Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2012-12-03
Wiki Loves Monuments announces 2012 winner
Photo of Tomb of Safdarjung wins monument contest
The global jury of Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), the world’s largest photo contest, announced its results on 3 December.
The contest, held in September in 35 countries across the globe, dwarfed the quantitative results of its European predecessor of 2011, with more than 350,000 submissions this year against 168,000 last round. However, European countries still dominated; Poland led the field with more than 51,400 files. Spain, which had an early lead thanks to submissions from Catalonia, came second, with 39,500 files, before Germany with 34,000 and Ukraine with 33,000. France made the fifth place with 27,000. The first non-European country in the quantitative ranking is the US on the sixth place. While volunteer coordinator Smallbones had hoped for 50,000 submissions in September, the US community managed to upload only 22,000 in the framework of the contest.
The global jury considered 324 submissions that had scored highly in 33 earlier national contests. The winning submission is from India and shows the tomb of a prominent 18th-century official,
The second and third places came from Spain and the Philippines, respectively; thus two of the three leading submissions came from beyond the scope of last year's European-only contest. In wider qualitative terms, more than 1,500 photos uploaded as part of the competition have been promoted to "quality" files on Commons. 30 have been promoted to "valued" status, and 35 to featured status.
While no new detailed participation statistical analysis has been published so far, the three winning accounts made their first significant contribution to the projects by taking part in the photo contest. Last year, some 70% of the 5000 participants made their first edit during the competition month. Statistics on the upload distribution have been published on the Toolserver. WLM 2012, which explicitly aimed at increasing the participation of new users in Wikipedia and Commons, provided new software tools to minimize barriers to competition.
However, the jury could not reach the winner, Pranav Singh. Because he did not confirm his contact data, the prize—a trip to the upcoming Wikimania in Hong Kong in 2013—was given to David Corral Gadea, the second-ranked photographer.
In brief
- Franamax: The Signpost sadly reports that long-time Wikipedian Franamax died at the age of 51 on Sunday 25 November. Francis, who was born in Ontario and moved to Vancouver six years ago, joined the English Wikipedia in August 2007. More than 60 editors have left condolences on his talk page, and a short obituary has been published online. We give our best wishes to all who knew him.
- Fundraising controversy: The yearly controversy over the design of the fundraising banners, which this year have come in the form of a bright yellow expandable bar on the top of all Wikipedia pages, is currently playing out over the mailing lists. Much of the ire is reserved for when the banners expand, as they expand over article text when a mouse simply scrolls over them. These banners, though, are currently only being shown to new visitors; they will be shown to everyone again starting on 26 December.
- Arbitration elections: The English Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee elections are currently open, and will remain so until 10 December. There are currently 21 candidates for eight vacant seats.
- Creative Commons comes of age: Creative Commons licenses, which power Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects, turns 10 on December 16. The Creative Commons foundation, the NPO developing and promoting the licenses, will be hosting a number of events around the globe this month.
- MediaWiki gender outreach: Until Friday, interested community members can select their preferred candidates for a new MediaWiki outreach program aiming to increase participation by women in the tech community.
- Wikimania scholarship committee: The committee in charge of awarding scholarships for the upcoming Wikimania has published a call for reviewer participation.
- Finance committee recommendations approved: The WMF Board of Trustees has voted in favor of the FDC's recommendations and requested that the WMF staff implement them appropriately.
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The play's the thing
Featured articles
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Three featured articles were promoted this week:
- Debora Green (nom) by Fluffernutter. Green (b. 1951) is an American convict and former physician currently serving two concurrent 40-year prison sentences for murders and attempted murders carried out in October 1995. Green and her husband had a tumultuous relationship, which ultimately led to Green poisoning him over a three-month period and burning down the family home, killing two of the couple's three children. She was arrested in November 1995 and sentenced the following May, after a case which was widely covered in the United States.
- nom) by Cliftonian. The Lisbon Appointment was the 1965 decision by the self-governing colony of Rhodesia to open its own diplomatic mission in Lisbon, Portugal, without official agreement from the British government. The appointment came at a time of increased tensions between Rhodesia and the UK regarding sovereignty, which the British would not grant so long as the White-minority government remained in power; as such, the British considered a unilateral appointment of a mission illegal. Two months after the appointment was accepted by Portugal, despite dissuasion attempts by Britain, Rhodesia unilaterally declared its independence.
- Australian contribution to the Battle of Normandy (nom) by Nick-D. Australia contributed approximately 3,000 military personnel to the Battle of Normandy in 1944, all of whom served under British command. These men mostly belonged to the Royal Australian Air Force, although there were also units from the Royal Australian Navy and Army. They generally provided direct support to the Allied ground forces by attacking German military units and their supply lines, while others defended the beachhead or attacked enemy submarines. These contributions are commemorated by memorials and cemeteries in London and Normandy.
Featured lists
Two featured lists were promoted this week:
- List of international cricket five-wicket hauls by Saqlain Mushtaq (nom) by Sahara4u. The Pakistani cricketer Saqlain Mushtaq took 19 five-wicket hauls during his nine-year international cricket career. He made his first five-wicket haul in 1997, against Sri Lanka. His career-best for an innings was 8 wickets for 164 runs against England in 2000.
- List of accolades received by Frida (nom) by JuneGloom07. The 2002 biopic Frida won 17 awards out of 47 nominations, including two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe. The nominations were divided between the film and its cast and crew. As of October 2012, Frida has earned over $56 million in its total worldwide gross at the box office.
Featured pictures
Four featured pictures were promoted this week:
- Diaethria clymena marchalii (nom; related article), created by Paolostefano1412 and nominated by Alborzagros. Cramer's Eighty-eight (Diaethria clymena) is a butterfly found from Mexico to Peru and Brazil. The black and white stripes on its wings resemble an 88.
- Howcheng. The Duchess of Padua is a five act melodramatic tragedy by Oscar Wilde set in Padua and written in blank verse. It was first performed in 1891.
- . The Green Heron (Butorides virescens) is a small heron found in North and Central America. They are one of the few species of animal known to use tools.
- Eusebius and nominated by Crisco 1492. The Roman Theatre at Palmyra is in the Syrian Desert. Unfinished, it dates back to the second-century CE.
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Concise Wikipedia; standardize version history tables
Current discussions on the English Wikipedia include:
Proposals
- Concise Wikipedia
- A concise version of Wikipedia was proposed where articles would be up to 500 words in length and contain only the important facts. This was suggested to help the readability of Wikipedia.
- Contributions to Edits
- The change of wording from "contributions" to "edits" was suggested. This would better reflect what is listed at the Special:Contributions page.
- Noticeboard shutdown
- It has been suggested that the Geopolitical, ethnic, and religious conflicts noticeboard be shut down. It was suggested because this noticeboard is inactive and the disputes are absorbed by other noticeboards.
Requests for comment
- Conflict of interest discussion
- This proposal aims to address conflicts of interest by adding an "intractable" section to the guideline. It specifies that by having an external relationship that could impair with the core missions of unbiased coverage, one shouldn't directly edit content or initiate deletion processes related to such a relationship.
- Date and Number era style
- The wording of the era style guidelines are under discussion. There are seven points regarding when to use and how to use.
- Ticker symbols in article lead
- The purpose of ticker symbols in the lead of the article are under review. This discussion could lead the movement of the ticker symbols to the article's infobox.
- Banned user talk pages
- A discussion has been opened about what should happen to talk pages of users who were banned. Should they be blanked or left intact?
- Standardize version history tables
- How version tables are displayed in software articles is being discussed. One proposed display is a standardization of what is currently used in various articles, another uses different colors, and the last proposed display is doing nothing different.
- Fringe theories
- The content guideline of fringe theories is under discussion in regards to how broadly or narrowly it should apply. Fringe theory is described as an idea that is different from the mainstream view.
- Non-admin closures
- The policy of non-admin closures is under review. It is claimed that without a backlog, there are enough administrators to make non-admin closures unnecessary. It was also noted that many non-admin closures end up being reverted.
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MediaWiki problems but good news for Toolserver stability
Caching problems hurt users
Deployments of MediaWiki 1.21wmf5 caused widespread problems for users across wikis when HTML and CSS updates were temporarily out of synchronisation. On the first wikis targeted for deployment, this was caused by the different cache invalidation rates for HTML (typically one month) and CSS (typically five minutes). The retrospective investigation of the problem highlighted the fact that the test wiki – the WMF's answer to a production environment that individual developers can no longer practically emulate themselves – actually demonstrated the exact problem that would later manifest itself on production wikis. It went unnoticed.
Despite attempts to ensure that future deployments did not cause the same problem, similar symptoms were immediately reported after Monday's deployment to the English Wikipedia. The issue was later identified as a repetition of a malfunction of ResourceLoader cache management dating back months (wikitech-l mailing list).
In unrelated news that generated similar reporting, the German Wikipedia (dewiki) was also briefly broken by a botched deployment of version 5 of the Article Feedback Tool. During its first deployment outside of the English Wikipedia, an oversight meant that the database schema changes supposed to precede the deployment had not been carried out, leaving dewiki users unable to access key pages on the site. The problem led to a review of the guidance given to staff attempting deployments, which was found to be out of date in a number of places.
Business as usual for Toolserver as volunteer admin decides to stay
In the latest episode of a saga dating back nearly two years, German systems administrator DaB. confirmed that he will not follow through on a previous threat to stop devoting his spare time to keeping the Toolserver up and running (toolserver-l mailing list; see also previous extensive Signpost coverage for context).
DaB., like many others involved with the Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE)-run Toolserver, is concerned that the web tool and bot hosting facility will be switched off, or more likely simply left to die, before its replacement – Wikimedia Labs – has been fully prepared for the transition. If it is, DaB. argues, tool creators will be forced into attempting difficult transitions, a not unlikely scenario if development work to improve Wikimedia Labs overruns. Tools will necessarily be lost in the process, he has repeatedly warned (also toolserver-l).
As reported last week, the issue came to a head when DaB.'s ultimatum attempt to get WMDE to fund new hardware for the Toolserver to ensure its continued availability came before the chapter's AGM. After much deliberation, the chapter settled on a "wait-and-see" policy that aimed to balance DaB.'s concerns with the realities of the WMF-WMDE relationship. That policy centres on a request for a binding roadmap from the Wikimedia Foundation, accompanied by WMDE's own assurance that all "necessary resources" (notwendigen Mittel) will be made available to ensure the "almost uninterrupted functionality" (annähernd störungsfreie Funktionalität) of the Toolserver. WMDE also agreed to bear the brunt of any attempt by the WMF to withdraw their support-in-kind for the Toolserver, currently valued at $65,000/year. Writing after the AGM, DaB. said that he was "disappointed" and would need time to consider whether the amended motion was sufficient to entice him to stay.
On Monday DaB. announced his decision: he would stay for another twelve months, though he remains unconvinced that the need for a functioning Toolserver will cease any time soon. He cited a number of factors for staying, including a need to continue advocating for financial support and his personal pride in the project. Though the path ahead would be "rocky", he wrote, "the Toolserver and you all are worth my time, the Toolserver is still helpful, and there is always the possibility that WMDE will [make the right decisions]." As of time of writing, DaB. and other involved parties were still struggling to get the Toolserver's set of replicated databases back up to date, a process that requires technical assistance from the WMF.
In brief
Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for several weeks.
- MediaWiki 1.20.1, 1.19.3, 1.18.6 and 1.20.2 released: MediaWiki 1.20.1, 1.19.3 and 1.18.6 were released on November 30 as security releases (mediawiki-announce mailing list). A bug which may lead to user account takeover has been fixed in these releases. Five days later, MediaWiki 1.20.2 was released correcting further issues from the 1.20.1 security release (mediawiki-announce mailing list). All represent releases to external sites; Wikimedia wikis had already been patched.
- Bugzilla upgraded: Wikimedia's installation of issue tracking software Bugzilla was upgraded to version 4.2.4 from 4.0.9 (wikitech-l mailing list). Benefits include optional HTML emails and improved search. Overall, however, users are expected to witness no significant changes to the user interface.
- WMF analyses decentralisation issue: Wikimedia Foundation designers were forced to come to terms with the level of decentralisation among Wikimedia wikis this week when it was revealed that 205 have overridden one or more of the default account creation messages (wikitech-l mailing list). The decision to override, in many cases taken years ago, means that central (WMF-led) improvements to the messages will not naturally propagate outwards to those wikis, the list of which includes the Russian and Hebrew Wikipedias. Nor is it clear what action is appropriate. "These customizations didn't go through the thorough user testing process of the kind that [WMF-led changes do], but they are nevertheless a wonderful source for ideas for improvements that can be useful for any language, and for identifying things that communities need and the software doesn't provide out of the box," stressed WMF Internationalisation specialist Amir Aharoni.
- MediaWiki groups: The Wikimedia Foundation will help promote and support small, informal MediaWiki user groups under a draft proposal fleshed out this week. Groups, whether organised around a topic ("MediaWiki Lua Group") or a region ("MediaWiki Bangalore Group"), would be filled with approved MediaWiki "reps", who could then give feedback and discuss important issues. The proposal is a response, if nothing else, to the problems the WMF has faced engaging MediaWiki's end users in its design and development processes. The groups will be backed by merchandise and small financial support, where necessary.
- Mike Wang joins Labs team: Florida-based systems administrator Mike Wang has joined the Foundation's Labs team as an engineering consultant. The Chinese-born developer's experience with maintaining Unix systems is likely to provide a useful basis for growing the Labs team's user support capacity as it looks to ramp up to Toolserver migration (see above). As rounded up by WMF Engineering Coordination Manager Sumana Harihareswara this week, the Foundation has at least 24 places left to fill. Of course, those positions also give an idea of what the Foundation's Engineering Department considers its current priorities, namely search, mobile and continuous integration.
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The White Rose: WikiProject Yorkshire
- Check out the new WikiProject Korean Mythology
- The November issue of WikiProject Wikify's newsletter, The Wikifier, is out and the December Wikification Drive has started
- The Guild of Copy Editors is accepting nominations for their next tranche of coordinators
- WikiProject Articles for Creation needs help keeping its backlogin check
- Curious about WikiProjects? Ask us a question at the WikiProject deskand you could see the answer in a future issue of the Signpost!
This week, we went searching for white roses in the lands of WikiProject Yorkshire. The project began in May 2007 as a way to improve articles about the historic English county of Yorkshire and its modern-day administrative divisions and cities. Since then, the project has accumulated 31 Featured Articles, 14 Featured Lists, 91 Good Articles, and a monstrous list of Did You Know entries. Despite all of the effort improving Yorkshire articles, the project has experienced waning participation in the last few years. The project still publishes a newsletter each month, monitors the popularity of and recent changes to its articles, maintains a portal, and collects resources for contributors to use. We interviewed Keith D.
What motivated you to join WikiProject Yorkshire? Have you contributed to any of the project's Good or Featured Articles? Do you participate in any other projects related to the United Kingdom?
- I joined the project when it was in its infancy as the coverage was patchy with very little in my area of interest and I saw it as a way of improving the coverage of the area. I have helped with 5 good articles relating to the area, though I tend to WikiGnome the contributions of others to the Yorkshire articles. I am also a member of WikiProject Lincolnshire, WikiProject Warwickshire and WikiProject Coventry though I am not as active on those but do the maintenance work for them.
Are some of Yorkshire's cities and counties better represented on Wikipedia than others? What can be done to improve articles about all of Yorkshire?
- Leeds and Sheffield are far more represented than the rest of the area. I try to promote the other areas by choosing articles covering different parts of Yorkshire for the collaboration of the month. May be good to recruit more active participants that concentrate their editing on the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire.
When we interviewed WikiProject Somerset last year, we discovered that many of that project's most active members lived elsewhere and had little or no connection to Somerset. Have you found the same to be true with WikiProject Yorkshire?
- Though outside of Yorkshire I come from Yorkshire and return regularly so probably have a vested interest. There usually needs to be some connection with Yorkshire for an editor to get involved in editing the projects articles.
Part of the project's scope includes a statement that "We acknowledge the efforts and work of other projects, and will focus our attention on those articles which do not fall within the scope of any other active regional project." What kinds of articles does the project improve that are outside the traditional boundaries of Yorkshire? Have you helped maintain semi-active or inactive WikiProjects for neighbouring counties and regions?
- The statement was to indicate that we would concentrate on articles not covered by the two regional projects in Yorkshire - WikiProject Bradford. These projects are now inactive so we try to cover these as well as the rest of the area. Articles outside of the area are usually ones that cross the county boundaries such as roads and rivers.
How difficult has it been to acquire photographs for articles related to Yorkshire? How might people in Yorkshire and surrounding areas be able to help?
- UK locations are extremely well covered by the geograph project which aims to photograph all OS grid squares in the UK. All of their images are compatible with our licence and a project on Commons was to upload these in batches to Commons. These is often an appropriate image but it may not be categorised correctly so may not be easily located. Getting these thousands of images into the correct location categorisation is something that needs to be done. Local people are also needed to fulfil specific requests for particular articles. For example I was able to take one of the gold phone box for the Luke Campbell while up in Hull that someone had requested on the article talk page.
Has the project's monthly collaboration motivated editors to improve Yorkshire articles? What could be done to improve this feature of the project?
- It would be good for more members to get involved with this and to edit things outside of their normal area of editing. The most successful collaboration to date has been Whitby which we managed to get up to Good-article standard, though some do not spark members into action. May be someone to actively take up the reigns on this and promote it more to members to get them editing the selected articles.
What are the project's most pressing needs? How can a new member help today?
- The most pressing needs are active members as very few of the membership are that active on wiki.
Next week, we'll celebrate Human Rights Day. Until then, feel free to explore the archive.
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