User talk:Yaron Koren

Cargo Question
I just wondered if it was possible to somehow get a db row _ID as part of a template? E.g. Where I can reference table fields using, , etc, it would be nice if I could go to get the db row associated with that template use. Note, I'm mainly thinking for pages where the same template can be used multiple times on a page. For more info on what I'm trying to achieve, see the mw support desk issue I raised.

Referata
There is no active admin on referata so I need to be an admin it is just a request MwLegoMaster (talk) 19:24, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Calendar Changes
I am not sure how those changes were made. Must have been an errant paste in process of editing https://wiki.jacksonheights.nyc/wiki/Calendar. Quite sorry. Tomlzz1 (talk) 21:36, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Referata Crashed/Possible hackings
Angrybirdsfan: Hello, I wanted to inform, can you fix this site? Either it crashed or someone hacked the servers, and theres a hacker on the loose, he also got someones IP Address and is now going to get a user banned.
 * Here's your answer--from one whose handle is "[Hacked by] Delicious". (Something about an upgrade to MW 1.30. [Also, said outage has upended my schedule/workflow on a conlang wiki I maintain singlehandedly.]) --Slgrandson (talk) 23:43, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Despite my best efforts (I only started last night!), looks like someone got into Referata's system, turning the background red on its home page and replacing the logo there with "Hacked by Del.icio.us". (I already blocked the IP and range responsible.) If you're ready to join me in the cleanup efforts, LIMAFOX76, I'll make you an admin too. Let's get cracking!


 * P.S. I'll e-mail Mr. Koren--and WikiWorks--about the invasion at hand. --Slgrandson (talk) 00:07, 4 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Site's gone away again the sooner I've given this update; "Touched by Del.ici.ous" is all there is on every page with a Referata domain. (And just as I was starting to get cracking on the cleanup again.) Beats me who else apart from Yaron has (authorised) access to the wiki farm's infrastructure. Again, I'll see about an e-mail. (Wouldn't want to see a good host die like that.) --Slgrandson (talk) 00:14, 4 May 2019 (UTC)

Hacking on Referata websites
The Delicous kid just set up something that redirects every Referata MediaWiki page to a page that says nothing but "Touched by Delicious". You need to find what's causing that and remove it. Also, there's a hidden PHP file called "delicious-shell" that he's using to gain server-side access. You need to get rid of that, too. -- Kamafa Delgato

You need to delete the HTAccess file, as well. The kid added my IP to that, and now the only Referata site I can access is the main one. - Kamafa Delgato

He added another "HAKD BI DILISHUS!!1" redirect. Just before that, he changed the theme on the main site to a variation of Monobook with a headache-inducing color scheme, and pretended that I was responsible. You need to move all Referata MediaWiki content to a new webserver and undo all of the Delicious kid's modifications. -- Kamafa Delgato
 * Hi Yaron, unfortunately, all the Referata wikis have been hacked (as of yesterday). I don't know if you intend to do something about this. A shame! --LIMAFOX76 (talk) 11:13, 6 May 2019 (UTC)

Hey Yaron
I think it's time to put Referata out of its misery. This is the ONLY thing you can do to stop "Delicious", because he seems to be using some sort of Remote Desktop tool to gain server-side access. Best to just shut everything down and redirect it to a page that says "Referata is now permanently closed, thanks for 11 years of memories" (or something like that). -- Kamafa Delgato

Actually, scratch that. Apparently, he only got access because sitesettings allows you to upload any file (including .php) as a site logo, not just .png, .jpg, .jpeg, or .gif files. I suggest you:


 * Remove the ability to upload a site logo from the sitesettings extension. (This is no great loss, as the same effect can be achieved via common.css.)
 * Get rid of all files (including non-image files) that were uploaded via the site logo field of sitesettings.
 * Scour the referata servers and delete any and all suspicious .php files (anything with a .php suffix that isn't part of mediawiki, smw, or any other mw extensions is probably junk).

--Kamafa Delgato


 * THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! With this suggestion, you may have singlehandedly saved Referata. I don't know how you knew that was the problem (maybe I shouldn't ask), but plugging up that particular security hole seems to have prevented the hacker from getting in to the server. Referata is now running normally again, although it still needs some "love". I also checked in a fix to the Site Settings extension, here, although I'm pretty sure that no one else is running Site Settings other than Referata - which I'm now very glad about. Thank you again! Yaron Koren (talk) 23:34, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Referata unbearably slow
Hi Yaron.

I understand that Referata recently moved to a new server and subsequently received attacks. After that, the site has been unspeakably slow. I took up to 30 minutes only to enter your talk page to leave you a message (and I failed to do so).

Is Referata lacking any funds to afford a better server than the current one? It is such a shame to see all those years wiped away so suddenly.

-AndSalx95 (talk) 05:32, 24 June 2019 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry about the extreme slowness - I'm looking into it. Yaron Koren (talk) 14:21, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

Referata Status Confusion
Hi. I was looking into wiki hosting and noticed a few things I should mention:
 * 1) Registration on Referata is down, but you probably know that; I'll be checking frequently for when it comes back up.
 * 2) AlternativeTo thinks Referata is discontinued; I imagine you will want to set them straight. (I believed them until I found this talk page.)
 * 3) And cscreators.referata.com seems to have never been cleaned up after the Delicious hack. --Jesdisciple (talk) 02:34, 1 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Additionally for cscreators, the relevant community might not be equipped to handle the problem. Given the time since the hack, they may not have an active sysadmin. (I'm not part of the community, it just came up in searches.) --Jesdisciple (talk) 02:36, 1 July 2019 (UTC)

chickipedia
" Chickipedia was launched - I wasn't involved with it, but I mention it because it was, and perhaps remains" I tried to find what it is and seems like the website is down.Uziel302 (talk) 21:31, 28 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks for pointing that out - that site stopped using MediaWiki a long time ago, and it's probably dead now. I just updated that wording. Yaron Koren (talk) 02:27, 30 July 2019 (UTC)

Any Clue on What Might be Causing the Extreme Slowness
I know there was a topic about this like... A bit over 1 month ago, but any updates on that? I really love using Referata, but it's being hard to manage a forum game when the main source of information for the players (which is a wiki using Referata's software) is extremely slow...

I really don't want to try finding a new wiki to work with, but it's getting pretty hard to handle things right now... T.T

Sorry for the bother when you're already looking into it...

-AliceShiki (talk) 16:29, 03 August 2019 (UTC)

working with mediawiki book site is also slow
I assume the book site is hosted in the same place as Referata? http://workingwithmediawiki.com/book/ is also painfully slow to load.


 * Unfortunately, I think it is not available anymore. User:LCavalini 17:11, 17 Aug 2019 (UTC)

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Sincerely, RMaung (WMF) 14:32, 9 September 2019 (UTC)

reversion of known bug
Hi yaron I see you reverted this " Wikitables are not allowed within page forms Extension talk:Page Forms/Archive March to May 2018"

I appreciate there is a work around but wikitable in the format that the wikeditor produces them and which they are defined are not allowed in pageforms fields

I was moving almost 200 documents with free text in to a template with a freetext field. lots of those pages have wiki tables in that wont be allowed in pageforms. I either have to parse all free text and attempt to modify the tables AND modify the wikeditor code so it its table button produces different output or accept the fact that page forms does not allow wikitables and solve my problem another way. This should be flagged up in flashing lights somewhere on your pageforms pages.

Kind Regards JamesDriscoll (talk) 13:45, 12 September 2019 (UTC)


 * I agree that it would be good to highlight this limitation, but that specific wording is unclear and misleading, in my opinion. As for your specific problem - do those tables really need to be part of the template call? Could they be in a section, or in the free text, instead? It's strange to put complex wikitext like tables within template fields. Yaron Koren (talk) 16:08, 12 September 2019 (UTC)


 * I'm keeping them in the free text for now - I was trying to move free text into the field so that I would have more control of where the free text is displayed on a page (I'm avoiding the problem by moving certain fields around using javascript but this too feels like a bit of a hack) I need to be able to display some template fields before the free text and some template fields it after on a page.  I also need the pageform for the document to show the freetext wikieditor  surrounded by other fields on either side (which I'm also bodging with javascript). I would like ALL the fields in the form to live in just one template - it seems odd that they all can apart from free text.

JamesDriscoll (talk)