Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions

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Peer review

I would be grateful if the signpost could include something in the news section about peer review. This follows on from an earlier editorial last year (Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2017-02-27/Special report). Kadane has kindly created a bot that contacts editors about unanswered reviews at time intervals of their choosing, set at WP:PRV. The signpost would be a good place to announce this and garner some more interest in peer review, maybe. A loud example article / infomercial is below. Yours, --Tom (LT) (talk) 23:05, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia Peer Review - Request for reviewers

Wikipedia ads	file info – #14

Wikipedia peer review needs more reviewers. Please join us and contribute some reviews, or add yourself to our volunteers list to get regular updates of unanswered reviews. The peer review volunteers list is not new, but what is new is that you can add yourself and a time interval at which you'd like regular reminders about unanswered peer reviews in that topic area (e.g. history, geographic, social sciences).

Peer review provides a way for new and experienced editors alike to ask for and provide input into an article that is being developed. It's often a stepping stone for new editors, or for articles on their way to featured article status. It's a great way to help new editors become experienced with our wiki ways, improve articles, and learn about completely new subject areas.

We usually have between 10 - 20 unanswered reviews, often waiting for months, that only require a pair of eyes and some kind advice. We look forward to seeing you around!

Yours, --Tom (LT) (talk) 23:05, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Tom (LT), If you write something, we will happily publish it, but there's not really anyone here to write the normal columns, much less an additional one. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 15:12, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

@Eddie891 thanks, will write something and resubmit when I have time. --Tom (LT) (talk) 09:25, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

Addit: I will take a raincheck on this for the moment and resubmit when I have a completed submission. --Tom (LT) (talk) 08:33, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

A Third of Wikipedia Discussions Are Stuck in Forever Beefs

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/3k9zjv/a-third-of-wikipedia-discussions-are-stuck-in-forever-beefs ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:32, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

Promotion - get it out there.

Hi Kudpung - I've been around here for years and yet only recently come across Signpost. I bookmarked it as there appears to be no clear link to it on main page. Why not? Why is it not right up at the top of the sidebar, perhaps just below Mainpage? Also - the title "Signpost" has a whiff of the Old West, or what you'd have seen just below a gas lamp in a Dickensian side street in the dead of night, kinda makes you wanna "get outa Dodge". Perhaps rename it WikiNews. Also - a top headline on this month's edition is The Signpost is still afloat, just barely. Wtf who wants to grab hold of a drowning man? This is definitely "get outa Dodge" language.

Wikipedia does a great job of keeping up with current affairs, helped, quite possibly, by the fact that its right there on the main page marked Current Affairs. So why not go for it - new name - easily accessible and less Doom&gloom .

WikiNews - Mark^Dask 18:34, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

That name’s taken. — pythoncoder  (talk | contribs) 22:05, 13 November 2018 (UTC)

How about WikiTribune? Surely nobody has taken that name.... --Guy Macon (talk) 03:06, 14 November 2018 (UTC)

• How about linking "The Signpost" from the left sidebar, @Kudpung and Bri:? --Pine^✉ 00:41, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

• An interesting proposition. Does anybody know exactly how the sidebar navigation elements are chosen? Is it by WMF or by ENWP community? I do not remember having seen changes discussed in my 10+ years of activity here. ☆ Bri (talk) 02:17, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

An idea that's so obvious, it's a wonder why it's never been done. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 09:08, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

People suffer from banner blindness with the sidebar, especially as people continue to add things but not remove other things from it causing cannibalisation. If you're looking to increase awareness of the Signpost, there are probably better ways than adding it to the sidebar. --Deskana (talk) 11:34, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

• At any case, this needs an explicit community consensus in a widely-advertised RFC. ∯WBG^converse 16:27, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Well we should propose this properly then. IWI (chat) 10:36, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

• You could consider doing new and different things to also draw readers. The New York Times is known for a variety of things. One of which is a Cross word puzzle. "The Raven" if I recall correct was first published in a paper. Short stories have long been published to a variety of papers. This would also be inline with the statement purpose of Signpost, imo. This could also draw a number of signpost contributors who wouldn't otherwise be involved and could draw their interest to other aspects of the paper. Also offering curated content like this opens an additional avenue to other unique content. Specifically the content review. Opinion pieces on the curated content. -Serialjoepsycho- (talk) 08:34, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

I'm a celebrity

A brief mention of Anne Hegerty on the reliability of Wikipedia while on British reality show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, specifically relating to her page may be appropriate within the "In the Media" section. IWI (chat) 09:01, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia and and a politician with insomnia

• 'Insomniac since I was a boy of five', Sunday Independent. 'Instead of staring at the ceiling [Alan Farrell] says he reads the following day's papers from 1am into the early hours when they are first published online. "My worst attribute is wikiloops. I might look at something on Wikipedia and I would research something and then I would click on a link to the next page and the next page and all of a sudden it's three hours later and you've gotten nothing done and you are in a wikiloop, going down a rabbit hole."'

Revisiting the German War Effort arb case's impact on WikiProject Milhist

As those of you who run this publication must know, the German war effort was complex and involved a significant amount of evidence and litigation. Aside from tensions near boiling over during the case and many people being unhappy with the decision, there were numerous effects on WikiProject Military history. The lead coordinator resigned, the project modified its A-class review process to include a source review, altered its internal guidelines for drafting biographies, and questions about the German war effort case are being asked by a couple of our members to the candidates for this year's ArbCom election. In the past 24 hours, it has resurfaced in a dispute about an award the project bestows annually. Might be worth a special report. I for one know it will effect how I will be voting for Arbcom this year. -Indy beetle (talk) 02:46, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

Review the site for Political Bias

You would probably get more donations from a variety of people if the site was not so biased. I understand that many in academia have an agenda but if you want to provide objective information, it should provide both sides of issues without taking sides. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.24.2.34 (talk • contribs) 23:13, December 6, 2018 (UTC)

@108.24.2.34: Why do you believe the site is biased? Please provide examples. Also, sign your posts with ~~~~. — pythoncoder  (talk | contribs) 13:13, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Comparatively few studies have been conducted examining this question systematically. These are summarized at Ideological bias on Wikipedia. GMG^talk 13:59, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Article suggestions

Article suggestion: Review of 2018/ Continent wise review

Hi. I was wondering if anyone would be working on an article related to a review of 2018. If such a review/recap of the year is suitable for this issue of Signpost, I can help out with article.
I checked the Archives and since 2005, a yearly recap has been done for the following years: (includes partial and localised reviews)

Year	Article	Date
2005	A look back at Wikipedia's fifth year	16 January 2006
2006	Special: 2006 in Review Special: 2006 in Review, Part II	8 January 2007 15 January 2007
2007	Special: 2007 in Review Special: 2007 in Review, Part II Special: 2007 in Review, Part III Special: 2007 in Review, Part IV	14 January 2008 21 January 2008 28 January 2008 4 February 2008
2008	How busy was 2008?	16 February 2009
2009	2009 in Review	11 January 2010
2010	2010 IN REVIEW: Review of the year	3 January 2011
2011	2011's technological achievements in review, and what 2012 may hold	9 January 2012
2012	2012—the big year	7 January 2013
2013	FEATURED CONTENT: 2013—the trends TECHNOLOGY REPORT: Looking back on 2013 TRAFFIC REPORT: A year stuck in traffic ARBITRATION REPORT: Examining the Committee's year	1 January 2014 1 January 2014 1 January 2014 1 January 2014
2014	Traffic in the fog: 2014's most popular articles include death, Facebook, and Ebola	28 January 2015
2016	IN THE MEDIA: Year-end roundups, Wikipedia's 16th birthday, and more	17 January 2017
2017	TRAFFIC REPORT: The best and worst of 2017	16 January 2018

But from the above, I see a trend of NOT doing yearly reviews, apart from traffic reports. One reason may be because the effort to do a yearly review is a lot, in other words, too time consuming as compared to what the output is and the readers it addresses. Anyway that aside...

MAIN IDEA: I wanted to suggest one idea for the yearly review to be in the form of a continent wise review. (since country wise is not possible of course). This would simply include a section related to each of the continents - Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America. If this idea is liked, maybe we could tag editors who specialise in each continent who are willing to contribute so that it becomes a collaborative effort and individual load is removed. Even short paragraphs from each of the 7 continents would be enough to form a decent sized article.
I am of course ready to contribute for Asia (& try other continents if others don't have time). Regards DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 09:49, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

@DiplomatTesterMan: What exactly would you include in the scope of your review for each continent? New content or article improvements, like new FAs or GAs of relevant major topics? Edit-a-thons or Wikimeetups and conferences that took place in the continent? -Indy beetle (talk) 20:55, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

@Indy beetle: Sorry for the delay in reply. I wanted to complete a good portion of the below article before moving on to another one. As for this one... I had thought that if there were different users for different continents, then they could decide how to go about the review. The points you have mentioned cover the scope well. The only limitation should be that every continent would be given the same amount of space. But I had wanted a more informal kind of narrative, rather than a general one.

Continent	User
Africa	User 1
Antarctica	User 2
Asia	User:DiplomatTesterMan
Australia/Oceania	User 4
Europe	User 5
North America	User 6
South America	User 7

DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 14:45, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

If this section were agreed upon, I'd be willing to write up the Africa portion. -Indy beetle (talk) 16:44, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

@Indy beetle: Sorry I didnt reply earlier. I was trying to wrap up the Signpost stats article, which is now finally done. I don't think I have the energy for this one now :D even if it is shifted to the next issue. And also finding editors is a task. So I think I will let this one go for now. Regards. DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 07:58, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

Article suggestion: Signpost readership

I would also like to work on an article related to Signpost readership since the very beginning (and find trends if possible). This simply involves seeing the number of pageviews for each year, and providing commentary related to the most viewed article ever, most popular category of articles...etc. I will go ahead if others think this article is ok. And of course, others can suggest ideas or add to it. DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 12:57, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

@Pythoncoder: I was just thinking I could actually start with this one just now since I have a few days to spare and may not get time later on. Do you think this article is ok to start with, or do you suggest working on something else related to Signpost? DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 16:07, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

@DiplomatTesterMan: Sounds good to me. FYI There was a bit of talkpage analysis a while back: Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost/Newsroom/Archive_1#Traffic_on_May_issue's_articles — pythoncoder  (talk | contribs) 18:06, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

@Pythoncoder: Thanks. Thanks for the link too, really good pointers for the article, exactly what I am talking about! DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 19:20, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Article suggestion: Interview of someone editing from a conflict zone?

Does anyone know a Wikipedia editor who currently edits from a conflict zone? (It could be on any of the other language Wikis too. I like the idea of conducting an interview with such a user... DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 12:57, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

@Bri: I shifted the above content from the Newsroom... I didn't read the tag at the top, and then got confused whether it could have stayed there or not. I don't think it makes a difference right... since all these are suggestions, hence on this talk page, but suggestions for the upcoming issue, so Newsroom talkpage. Anyway. DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 13:03, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

@DiplomatTesterMan: At meta:Deceased editors there is Ihor Kostenko, uk:Користувач:Ig2000 who died in en:Euromaidan. Also deceased is en:Bassel Khartabil who died in the en:Civil uprising phase of the Syrian Civil War.

The documentation on meta:Editing with Tor is not sorted and there is published guidance in many places.

If you check news articles for conflicts for interesting pictures then often those come from people who are on the scene. Blue Rasberry (talk) 17:12, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

@Bluerasberry: Thank you for the comment and information. Will follow it up. DiplomatTesterMan (talk) 08:00, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

ANI archive will past 1000

I think it should be present at this time. Now it is 998 and in January it will have over 1000. How about having it? 14.232.160.139 (talk) 10:13, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

See newsroom discussion: WT:POST/N. We're discussing including this. — pythoncoder  (talk | contribs) 13:15, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

Public Domain Day 2019

Hi, I would like to submit a story for Public Domain Day on January 1, 2019. Gnom (talk) 13:27, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

As an off-enwp Wikimedian, what I'd like to read...

Hi the authors of Signpost,

I contribute majorly involve with Chinese Wikipedia. I am also a board member of Wikimedia Taiwan. I have to say Signpost has been an inspiration for us for long. Since 2014, we started the monthly newsletter of the chapter in Chinese, and one of the must read reference for our newsletter editor is your wonderful work.

I personally enjoy a lot reviewing the international related articles, such as news and brief, op-ed, or features. But the topics or sections that relate solely for English Wikipedia community, such as the rank of article views does not catch my eye balls.

I am highly appreciate your work, this is a honest and many of the times, very critical voice in the community. However, I am not sure whether I think it's good about the style in a dark fashion. I feel this is a balance resource that complementary to the Wikimedia Blog since this is the place not only shows positive things in the movement, and I appreciate all your work! Anyway, I hope my feedback helps you for the future articles! Happy holiday season. --Liang (WMTW) (talk) 05:18, 25 December 2018 (UTC)