That makes sense - you don't want any editing going on while people aren't able to monitor it properly. If the API wasn't disabled, a vandal that managed to get access to it (I can't remember what's required to edit via the API) could go on a spree without anyone being there to stop it and we would come back after the blackout to a complete mess.

On 17 January 2012 09:53, Gordon Joly gordon.joly@pobox.com wrote:

Looks like the API is also going to be down for 24 hours....

Gordo

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Mediawiki-api] Editing en.wp via API to be disabled on 18 January Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:20:38 -0800 From: Sumana Harihareswara sumanah@wikimedia.org Reply-To: MediaWiki API announcements & discussion mediawiki-api@lists.wikimedia.org Organisation: Wikimedia Foundation To: mediawiki-api@lists.wikimedia.org

https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-so... Editing pages on English Wikipedia via the web service API will be disabled for 24 hours beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18, as part of the anti-SOPA/PIPA blackout. -- Sumana Harihareswara Volunteer Development Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation _______________________________________________ Mediawiki-api mailing list Mediawiki-api@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-api

---

Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org