Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-03-13/News and notes

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News and notes

By Ral315, Durova, and Dihydrogen Monoxide, 13 March 2008

One user promoted to bureaucrat

After eleven users applied for bureaucratship (see archived story), only one RfB, that of The Rambling Man, passed successfully (the nomination closed with 133 users supporting and just 4 opposing).

Riana's RfB was unsuccessful; it closed at 85.9%, within what some considered a bureaucrat's discretionary range, though others argued that the roughly 90% standard should remain in place for this round of RfBs, until community consensus could be achieved on the proper cutoff. After a bureaucrat chat, bureaucrats remained split on the RfB, with three users (WJBscribe, Andrevan, and Warofdreams) supporting Riana's promotion, and four (Rdsmith4, UninvitedCompany, Kingturtle, and Deskana) who would not support promotion. As such, WJBscribe closed the RfB as unsuccessful, with the bureaucrats unable to determine whether consensus existed.

A proposal to lower the bar for RfBs is being voted on; most commenting on the proposal have supported lowering the bar, although whether the discussion will result in any changes once completed is unknown.

Wikimania 2009 bids narrowed to two

On March 9, the Wikimania 2009 bids from Brisbane and Karlsruhe were eliminated by the jury, leaving just two bids open: Buenos Aires and Toronto. The final decision will be made sometime on or after Thursday, March 13.

Valentine's image re-featured

After being featured and de-featured in February, Image:Love or dutyb.jpg, an 1871 chromolithograph by Gabriele Castagnola, has been re-featured. A suggestion by Spikebrennan for a Valentine's Day featured picture led Durova to locate the image at the Library of Congress archives, restoring it as Image:Love or dutya.jpg, where it passed featured picture candidacy on a unanimous vote; however, some users complained that the vote violated usual procedure. In order to feature the picture on the Main Page on Valentine's Day, the vote ran for just over two days, while most nominations run for about seven days. After being featured on the main page, these procedural issues led to a nomination for delisting, which resulted in the image's de-featuring. Afterward, the image was renominated as Image:Love or dutyb.jpg, where it passed on a second unanimous vote. This is believed to be the first time that a featured picture has been nominated, promoted, highlighted on the main page, delisted, and repromoted in less than 30 days.

Briefly

• The Icelandic Wiktionary has reached 12,000 entries with ára.
• The Slovenian Wikipedia has reached 60,000 articles.
• The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 40,000 total pages.
• The Thai Wikipedia has reached 40,000 registered users.
• The Khmer Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
• The Kongo Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.

Also this week: From the editor — Scandal fallout continues — WikiWorld — News and notes — In the news — Dispatches — WikiProject report — Tutorial — Features and admins — Technology report — Arbitration report
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