippets of code could be easily reused by different script developers through a unified framework. Learn more here.
This month, MusikAnimal filed a BRFA for MusikBot II, an Admin bot that would automatically configure protection for certain templates and modules. So far, MusikBot has successfully finished its trial, protecting 47 different templates and modules.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community: 2019 #6, #7, #8, & #9. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available on Meta.
ambox CSS class to show page issues to mobile readers. When you use ambox there are classes you can use.
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting takes place every Wednesday from 4:00–5:00 p.m. UTC. See how to join here.{{subst:lusc|1=User:Suffusion of Yellow/filter-highlighter.js}}
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The January issue's In focus piece by DiplomatTesterMan mentioned Athaenara's signature gallery. Here it is – reformatted slightly for The Signpost – for readers' enjoyment.
A monthly overview of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, also published as the Wikimedia Research Newsletter.
In this study[1] it was shown that Wikipedia pageviews follow Internet TV coverage (technically, there was a high Pearson correlation between viewership and pageviews). The researchers were able to use data mining of anonymized AbemaTV logs to correlate individual viewers to Wikipedia pageviews changes. They could even determine second screen behavior: viewers were watching programs and reading related articles in near-realtime after 23:00 (viewer's time) – taking measures to exclude channel surfing viewers. This reviewer finds the use of Wikipedia as an adjunct or research tool for television watching is somewhat at odds with a naive assumption of an either-or media consumption model, and could help explain some of our media-centric Top 25 article views.
This research[2] deals with Cultural Context Content (CCC), that is articles of Wikipedia "related to the editors' geographical and cultural context (i.e. their places, traditions, language, agriculture, biographies, etc.)". CCC is about 25% of articles in one Wikipedia edition. These articles are exclusive and have no equivalence across language editions.
There are thousands of Wikidata properties. So, this research paper can be useful for learning Wikidata, because it describes Wikidata properties grouped by country, location, language, author, affiliation and several taxonomic relations (part of, has part). The future research of this paper could be directed to the visualization of some results via Wikidata Query Service (see examples in the Wikiversity course "Research in programming Wikidata").
Very interesting results of this work are
See also below for a list of other papers related to the "Wikipedia Cultural Diversity Observatory", by the same authors
The Wikimedia Foundation's Research team has announced three white papers outlining research plans and priorities for the next five years, on the strategic themes of "knowledge gaps", "knowledge integrity" and "foundations".
Two longtime employees known for their work on statistics and research about Wikimedia projects departed the Wikimedia Foundation this month. Erik Zachte, who in 2003 began to work as a volunteer on what would become known as Wikistats, and in 2008 took up paid work as data analyst for WMF, announced his retirement. Dario Taraborelli, the Foundation's head of research (also co-founder of this research report and its associated @wikiresearch Twitter feed) announced his departure after eight years to do open science work at a different organization.
See the research events page on Meta-wiki for upcoming conferences and events, including submission deadlines, and the page of the monthly Wikimedia Research Showcase for videos and slides of past presentations.
Other recent publications that could not be covered in time for this issue include the items listed below. Contributions are always welcome for reviewing or summarizing newly published research.
From the abstract:[3] "...we developed a computational method to identify articles that can be related to the editors' cultural context associated to each Wikipedia language edition. We employed a combination of strategies taking into account geolocated articles, specific keywords and categories, as well as links between articles. [...] The results show that about a quarter of each Wikipedia language edition is dedicated to represent the corresponding cultural context. Although a considerable part of this content was created during the first years of the project, its creation is sustained over time." (see also Wikidata calculates cultural diversity" above)
From the abstract:[4] "By analysing data from 15 language editions, I find that editors develop a community identity in Wikipedia and at the same time they consistently create content representing their cultural identities. Such content occupies around a quarter of each Wikipedia in number of articles, and even more in terms of edits. When editors increase their participation or become administrators, they still prefer editing content imbued with identity-based meanings, which suggests their centrality in the editing process." (see also "Wikidata calculates cultural diversity" above)
From the abstract: [5] "... we developed a computational method to identify articles related to the cultural identities associated to a language and applied it to 40 Wikipedia language editions. The results show that about a quarter of each Wikipedia language edition is dedicated to represent the corresponding cultural identities. The topical coverage of these articles reflects that geography, biographies, and culture are the most common themes, although each language shows its idiosyncrasy and other topics are also present. [...] An analysis of how this content is shared among language editions reveals special links between cultures." (see also "Wikidata calculates cultural diversity" above)
From the abstract:[6] "Seventy-seven first-year audiovisual communication students [most with Catalan and/or Spanish as their main languages] made contributions to Wikipedia as part of the assessed work in the first year course titled 'Digital Culture.' Before and after writing Wikipedia articles, the students responded to two questionnaires that enquired about their language-related habits when using the site and about their language choice for contributing to it. ... Students favor the English edition of Wikipedia when consulting it despite the fact that this is the language they assess themselves as being less proficient at in reading. More generally, our research shows that multilingual Wikipedia users move seamlessly from one language edition to another, thus refuting the cliché that relates minority languages with exclusively local and self-referential topics."
From the abstract:[7] "We gathered data about 2978 Wikipedia featured article editing history. We use degree centrality for both article affiliation network and editor’s affiliation network. [...] This study finds that article degree centrality [has a] negative effect the collaboration process, that suggests that article linkages with other article attracts diverse knowledge bases and editors, that require time and consensus for further moving the editing process. Editors maximum centrality in a single article editor affiliation network have a positive effect on efficiency of an article, while editor maximum degree centrality in a multi-article affiliation network have negative effect on editing process efficiency."
From the abstract:[8] "In this article, Wikidata has been taken as an example to understand how community-driven approach is used to develop a multilingual ontology and in the subsequent building of a knowledge base."
From the abstract: [9] "This paper's goal is to explore potential uses that translators could expect from Wikipedia. [...] We have concluded that translators might use Wikipedia expecting to find linguistic, semantic, terminological, lexicographic and cultural information."
This article[10] is a case study focused on the construction of the English Wikipedia article about Tokyo.
From the abstract:[11] "[This book chapter] investigates the different framing strategies used to represent wartime memories in Wikipedia, the ways these strategies are developed by local editors’ communities, and the reception of Wikipedia’s representations of the past by national and transnational audiences. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the different forms of consensus used in Wikipedia for dealing with contentious past as well as the promises and dangers of using digital media for transnational history writing."
From the abstract:[12] "Based on a set of articles about the assassination of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov from nine different editions of the encyclopaedia, the article examines the place of translation in Wikipedia and the role it plays in knowledge production. Each of the articles is likely to use a number of different information sources, including other Wikipedia articles that are already in existence, with translation contributing to knowledge production as each new article evolves. ..."
From the abstract:[13] "... it is generally accepted that most Wikipedia content is the product of original writing rather than being translated from another language version of the encyclopaedia. [...] The main aim of this paper is to make a number of proposals towards a possible methodology for discovering where the main foci of this new type of collaborative translation are located. Significant methods for this include the use of the encyclopaedia’s list-based structure and of different features of page anatomy. The article [is] using Russian and Chinese to English translation as its main sources of examples."
Freely available version on Aminer
Freely available version
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This month's essay was written by User:Bishonen. Enjoy.
 | This page in a nutshell: Assume good faith even if it kills you. |
After tensions grew high last month, a new group was formed within Wikipedia to promote Wiki-Love and community relations. Esperanza, coming from the Spanish word for hope, is "dedicated to strengthening Wikipedia's sense of community". The group was founded by JCarriker, who saw a need for such an organization. "Esperanza is unique... [It] should complement existing insitutions by providing services that they do not. Esperanza will be like Wikipedia's soul... seeking to comfort and maintain its various parts (users)," he said in a statement on the Esperanza page.
The idea immediately proved popular, with several users now including links to the organization in their user signatures. Over 48 Wikipedians have signed up, with positive input. "This is a entirely great idea," Bratsche commented. Echoing those lines, Tim Rhymeless said, "I'd be happy to see Wikipedia, as a community, grow and strengthen [because of Esperanza]."
However, there were also signs of disapproval. Gadfium stated, "I think this is a bad idea. Wikipedia does not need a cabal." In addition, several users were unhappy with the proposed governing organization. The current structure consists of a drafting committee, comprised of JCarriker and Redwolf24, and a provisional government of 15 members, which was filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Thus, many users were displeased with the current bureaucracy-like power structure. As a response, a message was posted on the Esperanza page, stating that "One of the most brought up reasons for not joining Esperanza is that there's too much bureaucracy. Please note that most of the government things are for fun – it's not really a true authority."
There were many ideas for Esperanza, and all of them are undergoing discussion. One proposal was for a Wikipedian of the Week; however, despite strong support at first, there seemed to be recent opposition to the idea, mainly because it could turn into a "popularity contest" and that it would suggest a cabal. Another proposal was giving birthday greetings out; this also drew some opposition. In addition, an "article lottery", where one nominated article would be randomly picked to be worked on, was proposed. There were many other ideas on the discussion page, but none of them have been implemented yet.
The group has since been made less bureaucratic, leaving only an admin general and a four member committee acting as a high court. The parliamentary tasks will be taken care of by the group as a whole. The group currently has about 52 members.
 | Blanked article This Signpost article has been blanked per community consensus. The original text is available in the page history. |
