Wikizine - number: 29

Technical news

• [X_FORWARD] An old problem : users who have done nothing wrong are blocked
  because the IP they are using is used by others who share the same ISP. This
  has been known as the "bug 550" problem. In some cases a solution is now
  possible : when the ISP provides an "X-Forwarded-For" [XFF] header. Users of
  those ISPs have their real local IP address included when contacting a
  webserver. The configuration of the wiki can be changed so that the IP address
  provided in the XFF header is used for the identification on the wikis and
  blocks, at least when provided from specific IP addresses. Users from these
  ISPs can then edit even when other users on the same network have been
  blocked.
  http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6161
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/XFF_project#Trusted_XFF_list
• [Hide language] On Meta and some other projects, there are very multilingual
  pages. So multilingual, that it can be annoying to look for content between all
  the different languages. There is now a work-in-progress solution to show only
  specific languages. A Java-script version is live on Meta now.
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Language_select
• [FireFox&GoogleToolbar] A bug has been discovered for people using FireFox and
  the GoogleToolbar and edit MediaWiki. When editing a large page, if one goes to
  another tab -> loads a page there -> goes back to the tab where originally
  editing, text from the edit window will have been cut. After deinstalling
  Google Toolbar, this bug disappears.

Requests for help

• [Wikimania] Wikimania media and writing contest : Nominations and curators are
  needed for a free content competition and artshow -- to cover video, sound,
  images, and text of many varieties from all Wikimedia projects.
  http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_awards
• [Survey] about "Wikis in Enterprises". w:de:User:Avatar is doing his diploma
  thesis about this. So if you work at - or even only know a company which uses
  wikis as collaboration tools, find some spare minutes and do the survey. You
  are helping a fellow Wikimedian with his thesis and are helping with scientific
  research about wikis. There are more useless things to do with your time then
  that.
  http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2006-June/044471.html
  http://wikipedistik.de/survey/

New project proposals

• [WikiScope] A project to make it easier for users to discover information on a
  topic across the many Wikimedia-projects.
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiscope
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiscope/Ancient_Egypt_-_Example

Policy

• [New Logo?] initial discussions have started about a new logo for Wiktionary and
  for the new Incubator-wiki.
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_logo_for_Wiktionary
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Logo_for_Incubator

Foundation

• [Appointment] The WMF board has announced the appointment of Brad Patrick as the
  Foundation's new full-time Legal Counsel and Interim Executive Director.
  http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-June/007673.html
  http://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation - gmane now down
  Press release:Wikimedia Foundation Announces Interim_Executive Director
• [Foundation-l] On the mailing list is a elaborate discussion about how the
  Wikimedia Foundation works now and how it should work. And also about the
  appointment of Brad Patrick and the creations of those functions. Involved in
  the discussions are many of the WMF key-people.
  http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2006-June/thread.html

Community

• [en.wikipedia] now has over 1000 articles with "Featured Article" status. Those
  articles should be the best articles of the English Wikipedia.
  http://tinyurl.com/psc9k

Events

• [Wikimania] Registration opens for Wikimania Hacking Days, which will have
  discussions about the present and future of MediaWiki design, and Wikimedia
  tools and hardware. Requires registration for Wikimania itself.
  http://wm06reg.wikimedia.org/hacker/register
  http://wm06reg.wikimedia.org/
• [Wikipedia Academy] A "Wikipedia Academy" gathering and conference is to be held
  June 16 and 17 in Göttingen, Germany, supported by Wikimedia Deutschland. The
  program will include workshops and presentations, and a talk by Jimbo.
  http://wikipedia-academy.de/index.php

Media

• [Bias] The real bias in Wikipedia by Robert McHenry, the former editor-in-chief
  of Encyclopædia Britanica.
  http://www.opendemocracy.net/media-edemocracy/wikipedia_bias_3621.jsp

Stats

• [ko.wiki] The Korean Wikipedia has reached 400,000 page edits.
  http://ko.wikipedia.org/

Did you know ...

... that according to Alexa, the 3 month Traffic Rank
for wikipedia.org: 16
for wikimedia.org: 666 (*)
for wiktionary.org: 3,701
for wikibooks.org: 4,108
for wikiquote.org: 4,316
for wikinews.org: 10,605
for wikisource.org: 11,563
for wikizine.org: not in top 100,000... yet.

and the Avg. Review for wikinews.org is 5 stars?

(*) Wikispecies and Wikimedia Commons are using the wikimedia.org domain and are
included in the rank of wikimedia.org

Mac bashing Quotes

"The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small
children."
- Linus Torvalds.

[ robT] Name ONE thing that your windows comp can do that my MAC cant
[ bawss] Right click.

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Editor(s): Walter, Sj
Thanks to: Vipuser, Spacebirdy