Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2007-01-22
Wikipedia modifies handling of "nofollow" tag
As an extension of its previous efforts to discourage spam, Wikipedia now has the nofollow tag implemented throughout the site. This came after Jimbo Wales reversed his previous position that the feature should be disabled on Wikipedia itself.
The nofollow tag (the attribute rel="nofollow" added to a hyperlink) serves as an instruction for the search engine's spider as it browses the links on a webpage. Its effect is that the link is not considered when the search engine algorithm ranks sites in order to produce its results. The tag was announced two years ago by the three largest search portals, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Originally implemented as a measure to deter spam on blogs, it was also supported by a number of leading blog software producers.
In the MediaWiki software, the tag was added soon after the initial announcement and is part of the default code applied to external links. Since its introduction, it has been enabled for nearly all Wikipedia languages, but for a long time remained disabled for encyclopedia articles on the English Wikipedia. At the outset, there was a lot of discussion about how and where to apply the tag, including two polls on the subject. The developers made clear that it would remain at least on "unattended" wikis that were vulnerable to spam, but Wales expressed the opinion that it should be turned off for the English Wikipedia.
As a result of this discussion, the use of the nofollow tag was suspended on the English Wikipedia. After a patch was added to MediaWiki in 2006, allowing the tag to be enabled selectively by namespace, nofollow was then applied to the English Wikipedia except for actual articles in the encyclopedia.
In confirming the latest change to full use of nofollow, Chief Technical Officer
A similar contest held in 2004 already spilled over into Wikipedia. Offering a prize for the top position in a Google search on the made-up phrase "nigritude ultramarine", it prompted the creation of a Wikipedia article for the term. When an edit war about the contest ensued, the article was ultimately protected for the duration of the competition.
The change has prompted considerable debate, much of which revisits points raised when nofollow was first implemented. Critics pointed out that this deprives many presumably useful sites of the benefits in search engine rankings from having a link on Wikipedia. Supporters argued that using the tag is part of good citizenship in the general effort to combat spam on the internet.
In a different take on the issue, Philipp Lenssen expressed disappointment with the move, arguing that it was actually poor etiquette for Wikipedia because outside links are part of why Wikipedia ranks so well in search engines, so that it now "takes from the communities but doesn’t give back". Lenssen argued in favor of more sophisticated applications of the tag, such as time-sensitive removal for links that remain long enough to have been reviewed for usefulness. Google's Matt Cutts expressed confidence that Wikipedia could develop better methods of handling the issue in the future, but said that in his view this action was "the right call".
WikiWorld comic: "Truthiness"
WikiWorld is a weekly comic, carried by the Signpost, that highlights a few of the fascinating but little-known articles in the vast Wikipedia archives. The text for each comic is excerpted from one or more existing Wikipedia articles. WikiWorld offers visual interpretations on a wide range of topics: offbeat cultural references and personality profiles, obscure moments in history and - as well as "mainstream" subjects with humorous potential.
Cartoonist
News and notes
New template created to eliminate talk page clutter
One example that Raul654 cited is that of
links show that most of the templates were easily condensed into the Article History template.Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser closes
The Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser ended this week. At the end of the drive, over
The four donations were the only major donations made this week, and totaled over US$37,000. After the fundraiser ended, donations leveled off, from $6,336.04 on 16 January to $2,321.78 on 21 January.
Briefly
- The Slovak Wikipedia has reached 60,000 articles.
- The Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 150,000 total pages.
- The Lojban Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
- The Croatian Wikipedia has reached 5,000 registered users.
- The Portuguese Wikisource has surpassed 8,000 texts.
- The Georgian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
- The Kapampangan Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
- The Vietnamese Wikipedia has reached 25,000 registered users.
- The Bengali Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
- The Chinese Wiktionary has reached 100,000 entries.
- The Catalan Wikipedia has reached 5,000 registered users.
- The French Wikipedia has reached 200,000 registered users.
- The Hindi Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
- The Ukrainian Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
- The Vietnamese Wiktionary has reached 600 registered users, and becomes the first wiki to switch to the new Wiktionary logo.
- The Javanese Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles, and also reached 400 registered users.
In the news
Vandalized entries make news
The entry on
An entry of
Another entry,
The Nashville Scene also took a humorous look at a vandalous edit made to Bob Clement, a candidate for Nashville mayor, on 3 January (reverted a week later). The article has since been stubbed, as none of the claims made therein were sourced.
Ottawa Citizen examines editor SimonP
The Ottawa Citizen examined Wikipedia editor and arbitrator Simon Pulsifer. The article went extensively into Pulsifer's personal life, making light of his status as "unemployed and living with his parents" (though the article later notes that he's accepted a full-time job and plans to move into an apartment later this month).
Wikipedia referenced in American sitcom
Wikipedia was referenced in the 18 January, 2007 episode of
This is the first sitcom known to have mentioned Wikipedia; Fox's drama Prison Break showed the site in an October episode.
Features and admins
Administrators and checkusers
Jpgordon (talk) was granted checkuser rights on 19 January, 2007. Jpgordon becomes the first Arbitration Committee member elected at the recent December 2006 elections to be given the user right since assuming their position on 1 January, 2007. UninvitedCompany (talk), also appointed at the December 2006 elections, received checkuser on 23 March, 2006; UninvitedCompany had previously served the Arbitration Committee for one month in early 2004.
Six users were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: Night Gyr (nom), Isotope23 (nom), TSO1D (nom), FT2 (nom), BradBeattie (nom), and Newyorkbrad (nom). Newyorkbrad's RfA became the third most supported RfA in Wikipedia history, with 225 people supporting.
Featured content
Ten articles were promoted to
Ten articles were also
Four
One
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: Halloween, Sheffield Wednesday F.C., Restoration literature, El Greco, Bacteria, Music of the Lesser Antilles, and Indian Standard Time.
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Plum, Common Raccoon, Western Gull, Huntsman spider, Pi, House Sparrow, and Snow.
Six pictures were promoted to featured status last week:
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Milk thistleflowerhead -
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Hemispheric,Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències -
Striated Pardalotewith nesting material
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The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee opened no cases this week, and closed one case.
Closed case
- Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (Buffy episode). While about 80% of involved editors said in a straw poll that it should not be disambiguated, both sides allege that editors on the other have behaved disruptively. As a result of the case, the committee declared that "it is the responsibility of the administrators and other responsible parties to close extended policy discussions they are involved in", but did not impose any penalties for violations of consensus, although Izzy Dotwas banned for two weeks for sexual harassment.
Evidence phase
- Piotrus-Ghirla: A case involving the actions of Piotrus and Ghirla on various Russia- and Poland-related articles. Piotrus alleges that Ghirla has added unsourced POV material to these articles, and generally been incivil, while Ghirla claims that Piotrus has engaged in various forms of harassment, and calls for his desysopping. However, the parties have now entered into informal mediation, with proposals including mutual civility parole (and in which Ghirla has dropped his call for desysopping), and as a result of this, a motion has been proposed temporarily deferring the case until the outcome of the mediation is known.
- WP:COI, as the executive director of the for-profit ACE LLC, which promotes the festival.
- WP:COIbecause he is one of Prechter's employees.
Voting phase
- -related AfDs, which Morwen considered to be "intimidating", and Husnock alleges that she stated that she was "in fear of her life", and that he has been investigated by real-world bodies regarding it. Fred Bauder has proposed motions describing Husnock's comments as "regrettable", and others desysopping him as well as cautioning him on various matters, and encouraging Morwen to "be more sensitive to the feelings of others". Most of these proposals have the support of three arbitrators, but FloNight has opposed the remedy relating to Morwen.
- Thatcher131 alleges that Andries has repeatedly added a link to an unreliable source to the Robert Priddy article, in violation of a remedy in a prior case on the subject, and that SSS108 has edit warred and exhibited signs of article ownership on the page. Both users deny the allegations. UninvitedCompany has proposed remedies banning Andries from editing the article, or starting any dispute resolution procedures regarding it and requiring Ekantikto edit under one username only. Fred Bauder has supported most of the proposals, but Charles Matthews has opposed the editing restrictions,from which Bauder has abstained.
- Midnight Syndicate: A case brought by Durova involving an edit war on the Midnight Syndicate article. Dionyseus and Skinny McGee allege that GuardianZ has engaged in sockpuppetry and general disruption on the article. He denies the allegations and argues that Dionyseus and Skinny McGee have engaged in similar behaviour. A temporary injunction has been granted placing Dionyseus, Skinny McGee, and GuardianZ on revert parole. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies, which have the support of five arbitrators, banning GuardianZ and Skinny McGee from the article indefinitely, and Dionyseus for a period of three months, and forbidding any employees of Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana or Monolith Graphics from editing the article.
- Yoshiaki Omurawhich was criticised by a New Zealand disciplinary tribunal as lacking scientific basis. However, Richardmalter denies that his pro-Omura edits were either biased or unsourced and claims that the mediation process has supported his position. Fred Bauder has proposed motions to the effect that "Richardmalter...[has] edited Yoshiaki Omura in an aggressive biased manner", and banning him from the article indefinitely. These motions have attracted the support of four arbitrators.
- are named as examples) from reverting the article, and banning Supreme Cmdr for two weeks, as well as an alternative remedy banning him for one year, and another banning him only from the Smart article. These remedies have the support of three to eight arbitrators.