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The Signpost: 16 January 2018

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Two new WMF Communications department leadership appointments; a new way for Wikimedia communities to communicate their capacities.
Wikipedia manipulated and copied – again
Historical and pop culture articles promoted.
How do you make an average of 3,600 edits a week for over a decade? And what do you learn when you've done it?
Plus the latest technology upgrades, tools and news.
Notable missing articles.
In deciding to de-sysop an admin for efforts to evade discussion and review of paid edits made on behalf of a PR firm, Arbitration Committee doesn't significantly change the rules around paid editing, and leaves it up to the community whether to apply special restrictions to administrators.
A look back at the most popular articles in a tumultuous and intriguing year.

The Signpost: 5 February 2018

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Should an editor's block history be a permanent "rap sheet", or does Wikipedia forgive and forget? A reform initiative has begun.
Exemplary content recognized between January 12 and January 20, 2018
Also: Polish quality, Russian political mythologization, and multilingual analyses
The Wikimedia Foundation's Analytics team compiles a clickstream dataset, now available as a series of monthly data dumps for English, Russian, German, Spanish, and Japanese Wikipedias.
Lessons on Creating a Featured List
The most popular articles for January 14 to 27
A partnership to improve and update Wikipedia's medical content
Politeness and collegial behavior about to be taken up by Arbcom, and perhaps a revisit of the infobox question.
Also, did UCF really win?
Enjoy the humour of another contributor

The Signpost: 20 February 2018

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Sweden selected for Wikimania 2019; research report on shaping the future; a scarcity of RfAs.
There might be good things about an edit war.
Editor in self-imposed exile and infobox wars a thorn in the side of arbitration committee.
The Superbowl, the Winter Olympics, death, and accusations of unspeakable things.
An eclectic mix of promotions.
And other recent tech news.
Stubs get a lot of pageviews.

GOCE February 2018 news

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Guild of Copy Editors February 2018 News
 

 

Welcome to the February 2018 GOCE newsletter in which you will find Guild updates since the December edition. We got to a great start for the year, holding the backlog at nine months. 100 requests were submitted in the first 6 weeks of the year and were swiftly handled with an average completion time of 9 days.

Coordinator elections: In December, coordinators for the first half of 2018 were elected. Jonesey95 remained as lead coordinator and Corrine, Miniapolis and Tdslk as assistant coordinators. Keira1996 stepped down as assistant coordinator and was replaced by Reidgreg. Thanks to all who participated!

End of year reports were prepared for 2016 and 2017, providing a detailed look at the Guild's long-term progress.

January drive: We set out to remove April, May, and June 2017 from our backlog and all December 2017 Requests (a total of 275 articles). As with previous years, the January drive was an outstanding success and by the end of the month all but 57 of these articles were cleared. Officially, of the 38 who signed up, 21 editors recorded 259 copy edits (490,256 words).

February blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 11 through 17 February, focusing on Requests and the last articles tagged in May 2017. At the end of the week there were only 14 pending requests, with none older than 20 days. Of the 11 who signed up, 10 editors completed 35 copy edits (98,538 words).

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Jonesey95, Miniapolis, Corinne, Tdslk, and Reidgreg.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:00, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

Signpost issue 4 – 29 March 2018

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Is The Signpost on its last legs?
Wikimedia events, group recognition, and individual appointments are ongoing.
Arbcom considers new discretionary sanctions for infoboxes and an extension of 1RR.
Diplomats join Wikipedia for International Women's Day, the perfect "Human", how fringe theories are sustained, and perennial plagiarism from our pages.
Wakanda still fascinates; the Oscars happened; Winter Olympics come to a close; and International Women's Day gets over a million page views.
A plethora of content.
Reviewing a browser skin providing equal emphasis on both content and editing tools simultaneously.
Retrospective on article creation trial.
Nostalgia and trips down Memory Lane.

The Signpost: 26 April 2018

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Following Kudpung's op-ed "Death knell sounding for The Signpost?" in the 29 March issue, user comments encouraged a burst of enthusiasm to keep the newspaper in print.
How to revive and evolve The Signpost? Big blue-sky proposals and small concrete proposals from the community and from two regular Signpost contributors.
Finally a free image Kim Jong-un. WMF wins legal battle. Stephen Hawking death tops all Wikipedia hits.
Internet companies use Wikipedia to police truth; Citogenesis proven yet again; early birthday greetings; and trains
A recent Community Health Initiative survey found only 27% of respondents are happy with the way reports of conflicts between Editors are handled on the Administrators' Incident Noticeboard (ANI).
New major editing policy starting immediately: creation of articles in mainspace is to be limited to users with confirmed accounts
The standards have been raised for sources used in judging the notability of nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
Wikipedia's myth of the clean Wehrmacht and what you can do about it. Or, how not to be one of "the worst distributors of pro-Nazi perspectives and the Wehrmacht myth".
Can Wikipedia mobilize the same energy to fill other gaps in coverage?
What should we do about Portals? Keep them, delete them, or mark them as historical? Or should they be more closely connected with their WikiProject(s)?
Quiet month for the Arbitration Committee
Combat, weapons, monuments and personalities.
What we learned about reader motivation from a recent research study
You might not get all excersized about essays but they can be as fun as talk pages
The most popular articles from March 25 to April 14.
Plus the latest tech news and userscripts.
Material promoted from March 2 through April 20.
Honoring a day in military history, as well as peaceful borders

The Signpost: 24 May 2018

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A busy office with minimal staff.
Kudpung has some thoughts on the reasons for becalmed forums and the reluctance of candidates to (wo)man the rigging.
Thoughts on how looking for the truth on Wikipedia brings out unexpected things in the real world.
After a recent Village Pump discussion, the Signpost looks at WikiProject Portals.
A busy month for discussions on major topics.
Science, sportspeople, video games, and history feature heavily in the community's picks this month.
Has an attempt to prevent historical revisionism become a content battleground?
De-recognition of Brazil user groups; brute-force attack on Wikipedia; Wikimedia Conference 2018; and assorted other silly things.
And the burning question of the day, is the monkey selfie going to space with the rest of Wikipedia?
No surprises here as the summer movie season begins.
Improved mobile app, searching, citations, inline maps, voting, and more.
Editor SusunW delves into reasons why she has created hundreds of articles about women.
Too many women still don't know that Wikipedia is editable.
Down the rabbit hole into the realm of third-grade mind.
May 25 is National Wine Day in the United States.
The dark and twisted world of Wikipedia's most powerful media institution: The Signpost.

June 2018 GOCE newsletter

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Guild of Copy Editors June 2018 News
 

 

Welcome to the June 2018 GOCE newsletter, in which you will find Guild updates since the February edition. Progress continues to be made on the copyediting backlog, which has been reduced to 7 months and reached a new all-time low. Requests continue to be handled efficiently this year, with 272 completed by the end of May (an average completion time of 10.5 days). Fewer than 10% of these waited longer than 20 days, and the longest wait time was 29 days.

Wikipedia in general, and the Guild in particular, experienced a deep loss with the death on 20 March of Corinne. Corinne (a GOCE coordinator since 1 July 2016) was a tireless aide on the requests page, and her peerless copyediting is a part of innumerable GAs and FAs. Her good cheer, courtesy and tact are very much missed.

March drive: The goal was to remove June, July and August 2017 from our backlog and all February 2018 Requests (a total of 219 articles). This drive was an outstanding success, and by the end of the month all but eight of these articles were cleared. Of the 33 editors who signed up, 19 recorded 277 copy edits (425,758 words).

April blitz: This one-week copy-editing blitz ran from 15 through 21 April, focusing on Requests and the last eight articles tagged in August 2017. At the end of the week there were only 17 pending requests, with none older than 17 days. Of the nine editors who signed up, eight editors completed 22 copy edits (62,412 words).

May drive: We set out to remove September, October and November 2017 from our backlog and all April 2018 Requests (a total of 298 articles). There was great success this month with the backlog more than halved from 1,449 articles at the beginning of the month to a record low of 716 articles. Officially, of the 20 who signed up, 15 editors recorded 151 copy edits (248,813 words).

Coordinator elections: It's election time again. Nominations for Guild coordinators (who will serve a six-month term for the second half of 2018) have begun, and will close at 23:59 UTC on 15 June. All Wikipedia editors in good standing are eligible, and self-nominations are encouraged. Voting will take place between 00:01 UTC on 16 June and 23:59 UTC on 30 June.

June blitz: Stay tuned for this one-week copy-editing blitz, which will take place in mid-June.

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators: Corinne, Jonesey95, Miniapolis, Reidgreg and Tdslk.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:26, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 29 June 2018

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A Wiki not so Simple, a mayor motivating an editathon, a Marshall Plan, and a Wikimania under a cloud of criticism
Further developments on New Page Review and Articles for Creation work sharing
Admins volunteer to be abused – or so it seems
So it shouldn't get credit for our work, either.
Major grants announced, a new milestone for Afrikaans Wikipedia, a new WMF technical engagement team, an effort to start up a new library, two new admins – or maybe three fewer depending on your math.
Several online battles are juxtaposed with stories about cooperation and good deeds, Arbcom hovering over it all; notwithstanding, a good action movie script is not necessarily found here.
Community discussions include style updates to project-wide icons and the main page, procedural questions on royal names and jettisoning unsuitable drafts, and deeper questions of compliance with European privacy laws and the perennial issue of shrinking admin corps.
Enjoy the superb content
British politics case enters workshop phase and German war effort closes workshop, goes to Arbcom for proposals.
Two celebrities hang themselves, and the FIFA World Cup is underway
An AI assistant comes to watchlists; better mobile compatibility; new bots, tools and scripts; and more
Colorful and moving.
WMF appeals to Turkish Minister of Transport, Maritime, and Communications Ahmet Arslan to lift the block of all language versions of Wikipedia for over a year.
Studying ourselves: 'driven by a sense of mission' according to researchers.
In our next episode...
Some essays are funny, some are serious; some are just, well what exactly?
Revisiting an editor's warning to count our kidneys and keep the wolves at bay

The Signpost: 31 July 2018

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Ships and shoes – and if you don't like it here, just go away!
How admin would-bes run the gauntlet.
Wikipedia referees wag a finger at Professional Wrestling editors.
New admins and Kudpung finally leaves NPP after 7 years.
One secret cabal that watches out for conspiracy theories, and another one out to stymie venture capitalists?
And more: a new user group for editing code, Women in Red, and arbitrator articles.
Spanning the gamut from warfare and destruction to pop culture to celebrations of nature and humanity's achievements.
We don't have "state agents" in a political debate, but couldn't talk about it if there were.
Finding the mathematician and Supreme Court nominee in this list is like playing Where's Waldo?.
Useful new gadgets.
Depictions of July events in several countries.
Those who study ancient Egypt.
And other recent findings, plus a roundup of research presentations at Wikimania.
Merge WikiProject Professional wrestling and ANI.
Get over it!
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

August GOCE newsletter

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Guild of Copy Editors August 2018 Newsletter
 

Hello and welcome to the August 2018 GOCE newsletter. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Guild's June election; your new and returning coordinators are listed below. The next election will occur in December 2018; all Wikipedia editors in good standing may take part.

 

Our June blitz focused on Requests and articles tagged for copy edit in October 2017. Of the eleven people who signed up, eight editors recorded a total of 28 copy edits, including 3 articles of more than 10,000 words. Complete results, including barnstars awarded, are available here.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the July drive. Of the seventeen people who signed up, thirteen editors completed 194 copy edits, successfully removing all articles tagged in the last three months of 2017. Final results, including barnstars awarded, are here.

The August blitz will run for one week, from 19 to 25 August. Sign up now!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators, Reidgreg, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Tdslk.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:25, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 30 August 2018

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Keep straight on – there are trolls in the hedgerows.
"Imagine a world in which every single human being is a Wikimedian. That's my commitment!"
WMF pays possible Orangemoody ring for user research, and ditches MediaWiki for publishing its own blog. Knife-edge closures at RfA.
But unfortunately its output is incompatible with open licensing.
Plus: Simple English Wikipedia stays open, a discussion on draft header templates, bias blind spot by admins offered cash?
Astronauts named Armstrong, babes of the Brits, Cortinarius caperatus and all that.
"Bridging knowledge gaps, the ubuntu way forward".
Very high and very low hits; love and loss.
Citation bot and mapframe enhancements; new licenses for Data space; possible hiccup on 12 September; per-user page, namespace, and upload blocking; and miscellaneous new bots and tools.
Some of the best pictures of 2017.
Readers prefer the AI's version 40% of the time – but it still suffers from hallucinations.
Nothing funny about it.
Remind you of any Wikipedia articles?
The Wikipedia Plays.

The Signpost: 1 October 2018

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We keep on publishing as long as you keep on reading.
Wikipedia dodges a bullet in Brussels... maybe.
Can Wikipedians help save the world's knowledge and shine a light on current events?
Plus: signatures, shortcuts, and reliable sources.
No valid new requests for arbitration, no new cases.
Fourth highest view count of the year; lowest view count since 2014; death, sports, and movies ever constant.
Plus the latest scripts, bots, and tech news.
A pictorial ode to the end of summer.
As the global community of volunteer Wikimedia editors mourns the destruction of this amazing museum, this post pays tribute to all editors who have contributed restlessly to tell the story of the National Museum, our history.
And other recent research papers.
What is a four-letter word for...
You know you should...

The Signpost: 28 October 2018

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A slightly thinner issue, but out on time.
Is a missing article on a Nobel laureate a fail? What if her draft biography was declined as non-notable?
And it's richer than ever.
Breitbart begone; rescued by archivists; celebrating trolls?
Plus: two pending changes-related discussions, notability, and naming conventions.
Who's reading what?
Bots can do anything you want – well, almost.
WMF continues to stonewall development; NPP wishes again relegated to stocking fillers.
SPARQL adds sparkle to WMF projects.
We are all writing for Amazon.
No special effects here, just beautiful celestial images.
If it weren't free, of course.
Wikipedia has a long history of talk page tomfoolery.
The reviewer who declined the article gives his perspective.
The "holy-shit" slide.

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

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Hello, Paulmnguyen. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 1 December 2018

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Lay down your verbal weapons.
The experiences of a new user on Wikipedia, told in their own words.
What do the WMF devs have in store for the community?
Suppose they gave a blog and nobody came?
Looking both backward and forward to events concerning the community.
A personal reflection on Wikipedia's role as a repository of history.
Real-world news competes with the usual celeb fascination for Wikipedia's commentators.
It was a good 15 years. Plus: admins, notability, substubs, and new padlocks.
Arbcom takes its first new case since June.
The "Queen" of stage and screen, that is. Is there another?
Biology or technology? Form follows function in nature and the constructed world.
And other new research results.
Nope, don't care!
Wonky carrots invoke terror.
ARS might continue, but some Wikipedians might not.

December 2018 GOCE newsletter

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Guild of Copy Editors December 2018 Newsletter
 

Hello and welcome to the December 2018 GOCE newsletter. Here is what's been happening since the August edition.

 

Thanks to everyone who participated in the August blitz (results), which focused on Requests and the oldest backlog month. Of the twenty editors who signed up, eleven editors recorded 37 copy edits.

For the September drive (results), of the twenty-three people who signed up, nineteen editors completed 294 copy edits.

Our October blitz (results) focused on Requests, geography, and food and drink articles. Of the fourteen people who signed up, eleven recorded a total of 57 copy edits.

For the November drive (results), twenty-two people signed up, and eighteen editors recorded 273 copy edits. This helped to bring the backlog to a six-month low of 825 articles.

The December blitz will run for one week, from 16 to 22 December. Sign up now!

Elections: Nominations for the Guild's coordinators for the first half of 2019 will be open from 1 to 15 December. Voting will then take place and the election will close on 31 December at 23:59 UTC. Positions for Guild coordinators, who perform the important behind-the-scenes tasks that keep our project running smoothly, are open to all Wikipedians in good standing. We welcome self-nominations, so please consider nominating yourself if you've ever thought about helping out; it's your Guild and it doesn't run itself!

Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from your GOCE coordinators; Reidgreg, Baffle gab1978, Jonesey95, Miniapolis and Tdslk.

To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from our mailing list.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:05, 3 December 2018 (UTC)

The Signpost: 24 December 2018

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Tell us what you think!
Did World Patent Marketing pay to get Wikipedia to include flattering information on their board member, now the Acting United States Attorney General?
A statistical insight into the English Wikipedia's very own online community newsletter.
NPP wins the wish list poll; Wikipedia editors will be able to work better at night; new WMF appointments and new arbitrators; and who wants to be an admin?
Wikipedia says 'ta' to British M.P. and 'buh-bye' to U.S. President's image vandals.
Plus: reliable sources, notability, and fallout from the self-blocking software changes.
Discovering how new and unregistered users make articles with the members of WikiProject Articles for Creation.
GiantSnowman asked to chill, and other disputes addressed by Arbcom (or not).
The band relinquishes its first place hold; Aquaman is swimming into view for late December.
Happy solstice, and happy New Year!
In and around the WMF and its projects from the WMF's web site.
Are you a believer?
When the desire to continue to have the privilege of editing Wikipedia overrides the body's innate desire to choke the living shit out of some bastard who really has it coming.
Compromised accounts – especially those of inactive admins.