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This page is for suggesting news to be covered in the next Signpost. We are a newspaper that covers subjects of general interest for our audience of Wikipedia editors. If you'd like guidence on editing for new editors, please inquire at WP:Teahouse. More general questions may be addressed to WP:Help.

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WMF video

@Smallbones: The WMF just released this video recapping the year of 2019 on Wikipedia, probably worth a mention somewhere. I do question the choice of upbeat classical music to score going over the Notre Dame fire... -Indy beetle (talk) 07:10, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Play media

Wikipedia - Edit 2019, Victor Grigas, Wikimedia Foundation

Citzendium to shut down?

There is an open proposal to close Citizendium to editing. Of the site's four active editors, two agree with the proposal. – Teratix ₵ 09:33, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

STiki end of life

Wikipedia talk:STiki#STiki, sadly, has likely reached EoL. Mark Schierbecker (talk) 23:13, 20 January 2020 (UTC)

Thanks, @Mark Schierbecker: I'm not that familiar with STiki, but it looks like something we could stik (oops!) a line in at News and notes, unless you have a better suggested place? Smallbones_(smalltalk) 17:13, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Used to use it on and off. New browser-based vandal patrol tools look promising. Mark Schierbecker (talk) 07:34, 22 January 2020 (UTC)

Suggestion by USERNAME (2020-01-23)

The Signpost should write about... kosboot (talk) 19:36, 23 January 2020 (UTC) What was the 6,000,000th article? - kosboot (talk) 19:36, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

Suggestion by Plankhouse0 (2020-01-23)

Six Million Articles! Wikipedia has officially reached the six-million mark. This is quite the milestone and should be discussed, as well as a reveal about what the six millionth article is!

Wikipedia has reached the six-million-article milestone, six million articles that anyone can edit. And the six-millionth article is...

Suggestion by Plankhouse0 (talk) 21:17, 23 January 2020 (UTC)

News & Notes

I don't know whether you are commenting upon it but I noticed we have had an unusually high number of successful RfAs in the past two months while at the same time as we have 3 arbitration cases going on regarding admin conduct. Make of that what you will, but the coincidence seems striking to me. I guess we are going through a process of the community realizing we need more active admins but wanting more influence over how they, at least longterm admins, conduct themselves. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:55, 25 January 2020 (UTC)

Extreme overcitation: Suggestion by Curb Safe Charmer (2020-02-05)

Possibly a record for overcitation? Draft:Computer_Forensic_Laboratory_(Hong_Kong_Customs_and_Excise_Department) Curb Safe Charmer (talk) 22:19, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

Suggestion by MeegsC (2020-02-09)

The Signpost should write about... WP:MEDICINE has received some nice coverage in the UK version of WIRED about our various coronavirus articles. This might make a good addition to the next newsletter's "In the Media" section MeegsC (talk) 09:20, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

It will be "in the mediea" Smallbones_(smalltalk) 15:53, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

In the news: Mapping Wikipedia

• Mandiberg, Michael (2020-02-23). "Mapping Wikipedia: An unprecedented data set shows where the encyclopedia's editors are, where they aren't, and why". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2020-02-24.

This article includes a county-level map showing the percentage of households in the United States who edit Wikipedia while not logged in, as well as other county-level data including political, religious, and income information and population density and broadband availability. It also has an interactive "by year" timeline of IP edits per county.

It also includes worldwide information about how many households edit from various countries without being logged in. It's no surprise that English-speaking countries dominate, but some countries with large populations such as China and Russia also show up in the middle tier. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs) 22:08, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

Noting that the data is over on Github so that we could make our own graphics/maps/etc. (Technically our data but grouped appropriately for easy graphs). No reason some of this cant' be put to our mainspace articles on WP, at least, for example, country distribution. --Masem (t) 22:12, 24 February 2020 (UTC)

• Wow! Yes we need this for The Signpost Can anybody make one (any) map out of this? For the short term this will be the lede story in "In the media" if I (or anybody else) has the time to write up a couple of paragraphs. A few thoughts:
• Mandiberg says they are a Wikipedia editor - I couldn't quickly find them (their pronoun). Could somebody let them know I'd like to discuss this with them. Try my user talk or Smallbones. I've found them now.
• The first thing the story reminded me of is this map of NRHP sites:

Completion % of NRHP sites photographed ((via Wikiproject:NRHP). "Same map" different colors. Different data

• The second thing (I'm an egotist) was that the international data reflect Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2019-11-29/Special report. While the 2 datasets are nominally about the same thing - international editors, the inclusion criteria are almost exactly opposite, IP editors vs. very active editors. Without making a detailed comparison - it looks like the same results either way.
• Short term goal, get this into "In the media". 1 month goal, get a good statistical/graphical write-up from whoever has the skills and wants to do it. @Masem, Davidwr, and Bri:

Smallbones_(smalltalk) 18:37, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

I'm unable to comprehend the Github data, but I went ahead and created a map for the U.S. state of North Carolina (where I live) based off of the US map Mandiberg created with his data:

Map of North Carolina showing Wikipedia IP editing activity 2018

I'm also noticing a some trend which Mandiberg does not explicitly observe. Namely, that there are several liberal/Democratic leaning places in the south where there is a a dearth of Wikipedia activity, not just conservative/Republican places (One of the hypotheses Mandiberg considers is that low-editing happens in conservative areas and may be due to conservative distaste for Wikipedia's historical left-lean and the existence of Conservapedia). These Democratic areas, such as north-eastern North Carolina are mostly rural and have significant black/African American populations. Historically, black Americans since the 1960s have voted mostly for liberal/Democratic candidates. The lack of editing in the "Black Belt" thus can be used to demonstrate the hypothesis that the political leaning has less to with editing activity than low population density (one of Mandiberg's observations is that low activity correlates with low density, but he seems mostly concerned with the overwhelmingly-white Western US). This North Carolina map is also of some more interest to me because while the cluster of the worst counties for editing in the northeast are very rural and have significant black populations, they have also been economically weak for years and are shrinking. For the sake of considering Wikipedia:Systemic bias, it may be important to consider that we might have problems on African-American figures or the places they live due to this low editing activity. -Indy beetle (talk) 23:57, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

Hi @Indy beetle:, Michael Mandiberg here. This is precisely what I posited in the article: "The pattern of editing activity in Appalachia and the South appears to match population density, income, education, and broadband access. [...] the persistent and well-documented poverty of the rural South seems the more likely cause. This area of low editing, from East Texas to Virginia, includes the highest concentration of African Americans in the country, raising the likelihood that income, education, and internet access intersect with racial inequity as factors that prevent participation." I also noted that "The absence of participation from majority Native American counties, and rural, poor, black counties in the South, is troubling. [...] Wikipedia community’s forms of outreach are ill-equipped to reach these rural regions." I would also note that I specifically say that these patterns in the data do not match up so well with political beliefs/voting patterns, rather I note that outside of the South, religious adherence appears to match the pattern better. --Theredproject (talk) 00:27, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

My mistake, I must have missed your comments about the impact on African-American communities. -Indy beetle (talk) 02:12, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

Smithsonian putting 2.8 million images/files in CC0

Coverage, SI Open Access site. I'm not seeing any gotchas for use at en.wiki/Commons, but this will be extremely useful. --Masem (t) 22:21, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

Alto sax owned and used by Charlie Parker at the Smithsonian Institution

Wow #2

Smallbones_(smalltalk) 02:51, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

Wikimedia -> Wikipedia?

I'm surprised that I can't find any mention of that debate in the current version of the Signpost. The RfC was listed for a month at WP:CENT. Links (and my views, FWIW) are at User_talk:Whatamidoing_(WMF)#Holy ..., a conversation from a couple of weeks ago. I know that people who are smarter than me (everyone, basically, when it comes to understanding WP–WMF relations) believe that it's generally a good idea to let things go wrong first and then deal with it; the problem, in this case, is that unusually large sums of money (according to various comments) are going into a world-wide effort to convince a lot of people that they should stand up for their right to have whatever it is they're doing called "Wikipedia", whether it has anything to do with encyclopedias or not. Some people claim that we'll be fine, because the final decision will be up to the Board, and they'll make the right call ... but by the time they vote on it, so much money will have been spent in an effort to tip the scales that they may not, realistically, have a say in the matter. That's why the "let things go wrong first" strategy might be dangerous, for this issue, given the feelings expressed in the RfC (roughly 10-1 against, with a lot of anger and astonishment ... and there's no indication that the WMF is taking the RfC seriously). FWIW ... I don't actually have a position on the issue (except for my one-liner in the RfC), rebranding issues go way over my head ... my concern is the likely loss of editors, given what was said at the RfC. Also FWIW ... the Board issued a statement yesterday here. I'd characterize it as "unhelpful", but you be the judge. - Dank (push to talk) 17:43, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

Okay, it's been added to the upcoming Discussion Report ... thanks. A little sparse, but enough to spark some talk page comments I think. - Dank (push to talk) 17:30, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Pinging User:Whatamidoing (WMF): since it's in the Signpost, there's probably going to be discussion. You know my thoughts, which don't (I think) line up with yours, but it would be helpful to get a WMF point of view into the discussion. I don't think it's realistic to shoot for the best possible outcome (I don't even know what that would be) ... but I also don't think it's unrealistic to try to avoid the worst outcomes. My next step is to wait and see how Signpost readers react. - Dank (push to talk) 23:26, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

Suggestion by User:Sm8900 (2020-03-05); Re community event notices compilation

The Signpost should write about...

I have created a section at the Wikipedia:Community bulletin board which compiles a whole variety of events, edit-a-thons, contests, etc etc, taking place around Wikipedia, mostly at WikiProjects, but also elsewhere as well.

• LINK: you can view this at: Wikipedia:Community bulletin board#Wikiproject group activities and efforts.

I was wondering if we could provide the same information, here at the Signpost page? If so, let me know where, and I will copy and paste this compilation of items. I am proposing this at the suggestion of Andrybak. I appreciate any help, guidance, or input. Please ping me if you reply. thanks! Sm8900 (talk) 14:33, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

WMF-funded events cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic

"All offline (in-person) public events funded by Wikimedia Foundation grants must be cancelled or postponed until further notice" – m:Community Resources/COVID-19 Notice - Evad37 [talk] 03:49, 13 March 2020 (UTC)