Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2023-07-03/In the media

In the media

Naming names, Hakuna Matata, and Grimace

By Smallbones, Andreas Kolbe and Bri

Hakuna Matata and Wiki donations

Georgia Tech announced a forthcoming paper by Casey Wichman and Nathan Chan. Though only the abstract and the Georgia Tech announcement are currently available, we can say that it appears the people who watch the video Hakuna Matata are likely to donate more to the WMF than those who don't.

We promise to dig a little deeper when the paper is available. – S

To move Forward we must name names

The Forward, a non-profit newspaper written for a Jewish-American audience, has served its public for over 125 years

Robin Washington writes in Forward, where he is editor-at-large, that Wikipedia's model is fundamentally flawed, that we must name all our editors. He's not so extreme that you need to worry that you'll be subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-Wiki Activities Committee and answer under oath "Are you now, or have you ever been, a Wikipedia editor?" but it's clear that a huge number of Wikipedia editors would resign if his proposal were implemented.

He is upset about arbcom's recent decision on what's been labelled Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the Holocaust.

Which is why I'm surprised to see Shira Klein, a respected scholar, devote any energy into proving that entries about the Holocaust are false. More baffling is her attempt to correct them by diving into Wikipedia's rabbit warren of arcane rules for article review — administered by volunteer site police who gleefully hide behind pseudonyms.

He believes that "Wikipedia [is] possibly the most widespread source of disinformation in human history," which may be true. But he ignores that it is much more likely that Wikipedia is the most widespread source of reliable information in human history.

Consider the following statistics. The English version of Wikipedia has 6,676,896 articles. They were viewed 10 billion times last month on 756 million unique devices. 39 thousand editors edited last month. That should take care of "widespread". But is it disinformation or reliable information? Probably a combination of the two. So readers always should check the numerous references supplied in most articles. For a general overview, the Wikipedia article Reliability of Wikipedia may be the best source.

The Signpost takes no position on the Holocaust in Poland dispute, other than to predict that unfortunately it will continue. – S

What happens when adverts are allowed

Fandom and McDonald's teamed up to replace the Fandom Wiki page on "Grimace" a 1970s character who formerly stole customers' milkshakes, according to Kotaku in McDonalds & Fandom Replaced A Wiki Page With An Advertisement. "Grimace, an ancient McDonalds character who ... may be so unknown among younger readers they will actually need to consult a website to find out who the hell he is," according to Kotaku.

McDonald's advertising campaign replaced the Fandom page from June 11 with this page (from June 28)

Meanwhile Wikipedia has not been immune from McDonald's ad campaign. An article about the Grimace milkshake was created on June 26.

"Grimace" indeed. – S

Section 230 discussion

Partnering with Wikimedia: New America President and CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter

C-SPAN has video coverage and a full transcript of an event hosted jointly by New America and the Wikimedia Foundation. The topic: regulating big tech companies and social media platforms, and in particular Section 230.

Introductory remarks by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who authored Section 230 together with Republican Christopher Cox back in the 1990s, were followed by a panel discussion featuring New America Senior Director Lilian Coral, Axios reporter Ashley Gold, Politico reporter Rebecca Kern, Association of Research Libraries Director Katherine Klosek, Wikipedian and journalism professor Andrew Lih, the WMF's Rebecca MacKinnon (herself a former New America fellow), Internet Archive counsel Peter Routhier and New America President and CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Ultimately, with AI in the ascendant, the panel seemed agreed that Section 230 was more vital than ever to safeguard the continued existence of the ecosystem of content and sources formed by Wikipedia and the Internet Archive and that Congress should appreciate that –

We are an ecosystem that is so crucial to not only global knowledge but American competitiveness. If you just want to ... pander to make America really competitive in this area, keep 230 around so that we are still in that leadership position.
— Andrew Lih, time code 1:40:18

– AK

In brief

• Meetup: Yahoo! Life says the monthly Brooklyn Public Library meetup WikiWednesday salon? was highlighted in a TikTok video posted by Annie Rauwerda and attracted some potential new 'pedians.
• TEDx talk: Rauwerda also gave a TEDx talk titled "Why an encyclopedia is my favorite place on the Internet". Watch the recording to find out which encyclopedia it is.
• It's smashing: Smashing Magazine has a "behind the curtains" interview with the designers of the new Wikipedia interface, Vector 2022. See prior Signpost coverage about the redesign.
• Molly White interview: German business magazine Brand eins features an interview with cryptocurrency critic and Wikipedian Molly White.
• Jimmy Wales interview: The "co-founder of Wikipedia" was interviewed by Lex Fridman on his popular podcast (video, transcript), for three hours and 15 minutes. One user compiled some excerpts they found especially interesting from a Wikipedian perspective.
• Language divide: Global Voices reports on the way Google and Wikimedia are seeking to bridge the language divide in Africa.
• Disinformation quarrel: The U.S. Republican Party is targeting universities, think tanks and also the Wikimedia Foundation "to undermine the fight against false claims about elections, vaccines and other hot political topics", reports The New York Times. Organizations researching disinformation stand accused of censoring conservative speech online. Specifically, it is mentioned that the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee "has sent scores of letters and subpoenas to the researchers — only some of which have been made public," and that "America First Legal", "a conservative advocacy group led by Stephen Miller, the former adviser to Mr. Trump, filed a class-action lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Louisiana that echoes many of the committee’s accusations and focuses on some of the same defendants." The New York Times' article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation only once, as one of the targets. It remains unclear about whether the Foundation is a defendant in the lawsuit, or just one of the recipients of the committee's letters and subpoenas. It appears to be the latter, based on the fact that Wikimedia and Wikipedia are not mentioned in America First Legal's press release about the lawsuit (filed "on behalf of Jill Hines, the co-Director of Health Freedom Louisiana, and Jim Hoft, the founder the popular news website The Gateway Pundit", which is listed as a deprecated source at WP:RSP).
• Legal setback in France: The Wikimedia Foundation has lost an appeal in its French court case, reports Legalis (see previous Signpost coverage).
• Open letter: The open letter by Wikimedia UK on the Online Safety Bill (see News and notes for further information) attracted coverage by cybernews.com and uktech.news.

Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next week's edition in the Newsroom or leave a tip on the suggestions page.

This page is a draft for the next issue of the Signpost. Below is some helpful code that will help you write and format a Signpost draft. If it's blank, you can fill out a template by copy-pasting this in and pressing 'publish changes': {{subst:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Story-preload}}

Images and Galleries

Sidebar images To put an image in your article, use the following template (link): [[File:|center|300px|alt=TKTK]] O frabjous day. {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler image-v2 |image = |size = 300px |alt = TKTK |caption = |fullwidth = no }} This will create the file on the right. Keep the 300px in most cases. If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes. Inline images Placing {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Inline image |image = |size = 300px |align = center |alt = Placeholder alt text |caption = CAPTION }} (link) will instead create an inline image like below [[File:|300px|center|alt=Placeholder alt text]] CAPTION Galleries To create a gallery, use the following <gallery mode = packed | heights = 200px> |Caption for second image </gallery> to create

Quotes

Framed quotes “ Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet... ” — AUTHOR, SOURCE To insert a framed quote like the one on the right, use this template (link): {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler quote-v2 |1 = |author = |source = |fullwidth = }} If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes. Pull quotes To insert a pull quote like “ Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet... ” use this template (link): {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Quote |1 = |source = }} Long quotes To insert a long inline quote like The goose is on the loose! The geese are on the lease! — User:Oscar Wilde — Quotations Notes from the Underpoop use this template (link): {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/block quote | text = | by = | source = | ts = | oldid = }}

Side frames

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. A caption Side frames help put content in sidebar vignettes. For instance, this one (link): {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler frame-v2 |1 = Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. |caption = A caption |fullwidth = no }} gives the frame on the right. This is useful when you want to insert non-standard images, quotes, graphs, and the like. Example − Graph/Charts Further information: Category:Graph, chart and plot templates A caption For example, to insert the {{Graph:Chart}} generated by {{Graph:Chart |width=250|height=100|type=line |x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8|y=10,12,6,14,2,10,7,9 }} in a frame, simple put the graph code in |1= {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler frame-v2 |1= {{Graph:Chart |width=250|height=100|type=line |x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8|y=10,12,6,14,2,10,7,9 }} |caption=A caption |fullwidth=no }} to get the framed Graph:Chart on the right. If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes.

Two-column vs full width styles

If you keep the 'normal' preloaded draft and work from there, you will be using the two-column style. This is perfectly fine in most cases and you don't need to do anything. However, every time you have a |fullwidth=no and change it to |fullwidth=yes (or vice-versa), the article will take that style from that point onwards (|fullwidth=yes → full width, |fullwidth=no → two-column). By default, omitting |fullwidth= is the same as putting |fullwidth=no and the article will have two columns after that. Again, this is perfectly fine in most cases, and you don't need to do anything. However, you can also fine-tune which style is used at which point in an article. To switch from two-column → full width style midway in an article, insert {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Signpost-block-end-v2}} {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Signpost-block-start-v2|fullwidth=yes}} where you want the switch to happen. To switch from full width → two-column style midway in an article, insert {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Signpost-block-end-v2}} {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Signpost-block-start-v2|fullwidth=no}} where you want the switch to happen.

Article series

To add a series of 'related articles' your article, use the following code Related articles Visual Editor Five, ten, and fifteen years ago 1 January 2023 VisualEditor, endowment, science, and news in brief 5 August 2015 HTTPS-only rollout completed, proposal to enable VisualEditor for new accounts 17 June 2015 VisualEditor and MediaWiki updates 29 April 2015 Security issue fixed; VisualEditor changes 4 February 2015 More articles Draft namespace, VisualEditor meetings 25 December 2013 Sockpuppet investigations, VisualEditor, Wikidata's birthday, and more 6 November 2013 Last call for Wiki Loves Monuments; Community–WMF tension over VisualEditor 25 September 2013 Making Wikipedia more accessible 4 September 2013 Gallery improvements launch on Wikipedia 28 August 2013 The VisualEditor Beta and the path to change 31 July 2013 Defining consensus; VisualEditor default state; expert and layperson terms in article titles 31 July 2013 VisualEditor in midst of game-changing deployment series 3 July 2013 VisualEditor will "change world history" 12 June 2013 VisualEditor, elections, bots, and more 12 June 2013 The Visual Editor: Where are we now, and where are we headed? 25 March 2013 Visual Editor "on schedule" for July rollout 18 March 2013 Looking ahead to 2013 7 January 2013 The new Visual Editor gets a bit more visual 10 December 2012 Second Visual Editor prototype launches 25 June 2012 Visual editor demo launched, hailed as "most important change to our user experience ... ever"; but elsewhere over-hasty deployments criticised 19 December 2011 Full steam ahead on Visual Editor, the avoidance of lock-breaking and 1.18b1 release 7 November 2011 {{Signpost series |type = sidebar-v2 |tag = VisualEditor |seriestitle = Visual Editor |fullwidth = no }} or {{Signpost series |type = sidebar-v2 |tag = VisualEditor |seriestitle = Visual Editor |fullwidth = yes }} will create the sidebar on the right. If writing a 'full width' article, change |fullwidth=no to |fullwidth=yes. A partial list of valid |tag= parameters can be found at here and will decide the list of articles presented. |seriestitle= is the title that will appear below 'Related articles' in the box. Alternatively, you can use {{Signpost series |type = inline |tag = VisualEditor |tag_name = visual editor |tag_pretext = the }} at the end of an article to create For more Signpost coverage on the visual editor see our visual editor series. If you think a topic would make a good series, but you don't see a tag for it, or that all the articles in a series seem 'old', ask for help at the WT:NEWSROOM. Many more tags exist, but they haven't been documented yet.

Links and such

This department (In the media): Next issue · Next next issue · Search for previous Arbitration report: Arbitration · Arbcom · Archives · Cases · Enforcements Discussion report: News and notes: In the media: Google News · TechMEME By the way, the template that you're reading right now is {{Editnotices/Group/Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Next issue}} (edit). A list of the preload templates for Signpost articles can be found here.

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In this issue

3 July 2023

News and notes

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To move Forward we must name names?

The Signpost takes no position on the Holocaust in Poland dispute Um, no, you deliberately and controversially took a position on the dispute while the case was ongoing at arbcom. 72.213.11.193 (talk) 13:55, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

• Like many disgruntled ex-editors, the Forward piece's author notes that Wikipedia was edited to include several pieces of disinformation in his area of expertise. This is a well-known problem. What he doesn't note is that all of the misinformation was shortly thereafter fixed, and none of his listed examples survive on the encyclopedia today. —Ganesha811 (talk) 14:30, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
• Comment Shira Klien has an article dated: 14 June 2023 in the same magazine: The shocking truth about Wikipedia’s Holocaust disinformation. In it she states:"Wikipedia’s structure leaves it vulnerable to be exploited by any small group of people willing to spend the time to control the content, whether they are from a government or a corporation or are simply ideologically driven private individuals". It not the fact the misinformation was fixed in those listed examples. The problem is that it is happening at every level and every process and we no way of addressing it except with the people we have and the tools we have. And that is no longer enough and hasn't been for a long time. The scope of the problem is enormous. The arbcom decision at best is a plaster, for that area only. scope_creep^Talk 15:08, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

  Just a quick note to say that Shira's article was covered in the previous Signpost issue. See Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2023-06-19/In_the_media. Regards, Andreas JN466 16:03, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

• I'd like to see a source afffirming that "checking the references for an encyclopedia article is a standard component of scholarship." Encyclopedias, including Wikipedia, are tertiary sources, and while I'm not an expert on the editorial practices used in encyclopedias generally, I am fairly certain that for this encyclopedia we are encouraged to use secondary sources.~TPW 14:04, 5 July 2023 (UTC)
• This is a needlessly inflammatory headline.
  [T]hey can start by requiring everyone, occasional contributors and arbitration committee members alike, to use their real names, period is NOT doxxing, which OED defines as [T]o search for and publish private or identifying information about (an individual) on the internet, typically with malicious intent. Washington suggested (IMO, flawed and even ridiculous) a policy change that will convert Wikipedia to Citizendium; he did not suggest that internet-sleuths publish PID about current the crop of editors and arbitrators.TrangaBellam (talk) 22:04, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

What happens when adverts are allowed

On the Grimace Shake article: There's no reason to suppose that the author of that article, Arconning, has a COI regarding McDonald's, but its existence demonstrates a problem Wikipedia has with playing into the hands of commercial interests. We live in a world where TikTok memes get write-ups in The New York Times and USA Today, so any big viral marketing campaign is going to result in a Wikipedia article. Such articles might be merged or deleted further down the line, when editors can demonstrate a lack of sustained coverage, but by then the companies have already made their profits.

The Grimace Shake is currently on track for a Main Page appearance (see DYK nomination). Whether or not this will make any difference to McDonald's bottom line, I don't know, but it's certainly not a good look for us. Sojourner in the earth (talk) 20:06, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

Cannot really understand the long-term significance of such articles which appear to be heavy on trivia. I understand articles on widespread "memes" but on corporate fads and temporary trends not so much where WP:TENYEARS should apply. The distinction between Fandom and Wikipedia as an encyclopedia becomes blurred. Gotitbro (talk) 00:16, 4 July 2023 (UTC)

I agree with @Sojourner in the earth: (btw, any relation to Giants in the earth?) - there is no special reason to think that the article was created as an advertisement, but the effect of putting it on Wikipedia is the same. McDonald's gets free publicity. And ultimately we know the source of the article - from the McDonald's PR campaign. Under WP:What Wikipedia is not, "Editors are encouraged to ... develop stand-alone articles on significant current events," but not on insignificant current events or routine events. I'm not sure the ad campaign even reaches the level of "insignificant" or "routine". It doesn't have any permanent notability. Nobody will remember it 2 weeks after the campaign ends, certainly not in 10 or 20 years. BTW WP:NOT is a policy, that trumps the guideline WP:Notability. If an event doesn't pass WP:NOT, it doesn't pass WP:Notability. Thus I've objected to the DYK and put a "Recentism" template on the article. Likely, I'll follow up with an AfD when I have the time. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 02:00, 4 July 2023 (UTC)

The problem with this approach is that is that it can be used to give real teeth to WP:IDONTLIKEIT. Don't like articles on mass shooting in the US? Delete them under WP:NOT! No need to demonstrate SIGCOV, RS or any of that sort of thing. Just vote to delete! Hawkeye7 (discuss) 03:14, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

Actually WP:NOT covers this "Editors are encouraged to include current and up-to-date information within its coverage, and to develop stand-alone articles on significant current events." But this just isn't a significant event. The problem is that McDonald's running adverts is simply not anything beyond the routine everyday day events that nobody is interested two weeks after they are over. WP:NOT also covers this under WP:NOTEVERYTHING. Smallbones_(smalltalk) 13:15, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

In general, it has been my experience that, in any situation where there is more than one wiki on a given subject matter, the one that isn't a Fandom wiki invariably has a better user experience. Even when I use an ad-blocker, I still see a ton of links alongside and below the main content, all of which point to random nonsense that has little to do with the page I'm currently reading. It's as if somebody saw Wikipedia's See also and external links sections, built an algorithm to make a larger and less useful equivalent for Fandom pages, and then proceeded to saturate all of the unused pixels with it. The only benefit Fandom provides to its users is free hosting, and at this point, I cannot possibly believe that it's worth it, given current hosting prices from other, less opinionated web hosts. An independently hosted wiki probably would have told McDonald's to take a long walk on a short pier, if they even received such an absurd request in the first place. In short, I find it difficult to care what nonsense Fandom is doing this week. I wrote them off five years ago. --NYKevin 08:42, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

Other

• Not in this weeks report, but this one just in yesterday, from Palmer Report: Many of you are aware that a rogue anonymous Wikipedia editor added the words “liberal fake news website” to the very first sentence of Palmer Report’s Wikipedia page several years ago, and since been blocking all other Wikipedia editors from removing this absurd and libelous claim. Enjoy. And don't miss the comment section. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 18:52, 4 July 2023 (UTC)

Hakuna Matata and Wiki donations

Why does this story claim that only the abstract and the Georgia Tech announcement are currently available? According to both [1] and [2], the full paper was already published on June 6. Regards, HaeB (talk) 00:18, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

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