Wikipedia talk:Contributor copyright investigations/WikiProject Tropical cyclones

Checking my work
regarding the discussion at URFA/2020 of WP Cyclone FAs, could you please check my work on one FA I already marked “Satisfactory”? I have run everything I know to run, and looked at everything I know to look at, and cannot find any of the problems mentioned. As far as I know, I checked all articles and sub-articles and found no copying within wikipedia without attribution, and I ran Earwig on the last version of the article as it was built (before it underwent copyediting and significant changes at FAC) versus the archive.org versions of the sources. As well as a general Earwig. I come up with nothing, and going diff by diff, it appears that Cyclonebiskit built the article without any of the mentioned problems, and did not copy either to or from other articles. If I missed something, or if there is a technique I need to use, I need to know before I continue looking at the other hurricane articles. Also, if my work is correct, would it be an indication that further checks on Cyclonebiskit’s articles aren’t needed?


 * Cscr-featured.svg Effects of Hurricane Georges in Louisiana
 * FAC nominator and main editor, (who built the article entirely as submitted to FAC)
 * Last version before FAC copyediting changes: 294205893

For example, I ran Earwig on the last version of Effects/Louisiana before it was submitted to FAC compared to the archive.org version of NCDC source: https://copyvios.toolforge.org/?lang=en&project=wikipedia&title=&oldid=294205893&use_engine=0&use_links=0&turnitin=0&action=compare&url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20120205161759%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww4.ncdc.noaa.gov%2Fcgi-win%2Fwwcgi.dll%3Fwwevent%7EShowEvent%7E323928

If you are able to let me know if I’m on the right track, I can continue checking other Hurricane FAs on the WP:URFA/2020 list. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  05:47, 1 December 2021 (UTC)


 * As another example of the checking I did:
 * Source: https://archive.ph/20210417162443/https://mndaily.com/193997/uncategorized/hurricane-georges-forces-evacuation/
 * Source text: Tens of thousands flocked to the city’s nine shelters, including the cavernous Louisiana Superdome and the sprawling Ernest Morial Convention Center. The city had capacity to shelter 100,000 of its 450,000 people, Morial said. All flights in and out were canceled. More than 1.5 million people had been told to evacuate and police planned to close the interstates behind them.
 * Article text from last version as built by Cyclonebiskit: On September 26, roughly 1.5 million people in New Orleans were told to evacuate the city as mayor Marc Morial issued a mandatory evacuation for most of the area. Nine shelters, were opened throughout the area and could accommodate up to 450,000 people.
 * Sandy Georgia (Talk)  06:03, 1 December 2021 (UTC)

On the season article,
 * June 4, 2014 Hurricane Georges
 * July 14, 2014, User:Cyrius, 1998 Atlantic hurricane season
 * https://copyvios.toolforge.org/?lang=en&project=wikipedia&title=&oldid=611532050&use_engine=0&use_links=0&turnitin=0&action=compare&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fw%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D1998_Atlantic_hurricane_season%26oldid%3D4623257
 * https://copyvios.toolforge.org/?lang=en&project=wikipedia&title=&oldid=611532050&use_engine=0&use_links=0&turnitin=0&action=compare&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fw%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D1998_Atlantic_hurricane_season%26oldid%3D4623257

Sandy Georgia (Talk)  06:29, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
 * I would like to think that after all these years I have been able to maintain integrity and an appropriate level of encyclopedic writing :) If further investigating/scrutiny is desired, all of my works are readily available via my user page. ~ Cyclonebiskit (chat) 23:00, 1 December 2021 (UTC)
 * , I am asking them to check and verify because I did not find any issues at all in this article. I hope that's a good thing ;) I need to make sure I am doing the work correctly. And to make sure no one copied within Wikipedia your work.  I can't continue checking other articles unless I am doing the steps right, and I have dozens of hurricane FAs to check.  For example, on the next FA I checked, I did find text that probably needs attribution, the main editors are no longer around, and I want to make sure I know which steps to take next before I continue working to mark satisfactory at WP:URFA/2020. Regards, Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  02:44, 2 December 2021 (UTC)
 * @SandyGeorgia Thank you for checking it, I see no issues with your check :). Moneytrees🎄Talk/CCI guide 04:29, 3 December 2021 (UTC)
 * PS, I am going down URFA/2020 in date order, and this was the first example I checked as it was had two Satisfactory marks and was ready to move to the "FAR not needed" category; I am only asking if I am doing the work correctly. Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  02:54, 2 December 2021 (UTC)

Hurricane Nora (1997)
Here I found what may be two different things on a Featured article, so I need to stop and check. I believe there was NOAA public domain text copied in to the first iteration of the article, but there are also some other things that show up. This would be a good example for showing me what to do next on cases like this. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  02:46, 2 December 2021 (UTC)

2003 Pacific hurricane season
At FAR, I found minor copying within pre-FAC, but considerable copying within during FAR. Don't know what to do with this: could you all please look at my comments on the Featured article review of this season article? It has both old and new copying within issues, coming from the article and going to the article. I think the version that came to FAC was free of copyvio, but my work should be checked. It does, though, have some current cut-and-paste from (I believe) public domain sources, incurred during the FAR, and would be a great example for all of you to engage to show all of us how to better examine these issues and to help us understand what to do next. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  16:08, 2 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia talk:Featured article review/2003 Pacific hurricane season/archive1 Sandy Georgia  (Talk)  07:18, 2 December 2021 (UTC)


 * I've acknowledged this and looked at some. Will try to look in the next week, I am unfortunately very busy and I edit around schoolwork. :( Sennecaster  ( Chat ) 19:05, 2 December 2021 (UTC)

Editor notes
… here. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  03:03, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

FEMA ?
Why does this list not mention FEMA? Sandy Georgia (Talk)  16:37, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * The JTWC, NOAA, NWS, and PAGASA (unless noted) are all considered as in the public domain.


 * The list includes meteorological centers that are cited on Wikipedia and isn't exhaustive. Chlod (say hi!) 16:41, 27 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks ... I am checking Tornado at WP:FAR, and it is like an octopus (see Wikipedia talk:Featured article review/Tornado/archive2). Detoured to do Pd-notices at Tornado preparedness (I will go through and enter notes when I am done with everything, this was just a sidetrack while Earwig was stalling). Sandy Georgia (Talk)  16:52, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

Tornado
I am about eight hours into checking Tornado at Wikipedia talk:Featured article review/Tornado/archive2, and have just realized neither it, nor all of its sub-articles, are listed here. I have so far identified no direct cut-and-paste, but plenty of unattributed copying within and public domain text. Why is this suite of articles not included? Sandy Georgia (Talk)  01:50, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Because Tornadoes are not tropical cyclones! Jason Rees (talk) 10:16, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Yes, I know that … it’s in the same set of weather-related articles with similar editing behaviors resulting in the same problems. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  12:36, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Done, please see and check Wikipedia talk:Featured article review/Tornado/archive2. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  15:38, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

WPTC member sockblocked following copyright action evasion
(WPTC editor) and (tropical cyclone article area editor) have been blocked for socking per Sockpuppet investigations/HurricaneParrot/Archive. Close paraphrasing has been found from both accounts, with the latter also containing close paraphrasing from non-tropical cyclone articles. has told me (off-wiki) to lay off on requesting a case in the meantime since the user has already been blocked, but I thought it was worth mentioning here since some of the articles with close paraphrasing (e.g., Typhoon Grace (1954), Typhoon June (1954)) are relatively new and aren't part of the list of pages. Chlod (say hi!) 05:07, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

Background


WikiProject Tropical cyclones

 * WikiProject Tropical cyclones (talk · members)
 * Check requested by Sennecaster   ( What now? ) 00:57, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
 * I am going to apologize for the opener for throwing an entire project into CCI. brought to my attention in the Wikimedia Discord.  helped out with spot checking, of which the initial findings were listed in this diff with an attempt to establish a pattern in found in this diff. They are mostly taken care of. I brought it up here, with one response. I also brought it up offwiki in the WPTC Discord and in the IRC. During the resulting conversations, it became blatantly clear that WPTC cannot handle this currently and probably won't. We set up in my userspace out of necessity for such a reivew, and so far CodingCyclone has joined me and the other two. We identified plenty of copyvio of almost every type of vio from these season articles and/or the storm articles listed within the season. For the most part, this project remains rife with direct copy and pastes, unattributed PD copying, unattributed copying within Wikipedia, possible but unconfirmed translation vio, possible but unconfirmed cross-wiki translation vio, and possible but unconfirmed paywall vio, mostly to newspapers.com we believe. This is way out of scope for what two or even four editors can handle, and since WPTC as a whole is being put under scrutiny, I feel more comfortable if a CCI is opened. I have a feeling this may be like IEP...


 * Direct copy
 * Typhoon Son-Tinh from - Earth100
 * Typhoon Kai-tak (2012) from and  - 117.216.242.52
 * Typhoon Nalgae (2011) 2 3 4 5 6 from   - Anirudh Emani
 * Typhoon Nesat (2011) 2 3 4 5 6 from     - Anirudh Emani
 * Tropical Storm Talas (2011) from - 117.198.151.163
 * Effects of the 2013 Pacific typhoon season in the Philippines foundational from      - Typhoon2013
 * Typhoon Wutip (2019) 2 3 foundational from   - FireBlade708
 * 2019 Pacific typhoon season from - JulioLopezMartinez
 * Cyclone Sagar very minor from - Hurricanehink
 * Typhoon Haishen (2020) 2 3 from    - TheActiniumSpoon Hurricanestorm27
 * Cyclone Jal (revdelled) from  - Anirudh Emani


 * Intrawiki copy
 * Typhoon Son-Tinh from 2012 Pacific typhoon season - Earth100
 * Typhoon Sanba from 2012 Pacific typhoon season - Paxsimius
 * Typhoon Tembin (2012) from 2012 Pacific typhoon season - Meow
 * Typhoon Kai-tak (2012) from 2012 Pacific typhoon season - Earth100
 * Typhoon Haikui from 2012 Pacific typhoon season - Earth100
 * Typhoon Damrey (2012) from 2012 Pacific typhoon season - Meow
 * Cyclone Keila from 2011 North Indian Ocean cyclone season - Tatiraju.rishabh
 * Cyclone Thane from 2011 North Indian Ocean cyclone season - Tatiraju.rishabh

I urge CCI to pick this up as fast as possible. There is no sign that editors will stop once the West Pacific season really takes off and more editors are free. This has to be cleaned up ASAP before MORE comes in. Thanks, Sennecaster   ( What now? ) 00:57, 4 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Endorsing this case, both as a WPTC member and as a CCI investigator. This is the definition of pain and suffering, and really needs to be addressed immediately. The mini-preliminary-CCI that I and a few others performed on Sennecaster's userspace also just checks season articles and cyclone articles currently on mainspace (or at least as much as I found with Special:Search), and doesn't include the mounds of drafts available in userspace and draftspace. With the amount we found there, there's bound to be way more crawling out there. Chlod (complain) 01:11, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
 * It is extremely unfortunate that copyvio has gotten to this level unnoticed. As a WPTC member, I also endorse this investigation. This is a great big mess which requires the attention of CCI so that it can be cleared up as quickly as possible. CodingCyclone!  🌀 📘 01:53, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
 * This requires custom programming. I anticipate it to be relatively easy, though it may take some time. MER-C 16:54, 4 May 2021 (UTC)
 * To complicate it, we've already cleared out some of the seasons of copyvio (denoted via FA icon or ) and we haven't checked other articles within WPTC. I hope we can clear this soon; more editors are going to be active soon and not all of them understand copyright. Sennecaster   ( What now? ) 17:00, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

See discussion. MER-C 15:00, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

The most common type of web copyvio seems to be close paraphrasing or copying of impacts and preparations from online news sources. This project is well-archived, so almost all of the links are still live or have archives.

There are some paywalls, mostly to newspapers.com that can be accessed through The Wikipedia Library. When possible, rewriting for the paraphrasing should be used. These are often older articles. There is also some offline sourcing in old (topic-wise) articles.

translation violations in the impact/preparation sections are possible in Vietnamese and Japanese, both of which have difficulties translating well through machines (machine translation, or MTL). DeepL works decently okay with Japanese, but Vietnamese is not an option. When possible, seek someone who can read one of the languages to confirm for violations.

The JTWC, NOAA, NWS, and PAGASA (unless noted) are all considered as in the public domain. All other agencies are copyrighted under fair use terms. If there is substantial close paraphrasing or direct copying, appropriately tag with PD-notice or remove/rewrite.

There is frequent copying without attribution from the season to storm pages. This occurs most commonly in the Meteorological History sections and can be checked by comparing the date of addition to the storm article with the revision on the season article before the addition date of the storm article. These can be repaired with Copied if it was not already properly attributed. Tools such as Who Wrote That? and searching revisions by date on the history page work extremely well. This must be manually spotted. It is safest to assume that almost every article started out with copying.

TL;DR: Paywalls are to newspaper archives, web copyvio is in the impact/preparations sections from news sources, translation vio is hard to use MTL for and is present, check the season pages for copy pasting, and make use of revision searching/diff checking tools. Sennecaster ( What now? ) 05:30, 12 June 2021 (UTC)

The purpose of this investigation should be to identify serial violators in the topic area and how to deal with them. If you find a violation, please list who added it and what kind of violation it was. Moneytrees🏝️Talk/CCI guide 03:35, 5 October 2021 (UTC)

I've given this some thought, and to be honest, this should never have been open. The worst of the violations have already been noted and addressed (the occasional lack of attribution isn't enough to leave this open), and going through a wild goose case on an entire project is a waste of limited resources. The old fashioned way of addressing them as they are found seems to be ok for this situation. Unless there's a strong rationale otherwise I'm just going to close this soon and call it. Wizardman 00:52, 25 February 2024 (UTC)


 * @Wizardman Please do. I would have done so already if I had the time. Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 01:28, 25 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Doing so now. Wizardman  02:20, 28 February 2024 (UTC)