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Tech News: 2024-11
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 March. It will be on all wikis from 14 March (
calendar).
[1][2]
After consulting with various communities, the line height of the text on the
Minerva skin will be increased to its previous value of 1.65. Different options for typography can also be set using the options in the menu, as needed.
[3]
The active link color in
Minerva will be changed to provide more consistency with our other platforms and best practices.
[4]
Structured data on Commons will no longer ask whether you want to leave the page without saving. This will prevent the “information you’ve entered may not be saved” popups from appearing when no information have been entered. It will also make file pages on Commons load faster in certain cases. However, the popups will be hidden even if information has indeed been entered. If you accidentally close the page before saving the structured data you entered, that data will be lost.
[5]
Future changes
All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on March 20. This is planned at 14:00 UTC. More information will be published in Tech News and will also be posted on individual wikis in the coming weeks.
[6][7]
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #147 is out: On identity
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we discuss the notion of identity and present our latest document about
how we represent it, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive!
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from
our mailing list.
Tech News: 2024-12
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
The notice "Language links are at the top of the page" that appears in the
Vector 2022 skin main menu has been removed now that users have learned the new location of the Language switcher.
[8]
IP info feature displays data from Spur, an IP addresses database. Previously, the only data source for this feature was MaxMind. Now, IP info is more useful for patrollers.
[9]
The Toolforge Grid Engine services have been shut down after the final migration process from Grid Engine to Kubernetes.
[10][11][12]
RevisionSlider is an interface to interactively browse a page's history. Users in
right-to-left languages reported RevisionSlider reacting wrong to mouse clicks. This should be fixed now.
[14]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 March. It will be on all wikis from 21 March (
calendar).
[15][16]
All wikis will be read-only for a few minutes on March 20. This is planned at
14:00 UTC.
[17][18]
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #148 is out: On the way to internationalizing numbers
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we discuss our progresses with the implementation of renderers and parsers for natural numbers, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive!
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
An update was made on March 18th 2024 to how various projects load site, user JavaScript and CSS in
Vector 2022 skin. A
checklist is provided for site admins to follow.
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 March. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 March. It will be on all wikis from 28 March (
calendar).
[19][20]
The Toolforge Grid Engine services have been shut down after the final migration process from Grid Engine to Kubernetes. (
T313405)
Arbitration
An
arbitration case has been opened to look into "the intersection of managing conflict of interest editing with the harassment (outing) policy".
Miscellaneous
Editors are invited to sign up for
The Core Contest, an initiative running from April 15 to May 31, which aims to improve
vital and other core articles on Wikipedia.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
Users of the
reading accessibility beta feature will notice that the default line height for the standard and large text options has changed.
[21]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 2 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 3 April. It will be on all wikis from 4 April (
calendar).
[22][23]
Future changes
The Wikimedia Foundation has an annual plan. The annual plan decides what the Wikimedia Foundation will work on. You can now read
the draft key results for the Product and Technology department. They are suggestions for what results the Foundation wants from big technical changes from July 2024 to June 2025. You can
comment on the talk page.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
Web browsers can use tools called
extensions. There is now a Chrome extension called
Citation Needed which you can use to see if an online statement is supported by a Wikipedia article. This is a small experiment to see if Wikipedia can be used this way. Because it is a small experiment, it can only be used in Chrome in English.
A new
Edit Recovery feature has been added to all wikis, available as a
user preference. Once you enable it, your in-progress edits will be stored in your web browser, and if you accidentally close an editing window or your browser or computer crashes, you will be prompted to recover the unpublished text. Please leave any feedback on the
project talk page. This was the #8 wish in the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey.
Readers using the
Minerva skin on mobile will notice there has been an improvement in the line height across all typography settings.
[26]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 April. It will be on all wikis from 11 April (
calendar).
[27][28]
New accounts and logged-out users will get the
visual editor as their default editor on mobile. This deployment is made at all wikis except for the English Wikipedia.
[29]
WMF GLAM report: Learn to upload to Commons with OpenRefine and get up to date on the International Museum Day, GLAM CSI, WiLMa Network, and WikiWorkshop
Hello and welcome to the April 2024 newsletter, a quarterly digest of Guild activities since
December. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below. We extend a warm welcome to all of our new members. We wish you all happy copy-editing.
Election results: In our December 2023 coordinator election, Zippybonzo stepped down as coordinator; we thank them for their service. Incumbents Dhtwiki and Miniapolis were reelected coordinators, and Wracking was newly elected coordinator, to serve through 30 June. Nominations for our mid-year
Election of Coordinators will open on 1 June (UTC).
Drive: 46 editors signed up for our
January Backlog Elimination Drive, 32 of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 289 articles totaling 626,729 words. Barnstars awarded are
here.
Blitz: 23 editors signed up for our
February Copy Editing Blitz. 18 claimed at least one copy-edit and between them, they copy-edited 100,293 words in 32 articles. Barnstars awarded are
here.
Drive: 53 editors signed up for our
March Backlog Elimination Drive, 34 of whom claimed at least one copy-edit. Between them, they copy-edited 300 articles totaling 587,828 words. Barnstars awarded are
here.
Blitz: Sign up for our
April Copy Editing Blitz, which runs from 14 to 20 April. Barnstars will be awarded
here.
Progress report: As of 23:17, 11 April 2024 (UTC), GOCE copyeditors have processed 109 requests since 1 January 2024, and the backlog stands at 2,480 articles.
Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from Baffle gab1978 and your GOCE coordinators Dhtwiki,
Miniapolis and
Wracking.
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from
our mailing list.
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #151 is out: New API for calling Wikifunctions and celebrating 1000 functions
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we discuss the new API for calling Wikifunctions, we celebrate our first 1,000 functions, and we take a look at the latest software developments. Also, there's
a job opening for joining our team!
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Problems
Between 2 April and 8 April, on wikis using
Flagged Revisions, the "Reverted" tag was not applied to undone edits. In addition, page moves, protections and imports were not autoreviewed. This problem is now fixed.
[30][31]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 April. It will be on all wikis from 18 April (
calendar).
[32][33]
Default category sort keys will now affect categories added by templates placed in
footnotes. Previously footnotes used the page title as the default sort key even if a different default sort key was specified (category-specific sort keys already worked).
[34]
A new variable page_last_edit_age will be added to
abuse filters. It tells how many seconds ago the last edit to a page was made.
[35]
Future changes
Volunteer developers are kindly asked to update the code of their tools and features to handle
temporary accounts.
Learn more.
Four database fields will be removed from database replicas (including
Quarry). This affects only the abuse_filter and abuse_filter_history tables. Some queries might need to be updated.
[36]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
You can
nominate your favorite tools for the fifth edition of the Coolest Tool Award. Nominations will be open until May 10.
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 April. It will be on all wikis from 25 April (
calendar).
[38][39]
Future changes
This is the last warning that by the end of May 2024 the Vector 2022 skin will no longer share site and user scripts/styles with old Vector. For user-scripts that you want to keep using on Vector 2022, copy the contents of
Special:MyPage/vector.js to
Special:MyPage/vector-2022.js. There are
more technical details available. Interface administrators who foresee this leading to lots of technical support questions may wish to send a mass message to your community, as was done on French Wikipedia.
[40]
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
Example of a talk page with the new design, in French.
The appearance of talk pages changed for the following wikis: Azerbaijani Wikipedia, Bengali Wikipedia, German Wikipedia, Persian Wikipedia, Hebrew Wikipedia, Hindi Wikipedia, Indonesian Wikipedia, Korean Wikipedia, Dutch Wikipedia, Portuguese Wikipedia, Romanian Wikipedia, Thai Wikipedia, Turkish Wikipedia, Ukrainian Wikipedia, Vietnamese Wikipedia. These wikis participated to a test, where 50% of users got the new design, for one year. As this test
gave positive results, the new design is deployed on these wikis as the default design. It is possible to opt-out these changes
in user preferences ("Show discussion activity"). The deployment will happen at all wikis in the coming weeks.
[41]
Kartographer maps can use an alternative visual style without labels, by using mapstyle="osm". This wasn't working in previews, creating the wrong impression that it wasn't supported. This has now been fixed.
[50]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 1 May. It will be on all wikis from 2 May (
calendar).
[51][52]
Partial action blocks are now in effect on the English Wikipedia. This means that administrators have the ability to restrict users from certain actions, including uploading files, moving pages and files, creating new pages, and sending thanks.
T280531
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #153 is out: Team meeting and Quarterly plan
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we discuss the results of our team meeting held in San Francisco, USA, as well as presenting the objectives that we will pursue in the next months.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
Example of a talk page with the new design, in French.
The appearance of talk pages changed for all wikis, except for Commons, Wikidata and most Wikipedias (
a few have already received this design change). You can read the detail of the changes
on Diff. It is possible to opt-out these changes
in user preferences ("Show discussion activity"). The deployment will happen at remaining wikis in the coming weeks.
[53][54]
Interface admins now have greater control over the styling of article components on mobile with the introduction of the SiteAdminHelper. More information on how styles can be disabled can be found
at the extension's page.
[55]
Wikimedia Enterprise has added article body sections in JSON format and a curated short description field to the existing parsed Infobox. This expansion to the API is also available via Wikimedia Cloud Services.
[56]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 7 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 8 May. It will be on all wikis from 9 May (
calendar).
[57][58]
When you look at the Special:Log page, the first view is labelled "All public logs", but it only shows some logs. This label will now say "Main public logs".
[59]
Albania report: International Roma Day Editathon in Albania and Kosovo, 2024
Australia report: New images from Central Australia on Wikimedia Commons, Library Science WikiProject students edit Wikipedia & 1Lib1Ref in Australia and New Zealand
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
On Wikisource there is a special page listing pages of works without corresponding scan images. Now you can use the new magic word __EXPECTWITHOUTSCANS__ to exclude certain pages (list of editions or translations of works) from that list.
[61]
If you use the
user-preference "Show preview without reloading the page", then the template-page feature "Preview page with this template (
what's this?)" will now also work without reloading the page.
[62]
Kartographer maps can now specify an alternative text via the alt= attribute. This is identical in usage to the alt= attribute in the
image and gallery syntax. An exception for this feature is wikis like Wikivoyage where the miniature maps are interactive.
[63]
The old
Guided Tour for the "
New Filters for Edit Review" feature has been removed. It was created in 2017 to show people with older accounts how the interface had changed, and has now been seen by most of the intended people.
[64]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 May. It will be on all wikis from 16 May (
calendar).
[65][66]
The
Special:Search results page will now use CSS flex attributes, for better accessibility, instead of a table. If you have a gadget or script that adjusts search results, you should update your script to the new HTML structure.
[67]
Future changes
In the Vector 2022 skin, main pages will be displayed at full width (like special pages). The goal is to keep the number of characters per line large enough. This is related to the coming changes to typography in Vector 2022.
Learn more.
[68]
Two columns of the pagelinks database table (pl_namespace and pl_title) are being dropped soon. Users must use two columns of the new linktarget table instead (lt_namespace and lt_title). In your existing SQL queries:
Replace JOIN pagelinks with JOIN linktarget and pl_ with lt_ in the ON statement
Below that add JOIN pagelinks ON lt_id = pl_target_id
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
The
Nuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, will now correctly delete pages which were moved to another title.
[71]
New changes have been made to the UploadWizard in Wikimedia Commons: the overall layout has been improved, by following new styling and spacing for the form and its fields; the headers and helper text for each of the fields was changed; the Caption field is now a required field, and there is an option for users to copy their caption into the media description.
[72][73]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 May. It will be on all wikis from 23 May (
calendar).
[74][75]
The HTML used to render all headings
is being changed to improve accessibility. It will change on 22 May in some skins (Timeless, Modern, CologneBlue, Nostalgia, and Monobook). Please test gadgets on your wiki on these skins and
report any related problems so that they can be resolved before this change is made in all other skins. The developers are also considering the introduction of a
Gadget API for adding buttons to section titles if that would be helpful to tool creators, and would appreciate any input you have on that.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
Several bugs related to the latest updates to the UploadWizard on Wikimedia Commons have been fixed. For more information, see
T365107 and
T365119.
In March 2024 a new
addPortlet API was added to allow gadgets to create new portlets (menus) in the skin. In certain skins this can be used to create dropdowns. Gadget developers are invited to try it and
give feedback.
Some CSS in the Minerva skin has been removed to enable easier community configuration. Interface editors should check the rendering on mobile devices for aspects related to the classes: .collapsible, .multicol, .reflist, .coordinates, .topicon.
Further details are available on replacement CSS if it is needed.
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 29 May. It will be on all wikis from 30 May (
calendar).
[76][77]
When you visit a wiki where you don't yet have a local account, local rules such as edit filters can sometimes prevent your account from being created. Starting this week, MediaWiki takes your global rights into account when evaluating whether you can override such local rules.
[78]
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #157 is out: A single singular or a plurality of plurals?
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we discuss the various implications of linguistic functions about singulars and plurals, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive!
Also, we remind you that if you have questions or ideas to discuss, the next Volunteers' Corner will be held on June 3, at 17:30 UTC (
link to the meeting).
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
It is now possible for local administrators to add new links to the bottom of the site Tools menu without JavaScript.
Documentation is available.
[79]
The message name for the definition of the tracking category of WikiHiero has changed from "MediaWiki:Wikhiero-usage-tracking-category" to "MediaWiki:Wikihiero-usage-tracking-category".
[80]
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 4 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 5 June. It will be on all wikis from 6 June (
calendar).
[82][83]
Future changes
Next week, on wikis with the Vector 2022 skin as the default, logged-out desktop users will be able to choose between different font sizes. The default font size will also be increased for them. This is to make Wikimedia projects easier to read.
Learn more.
Hello and welcome to the June 2024 newsletter, a quarterly-ish digest of Guild activities since April. Don't forget you can unsubscribe at any time; see below.
Election news: Wanted: new Guild coordinators! If you value and enjoy the GOCE, why not help out behind the scenes? Nominations for our
mid-year coordinator election are now open until 23:59 on 15 June (UTC). Self-nominations are welcome. Voting commences at 00:01 on 16 June and continues until 23:50 on 30 June. Results will be announced at the election page.
Blitz: Nine of the fourteen editors who signed up for the
April 2024 Copy Editing Blitz copy edited at least one article. Between them, they copy edited 55,853 words comprising twenty articles. Barnstars awarded are available
here.
Drive: 58 editors signed up for our
May 2024 Backlog Elimination Drive and 33 of those completed at least one copy edit. 251 articles and 475,952 words were copy edited. Barnstars awarded are
here.
Progress report: As of 05:23, 8 June 2024 (UTC) , GOCE copyeditors have completed 161 requests since 1 January and the backlog stands at 2,779 articles.
Thank you all again for your participation; we wouldn't be able to achieve what we have without you! Cheers from Baffle gab1978 and your GOCE coordinators Dhtwiki,
Miniapolis and
Wracking.
To discontinue receiving GOCE newsletters, please remove your name from
our mailing list.
Albania report: Summer of Wikivoyage Edit-a-thon in Kruja; Traditional Albanian food photography competition
Brazil report: Open licensing guide from Midiateca Capixaba; Activities in Rio de Janeiro; First batch from LabDOC; New batch from NeuroMat; Hercule Florence photowalk
Czech Republic report: International discussion on the role of media and new GLAM partnership on the horizon
India report: Digitization concludes for Behar Herald and a digitization workshop held for libraries in Maharashtra
Albania report: Summer of Wikivoyage Edit-a-thon in Kruja; Traditional Albanian food photography competition
Brazil report: Open licensing guide from Midiateca Capixaba; Activities in Rio de Janeiro; First batch from LabDOC; New batch from NeuroMat; Hercule Florence photowalk
Czech Republic report: International discussion on the role of media and new GLAM partnership on the horizon
India report: Digitization concludes for Behar Herald and a digitization workshop held for libraries in Maharashtra
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
The software used to render SVG files has been updated to a new version, fixing many longstanding bugs in SVG rendering.
[84]
The HTML used to render all headings
is being changed to improve accessibility. It was changed last week in some skins (Vector legacy and Minerva). Please test gadgets on your wiki on these skins and
report any related problems so that they can be resolved before this change is made in Vector-2022. The developers are still considering the introduction of a
Gadget API for adding buttons to section titles if that would be helpful to tool creators, and would appreciate any input you have on that.
The HTML markup used for citations by
Parsoid changed last week. In places where Parsoid previously added the mw-reference-text class, Parsoid now also adds the reference-text class for better compatibility with the legacy parser.
More details are available.
[85]
Problems
There was a bug with the Content Translation interface that caused the tools menus to appear in the wrong location. This has now been fixed.
[86]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 11 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 12 June. It will be on all wikis from 13 June (
calendar).
[87][88]
The new version of MediaWiki includes another change to the HTML markup used for citations:
Parsoid will now generate a <span class="mw-cite-backlink"> wrapper for both named and unnamed references for better compatibility with the legacy parser. Interface administrators should verify that gadgets that interact with citations are compatible with the new markup.
More details are available.
[89]
On multilingual wikis that use the <translate> system, there is a feature that shows potentially-outdated translations with a pink background until they are updated or confirmed. From this week, confirming translations will be logged, and there is a new user-right that can be required for confirming translations if the community
requests it.
[90]
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #159 is out: New Type: Igbo calendar months
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we introduce a new enumeration type, this time for the thirteen months of the
Igbo calendar, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive!
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
People who attempt to add an external link in the visual editor will now receive immediate feedback if they attempt to link to a domain that a project has decided to block. Please see
Edit check for more details.
[91]
The dark mode
beta feature is now available on category and help pages, as well as more special pages. There may be contrast issues. Please report bugs on the
project talk page.
[94]
Problems
Cloud Services tools were not available for 25 minutes last week. This was caused by a faulty hardware cable in the data center.
[95]
Last week, styling updates were made to the Vector 2022 skin. This caused unforeseen issues with templates, hatnotes, and images. Changes to templates and hatnotes were reverted. Most issues with images were fixed. If you still see any,
report them here.
[96]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 June. It will be on all wikis from 20 June (
calendar).
[97][98]
Starting June 18, the
Reference Edit Check will be deployed to
a new set of Wikipedias. This feature is intended to help newcomers and to assist edit-patrollers by inviting people who are adding new content to a Wikipedia article to add a citation when they do not do so themselves. During
a test at 11 wikis, the number of citations added
more than doubled when Reference Check was shown to people. Reference Check is
community configurable.
[99]
Mailing lists will be unavailable for roughly two hours on Tuesday 10:00–12:00 UTC. This is to enable migration to a new server and upgrade its software.
[100]
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #160 is out: New Type: Integers
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we are happy to announce that we introduced another new type,
integers, that will increase our coverage of mathematical functions. Moreover, we take a look at the (many!) software developments we introduced in the last week.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive!
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
Editors will notice that there have been some changes to the background color of text in the diff view, and the color of the byte-change numbers, last week. These changes are intended to make text more readable in both light mode and dark mode, and are part of a larger effort to increase accessibility. You can share your comments or questions
on the project talkpage.
[101]
The text colors that are used for visited-links, hovered-links, and active-links, were also slightly changed last week to improve their accessibility in both light mode and dark mode.
[102]
Problems
You can
copy permanent links to talk page comments by clicking on a comment's timestamp.
This feature did not always work when the topic title was very long and the link was used as a wikitext link. This has been fixed. Thanks to Lofhi for submitting the bug.
[103]
Changes later this week
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 June. It will be on all wikis from 27 June (
calendar).
[104][105]
Starting 26 June, all talk pages messages' timestamps will become a link at English Wikipedia, making this feature available for you to use at all wikis. This link is a permanent link to the comment. It allows users to find the comment they were linked to, even if this comment has since been moved elsewhere. You can read more about this feature
on Diff or
on Mediawiki.org.
[106]
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #161 is out: Welcome, Daphne!
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we welcome a new member of the team, we ask for feedback about
our "About" widget designs, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive!
Also, we remind you that if you have questions or ideas to discuss, the next Volunteers' Corner will be held on July 1, at 17:30 UTC (
link to the meeting).
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Recent changes
Over the next three weeks, dark mode will become available for all users, both logged-in and logged-out, starting with the mobile web version. This fulfils one of the
top-requested community wishes, and improves low-contrast reading and usage in low-light settings. As part of these changes, dark mode will also work on User-pages and Portals. There is more information in
the latest Web team update.
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Logged-in users can now set
global preferences for the text-size and dark-mode, thanks to a combined effort across Foundation teams. This allows Wikimedians using multiple wikis to set up a consistent reading experience easily, for example by switching between light and dark mode only once for all wikis.
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If you use a very old web browser some features might not work on the Wikimedia wikis. This affects Internet Explorer 11 and versions of Chrome, Firefox and Safari older than 2016. This change makes it possible to use new
CSS features and to send less code to all readers.
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Wikipedia Admins can customize local wiki configuration options easily using
Community Configuration. Community Configuration was created to allow communities to customize how some features work, because each language wiki has unique needs. At the moment, admins can configure
Growth features on their home wikis, in order to better recruit and retain new editors. More options will be provided in the coming months.
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Editors interested in language issues that are related to
Unicode standards, can now discuss those topics at
a new conversation space in MediaWiki.org. The Wikimedia Foundation is now a
member of the Unicode Consortium, and the coordination group can collaboratively review the issues discussed and, where appropriate, bring them to the attention of the Unicode Consortium.
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #162 is out: Quarterly planning
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we present our objectives and lines of work for this quarter, we remember to give your feedback about
our "About" widget designs, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive!
Also, we remind you that if you have questions or ideas to discuss, the next Volunteers' Corner will be held on July 8, at 17:30 UTC (
link to the meeting).
Local administrators can now add new links to the bottom of the site Tools menu without using JavaScript.
Documentation is available on MediaWiki. (
T6086)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
The
CampaignEvents extension is now available on Meta-wiki, Igbo Wikipedia, and Swahili Wikipedia, and can be requested on your wiki. This extension helps in managing and making events more visible, giving Event organizers the ability to use tools like the Event registration tool. To learn more about the deployment status and how to request this extension for your wiki, visit the
CampaignEvents page on Meta-wiki.
Editors using the iOS Wikipedia app who have more than 50 edits can now use the
Add an Image feature. This feature presents opportunities for small but useful contributions to Wikipedia.
A problem with the color of the talkpage tabs always showing as blue, even for non-existent pages which should have been red, affecting the Vector 2022 skin,
has been fixed.
Future changes
The Trust and Safety Product team wants to introduce
temporary accounts with as little disruption to tools and workflows as possible. Volunteer developers, including gadget and user-script maintainers, are kindly asked to update the code of their tools and features to handle temporary accounts. The team has
created documentation explaining how to do the update.
Learn more.
Australia report: Partner Project between Wikimedia Australia, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers (ANZSI) and the School of Information and Communication Studies at Charles Sturt University (CSU SICS)
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Wikimedia developers can now officially continue to use both
Gerrit and
GitLab, due to a June 24 decision by the Wikimedia Foundation to support software development on both platforms. Gerrit and GitLab are both code repositories used by developers to write, review, and deploy the software code that supports the MediaWiki software that the wiki projects are built on, as well as the tools used by editors to create and improve content. This decision will safeguard the productivity of our developers and prevent problems in code review from affecting our users. More details are available in the
Migration status page.
The Wikimedia Foundation seeks applicants for the
Product and Technology Advisory Council (PTAC). This group will bring technical contributors and Wikimedia Foundation together to co-define a more resilient, future-proof technological platform. Council members will evaluate and consult on the movement's product and technical activities, so that we develop multi-generational projects. We are looking for a range of technical contributors across the globe, from a variety of Wikimedia projects.
Please apply here by August 10.
Editors with rollback user-rights who use the Wikipedia App for Android can use the new
Edit Patrol features. These features include a new feed of Recent Changes, related links such as Undo and Rollback, and the ability to create and save a personal library of user talk messages to use while patrolling. If your wiki wants to make these features available to users who do not have rollback rights but have reached a certain edit threshold,
you can contact the team. You can
read more about this project on Diff blog.
Next week, functionaries, volunteers maintaining tools, and software development teams are invited to test the
temporary accounts feature on testwiki. Temporary accounts is a feature that will help improve privacy on the wikis. No further temporary account deployments are scheduled yet. Please
share your opinions and questions on the project talk page.
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Editors who upload files cross-wiki, or teach other people how to do so, may wish to join a Wikimedia Commons discussion. The Commons community is discussing limiting who can upload files through the cross-wiki upload/Upload dialog feature to users auto-confirmed on Wikimedia Commons. This is due to the large amount of copyright violations uploaded this way. There is a short summary at
Commons:Cross-wiki upload and
discussion at Commons:Village Pump.
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #164 is out: Research report on integrating Wikifunctions from Wikipedia
There is
a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we present you the results of a research about how to integrate Wikifunctions and Wikipedia, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check
our archive!
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Feature News
Stewards can now
globally block accounts. Before
the change only IP addresses and IP ranges could be blocked globally. Global account blocks are useful when the blocked user should not be logged out.
Global locks (a similar tool logging the user out of their account) are unaffected by this change. The new global account block feature is related to the
Temporary Accounts project, which is a new type of user account that replaces IP addresses of unregistered editors that are no longer made public.
Later this week, Wikimedia site users will notice that the Interface of
FlaggedRevs (also known as "Pending Changes") is improved and consistent with the rest of the MediaWiki interface and
Wikimedia's design system. The FlaggedRevs interface experience on mobile and
Minerva skin was inconsistent before it was fixed and ported to
Codex by the WMF Growth team and some volunteers.
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Wikimedia site users can now submit account vanishing requests via
GlobalVanishRequest. This feature is used when a contributor wishes to stop editing forever. It helps you hide your past association and edit to protect your privacy. Once processed, the account will be locked and renamed.
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Have you tried monitoring and addressing vandalism in Wikipedia using your phone?
A Diff blog post on Patrolling features in the Mobile App highlights some of the new capabilities of the feature, including swiping through a feed of recent changes and a personal library of user talk messages for use when patrolling from your phone.
Wikimedia contributors and GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) organisations can now learn and measure the impact Wikimedia Commons is having towards creating quality encyclopedic content using the
Commons Impact Metrics analytics dashboard. The dashboard offers organizations analytics on things like monthly edits in a category, the most viewed files, and which Wikimedia articles are using Commons images. As a result of these new data dumps, GLAM organisation can more reliably measure their return on investment for programs bringing content into the digital Commons.
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Project Updates
Come share your ideas for improving the wikis on the newly reopened
Community Wishlist. The Community Wishlist is Wikimedia’s forum for volunteers to share ideas (called wishes) to improve how the wikis work. The new version of the wishlist is always open, works with both wikitext and Visual Editor, and allows wishes in any language.
Learn more
Have you ever wondered how Wikimedia software works across over 300 languages? This is 253 languages more than the Google Chrome interface, and it's no accident. The Language and Product Localization Team at the Wikimedia Foundation supports your work by adapting all the tools and interfaces in the MediaWiki software so that contributors in our movement who translate pages and strings can translate them and have the sites in all languages. Read more about the team and their upcoming work on
Diff.
How can Wikimedia build innovative and experimental products while maintaining such heavily used websites? A recent
blog post by WMF staff Johan Jönsson highlights the work of the
WMF Future Audience initiative, where the goal is not to build polished products but test out new ideas, such as a
ChatGPT plugin and
Add a Fact, to help take Wikimedia into the future.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Feature news
Editors using the Visual Editor in languages that use non-Latin characters for numbers, such as Hindi, Manipuri and Eastern Arabic, may notice some changes in the formatting of reference numbers. This is a side effect of preparing a new sub-referencing feature, and will also allow fixing some general numbering issues in Visual Editor. If you notice any related problems on your wiki, please share details at the
project talkpage.
Bugs status
Some logged-in editors were briefly unable to edit or load pages last week.
These errors were mainly due to the addition of new
linter rules which led to caching problems. Fixes have been applied and investigations are continuing.
Editors can use the
IP Information tool to get information about IP addresses. This tool is available as a Beta Feature in your preferences. The tool was not available for a few days last week, but is now working again. Thank you to Shizhao for filing the bug report. You can read about that, and
28 other community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Project updates
There are new features and improvements to Phabricator from the Release Engineering and Collaboration Services teams, and some volunteers, including: the search systems, the new task creation system, the login systems, the translation setup which has resulted in support for more languages (thanks to Pppery), and fixes for many edge-case errors. You can
read details about these and other improvements in this summary.
There is an
update on the Charts project. The team has decided which visualization library to use, which chart types to start focusing on, and where to store chart definitions.
One new wiki has been created: a Wikivoyage in
Czech (
voy:cs:)
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