Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2023-07-17/News and notes

Spatial references to page layout considered harmful
"pictured on the right" - No it isn't. Please don't assume everyone sees the same layout that you do. Try viewing the page on mobile, for example. (Now fixed.)

My blog post refers. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 10:00, 17 July 2023 (UTC)


 * You're right – "(pictured)" alone does the job much better. (I promise to be good in future.) Andreas JN 466 15:10, 17 July 2023 (UTC)

Cost of scholarships
For what it's worth, I estimated that the total cost of the roughly 200 Wikimania scholarships for volunteer contributors – flights, hotel stays – will cost the WMF rather less than the nearly $1 million dollars it recently spent on two departing executives' severance.

If anyone has the actual figures, it would make an interesting comparison. Andreas JN 466 15:08, 17 July 2023 (UTC)


 * Given that the costs are completely unrelated not really. Indeed "we spent X amount of Y so should be able to spend X amount on Z" is generally a really poor argument. Spending on Wikimania scholarships is the kind of thing that needs to stand or fall on its own merrits.©Geni (talk) 06:52, 18 July 2023 (UTC)


 * When I worked this out, I looked up a flight to Singapore, which from San Francisco or London is around one to three thousand dollars; the whole Wikimania experience looks about a week or so. I don't know one whit about how much hotels in Singapore cost, but everywhere else the hotels within foot/bus/taxi distance of a convention get to be expensive as hell around the time of the convention. A quick look gives me about $150 to $200 per night, times seven is $1000–$1500. This means that per head we'd have something like two to five thousand dollars a person, times two hundred is $400,000 to $1,000,000. Of course, there are some things I'm not taking into account: probably if I were from Singapore I'd know how to do this way cheaper, and there are almost certainly hotel discounts for huge group reservations, but it seems at least roughly comparable. Of course, the actual process of taking the money out of the severance packages and putting it into Wikimania scholarships would probably be difficult to impossible and require a bunch of lawyer activity, so it is mostly useful as a comparison rather than a proposal. jp×g 21:03, 18 July 2023 (UTC)

Gitz6666 unglock
To me, the Gitz6666 glock and (deserved) unglock illustrates a fundamental problem with the m:Universal Code of Conduct: Parts of it are phrased in such general and draconian terms that it gives admins and functionaries a ready excuse to ban practically anyone who raises a concern about them. It's a document in urgent need of community review. Andreas JN 466 16:10, 17 July 2023 (UTC)
 * What policy express and how it is implemented is of interest. The current policy express a longing for chivalry and civlility. Its intentions are not bad. But how it is implemented and used, the realities on the ground, may differ from that. The russian legal consept of extremism opens up for that anyone with views or actions that could alter any sosial order can be targeted. From ISIS to Jehova Witnesses including Meta on the way. (The mother of facebook & instagram.) And is targeted. The wikipedia/media's universes understanding of what constitutes a disruptive behavior, a blocking reason, can be executed in the same way as the russian example. If so, how to describe this and that as a society? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andrez1 (talk • contribs) 09:52, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Andrez1 (talk) 09:56, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
 * @Andrez1 Yes, you've said that well. I had exactly the same comparison in mind. Andreas  JN 466 13:37, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
 * @Andreas. And what does it express? Is it a inherent systemic failure in both systems? Andrez1 (talk) 13:08, 20 July 2023 (UTC)