User talk:Asaf (WMF)

Thanks for this suggestion, Tito. WTM's record is indeed very impressive! I agree it merits recognition, but I'm afraid a modest merchandise package is the best we can offer at this point. We don't generally do anything else for recognition, and the Merchandise giveaways page remains our main mechanism to give out merchandise to great Wikimedians. Could you make your recommendation there? Asaf (WMF) (talk) 20:28, 28 October 2014 (UTC) Reply

• Ah, old memories. I was one of the first and most active participants of that Merchandise project. We had to ask many times to revive/make the process faster. See discussions from here. Now it is here at Meta, I don't watch the page. And today you are directing me to that page. "This" happens with community members. No one knows or gives recognition of their works. (most probably it was a joke, but I am not fully sure. )
  Merchandise and deceased Wikipedians — are the two projects where I worked really hard.
  Anyway, I got a shirt for him. I nominated his name and he has confirmed that he got it long ago.
  10 years' anniversary of adminship and Wiki-editing - I don't know any other editor with similar experience.
  Who will take it forward? I have an incomplete essay at Wikipedia No one cares where I mentioned, an editor, my very good friend, after making "100,000" edits, just "went missing". He either died or something else happened. No one knows. Anyway, a special reception (in their country's next conference or Wikimania or just "anywhere") or newspaper interviews (who arranges these interviews? I see some chapter members are regularly giving interviews) or at least Signpost interview or mention in WMF blog could be very encouraging for him and the common community members who are always neglected. --Tito ☸Dutta 21:48, 28 October 2014 (UTC) Reply

I think you are mistaken in thinking WTM's record is unique; it is impressive and rare, but not unique. I'm sure you know as well as I do that there are quite a few members of the ten-year club, and that there are also quite a few people with more than 100K edits (and not just on ENWP, remember). None of them have, to my knowledge, received "a reception" or anything beyond merchandise from WMF. If we were to start flying long-term contributors to SF (or anywhere), we would find ourselves flying hundreds (yes!) of people around the world; that would not be a wise (or even acceptable) use of our donor funds, I think.

I do think it's important to recognize major contributors, and perhaps WTM would appreciate other merchandise beyond that T-shirt. But perhaps a much more meaningful way to recognize WTM would be by WTM's own peers on ENWP, next time they share physical space, i.e. at a WikiConference (there may be another WikiConference USA in a few months) or Wikimania. That would be up to the community to organize, though.

What does make sense to me is, for instance, to invest in funding training and gatherings for experienced admins (such as WTM), thus achieving both an implicit recognition of their importance to the movement and concrete value, in the form of improvement of some admin skills (e.g. conflict resolution) or better alignment with community norms and sense of common purpose with the other participants. Something like this does seem likely in the not-so-far future. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 22:22, 28 October 2014 (UTC) Reply

• You seem to be angry. there are also quite a few people with more than 100K edits (and not just on ENWP, remember) — That is a good point, if there are hundreds of such admin-editors, that is problematic.
  I don't know abut other Wikis, nor I know about desysoped/retired admins. Here is a stat/study of "oldest admins with maximum number of edits" en:User:Titodutta/Ten-year club admins .
  There are 80 or so "10-year members" on En WP. I may try finding i) "active" ii) "admins" and iii) "with 6-digits edit count" among them, it may take time. The stat above shows, WTM is at top "at this moment" (Bearcat is there)
  Your other points are fine. --Tito ☸Dutta 05:19, 29 October 2014 (UTC) Reply

Oh, certainly not angry! :) Please don't worry about it. Thanks for compiling that data. Are you going to nominate WTM for more merchandise on that page? I don't see other practical steps at this point; the only way toward other forms of recognition (beyond the in-person recognition possible at events), would be through some community-wide conversation on the general question (and not about WTM specifically, of course). Asaf (WMF) (talk) 01:09, 30 October 2014 (UTC) Reply

Sorry for barging in here User: Titodutta and Asaf. The topic of thanking/ acknowledging long term volunteers has been of interest to me for quite some time. w:wp:Miss is a list of editors on the en.wikipedia who are no longer active, but it seems to be a controversial list and has been proposed for deletion several times over the years.

BTW I wonder why some editors believe that Admins are more deserving than other folks with lots of contributions? I don’t believe I have had any direct interaction with User:WhisperToMe, but User:Bearcat who has made a lot of positive contributions also has a dark side, at least where it comes to me personally, and other users who happen to have registered around February 1, 2017. Ottawahitech (talk) 15:18, 16 November 2017 (UTC) Please ping meReply

You really are something else, you know that? Anything at all that you want to do on Wikipedia is always a "donation" that Wikipedia always has to keep even if it isn't even remotely encyclopedic, and if anybody ever challenges you on any of it that's because they have a "dark side", rather than because you have a blind spot about what is or isn't a worthwhile contribution? To the point that you'll go around raising it in discussions that have nothing whatsoever to do with the person you're complaining about? Get over yourelf, as they used to say when I was a young'un. Bearcat (talk) 15:58, 16 November 2017 (UTC) Reply

Yes, I admit it. I am an (officially coming out of the closet) Inclusionist. Any editor convicted of this crime can now expect execution within 5 hours of receiving notice, and their grave-stone removal within a few months.

In my own case I received the notice of the ANI (started by User:World’s Lamest Critic) on 12:28, 1 February 2017 and was indeffed blocked by 17:38, 1 February 2017. My talk-page access was removed six months later (after I posted my own personal experience with a admin who was later desysoped).

BTW Is it me as an editor, or is it the city of Ottawa that makes you see red? After all you contributed ten edits explaining your Delete rationale in an AFD (also started by User:World's Lamest Critic) of an article I tried to create. Despite your very lengthy entry you never once objected to the characterization of Ottawa as a a small Canadian city and even supported it indirectly (referring to the article subject as a local interest) Ottawahitech (talk) 16:47, 29 November 2017 (UTC) Please ping meReply

Neither you nor Ottawa makes me see red per se; I lived in Ottawa myself for six years of my life, in fact. What does make me see red is poorly sourced and poorly substanced articles about people or things that don't have any credibly encyclopedic claim of notability besides "this [thing/person] exist[s/ed], the end". I'm neither a "deletionist" nor an "inclusionist" per se, just for the record -- the issue is that Wikipedia is not, nor should it be, about everything or everyone that can be single-sourced as merely existing, but about things and people that pass our notability and sourceability standards and not about things and people that don't. Bearcat (talk) 18:51, 5 December 2017 (UTC) Reply

a) Could you refer anyone with importer's rights here on Meta, I want to import few templates from En Wp or suggest me where to request such imports. b) And you amy also see and endorse wikipedia:User_talk:Titodutta#WMIN_Infrastructure_Scholarship_endorsements --Tito ☸Dutta 12:21, 26 November 2014 (UTC) Reply

• Endorsement not needed. Its is done. --Tito ☸Dutta 18:31, 3 December 2014 (UTC) Reply

Hah, so you finally managed to get rid of the term "global south" in your title. :D --Nemo 08:23, 20 February 2015 (UTC) Reply

Yes. It only took 3.5 years... Under cover of the general tumult, you know. :) At least fewer kittens would die. ;-p Ijon (talk) 08:29, 20 February 2015 (UTC) Reply

I would like to interview you regarding your Wikipedia contributions to "Participatory grantmaking", for a news story that I am writing. Please contact ResearchBiz -at- gmail, to discuss. I appreciate your cooperation. - FebAfterneun (talk) 12:04, 20 February 2015 (UTC) Reply

Dear Asaf—I've noted your comments and below them have set out a number of requests for clarification. I'm sorry that we should have to deal with things that happened more than a year ago in a previous portfolio, but I think you'll agree when you read my queries that they're important to resolve. Thank you for your time. Tony (talk) 14:06, 14 April 2015 (UTC) Reply

Actually, User:Tony1, I'm not sure I agree your queries are important to resolve. What is the benefit of spending more time on this, at this point? To be clear, I do not count "bashing WMAU's Committee" a benefit. Please help me understand how we'd be serving the mission by engaging further on this. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 00:19, 17 April 2015 (UTC) Reply

Asaf—I had assumed it was part of your job to respond to queries about the logic and evidence-base on which you have expressed very strong opinions; the assumptions appear to underlie surprisingly negative and blunt assessments of a previous chapter committee and of a program for which you apparently read nothing of the actual application—relying instead on hearsay. In fact, "bashing WMAU's Committee" is exactly what you have done—to a previous committee.

You want help in understanding how transparency in this matter would serve the mission? That's easy: the mission is badly served by a chapter that is practically dormant and non-transparent, despite spending some 3/4 of the 200,000ドル+ of donors' money it raised in 2010. Transparency is a WMF priority. My expectation is that you're not working against that. You would do the mission a favour by being candid, rather than starting from a desire to disregard a major issue in a chapter.

If you do not respond, the default explanation is that you accept the implications of the questions—that you based your comments on highly skewed evidence from a Wikimedian who had already distorted advice he has sought from another WMF staff member (Phillipe—you knew about that one, which is on both public and private record). My assumption is that you won't mind my characterising your failure to respond as an acceptance that the questions I've set out point to a very bad situation. Tony (talk) 04:00, 17 April 2015 (UTC) Reply

Your response shows that you're willing to allow non-transparency and, frankly, dishonesty, among affiliates. It's very disappointing. Tony (talk) 03:41, 21 April 2015 (

Dear Asaf,

Hereby I inform You that Wikimedia CEE meet-up on Wikimedia Conference 2015 will take place Friday, May 15 6.00 p.m.-9.00 p.m. at the conference venue (Verlag Der Tagesspiegel, Askanischer Platz 3, Berlin). You can find more information about the meeting here. You are more than welcome to attend!

Thank you for your kind attention and CEE you soon! --Kaarel Vaidla (WM EE) (talk) 23:08, 13 May 2015 (UTC) Reply

Hello Asaf, Please see Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Goan_Konkani#Request_to_the_community_and_to_LangCom_to_include_the_Latin_script_articles Regards, The Discoverer (talk) 07:12, 24 June 2015 (UTC) Reply

Hi, could you please confirm your permission for cc by-sa on this audio recording from wmuacon (by adding your signature in the permission field)? I'll upload more recordings soon, but we need this one first to announce the discussion about community capacity development on ukwiki. Thanks :) --Yury Bulka (talk) 21:12, 25 September 2015 (UTC) Reply

Done Asaf (WMF) (talk) 22:18, 25 September 2015 (UTC) Reply

Hi Asaf! I would have a few data requests regarding the Geowiki data (entirely personal, this is not me as a Board member speaking): would you have the data for Commons, Wikidata, and "Total"? (And just out of curiosity, hr and uz?) If it is not too much of a hassle, thank you! --denny (talk) 23:30, 28 December 2015 (UTC) Reply

Hi, Denny.

I have now added Croatian, Uzbek, and Country totals. The data I am drawing on is not generated per-country for Commons or Wikidata, but the total active editor counts for those projects are available on stats.wikimedia.org. Ijon (talk) 09:59, 29 December 2015 (UTC) Reply

Thank you, Asaf! Pity we don't have the data for Wikidata and Commons, but thanks for the uz and hr data! --denny (talk) 18:14, 30 December 2015 (UTC) Reply

mailarchive:wikimedia-l/2016-January/080978.html is potentially relevant for this page (maybe as a link?). Nemo 21:08, 13 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

Sure! Thanks for pointing this out. Ijon (talk) 23:23, 13 January 2016 (UTC) Reply

Thank you, Pine! :) Ijon (talk) 02:14, 27 February 2016 (UTC) Reply

"... I have long lamented the paucity of attention at WMF to issues of quality (ostensibly one of the five strategic goals identified back in 2010), and how it was pretty much ignored because it was (correctly) understood to be hard to measure. But if you only measure what's easy, you create very skewed incentives."

I think the best way to determine the reliability of our content is to subject it to rigorous expert peer-review. I'm presently working with en:BMJ's editors. They have recruited some of the world's top experts on Parkinson's disease to check en:Parkinson's disease for accuracy, neutrality, completeness and up-to-dateness. The review in progress is here

BMJ is happy to offer this service for more of our good and featured articles. I'd like them to take on another nineteen, for starters, and then write up and publish a report on the results.

One thing I'm having a problem with is the reviewers' extreme reluctance to use wikitext. (I've explained the background here); and, anyway, we don't have any tools for reviewers. So the initial review happened off-wiki on a shared Word document, using Word's Review/Track changes feature. I then manually replicated Word's tracked changes in a basic wiki table, one column displaying the proposed changes in each paragraph and the adjacent column for discussion. Manually replicating Word's tracked changes is quite an arduous task and I'm not looking forward to having to do that for the next nineteen.

I'd like the WMF to build a reviewer tool, something like Word's Review/Track changes feature. I don't want to apply for money to get this done, because I haven't a clue where to get the technicians to do it. I want the WMF to do it - to take it on. How do I get that onto the WMF's agenda?

A review tool would be very useful for general editing discussion, too. And if this BMJ pilot works out, I'll be expanding my reliability project to include many more journals and topic areas, who will also benefit from an easy review tool. I'm hoping extremely rigorous expert review will become the natural next step for all articles that reach featured status. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. --Anthonyhcole (talk) 06:42, 12 March 2016 (UTC) Reply

Hi, Anthony. Thank you for this excellent initiative with the BMJ.

You'll be glad to hear something like this already exists! It is the brainchild of Estonian Wikipedian Ivo Kruusamägi, and it is called WikiComment. Ivo dreamt it up out of frustration with wikitext as a medium for going over student assignments in the context of the Wikipedia Education Program, but has thoughtfully made it generic enough to serve any annotation need, on any Wiki page in any project and any language. It uses the WMF's OAuth provider to authenticate against Wikimedia accounts. I think it's quite a neat tool, and I would like to see it used more widely. We did recently publish a blog post about it. I encourage you to give it a spin and see if it might better suit the BMJ reviewers' preferences. Ivo would be delighted to learn how it goes. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 07:37, 12 March 2016 (UTC) Reply

I've emailed them to ask how to use it. It's not clear either in that blog post or on their landing page. It sounds like it might be very useful. :o) Thank you for the pointer. --Anthonyhcole (talk) 10:48, 12 March 2016 (UTC) Reply

Congratulations again on your proposal being selected!

We hope you have registered for the conference. If not please follow the instructions at: http://wci2016.doattend.com/ If you are a scholarship recipient - use the Wikimedia Registration option. In case you are not attending or unable to attend, please let us know at the earliest so that the schedules can be readjusted accordingly.

The program schedule is available here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/Programs

Please make sure you read the presenter guidelines. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016/Presenter_guidelines

We look forward to seeing you in Chandigarh!

For program committee

Shyamal

en:User:Shyamal

Hi Asaf,

Both Claudia Garád and Alex Wang have pointed me to gather feedback from you about conflict management training. You have given a workshop during the CEE Meeting in Dilijan this year - I have seen the slides on commons about Elephants and Mahouts. Alex told me you have held a three day training about conflict management. I would like to learn more about that.

Currently I'am working on a project grant proposal, see Grants:Project/Wikipedian Effectiveness Training. The idea is to give a communication training to Wikipedians in the Gordon-model. Currenlty I'm following a training myself - and with several extra modules would become a certified trainer - with a license for the Gordon model.

Could you please read the grant proposal and give feedback and recommendations? If you would like to chat or skype about this, let me know so we can schedule something.

Warm regards,

Ad Huikeshoven (talk) 06:54, 12 October 2016 (UTC) Reply

Hello! Ad, just a small correction: it was a two day training --アンタナナ 09:51, 12 October 2016 (UTC) Reply

Done Asaf (WMF) (talk) 18:17, 18 October 2016 (UTC) Reply

Hi Asaf,

I am one of the founders of Wikimedia Community User Group Cameroon and also a volunteer software developer at Wikimedia, and we are about to organize a workshop to help newbies get involved into Wikimedia activities. There is a ticket on phab for the workshop details and discuss and here is the link: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T149893. Lea Auregann of Wikimedia Germany wants to send us Swags for the workshop to encourage newbies and improve on awareness of the movement here in Cameroon. I was asking her for a mixed pack of stickers but she told me that she has only Wikidata and Wikipedia so she redirected me to you for the rest. Please I don't know if having a mixed pack of stickers and support for the audience will be possible?

Regards --Alangi derick (talk) 14:51, 3 November 2016 (UTC) Reply

As communicated over e-mail, I'm afraid we won't be able to send you merchandise for this workshop on this schedule. Good luck with your workshop; I'd love to hear how it went.

Also for the record, and as mentioned on Phabricator, there is no recognized user group in Cameroon at this point. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 01:53, 8 November 2016 (UTC) Reply

Yeah, we are still working on being recognized. Sorry for using the wrong wordings about the group. At this point, the group is not yet recognized officially by the Wikimedia Foundation (Affiliate committee). Thanks --Alangi derick (talk) 01:06, 26 November 2016 (UTC) Reply

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dance&type=revision&diff=763008886&oldid=759182850

Anthere (talk)

Hi Asaf, do you have any news about the hardware donation program? It has been finish? Thanks. --Jaluj (talk) 20:03, 24 June 2017 (UTC) Reply

Hi, Jaluj. The program is still active; I have been busy with travel and other work, and this program is by definition and necessity a low-priority program at WMF. However, I have now approved your request, and look forward to delivering the laptop to you at Wikimania. Have you gotten a visa yet? Asaf (WMF) (talk) 02:40, 4 July 2017 (UTC) Reply

Yes, I already have my visa. Thank you ASAF! --Jaluj (talk) 22:16, 15 July 2017 (UTC) Reply

Hello Asaf, I applied for Hardware Donation Program during March. Is that program still active? Any update about the same? --GOPALAKRISHNA (TALK) 07:03, 14 August 2017 (UTC) Reply

Hi, Gopala Krishna A. The program is still active! As indicated in the program description page, it is a low-priority program that does not guarantee any particular timeline for decisions. Decisions are usually made in batches, when new batches of hardware to donate become available. Rest assured your request will be considered in the coming month or two. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 06:59, 24 August 2017 (UTC) Reply

Hello! Asaf. Hope you are fine. Welcome to India and Kerala.Happy to hear that there is a workshop scheduled to be held on 30th and 31st. I have registered for the event. Though I live 250 kms away from the venue I have made up my mind to be there, to attend your programme. Hopefully see you on 30th August 2.pm.--Drcenjary (talk) 14:34, 26 August 2017 (UTC) Reply

Thank you, Drcenjary! I look forward to seeing you there. My understanding is that the event is to start at 10am, not 2pm. Will you not be able to attend for the whole duration? Asaf (WMF) (talk) 21:03, 26 August 2017 (UTC) Reply

Asaf,

I am glad this is happening. I wish I could have attended. Perhaps another time.

I hope the participants realize that Wikidata goes a long way towards converging, collating and structuring the wealth of information on wiki projects. Structured information> collection of information. It is much easier/intuitive to create knowledge out of structured information. To that point, wikidata is one of the more important tools available to information collectors, creators and curators here.

Good luck with the workshop and travels around a marvelous country!

Cheers,

अभय नातू (talk) 13:42, 29 August 2017 (UTC) Reply

Hi Asaf, I am on the Wikimania 2018 organising team, and at present have very little idea of how many Wikimedians are based in South Africa, which is where the 2018 Wikimania is to be held (Cape Town). Who do I apply to for demographic information? Cheers, · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 07:46, 5 October 2017 (UTC) Reply

@Pbsouthwood:I'm actually your best source. As discussed on the Phabricator ticket I mentioned, some WMF engineers have privacy concerns about releasing exact numbers. I can tell you that in recent months, there have been between 160 and 180 active editors (5 or more edits per month) of English Wikipedia in South Africa, and between 15 and 25 active editors of Afrikaans Wikipedia in South Africa. The other languages have too few editors to discuss in geographic terms. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 10:51, 5 October 2017 (UTC) Reply

Thanks Asaf, that is helpful. The tolerance band is adequate for my purposes, as the exact number will necessarily fluctuate depending on the interval chosen.

Do you have numbers for very active editors, or for projects other than Wikipedias?

Thirdly, what does it mean that "the other languages have too few editors to discuss in geographic terms"? Cheers, · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 14:09, 5 October 2017 (UTC) Reply

we are welcome you!--Park sung yoon (talk) 12:48, 13 October 2017 (UTC) Reply

Hi Asaf Thank you for your good lecture today. I was sitting on your right side.. May God bless you.. --칼빈500 (talk) 08:30, 14 October 2017 (UTC) Reply

Are you in Korea already? Nobody tells me anything here, sigh. --Hanyangprofessor2 (talk) 08:38, 17 October 2017 (UTC) (That's me, btw --Piotrus (talk) 08:57, 17 October 2017 (UTC))Reply

Hi, Asaf. I hope you are doing fine. I have sent you an email, but you might have missed it. I am interested in having a better sense of what happened during the Brazilian Catalyst Program, and I am writing to see if you are the right person or if you could introduce to the right person to whom I could documents and data. There seems to be a lot missing on the formal pages associated to this program. Thanks you! Best. --Joalpe (talk) 14:08, 19 October 2017 (UTC) Reply