User talk:Jimbo Wales

Jimbo Wales 40th Birthday Challenge!

Make a birthday wish to Jimbo !

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Something fun from Jimbo for the politically inclined

Archives
as of Jan. 16, 2003 Sept. – Dec. 2005 January 2006 Jan. – Feb. 2006 February 2006 Feb. 2006, cont. March 2006 April 2006 May24 - July 2006 July 2006 - August 2006 August 2006 -

hello

just wanted to say awesome thing youve got going here, it's a huge help to me and please keep it going, thank you and happy b-day :)

Icon ads spam making it like Wikipedia promotes commercial sites

Regularly, ads icons are inserted in front of external links, that make it look like Wikipedia treats them special, promoting or endorsing those sites. This gets worse now with the templates used for external links to IMDb, MusicBrainz, etc.

• Diff of the latest insertion of an icon ad in the template for MusicBrainz external links
• Last.fm spam icon (fair use only) This external links icon ad for Last.fm keeps popping up right and left.

We really could use a specific, explicit point of policy against this (and a direct WP:ICONAD or WP:SPAMICON or something), that could be immediately cited in the edit summary for removing or reverting this spam without long discussions with each "new user" doing the spamming for those sites. We could also mention it in bold as a NoInclude warning in the related templates, so as to remove plausible denial to future offenders.

-- 62.147.37.34 23:28, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikibooks book donations, questions

Hello, this is wikibooks:User:Whiteknight, and I just wanted to drop you a quick note concerning en.wikibooks. I am currently working on 3 separate deals for the donations of e-books to the wikibooks project. Under the terms of these deals, the books would be completely released under the GFDL with no reservations, although some nominal mention of "Original Authors" may persist. Some users on wikibooks have mentioned that wikibooks is about the "creation" of new books, and not the consolidation of old books. However, many books on wikibooks, especially those in the core subjects, are lacking, and the donation of books in these core topics would help to boost our weaknesses in these areas. Currently, I am entertaining proposals to donate books from:

• http://www.apdip.net/elibrary
• http://www.motionmountain.net
• http://apps.nitle.org/wiki/bin/view/Gametheory/WebHome

The first project listed is a UN project that maintains a number of ebooks that discuss topics of primary interest to developing coutnries. Partnering with that group would (in my opinion) be of some benefit to our project. I wanted to simply alert you of these projects, and ask if there are any issues/concerns/questions that i should be made aware with, before we settle, and transfer material to the wikibooks server. Please let me know on my en.wikibooks userpage. Thanks. --Whiteknight 02:07, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

New York, 14 November 2006

I see that you have a trip planned to New York on that date [1]. Is this for a conference or meetup? I'd love to attend one of those here someday. CoolGuy 03:38, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Proposal for a SF meetup

There has never in the annals of Wikipedia been a meetup in the geekiest region of the world. I'm shocked too.

I see you are in town this week. I would like to arrange a meetup. Will you kindly grace us with your company?

If so, what is a good time?

lots of issues | leave me a message 05:18, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I am having a meetup on Friday, about campaigns.wikia.com. Exact time and place not yet settled...--Jimbo Wales 19:00, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I will be there. Would you be interested in a baseball game? I have A's tickets for Wednesday evening.

lots of issues | leave me a message 22:17, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

SWGEmu Article

Recently, an article on the SWGEmu was deleted for not being notable. I have made my arguments (and, as I regret, insults) in the Deletion Review article, but that is irrelevent.

Being as you are the Chief Tamale (I honestly have no better word or series of words), if you say that you do not believe that an article on the SWGEmu in it's current form is appropriate for the Wikipedia, then I will rest my case and let it rest. Ameise -- chat 07:21, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Trip to Delhi

Hello Jimbo. I saw that link (Local Meetup Schedule) and noticed that you are coming to Delhi on the 24th. From what I understood - does that mean that you will agree to a Delhi meetup if 5 people sign up? Actually there has been a long discussion on the Notice board for India-related topics. Can you clarify there? Thanks for taking the time. - Aksi_great (talk - review me) 19:40, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Admin recall

Hi Jimmy, sorry to bother you, but you have spoken on this issue previously on the Wikipedia mail list. If you have time, would you be willing to review the policy proposal at WP:RECALL? I would not even bring this to your attention, but I was told in the Talk page that any such policy would be overturned if approved at the Foundation level, as certain admins are too important to the project. Thank you for your time. rootology (T) 22:23, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Use of Wikipedia to push hate

Jimbo, please take a break from patting yourself on the back and look around. Wikipedia is being used to push propaganda and offensive hate rhetoric. I'll leave you to do your own homework and find out what I mean. The article on CAIR so obviously crosses the line of 'defamation' and 'libel', that you're likely to be sued for it in the near future. You're responsible for the content that goes on your project here, and I'd suggest you demonstrate an awareness of that responsibility. His Excellency... 00:34, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

New concerns with User:MyWikiBiz

Hi, there. After you allowed User:MyWikiBiz to be unblocked, an edit of note concerned me, namely this one in which MyWikiBiz states, "I appreciate your suggestion, Deathphoenix, but I am not sure that I would even properly execute what you suggested (I could let you sign into my account to do it, though)".

This note would imply that MyWikiBiz is possibly a shared account, leading to further concerns over its use, considering the use of shared accounts, from what I've been told, is forbidden. As you were the one who allowed MyWikiBiz to continue with his work, I figured it would be appropriate to contact you about more concerns that are appearing with him.

There are also concerns that the concept of being paid to write articles itself is flawed, but that is another matter entirely (and he is at least making an effort to fall within Wikipedia policy and guidelines when it comes to articles). So, based on these new concerns, I'm asking if you could speak with MyWikiBiz further to clarify that its use will indeed fall entirely within policy. Thanks. Cowman109^Talk 00:36, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar

The Original Barnstar I am awarding you this for creating Wikipedia! Jeffklib 06:06, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Is WP:NPOV more important than WP:V and WP:NOR?

The proposition has been raised here [2] that the NPOV policy overides the Verifiability and No Original Research policies.

Would you care to give a definitive settling answer. --Barberio 14:40, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your speedy reply. And happy birthday. --Barberio 16:48, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

His reply was:

"I consider all three of these to be different aspects of the same thing, ultimately. And at the moment, when I think about any examples of apparent tensions between the three, I think the right answer is to follow all three of them or else just leave it out of Wikipedia. We know, with some certainty, that all three of these will mean that Wikipedia will have less content than otherwise, and in some cases will prevent the addition of true statements. For example, a brilliant scientist conceives of a new theory which happens to be true, but so far unpublished. We will not cover it, we will not let this scientist publish it in Wikipedia. A loss, to be sure. But a much much bigger gain on average, since we are not qualified to evaluate such things, and we would otherwise be overwhelmed with abject nonsense from POV pushing lunatics. There is no simple a priori answer to every case, but good editorial judgment and the negotiation of reasonable people committed to quality is the best that humans have figured out so far. :) --Jimbo Wales 15:33, 15 August 2006 (UTC)" at Wikipedia talk:Neutral_point_of_view#According to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, NPOV is "absolute and non-negotiable." (provided by WAS 4.250 05:19, 16 August 2006 (UTC))

Re: Your comments at Wikipedia talk:Publicity photos#This page is dangerous

Jimbo,

With regards to the following statement:

"In general, ordinary publicity photos of celebrities should not be used in Wikipedia unless they are released under a free license. We are powerful enough now that we can insist on this, and get it, from just about any celebrity, or we can get a free photo in a number of different ways. Using fair use in such cases discourages us from creatively looking for a way to enlarge the commons." (emph. added)

I read this as a suggestion that Wikipedia's popularity ought to be used as an instrument of coercion, to suggest that if it is in a celebrity's interest to have their chosen photo represent them in Wikipedia, then they must give up a broad license to their intellectual property rights.

It's reasonable that both parties theoretically would freely exercise their right in property; Wikipedia exercises its right to not-accept the non-free image, and the celebrity exercises their right to not-license the promo photo freely. However, the celebrity has quite reasonably offered the promo photo under terms which balance their desire to control their public image, which can bear heavily on their ability to earn a living in their respective field, and the desire of others to use that image for an illustrative and non-derogatory purpose - a balance which is acceptable to most others.

Your suggestion seems to be (and I admit that this may be hyperbolic) that Wikipedia may require that the celebrity's image be able to be "edited mercilessly [and] redistributed by others", at the threat of releasing a special force of 'GNU-paparazzi' - who will create an image which can be "edited mercilessly [and] redistributed by others" anyways - all in the furtherance of free culture.

I am wondering if you have considered the ethics of this, and am interested in any additional thoughts you had on the matter.

With Regards, KWH 05:01, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Thoughout history heroic men and women have suffered and died for the sake of freedom. Today we battle fanatics overseas who wish to destroy our freedom to believe as we choose. Today our governments find it easy to restrict our freedoms in order to preserve our freedoms. Freedom is under attack at home and abroad. It must be defended whereever possible. Celebrities should be glad to be a part of increasing the freedom of their fans. If they are not, then there is an unending supply of want-to-be-famous persons who will. Why shouldn't standing up for freedom be something we ask from those who want us to spend millions on them? WAS 4.250 05:31, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'll note that there are free licenses which permit redistribution but not editing. Also, releasing an image under a free license does not allow it to be used in a defamatory or misleading context. (In other words, even if Tom Cruise were to provide a completely free image – no rights reserved, effectively public domain – it still wouldn't be kosher to use that picture to endorse products, or describe it as a picture of a pedophile, etc.)

As in most transactions, there may be benefits or costs to the involved parties. The celebrities gain a measure of control over how they are presented on Wikipedia, but may not be able to restrict the distribution of those images in the future. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:48, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Non-derivative licenses like {{cc-nd}} are considered non-free in Wikipedia's view. Also, I think what you're describing is their ability to sue under defamation law, which is notably weaker than copyright - The burden of proof is on the plaintiff, and one of the reasons celebrities do not sue tabloids for scurrilous rumours is that they rarely succeed and it only gives more voice to the rumours. It might be a minor point - on reflection, I can see that the situation is much the same as if the celebrity provided a hagiographic article on themselves for publication, but without allowing modification - we would refuse it, and we would create our own article. I am still not certain about the note of coercion inherent. If a celebrity eventually determines by themself that it's in their best interest to publish {{cc-by-sa-2.5}} promo photos, that's great. Maybe Jimmy was just a bit excited when he said that "we are powerful enough" to get this. Frankly, I think that we need to get more photographers into press conferences and photo-scrums like this. KWH 08:56, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Hello

Thank you for inventing a way for me to waste my time without wasting my time. --Dweller 15:08, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

What is going on?

I'm having a problem with my comlete layout of wikipedia, when I log in the background changes to yellow and the text is in Times new roman and the format is completly changed, what is going on here? Could you direct me to anyone that could help? Please answer, thanks -- Lego@lost EVIL, EVIL! 04:02, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Help Desk or Wikipedia:Village Pump (technical). --Carnildo 04:21, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

A "welcome question" to fr:Utilisateur:Jіmbo Wales

Hi Jimbo. I took the opportunity of you becoming a user on fr.WP to ask you a question about your presentation and the status of the foundation. The question is valid for your english presentation page and others as well.

I did post the question in french and english, so you won't need a translator :-) Alex lbh 12:29, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Dang ! Apparently it is not you but an impostor who created the account o_O Anyway, the question remains valid, I will just paste it here, as the page in fr:WP was deleted.

Hello Jimbo,

Your presentation says that you are "the founder and the chairman of the Wikimedia Foudation, the groups that governs Wikipedia".

The way I understand the situation is that although the foundation owns the name "Wikipedia" and the servers that Wikipedia is using, it does not "govern" Wikipedia as it is neither the owner nor the editor of the content of Wikipedia.

Shouldn't your presentation text be modified into "the founder and the chairman of the Wikimedia Foudation, the groups that supports Wikipedia." or something similar? Or did I miss anything? I think I would not be the sole person that would be interested by a clarification on the subject. As your answer may be of interest for others, I would copy it to this page.

Thanks. Alex lbh 15:00, 17 August 2006 (UTC) (Bradipus Bla on fr:WP)

Prayers unanswered

зарубка имеет большого кита, jimob кит, который! Бритье к китам!

Does the Great Jimbo ever answer our rambiling, pointless, insignificant and contradictory posts? Not that I can see. Perhaps he has a life outside of Wikipedia (unlike us). Does he even read them? If so why does he not answer? WHY DO YOU NOT ANSWER!?

They are like unaswered prayers. One day we may stop praying - and stop beliving.

Your rambiling and insignificant friend, Dfrg.msc File:DFRG. MSC.jpg 02:31, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I saw Jimmy at a meet-up today and at one point he casually mentioned that he's been working on his inbox which is now down to about "about 2500" messages. Can you imagine how many people are trying to get his ear? There are also many people who seem to answer questions for him on this page. If you listen to one of his talks (linked from his Wikipedia article) he often mentions how he resists getting involved in the running of the wiki unless he sees his involvement as essential. -- Samuel Wantman 09:43, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

But I broke my keyboard for him. Dfrg.msc File:DFRG. MSC.jpg 08:20, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Meh.

Here's a ham and cheese sandwich for creating Wikipedia.

Mmm, tasty.

oTHErONE 08:45, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

reminder

Hello. Happy birthday (whenever it was).

I while back (early May, I think?) I sent you this email to which I haven't yet seen a reply:

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005, Jimmy Wales wrote:

> Remind me to invite you to a soon-to-exist new mailing list, "invite-l"

> where I'm going to invite 50-100 top english wikipedians to discuss

> privately the future of the project in english.

[ snip ]

OK, consider yourself reminded. I see that a couple of new

Supreme Court justices, the new pope, various politicians,

writers, scientists, artists, etc., are written about in Time

magazine on May 8th. I didn't notice whether Martha Stewart

made the list this time.

Any progress on this (e.g. does the list now exist)? Michael Hardy 00:47, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I see: it was August 7th. I'm late. Michael Hardy 01:21, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Status of the Bengali Wikipedia

Hi Jimbo, I missed out visiting the Wikimania (couldn't afford to fly from Champaign, IL ... :( ), but I followed your speech. You mentioned there that:

I mean, that would be very exciting to go and meet someone who wants to work in... Bengali, a very important language where we do very poorly.

I am the lone bueraucrat of the Bengali language wikipedia, and have been active in editing and promoting it via news medai (both in and out of Bangladesh) since early this year. I just wanted to give you a quick update on the status of Bengali wikipedia as of now:

• Article count: 4501
• Registered users: 704
• Total edits: 34,363
• Admins: 5
• Bureaucrats: 1
• Ranking among all wikipedias: 64 (up from 93 in May)

The progress is very promising, considering we had only about 550 articles back in March 30, 2006. We've added 4,000 articles in the last 4.5 months.

BBC Bengali World service has covered our early progress on May 2, when they broadcast a 5 minute interview with me on the purpose and progress of Bangla wikipedia, and wikipedia as a whole.

The number of people regularly editing Bangla wikipedia is around 12-15, spread all around the world. I've written small tutorials to give Bengali speakers a quick intro to Wikipedia. Bangladesh Open Source Network is actively promoting wikipedia back in Bangladesh, and plan to distribute leaflets and small booklets with the tutorial and other information about Wikipedia. A n informal workshop for newbies will be organized at a Bangladeshi University next week. We also plan to reach 10,000 total articles, and at least 1,000 full length articles by May 2007.

There is a big book fair in Bangladesh in February each year, in observance of Language Movement and International Mother Language Day. This is the biggest literary and publishing event of the country. We have plans to create a small distribution of Bangla wikipedia content, bundled with Ubuntu or other Linux liveCDs, and give them out to the people attending the fair. This is important as one of the biggest hurdles was to guide people in making the configuration changes in Windows XP to allow Bangla unicode rendering and Bangla typing. We plan to pre-configure everything in the Linux liveCD so that the users can just pop the CD onto their drives and get the Bangla wikipedia up and running.

Sorry for the long message, but I thought I'd update you on the current status of Bengali language wikipedia.

Thanks. --Ragib 07:16, 20 August 2006 (UTC) web.

That's an interesting report. If you're willing to expand it a bit, the Wikipedia Signpost might be interested in an article; see User:Treebark/Table for their tentative schedule of reports from other Wikipedias, and post a message at User talk:Treebark/Table if you want to take it further. I'm not associated with Wikipedia Signpost other than being a keen reader.-gadfium 08:26, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

THE SPK

Why do you recommend deleting this article (Socialist Patients Collective)? Everything in it has been taken from books about the SPK such as Hitler's Children by Jillian Becker, or Televisionaries by Tom Vague. Its all based on sources and fact. Are you going to delete those books as well? All the information in it is verifiable and I dont understand why you would want to delete it. ~ Unfortunate.

Jimbo, you might want to look at Talk:Socialist Patients' Collective; they're talking about you there and attributing this deletion recommendation to you. Michael Hardy 21:40, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I made no recommendation about this article. The anon ip number should be ignored.--Jimbo Wales 23:34, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Oh, ok sorry! ~ Unfortunate.

Accountability

Originally posted on the wrong page

Is there some reason you can not support accountability for editors on Wikipedia? I can see no reason to keep Wikipedia from being sued if you do not have a way to make sure editors are responsible for their entries. Attempts to avoid responsibilty for entries by claiming anyone can correct the entries are hopeless at best. wcf Facts are stubborn. Comments? 04:53, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps I chose the wrong word. Perhaps it would be better to say "require" accountability. As long as people can edit anonymously there will be a problem. wcf Facts are stubborn. Comments? 05:10, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Blackmail (band)

Originally posted on user page 05:24, August 21, 2006, taking the liberty of moving it here instead. AnonEMouse ^(squeak) 13:54, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

From: Suduser85,
Mr. Wales, I just wanted to inform you about the new page that I just created: blackmail. It's about a German band. I'm new as a user on Wikipedia, and I just wanted you to visit the page and see how I did. Feel free to make changes. Tell me what you feel on my User Page. Thanks!

Question from wp:fr

Hello Jimbo. I permti to ask this question somebody asked you just above...

---

Your presentation says that you are "the founder and the chairman of the Wikimedia Foudation, the groups that governs Wikipedia".

The way I understand the situation is that although the foundation owns the name "Wikipedia" and the servers that Wikipedia is using, it does not "govern" Wikipedia as it is neither the owner nor the editor of the content of Wikipedia.

Shouldn't your presentation text be modified into "the founder and the chairman of the Wikimedia Foudation, the groups that supports Wikipedia." or something similar? Or did I miss anything?

I think I would not be the sole person that would be interested by a clarification on the subject

---

I am intersted too by the answer to this question. The reasons are quite clear. I don't consider I work for anybody in particular but for a project and I consider this project owes nobody but everybody. Am I wrong ?

Thank you in advance Best regards, Alithien 14:32, 21 August 2006 (UTC)