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What are Russian readers viewing on Wikipedia today?
This is interesting (inspired by Pyb's post at Wikipedia Weekly FB group):
More stats here. Mathglot (talk) 07:36, 27 February 2022 (UTC)
- Insightful as always, Mathglot :) A. C. Santacruz ⁂ Please ping me! 21:25, 6 March 2022 (UTC)
Can WP or WM help someone retrieve a lost password?
I got an email from a long-term (2007), very active (100,000+) editor here. He says he had to delete some information from his phone and accidentally deleted his WP password. I guess he can't remember it. Is there any way to do what commercial operations do, namely email him a temporary password so he can log in and get things back set up? I don't know if WP keeps a record of our emails at all, so maybe this is not possible? Any advice, from people more savvy than me, would be very welcome. -- MelanieN (talk) 21:46, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
- @MelanieN: Are they able to request a password reset via Special:PasswordReset? This help page has a bit more info 🙂 -- TNT (talk • she/her) 21:49, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
- And if the above doesn't work, it is possible for a long-term editor to have their problem fixed with a request to Trust and Safety using Phabricator. That works if currently active and good-standing editors are familiar with the user (e.g. from having exchanged emails in the past). The first question then is, does the account have an email address set? You can check that by visiting their talk page and seeing if "Email this user" is available. If it is, the user needs to try password reset and check their spam folders etc. to be sure that they get any response. If that doesn't work, has the user exchanged emails with trusted people who are now able to vouch for their identity? Johnuniq (talk) 22:37, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
- Thank you both, very helpful! I will tell him to come here and read your helpful advice. And yes, I can vouch for this person; he and I exchange emails about Wikipedia with some regularity. There is at least one other admin who is often in on the email exchanges. -- MelanieN (talk) 22:49, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
Why 31 hours?
I apologize if this isn't the place to put this question, I couldn't seem to find a better place.
I've noticed that when admins block vandals, they often do it for 31 hours. Why specifically 31 hours? It just seems like an odd number. InterstateFive (talk) - just another roadgeek 19:56, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
- WP:31.
:)
See also quarry:query/60552, showing the very first one. (AFAICT, SlimVirgin's 31-hour blocks in July of '05 were just coincidental, so it's Magister Mathematicae's a few months later that kicked it off.) -- Tamzin[cetacean needed] (she/they) 20:06, 4 March 2022 (UTC) - Indeed. Put simply it may sometimes break a daily cycle of vandalism. More broadly it's an option listed at MediaWiki:Ipboptions - that page's talk page archive contains some discussion about it. Additionally someone once decided that it's one of the main defaults when blocking people with WP:TWINKLE, which some admins do. -- zzuuzz (talk) 20:12, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
- I suppose it is meant to block them in the editing day for today and tomorrow, but I'm not sure that most vandals stick to business hours. And, while it may or may not be an unusual number, it is definitely an odd number. Phil Bridger (talk) 20:37, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
- To answer the almost inevitable "why 31 instead of [X], though?" question: There really is no reason. In 2005-2006 when many of the admin tools in use today were being developed, there was one that liked the number 31. The existence of an option 24<[X]<36 was attractive to other admins and it stuck. It's part of the site's history and evolution now. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 21:09, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
- So much so that I've seen "Days+7h" blocks levied, i.e. 55h or 79h. —Jéské Couriano v^_^v a little blue Bori 21:16, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
- Vandals may not stick to "business hours", but some of them do stick to "school hours". In many countries, a school day is about 7 hours long. If the kid is vandalizing at the start of the school day, then a 31-hour block covers the rest of today's school day and all of tomorrow's school day, and by then, attention may wander elsewhere. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:36, 7 March 2022 (UTC)
- To answer the almost inevitable "why 31 instead of [X], though?" question: There really is no reason. In 2005-2006 when many of the admin tools in use today were being developed, there was one that liked the number 31. The existence of an option 24<[X]<36 was attractive to other admins and it stuck. It's part of the site's history and evolution now. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 21:09, 4 March 2022 (UTC)
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.
- You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.
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)
- 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)
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)
- 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)
- 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)
Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines ratification voting open from 7 to 21 March 2022
- You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.
Hello everyone,
The ratification voting process for the revised enforcement guidelines of the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) is now open! Voting commenced on SecurePoll on 7 March 2022 and will conclude on 21 March 2022. Please read more on the voter information and eligibility details.
The Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) provides a baseline of acceptable behavior for the entire movement. The revised enforcement guidelines were published 24 January 2022 as a proposed way to apply the policy across the movement. You can read more about the UCoC project.
You can also comment on Meta-wiki talk pages in any language. You may also contact the team by email: ucocprojectwikimedia.org
Sincerely,
Movement Strategy and Governance
Wikimedia Foundation
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:22, 8 March 2022 (UTC)
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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
Stepan (cat)
My article, Stepan (cat), created on March 3, has not yet been reviewed. ✍A.WagnerC (talk) 03:37, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
- 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)
- Bduke I searched but couldn't find any other articles mentioning that cat. ✍A.WagnerC (talk) 15:20, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
- 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)
- For a start you can add it to List of cat breeds. --Bduke (talk) 23:00, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
- @Bduke: No, it's correctly in Category:Individual cats, not a breed. PamD 00:18, 12 March 2022 (UTC)
- For a start you can add it to List of cat breeds. --Bduke (talk) 23:00, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
- 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)
- We have List of cats, good place to add it (and de-orphan it). Schazjmd (talk) 00:40, 12 March 2022 (UTC)
- 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)
- Bduke I searched but couldn't find any other articles mentioning that cat. ✍A.WagnerC (talk) 15:20, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Exactly my point. Thank you. JDspeeder1 (talk) 13:37, 12 March 2022 (UTC)
- 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)
- 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)