Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-10-19/In the media

In the media

Off to the races

By Bri, Jonatan Svensson Glad, and Smallbones

Optional: write a lede — not necessarily a WP:LEAD. Interesting > encyclopedic.

"Politics of perception" persistence is perplexing, but proof is pending

sub-heading at In brief was "Donating to Activism, One Coffee at a Time (changed a bit) The Independent Journal Review, borrowing from The Daily Caller, claimed that your Wikipedia donations might be funding "feminism and racial justice" instead of just keeping the lights on. The Commune Mag and OpIndia then joined the fray, alleging that Wikimedia's finances are tied to shadowy donors. Karah Rucker of Straight Arrow News listed left-leaning leaders like Art+Feminism and Black Lunch Table—programs we’ve proudly highlighted in The Signpost. Meanwhile, in yet another familiar critique of Wikipedia's alleged political leanings, Voz branded the platform as “Wokepedia”, calling it the world’s largest "politically biased" encyclopedia. At this point, it's like watching a rerun. Every few weeks, a new outlet accuses the the free encyclopedia of the mind numbing non-napping known as the politics of perception. Next, Matt Walsh, a commentator for The Daily Wire (not the most reliable source), describes a scene in his movie Am I Racist?. A "white-guilt" group tries to get him arrested by reading the Wikipedia article about him to the police. See previous Signpost coverage on Walsh's commentary. – JSG, – S

Consider referencing previous Signpost coverage on similar topics. Might benefit from a rewrite to balance the perspective and align more with WMF’s stance, rather than echoing right-wing outlets' viewpoints. Leaving it to the regular editors for adjustments.JSG (did I take this too far? -S

Indy Wiki Conference

https://www.wishtv.com/news/local-news/wikipedia-conference-comes-to-indianapolis/ video includes James Popoola, Justin Clark (the digital initiatives director at the Indiana State Library), Dominic Byrd-McDevitt - organizer, @JPxG: was nowhere to be seen. "The IU Indianapolis Library received $280,000 from the Indianapolis Foundation Library Fund to improve Indiana’s digital heritage on Wikipedia."

In brief

[[File:|center|300px|]]

CAPTION

• Camille Herron's Race for Wiki Supremacy: Multiple magazines and news outlets, including Runner's World, Canadian Running Magazine, Women's Health, and Athletics Illustrated, reported that ultrarunner Camille Herron went from trails to keyboards, getting flagged for editing her own Wikipedia page to emphasize her achievements and for tweaking Kilian Jornet's profile—turning this into a race of reputation rather than endurance. Wikipedia’s neutrality got a workout as Herron’s edits sparked controversy over athletes curating their own narratives. Actions have consequences, though—Herron was swiftly dropped by her primary sponsor, Lululemon, making this yet another high-stakes lesson in online reputation management gone wrong. – JSG This story seems to have gone viral/be news globally - I've even seen it in both Swedish and Norwegian news. Perhaps worth making in to a lead story somehow given the virality?

No one has taken a photo of racehorse Wikipedia yet, so here is Rysdyk's Hambletonian, great-great-etc. grand sire of Wikipedia

{{

No one has taken a photo of racehorse Wikipedia yet, so here is Bret Hanover, his great-great-great grandsire (another idea

Pacing racehorses (another idea)

A pacing racehorse (another idea)

• Wikipedia paces to victory: In an unexpected twist, Wikipedia isn’t just for late-night research dives anymore—it’s also the name of a harness racing horse! Standardbred Canada reports the nobly named Standardbred pacer, a 3-year-old son of Mcwicked, came from 5 lengths back in the stretch overcoming Crush Kill Destroy, Unrivaled Hanover, Legal Attack, and Chain Gang, winning an Ontario Sire Stakes Gold division race. Now when someone says “Wikipedia is fast,” they’re not just talking about the servers. – JSG
• Goa’s Newest Archive: The Goamankat Times highlighted local Wikipedian Tanmay Pereira Naik’s efforts to expand and improve articles related to Goa, India on Wikipedia. His mission? To give Goa’s history and culture the representation it deserves on the global platform. This initiative includes everything from documenting local history and politics to covering underrepresented topics like traditional cuisine and Goan personalities. Naik's work is a testament to the importance of diverse contributions—he’s bridging the knowledge gap for Goa, one Wikipedia page at a time. – JSG Not an established news outlet. Unsure about reliability and inclusion here, but it is a feel-good story.... Also, the username is no mentioned in the piece, so won't go digging for it due to doxxing rules.
• Recent Research Piece Picked Up: The Arabian Post picked up on a study comparing how people perceive credibility between Wikipedia, ChatGPT, and Alexa. While their coverage didn't mention The Signpost directly, it did link back to our Recent research piece from two issues ago. So, even though we weren't named, The Signpost served as a bridge between the original Nature article and international media coverage. – JSG
• Wikipedia "Winner" Goes Viral!: A viral screenshot of a Wikipedia page claiming Abhijeet Sawant as the winner of Bigg Boss Marathi season 5 has stirred up social media, leading to debates on whether it’s true or just another case of Wikipedia vandalism. The buzz even got coverage by The Free Press Journal, which pointed out the ongoing confusion. Just goes to show—when it comes to reality TV, even Wikipedia edits can become a trending topic. – JSG Perhaps find a link to the screenshot, or if possible crop it (to remove copyrightable content) and upload it to Commons to illustrate this article.
• Keeping AI at Bay – With a Little Help from Volunteers: Devex reported on how Wikipedia’s army of human volunteers is being hailed as its greatest weapon against the rise of artificial intelligence. Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander emphasized that while AI churns out a lot of "slop" prioritizing speed over accuracy, Wikipedia’s crowdsourced approach has kept it a beacon of reliable information. Despite the AI hype, Iskander notes that Wikipedia’s human editors remain cool and confident, because, well, it turns out that good old-fashioned community curation still works. – JSG
• Wikipedia Training Camp: The Punch reported that a group of 20 participants attended a Wikipedia editing workshop in Nigeria hosted by the Tyap Wikipedia User Group. The goal? To improve digital literacy and expand representation of Nigerian topics on the encyclopedia. With Wikipedia’s emphasis on reliable sourcing and neutrality, it’ll be interesting to see if these new editors shake up the content landscape. With Nigeria’s rich history and culture often underrepresented, initiatives like these help bring local voices to the global platform. – JSG
• From Gimli to Wikipedia: A crossword published in USA Today by constructor Ada Nicolle featured an unexpected nod to Wikipedia. One clue highlighted Annie Rauwerda, founder of the popular Depths of Wikipedia accounts on Instagram and other social media platforms, which showcase quirky and obscure content from the site. Other clues celebrated Icelandic-Canadian heritage, such as a reference to Gimli, Manitoba—the Canadian town with the highest population of Icelanders outside of Iceland. – JSG
• Portland City Auditor reopens Gonzalez case: After initially determining there was insufficient evidence to determine that the Portland, Oregon mayoral candidate broke campaign finance law by hiring a firm to burnish his Wikipedia page, the city auditor reopened the case. KOIN reports that "Gonzalez’s office had paid a company called Codename Enterprises, operating under WhiteHatWiki, to assist with edits and contentious matters on Gonzalez’s Wikipedia page." See also the report in The Oregonian. See previous Signpost coverage here, here, and here. The next installment of this long running saga is expected with the release of the revised City Auditor's report on or before Halloween.
• "Under the radar" page move rankles: Scholar Asaf Romirowsky said of Israeli apartheid that the "Wikipedia article's title and opening paragraph [are] a 'work of fiction'" [1]; the article also claims the Requested move to the current title was accomplished "under the radar". (Jewish Journal) this is not the first page move controversy reported by The Signpost; see 2021-11-29 In the Media#In brief, Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-09-04/In the media
• Spotlight on Bangladeshi Authors: An article in The Daily Star explored how Wikipedia categorizes prominent Bangladeshi literary figures like Abbasuddin Ahmed and Humayun Kabir. The piece highlighted issues with labeling writers based solely on linguistic or geographical ties, which sometimes results in misclassifications—such as identifying them only as "Bengali" or "Indian" rather than acknowledging their unique Bangladeshi heritage. The article argues for more precise representation on Wikipedia to honor these authors' contributions to the cultural and literary history of Bangladesh, and to avoid losing the nuances of their identities due to historical geopolitical changes​ – JSG
• High interest in 5784: In its year-end Internet culture wrapup, the Jerusalem Post noted that "Israel's Wikipedia entry... [got] approximately 14,769,946 views in a year, more than Israel's entire population." Other Wikipedia pageviews were noted, as well as Google search and YouTube popularity, to gauge interest in various Israel related topics (and some US and Jewish public figures).

CAPTION

• If sockfarms don't succeed, try, try again: "How Russia Invaded Wikipedia" (Foreign Policy) (splinternet)
• Wikimedia Technology Summit 2024: something?
• Subtitle: "The Editors Protecting Wikipedia from AI Hoaxes" (404 Media)
• Subtitle: Text text text.
• Subtitle: Text text text.
• Subtitle: Text text text.
• Subtitle: Text text text.

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): I understand the primacy of pure feeling in creative art. {{Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Filler image-v2 |size = 300px |fullwidth = no |alt = TKTK |caption = |image = }} 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 |size = 300px |align = center |alt = TKTK |caption = |image = }} (link) will instead create an inline image like below The significant thing is feeling, as such, quite apart from the environment in which it is called forth. Galleries To create a gallery, use the following <gallery style="float:right;" mode=packed | heights=200px> |TKTK |TKTK </gallery> Each line inside the tags should be formatted like File:Whatever.jpg|Caption). This creates: Art no longer cares to serve the state and religion, it no longer wishes to illustrate the history of manners. It wants to have nothing further to do with the object as such, and believes that it can exist in and for itself. If you want it centered, remove tstyle="float:right;" from the first line.

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.

← Previous "In the media"

In this issue

19 October 2024 (all comments)

News and notes

Recent research

In the media

Contest

Traffic report

Book review

Humour

Crossword

+ Add a comment

Discuss this story

These comments are automatically transcluded from this article's talk page. To follow comments, add the page to your watchlist. If your comment has not appeared here, you can try .

The Jewish Journal article on the WP page on Israeli apartheid is quite ridiculous, to be honest. Chill, not everyone who portrays Israel harshly is some sort of Hamas supporter. --Firestar464 (talk) 18:30, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

In what can perhaps only be viewed as tragic irony, the author leads an academic organization whose founder ranked among the most notorious denialists of the Armenian Genocide. TrangaBellam (talk) 16:21, 20 October 2024 (UTC)

At the time of me writing this, Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation has been taken down by the WMF. There might be a media-mention on this at some point. Wikipedia:Village_pump_(WMF)#WMF_action. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 04:44, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

The WMF has dedicated a sizeable portion of its donations to activist programs unrelated to Wikipedia and its sister projects, and it isn't helpful to lump it in with the "Wokepedia" nonsense. See meta:Knowledge Equity Fund and the 2023 Signpost article on the issue. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 03:55, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Want the latest Signpost delivered to your talk page each month?

Home

About

Archives

Newsroom

Subscribe

Suggestions