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162: 220:). Although developers looking at the issue were initially puzzled by the intermittent nature of the main problem, there is now a growing consensus that most of the problems will resolve themselves as various caches get invalidated. Unfortunately, problems with the release were not confined to user scripting; indeed, quite a number of short-term fixes were needed to stop the update crashing servers due to its unexpectedly high memory footprint, whilst bugs relating to 394: 117: 107: 306: 33: 127: 87: 137: 97: 321:
went to press last week, problems with the transfer of thumbnail functionality to a new, more extensible Swift-based system, came to the fore. Contrary to last week's report that only "minimal disruption" had been caused by the transfer, it transpired that the system was actually significantly slower
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The relatively tight schedule will head-off the risk that code review is allowed to get out of hand between the deployment (for which the number of unreviewed revisions was driven down to zero) and the switchover (for which the number of unreviewed revisions needs to be at zero). It also prevents the
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Extensions running on Wikimedia wikis will be transferred to Git immediately after the core MediaWiki code. Non-WMF extensions in the shared Wikimedia.org SVN repository can either take up the offer of a transfer, or elect to sort out their own hosting arrangements. Developers suggest that extension
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to discuss whether any changes in procedure were required. The debate follows recent suggestions that the group, which is responsible for approving or declining requests to run bots on the grounds of community consensus and quality of implementation, may need to rethink its policy to place greater
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It all depends on the section methinks; Tech, ITN, and N&N generally have discussions about what's up, whereas the Discussion report and the Arbitration report tend to dissolve into "this is inflammatory", "this isn't neutral", "this word is inappropriate", so on and so
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Nonetheless, the deployment team is still expected to be able to keep to the original deployment timetable, which sees the final Wikimedia wikis upgraded during the early hours of March 2. Indeed, there are significant incentives to make sure that it does: the main
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potential for any overlap between old-style "post-commit" review and new style "pre-commit" review, and hence the possibility of the same code being reviewed twice. Staff took the opportunity this week to explain the reasoning behind the switchover on the
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than expected, delaying some page load times by as much as ten seconds. Fortunately, the problems with the new system could be quickly resolved; at the time of writing, all thumbnails were once again being processed via a Swift-based backend.
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IRC channel. Developer Gregory Varnum, in introducing the project, described it as "an opportunity to learn more about utilizing MediaWiki's ResourceLoader to ask questions about developing MediaWiki extensions"
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I'd just like to say again that (tho I know NOTHING about this technical stuff) I really appreciate this section and think Jarry1250 writes so that even I can sort of understand what's going on. Thanks!
343:: Users following the official @wikimediatech Twitter and Identi.ca accounts were surprised this week to read two "problematic" tweets emanating from the accounts, one of which included a "racial slur" ( 443: 433: 428: 381: 372: 213: 438: 423: 418: 73: 411: 337:). Further development work on the ResourceLoader, which was introduced in MediaWiki 1.17 as a way of speeding up page load times, will go live as part of the MediaWiki 1.19 release. 515:
writers. Constructive criticism is also always appreciated, as are factual corrections (from those who know better than me) and just general suggestions - I'm all ears. Regards, -
405: 52: 41: 208:), end users quickly reported problems with their watchlists and user gadgets. The problems were exacerbated by a fault with the deprecated secure.wikimedia.org server ( 626: 328:: The next MediaWiki Workshop (aimed at both volunteer and staff developers) will focus on the ResourceLoader, and will be held on February 23 at 21:00 UTC in the 268:). The long awaited move will therefore immediately follow the deployment of MediaWiki 1.19 to Wikimedia wikis, but precede its full release to external wikis. 173:
went live to its first twelve (Wikimedia) wikis (a spread of different types of project including Wikisources, two Wikipedias, a Wikiquote, a Wikiversity and
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for those who did not develop MediaWiki, but were still reliant on the old repository for keeping their installations of MediaWiki on the
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A thank you to both you and Sumana for your comments (last week and this) - I always like to hear from readers, as, I'm sure, do other
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shed light on a number of issues with the release, including the appearance of a number of bugs that needed fixing before the planned
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A racial slur found its way into the posts of WMF accounts on microblogging services Identi.ca (pictured) and Twitter this week.
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Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for many weeks.
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switchover has already been scheduled to begin on March 3 (see below), making any overrun inherently problematic.
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Version 1.19 of the MediaWiki software that powers Wikimedia wikis went live to its first twelve wikis this week.
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maintainers are likely to have around 12 months to make the decision before the old repository goes read-only.
200:) which resulted in certain core variables not being defined. Since other scripts relied upon these variables ( 273: 276:, and on the wikitech-l mailing list there was a discussion of the elements of the new system most likely to 217: 362: 355:(all log entries are automatically tweeted by the @wikimediatech account without pre-post moderation). 182: 535: 498: 178: 161: 197: 90: 470: 257: 120: 352: 221: 100: 253: 130: 344: 334: 281: 277: 265: 233: 229: 225: 209: 516: 261: 241: 150: 620: 285: 347:). A quick investigation traced the source of the tweets to corresponding malicious 110: 305: 140: 174: 193: 68:
Major strands of development cycle coalesce as 1.19 is deployed to first wikis
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repository for the core MediaWiki software will be changed from the current
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and the recent changes IRC feed are still outstanding (also wikitech-l:
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on February 21 (an up-to-date list of such bugs and their statuses
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entries, which were themselves prompted by the actions of an IRC
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For example, developers are currently wrestling with a number of
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talk page of the English Knowledge (XXG)'s Bot Approvals Group
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emphasis on the history of the operator requesting the task.
31: 280:, including references to several bugs. A separate thread 486: 479: 459: 196:-related issues, including a problem (filed as bug # 157:
1.19 deployment runs into trouble almost immediately
484:If your comment has not appeared here, you can try 8: 252:WMF developers confirmed this week that the 248:Main Git switchover confirmed for March 3–4 169:Over three days in the middle of the week, 361:: Several discussions were started on the 627:Knowledge (XXG) Signpost archives 2012-02 264:repository over the course of March 3–4 ( 18:Knowledge (XXG):Knowledge (XXG) Signpost 487: 463: 341:Racial slur tweeted by official account 67: 326:IRC meeting to discuss ResourceLoader 7: 359:Adjustments to bot approval process 53: 28: 469:These comments are automatically 135: 125: 115: 105: 95: 85: 480:add the page to your watchlist 1: 547:03:15, 23 February 2012 (UTC) 520:00:29, 22 February 2012 (UTC) 507:13:49, 21 February 2012 (UTC) 183:rollout to Wikimedia Commons 278:take developers by surprise 643: 317:: Very shortly after the 335:wikitech-l mailing list 266:wikitech-l mailing list 210:wikitech-l mailing list 477:. To follow comments, 397: 315:Swift support stutters 310: 282:discussed instructions 214:were already expecting 166: 36: 396: 385:"Technology report" → 308: 164: 35: 473:from this article's 260:repository to a new 177:). As expected, the 377:"Technology report" 464:Discuss this story 444:Arbitration report 434:WikiProject report 398: 311: 167: 42:← Back to Contents 37: 488:purging the cache 449:Technology report 429:Discussion report 65:Technology report 47:View Latest Issue 634: 610: 545: 543: 491: 489: 483: 462: 439:Featured content 416: 408: 406:20 February 2012 401: 384: 376: 349:server admin log 331: 222:merging accounts 207: 203: 153: 139: 138: 129: 128: 119: 118: 109: 108: 99: 98: 89: 88: 59: 57: 55: 54:20 February 2012 642: 641: 637: 636: 635: 633: 632: 631: 617: 616: 615: 614: 613: 612: 611: 606: 604: 599: 594: 589: 584: 577: 557: 556: 541: 534: 493: 485: 478: 467: 466: 460:+ Add a comment 458: 454: 453: 452: 409: 404: 402: 399: 388: 387: 382: 379: 374: 329: 298: 250: 205: 202:mw.user.options 201: 159: 154: 148: 147: 146: 145: 136: 126: 116: 106: 96: 86: 80: 77: 66: 62: 60: 50: 49: 44: 38: 26: 25: 24: 12: 11: 5: 640: 638: 630: 629: 619: 618: 605: 600: 595: 590: 585: 580: 579: 578: 559: 558: 555: 554: 553: 552: 551: 550: 549: 525: 524: 523: 522: 499:MathewTownsend 468: 465: 457: 456: 455: 451: 446: 441: 436: 431: 426: 424:News and notes 421: 419:Special report 415: 403: 391: 390: 389: 380: 371: 370: 369: 368: 367: 356: 338: 330:#wikimedia-dev 323: 297: 294: 274:Wikimedia blog 249: 246: 206:mw.user.tokens 171:MediaWiki 1.19 158: 155: 144: 143: 133: 123: 113: 103: 93: 82: 81: 78: 72: 71: 70: 69: 64: 63: 61: 58: 45: 40: 39: 30: 29: 27: 15: 14: 13: 10: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 639: 628: 625: 624: 622: 609: 603: 598: 593: 588: 583: 575: 571: 567: 563: 560:Keep up with 548: 544: 539: 538: 531: 530: 529: 528: 527: 526: 521: 518: 514: 510: 509: 508: 504: 500: 495: 494: 490: 481: 476: 472: 461: 450: 447: 445: 442: 440: 437: 435: 432: 430: 427: 425: 422: 420: 417: 413: 407: 400:In this issue 395: 386: 378: 364: 360: 357: 354: 350: 346: 342: 339: 336: 327: 324: 320: 316: 313: 312: 307: 303: 302: 295: 293: 289: 287: 286:bleeding edge 283: 279: 275: 269: 267: 263: 259: 255: 247: 245: 243: 237: 235: 231: 227: 223: 219: 215: 211: 199: 195: 190: 188: 184: 180: 176: 172: 163: 156: 152: 142: 134: 132: 124: 122: 114: 112: 104: 102: 94: 92: 84: 83: 75: 56: 48: 43: 34: 23: 19: 562:The Signpost 561: 536: 512: 448: 412:all comments 358: 340: 325: 318: 314: 300: 299: 290: 270: 251: 238: 191: 187:is available 168: 608:Suggestions 471:transcluded 179:deployments 345:wikitech-l 258:Subversion 194:JavaScript 79:Share this 74:Contribute 22:2012-02-20 602:Subscribe 517:Jarry1250 475:talk page 254:canonical 151:Jarry1250 621:Category 597:Newsroom 592:Archives 574:Mastodon 570:Facebook 533:forth... 513:Signpost 375:Previous 319:Signpost 296:In brief 121:LinkedIn 101:Facebook 20:‎ | 566:Twitter 218:example 111:Twitter 131:Reddit 91:E-mail 587:About 353:troll 198:34409 16:< 582:Home 503:talk 383:Next 204:and 175:Meta 141:Digg 572:or 564:on 542:Mar 537:Res 262:Git 242:Git 189:). 149:By 76:— 623:: 568:, 505:) 373:← 288:. 236:) 232:, 228:, 576:. 501:( 492:. 482:. 414:) 410:( 333:( 234:3 230:2 226:1 216:(

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