Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2015-11-18
ArbCom election—candidates’ opinions analysed
It’s election season again: voting will soon open for the 13th annual election of the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee. In a repeat of last year’s election, there are nine vacant seats on the 15-member committee, eight of which will carry two-year terms and one a one-year term. Following two withdrawals, there are 22 candidates, up on last year’s 18; five of them have already served on the Committee for at least one term: LFaraone, GorillaWarfare, Kirill Lokshin, Thryduulf, and Casliber. Many eyes will be on the number of voters, which last year shrank precipitously by more than a third, from 923 to 593.
This year has marked one of the most fractious in the history of the Committee, in which judgment voting patterns have at times shown mild evidence of the formation of blocks of arbitrators, depending on the theme. There were several drama-infused cases, including the Gamergate case, which attracted unfavourable outside press coverage; gender-related cases appear to be a point of divergent viewpoints among the arbitrators. The current election will influence whether the Committee can regain cohesion and weather external shocks, including emotionally charged cases and critical coverage by external news outlets.
Excerpts from candidate statements:
Am I suitable to work here as an arbitrator? I have no idea.
Well, this is about the last thing I ever thought I’d do here.
Fuck it, I'll be the first to throw my hat in.
I don't want ArbCom to be regarded as a death panel.
So I was an editor, if not a very hardworking or ambitious one.
We must clean our house, lest those who could advise and assist us dismiss Wikipedia as a nest of boobies.
ArbCom has encrusted itself in mock-judicial trappings.
My opinion of the current committee’s Infamous, Thoughtless, Careless and Reckless handling of Gamergate received some attention.
ArbCom requires more innocent merriment, and I’ll do my level best to supply it.
I consider myself pretty up on cultural differences, having spent extensive time working in ... Canada, US, Australia, and Mongolia.
As well as reading the candidate statements and question pages, community members have written 15 voter guides, almost as numerous as the candidature. Against this, however, the Signpost is providing a different angle by presenting the results of an emailed survey to candidates on both their personal qualities and their views on ArbCom-related issues. This is the methodology we have used twice this year in our coverage of WMF Board and FDC elections. With so many candidates, it is a way to provide voters with comparative data gathered on a large scale in isolation, eliminating the "herd" effect in which candidates' responses are influenced by those of their colleagues. This is at the expense of reducing candidates' views to numbers, so we invited short statements to give respondents the opportunity to state more nuanced views—taken up by only a minority. The survey and the writing of this story was designed and supervised by the Signpost's Editorial Board; editor-in-chief Gamaliel was excluded from the process because he is standing in the election.
The survey
There are several findings of interest. The candidates overall think that cases take too long, that case procedures should be streamlined, and that it's too hard for community members to extract the important messages from ArbCom’s judgment pages. They are satisfied with the voting system in the election, and believe the WMF should take more responsibility for minor issues. There is mild consensus that ArbCom's scope to manage excessive behaviour should not be widened, and that off-wiki outing is never acceptable. Consensus is less clear on transparency issues. The candidates are significantly divided on Gamergate and gender treatment.
We received 18 responses; one candidate, Kirill Lokshin, did not respond; Kelapstick apologised that he's "in a jungle" with bad connectivity; two more refused to participate on the grounds that the questions "require candidates to reveal information that they chose to withhold in their nominations or chose not to reply to the users' questions" (Kudpung), and were not "transparent" (NE Ent). Hullaballoo asked to withdraw his responses well after the announced copy-deadline, and after the data analysis had been done, a request we declined. One of the candidates who responded, Samtar, has since withdrawn.
We used a seven-number Likert scale, exploring a six-point response space from 1 to 7:
- 1 = Strongly disagree
- 2 = Disagree
- 3 = Mildly disagree
- 4 = Don’t know or can’t decide
- 5 = Mildly agree
- 6 = Agree
- 7 = Strongly agree
Each candidate was invited to put a number against each of 20 propositions, and were informed that blanks would be counted as "4" for statistical purposes (these are marked red in the table). We have abbreviated candidates' usernames for reasons of space; those who have served on the Committee are marked with an asterisk. The full wording of the propositions appears at the bottom of the story. Averages and standard deviations appear first;1 then net positives (5–7) and negatives (1–3), which disregard the strengths of the responses to focus merely on which side of neutral candidates lie as a whole.
Key to the abbreviations of the candidates' names in the first row of the table below:
- Cal = Callanecc
- CL = Casliber
- D = Drmies
- G = Gamaliel
- GW = GorillaWarfare
- H = Hawkeye7
- HW = Hullaballoo Wolfowitz
- K = Keilana
- KG = Kevin Gorman
- LF = LFaraone
- M = Mahensingha
- MB = MarkBernstein
- OR = Opabinia regalis
- RF = Rich Farmbrough
- S = Samtar
- T = Thryduulf
- TT = Timtrent
- W = Wildthing61476
| Proposition | Avg. | StDev | Net pos. | Net neg. | OR | TT | M | G | CL* | W | Cal | KG | MB | K | D | GW* | LF* | H | RF | T* | HW | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (A) I have a record of minimising drama | 4.9 | 1.6 | 13 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| (B) I favour strong over light sanctions | 3.4 | 1.3 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| (C) I'm prepared to manage difficult editors | - | - | - | - | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| (D) Drafting judgments in plain, simple language is my strength | - | - | - | - | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 7 |
| (E) ArbCom's scope to manage excessive behaviour needs to be widened | 3.1 | 1.7 | 5 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| (F) All case evidence should be on-wiki | 3.4 | 2.1 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| (G) Arb discussions on cases should be on-wiki | 3.7 | 1.7 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 5 |
| (H) Arb burnout is a major problem to address | 4.9 | 1.3 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| (I) Judgment pages: easy enough for community to get the messages | 3.0 | 1.6 | 5 | 13 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 3 |
| (J) Accept fewer cases, leave more for AN/I etc | 4.3 | 1.6 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| (K) Cases need to take less time | 5.7 | 1.2 | 16 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 3 |
| (L) Case procedures need streamlining | 5.2 | 1.4 | 13 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 3 |
| (M) ArbCom was at its worst in handling Gamergate | 4.2 | 1.6 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| (N) I was satisfied with the Gamergate judgment | 3.4 | 1.5 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| (O) ArbCom should disregard off-wiki evidence | 3.3 | 1.7 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| (P) Off-wiki outing never acceptable | 4.7 | 2.1 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| (Q) ArbCom has treated men more sympathetically than women | 4.6 | 1.8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
| (R) The WMF should take more responsibility for minors issues | 5.8 | 1.4 | 14 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 7 |
| (S) I'm happy with Audit Subcommittee arrangements | 3.1 | 1.5 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| (T) I'm satisfied with the ternary voting system for ArbCom elections | 5.4 | 1.5 | 14 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
| Proposition | Avg. | StDev | Net pos. | Net neg. | OR | TT | M | G | CL* | W | Cal | KG | MB | K | D | GW* | LF* | H | RF | T* | HW | S |
Making sense of the data
Our motivation was mainly to survey attitudes to ArbCom-related issues by the group as a whole (this is a highly relevant cross-section of the community—those who put themselves forward for election). However, before they cast their votes, editors may be interested in scrutinising the responses of individual candidates.
Data interpretation can never be 100% objective, and the Signpost welcomes critical comments and discussion on the talkpage below. Propositions C and D we regard as likely to attract a higher level of public-relations calculation by candidates, which explains the narrow, positive range (who would admit they're unprepared for managing difficult editors or can't write clear judgments?); statistics are less relevant here and are not included. Proposition A might have been in the same class, except that the focus is on evidence (candidates' "record"), with responses ranging from 1 to 7. B is the hanging judge question, which might attract more scrutiny from voters: eight favour light over strong sanctions, four sit on the fence, and six favour strong sanctions (not surprisingly, only one of them going beyond mild agreement).
Let's deal first with the five propositions on which there appears to be clear consensus among the candidates:
- K: Cases need to take less time. There are 16 positives, 12 of them agreeing or strongly agreeing; 2 negatives, both mild disagrees; 0 neutrals. Three of the four candidates with experience on the Committee agree (i.e. "6"), with one mild agreement ("5").
- L: Case procedures need streamlining. 13 agree (only three of them mildly); 4 disagree (none strongly); and one is neutral. There was a high correlation with the responses to the previous proposition (K). One candidate with Committee experience flipped from agree to mildly disagree.
- R: The WMF should take more responsibility for minors issues. 14 positives (8 of them strongly); 2 mildly disagree; 2 were neutral. Over the past few years this has been the subject of discourse with the Foundation, which no doubt would like to minimise its legal exposure and the need to deal with the plethora of jurisdictional and linguistic issues on its sites.
- I: It's easy enough for the community to get the messages in judgment pages. 13 are negative, 4 of them strongly; 5 are positive, all but 1 of them mildly; no one is neutral.
- T: I'm satisfied with the voting system for ArbCom elections. 14 agree (5 strongly); 2 disagree (neither strongly); and 2 are neutral.
On four questions there is only a modest consensus:
- E: ArbCom's scope to manage excessive behaviour needs to be widened. 11 are negative (only one mildly); 5 are positive (none strongly); 2 are neutral.
- P: Off-wiki outing is never acceptable. 11 positives (four strongly); 5 negatives (three strongly); 2 neutrals.
- O: ArbCom should disregard off-wiki evidence. 10 positives, 4 negatives (three strongly); 4 neutrals.
- H: Arb burnout is a major problem to address. 10 agree (3 strongly); 2 disagree; 6 are neutral.
Consensus is less clear in two related questions about transparency, especially the second one:
- F: All case evidence should be on-wiki. 10 are negative (4 strongly); 7 are positive (none strongly); only one is neutral.
- G: Arb discussions on cases should be on-wiki. 9 are positive (2 strongly); 6 are negative (1 strongly); 3 are neutral.
On five questions, the candidates show no consensus:
- J: Accept fewer cases, leave more for AN/I etc. 8 are positive (2 strongly); 6 are negative (none strongly); 4 are neutral.
- M: ArbCom was at its worst in handling Gamergate. 8 are positive (2 strongly); 6 are negative (none strongly); 4 are neutral.
- N: I was satisfied with the Gamergate decision. The results were spread through the range 1–6, with 3 neutral. Interestingly, candidates were on average less positive about the decision than the handling of the case.
- Q: ArbCom has treated men more sympathetically than women. 8 positive (4 strongly, 1 mildly); 6 negative (none strongly, 4 mildly); 4 neutral.
- S: I'm happy with the Audit Subcommittee arrangements. There is certainly a negative majority (9, 4 of them strongly), with only 2 positive (a "5" and a "6"); but 7 were neutral.
Voting
The two-week voting period will open at midnight on Monday 23 November (although some voters may be confused as to whether this refers to midnight start or end of Monday). Voters are advised that the arithmetic of the ternary system means that opposing all candidates they are not supporting, rather than voting neutral for them, is a more powerful confirmation of their supports. An election feedback page has been established.
1 Standard deviations are a measure of spread. They can be roughly visualised as the space that contains a third of responses above the average and a third below it. If 5.0 were the average and 0.5 were the standard deviation, two-thirds of responses, roughly, fall within the range 4.4–5.5. The larger the standard deviation, the more divergent the candidates' views.
- (A) I have a record of minimising drama in emotionally charged onwiki situations.
- (B) I see myself as being on the tough side of the spectrum, favouring strong over light sanctions.
- (C) I’m prepared to manage difficult editors under the radar where privacy is imperative.
- (D) Drafting cases in plain, simple language will be one of my strengths as an arbitrator.
- (E) The current scope of ArbCom’s powers to manage excessive behaviour needs to be widened.
- (F) Case evidence should always be onwiki for the sake of transparency.
- (G) Discourse among arbitrators about a case should not be conducted behind closed doors.
- (H) Arbitrator burnout is a major problem and the Committee should address it urgently.
- (I) ArbCom’s judgment pages are easy enough for community members to extract the important messages behind judgements.
- (J) ArbCom should accept fewer cases and leave more to community forums such as AN/I.
- (K) Cases generally need to take less time.
- (L) Case procedures need to be streamlined.
- (M) We saw ArbCom at its worst in the way it handled the Gamergate case.
- (N) Given the difficult circumstances, I was satisfied with the final judgments on Gamergate.
- (O) ArbCom should disregard evidence posted off-wiki in its judgments/sanctions.
- (P) Off-wiki outing of a Wikipedian is never acceptable, regardless of the circumstances.
- (Q) ArbCom has tended to treat men more sympathetically than women.
- (R) The WMF should take more responsibility for managing issues related to editors who are minors.
- (S) I’m happy with the current arrangements for the Audit Subcommittee.
- (T) I’m satisfied with the oppose–neutral–support voting system in the annual election.
- Editor's note: Andreas Kolbe and Rosiestep made important contributions to help frame the questions as well as format the data on this page. Editor-in-chief, Go Phightins!, was also involved in the formulation of the questions and curation of the data. However, Tony1 deserves the bulk of the credit for this coverage. Questions or concerns can be directed to the Signpost talk page or the editor-in-chief's talk page. Thank you.
Icelandic milestone; apolitical editing
- Apolitical editing: The National Journal asks "How Does Political Wikipedia Stay Apolitical?" and quotes users Billy Hathorn, Fuzheado, Orangemike, Tvoz, and WWB on editing political articles and other controversial topics. (Nov. 20)
- Sanger speaks again: On his blog, interviewer Zach Schwartz posted the unedited version of his interview with Larry Sanger, published last week in Vice (see previous Signpost coverage). (Nov. 19)
- Icelandic milestone: The Iceland Monitor reports on the 40,000th article on the Icelandic Wikipedia, about a novel by Icelandic author Auður Jónsdóttir. The November 16 milestone coincides with Icelandic Language Day. The Icelandic Wikipedia is currently the 82nd largest Wikipedia. (Nov. 18)
- "Thank God for Wikipedia and Google": The Patriot-News reports on how transgender and non-binary Pennsylvanians communicated and sought information on the internet. "[T]hank God for Wikipedia and Google!" one said. (Nov. 17)
- Paging Dr. Wiki: Of the "8 Things That Made My Hospital Stay Extremely Uncomfortable", according to Felix Clay of Cracked, number 7 was doctor referring to Wikipedia: "Dude, don't do that. Don't read those things. Know those things. Know everything about them, or at the very least Google it on your phone so I can't tell I'm being treated by Dr. Wiki who got his medical degree from a line of dialogue he remembered from House and used it to make an edit about antibiotic resistances at 3 a.m." (Nov. 17)
- Wikipedia angel: The blog of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts of the University of Michigan discusses academic engagement with Twitter. One of them sought help on Twitter with the article on Arabella Chapman, stuck in Articles for creation during the October 2014 Global Women of Color Write-In. The article was rescued by a "Wikipedia angel", Gobonobo, who is not credited by name in the blog post. (Nov. 16)
- Shaping the world: The British Council placed Wikipedia at 47 on their list of "80 moments that shaped the world" during the last 80 years. (Nov. 14)
- Imprisoned Wikimedian: Global Voices Online reports on disturbing news about Bassel Khartabil, a Syrian open-source software developer and Wikimedian who has been imprisoned by the Syrian government since 2012. Khartabil's wife, lawyer and human rights activist Noura Ghazi, posted on Facebook: "I've just gotten disturbing and shocking news that Bassel has been sentenced to death. I think this means that the transfer to military prison was very dangerous. I really don't know other news. May God help him, we hope it's not too late. We are worried sick about his life." (Nov. 13)
BASC disbanded; other developments in the discussion world
In brief
- MEDRS discussions: The talk page of Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine), a guideline covering what is and isn't a reliable medical source, has received many comments in the last month or so. A few RfCs have been started on the scope of the guideline; the main discussion is here.
- Non-admin arbitrators? Since several ArbCom candidates are non-admins, editors have asked whether non-admin ArbCom members should be granted the admin toolkit.
- An ongoing struggle: Harassment has plagued Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects for years. The Wikimedia Foundation opened a discussion with the community regarding harassment on Wikimedia projects a few weeks ago; Wikimedians can submit their ideas, experiences, and proposals here.
Aktualisierungen
Updates on the discussions covered in the last discussion report:
- BASC disbanded: The motion for the disbandment of the Ban Appeals Subcommittee has passed. (More information, in the Signpost, can be found here.)
Ban Appeals Subcommittee goes up in smoke; 21 candidates running
In this week's Arbitration Report: one long-running case is finally put to rest, a Subcommittee is disbanded, and candidate-nominations are closed for the Arbitration Committee Elections, with voting for up to nine new arbitrators to begin 23 November.
E-cigs case
On 17 November, over three months after the case was accepted by the committee, the E-cigs case has been closed. In the committee's findings, despite application of general sanctions to the Electronic cigarettes topic, disruption still continued. Thus, the first remedy in the case is that general sanctions are rescinded, to be replaced with discretionary sanctions going forward. Furthermore, some discretionary sanction extensions were added, with one extension specifying that uninvolved administrators may topic-ban or block (up to indefinitely) single-purpose accounts in the topic area. The other extension encourages uninvolved administrators to monitor articles that are covered under the sanction. A warning for QuackGuru covered topic bans and restrictions from alternative medicine. Also, a warning for CFCF covered participation in multiple edit wars, leading to a 72-hour one-revert Restriction in the topic area.
End of the BASC
The committee made an 8–4 decision to disband the Ban Appeals Subcommittee. Formerly, this subcommittee (BASC) handled appeals via email, from users who had been community-banned (or blocks of long to indefinite duration). However, BASC was only intended for use in certain "last resort" circumstances, for users who had already appealed their block (via {{unblock}} on their talk page), and usually also via the UTRS interface. That was the primary function; BASC was not utilized for appeals of short blocks, topic bans (and other sorts of non-site-wide restrictions), nor ArbCom rulings.
The decision to disband BASC was actually arrived at during a discussion of how to reform BASC, which ended in a split 6-6 decision. The intent of the reform-proposal was to reduce the workload BASC was responsible for (one arbitrator estimated that BASC had received nearly 100 appeals in 2015 so far), by limiting the types of appeals that BASC would consider. Specifically, the reform proposal was for BASC to henceforth only hear appeals from editors who were subjects to an {{OversightBlock}}, a {{Checkuserblock}}, or other bans/blocks involving material "unsuitable for public discussion" (for instance privacy issues, harassment, and legal issues). Other appeals, not specifically needing such discretion, would henceforth be handled via UTRS, AN/I, or {{unblock}} reviews, should the proposed BASC reform succeed. In the end, rather than keep the separate BASC mailing list for handling this more limited set of appeals to BASC, it was decided to have the full ArbCom consider such appeals (along with their existing work hearing appeals to AE blocks and ArbCom remedies), and disband BASC outright. As of 16 November, all pages having to do with BASC have been marked historical, and the mailing list has been shut down.
Finally, self-nominations for this year's Arbitration Committee elections were closed as of 17 November (at 23:59 UTC). There are currently nine open seats, due to the unexpected retirement of one sitting arbitrator. Wikipedia has 21 candidates standing for election at this time; one candidate withdrew during the nominations-phase, then two more withdrew 20 and 21 November. Eligible voters (requires 150+ mainspace edits and must not be blocked at the time) are invited to review the statements of candidacy by the hopefuls, and discuss the election. Several voter-guides by individual Wikipedians have been categorized, and in some cases advertised. Candidates are taking 'official' questions throughout the election-period; voting begins 23 November (at 00:00 UTC), and ends 6 December (at 23:59 UTC). Best of luck to all the candidates running this year. During 2016, those elected will join six sitting arbitrators who are not up for re-election this cycle: Courcelles, DeltaQuad, DGG, Doug Weller, Guerillero, and Salvio giuliano.
- Editor's note: In the interest of disclosure, one of the 21 candidates in the election is a co-editor-in-chief of the Signpost. They are temporarily inactive with regard to their election-related editorial duties at the Signpost and will remain so for at least the remaining duration of the election. As of 16 November, Go Phightins! has taken the reins as sole editor-in-chief.
Fantasia on a Theme by Jimbo Wales
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
Six featured articles were promoted this week.
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (nominated by Tim riley) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies. Vaughan Williams is among the best-known British symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods. Among the most familiar of his works are Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, The Lark Ascending (1914), and Job: A Masque for Dancing.
- Smooth toadfish (nominated by Casliber), also known as Tetractenos glaber, is a species of fish in the pufferfish family Tetraodontidae. It is native to shallow coastal and estuarine waters of southeastern Australia, where it is widespread and abundant. Up to 16 cm (6+1⁄4 in) long with distinctive leopard-like dark markings on its upperparts, it has a rounded front and tapers to a narrow tail at the back. Often an unwanted catch by anglers, the smooth toadfish is highly poisonous because of the tetrodotoxin present in its body, and eating it may result in death.
- Baryonyx (nominated by FunkMonk) is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived in the Cretaceous Period, about 130–125 million years ago. The holotype specimen was discovered in 1983 in Surrey, England, and the animal was named Baryonyx walkeri in 1986. It was about 7.5 m (25 ft) long and weighed 1.2 t (1.3 short tons), but the holotype specimen may not have been fully grown. Baryonyx lived near water bodies, in areas where other theropod, ornithopod, and sauropod dinosaurs have also been found.
- Operation Copperhead (nominated by ErrantX) was a small military deception operation run by the British during the Second World War. It formed part of Operation Bodyguard, the cover plan for the invasion of Normandy in 1944, and was intended to mislead German intelligence as to the location of General Bernard Montgomery. The operation was conceived by Dudley Clarke in early 1944 after he watched the film Five Graves to Cairo.
- Tank Girl (nominated by Freikorp) is a 1995 American science-fiction action-comedy film directed by Rachel Talalay. Based on the British post-apocalyptic comic series of the same name by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett that was originally published in Deadline magazine. The film is set in a drought-ravaged Australia, years after a catastrophic impact event. It follows the antihero Tank Girl as she, Jet Girl, and genetically modified supersoldiers, called the Rippers, fight "Water & Power".
- Final Fantasy Type-0 (nominated by ProtoDrake) is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation Portable. Type-0 is part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries, a set of games sharing a common mythos which includes Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XV. The story focuses on Class Zero, a group of fourteen students from the Vermillion Peristylium, a magical academy in the Dominion of Rubrum.
Featured pictures
Ten featured pictures were promoted this week.
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Darkness and light
Summary: The tragedy in Paris, of course, had an impact on the list this week, with three slots in the top 10. Nonetheless, there is some nobility in the fact that, rather than let the nightmare top the list, we instead gave it to Hedy Lamarr's unsung contribution to the development of wireless technology, and that we didn't let current conflicts affect our annual commemoration of those who have died in past ones. It seems only fitting that the Hindu festival of Diwali, which signifies the victory of light over darkness, made its annual appearance this week. The very predictability of its return became an act of defiance.
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of November 8 to 14, 2015, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Ansichten Image Notes 1 Hedy Lamarr 
2,744,601 
I have to say, before researching this entry, my knowledge of this multitalented screen goddess began and ended with a running gag in Blazing Saddles. Despite living almost into the current century, she had basically retired before I was born and so never connected with my generation. Still, she was a remarkable woman; not only pioneering sexual content onscreen in the 1933 film Ecstasy but also inventing a forerunner of Bluetooth and wireless technology that was employed by the US military in the Cuban Missile Crisis. This unsung achievement was celebrated in a Google Doodle on her 101st birthday on 9 November. 2 November 2015 Paris attacks
1,237,935 
This event is moving at the speed of news, and so what I write will be obsolete by the time it is published. Even now though, the facts are staggering. The first suicide attack in French history; their worst mass killing since World War II; the worst attack in Europe since the Madrid train bombings more than a decade ago. Despite it bearing all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda attack, the killing has been "credited" to the murderous quasi-state ISIL. If that is true, then that is dark news indeed; it means they have managed to project themselves far beyond their claimed borders, and can draw other nations into their nightmare at will. France have already escalated their war in Syria in response, much, I am sure, as ISIL expected. Whether they or anyone else can finally put an end to the horror is still unknown. 3 Spectre (2015 film) 
1,199,500 
This article held steady at #3 for a third week, with an 11% jump in views. The British are not known as titans of the filmmaking world, but they have staked their claim with this latest in their defining James Bond series. The budget, topping $300 million, makes this the most expensive film ever made without the words "Pirates of the Caribbean" in front of it. After the last Bond film made over a billion dollars, it seems the proudly British producers have confidence enough to stand apart from Hollywood, premièring the film in six national territories—but not the US. That's not to say it didn't do well when it finally opened Stateside; it has held on to the top spot in its second week, and has, as of November 17, made almost $550 million worldwide. 4 Diwali
1,002,136 
The Hindu festival of light, which draws attention to the inner light beyond the material body, the Atman, has had to coexist with some fairly grim events of late. Last year, it was beaten to the top spot by the West African Ebola outbreak, and this year saw it shadowed by the Paris terror attacks. Still, we would, I am sure, appreciate a light for those we've lost as the Western world enters its own holiday season. 5 Prem Ratan Dhan Payo 
920,622 
Salman Khan (pictured) is having a good year. His Eid opener Bajrangi Bhaijaan is currently the second-highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, and now this Diwali event film has beaten that film's record-breaking opening day, taking Rs 400 million ($6.1 million). 6 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
896,501 
If they are to be believed, the repellent non-state has finally managed to extend its war beyond its shredded borders and into the heart of the West. This is an unprecedented escalation from them, but then, if there's one thing they've proven themselves good at in the last few years, it's unprecedented escalation. Some see it as desperation; ISIL have suffered numerous substantial losses from bombing and Kurdish incursions. Others have pondered if it marks the first shot in a new generational conflict. 7 Eagles of Death Metal
887,314 
The morbid fantasies of death metal came too close to reality this week when this Californian band found itself at the epicentre of the worst of the Paris attacks, at Le Bataclan club. While the band members made it out alive, one of their employees was among the dead. 8 Fallout 4
880,018 Bethesda Softworks' hugely anticipated continuation of their darkly humorous post-apocalyptic open world role-playing video game series sold over a million copies (to a tune of roughly $750 million) in its first 24 hours of release. 9 Deaths in 2015 
591,281 
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550 thousand on average, apparently heedless of who actually died. Numbers this week are unusually high, however; perhaps death is in the air. 10 Veterans Day
581,396 
The eleventh day of the eleventh month, when peace was declared after the hell of World War I, has been recognised for decades as a time to remember the dead of war. In the US, it is known as Veterans Day, while in the Commonwealth, it is known as Remembrance Day (which was number 11 in this week's Top 25 – together these two articles had 1,099,647 page views).
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