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Volume 4, Issue 8 | 18 February 2008 | About the Signpost |
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This week, I'd like to congratulate and thank Michael Snow, who officially leaves the Signpost this week with his appointment to the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation (see related story). Michael was, of course, the original founder of the Signpost, serving as editor-in-chief from January 2005 through August 2005, and as a regular contributing writer since then. Over more than three years of writing, Michael contributed more than 300 articles, making him, by far, the most active writer we've had. Michael also helped me adjust into the role as editor-in-chief, and I'll always be grateful for that.
With Michael's departure, our usual need for writers is amplified. For example, due to lack of staffing, we were unable to write an article about press coverage of Wikipedia's usage of images of Muhammad, although coverage was mentioned in the "In the news" report. Those interested in helping out, please contact me.
Thanks for reading the Signpost.
— Ral315
On Wednesday, Wikimedia Foundation Chair Florence Devouard announced the appointment of two new trustees: Michael Snow, and developer Domas Mituzas (Midom):
The members of the board of trustees of Wikimedia Foundation have recently agreed to add two new board members, both being members of our community, for a term which will expire at next board elections (June-July 2008). The first is Michael Snow, long time editor of Wikipedia, and twice candidate to the board. Rather than presenting him, I recommend that you go read into detail his candidate statements, back in 2004 or in 2007. Michael is an American lawyer, has been the founder of the Signpost and is currently the Chair of the Communication Committee. He is noticeable (somehow) for being very calm and wise.
The second is Domas Mituzas, long time developer in our tech team. He is from Lithuania and works for MySQL. He has been a member of the core tech team for... ever, and is the Foundation hardware volunteer officer. He is noticeable for being a very friendly, cheerful, and tall individual.
Snow finished 5th in the 2007 Board elections, just 25 votes behind Frieda Brioschi, who received the final spot in those elections. In selecting Snow, former Board member Oscar van Dillen was not selected; van Dillen received just 5 more votes than Snow in the 2007 elections, and as a result, did not hold onto the spot which he had been appointed to in December 2006.
Mituzas' selection, meanwhile, was the first time the Board appointed a community representative who had not stood in prior elections. While Mituzas has been a long-time community member, and has served as Hardware Officer, a volunteer position, since May 2005 (see archived story), he has never been a candidate for the Board of Trustees.
Both users' terms will come up for re-election in June or July, in the next series of Board elections. It is not clear whether either of the two replace Michael Davis as Treasurer of the Foundation, or whether that position will be appointed as well. It is possible that the Board will again expand to nine members, adding a new Treasurer and another representative, either elected or appointed.
This week's WikiWorld comic uses text from "Thinking about the immortality of the crab". The comic is released under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere.
The Arbitration Committee desysopped Archtransit on Tuesday, February 19, after concerns about the user's administrative actions led to a checkuser, the results of which showed that Archtransit likely controlled many sockpuppets, some of which he had blocked and unblocked previously (possibly to remove the "autoblock" setting that might have revealed his sockpuppet network). A discussion regarding the situation is underway at the administrators' noticeboard.
Top papers reference Wikipedia and raise question of website’s credibility as source - The rise of Wikipedia has given much food for thought for media outlets in considering what they consider acceptable as sources. For example, Agence France Presse has banned the use of Wikipedia and Facebook as sources, and other organisations write Wikipedia off as false. However, the Wall Street Journal has used Wikipedia for information about the turducken, information that might be difficult to find elsewhere. Jimbo Wales recommends that journalists use Wikipedia for background research as opposed to the single source of information.
Other recent mentions in the online press include:
A featured article is considered to be one of the best articles in Wikipedia. Featured status is determined by Wikipedia's editors, who review articles nominated at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates (WP:FAC) for prose quality, accuracy, neutrality, completeness, stability and style according to Wikipedia's featured article criteria. A small bronze star () on the top right corner of an article's page indicates that the article is featured.
As of February 18, there were 1,899 featured articles, of a total (as of today) of 6,928,785 articles on Wikipedia. Thus, only about one in 1,040 articles at Wikipedia have been assessed as meeting featured article criteria. From that you might conclude that it is very difficult to write a FA. No, it isn't! Just focus on your efforts, do not be disappointed by any (temporary) setbacks, do not be discouraged by the many myths that surround FAs, and read the following advice!
Why should any Wikipedian strive to create FAs? Is it worth writing a FA? The answer is definitely yes, because in this way Wikipedia is enriched with more articles of high quality that every person around the planet can read for free. It is not an exaggeration to say that by writing FAs you spread your knowledge, and you thus make the world a better place!
First, you must commit yourself to the goal! Hopefully, you'll find the following advice to be helpful. The ten steps that follow will guide you from the beginning of your effort (what subject are you going to choose?) until the successful (what should you do after you nominate the article?) closing of your nomination by the FA Director or his delegates.
Remember you are not here for thanks and praise; you are here to share and spread your knowledge. So, when you efforts are crowned with success, remain humble and go for your second FA! Good luck!
Happyme22 successfully brought both Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan (the subject of his first Wikipedia edit in February 2007) to Featured Article status in 2007. Happyme22 was an inexperienced user when he first nominated Ronald Reagan in March 2007, but through its record five FA nominations, he was accepting of all feedback, and kept a positive attitude. Happyme22 worked diligently both to grow as an editor and improve the articles, culminating in the promotion of Ronald Reagan in August 2007. Learning from his mistakes, Happyme22 brought Nancy Reagan through peer review and a successful WikiProject Biography A-class review before nominating it for FA status in October 2007. This nomination remained active for over three weeks as there was a great deal of comment from FA reviewers. One of the most heated issues was how to refer to the subject. She had achieved some degree of fame under her maiden name, and there was concern that readers would be confused that a reference to "Reagan" meant Ronald Reagan, instead of her. The discussion resulted in a consensus update to the Manual of Style for Biographies to provide further guidance for similar articles. The article was promoted on its next nomination in November 2007 with no users opposing.
DrKiernan had an equally exciting journey to FA with Mumia Abu-Jamal. The article was repeatedly brought to FAC by various sockpuppets of banned user DavidYork71, who used the sockpuppets to attack any reviewers who opposed the nomination. DrKiernan took charge of the article and rewrote it almost completely, despite the banned user's continued disruption attempts. The article was promoted to FA status in February 2008, adding to DrKiernan's featured article contributions and Featured article review "saves", mostly in the area of royalty and nobility.
Seven users were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: Barneca (nom), Remember the dot (nom), Seresin (nom), Doczilla (nom), MBisanz (nom), SorryGuy (nom), and Nousernamesleft (nom).
Three bots or bot tasks were approved to begin operating this week: SQLBot (task request), IPTaggerBot (task request), and Comics-awb (task request).
Fourteen articles were promoted to featured status last week: Transformers (film) (nom), Domestic sheep (nom), Joseph Szigeti (nom), Ross Sea party (nom), Free Association of German Trade Unions (nom), Ray Emery (nom), Battlefield Earth (film) (nom), Lost: Missing Pieces (nom), Operation Camargue (nom), Glorious First of June (nom), Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (nom), Halo Graphic Novel (nom), Edward VII of the United Kingdom (nom), and Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (nom).
Five lists were promoted to featured status last week: List of winners of the Mathcounts competition (nom), List of Ipswich Town F.C. statistics and records (nom), Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 1) (nom), List of former county courts in Wales (nom), and Lester Patrick Trophy (nom).
One topic was featured last week: Dream Days at the Hotel Existence (nom).
One portal was promoted to featured status last week: Portal:Indiana (nom).
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: Constitution of Belarus, Irish phonology, Barn Swallow, Hurricane Isis, Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express, and Quneitra.
Four articles were delisted recently: South Africa (nom), Galveston Hurricane of 1900 (nom), Plate tectonics (nom), and Porgy and Bess (nom).
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Eastern newt, Love or Duty, Buster Keaton, Kingston, Jamacia, Edwin Smith Papyrus, Fly, and Citric acid cycle.
One featured picture was demoted: Image:Mccoy Tyner 1973 gh.jpg
One sound was featured last week: .
Seventeen pictures including two videos were promoted to featured status last week and are shown below.
This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Note that not all changes described here are necessarily live as of press time; the English Wikipedia is currently running version 1.44.0-wmf.8 (f08e6b3), and changes to the software with a version number higher than that will not yet be active. Configuration changes and changes to interface messages, however, become active immediately.
{{DISPLAYTITLE}}
, which is used by templates like {{lowercase}} to change the appearance of an article's title, now works during previews. (r30920, bug 13005)
The Arbitration Committee opened one new case this week, and closed two cases, leaving five currently open.