Tables can now be made sortable via JavaScript. Any table with class="sortable" will have arrows in each of its header cells, and clicking them will cause the table to sort according to that column's values. For instance, a table of countries could be sorted by the user according to country name, GDP, currency code, etc. A demonstration of the script can be viewed here. As always, the change might not be live for several days. (patch by Stuart Langridge, Lupin, Jonathan Snook, Robert Nyman, and Simetrical; r17803, bug 2001)

An extension written by Steve Sanbeg, Labeled Section Transclusion, was committed to the MediaWiki codebase in Subversion by Nick Jenkins. While it is not yet enabled on any Wikimedia site, it may be in the future. The extension allows pieces of pages to be transcluded without transcluding the entire page. It was requested for use on Wikisource in particular at bug 5881, where Dovi Jacobs and others noted how useful it would be for including things such as Bible verses.

A minor bug in retroactive autoblocking, where a user could be retroactively autoblocked even if the block failed, was fixed. (Andrew Garrett, r17802)

Several interface changes were made this week:

• The external link icon for links to video, audio, and PDF files have been changed from the standard outward arrow to media-specific icons. Icons for image files and non-PDF document formats were not added because no one has submitted any at the bug page as of press time. (icons by Flamurai, patch by Simetrical; r17593 and r17594, bug 1578)
• Automatic edit summaries are now inserted for edits where the page is blanked or reduced in length by over 90%, and for new articles of less than 500 characters, where no summary is provided by the editor. These join Rob Church's earlier addition of an automatic summary for the creation of redirects. (Andrew Garrett; r17608, r17609, and r17804)
• Edit summary previews now appear on the preview page. (Simetrical, r17660, bug 7811)
• When previewing pages that have a float near the bottom (e.g., Template:Politics of Vatican City), the edit toolbar will now display in the correct place. (Simetrical, r17712, bug 7932)
• When viewing an old revision of a page, there is now a diff link next to the link to the current revision. (Simetrical, r17714, bug 6873)
• A rollback link is now available directly on articles' history pages. (Simetrical, r17715 and r17797, bug 3315)
• When previewing a page, additions and removals of templates will be correctly reflected in the "templates used on this page" list. When editing a section, the list will display only the templates used in that section. (Mark Haidar [Fyren], r17738 and r17800, bug 7918)
• When viewing a diff, if a summary contains an automatic edit section link, it jumps to the correct place on the diff page and doesn't load the latest version of the page. (Mark Haidar [Fyren], r17741, bug 7688)
• JavaScript code on the page MediaWiki:Common.js will now be used by all users, even those who do not use the default Monobook skin (non-Monobook skins are available under the "Skins" section of "my preferences"). Previously the contents of MediaWiki:Monobook.js had been included in every page in Monobook, enabling admins to add custom JavaScript code, but only for users of Monobook. Monobook.js is redundant to the new page, since skin-specific code can be added to Common.js using the skin variable, and is therefore deprecated. (Simetrical, r17737 and r17755, bug 4178)
• Users who have chosen to be prompted for edit summaries when they leave them blank will no longer be prompted if a "Redirecting to X" autosummary will be inserted automatically. (Simetrical, r17801, bug 7889)

Some updates were made to non-English messages, specifically:

• Czech (thanks to Mormegil)
• Hebrew (thanks to Rotem Liss)
• Italian (thanks to BrokenArrow)
• Kazakh (thanks to AlefZet)
• Vietnamese (thanks to Minh Nguyễn)

Internationalization help is always appreciated! See m:Localization statistics for how complete the translations of languages you know are, and post any updates to Mediazilla.

The Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (website), a United Nations Development Programme, announced the donation of 15 e-Primers to Wikibooks this week. By releasing the e-books, which all deal with Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D), under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, the same license in which all Wikimedia Foundation projects (except Wikinews) are developed under, the Programme is allowing the books to be freely updated and improved. Nine of the books are in the Programme's series on "Information Economy, Society and Polity", and the other six are in a series concerning "Free/Open Source Software (FOSS)". Wikibooks was chosen because of the potential for collaboration, as well as the existing "quality control", policies and guidelines, as well as the free content license used.

Over the coming weeks, editors may notice that the user page messages and warning templates are changing. The WikiProject user warnings has started a program to harmonise the existing templates. Their objective is to create a simple structure to which current and future messages and warnings will adhere.

These messages are, for a lot of editors, their first actual interaction with the Wikipedia community. There are currently just short of 300 user templates, ranging from the ubiquitous test messages to messages about behaviour and format suggestions. Technical and wording changes will bring this number down to roughly 100, although redirects will ensure that old templates still work.

The project is currently run by six members, with another 40 willing to help out, and they are always looking for editors willing to participate. If you are not familiar with the project, visit the project page, and if you have some spare time over the coming months please lend a hand.

• The French Wikisource has reached 20,000 pages
• The Azeri Wikipedia has reached 500 registered users.
• The Quechua Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
• The Hindi Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
• The Czech Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 38,000 edits.
• The Hungarian Wikipedia has reached 1,000,000 edits.
• The Kurdish Wikipedia has reached 7,000 articles.
• The Zazaki Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
• The Bavarian Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
• The Spanish Wikipedia has reached 170,000 articles.
• The Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
• The Norman Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
• The Vietnamese Wikipedia has reached 20,000 registered users.
• The Armenian Wiktionary has reached 5,000 entries.
• The Icelandic Wiktionary has reached 3,000 entries.

The Arbitration Committee opened three cases this week, and closed one case.

• Jean-Thierry Boisseau: A case involving the actions of Jean-Thierry Boisseau on List of major opera composers. Various users accuse him of "a course of bullying, personal attacks, and generally making things awful for all contributors". He strenuously denies the allegations. As a result of the case, remedies were enacted banning Boisseau and others attributed with Musik Fabrik from editing articles relating to their work, and placing Boisseau on probation and civility parole.

• RPJ: Various users allege that RPJ edits disruptively (although in good faith) on various articles related to conspiracy theories, such as John F. Kennedy Assassination. In response, he denies the allegations, and raised some "practical concerns about arbitration", which seem to regard the legitimacy of the Arbitration Committee bindingly to resolve disputes.

• Iran-Iraq War: A case referred by the mediation committee regarding a dispute on the Iran-Iraq War page.

• Konstable: A case involving the actions of Konstable, an administrator who left the project, but then returned and created an alternative account, which some allege was used for disruption. This was then blocked, and he used his sysop tools to unblock it, causing some to call for his desysopping.

• Hkelkar: A case involving the actions of Hkelkar, a probable sockpuppet of Subhash bose, on various articles.

• Elvis: A case involving the actions of Lochdale and Onefortyone on the Elvis Presley article. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies Lochdale from the article indefinitely, and keeping Onefortyone on probation with respect to articles relating to celebreties.

• Protecting children's privacy: A case involving a policy proposal on the Wikipedia:Protecting children's privacy page. The committee is being asked to make a ruling as to the consensus requirements for the adoption of new policy. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies establishing the right of children to edit on Wikipedia if they do not disclose their age, but that if they do the information should be deleted.

• Non-Notability: A case regarding actions on Wikipedia:Non-notability (not to be confused with Wikipedia:Notability). Fred Bauder has proposed a remedy, which is supported by SimonP, allowing Fresheneesz to be placed on probation if he "continues to disrupt policy pages".

• Bowling for Columbine: A case involving the actions of Schrodinger82 and others on the Bowling for Columbine article, and in particular his disputed removal of some criticism of the film. Fred Bauder has proposed a remedy, supported by three other arbitrators, banning him from the article for one year.

• Pseudoscience: A case involving the actions of ScienceApologist, Ian Tresman and others, involving the insertion and removal of so-called "pseudoscience" on various articles. Fred Bauder has proposed various remedies, most of which were opposed by Dmcdevit and Charles Matthews, but among those supported or not yet voted on are remedies placing Tommysun on probation, and banning Elerner from various articles.

• Rachel Marsden: A case involving the actions of Arthur Ellis, Rachel Marsden, Bucketsofg and others on the Rachel Marsden page. Marsden and Ellis allege that the page contains inaccurate and libellous material, and that this has been protected on the page by various admins. In response, others allege that Ellis has engaged in edit warring on the page. Fred Bauder has proposed remedies, mostly supported by Charles Matthews and SimonP, banning Arthur Ellis for one day, permitting articles relating to Rachel Marsden to be stubbified, as well as other measures.

• Waldorf education and related articles: An upcoming case on Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf education and related pages. Three arbitrators have so far voted to accept the case.