Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2013-09-11
Lawyer goes to court to discover Wikipedian's identity; Storming Wikipedia; Wikimedia UK Secretary in conflict-of-interest controversy; Does Wikipedia need a "right to reply" box?
Lawyer wants Wikipedia editor's identity revealed
The National Law Journal reported on September 9 that lawyer Susan L. Burke has been taking legal steps to discover the identity of Wikipedia editor Zujua. Zujua had edited her biography, allegedly adding misleading content about various lawsuits in the process:
| “ | Burke was hired in 2009 by the families of victims of shootings in Iraq to sue private security contractor Blackwater Inc., now known as Academi LLC. The cases settled in 2010. Around the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice was prosecuting Blackwater security guards for the killing of Iraqi civilians. In late 2009, a federal district judge dismissed the government's case, finding that prosecutors improperly used statements made by the defendants. The criminal case was later reinstated. In 2012, according to Burke's complaint, the Wikipedia editor Zujua edited Burke's page, adding a section incorrectly tying the ruling dismissing the government's case to Burke's civil lawsuit. Burke removed the section. Several months later, a Wikipedia editor known as CapBasics359 removed Burke's edits and repeatedly republished the inaccurate information over Burke's objections, Burke alleged. "The frustration of dealing with Wikipedia led her to file the suit, mostly in an effort to find out who was doing it," said Burke's lawyer, William O'Neil of The O'Neil Group in Washington. |
” |
Zujua's edits to Burke's biography are still available in the page history, and appear to bear out her complaint.
The Wikimedia Foundation itself is protected from legal responsibility for Wikipedia content by the safe harbor of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which states "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
The legal protection of the Act has been tested several times in court, most notably in 2008 in Bauer v. Wikimedia. Legal responsibility for edits rests solely with the editor who makes them. Burke therefore subpoenaed the Wikimedia Foundation for information on Zujua and CapBasics359 after filing suit in September 2012. CapBasics359 did not contest the subpoena, but all Burke's lawyers learned was that the edits had been made by an unknown person from a Starbucks in California.
Zujua on the other hand challenged the subpoena. The Center for Individual Rights (see their comments on the case) argued on Zujua's behalf that his edits were protected free speech about an issue involving a public figure: "We view this as having the effect of chilling the free speech rights of other Wikipedia editors who will hesitate to edit on matters of public concern for fear of being sued if they make a mistake."
The judge, however, disagreed:
| “ | District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Maurice Ross sided with Burke in January. Ross found that Zujua failed to prove the Wikipedia edits constituted protected speech, since Burke wasn't a public figure. Moreover, the judge said, Zujua hadn't shown his statements weren't commercially motivated—another factor under the anti-SLAPP law—and that Burke had proved she was likely to succeed. | ” |
Zujua has appealed. Arguments were scheduled to be heard in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals later this month—first of all, to decide whether Zujua in fact has the right to appeal the decision—but according to a September 12 post on the blog of the Legal Times, the court has asked for additional briefs and said it would reschedule the hearing.
Storming Wikipedia
After positive coverage in the past weeks (see Signpost coverage two weeks ago and last week), Fox News, FrontPage Magazine and Patheos.com took a more skeptical view of FemTechNet's "Storming Wikipedia" this week, portraying it as an effort to insert feminist and left-wing propaganda into Wikipedia, rather than an effort aimed at addressing Wikipedia's existing gender imbalance.
Fox News quoted Katherine Timpf, a reporter for CampusReform.org, "They're more concerned with making it politically correct than factually correct. This is the opposite of what [students] should be taught."
Gene Veith on patheos.com asked,
| “ | What if Christians were to storm Wikipedia, writing their thinking into the entries? I assume that would not be academically acceptable. (Would it be theologically acceptable, since Christianity holds to objective truth and doesn't need to be advanced by propaganda, as radical ideologies do? Or should Christians also storm Wikipedia?)
I wonder which ideologies would be an acceptable basis for re-writing according to the prestigious universities offering academic credit for this. Could there be a course storming Wikipedia from the perspective of Marxists? (I suspect that would be all right. ) Or libertarians? (I don't think so.) Or animal rights activists? (Of course.) Or political conservatives? (That would be corporate manipulation!) Wouldn't contributors who push an ideological agenda be the death of Wikipedia? The Bastille was not just stormed; it was destroyed. |
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FrontPage Magazine published two pieces commenting on the initiative, "Wikipedia and left's propaganda innovations" by Daniel Greenfield and "Colleges recruiting students to propagandize Wikipedia" by Ben Shapiro.
Wikimedia UK Secretary appointed chief executive of UK public relations body
An article on TheDrum.com published on August 27 reported that the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), a professional body for public relations practitioners in the UK, has appointed Alastair McCapra, the current Wikimedia UK Secretary, as its new chief executive, replacing Jane Wilson.
The appointment, due to become effective in November 2013, has been discussed at the Wikimedia UK Watercooler page and on Jimmy Wales' talk page. Wales said,
| “ | It is obviously a conflict of interest and clearly demands a choice between one or the other. There is no shame in that—such is the nature of nonprofit work. But especially for Wikimedia UK, with a history of problems in this area, it's absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt something that has to be handled with the utmost defensiveness about the reputation of the organization. I trust that Alastair will do the right thing. | ” |
Alastair McCapra has posted a statement and a further response at the Wikimedia UK Watercooler, stating that "... my commitment to working for WMUK is undimmed, I wish to continue to serve on the Board and don't feel, on the basis of what has been said above, that there is a strong case for my not doing so."
"Right to reply" box for biographies?
In an article on MarketingLand.com, writer Danny Sullivan asserts that Wikipedia is the "free encyclopedia that anyone can edit"—anyone who is not the subject of the article, that is.
He proposes that Wikipedia should include a "right to reply" box that would allow subjects of biographical articles to correct misinformation about themselves, and further suggests that Wikipedia should introduce verified identities, following the example of Twitter, Google and Facebook—and indeed the German Wikipedia, which has operated a user verification scheme for some time now. This, Sullivan argues, would enable biography subjects to claim their "right to reply" box.
Responding to the idea of verified identities, Wikimedia Foundation Product Manager Steven Walling said on Twitter that "Orgs like TW, FB, GOOG have way more money and manpower to throw at it, and they still fail all the time."
Told by Walling that subjects are always free to use the talk page, Sullivan countered that "Talk pages aren't friendly to Wikipedia outsiders". Walling conceded that "Improving usability and friendliness of discussion pages is a key project for us this year" (referencing Wikipedia:Flow); Sullivan responded that he hoped his idea would be given consideration:
| “ | Personally, I'd hope to see a Right Of Reply area as part of those changes. However you do them, the point is that the subject can add details they feel make sense, directly, without having to figure out the arcane and strange world of the Wikipedia—or hoping that some third-party talking to them percolates into the page. | ” |
In brief
- Virginia State Corporation Commission: The Virginia-based Connection Newspapers outlet published an article on September 5 about a dispute concerning the Wikipedia article on the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Pr geeks, identified as Virginia State Corporation Commission Director of Information Resources Kenneth Schrad in the Connection Newspapers article and on the Wikipedia article's talk page, had made a complaint on behalf of the Commission that parts of the article content were not factual. At the time of writing, the Wikipedia article carries neutrality and copyright warnings.
- "Wizards of Wiki" launch commercial Wikipedia article translation service: A press release by SEO and marketing experts Stardom Alliance, dated September 6, announced that its "Wizards of Wiki" are launching "a translation service after taking on a number of additional writers. They are beginning their focus on French, Spanish and German articles aiming to provide this service to western companies and individuals who want their article listing in more than English."
- Guy Fieri "genocidal", according to Wikipedia: The Daily Meal, part of the Spanfeller Media Group (SMG), reported on September 6 that TV personality Guy Fieri was described in his Wikipedia biography as a "genocidal member of the U.S. Supreme Court", illustrating its piece with a Google search screenshot prominently featuring that wording. The content was only in the biography for 14 minutes, although there has been an attempt to re-introduce it since in modified form, by an IP address stating it refers to Fieri's portrayal in web comic Homestuck.
- "God less visible" in Wikipedia: HuffPost Religion featured a piece by Matthew L. Skinner on September 9, arguing that the deletion of the biography of Antoinette Tuff, a school employee widely praised for preventing another U.S. school massacre—she talked the gunman into surrendering—"made God less visible". A previous article on The Daily Kos had also commented on the deletion discussion, expressing the hope that the article would be kept: "According to Wikipedia policy, Tuff may be stricken from its record because her accomplishment is a 'one-off'—something she is unlikely to do again and which is unlikely to make her remarkable going forward. That's wrong. This woman put her life on the line to protect her school, its students, the first responders, and even the gunman. She proved Wayne LaPierre wrong in no uncertain terms. Antoinette Tuff deserves a permanent Wikipedia entry, at least. She is an exclamation mark in today's gun debate; she proved that a bad man with a gun can be stopped by a good woman with a heart." Antoinette Tuff currently redirects to DeKalb County School District#Shooting and hostage situation, which dedicated three sentences to Tuff at press time.
- Editor accused of "partisan promotion", identified through his social media accounts: New Rochelle's Talk of the Sound reported on September 9 that an editor allegedly associated with the campaign of local politician Noam Bramson had turned his Wikipedia biography into "partisan promotion". The journalist, Robert Cox, identified the Wikipedia editor, Concretebeachri, through his social media accounts; Concretebeachri appears to have acknowledged the identification on-wiki. Cox followed up with another article reporting on progress on September 10.
- Google Maps drops Wikipedia: Search Engine Roundtable reported on September 10 that Google appears to have dropped the Wikipedia layer from Google Maps. So far Google does not seem to have released an official statement in response to user complaints.
- Harvard expects alumni to have a Wikipedia biography: An article in Business Insider reported on September 10 that compilers of a Harvard alumni directory are asking alumni to provide a link to their Wikipedia biography: "If applicable, the link you provide should be to a source with some permanence, such as Wikipedia."
- Fascists running the Croatian Wikipedia?: An English-language article on inserbia.info, based on a story that first appeared in Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list, alleged on September 11 that the Croatian Wikipedia has been taken over by right-wing extremists. According to Wikimedia stats, the Croatian Wikipedia has for the past year had fewer than two dozen editors making more than 100 edits a month. The controversy is described in the English Wikipedia’s article about the Croatian Wikipedia, which has seen a major edit war over inclusion of the content.
- Partnership between York Museums Trust and Wikimedia UK results in new paid position: An article in the Yorkshire Post reported on September 11 that the York Museums Trust, in a partnership with Wikimedia UK, has created a temporary part-time paid position to expand Wikipedia content on York adventurer Tempest Anderson. The trust has a wealth of material on Anderson. Candidates have until Sunday to apply for the position. Further information is available on the www.yorkmuseumstrust.org.uk website.
- "Everything You Wanted to Know about Wikipedia and Your SEO": Search Engine Journal provided advice on September 11 on "how to get your small business involved in Wikipedia".
- Support for Wikimedia from open access publisher: A September 11 press release by the Macrothink Institute, a publisher of open access journals, announced Macrothink's support for the Wikimedia Foundation.
- Festival of Wikipedia: Computer Weekly reported on September 11 that "BCS Women, part of the Chartered Institute for IT, will be holding a Festival of Wikipedia to celebrate Ada Lovelace day this year. The festival will see volunteers adding and update Wikipedia entries on women in computing." Events are planned in October, in London, Edinburgh and Southampton. More information is available on the bcs website.
- Malta music wiki: The Times of Malta reported on September 12 on the Maltese Wikipedia (174th out of 285, according to the Times) and an editathon for the Malta Music Memory Project (M3P), a music wiki run by the M3P Foundation, scheduled for this Saturday.
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Traveling to Indonesia
- WikiProject Australia
- WikiProject Brazil
- WikiProject China
- WikiProject Croatia
- WikiProject India
- WikiProject Ireland
- WikiProject Japan
- WikiProject Korea
- WikiProject New Zealand
- WikiProject Norway
- WikiProject Poland
- WikiProject Russia
- WikiProject Singapore
- WikiProject South Africa
- WikiProject United States
- Special: Neglected Geography
This week, the Signpost went island-hopping with WikiProject Indonesia. The project was founded in 2007 and has 31 Featured Articles, 14 Featured Lists, and 93 good articles. We interviewed SatuSuro, Crisco 1492, and Bennylin.
- What motivated you to join WikiProject Indonesia? Do you currently or have you previously lived in Indonesia? Have you contributed to any of the project's Featured or Good Articles?
- SatuSuro: I currently live in Australia. I lived in Indonesia some time ago, and when I first encountered Wikipedia I was concerned about the quality of many of the articles and project in general when I first started editing. We have been very fortunate to have had editors who have contributed immensely to the project – who have since stopped editing Wikipedia. This is a mixed blessing – there were a number of very dedicated editors who have since moved on, and I believe the project would have not got to its current status without the amazing effort they put in.
- I have admired others who have raised articles to Featured and Good Article status, I tend to be concerned with the range of maintenance issues when I can pull myself away from other Wikimedia exploits. Like most other projects, there tends to be a very low level understanding of the work required for good project maintenance, as a result there are always backlogs. Usually in expanding the content stubs about Indonesia's many islands.
- Crisco 1492: As a Canadian expat living and studying in Indonesia for the past seven years (and counting), gravitating to Indonesia-related articles was sort of a given. My first article on an Indonesian topic was before I became a very active Wikipedian, and after becoming highly active I've focused mostly in that area. I've contributed perhaps half of the currently listed featured and good articles related to Indonesia, as well as almost all lists and revamped our featured portal. I mostly work with Indonesian films, so a new portal on films would be nice.
- As the world's fourth most populous country, should we expect Indonesia to contribute large numbers of editors to Wikipedia? Do many Indonesians have access to the internet? Will Indonesia receive the kind of international headlines and frenzied discussion that has been given to other emerging giants like China, India, and Brazil?
- SatuSuro: It is hard to tell whether there would be much interest or involvement with English language content on an online encyclopedia about their country, but there are dedicated number of editors who are bilingual (English and Indonesian) who steadily add to the quality of materials on wikipedia english and commons. There are also some notable editors – the pioneers of Wikipedia in Indonesian and Javanese like User:Meursault2004 and the younger generation of editors like User:Bennylin who are bringing aspects of Indonesian languages and culture into perspective.
- Crisco 1492: As Sats said, it's hard to judge much about how big of a role Indonesia will play in the Wikiverse and in international relations. On the English Wikipedia, there are two editors I know who are Indonesian by birth and contribute quality content (though I have not seen either around in a while). Most Indonesians (and Wikimedia Indonesia) focus on the Indonesian Wikipedia and Wikipedias in the various local languages, which are at various stages of development.
- Bennylin: There's this tendency to say "Wikipedia" when actually it really means "English Wikipedia". Overall, the editors in Indonesian do edit multiple edition of Wikipedias, and I'm looking forward to see Indonesia to be the country with the most editions of Wikipedias :), given the fact that it has the second highest number of living languages in the world (after PNG), and the number of editions waiting in Incubator.
- Access to the internet is not the measure for user engagement, as most people access the internet from mobile devices, and Wikipedia is not the first thing that come to mind when they browse. Social media usage is large, therefore we're trying to tap into that, and making available every article to be shared on social media (via sidebar link). I see a healthy and growing number of shares and followers, and the FB group is full of people asking random stuff, but that's okay for now. Slowly we hope to turn some of them into long-term editors. I've seen some successes, but it's still a long way before we can have a solid number of editors like English Wikipedia.
- Are some aspects of Indonesia better represented on Wikipedia than others? Are there any significant gaps in coverage with which the project could use some help?
- Crisco 1492: Film is perhaps one of the best-represented Indonesia topics (sorry), though even that is far from complete; I estimate we have articles on less than 10% of all Indonesian film production, and that doesn't even touch on the TV series we're missing. Association football is another with lots of coverage (too much, if you ask me). Most major historical events are already here, but a lot of articles on fairly significant figures are underdeveloped or non-existent. We didn't have Trisakti shootings until 2011, and major films such as Darah dan Doa and Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI waited until 2012. I can name several literary works which we don't have articles on yet but should have one, including Khotbah di Atas Bukit (Kuntowijoyo) and Godlob (Danarto).
- Bennylin: Topics about Indonesia are covered well in Indonesian Wikipedia(!), if you mean English Wikipedia, I think in general the basic topics are well covered. I think User:Crisco has brought attention to Indonesian cinema. I particularly think that File:DYK hook numbers Mar 12 - Jan 13.png captures what he did very well. In general, the attention to Indonesia really is low, and really not correlated to the number of population. But hopefully time will slowly change that.
- Has language hindered the growth of articles about Indonesia on the English Wikipedia? Have you contributed to the Indonesian Wikipedia? Are there any ways the English and Indonesian Wikipedias could collaborate?
- SatuSuro: Indonesian soccer (Association football) articles are in the main created by non-english speaking editors, or with limited capacity, which makes many stubs about soccer players and aspects of soccer in Indonesia collections of names and flags, and little extra material. Also some enthusiasm for lists of names of things has been a problem in the past, with lists of names and links something that really detracts from the quality that is possible in the project.
- One problem with Indonesian Wikipedia is that many articles lack reliable sources and citations that are traceable, as a consequence there are many articles in that Wikipedia that are not easily transferable. With a stricter sense of the reliable sources requirements on English Wikipedia, many articles on the Indonesian Wikipedia remain unconverted. That said, I believe there has never been much of an effort to collaborate, and I do believe that if ventured into, a well thought out programme to collaborate might see some useful processes in translating materials between both Wikipedias.
- Crisco 1492: Language is not the main issue; getting the actual sources is. Most Indonesian books have short circulation lives (three to four years) with very little resale. Unless one lives near a library with good Indonesian coverage, getting domestic sources will be a headache (and even then, it's hit and miss). Collaborations of a sort have happened; Indonesian editors, if they see a decent English article on Indonesia which is underdeveloped on their home wiki, may translate, and English translations of Indonesian articles are also possible (both Ratu and Ganting Grand Mosque were translated from Indonesian FAs). Off-Wiki, English Wikipedia editors such as John Vandenberg, sats, and myself have worked collaboratively to get some better coverage; I recall John helped migrate a Sundanese-language dictionary to Wikisource, for instance.
- Bennylin: I don't know... for me, I don't think it's our (bilingual Indonesian-English speakers)
jobcalling to write in English Wikipedia, just like the Chinese Indonesian are not compelled to write in Chinese Wikipedia about Indonesian topics. I see that as English native speakers' area of work, because I believe good encyclopedias should be written by native speakers. I started editing (Indonesian) Wikipedia when I was studying abroad, so in most cases, I think it's our mother language that's calling us to edit. No matter how good (I think) I am at English, I'm still not gonna beat native speakers in writing an article. Therefore I try to focus on editing Indonesian and Javanese Wikipedia, both are my mother tongues.
- From the fact that there's very few (if none) of my fellow id.wp editors are active in WPIndonesia, I can only theoretize that the culprit was the myriad of policies in en.wp. Editing in en.wp, for me, is always feels like doing some work in a friend's house, so as much as possible I'd prefer to stay at my home wiki. About collaboration, I'm envisioning a list of important/vital topics/articles about Indonesia that needs to be translated in as many possible language as possible, not just English Wikipedia. More about that on bottom. But in general, the stream of information still flows heavily one-sided. So far there's been requests from en.wp to id.wp's editors (via Indonesian Embassy) to check some facts/articles, but that's usually sporadic. A practical thing would be to put the name/contact links of active id.wp contributors to be contacted if necessary, and another link to the embassy and/or village pump.
- Last thing I want to add is that Indonesia is huge, and very diverse, but sometimes is overgeneralized, and under the radar, because some people work and contributing in a specific language/culture topic. So for example when I created articles about Javanese script, am I working/translating from Javanese Wikipedia/Javanese topics? Or is it constitute work about Indonesian topics/WPIndonesia also? Even I wouldn't immediately think about contacting anyone from WP Indonesia, and no one would ever think of putting WPIndonesia banner in their talk pages. So you see, there are a lot of overlaps, and there are hundreds of subtopics that people wouldn't initially think about Indonesia when they heard about it, like Bali, its culture, or History of Java, etc.
- What is your vision for the project? How do you see the project itself, as well as the articles within its scope, developing over the next few years?
- SatuSuro: There are still many articles to be created and expanded, it is much larger than any one editor can do, and if it was possible to have a regular team of editors prepared to stay the course, I believe the quality of the project could be improved greatly. The more diverse the involvement of editors in Indonesia and outside would also be very useful.sats 08:12, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
- Bennylin: My current vision goes something like this: Systematic coverage of Indonesian topic. 1) List all (1000?) vital articles about Indonesia, create the red links, and then after most of them have already covered, expand the list, and so on, until we can finally say: Okay, we've got Indonesia covered in English Wikipedia. There are only 11,671 identified Indonesian articles in en.wp (out of 4,324,522); that's incredibly low (0.27%) 2) List all articles that existed in id.wp about Indonesia (sans Indonesian villages and townships), I predict the number would be around 50k. Find the ones that notable to be written in en.wp, and write a stub for each of the notable ones, and this can be done in conjunction with the first method. 3) Scout for the same topics in Indonesia's many Wikipedia editions, such as Javanese (for Javanese topics), Sundanese, Minangkabau, etc. Even Malay Wikipedia sometimes can be used as resource too.
- The first has been done in Wikipedia:WikiProject Indonesia/List of core articles and other subsequent pages, but it need to be expanded, added with more red links in logical order, with some examples to start with, like what the templates that need to be included, categories, etc. For example, Wikipedia:WikiProject Indonesia/List of history articles#City.2Fregional history should be expanded to cover the history of the core 97 cities in Indonesia, if possible with the link to external resource, and/or a tutorial (how-tos) for beginners. It's like creating species stub, but with limited number (sets) of articles, and better result. The current state of those lists are the de facto articles (what's already exists), my vision is to start with the de jure articles (what's need to exist). Take a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Indonesia/List of economy articles, surely there's more than that to be covered!
- Stumbling into Wikipedia:WikiProject Library of Congress Country Studies/Indonesia as I write this, I concluded that what we need is a concentrated effort of the study of Indonesia, if we want this country (or any country!) to be covered well in English Wikipedia.
- SatuSuro: As Bennylin is not an active Indonesia project member but a very important part of Wikipedia Indonesia and Javanese Wikipedia, I appreciate his ideas, but having been invoved over the years and watched the editors come and go, I would be somewhat more circumspect. If we are lucky enough to have a new editors who are not listers of soccer results, or lists of things, but enthusiastic enough to help with content, I do think we will benefit and can perhaps see what might happen over time if we indeed do get new enthusiasts.
- What are the project's most urgent needs? How can a new contributor help today?
- Crisco 1492: I think maintenance is a big one. A lot of topics get the hatred of Indonesians but noone else, so they are not watchlisted as often (for instance, monthly BLP violations at Cherrybelle which may end up unnoticed for days). Also, I think the series on National Heroes of Indonesia could use some work, as could articles on Indonesia's presidents.
- SatuSuro: Content. A large number of stubs and articles lack readable explanations of things Indonesian. There is a wealth of information available online and in published materials, it simply hasn't migrated into the Indonesian project articles yet.
- Anything else you'd like to add?
- SatuSuro: The Wp en Indonesian project is a formidable task, many islands, and a huge variation in ethnic groups, languages, islands and circumstances are almost encyclopedic in range as an encyclopedia itself. It (the project) will require revitalising regularly to keep up with the potentially large amount of information not yet in the project – whole subject areas are under-developed, and whole ranges of topics that need to be created. But that is about content, not soccer lists or shopping centre lists – the major challenge in the short term will be for the improvement of content with well referenced articles. I am sure that the interest in the project will increase again, and people will be there to help.
Next week's article will be "good." Until then, reassess our old articles in the archive.
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Tintin goes featured
Featured articles
Four articles were promoted this week:
- Tintin in the Congo (nom) by Prhartcom and Midnightblueowl. Tintin in the Congo is the second volume of Hergé's comic series The Adventures of Tintin, serialised weekly from May 1930 to June 1931. It tells the story of Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy, who are sent to the Belgian Congo to report on events in the country, unearthing a criminal diamond smuggling operation run by the American gangster Al Capone.
- SMS Posen (nom) by Parsecboy. The Posen was one of four battleships belonging to the Nassau class, the first dreadnoughts built for the German Imperial Navy. Equipped with a main battery of twelve guns in six twin turrets, the Posen was commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 31 May 1910. She was ceded to the British in 1919 as a replacement for the ships that had been sunken during World War I, and was scrapped in the Netherlands three years later.
- Throffer (nom) by J Milburn. A throffer is a proposal that mixes an offer with a threat which will be carried out if the offer is not accepted. The term belongs to political philosophy, and was first used in print by political philosopher Hillel Steiner, although it has not been universally adopted.
- George S. Patton (nom) by Ed!. Patton (1885–1945) was a United States Army general best known for his command of the Seventh United States Army, and later the Third United States Army, during World War II. Born in 1885 to a family with an extensive military background, Patton became the military governor of Bavaria, but he was relieved of this post because of his statements on denazification.
Featured lists
Eight lists were promoted this week:
- Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (nom) by SoapFan12. This award is given annually at the Emmy Awards ceremony to actors with an outstanding performance in a leading role while working within the daytime drama industry. It was first awarded to Macdonald Carey in 1974 for his performance of Tom Horton on Days of our Lives.
- Latin Grammy Award for Best Rock Album by a Duo or Group with Vocal (nom) by Hahc21 with Status. This award is given annually at the Latin Grammy Awards ceremony to vocal rock, hard rock or metal albums containing at least 51 percent of newly recorded material. It was first awarded to Colombian band Aterciopelados in 2011 for their fifth studio album Gozo Poderoso.
- The Office (U.S. season 8) (nom) by Gen. Quon. American television comedy The Office's eight season commenced airing in the United States on September 22, 2011, and concluded on May 10, 2012, consisting of 24 episodes. The eighth season largely centers around Andy Bernard's ascension to regional manager, as well as the antics of Robert California, the new CEO of Sabre, a fictional printer company that owns Dunder Mifflin.
- List of aircraft accidents and incidents resulting in at least 50 fatalities (nom) by Godot13. Since 1923, at least 512 aircraft accidents and incidents with more than 50 casualties have taken place. Two hundred of these occurrences have involved at least 100 fatalities, and 31 have had more than 200 fatalities. The deadliest of these are the two Boeing 767 airplanes that crashed against the World Trade Center in 2001, causing almost 3,000 casualties.
- Robbie Williams discography (nom) by Sufur222. English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams has released ten studio albums, one live album, five compilation albums, one extended play, nine video albums, and thirty-eight singles throughout his fifteen-year solo career. He was also part of English band Take That from 1990 until 1995, with whom he released two studio albums, with a third album in 2010.
- List of international cricket five-wicket hauls by Dale Steyn (nom) by Sahara4u.. South African cricketer Steyn has taken 22 five-wicket hauls in international cricket, 21 in Tests and 1 in One Day Internationals. He has taken a five-wicket haul in both innings of a match three times.
- List of states and territories of the United States (nom) by Toa Nidhiki05. The United States of America is composed of 50 states and one federal district, Washington D.C. Additionally, it also has control over fourteen territories. Five of them have a permanent, nonmilitary population. With the exception of Navassa Island, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which are located in the Caribbean, all territories are located in the Pacific Ocean.
- List of Olympic men's ice hockey players for Switzerland (nom) by FutureNJGov. Switzerland has participated in 15 of 22 Olympic Games' ice men hockey tournaments, sending 26 goaltenders and 175 skaters. The country has won two bronze medals in men's ice hockey, in 1928 and 1948. Of all players, four have been inducted into the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.
Featured pictures
Eight pictures were promoted this week
- Panamanian golden frog (nom; related article), created by Brian Gratwicke and nominated by Nikhil.
- Red telephone box (nom; related article), created by Peter Weis and nominated by Tomer T.
- NGC 6752 (nom; related article), created by NASA and nominated by Crisco 1492.
- Papilio machaon (nom; related article), created by Werner Pichler and nominated by Fbnpch.
- Tornado damage (nom; related article), created by Win Henderson/FEMA and nominated by Ks0stm.
- Male C. elegans anatomy (nom; related article), by KDS4444.
- Gynaephora selenitica (nom; related article), created by Ivar Leidus and nominated by Tomer T.
- Mating Lesser Kestrels (nom; related article), created by Pierre Dalous and nominated by Crisco 1492.
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As deadline approaches, Individual Engagement Grants looks for ideas
The deadline for proposals to the Individual Engagement Grants (IEG) volunteer committee on Meta will pass on 30 September. The program is designed to fund projects that tackle long-term problems and have a significant editing community impact; it has previously supported solutions like The Wikipedia Library, which improves Wikipedian access to online reference sources like JSTOR (see Signpost coverage).
The WMF grantmaking scheme was introduced in January 2013 after a community consultation-period in late 2012. It aims to enable volunteers—individuals or in teams up to four—to tackle chronic on-wiki problems. The funding period is six months, with an opportunity to renew it for six more; it is capped at US$30k, which can be used for living costs and expenses like travel and project materials.
Interested users can either submit complete proposals or outline rough ideas in an open collaborative space, IdeaLab, which is designed to help think through and improve potential projects together with the committee and other community members. The committee itself is composed of eighteen community members from several different projects and advises the WMF's grantmaking department. The English Wikipedia's Anne Delong, Pine, Hahc21, Steven Zhang, and Ocaasi—himself a grantee last round—are among them.
Upcoming topics for review include an attempt to create a standardized way to handle backlog pages for WikiProjects on Wikipedia and introducing a mechanism to export content into LaTeX. However, proposals with technical focus have to be able to deliver on their own and cannot rely on the WMF's tech-departmental resources, due to its narrowed focus on key projects like VisualEditor and the upcoming Flow project—which aims to replace talk pages and is currently undergoing community consultation on MediaWiki. At the time of writing, 12 draft ideas, mostly aiming at improved outreach in developing countries like Bangladesh and Uganda, are under development in the IdeaLab. One formal proposal has already been filed.
The community comment period on IEG proposals ends on 22 October, while the committee will review both the ideas and community input on them until 19 November. Based on the findings and recommendations, the WMF will announce its funding decisions on 15 December and distribute resources in early 2014.
In brief
- Individual Engagement Grants committee expands: In addition to the lead story, the committee overseeing the IEG process has announced that it has expanded by seven members.
- Quarterly review: The editor engagement experiments (E3) team's third quarterly review has been published on Meta. The E3 team is looking for improved ways to attract and retain new users; quarterly reviews are aimed to ensure accountability and allow senior Foundation staff to offer specific guidance to their proliferous and diverse initiatives.
- WMF openings: Three new positions have been advertised by the Wikimedia Foundation this week: a QA tester for the Visual Editor, Program officer, Project & Event Grants program, and a Paid internship in Program Evaluation and Design.
- Wikimedian in Residence position: The Royal Society—the British-based and oldest learned society still in existence—is asking for a Wikimedian in Residence. The position will require one day a week and will be paid.
- Wiki Q&A?: The folks over at Stack Exchange have proposed a new Q&A website for users of wikis.
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Syria, celebrities, and association football
Summary: While the Syrian Civil War crept its slow way into the minds of the public, with a new fourth related entry in the top 25, the top 10 remained dominated by celebrity, mainly sports and music. Two megabucks transfers stimulated public interest in football/soccer ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, while Lil Wayne's public apology ahead of his latest album release sent him to the top.
For the full top 25 plus exclusions, see WP:TOP25
For the week of September 1 - 7, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the 5,000 most trafficked pages* were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Lil Wayne 
662,661 
After apologising to his fans on Twitter, Lil Wayne has gone from not receiving any BET Award or MTV Video Music Award nominations to coming tops in Wikipedia views. 2 Rosh Hashanah
590,908 
That's the Jewish New Year to the rest of us. Jews the world over ushered in the year 5774 on September 4. 3 Facebook
580,025 
A perennially popular article 4 Mesut Özil 
532,862 
The German footballer was recently transferred to Arsenal FC for $67 million, which, for a presumed 5-year contract works out at roughly $1500 an hour. 5 Breaking Bad
507,227 
The final season of this acclaimed chemistry teacher-turned-Scarface TV series began on August 11. 6 Twerking 
502,811 The new term for girls waggling their bottoms onstage continues to be a point of interest. 7 Syria
468,913 
The next Middle Eastern country in which the United States might become embroiled has continued to be a topic of interest this week. 8 John Wisden
398,834 
The star cricketer and creator of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack got a boost thanks to a Google Doodle on his 187th birthday on September 5. 9 Charlie Hunnam
393,246 
The English actor and Sons of Anarchy star saw his popularity soar after being cast in the title role of the film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey. 10 Gareth Bale
392,593 
The Welsh footballer was just signed by Real Madrid for a reported 100 million euros ($133 million), an even more astronomical sum than that for the above Mesut Özil.
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Workshop phase opens in Manning naming dispute; Infoboxes case closes
Discussion over the Manning title dispute was off to a running start as evidence and workshop phases continued in the Bradley/Chelsea Manning naming dispute. The Infoboxes case closed with topic bans for two users, and a recommendation for community discussion of infoboxes.
Open cases
The evidence and workshop phases are now open in the Manning naming dispute case. The case involves the move of the Bradley Manning article to Chelsea Manning, after Manning's attorney announced Manning's wish to be known as Chelsea.
The scope of the case has been described as "broad": the committee is "willing to review evidence regarding any aspect of the naming dispute in question." There is particular interest in evidence regarding derogatory statements towards transgendered individuals, accusations of transphobia, whether WP:BLP concerns are being handled properly, and evidence of possible misuse of admin tools.
The evidence phase closes 19 September, and the workshop phase closes 26 September. A proposed decision is scheduled to be posted 3 October 2013.
Closed cases
The Infoboxes case was closed. Arbitrators agreed unanimously that infoboxes are neither required nor discouraged, and that decisions regarding infoboxes should be made by consensus on an article-by-article basis. They also recommended a community-wide discussion on infoboxes. Findings regarding conduct were passed for four users. In addition two users received topic bans: Pigsonthewing (also known as Andy Mabbett) was indefinitely banned from using or discussing infoboxes, and Gerda Arendt was restricted from discussing or adding infoboxes to articles but not from participation in broader policy discussions.
The following remedies were announced by the committee:
- Pigsonthewing (talk · contribs) is indefinitely banned from adding, or discussing the addition or removal of, infoboxes.
- Nikkimaria (talk · contribs) is admonished to behave with the level of professionalism expected of an administrator.
- Gerda Arendt (talk · contribs) is indefinitely restricted from: adding or deleting infoboxes; restoring an infobox that has been deleted; or making more than two comments in discussing the inclusion or exclusion of an infobox on a given article. They may participate in wider policy discussions regarding infoboxes with no restriction, and include infoboxes in new articles which they create.
- Gerda Arendt (talk · contribs) is admonished for treating Wikipedia as if it were a battleground and advised to better conduct themselves.
- Smerus (talk · contribs) is reminded to conduct himself in a civil manner.
- All editors are reminded to maintain decorum and civility when engaged in discussions about infoboxes, and to avoid turning discussions about a single article's infobox into a discussion about infoboxes in general.
- The Arbitration Committee recommends that a well-publicized community discussion be held to address whether to adopt a policy or guideline addressing what factors should weigh in favor of or against including an infobox in a given article.
The proposed findings of fact against Smerus were added to the case two weeks after the workshop had closed, after members of WikiProject Quality Article Improvement complained that the decision as written was too one-sided, that one-sided rulings "never calm things down", and that anti-box editors "deserve smacking".
Since little or no evidence had been submitted against these editors, a request was made for more diffs. Since the evidence and workshop phases were already closed, there was no discussion of this new evidence. Smerus offered to provide diffs if an arbitrator was willing to take them into consideration, but did not receive a response. While no centralized discussion took place on the case pages, comments elsewhere speculated that "ArbCom wanted to punish two users from each side of the dispute to demonstrate fairness".
A similar situation occurred in the Tea Party movement case (see Signpost coverage), when fourteen editors were proposed for topic bans after discussion had already closed in the evidence and workshop phases. However, while there was no centralized discussion in that case, the discussion did continue on various arbitrators' talk pages. In a post-mortem on that case, concern was expressed that "anything that might end up in the proposed decision should, first, be displayed at the workshop… because it gives the Committee a chance to get their gut feelings reviewed by editors outside the Committee."
Other requests and committee action
- Discretionary sanctions review: An updated draft of the discretionary sanction process is now available for review and comment.
- Clarification request: Race and Intelligence: A clarification request has been made regarding topic and interaction bans.
- Amendment request: Scientology: An amendment request made by The Devil's Advocate requests the lifting of a restriction imposed regarding the mention of an editor's previous username, the removal of claims of misconduct from the discretionary sanction log of warnings, and restoration of a previously oversighted edit to avoid the appearance of misconduct implied by a suppressed edit.
- Amendment request: Locke Cole arbitration case: A request was made by Locke Cole for the lifting of a seven-year-old interaction ban.
- Clarification request: Pseudoscience#Principles: A request was made by IRWolfie- for clarification of the {{ArbComPseudoscience}} template. Archived here.
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