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| Volume 2, Issue 48 | 27 November 2006 | About the Signpost |
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Arbitration Committee elections: Candidate profiles
New arbitrators interviewed
15 January 2007
Seven arbitrators chosen
26 December 2006
Elections conclude, arbitrators to be chosen
18 December 2006
Arbitration Committee elections continue, extra seat available
11 December 2006
Arbitration Committee elections open
4 December 2006
Arbitration Committee elections: Candidate profiles
27 November 2006
ArbCom elections: Information on elections
13 November 2006
Arbitration election campaigns begin
6 November 2006
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New arbitrators interviewed |
This week, the Signpost profiles candidates in this year's elections.
Candidates in the December 2006 Arbitration Committee elections were interviewed this week for an election guide, in preparation for the start of the elections on Monday. The elections will run for two weeks, ending on Sunday, 17 December. It is anticipated that Jimbo Wales will make his selections for the Committee on Monday or Tuesday, and the newly elected Arbitrators will take their positions on 1 January, 2007.
The election guide is intended to be a brief overview of each candidate's beliefs and experiences. More detailed information about each candidate may be gleaned from their user pages, as well as their responses to questions from other users. Not all candidates have yet replied to our questions; their replies will be added as they are received.
Due to size, the guide has been split up alphabetically, though a page transcluding all sections is available below:
At press time, 31 candidates had submitted their names. Still likely is a significant number of last-minute entries; in the January elections, 23 candidates (over one-third of the field) volunteered in the final three days before nominations were closed. Current arbitrator Jayjg has not yet announced whether he will be running again; the other three arbitrators whose seats are up for re-election have chosen not to run again, and a fifth seat is empty.
Steward elections begin
Voting in the second steward election of this year began on Saturday, 25 November. Stewards, people who are granted global rights to promote and demote other users in Wikimedia Foundation wikis, are considered at the top of the user rights hierarchy; because of the global nature of their role, multi-lingual skills are often considered necessary for the positions.
Several changes have been made from the elections in January. First, candidates are now required to confirm themselves with the Wikimedia Foundation, meaning that all candidates must be over the age of 18 (the legal age in Florida, where the Wikimedia Foundation offices are located) and provide a proof of identity with the Foundation, although candidates are not required to reveal their real names to the general public. This change, made by general counsel and interim executive director Brad Patrick, stems from potential legal issues with steward rights; although Patrick did not specify what type of legal issue led to the change, stewards have the potential for CheckUser and Oversight rights and can assign those rights to anyone. The second major change from the earlier election is that current stewards are not included as part of the voting; instead, current stewards are being confirmed on a separate page, giving users a chance to note any problems, issues, or inactivity with the current stewards.
As of press time, there were 15 candidates in the race, with all but two confirmed by the Foundation office already. Users can still join the race any time during the voting, which will last until 15 December. In order to have suffrage, users must have a valid Meta account with a link to another Wikimedia Foundation project where the user has been active for three or more months.
At the end of the voting, the Foundation will select a number of candidates with at least a 80% support ratio and 30 support votes to be promoted to Steward; this number is expected to be between 10 and 20 candidates.
Group apologizes for using Wikipedia name in online arts fundraiser
The Digital Art Registry announced yesterday that it is seeking $100,000,000 in donations to found and fund a trust that will maintain an "on-line catalog of global Public Art and architecture" and provide grants to artists creating Public Art. The group defines "Public Art" as "works of art in any media that has been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the public domain, usually outside and accessible to all." In the press release, the group refers to Flickr and Wikipedia multiple times. The Registry does not make it clear whether "sited or staged in the public domain" means they will encourage artists to dedicate their work to the public domain, to release their art under a free content license, or to promote artists to publicly display their copyrighted works.
Because of the amount, and the implication that the Registry is seeking to acquire digital versions of art work, comparison to the October post from Jimmy Wales, "Dream a little" is inevitable. However, the Signpost confirmed with Jimbo Wales and Brad Patrick that the group has no connection to the Wikimedia Foundation, and that the Wikimedia Foundation was not contacted prior to the publication of the press release.
The group's website, www.publicartregistry.org, posted an apology late Monday. In it they apologized for using Wikipedia's name, along with those of other brands, in their press release "without their permission or consultation."
News and notes
Tunisia reportedly blocks Wikipedia
Reports surfaced last week that access to Wikipedia was being blocked in Tunisia for reasons unknown. According to the latest information, the block appears to have been lifted again. As Geni noted, the block was somewhat ironic considering that Tunisia hosted the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society, which included representatives of the global Wikimedia Foundation, as well as the German and French chapters.
Milestones
The English Wikipedia reached the 1.5 million article milestone this week with the addition of Kanab Ambersnail, an article on an endangered snail subspecies. The article was created by Quarma on Friday, 24 November. This milestone came less than a year after the English Wikipedia reached one million articles in March (see archived story). It also came less than 24 hours after the German Wikipedia had reached 500,000 articles which made it the second language project to reach that milestone. Another milestone over the weekend was the French Wikipedia passing the 400,000 article mark with fr:Neuropathie (Neuropathy). In addition, Wikipedia, including all language versions, reached a total of 200 million edits this week.
Statistics available again
Erik Zachte's Wikipedia statistics pages are available again, with information updated through 31 October. They had been taken offline because data from non-public wikis had improperly been included in the reports. English Wikipedia data is only current through June, however, due to ongoing problems in making a successful database dump of the largest Wikipedia.
Briefly
- The Portuguese Wikisource has reached 5,500 texts.
- The Turkish Wikipedia has reached 50,000 registered users.
- The Welsh Wikipedia has reached 500 registered users.
- The Vietnamese Wikisource has reached 500 pages.
- The Turkish Wiktionary has reached 40,000 entries.
- The Albanian Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
- The Danish Wikipedia has reached 10,000 registered users.
- The Catalan Wikipedia has reached 100,000 total pages.
- The Indonesian Wikipedia has reached 30,000 registered users.
- The Bulgarian Wikipedia has reached 10,000 registered users.
- The Wikipedia of Ripuarian languages has reached 100,000 edits.
- The Bishnupriya Manipuri Wikipedia has reached 5 000 articles.
- The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 1,500 articles.
Wikipedia in the news
Wikipedia vandal fighter is profiled
An independent newspaper from British Columbia, The Tyee, profiles User:Tawker (Andrew). The article discusses the efforts of Wikipedians to revert edits made by users that vandalize articles. It presents a case study of what happened when Stephen Colbert challenged his audience to use wikiality to insert false information into Wikipedia. It concludes with a discussion of joke edits, anonymous vandalism, and the rise of using bots to fight vandalism on Wikipedia.
Archiving the Internet
The Associated Press carried a story that was picked up by various local newpapers regarding efforts to "remember" websites that die. Brief mention is made of Wikidumper.org, a website that is described as "trying to save the ever-changing web." However, the article concludes that "any information not truthful enough to make it into Wikipedia is probably dubious twice over..."
Teen reporter covers Wikipedia
The Winston-Salem Journal carried an article titled "Check It Out: Wikipedia useful, with precaution." Teen reporter, Kyle Anderson, gives an overview of Wikipedia, covers criticisms of the anyone-can-edit model, and recommends that users verify information found on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia exemplifies collaboration
The National Post interviews Don Tapscott about his new book, Wikinomics, which analyses the power of collaboration and holds up Wikipedia as an example.
Wikipedia as source
- eCommerceTimes references Wikipedia's article on Information asymmetry in an article titled "Information Asymmetry: Shattered by Technology."
- JewishJournal.com uses Wikipedia as a source for biographical information about Michael Richards (Cosmo Kramer from TV's Seinfeld) in coverage of his recent controversial remarks.
Continuing coverage
- China reblocks - Coverage of China's unblock and reblock continue, with some news still reporting the unblock as current news. PC Authority (unblock), TechNewsWorld (reblock), Legalbrief (reblock), InformationWorldReview (unblock), and The Sydney Morning Herald (reblock)
- Citizendium - Purdue University newspaper, the Purdue Exponent carried an article which quotes local assistant professor of communication, Sorin Matei, on Citizendium's goals and promise.
Features and admins
Administrators
Two users were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: Gnangarra (nom) and Doug Bell (nom).
Featured content
A record thirty-four articles were promoted to featured status last week: Finnish Civil War, Kroger Babb, K-os, Anthony Michael Hall, Crawford expedition, British African-Caribbean community, Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Angelina Jolie, Cretan War, Bengali language, Abyssinia, Henry (M*A*S*H episode), Sydney Roosters, Firefly (TV series), Sviatoslav I of Kiev, National emblem of Belarus, Austin Nichols, Vancouver, Chalukya dynasty, Local Government Commission for England (1992), History of erotic depictions, Music of the Lesser Antilles, James Robert Baker, Glynn Lunney, Charles Atangana, Óengus I of the Picts, Mount Tambora, Tropical Storm Bill (2003), Hurricane Edith (1971), Make Way For Ducklings, Banksia integrifolia, Ahmose I, New Jersey Devils, Axis naval activity in Australian waters, and History of Tamil Nadu.
Nine articles were de-featured last week: End times, Hereditary peer, Project MKULTRA, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Colditz Castle, Lottie Dod, Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Mary I of England, and Ubuntu (Linux distribution).
Four portals reached featured status last week: Portal:Dogs, Portal:Cats, Portal:Military of the United States, and Portal:Cetaceans.
Two lists were featured last week: Australian Olympic medalists in Swimming and List of Indian ODI cricketers.
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: Football (soccer), Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, Igor Stravinsky, Gliding, Belgrade, Operation Wrath of God, and Duke University.
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Radial engine, Apricot, Metung Wharf, Ulysses S. Grant, Delicate Arch, 36 Views of Mount Fuji, and Kurdistan Province.
Ten pictures were featured last week:
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
One major change of the week is that it is now possible to make certain IP address ranges automatically exempt from autoblocks by editing the new interface message MediaWiki:Autoblock_whitelist. While Andrew Garrett recently made it possible to disable autoblocks explicitly when blocking a user, it is typically impossible for a blocking admin to know whether a user's IP address is shared or not. Now anonymous users of America Online and similar ISPs do not need to be blocked unintentionally. (Andrew Garrett, r17847, bug 7883)
It is also now possible to undo edits other than the last one, provided that no intermediate changes conflict with the edit to be undone. The interface used is more akin to "manual revert" than rollback: on diff pages, an "undo" link should appear next to the "edit" link on the right-hand revision. When this link is clicked, the software will attempt to undo the change while preserving any changes since then, and will add the result to the edit box to be reviewed or saved. (Andrew Garrett, r17935–r17938, bug 6925)
Only two other interface changes were made this week. On category pages, a count of media files in the category is now provided under the media heading. (Simetrical, r17902, bug 7892) When a rollback to an image or category page fails because the edit has already been rolled back, the rollback message will display as expected rather than showing an image or trying to add a category link. (Simetrical, r17945)
Some updates were made to non-English messages, specifically:
- Cantonese (thanks to Shinjiman)
- German (thanks to Thomas Bleher)
- Hebrew (thanks to Rotem Liss)
- Indonesian (thanks to Ivan Lanin)
- Japanese (thanks to kaikkd)
- Kazakh (thanks to AlefZet)
- Old Church Slavonic (thanks to Alexander Sigachov)
- Swedish (thanks to Lejonel)
Internationalization help is always appreciated! See m:Localization statistics for how complete the translations of languages you know are, and post any updates to Mediazilla.
The Report On Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee opened two cases this week, and closed one case.
Closed case
- Bowling for Columbine: Closed on Saturday after one month, a case involving the actions of Schrodinger82 and others on the Bowling for Columbine article, and in particular his disputed removal of some criticism of the film. As a result of the case, he was banned from the article for one year.
Motion to close
- Rachel Marsden: A case involving the actions of Arthur Ellis, Rachel Marsden, Bucketsofg and others on the Rachel Marsden page. The arbitration committee has adopted several proposals guiding editing of articles about living persons, and directs that Rachel Marsden may be stubbed if it does not conform to WP:BLP. Bearcat and Bucketsofg are expected to conform to Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons rather than the liberal interpretation they have applied. Arthur Ellis is banned for one month for violating a previous article ban. The case will close on Tuesday unless an arbitrator objects.
New cases
- Waldorf education: A case on Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf education and related pages.
- ScienceApologist: A case brought by User:Asmodeus alleging that User:ScienceApologist and others are harrassing him in regards to Asmodeus' real life identity, as well as biased editing of Christopher Michael Langan and related articles. Several editors have alleged that Asmodeus is an aggressive editor and that Asmodeus and User:DrL have conflicts of interest regarding Christopher Michael Langan and related articles.
Evidence phase
- RPJ: Various users allege that RPJ edits disruptively (although in good faith) on various articles related to conspiracy theories, such as John F. Kennedy Assassination. In response, he denies the allegations, and raised some "practical concerns about arbitration", which seem to regard the legitimacy of the Arbitration Committee bindingly to resolve disputes.
- Iran-Iraq War: A case referred by the mediation committee regarding a dispute on the Iran-Iraq War page.
- Hkelkar: A case involving the actions of Hkelkar, a probable sockpuppet of Subhase bose, on various articles. The case has expanded to consider the behavior of a number of other editors including User:BhaiSaab, User:TerryJ-Ho and User:Bakasuprman. A motion for a continuance until after Hkelkar's exams has been placed into voting but the case in chief remains in the evidence phase.
- Konstable: A case involving the actions of Konstable, an administrator who left the project, but then returned and created an alternative account, which some allege was used for disruption. This was then blocked, and he used his sysop tools to unblock it, causing some to call for his desysopping. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies banning Konstable for one month, but allowing him to return under a new name if he wishes. A motion for Dmcdevit to recuse has been placed into voting, but the case in chief is still in the evidence phase.
Voting phase
- Elvis: A case involving the actions of Lochdale and Onefortyone on the Elvis Presley article. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies banning Lochdale from the article indefinitely, and keeping Onefortyone on probation with respect to articles relating to celebreties. These proposals have been supported by Charles Matthews.
- Protecting children's privacy: A case involving a policy proposal on the Wikipedia:Protecting children's privacy page. The committee is being asked to make a ruling as to the consensus requirements for the adoption of new policy. Fred Bauder has proposed principles, supported by Charles Matthews, establishing the right of children to edit on Wikipedia if they do not disclose their age, but that if they do the information should be deleted.
- Non-Notability: A case regarding actions on Wikipedia:Non-notability (not to be confused with Wikipedia:Notability). Fred Bauder has proposed a remedy, which is supported by three other arbitrators, allowing Fresheneesz to be placed on probation if he "continues to disrupt policy pages".
- Pseudoscience: A case involving the actions of ScienceApologist, Ian Tresman and others, involving the insertion and removal of so-called "pseudoscience" on various articles. Fred Bauder has proposed various remedies, most of which were opposed by Dmcdevit and Charles Matthews, but among those supported or not yet voted on are remedies placing Tommysun on probation, and banning Elerner from various articles.