Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-06-12/News and notes

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News and notes

By Flcelloguy, June 12, 2006

Two resolutions passed

The Wikimedia Foundation passed two resolutions this week. The first resolution defines the scope of the special projects committee, and the second resolution authorizes the creation of a fundraising committee. The fundraising committee will be organized by Daniel Mayer (Maveric149, also known as Mav), the current Chief Financial Officer of the Foundation.

World Cup brings debate

The World Cup brought debate and controversy to the "In the news" section of the Main Page this week. The discussion centered around whether Wikipedia should place updated scores from the monthlong competition, which draws significant worldwide attention, on the Main Page. Previous sporting events, including the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, had been featured with updated scores and/or medal counts, with a distinguishable section placed below the other entries on the template. The question of whether other less-global sport events, such as the ongoing Stanley Cup Finals and NBA Finals, merit updated scores or even a mention on the page was also discussed. As of press time, "In the news" did not have updated scores but had an item mentioning the games with a link to Portal:Association football, which contains the scores.

Language select starts at Meta

Language select was implemented using JavaScript in meta this week. The script allows users to select their preferred language(s) and then narrowing down multilingual templates, pages, and articles to only the languages chosen. For example, the stub template prior to language select contained 20 languages and lines; the new script makes the template only display the languages selected.

Wikipedian dies

The death of a Wikipedian was noted this week. Gérald Anfossi (Nataraja) was an active contributor on the French Wikipedia, where he was an administrator, as well as on Commons and on the English Wikipedia. Known for his contributions to Indian and South Asian-related articles, as well as inter-wiki work, Anfossi succumbed to cancer in mid-March and was buried in India.

Project and logo proposals

Incubator, a proposed project where new projects or new languages "can be arranged, written, tested and proven worth for being hosted by Wikimedia", was started this week. The project is also looking for a logo. In addition, a proposal to change the current Wiktionary logo was also initiated. Finally, Wikicitizens, a forum where people could discuss current events, ideas, and viewpoints, was also proposed this week.

Briefly

• The Bengali Wikipedia has reached 2,000 articles.
• The Dutch Low Saxon Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
• The Piedmontese Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Northern Sami Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Uyghur Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
• The French Wikipedia has reached 300,000 articles.
• The Spanish Wiktionary has reached 8,000 entries.
• The Latvian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 registered users.
• The Indonesian Wiktionary has reached 10,000 entries.
• The Japanese Wikinews has reached 1,000 published articles.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
• The Quechua Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
• The Thai Wikipedia has reached 6,000 registered users.
• The Vietnamese Wikipedia has reached 40,000 pages.
• The Chinese Wikisource has reached 5,000 articles.
• The Sicilian Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
• The Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 100,000 total pages.
• The Greek Wiktionary has reached 30,000 entries.
• The Romani Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
• The Thai Wikipedia has reached 12,000 articles.
• The Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 2,000 registered users.
• The Russian Wikipedia has reached 85,000 articles.
• The Norwegian Wikipedia has reached one million edits.
• The English Wiktionary has reached 150,000 entries.
• The Esperanto Wikipedia has reached 45,000 articles and 500,000 edits.
• The Greek Wiktionary has reached 100 registered users.

Also this week: From the editor — 1,000 featured articles — NSLE desysopped — M.A.N.I.A. — News and notes — Press coverage — Features and admins — B.R.I.O.N. — T.R.O.L.L.