Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2007-03-26
From the editor
My apologies for the tardiness of the Signpost the last few weeks. Other commitments, for both myself and other key users, as well as technical glitches on my end, have pushed the publication time later and later.
Just a reminder: The Signpost is always looking for volunteers. We're currently in need of users to handle the Technology Report and In The News, as well as users to handle non-recurring stories. If you'd like to help out, please contact me on my talk page.
The Wikipedia Signpost RSS feed is back! It was introduced rather quietly a few weeks ago, when the Signpost was added to the Planet Wikimedia news aggregator.
Thanks for reading the Signpost.
— Ral315
Patrick and Wool resign in office shakeup
In separate and apparently unrelated announcements, Wikimedia Foundation employees Brad Patrick and Danny Wool both announced their resignations this week, both citing disagreements with the Board of Trustees.
Wool first made his announcement late Tuesday, when he removed his name from the list of "current staff" on the Wikimedia Foundation website. He removed his rights on all wikis on Wednesday, and on Thursday, formally announced his resignation in a mailing list post:
...at present, I am unwilling to discuss the reasons for my resignation from the WMF office team. I plan on remaining an active editor on various projects, as I have always been, even before I began working for WMF. To ensure that there are no misunderstandings or claims of an abuse of power, I ask that all admin status on the various projects be revoked. If I feel I can help as an admin, I will ask to be reelected by the normal process. I look forward to this opportunity to reenter the community as a new user and to share in the building of free knowledge. I would also like to announce that I plan on running for the Board of Trustees in the June elections for the seats currently held by Kat, Oscar, and Erik. At that time, I will make known my position on how the Wikimedia Foundation should operate, and what mistakes I perceive are being made at present. So let's leave the gossip and second-guessing behind us and get on with the real task at hand--building the largest and most reliable repository of knowledge ever created.
Patrick, meanwhile, also announced his resignation on Thursday, while noting that his resignation was not related to Wool's:
I am stepping down as General Counsel to the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., effective March 31, 2007. I tendered my resignation to the Board some weeks ago, which was accepted. In the context of Danny Wool's announcement earlier today that he has resigned, some will speculate the two are related. They are not. The timing is just unfortunate. ... This community understands implicitly that people of goodwill can (and do) have strong differences of opinion about important matters. Should I choose to comment about these sorts of things at some point in the future, it will be as a person who cares about the vitality and success of the Foundation. I intend any such criticism to be constructive and based on a well-founded, good faith belief in making the Foundation stronger. I certainly wish for nothing but success for the organization. To the extent I, (like any person who has had anything to do with the workings of the Foundation), have opinions about what I think is good, bad, ugly, etc. about how the Foundation does things, they are my own. ... It is my earnest hope that everyone who cares about the Foundation, but has concerns about what is happening at the Foundation now, will say so. This community is strongest when it is vocal, not silent. If you have questions you want answered, be bold, speak up, and ask them. The Board members -- the ones who are accountable, since it is they who are running the Foundation -- deserve the support of the community when they earn it. But, since this is real life, {{SOFIXIT}} isn't as simple as clicking on an article. It's really hard work that takes a great deal of time and energy.
In an interview with Wired News, Patrick criticized the Board's ability to handle the tasks of running the Foundation: "A board that is tasked with the responsibility of running a 501(c)3 should have the competences to run a 501(c)3 and get all the help they can from as many people as they can, including outside people, to do that. I've said before that the board could just as soon have a pie-eating contest or flip a coin or Tiddly Wink to determine who the next board member would be and it would have the same legitimacy as an election."
Developer Tim Starling noted that, unlike Patrick's announcement, which had already been given privately to the Board of Trustees, Wool's announcement came with no prior notice: "...Brad gave about a month's notice. Danny left last Tuesday with no prior notice. Danny's resignation caused some comment on internal-l. Anthere decided that since we were talking about resignations, this would be a good time to announce Brad's pending resignation, also to internal-l."
The moves represent the first full resignations in the history of the Wikimedia Foundation. Patrick was interim executive director until February (see archived story), but remained in his role as general counsel. Prior to the Foundation's existence, Larry Sanger resigned from the project on March 1, 2002, after Jimbo Wales and Bomis became unable to fund his position as "chief organizer" of Wikipedia and editor-in-chief of Nupedia.
The Foundation has already announced a search for a new legal coordinator to handle many of the duties that Patrick previously handled. It has not yet been announced whether Wool's position will be filled in the near future.
In other Foundation news, Foundation Chair Florence Devouard announced that the Foundation has hired Rob Halsell as a full-time IT and networking professional, working at the Tampa data center and in the St. Petersburg offices.
WikiWorld comic: "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"
WikiWorld is a weekly comic, carried by the Signpost, that highlights a few of the fascinating but little-known articles in the vast Wikipedia archives. The text for each comic is excerpted from one or more existing Wikipedia articles. WikiWorld offers visual interpretations on a wide range of topics: offbeat cultural references and personality profiles, obscure moments in history and unlikely slices of everyday life - as well as "mainstream" subjects with humorous potential.
Cartoonist Greg Williams developed the WikiWorld project in cooperation with the Wikimedia Foundation, and is releasing the comics under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere.
News and notes
Board announces six resolutions
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees announced six resolutions this week. Resolutions accepting BradPatrick's resignation, advertising the position of 'legal coordinator', and hiring Rob Halsell as a computer technician passed (see related story). Other resolutions accepted the hiring of Cary Bass as Volunteer Coordinator, and authorized the purchase of about $280,000 in hardware (though the price may be less due to steep discounts). Among the purchases include 36 Apache application servers, 20 Squid servers, and various Foundry equipment.
Early Tuesday, another resolution, passed on 23 March, was made public. This resolution regulates the usage of non-free content, under certain legal provisions such as fair use.
Briefly
- The English Wikipedia has reached 1,700,000 articles, and an average of 15 edits per page.
- The French Wikipedia has been edited 15,000,000 times.
- The Russian Wikibooks has reached 500 book modules.
- The Chinese Wikibooks has reached 500 book modules.
- The Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 70,000 articles.
- The Cantonese Wikipedia has been edited 50,000 times.
- The Welsh Wikipedia has reached 8,000 articles.
Features and admins
Administrators
Ten users were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: Alison (nom), AzaToth (nom), Wafulz (nom), Rebelguys2 (nom), CMummert (nom), Oldelpaso (nom), MichaelBillington (nom), Michaelas10 (nom), SGGH (nom) and ^demon (nom).
Featured content
Six articles were promoted to featured status last week: Johannes Kepler (nom), A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (nom), Michael Jordan (nom), Rajshahi University (nom), 1991 Hamlet chicken processing plant fire (nom) and Wonderbra (nom).
Three articles were de-featured last week: Buddhist art, Blackjack and Poison gas in World War I.
Four lists were promoted to featured status last week: Danish football champions, List of Pennsylvania state parks, List of The Unit episodes and List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.
One sound was promoted to featured status last week: ⓘ.
No topics were promoted to featured status last week.
Two portals were promoted to featured status this week: Portal:Holidays and Portal:Visual arts.
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: Final Fantasy VII, Triceratops, Fourth International, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Wesley Clark, Ian Thorpe and Finnish Civil War.
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Aerospike engine, Embryo, Richard's Pipit, Colour photograph, Hoverflies, P-51 Mustang and Carta Marina.
Six pictures were promoted to featured status last week:
The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee opened two cases this week, and closed one case.
Closed case
- Starwood: A case involving links to Starwood Festival-related articles from various pages. Paul Pigman, who brought the case, alleged that Rosencomet "persistently and systematically" added these links, perhaps to an extent that violates WP:SPAM, and raised allegations against several other editors, which they have denied. As a result of the case, Rosencomet was cautioned "to avoid aggressive editing of articles when there is a question of conflict of interest".
New cases
- Darwinek: A case involving the actions of Darwinek. Thatcher131 alleges that he has misused blocks and rollback, and has edit warred and been incivil. Darwinek promises that "I will never abuse that powers [sic] again in the future."
- Freedom skies: A case involving the actions of Freedom skies. JFD and others allege that he has edit warred to push his point of view. He denies the allegations.
Evidence phase
- Falun Gong: A case regarding the conduct of various editors on the Falun Gong article. Olaf Stephanos and Asdfg12345 allege that Samuel Luo has edit-warred in removing pro-Falun Gong material from the article, while Luo, Tomananda and others allege that Stephanos, Asdfg and others have edit-warred (including page blanking) in removing anti-Falun Gong material.
Voting phase
- Lukas19-LSLM: A case involving the conduct of Lukas19 and LSLM. Both parties allege incivility. Kirill Lokshin has proposed remedies, supported by Fred Bauder, banning both parties for one year.
- Armenia-Azerbaijan: A case, brought by ex-arbitrator Dmcdevit, regarding a dispute between Armenian and Azerbaijani editors on a large number of articles. Kirill Lokshin has proposed remedies, supported by Fred Bauder, imposing a variety of bans and paroles on various editors.
- InShaneee: A case involving the actions of Inshaneee. 81.179.115.188 (formerly Worldtraveller) alleges that InShaneee inappropriately blocked him in a dispute in which he was involved in violation of WP:BP, and that he responded agressively to criticism. InShaneee in his statement points to an apology admitting the block was premature, and denying any aggressive response. Paul August has proposed a remedy admonishing InShaneee, which has a majority of six to three, and another desysopping him for ten days is at 5-3.
- Free Republic: A case involving the actions of DeanHinnen, BenBurch and Fairness And Accuracy For All on the Free Republic article and elsewhere. The parties have alleged incivility, personal attacks, and biased editing, among other misconduct. Remedies have been proposed, with the support of seven arbitrators, affirming the community ban of BryanFromPalatine, banning Fairness And Accuracy For All for one year, and placing Free Republic and Democratic Underground on article probation.
Motion to close
- Barrett v. Rosenthal: A case brought by Peter M. Dodge involving the actions of Ilena and Fyslee. According to Dodge, Ilena was initially reported to AN/I for "posting links to sites that some considered to be attack sites". Various users attempted to assist Ilena, but "This was sabotaged...when Fyslee posted a link to a site that attacked Ilena in a personal manner". The title of the case refers to Barrett v. Rosenthal, a decision of the Supreme Court of California, which ruled that internet users and providers were not liable for the republication of defamatory statements, which some editors believe provides protection for Wikipedia. It has been alleged that some editors were involved in the real-life litigation of the case. If closed, Ilena would be banned for one year.