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 to the software with a version number higher than that will not yet be active.

• Recently, there were some major changes to the code that handled images (the display of the image's information in a table below the image was the most obvious effect). This fixed some bugs, and caused some more which have now been fixed:
  • When uploading an image so as to overwrite an existing image, the image showing a preview of the image now again shows correctly. (r25208, bug 11067)
  • Using the API to access information about old versions of an image now again gives the correct results. (r25212, bug 11072)
  • The 'file history' link at the top of an image description page for an image on Commons now links to the image's file history, which is now on the page (it wasn't there previously) (bug 7190; fixed by the image-code changes)
• The "show preview on first edit" preference now shows a preview of the preloaded text when a link to edit a new page with preload text is used. (r25236, bug 11095)
• When (due to a server problem or similar situation) the wiki has to be temporarily placed into read-only mode, the error message upon trying to edit now displays correctly. (r25293, bug 11114)
• Anonymous users (and other users who aren't allowed to create pages, such as blocked users) now again get an error message and no edit form if they try to create a page. (r25374, bug 11140)

• Special:Whatlinkshere and Special:Recentchangeslinked now have titles distinct from the page they refer to (most browsers display a page's title in their title bar). (r25245, bug 11022)
• When the tags <sub> and <sup> are used to format a section title, the same formatting is now used in the Table of Contents entry corresponding to that section title. (r25260, bug 8393)

Six Wikimedia wikis were closed recently:

• (bug 10690) Herero Wikipedia (closure proposal)
• (bug 10705) Akan Wikibooks (closure proposal)
• (bug 10707) Wolof Wiktionary(closure proposal)
• (bug 10720) Kanuri Wikiquote (closure proposal)
• (bug 10747) Quechua Wikiquote (closure proposal)
• (bug 10692) Sardinian Wiktionary (closure proposal)

• 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 or use Betawiki.

Last month, Wikimedia consultant Sue Gardner announced that a fundraiser would be held sometime this fall, possibly from September 23 through November 22. The last Wikimedia fundraiser ended in January, and netted the Foundation over US$1,000,000 in one month. By comparison, over the 7 1/2 months since the end of the fundraiser, only about US$508,000 has been raised.

New bids for Wikimania 2008 closed this week. Bids can be expanded and refined, but must be finalized by September 23; on that day, a public meeting will be held, and over the following two weeks, a question-and-answer period will help the judges with their final decision, currently scheduled for October 6. Six bids have been entered: Alexandria, Atlanta, Cape Town, Karlsruhe, London, and Toronto.

• The Thai Wikipedia has 30,000 registered users.
• The Turkish Wikipedia has reached 90,000 articles.
• The Estonian Wikipedia has reached 40,000 articles.
• The Bosnian Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
• The Zulu Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
• The Western Frisian Wiktionary reached 2,000 entries.
• The West Flemish Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The English Wikipedia has reached 2,000,000 articles.

The Arbitration Committee accepted five new cases this week, and closed four cases.

• Great Irish Famine: A case initiated by SirFozzie, involving allegations including misuse of sources and harassment relating to Great Irish Famine and other Ireland/Northern Ireland articles. As a result of the case, the article was placed under the "mentorship" of three to five administrators, Sarah777's editing was restricted, and MarkThomas was placed on civility parole.

• Attachment Therapy: A case initiated by Shotwell, who alleges that other editors have engaged in POV pushing and tendentious editing on attachment therapy and related articles. During the case, checkuser indicated that DPeterson had created at least four sockpuppets that were used to edit-war on these articles and create the appearance of consensus. As a result of the case, DPeterson was banned for one year, and the other parties were reminded to exercise care while editing articles as to which they may have a conflict of interest.

• Vision Thing: A case initiated by Infinity0 concerning alleged edit-warring on anarchism, anarcho-capitalism, and related articles. The dispute had already been the subject of a prior arbitration case, Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Infinity0, involving some of the same parties. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

• Armenia-Azerbaijan 2: A case alleging misconduct by various editors, some of whom were previously placed on revert parole in an earlier case, on articles relating to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and related matters. As a result of the case, those editors already subject to the revert parole were placed on probation (now sometimes referred to as "supervised editing") as well, and uninvolved administrators may impose identical remedies on any other editors who are identified as editing these articles aggressively and uncivilly.

• Bharatveer: A case involving alleged edit-warring, incivility and personal attacks by Bharatveer on India-related articles.

• The Troubles: A case involving a large number of editors on articles related to The Troubles. Some editors attempted to withdraw from the case when its scope was widened at the request of an arbitrator to cover the entire area rather than only the behaviour of Vintagekits, but in accordance with arbitration policy, these attempts, along with other changes to statements after the case opened, were reverted by the clerk.

• DreamGuy 2: A case involving alleged persistent incivility by DreamGuy.

• Dalmatia: A case involving a dispute between Italian and Croatian editors on articles relating to the Dalmatia region.

• SevenOfDiamonds: A case involving alleged abusive sockpuppetry and other misconduct by SevenOfDiamonds. SevenOfDiamonds vigorously denies the allegations, and alleges that MONGO has harassed him.

• Digwuren: A case involving alleged POV-pushing and incivility by Digwuren and alleged sockpuppets.

• Artaxerex: A case involving alleged POV-pushing, incivility and sockpuppetry by Artaxerex. Artaxerex denies the allegations, and alleges that Shervink and others are focusing on getting him blocked, and that certain editors push an Iranian nationalist POV.

• Jmfangio-Chrisjnelson: A case involving alleged edit warring, hostility and incivility between Jmfangio and Chrisjnelson. A remedy restricting the editing of both parties has the support of two arbitrators.

• Allegations of apartheid: This case concerns the conduct of various editors in connection with a group of articles whose titles include the words "Allegations of apartheid". It has been alleged that these articles were created in violation of Wikipedia:Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point, after several deletion debates concerning Allegations of Israeli apartheid resulted in that article being kept. Issues have also been raised concerning comments made in deletion discussions and reviews. Several users who have created and edited the "Allegations of apartheid" articles have strongly denied any inappropriate conduct. Voting on most proposals is split, but an amnesty for past actions currently has a majority.

• Catalonia: A case brought by Physchim62 involving alleged edit warring, possible sockpuppetry, and other misconduct by various editors on Catalonia, Valencian Community, and related articles. A proposal banning Maurice27 for thirty days has the support of three arbitrators, and one encouraging the parties to continue with the normal consensus-building procedure has five.

• Boris Stomakhin: A case involving a dispute between Biophys and Vlad fedorov, involving alleged BLP and 3RR violations, block evasion, and edit-warring. A remedy banning Vlad federov for one year has the support of five arbitrators.

• COFS: A case initiated by Durova based on a discussion at the community sanctions noticeboard. The case involves allegations of tendentious editing by various editors, sockpuppetry, conflicts of interest, and other user conduct issues on Scientology related articles. The proposed decision, which has the support of six to nine arbitrators, would ban COFS for 30 days for POV editing and require him to change his username and disclose any duties he may have to the Church of Scientology before resuming editing. A proposal banning Anynobody from harassing Justanother has the support of three arbitrators, and one placing Scientology articles on article probation has four.