Wikizine/2006-12

******************************************
 __    __ _ _    _     _            
/ / /\ \ (_) | _(_)___(_)_ __   ___ 
\ \/  \/ / | |/ / |_  / | '_ \ / _ \
 \  /\  /| |   <| |/ /| | | | |  __/
  \/  \/ |_|_|\_\_/___|_|_| |_|\___|
                                    .org 
Year: 2006  Week: 12  Number: 18       

******************************************

An independent internal news bulletin 
for the members of the Wikimedia community

//////////////////////////////////////////

=== Technical news (*)===

[Move page] Normal users can now move back a moved page. Seems to work on all WMF wikis.

Example; [[user:Tom]] moves page [[Tom's page]] to [[Tom's moved page]].  [[Tom's page]] is a redirect to [[Tom's moved page]]. 

Any user (non-sysop) can now move [[Tom's moved page]] back to [[Tom's page]]. [[Tom's moved page]] is a redirect then. This only works if the redirected page is not edited. If so you need to delete it first. 

A sysop has a option to delete the target page directly when moving that page.

[Blocked/edit] blocked users on the English Wikipedia can still edit there own talk page. Seems to work only on the EN Wikipedia. 

[renameuser] Bureacrats can change the user name of a user. But there is a ceiling limit of the number of edits that a user can have done to be able to change the username. That number used to be 6,800 edits. It has been raised. Possibly to 20,000 edits. Because it is not sure that the limit is really 20,000. Or even if it is so you can not trust that if will not change without notice, it is best not to say to users with more then 20,000 that the can not apply for a renameuser. Try it and you will see of it works or not. 

[SpamCop] the mail server of wikimedia has been blacklisted by spamcop. The blocked made that emails send out by Wikimedia email handling system OTRS where bouncing. According to SpamCop spam has been send by Wikimedias systems. The block is now expired.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/22368

[Weird] on Meta normal users get a "block"-link in RC for newly created users. This block-link does not work. So far as know this behavior is only on Meta.

(*) Remark: the meaning of the word "news" in the context of Wikizine does not mean that it is really something new. It can be a new function but also a function that is (not) widely known. So is the fact the blocked users on EN Wiki still can edit there own talk page is many months old. But if you are not from EN Wikipedia, it is news. Also can it takes weeks before changes to the software are noticed so the report of it is delayed. 

=== Foundation ===

[Meetings] Wikimedia Polska is organizing a meetup at the end of April. The big international Wikimania is at the begin of August 2006 in Boston, SA. And the Chinese will hold a meeting in Hong Kong end August 2006. And also end of August or early September a meeting in the Netherlands, Europe.

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/6501
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Chinese_Wikimania_2006_to_be_held_in_Hong_Kong
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/6428
http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WCN

=== Community ===

[NW] The Chinese Wikinews starts. And the new Wiki seems already full of life.
http://zh.wikinews.org

[Internal news] On the English Wikisource a local internal news section is started in the spirit of the Wikipedia Signpost (EN wikipedia). On the French Wikipedia the have since some weeks also a new internal news-project. It is called "Wikizine". The seem to have discovered Wikizine.org and are now voting for a new name.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Wikizine
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:News

=== New project proposals ===

[Proposal] New proposal: One encyclopedia per child.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_projects#One_Encyclopedia_Per_Child_mainly_in_Simple_English

[Proposal] New proposal: Wikikernel, a new project incubator for new Wikimedia project proposals.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikikernel

=== Media ===

[Wikia] is the commercial company of Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. The New York venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners is investing $4 million to help Wikia expand its Wikicities operation.  
http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2006/03/13/story1.html?page=1

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

... that we are *all* volunteers?

The core-editors are the people who are sharing there time and knowledge to work on the projects and really make the product; a encyclopedia, a dictionary, a free textbook and so more. You have also sysops, bureaucrats and stewards. The are working on different layers of management of the projects. The need to take in to account a bigger picture and take responsibility also in the function as volunteers. Without the software developers and the system administrators to make to fantastic software we are all using and keeping it online there would be no Wikimedia projects. And the are also volunteers (mostly). 

And the board of the Wikimedia foundation whit elected community members, the committees of the WMF, we are all working on the same project. But on different levels, whit different responsibility's. 

From the point of view of a blocked user a sysop can be seen as a tyrant. But it is only a user, a sysop, who doing his job, his function. Blocking user who hurt the project.  A steward can also not please everybody and that is also not his function. Rules and policies are there for a reason.

So can it be possible that the Wikimedia Foundation, who needs to deal whit the real world, needs to take discussions  for the good of the global Wikimedia family. Also when those actions can be unpopular. Do not attack the Wikimedia Foundation for doing there job. The are also volunteers working for us all. To keep the projects legally safe and online. It is only that you can not vote about everything. Assume good fiat. 

=== MediaZilla-IRC Quotes ===

Doesn't "Votes for Deletion" mean we're deleting the votes? 
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein  
The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us. [Just a note, that quote is from Bill Watterson's 'Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip.] 

//////////////////////////////////////////
Number of subscribers: 335
Editor(s): Walter, Shizhao 
E-mail: ihavenews AT wikizine DOT org
//////////////////////////////////////////

Wikizine.org makes no guarantee of validity. 
Wikizine.org is not a publication of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Content is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. 
Publisher:[[meta:user:Walter]]