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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by SebastianHelm (talk | contribs) at 19:24, 25 February 2005 (→TheFreeDictionary.com). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The news section of the village pump is used to make announcements of new templates, wikiprojects, and details of any other news that does not fit into Wikipedia:Announcements or Wikipedia:Goings-on.

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Summary of some older announcements

Larry Sanger article on Wikipedia at K5

Larry Sanger has an article in the voting queue at Kuro5hin entitled Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism. Wikipedians who are also K5'ers may want to take a look. I'll post the URL once the voting finishes (it looks likely to be voted up).-gadfium 21:00, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

It's now on the K5 front page at [3]-gadfium 22:11, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Interesting. I agree with some of it, and not with other parts.
I would suggest that a good place to move detailed discussion of this might be Wikipedia talk:Forum for Encyclopedic Standards, or maybe we should set up a subpage of that for the purpose. Also, on the issue of usefulness, and how that might not simply be a matter of credibility as such, see Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia. -- Jmabel | Talk 22:37, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)
Extraordinarily haughty response from Jimbo Wales here [4] saying that he's "very disappointed in you Larry" and "(stop) embarassing yourself". If this is Wikipedia's "benevolent dictator" then God help us. - XED.talk.stalk.mail.csb 10:34, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Your constant kneejerk sniping at Jimbo has become tiresome. Why do you even participate here, when your first edits were attacks on Jimbo and you continue doing so? RickK 00:00, Jan 5, 2005 (UTC)
Bah. I said the same damn thing and didn't get a reply back from Larry. I still can't for the life of me understand why Larry (a) doesn't contribute here, and (b) bitches about the site in public and gets so much attention for it. Has he had trouble finding something else to occupy him? grendel|khan 06:17, 2005 Jan 11 (UTC)
I happen to agree with Jimbo. Larrys commentary was rediculous. At best it shows a fundamental mis-understanding of why Wikipedia works (embarrasing for someone who claims to be an insider), and at worst it is a pejorative rant by a disgruntled ex-employee (disappointing coming from a founder). Wikipedia is not targeted to professional editors, it is for Pro-Ams which is a huge marketplace Wikipedia has tapped in to. Papers and articles have been written about this, on why Wikipedia works: Pro-Ams, Long Tail.. The only thing I can figure why Larry wrote this article is to bring attention to himself for some project he may be announcing, thus the hint at a "fork". Since he mentions he is looking for a job in the Academic world, one can only guess. --Stbalbach 00:30, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity --One Salient Oversight 22:23, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Signpost

I've started up a newspaper to try and collect the news that's happening here on the English Wikipedia. Read all about it in The Wikipedia Signpost!

Oh, and anyone who might be interested in helping out with future issues, please let me know. I'm planning to publish it weekly. --Michael Snow 08:36, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Return of the B-Movie Bandit...but with a twist!

The twist is simple: The edits are now positive ones! I found an attempt at an article about a Cher album which was IMO better off as a redirect. Same IP range, same echo of the title in the edit summary. Enough to make my blood run cold. That is, until I looked at the IP's history. There were edits to existing soap opera articles. Not only did my blood run cold, it completely congealed. I dreaded checking. I really did. Now, I'm glad I checked. Every one of the edits was for the better, so help me. Made my day! - Lucky 6.9 01:57, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

This is great!

WikiProject Vienna

Hello! I have started a WikiProject to help get the Vienna page off the ground. Currently, it's an only mediocre Wiki that needs a lot of help translating the previously written German articles into English. If you speak German, or feel like helping to edit, please go and take a look at the project page. Thank you! Páll 05:25, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Warning!

I hope this is the right place to put this.

Warning! As Wikipedia is running slow and sometimes not saving edits you should COPY THE CONTENTS of your edit box when you edit a page. or YOU COULD LOSE ALL YOUR EDIT! WikiUser 21:28, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)

With browsers on the Windows operating system, Ctrl + A will Select All content in the textarea, Ctrl + C will copy it to the Clipboard, and Ctrl + V will paste it. –– Constafrequent (talk page) 21:41, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia Toolbar for Firefox

This Firefox extension is a useful tool for navigating Wikipedia. Its home page is on SourceForge/wikitools and some documentation is available on User:Ilya/firefox. Send your feedback so that developers are able to include the features you need. ilya 11:10, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Million pool

Just a reminder, there's a million article pool going, and it will close to new entries when we hit 500,000 articles. As I write this, the number of articles on en: is 457828 and growing rapidly. -- Cyrius|✎ 01:50, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

BBC news: Boy brings Encyclopaedia Britannica to book

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4209575.stm Dunc|☺ 16:51, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)

So how does Wikipedia do?
  • fail - on the location of Chochim - I can't find any reference. Perhaps its a spelling/transliteration issue, but it is spelt the same way in the the Guardian article (I know who would trust the Gruaniad for spelling), however I also can't locate the town via Google or Multimap with that spelling.
  • pass - on the location of the Belovehskaya Forest (Belavezhskaya Pushcha or Bialowieza Forest), but could possibly use some more redirects for alternative transliterations
  • pass - on the range of the reintroduced European Bison - in the Bialowieza Forest and neighbouring countries.
Not too bad. I wonder what the other two facts were. -- Solipsist 17:19, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)
I have written to the editor of The Times (which first carried the story in today's edition) a letter inviting Lucian to become a Wikipedia editor. Knowing my luck it won't appear ;(. However one can but try. Maybe we might try a /. on the letters page of the Times. The email is: letters@thetimes.co.uk Apwoolrich 17:28, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)
The BBC article actually refers to "the town of Chotym" but that doesn't seem to work any better (not even over on the Polish Wikipedia) :-( --Phil | Talk 18:04, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)
I just saw this article and thought "we should invite him to wikipedia!" - Omegatron 19:40, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)

I searched for Chochim and Chotym on Academic Search Premier, PCI Full Text, Historical Abstracts, Expanded Academic ASAP Plus, MasterFILE Premier, Encyclopedia Britannica Online, History Resource Center - World; all to no avail

JSTOR gave one result: 

Reviewed Work:"Die Reise des Kronprinzen Wladyslaw Wasa in die Lander Westeuro-pas in den Jahren 1624-1625"
-Bolko Schweinitz
Reviewer: Review author[s]: Sam Dunlap - University of California at Berkely
-Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4. (Winter, 1989), pp. 659-660.
-Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-0160%28198924%2920%3A4%3C659%3ADRDKWW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O

Project Muse: 

sang, Isebong
Remaking Footprints: Palauan Migrants in Hawai'i
The Contemporary Pacific - Volume 12, Number 2, Fall 2000, pp. 371-384 - Article

 ..omes a ultil a chochim  (when you walk watch where your foot leaves a prin..

--Alterego 18:39, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)

Probably related to Moldavian Magnate Wars, which ha a whole lot of battles between a polish alliance and the ottomans. this link refers two battles at that lcoation (with a whole lot of names) in 1621 and 1673. Searching for Khotyn OR Chocim OR Chotyn OR Hotin OR Khotin on Google&Wikipedia gives a whole lot of results with years matching above, especially if you search all wikis -- Chris 73 Talk 03:47, Jan 27, 2005 (UTC)
Made a stub Khotyn -- Chris 73 Talk 04:13, Jan 27, 2005 (UTC)
And "baby look at you now!"…three days from stub to nice little article :-) --Phil | Talk 09:11, Feb 1, 2005 (UTC)
That's good wiki. -- Solipsist 20:07, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Vote on proposed portal changes

Proposed portal - screenshot
Current portal - screenshot


Please note that the current portal has been recently updated to add the Dutch Wikipedia (which just reached 50,000), but that the page is protected so that contributors have not yet been able to work out an ideal solution to the layout of seven 50+ languages -- if the current one is kept a better solution will obviously be found.

Also, the proposed portal does not currently work in the Konqueror 3.1 browser, but work is ongoing to find the CSS bugs responsible, and any possible workarounds -- if you have experience in this area, please comment on the proposal's talk page.

Thank you for your time! Catherine\talk 11:13, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)

PlanetMath Exchange is now live

To expand and enhance our coverage of mathematical topics a subproject of the WikiProject in mathematics has been started to copy over and merge in content from PlanetMath, an online mathematics encyclopedia, which is also under the GFDL. The full details of this project can be found at PlanetMath Exchange (talk). Feel free to join up and help out! CryptoDerk 05:25, Feb 1, 2005 (UTC)

how to express that i already have permission to use website material?

I recently posted a couple of articles that were taken from a website that had alraady given me permission to post. How do i make that clear on the article page so that no one reverts it for fear of copyright abuse?

Post the details of the permission, and attribution to the original web site, on the articles talk pages.-gadfium 23:58, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)
You should always be overtly citing sources anyway. In this case, as part of the citation you can indicate how it is licensed. -- Jmabel | Talk 04:08, Feb 3, 2005 (UTC)

Live Preview

I have been working on an "extension" to the edit page which allows editors to generate page previews on the fly, directly into the browser and with no need for page reloads. I've written a draft with instructions on how to install it which you can find here. I've been testing it openly on the Spanish Wikipedia and now decided to make it available to all other wikis. So far it's still in development and it has some limitations, some of which I plan to overcome soon, yet I believe it's mature enough to be useful to some. Please give it a try and tell me what you think. Best regards, Pilaf 04:20, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

impressive. --Alterego 07:43, Feb 7, 2005 (UTC)
just wanted to pass on that i've been using this for about 5 days now and it my perception is that it's doubly-impressive :) only real downsides ive noticed are a) templates b) it shows your sig instead of mine. thanks for the tool --Alterego 05:03, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)

New report on repeated words; make quick fixes!

At User:R3m0t/Reports these can be found. Over 1000 cases were found, but about 500 are "that that" which is, er, often correct. It is now on Template:Active Wiki Fixup Projects. I hope people will help. r3m0t 07:37, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

VFD Hourly List of Discussions

Rejoice! The VFD Hourly List of Discussions has returned. Please see User:AllyUnion/VFD List -- AllyUnion (talk) 23:07, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

New "article" template

To go along with the "user" (formerly "vandal") template there is now an "article" template:

It can only work with articles in the main namespace (though others can be made for wikipedia: and template:Not sure if it'll be any use but there may be times when it comes in handy. violet/riga (t) 17:46, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Unfortunately it only works for articles without spaces, though you can use _ instead of them. violet/riga (t) 18:01, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I modified Template:article, it now works with spaces. Removed "talk", since it doesn't work generally outside the main namespace and it's probably not that often you'd want to jump straight to the talk page. Added "watch", for convenient vandalism-in-progress requests: "this page is getting hit by vandals a lot, can some folks add it to their watchlists?" -- Curps 20:16, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I replaced the | separator with · (middot)... otherwise the template won't work within a table (eg, Wikipedia:Most vandalized pages) -- Curps 20:32, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Wikiportal India created

A new Wikiportal, India has been created on 11 February 2005.

The portal intends to be the kaleidoscope of India content in wikipedia. Please visit, comment and contribute to this portal. Would greatly appreciate review, comments, suggestions and criticism.

Cheers Arunram 12:33, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Jimmy Wales Lecture @Stanford

Jimmy Wales gave a lecture at Stanford on cooperation and Wikipedia as part of a class called "Toward a Literacy of Cooperation". The BitTorrent of the lecture is available here: http://www.prodigem.com/torrents/download/lerhaupt/lerhaupt-wikipedia.torrent . (info here: http://www.prodigem.com/torrents/details.php?id=296) Salasks 13:34, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that out. I typed up a transcript and put it on Wikipedia Commons and i'm working out a way to get the video up. In the meantime, a smaller version of the video is available on my website --Alterego 21:35, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)
Basically what we say about a revert is that, a revert is slapping somebody in the face. Basically, sort of traditional in the old movies with the white gloves [...] it's not really hitting them, but it's an insult to revert something. And that's ok in some cases, because sometimes there really is a need to slap somebody in the face. Basically what a revert says is that, of all the edits that you made, I couldn't find a single thing worth keeping. There was nothing there, you may have written seventeen sentences, and I found every last word of it to be crap. That's pretty harsh. And you should only do it in extreme cases :) --Alterego 21:48, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)
If the person wrote "seventeen sentences", sure. But if they changed a date from the right one to the wrong one? -- Jmabel | Talk 20:32, Feb 13, 2005 (UTC)
"And that's ok in some cases, because sometimes there really is a need to slap somebody in the face." -- Cyrius|✎ 22:27, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)
And wouldn't it be nice if we really could, just every once in a while, go-go-gadget arm through the cat 5 and give them a nice good slap in the face. --Alterego 01:18, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC)

Million pool - last call

With the English Wikipedia rapidly approaching a half-million articles, the deadline is drawing near for entering the Million pool. Current estimates put the count over 500,000 on February 22 (UTC). Make your guess before then! -- Cyrius|✎ 04:42, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Academic Study - Call for Participants

Call for participants has ended. For the original text of my call, refer to (talk).

Thanks to everyone who responded to my call for participants. When results are available, they will be posted.

Thanks for your time! Andicat 23:59, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia: Quality Improvement Drive

This new feature is currently under discussion over the COTW talk page. It would cover articles that do not qualify under the "stub or inexistant" rule of COTW Circeus 13:09, Feb 18, 2005 (UTC)

Announcement of study

This is to announce that I am undertaking a study of the Wikipedia community (along with a few others it seems) as the major part of an M.Ed., the focus of which is interpersonal dynamics. I have already posted to the wikien-l and wikipedia-l lists, as well as on my user page, so I hope this should suffice in making people aware of my project. You can find out more about my project through my user page, as well as contacting me directly, details of which are also on my user page. Thank you. Cormaggio 14:06, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

NPR coverage

In the U.S. this morning, National Public Radio had a piece on Wikipedia. Not entirely positive or negative, but probably good visibility: "Wikipedia's Growth Comes with Concerns". -- Jmabel | Talk 19:39, Feb 20, 2005 (UTC)

I found it interesting that the Brittanica representative said that Wp was "too much information" apparently they didn't think an old version of our Jehovah's Witnesses (BUSTED!) article was too much information! Their version was anemic and the version they took from Wp was not nearly as comprehensive or well worded as the current version! Double win for Wp! george 00:51, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

news about the server crash of Feb 21st?

I'm looking around if any of the community portals or news areas or signposts has any news about the server crash that happened yesterday, including an estimate of when we'll be back to normal. But I can find no mention of it. Is there a page somewhere? Thanks Lethe | Talk 03:03, Feb 23, 2005 (UTC)

We've been too busy working on it to write about it. Here's a copy of the downtime message that was shown when we were offline, and this thread on the mailing list has some additional details. See also some notes on the wikitech livejournal and let's not forget the slashdot article about it. ;) --Brion 03:10, Feb 23, 2005 (UTC)
I've made a draft report about the crash at Wikipedia:2005 server crash, so all of us who are not busy fixing things can have fun writing about what has happened. cesarb 03:24, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

To All My Brothers and Sisters Regarding the "Anuzutica"

It has come to my attention that a wikipedia article written by our black brother has been nominated for deletion. It has come to my attention that the Anuzutica of Ethiopian culture is no welcome on this Wiki. It has come to my attention that racism is here in our very midst. This is nothing new. Two thousand years ago, Jesus was crucified because he was a black man. If Jesus went to the cross as a black man, how much more should we stand against this present darkness that engulfs Wikipedia? Brothers and sisters, I am here to implore you not to bow your heads before the idol of hatred. The Anuzutica is a legitimate part of our heritage, and we can not afford to let the man come in like a thief in the night and rip our culture away from us. Yes, the Anuzutica is just one article. But one is as good as all. You see, Moses didn't wait to see two or three or four black men killed by Pharaoh. He saw one killed and that was enough. It was time for action. Moses, my friends, knew what it was like to be a black man living under the fist of a white tyrant, and he gave us his example - seeing one hurt is as good as seeing all hurt. So when we see the Anuzutica derided as a "joke" and cast into outer darkness with much weeping and ganshing of teeth, we must stand up and say "not this time, not next time, not ever." We must keep firm in the liberties our fathers won for us and keep expanding outwards, till the Black Lion lays down with the White Lamb and the whole Earth is united in peace. So, no, my brothers and sisters, I will not watch the Anuzutica be deleted, for it is not just the article that will be deleted by the hand of the man, but our dignity. Let me say it again, folks; when the Anuzutica is deleted, our dignity is deleted. And no one has the right to press "backspace" on civil rights.

Sincerely, Anonymous Black Contributor

This is a troll and "Anuzutica" is a hoax. This person has also repeatedly vandalized Help:Contents and Wikipedia:Community Portal.

TheFreeDictionary.com

Does anybody know what's up with the site http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com? They honestly quote Wikipedia on each of their pages. But what's the use of that site? It looks like

TheFreeDictionary = Wikipedia - editing + advertizement

Who would want that?
Sebastian 19:24, 2005 Feb 25 (UTC)

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