Comments for The Wikipedian

Comment on The Wikipedian Interviews: Esemono by asdf

asdf — Sat, 04 May 2013 03:48:05 +0000

wow great interview

Comment on The Wikimedia Foundation is Losing its Chief. What Happens Next? by Ellie Kesselman

Ellie Kesselman — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 10:45:26 +0000

William, it is problematic to express. Yes, Y.A. is correct. If one can program in Fortran, JavaScript, Haskell or Visual Basic, there will be objections to referring to Wikipedia’s markup as programming.

On the other hand, I don’t know how you can effectively convey what you are trying to express in a manner that will be meaningful to all readers. “Coding” isn’t great either. I would avoid verbs to describe what it is that we do when we edit Wikipedia. My only suggestion is that you try to write around it, referring to it as the “editing interface”. I like the editing interface, as I have learned how to use it, and would be sad if it were to change now!

What are the criteria for Sue Gardner’s replacement? I want to apply! Truly, if I were considered to be qualified, that is. I am FeralOink.

P.S. I found your comment guidelines to be endearing, specifically this: “Commenting is a privilege, not a right.” THAT is very well-stated!

Comment on The Wikimedia Foundation is Losing its Chief. What Happens Next? by William Beutler

William Beutler — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:38:45 +0000

I follow your points, Y.A., although in relative terms that would be familiar to non-programmers, it’s more like HTML and programming than, say, writing in regular prose. I’m curious, how would you describe it instead? And would “coding” be more appropriate than “programming”?

Comment on The Wikimedia Foundation is Losing its Chief. What Happens Next? by Y.A.

Y.A. — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:47:11 +0000

Actually, both HTML and MediaWiki ‘Wikitext’ (there is no official name for it) are markup languages, not programming languages. Additionally, I would never compare MediaWiki’s markup language to HTML, as not only is it completely dissimilar to XML and SGML (precursor to XML) and not even having tags for most canonical page markup ( and the like are exceptions).

Also, it is grossly incorrect to call it anything near ‘programming’ – as they’re markup languages, not programming languages. They have no support for conditions and are certainly far from Turing-complete.

Still, for non-programmers (seemingly much like the editor), it is hard to get into and I welcome something like the Visual Editor.

Comment on The Top 10 Wikipedia Stories of 2012 (Part 2) by William Beutler

William Beutler — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:09:17 +0000

Didn’t even realize until just now that this had posted without a comment. Anyway, readers should note that this was worked out over email, and the post has been corrected (as noted).

Comment on Remembering Aaron Swartz by Elitre

Elitre — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:11:18 +0000

“Civil liberties in the United States”. The irony.

Comment on The Top 10 Wikipedia Stories of 2012 (Part 2) by Roger Bamkin

Roger Bamkin — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 19:32:16 +0000

Roger Bamkin resigned as chair of Wikimedia UK in April 2012 because he was becoming a consultant to Wikimedia UK projects. He then stood for re-election as a director making his consultancy very clear and was elected. The citation is on his wikipedia page. Is this a review of the year? The Wikipedia claims to tell the world about what Wikipedia is doing? Here it is telling Wikipedia about how it is misreported. Some primary sources are required here.

Comment on The Top 10 Wikipedia Stories of 2012 (Part 1) by Andreas

Andreas — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 02:57:48 +0000

Story 10 actually had coverage in The Telegraph and other media outlets: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/9447161/Wikipedia-charity-chairman-resigns-after-pornography-row.html http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/go/management/article/1144254/wikimedia-uk-chair-quits-banned-editing-wikipedia/ http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/08/01/50-shades-wikipedia-uk-head-banned-after-bondage-porn-ties/ and others.

Comment on What I Did This Summer by William Beutler

William Beutler — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 21:44:01 +0000

Thanks, I may very well take you up on it! There is a lot of academic and otherwise published work on the novel, and therefore a lot of research to be done. But it’s something I’d really like to do, and something I’d need help with. I’ll let you know as I get on toward it.

Comment on What I Did This Summer by Sterling Ericsson

Sterling Ericsson — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 08:31:14 +0000

If you would like any help with working on the article, feel free to let me know.

Comment on My Wikitinerary: Day 3 at Wikimania DC by William Beutler

William Beutler — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:50:50 +0000

I definitely will, though it may take me until about midweek. Thanks for inquiring!

Comment on My Wikitinerary: Day 3 at Wikimania DC by Sterling Ericsson

Sterling Ericsson — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 02:12:48 +0000

Will there be another article discussing overall how the panels went? I’d be interested in hearing about it.

Comment on Two Wikipedia Co-Founders, Two Very Different Causes by Sterling Ericsson

Sterling Ericsson — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:08:19 +0000

@Yannis: “Celebrity” has currently come to be synonymous with Celebrity status as one definition. Thus, the article is accurate. See the following Google search as an example of the term’s use:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&site=&source=hp&q=use+his+celebrity&oq=use+his+celebrity&gs_l=hp.3…529.5129.0.5240.23.18.2.0.0.0.230.1795.9j7j1.17.0…0.0.R5F55322Iyw

Comment on Two Wikipedia Co-Founders, Two Very Different Causes by Yannis A

Yannis A — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:25:52 +0000

“[...] Wales is seeking to use only his celebrity (which is considerable, in Internet terms) [...]”

Did you mean “celebrity status”?

Comment on The Agony and Ecstasy of Wikidata by William Beutler

William Beutler — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:08:56 +0000

You’re right, thanks for catching that, Michael. Now fixed in the article.

Comment on The Agony and Ecstasy of Wikidata by Michael

Michael — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:04:51 +0000

Excellently summarizing opinions, thank you! Just to avoid misunderstandings, Wikidata is developed by Wikimedia Deutschland, not by the WMF. The project will be handed over and maintained by the Foundation in the future, though.

Comment on Public Lives: Jim Hawkins and Wikipedia’s Privacy Dilemma by Sterling Ericsson

Sterling Ericsson — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:11:55 +0000

Hey, you quoted me.

But, yeah, you summarized it pretty well. If he would just explain why he doesn’t want the information in the article, i’m sure he would have a much stronger case for its removal, if not outright deletion of the article (if it was a good reason).

Though, his refusal to answer why seems to imply that his only reason is that he doesn’t like Wikipedia and nothing more than that.

Comment on Public Lives: Jim Hawkins and Wikipedia’s Privacy Dilemma by William Beutler

William Beutler — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 03:25:04 +0000

I agree, it’s a strange argument. Earlier today, I invited Hawkins via Twitter to write something up to post here. He said he’ll think about it.

Comment on Public Lives: Jim Hawkins and Wikipedia’s Privacy Dilemma by Dave Thurlston

Dave Thurlston — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:59:08 +0000

How can publishing what county he’s in be an invasion of privacy when the radio station he broadcasts on everyday is named after the county? I don’t understand his beef.

Comment on Verifiability and Truth: What John Siracusa Doesn’t Get About Wikipedia by Wikipedia, Verifiability, and Truth « The Text Pistols

Wikipedia, Verifiability, and Truth « The Text Pistols — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:50:59 +0000

[...] not for truth but verifiability. This is explained in a post on the blog The Wikipedian entitled Verifiability and Truth: What John Siracusa Doesn’t Get About Wikipedia. In his post, William Beutler cites the the relevant part from Wikipedia’s [...]