This is a summary of recent (as in, since the last technology report was written) 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
An expiry time of seven days has been added for temporary passwords. When a temporary password expires, the old password will still work. (r45503, bug 2242)
The categories parameter has been added to the API, to "prop=category", providing a more efficient way to check if a page is in a certain category. (r45733, bug 16844)
When patrolling new pages, the diff link for redirect pages automatically follows the redirect, but that has been changed, with "redirect=no" added to the diff link. That allows checking for other material on the redirect page, besides the redirect link. (r45781, bug 14353)
New features
Drafts extension screenshot
The ability to rename files (such as images) has been re-enabled for administrators on all Wikimedia projects.
The Drafts extension [1] has been enabled on the test wiki [2]. Right now, when you are editing a page and your computer freezes or you accidentally close the browser, you will lose what you working on. With the drafts extension, your work will be saved (every 2 minutes). When you come back to the page you were editing, and click "edit", your draft will be there. The extension also gives the option of intentionally saving a draft for later, and will save drafts for up to 30 days. The extension was developed by Trevor Parscal, who is one of the staff developers. After some testing, the extension may be enabled on the English Wikipedia and/or other Wikimedia sites.
The $wgFileExtensions configuration variable has been made accessible through the API. (r45754, bug 17025)
Configuration variables in the LocalSettings.php file, such as $wgMaxUploadSize, have been made accessible via the API. (r45810, bug 17027)
The Wikimedia Foundation is hiring a full-time system administrator, to be based in San Francisco, to monitor, maintain, and document the Wikimedia servers, running Wikipedia and the other projects. See the Wikimedia Foundation site for details.
Two new web servers have been ordered for the toolserver — one to be used as a database server, and the other to replace the current web server. The new, more powerful hardware should improve performance for the toolserver. A third server, to be located in Amsterdam, has also been ordered for storing backup, live copies of all media files. Once the new servers arrive, database replication will be back to normal.
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.
Two new members have recently been added to the Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board. In December 2008, Neeru Khosla joined the board. Khosla is co-founder and chair of CK-12, a non-profit based in Palo Alto, California which is pioneering the concept of "open source textbooks." In March 2008, the Wikimedia Foundation received a $500,000 donation from Vinod Khosla and Neeru Khosla.[3]
In January 2009, Roger McNamee joined the Board. McNamee is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Elevation Partners, a venture capital firm. According to the Foundation's press release, on the Advisory Board McNamee "will act as a special advisor to the Executive Director on business and strategy issues." [4]
ArbCom coordinator named, one Arbitrator leaves committee
As part of a comprehensive updating of its systems and processes, the Arbitration Committee has decided to appoint one of its sitting arbitrators to act as coordinator. This role is to carry no additional substantive authority but will primarily involve scheduling work flow and setting target dates for completion of tasks. Arbitrator Kirill Lokshin has been offered and has accepted this assignment, effective immediately, with the title of Coordinating Arbitrator. Arbitrator Roger Davies will serve as his Deputy.
On January 15, FT2 announced in an open letter on Jimbo Wales' talk page that he was stepping down from the Arbitration Committee. In the letter, he mentioned recent controversial cases and outlined the work he has done on Wikipedia this year. A request for comment is currently ongoing regarding FT2. The seat is currently vacant, leaving a total of 16 arbitrators. According to a statement posted on behalf of the committee, "the Arbitration Committee believes that FT2's decision to leave the committee was the sensible course of action under all the circumstances, and we appreciate his having done so."
Briefly
January 15 marked the eighth anniversary of Wikipedia's founding as an independent website, or Wikipedia Day. Over the course of the day, the English Wikipedia passed 2,700,000 articles. Last year at this time the article count was 2,176,875.
The Wikimania 2009 dates were formally announced. The conference will be held from August 26–28, 2009, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The conference has its own wiki for further information.
On January 9, it was reported on the mailing list Foundation-l that the Chinese-language Wikinews was blocked in Mainland China. [5] Other language Wikinews editions are not blocked. English Wikinews covered the story.
A FAQ has been posted on Meta regarding the proposed change to allow Wikimedia content to be licensed under CC-BY-SA as well as the GFDL; this page serves as a forum to raise questions about the proposed change as well.
Arbitrator FT2 resigned from the committee this week; Kirill Lokshin was appointed "Arbitration Committee Coordinator", with Roger Davies as his deputy; Wizardmanreplaced FT2 as "IRC liaison"; and a new noticeboard for the Committee was created. See related notes here.
The Arbitration Committee both closed and opened one case this week, leaving four cases open.
Evidence phase
Date delinking: A case regarding the behavior of editors in the ongoing dispute relating to policy on linking dates in articles. An injunction has been issued prohibiting large-scale linking or delinking of dates until the case is resolved.
PHG: A case brought by PHG, in a follow up to a prior case against PHG, Franco-Mongol alliance. This case will review PHG's editing since the prior case, and may impose new sanctions, or repeal current sanctions, as necessary.
Voting
Fringe science: A case initially filed about the behavior of ScienceApologist, but opened to look at editing in the entire area of fringe science, and the behavior of editors who are involved in the area of dispute. In a proposed decision now being voted on by arbitrators, Coren has proposed the creation of a new type of arbitration remedy, "supervised editing", which an editor may be placed under when he or she does not "engage other editors or the editorial process appropriately". A designated supervisor would be permitted to revert or refactor the edits of the other editor at his or her discretion, ban the editor from articles, or require that the editor propose any substantial content edits to the supervisor, who will make the edits on his behalf. After the period of supervision terminates, the supervisor will submit a report to the committee who will revise the remedy that placed the editor under supervision. Other remedies include placing ScienceApologist under said supervision, restricting Martinphi from editing policy and guideline pages, admonishing Pcarbonn, and issuing general warnings to behave and seek mediation. Arbitrator voting is in progress.
Closed
G.-M. Cupertino: A case regarding the behavior of G.-M. Cupertino, accepted without significant prior dispute resolution as several arbitrators believed lower levels of dispute resolution would be fruitless. G.-M. Cupertino is banned from Wikipedia for one year, due to personal attacks, edit warring and sockpuppetry, and is restricted to one account should he return to editing after his ban ends.
Amended
Matthew Hoffman: The findings and remedies in this case were "withdrawn insofar as they reflect adversely on the editor identified as 'Vanished user.'", and the pages courtesy blanked.
