Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Archives/2018

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January

Volume 14, Issue 01, 16 January 2018

News and notes: Communication is key
Two new WMF Communications department leadership appointments; a new way for Wikimedia communities to communicate their capacities.

In the media: The Paris Review, British Crown and British Media
Wikipedia manipulated and copied – again

Featured content: History, gaming and multifarious topics
Historical and pop culture articles promoted.

Interview: Interview with Ser Amantio di Nicolao, the top contributor to English Wikipedia by edit count
How do you make an average of 3,600 edits a week for over a decade? And what do you learn when you've done it?

Technology report: Dedicated Wikidata database servers
Plus the latest technology upgrades, tools and news.

Humour: Why don't we have an article about _________?
Notable missing articles.

Arbitration report: Mister Wiki is first arbitration committee decision of 2018
In deciding to de-sysop an admin for efforts to evade discussion and review of paid edits made on behalf of a PR firm, Arbitration Committee doesn't significantly change the rules around paid editing, and leaves it up to the community whether to apply special restrictions to administrators.

Traffic report: The best and worst of 2017
A look back at the most popular articles in a tumultuous and intriguing year.

Pageviews

7-day page views for issue 2018-01-16

News and notes

In the media

Featured content

Arbitration report

Traffic report

Technology report

Humour

Interview

February

Volume 14, Issue 02, 5 February 2018

Op-ed: Do editors have the right to be forgotten?
Should an editor's block history be a permanent "rap sheet", or does Wikipedia forgive and forget? A reform initiative has begun.

Featured content: Wars, sieges, disasters and everything black possible
Exemplary content recognized between January 12 and January 20, 2018

Recent research: Automated Q&A from Wikipedia articles; Who succeeds in talk page discussions?
Also: Polish quality, Russian political mythologization, and multilingual analyses

Blog: New monthly dataset shows where people fall into Wikipedia rabbit holes
The Wikimedia Foundation's Analytics team compiles a clickstream dataset, now available as a series of monthly data dumps for English, Russian, German, Spanish, and Japanese Wikipedias.

Interview: Interview with The Rambling Man, Wikipedia's top contributor of Featured Lists
Lessons on Creating a Featured List

Traffic report: TV, death, sports, and doodles
The most popular articles for January 14 to 27

Special report: Cochrane–Wikipedia Initiative
A partnership to improve and update Wikipedia's medical content

Arbitration report: New cases requested for inter-editor hostility and other collaboration issues
Politeness and collegial behavior about to be taken up by Arbcom, and perhaps a revisit of the infobox question.

In the media: Solving crime; editing out violence allegations
Also, did UCF really win?

Humour: You really are in Wonderland
Enjoy the humour of another contributor

Pageviews

7-day page views for issue 2018-02-05

In the media

Featured content

Arbitration report

Traffic report

Blog

Recent research

Op-ed

Special report

Humour

Interview

Volume 14, Issue 03, 20 February 2018

News and notes: The future is Swedish with a lack of administrators
Sweden selected for Wikimania 2019; research report on shaping the future; a scarcity of RfAs.

Recent research: Politically diverse editors write better articles; Reddit and Stack Overflow benefit from Wikipedia but don't give back
There might be good things about an edit war.

Arbitration report: Arbitration committee prepares to examine two new cases
Editor in self-imposed exile and infobox wars a thorn in the side of arbitration committee.

Traffic report: Addicted to sports and pain
The Superbowl, the Winter Olympics, death, and accusations of unspeakable things.

Featured content: Entertainment, sports and history
An eclectic mix of promotions.

Technology report: Paragraph-based edit conflict screen; broken thanks
And other recent tech news.

Humour: Impossible and unexplained traffic report
Stubs get a lot of pageviews.

Pageviews

7-day page views for issue 2018-02-20

News and notes

Featured content

Arbitration report

Traffic report

Technology report

Recent research

Humour

March

Volume 14, Issue 04, 29 March 2018

Op-ed: Death knell for The Signpost?
Is The Signpost on its last legs?

News and notes: Wiki Conference roundup and new appointments.
Wikimedia events, group recognition, and individual appointments are ongoing.

Arbitration report: Ironing out issues in infoboxes; not sure yet about New Jersey; and an administrator who probably wasn't uncivil to a sockpuppet.
Arbcom considers new discretionary sanctions for infoboxes and an extension of 1RR.

In the media: The media on Wikipedia's workings: the good and not-so-good
Diplomats join Wikipedia for International Women's Day, the perfect "Human", how fringe theories are sustained, and perennial plagiarism from our pages.

Traffic report: Real sports, real women and an imaginary country: what's on top for Wikipedia readers
Wakanda still fascinates; the Oscars happened; Winter Olympics come to a close; and International Women's Day gets over a million page views.

Featured content: Animals, Ships, and Songs
A plethora of content.

Technology report: Timeless skin review by Force Radical.
Reviewing a browser skin providing equal emphasis on both content and editing tools simultaneously.

Special report: ACTRIAL wrap-up.
Retrospective on article creation trial.

Humour: WikiWorld Reruns
Nostalgia and trips down Memory Lane.

Pageviews

7-day page views for issue 2018-03-29

News and notes

In the media

Featured content

Arbitration report

Traffic report

Technology report

Op-ed

Special report

Op-ed

Special report

Humour

April

Volume 14, Issue 05, 26 April 2018

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
How to revive and evolve The Signpost? Big blue-sky proposals and small concrete proposals from the community and from two regular Signpost contributors.

News and notes: Photo of Kim Jong-un. Stephen Hawking death tops hits on many Wikipedias.
Finally a free image Kim Jong-un. WMF wins legal battle. Stephen Hawking death tops all Wikipedia hits.

In the media: The rise of Wikipedia as a disinformation mop
Internet companies use Wikipedia to police truth; Citogenesis proven yet again; early birthday greetings; and trains

In focus: Admin reports board under criticism
A recent Community Health Initiative survey found only 27% of respondents are happy with the way reports of conflicts between Editors are handled on the Administrators' Incident Noticeboard (ANI).

Special report: ACTRIAL results adopted by landslide
New major editing policy starting immediately: creation of articles in mainspace is to be limited to users with confirmed accounts

Opinion: Guideline for Organization Notability revised
The standards have been raised for sources used in judging the notability of nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

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".

Community view: It's time we look past Women in Red to counter systemic bias
Can Wikipedia mobilize the same energy to fill other gaps in coverage?

Discussion report: The future of portals
What should we do about Portals? Keep them, delete them, or mark them as historical? Or should they be more closely connected with their WikiProject(s)?

Arbitration report: No new cases, and one motion on administrative misconduct
Quiet month for the Arbitration Committee

WikiProject report: WikiProject Military History
Combat, weapons, monuments and personalities.

Blog: Why the world reads Wikipedia
What we learned about reader motivation from a recent research study

Humour: Our Favorite Places to Whine About Stuff
You might not get all excersized about essays but they can be as fun as talk pages

Traffic report: A quiet place to wrestle with the articles of March
The most popular articles from March 25 to April 14.

Technology report: Coming soon: Books-to-PDF, interactive maps, rollback confirmation
Plus the latest tech news and userscripts.

Featured content: Featured content selected by the community
Material promoted from March 2 through April 20.

Gallery: A look at some famous and not as well-known border tripoints
Honoring a day in military history, as well as peaceful borders

May

Volume 14, Issue 06, 24 May 2018

From the editor: Another issue meets the deadline
A busy office with minimal staff.

Op-ed: Has the wind gone out of the AdminShip's sails?
Kudpung has some thoughts on the reasons for becalmed forums and the reluctance of candidates to (wo)man the rigging.

Opinion: Integrating my many lives on Wikipedia
Thoughts on how looking for the truth on Wikipedia brings out unexpected things in the real world.

WikiProject report: WikiProject Portals
After a recent Village Pump discussion, the Signpost looks at WikiProject Portals.

Discussion report: User rights, infoboxes, and more discussion on portals
A busy month for discussions on major topics.

Featured content: Featured content selected by the community
Science, sportspeople, video games, and history feature heavily in the community's picks this month.

Arbitration report: Managing difficult topics
Has an attempt to prevent historical revisionism become a content battleground?

News and notes: Lots of Wikimedia
De-recognition of Brazil user groups; brute-force attack on Wikipedia; Wikimedia Conference 2018; and assorted other silly things.

In the media: Wikipedia in Turkish politics; COI politics in Wikipedia; most cited work
And the burning question of the day, is the monkey selfie going to space with the rest of Wikipedia?

Traffic report: We love our superheroes
No surprises here as the summer movie season begins.

Technology report: A trove of contributor and developer goodies
Improved mobile app, searching, citations, inline maps, voting, and more.

Blog: Why I write about women on Wikipedia
Editor SusunW delves into reasons why she has created hundreds of articles about women.

Recent research: Why people don't contribute to Wikipedia; using Wikipedia to teach statistics, technical writing, and controversial issues
Too many women still don't know that Wikipedia is editable.

Humour: Play with your food
Down the rabbit hole into the realm of third-grade mind.

Gallery: Wine not?
May 25 is National Wine Day in the United States.

From the archives: The Signpost scoops The Signpost
The dark and twisted world of Wikipedia's most powerful media institution: The Signpost.

June

Volume 14, Issue 07, 29 June 2018

From the editor: The Admin Ship is still barely afloat, while a Foundation project risks sinking
A Wiki not so Simple, a mayor motivating an editathon, a Marshall Plan, and a Wikimania under a cloud of criticism

Special report: NPR and AfC – The Marshall Plan: an engagement and a marriage?
Further developments on New Page Review and Articles for Creation work sharing

Op-ed: What do admins do?
Admins volunteer to be abused – or so it seems

Opinion: Google isn't responsible for Wikipedia's mistakes
So it shouldn't get credit for our work, either.

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.

In the media: Much wikilove from the Mayor of London, less from Paekākāriki or a certain candidate for U.S. Congress
Several online battles are juxtaposed with stories about cooperation and good deeds, Arbcom hovering over it all; notwithstanding, a good action movie script is not necessarily found here.

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.

Featured content: New promotions
Enjoy the superb content

Arbitration report: WWII, UK politics, and a user deCrat'ed
British politics case enters workshop phase and German war effort closes workshop, goes to Arbcom for proposals.

Traffic report: Endgame
Two celebrities hang themselves, and the FIFA World Cup is underway

Technology report: Improvements piled on more improvements
An AI assistant comes to watchlists; better mobile compatibility; new bots, tools and scripts; and more

Gallery: Wiki Loves Africa
Colorful and moving.

Blog: Wikipedia should be open for editors in Turkey
WMF appeals to Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime, and Communications Ahmet Arslan to lift the block of all language versions of Wikipedia for over a year.

Recent research: How censorship can backfire and conversations can go awry
Studying ourselves: 'driven by a sense of mission' according to researchers.

Humour: Television plot lines
In our next episode...

Wikipedia essays: This month's pick by The Signpost editors
Some essays are funny, some are serious; some are just, well what exactly?

From the archives: Wolves nip at Wikipedia's heels: A perspective on the cost of paid editing
Revisiting an editor's warning to count our kidneys and keep the wolves at bay

July

Volume 14, Issue 08, 31 July 2018

From the editor: If only if
Ships and shoes – and if you don't like it here, just go away!

Op-ed: The last leg of the Admin Ship's current cruise
How admin would-bes run the gauntlet.

Opinion: Wrestling with Wikipedia reality
Wikipedia referees wag a finger at Professional Wrestling editors.

News and notes: Another newspaper for Wikipedia; Wikimania 2018 ends; changes at NPR
New admins and Kudpung finally leaves NPP after 7 years.

In the media: Blackouts in Europe; Wikipedia and capitalists; WMF Jet Set
One secret cabal that watches out for conspiracy theories, and another one out to stymie venture capitalists?

Discussion report: Wikipedias take action against EU copyright proposal, plus new user right proposals
And more: a new user group for editing code, Women in Red, and arbitrator articles.

Featured content: Wikipedia's best content in images and prose
Spanning the gamut from warfare and destruction to pop culture to celebrations of nature and humanity's achievements.

Arbitration report: Status quo processes retained in two disputes
We don't have "state agents" in a political debate, but couldn't talk about it if there were.

Traffic report: Soccer, football, call it what you like – that and summer movies leave room for little else
Finding the mathematician and Supreme Court nominee in this list is like playing Where's Waldo?.

Technology report: New bots, new prefs
Useful new gadgets.

Gallery: Independence days, national holidays, and football – all in July
Depictions of July events in several countries.

Blog: Motivation of two editors
Those who study ancient Egypt.

Recent research: Different Wikipedias use different images; editing contests more successful than edit-a-thons
And other recent findings, plus a roundup of research presentations at Wikimania.

Humour: It's all the same
Merge WikiProject Professional wrestling and ANI.

Essay: Wikipedia does not need you
Get over it!

From the archives: The pending changes fiasco: how an attempt to answer one question turned into a quagmire
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

August

Volume 14, Issue 09, 30 August 2018

From the editor: Today's young adults don't know a world without Wikipedia
Keep straight on – there are trolls in the hedgerows.

Interview: 2018 Wikimedian of the Year, Farkhad Fatkullin
"Imagine a world in which every single human being is a Wikimedian. That's my commitment!"

News and notes: Flying high; low practice from Wikipedia 'cleansing' agency; where do our donations go? RfA sees a new trend
WMF pays possible Orangemoody ring for user research, and ditches MediaWiki for publishing its own blog. Knife-edge closures at RfA.

In the media: Quicksilver AI writes articles
But unfortunately its output is incompatible with open licensing.

Discussion report: Drafting an interface administrator policy
Plus: Simple English Wikipedia stays open, a discussion on draft header templates, bias blind spot by admins offered cash?

Featured content: Featured content selected by the community
Astronauts named Armstrong, babes of the Brits, Cortinarius caperatus and all that.

Special report: Wikimania 2018
"Bridging knowledge gaps, the ubuntu way forward".

Traffic report: Aretha dies – getting just 2,000 short of 5 million hits
Very high and very low hits; love and loss.

Technology report: Technical enhancements and a request to prioritize upcoming work
Citation bot and mapframe enhancements; new licenses for Data space; possible hiccup on 12 September; per-user page, namespace, and upload blocking; and miscellaneous new bots and tools.

Gallery: Leapfrog, historic Thai cave, and a rhythmic beat
Some of the best pictures of 2017.

Recent research: Wehrmacht on Wikipedia, neural networks writing biographies
Readers prefer the AI's version 40% of the time – but it still suffers from hallucinations.

Humour: Signpost editor censors herself
Nothing funny about it.

Essay: Principle of Some Astonishment
Remind you of any Wikipedia articles?

From the archives: Playing with Wikipedia words
The Wikipedia Plays.

October

Volume 14, Issue 10, 1 October 2018

From the editor: Is this the new normal?
We keep on publishing as long as you keep on reading.

News and notes: European copyright law moves forward
Wikipedia dodges a bullet in Brussels... maybe.

In the media: Knowledge under fire
Can Wikipedians help save the world's knowledge and shine a light on current events?

Discussion report: Interface Admin policy proposal, part 2
Plus: signatures, shortcuts, and reliable sources.

Arbitration report: A quiet month for Arbcom
No valid new requests for arbitration, no new cases.

Traffic report: John McCain's death generates over 7 million hits, followed by historical low
Fourth highest view count of the year; lowest view count since 2014; death, sports, and movies ever constant.

Technology report: Paying attention to your mobile
Plus the latest scripts, bots, and tech news.

Gallery: A pat on the back
A pictorial ode to the end of summer.

Blog: After a catastrophic fire at the National Museum of Brazil, a drive to preserve what knowledge remains
As the global community of volunteer Wikimedia editors mourns the destruction of this amazing museum, this post pays tribute to all editors who have contributed restlessly to tell the story of the National Museum, our history.

Recent research: How talk page use has changed since 2005; censorship shocks lead to centralization; is vandalism caused by workplace boredom?
And other recent research papers.

Humour: Signpost Crossword Puzzle
What is a four-letter word for...

Essay: Expressing thanks
You know you should...

Volume 14, Issue 11, 28 October 2018

From the editors: The Signpost is still afloat, just barely
A slightly thinner issue, but out on time.

Op-ed: Wikipedia's Strickland affair
Is a missing article on a Nobel laureate a fail? What if her draft biography was declined as non-notable?

News and notes: WMF gets a million bucks
And it's richer than ever.

In the media: Bans, celebs, and bias
Breitbart begone; rescued by archivists; celebrating trolls?

Discussion report: Mediation Committee and proposed deletion reform
Plus: two pending changes-related discussions, notability, and naming conventions.

Traffic report: Unsurprisingly, sport leads the field – or the ring
Who's reading what?

Technology report: Bots galore!
Bots can do anything you want – well, almost.

Special report: NPP needs you
WMF continues to stonewall development; NPP wishes again relegated to stocking fillers.

Special report 2: Now Wikidata is six
SPARQL adds sparkle to WMF projects.

In focus: Alexa
We are all writing for Amazon.

Gallery: Out of this world!
No special effects here, just beautiful celestial images.

Recent research: Wikimedia Commons worth $28.9 billion
If it weren't free, of course.

Humour: Talk page humour
Wikipedia has a long history of talk page tomfoolery.

Opinion: Strickland incident
The reviewer who declined the article gives his perspective.

From the archives: The Gardner Interview
The "holy-shit" slide.

December

Volume 14, Issue 12, 1 December 2018

From the editor: Time for a truce
Lay down your verbal weapons.

Op-ed: Looking back, looking forward: A beginner's experience on Wikipedia
The experiences of a new user on Wikipedia, told in their own words.

Special report: The Christmas wishlist
What do the WMF devs have in store for the community?

Opinion: The blogosphere migrates to Galaxy WMF
Suppose they gave a blog and nobody came?

News and notes: Reviewer of the year, WikiCup winner, and the 2019 Wikimedia Summit
Looking both backward and forward to events concerning the community.

Reflections: Wikipedia, history, and the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day
A personal reflection on Wikipedia's role as a repository of history.

In the media: Court-ordered article redaction, paid editing, and rock stars
Real-world news competes with the usual celeb fascination for Wikipedia's commentators.

Discussion report: Farewell, Mediation Committee
It was a good 15 years. Plus: admins, notability, substubs, and new padlocks.

Arbitration report: A long break ends
Arbcom takes its first new case since June.

Traffic report: Queen reigns for four weeks straight
The "Queen" of stage and screen, that is. Is there another?

Gallery: Intersections
Biology or technology? Form follows function in nature and the constructed world.

Recent research: Why do the most active Wikipedians burn out?; only 4% of students vandalize
And other new research results.

Essay: No one cares about your garage band
Nope, don't care!

Humour: The dark side of our favorite root vegetable
Wonky carrots invoke terror.

From the archives: Ars longa, vita brevis
ARS might continue, but some Wikipedians might not.

Volume 14, Issue 13, 24 December 2018

From the editors: Where to draw the line in reporting?
Tell us what you think!

Op-ed: Wikipedia not trumped by Trump appointee
Did World Patent Marketing pay to get Wikipedia to include flattering information on their board member, now the Acting United States Attorney General?

Special report: The Signpost got 380,000+ views in 2018, sounds reasonable enough, right?
A statistical insight into the English Wikipedia's very own online community newsletter.

News and notes: Some wishes do come true
NPP wins the wish list poll; Wikipedia editors will be able to work better at night; new WMF appointments and new arbitrators; and who wants to be an admin?

In the media: Political hijinks
Wikipedia says 'ta' to British M.P. and 'buh-bye' to U.S. President's image vandals.

Discussion report: A new record low for RfA
Plus: reliable sources, notability, and fallout from the self-blocking software changes.

WikiProject report: Articlegenesis
Discovering how new and unregistered users make articles with the members of WikiProject Articles for Creation.

Arbitration report: Year ends with one active case
GiantSnowman asked to chill, and other disputes addressed by Arbcom (or not).

Traffic report: Queen dethroned by U.S. presidents
The band relinquishes its first place hold; Aquaman is swimming into view for late December.

Gallery: Sun and Moon, water and stone
Happy solstice, and happy New Year!

Blog: News from the WMF
In and around the WMF and its projects from the WMF's web site.

Humour: I believe in Bigfoot
Are you a believer?

Essay: Requests for medication
When the desire to continue to have the privilege of editing Wikipedia overrides the body's innate desire to choke the living shit out of some bastard who really has it coming.

From the archives: Compromised admin accounts – again
Compromised accounts – especially those of inactive admins.

What do you think of The Signpost? Share your feedback.

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