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.

Editing

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

LinkSpam / WikiSpam

1. mw:Extension:CheckUser — Pro: used for checking IP addresses - Con:
   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. mw:Extension:Nuke — Pro: allows sysops to delete numerous pages as one - Con:

Vandalism

1. mw:Extension:AbuseFilter — Pro: as discussed here - Con:
2. what to do with My spam blacklist not working...

Username creation protection

1. mw:Extension:TitleBlacklist — Pro: can be used to stop spambots from creating accounts – Con: looks complicated
2. mw:Extension:Renameuser — Pro: allows users 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: – Con: Very dangerous, can permanently delete user accounts (but this can be set for 'crat permission only) - can Rename extension work for this?
4. mw:Extension:AntiBot — Pro: can be used to stop spambots from creating accounts, used by Wikimedia Foundation wikis – Con: needs an additional plugin - which one? (the plugin is sorta low-key secret, don't wanna give the spammers the code!)
   1. No, unless you can find someone to write the plugin(s). AntiBot is a framework; to make it actually useful, you need to write AntiBot "plugins" (think of them as extensions to the AntiBot extension). The Wikimedia Foundation uses AntiBot, but they have some custom plugins for it which they do not share publicly. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
   2. OK, not this, strike-out. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 01:48, 15 March 2013 (PDT)
5. mw:Extension:Facebook — Pro: inviting to people using facebook – Con: ties into facebook domination of the web. nooooo - it slows down page loading dramatically (and wikis don't really compliment social media sites)
   1. Against; social media nonsense should be implemented as opt-in instead of opt-out, if such a thing even needs to be implemented. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
   2. OK, not this, strike-out. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 01:48, 15 March 2013 (PDT)
6. 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)

General housekeeping

1. mw:Extension:IconLink — Pro: as raised here - Con:
   1. The code could do with a bit of updating (and preferrably a security review, too). --Jack Phoenix (talk) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
2. mw:Extension:FaviconLink — Pro: - Con:
   1. 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)
3. mw:Extension:CategoryTree — Pro: this would be really helpful in seeing how our categories are constructed - Con:
   1. 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)
4. mw:Extension:Admin Links — Pro: anything to help sysops has gotta be a bonus - Con: grumpy sysops if you don't :p
5. mw:Extension:SpecialUserScore — Pro: it just lists edit counts of users (something interesting for stats geeks) - Con: probably doesn't add any real value to WikiIndex
6. 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:
7. mw:Extension:Translate — Pro: would help make this wiki open for all languages. - Con:

MediaWiki version

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)

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:Google Maps — Pro: this would be really good for our City-Wiki entries - Con: seems to be buggy
   1. Obsolete, use mw:Extension:Maps instead. --Jack Phoenix (talk) 14:41, 22 December 2012 (PST)
   2. OK, not this, strike-out. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 01:48, 15 March 2013 (PDT)
2. 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