Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/In the media Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/Technology report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/Opinion
Brion Vibber announced plans to split his CTO role into two positions, Senior Software Architect and Chief Technical Officer. Plans are in the works to hire another person to fulfill the CTO role, which will include managing staff and budgeting.
Also according to the Wikimedia Technical Blog, "A testing configuration for Flagged Revisions on English Wikipedia will be deployed on a test site soon." The extension is currently being tested on the help and manual pages of the MediaWiki wiki.
In usability news, the Usability Project's Vector skin is being made available to all Wikimedia users by means of the "try Beta" link in the upper-right-hand corner. Clicking on the link switches the user to the new "Vector" skin (whether one is logged in or not); the editing window also features a simplified editing toolbar. After the skin is switched, you can go back to Monobook by clicking a "leave Beta" link that appears in the upper-right hand corner; clicking this link leads to a small survey about the skin that users can fill out.
The Call for Proposals on the Strategy Wiki is open. There are 22 proposals so far, and more are being added every day; all community members (as well as interested outside parties) are invited to submit a proposal about areas or projects the Wikimedia Foundation should focus on in the future. The strategic planning team is also continuing to hold IRC office hours; the hours this week are Wednesday from 04:00–05:00 UTC on the Freenode #Wikimedia channel.
Cary Bass (User:Bastique), the Volunteer Coordinator of the Wikimedia Foundation, is forming a taskforce to deal with biographies of living persons. He described the motivation for and purpose of the task force in a message to the WikiEN-l mailing list:
Given the recent Board Resolution on BLPs, I'm in the process of
structuring a Biographies of Living Persons task force, to work together to come up with some firm recommendations and guidelines for dealing with the issue, to be made to the Wikipedia community, Foundation board and staff.
In that respect, I'd like to solicit members of the community to take part in this project. If you are interested, please send me a brief email summarizing what your involvement in BLPs in the past has been and your own opinion as to why BLPs are such a problematic area. You can email me direct at cary at wikimedia.org. Initially, this task force should focus on the English Wikipedia, but its recommendations may also be applicable for other projects; so anyone with an interest may be appropriate.
I'm putting this out there now, because my availability over the coming weeks before Wikimania will be somewhat limited, so forgive me if you respond with interest immediately and I don't get back to you right away. I expect development of this task force to go into high
gear in September.
The translatewiki.net project to translate the MediaWiki software and extensions is holding a translation rally with prizes. According to the site,
Among all users contributing 500 or more new translations for MediaWiki (or its extensions) and eligible for a cut, we will divide 1,000 Euro (approximately 1,400 US Dollar). The money comes from a 2,000 Euro grant by Wikimedia Nederland, the Dutch Wikimedia Chapter as a part of their spendings on International Projects, to Stichting Open Progress based on a grant proposal to boost MediaWiki localisation through translatewiki.net for which we are very grateful.
The contest runs between 9 August and 18 August 2009.
Editors of the Estonian language version of Wikipedia (Vikipeedia in Estonian) met at the Mihkli Farm Museum, Viki village. The place was chosen because of its name. The meeting was held on 6 and 7 August. Eight Wikipedians attended: Adeliine, Andres, Avjoska, Epp, Iffcool, Jaan513, Mmh, Taivo.
The event also garnered media attention. Iffcool gave interviews for two radio stations on 6 August, and on 8 August there was an article in Saare county newspaper Oma Saar: "Eesti vikipedistid kohtusid Vikil", Raul Vinni, 8 August 2009
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/In focus
The Arbitration Committee did not open or close any cases this week, leaving one case open.
The Committee acknowledges (i) Bishonen's recognition that "The way I spoke to [the user] was wrong, especially for an admin" and (ii) Jimbo Wales' permanent abdication of the use of the blocking tool. In light of the foregoing, the committee need take no further action at this time.
Four requests for arbitration were dismissed or withdrawn this week:
Following a request for comments concerning 194x144x90x118, Erik9 filed an arbitration request alleging that 194x144x90x118 had engaged in further disruptive conduct on several articles.
The Abd-William M. Connolley case has entered its fourth week of deliberations. The case was filed by Abd, who alleged that William M. Connolley had improperly banned him from the cold fusion article; William M. Connolley denied these allegations, and stated that Abd's conduct had been inappropriate.
Evidence in the case has been presented by eighteen editors, and several have made proposals on the case workshop, which have attracted limited comment from the Committee. As yet, no arbitrator has posted proposals to either the workshop or the proposed decision pages for the case. A draft decision, written by arbitrator Stephen Bain, was scheduled to be published on the 8th; this target date will likely be delayed.
Following a second request for comment regarding administrator Aitias, the Arbitration Committee passed an open motion removing his administrator status. The terms of the motion permit Aitias to reapply either through a normal request for adminship, or to the Committee directly.
Two separate requests for clarification were filed regarding the Obama articles decision. The first, filed by Bigtimepeace, concerned a set of topic bans and revert restrictions whose wording appeared contradictory to their subjects. The second, filed by Wikidemon, concerned the restrictions prohibiting various editors from interacting which had been imposed by the decision. Most of the Committee has not yet responded to either request.
In response to Everyking's request to amend the Everyking 3 decision to remove the remaining sanctions against him (notably, a restriction on interacting with Phil Sandifer), arbitrator Carcharoth has proposed a set of three mutually exclusive motions, one accepting the request, one rejecting it and limiting further appeals, and one rejecting it but providing for an automatic expiration of the sanctions in two years.
A lengthy series of requests for clarification was filed by Mythdon regarding numerous clauses of the Ryulong decision, to which he was a party. In response, the Arbitration Committee passed a motion which extended the various restrictions imposed on Mythdon by the decision. Mythdon later filed another request regarding two further points in the decision.
Ncmvocalist filed a request for amendment to the Ryulong decision to move the enforcement clauses of the "conduct probation" remedy to the enforcement section. A number of arbitrators have responded that the requested change is a procedural matter, and can be made without a formal motion.
In response to Greg L's earlier request to amend the Date delinking decision to reduce the sanctions imposed on him, arbitrator Newyorkbrad has proposed a motion, applicable to several parties, which would reduce the various editing restrictions related to style and editing guidelines to apply only to topics specifically related to the linking or delinking of dates.
Arbitrator Cool Hand Luke has replaced his colleague Roger Davies on the Ban Appeals Subcommittee. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-08-10/Humour
