GCS Step 1

Monday, November 27, 2006

EN Wikizine - number: 51

Technical news
  • [Anti-Autoblock] - When a sysop blocks a user, they can specify that any IP addresses used by the person they are blocking also be blocked. Unfortunately, these blocked IP addresses do not show up in the block log, which can sometimes cause unexpected IP addresses to be banned. So if for whatever reason you want to make sure that an IP addresses or range does not get blocked as a result of the auto-block feature, there is a new feature known as the whitelist that will prevent this from happening.
    Add them to your local [[MediaWiki:Autoblock whitelist]] page to do so.
  • [XFF] - AOL is a very large Internet service provider (ISP) in the USA. Because this ISP's users are assigned to a relatively small number of proxy servers, it is difficult to ban individual AOL users without banning large numbers of other AOL users. However, changes by AOL are helping to solve this problem. The proxies that AOL uses are now providing the real IP address of their users, and the Wikis are now configured to use that IP address when blocking a user of AOL. This system is already in use for users of several other ISPs.
  • [Autosummary] - The developers recently added a new feature to the Wiki software. This feature automatically includes a summary in the edit summary box if none is provided and certain criteria are met. The Wiki software will generate edit summaries for basic things like creating a new page (New page: 'new text'), turning a page into a redirect (Redirected page to target), blanking a page, and replacing all text on a page with new text (Replaced page with 'new text'). These edit summaries can be helpful in catching vandalism by anonymous IPs unfamiliar with Wikipedia and who do not use edit summaries.
Request for help
Politics
Foundation
Community
Media
Stats
  • [The Stats are Back] - After several weeks without them, the Wikimedia statistics provided by w:en:User:Erik Zachte are back. And updated up to 2006-10-31.
  • [Small survey] - On the local village pump of the Dutch Wikipedia, a small survey was announced to the community. 70 people have answered the questions, this is a low turnout so this study should be considered informal. Results are: 38% agree that Wikipedia is more of an obsession than a hobby. 53% say they are spending more then 10 hours a week on Wikipedia. 56% say that vandal fighting is their primary activity on the Wiki. 61% say that they are also active on other language Wikipedias. 48% are also active on other Wikimedia projects (such as Wiktionary or Wikibooks). Of those, 75% are active on Commons. 86% of users are male. The largest user age group was the 26 to 35-year-olds, with 26% of the responses. 55% of users are single. 49% have attended a university.
  • [en.wp] - The English Wikipedia has reached 1.5 million articles. The milestone article was Kanab Ambersnail, an article about an endangered snail species.
  • [de.wp] The German Wikipedia has reached 500,000 articles! The 500,000th milestone article is Janina Korowicka, an ice speed skater from Poland.
Other news
  • [FYI on Wikizine] - In general the Wikizine is a weekly newsletter. However, that does not mean it always has to be this way. Extra or special editions can be sent out. The purpose of Wikizine is to inform you, the reader, of relevant news, not to simply fill an edition up solely to get it published. So if there is no real important news a certain week, no Wikizine will be sent out. Of course, Wikizine is a volunteer effort too, which means the staff could just be on vacation or particularly busy one week. This can happen too. 
 Did you know ...
.. how to scare new people away from your wiki?

A classic strategy is to run a bot that gives every new user an automatic, warm personal welcome on their talk page, in the form of a gigantic colorful template full of helpful Wiki links. Another good way is to put a big vandalism warning template on that newbie's talk page when they make a little mistake in the process of trying to figure out how the system works. And perhaps the best way to scare a newbie away is to give a warning for vandalizing the Sandbox page. 
Quote

 
I really didn't foresee the Internet. But then, neither did the computer industry. Not that that tells us very much, of course - the computer industry didn't even foresee that the century was going to end.   --  Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Number of subscribers: 563 - Unique Visitors website this week: 499 - Editor(s): Xyrael, Walter  - Corrector(s): Pathoschild, Lantoka - Thanks to: pfctdayelise, Boivie

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Monday, November 13, 2006

Wikizine - number: 50

Headline news
  • [GCF] - The Great Chinese Firewall does not block the Chinese language Wikipedia anymore. Recently the block was partially lifted so that there was again access to the English language Wikipedia. But now there are strong signs that the block of the zh.wikipedia is (totally?) lifted.
According to a blog posting it was written in "Fortune magazine" that Shi Zao had stated that the block is lifted because "a well-connected friend wrote a letter to the Propaganda Department a week before Wikipedia became unblocked" and that "The Government is now convinced that Wikipedia is neutral".

Whatever the reason of the lift the number of newly created user accounts on the Chinese Wikipedia has tripled and the number of new articles has increased with 75%.
Technical news
  • [Backdoor closed] - Blocking a user now blocks the last IP address they used immediately if you check the default option (which was renamed in this patch) to "Automatically block the last IP address used by this user, and any subsequent addresses they try to edit from". Previously the IP address was only blocked when they attempted to edit a page. The patch also makes CheckUser run much faster.
  • [Search wiki] - Newly created articles can now be found a lot faster when using the wiki search function. A new server now works full-time updating the search index, so all wikis should be re-indexed every 30 hours. Updating the index was previously problematic; it could take many weeks before new articles could be found.
Administrators might want to add a notice to [[MediaWiki:Searchresulttext]] to inform users that it can take 30-48 hours before new pages can be found with the search function.
  • [BCC] - When you send an email using the "Email this user" function, you now have the option of sending a copy of that message to yourself. The privacy is guaranteed; you and the target user will not see each other's email addresses. If you respond to an email you receive from the wiki though, your email address will be visible as normal since the email was not sent through the wiki. The option is a checkbox at the bottom of the Special:Emailuser page, not a new option in your Preferences. If you send an email to yourself to test it you only get one email. To localize, translate [[MediaWiki:Emailccme]] and [[MediaWiki:Emailccsubject]].
  • [More email] - The email notification feature is now enabled on Commons. This optional feature sends an email to users to notify them of edits to their talk page or to pages on their watchlist.
  • [Search-l] - There is now an internal search function for the mailing list archives on the index pages. The search index should be updated every 24 hours. Indexing of the archives by external search engines is now forbidden, but since several lists are mirrored elsewhere (such as gmane.org or nabble.com) that will not make much difference for people who do not like their name to show up when "Googling" for their name.
  • [#wikimedia-admin] - A new IRC channel for Wikimedia sysops to discuss and coordinate administration. Access to the sysops-only channel is by invitation only. See the posting by [[meta:User:Pathoschild]]. This channel can now be accessed through Wikizine's IRC service.
New project proposals
Foundation
  • [Board] - Anthere (Foundation chair) has provided more information in a long post to the Foundation mailing list about the proposed Board reorganisation, the board retreat outcome, and the Foundation and chapters.
  • [Stewards] - a new steward election will be held soon. The most likely date for the election to start is 25th of November. This date can still change. Like it is now all existing stewards will need to reapply if they wish to remain steward. The rules of this procedure are still under discussion. All existing and interested users for the function of steward can best apply as soon as possible.
  • [WMF-Resolutions] - Several new resolutions including; creation of a workgroup to take beter care of the WMF internet domains and a summary of actions and outcomes the Board has committed itself to after the 2006 Board retreat in Frankfurt am Main.
  • [$] - reported in the previous edition of Wikizine "The WMF received by means of PayPal $42,025 US dollars in the month of October. That is the highest amount ever when there is no fundraiser." $10,000 of that amount came from the W. Glen Boyd Charitable Foundation. Sadly, $220,30 were lost in PayPal fees. People from the European Union who want to donate can use the Belgian Foundation account instead of PayPal. When this way is used the Foundation will receive 100% of the donated money.
Community
Media
Stats
Editorial
Wikizine made it to number 50! Exactly one year ago number 0 was sent out, the last experimental edition before the official launch of Wikizine. Wikizine has grown slowly but steadily since then, though the format has not changed significantly. Since the end of June, this ezine is also been available in the form of a blog and as an RSS/Atom feed. These new ways to read Wikizine have helped increase the readership. Where edition 0 was sent out to 55 readers, the ezine today has a total weekly reach of at least 900 people.

A new small improvement; on the blog there is now a working search box, so you can quickly find something that previously appeared in Wikizine.

For the next year there are no plans to change anything important on Wikizine. The ezine and the blog will remain ad-free, but we are looking for other ways to pay for Wikizine's expenses. Several people have very recently joined the volunteer staff, especially for proofreading, so improvement in that regard is to be expected.

Unfortunately, news submissions by readers about the different projects and languages remain very rare. This is in most cases the only way for Wikizine to know what is going on in most of the hundreds of wikis in the Foundation community. The result is an over-representation of news from English-language projects. As Wikizine reaches more people and becomes better-known, a slight improvement is to expected for the next year.

Thanks for reading Wikizine,
Walter Vermeir (Editor-in-chief)
Other news
  • [ValueWiki] - People who love the stock exchange might be interested in the ValueWiki project. This wiki, which is not run by the Wikimedia Foundation, attempts to centralize all stock-related information for United States companies. Currently the wiki has very little content, but it is good content. Extra functions are being added like a web-based chat system and user voting for every single article.
Did you know ...

... that you can override the AntiSpoof-function for username creation?

On the wikis is there a check when you want to created a new account of the proposed username is not to similar to an existing account. For example if there is already a user "Juul" and try to make a user "Juu1" (use of the number one) it will not be allowed by the software. But if you are a sysop you do can make such an account. Make sure you are logged in and make the new account (link on special pages). If you use the button beside the button create new account labeled "by email" and you have provided an emailadres you can cleanly created an account for someone else.

Quote
"Information is freedom"

 
Number of subscribers: 545 , Unique Visitors website this week: 338 , Editor(s): Walter, Gary Kirk,  Corrector(s): Gary Kirk, Pathoschild - Thanks to: Andrew Lih
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Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Wikizine - number: 49

Technical news
  • [New block option] - sysops have now a third tickbox when blocking a user. The box is labelled "Automatically block IP addresses used by this user" and is selected by default. Previously blocking a registered user meant edits done with that account were removed. And every time that user was trying to edit a page after the block was given the IP address of the blocked user was "auto-blocked". Those blocks appear in the log like "#15429" so you cannot see the real IP address. In some situations it can be that you only wish to block a specific user account and not the IP address used by that user. Like for example when a bot needs to blocked because it is doing something wrong. Or when blocking an unsuitable username.
When the option "Automatically block IP addresses used by this user" is not selected it shows up in the log as "autoblock disabled".
To localize translate; [[MediaWiki:Noautoblockblock]] and [[MediaWiki:Ipbenableautoblock]]

Be aware that when an ip address is blocked automatically because of it is used by a blocked user that this hidden ip address (like #15429) can not be used by any other user. The option "Block anonymous users only" has no effect on them. So this way important ipadresses, like form a ISP proxy, can be blocked for all users, also registered ones. And can will not even know it because you can not see the ip address. The good thing is that this type of automatic block is only for 24 hours.

New project proposals
Foundation
Community
Awards
Media
  • [Publicité] - a website or publication reporting about the existence of Wikipedia is no news since many years. But this one is. In France there is a website " Service-public.fr". It is a state website that "aims to give citizens access to all administrative information on-line. Its objective is above all practical: to answer questions posed by citizens to make their contact with the civil service more user-friendly." says their website. And they have presented Wikipedia to their nearly two million monthly visitors and 200,000 readers of their email newsletter. As a state e-government website this can bring FR Wikipedia in spotlight to many less advanced internet-users.
  • [Intellipedia] - the US intelligence services have created a internal MediaWiki encyclopedia to collect and share information between the different agencies.
  • [Virus Alert!] - a typical subject for spam. A more original was "warning from Wikipedia"; an attempt by using the name and logo of Wikipedia to get people to download a file that is suspected to be a virus. They also used a link to a history page of an article to make it look more real. It was on the DE wikipedia, and like you can except from DE.wp there admins are very gründlich so the link was gone in a few minutes. It did has give many media inspiration to write something negative about wikipedia. Example; the mostly read newspaper in Belgium had on Monday a article, just above the one where the where saying that Novell had invented Linux, that Wikipedia was hacked.
  • [Not funny] - a student who posted a threat to do something violent in a school has discovered that editing "anonymous" is a relative term when there is an incentive to find out who it was.
Stats
  • [81%] - According to a study you have an 81% change that when you look for something in google a Wikipedia result will show up in the first 10 results. When you look with Yahoo it is 77%. And if you look by means of MSN it drops to 38%. You would think; that is logical, Microsoft has his own encyclopedia, Encarta. But strangely enough MSN links to Encrata in 0% of the first 10 results. This is of course a summary of a summary. See the blog post, the full report and appendix for the real information.
  • [Wow!] - According to Netcraft; in August 1995 there where 18,957 hosts, April 1997 (1 million sites), February 2000 (10 million), July 2001 (30 million), March 2005 (60 million), November 2006 ; +100 million websites. To compare; the stats place Wikipedia between the 15th and 6th most popular site of all those million of websites. Of you can believe that is something else. According to Alexa is the website where this ezine is also on posted, Wikizine.org, in the top 1 million of those 100 million and that with around 1400 unique visitors a month.
Other news
  • [An other one] - In Wikizine 47 you were presented with a very extended nice presentation about Wikipedia & Co made by a librarian. Here is another one, this one made by our own w:en:User:Tawker
Was ist das?
Jimbo: Jimmy Wales. Founder of Wikipedia, Chairman Emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation. President of Wikia, Inc.
Wikia: company founded by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. It is hosting wikis and works on the developing of MediaWiki, the software the projects are using.
Bomis: an internet company founded Jimmy Wales and Tim Shell. Bomis provided hosting and staff to Wikipedia in the very beginning of the project.

A bit of wisdom from South Park

Peta-member:
"But why on earth would you not want to vote?"
Stan Marsh: "I think voting is great but I just did not care this time because it was between a giant douche and a turd sandwich."
Peta-member: "But Stan, do you do not know it is always between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. Nearly every election since the beginning of time has been between some douche and so turd. The are the only people who suck up enough to make it that far in politics."


Note: "douche" means in American something else than in the rest of the world. You can look it up in Wikipedia...

Editor(s): Gary Kirk, Walter - Corrector(s): Gary Kirk - Thanks to: Renaud, Pathoschild, 555
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