This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Note that not all changes described here are necessarily 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. Configuration changes and changes to interface messages, however, become active immediately.

• The "Number of edits to show in recent change, history, and log pages" preference now has a description that reflects what it actually does. (r36364, bug 14566)
• On the list of pages using an image shown at the bottom of an image page, redirects to images now link to the redirect rather than back to the target image via the redirect. (r36391, bug 14572)
• Videos whose .OGG extension was written in uppercase now thumbnail correctly. (bug 14524http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14524)
• The HTML for the edit form was cleaned up, to reduce strangeness caused when it interacted with custom styles. (r36515, bug 14515)

• The list=blocks API query now accepts a bkip= parameter, which causes all blocks which block the IP given, or all IPs in the given range, to be returned, including rangeblocks which contain the IP or range given. (r36452, bug 14405)
• It is now possible to set caching settings for some API results, using maxage= and smaxage= parameters. (bug 14402http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14402)

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

The Wikimedia Foundation hired two new people today to fill the open positions of Major Gifts Officer and Head of Community Giving. Chief Financial Operating Officer (CFOO) Veronique Kessler announced the hirings on Thursday:

I am pleased to welcome Rebecca Handler as Wikimedia Foundation's Major Gifts Officer, and Rand Montoya as Head of Community Giving. Rebecca will start officially on August 4. Rand will start officially on July 7. ... Rebecca will report to me and will be responsible for face-to-face solicitations of donations from major donors. Rebecca will be working for us 20 hours per week. ... Rand will report to me and will work immediately on this year's Online Fundraising campaign.

As Major Gifts Officer, Handler will be responsible for dealing with the Foundation's strategy for attracting large donations. As Head of Community Giving, Montoya will be responsible for developing strategies for community donations, including fund drives and matching donations.

A new Firefox extension, the Universal Edit Button, has been released for Firefox 2 and 3. It allows users to click a small icon in the address bar to immediately go to the "edit" page on many different wiki engines, including MediaWiki (as an extension, but enabled for all Wikimedia projects), PeanutButterWiki, PhpWiki, Ward Cunningham's original wiki, and Wikispaces.

• A poll on whether to increase the autoconfirmed level from "4 days of activity and 10 edits" to "7 days of activity and 20 edits" is currently ongoing.
• The Japanese Wikipedia has reached 500,000 articles.
• The Portuguese Wikipedia has reached 400,000 articles.
• The Chamorro Wikipedia recently reached 100 articles.
• The Chinese Wikinews has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Bambara Wikipedia has reached 200 articles.

The Arbitration Committee did not open or close any cases last week, leaving three cases currently open.

• C68-FM-SV: A case involving disputes between Cla68, FeloniousMonk, SlimVirgin, JzG, and others.

• Giovanni33: A case involving the accusation of sockpuppetry by Giovanni33. Giovanni33 and Rafaelsfingers, who has been labeled as a sockpuppet of Giovanni33 by some, have denied the charges. Remedies with the support of three arbitrators would ban Giovanni33 for one year, and, at the expiration of the ban, again vote on whether to reban him for an additional year, with the same process to occur ad infinitum unless the ban is not renewed.

• Homeopathy: A dispute involving a number of editors over the Homeopathy article. A remedy with the support of eight arbitrators would ban DanaUllman for one year. Still being debated are:
  • The creation of a "Sourcing Adjudication Board" regarding the inappropriate use of citations: Currently supported by a 6–4 plurality, but 7 votes are needed for a majority. FayssalF and Thebainer have yet to comment on this issue.
  • A remedy emphasizing the Committee's ability to issue subsequent sanctions in the case, without opening a case, based on reports of "inappropriate conduct" as judged by the Sourcing Adjudication Board. Currently supported by a 5–4 plurality; FayssalF, Thebainer and FT2 have yet to comment on this issue.
  • Allowing uninvolved administrators to impose sanctions on editors involved in Homeopathy-related articles, for various reasons. The most popular wording of this remedy has 6–1 support with one abstention; absent any changes in voting or removal of the abstention, this remedy currently passes, because with the abstention, the support of just 6 arbitrators is necessary.