User talk:MichaelMaggs

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Archived Talk pages: 1, 2, 2008

Support request with team editing experiment project

Dear tech ambassadors, instead of spamming the Village Pump of each Wikipedia about my tiny project proposal for researching team editing (see here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Research_team_editing), I have decided to leave to your own discretion if the matter is relevant enough to inform a wider audience already. I would appreciate if you could appraise if the Wikipedia community you are more familiar with could have interest in testing group editing "on their own grounds" and with their own guidance. In a nutshell: it consists in editing pages as a group instead of as an individual. This social experiment might involve redefining some aspects of the workflow we are all used to, with the hope of creating a more friendly and collaborative environment since editing under a group umbrella creates less social exposure than traditional "individual editing". I send you this message also as a proof that the Inspire Campaign is already gearing up. As said I would appreciate of *you* just a comment on the talk page/endorsement of my project noting your general perception about the idea. Nothing else. Your contribution helps to shape the future! (which I hope it will be very bright, with colors, and Wikipedia everywhere) Regards from User:Micru on meta.

The Signpost: 13 May 2015

• Foundation elections: Board candidates share their views with the Signpost

• News and notes: Swedish Wikimedia chapter organizes simultaneous Wikidata contests

• Traffic report: Round Two

• In the media: Grant Shapps story continues

• Op-ed: What made Wikipedia lose its reputation?

• Featured content: Four first-time featured article writers lead the way

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:09, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-21

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• You can watch a video about the new graph tool.

Changes this week

• The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since May 13. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from May 19. It will be on all Wikipedias from May 20 (calendar).
• References are now always in the right order. Also, the reference list now only shows references used on the page. [1]
• You can no longer create an account with a colon ':' in it. If you already have one, it still works. [2]
• The toolbar in VisualEditor now looks different. It is easier to see the icons. [3]
• You won't be able to use e-mail lists for a few hours on Tuesday. [4] [5]
• UploadWizard now shows better matches when you add a category to your file. [6]
• A test about VisualEditor will start on the English Wikipedia on Thursday. [7]

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on May 21 at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
• You can join a technical meeting in France this week.

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15:24, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 20 May 2015

• From the editor: Your voice is needed: strategic voting in the WMF election

• In focus: The awful truth about Wikimedia's article counts

• Traffic report: Inner Core

• News and notes: A dark side of comedy: the Wikipedia volunteers cleaning up behind John Oliver's fowl jokes

• Featured content: Puppets, fungi, and waterfalls

• In the media: Jimmy Wales accepts Dan David Prize

• WikiProject report: Cell-ebrating Molecular Biology

• Arbitration report: Editor conduct the subject of multiple cases

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:11, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-22

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

• VisualEditor was broken for 30 minutes on Tuesday. The problem was due to a tool it uses. [8]
• Some Labs tools had issues last week. [9] [10]

Changes this week

• The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since May 20. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from May 26. It will be on all Wikipedias from May 27 (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on May 28 at 18:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• You can add your ideas of new tools to help active users like you. [11]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:19, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-23

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

• Many wikis were slow for a few hours on Wednesday due to a code error. Sometimes the pages did not load at all and showed an error. [12]
• Some tools in Labs were broken on Wednesday and Thursday. [13]
• Edit tags added by the software were broken on all wikis from May 23 to May 28. [14] [15]

Changes this week

• The new version of MediaWiki has been on test wikis and MediaWiki.org since May 27. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from June 2. It will be on all Wikipedias from June 3 (calendar).
• You won't be able to use e-mail lists for a few hours on Tuesday. [16]

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on June 3 at 18:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

15:39, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

The Signpost: 03 June 2015

• News and notes: Three new community-elected trustees announced, incumbents out

• Blog: How Wikipedia covered Caitlyn Jenner’s transition

• Discussion report: The deprecation of Persondata; RfA – A broken process; Complaints from users on Swedish Wikipedia

• Featured content: It's not over till the fat man sings

• Technology report: Things are getting SPDYier

• Special report: Towards "Health Information for All": Medical content on Wikipedia received 6.5 billion page views in 2013

• In the media: Anonymous Australian editing targets football player, shooting victim

• Traffic report: A rather ordinary week

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• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:36, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

Tech News: 2015-24

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from June 9. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from June 10. It will be on all Wikipedias from June 11 (calendar). [17] [18]
• If you use the Monobook skin, the buttons and other controls now look more the same in VisualEditor and other tools. [19]
• When you edit links and other items in VisualEditor, you now need to apply your change before closing the tool. [20]
• The title of dialogs is now easier to see when it is near long buttons. [21]

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs are the most important. The meeting will be on June 9 at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
• You can join a meeting with the Language team. The meeting will be on June 10 at 14:30 (UTC). [22]

Future changes

• If you have a bot, you may need to fix it. The default continuation mode of the API for action=query will change at the end of June. [23]

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15:21, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

Richard Symonds

Dear Michael, I have previously asked that Wikimedia UK fully explain the actions of Richard Symonds. Your previous response was disappointing and underwhelming. I'd like Wikimedia UK to release all of the e-mails between the organisation and The Guardian, to release a full timeline of events and to produce a detailed explanation about how Richard and The Guardian journalist reached an understanding that the account (Contribsx) was believed at the time to be Grant Shapps and/or a representative of his.

The concern I have is that Richard previously investigated the Contribsx account in 2014 without taking action, as I understand it from the timeline of evidence, it wasn't until Richard dealt with an e-mail request to Wikimedia UK in 2015 (on behalf of another employee of Wikimedia UK, presumably Stevie, in their absence) that Contribsx was named publicly as both a sockpuppet of Hackneymarsh and of the politician Grant Shapps.

The questions I'd like answered specifically are (in no particular order)

(a) What non public information Wikimedia UK knew about this case, who they received that information from and whether they considered it relevant and appropriate. I understand precise information may not be released, but as much information as possible would be appreciated.

(b) What was the chain of correspondence between The Guardian and Wikimedia UK up to this point ?

1. Did Randeep Ramesh or any other journalist, freelancer or interested party contact Wikimedia UK during 2014 concerning the same user account (Contribs), or any other user account being operated by Mr Shapps ?
2. Similarly, did Randeep or any other journalist, freelancer or interested party contact Wikimedia UK at any point concerning undisclosed editing by Mr Shapps in general. I'd be specifically interested to know about any contact that occurred during 2012 when Hackneymarsh was blocked.
3. Are you aware of any correspondence between The Guardian and any Wikimedia UK employee that wasn't undertaken via a Wikimedia UK e-mail account, and if so, what details do you have available ?

(c) The checkuser of the Contribsx account was undertaken during conventional office hours in the UK. Can you confirm that Richard was working and not on holiday, break etc during the time these accounts were checkusered ?

1. In the event the checkuser work was undertaken during "Wikimedia UK time" what is Wikimedia UK's policy for allowing staff, particularly those with advanced permissions, to undertake work that isn't directly connected with their employment ?
2. Or does Wikimedia UK regard the use of advanced permissions (such as checkuser) an integral part of their staff's employment when connected with information received or tasks being undertaken on behalf of Wikimedia UK ?

(d) The Wikimedia UK chapter was previously found to have poor management practices concerning board member conflict of interest, in light of this and applicable legislation surrounding charities, what policies does Wikimedia UK currently have instituted to manage conflicts of interest amongst staff members ? Have they changed recently and do you anticipate changes to the policies in light of the Arbitration case ?

(e) Does Wikimedia UK believe the actions of Richard and any other members of staff involved are consistent with the requirement of charity legislation in England and Wales (as detailed in [24] for the benefit of anybody else reading this) and do you believe Wikimedia UK has the appearance of being sufficiently independent ?

(f) Will Wikimedia UK be undertaking any form of investigation into the events that resulted in Richard being sanctioned by the Arbitration Committee and will there be any disciplinary procedures concerning this incident (I understand if employment legislation and/or contracts may limit what you can say about this) ?

Kind regards, Nick (talk) 11:49, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Nick, as this page is for English Wikipedia matters, and your questions are addressed to me as chair of Wikimedia UK, I have replied on the Wikimedia UK website. --MichaelMaggs (talk) 18:37, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

I would say thank you, but again, the response is underwhelming, evasive and unhelpful. I'm disappointed by what isn't just a lack of transparency, but an overwhelming pursuit of absolute secrecy in this matter by all those involved. Wikimedia UK has been unhelpful whilst Richard has himself been evasive and obstructive to the Arbitration Committee and the users of the project. I'm most disappointed, though I cannot say I'm surprised by the behaviour of those involved any more. Nick (talk) 14:36, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

This Month in GLAM: May 2015

This Month in GLAM – Volume V, Issue V, May 2015 Headlines Arabic region report: World Digital Library, Arab Peninsula Regional Group meeting Argentina report: Wikimedia Argentina Catalan areas report: ORCID France report: GLAM, all over the place! Germany report: Make a (GLAM) change! Italy report: Wikimedia Italia still works with BEIC Library and bibliographic data Macedonia report: Wikiexpedition on bicycles and visiting one of the most remote areas in Macedonia Netherlands report: Birds and Expeditions Poland report: The Józef Burszta Digital Archives donation Spain report: Edit-a-thons about Contemporary artists and St. James's Way Sweden report: Slow GLAM-month in Sweden UK report: Progress on an image release from the Bodleian; National Library of Scotland residency comes to an end; and Glasgow Museums develop a Wiki Working Group USA report: Wikipedian at the Centers for Disease Control - NIOSH Open Access report: New Topic Page; Open Access and the humanities; Wikimania & Wikidata Wikidata report: SPARQL and arbitrary access are coming Calendar: June's GLAM events Read this edition in full • Single-page To assist with preparing the newsletter, please visit the newsroom. Past editions may be viewed here.

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