Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2017-02-06/In the media

In the media

Presidential politics, periodic table, and our periodic roundup of updates

US presidential inauguration and politics: The struggle gets real

Chaim Gartenberg of The Verge watched US Inaugural proceedings live in real-time edit-wars and observed that Wikipedia editors can't decide if Trump is the president yet. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales lost his mind on Twitter over "alternative facts", and then engaged with replies. Kastalia Medrano with Inverse asks How Will Wikipedia Navigate the Trump Era? and while discussing "fake news" and editorial bias, notes that, "...Wikipedia editors can't share a bias precisely because of the way the site is structured...". Meanwhile, writer Adrianne Jeffries for The Outline says that The whitehouse.gov reset broke Wikipedia links en masse, and interviews Signpost editor-in-chief Pete Forsyth for his opinion. (January 20-February 2) T

New iteration of periodic table: This time, with science

This version of the periodic table of elements, on Wikipedia since 2014, allegedly contains a number of errors.

Astronomer Jennifer A. Johnson created a version of the periodic table of elements, mapped to the composition of the human body. The table improves upon a similar one added to Wikipedia in 2014, and present in nine language editions of the site, and many different articles on English Wikipedia. Johnson elaborated on the errors in the Wikipedia version in her own blog post.

The editor who created the now questionable graphic, Cmglee was contacted and replied about the matter. After looking over the new image, Cmglee requested that Jennifer A. Johnson's corrected version be used. Johnson was also asked to release her table for public use, which she now has.

Cmglee's version was well documented and sourced at the time it was uploaded in 2014, incorporating some feedback from the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk. Cmglee, who used data from Northern Arizona University Meteorite Laboratory and elsewhere, also pointed out that the "incorrect" version was selected as the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day in January of 2016, and noted the "subsequent criticism of its veracity" (in two pages of discussion there about the table). (January 9, January 23) T

In brief

Mesentery wrapped-up in an enigma: In We Got The Mesentery News Wrong, Discover magazine tries to get a ruling on how many body organs humans have. They discover that the answer changes depending on who you ask, and that the Wikipedia Mesentery article is consistently contradictory. (January 6)
From Bookworms to Earworms: The Wikipedian editor William Beutler in an article postscript says that he became inflicted with Earworms while writing #1Lib1Ref and Adventures in Practical Encyclopedia-Building.
Indonesian Army does an "About, (saving) Face" : News.com.au and others reported on insulting Wikipedia articles being used in military training materials as the apparent cause of a breakdown in international relations in Offensive training materials behind Indonesia’s decision to suspend military co-operation with Australia. The Indonesian military was said to be particularly offended that the text had been "laminated" by the Australians. (January 5)
Scene on TV: A character on the FXX comedy Man Seeking Woman episode "Popcorn" remarked that due to being interrupted while viewing Saving Mr. Banks, he would never watch the last 14 minutes of the film, and instead would probably be, "Wikipedia-ing the synopsis like an animal." (January 25) Incidentally, changes to the television plot Manual of Style which are being blamed for loss of plot content are being contested and discussed[1].
Wikipedia's predictive power: An article on Vocativ cited Wikipedia editing activity in its accurate prediction that U.S. president Donald Trump would select Neil Gorsuch for the U.S. Supreme Court. Wikipedia Test Works: Gorsuch Is Supreme Court Nominee: How we knew who Trump would announce for his first Supreme Court nominee (January 31)
Accuracy and Neutrality vs "Fake News": Keeping Truth Alive In A World Of Anonymous Wikipedia Edits Huffington Post (February 2)
Real talk about fake news: Echoing a theme explored in an interview with former WMF trustee James Heilman in December 2016, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales argued in the Guardian that Wikipedia plays an important role in assessing the validity of news reports. Wales is a member of the Guardian Media Group's board. (February 3)

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 contact the editor.

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6 February 2017 (all comments)

In the media

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Some of us discussed this before publication at WT:COI ... Meghan Sali's Huffington Post piece incorrectly states that paid editing is not allowed on Wikipedia. Paid editing is in fact allowed either by non-privileged editors or by administrators. - Brianhe (talk) 21:01, 7 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed -- thanks for calling that out, Brianhe. It would help a lot if those speaking from a position of authority would be more diligent about making the relevant distinctions to reporters and bloggers. -Pete Forsyth (talk) 07:33, 8 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That MOS:TV discussion is precisely the kind of reason I tend to avoid such conversations — it's impenetrable to users who don't spend much of their time working on guidelines and metacontent, and very quickly turns into a confrontational, defensive argument. I don't have a lot of time to spend working on Wikipedia; I have little desire to spend it arguing with other editors when I could be researching and writing article content. I was going to go and agree with the recession of the MOS change, but discussions of that kind always being quite so unwelcoming and confrontational means I'd rather not participate. — OwenBlacker (Talk) 07:23, 8 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I remember suggesting a periodic table like that a couple of years ago. I'm glad to see that we actually do indeed have one and that it's now up-to-date. Abyssal (talk) 18:00, 24 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]
- Found the original discussion: [2]. Abyssal (talk) 18:07, 24 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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