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.12 (8b8c762), 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
- Attempting to delete a redirect to an image no longer deletes the image instead. (r35113, bug 14199)
- The new-messages bar is no longer triggered by the deletion of a user's talk page. (r35133, bug 14077)
- When the preference which determines the maximum number of changes to show in the watchlist is left blank, it now uses a sensible default rather than 0. (r35134, bug 14100)
- A URL-encoded link in an edit summary now links to the correct target. (r35197, bug 14140)
- When a bureaucrat renames themself, the page-moves that move the pages in their userspace to their new username are now attributed to their new username, rather than their old username. (r35211, bug 14219)
New features
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.
Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe, a German publishing company, sued Wikimedia Deutschland over the article about itself in the German Wikipedia. Last week, the Cologne Landgericht (regional court) ruled that the critical remarks in the article (which were citing a report from a consumer magazine of German TV station ZDF and other sources) were legal. More generally, it rejected the plaintiff's arguments that Wikimedia Deutschland could be held accountable for content in the German Wikipedia because of its relationship with the Wikimedia Foundation, because of its ownership of wikipedia.de (which until last summer had been a domain redirect to de.wikipedia.org), or because it was supposedly "hiring admins" to oversee content.
In the meantime, the article (de:Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe) had been deleted as non-notable, but was later undeleted and moved into userspace (de:Benutzer:Hyperdieter/Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe).
Frankfurter Verlagsgruppe has also announced its intent to appeal the decision. [1]
Relevant links regarding this matter (all in German) include:
Previous court cases where plaintiffs tried unsuccessfully to hold Wikimedia Deutschland accountable for content of the German Wikipedia included a 2006 case involving Tron (hacker) (see archived story) and a 2007 complaint by advocacy group INSM because of an anonymous remark on an article talk page.
Briefly
- The 7th New York City meetup is scheduled for Sunday, June 1, 2008, at 2:30 p.m., on the campus of Columbia University.
- This week, fifteen new wikis were created: Erzya Wikipedia, Extremaduran Wikipedia, Fiji Hindi Wikipedia, Gan Wikipedia, Karakalpak Wikipedia, Moksha Wikipedia, Sakha Wikipedia, Silesian Wikipedia, Sranan Tongo Wikipedia, Czech Wikinews, Hungarian Wikinews, Limburgish Wikisource, Czech Wikiversity, Japanese Wikiversity and Portuguese Wikiversity.
- The Ukrainian Wiktionary has reached 6,000 articles.
- The Lithuanian Wiktionary has reached 200,000 revisions.
The Arbitration Committee closed one case this week and did not open any cases, leaving four currently open.
Closed case
- 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. The main remedy imposed by the Commitee confirms 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 provide a general amnesty for other editors who may have been involved in the lobbying group, urge community members to forward evidence about all forms of external group-lobbying to the Committee, and admonish Hypnosadist to "maintain an appropriate level of professionalism at all times, and to avoid misrepresenting Wikipedia policy to other editors."
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
- Homeopathy: A dispute involving a number of editors over the Homeopathy article. Remedies with the support of five to seven 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 five arbitrators, allows uninvolved administrators to impose sanctions on editors involved in Homeopathy-related articles, for various reasons.
Motion to close
- Footnoted quotes: A case involving the use of quotes in footnotes, and general concerns with the biographies of living persons policy. Currently, one arbitrator supports closing the case, with none opposing. Remedies supported by eight arbitrators encourage more enforcement of the BLP policy, and impose 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.
