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current 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
A new Pageview API has been
announced. Feedback is
requested to help decide which data to add to it next.
Changes this week
There are no MediaWiki deployments this week (
calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Language Engineering team. The topic is: Content Translation updates and Questions & Answers. The meeting will be on
25 November at 13:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
24 November at 19:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current
Arbitration Committee election. The
Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia
arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose
site bans,
topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The
arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to
review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on
the voting page. For the Election committee,
MediaWiki message delivery (
talk) 17:01, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
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 symbol for advanced news items has been changed. This is because the symbols were too similar. If a news item is for more technical readers it now looks like this: . You can
give feedback on this change.
Problems
On September 29 users' skin preferences were removed by mistake on small and medium-sized wikis. This changed preferences back to
Vector. Restoring all data would cause even more problems. Affected users who want to have their preference changed back globally can ask for it as a comment on
Phabricator task T119206 until December 21 2015.
[2]
Some scheduled tasks were not working properly from September to recently. This meant some pages in the special pages namespace were not updated. It has now been fixed.
[3]
Changes this week
Wikinews, Wikispecies, MediaWiki.org and Meta will be able to use information from Wikidata.
[4][5]
There are no MediaWiki deployments this week (
calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
1 December at 19:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
Well I swear Kepler...nequeqom
Btw- all that was printed on the false empty page was a comment. Again "musician refuses"... A comment. The edit was (Kepler) on another link
Wezenlucif (
talk) 03:45, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
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
Revision scoring will help to automatically identify bad-faith and good-faith edits. The point is to make it easier to block vandals and welcome newcomers. It currently supports Wikidata and 14 Wikipedias.
[8]
Problems
Meta was not given access to information from Wikidata last week. This will happen later.
[9]
Changes this week
You will be able to use wikilinks in Flow topic titles.
[10]
IP users will have a toolbar with links to the user talk page and user contributions. Some Wikipedias already have this feature.
[11]
You will be able to edit the graph size in the visual editor. You can either specify the size in the graph dialog or drag it to be the size you want it to be.
[12]
It will be easier to write math in the visual editor if you don't know
LaTeX. You can use symbol buttons instead.
[13]
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 8 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 9 December. It will be on all Wikipedias from 10 December. (
calendar).
New MediaWiki versions will now be on Catalan and Hebrew Wikipedia on Wednesdays. Other Wikipedias get the new MediaWiki version on Thursdays.
[16]
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
8 December at 19:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
query.wikidata.org now more prominently shows example queries in case you missed them before, lets you filter and gives you a preview for them. Additionally you can click a little magnifying glass next to an item ID in a query result and explore it further.
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 this week
Meta will be able to use information from Wikidata.
[18]
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 15 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 16 December. It will be on all Wikipedias from 17 December. (
calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
15 December at 19:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
Thank you for the swift edit. It was indeed a test. I will make sure to explore the editing features in Sandbox from now on. Kind Regards. — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Suro16 (
talk •
contribs) 10:02, 15 December 2015 (UTC)
Hi, I had added a link to the Pandorum Technologies page. I am a cofounder of the bangalore based biotech startup. We are not trying to sell/ promote ourselves. Just wanted a encyclopedic wiki page for people to know about. In the process of updating info. Thank you
61.1.245.78 (
talk) 09:17, 18 December 2015 (UTC)
hey man what i done?
I just correct some thing and added some word to make it better.
I don't know what the thing you thinked.?
Mcod?
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you.
Translations are available.
Tech News
Because of the
holidays, the next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 11 January 2016.
The writers of the technical newsletter are asking for your opinion. Did you get the information you wanted this year? Did we miss important technical news in 2015? What kind of information was too late?
Please tell us! You can write in your language. Thank you!
Recent changes
CompletionSuggester is a new suggestions algorithm for Search. It is available as a Beta feature since 17 December. (
more information)
The Multimedia team is running an A/B test for the cross-wiki upload tool. They are testing four different interfaces. The test is running from 16-23 December. (
more information)
Changes this week
There is no deployment of MediaWiki scheduled until 12 January 2016 (
calendar).
Meetings
Should administrators and other users with advanced tools need stronger passwords? You can discuss about it in a
Request for Comments.
No meeting with the VisualEditor team on 22 and 29 December, and 5 January.
<3 Thanks for being awesome. Enjoy the holidays :)
We will take the "in other projects"-sidebar out of beta features in January (
phabricator:T103102)
Making ranking information like label and statement counts available to the
CirrusSearch index in order to improve ranking in search results (
phabricator:T110648)
Continued work on the identifier data type for identifiers like VIAF and ISBN so we can easily put them into a separate section in the items and properly link them in the exports (
phabricator:T95682,
phabricator:T121274)
Continued work on making external identifiers clickable links without the help of the authority control gadget (
phabricator:T95684)
Fixed a mistake in the set reference API documentation (
gerrit:259171)
A new, simpler system for editing will offer a single Edit button. Once the page has opened, you can switch back and forth between visual and wikitext editing.
If you prefer having separate edit buttons, then you can set that option in your preferences, either in a pop-up dialog the next time you open the visual editor, or by going to
Special:Preferences and choosing the setting that you want:
The current plan is for the default setting to have the Edit button open the editing environment you used most recently.
You can read and help translate
the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.
Since the last newsletter, the
VisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs and expanded the mathematics formula tool. Their workboard is available
in Phabricator. Their
current priorities are improving support for languages such as Japanese and Arabic, and providing rich-media tools for formulæ, charts, galleries and uploading.
Recent improvements
You can switch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing.
The LaTeX mathematics formula editor has been significantly expanded. (
T118616) You can see the formula as you change the LaTeX code. You can click buttons to insert the correct LaTeX code for many symbols.
Future changes
The single edit tab project will combine the "Edit" and "Edit source" tabs into a single "Edit" tab, like the system already used on the mobile website. (
T102398) Initially, the "Edit" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as a cookie for logged-out users and as an account preference for logged-in editors. Logged-in editors will be able to set a default editor in the Editing tab of
Special:Preferences in the drop-down menu about "Editing mode:".
In 2016, the feedback pages for the visual editor on many Wikipedias will be redirected to mediawiki.org. (
T92661)
Testing opportunities
Please try the new system for the single edit tab on
test2.wikipedia.org. You can edit while logged out to see how it works for logged-out editors, or you can create a separate account to be able to set your account's preferences. Please share your thoughts about the single edit tab system at
the feedback topic on mediawiki.org or
sign up for formal user research (type "single edit tab" in the question about other areas you're interested in). The new system has not been finalized, and your feedback can affect the outcome. The team particularly wants your thoughts about the options in Special:Preferences. The current choices in Special:Preferences are:
Remember my last editor,
Always give me the visual editor if possible,
Always give me the source editor, and
Show me both editor tabs. (This is the current state for people using the visual editor. None of these options will be visible if you have disabled the visual editor in your preferences at that wiki.)
Can you read and type in Korean or Japanese? Language engineer
David Chan needs people who know which tools people use to type in some languages. If you speak Japanese or Korean, you can help him test support for these languages. Please see the instructions at
mw:VisualEditor/IME Testing#What to test if you can help, and report it on Phabricator (
Korean -
Japanese) or on Wikipedia (
Korean -
Japanese).
If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the
Translators mailing list or
contact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!
Hi,
I have rolled back you edit as the managers position was correct. Please check facts before such rollbacks and vandalism template posts on the users talk page. Regards --palmiped |
Talk 16:47, 4 January 2016 (UTC)
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
Wikimedia no longer uses visitor statistics from
comScore.
[21]
Internet Explorer 8 will no longer have
JavaScript support. You will
still be able to browse and edit Wikipedia if you use Internet Explorer 8, but will not be able to use some features. This can be solved by upgrading to a newer version or switching to a different browser.
[26][27]
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
12 January at 20:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
Future changes
URLs in the recent changes IRC feed will no longer be rewritten to unencrypted HTTP. This could be a breaking change for bots dependent on the IRC feed.
[28]
The edit tabs for the wikitext editor and the visual editor will be combined to one single edit tab. You will be able to choose which one you prefer. If you are not logged in, your choice will be saved as a cookie in your browser. You
can test the single edit tab.
[29][30]
There is a beta feature that
adds links to the subject on other Wikimedia projects. This works much like the links to for example Wikipedia articles in other languages. It will go out of beta testing and be enabled for everyone in January. Wikis that don't want this can decide to have it disabled.
[31][32]
The difference between "alerts" and "messages" notifications is unclear to some. The developers want feedback at
the Phabricator task or
on MediaWiki.org so they can make this better. You can give feedback in your language if you can't write in English.
Students worked on new datatype to capture mathematical expressions (
phabricator:T67397)
Updated property suggester data to give you more up-to-date suggestions when adding new statements
Pages in the module namespace now also get interwiki links (
phabricator:T123234)
Reduced number of resource loader modules to improve performance (
phabricator:T123233)
Started experimenting with showing an image in the header area (
phabricator:T119493)
Fixed a bug where the query text would be moved off the screen on the query service website (
phabricator:T120196)
Worked on the remaining blocker for taking the in other projects sidebar out of beta. We need to link to the Commons category and not gallery for articles without frying the servers (
phabricator:T94989)
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
You will be able to find or mark bugs and suggestions in
Phabricator that are specific for your language or wiki.
[33]
Notifications have been upgraded with more detailed and easier-to-access information.
See the documentation. Cross-wiki notifications will be available soon on the two test wikis.
[34]
Changes this week
The visual editor uses the
TemplateData extension to make editing templates easier. You will now get a warning when you edit a TemplateData form and leave it without saving.
[35]
MediaWiki will get a new authentication and authorization system called AuthManager. This is planned to happen in a month or two. Some bots will need to change how they log in. Two new and more stable authentication methods will be available now: Owner-only
OAuth credentials and bot passwords. You can
read more about the change.
[36]
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 January. It will be on all Wikipedias from 21 January (
calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
19 January at 20:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
You can join the next meeting with the Architecture committee. The topic this week is governance model. The meeting will be on
20 January at 22:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
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
You can now follow when pages are added or removed from a category on German Wikipedia. The plan is to add it to Wikimedia Commons and other Wikipedias this week.
[37][38]
Administrators can hide individual entries of a page with
RevisionDelete. There is now a button to choose "all", "none" or "inverse" in Special:Log. The article history will get the same buttons soon. Wikis that have done this locally with JavaScript will be able to remove that code.
[39]
Changes this week
You will be able to see the references when you preview a section you are editing. This will happen even if there is no <references /> tag in that section.
[40]
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 January. It will be on all wikis from 28 January (
calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
26 January at 20:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
Future changes
There is now an extension called
ArticlePlaceholder. It can automatically generate content on Wikipedia with data from Wikidata if there is no Wikipedia article. It will have a tag to remind the reader it is not an article and ask the reader to create one. The developer is now looking for smaller Wikipedias that want to try the extension.
[41]
The
OTRS system will be upgraded. The plan is to do this on
3 February at 08:00 (UTC). It will probably take 6 to 8 hours. OTRS will be down during the upgrade.
[42]
Users will soon be automatically congratulated when they reach some edit count milestones.
[43]