For months and months we've talked about revamping the article count
system, but nothing's changed. The article count is still an extension
of the "comma count" used to filter out empty articles in a search back
in the UseMod days.
Currently, a page is counted as an "article" for "we have X articles"
purposes if it is:
* in the article namespace (so excludes talk pages, user
pages, Wikipedia: help and utility pages)
* not a redirect
* contains a comma (!)
Now, we are well aware that page-count fever has gripped Wikipedia for
some time. The obsession with breaking the 100,000-page barrier on the
English stifled any implementation of reforms for fear of reducing the
count. Concerns about languages which don't use the ASCII comma
character have been shrugged off. Well, today I've seen enough.
While the English wiki has galumphed along for ages, secure in its place
as The World's Largest Damn Wiki, the smaller languages are in intense
(though friendly) competition with one another for runner-up positions.
"In real life," Youssefsan tells me, "people look for economic growth;
here for page growth. Both use 'creative accounting.'"
On the francophone Wikipedia, we have been exposed as the slaves to the
comma count that we all are but are ashamed to admit. See:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=CULTe&action=edit&oldid=33814
(Those who have trouble with my PGP-signed mail, go to fr.wikipedia.org,
look up article 'CULTe', and hit 'Modifier cette page'.)
Yes that's right, people have started adding commas as hidden comments
just to increase the stupid comma count. NO MORE, I say! Ils ne
passeront pas!
Unless a better count system is proposed, I will replace the comma check
with a greater-than-zero-size check within twelve hours.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
This is one where setting a good example is useless, because it isn't
noticed. I send email in plain text, and people still insist on responding
in HTML with settings like black-on-dark-gray. They don't realize that
plain text is a choice made for good reasons.
Black-on-dark-gray is, simply, not readable by this human being (who is
already wearing bifocal lenses). If it's your easiest way to read, set your
computer
display to that--then you can read my messages as is easiest for you, and I can
still read yours.
In the meantime, if I seem to be ignoring you, it's because you have taken
extra
effort to make your messages opaque, and I'm tired of taking the effort to
undo it.
Wikikarma: copyediting and expansion of [[Alt hierarchy]]
--
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr(a)redbird.org
http://www.redbird.org
Hi,
I would like a new functionality. This may not be the right place to ask, but
I don't know where else could I do it.
Could it be possible that the left column could be configured by each user ?
For example, I would like to be able to add a few links which I use very often
("My Watchlist" in an other language, for example).
Thanks,
Yann
--
http://www.forget-me.net
Alternatives sur le Net
http://keys.indymedia.org/showkey.py?key=0A34CBDA
gpg --keyserver keys.indymedia.org --recv-key 0A34CBDA
Hello, Stevertigo:
I offer some reasons to think twice before you act on. But I do
not mean to be highly critical of your idea.
And the article was interesting anyway. Thanks for that.
Assuming that you are talking about English Wikipedia, I guess
you could be right about the bias. But it doesn't mean everyone
is biased like those extremests described in the aritcle. At least
I know some American-born Americans highly critical of the
said bias in mainstream mass media.
And the opponents of the extremests may be unbiased as well.
Those who are highly interested in the matter may be more likely to
have a strong POV.
Some would say "Wikipedia is not" a place to discuss politics.
And with different biases, we can perhaps still work together. At
least some of us can.
(http://www.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-February/001005.html)
And some would want to avoid exhausting flaming war - though those people
can just stay away from it and work on something else.
_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
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The below quote is from here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?dir=7&story=313235&ho
st=3&printable=1
"Indeed, you have to come to America to realise just how brave this small
but vocal Jewish community is. Bernstein is the first to acknowledge that a
combination of Israeli lobbyists and conservative Christian fundamentalists
have in effect censored all free discussion of Israel and the Middle East
out of the public domain in the US. "
I'm wondering if, and have long surmised that, this is an issue on
Wikipedia, and am curious about whether it merits a centralized, and open
discussion. -Stevertigo
Stevertigo;
First, a correction:
"And the opponents of the extremests may be biased as well"
was what I wanted to say. (instead of "unbiased").
>Where do you stand Tomos?
I'm not informed enough on this issue. And I don't think I can
mediate that kind of open discussion. I have other things I can
do better, too.
But I didn't mean to stop you. I only hoped that maybe some
cautions would help you to make better decisions and
preparations on how to do what.
Or maybe they were to obvious to be helpful. (I don't know.) In
any case, wish you a good luck.
>Im curious - you included a link to a Lir issue... *perhaps* >suggesting
I wanted to remind you of that some say collaboration on wikipedia
can be done even among those with opposite biases. Ed's posting was
an example of it, as I understood.
I'm still learning about Lir stuff, (primarily to know how things
could go and make use of that knowledge for Japanese wikipedia)
so I didn't mean that kind of rich and subtle connotations that
you smelled.
Though, of course, I think talking openly about each others
biases among various hard-believers on a sensitive issue
can turn into flame war or lingering conflicts among participants.
Anyway, getting to the bottom of the issue and producing a NPOV
article would be a great achievement, and I am among the
beneficiaries of such an article.
best,
Tomos
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I am truly glad that there are certain astute individuals who are so
absolutely free of bias themselves that they can share their open-mindedness
with the rest of us.
Gimme a break.
Danny
To not loss your work, select and copy the text you have written in an wikipedia article before press the "Save button" or you risk loss your work if wikipedia server is down or give you a "too many connections message".
Regards.
----
http://www.journeytoforever.org
I just wanted to say that I'm not voting, because I
think it's a waste of time and effort and completely
against the wiki way. If you want to decide things
like this, go ahead, but I still think the solution is
consensus and not democracy. Plus, it's such a silly
matter to vote on, I don't care what you guys decide.
Have fun with the voting game. I'm just tired of
reading messages on Wikipedia-L about it. Oh, and
btw, I think an article should count if it's 50+
bytes. ;-)
Chuck
=====
Learn Esperanto! - http://www.lernu.net/
Enciklopedio: http://eo.wikipedia.org/
___________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!? -- Une adresse @yahoo.fr gratuite et en français !
Yahoo! Mail : http://fr.mail.yahoo.com
I'm breathing some new life into the [[Wikipedia:Arab-Israeli conflict
editing project]]... Some cages will be rattled... (reflexive human
tendencies)... And all unbecoming behaviour will be reported here. Daily if
need be. -SV