WikiIndex:2013-2014 bugs and upgrades: Difference between revisions

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{{for|earlier upgrading discussions from 2006|WikiIndex:Upgrade Discussion}}
{{For|earlier upgrading discussions from 2006|WikiIndex:2006 upgrade discussion}}
{{for|discussions from 2011|WikiIndex:Spring 2011 Upgrade Path}}
{{For|discussions from 2011|WikiIndex:Spring 2011 Upgrade Path}}
'''WikiIndex:Upgrades needed''' — this page is to be used for raising suggestions and discussing strategies for upgrading our [[:Category:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]] software used by [[WikiIndex]].  It can typically include any of the published, and stable, [[mw:Manual:Extensions|MediaWiki Extensions]]; or any other applicable and workable strategies.  Please add any suggestions or offerings in any of the subheadings below (or create a new subheading), and discuss.
'''WikiIndex:2013-2014 bugs and upgrades''' — this page is to be used for raising suggestions and discussing strategies for upgrading our [[:Category:MediaWiki|MediaWiki]] software used by {{tag|WikiIndex}}.  It can typically include any of the published, and stable, {{Mw|Manual:Extensions|MediaWiki Extensions}}; or any other applicable and workable strategies.  Please add any suggestions or offerings in any of the subheadings below (or create a new subheading), and discuss.


==MediaWiki version==
==requesting account==
; Need - upgrade to[[mw:Download|1.20.4]]
There is a huge bug with trying to get an account here at [[WikiIndex]] currently. [[:File:AccountCreationPath.png]] and [[:File:AccountCreationPath2.png]] are screen shots of the account creation path, but there seems to be no completion screen or email. I worked through it after being alerted by [[User:Manorainjan|Manorainjan]]. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
; Want -


Are we on the best version, would that be part of an update of extensions?  Best, [[MarkDilley]]
:: Maybe it is difficult to really solve the problem completely. If possible one should disconnect this case from the email problem and treat them separately. That no mails being sent, is a known fact. So, no wonder that the procedure hangs somewhere. At least it makes it impossible for new users to see where the problem is. So, first thing would be to explain the existence of the bug to the new user. Then he/she/it can turn to an admin and ask for fixing his case at least.--[[User:Manorainjan|Manorainjan]] ([[User talk:Manorainjan|talk]]) 20:33, 30 July 2014 (UTC)


Right now (14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)) WikiIndex is running MW 1.19.1; the newest stable version is 1.20.2 and 1.19.3 is the newest version of the 1.19.x branch. So yes, an upgrade could be nice. :) --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
::: I am not really sure how to pull this apart. Email is sent to many of us here at WikiIndex. There are a handful of you that are not getting email, so it is spotty, which is worse. ~~ ~~


: Update: [[mw:Release notes/1.20|1.20.4]] is the very latest version, and [[mw:Release notes/1.19|1.19.5]] is the latest of the '1.19' branch. 1.19.5 seems to include a few security updates over our current version. If you arn't inclined to go down the latest 1.20 version, then at least upgrade to 1.19.-- :)  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 12:28, 21 April 2013 (PDT)
:::: I suggest You check with the last 32 active users, ask them to register their email address if not yet done and create a list of account names, mail address and got/not got the mails. Possibly it will show some hint like which mail servers get and which not. I did not know, that the email function is working for some people/accounts. Maybe the status of wikiindex sending server in the world of email is bad. Maybe some providers care and others not. Maybe the way the server sends is to be corrected. I'm positive that some kind of grid investigation will get us further. --[[User:Manorainjan|Manorainjan]] ([[User talk:Manorainjan|talk]]) 17:35, 3 August 2014 (UTC)


::Sean is correct &mdash; 1.20.4 is the latest stable release of MediaWiki (as of now; the [[mw:Download|Download page at MediaWiki.org]] has always the most up-to-date information about the latest stable release), and since WikiIndex's versions of PHP and MySQL are compatible with 1.20 branch, there's no need to be running the 1.19 branch and we should be able to safely upgrade to 1.20. Running the latest stable release is a good idea, not just in terms of features, but also in terms of security (although there haven't been any huge security flaws in MediaWiki recently, but still). --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
::::: Can you suggest grid headers? ~~ [[MarkDilley]]


== Images ==
:::::: I thought I did. I understand grid headers as names of columns for tables of data collected or to be collected:
# Favicon - [[File:WI Favicon.png]] — ''Pro'' - it is awesome ~~ [[MarkDilley]]  ''Con'' - Can it be keys?  ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
:::::: UserName, TheirEmail, (TheirEmail)ServerName, GotMail, GotNot, GotInSPAM, noResponse(of User), (got=received). That would be for a first test, no use to be more specific until the results are in. First phase is anyway to contact many hopefully active users and make clear that they should look on their talk page regularly within the period of testing and then see that everybody has got email configured here. I assume as mod You can read out their email address and contact them directly to activate. That alone could have a nice collateral effect ;- [[User:Manorainjan|Manorainjan]] ([[User talk:Manorainjan|talk]]) 21:22, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
## Keys would be lost in an image which is 6mm (quarter inch) square.  And who outside of regular WikiIndex editors/readers would understand what the keys meant?  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 01:55, 22 April 2013 (PDT) -- ''It was a keys favicon for the first few years.  Maybe I am being sentimental. ~~ [[MarkDilley]] ''
 
###I'd also ''like'' the keys, but it's unfortunately not very reasonable, given the insanely small size of favicons. Wikipedia's favicon, for example, is the very recognizable "W" letter, so I think the "WI" image would be good for WikiIndex. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
:::::: [[WikiIndex:E-mail bug]]
# http://wikiapiary.com/w/images/wikiapiary/b/b4/Monitored_by_WikiApiary.png — [http://WikiApiary.com/wiki/WikiApiary:Monitored_by WikiApiary:Monitored by]
## Why???
# We need a mini-banner like that WikiApiary which states something like "Indexed on WikiIndex" - to be used as a kind of voluntary banner exchange on other sites which we've indexed.  (good idea ~~ [[MarkDilley]])
## I think [[WikiApiary]] is a very similar project as [[WikiIndex]] and has a couple people working on it that are in the wiki community.  Was just a suggestion - we linked to [[Wiki101]] in sidebar for same reason. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]


== LinkSpam / WikiSpam / Vandalism ==
You have to compile that list in private because of the email addresses which most likely will not be public.[[User:Manorainjan|Manorainjan]] ([[User talk:Manorainjan|talk]]) 15:50, 4 August 2014 (UTC)
; Need -
: I don't think I have access to people's email - so all the stuff I would be doing would be public anyway. :-) ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
# [[mw:Extension:AbuseFilter]] — ''Pro:'' as discussed [[User talk:Elassint#Spammers - and new account names|here]] and [[Jack]] suggested using this. - ''Con:'' needs [[mw:Extension:AntiSpoof]] (which we don't currently have)
:: You do now <wink>.  Can't understand that oversight thou! [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]] / [[WikiIndex:Bureaucrats|'Crat]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 20:45, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
##AntiSpoof is a very useful extension to install, too, so it's hardly a ''con'', more like a ''pro''. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
:::::<small>oversight = hide information (such as logs and page revisions) that's *super* sensitive so that only oversighters could see them. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 06:57, 8 August 2014 (UTC)</small>
## # [[mw:Extension:AntiSpoof]] — ''Pro:'' we need this if we also want [[mw:Extension:AbuseFilter]]
::: Don't know what check user is and I am not altogether sure I want to be able and see into people's accounts.  ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
# [[mw:Extension:SimpleAntiSpam]] — ''Pro:'' [[Jack]] suggested using this
# [[mw:Extension:CheckUser]] — ''Pro:'' used for checking IP addresses - ''Con:'' Any?
## It's beyond me how come, as of 2013 (sic), CheckUser ''still'' isn't a part of MediaWiki core; and why on Earth isn't this extension installed on WikiIndex already?! --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
##I think it is really important, since some admins spend almost a whole day blocking new accounts. --[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]) 02:45, 13 April 2013 (PDT)
# [[mw:Extension:NoBogusUserpages]] — ''Pro:'' - would obviate the need to police User: (IP address) pages since they cannot be created by anyone except the legitimate user of the IP - ''Con'' - would not stop spammer from posting spam on the User IP page if that is their actual IP.
##Spambots aren't (thankfully) very intelligent; usually they create a (bogus) User: page and a main namespace with the same title, i.e. <code>User:FooBar123</code> and <code>FooBar123</code>. In my experience, this type of spam is commonly done by IP addresses as opposed to registered users. As such, installing the NoBogusUserpages extension would cut down this type of spam by 50%, which isn't a bad rate at all. The code is simple enough that it should work even with the latest version of MediaWiki. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)


; Want -
Fresh start of the email-specific here: [[Category talk:Active administrators of this wiki#Getting the email function to work for all]].
# [[mw:Extension:Nuke]] — ''Pro:'' allows sysops to delete numerous pages as one - ''Con:'' Not necessary, since those spams are from different usernames and IPs. --[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]) 21:29, 13 April 2013 (PDT) - so I will strike this if this is correct.
##Comment: can't agree [[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] - we have had many instances in the past where certain prolific religious spammers create masses of pages from one user account (though I accept we ''seem'' to have this under control at the moment).  Just because we have a particular extension installed, it doesn't mean we have to actually use it!  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 01:49, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
###Definitely install Nuke, just like with the CheckUser extension, there shouldn't be any discussion or debate about this. It's a very useful extension for deleting spam, vandalism and just misguided humans' creations. Sure, it's not useful for each and every spam case, but it definitely helps us humans to focus on the content creation instead of just cleaning up after spambots. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)


==Account creation protection==
==Maps==
; Need -
Let's see about Maps... [[User:Emufarmers|Emufarmers]] ([[User talk:Emufarmers|talk]]) 05:42, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
# [[mw:Extension:TitleBlacklist]] — ''Pro:'' can be used to stop spambots from creating accounts – ''Con:'' looks complicated
# [[mw:Extension:Renameuser]] — ''Pro:'' allows people who registered under an alias to have account changed to [[RealName]] and maintain edit histories – ''Con:'' none
# [[mw:Extension:User Merge and Delete]] — ''Pro:'' Rename changes the name of one account, whereas this can merge or combine two accounts into one, and deletes the account not needed.  – ''Con:'' Very dangerous, can permanently delete user accounts'' (but this can be set for 'crat permission only)


; Want -
=older thoughts needed to be integrated above=
# [[mw:Extension:ConfirmAccount]] — ''Pro:'' can be used to stop spambots from creating accounts, think of this ethos of having a door bouncer on guard at a nightclub – ''Con:'' needs active Sysops/Bureaucrats to monitor new account requests (but surely it is better to prevent trouble, rather than letting everyone in, and then stopping the mess and clearing up spam and vandalism) [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 01:48, 15 March 2013 (PDT)
==Semantic extensions version==
## '''Question:''' can this be toggled on and off? [[MarkDilley]]
; Especially for Semantic Forms and Semantic MediaWiki
### Don't think so. The default config is for only Bureaucrats to control this, but permissions can also be granted to Sysops - so as long as we have a regular patrol of sysops - this should work well.  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:01, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
Possible fixed bug: [[Form:Wiki/sandbox]] textarea only preload when previewing. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 10:08, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
#### So if not something sysops or bureaucrats can change, I want us to take the next smallest steps to trying to solve the problem and it feels like confirm edit is a big hammer, so I would like to try this after all these other extensions are tried. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
#####ConfirmAccount is useful for (semi-)private wikis, but I think it'd be overkill for WikiIndex and it's most likely repel plenty of new and eager human editors. Sure, it'd be effective in stopping spambots, but at what cost? --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)


==General housekeeping==
==LinkSpam / WikiSpam / Vandalism==
; Need -
; Need -
# Change default email for WikiIndex messages.  Right now it is it coming from John Stanton's personal email and he is not active here anymore.
# {{Mw|Extension:NoBogusUserpages}} — ''Pro:'' - would obviate the need to police User: ([[IP address]]) pages since they cannot be created by anyone except the legitimate user of the IP - ''Con'' - would not stop spammer from posting spam on the User IP page if that is their actual IP.
##The associated global variable is [[mw:Manual:$wgPasswordSender|$wgPasswordSender]]. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
## Spambots aren't (thankfully) very intelligent; usually they create a (bogus) User: page and a main namespace with the same title, i.e. <code>User:FooBar123</code> and <code>FooBar123</code>. In my experience, this type of spam is commonly done by IP addresses as opposed to registered users. As such, installing the NoBogusUserpages extension would cut down this type of spam by 50%, which isn't a bad rate at all. The code is simple enough that it should work even with the latest version of MediaWiki. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
# [[mw:Extension:Admin Links]] — ''Pro:'' anything to help sysops has gotta be a bonus - ''Con:'' grumpy sysops if you don't :p
## + from me --[[User:Kghbln|&#91;&#91;kgh&#93;&#93;]] ([[User talk:Kghbln|talk]]) 14:22, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
#Change the default timestamp to UTC — ''Pro:'' the default for all MediaWiki edit operations is recorded in UTC, and WikiIndex ought to be a 'global' resource by aligning to UTC (and I don't understand why my timestamps have to display PDT????) [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 04:59, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
## {{Strong oppose}} I do not think think it's a good idea. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 04:15, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
### Why [[YiFei]]? ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
#### We have some user pages in the main namespace, which this extension won't help.
#### Also, I haven't seen ''they create a (bogus) User: page and a main namespace with the same title, i.e. <code>User:FooBar123</code> and <code>FooBar123</code>''.
##### I have seen it on wiki, but not so much here. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
#### ''would not stop spammer from posting spam on the User IP page if that is their actual IP.''
#### We hardly have any bogus user pages. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 02:54, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
## Thanks ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
# Add restrictions for being an autoconfirmed user, such as $wgAutoConfirmAge = 3600; $wgAutoConfirmCount = 5; —  ''Con:''


; Want -
==Account creation protection==
# [[mw:Extension:WikiEditor]] — ''Pro'' - More user friendly editing interface, simpler to understand and has many features to assist inexperienced editors [[User:Arcane|Arcane]] ([[User talk:Arcane|talk]]) 15:17, 21 January 2013 (PST)Arcane
## I'm not sure if this is really needed.  And more importantly, is this compatible with Semantic MediaWiki?  Are there any SMW sites which use this?  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
# [[mw:Extension:Maps]] — ''Pro:'' this would be really good for our City-Wiki entries, uses maps from more than one source (Google, Yahoo, OpenStreetMaps, etc) - ''Con:'' Any?
# [[mw:Extension:SpecialUserScore]] — ''Pro:'' it just lists edit counts of people (something interesting for stats geeks) and it helps people to see who is building WikiIndex - ''Con:'' probably doesn't add any real value to WikiIndex
##IIRC this extension is rather server-heavy... --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
# [[mw:Extension:LastUserLogin]] — ''Pro:'' would let us know a person's activity and it helps people to see who is building WikiIndex.  - ''Con:'' Why?????  Either use [[Special:RecentChanges]], or if you want to watch a specific user, add them to your watchlist :/  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)  ''Con:'' timestamps in wiki are pretty useless from my view, something to try to change, best if we could find documentation so dev could check into it easily. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
# <s>[[mw:Extension:Labeled Section Transclusion]]</s> — ''Pro:'' would help select a part to transclusion and we need it for the relationship among [[Template:Wiki]],[[Template:Wiki boilerplate]], [[Template:NewWiki boilerplate]], and [[Community Portal]].--[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]) 05:00, 13 April 2013 (PDT)  - ''Con:'' I'm not convinced.  This seems to work well on Wikipedia, which relies heavily on linking between articles.  Here on WikiIndex, we rarely link between articles, and [[Template:NewWiki boilerplate]] is obsolete (whichever 'boilerplate' is used, be they the [[Template:Wikia boilerplate|Wikia version]] or any of the language-specific versions, they all call on just one template - [[Template:Wiki]] to render the infobox).  So not needed.  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
# [[mw:Extension:NewUserMessage]] — ''Pro:'' would automatcally place a welcome message.  - ''Con:''  The effort of personally welcoming someone is what builds community I think.  I am afraid that a robot generated welcome message would deter from a welcoming environment.  It certainly would place information on a person's talk page, not sure how valuable that is though.  Best, [[MarkDilley]]
##No way.  If we as a community can't manage a personal welcome for the few genuine new users we get, then we should bury our collective heads in shame :-(((((  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
# <s>[[mw:Extension:CategoryTree]]</s> — ''Pro:''  this would be really helpful in seeing how our categories are constructed  - ''Con:''  IIRC CategoryTree is broken on the most recent version(s) of MediaWiki, as per [[mw:Extension talk:CategoryTree]]. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)  - Check to see if still broken
##Sadly still seems to be broken.  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT) - Strike because still broken. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
# <s>[[mw:Extension:Translate]]</s> — ''Pro:'' would help make this wiki open for all languages.  - ''Con:'' Any?
## Seems to be quite [[mw:Extension talk:Translate|buggy]].  The three sites which currently use it have far more active software developers that we do here at WikiIndex.  Whilst I agree with the ethos, I fear this may be more of a hassle and can of worms :(  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT) -- Strike because buggy. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
# <s>[[mw:Extension:IconLink]]</s> — ''Pro:'' as raised [[Talk:Welcome#Favicons|here]] - ''Con:''  The code could do with a bit of updating (and preferrably a security review, too). --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)  - Striking out because we don't have capacity to update code or do a security review. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
# <s>[[mw:Extension:FaviconLink]]</s> — ''Pro:''  - ''Con:'' The code is a mess and in the past, there was a XSS vulnerability in it. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST) Striking out because we don't have capacity to update code or do a security review. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
 
== Bugs ==
; Need -
; Need -
#[[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean]] can not get his email confirmed, this has happened to a few people.
# {{Mw|Extension:User Merge and Delete}} — ''Pro:'' Rename changes the name of one account, whereas this can merge or combine two accounts into one, and deletes the account not needed.  – ''Con:'' Very dangerous, can permanently delete user accounts'' (but this can be set for 'crat permission only)
#Why are Sysops blocked by our anti-spam tools, but new accounts able to over-ride them at will? [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:42, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
## ''Pro:'' I've used it on my own localhost wiki to get rid of surplus test accounts when testing out extensions, and while the danger of screwing up an actual account is real, it could be used to trim the database of obvious spam accounts. ''Con'': Cannot be done as a batch, must do one merge and delete job at a time. [[User:Arcane|Arcane]] ([[User talk:Arcane|talk]]) 05:34, 30 April 2013 (PDT)Arcane  - so basically you are saying we could clean up the spam accounts by deleting the one at a time? ~~ [[MarkDilley]] - Yes, unfortunately. It may be possible to code a bot or script with a selected list of spam accounts to trim and execute this script multiple times, never tried it myself, but in-wiki, it only works one at a time. [[User:Arcane|Arcane]] ([[User talk:Arcane|talk]]) 14:10, 30 April 2013 (PDT)Arcane  - ''sounds brilliant, with the bot thing :-) I could see one person having control over a bot and a list. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]''
##I'm not sure about the first question, but I noticed that most spammers come from China (See [[User:Zhuyifei1999/Spam IP List]]). We use dynamic IPs in China, so it's hard to block them unless you use range blocks. --[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]) 04:05, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
## I'm personally still skeptical about this one. '''[[User talk:Elassint|Elassint]]'''  3 May 2013
; Want -sure about
### Please say more [[Elassint]] - is it not a worry to have spam accounts sitting in the database?  Best, [[MarkDilley]]
#### It's bad when we look at [[Special:ListUsers]] -- full of spam accounts. But [[:Category:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]] doesn't use it though {{Wp|Special:ListUsers}} is also full of spam accounts. In addition, [[LifeWiki]] and [[WikiApiary]] use it. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 11:34, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
##### I would love to clean up this, but I wonder if there is another way to do it than one at a time...  not sure, ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
#####: Might need a bot. But pywikipedia don't seem to have a library for {{Mw|Extension:User Merge and Delete}}, so if we have to do that,
#####:# Manually delete, or
#####:# Make a bot library
#####: Either of them would be very hard to do. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 07:29, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
#Sorry for being away recently. Can we mass-oversight those user creations and blocks? It's flooding RC. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 07:48, 21 August 2013 (UTC)


1) Sometimes people get their sidebar reset to MediaWiki standard. I have had it happen myself just recently as well. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
; CAPTCHA -
: This is most apparent between when you are logged in or logged out. I don't think it is specific to any browser - I use either IE8, Firefox, Chrome or Maxthon 3 - and they all do it. [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 03:49, 20 March 2013 (PDT)
# This is "epic-failing" we need a better CAPTCHA system...preferably the one from [https://www.google.com/recaptcha Google]...--[[User:Comets|Comets]] ([[User talk:Comets|talk]]) 02:12, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
#: [http://google.com?q={{urlencode:recaptcha cracked}} I hope that's not a serious suggestion.] --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 15:11, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
#:: Maybe so Roosa but its a suggestion, the current captcha is failing badly....unless you know something better? I have been away from this for a while now..--[[User:Comets|Comets]] ([[User talk:Comets|talk]]) 15:41, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
# [https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/mediawiki Google:Recaptcha for MediaWiki] - [https://www.google.com/recaptcha/admin/create Create the key] ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
#: cracked: ''[http://google.com?q={{urlencode:recaptcha cracked}} I hope that's not a serious suggestion.] --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 15:11, 21 August 2013 (UTC)'' --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 05:07, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
#: I read through that and it is from 2009 - looks like it is kept up and when it gets cracked, it gets fixed. Is that not what you see? ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
#::I guess that's Jack's opinion. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 04:55, 27 August 2013 (UTC)
#:::Indeed so. I'm inclined to believe that a properly configured {{Mw|Extension:QuestyCaptcha}} with multiple questions that are simple enough (i.e. "What is the first name of Mr. Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia?" or the classic, "What is this site's name?") is far more effective than reCAPTCHA. Just because it says "by Google" on the box doesn't mean that it's automatically good, you know.<br>True enough, QuestyCaptcha has some flaws too (such as the lack of an admin panel of any kind, but I'm hoping we could eventually work around that), but the core concept is far more fascinating and harder for spambot operators to crack, I believe. Cracking a (re)CAPTCHA doesn't require any real thinking whatsoever, whereas topic-specific questions might be really obvious for humans trying to register but not so much for spambots and their automated spamming software.<br>Naturally it should be remembered that no matter what, some will always slip past the automated mechanisms, and that's why we have administrators &mdash; to clean up after these spambots and block the associated accounts, IP addresses, etc. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 07:26, 27 August 2013 (UTC)
#:::: Some irc chat log with Emufarmers:
#:::: (07:36:43) <Emufarmers> it's hard to make questions that are meaningful but not potentially confusing or exclusory
#:::: (07:37:53) <Emufarmers> just having a trivial one like this keeps out most bots simply because they don't know how to deal with it, even if they could easily send it to a human
#:::: (07:38:47) <Emufarmers> (it would also be easy enough for them to just do that and compile a database of answers, but, fortunately, most don't seem to be there yet)
#:::: (07:40:42) <Emufarmers> depends whether saying "if you can't google, you can't register" is desirable or not
#:::: --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 08:06, 27 August 2013 (UTC)


:It's a (mem)cache failure usually, I believe. Maybe someone should look into WikiIndex's caching setup and see if there's a way to make it more robust. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
reCAPTCHA , as I remember it, was developed by {{Wp|ReCAPTCHA|others}} - so my want of it has nothing to do with Google.  I am simply trying to figure out what would be the best for this community to have.  Looks like Benjamin is saying similar things above (thanks YiFei for pasting that) - I would be willing to try a simple question - it seems to take someone on the backend to create / maintain it. 'What is this index of?' answer wiki, Wiki, wikis, Wikis to complete. Best, [[MarkDilley]] (in fact Jack, I pretty much [[Archive.org:20100713161518/http://blog.aboutus.org/2008/03/04/google-to-earth-site-is-the-word-du-jour/|despise Google]] :-)


2) Atom feed (on Android devices) - seems to lag a few 'edits' behind current desktop version.  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 03:49, 20 March 2013 (PDT)
#<s>{{Mw|Extension:ConfirmEdit}} as MathCaptcha (needs {{Mw|Extension:Math}} installed, which is easy with shell access on Linux (@Emufarmers: ask me if you have problems with {{Mw|Extension:Math}})) --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 16:06, 21 August 2013 (UTC)</s>


3) what to do with [[My spam blacklist]] not working... it seems this ''is'' working again :/  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 03:43, 20 March 2013 (PDT)
==General housekeeping==
; Need -
# Please change notification emails from WikiIndex <[email protected]> to WikiIndex <[email protected]>
# {{Mw|Extension:WikiEditor}} — ''Pro'' - More user friendly editing interface, simpler to understand and has many features to assist inexperienced editors [[User:Arcane|Arcane]] ([[User talk:Arcane|talk]]) 15:17, 21 January 2013 (PST)Arcane
## I'm not sure if this is really needed.  And more importantly, is this compatible with Semantic MediaWiki?  Are there any SMW sites which use this?  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
## As far as I know, it is compatible with Semantic MediaWiki, since I have tested SMW with multiple versions of this extension and found no problems. As for whether this is needed, I wouldn't call it absolutely essential, but for those who are not familiar with wikicode or more familiar with using programs like Wordpad, this is a good extension, since it simplifies much of the most common editing processes. [[User:Arcane|Arcane]] ([[User talk:Arcane|talk]]) 18:35, 29 April 2013 (PDT)Arcane
### It is compatible with SMW. + from me --[[User:Kghbln|&#91;&#91;kgh&#93;&#93;]] ([[User talk:Kghbln|talk]]) 14:28, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
## {{Strong support}} --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 08:27, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
# {{Mw|Extension:Maps}} — ''Pro:'' this would be really good for our City-Wiki entries, uses maps from more than one source (Google, Yahoo, OpenStreetMaps, etc)
##+ from me --[[User:Kghbln|&#91;&#91;kgh&#93;&#93;]] ([[User talk:Kghbln|talk]]) 14:28, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
#:'''Done'''. [[User:Emufarmers|Emufarmers]] ([[User talk:Emufarmers|talk]]) 05:49, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
# {{Mw|Extension:LastUserLogin}} — ''Pro:'' would let us know a person's activity and it helps people to see who is building WikiIndex.  - ''Con:'' Why?????  Either use [[Special:RecentChanges]], or if you want to watch a specific user, add them to your watchlist :/  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)  <!--''Con:'' Any?--> [[Special:WhosOnline]] can be a replacement, but records within a day. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small>  02:38, 4 May 2013 (PDT)
# {{Mw|Extension:DismissableSiteNotice}} — ''Pro:'' would let us hide the Site Notice.  - ''Con:''
## I hate to see it everyday. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 03:58, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
## Wasn't this the case before the upgrade?  I seem to remember not seeing the site notice when logged in.  ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
### Administrators can delete [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice]] to disable it. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 23:18, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
#:'''Done'''. Increase the value on [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice id]] to un-dismiss the sitenotice for everybody. [[User:Emufarmers|Emufarmers]] ([[User talk:Emufarmers|talk]]) 03:22, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
#Disable redirects to special pages and interwiki redirects, which use a 302 and have no "redirected from" link. ({{Mw|Manual:$wgDisableHardRedirects}}) --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small>  06:57, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
## Sean especially hate this ([[Special:Permalink/140054]]). --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 12:54, 26 June 2013 (UTC)
### I think [[Sean]] went too far in banning the person (I don't know if there was previous history off wiki), although a good idea to have soft redirects off wiki. I personally really like redirects to special pages.  ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
# {{Mw|Extension:Replace Text}} seem to be removed a while ago, and I think it would be a good idea to restore it — ''Pro:'' mass editing  - ''Con:'' not sure. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 13:48, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
#:'''Done'''. [[User:Emufarmers|Emufarmers]] ([[User talk:Emufarmers|talk]]) 23:47, 14 June 2014 (UTC)


4) From [[John Vandenberg]]:
==Bugs==
Some bugs might be fixed by the update. --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small>  11:21, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
; Need -
Email system issues:
# [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean]] can not get his email confirmed, this has happened to a few people.
## I never got an e-mail from WikiIndex. Would be cool to have it working somehow. --[[User:Kghbln|&#91;&#91;kgh&#93;&#93;]] ([[User talk:Kghbln|talk]]) 14:28, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
## I can't reproduce this.  Have you tried resending the confirmation email? [[User:Emufarmers|Emufarmers]] ([[User talk:Emufarmers|talk]]) 01:22, 19 May 2013 (PDT)
### if (smtp_server != email.split("@")[1]) { email_won't_work() } else { I_don't_know_why() } --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 10:05, 30 October 2013 (UTC)


These emails are saying the server is localhost
; Want -sure about
<pre style="overflow-x:scroll; overflow-y:hidden">
# Why are Sysops blocked by our anti-spam tools, but new accounts able to over-ride them at will? [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 02:42, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
From: MediaWiki Mail <[email protected]>
## I'm not sure about the first question, but I noticed that most spammers come from China (See [[User:Zhuyifei1999/Spam IP List]]). We use dynamic IPs in China, so it's hard to block them unless you use range blocks. --[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]) 04:05, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
Date: Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 12:48 AM
### Do we know what might be the issue here?  ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
Subject: ThinkiWiki at WikiIndex has been changed by Hoof Hearted
# Atom feed (on Android devices) - seems to lag a few 'edits' behind current desktop version.  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 03:49, 20 March 2013 (PDT)
To: Jayvdb


Dear Jayvdb,
==adding subdomain==
[[Brahfous]] is wanting a subdomain for right to left writing...  (need to link to conversation) ~~ [[MarkDilley]]


The WikiIndex page ThinkiWiki has been changed on 12 March 2013 by Hoof Hearted, see http://localhost/ThinkiWiki for the current revision.
==On the back-burner==
 
This sub-section can be used making suggestions for beta extensions, ie, those we might like to add at a later date once they've evolved into a stable extension
See http://localhost/index.php?title=ThinkiWiki&diff=0&oldid=82525 for all changes since your last visit.
# <s>{{Mw|Extension:MassEditRegex}}</s> — ''Pro:'' can be used by Sysops for 'bot'-like edits, without the need for creating bot scripts - ''Con:'' still in beta phase
 
## The extension status (alpha/beta/stable) means very little in reality...installing and testing it is a better way to see whether it works on WikiIndex's version of MediaWiki. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
Editor's summary: Text replace - "{{tag|Open Source}}" to "{{tag|open source}}" This is a minor edit
## I can vouch for this. I've used the MassEditRegex extension on my own wiki repeatedly and it has proven quite stable and does what it is intended to do. I highly recommend it. [[User:Arcane|Arcane]] ([[User talk:Arcane|talk]]) 12:43, 25 January 2013 (PST)Arcane
 
## Issue is we don't have a dedicated back end developer to work on WikiIndex, know anyone who can? :-)  So I say strike out for now.
Contact the editor:
##:I added Replace Text.  Is this still desired too? [[User:Emufarmers|Emufarmers]] ([[User talk:Emufarmers|talk]]) 23:49, 14 June 2014 (UTC)
mail: http://localhost/Special:EmailUser/Hoof_Hearted
# [http://WikiApiary.com/wiki/WikiApiary:Monitored_by http://wikiapiary.com/w/images/wikiapiary/b/b4/Monitored_by_WikiApiary.png]
wiki: http://localhost/User:Hoof_Hearted
#* Why???
 
#** To show that WikiIndex in on board!? --[[User:Kghbln|&#91;&#91;kgh&#93;&#93;]] ([[User talk:Kghbln|talk]]) 14:11, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
There will be no other notifications in case of further changes unless you visit this page.
# We need a mini-banner like that WikiApiary which states something like "Indexed on WikiIndex" - to be used as a kind of voluntary banner exchange on other sites which we've indexed. (good idea ~~ [[MarkDilley]])
 
#* I think [[WikiApiary]] is a very similar project as [[WikiIndex]] and has a couple people working on it that are in the wiki community.  Was just a suggestion - we linked to [[Wiki101]] in sidebar for same reason. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
You could also reset the notification flags for all your watched pages on your watchlist.
#** WikiApiary is focused on MediaWiki and it's technical aspects. WikiIndex is focused on wiki communities. I do not think that is too similar. However, a WikiIndex banner would be nice to have, too. --[[User:Kghbln|&#91;&#91;kgh&#93;&#93;]] ([[User talk:Kghbln|talk]]) 14:11, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
 
Your friendly WikiIndex notification system
 
 
To change your e-mail notification settings, visit http://localhost/Special:Preferences


To change your watchlist settings, visit http://localhost/Special:EditWatchlist
==Technology via the community==
This isn't the right section title, but what I am trying to get across is - what technology does the community
# need to have access to, to make WikiIndex even better.
# who here understands how to do the backend work needed?
:# [[Jack Phoenix]]
:# [[Emufarmers]]
:# [[YiFei]]
:# [[Kghbln]]


To delete the page from your watchlist, visit http://localhost/index.php?title=ThinkiWiki&action=unwatch
==Cite extension==
I recommend installing {{Mw|Extension:Cite}}; it would enable citations to be done in what's become the standard format across the wikisphere. Thanks. [[User:Leucosticte|Leucosticte]] ([[User talk:Leucosticte|talk]]) 12:29, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
:Is there an example of use here on WikiIndex? --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 13:48, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
::A few pages at [[Special:LongPages]] have a lot of inline citations, e.g. [[Let.sysops.be]]. There aren't a lot of examples, perhaps because people aren't going to do a lot of citations without Cite. The lack of it makes it so that you have to put them inline, which disrupts the flow of the article, or just put a barelink, which can rot and doesn't give a lot of information (e.g. author, date, etc.). Also, it makes it so that people can't port content about wikis to and from WikiIndex without converting the references. [[User:Leucosticte|Leucosticte]] ([[User talk:Leucosticte|talk]]) 14:02, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
:::Hmm @[[Mark]]: Why it wasn't installed in [[WikiIndex:Spring 2011 Upgrade Path]]? --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 14:14, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
Another advantage to using Cite rather than inline URLs is that it would look nicer when the pages are printed. Then we could {{Mw|Manual:FAQ#How do I disable external links from showing in the printable version of a page.3F|disable external links from showing in the printable version of a page}}. [[Template:Wiki]] in particular tends not to print well; the lengthy URLs often cause the text to intrude into the wiki logo. [[User:Leucosticte|Leucosticte]] ([[User talk:Leucosticte|talk]]) 09:35, 30 January 2014 (UTC)


Feedback and further assistance: http://localhost/Help:Contents
[[YiFei]] I imagine there weren't enough folks that wanted it back then. [[Upgrade]]s page? ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
</pre>
:I think that extension would be a good idea. It would look nicer and would minimize article flow disruption. [[User:Arcane|Arcane]] ([[User talk:Arcane|talk]]) 19:25, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
::Actually, I notice that stuff prints a lot cleaner on Chrome than Firefox. [[User:Leucosticte|Leucosticte]] ([[User talk:Leucosticte|talk]]) 15:51, 2 February 2014 (UTC)


This is fixed for now. --[[User:Zhuyifei1999|Zhuyifei1999]] ([[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]) 03:50, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
==Disable Logs==
<pre style="overflow-x:scroll; overflow-y:hidden">
The wiki looks quite "spammy due to all the new spammy names in the user creation log and all the deletions and blocks, I believe its possible to disable "logs" for 'normal' view which means its prevents those logs from being seeing by anyone without admin privileges..it could help improve how the wiki looks to others but admins can still work in the background fighting off vandals and deleting the spam..it generally 'puts off' people when they come to a wiki for the first time and all they see is red links spam deletions and blocks on the Recent Changes page...--[[User:Comets|Comets]] ([[User talk:Comets|talk]]) 00:18, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
From: MediaWiki Mail <[email protected]>
: How about setting all user creation logs as bots? --[[YiFei]] | <small>[[User talk:Zhuyifei1999|talk]]</small> 01:11, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
Date: (Removed)
Great idea!  How!! ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
Subject: User talk:Zhuyifei1999 at WikiIndex has been changed by Hoof Hearted
:Not sure what he is saying, but you may need to install this {{Mw|Extension:RecentChangesLogFilter|Extension}} which hides new user log as well as blocks, deletions and protections (we need to only focus on new user, deletions and blocks)....--[[User:Comets|Comets]] ([[User talk:Comets|talk]]) 07:02, 7 February 2014 (UTC)
Dear Zhuyifei1999,


==QuestyCaptcha with questions and answers that sysops can change==
See [https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=61302 bug 61302]. If I write a fork of QuestyCaptcha that will make it possible for you to edit a page, e.g. [[MediaWiki:QuestyCaptcha]], containing questions and answers that only sysops are allowed to view, for the QuestyCaptcha, would you have any interest in installing it? [[User:Leucosticte|Leucosticte]] ([[User talk:Leucosticte|talk]]) 23:35, 15 February 2014 (UTC)


The WikiIndex page User talk:Zhuyifei1999 has been changed on
: I for one would be excited about this option.  The issue here is getting it installed... ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
14 April 2013 by Hoof Hearted, see
:: Is that difficult to make happen? I thought you owned this site. [[User:Leucosticte|Leucosticte]] ([[User talk:Leucosticte|talk]]) 00:07, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
http://wikiindex.org/User_talk:Zhuyifei1999 for the current revision.


See
: Don't own it Nathan, check out a little of [[WikiIndex:History]] and the history of the [[Upgrade]]s page for a view into the struggles around the technical issues. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
http://wikiindex.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Zhuyifei1999&diff=0&oldid=165982
for all changes since your last visit.


Editor's summary: /* Redirects */ new section
==why https?==
(import from news page)
https://WikiIndex.org fails for me, is this a browser issue or a configuration issue with the website? ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
:'''Failing''' I also have a failure to connect. [[User:Koavf|Koavf]] ([[User talk:Koavf|talk]]) 15:58, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
::Why the need for a secure https configuration?  And you can't just put https infront of a standard url, and expect it to load, without correctly configuring the server to accept https page access.  --[[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]] / [[WikiIndex:Bureaucrats|'Crat]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 23:33, 5 July 2014 (UTC)


Contact the editor:
::: That's right. As well could You rename a picture.bmp into a picture-jpeg and expect it to become compressed ;-)
mail: http://wikiindex.org/Special:EmailUser/Hoof_Hearted
::: But back to the original question: It seams not to be important to have secure connection, because the content of a Wiki that is even [[IP editor|IP-edited]] would not be in anyway private, rather the opposite, very, very public ;-) But for those who log on, they have to send a password which is unprotected and could be read out during login. And than look at admins whose passwords would be read out and anybody could mess around as they please.... --[[User:Manorainjan|Manorainjan]] ([[User talk:Manorainjan|talk]]) 13:40, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
wiki: http://wikiindex.org/User:Hoof_Hearted


There will be no other notifications in case of further changes unless
:::: Thanks for the responses, at minimum, can it be redirected if anyone happens upon it? I would rather it didn't just fail. ~~ [[MarkDilley]]
you visit this page.
You could also reset the notification flags for all your watched pages
on your watchlist.


            Your friendly WikiIndex notification system
I presume you mean can anyone else 'hijack' or steal <code>https://WikiIndex.org</code>?  The answer to that is NO.  "WikiIndex.org" is the domain name, and that is the important bit – providing the domain name registration doesn't expire (and I get the feeling from Ray's other interests, that is likely to be zero), you can't let anyone else take the domain name over.  Furthermore, the "WikiIndex.org" domain can be configured in a number of related ways – in addition to our current "www.WikiIndex.org", you can also have "m.WikiIndex.org" (typically for mobile-configured displays), "ftp.WikiIndex.org" (file transfer protocol), and I'm sure I've missed a couple of others.


--
The "http" vs "https" can be applied to any of the above – but the "https" means in laymans terms a 'secure' communication method.  In order to have an "{{Cambridge-Dictionary|http}}s" site, you need an '{{Cambridge-Dictionary|ssl|SSL}}' (secure socket layer) certificate (often regulated by the likes of VeriSign, Comodo, and many others).  The secure "https" is typically used on internet trading sites (which take payment via Visa, MasterCard, Amex, PayPal, etc), banking, insurance and other commerce sites.  As [[User:Manorainjan|Manorainjan]] states above, there is no real need to have a secure connection on a wiki.  If a password is compromised (which is honestly very doubtful), simply reset your password!  [[User:Hoof Hearted|Sean, aka <small>Hoof Hearted</small>]] • <sub>[[:Category:Active administrators of this wiki|Admin]] / [[WikiIndex:Bureaucrats|'Crat]]</sub> • <small>[[User talk:Hoof Hearted|talk2HH]]</small> 21:52, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
To change your e-mail notification settings, visit
:'''Security on a wiki''' While wikis generally aren't as privacy-centered as (e.g.) banking, there are definitely times when added security is important. If a dissident journalist were dumping documents to [[WikiLeaks]] (which is no longer a wiki) or [[English Wikinews|Wikinews]], he would certainly want greater security. [[User:Koavf|Koavf]] ([[User talk:Koavf|talk]]) 23:17, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
http://wikiindex.org/Special:Preferences


To change your watchlist settings, visit
:: I did not mean to say that there is no need for a secure connection on a Wiki. I mean, "it looks like" there would be no need. But actually there is a need, because many people do logins. And every login procedure wherever should be secured. German end English Wikipedia connect via https by default. Wherever there is a SPAM or vandalism risk, there You need to have security as well to counteract it. Here and there I was reading about SPAMers, imposters and the like also here on WikiIndex. You need to have secure login at least for admins. And when the capability is installed, there is no reason whatsoever not to make it available for all. --[[User:Manorainjan|Manorainjan]] ([[User talk:Manorainjan|talk]]) 00:05, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
http://wikiindex.org/Special:EditWatchlist
:::'''Agreed''' If you login, make it secure. [[User:Koavf|Koavf]] ([[User talk:Koavf|talk]]) 00:08, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
 
To delete the page from your watchlist, visit
http://wikiindex.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Zhuyifei1999&action=unwatch
 
Feedback and further assistance:
http://wikiindex.org/Help:Contents
</pre>
 
==On the back-burner==
This sub-section can be used making suggestions for beta extensions, ie, those we might like to add at a later date once they've evolved into a stable extension
# <s>[[mw:Extension:MassEditRegex]]</s> — ''Pro:'' can be used by Sysops for 'bot'-like edits, without the need for creating bot scripts - ''Con:'' still in beta phase
## The extension status (alpha/beta/stable) means very little in reality...installing and testing it is a better way to see whether it works on WikiIndex's version of MediaWiki. --[[User:Jack Phoenix|Jack Phoenix]] ([[User talk:Jack Phoenix|talk]]) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
## I can vouch for this. I've used the MassEditRegex extension on my own wiki repeatedly and it has proven quite stable and does what it is intended to do. I highly recommend it. [[User:Arcane|Arcane]] ([[User talk:Arcane|talk]]) 12:43, 25 January 2013 (PST)Arcane
## Issue is we don't have a dedicated back end developer to work on WikiIndex, know anyone who can? :-)  So I say strike out for now.


[[Category:WikiIndex]]
[[Category:WikiIndex]]
[[Category:Admin]]
[[Category:Admin]]

Latest revision as of 16:10, 13 July 2023

For earlier upgrading discussions from 2006, see: WikiIndex:2006 upgrade discussion.
For discussions from 2011, see: WikiIndex:Spring 2011 Upgrade Path.

WikiIndex:2013-2014 bugs and upgrades — this page is to be used for raising suggestions and discussing strategies for upgrading our MediaWiki software used by WikiIndex. It can typically include any of the published, and stable, MediaWiki Extensions; or any other applicable and workable strategies. Please add any suggestions or offerings in any of the subheadings below (or create a new subheading), and discuss.

requesting account[edit]

There is a huge bug with trying to get an account here at WikiIndex currently. File:AccountCreationPath.png and File:AccountCreationPath2.png are screen shots of the account creation path, but there seems to be no completion screen or email. I worked through it after being alerted by Manorainjan. ~~ MarkDilley

Maybe it is difficult to really solve the problem completely. If possible one should disconnect this case from the email problem and treat them separately. That no mails being sent, is a known fact. So, no wonder that the procedure hangs somewhere. At least it makes it impossible for new users to see where the problem is. So, first thing would be to explain the existence of the bug to the new user. Then he/she/it can turn to an admin and ask for fixing his case at least.--Manorainjan (talk) 20:33, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
I am not really sure how to pull this apart. Email is sent to many of us here at WikiIndex. There are a handful of you that are not getting email, so it is spotty, which is worse. ~~ ~~
I suggest You check with the last 32 active users, ask them to register their email address if not yet done and create a list of account names, mail address and got/not got the mails. Possibly it will show some hint like which mail servers get and which not. I did not know, that the email function is working for some people/accounts. Maybe the status of wikiindex sending server in the world of email is bad. Maybe some providers care and others not. Maybe the way the server sends is to be corrected. I'm positive that some kind of grid investigation will get us further. --Manorainjan (talk) 17:35, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
Can you suggest grid headers? ~~ MarkDilley
I thought I did. I understand grid headers as names of columns for tables of data collected or to be collected:
UserName, TheirEmail, (TheirEmail)ServerName, GotMail, GotNot, GotInSPAM, noResponse(of User), (got=received). That would be for a first test, no use to be more specific until the results are in. First phase is anyway to contact many hopefully active users and make clear that they should look on their talk page regularly within the period of testing and then see that everybody has got email configured here. I assume as mod You can read out their email address and contact them directly to activate. That alone could have a nice collateral effect ;- Manorainjan (talk) 21:22, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
WikiIndex:E-mail bug

You have to compile that list in private because of the email addresses which most likely will not be public.Manorainjan (talk) 15:50, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

I don't think I have access to people's email - so all the stuff I would be doing would be public anyway. :-) ~~ MarkDilley
You do now <wink>. Can't understand that oversight thou! Sean, aka Hoof HeartedAdmin / 'Crattalk2HH 20:45, 7 August 2014 (UTC)
oversight = hide information (such as logs and page revisions) that's *super* sensitive so that only oversighters could see them. --YiFei | talk 06:57, 8 August 2014 (UTC)
Don't know what check user is and I am not altogether sure I want to be able and see into people's accounts. ~~ MarkDilley

Fresh start of the email-specific here: Category talk:Active administrators of this wiki#Getting the email function to work for all.

Maps[edit]

Let's see about Maps... Emufarmers (talk) 05:42, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

older thoughts needed to be integrated above[edit]

Semantic extensions version[edit]

Especially for Semantic Forms and Semantic MediaWiki

Possible fixed bug: Form:Wiki/sandbox textarea only preload when previewing. --YiFei | talk 10:08, 30 October 2013 (UTC)

LinkSpam / WikiSpam / Vandalism[edit]

Need -
  1. Extension:NoBogusUserpagesPro: - would obviate the need to police User: (IP address) pages since they cannot be created by anyone except the legitimate user of the IP - Con - would not stop spammer from posting spam on the User IP page if that is their actual IP.
    1. Spambots aren't (thankfully) very intelligent; usually they create a (bogus) User: page and a main namespace with the same title, i.e. User:FooBar123 and FooBar123. In my experience, this type of spam is commonly done by IP addresses as opposed to registered users. As such, installing the NoBogusUserpages extension would cut down this type of spam by 50%, which isn't a bad rate at all. The code is simple enough that it should work even with the latest version of MediaWiki. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
    2. + from me --[[kgh]] (talk) 14:22, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
    3.  Strong oppose I do not think think it's a good idea. --YiFei | talk 04:15, 22 June 2013 (UTC)
      1. Why YiFei? ~~ MarkDilley
        1. We have some user pages in the main namespace, which this extension won't help.
        2. Also, I haven't seen they create a (bogus) User: page and a main namespace with the same title, i.e. User:FooBar123 and FooBar123.
          1. I have seen it on wiki, but not so much here. ~~ MarkDilley
        3. would not stop spammer from posting spam on the User IP page if that is their actual IP.
        4. We hardly have any bogus user pages. --YiFei | talk 02:54, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
    4. Thanks ~~ MarkDilley
  2. Add restrictions for being an autoconfirmed user, such as $wgAutoConfirmAge = 3600; $wgAutoConfirmCount = 5; — Con:

Account creation protection[edit]

Need -
  1. Extension:User Merge and DeletePro: Rename changes the name of one account, whereas this can merge or combine two accounts into one, and deletes the account not needed. – Con: Very dangerous, can permanently delete user accounts (but this can be set for 'crat permission only)
    1. Pro: I've used it on my own localhost wiki to get rid of surplus test accounts when testing out extensions, and while the danger of screwing up an actual account is real, it could be used to trim the database of obvious spam accounts. Con: Cannot be done as a batch, must do one merge and delete job at a time. Arcane (talk) 05:34, 30 April 2013 (PDT)Arcane - so basically you are saying we could clean up the spam accounts by deleting the one at a time? ~~ MarkDilley - Yes, unfortunately. It may be possible to code a bot or script with a selected list of spam accounts to trim and execute this script multiple times, never tried it myself, but in-wiki, it only works one at a time. Arcane (talk) 14:10, 30 April 2013 (PDT)Arcane - sounds brilliant, with the bot thing :-) I could see one person having control over a bot and a list. ~~ MarkDilley
    2. I'm personally still skeptical about this one. Elassint 3 May 2013
      1. Please say more Elassint - is it not a worry to have spam accounts sitting in the database? Best, MarkDilley
        1. It's bad when we look at Special:ListUsers -- full of spam accounts. But Wikipedia doesn't use it though Special:ListUsers is also full of spam accounts. In addition, LifeWiki and WikiApiary use it. --YiFei | talk 11:34, 24 May 2013 (UTC)
          1. I would love to clean up this, but I wonder if there is another way to do it than one at a time... not sure, ~~ MarkDilley
            Might need a bot. But pywikipedia don't seem to have a library for Extension:User Merge and Delete, so if we have to do that,
            1. Manually delete, or
            2. Make a bot library
            Either of them would be very hard to do. --YiFei | talk 07:29, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
  2. Sorry for being away recently. Can we mass-oversight those user creations and blocks? It's flooding RC. --YiFei | talk 07:48, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
CAPTCHA -
  1. This is "epic-failing" we need a better CAPTCHA system...preferably the one from Google...--Comets (talk) 02:12, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
    I hope that's not a serious suggestion. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 15:11, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
    Maybe so Roosa but its a suggestion, the current captcha is failing badly....unless you know something better? I have been away from this for a while now..--Comets (talk) 15:41, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
  2. Google:Recaptcha for MediaWiki - Create the key ~~ MarkDilley
    cracked: I hope that's not a serious suggestion. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 15:11, 21 August 2013 (UTC) --YiFei | talk 05:07, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
    I read through that and it is from 2009 - looks like it is kept up and when it gets cracked, it gets fixed. Is that not what you see? ~~ MarkDilley
    I guess that's Jack's opinion. --YiFei | talk 04:55, 27 August 2013 (UTC)
    Indeed so. I'm inclined to believe that a properly configured Extension:QuestyCaptcha with multiple questions that are simple enough (i.e. "What is the first name of Mr. Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia?" or the classic, "What is this site's name?") is far more effective than reCAPTCHA. Just because it says "by Google" on the box doesn't mean that it's automatically good, you know.
    True enough, QuestyCaptcha has some flaws too (such as the lack of an admin panel of any kind, but I'm hoping we could eventually work around that), but the core concept is far more fascinating and harder for spambot operators to crack, I believe. Cracking a (re)CAPTCHA doesn't require any real thinking whatsoever, whereas topic-specific questions might be really obvious for humans trying to register but not so much for spambots and their automated spamming software.
    Naturally it should be remembered that no matter what, some will always slip past the automated mechanisms, and that's why we have administrators — to clean up after these spambots and block the associated accounts, IP addresses, etc. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 07:26, 27 August 2013 (UTC)
    Some irc chat log with Emufarmers:
    (07:36:43) <Emufarmers> it's hard to make questions that are meaningful but not potentially confusing or exclusory
    (07:37:53) <Emufarmers> just having a trivial one like this keeps out most bots simply because they don't know how to deal with it, even if they could easily send it to a human
    (07:38:47) <Emufarmers> (it would also be easy enough for them to just do that and compile a database of answers, but, fortunately, most don't seem to be there yet)
    (07:40:42) <Emufarmers> depends whether saying "if you can't google, you can't register" is desirable or not
    --YiFei | talk 08:06, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

reCAPTCHA , as I remember it, was developed by others - so my want of it has nothing to do with Google. I am simply trying to figure out what would be the best for this community to have. Looks like Benjamin is saying similar things above (thanks YiFei for pasting that) - I would be willing to try a simple question - it seems to take someone on the backend to create / maintain it. 'What is this index of?' answer wiki, Wiki, wikis, Wikis to complete. Best, MarkDilley (in fact Jack, I pretty much despise Google :-)

  1. Extension:ConfirmEdit as MathCaptcha (needs Extension:Math installed, which is easy with shell access on Linux (@Emufarmers: ask me if you have problems with Extension:Math)) --YiFei | talk 16:06, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

General housekeeping[edit]

Need -
  1. Please change notification emails from WikiIndex <[email protected]> to WikiIndex <[email protected]>
  2. Extension:WikiEditorPro - More user friendly editing interface, simpler to understand and has many features to assist inexperienced editors Arcane (talk) 15:17, 21 January 2013 (PST)Arcane
    1. I'm not sure if this is really needed. And more importantly, is this compatible with Semantic MediaWiki? Are there any SMW sites which use this? Sean, aka Hoof HeartedAdmintalk2HH 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
    2. As far as I know, it is compatible with Semantic MediaWiki, since I have tested SMW with multiple versions of this extension and found no problems. As for whether this is needed, I wouldn't call it absolutely essential, but for those who are not familiar with wikicode or more familiar with using programs like Wordpad, this is a good extension, since it simplifies much of the most common editing processes. Arcane (talk) 18:35, 29 April 2013 (PDT)Arcane
      1. It is compatible with SMW. + from me --[[kgh]] (talk) 14:28, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
    3.  Strong support --YiFei | talk 08:27, 24 June 2013 (UTC)
  3. Extension:MapsPro: this would be really good for our City-Wiki entries, uses maps from more than one source (Google, Yahoo, OpenStreetMaps, etc)
    1. + from me --[[kgh]] (talk) 14:28, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
    Done. Emufarmers (talk) 05:49, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
  4. Extension:LastUserLoginPro: would let us know a person's activity and it helps people to see who is building WikiIndex. - Con: Why????? Either use Special:RecentChanges, or if you want to watch a specific user, add them to your watchlist :/ Sean, aka Hoof HeartedAdmintalk2HH 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT) Special:WhosOnline can be a replacement, but records within a day. --YiFei | talk 02:38, 4 May 2013 (PDT)
  5. Extension:DismissableSiteNoticePro: would let us hide the Site Notice. - Con:
    1. I hate to see it everyday. --YiFei | talk 03:58, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
    2. Wasn't this the case before the upgrade? I seem to remember not seeing the site notice when logged in. ~~ MarkDilley
      1. Administrators can delete MediaWiki:Sitenotice to disable it. --YiFei | talk 23:18, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
    Done. Increase the value on MediaWiki:Sitenotice id to un-dismiss the sitenotice for everybody. Emufarmers (talk) 03:22, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
  6. Disable redirects to special pages and interwiki redirects, which use a 302 and have no "redirected from" link. (Manual:$wgDisableHardRedirects) --YiFei | talk 06:57, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
    1. Sean especially hate this (Special:Permalink/140054). --YiFei | talk 12:54, 26 June 2013 (UTC)
      1. I think Sean went too far in banning the person (I don't know if there was previous history off wiki), although a good idea to have soft redirects off wiki. I personally really like redirects to special pages. ~~ MarkDilley
  7. Extension:Replace Text seem to be removed a while ago, and I think it would be a good idea to restore it — Pro: mass editing - Con: not sure. --YiFei | talk 13:48, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
    Done. Emufarmers (talk) 23:47, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Bugs[edit]

Some bugs might be fixed by the update. --YiFei | talk 11:21, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

Need -

Email system issues:

  1. Sean can not get his email confirmed, this has happened to a few people.
    1. I never got an e-mail from WikiIndex. Would be cool to have it working somehow. --[[kgh]] (talk) 14:28, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
    2. I can't reproduce this. Have you tried resending the confirmation email? Emufarmers (talk) 01:22, 19 May 2013 (PDT)
      1. if (smtp_server != email.split("@")[1]) { email_won't_work() } else { I_don't_know_why() } --YiFei | talk 10:05, 30 October 2013 (UTC)
Want -sure about
  1. Why are Sysops blocked by our anti-spam tools, but new accounts able to over-ride them at will? Sean, aka Hoof HeartedAdmintalk2HH 02:42, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
    1. I'm not sure about the first question, but I noticed that most spammers come from China (See User:Zhuyifei1999/Spam IP List). We use dynamic IPs in China, so it's hard to block them unless you use range blocks. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 04:05, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
      1. Do we know what might be the issue here? ~~ MarkDilley
  2. Atom feed (on Android devices) - seems to lag a few 'edits' behind current desktop version. Sean, aka Hoof HeartedAdmintalk2HH 03:49, 20 March 2013 (PDT)

adding subdomain[edit]

Brahfous is wanting a subdomain for right to left writing... (need to link to conversation) ~~ MarkDilley

On the back-burner[edit]

This sub-section can be used making suggestions for beta extensions, ie, those we might like to add at a later date once they've evolved into a stable extension

  1. Extension:MassEditRegexPro: can be used by Sysops for 'bot'-like edits, without the need for creating bot scripts - Con: still in beta phase
    1. The extension status (alpha/beta/stable) means very little in reality...installing and testing it is a better way to see whether it works on WikiIndex's version of MediaWiki. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
    2. I can vouch for this. I've used the MassEditRegex extension on my own wiki repeatedly and it has proven quite stable and does what it is intended to do. I highly recommend it. Arcane (talk) 12:43, 25 January 2013 (PST)Arcane
    3. Issue is we don't have a dedicated back end developer to work on WikiIndex, know anyone who can? :-) So I say strike out for now.
      I added Replace Text. Is this still desired too? Emufarmers (talk) 23:49, 14 June 2014 (UTC)
  2. http://wikiapiary.com/w/images/wikiapiary/b/b4/Monitored_by_WikiApiary.png
    • Why???
      • To show that WikiIndex in on board!? --[[kgh]] (talk) 14:11, 3 May 2013 (PDT)
  3. We need a mini-banner like that WikiApiary which states something like "Indexed on WikiIndex" - to be used as a kind of voluntary banner exchange on other sites which we've indexed. (good idea ~~ MarkDilley)
    • I think WikiApiary is a very similar project as WikiIndex and has a couple people working on it that are in the wiki community. Was just a suggestion - we linked to Wiki101 in sidebar for same reason. ~~ MarkDilley
      • WikiApiary is focused on MediaWiki and it's technical aspects. WikiIndex is focused on wiki communities. I do not think that is too similar. However, a WikiIndex banner would be nice to have, too. --[[kgh]] (talk) 14:11, 3 May 2013 (PDT)

Technology via the community[edit]

This isn't the right section title, but what I am trying to get across is - what technology does the community

  1. need to have access to, to make WikiIndex even better.
  2. who here understands how to do the backend work needed?
  1. Jack Phoenix
  2. Emufarmers
  3. YiFei
  4. Kghbln

Cite extension[edit]

I recommend installing Extension:Cite; it would enable citations to be done in what's become the standard format across the wikisphere. Thanks. Leucosticte (talk) 12:29, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Is there an example of use here on WikiIndex? --YiFei | talk 13:48, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
A few pages at Special:LongPages have a lot of inline citations, e.g. Let.sysops.be. There aren't a lot of examples, perhaps because people aren't going to do a lot of citations without Cite. The lack of it makes it so that you have to put them inline, which disrupts the flow of the article, or just put a barelink, which can rot and doesn't give a lot of information (e.g. author, date, etc.). Also, it makes it so that people can't port content about wikis to and from WikiIndex without converting the references. Leucosticte (talk) 14:02, 6 January 2014 (UTC)
Hmm @Mark: Why it wasn't installed in WikiIndex:Spring 2011 Upgrade Path? --YiFei | talk 14:14, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Another advantage to using Cite rather than inline URLs is that it would look nicer when the pages are printed. Then we could disable external links from showing in the printable version of a page. Template:Wiki in particular tends not to print well; the lengthy URLs often cause the text to intrude into the wiki logo. Leucosticte (talk) 09:35, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

YiFei I imagine there weren't enough folks that wanted it back then. Upgrades page? ~~ MarkDilley

I think that extension would be a good idea. It would look nicer and would minimize article flow disruption. Arcane (talk) 19:25, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
Actually, I notice that stuff prints a lot cleaner on Chrome than Firefox. Leucosticte (talk) 15:51, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Disable Logs[edit]

The wiki looks quite "spammy due to all the new spammy names in the user creation log and all the deletions and blocks, I believe its possible to disable "logs" for 'normal' view which means its prevents those logs from being seeing by anyone without admin privileges..it could help improve how the wiki looks to others but admins can still work in the background fighting off vandals and deleting the spam..it generally 'puts off' people when they come to a wiki for the first time and all they see is red links spam deletions and blocks on the Recent Changes page...--Comets (talk) 00:18, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

How about setting all user creation logs as bots? --YiFei | talk 01:11, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

Great idea! How!! ~~ MarkDilley

Not sure what he is saying, but you may need to install this Extension which hides new user log as well as blocks, deletions and protections (we need to only focus on new user, deletions and blocks)....--Comets (talk) 07:02, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

QuestyCaptcha with questions and answers that sysops can change[edit]

See bug 61302. If I write a fork of QuestyCaptcha that will make it possible for you to edit a page, e.g. MediaWiki:QuestyCaptcha, containing questions and answers that only sysops are allowed to view, for the QuestyCaptcha, would you have any interest in installing it? Leucosticte (talk) 23:35, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

I for one would be excited about this option. The issue here is getting it installed... ~~ MarkDilley
Is that difficult to make happen? I thought you owned this site. Leucosticte (talk) 00:07, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
Don't own it Nathan, check out a little of WikiIndex:History and the history of the Upgrades page for a view into the struggles around the technical issues. ~~ MarkDilley

why https?[edit]

(import from news page) https://WikiIndex.org fails for me, is this a browser issue or a configuration issue with the website? ~~ MarkDilley

Failing I also have a failure to connect. Koavf (talk) 15:58, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
Why the need for a secure https configuration? And you can't just put https infront of a standard url, and expect it to load, without correctly configuring the server to accept https page access. --Sean, aka Hoof HeartedAdmin / 'Crattalk2HH 23:33, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
That's right. As well could You rename a picture.bmp into a picture-jpeg and expect it to become compressed ;-)
But back to the original question: It seams not to be important to have secure connection, because the content of a Wiki that is even IP-edited would not be in anyway private, rather the opposite, very, very public ;-) But for those who log on, they have to send a password which is unprotected and could be read out during login. And than look at admins whose passwords would be read out and anybody could mess around as they please.... --Manorainjan (talk) 13:40, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
Thanks for the responses, at minimum, can it be redirected if anyone happens upon it? I would rather it didn't just fail. ~~ MarkDilley

I presume you mean can anyone else 'hijack' or steal https://WikiIndex.org? The answer to that is NO. "WikiIndex.org" is the domain name, and that is the important bit – providing the domain name registration doesn't expire (and I get the feeling from Ray's other interests, that is likely to be zero), you can't let anyone else take the domain name over. Furthermore, the "WikiIndex.org" domain can be configured in a number of related ways – in addition to our current "www.WikiIndex.org", you can also have "m.WikiIndex.org" (typically for mobile-configured displays), "ftp.WikiIndex.org" (file transfer protocol), and I'm sure I've missed a couple of others.

The "http" vs "https" can be applied to any of the above – but the "https" means in laymans terms a 'secure' communication method. In order to have an "https" site, you need an 'SSL' (secure socket layer) certificate (often regulated by the likes of VeriSign, Comodo, and many others). The secure "https" is typically used on internet trading sites (which take payment via Visa, MasterCard, Amex, PayPal, etc), banking, insurance and other commerce sites. As Manorainjan states above, there is no real need to have a secure connection on a wiki. If a password is compromised (which is honestly very doubtful), simply reset your password! Sean, aka Hoof HeartedAdmin / 'Crattalk2HH 21:52, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Security on a wiki While wikis generally aren't as privacy-centered as (e.g.) banking, there are definitely times when added security is important. If a dissident journalist were dumping documents to WikiLeaks (which is no longer a wiki) or Wikinews, he would certainly want greater security. Koavf (talk) 23:17, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
I did not mean to say that there is no need for a secure connection on a Wiki. I mean, "it looks like" there would be no need. But actually there is a need, because many people do logins. And every login procedure wherever should be secured. German end English Wikipedia connect via https by default. Wherever there is a SPAM or vandalism risk, there You need to have security as well to counteract it. Here and there I was reading about SPAMers, imposters and the like also here on WikiIndex. You need to have secure login at least for admins. And when the capability is installed, there is no reason whatsoever not to make it available for all. --Manorainjan (talk) 00:05, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
Agreed If you login, make it secure. Koavf (talk) 00:08, 31 July 2014 (UTC)