Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2017-11-24

With the promotion of

A novel approach to recruit members for your project!

Hey folks!

I've been working on some cool technology to help

• "I really think Bobo.03 is on to something here. This puts some science behind recommendations, and will be a great supplement to the current processes. We've already had new members join thanks to Bobo.03's tool ..." – Peacemaker67, MILHIST
• "I would recommend the tool to others as a valuable way to reach new editors who might otherwise slip through the cracks, and who might prove to be valuable members of the community ..." – Tom,
  WPVG
• "Taking our comments into consideration, Bobo.03 provided us with recruitment lists over the course of three months, each iteration is an improvement over the previous one. An impressive number of those who were invited have joined our project ..." – Rosiestep,
  WiR

I'm now ready to make the tool available to more WikiProject organizers. If you're interested and want to try it for yourself, contact me on my talk page and I'll help you get set up!

In the meantime, keep reading to see an example of what the recommendations look like and read more quotes from project organizers who've already tried the tool.

More thoughts from our interviews with some Wikipedians who already have used our system:

How important it is for your project to recruit new members?

• "Because
  WPVG
• "Very important. We have around 1,000 members and many of them are currently inactive, so we are always looking for new editors to join Milhist." – PeaceMaker67, MILHIST
• "The tool is most helpful with surfacing users who have shown interest in the subject area and may not know that a WikiProject page exists to solicit third opinions, get feedback, and pool sourcing expertise." – Czar,
  WPVG

What is your experience using our tool?

• "The tool has gone through several iterations in connection with its application for
  WiR
• "My experience has been positive. The majority of the recommendations have been clueful and we've had a few positive responses." – PeaceMaker67, MILHIST

What would you say to other WikiProject organizers who are considering signing up to get recommendations?

• "I would recommend the tool to others as a valuable way to reach new editors who might otherwise slip through the cracks, and who might prove to be valuable members of the community. Early guidance in Wikipedia's rules, customs, and culture is likely to make for a smooth transition from new editor to established editor, and I believe this tool will enable established users to more effectively and systematically reach a better cross section of new potential editors for the WikiProject." – Tom,
  WPVG
• "Women in Red is rather different from most of the other WikiProjects but I have also seen positive reactions from other projects where the tool has been tested. I think the more active WikiProjects would benefit from the tool if they wish to increase their membership." – Ipigott,
  WiR
• "Do it. Try it out and see what you think." – PeaceMaker67, MILHIST

Some other comments from Wikipedians:

• "One of Women in Red's 2017 goals was to develop a recruitment strategy. We know we have a lot of contributors, in addition to our members, but we didn't understand how to develop a recruitment process, let alone an automated one. After user:Bobo.03 reached out to us with his proposal, Women in Red had many conversations with him regarding our scope, our metrics, and our requirements. Taking our comments into consideration, he provided us with recruitment lists over the course of three months, each iteration an improvement over the previous one. An impressive number of those who were invited have joined our project. The short-term impact is greater awareness regarding Wikipedia's content gender gap and what one WikiProject is doing about it; the long-term impact will take time to assess. In the meantime, a big thank you to Bobo.03 for developing this tool, which I think is currently only available on ENWP but other language Wikipedias would probably find it useful." – Rosiestep,
  WiR
• "I really think Bobo.03 is on to something here. To date, recruitment of new editors to Wikiproject Military history has been rather organic, with coordinators inviting them to join when we notice someone new via our watchlisted articles. But no-one has all our articles watchlisted. This puts some science behind recommendations, and will be a great supplement to the current processes. We've already had new members join thanks to Bobo.03's tool. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes." – Peacemaker67, MILHIST

Again, if you like what you see and you want to test it out, contact me on my talk page! Bobo.03 (talk) 20:57, 4 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Mistakes were made

Media reported on some errors in, or "hacking" of, Wikipedia, however short term. Maybe this is a good sign of the work's importance as a global media institution but maybe not a good sign of assumption of correctness for realtime events like a coup d'état or a televised beauty contest.

Vandalism of

And in the feature-not-a-bug category: According to a

Concerns about Wikipedia's accuracy and relevance go back to its very beginning; see for instance the December 2006 Signpost analysis of the previous year's Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident.

In brief

• Computer generated garbage plagues The Signpost media summary team: Volunteer editors for The Signpost, the English Wikipedia newsletter, were indignant at the inconvenience caused by weird publications with article spinning: soulless computer-generated text designed to appear against search engine queries for the term "Wikipedia". These sorts of articles seem to be appearing more often. See for example
  • bejay (16 October 2017). "Scandal at Wikipedia". www.amog.com.
• In praise of the one percent: "Nearly All of Wikipedia Is Written By Just 1 Percent of Its Editors" writes Vice magazine's
  Motherboard
  (November 7).
• Worried about Wikipedia's safe harbor:
  Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act would expose Wikimedia to liabilities due to contributors' content. (Liptak, Andrew (11 November 2017). "Wikipedia warns that SESTA will strip away protections vital to its existence". The Verge
  .)
• Addressing computing gender gap with editathons: Hilary Stohs-Krause, a Wikipedian from Madison, Wisconsin, wants to address the
  The Cap Times
  .)
• Founder fighting fake news: Jimbo explains WikiTribune's purpose in combating "the rise of low-quality media and fake news". (Weckler, Adrian (16 November 2017). "'When Kellyanne Conway spoke of alternative facts, my head exploded' - Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales". Irish Independent.)
• Canvassing produces unintended consequences: According to Haaretz, canvassing by supporters of Discovery Institute's Günter Bechly sealed the article's fate during an AfD that featured the community "fending off attempts to politicize scientific content...by religious conservatives." (Benjakob, Omer (17 November 2017). "A Respected Scientist Comes Out Against Evolution – and Loses His Wikipedia Page". Haaretz.)

Strange Things Have Found Us (October 29 to November 4)

"

"Faces look happy when you have won..." Also heavily on the list is baseball, as the Houston Astros (#8) win their first World Series and bring along three of their players and the wife of one of them.

"Men seem wicked when you're unwanted..." Right behind Stranger Things is another sexual scandal in Hollywood (Harvey Weinstein wasn't enough!), with Kevin Spacey (#2) accused of sexual advances on a 14-year-old fellow actor (#3), leading many other men to reveal the acclaimed performer had done the same with them.

"Streets are uneven when you're down" The rest of the list has four holdovers (two Hollywood movies, a Netflix series, and the week's holiday), the Day of the Dead along with the deceased themselves (the yearly list and a Korean actor), and Reddit discovering how to literally make jewellery out of waste (#9).

For the week of October 29 to November 4, the most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

All Stranger Things, All The Time (November 5 to 11)

It's curious how the current trend for "

For the week of November 5 to 11, the most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Exclusions

• These lists excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.
• Per agreed consensus,
  XXX (franchise)
  is excluded.

Featured articles

32

• Warner/Chappell Music Publishing
  after being impressed by her songwriting and voice on a demo tape. Pru collaborated with Ben Garrison, the Characters, and Rick Williams on the album.
• The
  Anglo-Saxon copper alloy figure of a boar that may have once served as the crest of a helmet. It was found around 1864 or 1865 in a grave in Guilden Morden, a village in the eastern English county of Cambridgeshire. There, the boar attended a skeleton with other objects, including a small earthenware bead with an incised pattern, although the boar is all that now remains. Herbert George Fordham, whose father originally discovered the boar, donated it to the British Museum
  in 1904.
• Category 1 hurricane with peak winds of 85 mph (140 km/h) as it approached Cape Verde. After passing Boa Vista and moving away from Santo Antão
  , it entered a phase of steady weakening, dropping below hurricane status by September 1.
• Sir Edwin Lutyens for St Peter's Square in Manchester, England. The memorial was unveiled on 12 July 1924 by the Earl of Derby, assisted by Mrs Bingle, a local resident whose three sons had died in the war. It is a Grade II* listed structure and in 2015, Historic England
  recognised Manchester Cenotaph as part of a national collection of Lutyens' war memorials.
• The
  5 Messidor an III) during the French Revolutionary Wars. The battle was fought between elements of the British Channel Fleet
  and the French Atlantic Fleet, which were cruising in the region on separate missions. Three French ships were captured, all with very heavy casualties, and the remainder of the French fleet was left scattered across miles of coastline.
• levels
  to advance the story.
• Nights
  , an exiled "Nightmaren", as they journey through Nightopia to stop the evil ruler Wizeman from escaping into the real world..
• Golden Globe Awards, and has been nominated for five Academy Awards and six British Academy Film Awards. Her first major role came in Steven Spielberg's 2002 biopic Catch Me If You Can, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, but she was unemployed for a year after. Her breakthrough came in the part of a loquacious pregnant woman in the 2005 independent film Junebug
  .
• The
  flightless
  , fed on tortoise eggs, and was described as being attracted to red objects, which humans exploited while hunting it. The Rodrigues rail is believed to have become extinct in the mid-18th century because of predation by introduced cats and destruction of its habitat by tortoise hunters.
• Universal Music, the track was re-released on 6 December 2013. Musically, it is a pop and electropop song which features a minimal and upbeat electronic instrumentation. Its lyrics delve into the singer's attempts to forget her previous boyfriend through substance abuse, drinking and other hedonistic
  practices.
• The
  Philip H. Abelson and other scientists at the United States Naval Research Laboratory. This was primarily due to doubts about the process's technical feasibility, but inter-service rivalry between the United States Army and United States Navy
  also played a part.
• tax fraud. After denying his guilt for months, Agnew negotiated a plea agreement that would involve his resignation from office. On October 10, 1973, Agnew pled no contest to a single felony charge of tax evasion, resigned his office, and was replaced by House Minority Leader Gerald Ford
  .
• Central Link line from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport to Downtown Seattle. The station consists of two elevated side platforms enclosed in a structure northeast of the interchange of State Route 99 (International Boulevard) and State Route 518. As one of two park and rides
  along the line, it includes 662 parking spaces in three lots.
• collectivism
  .
• centrosaurine
  , Achelousaurus was about 6 m (20 ft) long, with a weight of about 3 t (3.3 short tons). As a ceratopsian, it walked on all fours, had a short tail and a large head with a hooked beak. It had a bony neck-frill at the rear of the skull, which sported a pair of long spikes curving towards the outside.
• Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966
  . Although Stengel is sometimes described as one of the great managers in major league history, others have contrasted his success during the Yankee years with his lack of success at other times, and concluded he was only a good manager when given good players.
• The Boat Races 2017 (nominated by The Rambling Man) Held annually, the Boat Race is a side-by-side rowing race between crews from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge along a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) tidal stretch of the River Thames in south-west London. For the second time in the history of the event, the men's, women's and both reserves' races were all held on the Tideway on the same day. The races were watched by around a quarter of a million spectators live, and were broadcast around the world by a variety of broadcasters. The two main races were also available for the first time as a live stream using YouTube.
• First World War. After Ottoman forces had counterattacked and seized a large stretch of the Australians' front line, Shout gathered a small party of men and charged down one trench throwing bombs
  . He managed to retake the trench, and in a similar action later that day, recaptured further ground. In the final push forward, Shout simultaneously lit three bombs to lob at the enemy. One burst just as it was leaving his hand. Shout was grievously wounded, and died two days later.
• The
  Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a minority Jewish population. The declaration greatly increased popular support for Zionism, and led to the creation of Mandatory Palestine, which later became Israel and the Palestinian territories. As a result it is considered to have caused the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  .
• Operation Inmate (nominated by Nick-D) was an attack by the British Pacific Fleet against Japanese positions on Truk Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean during the Second World War. The attacks against the isolated islands on 14 and 15 June 1945 were conducted to provide combat experience for the aircraft carrier HMS Implacable and several of the fleet's cruisers and destroyers ahead of their involvement in more demanding operations off the Japanese home islands. The damage to the Japanese facilities in the atoll, which had been repeatedly attacked during 1944 and 1945, was modest.
• Second World War
  to commemorate that conflict.
• The
  The National Trust
  .
• The
  International Union for the Conservation of Nature
  (IUCN).
• Craig Kieswetter (nominated by Harrias) is an English professional golfer and former cricketer who appeared in 71 matches for the England cricket team between 2010 and 2013. Born and raised in South Africa, Kieswetter moved to England to complete his education, and began playing county cricket for Somerset in 2007. Three years later, he made his international debut in a One Day International (ODI) against Bangladesh. A wicket-keeper batsman, he was considered a one-day specialist, and all his international appearances came in ODIs or Twenty20 Internationals.
• The northern rosella (Platycercus venustus) (nominated by Casliber) is a species of parrot native to northern Australia, ranging from the Gulf of Carpentaria and Arnhem Land to the Kimberley. It was described by Heinrich Kuhl in 1820, and two subspecies are recognised. The species is unusually coloured for a rosella, with a dark head and neck with pale cheeks. The northern rosella's mantle and scapulars are black with fine yellow scallops, while its back, rump and underparts are pale yellow with fine black scallops. The long tail is blue green and the wings are black and blue violet.
• Raymond Leane (nominated by Peacemaker67) was an Australian Army officer who rose to command the 48th Battalion then 12th Brigade during World War I. For his performance during the war, Leane was described by the Australian Official War Historian, Charles Bean, as "the foremost fighting leader" in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), and "the head of the most famous family of soldiers in Australian history", among other accolades. After the war, he served as Commissioner of the South Australia Police from 1920 to 1944, for which he was knighted.
• Derwin Davis' (Pooch Hall) career with the San Diego Sabers, a fictional National Football League team, rather than attend medical school at Johns Hopkins University. The series focuses primarily on Melanie and Derwin's complicated relationship, with her fears of his infidelity
  at the center of many of the episodes' storylines.
• Rockit". Goldstein developed a drug addiction as a teenager, and was addicted to crack cocaine for several years in his early twenties. Goldstein began deejaying in clubs in Los Angeles and joined the band Crazy Town
  in 1999. He left the group in 2001 and focused on a career as a solo DJ. On August 28, 2009, he was found dead in his New York City apartment from a drug overdose.
• Cleopatra Selene (nominated by Attar-Aram syria) was queen consort of Egypt and Syria then regent and queen regnant of Syria. In various political maneuvers, Cleopatra Selene married her two brothers, and married her two cousins (who were also brothers). She finally married her step-son and gave birth to two children, one of whom became king, with herself as co-ruler. Cleopatra Selene controlled several coastal towns until 69 BC, when she was besieged by Tigranes in Ptolemais; the Armenian king captured the queen and later executed her.
• Jean Bolikango (nominated by Indy beetle) was a prominent Congolese educator, writer, and conservative politician who enjoyed substantial popularity among the Bangala people. He served twice as Deputy Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo), in September 1960 and from February to August 1962. He headed the Parti de l'Unité Nationale and worked as a key opposition member in Parliament in the early 1960s.
• story of Jesus Christ
  .
• Doctor Robotnik's desire to enslave the population of planet Mobius via a machine powered by pinball-like mechanisms. The game is set in a series of pinball machine-like environments in which the player controls Sonic the Hedgehog
  , who acts as a pinball for the majority of the game.