Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-12-04/News and notes

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  • WMIL also had its budget effectively reduced because in 2012–13 it spent its allocated budget + about 15% in carryover from the previous year, i.e. 115% of its budget. This is more than the budget it received in 2013–14 and therefore needs to cut back on programs. The problem here is that the FDC structure has much more stringent reporting requirements than pre-FDC, which means that chapters need to hire staff to handle these things. This automatically and very significantly raises the operating expenses of each chapter (for small chapters usually above 100%). This eats into each chapter's ability to actually carry out programs that benefit the movement, which in turns gets criticism from the WMF. If the WMF wants chapters to have both a very high level of reporting and the ability to carry out great programs, it needs to take into account the added expenses incurred by its own recent requirements. —Ynhockey (Talk) 09:13, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    Hi Ynhockey, I want to stress that WMIL has its FDC allocation INCREASED by nearly 30%. Your allocation from the FDC last time was 549440₪, and now it is 709000₪. Thus, WMIL has received 29% more than it did the last time (effectively, minus 1.48% due to minimal inflation). Naturally, it is possible, that if your budget in 2012-2013 was inflated by a one time carryover, even the ~30% increase in funding from the FDC does not cover your intended growth. Pundit|utter 12:06, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • It is actually not true that "most editors start" on Wikisource by uploading a djvu. I have been on Wikisource for four years, involved in a major project you mention, and never have I uploaded a djvu, a procedure that requires some skill with large files in the typical case. The point is that uploading is far from being the bottleneck: proof-reading is by a very large margin the key part of getting a work available on Wikisource. Charles Matthews (talk) 10:09, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Wikisource: I'd like to mention the interviews available here: Interviews. Yann (talk) 10:56, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Regarding the Conflict of Interest and India; Wikimedia India has replied on the talk page of it's FDC proposal. The Signpost team is yet to respond to the Conflict of Interest that was raised over there. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 14:08, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm disappointed that you're only linking to the WMF blog post for the German court decision, considering that it paints a considerably rosier picture than just about anyone else does about the situation, and it's a major issue that could use a prose summary by the Signpost. Sven Manguard Wha? 17:04, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    • This is where we could have done with another writer/researcher. We were unable to cover the matter properly, but decided it was sufficiently important to warrant a mention in the "In brief" section. To cover it properly would require in-depth research; I sense a different take by the WMF to that of the court. Interesting, but we received opinion that in the grander scheme it's unlikely to make a signficant difference to the question of liability. Tony (talk) 12:48, 6 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm surprised to see the FDC guardrails characterised as a rule here - they are a guideline, not a rule. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 20:54, 5 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    • You're quite right; I've changed it accordingly. I do note that the framework document says that "the FDC will follow" it, although the possibility of exceeding the range is specified as requiring stronger justification to the board of trustees. Tony (talk) 12:48, 6 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Steffan Prößdorf -> Steffen Prößdorf Cheers, —DerHexer (Talk) 01:06, 6 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Some clarification from the FDC on WMDE: There is indeed a difference between WMDE's "carry forward" (the $675,000 USD) outlined in its proposal and a general issue of (potential) chapter underspends from previous FDC allocations. As you know, we do not yet know the underspends of the chapters--since they are still carrying out activity with their current funds through the end of December. They have only loosely predicted what their underspends *might* be. That is why the FDC will need to publish their guidance on this issue separately. However in WMDE's case, WMDE is already saying it won't use those particular funds because the activity has been canceled, and instead, WMDE will apply the funds next year. WMDE may have significant underspend in addition to this--time will tell. Pundit|utter 18:26, 6 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
    • This was all very confusing for an onlooker who wants to make sense of how the trajectory of FDC funding is playing out. I wish there had been more explanation, and inclusion in the summaries for each recommendation the predicted size of underspend on which the FDC based its calculations. Was this a predictable scenario—that underspends and therefore calculations of percentage change over the previous allotment difficult to arrive at at the time of recommendation each year? Tony (talk) 02:18, 7 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • the German community banned what had become the mainstay of Wikisource uploads on all language versions: what is colloquially known as "dumping". The English site still allows dumping, but encourages the use of the new technology. What is dumping? It's not clear to me in the text. Chris Troutman (talk) 21:19, 7 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Dumping, as far as I can make out, is the practice of uploading raw sources, without accounting for provenance. Tony (talk) 14:11, 9 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Many Wikisources allow copying text from, for example, Project Gutenberg and pasting it directly into the mainspace. On English Wikisource this is not the preferred method but it is acceptable if there is some attribution of the source on the talk page. (This was actually the main way it worked in the early days.) German Wikisource does not allow this at all and requires that all of its text is based on scans (policy comparison). In contrast, about 28% of English Wikisource has been proofread from scans using the Proofread Page extension. - AdamBMorgan (talk) 15:21, 11 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Inflation[edit]

"Wennersten confirmed that local currencies were used in applying the guardrails guideline."

Don't forget inflation. It nears 30% annually in Argentina, for example. --NaBUru38 (talk) 23:52, 8 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That is economic suicide. I don't know to what extent the FDC should shoulder 100% of the uncertainty of fluctuations in exchange rates and inflation rates. The FDC has a fixed budget in $US, and it doesn't seem fair to other applicants that a large margin of uncertainty should have to be built into allocations. It's not an easy problem, but the practices of other international bodies might be instructive. Tony (talk) 14:11, 9 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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