Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2023-08-31/News and notes

Right now, I am pretty strapped for time, having spent most of my effort this issue on setting up the web frontend at https://signpost.news, and having already delayed publication by a couple days to deal with various issues, I am about to leave for a vacation in which I don't have Internet access for several days.

In the midst of what was supposed to be a final copyediting pass for this issue, I noticed that our draft for News and notes was almost completely empty, and even with the assistance of "leveraging synergies to harness the power of AI" or whatever, there was no way for me to get it done on time.

Therefore, given no other option (other than to miss my ride or to drop the Signpost 's longest-running feature) this issue's News and notes will be taken from the freshest news source possible — the lifeblood of Wikipedia. Yes, ladies and gentlemen: we're getting it straight from the horse's mouth. Something that few people pay attention to.

Here are the most recent three entries from Special:RecentChanges. A page so monotonous and so ubiquitous, most people probably don't think about it. But they should — because it's not just about the pleasures of editing and the importance of continually working to improve the project. It's also a personal record of our knowledge itself, and what it means to us.

Hey, reader!

Accent added to city name
At 00:19 UTC, Asdfjrjjj took the bold (and much-needed) step of fixing the article Captaincy General of Yucatán so that an instance of "Merida" was changed to "Mérida".

Typographical fixes are a crucial part of Wikipedia's ability to provide its users with timely, accurate, and reliable information — some may look down on them as trivial or insignificant, but it's important not to take them for granted. Without them, our articles are harder to read, harder to learn from, and sometimes even incorrect (after all,  is not  ).

The Signpost thanks Asdfjrjjj for their efforts.

Citation needed tag added
Also at 00:19, MonMothma went through and added a citation needed tag to Daniel Brewster, a Democratic US Senator from 1963 to 1969. The sentence, previously, said "As is required, Maryland delegates to the 1964 Democratic National Convention voted for Brewster on the first ballot, then voted for Lyndon Johnson." Now it says the same thing, but with at the end.

This is another thing that is frequently overlooked; after all, we don't know if MonMothma looked for a citation, or just slapped the tag on. And indeed, sometimes people are too careless in their application of the tags. But so, too, are many people careful and diligent; and it's through their care and diligence that others, later (perhaps even decades later) are able to figure out what needs to be fixed, where, and do something about it.

The Signpost thanks MonMothma for their efforts.

New user account
As of right now, User:Coyote,w,e is the English Wikipedia's newest user. Most new user accounts never edit, and some people think that most accounts don't matter. Indeed, many new user accounts are never logged into again. But I think this is great. I think this is the Wikipedian Dream. Whoever this is, wherever they are, they have a fresh account waiting for them, and they're not subject to any pressure or any data harvesting for doing so. Facebook doesn't know about their Wikipedia account. Google doesn't know about their Wikipedia account. If the government wants to know about their Wikipedia account, they'd better come back with a warrant. Even Wikipedia doesn't know that much — sure, they can be CheckUsered, but CUs need to show probable cause and are subject to recall if they don't, which is more due diligence than even the police need to demonstrate in many places.

The Signpost wishes Coyote,w,e a career of happy editing — or reading — or whatever floats their boat.