Wikimedia-l February 2007

wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

116 participants
97 discussions

[Foundation-l] Enterprise article problems page
by David Gerard 07 Feb '07

07 Feb '07

(on en:wp, but cc'ing foundation-l because en:wp is a major source of such headaches) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contact_us/Article_problem/Factual_e… Basically, it says "go to help desk, and maybe send us an email." Note the careful wording of the line about legal problems. I'm trying to tread a fine line here between encouraging people to contact us the right way about real problems, and not encouraging cranks and nuisances. OTRS volunteers: is that the right address and subject line in case of a substantial legal concern? Please edit as appropriate! If this looks workable to people, we'd like to publicise this (slightly) as a place to get concerns dealt with, so companies feel they have somewhere to approach that won't get them bad press in 100 newspapers around the world (as happened to Microsoft). Per Geni's excellent suggestion, we can recruit new en:wp admins to help with the queue :-) - d.

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[Foundation-l] Comparison of new user welcome efforts across projects
by Brianna Laugher 07 Feb '07

07 Feb '07

Hello, Welcoming new users is a common community activity across many Wikimedia wikis. The idea is usually to do at least some of the following: give the user key links to core policies, an explanation of syntax/technical help, make them feel part of the community, and give them links to places to ask further questions. Different projects can have different needs. For example, some non-English projects give links (in English) to Embassy or Babel pages, where they can ask questions in English rather than the language of the project. Also, non-Wikipedia projects can perhaps expect that most of their new users will be familiar with Wikipedia first, and therefore tailor their welcome messages with the expectation that the user already is familiar with the technical aspects, and emphasise the difference in policies between their project and Wikipedia. Personalising the sign-up process is often not a priority for projects, because only admins can edit MediaWiki pages, it is not easy to locate which page should be changed to update which message, and it tends to have been a long time since admins signed up/were new, so they forget if it was a bad experience or what it was like. I am involved with the welcoming efforts on Commons, where we have a bot that places a {{welcome}} message on all newly registered users who have made at least one edit or upload. We invite users to give feedback on the message, which you can read here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons_talk:Welcome_log There was some concern people wouldn't like the impersonal method of being welcomed by a bot, but one person even commented that it made them feel part of the community! Some people said they would like to appear automatically on the talk page without them even making edits). The Commons welcome message is quite dense, but the links are useful enough that an 'oldbie' could still find it very handy to keep around. It has an emphasis on image-management-specific tools such as user's Gallery, Commons Helper (transferring images from Wikipedia etc) and how to get your own mistakes deleted. It also has 33 translations, which is pretty fantastic. Anyway, via this feedback, I recently became aware of Hungarian Wikipedia's MediaWiki:Welcomecreation (this is the message that says 'you have successfully registered your account' -- your first contact with the new user, in effect). See their changes: http://hu.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki%3AWelcomecreation&diff=… I thought it was quite fantastic, and updated Commons' Welcomecreation message in a similar fashion. I also started looking at the MediaWiki:Welcomecreation and Template:Welcome (or equiv.) messages for other wikis. You can see my summry here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pfctdayelise/welcome (and you can complete some more if you feel like it, especially mention if your project has a 'welcoming committee' equivalent) It is quite interesting what different projects choose to emphasise. ZH.wp, wikt (Chinese) explicitly highlight the GFDL. IT.wp has a red warning against violating copyrights. PL.wp, wikt (Polish) both have explicit links to IRC channels, so I guess it is an important tool for them. JA.wp (Japanese) doesn't appear to have a template:Welcome (at least it is not interwiki linked on the English one...surely they have one???). So this is just a bit of a message, to admins of various projects who care about the impression that new users get, to have a look at these pages on your project and see how they compare. Here are my 'best ofs' so far: MediaWiki:Welcomecreation: FR.wp: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Welcomecreation HU.wp: http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Welcomecreation Template:Welcome (or equiv.): PL.wp: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szablon:Witaj2 nice screenshots to explain things EN.wikt: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Template:pediawelcome A little combative, but does well to emphasise the differences between wp and wikt NL.wp: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sjabloon:Welkom Nice sidebar with links to explanations of Wikipedia jargon (remember the jargon, people???!) ES.wp: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantilla:Bienvenido_usuario Visually, the most impressive one. ZH.wp: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:%E6%AC%A2%E8%BF%8E Pretty and minimalist (possibly too minimalist, and thus easy to ignore, though). What are the hallmarks of bad welcome messages? (in my opinion--) Too much dense text. Too much information. (Do they need to know how many articles there are or when the project was founded? No.) Too many links. (Consider: is it really vital that the user go read the article on 'Wikipedia'? Probably not, so probably don't link it.) Irrelevant links. (EN.wp links to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_development as 'How to write a great article'. It's actually part of a series called 'The path to a Featured Article'. Rather ambitious for a n00b who you simultaneously presume doesn't even know how to sign their posts on talk pages. Do all new users need a guide on inserting images into articles? FR.wp thinks so, but I doubt it.) What are the most common newbie errors you see people making? Remember back, what was the frustrating gem that you spent hours searching to find and wished someone had told you earlier? Are your users coming from Wikipedia -- are you wasting precious screen real estate telling them things they already know? Consider writing messages that cater to separate audiences if appropriate. Anyway that's all, I hope some people feel inspired to update their welcome messages, and if you know of a project that has a particularly nice welcome message I'd love to see it. cheers, Brianna user:pfctdayelise

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[Foundation-l] Use of logos within Wikimedia sites
by DF 06 Feb '07

06 Feb '07

On 2/6/07, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote: > > On 2/6/07, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com> wrote: > > In other words, no, we may not use the logo on Wikipedia. > > > > On en it would be allowed in [[wikipedia]] and > perhaps [[wikimedia foundation]]. Geni, I must say, I admire your intellectual consistency, if nothing else. By extension, all Wikimedia logos should also be deleted from Commons since they are unfree. If the community decided to rebel and delete all of WMF's dreadfully unfree logos, I'm sure it would make for some entertaining wikidrama and would certainly address the immediate problem. However, since the logos exist to help foster brand identity and benefit the project, I think a better solution is to set appropriate usage guidelines and allow them to be used by users within the various Wikimedia sites. I don't think it is either hard or burdensome to regard "Copyright by Wikimedia" as an exception to Wikipedia's fair use criteria, and for the most part that has been the going practice since forever. Unfortunately, since the WMF does own the logos, a certain amount of asking permission does seem to make sense, but this thread seems to reveal that the boundaries for what is or is not permitted are largely unresolved at this time. -Robert Rohde ____________________________________________________________________________________ Have a burning question? Go to www.Answers.yahoo.com and get answers from real people who know.

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[Foundation-l] Separate mailing list for Embassy Ambassadors?
by Brianna Laugher 05 Feb '07

05 Feb '07

Hello, It seems to me that it would be useful to have a mailing list separate from foundation-l that is intended just for Embassy Ambassadors and the small number of users from each project that are interested in co-ordinating things with cross-project relevance. foundation-l is too high traffic and almost all messages are in long, dense English. An Ambassadors mailing list would only be for announcement-type messages with links to more info. No politics stuff. It could be very useful e.g. at fundraiser time. (While comparing welcome messages I have noticed some projects still have fundraiser notices up...yes...) Thoughts? Brianna user:pfctdayelise

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[Foundation-l] Wikimania 2007 Team Bulletin, 5 February, 2007
by mingwangx 05 Feb '07

05 Feb '07

*Wikimania 2007 Team Bulletin* 5 February, 2007 *Call for Help* - school promotion tour and volunteer recruitment - translation - someone who is conversant with PayPal and PHP Summary: - KJ will spend 50% of her work time at Wikia as a dedicated volunteer for Wikimania 2007. - The obligations and rights of volunteers. - The translation plan for Wikimania 2007. KJ will spend 50% of her work time on Wikimania 2007 At 26 Jan., Jimmy Wales announce<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/027257.html>through Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List<http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l>that KJ <http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:KaurJmeb> will be spending 50% of her work time at Wikia <http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia> over the next 6 months as a dedicated volunteer for Wikimania 2007. KJ will be one of the main organizers of Wikimania 2007 and is responsible for Wikimania sponsorship. KJ is responsible for preparing sponsor proposals and will be spending time visiting the sponsors to discuss their proposals. The obligations and rights of volunteers The Taipei Team announce the obligations and rights of volunteers: - Online Service - Work: website content, translation, WikiReader. - Obligation: service for 10-40 hours a month. - Rights: 1. Volunteer training course. 2. If 50 hours sevice is completed, the volunteers can attend Wikimania for free. - On-site service: and other services on site. - Work: reception, venue decoration, equipment management - Obligation: at least 16 service hours - Rights: 1. Volunteer training course. 2. If 16 hours sevice is completed, the volunteers can attend Wikimania for free. - Both 1. If 70 hours sevice is completed, the volunteers can apply a volunteer certificate in Chinese or English. 2. If 70 hours sevice is completed, the volunteers can apply letters of recommendation for work or school. The translation plan The translation plan for Wikimania 2007<http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania:Translation/Plan>is announced. Please go to Talk Page<http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_talk:Translation/Plan>to discuss. Distribution of this Bulletin and feedback Everyone is welcome to reproduce and distribute this bulletin to their websites, mailing lists, BBS, blogs, and so on, but please kindly include the Bulletin's original location<http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Team_Bulletin/20070205>on the official Wikimania 2007 website in your distribution. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave them at... - http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Team_Bulletin/20070205 - Wikimania-l mailing list<http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l>

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[Foundation-l] [Announcement] Welcome to the advisory group
by Florence Devouard 05 Feb '07

05 Feb '07

As decided last august, we set up an advisory group according to resolution http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Advisory_board You'll find the entire list here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Advisory_Board Welcome to Angela Beesley (eh !) Ward Cunningham Heather Ford Melissa Hagemann Danny Hillis Mitch Kapor Joris Komen Rebecca MacKinnon Wayne Mackintosh Benjamin Mako Hill Erin McKean Trevor Nielson Achal Prabhala Jay Rosen Clay Shirky Peter Suber Raoul Weiler Ethan Zuckerman who have agreed to give a bit of their time and expertise, to help us navigate in the difficult waters of collaborative software, free licensing, free speech, education for all, governance, sustainability models... We really appreciate. How did we chose these people ? Either because they were already frequently in touch with us, or because we thought their experience could help. "We" is both the board and the community, as the board also contacted some of the people whose names showed up when I asked help on this list. Is that list closed ? Of course not. Please feel free to discuss further additions that could be necessary in the future. Florence Devouard

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[Foundation-l] [Announcement] Executive update
by Florence Devouard 04 Feb '07

04 Feb '07

As just announced, the Wikimedia Foundation does not have any executive director any more, until an ED is found (hopefully within 3-4 months). This raises some questions of organisation. To foster efficiency and channel communications, the board has agreed that the following staff members or contractants shall be reporting to the following people. For all office/administrative issues, staff (Barbara, Danny...) will report to Carolyn Carolyn (operations) will report to Florence Sandy (communication) will report to Florence Brad (legal) will report to Florence Danny (non administrative tasks, eg grants, special projects etc...) will report to Erik Brion/Mark/Tim (tech) will report to Jan-Bart Delphine (chapters) will report to Oscar Due to their background, Oscar and Michael (are and) will be very involved in financial and audit considerations. Jimbo is more focused on public relations and licenses discussions. Kat is spending time on various legal-related, licenses discussions and is in charge of an assignment not yet made public :-) (ahah! cabal!) Florence Devouard Chair of Wikimedia Foundation Links * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027477.html (Announcement concerning the ED search firm) * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/027269.html (explanation of the differences between CEO, COO and Board) *http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027478.html (Brad moving to GC job) * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/027268.html (Announcement of Carolyn becoming COO) * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/026515.html (4 wishes for year 2007... including reorganisation and financial considerations) * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/027171.html (Welcome to Sandy) * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027455.html (Welcome to chapter coordinator)

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[Foundation-l] Trademark violation and domain squatting
by Luiz Augusto 04 Feb '07

04 Feb '07

I tryed in the past to send messages related to squatting domain names to the ORTS system (info(a)wikimedia.org) but I never received a reply. Now this is also a trademark violation denunce. Someone registered the domain names wikipedia.com.br [1], wikimedia.com.br[2] and wikipedia.wiki.br [3]. And now, someone has registered a trademark name "Wikipédia Distribuição de Conteúdo Ltda" [4]. [1] - https://registro.br/cgi-bin/nicbr/whois?qr=wikipedia.com.br [2] - https://registro.br/cgi-bin/nicbr/whois?qr=wikimedia.com.br [3] - https://registro.br/cgi-bin/nicbr/whois?qr=wikipedia.wiki.br [4] - "Wikipédia Distribuição de Conteúdo Ltda" is the owner of wikipedia.com.br

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[Foundation-l] [Announcement] Executive director
by Florence Devouard 04 Feb '07

04 Feb '07

After eight months in the position of interim Executive Director, Brad Patrick will be resuming his other role as General Counsel exclusively. Due to the volume of work and need to move forward with a permanent solution for the ED role, the Board is focusing on retaining an executive search firm to conduct the search for a new ED. In the coming weeks, the Board will be working directly with staff on priority issues (see next announcement on the matter). Brad has done a great deal to help the Foundation move forward in such areas as governance, technology and contracting, audit, hiring, and many other things. With the conclusion of the fundraiser and the immediate financial future of the Foundation secure, now is the time to look ahead to the selection of a new Executive Director to manage the operations of the Foundation. This will enable Brad to focus on developing the role of General Counsel, and addressing a backlog of complex legal questions the Foundation faces moving forward. Florence Devouard Wikimedia Foundation Chair Links * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-February/027477.html Announcement concerning the selected firm * http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2007-January/027269.html (explanation of the differences between CEO, COO and Board)

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[Foundation-l] Fwd: Fwd: Wingchunpedia using derivative of Wikipedia logo
by Angela 03 Feb '07

03 Feb '07

I found a working email address in the end and the founder responded to say it was a temporary logo and that the real one is being worked on and will be installed before the release of the site. Angela

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Wikimedia-l February 2007