CB low On 26 Aug 2004, at 08:50, wikien-l-request@Wikipedia.org wrote:
Message: 1 Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:45:17 +0800 From: Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com
(...) what has bothered me lately is the fact that Googling for "wikipedia foo" likely brings up one of our mirrors first, and not Wikipedia itself. So when I see a blatant error magnified "n" times on the many mirrors on the Internet, it sends a chill up my spine.
Worse, because those sites are mirrors, and don't accept changes, it makes it easy for readers to walk off and say, "What a crackpot project."
So increasingly, the dynamic is changing, and in large part it's due to Google search results. Whether these mirrors are gaming the search algorithm or whatever, increasingly "Wikipedia content" does not reside in a true wiki, because the fruits of publishing are being removed from the mechanisms of fixing errors. I feel the dynamic of inclusionism/deletionism and the promptness of when things are fixed must take this into account.
-- Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com
This is _one *more* reason_ why I think it is so important that we implement our own domain name across the board: I have in the past proposed -- and am proposing again -- that we use:
wikipedia.org -- as our main site
AND the following as redirects:
wikipedia.com (already active) wikipedia.net (already active) wikipaedia.org (cybersquatted by a German Wikipedia imposter) wikipaedia.com (cybersquatted by the same German Wikipedia imposter) wikipaedia.net (I recently registered this domain myself and am still seeking to donate it to the Wikipedia Foundation)
In addition I believe we should also control the *important* ccTLDs, such as:
wikipedia.de (German, already active) wikipaedia.de (German, cybersquatted by the same German Wikipedia imposter) wikipedia.co.uk (owned by us, but _BROKEN_ "Wiki does not exist" error) wikipaedia.co.uk (currently unregistered) and possibly more
The ccTLDs should redirect to the respective language version of the Wikipedia (not strictly applicable w/ .co.uk as AFAIK there isn't a separate British English Wikipedia).
That should shut out the most disturbing cases of Wikiplagiarism and as a side effect pimp us in terms of Google rankings. I am very much for us moving ASAP to get the cybersquatted domain names surrendered to us (which we're entitled to under the terms of the ICANN UDRP).
NB: I have extensively discussed the aforementioned German cybersquatter/WP imposter at http://www.ropersonline.com/Area_51/wikipaedia.html (user: guest, passwd: 1ns4nI+y)
- Jens [[User:Ropers|Ropers]]
Jens Ropers wrote:
CB low On 26 Aug 2004, at 08:50, wikien-l-request@Wikipedia.org wrote:
Message: 1 Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:45:17 +0800 From: Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com
(...) what has bothered me lately is the fact that Googling for "wikipedia foo" likely brings up one of our mirrors first, and not Wikipedia itself. So when I see a blatant error magnified "n" times on the many mirrors on the Internet, it sends a chill up my spine.
Worse, because those sites are mirrors, and don't accept changes, it makes it easy for readers to walk off and say, "What a crackpot project."
So increasingly, the dynamic is changing, and in large part it's due to Google search results. Whether these mirrors are gaming the search algorithm or whatever, increasingly "Wikipedia content" does not reside in a true wiki, because the fruits of publishing are being removed from the mechanisms of fixing errors. I feel the dynamic of inclusionism/deletionism and the promptness of when things are fixed must take this into account.
-- Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com
I'd also say that a lot of it comes from them using the word "Wikipedia" in the article title, which seems to be ranked highly by Google. We should make sure that we have trademark rights in the Wikipedia name, and then dissuade mirrors from using the name "Wikipedia" for any purpose other than referring to the real Wikipedia project, or by express permission of the Wikimedia Foundation.
See http://www.wipo.int/madrid/en/
For example, according to this, just registering a non-figurative trademark in CN, DE, FR, GB, GR, IE, JP, KR, PL, RU and SE (based on countries which are majority native speakers of the "biggest" Wikipedias, and some up-and-comers) in a single category via the US Trademark Office will cost only 2873 CHF, or about US $2255, less than the price of a server. (This presumably includes the U.S, too, since that's the office of registration and the calculator does not give any way to tick the host country, but the site is unclear on this detail...)
This seems like a very low cost for ensuring that the Wikipedia Foundation retains these fundamental rights, and is in a position to prevent their misuse. It should also conclusively win any domain battles. Note that there is nothing un-Free about this: Linus Torvalds holds the Linux trademark, and the Free Software Foundation holds the GNU trademark, without their trademark rights in any way inhibiting the rights granted by the GPL on their software.
Neil
See http://www.wipo.int/madrid/en/
For example, according to this, just registering a non-figurative trademark in CN, DE, FR, GB, GR, IE, JP, KR, PL, RU and SE (based on countries which are majority native speakers of the "biggest" Wikipedias, and some up-and-comers) in a single category via the US Trademark Office will cost only 2873 CHF, or about US $2255, less than the price of a server. (This presumably includes the U.S, too, since that's the office of registration and the calculator does not give any way to tick the host country, but the site is unclear on this detail...)
This seems like a very low cost for ensuring that the Wikipedia Foundation retains these fundamental rights, and is in a position to prevent their misuse. It should also conclusively win any domain battles. Note that there is nothing un-Free about this: Linus Torvalds holds the Linux trademark, and the Free Software Foundation holds the GNU trademark, without their trademark rights in any way inhibiting the rights granted by the GPL on their software.
Neil
enthusiastically SUPPORT. ~~~~
-- Jens [[User:Ropers|Ropers]]On 26 Aug 2004, at 15:27, Neil Harris wrote: