User talk:Jackmcbarn

New redirects

You'll recall this discussion when you enabled the software to tag redirects that are left behind when a page is renamed with {{R from move}}. Hypothetical: If there were a Category:Newly created redirects and an rcat named {{R newly created}}, which would populate the category, then is it possible for the software to tag a redirect soon or immediately after it is first created? If so, then the category could be monitored to ensure that newly created redirects are correctly categorized. Is this possible? – Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX! 18:43, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes, but I'd want a method to automatically uncategorize them once they're not new anymore first. Jackmcbarn (talk) 19:07, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

It would have to be monitored on an equable basis, and yet, I do understand your concern. The category would be like the other redirect maintenance cats, and I would monitor it. Also, it occurs to me that there already exists a Category:Miscellaneous redirects that is populated by the bare (no rcats added) {{This is a redirect}} template. Perhaps that cat and template could be used for this purpose? I would definitely monitor that category to keep it clear. – Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX! 20:05, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Another issue I just thought of is that this would make it impossible for non-admins to revert any moves once they're no longer new. What would the purpose of this category be, anyway? Jackmcbarn (talk) 16:05, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Every redirect I've come across that the {{R from move}} has auto-tagged has needed at least one other rcat, so those moves can now only be reverted by admins. New redirects left behind by moves is one segment of all newly created redirects. This category will be useful to monitor all newly created redirects and to sort them when necessary. The new redirects will be removed from the miscellaneous category after at least one rcat is added to the This is a redirect template. The miscellaneous cat is presently very sparsely used by some editors who are not sure what rcats and cats to use. They tag the redirect with the bare This is a redirect template so a monitor will come by and finish the sorts. When we implement this new procedure, the category will continue with the small purpose of usefulness to unsure editors and also have the larger purpose of maintenance of newly formed redirects. – Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX! 20:57, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

I really don't see how that's useful. If you get consensus for it on a village pump, I'll set it up, though. Jackmcbarn (talk) 22:39, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Okay, thank you! For now, it's good to know that it's doable. I'll see what I can put together for the pump. Joys! – Paine Ellsworth ^CLIMAX! 05:45, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-11

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

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf17) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 6. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 11, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 13 (calendar).
• You can now use the new search tool (CirrusSearch) on all Wikiquote projects. You can now enable it in your Beta options. [1] [2]

VisualEditor news

• It is now easier to edit templates. Complex tools are now in the "advanced" mode. [3] [4]
• It is also easier to edit images. You now have more options and they are explained better. [5]
• VisualEditor adds fake blank lines so you can put your cursor there. They are now smaller and animated to be different from actual blank lines. [6]
• We have improved the tool to add special characters. The buttons are now larger. More changes are coming. [7]
• You can now use new keyboard shortcuts to undo the last action, clear formatting, and show the shortcut help window. [8] [9] [10]

Future software changes

• You will soon be able to use a Beta option to show a shorter list of language links. That way, Universal Language Selector will only show languages that are relevant to you. You will still be able to search for other languages. [11]
• CirrusSearch will soon automatically index newly imported pages. [12] [13]
• It will soon be possible to use CSS to style buttons in templates on all Wikimedia wikis, without needing JavaScript. [14]
• An IRC discussion with the Wikimedia Foundation Language Engineering team will take place on March 12 at 17:00 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on Freenode (time conversion). [15]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

09:10, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

changes regarding Template:Syrian_civil_war_detailed_map

I'm contacting you here since I'm interested in discussing programming type info that most other contributors to the project won't follow.
Several months back, in addition to problems with slow editing, we started having problems with transclusion of the map into the main page. We did a variety of changes to reduce the size of both the map and the main page, most only having a temporary benefit. Finally we were able to reduce the size by about 200 000 characters, largely by reducing info that we would have rather kept, so the map transcluded into the main page for maybe a month, before again failing. (Failing meaning that the reference index at the bottom no longer worked.)
We then decided to access the map as a separate page, which has eliminated the transclusion problem.
Having the map as a template without transclusion gives a considerable space margin for future expansion without having to continually closely watch the size of the map, or the page into which it is transcluded. So I suggest that there be a policy that this type of template be considered a special case, as it is easily distinguished from other templates which may be better transcluded into a regular page.
The advantage of having a map as a template is that it could be initially transcluded, but if and when it becomes large enought to cause space problems, it could be readily used as a separate page without changing the map itself. Indeed, it is possible that other much smaller pages (than the main syrian civil war page) could continue to transclude the map page. (There was at least one other page doing so 6 months ago.)
Nothing in my comments is meant to say that I am definitely against again transcluding the map. Rather I think that the decision in such a case should be left to the main editors of the page. In this case, essentially Tradedia (originator of the project) and Luthar, collaborator from the beginning, as well as a few others. I stand with them. Note that they have accepted a number of my (essentially technical) recommendations to improve the map.
Another reason to write you here :
Being a programmer, I had thought of rewriting the templates used by our map template, to reduce the footprint, and make various other improvements. But not being familiar with WP code, and lacking the time, I hadn't yet looked at it. I do appreciate the efforts you have done in that regard.
There are enhancements to the sub-templates I would like to see, which would be advantageous for display on the map. A few examples :

1. The current location template allows displaying the label associated with an icon only "left", "right" (default), "top" (centered) or "bottom" (centered) of the icon. However often other orientations would be better, to avoid conflict with other items on the (very crowded) map. Such as top-to-left-of-centre (maybe coded as "nw"), bottom-to-right-of-centre ("se"), etc.
   
2. Coding size (from a non-programmer view) could be shortened, both to reduce typos and hopefully reduce the footprint. In the location template, we have the parameter "position" for label position relative to the icon. "lpos" (for label position) might be better.
3. Icons (or at least certain types) seem to be displayed just above the geographic position, instead of being centered on the positions. This is noticed in positioning of labels around an icon. If the label is positioned above, it is much closer than if positioned below. It affects at least animated .gif and filled circle .svg icons. So it seems that something in the icon definitions or location template (or sub-templates) needs to be corrected. Or maybe it is the label display code, since it seems to vary with the size of the label.
4. Local variables, if and when available could be used to reduce typos, and hopefully reduce the size of the interpreted map, particularly if transcluded. References to targets in the main page are very frequent. A very useful local variable in the map would be $scw = "Cities_and_towns_during_the_Syrian_civil_war". It would be used hundreds of times, in the form $scw#aziz , $scw#manjib , etc.
   

Note that many links were broken in order to reduce the map size. Most have not yet been corrected. (It is a lot of work to do.)
When they are all corrected, the map will probably be much bigger, using the current programming.
Ideally, the map would eventually be transcluded again, but only after we have a considerable margin that ensures that we will not encounter transclusion problems again. This could never happen, since if we had never had space problems, the main page would be considerably larger than it is now. (It is essentially tables with a very high density of references.) So it is not only the size of the map itself.
Changing to/from transclusion is a disruption (for editors and ordinary users of the page and associated map), and we are already kept very busy keeping the map up to date.
These are are just some of my ideas on the subject. I would appreciate any feedback you can give. Including any tools I could use to test the memory footprint, for example. Thanks :) André437 (talk) 03:35, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

• So I suggest that there be a policy that this type of template be considered a special case, as it is easily distinguished from other templates which may be better transcluded into a regular page. If it's not getting transcluded, it's not really being a template. It might as well just have a lead and References section added and moved to mainspace.
• The current location template allows displaying the label associated with an icon only "left", "right" (default), "top" (centered) or "bottom" (centered) of the icon. However often other orientations would be better, to avoid conflict with other items on the (very crowded) map. Such as top-to-left-of-centre (maybe coded as "nw"), bottom-to-right-of-centre ("se"), etc. I was focusing on fixing the performance. I wasn't trying to add the functionality. You or someone else can do that if that's desired.
• Coding size (from a non-programmer view) could be shortened, both to reduce typos and hopefully reduce the footprint. In the location template, we have the parameter "position" for label position relative to the icon. "lpos" (for label position) might be better. That doesn't count against the footprint, so that would reduce readability without benefit.
• Icons (or at least certain types) seem to be displayed just above the geographic position, instead of being centered on the positions. This is noticed in positioning of labels around an icon. If the label is positioned above, it is much closer than if positioned below. It affects at least animated .gif and filled circle .svg icons. So it seems that something in the icon definitions or location template (or sub-templates) needs to be corrected. Or maybe it is the label display code, since it seems to vary with the size of the label. Everything is still displayed exactly the way it was before my rewrite, so I really don't know what to say about this.
• Local variables, if and when available could be used to reduce typos, and hopefully reduce the size of the interpreted map, particularly if transcluded. References to targets in the main page are very frequent. A very useful local variable in the map would be $scw = "Cities_and_towns_during_the_Syrian_civil_war". It would be used hundreds of times, in the form $scw#aziz , $scw#manjib , etc. We'd need a redirect for that to work. Unfortunately, the one we had was deleted ([[16]]).
• You can see details about the transclusion size in "Parser profiling data" below the edit window after hitting Show preview.
• Jackmcbarn (talk) 14:42, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I didn't notice your post until I noticed a problem with our page.

We have numerous animated icons, to indicate conflicts between various forces in the ongoing civil war. They no longer display animated, but as static images. Note that they still display correctly directly on my wp user page, so it is not my navigator. As you probably already know, removing the "invoke:" doesn't work. I would appreciate your help to fix the issue.

Also, relating to previous discussion :

1. There are much smaller pages that transclude our map, so if in the (now unlikely) event that we can no longer translude our map into the main page, other pages will still want to. Which is why I still would favour a policy which allows exceptionally invoking a (map) template directly. Keeping in mind that it almost always looks better to transclude if possible.
2. For adding any functionality to the module, I would appreciate any guidance/expertise that you might be willing to share. So far I don't have much experience with wikimedia formats, besides ordinary editing of pages, including some templates.
3. When I tried redirect shortcuts in the past I missed a nuance in the guidelines that might let us use that for our map. The guideline examples had ":" in the shortcut name. I still think that the editors went against the guidelines when they decided to remove our shortcut. But had it contained a ":", the decision well could have been different.

Related to that, I have another idea. Some languages have a "static" option to provide persistent variables across invocations. Is there a way of doing that with lua/scribunto, or maybe redefining the current page variable ? Say defining a default page in {{#invoke:location map|top}}, and automatically using it in subsequent invocations of {{#invoke:location map|mark}}, so all references "#something" refer to the main syrian civil war page, instead of whatever the current page happens to be ? Since there are a number of transclusions from other locations, and it would also make it much easier for map editors to verify their updates. As it is, when editing the map, links without the full page name are always broken in preview mode. This has contributed to the many links that are broken in the map.

Thanks again for any feedback. Particularly about the animated icon issue. André437 (talk) 08:08, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

It's impossible for any wiki markup to make animated images not display. It looks fine to me. Maybe your browser just can't handle that many animated images on one page. What browser are you using?

1. I'm not sure what "invoking a (map) template directly" means. Can you clarify?
2. There's lots of Lua tutorials on the Web (just Google for one). Then read mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual to learn about the MediaWiki-specific stuff.
3. I'm not sure about the shortcut.

It's impossible to share any information between #invoke's. That was a deliberate design decision. Jackmcbarn (talk) 18:20, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

The animated images display was just a transient problem with my browser (Mozilla Seamonkey), only on the large map template, and not on other tabs loaded at the same time. Restarting the browser or rebooting alone didn't work. Finally rebooting and restarting the browser empty, then loading only the template did display the animated icons normally. And after reloading all the other tabs I normally use, it is still ok. Could have been some cache problem, that coincidentally started after you did the changes.

1. I had tried removing the "#invoke:" from the beginning of an "{{#invoke:location map|mark | ... }}" item, and the associated icon and label disappeared from the map. I had thought that maybe it was optional, and might be related to the icons not being animated.
2. Right. I've already started following some lua tutorials. Seems pretty straight forward. Looks a lot simpler than e.g. perl.
3. From what you say, it looks like the shortcut with ":" inside is likely the only option. Such shortcuts do work, but we didn't convert to it after just having contesting editors decide to reverse a previous distinctive shortcut with something other than ":", because they thought ordinary users wouldn't find that shortcut "intuitive". They didn't care what WP guidelines said. It took a lot of time and effort to make the map functional again, and it was better to avoid the risk of an equivalent problem.

I'm still hopeful of finding a way to dynamically define a custom variable, which could then be used like "{{myvar}}#sometown" to solve the problem. To me it is a big plus to avoid polluting the main and other namespaces. As well as being immune to over-zealous editors that like to invent their own rules. I'll let you know if I find something along those lines that works.

In any case, thanks for your feedback and all your help André437 (talk) 11:41, 25 March 2014 (UTC)

If something starts with #invoke, it's using a module, not a template, in this case Module:Location map. So yes, as you discovered, blindly removing a #invoke will just break it. Also, a parameter to hold the page name won't help, because size is counted after the parameter is expanded. Jackmcbarn (talk) 21:22, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Me again :)

After reflecting on everything you said, and the needs of our page/template, I do appreciate that a variable/constant local to the page will not reduce the transclusion size needed. But it would have another very important advantage in our case : the template will become considerably more readable and maintainable by editors of the template, with a supplementary advantage that it would be immune to arbitrary deletion by other editors.

I found an extention:Variables that adds local variables, and made a proposal to have it included in Wikipedia. Its' more recent versions have already been included in at least 170 other sites using Mediawiki, according to Mediawiki stats. It does more than we need, essentially a simple preprocessor, since it will also resolve equations.

My proposal is at : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Propose_installing_extension:variables_to_allow_variables_local_to_a_specific_page

Your reaction would be very much appreciated.

Thanks :) André437 (talk) 00:54, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

@André437: For technical reasons, Extension:Variables can't be installed here (and neither can anything that does what it does). Also, not only would it not help transclude size to use it, it would actually make it worse, because everything in the variable would be counted twice as many times. Jackmcbarn (talk) 02:17, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

I would be interested in knowing what these "technical reasons" might be. It can't be a limitation of Mediawiki itself, since at least 170 Mediawiki installations use a recent version of extension:Variables.

Also, if such an extension is properly applied, the transcluded size of the page should be exactly the same, to the byte. Like applying a macro to any other code, there should be no vestige of the extension other than the transformations it has performed.

e.g. if we have {{#vardefine:cc|myvalue}} and numerous {{cc}} in the page, once applied, {{#vardefine:cc|myvalue}} would be removed and the {{cc}} would all be replaced by "myvalue".

Regards André437 (talk) 09:39, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

It's incompatible with mw:Extension:Parsoid. Parsoid depends on being able to parse pages in pieces, which having any sort of state breaks. Jackmcbarn (talk) 12:41, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

Interesting. That's why someone else mentioned a problem with extra parsing passes, and some other extension. Thanks for the info :)

BTW, nice to see you helping out on the map talk page. André437 (talk) 07:09, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Request for speedy deletion of module

Can an admin delete Module:Location map/data as G7? (CSD tags don't work on module pages). I know it appears to have 50000 transclusions, but these are not "real" and appear only because the job queue is behind. Jackmcbarn (talk) 16:32, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

Try the talk page and request it from there. ///EuroCarGT 16:40, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

 Done. JohnCD (talk) 17:51, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

Module:Location map

If neither Module:Location_map/data/... nor Template:Location_map_... exists, the following error is raised:

expandTemplate: template "Location map UK Scotland" does not exist
Backtrace:

[C]: in function "expandTemplate"
mw.lua:411: in function "expandTemplate"
Module:Location_map:29: in function "map"
Module:Location_map:110: in function "top"
Module:Location_map:150: in function "chunk"
mw.lua:558: ?
[C]: in function "expandTemplate"
mw.lua:411: in function "expandTemplate"
Module:Documentation:640: in function "_content"
Module:Documentation:141: ?
(tail call): ?
mw.lua:558: ?

(Note: this happens in thwiki, not enwiki)

In my opinion, we should make a tracking category for non-existing templates, but we should not let the script throw the error like this. --Nullzero (talk) 20:03, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

If neither the module nor the template exists, then it wasn't called properly (and it would have made an ugly mess in the old non-Lua version of the template). What do you want to happen in that case exactly? Jackmcbarn (talk) 20:06, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

My idea is that if it is possible, we should catch errors as many as possible and categorize pages containing those errors, so people can precisely fix them. For example, if Module:Citation/CS1 didn't catch errors, we would see a lot of pages in Category:Pages_with_script_errors, but people would not be able to figure it out easily what problem it is. With Category:CS1_errors:_dates, we can see that pages falling in this category are missing parameter "date." In the same way, if neither the module nor the template exists, it would be nice to have a tracking category for this case.

It is true that this case means the module wasn't called properly, and the goal for doing tracking category is to fix it. Also, since we switched to lua version already, why do we have to care about the old version? --Nullzero (talk) 20:55, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

We don't care about the old version. I was just saying I didn't make the problem any worse. Anyway, rather than making a new category to fix that, I think looking for redlinked transcluded templates would be a better fix. Does thwiki run database reports for those? Jackmcbarn (talk) 21:10, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Also, when you click on the words "Script error", it tells you the problem: Lua error: expandTemplate: template "Location map whatever" does not exist. Jackmcbarn (talk) 21:14, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Sorry that I didn't make it clear. I didn't say that you did something wrong. Rather, I just suggested for an improvement. Since lua can handle errors very easy, compared to using only template and parser functions, it would be nice to do all I mentioned above. Anyway, I don't have any difficulty from fixing those script errors in Thai Wikipedia because there are very few errors. So, if you think that this module is fine enough, it's fine. Thank you anyway :) --Nullzero (talk) 02:30, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

I've just updated the module to improve the error messages it generates. Is this a good solution? Jackmcbarn (talk) 22:18, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

Yep. It is better than only showing "script error" without any reason. Thank you very much :) --Nullzero (talk) 22:54, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

Technical move of Alaska templates -- two errors

Hello Jack. Can you tell why I would get these errors on doing the move:

The page Template:Location map USA Alaska/sandbox could not be moved to Module:Location map/data/USA Alaska/attribution/sandbox.

The page Template:Location map USA Alaska/testcases could not be moved to Module:Location map/data/USA Alaska/attribution/testcases.

Any suggestions of what to do next are welcome. Thanks, EdJohnston (talk) 01:48, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

I don't need the subpages moved. (In fact, I'm going to tag them for CSD G8 after the move). Just don't worry about them. Jackmcbarn (talk) 01:53, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Rationale for removing Lua from Template:Incomplete/doc

I would like to understand why {{Lua}} was removed from the documentation. The first line of {{Incomplete}} contains

#invoke:Unsubst

which does invoke Lua. However, that was a wrapper around the body of the template that was not converted to Lua. Is that why? How can one tell which invocation is spurious and which is not? Does the entire template have to invoke a complete Lua substitute? Just curious?

PS. I'm fairly new at discussions and didn't know whether to post this general question here or on the template's talk page. Dpleibovitz (talk) 23:36, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Basically, the template needs to be nothing but Lua for the {{lua}} tag to be eligible. Template:Infobox and Template:Edit protected are two good examples. If a template happens to use some Lua, but is mostly other stuff, it doesn't need the {{lua}} tag. Jackmcbarn (talk) 23:41, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your prompt reply Dpleibovitz (talk) 23:51, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-12

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

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf18) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 13. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 18, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 20 (calendar).
• You can now view smaller versions of PNG images bigger than 20 megapixels. [17]
• You can now use the new search tool (CirrusSearch) on all small wikis. You can now enable it in your Beta options. [18] [19]
• You can read a summary of the Wikimedia technical report for February 2014. [20]

VisualEditor news

• Searching for template parameters in now case-insensitive. [21] [22]
• Required template parameters now have an asterisk (*) next to their edit boxes. [23]
• Several template dialogs are now smaller, and their insert buttons have changed wording. [24]

Future software changes

• You will soon see an error message if you try to log-in or register with an invalid or taken username. [25]
• You can now test first version of a tool that includes OpenStreetMap maps inside the UploadWizard. Comments are welcome. [26]
• You will soon be able to use the Hovercards tool as a beta feature. [27]

Problems

• VisualEditor was slow to load on March 13 because of an API issue. [28]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

07:14, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

User talk:77.251.154.154

Thanks for the notification. GiantSnowman 18:40, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:List of countries by average wage

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:List of countries by average wage. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 19:04, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

List of PlayStation 3 games

see this request. 174.56.57.138 (talk) 21:47, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-13

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

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf19) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 20. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on March 25, and all Wikipedia wikis on March 27 (calendar).

VisualEditor news

• You can now double-click or press the ↲ Enter key on an image or template to change its settings. [29] [30]
• Pages that don't exist will now show as red links in the edit mode. [31]
• You will no longer be able to try to use VisualEditor on pages translated using the Translate extension, and you will see a warning if you try to edit pages marked for translation. [32]
• You will now see a full warning, including the most recent log entry, when you try to edit protected pages with VisualEditor. [33]

Future software changes

• Typography Refresh will be enabled for test wiki and MediaWiki.org users who use the Vector skin on March 27. For users on non-Wikipedia wikis, it will be enabled on April 1, and for Wikipedia users on April 3. If you don't use Vector as your skin, you will not be affected.
• You will be able to use the Hovercards tool as a beta feature on all wikis from March 26.
• You will soon be able to include the Whatlinkshere special page in other pages. [34] [35]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

18:56, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

sevastopol map

actually, i cannot tell you. it is all based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crimea_location_map.svg with some more details in the harbour regions taken from a couple of raster maps. sorry i cannot help you. --DLommes (talk) 01:35, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-14

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

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf20) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 27. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on April 1, and all Wikipedia wikis on April 3 (calendar).
• Typography Refresh was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on March 27. You'll only see it if you use the Vector skin. For users on non-Wikipedia wikis, it will be enabled on April 1, and for Wikipedia users on April 3.
• CirrusSearch, the new search tool, was enabled as a beta feature on over 30 new wikis on March 27. [36] [37]

VisualEditor news

• Blocked users now see the same messages in VisualEditor as in the wikitext editor. [38] [39]
• The search box for re-using a reference in VisualEditor is now cleared after each use. [40]
• New links on sub-pages no longer point to the wrong location in VisualEditor. [41]
• VisualEditor's media dialog no longer breaks when opening some types of images. [42]

Future software changes

• You will not be able to use the Wikitech wiki for a short period around 16:00 UTC on April 1 due to a server change. [43]
• CirrusSearch will become the main search engine for all non-Wikipedia wikis except Commons, Meta and Incubator on April 2.
• You will soon be able to use a new special page listing duplicate files. [44]
• Deleting a version of a file or a version of its description page will soon be shown differently in the logs. [45]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

09:20, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

@media screen

Note that @media screen is put in front of all core site CSS, not just this update. Therefor, it never needs to be included in local CSS. — Edokter (talk) — 20:05, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

It's not hurting anything though, right? Jackmcbarn (talk) 20:07, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Not really... but it's just terribly redundant. — Edokter (talk) — 20:37, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Actually...

they should be alphabetical :-) DP 00:24, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Moving category pages

I see that you're working on making it possible to move category pages. Thank you! I had almost given up hope. — Scott • talk 19:29, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Stop edit-warring over map templates

Over the past 8 years of working with the map templates, there have been many changes, and your continual edit-warring over the prior templates is just making progress very difficult. The current Lua fork, installed as Template:Location_map is broken for various browsers, and it is sad that you cannot comprehend that fact. However, deleting the better map templates is not the answer, except in your twisted view. Step 1: Restore Template:Location_map_any to the original location, not a fly-by-night sandbox version which invites experimentation about the features. Your actions are just completely over-the-top unbearable crap and you really need to learn to be more cooperative. -Wikid77 (talk) 16:24, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

@Wikid77:

1. How am I edit-warring, exactly?
2. Template:Location map is the original template. Yours are the forks.
3. What exactly about Template:Location map is broken? The only example of it you showed me actually revealed that it works properly and your fork is broken.
4. Per Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2014 March 14#Template:Location map all, Template:Location map all was moved to Template:Location map many/sandbox2. You can't just move it back to Template:Location map any against consensus.

Jackmcbarn (talk) 16:27, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-15

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

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf21) was scheduled to be deployed to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on April 3, however it was temporarily put on hold due to localization issues. (calendar).
• Typography Refresh was enabled on non-Wikipedia wikis on April 1, and on all Wikipedias on April 3. You'll only see it if you use the Vector skin.
• CirrusSearch was enabled as the primary search method on over 400 non-Wikipedia wikis on April 2. [46]

Future software changes

• A new special page (Special:TrackingCategories) will soon list all the tracking categories on a wiki. [47] [48]
• All Wikiquote projects will start using language links from Wikidata on April 8. [49]
• The Hovercards feature will soon work with right-to-left languages. [50] [51]
• You will soon be able to download files directly from MediaViewer, the new multimedia tool. [52]
• MediaViewer will be enabled for all users on MediaWiki.org on April 10. Comments are welcome.
• You can help check that users can read CAPTCHAs in your language. [53]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

08:00, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks!!

..for identifying/fixing the mistake on Ramla, and I´ll try to post my question the right place next time. See; that´s how clueless I am: didn´t even know where to post it..... just knew that Ramla has never, ever been in Jordan!

Cheers, and thanks again, Huldra (talk) 22:44, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Location map many

pos top label

position left label

having blank parameters should not throw an error ... Frietjes (talk) 15:49, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Looking... Jackmcbarn (talk) 15:51, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

@Frietjes: Fixed. Jackmcbarn (talk) 15:55, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

also, it should be fine to have a gap in the numbering, see Surrey Hills AONB. Frietjes (talk) 15:59, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

@Frietjes: Also fixed. Jackmcbarn (talk) 16:07, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

(And now I broke the first thing again. Looking again... Jackmcbarn (talk) 16:08, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

and positionX no longer works. is the old template in a sandbox so I can check to make sure everything still works, and that nothing else has been silently broken? Frietjes (talk) 16:11, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

I restored the template back to the way it was until I get this fixed properly. Jackmcbarn (talk) 16:12, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

@Frietjes: The reason the thing you posted on my talk page re-broke is that "lon2" is (and has always been) incorrect and should be "long2". I should have the other issue fixed soon. Jackmcbarn (talk) 16:16, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

@Frietjes: Everything is fixed now (for real, I promise). Jackmcbarn (talk) 16:22, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

that's what I get for trying to create and example, rather than just linking to one. the actual examples are here, here, here, and here. Frietjes (talk) 16:22, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

thanks. I will see about making a more complete set of testcases if I have some time later today. Frietjes (talk) 16:24, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Reference needed to add a religion in Vellalar 'community' page

Dear Sir,

Do you need any reference material or source for my claim to add christianity religion in the above said page?

Regards Camilo — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chronicleof COGRLAHEPETA (talk • contribs) 16:49, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Yes. Please give a link to it on Talk:Vellalar (not here). Jackmcbarn (talk) 18:47, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Your sentence to Bryan Davis to Stocks

Would you please provide a link there? SYSS Mouse (talk) 01:19, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

@SYSS Mouse: Done Jackmcbarn (talk) 01:38, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Stop targeting genuine artists! learn to accept defeat!

Please get a life! you have a terrible ego problem! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.167.204.75 (talk) 05:47, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for maintaining the integrity of Wikipedia's articles, as you did with the Indian pop star Adithya Srinivasan. It might take a while to teach all of India Wikipedia's guidelines, so thanks for contributing to the effort. Blue Rasberry (talk) 14:11, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Tech News: 2014-16

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

We are looking for contributors to help write new issues every week. If you would like to help, please contact us.

Recent software changes

• The latest version of MediaWiki (1.23wmf22) was added to test wikis and MediaWiki.org on April 10. It will be added to non-Wikipedia wikis on April 15, and all Wikipedias on April 17 (calendar).
• MediaViewer was enabled for all users on MediaWiki.org on April 10. It will be enabled for all users on the Catalan (ca), Hungarian (hu) and Korean (ko) Wikipedias and English Wikivoyage on April 17. Comments are welcome. [54] [55] [56]
• Font issues caused by Typography refresh for Windows users were fixed on April 7. [57] [58]

VisualEditor news

• You will now see only three options when you try to add a template parameter in VisualEditor; you will see other options after a click. [59]
• The size changing controls in VisualEditor media editing dialog were simplified further.
• The wikitext editor tab will now fold into a drop-down menu in the Vector skin if there is not enough space on your screen. [60] [61]

Future software changes

• The font used for body text on Wikimedia wikis will change to your system default sans-serif font. This temporary change will be enabled on all non-Wikipedia wikis on April 15, and on all Wikipedias on April 17. [62] [63]
• Files from Commons seen on another wiki will soon have a tab saying "View on Wikimedia Commons". The create tab will change to "Add local description" (see screenshot). [64]
• You will soon be able to hide Notification and Hovercards pop-ups by pressing the Esc key. [65] [66] [67] [68]
• Shorter lists of language links will soon work in right-to-left languages. Languages that you have used before will be shown in the list. [69]
• You will soon be able to send messages with the MassMessage tool to all pages in a given category. [70] [71]
• The date format user preference will soon be moved to the appearance tab. [72] [73]
• An IRC discussion with the Wikimedia Foundation Multimedia team will take place on April 16 at 18:00 UTC on the channel #wikimedia-office on Freenode (time conversion). [74]

Problems

• Wikimedia Foundation servers were updated after a security bug called Heartbleed was discovered last week. You should change your password as an extra precaution. [75]

Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by MediaWiki message delivery • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

07:18, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Location maps

I've seen and declined your G6 requests at {{Location map Algeria}} and {{Location map Africa}} — simply because I'm not sure what effect this would have. If we leave them as they are, redirects to the module talk subpage, or if we redirect them to pages of the current modules that accomplish the same purpose, will there be problems? In other words, will we actively be better off if we delete them? I'm just concerned that deletion would break old page histories, especially since these have been very heavily used in the past. By the way, I'd really appreciate a talkback, since I'll forget to reply otherwise. Nyttend (talk) 03:47, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

These were meta-templates used by Template:Location map, so no old revisions will break by deleting these (see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Algiers&oldid=496907862 for example; it still works). Jackmcbarn (talk) 03:53, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

[edit conflict with your diff link] Let me explain what I think is the case: please tell me if I'm right or wrong. Deleting these pages would mangle old revisions of {{Location map}}. However, because the template is currently still working, and because there's no way to get a page to display the transclusion of a former version of a template, there's no way that these deletions would be able to be made visible on other pages, and there's no need to worry about mangling old revisions of the template itself. Right or wrong? If I'm right, then I'll happily delete them. Nyttend (talk) 03:58, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Right. Jackmcbarn (talk) 04:00, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Deleted; thanks for the explanation. I'm just always nervous about damaging old revisions, and nested templates always confuse me — I appreciate meta templates because of how powerful they are, but I'm still partly in sympathy with WP:AUM. Meanwhile, I'm not sure what you want to do with Module talk:Location map/data/Africa/doc, since it's a redirect to one of the pages I just deleted at your request. Nyttend (talk) 04:07, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Redirects fixed. Thanks for the notice. Jackmcbarn (talk) 12:20, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
	Thank you for fixing the map at Don Bolles! It was unexpected and out of the blue and I greatly appreciate what you've done. You're awesome! Crtew (talk) 12:31, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Malikus Saleh Airport

Thank you for notice me Malikus Saleh Airport is already created — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bappeda lhokseumawe (talk • contribs) 18:28, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Template:Location map Alps

• See Wikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests#Contested technical requests. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 21:22, 16 April 2014 (UTC)

Alliance Warfare

Hello I had written article about Alliance Warfare (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_Warfare) but it has deleted because it was about "web content and it's without any reason of being important" as you said. Actually It was about web game I saw this page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikariam) and other pages about such games so why those are still on Wikipedia but my page has deleted. You could improve rather than deletion. Thanks a lot. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Miladrahimi93 (talk • contribs) 15:15, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Things on Wikipedia need to be notable. See WP:42. Jackmcbarn (talk) 18:35, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Old font

Hello, Jackmbarn:

I added something to User:Seattle/vector.css ([76]) to change the font back to the old style. I went to Wikipedia today and it's changed back. Do you know how to write something to change it back? Thank you. Seattle (talk) 12:16, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

I'm not really sure what you're asking. Try asking on WP:VPT. Jackmcbarn (talk) 13:33, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

User:Gateiibangalore/sandbox

Why was this page tagged for speedy deletion, as this was a sandbox........? WooHoo! • Talk to me! 17:52, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

Just because it's a sandbox doesn't mean there's no rules. Spam isn't allowed anywhere. Jackmcbarn (talk) 17:55, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

not sufficient?

how could WP:NOTNEWS not be sufficient? 115.187.78.204 (talk) 23:58, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

The thing you want removed isn't "news." Jackmcbarn (talk) 23:59, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

Can you atleast change from "In 2014 Russia was excluded from the G8 group as a result of international consensus on the illegality of Putin's invasion and annexation of Crimea" to "In 2014 Russia was excluded from the G8 group over the annexation of Crimea" as a compromise because of WP:NPOV 115.187.78.204 (talk) 00:06, 19 April 2014 (UTC)