The copyeditors’ consensus

(5/01/2021)

For three years, English Wikipedia editors passionately debated whether to prominently spell Vietnamese names with Vietnamese diacritics.

The bridge where friends meet

(2/22/2019)

The Benson Street Bridge, or “Rainbow Bridge”, marks the city limit between Reading and Lockland, Ohio. Residents are fond of mentioning a sign that hangs over the bridge, proclaiming both Cincinnati suburbs to be “Where Friends Meet”. But if you talk to enough people from the surrounding area, you eventually hear whispers about a less friendly sign that used to be posted at the city limit, warning nonwhites not to set foot in Reading.

Big Apple, bad apples

(9/04/2018)

After OpenStreetMap gets vandalized, the lesson is to focus on chasing away bad people and building good content.

Minutes from the last minutes of 2017

(12/31/2017)

2016 paved the way for a 2017 that took me in a couple new directions but mostly fell along the same themes.

Minutes from the last minutes of 2016

(12/31/2016)

A blog post authored on December 31^st is all but guaranteed to be a year in review. But I’ve procrastinated on updating this blog for well over a year, so you’ll get more than you bargained for.

Lowercase history

(10/13/2014)

Among my many roles in the Wikipedia project, I play the part of historian – lowercase historian.

Herding the world’s languages

(11/26/2013)

The wall of languages at www.wikipedia.org is one of the most frequently accessed series of bits on the Internet, and the whole setup is far simpler than any other portal you’ll visit, every bit as primitive as the design suggests. I’m trying to change that.

Cue the newbies

(10/28/2013)

While some of the Wikimedia Foundation’s English-language projects resist attempts to modernize the editing experience, the Vietnamese-language projects are moving full steam ahead.

Barriers to entry

(10/27/2013)

Good people with good intentions, good ideas, and good writing skills may nonetheless be unable to grok “wikitext”, the underlying language of Wikipedia’s entries. Why exclude them?

Lies in China

(2/13/2013)

Your classmates are perpetrating lies, the bystanders are too lazy to act, and your school is chuckling hysterically.

Serendipity

(3/16/2012)

I have an admission to make: I never really used the Encyclopædia Britannica. Plus: A script that allows registered users of Wikipedia to bring the true encyclopædia experience to the site.

Tabs

(3/05/2008)

Wikipedia’s page design, Facebook’s new user profiles, and why both are flawed.

Glass half full (minus a smidgin)

(10/23/2007)

TARDIS, hacking, underutilized beverage containers, and more.

Events that have transpired since this Blog went kaput over two Months ago, owing to the Absence of Spare Time and several Unfortunate Circumstances, in Two Parts.

(7/22/2007)

Yes, the cows have come home: Minh’s Notes is back.

Trust me

(3/07/2007)

I’ve been asked what I think about Essay’s fall from grace at Wikipedia. (Basically, a really high-ranking Wikipedian who claimed to be a “tenured professor” was exposed as a fake.)

Treachery

(3/02/2007)

A new free, online, collaboratively-written encyclopedia – sound familiar? – claims that Democrats have “a true agenda of cowering to terrorism [and] treasonous anti-Americanism”.

Know thy sources

(1/27/2007)

Ever wonder who’s writing all those Wikipedia entries? You know, the ones on topics that no sane person should have ever conceived of, let alone write about?

Rivalry

(9/18/2006)

Not to be arrogant or anything, but this is how a St. X graduate treats a Wikipedia article about Moeller High School, and how Moeller fans treat a Wikipedia article about St. X.

Mundane milestones

(7/13/2006)

Apparently my hometown, Loveland, was the subject of Wikitravel’s ten thousandth article. Plus: Speaking of Loveland, did you know that this little city has its own flag? And: In other news, I spent the day upgrading this weblog to use Movable Type 3.31 and sprucing up the templates accordingly.