FYI, I asked WMF Communication Team about any plans of using Mastodon in future.
Here is their response [1] "The Digital Communications team has been researching Mastodon and considering our potential involvement with the platform in the future. At this time, we have no plans to create an account for the Foundation or Wikipedia. This is mainly because our observations show us that Mastodon is not yet reaching a large audience, which is one of the key objectives of our communications activity on social media. We will continue to monitor the situation and adjust our recommendations and practices to keep within our objectives."
[1]: https://meta.wikimedia.org/?diff=24262780
Regards,
SCP-2000
https://w.wiki/_zgcU
Hello friends
Short version : We need to find solutions to avoid so many africans
being globally IP blocked due to our No Open Proxies policy.
*https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking*
Long version :
I'd like to raise attention on an issue, which has been getting worse in
the past couple of weeks/months.
Increasing number of editors getting blocked due to the No Open Proxies
policy [1]
In particular africans.
In February 2004, the decision was made to block open proxies on Meta
and all other Wikimedia projects.
According to theno open proxiespolicy : Publicly available proxies
(including paid proxies) may be blocked for any period at any time.
While this may affect legitimate users, they are not the intended
targets and may freely use proxies until those are blocked [...]
Non-static IP addresses or hosts that are otherwise not permanent
proxies should typically be blocked for a shorter period of time, as it
is likely the IP address will eventually be transferred or dynamically
reassigned, or the open proxy closed. Once closed, the IP address should
be unblocked.
According to the policy page, « the Editors can be permitted to edit by
way of an open proxy with the IP block exempt flag. This is granted on
local projects by administrators and globally by stewards. »
I repeat -----> ... legitimate users... may freely use proxies until
those are blocked. the Editors can be permitted to edit by way of an
open proxy with the IP block exempt flag <------ it is not illegal to
edit using an open proxy
Most editors though... have no idea whatsoever what an open proxy is.
They do not understand well what to do when they are blocked.
In the past few weeks, the number of African editors reporting being
blocked due to open proxy has been VERY significantly increasing.
New editors just as old timers.
Unexperienced editors but also staff members, president of usergroups,
organizers of edit-a-thons and various wikimedia initiatives.
At home, but also during events organized with usergroup members or
trainees, during edit-a-thons, photo uploads sessions etc.
It is NOT the occasional highly unlikely situation. This has become a
regular occurence.
There are cases and complains every week. Not one complaint per week.
Several complaints per week.
*This is irritating. This is offending. This is stressful. This is
disrupting activities organized in _good faith_ by _good people_,
activities set-up with _our donors funds. _**And the disruption**is
primarlly taking place in a geographical region supposingly to be
nurtured (per our strategy for diversity, equity, inclusion blahblahblah). *
The open proxy policy page suggests that, should a person be unfairly
blocked, it is recommended
* * to privately email stewards(_AT_)wikimedia.org.
* * or alternatively, to post arequest (if able to edit, if the editor
doesn't mind sharing their IP for global blocks or their reasons to
desire privacy (for Tor usage)).
* * the current message displayed to the blocked editor also suggest
contacting User:Tks4Fish. This editor is involved in vandalism
fighting and is probably the user blocking open proxies IPs the
most. See log
So...
Option 1: contacting stewards : it seems that they are not answering. Or
not quickly. Or requesting lengthy justifications before adding people
to IP block exemption list.
Option 2: posting a request for unblock on meta. For those who want to
look at the process, I suggest looking at it [3] and think hard about
how a new editor would feel. This is simply incredibly complicated
Option 3 : user:TksFish answers... sometimes...
As a consequence, most editors concerned with those global blocks...
stay blocked several days.
We do not know know why the situation has rapidly got worse recently.
But it got worse. And the reports are spilling all over.
We started collecting negative experiences on this page [4].
Please note that people who added their names here are not random
newbies. They are known and respected members of our community, often
leaders of activities and/or representant of their usergroups, who are
confronted to this situation on a REGULAR basis.
I do not know how this can be fixed. Should we slow down open proxy
blocking ? Should we add a mecanism and process for an easier and
quicker IP block exemption process post-blocking ? Should we improve a
process for our editors to pre-emptively be added to this IP block
exemption list ? Or what ? I do not know what's the strategy to fix
that. But there is a problem. Who should that problem be addressed to ?
Who has solutions ?
Flo
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/Tks4Fish
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Steward_requests/Global_permissions#Request…
*[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking*
You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Leg…>
More languages
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_Leg…>
• Please help translate to your language
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Translate&group=page-W…>
Hi everyone! The Ombuds commission (OC) and the Case Review Committee (CRC)
are looking for members. People are encouraged to nominate themselves or
encourage others they feel would contribute to these groups to do so. There
is more information below about the opportunity and the skills that are
needed.
About the Ombuds commission
The Ombuds commission (OC) works on all Wikimedia projects to investigate
complaints about violations of the privacy policy, especially in use of
CheckUser <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CheckUser_policy> and Oversight
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Oversight_policy> (also known as
Suppression) tools. The Commission mediates between the parties of the
investigation and, when violations of the policies are identified, advises
the Wikimedia Foundation on best handling. They may also assist the General
Counsel, the Chief Executive Officer, or the Board of Trustees of the
Foundation in these investigations when legally necessary. For more on the
OC's duties and roles, see Ombuds commission on Meta-Wiki
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ombuds_commission>.
Volunteers serving in this role should be experienced Wikimedians, active
on any project, who have previously used the CheckUser/Oversight tools OR
who have the technical ability to understand these tools and the
willingness to learn them. They must be able to communicate in English, the
common language of the commission. They are expected to be able to engage
neutrally in investigating these concerns and to know when to recuse when
other roles and relationships may cause conflict. Commissioners will
serve two-year
terms (note that this is different from past years, when the terms have
been for one year).
About the Case Review Committee
The Case Review Committee (CRC) reviews appeals of eligible Trust & Safety
office actions. The CRC is a critical layer of oversight to ensure that
Wikimedia Foundation office actions are fair and unbiased. They also make
sure the Wikimedia Foundation doesn’t overstep established practices or
boundaries. For more about the role, see Case Review Committee on Meta-Wiki
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Case_Review_Committee>.
We are looking for current or former functionaries and experienced
volunteers with an interest in joining this group. Applicants must be
fluent in English (additional languages are a strong plus) and willing to
abide by the terms of the Committee charte
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety/Case_Review_Committee/Char…>r.
If the work resonates and you qualify, please apply. Committee members will
serve two-year terms (note that this is different from past years, when the
terms have been for one year).
Applying to join either of these groups
Members are required to sign the Confidentiality agreement for nonpublic
information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Confidentiality_agreement_for_nonpublic_inf…>
and must be willing to comply with the appropriate Wikimedia Foundation
board policies (such as the access to non-public information policy
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_to_nonpublic_information_policy>
and the Foundation privacy policy
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Privacy_policy>). These positions
require a high degree of discretion and trust. Members must also be over 18
years of age.
If you are interested in serving in either capacity listed above, please
write in English to the Trust and Safety team at ca[image: @]wikimedia[image:
.]org (to apply to the OC) or to the Legal Team at legal[image:
@]wikimedia[image:
.]org (to apply to the CRC) with information about:
-
Your primary projects
-
Languages you speak/write
-
Any experience you have serving on committees, whether movement or
non-movement
-
Your thoughts on what you could bring to the OC or CRC if appointed
-
Any experience you have with the Checkuser or Oversight tools (OC only)
-
Any other information you think is relevant
There will be two conversation hours to answer any questions that potential
applicants may have:
-
17 October 2022, 03:00 UTC (other timezones
<https://iw.toolforge.org/zonestamp/1665975648>) (Zoom meeting link)
(add to calendar)
-
16 November 2022, 18:00 UTC (other timezones
<https://iw.toolforge.org/zonestamp/1668621642>) (Zoom meeting link)
(add to calendar)
The deadline for applications is 31 December 2022 in any timezone.
Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any users who you think
may be qualified and interested. Thank you!
On behalf of the Committee Support team,
Karen
--
Karen Brown
Trust & Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
kbrown(a)wikimedia.org
Dear all,
The WMF appears to have made contradictory statements about the Wikimedia
Endowment. Earlier this week, Rai 3, a channel of the Italian national
broadcaster, aired a program about Wikimedia and Wikipedia.[1] On their
website, they also link to responses the WMF gave to various questions the
programme makers asked.[2]
One of these questions concerned the Endowment. I quote:
*Q: The Endowment has reached $33 million and passed them reaching $100
million today. Why the Wikimedia Foundation didn’t move it to a separate
501e3 entity? Being entrusted into the Tides Foundation is not available to
the public any financial report about Wikipedia Endowment. Don't you think
there is a lack of information and transparency about a fund that is
created through worldwide donations? *
*A: Your information is incorrect. The Wikimedia Endowment was established
as a separate entity and received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2022
following a 2021 board resolution. *
This answer was given to Rai in November 2022. Now I do recall an October
2022 blog post from the WMF reporting that the WMF's application for a
501(c)(3) non-profit had received approval and that the WMF was "in the
process of setting up the Endowment's strategic and operational policies
and systems".[3]
Has the money actually been moved from the Tides Foundation to this new
501(c)(3)?
At the time of writing, the Endowment website continues to tell its readers
that the funds are held and administered by the Tides Foundation.[4]
Is the information on the Endowment website obsolete?[5] If it isn't, and
the money is still with Tides, wasn't the answer given to Rai last November
substantially misleading?
Andreas
[1]
https://www.rai.it/programmi/report/inchieste/La-community-8bb003fb-d8cd-42…
[2]
http://www.rai.it/dl/doc/2023/01/16/1673895524547_RISPOSTE%20WIKI%20MAIL%20…
and
http://www.rai.it/dl/doc/2023/01/16/1673895525034_TRADUZIONE%20RISPOSTE%20W…
[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-10-31/News_…
[4] https://archive.ph/S8iI0#selection-2949.0-2949.1007
[5]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/01/11/adding-expertise-to-the-wikimedia-end…
refers to the "fact that we met – and even surpassed – our expected
timeline for the Endowment’s maturation into a 501(c)(3)."
Friends of education in the Wikimedia universe,
We in the Wikipedia & Education User Group are happy to share our 2022
annual report, now available: [[meta:Wikipedia & Education User Group/2022
Annual Report
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_%26_Education_User_Group/2022_Ann…>
]]
Highlights include:
* Our diverse membership of 378 Wikimedians and 20 affiliates
** Not a member? Join us! [[meta:Wikipedia & Education User Group/Members
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_%26_Education_User_Group/Members>
]]
* Open meetings of our membership, highlighting educational activities
happening all over the world
* Our mentorship program, with 36 participants this year
* Planning for the EduWiki Conference 2023, which will be held in Belgrade,
Serbia, in May
** Remember, the deadline for application to attend, with or without a
scholarship, is Sunday! More info: [[meta:EduWiki Conference 2023
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EduWiki_Conference_2023>]]
* A forthcoming book chapter about the global Wikipedia Education Program
* And more!
We are happy to answer questions on the talk page.
LiAnna
Chair, Wikipedia & Education User Group
Hello everyone,
We invite you to take a look at our Diff post
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/08/26/wikimedia-foundation-aclu-and-knight-…>
about
a recent update in our lawsuit against the U.S. National Security Agency
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency>, the agency
responsible for a number of mass surveillance practices that first came to
light in 2013
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2013/07/18/wikimedia-foundation-letter…>.
As we describe in the post, we first filed
<https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/opinion/stop-spying-on-wikipedia-users.h…>
this case in 2015 to protect the privacy and free expression rights of
Wikimedia users worldwide. In the coming months, we will share more about
this case, its implications, and how you can get involved.
Best,
Jim Buatti on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Legal Affairs and Global
Advocacy Teams
--
James Buatti (he/him)
Senior Manager, Legal
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
NOTICE: This message might have confidential or legally privileged
information in it. If you have received this message by accident, please
delete it and let us know about the mistake. For legal reasons, I may only
serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation. This means I may not
give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer for community members,
volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity.
Hi everyone. I have seen some of the reactions to the narratives generated by Chat GPT. There is an obvious question (to me at least) as to whether a Wikipedia chat bot would be a legitimate UI for some users. To that end, I would have hoped that it would have been developed by the WMF but the Foundation has historically massively underinvested in AI. That said, and assuming that GPT Open source licensing is compatible with the movement norms, should the WMF include that UI in the product?
My other question is around the corpus that Open AI is using to train the bot. It is creating very fluid narratives that are massively false in many cases. Are they training on Wikipedia? Something else?
And to my earlier question, if GPT were to be trained on Wikipedia exclusively would that help abate the false narratives?
This is a significant matter for the community and seeing us step to it would be very encouraging.
Best regards,
Victoria Coleman
Hello everyone,
Free Knowledge Africa is organising a contest; The 2023 Afrosport Writing
Contest!
Afrosport is an African games and sports writing contest on Wikipedia.
There is a huge content gap on the internet/Wikipedia as regards contents
on African Sports in English and other Languages.
This contest aims to bridge the content gap on Wikipedia by writing
articles about the historical and contemporary African Sports Scene
focusing on the English Wikipedia and 6 African languages; Wikipedia
(Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Dagbani, Swahili and Kinyarwanda.)
If you're interested in promoting sports in your local community, writing
about the favourite games and sports you grew up playing, translating sport
related articles on wikipedia to your local languages, or anything related
to the Sports scene in your country, join us on this exciting venture!
Come join us on the 15th of February in The Afrosport Writing Contest.
There are amazing prizes to be won and also there will be training sessions.
Register here <https://bit.ly/Afrosport2023>
Visit the project page on Meta
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Afrosports_Contest_2023>
to know more about the contest.
Remember, If we don’t write stories about Africa, who will?
Best regards,
Hopeabby
Associate, Free Knowledge Africa (FKA)
Some months have gone since I started this topic in this list, and still, we can't know how much engagement we have at Wikipedia, because data is not available. Twitter is now owned by Elon Musk, things are changing, there are more accounts in Mastodon daily, but still Twitter matters. I have been looking at the Twitter activity in the last days for @Wikipedia and I'm still very worried about the (lack of) strategy followed here. A full team, with staff members, which only produces one tweet per day, a lonely message in the vastness of the ocean, and gets really poor engagement numbers.
A couple of weeks ago Pelé, one of the greatest football players of all time, died. (English) Wikipedia Twitter account needed 7 days to tweet about it, even if the article was changed in a few minutes after the death (https://twitter.com/Wikipedia/status/1611363972174778368). The tweet had 13.729 impressions (now we can know the number of impressions), 14 RTs and 129 likes. Wikipedia account has nearly 644.000 followers. If we divide these two numbers, we get a rate of 2,13% of impressions per follower.
The same day Pelé died, Basque Wikipedia made a tweet. Not a week after, just when it was news (https://twitter.com/euwikipedia/status/1608541274491211776). The tweet had 964 impressions, 3 RTs and 2 likes. Basque Wikipedia account has 7,956 followers. This is a rate of 12,11% of impressions per follower. x5.68 times larger, relatively than (English) Wikipedia Twitter account.
(English) Wikipedia Twitter account has nearly 81 times more followers than the Basque one. English Wikipedia is more visible, because it has a (now golden) verified account symbol, so tweets are more often promoted. English has 1.500 million speakers around the world. Basque has fewer than one million. English Wikipedia should have around 1.000 more followers than Basque Wikipedia. English Wikipedia article about Pelé had 2,5 million pageviews in the two days after his death. Basque had 250 pageviews. This is 10.000 times more pageviews.
@Wikipedia has 644.000 followers, and @euwikipedia has nearly 8.000. Audience of English Wikipedia is 10.000 times larger for the same event. Why Wikipedia is not 10.000 times larger? Why doesn't Wikipedia account have 80 million followers? YouTube's Twitter account has 78 million followers. "By 2030, Wikimedia is to become the central infrastructure for Free Knowledge on the Internet.". How could we if Youtube's account has 100x more followers than we have? How can think that we are in a good shape if our tweets are only seen by less than 2% of our followers?
I hope that 2023 comes with a change. A change to open these accounts, have a fresh way of thinking on social media ,and building engagement, both with momentum, not losing opportunities, and promoting good content.
Sincerely
Galder
________________________________
From: Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga <galder158(a)hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2022 3:21 PM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Re: @Wikipedia losing opportunities in Twitter
Dear all,
Some weeks ago, we had a discussion here about the different approaches we have for the @wikipedia account at Twitter. We don't know yet how many interactions does the account has, but as I said in the discussion, we try to find ways to measure our work at @euwikipedia. Today I want to share with you that this account was ranked last week as the most influential social-movements account in Basque language (https://umap.eus/ranking/gizartea) and the 10th most influential account in all categories (https://umap.eus/ranking/orokorra). This is a good metric we use to know if we are doing fine or not.
Sincerely,
Galder
________________________________
From: Andy Mabbett <andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk>
Sent: Friday, August 5, 2022 8:50 PM
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: @Wikipedia losing opportunities in Twitter
On Mon, 18 Jul 2022 at 18:48, Lauren Dickinson <ldickinson(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Also, Andy, we will follow up this week regarding your questions
> about the @WiktionaryUsers and @Wiktionary accounts.
Three working weeks have passed since the above was written; I've seen
no such follow-up. Have I missed something?
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
https://pigsonthewing.org.uk
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To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Dear all,
Over the last few months, a small team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been
working on a project that has been discussed by many people in our movement
for many years: building ‘enterprise grade’ services for the high-volume
commercial reusers of Wikimedia content. I am pleased to say that in a
remarkably short amount of time (considering the complexity of the issues:
technical, strategic, legal, and financial) we now have something worthy of
showing to the community, and we are asking for your feedback. Allow me to
introduce you to the Wikimedia Enterprise API project – formerly codenamed
“okapi”.
While the general idea for Wikimedia Enterprise predates the current
movement strategy process, its recommendations identify an enterprise API
as one possible solution to both “Increase the sustainability of our
movement” and “Improve User Experience.”[0] That is, to simultaneously
create a new revenue stream to protect Wikimedia’s sustainability, and
improve the quality and quantity of Wikimedia content available to our many
readers who do not visit our websites directly (including more consistent
attribution). Moreover, it does so in a way that is true to our movement’s
culture: with open source software, financial transparency, non-exclusive
contracts or content, no restrictions on existing services, and free access
for Wikimedia volunteers who need it.
The team believes we are on target to achieve those goals and so we have
written a lot of documentation to get your feedback about our progress and
where it could be further improved before the actual product is ‘launched’
in the next few months. We have been helped in this process over the last
several months by approximately 100 individual volunteers (from many
corners of the wikiverse) and representatives of affiliate organisations
who have reviewed our plans and provided invaluable direction, pointing out
weaknesses and opportunities, or areas lacking clarity and documentation in
our drafts. Thank you to everyone who has shared your time and expertise to
help prepare this new initiative.
A essay describing the “why?” and the “how?” of this project is now on
Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Essay
Also now published on Meta are an extensive FAQ, operating principles, and
technical documentation on MediaWiki.org. You can read these at [1] [2] and
[3] respectively. Much of this documentation is already available in
French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
The Wikimedia Enterprise team is particularly interested in your feedback
on how we have designed the checks and balances to this project - to ensure
it is as successful as possible at achieving those two goals described
above while staying true to the movement’s values and culture. For example:
Is everything covered appropriately in the “Principles” list? Is the
technical documentation on MediaWiki.org clear? Are the explanations in the
“FAQ” about free-access for community, or project’s legal structure, or the
financial transparency (etc.) sufficiently detailed?
Meet the team and Ask Us Anything:
The central place to provide written feedback about the project in general
is on the talkpage of the documentation on Meta at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Enterprise
On this Friday (March 19) we will be hosting two “Office hours”
conversations where anyone can come and give feedback or ask questions:
-
13:00 UTC via Zoom at https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/95580273732
-
22:00 UTC via Zoom at https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/92565175760 (note:
this is Saturday in Asia/Oceania)
Other “office hours” meetings can be arranged on-request on a technical
platform of your choosing; and we will organise more calls in the future.
We will also be attending the next SWAN meetings (on March 21)
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network, and
also the next of the Wikimedia Clinics
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Clinics
Moreover, we would be very happy to accept any invitation to attend an
existing group call that would like to discuss this topic (e.g. an
affiliate’s members’ meeting).
On behalf of the Wikimedia Enterprise team,
Peace, Love & Metadata
-- Liam Wyatt [Wittylama], Wikimedia Enterprise project community liaison.
[0]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/FAQ
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise/Principles
[3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Enterprise
*Liam Wyatt [Wittylama]*
WikiCite <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCite> Program Manager & Wikimedia
Enterprise <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Okapi> Community Liaison
Wikimedia Foundation