Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/From the editors Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/Traffic report Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/In the media
This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Some bug fixes or new features described below 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.
This week saw a major code update, including changes for how MediaWiki handles file uploads and new Upload API capabilities that work with the Firefogg extension for Mozilla Firefox. As part of the updates, the cite features have been updated to allow list-defined references.
The software changes resulted in a number of bugs, and caused the pywikipedia Python library used by bots to break. [1] As a result, bots stopped working for a few days.
According to Kozuch [2], major bugs resulting from the updates have been:
Compatibility problems were discovered in the Usability Initiative's new edit toolbar, when it was used with Internet Explorer. Due to the bug, developers disabled the new edit toolbar for a few days while the bug was resolved.
A full list is available at https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/buglist.cgi?keywords=code-update-regression
Two bots were approved this week: HerculeBot 2, for the transfer of interwiki links from redirects to redirect targets, and Yobot 8 to assist with a previously approved task. There are a number of outstanding requests for bots, which anyone is free to comment on.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/Essay Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/Opinion
The cite.php extension, which drives the footnote system of references, has been updated by Dragons flight so that references can be defined within the references list instead of the body of the article. Under this system, the <ref> is named in the body of the article, and the corresponding named reference in the references section contains the full reference. Help:Footnotes#List-defined_references explains these "list-defined references".
The articles Arthur Rudolph and Anne Dallas Dudley have been converted to the new system as examples.
A long-standing complaint has been that inline references disrupt the wikitext and make it difficult to read. This change may help alleviate that problem. Extensive discussion about the change took place in July of this year, along with a straw poll about the change. This new method of referencing is strictly optional.
Foundation staff have reported that the Wikimedia Foundation office in San Francisco will be moving to a new location on New Montgomery Street in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco. The current office is not large enough for the size of the staff, many of whom have been hired since the Foundation moved to San Francisco; according to Daniel Phelps, "we've been over capacity for several months now." The new office, which will be located at 149 New Montgomery Street, will be large enough for the entire staff (including the usability team, which is now in a separate office) and will also have room for community meeting space. There is still some time on the lease at the current office; plans are to sublease this space by the end of November.
There were a few staff changes at the Wikimedia Foundation announced this week, and there are several new and continued job openings at the Foundation.
Anya Shyrokova, Development Associate for the Foundation, was promoted to a newly created role of "Stewardship Associate," who will work with donors that give from $500 to $10,000 to the Foundation. This leaves open her role of Development Associate; the job is open until 30 September.
There are also two jobs associated with the Ford grant for Multimedia Usability (see previous story) that are currently open. One is a project manager position; the other is a software developer for the project. Both jobs are temporary, lasting until July 2010. The project manager job is open until 30 September, while the software developer job is open until 2 October.
Erik Möller gave an update on Foundation-l on the status of the CTO job (see previous story); a firm has been engaged to help look for a suitable candidate and the job should be posted early this week.
Finally, Sue Gardner announced that Jennifer Riggs, the Chief Program Officer for the Foundation, has left the WMF; her last day was 18 September. Gardner wrote that "... Jennifer and I have agreed that despite [her] contributions, she ultimately will not be a good fit for the Chief Program Officer role." Gardner wrote that it would likely "take at least three months, and possibly more" to replace Riggs.
The formal Call for Participation in Strategic Planning processes and projects launched today with a project-wide sitenotice. Several ways to participate are listed, including serving on task forces. According to the call for participation in task forces,
Task forces will be the backbone for the strategic planning process. They will be given a specific topic and questions to answer related to emerging strategic priorities. Task forces will be responsible for engaging in in-depth research, analysis, and dialogue in order to produce recommendations for the community and the Wikimedia Foundation on their topic. Over the next few months (from October to mid-December), task force members will be asked to commit a substantial amount of time to this work. Each task force will have a core group of 5–10 members who will be asked to volunteer up to 10 hours per week or 100 hrs in total preparing, researching, and consolidating the group's work.
Applications will be taken at http://volunteer.wikimedia.org/, where those interested can indicate their skills and areas of interest.
There is also a need for experts on many subjects; people who are interested in being called upon for specialized expertise (rather than being on a task force) should also submit their name through that form.
The next strategic planning office hours will be held on 04:00–05:00 UTC, Wednesday 23 September, in the #wikimedia-strategy IRC channel; questions about the task force process can be asked here.
Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/Serendipity Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/Op-ed Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/In focus
The Arbitration Committee opened two cases this week, and closed none, leaving five cases open.
An arbitration request regarding administrator Law's unblock of ChildofMidnight, who was blocked by Sandstein pursuant to the Obama articles decision, was filed by Sandstein himself. The Committee, having expressed general agreement with the substance of Sandstein's complaint, appears to be preparing to deal with the request by summary motion.
A request concerning the conduct of Dr90s, filed by Thibbs, is being declined as premature.
In an unprecedented move, the Arbitration Committee opened the Eastern European mailing list case by sua sponte motion. The case concerns a set of leaked mailing list archives which are alleged to show an extensive history of conspiracy among numerous editors of Eastern European topics; no official confirmation of the archives' provenance has been made, and several of the accused editors have claimed that the archives have been maliciously altered by the party or parties who publicized them.
As part of the ongoing investigation, the Committee has temporarily removed Piotrus' administrator status, and is considering placing restrictions on various other editors for the duration of the case. A draft decision is to be written by arbitrator Coren, but no date for it has been announced.
The Asmahan case was also opened this week. The filing editor, Supreme Deliciousness, alleges that Arab Cowboy has engaged in a variety of disruptive behavior on the "Asmahan" article; Arab Cowboy denies the allegations, and claims that Supreme Deliciousness is pursuing a disruptive agenda of his own. No drafting of proposals has yet taken place; a draft decision is expected from arbitrator FayssalF, but no date for it has been announced.
The Speed of light case entered its second week of deliberations. The case was filed by Jehochman, who cited concerns about "tendentious editing and disruption" by a large number of editors on the "speed of light" article. Unusually, arbitrator Cool Hand Luke, who is slated to draft the decision in the case, has directly asked the parties "what resolution [they] would like to see from this process, and what (if any) concessions would [they] be willing to give to achieve that end?"; the parties have provided a set of varied responses to this. A draft decision in the case is expected by 30 September.
The Noloop case entered its fifth week of deliberations. The case involves mutual allegations of disruptive conduct by several parties, and is expected to address the conduct of all the editors involved. Evidence has been presented by several editors, and one of the parties, Noloop, has posted a statement that he does not intend to participate in the proceeding, but no drafting of proposals has yet taken place. A draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Carcharoth, was expected by 13 September, but has been delayed.
The Lapsed Pacifist 2 case also entered its fifth week of deliberations. The filing editor, Steve Crossin, alleges that Lapsed Pacifist has engaged in advocacy, original research, and edit warring, as well as various other improprieties, over a wide range of articles. A temporary injunction prohibits Lapsed Pacifist from editing articles related to the Corrib gas project for the duration of the case. Several arbitrators have commented on the evidence or workshop proposals; a draft decision, to be written by arbitrator Wizardman, was expected by 11 September, but has been delayed.
Two separate requests to amend certain clauses concerning Scuro in the ADHD decision were filed by Hordaland and Literaturegeek. Most of the Committee has not yet responded to the requests.
The Committee adopted a motion removing Pastor Theo's administrator status and indefinitely blocking him after an investigation determined that he was the same individual who had been community-banned under the name "Ecoleetage".
The Ban Appeal Subcommittee announced that it was granting an appeal by Life, reminding him to "adhere to the guidelines of harmonious editing". The subcommittee also granted an appeal by RMHED, unbanning him with several conditions.
Hersfold, Hmwith, and KnightLago were promoted to full clerks to the Arbitration Committee. Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2009-09-21/Humour
