Enhancements
- Set default disabled values for DjVu render options
- Added Xml::option() for generating <option>s easily
- Localized page numbers in drop-down for DjVu page selection
- Add --user, --comment, and --license options to importImages.php
Bugs
- Monobook.js is used for site content, should not be localized (Brion Vibber)
- PHP undefined offset on bad input to Special:Revisiondelete (Rotem Liss)
- PHP error for call to getId() on bad input to Special:Revisiondelete (Rotem Liss)
- PHP error for call to getTimestamp() on bad input to Special:Revisiondelete (Rotem Liss)
- Use WfBaseName in place of basename() in more places (Brion Vibber)
- Replace hard-coded empty message checks with wfEmptyMsg calls (Brion Vibber)
- Remove some PHP 4 compat cruft (Brion Vibber)
Voting continues in Board elections
Voting in the Board of Trustees elections continue this week. The vote, which uses approval voting, will end on Thursday, 21 September. All active users who meet the suffrage requirements - over 400 edits on one Wikimedia project prior to 1 August, 2006 with at least one contribution 90 days before that date - are invited to vote. As of press time, approximately 1,800 users had voted.
Voting on new logos for Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiversity
Votes on a logo for Wikiversity, on a new logo for Wikibooks and on a new logo for Wiktionary are currently ongoing. They started on 7 September and will continue until 21 September.
Foundation hires networking coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation general counsel and interim executive director Brad Patrick announced on 31 August that the Foundation had hired Mark Bergsma as networking coordinator. Bergsma will only be working part-time because of his continuing studies; however, Patrick called Bergsma's "dedicated manpower" a "critical" part of the Foundation's technical team. Bergsma will be responsible for helping maintain the Foundation's infrastructure, including "network reliability [and] independence".
Danny's contest to re-open
This week, Danny Wool, an assistant to the Wikimedia Foundation, announced the start of his third contest. In the past, he has sponsored two previous competitions, each encouraging competition between Wikipedia editors in improving the project. The first contest, held in October of 2004, searched for the best new requested article, and the second contest, which took place in November of that same year, sought the article most improved from stub status. However, this third competition will now involve editing an "unsourced article" either "related to history" or included on the list of vital articles and carefully sourcing and improving that article. Citing the need to focus on improving existing articles rather than creating new ones, Wool also asked that the line of requested articles on the recent changes header instead be modified to articles that have been requested to be improved to featured article status.
The contest will run through 7 October, and the winner will receive approximately US$100 worth in educational materials from Amazon, an online commerce company. It should be noted that Wool, while sponsoring the contests, is not acting officially from his position in the Wikimedia Foundation office.
Briefly
- The Vietnamese Wiktionary has reached 200,000 edits.
- The Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
- The Haitian Wikipedia has reached 7,000 articles.
- The Chinese Wikipedia has reached 100,000 registered users.
- The Min Nan Wiktionary has reached 3,000 entries.
- The Tajik Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
- The Belarusian Wikipedia has reached 500 registered users.
- The Volapük Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
- The Urdu Wikipedia has reached 500 registered users.
- The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
- The Bengali Wikipedia has reached 9,000 articles.
- The Turkish Wiktionary has reached 5,000 entries.
- The Portuguese Wiktionary has reached 20,000 entries.
- The Japanese Wikisource has reached 1000 articles.
- The Uyghur Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
- The Albanian Wikipedia has reached 9,000 articles.
- The Latvian Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
- The Spanish Wikipedia has reached 150,000 articles.
The Arbitration Committee opened two new cases this week, and closed four cases. Motions also passed in two prior cases.
Closed cases
- Sathya Sai Baba: A case closed on Tuesday after nearly three months, involving Andries and SSS108's actions on the article Sathya Sai Baba. Both accused each other of "POV pushing", and violating Wikipedia's policy on original research. Arbitrators ruled that unsourced or poorly sourced information be removed from these articles, and a complete amnesty for Andries and SSS108 for any unreliable information they may have added in the past.
- His excellency: A case closed on September 3 after over two months, involving the actions of His excellency on Islam-related talk pages. His excellency was banned for six months, and placed on probation for one year, and Timothy Usher was placed on probation for one year. An additional remedy permits the use of "traditional Muslim usages", such as "Salam, brother", so long as they do not create a hostile environment for non-Muslims.
- CoolKatt number 99999: A case closed on September 3 after two months, involving the actions of CoolKatt number 99999 on WWOR-TV and related articles. CoolKatt has been banned from U.S. television articles for one year and placed on probation, and all of his user subpages not compliant with WP:USER can be deleted.
- Heqong: A case closed on September 3 after two and a half months, involving the actions of Heqong (formerly Chiang Kai-shek) on China and Taiwan-related articles. Heqong was placed on personal attack parole and probation, and banned for one month for personal attacks.
New cases
- Kosovo: A case involving the actions of editors on Kosovo, particularly the political status of Kosovo.
Evidence phase
No other cases are in the evidence phase.
Voting phase
- Ackoz: A case involving the actions and community ban of Ackoz, and his later account, Azmoc. The user previously contributed to Wikipedia under the name Ackoz. He admits to "some trolling" after a three-day block, which led to his ban. However, he has stated that were he unbanned, he would cease his disruptive behaviour, and would be prepared to undergo mentorship. Fred Bauder has introduced remedies, which have not yet been voted on, to unblock Ackoz and place him on probation for one year, leaving open the possibility for a renewed community ban should Ackoz "revert to his previous pattern of sustained trolling".
- Marudubshinki: A case involving the actions of Marudubshinki. Snottygobble, I@n and others allege that Marudubshinki has operated an unauthorised bot, and misused his sysop powers by unblocking himself and allowing his bot to delete pages. A remedy to desysop Marudubshinki has the support of two arbitrators.
- MONGO: A case involving the actions of MONGO, rootology, and others. The case centers around Encyclopædia damatica, and an article posted on the site portraying MONGO in a negative light. Remedies proposed by Fred Bauder include indefinitely banning PrivateEditor, as well as other remedies that have not yet been voted on by other arbitrators.
- Ed Poor 2: A case involving Ed Poor. JoshuaZ and Consumed Crustacean have accused Poor of POV pushing and disruption; Poor has not introduced evidence in the case. Ed Poor was party to two prior cases; the first was closed after Poor resigned his status as a bureaucrat, and the second resulted in his desysopping. Fred Bauder has proposed a remedy placing him on probation, but no other arbitrators have yet commented.
- Pat8722: A case involving the actions of Pat8722. BorgHunter has accused Pat8722 of edit-warring. Pat8722 has requested that the ArbCom stay the case while he pursues 6 pro se cases in the American courts, and has agreed not to edit Wikipedia in the interim. A motion establishing the principle of a "continuance", and a remedy extending this to Pat8722, are supported by two arbitrators; a separate motion to place Pat8722 on probation has also been raised.
- Kehrli: A case involving the actions of Nick Y and Kherli on Mass-to-charge ratio and related articles. Both protagonists accuse each other of POV pushing, adding unsourced information, and adding dispute tags without reason. Proposed remedies banning Kehrli from articles relating to M/z for either one or two years, and from changing the notation m/z where found to any other notation, are being considered.
- Israel-Lebanon: A case involving the actions of AdamKesher, Tasc and others on 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. AdamKesher accuses Tasc of removing relevant external links which satisfy WP:EL, and he denies the allegation. In response, Denis Diderot accuses Kesher of "using Wikipedia as a tool to promote his POV". Proposed remedies to affirm the possibility of using blogs containing "contemporary opinion and observations" about current events have the support of two arbitrators.
- Deir Yassin massacre: A case involving the actions of KimvdLinde and Guy Montag on Deir Yassin massacre. KimvdLinde alleges that Montag has violated his probation by rewriting the article, unilaterally moving it to "Battle of Deir Yassin", violating copyright and votestacking. In return, Montag refuses "to participate in any of these proceedings", and alleges that KimvdLinde has abused her admin tools by exercising them in a dispute in which she is involved. Proposed remedies banning Guy Montag from articles relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, extending his probation for another year, and encouraging users to enforce Montag's probation have the support of five to six arbitrators.
- Warren Kinsella: A case involving the actions of Arthur Ellis, Pete Peters and others on the Warren Kinsella article. Both users accuse the other of disruptive edits on the page, and Peters and others accuse Ellis of sockpuppetry using anon accounts, while Ellis alleges that administrators dealt inequitably with him and Peters. Proposed remedies banning Ellis from the article indefinitely and limiting Ellis to one account have the support of four to five arbitrators, and an additional remedy placing the article on probation is being considered.
Motion to close
- Intangible: A case involving the actions of Intangible. Cberlet alleges that Intangible has used an "aggressive and confrontational" editing style to push his POV (partly through the wholesale deletion of the term "far right" from numerous pages), making sweeping edits and reverts with little or no discussion, and being "contentious and confrontational" in talk page discussions. Intangible vigorously denies the allegations. If closed, Intangible and AaronS would be placed on probation.
Motions in prior cases
- Aucaman: With the support of six arbitrators, and no opposition, Khoikhoi's probation, enacted in May, was rescinded, "in view of good behavior". Dmcdevit, who proposed the motion, noted that Khoikhoi had contributed to a recent featured article, and gave "no signs of the edit warring that caused him to be included in the ruling."