Salvor
Random diary of my wikipedia and commons activities
editMarch 22, 2019 article that I wrote in Icelandic Wikipedia using public domain text from 1880 deleted
Most of my frustration with wikimedia cames from working with photos and illustrations where my uploads most of the time are deleted because I have not categorized them in right way or documented them properly according to the everchanging rules. But yesterday it was different. A text article Dragferja that I wrote in Icelandic Wikipedia was deleted by other admin just eight minutes after I wrote the article. No notifications on my talk page or anywhere but reason given for the deletion was "copyright violation" and there was also a demeaning and insulting comment that an admin (I assume) should know better not to copy directly from "source". Actually to me it looked like some kind of harassment. It was obvious from the comment and futher discussion that the admin who deleted the article had no clue about what a public domain is and what can be done with public domain text. The text I copied in the article was a defination of a special kind of robeway or cableway used on Icelandic rivers, described in a text in an icelandic magazine from 1880. This reminds me of one of the first articles that I wrote in Icelandic wikipedia more than decade ageo one was about a mountain and I stated how big in meters the mountain was and where it was located. This was marked as "copyright violation" because another website existed with the same information. I was amused at that time and wondered whether I needed to change the height of the mountain to get it accepted. Also at that time article that I wrote about law protecting important places in nature in Iceland, the article Náttúruvætti and I copied the list of places the law protected from a government website. Some of the admins of that time labelled the list and exact and accurate wording of the law s "copyright violation" and did not understand when I tried to explain that it was important that the law paragraph was copied but not pharaphased and the list had to be the exact list provided by the ministry of nature. I looked at the history of that article and can see it was reinstated 28. nóvember 2005, not be me, I did not know how to do that at the time.
Photo of Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttur and her daughter Laufey Valdimarsdóttur deleted. I was too late to add some tags about source in a old photo of two icelandic women in national dresses. I did not remember where I got the photo and when it was published and who the photographer was. Now I have these information but the photo has been deleted. I did put effort into finding the photographer and printed source, I posted the photo with request for information in the facebook group Gamlar ljósmyndir and got information from the relatives of the women in the photo. The photo was in use in many articles in different wikipedias, articles about national dresses and also about Bríet who is the main icon of women's right movement in Iceland. This is very frustating. I uploaded this photo many years ago and at that time I was not sure what metadata was needed and I also know the rules have changed, becoming more strict. Here is the story of the photo when it was uploaded and when it was deleted.
- 15:55, 18 December 2018 Jcb (talk | contribs) deleted page File:Brietoglaufey.jpg (No source since 10 December 2018) (thank) (global usage; delinker log)
- 23:29, 14 November 2007 Salvor (talk | contribs) uploaded File:Brietoglaufey.jpg (
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Testing videos
Searching Commons looking for SVG sprites for Scratch 2.0 programming --Salvör Gissurardóttir (talk) 13:41, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
Since July I have added some articles to icelandic wikipedia even if I had decided to quit adding stuff to wikipedia and the commons. I consider everything I do in wikipedia environment to be activism, I am trying to add stuff to the open culture repository of the world, especially my culture. --Salvör Gissurardóttir (talk) 17:59, 7 September 2013 (UTC)
The only option an wikipedian has is to leave. Since my latest frustration with Wikimedia Commons in aprli 2012 I have devoted my time writing articles in Icelandic Wikipedia. This year I have written 162 new articles in Icelandic Wikipedia, I participated in the 10 year celebration of our wikipedia which will in December 2013 and my goal was 150 articles. And now I have stopped adding more new articles. It is because I was so frustrated of two things, first a fellow wikipedians erased links I had given as source to article about biopower, claiming there was a ban from University of Iceland against linking to thesis done by students that are on open access at http://www.skemman.is and second a fellow wikipedian (who also happen to be fellow member of pirate party in Iceland and was persecuted some years ago for running the main p2p server and activist in the open movement) wrote on my wall statement about he had noticed I was copying something from copywrited articles. I felt insulted and let down by this. But I am amused that it was article about biopower that was the tipping point for me now. That is very appropriate. --Salvör Gissurardóttir (talk) 16:19, 12 July 2013 (UTC)
I have decided to quit adding stuff to wikipedia and the commons. The last deletion request was a turning point for me. I can not work in so hostile environments. But I hope my over 5000 edits on Icelandic wikipedia and several hundred photos on the Commons will be useful to some (that is those that have not been deleted). I also decided not to go to the Wikimania this summer and not accept the scholarship I got to attend. Now Icelandic wikipedia has 33.760 article. The last article I wrote on the Icelandic wikipedia was about w:Absalon, a Danish archbishop from around 1200. Even if I find history fascinating, I do not live in the middle ages and I am bored and angry with being deprived of my own culture and not being able to write and document my culture in text and photos. --Salvör Gissurardóttir (talk) 05:46, 27 April 2012 (UTC)
I will try to use this page as "confessions of an wikipedian" writing my wikipedian story starting with the end. I will add to it randomly.
My proposed Wikimania presentation was rejected (which means I have difficulties to get funds to come) and that along with some bizarre copyright rules (my country has not freedom of panorama rules) some of my photos were dominated for deletion in the Commons and a project that I am doing with my students where they write wikipedia articles (small scale small country campus program) were so difficult to monitor, almost all their articles were put up to deletion and I had to rewrite or change them in order to save their work pushed me into the decision that I will leave Wikipedia and not try to promote writing wikipedia articles and not made it a required assignment for my students. At least until the environment becomes less hostile or more people (like my students) understand and are able to participate in the kind of writing wikipedia is composed of. That all together (deletion of pics which I had donated just because in around 1/10 of the picture there was part of a house that was designed by an architect that had not died 70 years or more ago, rejection of proposal, deleted articles) made me think "Whom am I kidding? Why spend effort in an environment that you can not even control whether your input is deleted or not and where you input is deliberately kept nameless as it was written without author and probably will be used be someone else that both takes credit for your work and uses it in commercial purpose." I do feel Commons is getting very important sourse of illustrative materials for all kind of stuff but I feel the stricht rules it is putting up is not something to benefit the (information) poor but more to the benefit of freeriders and creating a resource that access can be sold to. --Salvör Gissurardóttir (talk) 18:31, 9 May 2012 (UTC)