Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-10-23/Interwiki report

Status and community news

As of 18 October, 2006,

was set up to guess the date when 100,000 articles will be reached. The median guess date is 26 January, 2007.

There are 34,867 registered users, 33 active administrators (1 in 1,056), 3 active bureaucrats and 4 CheckUsers. Judging by the number of votes cast in the most crucial decisions, the number of the most active users lies a little below 100. On the IRC channel, there are typically over 60 nicks online at the same time.

Media

The Finnish Wikipedia has been increasingly featured in the media, mainly in the print media and on the radio. The monthly supplement of the largest Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat published recently a rather large article on the Finnish Wikipedia and interviewed ten users. Nearly all newspapers published by Student Unions have also written about Wikipedia.

Policy overview

The Finnish Wikipedia processes are heavily based on pure voting, though discussion and consensus decision-making are in general favoured and encouraged in policy issues. Article deletion requires 70 per cent support, undeletion, featured article selection and adminship 80 per cent. Naming policy is based on individual community-approved dictionaries; approval and conflict resolution is accomplished by a vote.

Use of userboxes that sparked so much controversy in the English and some other Wikipedia's language versions is regulated in the Finnish Wikipedia so that only project-related userboxes are permitted.

Image policy

.

Blocking policy

The blocking policy of the project is quite liberal, and can be summarized by a phrase: "usually less than 30 days". As the Finnish Wikipedia has no

, the responsibility of enforcing the integrity of the project lies in the hands of individual administrators. As such, it is worthwhile to mention that accusations of administrator abuse are rather rare and usually judged by the community to be without merit.

Recent controversies

The naming policy of towns that are not part of Finland but where Finnish or Finno-Ugric languages are spoken or have been spoken, has been under fierce debate. As Finland has a complex history with Sweden and Russia, the question of which names to use arouses strong feelings, sometimes resulting in blocks and article protections.

, and most Votes For Deletion are based on the concept of notability. A proposition to get rid of the notability requirement was summarily dismissed.

The meaning of administratorship has recently been under discussion. A policy of removing the privileges of inactive administrators was approved. There is much disagreement about the number of edits one should have before applying, and also about how many administrators the project really needs. In addition, the existence of the infamous "Administrator Cabal" has been occasionally conjectured.

In the past, some of the more memorable controversies have included: a lengthy discussion on the correct spelling of pizza (fi:pizza) in Finnish (which, as it turned out, is "pizza" instead of "pitsa"), and a near-legendary debate on whether to use the en dash or the em dash in the Finnish Wikipedia.

Remarkable photos

The Finnish Wikipedia does not select

.

• 
  Sun setting over Lake Päijänne at Sysmä, Finland, by Joonas Lyytinen
• 
  Mist rising from the Oulujoki river embraces the Vaalankurkku railway bridge in Finland, by TeVe
• 
  Midsummer festival bonfire closeup, by Janne Karaste