Hi all,
yesterday I had that discussion on #wikimedia-en-help where I (= rindolf) tried
to help someone (I think he was a guy, but it doesn't matter) with getting his
article for review accepted:
<<<<
<Helpmebot> Hi Referenced99, welcome to the help channel for the English
Wikipedia! Move the cursor to the input area at the bottom of the window, type
your question and press Enter, and a helper should be around shortly to answer
your questions. If your question is about a particular page please make sure
your question includes the URL or name of the page in question.
<Referenced99> I need very detailed instructions about why this page
keeps getting rejected because of 'unreliable sources'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bjarnmar/sandbox. Even the wiki page for
sterling silver says at the top that some of its sources need to be verified -
but it was still allowed to be a page, so?
<Hersfold> just because some pages have issues doesn't mean we should
allow them to spread
<Referenced99> And i have used sources such as Variety, and when they
said it was not proven his music really existed i put the acutal link to where
it is in different parts of the world and that's still not enough?
<Referenced99> But that's just it Hersfold - what are the issues with
this page? i have even used some references that were accepted on other pages
related to his work but they were rejected in this case?
<Hersfold> I'm a bit occupied and don't really have time to look myself,
but someone else may be around
<Hersfold> !helper
<MJ94> ues?
<MJ94> yes?
<Referenced99> How is Danmarks Radio, the largest TV station in Denmark,
an unreliable source when I link to his work and credits on their site?
<MJ94> Referenced99: one sec
<MJ94> Referenced99:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Rs
<Referenced99> Sorry to bother you Herford...have a nice Saturday
<MJ94> Referenced99:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Imdb#IMDb
IMDB is generally not a "reliable" source.
<Referenced99> Yes, MJ94 I have seen that page and I still don't
understand - and I only use IMDB as an Additional Link but every one of the
links above it are genuine lnks to professional pages that have or reference
his work?
<Referenced99> Politiken is one of the largest newspapers in the
country, and I referenced them, Variety is known and used as a reference - I
really don't understand the problem?
<Referenced99> The British Film Institute site is also used as as
reference - so what is wrong? I am really trying to understand
<Referenced99> But could someone please look at the page and tell me
what is wrong with the references I have now? Then I could better understand,
it would be more specific, please?
<rindolf> Referenced99: where is the page again?
<Referenced99>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bjarnmar/sandbox
<rindolf> Referenced99: ah, well, it should be more a biography.
<Referenced99> Thank you, rindolf, I would appreciate your help. I have
looked at the general guide but I still don't understand what is wrong with my
references
<rindolf> Referenced99: like other biography of living people.
<Referenced99> Just a moment, reading you...
<rindolf> Referenced99: reading what?
<Referenced99> So what do I do differently i thought that was what I had
done (I meant reading your reply)
<Referenced99> I never did this before...
<Referenced99> I thought this was a biography page...
<rindolf> Referenced99: see for example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Wall
<rindolf> Well, that may not be a good one.
<rindolf> Let's see.
<rindolf> Referenced99:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Hathaway
<Referenced99> Ok, i see that page, my page also starts with his name
and where he was born and goes on to his accomplishments - what am I missing?
<Referenced99> Looking at the hathaway page now...
<rindolf> Referenced99: OK.
<rindolf> Referenced99: your page reads too much like a resume.
<Referenced99> Yes, and except for the absence of a pic can you please
tell me spefically what I need to do that I haven't already done?
<rindolf> I mean a C.V.
<rindolf> Referenced99: structure it more like a biography.
<rindolf> Referenced99:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons
<Referenced99> well, in the earlier version it was more like the
hathaway but it was criticized, so like they said i went to pages of some other
composers and they had it more simply prominent works etc like i do now ...
<rindolf> Referenced99: ah, this reminds me of
http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/62.html
<Referenced99> kind of like this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_N%C3%B8rg%C3%A5rd where his work is listed...
<Referenced99> Anyway, you see the way his works are listed, that is
what I was doing but should i go back to the hathaway type?
<Referenced99> i have done it so many ways now i am almost dizzy, ha...
<rindolf> Referenced99: I think you should.
<Referenced99> Ok, I will use the hathaway model...do i have to label it
as a biography in any way or just change the way it's set up on the page? do i
need a pic from the start?
<Referenced99> I really appreciate your help, Rindolf!
<Referenced99> Have a great Saturday!
<rindolf> Referenced99: thanks.
<rindolf> Referenced99: Shabbath is over here in Israel.
<rindolf> Referenced99: according to the Hebrew Midrash.
<Referenced99> Shabbath, then ;D
<Referenced99> I am going to get to work on this now - and yes, it feels
a lot like the man the boy and the donkey...depending on which one gets the
page to review they all say something different. but I won't pull my hair out
just yet, ha
<rindolf> Referenced99: :-)
<rindolf> Aesop++
<Referenced99> Oh, I see...better, anyway, ha
<rindolf> Referenced99: also see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law_of_triviality
<Referenced99> One said to model it on other composers, another said
something else...
<rindolf> Referenced99: heh, heh.
<rindolf> Yes, it's always a problem with collaborative projects.
<Referenced99> yes, it seems like the trivial has the upper hand
here...when i mentioned earlier above that not even the wiki page for sterling
silver had reliable sources but it was still allowed to be a page - someone
said 'that's no reason to let such pages flourish' - !1
<rindolf> Referenced99: I think the Hebrew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_Torah contains many instances of people
improving what other people said in the past, with something like a history.
<rindolf> Like, this Rabbi said X ; another said X1 ; another said X2 ;
another said X[1,2]
<Referenced99> But that's just it: they often are not improving, one
said there weren't enough music sources, but the one before him said nothing
about that...reading...
<rindolf> Referenced99: well, feel free to bring Aesop or the colour of
the bike shed argument as a way to tell people to make up their minds or shut
up.
<Referenced99> Well, Ok, the Torah is one thing, of course that should
give rise to interpretations etc...but this is just some facts about one of
Denmark's successful artists and it's like he's banned or something ha
<rindolf> Referenced99: this is also useful -
http://programming-motherfucker.com/
<Referenced99> LOL
<rindolf> JFDI - Just fucking do it.
<Referenced99> somehow i think that would seal this poor artist's fate...
<rindolf> Yes, it's a great page.
<rindolf> Referenced99: what will?
<Referenced99> if i cursed at them, then they will never allow this page
through and quite honestly i have read many of the other danish artists wiki
pages - some he has worked with also - and they have some imdb sources and not
much else - he has a ton in comparison
<Referenced99> but i can only keep trying, ha...
<rindolf> Referenced99: someone I know who studies in openu.ac.uk told
me they told him not to use wikipedia because everyone can edit it and it's not
a reliable source, and now he concluded that he shouldn't read any wikipedia
page I link to him.
<rindolf> Like a page that someone puts elsewhere on a Web 1.0 web-site
is necessarily any better.
<Demiurge1000>
http://enwp.org/WP:42 is useful
<rindolf> Demiurge1000: OK.
<Referenced99> well, it would be different if they would just let the
page go up, and if someone edits it wrongly i will fix it, or someone else
will, but i've been rying to get this page up since May 2012...
<Referenced99> Thanks for that link...geneally trusted would be the
newspapers and british film institute and tv sites i list as
sources...hmmm...but i will try try try again (sigh)
<Referenced99> Bye now!! ;D
<Demiurge1000> newspapers are indeed most useful
<rindolf> Referenced99: bye.
<-- Referenced99 has quit (Quit: Page closed)
>>>
Well, here are some more of my thoughts:
Wikimedia projects now have many rules, and different projects have
slightly different rules. In wikis rules kinda dictate how we should strive for
quality instead of just senselessly adding more and more quantity. However,
quantity is also important, because we want to avoid the fate of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nupedia which only had very few articles. People
come to Wikipedia (and often stay) in order to learn about their favourite
music star or actor, or about one book or another, or a common phrase, or a
popular game, or whatever, and I don't want to lose it, just because it fell
out of the scope of the latest edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica. So we
should encourage more quantity *and* more quality.
It is very effortless to mark something as "non-notable",
"request-for-deletion", "does-not-cite-any-references-and-sources",
but it is
also something that will make more people more bitter and not as happy. A lot
of people parrot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War as an ideal way to
confront your enemies, but I prefer learning from the actions and heritage of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin . Despite the fact that the Christian
occupation of Palestine at that time after the first two crusades was
discriminatory and suppressive, Saladin consciously decided to act in a noble
and forgiving way. Some of the stories about him are astonishing: when the
horse of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England (Richard the Lion’s
Heart) died, Saladin gave him two good war horses. When Richard got sick,
Saladin allowed his personal doctor to take care of him (back then Muslim
medicine was considered the best in the world ). I also read a wikipedia page
about a certain French knight (about whom there was a recent film) who
travelled on the third crusade to fight Saladin, was captured, and Saladin
made him swear he won't fight him again; then the Pope at the time
considered it un-upholdable, because it was an oath given to a non-believer and
he returned to fight Saladin again. And Saladin was perfectly acceptable of the
knight's decision to believe the pope (!!) and had the knight fight him again.
I think the Art of War aims to make sure your enemies will be devastated as much
as possible, while Saladin's philosophy was to make sure that in the long run,
your enemy will be less motivated to fight you, will think extremely highly of
you, and you will eventually make him look bad, and win. That's true victory.
So what about the wikimedia projects? I think we should try more to be
friendly, invest more time in educating (while avoiding quick and effortless
trigger happy stuff like removing whole sections or gradually "removing sesame
seeds" -
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/09/11.html ), care taking and
guidance instead of in dismissing something as bad or immediately removing it
due to some problems. A good “crowd-sourcing” collaborative project is often
an exercise in doing the same thing again and again, but we have to do that
and have patience, compassion and appreciation. We answer the same questions
over and over again on such Freenode channels such as #perl or ##programming ,
but we cannot really expect people to read the F. A. Q. at the topic. We need
to avoid short-term “gains” in time, hostility and psychological “tactics” with
a much better long term strategy of encouraging people to contribute. Many
times people complain that they don't have enough time, but like I note in
http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/Star-Trek/We-the-Living-Dead/ :
<<<
Q2: No. Busy
people are unproductive. We are very productive and so we’re never busy.
>>
(If you're a Star Trek fan, you can read the rest of the screenplay, to get more
of my philosophy behind it). Many mathematicians will tell you that they
also consider Mathematics an art, and that some proofs are beautiful, or that,
like good artists, they want to publish everything they discovered or found.
Mathematics still requires a lot of creative processes and still cannot
really be automated (reaching a proof is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-hard I
think, and the heuristics do not scale well). And if Mathematics is an art, we
need to understand that writing (using conceptual thought and written and/or
spoken languages), including both fiction, scientific/non-fiction, essays and
everything in between is also an art. And that we should treat the people who
are trying to help us like human beings, not like machines that emit streams
of characters, because they are much more than that.
Sorry that this message was so long. Comments are welcome.
Sincerely yours,
Shlomi Fish
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish
http://www.shlomifish.org/
Why I Love Perl -
http://shlom.in/joy-of-perl
If Botticelli were alive today, he’d be working for Vogue.
—
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Ustinov
Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post -
http://shlom.in/reply .