Project:Forum/archive/2009

v This page is an archive of items from the Project:Forum page before it was switched to LiquidThreads.

Forum archives per year

2006 – 2007 – 2008 - 2009 - 2010

Older snapshots

Forum snapshots prior to the per year archives: 1 (2006-07-12) – 2 (2006-08-09) – 3 (2008-05-12) - 4 (2009-07-08)
The following old Talk:Main_page snapshots also contain some forum-like threads: 1 (2005-08-19) – 2 (2005-12-15) – 3 (2006-03-15)

Please don't post comments here! Do that at the Support desk or at Project:Village pump.

Extension help

Where should we put help content that relates to extensions? In the Help: namespace, or perhaps in another custom namespace "Extension help:"?? Happy‑melon 17:41, 22 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Manual: is fine. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 00:33, 23 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That doesn't strike me as very sensible: extension help content should still be licensed to PD, which won't be the case in Manual: namespace. Manual: isn't even where technical data on extensions is kept, that's Extension:... I can't think of any reason to put content like meta:Help:ParserFunctions at Manual:ParserFunctions or somesuch. Happy‑melon 15:29, 23 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How about subpages in the "Extension:" namespace? (e.g. Extension:ParserFunction/Installation) – rotemliss – Talk 19:41, 23 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It helps when you explain what "help content that relates to extensions" actually means. :) (Manual: holds documentation on developing extensions.)

Documenting lengthy usage instructions using subpages is common practice; is there a compelling reason why we would want to do it another way in this case? ParserFunctions is installed on lots and lots of wikis, to the point where it might seem like core help material, but it's still an extension. We could document the functions from the extension in Help:Variables#Parser functions and mark them as "functions that may not be available depending on the wiki setup," but I think we're aiming to keep the PD help pages describing an out-of-the-box setup, to the extent that we can. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 08:06, 24 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, which is why I was hesitant to just recreate Help:ParserFunctions. The issue is, as ever, the license; wouldn't we want the extension help pages like meta:Help:ParserFunctions, en:Help:EasyTimeline syntax to be PD so they can be distributed more easily? I'm concerned that if we drop content like this into the Extension: namespace then A) it is likely to get muddled with the 'developer-level' information and be hard to find, B) be difficult to locate and extract from the set of pages in that namespace, and C) be hard to cleanly and easily port of this site. Not everyone will want to link their help documentation here. So my thoughts are that this kind of help content (that is aimed at editors of www.randomwiki.org) needs to be both PD and contained in its own little set such that admins there can come over here, export the whole of our 'standard help', plus the help pages for whichever extensions they've got installed.
My immediate reaction is that it would be quickest and cleanest to create another PD namespace, say "Extension help:" so we could have Extension help:ParserFunctions, Extension help:ImageMap, Extension help:Cite, etc. Another possible solution, either an interim measure or a permanent decision, would be what I've done by creating Help:Extension:ParserFunctions. Upsides, no need for another namespace, downside slightly confusing page name. As I say, however, my overriding impression is that this content needs to be public domain. Happy‑melon 12:20, 24 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The help namespace is aimed at being a set of basic help pages that can be installed easily on a new wiki, aimed at wiki users (no administrator info). ParserFunctions (unless I'm unaware of a change) does not ship with vanilla MediaWiki, therefore they should not be documented in the help namespace. Extension namespace is correct for this kind of information. --HappyDog 01:29, 12 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If the problem is whether the pages are PD or not, we can always create a template and abuse categories to track PD extension help pages. Tito xd^(?!?) 03:31, 7 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

But the legally-binding message is what appears underneath the edit screen. We can't change that based on categories or templates. Happy‑melon 12:32, 7 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The advantage of Help:Extension: is that it looks clear that it is a user help page about using an extension; and not an extension page neither a manual page. almaghi 15:41, 12 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Deferred

Hi. I would like to know the purpose of marking commits as "deferred". From what I see, the changes are still in SVN. What is the result of making then "deferred"? Thanks, Malafaya 16:22, 10 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think it just means "not reviewed yet because we don't really care, since the code isn't running on Wikimedia servers". —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 11:58, 11 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sidebar localization

Could sidebar link URLs be included in $wgForceUIMsgAsContentMsg in the configuration of mediawiki.org? Especially mw-download-url would be a good idea. Main page would be fine, too, but would probably need to be changed to some mainpage-url or something, so that languages without a localized MediaWiki.org homepage would work correctly. Also “Download from SVN” should be localizable. --Mormegil 12:57, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not a help page

Currently the "this is not a help page" message is being largely ignored. Should we be more consistent in directing questions over to the Support desk and not handling them here? Happy‑melon 10:52, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sure. I see I'm the one who is curently doing most of the ignoring... I didn't pay enough attention, my bad... Sorry. MiCkE 12:05, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's ok, don't worry. It's a positive feedback loop, the more answered questions there are on this page, the more likely people are to assume that the "this is not a help desk" notice is just a mistake. Happy‑melon 12:44, 14 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And besides, if you go MainPage>CommunityPortal... it does say this is the place to ask questions... "Project:Forum For questions and comments about the site." wahaha! 86.46.96.111 13:10, 17 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The extension DynamicPageList

The Extension:DynamicPageList has been moved to another name, Extension:DynamicPageList (third-party), and Extension:Intersection has replaced the previous entry. This creates troubles as a lot of pages refers to functionality that is not part of the extension. I would prefer that the old names would be used, even if they don't seems to be completely logical in some sense or another. Thanks. Jeblad 04:13, 31 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This was done by Brion Vibber, our CTO, as a response to bugzilla:18945. We need to update links to the pages to point to their new targets as far as possible. Happy‑melon 09:54, 31 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Who made the move is completely irrelevant, it is a community around Mediawiki and its extensions and this creates havoc. Jeblad 16:07, 13 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Per Project:Requests, this site is not an egalitarian community like other wikis in the WMF cluster. The hierarchy of developers (patch contributors, junior devs with commit access, senior devs, sysadmins, and ultimately Brion) spills over here. As such, the fact that Brion made the move is not irrelevant. Happy‑melon 18:06, 13 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nevertheless, I feel his decision was incorrect. I don't care about what Wikimedia uses - or at least, it is only important enough to be a footer, not the determinant in title ownership. To me, DynamicPageList is the one that has more features and is actively developed, which is the "third party" extension. The Wikimedia links he mentioned seem to all link to Extension:Intersection, at least on the version pages. I have moved the Wikimedia extension to Extension:DynamicPageList (Wikimedia) and turned Extension:DynamicPageList into a disambiguation page. GreenReaper 18:17, 22 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I feel this is the best solution. By now there's a lot of copies of both extensions sitting around, and who knows what might be linking where. The fact that they're named so similar is unfortunate and has caused a lot of confusion over time. Keeping the main Extension:DynamicPageList as a disambiguation page helps reduce the confusion IMHO. ^demon 20:29, 22 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Main page: addition of a link to corporate use

See discussion.

Using MediaWiki software

THERE IS A WEBSITE MADE BY NAZIS WHO ARE USING MEDIAWIKI. NAME IS WWW.METAPEDIA.ORG AND IT IS MADE IN SPANISH LANGUAGE. IS IT LEGAL? MAY BE USED MEDIAWIKI FOR ILLEGAL WEBWSITES? --190.190.160.117 21:57, 11 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please read the Project:General disclaimer and the GPL licence. I don't believe uses of the software is concerning MediaWiki.org, once those disclaimer and licence are token into account. almaghi 22:15, 11 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Our license does not restrict use of the software in any way; any contravention of laws in one's individual use is a matter for local law enforcement authorities or civil courts. --brion 20:27, 15 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Removed ED link

Removed the ED download link from the extension toolbox again, lessen the number of confused users coming into #mediawiki asking why it wont work. OverlordQ 06:01, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

how to get the URL of current page?

Hi, I'm using a social bookmark extension which shows a bookmark button on each page, including history and edit. I want them to show in a page whose URL is without "action=" (like &action=edit , &action=history), so i add this:

<?php
if (!eregi("action=", $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]))
{ wfPostcommentForm(); }
?>

However, it doesn't work....at least on xampp that I try modifying the skin.

Do you know which variable contains the URL? And are these lines made correctly? Thanks a lot. --Zozzen 03:20, 28 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

References don't work

<references /> and <ref> -tags stopped working in Finnish Uncyclopedia-project Hikipedia. The admins suspect that MediaWiki has updated the system without announcing about it. How can we make the tags work again? Irvikissa 16:09, 23 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You're running the ~1.10 version of Cite.php; upgrade it. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 21:22, 23 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why? It worked fine until today. Something has ruined our search function also. What the hell is happening? --Pullamosso 21:36, 23 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You're running MediaWiki 1.16 alpha (which indicates that you or your sysadmin upgraded recently): you probably want to run the stable version instead. You also have a large number of extensions, and you don't appear to have ever updated or pruned them; that's another potential source of problems. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 22:08, 23 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Our best MW expert has been wikically dead for over a year now so that may be true. Anyway, thanks! --Pullamosso 22:17, 23 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Protect all templates

How do i protect all templates from being edited by anyone except Sysop (or maybe administrators) 59.167.194.210 03:47, 26 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Manual:$wgNamespaceProtection (but please ask such questions on the Project:Support desk). iAlex 06:20, 26 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Mediawiki shows database name on each page in javascript

Hi,

I have found that Mediawiki pass the potential information like database name through javascript on each page.

var wgDBname = "mediawikiwiki";

var wgSearchNamespaces = [0, 12, 100, 102];

var wgMWSuggestMessages = ["with suggestions", "no suggestions"];

var wgRestrictionEdit = ["sysop"];

var wgRestrictionMove = ["sysop"];

/*]]>*/</script>

Can someone tell me how to hide this information.

Extension matrix

This seems to be broken, in that I'm seeing wikimarkup instead of the table. Viewing the latest diff caused strange things to happen in my browser. 81.110.104.91 18:37, 18 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You should ask this at Project:Support Desk; this page is only for discussion of the MediaWiki.org website. --Brian 08:55, 20 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Extension matrix is a page on this site, hence me putting it here. Seems to be fixed for now. 81.110.104.91 11:57, 20 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help page for images

The help page for images Help:Images is suffering from the lack of a sample image that was deleted at some point. Maybe someone could see to it that a new sample image is added or the links are changed? Thanks.

I poked the page (marked it 'sighted' in FlaggedRevs), it looks happier now. --brion 17:38, 29 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

@SysOp / Administator :: Please someone confirm my account

I cant translate any templates, please someone confirm my account. Thanks! --Ollii 15:45, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Languages/Title evolution - two alternatives

Translations in Template:Languages/Title used as title for all of the multi-language panes, maked over {{Languages }}. Currently i manually gathering translations from http://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translations/loginlanguagelabel&namespace=8

In my opinion, needed separate MediaWiki:loginlanguagelabel to two messages:

"loginlanguage" as a pure translating of "Language" word
"loginlanguagelabel" as "loginlanguage" + ":" + "$1"

After this operation, Template:Languages can be migrate to using new variable {{int:loginlanguage}}.

Or, alternatively, migrate to using MediaWiki-supported multi-language variable {{int:otherlanguages}} (currently used on Meta-wiki). Try use {{LanguagesTest }} as example using of a {{int:otherlanguages}} for this task.

Any of these alternatives is further good as the language of the title corresponds to the user interface language, but is not language of viewed section.

What will be the idea? Maybe this topic should be moved to Project:Current issues ? --Kaganer 16:59, 9 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Future development along Wikia lines...

Hi, I assume the new format on Wikia is the type of thing you guys would plan for Wikipedia. I just want to suggest that key-binds are much more comfortable for typing tasks than point and clikc. I don't know if you guys are making the Wikia changes so it is very buggy but even if it wasn't, point and click operations are nice for pictures and maybe templates but stuff like headers, bullet lists, it is much easier to edit directly on the keyboard than to lift your hands up off it and fiddle about. Your buttons here for [[Category:]][[:Image:]]<includeonly></includeonly> etc are good for long stuff but the shorter stuff only gets complicated like links and headers. I don't even know if this is the place people contact developers... 86.46.96.111 23:34, 16 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Quick Question about releases

I do not want to dowmload and upload other files than for the english releases of media wiki. Will there be an english only releases/updates in the futere? --purple.phoenix@hotmail.com 00:32, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Maybe eventually. Don't count on it happening any time soon. —Emufarmers^(T|C) 02:59, 19 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I really hate all the useless files that I need to upload and download that why I was asking. *hopes that mediawiki will have more advanced download options in the future.* ----purple.phoenix@hotmail.com 21:17, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Bugzilla email address

Presumably the address given at https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/createaccount.cgi needs to be changed, as Brion has left Wikimedia? OrangeDog 00:40, 22 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Filed a bug and Brion changed this. If you come across any other things like this, reopen bug 21237 with information. ^demon

Articles Infos

Hello. Does anyone know where to find this "Article infos" extension (see: http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/SIGI ). Thanks.Thomas --189.104.91.12 16:54, 24 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am an usual user of your projects/services and it would be great if you could create a gadget for windows sidebar of MediaWiki which contains all your projects in just one gadget. I bet not only me but lots of people will download this gadget as I have seen many gadgets about wikipeda on the gadget list and they show that a large amount of people want to have it on their computers.

Looking forward to see this gadget available at the windows sidebar gadget list soon

Kind Regards Juan Lara

Is there any way to age restrict content?

Including not allowing any "Adult" tagged images to generate thumbnails unless a user is the appropriate age to view such images (Or, if it does generate a thumbnail have it be a generic image like "ADULTS ONLY"). And having "Adult" tagged articles and images be filtered based on the age of a registered user. And if it's an unregistered user having them input their age in order to visit some articles, and/or view some images. Smile Lee 11:12, 6 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]