Wikipedia:Village pump (news)

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Napster Links

Napster has an ad on its site recommending people place Napster Links on Wikipedia. These are links to songs that only play after (free) user registration. Napster imposes a limit of 5 plays and requires a paid subscription for further plays, or to download the song. The purpose of the links is obviously advertising. Thus, they seem to clearly violate Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. I've sent them an email asking that they take the ad down. Either way, I think people should remove these links on sight. Anyone disagree? Superm401 - Talk 02:18, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Also, there is an option to include an affiliate ID in the link so people can get 5% of resulting sign-ups purchases and a commission on sign-ups (corrected Superm401 - Talk 17:57, 8 May 2006 (UTC)). This provides motivation for deliberate spammers. Superm401 - Talk 02:21, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

If it gets bad we should add them to the blacklist. BrokenSegue 02:25, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Good thinking. I had forgotten about that. We should only use it if necessary, though. Superm401 - Talk 02:26, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Preemptive blacklisting sounds good to me. --Carnildo 03:53, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

That's okay with me, but people can always work around technical rules (proxies etc.) so social solutions are better. I'll let everyone know if/when Napster responds to my email; their removing the ad would definitely help the most. Superm401 - Talk 17:57, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

...they have an ad up asking people to spam us for them? Sheesh. Shimgray | talk | 18:25, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, but not just us. They also recommend people spam Myspace, other blogs, and through email and chat. You can see the ad for yourself. It's still running as of now. Superm401 - Talk 22:22, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

That's nuts - it goes to show how a company can degenerate. They were purchased by a larger corporation, no? It might be useful to focus communications on the larger entity. This is just plain bad media relations. Aguerriero (ţ) (ć) (ë) 21:05, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I believe they're a public company. I still haven't received a response, despite them saying they would probably send one within 48 hours. I sent a followup email to another (less appropriate) address. Superm401 - Talk 04:10, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

They have an advertisement asking people to spam Wikipedia? ASKING people? To SPAM WIKIPEDIA? Well, I'm certainly not using their site. I encourage you to do the same. Meh, somebody do an indefinite IP block on Napster staff – Gurch 17:11, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

Although I condone Napster for this ridculousness, I also see it as flattery of possibly the highest kind for Wikipedia. --Osbus 00:24, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

I think you mean "condemn".  ;) —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 03:23, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Nope. I did however, mean because instead of although. --Osbus 21:26, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm putting a copy of this over at WP:AN where it may be more relevant. JoshuaZ 21:51, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

Napster Update

Alex Marrache (Alex.Marrache@napster.com) responded today, saying "While we do not believe that we are in violation of your policy, we have stopped encouraging people to add links to the site." Unfortunately, this is flagrantly inaccurate, as both http://m.2mdn.net/1155087/amplify_links_160ww.jpg and http://www.napster.com/player/player_video_v2.swf?fileType=swf&clip=http://ad.doubleclick.net/adx/naps.player/g_1;dcmt=text/plain;sz=320x240;ptile=1;ord=5498709629239128 were served to me when I checked tonight. I responded to Alex, noting this somewhat important fact; I'll post again if/when anything else happens. Superm401 - Talk 02:36, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

God, what a bunch of fuckwits. I feel like registering an account so I can stop using it in protest. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 10:23, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

In protest, I will no longer use Napster. Of course, this would mean a lot more if I used Napster before I started this protest. --Deathphoenix ʕ 12:05, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

It doesn't really matter what they say because that part of Napster's site is already on the spam blacklist, so links can't be added to any Wikimedia project, nor to any of the hundreds of Mediawiki wikis out there who use the blacklist. --bainer (talk) 13:51, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure why, but they still can; that's part of the reason I have pursued this. Superm401 - Talk 03:19, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

--Man, I agree. What. A. Bunch. Of. BLEEPs. If you want to play music on your blog or myspace, you can always use something open source like XPSF. At the very least, don't sell your soul to this fallen-angel institution. Napster used to be the Herald of free speech and the open flow of information on the internet. Now it's a common, scheming, selfish wretch. Absolutely disgusting. --Monk of the highest order 05:19, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

New China Version?

This article suggest that Wikimedia has been approached about making a politically censored version of Wikipedia in China. Can anyone confirm that? BrokenSegue 02:37, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

I can't confirm or deny, but I hope dearly Wikimedia never considers acceding to such a request. Superm401 - Talk 03:07, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Of course there is nothing to stop any group from forking Wikipedia and removing the items disliked by the Chinese government. Dsmdgold 13:20, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, and that wouldn't bother me much (partially because it would probably fail). I would have a problem if Wikimedia uses its resources (which are a result of donations such as mine) to support such an edition. Superm401 - Talk 18:09, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

I've seen Jimbo quoted as saying it won't happen. If it does, I hope there is some mechanism for dismissing the board of Wikimedia. Bhoeble 22:21, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

No, there's no way for users to dismiss the whole board. At that point, people would have to start an NPOV fork and hope for the best. Superm401 - Talk 22:27, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

The Baidu Baike encylopedia has been started. If you believe Wikipedia, it bans "politically reactionary content" and all user written content is submitted to administrators for clearance before it goes live and administrators cannot be contacted. It got 10K articles in two days, which may be the result of it allowing CC and GFDL articles but then claiming elsewhere on the site that all content is under their copyright. Apparently they're up to 100K now. - BanyanTree 02:17, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Why should Baidu care about GFDL or CC? GFDL and CC probably doesn't even apply under chinese laws. Hell, Baidu can sell wikipedia content if they want to and the chinese governmnet would not give a damn. 70.48.250.138 01:03, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

The GFDL applies under international copyright law, which China subscribes to. Whether they'll enforce it is another question, but it's certainly applicable under the Berne Convention et al. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 04:42, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Incidentally, it's perfectly legal to sell GFDL content, as long as the distributor follows the terms of the GFDL. Superm401 - Talk 13:29, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

This Signpost article Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-05-15/Baidu makes it clear that Baidu has effectively copied what it wanted from http://zh.wikipedia.org/ , forked, commercialized and has gone its own way. Maybe the authorities felt that, unlike Google, there were no simple fixes to "the problem" from their point of view if the Foundation was involved. I guess we can wait and see if Jimbo had a "plan B" to address this easily-forseeable scenario. Perhaps he is still too busy basking in his "Time 100" glow here: http://www.nabble.com/Time+100+footage-t1614869.html . For a mature view of China, please listen to: http://wacsf.vportal.net/?fileid=4403 -- 71.6.14.71 17:32, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

I think "plan B" is obvious, make wikipedia an indispensible part of internet culture. If Baidupedia copies all our stuff, their articles will be out of date to the date of copying. Who would want to go to an older version of wikipedia? --Rayc 14:05, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

It's perfectly legal if they've merely "forked, commercialized and has gone its own way." The problem arises if they haven't complied with the GFDL terms, which include licensing derivative works under the GFDL and attribution; I have heard they violated these terms. We should be able to enforce the GFDL here if only because it is such a key case (the apparently illegal fork is designed to cirumvent our NPOV for the entire nation); I hope the foundation intervenes. Superm401 - Talk 02:47, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

If they aren't licensing their work under the GFDL, probably anyone can intervene. The Foundation doesn't have to be the one to do it. Certainly any contributor to the Chinese Wikipedia can intervene. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 03:05, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

The Foundation can't intervene legally. However, they can exert PR pressure. Superm401 - Talk 03:53, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Ya i'm sure Baidu is quaking in their boots by all the PR pressure. 70.48.250.130 22:31, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

• Spread browser it is a easy way to over take censorship. Greatfull!!--Icaro 21:33, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject_Awareness

I've recently launched a project to gather together small-scale promotional material for Wikimedia for raising awareness in local communities. However, I will need some more editors to get involved before I begin building pages. Is anyone interested? Go sign up! --Xyrael ^T 20:04, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Introducing Concordia

Concordia, formerly known as Community Justice, has been redone. Check it out...--Osbus 21:33, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Anyone know what the name means?--Rayc 00:56, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

It's Latin for "concurrence, harmony, peace, union". —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 05:15, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Military role account editing

I discovered a meta:role account from the U.S. military, User:USSTRATCOM PAO. Seems to me like a much nicer solution than what happened with the Congress building. :) Just thought someone should know. Ashibaka tock 03:44, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Nice, glad to see someone stepping up and taking responsibility. If the IT people at elementary schools could do the same for their systems it'd save us a whole lot of work. -Loren 04:11, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

commons:MediaWiki:Quick-delete.js

Hello, I'm not sure who does "image patrol" these days, but just wanted to advertise these tools which you will likely find useful (after some cleanup and adaptions to en.wp).

If you implement it (by either copying the whole thing to your monobook.js file, or making it a global file here and "importing" it ala the talk page to individual users), it gives you three links for pages in the Image: namespace:

• Nominate for deletion
  • prompts for a reason, posts that on a IfD type page, marks the image as IfD'd, posts warning on uploader talk page
• Mark as no source
  • marks image, posts warning on uploader talk page
• Mark as no license
  • marks image, posts warning on uploader talk page

Anyway, run with it -- cheers --pfctdayelise (translate?) 17:33, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I like it, will it work on enwiki? --Rory096 06:28, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

As I said, after adaption to en.wp. pfctdayelise (translate?) 09:47, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

It's Brion Vibber Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saluton Wikipedians!

Yes, the day has come again! Today we marvel at Brion's incredible dedication and hard work without which the project should have collapsed a long time ago, and greet each other in Esperanto. Tonight at dinner, everybody shall say a toast to Brion and his many inventions! YAY BRION! --Rory096 06:25, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Jarod Lanier thinks his WP article is misleading

Jarod Lanier uses his dissatisfaction with his WP article as a springboard for discussing what's wrong with WP. [1] His suggestion: put WP through a low-pass filter. Zora 00:19, 5 June 2006 (UTC)