The BBC, presumably worrying about a slow news day, have an article on Wikipedia vandalism, focusing on UK politicians:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7921985.stm
The Lib Dem advisor quoted, incidentally, comes up with a fairly clear rendering of the "undue weight"/"jumbled collection of facts" BLP problem.
2009/3/6 Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com:
The BBC, presumably worrying about a slow news day, have an article on Wikipedia vandalism, focusing on UK politicians:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7921985.stm
The Lib Dem advisor quoted, incidentally, comes up with a fairly clear rendering of the "undue weight"/"jumbled collection of facts" BLP problem.
I've just commented on the article correcting a couple of mistakes/misleading statements. Otherwise it is a very good article and accurately describes some of the problems we face without being sensationalistic.
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
2009/3/6 Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com:
The BBC, presumably worrying about a slow news day, have an article on Wikipedia vandalism, focusing on UK politicians:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7921985.stm
The Lib Dem advisor quoted, incidentally, comes up with a fairly clear rendering of the "undue weight"/"jumbled collection of facts" BLP problem.
I've just commented on the article correcting a couple of mistakes/misleading statements. Otherwise it is a very good article and accurately describes some of the problems we face without being sensationalistic.
Yes, but why *that* picture of Jimmy?
On 3/6/09, K. Peachey p858snake@yahoo.com.au wrote:
Yes, but why *that* picture of Jimmy?
I would say that BBC gets all their photos though Getty Images, and thats just the image that they had on file when BBC first wanted one so that became their file photo for jimbo and has never updated it.
BBC News online has always preferred to use wierd/odd pictures to ordinary looking ones. If it's someone for whom there are a lot of images, they will always use the one taken mid-grimace, or when they were wearing a silly hat, or when someone in a gorilla suit was behind them.
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Sam Blacketer sam.blacketer@googlemail.com wrote:
On 3/6/09, K. Peachey p858snake@yahoo.com.au wrote:
Yes, but why *that* picture of Jimmy?
I would say that BBC gets all their photos though Getty Images, and thats just the image that they had on file when BBC first wanted one so that became their file photo for jimbo and has never updated it.
BBC News online has always preferred to use wierd/odd pictures to ordinary looking ones. If it's someone for whom there are a lot of images, they will always use the one taken mid-grimace, or when they were wearing a silly hat, or when someone in a gorilla suit was behind them.
Getty have quite a lot of Jimmy pics. I like this one:
Image number: 81165277
Can't work out how to link to it, but the caption says (only quoting first bit):
"SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT- MAY 20: Jimmy Wales, founder and chair emritus of Wikia, USA, looks on during the closing session of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East..."
[Have they confused Wikipedia and Wikia?]
And he's in profile, holding a pen.
Of course, it's easier to reuse the picture you have on file already.
Carcharoth
2009/3/6 Carcharoth carcharothwp@googlemail.com:
Getty have quite a lot of Jimmy pics. I like this one:
Image number: 81165277
Can't work out how to link to it, but the caption says (only quoting first bit):
"SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT- MAY 20: Jimmy Wales, founder and chair emritus of Wikia, USA, looks on during the closing session of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East..."
[Have they confused Wikipedia and Wikia?]
And he's in profile, holding a pen.
Of course, it's easier to reuse the picture you have on file already.
I would assume that one doesn't get picked up because they're getting the hideous one via a keyword search for "Wikipedia"...
On a tenuously related note, from the article:
"As a result, the edits to Mr Brown's page tend to be restricted to minor factual or style points or the ongoing search for a more flattering picture."
I was delighted, the other day, to note we appear to have managed the unthinkable and *found* a pleasant-looking picture of Brown, rather than one where he's glowering or grimacing or staring blankly into space...
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 11:26 AM, Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk wrote:
<snip>
I was delighted, the other day, to note we appear to have managed the unthinkable and *found* a pleasant-looking picture of Brown, rather than one where he's glowering or grimacing or staring blankly into space...
LOL! It *is* a nice picture.
Talking of other things, I've been counting footer templates, succession boxes and categories on articles like this one, and this one seems to be some sort of record, or approaching it:
Gordon Brown:
11 succession boxes 11 footer templates 30 categories
The question I'm wondering is how many of the succession boxes, footer templates and categories duplicate each other's functions? Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister are two at least that have all three (succession box, template and category). Question is, is that a bug or a feature?
On Barack Obama, the succession boxes are inside a footer template!
Barack Obama:
8 succession boxes 16 footer templates 46 categories
I'm sure there is record somewhere for the most categories on an article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MostCategories
That's out-of-date though.
Carcharoth
Carcharoth wrote:
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 11:14 AM, Sam Blacketer sam.blacketer@googlemail.com wrote:
On 3/6/09, K. Peachey p858snake@yahoo.com.au wrote:
Yes, but why *that* picture of Jimmy?
I would say that BBC gets all their photos though Getty Images, and thats just the image that they had on file when BBC first wanted one so that became their file photo for jimbo and has never updated it.
BBC News online has always preferred to use wierd/odd pictures to ordinary looking ones. If it's someone for whom there are a lot of images, they will always use the one taken mid-grimace, or when they were wearing a silly hat, or when someone in a gorilla suit was behind them.
Getty have quite a lot of Jimmy pics. I like this one:
Image number: 81165277
Can't work out how to link to it, but the caption says (only quoting first bit):
"SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT- MAY 20: Jimmy Wales, founder and chair emritus of Wikia, USA, looks on during the closing session of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East..."
[Have they confused Wikipedia and Wikia?]
And he's in profile, holding a pen.
Of course, it's easier to reuse the picture you have on file already.
Does the BBC realize that they could freely use Commons pictures just like any individual, or do they have some kind of exclusivity arrangement with Getty? Surely if more commercial users realized this it could become a problem for Getty. O:-)
Ec
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 6:18 AM, Carcharoth carcharothwp@googlemail.comwrote:
Can't work out how to link to it, but the caption says (only quoting first bit):
Try clicking on it. :-) http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/81165277/Getty-Images-News
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 11:06 AM, Sam Korn smoddy@gmail.com wrote:
<snip>
Yes, but why *that* picture of Jimmy?
Lots of news articles seem to be using that one (or recycling it). If Jimmy is reading this, he should go to the Getty Images website and search using his name. If that's the only image of him they have, send them some more, or get some of the GFDL ones out there.
It might also be the expression on Jimmy's face and the hand gesture. Very Confucian.
Carcharoth
2009/3/6 Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com:
2009/3/6 Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com:
The BBC, presumably worrying about a slow news day, have an article on Wikipedia vandalism, focusing on UK politicians:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7921985.stm
The Lib Dem advisor quoted, incidentally, comes up with a fairly clear rendering of the "undue weight"/"jumbled collection of facts" BLP problem.
I've just commented on the article correcting a couple of mistakes/misleading statements. Otherwise it is a very good article and accurately describes some of the problems we face without being sensationalistic.
And they've fixed them within about 20 minutes - good stuff!
On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
2009/3/6 Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com:
2009/3/6 Andrew Gray shimgray@gmail.com:
The BBC, presumably worrying about a slow news day, have an article on Wikipedia vandalism, focusing on UK politicians:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7921985.stm
The Lib Dem advisor quoted, incidentally, comes up with a fairly clear rendering of the "undue weight"/"jumbled collection of facts" BLP problem.
I've just commented on the article correcting a couple of mistakes/misleading statements. Otherwise it is a very good article and accurately describes some of the problems we face without being sensationalistic.
And they've fixed them within about 20 minutes - good stuff!
Of course, without a history tab, we can't see what got changed...
I've refreshed it, but can't remember what it said before.
Carcharoth
2009/3/6 Carcharoth carcharothwp@googlemail.com:
Of course, without a history tab, we can't see what got changed...
I've refreshed it, but can't remember what it said before.
The original said all vandalism reverting was done by admins and was a little misleading about who would be doing the reviewing under flagged revisions. Nothing too bad.