Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-03-07/News and notes

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Just wanted to say that Meta:Wikimedia Fellowships isn't just a page describing the program... it's an open proposals process, where volunteers can get support for projects that support the movement. The Foundation has strategic goals, but we really do need your ideas and energy for improving Wikipedia. Steven Walling at work 17:30, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- If you want people's ideas, you really need to do a better job listening to them. See my comment below for my reason why I see volunteering to help the WMF fundraisers is an utter waste of time. Sven Manguard Wha? 21:46, 9 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  - Sven, you cannot perpetually blame everyone at the Foundation for one mistake, or suppose that because one wrong action occurred that we aren't paying attention to what's going on. I completely understand why you might be frustrated about the banners, but that was months ago, I never worked on the fundraiser, and the fellowships process has nothing to do with that. Steven Walling at work 07:14, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I can add a little more info about the summer research fellowships. We have had a position listed on the jobs page for a while that is a catch-all for all research-oriented fellowships in the Community Department. What we're trying to do in the Community Department is catch as many extraordinarily qualified Wikimedian and/or academic researchers as they are available. In the department, we have been evolving three slightly overlapping summer research opportunities for which that job listing applies: the History Project team, a small quantitative research team and a small qualitative research team. Ideally, the three teams will support each other, especially the qual and quant teams. What I'm trying to do here is leverage available PhD candidates who are already studying Wikimedia projects to do a bunch of useful work over the summer. There are a ton of them, and as it turns out, many want summer jobs. I'm hoping this will allow us to produce some great work over the summer in collaboration with community members and for presentation to the community. Although these projects have been designed with PhD candidates in mind, that shouldn't stop others from applying. That goes for the catch-all Research Fellowship year round too. In fact, I just changed Masters/PhD from a requirement to a plus. (But I don't think anyone should ever let a traditional requirement in a job listing prevent them from applying for a job they know they can do.) We will be screening candidates for all these positions with research tasks. As for these positions being "well-paid," keep in mind that it was an academic tweeting to grad students, who are used to very low pay. Zackexley (talk) 19:19, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, want donation banners to be more effective? I've got a great idea! Next year don't stick a thumb in the eye of the community by neglecting to use even a single one of the banners proposed on meta! Yeah, way to go WMF, ignoring the volunteers is always the solid choice. I'm sure none of the dedicated and creative people that participated at that page were alienated at all by that one. Sven Manguard Wha? 21:44, 9 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Whoa! New skin![edit]

Er, somehow I totally missed the announcement that there would be changes taking effect today, including moving the "edit" tags left. BTW, the edit tag for "Lead" section is taking me to the first section of the body instead. Are they working on this bug? -- Ssilvers (talk) 20:19, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The lead edit link is a gadget, so the bug would have to be fixed by whoever maintains the gadget. Not everyone is going to see this change though, so it might be tricky. Reach Out to the Truth 22:18, 11 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]