Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)

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Invitation to Hubs event: Global Conversation on 2022-03-12 at 13:00 UTC

Hey all - I'm including below an invitation to the upcoming Saturday 12 March Global Conversation about Hubs, which are being explored as a way to help coordinate support for communities. Please see more details below.

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Hello!

The Movement Strategy and Governance team of the Wikimedia Foundation would like to invite you to the next event about "Regional and Thematic Hubs". The Wikimedia Movement is in the process of understanding what Regional and Thematic Hubs should be. Our workshop in November was a good start (read the report), but we're not finished yet.

Over the last weeks we conducted about 16 interviews with groups working on establishing a Hub in their context (see Hubs Dialogue). These interviews informed a report that will serve as a foundation for discussion on March 12. The report is planned to be published on March 9.

The event will take place on March 12, 13:00 to 16:00 UTC on Zoom. Interpretation will be provided in French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Portuguese. Registration is open, and will close on March 10. Anyone interested in the topic is invited to join us. More information on the event on Meta-wiki.

Best regards,

Kaarel Vaidla
Movement Strategy

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Xeno (WMF) (talk) 17:31, 5 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A report on the findings of the Hubs Dialogue has been published on Commons ahead of the Global Conversation later today. Xeno (WMF) (talk) 01:24, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a site which allows the public to collaborate to create "mind maps" together?

I'm basically looking for a centralised tree of knowledge, where you can collaborate with the public to construct mind-maps within each topic

As with Wiki pages - lots of hyperlinks, anyone can edit the articles.

However, wikipedia presents information as long passages of text. Often it is easier to present information as a logical flowchart or mind map, rather than as passages of text.

I'm familiar with the existance of specific 'wiki' sites, however that is not what I mean. I'm looking for a site containing "mind maps", rather than passages of text (as you see in a traditional wikipedia article)

I'm looking for a site which allows crowdsourced contributions to a universal "mind map"

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Vitreology (talk) 07:08, 6 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There are some on-line whiteboards and a few shared post-it note systems (such as Jamboard). None come to mind if you want live mind map collaboration. Check List of concept- and mind-mapping software? Ask at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing? — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 14:48, 6 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've been interested in this, too, but I'm interested in making it more complicated in that it maps not merely all significant viewpoints documented in sources deemed by consensus to be reliable, but all viewpoints, period, which takes an already many-dimensional problem and adds so many more dimensions. Seems this question is not very relevant to Wikipedia, and WP:NOTFORUM applies. MarshallKe (talk) 13:49, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Massive disregard of WP:RS in articles related to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

Just to give an example from my watchlist: This is what I had to do in order to make the article compliant with our policies. The information is arguably credible (I did not attempt to look for more sources), but the two sources added to the article are (i) partisan from the same side and (ii) do not even make an attempt to verify the info, instead citing social media belonging to some newsmakers. Note that at least one of the sources is RS, and the second one looks more or less fine. I could have reverted, I have chosen to attribute the opinions instead. This is now massively happening across hundreds of articles. There is probably very little we can do about it, since Russian reporting is clearly just a lie and should not be added in any case, and people take Ukrainian reporting subcritically and still want to add into into articles. But it is something to have in mind, that we are now full of badly sourced partisan info. As I said elsewhere, the Russian invasion should motivate us to add high-quality info to our articles but is not an excuse to lowering our standards.--Ymblanter (talk) 11:55, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That's what we get when we try to be a news service rather than an encyclopedia. The way to address this is to enforce WP:NOT#NEWS, which means waiting for proper secondary sources to be published about a subject before covering it, but, even though it is supposedly policy, consensus still seems to be against enforcing it. Phil Bridger (talk) 12:24, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

We also need editors to think more about writing towards the long term view and not the minutae of day to day events, particularly when verification is not strong here. --Masem (t) 14:31, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't this more appropriate at Talk:2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is watched by 790 editors, or WP:RSN, etc. Indeed, a similar discussion is ongoing at Talk:2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine#Danger_of_repeating_propaganda_without_checking_against_reality ProcrastinatingReader (talk) 12:28, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I will post it now there as well.--Ymblanter (talk) 13:03, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Turned out to be a bad idea to post anything there.--Ymblanter (talk) 15:41, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I have learned that NOT#NEWS is impossible to enforce for some topics. The best we can do is add a “breaking news” tag (so that readers are warned that the article is flawed)… and then come back and completely re-write the article once we actually have sources that allow us to take a long term approach. Blueboar (talk) 15:54, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Indeed, as I said, I do not have any hope that we can enforce NOT#NEWS here. In some cases, reverting info on sight would work, but usually indeed neutrality, sources tags, and more specific tags like these targeting partisan and unreliable sources would help. Ymblanter (talk) 16:30, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Details of the OP's well-intentioned commentary are problematic. In any conflict, whether it is political/military/social/cultural etc., primary sources (the combatants) should be used sparingly and very clearly marked so. But this is not enough. If primary sources are to be used, all sides must be similarly included. The OP's opinion of the veracity of one side vs the other is irrelevant, and leads down the easy slope to censorship. If there are no reliable references to be had, the article should be withdrawn, as it provides no useful encyclopedic knowledge. Reliable references, not the news industry's and (even worse) academia's invention of "reliable sources" which in actual fact have never existed and neither now exist. Reliability must be judged per use, so let's stop conferring blanket reliability to people and organizations with motives and opinions. It would be much better for an article about this or any conflict written by somebody who really doesn't give a damn about any side, and sees producing such an article as a chore of the worst kind. 2603:7000:3842:C100:1D58:486A:1661:32A1 (talk) 18:16, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Stepan (cat)

My article, Stepan (cat), created on March 3, has not yet been reviewed. ✍A.WagnerC (talk) 03:37, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It is only 8 days since it was created. It often takes a lot longer than that. I also notice "This article is an orphan, as no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles." It would help if you addressed that issue. Bduke (talk) 03:49, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Bduke I searched but couldn't find any other articles mentioning that cat. ✍A.WagnerC (talk) 15:20, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps you can add a link to it from articles about cats. I have no interest in cats. I am a dog person. There most be articles that list types of cats, so you could add it there. --Bduke (talk) 22:56, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

For a start you can add it to List of cat breeds. --Bduke (talk) 23:00, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Bduke: No, it's correctly in Category:Individual cats, not a breed. PamD 00:18, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

We have List of cats, good place to add it (and de-orphan it). Schazjmd (talk) 00:40, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've added it to List of cats; could probably be added to Cats and the Internet as well, seems as famous as many of the other cats in that article. Dan from A.P. (talk) 08:42, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Top news story

I apologize if this is the wrong place for this. If it is, please tell me where it should go.

I've learned that Shane Warne was a legendary cricket player, but does his death really deserve to be the top news story on the front page for an entire week? There's a major war going on right now, that has the potential to become much much worse.

Is Warne's story likely to be updated anytime soon? Was there anything suspicious about it? I'm not trying to belittle the death of someone who was very widely beloved and admired, but there are large portions of the world that know little or nothing about cricket. I myself (I'm American) know very little about it. I wouldn't expect the death of an American athlete to completely monopolize the news at the beginning of an international crisis. --JDspeeder1 (talk) 07:10, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't characterise Warne as "monopolising" the news. Out of the five In the News items, four are non-Warne related, including one on the war in Ukraine. – Teratix ₵ 07:39, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

And far more people (including over a billion in India) follow cricket, of which Warne was one of the top few players of the last few decades, than any American sport. Phil Bridger (talk) 10:08, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Folks, let’s not miss the point. Should the death of a sports figure (of any sport) be featured as a top story in the news section for this long (especially when we consider what else is currently happening in the world)? Blueboar (talk) 13:48, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Exactly my point. Thank you. JDspeeder1 (talk) 13:37, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
You're all perfectly welcome to take this discussion topic to WT:ITN and WP:ITN/C which was and indeed is the responsible entity for managing the "In the news" template in the first place, but just so that it's as clear as a pikestaff -- "Wikipedia:In the news is not a news ticker." The posting system on ITN functions on reverse chronological order, not order of perceived importance. Shane Warne's death happened after the invasion of Ukraine began. --WaltCip-(talk) 14:31, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
You just had to wait a little longer; the top story is now the South Korean election.-- Pawnkingthree (talk) 21:09, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
JDspeeder1's post illustrates extremely well how ITN is broken. Users expect it to operate like a normal news roundup, displaying the most significant story first rather than the most recent above all else. Users also won't intuit that we leave some stories out because the article quality isn't up go standard yet. {{u|Sdkb}} ^talk 15:35, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I wasn't expecting the headlines to be listed in order of significance, I was expecting chronological. That's not what was happening, though. The Shane Warne story was at the top for a whole week, even as other stories were coming in below it. JDspeeder1 (talk) 16:59, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
If stories were being added beneath an existing blurb, it's because the seminal events in those stories pre-dated said blurb, not because of significance. WaltCip-(talk) 17:25, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I was eagerly awaiting this topic being brought to WT:ITN as I suggested, since it seems that there's a belief at least among some that ITN needs to be changed. I was quite disappointed to see no one took me up on the offer. I guess it really isn't that big of a deal. --WaltCip-(talk) 13:37, 16 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

User Page Privacy Concerns

I've been a bit hesitant to bring this up since it might exacerbate the issue I'm having, but when I first made my user page on Wikipedia in 2015, I included a lot of personal information about myself. Although I have long since removed the info from my user page, it still shows up in my user page history.

I was wondering if an admin could remove the earlier revisions containing my personal info, as I do have a lot of privacy concerns regarding this. Thanks!

--Dtale1984 (talk) 16:53, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Did this, although it didn't contain a lot of private information IMO and I am hesitant to do a log redaction here. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 16:58, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! I only needed the earliest revision to be redacted honestly but I appreciate it nonetheless. Dtale1984 (talk) 17:01, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

ANONYMOUS ADDITION

I wish to make an anonymous factual addition to an article, based on first hand experience, and this is the only hope I can find to achieve this. The facts are easily verified. The Article refers to Chester Seabury, who broke the educational color barrier in the State of Florida (which is correctly stated in the article about him). The following is first hand knowledge: Chester also broke the color barrier another way while at Stranahan, by singing in the boys chorus, which, under the direction of Peggy Barber, won multiple competitions including the Florida State 'Boys Chorus Competition' in Daytona. Participation required that Chet room in an all-white hotel with three other members of the chorus, who were white... Submitted anonymously by a fellow member of the chorus. Hopefully, this method will work and the article will be amended. MPC — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:143:580:4CA0:D580:F190:3B29:87EB (talk) 03:52, 13 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Unless you have published sources we can't use this. —Jéské Couriano v^_^v ^{a little blue Bori} 04:10, 13 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Loves Folklore 2022 ends tomorrow

International photographic contest Wiki Loves Folklore 2022 ends on 15th March 2022 23:59:59 UTC. This is the last chance of the year to upload images about local folk culture, festival, cuisine, costume, folklore etc on Wikimedia Commons. Watch out our social media handles for regular updates and declaration of Winners.

(Facebook , Twitter , Instagram)

The writing competition Feminism and Folklore will run till 31st of March 2022 23:59:59 UTC. Write about your local folk tradition, women, folk festivals, folk dances, folk music, folk activities, folk games, folk cuisine, folk wear, folklore, and tradition, including ballads, folktales, fairy tales, legends, traditional song and dance, folk plays, games, seasonal events, calendar customs, folk arts, folk religion, mythology etc. on your local Wikipedia. Check if your local Wikipedia is participating

A special competition called Wiki Loves Falles is organised in Spain and the world during 15th March 2022 till 15th April 2022 to document local folk culture and Falles in Valencia, Spain. Learn more about it on Catalan Wikipedia project page.

We look forward for your immense co-operation.

Thanks Wiki Loves Folklore international Team MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:40, 14 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Leadership Development Working Group: Apply to join! (14 March to 10 April 2022)

Hi all, following the call for feedback last month for the Leadership Development Working Group, I would like to share the summary of input (note the terminology change to Working Group) along with an invitation to apply. Xeno (WMF) (talk) 01:01, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

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Hello everyone,

Thank you to everyone who participated in the feedback period for the Leadership Development Working Group initiative. A summary of the feedback can be found on Meta-wiki. This feedback will be shared with the working group to inform their work. The application period to join the Working Group is now open and will close on April 10, 2022. Please review the information about the working group, share with community members who might be interested, and apply if you are interested.

Thank you,

From the Community Development team

Let me know if you have questions. Xeno (WMF) (talk) 01:01, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Egyptian bean

can anyone please find a pre-2006 source confirming that Nelumbo nucifera is referred to as such? RZuo (talk) 11:10, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This isn't really the right place to ask this question (better would probably be Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Plants) but, helpful chap that I am, I will point out that there are plenty here. Phil Bridger (talk) 11:21, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Zelensky or Zelenskyy? – feedback requested

The Ukrainian president is much in the news, and various spellings are used by reliable sources. Your feedback would be appreciated at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Ukraine#Zelensky or Zelenskyy. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 07:37, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Where is the discussions of speedy deletion?

When I was finding the origin of speedy deletion, I found no discussions about why this has to be set up. So, where are the discussions? Wiki Emoji | Emojiwiki _Talk~~ 23:54, 17 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]