Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-04-17/Technology report

Technology report

Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News

Option developed for forcing edit summaries

Last week, a new option was added to the preferences page, enabling users to force edit summaries. If the option is turned on and an edit without a summary is attempted, MediaWiki will then ask for confirmation of the edit, reminding the user that no edit summary has been entered. This option had been available previously as a user script.

Parser functions enabled

Developer Tim Starling has enabled the ParserFunction extension on all Wikimedia wikis. The extension allows for the simplification of logic code and "mathematical expressions and conditional constructs", according to Starling. Several templates have already been simplified because of the extension.

Spam blacklist loophole rectified

A loophole in the spam blacklist was corrected by developer Rob Church. Previously, any URL in the spam list could be added by inserting hidden comments () in the address; the loophole was being exploited by those who wished to add the spam sites. The change now prohibits the addition of the sites listed, even if comments are inserted in the website address.

Last week in servers

Server-related events, problems, and changes included:

12 April — English Wikipedia moved to separate cluster from other databases
13 April — CAPTCHAs enabled on Chinese Wikipedia to fight a vandalbot attack
15 April — English Wikipedia's main database server crashes, site briefly in read-only mode

Also this week: From the editor — Encyclopedia comparison — Persistent hoax — Answers tool — News and notes — Press coverage — Features and admins — B.R.I.O.N. — T.R.O.L.L. — M.A.N.I.A.