Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions

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The Signpost
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Suggestions


The Signpost
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This page is for suggesting news to be covered in the next Signpost. We are a newspaper that covers subjects of general interest for our audience of Wikipedia editors. If you'd like guidance on editing for new editors, please inquire at WP:Teahouse. More general questions may be addressed to WP:Help.


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WMF actions regarding users in China[edit]

Several users in mainland China were desysopped and/or globally banned by WMF: m:Office actions/September 2021 statement Rschen7754 18:22, 13 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2021-07-25/Special report for a prior report.--GZWDer (talk) 16:18, 14 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, we will cover this in as much detail as possible, though I still only know of 2 of the banned. I'd really like to hear from Chinese editors on both sides. If anybody has anything confidential to include on this story that I can otherwise verify please email me directly. Smallbones(smalltalk) 17:18, 14 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
See zh:维基百科:互助客栈/其他#WG在qq群威胁其他wiki编辑诉诸法律案 : 8 people globally banned, 12 desysopped. SYSS Mouse (talk) 17:50, 14 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Also [1]. --Rschen7754 18:11, 14 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
As per this post, the 8 globally locked accounts are: 城市酸儒文人挖坑, 蟲蟲飛, 玄客, Walter Grassroot, ArthurLau1997, 尤里的1994, 遊魂 and Techyan. These 12 accounts have their admin/bureaucrat rights from all WMF wikis (not just zh.wp) stripped: Alexander Misel (former CheckUser), Stang, Nbfreeh, Manchiu, 瑞麗江的河水, Hamish, DreamLiner, Lanwi1 (former CheckUser), 霧島聖, Outlookxp, 夢蝶葬花 (also losing zh Wikivoyage and zh Wikiversity admin rights) and WAN233 (also losing classical Chinese wiki admin rights). As early as March 2018, WMF revoked all zh.wp local CheckUser rights due to security concerns,[2] which was why Alexander Misel and Lanwi1 (plus others) lost their CU rights en-masse. OhanaUnitedTalk page 22:19, 14 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Striking off 玄客 since it was a mis-identification by the WMF office. OhanaUnitedTalk page 21:34, 18 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Current at zh wikipedia: that a proposal to derecognize WMC and to remove all links to WMC from the wiki is in process. And all RfA in zh wiki is suspended for 3 weeks from the bureaucrats. SYSS Mouse (talk) 13:48, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, readers, for bringing this up. There is a placeholder item at the News and notes feature for the next issue. If you would like to contribute, please contact us at the WP:Newsroom or as he said, contact the Editor in Chief privately. ☆ Bri (talk) 13:55, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks to all. I'm almost sure this will be in Special report (though thr Maryana Iskander story might possibly end up there. There is an open letter to read at [qiuwen.wmcug.org.cn/archives/403/on-wmf-office-action-en-1/]. Smallbones(smalltalk) 14:18, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
all, it seems that this global ban is also related to an incident in 2017. SYSS Mouse (talk) 14:43, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]
For the 2017 incident, see m:Requests_for_comment/Ongoing_issues_at_Chinese_Wikipedia/Previous_discussion.--GZWDer (talk) 16:40, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Break[edit]

There's a duplicate thread about this at Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom#WMF bans and desysops around "infiltration concerns" with Wikimedians of Mainland China.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  16:53, 16 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

FWIW, the stuff is currently being worked on in Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Next_issue/News_and_notes and Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Next_issue/In_the_media. --Artoria2e5 🌉 12:15, 18 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Let's just use this page to link to sources:

Suggestion by Z1720 (2022-01-06)[edit]

The Signpost should write about WP:URFA/2020. The initiative reviews FAs promoted before 2016 to ensure they still meet the FA criteria. We produced a year-end report highlighting the work that has been completed and posted here. We would be happy to create an article for the Signpost, have a Signpost editor interview key members, or contribute to an article written by a Signpost writer. Please let me know if you are interested and which option is preferred. Z1720 (talk) 20:35, 6 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I second this. Courtesy pinging @EpicPupper, who recently asked about possible topics for a Signpost WikiProject feature. {{u|Sdkb}} talk 03:25, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks @Sdkb for the ping! @Z1720, a story for the WikiProject sounds great! In particular, for WikiProject reports, the Signpost usually interviews key members. I've started a draft page at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue/WikiProject report, and I'll get around to adding questions in the next couple of days. In the meantime, please do share the page with interested editors! 3-4 interviewees would be great. I'll admit that I am completely new to this, so please bear with me :) 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 03:35, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Z1720 sorry for the double ping Face-smile.svg How is the project organized? Should I refer to it as a WikiProject, or something else? 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 03:40, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I've added a draft of questions to the page Face-smile.svg Please let me know if you think anything should be changed! 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 04:09, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@EpicPupper: URFA/2020 is not a Wikiproject; I've always called it a working group, though @SandyGeorgia: might have a better title. In the link to questions, I think a question from the last Wikiproject report was copied over (a question about open proxies?) so that might be deleted. In the interest of journalistic integrity, I won't suggest any questions, though background information on our initiative can be found at WP:URFA/2020 and our latest report is here. Our first anniversary was November 2021. Z1720 (talk) 14:42, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@EpicPupper I can contribute to the history bits, but some re-working of the setup may be ino order because … no, WP:URFA/2020 is not a WikiProject. It’s a group of editors who had worked together at FAR and FAC who got organized to be more methodical about processing old FAs, based on the decades-old WP:URFA model, because there were so many older unreviewed FAs that a methodical approach was needed. I asked for a tech person to set up list, and away we went. Z1720 and Hog Farm have been informal leaders, along with my (more sporadic) input. (there, that’s my interview response :). It would be helpful to have a See also at the bottom that links to Z1720’s year-end report (but I can use the talk page there for such suggestions, I hope?). I strongly suggest that Jimfbleak be the fourth interviewee because they have interacted with the list towards all of our goals: as a TFA Coord, as an FA writer, and as a reviewer of other FA writers’ articles. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:58, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to @EpicPupper: for getting this started at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue/WikiProject report. The only problem I see is that this interview needs several respondents and there's really only 9 days before deadline. Perhaps it's already been done, but I'll ping everybody involved above @SandyGeorgia, Z1720, and Sdkb:. Anybody else who is involved should consider this an open invitation.

Smallbones(smalltalk) 18:15, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hog Farm (talk · contribs) has also shown interest. Once the questions are finalised I will start typing in some answers. Please ping when you are ready for me to answer some questions. Z1720 (talk) 18:19, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Jimfbleak: SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:50, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I can type my stuff in with very little time, once it's ready to go (meaning, any framework changes needed to reflect that it's not a WikiProject, and please add to the annual report to a See also somewhere, so it can be referred to ... I have watchlisted, and will plop my stuff in as soon as I get a break. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 21:52, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@SandyGeorgia, Z1720, Hog Farm, Jimfbleak: I've finalized the questions and conclusion. It would be appreciated if you could draft some answers at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue/WikiProject report in the next 1-2 days! Cheers, 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 22:39, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Chris troutman (2022-01-07)[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The Signpost should write about a WikiEd instructor triggered a Twitter spat, bullying an editor. Not surprisingly, WEF circled their wagons around the instructor due to political reasons. Perhaps the editing community should do more to defend its own interests. And no, I'm not interested in writing about this as there's no way I could do so even-handedly. Chris Troutman (talk) 00:47, 8 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I just read the discussion after seeing this and could take this on. {{u|Sdkb}} talk 18:40, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Suggestion by Shushugah (2022-01-16)[edit]

Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2022, a new task force Wikipedia:Nazi affiliation Task Force was launched. The task force's initiator User:Shushugah was directly inspired by the op-ed "World War II Myth-making and Wikipedia" published by User:K.e.coffman on Wikipedia Signpost in a 2018.

I think we can probably include this in News and notes. @Shushugah:. Can you give me one or two sentences that I can quote and/or cut down to a very short quote? e.g "What's it about? Why is it needed?" Smallbones(smalltalk) 18:24, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Smallbones sure thing! See the following: The WP:Nazi affiliation task force was recently created to tackle the problem of both white washing and WP:UNDUE mentions of notable companies and individuals' affiliation or collaboration with Nazism. Unfortunately Wikipedia is not immune to such issues, but together we can address this! ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 18:35, 18 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Indy beetle (2022-01-22)[edit]

Suggestion by Xeno (WMF) (2022-01-22)[edit]

Conflict of interest note: I work for or provide services to the Wikimedia Foundation, and this is the account I use for edits or statements I make in that role. However, the Foundation does not vet all my activity, so edits, statements, or other contributions made by this account may not reflect the views of the Foundation.

The Signpost should write about the ongoing call for feedback for the upcoming Board of Trustees election. It opened 10 January and runs until 16 February. The Board is asking the community for input on three key questions. Participants are asked to discuss in any language and submit proposals. The call for feedback is supported by the Movement Strategy and Governance team and volunteer translators. Material is available in more than 25 languages. At time of writing, approximately 15 participants have advanced 8 proposals.

Please feel free to ping if further information is needed or would be useful. Xeno (WMF) (talk) 02:48, 22 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Xeno (WMF)! I've started a draft at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue/News and notes. Please feel free to suggest edits. Cheers, 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 03:38, 22 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A new resource in free information[edit]

Nature has an article about OpenAlex, a new open database of scholarly papers that are not behind paywalls -- "Massive open index of scholarly papers launches", article dated 24 January 2022. (Although I suspect this article is behind a paywall, darn it.) This is only the most recent article I've seen from Nature on free information. Any idea if the Foundation is involved in this? -- llywrch (talk) 23:34, 25 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Tdslk (2022-01-26)[edit]

The Signpost should write about... Either a major milestone or just a fun bit of collective editcountitis (editcountcountitis?): within the next day or two there will be 10,000 editors who have made at least 10,000 edits to English Wikipedia (there are currently 9,999 editors who have made at least 9,999 edits)! Tdslk (talk) 05:43, 26 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Bri (2022-01-29): New Vector skin improvements[edit]

It looks like The Signpost hasn't had any coverage yet of New Vector skin aka improved reading experience. Am I just missing it? Seems like an important potential future topic. ☆ Bri (talk) 18:12, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

if it's short - maybe something short in News & notes this month. If it's long maybe write it up next month? Smallbones(smalltalk) 05:30, 30 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Courtesy link that works: mw:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements. If nobody wants to take this on, I'd be happy to write up either a News and Notes item or something for the technology report. Thoughts? 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 00:13, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Decided against doing this for the Feb issue because it's quite old news by now. 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 01:40, 28 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by GamerPro64 (2022-01-31)[edit]

Maybe there can be a gallery piece for movies that are in the public domain that may be Featured Pictures or are at least of high quality. Just thinking there could be more love for movies on Wikipedia. Especially important films like Night of the Living Dead. Or maybe a piece about movies published on Wikipedia in general. GamerPro64 06:39, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps in Featured Content, or Gallery? Featured Content might be good because it's usually where we put things like this, but that's usually for recently featured stuff, so that might not be favorable because of that. 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 00:44, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Done as gallery for this month @GamerPro64! 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 01:40, 28 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Nthep (2022-02-03) - UK government white paper contains unattributed Wikipedia content.[edit]

The Independent is today (3 Feb) reporting that the UK Government's Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities's recently issued white paper contains wholesale copying from Wikipedia articles (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/levelling-up-plan-copied-wikipedia-michael-gove-b2006757.html). Articles copied from include Constantinople and List of largest cities throughout history. And to compound the issue, it looks like the sources aren't attributed. Nthep (talk) 20:27, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Added as a brief in In the Media, thanks. 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 04:32, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Danbloch (2022-02-04)[edit]

The Signpost should write about... "How Wiktionary is Different from Wikipedia and Why It Works Anyway". I've been struggling for years to understand how Wiktionary can work if it doesn't require contributions to be verifiable. Others probably would be interested too, and even if you don't think that's the key issue this would be a chance to shine a light on Wiktionary. Dan Bloch (talk) 17:57, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Danbloch: Relevant link: wikt:Wiktionary:Wiktionary for Wikipedians. --Yair rand (talk) 06:34, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Interactions between Wikipedia & pending legislation Suggestion by Alanthehat (2022-02-07)[edit]

The Signpost should write about... (or could somebody please point me to an article about...)

Interactions between Wikipedia/Wikimedia & pending legislation, both national & international

I'm a UK resident who has just discovered Signpost & my instant thought was to read an article on this topic since the Government here is proposing a huge raft of new laws, most from Home Secretary Priti Patel, banning all sorts of things including protests & nomadic lifestyles and adding restrictions to querying Government policy, including through the Courts. It all looks horrendous &, in my opinion, is likely to lead to censorship of Wikipedia so I feel that Wikipedia/Wikimedia should be broadcasting this around the world as well as doing something more direct & I would very much like to read about it & re-broadcast it on my social media page.

Obviously, what is happening in one country is likely to be happening/have happened in other countries with potential follow-through internationally in places like the United Nations Alanthehat (talk) 06:25, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by PAC2 (2022-02-14)[edit]

The Signpost should write about... Does your birthplace affect your probability to have your Wikipedia biography ? some evidence from people born in France. a notebook computing the probability of having a biographical article on fr.wikipedia.org for people born in France. It shows huge differences between French departments. PAC2 (talk) 18:39, 14 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

  • @PAC2: Very, very nice - with one trivial detail that *must* be corrected! We could publish this - almost as is - in the next issue (Feb 26th copy deadline - a day or 2 earlier is better), or if you want to add more detail on the importance of your findings, or on your motivation, reasons for your interest in Wikidata, etc., so much the better. But the trivial can be super important! 1,340/505,578 = 0.27% (for Paris) not 2.7% (at least in American English - maybe it's something with the commas (,)?). The same mistake (just one decimal) goes throughout your calculations. Please let me know. Smallbones(smalltalk) 16:36, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
    • Quick questions (license and copyright?), (where are Lyon and Marseille.in your data)? Smallbones(smalltalk) 16:52, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks a lot for your feedback.
* 1,340/505,578 = 0.27%. That's it. I use ‰ (per mille), not % (percent). Maybe I should explicit it.
* Paris is a city and a department. Marseille is in the department "Bouches-du-Rhône" (number 13) and Lyon in the department Rhône (69).
* I'll add a license and add more details about my motivation. PAC2 (talk) 19:51, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I've updated the notebook with more context and more interpretation : https://observablehq.com/@pac02/births-department-wikipedia. Do you want me to write a paragraph in the wiki? PAC2 (talk) 06:26, 22 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Risker (2022-02-15)[edit]

The Signpost should write about...

Well, this is just a suggestion, and I don't know where you'd fit it. A couple of months ago, I did an interview with a group of academics (the Human Energy group) who are researching the noosphere, to discuss how Wikipedia fits into this theory. They have now published the interview. This was a long interview, three videos of about 30 minutes each (with accompanying transcript), and I leave it to your editorial decision on whether or not this is interesting enough to include in one of the routine reports. Risker (talk) 04:39, 15 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks @Risker, added as a brief item here. 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 01:39, 28 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by SYSS Mouse (2022-02-24) Suggestion[edit]

The Signpost should write about the unfortunate timing of the banner of Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month across all projects and accusation of NPOV pushing from Ukrainian Institute and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (see talk page) when Russian troops are at the border, ready to invade going to march towards Kiev and we don't know if there will still be a Ukraine for the next Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month) SYSS Mouse (talk) 02:20, 24 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I originally wrote a section about this in News and notes, but removed it. See discussion here. 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 01:33, 28 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Gråbergs Gråa Sång (2022-02-27)[edit]

The Signpost should write about...

There's a new war, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, a WP-article available in many languages. As has been noted before in media, WP language versions can have interesting differences. It would be interesting to see an article about similarities/differences primarily between the English/Russian/Ukranian versions, but there may be interesting stuff in others, too. Google translate is imperfect, but not useless. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:47, 27 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is Playing Out on English, Ukrainian, and Russian Wikipedia Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 18:58, 1 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the tip. I'll add it to In the Media. 🐶 EpicPupper (he/him | talk) 19:35, 1 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The Russian Wikipedia will likely be blocked in Russia today or tomorrow, we will be able to compare the demographics then.--Ymblanter (talk) 19:37, 1 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

See also: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/3/22960007/russia-wikipedia-wikimedia-foundation-censorship-demand ---Another Believer (Talk) 20:20, 3 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by PAC2 (2022-03-10)[edit]

The Signpost should write about measuring gender diversity in Wikipedia articles. I've written some notebooks about the topic about academic fields in Wikipedia in English, academic fields in Wikipedia in French. I've also developed a tool to measure gender diversity for any article : https://observablehq.com/@pac02/explore-gender-diversity-in-a-single-wikipedia-article?collection=@pac02/gender-diversity-in-wikipedia-articles. This part of a larger project d:User:PAC2/Gender_diversity . PAC2 (talk) 07:42, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Gråbergs Gråa Sång (2022-03-10)[edit]

The Signpost should write about...

The last Signpost wrote about Wiki unseen. If you want to do a follow-up, their images has had some en-WP reactions, and I see the images are also used on other WP:s (possibly because wikidata in some cases?).

Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:23, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion by Piotrus (2022-03-11)[edit]

The Signpost should write about an arrest of a Belarusian/Russian Wikipedian for writing about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was arrested in Belarus. [3] Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 14:38, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Also see Song, Victoria (2022-03-11). "A top Wikipedia editor has been arrested in Belarus". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-03-13. François Robere (talk) 22:11, 13 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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