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This week, the Signpost headed to WikiProject Good Articles. As of publishing time, out of the 4,331,477 articles on Wikipedia, only 18,464 are rated as "good" (about 1 in 235). It was created in 2005, and has since grown into one of the biggest projects in Wikipedia. Today, we interviewed Khazar2, Ankit Maity, Figureskatingfan, Chris Troutman, and Gilderien.

What motivated you to join WikiProject Good Articles? Do you review featured articles as well?

Khazar2: I review Good Articles because I feel that out of Wikipedia's content review tiers (DYK, GA, FA), GA is the one that sees the most important jump in article quality. We essentially verify that the article meets minimum Wikipedia standards: it covers main aspects of the subject, is factually and grammatically correct, is neutral, is reliably sourced, meets copyright requirements and some basic MOS requirements, etc. The review gives a second pair of eyes to an article, and also an encouraging pat on the back for the nominator who's invested a dozen or more hours bringing it there.

Ankit Maity: Nope, I don't review Featured Articles. I feel that Good Article reviewing is more important as that's exactly what gives rise to Featured Articles. No article ever gets FA status without crossing the GA threshold. GAs are something that meets encyclopedic criteria. It's neutral in POV, grammatically correct and has reliable sources with no original research. Both the nominator who's worked on the article heavily and the reviewer meet one-on-one to get it up to its GA standards. It's a sweet bit of work to produce a GA.

Figureskatingfan: I started reviewing good articles because someone asked me to, and then I was hooked. I've found that reviewing good articles has helped me be a better writer, and has helped me learn what to focus on when I write and improve my own articles. I like to mentor other editors, and reviewing good articles is the best place on Wikipedia to do that. It's also the best place to make the most impact on and help improve specific articles. I have reviewed a few featured articles, again because I was asked, and would like to review more, but I've concentrated on good articles because to be honest, the featured article process intimidates me a bit and can be contentious at times. For me, reviewing good articles is a good way to start reviewing articles and has helped me be more confident about reviewing featured articles.

Chris Troutman: I find the best way to get ahead at work when you're the new guy is to find experienced coworkers to learn from and volunteer for training opportunities. I signed up at the GA Recruitment Centre after having completed the course at the Counter-Vandalism Academy, so I could get an education and earn some tools. I'm not experienced enough yet at GA reviews to go to the A-class or FA reviews.

Gilderien: I joined WikiProject Good Articles because I believe that it is the most important stage in article development. It is accessible by pretty much all articles and editors, and can motivate improvements in some of our most important articles that would otherwise be languishing at the Start- or C-Class level - just look at the newly created milllion award to see what sort of articles get improved as a result of GA.

Do you focus on reviewing articles in one subject, or do you review articles in every subject?

Khazar2: I mostly review on humanities subjects, but I'll review anything that's not very technical. One of my goals for the year is to review at least one article a day.

Ankit Maity: I mostly review the "Engineering and technology" category provided it's not too specific, something like Bézout's theorem. I also review other categories provided I can make some head and tail out of it.

Figureskatingfan: One of the most fun parts about reviewing good articles is that is exposes me to information that I wouldn't otherwise learn about. I am most definitely not a basketball fan, but I've reviewed quite a few articles about it, and have learned something about that world in the process. I recommend that editors seek out reviewers with no experience in their content area, since it can provide them with fresh eyes and help with removing in-universe, in-group language. I tend to review the oldest in the queue, which can have a huge backlog. These articles are often the most problematic and challenging to review, so they need the most help and assistance.

Chris Troutman: Reviewing good articles is serious research, so I stick to my college major, which is History. My knowledge is not yet broad enough to give other subjects more than short shrift.

Gilderien: I generally review Physics, Chemistry, and Geography articles, although if people specifically request (either directly or indirectly) a review and I think I could do it competently, I will. I am slowly branching out as a result of the recruitment centre but have to admit I tend to avoid articles which seem too technical for my understanding (mostly maths).

Could you briefly explain what the new recruitment centre is?

Khazar2: Sometimes editors are interested in reviewing but a bit intimidated by the process. The Recruitment Centre makes this easier by pairing them with a friendly mentor for a few practice reviews.

Ankit Maity: The new recruitment centre was a huge leap for the GA community. Some new editors come across this page, try to understand the stuff, fail and give in (automatically taking away all their cultivated interests). Therefore, this centre was established so that reviewers and these wannabe GA reviewers meet one-on-one to understand the process.

Figureskatingfan: I've loved participating in the recruitment center, since as I stated above, I really like mentoring other editors, and it gives me a great opportunity to do just that. I think that my mentees in this program have benefited, as have I.

Chris Troutman: The Recruitment Centre is a relatively new mechanism to link untrained Wikipedians with experienced volunteer GA reviewers. Like the CVUA, the students have an opportunity to learn the process and perform supervised editing under the tutelage of their instructor. By the end of the Recruitment Centre training the Wikipedian will have watched a GA review completed by their instructor, performed a few GA reviews themselves, and had all their questions about the GA process answered.

Gilderien: It is an easy way for editors interested in starting to review articles to get into it slowly and not being daunted by the scale of learning all the myriad guidelines for a first review. As a graduate of an adoption program myself, I became a recruiter because I know how much it benefitted me, and see it as an excellent opportunity to get more editors involved.

How is a good article different than a regular article and a featured article?

Khazar2: Ideally, a Good Article has been checked top to bottom by a nominator and a reviewer. In addition to meeting the basic standards of the GA criteria, a GA usually has more coherence and organization than the average article as a result of this process. It's not necessarily as comprehensive or detailed as a Featured Article, has been checked by fewer people, and may not be as MOS-compliant on smaller points. A GA generally has functional but less polished prose than an FA, and the sourcing of uncontroversial points may be less rigorous.

Figureskatingfan: Sometimes I think that a GA is a future FA, a FA-in-training. For me, as an editor, good article reviews are part of the process of an article becoming all it can be. Some articles, the poor things, simply don't have the potential to become FAs, whether it's because comprehensiveness, or lack of sources, or whatever. The good article review process helps me assess that. The standards aren't as rigorous, so articles with sources that aren't as reliable, often because of its topic, can be passed. The fun thing is when I'm working on an article that I think could never be a FA, and because of the assistance I've received from GA reviewers, I learn that it actually has the potential to fulfill the higher standards of FA. In other words, going through the GA-process prepares me for going through the more rigorous FA-process.

Chris Troutman: GA is one of the rungs on the ladder of content ranking, and the lowest level of ranking for which a single WikiProject is attributed. (The letter rankings of A, B, and C are the domain of WikiProjects of that subject material, such as History, Mathematics, etc.) While FA is the top of the ladder, most content on Wikipedia is either unassessed or likely stub or start class. My friends that only read Wikipedia often ask about how anyone could trust our content and I tell them about GA. The GA ranking is a good, objective ranking of content that I think most readers can place trust in.

What are the project's most urgent needs? How can a new contributor help today?

Khazar2: We always need more skilled reviewers, particularly in the categories of sports, television, and music--for whatever reason, those subjects always have more editors interested in nominating than in reviewing. Reviewing is a great way to learn about new subjects, meet some of Wikipedia's most prolific content contributors, and help in the production of quality content. Interested editors can sign up at the Recruitment Centre or just dive in and get started.

Ankit Maity: For a start, we need more area-wise skilled reviewers. Half of the "music" category is untouched. I would urge editors to take up GA review as one of their tasks. If only a few of the prolific editors turned up, it would be awesome. Quality content is what we all desire, so lets just do whatever little bit we can.

Figureskatingfan: The backlog for GA reviews is always horribly long; an article can languish there for up to six months before it's reviewed. Echoing what others have said, we can always use more reviewers, but ones that take it seriously and give high-quality, thorough reviews. Not doing that is really a disservice to the nominators, and doesn't help them prepare for FA reviews.

Chris Troutman: To echo the other respondents, we need more reviewers. As a Campus Ambassador I'm keen to attract the academic audience with easy access not only to libraries but also research databases. Any contributor can sign up at the Recruitment Centre as we have more than enough work in a job that simply takes some attention to detail and a willingness to be thorough.

Gilderien: People who are interested in a particular subject area can review articles and reduce the backlog. I notice popular culture seems to be heavily "supply" driven when it comes to reviews, whereas other perhaps more traditional subjects are snapped up more quickly by reviewers. Copyeditors are also welcome - an article with a good copyedit is so much nicer to review and more appealing to new reviewers who might baulk at essentially copy-editing by proxy, listing desired corrections in a review.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Figureskatingfan: Please indulge me as I share one of my pet peeves about reviewing GAs. I absolutely hate it when I review an article that has obviously not been prepared adequately. Please, anyone who's reading this and uses the GA-review process, make sure that your article is ready when you nominate it! Too many editors use it to get a copy-edit; if you need a copy-edit, ask someone else before you submit it to GA. (Like me, for example.) I've found that most reviewers at GA are wonderfully helpful and generous, sincerely want to improve articles, and will do whatever it takes for that to happen.

Chris Troutman: Nominators should know that the GA Review is not a dry cleaner where you can dump your laundry and expect to pick it up a few hours later, neat, clean, and ready to go. GA review is more like taking your car for an inspection to the mechanic who will only tell you what needs to be fixed and where you can find the wrench. Absent my heroes at WikiProject Military History performing the A- and B-level reviews, WikiProject GA is the best mechanism for quantitatively leading to the improvement of articles on Wikipedia, and the Recruitment Centre is where you start.

Stay tuned until next week, when we head to the home (and language!) of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Until then, don't forget to check out the archive!

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2013-09-18

Hurricane Diane and Van Gogh

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By Hahc21 and Pine

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from September 8 through September 14, 2013

Featured articles

Thirteen featured articles were promoted this week.

• Symphony No. 8 (Sibelius) (nom) by Brianboulton. Symphony No. 8 was Jean Sibelius's final major compositional project, occupying him intermittently from the mid-1920s until around 1938. However, it was never published and it is unknown how much of it was completed. Sibelius refused to release it for performance, and burned all the scores and associated material in 1945.
• Phoenix (constellation) (nom) by Casliber. Phoenix is a minor constellation in the southern sky. Named after the mythical phoenix, it was first depicted on a celestial atlas by Johann Bayer in his 1603 Uranometria. The constellation is the radiant of two annual meteor showers: the Phoenicids in December, and the July Phoenicids.
• How a Mosquito Operates (nom) by Curly Turkey. Also known as The Story of a Mosquito, this silent animated film directed by American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay lasts for six minutes and tells the story of a giant mosquito who torments a sleeping man. It is one of the first animated films ever made, and is noted for the high technical quality of its naturalistic animation.
• Grace Sherwood (nom) by PumpkinSky. Better known as the Witch of Pungo, Sherwood (c. 1660 – c. 1740) is the last person known to have been convicted of witchcraft in Virginia. She was accused of transforming herself into a cat, damaging crops and causing the death of livestock. Sherwood may have spent up to eight years in jail after being imprisoned following her trial in 1706. She was freed in 1714, and later died in 1740 at the age of about 80.
• Whaam! (nom) by TonyTheTiger. Whaam! is a 1963 diptych painting by American artist Roy Lichtenstein. It is one of the best known works of pop art, and is among his most important paintings. The painting is regarded for the temporal, spatial and psychological integration of its two panels, which Lichtenstein conceived as a contrasting pair. It has been on permanent display at Tate Modern since 2006.
• Atlantic Puffin (nom) by Cwmhiraeth. The Atlantic Puffin is a species of seabird in the auk family, and the only one native to the Atlantic Ocean with two related species. It breeds in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Newfoundland and many North Atlantic islands, and has a large population and a wide range. It is not considered to be endangered although there may be local declines in numbers.
• Hurricane Diane (nom) by Hurricanehink. Hurricane Diane was an Atlantic hurricane that formed on August 7, 1955 from a tropical wave between the Lesser Antilles and Cape Verde, and later moved inland through North Carolina, causing coastal flooding but little wind and rain damage. Monetary losses totaled $754.7 million, although the inclusion of loss of revenue increased the total to over $1 billion.
• Ambohimanga (nom) by Lemurbaby. Ambohimanga is a hill and traditional fortified royal settlement in Madagascar, located northeast of Antananarivo. Both are considered the most significant symbols of the Merina people, and the most important and best-preserved monument of the precolonial Kingdom of Madagascar and its precursor, the Kingdom of Imerina.
• Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI (nom) by Crisco 1492. Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI is a 1984 Indonesian docudrama written and directed by Arifin C. Noer. It was based on an official history of the 30 September Movement coup in 1965. It was a commercial and critical success, receiving one award out of seven nominations at the 1984 Indonesian Film Festival.
• Kwinana Freeway (nom) by Evad37. The Kwinana Freeway is a 72-kilometre (45 mi) freeway in and beyond the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. It connects central Perth with Mandurah to the south, and it's the central section of State Route 2. Planning for the freeway began in the 1950s, and the first segment was finished between 1956 and 1959.
• Eisenhower dollar (nom) by Wehwalt. The Eisenhower dollar is a one-dollar coin issued by the United States Mint from 1971 to 1978, being the first of such denomination to be issued by the Mint since the Peace dollar series ended in 1935. The coin, designed by Frank Gasparro, depicts General of the Army and President Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower, who appears on the obverse.
• Blackwater fire of 1937 (nom) by MONGO. The Blackwater fire took place on August 18, 1937 at the Shoshone National Forest, due to a lightning strike approximately 35 miles west of Cody, Wyoming. Fifteen firefighters were killed by the fire, which rapidly spread into dense forest, consuming 1,700 acres (690 ha) of old-growth forest dominated by Douglas fir trees.
• Carolina Panthers (nom) by Toa Nidhiki05. The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football club based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team, worth approximately US$1 billion, plays in the southern division of the National Football Conference, and is controlled by Jerry Richardson and his family. First competing in 1995, they reached Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2003, losing 32–29 to the New England Patriots.

Featured lists

Six featured lists were promoted this week.

• Timeline of the Jurchen campaigns against the Song Dynasty (nom) by Typing General. The Jurchen campaigns against the Song Dynasty were a series of wars fought between the Jurchen Jin Dynasty and the Song Dynasty in the 12th and 13th centuries. Two armies were dispatched against the Song. One army captured the provincial capital of Taiyuan, while the other besieged the Song capital of Kaifeng. Both dynasties ended in the 13th century as the Mongol Empire expanded across Asia.
• List of Detroit Red Wings seasons (nom) by Rejectwater. The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They have participated in 88 seasons, have won 2735 regular season games, and accumulated 19 division championships and six conference championships. The team has also led the league in points 18 times, appeared in the playoffs 61 times, and won 11 Stanley Cup titles.
• List of longest streams of Idaho (nom) by Little Mountain 5. The U.S state of Idaho has a total of 70 streams that are at least 50 miles long. All of these streams originate in the United States except the Kootenai River and the Moyie River, which begin in the province of British Columbia. All but four of the streams lie within the large basin of the Columbia River, although the river itself does not flow through Idaho.
• List of tornadoes in the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak (nom) by Cyclonebiskit. A large tornado outbreak took place from May 2 to May 8, 1999 across several parts of the United States, as well as southern Canada. During that timespan, 152 tornadoes touched down the area and over 50 people lost their lives. The F5 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado alone took 36 lives when it touched Oklahoma City. The damage amounted to $1.4 billion.
• Citra Award for Best Supporting Actress (nom) by Crisco 1492. This award is given at the Indonesian Film Festival to Indonesian actresses for their achievements in supporting roles. Described as the equivalent to the Academy Awards, it was first given in early 1955 to Endang Kusdiningsih for her role in Tarmina. A total 68 actresses have been nominated for the award, 26 of whom have won at least one.
• Hattie Jacques on stage, radio, screen and record (nom) by SchroCat with Cassianto. Jacques (1922 – 1980) was an English actress who appeared in many genres of light entertainment including radio, film, television and stage. Her career began in 1939 and lasted until her death in 1980, and she is best remembered for her appearances in fourteen Carry On films. Jacques had a long professional partnership with Eric Sykes, with whom she co-starred on several television series.

Featured pictures

Five featured pictures were promoted this week.

• The Church at Auvers (nom) created by Vincent van Gogh and nominated by Armbrust. Famous Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh painted this work in 1890. The subject is a church in Auvers-sur-Oise in France. This work now hangs in Musee d' Orsay in Paris, France, which houses a large collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works.
• Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga (nom) created by Titian and nominated by Crisco 1492. This painting, circa 1529, is by the highly esteemed 16th century Italian painter Titian who was a member of the Venetian school. The subject is Federico II of Gonzaga, ruler of the Italian city of Mantua.
• Shun Lee (nom) created by Base64, edited by Crisco 1492 and nominated by Tomer T. Shun Lee is an area in Hong Kong in the Kwun Tong District. There are three public housing estates and one home ownership scheme estate in the area.
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird, female (nom) created by Pslawinski and nominated by Pslawinski. This small species of hummingbird is the only one that frequently nests east of the Mississippi River, and the smallest bird species of the eastern United States and eastern Canada.
• Louis Pasteur (nom) created by Nadar, restored by Crisco 1492 and nominated by Pine. French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895) made advances in vaccination and pasteurization. His work has had major impacts in medicine and public health.

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2013-09-18

What can Wikidata do for Wikipedia?

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By Adam Cuerden and Kirill Lokshin

In this week's "Technology report", we look at how the growth of Wikidata can benefit Wikipedia. Gerard Meijssen is a highly active contributor and frequent blogger about Wikidata. We asked him to share his thoughts on how the new project benefits Wikipedia:

As you are reading the Signpost, you are probably a Wikipedia editor and thus probably subscribe to the idea that information should be shared widely. The good news is that Wikidata is great for this type of sharing. Information is being added to Wikidata from multiple sources, including other Wikipedias—and yes, that does include information that is not currently available on the English Wikipedia. When an infobox gets information from Wikidata, it can be updated with enhanced information about the subject from a variety of sources. Different types of information can be added, such as geographic data or information about people's alma mater or date of birth. What happens when information is updated from Wikidata? Yes, your watchlist will be triggered; and yes, the change will appear in recent changes.

Articles in many Wikipedias now consist of templates populated with data served from Wikidata. In a way, such articles are the ultimate stubs; as more information becomes available in Wikidata, that information automatically becomes a part of each of these articles. The information served to these stub articles is often a stub in itself. I found, for example, that the Wikidata item for Dan Quayle does not indicate that he was ever Vice President of the United States. This is probably true for almost all Vice Presidents of the United States, but it only takes a few edits to add this information and it instantly becomes available to all projects that make use of Wikidata.

In brief

• VisualEditor at Wikimania 2013: A recording of the VisualEditor talk from Wikimania has been released. It's well worth watching.
• Classifying everything: How do you classify all the information in the world? A new blog post by Gerard Meijssen details the current concept for classification in Wikidata as the project switches from one classification type, GND— a system developed for libraries that categorizes items as persons, places, events, organizations, works, or terms—to a semantic-web-based classification scheme.
• Secure login in Iran: The difficulties of using secure logins in Iran are set out in a post from a Persian Wikipedia administrator to the wikitech-l mailing list.
• "Getting Started" extension being tested: The "Getting Started" extension is entering into its final round of testing. The extension gives new users a brief overview of Wikipedia and encourages them to try some simple tasks.
• Flow development continues: Revision control, moderation, and display code have been added to the Flow prototype atop the basic framework, and the Flow team is getting ready for its first big development sprint.
  
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2013-09-18

Twerking, tragedy and TV

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By Serendipodous

Summary: The top 10 is bookended by unlucky dates, as Friday the 13th fell just after the anniversary of 9/11. Breaking Bad's final season continued to draw attention, while interest in Miley Cyrus's youthful exuberance is fading only slowly.

For the full top 25 report, plus exclusions, see WP:TOP25

For the week of September 8–14, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most accessed pages* were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes
1	September 11 attacks		991,522		Unsurprisingly, the devastating attack's anniversary dominated the conversation in the English-speaking world this week.
2	Facebook		645,950		A perennially popular article
3	Twerking		627,941		The new term for waggling your bottom onstage continues to be a point of interest.
4	Breaking Bad		625,600		The final season of this acclaimed chemistry teacher-turned-Scarface TV series began on August 11.
5	Miley Cyrus		435,952		The release of her risqué "Wrecking Ball" music video brought the song huge online viewership and her article renewed interest.
6	List of Breaking Bad episodes	List	420,340		People will turn to this page to keep up with the show.
7	Breaking Bad (season 5)	List	414,055		As above, people want to keep up with this show.
8	Now You See Me (film)		383,179		Despite becoming a surprise hit at the box office, and dominating its weekend, this film never had a substantial Wikipedia presence, until now; 14 weeks after its initial release. The reasons why are not entirely clear, but it seems to be a combination of the film's strong release on Blu-ray, together with the announcement of an impending sequel.
9	Deaths in 2013	List	361,208		The list of deaths in the current year is always quite a popular article.
10	Friday the 13th		357,661		The supposedly inauspicious date (which apparently has only been inauspicious for about 150 years) probably remains high in the public's awareness because each month has roughly one chance in seven of having one. The fact that one occurred two days after 9/11 this year arguably only worsened its negative auspice.

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