Recently, I was outside at night, and I was fortunate to see several
meteors. The 2018 Perseid <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids> meteor
shower is at its peak this weekend.
Also, yesterday I spent some time on English Wikipedia's main page
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page> and browsed some of the linked
articles. I was glad to be reminded that regardless of world events, good
or bad, we continue to create Wikipedia.
What's making you happy this week? You are welcome to write in any language.
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
Hello All,
In Republic of Srpska there is a photo-competition Trace of Soul 2018
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Trace_of_Soul_2018> (WLE+WLM) in
progress. Yesterday and today we receive a few e-mails from competitors -
they complained that they have a problem with photo upload. We have tested,
and in third step, after release rights a page got "freezed". Does anyone
know what is the problem? We really need help. Thanks!
Bojana Podgorica
*Замислите свет у коме свака особа на планети има слободан приступ
целокупном људском знању. То је оно на чему ми радимо.*
Dear All,
We are very pleased to announce the launch of Santali Language Wikipedia (
https://sat.wikipedia.org). The site has been launched on August 2, 2018
and, after the import of pages from Wikimedia Incubator and some
maintenance work, it’s now open for all. Santali Language’s own alphabet,
Ol Chiki, has been used as the alphabet of this Wikipedia. Santali is
a language in the Munda subfamily of Austroasiatic languages, spoken by
around 7.4 million people in South Asia (Bangladesh, India and Nepal).
This is a very special moment for us and has been made possible because of
the joint effort by Santali Language Wikipedian’s from Bangladesh, India
and Nepal. Wikimedia Bangladesh and Bangla Wikimedia Community
congratulates the Santali Language Community for their accomplishment and
are honored to be a part of this tremendous achievement. Manik Soren, a
dedicated Santali Wikipedian from Bangladesh, along with some very active
Santali Language Wikipedians from Bangladesh and India has been
instrumental in this effort. We would also like to thank Shabab Mustafa,
President of Wikimedia Bangladesh and Nahid Sultan, a very active steward
and Secretary of Wikimedia Bangladesh, for coordinating the effort in
Bangladesh and Odia Wikimedians User Group for coordinating the effort in
India.
It is worth mentioning that the process of creating a Santali Language
Wikipedia began in 2012 and, later on, got momentum in February, 2017. Back
in 2012, Wikimedia Bangladesh organized a Wikipedia meetup and workshop
with the Santali Language Community in Dinajpur District of Bangladesh with
the goal of launching a Santali Language Wikipedia. However, that process
slowed down after some time. Then in September 2017, Wikimedia Bangladesh
organized another meeting with Santali Language Community in a Dhaka
Wikipedia meetup where a decision was made to expedite the launch of the
Wikipedia. Following that discussion, a workshop was organized by Wikimedia
Bangladesh for Santali Language Wikipedians on December 30, 2017. Santali
Language Wikipedians from India also participated in that program through
online discussion. Subsequently, another workshop was organized for Santali
Language Community in India on March 11, 2018 in collaboration with Odia
Wikimedians User Group.
After months of work, Santali Language Wikipedia got the approval of
Language Committee on June 28, 2018 and finally, the Santali Wikipedia site
was launched on August 2, 2018.
Let us congratulate and welcome the Santali Language Community.
Cheers!
Ali Haidar Khan
Executive Committee Member, Wikimedia Bangladesh
I have been trying to work how the WMF or its suppliers have chosen to
use pixel tracking methods on Wikimedia projects, and exactly what
data is tracked, who can access it and if it ever gets officially
deleted, but failed so far.
There was some past speculation that some banners were using pixel
tracking, but apart from the cookie statement published by request of
WMF legal in 2015,[1] I have been unable to find precise explanations
of how this has been part of banner design, used on external landing
pages, or whether pixel tracking had ever been used more directly by
being integrated or tested on Wikimedia projects. Naturally this leads
to questions about legitimate use of pixel tracking data and what/who
it is tracking.
It would be much appreciated if anyone can provide a link to an
official statement given by the WMF that pixel tracking is used on its
sites outside of fundraising banners, or its supplier's sites, and any
example cases or reports of where it is happening.
Links
1. https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cookie_statement
Thanks,
Fae
--
faewik(a)gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Hi Mario,
I don't think it will be considered harassment if the information is posted
here. I believe the WP:OUTING applies to the English Wikipedia and this is
not English Wikipedia mailing list.
Regards,
Isaac
On Jul 22, 2018 5:43 PM, "Mario Gómez" <mariogomwiki(a)gmail.com> wrote:
There, is at least, one user that works for Go Fish Digital with a
sockpuppet account in English Wikipedia and has denied conflict of interest
or paid editing disclosure even if he was asked too, since some user was
suspicious. Should I send this privately? I don't want to incur in spurious
ousting/doxxing.
Best,
Mario
On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 12:24 AM, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> Go Fish Digital is a company that whitewashes Wikipedia. From its own
site:
>
> >The primary platforms that define your online reputation include:
> > [...]
> > * Wikipedia
> > [...]
> >
> > With Online Reputation Management, we work hard to make all of the
> >positive information easy to find. At the same time, we use many
> >different strategies and tactics to diminish the visibility of negative
> >content, or in some cases, remove it from the web altogether. The end
> >result is a positive online reputation because when people search your
> >name or brand, they immediately find positive content.
>
> Source: https://gofishdigital.com/online-reputation-management
>
> Wikimedia Foundation Inc. has been working with this company on search
> engine optimization: <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T198970>. I have a
> few questions about this work.
>
> How was this vendor chosen? Which other vendors were considered?
>
> Why is this work being undertaken? At least the English Wikipedia has some
> of the best search engine results placement of any site on the Web, so I'm
> curious to know who's prioritizing Wikipedia's search engine optimization
> and for what reason.
>
> How is it appropriate for Wikimedia Foundation Inc. to work with a company
> that is, by its own admission, whitewashing Wikipedia? Doesn't this give
> Go Fish Digital a ton of legitimization by now being able to say it works
> directly with Wikimedia Foundation Inc. ("with Wikipedia")?
>
> Is it appropriate to give a company that sells whitewashing Wikipedia
> services access to private user data, as was done in
> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T192893> and
> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T193052>? The Wikimedia Foundation Inc.
> legal department apparently approved this access, but I'm curious to know
> why, given the company's role in selling an "Online Reputation Management"
> product. This looks bad to me.
>
> MZMcBride
>
>
>
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Sorry to interrupt from cheering to a ‘walled garden’, and I don’t want
to be negative, but there are some important questions about this
endeavour that weren’t answered while the site was being developed:
1. Is the translation of the new site easily available for volunteers? I
see only ‘English’ in the options, and from my knowledge (I might be
wrong, that’s what I am aware of), current translators of new website
have to provide their translations by email (!).
2. Who’s going to fix the links to the old website?
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/test doesn’t work anymore − and
there are probably hundreds of non-interwiki links scrambled around
Wikimedia projects, and I would guess across the Internet as well.
3. Was it so hard to develop the website using MediaWiki platform (and
your soon-to-be-deprecated website) instead of WordPress? There’s really
nothing that unusual there that warranted such a breaking change. It’s
kind of laughable that OSM Foundation can use and customise MediaWiki,
but Wikimedia Foundation that directly supports its development can not.
The current trend for English-only, non-translatable websites for
Wikimedia Foundation is, frankly, shameful. We get that you are an
American organisation, but you’re, after all, an organisation that
represents a global movement.
— Public Policy website is English-only for three years or so already
since its existence. (https://policy.wikimedia.org)
— Transparency Reports website is also English-only since its existence.
(https://transparency.wikimedia.org)
— Donation information website features multilingual text, but it’s
designed in such a way that most of people won’t know how to use it.
(https://donate.wikimedia.org/wiki/Problems_donating)
Now the head website is being made English-only without any simple and
visible ability to get involved because of preferring WordPress to an
easily localisable system like MediaWiki.
Hello all,
The Wikimedia Foundation Anti-Harassment Tools team is continuing to talk
with the Wikimedia community about adding a partial blocks function to
Special:Block.1
No functionality will change for sitewide blocks. All existing blocks will
remain in place and the ability to block users from the entire wiki will
remain as-is.
In addition to sitewide blocks, a partial block would be the ability to
block a user from:
1.
Editing one or more specific page(s)
2.
Editing all pages within one or more namespace(s)
3.
Uploading files
4.
Emailing other users
Alex Hollender, a User Experience designer at Wikimedia Foundation, has a
second set of wireframe designs of Special:Block with partial block
included. You can take a look at the wireframes and leave us your feedback
on Meta.2
Please spread the word and forward this email to others (especially
administrators) who might be interested in helping re-design
Special:Block's layout. In particular, feedback is needed about the best
ways to create a log that will work well with the existing administrator
workflows.
1.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_health_initiative/Per_user_page,_…
2.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Community_health_initiative/Per-user_p…
For the Anti-Harassment Tools team,
Sydney Poore
--
Sydney Poore
Trust and Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
Trust and Safety team;
Anti-harassment tools team
Hi,
Following Michal's email, I just want to update that the Knesset, the
Israeli parliament, released the story out earlier this week. Here is their
press release (in Hebrew): http://main.knesset.gov.il/News/PressReleases/
Pages/press26.07.18.aspx
This unique collaboration was shared on many official Facebook pages, among
them:
* The Knesset: https://www.facebook.com/TheKnesset/photos/a.
208518629234440.51187.202758726477097/1780330265386594/?type=3&theater
* The Ministry of Justice:
https://www.facebook.com/justice.gov.il/posts/1803422976378511
* The Governmental Freedom Of Information Unit:
https://www.facebook.com/FreedomOfInformationUnit/posts/1087069034773404
* Wikimedia Israel:
https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaIL/posts/1731560666898582
and Public Knowledge Workshop:
https://www.facebook.com/hasadna.org.il/photos/a.210740292276182.66759.1671…
*Itzik Edri*
Chairperson
itzik(a)wikimedia.org.il
+972-54-5878078
On Thu, Jul 12, 2018 at 4:25 PM, Michal Lester <mlester(a)wikimedia.org.il>
wrote:
> Hi all,
> Together with the Public Knowledge Workshop[1], a non-profit organization
> whose mission is to release public information, we signed a Declaration of
> Principles with the Israeli Parliament regarding the Open Law Book project
> on Wikisource[2]. This project began in 2004 and is an initiative to make
> all the laws and regulations passed by the parliament accessible to the
> public in a clear and reliable manner. Recently, the Israeli Parliament
> launched the National Legislation Database, which contains all information
> and data regarding the state's laws. In the collaboration agreement signed
> between the three stakeholders, it is agreed that the Nationals Legislation
> Database will include links to the corresponding information in the Open
> Law Book, while vice versa the database may freely use any information from
> the Open Law Book. This collaboration will allow the public to have the
> most up-to-date information in a clear and understandable way, and thus
> also increase the transparency of legislation in Israel. This
> groundbreaking achievement is an example to the kind of impact that open
> knowledge initiatives can have on civil life.
>
> *Michal Lester,*
>
>
>
> *Executive DirectorWikimedia Israel*
> *http://www.wikimedia.org.il <http://www.wikimedia.org.il/> *
>
>
> * [1] http://www.hasadna.org.il/en/about/
> <http://www.hasadna.org.il/en/about/>[2]
> https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%
> D7%98%D7%A7%D7%A1%D7%98:%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8_%D7%94%D7%97%
> D7%95%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%97
> <https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%95%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%99%
> D7%98%D7%A7%D7%A1%D7%98:%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8_%D7%94%D7%97%
> D7%95%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%9D_%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%97>
> *
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