Re: [WikiEN-l] Privacy Study Looking for Volunteers
The idea of the IP being more private in the history/ public logs (for example a unique hash so that you know it's an IP but not where/what IP ) is one that I know has been discussed and is desired by a good number within the foundation including within legal. I'll try to look for the phabricator task about it tomorrow. I think that's something that is likely to happen, it isn't easy though and requires a fair number of resources to be pointed at it to get it done so it's a question of priorities and convincing those who decide those things that it should be higher. I believe it's something, privacy wise, that legal would really like. I think it is unlikely in the short to medium term, however, to get rid of the IPs in the backend (in server logs and in the checkuser system for example) because the replacements just aren't there. I've spent a good amount of time thinking of a way to make the checkuser system as usable as necessary without revealing IPs for example (including a consultant who looked a lot but didn't really come up with anything we didn't know already). I think it's doable, but it would be a very difficult and long design process and I think it's unlikely in the near future. James Alexander Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation (415) 839-6885 x6716 @jamesofur On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 10:17 PM, Kyanos someanon...@gmail.com wrote: I don't believe a different license is needed. CC licenses can be used for anonymous works: The author is not given and does not have to be credited, but everything else (attribution of the work and share-alike) would stay the same. So a change in the terms of use to the effect of, Unregistered edits are considered to have no named author, would be sufficient. Kyanos On 03/27/2015 06:41 AM, WereSpielChequers wrote: Perhaps we should move to a different licensing model for future IP edits. CC0 for IP edits would be a more sensible license for edits by an IP where in many cases no-one could attribute the edit to the individual who made it. If people don't want to release their edits as CC0 they can always create an account. Regards Jonathan Cardy On 27 Mar 2015, at 10:28, Elias Friedman elipo...@gmail.com wrote: It's actually required so as to provide attribution as per the Creative Commons and other licenses we operate under. Sent from my Droid 4 Elias Friedman A.S., CCEMT-P אליהו מתתיהו בן צבי elipo...@gmail.com יְהִי אוֹר ___ 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] Privacy Study Looking for Volunteers
On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 12:21 PM, Alan Liefting alieft...@ihug.co.nz wrote: Rather than ensuring privacy of editors the WMF should DEMAND that editors make their identity known. I am sure that this may cure some of the many problems that we are seeing on WMF projects. Having said all that there is of course a problem in some of the dodgy countries where speaking out gets you killed. It has happened with journalists, bloggers, activists etc. It could (has?) happen with WMF project editors. I can't think about specifics but I will say that on a personal (as well as staff) level I'd be against mandating public identity for many reasons. The biggest one, however, is indeed the safety side. I also have edited under my real name since the start (my username isn't but I've said my full name and identifying info on my user page since I started getting more active) but I personally know far too many editors who have been dramatically harassed, threatened and abused by both private and public (governmental) individuals because of their on-wiki activities. Some of those editors did stupid things (but still didn't deserve the reaction they got in my mind) but most of them wrote good to incredibly good content that was well sourced and, as far as I could tell, completely correct and important to have in the public sphere. We need to be able to allow folks to edit in controversial areas (and depending on where you are the definition of controversial can be very different) with as little fear of retaliation as possible. There are some countries and topics where editors take an inherent risk upon themselves by editing (and they know that) but I want to keep that risk as limited as possible. James Alexander Community Advocacy Wikimedia Foundation @jamesofur ___ 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] [Wikitech-l] Fwd: Wired: Wikipedia to Color Code Untrustworthy Text
How would the blame maps work with people editing around vandalism? For example someone either blanks the page or does extensive vandalism to it (especially over the course of a couple days or a couple users). I would imagine it would be fairly easy if the bad contributions just got rolledback but would the old blamemaps still be reinstated if someone went in and manually copy/pasted the old version (or something very close) in or would the system count it as a new contribution? On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 3:12 PM, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: 2009/8/31 David Goodman dgoodma...@gmail.com: I am a little concerned that we are adopting a metric into our interface without adequate testing. It appears we're not and Wired completely jumped the gun. There is no timeframe for release of this thing even as an optional extra. - d. ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l -- James Alexander http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jamesofur ___ 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] Permission required on copyright expired images...
It looks like the rule in Australia is currently life of the creator +70 for public domain but actually thats very new (2005) and before that it was only 50 years after death so anything where the creator died after 1958/9 should be public domain. ( http://creativecommons.org.au/materials/Australian_Copyright_Blog_Guide.pdf page 77) In the US anything published before 1923 is public domain already automatically (which that picture sure seems to be with the date). Between 1923-1949 IF it was published with a copyright notice it can be extended up to 95 years from published date but thats 28 years with a 47 year renewal and a 20 year extension (most arts were NOT renewed and so expired after 28 years)http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.pdf http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.pdfSo long story short, I think it's almost guaranteed to be in the public domain... Under both US and Australian law. I'm not sure why they are trying to claim that you need permission to use it. The Australian law actually says if the goverment was the one who published it first (possible) that it's only 50 years from publication regardless of the authors death date so then it's even more likely it's in the public domain. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable then I will respond but It looks like it's in the public domain to me but you may want to shoot them an email or something to ask about it. ... and Edit Conflict while looking for links another email response just came in from Carcharoth Oh well I'm going to send anyway so that you get the links :) -Jamesofur On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:48 PM, Steve Bennett stevag...@gmail.com wrote: Question for the copyright experts. See this image: http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/01000/B838.htm It's over 100 years old, and there is no clear copyright statement (ie, the photographer isn't listed). Yet they say Any other use requires permission from the State Library of South Australia. 1) On what basis can they demand that users ask permission? 2) In what circumstances can Commons or Wikipedia ignore such a demand, and assert that the image is public domain or copyright expired? 3) What is the status of an image which is probably copyright, but no one knows who owns the copyright? I realise that this case might be a bit borderline, so if you prefer, imagine that the image was old enough that we could reasonably assume the photographer has been dead more than 70 years. Steve ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l -- James Alexander aim-jralex17 ___ 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] Google bows to censorship
To be honest I don't totally see it as hypocrisy, inconsistent? Perhaps a bit, I actually saw the Google statement as less we don't support censorship and more of a you broke the implicit (or explicit I don't know) agreement. I think the biggest thing was that Google thought that if we were working with China and going along with their filtering they should be leaving us alone. Instead they decided to attack us and therefore we can no longer trust them. User:Jamesofur James Alexander james.alexan...@rochester.edu Wiki:jameso...@gmail.com wiki%3ajameso...@gmail.com 100 gmail invites and no one to give them to :( let me know if you want one :) On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 11:36 PM, Christopher Grant chrisgrantm...@gmail.com wrote: (from smh article) Mr Newhouse believes the site would be filtered under the Federal Government's mandatory filter. The plot thickens... Sure their articles racist and are basically designed offend everyone, however I personally don't feel conformable with the government being able to block a site like ED. -- Chris On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 7:07 AM, Gwern Branwen gwe...@gmail.com wrote: On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 12:13 PM, Anthony wikim...@inbox.org wrote: On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 11:58 AM, Anthony wikim...@inbox.org wrote: If censoring some things (like the most offensive sorts of racial vilification you could possibly find), and refusing to censor other things (like an historical account of a pro-democracy demonstration), is hypocrisy, then let me be the first to say that I'm in favor of hypocrisy. Silly Anthony. Don't you know that China was simply asking Google to comply with local laws against morals-destroying smut, the propaganda of life-destroying evil cults, and the subversion of mass-murdering terrorists? What's some peculiar racist humor compared with *that*? Strange moral standards you have there. But then, treating one country differently from another country is not hypocrisy. Treating one situation differently from another situation is not hypocrisy. Looking at the relevant part of the Google statement, it was this: We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html It was a statement specifically about the Chinese government, and about results on google.cn. Google did not claim or even imply that it was stopping all censorship altogether. So I don't see the hypocrisy. It is, at the very least, inconsistent. One set of rules for the Chinese (and the world), and another set for the Australians. What difference is there between the 2 situations that justifies this? If there is no difference, then it's a plain contradiction. (Oh, you happen to agree with one and not the other? I see...) -- gwern ___ 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 ___ 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] PR consultants: perhaps Wikipedia is not the ideal promotional medium
I'm don't think that is always true which is what DGG was getting at. You are right you CAN run the risk of them being so good that you can't tell it's spin but to be honest you usually can in the wiki environment. A good PR group is going to know that just getting a well written article on Wikipedia (even with bad things in the article) can increase the information and exposure out there for the company and in the end be much much better then an article with spin that gets deleted :). The biggest problem is making sure that 1. The PR people see that there is a difference and that they and the company they represent our better served by a good Wiki article. and 2. That the COMPANY realizes they are better served by a good Wiki article so that they let the PR company do it. James Alexander james.alexan...@rochester.edu jameso...@gmail.com 100 gmail invites and no one to give them to :( let me know if you want one :) On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 12:58 PM, William Pietri will...@scissor.com wrote: On 04/02/2010 12:51 PM, Fred Bauder wrote: Here's the question: If you can't tell it's PR, is there anything wrong with it? Possibly, which is the problem. The main function of PR is to put the best spin on things in a way that everybody accepts that as the truth. By its nature, it's unavoidably POV and COI. Bad PR gets caught doing this; good PR doesn't. Wikipedia has shifted the balance of power some: there are new ways for PR people to get caught, and importing their broadcast-media habits makes them look dumb. But I have every reason to expect that PR people will adapt. Even so I think they'll have a hard time shifting the tone much on articles that get a lot of attention; the room to spin there is small. But for more obscure topics, I think there's plenty of gray area within which they can construct an article that suits their purposes. Purposes that are necessarily different than ours. William ___ 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] Upcoming Changes to the User Interface
I know this was discussed a little while ago but do we have anything set up in the way of global notices etc? Obviously a large portion of our userbase (especially readers) don't see the mailing lists and we probably want to warn them and give them some subtle pokes to learn about some of the new features BEFORE the switch is made. James Alexander james.alexan...@rochester.edu jameso...@gmail.com 100 gmail invites and no one to give them to :( let me know if you want one :) On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 3:10 PM, Howie Fung hf...@wikimedia.org wrote: Everyone, As many of you already know, the Wikimedia Foundation's User Experience team has been running a beta program focused on improving the user interface for over six months now. More details may be found here http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Usability_Initiative [a], but our main goal has been to reduce the barriers to participation in Wikipedia by making it easier for new contributors to edit. Since the start of the program, over 635,000 users across all Wikimedia projects have participated in this beta program - testing and providing feedback on the new interface. Roughly 80% of the test users who tried the beta are still using it (view details http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Beta_Feedback_Survey [b]). On the English Wikipedia, almost 270,000 users have tried the test interface and about 84% of those users continue to use it. On April 5, the beta features became the default experience for users of Wikimedia Commons, a wiki similar to Wikipedia that hosts the millions of free image and media files within our projects. The summary of feedback from Commons users may be found here http://blog.wikimedia.org/2010/04/16/a-quick-update-on-vector-acceptance-by-commons-users/ [c]. The WMF blog http://blog.wikimedia.org/2010/03/25/wikimedia-gets-ready-for-some-big-changes/ [d] and the tech blog http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2010/03/the-change-in-interface-is-coming/ [e] also provide more information on this project. This new user interface will become the default for users of the English Wikipedia during the second week of May. We are currently scheduled to make the switch at 5:00am UTC on May 13. Once we make the switch, all users will begin to see the new features [1]. These features include an enhanced toolbar, a new skin (which we named 'Vector'), and a number of other features we're very excited about (FAQs may be found here http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/What%27s_new,_questions_and_answers [f]). If you prefer not to make the change, there will be 'Take me back' link to restore the original features. Those who would like to experience the new interface sooner may do so via the 'Try Beta' link at the top of the page. We understand that the English Wikipedia relies heavily on custom user scripts and site-specific JavaScript. Information on how to test gadgets is included in the FAQs http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/What%27s_new,_questions_and_answers page. If you encounter issues using the new skin, please share your feedback [ http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:What%27s_new,_questions_and_answers [g]. We're looking forward to rolling out the new features next week. In the meantime, if you have any questions/comments, please share them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:User_experience_feedback [h] -- we're trying to consolidate feedback as much as we can. Howie Wikimedia Usability Experience Team [1] Users that have opted out of the beta will still get the new features. We apologize in advance for this inconvenience, but these users may restore their features via the Take Me Back link. [a] http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Usability_Initiative [b] http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Beta_Feedback_Survey [c] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2010/04/16/a-quick-update-on-vector-acceptance-by-commons-users/ [d] http://blog.wikimedia.org/2010/03/25/wikimedia-gets-ready-for-some-big-changes/ [e] http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2010/03/the-change-in-interface-is-coming/ [f] http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/What%27s_new,_questions_and_answers [g] [ http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:What%27s_new,_questions_and_answers [h] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:User_experience_feedback ___ 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] flagged revisions - autoreviewer even of minor edits
On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 5:40 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.comwrote: On 22 May 2010 22:32, Emily Monroe bluecalioc...@me.com wrote: Are you guys talking about the right to not have your page patrolled by New Page Patrol? Because, even though I probably have it all wrong, I don't think I've seen the word autoreviewer tossed about in any other context. I was under the impression that autoreviewer status was something where you can either nominate yourself or another person, after said nominee has written an unusual high amount of policy- complying articles in a row, therefore clogging up New Page Patrol--it doesn't come to you automatically. No, we're talking about having your edits automatically flagged as checked under the flaggedrevs extension. This page seems to confirm I am using the terminology correctly: http://flaggedrevs.labs.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListGroupRights I think you have the terminology right but that is something we probably want to change if we can.. if we keep using autoreviewer as a statement there it is going to confuse a lot of people on En who have seen autoreview as a very different thing for a while now. James Alexander james.alexan...@rochester.edu jameso...@gmail.com ___ 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] Destructionism
On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 9:54 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dal...@gmail.comwrote: On 7 August 2010 01:45, William Beutler williambeut...@gmail.com wrote: Certainly, it still describes a real phenomenon: articles that attain Featured or Good status, and then have those statuses (statii?) revoked as they degrade. It happens, all right. Does it happen very often? Most revocations are due to us raising the standards we require rather than due to articles deteriorating. If an article has deteriorated to the point where it isn't worthy of FA any more then wouldn't it be better just revert to the last FA worthy version? If the FA criteria are such that there are edits that we don't want to revert but that make an article no longer worthy of FA, then we need to change the FA criteria (since they don't fit with our actual views on what makes an article better or worse). I think part of this is what David was saying about adding new content. Being an FA is a lot more then just content and adding not perfect/good enough prose that adds important and encyclopedic information shouldn't be reverted just because it isn't good enough to be on an FA. Obviously the preference would be to try and rewrite that new info to be good enough for an FA. James Alexander james.alexan...@rochester.edu jameso...@gmail.com ___ 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] New tool: Write before you revert
On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 7:55 PM, stevertigo stv...@gmail.com wrote: Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com wrote: You would likely just force insincere discussion. Not that this doesn't happen already (sorry, in a cynical mood tonight). Ha: Insincere discussion - translation 'edit warring is more sincere.' -SC More sincere then posting to get past the edit filter :) James Alexander james.alexan...@rochester.edu jameso...@gmail.com ___ 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] Fundraising 2010
Hey Everyone, My name is James Alexander, I'm an Associate Community Officer working with the Wikimedia Foundation on this years fundraiser. Depending on what other mailing lists you're on or how active you've been on Meta you may have seen my colleagues and I getting more active as preparations ramp up. This year we want to focus explicitly on getting as much community involvement as possible. A big part of that is trying to engage the community in discussion both on the individual projects and on Meta to both propose their own banner ideas and comment on others. With some huge improvements to the Central Notice system recently we have a lot of new flexibility to target banners and messages to certain projects, languages or geographical areas (ala geonotice) and are hoping to have as many localized messages as we can. To do this we need help from everyone identifying messages that may be problematic and proposing ones that they think would be good. To help decide what banners to run we are currently running hour long tests to get real data on how messages, banners and landing pages work when out in the wild as well as trying to work out the technical and administrative kinks before we start the full fundraiser. Right now we are doing these every Thursday around 22:00 UTC (we are coming up on our 5th week of tests so you may have seen some of them already). Essentially all the banners we are testing come from Meta with a lot of weight being put on the comments made for each banner. Those messages that don't test well just plain won't make it into the fundraiser. You can see some of the current suggestions (and propose your own) on the Meta messaging page http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010/Messages but we also want to encourage people to discuss on their own wiki. I've started a thread on the village pump (currently under miscellaneous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28miscellaneous%29#Fundraising_2010 ) and if there is a lot of conversation it may be necessary/helpful to create a separate page. I want to encourage anyone who has any interest in this to speak up. We can't address concerns if we don't hear them and if you say it someone else probably thought it too. Obviously its good to do as much as possible in the open so that others can see the answers to their own questions but I'm always happy to respond to questions privately as well. I look forward to seeing everyone who joins the discussions and if you really want to get involved think about joining us on IRC or the Committee http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010/Committee! -- James Alexander Associate Community Officer Wikimedia Foundation jalexan...@wikimedia.org ___ 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] Help Beat Jimmy! (The appeal, that is....)
On 10/6/2010 4:03 PM, MuZemike wrote: Is it me, or when I saw the word focus group, I started to develop some bad feelings about this? -MuZemike How so? We aren't basing the decisions on which banners to run on the focus group (or survey for that matter). We're doing that on actual click and donation data which is why we want to run so many tests. But i think outside studies can be a great option to see how people are thinking. It is a lot easier to get an idea of what our editors are thinking by asking on wiki but asking what our readers or small donors in general think can be much harder. James -- James Alexander Associate Community Officer Wikimedia Foundation jalexan...@wikimedia.org +1-415-839-6885 x6716 On 10/5/2010 8:49 PM, Philippe Beaudette wrote: Hi everyone, I wanted to take a moment to bring you up to date on the planning of the 2010-2011 fundraiser, and ask once again for your participation in the process. Our updated meta pages (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010 ) will give you an overview as well. There's a lot of information here, because we've made huge progress: I hope you'll take the time to read it and join in the planning for the fundraiser. There's no doubt about it: the appeal from Jimmy Wales is a strong message. We've tested it head-to-head against other banners, and the results [1] are unequivocal - especially when you also compare its performance last year and the year before. But nobody wants to just put Jimmy up on the sites and leave him up for two months! So we're issuing a challenge: Find the banner that will beat Jimmy. Data informed conclusions Here's the trick: We have to make our decisions based on the facts, not our instinct. Please read the summaries below for really important details from our focus group and survey of past donors. Focus Group Wikimedia conducted a focus group of past donors in the New York City area in September 2010. It's important to note that this was a single focus group, and in a single city. We'll need to do more to make sure that results correlate universally. But we came out of it with a few important take-away points. It's important to realize that these points reflect ONLY donors - they should not be read as a wider feeling about mission or strategic direction - they're messaging points to help us refine and deliver the best messages possible. ** The most powerful image is of Wikipedia as a global community of people who freely share their knowledge and self-police the product. For everyone who participated, the idea of a global community of people sharing knowledge that is accessible to anyone who wants it free of charge is incredibly powerful. Respondents in this group were highly unlikely to be editors themselves; most consider themselves users. They love the idea of the community and want to support it, but they are reluctant to put themselves out there by being more than a user and a donor. ** Keeping the projects ad-free is a powerful motivator. Respondents were unanimous that keeping Wiki[m\p]edia ad free should be a priority, even if it meant that Wiki[m\p]edia would be approaching them for money more often. Accepting paid ads could corrupt the values and discourage the free flow of information. ** Independence is critically important. These respondents consume a lot of media, and they place a high premium on the free flow of information. They have little patience for “sponsored” news or information that excludes other perspectives. The Wikimedia model of openness and community engagement facilitates that. ** It’s a cause because it’s a tool. This may sound a bit like a chicken/egg argument, but it’s actually an important nuance. These folks use Wikimedia every day for things from simple curiosities to serious research. So it’s a tool that lets them get what they need. But it has grown to 17 million articles in 270 languages. Because it has that kind of depth and it reaches so many people around the world, it’s worth protecting what the community so successfully built. And that makes it a cause too. ** Growing isn’t always a good thing, when positioning for donors. Like many tech savvy folks, our respondents are a suspicious lot. The idea of Wikimedia growing brings up concerns about what Wikimedia would become, and fears about the path of companies like Facebook. It’s not just a privacy concern; it’s a concern about what would happen to the democratic model of Wikimedia inside a growth strategy. Supporting the organic growth of the community doesn’t raise the same concerns. ** Supporters strongly reject any agenda being attached to Wikimedia, even when that agenda would extend the current offerings. An agenda implies ownership, and respondents feel pretty strongly that the community owns Wikipedia. They think of Wikipedia as an organic thing, not like a typical nonprofit, and any attempt to steer
[WikiEN-l] Fundraising Office Hours
Hi Everyone! With the Annual Fundraiser starting in less then two weeks the fundraising team will be having IRC office hours this Friday November 5th at 22:00 UTC (15:00 PDT, 18:00 EDT 23:00 CET orhere http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=11day=5year=2010hour=22min=0sec=0p1=0 for more timezones) in the #wikimedia-office channel of the Freenode IRC network. If you are interested in what we have been doing recently I encourage you to take a look at the Meta fundraising portal athttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010 or join us on IRC in the #wikimedia-fundraising channel at any time. If you do not have an IRC client, there are two ways you can come chat using a web browser: First, using the Wikizine chat gateway at http://chatwikizine.memebot.com/cgi-bin/cgiirc/irc.cgi. Type a nickname, select irc.freenode.net from the top menu and #wikimedia-office from the following menu, then login to join. Or, you can access Freenode by going tohttp://webchat.freenode.net/, typing in the nickname of your choice and choosing #wikimedia-office as the channel. You may be prompted to click through a security warning, which you can click to accept. Please feel free to forward and translate this email to any list I may have missed and I hope to see everyone there! -- James Alexander Associate Community Officer Wikimedia Foundation ___ 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] REMINDER: Fundraising Office Hours-Today!
Hi again everyone! A quick reminder that the fundraising team will be having IRC office hours today, Friday November 5th, at 22:00 UTC (15:00 PDT, 18:00 EDT 23:00 CET) in the #wikimedia-office channel of the Freenode IRC network. If you are interested in what we have been doing recently I encourage you to take a look at the Meta fundraising portal at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010 http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010 or join us on IRC in the #wikimedia-fundraising channel at any time. If you do not have an IRC client, there are two ways you can come join the chat using a web browser: First, using the Wikizine chat gateway at http://chatwikizine.memebot.com/cgi-bin/cgiirc/irc.cgi. Type a nickname, select irc.freenode.net from the top menu and #wikimedia-office from the following menu, then login to join. Or, you can access Freenode by going to http://webchat.freenode.net/ , typing in the nickname of your choice and choosing #wikimedia-office as the channel. You may be prompted to click through a security warning, which you can click to accept. Please feel free to forward and translate this email to any list I may have missed and I hope to see everyone there! -- James Alexander Associate Community Officer Wikimedia Foundation ___ 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] Fundraising testing up now
Sorry for the delay, our operations manager wasn't subscribed and we think the email got held up in moderation. Just an FYI that we are running a short fundraising test right now on EnWikipedia (one test in the US one test in the rest of the world minus some chapter countries). They went up anonymous only at 17:00 UTC (10:00 Pacific) and will come down in about 30 minutes at 18:00 UTC. James Alexander -- James Alexander Community Fellow Wikimedia Foundation ___ 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] How the Professor Who Fooled Wikipedia Got Caught by Reddit, _The Atlantic_
On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Tom Morris t...@tommorris.org wrote: On Wednesday, 16 May 2012 at 16:49, Gwern Branwen wrote: Indeed. Why *are* the skeptical geeks now on Reddit and not Wikipedia? 26 minutes? I'm trying to imagine how much the angry inclusionists would be soiling my talk page with accusations of BITEyness if I had IAR deleted this page after just 26 minutes. ;-) The question also presumes that Wikipedians are not also Redditors. I think this is important. The more and more I look at Reddit the more I realize that not only are they very similar to Wikipedians they ARE Wikipedians. In fact recently I've started wondering if a Reddit post may be an easier way to reach Wikipedians then a watchlist post or central notice ;) -- Tom Morris http://tommorris.org/ ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l James Alexander @Jamesofur jameso...@gmail.com jalexan...@wikimedia.org ___ 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] Vandalism instance
Thanks Matt, it looks like someone got it before I could. I imagine you know already but, just in case, if you find yourself wanting to edit frequently from tor you may want to consider asking for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IP_block_exemption on your account. Not the simplest for sure but may life easier so you don't have to worry about it. James On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 6:01 PM, Matt m...@pagan.io wrote: Hi! I wanted to point out a single instance of vandalism on the following page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Gris The infobox contains the following line: | awards= he married 4 potatoes The last recorded instance of this page that doesn't contain this vandalism had the following line instead: | awards= I would have fixed this myself, but I use Tor, so I am unable to do so. Thanks. Matt Pagan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Futuristcorporation ___ 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] Local Wikipedia mirror system messages
Hi Tim, It is and is a,relatively, low traffic list which is probably why you weren't responded too as quickly. You may want to try wikitech-l ( wikitec...@lists.wikimedia.org) which has a lot of the more technically minded staff and volunteers who can help you figure out what is wrong. I know that our default messages come with the installs so they can probably help find out what went wrong. James On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 10:19 PM, Timothy Pearson kb9...@pearsoncomputing.net wrote: Hi all, I have successfully set up a local wikipedia instance using the English data dumps, but I cannot seem to find a copy of the MediaWiki translation files in use on the Wikipedia sites. As a result, tags like wm-license-information-description are not displayed correctly. Is there a place I can download the Wikipedia-modified system message files (languages/messages/MessagesEn.php, languages/messages/MessagesQqq.php, etc.)? Thanks! Tim Is this the wrong mailing list for this type of query? Thanks! Tim ___ 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] Help finding photos on Flickr
On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 5:24 PM, Carcharoth carcharot...@googlemail.com wrote: Thanks for the tips. Can you set the parameters of a search to only return openly licensed content? Aye, if you search for images on google and click 'search tools' then 'usage rights' you can select what kind of usage you want. It doesn't catch everything (it needs to be able to parse the licenses so commons is usually not always available from what I can tell) but can be very useful. (3 day visual aide http://awesomescreenshot.com/03f3aw6826 click to zoom ) ___ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
