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.org
Year: 2008 Week: 40 Number: 100
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An independent internal news bulletin
for the members of the Wikimedia community
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=== Technical news ===
[Global blocking] - Stewards are now able to block an IP address or
range from editing on all Wikimedia projects (except Meta). This
option is intended to be used with restraint and for a short time frame.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_blocking
[Robots.txt] - this is file that exists to control what pages are
allowed to be indexed by a search engine. Basically you can use it to
keep stuff out of Google. A recent added magic word __NOINDEX__ gives
the same result on a specific page. Until now only the developers
could edit the robots.txt for all WMF-projects. But now it there a new
MediaWiki-page to control that. There is a central part of the
Robots.txt that is not in local control. But on the page
[[MediaWiki:Robots.txt]] you specify wiki-specific instructions for
the spiders of the search engines.
[Global bot] - it is now possible for bots to get a global bot status.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bot_policy#Global_bots
[New tools] - Several users have created external tools for analyzing
the history of articles. Statistics, a history search function, page
view diagrams.
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2008/09/09/more-story-in-wp-history/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Histlegend -- example of how
to include the tools to the history function
[Flood flag] - only at Meta, but it can be requested for other wikis
also, is the now the flag "flood". It is actually exactly the same as
the "bot flag" only is it named "Flood". The idea is that when a sysop
wishes to do many similar, repetitive and non-controversial changes
then that user can ask for the "flood"-flag on a bureaucrat. The
result is like with a bot that the edits are hidden by default.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Flood_flag
=== Policy ===
[New logo] - Meta, the neutral ground wiki for all Wikimedia
Foundation projects and wikis, has a new logo. This was decided after
a one week running poll. It used before the WMF-logo and the now
changed to a different one but in the same general style.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Babel/Metawiki_logo_poll
[use of global groups] - the function of global groups is used to give
certain groups certain levels of global rights. For example WMF office
staff and systems administrators have been given certain global rights.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special_global_permissions
[Delete Wikiquote] - a proposal to close the Wikiquote project was
closed without consensus. The argument to delete Wikiquote was that
some see it as one giant copyright violation and not compatible with
WMF goals.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Metapub/On_disbanding_Wikiquote
=== Foundation ===
[Board] - user Frieda of the Italian Wikipedia has resigned from the
board of the WMF. The board does not know when she will be replaced
for now.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/32774
[Wikimedia Nederland] - On November first will Wikimedia NL hold there
4th conference in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Early registrations are
open.
http://www.wikimediaconferentie.nl/
=== Community ===
[Books] - It was announced this week that three books were published
relating to Wikipedia. Lennart Guldbrandsson from Wikimedia Sverige
wrote a book in Swedish titled "Så fungerar Wikipedia", which
translates to "How Wikipedia works". Wikimedia Sweden also has its
first WikiReader available (about Swedish Birds).
Also, a few English Wikipedians wrote their own book about "How
Wikipedia Works" (same title, different book then the Swedish) and
they were published around the same time. This book was written by
Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates. Wikizine is mentioned
in it on page 345 in chapter 12.
Earlier in 2008 was also published the book the book "Wikipedia: The
Missing Manual". (ISBN 0596515162)
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/32914 for Swedish books
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.english/95320 for
English book
http://nostarch.com/wikipedia.htm -- How Wikipedia Works (free chapter
download & order info)
[EO Wikipedia] - the Esperanto Wikipedia is proud of there new main
page design. From a text only layout in 2001 has it grown in several
steps to the current modern look that was elected out of 7 proposals.
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%88efpa%C4%9Do/Nova_aspekto
[source:"Wikinews"] - Wikinews is now partially listed on google news
(due to flagged revs). The are still working on meeting google's
requirement of unique numbers in URLs, so so far only lead articles
have been listed. Before this only mirrors of Wikinews where listed.
http://tinyurl.com/3prv5u -- view all Wikinews story's in Google News
[RU wiki] - On October 18 and 19 Moscow will play host to the second
international Russian-language Wiki-conference related to Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia, as well as other Wikimedia projects.
Registrations are open.
http://tinyurl.com/4y6ll4
=== Media ===
[Sweden] - Recently the former national telephone company of Sweden
(and still the biggest telephone company in Sweden) ran a commercial
for their mobile internet. The commercial ran like this: three men sit
in a outside oak hot tub. One of them tell the others about how a
former king planted oaks in Sweden. The others say: "Well, you know a
lot." Another goes out of the water, is gone for a few moments, comes
back and gives a comprehensive description of oaks, including their
Latin name, while the others are more and more impressed. Then we cut
to a sign that says: "Wikipedia in your mobile phone."
http://media.resume.se/resPlayer.aspx?type=1&id=1250
[Report about wp &win prize] - Wired.com won a $10,000 award for their
reporting about Wikipedia and the Wikipedia-scanner
http://www.journalism.co.uk/14/articles/532334.php
[Jimmy] - A classic item once more; interview of Jimmy Wales on TV,
Canadian this time.
http://tinyurl.com/3h8ppr
=== Stats ===
[No interest?] - after the unblocking of the Chinese language
Wikipedia in China the statistics do not indicate a special increase
of traffic.
http://infodisiac.com/blog/2008/09/pretty-much-none-whatsoever/
[ES Wikipedia] - reached 400.000 articles on Saturday, September 22.
The Spanish language Wikipedia is the 9th of 256 largest Wikipedias.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias
[Special:Statistics] - the statistics page of the wikis now also lists
the number of active users of last 30 days. What a lot more
meaningful is then the number of user accounts created. For EN
Wikipedia is it 153,000 active users.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics
[If the editors where paid ...] - how much would it have cost? A lot.
http://infodisiac.com/blog/2008/10/quantifying-volunteer-contribution/
[Bangla Wikisource] - has reached 1,000 pages milestone on 25th
September, 2008.
http://bn.wikisource.org/
[EN wikinews] - The English language Wikinews has recieved its 700
000th edit. First edit was Tim uploading the draft version of our
logo. The 700,000th edit was by 207.108.15.1 commenting about how
connecting strongly religious people
with "extremists" (aka the type who blow things up is a bad thing)
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/WN:WC#700.2C000_editshttp://tinyurl.com/5yf4n9 -- this is how a 700,000th edit looks like
=== Other news ===
[Delitionpedia] - Where do articles go to when the get deleted?" -
The go to Deletionpedia.
http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/09/21/2342226.shtmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deletionpediahttp://deletionpedia.dbatley.com/
[Wikizine] - the good news; Wikizine ID - the Indonesian language
version of Wikizine is back after its formal closure in April 2008.
This thanks to the effort of [[meta:user:Rex]]. The bad news; DE
Wikizine - the German language version of Wikizine is now formally
closed because of lack of support.
http://id.wikizine.org -- reborn
http://de.wikizine.org -- closed
[Wikisage] - Wikisage, a "second generation wiki encyclopedia", is
founded by Guido den Broeder. The active users have most a Dutch
language Wikipedia background. The difference is that users can also
write essays, so a personal POV. And some users can become labeled as
an "expert" and be in charge of certain articles. Basically the expert
voice gets more important than on Wikipedia. The project exists in
Dutch and English but the Dutch version is stronger on this moment.
http://www.wikisage.org/
[Interwiki sync] - A page on Meta is created to discus interwiki
synchronization problems.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Interwiki_synchronization
[681 hits for wikipedia] - to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Google
the have put online a dump of google from January 2001. Wikipedia was
founded on January 15, 2001. In this google there are 681 hits for
"wikipedia", now it is 251 million.
http://www.google.com/search2001/search?hl=en&q=wikipediahttp://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/ -- one of least know WMF-sites ; EN
Wikipedia edition December 2001
=== Was ist das? ===
Well, if you not know it you look it up .. and there is a very handy
FF extension to do so in Wiktionary.
Users of FireFox can install the WikiLook exstension. When installed
you just press shift and point to a word in a text. And you get in a
small overlay screen the dictionary description of it and a link to
look it up in Wikipedia. English language editions only. But due the
multi-language nature of Wiktionary the extension remains useful also
for non-English language users.
http://wikilook.mozdev.org/https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7675
=== Quote ===
"If a man speaks in a forest and there is no woman to hear him, is he
still wrong?"
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/If_a_man_speaks_in_a_forest_and_there_is_no_woman…
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Number of subscribers: 715
Editor(s): Walter, Hannibal, Cbrown, bawolff
Thanks to: Platonides, Londenp, Bellayet, Arno Lagrange, Lvova
Contact: reply or http://report.wikizine.org
Website: http://www.wikizine.org
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Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of accuracy,
validity and especially but not limited to,
correct grammar and spelling. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.
Wikizine.org is published by [[meta:user:Walter]],
and is not a publication of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wikizine is a irregular publication as long as there is noteworthy
news (and time)
Content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html