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.

• Renames made before 26 August 2007 now show correctly in the rename log. (r39840, bug 15269)
• Special:Search, when accessed via the text of a redlinked page, now no longer searches for underscores instead of spaces in the title of the redlinked page. (r40043, bug 15264)

• Special:Watchlist now looks and behaves the same way as Special:Recentchanges. (r39839, bug 15157)
• See also the next section; several features were added with configuration changes this week.

• The GlobalBlocking extension has been enabled on Wikimedia wikis, allowing users to be blocked simultaneously on all wikis. Global blocks can only be added or removed by stewards; however, English Wikipedia administrators can allow users to edit on the English Wikipedia despite a global block (so the user would be blocked everywhere except the English Wikipedia) via Special:GlobalBlockWhitelist. (Administrators on other projects can similarly disable global blocks on those projects.) (r39129, bug 8707)
• The old query.php API has been disabled; api.php will have to be used instead by bots and scripts. (bug 12881http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12881)
• The write API (accessible via api.php, the same as the read API) has been enabled, giving bots and scripts an interface via which to edit Wikipedia. [1] The following write actions are now possible via the API: rollback, delete, undelete, protect, block, unblock, move, edit, emailuser, watch. Anyone can use the write API, but only if they could perform the action normally; for instance, anonymous users cannot edit semiprotected pages using the API, and only administrators can delete pages that way. (bug 14210http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14210)

• 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.

Arbitrator Paul August resigned from the Arbitration Committee on Thursday, August 21. His term was scheduled to end in December 2009. Paul has indicated that he will continue to edit Wikipedia, however: "One final self-quote: For me, contributing to Wikipedia is a noble act. Knowledge is power. We can all feel justifiably proud that the words we are helping to write, will help to empower untold millions of people, all over the world. This is why I contribute to this project, and why I will continue to do so -- my dedication to this noble endeavor remains undiminished. I'm very much looking forward to the pleasures of being a simple editor again, to once more experience the joy and satisfaction of writing the encyclopedia."

• The English Wikipedia has reached 2,500,000 articles. Allegedly, the 2.5 millionth article was Joe Connor.
• The English Wiktionary now has more entries than the French Wiktionary (with both near 900,000). The French Wiktionary had previously been the largest Wiktionary since it passed the English version in November 2007.
• The Slovak Wikipedia has reached 100,000 articles.
• The Vietnamese Wikipedia has reached 50,000 articles.
• The Malay Wikipedia has reached 30,000 articles.
• The Lithuanian Wiktionary has reached 90,000 entries.
• The Lithuanian Wikipedia has reached 60,000 articles.
• The Georgian Wiktionary has reached 100 entries.

The Arbitration Committee did not open or close any cases this week, leaving three currently open.

• C68-FM-SV: A case involving disputes between Cla68, FeloniousMonk, SlimVirgin, JzG, and others. The case has been pending for over three months, but recently-returned arbitrator Newyorkbrad has posted a set of principles on the workshop page, and is expected to write a proposed decision soon.

• Alastair Haines: A case involving Alastair Haines and other users.

• SlimVirgin-Lar: A case brought by Thatcher, asking the committee to review the use of checkuser by Lar, in the light of comments by SlimVirgin (here, inter alia), alleging that he misused the tool. Evidence is to be submitted privately to the committee by e-mail, and voting will presumably occur privately as well.