>That Serbian, Croation, and Bosnian are separate languages appears to be a politically-convenient
>fiction that wants to enforce differences that don't really exist. That can only tend to enforce
>component-nation-specific POVs and thus violate NPOV (as would having separate Wikipedais for
>Simplified and Traditional Chinese).
The existence of a single Serbo-Croatian language was a
political fiction, enforced and maintained by a communist
dictatorship which imprisoned people for speaking their
mind out loud, fired them from their jobs and made it impossible
for them to get another one, and also kept secret police files on
large parts of the population.
Unsurprisingly, the fiction collapsed together with the
dictatorship. Today this idea is considered outlandish
by almost all speakers of Croatian and Bosnian (and a great majority
of Serbian speakers). That there are still some Serbs who
stick to this fiction is probably due to the fact that their
language (Serbian) had favored status within the Serbo-
Croatian fiction (ie it was almost exclusively used by
the army, diplomacy, federal service etc.).
Thank you,
Elephantus
from the Croatian Wikipedia
--
XXLadsl ponuda do 15.01.2006.- veće brzine, iste cijene. Samo kod
IskonInterneta uz XXLadsl surfajte 60 dana neograničeno za samo 1kunu!
Quite a few wikipedias have by now appointed checkusers. How have
people reasoned on the various projects while appointing their
checkusers - do they need to be "tech folks" or not? To what extent
should a checkuser have some prior knowledge, that can not easily be
picked up by a trusted but not very tech-knowledgeble person? I have
heard both opinions, both "it is very important" and "it is not very
important" but not very much resoning for either side.
/Habj
I am Puzzlet Chung, one of the administrators in Korean Wikipedia.
User:WonYong (also in en.wp) in Korean Wikipedia claims that Korean
Wikipedia should follow South Korean National Security Law so that the
contents potentially able to threat the nation (i.e. South Korea)
should be censored. He made National Security violation templates, to
tag "anti-State" articles which should be deleted:
http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:National_Securityhttp://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:National_Security2
WonYong insists that it is South Korea that try to conserve Korean
language and protect it from extinction, hence both administration and
contents of Korean Wikipedia should follow South Korean laws, and
Korean language speakers who is not South Korean citizens don't have
anything to do with it. He states that North Korea is not recognized
by South Korea as a nation but a "band of mafias," (the statement of
which is not true, since North Korea is a member of UN, and relation
between two Koreas has changed), and doesn't deserve for Korean
Wikipedia to reflect its POV.
The problem is that some users would agree to his point of view. Out
of two Korean [[names of Korea]], some South Koreans relate "Chosŏn"
with North Korea and Communism. They think equal juxtaposition of two
names, (juxtapose the names when they have to, of course), as not
satisfying Natural Point of View as in South Korea, where the majority
of the Korean Wikipedia users live in, and where the server is located
as well. Although "Chosŏnmal" is the name of Korean language called
not only by North Koreans, but majority of Chinese Koreans and some
Japanese Koreans, some find "Chosŏnmal" aggressive and inappropriate
to use it in some articles.
I am a South Korean citizen myself, but as far as I understand
Wikipedian policy of NPOV, WonYong's activity threats NPOV more than
the "Evil Wikipedia" would threat the existence of South Korea, not
like what he might think, as long as Wikipedia is not a some kind of
Communists' propaganda. But I've started to seriously consider about
moving DB server back to Florida and "foreigning" the site,
contributed by so-called foreigns and South Koreans who's not afraid
of South Korean laws.
Regards,
Puzzlet Chung
Soon it will be again [[w:en:Wikipedia:Wikipedia day|]] on January 15.
This year it is the 5th anniversary of Wikipedia. Should we not do
something?
If so, then it is high time to make the preparations.
I have some ideas what could be done ...
On January 15th, Wikipedia Day, only for one day, Wikipedia goes ..
- Retro! Change the default skin of the largest Wikipedias to
"Nostalgia". (most of the now existing Wikipedias did not exist in 2001
and have not even ever have used the usemod wiki.)
- Change to logo of those wikis back to the old Wikipedia logo. (Pre-Nohat)
- Change the style of the main pages back to one of more earlyer
incarnations. Basic style.
- On the main pages the main story is for once Wikipedia. The Wikipedias
write a article, does not even have to be NPOV (Wikipedia namespace?)
about the early history of there Wikipedia, about the very first users,
anecdotes about how some policy's or things not seem normal come to
be. The first attention of the media for Wikipedia. And this until today.
Jimbo could write also something about how he looks at the last five
years back now and how he thinks about the future of Wikipedia.
It would also be a great opportunity for all the current Wikipedians who
where not here from the start to get the feeling a bit how it was only 5
years ago.
This Wikipedia day would be in the first place be for the Wikipedians
them self.
Any for supporters for this idea?
Greetings,
Walter
--
Contact: walter AT wikizine DOT org
Wikizine.org - for the members of the Wikimedia community
Dear all,
Inspired by the article about Wikipedia in Nature, I have recently made some
contributions to Wikipedia in my field of expertise. Based on this
experience with Wikipedia, I would like to suggest a change to the structure
of Wikipedia. I'm not sure whether my suggestion has been discussed
previously. I have scanned e-mails in the list from the last months and
couldn't find anything related, but apologize if I simply reiterate an older
discussion.
Here's my suggestion: Allow multiple entries for one topic.
Why? In my opinion, there is no such thing as THE perfect entry about a
topic or, as a matter of fact, the TRUTH about a topic. So, why adopt one of
the shortcomings of printed encyclopedias? Why not allow users to read
different entries (and opinions!) about one topic?
An important complement of my suggestion is the introduction of a rating
system. How could this work? I would suggest a rating system consisting of
three parts. After reading an article, you can:
1. rate the quality of the entry on a, say, 6-point rating scale
2. rate yourself as an expert, amateur, or layperson in the field the entry
belongs to
3. enter strengths or weaknesses of this entry in a comment textbox (not
obligatory)
When you access an entry, you would then first get a list of existing
entries with their respective ratings separately for expert, amateur, and
layperson ratings. Based on these ratings, you then choose the article you
want to read.
Open questions: Is there a danger of too many articles for one topic? Should
there be a limit of parallel articles? If yes, how do you get in new
articles if this limit is reached? (Possible solution: You can write a new
article and "challenge" the worst existing article. If your article gets
higher ratings in the next, say, 4 weeks, your article replaces the older
one.)
Best,
Troas
--
Telefonieren Sie schon oder sparen Sie noch?
NEU: GMX Phone_Flat http://www.gmx.net/de/go/telefonie
Copied from:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fund_drives/2005/Q4/Day_21
--------------------------------------------------------------
The fund drive is officially over but donations are always being accepted and will be put to good
use.
This was the most successful fundraiser the Wikimedia Foundation's history! Over 12,000 people
gave $350,000 USD, which will enable the foundation to support Wikipedia and its sister projects
this quarter. A big 'Thank you!' to everyone who donated. A proper report for the whole drive will
need to wait until the final Dexia and mail donation updates have been received.
For '''Day 21''' a total of 1292 people gave a total of $33,741.07 through PayPal. There were no
donations made through MoneyBookers and no updates on mail or Dexia donations at this time. The
average PayPal donation this day was $26.12.
:Grand total at end of day: '''$349,184.42'''
Breakdown of Day 21 PayPal donations:
AUD 1,037.33 (778.51 USD)
CAD 1,445.78 (1,189.75 USD)
EUR 4,292.77 (5,214.38 USD)
GBP 1,448.43 (2,597.47 USD)
JPY 37,410.00 (338.00 USD)
USD 23,622.96
Total 33,741.07 USD
==Special thanks to those who gave large donations==
David Peterson gave the largest donation this day, $1,000.00. There were also many donors who gave
the equivalent of about $100 or more (listed in no particular order); Paul Kaufmann, G J Reid,
Anthony Zwarich, Iain Galloway, Robert Stoop, Stefano Perfetti, Gilles Volluz, Daniel Haertle,
David Reaven, Sebastian Mathews, D Neal, Robert Merritt, Jonathan Rosen, Steven Johnson, Robert
Caruso, Eric Rechlin, Raymond Bernard, Adam Shand, Michael Brumm, Wayne Slavin, terrence parker,
Davras Yavuz, Vivek Jetley, Rakesh Loonkar, richard marini, Craig Taverner, Timothy White, Adam
Smith, GURUPAL SANDHU, Daniel Armstrong, Travis McKay, Scott Marcus, David Fawcett, David
Hershberger, Harold Strain, and 46 anonymous donors.
:<small>Note: While large donations are great, it should be noted that about 70% of all the money
donated to the Wikimedia Foundation comes from donations that are the equivalent of $50 or less
and the average donation is about $25.</small>
==Selected donor comments==
Let's all thank everybody who donated on this day by reading their comments.
:Full listing at: http://fundraising.wikimedia.org/2005q4/index.php/2006-01-05/detail/
*"You can't put a price on Wikipedia." by anonymous
*"Merci, merci pour tout" by Sébastien Périer
*"A great extension of the original alturistic ideals of the internet" by Gavin Moodie
*"Wikipedia is an exceptional and visionary site." by anonymous
*"Eines der tollsten Projekte, die das Internet bis jetzt hervorgebracht hat. Riesen Dank an alle
Autoren!" by anonymous
*"Thank you for providing this free resource! It's great that you're trying to enlighten the world
and not profit from it! Thanks again!" by Katherine Pascucci
*"Rarely does knowledge have such great champions." by Sebastian Mathews
*"Anyone that has ever used Wikipedia understands the importance of the free flow of culture,
ideas and information that the site brings. But community is a two way process. Please give what
you can." by anonymous
*"I am a physics graduate student from China. I enjoy using Wikipedia!" by Meng Lu
*"I hope this small amount helps you make the world a better place for those who are not as lucky
as the rest of us." by anonymous
*Since I use it, I don't mind paying for that privilege so others can use this as well." by
anonymous
*"Your information is assisting me in putting together a program on fair housing law for the
apartment industry. Thank you!" by anonymous
*"This project has been helpful in my graduate studies." by William Myatt
*"Per la libera condivisione dei saperi" by Fabio Volpe
*"I have always found Wikipedia to be a thorough, unbiassed source for curious whims and real
concerns. I find this mission to be noble and important. Thank you Wikipedia." by Danielle Pearson
*"I want to thank you (and your daughter) for this site - I owe my 'A' grades this fall to
Wikipedia and I thought you should know. As a student, this is all I can afford! For now,
anyway..." by anonymous
*"Why are copyrighted gradeschool Math textbooks $50 when the paper and binding costs about $4?
The language of Math should not be copyrighted for ridiculous profits." by anonymous
*"for TimStarling's assistance tracking down my MediaWiki issues" by Jonathan Cary
*"I love Wikipedia! It has encouraged me to leave the corporate world to serve humanity. Keep up
the good work!" by anonymous
*"Who needs textbooks! Thanks Wikimedia!" by anonymous
*"Wikipedia is the epitome of freedom, the internet as it should have been - free access to the
sum of human knowledge. Keep up the good work!" by David McCormick
*"Die beste Enzklopädie." by Tobias Nopper
*"The posting of the financials convinced me. The funds are being used to expand Wikiprdia. Here
is my contribution toward that expansion." by Bernard Dombrowski
*"Information wants to be free; and I'm willing to pay for its freedom." by Mike Sollanych
*"I am happy to contribute to this historic endeavor !" by Marcello Rolim Coelho
Some of my personal favorites:
*"If my comment doesn't make it on to the daily report, can I edit it?" by N Lowey
*"A peaceful and prosperous future comes from knowledge, freedom, and action. Act now to keep your
knowledge free." by Michael Brumm
*""An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin" by Jonathan
Rosen
*"I am a first-year teacher and Wikipedia has been invaluable to the creation of my lesson plans.
Thanks!" by Philip Hart
*"Sterling stuff. If it wasn't for Wikipedia I'd have learned next to nothing this week about
norse gods, diamond mining, Rubik's cubes and Braille" by Chris Rae
*"Thanks for all those useful articles which saved me from hours of research!" by Manuel Müssig
*"The price I would pay monthly to Britannica I'd rather donate to Wikipedia." by Piotr Przemyslaw
Karwasz
*"Stuart Brand said "information wants to be free." We have to pay its bail." by Bob McCoy
*"I see tremendous potential for Wikipedia books project for advancing rural education in
developing countries. I wish this entire endeavor best of luck!" by Aditi Sen
*"I strongly support the aims and methods of the Wikipedia Foundation - this shows how good the
world can be" by anonymous
*"For my children Francis and Maya, and their kids ...and all kids, who should have the right to
learn without limits in order to make the world a better place" by Ronald Savage
*"Stop Reading Comments - Donation box is in top right hand corner!" by Adam Cooper
-- Daniel Mayer
__________________________________________
Yahoo! DSL Something to write home about.
Just $16.99/mo. or less.
dsl.yahoo.com
By the time this mail reaches the mailing list, the English Wikipedia
should have crossed the 900000 article mark. Congratulations!
Also, the fund drive is now at roughly $300000. That means each article
is worth about 33 cents to the public :-)
Magnus
Hi,
I'm working on a Wikipedia reader for the Apple iPod. To minimize the data
size occupied on the iPod I will only store the current articles on the
device (no "old"-table). However, the GFDL requires to mention the authors of
an article. Thus, each article on the iPod should contain a list of all
Wikipedia-users that appear in the revision history.
So, finally, my question is: Is there a way to get a list of the authors of
each article without having to download the (extremely large) xmldump of all
wikipedia-articles ever written since the beginning of time? I've already
tried the online SQL querying mechanism, but it seems to limit queries to
1000 results and to not support queries on the "old"-table.
By the way, another question comes to my mind: If a contributor to an article
wasn't logged in, do I have to mention his IP-number in the list of authors?
I don't think this would make much sense, but perhaps it's legally required
by the GFDL. Or is it sufficient to make the reader application display the
string "There might be other (anonymous) contributors to this article"?
I'm looking forward to your replies,
Robert
Copied from:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fund_drives/2005/Q4/Day_19
--------------------------------------------------------------
=Tuesday 3 January=
'''Day 19''' was another record day of fundraising! Today saw the second highest number of
donations ever made in a single day, 1193, and the second highest total donated; $33,474.07 (both
PayPal figures). The average donation this day was $28.06.
Grand total at end of day: '''274,703.84'''
Breakdown of Day 19 PayPal donations:
AUD 1,061.64 (796.76 USD)
CAD 1,475.92 (1,214.55 USD)
EUR 4,762.05 (5,784.41 USD)
GBP 1,588.38 (2,848.44 USD)
JPY 30,861.00 (278.83 USD)
USD 22,551.08
Total 33,474.07 USD
==Special thanks to those who gave large donations==
An anonymous gave $500, the largest donation for the day. There were also many donors who gave the
equivalent of about $100 or more (listed in no particular order); Alex Tan, jdavid grimshaw,
Bonaventure Saptel, Roger D Moore, paul RIVIER, Laurence Ronayne, Alfonso Martin-Maldonado Martin,
Jan Kelly, Richard Morin, Carl Hewitt, Mahalie M Pech, Jeffrey Puritz, CHANG ZEN TSAI, Sam
Pullara, Anand Desai, Michael Koziarski, A N T AAN DE STEGGE, Robert Zeller, KER JAR SONG, Andrew
Gallagher, James Taylor, Douglas Hainline, Marco Beri, Dai Barr, William Armstrong, David Astels,
John Lawler, Chris Bartle, Eric Towers, Errol Alpay, James M Orrell, John Broughton, Norma Pierce,
Jose Luis Cordova, Fredrik Johansson, Asa Canaway, and 50 anonymous donors.
==Selected donor comments==
Let's all thank everybody who donated on this day by reading their comments.
:Full listing at: http://fundraising.wikimedia.org/2005q4/index.php/2006-01-03/detail/
*"You are an amazing conduit, fusing the best aspects of the global community and its shared
knowledge. I salute you!" by anonymous
*"This is why the internet was created. The money is a trifle compared with the benefits." by
Richard Escobedo
*"A more relevant resource than my text books." by anonymous
*"I'm amazed at the quality of the entries - thank you, Wikipedia" by anonymous
*"Ironiquement, c'est pour cette merveilleuse source d'information libre que je finis par délier
ma bourse, n'en déplaise à ceux qui exige qu'on les paie pour accéder à leur contenu." by
anonymous
*"Wikipedia, I don't know how I ever did without you! Accept this donation as a gesture of my
gratefulness." by anonymous
*"Wikipedia A site I use in my day-to-day studies. A wealth of knowledge, A Wonderful and 'free'
service thank you." by isaac bullen
*"Grazie per cio' che fate. Viva la cultura libera." by anonymous
*"Use and love Wikipedia every day. Even on a student budget, I'm glad to help!" by Benjamin Van
Der Veen
*"knowledge, clean and simple as it should be." by Laurence Ronayne
*"I do hope knowledge will spread and defeat violence which is caused by ignorance" by francesco
pirotti
*"I'm happy to give some cash, especially since I havne't had time to contribute info as much as
I've planned to!" by Mahalie M Pech
*"Teachers...tell your students..." by James North
*"In memory of Preston G. Simpson" by anonymous
*"Die Informationen helfen mir immer weiter. Ich möchte daher Wikipedia unterstützen" by Claudia
Frank
*"Wikipedia is changing the world. Thanks to all contributors and good luck!" by Frank Wagner
*"This is a fantastic service which I use every single day. Do keep up the great work!" by Marc
Leger
*"Wikipedia saves me money on textbooks and teaches me new things every day. Without a doubt, a
staple of the internet." by anonymous
*"This is the greatest gift the human race has ever given. The most noble pursuit. I wish I could
give more." by Thomas Laugle
*"Wikipedia.org es por mucho la mejor página de busqueda en Internet me a ayudado a mi por 2 años
y siempre ha resuelto mis dudas." by Lourdes Carvajal
*"Wikipedia stands right alongside the Internet and the World Wide Web in its promise for the
advancement of humankind's civilized development." by JOEL H ROBERTS
*"in loving memory of Jim Zlogar" by Jeffrey Will
*"Wikipedia to me is a huge fountain which quenches the never ending thirst for knowledge - Thank
you" by mohan sagar
*"Wikipedia is the most exciting and useful site I have found on the Internet. I have literally
spent days here doing research for an upcoming book. Thanks guys, I hope we can indeed take back
the web." by John McAlister
*"Crescat scientia, vita excolatur" by anonymous
*"Just like contributing to public radio: you don't have to, but you ought to" by DAVIDE ANDREA
Some of my personal favorites:
*"Wikimedia is a Home schooling parents dream, thank you." by Vicki Grech
*"I feel truly privileged to be living in a time when I can participate in something as
world-changing as Wikipedia etc. keep it up!" by anonymous
*"This is one of the things that raises the quality of the Internet as a whole" by Lorenzo
Bolognini
*"Restores your faith that there are rational, conscientious, intelligent people out there." by
anonymous
*"i use your services, like public television, its only decent and right to contribute.Thank you
Wikipedia!" by anonymous
*"An absolutely brilliant idea! Jimmy Wales for the Nobel Peace Prize!" by Douglas Hainline
*"Stop wasting time reading comments and write an article!" by Eric Towers
-- Daniel Mayer
__________________________________________
Yahoo! DSL Something to write home about.
Just $16.99/mo. or less.
dsl.yahoo.com
A recent pretty large discussion about this issue was made, and about
everyone agreed what current mo. all in cyrillic must be moved to
mo-cyr. and on mo. should remain only two links to ro. and to mo-cyr.
On the main page wikipedia.org our language name are still in cyrillic
"Молдовеняскэ".
Or maybe there is another list, a higher instance where i can call ?
Where is present some administrators of wikipedia who can take some
real actions ?
After some days is a New 2006 Year, and we still have such a problems ?
Merry Christmas, and let's hope what the New Year will bring to us
some really correct changes.
--
Best Wishes,
Adrenalin.