This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Note that not all changes described here are live as of press time; the English Wikipedia is currently running version 1.44.0-wmf.12 (8b8c762), and changes with a version number higher than that will not yet be active.

• The limit on signature length has been changed to 255 characters, rather than 255 bytes. (Many non-English characters take up 2 or 3 bytes of UTF-8, and therefore the limit was effectively lower for usernames containing such characters before this change.) (r23389, bug 10338)
• Permanent links now work correctly in all cases if they refer to a page which was renamed. (Previously the links would fail if the redirect created by the move was deleted.) (r23445, bug 10377)
• It's now impossible to accidentally revert a page to a version in a different page's history (to do this deliberately, copying-and-pasting is now required). (r23483, bug 7071)
• The fallback used when the AJAX watch function fails to watch properly via AJAX now actually works. (r23506, bug 10397)
• A new interface message MediaWiki:Movepage-moved has been introduced to replace MediaWiki:Pagemovedtext, due to problems with the parameters in the old message. (r23513, bug 10401)
• Categories now page correctly in cases when several entries in the category have the same sortkey. (r23016, bug 10280)
• The help message for api.php, when specifically requested via action=help, now displays no matter what the output format. (r23566, bug 10931)
• The user creation log for a user (for instance, following Wikipedia:Request an account requests) has been fixed to reflect the contributions of the created user when colouring the contributions link (r23447, bug 10360), not those of the user creating the account

• Special:ExpandTemplates now includes a preview of the text being expanded. (r23441, bug 7172)
• An action=help&version query on api.php now returns the MediaWiki version number in addition to the information it previously returned. (r23502, bug 10392)
• Several changes were made to the way user and sitewide .js and .css pages were rendered; discussion about these changes was still ongoing at press time (some of the requests for changes to how they were rendered were contradictory; there have been requests both for the pages to display as fully syntax-highlighted JavaScript or CSS, and for the pages to be parsed entirely as normal wikimarkup, with various intermediate suggestions also having been made). Relevant bug numbers: 10196, 10314, 10410, 10422.

• The secure server, https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Main_Page, has been given a new security certificate that should be recognized automatically by browsers without an error message.
• The search feature accessed by default using Special:Search and/or the 'Search' button in the sidebar has been upgraded. New features include understanding redirects (redirects contribute to the score of their target and do not appear in the results), scoring based partly on the linkedness of articles, searching outside the article namespace directly from the search box (to do this, type the namespace name and a colon immediately before the search term, or all: to search all namespaces), the capability to search for accented titles by typing an unaccented version or common transliteration, and the ability to search for numbers. [1]
• There is ongoing discussion about the location and appearance of section edit links, due to usability problems reported with the current arrangement. [2]

• Internationalisation has been continuing as normal; help is always appreciated! See m:Localization statistics for how complete the translations of languages you know are, and post any updates to bugzilla.

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

• Transnistria: A case involving the actions of MariusM (talk · contribs) and William Mauco (talk · contribs) on Transnistria-related articles. MariusM alleged that Mauco (who did not make a statement) had engaged in sockpuppetry, edit warring and other misconduct. As a result of the case, MarkStreet (talk · contribs), William Mauco (talk · contribs) and EvilAlex (talk · contribs) were indefinitely banned from any editing related to Transnistria.

• Badlydrawnjeff: A highly controversial case involving the actions of Badlydrawnjeff, Doc glasgow, Tony Sidaway and JzG in relation inter alia to the article known as QZ, which underwent an AfD which was closed as delete by Drini, but overturned on DRV by Xoloz. The resulting AfD was then speedily closed by Thebainer. Badlydrawnjeff then filed for a deletion review, which was speedily closed or removed by a number of administrators and others consecutively, including JzG, Doc Glasgow and Tony Sidaway, and the closures often reverted or new DRVs opened. There is dispute as to whether the actions of all parties were within process, and whether, as some believe, WP:BLP takes priority over DRV. A peripheral issue to the case is a 60-hour block of Badlydrawnjeff by Zsinj, apparently after discussions on the admin IRC channel, although some have stated that the consensus on the channel did not favour the block. The block was quickly undone by Gaillimh. Additionally, some allege that Violetriga acted improperly in undeleting some articles deleted under BLP. As a result of the case, principles were passed to the effect that the overriding principle with respect to BLPs should be "do no harm", and that suspected violations may be speedy deleted, but that these may be contested through the normal channels, although they must not be restored until consensus has formed to do so, and remedies cautioning or admonishing Violetriga and Night Gyr to avoid undeleting content deleted under BLP. Badlydrawnjeff was cautioned "to adhere to the letter and the spirit of the Biographies of Living Persons policy".

• E104421-Tajik: A case involving the actions of E104421 and Tajik. The case had been suspended to allow a referral to Community enforceable mediation, but the mediation broke down after Tajik was alleged to have edited through sockpuppets while claiming to be away and unavailable for the mediation. As a result of the case, Tajik was banned for one year, and his community ban was endorsed, and AzaToth was reminded that Wikipedia operates by consensus.

• CharlotteWebb: A case involving the revelation by Jayjg on the RfA of CharlotteWebb (which then failed), that she used TOR to edit, and her subsequent behaviour.

• Armenia-Azerbaijan 2: A case following on from one previous, involving various Armenian and Azerbaijani editors.

• Zacheus-jkb: A case involving the actions of -jkb- and Zacheus. Jkb alleges that Zacheus has published personal data on him, and has made legal threats. Zacheus denies the allegations, and Thatcher131 alleges on the talkpage that jkb has himself revealed personal information on Zacheus.

• Miskin: A case involving the actions of Miskin (talk · contribs), who was controversially blocked by Swatjester (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) for one month (later reduced to one week) for alleged revert warring.

• Abu badali: A case alleging that Abu badali (talk · contribs) has disruptively tagged non-free images for deletion, even when a valid fair-use justification exists, and has harassed editors who have complained about this behavior. Abu badali denies the allegations. Fred Bauder has proposed a remedy, supported by Kirill Lokshin, placing Abu badali on probation for one year.

• NYScholar: A case involving the actions of a number of users, including NYScholar (talk · contribs) and Notmyrealname (talk · contribs), in relation to the Lewis Libby article. Remedies granting an amnesty for past edit warring, but providing that further misconduct may be sanctioned by any uninvolved administrator.

• PalestineRemembered: A case involving the actions of PalestineRemembered (talk · contribs), referred from the Community sanction noticeboard. Kirill Lokshin has proposed a motion to dismiss, with the support of four arbitrators.

• Piotrus: A case involving Piotrus (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA) and other editors on Central and Eastern Europe-related articles. Multiple parties accuse others of edit warring, incivility, unethical behavior and biased editing. (An earlier arbitration case, Piotrus-Ghirla, was dismissed without prejudice, in part due to inactivity of Ghirlandajo (talk · contribs), who was listed as a party in the new case.) An amnesty for past behaviour in editing disputes on articles relating to Eastern Europe has the support of three arbitrators. Voting on other remedies is split.

• Paranormal: A case involving the actions of various users, especially as regards bias and attribution, on "articles on paranormal and pseudoscientific topics", such as parapsychology and Electronic voice phenomenon. Proposals limiting editors on articles relating to the paranormal to one revert (other than of simple vandalism) per week, and cautioning Dradin and Kazuba have the support of four to five arbitrators; voting on other remedies is split.

• Hkelkar 2: A case involving the actions of Rama's Arrow (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA), Bakasuprman (talk · contribs), Dangerous-Boy (talk · contribs) and Sbhushan (talk · contribs), Rama's Arrow alleges that the others acted as meatpuppets of banned user Hkelkar, and blocked them for six months. They deny the allegations, and allege that Rama's Arrow acted improperly in blocking them, and in posting private e-mails to the incidents noticeboard. Various remedies have been proposed including an early proposal to impose no sanctions on any of the parties but calling on the parties to enter into mediation, based on a finding of fact noting a lack of reliable evidence in the case, but a proposal to prohibit administrator actions between the parties has the support of seven arbitrators, and a recent proposal to desysop Rama's Arrow (who recently resigned adminship) stands at five-to-two. Voting on principles regarding the posting of private e-mails is split but it appears that a majority of arbitrators will support the principle that private e-mails may not be posted on-wiki without the consent of the sender.

• Certified.Gangsta-Ideogram: A review of the Certified.Gangsta-Ideogram case. Ideogram and Sean William allege that Certified.Gangsta has engaged in tendentious editing since the main case.