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 error message given when incorrectly including a parameter in a <references> tag is now factually correct. (r40632, bug 15517)
• The API now correctly returns data about pages which are both cascade-protected and which were originally protected before Wikipedia upgraded to MediaWiki 1.10. (r40678, bug 15535)
• Log entries for protection are no longer cut off when a very long protection summary is used (although existing such entries will still be cut off). (r40713, bug 12234)
• Edits by bots with newly-created accounts will no longer appear on [1]. (r40715, bug 15554)
• The XML returned by the API now has a correct encoding declaration. (r40700, bug 15497)
• Deletion log fragments are now shown to an anonymous user who gives the commands to create a page (and fails), just like they are shown to other users who try to create a page and fail. (r40723, bug 15551)
• When a user logs in when following a link from Special:Preferences to the login page, they are now returned to Special:Preferences rather than Main Page after the login (most other pages work like this, but previously Special:Preferences didn't). (r40773, bug 12284)
• The paging links on Special:Newpages now work correctly when the user has set a preference other than 50 as the default number of entries to show and is using that default value. (r40811, bug 15598)

• When protecting a page, a drop-down box of commonly-used protection times is now available. (r40555, bug 10188)
• It is now possible to set separate expiry times for move-protection and edit-protection of a page. (r40770, bug 12650)
• #expr: now allows a Unicode minus (−) as well as a hyphen (-) to indicate a negative number or subtraction. (r40762, bug 15349)

• Pages in the User talk: namespace are no longer searchable by search engines. (bug 13890http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13890)

• 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.

• Wikis Take Manhattan, a scavenger hunt and free content photography contest and sequel to last spring's Wikipedia Takes Manhattan, will take place on Saturday, September 27 from 1:00 to 6:30 p.m. local time. It is intended to generate free content for use on both Wikipedia and StreetsWiki. All are invited to participate.
• Wikispecies has reached 150,000 articles.
• The Lithuanian Wiktionary has reached 100,000 entries.
• The Basque Wikipedia has reached 30,000 articles.
• The Lithuanian Wikipedia has reached 70,000 articles.
• The Malayalam Wikipedia has reached 7,500 articles.

The Arbitration Committee did not open any cases this week, and closed one case, leaving four currently open.

• Alastair Haines: A case involving Alastair Haines and other users. As a result of the case, various editing restrictions were imposed on him, as well as on Ilkali and LisaLiel.

• Piotrus 2: A second case involving alleged edit warring and other misconduct by Piotrus and other editors. Piotrus denies the allegations against him, and suggests that the case may be a deliberate attempt to drive him from the site.

• Sarah Palin protection wheel war: A case involving wheel warring on the Sarah Palin article, over a dispute as to the merits of page protection being applied in respect of it.

• SlimVirgin-Lar: A case brought by Thatcher, asking the committee to review the use of checkuser by Lar, in the light of comments by SlimVirgin (here, inter alia), alleging that he misused the tool. Evidence is to be submitted privately to the committee by e-mail, and voting will presumably occur privately as well.

• C68-FM-SV: A case involving disputes between Cla68, FeloniousMonk, SlimVirgin, JzG, and others. Newyorkbrad has proposed a lengthy decision, most of which has the support of seven arbitrators, which sets out a number of principles and findings of fact, and instructs the parties to review and abide by them, giving a number of prohibited courses of conduct by way of example. A remedy to desysop FeloniousMonk has the support of five arbitrators.