Re: [WikiEN-l] Future of this mailing list
I kinda like the separation between cross-project and cross-language issues on Wikimedia-L and the discussion about English Wikipedia, but if nobody is interested in the existence of this list, I won't be very sad if it shut down. I'd shut down Wikipedia-L first, however - that one is really dead, except occasional people who pop in by mistake every few months. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore 2014-12-02 2:26 GMT+02:00 Carcharoth : > If the moderators of this mailing list are around, would they or > anyone else subscribed to the list be able to throw up some statistics > about how much the traffic has declined over the past few years? I'm > asking because looking at the archives, I think that last month > (November 2014) was the first month since the mailing list started in > September 2001 that there were no posts to the this mailing list (the > wiki-en-l mailing list for discussion of matters related to the > English Wikipedia). > > Admittedly, the list has been moribund for a long time, but I'm not > sure exactly when the tipping point was reached (most meta-discussion > seems to take place either on-wiki, at meta, or on the Wikimedia-l > mailing list). What is the general view in the Wikimedia universe on > maintaining low-traffic lists like this? It might be time to discuss > what future this mailing list has. > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/ > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > > Actually, looking at the list of moderators, how many of them are still > around? > > Carcharoth > > ___ > WikiEN-l mailing list > WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] So who's beta-testing the Visual Editor?
2013/5/11 David Gerard : > This is all the Visual Editor edits in en:wp: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&tagfilter=visualeditor > > It's not many. So please switch it on (you can still click "Edit > source" to do references and templates) and give it a good kicking. A > bug discovered now saves endless newbie pain later. Mmmm... so I know that it's the English Wikipedia mailing list, but I suppose that this won't hurt: In the Hebrew Wikipedia several people tried the VisualEditor. I counted seven newly reported bugs as a result of this, and one reopened. There were also a few WONTFIXes, INVALIDs and dupes. Two of the new bugs were already fixed. I think that it's a reasonable response level to a brand new opt-in feature, which is barely alpha quality. It's not big, but it's much more than zero. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Duolingo and translating Wikipedia
And what's even worse, the very different templates used in each language version. 2012/6/20 Carcharoth > > PS. Forgot to say that this claim misses several points about how > different language Wikipedias often have very different articles on > the same topic (i.e. they are rarely direct translations if > independent editing of the articles is being done). Also, I'm not > clear if they are saying that this would be an improvement on machine > or human translation or not. I think the claim is merely being used as > an example of translating of a large amount of text relatively quickly > using a form of crowdsourcing, rather than any intention to actually > translate the articles, but maybe they do intend to do that? > > What I did wonder was whether the "gaming" approach reflects how > things work on Wikipedia: > > "Points are offered for each translation attempted; completing a round > earns the user a shiny gold medal; and learners can follow each other, > adding a competitive edge." > > Sound rather familiar... > > Carcharoth > > On 6/20/12, Carcharoth wrote: > > A claim made here about Duolingo and translating Wikipedia: > > > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18367017 > > > > "With 100,000 active users, von Ahn says Duolingo could translate > > Wikipedia from English into Spanish in five weeks. With one million > > users, it would take about 80 hours." > > > > Our article on Duolingo is here: > > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duolingo > > > > Carcharoth > > > > ___ > WikiEN-l mailing list > WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Inclusionists vs deletionists
2012/3/22 Alan Liefting : > Does anyone agree with me that the inclusionists are more numerous than the > deletionists around the deletion discussions? If you tell us how you counted, we can try to agree or to disagree. It's pointless to talk about subjective feelings. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] A Wikipedian asked to write for a paper encyclopedia
2012/1/20 Carcharoth : > On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 2:30 PM, Amir E. Aharoni > wrote: > >> The biggest difference was in the editorial process - deciding on the >> scope of the article, finding reviewers, proofreading, communicating >> with other writers etc. Since it's not over yet, i cannot write more >> about it, but the comparison between that and writing for Wikipedia >> would be hugely interesting. > > I appreciate you can't say more right now, but can you say whether > "deciding on the scope of the article, finding reviewers, > proofreading, communicating with other writers" is referring to the > process on Wikipedia or the process for the encyclopedia you are > writing for? In my view, that process you describe is how writing on > Wikipedia *should* work. Whether it does in practice or not is another > matter. It referes to both. These things are done both in Wikipedia and in the paper encyclopedia for which i wrote, but they are done entirely differently. Possibly they are so different that you would even say that on Wikipedia you can't use these words to describe them. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] A Wikipedian asked to write for a paper encyclopedia
2012/1/20 Fred Bauder : >> http://savageminds.org/2012/01/19/wikipedia-encyclopedias/ >> >> >> - d. > > Note that citing references is forbidden; proof Wikipedia is not a real > encyclopedia. Thank you very much for this link, David. I submitted an article for a four-volume paper encyclopedia recently. I shall definitely write in detail about my experience after it will be published in a few moths from now. In the meantime i can say that i was not told not to cite references. I just received a style guide for citing them, which is completely reasonable. So different paper encyclopedias are, well, different. The biggest difference was in the editorial process - deciding on the scope of the article, finding reviewers, proofreading, communicating with other writers etc. Since it's not over yet, i cannot write more about it, but the comparison between that and writing for Wikipedia would be hugely interesting. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Eschatology and Wikipedia - talkback templates
2010/12/23 WereSpielChequers : > I don't use talkback templates myself, and find them somewhat > irritating, but I can live with them if that keeps liquid threads at > bay. Talkback templates are incomparably more bogus than LiquidThreads. Something like LiquidThreads is the future. Currently the right thing is to patiently try them somewhere and to report bugs - not to kill them with fire. If anyone feels that they are too early to be forced on the users of a production wiki, then they should be disabled there. -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] MS Word MediaWiki addin
On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 11:33, David Gerard wrote: > > http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=8e519637-afb0-4134-a91f-7b0ebea8d933 > > Spotted by Shizhao. > > Anyone used this and able to report if the wikitext output is any good? I saw this email, i tried to write a short file in English and to save it as MediaWiki, i got an error and no MediaWiki file was created. Too bad. For things like these i use the OpenOffice add-on, which is not perfect, but works for simple documents. It understands headings and footnotes and that is enough. (If you ask me, adding an image to a Wikipedia article is much easier than adding one to a Word/OO document.) A list of such tools is available at [[WP:TOOLS]]. Several OpenOffice tools are listed there; the only one i managed to use is "Sun Wiki Publisher". If you find something better, please edit that page! -- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי · Amir Elisha Aharoni http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] 'Wikipedia editing courses launched by Zionist groups'
2010/8/20 Gwern Branwen : > http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/18/wikipedia-editing-zionist-groups > >> Yesha Council, representing the Jewish settler movement, and the rightwing >> Israel Sheli (My I srael) movement, ran their first workshop this week in >> Jerusalem, teaching participants how to rewrite and revise some of the most >> hotly disputed pages of the online reference site. >> "We don't want to change Wikipedia or turn it into a propaganda arm," says >> Naftali Bennett, director of the Yesha Council. "We just want to show the >> other side. People think that Israelis are mean, evil people who only want >> to hurt Arabs all day." Not wanting to turn Wikipedia into a propaganda arm and wanting to show the other side is a legitimate intention and until these people do anything bad, we can safely Assume Good Faith. The whole thing is a non-issue. It has already been discussed on Foundation-l : http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2010-August/060582.html -- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי Amir Elisha Aharoni http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Kicking off the 2010-2011 fundraiser
2010/7/27 Thomas Dalton : > On 27 July 2010 11:56, Amir E. Aharoni wrote: >> A friend of mine woke up in the middle of the night with a belly-ache. >> He googled it (in Hebrew) and the first result was the Hebrew >> Wikipedia article about appendicitis. The symptoms matched, so he went >> to the hospital and it indeed was appendicitis. >> >> Wikipedia may have saved his life and this story may make a good >> testimonial video - but are we sure that we would want to do it in the >> light of [[Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer]]? > > I'm not at all sure we should. We shouldn't be encouraging people to > diagnose themselves using Wikipedia. What if your friend had found the > article on indigestion and found that his symptoms seemed to match > (the symptoms can be pretty similar) so just went back to bed? That's exactly what i meant to say. Testimonials may be great, but the message must be safe. A video about bringing quality-tested articles as teaching aids to schools in poor areas may be safer. (We may not have actually done it, but we might...) -- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי Amir Elisha Aharoni http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Kicking off the 2010-2011 fundraiser
2010/7/27 Bod Notbod : > On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 9:27 PM, Philippe Beaudette > wrote: > >> I'd like to begin a conversation about the 2010-2011 Fundraiser, which >> isn't slated to launch for a few months, but for which we'd like to >> get community involvement early and often. > > Aside from recalling the lesson of the disastrous "WIKIPEDIA > FOREVER!!!" banner to make sure that doesn't happen again, I think > some (more?) appeal videos would be good. > > What about asking our readers to submit "I use Wikipedia to..." > videos; they begin with those words and then carry on talking. A friend of mine woke up in the middle of the night with a belly-ache. He googled it (in Hebrew) and the first result was the Hebrew Wikipedia article about appendicitis. The symptoms matched, so he went to the hospital and it indeed was appendicitis. Wikipedia may have saved his life and this story may make a good testimonial video - but are we sure that we would want to do it in the light of [[Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer]]? -- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי Amir Elisha Aharoni http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Updated new search interface on the prototype
On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 06:20, Naoko Komura wrote: > Just a quick update: > > Updated search interface was rolled-out to English Wikipedia earlier > today. Thank you all for your quick feedback. Thanks for fixing the full-text search. There's a significant change from Monobook in suggestions behavior: selecting a suggestion immediately runs a search instead of just putting its text in the search box. The Monobook behavior had its advantages. I reported this here: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=23611 -- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי Amir Elisha Aharoni http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] full-text searching since the Vector switch in en.wikipedia
On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 17:40, Steve Summit wrote: > > Carcharoth wrote: > > I suppose the idea is that most people using that search box want > > "go" functionality, > > Many tech-savvy editors, perhaps, but certainly not most readers. > > > not "search" functionality, but seeing as Google's default is > > "search" not "go", I suspect more people are used to getting a list > > of search results and clicking the top one than might be realised. > > Indeed. If there's to be one box, clearly it should be "Search", > not "Go". (And the search results page already has a "Wikipedia has > an article on %s" link right at the top, if there's an exact match. > So, retconned, "Go" is/was kinda like the Google "I'm feeling lucky" > button.) ... Yes, it makes a lot of sense that there would be such a button in Wikipedia, because quite a lot of the people who type "obama" probably just want the article about the president (but someone should research how many exactly). Forcing them to see a list of results and have them click on the first one wastes some time. But it also makes sense to be able to run a full-text search as easily as possible. -- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי Amir Elisha Aharoni http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
Re: [WikiEN-l] Updated new search interface on the prototype
On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 04:15, Naoko Komura wrote: > We have updated the new search interface to address the issues above and > it is currently staged on the the prototype [1]. This update addresses > the reported issues such as truncation of search queries [2] and the > search suggestions are cut-off [3]. Prototypes in various languages are > also available here[4]. Thanks. If it won't take too much time, could you please set up a prototype in Hebrew, to test RTL issues? I tried Arabic and it seems OK, but there are a couple of features that are unique to Hebrew. -- אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי Amir Elisha Aharoni http://aharoni.wordpress.com "We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace." - T. Moore ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
