Pi zero

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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
— George Bernard Shaw

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Tracked in Phabricator
Task T196831 Open

Huh?

What the heck is a 'Committed identity'? I saw it on a new contributor's User page. --Bddpaux (talk) 17:39, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

@Bddpaux: Which user page? --Pi zero (talk) 17:42, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

@Bddpaux: a commitment id is a "cryptographic hash". Think of a passphrase, like "this is going to be my wiki commitment ID BUSHSCD". A hash function takes in this string, and produces something like: "161130f5ebb96faad490bfcd2a13925026e8d4ae84c94ac832be55be6891b00751da78e0e9eb0a70cbc0924f4154a523747843d1c1f77e9ed259747ae14da722". (generated using SHA-512) Now, you display this string on your userpage. The way these hashes work is, it is easy to compute what is SHA of "foo bar baz", but there is no easy way to reverse this process. If your account is compromised tomorrow, you can inform Wikimedia, this is the phrase I used for my commitment id -- it can be verified in seconds, and Wikimedia can lock the accoutn and somehow reach out to you to grant back the access.
•–• 17:48, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

Paywalled sources

I like the idea of not allowing paywalled sources, but with some caveats:

There are topics, for example business news, that will suffer as a result because publications such as the wsj FT etc are almost all paywalled, leaving only fringe sources available. Then there are publications that are normally paywalled, but due to certain circumstaces (recent example was covid-related articles at the start of the Pandemic) are exempted. Then there are also publications that are rife with viruses and other undesirable fauna. It would be nice if WN does not chart its own course on this complicated issue but cooperate with other wmf-sites.

I wish all wmf-wikis would stop usng paywalled news sites: if they all do, it may put enough pressure on news organizations to allow better access to their publications. After all they are getting a free service, advertsing usually costs them an arm and a leg. I believe they have not done a proper analysis and do not recognize the financial damage their policies are creating for their own business. They are sending their customers to look for other sources and when they wake up it may be too late </end rant>

Sorry for monopolizing your user page for this issue, but I am loath to leave any messages on pages that are doomed for deletion, sorry for being selfish. Cheers, Ottawahitech (talk) 03:16, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

@Ottawahitech: I quite understand about wanting to put comments on a page that's gonna last.

Yeah, I too like the no-pay-to-read policy. I figure, we don't want to to use limited-access sources when we can avoid it (though there are some situations in original reporting where limited access is required — embargoed materials, privacy of sources), and presumably nobody should have to pay to participate in an open wiki. As for a source that chooses to paywall, I have some sympathy for them; it's hard to operate a commercial news outlet these days, they're going out of business left and right, and if they choose to go the pay-to-read route, good luck to them — but good reason for us not to get tangled up in their affairs. If we used such a source, on one hand it might create an incentive for someone to subscribe (so they can check our article against the source), and on the other hand it might remove some incentive for someone to subscribe (if they can get the information here for free), and either way, we should stay clear of it.

I suspect you may have more faith than I do in doing a 'proper analysis'; seems to me such things prove whatever the people calling for the analyses want them to. --Pi zero (talk) 04:33, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

IRC?

Hi, I noticed you aren't on the channel. I would assume you are not on desktop, and are using your laptop. If you are on your laptop, either you can install hexchat, but if you want a quick connect, go to <https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/>, click on add a network. Put "chat.freenode.net" in server, fill in a nickname (if you use a registered nick, you need to enter the IRC nickserv password in the password field). Click on connect to network, and once it connects you, type "/j #channel" to join a channel.
•–• 03:30, 15 February 2021 (UTC)

PING? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Acagastya (talk • contribs) 02:32, 16 February 2021‎ (UTC)

Pong. --Pi zero (talk) 03:27, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Yeah......I don't really fool around with IRC much. --Bddpaux (talk) 23:20, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

@Bddpaux: Both pi and I use IRC daily. In this case, pi could not use his computer, which needed to be fixed; so I asked him to use IRC from a different computer, so we could talk and fix his computer.
•–• 02:03, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

Brian??

So: I heard tell that Brian McNeil passed away. Is that pretty much confirmed? He's been absent from these parts for a very long time now.--Bddpaux (talk) 23:45, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

@Bddpaux: We were never able to locate a death notice, let alone an obituary, but we're quite confident of it by now. Apparently one of us had communicated with him earlier on the day he died, and there was no sign of any such immediate problem at that time. The quote from him on my user talk page —"Facts don't cease to be facts, but news ceases to be news"— now has a strangely altered feel to me. --Pi zero (talk) 23:55, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

Well.....my goodness. RIP, Mr. McNeil of Scotland......I never knew you well.....but you were a big part of this endeavor for some time. --Bddpaux (talk) 00:04, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

Long time no edit, but I saw this and did a little research through Facebook. It seems that Brian died early July last year, very suddenly. I had the great pleasure of meeting him some 10-15 years ago. Very sad indeed. He was fundamental to the development of Wikinews into what it is today. --Skenmy ^talk 01:34, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

@Skenmy: User talk:Brian McNeil#RIP Fam Feb 26, 1969 - July 4, 2020 --Pi zero (talk) 02:29, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Zara Kay???

Any fresh thoughts about that article? I'd love to take some formal action re: publication, but I'm a bit befuddled given the passage of time. Please look at contributor's talk page for my request/prompts. Just not sure what is the most prudent action at this juncture. --Bddpaux (talk) 17:25, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

@Bddpaux: I figure, in its current form it is not publishable; it's actually gone stale, which is hard for an interview to do but not impossible. Historically it's mainly my fault that happened, because in the time after the interview actually took place I persistently failed to get to it fast enough; but, regardless of how we got here, here we are. Iirc, ac wanted me to go through, verify/proofread/copyedit the interview, and compile a list of the obstacles to freshness, which is why it's on the review queue; but meanwhile there are two other interviews in danger of going stale if I don't get to them, and I'm having trouble getting to them. (And then, about a week ago, I had a catastrophic failure of my laptop, which I've spend almost 100% of my time for the past week trying to recover from. Yeah, sob story; sorry to vent my frustration. But... pardon my while I let out a primal scream. <primalscream>AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!</primalscream>) --Pi zero (talk) 18:33, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

re:

Hello, I'm looking for a tutor to publish this Wikinoticia en Spanish into Wikinews in English, could you check this: 12 Regards. Marinna (talk) 16:18, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

The original interview was done by me.[1]. I did the translated in my sandbox (Taller) to this Wikinews project, I want to improve and know the guidelines of this version in English. Marinna (talk) 16:38, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Is this information or rules are in translations of original reports of this project in English? the translation in progress is mine, and the original interview was done by social network. The rules are very different in other languages that I work. How do I improve or who improves this work in another language to be published? Marinna (talk) 17:06, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Even if it is a translation between projects? The work contains private data of the interviewee, which is unethical to make public. So the translation between projects is not possible, in this language is this correct? Marinna (talk) 17:25, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

It is published as an original interview with a source. In that case, it will not be possible for me to reveal information about my interviewees or myself.

It is not possible to work on a translation between wn projects in English. Thanks for your time. Marinna (talk) 17:59, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

┌─────────────────────────────────┘
Pi, I think you may have unintentionally over-complicated the situation, confusing Mariinna. I recommed asking one question at a time, and really keeping it simple, so we avoid talking past each other.
•–• 18:37, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for all you've done

I would like to dedicate this section of the now-deceased Pi zero's talk page as a memorial to him. Here, you can leave your condolences and you may wish to add a message if you want to. I will monitor this section daily, so make sure you don't leave anything bad here or I will have it reported to the correct source. Thank you very much. TheFurreterPress (talk) 18:50, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

You were an amazing contributor: thank you for everything. Rubbish computer (Talk': Contribs) 08:46, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

I already miss you, long live your legacy. JackPotte (talk) 10:59, 21 March 2021 (UTC)

Came here as soon as I learned of your passing. In addition to your immeasurable contributions to this project, you were a wonderfully wise and patient person. Farewell, you will be remembered. Yngvadottir (talk) 20:26, 9 May 2021 (UTC)

I only learned today... You were a true believer in this project and that always impressed me. I was not a believer and you knew that. We edited some of the same articles on Wikipedia in the time before 2010 so it didn't matter. I helped you out a couple of times with some technical things... I'm sad that we lost another believer in our projects. thank you TheDJ (talk) 10:29, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

A great loss for this wiki. My condolences for John’s family. Incnis Mrsi (talk, Russian Wikinews) 10:03, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Update password

I know once you remarked how you had never seen a password reset option which didn't ask for re-confirmation; and while browsing through dribbble, I noticed, they do not ask it either. There might have been a good reason to ask twice -- back in the terminal days -- and I am sure you would have made a compelling argument had you been alive now. But given the state of the internet and its users, it is hard for me to justify reconfirmation that is helpful for mass. I will tweak it, if 'newsies ask for it. But well, we aren't the only ones. Gosh, I wish I had discussed this while you were here.
•–• 05:22, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

I would have suggested some sort of philosophy behind SSH -- but non-free software always comes beween. I am tempted to say, "I wish we had discussed that, when we had time", but I know, what you would have said -- copious free time.
•–• 06:06, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

Farewell

I joined the IRC chat, as I usually did every once in a while, just to say hello. For the first time, you weren't there. I thought it was unusual, so I learned about this very sad news. I thought of you as a gentle human being. Thanks for being around and for those talks we could hold just about whatever. How's Pichilemu? It's good. Hope you're good too, wherever you are. --Diego.

Writing style

Now that I needed better documentation tool, I decided to use emacs' org-mode and now, the various ways you typed makes sense. I wonder what all would I find, in the chat logs when I look it up, I look forward to that, and discovering the tone I might have missed! Thanks for these sad happy moments, pi. •–• 08:23, 22 June 2022 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you for all you did. And continue to do, through the multitudes of edit summaries, review comments, and other comments you wrote over the years, which have been invaluable to me, especially since I became a reviewer without deep understanding of how to review. I only regret I abruptly left for a while after submitting my first article — which sucked, I'm sure — three years ago yesterday, and for some reason did not return until June 2021, and not really until August, when I soon learned the reason I didn't see you anywhere on RC. Your efforts, really, are the reason English Wikinews still existed when I joined Wikimedia in 2020. Without them, it probably would have been dead several years ago, and even if it didn't, it would never have developed the quality it has today. Thank you again, Heavy Water (talk) 04:04, 28 May 2023 (UTC)