User talk:Robchurch

To contact me regarding this wiki, please [ leave me a message]. To contact me regarding development, either leave a message here, or email me; the latter is quicker.

Sysop rights
Hi, can you give me sysop rights on this site. I'm often/sometimes here for making translation into french and vandalism fighting. It would serve that you, Bdk and HappyDog don't delete what I put in the speedy deletion category, and perhaps some maintenance on protected pages.

I ask now because I just put ten article in the deletion category and I would prefer delete them. I'm yet sysop on the french Wikipedia. Thank you ~ Seb35 09:13, 1 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Explain to me how MediaWiki.org will benefit aside from "vandalism reversion". Your activities on other Wikimedia wikis are of no interest to me with respect to this one, although I should clarify that I don't mean I don't think they're worth something; they're just not relevant here. :) robchurch | talk 01:04, 2 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Nothing else. Sysop status is mainly for that (particularly in small wiki like here). Apart translations into french of Help namespace, as I already made (whitout the sysop status of course), and perhaps answer to some question when I can in the support desk. I said I'm sysop on french WP only for saying I know the tools. ~ Seb35 13:10, 2 September 2006 (UTC)
 * You don't need to be a sysop to revert vandalism, though. I'm confused as to what you need sysop rights for and am therefore reluctant to promote you. This isn't bloody Wikipedia; we don't necessarily just give it out like rock candy. Sorry. robchurch | talk 14:39, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry of having disturb you. But it's not like you said that I requested that. I wanted just help a bit, but it's no more important. Good development for you :) ~ Seb35 15:00, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Support
Rob, I moved Dto1's Cannot_log_in_to_mediawiki.org help request from Forum to Support desk because it is a user support matter rather than a site architecture matter. I think you can help resolve this matter for Dto1. If not, please guide him to someone who can. I have notified him of this move to Support desk, too. Thanks for everything you do to keep this volunteer stuff working! :-) --Rogerhc 18:36, 4 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much for resolving this matter, which nobody else seemed to care about. —Dto 01:11, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

questions
Rob, I tried to find sections on how to customize toolbar on my wiki, but I couldn't - do you know any good link with short tutorial?

Do you know whom to ask regarding 3rd party extensions in general and code around extensions? thx in advance Aretai 13:45, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

MediaWiki:sidebar
Hi Rob, I left a question for you at MediaWiki talk:Sidebar, but it occurs to you that you may not have seen it. Thnx --HappyDog 14:28, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

short note
Hi Rob, just a short note fyi :-/ -- :Bdk: 01:01, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Branch/release level
Hi Rob,

You modified Template:MW quick download and replaced   with the hard-coded string 1.8. I understand your reasons for doing this - the upgrade is for the branch, not the individual release. However it now means that this is another page that needs updating whenever a new release comes out.

I don't see the problem with listing a point release here. If someone is upgrading to 1.8, they should always upgrade to the latest 1.8.x, so the text makes sense. The link itself always goes to the most recent upgrade page, so they click on the 1.8.2 link and go to Manual:Upgrading to 1.8, which is what they want. Do you object strongly to my changing it back?

--HappyDog 00:21, 2 November 2006 (UTC)


 * No, go ahead. robchurch | talk 05:55, 8 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Have done - thanks. :) --HappyDog 03:37, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

upgrade stuff
Hi Rob, do you have any ideas for ? Also note the talk page. Greetings -- :Bdk: 10:57, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Index.php
Hi. Can I please have the text of Index.php, the last version I edited? This article is currently deleted, and I did not keep a copy of it. I'd like to have it for personal use, I will not repost if you think it is not appropriate. Tizio 13:11, 12 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Hi Rob. I'm not sure why you deleted this page, however I agree that it was in an inappropriate location.  I have restored the page to Manual:URL_parameters and notified the user, as I think it has useful content.  If you have any objections to the restoration then please let me know! --HappyDog 03:58, 13 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for restoring. Yes, the original title I choose made no sense (the article is about the parameters of index.php, not about index.php itself). I already planned to move the page when I was autoconfirmed. My idea was to move to Parameters to index.php for uniformity with Parameters to Special:Export. As I said, however, if a developer thinks that the page does more harm than good, I have no objection to its deletion. Tizio 13:19, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Persistent 1.8.2 Install Problem On MySQL 5.x / PHP 5.x
Hello Rob,

I am new to Wikis and am just learning to navigate the interactive options (such as "Talk"). In the result, I posted several items on the same issue which remains unresolved. Apologies, the superfluous should be deleted.

In the interim, we have modified all instances of "NULL default" to "NULL", as recommended in Project:Support desk.

We searched all files in the Wiki 1.8.2 folder and changed "NULL default" to "NULL" in each case, assuming the same fix is required.

Set-up now returns following error list:

Creating tables... using MySQL 4 table defs...Query "CREATE TABLE `osaw_user` ( user_id int(5) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, user_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL, user_real_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL , user_password tinyblob NOT NULL , user_newpassword tinyblob NOT NULL , user_email tinytext NOT NULL , user_options blob NOT NULL , user_touched char(14) binary NOT NULL , user_token char(32) binary NOT NULL , user_email_authenticated char(14) binary, user_email_token char(32) binary, user_email_token_expires char(14) binary, user_registration char(14) binary, PRIMARY KEY user_id (user_id), UNIQUE INDEX user_name (user_name), INDEX (user_email_token) ) TYPE=InnoDB " failed with error code "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ', user_real_name varchar(255) binary NOT NULL , user_password tinyblob NOT' at line 3

Kindly advise whether this is a MySQL / PHP version issue (to be directed at our ISP Support) or a Wiki code issue and, if the latter, how it may be resolved.


 * The correct place for this is the support forum. In fact, I answered the same question there. 164.11.204.56 00:07, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Moving from meta
Hi Rob - Just to let you know that there is a template on meta which should be used to tag pages that have been moved here. It is used like this:. pagename is the location of the page at MW.org, and can be omitted if it is the same as it was on meta. I also tend to add a little note that the page was moved with it's full history, to prevent any confusion in the future (e.g. if someone comes along and starts copying pages without history and adding the tag). I've updated MakeBot for you. --HappyDog 17:29, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Did you get my note
Rob, just wondering if you got my note on the talk page for your RandomImage extension before it was moved over here and the talk page cleared? I have since worked out those that it is actually not directly related to your extension, it is a displaying image in general problem, so probably not something you can help with now. --Dr DBW 00:10, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Moving from meta redux
Yep, this is me, just confirming as requested. Titoxd 04:04, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Preloader nopreload
I noticed that the Preloader extension does not allow newlines between the nopreload and /nopreload tags. It'd be nice if it did allow them; you can enable this by adding the "s" option to the end of the regexp in translate, so: preg_replace( '/ .*<\/nopreload>/s', '', $text ); Maarten.


 * Oops, good catch. Fixed, thanks! robchurch | talk 01:48, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

RandomImage caching
Hi Rob,

Been using your excellent extension quite successfully but wanted to get a better understanding on how the caching works. Noticed it behaves different in various browsers, notably IE7 has a high refresh whereas IE6 + FF are more static.

Thanks Cocjh1 23:45, 10 January 2007 (UTC)


 * The Random Image extension deliberately doesn't disable the built-in parser cache, so MediaWiki is allowed to cache the output for as long as it normally would. I don't actually know offhand why the caching would be different in different browsers. robchurch | talk 05:37, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Trouble staying logged in
Robchurch,

I read your rely about trouble staying logged in.

"Check the PHP configuration is set so that session.save_path is pointing to a valid path under Windows, and make sure that the web server can read and write to it."

I have checked my php.ini file for the session.save_path setting. Is this the place you are referring too? There are several references to this variable and I am unsure which to modify. I found one that is set to my local drive. Should it be to a folder in my php install or wwwroot folder on the web server? If so what would the syntax be?

My problem is that I get a successful log in message but when I click on any link after the log in it will tell me I need to log in.

I have never asked a question via 'talk'. If you need my email address, it is gsales@stgarchitects.com.

I am running Mediawiki under IIS on a Win2k box.

Thank you.

gbs


 * Yes, that's the configuration variable I am referring to. You want to find and alter the line which starts with that variable name; the one which actually sets the value. As to what it should point to; under Windows, something like the temp directory, e.g. C:\Windows\Temp should do. robchurch | talk 05:34, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

ISO 8601
It is not possible without altering the source to setup MediaWiki ISO 8601 conform. I suggest creating ISO_8601 and collect reasons why this is important and where changes need to be done.

What do you think?

I also aproached w3c which recommends using ISO 8601 but are themself not conforming, partly due to the software. (On the recomendation page itself they do not conform due to CVS)

I also aproached the linux foundation http://www.linux-foundation.org/index.php?title=Talk:Main_Page&diff=7332&oldid=7330

Tobias Conradi 19:42, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

RandomImage Code Messed up by Tidy
I had to enable $wgUseTidy, see Further HTML Tables Problems, to solve an issue was having. Which is fine, as it does solve the problem. However, it introduces another one, that impacts on code inserted by RandomImage (plus also images within the gallery tags). More details are here Manual_talk:%24wgUseTidy. Images inserted "normally" within the pages are fine.

It appears to me (with rather limited knowledge of this stuff too ;-)) that there is something about the code being generated by RandomImage and the gallery tag that Tidy falls over dealing with. I looked into if it was a configuration issue with Tidy, but couldn't find anything in the  configuration of it that would be of any assistance.  Any suggestions? --Dr DBW 23:13, 8 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Any ideas on this at all Rob? FYI, just upgrading to 1.9.3 and will do the same with the RandomImage extension, will see if it is still an issue after that. --Dr DBW 01:47, 27 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Upgraded to 1.9.3 and the problem still occurs --Dr DBW 23:45, 27 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Solved, due to no configuration file or incorrectly configured file, not sure which, but solution is noted here: Manual_talk:%24wgUseTidy

New idea: modifying groups like user rights
Hey there!

Since you're a MediaWiki developer, I deciced to come over to talk to you. I had this "great" idea today: could user groups be created, deleted and modified in the same way as user rights are set with Special:Userrights?

The screenshot could probably tell more than me. Excuse me for those Finnish texts (and my username, "Feenix") and for the lame Times New Roman font.

I mean, this way i.e "oversight" right could be given to Stewards or similiar users without needing to modify the LocalSettings.php if you, for some reason, are unable to do so. :) -- Sayuri 21:26, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Sysop
Would it be possible to get sysop access here? I'd like to transwiki pages from Meta to here. Obligatory diff showing that I'm not an impostor. Ral315 22:43, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

User:DuesenBot
Please stick a bot flag on this one -- Duesentrieb ⇌ 21:41, 6 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. robchurch | talk 21:46, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

sort extension ->sorting links
Hi. i found nothing about my little problem, so finally i come to you. Thanks for your extension anyway. I want to sort links inside a wikipage, mainly wikilinks. But SORT seems to remove the ':' from the link. some:thing --> something Do you have any ideas about this or did I get something wrong inside the documentation or the code. In your neighborproject sort2 it is the same thing. Greetings Micc

LDAP authentication page move
Noticed you moved these pages, but http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension_talk:LDAP_Authentication is missing a week or so worth of edits, and attempts to update it at its new home are failing.

Miken32 22:20, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

RandomImage Exclusion?
Rob, any chance of having a feature with the RandomImage that it either selects images from a particular category, or excludes those from a particular category? --Dr DBW 05:19, 15 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I'll see what I can come up with. Bit busy at the moment, but I might have something done after Easter. robchurch | talk 20:32, 16 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Friendly reminder in case has slipped your mind ;-) --Dr DBW 06:29, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Friendly reminder in case has slipped your mind ;-) --Dr DBW 02:52, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Another one of those pesky, pokes to remind you --Dr DBW 06:02, 18 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Worth another prod? --Dr DBW 01:29, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

You can stop prodding, I doubt I'll bother to implement this. RandomImage performs an expensive enough operation without adding a JOIN to another table. robchurch | talk 09:18, 25 August 2007 (UTC)


 * No problem Rob, thanks. Worth a try. --Dr DBW 03:41, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Sysop
I was wondering if I might get sysop permissions here, I would like to import some pages from meta. (The import log shows that it has not been done in a while.) Cbrown1023 14:13, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
 * This diff shows that I am not an impostor. Cbrown1023 14:15, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

What pages? We don't want a lot of the, er, crap that's on Meta coming across here; and a lot of it needs to be checked and updated. There are also various licence ambiguities and the fact I've never heard of you obviously makes me less inclined to trust you off the bat. robchurch | talk 23:04, 25 March 2007 (UTC)
 * meta:Category:Pages to be exported to MediaWiki.org is the lot of "crap that's on Meta" (about 511 pages). If you see the diff that I mentioned, it shows that I am an administrator on about three projects... I don't know what else to tell you... is there anything you would like to know? Cbrown1023 00:00, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Cbrown1023 00:21, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Sidebar
Hi Rob. As it was you who instigated the discussion at User:Robchurch/Sidebar, I wonder if you have anything to add before we make the changes live? There hasn't been much activity there for a while, and I for one am happy with what we've come up with. Cheers. --HappyDog 00:30, 27 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Cool - the changes are live! --HappyDog 02:16, 29 March 2007 (UTC) ...awaiting the inevitable backlash... :-)

Rationale for avoiding read-access restrictions
Might it be possible to add an FAQ explaining the reasoning behind MediaWiki's decision not to permit the addition of read-access restrictions? It seems like it's certainly asked enough, but in researching the topic I was unable to locate a solid explanation.

The impression that I was left with was that the explanation would likely run along the following lines:

Q: Will MediaWiki add the ability to restrict read access to particular pages?

A: No. The developers of MediaWiki (insert names if desired) are philosophically committed to the principle of open access to information. As such, they do not want to support any effort which might run counter to that principle. Even if a flawless technical solution were to be developed and submitted, it would not be permitted into MediaWiki's code base. If you require this feature, you are encouraged to use some other software. There are independent extensions and patches to MediaWiki which attempt to fulfill this purpose, but MediaWiki's developers take no responsibility for them.

If this impression is inaccurate, then the benefits of posting a clarification only increase.

FYI: check out Extension:AuthorRestriction Jean-Lou Dupont 17:23, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Extension Talk:LDAP Authentication
Hi Rob. You imported this page from meta earlier this month (along with some others, which are fine). It seems like you've managed to lose some of the history. I notice that you deleted some edits with the reason 'Incomplete import', but I can't quite tell what exactly happened, or what your intention was. I suspect that there was a problem with the import so you deleted everything and started again, and that MediaWiki 'cleverly' decided that the deleted revisions were already in the DB so didn't import them the second time. Or maybe not - I remember a bug about import history sometimes being in the wrong order, so maybe I'm just not looking in the wrong place. Can you fill me in with the current state-of-play for this page. For GFDL compliance we probably need to ensure that the full history is retained. --HappyDog 12:16, 2 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, I remember when I messed up an import once and redid it, MediaWiki was intelligent enough to skip over existing revisions. Here's the code from SpecialImport.php at line 323, where the import of a revision is done:

$article = new Article( $this->title ); $pageId = $article->getId; if( $pageId == 0 ) { # must create the page... $pageId = $article->insertOn( $dbw ); $created = true; } else { $created = false;

$prior = Revision::loadFromTimestamp( $dbw, $this->title, $this->timestamp ); if( !is_null( $prior ) ) { // FIXME: this could fail slightly for multiple matches :P wfDebug( __METHOD__ . ": skipping existing revision for " .					$this->title->getPrefixedText . ", timestamp " .					$this->timestamp . "\n" ); return false; }		}
 * You can see that if the page already exists, it checks to see if there is a revision for this page that matches the timestamp, and if so ignores the import. I am assuming that loadFromTimestamp also returns deleted pages, which would explain why your second import didn't work properly.
 * This looks pretty buggy, if you ask me... and also (it appears) if you ask the author! The code is clever enough to ignore repeated imports, BUT it fails if there happens to be an edit at the same time as an existing import, or if there is more than one imported revision with the same timestamp, or if you are importing over deleted revisions due to a failed import (your case).
 * I'll log this on Bugzilla soon - any feedback before I do that?
 * --HappyDog 23:49, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Usernameblacklist
Hi Rob - what was the point of adding this regex? As far as I can see it will block usernames like JimBob, or JonMan. Also, it doesn't seem to be working anyway, as I was able to create User:BigBoy without any difficulty. Have I misunderstood something here? --HappyDog 14:18, 22 April 2007 (UTC)


 * It was intended as a pre-emptive strike against a then-current spam bot attack, although I realised afterwards that our captcha would prevent the accounts being created. Your account was able to create the account because, by default, sysop users are able to bypass the username blacklist. robchurch | talk 23:58, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Hmmm... I'm pretty sure I logged out before creating the account. Oh well, doesn't matter now. --HappyDog 01:41, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Whenever I try access the SVN through http access I get page cannot be found. I try going to http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/ and it never works. I have tried with firefox, IE, Subversion and TortoiseSVN. Any ideas?

Error
I've another problem. With the super user it give me this

You can answer here. Thank you --87.5.122.135 16:56, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Error in RandomImage
There is an error in your programm. The problem is in function setOptions (startline 65).

if( isset( $options['float'] ) ) { $f = strtolower( $options['float'] ); # FIXME: Get the real magic words if( in_array( $float, array( 'left', 'right', 'centre' ) ) ) $this->float = $f; }

You read the $options ['float'] in variable $f but in the function in_array you use $float. The code must look like this:

if( isset( $options['float'] ) ) { $float = strtolower( $options['float'] ); # FIXME: Get the real magic words if( in_array( $float, array( 'left', 'right', 'centre' ) ) ) $this->float = $float; }

Testet with MediaWiki 1.10.0. After this change the extensions works fine in Stargate-Wiki.de.

Talk:René (Admin Stargate-Wiki)


 * Fixed. robchurch | talk 02:20, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

DEFAULTSORT and sort keys in general
I saw from w:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-01-02/Technology report that you implemented the DEFAULTSORT magic word, and I thought you might be interested in the discussions at w:Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Polbot 3 and w:User:Polbot/ideas/defaultsort. Also, is there any easy way to detect how many articles are now using the DEFAULTSORT magic word? Or rather, to generate a list of biographical articles (ones with w:Template:WPBiography on their talk pages) that are not using DEFAULTSORT yet? Thanks. Carcharoth 17:01, 17 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Is there a specific part of the discussion that I should be looking at?
 * No, magic word usage is not tracked as template usage is.
 * robchurch | talk 06:33, 18 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I was hoping that, as the guy who implemented the function, you might have some insight into a quick way to detect how many articles are using the DEFAULTSORT magic word. Is there someone who might know more about magic words? Might it be possible at some future date to track magic word usage? If not, then I suppose that bot proposal is the best way to find out the scale of usage. I did find something called API, which sounds promising. I've commented over at Talk:API, in case you have anything to add. Specific part of the discussion other than my stuff about a quick method to detect this stuff? Not really! :-) Thanks. Carcharoth 10:26, 18 June 2007 (UTC)


 * "Might know more about magic words" in what sense?
 * I'm not sure if tracking magic words in the same vein we do links, template inclusions, etc. would have much purpose except to determine usage, and there isn't much need for that, per se.
 * I doubt the API would be able to do much better. A sort key is provided for every category entry; if not specified explicitly, and if not taken from the default sort key, then it will be the same as the page title. As far as I can remember, there is always a value in the cl_sortkey column.
 * robchurch | talk 10:51, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Such as whether PAGENAME over-rides DEFAULTSORT. See the discussion at w:Wikipedia talk:Categorization. Some templated categories use PAGENAME. Later on the DEFAULTSORT magic word is used. I think the PAGENAME is just a case of any pipe-sorted key (regardless of whether it is a magic word) over-riding the DEFAULTSORT key, but as I said, I could be totally wrong. The reason I asked if anyone else could help was in case you are busy doing other stuff. As for why I want to track DEFAULTSORT usage, well, it is mainly to try and massively increase its usage in biographical articles. There are many that don't use it, and I wanted some way to identify those without DEFAULTSORT (or indeed any sort key) so that a taskforce could start to remedy the situation (most sort keys are trivially easy to form, but some need human input). Hope that makes things clearer. From what you've said, it looks like that bot might be the best way to do things (ie. someone is doing something so I'll take that for now!). Unfortunately, I have no idea how to handle a database dump, which is probably the best way to analyse for data like this. Carcharoth 15:09, 18 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Providing a specific sort key will always override the per-page default, so   will override   . robchurch | talk 16:35, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Something's not quite right yet; make sure everything below is filled out correctly.
Hi Rob,

I had a problem about installing MediaWiki. Also you answered :

''I configured everything. And I'm sure that they're all correct. But I got this error while trying to install MediaWiki.

Something's not quite right yet; make sure everything below is filled out correctly.

What would be the problem ?

Thanks.''

'Scroll down the page and look for red error messages next to options and input boxes. The most common problems are a bad sysop username and password, or a bad database username and password.'

But I looked down and couldn't see any error message. So, I ask to please run an installation with this link : http://www.rafaellomilano.com/wiki/config/index.php

host : localhost db name : rafaello_db user name : rafaello_usr password : 123456

Everything is OK. But can't install the script. And also using PHP 5.0.4 and MySQL 4.1.22-standard

Regarding blogs in Mediawiki
hi rob,

can u help me out on how to delete blogs which are created using mediawiki..i have created a special function of blog using mediawiki extensions and i am able to post blogs. i jus wanted to know on how to delete blogs which are posted and update them to. your help would be of good use to all the members of my wiki. thanks. regards deepak arvind--125.16.138.136 10:49, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Stupid question
Would it be possible to become an admin over here, or do you have enough sysops for now? I mean, since some people have trouble reading English language and there's a lot of new "test" pages created every day (+sometimes hacked spam aswell)? Anyway, sorry to bother you about this. -- Sayuri 22:17, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * /me pokes robchurch ;) -- Sayuri 17:44, 21 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I'd also like to depopulate m:Category:MediaWiki extensions, do speedy deletions and reverting blanking/tests. Perhaps that'll keep me busy so I don't get to bug you about every minor bug. :P -- Sayuri 12:20, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Import questions
Hi Rob, thanks for the sysop powers. :)

After some inital mistakes, I think I've learned how to use this transwiki import. I tried to transwiki m:Talk:Cite/Cite.php, but I keep getting the following error:

Importing pages...

Import failed: XML import parse failure at line 66857, col 283 (byte 7189860; ""): Invalid document end
 * No pages to import.

What would be the correct solution to this? Should I leave it to you or another expert, or copy it by hand (i.e. copypasting)? Thank you. -- Sayuri 17:05, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Import Group
Hey, I am wanting to start out transwikiying from Meta, however I need support from at least one local sysop, and I know you are a developer so I thought I should ask you. If you are wondering, I am TheFearow from enwiki, and I put through a RFP at meta, see this post. I was wondering if you could comment there, as a steward wants permission from a local sysop. I am not going for full sysop powers, only import rights.

Thanks! TheFearow 21:06, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Bot Status
Hey, if possible can I get User:FearowBot flagged (or approved, but I wasn't aware of any formal procedure), it will do the following:


 * 1) Read the category of pages that have been recently imported.
 * 2) Changes links with the mw interwiki prefix, and remove them
 * 3) Add the meta: interwiki prefix to links to pages that don't exist here.
 * 4) Adds the pages that were found from above to a user subpage, so I know to move them later
 * 5) Updates links to meta to point directly here, if a page is on this wiki with the same name and has been recently imported

Thanks! TheFearow 06:18, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Re: Extension template
Hi robchurch. Yes I have made a template called extension categorized which is a duplicate of the extension template. The only difference is that it does not contain the category:extension. The rational behind this move is that I have been going through every single extension manually and sub categorizing them and placing them within the subcategory category:extensions by category. I created a duplicate template because it is easy to revert if my work is disputed with the trade off of having an identical duplicate template. However I hope that you can see that I am slowly making progress. Why remove the you may ask? Well the main reason is that it is extremely difficult to sub categorize the extensions because it is hard to tell which ones are already sub categorized. This way the sub categorized ones are nolonger within this category and the uncategorized ones are retained in the extension category. I was using the category convention used in wikipedia. I just assumed it applied to mediawiki as well.
 * "Articles should not usually be in both a category and its subcategory. For example Golden Gate Bridge is in Category:Suspension bridges, so it should not also be in Category:Bridges."
 * I realise this rule doesn't apply to everything so if you think I should revert them all once i've finished sub categorizing everything let me know... however sub categorizing is proving to be a very slow process.

-Bouncingmolar 14:48, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I see what you are saying Rob; that we don't need identical templates because if a new version of the template is made we have to update both. However the templates are not identical (even if it is only a minor difference). The Main purpose of the alternative template is that it has the removed. The problem with  modifying the original template:extension is that the category:extension information is stored there!(as i mentioned on the category:extension talk page.) ::If i remove the extension category from the template then un categorized extensions will not be listed in the main extension category nor the extension subcategories. Which is a problem! So what the modified template does is it allows me to retain the original template structure without removing the category from all of the uncategorized extensions. I hope that makes sense.
 * Bouncingmolar 15:06, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
 * this discussion will continue on the origin page Category talk:Extensions

Jobs
What do you think of this? Please comment here. --HappyDog 01:30, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Sanity check…
I had this mad idea, which is likely completely impractical, but would be very handy if it worked.

In a parser extension which implements a tag (say  purely for the sake of argument ;-), would it be possible to invoke an instance of the parser to process the tag contents to extract any useful content (say, instances of another tag like   again purely for the sake of argument), then simply discard the parsed text?

So you could have something like:

The  tags would be processed as per normal—with the contents parsed, taking care of templates and the like—and added to the accumulated list, then emitted in the normal course of processing the   tag together with any which had appeared earlier. Other text would simply not appear in the eventual output, being treated somewhat like comments.

Obviously any other parser tags would also be processed, which might or might not prove inconvenient.

Is it possible to (ab)use the Parser, or an instance thereof, in this way? TIA HAND —Phil | Talk 16:37, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Hello, world!
This is me. AmiDaniel 03:58, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Haha, thank you Rob =D. AmiDaniel 04:00, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

hmm..
Hi Rob,

I am a new user to mediawiki and was just wondering what the BOT thing that is linked to your user space does.

Also, why use {at} and {dot} instead of @ and. for referance on a mediawiki page?

Cheers

--Ant


 * Nothing at this time
 * Helps combat email address harvesters
 * robchurch | talk 16:26, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

$wgImportSources error
I added cURL to my WAMP installation, set $wgImportSources as the following: /** * List of interwiki prefixes for wikis we'll accept as sources for * Special:Import (for sysops). Since complete page history can be imported, * these should be 'trusted'. * * If a user has the 'import' permission but not the 'importupload' permission, * they will only be able to run imports through this transwiki interface. */ $wgImportSources = array('commons' => 'commons');

but it did not import from Commons and said "Could not open import file". How can I fix this?? --SunStar Net 16:42, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Sign
Here are the signatures (bots coming in a minute:


 * TheFearow 00:55, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
 * FearowBot 00:56, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for the help at my question in support desk; I'll test in my personal wiki. Greetings, Slade (talk) 18:44, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Bot
If you were looking at the first few, that was a error I fixed a while ago. If it was not in the first few edits, then I did something wrong. I reverted all the ones I saw that were bad. TheFearow 22:18, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

RobBot and Category:Extensions by Author
Hi, I noticed your RobBot automatically removed a redundent category by author. I have manually removed some of the author categories from extension pages for all of the authors who had less than 5 extensions, but I was wondering if you could use your robot to remove the authors category under : Category:Extensions_by_User:jldupont and Category:Extensions_by_User:Nad. They have each made many extensions. Cheers - Bouncingmolar 12:57, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * ah never mind. I did it manually ;)Bouncingmolar 23:42, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Extension:Livelets
This is no longer an appropriate place to discuss this, so I have moved the conversation to Project:Current issues.

Rights Management
I was wondering if I could bounce an idea before I go off to Bugzilla. I have been using the following method 'User::isAllowed' for a while now: which: Of course it does not address the policing issues of the whole MediaWiki platform but updating this method could open up the path to enhancements to the rights management sub-system i.e. do it piece-by-piece maybe? I know we have discussed 'using more' the 'Title::userCan' method but, in retrospect, after delving for many hours in the bowels of MW, I now could argue more intelligently that this wouldn't be, IMO, a course of action I would follow; e.g. there are 'title/namespace' level rights and there are 'title independent' rights to manage here.
 * does not disrupt the stock MediaWiki
 * allows for extensions to handle rights management at a more granular level.

There are probably other solutions to the 'problem' (assuming you guys at WikiMedia find this thread interesting) but I thought this change wasn't something major whilst still offering benefits.

What are your sage thoughts? user:jldupont 12:59, 24 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I believe there were recent discussions to do something like this. I have no particular opinion at this time. robchurch | talk 16:32, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Can I help take this forward? Jean-Lou Dupont 17:34, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Re: Bug 10737
Hi Rob. Sorry to bother you, just a quick note to let you know that I have referred the 2 dudes on this bug to it directly, so instead of me being a Middle Man you can get input directly. I went to your talk on WP, but noting what you said on there, thought it better to get you here instead. Regards, Iceflow Talk 12:06, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

A Small Query
Hi Robchurch,

I had a small question regarding organization of content in wiki. I am developing a wiki for our Indian Graduate Students Organization, to answer some frequently asked questions by incoming graduate students from India.

I want to have several sub-pages for each page just like you had in your user page. I mean, your user page User:Robchurch has several sub-pages like To-Do, Reset User Skin Preference etc.

Could you please tell me if we need to make some configuration to be able to organize content in to sub-pages like this ? Do we need some special extension or some changes in LocalSettings.php etc. ?

I would really appreciate if you could help me in this regard.

Thank you, Sesh

Some more DEFAULTSORT stuff
I thought you might be interested in some more questions about DEFAULTSORT. If you aren't, please say so and I will try and find somewhere else to ask my questions in future (would you be able to suggest the best place to ask these sort of questions?). Hope you will be able to help answer these questions, or point me in the right direction. Thanks. Carcharoth 14:00, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm still trying to find out if magic word usage can be tracked, as this would (still) be helpful in cleaning up biographical articles so they are correctly default sorted. See w:Wikipedia:Village pump (technical).
 * The use of DEFAULTSORT is spreading to talk pages, and is being used inside talk page templates. As only the last occurrence of DEFAULTSORT on a page works, this is leading to unexpected behaviour in cases where two or more templates (in varying orders) are trying to use DEFAULTSORT. See w:Template talk:WPBiography for my attempt to summarise this.
 * The final question, which I haven't tried to really get answered yet, is whether it is possible to have a talk page automatically default sort to the default sort value (if any) on the article page. This would seem to be logical, and would save a lot of the above hassle. Might be problematic in that there would be nothing visible on the talk page to indicate how it is sorting, but it would help if someone could confirm whether or not this is technically possible.

Changing username in prevision of SUL
Hello,

Since I guess mediawiki.org will also be part of the login unification (SUL) developed by Brion Vibber, it looks like I'm going to have to change my user name. I haven't seen any "Changing username" dedicated page on this website, so I'm asking here, could you change my username to Chninkel please ? Many thanks. -- Celsius 18:18, 16 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. robchurch | talk 20:14, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Please change my name
Please change my name from Edmundkh to EdmundEzekielMahmudIsa, then leave me a message in my talk page in English Wikipedia. Thanks a lot! --Edmund The King of The Woods! 05:06, 20 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Looks like I did this a while back. robchurch | talk 09:19, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Change my name
Hello! Please, change my name Александрит &rarr; Aleksandrit. Latin instead of the Cyrillic :) --Александрит 04:42, 30 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. robchurch | talk 13:43, 31 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Oh my, poor Rob, the last three posts to his talk page were about user renames! :-(  Cbrown1023  talk  00:10, 31 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I guess that comes from Brion's recent announcement about SUL. I expect there'll be a few more of these over the next month or two... --HappyDog 19:55, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it definitely does, but it doesn't change the fact that he is being attacked solely with renames. :-)  Cbrown1023  talk  22:11, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Where are there attacks? Majorly 01:36, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Problem user, Eep
Hi Rob. Hope you are well - can you check out the discussion here and here. I need some input for some other admins in order to decide what to do next. I do not want to act unilaterally on this. I have posted a similar request to Bdk, but feel free to get anyone else involved if you feel necessary. Thank you. --HappyDog 18:42, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Import/sysop access
Robchurch:

I'd like to help transwiki those 195- pages from Meta, and made an RFP for import access on Meta. They said I should ask a local bureaucrat before requesting it there. My userpage contains a link to my userpage on En Wikipedia, where I have been a very active contributor for that last few months, so I believe that I could be trusted. I won't ask for sysop, because I don't really need any protection/deletion/blocking powers, just the import feature. If you could reply on this talk page, and not mine, that would be great. Thank you kindly, GrooveDog 11:45, 10 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Which pages? I'm sorry, but I've never heard of you and I don't know offhand if what's left on Meta is crap which needs to be disposed of or genuinely useful content. robchurch | talk 23:32, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I think in this list, metawikipedia:Category:MediaWiki_extensions there are probably quite a few extensions to move over, e.g. ParserFunctions --Zven 23:53, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
 * ParserFunctions wasn't a good example, parts need to be ported into Extension:ParserFunctions --Zven 03:17, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Per-page access restrictions - advice requested
Based on information in Security issues with authorization extensions and your comments attached to various articles, I put together a template with a disclaimer (see Template:Page security extension disclaimer) and added it to all of the extensions that purported to have solved the per-page access problem. I felt you'd made a good point about the extension author (and MediaWiki's) liability and that it should get clearly marked. Many pages already had some form of disclaimer of their own.

Recently, on my webpage, User:jldupont asked to remove the disclaimer feeling that he had addressed the issues. I don't feel I have the authority to make him keep it there, but I'd like to encourage him to do so anyway - if only to protect himself. Would you be willing to put your two cents in? If there is even one mistake in his Extension:BizzWiki platform or in the way those who download it install it, his risk exposure is very high given the amount of executable code and scripts his various extensions embed in wiki page content. The discussion is on my talk page - thanks in advance... Egfrank 17:08, 19 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I would suggest to tell jldupont to either include the standard warning/disclaimer, or a similarly prominent message stating that he personally guarantees that he has found and removed all flaws. -- Duesentrieb ⇌ 08:52, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Guys - don't dwell too much on this issue - I am quite OK with the disclaimer. Let the users decide for themselves; as far as I am concerned, it fits my needs and if it suits anybody's needs, then I am quite happy too. Thanks for tracking this though. Cheers, Jean-Lou Dupont 01:36, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Page_restrictions
I talking to Tim, and we are fine with dropping the extra pr_page index via update.php. I was going to make a patch, but I recalled that you were doing some changes to the table. So would you include that in the patch, thanks. Aaron 01:21, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * You might as well do it yourself if it's important; I don't anticipate doing much work on any dormant branches of mine until next year, if at all. You're welcome to pick up where I left off with that one, if you like. robchurch | talk 11:19, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Delete User
Dear Robchurch,

I was searching for the Delete User extension and noticed that you deleted the page from this wiki (see: http://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Extension:Deleteuser). I have a use for this extension and would like to learn more about it.

In short, a spammer created thousands of accounts on my wiki (see: http://fraternitymanuals.com/index.php?title=Special:Listusers&limit=5000&offset=0). I don't want them to use these accounts to add unwanted content to my wiki and wish to delete them altogether.

If "just deleting rows out of the user table breaks referential integrity," then how do I properly remove all of these accounts?

Sincerely, Jason Pearce http://jasonpearce.com/


 * If the accounts have made no edits, then deleting the user rows is fine; see previous threads on the wikitech-l mailing list which discuss this in more detail. robchurch | talk 11:15, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Testwiki Adminship
Hi Rob. Can I point you to a request I made here. Thanks --HappyDog 23:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Granted sysop and bureaucrat permissions. robchurch | talk 11:18, 26 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks, Rob... --HappyDog 00:04, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

RobBot
Hi Rob. Can you please add RobBot to the appropriate section on Project:Bot requests, with details about what it is (or was) used for. Thank you --HappyDog 20:03, 15 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. robchurch | talk 11:18, 26 October 2007 (UTC)


 * ...and thanks again! :-) --HappyDog 00:04, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Showing user email in notification email
I have tried to code the above myself but I haven't had any luck modifying the array in NewUserNotif.class.php


 * Can you explain in further detail exactly what it is you want to do? robchurch | talk 11:18, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Sysop
Hi Robchurch. Would you mind giving me the sysop access (or the import access)? I'd like to help moving pages over from meta. Thanks, Monobi 19:16, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
 * replied here -- :Bdk: 09:26, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Consider shorting the MediaWiki:Sidebar
Would you consider shorting the MediaWiki:Sidebar so that the average user with a 15" screen can see the "search" function? I have been discussing this on the talk page. Thanks. Odessaukrain 08:59, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

readme for sort extension needs cleanup
Rob,

The README file at SVN for sort.php appears to have the wrong filename: 1. Check out all extension files from Subversion and place them in a  "MinimumNameLength" subdirectory within your MediaWiki "extensions" directory 2. Add the line require_once( "{$IP}/extensions/MinimumNameLength/MinimumNameLength.php" ); to your LocalSettings.php file

Furboy 15:53, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Sysop
I have a question: If I make a new Wiki, how can I be suddenely Sysop?--KleinerNick 17:12, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Contributors extension
First of all, thanks for putting this extension out.

I'm using it for an educational wiki, on which students build articles on urban projects while collaborating. Since this articles are a good resource for urban studies, this extension is useful to give the proper credits to each author at the end of the articles.

I created a simple template to make it easier to add the contributors list at the end of pages. I wonder if there's an easy way to customize its output when being transcluded. Right now it shows the username, and it could be more clarifying if it uses the real name, and a link to their page.

The function that parses the contributors and its output is a bit complicated for me, hope you can help me.

thanks

david basulto

dbasulto a_t gmail do_t com

Bot request
hi, I begin the translation of extension page. I would like that your bot edit all the page and put. Please. --Add 15:56, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

System Operator Request
Hello Rob, could I become a system operator on this wiki? I founded and am currently the head of the MediaWiki Support Team. I come on just about every day to help out, and want to be able to help out to the fullest. I have made a series of good edits on Project:Support desk and Template:Support desk notes. -PatPeter,  MediaWiki Support Team  15:37, 18 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, hmm. I don't know you, so I looked over some of your contributions.  Your attempts to give support are nice, although they're not always correct.  I have to say I'm kind of wondering about calling something the "MediaWiki Support Team" (implying officiality) when that group doesn't in fact contain a single developer of MediaWiki, and doesn't mention any discussion with or authorization by the developers.  So I'm wondering if that name is maybe a bit misleading.  I also find it slightly odd that you gave a "welcome to MediaWiki" greeting to someone who's been a developer of MediaWiki for a year and a half, a member of mediawiki.org for two and a half years, and a sysop here for one year.  I can't help but wonder, in terms of understanding MediaWiki and the community surrounding it, if you'd maybe benefit from more exposure to the channels that developers use, i.e., IRC and wikitech-l, before being given official endorsement as a sysop.
 * Aside from all that, you didn't actually specify any reason that you need to be a sysop. I don't notice any significant number of vandals that need to be blocked or anything that needs to be deleted or protected. Even if there were such things, we appear to have 33 sysops here already, and at any given time it's virtually certain that a few will be available for contact in #mediawiki should anyone come across a problem.  So for the present time, I'm not inclined to grant your request. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 00:33, 27 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I suppose I was thinking the same thing about this. Aaron 08:22, 27 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Oops did I give welcomes to those people? I guess it is just a habit of mine to give welcomes to barren talk pages.
 * Well I would say that no one from the support team is always correct, but I
 * Spruced up Template:Support desk notes
 * Created the [RESOLVED] feature.
 * Separated the resolved and active topics into sections.
 * Changed the archiving so that the current transcludes onto the page.
 * Organized the unofficial MediaWiki Support Team (also as for the fact that there aren't any developers [you mean the main developers right? I think some of the MST guys program Extensions] do they have time to deal with the high influx of posts we get every week?)
 * And you may beg the question/statement: "Well anyone could have done that./Couldn't anyone have done that?" but the fact is that no one did. As a note I am not continuing this discussion to persuade you to promote me (couldn't find the right word) to admin, you have made your decision. This is more of a note-link for me: Project:Current_issues. -PatPeter, [[Image:Tournesol.png|20px]] MediaWiki Support Team  22:45, 27 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Oh and what are the links to the IRC and wikitech-l? -PatPeter, [[Image:Tournesol.png|20px]] MediaWiki Support Team  22:48, 27 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Both are linked to in the sidebar, under "communication". —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 02:38, 28 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks. -PatPeter, [[Image:Tournesol.png|20px]] MediaWiki Support Team  16:05, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Randomimagebug
Hi Rob, Im Cyruz from Wikia Search and dont have a account here @ mediawiki. I tested the randomimage Extension on my userpage and i made a mistake: I only wrote - without the close tag or a / in tag I got a whitescreen with this message:

exception 'DOMException' with message 'DOMXPath::__construct expects parameter 1 to be DOMDocument, boolean given' in /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/extensions/RandomImage/RandomImage.class.php:119 Stack trace: #0 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/extensions/RandomImage/RandomImage.class.php(119): DOMXPath->__construct(false) #1 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/extensions/RandomImage/RandomImage.class.php(72): RandomImage->removeMagnifier(' render #3 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/extensions/RandomImage/RandomImage.php(49): RandomImage::renderHook('???de...', Array, Object(Parser)) #4 [internal function]: wfRandomImage('???de...', Array, Object(Parser)) #5 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/includes/Parser.php(633): call_user_func_array('wfRandomImage', Array) #6 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/includes/Parser.php(305): Parser->strip('Hello out there...', Object(StripState)) #7 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/includes/EditPage.php(1470): Parser->parse('Hello out there...', Object(Title), Object(ParserOptions)) #8 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/includes/EditPage.php(1063): EditPage->getPreviewText #9 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/includes/EditPage.php(441): EditPage->showEditForm #10 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/includes/EditPage.php(290): EditPage->edit #11 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/includes/Wiki.php(437): EditPage->submit #12 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/includes/Wiki.php(48): MediaWiki->performAction(Object(OutputPage), Object(Article), Object(Title), Object(User), Object(WebRequest)) #13 /usr/wikia/source/releases_200802.2/index.php(89): MediaWiki->initialize(Object(Title), Object(OutputPage), Object(User), Object(WebRequest)) #14 {main}

desist from my mistake, there should be a error handling for this bug. Thanks for your great work. Best regards --80.135.254.2 22:17, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The error appears to be in the line  in the method removeMagnifier, loadXML appears to be failing when content contains entities such as &#38;nbsp; .  A hack is to change the line to   which seems to stop the fatal errors, but it has not been tested fully. I will make a note of it in Extension talk:RandomImage --Zven 02:00, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Extension:MakeBot
How to install this extension? Зелёный Кошак 01:29, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Help on Contributors extension
Hi,  hope you are ok.

Sorry if this is not the right way to contact, or to ask for help. I am new on all this.

I am maintaining a wiki plataform, and has just installed the contributors extension.

Is it possible to have a link on the contributors login to his/her personal page?

Best regards. Thanks.

Marcelo.

Extension:Date Formatter
Rob, thanks for making this extension. I was glad to find a way to dynamically format non-linked dates. The extension's page says you're no longer maintaining it, so I thought I would offer to do so. I have it installed on MW 1.19.2 and made some minor tweaks to it to make it compatible with the latest and greatest. --LarryGilbert (talk) 04:33, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

An important message about renaming users
Dear Robchurch,

I am cross-posting this message to many places to make sure everyone who is a Wikimedia Foundation project bureaucrat receives a copy. If you are a bureaucrat on more than one wiki, you will receive this message on each wiki where you are a bureaucrat.

As you may have seen, work to perform the Wikimedia cluster-wide single-user login finalisation (SUL finalisation) is taking place. This may potentially effect your work as a local bureaucrat, so please read this message carefully.

Why is this happening? As currently stated at the global rename policy, a global account is a name linked to a single user across all Wikimedia wikis, with local accounts unified into a global collection. Previously, the only way to rename a unified user was to individually rename every local account. This was an extremely difficult and time-consuming task, both for stewards and for the users who had to initiate discussions with local bureaucrats (who perform local renames to date) on every wiki with available bureaucrats. The process took a very long time, since it's difficult to coordinate crosswiki renames among the projects and bureaucrats involved in individual projects.

The SUL finalisation will be taking place in stages, and one of the first stages will be to turn off Special:RenameUser locally. This needs to be done as soon as possible, on advice and input from Stewards and engineers for the project, so that no more accounts that are unified globally are broken by a local rename to usurp the global account name. Once this is done, the process of global name unification can begin. The date that has been chosen to turn off local renaming and shift over to entirely global renaming is 15 September 2014, or three weeks time from now. In place of local renames is a new tool, hosted on Meta, that allows for global renames on all wikis where the name is not registered will be deployed.

Your help is greatly needed during this process and going forward in the future if, as a bureaucrat, renaming users is something that you do or have an interest in participating in. The Wikimedia Stewards have set up, and are in charge of, a new community usergroup on Meta in order to share knowledge and work together on renaming accounts globally, called Global renamers. Stewards are in the process of creating documentation to help global renamers to get used to and learn more about global accounts and tools and Meta in general as well as the application format. As transparency is a valuable thing in our movement, the Stewards would like to have at least a brief public application period. If you are an experienced renamer as a local bureaucrat, the process of becoming a part of this group could take as little as 24 hours to complete. You, as a bureaucrat, should be able to apply for the global renamer right on Meta by the requests for global permissions page on 1 September, a week from now.

In the meantime please update your local page where users request renames to reflect this move to global renaming, and if there is a rename request and the user has edited more than one wiki with the name, please send them to the request page for a global rename.

Stewards greatly appreciate the trust local communities have in you and want to make this transition as easy as possible so that the two groups can start working together to ensure everyone has a unique login identity across Wikimedia projects. Completing this project will allow for long-desired universal tools like a global watchlist, global notifications and many, many more features to make work easier.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about the SUL finalisation, read over the Help:Unified login page on Meta and leave a note on the talk page there, or on the talk page for global renamers. You can also contact me on my talk page on meta if you would like. I'm working as a bridge between Wikimedia Foundation Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Stewards, and you to assure that SUL finalisation goes as smoothly as possible; this is a community-driven process and I encourage you to work with the Stewards for our communities.

Thank you for your time. -- Keegan (WMF) talk 18:24, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

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