Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-08-28/News and notes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

News and notes

By Flcelloguy, August 28, 2006

Discussions for Wikiversity continue

After the recent launches of Wikiversity and Wikiversity Beta, a search for a logo for the new projects continued. There are, as of press time, 11 proposed logos to replace the current temporary version, a mortarboard, which cannot be used because of licensing restrictions. In addition, discussions for a motto and mission statement also continued this week.

Planet's "demotion" causes flurry

This week, a flurry of editing resulted after the International Astronomical Union voted to change the definition of a planet to exclude Pluto, an item that was still near the top of "In the news" as of press time. Several articles were immediately updated, such as the articles "Pluto", "planet", and "2006 redefinition of planet". Ironically, though, the featured article on the day of the change was the planet Mercury, which became the smallest planet by size after Pluto's "demotion" to a dwarf planet. The featured article was updated a few hours after the change in Pluto's status.

Though the Encyclopædia Britannica updated its article on Pluto shortly after the change, many pointed out that its other relevant articles were not rectified, such as the one on Mercury in the Concise editon, which as of press time still called it the "second-smallest major planet (after Pluto)". The Concise Edition article about Pluto still refers to it as a planet.

Milestone reached

This week, a milestone was reached as Wikipedia surpassed five million total articles in all of its language projects. There are currently over 200 language projects, with the English Wikipedia being the largest with nearly one and a half million articles.

Briefly

• The Slovak Wikiquote has reached 3,000 articles.
• The Kurdish Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
• The French Wikipedia has reached 350,000 articles.
• The Czech Wikipedia has reached 40,000 articles.
• The Tajik Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 30,000 edits.
• The Bengali Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
• The Kurdish Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
• The Lombard Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Spanish Wikipedia has reached 200,000 registered users.
• The Vietnamese Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles.
• The Arabic Wikipedia has reached 25,000 registered users.
• The Turkish Wikipedia has reached 30,000 articles.
• The Armenian Wikipedia has reached 10,000 page edits.
• The Tamil Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
• The Chuvash Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
• The German Wikibooks has reached 6,000 book modules.

Also this week: From the editor — Board candidates — CFO resigns — M.A.N.I.A. — Spanish Wikipedia — News and notes — Press coverage — Features and admins — Arbitration report