WikiEN-l May 2009

wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org

81 participants
88 discussions

a language issue
by stevertigo 05 Jun '09

05 Jun '09

Listers, I've submitted a suggestion at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Burials with regard to how burials can be referenced in more encyclopedic language than currently used. Comments and criticism welcome. -SV

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"Wikipedia Bans Scientology From Site" - Huffington Post
by Stephanie Clarkson 02 Jun '09

02 Jun '09

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/29/wikipedia-bans-scientolog_n_208967… Aside from the atrocious and misleading headline, I find it interesting that the Huffington Post published this, and that it is considered notable enough to get feature billing on their main page, with an image, as their 'lead' Media story. S. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkoggQMACgkQdLl4k9IYqZrzMwCgnXCJuBnjOpzh26P4VPzRTwfx jEQAoIDKqAB2uJxuo6pL6AIAXlJjcwr9 =bey5 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Workflow for music excerpts
by Steve Bennett 01 Jun '09

01 Jun '09

Hi, It is the happy circumstance that: a) Articles about pieces of classical music are much better with an excerpt of the music presented as an image b) PDFs of enormous amounts of classical music are available, in public domain, at the International Music Score Library Project (imslp.org). For example, Chopin's coverage is virtually comprehensive. So the question is, how to get more excerpts into more articles faster? Can anyone think of a tool (or propose one) that would make this easier? Currently, my workflow looks like this: 1) Find an article about a piece of music 2) Check if it wants another excerpt. If not, go back to 1. 3) Go to imslp, search (using their crappy search) for the piece (or in many cases, just follow a link from the wikipedia article). 4) Choose one of the scores, click it 5) Verify that it's suitable, is the right piece etc. 6) Screenshot a piece of it using Snagit, save image as PNG. 7) Go to commons.wikimedia.org 8) Click upload 9) Fill in the form. This bit is complicated because there are so many "authors"/sources: chopin, the publisher, the user at imslp that uploaded/scanned it, imslp, me.... And choosing a name is always annoying...let alone categories. 10) Upload. 11) Back at the article page, click "edit" 12) Add a [[Image:...]] tag with some creative text. 13) Preview 14) Save It's pretty frickin' tedious. Here's one I did earlier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnes_Op._27_(Chopin) It would be nicer, at least, if one could upload the entire thing, then on the article page do a crop to the excerpt - rather than having to crop it locally. Any ideas anyone? Magnus's FIST was great, dealing with the much harder problem of trying to identify any images anywhere vaguely related to the article. Here, we know exactly what image we want, and we know where to get it. Steve

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In the news: Leprosy
by stevertigo 31 May '09

31 May '09

[[T:ITN]] : "The discovery of a 4,000-year-old skeleton showing the earliest known evidence of *leprosy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy>* *(example pictured)* in the Indian <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India> state<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_India>of Rajasthan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajasthan> is announced." Interesting that an article about an ancient disease, just now on its way out (763K new cases in 2002 \\ 400K in 2004) can make ITN, even with a minimal-importance update. I think its great, especially when it links to a great article. (Even linking to a bad article is great too, if it gets that article attention and development). My issues particular to the leprosy article (relevant, I think, as its a front-page link. Will deal with there directly) are: 1) Ugly hatnote.. "For the malady found in the Hebrew Bible, see Tzaraath<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzaraath>. For the album by the band Death, see Leprosy (album)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy_%28album%29> ." ...instead of a plain {{otheruses}} disambiguation note. Hatnotes to hair/death/whatever "metal" bands on legitimate topic article, trivialize wikipedia's coverage and are teh suck. 2) (Less important): The hatnote on [[leprosy]] references [[tzaraath]] as "the malady found in the Hebrew Bible" rather than something more accurate like "the original Hebrew Bible term for leprosy." The tzaraath article claims that "some scholars suggest that any connection between tzaraath and leprosy is altogether erroneous," though no actual citation or treatment of this direct criticism is evident in the article aside from some necessary treament of the conceptual variance in an old term. Thus the distinction is terminological, not in the domain of medicine as implied by the term "malady." -Steven

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Google Chrome to support Ogg Theora video natively
by Kat Walsh 30 May '09

30 May '09

Another step towards an open web -- Google's Chrome browser is going to support Theora video natively with the HTML5 video tag: http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/05/google-chrome-3-adds-html5.html http://codereview.chromium.org/115625/diff/1/2 (Mozilla has already committed to this--and funded some of our development of video support also!--and it looks like Opera will as well. Video site Dailymotion is now using open video as well: http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=1312 ) If it weren't for Wikimedia using it, this work probably wouldn't have gone into enabling native browser support for it. So thanks to all for your work on this. :-) Cheers, Kat -- Your donations keep Wikipedia online: http://donate.wikimedia.org/en Wikimedia, Press: kat(a)wikimedia.org * Personal: kat(a)mindspillage.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mindspillage * (G)AIM:Mindspillage mindspillage or mind|wandering on irc.freenode.net * email for phone

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Docs look to Wikipedia for condition info: Manhattan Research
by WJhonson＠aol.com 30 May '09

30 May '09

Actually I think providing dosage information would *avoid* much more harm than it would cause. Most people use books on drugs to check up on their prescriptions and educate themselves. If the doctors mistakenly prescribed 200mg tablets when the standard dosage is 20mg, then I'm sure you'd want the person to be able to know that. Will **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222377034x1201454326/aol?redir=htt… MaystepsfooterNO62)

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Docs look to Wikipedia for condition info: Manhattan Research
by WJhonson＠aol.com 30 May '09

30 May '09

In a message dated 5/24/2009 12:11:40 PM Pacific Daylight Time, thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com writes: > > At any rate, the person would have to sue the editor, not the project, > and > > the editor could stand on the basis of simply quoting the PDR. > > Could they sue other people that have edited the article without > fixing the mistake? What about someone that reverted vandalism to that > sentence, thus putting back the incorrect information? We can't rely > on the law only holding the person directly responsible liable.>> -------------------- I don't think you would agree if this logic were extended to all articles. Am I responsible, fixing the birthplace of George Bush, that someone else, in another section of that article has said "He killed his parents when he was three." No I'm not responsible for that. I'm solely responsible for the edits I make, not those of others. Similar to reverting vandalism. If the previous version was incorrect, than the responsibility rests on whomever put that into the article in the first place. Not on any subsequent editor. We are not all experts in what the PDR does and doesn't say. But any of us can fix spelling errors in an article. That does not mean, that we must know and approve the entire article and be responsible for it, simply because we are changing something of little consequence in it. That's true for all articles, not just ones on drugs. Will Johnson ************** An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221322948x1201367184/aol?redir=htt… bcd=MayExcfooterNO62)

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Re: [WikiEN-l] Perfection
by WJhonson＠aol.com 30 May '09

30 May '09

<<In a message dated 5/28/2009 6:17:06 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, brewhaha(a)freenet.edmonton.ab.ca writes: I hav been placed on moderation for feeding a troll. >> ------------------------- I don't remember it that way. Maybe you could expand on that a bit. Will **************Cooking Dinner For Two? Sign Up & Get Immediate Member-Only Savings. (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222652750x1201460983/aol?redir=htt… F%2Frecipes.cookingfor2.pillsbury.com%2F%3FESRC%3D934)

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September 11, 2001 coverage
by Marc Riddell 29 May '09

29 May '09

Folks, I have had the opportunity to read, and to review, all of the English Wikipedia articles, materials, and various lists related to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States; and I want to thank, and to congratulate, everyone who contributed. Wonderful job! It is an excellent example of what a truly collaborative community can do. Sincerely, Marc Riddell

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Navify
by Fred Bauder 29 May '09

29 May '09

Navify Is An Interface For Viewing Wikipedia With Photo Galleries, Videos And Comments http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/27/navify-is-an-interface-for-viewing-wik… http://navify.com/ "Navify is a visual encyclopedia that combines Wikipedia articles with images, videos, and comments." http://navify.com/article/the-beatles Fred

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WikiEN-l May 2009