I've put a 48-hour block on user Tim706, who has recently committed a
series of vandalisms and has no history of productive edits. (In each
case, his vandalism consists of replacing an existing photograph with
a doctored photo on which he has drawn red horns and a beard and a
caption that says, "Bitch ate my dog.")
This is the first time I've ever blocked a user. I did a quick scan
of Wikipedia policies, and I think that a ban under these
circumstances is within my authority as a sysop. If this is not the
case, please correct me.
--Sheldon Rampton
I agree with Ec. We already have tons of stubs. Lets turn this into lists
that people can work on at their leisure, so that hopefully, many of these will
not remain stubs.
Danny
Please Help Rebuild Iraqi University Libraries
We need your help. Iraqi university libraries are in desperate need of
books, including those in your discipline. Please read on to find out
how you can help with Books Beyond Borders, an Al Sharaka activity.
The Al Sharaka Program for Higher Education in Iraq is a unique
consortium of Iraqi and Oklahoma universities dedicated to the
rebuilding of Iraq higher education. Based at the University of
Oklahoma, we are funded by a USAID grant. Al Sharaka partners are:
Oklahoma Higher Education Partners (OHEP): Iraq University Partners
(IUP):
University of Oklahoma
University of Salahaddin
Oklahoma State University
University of Babylon
Langston University
University of Technology - Baghdad
Cameron University
Al-Anbar University
Basra University
One of our Al Sharaka goals is to assist in the collection restoration
of our partnering Iraqi university libraries which are severely depleted
and outdated due to two decades of sanctions, regime rule, active
conflict, and looting.
We are emailing your organization to ask for a book donation. We'd like
you to send us the one new book you feel is very important in your
field. Which book should any university library have that represents
your discipline?
Alternately, you may have a few "gently used" books that you would like
to pass on to us. We can only accept books dated 1996 or later and, at
this time, already have electronic journal resources lined up for the
Iraq libraries. Certainly some books, for instance literature or
philosophy, may be "timeless classics" and an appropriate donation. But
please help us comply with strict USAID donation guidelines and send
only those books that would update the Iraqi library collections.
Other guidelines for donating:
* Books, textbooks, instructor's manuals, reference books, and
instructional CDs
* Books appropriate for undergraduate and graduate level students
* English is the language of instruction in Iraq
How to Donate:
* After gathering together your donation, please visit the
following website to print the Books Beyond Borders Donation Form:
http://students.ou.edu/W/Erin.A.Weathers-1/Docs/Donation.doc
<https://exchange.ou.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://students.ou.ed
u/W/Erin.A.Weathers-1/Docs/Donation.doc>
* Complete the donation form and slip it inside the front cover of
your donation (one form per entire donation, please).
* Mail your donation (media rate will be the least expensive) to:
Al Sharaka
Attn: Erin Taylor Weathers
1700 Asp Avenue. Box 37
University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma 73072-6400
Your donation will be catalogued and reviewed to determine which Iraqi
campus library would most benefit from it. Then the Al Sharaka Program
arranges and pays for secured shipping to Iraq which will commence this
summer. We are able to accept books through the end of May, 2004.
Each donor will receive a commendation certificate based on the
information completed on the Donation Form. A tax id can be provided
after your donation has been received for deduction recording purposes.
Please help us in this global effort - we believe every college student
should have access to our greatest books. We encourage you to contact
us with any questions or comments.
Marouane, Raye, Mehtab & Andre, Graduate Assistants
Erin Taylor Weathers, Grant Specialist
The Books Beyond Borders Team
Al Sharaka Program for Higher Education in Iraq
University of Oklahoma
(405) 325-5461
etweathers(a)ou.edu
> From: Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)bomis.com>
> I think that's right. It's best, whenever possible, to think
> creatively about what sort of olive branch might be offered to the
> other person. In this particular case, the joyful compromise seems to
> have been to leave in "Louis' Lunch" which is undeniably of
> encyclopedia importance, and to remove the others.
I think the story is a bit more complicated. I'm just going to mention
some salient facts. I believe there was quite a bit of less-than-ideal
communication going on. I contributed to some of it, which I regret and
for which I apologize.
The original language, by an anon, was:
"New Haven has 2 claims of the worlds first. 1 being the Pizza and 2
being the Hamburger. For pizza there are 2 choices Sally's Pizza and
Pepe's Pizza. MBoth reside on Wooster St. And beleive you me, Its the
BEST pizza in the world. For burgers, there's Louis' Lunch, using old
fashiond vertical burners Louis willmake you a damn goor burger." [sic]
This was arguably POV (if "beleive you me" isn't POV I don't know what
is), and certainly needed editing. In my own view, its removal was
understandable, though possibly an over-reaction.
It was then reinserted by a non-anon in an improved form:
"New Haven is home of many homey eateries, including Louis' Lunch, a
restaurant that claims to have originated the hamburger: its vertical
burners, freshly-ground beef, and burgers on toast has long but orderly
queues ten deep at lunchtime. New Haven also boasts several pizza
places of distinction, notably Sally's Pizza and Pepe's Pizza, both on
Wooster St., and Frank's Pizza, offering chicken pizza and clam pizza.
Other spots catering to the college population include the Yankee
Doodle Coffee Shop."
There were then some cycles of removal and reinsertion. Somewhere along
the way the incorrect name (Sally's Pizza) was corrected to "Sally's
Apizza."
What I wish to note is that on the one hand, a) the removers, including
myself, didn't do much independent research to see whether the
establishments really had any claim to being notable. On the other
hand, b) the re-inserters didn't do much to explain _why_ the
establishments were notable. Some of the re-inserters simply appealed
to _their own_ authority.
Another thing that got lost in the shuffle is that even if the
reinserters were correct, simply naming an establishment carries very
little value to a reader who doesn't already know the establishment.
Since then, a number of points have come out. In addition to Louis'
Lunch claim to notability, Sally's Apizza was apparently a favorite
hangout of Garry Trudeau during his Yale years. Frank Sinatra also
patronized it. One of the reinserters has since noted that the Phantom
Gourmet website gave Sally's Apizza some kind of best-pizza (in the US)
award in 2001; the same website says "New Haven’s Wooster Street is to
pizza what Newcastle is to coal and Maine is to lobster. The two great
rivals are Frank Pepe’s and Sally’s Apizza." The site rated Pepe's as
having the best white-clam pizza.
Also, a claim mentioned by the original inserter that has gotten lost
in the various edits is that Pepe's Pizza claims to have introduced
pizza into the U.S. in 1925. (Or possibly, invented the "white pizza,"
I'm not quite sure which).
I'm not quite sure what counts as "notable enough" for inclusion, but
these all sound like legitimate local landmarks. I realize that every
town has restaurants with autographed pictures in them, but noting that
"thus-and-such famous person ate there" and "it won thus-and-such
national award" would, IMHO, go a long way to validating the inclusion
of a place.
> I agree that as a matter of taste, we should (for
> now) keep this page
> deleted. However, as a matter of law, there is no
> reason for us not
> to publish this information.
>
True, but we'll want a page once the trial's over. Or
else we ought to delete [[Nicole Brown Simpson]].
Meelar
__________________________________
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In a message dated 3/25/2004 5:23:31 AM Eastern Standard Time,
magnus.manske(a)web.de writes:
OK, I have a test page here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_encyclopedia_topics/Biograph…
_A
I put the links to such pages on
[[Wikipedia:List_of_encyclopedia_topics]]; only "A" exists right now,
though. Can I paste the others as well?
Magnus
I would think so.
Danny
Harnessing the Power of Mistakes
By Jason Ruck
"You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly
live long enough to make them all yourself."
-Sam Levenson
History books provide accounts of man's successes and failures so that we
may learn from them to better our future. However, detailed accounts of
geopolitical wars and ethnic disturbances are of little use when one is
trying to renovate the kitchen or decipher the fine lines of an HMO
application. The fact is that there is little literature written about the
mistakes of everyday pursuits, and if there is, it is often segmented,
outdated or incomprehensive. Inviting the internet community to detail their
mistakes on an online open-source encyclopedia would provide an invaluable
resource for users.
Equating this is monetary terms would be difficult but providing an example
might help illustrate the point;
Let suppose you live in an apartment and the intercom system has
mysteriously stopped working. You contact your body corporate and they get
the company in to inspect. After a few weeks you hear nothing and upon
calling the company they tell you that your system is old and a new one
would cost $200 per apartment. If you went onto WIKIhistory (the name I'm
proposing) and typed in "apartments" and then clicked on intercom, you could
read that one user found out that her next door neighbor was on holiday and
"left the receiver off the hook". Such a simple solution would save your
block thousands of dollars for a new system and a lot of inconvenience.
This is a specific example and I'm sure countless other examples involving
encounters with tradesmen and choosing the right material for a job could be
cited.
Supposing that on average each person makes 1 unique, notable mistake a week
that's 52 mistakes a year, and within a few months 10,000 people have
contributed to WIKIhistory. With each mistake saving an average of 5
dollars, this conservative estimate predicts that WIKIhistory's intangible
worth at one year to be equal to $260,000. Suppose then that In the course
of one year each bit of advice is headed in total 5 times by users of the
site, the savings could then be posited at $1.3 million.
Putting aside monetary considerations, WIKIhistory's worth could be
appraised another way. 10,000 years of experience in one year.
Such centralization of wisdom coupled with the navigational simplicity of
Wikipedia would create an extremely useful system.
Wikihistory should not be a forum where people pour out detailed advice but
rather each a succinct paragraph backed up by real-world cases.
_________________________________________________________________
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)bomis.com>
Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 1:08 pm
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Re: Consistency
> Not until my generation is dead and buried, at least. Back when I was
> in grade school in the 70s, they tried to teach us the metric system
> (which is clearly inferior and incomprehensible, by the way!) but it
> didn't take. Being an educated person, I can do the conversions, but
> I have no intuitive grasp of Celcius temperatures, nor do most
> Americans.
Same with mine, in the early 90s. It's more common, however, to see metric/SI required even in junior high science courses. Was at my school, anyhow. But no, it doesn't go anywhere for day-to-day tasks. I dunno what it'll take, besides force, to get Americans to abandon imperial units.
> Seriously, though, at the present time there is no significant
> movement afooot to change our measurement system, nor does anyone seem
> to particularly care.
Very true.
Dan Miller wrote:
>>I agree that as a matter of taste, we should (for
>>now) keep this page
>>deleted. However, as a matter of law, there is no
>>reason for us not
>>to publish this information.
>>
>>
>True, but we'll want a page once the trial's over. Or
>else we ought to delete [[Nicole Brown Simpson]].
>
The question nobody seems to be asking is whether this person actually
warrants a separate page. Is there really any encyclopedic information
worth including about her, other than as the victim in a high-profile
crime case? In the tangents of the OJ trials, there was also a fair
amount of publicity about Nicole personally, from which we could draw
the information to improve on the measly stub that's there now. While on
the other hand, Kobe Bryant's accuser is unlikely to be the subject of
biographical features afterwards, unless she chooses to be more public
than she has been.
"Fame" and "importance" are uncertain concepts to use here, but is
having your 15 minutes in relative anonymity worth keeping in an
encyclopedia? I would just redirect the page to [[Kobe Bryant]]. We can
still choose whether to publish her name on that page, either now or
later. I agree that for now it's better not to, but it would be less
objectionable as time passes. Assuming that with the passage of time,
anybody even cares what her name is. We're an encyclopedia, not a newspaper.
Lest I be misunderstood, I have at least some sympathy for the cause of
the "low encyclopedic" we just discussed. But in the long run, a
separate page for this woman is not like including a few significant
restaurants in [[New Haven, Connecticut]] - it's like writing separate
articles on each and every one of those restaurants. Not every person
who gets mentioned in an encyclopedia article also warrants their own
article.
--Michael Snow