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I have wondered off and on if one or more of these might be of more use in some stages of WP collaborations. There can be a value to more realtime collaborations and discussions, and the internet offers many such options. The IRC provided here could be potentially useful, but I have not found it to be useful in the past. It is true that those in different time zones, or occupied at work might not be able to participate, but many of these other communication channels have facilities for recording the proceedings and making them available, if this is wanted and appropriate. Even currently, editors are free to collaborate by email out of community view on some issues, and then make their position more public here in the conventional WP venue. This is even partially true of collaborations on articles in WP sandboxes, where a small number of editors jointly edit an article's rough draft before inviting the rest of the community to contribute. Are there any relevant policies or discussions that I should be aware of in this regard? Do you have any comments?-- Filll 20:40, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
Hi, A quick question, I'm guessing that I could be re-directed somewhere that would answer it quickly. A whole series of books was just put up for deletion for violation of WP:NOT#Indiscriminate sub-point 7. People are arguing back and forth for violates WP:NOT versus meets WP:BK/ WP:Notability. This point must have come up before, and I can't seem to find it. There must be many best-selling books out there that have little real-world context to apply, do they all need to be deleted? Is there a discussion or policy somewhere we could refer to? My head says the WP:NOT has a point, but my gut says there must be something else. If no-one wants to expand this on the Village Pump page, feel free to post on my talk page.
Thanks,
WLU 12:48, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
I put up an Rfc in the wrong place. I read the guidelines and instructions, but still managed to foul it up. The question that arises here is that when you have an article that is of special interest to one or two, but is failing to follow a broader community trend, how do you build concensus when one or two enforce a de-facto ownership over the article? How do you get more people involved in the discussion of a broader community trend when the topic of RfCs is fixed to certain categories?-- Shakujo 07:29, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
I have written about Janne Corax here on Wikipedia but I have discovered that Herald Times, which owns AllExperts, has copied my text on wikipedia word by word, and then use it for selling ads. Is that ok to do? I don't think so. What does one do? I have mailed them and said I don't think it's ok, and they must rewrite it with their own words, but nothing has happened. I don't want a commercial site to use what I write for wikipedia, but I don't know what policy wikipedia has?
Link to the copied article: [3]
lolli Lolli 01:09, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
I've been seeking the answer to almost this same topic. Perhaps someone here can steer me right. I am in the process of building a commercial site for selling jewelry. I would like to help educate visitors before they buy, my question is--is it okay to quote entire articles and/or paragraphs word for word from contributors to this site and other sites like about.com, as long as I mention the source. I thought I had heard somewhere it is only okay to quote a sentence or two, not a whole paragraph or entire article. Any advice is apreciated. 74.130.178.253 04:56, 27 February 2007 (UTC)West
Ok, so I was browsing through the backlog, and I came upon an article called "fanfiction.net." After attempting to find a few of the cites needed on the page, I quickly realized that I would have to create an account, which I have done. Sadly, it didn't come to mind that other people who hadn't created the account still couldn't see it even if I did post the right link - so I was wondering - if I take a screen shot of the needed cite (there's really only one page that needs to be seen) - and post a link to it or something - is that good enough for a cite - I first assumed no - but the problem is there's really no other way we can get those citations.Daniel()Folsom |\ T/|\ C/|\ U/ 17:06, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
During the AfD discussion for Timothy Noah, some important issues were raised about how the general notability guidelines apply to journalists. I have tried to address some of these concerns with a new proposal, Wikipedia:Notability (journalists). I would appreciate any changes or comments that could help this. Thank you. Mr.Z-man talk ¢ 00:17, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
The problem with wikipedia is that "higher" educational institutions do not regard wikipedia as a credible source. We need to fix this, or else a lot of work is not going to reach its full potential. I propose that we come up with a system to article by article "Certify" everything being done here. Though this is a huge task, i think it is necessary for wikipedia to keep evolving. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html?em&ex=1172466000&en=d1211c2d017e16b6&ei=5087%0A is a great article on the wiki movement, and at the end it mentions that Oberlin college in Ohio and University of East Anglia in England have classes where students must complete a page on wikipedia. I think that we could do something similar, but on a much grander scale.
Alternately, we could create a page which counters the arguments that wikipedia is often false and unusable. On the topic of history, for instance, no one truly knows what happened. We have a large collection of secondary sources, which are reviewed by "scholars", who then compile the aspects that they think are most true, and then publish it into a history book. To me, this is no different from wikipedia. I'm not going to say that wikipedia will be the ultimate end all be all for knowledge, I'm just saying that in retrospect, it's no more inaccurate than anything else we "know" anyway. It just has a larger diversity of competing ideas and thoughts, which I think are more valuable than someone only showing the one "right" side of the argument. 3th0s 22:35, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
The main reason many teachers (some of mine among them) do not allow Wikipedia to be used as a source is the thing that it brags about. The "anyone can edit" phrase is the source of Wikipedia's content. It is also the source of its criticism. My teachers tell me that it is unreliable and should not be trusted. Unless Wikipedia is restricted so that not everyone can edit, people like them will not believe Wikipedia is trustworthy. Of course, I do not want Wikipedia to be restricted and I like the ability to edit articles. What I am saying is it will take a lot of work to make the educated see past the "anyone can edit" phrase. Captain panda In vino veritas 04:15, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Opabinia regalis is absolutely right. We should not worry whatsoever about whether or not teachers will allow wikipedia as a source for papers, because students should not be using it to any significant degree. Wikipedia combines the two laziest research tools in existence: the encyclopedia and the internet. Certainly no papers at the college level should be relyng substanitally on any encyclopedia, and one must be very careful when using any internet based source. If a teacher tells her class "write a 3 page paper on Philip of Macedonia", and a students thinks "Who the hell is Philip and where the hell is Macedonia", then wikipedia is a great place to have those questions answered, but he should be using what he learned to educate himself and create a base of understanding on the subject, not as a citation for a paper. Most articles have external links and references, which are usually quite useful, and can often make good references for citation, but wikipedia itself has the "written by anyone, no matter how misguided and ignorant" albatross it has to bear. In addition, it is in a constant state of change; an artiucle cited one day might be completely different the next. We needn't worry about this, really. - R. fiend 17:13, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Few notes: 1) students should learn Wikipedia:Academic use by heart. 2) Teachers should concentrate on doing activities with Wikipedia (and list them on WP:SUP) to benefit from Wiki opportunities rather than passivly try banning what they don't understand 3) "And yes, back at Wikipedia, the Jesuits are still credited as supporting the Shimabara Rebellion." - of course, it was changed minutes after NYT was published, but shame on involved teachers (and students) who didn't change what they must have known was incorrect information for days.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk 05:35, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
PLEASE NOTE that Wikipedia:Verification and Wikipedia:No original research have been merged and replaced by Wikipedia:Attribution. This may come as a surprise to some, as this merger was not well advertized when in the proposal stage. From what I can tell, the folks who worked on this new Policy did a fairly good job (although I do wish they had announced their intentions sooner and more frequently). I do not see any substantive changes from what WP:V and WP:NOR had to say. Editors may also wish to note that several of the editors working on that page have expressed the intent to subsume the guideline: Wikipedia:Reliable sources into this new Policy and replaced with a FAQ.
While I actually approve of this merger (one Policy instead of two eliminates the potential for contraditary statements where they overlaped), I am not happy about how it was done. Policy changes should have broad community consensus, and I don't see how the editors who created WP:ATT can claim to have this when it comes as a bit of a surprise. The intent should have been shouted from the roof tops several weeks ago to give everyone LOTS of notice.
So... just so everyone understands, let me repeat this in loud voice: WP:V and WP:NOR ARE NO LONGER POLICY. They have been replaced by WP:ATT. ALSO - IT IS PROPOSED THAT WP:RS BE REPLACED with a combination of WP:ATT and a FAQ. (please don't kill the messenger.) Blueboar 17:51, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
I'd like to ask for opinions on a matter that has sprung up on 2004 Palm Island death in custody.
For some indigenous Australian groups, it is considered culturally taboo to mention the name of an individual after their death. For instance, if an indigenous person named John Smith dies, he will be given an alternative name by his family which he should be addressed by instead. These traditions are in no way consistent across the Australian continent, as the following link which was provided to me by someone who disagrees with my stance has pointed out:
My question is, given the lack of a consistent standard for this, the fact that calling the person by the honourific "Mulrunji" is hardly standardised even among the Australian media (here in Brisbane, he's commonly referred to on the TV news as "Doomadgee", not "Mulrunji". The user who is reverting me is from Townsville, which is much closer to the incident in question, so perhaps they have a different perspective from the media than I do), and the fact that the guidelines provided even state that calling the person by their surname is acceptable, so long as you don't use "personal names" (as shown when they refer to Charles Perkins as Kwementyaye Perkins), is in unreasonable that the person in question be referred to as "Doomadgee" instead of "Mulrunji"? The link provided also indicates that use of images is considered distasteful, if this person's name is removed in the interests of cultural sensitivity, then do we also need to delete every image of a recently deceased indigenous person on Wikipedia?
My other problem with use of these honourifics is that as the article above states, "after time a dead person's name and image will be allowed to be used again." At what time is it acceptable to go back and switch the person's name back to the conventional form? If an indigenous person dies, do we have to switch all references to their name to the honourific, and then change it back a couple of months later? This might cause a maintenance nightmare!
I think that, given these points, it's best that we use a neutral name like "Doomadgee", rather than a culturally insensitive name like "Cameron Doomadgee" or a temporary honourific like "Mulrunji". It seems to me from precedent that cultural sensitivity is considered important here, articles like Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy show that it can take a back seat to accuracy and clarity. Still, given the sensitivity of the issue, I thought I'd ask here anyway, as I don't want this to develop into a flamewar that gets put on Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars ever!
Lankiveil 06:46, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
I've posted a request on WT:U regarding a modification to a subclause of WP:U pertaining to 'obscene usernames' that I hope will foster a discussion. The discussion is available at Wikipedia_talk:Username_policy#Suggested_modification. I've cross-posted it here as it pertains to modifying an official policy. - CHAIRBOY ( ☎) 18:08, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
I gather that WP:ATT is now considered Policy... a merging of WP:V and WP:NOR. I have no problem with this, but I do have a concern with how this is being done. At the moment all three Policies are up and running... and this is going to lead to confusion and argument. The three policies do not completely agree with each other (or to put it more exactly, they agree with each other in surface substance, but they differ in greatly in tone and emphysis). This is especially noticable in the area of reliability of sources (especially Self-published sources - a frequent area of controversy) and how they are dealt with. Look at them side by side: WP:V#Sources, WP:NOR#Sources, WP:ATT#Reliable_sources. As a frequent contributer at WP:RS... a guideline that is supposed to help explain this particular aspect of Policy... I am seeing this conflict of tone writ large. Many of the questions we are asked involve parsing Policy statements and intent. Those of us at WP:RS agree that we need to conform what is said there to what is stated in Policy, but right now there is confusion as to which policy we should conform to. I would therefore request that, if WP:ATT is indeed confirmed as Policy, we redirect WP:V and WP:NOR to that page. If not, please move WP:ATT back to "proposed" status until the community can reach consensus. I don't care which, but we need clarity and not confusion. I have posted this request at the The relevant policy talk-pages as well. Thank you. Blueboar 15:26, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm really annoyed by the self-declared policemen of this wiki. Every time I change something on the Metamath page and I forget to sign in I have a complete bus of sheriffs who arrive on the page to ask me my identity card and who remove my updates. I begin to find this inaccurate behaviour perfectly annoying. Apparently those moral men forget to read the page since they would notice the changements are meaningful. Could we moderate those brave guys and suggest them to try to understand the pages they try to protect so energically ? -- Frédéric Liné 18:25, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
How does name calling help? LessHeard vanU 21:52, 23 February 2007 (UTC)"...drama queen..."?!?
Suicide |
---|
There's a debate underway concerning the order of presentation of topics on the suicide template (
see its talk page). One side is arguing that to place intervention links first biases the template towards trying to prevent suicides - they want the methods and types of suicides to go first. The other side points out that descriptions of suicide are tantamount to instructions on how to commit suicide, and that placing those at the top biases the template towards assisting or encouranging suicide.
The nature of the topic makes it impossible not to influence the outcome of crisis cases one way or the other. Which way should we be influencing readers who may be contemplating the unthinkable? Is it even possible to be neutral here?
I believe that the interests of public safety and the example set by other public service organizations and publications (such as the telephone book, where emergency response information is presented at the beginning of the book) should be applied here.
The question is, if a person in a medical emergency (someone in deep depression contemplating suicide, or a friend or relative trying to help) looks up suicide on Wikipedia, what should that person see first? Should we take the information's relevancy with respect to crisis cases into account when determining the order of presentation of the information in articles and templates? Should readers in crisis be given priority in determining the relavancy of information and the order in which it is presented? I believe that they should.
Your feedback on this debate would be most appreciated.
The Transhumanist 23:42, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Frankly, it's poorly formatted period. The trouble is that there's no strong main articles to put at the top. Night Gyr ( talk/ Oy) 12:13, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
I've reordered it. Wikipedia is not a howto guide anyway, and suicide is no different. We shouldn't tell people how to do it or how to stop it, that's just inappropriate tone period, but we can offer links to resources. Night Gyr ( talk/ Oy) 12:31, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Hi, I don't know where to post this, there are so many boards, but since I don't want to go in to diffs and specifics, I decided to post it here. In several instances I have seen valuable contributors turn into angry, frustrated and finally unproductive or former contributors, because what was originally a molehill of a disagreement turned into a mountain of anger and disgust. Here's why: The majority of the community disagree with something the user said or did and several editors let him know. If he doesn't immediately see his fault, the tone gets less friendly and more righteous. The user's arguments get more and more desperate and start including actions which, in turn, draw the attention of some administrators. Even if the user has cooled down a bit now, multiple editors, admins and not, are meanwhile following his/her contributions and piling "friendly advice" on his talk page, as soon as the user does or posts something they disagree with (whether it's related to the original disagreement or not). Subjectively - and I empathize, I'd feel the same way - the user senses that a hostile (and annoying) group is ganging up on him. As a result, the user will never be the same user and sometimes leaves in disgust. Please point me to the attempts, policies, essays for nipping this type of development in the bud.--- Sluzzelin 11.15, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Recently, the Powers That Be of Wikipedia have decided to purge several unnotable webcomic articles from Wikipedia's database. While I agree on this point of view in principle (after all, just because some Bob Smith makes a webcomic, doesnt mean there should be a Wikipedia page about it), it seems the editor(s) in question does not know a fair lot concerning what makes a webcomic notable.
While
Penny Arcade and
User Friendly were left up, for example, several other award-winning webcomics were taken down and senselessly deleted, including those that receive a fair amount of traffic, I might add.
edit: User Friendly was nominated as having insufficient 3rd-party sources as well, so I redact my earlier comment
Even if one does not know which webcomics are notable, one could numerically experiment by seeing how many other pages link to a given article, the kinds of articles that appear in its 'related links' section (such as awards it has won), and how many people search for an article over a given period of time.
I, among others, might suggest that someone or some people have been overbroad in the deletion of webcomics, as similar low-audience activities have not been deleted, which seems to myself to show a definate bias.
I have "been bold" and taken the action of recreating a few of the webcomics that seem, to me, to be the most gevious examples, however, I am sure I missed some, and would like to ensure such actions are not taken in the future. Sim 19:36, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
The debate seems to revolve around the idea that web comics (in and of themselves) are not notable. The benchmark for notability seems to be weither a topic has gained recognition outside the the realm of the internet. The logic being if a subject is notable, then printed newspapers or television will have made mention of it. This is flawed logic. Some indistries rely almost exclusivly on the internet for distribution of news. Many trade papers and peer reviewed journals have significant internet presence and often significantly more content on their websites. One of the strengths of the Wikipedia is that wikis can keep up with the rapid changing pace of the internet much better than print can. Many of the best sources of news about the internet are (surprise!) on the internet. By the current measure of notability, these sources (however relyable, widly read or highly regarded) will never be notable. For example, if Gabe from Penny Arcade mentions something in his Rant, then that is immediatly read by more than four million people.
Web comics are a recent phonominon and have found a social niche. Lots of readers are realising that many sindicated comic strips are crap. Webcomics cost nothing and some of them are much better than the print alternitives. If the Wikipedia Notability policy defines this very valad and recent form of art, enjoyed by millions, as non-notable, then it is the policy that is at fault not the Webcomic indistry.
Guys, get a clue. This jihad against webcomics is splashed all over the net. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking notice of this. This axe-grinding crap is making the whole project look bad. Figure out what changes need to be made and get them done. When there are 86 _thousand_ unique hits on google about a subject, most of which are from blogs and independant reviews, then people have officialy noticed it. It is of note. Dan.Montgomery 11:14, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
I agree with the complaint being brought. The idea that print media has to mention an item numerous times for it then pass WP:V and WP:RS is quite silly. For those who have been in for instance the gaming community, knew the notability of "Leon" long before any media decided to pick it up. The problem with notability is it rests on a type of media that is being left behind because of its ability to report everything, and do it fast enough. I think the idea here is not that WP:N is to be thrown away, but that WP:WEB is to be refined to understand that its "reliable sources" would usually not be print media. For instance right now the article YTMND can be deleted for failing WP:RS. However if you attempted to have it deleted you would be met with many people who say its "obviously notable" however cannot produce a WP:RS source. The arguement being made above is echoed here, how many "non-reliable sources" have to mention something for it to be obviously notable? The counter arguement of 1 blog doesnt look at the larger picture, yes 1 blog does not make an item notable, however if 80,000 blogs are mentioning it ... its obviously notable. I think anyone who has watched the news in the morning when they mention web based items and though to themselves "they are just finding that out?" would understand the problem with print media.
There are some alternatives however for many subjects, such as web based news sites that are respected by WP:RS, however web comics is a niche subject. The problem is the experts in the field who would write about them, are doing so on blogs, whereas blogs are only acceptable if the person is a journalist ... journalist to what degree? I believe the Supreme Court ruled that blogs were actually legit forms of journalism and granted the same protection over sources, or were at least hearing the case. Anyway, niche groups seem to be over ridden by people who simply follow the guideline criteria, instead of measuring notability on common sense instead of letter of WP:WEB. I think this is why WP:WEB and the other notability guidelines are just that, guidelines and specifically mention that "common sense" may over rule, its just not exercized in that matter. So how many individuals have to write about something for it to be equal to one BBC? While a blog may not be WP:RS, wouldnt 10,000 blogs meet WP:N? --
Nuclear
Zer0 03:53, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
Kristopher Straub's recent experament in getting his own Web Comic Starslip_Crisis deleted [4] has highlighted the ease (and no doubt, regularity) with which the WP:N is used to manipulate article deletion. I think Kris has highlighted the Pathos inherent in the Articles for Deletion process.
Some of us seem to think that we have been building a shining monument to rational objectivity, however I question if this is even slightly true. Subjective decisions are made at every level in the creation of a Wikipedia article. How can the result then be considered objective? The views of the editors have left ther stamp writ large all over this project, Webcomics is just the most recent case.
At this point we are offered an opportunity to recognise the failings of our community and our process. We can inovate and find solutions. I must be frank, I expect the community here at Wikipedia will live up to my expectations. Dan.Montgomery 00:44, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
I don't agree in principle with the idea of a mass purge in Wikipedia, and more than the significance of any individual article or articles, I'm more concerned with the idea that someone out there thinks this kind of thing is a good concept. Sim 23:51, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Will you please clarify if UNESCO scientific publications and their components are copyrighted? I did not see UNESCO publications with copyright notice, but neither I saw a disclaimer about public domain. By its nature UNESCO is a most public entity around, but the PD tag does not specifically list UNESCO as a public domain source. Barefact 23:15, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
“ | All rights reserved.
This information may be freely used and copied for educational and other non-commercial purposes, provided that any reproduction of data be accompanied by an acknowledgement of UNESCO as the source ( © UNESCO ). This does not apply to the pages and images with explicitely reserved reproduction right : © followed by the right owner and the year of first circulation. Reproduction of the latter requires prior authorization from the author. |
” |
Isn't it a bit unfair that IP addresses don't get the same box that says, "You have new messages," when someone leaves a message on their user talk page? I tried it out with my school's IP, and no message came. However, it works every time with a registered user. It especially becomes disadvantageous when someone leaves a warning on the talk page. The IP user never receives the warning, until he/she is blocked. By then it's too late. Why can't they receive the message that says "You have new messages"? Diez2 19:18, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
My understanding of these two templates is that {{ copyvio}} is for instances where the copyvio needs some investigation, or a chance to resolve itself. {{ db-copyvio}} is for instances where the copyvio is unambiguous and should be deleted immediately.
Lately, I've noticed people going around and changing {{ copyvio}} to {{ db-copyvio}}. This activity strikes me as harmful and disruptive, especially since it's not unusual for admins to then speedy the page in the middle of several editors colaberating to try to resolve the issue.
Why do people do this? ~ ONUnicorn( Talk| Contribs) problem solving 16:26, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
What the section title says - something analogous to {{ tfd}} that says "A category or set of categories added by this template has been proposed for (deletion/merge/renaming)". -- Random832 16:09, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Suppose Albert Einstein were alive today, but nearing the end of his life, and decided that as a final record of his achievements, he would write the definitive encyclopedia article on General Relativity for Wikipedia (assuming an article didn't already exist on the subject). Oh, but that wouldn't have been permitted: he'd have been writing on his original research, which violates WP:OR.
So suppose instead a top scholar in the field of General Relativity, perhaps one who studied under Einstein himself, set out to write the definitive encyclopedia article on General Relativity. Since the scholar is an expert on the subject, he's able to write the entire article out of his head, without needing to look anything up anywhere, and therefore has no sources to cite. Suppose that later somebody considers some of what the scholar wrote to be untrue and deletes it. Now the scholar has to cite a reference in order to restore the material. Of course, the scholar probably learned what he knows thirty years ago from Einstein himself, or from books whose titles and authors he no longer remembers. He could find a current book that says the same thing just for the purpose of referencing it, but that seems silly: such a book could well be written by someone with fewer credentials than the scholar himself.
In short, despite efforts to entice people to write on topics in which they already have deep and broad knowledge, some of the basic principles of Wikipedia practice reveal a preference for articles written by people with a sketchy knowledge of the topic who have to rely on written references for much of the material they contribute so that they can then cite it.
Seems fallacious to me. — Largo Plazo 01:00, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for clarifying that one can cite one's own work—this just can't be the place of first publication. But as for the part about "we can't rely on our reputations and credibility, all we can lean on is the sources we can cite." Such sources, of course, can be just as deceptive as the editor! Combining the two thoughts: I'm remembering the time I read a newsletter by Lyndon LaRouche that was replete with footnotes—all to his own writings or those of his closest followers. Well, OK, I know there's never any way to guarantee that someone is telling the absolute truth. One does the best one can. — Largo Plazo 03:51, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Moved to Wikipedia_talk:Bot_policy 20:13, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Today (february 21, 2007), I've checked the sources given on Hungarian people about the numbers of them living in a coutry/continent. Previously I've added some facts, but only now had the idea, to check those, which were already given. Well, there was a nice falsification about the brazilian-hungarians. Their real number, by the source is abt 150,000. In the article, it was exactly 1 million. Not to mention the weird "Russia" part, wich I've put into comment, since I was unable to find anything about that on internet (maybe I was not persistent enough).
In the history, I found this, wich later grew up to 1,000,000 [5]. Two anonim edits, one in sept, 2006 the other in oct 2006. First is four ( 4 ) the second is five ( 5 ) month old. Noone was intrested in checking sources, since there was an external link, as reference. I've had many similar disputes on enwiki before, mainly with established users using non verifiable sources, such as books with no ISBN or online edition. Some of these sources are (unnaturally) very universal, and can almost cite evrything abt a given topic, even when the given source is about the (main) topic's sub-topic's sup topic or an even smaller circle (yes, sub-sub-sub-etc.) Well, my point is that some of the sources are simply faked, to prove a POV, (or simply for fun/vandalism). By my previous experiments, I put the rate of faked sources per article from 1% to up to 60% (!), depending on the topic. Higher numbers occuring in political articles, for example magyarization. I was every time turned down. Well, this is an easy to prove situation, this is why I chose this, instead of some longer.
Also a great problem - also relating to the article mentioned above - (especially with slavic and pro-slavic central-european political writers/historians), that even if the artice and the source are matching, the source itself can be a book or webpage, which itself does not "intrested in reality", or to say exacty: politically motivated. In wiki language: (ultra-)POV.
I've had disputes abt users here, who's sources many times failed WP:Verify, but noone was intrested in it. I was turned down always, and/or asked to "believe". Well, I'm sceptical :)
What to do with this tendency? I see more and more falsified sources (98% of them are absolutely unreachable-via-internet books), as time goes forward, and I can't prevent them to be in articles with their lies/falsifications/etc. No one will believe if I say "I've read it, and there was nothing like that in it." No, I've to prove it, that it is falsified, not the other, that it is not a fake. In my opinion, if something is accused as being fake, the thing, wich should be proved, that it is not. -- Vince hey, yo! :-) 00:03, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, sure. I've fallen into that mistake before. But, what to do when this comes with an extreme agressivity/hostility? -- Vince hey, yo! :-) 14:38, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
That's right, I've started a list, but you know, these are not online things, this problem is 95% about books. If X wrotes "A" and cites it with a ref in fact saying "B" (or else) and I point it out, I still can not prove it, and in fact the ref will be used against me nevertheless, it is a fake. -- Vince hey, yo! :-) 18:10, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
And if one is cleared, than there's another 1 million articles, wich should be checked, and than, there's no guarantee, that the "cleared" ones will remain clear. -- Vince hey, yo! :-) 18:27, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
It would be nice to have a "marked as checked" bit, (and an ability for anyone to review the last checked revision) but who to trust with such a power? -- Kim Bruning 18:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Note that this would end up working a bit like the unstable version / stable version system typically used for linux distributions. If you want to have the latest information and gossip (or all the newest toys in your distro) you get the unchecked/unstable version. If you want reliable information (or a system that just works) you get the checked/stable version.
Once again, how do we know which checkers to trust? Hmmm! -- Kim Bruning 18:41, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
I was bit worried when I saw the complaint that there were "non verifiable sources, such as books with no ISBN or online edition" being used, becuase a lot of the older literature does not have this. When I wrote the initioal versions of Battle of Vågen my main source was the Norwegian history book of Bergen, "Bergen - Byen mellom fjellene". This book was published in 1969 and has no sources, nor an online edition, yet I would hardly call the book "unverifiable". Anyone with access to a Norwegian public library would be able to find the book (or at least order it), if you see for example its entry in Bergen's public library, [6] you will see that it's available in many places. Why should a source like that be called invalid just because it does not have an ISBN? Sjakkalle (Check!) 08:50, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
I research how candidates and people use the Internet for political and social activism. I've noticed that most of the candidates have bio pages. This is fine.
I am curious.
Sincerely, Alan acohen843@hotmail.com
Please see Wikipedia:Notability (politicians). Brief answer to your questions: 1) sometimes, see Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-08-21/Congress again 2) We try 3) Sure 4) Wikipedia:Candidates and elections was marked as historical, see that page for details.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk 04:37, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Some recent AfDs have illuminated a need for Wikipedia:Notability (artists). The proposal has been created yesterday and is being discussed at that page (after the discussion that started at WP:BIO. More comments are appreciated.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk 21:01, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Can text from the book Mitcham Common Ecology Trail be added to Wikipedia if it contains the following notice:
Crown Copyright 1988, This publication may be freely reproduced in part or full, other than for the purposes of commercial reproduction. Think outside the box 16:45, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
I have started a discussion at Wikipedia:User categories for discussion#Wikipedians born in (YEAR), as the existing actions have been inconsistent and ad-hoc, and recently prone to wheel-warring and POINT. I think the time has come to seek an overarching consensus on this issue. Crossposted to VPR. -- Random832 16:25, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm looking for a photo of Chao for an article I'm working on, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (a Chinese writing system devised by Chao). Having found a suitable picture online at pinyin.info, I contacted the webmaster, who replied:
So the book was published 60 years ago, & the photo's a composite! Where does that leave me from the point of view of copyright? Ie can I use it in the article? -- NigelG (or Ndsg) | Talk 22:36, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Is it effective or not? Many of the sections created are archived without any admin response. Are frivolous reports not worth responding? Do only frivolous reports not get any response? Should admins at lease acknowledge that they have read the report and give a brief summary why no action is required? Any other suggestions to make it better? See also: Wikipedia_talk:Administrators'_noticeboard#Request_for_Comment Lukas19 05:35, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Yes I have read the recent debates on unsourced articles. I propose a idea that if some user is trying to argue that something is "unveribiable," he should do so only after 1) delcaring himself to have attemted to find sources for it, and 2) that he checked for book or other library sources, not just having looked at some internet sites. Most of the primary historical sources and newer academic publications are not available on-line just yet, and hearing one say something is "unverifiable" carried so much more weight when that person has actually looked for the information in the library. Spintasser 03:06, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
This should be official policy. It should be self-evident. Let's talk about it. Dino 00:21, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
... in the discussion about " Wikipedia:Articles about ongoing enterprises should be official policy." The goal is to protect Wikipedia's reputation as a neutral encyclopedic resource, and protect Wikipedia from civil liability. The consensus appears to be that WP:BLP should be modified to include ongoing enterprises. What do you think? Please add your comments to the existing discussion on this page or this page. Dino 12:07, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Is there a style guideline anywhere that addresses the use of feminine vs. neuter pronouns for ships or countries, or is this like the question of American vs. British spellings where in most cases contributors can use what they like as long as different styles don't get mixed? 207.176.159.90 02:02, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
I believe the British Government now officially uses "it" for ships to avoid offending women. However, most people with anything to do with the sea still use "she". Indeed, in Britain it's fairly common (although not universal) practice to use "she" for any vehicle. Usage re countries varies immensely. "She" has always been common in English, where we also tend to say "motherland" and "mother country". However, in other languages (e.g. German, Latin), it's the "fatherland". -- Necrothesp 14:16, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm new to wikipedia, and while trying to edit i went to the sandbox where i found an offensive article posted. where do you draw the line? how do i find that user so i can tell him he's an asshole? 24.247.133.124 12:01, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
For background and full disclosure, the conversation that provoke this discussion is at Talk:Judgment of Paris (disambiguation). In my time at Wikipedia, I have never cease to be amazed at the contentions and emotions involved in article titles. From the Cork debates, to the City, State convention, to the highways, to TV shows, etc. Part of it is because the guidelines COMMONNAMES and Precision are written in ways that seem equal yet diametrically oppose to each other. But another part is the crowning designation of Primary Topic. It seems that a lot of editorss view the designation of Primary Topic as a trophy, or crown that only one article can have. It maybe a dink in pride or an insult for an article to be "downgraded" in favor of a disambig page being the primary topic. Primary Topic debates seem to feel like the news conference of a prize boxing fight where you have to size up the measurements of all the "contenders" and see who talks the best talk to win. Sure, there is always the "losers" solace in that there could be a link to the disambig page on topic of the article that has been crowned "King/Primary". These arguments just seem absurd. Now there are cases where there is a clear primary-like Prague the city over the other entries in Prague (disambiguation) but in a large number of cases there are times when there is fair and sizable consideration to multiple topics and no one contender stands over them all-in cases where there is no clear argument that the vast majority of readers will be searching for this one singular topic over all other alternative titles. In those cases, it seems logical that a disambig page should be the "primary topic". That way when a reader goes searching they will be directed to the exact topic they are looking for. Even more beneficial is the ease of directing links to the right article versus having them buried on the "primary article" page.I suppose the fundamental question is, who are we titling our articles for? The readers or the editors who want this or that to be crowned "Primary"? Agne Cheese/ Wine 20:08, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
There is a recent tendency of some people of removing {{ rejected}} from old proposals that they like, and replace it by {{ essay}}. Apparently the latter sounds less negative or offensive to some. However, is this appropriate? If you make a proposal to the community, and the community doesn't like it, it's obviously rejected - so should you then step back and say, wait, it wasn't actually a proposal, it's just my opinion? On the one hand, who cares? On the other hand, it is essentially misleading. Comments please? >Radiant< 13:22, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
So what's to stop some malicious bot from running unchecked on here, deleting articles, user pages and images? Is there a safety system in place here? Spintasser 03:14, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Yes but can a sysop create his own bot with sysop rights? Spintasser 03:27, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Anything deleted can be undeleted, unless it's deleted under WP:OFFICE auspices. Corvus cornix 23:07, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Well I read that Wikipedia is in need of more money. They are having fund-raisers now and again and also encourage donations. So I thought of an idea that will help Wikipedia raise money. They could auction off admin rights a la an internet bidding process. I am sure that people are willing to pay to become admins. Especially as standards for admins are rising and people might not want to put in the time and effort to make 3500+ edits, etc. It's just a proposal at this time but I know its good and I feel that it has a good chance of being adopted. Thank you. Spintasser 03:02, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
How will it destroy the purpose of Wikipedia? The purpose of this is to write a verfiable encyclopedia. This reasearch and writing has nothing to do with who are admins. And if anyone is willing to pay upwards of $1000 for the rights, why not? Snowboarder77 04:05, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
LOL! That's what you get for using numerical standards, and making adminship a big deal.
Alright, once I recover from laughing, I'd better explain:
Spintasser: Your view of adminship is very acute. Some people see it as a kind of cool reward badge, and it would indeed be very valuable to third parties.
However, the original admin role was simply envisioned as a means of giving extra tools to users who could be trusted to apply them correctly.
For now, I'll leave it up to others to determine which view is closer to the truth, and which approach is wisest.
In the mean time, does anyone here regularly scan E-bay?
-- Kim Bruning 04:21, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
I would be weary of such an arrangement. I foresee biased editors purchasing such administrative privileges. What is to stop a national government from purchasing an admin badge and then continuing to censor or propagandise as desired? Your averaged Joe Schmo biased editor could make the bad edits; and the appearance of approval from admins (whom could block the opposition) would, at first glance, seem to make everything seem A-OK. Smart admins would not only block, but would completely squelch the competition such that they can't even cry out on their talk pages. An extensive Terms of Use would be required, which would surely be challenged in courts within the first week. -- Thisisbossi 06:02, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
It actually takes work to become an admin. So why not pay to get out of the work right? Wrong. The time it take to become an admin teaches users how they should act, and how admins should use their additional abilities. It is not mindless work, it allows the community to judge the candidate, and decide if they are trustworthy. Removing this step would cause huge POV problems, huge COI problems, huge CIVIL problems, an additional load for stewards, who would have to desysop all the vandals, problems with admins not understanding policy, ect, ect. Prodego talk 03:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Some of the webcomic warriors have taken to modifying the guideline Wikipedia talk:Notability (web) by changing the phrase "The content itself has been the subject of multiple and non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the site itself." to "The content itself has been the subject of two or more non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the site itself." I would like to see a discussion to form a broad consensus before such a change is made to any of the notability guidelines. -- Farix ( Talk) 13:29, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
You know, I've been thinking: arbcom handles some cases where an RFAR is filed against an administrator and that admin, either during the course of the case or before the case is even accepted. In these cases, arbcom usually have to make it clear that the person is not to be resysopped without an RFA. The idea here is that some of the admin's actions were unpopular at minimum and they might not have the full confidence of the community, right? This implies that people who request desysopping because, say, they're going to be gone for a month or two, still are pretty ok in the community. Right now, jpgordon is proposing on the workshop page a new alternative for arbitrators in accepting/rejecting a case: rejecting, but also acknowledging that a person's desyopping is formalized. This seems a little "instruction creep" to me, and I think a simpler policy would be more helpful.
Well, why not just make a policy saying "Desysopped admins, including those who voluntarily desysop for any reason, must go through an RFA to be resysopped"? Call it Wikipedia:Return of access levels if you will. It would make arbcom's job somewhat a little easier - the Konstable and Philwelch cases would probably have just gone "away" if this sort of thing was in place. If someone who desysopped under non-controversial circumstances wanted their tools back, they should have no problem passing an RFA (could you imagine Kim Bruning failing one? Me neither.).
The only difference in practice there would be in practice is that a user who self-desysopped under light circumstances might not get their tools back... but I don't see the problem with that, seeing as how an admin should have the community at there back during normal times without any particular controversy anyway - that is to say, an admin who is not in any unusual mess right now who has a lot of people who would oppose his/her adminship, maybe shouldn't be resysopped just because they passed one before? The discretion would remain with the b'crats to decide on resysoppings anyway, in case there is some extenuating circumstance.
This may seem a little bureaucratic, but I think it actual lessens the buruacracy by making a blanket statement regarding desysopped users. If the idea is that certain people don't need an RFA because they will surely pass, let's just run them through RFA anyway and make arbcom's case load a little lighter. If there are no outrageous objections here or someone pointing out any obvious, crippling flaws, I think I'll write it up and tag it with {{ proposed}}. Milto LOL pia 06:20, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
Sorry to smoosh this in on top of the subheading below, which was first, but this is more related to the above discussion: I just want to clarify that the policy I'm talking about would have nothing to do with "problem administrators" or "admin problems" or "abusive sysops" or any other such things, it's purely about users who have already been desysopped by other means, such as by arbcom (where, of course, they must re-apply in an RFA anyway) and by self-request at meta. This would deal largely with the second group, obviously. This policy would have zero effect on users with the sysop flag, even if they are inactive. Milto LOL pia 01:29, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
There is one proposal related to this that might be useful. Give admin users the option in their "my preferences" to change their interface to a non-admin interface (with none of the extra buttons or links displayed). While you can get around this interface if you know the right special pages to go to, having no admin buttons showing is a good way to help yourself focus on normal editing for a while. Actually I'd set up a third option too, show rollback but hide the other functions, since rollback is a common editing function mirrored by many scripts anyway. If admins had the option to set preferences like this whenever they wanted, many would not feel the need to desysop themselves in order to temporarily refocus on editing tasks. NoSeptember 08:53, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
I have had a Arbcom case against me in the past. I am now, I believe being harrassed based on it. Any dispute with a user, meaning disagreement involves a user threatening an Arbcom hearing against me. There is a page for enforcement that lets people complain about those who have had hearings, where do those who feel they are being harrassed because of them have to go? I tried asking on Arbcom Enforcement page, but was told it was not the best place and their didnt seem to be any place for it. I guess I am opening the floor to a discussion on creating a place for that, similar to Arbcom Enforcement, but where those with sanctions against them can go if they feel they are being harrassed, directly to the ear of Arbcom, so it is equal to those complaining at Arbcom Enforcement. --
Nuclear
Zer0 21:37, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
I think that {{ disputedtag}} should not be removed if there is an ongoing serious dispute about the guideline, and that removing it should be considered vandalism. -- Random832( t c) 14:55, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
This has been the subject of edit warring and almost led to an ArbCom case-is WP:N the central guideline, for which WP:WEB, WP:MUSIC, and the like just provide suggestions when something probably will pass it? Or should we consider the criteria there to be exceptions to WP:N? To centralize discussion, I think this entire discussion should take place at WT:N, and I'm going to post it to all the "secondary" guidelines. One way or the other, this needs solved. Seraphimblade Talk to me Please review me! 07:05, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I have proposed a new policy extending the 4-day restriction on new users editing semi-protected pages to creating pages as well. See Wikipedia:New users Mr.Z-man talk 01:11, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
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I have wondered off and on if one or more of these might be of more use in some stages of WP collaborations. There can be a value to more realtime collaborations and discussions, and the internet offers many such options. The IRC provided here could be potentially useful, but I have not found it to be useful in the past. It is true that those in different time zones, or occupied at work might not be able to participate, but many of these other communication channels have facilities for recording the proceedings and making them available, if this is wanted and appropriate. Even currently, editors are free to collaborate by email out of community view on some issues, and then make their position more public here in the conventional WP venue. This is even partially true of collaborations on articles in WP sandboxes, where a small number of editors jointly edit an article's rough draft before inviting the rest of the community to contribute. Are there any relevant policies or discussions that I should be aware of in this regard? Do you have any comments?-- Filll 20:40, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
Hi, A quick question, I'm guessing that I could be re-directed somewhere that would answer it quickly. A whole series of books was just put up for deletion for violation of WP:NOT#Indiscriminate sub-point 7. People are arguing back and forth for violates WP:NOT versus meets WP:BK/ WP:Notability. This point must have come up before, and I can't seem to find it. There must be many best-selling books out there that have little real-world context to apply, do they all need to be deleted? Is there a discussion or policy somewhere we could refer to? My head says the WP:NOT has a point, but my gut says there must be something else. If no-one wants to expand this on the Village Pump page, feel free to post on my talk page.
Thanks,
WLU 12:48, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
I put up an Rfc in the wrong place. I read the guidelines and instructions, but still managed to foul it up. The question that arises here is that when you have an article that is of special interest to one or two, but is failing to follow a broader community trend, how do you build concensus when one or two enforce a de-facto ownership over the article? How do you get more people involved in the discussion of a broader community trend when the topic of RfCs is fixed to certain categories?-- Shakujo 07:29, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
I have written about Janne Corax here on Wikipedia but I have discovered that Herald Times, which owns AllExperts, has copied my text on wikipedia word by word, and then use it for selling ads. Is that ok to do? I don't think so. What does one do? I have mailed them and said I don't think it's ok, and they must rewrite it with their own words, but nothing has happened. I don't want a commercial site to use what I write for wikipedia, but I don't know what policy wikipedia has?
Link to the copied article: [3]
lolli Lolli 01:09, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
I've been seeking the answer to almost this same topic. Perhaps someone here can steer me right. I am in the process of building a commercial site for selling jewelry. I would like to help educate visitors before they buy, my question is--is it okay to quote entire articles and/or paragraphs word for word from contributors to this site and other sites like about.com, as long as I mention the source. I thought I had heard somewhere it is only okay to quote a sentence or two, not a whole paragraph or entire article. Any advice is apreciated. 74.130.178.253 04:56, 27 February 2007 (UTC)West
Ok, so I was browsing through the backlog, and I came upon an article called "fanfiction.net." After attempting to find a few of the cites needed on the page, I quickly realized that I would have to create an account, which I have done. Sadly, it didn't come to mind that other people who hadn't created the account still couldn't see it even if I did post the right link - so I was wondering - if I take a screen shot of the needed cite (there's really only one page that needs to be seen) - and post a link to it or something - is that good enough for a cite - I first assumed no - but the problem is there's really no other way we can get those citations.Daniel()Folsom |\ T/|\ C/|\ U/ 17:06, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
During the AfD discussion for Timothy Noah, some important issues were raised about how the general notability guidelines apply to journalists. I have tried to address some of these concerns with a new proposal, Wikipedia:Notability (journalists). I would appreciate any changes or comments that could help this. Thank you. Mr.Z-man talk ¢ 00:17, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
The problem with wikipedia is that "higher" educational institutions do not regard wikipedia as a credible source. We need to fix this, or else a lot of work is not going to reach its full potential. I propose that we come up with a system to article by article "Certify" everything being done here. Though this is a huge task, i think it is necessary for wikipedia to keep evolving. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/education/21wikipedia.html?em&ex=1172466000&en=d1211c2d017e16b6&ei=5087%0A is a great article on the wiki movement, and at the end it mentions that Oberlin college in Ohio and University of East Anglia in England have classes where students must complete a page on wikipedia. I think that we could do something similar, but on a much grander scale.
Alternately, we could create a page which counters the arguments that wikipedia is often false and unusable. On the topic of history, for instance, no one truly knows what happened. We have a large collection of secondary sources, which are reviewed by "scholars", who then compile the aspects that they think are most true, and then publish it into a history book. To me, this is no different from wikipedia. I'm not going to say that wikipedia will be the ultimate end all be all for knowledge, I'm just saying that in retrospect, it's no more inaccurate than anything else we "know" anyway. It just has a larger diversity of competing ideas and thoughts, which I think are more valuable than someone only showing the one "right" side of the argument. 3th0s 22:35, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
The main reason many teachers (some of mine among them) do not allow Wikipedia to be used as a source is the thing that it brags about. The "anyone can edit" phrase is the source of Wikipedia's content. It is also the source of its criticism. My teachers tell me that it is unreliable and should not be trusted. Unless Wikipedia is restricted so that not everyone can edit, people like them will not believe Wikipedia is trustworthy. Of course, I do not want Wikipedia to be restricted and I like the ability to edit articles. What I am saying is it will take a lot of work to make the educated see past the "anyone can edit" phrase. Captain panda In vino veritas 04:15, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Opabinia regalis is absolutely right. We should not worry whatsoever about whether or not teachers will allow wikipedia as a source for papers, because students should not be using it to any significant degree. Wikipedia combines the two laziest research tools in existence: the encyclopedia and the internet. Certainly no papers at the college level should be relyng substanitally on any encyclopedia, and one must be very careful when using any internet based source. If a teacher tells her class "write a 3 page paper on Philip of Macedonia", and a students thinks "Who the hell is Philip and where the hell is Macedonia", then wikipedia is a great place to have those questions answered, but he should be using what he learned to educate himself and create a base of understanding on the subject, not as a citation for a paper. Most articles have external links and references, which are usually quite useful, and can often make good references for citation, but wikipedia itself has the "written by anyone, no matter how misguided and ignorant" albatross it has to bear. In addition, it is in a constant state of change; an artiucle cited one day might be completely different the next. We needn't worry about this, really. - R. fiend 17:13, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Few notes: 1) students should learn Wikipedia:Academic use by heart. 2) Teachers should concentrate on doing activities with Wikipedia (and list them on WP:SUP) to benefit from Wiki opportunities rather than passivly try banning what they don't understand 3) "And yes, back at Wikipedia, the Jesuits are still credited as supporting the Shimabara Rebellion." - of course, it was changed minutes after NYT was published, but shame on involved teachers (and students) who didn't change what they must have known was incorrect information for days.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk 05:35, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
PLEASE NOTE that Wikipedia:Verification and Wikipedia:No original research have been merged and replaced by Wikipedia:Attribution. This may come as a surprise to some, as this merger was not well advertized when in the proposal stage. From what I can tell, the folks who worked on this new Policy did a fairly good job (although I do wish they had announced their intentions sooner and more frequently). I do not see any substantive changes from what WP:V and WP:NOR had to say. Editors may also wish to note that several of the editors working on that page have expressed the intent to subsume the guideline: Wikipedia:Reliable sources into this new Policy and replaced with a FAQ.
While I actually approve of this merger (one Policy instead of two eliminates the potential for contraditary statements where they overlaped), I am not happy about how it was done. Policy changes should have broad community consensus, and I don't see how the editors who created WP:ATT can claim to have this when it comes as a bit of a surprise. The intent should have been shouted from the roof tops several weeks ago to give everyone LOTS of notice.
So... just so everyone understands, let me repeat this in loud voice: WP:V and WP:NOR ARE NO LONGER POLICY. They have been replaced by WP:ATT. ALSO - IT IS PROPOSED THAT WP:RS BE REPLACED with a combination of WP:ATT and a FAQ. (please don't kill the messenger.) Blueboar 17:51, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
I'd like to ask for opinions on a matter that has sprung up on 2004 Palm Island death in custody.
For some indigenous Australian groups, it is considered culturally taboo to mention the name of an individual after their death. For instance, if an indigenous person named John Smith dies, he will be given an alternative name by his family which he should be addressed by instead. These traditions are in no way consistent across the Australian continent, as the following link which was provided to me by someone who disagrees with my stance has pointed out:
My question is, given the lack of a consistent standard for this, the fact that calling the person by the honourific "Mulrunji" is hardly standardised even among the Australian media (here in Brisbane, he's commonly referred to on the TV news as "Doomadgee", not "Mulrunji". The user who is reverting me is from Townsville, which is much closer to the incident in question, so perhaps they have a different perspective from the media than I do), and the fact that the guidelines provided even state that calling the person by their surname is acceptable, so long as you don't use "personal names" (as shown when they refer to Charles Perkins as Kwementyaye Perkins), is in unreasonable that the person in question be referred to as "Doomadgee" instead of "Mulrunji"? The link provided also indicates that use of images is considered distasteful, if this person's name is removed in the interests of cultural sensitivity, then do we also need to delete every image of a recently deceased indigenous person on Wikipedia?
My other problem with use of these honourifics is that as the article above states, "after time a dead person's name and image will be allowed to be used again." At what time is it acceptable to go back and switch the person's name back to the conventional form? If an indigenous person dies, do we have to switch all references to their name to the honourific, and then change it back a couple of months later? This might cause a maintenance nightmare!
I think that, given these points, it's best that we use a neutral name like "Doomadgee", rather than a culturally insensitive name like "Cameron Doomadgee" or a temporary honourific like "Mulrunji". It seems to me from precedent that cultural sensitivity is considered important here, articles like Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy show that it can take a back seat to accuracy and clarity. Still, given the sensitivity of the issue, I thought I'd ask here anyway, as I don't want this to develop into a flamewar that gets put on Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars ever!
Lankiveil 06:46, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
I've posted a request on WT:U regarding a modification to a subclause of WP:U pertaining to 'obscene usernames' that I hope will foster a discussion. The discussion is available at Wikipedia_talk:Username_policy#Suggested_modification. I've cross-posted it here as it pertains to modifying an official policy. - CHAIRBOY ( ☎) 18:08, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
I gather that WP:ATT is now considered Policy... a merging of WP:V and WP:NOR. I have no problem with this, but I do have a concern with how this is being done. At the moment all three Policies are up and running... and this is going to lead to confusion and argument. The three policies do not completely agree with each other (or to put it more exactly, they agree with each other in surface substance, but they differ in greatly in tone and emphysis). This is especially noticable in the area of reliability of sources (especially Self-published sources - a frequent area of controversy) and how they are dealt with. Look at them side by side: WP:V#Sources, WP:NOR#Sources, WP:ATT#Reliable_sources. As a frequent contributer at WP:RS... a guideline that is supposed to help explain this particular aspect of Policy... I am seeing this conflict of tone writ large. Many of the questions we are asked involve parsing Policy statements and intent. Those of us at WP:RS agree that we need to conform what is said there to what is stated in Policy, but right now there is confusion as to which policy we should conform to. I would therefore request that, if WP:ATT is indeed confirmed as Policy, we redirect WP:V and WP:NOR to that page. If not, please move WP:ATT back to "proposed" status until the community can reach consensus. I don't care which, but we need clarity and not confusion. I have posted this request at the The relevant policy talk-pages as well. Thank you. Blueboar 15:26, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm really annoyed by the self-declared policemen of this wiki. Every time I change something on the Metamath page and I forget to sign in I have a complete bus of sheriffs who arrive on the page to ask me my identity card and who remove my updates. I begin to find this inaccurate behaviour perfectly annoying. Apparently those moral men forget to read the page since they would notice the changements are meaningful. Could we moderate those brave guys and suggest them to try to understand the pages they try to protect so energically ? -- Frédéric Liné 18:25, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
How does name calling help? LessHeard vanU 21:52, 23 February 2007 (UTC)"...drama queen..."?!?
Suicide |
---|
There's a debate underway concerning the order of presentation of topics on the suicide template (
see its talk page). One side is arguing that to place intervention links first biases the template towards trying to prevent suicides - they want the methods and types of suicides to go first. The other side points out that descriptions of suicide are tantamount to instructions on how to commit suicide, and that placing those at the top biases the template towards assisting or encouranging suicide.
The nature of the topic makes it impossible not to influence the outcome of crisis cases one way or the other. Which way should we be influencing readers who may be contemplating the unthinkable? Is it even possible to be neutral here?
I believe that the interests of public safety and the example set by other public service organizations and publications (such as the telephone book, where emergency response information is presented at the beginning of the book) should be applied here.
The question is, if a person in a medical emergency (someone in deep depression contemplating suicide, or a friend or relative trying to help) looks up suicide on Wikipedia, what should that person see first? Should we take the information's relevancy with respect to crisis cases into account when determining the order of presentation of the information in articles and templates? Should readers in crisis be given priority in determining the relavancy of information and the order in which it is presented? I believe that they should.
Your feedback on this debate would be most appreciated.
The Transhumanist 23:42, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Frankly, it's poorly formatted period. The trouble is that there's no strong main articles to put at the top. Night Gyr ( talk/ Oy) 12:13, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
I've reordered it. Wikipedia is not a howto guide anyway, and suicide is no different. We shouldn't tell people how to do it or how to stop it, that's just inappropriate tone period, but we can offer links to resources. Night Gyr ( talk/ Oy) 12:31, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Hi, I don't know where to post this, there are so many boards, but since I don't want to go in to diffs and specifics, I decided to post it here. In several instances I have seen valuable contributors turn into angry, frustrated and finally unproductive or former contributors, because what was originally a molehill of a disagreement turned into a mountain of anger and disgust. Here's why: The majority of the community disagree with something the user said or did and several editors let him know. If he doesn't immediately see his fault, the tone gets less friendly and more righteous. The user's arguments get more and more desperate and start including actions which, in turn, draw the attention of some administrators. Even if the user has cooled down a bit now, multiple editors, admins and not, are meanwhile following his/her contributions and piling "friendly advice" on his talk page, as soon as the user does or posts something they disagree with (whether it's related to the original disagreement or not). Subjectively - and I empathize, I'd feel the same way - the user senses that a hostile (and annoying) group is ganging up on him. As a result, the user will never be the same user and sometimes leaves in disgust. Please point me to the attempts, policies, essays for nipping this type of development in the bud.--- Sluzzelin 11.15, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Recently, the Powers That Be of Wikipedia have decided to purge several unnotable webcomic articles from Wikipedia's database. While I agree on this point of view in principle (after all, just because some Bob Smith makes a webcomic, doesnt mean there should be a Wikipedia page about it), it seems the editor(s) in question does not know a fair lot concerning what makes a webcomic notable.
While
Penny Arcade and
User Friendly were left up, for example, several other award-winning webcomics were taken down and senselessly deleted, including those that receive a fair amount of traffic, I might add.
edit: User Friendly was nominated as having insufficient 3rd-party sources as well, so I redact my earlier comment
Even if one does not know which webcomics are notable, one could numerically experiment by seeing how many other pages link to a given article, the kinds of articles that appear in its 'related links' section (such as awards it has won), and how many people search for an article over a given period of time.
I, among others, might suggest that someone or some people have been overbroad in the deletion of webcomics, as similar low-audience activities have not been deleted, which seems to myself to show a definate bias.
I have "been bold" and taken the action of recreating a few of the webcomics that seem, to me, to be the most gevious examples, however, I am sure I missed some, and would like to ensure such actions are not taken in the future. Sim 19:36, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
The debate seems to revolve around the idea that web comics (in and of themselves) are not notable. The benchmark for notability seems to be weither a topic has gained recognition outside the the realm of the internet. The logic being if a subject is notable, then printed newspapers or television will have made mention of it. This is flawed logic. Some indistries rely almost exclusivly on the internet for distribution of news. Many trade papers and peer reviewed journals have significant internet presence and often significantly more content on their websites. One of the strengths of the Wikipedia is that wikis can keep up with the rapid changing pace of the internet much better than print can. Many of the best sources of news about the internet are (surprise!) on the internet. By the current measure of notability, these sources (however relyable, widly read or highly regarded) will never be notable. For example, if Gabe from Penny Arcade mentions something in his Rant, then that is immediatly read by more than four million people.
Web comics are a recent phonominon and have found a social niche. Lots of readers are realising that many sindicated comic strips are crap. Webcomics cost nothing and some of them are much better than the print alternitives. If the Wikipedia Notability policy defines this very valad and recent form of art, enjoyed by millions, as non-notable, then it is the policy that is at fault not the Webcomic indistry.
Guys, get a clue. This jihad against webcomics is splashed all over the net. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking notice of this. This axe-grinding crap is making the whole project look bad. Figure out what changes need to be made and get them done. When there are 86 _thousand_ unique hits on google about a subject, most of which are from blogs and independant reviews, then people have officialy noticed it. It is of note. Dan.Montgomery 11:14, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
I agree with the complaint being brought. The idea that print media has to mention an item numerous times for it then pass WP:V and WP:RS is quite silly. For those who have been in for instance the gaming community, knew the notability of "Leon" long before any media decided to pick it up. The problem with notability is it rests on a type of media that is being left behind because of its ability to report everything, and do it fast enough. I think the idea here is not that WP:N is to be thrown away, but that WP:WEB is to be refined to understand that its "reliable sources" would usually not be print media. For instance right now the article YTMND can be deleted for failing WP:RS. However if you attempted to have it deleted you would be met with many people who say its "obviously notable" however cannot produce a WP:RS source. The arguement being made above is echoed here, how many "non-reliable sources" have to mention something for it to be obviously notable? The counter arguement of 1 blog doesnt look at the larger picture, yes 1 blog does not make an item notable, however if 80,000 blogs are mentioning it ... its obviously notable. I think anyone who has watched the news in the morning when they mention web based items and though to themselves "they are just finding that out?" would understand the problem with print media.
There are some alternatives however for many subjects, such as web based news sites that are respected by WP:RS, however web comics is a niche subject. The problem is the experts in the field who would write about them, are doing so on blogs, whereas blogs are only acceptable if the person is a journalist ... journalist to what degree? I believe the Supreme Court ruled that blogs were actually legit forms of journalism and granted the same protection over sources, or were at least hearing the case. Anyway, niche groups seem to be over ridden by people who simply follow the guideline criteria, instead of measuring notability on common sense instead of letter of WP:WEB. I think this is why WP:WEB and the other notability guidelines are just that, guidelines and specifically mention that "common sense" may over rule, its just not exercized in that matter. So how many individuals have to write about something for it to be equal to one BBC? While a blog may not be WP:RS, wouldnt 10,000 blogs meet WP:N? --
Nuclear
Zer0 03:53, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
Kristopher Straub's recent experament in getting his own Web Comic Starslip_Crisis deleted [4] has highlighted the ease (and no doubt, regularity) with which the WP:N is used to manipulate article deletion. I think Kris has highlighted the Pathos inherent in the Articles for Deletion process.
Some of us seem to think that we have been building a shining monument to rational objectivity, however I question if this is even slightly true. Subjective decisions are made at every level in the creation of a Wikipedia article. How can the result then be considered objective? The views of the editors have left ther stamp writ large all over this project, Webcomics is just the most recent case.
At this point we are offered an opportunity to recognise the failings of our community and our process. We can inovate and find solutions. I must be frank, I expect the community here at Wikipedia will live up to my expectations. Dan.Montgomery 00:44, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
I don't agree in principle with the idea of a mass purge in Wikipedia, and more than the significance of any individual article or articles, I'm more concerned with the idea that someone out there thinks this kind of thing is a good concept. Sim 23:51, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Will you please clarify if UNESCO scientific publications and their components are copyrighted? I did not see UNESCO publications with copyright notice, but neither I saw a disclaimer about public domain. By its nature UNESCO is a most public entity around, but the PD tag does not specifically list UNESCO as a public domain source. Barefact 23:15, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
“ | All rights reserved.
This information may be freely used and copied for educational and other non-commercial purposes, provided that any reproduction of data be accompanied by an acknowledgement of UNESCO as the source ( © UNESCO ). This does not apply to the pages and images with explicitely reserved reproduction right : © followed by the right owner and the year of first circulation. Reproduction of the latter requires prior authorization from the author. |
” |
Isn't it a bit unfair that IP addresses don't get the same box that says, "You have new messages," when someone leaves a message on their user talk page? I tried it out with my school's IP, and no message came. However, it works every time with a registered user. It especially becomes disadvantageous when someone leaves a warning on the talk page. The IP user never receives the warning, until he/she is blocked. By then it's too late. Why can't they receive the message that says "You have new messages"? Diez2 19:18, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
My understanding of these two templates is that {{ copyvio}} is for instances where the copyvio needs some investigation, or a chance to resolve itself. {{ db-copyvio}} is for instances where the copyvio is unambiguous and should be deleted immediately.
Lately, I've noticed people going around and changing {{ copyvio}} to {{ db-copyvio}}. This activity strikes me as harmful and disruptive, especially since it's not unusual for admins to then speedy the page in the middle of several editors colaberating to try to resolve the issue.
Why do people do this? ~ ONUnicorn( Talk| Contribs) problem solving 16:26, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
What the section title says - something analogous to {{ tfd}} that says "A category or set of categories added by this template has been proposed for (deletion/merge/renaming)". -- Random832 16:09, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Suppose Albert Einstein were alive today, but nearing the end of his life, and decided that as a final record of his achievements, he would write the definitive encyclopedia article on General Relativity for Wikipedia (assuming an article didn't already exist on the subject). Oh, but that wouldn't have been permitted: he'd have been writing on his original research, which violates WP:OR.
So suppose instead a top scholar in the field of General Relativity, perhaps one who studied under Einstein himself, set out to write the definitive encyclopedia article on General Relativity. Since the scholar is an expert on the subject, he's able to write the entire article out of his head, without needing to look anything up anywhere, and therefore has no sources to cite. Suppose that later somebody considers some of what the scholar wrote to be untrue and deletes it. Now the scholar has to cite a reference in order to restore the material. Of course, the scholar probably learned what he knows thirty years ago from Einstein himself, or from books whose titles and authors he no longer remembers. He could find a current book that says the same thing just for the purpose of referencing it, but that seems silly: such a book could well be written by someone with fewer credentials than the scholar himself.
In short, despite efforts to entice people to write on topics in which they already have deep and broad knowledge, some of the basic principles of Wikipedia practice reveal a preference for articles written by people with a sketchy knowledge of the topic who have to rely on written references for much of the material they contribute so that they can then cite it.
Seems fallacious to me. — Largo Plazo 01:00, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for clarifying that one can cite one's own work—this just can't be the place of first publication. But as for the part about "we can't rely on our reputations and credibility, all we can lean on is the sources we can cite." Such sources, of course, can be just as deceptive as the editor! Combining the two thoughts: I'm remembering the time I read a newsletter by Lyndon LaRouche that was replete with footnotes—all to his own writings or those of his closest followers. Well, OK, I know there's never any way to guarantee that someone is telling the absolute truth. One does the best one can. — Largo Plazo 03:51, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Moved to Wikipedia_talk:Bot_policy 20:13, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Today (february 21, 2007), I've checked the sources given on Hungarian people about the numbers of them living in a coutry/continent. Previously I've added some facts, but only now had the idea, to check those, which were already given. Well, there was a nice falsification about the brazilian-hungarians. Their real number, by the source is abt 150,000. In the article, it was exactly 1 million. Not to mention the weird "Russia" part, wich I've put into comment, since I was unable to find anything about that on internet (maybe I was not persistent enough).
In the history, I found this, wich later grew up to 1,000,000 [5]. Two anonim edits, one in sept, 2006 the other in oct 2006. First is four ( 4 ) the second is five ( 5 ) month old. Noone was intrested in checking sources, since there was an external link, as reference. I've had many similar disputes on enwiki before, mainly with established users using non verifiable sources, such as books with no ISBN or online edition. Some of these sources are (unnaturally) very universal, and can almost cite evrything abt a given topic, even when the given source is about the (main) topic's sub-topic's sup topic or an even smaller circle (yes, sub-sub-sub-etc.) Well, my point is that some of the sources are simply faked, to prove a POV, (or simply for fun/vandalism). By my previous experiments, I put the rate of faked sources per article from 1% to up to 60% (!), depending on the topic. Higher numbers occuring in political articles, for example magyarization. I was every time turned down. Well, this is an easy to prove situation, this is why I chose this, instead of some longer.
Also a great problem - also relating to the article mentioned above - (especially with slavic and pro-slavic central-european political writers/historians), that even if the artice and the source are matching, the source itself can be a book or webpage, which itself does not "intrested in reality", or to say exacty: politically motivated. In wiki language: (ultra-)POV.
I've had disputes abt users here, who's sources many times failed WP:Verify, but noone was intrested in it. I was turned down always, and/or asked to "believe". Well, I'm sceptical :)
What to do with this tendency? I see more and more falsified sources (98% of them are absolutely unreachable-via-internet books), as time goes forward, and I can't prevent them to be in articles with their lies/falsifications/etc. No one will believe if I say "I've read it, and there was nothing like that in it." No, I've to prove it, that it is falsified, not the other, that it is not a fake. In my opinion, if something is accused as being fake, the thing, wich should be proved, that it is not. -- Vince hey, yo! :-) 00:03, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, sure. I've fallen into that mistake before. But, what to do when this comes with an extreme agressivity/hostility? -- Vince hey, yo! :-) 14:38, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
That's right, I've started a list, but you know, these are not online things, this problem is 95% about books. If X wrotes "A" and cites it with a ref in fact saying "B" (or else) and I point it out, I still can not prove it, and in fact the ref will be used against me nevertheless, it is a fake. -- Vince hey, yo! :-) 18:10, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
And if one is cleared, than there's another 1 million articles, wich should be checked, and than, there's no guarantee, that the "cleared" ones will remain clear. -- Vince hey, yo! :-) 18:27, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
It would be nice to have a "marked as checked" bit, (and an ability for anyone to review the last checked revision) but who to trust with such a power? -- Kim Bruning 18:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Note that this would end up working a bit like the unstable version / stable version system typically used for linux distributions. If you want to have the latest information and gossip (or all the newest toys in your distro) you get the unchecked/unstable version. If you want reliable information (or a system that just works) you get the checked/stable version.
Once again, how do we know which checkers to trust? Hmmm! -- Kim Bruning 18:41, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
I was bit worried when I saw the complaint that there were "non verifiable sources, such as books with no ISBN or online edition" being used, becuase a lot of the older literature does not have this. When I wrote the initioal versions of Battle of Vågen my main source was the Norwegian history book of Bergen, "Bergen - Byen mellom fjellene". This book was published in 1969 and has no sources, nor an online edition, yet I would hardly call the book "unverifiable". Anyone with access to a Norwegian public library would be able to find the book (or at least order it), if you see for example its entry in Bergen's public library, [6] you will see that it's available in many places. Why should a source like that be called invalid just because it does not have an ISBN? Sjakkalle (Check!) 08:50, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
I research how candidates and people use the Internet for political and social activism. I've noticed that most of the candidates have bio pages. This is fine.
I am curious.
Sincerely, Alan acohen843@hotmail.com
Please see Wikipedia:Notability (politicians). Brief answer to your questions: 1) sometimes, see Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-08-21/Congress again 2) We try 3) Sure 4) Wikipedia:Candidates and elections was marked as historical, see that page for details.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk 04:37, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
Some recent AfDs have illuminated a need for Wikipedia:Notability (artists). The proposal has been created yesterday and is being discussed at that page (after the discussion that started at WP:BIO. More comments are appreciated.-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk 21:01, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Can text from the book Mitcham Common Ecology Trail be added to Wikipedia if it contains the following notice:
Crown Copyright 1988, This publication may be freely reproduced in part or full, other than for the purposes of commercial reproduction. Think outside the box 16:45, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
I have started a discussion at Wikipedia:User categories for discussion#Wikipedians born in (YEAR), as the existing actions have been inconsistent and ad-hoc, and recently prone to wheel-warring and POINT. I think the time has come to seek an overarching consensus on this issue. Crossposted to VPR. -- Random832 16:25, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm looking for a photo of Chao for an article I'm working on, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (a Chinese writing system devised by Chao). Having found a suitable picture online at pinyin.info, I contacted the webmaster, who replied:
So the book was published 60 years ago, & the photo's a composite! Where does that leave me from the point of view of copyright? Ie can I use it in the article? -- NigelG (or Ndsg) | Talk 22:36, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Is it effective or not? Many of the sections created are archived without any admin response. Are frivolous reports not worth responding? Do only frivolous reports not get any response? Should admins at lease acknowledge that they have read the report and give a brief summary why no action is required? Any other suggestions to make it better? See also: Wikipedia_talk:Administrators'_noticeboard#Request_for_Comment Lukas19 05:35, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Yes I have read the recent debates on unsourced articles. I propose a idea that if some user is trying to argue that something is "unveribiable," he should do so only after 1) delcaring himself to have attemted to find sources for it, and 2) that he checked for book or other library sources, not just having looked at some internet sites. Most of the primary historical sources and newer academic publications are not available on-line just yet, and hearing one say something is "unverifiable" carried so much more weight when that person has actually looked for the information in the library. Spintasser 03:06, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
This should be official policy. It should be self-evident. Let's talk about it. Dino 00:21, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
... in the discussion about " Wikipedia:Articles about ongoing enterprises should be official policy." The goal is to protect Wikipedia's reputation as a neutral encyclopedic resource, and protect Wikipedia from civil liability. The consensus appears to be that WP:BLP should be modified to include ongoing enterprises. What do you think? Please add your comments to the existing discussion on this page or this page. Dino 12:07, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
Is there a style guideline anywhere that addresses the use of feminine vs. neuter pronouns for ships or countries, or is this like the question of American vs. British spellings where in most cases contributors can use what they like as long as different styles don't get mixed? 207.176.159.90 02:02, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
I believe the British Government now officially uses "it" for ships to avoid offending women. However, most people with anything to do with the sea still use "she". Indeed, in Britain it's fairly common (although not universal) practice to use "she" for any vehicle. Usage re countries varies immensely. "She" has always been common in English, where we also tend to say "motherland" and "mother country". However, in other languages (e.g. German, Latin), it's the "fatherland". -- Necrothesp 14:16, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm new to wikipedia, and while trying to edit i went to the sandbox where i found an offensive article posted. where do you draw the line? how do i find that user so i can tell him he's an asshole? 24.247.133.124 12:01, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
For background and full disclosure, the conversation that provoke this discussion is at Talk:Judgment of Paris (disambiguation). In my time at Wikipedia, I have never cease to be amazed at the contentions and emotions involved in article titles. From the Cork debates, to the City, State convention, to the highways, to TV shows, etc. Part of it is because the guidelines COMMONNAMES and Precision are written in ways that seem equal yet diametrically oppose to each other. But another part is the crowning designation of Primary Topic. It seems that a lot of editorss view the designation of Primary Topic as a trophy, or crown that only one article can have. It maybe a dink in pride or an insult for an article to be "downgraded" in favor of a disambig page being the primary topic. Primary Topic debates seem to feel like the news conference of a prize boxing fight where you have to size up the measurements of all the "contenders" and see who talks the best talk to win. Sure, there is always the "losers" solace in that there could be a link to the disambig page on topic of the article that has been crowned "King/Primary". These arguments just seem absurd. Now there are cases where there is a clear primary-like Prague the city over the other entries in Prague (disambiguation) but in a large number of cases there are times when there is fair and sizable consideration to multiple topics and no one contender stands over them all-in cases where there is no clear argument that the vast majority of readers will be searching for this one singular topic over all other alternative titles. In those cases, it seems logical that a disambig page should be the "primary topic". That way when a reader goes searching they will be directed to the exact topic they are looking for. Even more beneficial is the ease of directing links to the right article versus having them buried on the "primary article" page.I suppose the fundamental question is, who are we titling our articles for? The readers or the editors who want this or that to be crowned "Primary"? Agne Cheese/ Wine 20:08, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
There is a recent tendency of some people of removing {{ rejected}} from old proposals that they like, and replace it by {{ essay}}. Apparently the latter sounds less negative or offensive to some. However, is this appropriate? If you make a proposal to the community, and the community doesn't like it, it's obviously rejected - so should you then step back and say, wait, it wasn't actually a proposal, it's just my opinion? On the one hand, who cares? On the other hand, it is essentially misleading. Comments please? >Radiant< 13:22, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
So what's to stop some malicious bot from running unchecked on here, deleting articles, user pages and images? Is there a safety system in place here? Spintasser 03:14, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Yes but can a sysop create his own bot with sysop rights? Spintasser 03:27, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Anything deleted can be undeleted, unless it's deleted under WP:OFFICE auspices. Corvus cornix 23:07, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
Well I read that Wikipedia is in need of more money. They are having fund-raisers now and again and also encourage donations. So I thought of an idea that will help Wikipedia raise money. They could auction off admin rights a la an internet bidding process. I am sure that people are willing to pay to become admins. Especially as standards for admins are rising and people might not want to put in the time and effort to make 3500+ edits, etc. It's just a proposal at this time but I know its good and I feel that it has a good chance of being adopted. Thank you. Spintasser 03:02, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
How will it destroy the purpose of Wikipedia? The purpose of this is to write a verfiable encyclopedia. This reasearch and writing has nothing to do with who are admins. And if anyone is willing to pay upwards of $1000 for the rights, why not? Snowboarder77 04:05, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
LOL! That's what you get for using numerical standards, and making adminship a big deal.
Alright, once I recover from laughing, I'd better explain:
Spintasser: Your view of adminship is very acute. Some people see it as a kind of cool reward badge, and it would indeed be very valuable to third parties.
However, the original admin role was simply envisioned as a means of giving extra tools to users who could be trusted to apply them correctly.
For now, I'll leave it up to others to determine which view is closer to the truth, and which approach is wisest.
In the mean time, does anyone here regularly scan E-bay?
-- Kim Bruning 04:21, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
I would be weary of such an arrangement. I foresee biased editors purchasing such administrative privileges. What is to stop a national government from purchasing an admin badge and then continuing to censor or propagandise as desired? Your averaged Joe Schmo biased editor could make the bad edits; and the appearance of approval from admins (whom could block the opposition) would, at first glance, seem to make everything seem A-OK. Smart admins would not only block, but would completely squelch the competition such that they can't even cry out on their talk pages. An extensive Terms of Use would be required, which would surely be challenged in courts within the first week. -- Thisisbossi 06:02, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
It actually takes work to become an admin. So why not pay to get out of the work right? Wrong. The time it take to become an admin teaches users how they should act, and how admins should use their additional abilities. It is not mindless work, it allows the community to judge the candidate, and decide if they are trustworthy. Removing this step would cause huge POV problems, huge COI problems, huge CIVIL problems, an additional load for stewards, who would have to desysop all the vandals, problems with admins not understanding policy, ect, ect. Prodego talk 03:04, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
Some of the webcomic warriors have taken to modifying the guideline Wikipedia talk:Notability (web) by changing the phrase "The content itself has been the subject of multiple and non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the site itself." to "The content itself has been the subject of two or more non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the site itself." I would like to see a discussion to form a broad consensus before such a change is made to any of the notability guidelines. -- Farix ( Talk) 13:29, 17 February 2007 (UTC)
You know, I've been thinking: arbcom handles some cases where an RFAR is filed against an administrator and that admin, either during the course of the case or before the case is even accepted. In these cases, arbcom usually have to make it clear that the person is not to be resysopped without an RFA. The idea here is that some of the admin's actions were unpopular at minimum and they might not have the full confidence of the community, right? This implies that people who request desysopping because, say, they're going to be gone for a month or two, still are pretty ok in the community. Right now, jpgordon is proposing on the workshop page a new alternative for arbitrators in accepting/rejecting a case: rejecting, but also acknowledging that a person's desyopping is formalized. This seems a little "instruction creep" to me, and I think a simpler policy would be more helpful.
Well, why not just make a policy saying "Desysopped admins, including those who voluntarily desysop for any reason, must go through an RFA to be resysopped"? Call it Wikipedia:Return of access levels if you will. It would make arbcom's job somewhat a little easier - the Konstable and Philwelch cases would probably have just gone "away" if this sort of thing was in place. If someone who desysopped under non-controversial circumstances wanted their tools back, they should have no problem passing an RFA (could you imagine Kim Bruning failing one? Me neither.).
The only difference in practice there would be in practice is that a user who self-desysopped under light circumstances might not get their tools back... but I don't see the problem with that, seeing as how an admin should have the community at there back during normal times without any particular controversy anyway - that is to say, an admin who is not in any unusual mess right now who has a lot of people who would oppose his/her adminship, maybe shouldn't be resysopped just because they passed one before? The discretion would remain with the b'crats to decide on resysoppings anyway, in case there is some extenuating circumstance.
This may seem a little bureaucratic, but I think it actual lessens the buruacracy by making a blanket statement regarding desysopped users. If the idea is that certain people don't need an RFA because they will surely pass, let's just run them through RFA anyway and make arbcom's case load a little lighter. If there are no outrageous objections here or someone pointing out any obvious, crippling flaws, I think I'll write it up and tag it with {{ proposed}}. Milto LOL pia 06:20, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
Sorry to smoosh this in on top of the subheading below, which was first, but this is more related to the above discussion: I just want to clarify that the policy I'm talking about would have nothing to do with "problem administrators" or "admin problems" or "abusive sysops" or any other such things, it's purely about users who have already been desysopped by other means, such as by arbcom (where, of course, they must re-apply in an RFA anyway) and by self-request at meta. This would deal largely with the second group, obviously. This policy would have zero effect on users with the sysop flag, even if they are inactive. Milto LOL pia 01:29, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
There is one proposal related to this that might be useful. Give admin users the option in their "my preferences" to change their interface to a non-admin interface (with none of the extra buttons or links displayed). While you can get around this interface if you know the right special pages to go to, having no admin buttons showing is a good way to help yourself focus on normal editing for a while. Actually I'd set up a third option too, show rollback but hide the other functions, since rollback is a common editing function mirrored by many scripts anyway. If admins had the option to set preferences like this whenever they wanted, many would not feel the need to desysop themselves in order to temporarily refocus on editing tasks. NoSeptember 08:53, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
I have had a Arbcom case against me in the past. I am now, I believe being harrassed based on it. Any dispute with a user, meaning disagreement involves a user threatening an Arbcom hearing against me. There is a page for enforcement that lets people complain about those who have had hearings, where do those who feel they are being harrassed because of them have to go? I tried asking on Arbcom Enforcement page, but was told it was not the best place and their didnt seem to be any place for it. I guess I am opening the floor to a discussion on creating a place for that, similar to Arbcom Enforcement, but where those with sanctions against them can go if they feel they are being harrassed, directly to the ear of Arbcom, so it is equal to those complaining at Arbcom Enforcement. --
Nuclear
Zer0 21:37, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
I think that {{ disputedtag}} should not be removed if there is an ongoing serious dispute about the guideline, and that removing it should be considered vandalism. -- Random832( t c) 14:55, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
This has been the subject of edit warring and almost led to an ArbCom case-is WP:N the central guideline, for which WP:WEB, WP:MUSIC, and the like just provide suggestions when something probably will pass it? Or should we consider the criteria there to be exceptions to WP:N? To centralize discussion, I think this entire discussion should take place at WT:N, and I'm going to post it to all the "secondary" guidelines. One way or the other, this needs solved. Seraphimblade Talk to me Please review me! 07:05, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
I have proposed a new policy extending the 4-day restriction on new users editing semi-protected pages to creating pages as well. See Wikipedia:New users Mr.Z-man talk 01:11, 18 February 2007 (UTC)