Talk:Tech/News/2023/22

links in watchlist

Not very long ago, a changed was announced right here in Tech News about adding links in the watch list to see changes with the same labels. This function seems to have disappeared. Does anyone know what happened to it? Was the feature reverted, or does it depend on a certain theme or a certain setting that users can accidentally disable? (Just wondering.) Al12si (talk) 21:46, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

It was reverted. phab:T301063 --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 09:36, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

ISBN labels

Does anyone has a screen shot of what these “ISBN labels” look like? I don’t use the visual editor and I’m having a hard time understanding what kind of labels we’re talking about. Thanks! Al12si (talk) 21:52, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

I think like these: mw:Citoid/Enabling Citoid on your wiki. --Matěj Suchánek (talk) 09:34, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

@Al12si Yeah, what Matěj said. I struggled with how to phrase it clearly and concisely, or whether to even mention. The long version:

The labels currently read (in English) "URL, DOI, PMC/PMID, QID, title, or citation", but will be updated (as part of the deployment train) with the (older) "URL, DOI, ISBN, PMC/PMID, QID, title, or citation". I.e. the functionality is already restored, but the label update will take a few more days. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 20:15, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Ok, ok, that kind of label... It reads “ISBN labels” so I was thinking along the lines of like a whole bunch of ISBN labels popping up and I’m not seeing that on the documentation page... Al12si (talk) 20:18, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

RealMe extension

Just wondering, but is this piece of news specifically for admins so that they can add the extension, or is the extension something that’s already enabled on all wikis? Asking because I checked the docs but I’m not seeing anything described in the docs. Al12si (talk) 22:01, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

Installed on Wikimedia wikis and you can set them in preferences. Wargo (talk) 09:07, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Ooohh... it’s at the bottom. Thank you so much! Al12si (talk) 09:12, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

Hi again. Can someone confirm that the extension is actually working, and if so the exact steps needed to get it to work? I tried it, didn’t see a rel=me link on my user page, so I retried with a Mastodon link, but Mastodon isn’t detecting anything. I have a feeling the thing isn’t working.. Al12si (talk) 06:28, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Definitely working, you can see it in action at the dev's mastodon account. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 19:58, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Ok, then something is wrong with the rollout and I’d suggest pulling this news item for now until the devs can figure out what’s wrong.

The link you showed me clearly has a link rel=me in the head, but if I enter my Mastodon account on my home wiki, I can see some RealMe metadata in JSON format, but no link rel=me element. (I just checked so this is correct at the time of writing, unless the process for doing this is so covoluted that a semi-technical user like me wouldn’t be able to pull this off.) Al12si (talk) 20:08, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Maybe purge your user-page? I just tested, and it worked.

1. add link to userpage
2. add link to user-prefs
3. add link to mastodon profile

The link is now green-ticked on my mastodon profile. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 20:26, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Nope. Purged and force-reloaded. No difference. Is this working only on specific wikis, or has this been field tested? Al12si (talk) 20:31, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Wait. “Add link to userpage”? What is that? There’s no add link option. Does this mean add a link by hand? If you need to add a link by hand what’s the point of the extension? Al12si (talk) 20:33, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

See step 1 in mw:Help:Extension:RealMe "Add an external link on your user page to the URL you want to mark as verified."

E.g. at User:Taavi they have a link on their userpage pointing to Mastodon (and the same link in their user-prefs, thus confirming they added it), and that page is linked to from their Mastodon preferences, hence providing bi-directional public links and confirmation.

If someone wants a way to only acknowledge their Wikimedia account from Mastodon, without disclosing it onwiki, then I guess this feature will not help them.

Does that help explain it? Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 20:42, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

I was completely confused after reading that page (and if I was not being clear enough, that page was the reason I posted here). Now that you mentioned it again and that I’ve re-read it, I take it means “add an external link by hand.

When it says “add an external link” people are going to look through their menus for a command called “Add an external link”. If a semi-technical user like me (who don’t use the visual editor, don’t use visual diff, and has turned off the JavaScript interface on the code editor and the watchlist) can be misled like that, every single ordinary user is going to be misled. That doc page needs to be a lot more clear. Al12si (talk) 21:00, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

I've attempted to clarify at the docs page there.

Whilst editing, I noticed that half the page wasn't marked for translation yet, including some crucial parts of the instructions. (which is unfortunate, but does have the side-benefit that you/anyone can improve the documentation more, without frustrating translators!)

Therefore I have bumped the Tech News entry to next week. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 21:32, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

404 Not Found links

The links for small and medium in "T:55" do not seem to exist. Is there a link to the correct page? Or is it just my permission error? Syunsyunminmin 🗨️talk 07:17, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

@Syunsyunminmin Ah, thanks for mentioning! Fixed now.

(Context: I had been provided with the 2 working-links that I've now fixed them to, but I had then clicked "Raw" on each of them to get a simple plaintext version (thinking that would be better for everyone). I guess those "Raw" links are not permanent. Today I learned! (and will inevitably forget in X years time...))

Cheers, Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 20:06, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

The “Raw File” button links to https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/source/mediawiki-config/browse/master/dblists/small.dblist?view=raw, which I believe is permanent. However, it immediately redirects to a URL in the format you provided, so clicking the link and then copying the URL won’t work, only right click + Copy Link (or something similar, depending on the browser). —Tacsipacsi (talk) 21:23, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Aha! Thanks for that insight. I almost replaced the links with those working raw versions, but then worried that it might lead to other people stumbling into the same issue, so I'll leave it with the overdetailed versions. :-) Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 21:34, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

You can also use https://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/dblists/medium.dblist Wargo (talk) 22:39, 2 June 2023 (UTC)