Year: 2006 Week:2 Number: 8

=== Technical news ===

[[Special:Disambiguations]] works again on all Florida-cluster wikis.
You just have to make sure that the template being used to flag
disambiguation pages is correctly set in: [[MediaWiki:Disambiguationspage]]

It must be part of the template:namespace ( aka template: ).

Example:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Disambiguationspage

[[Special:Unwatchedpages]], the page where you can see the pages that
are not on someone's watchlist. If you are sysop you can find it in the
"Restricted special pages"-section. It lists just the first 1000 pages
(not 5000) and is only periodically updated.

[Wikitravel] The interwiki-links to Wikitravel are now functional to
more than only the English language Wikitravel. You can now link the
normal way to Wikitravel pages for all languages. [[wikitravel:xx:Name
of the page]] Wikitravel exist in EN, FR, RO, DE, SV, JA, NL.
To be clear about this; Wikitravel is not a wikimedia project. You can
use interwiki-links to many wikis outside the Wikimedia family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Walter/tmp&oldid=34402022
http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4479
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interwiki_map

=== Technical non-news ===

[Old search database] the database used for the search function is still
not updated. Articles created from at least December first 2004 can not
be found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=Billy+Reed&fulltext=Search

=== Request for help ===

[Wikipedia Day] Sunday the 15th will once again be Wikipedia Day. 5
years of Wikipedia! If people are interested to do something to
celebrate this, it is now high time to prepare.

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/26214
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Day

=== Policy ===

[Wikimedia (TM)] The Wikimedia Foundation publicized "visual identity
guidelines". You may not copy them out of the Foundation website but
only provide a link to the page.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_visual_identity_guidelines
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/5832

=== Politics ===

[Stewards elections 2006] The election ends 10th of January 2006. If you
have voted already: some late new candidates have arrived who may
deserve your attention...
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/elections_2006

=== Foundation ===

[Q4] the fund drive is now officially closed. The goal to raise at least
US$500,000 was not attained. The grand total at the end of the fund
drive day is $349.184,42 or 288.964,26 EUR.
A bit more is to be expected however, since some donations have not yet
been received, and also because since the start of the fund drive, the
donations on the Belgian Dexia bank account have not been counted,
because the balance is unknown. For reasons beyond comprehension the
Wikimedia Foundation has been unable to have online access to that account.

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fund_drives/2005/Q4/Day_21
http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Daniel_Mayer&oldid=12853#Dexia

=== Community ===

[WikiStandards] A new project proposal by GerardM, the Ultimate
Wiktionary evangelist, deserves looking into.

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/5835
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_projects#Wikistandards

=== Media ===

[Not on CNN for once] between December 24th and January 1st, the Italian
Wikipedia and Wikipedia in
general appeared three times on Italian TV: a 15-minutes special with
interviews during the news on RAI3 (public national network), an
interview with Frieda in "Futura City", a program on RAI2 (public
national network) and another interview with Frieda in "NetCafé", a
program on TeleLombardia (a regional TV station in Milan area).

http://www.tg3.rai.it/SITOTG/TG3_pagina_es/0,9480,3567-id_rubrica-A,00.html
http://www.futuracity.rai.it/FY3_puntata/0,11065,244-7332,00.html

[JOHO] Why the media can't get Wikipedia right: Stuck in its old model,
the media get the story backwards.

http://www.hyperorg.com/backissues/joho-dec29-05.html#wikipedia

=== Stats ===

[Milestones] The English Wikipedia reaches 900,000 articles, at 20:43, 4
January 2006 (UTC). The German Wikipedia comes on the second place whit
338,000 articles.

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

... that you do not need to use the web-based upload form of your wiki
to upload files?

There are several solutions for bulk upload. The Commonist is an easy to
use application that works for all OS so long you have java-support for
your OS. So it works for Win/Mac/Linux.

http://djini.de/software/commonist/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Commonist_screenshot.png - on
Linux the Gui does not look so nice :(

You can easy upload many files to commons or the other wikis. You can
define default upload information or specific for every file. It creates
automatically a gallery of the uploaded files in
[[user:MyUsername/gallery]].

You can add more license templates (example);

edit
script/commonist.bsh
and add
"{{self2GFDLcc-by-sa-2.0-be}}",
to the LICENSES array.

Other options are;

A upload bot, written in Perl. For the command line lovers. Unix,
Unix-like, Linux or Mac OS X.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:File_upload_service/Script
Wikimedia Commonplace - Windows only; you need Microsoft .NET Framework
- possibly does not work (yet)

http://tiredbrain.com/wikimedia/commonplace/

=== Q4 fund drive Quote ===

"Wikipedia has the potential for being an extraordinary resource, akin
to the Encyclopedia Galactica. But just as 'eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty', we all need to get personally involved!" by anonymous
"Thank you for showing us that the Internet isn't all about banner ads
or how many pages a search engine can index, but about presenting
accessible and relevant information in the languages that we speak." by
anonymous
"Wikipedia is the most important development to human knowledge and
understanding since the printing press. Thank you to everyone that
contributes and improves it." by Charlie Wiederhold
"May the force be with Wikimedia. Greetings from India." by Chandan Haldar
"My own finances aren't too good at the moment, but Wikipedia is one of
the things that make life worth living." by anonymous
"Wikipedia got me through school!" by anonymous

Anno Domini MMVI Week I Number VII

=== Technical news ===

[Berlin roundup] Brion has gone to Berlin for a conference and to meet
some people like Magnus and JeLuf and posted a report about that on
Meta. Very interesting. Like that it seems that the mythical Universal
Login will become reality soon.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Brion_VIBBER/Berlin_roundup
[New Specialpage] Filepath that allows user agents to get the full path
of a file from its name. Active on all wikis, for all users
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Filepath
[Cite] Cite.php is a Cite extension that adds two parser hooks to
MediaWiki, and , these operate together to add
citations to pages.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php
[SSL] Brion is experimenting with a HTTPS interface to the wikis. This
service is *not* ready for the general public or even real use. Do not
send your visitors to those url's. It is also buggy for some wikis. For
example on the dutch Wikipedia you get the message that the database is
locked when you try to edit. And when you block a user it appears
successful but it is not.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/21277
Example;
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ English Wikipedia
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikiquote/fr/wiki/ Frensh Wikiquote
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikinews/de/wiki/ German Wikines
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/meta/wiki/ Meta
=== Request for help ===

[Q4] A Personal Appeal from Jimbo for donations. Please help translate
the personal appeal from Jimbo Wales. EN, IT and PT version are now online.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Personal_Appeal

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fund_drives/2005/Q4_planning/Translations#Personal_Appeal

=== Community ===

[Book/DVD] A 139 page book in German explaining Wikipedia, its history and policies was accompanied by a 7.5 GB DVD containing 300,000 articles and 100,000 images from the German language Wikipedia. The book with DVD is sold for 9.90 Euro; both are also available for free download.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/German_DVD/Book_release_-_december_2005

=== Media ===

[W$k$p€d$a] with ads? "Wikipedia chief considers taking ads" reports Times Online.

Responds of Jimbo about this;

"Somehow a statement from me "I continue to oppose having advertising on Wikipedia" is transformed into a headline "Wikipedia chief considers taking ads".
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-1962714,00.html

=== Stats ===

The year 2005, and the month of December, were both record-breaking for Wikipedia.

The English Wikipedia more than doubled its body of articles in 2005, to almost 900,000; just over 50,000 of these were added in December alone - the first time we've grown by 50,000 articles in a single month. The Wikipedia project as a whole added almost 1.8 million new articles in 201 languages, 200,000 of them in December. With the exception of September, when the Italians and Poles went on a bot-rampage, December was the first time that the project gained 200,000 new articles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Announcements


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

... that the only difference between non-digest and digest delivery of Wikizine is that digest readers have to wait between 12 and 24 hours longer before the receive the copy?

http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/announce-l

=== Q4 fund drive Quotes ===

*"Wissen ist Macht. Und die Macht sollte beim Volk liegen und nicht bei Verwertungsgesellschaften." by anonymous (Knowledge is power. And the power should lie with the people and not with copyright collecting agencies.)

*"Knowledge will never be burnt again" by anonymous

*"How could I not donate to the Encyclopedia Galactica (well, in a hundred years or so... give it time)?" by Craig Hirsch

*"Wikipedia is better than corn chips, and I really like corn chips." by Chris Kilgour

*"Wikipedia is to the 21st Century what the library of Alexandria was to antiquity" by anonymous

*"With the stones of the past we build our future, and knowledge is how to use those stones." by Daniel Scallon

---

Editor(s): Walter, Shizhao

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

Year: 2005 Week:48 Number: 2

Technical news

-[Hardware] The Wikimedia hardware was updated recently.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Hardware_and_hosting_report
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cluster_report,_September-November,_2005
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Developer


-[Software] In the MediaWiki software a Special:Cite page was added.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Cite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Cite_text


-[Wikistatus] OpenFact's replacement - Alfa
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/20664


=== Politics ===
-[China block] Jimbo's opinion in Tunis at the World Summit on the
Information Society: "Wikipedia is neither critical nor supportive of the
Chinese government. We are not a site for dissidents nor for government
supporters. We are neutral. NPOV is non-negotiable."
http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-November/042788.html
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/China_block

=== Foundation ===

-[Cancer] The Wikimedia Foundation is supporting non-profit medical
research by participating in the Folding at Home program, donating
computer-time on servers when these do not have any other work to do.
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&username=wikimedia%2Eorg
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/20563

-[Board] A meeting of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees was held
on irc on November 13, 2005. Notes may be found here :
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Meetings/November_13,_2005

=== Media ===

-[Angela] , member of the board of trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation,
gave an interview.
http://tinyurl.com/97rdd

=== Other news ===

[SWMT] stands for Small Wiki Monitoring Team. The SWMT aims to create a
team of dedicated Wikimedians who will monitor small and inactive Wikipedias for abusive editing.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SWMT

=== Quote ===

"Then we tell them to fuck off." Jimmy Wales -- 24 Oct 2005 in response to
what Wikimedia would do in the hypothetical situation that Answers.com
tried to exert control over Wikipedia's content.

---

Editors: Walter, Oscar, Shizhao