Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2017-06-23/In the media
Kalanick's nipples; Episode #138 of Drama on the Hill
Kalanick's nipples
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The anatomy of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick's chest area, more exactly his nipples, has been the talk of the month. That is at least what one can gather from a Motherboard article (June 9), in which the author Sarah Emerson asks why Wikipedia hasn't replaced the image with any of the "dozens of fair use, high-resolution options" on Flickr. This because she fails to understand our strict policy on fair use images, disallowed when free alternatives are available. However, she's partly correct that there exist a few alternatives, like this one by TechCrunch.
The article includes two screenshots of "heated" debate from the talk page spanning three years. However, this discussion only included six comments in total, one of which pointed out that the nipples were worth some $2.1 billion each. Normally I would have applied {{citation needed}} to such a statement, but given that a 5-minute Uber fare in central Stockholm costs me $13, I'm not so surprised that the pennies trickle in for the CEO. J.
Episode #138 of Drama on the Hill
The reality drama series that is the Donald Trump presidency continues onwards with its latest breathtaking episode. In a shocking development Newsweek reports (June 8) that with the help of the Twitter account @CongressEdits they've been able to uncover a traitor within the midst of the United States House of Representatives. As the Comey hearing unfolded, a rogue agent used a House IP address to add a controversial example of obstruction of justice to our encyclopedia. J.
In brief
Liquidation of Wikimedia RU
24 December 2023
Censorship, medieval hoaxes, "pathetic supervillains", FB-WMF AI TL bid, dirty duchess deeds done dirt cheap
1 August 2022
WMF staff turntable continues to spin; Endowment gets more cash; RfA continues to be a pit of steely knives
31 January 2019
Court-ordered article redaction, paid editing, and rock stars
1 December 2018
Kalanick's nipples; Episode #138 of Drama on the Hill
23 June 2017
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Wales in China; #Edit2015 |
- Building a wall, and letting readers pay for it: Katherine Maher described "alternative facts [as] nothing new" in an interview with a Swedish newspaper, based on the title of the pay-to-read piece. (Svenska Dagbladet, May 22) J.
- Wikipedia HacKeD!1: Another day, another tabloid hack who doesn't know the meaning of the word. Yet again has the media described an article suffering from common vandalism following the British election as being "hacked" (Daily Mirror, June 9). To quote the last issue of The Signpost, it is indeed "a sexy word to use in a headline". J.
- "Turks click away but Wikipedia is gone": In early April, the Turkish government blocked access to Wikipedia. While the news was covered online and around the world, the best[COI] writing on the subject comes from Wikinews (May 2). C., J.
- Jimmy on tour: Wiki founder Wales found a moment to mention his start-up, Wikinews copycat Wikitribune, while discussing the Facebook echo chamber in a CNBC interview (June 16) earlier last week. J.
- Oh, to be young and free! Do you remember those times? Wikipedia was but a mewling infant, with fewer articles than Trump had lawsuits. VatorNews sure does! In a recent throwback article (June 13) they did a recap of Wikipedia's history – from Nupedia to now. J.
secure.wikimedia.org: Motherboard (May 26) and Siliconrepublic (May 30) wrote pieces about Wikipedia's 2011 switch from HTTP to HTTPs – adding another layer of security for readers against govermental spying and censorship. J.- The Signpost in the media: A special report from February written by Smallbones about paid editing has gotten traction in the "real media", and has been discussed in an article by The Times of Israel (May 29). J.
- Wikipedia lives to lobby again: It feels like just yesterday Wikipedia protested against the proposed American legislation SOPA/PIPA. Now Wikipedia has launched FairCopyrightOz, teaming up with organisations in favor of fair use in Australia. The campaign has been covered by Gizmodo (May 22), The Sydney Morning Herald (May 21) and others. J.
- I hear 'Happy Birthday' is in order! The Wire passes on their congratulations (June 4) to the Odia Wikipedia community, which just turned 15. Join The Wire and The Signpost in giving them a big round of applause! J.
- Dead suits brought back to life: After Wikimedia's lawsuit against the NSA was dismissed, the WMF appealed the ruling, and the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to review the suit. Vice News believes this "could reveal secrets of [the] NSA surveillance program" (May 24). J.
Discuss this story
It looks like the trolls at Motherboard have just doubled down on this. Sometime after their issue came out, an editor User:Czar took them up on their suggestion and replaced the contested photo. At which point Motherboard published an update that pretty much accuses him of a serious policy violation: "I just noticed that someone updated Travis Kalanick's Wikipage photo on June 11, 2017. Wikipedia user Czar, a seasoned editor and the person behind the change, cited "much better color in more recent photo" as the reason for their edit. It's unclear whether Czar works for, or is affiliated with, Uber. No mention was made of the nipples." Such is the just reward of going along with a PC crusade. To be sure, his user page says he accepts payments on Patreon, but "not for advocacy". At this point though, someone is going to have to ask him about this and make a decision, if only to make Motherboard take back their accusation, which seems awfully loose-cannon to be putting in print based on anything they've told us. Wnt (talk) 16:51, 23 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Meanwhile, of course, the Motherboard article has made this specific photo notable, making it even more of a no-brainer to put back in. :) I mean, there's no Wikipedia policy against a businessman looking good, or being seen at all outside those ridiculous Croatian cravats they have all made each other wear in recent times. Someday, someone will start a company that cares more about whether its administrators can do a good job than that they are fashion conformists ... Wnt (talk) 16:51, 23 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]
::@Smallbones: I looked twice, and I can't see anything in the small items above that I can link to this. I even looked back at the Motherboard article (which now notes that User:Czar emailed them he was not affiliated with Uber, I should add) Could you explain, or is it possible you put this comment in the wrong place? Wnt (talk) 12:08, 24 June 2017 (UTC)Alright, I'm either going blind... or dumb. It was right there the whole time, and I missed it twice. Wnt (talk) 12:13, 24 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]