Re: [WikiEN-l] Another WP redesign

2013-01-28 Thread Steven Walling
On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Magnus Manske
wrote:

> One thing this and previous designs agree upon is to use a three-column
> layout for content. On today's wide screens, reduced line length for the
> main text should improve readability, and still use the side columns
> pragmatically; it seems the TOC usually goes to the left, and infoboxes to
> the right.
>

Word.
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Massive AfC backlog

2012-06-19 Thread Steven Walling
On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 11:52 AM, Tom Morris  wrote:

> There is currently an enormous backlog at Articles for Creation, of over
> 700 articles.
>
> If you've got some time spare, it'd be great if you could help work on the
> AfC backlog.
>
> See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:AFC
>
> Many hands make light wiki-work. ;-)
>

Thank you for bringing this up Tom.

As a volunteer admin, it looks to me like AFC is horrible mess. Not only
has there always been a large backlog, but articles that have references
and would normally pass the CSD barrier at New Page Patrol are routinely
rejected for trivial reasons.

I think we need to brainstorm ways to either drastically improve AFC's
ability to review articles in a reasonable time, or discuss not
highlighting it so prominently to authors of new articles. People who
actively seek input from other editors before publishing articles in
mainspace are our most promising new editors, and we're doing them a grave
disservice right now.

Steven
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[WikiEN-l] New experiment running on English Wikipedia

2012-06-07 Thread Steven Walling
Hi everyone,

As announced on the Village Pump,[1] the "editor engagement experiments"
team has just launched our first project on English Wikipedia. We've done
some small-scale experiments prior to this,[2] but I wanted to share this
here, since this is our first one modifying the interface in any way.

The basic gist is that for one week starting today, some half of visitors
to a small selection of articles (a little under 3,000) will see a new
timestamp that tells them when the page was last edited. It will show up in
the upper right, aligned with the title and to the left of any icons like
the FA star or protection lock. It also links to the history.

This isn't a huge change, but we hope that by more prominently highlighting
the changing nature of articles, we can show more people what's going on in
the wiki, as well the fact that some articles badly need updating.

Thanks, and please let us know if you see any bugs.

-- 
Steven Walling
https://wikimediafoundation.org/

1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)&oldid=496500789#New_feature_experiment
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editor_Engagement_Experiments
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Article creation and deletion stats

2012-04-23 Thread Steven Walling
On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 3:26 PM, Alan Liefting  wrote:

> I want to add some stuff to [[Wikipedia:Statistics]] about article
> creation and deletion.  I know there is a bit of stuff out there but I
> can't for the life of me find it.
> Anyone got some links at their fingertips that they can send my way?
>
> Thanks
>
>
> Alan
>

First place to look (if you haven't yet) is stats.wikimedia.org, especially
for article creation stats.

Steven
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Article Landing Pages - functional prototype to test and comment on

2012-03-11 Thread Steven Walling
On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Steven Walling
 wrote:
> This is a great point. In addition to Oliver's explanation on-list, do
> folks think the descriptions on EN [1][ and MediaWiki.org [[2] are
> sufficiently clear?
>
> The former is meant primarily for the community, and the latter is
> written in the style that a product manager (the person who defines
> how a new feature should work for users), designers, and developers
> can best grok.
>
> Steven
>
> 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:New_Page_Triage
> 2. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_Page_Triage

*facepalm*

Sorry for cross the streams, my jetlagged brain got confused because
we're pretty much looking at New Page Patrol and new page creation at
the same time. :)

Link to the landing page documentation that Oliver started the thread
about: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_Creation_Workflow/Landing_System

Note the prototype he linked to is probably more up to date than some
of the mockups, but you get the idea.

Steven

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Article Landing Pages - functional prototype to test and comment on

2012-03-11 Thread Steven Walling
On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 5:33 AM, Charles Matthews
 wrote:
> To clarify, it might be a help to state what it is that is apparently
> broken that you are trying to fix. If it is the existing low barrier to
> article creation by one-and-all, it is worth pointing out that wiki systems
> were designed to have such low barriers. If it is grumbling, it is worth
> pointing out that grumbling is always with us. (And understanding what it
> is you are trying to fix is surely a precondition to assessing any
> prototype. No one owes it to you to do that rather than anything else with
> their time.)

This is a great point. In addition to Oliver's explanation on-list, do
folks think the descriptions on EN [1][ and MediaWiki.org [[2] are
sufficiently clear?

The former is meant primarily for the community, and the latter is
written in the style that a product manager (the person who defines
how a new feature should work for users), designers, and developers
can best grok.

Steven

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:New_Page_Triage
2. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/New_Page_Triage

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Article Landing Pages - functional prototype to test and comment on

2012-03-10 Thread Steven Walling
On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 10:51 PM, WereSpielChequers
 wrote:
> Before we go to such a restrictive closed wiki approach I'd really like to
> understand why the WMF has made such an abrupt Uturn on openness. I'd also
> like to see an answer from the great unanswered question of the ACTRIAL
> proposal; Why do you want newbies to make their mistakes in existing and
> sometimes very widely read articles where their mistakes will be widely
> seen and permanently recorded in the edit history, as opposed  to have them
> creating new articles which relatively few of our readers will read and
> where many of the mistakes will disappear via deletion?

This experiment is nothing like what you've described.

This is not requiring anything of people other than that, before they
get to the editing form for a new article, they click through a button
with some very brief instruction written on it, and fair warning that
improper articles are deleted. That's it.

I think it's important to keep in mind that we know very little about
the article creation process from a data-driven perspective, and this
is simply a test of an alternative method for teaching new editors the
ropes before we throw them into the deep end. It doesn't actively
restrict or close off anything. The exact same user rights are
retained for everyone.

In fact, in some ways this creates more openness. For example: for the
first time it would be actively encouraging anonymous editors to
create an account and start an article after they click a redlink.
Currently, the anonymous landing page on a redlink does not even
mention that creating an account allows you start new articles!

As for bringing up where to encourage people to edit (new versus
existing): the Foundation is not interested in funneling any new
editors away from how they want to help the encyclopedia and towards
something else. We need new articles and we need to improve existing
ones, and you can become a Wikipedian by doing either.

Steven

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[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Wikimediaindia-l] Improving the Health of the Community

2012-02-22 Thread Steven Walling
Apologies for cross-posting, but this is a really important post involving
WikiProject Medicine, among other folks

-- Forwarded message --
From: Shiju Alex 
Date: Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 3:47 AM
Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Improving the Health of the Community
To: Assamese Wikipedia Mailing list ,
Malayalam wiki project mailing list ,
Wikimedia India Community list ,
wikimedia-in...@lists.wikimedia.org, Wikipedia Hindi <
wikih...@lists.wikimedia.org>, wikipedia...@lists.wikimedia.org


Dear All,

I am writing to share with you a very inspiring initiative regarding health
and medicine articles on Wikipedia.  Crores of Wikipedia readers read up
about health related issues either when they or their loved ones fall ill
or before or after they have consulted doctors or when they are curious
about a particular disease or drug.  In fact, quite a few doctors and
nurses also read up these articles to improve their knowledge.

Wikipedia's medical articles have 15-20 crore page views every month.  The
top 300 articles are viewed more than 1 lakh times every month.  The
challenge is that the majority of these articles are only available in
English.

This initiative (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Translation_task_force)
has been conceptualised by WikiProject Medicine,  Wikimedia Canada and very
interesting organisation called Translators Without Borders. It seeks to
translate a set of 80 of the most important health care articles into as
many languages as possible.

Given the state of our health care system as well as the increasing
readership of Indic language projects, there is huge positive impact that
we can have if we participate in this initiative and have these articles in
all Indic languages.  The project page (referenced above) includes an
outline of the project, FAQs, useful links and a sign up for interested
volunteers.

The ways that we can participate are as follows

   - English Editors to improve articles on en-wp
   - English Editors to convert articles into simple English Wikipedia (so
   that non-English editors who don't have a medical background can also help
   out)
   - Indic editors to help translating either by themselves or by helping
   the translators at Translators Without Borders

Remember, you don't have to be a health care professional to help out.  All
you have to do is simply care.

I am really happy to note that 5 editors from 5 Indic languages have
already signed 
up<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Translation_task_force#People_involved_.28with_language_ability.29>for
this wonderful project.  Of these 2 languages - Assamese and Malayalam
- have already started wiki project and started working on articles (really
big comprehensive articles) related to Medicine.

Assamese wikipedia medicine project page: ৱিকিপিডিয়া:ৱিকিপ্ৰকল্প
চিকিৎসাবিজ্ঞান<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A7%B1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE:%E0%A7%B1%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A7%B0%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AA_%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A7%8E%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9C%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9E%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8>

Some of the articles created:

   -  কৰ্কট 
ৰোগ<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%9F_%E0%A7%B0%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%97>
(Cancer)
   -  
সৰ্পদংশন<http://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%A8>
(Snakebite)

Malayalam wikipedia biology project page:
വിക്കിപീഡിയ:വിക്കിപദ്ധതി/ജീവശാസ്ത്രം<http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%B5%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%95%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%AA%E0%B5%80%E0%B4%A1%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%AF:%E0%B4%B5%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%95%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%95%E0%B4%BF%E0%B4%AA%E0%B4%A6%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%A7%E0%B4%A4%E0%B4%BF/%E0%B4%9C%E0%B5%80%E0%B4%B5%E0%B4%B6%E0%B4%BE%E0%B4%B8%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%A4%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%B0%E0%B4%82>

Some of the articles created:

   - ആസ്മ (Asthma) <http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma>
   - ന്യുമോണിയ (Pneumonia) <http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonia>
   - മസ്തിഷ്കാഘാതം (Stroke) <http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke>

Please note that this project do not involve machine translation or bots.
 It is really happy to note that both in Assamese and Malayalam wiki these
projects are run by doctor (or medicine students) wikipedians :) Yes, Indic
wikipedias has editors from all wakes of life.

There is so much potential on the articles related to medicine both in
Indic and English. I encourage  interested wikipedians to join this project
by adding your name
here<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Translation_task_force#People_involved_.28with_language_ability.29>
.

I welcome and invite everyone to join in.

Healthy Editing

Shiju Alex

-- 
Steven Walling
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
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[WikiEN-l] [Cross-posting] Updates on our template work at WMF

2012-01-12 Thread Steven Walling
Cross-posted since results available are from English Wikipedia first.

-- Forwarded message --
From: Steven Walling 
Date: Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Subject: Updates on our template work at WMF
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List 


Hey all,

Maryana Pinchuk and I wanted to spread the word that, similar to the
fundraiser, we will be collecting the results from all our experiments with
various communities on Meta.

We're currently testing new user talk templates with community members from
English, Portuguese, and German, have published several English Wikipedia
results, and we expect to have more English and Portuguese results up very
soon.

Each project has its own documentation pages for this project, but we hope
putting results in one place on Meta can help the different communities
share lessons from their testing. If you have any questions about the
results or the testing process, please let us know on-wiki.

The page to follow for all these results is:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template_A/B_testing

Thanks!

-- 
Steven Walling
Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org




-- 
Steven Walling
Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Ad banners are a bad user interface

2011-12-13 Thread Steven Walling
I've actually gotten email where people think I wrote the article on which
my banner appeared. And I would bet Brandon, Susan, and others who aren't
Jimmy have gotten the same.

The nice thing about our banners is that they don't look like horrifically
ugly and annoying ads. It also appears that can be confusing for a
relatively small group of people. But most readers know the difference as
evidenced by the number of donations, and personally I think trying to
eliminate that little bit of confusion would likely involve making banners
that look a lot more like other ads on the web. Which would stink, to use a
technical term. ;)

Steven
(Sorry for top posting. On my phone.)
 On Dec 13, 2011 7:53 AM, "Ken Arromdee"  wrote:

>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:BLPN#Peggy_Meggars_.28archeologist.29
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard/Archive139#Henry_Hardy
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard/Archive138#Stephen_O.27Doherty
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons/Noticeboard/Archive138#Ron_Carlson
>
> Four *separate* incidents where users mistook the fundraising banner ad for
> an illustration that is part of the article.
>
> As is usual for lousy user interfaces, a lot of us are probably going to
> blame this on the user being too stupid to read the page properly, as if
> there was no such thing as a bad user interface.  Often the image in the
> banner is the most prominent thing on the page, and it's located directly
> above
> the article title in a place that in many other contexts would mean it
> really does go with the article.
>
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[WikiEN-l] Reminder: IRC office hours about FeedbackDashboard starting in a few mins

2011-12-04 Thread Steven Walling
Hi all,

As I noted in my previous email and Village Pump (technical) announcements,
we're holding an office hours in #wikimedia-office to talk about
Special:FeedbackDashboard as a tool for responding to new editors,
specifically with the help of the the informal taskforce WP:RESPONSE.

Please join us if you're interested. We're starting at 22:00 UTC.

-- 
Steven Walling
Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
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[WikiEN-l] Deployed today: a new way to respond to feedback from other editors

2011-11-30 Thread Steven Walling
Hi everyone,

I wanted to point English Wikipedians to a cool update for the experimental
Feedback Dashboard, and invite you all to try it out and come to our IRC
office hours this weekend about it.

The full details on the Village Pump:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VPT#New_functionality_for_our_first_real-time_feedback_dashboard_-_please_check_it_out

As far as I am aware, this is the first time that there is a single place
on-wiki where you can see new editor feedback appear in real time, filter
it based on sentiment, and respond without leaving the page. If you find it
interesting, please join our taskforce on this, WP:RESPONSE.

Thanks,

-- 
Steven Walling
Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
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[WikiEN-l] Invitation to join a new taskforce

2011-11-07 Thread Steven Walling
Hi everyone,

I just wanted to invite anyone interested to join an informal taskforce for
responding to comments/questions left by new editors on the experimental
Feedback Dashboard (Special:FeedbackDashboard).

You can sign up and see some documentation at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Feedback_Dashboard

This feature is still very much a work in progress.

In the meantime, I really feel excited about the potential to respond to
folks needing help. I've done a few hours of patrolling and I know others
have also jumped in and started to leave talk pages messages for these
newbies already. I find it fun to try and find the new editors who are
working hard to "get it", but need a little helping hand.

Actively using the dashboard will also help uncover any bugs that need
addressing. Using it also helps inform the tech team at the WMF about new
functionality it needs to really work well. So don't be shy about using the
talk page, please.

Let me or Maryana know if you have any questions. (I've signed up for the
taskforce with my non-staff account, so I'll be patrolling as well.)

-- 
Steven Walling
Community Organizer at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org

P.S. I've left some suggestions for a system of response etc. on the wiki
page. These are just suggestions, not marching orders or an edict from the
Foundation. ;-)
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[WikiEN-l] Call for Volunteers: If you can read a diff, you're exactly who we need.

2011-10-11 Thread Steven Walling
Hi everyone,

In the Community Dept. we've been collaborating with some Wikipedians to
continue one of the research projects from the summer, namely involving the
randomized testing of talk page templates to try and improve them. (If you
watch WP:VPT, then you might've seen our announcements.)

The great thing about doing randomized testing is that we get a more
unbiased assessment of our experiment. The bad thing is that in order to do
a proper job of crunching these numbers, we need help from people who can
read wiki histories accurately and tell us what's going on.

This is where you come in. Obviously no one is better primed to analyze
diffs and editing histories than editors, so we're looking for a few (3-4,
but the more the merrier) volunteers to lend us their experience this week.

I know used the r word (research), which makes it sound not really
important, but this is a live experiment on the projects. If we do this
correctly, then we can do a better job of educating good faith editors,
warning away those who cause damage to the encyclopedia, and keeping
experienced Wikipedians from getting their user pages vandalized by angry
people. ;-)

The system we've got set up for analyzing these diffs is insanely simple if
you're used to MediaWiki, so let me know either on the list or my talk page
[1] if you might have an hour or two to spare.

Thanks,

-- 
Steven Walling

1). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Steven_(WMF)
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Re: [WikiEN-l] --Wikipedia Manager 2012

2011-10-01 Thread Steven Walling
On Sat, Oct 1, 2011 at 11:15 AM, WereSpielChequers <
werespielchequ...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Re the suggestion that edit count is the only universal metric for success.
> Editcount is a very long way from being the only universal metric for
> success.
>
> Length of Tenure and cleanliness of block record are just as universal.
>
> Adminship and other userights, are also universal, though I'd concede that
> adminship on some projects is seen as easier to get than on others, but
> then
> automated and semiautomated edits are perceived as less worthy than manual
> ones.
>
> Featured content is at least Wikipedia wide, though I confess I don't know
> wiktionary or Wikisource well enough to know if they have an FA style
> system.
>
> I'm pretty sure that Barnstars are universal, though maybe someone could do
> a survey of the wikis to check that.
>
> Linguistic skills. Babel boxes are another thing that matter in all our
> multingual wikis.
>
> Wikiness is a new one on me -
> http://toolserver.org/~erwin85/xcontribs.php?user=WereSpielChequers
> I've just come across it in the Stewards elections, so it is both somewhat
> specialised and at the same time something that editors from many different
> wikis can appreciate and clearly many are judging each other by. You could
> argue that it is a function of editcount and linguistic skills, but I think
> it more than that as I probably outscore some editors who are far from
> monolingual.
>
> Toolserver access and the ability to code are universally valued. As I
> believe are various other editing skills.
>
> If you want more I'd suggest creating some modules of Computer based
> training, with of course appropriate userboxen for those who complete them
> with a high enough score. It would be great to have one for Newpage
> patrollers to guide them through the minefield that is speedy deletion
> tagging, and there are several other areas where a shift from learning on
> the job to learning via a gamelike training modules would raise quality,
> reduce angst and I believe greatly reduce levels of newby biting. If we
> invested in some for new admins we might even address the two most common
> reasons for block histories amongst our most active editors.
>
> WereSpielChequers


The point is not that there aren't other things worth valuing or that some
set of very, very experienced people in the community value. It's that there
are ways we could make things other than edit count a core part of defining
identity in the projects. Because they're not right now.

Toolserver access? Clean block log? Barnstars?

How many times have you had to take time and explain what those even are?
Most people who've ever edited don't even really understand the concepts
much less think of them as metrics for success. Ask 100 random Wikipedians
-- especially those with an edit count lower than 1,000 or who aren't in a
big project like English or German -- about any of those things, and I bet
you they won't know what half of them even are.

It is not universal if it's only visible and understandable to people who
are already extremely active in Wikipedia.


>
> > I absolutely agree. We keep running into this problem (edit count as the
> > only universal metric for success) all over the place.
> > You mentioned the Wikimedia Labs project (i.e. the Toolserver
> equivalent),
> > but I think one thing we could do now would be to go take a look at the
> > mockup currently built for GlobalProfiles and let engineering staff know
> > what stats/info you think could/should be included in order to mitigate
> the
> > "editcountitis" issue. Note that it's just a proposed design doc, so if
> you
> > agree that we need better indicators of the work people do for the
> > encyclopedia now's the time to speak up.
> >
> >
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/mediawiki/wiki/GlobalProfile/design
> >
> > Steven
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Re: [WikiEN-l] --Wikipedia Manager 2012

2011-09-30 Thread Steven Walling
On Sep 30, 2011 9:47 AM, "Bod Notbod"  wrote:
> Good day Wikipedians,
>
> I have of late got into a football management computer game. Don't
> panic, I will be relating this post to Wikipedia, hang on. I'm really
> enjoying the game. To such an extent that I've actually started to
> follow football. I've never particularly liked football. I only
> started playing the computer game cos there was a free demo. Now I
> like the computer game so much I'm following football in the real
> world.
>
> After quite a few hours of playing it struck me that all I was really
> doing most of the time was evaluating numbers: player abilities rated
> out of 5, 10 or 20 depending on the stat in question. Numbers of
> goals. Numbered position in league. Tier of football I'm playing in.
>
> I don't know why this should be so compelling. Watching numbers
> change. But the game is incredibly successful (some editions have
> broken records for fastest selling computer game according to our
> articles).
>
> The numbers are clearly giving us players an emotional response. They
engage.
>
> Last year, during the Strategy process and before I started playing
> this game, I proposed that what Wikipedia needed was "more rewards"
> for editors. I proposed a few things. In the end we got Wiki-love,
> which I support and like, but they isn't really like what I proposed
> at Strategy. To be honest I can barely remember what it was I proposed
> back then...
>
> I still think we could do with more rewards and maybe this damned game
> has given me an answer.
>
> More editor stats.
>
> All of us who have been around for some time know that edit counts are
> not very reliable indicators of effort. Nevertheless we still do keep
> a public record of editors with high counts. I think there's a reason
> for that. I think it's because we still, despite protestations, know
> that an edit count does tell us *something* about a Wikipedian. Even
> if it's just "(s)he edits a lot".
>
> I believe I'm right in saying that the Foundation is in the process of
> setting up something like Toolserver. I suggest we plan to put it to
> work. I suggest we expand greatly the stats we keep on individual
> editors and form league tables from them. I believe that aiming for a
> place in a table will motivate people. I realise that a) this is
> unproven and b) there will be objections, particularly regarding
> 'gaming the system and 'unintended consequences' but perhaps we can
> discuss those and mitigate them (more later).
>
> New Stats that could be placed in league tables could include:
>
> * Length of service (difference in days between first edit and last)
> * Number of consecutive days/months/weeks where 5 or more edits have
> been made (or 50 edits, or a hundred): in short there could be quite a
> number of these tables that relate to consistency and number of edits
> all of which, I feel, might spur people on to keep contributing.
> * Most characters/bytes added (without being removed)
> * Most blocks for admins
> * Most welcomes, barn stars awarded
> * Most reverts / undos
> * Average reader-rating of articles user has edited at least ten times
>
> You could also have these as percentage of number of edits and rank
> for those too, eg welcomes, blocks or reverts as a percentage of total
> edits, (with a minimum number of edits to qualify for inclusion on the
> table).
>
> Now, it could be (WILL be!) that someone decides "I'm going for the
> revert league title" and starts doing things we wouldn't ideally like
> (to put it mildly). However their presence at the head of the league,
> I feel, will actually subject their edits to greater scrutiny. People
> will look at their contributions and it may well result in needed
> censure, showing their activity to be undesirable and action could be
> taken accordingly. Also, you may have people in the top table who
> aren't even *trying* and their presence at or near the top might cause
> some examination of their contribs.
>
> Perhaps you can think of some league tables that would really push
> desirable behaviours at minimal risk of negative ones?
>
> If you don't like this idea I'd like to hear the concerns, HOWEVER! I
> would also like you to just entertain the idea and - even if you're
> against - think of some individual editor stats that could be tracked
> you think *may* provide useful feedback, even if you ultimately don't
> think we *should*.
>
> So: I propose we greatly increase feedback on user performance to
> drive people on. Support editor stats today.
>
> User:Bodnotbod

I absolutely agree. We keep running into this problem (edit count as the
only universal metric for success) all over the place.
You mentioned the Wikimedia Labs project (i.e. the Toolserver equivalent),
but I think one thing we could do now would be to go take a look at the
mockup currently built for GlobalProfiles and let engineering staff know
what stats/info you think could/should be included in order to mitigate the
"editcountitis" is

Re: [WikiEN-l] Difficulty making structural changes to WP due to human nature?

2011-09-19 Thread Steven Walling
On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 12:59 PM, Ray Saintonge  wrote:

> "NS5" is another cryptic acronym.
>
> Ec
>

Sorry if that was cryptic. NS5 = namespace five  = Project talk.

Steven
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Difficulty making structural changes to WP due to human nature?

2011-09-19 Thread Steven Walling
On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Fred Bauder wrote:

> Sounds like an interesting project which might answer a few perennial
> questions such as to what extent Larry Sanger shaped basic Wikipedia
> policies. However, please keep in mind that this mailing list and the
> Wikipedia-l mailing lists were much more active in those days, contained
> significant discussions of substantive issues, and that policy was
> sometimes made on those lists, and only memorialized in policy pages.
>
> Fred
>

Definitely a good point, especially if we want to fold in NS5 contributions
into any study.

Steven
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Difficulty making structural changes to WP due to human nature?

2011-09-19 Thread Steven Walling
On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 11:35 AM, Carcharoth wrote:

> Doesn't this approach assume that people all interact with Wikipedia
> in the same way? Many people only participate in a vanishingly small
> part of Wikipedia and you can have some areas that are deserted and
> others that are very active. This isn't found by looking at global
> statistics, but by looking at the actual editing and histories out
> there "on the ground".
>
> Carcharoth
>

Yes, looking at edits overall, pages created overall, or bytes added overall
are all very generalized tools. For instance, we'd need deeper quant work or
qualitative coding in order to see what is being done in that steady
proportion of NS4 activity in English.

But the general trends are pretty clear, and help to point us in the right
direction when working qualitatively or trying to prove/disprove general
hypotheses such as "Is the the project namespace still growing, in decline,
or stable?"

Steven
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Difficulty making structural changes to WP due to human nature?

2011-09-19 Thread Steven Walling
On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 1:54 PM, Alan Liefting  wrote:

> Is it just me or do others find it difficult to instigate any sort of
> changes to policies, guidelines, layout, Manual of Style and related
> matters regardless of how minor they are?
> Could it be that WP is a reflection of human behaviour and has become a
> talkfest where nothing changes because of our inherently conservative
> nature?
> Or am I trying to satisfy the readers of WP rather than editors and
> readers? Since readers do not edit they never get to have a say so the
> editors get what they want (yes I know - editors are readers as well).
>
>
> Alan Liefting
>

Research on the amount of bytes added to different namespaces suggests it is
true that the project namespace is stagnant.[1] The largest period of growth
in the bytes added to the project namespace began roughly in 2003 and
tapered off to a smaller, steady proportion of all content added by 2006.

One way we might quantify this in a more editor-centric way is to look at
the top contributors (by edits and/or by net bytes changed) to major
policies, guidelines etc. and get some data on what cohort those editors
were from, what they are doing, and when the edits by those top contributors
were made.

If anyone is interested in this/is not offended by the idea of looking at
specific editors in public, I'm happy to start some documentation on Meta.
It's pretty easy to grab some lists, but qualitatively examining edit
histories takes more time and could always use more help from people who can
read a diff. :-)

Steven

1.
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/meta/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_Summer_of_Research_2011/Summary_of_Findings
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Re: [WikiEN-l] IRC office hours to discuss article feedback tool

2011-06-16 Thread Steven Walling
On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 2:59 PM, Steven Walling wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I just wanted to announce that this Thursday the 16th at 18:00 UTC, there
> will be an IRC office hours concerning the article feedback tool which is
> currently in experimental partial deployment on English Wikipedia.[1]
>
> I'll be moderating mainly for Erik Möller, but hopefully we'll be joined by
> most of the Foundation staff who've contributed to this feature.
>
> Just to clarify, we want to stick to two general topics:
>
>1. The strategic goals the feature aims to address. In other words, its
>purpose.
>2. Plans for developing and deploying it further.
>
> If you have bugs to report or specific design feedback, as always Bugzilla
> and MediaWiki.org are respectively the best places to discuss those two
> things. For the office hours we'd like to stick to a broader explanation of
> the feature and its future.
>
> As always documentation for IRC office hours is on Meta.[3]
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> Steven Walling
> Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation
> wikimediafoundation.org
>
> 1. Feature documentation: 
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback<http://www.mediaiwiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback>
> 2. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours
>

Just a reminder that this is happening in about an hour.

-- 
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Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org
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[WikiEN-l] IRC office hours to discuss article feedback tool

2011-06-13 Thread Steven Walling
Hi all,

I just wanted to announce that this Thursday the 16th at 18:00 UTC, there
will be an IRC office hours concerning the article feedback tool which is
currently in experimental partial deployment on English Wikipedia.[1]

I'll be moderating mainly for Erik Möller, but hopefully we'll be joined by
most of the Foundation staff who've contributed to this feature.

Just to clarify, we want to stick to two general topics:

   1. The strategic goals the feature aims to address. In other words, its
   purpose.
   2. Plans for developing and deploying it further.

If you have bugs to report or specific design feedback, as always Bugzilla
and MediaWiki.org are respectively the best places to discuss those two
things. For the office hours we'd like to stick to a broader explanation of
the feature and its future.

As always documentation for IRC office hours is on Meta.[3]

Thanks,

-- 
Steven Walling
Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation
wikimediafoundation.org

1. Feature documentation:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback<http://www.mediaiwiki.org/wiki/Article_feedback>
2. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Most wanted

2011-02-06 Thread Steven Walling
On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 2:19 PM, Magnus Manske
wrote:

For years it was slightly bugging me that the "Most wanted articles"
> function is deactivated. On en.wp, the last cache was generated in
> October 2009.
>
> Well, I cooked an alternative. Listing all non-existing articles that
> have at least 10 links from article namespace, updated daily:
>
> http://toolserver.org/~magnus/most_wanted.php
>
> Many of these links are due to templates, which I can do little about.
> I hope it will still be useful to some.
>
> Cheers,
> Magnus
>
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Thanks for doing this Magnus! It's fascinating and really helpful to see
trends in the list.
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Productwiki - Amazon not using "hacky text decoration language"

2011-01-19 Thread Steven Walling
I will henceforth be referring to all wiki markup as "text decoration
language". Also, funny that Wikipedia volunteers know that "hacky" isn't a
word but Amazon's employees apparently don't.

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 3:35 PM, wiki  wrote:

> http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=43568011
>
> "How does it compare to wikipedia?
>
> Like wikipedia, we support group editing, version history, reverts,
> notifications on changes, and diffs.
> Unlike wikipedia, we will use the rich text editor for editing instead of
> using a hacky text decoration language."
>
>
> Well, I daresay many of us prefer our "hacky text decoration language ".
> But
> interesting,
>
>
> Scott
>
>
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Re: [WikiEN-l] 10 Media coverage, was Re: Wired: Wikipedia weirdness

2011-01-14 Thread Steven Walling
The Economist is in there. The FT piece probably isn't because they've
paywalled their site.

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 1:30 PM, Charles Matthews <
charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com> wrote:

> On 12/01/2011 23:59, phoebe ayers wrote:
> > All of those things are true, to my knowledge :)
> >
> > There's a page to collect Wikipedia10 media coverage at:
> > http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage
> >
> Three pieces of BBC coverage today: a World Service documentary
> (
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2011/01/110111_wikipedia_at_10.shtml
> )
> and a short report from Jimbo's party on the PM programme (radio). Also
> main BBC TV news with User:Chase Me Ladies, I'm the Cavalry. There was a
> Financial Times piece, and something in The Economist (? - not seen that
> yet). All-in-all that page seems to need work.
>
> Charles
>
>
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Hello world! (was "Hello world?")

2011-01-13 Thread Steven Walling
+1 to that. Motto of Wikipedia indeed. :)

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 11:23 PM, Tony Sidaway wrote:

> ‘I clicked on “Edit” and I wrote “Hello World” and that was the beginning.’
>
> That's a great soundbite. I know it's just a standard term used in
> testing a new program, but I prefer to take Hello world as the motto
> of Wikipedia.
>
> Everything we know about the world, presented in a form the entire
> world can read and extend. It's an Incredibly ambitious project--ten
> years ago it was plainly nuts. But look how far we've come towards
> that goal!
>
> Hello world!
>
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Re: [WikiEN-l] References bookmarklet?

2011-01-05 Thread Steven Walling
Related project by Mozilla and some other developers, including from
Creative Commons:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Drumbeat/Attribution_generator

Steven

On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 2:40 PM, geni  wrote:

> On 5 January 2011 22:36, David Gerard  wrote:
> >
> http://davidgerard.co.uk/notes/2011/01/04/what-you-see-is-for-the-win/comment-page-1/#comment-13632
> >
> > Someone suggested this on my blog. It's an *excellent* idea and needs
> > a button added for it in the present Vector editor.
> >
> >
> >
> > Jen says:
> > Wednesday 5th January, 2011 at 10:28 pm  (Edit)
> >
> > Re John Broughton’s idea for “a **single click** way of generating the
> > standard text/code for a footnote”…
> >
> > Would there be any way to make a nice little bookmarklet so people
> > could drag a URL onto the button, and it would copy a wiki-citation to
> > the clipboard?
>
>
> Basically no
>
> If you look at even [[Template:Cite web]] it requires stuff that you
> have to go hunting for (author).
>
> You could construct something for popular websites (BBC say) which
> have a standard format.
>
> --
> geni
>
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Re: [WikiEN-l] [Fwd: [WikiX-l] 10th anniversary merchandise is ready to ship!]

2010-12-13 Thread Steven Walling
Shoot, sorry about that. I just remembered that Evolution forwards mail as
attachments by default. See the Wiki-X archive for the actual crosspost I
meant to fwd:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikix-l/2010-December/95.html

On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 3:22 PM, Steven Walling wrote:

> Please discuss further on the WikiX-l or on ten.wikipedia.org itself.
>
> --
> Steven Walling
> Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation
> wikimediafoundation.org
>
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[WikiEN-l] [Fwd: [WikiX-l] 10th anniversary merchandise is ready to ship!]

2010-12-13 Thread Steven Walling
Please discuss further on the WikiX-l or on ten.wikipedia.org itself. 

-- 
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Using Wikipedia as a Marketing Tool

2010-12-07 Thread Steven Walling
I'm disagreeing with both notions (hiding your identity and hiding your
hobby at work) as measures to prevent being asked to edit on someone's
behalf.

Steven

On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 11:00 AM, Carcharoth wrote:

> I'm not clear who you are disagreeing with.
>
> The debate seems to be shifting to one about pseudonymous versus
> non-pseudonymous editing, which wasn't the point I was making. I think
> we both agree that editing under "marching orders" is bad, but I never
> made the presence or not of pseudonymous editing part of my argument
> (though clearly that can aid transparency).
>
> Though on looking back at what WereSpielChequers wrote, I see he added
> "or to edit in your real name" at the end of his post. I was focusing
> more on the "good reason not to talk about this particular hobby at
> work". The divide here is probably more between people who separate
> their working life and the rest of their life (which is quite a lot of
> people, I would guess, especially those where the work involves
> professional standards) and those that blur the boundaries between
> their work and the rest of their life.
>
> And then there is stuff you talk about at work around the water cooler
> or with (work) friends, which is something different again. It also
> depends on whether more of your friends are drawn from your work
> circles or other areas of your life. And then you have people who work
> for their family or family firm, which must be even more complicated
> (though rarer).
>
> Carcharoth
>
> On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 6:20 PM, Steven Walling 
> wrote:
> > I couldn't disagree more strongly. I have encountered this exact
> situation
> > many times over (i.e. I've had bosses, coworkers, friends, and relatives
> all
> > ask me to edit for them), and it's never been a problem that I edit under
> my
> > real name. The exact opposite in fact. It's been a *huge* asset in being
> > able to say "No, I don't do that."
> >
> > Most people don't understand that even using a pseudonym, Wikipedians
> > generally care very much about their reputation on the site. Not being
> > pseudonymous was an enhancement to my argument against editing under
> > marching orders, because Wikipedia is not just my hobby, it's part of my
> > reputation that persists online and offline. Even the technologically
> > illiterate understand the motivation to protect one's good name.
> >
> > Steven Walling
> >
> > On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 9:25 AM, Carcharoth  >wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 4:45 PM, WereSpielChequers
> >>  wrote:
> >> > One of those steps being "Check to see if anyone already working at
> >> > your company is a Wikipedia volunteer. If so, that person can be a
> >> > valuable resource to help you find your best strategy for getting
> >> > included." Now that sounds like a pretty good reason not to talk about
> >> > this particular hobby at work, or to edit in your real name.
> >>
> >> I agree absolutely! I'm fortunate in that where I work doesn't have a
> >> Wikipedia entry, though there are sporadic mentions within other
> >> articles (one red-link, one dead link in a reference, one external
> >> link, and one incidental mention). I would be horrified if I was ever
> >> approached to "help" with anything Wikipedia-related to where I work.
> >> I have, sometimes, looked up some of the people I occasionally
> >> correspond with, or who crop up during the course of my work, and some
> >> of them have Wikipedia articles, but most don't.
> >>
> >> The article also says "The more mentions you have in the press, and
> >> the more visibility you have in social media and blogs". This
> >> completely misunderstands what a reliable source is and the difference
> >> between having a big (and usually temporary) media presence, and an
> >> enduring presence that generates its own press. There is a difference
> >> between media puffery of a company and independent, industry-wide
> >> evaluation by those with an interest in getting things right (and not
> >> just putting spin on things) - this is usually related to "getting
> >> things right" in terms of investing in or taking over a business.
> >>
> >> They also miss the most obvious method. Grow your company until it is
> >> so big that it will get an article anyway.
> >>
> >> The brutal truth is, that if you are a small comp

Re: [WikiEN-l] Using Wikipedia as a Marketing Tool

2010-12-07 Thread Steven Walling
I couldn't disagree more strongly. I have encountered this exact situation
many times over (i.e. I've had bosses, coworkers, friends, and relatives all
ask me to edit for them), and it's never been a problem that I edit under my
real name. The exact opposite in fact. It's been a *huge* asset in being
able to say "No, I don't do that."

Most people don't understand that even using a pseudonym, Wikipedians
generally care very much about their reputation on the site. Not being
pseudonymous was an enhancement to my argument against editing under
marching orders, because Wikipedia is not just my hobby, it's part of my
reputation that persists online and offline. Even the technologically
illiterate understand the motivation to protect one's good name.

Steven Walling

On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 9:25 AM, Carcharoth wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 4:45 PM, WereSpielChequers
>  wrote:
> > One of those steps being "Check to see if anyone already working at
> > your company is a Wikipedia volunteer. If so, that person can be a
> > valuable resource to help you find your best strategy for getting
> > included." Now that sounds like a pretty good reason not to talk about
> > this particular hobby at work, or to edit in your real name.
>
> I agree absolutely! I'm fortunate in that where I work doesn't have a
> Wikipedia entry, though there are sporadic mentions within other
> articles (one red-link, one dead link in a reference, one external
> link, and one incidental mention). I would be horrified if I was ever
> approached to "help" with anything Wikipedia-related to where I work.
> I have, sometimes, looked up some of the people I occasionally
> correspond with, or who crop up during the course of my work, and some
> of them have Wikipedia articles, but most don't.
>
> The article also says "The more mentions you have in the press, and
> the more visibility you have in social media and blogs". This
> completely misunderstands what a reliable source is and the difference
> between having a big (and usually temporary) media presence, and an
> enduring presence that generates its own press. There is a difference
> between media puffery of a company and independent, industry-wide
> evaluation by those with an interest in getting things right (and not
> just putting spin on things) - this is usually related to "getting
> things right" in terms of investing in or taking over a business.
>
> They also miss the most obvious method. Grow your company until it is
> so big that it will get an article anyway.
>
> The brutal truth is, that if you are a small company, unless you get
> big you will either not amount to much (and end up as a footnote in
> history, if that), or you will get big and get taken over, or take
> others over, or you will fold and vanish. The real test of enduring
> notability in business is whether a company or brandname is remembered
> after it has gone or been swallowed up by others. If no-one remembers
> much about something 5 years later, it probably wasn't worth writing
> about in the first place, unless it endured for several decades at
> least or did something that garnered a lot of attention, and maybe not
> even then.
>
> Carcharoth
>
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[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia's 10th anniversary

2010-11-16 Thread Steven Walling
Hi all,

As a few of you know, I have a fellowship in the Wikimedia  
Foundation's Community Department, working for Chief Community Officer  
Zack Exley on a variety of projects. One of these projects is making  
Wikipedia's 10th anniversary one to remember by supporting you  
(Wikimedians) who want to celebrate online and off.

To that end, we've opened up a new space for collaboration at 
http://ten.wikipedia.org/ 
. Many thanks to the editors who've already showed up to participate,  
and to the Signpost for covering the launch of the site.

For who haven't had a chance to explore it yet, we started the wiki  
for four core activities, which are outlined in our FAQ 
(http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAQ 
). They are:

1. Gathering a single, detailed list of events that we can point  
interested people to.
2. Hosting some interesting ways to reflect on the anniversary online,  
across Wikipedia communities. If you have ideas for celebrating, this  
is the place to share them.
3. Providing resources for organizers, including a press kit, freely- 
licensed designs that can be localized, and instructions on how to get  
a free set of t-shirts, stickers, buttons etc. for your event.
4. A place to document everything. This wiki will be a great place to  
look back and see what we did to celebrate our first double digit  
anniversary.

Hopefully that gives you a better idea of what we're working on. As  
usual, please be bold and join in!

If you have questions that can't be answered on the wiki or mailing  
list (https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikix-l), I am your  
best point of contact. I'd especially like to encourage current or  
potential event organizers to get in touch.

Thanks for reading,

Steven Walling
[[User:Steven (WMF)]] on ten.wikipedia.org






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[WikiEN-l] Office Hours with Executive Director Sue Gardner, today 18:00 UTC

2010-11-10 Thread Steven Walling
Hi everyone,

Today at 18:00 UTC will be IRC Office Hours with the Wikimedia 
Foundation's Executive Director, Sue Gardner. As usual it will take 
place in #wikimedia-office on irc.freenode.net. You can find links to 
time conversions and a guide to accessing IRC at 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours

Reflecting on the past few chat sessions, we've noticed that the most 
productive (in terms of most questions answered, most participants etc.) 
have been the ones with a little bit of prep work on the topic. The 
recent fundraising session, Sue's on Pending Changes, and interviews 
with new Wikimedia staff have all been extremely helpful.

That's why we'd like to try something a little different for Sue's 
Office Hours today.

We're going to devote the first 30 minutes for a structured topic 
discussion. During that 30 minutes attendees can write their questions 
on the Meta page mentioned above, and simultaneously !vote on/discuss 
the proposed questions. The 3-6 top questions will be answered during 
the second half of the hour. This way we actually answer the questions 
that interest the attendees, rather than miss really valuable questions 
and discussion.

We hope you'll try this experiment with us. We're trying to find some 
balance between a free-flowing discussion and some structure that allows 
deeper conversation about topics important to Wikimedia.

Thanks,

-- 
Steven Walling
Wikimedia Foundation Fellow
(wikimediafoundation.org)
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[WikiEN-l] IRC Office Hours with Sue Gardner today (23:00 UTC)

2010-10-27 Thread Steven Walling
Hi all,

Today Wikimedia Foundation Exec. Director Sue Gardner will be in this 
week's installment of IRC office hours at 23:00 UTC. As usual, the 
format is completely open, so bring any burning questions you might have 
to the #wikimedia-office channel on irc.freenode.net. Local times and 
instructions for accessing the chat, including for those without an IRC 
client, can be found on Meta at 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours. The log of the 
discussion will be publicly posted on that page afterwards for those 
cannot attend.

Many thanks,

-- 
Steven Walling
Wikimedia Foundation Fellow
(wikimediafoundation.org)
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[WikiEN-l] Office Hours with Barry Newstead

2010-10-14 Thread Steven Walling
  Greetings all,

The next IRC Office Hours will be with Barry Newstead, Chief Global 
Development Officer (CGDO) of the Wikimedia Foundation, on Friday 
October 15th, 17:00 UTC. As usual, this chat will be informal and in an 
open format. You can learn more about past Office Hours and how to 
connect at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours.

See you in IRC!

-- 
Steven Walling
Wikimedia Foundation Fellow
(wikimediafoundation.org)
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Re: [WikiEN-l] Alleged Liberal Bias

2010-10-13 Thread Steven Walling
Even if Conservapedia are raving lunatics (and I agree with David on that),
paying careful attention to our critics is a useful exercise. If you're
really interested Fred, make a list of smart people and try to pry specific,
constructive pieces of criticism out of them.

We all know we're not yet meeting our own standards though. There's plenty
of work to on the neutrality front without wondering about how fringe groups
like Conservapedia view our neutrality. The silent majority of readers
already appreciate what we're shooting for with NPOV.



Steven Walling

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 8:29 AM, Charles Matthews <
charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>  On 13/10/2010 16:02, Fred Bauder wrote:
> >> So we got Conservapedia and some other conservative website accusing
> >> Wikipedia of having a liberal bias. What else is new, or what else are
> >> we to expect?
> >>
> >> -MuZemike
> > Well, is there anything at all to it, or is it just bull?
> >
> Of course they can point out deficiencies in Wikipedia articles. Those
> exist. The question is whether they can prove the case for either of (a)
> conscious slanting or (b) systemic bias, away from neutral treatment. We
> should not care if anyone dislikes a WP article because it is neutral:
> we should care if a serious deviation from neutrality can be shown.
> Naturally Conservapedia is selective in its interests, and probably the
> list is as revealing about its selectivity as about anything else. By
> putting the focus on a subset of articles it might be possible to
> demonstrate selective bias in an area in Wikipedia: I don't suppose
> anyone seriously thinks we have no systemic bias of any kind. Which is
> why my response was in terms of sorting. It is more perhaps of looking
> for signal in a load of "noise". We know that criticisms of
> disproportion in coverage, for example, are always with us.
>
> I didn't feel much illuminated.
>
> Charles
>
>
>
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[WikiEN-l] Reminder: IRC office hours with Zack Exley

2010-10-06 Thread Steven Walling
  Greetings everyone,

Just a reminder that Zack Exley, Chief Community Officer at the 
Wikimedia Foundation, will be holding IRC office hours today (October 5) 
at 21:00 UTC (14:00 PT, 17:00 ET, 23:00 CEST) in #wikimedia-office on 
irc.freenode.net.

Instructions for accessing the discussion for those without an IRC 
client can be found at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours. 
Please feel free to forward and translate this message to any relevant 
list, and we look forward to chatting with you!


--
Steven Walling
Community Fellow
Wikimedia Foundation (wikimediafoundation.org)
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Re: [WikiEN-l] All the Wiki servers are down?

2010-08-28 Thread Steven Walling
http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

<http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/>Steven Walling

On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 1:32 PM, Elias Friedman  wrote:

> It's working fine for me.
>
> ~ Eli in NYC
>
> On Aug 27, 2010 4:28 PM, "Alan Liefting"  wrote:
> > Am unable to logo on to WP. Wikiquote did not work as well. Are the
> > servers down?
> >
> > Alan Liefting
> > New Zealand
> >
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