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 to the software with a version number higher than that will not yet be active.

• An list=usercontribs API query for an anonymous user now works; previously, the API only allowed queries for the contributions of registered users. (r24753, bug 10902)
• The job queue runners were hanging recently, meaning that many low-priority software tasks did not take place for a while (one of the more obvious results of this was that contributions of user accounts that had been renamed were attributed to the old name for much longer than usual). They have now been restarted, and such tasks are being run as normal again. (bug 10979)

• The log message for uploading a new version of an image over an old version is now different from that for uploading a new image; a new interface message MediaWiki:Overwroteimage has been added to customize this. (r24836, bug 10937)
• Bureaucrats can now leave a summary when renaming a user. (r24869, bug 10819)
• A URL (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Newpages&username=username) now exists to go directly to new pages created recently by a specific contributor (previously it was necessary to go via Special:Newpages and manually enter the username, and no direct URL existed). (r24944, bug 11001)

• 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.

Bidding for Wikimania 2008 opened on Monday; bids will be accepted through Thursday, August 30, with a final decision scheduled for October 6. As of this time, three bids have been entered: Cape Town, Alexandria, and Atlanta.

Also on Monday, the jury for Wikimania 2008 was announced, with 17 voting members: Board members Jan-Bart de Vreede, Florence Devouard, and a board member yet to be determined, Wikimedia Special Advisor Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Communications Manager Sandra Ordonez, former board member and current Advisory Board member Angela Beesley, Advisory Board member Achal Prabhala, Juan David Ruiz, Dror, Kizu Naoko, Theodoranian, KJ, Phoebe Ayers, foundation Chapters Coordinator Delphine Ménard, and Austin Hair, with two potential members, Michael Snow and Samuel Klein, who have not yet accepted their membership.

Additionally, the jury will be aided by non-voting members: Advisory Board member Heather Ford, James Forrester, Andrew Lih (pending acceptance), Foundation employee Cary Bass, and other Board members will advise the jury.

This week, the Papiamentu Wikipedia reached 100 articles, making it the 200th Wikipedia to reach the 100 article barrier. Papiamentu, or Papiamento, is a Portuguese Creole mainly spoken on the islands of Bonaire and Curaçao, which are part of the Netherlands Antilles, and on Aruba, another self-governing part of the Netherlands. The language has 329,000 speakers worldwide.

In June 2005, the Nahuatl Wikipedia passed the 100 article mark, making it the 100th Wikipedia to reach 100 articles (see archived story). The Nahuatl Wikipedia now has over 3,200 articles. In June 2006, the Venetian Wikipedia passed 1,000 articles, making it the 100th Wikipedia to reach 1,000 articles (see archived story); it now contains nearly 5,500 articles.

Articles with geographical coordinates now include a built-in javascript-based mapping tool, WikiMiniAtlas. For an example, click on the globe icon to view a map of St. Petersburg, Florida, home of the Wikimedia Foundation: 27.782254, -82.667619. The tool was developed by Dschwen.

• The English Wiktionary has reached 500,000 entries.
• The Simple English Wikibooks has reached 100 book modules.
• The Sardinian Wiktionary reaches 600 entries.
• The Tsonga Wiktionary surpasses 300 entries.
• The Faroese Wiktionary reaches 200 entries.
• The Zulu Wiktionary reaches 100 entries.
• The Italian Wikiquote has reached 5,000 articles.
• The Maori Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Italian Wikisource has reached 15,000 text units.
• The Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 200,000 total pages.
• The Bavarian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Bishnupriya Manipuri Wikipedia has reached 20,000 articles.
• The Wikipedia of Ripuarian languages has reached 7,000 articles.
• The Catalan Wikisource has reached 1,000 text units.

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

• Piotrus: This case involved Piotrus and other editors on Central and Eastern Europe-related articles. In the case, multiple parties had accused one another of edit-warring, incivility, unethical behavior, and biased editing. In the Arbitration Committee's resolution of the case, an amnesty was granted for prior editing problems on these articles, and the parties were reminded of the need to edit courteously and co-operatively in the future.

• Pigsonthewing 2: A case initiated by Moreschi concerning 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. As a result of the case, Pigsonthewing was banned for one year.

• Zacheus-jkb: A case involving the actions of -jkb- and Zacheus, who have been involved in disputes in other forums that were imported to the English Wikipedia. As a result of the case, the Arbitration Committee admonished both editors for their previous misconduct against each other but noted that the problematic conduct seems to have stopped, and directed the parties not to resume practices such as posting identifying information about other editors, importing external disputes, or making personal attacks.

• BJAODN: A case involving an alleged wheel war over the deletion and undeletion of Wikipedia:Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense, which many allege to be a GFDL violation, by Georgewilliamherbert and Alkivar, among others.

• Allegations of apartheid: This case concerns the conduct of various editors in connection with a group of articles whose titles include the words "Allegations of apartheid". It has been alleged that these articles were created in violation of Wikipedia:Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point, after several deletion debates concerning Allegations of Israeli apartheid resulted in that article being kept. Issues have also been raised concerning comments made in deletion discussions and reviews. Several users who have created and edited the "Allegations of apartheid" articles have strongly denied any inappropriate conduct. Voting on most proposals is split, but those with a current majority include an amnesty for past actions, or restrictions enjoining various editors from participation related to allegations of ... apartheid articles.

• Vision Thing: A case initiated by Infinity0 concerning 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. A motion to dismiss the case for lack of evidence has the support of four arbitrators.

• Catalonia: A case brought by Physchim62 involving alleged edit warring, possible sockpuppetry, and other misconduct by various editors on Catalonia, Valencian Community, and related articles. A proposal banning Maurice27 has the support of two arbitrators, and one encouraging the parties to continue with the normal consensus-building procedure has three.

• Boris Stomakhin: A case involving a dispute between Biophys and Vlad fedorov, involving alleged BLP and 3RR violations, block evasion, and edit-warring. A remedy banning Vlad federov for one year has the support of three arbitrators.

• List of Republics: A case brought by Nema Fakei involving disputes on List of Republics and related articles, involving the conduct of WHEELER and other editors. A proposal banning WHEELER for one year has the support of three arbitrators.

• Great Irish Famine: A case initiated by SirFozzie, involving allegations including misuse of sources and harassment relating to Great Irish Famine and other Ireland/Northern Ireland articles. Arbitrators are voting on arbitrator Mackensen's proposals to place the Great Irish Famine article under the "mentorship" of three to five administrators and restrict Sarah777's editing, as well as proposals by arbitrator Kirill Lokshin that would ban Sarah777 from Wikipedia for one year and place MarkThomas on civility parole.

• Attachment Therapy: A case initiated by Shotwell, who alleges that other editors have engaged in POV pushing and tendentious editing on attachment therapy and related articles. During the case, checkuser indicated that DPeterson had created at least four sockpuppets that were used to edit-war on these articles and create the appearance of consensus. A proposed decision by Kirill Lokshin, with the support of four arbitrators, would ban DPeterson for one year and would remind the other parties to exercise care while editing articles as to which they may have a conflict of interest.

• 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, conflicts of interest, and other user conduct issues on Scientology related articles. The proposed decision, which has the support of five to seven arbitrators, would ban COFS for 30 days for POV editing and require him to change his username and disclose any duties he may have to the Church of Scientology before resuming editing.

• 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, Iran, and related matters. A proposed decision with the support of four arbitators would place those editors already subject to the revert parole on probation as well, and would impose identical remedies on any other editors who are identified as editing these articles aggressively and uncivilly.

• Jeffrey O. Gustafson: A case brought by John254 alleging incivility and other misconduct by administrator Jeffrey O. Gustafson. If closed, Mr. Gustafson's administrator privileges would be suspended for 30 days.