Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Archives/2013-08-21

From the editor

Call for contributors

Contributing to the Signpost can be one of the most rewarding things an editor can do, and the need for an independent, volunteer-run Signpost continues to grow, given the increasing complexity and financial expenditures of the global Wikimedia movement.

News and notes

Wikipedia's Manual of Style marches into Manning's sex change

In one of the more surprising turns of events surrounding the WikiLeaks saga, US soldier Bradley Manning announced a change in his sexual identity last Thursday.

Arbitration report

Proposed decision posted in Infoboxes case; Tea Party movement case continues

A proposed decision has been posted in the Infoboxes case that includes statements on metadata and microformat issues.

WikiProject report

Today's article for improvement

This week, we spent some time with the folks behind Today's Article for Improvement, commonly shortened to TAFI, which Coin945 notes is pronounced "taffy". The initiative began in July 2012 as an attempt to "use widespread collaborative editing to improve articles... over a short time frame." Two of the project's touted accomplishments are improving the articles for Sea and Entertainment from start-class to Good Article status. In addition to drawing veteran editor attention with a Community Portal widget and weekly announcements posted to subscribed talk pages, TAFI briefly appeared as a box on Wikipedia's main page welcoming new editors to contribute. Plans are ongoing to return TAFI to the main page.

Discussion report

Skyscrapers, Gibraltar DYKs, Four Award, Secure login, and more

A new post in the WMF blog describes Assistant Professor Amy E. Hughes' experience in the Wikimedia Education Program with a two term graduate class on Western theater history.

Traffic report

Bad Cat

The arrival of the final season of Breaking Bad, arguably the most critically acclaimed TV series since The Wire, has spurred interest across the board, with two entries in the top 10. A Google Doodle to celebrate the birthday of physicist Erwin Schrödinger gave entries for both the man and his ill-used cat. This week was also another banner week for Indian viewers, with four India-related topics in the list, including no. 1, no doubt aided by the celebration of that country's Independence Day on August 15.

Featured content

Afrobeat

Seventeen articles, three lists, and three pictures were promoted to "featured" status on the English Wikipedia this week.

Technology report

Generating musical scores with LilyPond

Thanks to a new MediaWiki extension, editors can now use the popular LilyPond format to embed musical scores in articles.

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