[Wikimedia-l] Re: Blocking users for Palestinian flag

2021-07-03 Thread 4nn1l2
Trying to keep the discussion in scope, this is a direct link to the flag
in question: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Free_Palestine.svg

It does not show any statements, but the word Palestine in both Latin and
Arabic scripts.

Not sure why we should talk about slavery (a breach of basic human rights)
or what trolls do on the Chinese Wikipedia.

Some other notes:
* I'm not the only one who has this flag on their userpage, the other user
was also blocked.
* I got unblocked by another admin the day after I was blocked, but the
unblock request of the other user was declined, although expired since.
* I am thinkng about a de-adminship proposal for the blocking admin. This
incident made me mentally tired, and no good faith (and veteran) editor
should go through this again.

On Fri, Jul 2, 2021, 18:40 William Chan  wrote:

> The Chinese issue: I don't see the Chinese community of any hope
> considering the mainland Chinese community is now basically a rotten Apple,
> with acts of stalking against Hong Kong and Taiwan editors, plus history
> revisionism being carried out within articles by mainland editors ans
> tolerated by admins of the same region, while, at the same time, manipulate
> local community discussion and opinion when such acts are brought into open
> discussion.
>
> Of course this won't get discussed as the scale is too large for even Hong
> Kong and Taurean editors to properly draft something for the wider movement
> to access (plus the Orwellian security law stomped on Hong Kong editors
> last year) (plus the hostility of those editors).
>
> 
>
> Oh and back to the issue: in Chinese Wikipedia, there's a requirement to
> only state your opinion regarding one matter once if you want so, and some
> pro-CCP editors from China basically manipulate such thing and wrote one
> whole page of statements opposing things such as them opposing Hong Kong
> independence (once), another one about Taiwan independence (etc),
> highlighted in deep red and make it so appeaeant with other font modifiers.
>
> So basically, if you want to troll in user pages (not staying the original
> person doing so), there are numerous loopholes that, if editors are in good
> faith, would not have even thought of even if they are pretending to be
> violators. 
>
> William.
>
> On Fri, 2 Jul 2021 at 21:36, Gnangarra  wrote:
>
>> lots of basic human rights are being trampled on everyday, its not
>> uncommon for mainland chinese editors who report on behalf of
>> communities from Taiwan and Hong Kong yet they never get challenged for
>> doing so on movement lists.
>>
>> So where is the line,  can it ever be a very finely detail or will it
>> always be big, grey, and fuzzy.
>>
>> On Fri, 2 Jul 2021 at 21:26, Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga <
>> galder...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Friendly reminder: Slavery is against human rights.
>>> --
>>> *From:* Yaroslav Blanter 
>>> *Sent:* Friday, July 2, 2021 2:22 PM
>>> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List 
>>> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Blocking users for Palestinian flag
>>>
>>> I do not know. Whoever puts a userbox "I support slavery" on their user
>>> page on the English Wikipedia invites a fast block does not matter what
>>> their edits in the articles are.
>>>
>>> I do not think there is a universal answer to this question.
>>>
>>> Yaroslav
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jul 2, 2021 at 1:31 PM Satdeep Gill 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> But was there something in the editing. People should be free to say
>>> FREE TIBET in their user pages, for instance but can be really reasonable
>>> editors.
>>>
>>> In a way, we are also unbiased and neutral point of view is something we
>>> all look upto but can never trully achieve.
>>>
>>> Best
>>> Satdeep
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jul 2, 2021, 4:57 PM Peter Southwood <
>>> peter.southw...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> The problem is which political opinions would be acceptable on a user
>>> page, and who gets to decide this. We are expected to edit neutrally, so
>>> expressing a political opinion on a user page could be  considered a
>>> declaration of partisanship which could extend to editing behaviour.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Peter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From:* Frederick Noronha [mailto:fredericknoro...@gmail.com]
>>> *Sent:* 30 June 2021 00:57
>>> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List
>>> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Blocking users for Palestinian flag
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Just seeking clarity:
>>>
>>> Is there anything wrong with expressing a political opinion on a
>>> userpage?
>>>
>>> A lot of our badges, flags, icons might have some or the other political
>>> history behind them, just that these are seen as more "normal" by today's
>>> standards. At one time, slavery too was considered quite legal.
>>>
>>> Can't this be discussed in the public domain?
>>>
>>> FN
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, 30 Jun 2021 at 03:34, Gereon Kalkuhl 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear 4nn1|2,
>>>
>>> Thank you for informing us about the incident. But to be clear: You
>>> write that it's about a 

[Wikimedia-l] Call for Local Organizers: 2021 Months of African cinema contest

2021-07-03 Thread Eben Mlay
We hope this email finds you well and you are staying safe.

The Afrocine Project core team would once again like to thank everyone who
contributed towards ensuring the success of the Months of African Cinema
Contest in 2020. Due to your valued efforts, the third iteration was a
success! Over 3,000 articles were created across various Wikimedia projects
and in 19 different languages.

Months of African Cinema, 2021 is three months away! To ensure a more
seamless organization this year and better support, we are calling on
interested local organizers from across the movement to join us in
facilitating this contest in their various communities.

This year, in addition to local community organizers, we are particularly
also inviting Wikimedians to help coordinate the contest in their local
languages, as this will play a huge role in the number of languages that
would be eligible for international prizes. If you would love to join us in
organizing this exciting contest in your local community or your local
language wiki, kindly show your interest by listing your community or
project on the organizer’s meta page. [1] Please try to sign up by 23rd
July 2021.

Thank you once again! We are looking forward to your participation.

Kind regards,

Ebenezer Mlay,

Community Liaison, Afrocine Project


[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_AfroCine_Project/Months_of_African_Cinema/2021
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[Wikimedia-l] Re: Blocking users for Palestinian flag

2021-07-03 Thread Frederick Noronha
This is problematic at very many levels:
* Are we policing intent or actual wrongdoing -- i.e. bias in actual edits?
* Is there something wrong in me aspiring for some political entity (which
doesn't exist currently) or does it become wrong only when my bias actually
shows in my editing?
* If the former case, isn't this some form of Thought Policing?
* Should we also not ban all forms of affiliations to religion,
nationality, gender (her/his/its) or race and skin colour, as these also
reflect some or the other bias?
* Someone said slavery is against human rights. Well, I don't think this
was always the situation, and that was precisely my point. Human standards
keep changing It was a perfectly fine business at one point of time, as
was selling opium to China.
* Well, nobody would object to "Free Tibet", because that is seen as a
politically correct cause in today's unipolar world. If the Chinese were at
the helm of a unipolar world, I'm sure we would all be thinking
differently. Especially me!
Let's keep some space for diversity, please. As some person said, let a
thousand flowers bloom! FN
PS: Above all, those who want to whisper into our ears as to what's wrong
with this user or  his/her actions, can't we have this discussion under the
glare of public scrutiny and accountability?

On Fri, 2 Jul 2021 at 16:57, Peter Southwood 
wrote:

> The problem is which political opinions would be acceptable on a user
> page, and who gets to decide this. We are expected to edit neutrally, so
> expressing a political opinion on a user page could be  considered a
> declaration of partisanship which could extend to editing behaviour.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Peter
>
>
>
> *From:* Frederick Noronha [mailto:fredericknoro...@gmail.com]
> *Sent:* 30 June 2021 00:57
> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List
> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Blocking users for Palestinian flag
>
>
>
> Just seeking clarity:
>
> Is there anything wrong with expressing a political opinion on a userpage?
>
> A lot of our badges, flags, icons might have some or the other political
> history behind them, just that these are seen as more "normal" by today's
> standards. At one time, slavery too was considered quite legal.
>

On Fri, 2 Jul 2021 at 18:56, Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga <
galder...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Friendly reminder: Slavery is against human rights.
> --
> *From:* Yaroslav Blanter 
> *Sent:* Friday, July 2, 2021 2:22 PM
> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List 
> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Blocking users for Palestinian flag
>
> I do not know. Whoever puts a userbox "I support slavery" on their user
> page on the English Wikipedia invites a fast block does not matter what
> their edits in the articles are.
>
> I do not think there is a universal answer to this question.
>
> Yaroslav
>
> On Fri, Jul 2, 2021 at 1:31 PM Satdeep Gill  wrote:
>
> But was there something in the editing. People should be free to say FREE
> TIBET in their user pages, for instance but can be really reasonable
> editors.
>
> In a way, we are also unbiased and neutral point of view is something we
> all look upto but can never trully achieve.
>
> Best
> Satdeep
>
> On Fri, Jul 2, 2021, 4:57 PM Peter Southwood 
> wrote:
>
> The problem is which political opinions would be acceptable on a user
> page, and who gets to decide this. We are expected to edit neutrally, so
> expressing a political opinion on a user page could be  considered a
> declaration of partisanship which could extend to editing behaviour.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Peter
>
>
>
> *From:* Frederick Noronha [mailto:fredericknoro...@gmail.com]
> *Sent:* 30 June 2021 00:57
> *To:* Wikimedia Mailing List
> *Subject:* [Wikimedia-l] Re: Blocking users for Palestinian flag
>
>
>
> Just seeking clarity:
>
> Is there anything wrong with expressing a political opinion on a userpage?
>
> A lot of our badges, flags, icons might have some or the other political
> history behind them, just that these are seen as more "normal" by today's
> standards. At one time, slavery too was considered quite legal.
>
> Can't this be discussed in the public domain?
>
> FN
>
>
>
> On Wed, 30 Jun 2021 at 03:34, Gereon Kalkuhl  wrote:
>
> Dear 4nn1|2,
>
> Thank you for informing us about the incident. But to be clear: You write
> that it's about a Palestinian flag. Yet actually it's about a flag with a
> statement: free Palestine. There's a difference. And a member of the
> Persian Wikipedia removed the deletion request on Commons and kept the file
> on the same day. I'm not judging anything here, but please be more precise
> in your accusations.
>
> Thank you,
> Gereon
>
> Am 29.06.2021 um 20:34 schrieb Amir Sarabadani:
>
> If anyone is interested to know about this incident. Send me a private
> message and I can explain better.
>
>
>
> Best
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 29, 2021 at 8:17 PM 4nn1l2 <4nn1l2.w...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Wikimedians,
>
>
>
> Persian Wikipedia has reached a new level in their arbitrary and nonesense
> adminship. They