GCS Step 1

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Year: 2005 Week:52 Number: 6

=== Technical news ===

[[Special:Unwatchedpages]] this new special page gives a listing of the
first 5000 pages that are not on someones watchlist. It is a static list
updated regularly (hopefully). This is only for "users with protect
permission". Sysops have access. Seems to be live on all wikis. This
special page is not listed on the [[Special:Specialpages]] page so put
it somewhere.

[Semi-protection] is now live on the English Wikipedia. See
[[w:en:George W. Bush]] for an example of a semi-protected page. Only
registered users with accounts older than 4 days can edit that type of
page.

About getting this function enabled for other languages or projects
Brion says "The policy's only been made on en.wikipedia. If there's some
consensus or order to put it on everything that can be done."

As a result for the implementation of this function the interface for
protecting pages is modified. You can still protect/unprotected and
protect against moves. The protection log history of that page is also
displayed now. A page whit "move protection" only appears to be
protected for sysops. All the others do not see that. You can see the
difference when you try to edit that page as a sysop because you do not
get the warning that you are editing a protected page.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/26086
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Semi-protection
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Semi-protection.JPG -- Semi-protection in action
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:View_source.JPG -- Semi-protection
in action

[Old search database] the database used for the search function seems
not to be updated for some weeks. A page created on 28th November 2005
is now still not found.
Suggestion: put on [[MediaWiki:Searchresulttext]] a notice that it can
take weeks befor new pages can be found whit the search function.

[Deleted pages] when requesting a deleted page a non-sysop will from now
not longer see the old versions history. This situation can change again.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/21267


=== Politics ===

[Steward] elections are open. New candidacies are still accepted.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/elections_2006

=== Media ===

[Edit???] "Wikipedia Founder Edits Own Bio" -- some think that is news
http://tinyurl.com/atywl

[CNN] Positive item about Wikipedia on CNN -- sorry no video
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/26110

[Wikibooks] interesting and well-written (and sourced) blog entry by Ben
Crowell, a pioneer in e-book publishing about Wikibooks
http://www.lightandmatter.com/article/infrastructure.html

=== Stats ===

[AR] The Arabic Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
http://ar.wikipedia.org/

=== Did you know...===

...that you can include a link to any page to emty the cache of that page?
[{{fullurl:{{NAMESPACE}}:{{PAGENAME}}action=purge}} Purge the cache]

Anonymous users get a question and confirmation button; "Clear the cache
of this page?". You can translate it whit [[MediaWiki:Confirm purge]].
Consider to put also an explanation on that page what this exactly is
"cache". Not all users are so smart as you. See the version of Meta for
inspiration.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Confirm_purge

=== Q4 fund drive quotes ===

*"Proof that the best things in the world are free." by Vijay P Choksi
*"If Plato would have the internet he would constantly read Wikipedia."
by anonymous
*"Best signal to noise ratio on the internet today" by Simon Pichette
*"I have an atrocious memory - Wikipedia fills in the blanks!" by Ian
Henderson
*"Wikipedia makes me look with hope at the future of humanity." by Dario
Teixeira





Editor(s): Walter , Special assistance: Flcelloguy