Blocking changes implemented
The blocking changes announced last week were put into place on Tuesday. In light of the potential effects this would have on logged-in users working from a shared IP address, it was suggested that the change might warrant a range block of AOL proxies. These have been a chronic problem due to the difficulty in blocking vandals while still allowing legitimate editors to participate. However, soon after this was proposed Angela Beesley reported that AOL had agreed to set XFF headers, which will hopefully allow administrators to block one AOL user without affecting others.
Single-user login nearly ready
Single-user login, a long-awaited technical feature, is nearly ready to be implemented. The change would allow users to register a username once and have it serve as an universal username across all languages and all Wikimedia projects. To prepare for the change, developers requested that people make their email addresses and passwords uniform in all of their accounts; after the implementation, "all old accounts will be valid on all Wikimedia wikis, using a consistent username and password everywhere" after the migration of any conflicting accounts.
Fair use amendment implemented
An amendment was added to the fair use criteria after three weeks of discussion (see archived story). It allows deletion of newly uploaded images that claim fair use but fail to satisfy the criteria 48 hours after the uploader has been notified.
Voting continues on Incubator logo
The process of choosing a new logo for the Incubator entered a new step this week when voting proceeded to a new phase. After a previous vote resulted in an overwhelming result for a "meddie egg" logo, the community is now deciding between three variants of the logo. Each of the variants differs in the orientation of the middle of the "egg". A poll on the name of the Incubator wiki also continues, as does a vote on a logo for the developers' Test Wikipedia.
Briefly
- The English Wikipedia has reached 1,250,000 articles.
- The Indonesian Wikipedia has reached 28,000 articles.
- The Bosnian Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
- The Haitian Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
- The German Wikipedia has reached 250,000 registered users.
- The Armenian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
- The Friulian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
- The Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
- The Lithuanian Wikipedia has reached 25,000 articles with more than 300,000 edits.
- Articles on Marathi Wikipedia have been edited 25,000 times.
- The Manx Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
- The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 500 registered users.
- The Finnish Wikipedia has reached 70,000 articles.
- The Polish Wikipedia has reached 250,000 articles.
- The Dutch Wikipedia has reached 50,000 registered users.
- The Greek Wiktionary has reached 40,000 entries.
- The English Wikiquote has reached 7,500 articles.
- The Icelandic Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
- The Norwegian Wikibooks has reached 100 Wikibook modules.
- Wikibooks in all languages has reached 40,000 Wikibook modules.
- The Polish Wikipedia has reached 60,000 registered users.
- The Vietnamese Wiktionary has reached 40,000 entries.
- The English Wiktionary has reached 160,000 entries.
The Arbitration Committee opened one new case this week, and did not close any cases.
New cases
One case was opened this week; it is in the evidence phase.
- His excellency: A case involving the actions of His excellency. The case involves the actions of His excellency on Islam-related talk pages.
Evidence phase
- Alienus: A case involving Alienus. Users Tony Sidaway, Nandesuka, and Jossi have presented evidence in the case, noting that Alienus has been blocked 15 times, has assumed bad faith, and has been warned many times about making personal attacks, edit warring, and incivility. Alienus has not yet presented any evidence.
- Trey Stone Appeal: No evidence has yet been presented in the case, which is an appeal of an August 2005 case which banned Trey Stone from articles relating to politics for one year (to end August 11, 2006).
- Eternal Equinox: A case involving Eternal Equinox. Several users complained that Eternal Equinox has been trying to claim ownership of articles with edit wars and abuse directed at those who try to edit them. Eternal Equinox claimed to have left Wikipedia, but the other parties argued that this was not credible because of a number of similar statements made previously. Eternal Equinox has since returned, editing anonymously from several related IP addresses while acknowledging his or her identity.
- Hunger: A case involving a dispute about articles related to The Hunger Project. One of the parties, Jcoonrod, identifies himself as John Coonrod, an executive with that organization. The dispute has been in mediation about how and whether to include unflattering material about the organization in the article.
Voting phase
- Añoranza: A case involving Añoranza. Users asserted that Añoranza had been incivil, and had filed a retaliatory request for comment and request for checkuser. The dispute involves the usage of terms such as "Operation Iraqi Liberation" for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Fred Bauder has introduced remedies commending Añoranza for noting the usage of "propagandistic operational codenames", but banning him for a week for the disruptive way in which he went about this. No other arbitrators have voted in the case.
- 8bitJake: A case involving 8bitJake. badlydrawnjeff, the initiator of the arbitration request, has asserted that 8bitJake's editing on political articles was biased, and that 8bitJake was incivil to other editors on the articles. Remedies brought by Fred Bauder, and not yet voted on by other members, would place 8bitJake and related editors on probation and ban them from articles relating to the politics of the State of Washington.
- Dionyseus: A case involving Dionyseus and Danny Pi, and their actions on Veselin Topalov, an article on a Bulgarian chess player accused of cheating. Remedies brought by Fred Bauder, and not yet voted on by other members, would ban Danielpi for a week for "discourtesy and personal attacks".
- Iloveminun: A case brought against Minun. Evidence presented asserted that Minun and various sockpuppets violated fair use and image deletion policies by uploading copyrighted images and removing tags. Remedies supported by Fred Bauder, James Forrester, and SimonP would limit Minun to one account, ban Minun for a year for various actions (with all bans running consecutively), and place Minun on probation, personal attack parole, and revert parole.
- Irishpunktom: A case involving Irishpunktom, Karl Meier, and Dbiv. Measures to ban Irishpunktom and Dbiv from editing Peter Tatchell for one year, place Irishpunktom and Karl Meier on probation for one year, and place Irishpunktom on one revert per article per week parole have the support of four arbitrators. Debate is still ongoing on an appropriate remedy for the actions of Dbiv.
- Saladin1970: A case involving an appeal of Saladin1970's indefinite block originally placed by Jayjg, and later by SlimVirgin. Saladin1970 would be banned for at least 2 years, perhaps indefinitely, and placed on probation, general probation, and personal attack parole.
Motion to close