This is an archive of past discussions with User:MusikAnimal. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the 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
The Save page button now says Publish page or Publish changes on most Wikipedias. The point is to make it more clear that the edit will change the page immediately. Publish page is when you save a new page and Publish changes when you edit an existing page. [1]
The tracking category Category:Pages with template loops is now added when a template loop is found. A template loop is for example when a template tries to use a second template that uses the first template. [2]
English Wikipedia now has cookie blocks. It will come to more wikis in the future. This is an extension to the autoblock system so when a user is blocked, the next time they visit the wiki a cookie will be set. This means that even if the user switches accounts and to a new IP address the cookie will block them again. [3]
Problems
Wikidata descriptions, aliases and labels that used some characters could not be saved. This has now been fixed. [4]
Changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 4 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 5 April. It will be on all wikis from 6 April (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 4 April at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Hey Musik, was wondering what a "spider" is?? It's one of the options in the page view stats, and I notice that if I click on just that one, it has been pretty busy on my home page...lol. What does it do, and what the heck is it? Thanks, your pal→ Pocketthis (talk) 15:38, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
Thanks guys, Now I just have to figure out why my home page has been visited 130 times by a web crawler in the last 30 days. However, this page has been crawled 629 times in 30 days. Perhaps we are popular with insects. :-) → Pocketthis (talk) 17:27, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
Rollback confirmation gadget
Hi MusikAnimal. I have the gadget version of User:MusikAnimal/confirmationRollback-mobile selected in my preferences, so when a thumb accidentally landed on the rollback link on an arbcom page while using my iPad a short time ago, I immediately tapped the "cancel" button. Unfortunately, the rollback happened anyway, so I had to rollback that edit. I thought that maybe I had missed the cancel button, but when I tried it again on my own talk, the same thing happened. I can send you details (OS version, browser, etc.) via email or IRC if you need it. Thanks —DoRD (talk) 09:50, 3 April 2017 (UTC)
@DoRD: I tried this out on my iPad simulator, running iOS 10.2, and the gadget worked as expected. Perhaps you have a conflicting gadget? Nothing stands out in your common.js as being a problem — MusikAnimaltalk13:24, 5 April 2017 (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.
Some older web browsers will not be able to use JavaScript on Wikimedia wikis from this week. If you have an old web browser on your computer you can upgrade to a newer version. [7]
New filters for Recent changes will come to Wikidata and Persian, Russian, Turkish and French Wikipedia on 11 April. The schedule has been changed to fix the user intent prediction filters for some wikis. User intent prediction means the filter tries to make it easier for editors to determine if the edit was made in good faith or not. Other wikis will get it later. [8]
The list of special characters in the wikitext editor and the visual editor will now have a group of Canadian Aboriginal characters. [9]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 11 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 12 April. It will be on all wikis from 13 April (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 11 April at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for 20 to 30 minutes on 19 April and 3 May. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. You can read more about this.
RevisionSlider will change how you move between revisions. This will be available on the test wiki from 11 April. It will come to other wikis later if users like the change. You can test it and give feedback.
The BAG Newsletter is now the Bots Newsletter, per discussion. As such, we've subscribed all bot operators to the newsletter. You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list.
(You can unsubscribe from future newsletters by removing your name from this list.)
Twinkle
Also about Twinkle. One year ago I made a proposal to make optional loading of XFD discussion page, but there were no other opinions and it was archived. How can I draw the attention of TW devs or other interested people? Take a look at this - more than 50 times a day Twinkle loaded the FFD page for me without my explicit permission:) A similar situation for the previous day. Thanks to newly enabled PROD for files, there will be less FFD entries from users (including me), but an option that makes optional loading of XFD discussion page still be needed IMO. XXN, 20:37, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
FYI. I think I just found a bug while checking the history of the FFD page for 10 April. Should I report it somewhere else (github/WT:TW), or you can fix it faster (I think these pages aren't watched by devs)? XXN, 20:54, 12 April 2017 (UTC)
Sorry for the late reply. Yes GitHub is the best place. The devs are watching it at and WT:TW, but there are a lot of bug reports so although we don't always reply, rest assured we see them :) — MusikAnimaltalk16:34, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan.
We will include a look at the organization and planning for our chapter, and expanding volunteer roles for both regular Wikipedia editors and new participants.
We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities.
We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from all educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects.
After the main meeting, pizza/chicken/vegetables and refreshments and video games in the gallery!
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 add ?safemode=1 to the end of the URL on Wikimedia wikis to disable your personal CSS and JavaScript. Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature?safemode=1. This means you can test if a problem is because of your user scripts or gadgets without uninstalling them. [11]
The Wikiversity and Wikinews logos are now shown directly from the configuration and not from [[File:Wiki.png]]. If you want to change logo or have an anniversary logo, see how to request a configuration change. This is how it already works for other projects. They can request logo changes the same way. [13]
Problems
Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for 20 to 30 minutes on 19 April. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. You can read more about this. This will also happen on 3 May.
Changes this week
There is no new Mediawiki version this week. This is because of the data centre test.
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 18 April at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Page Previews will be turned on for logged-out users on a large number of wikis in May. It could be postponed and happen later. Page Previews shows readers a short part of a linked article when they rest their mouse pointer on the link. This is to help them understand what it is about without leaving the article they are reading. Page Previews used to be called Hovercards. Users who have tested the feature can give feedback. [14]
From next week, user scripts using very old deprecated wikibits functions will show errors. These functions have not worked since 2013. You should fix or disable broken scripts. You can see examples of how to upgrade scripts. [15][16]
Saturday, April 1 concluded the 2016-2017 GA Cup. 64 reviews were completed by our finalists. Although the backlog increased by 42 over the reviewing period instead of declining, the increase suggests that the contest is encouraging editors to nominate articles for review.
Congratulations to Shearonink, who is the winner of the Cup, finishing with 672 points! Once again, just as in last round, this is more than the point totals for all the other competitors combined! It was a close race for second place between Krishna Chaitanya Velaga, who achieved 164 points, and Sturmvogel_66, who earned 150. Though Sturmvogel_66 reviewed one more article than Krishna Chaitanya Velaga, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga managed to earn 14 points more due to reviewing older articles. Our two wildcard competitors, Kees08 and Chris troutman, came in fourth and fifth, respectively.
There were some bumps in the competition this time: The sign-up deadline and the first round were both extended due to fewer competitors signing up then was planned for. And there were delays in tallying points and getting out the newsletter. The judges apologize for this latter difficulty. Lastly, mid-way through the competition we bid farewell to Zwerg Nase, who stepped down from their position as judge due to other commitments. Information about the Final can be found here.
Thank you to all of our competitors, and congrats to our winners!
To subscribe or unsubscribe to future GA Cup newsletters, please add or remove your name to our mailing list. If you are a participant still competing, you will be on the mailing list no matter what as this is the easiest way to communicate between all participants.
AWB and users renamed more than once
NgYShung has been renamed twice, first to QianLing and then QianCheng. But Special:Diff/774972019 only follows the first rename, not the second. If a user has been renamed twice, from A to B and then C, the bot should place C rather than B in WP:AWB/CP. Similarly, if A is renamed to B, which is in turn renamed to C and then D, the bot should place D on the check page, and so on for more renames. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 20:56, 18 April 2017 (UTC)
I consider this very much an edge case, but you're right. What's weird is the bot should have figured out the second rename on its last run, which was earlier today. Having the bot follow all renames every time isn't particularly easy, but I'll see what I can do. Thanks for the report — MusikAnimaltalk21:03, 18 April 2017 (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.
When administrators, bureaucrats and stewards make a user a member of a user group they can now set an expiry date. A user group is for example "administrators" or "bots". This means that they can give someone user rights for a limited time. This is similar to how blocks and page protections can be limited in time. Special:UserRights will have new options for this. You can read more about user groups.[18]
Problems
Since the data centre test last week the content translation tool has been disabled. This is because of a database problem. It will be back as soon as the problem has been solved. [19]
Changes this week
The GuidedTour extension will be enabled on all wikis. This is a tool to explain to new users how to edit. [20]
Wiktionary will handle interlanguage links in a new way. The Cognate extension will automatically link pages with the same title between Wiktionaries. For this to work all old interlanguage links have to be removed. You can read more about this. [21]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 April. It will be on all wikis from 27 April (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 25 April at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
I hope you enjoyed your time in Cuba. There is a user in NYC, Anelsona, who works with Cuban people on the Cuban government Wikipedia equivalent and who wants to bring more Wikimedia access into Cuba. If you have interest in Cuba beyond your vacation then maybe you could talk with her sometime.
I am writing to ask for some guidance. I would like to see a 2016 traffic report on all English Wikipedia articles about drugs. I suppose that might mean all articles drilling down in Category:Drugs, or it might mean all English Wikipedia articles which are instances of medication (Q12140). I have some assistance in this; there is a statistics team at Consumer Reports who would help me sort and present data, if only I could get them a dataset of the daily 2016 traffic to every Wikipedia article on a drug.
Can you give me a suggestion on how to do the following -
Get a list of all drugs which have English Wikipedia articles
Given that list, how should I get daily traffic for it for 2016? Massviews will not collect 365 daily traffic reports for ~5000 articles, right?
@Bluerasberry: Hey! You people at WP:MED are all about getting as much data as possible! =P Massviews now supports up to 20,000 pages for any date range. Unfortunately however it doesn't support recursive category search yet, so something like Category:Drugs won't work :( For this feature you can follow phab:T149334. I think that is next on my list, I know Richard wanted the same feature to get more data for the Met.As for all medicine pages across all languages, I wish there were an easy way to do this, but there isn't. Doc James at least knows how to get data for all the MED pages here on enwiki, so you could do the same for the other major Wikipedias, if you want. I do like the idea of going off of Wikidata, as then you could indeed do cool things like get the pageviews of pages that are "instance of pharmaceutical drug". For that I've created phab:T164113. It is likely however with that example, you'll end up with more than 20,000 pages in which case Massviews would give up. This is because currently all the processing is done clientside, so you are limited to what your computer can handle. With phab:T157830 I hope to implement a backend service where we can take advantage of server resources and remove the 20,000 page limit. Lots of people want just the data, no charts or pretty interface, so adding the backend service is high up on my list, too.Sorry I can't help you but so much! We could write one-off scripts to get the data you want, but that's a lot of work and it makes more sense to me to revamp Massviews and the other tools to fulfill needs like this for everyone.As for Cuba, it was very fun! I wanted to ask people if they had heard of Wikipedia, but my Spanish skills only go but so far. Also, I saw first hand just how rare it is to enjoy internet at all, so I am under the safe assumption the free knowledge movement unfortunately is not widespread in that country. It seems to me that is challenge #1 – getting more people connected to the web. I went all five days without doing so much as checking my email, because at least in Havana you must wait in long lines to get internet, and you are limited to but an hour at a time. In some areas it's almost treated like a drug, where you can pay X amount to get access to someone's connection which is daisy-chained from a series of other households, where if one happens to unplug everyone else looses their connection. It's a real shame to see and was somewhat of a culture shock. I look forward to seeing Wikipedia in the hands of the Cuban people some day — MusikAnimaltalk20:29, 28 April 2017 (UTC)
The popular page tool is calculating total pageviews for the WP for the month again.[22] which is nice. Have asked Kaldari about the possibility of going back in time a few months.User_talk:Kaldari#Total_pageviews These numbers include redirects while from my understanding the masspageview tool does not.
@MusikAnimal: (I know I should not post to archives, but I am just closing this out.) You are very kind, yes, med people like data but overall I think we are just starting to realize how much there is and how we can become more ready for the flood of opportunity which you are creating. I looked over those tickets you created - you understand my needs, and you described them accurately in the tickets. Thanks for sharing this information with me. It is useful for me to get your confirmation about what is not currently easy to do, and encouraging for me to hear that what you are doing are the things likely to be useful to large numbers of people.
I expect that sometime before the year's end Wiki NYC will host some presentation about Wikipedia in Cuba and other islands. Probably this will happen on a WikiWednesday. I hope that you can join. Blue Rasberry (talk)21:09, 11 May 2017 (UTC)
Pageviews Analysis
Hi MusikAnimal: Is it just me, or has https://tools.wmflabs.org/pageviews been petering out? Over the last few days when I have tried to use it for various articles, it doesn't load any data, times out and then a message is provided stating, "Fatal error: Operation timed out. Please refresh the page to try again or report this issue". North America100023:40, 30 April 2017 (UTC)
@Northamerica1000: I have not received any other reports of this issue lately, and there have been no code changes since April 5. I do believe there was some maintenance of the Pageviews API recently, but that should be resolved now. Perhaps you happened to use it during those brief periods of downtime? Is it working for you now? The tool waits 30 seconds before timing out, so your internet connection could also be at fault here — MusikAnimaltalk23:49, 30 April 2017 (UTC)
Self-trout, Facepalm : Nevermind, it's working. An add-on in my browser was causing the malady. Thanks for the quick reply, though! North America100023:53, 30 April 2017 (UTC)
Hi, I noticed that this script is not enforcing dom ready before accessing the dom, and not declaring its dependency on mediawiki.util RL module. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:04, 30 April 2017 (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.
Scripts using very old deprecated wikibits functions show errors. These functions have not worked since 2013. You should fix or disable broken scripts. You can see examples of how to upgrade scripts. This is the same thing as Tech News wrote about in issue 2017/16. You need to addmw.loader.using( 'mediawiki.util' ) block for your scripts also, or add mediawiki.util dependency in gadget ResourceLoader section in MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition. [24][25]
Problems
Because of a data centre test you will be able to read but not edit the wikis for 20 to 30 minutes on 3 May. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. You can read more about this.
Changes this week
There is no new MediaWiki version this week. This is because of the data centre test.
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 2 May at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
All Wikimedia wikis will have cookie blocks from May 8. This is an extension to the autoblock system so when a user is blocked, the next time they visit the wiki a cookie will be set. This means that even if the user switches accounts and to a new IP address the cookie will block them again. [26]
The Publish changes, Show preview and Show changes buttons will look slightly different. This is to fit with the OOUI look. Users can test scripts, gadgets and so on to see if they work with the new interface by adding &ooui=1 to the URL. [27]
Hi. Salzburger Kunstverein is a classic example of tag-bombing and typical of the reasons I campaigned for a user right for page patrolling. The patroller doesn’t appear to have done any research and therefore ignores what a ‘’Kunsteverein’’ is in the German language region and even its German WP article, and did not provide this good faith new-article creator with any tips. As you know, I’ve given up on my 6-year campaign to get NPP improved, so as you accorded the right here, perhaps you could have a word with them and maybe also run a check across their other patrols - MrX is generally a user whose knowledge and work I appreciate. Cheers, Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 00:05, 29 April 2017 (UTC)
@Kudpung: if you disagree with how I patrolled this or any other article, you could have tried to discuss it with me first. I routinely do a minimal amount of research for any articles that I tag during a page review, including Google searches, reviewing citations, and reading the article. In this case, I believe that the tags I placed are reasonable given the article content. I have no idea why you think I owed the article creator any tips beyond the template suggestion (with links) in the tags themselves. While it would be nice, it's completely unrealistic given that number of articles to be reviewed.
I find it a bit ironic that that you are the person complaining about the NPP queue growing so fast and yet you find the time to suggest that another admin talk to me and review my other patrols. NPP is a thankless job and you just made it a little more thankless. Any admin who believes that the thousands of patrols that I've made over the past five years are not a net positive for the project is welcome to revoke the bit.- MrX23:28, 30 April 2017 (UTC)
MrX, I don't see where irony comes into it. I’ve given up on my 6-year campaign to get NPP improved - that has been thankless enough, and my genuine concern here does not deserve you suggesting that I do not find your edits a net positive. That said, There may be a huge backlog but it has always been obvious that good patrolling rather than speed is quintessential. I don't find time because I'm on a Wikibreak - don't you think I deserve that after all the hours I put into Wikpedia for free? A quick stab to do some patrollng (not that my 20 patrols will make any difference to the 20,000) while I did have time to help out with the backlog immediately revealed in seconds that not only is the situation still not improving, but it's getting decidedly worse. It took only seconds to make the updated graph - nobody else is bothering or even gives too hoots about the situation - the WMF does not appear to be overly concerned either and I, of course therefore, am now past caring. At least you are among the tiny handful of users who have been watching Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Reviewers and I thank you for that. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 00:44, 1 May 2017 (UTC)
Here's my take... For starters, even in its older state, the article doesn't seem overly promotional. I would remove the mission statement, but it otherwise is not too bad. Notability is questionable, but I did find one NY Times article with some information [28], others look like passing mentions. So that I won't refute that, and it's also true much of the content is supported by a primary source. That being said I don't think MrX was too out of line here. I personally would would have waited a little more time before tagging, and leaving a welcome template never hurts, even if it's a "problem welcome" template. Page Curation makes it pretty easy to leave the user a personal note, and I think Twinkle automatically leaves a welcome template, no? If not I can make it do that :) I hate to draw this contrast, but the later edits by Ymblanter and JJMC89 were very helpful, and obviously the more ideal way to deal with an apparent good-faith creation (especially copyright removal!). This will slow you down as far as tackling the backlog, but you may find you'll get an equal sense of satisfaction. I'll also note MrX didn't actually mark the page as patrolled, and hence is not "abusing" their patrolling privileges, per se. And that's what's most alarming... no one – MrX or any of the three subsequent page patrollers – actually marked the page as patrolled. Is there a bug, or did everyone actually forget?!? Obviously if you don't mark it as patrolled you're not helping the backlog :) — MusikAnimaltalk06:45, 1 May 2017 (UTC)
@MrX, Exemplo347, Ymblanter, and JJMC89: Nevermind the above, I am curious why all of you made patroller-like edits to Salzburger Kunstverein but did not mark the page as patrolled? Did you intentionally leave it unpatrolled? Is there a bug in the software? Maybe Mz7 and Exemplo just wanted a second opinion, but Ymblanter and JJMC89, you both (nobly) made substantial edits to bring the article to an acceptable state. At that point surely you are OK with removing the article from the backlog? — MusikAnimaltalk21:02, 1 May 2017 (UTC)
In the morning, I was not sure that the middle part is not copyvio (I had a quick check which did not give anything). I did not have much time and left it unpatrolled. I would have probably come back in the evening but it was already in a good shape.--Ymblanter (talk) 21:07, 1 May 2017 (UTC)
@MusikAnimal: I generally don't mark pages as "patrolled" unless I've given them a thorough going over, including a quick check of sources etc. In this case, all I did was fix a few formatting errors and add an improvement tag using AutoWikiBrowser (which, incidentally, does not show if an article is "patrolled" or not.) Exemplo347 (talk) 21:14, 1 May 2017 (UTC)
I can't remember specifically why I did not mark the article as reviewed, but usually I will not mark an article as reviewed if I think it may be a borderline CSD/AfD/PROD candidate, or if I suspect WP:COPYVIO issues but couldn't find any myself. My hope is that a second reviewer can make a final determination. In this case, I think I would have normally marked it as reviewed, but possibly forgot.
In response to your and Kudpung's comments above, I think there are different approaches to page reviewing and personal judgement will vary from editor to editor. If anything, the notability tag that I placed was probably the least defensible. I stand by the advert tag, while acknowledging that the issues were minor and very fixable. @Kudpung, yes of course you deserve as much of a Wikibreak as you want. But I don't think it's fair to point out an example of my page reviewing that you disagree with as an example of why NPP needed to be a user right. I routinely see new articles tagged with 4-7 tags; articles inappropriately G11ed; page patrollers that do nothing but add useless no cat tags or orphan tags; and extremely hasty CSD tagging. I think it's usually more productive to ask why a patroller did something, before hinting that they should not be patrolling at all. Perspective is important.- MrX22:01, 1 May 2017 (UTC)
I only went to the page due to Kudpung mentioning it here, not to patrol it. I didn't even check whether the page was patrolled or not. — JJMC89 (T·C) 02:11, 2 May 2017 (UTC)
An RfC has clarified that user categories should be emptied upon deletion, but redlinked user categories should not be removed if re-added by the user.
Discussions are ongoing regarding proposed changes to the COI policy. Changes so far have included clarification that adding a link on a Wikipedia forum to a job posting is not a violation of the harassment policy.
There is a new tool for adding archives to dead links. Administrators are able to restrict other user's ability to use the tool, and have additional permissions when changing URL and domain data.
Following an RfC, the editing restrictions page is now split into a list of active restrictions and an archive of those that are old or on inactive accounts. Make sure to check both pages if searching for a restriction.
@The Earwig: I thought so too, but I think the anonymous function is just a way to add closure and not let the variables leak into the global scope. TheDJ probably knows more... :) Anyway hopefully that's OK that I made that change! I got very excited that I finally figured out the issue. On Chrome at least, half the time the script and others wouldn't load (unless it was in my common.js). See also phab:T149449— MusikAnimaltalk00:41, 5 May 2017 (UTC)
Sorry, I don't have time to help right now :( It looks like there are some regex experts chiming in on the discussion though. Hope you get it figured out! — MusikAnimaltalk15:18, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
Massive removal of content without consensus and there also seems to be some sort of filter setting,can you check whether this account is a single purpose account and whether this user has initiated this filter to circumvent any changes of theirs. Meanwhile kindly revert to Arjayay's last edit. Thank You.
Can you also provide links to where to read about automated filters and its settings, for process understanding. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.213.18.168 (talk • contribs)
Re: the filters that blocked your edits, it looks like those might indeed be false positives. I can try to look into it but WP:EF/FP is the venue used to report false positives. Someone there may be able to help you quicker. Best — MusikAnimaltalk15:21, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
Actually it looks like it blocked your edit because it contained the word "JEWS" in all caps. This is a tricky one... in your case it was the URL of a citation. We will have to look into this. In the meantime, as I said, try consulting the concerned users on the article talk page. If necessary someone can make the changes on your behalf — MusikAnimaltalk15:26, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
responseHelper
For some reason, responseHelper only works for the edit summaries, but not inserting the template on the actual page. Can you help? Am I doing something wrong? Thanks! Jdcomix (talk) 17:22, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
I am not sure, no one else has reported any issues. You can check your JS console for errors, see WP:JSERROR. However, with all due respect, you might want to reconsider responding to any requests as a non-admin. This is often frowned upon — MusikAnimaltalk20:10, 8 May 2017 (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.
Problems
Some users have a problem with the watchlist. Some changes in categories make the watchlist a blank page. The developers are working on this. Until this is fixed you can try some things that have helped other editors if you have this problem. You can turn on Hide categorization of pages in your watchlist preferences. You can turn off Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent in your watchlist preferences. You can remove problematic categories from Special:EditWatchlist/raw. [29]
There was a problem with the visual editor for several days. You could not save edits that triggered a CAPTCHA. This would for example be when a new user added external links in references. This was fixed on 2 May. [30]
Changes this week
When you edit you can switch between the visual editor and the wikitext editor. This works if the wiki you edit has the visual editor. The menu will now say Visual editing and Source editing instead of Switch to visual editing and Switch to code editing. This is because it was confusing when the menu said you could switch to the editor you were already using. [31]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 May. It will be on all wikis from 11 May (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 9 May at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
You will be able to get a notification when a page you created is connected to a Wikidata item. This will come to Wikivoyage on 9 May. If there are no problems it will come to most Wikipedias on 30 May. It will come to other projects and English, French and German Wikipedia later in the summer. It will be opt-in for existing users and opt-out for new users. [32][33]
Markup that looks like code for language variants might need to be fixed. If -{ is used in transclusions or web addresses it has to be escaped appropriately. You can use -<nowiki/>{ for transclusions and %2D{ in web addresses. A transclusion could for example be when you use -{ in a template: {{1x| sad :-{ face }}. This is because of some code fixes to the preprocessor and affects all wikis. [34][35]
thanks for the response. I applied for the 'confirmed user' group because I want to use the translation feature. Your bot replied there by mentioning autoconfirmation. Please check it manually. ferdous03:08, 9 May 2017 (UTC)
Did you know that you can review your changes visually?
When you are finished editing the page, type your edit summary and then choose "Review your changes".
In visual mode, you will see additions, removals, new links, and formatting highlighted. Other changes, such as changing the size of an image, are described in notes on the side.
Click the toggle button to switch between visual and wikitext diffs.
The wikitext diff is the same diff tool that is used in the wikitext editors and in the page history.
You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.
A new wikitext editing mode is available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. The 2017 wikitext editor has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. Go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures to enable the ⧼Visualeditor-preference-newwikitexteditor-label⧽.
A new visual diff tool is available in VisualEditor's visual mode. You can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. More features will be added to this later. In the future, this tool may be integrated into other MediaWiki components. [36]
You can now use your web browser's function to switch typing direction in the new wikitext mode. This is particularly helpful for RTL language users like Urdu or Hebrew who have to write JavaScript or CSS. You can use Command+Shift+X or Control+Shift+X to trigger this. [38]
The way to switch between the visual editing mode and the wikitext editing mode is now consistent. There is a drop-down menu that shows the two options. This is now the same in desktop and mobile web editing, and inside things that embed editing, such as Flow. [39]
The Categories item has been moved to the top of the Page options menu (from clicking on the icon) for quicker access. [40] There is also now a "Templates used on this page" feature there. [41]
You can now create <chem> tags (sometimes used as <ce>) for chemical formulas inside the visual editor. [42]
Tables can be set as collapsed or un-collapsed. [43]
The Special character menu now includes characters for Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and angle quotation marks (‹› and ⟨⟩) . The team thanks the volunteer developer, Tpt. [44]
A bug caused some section edit conflicts to blank the rest of the page. This has been fixed. The team are sorry for the disruption. [45]
There is a new keyboard shortcut for citations: Control+Shift+K on a PC, or Command+Shift+K on a Mac. It is based on the keyboard shortcut for making links, which is Control+K on a PC or Command+K on a Mac. [46]
Future changes
The VisualEditor team is working with the Community Tech team on a syntax highlighting tool. It will highlight matching pairs of <ref> tags and other types of wikitext syntax. You will be able to turn it on and off. It will first become available in VisualEditor's built-in wikitext mode, maybe late in 2017. [47]
The kind of button used to Show preview, Show changes, and finish an edit will change in all WMF-supported wikitext editors. The new buttons will use OOjs UI. The buttons will be larger, brighter, and easier to read. The labels will remain the same. You can test the new button by editing a page and adding &ooui=1 to the end of the URL, like this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Sandbox?action=edit&ooui=1 The old appearance will no longer be possible, even with local CSS changes. [48]
Morning Musik could you possibly tell me if this page has been nonindexed and if so if the template tag can be removed?Masterknighted (talk) 12:49, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
@Masterknighted: Jacques Rosas was unreviewed using Page Curation, this removed the indexing, as any article that is unpatrolled or under 30 days old is not indexed. However you are autopatrolled, so this page should not have showed up in Special:NewPagesFeed at all. Going by the revision history I think it did... otherwise it's strange patrollers during the same short timeframe. I will look into this! — MusikAnimaltalk15:38, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
I see what happened... Onel5969 must have used Special:NewPagesFeed to view all recently created pages (including ones that were already patrolled). He then unpatrolled it, which in turn meant other patrollers showed up to edit it (since it then showed up in the unpatrolled list). So there ya have it! Unfortunately I don't think you can re-patrol your own pages, but if this happens again you could check the log, then ask the user who unpatrolled it to give it another review. Hope this helps! — MusikAnimaltalk15:44, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
It should be indexing now, but maybe Google and others haven't crawled it yet. I would check back in a day or two — MusikAnimaltalk23:53, 9 May 2017 (UTC)
MusikBot
Hey, do you think your bot can run with a one-minute delay, given edits such as in here? It's not necessary that the bot's edits be done instantly, right? Drmies (talk) 01:42, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
No, not necessary, but here it was incidental. The bot runs on a 10-minute schedule, as you can see 23:10, 23:20, 01:40. With the most revert, indeed it got in the way of your rollback, which is definitely not ideal :/ But the same issue would have happened to DangerousJXD: If they had rollback (they don't), they wouldn't be able to use it due to the bot edits, yet in that case the bot waited 8 and 9 minutes after the last edit. So a delay isn't the solution, it seems. The only thing I can think of is that the bot could go off of ORES to determine if the last edit was likely vandalism, and if so, don't edit. Fun idea but not sure how easy it will be to implement — MusikAnimaltalk03:07, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
Gotcha. I didn't know it ran on a schedule. SineBot runs immediately, right? There's much that I don't know, though I am realizing that the two vandals in that article are probably one person. Thanks, Drmies (talk) 04:28, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
I have no idea how filters work, but I was wondering why continued edits by the IP (e.g. this) apparently hadn't been picked up the filter? Cheers, Number5711:55, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
I don't know why
I don't know why, but until now I thought that this was a bot account. Apparently you are an actual user - sorry I didn't notice sooner haha. --TheSandDoctor (talk) 05:29, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
Quite possibly haha. I've seen MusikBot around a lot at WP:PERM etc as well as you and somehow thought them to be the same haha (I realize the difference now). --TheSandDoctor (talk) 14:33, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
FilterMonitor config
As a non-EFM who watches the recent filter changes feed, I was a bit annoyed that the names of private filters (which are public) were not showing up in the list. The link to the filter provides no information whatsoever for private filters. So I tried changing the bot configuration JSON...as far as I know I made no syntax errors, but it appears that the bot got confused and spit out a decades-long history of filter modifications? I'm not sure what happened. – Train2104 (t • c) 16:25, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
I know you saw my revert, but to repeat it here, I will look into fixing this. Including the description was something we decided from the beginning that we didn't want to do (hence why that feature was never tested), but you're right that these descriptions are already public. We generally try to give LTA/sock filters ambiguous names, too, so this shouldn't be a problem — MusikAnimaltalk18:58, 12 May 2017 (UTC)
on may 12 the first 'on this day' entry ran--May 12: Birth of Muhammad al-Mahdi (Shia Islam, 2017)
the article states that the general concensus is that he was born in 869 c.e. i posted a message on the main page errors talk page, and when i saw later that it hadn't been changed i posted a similar message. the next day i received a notification from user Stephen that my edit had been reverted, with a message that rather baldly stated 'it has already been explained to you'. i hadn't received an explanation and wrote a message to Stephen asking for clarification, if they had the time and energy, but haven't heard back. your username showed up on one of the messages, and on your userpage i was quite happy to see that you like to help beginners, but a little distressed to see that one of your specialties is dealing with vandalism. if you have the time to explain how a message on a talk page can be viewed as an edit that can be reverted it would help me understand a little more how wikipedia works, and if you could help clear my name of any charges of vandalism i may inadvertently accrued i would be very thankful. and as far as the 'on this day' entry goes, i figure if it was somehow not incorrect i don't see how it could be construed as not incomprehensible. i feel bad about asking for your time, but this has me pretty confused. thanks, Potholehotline (talk) 03:55, 15 May 2017 (UTC) Potholehotline (talk) 03:55, 15 May 2017 (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
You can now use ISBNs to automatically generate citations in the visual editor. This works on wikis that have enabled Citoid. [50]
The mediawiki.util library does not load automatically any more. Your Special:MyPage/common.js may use it. If you have technical problems that started a couple of weeks ago you can try adding mw.loader.using('mediawiki.util').done(function(){ as the first line in the file and }); as a last one. Tech News wrote about this in the 2017/18 issue. [52]
Changes this week
The RevisionSlider extension will be a default feature on all wikis. RevisionSlider is an easier way to move between changes in the page history. It has been a default feature on German, Arabic and Hebrew Wikipedia and a beta feature on all wikis. You will be able to turn it off in your preferences. [53]
There is no new MediaWiki version this week.
Future changes
Administrators will soon be able to search through deleted pages. [54][55]
Markup that looks like code for language variants might need to be fixed. Tech News wrote about this last week. If -{ is used in transclusions or web addresses it has to be escaped appropriately. You can use -<nowiki/>{ for transclusions and %2D{ in web addresses. This is because of some code fixes to the preprocessor and affects all wikis. You can now see the full list of wikis with this problem and help fix them to avoid that things break later this month. You might find false positives. You can read more about what to fix. [56][57]
Older unreported changes
Your Meta user page is shown on all wikis where you don't have a local user page. You can now add the magic word __NOGLOBAL__ to your Meta user page to stop this. [58][59]
The Met is excited to make available over 375,000 images of public domain artworks for contribution to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons from the museum’s collection spanning 5,000 years of art. The event is an opportunity for Wikimedia communities to engage The Met's diverse collection onsite and remotely. The event is a key marker too of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's first Wikimedian-in-Residence program, with resident Richard Knipel (User:Pharos), along with Wikimedia NYC. We invite you to help enhance Wikimedia communities and platforms with open access images from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The event requires pre-registration. To register, 1) please sign-up with Eventbrite via The Met's website and 2) add your Wikipedia username to the #Participants on the wikimeetup page. Please check-in with museum staff when you arrive at the Thomas J. Watson Library within the museum.
(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)
Mosul-Deir Ezzor-Palmyra offensive
I'm guilty of this form. I accidentally pressed the Save page. I need to get from the start with Admin and all other members and help to open and edit it right this article. Why? I'm responsible. Help me, please, or rearrange. The battle for the city of Mosul has nothing to do with the battle in the west of the province. These operations are aimed at Deir ez-Zor penetration from the east to the Euphrates. Similarly Airport T4 Palmyra offensive (2017) from January to March in prokrajini East Homs. Eastern Homs offensive (2017). --Baba Mica (talk) 19:19, 18 May 2017 (UTC)
Bot clerking question
No rush on this question - definitely don't let it interfere with what I hope is an excellent vacation.
At WP:RFP/A a request was added with User: prefixed. As a result the bot clerked it as a non-existent User:User:. The requester fixed the section header, and I fixed the transclusion of {{rfplinks}}. I also removed MusikBot's clerking in the expectation that would force it to re-clerk the correct username - but that hasn't happened. So, my question, what triggers MusikBot to clerk a request?
Hi, in X!'Tools Page history tab found under Revision history statistics link at History tab (example from cswiki) columns with fractional numbers are not sorted right: 40 gets sorted between 3.3 and 5.4. Could this be caused by comma/period delimiter issue (Czech language uses comma while X!'Tools uses periods) or are all those affected columns (%, atbe) sorted as strings? Regards --09:28, 18 May 2017 (UTC), Utar (talk)
Hey! This issue will be fixed in the new version of XTools which you can expect to be out in the coming months. Stay tuned! :) — MusikAnimaltalk14:52, 20 May 2017 (UTC)
New Page Review - Newsletter No.4
Hello MusikAnimal,
Since rolling out the right in November, just 6 months ago, we now have 809 reviewers, but the backlog is still mysteriously growing fast. If every reviewer did just 55 reviews, the 22,000 backlog would be gone, in a flash, schwoop, just like that!
But do remember: Rather than speed, quality and depth of patrolling and the use of correct CSD criteria are essential to good reviewing. Do not over-tag. Make use of the message feature to let the creator know about your maintenance tags. See the tutorial again HERE. Get help HERE.
Stay up to date with recent new page developments and have your say, read THIS PAGE.
You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan.
Topics this month include the TED wikiproject, the Met wikiproject, and encouraging free video on Wikimedia Commons!
We will include a look at the organization and planning for our chapter, and expanding volunteer roles for both regular Wikipedia editors and new participants.
We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities.
We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from all educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects.
After the main meeting, pizza/chicken/vegetables and refreshments and video games in the gallery!
7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles gallery, 137 West 14th Street
We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 19:31, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)
Definition of Speedy Approval
Hi, I am a crat on Wikispecies and have a couple of bot requests for there that are being considered for speedy approval. They use AWB to do repetitive editing in short bursts. Both accounts were formerly doing this on their own main accounts but it was recommended to them to make bot accounts due to high volume. The content has been previously discussed and there is no issues with the edits being performed. In any case, I have never had to consider a bot for this type of approval. I would appreciate it if you would briefly tell me, or point me to an explanation, of what would permit you to speedily approve vs approve a bot. At present I am basically assuming it would mean to approve without trial as the main difference. Thanks in advance for your help. Cheers Scott Thomson (Faendalimas) talk16:53, 22 May 2017 (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.
Changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 May. It will be on all wikis from 25 May (calendar).
There will be a <div> tag around HTML from the MediaWiki wikitext parser. Gadgets with code that does not follow recommendations could have problems with this. You can report new problems you think are related to this. [60]
I don't really know what the protocol is for granting rights on the beta cluster, so I'll leave it for someone who does. Sorry! — MusikAnimaltalk13:43, 26 May 2017 (UTC)
What's the dealio with AWB approvals?
Okay, I just saw you approved someone for AWB who requested approval yesterday, not to mention all the other approvals of ones who've requested access after me. Some of us have been waiting a week like myself. I know there was some delay due to a leave of absence but that is over. Have I done something wrong in my request? I have over 2,000 non-automated edits. Did I not ask for the right reasons or not give enough information? If I am going to be denied, I would have preferred that happen right away, not being dragged on for so long. I have tried to be patient, but seeing today's approval is the last straw. Would sincerely appreciate some insight. Thanks! dawnleelynn(talk)18:45, 24 May 2017 (UTC)
@Dawnleelynn: The ones I've been responding to were more straightforward, while yours and others required more digging and evaluation. There's more to it than just checking if the prerequisites have been met. Fortunately it looks like I'm finally getting some help over there! :) So hopefully you'll get your yes/no soon. Apologies for the long wait — MusikAnimaltalk12:49, 26 May 2017 (UTC)
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate the explanation of the process, that is helpful. And I did not realize your circumstances. But, yes, someone yesterday asked me some more specific questions. I did get an approval today after I supplied the additional information yesterday. Glad you got additional assistance. Forgive if I was brusque. Again, I appreciate your assistance. I only work under deadlines on WP infrequently, so sometimes forget what that is like. Anyway, happy trails to you! dawnleelynn(talk)15:54, 26 May 2017 (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.
Problems
Last week’s MediaWiki version was rolled back from some wikis because of a problem. This means planned changes did not happen. [61]
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 30 May at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Sorry for being late...handling brunodam is one of the boriest tasks of mine and I've been procrastinating job execution tooooooo long. --Vituzzu (talk) 20:26, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
An RfC proposing an off-wiki LTA database has been closed. The proposal was broadly supported, with further discussion required regarding what to do with the existing LTA database and defining access requirements. Such a tool/database formed part of the Community health initiative's successful grant proposal.
Some clarifications have been made to the community banning and unblocking policies that effectively sync them with current practice. Specifically, the community has reached a consensus that when blocking a user at WP:AN or WP:ANI, it is considered a "community sanction", and administrators cannot unblock unilaterally if the user has not successfully appealed the sanction to the community.
Gamebuster19901, the bot gave your current non-automated tally. It didn't say anything about prerequisites. It's my understanding that any user with <500 non-automated edits gets flagged in that manner. Primefac (talk) 11:51, 4 June 2017 (UTC)
I can change the edit summary. Internally these figures are known as "prerequisites" (same is true with the admin instructions), but in practice they are not. It is a guideline at best, it ultimately all falls on admin discretion — MusikAnimaltalk15:22, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
The future of NPP and AfC/Work group
Hi MusikAnimal,
In view of the huge and sudden backlog at Special:NewPagesFeed since mid 2016, the WMF has begun a dialogue in a quest to examine the situation and possible solutions. Please consider commenting there if you have not already done so. It is highly recommended to read it all before it becomes too long to follow. The project is at Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Analysis and proposal, and its 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
You can see new files on Special:NewFiles. You can now pick which dates you want to see files from. [63]
When you read Wikipedia on a mobile device the first paragraph now comes before the infobox. [64]
You can now remove navigation elements from your results when you search. This could for example be part of an infobox that is only there to help you find the previous or next article. [65]
New users on Wikivoyages and Wikipedias (except French, English and German) now get a notification when a page they created is connected to Wikidata. Other wikis will get it 13 June. [66]
Problems
The MediaWiki version from two weeks ago was rolled back. It was fixed late last week. Changes that were planned to go out last week did not happen. [67]
Changes this week
Wikimedia wikis can show fewer links to articles in other languages. This is to make it easier to find the languages likely to be useful to the reader or editor. Everyone can still click to see the full list. Logged-in users who use the compact language links will see languages they have in their Babel box on their user page in the first, shorter list. You can turn the compact language list off or on in your preferences. [68]
You can choose what dates to look at when you look at a user's contributions. [69]
When you click on your watchlist in the mobile view you get a list of all pages in the watchlist instead of the latest changes to them. Logged-in users with at least ten edits will now get the latest changes instead. [70]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 6 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 7 June. It will be on all wikis from 8 June (calendar).
String comparisons in Scribunto modules are now always done case-insensitively by byte order. Before they were sometimes in a case-sensitive US-English collation order. This could break some modules. [71]
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 6 June at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
The 2006 wikitext editor will be removed the week of 27 June. This is the old toolbar with small square blue buttons. You can see a picture of it. 0.03% of active Wikimedia editors use this old tool. They will not see a toolbar at all. [72][73]
Wikimedia wikis use OCG to create PDFs. The OCG code has a lot of problems and will stop working. It has to be replaced. An alternative is Electron. You can tell the developers what you need the PDF service to be able to do. Electron already works on German Wikipedia. It will be on English Wikipedia later this week so you can test it there too. [74]
The Architecture Committee will change and get a new name. You can read and comment on the draft that describes the new committee.
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
Some wikis have the larger and brighter OOjs UI edit page buttons. When you write an edit summary there you can now see how many bytes you have left before the summary is too long. [75]
When you search on Wikipedia you can now find pages on other Wikimedia projects that could be relevant. You see them next to the search results. [76]
Changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 13 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 14 June. It will be on all wikis from 15 June (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 13 June at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
You will soon be able to get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account. You can test this on the test wiki. This will only work if they fail to log in to your account. [77]
Wikimedia wikis use OCG to create PDFs. The OCG code has a lot of problems and will stop working. It has to be replaced. An alternative is Electron. You can tell the developers what you need the PDF service to be able to do. Electron now works on all Wikimedia projects. [78]
Administrators can soon search for deleted page titles and find results that are similar to what they searched for. Today the search only finds pages that are exactly the same as what you search for. This is to make it easier to find pages when you don't know the exact title. Administrators on Arabic, Catalan, English, Persian, German, Italian, Polish, and Russian Wikipedia and on mediawiki.org can test this by adding &fuzzy=1 to the end of the web address when looking at Special:Undelete. [79][80]
Join us for an evening of social Wikipedia editing at the Museum of Modern Art Library's third annual Wiki Loves Pride Edit-a-thon, during which we will create, update, and improve Wikipedia articles pertaining to LGBT art, culture and history.
All are invited, with no specialized knowledge of the subject or Wikipedia editing experience required.
Themes for this event include art related to HIV/AIDS activism and on LGBTQ artists of the African Diaspora as part of the Black Lunch Table project.
Experienced Wikipedians will be on-hand to assist throughout the day. Please bring your laptop and power cord; we will have library resources, WiFi, and a list of suggested topics on hand.
(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)
A barnstar for you!
The Technical Barnstar
For your hard work on providing NPP statistics. I know this is your volunteer account, but those are always nicer to get shiny things on. Thank you so much. TonyBallioni (talk) 02:10, 16 June 2017 (UTC)
Thank you! Your input and help with this project has also not gone unnoticed, and is greatly appreciated :) I look forward to providing more stats soon — MusikAnimaltalk16:02, 16 June 2017 (UTC)
Hi MA, I reenabled "warn" on this - we are giving out a lot of WP:VOA blocks on this, if they actually stop after a warning they get a pass right now. We are hoping this is a short lived attack. — xaosfluxTalk00:45, 19 June 2017 (UTC)
See WP:EFN for current discussion - if this goes on for a few days, no issue with changing to block only. Basically, trying to avoid these people getting creative. — xaosfluxTalk00:50, 19 June 2017 (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.
Problems
ORES had some problems on 13 June between 16:00 and 19:40 UTC. It has now been fixed. [81]
Changes this week
irc.wikimedia.org has to be rebooted. This will probably happen on 21 June. It may be postponed. Some tools use this to get the recent changes feed. They will not work when it is down. [82]
Special:PageData will be an entry point for machine-readable page data. [83]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 20 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 June. It will be on all wikis from 22 June (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 20 June at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Bothering you here over what is a relatively minor (and somewhat personal issue) rather than posting on one of the already too long NPP pages. I came across Pietro Campori, a a biography about a guy who was twice the runner up to be pope that I created yesterday. Page curation has him tagged as no citations, which is certainly not the case. Any idea what might be causing that? I don't want to start a phab task if there is already one on it. TonyBallioni (talk) 01:05, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
@TonyBallioni: Good catch! I don't believe this is a known issue. When I look at the page directly, Page Curation does not report any issues, but indeed at Special:NewPagesFeed it says "No citations". There is some caching involved, but it should be invalidated (I think) every time there's an edit to that page. If you could create a phab that'd be great. Thanks! — MusikAnimaltalk01:19, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
Done T168350. There was literally no version of the page, draft or live, that didn't have a reference. It was in sfn format, which is my suspicion as to what causes the bug. Thanks for the review even though this isn't your area. TonyBallioni (talk) 01:24, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
Hello MusikAnimal! I have noticed that the bot has been removing the pp=yes template on some pages which are still under pending change protection, which is how I find out about it. Is this an error or am I not understanding what the bot is doing? Thanks, d.g. L3X1(distænt write))evidence(19:00, 19 June 2017 (UTC)
I have looked into this and found an issue with the API response in some cases. A normal API response, like this gives information about the type and level of protection. However, sometimes, some pages come back with a response like this which don't give any information about wetaher the page is autoconfirmed protected or pc protected. TheMagikCow (T) (C) 08:32, 20 June 2017 (UTC)
You may want to consider using the Article Wizard to help you create articles.
Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. This is a notice that the page you created, User:MusikPuppet/Test page, was tagged as a test page under section G2 of the criteria for speedy deletion and has been or soon may be deleted. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia.
If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. — MusikAnimaltalk14:52, 23 June 2017 (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
The <inputbox> has a new searchfilter parameter. You can add values like searchfilter=insource:foo. It will add that to the user's search query. [85]
Changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 27 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 28 June. It will be on all wikis from 29 June (calendar).
Users will be able to choose whether they want to see Wikidata changes in enhanced watchlist/recent changes. Previously, this was disabled for everyone. [86]
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 27 June at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the next WMF Language team office hour, an open session to talk about Wikimedia Language projects. The meeting will be on 27 June at 13:00 UTC. [87]
@علاء: I will get back to you on this. There is a new version of XTools that will be released soon, and it will include a non-automated edit counter that works for all wikis. However, it only looks for edits made using known tools, and the current list only accounts for those that are used on the English Wikipedia. I will try to add a way for users to request new tools be added, so that slowly over time it will be more useful on other wikis such as arwiki. — MusikAnimaltalk21:36, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
It was User:AvalerionV who has made around 8,000 edits in just one month at the speed of a bot. Further investigation shows that it appears that except only 100 or so, they were made with WPcleaner script. It's possible, of course, that I'm missing something. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 03:59, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
This happens every once in awhile, and when it does just check back in 5-10 minutes and it should work. It won't be a problem with the new XTools, which again will be released very soon! — MusikAnimaltalk14:40, 30 June 2017 (UTC)
Ultraviolet photography is one of the many visual technologies. This image of the rings of Saturn is an example of the application of ultraviolet photography in astronomy.
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
There was a problem with maps on Wikimedia wikis that used <mapframe> when you clicked on the link to another map service. Open Street Map or Google Maps are examples of other map services. If you had marked a place on the map the marker would not be in the same place on the other map service. It was in the middle of the map. This has now been fixed. [88]
Changes this week
Very old and inactive unpublished translations in the Content Translation database will be removed. This is because of technical maintenance. If you have not worked on a translation after 1 January 2016 you will lose it after 6 July. If you want to keep the unfinished translation you need to open it before 6 July with the Content Translation tool. You can continue working on it later. Translations that were started or have been worked on after 1 January 2016 will not be affected.
There is no new Mediawiki version this week.
EventStreams is a new way to show activity on Wikimedia wikis. It works with the recent changes feed. It will do more things later. It will replace RCStream. Tools that use RCStream should move to EventStreams before 7 July. Tech News wrote about this in the 2017/07 issue. [89]
I discovered processed and enlarged the area (original 150,000 ha to 600,000)
but if you as a music maker chose to erase the contributions of a lifetime PhD conservationist, who processed the creation of the park, then I am not going to waste my time. Btw, what I wrote about the reserve is a fact: There is no other Amazon park in the Andes countries with plaines. That is what makes the reserve so special.
But a musician knows better, and my website score far better on cuyabeno than Wiki, so good luck with your rules. Funny to see that other lodges with far less authority are now allowed on your article.
Hi Daanv! The issue is not that you are not qualified to be writing about this subject, or that I somehow know more than you (I don't). Rather, the issue was the content lacked sources, and was a bit promotional in tone. Wikipedia is based solely on previously published information, hence why we never consider Wikipedia itself to be a "source". Rather, it's like an essay based on a collection of sources. I'm certain the content you added is factual, but the reader does not know that, or that you are an expert, apart from someone else who may be making things up entirely. That's why we have to add citations to reliable sources to back up the claims. You can learn more about why verifiability is important and how to add citations by reading the introduction to referencing. Hope this helps! — MusikAnimaltalk17:48, 3 July 2017 (UTC)
You are invited to join us the "picnic anyone can edit" on New York City's green and historic Governors Island, as part of the Great American Wiknic celebrations being held across the USA. Remember it's a wiki-picnic, which means potluck.
Fuzzy search will soon be added to Special:Undelete, allowing administrators to search for deleted page titles with results similar to the search query. You can test this by adding ?fuzzy=1 to the URL, as with Special:Undelete?fuzzy=1. Currently the search only finds pages that exactly match the search term.
A newly revamped database report can help identify users who may be eligible to be autopatrolled.
A potentially compromised account from 2001–2002 attempted to request resysop. Please practice appropriate account security by using a unique password for Wikipedia, and consider enabling two-factor authentication. Currently around 17% of admins have enabled 2FA, up from 16% in February 2017.
Did you know: On 29 June 2017, there were 1,261 administrators on the English Wikipedia – the exact number of administrators as there were ten years ago on 29 June 2007. Since that time, the English Wikipedia has grown from 1.85 million articles to over 5.43 million.
Hello, need some help, can you please tell, what is the easiest way to get top 100 rows from your tool "Topviews Analysis" to Google Sheets( in .csv format) directly and automatically from website?
Hi Jurr23, the download=true option was never added, but for the same reasons I described in that post, I don't think this is the best way to offer such functionality. Instead I want to implement a backend that you can hit directly. I plan work on this soon, hopefully within the coming month or two. You can follow phab:T157830 for updates. I assume you are aware you can manually browse to Topviews and download as CSV. Hopefully that will hold you off for the time being :) Sorry I cannot help you any further! — MusikAnimaltalk16:45, 5 July 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for your response, but i would like to ask another question: is there any sql sentence what gives the same information as there are in your tool "Topviews Analysis" from Mediawiki database? I myself thought that watchlist could help, but i am not sure because i got errors that this table does not exists? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jurr23 (talk • contribs) 08:02, 7 July 2017 (UTC)
@Jurr23: Pageviews data is not in the MediaWiki database, but rather offered by the Wikimedia REST API, specifically the /metrics/pageviews/top endpoint. The raw data given by it does not filter out known false positives or incorporate editing data. The latter is in the MediaWiki database, and could be fetched with a query like this. Topviews filtering data is in a private database but you might be able to use it's API. I'm not sure if it blocks cross-origin requests. — MusikAnimaltalk15:15, 7 July 2017 (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
There are sometimes links to pages about the same thing on other Wikimedia projects. A Wikipedia article about Berlin can link to the Wikivoyage guide or Wiktionary entry about Berlin. You can now see when that page has a badge. A badge could be the star that shows that an article is a featured article. [90]
Changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 11 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 12 July. It will be on all wikis from 13 July (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 11 July at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
Mobile users will be able to edit Wikipedia without JavaScript. This will make it possible to edit the wikis from older mobile phones. This will probably happen on 18 July for most wikis. [91]
We will not useTidy on Wikimedia wikis in the future. It will be replaced by June 2018. It could be earlier. Editors will need to fix pages that could break. You can read the simplified instructions for editors.
Hello, MusikAnimal. Please check your email; you've got mail! Message added 23:44, 10 July 2017 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.
Thanks for uploading File:Lifebooker Logo.png. The image description page currently specifies that the image is non-free and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful. However, please note that images for which a replacement could be created are not acceptable for use on Wikipedia (see our policy for non-free media).
You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan.
We will include a look at the organization and planning for our chapter, and expanding volunteer roles for both regular Wikipedia editors and new participants.
We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities.
We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from all educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects.
After the main meeting, pizza/chicken/vegetables and refreshments and video games in the gallery!
7:00pm - 9:00 pm at Babycastles gallery, 145 West 14th Street
(note the new address, a couple of doors down from the former Babycastles location)
We especially encourage folks to add your 5-minute lightning talks to our roster, and otherwise join in the "open space" experience! Newcomers are very welcome! Bring your friends and colleagues! --Pharos (talk) 02:37, 13 July 2017 (UTC)
(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)
New Page Reviewer Newsletter
Hello MusikAnimal, thank you for your efforts reviewing new pages!
Backlog update:
The new page backlog is currently at 18,511 pages. We have worked hard to decrease from over 22,000, but more hard work is needed! Please consider reviewing even just a few pages a a day.
Some editors are committing to work specifically on patrolling new pages on 15 July. If you have not reviewed new pages in a while, this might be a good time to be involved. Please remember that quality of patrolling is more important than quantity, that the speedy deletion criteria should be followed strictly, and that ovetagging for minor issues should be avoided.
Technology update:
Several requests have been put into Phabractor to increase usability of the New Pages Feed and the Page Curation toolbar. For more details or to suggest improvements go to Wikipedia:Page Curation/Suggested improvements
The tutorial has been updated to include links to the following useful userscripts. If you were not aware of them, they could be useful in your efforts reviewing new pages:
User:Lourdes/PageCuration.js adds a link to the new pages feed and page curation toolbar to your top toolbar on Wikipedia
Following discussion at Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Reviewers, Wikipedia:New pages patrol/Noticeboard has been marked as historical. Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Reviewers is currently the most active central discussion forum for the New Page Patrol project. To keep up to date on the most recent discussions you can add it to your watchlist or visit it periodically.
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 Labs" is now called "Cloud VPS". "Wikimedia Tool Labs" is now called "Wikimedia Toolforge". This is to help clarify the purpose of these services. [92]
Problems
On some pages, the Table of Contents is not being shown. It will normally appear if you edit the page again. Investigation is currently ongoing. [93]
Changes this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 18 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 19 July. It will be on all wikis from 20 July (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 18 July at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the next meeting with the Architecture committee. The topic this week is: Migrate to HTML5 section ids. [94] The meeting will be on 19 July at 21:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
Page Previews, currently a Beta Feature, will be enabled for logged-out users for all remaining Wikipedias (with the exception of English and German) the week of 24 July. An A/B test will be run on English Wikipedia to collect data before approaching the community for further discussion. [95]
Here is the 4th issue of the Bots Newsletter (formerly the BAG Newletter). You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list.
21 inactive bots have been deflagged (see discussion).
WP:BOTISSUE has been updated to mention that BAG members can act as neutral mediators in bot-related disputes.
WP:INTERWIKIBOT has been updated to reflect the post-February 2013 practice of putting interwiki links on Wikidata, rather than on Wikipedia (see discussion).
(You can subscribe or unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding or removing your name from this list.)
PERM
I see your helper script for New Page Reviewer to add new user group members to the mailing list has been disabled and a separate button put in its place. Admins are not using it and I'm finding myself having to clean up after them and add the names manually. Was there a reason for this change that I missed? Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 09:51, 18 July 2017 (UTC)
Then I don't know, but I had to go through all the month's requests and add manually add about 10 to the mailing list. I also noticed that some users had not received the confirmation message either, but I just could not be bothered to do that as well. I think this could be information for your next admin newsletter. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 12:53, 22 July 2017 (UTC)
On the last Sunday of every month, the Boardroom at Ace Hotel New York hosts Action Equals History — a unique opportunity for New Yorkers to learn hands-on in a technology training/workshop session about the mechanics, practices and benefits of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects. This is an opportunity for all to gather, share and work collectively towards a more robust account of history.
For this month, we'll focus on Wikipedia casual editing, ways to use and develop Wikidata, building better edit-a-thon tools for a variety of different thematic campaigns, and user-testing them with the community. Towards a goal of advancing these tools for wider use with diverse local groups.
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
CSS in templates will be stored in a separate page in the future. This will make it easier to make templates look good on mobile devices. This now works on mediawiki.org and Wikitech. It will come to more wikis later. [96][97][98]
.mw-ui-constructive modifier class is deprecated and has been removed. [99]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 July. It will be on all wikis from 27 July (calendar).
It will be possible to restrict who can send you notifications on a wiki. This new feature will accessible in your preferences, in the Notifications tab, on Wednesday, July 26. Please see the documentation. [100]
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 25 July at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the Wikimedia Foundation July 2017 Metrics & Activities Meeting. The meeting is about how Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement are perceived and understood by the world. The meeting will be on 27 July at 19:00 (UTC). See the agenda and how to join.
Future changes
New Filters for Edit Review, at the moment available as a Beta feature, will be released by default for the Recent Changes in September.
When I tried to use one of your scripts linked, it didn't work. I saw the Nightpedia link, clicked on it, got nothing. I use Google Chrome. -- 198900:22, 29 July 2017 (UTC)
@1989: Yeah sorry, it's been broken for a while... :( Fortunately I can tell you that you're not missing out on much, heh. I never really finished it. There is a similar and more complete script by Dispenser available in Gadgets > Appearance > "Use a black background with green text". Give that a try. Hope this helps! — MusikAnimaltalk00:44, 29 July 2017 (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.
Problems
Some pages show the error Lua error in mw.wikibase.entity.lua at line 34: The entity data must be a table obtained via mw.wikibase.getEntityObject. This problem happens on pages with a Lua module that uses Wikidata. The developers are working on fixing the problem. You can fix a page by opening it for editing and then saving without changing anything. [101]
Wikidata and German Wikipedia could not be edited for an hour on 28 July. You can read why and how we could avoid it in the future in the incident report.
Changes later this week
Some wikis already have the larger and brighter OOjs UI edit page buttons. All remaining wikis except Commons will have these from 1 August. [102]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 1 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 2 August. It will be on all wikis from 3 August (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 1 August at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
The default font in the edit window will soon change for some users. Instead of using the browser default it will be monospace. Users can change this in their preferences. This should only change this for some users on Macs and iOS devices. [103]
LoginNotify should soon be deployed to the English Wikipedia. This will notify users when there are suspicious login attempts on their account.
The new version of XTools is nearing an official release. This suite of tools includes administrator statistics, an improved edit counter, among other tools that may benefit administrators. You can report issues on Phabricator and provide general feedback at mw:Talk:XTools.
Djmelt (talk) 13:39, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
Hi MusikAnimal, the page of Consumers Distributing is blocked for six months and generally it should be blocked only few days. Please unlock this page because we can't edit anything if we have something to edit. Thank you.
Djmelt (talk) 13:39, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
From Djmelt, August 2 2017.
Edit filter 860
Hello, I'd like to see if the following can be added to the edit filter in question. I do not have EFM rights and cannot make this change, but I would like to request that the filter be expanded to include talk pages as well. As an editor who has witnessed the vandalizing edit requests at Talk:Cheez Whiz before that page's eventual protection, this is a concerning issue for me among many other editors who look at these edit requests.
If this is not possible, can it be included in a separate edit filter that handles such edits? Thanks in advance, and please let me know if this has already been included or addressed. jd22292(Jalen D. Folf) (talk) 16:34, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
@MusikAnimal: Sadly, this is the only page I've noticed this on. I suspect the reason behind the edit requests is due to a phrase that the individual in question made that mentioned the product. Something along the lines of "No, but I got Cheez Whiz!" jd22292(Jalen D. Folf) (talk) 21:18, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
@SoWhy: Sure thing! We just need to JOIN with the page table so we can get the columns of both. Check out quarry:query/20699. I also re-joined with revision so you can get the size of the edits. The revision table contains "rev_len" but this is just the overall size of the page at the time of that revision. Finally, I limited it to 500 edits so it'd go faster, but if you need all edits just remove the LIMIT clause at the bottom. Best, — MusikAnimaltalk16:28, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
Thanks! Unfortunately, now I'm hooked and will probably bother you some more For example, I think I understand the syntax now but I am baffled why this query doesn't work. Regards SoWhy17:11, 4 August 2017 (UTC)
D'oh. I completely forgot. Thanks! Now I just need someone to give me access to the toolserver and I can try those queries with real scripts Regards SoWhy18:19, 5 August 2017 (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
You can now see which Wikipedia language versions are read in a specific country. This tool is called Wikipedia Views Visualized. [104]
You can get an email when a page on your watchlist was edited. You can choose not to get emails for minor edits. There is a bug that means that you then don't get an email when someone does a normal edit after a minor edit. The developers are working on fixing this. Until it has been fixed you can activate "Email me also for minor edits of pages and files" at the bottom of "User profile" in your preferences if you want to. [106]
The thanks button sometimes didn't work for mobile users. This was because of a new bug and has now been fixed. [107]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 8 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 9 August. It will be on all wikis from 10 August (calendar).
Future changes
Editors and readers who still use Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP will not be able to use Wikipedia. Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP can't connect securely to the wikis. When we allow them to do so it means that we get less security for everyone else. If you use Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP you can install Firefox 52 ESR instead. Around 0.1% of the traffic to the Wikimedia wikis comes from Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP. [108]
Links to sections on Wikipedia don't work well in languages that don't use the Latin script. The URL in the address bar in your browser shows Latin characters like .D0.A1.D1.81.D1.8B.D0.BB.D0.BA.D0.B8 instead of the section heading in the wiki's language. Links to sections in non-Latin scripts will be in the script of that wiki in the future. This will happen in the next few months. [109][110]
Wiki pages printed by the web browser "Print" function will have an updated style. This new style will be similar to the when you download a page as PDF. It will be better at showing tables, infoboxes and headings. [111][112]
I noticed that my name was put on this list when I semi-protected Richard B. Spencer for editing. The reason seems to be that there was a previous move ecp still active that I did not change (and did not enact). It occurred to me that perhaps it's not desirable for things to work this way - I don't think someone not changing a protection parameter is quite the same as enacting or endorsing it, which I suspect is what we want the list to focus on. Thoughts? Samsara14:46, 9 August 2017 (UTC)
The "Preview" section
Hi MusikAnimal, I was wondering if you could help with a technical problem. Maybe others have already brought it up. When I am editing, and I click on the "preview" button, the script reverts back to the top of the page (like it used to years ago), causing me to have to scroll down to find where I was editing. I assume this is now happening with everyone. Can it be repaired? Johnsmith2116 (talk) 10:40, 12 August 2017 (UTC)
Hmm yeah maybe that was a recent change, but this should be desired behaviour, no? The purpose of "Preview" is to review the content. It would then seem helpful that it auto-scrolls you to the content — MusikAnimaltalk14:39, 12 August 2017 (UTC)
I think you're talking about two different things. OP is talking about the edit window, which used to stay at the line you were editing. Now, when you edit a big page somewhere in the middle, and hit "preview", it reverts to the top of the edit window instead of staying where the last edit was made. Primefac (talk) 14:47, 12 August 2017 (UTC)(talk page stalker)
Bah, I see. Hmm, I don't know if that's a new bug or what. I tried searching on Phabricator but didn't find an existing task, but I can help you write a new one :) I would first bring this up at WP:VPT, though. People there might know more, when it started happening, etc. Also, I highly recommend User:Anomie/ajaxpreview, which will not only make previewing faster, but will also retain your scroll position in the edit window — MusikAnimaltalk20:14, 12 August 2017 (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
Bureaucrats can now set users as confirmed. Previously only stewards could do this on most wikis. Nothing will change for wikis that have previously decided to let administrators set users as confirmed. [113]
Problems
The symbols in the language list that show that an article is good or featured in that language doesn't work. Links to the Commons category in the sidebar doesn't work either. The developers are working on fixing it. [114][115]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 15 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 16 August. It will be on all wikis from 17 August (calendar).
Because I owe you one and I won't forget! Loved going to karaoke with you and making a fool of myself, and I can't wait to do it again! :-) Katietalk23:23, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
Hi, I have applied at Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Confirmed thrice but every time it says already done.I have 150+ edits and have more than a years experience on wiki although for the first 8 months or so, I was inactive but after that I have been active continuously. Kindly help.Thank you.Bingobro(Contributions)
@Bingobro: Autoconfirmed and confirmed are one and the same. Go to Special:Preferences and look for "member of groups" under "Basic information", and you should see "Autoconfirmed users". What is making you think you are not confirmed? Is there a page you are unable to edit? — MusikAnimaltalk13:56, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
Nope, it says view source and a few other pages show im just fine. Im new here so thought it was some difference between Confirmed and Autoconfirmed. Bingobro(Contributions)
Well for starters, I see you're using Twinkle, which only (auto)confirmed users can use. I'm not sure what to tell you... we could try manually confirming your account, but that literally will make no changes to your already autoconfirmed account. Could you try the link Xaosflux provided that directly goes to the edit interface [116]? Have you enabled any gadgets? — MusikAnimaltalk16:04, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
So, I've stopped using twinkle still no change! And the lin once opened says this page is semi protected so that only autoconfirmed users can edit it.Well I am autoconfirmed? Then why this? .I've even removed my user page's Twinkle top icon.Bingobro(Contributions)
For what it's worth, xtools shows that you're autoconfirmed. I suppose it would be possible to manually add you as "confirmed" (it won't actually change anything) but clearly the fact you're able to use Twinkle means you're in the system as autoconfirmed. Try clearing your cache, logging out, and then logging back in? Primefac (talk) 14:03, 11 August 2017 (UTC)(talk page stalker)
@Bingobro: I've temporarily added the confirmed flag to your account for the purposes of debugging. Let me know if you are now able to edit Cars (franchise) and others. Please try within the next 24 hours, afterwards the confirmed status will automatically be removed (but you will still be autoconfirmed) — MusikAnimaltalk20:45, 11 August 2017 (UTC)
Hmm OK, well I'm still going to let the confirmed flag expire. This is standard procedure, where we removed "confirmed" from any autoconfirmed account. I'm currently at Wikimania, so if come tomorrow are still having problems, I can talk to some other tech folks here and further debug this issue. Glad to hear you can edit for the time being, though! :) — MusikAnimaltalk14:35, 12 August 2017 (UTC)
The user said they see the "View source" tab instead of "Edit". This does not involve JavaScript or templating, rather the check on user permissions happens on the backend at runtime and sets the markup accordingly, so I doubt it's related to caching. Certainly doesn't hurt to try, though! Bingobro, see Wikipedia:Bypass your cache on how to do this — MusikAnimaltalk14:42, 12 August 2017 (UTC)
Normally yes, and when applied via permissions, is immediately accessible. However autoconfirmed happens automatically, and when I was autoconfirmed, I couldn't edit semi-protected pages until my cache was purged.—CYBERPOWER(Chat)15:14, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
God!, really? now even the bypass your cache article says View Source when opened it says this article is semi-protected so, only auto confirmed users can edit it.And no improvement still view source.Although thanks everyone.Bingobro(Contributions)
I'm still not able to edit semi protected pages.Bingobro(Contributions) —Preceding undated comment added 08:48, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
@Bingobro: I really don't know what to tell you :( At one point yesterday, your account had the "confirmed" flag, and you said you cleared your cache and the "View source" tab appeared again. So we know for sure the issue is not with permissions on your account. Looking at Special:PrefixIndex/User:Bingobro/, it seems you have no user scripts installed. The only thing I can think of is that there's some conflicting gadget, so let's try loading Cars (franchise) in safemode. Do you see an "Edit" tab? — MusikAnimaltalk15:06, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
Well, yesterday when I had the Confirmed flag I was able to edit the Cars (franchise) article however the clear your cache article still said view source.Bingobro(Contributions)15:16, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
Nope, not even safe mode. I think i'll just leave it and continue to edit unprotected pages. Bingobro(Contributions) 15:25, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
Ok, forget what I said and also forgive me for it.I really need some help here!.Bingobro(Chat) 15:25, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
I went down to Request for permisions/confirmed to seek help again by another admin or something and all I got was your bots automated response.Please help you really are my last hope! Bingobro(Chat)15:25, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
Aw, thanks! It was my utmost pleasure to assist you, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to figure it out. The folks at VPT are already on to something, it seems. You're not the only one with this problem! I hope it gets sorted out! — MusikAnimaltalk16:08, 17 August 2017 (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.
Your watchlist can now have the option to unwatch pages. You have to turn this on in your preferences. [119]
If a table has several columns you can often choose which column you want to use to sort the table. This has not worked for some columns for readers who have used Firefox or Safari. This has now been fixed. [120]
The RelatedArticles extension has shown related pages on Wikivoyages. You will now see the related pages at the end of the article together with an image. Previously the links were in the sidebar. Wikis that want this extension can request it on Phabricator.
Changes later this week
Videos will now be played in the WebM format in all browsers. Previously some browsers used Ogg Theora (.ogv). If you use Safari, Internet Explorer or Edge you may see slower playback speed at high resolutions. Instead we will get better quality and smaller file size. You can still upload video as Ogg files. They are automatically converted to WebM. This doesn't affect Ogg audio files. [121]
The default font in the edit window will change for some users this week. Instead of using the browser default, it will be monospace. Users can change this in their preferences. This should only change this for some users on Macs and iOS devices. [122]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 August. It will be on all wikis from 24 August (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 23 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 22 August at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan.
We will include a look at the organization and planning for our chapter, and expanding volunteer roles for both regular Wikipedia editors and new participants.
We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities.
We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from all educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects.
After the main meeting, pizza/chicken/vegetables and refreshments and video games in the gallery!
(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for NYC-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)
New Page Reviewer Newsletter
Hello MusikAnimal, thank you for your efforts reviewing new pages!
Backlog update:
The new page backlog is currently at 16,991 pages. We have worked hard to decrease from over 22,000, but more hard work is needed! Please consider reviewing even just a few pages a a day.
Technology update:
Rentier has created a NPP browser in WMF Labs that allows you to search new unreviewed pages using keywords and categories.
General project update:
The Wikimedia Foundation Community Tech team is working with the community to implement the autoconfirmed article creation trial. The trial is currently set to start on 7 September 2017, pending final approval of the technical features.
Please remember to focus on the quality of review: correct tagging of articles and not tagbombing are important. Searching for potential copyright violations is also important, and it can be aided by Earwig's Copyvio Detector, which can be added to your toolbar for ease of use with this user script.
To keep up with the latest conversation on New Pages Patrol or to ask questions, you can go to Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Reviewers and add it to your watchlist.
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
Syntax highlighting is now a beta feature on Wikimedia wikis with text written from left to right. It will come to right-to-left wikis later. This beta feature is based on CodeMirror. [123][124]
You will now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device or IP address that have logged in to your account before you will be notified after five failed attempts. You can turn this off or choose to get an email notification in your preferences. You can also turn on to get an email when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address. [125]
Problems
Some pages show the error Lua error in mw.wikibase.entity.lua at line 34: The entity data must be a table obtained via mw.wikibase.getEntityObject. This problem happens on pages with a Lua module that use Wikidata. This has now been fixed and no new pages will get this problem. You still need to fix pages that were broken before and still show the error message. You can see how on this page. [126]
Changes later this week
You can block users from sending you notifications. [127]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 29 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 30 August. It will be on all wikis from 31 August (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 29 August at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
In the future you will have global preferences. This means you could set something in your preferences to work in the same way on all wikis. You will not be forced to use global preferences. The developers are now asking if editors need exceptions. This is where you want to use global settings on almost all wikis, but have some wikis where you want it to work in a different way. If you want this you need to tell the developers now. You can do so on the talk page. [128]
New filters for edit review is a beta feature to improve recent changes pages. It will work on watchlists from 5 September. [129]
The jQuery library will be upgraded to version 3 in September 2017. Wikis can ask on Phabricator to get it early, so they can help find and solve problems now.
Hi, Sam Wilson suggested I get in touch. I work at the University of Edinburgh as the Wikimedian in Residence and library staff there have suggested they would be more inclined to share content to Wikimedia Commons if there were extra metrics for the images reuse. Knowing who is downloading the image and where the downloaded image is being reused/shared elsewhere on the internet is obviously too much like surveillance but wondered if number of clicks on an image (to enlarge for instance) or number of downloads (people choosing to save by right click 'Save as' or via download link etc) could be measured? Is this something you could advise about? Apologies if I'm barking up the wrong tree. Cheers, Stinglehammer (talk) 19:05, 23 August 2017 (UTC)
Would you be able to have you bot update the StaleDraft report daily for a while? With G13 expanded to cover everything on that report, the report is shrinking. More frequent updates would help rid the report of deleted pages as well as postponed and refunded pages that are no longer G13 eligible. That would make it much easier to work with until the backlog is reduced.. Thanks in advance. Thanks. Legacypac (talk) 03:38, 29 August 2017 (UTC)
Someone's running a bot that monitors recent changes, and reverts everyone's edits? My last two spelling corrections were nearly instantaneously reverted by an IP. Can't get any work done if that can't be controlled. – wbm1058 (talk) 00:48, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
Yep, I was just blocking to get more IPs to show up and discover more ranges. Mostly thanks to Katie I think it's slowed down. I'll continue to monitor. Best — MusikAnimaltalk00:51, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
The Special Barnstar
For helping me again and again with my newbie questions regarding scripting and SQL. You are truly a great editor! SoWhy14:47, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
Hi there again. After creating my AFD closes script, I was wondering about creating a script to analyze who are the main people involved in closing AFDs for a certain day but I am not really sure how to get a list of AFDs to analyze. Is there a way to find out which pages are transcluded instead of linked to using the pagelinks table? I tried this query but it is not limited to transclusions. Thanks in advance! Regards SoWhy18:42, 22 August 2017 (UTC)
Thanks for the updated query. I didn't know there was such a table, that does make it quite easier of course :-) Regards SoWhy06:51, 29 August 2017 (UTC)
Can I trouble you with another question? I tried working on my deletion analyzer script but I am struggling with a way to handle the huge logging table efficiently. Trying to grab a single day's deletions using this query takes quite a long time but I cannot think of a better way to limit the results to certain dates. Trying this query within a script on my local install always leads to a 504 error Can you think of a better (more efficient) way to grab those deletions? Regards SoWhy19:29, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
@SoWhy: The replicas differ from production in that they have different indexing. This is very annoying but thankfully there is a guide, see wikitech:Help:MySQL queries#Alternative Views. So in our case we want to find log entries made by a specific user, so we'll use logging_userindex. That should make it significantly faster. Another tool I heavily rely on is Hedonil's SQL optimizer. This doesn't tell you how to improve your query but it will tell you if it is inefficient. There if you copy your query using logging, you'll see the EXPLAIN suggests it will scan 68,277,806 rows!!! With logging_userindex, you're down to just 36,690 rows :) Note that in a normal MySQL-ish environment, you can run EXPLAIN [your SQL] directly to get this info, but EXPLAIN is not available to end users on Toolforge. Hedonil's tool does some special magic to surface the same information — MusikAnimaltalk20:38, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
I will no longer use my alternative account GTAlt. Can you please remove all user rights from that account except "extended confirmed"? I am asking you since you were the one who added the rights on 1 December 2016. GeoffreyT2000(talk, contribs)01:52, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
There is a user who has a custom "user infobox" on their userpage, this infobox contains the following line: "|girlfriend = Yes" "yes" links to a BLP, is this a violation of policy? The user also says they are unmarried as a protest for LGBT people, making it seem like they do have a girlfriend. Also the link to their email says don't count on a response unless you'r Kirsten Dunst. I don't know weather this is all a harmless joke or a BLP issue (unverifiable/false info on who a living person is dating) (I asked you because your an admin who is active at the time). Tornado chaser (talk) 16:06, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
Tornado chaser (talk) 16:06, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
Following an RfC, WP:G13 speedy deletion criterion now applies to any page in the draftspace that has not been edited in six months. There is a bot-generated report, updated daily, to help identify potentially qualifying drafts that have not been submitted through articles for creation.
Technical news
You will now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device that has logged into your account before, you will be notified after five failed attempts. You can also set in your preferences to get an email when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address, which may be encouraged for admins and accounts with sensitive permissions.
Syntax highlighting is now available as a beta feature (more info). This may assist administrators and template editors when dealing with intricate syntax of high-risk templates and system messages.
Applications for CheckUser and Oversight are being accepted by the Arbitration Committee until September 12. Community discussion of the candidates will begin on September 18.
Thank you for the admin newsletter. As you are on Horn's team, can we assume from this that the Foundation is on schedule for the 7th? We have had no recent communication from them on this point. Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 22:46, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
I'm on the same team but very much out of touch of what's going on ACTRIAL-wise. I did hear today that we got the OK from the security team on the Article Creation Workflow extension, so we're on track for the 7th — MusikAnimaltalk22:48, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
Hello, MusikAnimal. Please check your email; you've got mail! It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.
Hi,
Just so you know, I normally edit under IP addresses, but I recently made an account in order to email you some information regarding the recent abuse coming from open proxies/VPN usage. Also (and most importantly), thanks for all that you're doing here... :-)
What is the purpose of these filters? If you look at my abuse log, I've been blocked by each one already performing anti-vandal work. Filter 34 prevented me from blanking a talk page constituting promotion (I had to comment out the content instead). Filter 803 blocked me from tagging a user page as a WP:NOTWEBHOST violation.
803 disallows any new editor from editing someone elses user page. This was a result of a giant RfC that I can't dig up right now. You should see the filter message explaining this when you attempted to save. 33 and 34 are for similar purposes, it would seem, but you're right they are very similar and could probably be combined. I don't know why 34 is private, but I can poke some people about it. Surely you understand the bulk of disruption and harassment originates with new accounts and logged out users, so sadly they often are caught in a filter when in actuality they are doing no harm. That being said, here I don't think there were any false positives, it was just an unfortunate consequence. I'm not in the slightest suggesting you should register an account, but I can say it offers many benefits and you'll find you aren't subject to restrictions imposed by filters like the ones you've mentioned — MusikAnimaltalk16:16, 1 September 2017 (UTC)
@Pillowfluffyhead:WP:EF/FP is the correct venue to report false positives. I did not author that filter, either, sorry. On the subject of filters, it was a little hard to ignore this exchange where you apparently again assumed that just because a user tripped a filter, they must be in the wrong. As you've personally experienced, false positives definitely happen, so don't assume otherwise, especially given you're unable to see the filter.At any rate, I very much appreciate your dedication to fighting vandalism. Once your account is automatically confirmed (two days from now), I recommend turning on Twinkle in your gadget preferences. This will help your work considerably. Then, after a few hundred edits of fighting vandalism, we can grant you rollback and you can use more powerful tools like Huggle :) In the meantime, please do report any issues you run into with edit filters. It sucks people fall victim to false positives, but it's people like you that help ensure they happen less often. Regards — MusikAnimaltalk18:29, 2 September 2017 (UTC)
YGM
Hello, MusikAnimal. Please check your email; you've got mail! It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Wikipedia:FAKENEWS. Since you had some involvement with the Wikipedia:FAKENEWS redirect, you might want to participate in the redirect discussion if you have not already done so. TimothyJosephWood16:57, 4 September 2017 (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.
Tech News
We are asking Tech News readers five questions to make the newsletter better. You can answer the questions here. We are grateful for every reply we get.
Recent changes
The RevisionSlider user interface has changed. You can now select revisions by clicking on the bars. You can move the blue knob past the yellow one and the yellow one will move along, and the other way around. [130][131]
Problems
Some users have problems loading very large watchlists. It is working better than earlier but the problem has not been solved. The developers are working on fixing it. Until it has been fixed you can turn on "Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent" in your preferences and see if it helps. [132]
Changes later this week
New filters for edit review is a beta feature to improve recent changes pages. It will work on watchlists from 5 September. [133]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 September. It will be on all wikis from 7 September (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 5 September at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Hello! I understand that you are a maintainer of Xtools. I'm looking for the documentation for the Xtools timecard, which is part of the general user statistics. I haven't been able to find it on toolforge, Phabricator, or elsewhere! I'm hoping to look at the documentation, potentially contribute, and also look into what data I can get from it. Any info you can provide on where to find the timecard documentation would be appreciated! Hexatekin (talk) 01:09, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
Hello MusikAnimal...Not so long ago, File:WikiFilterLogo.png was recently updated. For some unknown reason, the topicon of your user page has not updated when I'm on the computer. However, I can see the updated version on your user page with my Iphone. I also have the image displayed on my user page showing the updated version both on computer and phone, however, when I clicked on the image file from my user page, it shows the 2015 version. Do you have similar issues? — JudeccaXIII (talk) 22:03, 7 September 2017 (UTC)
@JudeccaXIII: I see the new version, yes. This sounds a lot like this issue (permalink). I had the same problem with that image, where I could see it on the article, but it wasn't shown when I clicked on it. I recall this same issue happening to someone else maybe a year ago, so I don't think it's anything new. I'm going to comment on the VPT discussion about this — MusikAnimaltalk22:17, 8 September 2017 (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
You can get a notification when a page you created is connected to a Wikidata item. You can choose to get these notifications in your preferences. Some wikis already had this option. It is now available on all wikis. [135]
The Newsletter extension is now on mediawiki.org. The newsletter extension is for newsletters where you can subscribe by getting a notification when a new issue has been published. It will come to more wikis later. [136]
The Linter extension helps you find technical errors in articles. There is now a new high-priority category: tidy-whitespace-bug. This usually affects templates with horizontal lists. You can read more about using Linter and the Tidy whitespace bug. [137]
Problems
Tech News 2017/36 reported about new filters for edit review coming to watchlists. This was planned to happen last week. It will happen next week instead. [138]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 September. It will be on all wikis from 14 September (calendar).
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 September at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 12 September at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
You can't use OCG to create PDFs after 1 October. This is because of technical problems. You can use Electron instead. Most PDFs are already created with Electron. Electron will get missing features before 1 October. You can create books but they will not have all planned features until November or December. You can read more on mediawiki.org.
Dear MusikAnimal, Please restore Achraf Baznani's page, I will edit it. The artist is well known, I have many informations to add to his wikipedia page. Thank you! 105.155.64.71 (talk) 20:21, 12 September 2017 (UTC)
You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan.
This month will also feature on our agenda, upcoming editathons, the organization's Annual Meeting, and Chapter board elections.
We will include a look at the organization and planning for our chapter, and expanding volunteer roles for both regular Wikipedia editors and new participants.
We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities.
We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from all educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects.
After the main meeting, pizza/chicken/vegetables and refreshments and video games in the gallery!
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 see contributions from an IP range at Special:Contributions. Before you could only see contributions from single IP addresses. Some older contributions from IP ranges could be missing at first because it will take some time to add them. [140][141]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 September. It will be on all wikis from 21 September (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 19 September at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 September at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Hello MusikAnimal, thank you for your efforts reviewing new pages!
Backlog update:
The new page backlog is currently at 14304 pages. We have worked hard to decrease from over 22,000, but more hard work is needed! Please consider reviewing even just a few pages a day.
Currently there are 532 pages in the backlog that were created by non-autoconfirmed users before WP:ACTRIAL. The NPP project is undertaking a drive to clear these pages from the backlog before they hit the 90 day Google index point. Please consider reviewing a few today!
Technology update:
The Wikimedia Foundation is currently working on creating a new filter for page curation that will allow new page patrollers to filter by extended confirmed status. For more information see: T175225
General project update:
On 14 September 2017 the English Wikipedia began the autoconfirmed article creation trial. For a six month period, creation of articles in the mainspace of the English Wikipedia will be restricted to users with autoconfirmed status. New users who attempt article creation will now be redirected to a newly designed landing page.
Before clicking on a reference or external link while reviewing a page, please be careful that the site looks trustworthy. If you have a question about the safety of clicking on a link, it is better not to click on it.
To keep up with the latest conversation on New Pages Patrol or to ask questions, you can go to Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Reviewers and add it to your watchlist.
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
Wikitext syntax highlighting is a beta feature on Wikimedia wikis with text written from left to right. This beta feature is based on CodeMirror. You can now search through the entire article with CTRL+F or cmd+F when you edit. Before it just searched through a part of the article. The developers are also fixing a couple of other bugs. [143][144]
You now get a notification when someone tries to log in to your account and fails. If they try from a device or IP address that have logged in to your account before you will be notified after five failed attempts. For security reasons you will soon get an email by default when someone tries to log in to your account and when someone logs in to your account from a new device or IP address. This can be turned off in your preferences. [146]
Users with extremely old browsers (for example Netscape 2–4, released from 1995–1997) which do not support Unicode will no longer be able to edit. They should try to install a new browser. [147]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 September. It will be on all wikis from 28 September. (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 27 September at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can't use OCG to create PDFs after 1 October. This is because of technical problems. You can still create PDFs. Tech News 2017/37 said the function to create PDFs from books would still work. It is now clear it will not work for the next few months. The developers are working on fixing this. You can read more on mediawiki.org.
Following a successful proposal to create it, a new user right called "edit filter helper" is now assignable and revocable by administrators. The right allows non-administrators to view the details of private edit filters, but not to edit them.
Following a discussion about mass-application of ECP and how the need for logging and other details of an evolving consensus may have been missed by some administrators, a rough guide to extended confirmed protection has been written. This information page describes how the extended-confirmed aspects of the protection policy are currently being applied by administrators.
A request for comment is open regarding the structure, rules, and procedures of the December 2017 Arbitration Committee election, and how to resolve any issues not covered by existing rules.
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 use preload features in the visual editor. This means you can create links to create new pages and some text will already be in the edit window when someone clicks on it. [148]
Changes later this week
If you have turned on "Automatically enable most beta features" you will now get the 2017 wikitext editor. Before this you had to turn it on manually even though it is a beta feature. [149]
The jQuery library will be upgraded to version 3 on all Wiktionary wikis from 2 October. It will be on all non-Wikipedia wikis from 4 October. It will be on all wikis from 5 October. [151]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 3 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 4 October. It will be on all wikis from 5 October (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 3 October at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 4 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
Future changes
A new feature called Reading Lists are coming to the Wikipedia mobile apps. First it will be in the Android version. Reading Lists are a private user preference where you can see lists of articles on multiple devices. You can give feedback on this feature. [152]
The search function has used fallback languages for language analysis. This means a language could be analysed with the grammar of a completely unrelated language to find related words. This will be removed from most wikis the week starting with 9 October. You can read more and give feedback.
Hi MusikAnimal - I'd like to ask you some questions about the new edit filter helper right, if that's OK. I'm interested in applying for the right in the foreseeable future; would it be helpful for somebody like myself, who engages in anti-vandalism work and helps out at UAA? Would it help me to better spot sockpuppets, and report them, for instance? Secondly, will I have to sign the confidentiality agreement? I turn 18 this month, so I am more than willing to do so (until then I can't sign it), as I have a sound knowledge of what it means to keep matters confidential (without going into details on-wiki, I have some real-life experience in dealing with confidential matters). I do have some REGEX knowledge, although it is very basic and I won't jump into doing anything I know I can't do. So, in conclusion, do you think I am ready? Thanks in advance, and enjoy the rest of your day. :) Patient Zerotalk13:11, 6 October 2017 (UTC)
It just lets you see the logs. Most anti-vandal filters are public, so no, I do not think you present a compelling use-case. You're not missing out on anything, I promise. There should never be a moment where you think, "am I ready?". This is not rollback. You won't be able to "do" anything with EFH — MusikAnimaltalk15:27, 6 October 2017 (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
The number of active users listed by {{NUMBEROFACTIVEUSERS}} and on Special:Statistics will now only include Wikidata edits as activity on Wikidata and not on other wikis too. [153]
You will not be able to edit or upload files to Commons for around 30 minutes on 11 October. This will start at 06:00 UTC. This is because of work to let Commons show 3D models. [155]
Changes later this week
The font in the edit window is monospace by default. Today you can change preferences to another font family or use "the browser default" instead of monospace. Switching to the browser default has only changed the font on Macs. The option to use browser default will be removed this week. [156]
If you want to print a page or make a PDF of a page you can do so in the side menu. The way the pages look when you do this will change. You can read more on mediawiki.org.
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 10 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 11 October. It will be on all wikis from 12 October (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 10 October at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 11 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
I did that for the templates with 5,000+ transclusions. The others it could be debatable whether template protection is appropriate (e.g. where are the templates are used? Are they frequently edited by non-template editors?). Giving them at least semi is better than nothing, so I'm just doing that for now — MusikAnimaltalk17:21, 9 October 2017 (UTC)
We’re inviting you to join the discussion because you use similar tools such as the Editor Interaction Analyser and User compare report during sockpuppet investigations.
Please let us know if you wish to opt-out of all massmessage mailings from the Anti-harassment tools team.
Tools format
Dear MusikAnimal,
When I likened your work to the shades of blancmange
'Twas a jocular, but méfiable mensonge;
But 'tis true (to my eye) that the old shades of red
Were more crisp and succinct than the shade which instead
You have rendered so thickly, in broad crossing line
To the bars which the monthly endeavours define
(So one sees without scrolling but three or four months
Where of old one compared many more at a glance)
And the blob-charts revealing the hours of my labour
Are bulging, each button too close to its neighbour,
The colours of pastel, canary and green,
In co-ordinate artifice cover the screen,
And if to a syllabub I did compare 'em,
'Twas the jest, or the groan, of an old harum-scarum,
And nothing I said was design'd to offend:
And this, be it hoped, all offences will mend.
But chiefest of all, in the list of top edits
(found near the foot of the series of credits)
The inclusion of pages in Userspace names
Puts a lot of informal old work into frames
And brings into focus and ready access
Things for eyes unintended, and other such mess
From the old Wikipedia days, when discretion
Was not so considered as now, when profession
And care more judicious is taken to what
Should be found on the internet, and what should not.
Yet in case it should seem that I only complain,
Pray think me not thankless, nor wishful to pain,
For doubtless the X-Tool is greatly improved
By your latest additions and faults now removed,
And if your aesthetics go a trifle too far,
Still the World may applaud with a ringing "Hurrah!" Eebahgum (talk) 11:03, 10 October 2017 (UTC)
@Eebahgum: First off, thank you for the amazing poem! :D Now, let me make sure I've got all of your concerns accounted for:
The bars of the month/year charts are too big. There will be a new version released probably tonight/tomorrow (my time) that will make this smaller, so I'll get back to you.
The "Top edited pages" isn't broken down by namespace. We just fixed this today, so hopefully all good there :)
The bubbles of the timecard chart are too big. For this, I assume your screen size is smaller than mine, because the bubbles are not overlapping for me. This is still an issue, though. They should stay proportionate when the screen size is smaller. I've created phab:T177898.
There is some concern around the colours? This part I was not able to extract from your beautiful poem, so please elaborate :)
So relieved at your kind response! Thankyou. I do apologize for my excess of language at Gerda's page, which had partly humorous intention. My reservations about the colour will be resolved by the adjustments in sizes as it will feel less immersive. It was old sandboxes etc. appearing in the final list that troubled me, but you are on the case. Thanks again. It's such a helpful tool. BTW, do you have an opinion about these occasional one-off huge peaks of page-viewing? I suspect some sort of automated data-capture. (It's 3.00 am here, so my poet-self has nodded off....). With kind regards, greetings, Eebahgum (talk) 02:22, 11 October 2017 (UTC)
Learn how to work with your photos to illustrate New York City articles!
Note that this is part of the larger Open House New York Weekend activities on Saturday and Sunday, when sites normally closed to the public are open for public visits and photography.
If you can, bring your camera/photos to the event, and a laptop if you'd like to engage in adding photos to articles. But this is not necessary.
You are invited to join the Wikimedia NYC community for our monthly "WikiWednesday" evening salon (7-9pm) and knowledge-sharing workshop at Babycastles gallery by 14th Street / Union Square in Manhattan.
We will include a look at the organization and planning for our chapter, and expanding volunteer roles for both regular Wikipedia editors and new participants.
We will also follow up on plans for recent and upcoming edit-a-thons, museum and library projects, education initiatives, and other outreach activities.
We welcome the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from all educational and cultural institutions interested in developing free knowledge projects.
After the main meeting, pizza/chicken/vegetables and refreshments and video games in the gallery!
@GeoffreyT2000: The "not -protected" in the edit summary is totally a bug (should say "edit-protected"), and that has been there for a while, I just haven't gotten around to fixing it :/ As for removing the template, the bot first goes off of Category:Wikipedia pages with incorrect protection templates, and sometimes double-checks the protection state in the API. I think what happened here is both were cached and MediaWiki just didn't catch up with the page move by the time the bot did its run. Not sure what I can do... maybe check if the page was recently removed, and if so wait say 30 minutes before attempting to check the protection level — MusikAnimaltalk23:09, 12 October 2017 (UTC)
I happened upon the most edited "User talk" pages here Is User talk:TheStrayDog supposed to be formatted the same way in the edit counter as the real talk page's title is formatted? I can't tell whether that's deliberate or not. Huon (talk) 22:24, 13 October 2017 (UTC)
@Huon and Primefac: Each namespace has its own unique colour. The colours were borrowed from Supercount (with permission). I agree for Biografer the high-edit count in the User talk namespace has produced a very vibrant appearance... It's nearly burning my retinas! =P I think we should reconsider the colours, but I'm not sure how to do approach this. The old colours offered a very dull experience, especially for the mainspace which in most cases is the most popular. You'll notice the smaller pie charts in the "General statistics" section are more of a pastel colour. This is the new colour scheme we'd like to go by... especially because it is colourblind-friendly. Unfortunately the palette we've prepared only offers 10 colours, when we are dealing with at least 32 namespaces. I'm going to try to see if we can extend the palette, but this might mean the colours will not translate to the old ones. In your opinion, does the colours->namespace correlation matter that much? In other words, if you saw the mainspace (articles) in a pastel blue, would you be confused (because they used to be red) -- even with the legend on the left side? — MusikAnimaltalk07:47, 14 October 2017 (UTC)
MusikAnimal, we're talking about the Top Edits, where the formatting of the User talk "title" is shown instead of just normal formatting. I did notice the change in pie-chart colours, but haven't found it to be an issue (yet!). Primefac (talk) 11:57, 14 October 2017 (UTC)
Indeed. In Primefac's list of edited user talk pages, "User talk:kikichugirl" is lowercase and purple. "User talk:SwisterTwister" is black and partly bolded. "User talk:KGirlTrucker81" is dark bolded pink on a bright pink background. That's the same formatting as for the page title on the respective user talk pages themselves. Article titles in the edit counter are italicised when there's a {{italic title}} on the respective article, and so on. Is that deliberate? Wouldn't it make for a cleaner look to use the same formatting for page titles trhoughout the edit counter tool? Huon (talk) 13:27, 14 October 2017 (UTC)
Sorry for my misunderstanding. Yes, it was deliberate! It goes off of the WP:DISPLAYTITLE. Is this no good? I was unsure myself. In a way it's kind of cool, especially for mainspace articles where movie titles are supposed be italicized, etc. (as opposed to user page titles, which are formatted just for fun), but I can see how this could be distracting. — MusikAnimaltalk19:06, 14 October 2017 (UTC)
Personally I don't mind, though I obviously can't speak for Huon. Most people don't go nuts with their talk page titles like they do with their sigs, so as long as it doesn't show that styling like Dispenser does, I'm happy. Primefac (talk) 19:24, 14 October 2017 (UTC)
Hi, this time its no technical issue I just needed a copy of the deleted Confident Airlines article. I plan to use the copy and develop it into an article with better ref's in my sandbox. Thanks! Bingobro(Chat)12:30, 16 October 2017 (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
When you edit a template with the visual editor it follows the template's format configuration on how to save it. You can now change the format in more powerful ways if your wiki wants it. [157][158]
The TwoColConflict extension is a new way to solve edit conflicts. It makes it easier to copy and paste the relevant text to the text field. It has been a beta feature for the last five months. You can now try out the new interface on a page where you will actually get simulated edit conflicts. You can give feedback to the developers.
Problems
There is a problem with recent changes pages and your watchlist that show a large number of pages. Until it is fixed, Wikidata edits will not be shown on recent changes or in your watchlist on Commons or Russian Wikipedia. If necessary, Wikidata edits will be removed from all wikis. [159]
Notifications are not working for some actions. For example some users don't get a notification when they are mentioned. The developers are working on fixing this. [160]
Users on some wikis could not change their preferences. This has now been fixed. [161]
Changes later this week
Editors and readers who still use Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP will not be able to use Wikipedia from 17 October. Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP can't connect securely to the wikis. When we allow them to do so it means that we get less security for everyone else. If you use Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP you can install Firefox 52 ESR instead. Around 0.1% of the traffic to the Wikimedia wikis comes from Internet Explorer 8 on Windows XP. [162]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 17 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 18 October. It will be on all wikis from 19 October (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 17 October at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 18 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
I had sent you an email regarding adding exceptions but I just wanted you to know that RF implemented them. Thanks a ton anyway. :) G'day. --QEDK (愛 • 海)18:59, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
Hi!
As one of the active maintainers of XTools I was hoping you could help me.
One of the statistics of the 'Page history' tab in Xtools is "Reverted edits" (under general statistics). I wanted to know if there's any way of extracting this statistic for a number of articles automatically. Say by some way of listing the articles names (maybe in a pagepile or something..) as an input and getting each article's revert number as an output.
Also, if it isn't too much to ask, could you tell me how you calculate the number of reverted edits? I mean, what counts for a reverted edit?
This is for academic use and could save me A LOT of time.
Many thanks in advance!
@Haverbemashber: The reverts are detected via edit summary of the edit that followed it (e.g. "Undid edit by..."). The better way to do this is probably to compare the rev_sha1 field in the revision table. We do not have an API to get this information from an article because it requires parsing every revision, which would be too slow for an API. If you are able to write your own application, I would recommend going off of rev_sha1. You are also free to borrow from our regular expressions, just look for entries that have revert: true. Hope this helps — MusikAnimaltalk22:30, 16 October 2017 (UTC)
Hehe you'll notice from my RfA voting history that I always aim to be the 100th, 200th, 300th, etc. It doesn't always work, and I have to cheat, and sometimes people revert me, but this time I got it fair and square! :D Thanks for the WikiLove — MusikAnimaltalk16:02, 17 October 2017 (UTC)
I saw your concerns regarding {{holiday}} and the loss of {{holiday abroad}}. I did my best to keep the same functionality, and now |2= (which can also be called |country=) has been added. This means that {{holiday|2=country}} should give almost the same result as {{holiday abroad|country}} (and it's fewer chars!).
{{holiday}}{{holiday abroad}}
If that looks good, I'll go ahead and redirect the latter into the former. Primefac (talk) 18:38, 19 October 2017 (UTC)
Hello MusikAnimal, thank you for your efforts reviewing new pages!
Backlog update:
The new page backlog is currently at 12,878 pages. We have worked hard to decrease from over 22,000, but more hard work is needed! Please consider reviewing even just a few pages a day.
We have successfully cleared the backlog of pages created by non-confirmed accounts before ACTRIAL. Thank you to everyone who participated in that drive.
Technology update:
Primefac has created a script that will assist in requesting revision deletion for copyright violations that are often found in new pages. For more information see User:Primefac/revdel.
General project update:
The Article Wizard has been updated and simplified to match the layout style of the new user landing page. If you have not yet seen it, take a look.
To keep up with the latest conversation on New Pages Patrol or to ask questions, you can go to Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Reviewers and add it to your watchlist.
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 use ccnorm_contains_any when you create an abuse filter. This can be used to look for multiple words or phrases within a string. It will find words where some characters have been replaced. You can read more in the documentation. [163]
Changes later this week
When you search in some languages the search function could use specific other languages if the first language didn't work. This is called a fallback language. This didn't work properly and created bad searches. The search index is being fixed to work better. [164]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 24 October. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 25 October. It will be on all wikis from 26 October (calendar).
Meetings
You can join the next meeting with the Editing team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 24 October at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 25 October at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.
@Sro23: I saw those but wasn't certain they were socks. Do you mind explaining the behaviourial evidence? I'm not very familiar with the case, and from a CU standpoint I could only say Likely at best — MusikAnimaltalk00:58, 24 October 2017 (UTC)
Sphilbrick, this was (briefly) discussed at AN, and I started a few conversations at #wikimedia-techconnect regarding the issue, and the short answer was "no we cannot". Maybe MusikAnimal knows something the others didn't, but that's how I've closed the two or three other OTRS tickets I've seen with the same issue. Primefac (talk) 12:15, 27 October 2017 (UTC)(talk page stalker)
@Sphilbrick and Primefac: I've replied and closed that ticket with some info I thought might help. Embarrassingly, this was the first ticket that I've ever closed! Since I got access last month, I just haven't had a chance to help out at all. Thanks for the ping, I needed that push to get me started :) — MusikAnimaltalk16:14, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
Resolved
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