User talk:Ismashed

The Signpost: 08 January 2014

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  • Public Domain Day: Why the year 2019 is so significant
    Public Domain Day—January 1, 2014—gives me an opportunity to reflect on this important asset, mandated by the Constitution of the United States.
  • Traffic report: Tragedy and television
    The various maladies that befall humanity got some well-known faces this week: the death of the well-liked actor James Avery topped the list, but Michael Schumacher, who is in a coma after a skiing accident, also drew attention.
  • News and notes: WMF employee forced out over "paid advocacy editing"
    On 8 January, the Wikimedia Foundation notified the Wikimedia-l mailing list that Sarah Stierch, a popular Wikimedian and the Foundation's Program Evaluation Community Coordinator, was no longer an employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, as a result of being paid to create articles on the English Wikipedia.

The Signpost: 15 January 2014

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  • Technology report: Architecture Summit schedule published
    The proposed schedule for the MediaWiki Archicture Summit has been published. The two main plenary sessions will be about HTML templating, and Service-oriented architecture.
  • Op-ed: Licensed for reuse? Citing open-access sources in Wikipedia articles
    It is heavily ironic that two decades after the World Wide Web was started — largely to make it easier to share scholarly research — most of our past and present research publications are still hidden behind paywalls for private profit. The bitter twist is that the vast majority of this research is publicly funded, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide each year.
  • Traffic report: The Hours are Ours
    We now can get a far more accurate picture of which short surges in popularity are likely natural and which are not.
  • WikiProject report: WikiProject Sociology
    This week, we studied human social behavior with the folks at WikiProject Sociology.

The Signpost: 22 January 2014

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  • News and notes: Modification of WMF protection brought to Arbcom
    The Wikimedia Foundation's Director of Community Advocacy's application of pending changes level two on the article Conventional PCI—an action taken under its rarely used office actions policy—has escalated to the Arbitration Committee after an editor upgraded it to full protection.
  • Featured content: Dr. Watson, I presume
    Fifteen articles, nine lists, twenty pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia over the last two weeks.
  • Special report: The few who write Wikipedia
    On 15 January, Wikipedia turned thirteen years old. In that time, this site has grown from a small site that was known to only a select few to one of the most popular websites on the internet. At the same time, recent data suggests that there is a power curve among users, where the comparative few who are writing most of Wikipedia have most of the edits. The result of this is that there is going to be bias in what is created, and how we deal with it as Wikipedians is indicative of the future of the site. Furthermore, this brings up what we have to do in order to combat this bias, as there are many ideas, but the question is whether they will work or not.
  • Technology report: Architecting the future of MediaWiki
    This week we're interviewing Brion Vibber about the then-upcoming Architecture Summit. Brion is a long time Wikipedian, the first employee of the Wikimedia Foundation, and currently the lead software architect working with the mobile team.
  • Traffic report: No show for the Globes
    While the 71st Golden Globe Awards, held on 12 January, had an impact on the top 25, their presence was largely absent from the Top 10. With the exception of Best Actor winner Leonardo DiCaprio, the only Golden Globe entrants in the Top 10 are films that would have been there anyway.

The Signpost: 29 January 2014

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  • Traffic report: Six strikes out
    There are times when this job is hard. As an analogy, imagine navigating in fog at night, except you don't know where you are, you don't know where you want to go, and your flashlight keeps dying on you.
  • WikiProject report: Special report: Contesting contests
    Contests have existed almost as long as the English Wikipedia. Contestants have expanded hundreds of articles and made tens of thousands of edits. Although it may seem as though there aren't any negatives to contests, they have occasionally become a divisive topic on the English Wikipedia.
  • News and notes: Wiki-PR defends itself, condemns Wikipedia's actions
    Wiki-PR, a public relations agency, whose employees used a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts to create, edit, and maintain several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients, has told Business Insider that it was demonized by the online encyclopedia. Jordan French, Wiki-PR's CEO, said he believes the Wikimedia Foundation "painted" his company to look like an "evil entity" that is "scrubbing truths from Wikipedia".

The Signpost: 29 January 2014

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  • Traffic report: Six strikes out
    There are times when this job is hard. As an analogy, imagine navigating in fog at night, except you don't know where you are, you don't know where you want to go, and your flashlight keeps dying on you.
  • WikiProject report: Special report: Contesting contests
    Contests have existed almost as long as the English Wikipedia. Contestants have expanded hundreds of articles and made tens of thousands of edits. Although it may seem as though there aren't any negatives to contests, they have occasionally become a divisive topic on the English Wikipedia.
  • News and notes: Wiki-PR defends itself, condemns Wikipedia's actions
    Wiki-PR, a public relations agency, whose employees used a sophisticated array of concealed user accounts to create, edit, and maintain several thousand Wikipedia articles for paying clients, has told Business Insider that it was demonized by the online encyclopedia. Jordan French, Wiki-PR's CEO, said he believes the Wikimedia Foundation "painted" his company to look like an "evil entity" that is "scrubbing truths from Wikipedia".

The Signpost: 12 February 2014

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  • In the media: WikiVIP; Art Feminism; Medical articles; PR manipulation; Azerbaijani Wikipedia
    As reported in various media outlets this week, including The Next Web and The Daily Dot, this past week, Wikimedia Commons and various language Wikipedias are working together to encourage subjects of Wikipedia articles to record a 10-second clip of their voice to be appended to their Wikipedia article.
  • Technology report: Left with no choice
    Software evolution does not always mean that features are being added. It also means that old fat is being trimmed. It is no different for MediaWiki.
  • News and notes: WMF bites the bullet on affiliation and FDC funding, elevates Wikimedia user groups
    In a bold move, the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees has announced a major change in policy concerning affiliated groups in the worldwide movement, and FDC funding levels to eligible chapters and thematic organizations over the next two years. Both decisions were published last Tuesday after considerable post-meeting consultation with the FDC and the Affiliations Committee (AffCom). The core of the first decision is
  • Featured content: Space selfie
    Thirteen articles, three lists, and twenty-five images were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia from 19 January to 1 February.
  • Traffic report: Sports Day
    Two great sporting events, the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, collide in one week, transforming the top ten into a festival of flying feet, a carnival of colliding caraniums and a bacchanal of bouncing balls, combined to influence Wikipedia's most popular articles last week.
  • WikiProject report: Game Time in Russia
    In celebration of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, we revisited the team at WikiProject Russia to learn how the project has changed since our first interview in 2011.

The Signpost: 19 February 2014

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  • Technology report: ULS Comeback
    Runa Bhattacharjee has notified the community that the Foundation is ready to turn the Universal Language Selector back on.
  • WikiProject report: Countering Systemic Bias
    WikiProject Countering System Bias aims to combat imbalanced coverage while encouraging neglected cultural perspectives and points of view, both in articles and in the larger Wikipedia community. As you'll see from the varied experiences and motivations of our nine respondents, the biases that the folks at WP CSB tackle run the full gamut of human characteristics and dispositions. The interview that follows unveils many of Wikipedia's greatest shortcomings.
  • Featured content: Holotype
    Five articles, seven lists, forty-three pictures, and two portals were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia in the last two weeks.
  • Traffic report: Chilly Valentines
    Valentines Day got a somewhat muted reception this week, overshadowed by continuing coverage of the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the death of Shirley Temple.

The Signpost: 26 February 2014

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  • Forum: Should Wikimedia modify its terms of use to require disclosure?
    About a week ago, the Wikimedia Foundation proposed to modify the Wikimedia projects' terms of use to specifically ban paid editing, by adding a new clause titled "Paid contributions without disclosure". We have asked two users, one in favor of the measure (Smallbones) and one opposed (Pete Forsyth), to contribute their opinions on the matter.
  • Featured content: Odin salutes you
    Eight articles, three lists, and nine pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
  • Special report: Diary of a protester: Wikimedian perishes in Ukrainian unrest
    Ukraine has been gripped by widespread protests over the past three months. Due to a decision by former president Viktor Yanukovych—at Russia's urging—to abandon integration with the European Union, the country was (and in many ways still is) split between the Europe-favoring Ukrainian-speaking western half and the Russian-speaking east and south. Hundreds have died during the unrest, leaving thousands of family members and friends to bury their loved ones. This week our Wikimedian colleagues in Ukraine are facing that challenge after the death of one of their own.
  • News and notes: Wikimedia chapters and communities challenge Commons' URAA policy
    Following a trend started by Wikimedia Israel, Wikimedia Argentina has published an open letter challenging the recent deletion of hundreds of images from the Commons under its policy on URAA-restored copyrights, relating to the United States' 1994 Uruguay Round Agreements Act.
  • Traffic report: Snow big deal
    The 2014 Winter Olympics had more of an impact on the Top 25 than the Top 10, which had to shoulder old stalwarts like the death list, Reddit threads, TV shows and the eternal presence of Facebook; still, with four slots, it's the most searched topic on the list.

(test) The Signpost: 05 March 2014

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  • Traffic report: Brinksmen on the brink
    There's nothing like a good old bit of Cold War nostalgia, combined with a suitably scary international incident, to focus our attention on the real world. That said, nothing could stem our outpouring of affection for the beloved comedian Harold Ramis, whose death managed to top the week in the face of those international concerns.
  • News and notes: Wikipedia Library finding success in matching contributors with sources
    This week, the Signpost caught up with the Wikipedia Library (TWL), which aims to connect reference resources with Wikipedia editors who can use them to improve articles. Funded through the Wikimedia Foundation's Individual Engagement Grants program, TWL has a new "visiting scholars" initiative and a microgrants program in the works.
  • Featured content: Full speed ahead for the WikiCup
    The WikiCup competition is ongoing, while six articles, three lists, and ten pictures were promoted to "featured" status of the English Wikipedia this week.
  • WikiProject report: Article Rescue Squadron
    This week, the Signpost delved into the English Wikipedia's Article Rescue Squadron.

The Signpost: 12 March 2014

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  • News and notes: Wikimedians celebrate International Women's Day, Women's History Month
    Wikimedians around the world gathered to celebrate Women's History Month and the associated International Women's Day by holding editathons. If you lived in the United Kingdom, you had the opportunity to attend Wikimedia UK's event at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, part of University College London and host to one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese artifacts in the world.
  • Traffic report: War and awards
    An intensely busy week, as a confluence of celebratory, curious and urgent topics pushed typical residents like Facebook and Deaths in 2014 out of the top ten entirely.
  • Featured content: Ukraine burns
    Five articles, two lists, and 52 pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

The Signpost: 19 March 2014

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  • WikiProject report: We have history
    This week, we visited WikiProject History, an ancient project with roots dating back to 2001. The project is home to 196 pieces of Featured material and 483 Good and A-class articles independent of the vast accomplishments of its various child projects. WikiProject History maintains a lengthy list of tasks, oversees the history portal, and continues to build Wikipedia's outline of history.
  • Featured content: Spot the bulldozer
    Twelve articles, fourteen lists, and six pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
  • Traffic report: Into thin air
    The utterly mystifying events surrounding Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which has not fallen from the sky so much as vanished from it entirely, has left an information-starved public scrambling for precedents, some logical, some... not.
  • Technology report: Wikimedia engineering report
    The Wikimedia engineering report for February 2014 has been published. A summarized version is also available. Major news include

The Signpost: 26 March 2014

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  • Comment: A foolish request
    April Fools' Day is rapidly approaching. Every year, members of the community pull pranks and make (or attempt to make) humorous edits to pages across the project. Every year, the community follows April Fools' Day with a contentious debate about whether or not it is necessary to impose limits on April Fools' Day jokes for future years. It is a polarizing issue.
  • Traffic report: Down to a simmer
    Topics like the 2014 Crimea crisis or the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 eased down the list, making way for such traditional topics as St Patrick's Day, Reddit threads and even Google Doodles, which have reappeared after a long absence.
  • Recent research: Wikipedians' "encyclopedic identity" dominates even in Kosovo debates
    Have you wondered about differences in the articles on Crimea in the Russian, Ukrainian, and English versions of Wikipedia? A newly published article entitled "Lost in Translation: Contexts, Computing, Disputing on Wikipedia" doesn't address Crimea, but nonetheless offers insight into the editing of contentious articles in multiple language editions through a heavy qualitative examination of Wikipedia articles about the Kosovo in the Serbian, Croatian, and English editions.
  • News and notes: Commons Picture of the Year—winners announced
    Results for the two-stage 2013 Commons Picture of the Year have been announced. This year's winning photograph (above) shows a lightbulb that has been cracked, allowing inert gas to escape—and oxygen to enter, so that the tungsten filament burns. From the flames rise elegant curls of blue smoke.
  • Op-ed: Why we're updating the default typography for Wikipedia
    On 3 April, we will roll out some changes to the typography of Wikipedia's default Vector skin, to increase readability for users on all devices and platforms. After five months of testing, four major iterations, and through close collaboration with the global Wikimedia community, who provided more than 100 threads of feedback, we’ve arrived at a solution which improves the primary reading and editing experience for all users.
  • Technology report: Why will Wikipedia look like the Signpost?
    As you have probably read on this weeks op-ed, or via various other channels of announcement, 3 April will see the introduction of the Typography refresh (or update) for the Vector skin on all Wikipedias. Other projects like Commons will have this update rolled out a few days prior.
  • WikiProject report: From the peak
    This week, the Signpost interviewed the English Wikipedia's Mountains WikiProject.

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q1 2014

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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 7, No. 1 — 1st Quarter, 2014
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q1 2014, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

The Signpost: 02 April 2014

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  • Special report: On the cusp of the Wikimedia Conference
    The annual Wikimedia Conference is about to start in Berlin, hosted by Wikimedia Germany, which won the bid to hold the event over three others. This will be the fifth time the chapter has hosted the Wikimedia Conference—it did so from 2009 to 2012, with attendance ranging from 100 to 180 Wikimedians. This year 160 people are expected at the four-day event, which is mainly for representatives of affiliated Wikimedia organisations. The conference has been built around two themes: Organisation, structures, and grants and Success and impact.
  • Featured content: April Fools
    The Signpost's "Featured content" writers had a bit of fun this week.
  • Traffic report: Regressing to the mean
    The mysterious fate of MH370 still tops the list, but in all other respects our readership has retreated from the real world into its pop-cultural happy place: TV, movies, music, Reddit and Google Doodles all made an appearance.

The Signpost: 09 April 2014

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  • News and notes: Round 2 of FDC funding open to public comments
    Community review is open for the four applications in the second and final round of applications to the WMF's Funds Dissemination Committee for 2013–14. Three eligible organisations have applied for funding under the newly named "annual program grants": Wikimedia France, Wikimedia Norway, and the India-based Centre for Internet and Society, which last November was recognised as eligible to apply for FDC funding purposes.
  • WikiProject report: WikiProject Law
    This week, we interviewed the Law WikiProject.
  • Special report: Community mourns passing of Adrianne Wadewitz
    "I remember laughing and talking and laughing and talking at Wikimania 2012. I took this picture of her that she used for a long while as a profile pic. Someone on Facebook said it looked 'skepchickal', which she loved."
  • Traffic report: Conquest of the Couch Potatoes
    Television has always been a topic of choice on this site, but it exploded this week. Fully six slots were devoted to television shows, as the final episode of How I Met Your Mother, one of the most popular Wikipedia searches of the last few years, coincided with the season finale of The Walking Dead and the upcoming fourth season of Game of Thrones. The number rises to 8 if movies released on video and new TV tech are are included.
  • Featured content: Snow heater and Ash sweep
    Five article, five lists, and ten pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

The Signpost: 23 April 2014

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  • Special report: 2014 Wikimedia Conference—what is the impact?
    The annual Wikimedia Conference wound up last Sunday, 13 April—a four-day meeting costing several hundred thousand dollars, hosted in Berlin by Wikimedia Germany and attended by more than 100 Wikimedians.
  • Op-ed: Five things a Wikipedian in residence can do
    Hey you—yeah you, the Wikipedian! Do you want to help a museum, a library, a university, or other organization explore ways to engage with Wikipedia? Great—you should offer your expertise as a Wikipedian in residence!
  • News and notes: Wikimedian passes away
    Cynthia Ashley-Nelson, who edited as "Cindamuse" on the Wikimedia projects, passed away in her sleep at the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin on 10 April.
  • Wikimania: Winning bid announced for 2015
    After just over a month of deliberation, the Wikimania jury has selected Wikimedia Mexico's bid to host Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City, with a proposed date of 15–19 July.
  • Traffic report: Reflecting in Gethsemane
    If I were the kind of person who made snap judgments based on flimsy evidence, I'd say our readership is in a funk.
  • Featured content: There was I, waiting at the church
    Fourteen articles, four lists, seven pictures, and one topic attained "featured" status on the English Wikipedia over the last two weeks.

The Signpost: 30 April 2014

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  • News and notes: WMF's draft annual plan turns indigestible as an FDC proposal
    Like hammering a square peg into a round hole, the Wikimedia Foundation has submitted a draft annual plan for 2014–15 to its own Funds Dissemination Committee. Unlike the WMF's submission to the FDC's inaugural round in October 2012, the "proposal" does not seek funding.
  • Traffic report: Going to the Doggs
    Not much to report this week. The same post-Easter celebrations (4/20, Earth Day) were popular again this year, except last year we were still reeling from the Boston Marathon bombing.
  • Breaking: The Foundation's new executive director
    The Wikimedia Foundation has announced that its new executive director will be Lila Tretikov, until now a chief product officer in Silicon Valley.
  • WikiProject report: Genetics
    This week, we unraveled the mysteries of WikiProject Genetics.
  • Featured content: Browsing behaviours
    Four articles and sixteen featured pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.

The Signpost: 07 May 2014

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  • News and notes: New system of discretionary sanctions; Buchenwald; is Pirelli 'Cracking Wikipedia'?
    The English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee (ArbCom) introduced the first form of what are known as the "discretionary sanction" (DS) in 2009. A new DS regime, called Discretionary sanctions (2014), is the result of an elaborate review process involving both the community, since last September, and the committee, for more than a year.
  • Traffic report: TMZedia
    For all the claims of Wikipedia bringing the world's knowledge to all who want it, it seems the human race most wants is a tabloid newspaper; a quick source for TV listings, pop culture facts, celebrity gossip and, above all, scandal—with some nice juicy racism thrown in too.
  • In focus: Foundation announces long-awaited new executive director
    In a live video stream on 1 May, the Wikimedia Foundation announced that Lila Tretikov will be replacing Sue Gardner, its executive director. Gardner, who has been in the position since 2007, declared her intention to leave more than a year ago.
  • In the media: Google and the flu; Adrianne
    Boston Children's Hospital postdoctoral fellow David McIver and a team have determined that using page view statistics from Wikipedia, they can track flu progression better than the Center for Disease Control can using Google searches.
  • WikiProject report: Singing with Eurovision
    Formed in 2003, the Eurovision WikiProject boasts four featured articles and 22 good articles. The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 is currently taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, so we went to the stage to talk with one of the project's members.
  • Featured content: Wikipedia at the Rijksmuseum
    Four articles, two lists, and five pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.

The Signpost: 14 May 2014

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  • WikiProject report: Relaxing in Puerto Rico
    This week, the Signpost jumped over the ocean to chat with the Puerto Rico WikiProject.
  • News and notes: 'Ask a librarian'—connecting Wikimedians with the National Library of Australia
    Editors of Australian-related topics on the English Wikipedia may have noticed an odd addition if they viewed the article's talk pages. For example, on Talk:Darwin, Northern Territory, they might be drawn in by the question mark, nested within what is often a sea of WikiProject templates: "Need help improving this article? Ask a librarian at the National Library of Australia, or the Northern Territory Library." Just what is this?
  • Featured content: On the rocks
    Six articles, seven lists, and four pictures were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia this week.

The Signpost: 21 May 2014

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  • News and notes: "Crisis" over Wikimedia Germany's palace revolution
    Last Sunday the board of Wikimedia Germany passed 9–1 a vote of no confidence in the chapter's executive director, Pavel Richter, who has held the position since 2009. With more than 50 employees, an annual budget approaching $10 million, and the right to conduct its own fundraising through the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) site banners, Wikimedia Germany is the second-largest organisation in the movement after the WMF itself. The decision was announced on the Wikimedia mailing list by the chapter chair, Nikolas Becker.
  • Traffic report: Doodles' dawn
    It's a relief to see Google Doodles having an impact again; their wide coverage means that they inspire curiosity on many subjects which, for reasons of nationality, ethnicity or gender, might not be known in the English-speaking world. It's a shame then, that Wikipedia so often fails to keep up; articles on Google Doodles are almost invariably C-class, and seldom do justice to their subjects. Still, interest in Google Doodles has been waning in recent months—Audrey Hepburn last week was the first to top the list since December—so any rise in popularity is worth celebrating.

The Signpost: 28 May 2014

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  • News and notes: The English Wikipedia's second featured-article centurion; wiki inventor interviewed on video
    With the promotion to featured article of Grus (constellation) on 17 May, Casliber became Wikipedia's second featured-article centurion, following Wehwalt's groundbreaking achievement last December. Cas's first FA, Banksia integrifolia, a group effort, was promoted on 16 November 2006. His first solo project, Diplodocus, followed in January 2007; he has rarely been off the FAC since. In a second story, Ward Cunningham, an American computer programmer who invented the wiki, was interviewed by the WMF.
  • Featured content: Zombie fight in the saloon
    Wikipedia editor Sven Manguard's work is quite underappreciated a lot of the time, most likely because people haven't heard of it yet: He's developed good relationships with game companies, and is thus able to get full-resolution screenshots released under a Creative Commons license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere. This week's trove of new featured items on the English Wikipedia comprises seven articles, three lists, and four pictures.
  • Traffic report: Get fitted for flipflops and floppy hats
    In the US, Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer, and summer is definitely on people's minds this week, with summer films Godzilla and X-Men: Days of Future Past, the apparently designated summer song "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea, and summer TV show, Game of Thrones.
  • Recent research: Predicting which article you will edit next
    Wikipedia in the eyes of its beholders; "Chinese-language time zones" favor Asian pop and IT topics on Wikipedia; and bipartite editing prediction in Wikipedia.

The Signpost: 04 June 2014

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  • Special report: IEG funding for women's stories: a new approach to the gender gap
    Individual engagement grants (IEGs) are announced twice yearly by a volunteer WMF committee, the most recent of which we covered last December. The scheme, launched at the start of last year, awards funds to individuals or teams of up to four to produce high-impact outcomes for the WMF's online projects. It favours innovative approaches to solving critical issues in the movement.
  • News and notes: Two new affiliate-selected trustees
    New trustee Frieda Briosch from Italy: we face "a couple of headaches", she says: "how to boost editors, which includes the development of the next strategic plan, and how to keep our project always 'glamorous'."
  • Op-ed: "Hospitality, jerks, and what I learned"—the amazing keynote at WikiConference USA
    I never feel quite adequate trying to paraphrase Sumana's words: she is so articulate. I highly encourage every person who reads this article to directly watch her keynote—it directly speaks to a lot of Wikimedia's most significant issues, made with great eloquence. We have a serious issue with retaining editors, and parts of her speech could serve as a pretty good partial blueprint towards how we could begin to fix that problem.
  • Featured content: Ye stately homes of England
    David Iliff, or Diliff, as he is known on here outside of the file pages for his many, many, excellent photographs, is one of Wikipedia's longest-standing professional-standard photographers. This week, the Signpost salutes him.
  • Traffic report: Autumn in summer
    The northern summer is a time when one is meant to celebrate the exuberance of life; instead, commemoration of the dead was a significant theme this week.

The Signpost: 11 June 2014

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  • News and notes: PR agencies commit to ethical interactions with Wikipedia
    Eleven public relations agencies have declared their intention to follow "ethical engagement practices" in Wikipedia editing. The results were published last Tuesday: a joint statement from the participating PR agencies—representing five of the top ten global agencies and all but one of the top ten in the United States—clarifying their views and practices with regards to the Wikimedia projects.
  • Traffic report: The week the wired went weird
    It seems that, more than commemorating the great moments in our history, more than even anticipating great sporting events, what our audience wants is the weird.
  • Paid editing: Does Wikipedia Pay? The Moderator: William Beutler
    William Beutler (WWB), author of the blog The Wikipedian, is a long-time editor and community-watcher. He is also a paid editor (WWB Too). Well—not anymore—because he gave up direct editing of articles in 2011. Instead, for the past three years he has followed Jimmy Wales' Bright Line rule in acting as a researcher and consultant for companies and clients that want to suggest changes to Wikipedia articles and engage on the Talk page.
  • Special report: Questions raised over secret voting for WMF trustees
    Last week we reported the announcement of two new affiliate-selected WMF trustees. The board of trustees is the most powerful and influential body in the movement, and chapters have been permitted to select two of the 10 seats since 2008, for two-year terms that start in even-numbered years.
  • Featured content: Politics, ships, art, and cyclones
    Five articles, one list, twelve pictures, and one topic were promoted to 'featured' status last week on the English Wikipedia.

The Signpost: 18 June 2014

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  • Featured content: Worming our way to featured picture
    Five articles, five lists, 22 pictures, and one portal were promoted to 'featured' status on the English Wikipedia last week.
  • Special report: Wikimedia Bangladesh: a chapter's five-year journey
    The Bangladesh chapter of the Wikimedia movement was formed in 2009. They received official local registration from the national authorities on 10 June 2014. The long road in between was subject to much persistence, patience, and luck—along with a good deal of worry.
  • Traffic report: You can't dethrone Thrones
    To the surprise of absolutely no one, the 2014 FIFA World Cup was the main draw this week, taking four slots. People appeared desperate to bone up on their trivia; checking not only this year's World Cup, but the last one. Even so, they still couldn't push Game of Thrones from the top ten. It will be interesting to see what happens come next week's season finale.
  • WikiProject report: Visiting the city
    This week, the Signpost came in from the hinterland to interview members of the Cities WikiProject.

The Signpost: 25 June 2014

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  • News and notes: US National Archives enshrines Wikipedia in Open Government Plan
    The US National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) have committed to engaging with Wikimedia projects in their newest Open Government Plan. The biannual effort is a roadmap for how the agency will accomplish its goals in the digital age.
  • Traffic report: Fake war, or real sport?
    Despite the interest generated by its season finale, Game of Thrones still couldn't top the World Cup, which still dominated interest, as evidenced by the fact that this top 10 is virtually identical to last week's, just with a different dead celebrity.
  • Featured content: Showing our Wörth
    Ten articles and eleven pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
  • WikiProject report: The world where dreams come true
    This week, the Signpost visited the land of Disney, blockbusters, explosions, dream sequences, and cultural masterpieces: film.
  • Recent research: Power users and diversity in WikiProjects
    In a recent paper, Jacob Solomon and Rick Wash investigate the question of sustainability in online communities by analysing trends in the growth of WikiProjects.

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q2 2014

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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 7, No. 2 — 2nd Quarter, 2014
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q2 2014, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:06, 4 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 02 July 2014

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  • In the media: Wiki Education; medical content; PR firms
    The Los Angeles Times highlighted a recent Wiki Education Foundation (WEF) course at Pomona College in their article "Wikipedia pops up in bibliographies, and even college curricula". We interviewed Char Booth, the campus ambassador for the course, for additional details.
  • Traffic report: The Cup runneth over... and over.
    With Game of Thrones over for another year, the World Cup dominated yet again. And that is pretty much that. This list isn't likely to be particularly eventful until the Cup is won.
  • News and notes: Wikimedia Israel receives Roaring Lion award
    Wikimedia Israel (WMIL) has won a Roaring Lion in the category of Internet and cellular for its public outreach during the tenth anniversary of the Hebrew Wikipedia in July 2013.
  • Featured content: Ship-shape
    Six articles, five lists, seventeen pictures, and one topic were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.
  • Technology report: In memoriam: the Toolserver (2005–14)
    In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Wikimedia Deutschland's Toolserver project was switched off, marking the end of one of the Wikimedia movement's longest running Chapter-led projects. The Toolserver, which was in fact a collection of servers, first came online in 2005, hosting hundreds of webpages and scripts ("tools") made available for use by Wikimedia readers, editors and administrators.

The Signpost: 09 July 2014

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  • Special report: Wikimania 2014—what will it cost?
    Last May, James Forrester announced to the world that London had been awarded the 2014 Wikimania conference. Functioning as the Wikimedia movement's annual conference, it is separate from the chapter-focused Wikimedia Conference. The first, located in Frankfurt, took place in 2005 and had 380 attendees. London, the tenth, is now expected to attract 1500. With Wikimania ambition, attention, and attendance rising significantly over the last nine years, how have this year's monetary costs come to be?
  • Wikimedia in education: Exploring the United States and Canada with LiAnna Davis
    The Wikimedia Education Program currently spans 60 programs around the world; students and instructors participate at almost every level of education. The Education program Signpost series presents a snapshot of the Wikimedia Global Education Program as it exists in 2014.
  • Traffic report: World Cup, Tim Howard rule the week
    Unsurprisingly, the World Cup continued to dominate the English Wikipedia's viewing statistics. In particular, the record-breaking performance of US goalkeeper Tim Howard and the tournament-ending injury to Brazil's Neymar drove large amount of views to their articles.

The Signpost: 16 July 2014

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  • Special report: $10 million lawsuit against Wikipedia editors withdrawn, but plaintiff intends to refile
    On the same day the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) announced it would offer assistance to English Wikipedia editors embroiled in a legal dispute with Yank Barry, the lawsuit has been withdrawn without prejudice at the request of Barry's legal team—but this action is being described as "strategic" so that they can refile the lawsuit with a "new, more comprehensive complaint."
  • Featured content: The Island with the Golden Gun
    Eight articles, three lists, and 28 pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia last week.
  • News and notes: Bot-created Wikipedia articles covered in the Wall Street Journal, push Cebuano over one million articles
    The Swedish Wikipedia's prolific Lsjbot, which has created a significant proportion of the site's 1.7 million articles and has nearly single-handedly pushed it to being the fourth-largest Wikipedia, was covered in the Wall Street Journal this week. The newspaper reported that the bot has created 2.7 million articles, which is apparently a reference to the Waray-Waray and Cebuano Wikipedias, where Lsjbot is also active, and that "on a good day", it creates 10,000 articles.

The Signpost: 23 July 2014

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  • Traffic report: The World Cup hangs on, though tragedies seek to replace it
    Last week I predicted that the World Cup dominance on the report would be over—but I was wrong. The World Cup Final fell on the 13th of July, which was actually the first day of the week covered by this report, not the last day of the last report. Hence, five of the Top 10 this week are again World Cup related-topics.
  • News and notes: Institutional media uploads to Commons get a bit easier
    Galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) today are facing fewer barriers to uploading their content onto Wikimedia projects now that the new GLAM-Wiki Toolset Project has been launched. The tool, which is the fruit of a collaboration between Europeana and several Wikimedia chapters, relieves GLAMs from having to write their own automated scripts and gives them a standardized method of uploading large amounts of their digitized holdings.
  • Forum: Did you know?—good idea, needs reform
    The English Wikipedia's did you know (DYK) section has been a feature of the site's main page since February 2004. From the beginning, the section has served as a place to highlight Wikipedia's newest articles. But over the last few years, the did you know section has gotten steadily larger and more complex, and non-notable or plagiarized articles have occasionally slipped through the reviewing process, leading numerous editors to call for reforms to the system. We asked two editors to share their views.
  • Featured content: Why, they're plum identical!
    Ten articles, five lists, and 25 pictures were promoted to featured status on the English Wikipedia last week.

The Signpost: 30 July 2014

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  • Book review: Knowledge or unreality?
    In Common Knowledge: An Ethnography of Wikipedia, Dariusz Jemielniak discusses Wikipedia from the standpoint of an experienced editor and administrator who is also a university professor specializing in management and organizations. In Virtual Reality: Just Because the Internet Told You, How Do You Know It's True?, Charles Seife presents a more broadly themed work reminding us to question the reliability of information found throughout the Internet.
  • Recent research: Shifting values in the paid content debate
    Kim Osman has performed a fascinating study on the three 2013 failed proposals to ban paid advocacy editing in the English language Wikipedia. Using a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach, Osman analyzed 573 posts from the three main votes on paid editing conducted in the community in November 2013.
  • News and notes: How many more hoaxes will Wikipedia find?
    Another hoax on the English Wikipedia was uncovered this week—not by any thorough investigation, but through the self-disclosure of an anonymous change made when the editors were in their sophomore year of college. The deliberate misinformation had been in the article for over five years with plenty of individuals noticing, but not one suspected its authenticity. This leads to one obvious question: how many more are there?
  • Traffic report: Doom and gloom vs. the power of Reddit
    We indeed moved far away from football this week, and further into much more serious issues of war and death. The Israel-Palestinian conflict continues to dominate the news, and the top 10, with Gaza Strip, Israel, and Hamas. The top 25 also includes Palestine and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Death also lies behind the popularity of James Garner, the American actor who died on July 19th, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and deaths in 2014.
  • Featured content: Skeletons and Skeltons
    Two articles, four lists, and seven pictures attained featured status on the English Wikipedia last week.

The Signpost: 06 August 2014

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  • Technology report: A technologist's Wikimania preview
    As the start of Wikimania proper on 8 August approaches, the Signpost looks ahead to what its dozens of presentations might offer the technologically-inclined, whether attending in person or taking advantage of what promises to be a strong digital offering.
  • Traffic report: Ebola
    Serious news continues to dominate the most popular articles chart on Wikipedia this week, with the Ebola virus disease far and away in the top spot. In the top 25, we see the related articles Ebola virus, which talks about biological aspects, at #18 and 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak at #19.

The Signpost: 13 August 2014

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  • Special report: Twitter bots catalogue government edits to Wikipedia
    Slate reports that Tom Scott, co-creator of the emoji social network Emojli, created a Twitter bot called Parliament WikiEdits to automatically tweet a link to any Wikipedia edits made from an IP address belonging to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Scott's bot initially did not tweet any links to edits made from Parliament and, according to Scott, an "insider" reports that their IP addresses changed. Despite this, Scott's Twitter bot has inspired similar creations in numerous other countries.
  • Traffic report: Disease, decimation and distraction
    It's been a grim few weeks. It says something that formerly arresting crises like the war in Ukraine, Boko Haram and the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, despite still being ongoing, have fallen out of the top 10 to make way for the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak and the equally if not more intense conflict against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
  • Wikimania: Promised the moon, settled for the stars
    Wikimania 2014 was held last week in the Barbican Centre in London. Below, the Signpost's former "Technology report" writer Harry Burt (User:Jarry1250) shares his thoughts on a bustling conference.
  • News and notes: Media Viewer controversy spreads to German Wikipedia
    Wikimedia Foundation staff members have now been granted superpowers that would allow them to override community consensus. The new protection level came as a response to attempts of German Wikipedia administrators to implement a community consensus on the new Media Viewer. "Superprotect" is a level above full protection, and prevents edits by administrators.
  • Op-ed: Red links, blue links, and erythrophobia
    Erythrophobia is the fear of, or sensitivity to, the colour red. Recently, I have seen more and more erythrophobic Wikipedians; specifically, Wikipedians who are scared of red links. In Wikipedia's early days, red links were encouraged and well-loved, and when I started editing in 2006, this was still mostly the case. Jump forward to 2014, and many editors now have an aversion to red links.
  • In the media: Monkey selfie, net neutrality, and hoaxes
    The Observer reported (August 2) that Google would "restrict search terms to a link to a Wikipedia article, in the first request under Europe's controversial new 'right to be forgotten' legislation to affect the 110m-page encyclopaedia."

The Signpost: 20 August 2014

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  • Op-ed: A new metric for Wikimedia
    Denny Vrandečić argues that "We should focus on measuring how much knowledge we allow every human to share in, instead of number of articles or active editors."

The Signpost: 27 August 2014

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  • Traffic report: Viral
    "This was a week when an actual virus, Ebola, competed for attention with several viral social phenomena; most notably the Ice Bucket Challenge..."

The Signpost: 03 September 2014

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  • Arbitration report: Media viewer case is suspended
    "On 1 September, the Arbitrators voted to suspend the Media Viewer case for 60 days. After the suspension period is up, the case is to be closed unless the committee votes otherwise. The case suspension comes in response to several new initiatives and policies announced by the Wikimedia Foundation that may make the case moot. In the same motion, the committee declared that Eloquence's resignation of the administrator right was "under the cloud" and that he can only regain the right through another RfA."
  • Traffic report: Holding Pattern
    "This week we saw three of the top ten articles remain in place, with the Ice Bucket Challenge at #1, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at #2, and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant at #5, all for a second straight week..."
  • WikiProject report: Gray's Anatomy (v. 2)
    "This week, the Signpost went out to meet WikiProject Anatomy, dedicated to improving the articles about all our bones, brains, bladders and biceps, and getting them to the high standard expected of a comprehensive encyclopaedia."

The Signpost: 10 September 2014

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  • Op-ed: Media Viewer software is not ready
    Last month, I wrote an open letter to the Wikimedia Foundation, inviting others to join me in a simple but important request: roll back the recent actions—both technical and social—by which the Wikimedia Foundation has overruled legitimate decisions of several Wikimedia projects.
  • Traffic report: Refuge in celebrity
    Even though it's not quite 3/4 over, it's safe to say that 2014 will go down as a year of war, mass murder, plane crashes and terrible diseases. While certainly paying it some heed, it's not surprising that Wikipedia viewers tried this week to find any alternative to that litany of tragedy and pain, and their chosen method of escape was, as usual, celebrity.
  • Featured content: The louse and the fish's tongue
    The amazing and strange tongue-eating louse replacing a fish's tongue! Because isopods, the subject of a new featured article, are both awesome and really damn weird!
  • WikiProject report: Checking that everything's all right
    This week, the Signpost decided to have a look around with WikiProject Check Wikipedia a maintenance project not concerned so much with articles' content, but in all the tiny errors that are to be found scattered within them. Their front page gives a list of things they mainly focus on ...

The Signpost: 17 September 2014

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  • WikiProject report: A trip up north to Scotland
    As Scotland is deciding its future this week, we thought it might be a good idea to get to know the editors of WikiProject Scotland and talk to them about the project.
  • Featured content: Which is not like the others?
    Four articles, two lists, and 51 pictures were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.

The Signpost: 24 September 2014

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  • Featured content: Oil paintings galore
    Six articles, four lists, one topic, and 17 pictures were promoted to "featured" status this week on the English Wikipedia.
  • In the media: Indian political editing, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Congressional chelonii
    The Hindustan Times speculates (September 18) that politicians and their supporters are "sanitizing" their articles in advance of the 2014 Maharashtra State Assembly election. The Times notes the absence of significant controversies in the articles of particular politicians and the presence of heavily promotional language.
  • Traffic report: Wikipedia watches the referendum in Scotland
    This could be the beginning of a new era for this list. Until now, decisions to remove suspicious content have been largely educated guesswork. This week though, we have a new collaborator who can shine a light on the origins and patterns, sorting once and for all the webwheat from the cyberchaff.
  • WikiProject report: GAN reviewers take note: competition time
    A year and a week later, we're with some of the members of WikiProject Good Articles, who wanted to share the news of their upcoming contest within the project, the GA Cup. The aim of this friendly competition, which is held in the same light friendly manner of the WikiCup and the Core Contest, is to reduce the backlog of unreviewed articles at Good article nominations which has been a constant problem for quite a few years for those running the GA process.
  • Arbitration report: Banning Policy, Gender Gap, and Waldorf education
    Banning Policy finishes the workshop phase on 23 September. Parties have proposed findings of fact on the topics of the 3RR, the role of Jimbo Wales, and proxying for banned users. A request for arbitration was posted on 20 September about Landmark Worldwide.

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q3 2014

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 7, No. 3 — 3rd Quarter, 2014
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q3 2014, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:30, 2 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 01 October 2014

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  • Dispatches: Let's get serious about plagiarism
    This article was first published in the Signpost in 2009. Written by several long-standing editors, including the late Adrianne Wadewitz, the article was subjected to extensive commentary and ultimately influenced the English Wikipedia's plagiarism guideline. With recent debates about close paraphrasing vis-à-vis plagiarism, we feel that this dispatch retains its relevance and deserves a second airing.
  • WikiProject report: Animals, farms, forests, USDA? It must be WikiProject Agriculture
    This week, the Signpost went down to the farm to have a look at the work of WikiProject Agriculture, which has been in existence since 2007 and has a scope covering crop production, livestock management, aquaculture, dairy farming and forest management.
  • Traffic report: Shanah Tovah
    Jews wished each other Shanah Tovah ("Good year") this week as Rosh Hashanah was our most popular article. It was also a week not dominated by heavy news and tragedies, so aside from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (#2, sixth week in the Top 10), our popular article list runs the gamut of current events including new television series Gotham (#3), the 2014 Asian Games (#4), and Reddit-fueled popularity for German director Uwe Boll (#7).
  • Featured content: Brothers at War
    As the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the American Civil War draws to a close, the race to improve content continues. The Battle of Franklin, fought on November 30, 1864, will, quite appropriately, be Picture of the Day for November 30, 2014, its 150th anniversary. If you want to help commemorate the American Civil War, why not help out at the Military History WikiProject's Operation Brothers at War. Or help out with the World War I centennial, just starting up, Operation Great War Centennial.

The Signpost: 08 October 2014

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  • Traffic report: Panic and denial
    The first case of the Ebola virus on US shores sent people into a tizzy, rushing to their keyboards to try and learn what they could.

The Signpost: 15 October 2014

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  • Arbitration report: One case closed and two opened
    The Banning Policy case was closed on 12 October. Arbcom affirmed that users have "considerable leeway" in terms of how their talk pages are managed.
  • Traffic report: Now introducing ... mobile data
    We are pleased to report that the WP:5000 has now been updated to include mobile views, including a column reflecting the percentage of views coming from mobile devices.
  • WikiProject report: Signpost reaches the Midwest
    Today, it's the turn of WikiProject Ohio to give us an interview probing deep into of how they manage to run a project covering one fiftieth of the United States, and the workings of how they manufacture their successes and other articles.

The Signpost: 22 October 2014

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The Signpost: 29 October 2014

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  • Featured content: Go West, young man
    By the way, there is a monster at the end of this article
  • Maps tagathon: Find 10,000 digitised maps this weekend
    Rather than the usual WikiProject Report, this week our guest author Jheald is telling us about a campaign to identify thousands of old maps which have been digitised, to make them available for georeferencing and upload
  • Traffic report: Ebola, Ultron, and Creepy Articles
    Ebola virus disease leads the Report for the fourth straight week. The rest of the list is primarily a mix of pop culture topics, including movie Avengers: Age of Ultron (#4) whose trailer was leaked early, and the death of Oscar de la Renta (#7). A BuzzFeed article on creepy Wikipedia articles, no doubt well-timed with Halloween (#9) around the corner, was responsible for three articles in the Top 25, including June and Jennifer Gibbons (#10), Taman Shud Case (#17), Joyce Vincent (#25). And the internet-run-amok controversy of Gamergate cracked the Top 25 for the first time at #19.
  • Recent research: Informed consent and privacy; newsmaking on Wikipedia; Wikipedia and organizational theories
    In new research conducted in light of proposed changes to data protection legislation in the European Union (EU), authors Bart Custers, Simone van der Hof, and Bart Schermer conducted a comparative analysis of social media and user-generated content websites’ privacy policies along with a user survey (N=8,621 in 26 countries) and interviews in 13 different EU countries on awareness, values, and attitudes toward privacy online.

The Signpost: 05 November 2014

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  • In the media: Predicting the flu, MH17 conspiracy theories
    "Rachel Feltman, in The Washington Post (November 4), examined research in which a team, mostly from Los Alamos National Laboratory, headed by Kyle Hickman developed a model that enabled them "to successfully predict the 2013-2014 flu season in real time" by employing "an algorithm to link flu-related Wikipedia searches with CDC data from the same time." Apparently when individuals search for information about the flu and its symptoms in Wikipedia when they feel ill, this generates data useful in forecasting the the flu season."
  • Traffic report: Sweet dreams on Halloween
    "It is, perhaps, ironic that humanity chose the week of Halloween to finally put its fears to bed. Let's face it: 2014 has been a year of tragedies, conflicts, plagues and pain, and eventually something had to break... Whether we at last came to terms with our limited ability to affect events, shoved those events under the carpet, or just decided to let go and move on, we turned our eye to more positive things, such as sports heroes, hotly anticipated movies, and lifelong learning; two Google doodles appeared in the top 25 for the first time since the beginning of August."

The Signpost: 12 November 2014

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  • In the media: Amazon Echo; EU freedom of panorama; Bluebeard's Castle
    "Technology media outlets are abuzz after the November 6 unveiling of the Amazon Echo, an Internet-connected voice command device"; "The EUobserver talks (November 4) with Dimitar Dimitrov (User:Dimi z) about the lack of freedom of panorama in some European Union countries and its implications for Wikimedia projects"; "Scott Cantrell, classical music critic for the Dallas Morning News, recounts efforts to verify an uncited claim in the Wikipedia article for the Béla Bartók opera Bluebeard's Castle."
  • Traffic report: Holidays, anyone?
    This was very much a week dominated by holidays and pop culture over current events, with new film Interstellar taking the top spot followed by holidays Day of the Dead (#2), Guy Fawkes and his Night (#4 and #5), and Halloween (#8, and its third week on the list). And a foursome of television shows, all return visitors, appear to setting up residence on the greater Top 25: The Walking Dead (#11), American Horror Story: Freak Show (#14), Gotham (#16), and The Flash (#18).
  • WikiProject report: Talking hospitals
    We return to our interview format this week, speaking with the participants of WikiProject Hospitals. This project, formed in 2010, has no Featured content and only three Good articles, yet aided by around 30 hard-working Wikipedians covers a topic that is essential to life.

The Signpost: 26 November 2014

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  • In the media: A Russian alternative Wikipedia; Who's your grandfather?; ArtAndFeminism
    Numerous media outlets are reporting on a November 14 statement on the website of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library announcing the formation of a Russian "alternative" to Wikipedia, a "regional electronic encyclopedia" dedicated to "Russian regions and the life of the country".
  • WikiProject report: Back with the military historians
    It's time for this year's edition of the Report looking at possibly our largest wikiproject: Military history. Since our last interview in June 2013, the project has had no break in its huge quest to document everything in their scope, that is, militaries and conflicts of the past. As usual, its participants were eager to answer the questions posed by The Signpost and update us on how they are doing.
  • Traffic report: Big in Japan
    Often times in popular culture, a subject will be quite popular among a distinct niche of people or region of the world, but little-known elsewhere -- like a musical artist that is boasted to be "big in Japan". The Traffic Report provides a bevy of examples this week.

The Signpost: 03 December 2014

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The Signpost: 10 December 2014

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The Signpost: 17 December 2014

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The Signpost: 24 December 2014

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The Signpost: 31 December 2014

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  • News and notes: The next big step for Wikidata—forming a hub for researchers
    Wikidata, Wikimedia's free linked database that supplies Wikipedia and its sister projects, is gearing up to submit a grant application to the EU that would expand Wikidata's scope by developing it as a science hub. The proposal, supported by more than 25 volunteers and half a dozen European institutions as project partners, aims to create a virtual research environment (VRE) that will enhance the project's capacity for freely sharing scientific data.
  • In the media: Study tour controversy; class tackles the gender gap
    A "study tour" by the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation for the purpose of researching development projects has been the subject of much controversy and criticism in the Indian press... The Indian Express described a government report about the trip as having copied extensively from the Wikipedia articles for Port Blair and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
  • Traffic report: Surfin' the Yuletide
    Unlike last year, Wikipedia viewers seem to have embraced the Christmas spirit, with three topics in the top 10 (and eight in the top 25) focused on the holiday season.
  • Op-ed: My issues with the Wiki Education Foundation
    Chris Troutman has been a campus ambassador for six classes in the Los Angeles area over the past four consecutive semesters. He is currently a Wikipedia Visiting Scholar at University of California, Riverside.
  • Featured content: A bit fruity
    Three articles, three lists, fifteen pictures, and one topic were promoted.

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q4 2014

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 7, No. 4 — 4th Quarter, 2014
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q4 2014, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:22, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 07 January 2015

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  • In the media: ISIL propaganda video; AirAsia complaints
    ISIL hostage quotes Wikipedia in propaganda video; AirAsia articles draw complaints regarding Flight 8501; Article errors reveal US political approaches to Wikipedia editing; Rhode Island Governor numbering debate
  • Featured content: Kock up
    Two lists and twelve pictures were promoted.
  • Traffic report: Auld Lang Syne
    We end 2014 and and start 2015 with the normal array of year-end activities, including movie watching with Bollywood film PK (#1) topping the list, followed by The Interview (#2), 2014 in film (#10), and five other films in the rest of the Top 25, plus a number of articles about the subjects of these films. We celebrated the New Year by singing "Auld Lang Syne" (#11), or perhaps watching Adam Lambert (#9) perform with Queen. But we could not avoid a final tragedy with the crash of Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 (#4) on December 28.

The Signpost: 14 January 2015

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  • Op-ed: Articles for creation needs you
    Ever since the Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident in 2005 triggered the restriction against un-registered editors creating new pages, WikiProject Articles for creation (AfC) has stood in the breach. The WikiProject's purpose is to review draft submissions from IPs (and frequently new registered editors) to sort the wheat from the chaff.
  • WikiProject report: Articles for creation: the inside story
    This anniversary issue, the WikiProject report is returning to WikiProject Articles for creation for one of our largest interviews ever. Last looked at in 2011, AfC is the method used by unregistered or new users to create articles, and provides an effective filtering system to remove all unsuitable or unsourced submissions to save them needing to be found and deleted later.
  • News and notes: Erasmus Prize recognizes the global Wikipedia community
    On the fourteenth anniversary of the founding of the English Wikipedia, the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation has announced that its prestigious annual Erasmus Prize will be awarded to the worldwide community that has built Wikipedia.
  • Featured content: Citations are needed
    Six featured articles, five featured lists, and sixteen featured pictures were promoted this week.
  • Traffic report: Wikipédia sommes Charlie
    It's a grim certainty what topic most interested Wikipedia viewers this week. The horrific attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine have drawn anger and resolve from around the world, and also the attention of an English-speaking world that had previously never heard of it.

The Signpost: 21 January 2015

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  • Interview: WWII veteran honors shipmates through Wikipedia editing
    Over seventy years ago, the US destroyer Mahan was patrolling off Ponson Island in the Philippines when eleven Japanese kamikaze aircraft appeared over the horizon and attacked. George Pendergast, who edits Wikipedia with the username Pendright, was eighteen years old when he joined Mahan '​s crew in April 1944.
  • Op-ed: Let's make WikiProjects better
    Our contributor opines that WikiProjects are failing to live up to their potential. WikiProject X is a new project funded by a Wikimedia Foundation Individual Engagement Grant that focuses on figuring out what makes some WikiProjects work and not others.
  • In the media: Johann Hari; bandishes and delicate flowers
    Quotes from Jimbo on Wikipedia in education; net neutrality; preserving musical heritage; Wikipedia in audio; a cheerful vandal credits high school with papal visitations.

The Signpost: 28 January 2015

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  • Traffic report: A sea of faces
    It is pretty clear what the theme is this week: people.

The Signpost: 04 February 2015

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  • Op-ed: Is Wikipedia for sale?
    Hundreds of posted jobs offer money to edit Wikipedia. These jobs appear to be thriving, with tens of thousands of dollars changing hands each month.
  • Traffic report: The American Heartland
    The American heartland appears to dominate the Report this week, with Chris Kyle leading the Report.
  • Featured content: It's raining men!
    Three featured articles, five featured lists, and thirty-nine featured images were promoted this week.
  • Arbitration report: Slamming shut the GamerGate
    One case has been closed, two cases remain open, a third is undergoing a review, and three clarification or amendment requests remain open.
  • WikiProject report: Dicing with death – on Wikipedia?
    A small band of dedicated editors seek to improve articles relating to a less lively topic. If you haven't yet guessed, this week's focus is WikiProject Death.

The Signpost: 11 February 2015

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  • In the media: Is Wikipedia eating itself?
    Edina edit war illustrates disconnect between new and experienced editors; Wikipedia is "astroturf's dream come true"; Canadian government investigating even more Wikipedia editing; academics on Gamergate as "clash of civilizations"?
  • Traffic report: Bowled over
    Wikipedia presents itself as a repository for the world, and while that is a noble sentiment, it is still true that, Conservapedian complaints notwithstanding, the English language Wikipedia is very often the American Wikipedia, and never has that been more apparent than this week.
  • WikiProject report: Brand new WikiProjects profiled
    This week, we bring three of the most recently created WikiProjects to come into being on the English Wikipedia. While many long-established projects are becoming inactive, (as we have covered before), that doesn't stop new ones forming every now and then to cover a topic that a group of editors feel should be better cared for.
  • Gallery: Feel the love
    This week, we feature subjects that are about love of all kinds.

The Signpost: 18 February 2015

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  • In the media: Students' use and perception of Wikipedia
    The Australian ("Wikipedia not destroying life as we know it", February 11) and Times Higher Education ("Wikipedia should be 'better integrated' into teaching", February 10) reported on a recent study performed at Monash University, titled "Students’ use of Wikipedia as an academic resource – patterns of use and perceptions of usefulness".
  • Special report: Revision scoring as a service
    The authors of this report inform us that the "goal in the Revision Scoring project is to do the hard work of constructing and maintaining powerful AI so that tool developers don't have to. This cross-lingual, machine learning classifier service for edits will support new wiki tools that require edit quality measures."
  • Gallery: Darwin Day
    Darwin Day is observed annually on February 12 to commemorate the life and work of scientist Charles Darwin. Here is a selection of images of life on the Galápagos Islands, where Darwin made key observations leading to his scientific theory of evolution by natural selection.
  • Traffic report: February is for lovers
    This week saw the 57th Annual Grammy Awards (#13 on the Top 25) held on 8 February dominating the traffic chart, as music lovers checked out Sam Smith (#3) picking up four awards, Beck taking album of the year, and performances including Sia (#9), Madonna (#11), and Annie Lennox (#16). But Valentine's Day (#1) proved the perfect time for the release of Fifty Shades of Grey, with the movie coming in at #5, the book of the same name at #2, and the primary actors at #14 and #15.

The Signpost: 25 February 2015

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  • News and notes: Questions raised over WMF partnership with research firm
    A report from the external research firm Lafayette Practice has declared that the Wikimedia Foundation is the "largest known participatory grantmaking fund." Several concerns have been raised with the report, the phrase being used (participatory grantmaking), the now-former Wikipedia article on that phrase, and an alleged conflict of interest by WMF staff members.
  • In the media: WikiGnomes and Bigfoot
    Andrew McMillen's February 3 profile of and his quest to rid Wikipedia of the phrase "comprised of" has been one of the most widely circulated and commented upon media stories about the encyclopedia recently.
  • Gallery: Far from home
    The Gallery is an occasional Signpost feature highlighting quality images and articles from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons based on a particular theme, as well as an article you could help improve. This week, we feature subjects that are "far from home".
  • Traffic report: Fifty Shades of... self-denial?
    An odd juxtaposition this week, as interest in Fifty Shades of Grey coincided with the observance of the Chinese New Year and the annual festival of penance, Ash Wednesday.
  • WikiProject report: Be prepared... Scouts in the spotlight
    This week's project is on a youth activity, one of the largest in the world; its project is commensurately large, containing around 136 active editors. It's WikiProject Scouting, a group of editors whose remit is everything relating to the Scouting movement, which has around 42 million members worldwide and celebrated the centenary of its founding only eight years ago.
  • Blog: Join the Wikimedia strategy consultation
    Editor's note: the Blog will be a recurring Signpost section that will highlight a recent post from the Wikimedia blog, run by the Wikimedia Foundation. This week's installment is written by Philippe Beaudette, the Foundation's Director of Community Advocacy, and focuses on planning for the future of the Wikimedia movement.

The Signpost: 25 February 2015

[edit]
  • News and notes: Questions raised over WMF partnership with research firm
    A report from the external research firm Lafayette Practice has declared that the Wikimedia Foundation is the "largest known participatory grantmaking fund." Several concerns have been raised with the report, the phrase being used (participatory grantmaking), the now-former Wikipedia article on that phrase, and an alleged conflict of interest by WMF staff members.
  • In the media: WikiGnomes and Bigfoot
    Andrew McMillen's February 3 profile of and his quest to rid Wikipedia of the phrase "comprised of" has been one of the most widely circulated and commented upon media stories about the encyclopedia recently.
  • Gallery: Far from home
    The Gallery is an occasional Signpost feature highlighting quality images and articles from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons based on a particular theme, as well as an article you could help improve. This week, we feature subjects that are "far from home".
  • Traffic report: Fifty Shades of... self-denial?
    An odd juxtaposition this week, as interest in Fifty Shades of Grey coincided with the observance of the Chinese New Year and the annual festival of penance, Ash Wednesday.
  • WikiProject report: Be prepared... Scouts in the spotlight
    This week's project is on a youth activity, one of the largest in the world; its project is commensurately large, containing around 136 active editors. It's WikiProject Scouting, a group of editors whose remit is everything relating to the Scouting movement, which has around 42 million members worldwide and celebrated the centenary of its founding only eight years ago.
  • Blog: Join the Wikimedia strategy consultation
    Editor's note: the Blog will be a recurring Signpost section that will highlight a recent post from the Wikimedia blog, run by the Wikimedia Foundation. This week's installment is written by Philippe Beaudette, the Foundation's Director of Community Advocacy, and focuses on planning for the future of the Wikimedia movement.

The Signpost: 04 March 2015

[edit]
  • Editorial: Conspiracy theories distract from real questions about grantmaking report
    Last week, my colleagues on the Signpost produced a news report covering a minor controversy about a report commissioned by the Wikimedia Foundation. Written by the staff of The Lafayette Practice, a French research firm, it proclaimed the WMF as a leader in the practice of participatory grantmaking.
  • Traffic report: Attack of the movies
    The Report this week is dominated by the Academy Awards, taking the top 4 spots and 13 of the Top 25.
  • Interview: Meet a paid editor
    Before being indefinitely blocked, User:FergusM1970 made more than 4600 edits on the English Wikipedia, spread over eight years. In the last two years, he was paid to edit several articles for clients that included the Venezuelan energy company Derwick Associates. We spoke with him about his experiences.
  • In the media: Kanye West rebranded; Wikipedia in court; editors for hire
    Numerous news outlets are reporting that the domain loser.com now redirects to the Wikipedia article for rapper Kanye West. Page views on West's Wikipedia article skyrocketed to almost 250,000 views on March 2, up from less than 19 thousand the previous day.
  • Blog: Black History Month edit-a-thons tackle Wikipedia’s multicultural gaps
    Black History Month is celebrated annually in the United States in February, to commemorate the history of the African diaspora. For this occasion, Wikipedians worked together to honor black history and to address Wikipedia's multicultural gaps in the encyclopedia, hosting Wikipedia edit-a-thons throughout the United States, from February 1 to 28, 2015.

The Signpost: 11 March 2015

[edit]
  • Special report: An advance look at the WMF's fundraising survey
    The Wikimedia Foundation gave the Signpost an advance copy of the results of a survey of English Wikipedia readers regarding Wikimedia fundraising, due for official release today.
  • In the media: Gamergate; a Wiki hoax; Kanye West
    ThinkProgress tech reporter Lauren C. Williams wrote a long article on how the Gamergate controversy has spilled over onto Wikipedia.
  • In focus: WMF to NSA: "stop spying on Wikipedia users"
    In an effort to protect and maintain the privacy of Wikipedia's thousands of editors, the Wikimedia Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the United States' National Security Agency, Department of Justice, and the Attorney General.
  • Op-ed: Why the Core Contest matters
    I continue to be excited about the Core Contest because I see it as a way of encouraging the expansion of broad articles that are typically neglected by our article improvement incentives.

The Signpost: 18 March 2015

[edit]
  • From the editor: A salute to Pine
    We announce with sadness and gratitude that Signpost publication and newsroom manager Pine will be stepping back to focus on other Wikipedia and Wikimedia-related endeavors.
  • News and notes: SUL finalization imminent; executive office shake-ups at the Foundation
    This process is now entering its long-awaited final phase with the upcoming SUL finalization, scheduled for April 15, less than a month away. ... Wikimedia Foundation chief talent and culture officer Gayle Karen Young announced her retirement from the Foundation this week. Young will be replaced in that role by interim chief operating officer Terry Gilbey. According to the Foundation's job description for the title as it was applied in the past, Gilbey will be in charge of "overall administration and business operations of the Wikimedia Foundation."
  • In the media: NYPD editing articles regarding allegations of police brutality and misconduct
    On March 13, Kelly Weill of Capital New York revealed that numerous Wikipedia edits originated from 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the NYPD. Most of the attention has focused on a number of their edits to articles about incidents of alleged police brutality and controversial police practices.
  • Featured content: A woman who loved kings
    Four featured articles, four featured lists, and thirty-five featured pictures were promoted this week.
  • Traffic report: It's not cricket
    If not for Kayne West's dubious repeat at #1, the 2015 Cricket World Cup (#2) would have made the top spot, albeit in a generally slow news week.

.

The Signpost – Volume 11, Issue 12 – 25 March 2015

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  • Traffic report: Oddly familiar
    This week's list is reminiscent of lists from the early days of this project: a preponderance of famous faces, Reddit threads, and Google Doodles.

The Signpost, 1 April 2015

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  • Traffic report: All over the place
    The Report is more of a mix of random topics than usual this week. The top spot is taken by Bhutanese passport, a Wikipedia article which contained a crazed spoken word version which drew widespread attention.
  • Special report: Pictures of the Year 2015
    The Wikimedia Commons' annual Picture of the Year contest has concluded. The first 53 top-voted entries were disqualified because they were all nude.

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q1 2015

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 8, No. 1 — 1st Quarter, 2015
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q1 2015, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:45, 1 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 01 April 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: All over the place
    The Report is more of a mix of random topics than usual this week. The top spot is taken by Bhutanese passport, a Wikipedia article which contained a crazed spoken word version which drew widespread attention.
  • Special report: Pictures of the Year 2015
    The Wikimedia Commons' annual Picture of the Year contest has concluded. The first 53 top-voted entries were disqualified because they were all nude.

The Signpost: 08 April 2015

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  • Traffic report: Resurrection week
    How appropriate that the theme of Easter week would be resurrection from the dead.
  • WikiProject report: WikiProject Christianity
    With Holy Week having recently drawn to a close, it is an apt time to examine WikiProject Christianity, which was created in 2006, and boasts over 200 active members.

The Signpost: 15 April 2015

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  • Traffic report: Furious domination
    If it wasn't for Easter, Fast and Furious related articles would have taken the top four spots this week. The latest installment of the movie franchise, Furious 7, tops the chart for the second straight week.

The Signpost: 22 April 2015

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  • In focus: 2015 Wikimedia Foundation election preparations underway
    2015 will see through the biennial community election for the three community-elected seats on the Board of Trustees—the "ultimate corporate authority" of the Wikimedia Foundation and the level at which the strategic decisions regarding the Wikimedia movement are made.
  • Featured content: Vanguard on guard
    Six featured articles and fifteen featured pictures were promoted this week.
  • Traffic report: A harvest of couch potatoes
    Couch potatoes rule this week, as 9 of the top 10 slots were taken by either movies, TV, or sports.
  • Gallery: The bitter end
    The Gallery is an occasional Signpost feature highlighting quality images and articles from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons based on a particular theme.

The Signpost: 29 April 2015

[edit]
  • Featured content: Another day, another dollar
    Ten featured articles, nine featured lists, and twenty-eight featured pictures were promoted this week.
  • Traffic report: Bruce, Nessie, and genocide
    Though the continued predominance of movies, TV, and sports noted in last week's report largely continues, three additional topics joined the Top 10 this week.

The Signpost: 06 May 2015

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  • Special report: FDC candidates respond to key issues
    Elections have begun for five community members of the Funds Dissemination Committee, the Foundation's volunteer body for judging and recommending millions of dollars worth of annual grants to affiliates in the movement. The election lasts just eight days, from Sunday 3 May until 23:59 UTC on Sunday 10 May, so at the time of publication, voters will need to act promptly.
  • Traffic report: The grim ship reality
    Like colliding ocean liners, rousing entertainment and harsh reality merged ungainly in this week's top 10 list. The much heralded pay-per-view pummeling of Manny Pacquiao by Floyd Mayweather, Jr. dominated the list's top slots, giving this list one of its highest total view counts in months.

The Signpost: 13 May 2015

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  • Foundation elections: Board candidates share their views with the Signpost
    Three community-elected seats on the Board of Trustees—the ultimate governing authority of the Wikimedia Foundation—will be decided by Wikimedians in the election to be held 17–31 May.
  • Traffic report: Round Two
    Casual viewers may think I've posted the same list twice. But no, readers just happen to be really interested in May 2's Big Fight. In fact, last week was just the weigh-in and the trash talk. This week, the numbers actually increased.
  • In the media: Grant Shapps story continues
    Grant Shapps, who was the co-chairman of the UK's Conservative Party until this week, has been accused of maliciously editing the Wikipedia biographies of his party's rivals.

The Signpost: 20 May 2015

[edit]
  • In focus: The awful truth about Wikimedia's article counts
    The article counts of many Wikimedia wikis suddenly changed on 29 March 2015: as the Signpost reported at the time, sixty-five wikis fell below milestones tracked at the Wikimedia News Meta page, and three increased to new milestones.
  • Traffic report: Inner Core
    The list is topped this week by Danish scientist Inge Lehmann, thanks to a Google Doodle celebrating her 127th birthday. Lehmann discovered in 1936 that the Earth has a solid inner core. It is sometimes surprising to realize how recently such basic scientific knowledge of the Earth, which we now take for granted, was discovered.
  • News and notes: A dark side of comedy: the Wikipedia volunteers cleaning up behind John Oliver's fowl jokes
    Wikipedia editors logging in on May 19 found themselves walking into an unexpected amount of anti-vandal work to keep the site in line with its extensive biographies of living persons policy. A plethora of Wikipedia articles related to the United States House Committee on Appropriations, and the fifty-one representatives serving on it, have been hit by a raft of anonymous editors making often vulgar edits referencing "chicken fucker," or more creative combinations: "sexual conduct", "sexual congress", "fornicator", "intimate relations", or "trysts with chickens."
  • In the media: Jimmy Wales accepts Dan David Prize
    Jimmy Wales and five others accepted the 2015 Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University on May 17. The prize comes with US$1 million, ten percent of which goes to doctoral and postdoctoral scholarships.
  • WikiProject report: Cell-ebrating Molecular Biology
    This week, we had the pleasure of interviewing WikiProject Molecular and Cellular Biology, which has come a long way since our last interview in 2008. Like most projects, it has a long member list, but only a small subset of that group regularly contributes. With 28 featured articles and 58 top-importance start class ones, the project has clearly had some success, but has a ways to go. We talked to three regular project contributors.
  • Arbitration report: Editor conduct the subject of multiple cases
    The Arbitration Committee has an unusually large case load at present. Although perhaps not on a par with the high-profile, multi-party cases seen towards the end of last year and the beginning of this year, with five open cases the arbitrators are likely to be kept busy for the next several weeks.

The Signpost: 27 May 2015

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  • News and notes: WMF releases quarterly reports, annual plans
    The Wikimedia Foundation recently switched to a quarterly report structure to better align reporting with the generally quarterly planning and goal-setting processes.
  • Discussion report: A relic from the past that needs to be updated
    To many, Internet Relay Chat is an old relic, but not to Wikipedia. Wikipedia currently has an IRC help channel designated to help and assist editors with editing Wikipedia.
  • Traffic report: Summer, summer, summertime
    As usual for the time of year, pop culture rules this week. The start of summer vacation in the US means a focus on summer movies, particularly blockbuster sequels Avengers: Age of Ultron, Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road.
  • Technology report: MediaWiki blows up printers
    ...allegedly. In a post to wikitech-l, Steven Walling pointed out that the TV show CSI: Cyber had used a screenshot of MediaWiki's HTML output and claimed it was responsible for blowing up printers.

The Signpost: 03 June 2015

[edit]
  • News and notes: Three new community-elected trustees announced, incumbents out
    The Wikimedia Foundation's volunteer election committee has announced the election results for the three vacant seats on the Board of Trustees. Dariusz Jemielnak, James Heilman, and Denny Vrandečić are set to take up their two-year terms on the Board. They will replace the three incumbents, all of whom stood this time unsuccessfully: Phoebe Ayers, Samuel Klein, and María Sefidari.
  • Technology report: Things are getting SPDYier
    Over the past few weeks, developers have been working on improving Wikimedia's performance when users connect to it using SPDY.
  • Traffic report: A rather ordinary week
    The traffic report is nothing unusual this week, with a Google Doodle for astronaut Sally Ride topping the list, the accidental death of famous mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. at #2, and the normal fare of recent popular American movies and television.

The Signpost: 10 June 2015

[edit]
  • News and notes: Chapter financial trends analyzed, news in brief
    This week saw the publication of the Chapter-wide Financial Trends Report 2013, a now-completed research project that examines the finances and outlays of the 36 movement-affiliated chapters.
  • Featured content: Just the bear facts, ma'am
    Four featured articles, two featured lists, one featured topic, and twenty-eight featured pictures were promoted this week.
  • Technology report: Wikimedia sites are going HTTPS only
    Today it was announced that Wikimedia sites are going to become HTTPS only, finishing up 10 year effort of rolling out HTTPS.

The Signpost: 17 June 2015

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  • Arbitration report: An election has consequences
    The Arbitration Committee delivered its final decision in a case that reached the attention of the UK national press.
  • Featured content: Great Dane hits 150
    Six featured articles, seven featured lists, and seven featured pictures were promoted this week.
  • WikiProject report: Western Australia speaks – we are back
    It wouldn't be the WikiProject report if we didn't feature an Australian topic once in a while, so this week we're looking at the left side.

The Signpost: 24 June 2015

[edit]
  • From the editor: The Signpost tagging initiative
    Over more than a decade of weekly publication, The Signpost has accumulated an incredibly lengthy and detailed record about the issues, controversies, successes, and failures of the English Wikipedia community and the movement at large.
  • News and notes: Board of Trustees propose bylaw amendments
    The Board of Trustees is the "ultimate corporate authority" of the Wikimedia Foundation and the level at which the strategic decisions regarding the Wikimedia movement are made ...

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q2 2015

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 8, No. 2 — 2nd Quarter, 2015
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q2 2015, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:19, 2 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 01 July 2015

[edit]
  • In the media: EU freedom of panorama; Nehru outrage; BBC apology
    A week now remains until the vote, expected on 9 July, when the European Parliament will express either its approval, disapproval, or lack of opinion on the question of freedom of panorama in the European Union.
  • WikiProject report: Able to make a stand
    Here to share their wisdom are Dodger67, Penny Richards, LilyKitty, and Mirokado of WikiProject Disability
  • Featured content: Viva V.E.R.D.I.
    Four featured list and twelve featured pictures were promoted this week.
  • Traffic report: We're Baaaaack
    For the week of June 21 to 27, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages.

The Signpost: 08 July 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: The Empire lobs back
    It's July 4 weekend and on this list that means only one thing: Wimbledon. Sure, the American Independence Day gets noticed too, but it can't hold a candle to that staggeringly British sporting event.
  • Technology report: Tech news in brief
    Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community.

The Signpost: 15 July 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Belles of the ball
    However coy they may be about it in public, Americans love to win. And when they do, they make no secret of it.
  • News and notes: The Wikimedia Conference and Wikimania
    Wikimania 2015 is underway in Mexico City, and one of its sessions—a scheduled follow-up to the annual Wikimedia Conference that was held in Berlin in May—is good reason to provide a retrospective of that Conference.
  • Technology report: Tech news in brief
    Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community

The Signpost: 22 July 2015

[edit]
  • From the editor: Change the world
    We want to take a moment to ask you to consider contributing to the Signpost.

The Signpost: 29 July 2015

[edit]
  • Featured content: Even mammoths get the Blues
    Five featured articles, five featured lists, and sixteen featured pictures were promoted this week.
  • Traffic report: Namaste again, Reddit
    For the first time since this list began, India-related topics have claimed both the top two slots.

The Signpost: 05 August 2015

[edit]
  • Op-ed: Je ne suis pas Google
    The public interest in remembering the facts about trials and convictions is, in my view, at least as strong as any "right to be forgotten."
  • Traffic report: Mrityorma amritam gamaya...
    Death is no stranger to this list, but it has never cast such a pall as this week, when for the first time half the slots in the top 10 were devoted to it, including the top 3.

The Signpost: 12 August 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Fighting from top to bottom
    The charts are led this week by UFC women's champion Ronda Rousey, who won her last match at UFC 190 (#9) in 34 seconds.
  • Blog: The Hunt for Tirpitz
    During World War II, the German battleship Tirpitz was a major threat to Allied convoys travelling across the North Atlantic and Arctic Sea.

The Signpost: 19 August 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Straight Outta Connecticut
    It's a long way from the leafy bowers of Greenwich, Connecticut to the concrete barrens of Compton, California.

The Signpost: 26 August 2015

[edit]
  • Recent research: OpenSym 2015 report
    A look at the research presented at the OpenSym 2015 conference.

The Signpost: 02 September 2015

[edit]
  • News and notes: Flow placed on ice
    The WMF collaboration team announced this week that Flow will no longer be under active development.
  • Featured content: Brawny
    This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 16 August to 24 August.
  • Traffic report: You didn't miss much
    The late-summer smash success of Straight Outta Compton remains the chief talking point of the English-speaking world, interrupted only by the welcome return of a Google Doodle.

The Signpost: 09 September 2015

[edit]
  • Gallery: Being Welsh
    The National Library is now releasing some of the nation's most treasured collections to Wikimedia Commons for everyone to use and enjoy.

The Signpost: 16 September 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Another week
    No particular trends to spot in this week's top article traffic.

The Signpost: 23 September 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: ¡Viva la Revolución! Kinda.
    This week, drug lord and wannabe Bolivar Pablo Escobar was joined by a whole host of somewhat more primetime-friendly political insurgents.

The Signpost: 30 September 2015

[edit]

The Signpost: 07 October 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Reality is for losers
    English speakers, like most of humanity, are primarily a northern-hemispheric people, and as autumn draws close and the days grow shorter, as a group we tend to huddle around our flickering screens and remember what matters: TV, movies, sports and, of course, crazy doomsday prophecies.
  • Arbitration report: Warning: Contains GMOs
    A new case was opened for ArbCom as the Genetically modified organisms case was accepted and opened on 28 September.
  • Technology report: Tech news in brief
    A reproduced version of the Wikimedia tech newsletter.

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q3 2015

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 8, No. 3 — 3nd Quarter, 2015
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q3 2015, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:55, 13 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 October 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Screens, Sport, Reddit, and Death
    For the second consecutive week, the most viewed article had less than one million views, the only two weeks that has happened in all of 2015.

The Signpost: 21 October 2015

[edit]

The Signpost: 28 October 2015

[edit]

The Signpost: 04 November 2015

[edit]

The Signpost: 11 November 2015

[edit]
  • Gallery: Paris
    Reflecting on the tragedy in France.

The Signpost: 18 November 2015

[edit]

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:56, 24 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 25 November 2015

[edit]

The Signpost: 02 December 2015

[edit]

The Signpost: 09 December 2015

[edit]

The Signpost: 16 December 2015

[edit]

The Signpost: 30 December 2015

[edit]
  • Traffic report: The Force we expected
    In a development that should surprise no one, Star Wars takes the first place prize

The Signpost: 06 January 2016

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q4 2015

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 8, No. 4 — 4th Quarter, 2015
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q4 2015, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:35, 9 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 January 2016

[edit]
  • Op-ed: Transparency
    James Heilman talks about why he was removed from the WMF board.
  • Technology report: Tech news in brief
    Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community.

The Signpost: 20 January 2016

[edit]

The Signpost: 27 January 2016

[edit]

The Signpost: 03 February 2016

[edit]
  • From the editors: Help wanted
    Help us continue to publish on a weekly (-ish) basis.
  • Traffic report: Bowled
    Some sort of sporting contest tops this week's traffic.

The Signpost: 10 February 2016

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The Signpost: 17 February 2016

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  • Traffic report: Super Bowling
    The biggest annual event in America takes over Wikipedia viewership

The Signpost: 24 February 2016

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The Signpost: 02 March 2016

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Brawling
    Politics and wrestling top the traffic statistics.

The Signpost: 09 March 2016

[edit]

The Signpost: 16 March 2016

[edit]

The Signpost: 23 March 2016

[edit]

The Signpost: 1 April 2016

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q1 2016

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 9, No. 1 — 1st Quarter, 2016
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q1 2016, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:14, 9 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 14 April 2016

[edit]
  • Gallery: A history lesson
    A look at political satire, brought to you by Wikipedia and Commons

The Signpost: 24 April 2016

[edit]

The Signpost: 2 May 2016

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Purple
    Prince's death breaks traffic report records

The Signpost: 17 May 2016

[edit]

The Signpost: 28 May 2016

[edit]
  • Op-ed: Journey of a Wikipedian
    Mental health carries a powerful stigma. The more we are open about it, the less that weighs all of us down

The Signpost: 05 June 2016

[edit]
  • WikiProject report: WikiProject Video Games
    We sat down with the writers of some of the most vistied Wikipedia articles

The Signpost: 15 June 2016

[edit]
  • Blog: Why I proofread poetry at Wikisource
    Poetry: “it is the stuff of the soul; it speaks to the body, the mind, and the spirit alike.” Sonja Bohm worked for years to get all of Florence Earle Coates’ poetry online, and now proofreads poetry on the English Wikisource, the free library. We asked why.

The Signpost: 04 July 2016

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q2 2016

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 9, No. 2 — 2nd Quarter, 2016
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

Project At a Glance
As of Q2 2016, the project has:


Content


Project Navigation
To receive future editions of this newsletter, click here to sign up on the distribution list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:02, 9 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 21 July 2016

[edit]

The Signpost: 04 August 2016

[edit]
  • Featured content: Women and Hawaii
    Eight articles, two lists and fourteen pictures were promoted

The Signpost: 18 August 2016

[edit]
  • Traffic report: Olympic views
    Politics gives way to sports, TV and film
  • Arbitration report: The Michael Hardy case
    New case opened, and a reminder to administrators not to impose blocks based on private information

The Signpost: 06 September 2016

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The Signpost: 29 September 2016

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The Signpost: 14 October 2016

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  • News and notes: Fundraising, flora and fauna
    Wikimedia Foundation reports on fundraising challenges and new initiatives; Indian botanists rally to build Wikimedia Commons' photo collection
  • Traffic report: Debates and escapes
    Donald Trump remains a view-magnet, others change their channel

The Signpost: 4 November 2016

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  • Wikicup: WikiCup winners
    Winners of the tenth annual WikiCup competition announced and profiled
  • Featured content: Cream of the crop
    Fourteen articles, six lists and fourteen pictures were promoted

New deal for page patrollers

[edit]

Hi Ismashed,

In order to better control the quality of new pages, keep out the spam, and welcome the genuine newbies, the current system we introduced in 2011 is being updated and improved. The documentation and tutorials have also been revised and given a facelift. Most importantly a new user group New Page Reviewer has been created.

Under the new rule, you may find that you are temporarily unable to mark new pages as reviewed. However, this is nothing to worry about - most current experienced patrollers are being accorded the the new right without the need to apply, and if you have significant previous experience of patrolling new pages, we strongly encourage you to apply for the new right as soon as possible - we need all the help we can get, and we are now providing a dynamic, supportive environment for your work.

Find out more about this exiting new user right now at New Page Reviewers and be sure to read the new tutorial before applying. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:28, 13 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

[edit]

Hello, Ismashed. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 4 November 2016

[edit]
  • Featured content: Featured mix
    Eight articles, two lists and nine pictures were promoted
[edit]

Greetings Recent Changes Patrollers!

This is a one-time-only message to inform you about technical proposals related to Recent Changes Patrol in the 2016 Community Wishlist Survey that I think you may be interested in reviewing and perhaps even voting for:

  1. Adjust number of entries and days at Last unpatrolled
  2. Editor-focused central editing dashboard
  3. "Hide trusted users" checkbox option on watchlists and related/recent changes (RC) pages
  4. Real-Time Recent Changes App for Android
  5. Shortcut for patrollers to last changes list

Further, there are more than 20 proposals related to Watchlists in general that you may be interested in reviewing. (and over 260 proposals in all, across many aspects of wikis)

Thank you for your consideration. Please note that voting for proposals continues through December 12, 2016.

Note: You received this message because you have transcluded {{User wikipedia/RC Patrol}} (user box) on your user page. Since this message is "one-time-only" there is no opt out for future mailings.

Best regards, SteviethemanDelivered: 01:11, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 22 December 2016

[edit]
  • Year in review: Looking back on 2016
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The Signpost: 17 January 2017

[edit]
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    Data sets now available on Commons, wishes to be worked on in 2017, and a recap of the Wikimedia Developer Summit

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q3 2016

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:32, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q4 2016

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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 9, No. 4 — 4th Quarter, 2016
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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:52, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 6 February 2017

[edit]
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The Signpost: 27 February 2017

[edit]
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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q1 2017

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 10, No. 1 — 1st Quarter, 2017
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MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:39, 5 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Nomination of BPM Racing for deletion

[edit]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article BPM Racing is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/BPM Racing until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Reach Out to the Truth 22:55, 19 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 9 June 2017

[edit]
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The Signpost: 23 June 2017

[edit]
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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q2 2017

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 10, No. 1 — 2nd Quarter, 2017
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(Delivered 14:33, 9 July 2017 (UTC))

The Signpost: 15 July 2017

[edit]
  • Gallery: A mix of patterns
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    Enjoy the Parameters: The Infobox Game can be enjoyed by everyone, not just those interested in water buffalo breeds, volcanic hotspots or the mysterious heteroisoform, and some day just might spawn an important facet of the financial derivatives industry.
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    The heat turns up on the 32 contestants who entered round three: 13 featured articles, 82 good articles, 167 DYKs, but we had to pick just eight of them to advance.

The Signpost: 5 August 2017

[edit]
  • WikiProject report: Comic relief
    An interview with a project that is centered around comics.
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    Recently promoted articles, lists and pictures – with a very heavy one in the mix
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The Signpost: 6 September 2017

[edit]
  • WikiProject report: WikiProject YouTube
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The Signpost: 25 September 2017

[edit]
  • News and notes: Chapter updates; ACTRIAL
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  • Gallery: Chicken mania
    Complimenting this issue's Humour about chickens...
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    Newly featured birds, planes, and high achievers

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q3 2017

[edit]

The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 10, No. 3 — 3rd Quarter, 2017
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Project At a Glance
As of Q3 2017, the project has:


Content


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(Delivered ~~~~~)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:13, 2 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 October 2017

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The Signpost: 24 November 2017

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  • News and notes: Cons, cons, cons
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Hi. We're into the last five days of the Women in Red World Contest. There's a new bonus prize of $200 worth of books of your choice to win for creating the most new women biographies between 0:00 on the 26th and 23:59 on 30th November. If you've been contributing to the contest, thank you for your support, we've produced over 2000 articles. If you haven't contributed yet, we would appreciate you taking the time to add entries to our articles achievements list by the end of the month. Thank you, and if participating, good luck with the finale!

The Signpost: 18 December 2017

[edit]
  • Arbitration report: Last case of 2017: Mister Wiki editors
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The Signpost: 16 January 2018

[edit]
  • News and notes: Communication is key
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The Signpost: 5 February 2018

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The Signpost: 20 February 2018

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Signpost issue 4 – 29 March 2018

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The Signpost: 26 April 2018

[edit]
  • From the editors: The Signpost's presses roll again
    Following Kudpung's op-ed "Death knell sounding for The Signpost?" in the 29 March issue, user comments encouraged a burst of enthusiasm to keep the newspaper in print.
  • Signpost: Future directions for The Signpost
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    New major editing policy starting immediately: creation of articles in mainspace is to be limited to users with confirmed accounts
  • Op-ed: World War II Myth-making and Wikipedia
    Wikipedia's myth of the clean Wehrmacht and what you can do about it. Or, how not to be one of "the worst distributors of pro-Nazi perspectives and the Wehrmacht myth".
  • Discussion report: The future of portals
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The Signpost: 24 May 2018

[edit]
  • WikiProject report: WikiProject Portals
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  • Gallery: Wine not?
    May 25 is National Wine Day in the United States.

Orphaned non-free image File:Real Racing Poster.jpg

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Real Racing Poster.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:56, 25 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 29 June 2018

[edit]
  • News and notes: Money, milestones, and Wikimania
    Major grants announced, a new milestone for Afrikaans Wikipedia, a new WMF technical engagement team, an effort to start up a new library, two new admins – or maybe three fewer depending on your math.
  • Discussion report: Deletion, page moves, and an update to the main page
    Community discussions include style updates to project-wide icons and the main page, procedural questions on royal names and jettisoning unsuitable drafts, and deeper questions of compliance with European privacy laws and the perennial issue of shrinking admin corps.
  • Traffic report: Endgame
    Two celebrities hang themselves, and the FIFA World Cup is underway

Orphaned non-free image File:Gangstar west coast hustle icon.png

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Thanks for uploading File:Gangstar west coast hustle icon.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:52, 3 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned non-free image File:Gangstar West Coast Hustle Screenshot.jpg

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Gangstar West Coast Hustle Screenshot.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:53, 3 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned non-free image File:Tap Tap Revenge 2 Icon.jpg

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Thanks for uploading File:Tap Tap Revenge 2 Icon.jpg. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 17:20, 4 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 July 2018

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The Signpost: 1 October 2018

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Nomination of List of songs in Wii Music for deletion

[edit]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article List of songs in Wii Music is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of songs in Wii Music until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Lordtobi () 17:52, 22 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 28 October 2018

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ArbCom 2018 election voter message

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The Signpost: 1 December 2018

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Nomination of Cosmic Nitro for deletion

[edit]

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Cosmic Nitro is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Cosmic Nitro until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Jovanmilic97 (talk) 15:47, 9 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned non-free image File:Cosmic nitro cover art.png

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Thanks for uploading File:Cosmic nitro cover art.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 02:25, 18 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned non-free image File:Cosmic Nitro Screenshot.png

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⚠

Thanks for uploading File:Cosmic Nitro Screenshot.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).

Note that any non-free images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described in section F5 of the criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. --B-bot (talk) 02:26, 18 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 March 2019

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The June 2019 Signpost is out!

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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q2 2019

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Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20190707 MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:10, 15 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 July 2019

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WikiProject Video games Newsletter Q3

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Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20191006

The Signpost: 31 October 2019

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The Signpost: 27 December 2019

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WikiProject Video games Newsletter Q4 2019

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Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20200105

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WikiProject Video games Newsletter Q1 2020

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Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20200405

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WikiProject Video games Newsletter Q2 2020

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Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20200705

03:23, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

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WikiProject Video games Newsletter Q3 2020

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Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20201004

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:10, 9 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 1 November 2020

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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q4 2020

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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 12, No. 4 — 4th Quarter, 2020
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:33, 4 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 31 January 2021

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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter, Q1 2021

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The WikiProject Video Games Newsletter
Volume 13, No. 1 — 1st Quarter, 2021
Previous issue | Index | Next issue

-- MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:42, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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Latest (and most likely final) issue of the WP:VG newsletter

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Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:40, 8 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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Nomination of Backflip Studios for deletion

[edit]
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Backflip Studios is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Backflip Studios (2nd nomination) until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.

ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ () 18:38, 27 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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Disputed non-free use rationale for File:Backflip studios logo.png

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Thank you for uploading File:Backflip studios logo.png. However, there is a concern that the rationale provided for using this file on Wikipedia may not meet the criteria required by Wikipedia:Non-free content. This can be corrected by going to the file description page and adding or clarifying the reason why the file qualifies under this policy. Adding and completing one of the templates available from Wikipedia:Non-free use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your file is in compliance with Wikipedia policy. Please be aware that a non-free use rationale is not the same as an image copyright tag; descriptions for files used under the non-free content policy require both a copyright tag and a non-free use rationale.

If it is determined that the file does not qualify under the non-free content policy, it might be deleted by an administrator seven days after the file was tagged in accordance with section F7 of the criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions, please ask them at the media copyright questions page. Thank you. — Ирука13 14:29, 2 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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Nomination of Bolt Creative for deletion

[edit]
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Bolt Creative is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bolt Creative until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.

ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ () 17:40, 13 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]