Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2005-08-15
From the editor
As Michael Snow stopped operations on the Signpost last week, I chose to step in as editor until Michael chooses to come back. I'd like to personally thank Michael for his work on the Signpost; it was a great idea that really helped Wikipedians learn more about the happenings on Wikipedia.
As editor, I welcome any editorial help from other users. I'd really like next week's issue to include some content from other users for a better view of Wikipedia happenings.
Slate again generates VfD controversy
For the second week in a row, a story in Slate has generated controversy on VfD. Last week, we reported on a hoax that generated a vanity article on the author. Both were submitted to VfD; the hoax was deleted (later recreated as a page about the hoax itself); however, the author's page was subsequently kept. This week, a VfD on Slate's forums resulted in the article being kept on the basis of "No Consensus".
Creation
Originally created by an anonymous user on 4 August (possibly as a result of the hoax above) as
Mentioned on Slate
Slate published a blog entry on the VfD (scroll to Monday, August 8, 2005 entries), which generated discussion on the VfD by many Fray users, some of which attempted to vote anonymously. The entry quotes a comment on the VfD page made by FCYTravis, calling the article "[the] world's longest VFD vote in history".
Kept
On 11 August, the VfD was closed due to no consensus. However, Essjay, the admin who closed the VfD, made sure to note that the article could still be nominated for deletion again. As of press time, the article has not been re-nominated.
News and Notes
Deletion reform
After last week's
A subsequent
Briefly
- Wikipedia:Requests for Commenthas been split into several different subpages based on topic.
- The Tamil Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
- The Spanish Wikipedia has reached 60,000 articles.
- The Dutch Wikipedia has reached 85,000 articles.
- The Serbian Wikipedia has reached 13,000 articles.
- The Polish Wikipedia has reached 80,000 articles.
- The Vietnamese Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
In the news
Wikimania conference article in the Mail & Guardian
The same article was reprinted in the noted online African newspaper Mail & Guardian in an August 11 article.
Asheville Citizen-Times to start Wiki-like newspaper
The Asheville Citizen-Times is set to start a weekly supplement to their newspaper, called the Pisgah Mountain News, in which anyone can submit stories. While the service is not online-based, the paper promises to allow anyone to mail in their stories to the newspaper, as well as submit photographs to be used in the publication.
Citations in the news
Wikipedia was cited and/or referred to in many newspapers in the past week, most notably the
).
Twelve new admins mark a week of records
Admins
).A record was also set with Func's nomination, which received 112 support votes, and 0 oppose/neutral votes. Also, Lucky 6.9 was granted adminship on his fourth attempt.
Featured content
Eight articles were promoted to featured status:
The lists
Two featured picture candidates were promoted this week.
The Report On Lengthy Litigation
The
led to the arbitration case, which both parties consented to.The arbitration regarding
Other cases
Cases involving Gabrielsimon and -Ril- are currently in the evidence phase. Each case received only 4 "accept" votes, the minimum needed to go to arbitration.
Discussion on December Arbitrator elections
Proposed alterations to the election process for
- Fred Bauder
- Daniel Mayer
- David Gerard
- James Forrester (temporary appointment)
- Fennec (temporary appointment)
- JayJG (temporary appointment)
Community involvement in these discussions is encouraged. It is assumed, at this time, that elections will run from 4 December until 18 December, and elected arbitrators will take their seats on 1 January, 2006. There are currently expected to be 4 open three-year seats, 2 open two-year seats, and 1 open one-year seat.