Wikipedia-l September 2007

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57 participants
52 discussions

Re: [Wikipedia-l] Non-notability "abuse"
by Marco Chiesa 16 Sep '07

16 Sep '07

Ian Tresman wrote: >I believe that the idea of "notability" is being >abused to remove controversial articles: it is >impossible to prove that a subject is notable to >you, and you can ignore whether it may be notable to someone else. > > > This is not the English Wikipedia mailing list. Cruccone

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Non-notability "abuse"
by Ian Tresman 16 Sep '07

16 Sep '07

I believe that the idea of "notability" is being abused to remove controversial articles: it is impossible to prove that a subject is notable to you, and you can ignore whether it may be notable to someone else. Jimmy is quoted as saying that the criteria for inclusion is verifiability, which is why we have the following, many of which are not notable in themselves: * A thousand articles on each of the top 1000 asteroids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids_%281-1000%29 * Every single episode of the Simpsons, and many other less notable TV shows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Simpsons_episodes * Articles on different shades of blue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shades_of_blue Examples of abuse? * We have articles on hundreds of student newspapers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_student_newspapers But one in particular is singled out for removal on grounds of notability, presumable because of its controversial associations: Pensée, a short-lived student newspaper from the 1970s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pens%C3%A9e_%28Immanuel_Velikovsky_Reconsidere… * We have articles on some of the most bizarre, unproven, and pseudoscientific theories, eg. Time Cube, Eloptic energy, and Welteislehre. But the article on the "Electric universe (concept)" was removed also on the grounds of notability (and other reasons) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Electric_unive… Yet the concept is readily verifiable (my comments were removed from the AfD, and placed n the discussion page). *We have articles on all manner of people, from cranks to presidents. But the article on "Ralph Juergens" was removed on the grounds of his non-notability. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Ralph_Juergens However, he is notable in the "Velikovsky affair", has written articles, etc. By point is not to specifically argue for the inclusion of these articles, but that to suggest, for example, that "Pensée" is less notable than asteroid #812, shows that notability is a subjective criteria influenced by popularity, and is being abused as such. Wikipedia is supposed to be the "sum of all human knowledge", described from a neutral point of view, whose criteria for inclusion is verifiability. Minority views can receive (detailed) attention on pages specifically devoted to them. The examples I gave are all well-noted (verifiable). I agree that you might not necessarily find them notable (popular), but is that a reason to exclude them from readers who are unable to judge for themselves? Regards, Ian Tresman www.plasma-universe.com

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WikiLove campaign - pictures
by Sabine Cretella 13 Sep '07

13 Sep '07

Hi, again a crosspost :-) Today I am here to ask you for your help with photos. We prepared two example messages you can forward to friends and family below. Of course we would like to see photos from all of you and you can see examples here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikilove What I myself experienced is that it is much easier to take the camera, take some white paper and something to write when you meet people and ask them if they love Wikipedia, Wikinews or whichever project - then ask them to write it down and take a picture. When it comes to uploading them to flickr and you don't want to do it yourself, I suppose we will be able to organise it asking the community for help. Please use the various wiki-meetings around to take pictures and to ask others to do the same. If you are at university or school things should be quite easy, if you have a mobile phone that can take pictures or you simply take your camera with you for one day and "do". I hope we will be able to see your photo online soon then :-) Cheers, Sabine p.s. don't forget to ask others to do the same. ***** Proposed texts (please adapt them according to your community and the country where you live - we know that things can differ a lot from one place to the other): *Version 1* Are you a Wikipedian fanatic? Do you ever wonder how you operated without Wikipedia. Then show your wiki love! Post your picture depicting why you love Wikipedia to the Wikilove Flickr group. Pictures can be funny, creative, emotional, deep, or anything you want them to be! Additionally, forward this email to your family and friends, and ask them to do the same :) http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikilove/ *Version 2* Are you a Wikipedian fanatic? Do you ever wonder how you operated without Wikipedia? Then show your love by posting your pictures to the official Wikipedia Flickr group! Pics can be funny, creative, or anything you want them to be. If you are camera shy, then simply check out the cool pics that have already been posted. http://www.flickr.com/groups/wikilove/

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Multilingual error messages - need proof-reading
by Mark Ryan 13 Sep '07

13 Sep '07

Hello. As a few people may know, the Green Screen of Death multilingual error message on Wikimedia is my baby. Since it's now 2 years old, and since several people had dissed its javascript etc, I recently started re-coding it and adding several languages. I have spoken with so many kind, friendly Wikipedians who speak other languages, and they have been incredibly helpful to me by providing translations and putting up with my incessant popping into their IRC questions to ask silly questions in English. Anyway, after almost a couple of months, I finally have all the translations together. I would now like people who are fluent in these languages to proof-read the messages, and mark them in the table on this page as checked: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Multilingual_error_messages/Draft Additionally, some of the languages there need some links to be inserted. Thanks for your time. Any help that people can give me in this by doing this proof-reading will be rewarded with warm thank-yous and WikiLove. ~Mark Ryan

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Sassarese and Sardinian
by GerardM 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

There is a Wikipedia in the Sardinian language<http://sc.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A0gina_printzipale>. It uses the sc ISO-639-1 code. What was known as Sardinian became srd in the ISO-639-2. In the ISO-639-3 it was recognised as a macrolanguage<http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/scope.asp#M>; practically what was called Sardinian was split into four languages<http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=srd> . The Italian government has officially recognised the Sardinian language or the "Limba Sarda Comune". This is in essence a constructed language as it tries to make one language out of the four "dialects". One of the effects has been that some people prevent others from writing in one of the four languages on the sc.wikpedia. The language committee of the Wikimedia Foundation has a request to approve a new language; one of the Sardinian languages, Sassarese with ISO code sdc. There are two problems to deal with: - The "Limba Sarda Comune" is not recognised as a language - The proponents of the "Limba Sarda Comune" reserve the sc.wikipediafor their language This issue is political. The first thing that I understand when you go to the official website <http://www.sardegnacultura.it/linguasarda/> is the notion of identity and indeed, to create one Sardinian identity it would be instrumental to have a unifying language. However, the map of the Sardinian languages <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lingue_di_Sardegna_mod.gif> is clear, the island is divided in four. Given that the language committee has as one of its rules that political arguments are not accepted, there are a few conclusions that we should make. 1. Sassarese can have a conditional approval 2. We urge the proponents of the Limba Sarda Comune to ask for the recognition of this newly constructed language from ISO. I have had a chat with Debbie Garside<http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Advisory_board#Debbie_Garside>about all this, and I understand that it is necessary to apply for an ISO-639-3 code before an IANA language code is likely to be approved. At least fifty published works in the Limba Sarda Comune will be required. Thanks, GerardM

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Translations for Wiki love campaign
by Sabine Cretella 10 Sep '07

10 Sep '07

Hi, again we need your help :-) Now we have a group on Flickr where people can express why they love the wikimedia projects - more about this here: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2007/WikiLove_campaign We need the translation of a short text (see link above) in the following languages: * English (well that is of course already done - it is just for completion) * French * German * Italian * Korean * Portuguese * Spanish * Traditional Chinese It would be great if some of you could help :-) and maybe pass the information on to the relevant Village Pumps and discussion lists. Thank you!!! Sabine ***** Sabine Cretella PM Fundraiser 2007 scretella(a)wikimedia.org skype:sabinecretella http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SabineCretella

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Real name not being displayed
by Eric Powell 08 Sep '07

08 Sep '07

Hello, I was under the impression that the Real Name field would be displayed instead of the Username. "* Real name (optional): if you choose to provide it this will be used for giving you attribution for your work." When I look at the Recent changes page, everything is attributed to Username, not Real Name. In fact, I have not been able to find any place where Real Name is used instead of Username. Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you, E -- Eric Powell WildPackets Illuminate Your Network OmniAnalysis 5 Now Available! Featuring 802.11n capture and analysis, virtualization, Video over IP Media and Signaling analysis, and much more! http://www.wildpackets.com/products/overview

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[FR07] Communication with projects
by Sabine Cretella 08 Sep '07

08 Sep '07

For those who don't read my blog - just forwarding to various lists in English and if needed, please forward it to the various project lists. Thank you!!! Sabine -------- Original-Nachricht -------- Well, dealing with the Fundraiser 2007 I am trying to involve the whole of the communities. But that seems easier that it really is ... one things: oh well, there are the village pumps and you just go around them ... or you go through the mailing lists (but not all projects have one) ... or in the worst case you use the various chat rooms ... well no, it does not really work ... a really well structured communication in this specific moment is not possible - and in some way we should think about a solution. Village pumps: I am getting step by step to them - there is no all comprehensive page - but even if there was there is one huge problem: they are structured very different from one project to the other. Often I posted "somewhere" without even understanding if it was the right place ... some have extra pages for messages written in a different language from theirs (but then again: there you don't reach a maximum number of people who maybe would help). Some have different sectors for different themes ... but again: there you don't reach all potential people, just the part of them that goes to the "general" village pump page. Uhmmmmmm ...... not sure how to sort this out ... and no: I would be agains a page for special "foundation information" since again it would be read by only a part of the users/editors and these would probably be more or less the same ones who read foundation list .... Now I asked for a bot that can help us to add new sections to specific pages within the pywikipediabot framework - this would at least make one part of it easier, not having to go around all projects, but still the "how to communicate effectively" problem remains .... For now, until we maybe get a better solution, I would like to ask people from the various projects to check the page where I list the village pumps <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2007/Village_Pumps> and change the links I have there to the page where they want to have the messages added - for all projects please - this will help all of us to live an easier wiki-life. During the next days I will then make another round around the various Village Pumps asking people to correct the link on the page above if necessary. I am sorry, but for now I don't see a different way to get this on the way. And please: all links to all projects are needed - also the smallest ones ... they all have the same relevance. Thanks!!! -- Posted By Sabine Cretella to words & more <http://sabinecretella.blogspot.com/2007/09/fundraiser-2007-communication-wi…> at 9/08/2007 02:35:00 PM

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WikiSym 2007: Early registration deadline Sept. 13
by phoebe ayers 07 Sep '07

07 Sep '07

This is the official announcement for WikiSym 2007, a conference about wikis that is now in its third year. WikiSym is different from both Wikimania and Recent Changes Camp in that it is primarily focussed on research into wikis, though there is also a track for open discussion and practitioner reports; Wikimedians and Wikip/media researchers are very welcome to attend. See the site below for more info, and please distribute to anyone who may be interested. -- phoebe ----------------------------------------------------------------------- WikiSym 2007 2007 International Symposium on Wikis Wikis at Work in the World: Open, Organic, Participatory Media for the 21st Century October 21-23, 2007 Palais des Congrès de Montréal Montreal, Quebec, Canada http://www.wikisym.org/ws2007/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Registration is now open for WikiSym 2007, convening October 21 through 23 in chic, sophisticated, metropolitan Montreal, Quebec. **Deadline for early registration is September 13th** NO ORDINARY CONFERENCE WikiSym is the only international scientific conference dedicated to wikis. It brings together wiki researchers, practitioners, and users. The goal of the symposium is to explore and extend our growing community. It has a rigorously reviewed research paper track as well as plenty of space for practitioner reports, demonstrations, and open discussions. Anyone who is involved in using, researching, or developing wikis is invited to WikiSym 2007! We recognize that the online world is always evolving, and therefore welcome people interested in other online media consistent with the wiki philosophy of being open, organic and participatory. PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS Our headline speakers this year include many of the thought leaders on wiki. Our keynote speaker will be Jonathan Grudin (Microsoft Research), one of the world's leading researchers on Computer Supported Collaborative Work. Ward Cunningham (AboutUs), inventor of wiki and founding father of our field, will give the closing talk. Peter Thoeny (StructuredWikis), creator of TWiki, will give a half day tutorial on wikis in the workplace. Our program also includes two headline speakers from ooPSLA, our host conference. Jim Purbrick and Mark Lentczner, creators of Second Life, will talk about this collaboratively built 3D virtual world. Peter Turchi, award-winning author of "Maps of the Imagination", will talk about the relationships between creative writing, making maps, and creativity. That's just a sampling of what makes WikiSym the conference of choice for wiki researchers. We are proud to offer you WikiSym and look forward to sharing the experience with you in Montréal this fall. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Co-located events: ooPSLA 2007 (http://oopsla.org/) DLS 2007 (http://www.swa.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/dls07/) ISMM 2007 (http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~greg/ismm07/) LCSD 2007 (http://lcsd.cs.tamu.edu/2007/) APL 2007 (http://www.sigapl.org/apl2007.html) Mini PloP (http://refactory.com/OOPSLA_Workshop.html) CompFrame 2007 (http://www.compframe.org/compframe2007/) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information and to register, go to http://www.wikisym.org/ws2007/. Alain Désilets (National Research Council of Canada) WikiSym 2007 Conference Chair Robert Biddle (Carleton University) WikiSym 2007 Program Chair

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Buttons for fundraiser
by Sabine Cretella 06 Sep '07

06 Sep '07

Hi, some of you probably already noted that we are starting to work on the fundraiser. Over time you will see some requests for help here and I hope you will do so :-) At this stage there are two active tasks and one of it is the creation of the Buttons for the fundraiser. Description: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2007/Buttons_and_banners_to_be_t… First examples and translations: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2007/web_buttons So if you have ideas to create buttons, banners etc: just do it :-) Wishing you a creative and wonderful day! Sabine ***** Sabine Cretella PM Fundraiser 2007 scretella(a)wikimedia.org skype:sabinecretella http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:SabineCretella

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Wikipedia-l September 2007