As most Wikipedians already know, AOL users tend to change IPs with almost every edit, and IPs tend to get reused frequently. This plays havoc with our blocking system. The X-Forwarded-For (XFF) HTTP header is a technical solution to this.

Soon after Tim Starling's overhaul of the block system in July, Angela reported to wikien-l that AOL would supply XFF information. This was enabled as of 13 July (see earlier report). However, it appears that, for now, it applies only to about one third of AOL's customers; XFF information is not available for the other two thirds due to AOL's network infrastructure (which one knowledgable person characterized as "weird").

• Various JavaScript variables were added for the benefit of user-script writers. (bug 6806)
• DjVu images supported (bug 6420)

• Error in Special:Export fixed (bug 6971)
• Special:Imagelist revamped, new information added.

• Account creation on Japanese Wikipedia briefly broken; captcha images were not set up properly.
• Captcha enabled, semi-temporarily, on German Wikipedia due to vandal attack.
• Wikimania 2006 registration page disabled due to major Ruby on Rails vulnerability.
• Stewards-l, new stewards mailing list, added.
• E-mail notification for Meta-Wiki watchlists enabled.
• djvulibre installed on wikis in the Korean yaseo cluster.

The number of candidates for the Board elections doubled this week as seven new candidates announced their intentions to run. Joining the previous seven candidates are Cartman02au, Eloquence, Hadraj, Jon Cates, Mindspillage, Ross.Hedvicek, and UninvitedCompany. Wikimedians have until August 28 to join the race.

Editorial note: The Signpost will begin an in-depth look at the candidates and the elections beginning next issue.

Even as Wikimania 2006, held in Boston, was just wrapping up (see related story), preparations started for Wikimania 2007. Bidding to determine the host city for the annual gathering officially opens Tuesday; however, several preliminary bids, ranging from Chicago to Istanbul, have already been started. The timetable for host city bidding calls for all entries and bids to be submitted by 10 September, 2006.

An effort to make translation and inter-language cooperation easier resulted in a series of new translator-combination "Babel" boxes on Meta. These boxes indicate that the user can translate from a certain language to another language; intended to "streamline the translation process", there are currently 20 such templates available.

• The English Wikipedia has reached 2,000,000 accounts.
• The Russian Wikipedia reaches 100,000 articles.
• The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 800 articles.
• The Urdu Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Dutch Wikibooks has reached 1,000 modules.
• The Haitian Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
• The Ripuarian Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
• The Bengali Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
• The Tagalog Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
• The Maltese Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
• The Georgian Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
• The Croatian Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
• The Tibetan Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
• The Dutch Low Saxon Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Vietnamese Wikisource has reached 500 edits.
• The Thai Wikipedia has reached 9,000 registered users.

The Arbitration Committee opened four new cases this week, and closed three cases.

• Moby Dick: A case brought against Moby Dick. Administrators Tony Sidaway, Bishonen, and MONGO have alleged that Moby Dick is a sockpuppet of Davenbelle, violating previous arbitration rulings in his political edits and his relations with Cool Cat. Moby Dick was banned from Turkish and Kurdish-related articles, and threats for him to be blocked should he continue to harass Cool Cat or Megaman Zero.

• 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. Minun was banned for a year for various actions (with all bans running consecutively), limited to one account, and placed on probation, personal attack parole, and revert parole.

• Saladin1970: A case involving an appeal of Saladin1970's indefinite block originally placed by Jayjg, and later by SlimVirgin. Saladin was banned for one year and placed on probation, general probation and personal attack parole.

• Kehrli: A case involving the actions of Nick Y and Kherli on Mass-to-charge ratio and related articles. Both protagonists accuse each other of POV pushing, adding unsourced information, and adding dispute tags without reason.

• Israel-Lebanon: A case involving the actions of AdamKesher, Tasc and others on 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. AdamKesher accuses Tasc of removing relevant external links which satisfy WP:EL, and he denies the allegation. In response, Denis Diderot accuses Kesher of "using Wikipedia as a tool to promote his POV".

• Deir Yassin massacre: A case involving the actions of KimvdLinde and Guy Montag on Deir Yassin massacre. KimvdLinde alleges that Montag has violated his probation by rewriting the article, unilaterally moving it to "Battle of Deir Yassin", violating copyright and votestacking. In return, Montag refuses "to participate in any of these proceedings", and alleges that KimvdLinde has abused her admin tools by exercising them in a dispute in which she is involved.

• Warren Kinsella: A case involving the actions of Arthur Ellis, Pete Peters and others on the Warren Kinsella article. Both users accuse the other of disruptive edits on the page, and Peters and others acccuse Ellis of sockpuppetry using anon accounts, while Ellis alleges that administrators dealt inequitably with him and Peters.

• Zer0faults: A case involving the actions of Zer0faults and Nescio on Template:War on Terrorism, War on Terror and related arguments. Nescio alleges that Zer0faults has engaged in violation of WP:POINT, disruptive editing, and "uncivil remarks". In return, Zer0fault alleges that Nescio has failed to assume good faith, violated WP:POINT and WP:RS, and failed to provide explanations for his reverts.

• Intangible: A case involving the actions of Intangible. Cberlet alleges that Intangible has used an "aggressive and confrontational" editing style to push his POV (partly through the wholesale deletion of the term "far right" from numerous pages), making sweeping edits and reverts with little or no discussion, and being "contentious and confrontational" in talk page discussions. Intangible vigorously denies the allegations.

• CoolKatt number 99999: A case involving the actions of CoolKatt number 99999 on WWOR-TV and related articles, as well as the actions of Crossmr, Kramden4700 and others. Rollosmokes and others allege that CoolKatt has violated WP:POINT, WP:OWN, and WP:NLT. They also allege that he has made unfounded allegations of sockpuppetry and vandalism against themselves and other users. In response, CoolKatt denies the allegations, describing them as "slander" and "Wiki-stalking". He also accuses Crossmr of incivility, and alleges that Kramden4700 has vandalised the WWCP-TV article, and that Rekarb Bob and Buckner 1986 are sockpuppets of Kramden4700. A temporary injunction has been proposed and enacted, which bans CoolKatt from editing pages other than his own user pages and the arbitration pages for the duration of the case. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies banning CoolKatt for one year, placing him on probation, and ordering the deletiong of all but five of his subpages. However, no other arbitrators have yet commented on these proposals.

• Ericsaindon2: A case involving the actions of Ericsaindon2, Coolcaesar and Will Beback. Coolcaesar claims that Ericsaindon2 has tried to insert original research, has disrupted Wikipedia, used sockpuppets, uploaded images violating copyright law, and failed to assume good faith. In response, Ericsaindon2 claims that Coolcaeser has contributed equally to the dispute, and that Will Beback has misused admin powers, in particular with incorrect and biased application of the 3RR. Remedies have been proposed limiting Ericsaindon to one account, placing him on probation, and banning him for one year. They have attracted the support of two arbitrators.

• Heqong: A case (formerly referred to as Chiang Kai-shek) involving the actions of Heqong (formerly Chiang Kai-shek) on China and Taiwan-related articles. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies placing Heqong on personal attack parole and probation, and banning him for one month for personal attacks. No other arbitrators have yet voted on these proposals.

• His excellency: A case involving the actions of His excellency. The case involves the actions of His excellency on Islam-related talk pages. Remedies banning His excellency for four months and placing him on personal attack parole have attracted the support of two arbitrators, as has one permitting the use of "traditional Muslim usages" such as "Salem, brother" on talk pages, so long as they do not create a hostile atmosphere for non-Muslims. Consensus has not yet been reached on other proposed remedies.

• Sathya Sai Baba: A case involving Andries and SSS108's actions on the article Sathya Sai Baba. Both have accused each other of "POV pushing", and violating Wikipedia's policy on original research. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies to the effect that the set of articles dealing with Sathya Sai Baba be merged into one or two articles, that unsourced information be removed from these, that on the application of Sathya Sai Baba or a representative (SSS108 is specifically named as acceptable for this), the main article, as well as any related articles, may be deleted by any administrator and replaced with a stub, in order to remove "poorly sourced negative information" from the articles' histories, as well as a complete amnesty for Andries and SSS108 for any unreliable information they may have added in the past. SimonP has supported the removal of poorly sourced information and amnesty remedies, but has abstained from the others.

• 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. Remedies have been proposed to the effect that Eternal Equinox is placed on probation and personal attack parole for one year, and Jim62sch is "cautioned to avoid teasing or taunting sensitive users". All these proposals have so far attracted the support of three arbitrators; other remedies are split.

• Israeli apartheid: A case involving the actions of editors and administrators on Allegations of Israeli apartheid (formerly at Israeli apartheid). The article was the site of a move war during a poll to determine the article's naming. Fred Bauder has proposed findings of fact to the effect that "Israeli apartheid" is as a title inherently POV, but that Wikipedia as a whole has a slight pro-Israeli bias towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has also proposed remedies to the effect that: editors to the article are directed to engage in good-faith negotiation, or, if it fails, mediation, to determine an acceptable title; all administrators involved in the matter are admonished not to use their admin tools without prior discussion, and five named administrators are reminded to make more use of dispute resolution procedures; and editors involved in the dispute are granted amnesty for past actions, except for Zeq, who remains banned from editing the article. Most of these proposals have attracted the support of three arbitrators.

• 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. Fred Bauder has presented voting measures, including findings of fact relating to the dispute and remedies to the effect that the articles on The Hunger Project and Joan Holmes (a related article) may on the motion of Jcoonrod be deleted and replaced with stubs, but the remedies do not include any sanctions for any editors. SimonP has expressed support for these proposals.

• 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. A measure to ban Alienus for a year for edit warring and personal attacks has the support of five arbitrators.

• 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. Remedies banning Añoranza for a week for the disruptive way in which he went about bringing the terms to light and encouraging the parties to enter into good-faith negotiations into the matter have the support of four arbitrators; other remedies are split.

• 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 supported mostly by three other arbitrators, 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 supported mostly by three other arbitrators, would ban Danielpi for a week for "discourtesy and personal attacks".

• Pudgenet: A case brought against Pudgenet, involving a dispute between Pudgenet and -Barry-. The dispute involved pages relating to Perl, as well as Wikipedia:Wikipedians with articles. If closed, Barry would be banned indefinitely from editing Perl and its talk page, all parties would be warned, and Pudgenet placed on personal attack parole, and, by a majority of five to three, Probation for one year.

• 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, place Irishpunktom on one revert per article per week parole and place Dbiv on administrative parole for one year have the support of eight arbitrators. However, Fred Bauder has opposed the motion to close, citing an edit to the proposed decision page which has been confirmed by checkuser to be Dbiv. As a result of this, Bauder feels that the remedies for Dbiv may need to be reconsidered.