This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Note that some changes described here have not yet gone 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.
Earlier this week, the developers rolled out an update of MediaWiki, to r46424. Rollback links on watchlists, the PROTECTIONLEVEL parser function, and other changes are now live. There are "fixes" [1] that users can use in personal css files (e.g. monobook.css), in order to hide the watchlist rollback links.
Fixed bugs
When uploading files as a "new version" of an existing file, the upload form is now simplified, giving only a field for "File changes" and filenames. (r46465, bug 15811)
User pages and talk pages of blocked users are now automatically no-indexed, to keep the pages from being indexed by search engines. (r45712, bug 11443)
User preferences now include the option to specify gender. This feature is most relevant to Wikipedia versions in other languages, including Polish and Russian, where system messages should vary based on gender. For example, the user namespace in Russian should display "Участник" for male and "Участница" for female users. (r46246, bug 13040)
The variable {{GENDER}} was also implemented, to allow the system messages to specific what text should be shown for which gender. It can also be used to view a user's gender.
When adjusting blocks, the block form fields are now pre-filled with the existing values. (r45862, bug 17045)
The undo function is now accessible via the API. (r46260, bug 15949)
Other news
The AbuseFilter extension [2] is enabled on test.wikipedia.org. The extension will allow admins to specify editing patterns to screen for and take some action, ranging from tagging edits for admin attention to blocking users and even emergency desysopping. The filter-triggered blocks and other serious actions are not currently enabled on the test wiki.
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.
Mozilla gives WMF $100,000 for audio and video support
Mozilla has awarded the Wikimedia Foundation $100,000 to coordinate efforts to improve the quality, performance, and implementation of the OggTheora open video format. The aim is to make Theora a more popular alternative to proprietary streaming video technologies, such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and RealVideo. According to Erik Moeller, Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, "The $100,000 grant will be used to support the work of long-time contributors to the Ogg Theora/Vorbis codebase and related tools, such as libraries for network seeking. The improvements will be made over a 6 month period." Built-in support for Ogg media will feature in the next release of Mozilla's open-sourceinternet browser project, Firefox 3.1.
Wikipedia Loves Art is "a scavenger hunt and free content photography contest among museums and cultural institutions worldwide, aimed at illustrating Wikipedia articles." The event is scheduled at various institutions throughout the month of February, starting at London's Victoria and Albert Museum on February 1. Editors are also encouraged to go on their own any time throughout the month of February. Participating groups of Wikipedians and institutions are located worldwide. For more information on participating, see the project page.
Jimmy Wales is "character approved"
The USA Network has honored Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, as "Character Approved". The awards are a new program to recognize those who are seen as "positively influencing American culture". Others honored include Charles Best, David Chang, Jennifer Siegal, Lupe Fiasco, Patrick Robinson, and Shepard Fairey. Along with the award, the USA Network is donating $10,000 to each recipient's charity of choice; in this case, the Wikimedia Foundation.
The Arbitration Committee closed their poll on Checkuser and Oversight Appointments; no resulting announcements have been made.
The Arbitration Committee closed no cases this week, and opened one, leaving a total of six cases open. Two motions were passed.
Evidence phase
SemBubenny: A case about the communication behavior of SemBubenny (formerly Mikkalai), and his use of administrator tools in disputed deletions.
Ayn Rand: A case about editorial behavior, such as alleged POV-pushing and bad faith, in relation to the Ayn Rand article. The Arbitration Committee accepted the case as they found that all other avenues of dispute resolution had failed to resolve the dispute.
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. Proposed remedies that will extend and narrow PHG's current topic ban have the unanimous support of ten and twelve arbitrators, respectively.
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.
Motions
Motion re Slimvirgin: This motion was amended, in two parts, by this motion. Pending the outcome of the current RfC on Arbitration Enforcement, the restriction provided in the first motion is clarified to apply only to restrictions placed by administrators on specific editors. The second amendment states that the general expectation of administrators to explain their actions and be available for discussion is not waived when performing administrator actions as Arbitration Enforcement.
Motion re Bishzilla: This motion "strongly admonished Bishzilla for her conduct in the matter". Bishzilla is an alternate account of Bishonen, who had held for several months the administrator flag previously held by Bishonen; the flag has since been transferred back to the Bishonen account. Bishzilla had blocked then Arbitrator FT2 to force the issue on removing FT2 from the committee. FT2 later resigned from the committee.
