Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2007-07-09
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/In the media
2007-07-09
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
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.
Fixed bugs
- Formulae entered with the <math> tag now no longer have a chance of line-breaking when rendered as HTML. (r23649, bug 10438)
- An API query for a page's protection status now no longer has a chance of causing a database error and thus producing no useful output. (r23636, bug 10439)
- Parameters 3 and 4 to MediaWiki:Movepage-moved can now be used inside wikilinks without problems. (r23604, bug 10455)
- Watching pages no longer fails in Gecko-based browsers when the page's title contains a zero-width non-joiner character in the page's title. (Previously the watch appeared successful but failed anyway.) The same fix fixed the same error when using the CategoryTree feature. (r23834, bug 10477)
New features
- An (undo) link is now available for each edit on page histories, without going via the (diff) link first. (r23771, bug 1783)
- A new API query prop=imageinfo has been implemented, to query for details about an image. (r23819, bug 9142)
- It's now possible to query the size of the database server replication lag, using an API query for meta=siteinfo. (r23823, bug 10211)
- A local page MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist was added for blacklisting spam links from just one Wikimedia project. (Adding spam links to the Meta blacklist, m:Spam blacklist, will blacklist spam links from all Wikimedia projects.) (r23849, bug 8492)
Configuration changes
- Adding an external link to http://en.wikiversity.org (or any other language-version of Wikiversity) no longer triggers a CAPTCHA for new and unregistered users. (bug 10440)
Other technology news
- The Choctaw Wikipedia (http://cho.wiki.x.io) has been closed. (bug 10443, proposal on Meta)
- Wikipedia was uneditable for about an hour from 14:54 to 15:54 UTC on 3 July; the developers' log gives some possible reasons as to why ('brion' is User:Brion VIBBER):[1]
- 15:53 brion: lag problems on enwiki -- all slaves lagged (approx 3547 sec), but no apparent reason why
- 15:56 brion: lag problem resolved. stop/start slave got them running again; presumably the connections broke due to the net problems but it thought they were still alive, so didn't reconnect
Ongoing news
- 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.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/Opinion
2007-07-09
News and notes
Featured article stats changed
With help from SandyGeorgia, Rick Block, Gimmetrow, and Raul654, the FA stats page was revamped this week. The numbers there are more accurate and (for the FA proportion) more precise.
Wikipedia tops Nielsen/NetRatings' news/information rankings
Reuters reported this week that Nielsen/NetRatings' U.S. stats show that Wikipedia is "the top online news and information destination", with 46.8 million unique users, about 10 million more than the Weather Channel.
Briefly
- The Quechua Wikipedia has reached 30,000 edits.
- The Nepal Bhasa Wikipedia has reached 100,000 edits.
- The Polish Wikipedia has reached 400,000 articles.
- The Sicilian Wikipedia reaches 10,000 articles.
- The Spanish Wikipedia has reached 250,000 articles.
- The Venetian Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
- The Low Saxon Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
- The Wikimedia Commons has reached 1,600,000 files and 2,000,000 pages overall.
- The Wikipedia of Ripuarian languages has reached 250,000 edits.
- The Greek Wiktionary has reached 150,000 entries.
- The Icelandic Wiktionary has reached 11,000 entries.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-07-09/In focus
2007-07-09
The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee closed one case last week, and accepted five new cases.
Closed case
- PalestineRemembered was a case involving the actions of PalestineRemembered and a block of this editor by Jayjg, referred from the Community sanction noticeboard. Upon reviewing the case, the arbitrators concluded that the original dispute had been resolved and that all editing restrictions arising from this incident had been lifted, and adopted a motion to dismiss the case without taking any action.
New cases
The five newly accepted cases are all in the evidence stage of consideration:
- 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, and other user conduct issues on Scientology related articles.
- Great Irish Famine, a case initiated by SirFozzie, involves allegations including misuse of sources and harassment relating to Great Irish Famine and other Ireland/Northern Ireland articles.
- Attachment Therapy, initiated by Shotwell, alleges that other editors have engaged in POV pushing and tendentious editing on attachment therapy and related articles.
- Pigsonthewing 2, initiated by Moreschi, concerns the conduct of Pigsonthewing, including a series of conflicts between this user and other editors involving the use of microformats on Wikipedia and other matters.
- Vision Thing, initiated by Infinity0, concerns alleged edit-warring on anarchism, anarcho-capitalism, and related articles. The dispute has already been the subject of a prior arbitration case, Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Infinity0, involving some of the same parties.
Evidence phase
In addition to the new cases listed above, these cases are in the evidence stage:
- 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, and the conflict between them.
- 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.
Under review
The "under review" category refers to situations where the arbitrators are examining a party's compliance with a prior ArbCom decision, without opening a full new case to address the matter.
- 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.
Voting phase
In these cases, a proposed decision has been drafted and is being voted on by the arbitrators:
- CharlotteWebb: A case arising from the revelation by Jayjg, who has checkuser access, that CharlotteWebb had edited from TOR proxies. This occurred during CharlotteWebb's request for adminship, which then failed to reach consensus. In a proposed decision submitted by arbitrator Kirill Lokshin, the Arbitration Committee would note that CharlotteWebb remains a user in good standing and is welcome to resume editing, and would advise or remind Jayjg to seek to resolve this type of dispute privately before making public statements alleging misbehavior. Other arbitrators have not yet commented on these proposals.
- Miskin: A case involving the actions of Miskin, who was blocked by Swatjester for one month (later reduced to one week) for an alleged violation of the three revert rule following an earlier history of blocks. In a proposed decision submitted by arbitrator Mackensen, the committee would advise Miskin to seek consensus on an article's talkpage if his initial edits are reverted, and advise Swatjester to take the length of time since previous blocks into account in deciding for the length of a later block and to treat all editors violating the 3RR fairly.
- Abu badali: A case alleging that Abu badali 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. The proposed decision submitted by arbitrator Fred Bauder would place Abu badali on probation for one year. Arbitrator voting on the remedy and some of the findings of fact underlying it is split.
- NYScholar: A case involving the actions of a number of users, including NYScholar and User:Notmyrealname, in relation to the Lewis Libby article. The proposed decision authored by Fred Bauder would grant an "amnesty" for past edit-warring on this article, but providing that further misconduct may be sanctioned by any uninvolved administrator.
- Piotrus: A case involving User:Piotrus and other editors on Central and Eastern Europe-related articles. In the case, multiple parties have accused one another of edit-warring, incivility, unethical behavior, and biased editing. Arbitrators have proposed remedies ranging from granting amnesty for prior editing problems on these articles to placing "all articles relating to Eastern Europe, broadly defined, on general probation and parole" to banning M.K from these articles for one year. Voting on all the proposed remedies is divided.
- 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. Remedies including limiting editors on articles relating to the paranormal to one revert (other than of simple vandalism) per week, and cautioning Dradin and Kazuba, have been proposed.
Motion to close
An arbitrator has proposed closing the committee's consideration and finalizing the decision in this case:
- Hkelkar 2: This case involves the actions of, among others, Rama's Arrow, Bakasuprman, Dangerous-Boy, and Sbhushan. Rama's Arrow has alleged that the others acted as meatpuppets of banned user Hkelkar, which they deny. Rama's Arrow has since been voluntarily desysopped. Remedies supported by a majority of the Arbitration Committee would confirm Rama's Arrow's desysopping (but note that he is eligible to seek adminship again through RfA at any time), would urge the editors involved to enter into mediation regarding any unresolved conduct disputes, and would emphasize that administrators involved in a dispute should not exercise admin powers such as blocking against others involved in the dispute, but should ask an uninvolved admin to review the matter. Also supported by a majority are the principle that off-wiki e-mails should not be posted on Wikipedia without, at least, the consent of the sender, as well as a recently added proposal stating that "all parties are reminded in the strongest possible terms that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not a forum for conspiracy, personal attacks, nor the continuation of ethnic disputes by other means."
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