Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2008-05-19
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-19/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-19/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-19/In the media
2008-05-19
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 necessarily live as of press time; the English Wikipedia is currently running version 1.44.0-wmf.14 (47ccde2), 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.
Fixed bugs
- API queries when multiple titles and a namespace filter are given no longer time out. (bug 14102)
- The links passed as parameters to MediaWiki:Fileexists-extension now contain the correct namespace, rather than trying to link to the image in the main namespace. (r34742, bug 14111)
- The spam blacklist now allows users to edit pages which already have blacklisted links on (but still prevents addition of new blacklisted links). (r34769, bug 1505)
- API log events queries no longer incorrectly return 0 for the log ID. (r34767, bug 10660)
- Pages transcluding Special:Newpages now again load (for a while, they mistakenly were blank in most browsers, and showed as an internal server error to Internet Explorer). (r34780, bug 14113)
- Email-blocking users now again prevents them sending email via Special:Emailuser. (r34846, bug 14133)
- The number of pages in a category occasionally incorrectly counted as negative; when this happens, the number of pages in a category is now recounted to give a correct count (however, the bug that's causing the count to drift off the correct value probably still remains). (r34870, bug 13683)
- A loophole in the spam blacklist was closed. (r34932, bug 14154)
- #ifexist: now works on special pages. (r35157, bug 13640)
New features
- The API action=expandtemplates query now allows a generatexml parameter; if given, it generates an XML parse tree for the text in addition to expanding templates in it. (r34716, bug 13829)
- Users are now warned on preview if a page exceeds a template limit; in addition, pages exceeding the pre-expand include limit are added to Category:Pages where template include size is exceeded and pages exceeding the template argument size limit are added to Category:Pages containing omitted template arguments. (The names of these categories, and the warning messages, can be customized; see Special:Prefixindex/MediaWiki:Post-expand-template-.) (r35059, bug 14094)
Configuration changes
- All Wikipedia:WikiProject Spam subpages have been added to Wikimedia's robots.txt, making them unsearchable by search engines.
- The Wikipedia logo was changed to remove an incorrect white border. (bug 14137)
- The definition of 'autoconfirmed' on the English Wikipedia was changed to require 10 edits (by server edit count, so deleted edits are also counted) as well as 4 days before a user becomes autoconfirmed, allowing them to move pages and edit semiprotected pages. There is active discussion on the bug page about whether the limit should have been increased higher. This follows a poll about whether the limit should be increased. (bug 14191)
- The rate limit for rollback on the English Wikipedia was increased to 100 rollbacks per minute, effectively removing it, following a discussion at the proposals village pump. This allows rollbackers to rollback pages more often than was previously possible (administrators and bots are not affected by rate limits). (bug 12760)
Other technology news
- The 'write API' (parts of the API that allow changes to be made to a wiki, rather than merely retrieving information from it) has been enabled on http://test.wiki.x.io/w/api.php.
- A feature designed to turn pages bold in a watchlist if they had changed since a user's last view was enabled for a while last week; it was turned off again shortly afterwards due to not working properly.
- Google Maps now embeds links to Wikipedia articles (to see this, select "Wikipedia" under the "more" button at http://maps.google.com); the articles are linked at places determined by the {{coord}} template on pages. (This feature was previously available on Google Earth, but not Google Maps.)
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/2008-05-19/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-19/Opinion
2008-05-19
News and notes
Russian overtakes Swedish for 10th-largest Wikipedia
This week, the Russian Wikipedia officially overtook the Swedish Wikipedia as the 10th-largest Wikipedia, replacing it on the Wikipedia.org portal. This week also marked the German Wikipedia's 750,000th article, and the Polish Wikipedia's 500,000th article.
Briefly
- After a poll to change the autoconfirmed level, it has been changed from a requirement of 4 days and 0 edits to 4 days and 10 edits for the English Wikipedia. Discussion is currently ongoing as to what the consensus was; some users have argued that consensus was actually for 7 days and 20 edits, since 66.7% supported at least that level, and that option received 61.3% of the votes by itself.
- Meta-Wiki has reached 1,000,000 revisions. In true "meta" fashion, the 1,000,000th revision updated Wikimedia News to mention the millionth revision.
- The Ukrainian Wiktionary has reached 5,000 articles.
- The Vietnamese Wikipedia has reached 40,000 articles and 200,000 pages.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-19/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-19/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-19/In focus
2008-05-19
The Report on Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee closed one case this week and opened one case, leaving five currently open.
Closed case
- Tango: A case involving a controversial block of MONGO by Tango under this finding. As a result of the case, Tango was desysopped, but can apply for adminship at any time.
New case
- C68-FM-SV: A case involving Cla68, FeloniousMonk, SlimVirgin, and JzG.
Evidence phase
- 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.
Voting phase
- Footnoted quotes: A case involving the use of quotes in footnotes, and general concerns with the biographies of living persons policy. Remedies supported by two arbitrators would encourage more enforcement of the BLP policy, and a one-year restriction banning Alansohn from making any edits judged to be "uncivil, personal attacks, or assumptions of bad faith". The latter remedy allows his blocking, without warning, should he violate it.
- CAMERA lobbying: A case involving lobbying by pro-Israel group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) on Middle East-related articles. A remedy supported by four arbitrators confirm the sanctions imposed by administrators (an indefinite ban of Gni, a one-year ban of Zeq, and a one-year ban on Arab-Israeli topics for Dajudem). Other remedies supported by four arbitrators provide a general amnesty for other editors who may have been involved in the lobbying group, urging community members to forward evidence about all forms of external group-lobbying to the Committee, and admonishing Hypnosadist to "maintain an appropriate level of professionalism at all times, and to avoid misrepresenting Wikipedia policy to other editors."
- Homeopathy: A dispute involving a number of editors over the Homeopathy article. Remedies with the support of five to six arbitrators include banning DanaUllman for one year, the creation of a "Sourcing Adjudication Board" regarding the inappropriate use of citations, and emphasizing the Committee's ability to issue subsequent sanctions in the case, based on reports of "inappropriate conduct" as judged by the Sourcing Adjudication Board. Another remedy, with the support of four arbitrators, allows uninvolved administrators to impose sanctions on editors involved in Homeopathy-related articles, for various reasons.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-05-19/Humour
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