Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Wikimedia.IN the news - Mumbai Hindustan Times, 13th Feb 2011 (CherianTinu Abraham)

Valid point, Ashwin. But, I don't know how we can avoid such attribution insufficiency totally. In the early days (of Tamil Wikipedia), despite repeated emphasis on not mentioning individual names, the writers like to mention stories around individuals. Though the community was understanding, those in the spotlight felt bad about it. That's why, whenever a press enquiry comes to me, I put a disclaimer similar to the one below (this one was in my email to Radhika of HT): First of all, as with anything related to Wikipedia, both these projects are owned by the entire community and the names mentioned here are the only ones I can attach to specific tasks. Both projects had significant participation from at least a dozen Tamil Wikipedians. I also insist on or directly copy all the concerned wikians on such requests. Despite that they like to use names. But, with such practices, we can at least include more contributors. Particularly in long format articles (like the one on Indian Express eye magazine), the writers have room to mention many people. We also faced the downside of not putting any name forward in one instance. During the collaboration with Tamil Nadu government, while a few of us directly interacted with the government, many others worked online for the contest. So, we repeatedly emphasised not putting the select few names anywhere. But, during the announcement ceremony, the IT minister personally wanted us to be thanked and sent a written note to the person on the podium. In the confusion, he thanked some non-wikipedians for the whole effort! - Sundar "That language is an instrument of human reason, and not merely a medium for the expression of thought, is a truth generally admitted." - George Boole, quoted in Iverson's Turing Award Lecture ----- Original Message ----