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The Wikimedia Foundationreleased itsForm 990 tax return for 2021 on 9 May 2023. This shows that outgoing CEOKatherine Maher was paid a severance package ofUS$623,286 in 2021 – slightly more than one-and-a-half times herbase compensation in her last full year at the Wikimedia Foundation. So Maher – who left Wikimedia at the end of April 2021to join theAtlantic Council andcurrently serves on theUS Department of State'sForeign Affairs Policy Board – earned a total ofUS$798,632 in the 2021 calendar year.
COOJaneen Uzzell, who was hired by the Wikimedia Foundation inlate January 2019 and left at the end of June 2021 to become the CEO of theNational Society of Black Engineers on7 July 2021 (see also the profile in this issue'sIn the media section), received a severance package ofUS$324,748 in 2021. This is roughly equivalent to herlast full annual salary; she earned a total ofUS$515,553 from the Wikimedia Foundation in 2021.
The severance payments made in 2021 set a new record for the Foundation. The highest previous severance payment wasUS$262,500. Paid to outgoing CEOLila Tretikov in 2016, this was about 75% of herlast full year's salary.
The Foundation noted in itspost on the Wikimedia-l mailing list that it would in future use a new, standardised severance policy for staff at all levels, described in aDiff post published last month.
The new policy sets a cap on severance pay of one month's salary for each year worked at the WMF, up to a maximum of nine months (unless local law dictates otherwise). Under this scheme both Maher and Uzzell, who spent less than two-and-a-half years at the WMF, would have qualified for much smaller severance payments. But even the new scheme allows for "exceptions":
The guidelines have also provided an opportunity to better align our processes globally when staff leave the Foundation. This includes a new standardized severance policy for staff at all levels of one month of severance pay for every year of their employment, up to nine months (unless local laws require otherwise) – any exceptions require a joint recommendation by the Head of Talent & Culture and the General Counsel, with final approval from the CEO.
So it seems by no means assured that the new policy will prevent the recurrence of such large severance payments – which are ultimately paid from global Wikipedia donations.
Former WMF Board of Trustees ChairFlorence Devouard asked somefurther questions about the new severance policy on the mailing list, which she then also submitted as discussion topics for theConversation with Trustees that took place on 18 May 2023 and is available on YouTube.
The discussions related to executive pay took up about 15 minutes of the 80-minute meeting, beginninghere at time code 23:42 and ending at time code 38:36. First, WMF trusteeNataliia Tymkivtook the following question:
"I would like to know the trustees' characterisation of the growth of executive compensation and whether they think reducing it to historical levels is preferable to layoffs."
Nataliia said that while US compensation may seem high to someone from Europe, it was data-based rather than based on fundraising success and always reflected local salary levels,adding that going back to past compensation levels was not feasible:
"There is also no way of returning back to historical, unless we actually start hiring people who are really rich, and they can just allow to be philanthropic, and you know, not receiving salaries, but I think that's also not sustainable to just expect that rich people who don't need to care for their bread in the morning can just come and work for us."
Next came some of the questions about the severance policy that Florence had submitted before the meeting:
These questions were partiallyanswered (time code 28:47) by CEOMaryana Iskander. Maryana explained at length that the new severance policy was part of an effort to harmonise the Foundation's approach as much as possible across different countries, including for executives, but allowed that there would always be exceptions for various reasons. The policy might also need adjusting in the light of experience. However, she confirmed that the policy will take the last month of paid salary as the basis for calculating the severance.
This is an important point, as there have already been cases of Wikimedia executives being awarded steep pay rises towards the end of their tenure with the Foundation (seeWikimedia Foundation salaries on Meta-Wiki). Indeed, according to the Form 990, Katherine Maher was paidUS$164,567 in base compensation for four months' work in 2021. This would appear to be equivalent to an annual base compensation of US$493,701, considerably more than herUS$404,053 base compensation in 2020. Questionssubmitted by Florence that remained unanswered in the meeting were:
Next, Maryana answered a question on whether there was an incentive system in place to invite Foundation staff to make donations to the Foundation or other Wikimedia entities. She said there was no such system in place, but some staff did voluntarily make such monetary contributions; many of course also volunteered on the projects.
The next question was about who approved the above severance packages. Nataliiaexplained that the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees approved them (with input from theTalent and Culture Committee), but that severance agreements and related Board votes and resolutions were confidential and not made available to the public.
The last question in this section of the meeting concerned Maryana Iskander's and Selena Deckelmann's compensation. While their salaries were not yet reflected in the 2021 Form 990 (both only joined in 2022, and the 2022 data will only need to be reported in 2024), they were proactivelydisclosed a few weeks ago on Meta: Iskander's base compensation is currently US$453,000 and that of Selena Deckelmann, Chief Product and Technology Officer, is US$420,000. Whenasked if it was planned to make this kind of proactive disclosure ofcurrent executive compensation a regular practice, Iskander gave a non-committal answer:
"It's not clear that this type of disclosure will be necessary – now that it has been disclosed – in future years. But the intent certainly is to continue to use the Annual Plan as a place to increase visibility, transparency and accountability of information from the Foundation, I think with the intentionality that we, I hope, demonstrated this year."
For a summary of other topics discussed at the meeting see thenotes on Meta-Wiki. –AK
There is an ongoing referendum on a proposed amendment to thearbitration policy. The proposed amendment is:
The final sentence ofWikipedia:Arbitration/Policy#Appeal of decisions, which readsRemedies may be appealed to, and amended by,Jimbo Wales, unless the case involves Jimbo Wales's own actions
,is removed.
At the time of writing, "Yes" votes are outnumbering "No" votes 154:93.
–AK
Scholars from both sides of the scholarly debate around World War II and the history of Jews in Poland are expressing their dissatisfaction with Wikipedia this week.
Shira Klein, co-author of the paper withJan Grabowski that triggered thearbitration case on this topic area, criticized the Arbitration Committee's decision even before the case officially concluded. In a press release byChapman University, she stated that the"Ruling on Wikipedia's Distortion of Holocaust History Lacks Depth". While the release acknowledges that the ruling includes a topic ban of "two distortionist editors" (appealable in 12 months), Klein argues that these "remedies lack depth and consequence" and that "[b]y ignoring the egregiously false content our article flagged for them and focusing only on editors' conduct (e.g. uncivil language), Wikipedia has once again failed, and miserably so." Fundamentally, she holds the view that ArbCom was ill-equipped to deal with the problem: "[Arbitrators] have zero content expertise, so they have no idea when an editor is spinning lies. More than that: They are bound by Wiki policy to steer clear of content. ArbCom was simply the wrong solution to begin with. What they should have done, which some editors suggested, was to ask historians for help."
Meanwhile,Richard C. Lukas, one of the scholars criticized in Grabowski and Klein's essay, published aneditorial in theMay–June issue of thePolish American Journal, titled "Is it History or Propaganda?" Lukas relates that after he had been "informed by interested friendly sources of the changes in my Wikipedia biography" that were prompted by the essay, "[m]y belief that the editors of Wikipedia genuinely tried to be fair and balanced in their presentations has been seriously shaken." However, he argues that "The larger issue is not Wikipedia but the hijacking of Polish wartime history by a group of Jewish historians who, in this post-fact world, seem more interested in exaggeration and hyperbole than in facts and analysis."
Whatever the merits and demerits of their respective arguments, it is clear that Wikipedia will never be able to satisfyeveryone. –AK,H
Face2faceafrica.com has a celebratory profile of former Wikimedia COOJaneen Uzzell, titled:"How Janeen Uzzell rose through corporate ranks to manage a Wikipedia Foundation fund worth $4.5M". The piece describes her early decision to study engineering and her subsequent work for women in STEM atGeneral Electric, for the Wikimedia Foundation and today as Chief Executive Officer at the United States'National Society of Black Engineers.
The 4.5M fund referred to in the headline is the controversialKnowledge Equity Fund held byTides Advocacy (see previousSignpostcoverage). Wikimedia CEOMaryana Iskanderannounced in January 2023 that the remainder of the fund would be moved back to the Wikimedia Foundation (see previousSignpostcoverage). Janeen Uzzell was with the Wikimedia Foundation for just under two-and-a-half years; her executive compensation and very substantial severance, as disclosed by the Wikimedia Foundation in its recently publishedForm 990, are discussed in this issue'sNews and notes. –AK
Thefinal decision for the case "World War II and the history of Jews in Poland" was posted May 20, the day before publication of this issue ofThe Signpost.
The Arbitration Committee acknowledged that their acceptance of the case was "in response" to the February 9, 2023 publication of"Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust", authored by Jan Grabowski and Shira Klein, but reaffirmed that their review was solely concerning editor conduct, not to make a determination about the facts of history about which Wikipedia editors disagree, nor facts represented in the paper. (Reacting to the proposed decision in a university press release, Klein critiqued this same "policy to steer clear of content", see this issue's In the media:"Wikipedia's World War II controversy attracts comments from opposing scholars".)
The principles determined to be relevant to the case were an unsurprising recital of Wikipedia conduct standards such asbattleground behavior,acceptable sourcing and source manipulation, and the role of theUniversal Code of Conduct.
Findings of fact were likewise unsurprising, and noted defense of some parties by other parties. Findings included both exemplary community-mindedness – helping to findconsensus on difficult issues, for example – and behavior that is not commensurate with community standards.
The decision includes "standard" remedies:
No editor was banned from Wikipedia in the final decision, although a proposal to do so was made (see below), andGizzyCatBella was blocked by the committee as a sockpuppet ofJacurek while the case was still ongoing.
In addition, there is now a new"reliable sourcing restriction" in the topic area, which reads as follows:
All articles and edits in the topic area of Polish history during World War II (1933–1945) and the history of Jews in Poland are subject to a "reliable source consensus-required" contentious topic restriction. When a source that is not an article in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, an academically focused book by a reputable publisher, and/or an article published by a reputable institution is removed from an article, no editor may reinstate the source without first obtaining consensus on the talk page of the article in question or consensus about the reliability of the source in a discussion at theReliable Sources Noticeboard. Administrators may enforce this restriction with page protections, topic bans, or blocks; enforcement decisions should consider not merely the severity of the violation but the general disciplinary record of the editor in violation.
This new sourcing restriction replaces asimilar but discretionary restriction that had been instituted as part of the 2019Antisemitism in Poland case and strengthened in 2021.
Of note is a lengthy section on the proposed decision page written by arbitratorWugapodes,"Wugapodes' rationale" for an editor ban, which seems to be in alignment with their 2021Signpost opinion piece"The (Universal) Code of Conduct"; andprinciple 16 of the Arbitration Committee's final decision, also concerning the UCoC:
TheUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC) defines a minimum set of guidelines of expected and unacceptable behaviour. The English Wikipedia has developed policies and guidelines (PAG) that add to this minimum that take account of local and cultural context, maintaining the UCoC criteria as a minimum standard and, in many PAGs, going beyond those minimums. Therefore, the Arbitration Committee, as an identified high-level decision making body under theUCoC enforcement guidelines, may choose to evaluate compliance with English Wikipedia PAG, while still respecting the UCoC.
This is the first major ArbCom decision following the Foundation'sratification of the UCoC Enforcement Guidelines this March (see previousSignpostcoverage). In this decision, ArbCom appears to be setting up a precedent for their own role in adopting its authorities. Whether the UCoC is or should be a source of authority was debated by the Committee, but with seemingly little dissent from an affirmative decision.
A monthly overview of recent academic research about Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, also published as theWikimedia Research Newsletter.
"A game-theoretic analysis of Wikipedia's peer production: The interplay between community's governance and contributors' interactions"[1], published earlier this month inPLoS ONE, investigates what it calls fundamental but still unresolved questions about "the way in which governance shapes individual-level interactions" inpeer production.
Specifically, the authors build a complexgame theory model to answer the following two research questions about English Wikipedia, and validate its predictions empirically by examining the revision histories of 864 articles (up to 2012):
- "RQ1: What is the optimal strategy for a contributor who is attempting to balance the costs and benefits of peer production? Namely, how many sentences within an article should be owned by a contributor that is characterized by a certain cooperative/competitive orientation and a particular creator/curator activity profile?
- RQ2: How does the community governance mechanism, particularly the attempt to ensure a NPOV, affect the dynamics underlying Wikipedia's co-production process?"
These concepts are operationalized as follows (amongother variables used to construct the the quantitative model):
The game theoretic model consists of two levels:
"[...] the first level models the interactions between individual contributors who seek both cooperative and competitive goals and the second level models governance of co-production as aStackelberg (leader-follower) game between contributors and the communal neutrality-enforcing mechanisms."
A calculation of the model'sNash equilibrium (basically, a state where no individual "player" can improve their utility by making a unilateral change to their strategy) yields several rather complicated formulae (Theorems 1-4), from which the authors derive various overall conclusions, e.g. that
"[...] the contributor's characteristics, or more specifically, the ratio between the contributor's position on the creator-curator continuum and the contributor's cooperative/competitive orientation is the factor that determines who ends up owning content. When this ratio is smaller than the group's average, the contributor maintains ownership over portions of the article. Namely, under the governance mechanisms, the fractional content that is eventually owned by a contributor is higher for curators (i.e., with a typical small-size edit per sentence) with a competitive orientation (i.e., peripheral community members). In essence, creators with a cooperative orientation lose ownership of the article. This result was corroborated through [the] empirical analysis.
The authors explain that this means that
"[...]only those with a competitive orientation who choose to act as curators making small edits end up owning significant portion of the content. One might expect that the creators who contribute more content (and in the process exert more effort) would end up owning much of an article's contents. In contrast, the results of our game-theoretic analysis implies that when competing over content ownership in the presence of Wikipedia's governance to ensure neutrality, and when controlling for one's cooperative/competitive-orientation, the creators of content who make on average large contributions would eventually not own any content."
The second "key result" from the game-theoretic analysis is that
"[...] excessive governance should be curtailed, by identifying and maintaining a permissible upper limit, beyond which it discourages contributors from making contributions to an article, bringing the co-production process to a halt. Furthermore, our empirical analysis suggests that a low level of governance is optimal for ensuring neutrality while maintaining articles' comprehensiveness.
Based on this, the authors recommend that
[T]he community's efforts to govern content creation and ensure neutrality, although essential for maintaining a balanced position, should be carefully monitored and kept limited. The reason is that when the 'tax' imposed on contributors in terms of complying with NPOV norms, policies and procedures is too high, it outweighs the benefits associated with content ownership, such that contributors stop competing for ownership (and in effect, co-production is stalled)."
See alsoprevious coverage of related research by one of the authors (Ofer Arazy from the University of Haifa)
Other recent publications that could not be covered in time for this issue include the items listed below. Contributions, whether reviewing or summarizing newly published research,are always welcome.
From the abstract:[2]
"This article sets out to explore the different categories of source that Wikipedia could be defined as (primary, secondary or tertiary) alongside the varied ways in which Wikipedia is used, which defy easy categorization, exemplified by a broad-ranging literature review and focusing on the English language Wikipedia. It concludes that Wikipedia cannot easily be categorized in any information category but is defined instead by the ways it is used and interpreted by its users."
(We note with delight the mention ofthe Twitter feed associated with this research newsletter: "Serendipitous discoveries of relevant research were also made via the WikiResearch Twitter account @WikiResearch, the 'Wiki-research-l' mailing list and the Wikimedia Research biannual reports.")
From the paper:[3]
"We study gatekeeping on Wikipedia by analyzing networks of deletions among editors. Factors considered to explain the emergence of these networks are editors' information production capability, their range of activity, their communicative ties, their geographical location, and their past interactions. [...]
Highlights: [...]
- Editors' past interactions affect gatekeeping conflicts on Wikipedia.
- Disputes among Wikipedians reflect the lines of historical conflicts to some extent.
- In- and Outgroups based on editors' real-world attributes influence gatekeeping."
[...]
We drew our sample of articles from the French and Spanish language versions of Wikipedia, respectively. These are the most likely versions where editors from France or Spain and editors from Algeria or former Gran Colombia engage with one another, since the former colonizer's language is either an official language or widely spoken in the successor states [...] and editors are drawn toward larger versions of Wikipedia.[...] we identified 111 unique relevant articles for both Algeria and the four successor states of Gran Colombia. We retrieved the complete revision history of these articles up until January 1st, 2019, [... and] were able to attribute each character of an article's text to its author throughout the entire revision history. With this information we could identify who deleted the contributions of whom.
From the abstract:[4]
"This research aims at understanding the open collaboration involved in producing Wikipedia Good Articles (GA). [...] We propose an approach that first employs factor analysis to identify editing abilities [of contributors] and then uses these editing abilities scores to distinguish editors. Then, we generate sequence of editors participating in the work process to analyse the patterns of collaboration. Without loss of generality, we use GA of three Wikipedia categories covering two general topics and a science topic to demonstrate our approach. The result shows that we can successfully generate editor abilities and identify different types of editors. Then we observe the sequence of different editor involved in the creation process. For the three GA categories examined, we found that [...] highly scored content-shaping ability editors [tend to be] involved in the later stage of the collaboration process."
From the abstract:[5]
"The authors posed the question whether and to what extent the differences in the cultural dimension of the power distance [ananthropological concept theorized by Geert Hofstede] are reflected in the functioning of the Wikipedia community. How the hierarchization of the organizational structure may influence the organization of knowledge sharing processes is also studied. The authors selected for the research the Wikipedia language versions which were mostly edited by the communities from homogeneous national cultures. The method used was quantitative analysis of the activity of Wikipedia users intended for establishing the general rules of cooperation, as well as an analysis of the distribution of user rights in the context of the social structure of individual versions. Research has shown that with the rise of the power distance, the power structure is becoming more hierarchical. However, the users with administrative rights and users without administrative rights are equally committed to joint rule-making. At the same time, it was found that in some cultures with a low power distance, the users do not show much attachment to the acquired rights. The opposite dependency was observed in countries with Orthodox and Islamic civilizations. [...]"
From the abstract:[6]
"The aim of the presented research was to identify the differentiation of the selected language versions of Wikipedia in the cultural dimension of femininity and masculinity. We answer the questions whether these differences are reflected in the functioning of the Wikipedia environment and how this fact may improve organizing cooperation in virtual organizations to enhance knowledge sharing. The method of content analysis and analysis of the register of user activity in several fields of activity were adopted. For quantitative analysis, xTools and PetScan tools for generating statistical data were used. For qualitative analysis, chosen user pages and other public spaces were investigated. The results of the conducted research showed that in feminine cultures the relational dimension of activity in Wikipedia space was more important. Behavioural traits specific to task orientation were more pronounced in masculine cultures. In many language versions of feminine cultures, gender divisions were neither distinguished, nor exposed, thus making them more problematic to identify. [...]"
From the abstract:[7]
"The aim of the research presented in this paper was to identify the differentiation of language versions in the cultural dimension of individualism and collectivism. The research was both quantitative and qualitative. The authors selected Wikipedia language versions which were edited mainly by communities from homogeneous national cultures and with a minimum of 200 active users per month. The method used was the content analysis and the analysis of registers of user activity. The authors answer the question of whether these differences are reflected in the functioning of the Wikipedia environment. To answer the raised research question, three hypotheses were formulated. The relationship between the individualism index (IDV) of national cultures from which Wikipedians are recruited and the indicators of activity, while also the degree of regulation of activities in the project were examined. Research has shown that IDV is positively correlated with 1) the number of editions made per page which may be indicative of the greater courage to edit somebody else's text and 2) the ratio of the number of active users to the number of principles and recommendations, which means that actions on Wikipedia are relatively less frequently regulated in individualistic cultures. [...]"
Fromthe "Conclusions" section:
"The results of the conducted research indicate that, with the adopted indicators, it is impossible to unequivocally state the influence of national culture on Wikipedia's organizational culture in terms of the degree of individualism. Of the three assumed hypotheses, two were positively verified and one was rejected. A small number of rules in relation to users and a large number of editions per page positively correlate with the level of the IDV. On the other hand the ratio of anonymous users to registered users is not related to the level of individualism."
We have a second poet this time,QuicoleJR, and it's great having them along! Figured it might not be the worst idea to sign poems if there's two of us, though. On my front, my penchant for taking songs and writing new lyrics to the opening lines of them hit a bit of an... interesting turn when I realised what the opening words were. You'll see it, I'm sure.
Things continue apace. I got to collaborate withMyCatIsAChonk on one of the featured pictures in this issue; that was fun. This issue will (hopefully) also contain the finale of my history of April Fools' on Wikipedia, which is a little awkward in mid-May, but, well, volunteer site.
Hope everything's going well for all of you! And to the contributors of all the hard work, well, as Puck says:
Twelvefeatured articles were promoted this period.
Thirteenfeatured pictures were promoted this period, including the images at the top and bottom of this article.
.jpg)
_male_Peten.jpg)
_Copan.jpg)
Fivefeatured lists were promoted this period.
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jerry Springer |  | 2,704,171 |  | Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!Jerry! The former mayor of Cincinnati turned icon of 'trash TV' withan eponymous series that was the standoutpoint and laugh show and even inspireda Weird Al parody, Jerry Springer died at 79 of pancreatic cancer. |
| 2 | ChatGPT |  | 2,150,517 |  | People still interested in AI. I don't have much to say about it other than "it's bad" and I'm too lazy to write a full blurb. (And yes, as I wrote this, I realized I could ask ChatGPT to write me one. And no, I'm not going to.) |
| 3 | 2023 NFL Draft |  | 1,448,974 |  | American football picked its newest college graduates to make a professional jump, led by theCarolina Panthers choosingBryce Young. |
| 4 | Harry Belafonte | | 1,379,958 |  | Death came at 96 to the musician responsible for popularizingcalypso music with hits like "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", "Jump in the Line (Shake, Senora)", and others that didn't appear inBeetlejuice, and with a prolific film career as well (a career shared by daughterShari Belafonte). |
| 5 | Tucker Carlson | | 1,210,153 |  | On Friday, April 21, the controversialFox News host—who's attracted intense criticism and advertiser boycotts for his remarks on race and women, not to mention his promotion ofJanuary 6th conspiracy theories—signed off his talk show by saying, "we'll be back on Monday!" Well, that Monday morning, April 24, Fox fired him. Whether it was due toFox's defamation settlement withDominion Voting Systems, Carlson's internal criticism of Fox leadership, a pending lawsuit alleging a toxic work environment, or some combination of those three factors remains unclear. |
| 6 | Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan | | 1,013,196 | _(cropped).jpg) | The Bollywood action flick climbed from its position on this list last week as became one of the year's highest-grossing Hindi films so far. |
| 7 | Evil Dead Rise | | 1,001,882 |  | AlthoughMario continues to dominate cinemas (at least until the release ofGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), this low-budget addition to theSam Raimi-createdEvil Dead franchise had no problem recouping its budget, even withoutBruce Campbell asAsh Williams. |
| 8 | Deaths in 2023 | | 990,491 |  | How 'bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out? How 'bout not equating death with stopping? |
| 9 | Gervonta Davis |  | 868,455 |  | This boxer is still undefeated after 29 matches, followinga successful title defense againstRyan Garcia on April 22. |
| 10 | Whitney Houston | | 800,963 |  | Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody might not have earned entries here while in theaters or HBO Max, but once it got to Netflix's catalogue, an influx of viewers checked our article on the singer whose equally successful and tragic story was told in that film (where Whitney was played byNaomi Ackie). |
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | | 1,935,502 | .jpg) | Breaking a streak of three Marvel Cinematic Universe movies that did not take the top spot of this Report upon entering theaters, the "bunch of a-holes" who against all expectations became one of the most popular teams out of Marvel return trying to savea furry psycho. Writer-directorJames Gunn (whose involvement in the film sawa slight delay due to the alt-right, during which he managed to landa movie anda job in theDistinguished Competition) manages to weave well comedy, action and drama, which translated into positive reviews and big box office numbers (nearly $300 million in a weekend!). |
| 2 | Alan Rickman | | 1,889,935 |  | On April 30, the late English actor (who most audiences will probably recognize asHans Gruber fromDie Hard orSeverus Snape fromHarry Potter) was honored with aGoogle Doodle commemorating anniversary ofLes Liaisons Dangereuses' Broadway premiere, which helped launch his career. |
| 3 | ChatGPT | | 1,683,770 |  | Chatbots and other AI-made writing are still a big point of discussion, to the point it's one of things brought up in the2023 Writers Guild of America strike. |
| 4 | Charles III | | 1,408,865 | .jpg) | Nine months after his motherElizabeth II died and left him the throne of the United Kingdom, Charleshad a ceremony to be properly crowned. And the UK wouldn't even get a rest from big events afterwards, as the following week Liverpool hosted theEurovision Song Contest 2023. |
| 5 | Gordon Lightfoot | | 1,118,866 | _(cropped).jpg) | One of Canada's most admired songwriters, with fans likeBob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot died at 84, less than a year after his final concert. |
| 6 | Karl Lagerfeld | | 1,001,864 |  | This year'sMet Gala was themed after this famous stylist who died in 2019 and was a close friend of organizerAnna Wintour. Lagerfeld's controversies, as among other things he was accused of beingfatphobic andIslamophobic, led to some protests, including going against his quote "Think pink. But don't wear it." byattending the ball in lightish red. |
| 7 | Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz |  | 985,253 |  | The title character ofQueen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a spin-off to the popularBridgerton series which premiered on Netflix May 4. |
| 8 | Deaths in 2023 | | 959,477 |  | Staring at the sea Staring at the sand Staring at myself Reflected in the eyes of the dead man on the beach... |
| 9 | Cinco de Mayo | | 955,724 |  | Literally translating to the “Fifth of May” inSpanish, Cinco De Mayo celebratesthe Mexicans triumphing over the French in 1862. |
| 10 | George III |  | 928,040 |  | You might think his position on this list is due to the coronation of #4. But his presence here is actually linked toQueen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story – a fictional take on his romance with #7. |
| Rank | Article | Class | Views | Image | Notes/about |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Kerala Story | | 2,299,171 | _(2).jpg) | Another Indian movie on the list, this time based on the Islamophobic conspiracy theory "love jihad", where a group of women from Kerala convert to Islam and joinISIS, has received awful reviews from critics, and also getting push-back from theIndian National Congress and theCommunist Party of India (Marxist) for "defaming the state of Kerala and promoting the agenda of the Sangh Parivar". Despite this, it's become the3rd highest grossing grossing Hindi film of 2023. |
| 2 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | | 1,955,778 | .jpg) | The Marvel Cinematic Universe's most unexpected success story returned for a third go, and has already earned better reviews and box office thanAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. |
| 3 | Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz | | 1,908,758 | _-_George_III_and_Queen_Charlotte_-_RCIN_403546_-_Royal_Collection.jpg) | Netflix released theBridgerton spinoffQueen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, centering around a Queen of the United Kingdom during both the end of her life and her romance with King George III. |
| 4 | George III | | 1,896,483 | ||
| 5 | ChatGPT | | 1,759,107 |  | People are still intrigued and worried by AI, which is already becominga co-author of scientific papers. |
| 6 | Eurovision Song Contest 2023 | | 1,650,872 |  | This here writer arrived in Liverpool to find a chaos of blocked streets and such aroundLime Street, and this musical extravaganza was to blame. Sweden won with the song "Tattoo". |
| 7 | Charles III | | 1,303,416 | _(cropped).jpg) | Nine months after his mother died and made him king at the ripe age of 72, Charles had a proper coronation. |
| 8 | Hannah Waddingham | | 1,249,873 | .jpg) | #6 had as one of its hosts this British actress best known as Rebecca fromTed Lasso, who among other things madea moving eulogy out of aRick Roll. |
| 9 | Robert De Niro | | 1,097,400 |  | One of the greatest actors in history, who later this year will see his11th(!) moviewithMartin Scorsese released, revealed he just fathered a daugther at the age of 79. |
| 10 | 2023 SEA Games | | 1,049,182 |  | Cambodia hosted this multisport event, with the most medals going to Vietnam. |
For the April 8 – May 8 period, per thisthis database report.
| Title | Revisions | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths in 2023 | 1777 | The obituary is always busy. Deaths not listed above includeLen Goodman,Barry Humphries,Jock Zonfrillo,Tori Bowie andManobala. (and even if it's out of the Anglosphere, I feel obligated to mentionRita Lee) |
| Coronation of Charles III and Camilla | 1451 | The reason why this here writer's visit to London couldn't include enteringWestminster Abbey, and had plenty ofjewelry missing at theTower of London. |
| 2023 World Snooker Championship | 1418 | Liverpool hosted this pool tournament, won byLuca Brecel of Belgium - the first ever champion from a non-Anglophone country, as well as breaking a streak of 4 English and 13 British winners. |
| List of guests at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla | 1146 | Just about the entire British monarchy (albeit Charles' sonHarry was without his wife and kids) and world leaders attended the ceremony. Among normal celebrities,Russell Croweis seemingly too uncouth to be invited. |
| 2023 NBA playoffs | 1112 | Basketball hit the postseason, with a few upsets for the higher seeds in round 1 (the team with the best regular season fell toanother thatalmost didn't get a spot, thesecond andthird best teams of the West fell victim to the more victoriousLos Angeles Lakers andGolden State Warriors), and thePhoenix Suns continuing their existence of over 50 years without a title by losing in round 2. |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie | 1047 | TheNintendo adaptation became the first film of the year, and the first post-pandemic animated feature, to pass the $1 billion mark. It's a significant achievement, especially for a video game-based film—for context, the previous highest-grossing video game movie, 2016'sWarcraft, managed only $439 million. All it needs now is a sequel featuringJoey Diaz andWillem Dafoe asWario andWaluigi and then I'll be satisfied. |
| SpaceX Starship orbital test flight | 1037 | It would be nice if like promised by many science fiction works there were off-world human colonies by 2023. InsteadElon Musk's company builta massive launch vehicle, even bigger thanthe ones that sent men to the Moon, and it exploded a few minutes after take-off due to engine failures. |
| 2023 Sudan conflict | 1969 (967 as2023 Sudan clashes) | An armed conflict began in Sudan on April 15 after months of rising tensions between theRapid Support Forces and the Sudanese government. So far, the violence has claimed almost 600 lives. |
| World Chess Championship 2023 | 985 | Kazakhstan held a decisive match ofgrandmasters, withDing Liren becoming the first Chinese titleholder, beating someone from the country mostly associated with chess dominance - albeit forobvious reasonsIan Nepomniachtchi is like other Russian athletes currently playing for no flag. |
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | 848 | A possible make it or break it point for the MCU given how reception for the post-Avengers: Endgame movies have been. Thankfully reviewers and audiences alike approved the return ofStar-Lord and co. |
| 2023 ACC Men's Premier Cup | 839 | The first of two cricket tournaments among the most edited, this here being a qualifer for the2023 Asian Cup, hosted and won by Nepal. |
| 2023 Southeast Asian Games | 806 | The medal table among the 11 contestants had Vietnam at first, hosts Cambodia in fourth, and right afterwards the Philippines, whose significant English-speaking population at times brings entries to the Traffic Report. |
| 2023 NFL Draft | 750 | Two days were spent to organize the transition fromcollege football to professional one. |
| 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs | 715 | Hockey has been delivering many surprises in its postseason (and even before, as superstarsSidney Crosby andAlexander Ovechkin failed to qualify).The team with the best regular season ever was beaten byanother which only won one round between 1996 and 2022,the defending champions were eliminated bya team in only its second season of existence,the league's most valuable franchise finally won a round after 19 years... |
| 2023 Indian Premier League | 710 | While the excessive mobile views make this article be excluded from the regular Traffic Report, frequent updates on India's tournament for their favorite sport enable it for a spot in this one. |
Wikipedia is a heavily relied-upon source for LGBT+ information on the Internet. Wikipedia articles provide millions of people with information about LGBT+ topics across culture, history, health, law and justice, biographies, and more. Behind these articles are Wikimedians, who edit to maintain the integrity of Wikimedia platforms and information on LGBT+ topics and advance representation across many languages.
Documenting queer topics on Wikimedia projects is a challenging task. For example, the question of how to write biographies of LGBT+ people from the past is a very significant one. Usage differs across languages and evolves; people may not have expressed themselves in the terms used today. Such complex issues were at the core ofQueering Wikipedia's May 2023 programs.
On May 12, 14, and 17, 2023Queering Wikipedia 2023 was hosted byWikimedia LGBT+, Queering Wikipedia Organizers, and partners. Queering Wikipedia was an online conference with 12 distributed trans-local, in-person meetupNodes in 5 continents.Queering Wikipedia provides opportunities for LGBT+ Wikimedians, allies and guests to celebrate the vibrant community working to advance representation on Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects, and to organize conversations to further develop this work.
Presentations, panels, and workshops during theQW2023online conference program included conversations about developing best practices; safety and wellbeing; gender andWikidata; community engagement and strategy; ethics and AI; and the nuances of translating terms important to identity. Presentations and discussions provided insight into LGBT+ rights in many regions, including: Ecuador, Indonesia, Nigeria, Poland, Rwanda, Singapore, South Africa, and Bahrain. WMF staff also presented on these issues; theWMF Human Rights Team presented on "Human Rights Amid Rising Anti-LGBTQ Efforts", followed by a live Q&A withMaggie Dennis, Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability.
Queering Wikipedia 2023 celebrated the launch ofWikipedia and the Biographies of LGBTQ+ People – a translation and localisation ofthe Spanish-language guide produced by Wikimedia Argentina last year. As well as translating their original textWikimedia Argentina worked withArt+Feminism and Wikimedia LGBT+ to add new essays from Argentiniantravesti activist An Millet and British trans writer and heritage practitionerKit Heyam.
Art+Feminism researchers presented on the reportUnreliable Guidelines: Reliable Sources and Marginalized Communities in French, English and Spanish Wikipedias for the project "Reading Together: Reliability and Multilingual Global Communities", Amber Berson, Monika Sengul-Jones and Melissa Tamani, released June 2021.
Participants had the opportunity to propose and engage in brainstorming sessions, while theCreative Program included queer poetry performances andart uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
Keynotes were delivered byDr Nishant Shah, Professor of Global Media and Director of the Digital Narratives Studio at theChinese University of Hong Kong's School of Communication and Journalism, andEsra'a Al Shafei, founder and Executive Director ofMajal and WMF Board trustee since 2017, and were complemented by a panel discussion organized byJenni Olson, Senior Director of Social Media Safety atGLAAD.
Another main attraction of the conference was its multilingual nature. There were translators between Spanish and English for many conference sessions, with some sessions also having interpreters for Turkish and Portuguese. Conference organizers focused on translation as part of a larger effort to de-center English and the English Wikipedia in LGBT+ Wikipedia efforts. Through coordinating discussions across languages, Wikipedians can explore shared goals, and the unique differences across Wikipedia language versions.
The full list of QW2023 events is available in theonline conference program.
AutonomousNodes also organized Queering Wikipedia events internationally. Nodes events were developed by local organizers and included panels and discussions, editathons, and "watch parties" of online QW2023 conversations and workshops.
Organizers hope to continue to the momentum developed during the conference through ongoing conversations and partnerships with LGBT+ Wikimedians and allies, and those interested in maintaining quality information about LGBT+ topics on Wikimedia platforms.
Wikimedia LGBT+ andLes sans pagEs invite participation inWiki Loves Pride, an annual, global campaign to expand and improve LGBT+ content across Wikimedia projects. See:Wiki Loves Pride/2023.
Queering Wikipedia is an initiative ofWikimedia LGBT+, aMovement Affiliate, with funding from theWikimedia Foundation. The mission of Wikimedia LGBT+ is to encourage LGBT+ cultural organizations to use Wikimedia projects and to adopt the values of free culture and open access; to promote Wikimedia projects as a tool for strengthening LGBT+ communities; and to create and expand the overall quality of content of interest to LGBT+ communities on Wikimedia projects in all languages.
Disclaimer:OwenBlacker was heavily involved in organising Queering Wikipedia andHexatekin has provided administrative assistance with the conference.Jsamwrites is involved in related WikiProjectsWiki Loves Pride andWikimedia LGBT+ but was not involved in organising Queering Wikipedia.
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