I spent about 15 minutes working on [[April 5]] only to have the database lockout hit me just as I saw saving. I have no interest in doing all that work again. Mav, have at it.
Zoe
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aparently, the wikipedia server is down. This hasn't been reported on the list, although this might have been because the email server is down too.
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Please see [[Talk:Crass]]. In Michael's new incarnation as Weezer, he wrote: "You call me Michael one more time. I'll pound on your neck, and smash you into pieces and kill you Zoe."
Zoe
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Anything in <math> tags is getting rendered as text right now,
with all its ugliness. First noticed on the [[speed of light]] page, but
it's even on the [[Wikipedia:TeX markup]] page, so I would imagine it's
something wrong with the TeX interpreter. Seems to have been going on
since the midnight pseudo-downtime, I'd guess. Could someone look into
this ASAP?
--
John R. Owens http://www.ghiapet.homeip.net/
I tried. I tried to warn them. But it all happened, just the way I
remembered.
--Commander Jeffrey David Sinclair
I, Notheruser, cordially request admin status.
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The English-language Wikipedia will be in read-only mode for maintenance
tonight/in the morning starting around 9pm PST (midnight EST; 5am GMT; 6am
most of Europe; the rest of you are on your own).
I'll be making some slight alterations to the database structure and
installing an updated version of the software to better support
client-side web caching for more browsers (so your browser will reload
pages only when they've actually changed instead of every time you visit
them). This will also enable a future update to do server-side caching
which should reduce server load significantly.
IE users, this should fix the cache bug where red links remain even after
a page has been created; the page should automatically reload with the
correct link status.
(This update has been running for about a week on meta.wikipedia.org and
test.wikipedia.org with no complaints so far.)
This will require taking the wiki "briefly" into read-only mode while
alterations are made. I don't know exactly how long it will take, but
don't be surprised if it takes about two hours. These things always take
longer than hoped. :)
The other languages will also be done around this time, but should go much
faster; there will be brief read-only outages, one at a time.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
This exchange is from my talk page:
> I noticed a page in which you were trying to recruit new
> sysops. Could I become one?
>
> 172
! It's a possibility, provided you show others that you are
! competent and sincere about working toward the Wikipedia's
! goal of creating an accurate and neutral encyclopedia. It
! might be a bit of an uphill climb for you, though. --Ed
Ed Poor
Well, here's an idea. Give sysops emergency power to ban a logged-in user (by name), while simultaneously blindly banning their IP address -- temporarily. And they'd be honor bound to report the ban to the list, just as when a sysop protects a page to stop an edit war.
For example, user:Skeezix messes up a lot of pages, so sysop BigCheese spends countless hours cleaning up after him and finally says it's not worth it. After some discussion on the mailing list -- or in a really urgent case, unilaterally -- the sysop presses the magic "Ban this logged-in user" button.
Whereupon two things happen:
1. The user's account is blocked.
2. The user's IP address is blocked.
And one thing doesn't happen:
3. No user, not even a sysop, can see the blocked IP.
So if Skeezix tries to log in as user:Spreitel -- he can't because his IP is blocked.
Advantages:
* Stops the vandal cold.
* Avoids revealing IP addresses.
Disadvantages:
* Like all banning mechanisms, it could be abused.
* If the IP is shared by "innocent" parties, they also get blocked.
Ed Poor