Wikimedia Forum/Archives/2014-05

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Digital Arabic Content

It is my pleasure to inform you all that we have established a Wikimedians of Jordan User Group. In this group, we will adopt some techniques and methods to support the Arabic digital content. One of main missions is to aid and encourage people to collect, develop and disseminate knowledge and other educational, cultural and historic content in the public domain or under a license that allows everyone to freely use, distribute and modify said content without the payment of royalties.

We are insist to be the increase the percentage of Arabic digital content on the Wikipedia. We will propose the Jordan Wiki project in education soon and we encourage the Wikipedians and Wikimedian in Jordan to join us. Please feel to contact us (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_Jordan_User_Group#Members) — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Shadi.jawarneh (talk)

Shadi.jawarneh, contact where? Please link the Meta-Wiki page of this group. --Nemo 06:43, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Wikimedia Highlights from March 2014

Highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation Report and the Wikimedia engineering report for March 2014, with a selection of other important events from the Wikimedia movement
About · Subscribe/unsubscribe, 13:31, 1 May 2014 (UTC)

Sue exit interview

Hi.

Wikimedia exit interview/Sue Gardner is accepting questions until 23 May 2014, 12:01 UTC.

Passing along institutional memory is important, so please participate! --MZMcBride (talk) 05:39, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Namespace

Hi There I would like to know how do I change the namespace " User" I would prefer it to be blank — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Vampire Love Music Video (talk)

Then is would be a normal page instead of being your user page. What type of page do you plan to create? -- Tegel (Talk) 17:57, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

WMF's new Executive Director: Lila Tretikov

See wmfblog:2014/05/01/wmf_announces_new_ed_lila_tretikov/ and mailarchive:wikimedia-l/2014-May/071458.html. Congratulations! I also wish Sue Gardner good luck with her future work. If you would like to ask Sue Gardner some questions, see Wikimedia exit interview/Sue Gardner. PiRSquared17 (talk) 01:59, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Four days and not one response here? Congratulations Lila and a BIG thank you to Sue. Hopefully Wikimedia will go from strength to strength in the years to come. Green Giant supports NonFreeWiki (talk) 11:29, 6 May 2014 (UTC)
Ironically there was significantly more discussion on a Wikimedia/pedia criticism site Wikipediocracy than here. Kinda sad really! Reguyla (talk) 19:47, 6 May 2014 (UTC)
I'm surprised to see that her significant other has an account there even. Anyway, the discussion on wikimedia-l has been much more active than the discussion here. Here is what Lila said on the ML, press release, what Wil Sinclair (her SO) said. I couldn't find much about Sue Gardner's plans, other than "In June Sue will move into a new role as a special advisor to [Jan-Bart de Vreede] and Lila." (on the WMF blog) PiRSquared17 (talk) 20:37, 6 May 2014 (UTC)
I began translating the FAQ in French (on my computer). Could someone copy this page here to enable translation? I don’t know if there is a proper place here on Meta for general pages of WMFwiki (I could search but if someone know). ~ Seb35 [^_^] 00:22, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
@Seb35: Here you go. :-) When you're done and it's proofread, I can copy it to WMF wiki (if you don't have an account there too). PiRSquared17 (talk) 00:34, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
Thanks! I copied it from my local draft but it should be reviewed before transfering it on the WMF wiki. ~ Seb35 [^_^] 19:24, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
@PiRSquared17: I reviewed the translation, it should be typo-free and quite easy to read. Could you put it on the WMF site? ~ Seb35 [^_^] 11:14, 12 May 2014 (UTC)
@Seb35: Done PiRSquared17 (talk) 15:23, 12 May 2014 (UTC)


I'll echo the sentiments expressed by PiRSquared17 and Green Giant earlier.

<blink>¡¡¡¡Congratulations to new WMF Executive Director Tretikov!!!!</blink>

We are happy to have you here, and wish you luck and success in your WMF endeavors.
-- Ellie Kesselman a.k.a. FeralOink (talk) 20:45, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Category pages

Both English Wikipedia and Commons are currently having debates about a proposed new user-right which will allow anyone to move category pages (gerrit:111096). Is there going to be or has there been a formal notification of this change? I ask because it is a pretty serious change that has the potential for mischief as well as good. Green Giant (talk) 20:16, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

I think its important to remember 3 things. First, this is based on a problem that should have been fixed a long time ago; there is no requirement that the commons or Wikipedia use this functionality, it can, IMO, easily be limited access (although I do not agree it should be limited to admins); Wikipedia is not the only user of this software. Some changes to the software are based on requests from other users of the software besides the Wikipedia community. With that said, I do not think this is something that every editor should be able to do. There are too many problems that can come from moving a category. Reguyla (talk) 20:26, 15 May 2014 (UTC)
@Reguyla: I agree that this functionality is useful in some cases, and the right can indeed be easily restricted (even on a per-wiki basis). @Green Giant: what kind of notification do you mean? It was already in Tech News, which is distributed to many wikis' community portals/village pumps. It was also in the mw:1.24 release notes. Would you like a global message delivered to all Wikimedia wikis? (Tech News covers most of the active ones.) PiRSquared17 (talk) 21:50, 15 May 2014 (UTC)
@PiRSquared17: The impression I've got from both the EN-WP and Commons discussions is that this seems to have been a bit of a surprise to a lot of users, so I was wondering if it was announced widely. I think a global message would have been useful, and still might, because I haven't seen much discussion in smaller wikis. If there is going to be mischief, I am guessing that the smaller wikis would be easier targets for vandals. Green Giant (talk) 17:51, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
@Reguyla: It's been on my wish-list for years but I was just concerned about whether it should have been more widely advertised. Green Giant (talk) 17:51, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
Honestly it would be a pretty trivial thing to add an edit filter that either prevented a move or made it more visible. So to me, allowing categories to be moved isn't a big deal. But again, I don't agree it should be restricted only to admins and I don't think just anyonen should do it. Maybe slide it under rollback, template editor or create a new role. Reguyla (talk) 20:30, 21 May 2014 (UTC)
If you still want, I could send a global message about this. PiRSquared17 (talk) 01:36, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

MassMessage on all talk namespaces

Tracked in Phabricator:
Bug 65524

Global message delivery had no restrictions on allowed namespaces of target pages, but MassMessage is currently configured to only post in NS_PROJECT and NS_USER_TALK namespaces ("Project" and "User talk"). This is not working everywhere because

  • some wikis have non-standard namespaces usage, for instance it.wiki (bugzilla:65523);
  • the most considerate mass message senders don't "spam" the main community pages when a more specific target is available: for instance some messages are about specific files, templates/wikiprojects or system messages; and sometimes about project or help pages.

I consider adding namespaces 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 (all standard talk) a trivial change: it reduces unexpected errors over explicitly chosen targets; usage of the feature and selection of targets is giving no problems. --Nemo 09:39, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

I agree. Though, I don't know why that ns restriction is in place even. Administrators have access to similar mass action tools (for instance nuke) which may cause similar "damage" already. Vogone (talk) 12:10, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
Simply, the extension was at first configured only with the things which were 100 % certainly needed. It takes some tweaks. :) --Nemo 13:43, 20 May 2014 (UTC)
Apparently all talk namespaces were enabled by default for a while. PiRSquared17 (talk) 01:35, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Moderators

Can Wikipedia offer moderator positions which include patroller, autopatroller, rollbacker functions as well as delete and block articles Some of members of my Wiki did not want to be administrators because of overload responsibilities but they are quite happy to be moderators to help community as much as they can. Alphama (talk) 12:58, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

It's possible to create user groups with less permissions than nlwiki "moderators" have but that would require local community consensus beforehand. Vogone (talk) 13:25, 21 May 2014 (UTC)
@Alphama: It is possible to set up local groups (as Vogone mentioned). It is whether the community is of a sufficient size to have these lesser roles, and how they are going to be assigned (and if we are talking viWP, then seems to be). Re admins and tasks, it is not incumbent for an administrator to do all the functions that rights allows but once you get to block and delete these are truly an admin function and not those we would recommend to see delegated.

If you look at the various Special:ListGroupRights around the wikis you will see numbers of variations. Some of the rights can be nested, and others can be stacked. Or if you are feeling geeky, you can look at InitialiseSettings.php and search for groupOverrides.  — billinghurst sDrewth 00:54, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

OK thank you. Alphama (talk) 23:48, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Genealogical symbols in the German Wikipedia

At en:Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Judaism#Genealogical_star_and_cross_in_biography_articles_of_the_German_Wikipedia there is a brief English introduction to the background of a conflict in the German Wikipedia.

In January 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees has approved the wmf:Non discrimination policy. The point of any non discrimination measure in a democracy would be to protect the interests of a quantitative minority against the vote of a quantitative majority. That is why I want from the Wikimedia Foundation, that it clarifies the following points:

  1. wmf:Non discrimination policy applies to content of Wikipedia articles about real persons, and can overrule user polls in local projects.
  2. Objections, whether stated in the general public, or addressed directly at Wikipedia, against discrimination through the use of genealogical symbols in certain articles of Wikipedia, have to be taken into account.
  3. Alternative formats without genealogical symbols should be used for an article, if there are valid objections against possible discriminations.

Rosenkohl (talk) 22:33, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

Isn't this being discussed locally? PiRSquared17 (talk) 00:57, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
The policy to which you point has a scope "on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristics". Your issues seem to be editorial, and hence within the control of a community/communities and not an area where the WMF has, or expresses, opinion. It would seem to be something that would be covered by a "Request for comment" at the wiki concerned. If you think that it needs broader community opinion outside of those wikis, then you can start a general RFC here at meta.  — billinghurst sDrewth 01:20, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
The policy says that it was approved "to apply to all Wikimedia projects" and that "it may not be circumvented, eroded, or ignored by local policies"; it does not say that it would exclude editorial issues. Of course, the edited encyclopeadia version in some language is the core of what a Wikipedia project actually produces and is devoted to. On the contrary, excluding editorial issues from non discrimation would exactly amount to circumventing, eroding or ignoring what this WMF-policy actually says. If the WMF would not care that the Non discrimination policy is obeyed by the local projects, the whole policy would be worth nothing. E.g. the WMF executive director User:LilaTretikov recently said that “increasing diversity is very important” and that "our mission is all about bringing knowledge to everyone — if some are left out, that is not everyone” [1], which I think is in accordance with letter and spirit of the non discrimination policy.
Nevertheless, the German project in fact "leaves out" those who complain that genealogical crosses are used in articles about themselevs or their family or religious relatives, Rosenkohl (talk) 10:02, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
I don't like the idea of having a RFC at meta, since it is not clear beforehand who will comment there, and which weight the comments of participants will have. The point of a Non discrimination policy issued by the Board of Trustees is that it is interpreted and executed with the authority of exactly those who have issued the policy, not by some random visitors of the meta.wikimedia wiki, Rosenkohl (talk) 10:07, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Media Viewer


Greetings, my apologies for writing in English.

I wanted to let you know that Media Viewer will be released to this wiki in the coming weeks. Media Viewer allows readers of Wikimedia projects to have an enhanced view of files without having to visit the file page, but with more detail than a thumbnail. You can try Media Viewer out now by turning it on in your Beta Features. If you do not enjoy Media Viewer or if it interferes with your work after it is turned on you will be able to disable Media Viewer as well in your preferences. I invite you to share what you think about Media Viewer and how it can be made better in the future.

Thank you for your time. - Keegan (WMF) 21:29, 23 May 2014 (UTC)

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Wikimedia Highlights from April 2014

Highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation Report and the Wikimedia engineering report for April 2014, with a selection of other important events from the Wikimedia movement
About · Subscribe/unsubscribe, 04:51, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
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