Difference between revisions of "Talk:Main Page"

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* Discussions on this page are largely of an administrative nature. If you're looking for a discussion on the contents of the M3P you're probably better off going to the [[M3P:Community_Portal|M3P:Community Portal]] – the place to find out what is happening on M3P.
* Discussions on this page are largely of an administrative nature. If you're looking for a discussion on the contents of the M3P you're probably better off going to the [[M3P:Community_Portal|M3P:Community Portal]] – the place to find out what is happening on M3P.
* Discussions about basic new user engagement are now being discussed on the [[M3P_talk:Community_Portal|Community Portal talk page]] leaving only preliminary talk about possible action here, as much as possible.'''''


* Issues that previously discussed on this page that have been settled have been moved to [[/Settled_Issues]].
* Issues that previously discussed on this page that have been settled have been moved to [[/Settled_Issues]].


==Welcome==
==MIGRATION==
* We need to rethink how to welcome new users. An automated welcome message on people user talk page is probably a good way to handle this, plus an email to the address associated with the individual's account.  I'm listing this on the [[M3P:To Do list]] now so we can act on it in due course, if not urgently. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 17:00, 9 January 2011 (UTC)
Migration to new hosting, and to Mediawiki 1.25.2 has happened. The move seems to be (largely) working at first sight, though there will be some wrinkles to iron out as we go. There are some notable additions to the platform:
* Semantic Media wiki (plus semantic map data),
* the ability to embed map data using the [[Special:MapEditor]] page
* mobile-aware layout using the MobileFrontEnd extension,  
* Scribunto scripting
* more backend improvements for administration
* ...and a whole bunch of other improvements.


* One thing we should possibly consider is the use of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:TW Twinkle], which I've just discovered through my active engagement with Wikipedia. It seems that Twinkle helped generate the glorious welcome message you can see on [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:ToniSant&redirect=no my Wikipedia User Page]. On closer exploration, this sort of thing is apparently generated by an extension called [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:NewUserMessage New User Message]. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 18:36, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
A number of pending issues (which previously appeared here) have now been listed on [[M3P:Redesigning website in 2016]].


* I'm also thinking that we should encourage the use of the <nowiki>{{helpme}}</nowiki> tag at the bottom of user's talk pages with questions below it, once we [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Help_me figure out how it works]. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 16:57, 10 October 2010 (UTC)
===Lost in migration===
This is a list of things/features that got lost in the migration and need to be addressed or have been fixed:


'''''Discussions about basic new user engagement are probably better placed on the [[M3P_talk:Community_Portal|Community Portal talk page]] leaving just preliminary talk about possible action here, as much as possible.''''' --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 18:36, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
'''WORKS IN PROGRESS''':
* CAPTCHA - these have been changed, hopefully xpatcha should be a bit more readable now. and more words added tot he wordlist [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 12:53, 3 November 2015 (UTC)
* COLLAPSIBLE TABLES. Tables are no longer collapsible (click on hide - see [[MMI 2014 Listeners' Picks Poll|here]]) or uncollapsible (click on show - see [[Mu%C5%BCika_Mod_Ie%C4%A7or#2013|here]])
::: Tables are in fact, still collapsible. It just seems that the class hss changed from ''collapsible'' to ''mw-collapsible'' - the example shown has been changed [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 16:06, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
::::This is fine for new tables and ones we use frequently can easily be updated, but what about all the other collapsible tables already in the wiki? Can we create a class without the mw- prefix for them? Or is there any easy way to identify where all the tables with the old class are located across the wiki? --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 09:35, 27 October 2015 (UTC)
::::: doing a quick search for "collapsible" doesn't throw up many candidates, and I've just gone through and tidied those. I've checked through the mediawiki [[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Collapsible_elements#Collapsible_tables manuals]] and it doesn't really offer any great insights as to what to do with legacy code - I suspect digging into the default codebase is going to be problematic, as any upgrade might immediately bork it anyway, so I want to leave that well-enough alone where possible There is one one small bugaboo at [[Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza]]. not sure what I've managed to do to the formatting... [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 17:20, 27 October 2015 (UTC)
:::::: The new way of handling collapsible tables works fine but I think it may need a couple of aesthetic tweaks. (1) Why does it say both 'collapse' and 'hide' at the top of every collapsible table? (2) 'nowrap' doesn't seem to work on table headers and the 'collapse' and 'hide' links wrap text in the top row in an undesirable way, as can be seen for example [[MMI_2014_Listeners'_Picks_Poll#Nominations|here]].
 
FIXED issues have been moved to [[/Settled Issues]]


==General Maintenance==
==General Maintenance==
We need to develop Maintenance Templates to enable smoother/efficient maintenance. Currently doing this for stubs and clean up notices but we need a systematic way to develop more and use these effectively. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 10:05, 20 January 2012 (UTC)


===Short URLs===
Update to 1.34.1 on 20 April 2020. Migrated MySQL database to 5.7 and updated PHP to 7.2.
Appear to be working. Install seems to have caused few if any issues. If you do find some, let me know [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] 10:47, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
 
Patching to 1.19.24 completed yesterday. This is likely to be final 1.19 patch before an upgrade path to 1.24 is planned, as 1.19 is due to be removed form LTS schedules next month. [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 14:26, 1 April 2015 (UTC)
 
We were offline this afternoon, due to PHP upgrades, patching and a couple of other issues. [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 17:23, 25 March 2015 (UTC)
 
1.19.15 has been released. However, the release notes do not appear to address the significant issues that broke our install. For that reason, I'm holding off. There may come a point, when the issues we identified are resolved, when I can roll all these patches together and apply them, but it isn't yet :)
[[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 15:00, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
 
 
I have, for the current time, rolled back mw to 1.19.12. This is in response to issues concerning use of HotCat and problems with watchlist functions, inter alia. There seems to be an issue with the 1.19.13 patch, which is acknowledged as a bug at [https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63049 Mediawiki Bugzilla (63049)] [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 11:19, 25 March 2014 (UTC)
 
 
Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.13 following a security and maintenance update
[[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 08:18, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
 
: This update seems to have broken HotCat and article watching. It also seems to have opened a "hole" for a new type of rouge registrations to take place whereby not only the captcha is broken but the new rogue user creates a user page and an article with junk content. This latter issue is less problematic than the first two, of course, because there are only one or two rogue users to deal with per day, whereas the other two functions are central to the way the wiki works. Thanks. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 10:08, 23 March 2014 (UTC)
:: I've hacked the Hot Cat Gadget to use the new convention (the gadget is updated direct from Wikimedia servers, instead of on a local copy). I'll check out the captcha and watch code, which has probably been fiddled with by the patch, which I suppose I could look at rolling back, but I've removed the rogue users for today...[[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 22:19, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
:::Doing more digging - seen something which might cause a problem - possible problem with 1.19.13 patch, which I have submitted to MW bugzilla. Will have to see what gives [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 23:58, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
::::Thanks!  HotCat works again now. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 11:40, 26 March 2014 (UTC)
 
Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.12 following a security and maintenance update
[[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 12:33, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
 
Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.11 following an urgent security upgrade ([https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60339 bugzilla])
[[User:Stephensd|stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 22:00, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
 
Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.10 following security and maintenance upgrades
[[User:Stephensd|stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 20:23, 14 January 2014 (UTC)
 
Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.9 following security and maintenance upgrades
[[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 16:07, 17 December 2013 (UTC)


: That's great! Thanks.  We're now at the beginning of a new era. :-)
Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.8 following security and maintenance upgrades [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 12:11, 10 September 2013 (UTC)
: I'm wondering whether we even need to leave this note here...and whatever relationship we had originally established between this talk page and the To Do page. Anyway, eventually we'll figure it all out. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 10:58, 3 April 2012 (UTC)


===Rogue users?===
Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.6 following security and maintenance upgrades
Here is a list of users currently considered as potential rogues:
Semantic MW has an upgrade available (1.7.1 -> 1.8.0) but this can happen in the near future
* [[:User:Workerjohnnson]] - reg: 25/12/11
[[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 17:38, 6 May 2013 (UTC)
* [[:User:Nikecheap]] - reg: 25/12/11
* [[:User:Airnike]] - reg: 6/1/12
* [[:User:Airnike]] - reg: 6/1/12


If your username is on this list and you want to verify that you're a bone fide user, just let us know what contributions you're planning to make to the M3P, right here on this talk page. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 09:53, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.5 following security and maintenance upgrades released yesterday
[[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 11:39, 16 April 2013 (UTC)


I have now added config settings that prevent blocked users form logging in, and require them to have confirmed their email address before being allowed to edit. See
Mediawiki upgraded to 1.19.2 on Aug 31 following earlier migration from 1.15.3 to 1.19.1.  
[[http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgEmailConfirmToEdit]] for details
Several core security fixes made. [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 08:34, 31 August 2012 (EDT)


===Patrolling pages?===
=== Maintenance templates ===
What does 'patrolled' mean on some pages (bottom right)? I think this has something to do with pages that may have controversial contents but I need to look into it more closely as it's certainly one of the things we need to know about in terms of general maintenance etc. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 16:49, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
We need to develop Maintenance Templates to enable smoother/efficient maintenance. Currently doing this for stubs and clean up notices but we need a systematic way to develop more and use these effectively. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 10:05, 20 January 2012 (UTC)
: I've looked into this and it seems like it's a relatively newish feature of MediaWiki to enable administrators to mark pages that they look at. This way if admins mark a page as patrolled it means that somebody at admin level has already seen this page. It's probably useful if/when we establish a way to ensure that site admins look at all new pages. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)


===Gadgets===
• There are now templates in place for Delete and SpeedyDelete marking, as of yesterday  [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] ([[User talk:Stephensd|talk]]) 08:34, 31 August 2012 (EDT)
* From my work with my UG students on Wikipedia I've discovered that there's a whole set of pre-installed gadgets that users have access to as a tab in their user preferences. Twinkle is one of these gadgets, but an even more impressive one is called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:HOTCAT HotCat], which seems to me like an essential gadget for us provide for all M3P users. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:37, 19 October 2010 (UTC)


* This requires the Gadgets extension to be installed. The first quick go I had was not a success. All the pieces are there right now, just not switched on. [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] 23:16, 19 October 2010 (UTC)


==Usability==
==Usability==
===Menus===
*Can the word HELP in the left hand menu (not the bold one) be replaced by INTERACTION, as in wikimedia pls? --[[User:Joejulian|Joejulian]] ([[User talk:Joejulian|talk]]) 14:33, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
*A link to [[Help:Frequently asked questions]] could be added to left hand menu, under section INTERACTION (HELP up till now) --[[User:Joejulian|Joejulian]] ([[User talk:Joejulian|talk]]) 14:33, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
===Look and feel===
===Look and feel===
* Can we revisit the overall look and feel of the wiki?  Specifically: choice of fonts for headers and use of red and blue lettering.  Also having problems getting bold and italics to render properly on pages -  [[User:alexgrech|Alex Grech]] ([[User talk:alexgrech|talk]]) This appears to be a Chrome/Firefox issue. We therefore need to keep in mind cross-browser matters. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 09:21, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
* Can we revisit the overall look and feel of the wiki?  Specifically: choice of fonts for headers and use of red and blue lettering.  Also having problems getting bold and italics to render properly on pages -  [[User:alexgrech|Alex Grech]] ([[User talk:alexgrech|talk]]) This appears to be a Chrome/Firefox issue. We therefore need to keep in mind cross-browser matters. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 09:21, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
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* I'd like to look at tweaking the Main page banner a bit. The 'fixed' width causes some problems with rendering on the m3pmobile skin [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] 17:27, 14 February 2011 (UTC)
* I'd like to look at tweaking the Main page banner a bit. The 'fixed' width causes some problems with rendering on the m3pmobile skin [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] 17:27, 14 February 2011 (UTC)


====Colours (settled)====
====Colours====
* Could we find some alternative colour to green for roll overs?  We still have too many different font colours, which are potentially distracting.[[User:alexgrech|Alex Grech]] ([[User talk:alexgrech|talk]])
* Could we find some alternative colour to green for roll overs?  We still have too many different font colours, which are potentially distracting.[[User:alexgrech|Alex Grech]] ([[User talk:alexgrech|talk]])
: The header font has been chosen to sit better with the logo and colours. I'll have a look at the hover and active link colors though.
: The header font has been chosen to sit better with the logo and colours. I'll have a look at the hover and active link colors though.
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:::::I agree!  It's time for us to revisit how we display links, hovers, and visited links. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 19:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
:::::I agree!  It's time for us to revisit how we display links, hovers, and visited links. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 19:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
::::::I fixed the link colors by switching the visited and hover colors in the various css files. There's quite a few of them! This should make things a little less problematic in the foreseeable future. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 19:30, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
::::::I fixed the link colors by switching the visited and hover colors in the various css files. There's quite a few of them! This should make things a little less problematic in the foreseeable future. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 19:30, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
::::::Still not convinced the link colors are right the way they appear now.  Grey visited links are rather confusing. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:14, 4 June 2012 (UTC)


===Consistent names for talk/discussion links (pending)===
===Consistent names for talk/discussion links (pending)===
* Another thing that we should look at is the talk/discussion issue. The button at the top of the page reads 'discussion', however, when this button is click, it takes you to a page saying: ''''Editing Talk''':The Artiste's Name'. This is a bit confusing too. Is it possible to change this to always read: ''''Editing discussion''':The Artiste's Name'? This way, there will be more consistency. [[User:Tonygrimaud|Tony Grimaud]]([[Talk:Tonygrimaud|talk]]) 21:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
* Another thing that we should look at is the talk/discussion issue. The button at the top of the page reads 'discussion', however, when this button is click, it takes you to a page saying: ''''Editing Talk''':The Artiste's Name'. This is a bit confusing too. Is it possible to change this to always read: ''''Editing discussion''':The Artiste's Name'? This way, there will be more consistency. [[User:Tonygrimaud|Tony Grimaud]]([[Talk:Tonygrimaud|talk]]) 21:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
: Ah, yes, consistency!  I've noticed this somewhere else too...can't remember where now. But yes, we need to keep this in mind as we move along. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 06:58, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
: Ah, yes, consistency!  I've noticed this somewhere else too...can't remember where now. But yes, we need to keep this in mind as we move along. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 06:58, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
===Special characters (settled)===
* We need to add a list of special characters (esp. Maltese letters) in the edit page. - [[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]])
: My initial choice of embedded font for the body didn't help; there may have been some of the more common ISO-8859-1 chars missing. I've changed that default font now, to use more consistent browser fonts. This should help. [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] 15:01, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
* We need to make sure that we address the use of Maltese characters, especially in names, in the help section on the style guidelines page, which will perhaps be a sub-page/section on the [[M3P:Editorial policy|editorial policy]] --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 12:41, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
:I think the best and easier way for the contributors is to have the Maltese characters (ċ ġ ħ ż) displayed as buttons along side the Bold and Italic buttons on top of the text fields, if that is at all possibility. [[User:Tonygrimaud|Tony Grimaud]]([[Talk:Tonygrimaud|talk]]) 21:18, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
::It's good to have this sort of stuff where it's visible but I haven't seen an iteration with them at the top on the tool bar. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 06:57, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
:::We now have this facility just below the 'Save' button 'edit' and 'file upload' pages.  It's not an ideal location, but at least it's there and we can revisit the location of this function under 'Look & Feel' in due course. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 17:25, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
===Error pages (settled)===
What's the best sort of 404 page we can have? - [[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]])
: I've put a (basic) m3p 404 page in place [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] 15:01, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
:: They're looking great. Thanks! --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 19:41, 22 September 2010 (UTC)


====Help section (pending)====
====Help section (pending)====
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We going to need to look at the taxonomy of [[:Special:Categories|categories]] sometime soon as things can easily get out of hand if we allow this to slip from the top of our agenda as more new entries are made. In the process we should also be keeping an eye on  [[Special:UncategorizedCategories]] / [[Special:UnusedCategories]] and [[Special:WantedCategories]] --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:46, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
We going to need to look at the taxonomy of [[:Special:Categories|categories]] sometime soon as things can easily get out of hand if we allow this to slip from the top of our agenda as more new entries are made. In the process we should also be keeping an eye on  [[Special:UncategorizedCategories]] / [[Special:UnusedCategories]] and [[Special:WantedCategories]] --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:46, 16 October 2010 (UTC)


====Calendar of Events (pending)====
Another interesting thing to consider: [http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&srchtype=discussedNews&gid=124305&item=119637847&type=member&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-ttl-cn&ut=1iJleBGcOdd5s1 How to sort the Categories list at the bottom of an article]. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:08, 6 October 2012 (EDT)
there is a need for a calendar of events...so as a quick fix for now, we created pages for Music Events in malta for each month, day-by-day, there is October, nov and dec for now.
we are working to find a better solution for this...perhaps one as in wikipwedia
watch this space . [[User:Tonygrimaud|Tony Grimaud]]([[Talk:Tonygrimaud|talk]]) 13:18, 22 October 2010 (UTC)
 
: This issue is going to generate quite some talk so I suggest we discuss what to do and how it's going to work on at [[M3P_talk:Current events]]. Eventually we'll also action whatever needs to be done on the [[M3P:To_Do_list#Events_Calendar_.28urgent.29|To Do list]] --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:31, 22 October 2010 (UTC)


==Technical Considerations==
==Technical Considerations==
===Facebook integration===
We need to add a FB like box to the main page and/or to the landing page but first we must install [http://www.mediawikiwidgets.org/Iframe this widget] to enable the inclusion of the iframe. Width, height and connection number may need to be adjusted too.  Here's the code for the M3P FB like box:
* installed Widgets extension, and have created [[Widget:Iframe]] container page [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] 16:36, 17 September 2010 (UTC)
<nowiki>
<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/likebox.php?id=151613981521442&amp;width=570&amp;connections=10&amp;stream=false&amp;header=false&amp;height=165"
scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:570px; height:165px;" allowTransparency="true">
</iframe>
</nowiki>
Integrating FB ID login on the wiki is (as per Ds' suggestion) via the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:FBConnect FBConnect extension] is probably also a good idea. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 10:33, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
* I'm tracking this via its home page and twitter feed and will go ahead once the ext seems stable enough for use. It may not be too long [[User:Stephensd|Stephensd]] 16:39, 17 September 2010 (UTC)
===User Group Rights===
On Tuesday 31 August 2010 [[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) locked unregistered user access to:
# Create discussion pages (createtalk)
# Create pages (which are not discussion pages) (createpage)
# Edit pages (edit)
# Use of the write API (writeapi)
See [[Special:ListGroupRights]] for current rights. Amendment made to includes/DefaultSettings.php --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 11:05, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
=== Contact page and emails ===
* We should probably avoid exposing email addresses as these are routinely harvested for spam! A work around is to have them obfuscated through javascript (extension?) or simply use an online contact form where no email address appears in public. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 09:38, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
* The Contact Us link on the front page currently points to my personal online contact form. We obviously need to amend this soon. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 12:06, 7 October 2010 (UTC)


===URLs and Permalinks===
===URLs and Permalinks===
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*Can we make all external links open in a new tab or window by default? --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 16:33, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
*Can we make all external links open in a new tab or window by default? --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 16:33, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
*<s>How do we make the URLs for individual pages shorter/prettier? --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 17:51, 20 October 2010 (UTC)</s> Sorted by [[User:Stephensd]]. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 11:01, 3 April 2012 (UTC)


*I'm thinking that further discussion on the next two sub-sections (naming conventions & refering pages) belongs under help. Let's see if anyone comments about this and/or moves them in the coming days. If not I'll move them myself. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 17:51, 20 October 2010 (UTC)  
*I'm thinking that further discussion on the next two sub-sections (naming conventions & refering pages) belongs under help. Let's see if anyone comments about this and/or moves them in the coming days. If not I'll move them myself. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 17:51, 20 October 2010 (UTC)  
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: I am planning to pay some attention to this issue in the coming weeks. --[[User:SteveBorg|Steve Borg]] ([[User talk:SteveBorg|talk]]) 12:36, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
: I am planning to pay some attention to this issue in the coming weeks. --[[User:SteveBorg|Steve Borg]] ([[User talk:SteveBorg|talk]]) 12:36, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
==== Refering Pages ====
Is there a way we can direct a search made about a person known by slight differences in their name to the same page? As it is at the moment, say; "Tony Grimaud" , "Grimaud", "il-Grimaud" ...  they all would point to separate pages. at best, it tells you that no page had been found. moreover, it encourages you to start creating such a page. This produces undesirable multiple pages for the same person/entry--[[User:Tonygrimaud|Tony Grimaud]]([[Talk:Tonygrimaud|talk]]) 12:56, 7 October 2010 (UTC).
: My first suggestion would be that we grab the contents of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Redirect Wikipedia page on redirects] and start adapting it for our needs. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 16:19, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
::I have been trying my hands at refering pages with some notable success! :) ...Now i would like to share this info with the rest of the world...where would be the best place to write this, ie in the Help pages?...is there an admin login to do so--[[User:Tonygrimaud|Tony Grimaud]]([[Talk:Tonygrimaud|talk]]) 12:56, 8 October 2010 (UTC)?
:::A help page on this topic would be helpful for other editors seeking to create internal redirect pages. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:03, 4 June 2012 (UTC)
===Signature===
Could the signiture function be disabled when editing the main pages ... as it is in wikipedia? [[User:Tonygrimaud|Tony Grimaud]]([[Talk:Tonygrimaud|talk]]) 12:35, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
: This probably needs an advanced version of the editing interface to be enabled through an extensions. So, it's probably one to discuss with Darren. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 16:22, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
:: I'm actually rather keen to get an automated version of the signature in place too for all new users, but perhaps this is a default function in more recent versions of MediaWiki than the one we're currently running. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:03, 4 June 2012 (UTC)
=== Search Options ===
Can we look at the search options with regards the Go button? Maybe renaming it to "Go to the Page" or something similar to indicate exactly what it does. Then again, do we really need it?
--[[User:Tonygrimaud|Tony Grimaud]]([[Talk:Tonygrimaud|talk]]) 12:44, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
===Google Search===
It appears that the wiki is not being indexed on Google and search results only return the current landing page. I'm not sure why this is as we've never really discussed it properly at any level, so I'm just leaving this note here for now rather than add this as an item on the To Do list page. --[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 13:03, 4 June 2012 (UTC)
== Media uploads ==
::This issue is now being actively handled through the [[M3P:To Do list]].


==And the rest...==
==And the rest...==
Line 183: Line 151:
We probably need to keep these handy somewhere eventually, but I thought I'd just dump them here for now.--[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 11:05, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
We probably need to keep these handy somewhere eventually, but I thought I'd just dump them here for now.--[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 11:05, 2 September 2010 (UTC)


And a few other things we need to emulate/adapt:
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NAMESORT Name sorting]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:DEFAULTSORT Default sorting w/Categories]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Persondata Person data]
--[[User:Tonisant|Toni Sant]] ([[User talk:Tonisant|talk]]) 20:18, 3 November 2012 (EDT)


==See also==
==See also==
* [[/Settled_Issues]]
* [[M3P:To Do list]]
* [[M3P:To Do list]]
* [[M3P:Community Portal]]
* [[M3P:Community Portal]]
* [[Help talk:Contents]]
* [[M3P:Redesigning website in 2016]]

Latest revision as of 07:52, 23 April 2020

Much of what's on this talk page is being handled by admins/sysops via the M3P:To Do list. If you see something on here that requires action (rather than discussion) please feel free to add your recommendations on the M3P To Do list Talk Page.

  • Discussions on this page are largely of an administrative nature. If you're looking for a discussion on the contents of the M3P you're probably better off going to the M3P:Community Portal – the place to find out what is happening on M3P.
  • Discussions about basic new user engagement are now being discussed on the Community Portal talk page leaving only preliminary talk about possible action here, as much as possible.
  • Issues that previously discussed on this page that have been settled have been moved to /Settled_Issues.

MIGRATION

Migration to new hosting, and to Mediawiki 1.25.2 has happened. The move seems to be (largely) working at first sight, though there will be some wrinkles to iron out as we go. There are some notable additions to the platform:

  • Semantic Media wiki (plus semantic map data),
  • the ability to embed map data using the Special:MapEditor page
  • mobile-aware layout using the MobileFrontEnd extension,
  • Scribunto scripting
  • more backend improvements for administration
  • ...and a whole bunch of other improvements.

A number of pending issues (which previously appeared here) have now been listed on M3P:Redesigning website in 2016.

Lost in migration

This is a list of things/features that got lost in the migration and need to be addressed or have been fixed:

WORKS IN PROGRESS:

  • CAPTCHA - these have been changed, hopefully xpatcha should be a bit more readable now. and more words added tot he wordlist Stephensd (talk) 12:53, 3 November 2015 (UTC)
  • COLLAPSIBLE TABLES. Tables are no longer collapsible (click on hide - see here) or uncollapsible (click on show - see here)
Tables are in fact, still collapsible. It just seems that the class hss changed from collapsible to mw-collapsible - the example shown has been changed Stephensd (talk) 16:06, 26 October 2015 (UTC)
This is fine for new tables and ones we use frequently can easily be updated, but what about all the other collapsible tables already in the wiki? Can we create a class without the mw- prefix for them? Or is there any easy way to identify where all the tables with the old class are located across the wiki? --Toni Sant (talk) 09:35, 27 October 2015 (UTC)
doing a quick search for "collapsible" doesn't throw up many candidates, and I've just gone through and tidied those. I've checked through the mediawiki [manuals] and it doesn't really offer any great insights as to what to do with legacy code - I suspect digging into the default codebase is going to be problematic, as any upgrade might immediately bork it anyway, so I want to leave that well-enough alone where possible There is one one small bugaboo at Konkors Kanzunetta Indipendenza. not sure what I've managed to do to the formatting... Stephensd (talk) 17:20, 27 October 2015 (UTC)
The new way of handling collapsible tables works fine but I think it may need a couple of aesthetic tweaks. (1) Why does it say both 'collapse' and 'hide' at the top of every collapsible table? (2) 'nowrap' doesn't seem to work on table headers and the 'collapse' and 'hide' links wrap text in the top row in an undesirable way, as can be seen for example here.

FIXED issues have been moved to /Settled Issues

General Maintenance

Update to 1.34.1 on 20 April 2020. Migrated MySQL database to 5.7 and updated PHP to 7.2.

Patching to 1.19.24 completed yesterday. This is likely to be final 1.19 patch before an upgrade path to 1.24 is planned, as 1.19 is due to be removed form LTS schedules next month. Stephensd (talk) 14:26, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

We were offline this afternoon, due to PHP upgrades, patching and a couple of other issues. Stephensd (talk) 17:23, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

1.19.15 has been released. However, the release notes do not appear to address the significant issues that broke our install. For that reason, I'm holding off. There may come a point, when the issues we identified are resolved, when I can roll all these patches together and apply them, but it isn't yet :) Stephensd (talk) 15:00, 3 April 2014 (UTC)


I have, for the current time, rolled back mw to 1.19.12. This is in response to issues concerning use of HotCat and problems with watchlist functions, inter alia. There seems to be an issue with the 1.19.13 patch, which is acknowledged as a bug at Mediawiki Bugzilla (63049) Stephensd (talk) 11:19, 25 March 2014 (UTC)


Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.13 following a security and maintenance update Stephensd (talk) 08:18, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

This update seems to have broken HotCat and article watching. It also seems to have opened a "hole" for a new type of rouge registrations to take place whereby not only the captcha is broken but the new rogue user creates a user page and an article with junk content. This latter issue is less problematic than the first two, of course, because there are only one or two rogue users to deal with per day, whereas the other two functions are central to the way the wiki works. Thanks. --Toni Sant (talk) 10:08, 23 March 2014 (UTC)
I've hacked the Hot Cat Gadget to use the new convention (the gadget is updated direct from Wikimedia servers, instead of on a local copy). I'll check out the captcha and watch code, which has probably been fiddled with by the patch, which I suppose I could look at rolling back, but I've removed the rogue users for today...Stephensd (talk) 22:19, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
Doing more digging - seen something which might cause a problem - possible problem with 1.19.13 patch, which I have submitted to MW bugzilla. Will have to see what gives Stephensd (talk) 23:58, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
Thanks! HotCat works again now. --Toni Sant (talk) 11:40, 26 March 2014 (UTC)

Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.12 following a security and maintenance update Stephensd (talk) 12:33, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.11 following an urgent security upgrade (bugzilla) stephensd (talk) 22:00, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.10 following security and maintenance upgrades stephensd (talk) 20:23, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.9 following security and maintenance upgrades Stephensd (talk) 16:07, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.8 following security and maintenance upgrades Stephensd (talk) 12:11, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.6 following security and maintenance upgrades Semantic MW has an upgrade available (1.7.1 -> 1.8.0) but this can happen in the near future Stephensd (talk) 17:38, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

Mediawiki has now been patched to 1.19.5 following security and maintenance upgrades released yesterday Stephensd (talk) 11:39, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Mediawiki upgraded to 1.19.2 on Aug 31 following earlier migration from 1.15.3 to 1.19.1. Several core security fixes made. Stephensd (talk) 08:34, 31 August 2012 (EDT)

Maintenance templates

We need to develop Maintenance Templates to enable smoother/efficient maintenance. Currently doing this for stubs and clean up notices but we need a systematic way to develop more and use these effectively. --Toni Sant (talk) 10:05, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

• There are now templates in place for Delete and SpeedyDelete marking, as of yesterday Stephensd (talk) 08:34, 31 August 2012 (EDT)


Usability

Menus

  • Can the word HELP in the left hand menu (not the bold one) be replaced by INTERACTION, as in wikimedia pls? --Joejulian (talk) 14:33, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
  • A link to Help:Frequently asked questions could be added to left hand menu, under section INTERACTION (HELP up till now) --Joejulian (talk) 14:33, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Look and feel

  • Can we revisit the overall look and feel of the wiki? Specifically: choice of fonts for headers and use of red and blue lettering. Also having problems getting bold and italics to render properly on pages - Alex Grech (talk) This appears to be a Chrome/Firefox issue. We therefore need to keep in mind cross-browser matters. --Toni Sant (talk) 09:21, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
Can you point me at some specific examples, please? The skins css is fairly compendious and I'd need to know which styles are being affected to be able to narrow things down a touch. Stephensd 15:14, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
Ok, had a look with Toni. Reverted body fonts to Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif to make sure extended chars in the UTF set are in the fonts. This may have been the problem, with embedded fonts not having them all, so font substitution being used to fill. Stephensd 17:21, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
Now fiddled with link colours etc. a little more; hope this is more agreeable for the moment, unless there are major objections. Stephensd 22:26, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
All's well for now with fonts and colors. I've sub-headed further discussion into a sub-section right below this text. --Toni Sant (talk) 19:30, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
  • I'd like to look at tweaking the Main page banner a bit. The 'fixed' width causes some problems with rendering on the m3pmobile skin Stephensd 17:27, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Colours

  • Could we find some alternative colour to green for roll overs? We still have too many different font colours, which are potentially distracting.Alex Grech (talk)
The header font has been chosen to sit better with the logo and colours. I'll have a look at the hover and active link colors though.
Other than these, the colours are basically, grey, black and red. For now, ,this fits with the general scheme of things, I think. The external (blue) links are more difficult to sort out - the settings I'm applying in the skin don't seem to be doing what they should be. Stephensd 15:01, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
Right now, links are in red, but when a link page is visited, it reverts to black and bold text. Could we indicate that a visited link page is still a link page by, say, underlining the link (as is the case in Wikipedia)? Some users are not realising that some bold text actually represents a link. --Alex Grech (talk) 15:37, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
As it is, the navigation menus (and toolbox)on the left is a bit confusing. Could all the text in the menus be black, and only turn red when either it is rolled over by the cursor (momentarily), or when that particular page is clicked and displayed; ie. if page 'Main Page' is displayed, then the corresponding item in the menu (Main Page) changes to red for as long as that page is displayed...or become underlined for that matter. Tony Grimaud(talk) 18:15, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
I agree! It's time for us to revisit how we display links, hovers, and visited links. --Toni Sant (talk) 19:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
I fixed the link colors by switching the visited and hover colors in the various css files. There's quite a few of them! This should make things a little less problematic in the foreseeable future. --Toni Sant (talk) 19:30, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
Still not convinced the link colors are right the way they appear now. Grey visited links are rather confusing. --Toni Sant (talk) 13:14, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Consistent names for talk/discussion links (pending)

  • Another thing that we should look at is the talk/discussion issue. The button at the top of the page reads 'discussion', however, when this button is click, it takes you to a page saying: 'Editing Talk:The Artiste's Name'. This is a bit confusing too. Is it possible to change this to always read: 'Editing discussion:The Artiste's Name'? This way, there will be more consistency. Tony Grimaud(talk) 21:05, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
Ah, yes, consistency! I've noticed this somewhere else too...can't remember where now. But yes, we need to keep this in mind as we move along. --Toni Sant (talk) 06:58, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Help section (pending)

How do we improve the help links? --Alex Grech (talk) 08:25, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Tony Grimaud is now looking into this and has started by seeing what we can adapt from Wikipedia as a simple set of help pages to get us going. --Toni Sant (talk) 13:46, 16 October 2010 (UTC)
I'm also adding new stuff as it becomes available...but we obviously still need to do a lot more here. --Toni Sant (talk) 15:04, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Categories (pending)

We going to need to look at the taxonomy of categories sometime soon as things can easily get out of hand if we allow this to slip from the top of our agenda as more new entries are made. In the process we should also be keeping an eye on Special:UncategorizedCategories / Special:UnusedCategories and Special:WantedCategories --Toni Sant (talk) 13:46, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Another interesting thing to consider: How to sort the Categories list at the bottom of an article. --Toni Sant (talk) 13:08, 6 October 2012 (EDT)

Technical Considerations

URLs and Permalinks

  • Can we activate redirection for non-CasE-sENsiTive titles? This is available on wikipedia - so, is it a configuration option in MediaWiki? - Toni Sant (talk)
Action on this question has now moved to the M3P:To Do list#URLs_.26_Permalinks_.28ongoing.29. --Toni Sant (talk) 17:51, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
  • Emails generated automatically by the system still indicate the webmaster address from spettaklu.org. We should probably change this to something more appropriate either using m3p.com.mt or identifying spettaklu.org more clearly with m3p on the email address itself. --Toni Sant (talk) 09:38, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
I think this has been sorted...but I'm not 100% sure. --Toni Sant (talk) 17:51, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
  • Can we make all external links open in a new tab or window by default? --Toni Sant (talk) 16:33, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
  • I'm thinking that further discussion on the next two sub-sections (naming conventions & refering pages) belongs under help. Let's see if anyone comments about this and/or moves them in the coming days. If not I'll move them myself. --Toni Sant (talk) 17:51, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Naming conventions

We need to ensure that names of people who are known by nicknames follow this format: Firstname "Nickname" Surname. All variations on the name should refer to the page named this way. This should probably also be on a Help document in relation to style that comes as a linked document from the editorial policy.--Toni Sant (talk) 12:35, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

We also need to look into a naming convention for gig reviews to enable disambiguation for page that bear the same name as an artist page or similar. --Toni Sant (talk) 12:38, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

I am planning to pay some attention to this issue in the coming weeks. --Steve Borg (talk) 12:36, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

And the rest...

Removed these three links from the Getting Started section on the Main Page because they may be confusing to people visiting the site for the very first time.

We probably need to keep these handy somewhere eventually, but I thought I'd just dump them here for now.--Toni Sant (talk) 11:05, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

And a few other things we need to emulate/adapt:

--Toni Sant (talk) 20:18, 3 November 2012 (EDT)

See also

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