The ImageMap extension by Tim Starling has been enabled on Wikimedia sites. It is now possible for images to be easily used to link to pages, including with different areas linking to different pages. Users should remember to keep in mind the needs of browsers not capable of handling graphics well, such as screen readers and perhaps some handheld devices.

In response to the rise of indirect vandalism on the Main Page (see this Signpost article for further details), a new protection mode was added: cascading protection. If a page is protected this way, any pages included in it will also be protected for as long as they remain included in it. This protection should take effect instantly and automatically even if templates are included dynamically by a mechanism such as that used by the Main Page. Administrators can enable cascading protection by means of a checkbox on the usual protection form. (Andrew Garrett, various revisions from r18958 to r19103)

The {{PLURAL}} magic word now treats -1 as singular. (Leon Weber, r19031)

Tooltips and accesskey shortcuts no longer require JavaScript to use. Consequently, the way in which sysops should edit tooltips and accesskeys has changed. While it is possible to continue using the ta array in MediaWiki:monobook.js or MediaWiki:common.js, it is preferable to delete that and migrate any changes to the new individual messages such as MediaWiki:Tooltip-userpage. (Simetrical, bugs 5051 and 5376, r19036)

A minimum protection level for all pages in a given namespace can now be set in the site configuration. By default, the only namespace thus protected is the MediaWiki namespace, which, as before, is only editable by sysops. (Ilmari Karonen, r19110)

A bug that prevented non-sysops from viewing the source of system messages left at their default values, such as (at the time of this writing) MediaWiki:About on the English Wikipedia, was fixed. The bug was presumably a side effect of the recent removal of such default messages from the database. (Ilmari Karonen, r19111)

The contents of <math> tags, when rendered as plain HTML text rather than as an image, will now always be rendered left-to-right, even on right-to-left wikis. (Simetrical, bug 8002, r19143)

The page-specific CSS class now works consistently in Monobook and non-Monobook skins. (Mormegil, bug 8643, r19299)

JavaScript authors should be aware that recently, a minor change to the document structure was made for consistency, related specifically to handheld rendering: a div with class of pBody was wrapped around the unordered list in p-cactions, to bring it in line with the other lists there. This will cause issues for some inflexibly-written JavaScript that depends on the precise document structure. JavaScript authors are advised to write their scripts so that they will continue to function even if wrappers are added or node order changes. For instance, the <ul> element containing the content actions can be obtained with document.getElementById("p-cactions").getElementsByTagName("ul")[0];, which will almost certainly work despite any structural change. (Simetrical, r18949)

Also, a new utility function was added for the benefit of JavaScript authors. addPortletLink() will conveniently add a link to any of the "portlets" in Monobook, including the content actions, personal tools, navigation sidebar, and toolbox. The syntax of the function can be found in wikibits.js. (Ilmari Karonen, r19185)

A number of interface changes were made:

• The "undo" link on diffs now shows a diff demonstrating what changes will be made to the current page rather than simply showing an edit form. This is equivalent to clicking the "Show changes" button. Also, the message explaining what happened was clarified. (Andrew Garrett, r18907–8)
• All interface messages now show the correct tooltip prefix for the user's browser, provided JavaScript is enabled. For instance, the tooltip for "Save page" will now read "[shift-alt-s]" for users of Firefox 2.0, not "alt-s". (Simetrical, r19036)
• When viewing the difference between two revisions, users can choose via a user preference not to have the full text of the latter revision output below the differences. This should noticeably improve the time it takes to display diffs of large pages. Adding &diffonly=0 or &diffonly=1 to the end of a diff URL will display or hide the revision text regardless of user preferences, respectively. (Ilmari Karonen, bug 3446, r19141)
• On user pages, the "user contributions" link will show up red if the user has no edits. (Leon Weber, r19219, 20, 22))
• When printing, the user's browser font size preference will be used, rather than the text being forced to 11 points. (Simetrical, r19221)
• A link back to the list of deleted revisions for a page is now provided on the undelete revision preview page. (Rob Church, bug 7842, r19258)
• The block form now contains links to the unblock page and the block list. (Rob Church, bugs 8619 and 8628, r19259 and r19287)
• Users with appropriate permissions will now see a deletion link for each entry on Special:Brokenredirects. (Rob Church, bug 8522, r19262)

Some updates were made to non-English messages, specifically:

• Breton (thanks to Fulup)
• Finnish (thanks to Niklas Laxström and Ilmari Karonen)
• French (thanks to Rémi Kaupp)
• German (thanks to Raymond and Leon Weber)
• Hebrew (thanks to Rotem Liss)
• Indonesian (thanks to Ivan Lanin)
• Lithuanian (thanks to Edgaras)
• Portuguese (thanks to 555)
• Serbian (thanks to Sasa Stefanovic)
• Spanish (thanks to Titoxd)
• Swedish (thanks to Lejonel)

Internationalization help is always appreciated! See m:Localization statistics for how complete the translations of languages you know are, and post any updates to Mediazilla.

The Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser will conclude this week. At the end of the drive, over US$1,000,000 had been raised, not including a matching funds donation yet to be received.

After complaints over its effectiveness, and worries that it was being used inappropriately in disputes, the personal attack intervention noticeboard was shut down last week, after a deletion request.

The mailing lists for Wikipedia and other projects have changed to new addresses after the Wikimedia Foundation migrated them to a new server. All new addresses will use @lists.wikipedia.org, so that for example the English Wikipedia mailing list is now wikien-l at lists.wikipedia.org. Old addresses will still work, but the transition will include mail headers and may require recipients to adjust any filters or other settings they use to read list messages. Also note that links to old mailing list messages may point to different ones now: this is because of how the archive rebuilding process works.

• The Malayalam Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Yiddish Wikipedia has reached 3,000 articles.
• The Samoan Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
• The Zazaki Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Tamil Wikipedia has reached 6,000 articles.
• The Dutch Wikisource has reached 1,000 texts.
• The Hindi Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
• The Chuvash Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
• The Turkish Wikipedia has reached 60,000 registered users.
• The Dutch Low Saxon Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Ido Wiktionary has reached 100,000 entries.
• The Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia has reached 8,000 articles.
• The Tongan Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
• The Esperanto Wikipedia was edited 800,000 times.
• The Alemanic Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
• The Turkish Wiktionary has reached 100,000 entries.
• The Marathi Wikipedia was edited for the 47,000th time.
• The Korean Wikipedia has reached 31,000 articles.
• The English Wikipedia has reached 7 million total pages.
• The Portuguese Wikisource has reached 7000 texts.

The Arbitration Committee opened no cases this week, and closed one case.

• Brahma Kumaris: A case involving the actions of avyakt7 and 195.82.106.244 (195) on the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University article. Avyakt alleges that 195 has defamed Brahma Kumaris in the article but 195 claims that avyakt has misinterpreted the reliable sources policy. As a result of the case, 195 was banned for one year and placed on probation. In addition, the article was placed on article probation.

• Piotrus-Ghirla: A case involving the actions of Piotrus and Ghirla on various Russia- and Poland-related articles. Piotrus alleges that Ghirla has added unsourced POV material to these articles, and generally been incivil, while Ghirla claims that Piotrus has engaged in various forms of harassment, and calls for his desysopping. However, the parties have now entered into informal mediation, with proposals including mutual civility parole (and in which Ghirla has dropped his call for desysopping), and as a result of this, a motion has been proposed temporarily deferring the case until the outcome of the mediation is known.

• Starwood: A case involving links to Starwood Festival-related articles from various pages. Paul Pigman, who brought the case, alleges that Rosencomet "persistently and systematically" added these links, perhaps to an extent that violates WP:SPAM, and that Hanuman Das, Ekajati and 999 have harassed users attempting to remove the links. Mattisse confirms that she has been harassed by Hanuman Das, Ekajati and 999, but that she has no issue of harassment with Rosencomet himself. Hanuman Das has asked that his name be removed from the request, as "I decline to participate", citing that he has not edited the links since he agreed not to on the 5th of December. Although Arbitration is not a consensual process, he also seems to have exercised the right to vanish. 999 and Ekajati deny the allegations, and allege that Mattisse has used multiple sockpuppets to request the links and then call for their removal. In addition, various users allege that Rosencomet has a WP:COI, as the executive director of the for-profit ACE LLC, which promotes the festival.

• Robert Prechter: A case regarding the behaviour of Rgfolsom and Smallbones on the Socionomics and Robert Prechter pages. Rgfolsom alleges that Smallbones has violated WP:NPOV, WP:CIVIL and WP:DR (by abusing the mediation process), and that he has added "smears, demonstrable falsehoods, and a calculated overemphasis on quotes of critics". In response, Smallbones alleges that Rgfolsom has violated WP:V and WP:NPOV by removing claims critical of Prechter, and adding claims complimentary to him, and WP:COI because he is one of Prechter's employees.

• Husnock: A case involving the actions of Husnock and Morwen, involving a comment made by Husnock, "I would be careful telling a deployed member of the military they shouldn't edit on Wikipedia for whatever reason.", following disputes on various Star Trek-related AfDs, which Morwen considered to be "intimidating", and Husnock alleges that she stated that she was "in fear of her life", and that he has been investigated by real-world bodies regarding it. Fred Bauder has proposed motions describing Husnock's comments as "regrettable", and others desysopping him as well as cautioning him on various matters, and encouraging Morwen to "be more sensitive to the feelings of others". Most of these proposals have the support of three arbitrators, but FloNight has opposed the remedy relating to Morwen.

• Sathya Sai Baba 2: Thatcher131 alleges that Andries has repeatedly added a link to an unreliable source to the Robert Priddy article, in violation of a remedy in a prior case on the subject, and that SSS108 has edit warred and exhibited signs of article ownership on the page. Both users deny the allegations. UninvitedCompany has proposed remedies banning Andries from editing the article, or starting any dispute resolution procedures regarding it and requiring Etanik to edit under one username only. Fred Bauder has supported the proposals, but Charles Matthews has opposed the editing restrictions.

• Midnight Syndicate: A case brought by Durova involving an edit war on the Midnight Syndicate article. Dionyseus and Skinny McGee allege that GuardianZ has engaged in sockpuppetry and general disruption on the article. He denies the allegations and argues that Dionyseus and Skinny McGee have engaged in similar behaviour. A temporary injunction has been granted placing Dionyseus, Skinny McGee, and GuardianZ on revert parole. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies, supported by jpgordon and Dmcdevit, banning GuardianZ and Skinny McGee from the article indefinitely, and Dionyseus for a period of three months, and forbidding any employees of Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana or Monolith Graphics from editing the article.

• Yoshiaki Omura: Various users, principally Crum375, allege that Richardmalter and alleged sockpuppets have added biased, unsourced material to Bi-Digital O-Ring Test, an alternative medicine technique created by Yoshiaki Omura which was criticised by a New Zealand disciplinary tribunal as lacking scientific basis. However, Richardmalter denies that his pro-Omura edits were either biased or unsourced and claims that the mediation process has supported his position. Fred Bauder has proposed motions to the effect that "Richardmalter...[has] edited Yoshiaki Omura in an aggressive biased manner", and banning him from the article indefinitely. These motions have attracted the support of four arbitrators.

• Derek Smart: A case involving a dispute over the inclusion of critical material in the Derek Smart article. Various editors on both sides of the dispute claim that the other has violated policy in promoting their case, and some suggest that various accounts (Supreme Cmdr and WarHawkSP inter alia) are in fact used by Smart himself, citing as evidence perceived similarities in their writing styles. These editors deny the allegations. Remedies have been proposed prohibiting single-purpose accounts (of which Mael-Num, WarHawk, WarHawkSP, and Supreme_Cmdr are named as examples) from reverting the article, and banning Supreme Cmdr for two weeks, as well as an alternative remedy banning him for one year. These remedies have the support of three to six arbitrators.

• Naming Conventions: A case regarding a dispute over whether articles without alternative meanings should be disambiguated for the sake of clarity - for example, Never Kill a Boy on the First Date (Buffy episode). While about 80% of involved editors said in a straw poll that it should not be disambiguated, both sides allege that editors on the other have behaved disruptively. Fred Bauder has proposed a principle stating that appeals to the Arbitration Committee as a method to determine consensus in a policy dispute is not generally viable, due to the press of work as well as other considerations, and a remedy stating that no penalties are to be imposed in respect of past actions in violation of consensus, but has proposed an enforcement motion stating that editors who violate the consensus decision in the matter may be briefly blocked. UninvitedCompany has also proposed a remedy banning Izzy Dot for two weeks. These motions have the support of five to seven arbitrators.