Wikipedia flamewars
The science of Wikipedia flamewars
The Washington Post reported Tuesday on the most controversial articles on various language Wikipedias as determined by a cross-continental research group. The Post conveyed mild amusement at the large number of controversies surrounding football/soccer - fully half of the most controversial pages on Spanish Wikipedia and the most controversial on Romanian and Hebrew - and felt that the relatively small number of intractable discussions was a positive both for Wikipedia and for humankind. Of the more predictable disputes, reporter Max Ehrenfreund commented specifically on German Wikipedia's Croatia, and English's George W. Bush, anarchism, and Muhammad. Ehrenfreund discussed the method the researchers used to determine the most controversial articles, which included checking for the frequency of reverts, controlling for vandalism, and examining the diversity of editors working on the article.
| “ | Articles on Jesus and homeopathy are in dispute in all four languages [English, French, Spanish, and German], while articles on anarchism, socialism, global warming and Mexico are controversial in at least three of the four. | ” |
Also mentioned was the previous paper published by the Yasseri group that showed that most content disputes trend towards a consensus, with a very small number remaining on a trajectory towards continued conflict.
The research was also covered in outlets including CNN, Digital Journal, the New York Post, CIO Today, News.com.au, the Washington Times, and NBC, among many others.
Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales explains its mission to be mainstream
The Guardian published an overwhelmingly positive article on Jimmy Wales's comments in London on the future of Wikimedia. Wales was quoted lauding the Foundation's efforts with the media-celebrated and community-maligned VisualEditor and Flow. He also praised the Education Program as being part of the technological revolution of education, as well as the GLAM efforts. His remarks in London were also covered by the Independent, which included additional information on Wikipedia Zero and work by the developers' team. Other news stories on the topic were published by outlets including Business Insider and IT Pro Portal.
In brief
- There's something wickedly seductive about Wikipedia - The San Bernardino Sun published an article on the freedom to edit or vandalize.
- Royal Baby Watch 2013: Wikipedia, Cake Makers and Bookmakers Take Advantage of Kate's Due Date - The Latin Post mentioned the Wikipedia article on Prince George of Cambridge (formerly titled “Son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge” and “Child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge”). The page was also covered by Vanity Fair, The International Business Times, and The Herald-Sun.
- Facebook, LinkedIn Rank Like Airlines On User Satisfaction - InformationWeek reported on polls of social media users, who ranked Wikipedia at the top of several major social networks.
- Wikipedia Isn't Quite As Sexist as Everyone Thinks - Blogger Meghan Neal posted an article for the Motherboard discussing reinterpretation of gender survey results.
- Donations fuel Wikipedia engine - The Times (South Africa) covered recent fundraising efforts.
- Wicipedia Cymraeg: New manager looks to expand Wiki in Welsh - the BBC profiled Robin Llwyd ab Owain, a poet and former teacher who is spearheading efforts to increase contribution to the Welsh Wikipedia.
- Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham's staff deleted 'negative' Wikipedia references - The Telegraph reported on allegations that Andy Burnham was whitewashing his Wikipedia article.
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WikiProject Religion
This week, the Signpost delved into the vast and complex areas of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that make up religion. WikiProject Religion has been around since 2005 and has a complex scope, in that it only takes articles that deal with religion in a non-sectarian sense (like God or theology), along with any articles that do not have a dedicated daughter project. There are 56 items of featured material under the project's scope, along with two A-class and 112 good articles. We interviewed Devin Murphy, John Carter, Sowlos, and Adjwilley.
- What motivated you to join WikiProject Religion? Do you also participate in any specific religion's WikiProject?
- Devin Murphy: My love of learning, and my desire to bring my knowledge and understanding of the part of the religious would that I have had the pleasure of getting to know (the Unitarian Universalist world) to others.
- John Carter: I joined the Religion project because as a member, even if not the most active member, of basically all the other religion-based WikiProjects, it became clear to me that there was still a lot of encyclopedic content which we did not (and still do not) have here, and that, probably to noone's surprise, there also wasn't a group which clearly and effectively existed to deal with such content.
- Sowlos: As with Wikipedia in general, I saw a large amount of well written informative content, but it was (and is) incomplete. I joined the WikiProject to work with other editors interested in improving Wikipedia's religion articles. Yes, but that varies and I focus on one narrow subfield at a time.
- Adjwilley: It seemed like a good place to collaborate. I'm also a member of the LDS WikiProject, and probably the Christianity Wikiproject (I think..)
- Have you contributed to any of the project's Featured or Good Articles? What challenges do editors face when bringing an article about religion to the FAC or GAN process?
- Sowlos: Yes, but unfortunately not many. Differing perspectives can always be an issue with collaboratively written articles. This is especially true with religious topics. Although, I'd say the most significant impediment is a lack of regular editors contributing rather than an over-abundance. The wisdom of numbers tend to check strong POVs. This is not to say the WikiProject doesn't benefit from many good contributors, but there are currently 130 names on the member roles, ~6000 religion-tagged articles, and over 10000 pages in WP Religion's scope. Many articles simply never come close to GAN and FAC level, let alone grapple with the process.
- Adjwilley: Yes, I got Mormons to GA, and helped get Joseph Smith to GA. I also did the GA review for Bahá'u'lláh (very minor role). I'd say one of the harder parts was finding the fine line of NPOV that would satisfy editors/readers who view the article's subject as either fiction/fraud or absolute truth. I remember a GA review failing because the article didn't fit the reviewer's particular point of view (it wasn't polemic enough). That said, my personal experience with the GA review process has been good, probably because I was lucky enough to get some really top-notch reviewers when I nominated.
- When we conducted a series of interviews with the WikiProjects covering Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, we saw that all of these projects dealt to some extent with conflicts over the point of view expressed in articles. Do these conflicts ever bubble up to WikiProject Religion? What are the best ways to calm editors and resolve contentious issues?
- John Carter: Oh, yeah. I have a feeling that one of the reasons the Religion project was created was to help deal with such matters, actually. There are a lot of topics in the broad field of religion, like Baptism, for instance, which, depending on the sources you consult, are either terms used more or less uniquely by one religious group, like maybe Christianity in this case, or which are, maybe incorrectly, maybe not, also used at least occasionally by other groups for somewhat similar phenomena. Such difficult to resolve questions are probably in at least some cases among the reasons such articles don't get as much active attention and improvement as they probably deserve.
- Sowlos: Of course they do. Unlike other areas where we can depend extensively on empirical evidence and other sorts of facts, religion is the very embodiment of POV. When an individual sees an article contradicting their perspective on a subject close to their heart, it can be distressing. However, most disputes come from misunderstandings which can be resolved with intelligent and analytical discussion. Often such disputes reveal issues to all sides that each weren't adequately considering and the subject articles tend to improve as a result.
- Adjwilley: Yes. There are often conflicts between believers and non-believers, for lack of better terms, and occasionally these make it up to WikiProject Religion, though most (I think) are resolved on a lower level. I've found that a good way of getting around conflicts is to ignore the ad-hominems that are often thrown around ("you're just saying that because you're a ..."), find the best neutral source you can, and then try to make the article reflect the source's point of view. In matters of religion and belief, this can involve side-stepping the unanswerable questions of who's right and wrong, and just say what people believe. ("Muslims believe this, Christians say that, Atheists believe this.") Religious belief shouldn't be treated as fringe or fact, but somewhere in between.
- How well are smaller religions covered by Wikipedia? If a religion does not have a dedicated WikiProject, where do discussions and collaborations typically take place?
- John Carter: The answer to the first question is that many of the smaller religious groups which have editors who are passionately interested in them are covered fairly well. For some of the smaller religions which aren't as appealing to Westerners, or which might have, basically, disappeared over time, in a lot of cases, they aren't covered very well at all. This would include a lot of the Native American religious traditions, some of the Central Asian traditions, and many or maybe even most of the traditional religions which have over time faced diminishing numbers through colonization and other matters.
- What relationship does WikiProject Religion have with WikiProject Mythology? Is there any overlap in the projects' scopes?
- John Carter: There is an incredible amount of overlap between the two, as most myths are basically, in some way, religious in nature. One way to resolve any questions regarding which project(s) deal with which article(s) is to determine whether the reference sources, and other reliable sources, deal with a given topic as mythological, religious, or both. If either project can demonstrate that reference sources or other sources in its field clearly and substantially deal with the content, then there really isn't a lot of reason for another group to not welcome their involvement.
- Sowlos: There is a great deal of overlap. If a mythology is a sacred narrative or collection traditional stories, then all religions include mythologies as integral constituents of what they are. However, many people feel uneasy referring to stories from their respective religions as "mythology" for fear that it will be interoperated as indicating a lack of factual integrity.
- Does WikiProject Religion handle forms of irreligion? How well are these topics covered by Wikipedia?
- Devin Murphy: It does handle things like atheism, as atheism is one side of the religious spectrum. The thing that get handed more are what individual editors have a grater passion for. So in the case of WikiProject Religion that tends to be the articles related to the Aramaic faith traditions.
- John Carter: Atheism is counted by at least one reference book as a "secular faith," and has been recognized by some governments as a religion, so yeah, to the extent that "religion" sources deal with irreligion, we try to help out there a little as well. Regarding how well those topics are covered, unfortunately, I have to say I don't really necessarily know. I have managed to get together some lists, like Wikipedia:WikiProject Christianity/Encyclopedic articles, which indicate the articles, subarticles, and relative length of content for some of the religion projects, but there aren't really that I know of any similar reference sources on "irreligion," which can make it a bit harder to find out what all should be covered here.
- Are there any interfaith collaborations that could take place on Wikipedia to improve articles relevant to multiple faiths?
- John Carter: I very, very much wish there were, but right now I don't know of any. There is at least a few religious WikiProjects and work groups which deal with interreligious topics, like the Bible, religious texts, theology, and interfaith matters, but they haven't in a lot of cases gotten as much attention. If anyone thought they knew of a way to help develop such collaborations, please let me and the other members of the groups know and maybe we can work on some way to get such collaborations going.
- What are the project's most urgent needs? How can a new contributor help today?
- John Carter: Like I said above, many of the religion WikiProjects have already a page like those in Category: WikiProject lists of encyclopedic articles which list the topics covered in at least one reference book, and which probably, in many or most cases, can rather clearly qualify as notable enough for discussion here. At this point, probably our most urgent needs are for some of the basic content discussed in those lists, and in other topical overview/reference works, which we don't yet have to be developed or improved. Also, many of those lists include lists of subarticles, which, depending on the amount of material in them, might qualify either as separate articles here, or as significant sections of existing articles. One such example is Herod the Great, who, so far as I have seen, is included as a subtopic of an article on the Herodian dynasty in encyclopedic sources as often as not, and, in most if not all cases, is still the subject of the overwhelming amount of material in that article on the dynasty. But, particularly for newcomers, I think maybe getting your feet wet with some of the poorly developed or missing material discussed in such lists would be a good place to start.
- Sowlos: I would say WP Religion's most urgent needs are the same as most other WikiProjects. Increased contribution and inter-collaboration. Most articles can be brought to a B or GA level of quality with a few days of solid work. New contributors can help by finding neglected articles, improving them with material from reliable academic sources & newspapers of record (as applicable), and familiarizing themselves with Wikipedia's house style and standards.
- Adjwilley: I'd say more contributors who are willing to dig in and do the hard research necessary to bring stuff to GA quality.
Stay tuned for next week's article, which will deal with an entirely different-language Wikimedia project. Until then, find your favorite candidate in the archive.
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Partially disambiguated page names, page protection policy, and more
This is mostly a list of Non-article page requests for comment believed to be active on 24 July 2013 linked from subpages of Wikipedia:RfC, and recent watchlist notices and SiteNotices. The latter two are in bold. Items that are new to this report are in italics even if they are not new discussions. If an item can be listed under more than one category it is usually listed once only in this report. Clarifications and corrections are appreciated; please leave them in this article's comment box at the bottom of the page.
Style and naming
- University of Dar es Salaam's acronym, and "format" data in the citation template
- "Should past events in Day of the Year articles be written in past tense or present?"
- Style of closing quotation marks
- "Should BLPs contain a duplicate name in basic ASCII character set?"
Policies and guidelines
- Partially disambiguated page names
- Protection policy and persistent sockpuppets
- Include or exclude the name of the victim in the article "2012 Delhi gang rape case"?
- New users and Articles for creation
- Indic naming conventions
- Vietnamese naming conventions
- Public domain signature template; legal issues with signatures
- Edit warring 3RR; content and patterns of reverts
WikiProjects and collaborations
- Featured article process governance
- Mark the Article Incubator as historical or inactive?
- WikiProject Eurovision; Eurovision Song Contest
Technical issues and templates
Proposals
English Wikipedia notable requests for permissions
(This section will include active RfAs, RfBs, CU/OS appointment requests, and Arbcom elections)
Meta
- Start WeRelate as a new Wikimedia project?
- Start WikiNames as a new Wikimedia project?
- Adopt Wikidentify as a new Wikimedia project?
- Logo submissions for Wikivoyage
- Call for input about the WMF Privacy policy
- Elections postmortem discussion
- Trademark practices
- Scope of the Ombudsman Commission
Upcoming online meetings
- Program Evaluation & Design, 26 July 16:00 UTC
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Wikivoyage turns ten, but where to now?; Wikipedia Zero expands into India
Wikivoyage anniversary
Contributors to Wikivoyage, the sister project adopted by the Wikimedia Foundation last year, are celebrating their 10th anniversary this week.
The milestone comes as another entry in Wikivoyage's convoluted history. Wikitravel, as it was then known, was created by Evan Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins on 24 July 2003. When they sold the site to Internet Brands in 2006, the German-language contributors decided to fork, creating the original Wikivoyage. Both sites continued unabated until 2012, when frustrated Wikitravel editors decided to fork the site again by rejoining Wikivoyage and moving under the WMF's umbrella.
These maneuvers set the stage for a dramatic climax when Internet Brands sued two prominent volunteers who were in favor of the move. When those matters were settled and the initial technical infrastructure was set in place, Wikivoyage was formally relaunched on 15 January 2013, with its sites covering nine languages.
The Wikitravel and Wikivoyage communities, then, are both celebrating the 10th anniversary of their foundings. Wikitravel currently has several main-page banners promoting the milestone, while Wikivoyage's reaction was more muted. A "garish" red banner was put up for about 10 minutes, but most contributors on the site's Travellers' pub were content to silently celebrate with additional content work. Others contended that it is not worth angering Wikitravel again. The site is planning a large public party for January 2014, when Wikivoyage will have been in its current WMF guise for one calendar year.
In my opinion, we need to put on the back burner things like adding images to articles and cajoling Wikipedia to continue adding interwiki links to us, and go full throttle in solving our Google problem ... All other concerns regarding boosting readership are, frankly, secondary. Failing a solution to our Google problem, we are going to end up the dead site, not Wikitravel.
The anniversary appears to have sparked animated discussion on the English Wikivoyage as to the site's future. Wikitravel, despite its much reduced editorbase after the fork, is still ranked by Alexa as the 3,162nd most popular website in the world, which can be contrasted with Wikivoyage at 32,586th. Wikitravel's popularity can be attributed to its Google popularity, where over 36% of its traffic is referred from. Only 21% of Wikivoyage traffic, on the other hand, is from Google sites.
There appears to be considerable concern about the technical dimensions that might play into the popularity or otherwise of the site. JamesA has commented:
| “ | I contacted the WMF back in May urging them to provide Google Webmaster Tools as a priority, and was told it is usually handled by WMF staff, but that they would look into it and would also prod their Google contacts about the duplication issue. I've heard nothing since. ... the community really needs to take this issue much more seriously, as does the WMF, or things will just go more and more downhill. ... I doubt the purpose of the contributions we make to Wikivoyage when the dump that is [Wikitravel] continues to grow. I implore people to take an interest in this urgent issue. | ” |
The popularity of Wikivoyage varies considerably depending on the country. The commercial Wikitravel is far more popular than Wikivoyage in the US and the UK, showing that there is much room to grow in the English-language Wikivoyage. Unsurprisingly (given its lengthy history as a German-language site), Wikivoyage receives the greatest number of page views from Germany, 15.5%. Its Alexa rating in Germany is more than 4000 places below that of the commercial Wikitravel.
While there is cause for hope in the page views, which have risen on average after the expected large launch in January, Wikivoyage regulars recognize that their Google referrals will have to rise if they are to surpass their rival.
In other Wikivoyage news, the site is still going through the process of choosing a new logo. As we reported last month, the current logo was subject to a cease-and-desist letter from the World Trade Organization, forcing the WMF to call for a new design. Submissions have closed, and voting will begin on 26 July. Readers can view the gallery of entries, from the weird to the gender-exclusive to the promising. The entries are also displayed in a table on the talk page, with author information. The voting system will comprise two rounds: one to select the concept, and one to select the actual logo.
Sixth mobile provider partners with Wikipedia Zero
The Wikimedia Foundation has announced via press release that it has partnered with Aircel to provide free mobile access to Wikipedia.
The move makes Aircel, an Indian mobile network operator with over 60 million subscribers and a market share of 7.33%, the sixth company to join with the Foundation in its Wikipedia Zero program, which aims to provide mobile users in developing countries with free access to Wikipedia articles. The number of individuals using the service will now be increased to an estimated 470 million users, according to Kul Takanao Wadhwa (WMF Head of Mobile), though previous estimates have ranged from as low as 330 to 410 to 483 million, and the current estimate elsewhere is 517 million.
Providers can choose to allow free access to the regular mobile sites and/or zero.wikipedia.org, a text-only version of the regular mobile site to save on bandwidth costs. Aircel has chosen to do both, in English and all nineteen Indic-language Wikipedias.
Wikipedia Zero forms a large part of the Foundation's initiative to expand into the developing world. As Jimmy Wales stated on 22 July, "It is our mission to provide free access to everyone in the world. [Wikipedia Zero] is one of the most exciting things we are doing and we're only just getting started." Traditional personal computers can be scarce in these regions, and those that are present are extremely valuable. As Pgallert explained in the Wikimedia Blog earlier this month, on an unrelated topic:
| “ | The computer lab of Epukiro Post 3 Junior Secondary School in the Omaheke Region of Namibia is idle most of the time. School management is afraid that equipment might be stolen or the infrastructure be damaged, and the Ministry of Education ... did not offer any training on how to operate the computers, or what to use them for. As a result, there are typing classes a few times a week, and nothing else. During school breaks the lab is not used at all. / The computers occupy one entire classroom; their power consumption is a liability for the school. ... Yet Epukiro Post 3 JSS houses the only computer lab in the entire rural settlement cluster of Epukiro, an area accommodating several thousand people and covering thousands of square kilometers. | ” |
As mobile devices begin to outnumber traditional computers in the next few years, the Foundation expects that many of the next 500 million people to access Wikimedia projects will use mobile devices. The first iteration of this is the Wikipedia Zero initiative, which "make[s] free knowledge more accessible" through "help[ing] them discover it and ... reduc[ing] barriers to accessing it." Planned additions include enabling individuals without data-enabled phones, through receiving parts of Wikipedia articles through SMS or USSD.
Still, as Siska Doviana—the chair of Wikimedia Indonesia, which is located in one of the largest developing nation-states in the world today—pointed out to the Signpost via email, English-speaking people in these developing countries are typically in the upper class, which is not necessarily a demographic targeted by Wikipedia Zero. While this latest partnership also opens access to the nineteen Indic-language Wikipedias, nearly all have large gaps in their editorial coverage and few active editors. The Hindi Wikipedia has over 100,000 articles, but only 196 editing editors; by the same metric, the second-largest, Nepal Bhasa, has 70,000 but just ten active contributors. This would naturally lead one to wonder if the question should be about expanding content contributors rather than increasing access, but that was answered today by the Wikimedia Foundation's engineering team when they fully enabled editing from mobile.wikipedia.org.
More information on the Wikipedia Zero initiative can be found on the Wikimedia Foundation's official website, under "Wikipedia Zero" and "mobile partnerships".
In brief
- Mobile editing now enabled for all: As hinted at earlier in this article, editing from mobile.wikipedia.org—the site optimized for mobile devices—was enabled for all users on 24 July. The development holds significant potential to bring in new contributors, particularly in Africa, Southern Asia, and in large languages that currently have few active users.
- VisualEditor review: The quarterly review with the VisualEditor and Parsoid teams has been published on Meta. These reviews are aimed to ensure accountability and allow senior Foundation staff to offer specific guidance to their proliferous and diverse initiatives.
- John Riedl: John Riedl, a computer scientist and Wikipedia researcher, passed away on 15 July after a lengthy battle with cancer.
- First World War centenary: First World War-related "Did you know...?" hooks for the centenary of the start of the war (28 July 2014) may be submitted beginning on 28 July of this year.
- Wiki Loves Monuments ... in Antarctica: An Antarctica-focused Wiki Loves Monuments is being planned on the Wikimedia Commons.
- Writing women back into history: A blog post at the Brooklyn Museum highlights Alexandra Thom's goal of chronicling all 1,038 women in Judy Chicago's Dinner Party on Wikipedia.
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Gleeless
Summary: Death hangs over the top 10 this week, as tragic deaths both past and present continued to cast their pall over an already troubled world. The death of Cory Monteith led to a spike in interest in the man himself, his girlfriend and co-star Lea Michele, and the show that made them both famous, Glee. Meanwhile, the tragic death of Trayvon Martin and its troubling implications for gun safety and race relations in the United States continued to be a talking point.
For the complete top 25 with analysis, see WP:TOP25
For the week of July 14 to 20, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Cory Monteith 
2,678,320 
The death of the 31-year-old star of Glee from a combined overdose of alcohol and heroin was the defining pop-culture event of the week 2 Shooting of Trayvon Martin
2,397,205 
The debate over George Zimmerman's shooting of unarmed Trayvon Martin in February 2012, and its relevance to race relations in America and the validity of "stand your ground" laws, reached its climax on July 13 when a jury found Zimmerman not guilty of either murder or manslaughter. 3 Rembrandt 
1,403,377 
The greatest of the Dutch masters got a Google Doodle to celebrate his 407th birthday on July 15. 4 Pacific Rim (film) 
928,640 Guillermo del Toro's $190-million anime-inspired monsters vs. robots slugfest is not tracking well with the American mainstream, and now seems unlikely to crack $100 million domestically, but remains in its second week the biggest talking point among Wikipedian cineastes. 5 Lea Michele
794,606 
The co-star and girlfriend of the late Cory Monteith got a great deal of interest from Wikipedians in the wake of Monteith's tragic death. 6 Milkha Singh 
775,259 
"The Flying Sikh", the record-breaking track and fielder who represented India in three Olympic Games, became a topic of interest after his biopic, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, was released on July 12. Singh sold the rights for ₹1 but insisted a share of the profits be given to a charitable trust. 7 Facebook
684,885 
A perennially popular article. 8 Glee (TV series)
595,960 
The popular glee club TV show made its 2013 debut in the top 25 on the back of Cory Monteith's tragic death. 9 Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
566,299 Biopic of Indian athlete Milkha Singh (see #6 above) 10 Stand-your-ground law
495,954 
The controversial US gun law that allows people the right of self-defense without the requirement of retreat has been flagged by the shooting of Trayvon Martin (see #2 above)
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Engineering and the arts
Featured articles
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12 featured articles were promoted this week.
- Archie MacLaren (nom) by Sarastro1. Archibald Campbell "Archie" MacLaren (1871–1944) was an English cricketer who captained the England cricket team at various times between 1898 and 1909. A right-handed batsman, he played 35 Test matches for England, as captain in 22 of those games, and led the team to defeat in four Ashes series against Australia.
- Oxbow (horse) (nom) by Montanabw, Froggerlaura and Craiglduncan. Oxbow (foaled 2010) is an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the second jewel in the American Triple Crown, the 2013 Preakness Stakes. A bay colt sired by a winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic and out of a full sister to another Breeders' Cup Classic winner, he was sold as a yearling at Keeneland for $250,000. Oxbow is owned by Brad Kelley of Calumet Farm, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, and was ridden in his Triple Crown races by Gary Stevens.
- Uruguayan War (nom) by Lecen and Astynax. The Uruguayan War (1864–1865) was fought between Uruguay's governing Blanco Party and an alliance consisting of the Empire of Brazil and the Uruguayan Colorado Party, covertly supported by Argentina. Since its independence, Uruguay had been ravaged by intermittent struggles between the Colorado and Blanco factions, each attempting to seize and maintain power in turn. The Colorado leader Venancio Flores launched the Liberating Crusade in 1863, an insurrection aimed at toppling Bernardo Berro, who presided over a Colorado–Blanco coalition (Fusionist) government. Flores was aided by Argentina, whose president Bartolomé Mitre provided him with supplies, Argentine volunteers and river transport for troops.
- Lockheed C-130 Hercules in Australian service (nom) by Nick-D and Ian Rose. The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and originally built by Lockheed. The Royal Australian Air Force has operated a total of 48 Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. The type entered Australian service in December 1958, when No. 36 Squadron accepted the first of twelve C-130As, replacing its venerable Douglas C-47 Dakotas. The acquisition made Australia the first operator of the Hercules after the United States.
- Gertie the Dinosaur (nom) by Curly Turkey. Gertie the Dinosaur is a 1914 animated short film by American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay. It is the earliest animated film to feature a dinosaur. McCay first used the film before live audiences as an interactive part of his vaudeville act; the frisky, childlike Gertie did tricks at the command of her master.
- All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (nom) by Figureskatingfan. All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, published in 1986, is the fifth book in African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou's seven-volume autobiography series. Set between 1962 and 1965, the book begins when Angelou is thirty-three years old, and recounts the years she lived in Accra, Ghana. The book begins where Angelou's previous book, "The Heart of a Woman", ends, and ends as Angelou returns to America.
- Sorga Ka Toedjoe (nom) by Crisco 1492. Sorga Ka Toedjoe is a 1940 film from the Dutch East Indies directed by Joshua and Othniel Wong for Tan's Film. It follows an older couple (Kartolo and Annie Landouw) who after years of separation are reunited by another, younger couple (Roekiah and Djoemala). The black-and-white film, the first production by Tan's Film after the departure of Rd. Mochtar, featured kroncong music and was targeted at lower-class native audiences. It was a commercial and critical success. It is likely a "lost film"; no known copies remain.
- Drowning Girl (nom) by TonyTheTiger. Drowning Girl is a 1963 painting with oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas by Roy Lichtenstein. Utilizing the conventions of comic book art, a thought bubble conveys the thoughts of the figure, while Ben-Day dots echo the effect of the mechanized printing process. It is one of the most representative paintings of the pop art movement, and part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection since 1971.
- Priyanka Chopra (nom) by Tibetan Prayer, Prashant! and Bollyjeff. Priyanka Chopra (born 1982) is an Indian film actress, singer, and songwriter. The winner of the Miss World pageant of 2000, through her successful film career Chopra has become one of Bollywood's highest-paid actresses and one of the most popular celebrities in India. She has won a National Film Award for Best Actress and Filmfare Awards in four categories.
- Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (nom) by Prhartcom and Midnightblueowl. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the first volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le XXe Siècle as anti-communist propaganda for its children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième, it was serialised weekly from January 1929 to May 1930. The story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, who are sent to the Soviet Union to report on the policies of Joseph Stalin's Bolshevik government. Tintin's intent to expose the regime's secrets prompts agents from the Soviet secret police, the OGPU, to hunt him down with the intent to kill.
- Sholay (nom) by Bollyjeff and Dwaipayanc. Sholay is a 1975 action-adventure Hindi film directed by Ramesh Sippy and produced by his father G. P. Sippy. The film follows two criminals, Veeru and Jai, hired by a retired police officer to capture the ruthless dacoit Gabbar Singh. Sholay is considered a classic and one of the best Indian films. It was ranked first in the British Film Institute's 2002 poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time and the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare Awards named it the Best Film of 50 Years in 2005.
- Alan McNicoll (nom) by Abraham, B.S.. Vice Admiral Sir Alan Wedel Ramsay McNicoll KBE, CB, GM (1908–1987) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Navy and a diplomat. As torpedo officer of the 1st Submarine Flotilla in the Mediterranean theatre, McNicoll was decorated with the George Medal in 1941 for disarming enemy ordnance. He served aboard HMS King George V from 1942, sailing in support of several Arctic convoys and taking part in the Allied invasion of Sicily. McNicoll was posted for staff duties with the Admiralty from September 1943 and was involved in the planning of the Normandy landings. He returned to Australia in October 1944.
Featured lists
7 featured lists were promoted this week.
- Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (nom) by Arre 9 and SoapFan12. The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series is a Daytime Emmy Award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. It was first awarded at the 6th Daytime Emmy Awards in 1979 and is given to honor an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role while working within the daytime drama industry.
- List of works by Amir Hamzah (nom) by Crisco 1492. Indonesian author Amir Hamzah (1911–1946) wrote 50 poems, 18 pieces of lyrical prose, 12 articles, 4 short stories, 3 poetry collections, and 1 original book. He also translated 44 poems, 1 piece of lyrical prose, and 1 book. The majority of Amir's original poems are included in his collections Njanji Soenji (1937) and Boeah Rindoe (1941), both first published in the literary magazine Poedjangga Baroe.
- List of 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team matches (nom) by Shudde. The 1888–89 New Zealand Native football team played 107 rugby union matches during their 14-month tour of the British Isles, Australia, and New Zealand. The tour was the longest in rugby history, and the first by a New Zealand team to Europe. Of their rugby matches, they won 78, lost 23, and drew 6. The team played three internationals: a heavy loss to England, a win over Ireland, and narrow loss to Wales.
- List of awards and nominations received by Romeo Santos (nom) by Magiciandude and DivaKnockouts. Romeo Santos (born 1981) is an American singer-songwriter. During his career he received 92 nominations and won 35 awards. In 2013 his debut album, Formula, Vol. 1, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.
- List of international cricket centuries by Hashim Amla (nom) by The Rambling Man and Sahara4u. Hashim Amla (born 1983) is a cricketer who represents the South Africa national cricket team. As of 2013 he scored nineteen centuries in Test and eleven in ODI cricket matches organised by the ICC.
- List of international cricket centuries by Mark Waugh (nom) by Vensatry. Mark Waugh (born 1965) is a former Australian cricketer. During his career he scored twenty centuries in Test and eighteen in ODI cricket matches organised by the ICC.
- List of North Carolina Tar Heels in the NBA Draft (nom) by Disc Wheel. The North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team, representing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has had 104 players drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA) since the league began holding the yearly event in 1947. The NBA uses a draft lottery to determine the first three picks of the NBA draft; the 14 teams that did not make the playoffs the previous year are eligible to participate. After the first three picks are decided, the rest of the teams pick in reverse order of their win–loss record. To be eligible for the NBA Draft, a player in the United States must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft and must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.
Featured pictures
8 featured pictures were promoted this week.
- Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel (nom, related article) created by John Singer Sargent and nominated by Keraunoscopia. This oil on canvas portrait of American performing artist and poet Gretchen Osgood Warren and her daughter Rachel was completed in 1903. Gretchen was born into an affluent family in Massachusetts and was educated in the arts, studying at the Paris Conservatory. She married into another wealthy family, becoming the wife of paper manufacturer Fiske Warren. Fiske commissioned this painting. Today it hangs at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.
- John Herschel (nom, related article) created by Julia Margaret Cameron, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden. Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (1792–1871) was an English scientist, inventor, and photographer. He made significant contributions in astronomy and to the development of photography. The photographer of this portrait, Julia Margaret Cameron, was noted for her portraits of celebrities.
- Apollo 13 Mailbox (nom, related article) created by NASA and nominated by Wingtipvortex. At one point the Apollo 13 spacecraft's Lunar Module ran low on lithium hydroxide (LiOH) canisters which were used to remove carbon dioxide, which created a risk that the crew would die of carbon dioxide poisoning before they could return to Earth. There was an adequate supply of canisters in the Command Module but their shape was incompatible with the Lunar Module. NASA engineers on the ground improvised a way to connect the Command Module canisters to the Lunar Module's sockets using only the supplies that the astronauts had available to them. The astronauts called the invention "the mailbox".
- Ethel Waters (nom, related article) created by William P. Gottlieb, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden. Ethel Waters (1896–1977) was an American actress and vocalist. She was born in poverty and married at age 13. After leaving her husband she worked as a maid. Her career as a performer began at age 17 when she sang at a nightclub and impressed the audience. She became the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award.
- 1901 series ten dollar bill (nom, related article) created by the United States Bureau of Engraving and printing, scanned at the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution by Godot13 and nominated by Crisco 1492. This American currency note features a bison and noted explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
- Raden Saleh (nom, related article) created by Friedrich Carl Albert Schreuel and nominated by Crisco 1492. Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman (1807 or 1811–1880) was a well known Indonesian painter. He studied in Europe and painted portraits at European courts and is generally considered to be the first modern Indonesian painter. After living in Europe for 20 years, he returned to Indonesia where he continued to paint and worked as a conservator.
- Sarah Vaughan performing in 1946 (nom, related article) created by William P. Gottlieb, and restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden. Sarah Lois Vaughan (1924–1990) was an American jazz vocalist. She won Grammy and National Endowment for the Arts awards. She was born into a musical family, her father played guitar and piano and her mother sang in a church choir. In her mid-teens she ventured into nightclubs and performed as a pianist and vocalist. She later won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater in New York City. She toured with Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine. She officially began her solo career in 1944.
- Sarah Vaughan at Café Society in 1946 (nom, related article) created by William P. Gottlieb, restored and nominated by Adam Cuerden. A second photo of Sarah Vaughan.
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Infoboxes case opens
The case Infoboxes was opened. The evidence phase continues in Kiefer.Wolfowitz and Ironholds. Voting on the proposed decision continues in the Tea Party movement case.
Open cases
This case, brought by Ched, involves the issue of who should make the decision to include an infobox in an article and to determine its formatting (right margin, footer, both, etc) -- whether the preferences of the original author should be taken into consideration, if the decision should be made by various WikiProjects in order to promote uniformity between articles, or whether each article should be decided on a case-by-case basis after discussion. It also involves what is perceived by some to be an aggressive addition or reverting of infoboxes to articles without discussion by some editors, in areas where they do not normally edit. Areas that have seen disputes over infoboxes include opera, the Classical Music and Composers project, and Featured Articles. The evidence phase of the case closes 31 July, the workshop closes 7 August, and a proposed decision is scheduled to be posted 14 August 2013.
This case, brought by Mark Arsten, involves a dispute between Kiefer Wolfowitz and Ironholds, the original account of Wikimedia Foundation employee Oliver Keyes, that began on-wiki and escalated in off-wiki forums, ending with statements that could be interpreted as threats of violence. The evidence phase of the case closes 26 July, the workshop closes 2 August, and a proposed decision is scheduled to be posted 9 August 2013.
This case involving a US political group, brought by KillerChihuahua, is now unsuspended, after a moderated discussion failed to agree on the ground rules for such a discussion. Voting continues on the proposed decision.
Other requests and committee action
- Amendment request: Argentine History: A request was made by MarshalN20 for an amendment to a topic ban for history-related sections of the Falkland Islands article.
- Clarification request: Argentine History: A request was made by Cambalachero for a clarification of whether a topic ban on pages related to the history of Latin America applies to articles about recent politics or a brief mention of historical context in non-historical articles.
- Clarification request: Scientology: A clarification request was brought by User:Sandstein in response to an ongoing discussion at WP:ANI#Abuse of admin powers and Violation of WP:INVOLVED by User:Sandstein. The request seeks to clarify the role of discretionary sanctions and outing after discretionary sanctions for the ‘’Scientology’’ case were applied to two editors who posted a link on Sandstein’s talk page to an old Arbcom case that contained an editor’s previous username. A proposal has been made to vacate the sanction against one of the editors, and to impose a sanction regarding harassment. A discretionary sanction prohibiting onwiki publication of alleged real names of the named editor would be imposed, and all users who contributed to the discussions at either ANI or the clarification request would be notified of the new discretionary sanction. The notifications would be appealable.
- Clarification request: Syrian civil war articles: A request made by Greyshark09 was closed with a 30-day extension of the application of 1RR sanctions for WP:ARBPIA (Arab-Israeli conflict) that were applied ad hoc to the Syria topic area to prevent edit warring. Participants were advised on how to request separate sanctions for this topic.
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