Wikinews:Water cooler/technical/archives/2010/February

Resurrecting LiquidThreads issue
As some may remember, Wikinews has already voted to get LiquidThreads.

I spoke to Werdna about this last night in IRC; cleared up a couple of misconceptions about how Wikinews would use it, and was offered a testing option.

The testing option is to use on comments pages where it would be preferred. This takes account of a history of Comments pages without Liquid Threads, and allows selective testing of the feature.

Does anyone object to me updating the bug that was filed to get LQT on Comments: to accept this offer, and start playing with it? --Brian McNeil / talk 12:39, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd press to do this too. The Comments namespace is one of the major things that sets us detrimentally apart from other news sites, and this might close the gap slightly. — μ 13:05, February 5 2010 (UTC)
 * That sounds good. We really need liquidthreads installed. Tempodivalse [talk]  14:11, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay, most of the North American contributors aren't up yet. I'll append a note to the bug that there's tentative support for this change and see where things go. [Aside, who the hell changed the editing interface while I was asleep? I was so used to finishing typing in the edit box, pressing TAB to go to the summary, and hitting enter to submit my edit. Now the damn thing has a font I've only seen on non-Latin wikis, and you end up losing the edit and opening the CC license page.] --Brian McNeil / talk 14:21, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Go for it, we want it ASAP.     Tris   16:37, 5 February 2010 (UTC)


 * . We voted and approved it once, I don't see an issue with a "test" implementation as a half step to get there. -- Shakata Ga Nai  ^_^ 17:47, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I missed the original vote, but implementing this on here, would be most likely beneficial. (Out of curiosity, why is the TAB not going to the summary box?) -- Mike moral  ♪♫  04:32, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
 * With the nya and the original vote Water_cooler/technical/archives/2009/December -- Shakata Ga Nai ^_^ 04:36, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

-- Thanks to Werdna, liquid threads are now enabled. Yipee! A few things to note:
 * I agree that doing a testing phase is a Good Idea&trade;. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:44, 6 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Comment pages will now be auto-created by easyPeerReview on publish.
 * Some of the site-specific js stuff that makes the opinion namespace look like a second talk namespace has been updated to deal with liquid threads better. You might need to hard refresh for it.
 * I removed the how to add sources box that appears under the edit box for all pages not in main namespace.
 * Try it out at Comments:Liquid Thread Testing.
 * If you see any bugs, don't forget to report them.

Cheers. Bawolff ☺☻ 03:06, 9 February 2010 (UTC)


 * OMG LQT RUSH! -- Shakata Ga Nai ^_^ 03:07, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Weird linebreaks
Hey, all. I'd just like to say that, if you are experiencing problems with line breaks not registering in edits, that it is being worked on and a patch will be pushed out "soon". In the mean time, a work-around of pressing "Shift+Enter" should work. As a result of the new edit window, the template box at the bottom of the screen does not work. You can still use the special characters box if required for, er, special characters, but you'll have to type templates in by hand, or find some javascriptage to do it for you. — μ 23:51, February 5 2010 (UTC)
 * As per the other bugs, the tab problem has been reported. — μ 23:55, February 5 2010 (UTC)
 * Disable the advanced editor/toolbar in user prefs and the problem goes away - plus you get back sane line spacing and can cut and paste without some horrible half-assed WYSIWTF. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:01, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Ugh MediaWiki WYSIWYG is the most annoying thing. Think Wikia-- Mike moral  ♪♫  03:38, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

DPL output as template parameter
I am wondering if there is a way to get DPL to produce such an output which is usable as template parameter, I mean, plain text (not links), separated by |. - Xbspiro (talk) 17:26, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I do not believe so; the whole point of DPL is to provide a list of links. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:41, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * [edit conflict] No. (at least not with DynamicPageList/intersection/the thing we use). DPL2 has lots of cool weird features and might be able to do it. (also of interest is 13692) Bawolff ☺☻ 17:50, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * IIRC, DPL2 is such a brutal resource hog it'll never be installed on any Wikimedia wiki. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:00, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Yep. but i wasn't sure if the user was perhaps coming from some external/personal wiki that might not care as much. Bawolff ☺☻ 19:16, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the fast response. (I have planned to use that function, if available, on a Wikimedia site.) - Xbspiro (talk) 07:56, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Out of curiosity, what were you planning to do? Bawolff ☺☻ 15:01, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * With that function, the rotation of lead articles could have been automatized. Thinking of vandalism, it may sound as a bad idea in general, but, for a low-traffic page, I think the automation is a viable alternative. A few days ago I ran into one-month-old articles on the main page of Hungarian Wikinews, and seeing that the idea just sprang to my mind. - Xbspiro (talk) 16:21, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * You still can't include only the first paragraph doing that (unless you do noinclude's). We use WN:ML to semi-automate the leads here on en. Bawolff ☺☻ 03:09, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I would have created 2 templates in order to make things go smoothly. In theory, one of them takes place on the main page invoking lead articles as templates. (Something like:  etc. ) The other one, placed in an article one wants to quote, categorizes the page as lead article; its only parameter is for selecting the text to be quoted. This template makes no visible changes to the article itself, just inserts a category name and, at the end of the text to be quoted, a noinclude tag. With DPL, one could feed the main page template with titles of the latest articles that have been added to the lead article category. The problem is that there is virtually no way to produce a DPL-output which is suitable for templates. I have found out that #replace, which could have been used to reformat the output, is also disabled on Wikimedia wikis.
 * I did not know about WN:ML, so thanks for the link. I will try to understand how it works and how could that be adapted to huwikinews, but, unfortunately, I do not have experience in Javascript. (I haven't even find the JS code which makes it work.) - Xbspiro (talk) 13:27, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * JS code is at mediawiki:Common.js/Wikinews:Make lead and User:Bawolff/sanbox/leadGenerator.js I'd offer to help you in that regard, but unfortunately i already have way to much to do as it is. (Currently make lead is also on fr as fr:WN:AP. If your feeling adventourus you can try to see the differences between the two versions to see what needs to be changed, but if your not used to javascript, that will probably be difficult, as its not the most elegant piece of code). Bawolff ☺☻

New messages tab at the top
What is the "New messages" hyperlink at the top, alongside "My watchlist" and "My contributions"?   Tris   08:47, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * It's part of the liquidthreads installation. Tempodivalse [talk]  14:33, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Yuh huh, and what does it do? What messages will I get from it?     Tris   16:30, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * IIRC, any LQT thread that you edit will automatically get added to your thread-watchlist, and if anyone else adds comments, it will ping you with "New messages (number of new posts)". Tempodivalse [talk]  17:25, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

It is in a very annoying place. I know there's meant to be a way to suppress it, but I'd rather some way of switching it with my watchlist. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 18:33, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Query: How do you suppress it? Cirt (talk) 19:30, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Bitch bitch bitch. It isn't going to be integrated to your watch list so live with it. To remove the message:

display: none; }
 * 1) pt-newmessages {
 * Put it in your vector.css or monobook.css file. -- Shakata Ga Nai  ^_^ 19:45, 9 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks Shak! Works great for me. Tempodivalse [talk]  19:52, 9 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Bitchin' back at ya. I never asked for it to be integrated with anything. I asked for new messages to go one space to the left, and swap with my watchlist. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 20:15, 9 February 2010 (UTC)
 * /me can do that for you with js (not right now).
 * DONT DO IT MAN. Do this and they'll start expecting you to solve every problem on wiki with Javascript.  ... ... Oh, wait, we already do. Never mind, you can go ahead. -- Shakata Ga Nai  ^_^ 21:40, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
 * lol. How true. I vote we re-write mediawiki in javascript :P. Bawolff ☺☻ 02:40, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
 * That doesn't sound like the best idea...would make loading pages ssslllooowww. Calebrw (talk) 05:54, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Add the following js to special:mypage/Vector.js

Extreme widescreen issues -- quote boxes
Please see the image on the right which displays the issues that occur with an extremely wide screen (2560x1440). Thanks. Calebrw (talk) 17:02, 11 February 2010 (UTC)


 * That's what you get for using such and absurdly wide screen display. Smile.png I don't think anything would look good at that resolution, your monitor must be twice as tall than mine is wide :-b I don't see what can be done aside from removing the quotebox, even then it still looks terrible (due to template, HaveYourSay box, etc). For the vast majority of resolutions this would look ok. Tempodivalse [talk]  17:47, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * . Caused by unnessary clear in HYS box. (Well i think its unnecessary, removing the clear makes the HYS box go beside the image http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/GNU_project_releases_new_version_of_license_to_allow_Wikimedia_projects_to_switch_to_Creative_Commons_license as opposed to below it, but i think both are acceptable, and Calebrw's situation is not acceptable in my mind. (Even if thats an insanely wide monitor... :P ). Bawolff ☺☻ 17:56, 11 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I figured the problem stemmed from a clear somewhere. For reference, it was a 27-inch iMac monitor that I was using at school. Calebrw (talk) 05:52, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Favicon and https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikinews/en/wiki/Main_Page
When did those guys appear? Also, if the main page is going to have a secure access link, should it be there even if you are using the https:// protocol? Calebrw (talk) 05:55, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
 * For that matter, who did the favicon anyway, the font used doesn't match the font in the logo. Furthermore, why not https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page? Calebrw (talk) 05:57, 14 February 2010 (UTC)
 * our favicon hasn't changed in several years... If you mean the padlock, that was always there, but was using some not so well supported css, so if you upgraded browsers recently, you might just notice it now. The secure access link was a couple months ago. If you want i could hide it from people viewing secure. (if you mean the favicon on the secure server, thats always used the wikipedia favicon with the colours inversed) Bawolff ☺☻ 06:00, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

Reviewer statistics
I recently got a book on xslt, and wanted to try doing some stuff in it, so i made a page that gives statistics on who publishes the most articles (as in who gives most succesful reviews). Anyways, in case anyone is interested - http://en.wikinews.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=logevents&letype=review&lelimit=max&format=xml&xslt=MediaWiki:Api-stylesheets/TopReviewers.xsl (Will not work in internet explorer, at least for now pending mediawiki bug only tested in firefox). Bawolff ☺☻ 09:04, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Ooh, looks interesting, thanks! Nice to see I'm still somewhere on that list ... really ought to review more ... Smile.png <font face="Georgia">Tempodivalse <font face="Georgia">[talk]  14:52, 26 February 2010 (UTC)