Wikipedia-l April 2004

wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org

67 participants
101 discussions

Re: [Wikipedia-l] Can "outsiders" build their encyclopedia on Wikipedia?
by engelsAG＠t-online.de 26 Apr '04

26 Apr '04

"Wesley Sheldahl" <wsheldahl(a)iglou.com> schrieb: > That's exactly right. If a set of articles seem out of proportion, it > would be far better to add more to the smaller articles, then to cut > material from the larger ones for no other reason than that someone had > worked hard to make them more complete or comprehensive. Wikipedia is > not paper. Over time, this shouldn't be a significant problem. I certainly think it would. If someone is going to make 50 extensive articles on otherwise insignificant members of their volleyball clubs, Wikipedia is not going to be improved by doing the same for all other sport clubs in the world as well. More is not necessarily better. It can sometimes be significantly worse. Andre Engels

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new wiktionary
by Peter Gervai 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

hello, excuse me but I missed the way how to start up a new wiktionary in my own language. anyone could enlighten me please? can we use hu.wikipedia.org for the base? could we start it now? :) thanks, [[user:grin]]

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Python Wikipediabot release
by engelsAG＠t-online.de 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

I have added a new release of the Python Wikipediabot package, it can be found at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=93107&package_id=98691 . There are now several packages in the release, but if you download pywikipediabot.zip, you don't need to worry about the others, as they are only parts of it, containing the files necessary for specific uses of the bot. Changes to the bot since my previous message on April 6: * A new bot, windows_chars.py, has been included, changing windows characters that are not in Latin-1 into their HTML-encoding. It is advisable to use this bot (or another one with the same working, developped by Looxix) before switching a Wikipedia from Latin-1 to UTF-8. * When using the bot to transfer images from one Wikipedia to another, the image description page of the language the image is taken from is used as the base for a default description. Also, this bot now is able to handle redirect pages. * When the interwiki-bot finds links to different pages on the same language, those are first given to the user to decide on, rather than having them mixed up with languages for which just one page was found. Also, the options to 'say yes to all' and 'give up' have been included * Several bugs in the uploading of images have been repaired. * boilerplate.py now can also be used to change {{msg:...}}-messages into written-out messages (using {{subst:...}}) * The table copying and translating bot has had several bug repairs and minor improvements. It now works for French departments. * The bot now handles localized redirect text (for the moment that includes only the #ail-cyfeirio for cy:) Discussed in recent weeks but not implemented are: * Creating localization information to enable the bot to be used on wikitravel (or other WikiMedia-projects) * Creating a bot to add redirects of the "Sometown, KY" to "Sometown, Kentucky" kind * Further changes to make things easier on the operator when the interwiki-bot has a problem that it cannot solve by itself Andre Engels

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voting snapshot at webbyawards
by Mathias Schindler 23 Apr '04

23 Apr '04

best practices: wikipedia: 31% google: 48% community: wikipedia 17% livejournal: 63% From the development of the last days, at least "best practices" behaved in a credible way. If all theses numbers can be attributed to this "Dr. Dean"-effect - start early, die early - is beyond my knowledge. -- nach uns der synflood.

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Carnatic Music of India
by Sistla Sreerama 22 Apr '04

22 Apr '04

Hi I want to contribute Carnatic music lyrics by Thyagaraja and Annamacharya. The lyrics will be in Telugu with Hindi and English Transliteration (as per iTransliteration scheme). Please let me know the procedure. Regards Sree Sistla ===== Om tatsat Om tatsat Om tatsat With Best Regards Sree Sistla ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca

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Re: [Wikipedia-l] bot
by engelsAG＠t-online.de 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

"Peter Gervai" <grin(a)tolna.net> schrieb: > can I set a user to be a bot? seems being sysop isn't enough, or I'm > undereducated :) I see that Angela already did so, however I also notice that the Hungarian recentchanges page does not yet contain the possibility to show bot edits. Please edit [[hu:MediaWiki:Showhideminor]] to read the Hungarian translation of: $1 minor edits | $2 bots | $3 logged in users Andre Engels

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Wikipedia nominated for Webby Awards!
by Jimmy Wales 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

Wikipedia has been nominated for Webby Awards in two categories: Best Practices and Community. The definitions of these two categories can be found here: http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/cat_defs.html The nomination itself is an honor, since in each category we are 1 of 5 sites selected from thousands of submissions. >Best Practices > >Sites demonstrating unparalleled excellence across The Academy's six >criteria: content, structure & navigation, visual design, >interactivity,functionality, and overall experience. Best Practices >sites serve as an industry benchmark for the most current, innovative, >and advanced practices in Web development. >Community > >Sites creating and facilitating online community, connectedness and/or >communication around shared interests. These sites can target either a >broad-based or niche audience. In each category, we are eligible for both a Webby Award and a The People's Voice award. In their email to me, they said: >While the Academy selects The Webby Awards' winners, the online public >selects The People's Voice Award winners. With frequently different results >some people are as honored to receive the People's Voice vote of confidence >as it indicates a strong following by your site's visitors. We encourage you >to launch a People's Voice campaign to get your loyal audience to the polls. >More information is available in the Nominee Kit that you will receive once >you've confirmed your contact information as outlined below. The kit is here: http://www.webbyawards.com/nomineekit/downloads.html I think we should launch a strong People's Voice campaign, today! --Jimbo

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bot
by Peter Gervai 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

can I set a user to be a bot? seems being sysop isn't enough, or I'm undereducated :) thanks, [[w:hu:user:grin]]

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editing restrictions
by Anthere 20 Apr '04

20 Apr '04

Hello all, This is at the same time, news from another wikipedia, and somehow a feature request (or start of discussion, whatever), hence sent to wikipedia-l and wikitech. --------- NEWS SECTION Today, the french wikipedia adopted new rules with regards to sanctions and exclusion (majority of 93%) To make it simple. Before : the only action toward a problematic user was banning. It was decided by consensus, with 100% agreement. Two people were banned by this way, Mulot (in august 2002) and Papotages (in november 2003). This naturally has become unworkable. Now : a new policy was adopted. This is not a final policy, as several points have to be further discussed, but it outlines the principles. This policy is rather different from the english one. I guess the difference is due to 1) we are less numerous and 2) we never had a benevolent dictator :-) The major differences rely here * There is no arbitration committee. Decisions are taken by the full community (with requirements of number of contributions or length of presence depending on the decision). * The policy relies on two steps, clearly identified. The first step is meant to slow down edition by a problematic user, or to restrict his right of edition to some parts of the project for example. It is relying on the *agreement* of the user to respect these rules. The community issues a sort of warning to the problematic user and ask him to voluntarily respect this collective warning. For example, if a user is unable to collaborate on an article, and starts edit wars on this article all the time, he may be asked by the community not to edit this specific article for one month. The restriction in edition is automatically lifted after a month. If the user does not respect the request issued by the community, the second step is reached. Similarly, a user being issued repeated warnings and edition restrictions in first step will meet second step. The second step is restriction of edition, by technical means. In short blocking/banning temporarily or permanently. # This means that the entire community will be able to express disagreement to a user, depending on his behavior as an editor. # Decisions of restriction of edition or banning will not be unilateral but collective # Restriction in edition should not be necessarily seen as a punishment for the user, but more a warning from the collective, and request for him to behave differently # Restriction in edition should be respected by the user himself, voluntarily. That means the user actively chooses to behave within community norms or not. If he accepts, his full rights will be reinstated. If he refuses, a vote for banning will be started # Community answer to problematic behavior is gradual. It allows room for voluntary behavior improvement and general forgiveness. ------- FEATURE REQUEST SECTION You may note that the second step, restriction of edition by technical means, is limited. The only point on which we may act is time. Banning for one week, one month, forever etc�. I think it would be nice that technical means allow to block people more selectively, such as blocking on all meta space, or blocking on one article specifically. In the first case (meta space blocking), that means we recognise the right of the user to contribute to articles themselves, but we do not welcome them in the community. In the second case (article blocking), that means we could selectively prevent a user to edit on article or some set of articles which are really �hot buttons� for him. This has been mentioned a couple of time already, as well as edit throttling, which I think, holds interest as well. I would give a 100 wiki-kisses to any developer interested in working on that :-) I would also suggest raising funds for this, 'cause I am not sure I own 100 wiki-kisses. But I promise I am dedicated in making/removing people sysop and bureaucrat status to give developers more free time :-) Anthere __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25� http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash

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Re: Perl
by Brian Corr 17 Apr '04

17 Apr '04

On Fri Apr 16 09:41:21 UTC 2004 Peter Gervai wrote >On Fri, Apr 16, 2004 at 11:15:14AM +1000, Tim Starling wrote: > > fabiform wrote: > > >(Perl admitted he made a mistake and said it wouldn't happen again) > > > > The issue is not whether or not he apologises every time he makes a > > mistake. We know that he does apologise regularly. The issue is whether > > he will do it again, or something similar. Perl's judgement is not > > sufficient, he has to be watched all the time. > >If someone does not feel the responsibility of the power given then he >should not have the power itself. I completely agree. Being a sysop is not a right, but a responsibility. It also is not a tenured position, and while desysopping should not be done lightly, there has already been a lot of thoughtful discussion about this -- far more than is currently required to make someone a sysop (although I realize a new policy is under consideration). >Irresponsible but helpful people doesn't need sysop power to submit articles >and changes. Neutral people doesn't need it either, there is life without >power. Sysopship should be *restricted to* careful, responsible people. >Preferably proven careful, responsible people. It is a tough goal but >should be >tried anyway... > >I don't know perl and I am not involved. Reading all the mails here he >should be desysopped, and stay that way, because he is helpful but neither >careful nor responsible. This is valid for anyone using his/her/its power >irresponsibly or without maximal possible care. Peter is correct here as well. Perl doesn't need to be a sysop to do good work and be helpful in fighting vandalism. And I will note that I opposed Perl/Alex becoming an admin on en: repeatedly because he had shown what I considered poor judgment, duplicity (as well as outright deception) and being unwilling to be more careful and moderate his behavior (despite a willingness to apologize repeatedly). I also opposed his self-nomination on the French Wikipedia (where I am an occasional, but serious, editor) because of his history on en: and his stated reason for wanting adminship: "Je voudrais devine admin pour terminé (assasiné) les vandals comme papotages et micheal." <http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Administrateur&ol…>. I appreciate that we want to weigh carefully the decision to remove someone's adminship, but it's clear to me that he received it by a carefully planned course of action -- perhaps even "scheming" is not too strong a word here -- and that he has not acted responsibly. While he may end one specific problematic behavior, he often seems to find one that he hasn't been specifically warned about. To me, he obeys the letter of the law, but no its spirit. So I urge that he is desysopped, that the current policy proposal is reviewed by people and adopted, and that Perl can reapply if he wishes, and that the community can make a decision. Thanks, Brian (Bcorr)

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Wikipedia-l April 2004