Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-12-18/News and notes

Steward elections conclude
The steward elections concluded on Friday, 15 December; confirmation of current stewards also ended at the same time. At the end of the voting, all of the candidates had at least 30 support votes, and 13 of the 15 candidates had at least an 80 percent support ratio. In order to qualify, candidates must have met both criteria. The Board of Trustees will appoint stewards from the 13 qualifying candidates. Although the exact number of candidates that will be chosen is unclear, it is thought that approximately 10 to 20 new stewards will be added, and the Board appointed every qualified candidate in January's steward elections. It is also unclear how present stewards will be re-confirmed, as several of the stewards had garnered some concerns and opposition to re-confirmation.

You chosen as Person of the Year
Time magazine released its annual Person of the Year award this week, and you were featured as the chosen person. Citing the perceived Web 2.0, the magazine elaborated on how the year was marked with the "story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before", and how the power of the individual - you - was greater than ever before. "It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace," the magazine added. YouTube and MySpace are both popular sites driven by community-based contributions; the former is a video sharing site, and the latter is a social network service.

The magazine also featured Wikipedia editor Simon Pulsifer (known as SimonP) in one of its 15 stories about individuals who have made an impact on the "new digital democracy." Pulsifer, who is currently an Arbitrator, once had the most edits of any account, excluding bots, on the English Wikipedia.

Briefly

 * The Yoruba Wikipedia has reached 100 articles.
 * The Dutch Low Saxon Wikipedia has reached 1,500 articles.
 * The Japanese Wikipedia has reached 300,000 articles.
 * The Norwegian Wikipedia reached 30,000 registered users and 90,000 articles.
 * The Welsh Wikipedia has reached 6000 articles.
 * The Slovak Wikipedia has reached 5,000 registered users.
 * The Volapük Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
 * The Bishnupriya Manipuri Wikipedia has reached 8,000 articles.
 * The Cebuano Wikipedia has reached 3,000 articles.
 * The Korean Wikipedia has reached 30,000 articles.
 * The Latvian Wikipedia has reached 7,000 articles.
 * The Persian Wikipedia has reached 25,000 registered users.
 * The Javanese Wikipedia has reached 4,000 articles.
 * The Telugu Wikipedia has reached 25,000 articles.
 * The Serbian Wikipedia has reached 40,000 articles.
 * The Turkish Wiktionary has reached 50,000 entries.
 * The Dutch Wikipedia has reached 80,000 registered users.