WikiIndex:2013-2014 bugs and upgrades

For earlier upgrading discussions from 2006, see: WikiIndex:Upgrade Discussion.

For discussions from 2011, see: WikiIndex:Spring 2011 Upgrade Path.

WikiIndex:Upgrades needed — 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.

MediaWiki version

Need - upgrade to 1.20.4

Want -

Are we on the best version, would that be part of an update of extensions? Best, MarkDilley

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. :) --Jack Phoenix (talk) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)

Update: 1.20.4 is the very latest version, and 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 1.19.5 -- :) Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 12:28, 21 April 2013 (PDT)

Sean is correct — 1.20.4 is the latest stable release of MediaWiki (as of now; the 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). --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)

Need a stronger user creation fix, the names created over the last hour is just absurd...I wonder if the captcha system is working or not..--Comets (talk) 21:41, 28 April 2013 (PDT)

The CAPTCHA is showing up on the registration form, but given how simple the question is and that there seems to be only one (!) question, it's just a matter of time until spambots will work around it and human vandals apparently already have. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 08:10, 29 April 2013 (PDT)

Jack, is their a way to have control put into our hands to add questions or change them when needed? Best, MarkDilley

They just released another round of security patches, latest versions are MW 1.19.6 and 1.20.5. I was planning to test out 1.20.5, but if need be, I wouldn't mind setting up a test wiki to see how 1.19.6 functions, but the differences in both basically amount to closing a few security holes and not much else, as far as I can tell, and having run both 1.19 and 1.20 versions of MediaWiki, upgrading to 1.20 should be easy and break no features, and all of the extensions installed have working 1.20 equivalents (most of which I have tested) that should be stable in a production enviroment wiki. Arcane (talk) 16:58, 30 April 2013 (PDT)Arcane

Arcane, do you think it is ok to just test out 1.20.5? (if that is what you are suggesting? and test it out with WikiIndex data? sorry, not so knowledgable!!) Best, MarkDilley

If you have a XML/SQL dump of the data, I could easily setup a test wiki with the same extensions and a database dump and see if anything breaks. In fact, you could do the same thing yourself by setting up a second wiki install and using a spare copy of the data from the WikiIndex database on a localhost wiki (offline, I recommend using XAMPP). You may have to reimport your Main Page and sidebar settings if you do this, but it's easy to do. Alternatively, another option you can do is to make a copy of EVERYTHING in your mysql/data folder and your MediaWiki install (I'd save it to a portable drive, backup hard drive, and so on, in a compressed file format if possible, also make sure the database is not being used during this time, which means taking the site down for maintenance), then install a new version of MediaWiki over your old one. At best, everything will work fine and you can proceed as normal (you may need to upgrade some extensions), and at worst, just flush your mediawiki folder and the mysql/data folder and replace them with your saved versions, and it will be exactly as it was before, minus any alterations to the new wiki database. Arcane (talk) 21:42, 30 April 2013 (PDT)Arcane

Images

1. Favicon - — Pro - it is awesome ~~ MarkDilley Con - Can it be keys? ~~ MarkDilley
   1. 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? Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 01:55, 22 April 2013 (PDT) -- It was a keys favicon for the first few years. Maybe I am being sentimental. ~~ MarkDilley
      1. 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. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
2. http://wikiapiary.com/w/images/wikiapiary/b/b4/Monitored_by_WikiApiary.png — WikiApiary:Monitored by
   1. Why???
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)
   1. 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

Need -

1. mw:Extension:AbuseFilter — Pro: as discussed here and Jack suggested using this. - Con: needs mw:Extension:AntiSpoof (which we don't currently have)
   1. AntiSpoof is a very useful extension to install, too, so it's hardly a con, more like a pro. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
      1. mw:Extension:AntiSpoof — Pro: we need this if we also want mw:Extension:AbuseFilter
2. mw:Extension:SimpleAntiSpam — Pro: Jack suggested using this
3. mw:Extension:CheckUser — Pro: used for checking IP addresses - Con: Any?
   1. 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?! --Jack Phoenix (talk) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
   2. I think it is really important, since some admins spend almost a whole day blocking new accounts. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 02:45, 13 April 2013 (PDT)
4. 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.
   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)
5. mw:Extension:Nuke — Pro: allows sysops to delete numerous pages as one - Con: Not necessary, since those spams are from different usernames and IPs. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 21:29, 13 April 2013 (PDT) - so I will strike this if this is correct.
   1. Comment: can't agree 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! Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 01:49, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
      1. 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. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)

Want -

Account creation protection

Need -

1. mw:Extension:TitleBlacklist — Pro: can be used to stop spambots from creating accounts – Con: looks complicated
2. mw:Extension:Renameuser — Pro: allows people who registered under an alias to have account changed to RealName and maintain edit histories – Con: none
3. 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)
   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

Want -

1. 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) Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 01:48, 15 March 2013 (PDT)
   1. Question: can this be toggled on and off? MarkDilley
      1. 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. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 02:01, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
         1. 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
            1. 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? --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)

General housekeeping

Need -

1. 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.
   1. The associated global variable is $wgPasswordSender. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
2. mw:Extension:Admin Links — Pro: anything to help sysops has gotta be a bonus - Con: grumpy sysops if you don't :p
3. 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????) Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 04:59, 22 April 2013 (PDT)

Want -

1. mw:Extension:WikiEditor — Pro - 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 Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 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
2. 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)
3. 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 :/ Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT) Con: Any?
4. 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
   1. IIRC this extension is rather server-heavy... --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)
5. mw:Extension:Labeled Section Transclusion — 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.--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 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. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
6. 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
   1. 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 :-((((( Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT)
7. mw:Extension:CategoryTree — 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. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST) - Check to see if still broken
   1. Sadly still seems to be broken. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT) - Strike because still broken. ~~ MarkDilley
8. mw:Extension:Translate — Pro: would help make this wiki open for all languages. - Con: Any?
   1. Seems to be quite 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 :( Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 02:39, 22 April 2013 (PDT) -- Strike because buggy. ~~ MarkDilley
9. mw:Extension:IconLink — Pro: as raised here - Con: The code could do with a bit of updating (and preferrably a security review, too). --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
10. mw:Extension:FaviconLink — Pro: - Con: The code is a mess and in the past, there was a XSS vulnerability in it. --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 -

1. Sean can not get his email confirmed, this has happened to a few people.
2. Why are Sysops blocked by our anti-spam tools, but new accounts able to over-ride them at will? Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 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)

Want -sure about

1) Sometimes people get their sidebar reset to MediaWiki standard. I have had it happen myself just recently as well. ~~ MarkDilley

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. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 03:49, 20 March 2013 (PDT)

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. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 06:44, 28 April 2013 (PDT)

2) Atom feed (on Android devices) - seems to lag a few 'edits' behind current desktop version. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 03:49, 20 March 2013 (PDT)

3) what to do with My spam blacklist not working... it seems this is working again :/ Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 03:43, 20 March 2013 (PDT)

4) From John Vandenberg:

These emails are saying the server is localhost

From: MediaWiki Mail <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 12:48 AM
Subject: ThinkiWiki at WikiIndex has been changed by Hoof Hearted
To: Jayvdb 

Dear Jayvdb,

The WikiIndex page ThinkiWiki has been changed on 12 March 2013 by Hoof Hearted, see http://localhost/ThinkiWiki for the current revision.

See http://localhost/index.php?title=ThinkiWiki&diff=0&oldid=82525 for all changes since your last visit.

Editor's summary: Text replace - "{{tag|Open Source}}" to "{{tag|open source}}" This is a minor edit

Contact the editor:
mail: http://localhost/Special:EmailUser/Hoof_Hearted
wiki: http://localhost/User:Hoof_Hearted

There will be no other notifications in case of further changes unless you visit this page.

You could also reset the notification flags for all your watched pages on your watchlist.

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

To delete the page from your watchlist, visit http://localhost/index.php?title=ThinkiWiki&action=unwatch

Feedback and further assistance: http://localhost/Help:Contents

This is fixed for now. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 03:50, 22 April 2013 (PDT)

From: MediaWiki Mail <[email protected]>
Date: (Removed)
Subject: User talk:Zhuyifei1999 at WikiIndex has been changed by Hoof Hearted
Dear Zhuyifei1999,


The WikiIndex page User talk:Zhuyifei1999 has been changed on
14 April 2013 by Hoof Hearted, see
http://wikiindex.org/User_talk:Zhuyifei1999 for the current revision.

See
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 

Contact the editor:
mail: http://wikiindex.org/Special:EmailUser/Hoof_Hearted
wiki: http://wikiindex.org/User:Hoof_Hearted

There will be no other notifications in case of further changes unless
you visit this page.
You could also reset the notification flags for all your watched pages
on your watchlist.

            Your friendly WikiIndex notification system

--
To change your e-mail notification settings, visit
http://wikiindex.org/Special:Preferences

To change your watchlist settings, visit
http://wikiindex.org/Special:EditWatchlist

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

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

1. mw:Extension:MassEditRegex — Pro: 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.