Rosiestep

[Renée Bagslint]

Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, in the news for receiving a Serbian knighthood, the Knight of Saint Sava Pacifism. It seems her contribution to Serbia was writing the Wikipdia article on her grandfather, David Albala. Congratulations, Sir Rosie, what an appropriate reward for these valuable contributions to Serbian diplomacy.

Now what do Wikipedia rules say?

Conflict of interest (COI) editing involves contributing to Wikipedia about yourself, family, friends, clients, employers, or your financial and other relationships.

If you receive or expect to receive compensation (money, goods or services) for your contributions to Wikipedia: you must [do all sorts of things]

If you become involved in an article where you have any COI, you should always let other editors know about it, whenever and where ever you discuss the topic

I'm sure Sir Rosie will do all of those things.

So what is this knighthood? Google Translate also calls it "Knight of the World's Pascalism", and, surprisingly, "knights of Serbian diphtheria", but I assume that Andy Mabbett FRSA knows the correct translation: after all, it was he who started the article on this most notable of honours within minutes of Sir Rosie modestly tweeting about it to the world. Clearly worthy of an article now that it has been awarded to a Wikipedian.

Acknowledgements to GenderDesk for spotting this.

[Proabivouac]

The very title of the article would appear to be Mabbett's original research, as "Knight of the St. Sava Order of Diplomatic Pacifism" appears nowhere besides en.wp itself. As stated in the lead, "Knight of Saint Sava Pacifism" looks to be more accurate; there is no "order" or "diplomatic" here except in Mr. Mabbett's febrile mind.

Besides which, it's just a WP:COATRACK to flatter Ms. Stephenson-Goodknight – otherwise the article would not exist. The article also states, "Women who receive the award may use the honorific prefix "Dame", and men "Sir"." That strange and completely uncited formulation – are "dame" and "sir" even Serbian words? – makes sense only in this context.

[Auggie]

Interesting. European nobility really hit on something with all these meaningless awards and titles. Centuries later, the system is reaping huge dividends in the notability game on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia: catalog of decadent European nobodies.

[Renée Bagslint]

Of course Pigs is just making it up to flatter a fellow Wikipedian.

There is a link to the predecessor Order of St. Sava which was a royal order which disappeared at the abolition ("abolishment") of the monarchy in 1945. Curiously, one of the holders of that earlier order, at least according to Wikipedia, is Vladimir Putin, in spite of being born seven years after the abolishment -- but then almost all of the names in the list of recipients are unsourced and, I would venture, mainly hoaxes.

[Proabivouac]

According to the Serbian-language article which claims she received this honor, Stephenson-Goodknight is a professor and the vice-president of Wikimedia:

prof. Rouz Gojić Stivenson-Gudnajt, potpredsednik Vikimedij

https://www.blic.rs/autori/tanjug

Given that this is a reliable source, shouldn't these important facts be included in her biography? She is even more accomplished than we'd thought.

Who is Tanjug? This is the only byline for the article. It appears to be an anonymous blogger:

https://www.blic.rs/autori/tanjug

[Proabivouac]

Besides isn't this all forbidden original research? Mr. Tanjug names

prof. Rouz Gojić Stivenson-Gudnajt, potpredsednik Vikimedij

Wouldn't this most reasonably be viewed as referring to some other person named Rouz Gudnajt who is a professor, especially noting that transliterating personal names between Roman alphabet languages is highly unusual? The other source in play here, from the Israeli Embassy in Serbia, states merely:

Special guest and one of the panelists​ was Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, David Albala’s granddaughter.

http://embassies.gov.il/beograd/NewsAnd ... -the-.aspx

Okay, so someone who at least shares a name with the Wikipedia editor is his granddaughter. No mention that she's a professor, a WIkipedia editor or Wikimedia employee, or that she was honored with a kinghthood (!) How can anyone be sure that these refer to the same person and that this person is the same as Rosiestep except that Rosiestep says so?

[Renée Bagslint]

Who is Tanjug? This is the only byline for the article. It appears to be an anonymous blogger:

https://www.blic.rs/autori/tanjug

I assume it is TANJUG, the Serbian state news agency.

[Proabivouac]

Who is Tanjug? This is the only byline for the article. It appears to be an anonymous blogger:

https://www.blic.rs/autori/tanjug

I assume it is TANJUG, the Serbian state news agency.

Is there an actual author listed anywhere?

[Renée Bagslint]

I wouldn't expect to see a named author on an agency press release.