This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (miscellaneous). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.
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This gratuitous use of the copyrighted wikipedia logo violates the non-free content criteria - I have started removing the logo from screenshots in category Category:CopyrightByWikimedia and would appreciate help from others, though screenshots that are not of wikipedia or are scrolled to where the logo is not visible would be more natural. — Random832 ( contribs) 05:09, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
The fact remains that at the present time it's non-free content, and cannot be used in the way it is being used. (really, the use of wikipedia for general browser screenshots borders on WP:SELFREF anyway). The foundation has had YEARS to settle on a free license for these logos, and since they have not it is time to clean out the category. — Random832 ( contribs) 01:32, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Hal Turner is a well-known neo-Nazi internet talk-show host. In his article there is a rumor reported that he is really an informant for the FBI. It seems to me that WP should keep quiet about this, it is not well-sourced anyway, so that the people the FBI is trying to trap will not be warned away. Steve Dufour ( talk) 15:48, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
It seems that as of late, there is an unfortunate practice of people hurling taunts and provocations. Unfortunately, Wikipedia seems to tolerate it when the target is a blocked user or someone otherwise not in the community's good graces. The practice is especially unlikely to attract criticism if the person doing it is an established Wikipedian. I think there are several problems with this.
For one, it does not set a good example. Nor does it help the situation, or promote the betterment of ongoing interactions, which in many cases have already taken a turn for the worse by the time a block is called for. Few people like to be kicked while they're down. And while it represents a chance to get the last word in that interaction, the target may feel a desire to get even – and if opportunities do not present themselves to do so directly, the person may attempt to do so indirectly, in such a way that others get caught in the crossfire. So, there are good reasons for the community to suppress this type of inappropriate behavior.
What would motivate a person to want to taunt a blocked user? Is the goal to get under their skin, so that they're just itching to say something uncivil, or (if their talk page is protected) evade the ban in order to respond? Perhaps in some cases, the person make the taunts does hope for this. After all, the more infractions they keep piling up, the less likely it is that they'll ever get unblocked. And that provides one more thing to taunt them about.
If someone has a history of doing bad stuff (and presumably banned users do), it is really in the encyclopedia's best interests to egg them on? Might it not be more effective to exercise some discretion by ignoring them, or perhaps trying to kill them with kindness? Or is it really not about the encyclopedia? Maybe it's just about feeding one's own ego and feeling good about getting someone's goat.
Trolling is often defined as deliberately trying to arouse someone's indignation and annoyance. Could not some of this type of behavior be viewed as trolling? I've seen a lot of comments like "Haha, ur blocked luser," "Pwned! Sux to be you!" or in the words of Equazcion, " Enjoy your block." We might do well to avoid that kind of thing. Just a thought. Blueman onions ( talk) 14:44, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article on the Wikimedia Foundation indicates that the foundation offices have moved to California. Does this mean that the Designated Agent page needs to be updated, or is the Designated Agent still at the foundation's original office in Florida? Incidentally, this form lists a different address in Florida as the Designated Agent. 69.140.152.55 ( talk) 16:40, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
“ | We're in the process of changing our Designated agent, but we can't change anything right now because it has to be approved by the copyright office. | ” |
Anyone up for twenty questions? -- Denelson 83 04:15, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
It's like a war, man, a war to keep the plots of articles as summary and not blow by blow accounts. I stray away from Lord of War and come back to prune it to hell. Same with Balls of Fury. And just recently iIfound that someone had added 8KB of junk to the plot summary of Rambo and i had to hunt back nearly a month to find my version that kept it at a bare minimum. How can we fight back against this? The problem is that it's all in good faith, so it's not as if we can issue blocks or anything. but I'm tired of watching articles like a hawk to constantly pare back the plot to WP:NOT#PLOT standards. hbdragon88 ( talk) 06:23, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Is there any instance of something happening on wikipedia resulting in legal action against a user? БοņёŠɓɤĭĠ₳₯є 07:34, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Does anyone know what the article Catz is supposed to be about? -- 209.244.31.53 ( talk) 20:27, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Neon Genesis Evangelion glossary#SEELE has been defiled. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.123.108.192 ( talk) 05:13, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
Does Wikipedia English and other Wikipedia versions do issue letter of approval or assignment as a sign to credit and acknowledge their editors?
219.95.23.85 ( talk) 15:01, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
Best regards, nejron ( talk) 13:35, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
(unindent) Note this is for all language Wikipedias. (Other WMF projects not included.) FT2 ( Talk | email) 09:37, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
A colleague, Tony, whose opinions I trust has raised an issue with a map here at
. There is discussion on the talk page over how to proceed, however, after some discussion it has been listed for deletion here Wikipedia:Images_and_media_for_deletion/2008_March_30#Image:WORLDHEALTH2.png. It is obviously a loaded and emotional topic so please be thoughtful about whether such a map as it exists can be NPOV or not and how to proceed. Cheers, Casliber ( talk · contribs) 01:41, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
Category:Creepy is in the category needing help section. I put it up for deletion of category, where it is listed under April 1. But now I discover that the category is actually a long list. Is is just called a category but it is impossible to remove anything from it except by editing the category as an article. What is the best way of handling this? Thanks! Mattisse ( Talk) 23:48, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
So while searching for myself I ran across this:
It is a cache of a "Vidipedia" page. Now. Let me explain.
This is blatantly a copy of my user page, obviously old, as the wikidefcon thing says March 8th. But, the weird thing is that I never but that I am a "Vidipedian" on my user page- I put Wikipedian. So, is the WMF just messing around here? Testing by putting user pages up? And then taking them down? Why in the world would they put me in from a different project? And why would they edit my page and change that?
Other weird things-
So what I'm asking here is what is going on, and why was my user page there. Any ideas?
- ђαίгснгм таιќ 05:28, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
Does anybody know if the wikipedia web servers use HTTP compression for faster downloads?— RJH ( talk) 17:31, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
When I wanted to edit Michael Jackson it was semi-protected. It mentioned that only established registered users can edit the page. what does it men by an "established" registered user? ExitRight ( talk) 10:18, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
I don't contribute to wikipedia that much, so I find it hard to understand discussions on talk pages with all these acronyms floating about. Like AfD and COI etc. When there's a link e.g. WP:COI and I put my cursor over the link, a yellow tag pops up that I assume is meant to be helpful, but it isn't. It just repeats the text already in the link. It would be a whole lot easier if I put the cursor over WP:COI and it said "WP: Conflict of Interest". At least then It would be easier to follow some discussions around here. 203.206.9.131 ( talk) 13:15, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
I was just skimming our Alexa traffic results and was surprised to find that 17% of visitors go to es.wikipedia.org, second only to en (53%), and far above fr (5%), de (3%), pl (3%), ja (3%), etc. Now right off the bat there isn't a direct connection between % of visitors and relative size of the projects, othewise the English Wikipedia would be much bigger than it currently is. But are there any explanations for why the Spanish project is still so much smaller than the other big ones, which themselves attract less than a 1/3 the number of visitors compared with es.wikipedia.org? I understand we had the early defection over the advertisment rumors, but that's been years. Just to note, I'm purposely ignoring the % of visitors by country, because those numbers could be skewed by second language speakers, expats, etc. Joshdboz ( talk) 00:35, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
It currently redirects to Wicca but the article doesn't quite say what it is. Shouldn't the link be turned into a disambiguation page? Lord Sesshomaru ( talk • edits) 01:47, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
I have had contact with this PR firm, one of the most influential and largest in the United States, since I worked with them at the Tribeca Film Festival last year (and will again this year). Like any good PR firm, they would like to work with Wikipedia. They realize they should not edit nor change articles to suit their clients interests, but they would like to know what they can do to contribute to Wikipedia. For instance, my work with them at TFF creates for us a lot of GFDL images of celebrities. They would like to forge a closer relationship with the Wikipedia community, and I have gone to a few lunches to discuss with them some ideas. A collaboration with PR agencies can create a wealth of opportunities for Wikipedians in the English-speaking world (such as attending film festivals), put us closer in touch with their clients' perspectives (which would help with some of our BLP issues), and improve the site as a whole. If anyone is interested in discussing the possibilities we might be able to have working with them, or have suggestions of things we would like, please leave it on my talk page. Dave --David Shankbone 17:06, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
Knowledge 2008: Encyclopedic Portal [5] is a systematic portal to Wikipedia. It is part of Knowledge 2008 [6]. Knowledge 2008 is an ongoing R&D project aimed at mapping human knowledge and facilitating efficient information searching. It is based on theoretical and empirical studies. Currently, the project is composed of six parts: Map of Human Knowledge [7], Portal to Human Knowledge [8], Smart Search [9], Encyclopedic Portal [10], Overview [11], and Academic Forum [12]. Please feel free to reflect. Chaim Zins, researcher & developer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.1.215.156 ( talk) 11:38, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
In the article about the 2007 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament why does it list an asterisk by 3 teams and 2 asterisks by 1 team? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pookietoo ( talk • contribs) 15:52, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
I know that there is Wikipedia:GFDL Compliance but this is the first time I've ever heard of what appears to me to be a published book with some content violating the GFDL of wikipedia. In particular this part of this book, is awfully similar in at least one section to our article Islamic terrorism (at least as it was a while ago). To me, it looks like this part of it violates the GFDL. There may be more, I haven't looked into it. At the very least, it appears to be plagiarism since I don't think wikipedia is referenced (I don't have the book but I can't find anything from a brief look through and search via Google). It's possible we copied from the book, this was what I originally thought but the book was published in October 2007 Amazon, ours is from June 2007 (probably earlier, I didn't look that hard). More significantly perhaps, while some parts are missing, other parts have been there since at least February 2006. Of course, it's still possible that either it was contributed completely by the author of the book to wikipedia, the author got the permission of all the authors or the author came up with it independently. But the first two seem unlikely to me based on the fact that this appears to have been worked over quite a long period and it's a very busy article, meaning it likely has a large number of authors. The third thing seems unlikely to me since the wording is far to close, even ignoring the quotations. Of course the final possibility is we copyvioed from one or multiple sources, which were also used by the author but I have no idea on this since I haven't looked into it. Nil Einne ( talk) 21:08, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
I have experienced censorship on a discussion page of an attempt to talk about a proposed addition to the article. The editor did this twice thought I tried to explain on the edit summary and it seemed self-explanatory to me. Rather than start a revert war, I called for a third party who pumped on exactly why was I pursuing this line of discussion? That is, as an editor, I had to "clear" my topic of discussion with the discussion page "owner." There was no assumption of good faith on my part, but in fact, the automatic presumption of good faith on the censor! Is there a policy related to the censorship of discussion pages? I've seen vandalism and scrawls of children reverted and was happy to see them go. My entry definitely did not fall into either category. We need a policy to refer to, or, in lieu of that, a WikiPolicy discussion page to continue the discussion with the editor and the third party to determine exactly who has the right to censor discussion articles and why. Thanks. Student7 ( talk) 00:51, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
I'm rather notorious around here for being a fervent advocate of free speech and opponent of elements in Wikipedia that like to censor things, but I think in this case the people opposing your talk-page comments have a point you should heed. The talk pages are for discussing the article, and how it can be improved, and not for making points of your own about the article subject. People are constantly, and correctly, removing comments from the talk pages of pop-star articles saying things like "Pop Star X rules!!!!!" or "Pop Star X sucks!!!!!", or "I'm Pop Star X's #1 fan!!!!!". Similarly, the talk page of "Communism" is not a place to make one's original-research theories about how communism can't possibly work, or alternatively to propound one's beliefs about how communism is the only reasonable way to organize a society. If you write such potentially contentious things in the discussion page, the burden is on you to explain clearly how the point is actually relevant to the article, such as by presenting reliable sources that have made such points and thus arguing that some mention of that point in the article would be justified. *Dan T.* ( talk) 16:45, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
This is interesting. I just noticed this today. Searching Google for Marcus Aurelius, Wikipedia's article was at the top (naturally!), but instead of the usual page excerpt, the text beneath was, "Illustrated biography of the emperor in this online encyclopedia."
They do it for a few other sites as well ("Full text of the twelve books, from the MIT Internet Classics Archive."; "Offers a brief biography, drawn from three encyclopedias."): [13]. And they do it for some of our articles: "Open-source encyclopedia article provides personal, business and political information about the President, his policies, and public perceptions and ..." ( George W. Bush), but not others (such as Microsoft).
How long has Google been doing this? Have I just not noticed?-- Father Goose ( talk) 08:58, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
Just a comment... Today's "Did you know" says... "...that Manitoba Provincial Road 373 became famous after a band from Norway House won an award for an album named after the highway?" No mention of who the band was, or what the award was. No mention in the article, either! Fortunately it has a link to a website that provides the answer. Even so, I found it strange that such a vague reference should be the highlight of the text of a DYK. Perhaps the article's editors were afraid to spell out the details, in case they were flagged as non-notable, but I think both band and award should be okay to talk about at Wikipedia, especially since the band received the award. Maybe this was a test to see if we're paying attention. -- A Knight Who Says Ni ( talk) 01:16, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
Hello all. This is a gentle reminder that when an article subject apparently edits their own article, we need to approach the situation with care and tact. While it is perfectly possible that some people may be trying to whitewash their articles, we have an ever-increasing number of biography subjects who have tried to fix factual inaccuracies or attacks in their articles and been reverted and insulted. Yes, WP:COI and WP:AUTO are guidance, and it's fair to point people towards them, but it's also very important that we ensure we don't stand in the way of fixing genuine problems. My personal advice to article subjects is to register an account, identify via WP:OTRS (send mail to info-en (at) wikimedia (dot) org) to avoid impersonators, be open about who they are, engage on the discussion page, and not to edit the article directly other than to correct unambiguous errors of fact. Anybody who attacks or taunts an article subject on a talk page is liable to end up in some very deep trouble, so please restrain the impulse to bite, even if they are (as they may be) obnoxious. If an article subject is obnoxious, it may be the result of genuine hurt caused by issues with their article. If they keep being obnoxious, please keep being pleasant, and summon aid from the admin community via a polite and neutrally worded note ("X is expressing difficulties with his article, but the content is well-sourced and X is becoming agitated", that kind of thing). If we are very careful to be beyond reproach in how we handle article subjects when they arrive, it makes any subsequent dealings via OTRS and - in extreme cases - lawyers, very much simpler. Your co-operation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Guy ( Help!) 20:57, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
Wikipedia currently contains more than 15.000 articles with topics of unclear notability, tagged with notability concerns during the past 10 months. WikiProject Notability is working to clean up this massive backlog, and to sort out what should be done with those articles.
Many of these 15.000 articles fall into the scope of one or more WikiProjects; and subject matter experts, or speakers of foreign languages, can often provide valuable input as to whether a topic is notable: Sources may not be available in English, or merge options may not be apparent to the non-expert reader.
I have therefore prepared a list of those articles, ordered by their assigned WikiProjects. It is based on a database snapshot of March 12. I'd like to encourage all members of a WikiProject to look through "their" articles, and see whether e.g. articles can be merged, whether sources can be added, etc. All help is appreciated.
For further information on notability sorting, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Notability.
Many thanks, -- B. Wolterding ( talk) 20:53, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
There's a simple automation answer: Have a bot get rid of all the Notability tag boxes. If nobody cares enough to actually take a look at the article, then the article is not a problem; leave it alone until it gets AFD'd, improved, or merged.
The fact that this notability system is such a ridiculous mess shows that the system doesn't work - it should be abandoned. Spend your time improving or creating articles, not polluting wikipedia with swaths of pointless labels. - DavidWBrooks ( talk) 12:40, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
The Problem: Editors are currently free to swoop down into any article, drop some variety of unsourced tag, and then circle like buzzards waiting for the article to die. I am speaking hypothetically of course, no WP editor would ever behave this way. The Solution: It seems that one possible solution to the massive number of unsourced tags is to have other editors play Santa. By this I mean an editor who finds (by chance or design) a good RS should be able to fly in, drop a gift in the form of a citation template, and then dash away all. "Santas" would not create inline references but merely provide the citation and let the primary editor(s) of the article determine how best to use it. A {{ SantaWasHere}} template might be nice to add so that primary editors would know a gift needs opening. Low Sea ( talk) 18:40, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (miscellaneous). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.
< Older discussions · Archives: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X · 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79
This gratuitous use of the copyrighted wikipedia logo violates the non-free content criteria - I have started removing the logo from screenshots in category Category:CopyrightByWikimedia and would appreciate help from others, though screenshots that are not of wikipedia or are scrolled to where the logo is not visible would be more natural. — Random832 ( contribs) 05:09, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
The fact remains that at the present time it's non-free content, and cannot be used in the way it is being used. (really, the use of wikipedia for general browser screenshots borders on WP:SELFREF anyway). The foundation has had YEARS to settle on a free license for these logos, and since they have not it is time to clean out the category. — Random832 ( contribs) 01:32, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Hal Turner is a well-known neo-Nazi internet talk-show host. In his article there is a rumor reported that he is really an informant for the FBI. It seems to me that WP should keep quiet about this, it is not well-sourced anyway, so that the people the FBI is trying to trap will not be warned away. Steve Dufour ( talk) 15:48, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
It seems that as of late, there is an unfortunate practice of people hurling taunts and provocations. Unfortunately, Wikipedia seems to tolerate it when the target is a blocked user or someone otherwise not in the community's good graces. The practice is especially unlikely to attract criticism if the person doing it is an established Wikipedian. I think there are several problems with this.
For one, it does not set a good example. Nor does it help the situation, or promote the betterment of ongoing interactions, which in many cases have already taken a turn for the worse by the time a block is called for. Few people like to be kicked while they're down. And while it represents a chance to get the last word in that interaction, the target may feel a desire to get even – and if opportunities do not present themselves to do so directly, the person may attempt to do so indirectly, in such a way that others get caught in the crossfire. So, there are good reasons for the community to suppress this type of inappropriate behavior.
What would motivate a person to want to taunt a blocked user? Is the goal to get under their skin, so that they're just itching to say something uncivil, or (if their talk page is protected) evade the ban in order to respond? Perhaps in some cases, the person make the taunts does hope for this. After all, the more infractions they keep piling up, the less likely it is that they'll ever get unblocked. And that provides one more thing to taunt them about.
If someone has a history of doing bad stuff (and presumably banned users do), it is really in the encyclopedia's best interests to egg them on? Might it not be more effective to exercise some discretion by ignoring them, or perhaps trying to kill them with kindness? Or is it really not about the encyclopedia? Maybe it's just about feeding one's own ego and feeling good about getting someone's goat.
Trolling is often defined as deliberately trying to arouse someone's indignation and annoyance. Could not some of this type of behavior be viewed as trolling? I've seen a lot of comments like "Haha, ur blocked luser," "Pwned! Sux to be you!" or in the words of Equazcion, " Enjoy your block." We might do well to avoid that kind of thing. Just a thought. Blueman onions ( talk) 14:44, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article on the Wikimedia Foundation indicates that the foundation offices have moved to California. Does this mean that the Designated Agent page needs to be updated, or is the Designated Agent still at the foundation's original office in Florida? Incidentally, this form lists a different address in Florida as the Designated Agent. 69.140.152.55 ( talk) 16:40, 27 March 2008 (UTC)
“ | We're in the process of changing our Designated agent, but we can't change anything right now because it has to be approved by the copyright office. | ” |
Anyone up for twenty questions? -- Denelson 83 04:15, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
It's like a war, man, a war to keep the plots of articles as summary and not blow by blow accounts. I stray away from Lord of War and come back to prune it to hell. Same with Balls of Fury. And just recently iIfound that someone had added 8KB of junk to the plot summary of Rambo and i had to hunt back nearly a month to find my version that kept it at a bare minimum. How can we fight back against this? The problem is that it's all in good faith, so it's not as if we can issue blocks or anything. but I'm tired of watching articles like a hawk to constantly pare back the plot to WP:NOT#PLOT standards. hbdragon88 ( talk) 06:23, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Is there any instance of something happening on wikipedia resulting in legal action against a user? БοņёŠɓɤĭĠ₳₯є 07:34, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Does anyone know what the article Catz is supposed to be about? -- 209.244.31.53 ( talk) 20:27, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Neon Genesis Evangelion glossary#SEELE has been defiled. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.123.108.192 ( talk) 05:13, 29 March 2008 (UTC)
Does Wikipedia English and other Wikipedia versions do issue letter of approval or assignment as a sign to credit and acknowledge their editors?
219.95.23.85 ( talk) 15:01, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
Best regards, nejron ( talk) 13:35, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
(unindent) Note this is for all language Wikipedias. (Other WMF projects not included.) FT2 ( Talk | email) 09:37, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
A colleague, Tony, whose opinions I trust has raised an issue with a map here at
. There is discussion on the talk page over how to proceed, however, after some discussion it has been listed for deletion here Wikipedia:Images_and_media_for_deletion/2008_March_30#Image:WORLDHEALTH2.png. It is obviously a loaded and emotional topic so please be thoughtful about whether such a map as it exists can be NPOV or not and how to proceed. Cheers, Casliber ( talk · contribs) 01:41, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
Category:Creepy is in the category needing help section. I put it up for deletion of category, where it is listed under April 1. But now I discover that the category is actually a long list. Is is just called a category but it is impossible to remove anything from it except by editing the category as an article. What is the best way of handling this? Thanks! Mattisse ( Talk) 23:48, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
So while searching for myself I ran across this:
It is a cache of a "Vidipedia" page. Now. Let me explain.
This is blatantly a copy of my user page, obviously old, as the wikidefcon thing says March 8th. But, the weird thing is that I never but that I am a "Vidipedian" on my user page- I put Wikipedian. So, is the WMF just messing around here? Testing by putting user pages up? And then taking them down? Why in the world would they put me in from a different project? And why would they edit my page and change that?
Other weird things-
So what I'm asking here is what is going on, and why was my user page there. Any ideas?
- ђαίгснгм таιќ 05:28, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
Does anybody know if the wikipedia web servers use HTTP compression for faster downloads?— RJH ( talk) 17:31, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
When I wanted to edit Michael Jackson it was semi-protected. It mentioned that only established registered users can edit the page. what does it men by an "established" registered user? ExitRight ( talk) 10:18, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
I don't contribute to wikipedia that much, so I find it hard to understand discussions on talk pages with all these acronyms floating about. Like AfD and COI etc. When there's a link e.g. WP:COI and I put my cursor over the link, a yellow tag pops up that I assume is meant to be helpful, but it isn't. It just repeats the text already in the link. It would be a whole lot easier if I put the cursor over WP:COI and it said "WP: Conflict of Interest". At least then It would be easier to follow some discussions around here. 203.206.9.131 ( talk) 13:15, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
I was just skimming our Alexa traffic results and was surprised to find that 17% of visitors go to es.wikipedia.org, second only to en (53%), and far above fr (5%), de (3%), pl (3%), ja (3%), etc. Now right off the bat there isn't a direct connection between % of visitors and relative size of the projects, othewise the English Wikipedia would be much bigger than it currently is. But are there any explanations for why the Spanish project is still so much smaller than the other big ones, which themselves attract less than a 1/3 the number of visitors compared with es.wikipedia.org? I understand we had the early defection over the advertisment rumors, but that's been years. Just to note, I'm purposely ignoring the % of visitors by country, because those numbers could be skewed by second language speakers, expats, etc. Joshdboz ( talk) 00:35, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
It currently redirects to Wicca but the article doesn't quite say what it is. Shouldn't the link be turned into a disambiguation page? Lord Sesshomaru ( talk • edits) 01:47, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
I have had contact with this PR firm, one of the most influential and largest in the United States, since I worked with them at the Tribeca Film Festival last year (and will again this year). Like any good PR firm, they would like to work with Wikipedia. They realize they should not edit nor change articles to suit their clients interests, but they would like to know what they can do to contribute to Wikipedia. For instance, my work with them at TFF creates for us a lot of GFDL images of celebrities. They would like to forge a closer relationship with the Wikipedia community, and I have gone to a few lunches to discuss with them some ideas. A collaboration with PR agencies can create a wealth of opportunities for Wikipedians in the English-speaking world (such as attending film festivals), put us closer in touch with their clients' perspectives (which would help with some of our BLP issues), and improve the site as a whole. If anyone is interested in discussing the possibilities we might be able to have working with them, or have suggestions of things we would like, please leave it on my talk page. Dave --David Shankbone 17:06, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
Knowledge 2008: Encyclopedic Portal [5] is a systematic portal to Wikipedia. It is part of Knowledge 2008 [6]. Knowledge 2008 is an ongoing R&D project aimed at mapping human knowledge and facilitating efficient information searching. It is based on theoretical and empirical studies. Currently, the project is composed of six parts: Map of Human Knowledge [7], Portal to Human Knowledge [8], Smart Search [9], Encyclopedic Portal [10], Overview [11], and Academic Forum [12]. Please feel free to reflect. Chaim Zins, researcher & developer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.1.215.156 ( talk) 11:38, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
In the article about the 2007 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament why does it list an asterisk by 3 teams and 2 asterisks by 1 team? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pookietoo ( talk • contribs) 15:52, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
I know that there is Wikipedia:GFDL Compliance but this is the first time I've ever heard of what appears to me to be a published book with some content violating the GFDL of wikipedia. In particular this part of this book, is awfully similar in at least one section to our article Islamic terrorism (at least as it was a while ago). To me, it looks like this part of it violates the GFDL. There may be more, I haven't looked into it. At the very least, it appears to be plagiarism since I don't think wikipedia is referenced (I don't have the book but I can't find anything from a brief look through and search via Google). It's possible we copied from the book, this was what I originally thought but the book was published in October 2007 Amazon, ours is from June 2007 (probably earlier, I didn't look that hard). More significantly perhaps, while some parts are missing, other parts have been there since at least February 2006. Of course, it's still possible that either it was contributed completely by the author of the book to wikipedia, the author got the permission of all the authors or the author came up with it independently. But the first two seem unlikely to me based on the fact that this appears to have been worked over quite a long period and it's a very busy article, meaning it likely has a large number of authors. The third thing seems unlikely to me since the wording is far to close, even ignoring the quotations. Of course the final possibility is we copyvioed from one or multiple sources, which were also used by the author but I have no idea on this since I haven't looked into it. Nil Einne ( talk) 21:08, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
I have experienced censorship on a discussion page of an attempt to talk about a proposed addition to the article. The editor did this twice thought I tried to explain on the edit summary and it seemed self-explanatory to me. Rather than start a revert war, I called for a third party who pumped on exactly why was I pursuing this line of discussion? That is, as an editor, I had to "clear" my topic of discussion with the discussion page "owner." There was no assumption of good faith on my part, but in fact, the automatic presumption of good faith on the censor! Is there a policy related to the censorship of discussion pages? I've seen vandalism and scrawls of children reverted and was happy to see them go. My entry definitely did not fall into either category. We need a policy to refer to, or, in lieu of that, a WikiPolicy discussion page to continue the discussion with the editor and the third party to determine exactly who has the right to censor discussion articles and why. Thanks. Student7 ( talk) 00:51, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
I'm rather notorious around here for being a fervent advocate of free speech and opponent of elements in Wikipedia that like to censor things, but I think in this case the people opposing your talk-page comments have a point you should heed. The talk pages are for discussing the article, and how it can be improved, and not for making points of your own about the article subject. People are constantly, and correctly, removing comments from the talk pages of pop-star articles saying things like "Pop Star X rules!!!!!" or "Pop Star X sucks!!!!!", or "I'm Pop Star X's #1 fan!!!!!". Similarly, the talk page of "Communism" is not a place to make one's original-research theories about how communism can't possibly work, or alternatively to propound one's beliefs about how communism is the only reasonable way to organize a society. If you write such potentially contentious things in the discussion page, the burden is on you to explain clearly how the point is actually relevant to the article, such as by presenting reliable sources that have made such points and thus arguing that some mention of that point in the article would be justified. *Dan T.* ( talk) 16:45, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
This is interesting. I just noticed this today. Searching Google for Marcus Aurelius, Wikipedia's article was at the top (naturally!), but instead of the usual page excerpt, the text beneath was, "Illustrated biography of the emperor in this online encyclopedia."
They do it for a few other sites as well ("Full text of the twelve books, from the MIT Internet Classics Archive."; "Offers a brief biography, drawn from three encyclopedias."): [13]. And they do it for some of our articles: "Open-source encyclopedia article provides personal, business and political information about the President, his policies, and public perceptions and ..." ( George W. Bush), but not others (such as Microsoft).
How long has Google been doing this? Have I just not noticed?-- Father Goose ( talk) 08:58, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
Just a comment... Today's "Did you know" says... "...that Manitoba Provincial Road 373 became famous after a band from Norway House won an award for an album named after the highway?" No mention of who the band was, or what the award was. No mention in the article, either! Fortunately it has a link to a website that provides the answer. Even so, I found it strange that such a vague reference should be the highlight of the text of a DYK. Perhaps the article's editors were afraid to spell out the details, in case they were flagged as non-notable, but I think both band and award should be okay to talk about at Wikipedia, especially since the band received the award. Maybe this was a test to see if we're paying attention. -- A Knight Who Says Ni ( talk) 01:16, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
Hello all. This is a gentle reminder that when an article subject apparently edits their own article, we need to approach the situation with care and tact. While it is perfectly possible that some people may be trying to whitewash their articles, we have an ever-increasing number of biography subjects who have tried to fix factual inaccuracies or attacks in their articles and been reverted and insulted. Yes, WP:COI and WP:AUTO are guidance, and it's fair to point people towards them, but it's also very important that we ensure we don't stand in the way of fixing genuine problems. My personal advice to article subjects is to register an account, identify via WP:OTRS (send mail to info-en (at) wikimedia (dot) org) to avoid impersonators, be open about who they are, engage on the discussion page, and not to edit the article directly other than to correct unambiguous errors of fact. Anybody who attacks or taunts an article subject on a talk page is liable to end up in some very deep trouble, so please restrain the impulse to bite, even if they are (as they may be) obnoxious. If an article subject is obnoxious, it may be the result of genuine hurt caused by issues with their article. If they keep being obnoxious, please keep being pleasant, and summon aid from the admin community via a polite and neutrally worded note ("X is expressing difficulties with his article, but the content is well-sourced and X is becoming agitated", that kind of thing). If we are very careful to be beyond reproach in how we handle article subjects when they arrive, it makes any subsequent dealings via OTRS and - in extreme cases - lawyers, very much simpler. Your co-operation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Guy ( Help!) 20:57, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
Wikipedia currently contains more than 15.000 articles with topics of unclear notability, tagged with notability concerns during the past 10 months. WikiProject Notability is working to clean up this massive backlog, and to sort out what should be done with those articles.
Many of these 15.000 articles fall into the scope of one or more WikiProjects; and subject matter experts, or speakers of foreign languages, can often provide valuable input as to whether a topic is notable: Sources may not be available in English, or merge options may not be apparent to the non-expert reader.
I have therefore prepared a list of those articles, ordered by their assigned WikiProjects. It is based on a database snapshot of March 12. I'd like to encourage all members of a WikiProject to look through "their" articles, and see whether e.g. articles can be merged, whether sources can be added, etc. All help is appreciated.
For further information on notability sorting, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Notability.
Many thanks, -- B. Wolterding ( talk) 20:53, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
There's a simple automation answer: Have a bot get rid of all the Notability tag boxes. If nobody cares enough to actually take a look at the article, then the article is not a problem; leave it alone until it gets AFD'd, improved, or merged.
The fact that this notability system is such a ridiculous mess shows that the system doesn't work - it should be abandoned. Spend your time improving or creating articles, not polluting wikipedia with swaths of pointless labels. - DavidWBrooks ( talk) 12:40, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
The Problem: Editors are currently free to swoop down into any article, drop some variety of unsourced tag, and then circle like buzzards waiting for the article to die. I am speaking hypothetically of course, no WP editor would ever behave this way. The Solution: It seems that one possible solution to the massive number of unsourced tags is to have other editors play Santa. By this I mean an editor who finds (by chance or design) a good RS should be able to fly in, drop a gift in the form of a citation template, and then dash away all. "Santas" would not create inline references but merely provide the citation and let the primary editor(s) of the article determine how best to use it. A {{ SantaWasHere}} template might be nice to add so that primary editors would know a gift needs opening. Low Sea ( talk) 18:40, 29 March 2008 (UTC)