User talk:Tahmid/Archives/2025/11
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Tech News: 2025-45
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Administrators will now find that Special:MergeHistory is now significantly more flexible about what it can merge. It can now merge sections taken from the middle of the history of the source (rather than only the start) and insert revisions anywhere in the history of the destination page (rather than only the start). [1]
- For users with "Automatically subscribe to topics" enabled in their preferences, starting a new topic or adding a reply to an existing topic will now subscribe them to replies to that topic. Previously, this would only happen if the DiscussionTools "Add topic" or "Reply" widgets were used. When DiscussionTools was originally launched existing accounts were not opted in to automatic topic subscriptions, so this change should primarily affect newer accounts and users who have deliberately changed their preferences since that time. [2]
- Scribunto modules can now be used to generate SVG images. This can be used to build charts, graphics and other visualizations dynamically through Lua, reducing the need to compose them externally and upload them as files. [3]
- Wikimedia sites now provide all anonymous users with the option to enable a dark mode color scheme, featuring light-colored text on a dark background. This enhancement aims to deliver a more enjoyable reading experience, especially in dimly lit environments. [4]
- Users with large watchlists have long faced timeouts when editing Special:EditWatchlist. The page now loads entries in smaller sections instead of all at once due to a paging update, allowing everyone to edit their watchlists smoothly. As part of the database update, sorting by expiry has been removed because it was over 100× slower than sorting by title. A community wish has been created to explore alternative ways to restore sort-by-expiry. If this feature is important to you, please support the wish! [5]
View all 31 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the fixing of the persisting highlighting when using VisualEditor find and replace during a query. [6]
Updates for technical contributors
- Since 2019 the Wikimedia URL Shortener at https://w.wiki is available for all Wikimedia wikis to create short links to articles, permalinks, diffs, etc. It is available in the sidebar as "Get shortened URL". There are 30 wikis that also install an older "ShortUrl" extension. The old extension will soon be removed. This means
/s/URLs will not be advertised under article titles via HTMLclass="title-shortlink". The/s/URLs will keep working. [7] - On Thursday, October 30, the MediaWiki Interfaces and SRE Service Operations teams began rerouting Action API traffic through a common API gateway. Individual wikis will be updated based on the standard release groups, with total traffic increased over time. This change is expected to be non-breaking and non-disruptive. If any issues are observed, please file a Phabricator ticket to the Service Ops team board.
- MediaWiki Train deployments will pause for the final two weeks of 2025: 22 December and 29 December. Backport windows will also pause between Monday, 22 December 2025 and Thursday, 2 January 2026. A backport window is a scheduled time to add things like bug fixes and configuration changes. There are seven deployment trains remaining for 2025. [8]
- Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
In depth
- In 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation reported that AI systems and search engines increasingly use Wikipedia content without driving users to the site, contributing to an 8% drop in human pageviews compared to 2024. After detecting bots disguised as humans, Wikimedia updated its traffic data to reflect this shift. Read more about current user trends on Wikipedia in a Diff blog post.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 19:35, 3 November 2025 (UTC)
অনুবাদ বিজ্ঞপ্তি: Template:Cat main
প্রিয় Tahmid,
আপনাকে এই বিজ্ঞপ্তিটি দেওয়া হচ্ছে কারণ আপনি Meta-Wiki ওয়েবসাইটটিতে Bishnupriya ভাষায় অনুবাদ করতে একজন অনুবাদকারী হিসেবে নাম লিখিয়েছিলেন। Template:Cat main পাতাটি এখন অনুবাদের জন্য উপলব্ধ রয়েছে। আপনি এখানে গিয়ে এটি অনুবাদ করতে পারেন:
এই পাতাটির অগ্রাধিকার হল নিম্ন।
আপনার সাহায্য অত্যন্ত প্রশংসার দাবিদার। আপনার মত অনুবাদকগণই Meta-Wiki-কে একটি সত্যিকারের বহুভাষী সম্প্রদায় হিসেবে গড়ে তুলতে সাহায্য করছে।
আপনি আপনার বিজ্ঞপ্তির পছন্দসমূহ পরিবর্তন করতে চাইলে এখানে যান।
আপনাকে ধন্যবাদ!
Meta-Wiki অনুবাদ সমন্বয়কারী, 06:12, 6 November 2025 (UTC)
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #225 is out: First round of voting for naming the wiki for abstract content closed; Calling for Wiktionary functions; Embedded Wikifunctions on Bengali Wikipedia and seven more Wiktionaries
There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we update you on the closing of the first phase of the naming contest for Abstract Wikipedia, we introduce a possible implementation of Wikifunctions for Wiktionaries, we talk about our latest outreach events, and we take a look at the latest Type and software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive!
Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:06, 6 November 2025 (UTC)
This Month in GLAM: October 2025
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Tech News: 2025-46
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
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- Starting November 12, users will see a change in the appearance of talk pages on some Wikipedias. Almost all wikis have received this design change; English Wikipedia will get these changes later. You can read more on Diff. Users can opt out of these changes in their user preferences in "Show discussion activity". [9]
- MediaWiki can now display a page indicator automatically while a page is protected. This feature is disabled by default. It can be enabled by community request. [10]
- Using the "Show preview" or "Show changes" buttons in the wikitext editor will now carry over certain URL parameters like 'useskin', 'uselang' and 'section'. This update also fixes an issue where, if the browser crashed while previewing an edit to a single section, saving this edit could overwrite the entire page with just that section’s content. [11][12][13]
- Wikivoyage wikis can use colored map markers in the article text. The text of these markers will now be shown in contrasting black or white color, instead of always being white. Local workarounds for the problem can be removed. [14]
- The Activity tab in the Wikipedia Android app is now available for all users. The new tab offers personalized insights into reading, editing, and donation activity, while simplifying navigation and making app use more engaging. [15]
- The Reader Growth team is launching an experiment called "Image browsing" to test how to make it easier for readers to browse and discover images on Wikipedia articles. This experiment, a mobile-only A/B test, will go live on English Wikipedia in the week of November 17 and will run for four weeks, affecting 0.05% of users on English wiki. The test launched on November 3 on Arabic, Chinese, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese wikis, affecting up to 10% of users on those wikis. [16]
- View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example the inability to lock accounts on mobile sites has been fixed. [17]
Updates for technical contributors
- Nominations are open on Wikitech for new Toolforge standards committee members. The committee oversees the Toolforge Right to fork policy and Abandoned tool policy among other duties. Nominations will remain open through 2025-11-28.
- The JWT issuer field in OAuth 2 access tokens for SUL wikis has been changed to
https://meta.wikimedia.org. Old access tokens will still work. [18] - The JWT subject field in OAuth 2 access tokens will soon change from
<user id>tomw:<identity type>:<user id>, where<identity type>is typicallyCentralAuth:(for SUL wikis) orlocal:<wiki id>(for other wikis). This is to avoid conflicts between different user ID types, and to make OAuth 2 access tokens and thesessionJwtcookie more similar. Old access tokens will still work. [19] - MediaWiki's block messages (blockedtext, blockedtext-partial, autoblockedtext, systemblockedtext, blockedtext-tempuser, autoblockedtext-tempuser) now support additional parameters indicating whether the user is blocked from editing their own user talk page
$9or emailing other users$10. [20] - A
REL1_45branch for MediaWiki core and each of the extensions and skins in Wikimedia git has been created. This is the first step in the release process for MediaWiki 1.45.0, scheduled for late November 2025. If you are working on a critical bug fix or working on a new feature, you may need to take note of this change. [21] - The process for generating CirrusSearch dumps has been updated due to slowing performance. If you encounter any issues migrating to the replacement dumps, please contact the Search Platform Team for support. [22][23]
- Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 20:38, 10 November 2025 (UTC)
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #226 is out: Getting ready for second round of voting for naming the wiki with abstract content; Rewriting the backend: Why Rust?
There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we summarise current discussion regarding the naming contest for Abstract Wikipedia, we discuss how we are rewriting the backend, we ask for help in substituting a function, we suggest you the recordings of Wikifunctions-related sessions at the WikidataCon 2025, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive!
Also we remind you that the next Natural Language Generation Special Interest Group meeting will be held on November 18, at 16:00 UTC (link to the meeting).
Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:42, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
Join us for “Many Tongues, One Movement: Voices Across Languages”!
Hello Tahmid/Archives/2025/11,
We’re excited to invite you to an inspiring global virtual gathering: the first Capacity Exchange Translat-a-thon.
Together with Language Diversity Hub, the Capacity Exchange (CapX) team will host its first Translation Marathon dedicated to ensuring linguistic equity in access to this amazing tool aimed to connect Wikimedians.
If you enjoy contributing to Wikimedia projects through translating and adapting content into different languages, this event is for you! Join us in the celebration of the multilingual spirit of the Wikimedia Movement at an event where communities that contribute in diverse languages will be able to share local knowledge and collaborate across borders.
Many Tongues, One Movement: Voices Across Languages
- Date: December 6, 2025
- Time: 12 PM (UTC) - Check the event page for your local timezone
- Location: Online (Meta-Wiki + live session links)
If you can’t join the live event, you can still contribute to the translations! Edits will be counted for two weeks, until December 20th. And everyone who participates will receive a special badge to display on their CapX profiles.
Strengthen your collaboration through CapX
We invite you and your community to join the Capacity Exchange (CapX), a Wikimedia community-built platform for connecting, collaborating, and exchanging skills with peers across the movement.
CapX helps Wikimedians and organizations find each other, share expertise, and build stronger, more connected communities.
Whether you’re an individual contributor, a user group, a community initiative or an affiliate, CapX helps you grow through knowledge exchange.
More information
→ Explore the CapX platform: capx.toolforge.org
→ Read: User Guide & FAQ
→ Watch: Meet the Capacity Exchange video
→ Join our Telegram community chat: CapX Telegram Group
If your community, usergroup or affiliate would like to have a CapX organization profile, please reach out at capx@wmnobrasil.org, and we’d be delighted to support you.
With warm regards,
Joris Darlington Quarshie
Outreach Facilitator,
Capacity Exchange Project – Wikimedia Brasil
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:55, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-47
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- The Reader Experience team is experimenting with reading lists on mobile web, allowing logged-in readers with no edits to save private lists of articles for later. The experiment is running on Arabic, Chinese, French, Indonesian, and Vietnamese Wikipedias since the week of 10 November, and will begin on English Wikipedia the week of 17 November.
- Users who can’t receive their email verification code during login can now get help by submitting a form on a new special page. This update is part of the Account Security initiative. If your account has an email address, please make sure you still have access to it. When logging in from a new device or location without 2FA, you may be asked to enter a 6-digit code sent by email to finish logging in. Learn more.
- One new wiki has been created: a Wikisource in Minangkabau (
s:min:) [24] - View all 23 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week.
Updates for technical contributors
- As part of the Parser Unification project, the Content Transform Team rolled out Parsoid as the default parser to many low-traffic Wikipedias and is preparing the next step to high traffic ones. This message is an invitation for you to opt-in to Parsoid, as described in the Extension:ParserMigration documentation, and identify any issues you might encounter with your own workflow using bots, gadgets, or user scripts. Please, let us know through the "Report Visual Bug" link in the Tools sidebar or create a phab ticket and tag the Content Transform Team in Phabricator.
- Unsupported Tools: Several issues with Video2Commons have been fixed, including filename-related upload failures, black-video imports, and retry handling. AV1 support has also been added. Ongoing work focuses on backend stability, ffmpeg errors, subtitle imports, metadata handling, and playlist uploads. To track specific tasks, check the Phabricator board.
- Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Meetings and events
- Save the date for the next Wikimedia Hackathon happening in Milan, Italy from May 1–3, 2026. Registration will open in January 2026. Scholarship applications are currently open, and will close on November 28, 2025. If you have any questions, please email hackathon@wikimedia.org.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 17:26, 17 November 2025 (UTC)
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #227 is out: Second round of voting for naming the wiki with language-independent content; Sharing function calls
There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we announce the start of the second phase of the naming contest for Abstract Wikipedia, we share the results of the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change contest, we share the recording of the last NLG SIG meeting, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive!
Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:11, 21 November 2025 (UTC)
Tech News: 2025-48
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Updates for editors
- Last week, the Wikimedia Search Team recreated the "DWIM" (Do What I Mean) gadget functionality server-side, for Russian and Hebrew Wikipedias. This feature adds cross-keyboard suggestions to the standard search-box suggestions. For example, searching for cxfcnmt on Russian Wikipedia will now add suggestions for счастье ("happiness") that the user probably intended. They plan to enable this feature for other Russian and Hebrew wikis this week. [25]
- Later this week, users of the "Improved Syntax Highlighting" beta feature will have syntax highlighting available in DiscussionTools. This requires that the "Enable editing tools in source mode" preference be set. [26]
- Campaign events extension – the set of tools for coordinating events and other on-wiki collaborations has now been deployed to all Wikimedia wikis. A new feature known as Collaborative contribution to help organizers and participants see the impact of activities has also been added. Join the upcoming learning session to see the new feature in action and share your feedback.
- View all 24 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, the bug which stopped CodeReviewBot from working, has now been fixed. [27]
Updates for technical contributors
- Users of Wikimedia API can join a usability study to help validate the new design of Wikimedia REST API sandboxes. Interested participants should fill the recruitment survey. [28]
- The MediaWiki Interfaces team is deprecating XSLT stylesheets within the Action API. Support for
format=xml&xlst={stylesheet}will be removed from Wikimedia projects by the end of November, 2025. In addition, it will soon be disabled by default in MediaWiki release versions: v1.43 (LTS), v1.44, and v1.45. Support for XSLT stylesheets will be fully removed from MediaWiki v1.46 (expected to release between April and May 2026). [29] - The WDQS legacy endpoint (query-legacy-full.wikidata.org) will be decommissioned at the end of December 2025, and finally closed down on 7th January 2026. After this date, users should expect requests to query.wikidata.org that require the full graph to fail or return invalid results if they are not rewritten to use SPARQL federation. The team encourages users to ensure that tools and workflows use the supported WDQS endpoints (https://query.wikidata.org/ - Main graph or https://query-scholarly.wikidata.org/ - Scholarly graph). For support with migrating use cases, please review the Data Access and Request a Query pages for details and assistance on alternative access methods.
- Detailed code updates later this week: MediaWiki
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 15:56, 24 November 2025 (UTC)
Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia Newsletter #228 is out: Vote on the new wiki name! Finishing each other’s sentences
There is a new update for Abstract Wikipedia and Wikifunctions. Please, come and read it!
In this issue, we update you on our naming contest for Abstract Wikipedia, we discuss our progress on sentence creation with functions, and we take a look at the latest software developments.
Want to catch up with the previous updates? Check our archive!
Also, we remind you that if you have questions or ideas to discuss, the next Volunteers' Corner will be held on December 1, at 18:30 UTC (link to the meeting).
Enjoy the reading! -- User:Sannita (WMF) (talk) 11:38, 27 November 2025 (UTC)