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Volume 2, Issue 10 6 March 2006 About the Signpost
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English Wikipedia hits one million articles Politicians move from editing Wikipedia to citing it
E-mail confirmation enabled News and notes: Wikipedian passes away, milestones
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SPV

English Wikipedia hits one million articles

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By Catherine Munro

The English Wikipedia reached the long-awaited milestone of one million encyclopedia articles on Wednesday, a little over five years after the launch of the community-written reference work in January, 2001. The encyclopedia passed this mark at precisely 23:09 (UTC) on 1 March, 2006. The millionth article was Jordanhill railway station, added by Wikipedian Ewan Macdonald (aka User:Nach0king) in the course of his ongoing work on Scottish railways.

The Wikimedia Foundation immediately issued a press release ("English Wikipedia Publishes Millionth Article"), and the news was reported on Slashdot within hours. (see more press coverage)

The winner of the Wikipedia:Million pool, a contest to guess the date on which the millionth article would be written, was Hungarian Wikipedian András Mészáros, who made his prediction on 28 November, 2004. With the reaching of the million milestone, the Wikipedia:Two-million pool is now closed.

Some near-contenders for the title of millionth article were:

Because of the problems in identifying the half-millionth article (see archived story), developers Tim Starling and Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason were prepared with precise monitoring tools this time.

Many competitive editors had articles queued up to submit as the big number approached. Clearly one of these was BorgHunter, who created eight different articles within the minute the milestone was reached. Not only Smith, but Cox, Ledesma, and several others were his, all baseball players with some connection to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (coincidentally, the professional team closest to Wikimedia headquarters). According to Raul654, "the article count jumped from 999,990 to 1,000,150 in one second. I've never seen anything like it."

Article grows, commemoration discussed

With the attention of the entire community focused upon it, Jordanhill railway station quickly grew from a one-line stub to a full-fledged article, receiving over 200 edits in the first four hours. ([1] [2]) It now also features a map, as well as several pictures of the station taken the next day by Erath. The article then made an appearance on the Did you know section of the Main Page. It appeared on Peer review on 2 March and became a Featured article candidate on 7 March.

As the subject of the article happens to be a physical location, it allowed people to suggest placing some kind of marker at the site to commemorate the milestone. Some were not sure whether the suggestion was serious, and indeed it made for some humorous comments about the potential for vandalism of the marker. Others did take it seriously, however, and a number of people have signed up to express support for the idea. Whether it would actually happen is uncertain, as various steps would be needed to obtain approval from the appropriate authorities, and there would also be the question of raising funds to pay for a marker. The most recent incarnation is a bench, which would serve a practical purpose to the location.

Anthere has said she hopes that the Wikimedia Foundation would not provide any funds unless they were donated specifically for that purpose. A fundraiser is in the works.

But are they "real" articles?

Deciding what qualifies as an article has long been a tricky issue to resolve. The software defines an "article" as any page that is in the article namespace, is not a redirect page, and contains at least one internal wiki link.

A recent informal survey by User:R. fiend, based on a sample of 500 random articles, estimates that roughly 80% of Wikipedia's articles are "real", informative articles: full articles (including public domain imports such as 1911 Britannica and Rambot articles), decent stubs, lists, and charts. Another 5% are disambiguation pages.

Roughly 10% are one- or two-sentence substubs, and the remaining 5% are articles that are dubious, deletable, or require substantial cleanup.

Another study was performed by User:Dantheox to study the change in the ratio of Wikipedia stubs to non-stubs over time. He filtered the database looking for {{stub}} template tags (which were introduced in late 2003), and found that roughly 35% of Wikipedia's articles are currently tagged as stubs. However, although stub articles have a great deal of room for expansion, many still provide good basic information on topics which may not be covered at all in comparable reference works.

Millionth user

The English Wikipedia also reached one million registered users on 28 February, with the milestone account belonging to Romulus32. As of the time of printing, the user had not made an edit to the English Wikipedia.

More tidbits


SPV

Politicians move from editing Wikipedia to citing it

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By Michael Snow

Although the topic of politicians editing Wikipedia has been the subject of considerable attention lately, it turns out that they are also using it for other purposes. The editing, in particular by US congressional staff, was previously reported here and also the subject of a Wikinews investigation. But at least outside the US, where some edits have also been reported and investigated, it seems that some politicians quote material from Wikipedia as well.

Hansard reports have now recorded several instances of parliamentarians quoting Wikipedia in their debates and speeches. Two come from the Australian Parliament, including the most recent just this past week. On Wednesday, 1 March, in a speech by Senator Lyn Allison, leader of the Australian Democrats, remarking on the tenth anniversary of John Howard's election as Prime Minister, Allison turned to the Propaganda article for a list of techniques she charged the Howard government with using.

The previous citation of Wikipedia came from Danna Vale of Howard's own Liberal Party on 9 February 2005. Speaking at the opening of Parliament, she used portions of the Totalitarianism article in her comments about the war against terrorism. The cited passages are no longer recognizable in Wikipedia today, as the article underwent a significant rewrite in July by 172, who said it was an unfocused mess that had long had problems with original research and commentary.

Australian Wikipedian Mark Gallagher was not that impressed with the use these politicians managed to get out of it. As he put it, "Referenced twice in Parliament, and both times it's just to say 'Wikipedia says you're a tyrant!'? How sad. Remember when our politicians were eloquent?"

In contrast, a debate last year in the British House of Commons provides an example of a politician using Wikipedia as a factual reference, not just to bolster an argument. On 13 July 2005, MP Anne McIntosh of the Conservative Party quoted two paragraphs from Persecution of Christians while discussing that issue in regards to southeast Asia and China.

In a further example, the library of the Parliament of Canada cited Wikipedia's article on Same-sex marriage as a "related link" in the further reading list for Bill C-38 (An Act respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes).

It remains to be seen whether these are simply isolated events or reflect a growing trend. In any case, it shows that politicians are taking a look at more of Wikipedia than merely the state of their own biographies.

Meanwhile, the fallout over congressional staff editing took an unusual twist last week. In Delaware, where Senator Joseph Biden's office was one whose editing was exposed by the Wikinews investigation, the Republican Party has apparently been trying to use this for political advantage. In particular, attention focused on the removal of information about a plagiarism controversy during Biden's 1988 presidential campaign. Now opinion columnist Ron Williams of the Delaware News-Journal has charged that the Republicans lifted material from another source, thus allegedly using more plagiarism to make noise about Biden's supposed plagiarism. And again like Biden's staff, engaged in some selective editing of the material they were using to remove unflattering information. At this point, good luck figuring out who's the pot and who's the kettle.


SPV

E-mail confirmation enabled

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By Ral315

Following the move of mail operations to a new server, Wikimedia e-mails were temporarily blacklisted by SpamCop following alleged e-mails received by spamtrap addresses. As a result, and due to the small possibility of Wikimedia e-mail services being used to send spam mail, brion enabled e-mail confirmation on all Wikimedia wikis.

How it works

The setting disables e-mail communication by default, forcing all users to send a confirmation e-mail in order to re-enable it. This is done to ensure that e-mail addresses given are in fact that of actual users. A user must first visit Special:Confirmemail, and send a confirmation e-mail to their address. Then, they must open the e-mail and click the confirmation link inside the e-mail to confirm the address. After this is finished, e-mail communication is possible between users.

E-mail addresses are still not required, but if added, will not function unless a confirmation is sent. The confirmation must only be performed once per account, though users with multiple accounts on different wikis must confirm each separate account if desired.

SpamCop unblocked Wikimedia's mail server shortly after the announcement, though due to the possibility of being re-listed, the e-mail system will remain in effect permanently.


SPV

News and notes

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By Ral315

Wikipedian Caroline Thompson passes away

Caroline Thompson, a Wikipedian who primarily edited articles relating to quantum mechanics, died on 8 February, according to her family. [3] The cause of death was cancer. Thompson, who had written papers on the subject while a student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, had edited sporadically in recent months, last editing on 10 January.

French Wikipedia reaches 250,000 articles

Following the millionth English article on 1 March (see related story), the French Wikipedia reached a quarter-million articles on Saturday. The milestone article was John Anglin, an American who escaped from Alcatraz Island in 1962. This article was translated from the subject's article on the English Wikipedia. At press time, the article had received just four edits.

Wikipedia's Alexa rank rises to 20

Alexa reports that Wikipedia's three month traffic ranking is 20th, an all-time high. Meanwhile, the daily traffic rank spiked upward to 12th on Sunday, a new high, surpassing the mark of 14th back in January. Wikipedia has recently surpassed CNN.com, Go.com, AOL.com, and the BBC in traffic, and seems likely to pass Blogger.com in the near future.

Fair use image policy reconsidered

After administrator Ta bu shi da yu deleted a series of TIME cover images due to what he considered improper fair use claims, discussion has occurred over his actions, and whether they were appropriate. Ta bu shi da yu has proposed an amendment to the fair use policy, which would eliminate the need to notify an uploader that their image does not comply, and would reduce the length of time before deletion from 7 days to 24 hours. The proposed amendment is currently open for comments on its talk page.

CheckUser policy explained

Arbitrator Raul654 recently clarified questions regarding CheckUser and the Arbitration Committee's policies regarding giving the tool to non-arbitrators. Raul654 explains that "some arbitrators are opposed to giving it to any non-arbitrators; others, like me, feel that there are a few special cases that giving checkuser access to a non-arbitrator would be a good idea." They do agree, however, that a system for requesting CheckUser similar to requests for adminship would not be desirable, due to the large volume of requests likely. Raul654 stressed that if the Committee were to grant access to non-arbitrators, it would only be granted to a few users.

Tip of the day to return in April

Wikipedia's tip of the day project, which was placed on hiatus in 2004, will be started again on 20 April, 2006. New tips are being prepared, and relevant archived tips from its initial run will be re-used.

Briefly


SPV

In the news

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By Catherine Munro

Millionth article, millionth user

The million article milestone reached by Wikipedia on 1 March (see related story), with an article on Jordanhill railway station in Scotland, was reported in:

Even before the millionth article was created, The Guardian remarked on the millionth registered user, in "Wikipedia hits the million mark".

The Toronto Star also published an extensive article on Wikipedia, based on an interview conducted with Jimmy Wales and Nicholas Moreau before the milestone was reached: "A million entries later, the Wikigeeks are proud".

More Jimmy Wales interviews

Interesting mentions

On the 1 March, 2006, episode of The Colbert Report, columnist Arianna Huffington challenged Stephen Colbert on his claim that he had invented the word "truthiness." During the interview, Colbert declared, "I'm not a truthiness fanatic; I'm truthiness's father." Huffington corrected him, citing Wikipedia, that he had merely "popularized" the term. Of her source, Colbert responded: "Fuck them."


A new registry for establishing which print works are in the public domain will use MediaWiki software, and is supported by Jimbo Wales, according to "Database planned for public domain works" in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail:

"The public domain is our shared cultural heritage, and the best ground for the great new ideas of the future'" said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. "Without access to the public domain, we are cut off from our past, and therefore cut ourselves off from our future."


Chemistry World, the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, published "Information free-for-all", following an interview with Martin Walker (Walkerma), assistant professor of organic chemistry at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia could become the main source of chemical information in 5–10 years, according to a professional chemist who contributes to the site.

Wikipedia in your pocket

An open source project has made it possible to install the entire text of certain language editions of Wikipedia onto an iPod media player. A straightforward dual boot installation of iPodLinux allows the player to be used for both text and music, although not both at the same time. "Encyclopodia - the encyclopedia on your iPod", at Sourceforge, contains downloads and screenshots. The news was reported by:

There are similar technologies for Pocket PC and Palm devices ("Complete Wikipedia Encyclopedia on your handheld or notebook") and for cellular phones ("Wapipedia").

More attention from marketers

WebProNews published "SEM NY: Communities, Wikipedia & Tagging", discussing a presentation given at a search engine marketing conference in New York. Regarding companies editing their own articles in Wikipedia:

Since the conversation about a company is going to take place online whether the company is participating or not, [National Instruments search and community manager Jeff] Watts thinks that a firm may as well be involved in the process. "Think about the things you know about and engage the community with unbiased information," he said.
Wikipedia benefits LabVIEW [an article started by Watts] by the traffic it delivers and the third-party objective viewpoint it possesses. That means information it contains about a firm may be unflattering but accurate, and companies need to resist the temptation to remove it.

Congress

Overviews


SPV

Features and admins

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By Ral315

Administrators

Administrator status was given to ten users this week: Raven4x4x (nom), Paolo Liberatore (nom), Bobet (nom), Rspeer (nom), DakotaKahn (nom), AYArktos (nom), Kingboyk (nom), R.Koot (nom), Ian13 (nom), and Bobo192 (nom).

Featured content

Nine articles were promoted to featured status this week: Western Front (World War I), Donkey Kong (arcade game), Chew Valley Lake, New Radicals, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Second Malaysia Plan, Salsa music, Antarctica, and Thomas Pynchon.

The following featured articles were displayed last week on the main page as Today's featured article: Washington gubernatorial election, 2004, Edward Teller, Paul Kane, Zion National Park, Triumph of the Will, Central processing unit, and This Charming Man.

Two former featured articles lost their status this week: Auto rickshaw and 2004 Democratic National Convention.

Three lists reached featured list status this week: List of Canadian provinces and territories by population, Timeline of first orbital launches by nationality, and List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries.

The latest portal to reach featured status is Portal:Tropical cyclones.

Three pictures reached featured picture status this week:

Drop (liquid)


SPV

Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

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By Ral315

Last week in servers

Server-related events, problems, and changes included:

  • 1 March — srv54 accidentally rebooted, causing five minutes of downtime
  • 1 March — wgEmailAuthentication enabled (see related story)
  • 2 March — goeje (e-mail server) set to sync files daily to another server
  • 3 March — New language queues added on OTRS system
  • 4 March — Upload errors on certain languages fixed
  • 4 March — Trouble with math functions fixed
  • 6 March — goeje temporarily down, restarted


SPV

The Report On Lengthy Litigation

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By Ral315

The Arbitration Committee closed three cases this week.

VeryVerily

An appeal of a December 2004 case was closed on Thursday. As a result, restrictions limiting users in the case to one revert per page per day, and policy for banning users temporarily for violating a provision no longer apply to VeryVerily. Other restrictions in the original case still apply, though VeryVerily has the option to appeal those after four months. In addition, Ruy Lopez was prohibited from using sockpuppets, and has been placed on probation. Ruy Lopez's sockpuppetry to avoid Arbitration Committee sanctions had been confirmed on at least one occasion.

Zeq

A case brought against Zeq was closed on Sunday. As a result, Zeq has been banned from the articles 1948 Arab-Israeli War and Palestinian exodus indefinitely, and placed on probation. In addition, Zeq was cautioned to avoid removing well-sourced information, Zeq and Heptor were cautioned about using "propagandistic sources", and all others in the dispute were cautioned to use proper dispute resolution techniques. Zeq had been accused of removing sourced material, and all parties had been found to have engaged in edit warring.

Dyslexic agnostic

A case brought by Benon against T-man, the Wise Scarecrow was closed on Monday. As a result, T-man was placed under the mentorship of administrators to be named later. If mentorship fails, T-man would be banned for six months. Both users were also placed on personal attack parole and probation for one year. Both Dyslexic agnostic and T-man had edit warred and made personal attacks against each other.

Other cases

Cases were accepted this week involving Licorne (user page), -Ril- (user page), ZAROVE (user page), editors on Depleted uranium, and Lou franklin (user page). All are in the evidence phase.

An additional case involving Agapetos angel (user page) is in the evidence phase.

Cases involving editors on Shiloh Shepherd Dog, Tony Sidaway (user page), editors on bible verse articles, Lapsed Pacifist (user page), Jason Gastrich (user page), users IronDuke and Gnetwerker, Instantnood (user page), and Boothy443 (user page) are in the voting phase.

A motion to close is on the table in the case involving Leyasu (user page).


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