ProleWiki's library is looking to add more writings by the Palestinian Resistance, both current and old (PLO, Hamas, PFLP, etc).

We are, in the first phase (and as is our habit), collecting as much as we can in one place, and then will go through the data.

If you have any writings/texts/books/pamphlets, etc, basically any written material by the Resistance, we are very happy to collect it! Please format your submissions like this:

Title (author) type link

(if you are able to find a link online, which is much faster for us as we'll have to source the document somehow to upload it. Look on websites like anna's archive, scihub, etc).

The writings don't have to be in English necessarily, they can be in Arabic. We'll try to find a way to translate them.

Basically you can submit your criticism (even as readers of the wiki) and we'll collect it, organize it, and go through it at a later date to be defined.

You don't have to be an editor, but this pre-supposes a minimum amount of familiarity with ProleWiki. If you've never heard of it before it's as simple as visiting the website and logging what you notice in the form.

The feedback is anonymous so don't worry about being too harsh or anything, it's good that we hear it. You can also add a way to reach you in the form if we need to.

Link: https://framaforms.org/criticism-and-self-criticism-form-1713272254

Hello, comrades!

I'm here again to proudly announce that we've established a Persian language ProleWiki, managed and developed by our Iranian comrades @sudo_halt@lemmygrad.ml and TheSinnerOne. Their selfless contributions are a testament to the unwavering dedication and perseverance of our comrades in delivering a service to the international proletariat.

The expansion of our encyclopedia into Persian not only signifies the growing reach of our revolutionary knowledge but also symbolizes the unity and solidarity of comrades across languages, and cultures. And to think ProleWiki started with only myself in September 2020... And now we're spanning and delivering content up to 8 different languages, with editors from all over the world!

It reminds me of an excerpt of Pablo Neruda's poem, To my party, which I will highlight:

You have given me fraternity towards those I do not know.
You have added to me the strength of all who live.
You have given me again the homeland as in a birth.
You have given me the freedom that the solitary does not have.
You taught me to kindle kindness, like fire.
You gave me the righteousness that the tree needs.
You taught me to see the unity and difference of men.
You showed me how the pain of one being has died in the victory of all.
You taught me to sleep in the hard beds of my brothers.
You made me build on reality as on a rock.
You made me the adversary of the wicked and the wall of the frantic.
You made me see the clarity of the world and the possibility of joy.
You have made me indestructible because with you I do not end in myself.

And indeed, ProleWiki did not end in myself! Long live the international collaboration between comrades!

With the help of our comrade Syntrofos, we have opened a Greek language ProleWiki! Of course, since we have just opened it, you shouldn't expect to find much, except an article on Marxism-Leninism at the moment. Irrespective of that, having an open Greek wiki will allow people speaking that language to contribute with the wiki independent of the English language instance.

Our editors have done an excellent job in ProleWiki, but it's a job that is never really finished. There will always be something to add, a fact, a specific knowledge, and it's wonderful that we are opening up to further languages so more people from more places can know about our project and contribute to them.

All glory to the comrades at ProleWiki! Thank you comrade Syntrofos for your work!

Important: This article could just be an outlier. I haven't looked into many other articles on the site. I'm also not a writer of articles, just a reader. I respect the work of the ProleWiki writers and even this article is a good one. I might come off as harsh here, but I believe that the information itself in the article is good.

Edit: user ledlecreeper27 pointed out that the piece of text I am talking about was copied from RationalWiki when ProleWiki was new. This information adds very important context. I hope (and somewhat believe) that the criticism I provided can still be of value and use.

Some time ago I decided to look at ProleWiki (I haven't ever really looked at it) and I stumbled upon the article on LGBT+, which made me a bit confused. The article has a section for refuting myths about homosexuality which employs very impartial, informal, and argumentative language. While the idea behind the section itself isn't bad at all (although the title of the section also is quite partial, something like "misconceptions about homosexuality" would sound more "official"), the language just comes off as a personal blog post more than a wiki page. It's like a bullet point list of arguments with language like "That is a slippery slope fallacious argument; in other words, bulls##t." (My censorship)

I'm not trying to argue that you should be respectful towards homophobes. My problem is that the language that's used in the article makes it read less like a trustworthy source of information and more like just some person on the internet arguing. I think that impartial and formal language would make the information on the site seem a lot more reliable. Also less focus on presenting arguments and more on just presenting information would go a long way in making the articles seem (and be) more informational. All of the information in the arguments can be represented in a more impartial way, which would probably not only make the article more dense in information, but also make the arguments more convincing (but making the arguments more convincing isn't the most important thing here, unless... read the next paragraph).

But here's the important thing to note: all of what I wrote is assuming that the site is trying to be a reliable source of information, and similar to sites like Wikipedia. If the site is meant to just be some communists presenting arguments it's fine... kind of. I believe that impartial language actually makes an argument seem more convincing.

I avoid using the term "objective language" and opt for "impartial" instead, because I think that it is disingenuous to claim that your writing is objective. To me, impartial doesn't really mean that the idea is being represented in some centrist manner, just that the text attempts to sound neutral by avoiding for example calling things "stupid". I guess I'm just talking about formal language.

It's coming out early next week. Possibly even Sunday.

You'll want to read it. Every communist will.

I requested an account but there seems to be a bug on the confirm email page that doesn't let me verify it.

[c14434ff2e814adea7645edb] /index.php?title=Special:RequestAccount&action=confirmemail&wpEmailToken=[TOKEN] Error: Call to undefined method MediaWiki\User\User::getGroupsWithPermission()

Am I doing something wrong?

I really wanna hear what I should improve and things I should add

Any article that I try to read will throw an error about that there is no text

Special thanks to comrades @Elara@lemmygrad.ml, @ComradeEd@lemmygrad.ml and @ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml. Your patience and assistance were honorable

Right now, registration is closed and probably will continue to be closed for a while. Only editors can choose to have an account with the ProleWiki handle.

Now for step two: implementing a matrix-discord bridge. May take me a while 🥲

This has been a goal for two years, and we have finally achieved it today.

Even better, you can add up to 500 pages (including library works or essays) to a collection, and download it all as one PDF 'book'.

To get started, go on the homepage (https://en.prolewiki.org) and open the megamenu, then click on "Create book" and follow the instructions.

We're still ironing out some hiccups, but I can't tell you how happy I am that this works! Guess who's celebrating tonight 😎

We can no longer ignore there are Matrix users among our editorship, who prefer it over Discord for various reasons, some being they had to use VPN, they prefer Matrix for privacy and security, or simply because they hate Discord for some reason

There's also the problem our organization is currently intrinsically tied with Discord. So if we ever "found" to "break the rules" of the "community guidelines," which is always a bullshit excuse for censorship, we will face a major setback in our organization before we re-organize ourselves more autonomously.

Having a Matrix server and channels neatly organized can be a safe backup from such a setback, but the major reason we (and by this I mean mostly myself) are currently researching into implementing a Matrix server, is to host a bridge which would allow seamless communication between our Matrix and Discord members

Comrade @Elara@lemmygrad.ml from GenZedong has generously offered support in implementing the server, but neither of us knew how to configure the Apache webserver, which is the stack used by ProleWiki, and I'm currently stuck figuring this out. She has also set up a Matrix-Discord bridge herself for us to use, but it's safer for us to host one ourselves, to avoid leaving the server dependent on other servers.

Instead of requesting for a single person, anyone willing to help, please do so in the comments, and I'll answer you. I will share some information about our server configuration in the process, and since any conversation here is public, try not to ask any sensitive information.

I think this way more people can chime in and help us out, I've been having headaches with this 🥲

Edit: Thanks for all the responses, I didn't expect we had so many webdevs here lol. To complete the brief, the first thing we'll need to do I think is upgrade the PHP which is on an EOL version. What we are looking for is someone who shows initiative, it's how we work at ProleWiki from the admins down to the newest editors. You'll be able and encouraged to come up with your own solutions, ours may of course not be the best we could get. Our keywords are scalability, maintenance, and optimization, always to better serve the readers.

We have tons of ideas for the future, but every time we find a developer, either they don't know PHP (I can't blame them) or they bail.

I'm looking for a PHP dev who wants to help out with ProleWiki. We have tons of cool ideas to really bring this show on the road, but nobody to put them into action.

Can't guarantee we can pay you (and if we can believe me it won't be a wage), but you get tons of perks such as being part of a cool, chill, growing community, a project bigger than any of us, and I can even write you a letter of recommendation I don't mind.

As we look towards the future and where ProleWiki can grow and better serve its readers, we come to the conclusion we need more tech. And for that we need at least one PHP dev.

ProleWiki runs on MediaWiki and a VPS. We're thinking of getting an S3 bucket as that seems more and more needed every day (it's just our processes make acquiring stuff a bit slow). One thing I would want to optimize for example is image delivery.

If you're interested hit me up.

One or two chapters left.

So, I was reading the article on the PSL and I noticed that there "Controversy" section had a different bias compared to the rest of the article. The article on Maupin also has an anti-PSL bias. Can ProleWiki come to a consensus on the PSL rather than having competing biases on the PSL article?

Or see it in action ->> https://prolewiki.org

I feel it's better than the old one for sure, but that it's still missing something. Just not sure what.

Hey comrades,

We need your help for a quick focus group test to shape a new policy we've rolled out.

We're chasing out sourceless edits (see here for info), and we have a question on how much we should reuse a given reference now. It's now become a discussion and I figure it's better to see what the readers prefer to base our policy on.

Please look at these two edits of the same page, the "Post-Premiership" section specifically.

Please take the time to read through the section in version 1 first (it's just one paragraph), and only afterwards open version 2.

Version 1: https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Boris_Johnson&oldid=61998

Version 2: https://en.prolewiki.org/index.php?title=Boris_Johnson&oldid=62000

If you can't see a difference, please also tell me (everything you have to say is valuable feedback). But the difference is that in version 1, reference 4 is only used at the end of the entire paragraph to source all the claims in the paragraph, whereas in version 2, every claim has been linked to the admittedly same reference (number 4).

As a reader, which method do you prefer and why?

Also please note that every time we reuse a reference, it shows like this in the References list:

Does this bother you, did you notice it before I brought it up?

Again, add as much as you want in your answer. It will help us decide how to source in the future.

edit: please make a comment and don't just upvote by the way if you agree with someone! The more feedback we have the more we can refine our policy too, everything is good to hear. Thanks!

We know some comrades would love to edit the wiki but they do not feel "ready" to do so theoretically... Considering that, it's my duty to present the Lemmygrad community the library editors role in our wiki. Library editors are users who have access to editing our library, so they can help expand works available for everyone to read!

First of all, I understand those who feel they are "not ready" to create an account and edit. But you're not really required to be extensively well read on everything so you can contribute. Most of what I've learned about theory, history and politics was a consequence of my editing on ProleWiki, as I learned in the process of researching stuff to put on the wiki.

Second, if you feel like you're not currently able to research and edit stuff, it's understandable, since it takes work to do that. But by contributing to the library, you're helping others have easier access to important works.

Have you ever read anything you felt like everyone should read it? And when you search for that book, you realize it's very hard to find? Your contributions could help others have access to that very important information in a very accessible form. You'll be doing your part in elevating the consciousness of the people from the comfort of your home

So, go ahead and request an account already! Fill in the questions based on what you know, and if you're interested specifically in a library account, tell us so in your request form. This means we'll take it easy on your answers. Those who wish to request a full fledged account, just answer the questions to your best ability, but we're usually more rigorous with the answers.

We'll give everyone from Lemmygrad feedback about their answers, so you can see this as an opportunity to test your knowledge too 🤓

We are declaring war on sourceless edits and vow to purge all of them!

This is great news for you the reader, as from now on we are way more stringent on sourcing.

To that end, we have brought back patrolling -- a MediaWiki function that creates a queue of all edits where special users have to resolve the edit, kinda like resolving a mod queue item. Users who have shown interest in patrolling will be able to see this queue and resolve it.

From now on, this group will REVERT sourceless edits and claims, not to punish editors, but to remove unsourced claims from public view until they can be sourced.

Nobody will be spared: admins and patrollers have to have their edits patrolled as well by someone else. If we don't source, they can revert.

I'm very excited to announce this change that will improve our sourcing and authority as a trustworthy encyclopedia. We have allowed sourceless edits for too long, and this ends starting tomorrow.

"Common sense" claims will be allowed without sources so as not to drown a page in sources. These include, for example, a person's name or date of birth. Broad claims to introduce a topic, such as "The revolution brought many changes to the country" are also allowed without sources as it's a broad, vague claim that is obviously true. But if an edit said "the revolution brought many changes to social classes in the country", they would have to source that.

We expect our sourcing policy will evolve with experience as we try this new plan.

Background info (you don't have to read that)

Earlier today, we had to ban a long-time editor after they admitted on Reddit that they essentially used the wiki to promote their own project, which is fine and we discussed this with them. But they admitted they made joking articles just to mess with us. We banned them for this and removed all their edits. This included an entire article they wrote without sources. Essentially, they said we were idiots for believing they were being good faith.

This person had been with us for over a year and a half, and while they were an anti-revisionist, they had never given us trouble. We did have suspicions once, but nothing came of it after investigation. It was a shock to the editorship that they would betray

This event prompted us to change our sourcing policy. It already needed patrols, and so we finally went ahead with the plan in record time: less than 6 hours from start to finish, from deciding on the new policy (what it will do, what it will look like, etc) to finding volunteers and setting up the permissions. They are now, at this moment, making their way through the recent changes.

We are also discussing our policy regarding non-MLs on ProleWiki from now on. Every time we've let a non-ML on, they've abused our generosity and turned out to be opportunists. We let that user promote their group because we believe their group has an interesting project, and we like to give back to editors by letting them self-promote as ProleWiki is all volunteer work. We prefer to build bridges than burn them.

It's not like we let in non-MLs, but we might have looked at their account request seriously if they said they weren't MLs. With that I really just want to instantly reject them if they say anything other than ML lol. It's not policy yet though, we're discussing it.

Anyway, evidently some people don't feel like building things together and somehow it's never the MLs that are being difficult. It's always non-MLs that want to appropriate PW for themselves.

It's good in a way though, it shows we're punching above our weight and people are taking us seriously. We're gonna keep being ML as per our principles and we're gonna let revisionists and opportunists be scared of a growing power that calls them out and doesn't bow to them.

Ones to give comrades quick rundowns of Eastern Orthodoxy or Camus if they are not in the know. I'm not knowledgeable enough to write them, but it would be cool. You could include various marxist takes on them and stuff.

Ur cert is for some sorta cloudflare site :p

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/2873960

Lemmygrad and ProleWiki are the only communities I've found where I feel safe to be myself and more importantly, safe to learn. I always ask questions and want to learn so much. When I am here, those questions are not found by others as annoying or bothersome or suspicious, but rather as genuine questions from someone trying to learn.