Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/In the media
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Note that some changes described here have not yet gone 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.
This past week, the developers rolled out an update of MediaWiki to r47457. A number of new features and bug fixes are now live. [1]
Fixed bugs
- If an admin resubmits a block request without changing the block settings, a new block log entry will now not be added if the block settings are actually not changed. (r47604, bug 16436)
- Special pages that are updated using the updateSpecialPages.php script as a cron job were not working since early February. The code has been fixed and the scripts were manually run on the small wikis to make sure things have been fixed properly. (bug 17534)
- When moving a page over a redirect, the redirect from the old title to the new page was not working. This problem has been resolved. (r46424, bug 17300)
New features
- The __NONEWSECTIONLINK__ magic word has been added so that the new section link can be hidden on a page-by-page basis. (r47522, bug 16335)
Other news
- The Wikimedia servers were down from 00:50 to 01:50 UTC on February 21, due to a failed fileserver which triggered additional failures. Changes have since been made so that the servers are not as dependent on the fileservers. [2]
- A new gateway for mobile users of Wikipedia has been launched and is in testing. Some JavaScript code has been added to the English Wikipedia, to allow browser detection for users on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android-based device, giving them the link to the new mobile site. The interface on the new mobile site has been cleaned up substantially, with sections that can be expanded and collapsed. [3]
- The AbuseFilter extension is now enabled on mediawiki.org, allowing wider testing of the extension.
Ongoing news
- 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.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/Opinion
Wikimania, usability, picture contest, milestones
Wikimania 2009 Call for Participation
Wikimania 2009, this year's global event devoted to Wikimedia projects around the globe, is accepting submissions for presentations, workshops, panels, posters, open space discussions, and artistic works related to the Wikimedia projects or free content topics in general. The conference will be held from August 26–28 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For more information, see the official Call for Participation.
Wikimedia Usability Initiative wiki
Earlier this month, the Wikimedia Foundation launched usability.wikimedia.org, a wiki for testing extensions and configurations to improve the usability and user interface of Wikipedia and other projects, as part of the Wikipedia Usability Initiative funded by a recent grant (see earlier coverage).
Wikinews Picture of the Year contest underway
Wikinews is in the midst of its first Picture of the Year contest (not to be confused with the Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year competition that is also ongoing). The second (and likely final) round of voting is underway until February 28, with 11 possible candidates for Wikinews Picture of the Year 2008. Any Wikimedian from any project (including Wikipedia) with over 50 edits may vote.
Briefly
- According to Shi Zhao of the Chinese Wikipedia, Wikimedia SSL access (https://secure.wikimedia.org) is blocked in China as of February 20.
- The Wikipedia Loves Art photography scavenger hunt and free content photography contest is continuing through the end of February; upcoming public events include the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Honolulu Museum of Art on February 27. In total there are 15 museums and cultural institutions participating in the month-long event. (see earlier coverage).
Milestones
- The Indonesian language Wikipedia reached 100,000 articles. The 100,000th article is Luck By Chance, an Indian film, by an anonymous user.
- The Thai Wikipedia has 60,000 registered users, with 622 active users.
- The Gan Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
- The Latvian Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
- The Sakha Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/In focus
The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The results of the Checkuser and Oversight elections were announced.
The Arbitration Committee opened one case and closed none, leaving six open.
Evidence phase
- Prem Rawat 2: A case concerning the continued behavioral problems on the pages about Prem Rawat, and related articles. A previous case, Prem Rawat, was closed in May of last year.
- SemBubenny: A case about the communication behavior of SemBubenny (formerly Mikkalai), and his use of administrator tools in disputed deletions.
- Ayn Rand: A case about editorial behavior, such as alleged POV-pushing and bad faith, in relation to the Ayn Rand article. The Arbitration Committee accepted the case as they found that all other avenues of dispute resolution had failed to resolve the dispute.
- Date delinking: A case regarding the behavior of editors in the ongoing dispute relating to policy on linking dates in articles. An injunction has been issued prohibiting large-scale linking or delinking of dates until the case is resolved.
- Scientology: A case regarding behavioral problems in Scientology-related articles; the case is related to the prior case Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/COFS.
Motion to close
- Fringe science: A case initially filed about the behavior of ScienceApologist, but opened to look at editing in the entire area of fringe science, and the behavior of editors who are involved in the area of dispute. In a proposed decision now being voted on by arbitrators, Coren has proposed the creation of a new type of arbitration remedy, "supervised editing", which an editor may be placed under when he or she does not "engage other editors or the editorial process appropriately". A designated supervisor would be permitted to revert or refactor the edits of the other editor at his or her discretion, ban the editor from articles, or require that the editor propose any substantial content edits to the supervisor, who will make the edits on his behalf. After the period of supervision terminates, the supervisor will submit a report to the committee who will revise the remedy that placed the editor under supervision. Other remedies include placing ScienceApologist under such supervision, restricting Martinphi from editing policy and guideline pages, admonishing Pcarbonn, and issuing general warnings to behave and seek mediation. Arbitrator voting is in progress.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-02-23/Humour