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Tech News: 2018-22

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 global preferences on most wikis. This means you can set preferences for all wikis at the same time. Before this you had to change them on each individual wiki. Global preferences will come to the Wikipedias later this week. [1][2]
  • It is now easier for blocked mobile users to see why they were blocked. [3]
  • Wikidata now supports lexicographical data. This helps describe words.
  • There is now a checkbox on Special:ListUsers to let you see only users in temporary user groups. [4]
  • Some rare invisible Unicode characters have recently been banned from page titles. This includes soft hyphens (U+00AD) and left-to-right (U+2066) and right-to-left (U+2067) isolate markers. Existing pages with these characters will soon be moved by a script. [5]
  • Advanced item There's a new Wikimedia Foundation team to support the Wikimedia technical communities. It's called the Technical Engagement team. Most of the team members did similar work in other teams before this. [6]

Problems

  • Some translatable pages are showing old translations instead of latest ones. The cause of this issue has been fixed. We will update all pages automatically to show the latest translations. [7]

Changes later this week

  • There will be a new special page named PasswordPolicies. This page gives information about the password rules for each user group on that wiki. [8]
  • A new way to see moved paragraphs in diffs is coming to most wikis. This is to make it easier to find the moved paragraphs and the changes in them. [9]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 29 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 30 May. It will be on all wikis from 31 May (calendar).
  • Advanced item Wikis can enable Citoid to provide automatic reference look-up in the visual editor and the 2017 wikitext editor. This is complex. The tool will now disable itself if the configuration isn't correct. It has warned about this in the JavaScript console since February. Check that your wiki is configured correctly. You can ask for help if you need it. [10]

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 May at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 30 May at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Content Translation drafts which have not been updated in over a year will be removed. This allows other users to translate those articles. [11]
  • A survey is collecting information on what users think about how Wikimedia wiki pages are loaded. This information could be used in future development. [12]
  • Advanced item Some wikis will switch to use the Remex parsing library. This is to replace Tidy. It will happen on 30 May and 13 June. Wikis with fewer than 100 linter issues in the main namespace in all high-priority linter categories will switch. This includes Wikidata. Tidy will probably be removed on all wikis in the first week of July. [13][14]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

12:40, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-23

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 MonoBook skin has been optimised for mobile devices. It now looks different. [15]
  • Planet Wikimedia collects blogs about Wikimedia. It will now use the Rawdog feed aggregator to do this instead of Planet. [16][17]
  • Redirect links in Special:WhatLinksHere now link to the original page and not the target page. This was done earlier and changed the used messages on some pages. This was a problem for wikis that customized the message. A new change fixed this by using the old messages with one more parameter for customization. Wikis that already changed their customized messages will have to move the customization back again. [18]

Problems

  • You will not be able to edit some wikis between 06:00 and 06:30 UTC on 13 June. You can see if your wiki is one of them.
  • MassMessage did not work 24–28 May. This is also why last week's Tech News was late. [19]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 June. It will be on all wikis from 7 June (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 June at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 6 June at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:54, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Why? - list inclusion

Hello, can you tell me why you reverted my edition? Thank you. --Furawi (talk) 21:45, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Header edited a bit to avoid ambiguity. GermanJoe (talk) 22:21, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
Hello @Furawi:, such large lists of companies (or other commercial topics) are usually restricted to "notable" entries (in Wikipedia's sense of "notability", see WP:GNG and the edit notice on top of the list's edit window). More specifically, the company itself should have a stand-alone article based on multiple independent sources before it can be added to List of indie game developers or similar lists. This is mostly intended to avoid bloating the list and to maintain clear inclusion criteria. You'll find additional advice about this approach at the essay WP:WTAF. GermanJoe (talk) 21:57, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CXLVI, June 2018

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 10:35, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-24

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

  • In the Wikipedia app for Android or iOS users can create reading lists. The reading lists can be seen on different devices if you are logged in to your account. There is now a browser extension so you can add pages to your reading list from a web browser. At the moment it works with Firefox and Chrome. [22]
  • Advanced item There is a new version of Pywikibot. Pywikibot is a tool to automate tasks on MediaWiki wikis. [23]

Problems

  • The MonoBook skin was changed to make it work better for mobile users. This caused some problems. The change was rolled back to fix them. The new version is now back on the wikis. MonoBook users can opt out from the new responsive design. [24]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 June. It will be on all wikis from 14 June (calendar).

Meetings

  • You can join the Readers Web team IRC office hour. There you can discuss tools to contribute on the mobile web for the existing MediaWiki skins. The meeting will be on 18 June at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item 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 June at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 June at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:55, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Pimlico Plumbers

Established 1979. The ip editor who has been correcting this is correct. Neil S. Walker (talk) 12:23, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Neil S. Walker:, thank you for pointing this out. As 2 reliable sources mention 1979 and 1 reliable source states 1982, I have kept your changed value to 1979 (and added a link to the cited news article). I have also removed the 2nd warning from the IP's talk (clearly too harsh considering the additional information). Still it is weird that a seemingly reliable source presents a different value. If Mullins changed his facts (?) about the company's funding during different interviews, perhaps this change should be mentioned in an explanatory footnote to avoid this confusion. GermanJoe (talk) 17:20, 15 June 2018 (UTC)
@Neil S Walker: GermanJoe (talk) 17:21, 15 June 2018 (UTC)
Strangely, the same website that was originally used as a source for 1982 carries another article in which it says 1979. I did check for more sources, including interviews with Mullins, and 1979 crops up in The Times, Management Today, The Standard, New Statesman, and other RS going back at least as far as 2010 (stopped looking then). Could be just an honest typo in the original source? Neil S. Walker (talk) 17:39, 15 June 2018 (UTC)
@Neil S Walker: seeing the 1979 sources are reliable and in the clear majority, maybe it's really just a one-time typo. Thank you for looking into it more closely than I did - I was a bit hasty with this one. GermanJoe (talk) 17:42, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Risk matrix

I responded to your comment on the article's talk page. I don't know whether you are notified of responses there so I am posting here just to draw your attention. Thanks. FightingWriting (talk) 03:05, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

@FightingWriting: I have answered on article talk and have watchlisted the page. Thank you for the notice. GermanJoe (talk) 03:25, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Kay Adshead

I addressed your comments in the maintenance tags as best I could. (I'm still learning how to edit on Wikipedia.) I gave an outline of the updates on the article's talk page. FightingWriting (talk) 03:05, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Done - answered on article talk. GermanJoe (talk) 03:52, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Your help desk question

Did you get help with the Wave Maker problem? I wouldn't know the answer.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:56, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

@Vchimpanzee:, thanks for reminding me. I have now added a hatnote to MEC (media agency). Although this is likely not the optimal textbook solution, it might help readers looking for the ambiguous other topic page until someone with more DAB-related experience can improve this. It's not the most pressing issue anyway - just some routine cleanup eventually. GermanJoe (talk) 20:15, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-25

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

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 June at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 June at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Some old web browsers will not be able to read the Wikimedia wikis. This is because they use an insecure way to connect to them. This means that we get less security for everyone else too. This affects about 0.08% of all traffic to the Wikimedia wikis. This affects for example those who read Wikipedia on a PlayStation 3. [28][29]
  • The new filters for edit review tools and interface for watchlists will leave beta. Because there is no new MediaWiki version this week it will happen on 25 June for most wikis. For the rest it will happen in early July. [30][31]
  • Advanced item All wikis that have not already done so will switch to use the Remex parsing library on 5 July. This is to replace Tidy. You can help fix remaining errors. [32]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

21:47, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

Revert at Enterprise resource planning

Hi,

Thanks for reviewing my contribution.

I really think business processes is an important part of an ERP implementation and it should be listed along with the other components. The article in the reference was talking about the importance of business processes and systemic thinking in a change process (an ERP implementation is one). If it's not ok to post links (my first review, please excuse my lack of experience) at least add the component.

Many thanks for your time, ChangeImprove — Preceding unsigned comment added by ChangeImprove (talk • contribs) 08:58, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

Hello @ChangeImprove:, and welcome to Wikipedia. Content on Wikipedia should be verifiable by a reliable source (see link for more information) - although many Wikipedia articles still have a lot of gaps in that regard. For a topic like this a reliable source would usually be an acknowleged expert publishing in books and journals, or a knowledgeable journalist in a reputable news publication (and other sources of similar expertise). Blogs, personal websites, forums, etc. are usually not reliable enough to verify encyclopedic information. It would be great if you could find a more reliable source to verify the suggested inclusion before it can be added. I will post a few useful links to your user talkpage, but feel free to ask me if you have any further questions - I'd be glad to help. WP:Teahouse is also a good forum for new editors to get advice from other volunteers. Best regards. GermanJoe (talk) 09:17, 24 June 2018 (UTC)
P.S. If you'd like to discuss article-specific questions and suggestions, the article's talkpage is also a good place to start. This way other interested editors can chime in and offer additional feedback on content-related issues. GermanJoe (talk) 09:20, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-26

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

Problems

  • When a link text was in italics or had other formatting you could sometimes not edit it in the visual editor. This has now been fixed. [33][34]

Changes later this week

  • Content translation users who translate between any two of Arabic, English, French, Japanese and Russian will be asked to be part of a research project. This is to create better tools for translating articles. [35]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 June. It will be on all wikis from 28 June (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 26 June at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 27 June at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

23:10, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Your revision of information about Padmakshi temple

@GermanJoe Hello, I am Sharma.ND. It seems you have reverted the changes that we have made to Padmakshi temple information to the previous one which is not the correct information about that place. We have recently received information from the tourists that information in Wikipedia is not same as the original, so we tried to change it. If you find any mistakes, then please go contact through the mail. And sorry we don't know how Wikipedia works, we are just learning. But the information that you have revised in the Padmakshi temple page is not true. Redacted, no personal info on public sites please.

Hello @Sharma.ND:, thank you for contacting me about this issue. I'll try and clarify a few important points about editing at Wikipedia:
  • If you have a professional connection to the temple or an organization administering the temple, you have a "conflict of interest" regarding this topic. Please make sure to read WP:COI and disclose any such connection transparently on your user page. Editors with a conflict of interest should not edit such articles themselves (see next point).
  • Most content must be based on published reliable secondary sources. If you have a conflict of interest and want to suggest sourced improvements, please post an edit request at the article's talkpage instead of editing the article yourself. I'll add a COI tag at the talkpage including a convenience link for edit requests.
  • Content must be written in a dispassionate encyclopedic tone. I respect your religious beliefs, but unfortunately a lot of your additions did not meet this requirement.
  • Please make sure to carefully read WP:RS and WP:NPOV, two of the most important content guidelines for Wikipedia.
Usually discussions should be transparently posted on article talkpages or noticeboards (for more serious issues). I generally don't use mails for Wikipedia-related discussions unless personal confidential details are involved. If you have further article-specific questions and comments, I recommend to start a thread at Talk:Padmakshi Temple. This way other interested editors are aware of such questions and can offer additional feedback. For general Wikipedia-related questions, WP:Teahouse is a good forum for new editors to ask. I hope these tips are helpful for your Wikipedia-editing to avoid future misunderstandings. Please feel free to ask, if any of these points need more clarification. Best regards. GermanJoe (talk) 07:06, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

More Jainism-related sockpuppetry for JBM1971

Hi GermanJoe. I see you added to Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/JBM1971 previously. This looks like cultural pov-pushing, though I've not looked to carefully. I'm finding lots of ip's and so far three accounts. I'd appreciate your review on the likelihood of sockpuppetry, as well as pointing out any related discussions. --Ronz (talk) 04:37, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Ronz:, you certainly have a valid SPI case there (imo), but it might be helpful to add 1-2 additional clear examples (for example 1 sock re-inserting an image previously inserted by another sock, or a specific example for repetitive PoV-pushing in the same article). I am not saying, your SPI arguments are not valid - of course they are - , but with a few more specifics it'll be easier for the SPI people to understand the situation more quickly.
Only indirectly related to en-Wiki, but it might be worth having a look at Commons:Special:Contributions/Brisbanehotcool, who re-uploaded several problematic images which have been deleted on Commons in the past. Of course Commons is a separate project and the usual disclaimer applies, but it might help to see the interaction between these accounts more clearly (it's hardly a coincidence that some of these images were quickly inserted by the listed possible sock accounts almost immediately after uploading). Apparently one aspect of these sock activities is the upload and popularization of certain religious imagery as well as religion-related content changes in the articles themselves. It might be worth mentioning this aspect as further behavioral evidence for some of the accounts.
Coming back to your original question about related discussions: I am not aware of any extended discussion about this specific case (aside from SPI obviously). But I am not regularly editing in religion-related articles (mostly to preserve my own sanity ...), so I might easily have missed such discussions. Hope this helps a bit with your analysis of the situation, but please let me know if I can be of further help. GermanJoe (talk) 05:17, 28 June 2018 (UTC)
And of course a random IP trying to disrupt the SPI case just lends further credibility to your concerns ;). GermanJoe (talk) 05:19, 28 June 2018 (UTC)
Thank you for the detailed response. I'll update the SPI and look further for help and related disputes. --Ronz (talk) 15:25, 28 June 2018 (UTC)

No need to be rude

Copying this from a previous discussion I had posted on a wrong forum:

Dear GermanJoe, I just wanted to apologise and clarify that it was naïve from my part to add references to our articles on Wikipedia. I now understand why this is not allowed and it will not happen again. May I say, however, that I found some of your responses to be rather aggressive. I would appreciate if you could get back to me at ***. Please allow me to clarify that your contributions are commendable, and I will not be asking you to reconsider your decision to take down the references. I just want to have a short and a friendly discussion with reference to some of your comments on the talk-pages which I consider to be inaccurate and unfair.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by A.constantinou (talk • contribs) 20:32, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Hello @A.constantinou:, I am assuming you are referring to recent removals at English Wikipedia? If you'd like to discuss this, please feel free to post at my English Wikipedia talkpage at en:User talk:GermanJoe (Commons and English Wikipedia are separate projects with separate forums and administrations). For the sake of transparency I'd prefer to discuss any Wikipedia-related matters on public Wikipedia forums - please understand, that I won't use mails (unless absolutely necessary for confidential details). I'd be glad to answer any questions on my English Wikipedia talkpage though. Best regards. GermanJoe (talk) 21:51, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Hi @GermanJoe. I shall post here as suggested.

As stated above, I found some of your comments to be unfair and involve the following three cases enumerated below:

  • 1: In 'Sports rating system' you removed my revision with a comment that included the following: “misleading usage and blatantly false details for a "proposed" rating system”. Your comment refers to the following paragraph:
Pi-ratings. This is a soccer rating system that provides relative measures of superiority between adversaries [13]. The key property of the pi-rating is that it evaluates the observed score difference in a match, relative to the expected score difference for that specific match, given the ratings. In brief, if a team achieves a higher score difference than expected (in their favour), the pi-rating increases for that team, and vice versa. This implies that a team’s rating can increase even if they lose a match, and vice versa. As a result, the pi-rating is applicable to any other sport where the score difference is considered to be a good indicator of team ability difference. The pi-rating is described as the most prominent rating method in soccer[14], and modified versions of the pi-rating ranked 1st[15] and 2nd[16] in the international competition Machine Learning for Soccer hosted by the Machine Learning journal in 2017/18.

Everything stated above is supported by references. The characterisation “most prominent” comes from other authors – though I obviously added the reference myself. Could you please clarify what is it that you found blatantly false, and what is it that you found inappropriate about the "proposed" rating system?
  • 2: In 'Influence diagrams' you removed my revision with a comment that included the following: “the author invented a new term – congratulations”
Your comment refers to the definition ‘Bayesian Decision Networks’ which I had added to the following sentence:
An influence diagram (ID) (also called a relevance diagram, decision diagram, a decision network, or a Bayesian Decision Network[1])
Please note that I did not ‘invent’ this term. It is simply a term used less often than the term ‘Influence Diagrams’, but which I find more accurate.
  • 3: In 'Bayesian Networks' you removed my revision with a comment that included the following: “pointless and indiscriminate list of applications, misused for citation spam (especially for A. Constantinou) without relevant context (see talkpage))".
Then in the talkpage you said: “Aside from being pointless and indiscriminate, this list was also misused to cite spam various journal articles by A. Constantinou, a relatively new author in this area.”
Was it really necessary to highlight my name - and twice? You could have simply said to me "adding references to your own work is not allowed".

In summary, I found your comments rude and in some cases inaccurate as indicated above. I hope that you agree that your comments were inappropriate, and I truly hope that you proceed to correct those comments accordingly. I also look forward to your response.

Hello @A.constantinou:, I don't want to go over every single detail but will try to focus on a few of your central (imo) points:
  1. Your own article from 2013 describes pi-rating as a "[proposed] novel and simple approach" and your work in this area as "the first academic study". Omitting such essential information about the status of research in this area seems misleading, even if unintentional. An assessment about its prominence should be directly sourced to the original author (ideally with an attributed quotation). Rankings, and any other claim of success and quality, also need to be sourced to uninvolved publications.
  2. It's not necessary to list every single alternative term - especially terms that are not as common. This passing mention added another reference, but didn't really add substantial new information.
  3. These comments were a bit too brusque, my apologies. You are correct that a more general summary would have been enough to describe the issue (I have rephrased the comment on the article's talkpage a bit). Earlier edits have been made under various differing IPs, so it was difficult to raise the issue directly with you or other editors (I left notices on 1 or 2 IP talkpages though). But I hope you understand, how cleaning up such edits can be time-consuming and frustrating from a volunteer's perspective.
Aside from these clarifications, one important last point: of course topic experts are welcome to improve such articles. But they should be careful to use their own research sparingly. 3rd-party references are almost always preferable to verify added content. When in doubt, you can also suggest additions of your own research at the article's talkpage to discuss them with uninvolved editors (see WP:SELFCITE). GermanJoe (talk) 01:08, 14 August 2018 (UTC)

Hi @GermanJoe:. My response to each of your points:

  1. . Thank you for clarifying your thoughts, even though you seem to stand by what you said. The statement you are referring to as “blatantly false” reads as follows: “This is the first academic study to demonstrate profitability against market odds using such a relatively simple technique”. In other words, the pi-rating demonstrated profitability that was higher than what had been previously published up to that point with other rating methods (which tend to be simple, as claimed in the statement). The statement was part of the Abstract, which tends to be carefully scrutinised during peer-review. It may be a brave statement, but surely if it was “blatantly false”, it would not had been approved by the three expert reviewers, an Associate Editor, and an Editor of the JQAS, who all reviewed and commented on the paper. Moreover, there must be an element of truth in that statement for the modified versions of pi-rating to be able to claim the top spots in the competition mentioned in my previous response.
  2. . OK.
  3. . Apology accepted. Still not happy that my name appears in the comments about the revisions, as if I am some sort of criminal. It is especially frustrating considering this is written by someone who only has a username.

Finally, I understand “how cleaning up such edits can be time-consuming and frustrating from a volunteer's perspective”, though you are only doing this because your comments were inappropriate in the first place. I want to think that both of us will learn from our mistakes. A.constantinou, 22:12, 15 August 2018 (UTC).

Tech News: 2018-27

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 database for tags will be changed. This will happen on 2 July on French Wikipedia and 9 July on all other wikis. Please report if recent changes get slower or you can't save edits. This could especially affect editors who use the database on ToolForge. [36]

Problems

  • Last week's MediaWiki update was rolled back. This was because of a database problem. [37]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 July at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 4 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

00:46, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the instructions

I personally thank you for your edit reversal on Comparison of CRM systems. You have removed info about bpm'online CRM and my recent edits. I have used services of Nextiva and their CRM services, which was mentioned several times on Independent news sources link Inc.com, Forbes and smallbiztrends.com. I do agree with you "let alone notable product in sub-article", that's why i'v removed hyperlink from the title of Nextiva Service CRM. Thanks for your efforts. - Nizel 202.134.14.152 (talk) 13:20, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

Hello Nizel, thank you for the note. I have added a few more details on your IP talkpage (cross-page notifications usually don't work for IP editors). Please do not re-add the disputed entry. Additions to such large products lists are usually restricted to notable products with pre-existing articles for the product based on independent sources. If you feel it should be added anyway, you should start a thread on the article's talkpage. Thank you for your consideration. GermanJoe (talk) 13:31, 8 July 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-28

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

  • WebM video files have smaller file size but still be of the same quality. Creating WebM files will take longer time. [38]
  • The new filters for edit review tools and interface for watchlists will leave beta. This was supposed to already have happened but was delayed. For most wikis this will happen on 9 July. For the rest it will happen on 16 July. [39]
  • Advanced item All wikis now use the Remex parsing library instead of Tidy. This could cause errors. You can help fix the errors. [40]

Problems

  • When you rolled back an edit it could get both the Rollback and Undo tags. This has been fixed. [41]
  • Rollbacks from autopatrolled users were not marked as patrolled. This has been fixed. [42]

Changes later this week

  • When you edit a link in the visual editor there will be two separate buttons to change which page the link goes to (target) or its text (label). [43][44]
  • On the mobile version you can find a link to an editor's contributions from their user page. Now this will work even if they haven't created a user page. [45]
  • When you edit a discussion on the mobile version you sometimes get your signature automatically added. This will now not happen if you have already added a signature manually. This is to avoid double signatures. [46]
  • Structured discussions toolbars will have more style options. [47]
  • Advanced item When you look at Wikimedia code in Gerrit there will be a new interface. It is on by default for new users. This is also true for developers. This is to make it easier to understand what is happening. [48]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 10 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 11 July. It will be on all wikis from 12 July (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 July at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 11 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Today all administrators can edit CSS and JavaScript for the entire wiki. There will be a new user group for editing CSS and JavaScript. Administrators will no longer automatically be able to do this. This is because it is a security risk when all administrator accounts can edit JavaScript even if they never plan to or do not know how it works. You can read more. [49]
  • Page previews will be on by default for new accounts. [50]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

23:09, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CXLVII, July 2018

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 12:12, 10 July 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-29

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

Changes later this week

  • Your watchlist will show changes from the last seven days instead of three. If you have already set a length preference it will not change. [54]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from July 17. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from July 18. It will be on all wikis from July 19 (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 July 17 at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on July 18 at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • Some articles have messages to readers about problems with the article. For example that it does not cite sources or might not be neutral. Readers do not see these messages on the mobile version. The developers now want to show them. You can read more and leave feedback.
  • You can use <inputbox> to create search boxes for specific pages. For example to search the archives of a community discussion page. Instead of prefix:Page name you will see a text that explains which pages are being searched. You can read more and leave feedback.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:00, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

Biography.com in External links section

Hi, GermanJoe. Regarding this, why did you remove the Biography.com link? When reverting another editor's changes, your changes got caught up in the revert. I re-removed the Netflix piece, but I'm wondering about the Biography.com piece. If it should be removed, feel free to re-remove it. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 03:01, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Flyer22 Reborn:, technically such links violate WP:ELNO #1. The information in it should be included in the article (if not done so already). Aside from that, I have also a few doubts about the accuracy of such TV-based celebrity bios often straying from factual information into rumours and personal opinion. Don't get me wrong, most of their basic information is likely correct but such popular documentaries often have flaws and inaccuracies which make them not completely reliable (especially for complex and controversial aspects). Anyway, I appreciate this is a borderline case with different opinions. If you believe the link is useful, of course I won't remove it again. Thank you for pointing this out. GermanJoe (talk) 10:07, 17 July 2018 (UTC)
Thanks for explaining. I think that Biography.com is a decent source, which I haven't known to be inaccurate, but it's understandable not to include it if it doesn't add anything to the article. Wikipedia is different than most biographies out there, though. Some things we don't include per certain rules (such as WP:Undue weight) might be in other biographies. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 13:09, 18 July 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-30

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 log in to your account you can choose to keep being logged in. This checkbox now works better than before on the mobile version for users without JavaScript. [55]
  • Wikis that use Citoid can automatically generate citations for Swedish news sites. This only works in the visual editor. This now works for Swedish public service radio. More will come. Others could use this to add news sites in other languages in the future. [56]
  • Editors can do max 90 edits per minute. This is new since last month. This does not affect bots or administrators. [57]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 24 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 25 July. It will be on all wikis from 26 July (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 25 July at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

09:44, 24 July 2018 (UTC)

Reply on Phiwa Nkambule

Hi GermanJoe. Thank you for the message. I am a journalist and researcher in South Africa and I have been following his story and his companies closely even though there are no relations between us. What category would that fall under and how can I best disclose it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Carloschilo (talk • contribs) 09:56, 25 July 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Carloschilo:, thank you for clarifying this question. Only if Mr. Nkambule would have asked or paid you to write about him, you would have a conflict of interest and should disclose this. But as you are an independent journalist just being interested in the topic, you don't have a conflict of interest and don't have to disclose anything. However, I would recommend to post a brief summary of your Wikipedia-related interest on your user page User:Carloschilo to avoid possible future misunderstandings. The creation of such a user page is completely optional though, and the amount of detail is also entirely up to you of course. Many editors choose to have no user page, many others share a few basic Wikipedia-related details. You'll find more information about viable content for such a user page at Wikipedia:User pages if you are interested in creating such a brief user page. Hope this helps, but please feel free to ask if you have any further questions. Best regards. GermanJoe (talk) 10:14, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
Thank you GermanJoe, I've created the user page as you recommended. Regards,User:Carloschilo —Preceding undated comment added 12:12, 25 July 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-31

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 design on Special:Log has changed. It will change again soon. Developers are working on fixing problems. [58]

Problems

  • Deployment of 1.32.0-wmf.13 has been partially delayed. All deployments have been resumed and successfully done after bug fixes. [59][60]
  • Deployment of 1.32.0-wmf.14 has been partially delayed. [61][62]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 31 July. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 1 August. It will be on all wikis from 2 August (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 31 July at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 1 August at 15:00 (UTC) as well as at 23:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

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14:05, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

DuckDuckGo

Good evening. It wasn't a "convenience insertion". Wikihow is like Wikipedia, not a promotional website. The how-to guide explain how to install Duckduckgo on most of devices, using Windows 10.

BEFORE my edit, there was a commercial-like one, whose author is an entrepreneur, the founder of what would be become duckduckgo.com. Nobody removed it, probably because it explains general functionalities, and not how to choose an alternative to partnered website like Google or others search engines.

I think before doing, it is better ask.Micheledisaverio (talk) 19:32, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Micheledisaverio:, I never said that the link was intended to be promotional (and the previous link is not ideal either, agree). Anyway, please make sure to read through English Wiki's guideline about such links at WP:EL when you got some time. The handling of external links is quite restrictive here, maybe more restrictive than in most other Wikipedia projects. But if you have any further questions, please feel free to ask. Best regards. GermanJoe (talk) 19:43, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
hello @GermanJoe: I wish to ask if Wikihow is considered in the WP:EL#What can normally be linked or WP:EN#What can normally be linked.if yes, it may useful to add it directly. IF NOT, I suggest to take into account the following reasons:
  1. WP:EL#What to link:
    1. accessibility: poit-to-point illustrated
    2. useful, tasteful, informative, factual, etc.)? : on articles of Wikipedia relating to editing, Information technology, Internet, software,..
    1. Is the link functioning and likely to remain functional?: permalink similar to Wikipedia (without oldid versioning and edits' chronology).
  2. WP:EL#Restrictions on linking: Wikihow publishes mainly original contents, and it isn't in WP blacklist. Perhaps, it presents Google banners, articles rely with registered trademarks Hardware, software, websites.
  3. WP:EL#Links normally to be avoided: nothing of the 12 listed points.
  4. Wikihow adfirms to publish contents optimized for learning, like Wikimedia does. So it shares a common main purpose.
  5. seems to be partner of Wikimedia Foundation (before questions).

Maybe better to move this discussion to the Wikipedia talk:External links if we haven't an exhaustive position about this issue.hope your help.best regardsMicheledisaverio (talk) 20:55, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

@Micheledisaverio:, a simple installation guide like that will not be accepted in my experience. And WikiHow is not one of WMF's projects (just checked their project list), where a bit more leeway is often given. Just one point of clarity: Wikipedia does not consider itself (or most other Wikis) as a reliable source of information either (see Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a reliable source) for more details. Hope this info is helpful but please start a discussion at article talk for more feedback from other editors, if you believe this link is absolutely necessary. GermanJoe (talk) 21:36, 1 August 2018 (UTC)
@GermanJoe: I have written about a general issue, the technical guide may be seen in a second time, given that it isn't necessary at all. I remember that Wikipedia is not (defined) as a primary source of information, even if it must have an exception for articles with dozens f primary references being quoted. Aside from that, technical content of Wikihow seems to be directly verified on existing IT objects (devices, software, websites), but articles has to be dated in an IT context which changes continuously. Just because they are useful for the readers and not being explained in the WParticles, we have to insert technical guide in the list of external links normally allowed for any contributor. Wikihow adfirms

wikiHow's mission is to help people learn, and we really hope this article helped you. Now you are helping others, just by visiting wikiHow.

The Wikimedia Foundation aims to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content in the public domain. In coordination with a network of individual volunteers and independent movement organizations, the foundation has created a movement with over 30 million registered contributors who work together to share the sum of all human knowledge with every person on the planet.

Click below to let us know you read this article, and wikiHow will donate to the Wikimedia Foundation on your behalf. Thanks for helping us achieve our mission of helping people learn how to do anything.

— at the end of part three

.

Terms of use release contents of Wikihow under a Creative Commons,even if contractual conditions may change at any time, and Wikihow don't have a license disclaimer in any single pages, like Wikipedia do. At this point, I will move the Wikipedia talk:External links.I apologize for the length of quotation and thank You for the answer. Micheledisaverio (talk) 23:02, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

New template: Template:Editnotice for lists of products and services

Hi GermanJoe, I recently created a new template, {{Editnotice for lists of products and services}}, which combines the message you've been applying to lists (like Template:Editnotices/Page/List of ERP software packages) with the standardized design of other editnotice templates (like {{Editnotice for lists of companies and organizations}}). Is this something you would find useful?

Also, would it be a good idea to add the stronger messaging of this template ("Each list entry should have its own Wikipedia article. Red links or entries not linked to an article will be removed.") to the {{Editnotice for lists of people}} template?

I appreciate any feedback you can provide. — Newslinger talk 16:46, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Newslinger:, I didn't even know about {{Editnotice for lists of companies and organizations}}, thank you for pointing this out (I usually just copypaste from 1 existing page into a new one). Such standard templates are certainly useful, although I try to limit my editnotice warnings to the most problematic lists with multiple recurring COI additions and add only a few editnotices per week. But a bit of standardization and documenting a default handling is almost always beneficial. Regarding lists of persons: I'd advise against changing this template. Technically such lists can follow 2 distinct inclusion schemes: either lists are restricted to "with notable Wiki-topic only" (lists with commercial entries being prone to spam), or they are restricted to "notable Wiki-topics and noteworthy entries with a reliable source". The latter criteria are less restrictive and often used for less-problematic lists of persons - so a change in this people-related template would likely be confusing and counter-productive. GermanJoe (talk) 17:21, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
Thank you! I'll only propose editnotices for frequently spammed lists, and I won't ask for any changes to the lists of people template. — Newslinger talk 05:03, 5 August 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-32

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

Problems

  • The MediaWiki version that was released two weeks ago was late to some Wikimedia wikis. This was because of bugs. It was on all wikis 30 July. [64][65]

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 7 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 8 August. It will be on all wikis from 9 August.

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 7 August at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 8 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

19:39, 6 August 2018 (UTC)

The Bugle: Issue CXLVIII, August 2018

Full front page of The Bugle
Your Military History Newsletter

The Bugle is published by the Military history WikiProject. To receive it on your talk page, please join the project or sign up here.
If you are a project member who does not want delivery, please remove your name from this page. Your editors, Ian Rose (talk) and Nick-D (talk) 08:35, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

"buboflash" notability/independent sources

Hello, I am not sure if it is appropriate to reply about removal of "buboflash" on your homepage, please advise if not.

I have conflict of interest as I am the author of Buboflash, my realworld name is Piotr Wąsik.

I added "buboflash" to the list of flashcard programs as it exists since 2014 and as far as I know it is the only flashcard program that supports incremental reading from PDFs and versioning for multiuser access. I thought because of these features adding it to the list would be appropriate. To the best of my knowledge 3 programs altogether support incremental reading (Anki, Buboflash and Supermemo) and there are very limited plugins to Emacs and Yi editors; both myself and Piotr Woźniak (the Supermemo author) consider "incremental reading" the main feature of the programs, so I added "Incremental Reading" column to the main table. I did not add "Versioning" column to the main table, as Buboflash is the only flashcard program that supports it, so it would look like shameless self-promotion, which is not the effect I want to achieve.

Best regards, Puchacz1 (Piotr)

Hello @Puchacz1:, thank you for the transparent disclosure. If you intend to continue editing about this topic, you should read WP:COI and formally add Template:UserboxCOI to your user page User:Puchacz1. If you don't mind, two more basic tips: most importantly, you need independent reliable sources to verify any suggested content. Self-published information or promotional publications will not be sufficient. Secondly, editors with a conflict of interest should not edit affected articles themselves. But you are welcome to suggest sourced changes on article talkpages, the documentation of Template:Request edit contains a brief "how to" guide about such edit requests. I hope these tips are helpful, but please feel free to ask if you have further questions. You can also post for advice at WP:Teahouse, a forum for new editors. Best regards. GermanJoe (talk) 17:27, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

your revert

Hello! Here is written that the value returned can be unlinked, for example, if you fetch the occupation (P106) of Howard Carter (Q133682):

  • {{#statements:P106|from=Q133682}} will give you "egyptologist"

As you can see, it is not unlinked. You have to change an example, or delete this paragraph, as I did. --145.108.173.220 (talk) 10:11, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Oh, I see now - sorry for the confusion (I need more coffee). To preserve the useful example, it seems easier to unlink the en-Wiki <-> Wikidata connection though (done already). It's not particularly useful anyway in this situation. But of course feel free to change this, if you know a better way to keep a valid example in the text. GermanJoe (talk) 10:29, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

List of Linux distributions

Thank you for the Explanations relating the List of Linux Distributions...:-)Joli Tambour (talk) 12:59, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

You're welcome (gern geschehen). GermanJoe (talk) 13:01, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-33

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 can now be stored in a separate page on all wikis. This is called TemplateStyles. This is to make it easier to edit how templates look. [66]

Changes later this week

  • There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 14 August at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 15 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

  • The developers are planning more ways to block users. This could be blocking someone from just a page or a namespace. You can read more. You can leave feedback on the talk page. [67]

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17:53, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Your Revert of the Parental Control Software List

Your revert was erroneous. You deleted Kaspersky, which was on the list before I did anything.

Further, the only articles that admits that K9 Web Protection has a problem are the comments I posted in the list, those posted by myself and other users on the K9 Web Protection talk page, and what I wrote in Bleeping Computer Article about K9.

No one else seems to have noticed that K9 lacks databases and isn't supported anymore.ReveurGAM (talk) 14:23, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

Hello @ReveurGAM:, the removal was independent from your edit. Entries in such lists should (usually) have a Wikipedia article, based on WP:CSC and the advice at WP:WTAF (although less problematic lists may suffice with an independent source for each entry). And external links should not be added within an article's or list's main body (WP:EL). I'll add a brief comment about K9 on the article's talkpage to avoid fragmenting the K9-related information in 2 pages.
One more point: you should try and find a reliable published source for the status information regarding K9 (see WP:V). GermanJoe (talk) 14:52, 19 August 2018 (UTC)
Thanks for explaining the reason for removing Kaspersky Safe Kids. However, don't you think it would've been better to leave it in there and replace the external link with an internal link (that would be red)? I also think it's better this way because KSK is a product with a lot of positive reviews. That no one has written an article about it shouldn't cause it to be excluded, should it?
As much as I'd like to be able to find an external article about K9 being unsupported, no one seems to have noticed and prepared an article other than myself on external sites, and other editors a few years ago noted some trouble. I can't very well link to my own research, can I? I COULD, however, write an article, say on my Steemit account, detailing the problem with K9, so that you (for example) could reference it. Given that Symantec takes no responsibility for supporting K9, and Blue Coat doesn't respond to queries and has taken down the databases and some parts of their website, yet left their website running without making the public aware that the software is not supported and doesn't provide the promised protection, don't you think it is important for something to be done? Please note that the Blue Coat article indicates that Symantec bought it and it was "folded into" Symantec, with two leaders of Blue Coat becoming CEO and COO of Symantec, but it makes no indication that K9 products are no longer supported.ReveurGAM (talk) 23:50, 19 August 2018 (UTC)
@ReveurGAM:, thanks for the additional information. Regarding KSK: If you can find 1-2 independent non-promotional expert reviews with in-depth coverage (user reviews, passing mentions, self-published or promotional sources don't count), you could suggest loosening the inclusion criteria and the addition of this site on the article's talkpage.
Regarding K9: I wouldn't worry about it too much for the moment. I have tagged the claims as "citation needed" - so other editors might find sources for this claim. Or they may get disputed and will need further discussion (or deletion as worst case) in the future. Wikipedia content is constantly changing and evolving, and not all content has to be absolutely perfect from the start. But you cannot verify this claim with your own research. Even writing an article on an external site and linking to it would be seen as "original research" (unless you are an acknowledged published expert on the topic). But we should really discuss further aspects on the article's talkpage please (if needed). My user talkpage gets archived after a while, and other editors might be interested in such details aswell. Article talk is the better place for such threads, even though I appreciate the additional background info. GermanJoe (talk) 00:20, 20 August 2018 (UTC)
Ok, let's discuss K9 and KSK on the relevant pages.ReveurGAM (talk) 01:51, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-34

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 August. It will be on all wikis from 23 August (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 22 August at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:46, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

Graph database, etc

I have a feeling I opened a can of worms by starting to look at Graph database and related articles, but it seems we have a problem with COI sock or meatpuppets involved with db-engines.com. I've identified Datascienceanalytics and Janawolf. Are there others that you've noted? --Laser brain (talk) 14:01, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

Aside from the recently tag-teaming @Laser brain: and GermanJoe? (Sorry, I had to mention this absurd allegation from a recent unblock request - please no block me, just kidding). With the cheap jokes out of the way, back to business: there is also User:Mrpieces and a strong tendency to mention ArangoDB whereever possible. But in all fairness, these incidents and their intentions may be hard to differentiate. Like a lot of other software-related articles ArangoDB has had a good amount of COI- and questionable edits from various SPAs (see article history), so the connections are not always clear - also some of them may be occasional or stale by now. GermanJoe (talk) 14:32, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

Tech News: 2018-35

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 moved paragraphs in diffs in the mobile view. It also works on all languages in the desktop view. [69]
  • Bureaucrats on all Wikimedia wikis can now remove the interface admin user right. [70]

Problems

  • Some diffs show lines in the wrong order. The developers are working on fixing it. [71]

Changes later this week

  • The message you see when you thank a user will change. This is to make it easier to understand. [72]
  • AWB will stop adding using AWB in the edit summary. Instead it will add a tag that says AWB. [73]
  • Advanced item Some abuse filter variables have changed. They are now easier to understand for non-experts. The old variables will still work but filter editors are encouraged to replace them with the new ones. You can find the list of changed variables on mediawiki.org. They have a note which says Deprecated. Use ... instead. An example is article_text which is now page_title. [74]
  • Advanced item Abuse filters can now use how old a page is. The variable is page_age. [75]
  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 August. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 29 August. It will be on all wikis from 30 August (calendar).

Meetings

  • Recurrent item 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 28 August at 18:30 (UTC). See how to join.
  • Recurrent item Advanced item You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 29 August at 15:00 (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 up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October. This will start at 14:00 (UTC). You might lose edits if you try to save during this time. The time when you can't edit might be shorter than an hour. You can read more about this.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

16:16, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

Search Encrypt

Hi GermanJoe, You might want to take another look at the page for Search Encrypt. At present, it gives an overly rosy view of a search engine that appears to be a browser hijacker. The main contributor (Searchprivacyexpert) appears to be affiliated with the company. I would nominate the page for deletion (there are no wiki-reliable sources), but I have a policy of never doing that. -Mparrault (talk) 19:42, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Hello @Mparrault:, I'll have to research a bit more for additional sources and take a closer look at the details, but the current article is clearly lacking good sources. Thank you for the notice. GermanJoe (talk) 20:11, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:GermanJoe/Archive_10&oldid=864263376"