User talk:Jimbo Wales

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Monkey business

From the same BBC article: "the foundation rejected his claim on the grounds that the monkey had taken the photo, and was therefore the real copyright owner." Really? The WMF got involved in that? JMP EAX (talk) 00:20, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

The communications team is working overtime to get corrections about this. Of course the Foundation did not claim that the monkey owns the copyright. --Jimbo Wales (talk) 10:24, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

@Jimbo Wales: it would appear that User:Odder is going the communications teams' job for them. Perhaps he should be given a job at the WMF as he is more effective than they are it would seem. 200.59.5.221 (talk) 11:01, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

I guess I missed the memo [1] "Wikimedia Foundation revealed Wednesday, in its first-ever transparency report, that it denied Slater’s request to have the image removed from Wikimedia Commons." JMP EAX (talk) 00:25, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

For reference, the files in question are File:One-of-the-photos-taken-b-013.jpg and File:Macaca nigra self-portrait.jpg, and their derivatives. Seattle (talk) 02:51, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

In the news today (posted Aug 6th) “Photography is my only source of income,” he told ABC News.¸--Moxy (talk) 10:45, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

His source of income has nothing to do with the copyright status of the photos. Seattle (talk) 14:54, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

[Insert] If the shot is in the public domain, he can't sell it. If he is the copyright holder, he can. Writegeist (talk) 23:57, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, he's playing an appeal to emotion fallacy there. He's also invoked Godwin's Law. Dude certainly isn't endearing himself to any sympathy for his position. Resolute 16:14, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

And Wikimedia and its arrogant community of know-nothing-at-alls are not endearing any sympathy whatsoever; more like international derision. Photographers' associations and their considerable funds, and army of copyright lawyers, will fall in behind the photographer. Paraphrasing what Stalin said about the Pope, "how many lawyers does Wikimedia have". It certainly does not have unlimited funds, as appeals for donations constantly remind us; should people's donations to improve the Wikiverse be used to defend a copyright dispute and contest interntational copyright law? If so, it is an abuse of those funds. Wiki-lawyering and the pontificating of Wikipedians about someone's motives are quite irrelevant to copyright law. Yes, Slater does have a right to make a living, and there's nothing wrong with that, though you are all insinuating his motives are suspect. That kind of insinuation about another Wikipedian results in a block. He invested in the trip to Indonesia, and for his supplies for his days in the jungle, and for his cameras and more; Wikimedia invested nothing. This is the tyranny of the ignorant and arrogant over someone being victimized by wiki-foolishness. But being victimized and doing the victimizing is common fare in Wikipedia, as is a complete moral vacuum on too many things to list. This will end badly, and very expensively, for the Wikimedia Foundation; it is already an international laughingstock; the schadenfreude of the press when Wikimedia is brought to heel and forced to pay damages will be even more of a chorus of hilarity and the butt of jokes for years to come. A consensus of fools is only foolishness. The monkey has the common sense to stay in the jungle...and as observed below, has not filled out a wiki-license relinquishing her copyright to the public domain. Animals cannot own copyright.Skookum1 (talk) 16:51, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

I think the Foundation lawyers will need to put in a lot of thinking about this one, because this is a very important issue affecting our attempts to try to protect the public domain. There are going to be a lot of arguments essentially appealing to some manner of "sweat of the brow" and various other circumstances that have favored various extensions of the copyright principle beyond the direct action of the photographer. For example, companies presently claim to own faithful photos of the Earth from orbit, even though any satellite in that orbit would have gotten pretty much the same thing. Modern artists fling paint at canvasses more or less randomly, or even paint it blank!, and claim it as an original protected work of art. You can purchase a commercial drone with a commercial camera, take a shot with all the default settings, and claim that simply because you controlled (with a very low level of accuracy) where the drone happened to be flying, that gives you a copyright over the photo. So what about handing a camera to a monkey?

However, once you abolish the sacred (if somewhat silly) principle that any monkey (literally) who presses the button owns the copyright, where do you stop? You go to the store, you buy a phone off the rack, you shoot a picture of the Taj Mahal and you upload it to Wikipedia as "own work". But why shouldn't the manufacturer, which spent years designing the CCD, lens, image adjustment software and physical layout of the camera, have the right to say that they put in all that design work, and you're just a monkey who pushed a button, no better or worse at it than the one who did the selfie? And say that that photo of the Taj Mahal you took is their copyright, and get it taken down off Wikipedia? There are other such examples, for example the very common "copyfraud" where people scan in a public domain document and claim to own it because it was their scanner. Well... why not, if the copyright goes to those who provided the camera?

I don't know how you draw a line on this one. A consistent theory of copyright won't be satisfied until a company can have a chip put in your head by court order to charge you when you think of a song, and with the power to make damn sure you never dare to hum it. All I see is a vast morass of inconsistent theory that depends mostly on who you are, and responds favorably to the application of large amounts of money. Wnt (talk) 17:29, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Herro Jimmy, I have just seen this tweet which has this photo of a ducklips selfie with a photo of the macaque. Do you not think that, aside from the photo not being funny, that it is in extremely poor taste that this image is being widely discussed in the news at the moment, and here are people at Nerdpalooza making light of the situation, led by none other than yourself. The projects are already taking a bit of a beating in the media, and if this photo comes to the attention of the media I can imagine that the wider public will be thinking "Jimmy, what an asshole"...because this is the general sentiment that a large proportion of commentators are saying about Wikimedia in general over the issue. Thoughts? 106.185.32.199 (talk) 23:23, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Jimmy you look great. So studious. But why does a monkey need glasses? Martinevans123 (talk) 23:48, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Several printouts of "the monkey" were propped up here on the Registration desk at Wikimania this morning, for attendees to take their own selfies with this newfound celebrity. But now, they have all been removed. I'm not sure by whom, or why. Censorship maybe? :) Arthur goes shopping (talk) 10:34, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I think it's clear the photographer hasn't a leg to stand on here, but at the same time I think the selfies and such are in extremely poor taste. We're talking about a regular guy trying to make a living

here, even if he's wrong, I don't see any reason for the mockery and teasing being conducted by the movement's best and brightest on the topic. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 12:43, 8 August 2014 (UTC).

I have just taken a selfie of myself with a printout of Jimbo's selfie with the printout of the selfie of the Wikimonkey. Now I'm trying to decide who's the best looking guy in this photo.   Mandruss |talk  11:51, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

It's all a lot of fun (and I hope the photographer at least gets some useful publicity), but the coatracking at Macaque#Copyright test case and Celebes crested macaque#Copyright test case is a bit hard to swallow. Johnuniq (talk) 12:09, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm sure there's been a lot written on this, but I'm adding this Washington Post/Volokh link mainly because I remember reading the original post from three years ago. We've all seen stories that get parts of this wrong, and this one gets most of it right.--S Philbrick(Talk) 16:38, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

No opinion about the copyright of the pictures (not strong enough to mention, anyway) but... I have disagreed and agreed often with Jimbo in the past (not that he cares, off course :-) but I always thought of him as an intelligent person. That selfie with monkey-selfie does not make sense. Jimbo can't be that.. much.. well... he was high, or it is a fake. It must be... - Nabla (talk) 20:44, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I think it is very interesting that until the very moment he published that image to the internet it was totally within his control as to what happened to it. No one could demand he publish the image. If they took it out of his hands and downloaded the image and handed back the disk they would still be arrested for theft. Yet the very moment he publishes the image people think they may take it away from him saying it never belonged to him in the first place. Despite all this, I can see the merits to both sides of this debate, but I also think the clear precedent is not there. The bothersome part is the almost savage need to belittle and grab this image away from him because he doesn't hold to a free culturist's perspective. Frankly I think the WMF has and continues to be a bully in this situation. Saffron Blaze (talk) 01:13, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

This is embarrassing to Wikimedia, not just the photo dispute itself that the allows no edits there but that it is going on at all. The speciousness of the now-closed "keep" discussion is specious and evidence to me of the low IQ and lack of worldliness and sophistication of wiki-lurkers. Might as well change the description from "that anyone can edit" to "that any idiot can mess around with and screw up". Time and again Commons has seen images deleted for extremely minor issues with the license, or any whiff of a copyright dispute; even my own images and those from my family estate which I donated have been threatened by deletion for the merest flaw in the license, maps and images based on already-in-Commons maps and images have also been deleted, partly because there's a paltry 7-day warning notice and many people just aren't on Wikipedia all the time like the bandits who presume to power that they don't deserve. In the delete discussion, there's a bunch of "Keep" votes that observe that an animal cannot hold copyright, which by logic mean that their votes should be "Delete", not "Keep". US law, German law, UK law, Canadian law are all set aside saying "we'll keep it until the court decision" etc...well, have a nice lawsuit Mr Wales, I'm a photographer myself and know where this will end - with a big hole in the funds donated to support Wikipedia/Wikimedia et al, and a black mark (among many) in the history of the Wiki-verse; in the meantime it's all over the world media and making Wikimedians look like a bunch of jackasses. The Berne Convention is international, and US law is only a reflection of it. The Wikimedia Foundation is not a law unto itself; but that's definitely the position of the know-nothings in those discussions, very few of whom I recognize as regular Wikipedians, at least English-languages Wikipedia users. The last comment on the most recent keep/delete discussion, from User:Yann is the patronizing and loaded "Apprentice lawyers should look for padawan-lawyers.com"; but it applies most strongly to the "keep" voters being bulls***ers about copyright law that they do not understand but presume to interpret, and says "let the courts decide" . Oh, they WILL and it's going to be very, very, very expensive for you. But that's what happens when you let a bunch of monkeys and arm them with keyboards and let their chattering shipwreck the Commons' and Wikimedia's reputation....such as it is. Sadly, it's not Shakespeare. That macaque's wonderful smile will haunt this place for years to come; there are other pictures available of black macaques, is it so important that this one be kept - much less claimed copyright to by Wikimedia in the name of "public domain". Come again? The illogical nature of Wiki discussions and "votes" is one of the curses of the wiki-environment, and threats of lawsuits cause blocking and banning; here it's an invitation to lawsuits and the courts. You've got to find a way to cage the monkeys, they've turned the Wiki-zoo into a circus of mob-rule and tomfoolery. The photograher owning the camera and processing the images owns copyright, animals can not hold copyright under any int'l agreement or in US law, which supposedly governs Wikimedia; it's that simple. Unless the monkey's lawyers show up in court and argue for ownership of copyright, this will wind up decided in the photographer's favour and to immense cost to Wikimedia on top of the mounting international embarrassment still underway.Skookum1 (talk) 01:54, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

I think that anything that encourages hipsters not to harass wildlife with their first world money making schemes is a good thing.^TM. AnonNep (talk) 02:19, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

that's just another stupid reason to support Wikimedia violating copyright law because of its own community of illogic+vanity+arrogance. Anything that brings that b.s. to heel, as this court case will do, is a much better thing, given all the abuses of logic and wiki's own guidelines that are being fielded to defend this nonsense and theft. And besides, if you've ever been around monkeys (as at Ubud in Bali, or on the wild trails in and out of Railay/Tonsai to Ao Nang in Thailand, you'd know that monkeys excel in harassing humans; let them out of the zoo they'd do the same in the Bronx or Compton or Yonkers. They steal, they tease, and this monkey was not being harassed, she was the one doing the harassing.Skookum1 (talk) 03:53, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

From the BBC (there are similar statements in other reputable sources): Mr Slater said he spent three days in Indonesia shadowing the monkeys in 2011.. AnonNep (talk) 06:50, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

So what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Jane Goodall spent years "harassing" gorillas by your logic. But your opinion, and that of the other arrogant-but-uneducated monkeys fielding their opinions on copyright law that have no basis in copyright law (wherein animals cannot own copyright) is beside the point. The court case, and the inevitable verdict in the camera-owner's favour is going to bankrupt the Wikimedia Foundation. A consensus of fools is only foolishness. Unless the monkey has lawyers and wants to press the case, it is none of Wikimedia's business to claim copyright. Wikimedia did not take the photo, and the monkey did NOT sign a release or fill out a Wikimedia copyright-release-to-public-domain license of any kind. American court costs and damage settlements are famously expensive, this is only going to end badly; it is already an international embarassment.Skookum1 (talk) 16:42, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

Point of quote was to respond to your claim the monkeys were harassing him. And I've never heard Jane Goodall claim she must have copyright over Gorilla selfies to fund her holidays. AnonNep (talk) 16:59, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

Yet another patronizing comment/accusation about this guy; photographers travel for a living, particularly nature photographers. Get a grip on this living person per BLP.Skookum1 (talk) 03:08, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

That also something else that he said in interviews (that he needed the money to pay for his holiday). It seems that you haven't read very widely on this issue before commenting. AnonNep (talk) 12:40, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

So WHAT does the fact he said that he needed the money to pay for his trip? He's a working photographer and ANY photo taken with cameras he bought and paid for is HIS. Your rationale is nasty, as if someone should be begrudged to make an income off their undertakings. That is NO reason to field a completely condescending attitude towards his RIGHT (aka copyright) to make earnings from his photography (which includes camera ownership, and contingencies such as accidental pictures taken, whether by a monkey looking at her reflection or a branch falling on the shutter or any other means). It's his camera, NOT Wikipedia's/Wikimedia's and it's most definitely NOT the monkey's. Appropriating it to the public domain, and then justifying it with weird rationalizations like "oh, he just wanted the money, as if that were a crime or suspect in any way is an argument that only someone with an axe to grind could make. A judge would certainly not tolerate it, and if Wikimedia's lawyers were to claim it in court the objection from Slater's counsel will be supported by the judge, just as it is supported by copyright law and the Berne Convention. You "obviously haven't read widely" on copyright law before shooting your tomfool mouth off about his motives; which are the motives of any artist of any kind about works undertaken with their equipment, at their cost. Argue as you are doing in a court and you would be held in contempt. You, and others with vindictive and self-righteous comments defending an untenable position not supporrted by law, definitely have mine and that of journalists (and photographers) all over the world. And since you clearly hold him in contempt, regarding YOU with contempt is fair game. And correct.Skookum1 (talk) 15:42, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I can't see this progressing constructively and I'll leave it at that. AnonNep (talk) 16:54, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I suspect, Skookum, that WMF legal has done a hell of a lot more reading about copyright than you have. Particularly since you think owning the camera automatically means you own copyright over everything created with it, regardless of the circumstances behind the creation of an image. Resolute 20:10, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

You can read all you want about copyright but if the precedents aren't there then the lawyers are just making it up as they go along. Saffron Blaze (talk) 01:23, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Resolute, where is your copyright "expertise" coming from? I know it only loosely, from being a creative person myself, though my years as a small-scale working photographer. Even within Wikipedia, in its own self-contained world of pompous irrelevance to reality and its disdain for WP:TRUTH vs "sources", that any copyright dispute exists at all should mean this photo should be removed from Commons until the case is decided in Wikimedia's favour. As someone here already observed, if a photographer's assistant is the one who fires the trigger, that assistant does not own copyright. As Saffron Blaze observes about "lawyers are just making it up as they go along", that is even more about "wiki-lawyers" and the bizarre babble and self-justification that's going on around here. I'm not an expert on copyright law, particularly on American copyright law....but unless you can demonstrate otherwise, neither are you. The monkey signed no release, and did not fill out a Commons license releasing "her work" into the public domain; she, being an animal, cannot have owned copyright; by default it goes to the owner of the camera; Saffron Blaze is right; though the precedents are there, as per the bit about photographic assistants; I can't cite them but I know they exist or commercial photography would be a very different thing than it is. The opinions on law and the derisive comments about the photographer here are not just BLP and AGF, they will also be used by the photographer's lawyers, and it's very very very likely that photographic associations and their lawyers will do the same. Any taint of legal action, or legal challenge, in Wikimedia/Wikipedia, is supposed to bring on a block or other punishment; yet here a pack of wiki-monkeys and wiki-baboons are chattering in the jungle of wiki-babble as if this were a closed arena. It's not; and much that is being said here can and probably will be used in the court of law. Curb thy tongue, knave; unless you can cite a portion of copyright law that says "pictures taken by monkeys who have grabbed a photographer's camera are public domain", you're talking through your fat hat like all the other wiki-simians here.Skookum1 (talk) 02:08, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

And about those lawyers....I object to the use of funds donated to Wikimedia for supporting Wikipedia for improving its content and interface being spent on a very questionable and obviously very controversial legal case; that is not what those donations are for; and the virulent mean-ness of comments about this photographer is indicative of a very very sad attitude of arrogance within the global fishtank and is not what those funds were donated for and should NOT be used for. You and others supporting the WMF's position here should start your own legal fund for this case; I reject the notion that charitable donations should be used for this case, period.Skookum1 (talk) 02:15, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Poor decision-making

Who's brilliant idea was it to print up the "monkey selfie" so that Wikimania participants could create "derivative works" from it? The photographer is already clearly posturing for a lawsuit (see "Monkey selfie sparks copyright battle,") ad infinitum. WMF refused a DMCA takedown request on the basis of a novel technical interpretation of the law, the photographer is alleging loss of income... This is certainly not a WMF position that I would want to bet money on holding up in court. So then we're going to make a game of the matter, with the public face of WP effectively taunting the potential litigant at London? Terrible breakdown in decision-making there... Carrite (talk) 13:50, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

• Derivative works was my phrasing to describe what they were making. The people who were doing it called them "selfies".  — Scott • talk 21:55, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

My apologies if I have deprived you of royalties by lifting your excellent phrasing without credit... ;-) Carrite (talk) 05:04, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I must agree with Carrite on this. We are, legally, in the right, but morally this is wrong - we're effectively saying "ner-nerny-ner-ner". We should be making reasoned arguments to support our position, not behaving like bullies. -mattbuck (Talk) 09:00, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Morality in my estimation, and repeated experience, is in short supply in Wikipedia....Skookum1 (talk) 15:42, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I seriously doubt that WMF is legally in the right on this issue either. The obsession with who pressed the button is ridiculous. Carrite (talk) 01:22, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

As is also far too common in Wikipedia (ridiculous decisions/arguments).Skookum1 (talk) 04:20, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Indeed. It is the instruction to take the picture that establishes ownership, not who owns the camera or who presses the button. That's WMF's own legal opinion, published somewhere on the Foundation wiki. Mr Slater just has to convince the court that he deliberately left the camera with the monkeys in the hope they would use them, then it is his copyright. --Pgallert (talk) 07:22, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

That's complete hogwash; are you a copyright lawyer? I doubt it, or you wouldn't be opening your yap here; WMF's lawyers are simply holding the position that they have been assigned, nothing more. Wikimedia has to convince the court that public domain applies to an image they pirated, pure and simple. This is already an international laughing stock, and the jury's out until the court hands down its verdict. Donations made by people to the WMF to support Wikipedia and its sister projects should NOT be used to finance this case; if you're so ardent about supporting it, I suggest you and the others in the chattering chorus of wiki-monkeys babbling, rather gloatingly, about the photographer and in the gloriously incoherent way that is way too common in the self-referential universe that is the wiki bureaucracy need to establish a separate legal fund, rather than bankrupt Wikipedia et al. with this insane court case. Or do you expect that people donating money to improve the encyclopedia are all on-side with your claims and foolishness? Clearly a lot of us don't, huh? This is misdirection of funds and is full of BLP bullshit against the photographer, very much in contravention of Wikipedia policy about court actions, copyright and more....pay for it yourselves if you want to support this madness, it's an embarrassment and right now a global laughing-stock.Skookum1 (talk) 07:50, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't think you grokked what I wrote, as I was arguing that Mr Slater does have copyright on the photo. The WMF legal opinion is a general one, unrelated to the selfie, and contradicting their stand on the selfie. Be that as it may, you don't need to answer this with yet another insulting rant; not sure what I have done to you to deserve it. --Pgallert (talk) 07:17, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

My apologies, then, it sounded like you were being snide about him, like so many others around here; and if you are not a copyright lawyer, then, still, "just has to convince the court that he deliberately left the camera with the monkeys" is a legal opinion on how to interpret copyright law per "instruction"; when a thief of any species takes a photo with a stolen camera, and the camera is gotten back, does the thief have copyright on any photos he/she might have taken? That the camera was set for shooting conditions is, to me, enough, but as monkeys cannot own copyright and, as the WMF claims (but is not to my knowledge anywhere in copyright law) the photo is then in the public domain, that also is an interpretation of copyright law not endorsed, as yet, by any court that I know of. And if you are in support of Mr Slater, then I think you see my point about it not being appropriate using funds donated to WMF for this very controversial legal test, and that is one of my core points; misappropriation of funds for a cause clearly not supported by all Wikipedians, yourself and myself included. As for insulting rants, there's enough of those here against Mr Slater to make this an open playing field; I'm sorry to have directed my opinion of the mounting idiocy about this in your direction, that resulted from a misinterpretation of your intent.Skookum1 (talk) 07:38, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Apology accepted; I can see how the general tone here can get people excited. No, I'm not a lawyer and don't intend to become one. For as long as I'm not in court I think I have the right to hold (and publish) a legal opinion, just like I could hold and publish an opinion on gardening or black holes. I have, however, witnessed that the legal fraternity in many parts of the world is open to logical arguments. That anything created with some degree of intentionality could be PD from the start sounds illogical to me, and yes, a camera thief would hold the copyright on pictures they take with it. In the US where such battles would eventually be fought that might all be different of course. According to legend it is all a bit different over there. Cheers, Pgallert (talk) 14:31, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

> camera thief would hold the copyright on pictures they take with it Not in the US and not in Russia at least. The fact of robbery or forced actions eliminates the copyright ownership rights. Same way that gang from Belgium that stole children and enforce them for porno in the house cellar and killing after are not "authors" and are not entitled for royalty fees for viewing or quoting their "creativity products".
Yet it is not a human thief, it is a monkey (Celebes crested macaque to be exact). And the issue gets crossed with many popular animal exploitations for money by human owners. That includes monkey paintings sold by many zoos and "pet-photo" business. The latter is getting especially popular (surprise, surprise) in the United Kingdom. I will remind that in the latter case a pet is sent for a walk with a camera on timer, and later sorted out by the owner. That might be (in no way I'm saying "that is") one of the roots of the ingrowing excitement over the issue.
Yet I see the current arguments of supporters of Slater's original copyright rather strange. Some superfluous wording away, they want to see a simple algorithm like "in a chain of events of any length go up to the first human met and (s)he will be the author". With such ideas it would be more reasonable to argue for a full PD of everything :-) Because if "going by a chain of events of any length", any creative work appertains then either to God (for creationists) or to Nature and its Big Bang (for evolutionists). --NeoLexx (talk) 16:16, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

How about the WMF fights for PD-ing something more worthily, like orphaned works?

How many animal selfies does Wikipedia or Commons have? And how many orphaned works photographs does it show, through the "graces" of national archives in various countries, which have appropriated the copyright to some such works, typically by a special interest [section of the] their national law. Some but not all of these are then "magnanimously" released on Commons with the copyright holder set to the national archive. (There's a Bulgarian saying about giving as gift somebody else's pie.) 188.27.81.64 (talk) 12:09, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Just a comment about that re national archives; it may vary on countries and lower-tier jurisdictions and institutions within them, but photos in the National Archives of Canada, the British Library (whose excellent collection of images is now in the Commons, the Vancouver Public Library, the Vancouver City Archives and more are in the public domain. The British Columbia Archives, a subdivision of the Royal British Columbia Museum, claims on its website to own the images thereon, but in actual fact that's a bluff; they only own copyright on images made from the negatives in their holdings; they are a profit-making subcontractor (actually run by Disney) and their claims in many cases are specious; the same photos are in public circulation and no formal copyright on many of them, such as the photographs of Artie Phair, are in postcard form or copies held by other museums and archives and in private collections; his estate (his descendants) claim copyright, but they are ignored by the BC Archives; those that were undertaken with public money had had Crown copyright, such as those of Frank Swannell, who was a prolific land surveyor photographer, are covered by the pd-50 license and even though digital copies are hosted on their site, and they have in most cases the negatives, any claim of copyright over them would not hold up in a court of law....there have been no test cases nor is there likely to be...because they know they'd lose. They're an exception, public domain in Canada is a dicey issue in Wikipedia, because American copyright law is 100 years, not 50 years, after the death of the photographer; but that's if the photographer owned the copyright, when photos are taken on government contract or on government payroll, the photographer does not; pictures taken under governemnt contract/payroll; Wikimedia's "rules" assert American extraterritoriality in these matters; but again, logic and morality and "doing the right thing" in Wikipedia are rare; in fact WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS is used to justify great wrongs, or at best to shrug off any responsibility. It may be different with teh Bulgarian national archives and in other countries; but the Berne Convention applies under international law in any case, including this one.Skookum1 (talk) 15:42, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I am also rather disappointed with the triumphant and tactless gloating over the macaque selfie business. And I am a strong supporter the legal argument. This whole issue has sparked an unwholesome bout of coatracking across various Wikipedia versions. I have done my best to stem the tide. Some projects get the point, others simply balk and pretend that this is an appropriate way to illustrate an encyclopedic article about a primate species.

An Italian admin even went so far as to block me for a week without motivating her/his revert and without any warning. Just a blanket excuse that I had tried to revert coatracking, particularly in stubs.

Can we please apply a little off-wiki civility to this? We're part of one of the most influential open source enterprises in the world. What's the point of making an enemy out of someone like David Slater? People here seem to forgetting that while the legal argument is clearly for a free image, the moral argument is unequivocally on Slater's side. Without him, we wouldn't have these wonderful images to fool around with and rejoice at. In cases where museums and corporations try to lock up reproductions of ancient works of art and PD photos through technicalities, we tend to get very upset and protest their actions. But this is essentially the same thing, but in reverse. The least we could do in this case is to act with more humility. Peter ^Isotalo 13:09, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I am awaiting the release from the WMF where they state they sympathise with the photographer and that by denying him copyright and moral rights in this image they may be doing him a favour by forcing the issue to court. Saffron Blaze (talk) 16:35, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

And I'm awaiting comment from whatever the national association of professional photographers is called....and their lawyers....Skookum1 (talk) 02:08, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Am I the only one who sees a massive disconnect between Jimbo's new crusade for "moral ambitiousness" and what's happened with this monkey's selfie? There can surely be no doubt that the photographer has suffered financial loss from WP's usurpation of his copyright, whether strictly by the letter of the law or not. But that's totally at odds with the focus not on the floor for what's right but on a higher moral purpose. Still, I suppose it's easier for some people than others to hold two inconsistent ideas in their heads simultaneously. Eric Corbett 21:14, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Fed up with the status quo...

... she takes her campaign for Wikipedia civility to the Twittersphere.

• "https://twitter.com/Lightbreather/status/497391868674461696"
• "https://twitter.com/Lightbreather/status/497392404593254401"
• "https://twitter.com/Lightbreather/status/497401939055742976"

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Lao-tzu

--Lightbreather (talk) 15:33, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

So why is this relevant exactly? Also: Hashtag activism may be of use. Tutelary (talk) 16:07, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

I've read your tweets. This step seems not to be a call to action, but rather an attempt to tear down wikipedia as a whole. Isn't promoting that wikipedia is an awful place just going to keep away the type of people the projects you're a part of trying to attract?--Cube lurker (talk) 16:19, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't believe that promoting your twitter account is a valid use of this talk page or the project. Generally this sort of self-promotion is frowned upon. 208.76.111.243 (talk) 16:22, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

It would be interesting to create a designated Twitter handle that just tweets out rude things said on Wikipedia. Though it may technically be a form of off-wiki canvassing and there is a risk of quotes being taken out of context, it may be useful nonetheless. CorporateM (Talk) 16:29, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

If technically feasible, that would be an excellent idea; it could display results much the way @congressedits does. As for Lightbreather's posts, sometimes sunlight is the best disinfectant, so no problems at all here. Tarc (talk) 16:41, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

"Burn it down" is a legitimate philosophy. I just didn't think that was what the gender bias task force etc Lightbreather was going for.--Cube lurker (talk) 16:45, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

It is just more forum shopping, this time externally because even the umpteen sections opened on this talk page are not appeasing her. While just as legitimate a mode of criticism as, say, Wikipediocracy, Lightbreather needs to tread carefully otherwise a sudden influx of supporters here might look like WP:MEAT. I doubt that ultimately it will do her cause any favours. - Sitush (talk) 17:13, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

Snippets of conversation taken entirely out of context? That's a less than superb way to open a dialog. Capeo (talk) 18:25, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

With examples like this she's moved past dialog and has gone directly to coercion. It's certainly not collaborative. Pity. 208.76.111.243 (talk) 18:33, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

It's all quite irrelevant. Mostly because, despite the rhetoric, Twitter is vastly less collaborative than Wikipedia -- what I would describe as a much higher Gini coefficient -- by which I mean a few famous people have lots of followers, but most tweets (like these) drop unheard into the memory hole, only to be seen again if somebody wants to make a case against the speaker. Here we are still part of the old Web, which is to say, the Web where people listened to each other rather than the new vision of the Web, which is essentially watching a few hundred channels of cable television but allowing companies to spy on you in the process. So she will find in the end that this or other low-Gini sites are vastly more amenable to serious collaborative development of ideas. Out there she'd have to win a PR campaign, which pretty much implies paying the right semi-famous people to do PR, or at least, laying a lot of groundwork to simulate a network of followers in advance; and even the winner doesn't get any real collaboration out of it, just parroting. Meanwhile, I don't think this should affect how we deal with these issues, and deal with them we still must -- but correctly. Wnt (talk) 19:41, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

That last tweet linked above just has me now saying "whatever". It is especially misrepresentative because we are not tolerating workplace hostility. We are not a workplace; we are a volunteer agency. Trust me, I have encountered enough real-life hostilty in a work environment that it literally put me on disability. Here we can just sign out and walk away, although wounded and unhappy. One is literally trapped in toxicity in a terrifying work environment. Here we are losing no paycheck nor benefits, such as one would if a workstation is deserted by a victim. Fylbecatulous talk 15:05, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I'd never say one person can't change the "world" I will say though that it probably won't happen here. Hell in a Bucket (talk) 19:50, 7 August 2014 (UTC)

No, of course not, because all y'all are too busy attacking the messenger, which doesn't change the message, it just distracts from it. Nice work. Viriditas (talk) 01:47, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

• Is calling somebody a "disruptionist" a personal attack? So, tell us about your topic ban — we'd like to hear about that. Carrite (talk) 02:31, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Well enough answered HERE. Carrite (talk) 00:38, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Quoting someone above discussing: "designated Twitter handle that just tweets out rude things said on Wikipedia." Not much of a twitter user myself, but it does seem like it could be a way of pointing out comments that really are not acceptable. Of course, it probably would be abused and cause more trouble than it's worth. (Same with a "rude comment of the day" box on the main page which I've long thought might be a lot of fun.)

The two actual quotes remain problematic, but changing the attitudes behind them is a long term project. A well-organized, high profile boycott campaign could be useful down the road if there was no Foundation and community response to more civil people's demands for a change in culture and some structures of Wikipedia, including to make it easier for women to edit free of harassment, double standard attitudes, etc. But even far less drastic forms of organizing are nascent, as the Gender Gap task force is still working on basic infrastructure/goals/projects/etc. and hardly even sending out invites yet. Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 06:24, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I look forward to the boycott. The rest of us might get a bit of relief from the forum shopping/thread hijacking etc ;) And Wikipedia will still progress while it goes on. Since you've been told on umpteen occasions that there is a difference between a gender gap, sexism and obnoxious comments, I'm not sure that the GGTF really has the latter two within its remit. Add them to the remit and it might become more of a political exercise that a traditional wikiproject. At what point that would step over the bounds is moot; for example, the Article Rescue Squadron has had a few problems over the years regarding accusations of concerted action. - Sitush (talk) 06:37, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

If you want to see what it takes for Sitush to yell incivility (carefully couched as "Tendentious referencing of other people's motives"), see his ANI against me last fall here. Double standards ride again. Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 07:27, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I haven't yelled incivility and I haven't been incivil. I'm just bored with the tendentious campaigning and, one day, it will catch up with those doing it. If for no other reason than they repeatedly fail to back up their claims with decent evidence and they repeatedly misrepresent other people. As for the boycott, surely it is better to be inside the tent pissing out ...? - Sitush (talk) 07:41, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Geez, Sitush, first we're criticized for organizing in the tent, and then we're criticized for contemplating maybe some day, if and only if taking a week or two vacation from the tent. In any case, thanks for validating my analogy of dogs urinating on territory with the wikipedia editing of some (not all!) males. Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 14:46, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I didn't criticise you contemplating a boycott. Nor have I criticised the existence of the GGTF. I've criticised its name, and I've criticised any potential attempt to turn it into some sort of pseudo-political pressure group of the sort you get involved with in real life. Do you really struggle to understand what I say or are you just being deliberately obtuse? You seem to make a habit of it. I'm not even looking at the diff - it will be point-y and repeat what you've said hundreds of times before, doubtless. - Sitush (talk) 16:59, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm not some all powerful activist, Sitush, just one of a number of "fed up" women on Wikipedia. Someone else proposed changing name to "GENDER GAP TASK FORCE". And several others besides me agreed. Do you want me to give you their names so you can hound them around Wikipedia, including on their talk pages after its necessary to ban you, and say nasty things about them and demand they follow your dictates of how Wikipedia operates? I think the first serious task the "GENDER GAP TASK FORCE" should take on is ending harassment/wikihounding of women (and guys of course) whose views and modus operandi don't live up to the standards of whatever male(s) who get a jones for following them around. I'm quite fed up with it myself. But we haven't started prioritizing yet, so time will tell... Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 15:19, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

I've no idea what a "jones" is, sorry - some US-centric term, I guess. There isn't really anything for GGTF to do re: alleged harassment/wikihounding, except maybe in the case of a newbie who is unaware of the policy and of WP:ANI. If you have a complaint, take it there. - Sitush (talk) 15:26, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

A "jones" is a serious addiction. Harassment and wikihounding only seem to be taken seriously when its a guy editor who has lots of guy editor and admin friends; certain has been my anecdotal experience. (Ah, yes, another study needed to confirm or deny a feeling many women editors have.) Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 15:48, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

Indeed you need to support such a statement with at least something. Otherwise you come across as poisoning the well with your oft-repeated vague, unsubstantiated rants. Have you ever thought that the reason your ANI complaints sometimes fail might be because sometimes they are not justified? Oh no, of course not: it's always the men's fault, isn't it? - Sitush (talk) 15:56, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

Oh, boo hoo. :-) Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 18:57, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

{{od}minor correction; "jonesing" is a phase of the withdrawal, i.e. the angst and craving when the addiction is in need of satisfying. A "jones" is NOT "an addiction" and I've never heard the term used that way, nor without the -ing ending.Skookum1 (talk) 16:37, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

It most definitely can mean an addiction, craving, or better - obsession. See Basketball Jones. Lightbreather (talk) 18:29, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

See also Me and Mrs. Jones Smallbones_(smalltalk) 18:50, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

It's a heroin term. A "jones" is a fix; "jonesing" is being in withdrawals for a fix; "The Basketball Jones" was a fix for basketball junkies. It is not a general term for "a serious addiction." Junkies suck, by the way. ('Cept for basketball junkies, who are less apt to break into your car or steal your television to support their habit...) Carrite (talk) 16:38, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Actually Jones disambiguation only leads to addiction article which doesn't use or define the term, so it all looks like WP:OR to me at this point :-) Wiktionary's definition mentions both relation to heroin and separately "An addiction or intense craving." For what that's worth. Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 18:57, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

(sigh.) Quoting your own link just provided: "Etymology: Ed Boland, in The New York Times, March 2002, attributes the term to heroin addicts who frequented Great Jones Alley in New York City, off Great Jones Street between Broadway and Lafayette Street,[1] although the slang term has obviously been around much longer. Dan Waldorf explains that the noun use originated from heroin users." — muttermuttermutter... Carrite (talk) 05:12, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Could someone translate the Spanish for me? Does "puta" really mean an arsehole or bastard (which is roughly what the (British) English means)? --Boson (talk) 22:25, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

No, it's feminine and means "whore". An "arsehole" (my, that's quaint ;-)) or bastard would be pendejo or cabron, by idiom if not direct translation. The male form of puta is puto, used for a homosexual and roughly equivalent to faggot or queer; it was explained to me in Mexico that its sense was "a man with no self-respect", I guess with the same meaning implicit in the femining form puta. Ijo de puta is equivalent to "sonofabitch", it tends to be pronounced ija de puta, a feminine form, which adds to the insult.Skookum1 (talk) 04:17, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

So is this a deliberate mistranslation or does the English word really mean "whore" in American English? I had seen references to cultural differences, but this looks more like an actual linguistic difference. I now see that my Macmillan Dictionary of Contemporary [British] Slang gives "a fool, a dolt, an unpleasant person - of either sex (cf: prick)", while the equivalent dictionary of American slang by the same publisher gives "a woman" (though not "a whore"). Presumably, the term is not usually used as a term of endearment on either side of the Pond, but would this campaign have been started if the original utterance had been "the easiest way to avoid being called a prick is not to act like one"? -Boson (talk) 09:32, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

That British dictionary of slang must be giving what the meaning in British English is; it's decidedly now what it means in Spanish, which is "prostitute" or "whore", and I guess can be translated as "bitch" or ...the c-word. Curse words and insults do not readily translate in many cases; in Quebec French "hostie sacramang caaawww-LISS tabarNAC" could be many things, like "c**ks**king mother f**ker", "hot damn", "f**king asshole" and more, depending on context; literally it means "host sacrament chalice tabernacle".....Skookum1 (talk) 11:25, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Interesting! "Bitch" might be another example. In my 1995 edition of Macmillan Dictionary of American Slang, the meaning of "bitch" is given as "a woman one dislikes or disapproves of, esp. a malicious, devious, or heartless woman; the equivalent of the masculine bastard . . .", which exactly fits my (British) understanding of the word; you might call a woman manager who abuses her power "a real bitch". In British English, in my experience, the c-word would very rarely be used of a woman, and "bastard" might be be replaced by "bitch" . Surprisingly, the English version of the slang dictionary does not give this meaning. Increasingly, though, what I think of as the Black English Vernacular meaning of "bitch" has become known - if not used - in Britain, with the spread of Hip-Hop, as in "she my bitch", or Ali. G's "no disrespect to your bitch" in his interview with David and Victoria Beckham. The use of religious taboo words must be a Catholic thing; it's also common in southern (but not northern) Germany.--Boson (talk) 12:43, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Profanity in Spanish is complex as the meanings of words, and their intensity, vary by culture, city, region, and country. Both "puta" (feminine) and "puto" (masculine) are words that directly translate to English as "whore" or "bitch". However, the word has plenty of other meanings (both in context and by itself), which in English can be translated as "faggot" (as in homosexual, etc.), "cunt" (although in Spain the specific word for this is "coño"), and "swinger" (which is the "nicest" translation...and there are better words to translate "swinger" into Spanish). FIFA and the dictionaries that claim this word means "fool" are wrong; Mexicans don't live in a vacuum, and they know what this word means in most of the Spanish-speaking world. In fact, Mexicans also take great offence to the word because they know it means "fag" and "cunt"; it seems they only pretend otherwise so as to get away with using it on others. The fact the English-speaking world hasn't yet classified "puta" or "puto" as hate-speech is quite disturbing (all the more so as, after FIFA ruled it inoffensive, I even heard Italians using it during the 2014 FIFA World Cup). Regards.--MarshalN20 ^Talk 13:04, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

@Skookum1: You should have asked him why the man "had no self-respect". I bet that would have made the translator turn colors. I detest it when "translators" don't give full meaning to a word. It only serves to propagate the hate speech.--MarshalN20 ^Talk 13:07, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

It wasn't a translator, it was a friend in Acapulco when I lived there who explained it that way, and who had good English; his sense was that of debasing oneself, and this is rooted in ancient times with kinaidos in Greek, the "humiliative form" used on men who had sold themselves for sex; the word hybrizei(n) was a bit more euphemistic and didn't necessarily refer to sex-for-money but could include rape; it means "to outrage" or in the form hybrizomai, "I was outraged", i.e. "an outrage was committed on me". Kinaidos was the charge against Timarchos made by Lysias, which disqualified Timarchos from taking part in the Assembly, as men who had been boy prostitutes, or prostitutes, period, could not appear in the Assembly, nor take part in politic (Timarchos had been about to file charges against Lysias on, um, similar grounds, the speech is Lysias' pre-emptive strike; what he goes on about I'm surprised Fellini or a Greek film director has never tried to make into a film...) So in the sense of someone who allows themselves to be debased, for money or not, it could apply in either female or male forms. Another translation of puta I've heard is simply "slut". And, well, yes, hate speech has been with us since pre-antiquity, and often is sexual in nature, and often emasculatory; Catullus is full of it....so to speak.....anyways my point is that my "translator" was trying to be if not euphemistic but explanatory. He nothing against homosexuals, he was trying to explain the context of the word in the culture of machismo that prevails in Mexican male culture (like it or not). "Bitch" of course would be perra or perrita; I remember a (very good) film called Amor es perros, its English title was "Love's a bitch", and figured five very complicated and intertwined stories about dog-owners and dogs.Skookum1 (talk) 15:54, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

This is quite interesting. I see we actually do have a good article on Spanish profanity, and I'd encourage you to see if you can add to it or check some of the unreferenced/dubious tagged claims there. The article is actually well worth a read by anyone -- for example, I suspect I missed some meaning even of the title of Livin' la Vida Loca for the past 15 years. Wnt (talk) 15:45, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Too long a reply Skookum. I'm also quite sure that the Mexicans who use the word "puto" know nothing about whatever roots it may have in Greece or its relation to "debasing oneself." They use "puto" in the same sense and meaning as in American English people use the word "fag." It doesn't matter if the user doesn't have any hatred towards homosexuals; it is still an offensive hate-speech term. I'd also like to add that "machismo" is predominant in most cultures; after all, there still is a strong womens' rights movement in the USA (which is indicative that the male-dominant status quo is still present in that country). Regards.--MarshalN20 ^Talk 13:10, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

As long as we have good Spanish speakers here, can someone pop over to es.wikipedia and see if they've ever found reason to comment on the use of "marica" as an affectionate term by Columbians, in a way which I'd guess might be equivalent to the Aussie use of "cunt"? Wnt (talk) 19:21, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

German study 2014

• I really do hate to hijack this 9th sub-thread on this page (or is it the 12th?) on the same topic, but I will point out that researchers from Beuth University (Berlin) and Wikimedia Deutschland have released a 24 page summary report on various diversity issues, Charting Diversity: Working Together Towards Diversity in Wikipedia. My full-contact comments and criticism are in a thread on Wikipediocracy, for what it's worth. The report identifies the following 5 primary factors to explain the gender gap:

1. Lack of time. — Statistically, women have less.

2. Media preferences. — "They mostly prefer social media, such as Facebook and Pinterest, where the level of female participation is far higher than 50 percent,... as well as online and mobile games..."

3. Technical difficulty. — "8.8 percent stated that they would be more likely to edit Wikipedia if the technology were easier to use," with Visual Editor as the planned solution.

4. Lack of support. — 43% of contributors faced deletion of their work without comment, with the 2011 Lam study indicating that the contributions of women were deleted at a higher frequency than those of men.

5. Atmosphere and tone. — "Women (but also men) stated that they left Wikipedia because they felt personally attacked by other users, were confronted with prejudices and stereotypes, or simply lost their initial drive to edit because of the endless discussions the task involved... Women rate the general tone of communication in Wikipedia more negatively than men do." /// Carrite (talk) 07:28, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

This is probably not the right place, but...I wonder how solid those conclusions are, and what the relative weight is. For example, 5 items are mentioned, and the recent discussions have concentrated on the last one. How much does that one contribute? Some of the items are not in our control, specifically items 1 and 2. However, I'd like more information about item 1. Obviously it isn't meant literally, and should be read as referring to free time. However, while women with children are likely to have less free time than men with or without children, only 14% of editors are in that category, so how important is it? If, for example, women with childen have 20% less free time than men with children, then we are talking about a 3% difference, barely measurable. and not in our control.

Item 3 mentions Visual Editor, (which I am using more, as it gets better). Is there any study to see if this helps?

I am puzzled by item 4. Articles are not deleted without comment. I suppose there are some reversions without edit summaries, is that really ubiquitous enough to be a major issue? (to be clear, I think rude and dismissive edit summaries are a problem, but that's item 5, not this item).--S Philbrick(Talk) 12:06, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Rude and dismissive closing comments are also a problem; I won't name the ones I'm thinking of; others here know my opinion of things that have been said, and by whom.Skookum1 (talk) 11:16, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

After reading over the report, it seems obvious that #1 — free time — is the most important single factor related to contribution at WP. Sociology is rich in research illustrating that women with families have precious little of it, compared to men in the same position. The inevitable conclusion is that there is this enormous factor driving the gender gap. The argument I've made elsewhere is that if WMF is concerned about efficacy in terms of building the base of active content contributing volunteers, they shouldn't be so obsessed with the (horrid) gender numbers, they should be targeting older people, regardless of race or gender — particularly retired teachers and professors. Carrite (talk) 13:19, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Though choosing this spot to interject, as there are various spots this might fit here, not all women are married or have children; though the very prolific and much-missed [User:Phaedriel]] I know counted wanting to spend time raising her family was one of the many reasons she left (another big one was sexual harrassment from SPAs creating taunting usernames and shortcuts). User:KootenayVolcano was/is, I believe, an LGBT person; User:CindyBo runs a liquor stores and breeds Bernese....Carrite knows I've also had experience with women editors who are very aggressive in their actions and claims about others, yet express fear of those who they have criticized, and indignation when their actions are challenged and make various NPAs and AGFs, often without substance and often a very hypocritical one-way street; not just women do that, of course; which is implicitly AGF.....treating criticism of an action or interpretation of a cite or a guideline is often railed at as NPA, which means that nobody can say "boo" in some cases. I agree with the 'regardless of race of gender re older people; it's by no means a gender-specific issue when it comes down to widows and widowers, empty nesters, or single, older women or men, straight, childless for whatever reason, or otherwise. I don't buy the argument that a lack of civility or "tone" of discussions repel women. Encouraging older editors, many of whom do not like the rigidity of the wiki-bureacracy's mindset (one sfsorrow, who only briefly created an account and only raw-signed his IP posts, often made very valuable points on history and more, albeit in a very erratic "un-wikipedian" style. Too often ANI is full of alleged "un-wikipedian" claims, and there's even [[WP:NOTHERE}] to bolster that in the course of blocking or banning someone for life. WP:EXR should be referred to here; and a review of WP:Missing Wikipedians and their history and experiences could be very revealing, no?Skookum1 (talk) 16:04, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Follow up query: how much outreach has WMF done to retired women? How many people over age 50 does WMF have doing outreach? Carrite (talk) 13:26, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Can we revisit my point? If free time is the number one driver, only 14% of Wikipedians have children. Of course, that makes it mathematically possible that all female Wikipedians have children, but that is unlikely. My guess is that more than 14% of female Wikipedians have children, but the proportion would have to be materially higher to make this a major issue. Do we know?--S Philbrick(Talk) 14:15, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Children are very time-intensive pets, as anyone who has spent time around them and their owners knows... To me the detail "Only 14% of Wikipedians have kids" was the "a-ha" moment from the German report. Having kids = lack of WP participation, and the reason is time. I'm sure the Gender Gap Task Force could generate a report summarizing the work of sociologists doing comparative analysis of the time budgets of women and men with children. I'm certain it is a huge literature. Long story short: women have much, much less free time than men in the same family and employment situation due to traditional gender roles within the family unit. Having a Job + kids + being a woman, and there ya go, that's what's driving this thing... Not potty language. The detail on the disproportionately large amount of editing done by older editors further bolsters the notion that it's all about kids + Job + free time... The way to actually chip away at the gender gap AND actually bolster WP content, it would seem, would be to target older women. Carrite (talk) 14:27, 8 August 2014 (UTC) Last edit: Carrite (talk) 14:37, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

(ecx3)Responding, in part, to your question regarding outreach to retired people, there was a session at Wikimania 2012. Good session, needs more followup. There are more retired women than men, and they do not have the time constraints of women with children in the home, so more efforts here might reap general benefits as well as gender gap benefits.--S Philbrick(Talk) 14:34, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't think husbands etc. failure to do their share of the housework should be an excuse for saying "there's nothing wikipedia can do about it." Obviously, Wikipedia is trying to do something about Media preferences and Technical difficulty, even if those of us who already know sufficient code may find the new interface annoying. Lack of support. (read "deletion of their work without comment") can be dealt with by considering chronic or targeted or obviously purposeful lacks of an edit summary to be an example of disruptive editing. Atmosphere and tone is what we've been discussing here, to sometimes hysterical caterwauling from various individuals which I summarize as "oh, we can say dirty words all we want but if they complain about it they're being tendendious and should be blocked." So many adjectives that could be used, so little time.... Anyway, teaching new women editors about, and encouraging them to go to, WP:ANI, sooner rather than later is certainly a worthy goal editors can take on voluntarily. Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 14:59, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

After reading over the report, it seems obvious that #1 — free time — is the most important single factor related to contribution at WP

I haven't read the full report (if it's in English, I will), but I really doubt this. If women are answering "lack of free time" in a survey, I doubt they mean it literally. I might say "lack of free time" is the reason I haven't decided to read all the Harry Potter books, but it isn't strictly true. It's just that I don't have enough free time to do everything under the sun, and that one's not a priority. If, as the list above also says, far more than half of contributors to Facebook and Pinterest are women, then it seems clear that women do actually, collectively, have plenty of time available to idle away on the Internet, it's just that they are making decisions about how to spend it that don't favour Wikipedia. That's likely to be partly for reasons we can't help, and partly for reasons we can. Formerip (talk) 15:27, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

You are seriously suggesting that Wikipedia should do something about husbands who fail to do their share of housework? What did you have in mind? I'm an invertate optimistic, and love tilting at windmills even when there is a low chance of success, but even that sounds like a task outside Wikimedia/WMF remit.--S Philbrick(Talk) 15:30, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Lack of time/choices in how to spend it makes sense to me. Whether we can do anything to make WP as attractive a proposition as Facebook etc is moot but, yeah, something that positively encourages the older demographic might be a partial solution. - Sitush (talk) 16:59, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

A good place to start would be respecting them and understanding older points of view and personal life-experience et al in terms of content and input; and also, the increasing 'code-ization' of Wikipedia has made things like citations and infoboxes and templates more code-heavy; easier for younger generations to do and talk about but it leaves many older people cold and left out of the loop and often frustrated (sfsorrow again comes to mind; he's older than I am even). Similarly complaints that somebody is long-winded (ahem) is somehow unwelcome to the point of being treated hostilely by those from the point-form, I-have-no-time/patience people of the sped-up world this has become, is a generational culture difference that needs to be acknowledged...rather than dismissed and derided and punished.Skookum1 (talk) 16:13, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

It seems exactly right. I know my WP productivity crashes when I go to work or have stuff going on. We've had five days of wild wailing over naughty language intimating that it's what's driving the gender gap. In reality, it's probably an effect, not a cause. Carrite (talk) 19:18, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

It isn't often that I have work but, yes, it obviously impacts. I also have to do my own housework, cooking, washing etc and, being generally unemployable, an awful lot of DIY that would otherwise be delegated to a tradesman. I hate to draw more flak but the Facebook involvement variation (apparently, 30% more female Wikipedians' time spent on FB than male Wikipedians around 2011) makes a lot of sense to me. At least where I am, women like to socialise, like to gab, like to swap photos of what they've been doing etc to a much greater degree than men - but Wikipedia is not really a social network. There are fundamental differences between males and females that extend beyond the physical, and that the figure is only 30% surprises me. Lady Astor made a brilliant comment about the physical one in the UK Parliament pre-WW2 - look it up) One bizarre quote at Gender bias on Wikipedia says that (paraphrase) WP's focus on facts is off-putting to women. I'm glad I was sat down when I read that one because I'm not sure that, for example, an encyclopaedia based on gossip would really cut the mustard. And, Carrite, I'd be wary about using "wailing" as you did - I got into trouble here for using "drama".

FWIW, I've been trying to improve what was a pretty dreadful article - Sara Jeannette Duncan - but am now out of my comfort zone. I've worked on quite a few bios about women but I'm not good when it comes to paraphrasing literary criticism, which is going to be a significant part of this one. Being concerned about it turning into a quote farm, I've left a note on a couple of project talk pages. One of those is the Feminism project. It will be interesting to see if anyone picks up on it, although I guess that announcing it here might make a difference. In any event, all I'm interested in is improving stuff, not all the sideshows. I'm good at improving things; I'm not good at politics. - Sitush (talk) 00:50, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

"I don't think husbands etc. failure to do their share of the housework should be an excuse for saying "there's nothing wikipedia can do about it." That's not what he suggested. Carrite suggested targeting the retired (or generally 55+ I guess). I'm curious about this "deletion of their work without comment", it is a fact that pseudoscience true believers are generally much more likely to be women [2] (for example ~40% of women from a Canadian dataset [3] vs ~21% of men have paranormal beliefs), which leads me to wonder what are the natures of the articles being deleted? A qualitative study of what these people were actually trying to do before they quit would be interesting. I imagine there was generally a warning because they don't know how to use the technology (point 3), I assume they couldn't locate it Second Quantization (talk) 19:20, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

I really can't wait for a female editor to chime on this sub-discussion. IF THEY HAVE TIME, and aren't writing pseudoscience articles.--Milowent • ^hasspoken 21:02, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Although I'm not a woman, I think wikipedia has too many "History" sections. This could be one source of the problem. Brian Everlasting (talk) 21:13, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

So you want to get rid of or minimize history content in Wikipedia?? In favour of what??Skookum1 (talk) 16:07, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

More of the usual problematic claims from Second Quantization. The source you cite does not say "pseudoscience true believers are generally much more likely to be women". It says that some small surveys show that more women than men believe in ESP, and this makes a lot of sense considering how emotionally invested women are in children that they give birth to, while men are incapable of developing this kind of deep bond with another organism. As usual, Second Quantization cherry picks a meaningless survey to promote his own pet theory. It's hilarious to me how the biggest and loudest "skeptics" on Wikipedia are often promoting pseudoscience themselves. Viriditas (talk) 00:34, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

Ah, now the New Agers come out of the woodwork. "In most cases, more women than men believe in these types of pseudoscience. In response to the 2001 NSF survey, women were more likely than men to believe in ESP. The percentages of men and women who said that they believed in UFOs were about equal, which contrasts with the findings of other surveys. In fact, in most other surveys of this type, aliens-from-outer-space-type questions are the only ones that show higher levels of belief among men than women" Also the canadian dataset is a sample of ~1800 people. Yeah, nice reading comprehension there, let's not let facts get in the way of your rant. You have no counter, so you dismiss it as cherry picking (despite it being the second result from a search [4]), I cherry picked the NSF too did I? Where are the counters? Neither article mentions children or emotion, so I wonder where you pulled that out of? I like how you think women believe in pseudoscience and the paranormal because men can't make deep bonds with their childre, weren't you a second ago criticising me for an alleged "pet theory". How embarrassing for you, Second Quantization (talk) 09:57, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

I would be leery of concluding too much from this sort of study. So far as I'm concerned psychology is not undeserving of listing as a pseudo science. :) When women say something summarized as "believing in" something, does that mean that they are "true believers" or only that they express a sense of the diplomatic by speaking in a way that implies more open-mindedness? My perception is that culturally women have come from a bad position where it often behooved them to act as if they didn't know so much about the technical matters, lest they need to change their position under coercion later; but this does not imply actual ignorance.

I would also reject a bulk reaction to some definition of heretical beliefs that fails to take into account varying possibilities for a truth behind each. For example, the Japanese have a now-nonsensical belief that blood type affects personality; but if you look into the history it turns out that toxoplasmosis, susceptibility to which is greatly affected by blood type, was widespread there after the war. Astrological emanations from the planets may be bunk, but historically different foods were available when the Sun was in different signs of the zodiac. And as for precognition... it is amazing that the purely religious belief in causality is treated as a science while any consideration that the time-reversible mathematical descriptions might actually work in reverse now and then is treated as some kind of superstition. Wnt (talk) 15:23, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

A little bump

I added my comments in a couple of places previously, but the discussion was so fast moving, new sections added etc. that I have not had any replies. So I'll list them again. Post about how the BBC manage their message boards end of first part of this section (just prior to the "Early response from BHG & LB" section). Post about the idea of a jury-style solution for blocking decisions end of this section (just prior to the "Conflict resolution" section). --The Vintage Feminist (talk) 14:07, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

on my list to check out when start gathering more proposals of interest to add to bunch I've found on GP email list, etc.; starting to finally to organize mass of relevant links - including academic studies and mainstream articles - as resources. Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 15:21, 9 August 2014 (UTC)

Problem with WP:ITN

Please see Wikipedia_talk:In_the_news#Depressing_and_pessimistic. The current version of ITN features six current items and four ongoing items on the main page all concerned with death from crime, death from natural or mechanical disaster, and death from war. Only one news item does not concern death. Viriditas (talk) 09:04, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

It's certainly true that the current ITN criteria don't provide for a cap on sad and depressing stories. Perhaps we should reserve a couple of slots for happy stories like a cat wearing shark suit on automated vacuum cleaner getting 8 million YouTube hits. Feel free to suggest a solution at WT:ITN (although last month showed that fewer than 45% of the stories at ITN featured "death and destruction" (tm)). The Rambling Man (talk) 10:59, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Or perhaps Katy Perry Makes A Baby Stop Crying And It's Adorable. Check out the parody version. Seriously though, are we really saying that things like Ebola or Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 are too "depressing and pessimistic" for ITN?--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 11:34, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

This is reflective of the 24/7 drive-by media evolution of the last 30 years, sex 7 violence sells. You don't get thoughtful commentary by Walter Cronkite, you get the shrill bombast of Nancy Grace. Tarc (talk) 12:24, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

• I often agree with Viriditas, but I question his coming to this page to complain about ITN. I have my own issues with the page, which like the rest of Wikipedia is imperfect. Nevertheless, after years of working with others there, I think the feature is holding up reasonably well. There are much bigger fish to fry, in my view. Jusdafax 16:02, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Meh. If DYK is a mutual admiration club that manages to encourage its members to add content, that's fine. But rather than 3 sets of 6 uninspiring, misleading or downright wrong DYKs everyday, all from new articles, I would be happy to see one or two that would inspire a normal person to say "well, fancy that!" (Which in other dialects is "Bugger I down dead", "hot damn!" and so forth.) All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 22:09, 11 August 2014 (UTC).

Eh? I missed the bit where this thread suddenly switched from talking about depressing ITN threads to DYKs.... The Rambling Man (talk) 06:30, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Once we are there, did you know that DYK is the place for the positive news, such as an 80th and 91st birthday of living persons? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:14, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Aha, that's what User:Viriditas should do, just keep his eyes closed and scrolling down the main page until he's got to DYK, avoiding the unpleasant reality of ITN. Happiest of birthdays all round! The Rambling Man (talk) 07:16, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

The deliberate and manipulative use of violent content to attract a young demographic, in this case as click-bait, has been known about and studied for effectiveness by media and journalism scholars for more than four decades. Most of what is being promoted as "news" at ITN is anything but and does not represent issues important to the world at large or to the average person. Viriditas (talk) 09:18, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

WP:ITN/C is the place to nominate happy candidates that you prefer to see. Any other forums you'd like to pollute? The Rambling Man (talk) 09:46, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

The only options aren't a) violence/sex and b) silly escapism (though thanks for cat shark!) There are all sorts of scientific, technological, cultural, political, etc. trends and events of interest to intelligent human beings. Also, loading the news headlines with violence to attract "a young demographic" really means to attract overwhelmingly emotionally immature and/or stunted males. (Which is a culturally promoted psychological state to make these guys support and fight stupid wars for an imperialist nation state, just so no one takes my analysis personally.) It's just another gender bias issue. Yuk. Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 13:13, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

More stories about celebs who have just got married/had children/got divorced. Anyone? Welcome to "OK! Hello! Wikipedia". It would be dumbed-down tripe and I know many women who would agree. - Sitush (talk) 18:18, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

[Insert: I assume Sitush is not talking about my comment "all sorts of scientific, technological, cultural, political, etc. trends and events of interest to intelligent human beings". (This is the Jimmy Wales Wiki Love smiley, not the "pardon me for opening my female mouth" smiley.) Carolmooredc (Talkie-Talkie) 03:07, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

I think the biggest problem with ITN is that there are a few regulars who are on it always and relatively few outside voices. We need more people who value the more interesting news, but who wants to stand there and get blown off all the time? I went there assuming that the discovery of the first identified Solar sibling, a yellow star born from the very same cloud of dust and gas as that which birthed the Sun and Earth, was one of the biggest pieces of news of the decade, yet they didn't even want it.

Yawn. This old chestnut? It wasn't "a few regulars" who didn't find interest in that story, it was the consensus of the community. Just to let us know, are you going to keep harping on about this forever? The Rambling Man (talk) 20:05, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

I think it illustrates why we have the "bleeds, leads" material we do, which is what was being asked. Obviously, I am not expecting you to change your mind and ITN the story now. Wnt (talk) 23:54, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Having an article deleted

Hi, Jimbo,

I recently did s site re-design for a client named Sandy Frank, and he contacted me last week about having his Wikipedia page removed from your system. I referred to your procedure for having this done and inserted the necessary code on the page to request removal, then gave it a week as your instructions state.

I got a call from the client this morning informing me that the page is still up, and when I went to the page I saw your explanation that you couldn't rely on an anonymous user's request to remove a page (understandable) and the link to message you, so here I am.

The client does not know who initially set up the page (it may have been a former employee who is now deceased), so they've tasked me with trying to get this done. My question to you is this - if the person who set up the original page is now deceased and no one in their organization has any knowledge of an account corresponding to the page, how do we go about proving to you that our request is legitimate? Would providing contact information to the company or the subject of the page help? I'm at a loss as to how to prove that my request is legitimate, and would really appreciate any pointers on how to provide you with sufficient proof to legitimize the request.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Don Waller 74.101.141.17 (talk) 15:42, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, it's currently up for Proposed Deletion, but there's a few sources out there. Worthy of a Wikipedia article isn't defined as the person wanting it or not, it's about notability, especially through reliable websites. Supernerd11 _{Firemind ^_^ Pokedex} 17:18, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Please understand that Wikipedia is a service for the reader, not the subject. We're not a Who's Who that you can (and have to) buy your way into; we're volunteers sharing what we read in public sources with one another and anyone else interested. What we choose to talk about is, therefore, ultimately up to us. Because this person has touched films that have entered the popular culture - apparently deciding (directly or via subordinate), for example, how much material to cut from films about Gamera when they were dubbed into English - the interest in his role is now inevitably part of the popular culture, and therefore, of Wikipedia. Wnt (talk) 17:30, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

We're a lot of things but one thing we're not is robots, so these things are complicated. People who are very marginally notable by our rules and standards (Sandy Frank's not even that, but supposing he was) who have requested that their article be deleted have a special stake and should (and do) get special consideration. Looking at the deletion discussion, I'm confident that the article will be deleted in a few days. Herostratus (talk) 00:53, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Cyclopia contributed a very important reference in the discussion, to a lawsuit he filed against Michigan for a system of film tax credits that had promised, but denied him, support for making a certain kind of show. The reason why we need to claim the right to look behind the curtain, to write articles about the people behind the scenes and how movies actually get made, is that when we look back there we find, for example, that what we might naively think of as a free market is really almost a state agency, receiving a 42% tax credit for making the right kind of film that portrays Michigan residents in a positive light. We have the right to see this and know this, not just to sit there in front of the boob tube sucking down Sandy Frank productions and taking them as some kind of a fiat from heaven that they're this way instead of that way and wondering why The Guys In Charge all make them like that. Wnt (talk) 10:44, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

WMF superblocks its community

Hi,

since Erik doesn't answer, I'm now sending this remark to some other WMF officers and board members. I apologize for using your time.

I'm a crat in german wp. The so-called super-protections that Erik Möller/User:Eloquence and User:JEissfeldt (WMF) have put on our common.js on sunday, acting officially on behalf of WMF, have left some blood on the carpet. Many fellow wikipedians are upset, even those who accept the media viewer (which had been the conflict's origin). Several long-time contributors have left or stopped editing due to this. Journalists picked up the case.

Personally, I strongly protest against the WMF's action, and it's failure to communicate afterwards. Our communities are capable, and willing, to handle problems like this without office-actions.

There have been no official or private comments from WMF in the last days, so I'd like to suggest you have a look and give some response to the criticism.

(apologize again, for my translation errors)

Rfc: https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Requests_for_comment/Superprotect_rights

Links to ongoing discussions in german language: [5], [6], [7]

Greetings, -MBq (talk) 20:19, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Hi, i second MBq's request and also e.g. this post by Rich. This issue is not taken lightly especially among german wikipedians. Regards, Ca$e (talk) 20:55, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

If it's a Board issue then perhaps m:Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard is the right venue. Deltahedron (talk) 21:22, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

There are two big problems I see here. The first is that WMF is losing credibility - you just can't believe what they say. They say software will be assessed to see if people want it, then claim that survey results consistently under 50% approval are a "rising trend", declare that anyone who beta-tests software can be claimed as supporting its use, claim that RfCs don't matter and instead of re-running them simply ignore them, make changes to back up superprotection without proper code review or developer consensus, and end up overruling multiple projects. They say that Office Actions will be for specific Good Legal Reasons decided by Experts, then come out saying that anything they want is an Office Action, even if they have to make it so retroactively because people disagreed with them. The other problem is that the superprotection continues the proliferation of hierarchies we saw when the Pending Changes "reviewer" right was rammed down the community's throat. Instead of being an encyclopedia anyone can edit, this is a media corporation which graciously allows some people to work as unpaid interns if they wish to do work that enhances the editorial vision that people come up with in the Head Office. IANAL, but I suspect a consequence of that will be that it won't continue to be possible for WMF to disclaim that their articles are user-submitted material for which they bear no liability - not when they have staff members watching over the wiki ready to superprotect anything they thing is being changed the wrong direction, with no apparent limitation on their authority. And of course there's very little difference between dickering with lawyers over what you can print without potential legal costs and sitting with PR people and dickering over what stories you should spike to get some outside revenue. A Wikipedia led from a head office might be a Fox News, might be a MSNBC, but what it won't be is neutral; each side is going to be looking to stack it with board members to vote for their POV to come out on top.

Now superprotection is nominally a solution for a real problem - the vulnerability of Common.js - but in order to reign in this debacle, WMF needs to a) say exactly how much authority it is taking and promise clearly that it will take absolutely no more (i.e. make it like things would be in the Ukraine if the Russians had simply taken Crimea and formally promised that would be it and not kept troops massed on the border waiting to go all the way to Kiev). b) look for better technical ways to take just that authority, i.e. by some kind of mandated code review for Common.js or a special status for that file rather than an unlimited superprotection. c) state in advance some genuine test criteria for new features and clearly promise not to impose them if they don't meet those criteria. d) follow through on those promises. Wnt (talk) 23:50, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

More of you should have stood up when Arbcom enshrined that concept that "office" actions did not need any credible legal basis.—Kww(talk) 00:46, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Kww, that is indeed peculiar. I knew that Office Actions could bar changes to pages, but I didn't know by increasing a page's protection level they mean to ban admins from increasing a page's protection level further. Especially when the one they set is not one used on the wiki. Was there actually a purpose on-page to setting the page's permissions like that, or was this a means of imposing yet another unwanted hierarchy-establishing "feature" (PC2)? Wnt (talk) 03:26, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

It was solely Philippe's personal preference, forced upon us because he had the power to do so and no one thought it worthwhile to resist.—Kww(talk) 03:40, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Just in case you missed it, Jimbo (or others whom it may concern), several issues - which many seem as of great impact regarding the current and future relationship between WMF and local communities in general and which already have lead to several very active administrators and editors, having to date provided tens and hundreds of thousands of contributions, quitting the project or their functions - are currently (also) discussed at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:LilaTretikov . Ca$e (talk) 18:54, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

A literal monopoly

I'll just leave here something somebody posted at the Meta RfC which I think Jimbo and the community at large should read:

I've been editors for many years now, but this page got me thinking. Sometime, somehow, someone got his Eureka moment: Wikipedia is monopolizing the open knowledge with virtually no competition (good luck on searching "wikipedia competition")¹. It has become the de facto place, the expected #1 search result, to find information about any topic on earth. That's why the staff acted with no regard to the userbase. Jimbo at the State of the Wiki 2014 has essentially suggested that if you don't like with the way Wikipedia is handled right now, fork off! The new editors will keep coming (in diverse community such as en.wp, not necessarily in other languages). The encyclopedia has enough content and replenish rate as it is right now, and forking is so 2002 and there are so many disadvantages of doing it that is already displayed in this thread, for a project to literally follow the step of es.wp's fork, ... unless, of course, that multiple projects joined in the boat and there's some mean to support a multi-lingual exodus. ✒ Bennylin 22:08, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

I find this disturbing to say the least. What this means essentially is that the WMF can screw with their software and we can't do anything about it because any attempts to fork will fail.

Jimbo, since you delivered that speech, would you mind explaining more fully your thoughts on this subject? KonveyorBelt 23:46, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

The phrase "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" comes to mind. Anyone who thinks that the web is still an egalitarian free space is living in cloud-cuckoo land. I've been reading Lila's responses to concerns expressed on her Meta talk page. She's good; that is, she's a good corporate politician, adept at batting stuff away and filling space with "California-speak". I'm not hopeful. - Sitush (talk) 23:57, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

 Like. (I wouldn't normally use this template, but since Jimbo and the WMF are so fond of social media...) JMP EAX (talk) 09:33, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

By the way this is worth reading although I don't totally agree with the position expressed there. I think the WMF is at the point where it really doesn't care about editors. All they care is driving more traffic to the site to increase donations. This may seem shortsigthed, but once you have enough google juice you can make money for at least a decade even with crappy info. I have a good example of that from a different domain: there's certain website in Romania that's the first hit (from this country anyway) for "Bucharest taxi". That site lists perhpas a hundred taxi companies with their phone numbers. Awesome, eh? It is the first thing you'd like to see in google no? Except something like 90% of the phone numbers there are no longer valid nor calling them actually connects to a taxi company. You see, the site hasn't been updated since 2008. But it's still the 1st hit in google. The moral of the story is that you can make money for a long time with google juice by monetizing crap/outdated info. And a lot of the long tail of pages in Wikipedia are at that level of quality as well. JMP EAX (talk) 09:54, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

And you may think that Wikipedia is free to read and edit, but as monopoly is not really different from other monopolistic publishers, most notably Apple. JMP EAX (talk) 10:46, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Mass copyright violations by User:Dan56

The US copyright law states that "the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole" is a determining factor in a file's fair use. Per Harvard University's Office of the General Counsel, the accepted max is "10% or 30 seconds, whichever is less, of a musical work". Our own WP:SAMPLE is in agreement with Harvard. Dan56 has violated this law at least 90 times, and all attempts to address this situation have been blocked by Kww, Drmies, and DoRD. Today Dan56 removed disputed fair use tags from about 50 of these files, and he insists that his OGG files can be in excess of 10% of the original. Can anyone tell me what is going on around here that three admins have teamed up to defend an editor who is obviously breaking our policies and US copyright law? CGram (talk) 22:12, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

I'd like to hear the view of the admins who you so called are 'protecting' this user. Tutelary (talk) 23:29, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

This user is a serial sock who is harassing Dan56. If they were bothered about their so-called "Harvard rule", then they would be bothered about all the sound samples we have on Wikipedia that break it. Since any 30-second sample of a sub-5 minute song breaks it, the number is well into four figures. Black Kite (talk) 23:36, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

So, are you suggesting that we avoid the underlying concern no matter how valid, because several admins have blocked every user who argues with him. Look into it, Dan56 started all the confrontations with these accounts. He sets the stage to make new users look antagonistic, trust me. He does this to every new account he sees within hours of their registration; look into it. But that's not the issue here, which is Dan56's blatant disregard for the intellectual property rights of major agencies and publishers. This puts the whole project at risk, why is no one willing to set him straight, and set an example? How about the media reviewers? They let many of these slip. This is a discussion that we need to have. BananaLanguage spent (i.e. wasted) several hours of their time checking just one of his articles for issues, and they were bountiful! CGram (talk) 23:48, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Armenian Wikipedia campaign

The "Russian/Ukrainian" CHECKUSER issue section is now archived, or I might have pointed this out there. I'd noted this article in The Guardian a few days ago, though haven't had time to look at articles on Armenia....and can't read Armenian Wikipedia so can't check activity there. Campaigns, overt or covert, definitely exist within Wikipedia; at what point are they COI/AUTO?Skookum1 (talk) 02:01, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

I think it would be wonderful if, as suggested, each Armenian contributed one article to the Armenian Wikipedia. sure there might be some quality problems, but there would likely be many new editors to help clean it up and continue writing more articles. Essentially it's the same idea as Wikipedia had in the beginning; inviting everybody to come in and contribute (excluding banned editors, of course). Having the Armenian government promote this does raise some questions, and they do seem to think that the effect will promote Armenia.

For the more conservative of you, perhaps the following suggestion is better "Try this experiment: pick up the last book you read and write two lines about it for the site," from TheNational UAE re; the Arabic Wikipedia. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 02:53, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

PLEASE STOP ENCICLOPEDIC SCANDAL (first political paid advocacy in Wikipedia)

Hi jimbo, sorry for my bad English (where I live, public education is collapsing because of corrupt politicians). I saw your "Help stop paid advocacy editing!" and I want (or need) to help:

Long time ago, I asked you for help, that Wikipedia in Catalan language is not a secessionist ultranationalist pamphlet, and I said to you the danger that wikipedia is full of lies and changing the history and facts - by "consensus", of course -.

Meanwhile, some "secesionist volunteers" from wikipedia are replacing workers of Libraries and Schools in Catalonia (including the "supervision" of teaching material, as in the worst times), and I warned that there were people who gave money of subsidies to lie and cheat on wikipedia. And to have that BRUTAL MASSIVE BIAS. And INDOCTRINATION CHILDREN SECESSIONISM (If you like democracy, do not see this video of children with the WAR FLAG of communist Catalonia instead real one, you will puke).

Now, watching the recent brutal corruption scandal of hundreds of millions of euros more from that political party that gave money to the secessionists who manipulated the wikipedia, I have the duty to ask for your help again. Sorry if I insist, because before giving this information to journalists, I wanted to know your opinion.. And I hope you understand this, and help me to tell to those who manipulate wikipedia that please stop that lies and stop manipulate Wikipedia for public subsidies money, because it's wrong.

This reminds me of the newspapers in my country speaks well and happy of utilities and telecommunications companies, and they are censoring their brutal price increases caused by a price cartel, when those same newspapers receive money from advertising from these power and other companies. Similar "paid editing" is in wikipedia now:

Remember that this scandal in Wikipedia already warned me long ago and it is EMBARRASING AND SHAMEFUL: "The independence challenge: Arthurmas subsidizes "Viquipèdia" defining Catalonia as a "European country" and many other false historical data".

Here I go again with my complains (sorry if I insist this year again):

Please solve ca.wikipedia.org scandal

In red, hatred and paid Catalonian secessionism that bans spanish flags and bias and change history FACTS on ca.wikipedia.org

Catalan speakers in ca.wikipedia.org Most of them know that the Kingdom of Spain and its State exists, of course. But they are censored with war-admins, censoring bots and blockades to avoid non-secessionist editions.

Please solve future ca.wikipedia.org scandal, where a few extreme secessionist admins are shamefully banning Spanish flag in international listings, substituting by the local flag in the region of Catalonia. So, hilarious situations arise as replacing the flag of Spain by the local flag of Catalunya region, suggesting that the Kingdom of Spain did not exist at the 1888 Barcelona International Exposition or that lie: Spain did not participate in the Olympic Games of 1992, also censoring Spanish Olympic Committee to shamefully ban the Spanish flag in that list.
Secessionist paid cabal of Admins, advanced users do not allow people that are not Secessionist to edit articles, why?

And they say that anonimous IP can not edit or they will say "it's a troll", but that is an excuse to coerce registered users to edit in "secessionist way" because if you insist on adding neutral point of view or attempt to reverse the secessionist injustices editions, automatically those users are locked forever.

There is also an abuse of bots and blocks to avoid editing. -try to change the invented secessionist term "País Valencià" (Valencian State) by the official and neutral term "Comunitat Valenciana" (Valencian Community)... and secessionist goebbelian bot will revert until you accept the north catalonian secessionist point of view.

Examples:

• http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposici%C3%B3_Universal_de_Barcelona_(1888) "Preceeded by Flag:Australia - Flag:Sovereign Catalonian State Succeeded by Flaf:France"
  
• http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocs_Ol%C3%ADmpics#Seus_i_edicions Olympic Games hosts: 1988 Seoul (Korean State Flag) 1992 (Catalonian local region Flag) 1996 Atlanta (USA Flag)
• Hilarious: Barcelona is not in Spain, ¿who says it, FIFA?¿?. WTF is this Flag wars? http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selecci%C3%B3_de_futbol_d'Espanya
• Hilarious situation in F.C. Barcelona: some SPANISH football players are from Spain, some NOT. Spanish manager is from Spain, spanish president is not, FIFA countries subsidized 'mistake': https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.C._Barcelona This is a honest encyclopedia or a website of jokes?
• shameful: F.C. Barcelona player, Carles Puyol, played with Spain in year 2000, then he goes out of Spain and from 2001 to 2013 plays in "Sovereign-State-of-Catalonia-FIFA-recognized-Sovereign-Football-National-Team" hahahaha... http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carles_Puyol_i_Saforcada WTF?¿?
• Sad: In that awfully biased Wikipedia the paid seccesionism say: "Catalonia is a country of Europe that is next to the Mediterranean sea ..." [8] ¿WHAAAT? Catalonia is an Autonomous Community of Spain. Don't tell lies please.
• Sad: The region to which we, its population (the Catalan speakers of this region too) have called "Comunitat Valenciana" (Valencian Community) by the Spanish Constitution and the region Statute of Autonomy. They call it "País Valenciá" (Valencian State or Valencian Country) because they please, putting some links to blogs and biased unknown institutes: http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pa%C3%ADs_Valenci%C3%A0
• Dangerous: They are changing historical FACTS and they say "Crown of Castilia oppressed Crown of Catalonia" (FALSE: Castilia and Aragon joined and created the Kingdom of Spain. Oppressed people were everywere in that Europe 500 years ago) and spaniards we are evil oppressors in ALL articles of that brutally mass biased Wikipedia.

The historians that make fact checks an me, we hope you fix solution to this scandal, as this shameful ban of Spanish flags and history, as well as being full of hatred, goes against all historical encyclopedic accuracy, and goes against what Spanish and American municipalities, institutions, organizations and schools want to give to their children. Spain exists in 1888, in 1992, and Today, and either wikipedia will not change history under dark interests.

The point is that WIKIPEDIA CONSENSUS CAN'T CHANGE FACTS. The table on the Olympics article has a list of countries/nations, and one of them doesn't fit in because political money subsidices lies. Outside intervention is needed.

There is a BIG problem

Amical, (the secessionist association, "owner" of ca.wiki, I guess, with a secessionist president of some catalan ARMY who says FREE CATALONIA SOON !???, with a secretary proud to be a WAR FISH) and a few other WAR-FISH against non-secessionist wikipedians, this WAR-LIKE people (against who? I expect not Spain) that controls ca.wiki, is making the Wikipedia in Catalan languaje fall into a very biased and dangerous secessionism. Only an 8 or 10 percent of catalan speaking people and territories are secessionist, against the rest of catalan speaking people and territories, the Spanish Constitution, the Autonomous Statutes, the European Union, etc... BUT the secessionist government of a little region that speaks Catalan is paying about 9.241 euros to that association and other "gifts" like giving them power (to change history to invent new hatred) in Public Libraries, Museums, Schools, etc...

Sorry for my bad english. But political donations have to work with us, not against us.

Please, help to stop that brutal and subsidized massive bias by that corruption scandal secesionist political party. This is not about one or two articles. This is about 1000 articles with lies and history facts CHANGED to make a war-like pamphlet. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.9.203.131 (talk) 05:14, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Five pillars

Jimbo, do you recall the discussion that led to the page? I can't see where any discussion has been had over the page's identity, so I've decided to fling it open and see what all of the editors think. See Wikipedia_talk:Five_pillars#What_is_this_page.3F. Be great if someone who was around at the genesis of the page could talk about it. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 15:01, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Interesting question. I dove into Archive.org's "Wayback Machine" at the start of 2004 and don't see any reference to 5 pillars there, although following a couple links brought me to "Wikipedia:Staying cool when the editing gets hot," which is a line JW mentioned as common to many WPs as part of their formal civility rules. Civility and NPOV for Beginners (Pillars #4 and #2) are dealt with extensively there and that might be the root of a formal pillars page. (Ah, I see now that it still exists as an essay: Wikipedia:Staying cool when the editing gets hot...) Carrite (talk) 16:46, 14 August 2014 (UTC) Last edit: Carrite (talk) 16:51, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Discussion on the 5 Pillars Talk page argues that the "Trifecta" (NPOV/Don't Be a Dick/IAR) was the forerunner of the 5 Pillars. I'm sure it was directly influential, but that started only in April 2005 and there are other, older layers of the onion to be peeled... Carrite (talk) 17:26, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Looking back at old editions of WP like this, one can really see mission creep in the Wikimedia project. Compare this Dec. 2003 mainpage statement about the nature and purpose of WP: "Wikipedia is a multilingual project to create a complete and accurate free content encyclopedia." with the soaring (Utopian) rhetoric of "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." Carrite (talk) 17:05, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Complete and accurate is rather ambitious, and, at the time it was written, perhaps free was too. Also, perhaps the possibilities and opportunities for Wikipedia have changed faster than Wikipedia's own mission has changed. In 2001 the majority of people with internet access would be North Americans and Europeans with above-average income and fluency in English. Thirteen years later, the statistic that six billion people have cellphones is rather impressive and indicates that the world has moved on rather a lot. Wikipedia's mission needs to move with it, and is doing so. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 17:21, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Fair enough. Carrite (talk) 17:28, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Maybe that's six billion cellphones, rather than six billion people? I haven't counted, but a fair proportion of that number are lying around in my bottom drawer. Not six billion, but. Maybe only three or four. --Pete (talk) 22:37, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Notice

There is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. The thread is If I may..... Thank you. Dusti^{*Let's talk!*} 22:44, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Since you were mentioned I believe I have to notify you (or someone does anyway). Dusti^{*Let's talk!*} 22:45, 14 August 2014 (UTC)