Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-12-17/News and notes

Elections for the Arbitration Committee ended this week. Results of the elections are available, although the final decision rests with Jimbo Wales, who is expected to announce new arbitrators later this week. The top eight finishers, by percentage:

1. Newyorkbrad, 97.3%
2. FT2, 88.9%
3. FayssalF, 76.1%
4. Sam Blacketer, 74.3%
5. Deskana, 73.0%
6. Thebainer, 67.2%
7. Rebecca, 65.1%
8. Raul654, 65.0%

At least five candidates will be chosen after the elections by Jimmy Wales, although in both of the last two elections, Jimbo has appointed more than the minimum number of arbitrators. In January 2006, he expanded the Committee from 12 to 15 members, and in Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2006, he appointed an additional user in place of Filiocht, who was unable to discharge his duties due to illness (Filiocht is eligible to claim an additional seat through 2008, but has not edited since June 2006).

In previous elections, Jimbo Wales has chosen arbitrators mainly by the vote percentages, although in the January 2006 elections, he appointed two former arbitrators who were not directly next in line by percentage, "in the interests of ... maintaining continuity".

Elections for new stewards also ended this week. The Board of Trustees now has the option to select any candidate with at least 80% support. Ten users have at least 93% support, and two others hover just above the 80% support mark; the top twelve finishers, by percentage:

1. Spacebirdy, 100.0%
2. Jusjih, 98.6%
3. .anaconda, 98.0%
4. Dungodung, 98.0%
5. Wpedzich, 96.6%
6. Thogo, 96.3%
7. Lar, 94.8%
8. Zirland, 94.6%
9. Millosh, 94.7%
10. Andre Engels, 93.8%
11. DerHexer, 81.2%
12. Nick1915, 80.2%

In all elections so far, the Board has confirmed all candidates with at least 80% support; however, DerHexer and Nick1915 are the only candidates to ever finish so close to the 80% mark. Meanwhile, Dmcdevit, who had held at least 88% support for much of the election, finished with only 78% support, just out of the running, after controversy over his role in the temporary desysopping of Zscout370 over actions taken at the Carolyn Doran article.

Confirmation of current stewards is also complete; comments left there will be considered by current and incoming stewards, and some present stewards may lose their positions.

Wikimania 2009 bidding officially opened this week; as of press time, two official bids had been submitted: Bogotá and Toronto. New bids will be open until January 12, at which time the jury will be announced. Bids already created will be open until February 3, when bidding will end, and deliberations will begin. On or before February 20, the host city for Wikimania 2009 will be announced to the public.

The Wikimedia Foundation fundraiser continued this week. In the first eight weeks of the fundraiser, about 38,000 people had donated at least US$1, and the Foundation had raised about $1,200,000.

Monday, December 17's total donations ($10,503.77) and Saturday, December 15's number of contributions (294) reached a fundraiser low; however, the size of the average donation continues to stay above the fundraiser average; for the last thirteen days, the average donation size has eclipsed the fundraiser average of $31.71.

• The English Wikipedia has reached 6,000,000 registered users.
• The Portuguese Wikibooks has reached 80,000 edits.
• The Hungarian Wikipedia has reached 80,000 articles.
• The French Wikiquote has reached 5,000 quotes.
• The Khmer Wikipedia has reached 500 articles.
• The Ukrainian Wikipedia has reached 80,000 articles.
• The Malayalam Wikipedia has reached 5,000 articles.
• The Guarani Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.