Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2010-05-24
New puzzle globe, feature for admins, Israel's "Wikipedia Bill", unsourced bios declining
Criticism of new puzzle globe prompts revision
Along with the new Vector interface that was rolled out as the default for readers on 13 May, logged-in users got a surprise: the redesigned puzzle globe logo was revealed. The new logo, now rendered as a three-dimensional object, corrects long-standing issues with the old puzzle globe, including different Chinese and Japanese characters and the replacement of a character representing the now-defunct Klingon Wikipedia. On the back, rendered in the full 3D model but not visible in the logo, the globe has been extended to include many additional writing systems.
Although a welcomed revision in principle, the new logo saw a sharp wave of initial criticism of the implementation. Wikimedia Head of Communications Jay Walsh summarized the most common complaints:
- the globe overall is blurry and the characters are not legible
- the definition and depth of the puzzle piece-lines is not as apparent as in the original
- the shadowed 'back' piece (above Ω) is too dark or not as dark as in the original
- lighting across the globe is uneven or does not convey depth
- the globe is too small
Since its initial release, the rendering of the logo has been through several revisions, and the usability team is still seeking feedback to further refine the logo.
"RevisionDelete" feature activated for all admins
On May 18, the Revision deletion function was activated for admins on all Wikimedia projects, following an earlier request. The feature allows individual entries in a page history or log to be removed from public view. While admins had already been able to delete specific page revisions using the more cumbersome process of deleting the entire history and then restoring all revisions except the one to be removed, redacting log entries has so far been only possible for oversighters. (Oversighters have the additional capability to make the removed entries or revisions inaccessible to admins as well.)
Israeli "Wikipedia bill"
The Israeli parliament is debating a bill that would open up government photo archives. It was initiated by Wikimedia Israel and is known informally as the "Wikipedia bill". There would be restrictions on the commercial use of the photos, and use in racist propaganda campaigns would be forbidden. [1]. It is unclear how useful the move would be to the project because of tension between any restriction in commercial use and the fundamental premise that Wikipedia's content should be freely available for re-use.
Unsourced BLP drive on track to clean up or remove 50,000 entries by year's end
The June goal is the first of a series, spread over a year, based on an RFC earlier this year. WikiProject Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons is helping to coordinate efforts, and project members are adding sources and removing outdated tags.
The project is encouraging editors to help in their own areas of interest. Other WikiProjects are being notified of unsourced BLPs that apply to each project. This is being tracked at Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced Biographies of Living Persons/WikiProjects.
Bulgarian Wikipedia reaches 100K milestone
In the early hours of May 24, the
The
Bulgarian Wikipedia was established on December 6, 2003. The first 50,000 articles were written in about 4 years, while the next 50K were written in less than 2.5 years. Currently, it occupies 32nd place by number of articles (more stats). On November 9, 2009, the Bulgarian Wikipedia was awarded with the "BG Site" 2009 special award for contributions to Bulgarian language webspace (see archived story).
Briefly
- The deadline has been extended to May 27 for nominations for Chapter-appointed Board of Trustees seats. [2]
- The deadline for submissions to the Wikimania 2010 Call for Participation was extended to May 24, 11.59 p.m. (Pacific Time). Many submissions have already been posted and can be read online. Unlike recent Wikimanias, which used a non-public Pentabarf conference-planning database, this year's submissions are public; users can indicate their interest in proposed talks to facilitate the task of the program committee.
- Wikipedia has been blocked in Pakistan along with 450 other websites in a crackdown against perceived "sacrilegious" content.[3]
- An overzealous anti-sockpuppet action by a steward resulted in the accidental oversightingof a long-time editor's entire contribution history, over 140,000 edits. The edits were subsequently restored.
- The fallout from the Wikimedia Commons sexual content controversy (see previous Signpost coverage) continued after inaccurate follow-up stories from FoxNews.com, "EXCLUSIVE: Wikipedia's Parent Company Starts Purging Porn From Its Websites" (7 May) and "Despite Content Purge, Pornographic Images Remain on Wikimedia" (10 May), with a response on the Wikimedia Foundation blog (13 May) to clarify a number of misconceptions.
Reader comments
WikiProject Saints
What motivated you to become a member of WikiProject Saints? Which saint interests you the most?
- I am interested in both biographies and mythology. This is one of the few topics which really extensively deals with both. Particularly regarding the earliest saints, there are a number of legends which are really strange. Saint Christopher was a cannibal with a horse's head? Rrrriiiiight. The idea of Eve and the Celtic goddess Saint Brigid being midwives at the nativity of Jesus is an "interesting" one too. In terms of my favorite, I was confirmed in the Catholic Church with the name Thomas Aquinas, so I guess I would have to say him.
The project maintains
- In a sense, the sheer number of them. One of the standard references, Holweck's Biographical Dictionary of the Saints, contains at least a short listing for every name known at the time of publication (the 1920s) and some other sources mentioning that individual. But even that book, in two-column format, is over 1,000 pages long, and is about 100 years old, so new canonizations/beatifications/etc. since then aren't listed.
WikiProject Saints has 25 pieces of featured content as well as nearly 25 good articles. Which of these articles are you most proud of being involved with? Overall, what have been some of the project's greatest achievements?
- Probably the project's greatest achievement was the five FAs and one GA involved in the Members of the Gregorian mission featured topic.
Has your project developed particularly close relationships with any other projects?
- Well, yeah. We work pretty well with WikiProject Christianity, and those related projects for Christian groups which have some sort of calendar of saints.
What are WikiProject Saints' most pressing needs? How can a new contributor help today?
- There are individual calendars of saints for particular churchesof the Catholic Church, and possibly others, which are still lacking.
Anything else you'd like to add?
- I think we may still have as a long-term goal having the Portal:Saints get updated on a daily basis, listing the various saints and/or other commemorations which are observed on that given day. Having available as many of the individual liturgical calendars as possible would definitely help in that regard.
Next week, we'll visit the natural world without leaving the city. Until then, observe the wildlife roaming around the archive.
Reader comments
Approved this week
Administrators
Four editors were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: Tide rolls (nom), AlexandrDmitri (nom), Bradjamesbrown (nom) and Arsenikk (nom).
Featured pages
Eleven articles were promoted to
Ten
No
No
The following featured articles were displayed on the Main Page as Today's featured article this week: David A. Johnston, Rings of Neptune, Mackinac Island, Brazilian cruiser Bahia, BP Pedestrian Bridge, Margaret Fuller and "The Beginning of the End".
Former featured pages
Four
No lists were delisted this week.
No
No portals were delisted this week.
Featured media
The following featured pictures were displayed on the Main Page as picture of the day this week: Austroicetes vulgaris; Scene from Act V, scene 2, of Troilus and Cressida; White-fronted Bee-eater; Leeds Castle; Turkic men performing khitān; Rose Main Reading Room in the New York Public Library and 1883 chromolithograph of the Brooklyn Bridge.
One
| President of the United States George W. Bush speaks on the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster | (nom) |
No featured
Ten pictures were promoted to featured status this week.
-
Central Massif of the Picos de Europa
-
An eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) with its cheek pouches filled
-
Pine siskin (Carduelis pinus)
-
American toad (Bufo americanus)
-
Black-spotted TritonCymatium lotoriumshell
Reader comments
Arbitration report
The Arbitration Committee closed one case this week and opened none, leaving one case open.
Open cases
- Transcendental Meditation movement (Week 13): The case was opened to deal with circumstances surrounding articles related to the eponymous movement, similar to the circumstances at issue in Scientology pages a year ago. The case is being voted upon.
Recently closed
- 1RR restrictionin place after that ban expires. Three other editors received six-month topic bans from the former Soviet Union topic area.
Motions
- The Committee passed a motion to ban A Nobody from Wikipedia until such time as he submits to the Arbitration case held in abeyance for him. A Nobody had previously been editing under IPs and other usernames in an attempt to evade the case.
Reader comments