Please keep in mind that features listed here may not be live on the English Wikipedia yet. Also, in general, features that do not affect the English Wikipedia, such as new extensions that are not enabled here, are not listed.

This page covers revisions up to r21091.

• Special:Blockip now contains a dropdown menu of common block reasons, customizable with MediaWiki:Ipbreason-list. The default options, as of now, are "vandalism", "linkspam", "insults", and "sockpuppet". (r21000)

• Special:Statistics now displays an estimate as to the length of the job queue instead of an exact number for performance reasons. (r21071)

A large amount of work this week was put into three extensions, none of which are enabled on the English Wikipedia as of now:

FlaggedRevs

FlaggedRevs is an extension which allows "reviewers" and "editors" to rate an article's accuracy, depth, and style, and then set certain revisions as the default version which will show up on regular page views. This extension is still in early development, so expect a number of features to change, be removed, or be added.

Semantic MediaWiki

From the project page:

The WikiProject "Semantic MediaWiki" provides a common platform for discussing extensions of the MediaWiki software that allow for simple, machine-based processing of Wiki content. This usually requires some form of "semantic annotation," but the special Wiki environment and the multitude of envisaged applications impose a number of additional requirements. The overall objective of the project is to develop a single solution for semantic annotation that fits the needs of most Wikimedia projects and still meets the Wiki-specific requirements of usability and performance. It is understood that ad hoc implementations (i.e. "hacks") may sometimes solve single problems, but agreeing on common editing syntax, underlying technology, exchange formats, etc. bears huge advantages for all participants.

Quiz

Quiz is an extension which allows for the creation of quizzes. According to the creator, Quiz aims to be

• Reliable and light.
• Simple in its syntax and its use; powerful in its possibilities.
• Open to suggestions and improvements (by facilitating the addition of new types of questions).

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

A $100,000 donation was made to the Wikimedia Foundation from Stephen J. Luczo, Chairman of the Board of Seagate Technology, on March 19, 2007. This is one of the largest single donations received from a single individual in the history of the Wikimedia Foundation, not counting matching funds-related donations.

Version 0.5 has been released on CD. The CD can be purchased from WikipediaOnDVD.com; torrents are also available for free.

The February-March month long WikiProject Biography Spring 2007 Assessment Drive recently closed with unprecedented success. Through the efforts of over forty Wikipedians, 44,324 articles were assessed, reducing the number of unassessed articles by an astounding 33% - from 135,345 to 91,021. In addition, many of the assessed articles further were linked to the appropriate work groups, such as sports and games, arts and entertainment, and science and academia, thereby significantly improving the chance that these articles will be improved. The drive was organized by Mocko13, Ozgod, and Jreferee. Outriggr also worked closely with the drive to bring wide applicability to his article assessment script, allowing the quick and easy assessment of articles. Users wishing to contribute to on-going assessment efforts can visit WikiProject Biography Assessment for more information.

On the 5 April, 2007 episode of the United States television series The Office, entitled "The Negotiation," Wikipedia ("the best thing ever") was extensively used by Michael Scott, who printed out a list of raise negotiations during salary negotiations. He explained his reasoning for using the article, stating "anybody in the world can write anything they want, about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information." This is the second time that The Office has mentioned Wikipedia (see archived story), and the third time it has been mentioned on an NBC sitcom.

After the article was mentioned on the show, Negotiation (process) was semi-protected due to the vandalism it received in the thirty minutes following the mention -- 50 edits were recorded in a little over a half hour, from 9 anonymous and 2 newly-registered users.

• The GLBT Round Table of the American Library Association wrote about the WikiProject LGBT Studies in their Spring 2007 issue (pdf). This appears to be the first documented case of the promotion of a WikiProject in a print source.
• In another policy organization change, the undeletion policy was merged into the deletion policy this week.
• The English Wikipedia has reached 125,000,000 edits, 750,000 media files (excluding Commons files), and 1,337 featured articles.
• The Portuguese Wikipedia has reached 250,000 articles.
• The Wikipedia of Ripuarian languages has reached 200 users.
• The Catalan Wikipedia has reached 1,000,000 edits.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 70,000 edits.
• The Spanish Wikipedia has reached 220,000 articles.
• The Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 80,000 articles.
• The Classical Chinese Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Japanese Wikipedia has reached 350,000 articles.

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

• Darwinek: A case involving the actions of an administrator, Darwinek. The initiator of the case, Thatcher131, alleged that Darwinek had improperly blocked other users, misused the administrator rollback tool, edit-warred, and made uncivil comments. Darwinek promised not to misuse his powers again in the future. As a result of the case, Darwinek was desysopped, with the right to seek adminship in the future either through a new RfA or by appeal to the Arbitration Committee. He was also placed on civility parole for one year.

• Lukas19-LSLM: A case involving the conduct of Lukas19 and LSLM. Each party alleged incivility by the other. As a result of the case, Lukas19 and LSLM were each found to have engaged in tendentious disruptive editing and banned from Wikipedia for one year.

• InShaneee: A case involving the actions of administrator Inshaneee. 81.179.115.188 (formerly Worldtraveller) alleged that InShaneee inappropriately blocked him in a dispute in which InShaneee was involved, in violation of the blocking policy, and that InShaneee responded aggressively to criticism. InShaneee in his statement pointed to an apology admitting the block was premature, and denied any aggressive response. As a result of the case, InShaneee was admonished and his administrator privileges were suspended for 10 days. Worldtraveller was urged to resume contributing to Wikipedia.

• Billy Ego-Sandstein: A case involving the actions of Billy Ego and administrator Sandstein. Billy Ego alleged that Sandstein misused his administrator powers by removing disputed material from Billy Ego's userpage and blocking him when it was restored. Much of the evidence presented, however, has focused on Billy Ego's own behavior, and a remedy banning Billy Ego from Wikipedia for one year for disruptive and provocative editing currently has the support of four arbitrators.

• Mudaliar-Venki123: A case involving the actions of Mudaliar and Venki123 on a series of articles. The case is still early in the evidence phase.

• E104421-Tajik: A case involving the actions of E104421 and Tajik. The case was opened, but a motion to suspend the case pending a referral to community-based mediation has the support of five arbitrators.

• Betacommand: A case involving the actions of Betacommand. Some of Betacommand's blocks have been questioned, and his bot-related actions have led to his removal from the bot approvals group. Betacommand has noted that he makes numerous username-related blocks, and that most of his blocks were appropriate. Whether Betacommand used his administrative account for bot-related activity, whether he is unique in doing so, and whether such an action should be allowed or not, have also been questioned.

• Freedom skies: A case involving the actions of Freedom skies. JFD and others allege that he has edit warred to push his point of view. He denies the allegations. A remedy to place Freedom skies on revert parole has the support of two arbitrators.

• Falun Gong: A case regarding the conduct of various editors on the Falun Gong article. Olaf Stephanos and Asdfg12345 allege that Samuel Luo has edit-warred in removing pro-Falun Gong material from the article, while Luo, Tomananda and others allege that Stephanos, Asdfg and others have edit-warred (including page blanking) in removing anti-Falun Gong material. A remedy placing Falun Gong on article probation has the support of Kirill Lokshin and Fred Bauder; a series of other remedies placing various users on revert parole and/or banning them from Falun Gong and related articles and talk pages have been proposed.

• Armenia-Azerbaijan: A case, brought by ex-arbitrator Dmcdevit, regarding a dispute between Armenian and Azerbaijani editors on a large number of articles. The following remedies are supported by a majority of arbitrators and will be enacted if the case closes without additional input: Banned for one year, users AdilBaguirov (talk), Artaxiad (talk), and Fadix (talk). Placed on revert parole for one year, users Aivazovsky (talk), Atabek (talk), Azerbaijani (talk), Dacy69 (talk), Eupator (talk), Fedayee (talk), Grandmaster (talk), TigranTheGreat (talk), and Elsanaturk (talk). Placed on revert parole and civility parole, ROOB323 (talk).