Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-09/SPV

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Volume 2, Issue 2 9 January 2006 About the Signpost

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Fundraising drive concludes after reaching $380,000 Special Series: Arbitration Committee elections
ArbCom elections started Google homage sparks work on Braille biography
Steward elections continue News and notes: 900,000 articles, milestones
Wikipedia in the news| Features and admins
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News The Report On Lengthy Litigation

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SPV

Fundraising drive concludes after reaching $380,0

The Wikimedia Foundation's quarterly fundraiser concluded last week, having brought in more than $380,000 USD. This exceeded the amount raised in the previous quarter by more than $140,000, although it fell short of initial hopes for the fundraising drive, partly due to a change in which some donations were no longer included in the total.

The daily report for 5 January, the final day of the drive, indicated that a grand total of $382,619.60 came in through various methods (not a final figure). This compares with the $243,930 raised in the most recent fundraiser, from 19 August to 8 September last year (see archived story). In addition, the previous fundraiser counted approximately $35,000 donated to the German Wikipedia chapter, but similar donations in the current drive were not counted. Funds donated to local Wikimedia chapters can benefit from tax-deductibility in their own country, but are often subject to legal restrictions that prevent them being transferred directly to the Foundation, although they are still used to support the Foundation's mission.

Unlike previous fundraising drives, this one did not have a set goal, although Chief Financial Officer Daniel Mayer had expressed hopes that it might raise $500,000 or more. This amount would have been able to cover the Foundation's first-quarter expenses more easily, although predicting these remains challenging because of the continually growing traffic. Mayer was still positive about the result, noting that it "was the most successful fundraiser in the Wikimedia Foundation's history" and "it raised more money than all three previous fundraisers combined when Wikimedia Deutschland donations are excluded."

The pace of donations initially was similar to or slightly above the previous fundraiser, but slowed down as Christmas arrived. Besides the holiday distractions, there was some thought that the absence of a goal inhibited donations; however, using a goal created different issues last time, because there was some uncertainty as to whether the fundraiser ended when the goal was reached. For this latest effort, the fundraiser was simply set to last a full three weeks, with no provision to end early.

PayPal donations, which generate the bulk of the money raised, could be followed nearly in real-time thanks to a tracking system set up by Chief Technical Officer Brion Vibber. This allowed the progress bar used for most of the fundraiser to be updated mostly automatically, instead of waiting for manual updates.

To help spur donations, and also in connection with the upcoming fifth anniversary of the start of Wikipedia, founder Jimmy Wales posted a personal appeal for donations on 1 January. This seemed to spark people's generosity, and a single-day record of $38,443.05 for PayPal donations was set on 2 January. Wales's message, which remains linked through the sitewide notice, has also sustained an above-normal level of donations continuing after the official end of the fundraising drive.

In order to meet the challenges of operating such a high-traffic website (recently peaking as high as the top 20 according to Alexa's daily traffic measure), the Wikimedia Foundation continues to explore grants and other possible means of adding financial support. Aesthetic changes to call more attention to the donations link on a permanent basis are also being considered. Mayer noted that over 12,000 people contributed (averaging around $25 each), the bulk of the money comes from small individual donations, and because the only fundraising costs are PayPal and bank fees more than 95% of donations go directly to the Foundation's charitable objectives.


SPV

ArbCom candidates (part two)

Related articles
SPV

A chat with the elected Arbitrators
6 February 2006

Jimbo Wales appoints 11 arbitrators, increases committee size
23 January 2006

Arbitration Committee elections continue; ArbCom member resigns
16 January 2006

ArbCom candidates (part two)
9 January 2006

ArbCom candidates
2 January 2006

Straw poll closes
19 December 2005

Jimbo starts new poll regarding election
5 December 2005

Last chance to run for ArbCom
28 November 2005

ArbCom voting process
14 November 2005

ArbCom duties and requirements
7 November 2005

A closer look: the calls for reform of the ArbCom
31 October 2005

A look back: the 2004 ArbCom elections
24 October 2005

Current ArbCom members
17 October 2005

Criticism of the ArbCom
10 October 2005

About the Arbitration process
3 October 2005

The history of the Arbitration Committee
26 September 2005

Introduction to a special series: A look at the upcoming Arbitration Committee elections
19 September 2005


More articles


SPV

ArbCom elections started

Related articles
SPV

A chat with the elected Arbitrators
6 February 2006

Jimbo Wales appoints 11 arbitrators, increases committee size
23 January 2006

Arbitration Committee elections continue; ArbCom member resigns
16 January 2006

ArbCom candidates (part two)
9 January 2006

ArbCom candidates
2 January 2006

Straw poll closes
19 December 2005

Jimbo starts new poll regarding election
5 December 2005

Last chance to run for ArbCom
28 November 2005

ArbCom voting process
14 November 2005

ArbCom duties and requirements
7 November 2005

A closer look: the calls for reform of the ArbCom
31 October 2005

A look back: the 2004 ArbCom elections
24 October 2005

Current ArbCom members
17 October 2005

Criticism of the ArbCom
10 October 2005

About the Arbitration process
3 October 2005

The history of the Arbitration Committee
26 September 2005

Introduction to a special series: A look at the upcoming Arbitration Committee elections
19 September 2005


More articles


SPV

Google homage sparks work on Braille biography

One of Google's whimsical logos helped create a surge of attention on Wikipedia this past week, as the birthday of Louis Braille generated nearly 600 edits to that article in 24 hours.

Braille's birthday came on Wednesday, 4 January, and this year marked the 197th anniversary of his birth. As it has done on many other occasions, Google celebrated this event with a custom logo on its home page. The special logo (the word Google written in Braille) linked to the search result for louis braille birthdate, which yielded the Wikipedia article as the first hit (Wikipedia is also one of Google's top ten search results for "Louis Braille").

Before the influx of traffic, the article consisted of only five paragraphs, most of them rather short and only one of which actually dealt with the Braille system. Shortly after midnight in the Pacific Standard Time Zone, where Google's headquarters are located, the effect of the logo change manifested itself. Unfortunately, the first edit was vandalism, changing the year of Braille's birth so that it came after his death. This was reverted one minute later.

The Louis Braille article received a total of 585 edits on 4 January (according to Pacific Standard Time), after having 75 edits in its previous 3-1/2 years of existence. By way of comparison, the most actively edited featured articles of the day typically get a couple hundred edits while they are on the Main Page. Vandalism remained a problem, with those monitoring the page going back and forth on whether to protect it from editing. Ultimately, the new semi-protection feature was applied to the article for most of the day. The separate Braille article about the system, which was already more developed, also saw an increase in editing and vandalism.


SPV

Steward elections continue

This week, the steward elections continued. The vote will run until 10 January. Also, two candidates signed up this week, bringing the total number of candidates up to 16. Both Ascánder and Linuxbeak joined the race on Friday.

As of press time, ten of the sixteen candidates would be qualified to be stewards. The board makes the final decision, choosing up to 10 stewards from the list of potential candidates. The results, as of press time:

Username Total votes For Neutral Against Support percent
1 Jean-Christophe Chazalette 77 73 1 3 94,80%
2 Ausir 68 67 1 0 98,52%
3 Romihaitza 44 41 2 1 93,18%
4 Arno Lagrange 32 8 8 16 25%
5 Walter 80 79 1 0 98,75%
6 Traroth 24 8 8 8 33,33%
7 Klemen Kocjancic 13 1 4 8 7,69%
8 Paginazero 63 53 4 6 84,12%
9 Jredmond 19 5 3 11 26,31%
(10) brian0918 24 12 6 6 withdrawn
11 Raul654 63 53 1 9 84,12%
12 Jon Harald Søby 56 54 2 0 96,42%
13 Suisui 74 73 1 0 98,64%
14 Rdsmith4 46 42 3 1 91,30%
15 Ascánder 39 38 1 0 97,43%
16 Linuxbeak 6 0 0 6 0%


SPV

News and notes

English Wikipedia reaches 900,000 articles

The English Wikipedia reached 900,000 articles on 4 January. A user monitoring new pages created during this time reports that Trackdown likely was the milestone article.

Briefly


SPV

In the news

New York Times article

The New York Times published an article on 3 January by George Johnson entitled "The Nitpicking of the Masses vs. the Authority of the Experts", comparing Britannica and Wikipedia. It mentions the Nature study and discusses the fluctuations on the Dmitri Mendeleev page at length. The article was syndicated in The Australian Financial Review (the premier business daily in Australia) on 5 January entitled "Rule Britannica, but online rival eyes throne". In the article, the George Johnson noted that the birthdate for Hwang Woo-Suk was different between Wikipedia and Britannica, which was due to the fact that Wikipedia used the lunisolar Korean calendar which gave the date as 15 December, 1952 while the Britannica article used the Gregorian calendar, which uses the date 29 January, 1953. In response to the NYT article a footnote was added to the article. After being informed of this development through an email sent by Ta bu shi da yu, Mr Johnson responded that this was "interesting information indeed. It is fascinating the stories that unfold when one tries to chase down facts" and that his "admiration for the project continues to grow".

Newsweek article

Newsweek featured Wikipedia in an article from its international edition, "The People's Encyclopedia". Unusually for an English-language story, but appropriately for an international audience, it prominently features Wikipedia editions other than English, starting with a profile of Italian editor Frieda Brioschi. The article also reviews some of the recent controversies on the English Wikipedia, although it misidentifies John Seigenthaler as a former aide to John F. Kennedy rather than Robert Kennedy (it also incorrectly credits Wikipedia with a total of 2.6 billion articles). It goes on to cite Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopædia Britannica, saying that Wikipedia is regularly discussed at editorial meetings.

Wikipedia and advertising

The article "Wikipedia chief considers taking ads" in the The Times (based on a more complete interview at "Identity question for world's encyclopaedia") prompted a flurry of blog examination, but Jimmy Wales rejected the paper's conclusion, saying he had been badly misquoted. He discussed the matter on his Wikipedia talk page, and ClickZ published his clarifications on 3 January, in "No Ads in Wikipedia Says Wales".

The future

Jon Udell writes about "Wikipedia, competition, and the future" in a 4 January article at InfoWorld, touching on Seigenthaler, Digital Universe, and more.

In The Inquirer, Wendy M. Grossman also writes about turning points and changes of perspective about Wikipedia, in "A tempest in a Wikipedia", published on 6 January.

More Nature follow-ups


SPV

Features and admins

Administrators

Thirteen users were granted admin status this week: Nixdorf (nom), TimPope (nom), Nightstallion (nom), Tom harrison (nom), FrancisTyers (nom), Idont havaname (nom), Tznkai (nom), Babajobu (nom), Anonymous editor (nom), Jonathunder (nom), Wiki alf (nom), pgk (nom) and Sarge Baldy (nom).

Featured content

One portal reached featured status this week: Trains.

No articles were featured last week. One article lost its featured status: Peer review.

The following featured articles were displayed last week on the main page as Today's featured article: Xanadu Houses, Delrina, Marilyn Manson, Voting system, De Lorean DMC-12, W. Mark Felt and Omnipotence paradox.

No lists reached featured list status last week.

Four pictures reached featured picture status last week:


SPV

Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Plus signs now allowed in titles

Thanks to a recent change, plus signs are now allowed in titles. The most prominent article that was affected by this bug was C++, which had previously been located at C plus plus.

Last week in servers

Server-related events, problems, and changes included:

  • 3 January - "amane" rebooted at colocation center, fixed.
  • 7 January - In response to a registration flood, a user throttle was added to the English Wikipedia. brion noted that CAPTCHAs or other confirmation devices may be used in the future.
  • Various SSL certificates added and replaced.


SPV

The Report On Lengthy Litigation

The Arbitration Committee did not close any cases this week.

Other cases

No cases were accepted this week.

Other cases involving VeryVerily (user page), editors on WebEx and Min Zhu, editors on Rajput, freestylefrappe (user page), Firebug (user page), Robert I (user page), Sortan (user page) and EffK (user page) are in the Evidence phase.

Cases involving Benjamin Gatti (user page), Gibraltarian (user page), Carl Hewitt (user page), Reddi (user page), Deeceevoice (user page), numerous editors on Neuro-linguistic programming, Johnski (user page), a series of editors on Winter Soldier, Copperchair (user page), and AndriyK (user page) are in the Voting phase.

Motions to close are on the table in cases involving Xed (user page) and voters on webcomics AFDs.