Re: [Wikimedia-l] A new Wikipedia fork: InfoGalactic
On Wed, 12 Oct 2016, Peter Southwood wrote: I agree. There is a lot of information that could be provided for and by people who are interested in trivia (I am not using the term derogatively - just couldn’t think of a better one). Cheers, P The subject-specific Wikia wikis seem to generally do this job in their areas of interest. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
Re: [Wikimedia-l] 2015 Harassment Survey - Results Report
On Sat, 30 Jan 2016, Trillium Corsage wrote: 30.01.2016, 14:03, "Maggie Dennis" : The pictures may not be the individuals at all; they may be pornographic pictures of others that are misattributed. And sometimes the attribution is not to a real name, but to their usernames. In all cases, the intent seems to be to humiliate and hurt the target. Sometimes the goal seems to be to drive them away. That was the story of Lightbreather, a English Wiipedia editor that self-identified as female. She ran afoul of some other editor that (IIRC, I'm confident this is basically correct) that labeled some images on a porn site as being her (they were labeled "Lightbreather"). The outcome (GET THIS!) was that she (Lightbreather!) was formally banned by Arbcom for complaining about it at Wikipedia. They said she was "outing" the culprit by calling attention to his off-wiki activities. Horrendous I know and tends to shows that Arbcom and the rest of Enwiki administrative structure genuinely have a problem with women, which they are often alleged to (i.e. in Gamergate and all that). Trillium Corsage Unfortunately you memory is not quite correct regarding Lightbreather. She was not banned for complaining about being harassed, she was banned for repeated and persistent breaches of behavioural policies on Wikipedia, repeated breaches of topic bans related to gun control, ownership of articles, revert and edit warring, casting aspersions, causing disruption to make a point and, partictularly, outing attempting to out another editor (on and off Wikipedia) - despite being explicitly warned (more than once) that she must not do that. The full decision can be read at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Lightbreather#Final_decision She was, very unfortunately and completely unacceptably, harassed off-wiki by two individuals during the case (so far as I am aware, independently). One of those individuals was banned as soon as we (arbcom) were made aware of the harassment as there was a clear and direct link to a Wikipedia user. There was not a direct link between the other harasser and any Wikipedia user, and so ArbCom, the English Wikipedia functionaries team and the Foundation spent a lot of time and effort investigating who the harasser was. This investigation produced an indirect link (with iirc at least four intermediate steps) to a specific Wikipedia editor, but there was no consensus that the link was strong enough to take action - although there was universal agreement that the perpertrator should be banned if identified. Basically there were three possibilities - 1. the Wikipedia editor and the harasser were the same person. 2. the Wikipedia editor was being framed. 3. the harassment was linked to the Wikipedia editor entirely coincidentally. Only in the case of 1 would action against the Wikipedia editor be justified, but the evidence was not strong enough to be sure this was the case. However bad the harassment is, it is important to remember that alleged perpretrators are still innocent until proven otherwise. After the case (1-2 months later I think) more evidence was found that bypassed the weakest link in the previous chain. After more investigation it was found that this link, while still indirect, was sufficient to connect the harassment to the Wikipedia editor and they were swiftly banned. Far from punishing Lightbreather for complaining about being harassed, Arbcom, Functionaries and the Foundation all offered her as much support as they were able to deal with the effects of the harassment, to identify her harasser and to take what real-world action she could against that person. Unfortunately, as the law in most jurisdictions is years or even decades behind the times when it comes to harassment, there is all too often very little that can be done through legal channels. In Lightbreather's case, I believe that Lightbreather, her harasser, the WMF and the external website on which she was harassed are all based in different jurisdictions which only makes things even more complicated. It thus really does not suprise me that the survey respondents report the effectiveness of legal action so poorly. Chris Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF has lost its path
As has been explained multiple times in multiple places, the WMF have been advised, for very good legal reasons, not to give details. Believe it or not, there's a sensible reason behind our refusal to comment: we can execute global bans for a wide variety of things (see the Terms of Use for some examples - and no, provoking Jimbo is not on the list), some of which - including child protection issues - could be quite dangerous to openly divulge. Let's say we execute five global bans, and tell you the reason behind four of them. Well, the remaining one is pretty clearly for something really bad, and open knowledge of that could endanger the user, their family, any potential law enforcement case, and could result in a quite real miscarriage of justice and/or someone being placed in real physical danger. So no, we - as with most internet companies - have a very strict policy that we do not comment publicly on the reason for global bans. It's a common sense policy and one that's followed by - and insisted upon - by almost every reasonable, responsible company that executes this type of action. Philippe Beaudette, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 04:40, 18 January 2015 (UTC) from https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:WMFOffice#Ban_to_Russavia Chris On Tue, 20 Jan 2015, rubin.happy wrote: Bans without explanations are certainly not acceptible. rubin 2015-01-20 14:18 GMT+03:00 Ricordisamoa ricordisa...@openmailbox.org: It is now clear that the superprotect affair was only a preliminary move. Now they hide themselves behind a collective account https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:WMFOffice issuing batches of global locks https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog; type=globalauthuser=WMFOfficeyear=2015month=1 and writing boilerplate replies https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk: WMFOfficediff=10982297. As with the superprotect, the how is to blame, not the what. Note that I do not object global locks at all. What I object is the lack of a published reason for them, and the community interaction that Lila called so deeply for. They can play with the Terms Of Use, protecting any page on any project and global-locking any account to protect the integrity and safety of the site and users, actually at their sole discretion. The breach of trust is complete now. The only thing that may stop me from leaving the projects for good is my loyalty to the volunteer community. ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Wikimania 2014 needs your help!
Hello all We're looking for extra hands to help with he smooth running of this year's Wikimania, so I and the rest of the team would be extremely grateful if any of you would consider giving a few hours of your time. We will need volunteers to: staff the registration desk, especially on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, when we expect to be at our busiest moderate/invigilate sessions direct attendees around the venue, and between the venue and other points (eg tube stations and hotels) staff the information desk, assisting attendees with queries help with streaming/recording sessions. That's a non-exhaustive list, but if any of those roles appeal to you, or if you're interested in helping in another capacity, please complete the form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dzXSoAnHF6StkBA2mKIklse6gZA6Uw-EIT2egTLC3ew/viewform or email me with any questions at ha...@wikimanialondon.org. Being an editor is not a prerequisite, so please do share this with anyone else you think might be interested. For those of you in or around London (which I appreciate is a minority on this list), we are holding informal social events for volunteers in the weeks running up to Wikimania so that volunteers can get to know each other and get to know the the team, and these will be a great opportunity to learn more about Wikimania and get involved. These are scheduled for Sunday evenings: 22 June, 6 July, and 20 July (18:00-20:00); if there is significant demand, we may consider scheduling further events. If you'd like to come to any of these events, please let Harry know by email (ha...@wikimanialondon.org) or sign up on the wiki at https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_drinks. Any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Thanks, Chris McKenna Wikimania 2014 Support Wikimedia UK Chris McKenna personal email: cmcke...@sucs.org work email: chris.mcke...@wikimedia.org.uk The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Please welcome Lila Tretikov, the Wikimedia Foundation's new ED
Congratulations and welcome Lila, I look forward to meeting you at Wikimania. Chris On Thu, 1 May 2014, Jan-Bart de Vreede wrote: Hi All FYI Jan-Bart Begin forwarded message: From: Jan-Bart de Vreede jdevre...@wikimedia.org Subject: Please welcome Lila Tretikov, the Wikimedia Foundation's new ED Date: 1 May 2014 20:15:04 GMT+2 To: wikimediaannounc...@lists.wikimedia.org Dear fellow community members, On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees I am delighted to announce that the new Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation will be Lila Tretikov. Lila is a widely respected Bay Area technology leader, most recently with SugarCRM. As many of you know, about a year ago Sue Gardner announced she planned to step down as our ED. As we launched the search for her successor, we spent some time working through the most critical requirements for the role. We decided the new ED should be someone with a product/engineering background, ideally in an open-source or other online community context. We wanted someone experienced with organisations that were growing, who'd managed staff and budgets comparable to ours, and who had experience creating continuous delivery of technology improvements in an agile context. We wanted a person who is oriented towards collaboration, transparency and openness, with some experience with complex stakeholder environments, and with an international orientation. We knew we needed someone with courage and strong personal integrity, who wouldn't be intimidated by attempts to censor the projects. Lila is precisely what we set out to find. Lila was born in the Soviet Union and moved to the United States alone, as a teenager. She's been working for technology companies, primarily in open source, in the Bay Area for the past 15 years. In 1999 she started her career at Sun Microsystems. Shortly afterwards she founded GrokDigital, a technology and design company. She spent three years as senior director of development at Telespree, a company that provides cloud-based wireless data services for mobile carriers. For the past eight years, she was at SugarCRM, where she held positions of increasing responsibility as the organization grew, including being in charge of internal IT, marketing, customer support and professional services, engineering, and product development. She has a stellar reputation as a leader who is highly skilled, collaborative, open, passionate and curious. We think Lila will be a terrific fit for the ED role. The Transition Team (Phoebe, Alice, Kat, Sue, Erik, Geoff, Gayle and I) voted unanimously to recommend her to the Board, and the Board voted unanimously to accept the recommendation. She strikes all of us as smart, brave and unpretentious, and we believe she has the skills the WMF needs. Lila is going to spend the next few weeks in learning-and-listening mode, and will take over the ED position from Sue at the end of the month. Her first priority will be to immerse herself in deepening her understanding of the Wikimedia projects. I want to close this announcement by saying a heartfelt and deeply appreciative thanks to Sue, who has been the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation for the past seven years. When the Board and I hired Sue in 2007, we were just a chaotic little non-profit in small-town Florida, with a tiny staff and not much money. Over the past seven years, Sue's leadership has built the Foundation into an effective, well-funded and well-managed organisation, with integrity and a clear sense of purpose, and her steady and committed presence throughout the search process was integral in helping us come to this excellent result. We will be forever grateful for her leadership and vision, and I hope we can continue to rely on her support in the months and years ahead. In June Sue will move into a new role as a special advisor to me and Lila. She'll also take a well-earned holiday, and maybe even a bit of a wiki-break, before beginning to think about what she's going to do next. Many of us will get a chance to see her in London, at Wikimania, in August. The Wikimedia Foundation is delighted to have reached such a successful outcome to the search. My thanks to Lisa Grossman of m/Oppenheim for helping us with it, and I ask you to please join me in extending a warm welcome to Lila Tretikov, our new ED. Jan-Bart de Vreede Chair Wikimedia Board of Trustees ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https
Re: [Wikimedia-l] How Wikimedia could help languages to survive
On Sun, 20 Apr 2014, geni wrote: On 20 April 2014 09:32, Hubert Laska hubert.la...@gmx.at wrote: What do you want to say with that? That it is thus no longer necessary, gaelic to lead as an example? Wikipedia does´nt end at national borders! Wikimedia UK however does. There is also the issue of changing political status. While Westminister may not be overly concerned with regards to Gaelic we can't predict how an independent Holyrood would react. If Scotland votes for independence, it will not become a separate country until March 2016 at the earliest. Until such time WMUK is the local chapter for Scotland. It may continue to be after that time, as details of what happens to WMUK in the event of a yes vote are at present undefined, but continuing as one organisation covering both countries is a possibility. Even if it doesn't, a project started by WMUK now could easily be handed over to a Wikimedia Scotland - not unlikely with the same people at the helm. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Affiliation in username
On Sun, 20 Apr 2014, Isarra Yos wrote: Removing the affiliation from the name itself and adding it as a group would allow the mediawiki to format the name and group in a way that makes sense for the given language. Keep to the parentheses for english and such, do other things for ones where that doesn't work or wouldn't be the norm. That sounds like a good plan, although would need to be a plan to cope with duplicates, e.g. user:Whatamidoing and user:Whatamidoing (WMF) both exist. Chris Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] 10 years of wikimedia-l
Thank you Phoebe, this is one of those threads that are really nice to read. It's been less than a year on here for me, and still I think I've seen just about every type of post you mention - the sure sign of a vigorous and healthy list. And now nostalgia can be added to [[List of topics covered on the wikimedia-l mailing list]] :) Here's to the next 10 years! Chris On Thu, 17 Apr 2014, phoebe ayers wrote: Hello everyone! So, to change the subject entirely, I just discovered that this is the 10 year anniversary of foundation-l/wikimedia-l! Foundation-l was founded in April 2004, and was renamed to wikimedia-l two years ago: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/ Foundation-l was originally an offshoot from wikipedia-l, which is where the first discussions about policies and issues on the projects were held. It was proposed as a separate list in order to discuss Wikimedia-wide issues. Over the years, we have had debates on every subject under the sun. We've gone through high points, hammering out constructive policies and debates, sharing our experiences as encyclopedists and free culture enthusiasts; and we've gone through low points, with allegations of bad behavior flying left and right and people belaboring points beyond all reason. Sometimes -- usually, in fact -- it's both at once, in different threads. The list has been a place to send ideas, manifestos, and information as well as a place to discuss with others who share our passions. We've debated the list and its place a lot over the years. We have talked about moderation, but rarely done anything with it. We've implemented posting limits (still in place: 30 posts/person/month); enforced posting limits; forgotten to enforce posting limits; talked about stricter or weaker limits. We've split sub-topic lists out; we've merged lists back together. We've debated the cost in time and energy of each email, the burden that being subscribed to the list means, how impossible to keep up it is. We've tried summaries, filters, translations. We've talked about languages, and tried many times (unsuccessfully to date) to make the list truly multilingual. We've called each other out on bad behavior, and every once in a while we've remembered to praise each other too. The list has chronicled the growth of the Wikimedia Foundation from the days when we celebrated raising $50,000 in the fundraiser and held the first board elections to today. And it has chronicled the growth of the Wikimedia movement, across languages and communities, and of the projects, as they changed from rather odd novelties to a core part of the internet. People on the list have come and gone. Sometimes, for months or years at a time, someone will post on nearly every thread and every subject. Usually they eventually taper off, and then someone new will take their place, making the rest of the subscribers wonder how do they have so much time?! For those who have been subscribed for a long time, these names are recognizable because of their many posts and their (in)famous dedication to the list. (Wouldn't it be fun if we could get those folks all together in person, for a Wikimania panel or something?) Many subscribers never post; others are able to find a balance. It is a truism that those who rarely post often send the most thoughtful mails. People have used the list to join the movement, to get to know others. They've also used the list to quit the movement, sometimes loudly and angrily, sometimes thoughtfully, sometimes silently; it is always sad when this happens. Sometimes, people have used the list to return (welcome back!) The list can be endlessly irritating. It's a source of conversation: wow, the list is blowing up right now, can you believe it?! It also can be a source of connection with other people who we may only know through their emails, and a source of joy and inventive new ideas. It is disconnected from the on-wiki communities, but is connected too. It serves as a place to share with people across our movement, when there are few general channels to do so. It is thousands of mails in thousands of in-boxes, over many years. The list is ours, our commons, ours to take care of and to try to make better. Happy anniversary, Wikimedia-l. -- phoebe -- * I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers at gmail.com * ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ
[Wikimedia-l] Which articles are widely shared accorss languages (was Re: ELWP reaches 100000 articles)
I'm no expert, but I would expect that finding which articles are and are not present in a given set of Wikipedias would be an easy task now that Wikidata handles all the interwiki links. Chris On Thu, 10 Apr 2014, Stevie Benton wrote: This is excellent news, well done to everyone involved! It's actually got me thinking a little. I wonder if it would be possible to do a study of the, say, 50 largest Wikipedias and get a handle on which articles are shared across all of them. This could then be used to analyse where there are gaps that might usefully be filled - both in terms of quality and content. Could be based around which articles are considered the most important in each Wikipedia, akin to the list of vital articles on EN:WP. Is this something that could easily be done? Would it be useful? Thanks and regards, Stevie On 10 April 2014 09:12, Jon Davies jon.dav...@wikimedia.org.uk wrote: Outstanding. Well done everyone. On 10 April 2014 06:39, Nurunnaby Chowdhury n...@nhasive.com wrote: Wow..congratulations.. -- Nurunnaby Chowdhury Hasive Sysop, Bengali Wikipedia Member, IEG Committee Sent from my Android Tablet On Apr 10, 2014 3:19 AM, Amir E. Aharoni amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il wrote: Callooh! Callay! Congratulations to the language that gave so many other languages[1] the word Encyclopedia. [1] https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5292#sitelinks-wikipedia -- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com “We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore 2014-04-10 0:13 GMT+03:00 Asaf Bartov abar...@wikimedia.org: Dear colleagues, Please join me in congratulating our colleagues of the Greek Wikipedia, upon reaching 10 articles, a symbolic milestone for Wikipedias. Some of them are on this list, but a lot more people would see and appreciate your message on-wiki, so you can sign and (if you like) add a message in your language, here: https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A3%CF%85%CE%B6%CE%AE%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%83%CE%B7_%CE%92%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%B9%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%AF%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%B1:100.000_%CE%BB%CE%AE%CE%BC%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B1 Cheers, Asaf -- Asaf Bartov Wikimedia Foundation http://www.wikimediafoundation.org Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! https://donate.wikimedia.org ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- *Jon Davies - Chief Executive Wikimedia UK*. Mobile (0044) 7803 505 169 tweet @jonatreesdavies Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). Telephone (0044) 207 065 0990. Visit http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe -- Stevie Benton Head of External Relations Wikimedia UK +44 (0) 20 7065 0993 / +44 (0) 7803 505 173 @StevieBenton Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.* ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe Chris
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Open letter from Wikimedia Argentina regarding URAA
On Sun, 2 Mar 2014, geni wrote: On 2 March 2014 08:55, David Gerard dger...@gmail.com wrote: On 2 March 2014 02:01, Mark delir...@hackish.org wrote: I personally would welcome more attention to our actual mission, producing free content, rather than the mission some of our members seem to be engaged in, making the *.wikipedia.org sites look nice in the short term, even if nobody external can reuse the content. There seems to be a disconnect between what Commons sees as it's mission: To be a repository of Free media; and what other projects see as Commons' mission: To be a repository of media for use on Wikimedia projects. There is a further disconnect in that Commons is taking an increasingly ultra-conservative approach to the definition of Free, whereas most other projects are working to a definition of Free for all practical purposes. It is the latter interpretation that the board, in consultation with the legal team, are recommending as the way forward but is being resisted strongly by many on Commons. These days I wouldn't dare upload an image that was not either my own work or public doman due to life+100 because I couldn't guarantee that it wont be delted. Even with my own work I'm wary because of recent cases of amateur lawyering over the definition of permanent for the purposes of UK freedom of panorama. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Open letter from Wikimedia Argentina regarding URAA
On Sun, 2 Mar 2014, Mark wrote: On 3/2/14, 5:31 PM, Chris McKenna wrote: There seems to be a disconnect between what Commons sees as it's mission: To be a repository of Free media; and what other projects see as Commons' mission: To be a repository of media for use on Wikimedia projects. But since the other Wikimedia projects should be producing free-content encyclopedias, this is no disconnect: Commons should host Free media, and the other projects should include Free media. Otherwise the other projects' content cannot be reused externally, and they are not free-content encyclopedias. You've missed the point. Commons is not at present a reliable source of media, Free or otherwise, because media gets deleted because once someone alleges that it is not free it gets deleted if the original uploader cannot prove it is free, regardless of the merits of the allegation. The Foundation has said do not delete images that *might* be unfree under URAA unless there is a takedown notice yet the images continue to be deleted. There is a further disconnect in that Commons is taking an increasingly ultra-conservative approach to the definition of Free, whereas most other projects are working to a definition of Free for all practical purposes. It is the latter interpretation that the board, in consultation with the legal team, are recommending as the way forward but is being resisted strongly by many on Commons. This is more the crux of the issue, I think. I'm mostly familiar with en.wiki, but on there the definition swings pretty far to the opposite extreme, with a lot of content that is *not* Free for most practical purposes. For example, a large number of our articles on 20th-century artists cannot be legally republished in their home countries, or even other English-speaking countries, without stripping the images, due to the author having died less than 70 years ago. As a result, the illustrated version of en.wiki is effectively Free only for *American* reusers specifically; someone in the UK or Spain cannot legally republish [[en:Pablo Picasso]]. This is entirely irrelevant to the attitude at Commons. English Wikipedia is Free according to the definition it uses, which is essentally Free for practical purposes as an Encyclopaedia and that is applied reliably. In contrast, Commons is arbitrarily and inconsistently Free and appears to be prioritising point making over being a practical media repository. You are free to disagree about en.wp's choices, but this does not excuse the attitude of Commons to the Wikimedia community. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Copyright infringement - The real elephant in the room
On Wed, 13 Nov 2013, Marco Chiesa wrote: On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijs...@gmail.com wrote: Hoi I know several authors who publish and use their original text to publish on Wikipedia as well.. This is another source of false positives because they have the copyright to the original source... To recognise this you have to be even more sophisticated. Actually, we consider these as copyvios, we delete the text straight away, and we tell the editor if you're the author write to OTRS. Of course, if the text is already somewhere else under a compatible free-license, we don't need this. Until you can't be sure that User:MrX is actually the physical person MrX, we need to protect the author's right. But an automated tool can not know whether OTRS verification has happened or not. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Copyright infringement - The real elephant in the room
On Wed, 13 Nov 2013, Gerard Meijssen wrote: The point I want to make is that having a tool that is KNOWN to be deficient in specific ways can still be a huge advantage over not having a tool at all. So PLEASE lets not make perfection the enemy of the good. The problem isn't that we're waiting for perfection. We're waiting for the proportion of false positives and false negatives to fall to a level where don't overwhelm the true positives. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
[Wikimedia-l] Invalid security certificate for en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org
Trying to access almost anything on en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org using https results in dire warnings from Firefox that the security certificate is not valid. Looking at the details it is issued to *.wmflabs.org, which at least as far as Firefox 24 on linux is concerned doesn't seem to cover deeper levels of subdomains. Chris Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Fwd: [Wikimania-l] git.wikimedia.org dead due to wikimania ; )
On Tue, 13 Aug 2013, Oliver Keyes wrote: I'd like to think Engineering do a pretty good job at uptime for core services - when was the last time you saw Wikipedia down for any extended period of time? - regardless of what day of the week it is. Wikipedia uptime is certianly much better these days than it was around 2005/6 when there were at least two websites dedicated to reporting its status. Back then it wasn't uncommon to experience major slowdowns, periods of non-responsiveness, extended read only periods and edits failing (sometimes silently) due to (iirc) overloaded servers. I can't remember the last time I saw anything like that, but it certainly wasn't 2013. The folks responsible for this certainly deserve kudos for their efforts. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Single User Login finalisation: some accounts will be renamed
On Sat, 3 Aug 2013, MZMcBride wrote: It needs to be made explicit here and now that this change needs to be managed _incredibly carefully_ or it will result in very negative consequences for Wikimedia. [...] The process outlined at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SUL_finalisation is currently unacceptable and needs to be rewritten. We must not have a repeat of the recent VisualEditor deployment fiasco in which arbitrary deadlines and requirements lead to thousands of Wikimedians being angry. I completely agree with this. Regardless of whether any of the same people are involved, the VE deployment has used up all (and more) of the well of good feeling about the WMF. With a full compliment of good will you /might/ be able to get away with that timetable resulting in only a small number of unforgiving users and minor bad press. With the negative amounts of this resource the WMF has it would be an unmitigated disaster. The forced renaming needs to happen no earlier than the later of August 2014 or one year after individual notification. The individual notfications MUST include encouragemnt to voluntary renaming and should be sent at 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, 1 month, 2 weeks, 10 days, 5 days, 2 days and 1 day in advance of the renaming, and that is at a minimum. Remember that this is affecting real people, many of whom will already be pissed off at the Foundation for VE and this will affect them directly and individually. Forcibly changing someone's identity is about the most major thing you could possibly do. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Re: [Wikimedia-l] Single User Login finalisation: some accounts will be renamed
On Sat, 3 Aug 2013, Katie Chan wrote: On 03/08/2013 09:41, Chris McKenna wrote: and should be sent at 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, 1 month, 2 weeks, 10 days, 5 days, 2 days and 1 day in advance of the renaming, and that is at a minimum. Why not ten years, or maybe twenty years just to be on the same side? A year is a reasonable amount of notice to expect - it's a long time in the digital world (it is extremely rare that people are temporarily banned from en.wp for longer than this for example). Much beyond that is pointless as people wont think it's ever going to happen and will ignore it. This will happen with some people for 1 year, but less so. Remember that we want to get people on our side, so we need to work with their psychology. Chris McKenna cmcke...@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart Antoine de Saint Exupery ___ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
