Wikipedia Zero: Orange mobile partnership in Africa ends; the evolution of privacy loss in Wikipedia
Wikipedia Zero: Orange mobile partnership in Africa comes to an end
On March 11, 2016, the Wikimedia Foundation's Technical Partner Manager, Daniel D. Foy, removed Orange from the list of mobile partnerships on the Wikimedia Foundation wiki, marking the apparent end of a longstanding partnership between Orange and the WMF that began in April 2009.
The 2009 strategic mobile and web partnership with Orange was the first of its kind. Predating Wikipedia Zero (launched in 2012), it took a different form from more recent mobile partnerships. Under the terms of the three-year deal, Orange paid the Wikimedia Foundation for the right to use Wikimedia brands and trademarks in showcasing the content. Users were able to access Wikimedia content from Orange's own portals, and targeted marketing was presented alongside the content.
The 2009 deal, serving European markets, was followed in 2012 by another Orange partnership focused on the Middle East and Africa (MEA). This no longer involved a monetary arrangement between WMF and Orange. Most recently, it provided free Wikipedia access to mobile users in eight African countries with a combined population of around 225 million: Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Following the removal of the Orange partnerships, Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of Congo no longer appear on the mobile partnerships page, while Kenya still has Airtel and Safaricom listed, and Tunisia still has Tunisie Telecom.
Wikimedia Foundation Partner Manager Adele Vrana told the Signpost:
Our contract with Orange expired last year upon completion of a 3 year term. We had several short term extensions while discussing a switch to our updated legal template. We decided to let the latest extension expire on March 11th as we continued our discussions, allowing more time to reach mutually agreeable terms. The conversations with Orange are ongoing and we look forward to future collaboration.
Orange, for its part, announced last month that it had signed a strategic partnership with Google "to bring the best of mobile internet across its full African and Middle Eastern (Orange MEA) footprint". The partnership will provide access to "a range of best-in-class online services including, but not limited to, popular content covering fashion, sport and music, as well as everyday tools such as Google Search™, YouTube™ and Google Maps™. [...] Important information will be made accessible, for example, finding answers to questions instantly through Google Search or the ability to locate the nearest health clinic using Google Maps."
The evolution of privacy loss in Wikipedia
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Last week's WMF research showcase focused on the evolution of privacy loss in Wikipedia, as investigated in a research project by Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, Lexing Xie, Tiberio Caetano and Manuel Cebrian.
The project, based on a dataset spanning 13 years of Wikipedia editing, incorporating 188,805,088 edits by 117,523 different users, concluded that:
The digital traces left behind by the users in the online environment reveal more about them than they might like. As our recent WSDM'16 paper shows, machine learning algorithms can be used to uncover hidden links between a user's past activity and her private traits – like gender, education level or religious views –, even for retired users. [...]
As an online system evolves over time, new digital traces of individual behavior may uncover previously hidden statistical links between an individual's past actions and her private traits [...] the prediction accuracy for almost all private traits consistently improves over time. Surprisingly, the prediction performance for users who stopped editing after a given time still improves. The activities performed by new users seem to have contributed more to this effect than additional activities from existing (but still active) users. Insights from this work should help users, system designers, and policy makers understand and make long-term design choices in online content creation systems.
A video of the research showcase is available on YouTube. The full paper and a short summary of the study are also available online.
Brief notes
- Data center switch-over postponed: The work announced in last week's technology report, which will reduce Wikipedia to read-only access for brief periods, has been postponed. It is now scheduled to take place in the week of April 18.
- Frances Hocutt leaves WMF: In what appears to be further fall-out from the recent crises at the WMF, Frances Hocutt, who spoke up about the staff engagement survey at the January Metrics meeting, has left the Wikimedia Foundation. Hocutt was hired in May 2015 as a software engineer on the Community Tech team.
- European Commission Open Science Policy Platform candidacies: A number of Wikimedians are applying as representatives on the European Commission Open Science Policy Platform and are seeking endorsements. The OSPP will provide expert advice to the European Commission on implementing the broader Open Science Agenda. For further information, see Daniel Mietchen's page on Meta.
- "Wikipedia Zero mass effect": A Wikimedia-l thread reports an "increasing amount of improper editing coming from IP addresses located in Angola. Some users believe that this may be related with Wikipedia Zero and a partnership between the WMF and a cellphone company that allows reading and editing at free cost. One of the first reactions to that is a large range block that was just set on Commons in order to prevent these edits, as they are being done in a way that volunteers can't handle."
- The case for federation: Should parts of WMF be spun off?: Also currently on the Wikimedia-l mailing list, a discussion ( threaded archive) initiated by former WMF deputy director Erik Möller about the potential benefits of a smaller WMF, partly inspired by William Beutler's op-ed in last week's Signpost issue.
Wales at SXSW; lawsuit over Wikipedia PR editing
Wales and Kawasaki on stage at South by Southwest
Jimmy Wales appeared at the 2016 South by Southwest Interactive festival on March 13, where he was interviewed by Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees member Guy Kawasaki. Outgoing WMF executive director Lila Tretikov was originally slated to appear at the event, but she was quietly replaced by Wales on the schedule following her resignation.
The wide-ranging discussion touched on a number of topics. PC Magazine took note of comments on the FBI–Apple encryption dispute ("I'm really proud of Apple for fighting this thing"), Chinese censorship of Wikipedia ("I'm ready to wait 1,000 years. I'd rather the Chinese people understand what's happening to them when they understand that the government won't let them view any of the Wikipedia pages."), and problems in the Wikipedia editing community ("[W]e may be too tolerant of bad behavior. We want women to participate more."). TechCrunch highlighted Wales' strong comments on paid editing: "Companies think it’s a powerful marketing tool but I think they’re deranged and should leave us alone." However, Wales did note that "The top PR companies tend to be very good about their interactions with Wikipedia". Business Insider recounted an anecdote about Wikipedia's beginnings: "As a programming geek, I wrote 'Hello World' and those were the first words of Wikipedia." G
Talk page comments a factor in PR lawsuit
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Wikipedia is playing a central role in a lawsuit between a London venture capital firm, Ariadne Capital, and a public relations agency, Lansons Communications. Business Insider reported that Ariadne charged that a "botched attempt to improve" the Wikipedia article for Ariadne founder Julie Meyer "did its reputation more harm than good." Bloomberg News reported that Ariadne claimed Lansons' attempts at addressing the Wikipedia article resulted in accusations that Ariadne had attempted to "manipulate its own entry" and prompted "further negative updates on Wikipedia." The lawsuit charged that "this has caused and will cause further reputational damage which has led to lost opportunities and income."
The lawsuit alleges that an email was sent to "Wikipedia" and this email was posted on Talk:Julie Meyer. There is a message on that page signed by a self-identified Lansons employee, posted in 2014 by a London-based IP address. It seems unlikely that a Wikimedia Foundation employee or an OTRS volunteer would post a secondhand email to a talk page at all, much less using an IP address instead of their own account. It seems more likely that this "email" was actually a talk page message from that employee himself.
Regardless of the origin of the message, it is a sticking point in the lawsuit. Meyer told Bloomberg "To have an intern contact Wikipedia was not what we paid for". Lansons co-founder Tony Langham told Bloomberg it was "a joke lawsuit" prompted by Lansons' demand that Ariadne pay their "outstanding invoices". (Mar. 14) G
In brief
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- Sorry about that: The Daily Dot lists encyclopedias as one of the " 10 Industries the Internet completely and utterly ruined". Wikipedia's "takeover" of encyclopedia usage resulted in the end of the print publication of the Encyclopedia Britannica in 2012. They note "People will almost always side with free over somewhere around $1400". (Mar. 19) G
- Bell Pottinger in the news again: Business Day reports that the Gupta family, a prominent South African business family, has hired the British public relations firm Bell Pottinger to "burnish its image". Bell Pottinger has been criticized previously for its Wikipedia editing on behalf of its clients and numerous accounts used by the agency were blocked (see previous Signpost coverage). (Mar. 19) G
- Challenges for Indian languages: In The Wire, Wikimedia Foundation employee Subhashish Panigrahi discusses " Eight Challenges That Indian-Language Wikipedias Need to Overcome". (Mar. 17) G
- RepRap: 3DPrint.com discusses the editing conflict currently ongoing at the article RepRap project, which they characterize as "more like vandalism than editing". Naturally, other editors at the article have a different perspective, with one describing it as removing "promotionalism". Discussion is ongoing at the article talk page and ANI. (Mar. 17) G
- #whereisBassel?: In The Guardian, Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel, CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation for Freedom of Expression, call again for the release of Wikimedian and web activist Bassel Khartabil, imprisoned by the Syrian government since 2012. The article is titled, "Jimmy Wales: 'The world needs to ask: #WhereisBassel?'", promoting the corresponding Twitter hashtag. (Mar. 16) G/AK
- Merrick Garland: Wired discusses the " battle to save facts from politics" at the article for new US Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. (Mar. 16) G
- The momentum of tiny edits: The Atlantic asks, " Why are some Wikipedia articles so long?", reporting that "Among the top-50 longest articles on the English language version Wikipedia, you'll find lists of comets, Amtrak stations, shipwrecks, fictional astronauts, and cult films. There is a timeline of Baltimore and a look at electric car use by country, along with articles about firearms, Dutch inventions, and rare birds." (Mar. 16) AK
- The age of Wikipedia wars: An opinion piece by Annika Hernroth-Rothstein in Israel Hayom, commenting on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, argues that "The media likes to focus on the war that is being waged with knives and guns and tanks, but today the most furious fight is being fought in the new media arena, where everyone is a soldier and no one has a name. However scary this may seem, it also brings hope to our cause -- it means that anyone can get involved and make a mark in the fight for truth and freedom. This is a Wikipedia war in that the facts need to be checked and rechecked by every man and the winner will be the side that manages to sweep the masses in this reality of intellectual sharing." (Mar. 15) AK
- GCHQ embedded in Wikipedia?: Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and ex- Rector of the University of Dundee (2007–10), asks, "Is GCHQ Embedded in Wikipedia?", focusing on the Wikipedia contributions of Philip Cross. (GCHQ is the UK's Government Communications Headquarters.) This was followed by a number of exchanges on Twitter between Murray and Cross (the latter has declared his Twitter account on his Wikipedia user page). (Mar. 15) AK
- Keilana FTW: Keilana's story, covered in-depth in last week's In the Media, attracted further coverage from numerous media sites, eventually being picked up by the BBC, The Telegraph and The Guardian, which also features an interview with Rosiestep. (Mar 14–19). AK
- Improved search: The Next Web notes the recent improvements to Wikipedia Search. (Mar. 11) AK
Hard work needed to address Wikimedia’s leadership challenges
After a tempestuous two-year stint as the executive director of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Lila Tretikov resigned in February. Her background and her early efforts drew skepticism from the community of volunteers who have built the bulk of Wikipedia. Skepticism only grew as the Foundation, under her direction, took actions that increasingly defied advice from longtime staff and volunteer leaders. Although her first year saw a substantial increase in the organization's financial strength, the role of volunteers is more central to Wikipedia's long-term success than money; and on a number of issues, the Foundation alienated volunteers, and ultimately many of its own staff.
With Tretikov's departure, the hard work of getting back on track lies ahead. It would be too easy to pin the problems of Tretikov's tenure entirely on her, when her appointment and leadership drew strong and sustained support from the Board of Trustees. The Board has now chosen an interim ED, and has chosen well. It should now take steps to ensure that its search for a long-term ED attracts good candidates, and doesn't drag out.
1. The Board should rethink the job description of the long-term ED. The official document has not been updated since 2008, and much of the trouble of the past two years can be traced to the version circulated in 2013, which emphasized technical and product development skills as the top qualification. The single most important quality for the Foundation's executive director should be an ability to work with broad and diverse groups of stakeholders. This skill is not unique to Wikimedia; it also applies to jobs like running a university or a hospital system, or working for change in a broad social movement. Neither technical proficiency nor Wikimedia experience should be regarded as requirements; and removing them from the "must-have" list will allow the foundation to cast a wider net and improve the candidate pool.
2. The Board should clearly establish that the interim ED position is not a fast-track to the long-term position. While it may be tempting to ease the search for a long-term ED, what the movement needs from an interim ED is a laser focus on re-establishing short-term stability and order. It's possible that a transition from interim to long-term will make sense, but a decision like that is an important one, and should only be made with eyes wide open, with other solid candidates in serious consideration.
3. The Board should set up the next long-term ED for success. Steps that would support this goal include:
Changes to Board composition: Are there members of the Board whose approach to the last job search, and/or whose engagement with the departing ED, pointed things in the wrong direction? If so, it might be best for them to step aside and make room for other Trustees to try a different approach. Although several new Trustees have been appointed recently, the ones who appear most closely tied to the problems of the last six months remain.
Optimize the hiring process: How are candidates recruited? How are they moved through the process? How are they evaluated? The organization can't afford to miss good candidates, or to lose them during an onerous or erratic interview period. It's important to define and maintain a consistent hiring process, to clearly identify who will narrow the field and make the final decision, and generally to respect candidates' time and effort.
Evaluate what went wrong: The Board should thoroughly and publicly debrief the recent crises. Not only will this serve candidates for the position by enlightening them to the history and the challenges they may face, but it will serve to clear the air around the conflicts that led to Tretikov's resignation. When Wikimedia UK raised eyebrows through relatively benign activities, the Foundation ordered a review by an external consultant. The Foundation should heed its own advice, and invite expert critique of its practices.
4. The Foundation should continue its efforts to build a strategic plan and annual plans. It should pay particular attention to the dynamics that caused so much strife in recent months and consider whether adjustments to these documents would minimize the risk of similar problems. In recent months, a number of staff have expressed concern about frequently shifting strategic goals. A clear strategy can be a vital tool to help staff, various organizations, and numerous volunteers align their efforts and sustain a sense of shared purpose. And a good way to establish alignment is to build in community participation from the beginning: the Foundation knew this in 2010 when it ran the previous process, and the approach has been endorsed in a recent Harvard Business Review paper. The current draft of the organization's strategic plan appears to be a strong step in the right direction.
Recent communication among the Wikimedia volunteer community and staff has been thoughtful and diplomatic. Even when critical, there has been a focus on forward progress and improvement. I am hopeful that this ethos can survive, and that as a movement, we can return to the spirit of collaboration and service that has brought us together.
Pete Forsyth has been a Wikipedia editor since 2006 and runs a Wikipedia training and consulting business, Wiki Strategies. He worked for the Wikimedia Foundation from 2009 to 2011. The views expressed in this editorial are the author's alone and do not reflect any official opinions of this publication. Responses and critical commentary are invited in the comments section.
Is an interim WMF executive director inherently notable?
Who needs a crystal ball, when you've got Wikipedia?
- Disclaimer and author's note: I have !voted in the AfD, but i try to not pass on any opinions in this publication.
A few complaints and mild disagreements
30 September 2022
Wikimedia LLC and disinformation in Japan
28 March 2021
Google isn't responsible for Wikipedia's mistakes
28 March 2021
Maher stepping down
28 February 2021
Wikipedia celebrates 20 years of free, trusted information for the world
31 January 2021
It didn't take longer than one day from the time Katherine Maher was announced to become an interim executive director at the Wikimedia Foundation (see Signpost coverage) until an article was created about her on the English Wikipedia. This has caused some controversy and discussions.
It all started when an IP-editor inserted a proposed deletion-tag (PROD-tag), which was objected by another user within five minutes.
| “ | Hoi, the executive director of the WMF IS notable. | ” |
| — GerardM, diff (talk) | ||
The tag was later removed by a third editor, with the following edit summary:
| “ | clearly notable; deletion is not cleanup | ” |
| — Pigsonthewing, diff (article) | ||
Following which, a new editor nominated the article for deletion ( diff), per the English Wikipedia's deletion criteria.
| “ | Editors (and long-term editors at that) have, unfortunately, used trivial tit-bits and tried to present Katherine as being notable. She has not won any high-level awards in her field, there are no independent extensive bios by reliable sources out there […] Being ED of the WMF, in itself, doesn't even make one notable. And let's not forget she's only an interim ED. It's more WP:CRYSTAL that people are assuming she will become notable in due course. | ” |
| — MedalSmeddle, diff 1 (AfD), diff 2 (AfD) | ||
The nominating user stated that the article should be deleted because Wikipedia is not a crystal ball, while others stated that the article should be kept because the subject of the article most likely will attract attention in the near future, and some suggested that the subject may be inherently notable.
| “ | [Executive Director] of WP inherently notable, coverage will come. | ” |
| — Montanabw, diff (AfD) | ||
Other users took note of this comment and responded with arguments to move it to draft space until such time the subject has gained enough notability in mainstream media.
| “ | "Coverage will come in time" is the very definition of WP:CRYSTAL, if you want to argue that, move it to the draft space instead. | ” |
| — Insertcleverphrasehere, diff (AfD) | ||
The outcome of said deletion nomination is still under discussion; feel free to weigh in with your policy-supported opinions on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Katherine Maher.
The usage of promotional images in articles
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- Author's note: Since this discussion is in Swedish, I will not include quotes, but will try to summarize views and opinions instead.
Freely licensed cover arts of Ms. has been in discussions on the Swedish Wikipedia lately ( diff). Even if no other image exists on Commons, it seems like using these images on articles is controversial, due to the promotional nature of the images themselves. Examples that were the subject of the discussion were the infobox-image of Beyoncé, this real photo and this cover art (see images to the right).
This week's featured content
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
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Seven featured articles were promoted this week.
- William Sterndale Bennett ( nominated by Smerus) (1816–1875) was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator. By the age of twenty, he had begun to make a reputation as a concert pianist, and his compositions received high praise. In 1837 Bennett began to teach at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), with which he was associated for most of the rest of his life. For twenty years he taught there, later also teaching at Queen's College, London. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s he composed little, although he performed as a pianist and directed the Philharmonic Society for ten years. In 1858 Bennett returned to composition, but his later works, were considered old-fashioned and did not arouse as much critical enthusiasm as his youthful compositions had done. He was Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge from 1856 to 1866. In that year he became Principal of the RAM, rescuing it from closure, and remained in this position until his death. He was knighted in 1871. He died in London in 1875 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
- The Westminster Assembly ( nominated by Jfhutson) was a council of theologians and members of the English Parliament appointed to restructure the Church of England which met from 1643 to 1653. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was also adopted by the Church of Scotland. The Assembly was called by the Long Parliament before and during the beginning of the First English Civil War. The Long Parliament was influenced by Puritanism, a religious movement which sought to further reform the church. They were opposed to the religious policies of Charles I of England and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Assembly worked in the Reformed Protestant theological tradition, also known as Calvinism. It took the Bible as the authoritative word of God, from which all theological reflection must be based. It produced a new Form of Church Government, a Confession of Faith or statement of belief, two catechisms or manuals for religious instruction, and a liturgical manual for the Churches of England and Scotland.
- The passenger pigeon ( nominated by FunkMonk and 7&6=thirteen) (Ectopistes migratorius) is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word passager, meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits of the species. It was sexually dimorphic in size and coloration. The male was 39 to 41 cm (15.4 to 16.1 in) in length, mainly gray on the upperparts, lighter on the underparts, with iridescent bronze feathers on the neck, and black spots on the wings. The female was 38 to 40 cm (15.0 to 15.7 in), and was duller and browner than the male overall. The juvenile was similar to the female, but without iridescence. It mainly inhabited the deciduous forests of eastern North America and was also recorded elsewhere, but bred primarily around the Great Lakes.
- Christ lag in Todes Banden ( nominated by Gerda Arendt and Thoughtfortheday) is a cantata for Easter by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. One of his earliest church cantatas, it was probably intended for a performance in 1707, an early work in the genre to which he later contributed complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year. It is a chorale cantata, a style in which both text and music are based on a hymn. In this instance the source was Martin Luther's eponymous hymn.
- Serpin ( nominated by Evolution and evolvability) are a superfamily of proteins with similar structures that were first identified for their protease inhibition activity and are found in all kingdoms of life. They are notable for their unusual mechanism of action, in which they irreversibly inhibit their target protease by undergoing a large conformational change to disrupt its active site. The conformational-change mechanism confers certain advantages, but it also has drawbacks: serpins are vulnerable to mutations that can result in serpinopathies such as protein misfolding and the formation of inactive long-chain polymers.
- York City F.C. is a professional association football club based in York, North Yorkshire. Its history from the 1980–81 to the current season ( nominated by Mattythewhite) saw fluctuating fortunes in the 1980s and 1990s, and relegation from and return to the Football League. The club won its first and only league title after finishing first in the Fourth Division in 1983–84 with 101 points. They were the first team to score this many points in a Football League season. In the 1990s, they knocked Premier League clubs Manchester United and Everton out of the League Cup in successive seasons. In March 2003, York were taken over by the club's Supporters' Trust, and were relegated into the Conference National in 2003–04, ending seventy-five years of Football League membership.
- Physical limitations acquired from spinal cord injury affect sexual function and sexuality ( nominated by Delldot) in broader areas, which in turn has important effects on quality of life. Damage to the spinal cord impairs its ability to transmit messages between the brain and parts of the body below the level of the lesion. This results in lost or reduced sensation and muscle motion, and affects orgasm, erection, ejaculation, and vaginal lubrication. Psycho-social causes include depression and altered self-image. However, many people with SCI have satisfying sex lives, and many experience sexual arousal and orgasm. Drugs, devices, surgery, and other interventions exist to help men achieve erection and ejaculation. Although male fertility is reduced, many men with SCI can still father children, particularly with medical interventions. Women's fertility is not usually affected, although precautions must be taken for safe pregnancy and delivery.
Featured lists
Two featured lists were promoted this week.
- Bedfordshire is a county in the East of England. It has an area of 1,235 square kilometres (477 sq mi), and a population estimated in 2016 at 640,000, with an increase of 11% over the previous ten years. As of March 2016 there are twenty Local Nature Reserves in Bedfordshire ( nominated by Dudley Miles): eight in Bedford, eleven in Central Bedfordshire and one in Luton. Local Nature Reserve are designated by local authorities under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The local authority must have a legal control over the site, by owning or leasing it, or having a legal agreement with the owner. They are sites which have a special local interest either biologically or geologically, and local authorities have a duty to care for them.
- Ethel Barrymore (1879–1959) was an American actress of stage, screen and radio ( nominated by SchroCat). Barrymore's first Broadway role was in The Imprudent Young Couple. She soon found success, particularly after an invitation from William Gillette to appear on stage in his London production of Secret Service. She began her film career in a series of silent films, but she never dedicated herself to the medium fully. She appeared in her first talking film, Rasputin and the Empress and began radio broadcasts on the Blue Network with The Ethel Barrymore Theater. Her film work became increasingly prominent in the 1940s and 1950s, and she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for None but the Lonely Heart.
Featured pictures
Four featured pictures were promoted this week.
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Watchlists, watchlists, watchlists!
After a long hiatus, we're back! This week we are interviewing Addshore, who is an administrator and bureaucrat on the English Wikipedia as well as a MediaWiki developer. He currently works for Wikimedia Deutschland as...well, I'll let him explain.
What do you do at Wikimedia Deutschland?
- I am a Software Engineer primarily working as part of the TCB Team (TCB stands for Technischer Communitybedarf, which roughly translates to "Technical community needs").
- I also work on Wikidata and Wikibase!
One of the features you recently worked on was category watchlists. There were a few hiccups with the deployment the first time, but how did it go overall? If you had to do it over again, what (if anything) would you do differently?
- The initial hiccup was a security bug slipping through all of the review that happened on the initial patch, very unfortunate, but not much to change here other than more eyes on code/more review! Other hiccups, such as flooding CheckUser with basically useless data, perhaps could have been forseen, but again nothing really to change here. The initial deployment was basically, turn the feature on everywhere. In hindsight the second deployment, which slowly rolled out to various projects in groups, was far better.
- You can track the usage of the feature at https://grafana.wikimedia.org/dashboard/db/mediawiki-catwatch-feature
What cool new project are you working on next?
- Expiring watchlist items & general watchlist improvements & refactoring, phab:T100508.
- Watchlists have remained the same for years now, and we know what would make them better, (expiring watchlist items specifically as a request from the German community), as well as other changes! Probably going to be a rather slow process though.
As you know, there's been a lot of controversy over the past month, causing heated tensions in some cases. So lets hear it, where do you stand: short array syntax or long? ( context)
- Short!
- Having said that I have nothing against the long syntax...
- It makes sense to keep the code consistent with itself and I think the single patch changing all long syntax usages to short usages made much more sense than waiting N years for all usages to finally be gone spread accross 100+ patches..
Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States
Based on this chart, you could think this headline will be true someday. Trump has led the chart for two consecutive weeks with over 8 million views each time -- those are very high numbers, well above the average chart topper. In comparison, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is only #22, and Hillary Clinton isn't even on the chart— she was #54 (nor are any of the other Republicans on the chart) . Outside of Trumpmania, the death of Nancy Reagan was #4, narrowly beaten by her husband Ronald Reagan (#3). The rest of the Top 10 include two Reddit-fueled articles, two about UFC fighters, one movie ( 10 Cloverfield Lane, #5), one drug ( Meldonium, #2), and International Women's Day (#9).
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
For the week of March 6 to 12, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Donald Trump 
8,257,174 
Donald Trump's dominance of this chart is fairly incredible at this point, though perhaps not surprising when the front pages of most American news outlets are filled with details of the latest exploits and incidents surrounding the most bizarre U.S. Presidential campaign in history. For the second week, this article has exceeded 8 million views, when typically a mere 1 or 2 million views normally is more than enough to be number one for a week. Reporting and commentary in the last week noted that Trump won more primaries last week, that a 78-year old man sucker-punched a protester at a Trump rally (and Trump offered to pay any resulting legal fees), claims that his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski manhandled Breitbart News Network's Michelle Fields at an event, and the cancellation of a rally in Chicago due to protesters. A 1964 ad titled Confessions of a Republican used to defeat Republican nominee Barry Goldwater also has been in the news due to some eerie similarities to Trump's shenanigans. 2 Meldonium 
2,108,543 
Since January 1, 2016, this drug has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of substances banned from use by athletes. On March 7, 2016, former world number one tennis player Maria Sharapova announced that she had failed a drug test in Australia due to the detection of the substance. 3 Ronald Reagan 
1,683,665 
The 40th President of the United States died in 2004, but his wife Nancy Reagan (#4) died last week. The two articles were only 10,000 views apart. 4 Nancy Reagan
1,673,052 
The wife of Ronald Reagan (#3), the former First Lady died on March 6, at age 94. Those who remember the Reagan presidency may most remember her founding of the Just Say No (to drugs) campaign in the 1980s. She has been buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, next to her husband. 5 10 Cloverfield Lane
1,208,731 
This science fiction thriller, which includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead (pictured) in the cast, was released in North America in 2016, to positive critical reviews. It earned $24.7 million in its opening weekend, putting it second behind Zootopia (#24). 6 Lupe Fuentes
1,020,335 
This is all Reddit, who lured in viewers with the headline: "TIL a Puerto Rican man was arrested for watching porno feat Lupe Fuentes, who a pediatrician identified as being underage because of her appearance. The porn star flew there from Spain to show her passport and prove she was 19. The man was in jail for 2 months before that happened." 7 Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt
971,792 
The circumstances of an unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt being painted before his death was a popular Reddit "Today I Learned" topic this week. See Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt to view the actual photo which is under a "fair use" restriction; I created a very poor facsimile of it (pictured at left) for you to shake your head at disapprovingly. 8 Nate Diaz 
937,440 
This mixed-martial artist prevailed over Conor McGregor (#10) at UFC 196 (#13) on March 5. 9 International Women's Day
884,610 
This day is celebrated annually on March 8, and is an official holiday in a number of countries. It was again celebrated by a Google Doodle. 10 Conor McGregor
817,535 
The guy who lost to #8.
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- Just missing the WP:TOP25 this week: O. J. Simpson murder case (#26); George Martin (#27, the Fifth Beatle, not George R.R. Martin); Miesha Tate (#28); Ted Cruz (#29); The Walking Dead (season 6) (#30).
- Elsewhere on the raw WP:5000: List of The Flash (2014 TV series) episodes (#100, 236,534 views); The Night Manager (miniseries) (#200, 155,611 views); List of The Big Bang Theory episodes (#300, 123,248 views); History of Bălţi (#400, 106,498 views, but 0% mobile, so these are not legitimate human views); X-Men: Apocalypse (#441, 100,070 views, the last article to exceed 100,000 views last week); September 11 attacks (#500, 92,746 views); Vikings (season 4) (#600, 84,784 views); Elizabeth I of England (#701, 77,938 views); Vladimir Putin (#800, 72,404 views); Taiwan (#900, 68,039 views); Calvin Harris (#1000, 63,873 views); Lynyrd Skynyrd (#2000, 43,598 views); Green Day (#3000, 34,681 views); Action Bronson (#4000, 29,282 views); Shark Tank (#5000, 25,796 views)
Podcast #119: The Foundation and the departure of Lila Tretikov
Wikipedia Weekly is a spoken English-language audio podcast that discusses the Wikimedia movement, and has been produced intermittently since 2006. This is the first episode since July 2015 and marks a return to what we hope will be a semi-regular publication schedule. It is also the first episode featured in the Signpost.
In our first episode of 2016, we discuss the two-year term of outgoing executive director Lila Tretikov, and the turmoil that faced the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees, WMF staff, and the Wikimedia community in 2015 and 2016. Andrew Lih ( Fuzheado) and Liam Wyatt ( Wittylama) go over the timeline of events since May 1, 2014, when Tretikov was introduced by her predecessor Sue Gardner as the "unicorn" the Foundation was looking for. We discuss affiliate selected board seats, Knowledge Engine, a crucial all-staff meeting at the Wikimedia Foundation on November 9, 2015, and the current interim executive director Katherine Maher.
We welcome a diverse range of participation and voices from all over the community. Ideas and feedback can be left on the talk page on the main Wikipedia Weekly page, and an active Facebook group has been popular in keeping the conversation going between episodes. We welcome community help in indexing the time code and topics discussed, to make for easier navigation of the content.
You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here.
It “revolutionized the way German-speaking people inform themselves about the world”: Fifteen years of the German Wikipedia
On this day fifteen years ago, the German Wikipedia was announced to the world by Jimmy Wales, becoming the second Wikipedia ever created.
Looking back, Wikipedia editor Dirk Franke told us that “Wikipedia really has revolutionized the way German-speaking people inform themselves about the world. It is almost impossible not to use it.”
Another editor, Christoph Braun, gave a concrete example of the site’s impact: “In the last 15 years, German Wikipedia has become the de facto replacement for the Brockhaus—the German equivalent of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Brockhaus has not been in circulation since 2014 seemingly because of Wikipedia’s success. Everyone from school children to university professors relies on Wikipedia and expects Wikipedia to provide information on the latest news as well as on timeless topics.”
These results have come only at the hands of dedicated community members. The German Wikipedia is known for its number of highly engaged editors, as more than 20,000 active editors—second-most in the world—edit and maintain the site as part of the wider Wikimedia world.
Many of these users live in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, which are all located in Central Europe, and this geographic proximity has played a large role in the development of the German-language Wikipedia’s community.
These countries’ “shared time zone determines German Wikipedia’s daily routine,” according to Braun, and the closeness has fostered a culture of regular in-person meetings, or meetups. As German Wikipedian Ziko van Dijk put it, the distances involved “make it relatively easy to meet each other and to organize.” The first meetup happened in Munich on October 28, 2003, and they have continued to present day; nineteen events are scheduled for this month, only two of which are anniversary-related.
Braun and van Dijk pointed to the influence of these so-called “round table” ( Wikipedia-Stammtisch) meet-ups on the German Wikipedia’s culture. Franke noted these meetings have taken on different flavors over time as community members have fit themselves into different categories: “alongside the regional meetings, there are quite a lot of national meetings of different scopes. For instance, sometimes just administrators meet, while sometimes just people writing about chemistry.”
And these meetings are not just for socializing. Franke adamantly stated that “meeting in person plays a huge role in the German Wikipedia, and a lot of its social dynamics can’t be understood without knowing this.” On the social dynamics, Braun notes that the meetups “help to settle online disputes, share ideas, and are useful for networking amongst Wikipedians.” In the wider Wikimedia movement, these social relationships fostered leaders for the whole world; German Wikipedians organized the first Wikimedia chapter, formed in 2004, and the first global conference ( Wikimania), held in Frankfurt in 2005.
This post is, however, doomed to be only a disappointingly short summary of a fascinatingly complex culture. Braun told us that to try to explain the German Wikipedia’s history would be an impossible task, and while Franke made an attempt, he was sure to add that we would be missing out on “so much”:
| “ | Great articles, great projects, great discussions, great fights, great people. From the beginning, when basically five people were all the active editors, to the surge in 2004/2005. Discussions about notability, several featured articles written to prove that single streets or pizza boxes can be notable. People have met and married, have argued, have gotten kids, have taken amazing photographs. We had a story in Der Spiegel (kind of a German Newsweek or Time) about a single edit war. We had times when everybody talked about the writing contest and now people care about the WikiCup. You missed many brilliant inspiring people from all ways of life, often eccentric, sometimes a bit obnoxious but always entertaining and thought-provoking. You missed people travelling across Germany to take pictures and others who edited hundreds of thousands of articles. You missed the one-man project on East Timor that has been going on for several years and one’s obsession about telecommunications towers. There were arguments about the notability of streets [and] brands … plus a three-year conflict (still ongoing) about the right and wrong symbols to use when somebody is deceased. | ” |
Last, as the site’s two-millionth article is drawing ever closer—they’re at 1.92 million as of publishing time—we took a look at the top 15 edited articles on the German Wikipedia (as of 11 March).
There are only three common names between this list and a similar list for the English Wikipedia (scroll to the bottom): Adolf Hitler, Jesus, and World War II. Articles on Germany itself swept the first, second, and seventh places, in addition to the German national football team (#6) and a controversial political party (#13), but several surprises crop up. In particular, articles on fictional media took three places: Kingdom Hearts II, a video game from 2005 (#3), a list of characters from Harry Potter book and film series (#12), and a list of characters from the US television show The Simpsons (#15).
And, strangely, there’s a list of unusual deaths at #5.
- Deutschland (Germany, 14,073 edits)
- Kultur Deutschlands (Culture of Germany, 13,760 edits)
- Kingdom Hearts II (10,509 edits)
- Adolf Hitler (9,905 edits)
- Liste ungewöhnlicher Todesfälle (List of unusual deaths, 9,595 edits)
- Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft (German national football team, 8,789 edits)
- Berlin (7,637 edits)
- Schwarze (Black people, 7,283 edits)
- Jesus von Nazaret (Jesus of Nazareth, 7,262 edits)
- Zeugen Jehovas (Jehovah’s Witnesses, 7,212 edits)
- Zweiter Weltkrieg (World War II, 7,138 edits)
- Figuren der Harry-Potter-Romane (Characters in the Harry Potter universe, 7,091 edits)
- Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, 7,025 edits)
- Jesus-Mythos (Jesus myth theory, 6,983 edits)
- Figuren aus Die Simpsons (Characters from The Simpsons, 6,868 edits)
- Ed Erhart is an Editorial Associate at the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikipedia Zero: Orange mobile partnership in Africa ends; the evolution of privacy loss in Wikipedia
Wikipedia Zero: Orange mobile partnership in Africa comes to an end
On March 11, 2016, the Wikimedia Foundation's Technical Partner Manager, Daniel D. Foy, removed Orange from the list of mobile partnerships on the Wikimedia Foundation wiki, marking the apparent end of a longstanding partnership between Orange and the WMF that began in April 2009.
The 2009 strategic mobile and web partnership with Orange was the first of its kind. Predating Wikipedia Zero (launched in 2012), it took a different form from more recent mobile partnerships. Under the terms of the three-year deal, Orange paid the Wikimedia Foundation for the right to use Wikimedia brands and trademarks in showcasing the content. Users were able to access Wikimedia content from Orange's own portals, and targeted marketing was presented alongside the content.
The 2009 deal, serving European markets, was followed in 2012 by another Orange partnership focused on the Middle East and Africa (MEA). This no longer involved a monetary arrangement between WMF and Orange. Most recently, it provided free Wikipedia access to mobile users in eight African countries with a combined population of around 225 million: Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Following the removal of the Orange partnerships, Botswana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Niger, and the Democratic Republic of Congo no longer appear on the mobile partnerships page, while Kenya still has Airtel and Safaricom listed, and Tunisia still has Tunisie Telecom.
Wikimedia Foundation Partner Manager Adele Vrana told the Signpost:
Our contract with Orange expired last year upon completion of a 3 year term. We had several short term extensions while discussing a switch to our updated legal template. We decided to let the latest extension expire on March 11th as we continued our discussions, allowing more time to reach mutually agreeable terms. The conversations with Orange are ongoing and we look forward to future collaboration.
Orange, for its part, announced last month that it had signed a strategic partnership with Google "to bring the best of mobile internet across its full African and Middle Eastern (Orange MEA) footprint". The partnership will provide access to "a range of best-in-class online services including, but not limited to, popular content covering fashion, sport and music, as well as everyday tools such as Google Search™, YouTube™ and Google Maps™. [...] Important information will be made accessible, for example, finding answers to questions instantly through Google Search or the ability to locate the nearest health clinic using Google Maps."
The evolution of privacy loss in Wikipedia
Last week's WMF research showcase focused on the evolution of privacy loss in Wikipedia, as investigated in a research project by Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, Lexing Xie, Tiberio Caetano and Manuel Cebrian.
The project, based on a dataset spanning 13 years of Wikipedia editing, incorporating 188,805,088 edits by 117,523 different users, concluded that:
The digital traces left behind by the users in the online environment reveal more about them than they might like. As our recent WSDM'16 paper shows, machine learning algorithms can be used to uncover hidden links between a user's past activity and her private traits – like gender, education level or religious views –, even for retired users. [...]
As an online system evolves over time, new digital traces of individual behavior may uncover previously hidden statistical links between an individual's past actions and her private traits [...] the prediction accuracy for almost all private traits consistently improves over time. Surprisingly, the prediction performance for users who stopped editing after a given time still improves. The activities performed by new users seem to have contributed more to this effect than additional activities from existing (but still active) users. Insights from this work should help users, system designers, and policy makers understand and make long-term design choices in online content creation systems.
A video of the research showcase is available on YouTube. The full paper and a short summary of the study are also available online.
Brief notes
- Data center switch-over postponed: The work announced in last week's technology report, which will reduce Wikipedia to read-only access for brief periods, has been postponed. It is now scheduled to take place in the week of April 18.
- Frances Hocutt leaves WMF: In what appears to be further fall-out from the recent crises at the WMF, Frances Hocutt, who spoke up about the staff engagement survey at the January Metrics meeting, has left the Wikimedia Foundation. Hocutt was hired in May 2015 as a software engineer on the Community Tech team.
- European Commission Open Science Policy Platform candidacies: A number of Wikimedians are applying as representatives on the European Commission Open Science Policy Platform and are seeking endorsements. The OSPP will provide expert advice to the European Commission on implementing the broader Open Science Agenda. For further information, see Daniel Mietchen's page on Meta.
- "Wikipedia Zero mass effect": A Wikimedia-l thread reports an "increasing amount of improper editing coming from IP addresses located in Angola. Some users believe that this may be related with Wikipedia Zero and a partnership between the WMF and a cellphone company that allows reading and editing at free cost. One of the first reactions to that is a large range block that was just set on Commons in order to prevent these edits, as they are being done in a way that volunteers can't handle."
- The case for federation: Should parts of WMF be spun off?: Also currently on the Wikimedia-l mailing list, a discussion ( threaded archive) initiated by former WMF deputy director Erik Möller about the potential benefits of a smaller WMF, partly inspired by William Beutler's op-ed in last week's Signpost issue.
Wales at SXSW; lawsuit over Wikipedia PR editing
Wales and Kawasaki on stage at South by Southwest
Jimmy Wales appeared at the 2016 South by Southwest Interactive festival on March 13, where he was interviewed by Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees member Guy Kawasaki. Outgoing WMF executive director Lila Tretikov was originally slated to appear at the event, but she was quietly replaced by Wales on the schedule following her resignation.
The wide-ranging discussion touched on a number of topics. PC Magazine took note of comments on the FBI–Apple encryption dispute ("I'm really proud of Apple for fighting this thing"), Chinese censorship of Wikipedia ("I'm ready to wait 1,000 years. I'd rather the Chinese people understand what's happening to them when they understand that the government won't let them view any of the Wikipedia pages."), and problems in the Wikipedia editing community ("[W]e may be too tolerant of bad behavior. We want women to participate more."). TechCrunch highlighted Wales' strong comments on paid editing: "Companies think it’s a powerful marketing tool but I think they’re deranged and should leave us alone." However, Wales did note that "The top PR companies tend to be very good about their interactions with Wikipedia". Business Insider recounted an anecdote about Wikipedia's beginnings: "As a programming geek, I wrote 'Hello World' and those were the first words of Wikipedia." G
Talk page comments a factor in PR lawsuit
Wikipedia is playing a central role in a lawsuit between a London venture capital firm, Ariadne Capital, and a public relations agency, Lansons Communications. Business Insider reported that Ariadne charged that a "botched attempt to improve" the Wikipedia article for Ariadne founder Julie Meyer "did its reputation more harm than good." Bloomberg News reported that Ariadne claimed Lansons' attempts at addressing the Wikipedia article resulted in accusations that Ariadne had attempted to "manipulate its own entry" and prompted "further negative updates on Wikipedia." The lawsuit charged that "this has caused and will cause further reputational damage which has led to lost opportunities and income."
The lawsuit alleges that an email was sent to "Wikipedia" and this email was posted on Talk:Julie Meyer. There is a message on that page signed by a self-identified Lansons employee, posted in 2014 by a London-based IP address. It seems unlikely that a Wikimedia Foundation employee or an OTRS volunteer would post a secondhand email to a talk page at all, much less using an IP address instead of their own account. It seems more likely that this "email" was actually a talk page message from that employee himself.
Regardless of the origin of the message, it is a sticking point in the lawsuit. Meyer told Bloomberg "To have an intern contact Wikipedia was not what we paid for". Lansons co-founder Tony Langham told Bloomberg it was "a joke lawsuit" prompted by Lansons' demand that Ariadne pay their "outstanding invoices". (Mar. 14) G
In brief
- Sorry about that: The Daily Dot lists encyclopedias as one of the " 10 Industries the Internet completely and utterly ruined". Wikipedia's "takeover" of encyclopedia usage resulted in the end of the print publication of the Encyclopedia Britannica in 2012. They note "People will almost always side with free over somewhere around $1400". (Mar. 19) G
- Bell Pottinger in the news again: Business Day reports that the Gupta family, a prominent South African business family, has hired the British public relations firm Bell Pottinger to "burnish its image". Bell Pottinger has been criticized previously for its Wikipedia editing on behalf of its clients and numerous accounts used by the agency were blocked (see previous Signpost coverage). (Mar. 19) G
- Challenges for Indian languages: In The Wire, Wikimedia Foundation employee Subhashish Panigrahi discusses " Eight Challenges That Indian-Language Wikipedias Need to Overcome". (Mar. 17) G
- RepRap: 3DPrint.com discusses the editing conflict currently ongoing at the article RepRap project, which they characterize as "more like vandalism than editing". Naturally, other editors at the article have a different perspective, with one describing it as removing "promotionalism". Discussion is ongoing at the article talk page and ANI. (Mar. 17) G
- #whereisBassel?: In The Guardian, Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel, CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation for Freedom of Expression, call again for the release of Wikimedian and web activist Bassel Khartabil, imprisoned by the Syrian government since 2012. The article is titled, "Jimmy Wales: 'The world needs to ask: #WhereisBassel?'", promoting the corresponding Twitter hashtag. (Mar. 16) G/AK
- Merrick Garland: Wired discusses the " battle to save facts from politics" at the article for new US Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. (Mar. 16) G
- The momentum of tiny edits: The Atlantic asks, " Why are some Wikipedia articles so long?", reporting that "Among the top-50 longest articles on the English language version Wikipedia, you'll find lists of comets, Amtrak stations, shipwrecks, fictional astronauts, and cult films. There is a timeline of Baltimore and a look at electric car use by country, along with articles about firearms, Dutch inventions, and rare birds." (Mar. 16) AK
- The age of Wikipedia wars: An opinion piece by Annika Hernroth-Rothstein in Israel Hayom, commenting on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, argues that "The media likes to focus on the war that is being waged with knives and guns and tanks, but today the most furious fight is being fought in the new media arena, where everyone is a soldier and no one has a name. However scary this may seem, it also brings hope to our cause -- it means that anyone can get involved and make a mark in the fight for truth and freedom. This is a Wikipedia war in that the facts need to be checked and rechecked by every man and the winner will be the side that manages to sweep the masses in this reality of intellectual sharing." (Mar. 15) AK
- GCHQ embedded in Wikipedia?: Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and ex- Rector of the University of Dundee (2007–10), asks, "Is GCHQ Embedded in Wikipedia?", focusing on the Wikipedia contributions of Philip Cross. (GCHQ is the UK's Government Communications Headquarters.) This was followed by a number of exchanges on Twitter between Murray and Cross (the latter has declared his Twitter account on his Wikipedia user page). (Mar. 15) AK
- Keilana FTW: Keilana's story, covered in-depth in last week's In the Media, attracted further coverage from numerous media sites, eventually being picked up by the BBC, The Telegraph and The Guardian, which also features an interview with Rosiestep. (Mar 14–19). AK
- Improved search: The Next Web notes the recent improvements to Wikipedia Search. (Mar. 11) AK
Hard work needed to address Wikimedia’s leadership challenges
After a tempestuous two-year stint as the executive director of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Lila Tretikov resigned in February. Her background and her early efforts drew skepticism from the community of volunteers who have built the bulk of Wikipedia. Skepticism only grew as the Foundation, under her direction, took actions that increasingly defied advice from longtime staff and volunteer leaders. Although her first year saw a substantial increase in the organization's financial strength, the role of volunteers is more central to Wikipedia's long-term success than money; and on a number of issues, the Foundation alienated volunteers, and ultimately many of its own staff.
With Tretikov's departure, the hard work of getting back on track lies ahead. It would be too easy to pin the problems of Tretikov's tenure entirely on her, when her appointment and leadership drew strong and sustained support from the Board of Trustees. The Board has now chosen an interim ED, and has chosen well. It should now take steps to ensure that its search for a long-term ED attracts good candidates, and doesn't drag out.
1. The Board should rethink the job description of the long-term ED. The official document has not been updated since 2008, and much of the trouble of the past two years can be traced to the version circulated in 2013, which emphasized technical and product development skills as the top qualification. The single most important quality for the Foundation's executive director should be an ability to work with broad and diverse groups of stakeholders. This skill is not unique to Wikimedia; it also applies to jobs like running a university or a hospital system, or working for change in a broad social movement. Neither technical proficiency nor Wikimedia experience should be regarded as requirements; and removing them from the "must-have" list will allow the foundation to cast a wider net and improve the candidate pool.
2. The Board should clearly establish that the interim ED position is not a fast-track to the long-term position. While it may be tempting to ease the search for a long-term ED, what the movement needs from an interim ED is a laser focus on re-establishing short-term stability and order. It's possible that a transition from interim to long-term will make sense, but a decision like that is an important one, and should only be made with eyes wide open, with other solid candidates in serious consideration.
3. The Board should set up the next long-term ED for success. Steps that would support this goal include:
Changes to Board composition: Are there members of the Board whose approach to the last job search, and/or whose engagement with the departing ED, pointed things in the wrong direction? If so, it might be best for them to step aside and make room for other Trustees to try a different approach. Although several new Trustees have been appointed recently, the ones who appear most closely tied to the problems of the last six months remain.
Optimize the hiring process: How are candidates recruited? How are they moved through the process? How are they evaluated? The organization can't afford to miss good candidates, or to lose them during an onerous or erratic interview period. It's important to define and maintain a consistent hiring process, to clearly identify who will narrow the field and make the final decision, and generally to respect candidates' time and effort.
Evaluate what went wrong: The Board should thoroughly and publicly debrief the recent crises. Not only will this serve candidates for the position by enlightening them to the history and the challenges they may face, but it will serve to clear the air around the conflicts that led to Tretikov's resignation. When Wikimedia UK raised eyebrows through relatively benign activities, the Foundation ordered a review by an external consultant. The Foundation should heed its own advice, and invite expert critique of its practices.
4. The Foundation should continue its efforts to build a strategic plan and annual plans. It should pay particular attention to the dynamics that caused so much strife in recent months and consider whether adjustments to these documents would minimize the risk of similar problems. In recent months, a number of staff have expressed concern about frequently shifting strategic goals. A clear strategy can be a vital tool to help staff, various organizations, and numerous volunteers align their efforts and sustain a sense of shared purpose. And a good way to establish alignment is to build in community participation from the beginning: the Foundation knew this in 2010 when it ran the previous process, and the approach has been endorsed in a recent Harvard Business Review paper. The current draft of the organization's strategic plan appears to be a strong step in the right direction.
Recent communication among the Wikimedia volunteer community and staff has been thoughtful and diplomatic. Even when critical, there has been a focus on forward progress and improvement. I am hopeful that this ethos can survive, and that as a movement, we can return to the spirit of collaboration and service that has brought us together.
Pete Forsyth has been a Wikipedia editor since 2006 and runs a Wikipedia training and consulting business, Wiki Strategies. He worked for the Wikimedia Foundation from 2009 to 2011. The views expressed in this editorial are the author's alone and do not reflect any official opinions of this publication. Responses and critical commentary are invited in the comments section.
Is an interim WMF executive director inherently notable?
Who needs a crystal ball, when you've got Wikipedia?
- Disclaimer and author's note: I have !voted in the AfD, but i try to not pass on any opinions in this publication.
A few complaints and mild disagreements
30 September 2022
Wikimedia LLC and disinformation in Japan
28 March 2021
Google isn't responsible for Wikipedia's mistakes
28 March 2021
Maher stepping down
28 February 2021
Wikipedia celebrates 20 years of free, trusted information for the world
31 January 2021
It didn't take longer than one day from the time Katherine Maher was announced to become an interim executive director at the Wikimedia Foundation (see Signpost coverage) until an article was created about her on the English Wikipedia. This has caused some controversy and discussions.
It all started when an IP-editor inserted a proposed deletion-tag (PROD-tag), which was objected by another user within five minutes.
| “ | Hoi, the executive director of the WMF IS notable. | ” |
| — GerardM, diff (talk) | ||
The tag was later removed by a third editor, with the following edit summary:
| “ | clearly notable; deletion is not cleanup | ” |
| — Pigsonthewing, diff (article) | ||
Following which, a new editor nominated the article for deletion ( diff), per the English Wikipedia's deletion criteria.
| “ | Editors (and long-term editors at that) have, unfortunately, used trivial tit-bits and tried to present Katherine as being notable. She has not won any high-level awards in her field, there are no independent extensive bios by reliable sources out there […] Being ED of the WMF, in itself, doesn't even make one notable. And let's not forget she's only an interim ED. It's more WP:CRYSTAL that people are assuming she will become notable in due course. | ” |
| — MedalSmeddle, diff 1 (AfD), diff 2 (AfD) | ||
The nominating user stated that the article should be deleted because Wikipedia is not a crystal ball, while others stated that the article should be kept because the subject of the article most likely will attract attention in the near future, and some suggested that the subject may be inherently notable.
| “ | [Executive Director] of WP inherently notable, coverage will come. | ” |
| — Montanabw, diff (AfD) | ||
Other users took note of this comment and responded with arguments to move it to draft space until such time the subject has gained enough notability in mainstream media.
| “ | "Coverage will come in time" is the very definition of WP:CRYSTAL, if you want to argue that, move it to the draft space instead. | ” |
| — Insertcleverphrasehere, diff (AfD) | ||
The outcome of said deletion nomination is still under discussion; feel free to weigh in with your policy-supported opinions on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Katherine Maher.
The usage of promotional images in articles
- Author's note: Since this discussion is in Swedish, I will not include quotes, but will try to summarize views and opinions instead.
Freely licensed cover arts of Ms. has been in discussions on the Swedish Wikipedia lately ( diff). Even if no other image exists on Commons, it seems like using these images on articles is controversial, due to the promotional nature of the images themselves. Examples that were the subject of the discussion were the infobox-image of Beyoncé, this real photo and this cover art (see images to the right).
This week's featured content
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
Seven featured articles were promoted this week.
- William Sterndale Bennett ( nominated by Smerus) (1816–1875) was an English composer, pianist, conductor and music educator. By the age of twenty, he had begun to make a reputation as a concert pianist, and his compositions received high praise. In 1837 Bennett began to teach at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), with which he was associated for most of the rest of his life. For twenty years he taught there, later also teaching at Queen's College, London. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s he composed little, although he performed as a pianist and directed the Philharmonic Society for ten years. In 1858 Bennett returned to composition, but his later works, were considered old-fashioned and did not arouse as much critical enthusiasm as his youthful compositions had done. He was Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge from 1856 to 1866. In that year he became Principal of the RAM, rescuing it from closure, and remained in this position until his death. He was knighted in 1871. He died in London in 1875 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
- The Westminster Assembly ( nominated by Jfhutson) was a council of theologians and members of the English Parliament appointed to restructure the Church of England which met from 1643 to 1653. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was also adopted by the Church of Scotland. The Assembly was called by the Long Parliament before and during the beginning of the First English Civil War. The Long Parliament was influenced by Puritanism, a religious movement which sought to further reform the church. They were opposed to the religious policies of Charles I of England and William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Assembly worked in the Reformed Protestant theological tradition, also known as Calvinism. It took the Bible as the authoritative word of God, from which all theological reflection must be based. It produced a new Form of Church Government, a Confession of Faith or statement of belief, two catechisms or manuals for religious instruction, and a liturgical manual for the Churches of England and Scotland.
- The passenger pigeon ( nominated by FunkMonk and 7&6=thirteen) (Ectopistes migratorius) is an extinct species of pigeon that was endemic to North America. Its common name is derived from the French word passager, meaning "passing by", due to the migratory habits of the species. It was sexually dimorphic in size and coloration. The male was 39 to 41 cm (15.4 to 16.1 in) in length, mainly gray on the upperparts, lighter on the underparts, with iridescent bronze feathers on the neck, and black spots on the wings. The female was 38 to 40 cm (15.0 to 15.7 in), and was duller and browner than the male overall. The juvenile was similar to the female, but without iridescence. It mainly inhabited the deciduous forests of eastern North America and was also recorded elsewhere, but bred primarily around the Great Lakes.
- Christ lag in Todes Banden ( nominated by Gerda Arendt and Thoughtfortheday) is a cantata for Easter by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. One of his earliest church cantatas, it was probably intended for a performance in 1707, an early work in the genre to which he later contributed complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year. It is a chorale cantata, a style in which both text and music are based on a hymn. In this instance the source was Martin Luther's eponymous hymn.
- Serpin ( nominated by Evolution and evolvability) are a superfamily of proteins with similar structures that were first identified for their protease inhibition activity and are found in all kingdoms of life. They are notable for their unusual mechanism of action, in which they irreversibly inhibit their target protease by undergoing a large conformational change to disrupt its active site. The conformational-change mechanism confers certain advantages, but it also has drawbacks: serpins are vulnerable to mutations that can result in serpinopathies such as protein misfolding and the formation of inactive long-chain polymers.
- York City F.C. is a professional association football club based in York, North Yorkshire. Its history from the 1980–81 to the current season ( nominated by Mattythewhite) saw fluctuating fortunes in the 1980s and 1990s, and relegation from and return to the Football League. The club won its first and only league title after finishing first in the Fourth Division in 1983–84 with 101 points. They were the first team to score this many points in a Football League season. In the 1990s, they knocked Premier League clubs Manchester United and Everton out of the League Cup in successive seasons. In March 2003, York were taken over by the club's Supporters' Trust, and were relegated into the Conference National in 2003–04, ending seventy-five years of Football League membership.
- Physical limitations acquired from spinal cord injury affect sexual function and sexuality ( nominated by Delldot) in broader areas, which in turn has important effects on quality of life. Damage to the spinal cord impairs its ability to transmit messages between the brain and parts of the body below the level of the lesion. This results in lost or reduced sensation and muscle motion, and affects orgasm, erection, ejaculation, and vaginal lubrication. Psycho-social causes include depression and altered self-image. However, many people with SCI have satisfying sex lives, and many experience sexual arousal and orgasm. Drugs, devices, surgery, and other interventions exist to help men achieve erection and ejaculation. Although male fertility is reduced, many men with SCI can still father children, particularly with medical interventions. Women's fertility is not usually affected, although precautions must be taken for safe pregnancy and delivery.
Featured lists
Two featured lists were promoted this week.
- Bedfordshire is a county in the East of England. It has an area of 1,235 square kilometres (477 sq mi), and a population estimated in 2016 at 640,000, with an increase of 11% over the previous ten years. As of March 2016 there are twenty Local Nature Reserves in Bedfordshire ( nominated by Dudley Miles): eight in Bedford, eleven in Central Bedfordshire and one in Luton. Local Nature Reserve are designated by local authorities under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The local authority must have a legal control over the site, by owning or leasing it, or having a legal agreement with the owner. They are sites which have a special local interest either biologically or geologically, and local authorities have a duty to care for them.
- Ethel Barrymore (1879–1959) was an American actress of stage, screen and radio ( nominated by SchroCat). Barrymore's first Broadway role was in The Imprudent Young Couple. She soon found success, particularly after an invitation from William Gillette to appear on stage in his London production of Secret Service. She began her film career in a series of silent films, but she never dedicated herself to the medium fully. She appeared in her first talking film, Rasputin and the Empress and began radio broadcasts on the Blue Network with The Ethel Barrymore Theater. Her film work became increasingly prominent in the 1940s and 1950s, and she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for None but the Lonely Heart.
Featured pictures
Four featured pictures were promoted this week.
Watchlists, watchlists, watchlists!
After a long hiatus, we're back! This week we are interviewing Addshore, who is an administrator and bureaucrat on the English Wikipedia as well as a MediaWiki developer. He currently works for Wikimedia Deutschland as...well, I'll let him explain.
What do you do at Wikimedia Deutschland?
- I am a Software Engineer primarily working as part of the TCB Team (TCB stands for Technischer Communitybedarf, which roughly translates to "Technical community needs").
- I also work on Wikidata and Wikibase!
One of the features you recently worked on was category watchlists. There were a few hiccups with the deployment the first time, but how did it go overall? If you had to do it over again, what (if anything) would you do differently?
- The initial hiccup was a security bug slipping through all of the review that happened on the initial patch, very unfortunate, but not much to change here other than more eyes on code/more review! Other hiccups, such as flooding CheckUser with basically useless data, perhaps could have been forseen, but again nothing really to change here. The initial deployment was basically, turn the feature on everywhere. In hindsight the second deployment, which slowly rolled out to various projects in groups, was far better.
- You can track the usage of the feature at https://grafana.wikimedia.org/dashboard/db/mediawiki-catwatch-feature
What cool new project are you working on next?
- Expiring watchlist items & general watchlist improvements & refactoring, phab:T100508.
- Watchlists have remained the same for years now, and we know what would make them better, (expiring watchlist items specifically as a request from the German community), as well as other changes! Probably going to be a rather slow process though.
As you know, there's been a lot of controversy over the past month, causing heated tensions in some cases. So lets hear it, where do you stand: short array syntax or long? ( context)
- Short!
- Having said that I have nothing against the long syntax...
- It makes sense to keep the code consistent with itself and I think the single patch changing all long syntax usages to short usages made much more sense than waiting N years for all usages to finally be gone spread accross 100+ patches..
Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States
Based on this chart, you could think this headline will be true someday. Trump has led the chart for two consecutive weeks with over 8 million views each time -- those are very high numbers, well above the average chart topper. In comparison, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is only #22, and Hillary Clinton isn't even on the chart— she was #54 (nor are any of the other Republicans on the chart) . Outside of Trumpmania, the death of Nancy Reagan was #4, narrowly beaten by her husband Ronald Reagan (#3). The rest of the Top 10 include two Reddit-fueled articles, two about UFC fighters, one movie ( 10 Cloverfield Lane, #5), one drug ( Meldonium, #2), and International Women's Day (#9).
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
For the week of March 6 to 12, 2016, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Donald Trump
8,257,174 Donald Trump's dominance of this chart is fairly incredible at this point, though perhaps not surprising when the front pages of most American news outlets are filled with details of the latest exploits and incidents surrounding the most bizarre U.S. Presidential campaign in history. For the second week, this article has exceeded 8 million views, when typically a mere 1 or 2 million views normally is more than enough to be number one for a week. Reporting and commentary in the last week noted that Trump won more primaries last week, that a 78-year old man sucker-punched a protester at a Trump rally (and Trump offered to pay any resulting legal fees), claims that his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski manhandled Breitbart News Network's Michelle Fields at an event, and the cancellation of a rally in Chicago due to protesters. A 1964 ad titled Confessions of a Republican used to defeat Republican nominee Barry Goldwater also has been in the news due to some eerie similarities to Trump's shenanigans. 2 Meldonium
2,108,543 Since January 1, 2016, this drug has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of substances banned from use by athletes. On March 7, 2016, former world number one tennis player Maria Sharapova announced that she had failed a drug test in Australia due to the detection of the substance. 3 Ronald Reagan
1,683,665 The 40th President of the United States died in 2004, but his wife Nancy Reagan (#4) died last week. The two articles were only 10,000 views apart. 4 Nancy Reagan
1,673,052 The wife of Ronald Reagan (#3), the former First Lady died on March 6, at age 94. Those who remember the Reagan presidency may most remember her founding of the Just Say No (to drugs) campaign in the 1980s. She has been buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, next to her husband. 5 10 Cloverfield Lane
1,208,731 This science fiction thriller, which includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead (pictured) in the cast, was released in North America in 2016, to positive critical reviews. It earned $24.7 million in its opening weekend, putting it second behind Zootopia (#24). 6 Lupe Fuentes
1,020,335 This is all Reddit, who lured in viewers with the headline: "TIL a Puerto Rican man was arrested for watching porno feat Lupe Fuentes, who a pediatrician identified as being underage because of her appearance. The porn star flew there from Spain to show her passport and prove she was 19. The man was in jail for 2 months before that happened." 7 Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt
971,792 The circumstances of an unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt being painted before his death was a popular Reddit "Today I Learned" topic this week. See Unfinished portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt to view the actual photo which is under a "fair use" restriction; I created a very poor facsimile of it (pictured at left) for you to shake your head at disapprovingly. 8 Nate Diaz
937,440 This mixed-martial artist prevailed over Conor McGregor (#10) at UFC 196 (#13) on March 5. 9 International Women's Day
884,610 This day is celebrated annually on March 8, and is an official holiday in a number of countries. It was again celebrated by a Google Doodle. 10 Conor McGregor
817,535 The guy who lost to #8.
- Just missing the WP:TOP25 this week: O. J. Simpson murder case (#26); George Martin (#27, the Fifth Beatle, not George R.R. Martin); Miesha Tate (#28); Ted Cruz (#29); The Walking Dead (season 6) (#30).
- Elsewhere on the raw WP:5000: List of The Flash (2014 TV series) episodes (#100, 236,534 views); The Night Manager (miniseries) (#200, 155,611 views); List of The Big Bang Theory episodes (#300, 123,248 views); History of Bălţi (#400, 106,498 views, but 0% mobile, so these are not legitimate human views); X-Men: Apocalypse (#441, 100,070 views, the last article to exceed 100,000 views last week); September 11 attacks (#500, 92,746 views); Vikings (season 4) (#600, 84,784 views); Elizabeth I of England (#701, 77,938 views); Vladimir Putin (#800, 72,404 views); Taiwan (#900, 68,039 views); Calvin Harris (#1000, 63,873 views); Lynyrd Skynyrd (#2000, 43,598 views); Green Day (#3000, 34,681 views); Action Bronson (#4000, 29,282 views); Shark Tank (#5000, 25,796 views)
Podcast #119: The Foundation and the departure of Lila Tretikov
Wikipedia Weekly is a spoken English-language audio podcast that discusses the Wikimedia movement, and has been produced intermittently since 2006. This is the first episode since July 2015 and marks a return to what we hope will be a semi-regular publication schedule. It is also the first episode featured in the Signpost.
In our first episode of 2016, we discuss the two-year term of outgoing executive director Lila Tretikov, and the turmoil that faced the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees, WMF staff, and the Wikimedia community in 2015 and 2016. Andrew Lih ( Fuzheado) and Liam Wyatt ( Wittylama) go over the timeline of events since May 1, 2014, when Tretikov was introduced by her predecessor Sue Gardner as the "unicorn" the Foundation was looking for. We discuss affiliate selected board seats, Knowledge Engine, a crucial all-staff meeting at the Wikimedia Foundation on November 9, 2015, and the current interim executive director Katherine Maher.
We welcome a diverse range of participation and voices from all over the community. Ideas and feedback can be left on the talk page on the main Wikipedia Weekly page, and an active Facebook group has been popular in keeping the conversation going between episodes. We welcome community help in indexing the time code and topics discussed, to make for easier navigation of the content.
You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here.
It “revolutionized the way German-speaking people inform themselves about the world”: Fifteen years of the German Wikipedia
On this day fifteen years ago, the German Wikipedia was announced to the world by Jimmy Wales, becoming the second Wikipedia ever created.
Looking back, Wikipedia editor Dirk Franke told us that “Wikipedia really has revolutionized the way German-speaking people inform themselves about the world. It is almost impossible not to use it.”
Another editor, Christoph Braun, gave a concrete example of the site’s impact: “In the last 15 years, German Wikipedia has become the de facto replacement for the Brockhaus—the German equivalent of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Brockhaus has not been in circulation since 2014 seemingly because of Wikipedia’s success. Everyone from school children to university professors relies on Wikipedia and expects Wikipedia to provide information on the latest news as well as on timeless topics.”
These results have come only at the hands of dedicated community members. The German Wikipedia is known for its number of highly engaged editors, as more than 20,000 active editors—second-most in the world—edit and maintain the site as part of the wider Wikimedia world.
Many of these users live in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, which are all located in Central Europe, and this geographic proximity has played a large role in the development of the German-language Wikipedia’s community.
These countries’ “shared time zone determines German Wikipedia’s daily routine,” according to Braun, and the closeness has fostered a culture of regular in-person meetings, or meetups. As German Wikipedian Ziko van Dijk put it, the distances involved “make it relatively easy to meet each other and to organize.” The first meetup happened in Munich on October 28, 2003, and they have continued to present day; nineteen events are scheduled for this month, only two of which are anniversary-related.
Braun and van Dijk pointed to the influence of these so-called “round table” ( Wikipedia-Stammtisch) meet-ups on the German Wikipedia’s culture. Franke noted these meetings have taken on different flavors over time as community members have fit themselves into different categories: “alongside the regional meetings, there are quite a lot of national meetings of different scopes. For instance, sometimes just administrators meet, while sometimes just people writing about chemistry.”
And these meetings are not just for socializing. Franke adamantly stated that “meeting in person plays a huge role in the German Wikipedia, and a lot of its social dynamics can’t be understood without knowing this.” On the social dynamics, Braun notes that the meetups “help to settle online disputes, share ideas, and are useful for networking amongst Wikipedians.” In the wider Wikimedia movement, these social relationships fostered leaders for the whole world; German Wikipedians organized the first Wikimedia chapter, formed in 2004, and the first global conference ( Wikimania), held in Frankfurt in 2005.
This post is, however, doomed to be only a disappointingly short summary of a fascinatingly complex culture. Braun told us that to try to explain the German Wikipedia’s history would be an impossible task, and while Franke made an attempt, he was sure to add that we would be missing out on “so much”:
| “ | Great articles, great projects, great discussions, great fights, great people. From the beginning, when basically five people were all the active editors, to the surge in 2004/2005. Discussions about notability, several featured articles written to prove that single streets or pizza boxes can be notable. People have met and married, have argued, have gotten kids, have taken amazing photographs. We had a story in Der Spiegel (kind of a German Newsweek or Time) about a single edit war. We had times when everybody talked about the writing contest and now people care about the WikiCup. You missed many brilliant inspiring people from all ways of life, often eccentric, sometimes a bit obnoxious but always entertaining and thought-provoking. You missed people travelling across Germany to take pictures and others who edited hundreds of thousands of articles. You missed the one-man project on East Timor that has been going on for several years and one’s obsession about telecommunications towers. There were arguments about the notability of streets [and] brands … plus a three-year conflict (still ongoing) about the right and wrong symbols to use when somebody is deceased. | ” |
Last, as the site’s two-millionth article is drawing ever closer—they’re at 1.92 million as of publishing time—we took a look at the top 15 edited articles on the German Wikipedia (as of 11 March).
There are only three common names between this list and a similar list for the English Wikipedia (scroll to the bottom): Adolf Hitler, Jesus, and World War II. Articles on Germany itself swept the first, second, and seventh places, in addition to the German national football team (#6) and a controversial political party (#13), but several surprises crop up. In particular, articles on fictional media took three places: Kingdom Hearts II, a video game from 2005 (#3), a list of characters from Harry Potter book and film series (#12), and a list of characters from the US television show The Simpsons (#15).
And, strangely, there’s a list of unusual deaths at #5.
- Deutschland (Germany, 14,073 edits)
- Kultur Deutschlands (Culture of Germany, 13,760 edits)
- Kingdom Hearts II (10,509 edits)
- Adolf Hitler (9,905 edits)
- Liste ungewöhnlicher Todesfälle (List of unusual deaths, 9,595 edits)
- Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft (German national football team, 8,789 edits)
- Berlin (7,637 edits)
- Schwarze (Black people, 7,283 edits)
- Jesus von Nazaret (Jesus of Nazareth, 7,262 edits)
- Zeugen Jehovas (Jehovah’s Witnesses, 7,212 edits)
- Zweiter Weltkrieg (World War II, 7,138 edits)
- Figuren der Harry-Potter-Romane (Characters in the Harry Potter universe, 7,091 edits)
- Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, 7,025 edits)
- Jesus-Mythos (Jesus myth theory, 6,983 edits)
- Figuren aus Die Simpsons (Characters from The Simpsons, 6,868 edits)
- Ed Erhart is an Editorial Associate at the Wikimedia Foundation.